Page 331 - A Jacobite Exile

"Now that they are cleared, and can come back with honour, it will be
different, altogether. It will be glorious news for them. Of course, we shall

start as soon as we get the official communication that the estates are
restored. We shall only have to go back to them, for, as you know, yours is

the only estate that has been granted to anyone else. The others were put up
for sale, but no one would bid for them, as the title deeds would have been
worth nothing if King James came over. So they have only been let to

farmers, and we can walk straight in again, without dispossessing anyone."

"I don't know what to do about John Dormay," Charlie said. "There is no
doubt that, from what the judge said, they will prosecute him."

"So they ought to," Harry broke in. "He has striven, by false swearing, to
bring innocent men to the scaffold. Why, it is worse than murder."

"I quite agree with you, Harry, and, if I were in your place, I would say just
as strongly as you do that he ought to be hung. But you see, I am differently

situated. The man is a kinsman of ours by marriage. My cousin Celia has
been always most kind to me, and is my nearest relative after my father.

She has been like an aunt, and, indeed, did all she could to supply the place
of a mother to me; and I am sure my little sweetheart Ciceley has been like
a sister. This must have been a most terrible trial to them. It was a bad day

for cousin Celia when she married that scoundrel, and I am sure that he has
made her life a most unhappy one. Still, for their sake, I would not see his

villainy punished as it deserves, nor indeed for our own, since the man is, to
a certain extent, our kinsman.

"Besides, Harry, as you must remember well enough, Ciceley and I, in boy
and girl fashion, used to say we should be some day husband and wife, and

I have never since seen anyone whom I would so soon marry as my bonny
little cousin; and if Ciceley is of the same mind, maybe some day or other
she may come to Lynnwood as its mistress; but that could hardly be, if her

father were hung for attempting to swear away the life of mine."

"No, indeed, Charlie. I know how fond you were of your cousin."