George Manville Fenn

“ But as you are a mere thoughtless boy, ready to act on the impulse of the moment, and as, for your mother’s sake, the Princess has interceded for you, I am disposed to look over it.”
“Thank your Royal Highness,” cried Frank, drawing a long, deep breath, full of relief.
“Now you may go back to your duties, and remember this: you are very young, and have good prospects before you. You are my servant now you are a boy; I hope you will be my servant still when you grow up to be a man. I shall want men whom I can trust—men to whom I can say ‘Protect me,’ and who will do it.” ”

“ Frank turned to him warmly.
“Yes, I know you do,” he said, with a wild and wistful look in his eyes; and his lips parted as if he were eager to say something particular to his companion.
“There, don’t take on about it. Things seem all out of joint with us all; but they’ll come right some day. And don’t you take any notice of me. I feel sometimes as if I’d turned sour, and as if everything was wrong, and I was curdled. I can’t help it. Perhaps the doctor’s right. You do as he said, and ask the King boldly. For some things I should like to see Sir Robert back.” ”

“ Five minutes later they had been marched down the staircase, across the courtyard, to the entrance of the guardroom, where, to Frank’s great mortification, the first person he saw was Captain Murray.
“Hallo! what’s this?” he cried. “Prisoners? What have you lads been about?”
“Fighting,” said Frank sullenly, Andrew compressing his lips and staring haughtily before him, as if he felt proud, of his position.
“Fighting! With fists?” cried Captain Murray.
“Oh no,” said the officer of the guard; “quite correctly. Here are their skewers.” ”

“ Frank laughed.
“But I say yes, sir,” cried Sir Robert. “Why, in sixteen years’ time, if I could have stood still, we two would be as much alike as a couple of peas. But in sixteen years perhaps I shall be in my grave.”
“Father!”
“Well, I’m a soldier, my boy; and soldiers have to run risks more than other men.”
“Oh, but you won’t; you’re too big and brave.”
“Ha—ha—ha! Flattering again. Why, Frank, I sometimes think I’m a coward.” ”

“ But look here, Frank; take my advice: Don’t you do anything foolish, for so sure as you betray any secret you possess there will be hundreds of hands against you—yes, boy as you are, and unimportant as you think yourself. If you breathe a word, it is not merely against me, but against the safety of scores here; and to save themselves one or the other will send his sword through you at the first opportunity, wipe it, put it back in its sheath, and walk away. ”

“ To begin with, nature knew when the brain would bear no more; and just at sunrise, when Frank had tried to nerve himself for a fresh struggle by plunging face and a good portion of his head into cold water previous to having a good brisk rub, and then lain down to think out his difficulty once more, unconsciously choosing the best attitude for clear thought, a calm and restful sensation stole over him. ”

“ Your father is a proscribed rebel.”
“You dare to say that of my father!” cried the lad, laying his hand upon his sword.
“Yes, you foolish lad. Let that hilt alone. Keep your sword for your enemies, not for your friends, even if they tell you unpleasant truths. Your tongue, my lad, runs too freely, and will get you sooner or later into trouble. Men have been punished for much less than you have said, even to losing their lives.”
“Is this what a King’s officer should do?” cried Andrew, who was white with anger,—“play the part of a spy?”
“Silly, hot-headed boy,” said Captain Murray. ”

“ I want you to grow into a man, fit for a soldier to fight for his king.”
“And that’s what I want to do, father,” said the lad proudly.
“Of course you do; and so you will. You are altering wonderfully, boy. Why, hallo! I say,” cried the captain, with mock seriousness, as he held his son sidewise and gazed at his profile against the light.
“What’s the matter, father?” cried Frank, startled.
“Keep your head still, sir; I want to look. Yes, it’s a fact—very young and tender, but there it is; it’s coming up fast. Why, Frank boy, you’ll soon have to shave.” ”

