In the Days of Washington Part 26

"Have you found him?" asked the major.

"I regret to say that I have made no progress as yet," replied Mr.

Waxpenny. "The lad would now be eighteen years of age. The name of his maternal grandfather was Matthew Marsham, and he himself was called by the a.s.sumed name of his father, G.o.dfrey Spencer--"

G.o.dfrey sprang forward, his face as pale as ashes. "Sir, my grandfather was Matthew Marsham," he cried. "I am G.o.dfrey Spencer, and my mother is still living."

Mr. Waxpenny tried hard to preserve his legal dignity, but the effort was vain. "You are G.o.dfrey Spencer?" he exclaimed excitedly. "Yes, you have the family likeness. And can you prove your claim?"

"My mother has the papers, sir--the certificate of her marriage and my birth."

"Then you are the Earl of Ravenswood," declared Mr. Waxpenny, rubbing his hands with delight. "My Lord, I congratulate you." He made the lad a sweeping and impressive bow.

G.o.dfrey blushed with confusion, and looked around him in a dazed manner.

"It seems like a dream," he said. "I can hardly realize it. Major Langdon is my uncle, and so are you, Captain Stanbury--"

"And you and I are cousins, G.o.dfrey," cried Nathan. "I am glad to hear of your good fortune, and I don't envy you one bit. I wish you all happiness and prosperity."

"Thank you, Nathan," G.o.dfrey replied huskily, and the lads affectionately clasped hands.

It is now time to drop the curtain. After several hours of unconsciousness, Major Langdon died peacefully at daybreak, and was buried a few hours later in a grove of oaks near the farmer's house. As soon as the sad ceremony was over the whole party started for New Brunswick, under the escort of the yeomen.

From there G.o.dfrey and Noah Waxpenny pushed on to New York. The lad was sick of the war, and a week later he sailed, with his mother and the law-clerk, for England, where he speedily proved his claim to the t.i.tle and estate of the deceased Earl of Ravenswood.

Captain Stanbury, Nathan, and Barnabas rejoined Washington's army, and fought bravely until the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown ended the long struggle, and gave the United Colonies their freedom.

A few months later G.o.dfrey persuaded his uncle to accept half of the late earl's estate, and with a portion of the money, Captain Richard Langdon--to give him his rightful name--bought a handsome property in the suburbs of Philadelphia. There he and Nathan lived happily together, keeping up their old friendship with Cornelius De Vries, and occasionally visited by Barnabas Otter, who had gone back to his beloved Wyoming Valley at the close of the war.

In after years, when his father was at rest on the banks of the Delaware, Nathan made more than one visit to his ancestral home in England, where he and G.o.dfrey lived over again in the past, and the ties of kinship that connected the cousins were not more strong than the memory of the distant days when they had suffered and fought together for the sake of Captain Stanbury's mysterious papers.

THE END