The Washington times., 1913-04-30
CHAPTER II.
A Cup Of Sack.

lGH street was athrong on that
IL gray April evening. Since the
doubtful day of Edgehill fight,
six months before Oxford was
become the royal capital, where King
Charles held his court and mustered his
camp.
Dali scholars gown and sober citi-
zen's cap alike had vanished from mar
row lanes and teeming quadrangles. On
every hand were the sheen of satin. the
glossy flow Of plumes. the flash of steel,
where gallants, or. would-be gallants.
with half their bravery upon their
backs had come to offer their services
to the king or haply beg. place.
Pretty, wanton girls a-plentY teetered
along the narrow footway, with ques-
tioning eyes. Grim, muddled men in
leather. right soldiers from the horse
camp at Abingdon trudged steadfastly
about their business on their pleasure.
Overhead. easements all along the way
were open to the spring evening, and
through them came the soft light Of
candles. the notes, ii might be, of harp
sicon or viol and the sweet, clear voices
of women.
So crowded was the ancient town that
the noblest In the land counted himself
lucky II he had a poulterer's loft or
bankers upper chamber in which to lie.
But noblemen and great ladies alike
treated such hardship as mere pastime.
Only few weeks, or months at most.
and then surely good King Charles.
Win MS 10y CdNdlltTS 10 dlu, WOulQ
have put to silence the few discontented
gentlefolk. with their Insignificant rcut
of mechanic fellows, base citizens and
csnting Puritan preachers. who had
dared rear themselves against the
heaver-anointedi
With no more foreboding for the fate
of the kingdom than for their own fu-
ture. our four gentlemen. in quest of
sack and with little other concern. caun-
tered along the High and, being thirsty,
came in short order the Red Lion
With swords aswing and cloaks across
their arms, they stamped into the low
celled. darkly-paneled common room,
which. at this hour. between early and
late. they found that they night fairly
call tEeir own. By the hearth two
sober, elderly gentlemen, in murreycol-
ored doubiets. were drinking burnt wine,
fnd in the eastern window lad in
boather jerkin was making his upper
Of roasted capon. but otherwise they
saw the room to be empty
Promptly they laid of their swords.
flung by their cloaks and sat them AT
fell to bawling for sherris-sack ard
Ayskew clainored for herring and Err
sey was fain TO have buttered eggs.
Borlase left his weighty business 10
his mates and himself fetching from
the wall lutte. tuned it and fell to
stunning out the air that me little
wench from beyond the seas with "A
melting eye. ladaD had sung two nights
agone at my Lord Tavistock's.
Then the drawer. an impudent rascal
always blithe TO serve this chosen COIL
pany, came running with herring and
eggs and fiagons of sack. which he was
officioun 10 refill, and what Y ith the
wine and the song. they soon were loud
and merry.
When all was said. these four were
friends of LONGER standing than most
IN the oxford town. where crowded
conditions made strange inumaCies.
Rearing Wat Musgroye. the big. full
biooded young man in red velvet, WAS
captain I'm the Earl of Straversham's
regiment of musketeers and husband 10
Straversham's younger daughter Char
lotte, hence by the left hand, brother
in-law to handsome Robert Erisey.
Sir Tdward Borlase, with lovelocks
or the newest cut, had been scaC JI-fel-
low TO them both. and young Bah AVS
Kew, new-come into his land. was his
cousin on the jistan side. !
. some fieeting thought Of this. rtcir |
homogenity, must have crossed Wat |
Musgroye's mind, for after the third !
or Fourth cup he grew sentimental
strange, quoth he, that we should !
here be gathered. even as in old days: I,
Now. an Lory Trevor stnd Basil Dorm |
er, the sweet rogues. were with US. our /
old gang were complete made up.
Tis Lorys own blame that re bidcs |!
away" spoke Erisey. but ne Is bert /
upon rreferment ard is ali for haunting
the court
At that saying Bah AyExsw's eyesi ]