# The Splendid Spur — Chapters explained

> Chapter companions for The Splendid Spur by Arthur Quiller-Couch.

- [Dedication](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/dedication.md): The author dedicates the book to Edward Gwynne Eardley-Wilmot, expressing the joy of pleasing a friend with one's work and the hope that the tale will find a warm welcome from new readers, while noting that the heart of 
- [The Splendid Spur](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/the-splendid-spur.md): The opening chapter introduces Mr. John Marvel, a servant of King Charles I, and sets the stage for his memoirs during the years 1642-1643, hinting at the adventures and conflicts of the English Civil War.
- [The Bowling-Green of the Crown](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/i-the-bowling-green-of-the-crown.md): The narrator, a scholar at Trinity College, Oxford, recounts how on November 29, 1642, he fell asleep in Mr. Robert Drury's fencing room and awoke to witness a mysterious man reading in the bowling-green behind the Crown
- [The Young Man in the Cloak of Amber Satin](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/ii-the-young-man-in-the-cloak-of-amber-satin.md): Jack Marvel, distracted by the plot he overheard, struggles through a rhetoric lecture and later seeks shelter from a hailstorm in the Pig Market. There he encounters Anthony Killigrew, the young man from the bowling-gre
- [III: I Find Myself in a Tavern Brawl: And Barely Escape](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/iii-i-find-myself-in-a-tavern-brawl-and-barely-escape.md): Jack Marvel receives a note from Anthony Killigrew to meet at the Crown tavern, but upon arrival a brawl erupts. Anthony is fatally wounded by Captain Settle and a trooper. Jack throws a tankard at the trooper, grabs a c
- [I Take the Road](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/iv-i-take-the-road.md): Jack Marvel sets out from Oxford to deliver a blood-stained letter to Sir Ralph Hopton in Cornwall. After a wrong turn leads him to Wantage, he rests at an inn and encounters a cattle fair. He meets a young gentlewoman w
- [My Adventure at the Three Cups](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/v-my-adventure-at-the-three-cups.md): Jack Marvel, riding Molly after escaping from Oxford, stops at the Three Cups inn. He discovers the young gentlewoman from Hungerford is there, along with Black Dick and a peculiar old gentleman. After a swordplay incide
- [VI: The Flight in the Pine Wood](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/vi-the-flight-in-the-pine-wood.md): Sir Deakin Killigrew uses a clever ruse to distract Captain Settle and his drunken crew, setting the punch bowl ablaze to allow his daughter Delia, the narrator, and Jacques to escape. They flee through a field and into 
- [I Find a Comrade](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/vii-i-find-a-comrade.md): Jack Marvel recovers from his wound and fever, nursed by Delia Killigrew. He reveals that he carries a letter from the King and must travel to Cornwall. Delia, after learning of her brother Anthony's death, asks to join 
- [VIII: I Lose the King’s Letter; and Am Carried to Bristol](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/viii-i-lose-the-king-s-letter-and-am-carried-to-bristol.md): Jack and Delia continue their journey toward Marlboro', where they witness a battle and the burning of the town. After hiding in the woods, they are captured by Parliamentarian soldiers. Jack loses the King's letter, whi
- [I Break Out of Prison](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/ix-i-break-out-of-prison.md): Jack Marvel escapes from prison by impersonating Colonel Essex, overhearing a plot to ambush the Cornish forces. He flees to Delia's house, and together they evade capture, eventually boarding a ship to continue their es
- [Captain Pottery and Captain Settle](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/x-captain-pottery-and-captain-settle.md): Jack Marvel and Delia escape Bristol Keep and board the Godsend, captained by the deaf but kind Billy Pottery. After hiding in casks in the hold, they endure seasickness and meet Pottery's eccentric, drunken crew. Potter
- [I Ride Down Into Temple: And Am Well Treated There](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/xi-i-ride-down-into-temple-and-am-well-treated-there.md): Jack Marvel, wounded and grieving the loss of his comrade, flees on a sorrel mare from pursuing troopers. After a desperate ride across the moors, his horse collapses and he is rescued by a young woman named Joan, who ca
- [How Joan Saved the Army of the West; and Saw the Fight on Braddock Down](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/xii-how-joan-saved-the-army-of-the-west-and-saw-the-fight-on-braddock-down.md): Jack Marvel, wounded and recovering in a remote cottage, learns from Joan how she hid him from pursuing rebel troopers. Desperate to deliver a warning to Sir Ralph Hopton about the approaching enemy forces, Jack entrusts
- [XIII: I Buy a Looking Glass at Bodmin Fair: And Meet with Mr. Hannibal Tingcomb](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/xiii-i-buy-a-looking-glass-at-bodmin-fair-and-meet-with-mr-hannibal-tingcomb.md): Jack and Joan attend Bodmin Fair, where Jack buys a mirror and Joan gets into a brawl with a Cheap Jack. After the fair, Joan reveals that the white-haired gentleman in a carriage is Mr. Hannibal Tingcomb, steward of Gle
- [XIV: I Do No Good in the House of Gleys](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/xiv-i-do-no-good-in-the-house-of-gleys.md): Jack awakens early, finds Joan washing at the well, and after a playful exchange, rides to the House of Gleys. He confronts Hannibal Tingcomb, who initially feigns ignorance but is exposed as the white-haired man from Ox
- [XV: I Leave Joan and Ride to the Wars](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/xv-i-leave-joan-and-ride-to-the-wars.md): Jack returns home humiliated after being tricked by Tingcomb, but finds Joan in a hidden chamber called the Jew's Kitchen, where she has dressed up. They wrestle, and Joan declares her love and submission to Jack. Billy 
- [The Battle of Stamford Heath](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/xvi-the-battle-of-stamford-heath.md): Jack and Billy Pottery journey through the night to reach the King's forces, encountering the Earl of Stamford's army at dawn. They join Sir Bevill Grenville's Cornish troops in a fierce assault on the enemy's earthwork,
- [XVII: I Meet with a Happy Adventure by Burning of a Green Light](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/xvii-i-meet-with-a-happy-adventure-by-burning-of-a-green-light.md): Jack Marvel and Captain Billy Pottery discover Luke Settle using a charcoal signal to communicate with a sloop. They overpower him, and Jack learns that Delia Killigrew is being held on the sloop. After the Battle of Bra
- [XVIII: Joan Does Me Her Last Service](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/xviii-joan-does-me-her-last-service.md): Jack and Delia depart from Stow after the victory at Braddock Down, with Sir Bevill Grenville issuing a warrant for Master Tingcomb's arrest. They ride toward Looe with Billy Pottery, but encounter a troop of rebel caval
- [The Adventure of the Hearse](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/xix-the-adventure-of-the-hearse.md): Jack buries Joan and then travels with Delia to Gleys, where they reunite with Billy Pottery and his crew. Later, Jack and Matt Soames hide in a hearse to ambush Tingcomb's men, but the plan goes awry when Jack shoots th
- [XX: The Adventure of the Ledge; and How I Shook Hands with My Comrade](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_splendid_spur_se/chapters/xx-the-adventure-of-the-ledge-and-how-i-shook-hands-with-my-comrade.md): Jack and Matt Soames escape the burning Gleys, rescue Delia and the horses, and discover the fire was set with straw and oil jars. Jack later climbs a dangerous cliff ledge to retrieve a rope, nearly falling but succeedi

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