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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #64615 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64615)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Honor Bright, by Mary Catherine Rowsell
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Honor Bright
- A Story of the Days of King Charles
-
-Author: Mary Catherine Rowsell
-
-Release Date: February 23, 2021 [eBook #64615]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-Produced by: Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
- https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
- generously made available by The Internet Archive)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HONOR BRIGHT ***
-
-
-[Illustration: “With his dark locks and swarthy cheeks smudged with
-dirt, the good folks took him for some gipsy boy.”]
-
-
-
-
-HONOR BRIGHT
-
-A STORY OF THE DAYS OF KING CHARLES
-
-
-BY
-
-MARY C. ROWSELL
-
-
-WITH TWENTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-
-PHILADELPHIA
-HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-Copyright, 1900, by HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: HONOR BRIGHT
-
-BY
-
-MARY C. ROWSELL]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-THE CEDAR ROOM
-
-
-One fine autumn morning a long time ago, a little boy lay stretched in
-the broad seat of a latticed window, gazing earnestly with his great
-dark eyes on the scene before him. The window was the only one in the
-room, which was situated high up in a sort of tower at the corner of a
-big old house.
-
-The beautiful garden surrounding the house was laid out in long
-terrace walks, with wide stone steps and balustrades, and planted with
-smooth-shaven yew-hedges as thick and almost as sturdy as walls, and
-the flower-beds carpeting the ground were ablaze with glorious colors
-in the shadowless sunshine, for the great bell in its wooden cote
-above the square red-brick gate-house was ringing out midday. Bounding
-the garden on every side were lofty walls, covered with the spreading
-branches of plum and pear and apple trees, and the rich fruit gleamed
-red and tawny and purple, bright as gems among the green leaves. Away
-beyond the garden, far as eye could reach, stretched wood and dale and
-fair green meadows, where the sheep cropped at the sweet turf and the
-cows grazed, whisking away the tiresome flies with their great tails
-as they moved slowly along. Here and there among the leafy hedgerows
-and coppices, the little boy, whose Christian name was Charles, could
-see from his lofty watch-place the gleaming of a stream which wound
-like a silver ribbon on and on, nearer and nearer, till it reached
-the little wood covering the wide, sloping banks which shut in the
-road leading past the house. There for some distance it was almost
-completely lost in the ferny brushwood, peeping out again at last in a
-rush-grown pool. Thence hurrying onward, it wound right round the walls
-of the house, so that to reach the great nail-studded main door you had
-to cross a little one-arched stone bridge.
-
-Faster and faster, as he gazed upon this fair scene, the tears brimmed
-up into the little lad’s eyes, until they rolled down his cheeks—cheeks
-not very rosy or chubby, like those of most boys and girls of eight
-or nine years old, which was the age of this boy, but of a clear,
-naturally healthful brown, although just now they looked a little wan.
-His hair was also dark, and fell in thick curly locks upon the broad
-collar of Flemish lace covering his shoulders to the top of the sleeves
-of his dark-green velvet surcoat. His face was rather handsome, and,
-although there was an expression of self-will about his lips, it was
-mingled with great good-humor, as if he had a kind, generous nature,
-and might look merry enough when there was anything to be merry about.
-
-That, however, he at present considered as being very far from the
-case; and at last his silent weeping broke out into loud sobs, which
-grew only the louder the more he strove to stifle them. They could be
-heard such a long way off that they reached the ears of Lady Chauncy,
-the mistress of the house, who was sitting at her needlework in her
-private room on the floor below. She rose with a little impatient frown
-at being thus disturbed, and taking from a side-table a small gilt
-cage, which contained a fine blackbird or merle, as blackbirds were
-then called, and carrying it with her, went up the stairs to the room
-where the boy was.
-
-First removing a stout wooden bar from across the door, she lifted a
-bunch of big keys, hanging from her girdle, and, selecting one of the
-keys, put it in the lock of the door, turned it, and entered the room.
-
-“What is the matter?” she said, as she carefully locked the door behind
-her, and advanced a few steps into the room. She was an oldish lady,
-with a yellowish wrinkled face framed tightly in with a cap of fine
-linen in such a fashion that, if she had any hair, none of it was to
-be seen. Her eyes were light green-gray, and gleamed sternly, but not
-unkindly, under their thick grizzled brows upon the boy, as at sight
-of her he slid down from his corner, and went and sat in a large
-high-backed armchair. He brushed away the tears from his eyes, but he
-made no answer, and the lady had to repeat her question.
-
-“What are you crying about? Are you ill?” she went on. “Have you a
-headache, or a toothache—or any ache?”
-
-“No, madam, not the merest finger-ache,” replied the little lad, with
-almost a smile. “There is nothing—nothing at all amiss with me,” and
-then, in spite of his grand words, a last lingering sob broke up his
-speech. “I am only—only——”
-
-“Only hungry—is that it?” she said, with a relieved look. “Well, eating
-is the best cure for that, and your favorite dinner will be here
-directly——roast beef; so dry your eyes.”
-
-The boy’s face did not, however, grow much brighter, and Lady Chauncy
-began to knit her stern brow again. “Come, come, your Highness is
-hard to please to-day,” she went on; “what is amiss with you to
-be so naughty and discontented? Pray what can you lack? Where are
-your draughts, and your beautiful new horn-book, and your brave new
-troop-horse which his Majesty brought all the way from Cheapside in
-his own coach for you? You ought to be happy as the day is long, with
-everything dainty and to your taste to eat, and a soft bed, and the
-blue sky and the fair scene to look at from this casement. What, tears
-again?” for at these last words of Lady Chauncy’s the boy’s breath
-quivered very much as if the sobs were going to burst out afresh.
-“Nay,” she went on, “I’ll warrant they will dry up fast enough when
-you see what I have here for you,” and, pulling off the cover of the
-gilt cage, she placed it on the table. “William the gardener caught
-this pretty bird to-day, and I have put it in this fine cage and bring
-it you for a present. What do you say?”
-
-The boy did not reply. He only looked hard at the captive bird, and
-still the tears seemed swelling in his throat. “It is a brave bird,” he
-said softly at last.
-
-“Well, I am glad you are pleased with it,” said Lady Chauncy, “but I
-must be going now—and hark,” for at this moment there came a loud tap
-at the door, “there is Wynkin come with your dinner,” and she turned
-and unlocked the door for a serving-man who entered with a silver tray
-laden with plates and dishes, and, entrusting him with the key of the
-door, she went out, closing it carefully behind her.
-
-Meanwhile the servant spread the snowy damask cloth on the carved oak
-table and arranged the dishes, and having helped the boy from the joint
-of roast beef, and poured out a goblet full of clear golden cider from
-a silver flagon, he took up a place behind Charles’s tall-backed chair,
-looking in a concerned, half-scared sort of manner at the boy when,
-after a few mouthfuls, he pushed aside the plate.
-
-“Take it away,” he said.
-
-“But your Highness has hardly eaten anything,” said Wynkin.
-
-“No,” said Charles, “I can’t eat any more in this stifling cupboard of
-a place. Could you now, Wynkin?”
-
-Wynkin grinned. “I think I could,” he said, “if——”
-
-“If what?”
-
-“Well, if it was roast beef.”
-
-“Don’t you have roast beef for dinner of a day?”
-
-“Only on Sundays, your Highness. Week-days we have mostly porridge
-for dinner, or, for a treat now and again, a sop in the pan of
-barley-bread.”
-
-“And what do you have for pudding?” inquired the Prince, as Wynkin
-removed the thrust-aside plate and placed a dish of quince tarts on
-the table all heaped up with whisked cream stuck over with sugar-plums;
-“sweets, you know.”
-
-[Illustration: “At the sight of her he slid down from his corner and
-went and sat in a large high arm-chair.”]
-
-“Oh, we don’t have them at all, except at Christmas, which comes but
-once a year, worse luck. A little sour buttermilk sometimes perhaps,
-but sweet things, bless your heart, no.”
-
-“Oh, yes, you do,” said Charles, with a merry twinkle in his eye; “you
-have the sweetest thing of all—liberty.”
-
-“Why, yes, that is true,” admitted Wynkin, gazing down sorrowfully at
-the boy.
-
-“And I wish I were you, Wynkin,” went on Charles, all the clouds
-darkening his face again. “It’s dreadful to be a King’s son, I can
-tell you; and treated as if I’d done something wrong, and I haven’t—I
-haven’t.”
-
-“No, of course not,” said Wynkin, in consoling tones. “It isn’t
-possible, for the King can do no wrong, I’ve always heard say. Every
-idiot knows that, and it isn’t likely his son can, particularly his
-eldest son, the Prince of Wales, like you are.”
-
-“I never thought of that,” said Charles, with a meditative air, as he
-lifted all the whipped cream with his spoon from his tart and swallowed
-it at a gulp. “I may do whatever I please and it won’t be wrong. But
-there, that’s just it—I can’t do what I please. How can I? I want to
-run and jump and bathe out in that splendid pool there, and climb up
-those great tall fellows of trees and—and—do all the things other boys
-do—for I’m not a baby now—I’m turned nine—and it’s a shame, keeping
-me cooped up in this mousetrap of a room. Oh, you know it is, Wynkin,
-and you might say so, if you had a kind heart, but you haven’t—you are
-hard-hearted and cruel, like the lords.”
-
-“But they have to be cruel to be kind,” contended Wynkin. “The King’s
-Majesty, God preserve him, has so many enemies—so many who hate him.”
-
-“Yes, I know, so ’tis said,” replied the boy, “and ’tis all very well,
-Wynkin, but I can’t believe it. My father is so gentle and kind. If
-’tis true, ’tis because they don’t know him.”
-
-“That may be so, your Highness. And ’tis just the business of many
-of those who call themselves his Majesty’s friends to hinder him from
-being known as—as you know him. And you see, there are bad men about of
-all sorts and sizes and parties, who want to get you away from him.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“I’d be torn in pieces first,” said the child, his dark face flushing.
-
-“Yes,” said Wynkin, “that’s about what it would be. I’m not certain but
-I think now there’s a price set upon your head.”
-
-“What’s the good of it to anybody?” laughed Charles.
-
-“Oh, well, there mayn’t, of course, be anything in it?”
-
-“Inside my head?” laughed Charles still more merrily.
-
-“In the talk, your Highness.”
-
-“That is as it may be,” said Charles, “but there is more than one idea
-inside my head, and the biggest is that I’m not afraid of these evil
-persons; and the next is that if I can only get out of this badger-hole
-of a room, I’ll let them know I’m not—and I’ll protect my father
-from—where is my father just now, Wynkin?”
-
-“He was in London a few days since.”
-
-“Is mother with him?”
-
-“Nay, I think she has gone to France, to fetch soldiers to come over
-and fight for the royal cause.”
-
-“Oh, that is all right, and when they come—now, Wynkin, look here—I
-intend to go to my father and fight by his side. Oh, I tell you I
-can—see,” and, seizing his little wooden toy sword, he tipped his left
-fingers over his head and thrust out the weapon with such a valiant air
-that Wynkin laughed heartily and said he had never seen a finer copper
-captain.
-
-“Nay, copper captain forsooth,” said Charles, flinging away the sword,
-and seizing the long white stick which Wynkin carried as his staff
-of office when waiting on the Prince. “I’ll show you I’m no copper
-captain,” and he began to lunge about with it so lustily that at last
-he gave Wynkin a sharp poke in the eye. “Oh, dear,” cried the boy,
-throwing down the stick; and, springing into the serving-man’s arms,
-he clung round his neck and stroked his damaged eye. “I’m so sorry,
-Wynkin. It doesn’t hurt much, does it—though it is going all red and
-black?”
-
-“Nothing to talk about,” said Wynkin, “but you can cut and thrust with
-the best of ’em. Feeling’s believing.”
-
-“Yes,” said Charles proudly.
-
-“A regular don at it you are,” went on Wynkin, as he began to pile the
-dinner things together for taking away, “but I must be going now.”
-
-“Oh, don’t go,” pleaded the lonely boy.
-
-“Needs must. I’ve got to be going up-stream with some corn sacks, and
-the last harvest load’s being carried to-day, and all hands are turned
-on.”
-
-“Except mine,” sighed the Prince, gazing down sadly at his little
-slender white hands. “It’s hateful. Now, Wynkin,” he went on, turning
-suddenly with a commanding air upon the serving-man, “listen to me.
-Give me that key immediately,” and he pointed to the key which Lady
-Chauncy had entrusted to Wynkin, and which the man had thrust into the
-breast of his jerkin in such a manner that the handle peeped out. “I
-want it.”
-
-“Oh, do you?” said Wynkin, most respectfully.
-
-“Yes, and you must give it me immediately.”
-
-“Faith, not I, your Highness. You’ll be trying to unlock the door with
-it the next thing,” grinned Wynkin.
-
-“Certainly,” replied Charles majestically. “That is the purpose for
-which I require it.”
-
-Wynkin’s broad smile grew broader than ever. “What next, I should like
-to know,” said he.
-
-“That is a matter that does not concern you,” replied the Prince; “your
-manner is very disloyal. If you must know, I want to get out.”
-
-“Which is precisely what his Majesty has forbidden my lord and my lady
-to allow you to do,” rejoined Wynkin, “and they have given him their
-word of honor and solemn promise that you shall not get out, and it’s
-because I have always been trusted by my lord and my lady to abide by
-my word, and have never broken faith to them, that they allow me to
-wait upon your Highness,” and Wynkin took a long breath, for he was
-not used to making such lengthy speeches. “Honor bright, you know,”
-concluded he.
-
-The young Prince made no reply. For a long time he stood looking Wynkin
-full in the face with thoughtful-looking eyes, and Wynkin returned
-the gaze, but whether his damaged eye hurt him, or somehow a tearful
-choking kind of feeling in his throat troubled him, it is certain that
-he turned away, and hurriedly gathering the dinner things together on
-his tray, he went out, carefully locking and barring up the door behind
-him.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-MINERVA’S NOSE
-
-
-Charles stood listening to Wynkin’s departing footsteps down the oaken
-staircase till the last echo of them died out. Even then perhaps he
-would not have stirred, had it not been for the merle, who suddenly
-piped a plaintive note or two in his cage, which Wynkin had hung upon a
-handy nail near the window.
-
-“Ah,” cried Charles, turning quickly to the bird, “I forgot all about
-you.”
-
-The merle looked at him with his bright eyes, in which there seemed to
-the boy to be a sorrowful pleading expression.
-
-“What is the matter, birdie, old fellow?” said Charles. “Are you
-hungry? No; they would never have neglected to give you seed and water,
-I am sure.”
-
-And there, as he looked to ascertain, he found not only seed and water
-to the very brim of the pannikins, but also, stuck between the bars, a
-big piece of watercress, while at the bottom of the cage was a large
-worm wriggling about. Nothing, in fact, was wanting to the convenience
-and content of the tenant of the cage—in the way, that is, of creature
-comforts—but his wings drooped forlornly, and he looked very unhappy,
-nevertheless.
-
-“Ah,” said the Prince, as he clambered on to the high window-seat, and
-took down the cage, “I like you very much, you dear little fellow; and
-I should like to keep you, for I am very lonely, and you are most sweet
-company, and it is a very fine cage, isn’t it? But you are breaking
-your merry heart in it, I am positive you are, and you shall get out.
-Her ladyship may not approve; she may even whip me for it, though I
-believe she mustn’t do that, much as her fingers often itch for it, but
-I’m going to let you go,” and so saying, he unfastened the door of the
-cage, and set the entrance against the open lattice. “There, go,” he
-went on, as for an instant the bird perked his shiny head on one side,
-as if he was listening intently to all Charles was saying to him, “fly
-away, dear bird, and joy go with you, for outside you will find it
-again.”
