by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XXIV.
ACROSS THE SEA.
The announcement of the innkeeper struck consternation into the party.
"This is bad news indeed," Colonel Wyndham said; "what does your majestyadvise now?"
"I know not, my good Wyndham," King Charles replied. "Methinks 'twerebetter that I should give myself up at once. Fate seems against us, andI'm only bringing danger on all my friends."
"Your friends are ready to risk the danger," Colonel Wyndham said; "andI doubt not that we shall finally place your majesty in safety. I thinkwe had best try Bridport. Unfortunately, the Roundheads are so sure ofyour being on the coast that it is well-nigh impossible to procure aship, so strict is the search of all who leave port. If we could but putthem off your scent, and lead them to believe that you have given it upin despair here, and are trying again to reach Scotland, it might throwthem off their guard, and make it more easy for us to find a ship."
"I might do that," Harry said. "I have with me my comrade Jacob, who isabout the king's height and stature. I will travel north again, and willin some way excite suspicion that he is the king. The news that yourmajesty has been seen traveling there will throw them off your trackhere."
"But you may be caught yourself," the king said. "The Earl of Derby andother officers have been executed. There would be small chance for youwere you to fall into their hands."
"I trust that I shall escape, sire. My friend Jacob is as cunning as afox, and will, I warrant me, throw dust in their eyes. And how has itfared with your majesty since I left you at White Ladies?"
"Faith," Charles replied, laughing, "I have been like a rat with thedogs after him. The next night after leaving you I was in danger from arascally miller, who raised an alarm because we refused to stay at hisbidding. Then we made for Moseley, where I hoped to cross the Severn.The Roundheads had set a guard there, and Richard Penderell went to thehouse of Mr. Woolfe, a loyal gentleman, and asked him for shelter for anofficer from Worcester. Mr. Woolfe said he would risk his neck for nonesave the king himself. Then Richard told him who I was, and brought mein. Mr. Woolfe hid me in the barn and gave me provisions. Theneighborhood was dangerous, for the search was hot thereabout, and Idetermined to double back again to White Ladies, that I might hear whathad become of Wilmot. Richard Penderell guided me to Boscabell, afarmhouse kept by his brother William. Here I found Major Careless inhiding. The search was hot, and we thought of hiding in a wood near, butWilliam advised that as this might be searched we should take refuge inan oak lying apart in the middle of the plain."
"This had been lopped three or four years before and had grown againvery thick and bushy, so that it could not be seen through. So, early inthe morning, Careless and I, taking provisions for the day, climbed upit and hid there, and it was well we did so, for in the day theRoundheads came and searched the wood from end to end, as also thehouse. But they did not think of the tree. The next two days I lay atBoscabell, and learned on the second day that Wilmot was hiding at thehouse of Mr. Whitgrave, a Catholic gentleman at Moseley, where he beggedme to join him. That night I rode thither. The six Penderells, for therewere that number of brothers, rode with me as a bodyguard. I was wellreceived by Mr. Whitgrave, who furnished me with fresh linen, to mygreat comfort, for that which I had on was coarse, and galled my fleshgrievously, and my feet were so sore I could scarce walk. But theRoundheads were all about, and the search hot, and it was determinedthat I should leave. This time I was dressed as a decent serving man,and Colonel Lane's daughter agreed to go with me. I was to pass as herserving man, taking her to Bristol. A cousin rode with us in company.Colonel Lane procured us a pass, and we met with no adventure for threedays. A smith who shod my horse, which had cast a shoe, did say thatthat rogue Charles Stuart had not been taken yet, and that he thought heought to be hanged. I thought so too, so we had no argument. At Bristolwe could find no ship in which I could embark, and after some time Iwent with Miss Lane and her cousin to my good friend Colonel Wyndham, atTrent House. After much trouble he had engaged a ship to take me hence,and now this rascal refuses to go, or rather his wife refuses for him.And now, my friend, we will at once make for Bridport, since ColonelWyndham hopes to find a ship there. I trust we may meet ere long inFrance. None of my friends have served me and my father more faithfullythan you. It would seem but a mockery now to take knighthood at thehands of Charles Stuart, but it will not harm thee."
Taking a sword from Colonel Wyndham, the king dubbed Harry knight. Thengiving his hand to the landlord to kiss, Charles, accompanied by histwo companions, left the inn.
