What is the flag of England ? Winds of the world declare! - KIPLING. Among the historical treasures of Blenheim House is a slip of paper on which are scribbled a dozen lines in pencil. Those lines were written by the Duke of Marlborough at the close of the serce death-wrestle at Blenheim. The tumult of battle was rolling westward, where French and Bavarians were in disordered retreat, with Marlborough's cavalry riding fiercely on their rear. The smoke of the great fight yet hung black in the heavens. The slopes of the hills to the right, where Prince Eugene had four times over made his fiery onset, and the marshy plain in the centre where Marlborough himself, by a cavalry charge worthy of Murat—8,000 cavalry joined in one furious onset of galloping hoofs—had broken through the French centre, were strewn with Copyright by the Rev. W. H. Fitchett. All rights reserved. 7 she pulled and pulled frantically, until hurrying footsteps came along the passage, and Mrs. Olney with a foolish face of alarm entered the room. 'Fetch-tell the gentleman to come back,' Julia cried, breathing quickly. 'To come back?' 'Yes! The gentleman who was here now.' 'Oh, yes, the gentleman,' Mrs. Olney murmured. 'Your ladyship wishes him?' Julia's very brow turned crimson; but her resolution held. 'Yes, I wish to see him,' she said, imperiously. Tell him to come to me!' She stood erect, panting and defiant, her eyes on the door while the woman went to do her bidding-waited erect, refusing to think, her face set hard, until far down the outer passage-Mrs. Olney had left the door open-the sound of shuffling feet and a shrill prattle of words heralded Lord Almeric's return. Presently he came tripping in with a smirk and a bow, the inevitable little hat under his arm. Before he had recovered the breath the ascent of the stairs had cost him, he was in an attitude that made the best of his white silk stockings. " See at your feet the most obedient of your slaves, ma'am!' he cried. 'To hear was to obey, to obey was to fly! If it's Pitt's diamond you need, or Lady Mary's soap-box, or a new conundrum, or-hang it all! I cannot think of anything else, but command me! I'll forth and get it, stap me if I won't!' 'My lord, it is nothing of that kind,' Julia answered, her voice steady, though her cheeks burned. 'Eh? what? It's not!' he babbled. Then what is it? Command me, whatever it is.' 'I believe, my lord,' she said, smiling faintly, that a woman is always privileged to change her mind―once.' My lord stared. Then, gathering her meaning as much from her heightened colour as from her words, 'What!' he screamed. 'Eh? O Lord! Do you mean that you will have me? Eh? Have you sent for me for that? Do you really mean that?' And he fumbled for his spy-glass that he might see her face more clearly. 'I mean,' Julia began; and then, more firmly, 'Yes, I do mean that,' she said, if you are of the same mind, my lord, as you were half an hour ago.' 'Crikey, but I am!' Lord Almeric cried, fairly skipping in his joy. By jingo! I am! Here's to you, my lady! Here's to you, ducky! Oh, Lord! but I was fit to kill myself five minutes ago, and those fellows would have done naught but roast me. And now I am in the seventh heaven. Ho! ho!' he continued, with a comical pirouette of triumph, he laughs best who laughs last. But there, you are not afraid of me, pretty? You'll let me buss you?' But Julia, with a face grown suddenly white, shrank back and held out her hand. Sakes! but to seal the bargain, child,' he remonstrated, trying to get near her. She forced a faint smile, and, still retreating, gave him her hand to kiss. 'Seal it on that,' she said graciously. Then, 'Your lordship will pardon me, I am sure. I am not very well, andand yesterday has shaken me. Will you be so good as to leave me now, until to-morrow?' 'To-morrow!' he cried. To-morrow! Why, it is an age! An eternity!' But she was determined to have until to-morrow-God knows why. And, with a little firmness, she persuaded him, and he went. CHAPTER XXVI. BOON COMPANIONS. LORD ALMERIC, flying down the stairs on the wings of triumph, rehearsed at each corner the words in which he would announce his conquest. He found his host and the tutor in the parlour, in the middle of a game of shilling hazard, which they were playing, the former with as much enjoyment and the latter with as much good humour as consisted with the fact that Mr. Pomeroy was losing, and Mr. Thomasson played against his will. The weather had changed for the worse since morning. The sky was leaden, the trees were dripping, the rain hung in rows of drops along the rails that flanked the avenue. Mr. Pomeroy cursed the damp hole he owned and sighed for town and the Cocoa Tree. The tutor wished he were quit of the company-and his debts. And both were so far from suspecting what had happened upstairs, though the tutor had his hopes, that Mr. Pomeroy was offering three to one against his friend, when Lord Almeric danced in upon them. 