STRAY PEARLS

MEMOIRS OF MARGARET DE RIBAUMONT

VISCOUNTESS OF BELLAISE





CHAPTER I.

WHITEHALL BEFORE THE COBWEBS.



I have long promised you, my dear grandchildren, to arrange my
recollections of the eventful years that even your father can hardly
remember. I shall be glad thus to draw closer the bonds between
ourselves and the English kindred, whom I love so heartily, though I
may never hope to see them in this world, far less the dear old home
where I grew up.

For, as perhaps you have forgotten, I am an English woman by birth,
having first seen the light at Walwyn House, in Dorsetshire. One
brother had preceded me--my dear Eustace--and another brother,
Berenger, and my little sister, Annora, followed me.

Our family had property both in England and in Picardy, and it was
while attending to some business connected with the French estate