A few minutes later Harry started and joined his friends. Jacob agreedat once to the proposal to throw the Roundheads off King Charles' track.The next day they started north, and traveled through Wiltshire up intoGloucestershire, still keeping their disguises as gypsies. There theyleft their donkey with a peasant, telling him they would return in afortnight's time and claim it. In a wood near they again changed theirdisguise, hid their gypsy dresses, and started north on foot. In theevening they stopped at Fairford, and took up their abode at a smallinn, where they asked for a private room. They soon ascertained that thelandlord was a follower of the Parliament. Going toward the room intowhich they were shown, Jacob stumbled, and swore in a man's voice, whichcaused the servant maid who was conducting them to start and looksuspiciously at him. Supper was brought, but Harry noticed that thelandlord, who himself brought it in, glanced several times at Jacob.They were eating their supper when they heard his footstep again comingalong the passage. Harry dropped on one knee, and was in the act ofhanding the jug in that attitude to Jacob, when the landlord entered.Harry rose hastily, as if in confusion, and the landlord, setting downon the table a dish which he had brought, again retired.
"Throw up the window, Jacob, and listen," Harry said. "We must not becaught like rats in a trap."
The window opened into a garden, and Jacob, listening, could hearfootsteps as of men running in the streets.
"That is enough, then," Harry said. "The alarm is given. Now let us beoff." They leaped from the window, and they were soon making their wayacross the country. They had not been gone a hundred yards before theyheard a great shouting, and knew that their departure had beendiscovered. They had not walked far that day and now pressed forwardnorth. They had filled their pockets with the remains of their supper,and after walking all night, left the road, and climbing into a haystackat a short distance, ate their breakfast and were soon fast asleep.
It was late in the afternoon before they awoke. Then they walked onuntil, after darkness fell, they entered a small village. Here they wentinto a shop to buy bread. The woman looked at them earnestly.
"I do not know whether it concerns you," she said, "but I will warn youthat this morning a mounted man from Fairford came by warning all toseize a tall countryman with a young fellow and a woman with him, forthat she was no other than King Charles."
"Thanks, my good woman," Jacob said. "Thanks for your warning. I do notsay that I am he you name, but whether or no, the king shall hear someday of your good-will."
Traveling on again, they made thirty miles that night, and again sleptin a wood. The next evening, when they entered a village to buy food,the man in the shop, after looking at them, suddenly seized Jacob, andshouted loudly for help. Harry stretched him on the ground with a heavyblow of the stout cudgel he carried. The man's shouts, however, hadcalled up some of his neighbors, and these ran up as they issued fromthe shop, and tried to seize them. The friends, however, struck outlustily with their sticks, Jacob carrying one concealed beneath hisdress. In two or three minutes they had fought their way clear, and ranat full speed through the village, pursued by a shouting crowd ofrustics.
"Now," Harry said, "we can return for our gypsy dresses, and then makefor the east coast. We have put the king's enemies off the scent. Itrust that when we may get across the water we may hear that he is insafety."
They made a long detour, traveling only at night, Harry entering aloneafter dusk the vi
llages where it was necessary to buy food. When theyregained the wood where they had left their disguises they dressedthemselves again as gypsies, called for the donkey, and then journeyedacross England by easy stages to Colchester, where they succeeded intaking passage in a lugger bound for Hamburg. They arrived there insafety, and found to their great joy the news had arrived that the kinghad landed in France.
He had, they afterward found, failed to obtain a ship at Bridport, wherewhen he arrived he here found a large number of soldiers about to crossto Jersey. He returned to Trent House, and a ship at Southampton wasthen engaged. But this was afterward taken up for the carriage oftroops. A week later a ship lying at Shoreham was hired to carry anobleman and his servant to France, and King Charles, with his friends,made his way thither in safety. The captain of the ship at oncerecognized the king, but remained true to his promise, and landed him atF?camp in Normandy.
Six weeks had elapsed since the battle of Worcester, and during thattime the king's hiding-places had been known to no less than forty-fivepersons, all of whom proved faithful to the trust, and it was owing totheir prudence and caution as well as to their loyalty that the kingescaped, in spite of the reward offered and the hot search kept upeverywhere for him.
