Chapter I: Front Matter

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MISTRESS SPITFIRE

* * * * * *

By the same Author.

WHERE HIGHWAYS CROSS.

“His study of the first and only love of a middle-aged man who,
for forty years, has lived only in his work and his thoughts,
has no touch of conventionality, but is a singularly truthful
and vivid rendering of the late, sudden, and almost convulsive
blossoming of a supreme passion.”--_Daily Chronicle._

“I very much doubt whether the story of a middle-aged man’s
first and last love has ever been told with more of truth and
tenderness than are found here.”--_The New Age._

“A charming idyll. Thoroughly original, and cleverly worked
out.”--_Guardian._

LONDON: J. M. DENT & Co.

* * * * * *

MISTRESS SPITFIRE

A Plain Account of Certain Episodes in the History of RICHARD COOPE, GENT., and of his Cousin, MISTRESS ALISON FRENCH, at the Time of the Revolution, 1642-1644

Revised and Edited from the Original Ms. by

J. S. FLETCHER

Author of “When Charles the First Was King,” etc.

London J. M. Dent & Co. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 1897

Second Edition

All Rights Reserved

_To_

MY FRIEND LIZZIE

_The Frontispiece to this book is by Mr J. Walter West, and the
Map has been specially drawn by Mr Lewis Kaberry._

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

OF CERTAIN EVENTS WHICH HAPPENED AT EAST HARDWICK MANOR
HOUSE, AUGUST 27-28, 1642 1

CHAPTER II

OF MY MEETING WITH MY KINSMAN, ANTHONY DACRE, AT THE WAYSIDE
INN--OF MY FURTHER ADVENTURES, MY DISINHERITANCE BY SIR
NICHOLAS, AND MY DOINGS WITH THE PARLIAMENTARIANS--AND OF
MY EMPLOYMENT ON AN IMPORTANT MISSION BY GENERAL OLIVER
CROMWELL 42

CHAPTER III

OF MY SECOND MEETING WITH ANTHONY DACRE, AND ITS RESULTS--AND
OF MY SERIOUS QUANDARY AS TO WHICH OF TWO DUTIES MUST
FIRST BE PERFORMED 77

CHAPTER IV

OF VARIOUS EVENTS OF IMPORTANCE WHICH TOOK PLACE DURING
ONE NIGHT, AND CAUSED US CONSIDERABLE UNEASINESS AND
OTHER EMOTIONS 103

CHAPTER V

OF MY RECONCILIATION WITH SIR NICHOLAS, OF HIS LAST WISH,
AND OF HIS DEATH AND OUR OWN SORE STRAITS 143

CHAPTER VI

OF MY REMARKABLE ADVENTURES WITH GREGORY AND OUR FORTUNATE
DISCOVERY, OF SIR NICHOLAS’S BURIAL IN HIS OWN HOUSE,
AND OF MY FLIGHT WITH MISTRESS ALISON 177

CHAPTER VII

OF OUR ADVENTURES UNDER THE BRIDGE AND THE PRIVATIONS WE
THERE ENDURED, AND OF MY INTERVIEW WITH FAIRFAX AND ITS
SAD RESULTS 207

CHAPTER VIII

OF MY SURPRISING DELIVERANCE FROM DEATH, MY LAST MEETING
WITH ANTHONY DACRE, AND OF CERTAIN NOTABLE PASSAGES
’TWIXT MISTRESS ALISON AND MYSELF 235