Georgette Heyer (13 page)

  Charles, yielding to the other's will, disposed himself along the branch, sustained by Carlis's strong arm holding him. 'Very comfortable,' he said drowsily. 'But you, my poor friend?'

  'Also, sir.'

  'I should warn you I think these clothes I wear are lousy.'

  Carlis grinned. 'Never say so, sir!'

  'Well, they stink,' said Charles. 'Odd rot you, do you laugh at my sufferings?'

  'Yes, sir, to save myself from weeping,' Carlis answered, looking down at the stained face on his knee. 'Who made your Majesty's skin of that reechy complexion?'

  'Mrs Wolfe, with walnut leaves. Old Wolfe was afraid for his life, so I stayed in a barn, in the hay. Mrs Wolfe brought food to us there.'

  'I warrant you were glad of it.'

  'Yes, I was always a very gross feeder,' said Charles.

  'Well, it must needs take a deal to support this frame of yours, sir,' remarked Carlis. 'Do you know that you are an uncon scionably big fellow, my liege?'

  'Ay, for my sins. There have been many tall men in my family. My cousin Rupert is a very giant.'

  'They say your Majesty's great-grandmother, the Queen of Scots, was a tall woman.'

  'Talk not to me of any Scot,' said the King. He opened his eyes, and Carlis saw them brimming with amusement. 'Argyll had it in mind to match me with his daughter!'

  'Oho! And how liked your Majesty that pretty plot?'

  'Very ill. But I did not say so. I wondered that so godly a man should wish to see his daughter wedded to the depraved fellow I am.'

  Carlis smiled down at him. 'So young and so depraved?'

  'He thinks it. But when I wed, it will not be with a Campbell. Are you married, Carlis?'

  'Nay, nay, not I, sir! I have been too busy fighting all my life.'

  The big mouth curled, 'So? I'll swear you found time to beget a few bastards!'

  Carlis laughed. 'Why, as to that, sir, I believe you may be right, but so far none have come forward to claim me!'

  'You are a bad father,' said Charles, closing his eyes again. 'I have a fine son of my own. He is at nurse in Rotterdam. And that other one –' He roused himself with a jerk. 'What was I saying?'

  'You are three parts asleep sir.'

  'Oh, more than that!' Charles said. He lay silent for a time, until Carlis, wondering whether he had indeed fallen asleep, bent over him to look into his face. But the King's eyes were open, and he said: 'I wish I knew if Hamilton were alive. He was wounded, badly, I think. They told me he was carried into the Commandery.'

  He sounded unhappy; Carlis replied: 'That was true, but what afterwards became of him I know not.'

  'He was my friend,' Charles said. 'Argyll removed him, but he advised me to consent to his banishment, since in Argyll he thought all my hopes lay. I know now that there was never any hope for me with that party. Argyll would have shackled me so fast – why, when I visited the army, and Argyll saw that I was becoming too great with the soldiers, he carried me away in a fright! None but Argyll must be great in Scotland. And then they had another fast-day.'

  'Why?' asked Carlis.

  'Because of the army's self-confidence and profane ness,' replied Charles, in a voice drugged with sleep.

  'My child, I think you are dreaming,' said Carlis softly.

  'No, it's quite true. And when they had taken me away to Dunfermline, they set about the purging.' A little laugh shook him. 'Eighty officers, and four thou sand men they purged from the army!'

  'This sounds to me like madness, sir. Why should they do so?'

  'Why, because they were ungodly, man! That was why Cromwell beat them at Dunbar – in part. He should not have done so. But the ministers were still busy with their purging, and Leslie –' He broke off; Carlis saw his face harden. After a little pause, he said: 'They scolded God for permitting His Covenanters to be defeated – those of them who did not blame them selves for not purging the army more strictly. But
that
was soon remedied. Also I repented me again of my many sins.'

  The bitter mockery in his voice made Carlis lay a hand upon his short, tangled locks. 'Poor lad! Tales were told in England, but I think no one believed the half of them.'