Harry had now to settle upon his plans for the future. There was no hopewhatever of an early restoration. He had no thought of hanging about theking whose ways and dissolute associates revolted him. It was open tohim to take service, as so many of his companions had done, in one orother of the Continental armies, but Harry had had more than enough offighting. He determined then to cross the ocean to the plantations ofVirginia, where many loyal gentlemen had established themselves. Themoneys which Colonel Furness had during the last four years regularlysent across to a banker at the Hague, for his use, were lying untouched,and these constituted a sum amply sufficient for establishing himselfthere. Before starting, however, he determined that if possible he wouldtake a wife with him. In all his wanderings he had never seen any one heliked so much as his old playmate, Lucy Rippinghall. It was nearly fouryears since he had seen her, and she must now be twenty-one. Herbert, heknew by his father's letters, had left the army at the end of the firstcivil war, and was carrying on his father's business, the wool-staplerhaving been killed at Marston Moor. Harry wrote to the colonel, tellinghim of his intention to go to Virginia and settle there until eitherCromwell's death, and the dying out of old animosities, or therestoration of the king permitted him to return to England, and alsothat he was writing to ask Lucy Rippinghall to accompany him as hiswife. He told his father that he was well aware that he would not haveregarded such a match as suitable had he been living at home with him atFurness Hall, but that any inequality of birth would matter no whit inthe plantations of Virginia, and that such a match would greatly promotehis happiness there. By the same mail he wrote to Herbert Rippinghall.
"My DEAR HERBERT: The bonds of affection which held us together whenboys are in no way slackened in their hold upon me, and you showed, whenwe last met, that you loved me in no way less than of old. I purposesailing to Virginia with such store of money as would purchase aplantation there, and there I mean to settle down until such times asthese divisions in England may be all passed. But I would fain not goalone. As a boy I loved your sister Lucy, and I have seen none to takethe place of her image in my heart. She is, I know, still unmarried, butI know not whether she has any regard for me. I do beseech you to soundher, and if she be willing to give her to me. I hear that you are wellmarried, and can therefore the better spare her. If she be willing totake me, I will be a good husband to her, and trust some day or other tobring her back to be lady of Furness Hall. Although I know that she willcare little for such things, I may say that she would be Lady Lucy,since the king has been pleased to make me Sir Harry Furness. Should thedear girl be willing, will you, since I cannot come to you, bring herhither to me. I have written to my father, and have told him what Ipurpose to do. Trusting that this will find you as well disposed towardme as ever, I remain, your affectionate friend, HARRY FURNESS."
This letter, together with that to his father, Harry gave to Mike. Thepost in those days was extremely irregular, and none confided letters ofimportance to it which could possibly be sent by hand. Such acommunication as that to Herbert Rippinghall was not one which Harrycared to trust to the post. Mike had never been at Abingdon, and wouldtherefore be unknown there. Nor, indeed, unless they were takenprisoners in battle or in the first hot pursuit, were any of lowerdegree meddled with after their return to their homes. There wastherefore no fear whatever of molestation. At this time Jacob was farfrom well. The fatigues which he had undergone since the king broke uphis camp at Stirling had been immense. Prolonged marches, great anxiety,sleeping on wet ground, being frequently soaked to the skin by heavyrains, all these things had told upon him, and now that the necessityfor exertion was over, a sort of low fever seized him, and he wasforced to take to his bed. The leech whom Harry called in told him thatJacob needed rest and care more than medicine. He gave him, however,cooling drinks, and said that when the fever passed he would needstrengthening food and medicine.
Hamburg was at that time the resort of many desperate men from England.After Worcester, as after the crushing out of the first civil war, thosetoo deeply committed to return to their homes sought refuge here. Butthough all professed to be Cavaliers, who were suffering only from theirloyalty to the crown, a great many of them were men who had no justclaim to so honorable a position. There were many who took advantage ofthe times in England to satisfy private enmities or to gratify evilpassions. Although the courts of law sat during the whole of the civilwar, and the judges made their circuits, there was necessarily far morecrime than in ordinary times. Thus many of those who betook themselvesto Hamburg and other seaports on the continent had made England too hotfor them by crimes of violence and dishonesty.
