FALLEN FORTUNES

The scheming kinsman (page 46).

CONTENTS.

1. On the Field of Ramillies

2. Hartsbourne

3. The Scheming Kinsman

4. On the Road

5. A High-born Dame

6. The Pastimes of the Town

7. A Fair Face

8. A Startling Discovery

9. "A Mad World, my Masters"

10. "The Old Lion"

11. The Lion's Den

12. Triumph

13. The Hero of the Hour

14. Fickle Fortune

15. Dark Days

16. A Night Adventure

17. In the House of the Duke

18. "Good Queen Anne"

19. Love's Triumphing

20. Merry as a Marriage Bell

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

The scheming kinsman. . . . . . . Frontispiece

The old garden was another favourite haunt of hers.

He stood quite still to watch Lord Sandford lead away the fair Geraldine.

The hero of the hour.

FALLEN FORTUNES.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE FIELD OF RAMILLIES.

"By the beard of the Prophet, we are in luck's way at last, Dicon; for if that be not the armies of the French and the Allies drawn up in battle array, my name is not Grey Dumaresq!"

The speaker had just pushed his horse over the brow of a slope which he and his servant had for some time been mounting, through the steamy warmth of a foggy May morning. The thick haze which lay heavy in this region of marshy ground had hidden the surrounding country from them hitherto; but as they reached the summit of the gradual rise they had been ascending, the cloud wreaths suddenly drifted away, and the sun began to shine out upon the undulating plain stretched before their eyes; and lo, the plain was alive with squadrons of soldiers—infantry, cavalry, artillery—drawn up in battle array; and the note of the bugle rang through the air, whilst away in the distance, on the opposite side of the plain, there was a movement which told that already the battle had begun. A sullen roar from the guns boomed forth,