ter the abdication of James II., he
followed that monarch to Saint Germain, having previously mixed largely
in secret political intrigues; and only returned from the French court
to lay his bones with those of his ancestry, in the family vault at
Rookwood.

_CHAPTER VI_

_SIR PIERS ROOKWOOD_

My old master kept a good house, and twenty or thirty tall
sword-and-buckler men about him; and in faith his son differs not
much; he will have metal too; though he has no store of cutler's
blades, he will have plenty of vintners' pots. His father kept a
good house for honest men, his tenants that brought him in part; and
his son keeps a bad house with knaves that help to consume all: 'tis
but the change of time: why should any man repine at it? Crickets,
good, loving, and lucky worms, were wont to feed, sing, and rejoice
in the father's chimney; and now carrion crows build in the son's
kitchen.

WILKINS: _Miseries of Enforced Marriage_.

Sir Reginald died, leaving issue three children: a daughter, the
before-mentioned Eleanor--who, entirely discountenanced by the family,
had been seemingly forgotten by all but her father--, and two sons by
his third wife. Reginald, the eldest, whose military taste had early
procured him the command of a company of horse, and whose politics did
not coalesce with those of his sire, fell, during his father's lifetime,
at Killiecrankie, under the banners of William. Piers, therefore, the
second son, succeeded to the title.

A very different character, in many respects, from his father and
brother, holding in supreme dislike courts and courtiers, party warfare,
political intrigue, and all the subtleties of Jesuitical diplomacy,
neither having any inordinate relish for camps or campaigns, Sir Piers
Rookwood yet displayed in early life one family propensity, viz.,
unremitting devotion to the sex. Among his other mistresses was the
unfortunate Susan Bradley, in whom by some he was supposed to have been
clandestinely united. In early youth, as has been stated, Sir Piers
professed the faith of Rome, but shortly after the death of his
beautiful mistress--or wife, as it might be--, having quarreled with his
father's confessor, Checkley, he publicly abjured his heresies. Sir
Piers subsequently allied himself to Maud, only daughter of Sir Thomas
D'Aubeny, the last of a line as proud and intolerant as his own. The
tables were th