She shook her head. ‘Not that, thank God. It is a note from your uncle. He says that the king is marching on London and that we must be prepared to leave if the fighting comes close. We must pack up the most precious things for safety at once.’

He nodded, his little face grave. ‘I’ll call Frances,’ he said. ‘We’ll all help.’

Frances came down from her room, her hair pinned in a new style. ‘How do I look?’

‘Awful ugly,’ Johnnie said with a grin.

Hester was drawing out the big wooden chests which were stored beneath the display cases. ‘You pack the glass and porcelain, Frances, you’re the most careful. Johnnie, you pack the coins.’

Hester unlocked the cases and then started folding and packing the clothes, vests and coats from all around the world, savages’ clothes of feathers and beads, beautifully worked scarves from India and China, and King Henry’s own gloves which King Charles himself had given to the Tradescants. She glanced over, Johnnie was carefully laying every coin with its label in the chest.

‘You’ll have to just pile them in,’ she said. ‘And when we unpack them we’ll have to label them again.’

His little face was shocked. The order of the rarities room had been a sacred charge for the whole family for all of his life. ‘But these are Grandfather John’s labels!’

‘I know,’ Hester said grimly. ‘And I hope that he would understand that we’re doing the best that we can to keep his Ark and all its contents safe. Just tumble all the coins in the chest, Johnnie, and then we can hide it and, even if a dozen regiments come through, when the war is over we can dig it all up and start again.’

He looked reluctant, but did as he was told. Frances, at the other side of the room, was wrapping precious pieces of glass in silks and scarves, and packing them tightly in a wooden box.

Hester looked around the room. It was a collection that had been amassed over years of work, all she could do was to choose the most precious pieces from it and try to save them. ‘The little toys,’ she said to Frances. ‘The mechanical toys. Do them next.’

‘What about the mermaid’s tail?’ Johnnie asked. ‘And the whale’s jaw?’

‘We can’t even lift them,’ Frances said. ‘What will we do? How can we hide them in safety?’

‘I don’t know,’ Hester said. Her hands kept moving, packing, folding, smoothing, but her voice was full of despair and weariness. ‘We just pack everything we can, I suppose. And for the rest? I don’t know.’