  'They sent away the chiefest of my advisers,' the King went on, in a voice thickened by drowsiness. 'And those whom I most loved, of course. It seems a long time ago. I remember I was very lonely, and repented me in good earnest that ever I had set foot in the bleak, unfriendly country. But I signed the Covenant, I swore to observe every Article; I listened to their sermons; and I was gracious to their canting ministers – all, all to one end, which at last they were bound to perform.' His eyelids were dropping, a smile played round his mouth; he said, so softly that Carlis had to bend over him to catch the words: 'They crowned me, at Scone, and that not even Argyll can undo.'

  He did not speak again, nor did Carlis return any answer. Presently he knew by the King's deeper breathing that he slept. He sat very still, leaning his shoulders against the tree-trunk, one arm keeping the King from falling, and his attention divided between the dark head on his knee and the view of the surrounding country to be obtained through the thick foliage.

  As the morning wore on, there was enough move ment to be observed to keep him on the alert. The rough lane that ran from the highway from Tong to Brewood, past Boscobel House to White-Ladies, was visible from where he sat, and several people passed down it. He saw Richard plodding along, shoul dering his wood-bill as though going about his rightful business; and a little while later caught a glimpse of Humphrey, the miller. Nearer at hand, Dame Joan was to all appearances busy with a nut-hook, collecting sticks for kindling, with William not far away upon the same errand. Then a troop of horse came into sight from the direction of Brewood. They did not check, but rode on towards White-Ladies.

  Some time elapsed; the Major's right arm was aching from shoulder to wrist, but he dared not move it from about the King. He did what he could to ease it, but cautiously, for fear of waking Charles, who was sunk in a heavy sleep. He watched William Penderel work towards the edge of Spring Coppice, and presently disappear into it. William came back presently with a load of faggots, walking with a leisurely gait, and passed under the pollarded oak. He did not look up, but he said clearly: 'Soldiers searching in the wood.' Before long, Carlis caught sight of a red-coat amongst the tree-trunks. Shortly afterwards, one or two soldiers appeared, skirting the Coppice. They saw William and hailed him, and after gaping stupidly for a minute he shambled over to them. They were too far off for Carlis to hear what passed between them, but he saw William scratch his head as though puzzled, and then point towards Boscobel; and smiled to himself. Appar ently the soldiers were satisfied, for William soon left them, and went on gathering his bundles of wood, roping them together, and carrying them across the field to the house.

  By this time, Carlis's arm had ceased to ache, but a dangerous numbness was stealing down it, making it impossible for him to hold the King much longer. The soldiers, straying over the field in the indeterminate manner of men at a loss to know where to look for their quarry, were some of them close enough to the big oak tree to cause him a good deal of anxiety. He bent over the King, and softly spoke his name, but Charles did not stir. Finding him too sound asleep to be wakened by such gentle means, Carlis slid a hand over his mouth and with the little power remaining in the fingers of his right hand, pinched him shrewdly. The King woke with a start, and a half-dreaming exclamation, stifled by the hand clamped across his mouth. Carlis whispered: 'Quiet! There are soldiers near.'

  The King's eyes, filmy with sleep, looked up at him, a little dazed. He blinked once or twice, and then raised his hand to Carlis's, and pulled it away from his mouth, and struggled up, holding fast to a stout branch. Having peeped through the leaves at his enemies, and ascertained that they were not close enough to overhear him, he said with a twinkle: 'Fie, what a way to use me! I thought Noll Cromwell himself had me in his grip.'

  'I cry pardon, sir! I dared not speak loud enough to waken you, and so was forced to take the liberty of pinching your Majesty,' said Carlis, rubbing his benumbed arm back to life.

  'I think that is lèse majesté,' remarked the King, cautiously parting the branches a little, to enable him to watch the movements of the red-coats on the outskirts of the coppice.