-
-And then with a flap of his wings, away flew the merle, straight across
-the moat into mid-air, till he reached the bough of a high elm not far
-off. There he settled, and opening his yellow beak, he set up such a
-joyous song as never was heard—anyway, inside a cage.
-
-“I expect,” said Charles, looking into the cage again, and poking the
-watercress stalk under the body of the worm, “that you would rather
-wriggle down there among the flowers than in that miserable sprinkling
-of sand,” and with that he flung the worm far across the moat on to
-the grassy bank below. “Of course, if Master Merle catches you again,
-you must settle the matter between you, and it is certain he will be
-picking up an appetite again now, and it will be ‘catch as catch can.’”
-
-Then, putting the toe of his little silver-and-blue rosetted shoes to
-the cage, he sent it flying to the other side of the room. That done,
-he dropped wearily down again in the great tall velvet chair, and
-lolled back, a very picture of misery and discontent.
-
-“Who’d imagine,” he muttered to himself, “that it was such a horrid
-thing to be a Prince? I wonder if all Princes are so wretched, or
-whether it is only Princes of Wales, like me?” Then he yawned and lay
-with his eyes wandering listlessly round the room, watching the rays
-of the afternoon sun as they poured in at the lattice. The air felt
-stifling, for it was a small room, considering, that is, that the house
-was such a large one; but great mansions in those golden days, when
-Charles the First was King, contained rooms of all sizes as well as all
-shapes. Rooms were not merely four square walls, as mostly they are
-now, but built as it might be into all sorts of passages and corridors
-and staircase landings, now with a step or two up, now with a step or
-two down. One reason for this was that, as time went on, the owners
-of these big houses would add on a piece here, a wing there, and the
-level of the old floors and the new floors would not always exactly lie
-together, but it made the houses much more amusing and snug to live in.
-
-Such a queer hole-and-corner chamber was the old Cedar Room, as it was
-called, in which little Charles Stuart, King Charles the First’s eldest
-son, had been shut up for three weeks past. The King himself, with his
-Court, had been in London, but the Roundheads, who were the King’s
-discontented subjects, and the Royalists, who were faithful to him,
-were glowing into a red heat of rage with each other. It was no longer
-safe for the little boy to be in London, and so the King had entrusted
-him to the care of one of his most devoted friends and counselors, who
-took him away at dead of night from London to his home in Warwickshire,
-and nobody—not even the other Royalists—was certain where the child
-was. Many thought that he had been carried across the sea to France. It
-was not of much use telling the boy that he had been taken away from
-his father and mother for his good. The poor little lad was not old
-enough to understand how this could be, and so he was very unhappy,
-and he detested with all his might that old Cedar Room, and all that
-was in it, though it was considered a vastly fine room, and a very
-curious one. That, indeed, was one reason why Lady Chauncy, who, for
-all her prim manner, was a most kind, motherly person, had persuaded
-her husband to lodge the young Prince in it, “for besides being so
-high up and remote,” said she, “the mannikins will be huge and endless
-amusement for him, and make the time pass more quickly till there is
-an end to all this pother, and the child can get about again.”
-
-[Illustration: “When that sun-ray tips it with red, I’ll see if I can’t
-hit it. I’ve hit a better mark before now.”]
-
-Now, the mannikins, as her ladyship called them, were the little
-figures carved on the panels of the walls all around the Cedar Room,
-which was of a rather lop-sided shape, neither square nor oblong, but
-a little of all three fitted into the uppermost part of an angle of
-the mansion which jutted far over the moat. These panels were very
-old, at least two hundred years, and the room was as ancient, but
-its walls were as stout and sturdy as on the day they were made. The
-panels were of Flemish carving, and they represented the gods and
-goddesses of heathen mythology. There was Jupiter hurling lightning
-from his throne, Juno with her peacocks, Vulcan hammering away on his
-anvil, and Minerva sitting up very majestically in her helmet and coat
-of mail, holding her shield. The faces, however, of these far-famed
-personages were far from being like what Charles had always imagined of
-them when his father had related tales about them to him, as often he
-had done. According to this description of them, which sometimes the
-King would read out loud to him from the poetry-history of Homer, they
-were beautiful, even glorious, to look upon, but these mannikins were
-as ugly and clumsy almost as if they were made of gilt gingerbread.
-They were pretty well as broad as they were long, dressed in jerkins,
-or muffled in cloaks and full skirts, and their faces were almost all
-nose, that is to say, where they had any at all, for many of the noses
-had stuck out so far that they had got chipped off or worn flat. Why
-the carver of all these gentry had made such a point of their noses
-puzzled Charles, who for the first few days of his living in the Cedar
-Room was certainly immensely amused with this silent, droll company;
-but after a while he got cross with their dull faces.
-
-“If they were real,” he said one day to Wynkin, “what blockheads they
-would be!”
-
-“And blockheads they are now,” had been Wynkin’s reply.
-
-And if there was one of the wooden folk Charles found more irritating
-than another, it was Madam Minerva. She sat up so prim and
-cross-looking and her nose poking out from under her helmet, bigger
-even than that of great Jove himself; or so it seemed to Charles, as
-he lay listlessly watching the afternoon sun-rays pouring in at the
-lattice, and listening half glad, half sad to the piping of the happy
-merle in the elm-tree, and the voices of the harvesters far down below
-in the fields.
-
-How he longed to be with them and watch the loading of those last
-sheaves into the big carts, and how stiflingly hot the Cedar Room was,
-and how particularly forbidding and disagreeable goddess Minerva there
-looked, and how uncomfortable and heavy must be that scale armor of
-hers, and that shield, and the helmet, not to speak of such a nose. Ah!
-And, stretching out his hand over the arm of the chair, Charles picked
-up his toy bow, which lay with his own gilt pasteboard cuirass and
-tin helmet and wooden broadsword and other weapons on the floor, and
-setting the bow with a bolt, he sat waiting. “Yes,” he murmured, with a
-wag of his head, and setting his lips tight, “I won’t put up with her
-any longer, her and her nose. And when that sun-ray tips it with red,
-as in a minute or two it will, I—I’ll see if I can’t hit it. I’ve hit
-a better mark before now.” Then he waited and watched, and the crimson
-gleams crept on and on across the carved panels, and—whizz! went the
-string, snapping right back across Charles’s own nose so sharply that
-it stung him and he shut his eyes for a minute. When he opened them he
-beheld a strange and most unexpected sight.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-THE DARK PASSAGE
-
-
-The panel was turning round! slowly, but most surely turning round,
-much in the way that a turnstile moves, as if on a pivot or pin running
-from top to bottom of the wood.
-
-Charles could hardly believe his eyes, which, indeed, after that
-stinger from the bowstring, were for a minute or two not so trustworthy
-as usual. He very soon, however, saw clearly enough that the panel
-really was open, and now stood half-way inside the room, half-way
-outside in the shadowy space beyond.
-
-So amazed was he that for a short time he could not stir hand or foot,
-and only stood staring at the panel. But if he had never seen such a
-thing before, it was no great marvel, for not many people had done so.
-He had not only heard of, but seen, panels that lifted above into the
-walls, window-sash fashion, and panels that slid back sideways into
-grooves, and in the hope that such panels might be found in that room,
-he had spent hours in pushing and shoving and poking about the edges
-and frameworks of the carvings till his little fingers ached again.
-Then a hundred times he had cried, “Open, Sesame!” as Ali Baba did, but
-nothing had come of it. Yet now, here, in the most unexpected manner it
-had happened, and accordingly, like people in general, big or little,
-when on those rare occasions that which their heart most longs for
-comes to pass, he stood as if he was dazed and unable to believe it
-true. He soon, however, found his wits again, and slipping down from
-the chair, he crossed the floor and peeped into the dark space, though
-gingerly enough, lest the panel should think proper to snap to, and
-treat his nose as badly as he had treated poor Minerva’s.
-
-Then he carefully examined the condition of that good lady, and found
-her to be not at all herself as he had hitherto had the pleasure of
-her acquaintance. To be sure she sat bolt upright as ever, as far as
-her shoulders, but her head hung down now all dingle-dangle. Was her
-neck broken? No; it was not as bad as that, it was dislocated, and hung
-wobbling by a sort of metal hinge to which there seemed some wires and
-a steel spring attached.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Well, certainly, thought Charles, as he looked, those Flemish craftsmen
-must have been very clever fellows. He did not however stop to think
-much about anything, for the belfry over his head began to sound with
-a terrific clangor as he stood in the opening. Five o’clock, and at
-five his supper was always brought him, and after that he had to
-go to bed. There was not a moment to lose, and, after a very brief
-consideration he stepped back into the room, and took off his doublet,
-putting it in a corner of the window-seat. Being such sultry weather
-all he wore under the doublet was the little shirt of fine cambric;
-then—but hark! voices! Why, bless your heart, yes, the merle’s voice,
-and the harvesters all rejoicing in the soft cool air which the waning
-day had brought. Quite a little breeze, in fact, as it came rustling
-and ruffling up from below to where Charles stood in the queer dark
-nook outside the panel; but his eyes were growing accustomed to the
-darkness now, and he could see that he was standing on the top of a
-staircase which wound down and down out of sight. There was one thing
-he had forgotten, in all his excitement, and a thing of the utmost
-importance too. His sword. He would not encumber himself with his armor
-or other weapons, but as a soldier and a gentleman his short sword he
-must have; and he went back again and, picking it up from the floor, he
-stuck it into his belt, for he needed both hands free. Then slipping
-out once more upon the shelf of a landing, for it was no more, he drew
-the panel to. Had he been able to see then on its other side, he would
-have seen Minerva’s helmeted head pop up and settle itself all right
-and tight on her shoulders, as if nothing had happened, but by that
-time he was at the bottom of the staircase. It did not reach beyond a
-turn or two, and ended in a long always-downward-winding passage barely
-three feet wide and hardly higher.
-
-Through this scudded Charles as well as he could, like a rabbit in
-a burrow, always down and down, and twisting and turning, guided by
-the glimmering of daylight which entered by little holes pierced at
-few-and-far-between distances in the thick stone wall on his left hand.
-Still on and on he went the downward way, till at last the air began to
-turn from cool to clammy, damp, and cold, and he stood still to listen,
-for there came a sound through the deadly silence. It was the trickling
-of water, and he guessed he must be close upon the moat.
-
-The next moment he found his right hand was touching cold moss-covered
-stone instead of dry wood as hitherto. His heart fluttered like the
-wings of a bird, but he stepped on, feeling every inch of the way. In
-this manner he descended several stone steps that were slippery with
-ooze and felt jagged and crumbling under his feet. At the bottom of
-the steps he found himself standing on smooth and level ground, and,
-pausing to take breath, he listened again. The water was over his head,
-he could hear it gurgling slowly and solemnly on, and all round him was
-pitchy darkness, but far on straight ahead he saw, or fancied he saw, a
-gleam of reddish light.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Plucking heart of grace, he moved on again, and soon the fancy became
-a certainty. It was the light of the sun now nearing the end of his
-course, and it was piercing the bars of a grating. From fluttering,
-Charles’s heart now stood still, for a great dismay seized him. What if
-that grating closed in the passage? Why, then, since he had noticed
-that there was no handle or mark of any kind at the back of the panel
-in the Cedar Room, he would not be able to open it, even if he dared to
-go back, and so he would be caught like a rat in a trap! It wanted some
-courage to go on and make certain, and only after a second or two he
-found it, and, groping his way on, reached the grating, to find that
-it was as he had thought so possible. The grating was just high and
-wide enough to allow of a person getting out of it. It stood on the top
-of a steep narrow flight of stone steps, and as Charles mounted these,
-the afternoon sunlight broke upon it from the outside, and he saw that
-it was chained and padlocked; but as he took hold of the padlock, it
-fell to pieces in his hand, all eaten through and through with rust.
-Then he saw that the links of the chain were equally useless, and as
-he gave the grating a push they all rattled and fell helplessly to the
-ground.
-
-For a moment more the gate stuck hard, but with another tremendous push
-of Charles’s shoulder, it yielded with a screech, and swung back as far
-as a heap of mud and rotten leaves allowed it to go, and this was far
-enough to allow of Charles’s slender little body squeezing through.
-
-When he got outside, he found himself—where? Ah! that was the puzzle of
-it. That he was beyond the moat of course he knew, but was he beyond
-the garden walls? If he was not—but he was, a good way beyond, right
-out in the fields; for though he was cooped up in a round sort of a
-bricked-in place like a well, and could see nothing but a close tangle
-of gorse and bramble overhead, he could hear the voices of the country
-folk, the neighing of horses, and the creaking of wagon-wheels hard by.
-And all at once as he listened the voices broke out in a loud cheery
-chorus. “Harvest Home,” sang the men, women, and children, while dogs
-barked, and the birds sang louder than ever:—
-
- “Harvest Home!”
- Merrily sing we all, “Harvest Home!”
-
-And Charles knew that he was free.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-A NIGHT JOURNEY
-
-
-As the wagon-wheels creaked nearer and nearer, and the singing of the
-merry-makers came past him, Charles had all the work in the world to
-keep himself from leaping up out of the hole to join them, they seemed
-so happy. He himself did not feel anything like so happy as he had
-expected. He could not have laughed in that light-hearted way as the
-children did, chasing each other in and out of the gorse-bushes so near
-the edge of the hole that he could have caught them by the ankles as
-they ran.
-
-At last all had passed by, and the only sound to be heard was the
-distant rumbling of the heavy-laden wagon-wheels down the hilly lane,
-or could it be the roll of distant thunder? for as he peeped over the
-edges of the hole he saw that the sun was setting in a bank of nearly
-black clouds. When he thought, that he was quite safe from being seen
-he scrambled up to the top of the hole, and a strange sight he looked,
-for his velvet breeches and his shirt and his face and hands were
-all one grimy drab color with the cobwebby dust and dirt he had gone
-through. Really, if anybody had spied him, there would have been no
-small difficulty in recognizing the little Prince who always went so
-richly and tastefully attired. No one, however, saw him as, taking one
-sharp look round, he sped like a lapwing with bent head through the
-thick tall furze-bushes covering the waste ground to the edges of the
-thicket beyond. At the other side of the thicket ran the bright stream
-whose course he intended to follow, as he knew that some miles ahead it
-joined the river Thames.
-
-There, at the bottom of the broad steep-sloping bank he soon reached,
-lay a largish boat tied by a rope to the stem of an elm-tree.
-Charles’s heart leapt within him: that was just the thing he wanted.
-Surely some kind woodland fairy must have placed it there, as fairies
-do in story-books, for his convenience. The next minute his delight
-faded out: another glance showed that the craft was loaded rather
-heavily for its size with some wicker-baskets and a small cask and a
-sack which peeped out from beneath a big canvas covering, and of course
-to get in and row off, with all that cargo aboard, would make him like
-a thief, so the plan was impossible. While he was cogitating on this
-most difficult question he heard voices, and voices that he knew well,
-too. No less than those of Lady Chauncy and Wynkin, who seemed to be
-coming through the trees. Charles turned all gooseflesh with dismay.
-To make a run for it would, likely as not, land him right into her
-ladyship’s stiff brocade skirts. There was not a minute to think, and
-so he ran the other way down the bank faster than a rabbit, and hey
-presto! with one leap he was at the bottom of the boat, and, creeping
-under the canvas among the sacks.
-
-Feeling as if his heart was really in his mouth, he listened to what
-the lady and her serving-man were saying, and her ladyship, who spoke
-first, seemed in one of her pleasantest humors.
