The 1600s were a time of turmoil in England: Cromwell had been defeated ad Charles II, sympathetic to the Catholics, was restored to the throne; the Dutch declared war; the Plague raged; and the Great Fire of London destroyed half the city! Cyril, at the death of his father's title, and works as a bookkeeper for various London tradesmen. Honest, hardworking, and quick-thinking, he uncovers the plots of thieves, diverts a fire-ship in a sea-battle, serves as a doctor's assistant during the Plague, and prevents the murder of one of his friends. Wounded in the sea-battle, and later contracting the Plague, he survives all and receives back as a gift, the estates that his father had lost.
