Captain Jacobus
by Leslie Cope Cornford (9781406780307)

Contents page 7 II. CAPTAIN JACOBUS 23 III. A DEN OF THIEVES IV. ON THE ROAD V. ON THE ROAD THE INN AT FARNHAM VI. ON THE ROAD THE GOLDEN 36 48 67 FARMER 8 4 VII. THE BELL-MAN OF SAINT SEP- ULCHRES gg VIII. MR. AND MRS. CUTPURSE 117 IX. I BECOME KINGS MESSENGER 129 X. A KING IN EXILE ij XI. THE FRENCH GENTLEMAN WITH RED HAIR j XII. I TAKE THE RoAD UPON MY OWN ACCOUNT jg2 XIII. How THE ROYALISTS OCCUPIED SALISBURY TOWN Contents XIV. How CAPTAIN JACOBUS EXE- CUTED THE KINGS COMMISSION 207 XV. A QUESTION OF CONSCIENCE 225 XVI. THE EIGHTEENTH OF APRIL 233 XVII. THE LAST NOTCH ON THE SCORE 251 XVIII. THE INEVITABLE 272 VI Captain Jacobus THE RIVALS ONE March morning, in the year of our Lord 1655, I mounted my horse at the door of Langford Manor, and, filled with the blithest anticipations, set forth to Salisbury City. Such an occasion befalls a man but once in his life, and it behooves him tomake the most of it. The weatherwas bright and sunny, with a merry breeze that shook down the yellow catkins upon man and beast as we passed the countryside appeared to laugh and sing and when I entered the venerable city, it greeted me with a spark- ling aspect whereto my eyes seemed newly opened. Leaving my horse at the sign of the Sun over against the Conduit, in the High Street, I took 7 Captain Jacobus my way towards the Market Place, where, just beyond the Poultry Cross, stands the house of Mr. Richard Phelps, at that time Mayor of Salisbury. As luck would have it, I had scarce gone twenty paces from the inn before I saw John Manning advancingdown the street. Now of all persons in the world I disliked Mr. Man- ning the worst and I think he hated me but this morning for the first time I felt I couldperfectly afford to be civil. For hitherto John hand ofme in a Manning had always the upper manner of quiet domineering highly irksome to a generous nature. Our respective fathers, serv- ing under the headlong leadership of Sir Harry Bard, were slain on Alresford field while I was still undergoing education at New College, Ox- ford. But young Manning, who was five years my senior, had fought side by side with his father, and had beenwounded in the leftarm and shoulder, amisfortune ofwhich he was most inordinately vain. Moreover, he was a very proper man, with a silver tongue and a pretty trick of using it while I, although greater of body, was a shy and plain youth, with no such mighty talentforconver- sation. Timeand again, when I have been sitting 8 The Rivals happily with Barbara, he has entered upon us and put me to the blush with his courtly per- formances, till I was fain to quit the room in the blackest of tempers. As he came cocking down the pavement I perceived that Mr. Manning was dressed as if for a festival, in silver-laced silken coat, quilted breeches slashed with crimson, and silken stock- ings of the same color he wore a silver-hiked walking-sword, and the black love-lock disposed upon his shoulder was tied with a knot of silver- pointed crimson ribbon. Well met, Anthony, cried Manning, stopping and holding out his hand. You shall be the first to wish me joy this fine morning. His greeting took me very much aback, for it was precisely the manner of address I had pre- pared in my own mind for Manning. Then it occurred to me that his attentions to Mistress Barbara Phelps had, after all, expressed no more than friendship and I shook his proffered hand till the bonescracked, and my gallant had much ado to preserve an unmoved countenance. With all my heart, I said. And who is the so fortunate lady 9

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