HEARTS AND THE HIGHWAY CYRUS OWNSEN BRADY I tAGH. ^4s he opened the door, he started back in surprise. "Fore God" he said "did I not know, I should think it Lord Carthew in life again' HEARTS AND THE HIGHWAY A ROMANCE OF THE ROAD First set forth by Lady Katharine Clanranald and Sir Hugh Richmond and now transcribed by Cyrus Townsend Brady Author of "The Island of Regeneration," "The Better Man," etc. WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS BY F. C. YOHN A. L. BURT COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, igog, BY THE CROWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY COPYRIGHT, iqn, BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY Published, March xgiz SRLF URL 5149908 Bebtcatcb to MRS. HARRIETTE ROSCOE ELLARD AND HER DEVOTED ASSOCIATES IN THE LIVELIEST AND MOST ENTHUSIASTIC WOMAN'S AUXILIARY SOCIETY THAT I KNOW PREFACE X THIS story is exactly what it purports to be, a romance, as the reader who cares to follow the Highway with the Hero and Heroine whose ad- ventures thereon are hereafter set forth will see. It makes no pretence at being an historical novel, and yet, perhaps, it is only fair to the Manes of Lady Grizel Ogilby to point out that she herself once played a dashing role, somewhat like that attributed to Lady Katharine Clanranald, in a similar emergency in Scottish history and at a similar crisis in the family fortunes. I am just a little tired, for the nonce, of the problem story, and I have turned to this with a keen relish in which I humbly trust the reader will share. Va- riety is the life of literature: if I confined myself to one kind of books, or to one kind of sermons, I should be a dead author and a dead preacher as well. The relaxations of life are not to be found in idleness, but in doing things that are different. It is a far cry from The Island of Regeneration to The Better Man and from The Better Man vi Preface to Hearts and the Highway. And it will be a farther cry, perhaps, to the next story! Here's hoping that each may find a place and welcome in some gracious reader's heart. CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY. ST. GEORGE'S RECTORY, KANSAS CITY, Mo., New Year's Day, 1911. CONTENTS BOOK I THE WINNING OF A HUSBAND As Set Forth by the Lady of the Quest ^ with a Necessary Interlude by the Gentleman in Person CHAPTER I MM In Which I, Lffdy Katharine Clanranald, Come to a Desperate but Manly Resolu- tion 3 CHAPTER II Wherein Worthy Master Dunner Finds My Lord Carthew's Clothes lastly Becoming to Me as I Ride Away . . . .,.18 CHAPTER III How I Ate, Drank, and Gamed with Sir Hugh Richmond, Under Whom I Would Fain See Service . . . . . . .34 viii Contents CHAPTER IV PAGE Wherein I Played the Highwayman and What Befell Me on the Road . . .53 CHAPTER V In Which I Ride Away with My Captor, Who Threatens Me with Death for High Treason 71 CHAPTER VI In Which, by the Favour of the Kings Mes- senger, I am Permitted to Ride South Again on My Quest . . .... ,.. 89 CHAPTER VII Wherein, at the Request of Lady Katharine Clanranald, Whom He Loved, Sir Hugh Richmond Takes up the Tale, Relating What Happened to Him in the Tolbooth Prison 104 CHAPTER VIII How I Got the News of a Noble Self -Sacrifice, How It Affected Me, and What I Re- solved to Do for Sir Hugh Richmond . 127 Contents ix CHAPTER IX PAGE My Interview with the King of England and the Good and Bad Angels That Attended Him 138 CHAPTER X In Which I Bargain Successfully for That Which Is as Dear to Me as the Life of My Father . . . ... . . 156 CHAPTER XI Wherein Sir Hugh Richmond Finds Me, Not Unwilling, Thrust upon Him . . 177 BOOK II THE KEEPING OF A WIFE As Described by the Gentleman Who Did If, 'with an Incidental Digression by the Lady Herself CHAPTER XII In Which /, Sir Hugh Richmond, Who Tell This Tale, Find That It Is Easier to Marry Lady Katharine Clanranald than to Keep Her for My Own . . . .195 x Contents CHAPTER XIII WfUUm Wherein I Set Down in Due Course the Reso- lution to Which I Came, Which Boded III to the King, as I Rode Southward . 209 CHAPTER XIV Wherein, by the Grace of God, Our Own Determination, and the Speed of Our Good Horses, We Reach Monkwear- mouth in Time . 220 CHAPTER XV Shows How the Lord Chief Justice of Eng- land Kept a Love Tryst and What Befell Him at the Boar's Head Inn 236 CHAPTER XVI How My Lord Stenwold Settled His Account and Paid His Debt in Full .... 249 CHAPTER XVII In Which Lady Katharine Richmond, at the Request of Her Husband, Tells How She and Lord Stenwold Came to Stenwold House 265 Contents xi CHAPTER XVIII PAGE Wherein Lady Katharine Describes What Took Place in the Antechamber Where the King Made Love to Her . . .279 CHAPTER XIX Wherein Sir Hugh Richmond Interrupts a Tete-a-Tete Between His Wife and one James Stewart 291 CHAPTER XX How Sir Hugh and Lady Katharine, with Some Assistance from General Fever- sham, at Last and Finally Overcame the Majesty of England 307 As set forth by the Lady of the Quest ^ with a necessary Interlude by the Gentleman in Person Chapter I In which I, Lady Katharine Clanranald, come to a desperate but manly Resolution