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Updated: June 11, 2025
"What was said then in a triumph, I say now in the day of my downfall; Captain, fill your glass! 'England for ever! England above all!" The happy effect of this unexpected but welcome end of strife was soon made known throughout the island. In the towns and villages tar-barrels blazed all through the winter-night, and the best cider flowed free in the farms. At Maufant all was happiness.
'Tis not alone I, Michael Lempriere the exile, changed from the state of Seigneur de Maufant and Chief Magistrate of Jersey to that of an outcast deriving a precarious subsistence from teaching French in your Babylon here; but methinks you yourself have had a fall too, since the days you speak of: when you left Jersey for London you came here in a sort of triumph.
Lempriere leant his head on his hand with a discomfited and despondent gesture. Prynne addressed him kindly: "Have a little patience, H. de Maufant," said he. "The sun shines in heaven though earth's clouds hide his face." "Lukewarm Reuben!" cried the other, impatiently. "What comfort can I have from such as thou?
"Mme. de Maufant," said a voice at the window, "come forth. It is I, Pierre Benoist. I bring a message from your husband." "Wait an instant, Benoist," answered the lady, unalarmed, "I will let you in." She went to the door, and gave admittance to two men in blouses.
Thus, jointly labouring at airy castles, the pair of islanders pricked their steps through the dirty and dimly-lighted streets till they reached a squalid row of houses on Tower Hill, where was situated the only lodging within the present means of the Seigneur of Maufant. "To-night thou must share my chamber, telle quelle," he said. "'Tis a poor one, as thou mayest suppose.
The opposing motives and conflicting opinions of his various advisers often kindled into violent altercation, in composing which the really excellent qualities of the young king's prematurely developed character had room for beneficial action. So the ladies of Maufant were left free from a troublesome persecution, against which, nevertheless, they took all due precautions.
It was true that the news of Elliot's fraud had been made known to the ladies of Maufant by himself. But as he thought over the matter in the solitude of his chilly cell, he could not see any reason to blame himself on that account.
For their eyes were dark and sparkling, and their cheeks glowed with the rosy bloom of a healthy and innocent womanhood. They were talking in low tones of the troubles of the time and of their absent friends; their language was in the island French. "It is more than a month," said Rose Lempriere, "since I had tidings of M. de Maufant.
The damsel replied by a pretty grimace. "Marguerite!" said Mme. de Maufant, with a little frown, "on ne badine pas avec l'amour. Or do you love another perhaps? Ah! malheureuse; art thou still thinking of ce beau guilliard, how did they call him? M. Elliot, I think, the King's page? I hear that he is returned with the King; and oh, Marguerite! "I swear to you Rose, I know nothing of M. Elliot "
He even attempted to conciliate some of his opponents, restoring Le Gallais to his post of captain in the militia, and empowering him to offer to Lempriere's wife the use of her house at Maufant, which he had confiscated.
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