There I remained till his death, and then, as
was his special wish, entered here. I have still a year of my course
to complete. I only came up into residence last week. When the summer
comes I hope that you will come down to Ardleigh and stay with us; it
will give my mother great pleasure to see you again, for I never see
her but she speaks of you, and wonders what has become of you, and if
you are still alive."
"Assuredly I will come, and that with the greatest pleasure," Cyril
said, "providing only that I am not then at sea, which is, I fear,
likely, as I rejoin the ship as soon as Prince Rupert takes the sea
against the Dutch. However, directly we return I will write to you."
"If you do so, let it be to Ardleigh, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
Should I be here when your letter arrives, my mother will forward it
to me."
CHAPTER XIX
TAKING POSSESSION
Cyril stayed a week at Oxford. He greatly enjoyed the visit; and not
only was he most warmly received by his former comrades on board the
_Henrietta_, but Prince Rupert spoke so strongly in his favour to
other gentlemen to whom he introduced him that he no longer felt a
stranger at Court. Much of his spare time he spent with Harry Parton,
and in his rooms saw something of college life, which seemed to him a
very pleasant and merry one. He had ascertained, as soon as he
arrived, that the Earl of Wisbech and his family were down at his
estate, near the place from which he took his title, and had at once
written to Sydney, from whom he received an answer on the last day of
his stay at Oxford.
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