'Give me joy!' he cried breathless. 'D'you hear, Pom? She'll take me, and I have bussed her! March could not have done it quicker! She's mine, and the pool! She is mine! Give me joy!' 6 Mr. Thomasson lost not a minute in rising and shaking him by the hand. My dear lord,' he said in a voice rendered unusually rich and mellow by the prospect of five thousand pounds,' you make me infinitely happy. You do indeed! I give your lordship joy! I assure you that it will ever be a matter of the deepest satisfaction to me that I was the cause under Providence of her presence here! A fine woman, my lord, and a-a commensurate fortune!' 'A fine woman? Gad! you'd say so if you had held her in your arms!' cried my lord, strutting and lying. 'I am sure,' Mr. Thomasson hastened to say, 'your lordship is every way to be congratulated.' 6 Gad! you'd say so, Tommy!' the other repeated with a wink. He was in the seventh heaven of delight. So far all went swimmingly, neither of them remarking that Mr. Pomeroy kept silence. But at this point the tutor, whose temper it was to be uneasy unless all were on his side, happened to turn, saw that he kept his seat, and was struck with the blackness of his look. Anxious to smooth over any unpleasantness, and to recall him to the requirements of the occasion, 'Come, Mr. Pomeroy,' he cried jestingly, shall we drink her ladyship, or is it too early in the day?' Bully Pomeroy thrust his hands deep into his breeches pockets and did not budge. "Twill be time to drink her when the ring is on!' he said, with an ugly sneer. 'Oh, I vow and protest that's ungenteel,' my lord complained. 'I vow and protest it is!' he repeated querulously. See here, Pom, if you had won her I'd not treat you like this!' 'Your lordship has not won her yet,' was the churlish answer. 'But she has said it, I tell you. She said she'd have me.' 'She won't be the first woman has altered her mind, nor the last,' Mr. Pomeroy retorted with an oath. You may be amazingly sure of that, my lord.' And muttering something about a woman and a fool being akin, he spurned a dog out of his way, overset a chair, and strode cursing from the room. 6 Lord Almeric stared after him, his face a queer mixture of vanity and dismay. At last, Strikes me, Tommy, he's uncommon hard hit,' he said with a simper. 'He must have made surprising " sure of her. Ah!' he continued with a chuckle as he passed his hand delicately over his well-curled wig, and glanced at a narrow black-framed mirror that stood between the windows. He is a bit too old for the women, is Pom. They run to something lighter in hand. Besides, there's a-a way with the pretty creatures, if you take me, and Pom has not got it. Now I flatter myself I have, Tommy, and Julia-it is a sweet name, Julia, don't you think?-Julia is of that way of thinking. Lord! I know women,' his lordship continued, growing the happier the longer he talked. It is not what a man has, or what he has done, or even his taste in a coat or a wig-though, mind you, a French friseur does a lot to help men to bonnes fortunes—but it is a sort of a way one has got. The silly creatures cannot stand against it.' 6 Mr. Thomasson hastened to agree, and to vouch her future ladyship's flame in proof of my lord's prowess. But the tutor was a timid man; and the more perfect the contentment with which he viewed the turn things had taken, and the more nearly within his grasp seemed his five thousand, the graver was the misgiving with which he regarded Mr. Pomeroy's attitude. He had no notion what shape that gentleman's hostility might take, nor how far his truculence might aspire. But he guessed that Lord Almeric's victory had convinced the elder man that his task would have been easy had the cards favoured him; and when a little later in the day he saw Pomeroy walking in the park in the drenching rain, his hands thrust deep into the pockets of his wrap-rascal and his chin bent on his breast, he trembled. He knew that when men of Mr. Pomeroy's class take to thinking, some one is likely to lose. At dinner the tutor's fears were temporarily lulled. Mr. Pomeroy put in a sulky appearance, but his gloom, it was presently manifest, was due to the burden of an apology; which being lamely offered and readily accepted, he relapsed into his ordinary brusque and reckless mood, swearing that they would have the lady down and drink her, or if that were not pleasing, 'Damme, we'll drink her any way!' he continued. 'I was a toad this morning. No offence meant, my lord. Lover's license, you know. You can afford to be generous, having won the pool.' And the maid,' said my lord with a simper. Burn me! you are a good fellow, Pom. Give me your hand. You shall see her after dinner. She said to-morrow; but, hang me! I'll to her.' Mr. Pomeroy expressed himself properly gratified, adding demurely that he would play no tricks, |