  'I fear it, I fear it! But to have let your sacred person fall out of the tree, as I promise you I was in danger of doing, would have been a worse crime!'

  'Oh, that would have been treason,' said the King. He made himself as comfortable as he could on his branch, and added: 'You should have wakened me before. Now if we had something to eat, how well housed we should be!'

  'But we have, sir,' said Carlis, thrusting a hand into the pocket of his leather coat. 'Your Majesty forgets that I am an old soldier!'

  'Carlis, I swear you shall be knighted for this!' the King exclaimed, watching him produce from his pocket some slices of bread and cheese, wrapped up in a clean cloth.

  'When your Majesty comes into your own, I shall petition for the right to bear a coat-of-arms,' said Carlis, holding out the bread and cheese to him.

  'It shall be granted to you,' promised the King. He took some of the food and waved the rest away. 'Eat it yourself – nay, that is a command, my friend! What will you have upon the shield?'

  'An oak proper,' replied Carlis promptly. 'In a field – in a field or.'

  'With a fesse gules charged with three regal crowns! And your crest?'

  'Nay, your Majesty shall decide.'

  The King took a large bite out of his bread. 'A garland, of course. An oaken garland with two swords – no, a sword and a sceptre, crossed through it saltirewise. And your name shall be changed from Carlis to Carlos, signifying Charles.'

  'I am very willing. And my motto, sir?'

  The King shook his head. 'Alas, I am no scholar. It should be in Latin. How like you Servant and Saviour?'

  'What, with bread and cheese, sir?'

  The King laughed, but said: 'I believe I was in despair when you came to me last night, Carlis, for it seemed that all my friends were lost to me.'

  'Ay, you are partaking of adventures which I think no King of England partook of before you, sir,' agreed Carlis.

  'I was reared as I'll swear no King was before me,' said Charles, with his mouth full. 'Did you ever hear how my brother James and I saw the battle of Edgehill when we were mere lads? We were in the custody of Dr Harvey at that time, James being nine years old and myself something over twelve. He withdrew with us under a hedge, being warned to have most strict care of us, as you may suppose; but, poor man, he was more interested in the cutting up of frogs and toads than in warfare, and soon pulled out a book from his pocket, and buried his nose in it! It was not till a cannon shot came near to blowing us all to perdition that he remembered his charge, and where he stood. I leave it to you to imagine how swiftly we were whisked off then, the good doctor's hair verily standing on end with his horror!' He chuckled at the memory, and added: 'But it was not long before the King my father sent me into the west, to unboy me. I liked it best when I was in Jersey.' He finished the last of his bread and cheese, and said with a touch of youthful eagerness: 'Do you like sailing, Carlis? I could be well content with a bare acre of land, if only the seas and a stout yacht were mine. I had one made for me at St Malo, the perfect model of a pinnace! She was of great length fore and aft, with two masts and twelve pairs of oars. I would let none steer her but myself. Those were the happiest days I have known; perhaps the happiest I shall ever know.'

  He ended on a sigh. Carlis said: 'Comfort you, sir; you will have other and finer yachts, besides a whole navy to call your own.'

  'Maybe.' He looked down out of the tree, and saw that the soldiers were no longer in sight. 'They seem all to have drawn off. My good friend William is approaching us now.'

  In a minute or two, William stood under the tree, and informed the King that the soldiers, after ques tioning him closely and observing that no watch was being kept in Boscobel House, seemed satisfied that he was not concealing the King, or any other fugitive, and had retired to prosecute more strictly their search through the woods. He thought, however, that the King ought not to descend from his hiding-place until dusk. Charles said promptly that he was willing to stay where he was, but that he was very thirsty. So William, after considering for a moment, nodded his head, and slouched off to the house. When he returned, it was with a bottle of sack, which he contrived to hand up to Carlis on the end of his nut-hook.

  'And now,' said the King, deftly knocking the top off the bottle, 'we have nothing left to wish for. Your health, Carlis!'