-
-“And so you are off, Wynkin,” said she; “well, the sooner the better
-perchance, for I believe there will be a storm before morning, and you
-have a long way to go, and your good father and mother are, I doubt
-not, wearying to give you a welcome. You must tell them that when
-his Highness hath been delivered safe back to his Majesty out of our
-charge, you will tarry with them a longer time. But now I shall look
-for you at midday to-morrow. Meantime I shall wait upon the Prince
-entirely myself, since my husband desires it. And so a good journey to
-you, and make my remembrances to your parents, and I trust they will
-have good enjoyment of the gallimaufries and the what-nots I beg their
-acceptance of, and that your mother will find the red cloak warm and a
-good fit. Is all well and securely packed in the boat, Wynkin?”
-
-“Yes, madam,” replied Wynkin, making a low bow to his mistress, though,
-of course, Charles was only able to imagine that. “I have placed the
-cloak and the fresh butter, and the new-laid eggs, and the manchets,
-all in their baskets between the sacks,” and, stepping into the punt,
-he loosed the rope from the tree, struck out into midstream, and away
-glided the punt to the music of the river ripples.
-
-[Illustration: “And so you are off, Wynkin; well, the sooner the better
-perchance, for I believe there will be a storm before morning.”]
-
-If Wynkin had only known what he was carrying away from the Manor House
-along with his sacks and what-nots, as my lady called them, he might
-have whistled other sort of tunes than the jolly ones he indulged in
-as he punted on, on, till twilight darkened into night, and Charles,
-cooped up between the sacks, could no longer discern hedges from
-banks through the peephole he could keep open for himself only with
-difficulty.
-
-All of a sudden, just as he heard the distant church clocks striking
-eight, a brilliant flash of lightning covered all he could see,
-followed by a crash of thunder, and then down upon the canvas covering
-pattered rain-drops as heavily as if they were crown pieces. For a
-short time the hurly-burly was so terrific that he almost, if not
-quite, wished himself back in the Cedar Room.
-
-Just as the hurricane began to calm a little, Wynkin punted towards the
-bank, which was now fringed by a row of pollard willows, and he shouted
-to a man who was standing under them, “Is it you, Dickon lad?”
-
-“Ay,” answered the man, as he lent a hand to the punt, while Wynkin
-jumped out of it. “A nice storm you be come in, brother Wynkin.”
-
-“Yes,” laughed Wynkin, “but ’tis giving over a bit now. Have you got
-the cart?”
-
-“Nay,” said Dickon; “old Dobbin’s so mortal afeard o’ lightning that I
-wouldn’t bring him out, and I’ve trundled down the garden wheel-barrer
-mysen, just to load with any small odds and ends you may have with you,
-and in the mornin’ we can come down and fetch the sacks, eh?”
-
-“Right,” said Wynkin, “and here you are—catch,” and, stretching his arm
-under the canvas without removing it, he drew out the neatly packed
-baskets of good things which Lady Chauncy had sent as presents to his
-parents. “Now then, help me to tow the punt up alongside under the
-trees, and then we’ll be starting, for I’m as wet through as a fish.”
-
-Then in a few minutes they had the punt safely tied up to the
-willow-stems, and away they went chatting cheerily as they trundled
-the barrow over the bank into the wet road beyond. For the first time
-Charles ventured to stir, creeping out from among the sacks as quickly
-as his cramped limbs permitted, into the body of the punt. He was
-chilled to the bone, and very hungry, and thought longingly of that
-roast beef he had despised so much some hours before, and he almost
-wished he had not left his doublet behind him. Fortunately, however, in
-groping along, he tumbled right down over something soft. It turned out
-to be the crimson frieze cloak, which in the darkness and in the hurry
-must have dropped out of the basket. How beautifully soft and warm and
-dry it felt! And with a cry of delight, Charles wrapped himself round
-in it from his head to his little ice-cold feet, and then, as luck
-would have it, out fell a manchet of the white bread, which must have
-caught in among the folds of the cloak, and without more ado Charles
-took a deep bite into it as he sat down in the bottom of the punt,
-huddled up warmly in the cloak. “And then I must be on the march,”
-he said to himself, cheered a little by the warmth and the food, but
-before he had swallowed three mouthfuls, his eyelids drooped heavily,
-his weary limbs slackened, and he was fast asleep.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-When he awoke, dawn was just breaking fair and rosy over the distant
-hills. He sprang to his feet in affright, quite unconscious for the
-moment where he was, but his wits soon came back to him, and he looked
-cautiously round across the still, shadowy, low-lying banks. He could
-now see that beyond the trees stretched a gorse-covered common, and
-between, alongside the stream, wound a road.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Drawing off the cloak, he placed it back under the canvas, though
-rather reluctantly, for the air was chilly. Then, having made short
-work of the morsel of the white bread he found in his fingers when he
-first opened his eyes, he mounted to the edge of the punt and sprang
-to the bank. Reaching the road, he walked on a little way, looking
-cautiously every step he took, but for a good mile he did not see
-a single human creature, though the birds were singing lustily and
-the bees and gnats were skimming and skipping in the sunshine, for
-the morning was lovely. But before long, however, the field and farm
-workers began to be about, and in spite of his best endeavors to dodge
-them by dropping in among the hedgerows and the gorse-clumps, he was
-forced to face some of them. They took little heed, however, of the
-little ragged boy, for ragged enough he was in his down-trodden and
-sodden shoes, and his fine white shirt and finest cloth gray breeches
-all gone to about the same mud color. With his dark locks and swarthy
-cheeks smudged with dirt and the juice of the blackberries he plucked
-and ate hungrily as he hastened on, the good folk, if they noticed him
-at all, took him for some gipsy boy. But his heart was beginning to
-grow as heavy as his limbs, which were so weary that he could hardly
-put one bruised and bleeding foot before the other. All his merry
-adventure-loving thoughts were fading fast, and in their place rose
-up the terrible fear that when he reached London the King, instead of
-being rejoiced to see him, might be displeased. It was just possible,
-and the more tired he got, the more possible somehow it seemed, till at
-last he became terrified, for when his father was angry, his frown made
-the hearts of even grown-up great lords quake. All at once he fancied
-he heard voices calling, and overwhelmed with terror and fatigue, he
-had just strength enough left to hobble away into the wood which now
-ran along the roadside, till he seemed quite hidden, and, huddling
-together into the hollow of an old oak-tree, he sank down, sobbing
-bitterly.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-MOLLY
-
-
-“What is the matter, itty boy? Why are you kying so?”
-
-And while the voice spoke soft and sweet as the coo of a dove, two
-little hands very gently, but firmly, clasped Charles’s hands, which
-were covering his face, and tried to draw them away.
-
-He looked up, and, rubbing the blinding tears from his eyes, he beheld
-a little girl about six years old. She was a very chubby-cheeked tot
-of a thing, with short golden curls running over her head, and half
-covering her eyes, that were looking at him with immense curiosity.
-
-“Are oo a blackamoor?” she asked, shrinking back a step as she saw his
-face.
-
-“No,” said Charles, bursting into a merry laugh, “but I expect I have
-rather a dirty face.”
-
-She nodded. “Blacker than oor hands even. But what was you kying for?”
-
-“Well,” said Charles, “for one thing I—well, I’m dreadfully hungry. I
-believe I could eat a horse.”
-
-“Do you?” said the child, with a glad light in her eyes as she opened
-a tiny satchel hanging on her plump arm, and taking from it a splendid
-prancing horse with a king crowned riding on his back, all made of
-gilt gingerbread. “I’s so glad—here’s a man on horseback from Banbury
-Fair—can you eat him too?”
-
-[Illustration: “Are oo a blackamoor?” she asked, shrinking back a step
-as she saw his face.]
-
-“Truly yes, and thank you, little maid,” laughed her new friend,
-taking the gingerbread from her tiny fingers. “Why, ’tis the King!
-Long life to his Majesty!” he added, as he bit the man’s head off, and
-seemed to enjoy it heartily. “What is your name, dear?” he went on,
-with his mouth full.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“What is oors?” said she, with a roguish twirl of her ripe red lips.
-
-“Charles.”
-
-“Ah, mine’s Molly—Molly Speedwell.”
-
-“And whose little girl are you?”
-
-“I’m the miller’s daughter of Oakside, and there’s my home,” she went
-on, pointing through the trees, and Charles discerned a red-roofed,
-white walled cottage standing in a garden. Hard by, upon a high turfy
-mound, was a mill, whose sails were whirling fast in the morning
-breeze. “And there’s the mill.”
-
-“Oh,” said Charles, much disconcerted, “well, good-bye, little girl.”
-
-“Don’t go,” pleaded the child, the tears brimming into her eyes.
-
-“Needs must—I’ve got to be in London as quickly as I can. I’m going to
-see the King—” He stopped short and clapped his hand upon his mouth.
-
-“Then you may as well save yourself the journey, youngster,” said a
-deep, manly voice behind him, with a laugh of amusement. “The King is
-hundreds of miles away from London. He started northward three days
-ago. And what, forsooth, can you be wanting of the King?”
-
-Charles turned dumb with confusion to see before him a man white as a
-ghost from top to toe with flour. It was the miller, and taking up in
-his arms the little girl, who ran to him delightedly, he went on, “What
-can a gipsy boy like you be wanting of the King?”
-
-“I am not a gipsy boy,” began Charles, “that is, I—I——”
-
-“Always tell the truth,” said the miller. “Have you run away—from your
-camp?” he added, when Charles did not answer. “Where is the camp?”
-
-“That’s just what I don’t know,” said Charles, who was thinking always
-of the soldiers’ camp, while the miller had, of course, the gipsies’
-camp in his mind, as he looked at the little ragged boy, whose face
-somehow pleased him, in spite of its grimy state.
-
-“I can’t find it, and—and—” and the tears broke forth afresh, “I don’t
-know what to do.”
-
-And then Molly began to cry bitterly, “Poor itty boy,” she sobbed.
-“He’s dot no home, daddy.”
-
-“H’m,” grunted the miller, “and a lazy loon anyhow he is, I’ll warrant.”
-
-“No, faith, that I’m not,” contradicted Charles, with a flash of
-indignation in his eyes.
-
-“Would you like to work, if you’d the chance?” said the miller, “at the
-mill here, for example?”
-
-“Try me,” said Charles, looking longingly at the sails as they twirled,
-dazzling as silver in the sunshine. Of all things in the world, next to
-a colonel, he thought he would like to be a miller, and have to do with
-those sails and great, fat sacks. “Only try me.”
-
-“Very well, I will for a week,” said the miller, “but, mind you, it
-isn’t play work. Come along. ’Tis a busy time, and I’ve no objections
-to an extra hand, if he’s a good, honest one.”
-
-Molly clapped her two little hands with delight, and trotted off
-indoors to tell her mother all that had happened. And in an hour there
-was a marvelous sight, for the blackamoor boy was turned into such a
-whitymoor sort of a figure that there was certainly less chance than
-ever of anyone recognizing him for the little runaway Prince of Wales.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-THE RED CLOAK AND THE BLUE ROSETTE
-
-
-Meanwhile there was dire dismay at the Manor House when Lady Chauncy
-entered the Cedar Room and found it empty. She could not for a long
-time bring herself to believe her own eyes, and when at last she was
-compelled to do so, she wrung her hands and behaved almost like a
-frenzied creature. Both she and her husband had believed the room to
-be the securest place in the house, since the walls were of stone all
-round. That that one square of stone had been cut out behind the panel
-with goddess Minerva on it, nobody, in fact, had known for more than a
-hundred years, when the Lord of the Manor House of that time perished
-fighting for the White Rose, and the secret of the moving panel had
-perished with him. That the young Prince could have got out by the
-window was too terrible to think of. It seemed impossible, moreover,
-for the lattice was barred, leaving but quite narrow spaces between.
-Nevertheless, Lady Chauncy caused the moat to be dragged, but happily,
-of course, to no purpose.
-
-It all seemed like some dreadful conjuring trick. Lady Chauncy did
-not know whether she was more glad or sorry that her husband had not
-returned. About a fortnight hence he was to be back, and the King
-with him, to fetch Charles away from the Manor House. Meanwhile she
-hesitated to send information to his Majesty of what had happened,
-because that would be spreading news which the Roundhead party against
-the King would take advantage of, and try to get the boy into their
-hands in order to drive a bargain with King Charles. Could it be they,
-she asked herself in her perplexity, who had spirited him away?
-
-This was the terrible state of things Wynkin found when next afternoon
-he returned to the Manor. He was the more troubled by the thought that
-Lady Chauncy might imagine him to have been untrue to his trust after
-so many years of faithful service.
-
-“But what do you advise, Wynkin?” said her ladyship, impatiently
-tapping the floor with the point of her silken slipper. “Do say
-something,” she added, as Wynkin maintained a thoughtful silence.
-
-“Well, then, speaking what I think,” replied Wynkin, “it is that I
-would advise your ladyship to get a good night’s rest.”
-
-“Rest, forsooth. What next?”
-
-“It is too late to be doing anything to-day.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“And meanwhile?” cried Lady Chauncy despairingly.
-
-“Meanwhile,” said Wynkin, “there is a good Providence over us all.”
-
-“Perhaps you are right,” said Lady Chauncy, as she rose and went to her
-sleeping-chamber, but not to sleep.
-
-When, however, the last light was out in the windows of the Manor
-House Wynkin let himself out by a little postern of the garden wall,
-and strolled onward by way of the bit of waste ground till he reached
-the edge of the thicket, walking to and fro under the trees by the dim
-light of the moon, cogitating deeply over a curious circumstance which
-he had decided not to inform his mistress of in too great haste, lest
-her hopes might be raised to no purpose. The one very certain fact was
-that when he and Dickon came that morning about six o’clock to unload
-the punt of the sacks, he had found the crimson frieze cloak on the top
-of them, all crumpled and mud soiled, and touched here and there with
-marks like tiny finger-marks. In some dim fashion it made Wynkin fancy
-that he began to see daylight. At all events, he suddenly saw the light
-of a lantern dodging about before him among the furze clumps—and as
-already more than a day had gone by since Charles was missing, and such
-news spreads like wildfire in spite of the utmost precaution, Wynkin
-was considerably disturbed at sight of the light, which glanced now
-and again on the figure of a person in a broad slouch-brimmed hat and
-shrouded in a long black cloak.
-
-“Hullo!” he called, “who goes there?”
-
-“Nobody,” replied a disagreeable squeaky sort of man’s voice. “Anyway,
-’tis no concern of yours.”
-
-“We’ll soon settle that question, Master Jack o’ Lantern,” said Wynkin,
-bounding down over the hillocks towards the figure. Not, however,
-before the man, dropping the lantern right into the middle of the gorse
-clump he was hovering over, was pelting off as quick as his heavy cloak
-would let him.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-In a minute Wynkin would have laid him by the heels, but suddenly up
-rose a tremendous flare, for the lantern had fallen open as it dropped
-and the light had caught the gorse, and the strange part of it all was
-that, as the bush broke into one huge flame, it fell disappearing into
-the ground, as if there was a deep hole beneath. Looking down, that was
-precisely what Wynkin beheld, a deep hole, bricked round, and in one
-side a half-open grated door.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Looking regretfully enough after the fast-disappearing figure of Master
-Jack o’ Lantern, Wynkin caught up the lantern and, setting it straight,
-he jumped into the hole, where the bush was already smouldering to
-nothing. He peered through the open grating, and the next moment he
-passed in. “Where are we, I wonder?” he said to himself, “and—hullo!
-what’s this?” he went on, as he nearly set foot on something that
-glittered in the lantern gleam, bright as a star.
-
-It was a blue ribbon rosette, tied with silver cord, of the exact
-pattern of the rosettes the little Prince was wearing on his shoes.
