Tom felt the blood tingling in his veins.

“I will not forget your charge, my lord.”

“And now, what will you do, Tom?  Will you sleep one night at Holywell?  For I would not have you adventure yourself alone in the forest at dark; and you must needs pass through a part of it to reach your destination.”

“No, my lord, nor I either, after what I experienced there before.  But hard by here is the house of a friend.  I would gladly turn in thither; and tomorrow he will certainly ride with me through the forest and homewards.  Doubtless, too, when you have to pass that way, the Duke will give you escort till you near our friendly village.”

So the matter was thus arranged to the satisfaction of Tom; and almost immediately the two companions parted company, the country here being safe and fairly populated.  Before long Tom found himself knocking at the gate of an old friend of his, who gave him hearty and boisterous welcome.

It was with strange feelings next day that he found himself riding along the familiar track which led straight to the village of Gablethorpe!  It was only three months since he had left the place, but he felt as though full as many years had passed over his head.

He was not very finely dressed; but there was a style about his London-made riding suit which his country clothes had lacked, and the peruke upon his head gave him the air of a fine gentleman.  He noted with amusement that some of the rustics who gaped at him as he passed did not recognize him, although he knew them well.  If he had been riding Wildfire they would have known the horse; but now both steed and rider seemed strange to them.

Then as he rode at a foot pace through the village, smiling at sight of the familiar places and faces (his friend had turned back when they had passed the limits of the forest, and had ridden home with his servant, not to be belated), one of the women at the cottage doors smote her hands together and cried: 

“Bless us all! if it bean’t Master Tom hisself!”

“Golly! and so it be!” cried her husband, who was just coming in from the fields; and the next minute Tom was surrounded by a gaping, admiring crowd, all eager to give him welcome, and wonder at the fine figure he cut amongst them.

The restiveness of the mare shortened the greetings of the rustics; for Nell Gwynne was not accustomed to being so surrounded, and showed a disposition to lay about her with her heels, or to rear and strike out with her forefeet.  These manoeuvres soon scattered the crowd, and Tom rode on, laughing and waving his hand; whilst the fleet-footed of the village urchins started in a beeline across the meadows for Gablehurst, knowing that the lady there would certainly bestow a silver groat upon him who first brought the news that Master Tom was at hand!

So when Tom rode up the avenue towards the fine old gabled house, which had never looked so pleasant to him as in the evening glow of this January afternoon, mother and sister were out upon the steps waiting for him; and the servants were assembling from within and without to give him a hearty cheer, and receive his kindly smile and greeting in reply.