“ Sir Robert spoke almost sternly, and the son shrank from gazing in the fine, bold, questioning eyes.
“I knew it,” said Sir Robert. “What is it, boy? Speak out.”
It was the firm officer talking now, and Frank felt his breath come shorter as his heart increased the speed of its pulsations.
“Well, sir, I am waiting. Why don’t you answer?”
“I can’t, father.”
“Can’t? I thought my boy always trusted his father, as he trusts his son. There, out with it, Frank. The old saying, my lad. The truth may be blamed, but can never be shamed. What is it—some scrape? There, let’s have it, and get it over. ”

“ You’ve got one of your fits on again,” cried Frank contemptuously; “what a gunpowder fizgig you are!”
“Look here!” said Andrew, in an angry whisper; “this is no time for boyish folly. We must be men. The crisis has come, and this miserable sham reign is pretty well at an end.”
“The Prince is in yonder,” said Frank warningly.
“Prince!” said Drew contemptuously; “I know no Prince but James Francis Stuart. Now, listen; there must be no shilly-shallying on your part; we want every true patriot to draw the sword for his country.” ”

“ There was feasting and rejoicing at Saint James’s that night, when the news came of the bloodless victory; while in one of the apartments mother and son were shut up alone in the agony of their misery and despair, for whatever might be the fate of the common people of the Pretender’s army, the action of the King toward all who opposed him was known to be of merciless severity. The leaders of the rebellion could expect but one fate—death by the executioner.
“But, mother, mother! oh, don’t give way to despair like that,” cried Frank. “We have heard so little yet. ”

“ The heavy, leaden feeling of despair and disappointment increased as Frank Gowan ran across the courtyard, feeling that it was useless to expect to find Captain Murray, but making for his quarters in the faint hope that he might have been detained, and cudgelling his brains as he ran, to try and find a means of learning the route that the escort would take, so that he might even then try and intercept the prisoners’ carriages. ”

“ There was no time for the captain to say more—no opportunity offered for Frank to make any indignant retort concerning the truth. For the curtain was held back, the door opened, and Captain Murray led the way in, slowly followed by his prisoner, who advanced firmly enough toward where the Prince sat, his Royal Highness turning his eyes upon him at once with a most portentous frown.
“Well, sir,” he said at once, “so I find that I have fresh bad news of you. You are beginning early in life. Not content with what has passed, you have now turned traitor.” ”

“ Go now.—Murray, old lad, see them off, and then come to my quarters.”
“Oh, Sir Robert,” whispered Andrew, clinging to his hand, and speaking in a low, passionate voice, “I am glad. That did me good.”
“What! You understood his words?”
“I? No.”
“That’s right! Go now, Frank boy. One moment, my lad. You are suddenly called upon to act like a man.”
“Yes, father! What do you want me to do?”
“Keep silence, my lad. Not a word about this must reach your mother’s ears.”
“Come, Frank, my lad,” said Captain Murray gently. “You are better away from here.” ”

“ I was; but it’s all gone.”
“Hah!” said the captain, gripping him by the shoulder; “you’re your father’s own boy, Frank. I like that, but I can’t have it. You accepted the invitation, and I want you, my lad. Never mind Andrew Forbes; he only requires time to cool down. He’ll be ready to shake hands in the morning. Come, or we shall get in disgrace for being late.”
Frank was marched off to the messroom; but he felt as if every mouthful would choke him, and that he would have given anything to have gone and shared Andrew Forbes’s confinement, even if he had only received hard words for his pains. ”

“ For nature is inexorable when the human frame needs rest, or men would not sleep peacefully in the full knowledge that it must be their last repose on earth.
Five minutes after, his door was softly opened, a figure glided through the gloom to his bedside, and bent over him, like a dimly seen shadow, to catch him by the shoulder.
“Frank! Frank! Here, quick! Wake up!” ”

“ Frank, your mother must know, and if she waits she will get a garbled account. Go to her as soon as you get to the Palace, and tell her everything—the simple truth. I am not hurt much—only a flesh wound, which will soon heal.”
“And if she asks me why you fought, father,” whispered Frank, “what am I to say?”
Sir Robert frowned heavily, and turned sharply to gaze in his son’s eyes.
“Frank boy,” he said, “you are beginning trouble early; but you must try and think and act like a man. When I go, your place is at your mother’s side.” ”