-It was all sodden and soiled now with the mud it lay in, and Wynkin
-picked it up as carefully as if it had been some little wounded bird,
-and placed it inside his vest next his heart, which beat fast with
-eager expectation. Then he hastened on, looking right and left all the
-way he went, threading the windings of the narrow passage, and up the
-twisting staircases, till at last he could go no farther because the
-wooden panel barred his progress. “Oh, ho!” again said he to himself,
-as he set his shoulder against the wood and pushed it with so much more
-force than it required that it flapped round before he could right
-himself, and he fell sprawling, lantern and all, along the floor.
-
-“By my faith!” he said, as he picked himself and the lantern up, and
-stood looking round while he rubbed his shoulder, “it is the Cedar
-Room!”
-
-And then more clearly than ever Wynkin began to see daylight, but all
-the same his face was very grave and anxious, for he was vexed with
-himself that he had not first given chase to Master Jack o’ Lantern, as
-he called him. “For what could he be wanting skulking round the place
-like that for? Ill news flies apace, and I doubt not the malcontents
-are aware already of the child’s escape. Well,” he added more
-cheerfully,
-
- “‘Hot boiled beans, and very good butter,
- Ladies and gentlemen, come to supper.’
-
-but for all the flare he made, he warn’t very warm, I fancy. The boy is
-not in hiding hereabouts, if that red cloak means anything.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-HONOR BRIGHT
-
-
-Ordinarily speaking, there is of course rarely much difficulty in
-tracking little truant boys or even girls. Prince Charles was not,
-however, a mere ordinary little boy. He was the King’s son, and the
-people, who were beginning to think of fighting against King Charles on
-account of displeasure with some of his ways of governing, would have
-been very glad to get the child into their power. They thought they
-would be able to make a better bargain with the King, who would agree
-sooner to what they demanded out of fear that, if he did not do so,
-they might harm the little boy. There were good and just Roundheads,
-as those discontented persons were called, who would not have lent
-their aid or approval to such miserable and mean ways of settling
-matters, and among the many of them was the miller of Oakside. He was
-a strict Roundhead, and if the quarrel came to a fight, he was quite
-determined that he would, if it was necessary, lay down his life for
-what he considered the right and good cause, against the King. Still
-he prayed and trusted that there would not be war in the kingdom, and
-the sorry sight of Englishmen fighting with Englishmen. It seemed too
-fearful, and he now went about his work with a very grave face, though,
-in a general way, he was neither sad nor sour-natured, but a brave,
-industrious, honest, cheery man.
-
-When Wynkin was admitted next morning to Lady Chauncy’s little
-sitting-room, he at once informed her of the past night’s adventures.
-She was very much astonished at his discovery in the Cedar Room. “’Tis
-certain,” she said, with almost a smile on her troubled face, “that,
-as my husband so often hath said, ‘A fortress is not stronger than
-its weakest part,’ which in this case appears, from what you tell me,
-Wynkin, to be Minerva’s nose. But who’d have thought it? and if your
-guess is correct about the red cloak, as I am persuaded it is, that is
-the direction in which this most naughty boy hath gone.”
-
-And ere many days passed, Wynkin’s guesses became certainties, for,
-after all, Oakside was only a very few miles from the village in which
-his father and mother lived, for all Charles fancied he had walked an
-immense long way that morning before he sat down and sobbed under the
-oak-tree. Had the matter been merely one of coming to Oakside, and
-fetching him away, the little runaway would soon have been back again
-at the Manor, but it was not. There were now spies, and a number of
-other evil-minded persons, loitering for many miles round, ready to
-attack any of the Royalist folk, as the King’s party were called, who
-should attempt to carry him away from Oakside. While he was under the
-miller’s roof or in his care, they did not dare to touch him, as the
-Miller himself was a powerful Roundhead, and one who was much trusted
-and very wise in his way.
-
-Meanwhile, the miller’s boy turned out a capital boy for such a small
-one. He was most diligent, rising with the lark, and so obliging and
-obedient, and, though sad sometimes, he was generally merry, singing
-at his work, and when the millwork was done, he would fetch in water
-from the well for Mistress Speedwell, and logs from the out-house for
-the great kitchen hearth-place, for the evenings were beginning to grow
-chilly, and he played cat’s cradle and spillikins with Molly, and cut
-out little men and women and cows and dogs from paper, to her boundless
-delight, and the miller, for all he was so silent, and even grim in
-his manner to him, was forced to yield him a good word when Mistress
-Speedwell would ask her husband if he did not consider that the shelter
-they had given the poor forlorn gipsy lad had returned as a blessing on
-themselves, for Mistress Speedwell did not know the truth, whatever her
-husband might know, or whatever he might suspect.
-
-The only fault Mistress Speedwell had to find with him was that, though
-he kept himself very neat and spruce in the linen jacket and breeches
-she made for him, he never could be persuaded to wash the flour off his
-face. The reason he gave for this was that millers were always white.
-It was the proper thing for them to be so.
-
-One evening she grew really angry about this, “Do you hear?” she said,
-“I insist on you washing your face. When you came, it was as black as a
-tinker’s, and then you had not been here a couple of hours before you
-got it all over flour. If you do not do as I bid you, I will take you
-and souse your head in the pail myself.”
-
-“Please——” began the boy.
-
-“Ah, please me no please,” she cried, turning to her husband; “will you
-not have the urchin obey me?”
-
-“You hear what you are bidden to do,” said the miller to the boy, but
-he spoke rather unwillingly. And Charles crept off, daring no longer to
-disobey.
-
-“Ah, now,” said Mistress Speedwell, when he returned with his brown
-cheeks shining like a warming-pan with the rubbing she had bidden him
-not to be sparing of, and a deep flush from brow to chin, “now we can
-look truth in the face,” and she was satisfied, and settled quietly to
-her wheel; and Molly, who had been sorely disheartened to hear her
-playmate scolded, smiled delightedly. She thought it was the nicest
-boy’s face she had ever seen; but the miller looked graver than ever,
-and only said “Umph!” as he glanced over some letters he had received
-that day, and then sat gazing in a very troubled manner into the fire.
-
-The next evening soon after dark a solemn-looking, plainly-attired
-gentleman rode up to the gate of the cottage and asked to see Master
-John Speedwell. He was shown into the best room, where he kept the
-miller talking for more than an hour, but the interview did not appear
-to have been very satisfactory to the visitor, who said to Speedwell,
-as he went away, “I trust that you will come to see the error of your
-resolve. And,” he went on, when the miller made no reply, “seeing that
-you are not rich——”
-
-“No, I am a poor man,” said the miller, “but I hope always to remain an
-honorable man, and I will give up the boy for no money price.”
-
-“Not even in the good cause?” scowled the stranger.
-
-“The cause would be no longer good were I to do this that you seek of
-me. So fare you well, sir, for by my honor, which I have always kept
-bright and fair, I will deliver the boy only into the hands to whom he
-belongs.”
-
-“Well,” said the stranger, in deeply-angered tones, “you know what to
-expect—I have warned you.”
-
-“And though my house be stormed, and you should be able to kidnap the
-boy—which I much doubt you shall succeed in doing—I abide by what I
-have said,” replied the miller.
-
-And so the stranger mounted his horse again, muttering and grumbling
-till he was gone out of sight.
-
-Then the miller returned to the kitchen, and sat down by the fire
-alone. The rest of the little household were all abed. He listened
-intently. For a long time there was no sound but the brisk night wind
-stirring round the house, but as the village church-clock struck
-eleven, there came a low tap on the lattice. The miller rose, and,
-drawing aside the curtain, said in a low tone as he opened the lattice,
-“Are you ready?”
-
-“Ay, ready,” replied the person who tapped, dropping the folds of the
-big cloak he was wearing from about his face, which was Wynkin’s.
-
-“’Tis well you are come to-night,” said the miller, “for my house is
-threatened. They might even storm it to-morrow and steal the Prince,
-for all my endeavor.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“I dared not venture till to-night,” said Wynkin, “but I know that this
-evening the coast is clear. They are all gone upon another scent.”
-
-“Come with me,” said the miller, and he led the way above stairs. “Have
-you a horse?”
-
-“Nay,” smiled Wynkin, “I have the punt; which is safer, since it is
-less suspected, and it is freighted with half a dozen stout men-at-arms
-under the canvas.”
-
-“Take your treasure,” said the miller, as he unlocked a door, and
-motioned Wynkin to approach the bed where the miller’s boy lay sleeping
-soundly after his day’s fetching and carrying, “if indeed, as I
-believe, it belong to your master.”
-
-“Ay, truly it is our lost one,” murmured Wynkin, as he lifted the
-sleeping child so gently in his arms that he did not stir, but seemed
-only to breathe the more restfully as the trusty serving-man wrapped
-his cloak close round him so that he could not be seen. “Heaven reward
-you, Master Speedwell,” and, turning down the stairway he sped out by
-the door, never stopping till he reached the punt held fast alongside
-by many hands that stretched from under the canvas covering. Then as
-the word was given, away, fast, on and on glided the punt, and sleeping
-the restful sleep of a tired child, the little Prince never stirred
-till far on towards morning just before the breaking of the dawn, by
-which time he lay in his own little carved bed in the Cedar Room shaded
-by its silken curtains, and then Charles was too drowsy to understand
-much.
-
-“Is that you, Wynkin?” he murmured, as at the sound of his voice the
-serving-man came beside him, while Lady Chauncy and Sir William, and
-a tall, dignified gentleman, who was the King, and had but that night
-arrived at the Manor, drew back, lest they might startle the boy. “Is
-it you, Wynkin, dear?”
-
-“Yes, your Highness.”
-
-“Ah! you don’t know what mighty strange dreams I’ve been dreaming. All
-about windmills, and little tots of girls, and then, oh, Wynkin, a
-terrible dark hole—so dark——”
-
-“Think of that now!” interrupted Wynkin. “Well, if I were you I’d wait
-and tell it all to-morrow.”
-
-“Yes, and then I heard my father’s voice. I wish that wasn’t all a
-dream, I can tell you.”
-
-“Well, I expect that will be coming true before many days—perhaps many
-hours—are over. But, go to sleep again now, won’t you?”
-
-“Yes. Is this the Cedar Room?”
-
-“Certainly. You like the Cedar Room, don’t you?”
-
-“Oh, yes. ’Tis well enough, but I don’t like the door of it to be
-locked.”
-
-“Oh, well, then we must talk to Lady Chauncy about it to-morrow,” said
-Wynkin, as he stole a sly glance at her ladyship, who smiled in her
-white prim frame of a cap. “It is a grave question, and will have to be
-considered.”
-
-“No, it will not,” said the Prince of Wales. “’Tis proper for my wishes
-to be obeyed.”
-
-“Well, if you promise not to run away, perhaps——”
-
-“Run away—I do not want to run away. I——”
-
-“You’d promise you wouldn’t?”
-
-“Certainly.”
-
-“On your honor?”
-
-“_Honor bright_,” murmured Charles as he fell asleep again.
-
- * * * * *
-
-[Illustration]
-
-It is hardly necessary to say that Charles kept his word. The favor
-he desired was granted him after he had been summoned next day to
-the presence of the King and of Sir William and Lady Chauncy in the
-dining-hall. Each of them in turn pointed out to him not only the
-terrible danger he had exposed himself to by running away out into the
-wide world, but also the misery and strife that had nearly come of
-it for everybody—not by any means least or last for good Master and
-Mistress Speedwell and the sweet little maid Molly, who had been so
-kind and pitying of his plight.
-
-After that Charles was permitted to leave the great shadowy hall,
-and since the King and Sir William considered that he must have
-suffered enough, and had shown himself brave as boys should be under
-difficulties and privations, no more was said about the matter by the
-King or by Sir William. Lady Chauncy, however, never wearied for a long
-time of lamenting that she could not “give him a good whipping as he
-deserved,” she said, “as much as any other naughty little boy,” and to
-escape that was one of the very few advantages Charles found in being
-the King’s eldest son, upon whom at that time it was not accounted
-lawful to lay whipping materials of any kind.
-
-Till a short time after, when his father took him to London with him,
-Charles had his freedom in the old house as far as his given word
-allowed it him. As to Wynkin, he remained Charles’s most trusty and
-well-beloved friend to the end of his long life.
-
-Molly grew up to be a brave yeoman’s wife, and of winter nights as she
-sat at her wheel and little, merry-faced, golden-haired, blue-eyed
-children, like once she herself had been, were gathered round her, she
-would relate the story of the gipsy boy who was now King of England.
-As for the miller, he lived long and peacefully, not mixing so much
-as of old in the affairs of the nation, but attending to the grinding
-of his corn, and listening with a contented mind to the music of the
-mill-sails, as they whirled in the wind.
-
- * * * * *
-
-[Transcriber’s note—the following changes have been made to this text:
-
-Page 23—it to if—“even if he dared”.]
-
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-<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Honor Bright, by Mary Catherine Rowsell</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
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-</div>
-
-<table style='min-width:0; padding:0; margin-left:0; border-collapse:collapse'>
- <tr><td>Title:</td><td>Honor Bright</td></tr>
- <tr><td></td><td>A Story of the Days of King Charles</td></tr>
-</table>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Mary Catherine Rowsell</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 23, 2021 [eBook #64615]</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</div>
-
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HONOR BRIGHT ***</div>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_1"></a><br /><a id="Page_2"></a></span></p>
-
-<h1>HONOR BRIGHT</h1>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp55" id="frontis" style="max-width: 26.5625em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/frontis.jpg" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="right">“With his dark locks and swarthy cheeks smudged
-with dirt, the good folks took him for
-some gipsy boy.”</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a></span></p>
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap xx-large">Honor Bright</span></p>
-
-<p class="center p4">A STORY OF THE DAYS OF KING CHARLES</p>
-
-
-<p class="center p4">BY<br />
-<span class="x-large">MARY C. ROWSELL</span></p>
-
-<hr class="small p4" />
-
-<p class="center">WITH TWENTY-THREE ILLUSTRATIONS</p>
-
-<hr class="small" />
-
-<p class="center p4">PHILADELPHIA<br />
-HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY
-</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp65" id="verso" style="max-width: 25em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/verso.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-
-<p class="center">Copyright, 1900, by HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY.</p>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5"></a>{5}</span></p>
-
-<div class="nobreak"><div class="figcenter illowp100" id="ip005" style="max-width: 28.125em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_005.jpg" alt="Honor Bright by Mary C. Rowsell" />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I<br />
-<br />
-THE CEDAR ROOM</h2></div>
-
-
-<p><span class="smcap">One</span> fine autumn morning a long
-time ago, a little boy lay
-stretched in the broad seat of a latticed window, gazing earnestly
-with his great dark eyes on the scene before him. The window was
-the only one in the room, which was situated high up in a sort of
-tower at the corner of a big old house.</p>
-
-<p>The beautiful garden surrounding the house was laid out in
-long terrace walks, with wide stone steps and balustrades, and
-planted with smooth-shaven yew-hedges as thick and almost as
-sturdy as walls, and the flower-beds carpeting the ground were
-ablaze with glorious colors in the shadowless sunshine, for the great
-bell in its wooden cote above the square red-brick gate-house was
-ringing out midday. Bounding the garden on every side were
-lofty walls, covered with the spreading branches of plum and pear
-and apple trees, and the rich fruit gleamed red and tawny and purple,
-bright as gems among the green leaves. Away beyond the garden,
-far as eye could reach, stretched wood and dale and fair green
-meadows, where the sheep cropped at the sweet turf and the cows<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a>{6}</span>
-grazed, whisking away the tiresome flies with their great tails as
-they moved slowly along. Here and there among the leafy hedgerows
-and coppices, the little boy, whose Christian name was Charles,
-could see from his lofty watch-place the gleaming of a stream
-which wound like a silver ribbon on and on, nearer and nearer,
-till it reached the little wood covering the wide, sloping banks which
-shut in the road leading past the house. There for some distance
-it was almost completely lost in the ferny brushwood, peeping out
-again at last in a rush-grown pool. Thence hurrying onward, it
-wound right round the walls of the house, so that to reach the
-great nail-studded main door you had to cross a little one-arched
-stone bridge.</p>
-
-<p>Faster and faster, as he gazed upon this fair scene, the tears
-brimmed up into the little lad’s eyes, until they rolled down his
-cheeks—cheeks not very rosy or chubby, like those of most boys
-and girls of eight or nine years old, which was the age of this boy,
-but of a clear, naturally healthful brown, although just now they
-looked a little wan. His hair was also dark, and fell in thick curly
-locks upon the broad collar of Flemish lace covering his shoulders
-to the top of the sleeves of his dark-green velvet surcoat. His face
-was rather handsome, and, although there was an expression of self-will
-about his lips, it was mingled with great good-humor, as if he
-had a kind, generous nature, and might look merry enough when
-there was anything to be merry about.</p>
-
-<p>That, however, he at present considered as being very far
-from the case; and at last his silent weeping broke out into
-loud sobs, which grew only the louder the more he strove to
-stifle them. They could be heard such a long way off that
-they reached the ears of Lady Chauncy, the mistress of the house,
-who was sitting at her needlework in her private room on the
-floor below. She rose with a little impatient frown at being
-thus disturbed, and taking from a side-table a small gilt cage,
-which contained a fine blackbird or merle, as blackbirds were then
-called, and carrying it with her, went up the stairs to the room
-where the boy was.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>{7}</span></p>
-
-<p>First removing a stout wooden bar from across the door, she
-lifted a bunch of big keys, hanging from her girdle, and, selecting
-one of the keys, put it in the lock of the door, turned it, and entered
-the room.</p>
-
-<p>“What is the matter?” she said, as she carefully locked the
-door behind her, and advanced a few steps into the room. She
-was an oldish lady, with a yellowish wrinkled face framed tightly
-in with a cap of fine linen in such a fashion that, if she had
-any hair, none of it was to be seen. Her eyes were light green-gray,
-and gleamed sternly, but not unkindly, under their thick
-grizzled brows upon the boy, as at sight of her he slid down
-from his corner, and went and sat in a large high-backed armchair.
