Also I carried a letter from his lordship to the Earl of Nottingham, Secretary of State, praying him to send a regiment or two into Devonshire; for with the exception of the Tangier Horse there were no regular troops nearer to Exeter than Bristol or Plymouth. And even now, in consequence of a riot arising out of a drunken brawl, my lord had been compelled, at the urgent demands of the most influential citizens, to send the regiment out of the city; whence they had marched the day before as far as Exmouth, so great was the fear inspired by their licentiousness.
I saw, therefore, that I should have little more assistance to rely on than that of my own troop—amounting in all to sixty men—which still lay in De Brito’s charge at Cleeve. And with this force I had to overawe the district and patrol the coast from Start Bay to Teignmouth.
Accordingly, armed with this commission for the present, and with the prospect of revenge upon my lady in the near future, I rode slowly through a network of narrow alleys to the Castle and Falcon, a respectable hostelry in the High Street; for it was here that I had told Cornet Graham to look for me.
It was not, however, until fully two hours later that I heard the tramping of horse in the street without.
I made my way to the door and found the landlord already upon the steps, the landlady, a buxom woman, at his side.
It was, indeed, the cornet and his prisoner. Behind them came an escort of six troopers. The whole party dismounted before the inn.
“Ha, M. Cassilis!” the marquis cried, catching sight of me, “confess that you were growing anxious! Did you not think that I had knocked my estimable guard upon the head?”
“When I had your word of honour, M. de Launay?” I said, smiling. “But I fear you have had but a weary journey.”
“By no means,” he answered lightly. “I have been admiring your Devon scenery, which is only excelled,” he added gallantly, “by the beauty of its women!”
And he made a bow to the pretty landlady, who smiled and blushed in return, worthy of the Court of the Grand Monarque from whence he came.