The House of Egremont

THE fortunes of the House of Egremont had their first great bloom through the agency of a platter of beans; and through a platter of beans more than a hundred years later the el...

THE trial of Roger Egremont took place before a full bench, Chief Justice Holt presiding, and was among the first trials for sedition and treason resulting from the Revolution....

THE summer and the winter, and again the summer and the winter came and went, and still Robert Egremont lay in prison. There was some murmuring about his case, but King William...

THE inn of Michot was almost as well known at St. Germains as the palace itself--and Madame Michot and her lame son, Jacques, were as well known as the inn. For this inn was the...

ROGER EGREMONT had reached St. Germains on the verge of Passion Week. Then followed Holy Week and its austerities, which were closely observed at the old palace, but not quite s...

THE May came and waned, and so did the early and late summer, and Roger Egremont’s days so melted one into another that the Sundays seemed only a day, instead of a week, apart....

WHAT is reckoned ill luck at one time is counted the best of good luck at another. Roger Egremont, who had fretted continually in his heart about being tied to the King’s writin...

BEING a changed man since last he was free, Roger Egremont had to learn himself all over, as it were. He had been stupidly surprised, at his first coming to St. Germains, that m...

NEVER was there a man born who loved better to be revenged on his enemies than Roger Egremont. He was so constituted that he could not feel forgiveness for an enemy until he had...

In the guard-room, they were told that the company of gentlemen-at-arms had got marching orders, and on the next morning would be reviewed by the King for the last time. All of...

trolled Roger Egremont in a voice, though not so good as Dicky’s, yet highly agreeable. He was riding by the side of François at the time. Berwick had, without so much as saying...

THE party did not leave Châlons until the sun had come out, which was after midday. Berwick, as usual, rode with Michelle. She trusted and admired him as all discerning women di...

THE glory and beauty of that April day would have made itself felt to a condemned man on his way to execution. The earth was like heaven--so fresh, so fragrant, so fair. The sky...

A WARM July night in 1693--a full moon illuminating a flat, wooded country, with cottages and hamlets flecking the meadows, and villages nestling upon the slight ascents. It is...

THE winter of 1695-96 was balmy and mild, and the smugglers--known as “owlers”--between France and England were very lively. The great ladies of London actually had the felicity...

ROGER EGREMONT had by 1698 acquired a presentiment that by the sword alone should he prosper. At the peace, in 1697, he was more fortunate than those deserving men who found the...

THAT night, returning to their lodgings, Berwick said to Roger: “One week must do our errand here, for we have but a week in which to consider the apology you are to make to the...

THE Château de la Rivière near Pont-à-Mousson, as Madame de Beaumanoir had said, was but a rookery, so aged and decayed it was. But it was so exquisitely placed, it was so quain...

IT was at the inn of Michot that Bess Lukens had heard the dreadful news about Dicky Egremont. She had gone to St. Germains to spend the Sunday with her friend, Madame Michot. S...

FOUR days after Dicky Egremont’s execution there was a great stir in the village of Egremont at nightfall. A cart, with a long box in it, had halted on the edge of the one strag...

IN December, 1698, Roger Egremont’s regiment was at Mézières,--then a gay little garrison town. So gay was it that Captain Egremont, being in mourning for his cousin, Father Egr...