-He brushed away the tears from his eyes, but he made no answer,
-and the lady had to repeat her question.</p>
-
-<p>“What are you crying about? Are you ill?” she went on.
-“Have you a headache, or a toothache—or any ache?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, madam, not the merest finger-ache,” replied the little
-lad, with almost a smile. “There is nothing—nothing at all amiss
-with me,” and then, in spite of his grand words, a last lingering
-sob broke up his speech. “I am only—only——”</p>
-
-<p>“Only hungry—is that it?” she said, with a relieved look.
-“Well, eating is the best cure for that, and your favorite dinner
-will be here directly——roast beef; so dry your eyes.”</p>
-
-<p>The boy’s face did not, however, grow much brighter, and Lady
-Chauncy began to knit her stern brow again. “Come, come, your
-Highness is hard to please to-day,” she went on; “what is amiss
-with you to be so naughty and discontented? Pray what can you
-lack? Where are your draughts, and your beautiful new horn-book,
-and your brave new troop-horse which his Majesty brought
-all the way from Cheapside in his own coach for you? You
-ought to be happy as the day is long, with everything dainty and
-to your taste to eat, and a soft bed, and the blue sky and the fair
-scene to look at from this casement. What, tears again?” for
-at these last words of Lady Chauncy’s the boy’s breath quivered
-very much as if the sobs were going to burst out afresh. “Nay,”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>{8}</span>
-she went on, “I’ll warrant they will dry up fast enough when
-you see what I have here for you,” and, pulling off the cover of
-the gilt cage, she placed it on the table. “William the gardener
-caught this pretty bird to-day, and I have put it in this fine cage
-and bring it you for a present. What do you say?”</p>
-
-<p>The boy did not reply. He only looked hard at the captive
-bird, and still the tears seemed swelling in his throat. “It is a
-brave bird,” he said softly at last.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, I am glad you are pleased with it,” said Lady
-Chauncy, “but I must be going now—and hark,” for at this moment
-there came a loud tap at the door, “there is Wynkin come with
-your dinner,” and she turned and unlocked the door for a serving-man
-who entered with a silver tray laden with plates and dishes,
-and, entrusting him with the key of the door, she went out, closing
-it carefully behind her.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile the servant spread the snowy damask cloth on
-the carved oak table and arranged the dishes, and having helped
-the boy from the joint of roast beef, and poured out a goblet full
-of clear golden cider from a silver flagon, he took up a place
-behind Charles’s tall-backed chair, looking in a concerned, half-scared
-sort of manner at the boy when, after a few mouthfuls, he pushed
-aside the plate.</p>
-
-<p>“Take it away,” he said.</p>
-
-<p>“But your Highness has hardly eaten anything,” said Wynkin.</p>
-
-<p>“No,” said Charles, “I can’t eat any more in this stifling cupboard
-of a place. Could you now, Wynkin?”</p>
-
-<p>Wynkin grinned. “I think I could,” he said, “if——”</p>
-
-<p>“If what?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, if it was roast beef.”</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t you have roast beef for dinner of a day?”</p>
-
-<p>“Only on Sundays, your Highness. Week-days we have
-mostly porridge for dinner, or, for a treat now and again, a sop in
-the pan of barley-bread.”</p>
-
-<p>“And what do you have for pudding?” inquired the Prince,
-as Wynkin removed the thrust-aside plate and placed a dish of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a><a id="Page_10"></a>{10}</span>
-quince tarts on the table all heaped up with whisked cream stuck
-over with sugar-plums; “sweets, you know.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp54" id="ip009" style="max-width: 26.5625em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_009.jpg" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="right">“At the sight of her he slid down from his
-corner and went and sat in a large
-high arm-chair.”</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>“Oh, we don’t have them at all, except at Christmas, which
-comes but once a year, worse luck. A little sour buttermilk sometimes
-perhaps, but sweet things, bless your heart, no.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes, you do,” said Charles, with a merry twinkle in his
-eye; “you have the sweetest thing of all—liberty.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, yes, that is true,” admitted Wynkin, gazing down sorrowfully
-at the boy.</p>
-
-<p>“And I wish I were you, Wynkin,” went on Charles, all the
-clouds darkening his face again. “It’s dreadful to be a King’s son,
-I can tell you; and treated as if I’d done something wrong, and I
-haven’t—I haven’t.”</p>
-
-<p>“No, of course not,” said Wynkin, in consoling tones. “It
-isn’t possible, for the King can do no wrong, I’ve always heard say.
-Every idiot knows that, and it isn’t likely his son can, particularly
-his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, like you are.”</p>
-
-<p>“I never thought of that,” said Charles, with a meditative air,
-as he lifted all the whipped cream with his spoon from his tart and
-swallowed it at a gulp. “I may do whatever I please and it won’t
-be wrong. But there, that’s just it—I can’t do what I please.
-How can I? I want to run and jump and bathe out in that
-splendid pool there, and climb up those great tall fellows of trees
-and—and—do all the things other boys do—for I’m not a baby
-now—I’m turned nine—and it’s a shame, keeping me cooped up in
-this mousetrap of a room. Oh, you know it is, Wynkin, and you
-might say so, if you had a kind heart, but you haven’t—you are hard-hearted
-and cruel, like the lords.”</p>
-
-<p>“But they have to be cruel to be kind,” contended Wynkin.
-“The King’s Majesty, God preserve him, has so many enemies—so
-many who hate him.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, I know, so ’tis said,” replied the boy, “and ’tis all very
-well, Wynkin, but I can’t believe it. My father is so gentle and
-kind. If ’tis true, ’tis because they don’t know him.”</p>
-
-<p>“That may be so, your Highness. And ’tis just the business<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>{11}</span>
-of many of those who call themselves his Majesty’s friends to hinder
-him from being known as—as you know him. And you see, there
-are bad men about of all sorts and sizes and parties, who want to
-get you away from him.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp79" id="ip011" style="max-width: 28.125em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_011.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>“I’d be torn in pieces first,” said the child, his dark face
-flushing.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes,” said Wynkin, “that’s about what it would be. I’m
-not certain but I think now there’s a price set upon your head.”</p>
-
-<p>“What’s the good of it to anybody?” laughed Charles.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, there mayn’t, of course, be anything in it?”</p>
-
-<p>“Inside my head?” laughed Charles still more merrily.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>{12}</span></p>
-
-<p>“In the talk, your Highness.”</p>
-
-<p>“That is as it may be,” said Charles, “but there is more than
-one idea inside my head, and the biggest is that I’m not afraid of
-these evil persons; and the next is that if I can only get out of this
-badger-hole of a room, I’ll let them know I’m not—and I’ll protect
-my father from—where is my father just now, Wynkin?”</p>
-
-<p>“He was in London a few days since.”</p>
-
-<p>“Is mother with him?”</p>
-
-<p>“Nay, I think she has gone to France, to fetch soldiers to
-come over and fight for the royal cause.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, that is all right, and when they come—now, Wynkin, look
-here—I intend to go to my father and fight by his side. Oh, I
-tell you I can—see,” and, seizing his little wooden toy sword, he
-tipped his left fingers over his head and thrust out the weapon
-with such a valiant air that Wynkin laughed heartily and said he
-had never seen a finer copper captain.</p>
-
-<p>“Nay, copper captain forsooth,” said Charles, flinging away
-the sword, and seizing the long white stick which Wynkin carried as
-his staff of office when waiting on the Prince. “I’ll show you
-I’m no copper captain,” and he began to lunge about with it so
-lustily that at last he gave Wynkin a sharp poke in the eye.
-“Oh, dear,” cried the boy, throwing down the stick; and, springing
-into the serving-man’s arms, he clung round his neck and stroked
-his damaged eye. “I’m so sorry, Wynkin. It doesn’t hurt much,
-does it—though it is going all red and black?”</p>
-
-<p>“Nothing to talk about,” said Wynkin, “but you can cut and
-thrust with the best of ’em. Feeling’s believing.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes,” said Charles proudly.</p>
-
-<p>“A regular don at it you are,” went on Wynkin, as he began
-to pile the dinner things together for taking away, “but I must
-be going now.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, don’t go,” pleaded the lonely boy.</p>
-
-<p>“Needs must. I’ve got to be going up-stream with some corn
-sacks, and the last harvest load’s being carried to-day, and all
-hands are turned on.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>{13}</span></p>
-
-<p>“Except mine,” sighed the Prince, gazing down sadly at his
-little slender white hands. “It’s hateful. Now, Wynkin,” he went
-on, turning suddenly with a commanding air upon the serving-man,
-“listen to me. Give me that key immediately,” and he
-pointed to the key which Lady Chauncy had entrusted to Wynkin,
-and which the man had thrust into the breast of his jerkin in such
-a manner that the handle peeped out. “I want it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, do you?” said Wynkin, most respectfully.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, and you must give it me immediately.”</p>
-
-<p>“Faith, not I, your Highness. You’ll be trying to unlock the
-door with it the next thing,” grinned Wynkin.</p>
-
-<p>“Certainly,” replied Charles majestically. “That is the purpose
-for which I require it.”</p>
-
-<p>Wynkin’s broad smile grew broader than ever. “What next,
-I should like to know,” said he.</p>
-
-<p>“That is a matter that does not concern you,” replied the
-Prince; “your manner is very disloyal. If you must know, I want
-to get out.”</p>
-
-<p>“Which is precisely what his Majesty has forbidden my lord
-and my lady to allow you to do,” rejoined Wynkin, “and they
-have given him their word of honor and solemn promise that
-you shall not get out, and it’s because I have always been trusted
-by my lord and my lady to abide by my word, and have never
-broken faith to them, that they allow me to wait upon your
-Highness,” and Wynkin took a long breath, for he was not used
-to making such lengthy speeches. “Honor bright, you know,”
-concluded he.</p>
-
-<p>The young Prince made no reply. For a long time he stood
-looking Wynkin full in the face with thoughtful-looking eyes, and
-Wynkin returned the gaze, but whether his damaged eye hurt him,
-or somehow a tearful choking kind of feeling in his throat troubled
-him, it is certain that he turned away, and hurriedly gathering
-the dinner things together on his tray, he went out, carefully
-locking and barring up the door behind him.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>{14}</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp47" id="ip014" style="max-width: 20.3125em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_014.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II
-<br />
-<br />
-MINERVA’S NOSE</h2></div>
-
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Charles</span> stood listening
-to Wynkin’s departing
-footsteps down the
-oaken staircase till the last
-echo of them died out. Even
-then perhaps he would not
-have stirred, had it not been
-for the merle, who suddenly
-piped a plaintive note or
-two in his cage, which
-Wynkin had hung upon a
-handy nail near the window.</p>
-
-<p>“Ah,” cried Charles,
-turning quickly to the bird,
-“I forgot all about you.”</p>
-
-<p>The merle looked at
-him with his bright eyes,
-in which there seemed to
-the boy to be a sorrowful pleading expression.</p>
-
-<p>“What is the matter, birdie, old fellow?” said Charles. “Are
-you hungry? No; they would never have neglected to give you
-seed and water, I am sure.”</p>
-
-<p>And there, as he looked to ascertain, he found not only seed
-and water to the very brim of the pannikins, but also, stuck between
-the bars, a big piece of watercress, while at the bottom of the cage
-was a large worm wriggling about. Nothing, in fact, was wanting
-to the convenience and content of the tenant of the cage—in the
-way, that is, of creature comforts—but his wings drooped forlornly,
-and he looked very unhappy, nevertheless.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>{15}</span></p>
-
-<p>“Ah,” said the Prince, as he clambered on to the high window-seat,
-and took down the cage, “I like you very much, you dear
-little fellow; and I should like to keep you, for I am very lonely,
-and you are most sweet company, and it is a very fine cage, isn’t
-it? But you are breaking your merry heart in it, I am positive
-you are, and you shall get out. Her ladyship may not approve;
-she may even whip me for it, though I believe she mustn’t do
-that, much as her fingers often itch for it, but I’m going to let you
-go,” and so saying, he unfastened the door of the cage, and set the
-entrance against the open lattice. “There, go,” he went on, as for
-an instant the bird perked his shiny head on one side, as if he
-was listening intently to all Charles was saying to him, “fly away,
-dear bird, and joy go with you, for outside you will find it again.”</p>
-
-<p>And then with a flap of his wings, away flew the merle,
-straight across the moat into mid-air, till he reached the bough of a
-high elm not far off. There he settled, and opening his yellow
-beak, he set up such a joyous song as never was heard—anyway,
-inside a cage.</p>
-
-<p>“I expect,” said Charles, looking into the cage again, and
-poking the watercress stalk under the body of the worm, “that you
-would rather wriggle down there among the flowers than in that
-miserable sprinkling of sand,” and with that he flung the worm far
-across the moat on to the grassy bank below. “Of course, if Master
-Merle catches you again, you must settle the matter between you,
-and it is certain he will be picking up an appetite again now, and
-it will be ‘catch as catch can.’”</p>
-
-<p>Then, putting the toe of his little silver-and-blue rosetted shoes
-to the cage, he sent it flying to the other side of the room. That
-done, he dropped wearily down again in the great tall velvet chair,
-and lolled back, a very picture of misery and discontent.</p>
-
-<p>“Who’d imagine,” he muttered to himself, “that it was such a
-horrid thing to be a Prince? I wonder if all Princes are so
-wretched, or whether it is only Princes of Wales, like me?” Then
-he yawned and lay with his eyes wandering listlessly round the
-room, watching the rays of the afternoon sun as they poured in<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>{16}</span>
-at the lattice. The air felt stifling, for it was a small room,
-considering, that is, that the house was such a large one; but
-great mansions in those golden days, when Charles the First was
-King, contained rooms of all sizes as well as all shapes. Rooms
-were not merely four square walls, as mostly they are now, but
-built as it might be into all sorts of passages and corridors and
-staircase landings, now with a step or two up, now with a step
-or two down. One reason for this was that, as time went on,
-the owners of these big houses would add on a piece here, a
-wing there, and the level of the old floors and the new floors
-would not always exactly lie together, but it made the houses
-much more amusing and snug to live in.</p>
-
-<p>Such a queer hole-and-corner chamber was the old Cedar
-Room, as it was called, in which little Charles Stuart, King
-Charles the First’s eldest son, had been shut up for three weeks
-past. The King himself, with his Court, had been in London,
-but the Roundheads, who were the King’s discontented subjects,
-and the Royalists, who were faithful to him, were glowing into
-a red heat of rage with each other. It was no longer safe
-for the little boy to be in London, and so the King had entrusted
-him to the care of one of his most devoted friends and
-counselors, who took him away at dead of night from London
-to his home in Warwickshire, and nobody—not even the other
-Royalists—was certain where the child was. Many thought that he
-had been carried across the sea to France. It was not of much use
-telling the boy that he had been taken away from his father and
-mother for his good. The poor little lad was not old enough to
-understand how this could be, and so he was very unhappy, and
-he detested with all his might that old Cedar Room, and all that
-was in it, though it was considered a vastly fine room, and a very
-curious one. That, indeed, was one reason why Lady Chauncy, who,
-for all her prim manner, was a most kind, motherly person, had
-persuaded her husband to lodge the young Prince in it, “for besides
-being so high up and remote,” said she, “the mannikins will
-be huge and endless amusement for him, and make the time pass<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a><a id="Page_18"></a>{18}</span>
-more quickly till there is an end to all this pother, and the child
-can get about again.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp54" id="ip017" style="max-width: 26.5625em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_017.jpg" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="right">“When that sun-ray tips it with red, I’ll see
-if I can’t hit it. I’ve hit a better
-mark before now.”</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Now, the mannikins, as her ladyship called them, were the little
-figures carved on the panels of the walls all around the Cedar Room,
-which was of a rather lop-sided shape, neither square nor oblong, but a
-little of all three fitted into the uppermost part of an angle of the
-mansion which jutted far over the moat. These panels were very
-old, at least two hundred years, and the room was as ancient, but
-its walls were as stout and sturdy as on the day they were made.
