In Honour's Cause Part 66

"Humph! Ah, yes, I see what you mean," said the captain quietly.

"Well, come. You are half a soldier, Frank, and the Prince is a soldier, I want you to come and speak out to him, and apologise as you did to me--like a man."

"Yes, sir," replied Frank, "that is what I wished to do."

"Then forward!" cried the captain. "Let's make our charge, even if we are repulsed."

"Good-bye, and thank you, doctor," said Frank.

"What for? Pooh! nonsense, my lad; that's all right. And, I say, people generally come and see me when they want something, physic or plasters, or to have bullet holes stopped up, or arms and legs sewn on again. Don't you wait for anything of that sort, boy; you come sometimes for a friendly bit of chat."

Frank smiled gratefully, but shook his head as he followed Captain Murray out into the stable-yard.

"Come along, Frank; there's nothing like making a bold advance, and getting a trouble over. We may not be able to get an audience with so many officers coming and going; but I'll send in my name."

Frank followed him into the anteroom, the place looking strange to him, and seeming as if it were a year since he had been there last, a fancy a.s.sisted by the fact that some five-and-twenty officers, whose faces were strange, stood waiting their turns when Captain Murray sent in his name by a gentleman in attendance.

But, bad as the prospect looked, they did not have long to wait, for, at the end of about a quarter of an hour, the attendant came out, pa.s.sing over all those who looked up eagerly ready to answer to their names, and walked to where Captain Murray was seated talking in a low voice to Frank.

"His Royal Highness will see you at once, gentlemen."

Frank did not feel in the slightest degree nervous as he entered, but followed the captain with his head erect, ready to speak out and say that for which he had come, when the Prince condescended to hear; but he took no notice of the boy at first, raising his head at last from his writing, and saying:

"Well, Captain Murray, what news?"

"None, your Royal Highness," said the soldier bluffly. "I have only come to bring Frank Gowan, your page, before you."

"Eh? Oh yes. The boy who was so impudent, and told me I was no speaker of the truth."

"I beg your Royal Highness's pardon."

"And you ought, boy. What more have you to say?"

"That I was wrong, sir. I believed it could not be true. I have found out since that it was as you said."

"Hah! You ought always to believe what a royal personage says--eh, Murray?"

The captain bowed, and smiled grimly.

"Don't agree with me," said the Prince sharply. "Well, boy, you are very sorry, eh?"

"Yes, your Royal Highness, I am very sorry," said Frank firmly. "I know better now, and I apologise to you."

The Prince, moving himself round in his chair, frowning to hide a feeling of amus.e.m.e.nt, stared hard at the lad as if to look him down, and frowned in all seriousness as he found the boy looked him full in the eyes without a quiver of the lid.

"Humph! So you, my page, consider it your duty to come and apologise to me for doubting my word?"

"Yes, your Highness, and to ask your forgiveness."

"And suppose I refuse to give it to so bold and impudent a boy, what then?" and he gazed hard once more in the lad's flushing face.

"I should be very, very sorry, sir; for you and the Princess have been very good and kind to my poor mother and me."

"Yes, yes," said the Prince, "too kind, perhaps, to have such a return as--"

He stopped short as he saw a spasm contract the boy's features.

"But there," he continued, "you are not to blame, and I do forgive you, boy. I liked the bold, brave way in which you showed your belief in your father."

Captain Murray darted a quick glance at his young companion, as much as to say, "I told you so."

"Go on, my boy, as you have begun, and you will make a firm, strong, trustworthy man; and, goodness knows, we want them badly enough. There, I will not say any more--yes, I will one word, my boy. I am sorry that your father was not recalled some time back. He was a brave soldier, for whom I felt respect."

Frank could bear no more, and he bent his head to conceal the workings of his face.

"There, take him away, Murray, and keep him under your eye. There's good stuff in the boy, and we must get him a commission as soon as he is old enough."

"No, your Highness," said Frank, recovering himself.

"Eh? What?"

"I came to beg your Royal Highness's pardon, and to ask your permission for my mother and me to leave the royal service at once. We both feel that it is not the place for us now."

"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the Prince, frowning; "and I think differently.

Take him away, Murray; the boy is hurt--wounded now.--That will do, Gowan; go. No: I refuse absolutely. The Princess does not wish Lady Gowan to leave; and _I_ want _you_."

"There!" cried Captain Murray, as they crossed the courtyard on their way back to the officers' quarters; "it is what I expected of the Prince. You can't leave us unless you run away, Frank; and you've proved yourself too much of a gentleman for that. You see, everybody wants you here."

Frank could not trust himself to speak, for he was, in spite of his troubles, some years short of manhood and manhood's strength.

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

THE WORST NEWS.

Next morning Frank rose in his old quarters, firmly determined to keep to his decision. It was very kind and generous of the Prince, he felt; but his position would be intolerable, and his mother would not be able to bear an existence fraught with so much misery; and, full of the intention to see her and beg her to prevail on the Princess to let them leave, he waited his time.

But it did not come that day. He had to return to his duties in the Prince's anteroom, and at such times as he was free he found that his mother was engaged with her royal mistress.

The next day found him more determined than ever; but another, a greater, and more unexpected obstacle was in the way. He went to his mother's apartments, to find that, worn out with sorrow and anxiety, she had taken to her bed, and the Princess's physician had seen her and ordered complete rest, and that she should be kept free from every anxiety.

"How can I go now!" thought the boy; "and how can she be kept free from anxiety!"

It was impossible in both cases, while with the latter every sc.r.a.p of news would certainly be brought to her, for the Palace hummed with the excitement of the troubles in the north; and as the day glided by there came the news that the Earl of Mar had set up the standard of the Stuarts in Scotland, and proclaimed Prince James King of Great Britain; but the Pretender himself remained in France, waiting for the promised a.s.sistance of the French Government, which was slow in coming.

Still the Scottish n.o.bles worked hard in the Prince's cause, and by degrees the Earl of Mar collected an army of ten thousand fighting men, including the staunch Highlanders, who readily a.s.sumed claymore and target at the gathering of the clans.

It was over the English rising that Frank was the more deeply interested, and he eagerly hungered for every sc.r.a.p of news which was brought to the Palace, Captain Murray hearing nearly everything, and readily responding to the boy's questions, though he always shook his head and protested that it would do harm and unsettle him.