XXIII.FREE
XXIV THE END




MARTIN HYDE

THE DUKE'S MESSENGER

by

John Masefield


CHAPTER I. I LEAVE HOME

I was born at Oulton, in Suffolk, in the year 1672. I know not
the day of my birth, but it was in March, a day or two after the
Dutch war began. I know this, because my father, who was the
clergyman at Oulton, once told me that in the night of my birth a
horseman called upon him, at the rectory, to ask the way to
Lowestoft. He was riding from London with letters for the
Admiral, he said; but had missed his way somewhere beyond
Beccles. He was mud from head to foot (it had been a wet March)
but he would not stay to dry himself. He reined in at the door,
just as I was born, as though he were some ghost, bringing my
life in his saddle bags. Then he shook up his horse, through the
mud, towards Lowestoft, so that the splashing of the horse's
hoofs must have been the first sound heard by me. The Admiral was