Part 27 (2/2)
Harry sallied out into the lane, keeping by the side of his guide, with his head bent forward, and his eyes on the ground, walking, as far as he could, with a listless gait. The old woman continued to chatter to him in Romaic. There were many people about in the lane, but none paid any heed to them. Harry did not look up, but turned with his guide down several lanes, until they at length emerged on the quays. Saying she would call next day at his hotel for the reward he had promised her, she left him, and Harry, with his head full of the plot against Cromwell's life, crossed at once to the vessels by the quay.
”Is any s.h.i.+p sailing for the Thames to-day?” he asked.
”Yes,” the sailor said. ”The Mary Anne is just hoisting her anchor now, out there in midstream. You will be but just in time, for the anchor's under her foot.”
Harry sprang into a boat and told the waterman to row to the s.h.i.+p. The latter stared in astonishment at the authoritative manner in which this gypsy addressed him, but Harry thrust his hand into his pocket, and showed him some silver.
”Quick, man,” he said, ”for she is moving. You will have double fare to put me on board.”
The man pulled vigorously, and they were soon alongside the brig.
”Halloo! what now?” the captain said, looking over the side.
”I want a pa.s.sage to England, and will pay you your own price.”
”You haven't been killing any one, have you?” the captain asked. ”I don't want to have trouble when I come back here, for carrying off malefactors.”
”No, indeed,” Harry said, as he lightly leaped on the deck. ”I am Sir Harry Furness, though I may not look it, and am bound to England on urgent business. It is all right, my good fellow, and here is earnest money for my pa.s.sage,” and he placed two pieces of gold in the captain's hand.
”That will do,” the captain said. ”I will take you.”
Harry went to the side.
”Here, my man, is your money, and a crown piece beside. Go to the Hotel des Etoiles and ask for the English officer who is there lying sick.
Tell him Colonel Furness has been forced to leave for England at a moment's notice, but will be back by the first s.h.i.+p.”
The man nodded, and rowed back to sh.o.r.e as the Mary Anne, with her sails hoisted, ran down the river.
Never did a voyage appear longer to an anxious pa.s.senger than did that of the Mary Anne to England. The winds were light and baffling, and at times the Mary Anne scarce moved through the water. Harry had no love for Cromwell. Upon the contrary, he regarded him as the deadliest enemy of the king, and moreover personally hated him for the cruel ma.s.sacre of Drogheda. In battle he would have gladly slain him, but he was determined to save him from a.s.sa.s.sination. He felt the man to be a great Englishman, and knew that it was greatly due to his counsels that so little English blood had been shed upon the scaffold. Most of all, he thought that his a.s.sa.s.sination would injure the royal cause. The time was not yet ripe for a restoration. England had shown but lately that there existed no enthusiasm for the royal cause. At Cromwell's death the chief power would fall into the hands of fanatics more dangerous and more violent than he. His murder would be used as a weapon for a wholesale persecution of the Royalists throughout the land, and would create such a prejudice against them that the inevitable reaction in favor of royalty would be r.e.t.a.r.ded for years. Full of these thoughts, Harry fretted and fumed over the slow progress of the Mary Anne. Late on Sat.u.r.day night she entered the mouth of the Thames, and anch.o.r.ed until the tide turned. Before daybreak she was on her way, and bore up on the tide as far as Gravesend, when she had again to anchor. Harry obtained a boat and was rowed to sh.o.r.e. In his present appearance, he did not like to go to one of the princ.i.p.al inns for a horse, but entering a small one on the outskirts of the place, asked the landlord if he could procure him a horse.
”I am not what I seem,” he said, in answer to his host's look of surprise. ”But I have urgent need to get to London this evening. I will pay well for the horse, and will leave this ring with you as a guarantee for his safe return.”
”I have not a horse myself,” the landlord said, with more respect than he had at first shown; ”but I might get one from my neighbor Harry Fletcher, the butcher. Are you willing to pay a guinea for his use?
Fletcher will drive you himself.”
Harry agreed to the sum, and a quarter of an hour later the man, with a light horse and cart, came to the door.
”You are a strange-looking carle,” he said, ”to be riding on a Sunday in haste; I scarce like being seen with thee.”
”I have landed but an hour ago,” Harry said, ”and can buy no clothes to-day; but if you or mine host here, who is nearer my size, have a decent suit which you can sell me, I will pay you double the sum it cost.”
The landlord at once agreed to the terms, and five minutes later Harry, clad in the sober garb of a decent tradesman, mounted the cart. The horse was not a fast one, and the roads were bad. It was nigh six o'clock before they reached London. Paying Fletcher the sum agreed upon, Harry walked rapidly westward. Cromwell was abiding in a house in Pall Mall. Upon Harry arriving there he was asked his business.
”The general is ill,” the servant said, ”and can see no one.”
”I must see him,” Harry urged. ”It is a matter of the extremest importance.”
<script>