"
"Your modesty does you credit, sir," the Earl said, shaking him
warmly by the hand. "But such is not the opinion of Prince Rupert,
who described it to me as a very gallant action; and, moreover, he
said that it was you who first brought him the news that there were
females in the house, which he and others had supposed to be empty,
and that it was solely owing to you that the ladders were taken
round."
"Will you allow me, my Lord, to introduce to you Captain Dowsett, his
wife, and daughter, who have been to me the kindest of friends?"
"A kindness, my Lord," Captain Dave said earnestly, "that has been
repaid a thousandfold by this good youth, of whose rank we were
indeed ignorant until you named it. May I ask you to honour us by
joining in our meal?"
"That will I right gladly, sir," the Earl said, "for, in truth, I
have scarce broke my fast to-day. I was down at my place in Kent when
I was awoke this morning by one of my grooms, who had ridden down
with the news that my mansion in the Savoy had been burned, and that
my daughters had had a most narrow escape of their lives. Of course,
I mounted at once and rode to town, where I was happy in finding that
they had well-nigh recovered from the effects of their fright and the
smoke. Neither they nor the nurse who was with them could give me any
account of what had happened, save that they had, as they supposed,
become insensible from the smoke. When they recovered, they found
themselves in the Earl of Surrey's house, to which it seems they had
been carried.
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