“ Because the Whigs have brought in a king that the people do not like. There, don’t talk about it any more now. I want to sit still and think.”
Frank respected his companion’s silence, and thankful at having escaped from the heat and pressure of the crowd, he sat gazing at the moving panorama on either side, enjoying the novelty of his position.
His musings upon what he saw were interrupted by his companion, who repeated his former words suddenly in a low, thoughtful voice, but one full of annoyance, as if the words were rankling in his memory. ”

“ I only saw that two other gentlemen were in the carriage with my father. I only had eyes for him.”
“That’s natural enough,” said Drew; “I hardly saw your father till we got them all out of the carriages, chained hand and foot. Oh, what miserable, cowardly tyranny! Gentlemen, prisoners of war, treated like thieves and murderers! Poor fellows! they could do nothing to help themselves.”
“But you rescued one,” said Frank. “Is he safe?”
“Safe as safe,” cried Drew joyously.
“Ah!” said Frank with a sigh, “you are very loyal to your Prince.”
“I don’t know so much about that, old lad. ”

“ His Majesty’s commands were that Sir Robert should leave his service, and seek a home out of England. It is our duty to obey. And now listen to me, Mr Andrew Forbes, and you too, Frank Gowan; and if I speak sternly, remember it is from a desire to advise my old comrade’s son and his companion for the best. A still tongue maketh a wise head. But I am not going to preach at you; and it is better that you should take it to heart—you in particular, Andrew Forbes, for you occupy a peculiar position here. ”

“ He spoke out loudly now, but repented the next moment, for fear that he should have dared his companion to execute his threat.
“Coward!” cried Andrew. “The miserable German usurper who has banished your father!”
“You said that you knew I was not a coward.”
“Then I retract it. You are if you try to hang back now.”
“Call me what you like, I’ll have nothing to do with it. They don’t want boys.”
“They do—every one; and you must come and fight.”
“Indeed!”
“Yes, or be punished as a traitor.”
“Let them come and punish me, then,” said Frank hotly. “I wear a sword, and I know how to use it.” ”

“ Frank shivered, and glanced at his father’s sword and pistols.
“Loaded, father?” he said in a whisper. “Yes, boy.”
“And is your sword sharp?”
“As sharp as the cutler could make it. And I know how to use it, Frank; but a man who carries a sword—if he is a man—is like a bee with its sting; he will not use it save at the last extremity. ”

“ Frank’s hand darted to his sword, but Andrew did not stir. He stood with his lids half closed and his lips compressed, staring firmly at his would-be assailant, never flinching for a moment, nor removing his eyes from those which literally glowed with anger.
“The cough’s gone, Frank, and the disguise might as well go with it. He is not an invalid, but one of the vile, treacherous ruffians in the pay of the Government. Let your blade alone; he daren’t strike, for fear of having a sword through his miserable carcass. ”

“ But in the hurry and excitement of the time, the pass from the Palace and the military uniform the captain wore went for nothing, the dense mass of Grenadiers stood firm, and very few minutes sufficed for the prisoners to be passed in and the gates closed. A strong force of infantry was stationed within and without, for the authorities dreaded an attack upon the prison; and the regiment of dragoons that had been detailed to meet the escort and guard the road to Islington patrolled the approaches, while the rest marched off to their quarters amidst the hooting and yelling of the crowd. ”

“ Captain Murray walked with him to the door, made a sign to the sentry, who drew back to stand at attention, and the boy began to descend.
“How long may I stay, sir?” he asked.
“As long as Lady Gowan wishes; but be back before dark.”
“Poor old Drew!” thought Frank, as he hurried across to the courtyard upon which his mother’s apartments opened; “it’s a deal worse for him than it is for me. But he’s half mad with his rightful-king ideas, and ready to say or do anything to help them on. But to say such a thing as that about my father! Oh!” ”