“So be it, my son,” the colonel said.  “I do not strive to dissuade you, for methinks had I been of your age I should have chosen the same.  Should your fortunes lead you abroad, as they likely will, I shall send you a third of my income here.  The rest will be ample for me.  There will be little feasting or merriment at Furness Hall until the cloud which overshadows England be passed away, and you be again by my side.  There is little fear of my being disturbed.  Those who laid down their arms when the war ceased were assured of the possession of their property, and as I shall draw sword no more there will be no excuse for the Roundheads to lay hands on Furness Hall.  And now, my boy, here are a hundred gold pieces.  Use them in the king’s service.  When I hear that you are abroad I will write to Master Fleming to arrange with his correspondents, whether in France or Holland, as you may chance to be, to pay the money regularly into your hands.  You will, I suppose, take Jacob with you?”

“Assuredly I will,” Harry said.  “He is attached and faithful, and although he cares not very greatly for the King’s cause, I know he will follow my fortunes.  He is sick to death of the post which I obtained for him after the war, with a scrivener at Oxford.  I will also take William Long with me, if he will go.  He is a merry fellow, and has a wise head.  He and Jacob did marvelously at Edinburgh, when they cozened the preachers, and got me out of the clutches of Argyll.  With two such trusty followers I could go through Europe.  I will ride over to Oxford at once.”

As Harry anticipated, Jacob was delighted at the prospect of abandoning his scrivener’s desk.

“I don’t believe,” he said, when he had learned from Harry that they were going to the king at Hampton, “that aught will come of these plottings.  As I told you when we were apprentices together, I love plots, but there are men with whom it is fatal to plot.  Such a one, assuredly, is his gracious majesty.  For a plot to be successful, all to be concerned in it must know their own minds, and be true as steel to each other.  The King never knows his own mind for half an hour together, and, unfortunately, he seems unable to be true to any one.  So let it be understood, Master Harry, that I go into this business partly from love of you, who have been truly a most kind friend to me, partly because I love adventure, and hate this scrivener’s desk, partly because there is a chance that I may benefit by the change.”

Harry bade him procure apparel as a sober retainer in a Puritan family, and join him that night at Furness Hall, as he purposed to set out at daybreak.  William Long also agreed at once to follow Harry’s fortunes.  The old farmer, his father, offered no objection.

“It is right that my son should ride with the heir of Furness Hall,” he said.  “We have been Furness tenants for centuries, and have ever fought by our lords in battle.  Besides, Master Harry, I doubt me whether William will ever settle down here in peace.  His elder brother will have the farm after me, so it matters not greatly, but your wars and journeyings have turned his head, and he thinks of arms and steel caps more than of fat beeves or well-tilled fields.”