Part 7 (1/2)

Prince Rupert, dreading above all things to be taken prisoner, and seeing that resistance would be, as their hostess said, vain, followed her into an adjoining room hung with arras. Lifting this, she showed a large stone. Beneath it, on the floor was a tile, in no way differing from the others. She pressed it, and the stone, which was but slight, turned on a hinge, and disclosed an iron door. This she opened with a spring, showing a small room within, with a ladder leading to another above.

”Mount that,” she said. ”You will find in the chamber above a large stone. Pull the ladder up with you and lower the stone, which exactly fits into the opening. Even should they discover this chamber, they will not suspect that another lies above it.”

Prince Rupert, taking a light from her hands, hastily mounted, followed by Harry, and pulled the steps after him, just as they heard the iron door close. It needed the united strength of the prince and Harry to lift the stone, which was a large one, with an iron ring in the center, and to place it in the cavity. Having done this, they looked round. The room was about eight feet long by six wide, and lighted by a long narrow loophole extending from the ground to the roof. They deemed from its appearance that it was built in one of the turrets of the building.

”That was a narrow escape, Master Harry,” the prince said. ”It would have been right bad news for my royal uncle if I had been caught here like a rat in a trap. I wonder we heard nothing of a Roundhead force in this neighborhood. I suppose that they must have been stationed at some place further north, and that the news of our pa.s.sing reached them. I trust that they have no suspicion that we are in the house; but I fear, from this sudden attack upon an undefended building, that some spy from the village must have taken word to them.”

Lady Sidmouth had just time to return to the hall when the doors gave way, and a body of Roundheads burst into the room. They had drawn swords in their hands, and evidently expected an attack. They looked round with surprise at seeing only Lady Sidmouth and her daughter.

”Where is the malignant Rupert?” the leader exclaimed. ”We have sure news that he rode, attended by an officer only, hither, and that he was seen to enter your house.”

”If you want Prince Rupert, you must find him,” the lady said calmly.

”I say not that he has not been here; but I tell you that he is now beyond your reach.”

”He has not escaped,” the officer said, ”for the house is surrounded.

Now, madam, I insist upon your telling me where you have hidden him.”

”I have already told you, sir, that he is beyond your reach, and nothing that you can do will wring any further explanation from me.”

The officer hesitated. For a moment he advanced a step toward her, with a menacing gesture. But, heated as the pa.s.sions of men were, no violence was done to women, and with a fierce exclamation he ordered his troopers to search the house. For a quarter of an hour they ransacked it high and low, overturned every article of furniture, pulling down the arras, and tapping the walls with the hilts of their swords.

”Take these two ladies away,” he said to his lieutenant, ”and ride with them at once to Storton. They will have to answer for having harbored the prince.”

The ladies were immediately taken off, placed on pillions behind two troopers, and carried away to Storton. In the meantime the search went on, and presently the hollow sound given by the slab in the wall was noticed. The spring could not be discovered, but crowbars and hammers being brought, the slab of stone was presently s.h.i.+vered. The discovery of the iron door behind it further heightened their suspicion that the place of concealment was found. The door, after a prolonged resistance, was battered in. But the Roundheads were filled with fury, on entering, to discover only a small, bare cell, with no signs of occupation whatever. The search was now prolonged in other directions; but, becoming convinced that it was useless, and that the place of concealment was too cunningly devised to admit of discovery, the captain ordered the furniture to be piled together, and setting light to it and the arras in several places, withdrew his men from the house, saying that if a rat would not come out of his hole, he must be smoked in it.

The prince and Harry from their place of concealment had heard the sound of blows against the doors below.

”They have found the way we have gone,” the prince said, ”but I think not that their scent is keen enough to trace us up here. If they do so, we will sell our lives dearly, for I will not be taken prisoner, and sooner or later our troop will hear of the Roundheads' attack, and will come to our rescue.”

They heard the fall of the iron door, and the exclamations and cries with which the Roundheads broke into the room below. Then faintly they heard the sound of voices, and m.u.f.fled knocks, as they tried the walls.

Then all was silent again.

”The hounds are thrown off the scent,” the prince said. ”It will need a clever huntsman to put them on it. What will they do next, I wonder?”

Some time pa.s.sed, and then Harry exclaimed:

”I perceive a smell of something burning, your royal highness.”

”Peste! methinks I do also,” the prince said. ”I had not thought of that. If these rascals have set fire to the place we shall be roasted alive here.”

A slight wreath of smoke was seen curling up through the crevice of the tightly-fitting stone.

”We will leap out, and die sword in hand,” the prince said; and seizing the ring, he and Harry pulled at it. Ere they raised the stone an inch, a volume of dense smoke poured up, and they at once dropped it into its place again, feeling that their retreat was cut off. The prince put his sword in its scabbard.

”We must die, my lad,” he said. ”A strange death, too, to be roasted in a trap. But after all, whether by that or the thrust of a Roundhead sword makes little difference in the end. I would fain have fallen in the field, though.”

”Perhaps,” Harry suggested, ”the fire may not reach us here. The walls are very thick, and the chamber below is empty.”

The prince shook his head.