is nothing I will not do for you. Not because you saved my life, though
that is a great thing, but because before that I would have done anything
for you; only, for the cause above mentioned, I would not show it. I do
not expect that we shall be more together than before; nor can I ever
suppose that you could like me as you like Henry Sydney and Buckhurst, or
even as you like Vere; but still I hope you will always think of me with
kindness now, and let me sign myself, if ever I do write to you, 'Your
most attached, affectionate, and devoted friend,

'OSWALD MILLBANK.'




CHAPTER XI.


About a fortnight after this nearly fatal adventure on the river, it was
Montem. One need hardly remind the reader that this celebrated ceremony,
of which the origin is lost in obscurity, and which now occurs
triennially, is the tenure by which Eton College holds some of its
domains. It consists in the waving of a flag by one of the scholars, on a
mount near the village of Salt Hill, which, without doubt, derives its
name from the circumstance that on this day every visitor to Eton, and
every traveller in its vicinity, from the monarch to the peasant, are
stopped on the road by youthful brigands in picturesque costume, and
summoned to contribute 'salt,' in the shape of coin of the realm, to the
purse collecting for the Captain of Eton, the senior scholar on the
Foundation, who is about to repair to King's College, Cambridge.