-The panels were of Flemish carving, and they represented the gods
-and goddesses of heathen mythology. There was Jupiter hurling
-lightning from his throne, Juno with her peacocks, Vulcan hammering
-away on his anvil, and Minerva sitting up very majestically in her
-helmet and coat of mail, holding her shield. The faces, however,
-of these far-famed personages were far from being like what Charles
-had always imagined of them when his father had related tales
-about them to him, as often he had done. According to this description
-of them, which sometimes the King would read out loud to
-him from the poetry-history of Homer, they were beautiful, even
-glorious, to look upon, but these mannikins were as ugly and clumsy
-almost as if they were made of gilt gingerbread. They were pretty
-well as broad as they were long, dressed in jerkins, or muffled in
-cloaks and full skirts, and their faces were almost all nose, that is
-to say, where they had any at all, for many of the noses had stuck
-out so far that they had got chipped off or worn flat. Why the
-carver of all these gentry had made such a point of their noses
-puzzled Charles, who for the first few days of his living in the Cedar
-Room was certainly immensely amused with this silent, droll
-company; but after a while he got cross with their dull faces.</p>
-
-<p>“If they were real,” he said one day to Wynkin, “what blockheads
-they would be!”</p>
-
-<p>“And blockheads they are now,” had been Wynkin’s reply.</p>
-
-<p>And if there was one of the wooden folk Charles found
-more irritating than another, it was Madam Minerva. She sat up
-so prim and cross-looking and her nose poking out from under her<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>{19}</span>
-helmet, bigger even than that of great Jove himself; or so it seemed
-to Charles, as he lay listlessly watching the afternoon sun-rays
-pouring in at the lattice, and listening half glad, half sad to the
-piping of the happy merle in the elm-tree, and the voices of the
-harvesters far down below in the fields.</p>
-
-<p>How he longed to be with them and watch the loading of
-those last sheaves into the big carts, and how stiflingly hot the
-Cedar Room was, and how particularly forbidding and disagreeable
-goddess Minerva there looked, and how uncomfortable and heavy
-must be that scale armor of hers, and that shield, and the helmet,
-not to speak of such a nose. Ah! And, stretching out his hand
-over the arm of the chair, Charles picked up his toy bow, which
-lay with his own gilt pasteboard cuirass and tin helmet and wooden
-broadsword and other weapons on the floor, and setting the bow
-with a bolt, he sat waiting. “Yes,” he murmured, with a wag of his
-head, and setting his lips tight, “I won’t put up with her any
-longer, her and her nose. And when that sun-ray
-tips it with red, as in a minute or two it
-will, I—I’ll see if I can’t hit it. I’ve hit a
-better mark before now.” Then he waited and
-watched, and the crimson gleams crept
-on and on across the carved panels,
-and—whizz! went the string, snapping
-right back across Charles’s own nose
-so sharply that it stung him and he
-shut his eyes for a minute. When he
-opened them he beheld a strange and
-most unexpected
-sight.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="ip019" style="max-width: 21.875em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_019.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>{20}</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III
-<br />
-<br />
-THE DARK PASSAGE</h2></div>
-
-
-<p><span class="smcap">The</span> panel was turning round! slowly, but most surely turning
-round, much in the way that a turnstile moves, as if on a
-pivot or pin running from top to bottom of the wood.</p>
-
-<p>Charles could hardly believe his eyes, which, indeed, after that
-stinger from the bowstring, were for a minute or two not so trustworthy
-as usual. He very soon, however, saw clearly enough that
-the panel really was open, and now stood half-way inside the room,
-half-way outside in the shadowy space beyond.</p>
-
-<p>So amazed was he that for a short time he could not stir hand
-or foot, and only stood staring at the panel. But if he had never
-seen such a thing before, it was no great marvel, for not many
-people had done so. He had not only heard of, but seen, panels
-that lifted above into the walls, window-sash fashion, and panels
-that slid back sideways into grooves, and in the hope that such
-panels might be found in that room, he had spent hours in pushing
-and shoving and poking about the edges and frameworks of the
-carvings till his little fingers ached again. Then a hundred times he
-had cried, “Open, Sesame!” as Ali Baba did, but nothing had come
-of it. Yet now, here, in the most unexpected manner it had happened,
-and accordingly, like people in general, big or little, when on those
-rare occasions that which their heart most longs for comes to pass,
-he stood as if he was dazed and unable to believe it true. He soon,
-however, found his wits again, and slipping down from the chair, he
-crossed the floor and peeped into the dark space, though gingerly
-enough, lest the panel should think proper to snap to, and treat his
-nose as badly as he had treated poor Minerva’s.</p>
-
-<p>Then he carefully examined the condition of that good lady,
-and found her to be not at all herself as he had hitherto had the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21"></a>{21}</span>
-pleasure of her acquaintance. To
-be sure she sat bolt upright as
-ever, as far as her shoulders, but
-her head hung down now all dingle-dangle.
-Was her neck broken?
-No; it was not as bad as that, it
-was dislocated, and hung wobbling
-by a sort of metal hinge to which
-there seemed some wires and a
-steel spring attached.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp44" id="ip021" style="max-width: 17.1875em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_021.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Well, certainly, thought Charles,
-as he looked, those Flemish craftsmen
-must have been very clever
-fellows. He did not however
-stop to think much about anything,
-for the belfry over his head began
-to sound with a terrific clangor
-as he stood in the opening. Five
-o’clock, and at five his supper was
-always brought him, and after that
-he had to go to bed. There was
-not a moment to lose, and, after a very brief consideration he stepped
-back into the room, and took off his doublet, putting it in a corner
-of the window-seat. Being such sultry weather all he wore under
-the doublet was the little shirt of fine cambric; then—but hark!
-voices! Why, bless your heart, yes, the merle’s voice, and the harvesters
-all rejoicing in the soft cool air which the waning day had
-brought. Quite a little breeze, in fact, as it came rustling and
-ruffling up from below to where Charles stood in the queer dark
-nook outside the panel; but his eyes were growing accustomed to
-the darkness now, and he could see that he was standing on the
-top of a staircase which wound down and down out of sight. There
-was one thing he had forgotten, in all his excitement, and a thing
-of the utmost importance too. His sword. He would not encumber
-himself with his armor or other weapons, but as a soldier and a<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>{22}</span>
-gentleman his short sword he must have; and he went back again
-and, picking it up from the floor, he stuck it into his belt, for he
-needed both hands free. Then slipping out once more upon the
-shelf of a landing, for it was no more, he drew the panel to. Had
-he been able to see then on its other side, he would have seen
-Minerva’s helmeted head pop up and settle itself all right and tight
-on her shoulders, as if nothing had happened, but by that time he
-was at the bottom of the staircase. It did not reach beyond a
-turn or two, and ended in a long always-downward-winding passage
-barely three feet wide and hardly higher.</p>
-
-<p>Through this scudded Charles as well as he could, like a rabbit
-in a burrow, always down and down, and twisting and turning,
-guided by the glimmering of daylight which entered by little holes
-pierced at few-and-far-between distances in the thick stone wall on
-his left hand. Still on and on he went the downward way, till
-at last the air began to turn from cool to clammy, damp, and cold,
-and he stood still to listen, for there came a sound through the
-deadly silence. It was the trickling of water, and he guessed he
-must be close upon the moat.</p>
-
-<p>The next moment he found his right hand was touching cold
-moss-covered stone instead of dry wood as hitherto. His heart
-fluttered like the wings of a bird, but he stepped on, feeling every
-inch of the way. In this manner he descended several stone steps
-that were slippery with ooze and felt jagged and crumbling under
-his feet. At the bottom of the steps he found himself standing
-on smooth and level ground, and, pausing to take breath, he listened
-again. The water was over his head, he could hear it gurgling
-slowly and solemnly on, and all round him was pitchy darkness,
-but far on straight ahead he saw, or fancied he saw, a gleam of
-reddish light.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp56" id="ip023" style="max-width: 23.4375em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_023.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Plucking heart of grace, he moved on again, and soon the fancy
-became a certainty. It was the light of the sun now nearing the
-end of his course, and it was piercing the bars of a grating. From
-fluttering, Charles’s heart now stood still, for a great dismay seized
-him. What if that grating closed in the passage? Why, then, since<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>{23}</span>
-he had noticed that there was no handle or mark of any kind at
-the back of the panel in the Cedar Room, he would not be able to
-open it, even if he dared to go back, and so he would be caught
-like a rat in a trap! It wanted some courage to go on and make
-certain, and only after a second or two he found it, and, groping his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>{24}</span>
-way on, reached the grating, to find that it was as he had thought
-so possible. The grating was just high and wide enough to allow
-of a person getting out of it. It stood on the top of a steep narrow
-flight of stone steps, and as Charles mounted these, the afternoon
-sunlight broke upon it from the outside, and he saw that it was chained
-and padlocked; but as he took hold of the padlock, it fell to pieces
-in his hand, all eaten through and through with rust. Then he saw
-that the links of the chain were equally useless, and as he gave the
-grating a push they all rattled and fell helplessly to the ground.</p>
-
-<p>For a moment more the gate stuck hard, but with another
-tremendous push of Charles’s shoulder, it yielded with a screech,
-and swung back as far as a heap of mud and rotten leaves allowed
-it to go, and this was far enough to allow of Charles’s slender little
-body squeezing through.</p>
-
-<p>When he got outside, he found himself—where? Ah! that was
-the puzzle of it. That he was beyond the moat of course he knew,
-but was he beyond the garden walls? If he was not—but he
-was, a good way beyond, right out in the fields; for though he was
-cooped up in a round sort of a bricked-in place like a well, and could
-see nothing but a close tangle of gorse and bramble overhead, he
-could hear the voices of the country folk, the neighing of horses,
-and the creaking of wagon-wheels hard by. And all at once as he
-listened the voices broke out in a loud cheery chorus. “Harvest
-Home,” sang the men, women, and children, while dogs barked, and
-the birds sang louder than ever:—</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent14">“Harvest Home!”</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Merrily sing we all, “Harvest Home!”</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>And Charles knew that he was free.</p>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>{25}</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV
-<br />
-<br />
-A NIGHT JOURNEY</h2></div>
-
-
-<p><span class="smcap">As</span> the wagon-wheels creaked nearer and nearer, and the singing
-of the merry-makers came past him, Charles had all the
-work in the world to keep himself from leaping up out of the hole
-to join them, they seemed so happy. He himself did not feel anything
-like so happy as he had expected. He could not have laughed
-in that light-hearted way as the children did, chasing each other
-in and out of the gorse-bushes so near the edge of the hole that
-he could have caught them by the ankles as they ran.</p>
-
-<p>At last all had passed by, and the only sound to be heard was
-the distant rumbling of the heavy-laden wagon-wheels down the hilly
-lane, or could it be the roll of distant thunder? for as he peeped
-over the edges of the hole he saw that the sun was setting in a
-bank of nearly black clouds. When he thought, that he was quite
-safe from being seen he scrambled up to the top of the hole,
-and a strange sight he looked, for his velvet breeches and his shirt
-and his face and hands were all one grimy drab color with the
-cobwebby dust and dirt he had gone through. Really, if anybody
-had spied him, there would have been no small difficulty in recognizing
-the little Prince who always went so richly and tastefully
-attired. No one, however, saw him as, taking one sharp look round,
-he sped like a lapwing with bent head through the thick tall furze-bushes
-covering the waste ground to the edges of the thicket beyond.
-At the other side of the thicket ran the bright stream whose course
-he intended to follow, as he knew that some miles ahead it joined
-the river Thames.</p>
-
-<p>There, at the bottom of the broad steep-sloping bank he soon
-reached, lay a largish boat tied by a rope to the stem of an elm-tree.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>{26}</span>
-Charles’s heart leapt within him: that was just the thing he
-wanted. Surely some kind woodland fairy must have placed it there,
-as fairies do in story-books, for his convenience. The next minute
-his delight faded out: another glance showed that the craft was
-loaded rather heavily for its size with some wicker-baskets and a
-small cask and a sack which peeped out from beneath a big
-canvas covering, and of course to get in and row off, with all that
-cargo aboard, would make him like a thief, so the plan was
-impossible. While he was cogitating on this most difficult question
-he heard voices, and voices that he knew well, too. No less than
-those of Lady Chauncy and Wynkin, who seemed to be coming
-through the trees. Charles turned all gooseflesh with dismay. To
-make a run for it would, likely as not, land him right into her ladyship’s
-stiff brocade skirts. There was not a minute to think, and
-so he ran the other way down the bank faster than a rabbit, and
-hey presto! with one leap he was at the bottom of the boat, and,
-creeping under the canvas among the sacks.</p>
-
-<p>Feeling as if his heart was really in his mouth, he listened to
-what the lady and her serving-man were saying, and her ladyship,
-who spoke first, seemed in one of her pleasantest humors.</p>
-
-<p>“And so you are off, Wynkin,” said she; “well, the sooner the
-better perchance, for I believe there will be a storm before morning,
-and you have a long way to go, and your good father and mother
-are, I doubt not, wearying to give you a welcome. You must tell
-them that when his Highness hath been delivered safe back to his
-Majesty out of our charge, you will tarry with them a longer time.
