Thrice Captive Author:Arthur Griffiths Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IX They did not take me back to my garret, that much I remember, but little more. It must have been already past midnight, and the latest emotions, ad... more »ded to the day's fatigue, left me like a helpless wreck to lie anywhere that offered, and I fell without sense or motion into the centre of a great bed, close curtained, and soft as down. A rough, but not unkindly voice roused me when the sun was shining, and I woke rested and refreshed, but still willing to lie there many hours more. It was a soldier of the guard in undress appointed to wait upon me, and he had already ransacked my mails, drawing forth my newest clothes, that sober suit fashioned for me by the homely snip of Orchard Austen. The man helped to dress me, gave some attention to my hair, for every soldier was something of a barber, tied it with a new ribbon, gave me my new shoes with silver buckles all brushed and burnished, and then swore roundly that I was fit to show on any parade. " Thou art bound for the Cock Pit, and a sorry name it is for a palace and the lodging of my lords and the Privy Council. See thou hold thyself straight before them and do credit to thy valet, Simon Shawcross, of the 1st Grenadiers. Be not abashed before those mighty lords, 'tis half the battle to be smartly clothed." " Tell me," I asked with a beating heart, " who are they, these lords, and what do they want with me?" " As to who they are, I cannot rightly tell thee. The King's Ministers I wot, with power to throw thee in the chink, and sell thee to the plantations if thou answer not their questions as it pleases them. But it is time to march. Thou shalt eat a crust and drain a flagon at our mess, then put thy right foot forward with thy luck in thy hands." I did not know, nor would I have greatly cared to know...« less