The evening after Mike sailed Harry, who had been sitting during theafternoon chatting by Jacob's bedside, went out to take the air. Hestrolled along the wharves, near which were the drinking-houses, whencecame sounds of singing, dancing, and revelry, mingled occasionally withshouts and the clash of steel, as quarrels arose among the sailors andothers frequenting them. Never having seen one of these places, Harrystrolled into one which appeared of a somewhat better class than therest. At one end was a sort of raised platform, upon which were two men,with fiddles, who, from time to time, played lively airs, to which thoseat the tables kept time by stamping their feet. Sometimes men or womencame on to the platform and sang. The occupants of the body of the hallwere mostly sailors, but among whom were a considerable number of men,who seemed by their garb to be broken-down soldiers and adventurers.
Harry took his seat by the door, called for a glass of wine and drankit, and, having soon seen enough of the nature of the entertainment, wasabout to leave, when his attention was attracted by a young girl whotook her place on the platform. She was evidently a gypsy, for at thistime these people were the minstrels of Europe. It would have beenconsidered shameful for any other woman to sing publicly. Two or threeof these women had already sung, and Harry had been disgusted with theirhard voices and bold looks. But he saw that the one who now took herplace on the platform was of a different nature. She advanced nervously,and as if quite strange to such a scene, and touched her guitar withtrembling fingers. Then she began to sing a Spanish romance in a sweet,pure voice. There was a good deal of applause when it finished, for eventhe rough sailors could appreciate the softness and beauty of themelody. Then a half-drunken man shouted, "Give us something lively.Sing 'May the Devil fly off with Old Noll.'"
The proposal was received with a shout of approval by many, but some ofthe sailors cried out, "No, no. No politics. We won't hear Cromwellinsulted."
This only led to louder and more angry shouts on the part of the others,and in all parts of the room men rose to their feet, gesticulating andshouting. The girl, who evidently did not understand a word that wassaid, stood looking with affright at the tumu
lt which had so suddenlyrisen. In a minute swords were drawn. The foreign sailors, in ignoranceof the cause of dispute, drew their knives, and stood by the side ofthose from the English ships, while the foreign soldiers seemed readyto make common cause with the English who had commenced the disturbance.Two or three of the latter leaped upon the platform to insist upon theirwishes being carried out. The girl, with a little scream, retreated intoa corner. Harry, indignant at the conduct to his countrymen, had drawnhis sword, and made his way quietly toward the end of the hall, and henow sprang upon the platform.
"Stand back," he shouted angrily. "I'll spit the first man who advancesa step."
"And who are you, sir, who ventures to thrust yourself into a quarrel,and to interfere with English gentlemen?"
"English gentlemen," Harry said bitterly. "God help England if you arespecimens of her gentlemen."
"S'death!" exclaimed one. "Run the scoundrel through, Ralph."
In a moment Harry slashed open the cheek of one, and ran the otherthrough the arm. By this time the fray had become general in the hall.Benches were broken up, swords and knives were used freely. Just as thematter began to grow serious there was a cry of "The watch!" and astrong armed guard entered the hall.
There was an instant cessation of hostilities, and then both partiesuniting, rushed upon the watch, and by sheer weight bore them back outof the place. Harry looked round, and saw that the girl had fled by adoor at the back of the platform. Seeing that a fight was going on roundthe door, and desiring to escape from the broil, he went out by the doorshe had taken, followed a passage for some distance, went down adimly-lighted stair, and issued through a door into the air. He foundhimself in a foul and narrow lane. It was entirely unlighted, and Harrymade his way with difficulty along, stumbling into holes in thepavement, and over heaps of rubbish of all kinds.
"I have got into a nice quarter of the town," he muttered to himself."I have heard there are places in Hamburg, the resort of thieves andscoundrels of the worst kind, and where even the watch dare notpenetrate, Methinks that this must be one them."
He groped his way along till he came to the end of the lane. Here a dimlight was burning. Three or four other lanes, in appearance asforbidding as that up which he had come, met at this spot. Several menwere standing about. Harry paused for a moment, wondering whether he hadbetter take the first turning at random, or invite attention by askinghis way. He determined that the former was the least dangerousalternative, and turned down the lane to his right. He had not gone tensteps when a woman came up to him from behind.
"Are you not the gentleman who drew a sword to save me from insult?" sheasked in French.
Harry understood enough of the language to make out what she said.
"Yes," he said, "if you are the singer."
"Good heavens! sir, what misfortune has brought you here? I recognizedyour face in the light. Your life, sir, is in the greatest danger. Thereare men here who would murder you for the sake of a gold piece, and thatjewel which fastens your plume must have caught their eyes. Follow me,sir, quickly."