Worcester, when I covered the retreat of the young prince, and may
indeed say that save in the Isle of Man I was the last Royalist who
upheld the authority of the crown. The Commonwealth had set a price upon
my head as a dangerous malignant, so I was forced to take my passage in
a Harwich ketch, and arrived in the Lowlands with nothing save my sword
and a few broad pieces in my pocket.'

'A cavalier might do well even then,' remarked Saxon. 'There are ever
wars in Germany where a man is worth his hire. When the North Germans
are not in arms against the Swedes or French, the South Germans are sure
to be having a turn with the janissaries.'

'I did indeed take arms for a time in the employ of the United
Provinces, by which means I came face to face once more with mine old
foes, the Roundheads. Oliver had lent Reynolds's brigade to the French,
and right glad was Louis to have the service of such seasoned troops.
'Fore God, I stood on the counterscarp at Dunkirk, and I found myself,
when I should have been helping the defence, actually cheering on the
attack. My very heart rose when I saw the bull-dog fellows clambering up
the breach with their pikes at the trail, and never quavering in their
psalm-tune, though the bullets sung around them as thick as bees in the
hiving time. And when they did come to close hugs with the Flemings, I
tell you they set up such a rough cry of soldierly joy that my pride
in them as Englishmen overtopped my hatred of them as foes. However, my
soldiering was of no great duration, for peace was soon declared, and
I then pursued the study of chemistry, for which I had a strong turn,
first with Vorhaager of Leyden, and later with De Huy of Strasburg,
though I fear that these weighty names are but sounds to your ears.'

'Truly,' said Saxon, 'there seemeth to be some fatal attraction in this
same chemistry, for we met two officers of the Blue Guards in Salisbury,
who, though they were stout soldierly men in other respects, had also a
weakness in that direction.'

'Ha!' cried Sir Jacob, with interest. 'To what school did they belong?'

'Nay, I know nothing of the matter,' Saxon answered, 'save that they
denied that Gervinus of Nurnberg, whom I guarded in prison, or any other
man, could transmute metals.'

'For Gervinus I cannot answer,' said our host, 'but for the possibility
of it I can pledge my knightly word. However, of that anon. The time
came at last when the second Charles was invited back