-But now I shall look for you at midday to-morrow. Meantime I
-shall wait upon the Prince entirely myself, since my husband desires
-it. And so a good journey to you, and make my remembrances to
-your parents, and I trust they will have good enjoyment of the
-gallimaufries and the what-nots I beg their acceptance of, and that
-your mother will find the red cloak warm and a good fit. Is all
-well and securely packed in the boat, Wynkin?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, madam,” replied Wynkin, making a low bow to his
-mistress, though, of course, Charles was only able to imagine that.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a><a id="Page_28"></a>{28}</span>
-“I have placed the cloak and the fresh butter, and the new-laid
-eggs, and the manchets, all in their baskets between the sacks,”
-and, stepping into the punt, he loosed the rope from the tree,
-struck out into midstream, and away glided the punt to the music
-of the river ripples.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp54" id="ip027" style="max-width: 26.5625em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_027.jpg" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="right">“And so you are off, Wynkin; well, the sooner
-the better perchance, for I believe there
-will be a storm before morning.”</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>If Wynkin had only known what he was carrying away from
-the Manor House along with his sacks and what-nots, as my lady
-called them, he might have whistled other sort of tunes than the
-jolly ones he indulged in as he punted on, on, till twilight darkened
-into night, and Charles, cooped up between the sacks, could no
-longer discern hedges from banks through the peephole he could
-keep open for himself only with difficulty.</p>
-
-<p>All of a sudden, just as he heard the distant church clocks
-striking eight, a brilliant flash of lightning covered all he could see,
-followed by a crash of thunder, and then down upon the canvas
-covering pattered rain-drops as heavily as if they were crown pieces.
-For a short time the hurly-burly was so terrific that he almost, if
-not quite, wished himself back in the Cedar Room.</p>
-
-<p>Just as the hurricane began to calm a little, Wynkin punted
-towards the bank, which was now fringed by a row of pollard willows,
-and he shouted to a man who was standing under them, “Is it
-you, Dickon lad?”</p>
-
-<p>“Ay,” answered the man, as he lent a hand to the punt, while
-Wynkin jumped out of it. “A nice storm you be come in, brother
-Wynkin.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes,” laughed Wynkin, “but ’tis giving over a bit now. Have
-you got the cart?”</p>
-
-<p>“Nay,” said Dickon; “old Dobbin’s so mortal afeard o’ lightning
-that I wouldn’t bring him out, and I’ve trundled down the garden
-wheel-barrer mysen, just to load with any small odds and ends you
-may have with you, and in the mornin’ we can come down and
-fetch the sacks, eh?”</p>
-
-<p>“Right,” said Wynkin, “and here you are—catch,” and, stretching
-his arm under the canvas without removing it, he drew out the
-neatly packed baskets of good things which Lady Chauncy had sent<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>{29}</span>
-as presents to his parents. “Now then, help me to tow the punt
-up alongside under the trees, and then we’ll be starting, for I’m as
-wet through as a fish.”</p>
-
-<p>Then in a few minutes they had the punt safely tied up to the
-willow-stems, and away they went chatting cheerily as they trundled
-the barrow over the bank into the wet road beyond. For the
-first time Charles ventured to stir, creeping out from among the
-sacks as quickly as his cramped limbs permitted, into the body of
-the punt. He was chilled to the bone, and very hungry, and thought
-longingly of that roast beef he had despised so much some hours
-before, and he almost wished he had not left his doublet behind him.
-Fortunately, however, in groping along, he tumbled right
-down over something soft. It turned out to be the crimson frieze
-cloak, which in the darkness and in the hurry must have dropped
-out of the basket. How beautifully soft and warm and dry it felt!
-And with a cry of delight, Charles wrapped himself round in it from
-his head to his little ice-cold feet, and then, as luck would have it,
-out fell a manchet of the white bread, which must have caught in
-among the folds of the cloak, and without more ado Charles took
-a deep bite into it as he sat down in the bottom of the punt,
-huddled up warmly in the cloak. “And then I must be on the
-march,” he said to himself, cheered a little by the warmth and the
-food, but before he had swallowed three mouthfuls, his eyelids
-drooped heavily, his weary limbs
-slackened, and he was fast asleep.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp91" id="ip029" style="max-width: 15.625em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_029.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>When he awoke, dawn was just
-breaking fair and rosy over the
-distant hills. He sprang to his feet
-in affright, quite unconscious for the
-moment where he was, but his wits
-soon came back to him, and he
-looked cautiously round across the
-still, shadowy, low-lying banks. He
-could now see that beyond the trees
-stretched a gorse-covered common,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>{30}</span>
-and between, alongside
-the stream, wound a
-road.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp46" id="ip030" style="max-width: 21.875em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_030.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Drawing off the
-cloak, he placed it back
-under the canvas, though
-rather reluctantly, for
-the air was chilly.
-Then, having made short
-work of the morsel of
-the white bread he
-found in his fingers
-when he first opened
-his eyes, he mounted
-to the edge of the punt
-and sprang to the bank.
-Reaching the road, he
-walked on a little way,
-looking cautiously every
-step he took, but for
-a good mile he did not
-see a single human creature, though
-the birds were singing lustily and
-the bees and gnats were skimming
-and skipping in the sunshine, for the morning
-was lovely. But before long, however, the field
-and farm workers began to be about, and in
-spite of his best endeavors to dodge them by dropping in among
-the hedgerows and the gorse-clumps, he was forced to face some of
-them. They took little heed, however, of the little ragged boy, for
-ragged enough he was in his down-trodden and sodden shoes, and
-his fine white shirt and finest cloth gray breeches all gone to about
-the same mud color. With his dark locks and swarthy cheeks
-smudged with dirt and the juice of the blackberries he plucked and
-ate hungrily as he hastened on, the good folk, if they noticed him<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>{31}</span>
-at all, took him for some gipsy boy. But his heart was beginning
-to grow as heavy as his limbs, which were so weary that he could
-hardly put one bruised and bleeding foot before the other. All his
-merry adventure-loving thoughts were fading fast, and in their place
-rose up the terrible fear that when he reached London the King,
-instead of being rejoiced to see him, might be displeased. It was just
-possible, and the more tired he got, the more possible somehow it
-seemed, till at last he became terrified, for when his father was
-angry, his frown made the hearts of even grown-up great lords
-quake. All at once he fancied he heard voices calling, and overwhelmed
-with terror and fatigue, he had just strength enough left
-to hobble away into the wood which now ran along the roadside,
-till he seemed quite hidden, and, huddling together into the hollow
-of an old oak-tree, he sank down, sobbing bitterly.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="ip031" style="max-width: 21.875em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_031.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>{32}</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V
-<br />
-<br />
-MOLLY</h2></div>
-
-
-<p>“<span class="smcap">What</span> is the matter, itty boy? Why are you kying so?”</p>
-
-<p>And while the voice spoke soft and sweet as the coo of
-a dove, two little hands very gently, but firmly, clasped Charles’s
-hands, which were covering his face, and tried to draw them away.</p>
-
-<p>He looked up, and, rubbing the blinding tears from his eyes, he
-beheld a little girl about six years old. She was a very chubby-cheeked
-tot of a thing, with short golden curls running over her
-head, and half covering her eyes, that were looking at him with
-immense curiosity.</p>
-
-<p>“Are oo a blackamoor?” she asked, shrinking back a step as
-she saw his face.</p>
-
-<p>“No,” said Charles, bursting into a merry laugh, “but I expect
-I have rather a dirty face.”</p>
-
-<p>She nodded. “Blacker than oor hands even. But what was
-you kying for?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” said Charles, “for one thing I—well, I’m dreadfully
-hungry. I believe I could eat a horse.”</p>
-
-<p>“Do you?” said the child, with a glad light in her eyes as she
-opened a tiny satchel hanging on her plump arm, and taking from
-it a splendid prancing horse with a king crowned riding on his back,
-all made of gilt gingerbread. “I’s so glad—here’s a man on horseback
-from Banbury Fair—can you eat him too?”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp53" id="ip033" style="max-width: 26.5625em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_033.jpg" alt="" />
- <div class="caption"><p class="right">“Are oo a blackamoor?” she asked,
-shrinking back a step as she saw his face.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<p>“Truly yes, and thank you, little maid,” laughed her new friend,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a><a id="Page_34"></a>{34}</span>
-taking the gingerbread from her tiny
-fingers. “Why, ’tis the King! Long
-life to his Majesty!” he added, as he
-bit the man’s head off, and seemed to
-enjoy it heartily. “What is your name,
-dear?” he went on, with his mouth full.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp56" id="ip034" style="max-width: 12.5em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_034.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>“What is oors?” said she, with a
-roguish twirl of her ripe red lips.</p>
-
-<p>“Charles.”</p>
-
-<p>“Ah, mine’s Molly—Molly Speedwell.”</p>
-
-<p>“And whose little girl are you?”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m the miller’s daughter of Oakside,
-and there’s my home,” she went
-on, pointing through the trees, and
-Charles discerned a red-roofed, white walled cottage standing in a
-garden. Hard by, upon a high turfy mound, was a mill, whose sails
-were whirling fast in the morning breeze. “And there’s the mill.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh,” said Charles, much disconcerted, “well, good-bye, little
-girl.”</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t go,” pleaded the child, the tears brimming into her eyes.</p>
-
-<p>“Needs must—I’ve got to be in London as quickly as I can.
-I’m going to see the King—” He stopped short and clapped his hand
-upon his mouth.</p>
-
-<p>“Then you may as well save yourself the journey, youngster,”
-said a deep, manly voice behind him, with a laugh of amusement.
-“The King is hundreds of miles away from London. He started
-northward three days ago. And what, forsooth, can you be wanting
-of the King?”</p>
-
-<p>Charles turned dumb with confusion to see before him a man
-white as a ghost from top to toe with flour. It was the miller,
-and taking up in his arms the little girl, who ran to him delightedly,
-he went on, “What can a gipsy boy like you be wanting of
-the King?”</p>
-
-<p>“I am not a gipsy boy,” began Charles, “that is, I—I——”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>{35}</span></p>
-
-<p>“Always tell the truth,” said the miller. “Have you run away—from
-your camp?” he added, when Charles did not answer.
-“Where is the camp?”</p>
-
-<p>“That’s just what I don’t know,” said Charles, who was thinking
-always of the soldiers’ camp, while the miller had, of course, the
-gipsies’ camp in his mind, as he looked at the little ragged boy,
-whose face somehow pleased him, in spite of its grimy state.</p>
-
-<p>“I can’t find it, and—and—” and the tears broke forth afresh,
-“I don’t know what to do.”</p>
-
-<p>And then Molly began to cry bitterly, “Poor itty boy,” she
-sobbed. “He’s dot no home, daddy.”</p>
-
-<p>“H’m,” grunted the miller, “and a lazy loon anyhow he is,
-I’ll warrant.”</p>
-
-<p>“No, faith, that I’m not,” contradicted Charles, with a flash of
-indignation in his eyes.</p>
-
-<p>“Would you like to work, if you’d the chance?” said the miller,
-“at the mill here, for example?”</p>
-
-<p>“Try me,” said Charles, looking longingly at the sails as they
-twirled, dazzling as silver in the sunshine. Of all things in the
-world, next to a colonel, he thought he would like to be a miller,
-and have to do with those sails and great, fat sacks. “Only try me.”</p>
-
-<p>“Very well, I will for a week,” said the miller, “but, mind
-you, it isn’t play work. Come along. ’Tis a busy time, and I’ve
-no objections to an extra hand, if he’s a good, honest one.”</p>
-
-<p>Molly clapped her two little hands with delight, and trotted
-off indoors to tell her mother all that had happened. And in an
-hour there was a marvelous sight, for the blackamoor boy was
-turned into such a whitymoor sort of a figure that there was
-certainly less chance than ever of anyone recognizing him for the
-little runaway Prince of Wales.</p>
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>{36}</span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI
-<br />
-<br />
-THE RED CLOAK AND THE BLUE ROSETTE</h2></div>
-
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Meanwhile</span> there was dire dismay at the Manor House when
-Lady Chauncy entered the Cedar Room and found it empty.
-She could not for a long time bring herself to believe her own eyes,
-and when at last she was compelled to do so, she wrung her hands
-and behaved almost like a frenzied creature. Both she and her
-husband had believed the room to be the securest place in the
-house, since the walls were of stone all round. That that one
-square of stone had been cut out behind the panel with goddess
-Minerva on it, nobody, in fact, had known for more than a hundred
-years, when the Lord of the Manor House of that time perished
-fighting for the White Rose, and the secret of the moving panel
-had perished with him. That the young Prince could have got out
-by the window was too terrible to think of. It seemed impossible,
-moreover, for the lattice was barred, leaving but quite narrow spaces
-between. Nevertheless, Lady Chauncy caused the moat to be
-dragged, but happily, of course, to no purpose.</p>
-
-<p>It all seemed like some dreadful conjuring trick. Lady Chauncy
-did not know whether she was more glad or sorry that her husband
-had not returned. About a fortnight hence he was to be
-back, and the King with him, to fetch Charles away from the Manor
-House. Meanwhile she hesitated to send information to his Majesty
-of what had happened, because that would be spreading news which
-the Roundhead party against the King would take advantage of,
-and try to get the boy into their hands in order to drive a bargain
-with King Charles. Could it be they, she asked herself in her perplexity,
-who had spirited him away?</p>
-
-<p>This was the terrible state of things Wynkin found when next
-afternoon he returned to the Manor. He was the more troubled
-by the thought that Lady Chauncy might imagine him to have
-been untrue to his trust after so many years of faithful service.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>{37}</span></p>
-
-<p>“But what do you advise, Wynkin?” said her ladyship, impatiently
-tapping the floor with the point of her silken slipper. “Do
-say something,” she added, as Wynkin maintained a thoughtful
-silence.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, then, speaking what I think,” replied Wynkin, “it is
-that I would advise your ladyship to get a good night’s rest.”</p>
-
-<p>“Rest, forsooth. What next?”</p>
-
-<p>“It is too late to be doing anything to-day.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="ip037" style="max-width: 26.5625em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_037.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>“And meanwhile?” cried Lady Chauncy despairingly.</p>
-
-<p>“Meanwhile,” said Wynkin, “there is a good Providence over
-us all.”</p>
-
-<p>“Perhaps you are right,” said Lady Chauncy, as she rose and
-went to her sleeping-chamber, but not to sleep.</p>
-
-<p>When, however, the last light was out in the windows of the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>{38}</span>
-Manor House Wynkin let himself out by a little postern of the
-garden wall, and strolled onward by way of the bit of waste ground
-till he reached the edge of the thicket, walking to and fro under
-the trees by the dim light of the moon, cogitating deeply over a
-curious circumstance which he had decided not to inform his
-mistress of in too great haste, lest her hopes might be raised to no
-purpose. The one very certain fact was that when he and Dickon
-came that morning about six o’clock to unload the punt of the
-sacks, he had found the crimson frieze cloak on the top of them,
-all crumpled and mud soiled, and touched here and there with
-marks like tiny finger-marks. In some dim fashion it made Wynkin
-fancy that he began to see daylight. At all events, he suddenly
-saw the light of a lantern dodging about before him among the
-furze clumps—and as already more than a day had gone by since
-Charles was missing, and such news spreads like wildfire in spite of
-the utmost precaution, Wynkin was considerably disturbed at sight
-of the light, which glanced now and again on the figure of a person
-in a broad slouch-brimmed hat and shrouded in a long black cloak.</p>
-
-<p>“Hullo!” he called, “who goes there?”</p>
-
-<p>“Nobody,” replied a disagreeable squeaky sort of man’s voice.
