CONTENTS

I [The Coming of Katharine Harcomb ]7
II [The Secret of the Black Box ]17
III [The King's Marriage Contract ]28
IV [The Happening at the Inn ]39
V [A Midnight Meeting ]49
VI [The Old House at Pycroft ]59
VII [The Mystery of Pycroft ]69
VIII [How I Entered Pycroft ]79
IX [Father Solomon at Bay ]89
X [The Wisdom of Solomon ]99
XI [The Snare of the Fowler ]110
XII [The Coming of the King ]121
XIII [An Adventure on the Canterbury Road ]133
XIV [How I saw a Man who became Famous! ]142
XV [Master Sturgeon, the Gaoler ]153
XVI [The Escape ]164
XVII [How I left Bedford ]174
XVIII [James, Duke of York ]185
XIX [The Scene at the Parish Church ]195
XX [The Wisdom of Solomon ]205
XXI [How I visited Bedford a Second Time ]216
XXII [The Chapel of Herne ]227
XXIII [The Journey to Windsor ]238
XXIV [Charles II as Judge ]248
XXV [The Judgment of the King ]258
XXVI [Fleet Prison ]268
XXVII [How I left Fleet Prison ]278
XXVIII [What Happened on the Bedford Road ]288
XXIX [The Puritan's Cottage ]298
XXX [How I left my Old Home ]309

CHAPTER I

THE COMING OF KATHARINE HARCOMB

The history which I propose writing will, I believe, be of value for various reasons. It will clear my name from various aspersions, and it will enable me to explain what, to many, seem events of an extraordinary nature. For I have done nothing which makes me fear the light, neither have I any desire to offer excuses for the actions which shall be here set down. What I have done I have done in good faith, knowing all the time of the probable results which would follow.

Moreover, I think it is well that many of the happenings of the time of which I write should be recorded, for surely the days of my youth were strange days, full of intrigue, full of mystery; and more, they were days in which one of the greatest battles ever known in our country was fought, a battle which had momentous issues in the life of our people.

Not that I am able to give a description of many events which took place. That would be impossible; but as I was drawn, in spite of myself as it seems to me, to be an actor in many stirring scenes, I have had peculiar opportunities for knowing the truth. In addition to this, I was trained by my father to follow the custom of the times, and to describe in a diary an account of my daily doings. I shall therefore be able, if ever my memory fails me, to refer to the books which have been carefully kept, and thus place a correct account of matters before those who happen to read.

I had a peculiar training even for youths of that period. For from the time of Archbishop Laud to the coming of King Charles II, nearly every family of note took sides in the great struggle through which the nation passed. Either a man was a Royalist or a Parliamentarian, a believer in the supreme and unquestionable rights of the king, or a supporter of the new order of things. There seemed no half-way house wherein a man might rest. Thus the nation was divided into two great camps, and if one was not in one of these camps he was in the other. But I was trained to hold myself aloof from both, and to distrust them equally.