: The Flight of Georgiana: A Story of Love and Peril in England in 1746 by Stephens Robert Neilson Edwards H C Harry C Illustrator - Great Britain History George II 1727-1760 Fiction

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"'WHAT 'UD THE COUNTY SAY IF I 4 EXHIBITED THIS HERE BIT O' WRITING?'"

"'SAVE YOURSELF,' SHE 101 WHISPERED, RAPIDLY. 'YOU ARE IN DANGER HERE'"

"THE TWO GENTLEMEN MADE THEIR 195 SWORDS RING"

"'UNCLE, I BEG YOU, ON MY 259 KNEES--HIS LIFE!'"

"HE SNATCHED THE HANDKERCHIEF 313 FROM HER FACE"

"THE HORSES DASHED FORWARD" 333

THE FLIGHT OF GEORGIANA

ENEMIES

A LITTLE before noon one gray day in September, 1746, a well-made young fellow, in appearance and fact a gentleman's servant, rode up the High Street of a town in the North of England, and through the passageway of an inn to the yard. Having entrusted his sorrel nag to an ostler, he hastened to the kitchen, and proceeded to give orders to the landlady with an absence of deference which plainly showed that he spoke not for himself but for his master.

There are still a few English inns not unlike those of that time. This particular house was of dull red brick, its main part extending along the street and pierced in the middle by the passageway which led back to the yard. In the front, the ground floor had four wide windows, and these were matched by four above, while a fifth was over the passage entrance. The small panes and stone facings of the windows gave the inn that look of comfort so characteristic of eighteenth-century houses, and this was increased by the small dormer casements in the sloping roof. The passage itself, paved with stones worn comparatively smooth, was capacious enough to admit a stage-coach or a carrier's covered wagon. As you entered it, you saw the yard beyond, which was bounded by a wing of the main building and by stables, sheds, and sundry out-houses. Half-way through this passage, you found at your left hand a door, which opened to a public parlour, wherein meals were served at a common table to stage-coach passengers and other outside guests. At the right-hand side of the passage was a wider doorway, giving access to a small entry, from which you might step forward into the kitchen, or rightward into the bar, or leftward to a narrow stairway that wound steeply to the floor above.

The kitchen was not the least attractive of these destinations,--with the ample fire in its spacious chimney-place, the shine of the pots and pans on its wall, the blackened beams across its low ceiling, its table devoted to culinary business, its greater table devoted to gastronomic business--for all guests of low station, including the servants of those of higher station, ate in the kitchen,--and the oaken settles and joint-stools so tempting to the tired, hungry, and thirsty traveller who might appear in the doorway.

"And lookye, ma'am, you'll oblige by making haste," said the gentleman's servant, having communicated his orders, "for master is following so close he may be here in a quarter of an hour. I'll eat my bite while he's on the way; for he'll be having me wait on him at table, and as soon as he's finished his dinner we shall be off again,--there's eight bad miles between here and home."

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