-“Anyway, ’tis no concern of yours.”</p>
-
-<p>“We’ll soon settle that question, Master Jack o’ Lantern,” said
-Wynkin, bounding down over the hillocks towards the figure. Not,
-however, before the man, dropping the lantern right into the middle
-of the gorse clump he was hovering over, was pelting off as quick
-as his heavy cloak would let him.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="ip038" style="max-width: 26.5625em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_038.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>{39}</span></p>
-
-<p>In a minute Wynkin
-would have laid
-him by the heels, but
-suddenly up rose a
-tremendous flare, for
-the lantern had fallen
-open as it dropped
-and the light had
-caught the gorse,
-and the strange part
-of it all was that, as
-the bush broke into
-one huge flame, it
-fell disappearing into
-the ground, as if
-there was a deep hole
-beneath. Looking
-down, that was
-precisely what
-Wynkin beheld,
-a deep
-hole, bricked
-round, and in
-one side a half-open grated door.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp61" id="ip039" style="max-width: 21.875em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_039.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>Looking regretfully enough after the fast-disappearing figure of
-Master Jack o’ Lantern, Wynkin caught up the lantern and, setting
-it straight, he jumped into the hole, where the bush was already
-smouldering to nothing. He peered through the open grating, and the
-next moment he passed in. “Where are we, I wonder?” he said
-to himself, “and—hullo! what’s this?” he went on, as he nearly
-set foot on something that glittered in the lantern gleam, bright
-as a star.</p>
-
-<p>It was a blue ribbon rosette, tied with silver cord, of the exact
-pattern of the rosettes the little Prince was wearing on his shoes.
-It was all sodden and soiled now with the mud it lay in, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>{40}</span>
-Wynkin picked it up as carefully as if it had been some little
-wounded bird, and placed it inside his vest next his heart, which
-beat fast with eager expectation. Then he hastened on, looking right
-and left all the way he went, threading the windings of the narrow
-passage, and up the twisting staircases, till at last he could go no
-farther because the wooden panel barred his progress. “Oh, ho!”
-again said he to himself, as he set his shoulder against the wood
-and pushed it with so much more force than it required that it
-flapped round before he could right himself, and he fell sprawling,
-lantern and all, along the floor.</p>
-
-<p>“By my faith!” he said, as he picked himself and the lantern
-up, and stood looking round while he rubbed his shoulder, “it is
-the Cedar Room!”</p>
-
-<p>And then more clearly than ever Wynkin began to see daylight,
-but all the same his face was very grave and anxious, for he was
-vexed with himself that he had not first given chase to Master Jack
-o’ Lantern, as he called him. “For what could he be wanting
-skulking round the place like that for? Ill news flies apace, and I
-doubt not the malcontents are aware already of the child’s escape.
-Well,” he added more cheerfully,</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
- <div class="stanza">
- <div class="verse indent0">“‘Hot boiled beans, and very good butter,</div>
- <div class="verse indent0">Ladies and gentlemen, come to supper.’</div>
- </div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>but for all the flare he made, he warn’t very warm, I fancy. The
-boy is not in hiding hereabouts, if that red cloak means anything.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp100" id="ip040" style="max-width: 25em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_040.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>{41}</span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp89" id="ip041" style="max-width: 25em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_041.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII
-<br />
-<br />
-HONOR BRIGHT</h2></div>
-
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Ordinarily</span> speaking, there is of course rarely much difficulty
-in tracking little truant boys or even girls. Prince Charles
-was not, however, a mere ordinary little boy. He was the King’s son,
-and the people, who were beginning to think of fighting against
-King Charles on account of displeasure with some of his ways of
-governing, would have been very glad to get the child into their
-power. They thought they would be able to make a better
-bargain with the King, who would agree sooner to what they
-demanded out of fear that, if he did not do so, they might harm
-the little boy. There were good and just Roundheads, as those
-discontented persons were called, who would not have lent their
-aid or approval to such miserable and mean ways of settling matters,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>{42}</span>
-and among the many of them was the miller of Oakside. He was
-a strict Roundhead, and if the quarrel came to a fight, he was quite
-determined that he would, if it was necessary, lay down his life for
-what he considered the right and good cause, against the King.
-Still he prayed and trusted that there would not be war in the
-kingdom, and the sorry sight of Englishmen fighting with Englishmen.
-It seemed too fearful, and he now went about his work with a
-very grave face, though, in a general way, he was neither sad nor
-sour-natured, but a brave, industrious, honest, cheery man.</p>
-
-<p>When Wynkin was admitted next morning to Lady Chauncy’s
-little sitting-room, he at once informed her of the past night’s adventures.
-She was very much astonished at his discovery in the
-Cedar Room. “’Tis certain,” she said, with almost a smile on her
-troubled face, “that, as my husband so often hath said, ‘A fortress
-is not stronger than its weakest part,’ which in this case appears,
-from what you tell me, Wynkin, to be Minerva’s nose. But who’d
-have thought it? and if your guess is correct about the red cloak,
-as I am persuaded it is, that is the direction in which this most
-naughty boy hath gone.”</p>
-
-<p>And ere many days passed, Wynkin’s guesses became certainties,
-for, after all, Oakside was only a very few miles from the village in
-which his father and mother lived, for all Charles fancied he had
-walked an immense long way that morning before he sat down and
-sobbed under the oak-tree. Had the matter been merely one of
-coming to Oakside, and fetching him away, the little runaway would
-soon have been back again at the Manor, but it was not. There
-were now spies, and a number of other evil-minded persons, loitering
-for many miles round, ready to attack any of the Royalist folk,
-as the King’s party were called, who should attempt to carry him
-away from Oakside. While he was under the miller’s roof or in
-his care, they did not dare to touch him, as the Miller himself
-was a powerful Roundhead, and one who was much trusted and
-very wise in his way.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile, the miller’s boy turned out a capital boy for
-such a small one. He was most diligent, rising with the lark,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>{43}</span>
-and so obliging and obedient, and, though sad sometimes, he was
-generally merry, singing at his work, and when the millwork was
-done, he would fetch in water from the well for Mistress Speedwell,
-and logs from the out-house for the great kitchen hearth-place, for
-the evenings were beginning to grow chilly, and he played cat’s
-cradle and spillikins with Molly, and cut out little men and women
-and cows and dogs from paper, to her boundless delight, and the
-miller, for all he was so silent, and even grim in his manner to him,
-was forced to yield him a good word when Mistress Speedwell
-would ask her husband if he did not consider that the shelter they
-had given the poor forlorn gipsy lad had returned as a blessing on
-themselves, for Mistress Speedwell did not know the truth, whatever
-her husband might know, or whatever he might suspect.</p>
-
-<p>The only fault Mistress Speedwell had to find with him was
-that, though he kept himself very neat and spruce in the linen
-jacket and breeches she made for him, he never could be persuaded
-to wash the flour off his face. The reason he gave for this was
-that millers were always white. It was the proper thing for them
-to be so.</p>
-
-<p>One evening she grew really angry about this, “Do you hear?”
-she said, “I insist on you washing your face. When you came, it
-was as black as a tinker’s, and then you had not been here a couple
-of hours before you got it all over flour. If you do not do as I
-bid you, I will take you and souse your head in the pail myself.”</p>
-
-<p>“Please——” began the boy.</p>
-
-<p>“Ah, please me no please,” she cried, turning to her husband;
-“will you not have the urchin obey me?”</p>
-
-<p>“You hear what you are bidden to do,” said the miller to the
-boy, but he spoke rather unwillingly. And Charles crept off, daring
-no longer to disobey.</p>
-
-<p>“Ah, now,” said Mistress Speedwell, when he returned with his
-brown cheeks shining like a warming-pan with the rubbing she had
-bidden him not to be sparing of, and a deep flush from brow to
-chin, “now we can look truth in the face,” and she was satisfied,
-and settled quietly to her wheel; and Molly, who had been sorely<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>{44}</span>
-disheartened to hear her playmate scolded, smiled delightedly.
-She thought it was the nicest boy’s face she had ever seen; but the
-miller looked graver than ever, and only said “Umph!” as he
-glanced over some letters he had received that day, and then sat
-gazing in a very troubled manner into the fire.</p>
-
-<p>The next evening soon after dark a solemn-looking, plainly-attired
-gentleman rode up to the gate of the cottage and asked to
-see Master John Speedwell. He was shown into the best room,
-where he kept the miller talking for more than an hour, but the
-interview did not appear to have been very satisfactory to the visitor,
-who said to Speedwell, as he went away, “I trust that you will
-come to see the error of your resolve. And,” he went on, when
-the miller made no reply, “seeing that you are not rich——”</p>
-
-<p>“No, I am a poor man,” said the miller, “but I hope always
-to remain an honorable man, and I will give up the boy for no
-money price.”</p>
-
-<p>“Not even in the good cause?” scowled the stranger.</p>
-
-<p>“The cause would be no longer good were I to do this that
-you seek of me. So fare you well, sir, for by my honor, which I
-have always kept bright and fair, I will deliver the boy only into
-the hands to whom he belongs.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well,” said the stranger, in deeply-angered tones, “you know
-what to expect—I have warned you.”</p>
-
-<p>“And though my house be stormed, and you should be able
-to kidnap the boy—which I much doubt you shall succeed in
-doing—I abide by what I have said,” replied the miller.</p>
-
-<p>And so the stranger mounted his horse again, muttering and
-grumbling till he was gone out of sight.</p>
-
-<p>Then the miller returned to the kitchen, and sat down by the
-fire alone. The rest of the little household were all abed. He
-listened intently. For a long time there was no sound but the brisk
-night wind stirring round the house, but as the village church-clock
-struck eleven, there came a low tap on the lattice. The miller
-rose, and, drawing aside the curtain, said in a low tone as he
-opened the lattice, “Are you ready?”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45"></a>{45}</span></p>
-
-<p>“Ay, ready,” replied the person who tapped, dropping the folds
-of the big cloak he was wearing from about his face, which was
-Wynkin’s.</p>
-
-<p>“’Tis well you are come to-night,” said the miller, “for my
-house is threatened. They might even storm it to-morrow and
-steal the Prince, for all my endeavor.”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp62" id="ip045" style="max-width: 25em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_045.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>“I dared not venture till to-night,” said Wynkin, “but I know
-that this evening the coast is clear. They are all gone upon another
-scent.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>{46}</span></p>
-
-<p>“Come with me,” said the miller, and he led the way above
-stairs. “Have you a horse?”</p>
-
-<p>“Nay,” smiled Wynkin, “I have the punt; which is safer, since
-it is less suspected, and it is freighted with half a dozen stout men-at-arms
-under the canvas.”</p>
-
-<p>“Take your treasure,” said the miller, as he unlocked a door,
-and motioned Wynkin to approach the bed where the miller’s boy
-lay sleeping soundly after his day’s fetching and carrying, “if indeed,
-as I believe, it belong to your master.”</p>
-
-<p>“Ay, truly it is our lost one,” murmured Wynkin, as he lifted
-the sleeping child so gently in his arms that he did not stir, but
-seemed only to breathe the more restfully as the trusty serving-man
-wrapped his cloak close round him so that he could not be
-seen. “Heaven reward you, Master Speedwell,” and, turning down
-the stairway he sped out by the door, never stopping till he reached
-the punt held fast alongside by many hands that stretched from
-under the canvas covering. Then as the word was given, away, fast,
-on and on glided the punt, and sleeping the restful sleep of a tired
-child, the little Prince never stirred till far on towards morning just
-before the breaking of the dawn, by which time he lay in his own
-little carved bed in the Cedar Room shaded by its silken curtains,
-and then Charles was too drowsy to understand much.</p>
-
-<p>“Is that you, Wynkin?” he murmured, as at the sound of his
-voice the serving-man came beside him, while Lady Chauncy and
-Sir William, and a tall, dignified gentleman, who was the King, and
-had but that night arrived at the Manor, drew back, lest they might
-startle the boy. “Is it you, Wynkin, dear?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, your Highness.”</p>
-
-<p>“Ah! you don’t know what mighty strange dreams I’ve been
-dreaming. All about windmills, and little tots of girls, and then,
-oh, Wynkin, a terrible dark hole—so dark——”</p>
-
-<p>“Think of that now!” interrupted Wynkin. “Well, if I were
-you I’d wait and tell it all to-morrow.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, and then I heard my father’s voice. I wish that wasn’t
-all a dream, I can tell you.”</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>{47}</span></p>
-
-<p>“Well, I expect that will be coming true before many days—perhaps
-many hours—are over. But, go to sleep again now, won’t
-you?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes. Is this the Cedar Room?”</p>
-
-<p>“Certainly. You like the Cedar Room, don’t you?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes. ’Tis well enough, but I don’t like the door of it to
-be locked.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, well, then we must talk to Lady Chauncy about it to-morrow,”
-said Wynkin, as he stole a sly glance at her ladyship, who
-smiled in her white prim frame of a cap. “It is a grave question,
-and will have to be considered.”</p>
-
-<p>“No, it will not,” said the Prince of Wales. “’Tis proper for
-my wishes to be obeyed.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, if you promise not to run away, perhaps——”</p>
-
-<p>“Run away—I do not want to run away. I——”</p>
-
-<p>“You’d promise you wouldn’t?”</p>
-
-<p>“Certainly.”</p>
-
-<p>“On your honor?”</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Honor bright</i>,” murmured
-Charles as he fell asleep again.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<div class="figcenter illowp51" id="ip047" style="max-width: 21.875em;">
- <img class="w100" src="images/i_p_047.jpg" alt="" />
-</div>
-
-<p>It is hardly necessary to say
-that Charles kept his word. The
-favor he desired was granted him
-after he had been summoned next
-day to the presence of the King
-and of Sir William and Lady
-Chauncy in the dining-hall. Each
-of them in turn pointed out to
-him not only the terrible danger
-he had exposed himself to by
-running away out into the wide
-world, but also the misery and
-strife that had nearly come of it
-for everybody—not by any means<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>{48}</span>
-least or last for good Master and Mistress Speedwell and the sweet
-little maid Molly, who had been so kind and pitying of his plight.</p>
-
-<p>After that Charles was permitted to leave the great shadowy hall,
-and since the King and Sir William considered that he must have
-suffered enough, and had shown himself brave as boys should be
-under difficulties and privations, no more was said about the matter
-by the King or by Sir William. Lady Chauncy, however, never
-wearied for a long time of lamenting that she could not “give him a
-good whipping as he deserved,” she said, “as much as any other
-naughty little boy,” and to escape that was one of the very few advantages
-Charles found in being the King’s eldest son, upon whom
-at that time it was not accounted lawful to lay whipping materials
-of any kind.</p>
-
-<p>Till a short time after, when his father took him to London
-with him, Charles had his freedom in the old house as far as his
-given word allowed it him. As to Wynkin, he remained Charles’s
-most trusty and well-beloved friend to the end of his long life.</p>
-
-<p>Molly grew up to be a brave yeoman’s wife, and of winter
-nights as she sat at her wheel and little, merry-faced, golden-haired,
-blue-eyed children, like once she herself had been, were gathered
-round her, she would relate the story of the gipsy boy who was
-now King of England. As for the miller, he lived long and peacefully,
-not mixing so much as of old in the affairs of the nation, but
-attending to the grinding of his corn, and listening with a contented
-mind to the music of the mill-sails, as they whirled in the wind.</p>
-
-<hr class="full" />
-<p>[Transcriber’s note—the following changes have been made to this text:</p>
-
-<p>Page 23—it to if—“even if he dared”.]</p>
-
-</div>
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