The vicarage is opposite the smithy and the inn, and when mother
and Kate got there, only a few dragoons were about. They watched the
Colonel ride up, leading his daughter's horse, and saw him turn round at
once and attempt to go back as soon as he caught sight of the dragoons;
but a larger body, under the command of Major Tixall, cantered in at the
moment and, trapped between the two bodies, the Colonel had been compelled
to surrender. He was kept until my Lord Brocton's arrival nearly an hour
later, and had then been sent on to Stafford under a strong guard.
This was the only fresh piece of information that was of any importance.
There is a jail at Stafford, and no doubt the Colonel was by now lodged in
it.
"I fear that my views, or at any rate my father's views, make me a
dangerous guest," said Mistress Waynflete, "though your kindness has made
me a welcome one."
"Madam," I said coldly, "the only politics I know is that my Lord Brocton
is fighting against the Stuart, and if by fighting for the Stuart I can
get in a fair blow at my Lord Brocton, I fight for the Stuart."
"Oliver," said mother, "it is wrong--I say nothing about its wisdom--to
choose sides in such matters on grounds of personal enmity.
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