Page 338 - A Jacobite Exile

The man looked hard at him.

"No, sir, I can't say as I do."

"What, not Charlie Carstairs?"

"Bless me, it is the young master!" the man said. "To think of my not

knowing you. But you have changed wonderful. Why, sir, I have been
thinking of you often and often, and most of all the last three days, but I

never thought of you like this."

"Why the last three days, Norman?"

"Haven't you heard the news, sir?"

"No, I have heard nothing. Captain Jervoise and I--my old friend, you
know, Norman--have posted all the way from London, and should have

been here six days ago, if it had not been for the storm."

"Well, sir, there is bad news; at least, I don't know whether you will
consider it bad. Most of the folk about here looks at it the other way. But
the man in there shot hisself, three days ago. A magistrate, with some men

from Lancaster, came over here. They say it was to arrest him, but I don't
know the rights of the case. Anyhow, it is said they read some paper over to

him, and then he opened a drawer at the table where he was sitting, and
pulled out a pistol, and shot hisself before anyone could stop him.

"There have been bad goings here of late, Mr. Charles, very bad, especially
for the last year. He was not friends with his son, they say, but the news of

his death drove him to drink, worse than before; and besides, there have
been dicing, and all sorts of goings on, and I doubt not but that the ladies
have had a terrible time of it. There were several men staying in the house,

but they all took themselves off, as soon as it was over, and there are only
the ladies there now. They will be glad enough to see you, I will be bound."