Had the Archduke Charles had the wit and the courage to enter
his capital too, his cause might have had a very different issue from
that which it was now fated to have.
Just before Christmastide George received permission to return to
England on leave for a few weeks. He had never visited his old home
all those years, and it was with delight he took his passage in a
schooner bound for Hull. Hardly had he landed at that port when he ran
across the old skipper of the _Ouseburn Lassie_. The worthy fellow did
not at first recognize the schoolboy he had known in the sturdy
handsome young fellow wearing a cavalry lieutenant's uniform, and he
was taken aback when George accosted him with a hearty "How goes it,
old friend? How goes it with you?" The skipper saluted in some
trepidation, and it was not till George had given him a handshake that
gripped like a vice that he knew his man again. Soon the two were deep
in the work of exchanging histories. The crew of the captured collier
brig, it appeared, had been kept at Dunkirk till the autumn of 1704,
when they had been exchanged for certain French prisoners in ward at
Dover. The Fairburn colliery had prospered wonderfully, and the owner
now employed no fewer than four vessels of his own, one of which ran
to Hull regularly.
Pages:
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131