to his throne,
and all of us, from Jeffrey Hudson, the court dwarf, up to my Lord
Clarendon, were in high feather at the hope of regaining our own once
more. For my own claim, I let it stand for some time, thinking that it
would be a more graceful act for the King to help a poor cavalier who
had ruined himself for the sake of his family without solicitation on
his part. I waited and waited, but no word came, so at last I betook
myself to the levee and was duly presented to him. "Ah," said he,
greeting me with the cordiality which he could assume so well, "you
are, if I mistake not, Sir Jasper Killigrew?" "Nay, your Majesty,"
I answered, "I am Sir Jacob Clancing, formerly of Snellaby Hall, in
Staffordshire;" and with that I reminded him of Worcester fight and of
many passages which had occurred to us in common. "Od's fish!" he cried,
"how could I be so forgetful! And how are all at Snellaby?" I then
explained to him that the Hall had passed out of my hands, and told him
in a few words the state to which I had been reduced. His face clouded
over and his manner chilled to me at once. "They are all on to me for
money and for places," he said, "and truly the Commons are so niggardly
to me that I can scarce be generous to others. However, Sir Jacob, we
shall see what can be done for thee," and with that he dismissed me.
That same night the secretary of my Lord Clarendon came to me, and
announced with much form and show that, in consideration of my long
devotion and the losses which I had sustained, the King was graciously
pleased to make me a lottery cavalier.'
'And pray, sir, what is a lottery cavalier?' I asked.
'It is nothing else than a licensed keeper of a gambling-house. This
was his reward to me. I was to be allowed to have a den in the piazza
of Covent Garden, and there to decoy the young sparks of the town and
fleece them at ombre. To restore my own fortunes I was to ruin others.
My honour, my family, my reputation, they were all to weigh for
nothing so long as I had the means of bubbling a few fools out of their
guineas.'
'I have heard that some of the lottery cavaliers did well,' remarked
Saxon reflectively.
'Well or ill, it way no employment for me. I waited upon the King and
implored that his bounty would take another form. His only reply was
that for one so poor I was strangely fastidious. For weeks I hung about
the court--I and other poor cavaliers like myself, watching the royal
brothers squandering u
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