THE TOUCHSTONE OF FORTUNE

Being the Memoir of Baron Clyde, who lived, thrived, and fell in the
Doleful Reign of the so-called Merry Monarch, Charles II

by

CHARLES MAJOR

Author of _When Knighthood Was In Flower_, etc.

1912







To My Wife




CHAPTER I

DAUGHTERS AND POVERTY


Goddess Fortune seems to delight in smiling on a man who risks his