Ovingdean Grange by W. Harrison Ainsworth

“A friend of Cæsar in the accoutrements of a rebel!” muttered Buxted. “Seek not to impose upon me, good master,” he added, aloud. “Be you whom you may, you cannot enter the house at this untimely hour. You must tarry for an hour or two within the stable, and make shift with clean straw for a bed.”

So saying, he was again about to retire, when Clavering once more arrested him, by calling out, “Do you not know me, Buxted?”

“The voice sounds familiar!” cried the host, pausing. “Surely it cannot be Master Clavering Maunsel, of Ovingdean Grange?”

“You have guessed aright, Buxted,” the young man replied, advancing towards him, so as to afford the host a better view of his features; and he then added, in a lower voice, “I and some friends have come to take shelter with you, and if you can accommodate us, it is possible we may remain with you for a few days—perhaps a week.”

“You and your friends shall be welcome, good Master Clavering,” the host replied. “I trust all is well with your honoured father. I need scarcely say that the son of Colonel Maunsel shall have the best entertainment my poor house affords.”

“Any entertainment will suffice for me, Buxted,” Clavering rejoined; “but there is one with me whose high rank demands more than ordinary care.”

“High rank, said you, Master Clavering?” cried the host. “Surely, it is not our gracious master in person? Oh! if it should be, he shall be welcome to all Stephen Buxted possesses!”

“I know your loyalty and devotion, my worthy host,” Clavering replied. “But this is not the king. I would it were! he could not be in better hands than yours. But if your sovereign will not lodge with you, you will have one of his Majesty’s trustiest advisers as your guest. And who knows but ere long you may have the king himself beneath your roof!”

“It would, indeed, delight me to have an opportunity of testifying my loyalty!” cried Buxted. “But bid your friends come in at once, and do not remain out there in the yard. I hope your entrance into the village may not have been observed, for we have many curious gossips in Alfriston, though they are, for the most part, well affected towards the king. I will say that for them.”

“So far as I can judge, our arrival has been wholly unnoticed,” said Clavering. “We did not encounter a soul in the street, and no one that I observed looked forth at us. But I will now go and fetch my friends.”

“And I will be with them in a moment,” the host replied. “I will but go upstairs and put on a few clothes, that I may attend upon them more decorously.”

With this he disappeared, while Clavering crossed over to the stables, and presently returned with the rest of the party, all of whom entered the house. As our young friend knew his way to the parlour, he did not wait for the host to conduct him thither, but ushered Lord Wilmot and Colonel Gunter into the room, where in another minute they were joined by the host, who by this time had managed to put on his doublet and hose. To honest Buxted’s inquiries as to what he could bring them, his guests replied that what they needed most was rest. Accordingly, he led them at once to sleeping apartments, of which there were, luckily, several unoccupied in the house, and he undertook to hide their martial accoutrements, as soon as they should have taken them off. Ere long the whole party, having placed their heads upon the pillow, lost the recollection of their perils and fatigue.

For nearly a week did Clavering and Colonel Gunter, with two out of the three followers belonging to the former—namely, John Habergeon and the elder Saxby—remain at the Star. During this time they ran many risks of discovery, strict search being made for them throughout the whole district by the Ironsides; but such were the precautions taken by Buxted, and so great the vigilance and fidelity of his household, that, though on one occasion a party of troopers actually came to the house and remained there more than an hour, subjecting the host and hostess and all their servants to sharp interrogatories, they failed to detect their prey.