Georgette Heyer (45 page)

  'Oh, get up, man, get up!' said Charles. 'Never kneel to me! What news do you bring me? How does my Lord Wilmot?'

  'Well,' said Phelips, rising to his feet, 'I doubt he is in good health, but he can't be at ease, sir. Mr Coventry was telling me that he mislikes his quarters too much to bide in them, the King's Arms being a place well-known to harbour us Cavaliers. But I have a deal to tell your Majesty, and that's neither here not there.'

  'You shall tell me the whole presently, but first let me know this: shall I set sail for France?'

  'Ay, your Majesty, God willing!'

  'Why, that is excellent hearing, and calls for a glass of Frank Wyndham's sack!' declared the King.

  By the time several glasses of sack had been drunk, and the King had been prevailed upon to recount some of his adventures, Colonel Phelips had become quite at his ease, and was able to tell his own tidings as fluently as a naturally silent man could be expected to do. His brother, Robert Phelips, had not found it an easy task to hire a barque in Southampton, but after sundry vicissitudes he had compounded with the master of a sailing-vessel to carry two gentlemen to France for the sum of forty pounds. This had been accomplished through the agency of a merchant of his acquaintance, and the final arrangements were to be made upon the following Wednesday, when Robert Phelips and the mariner were to meet at the Bear Inn, beyond the gates of Southampton.

  'But I must tell your Majesty,' added Phelips, 'that my brother was forced to pay half the moneys to the master of the barque at once, the times being so charge able, and no man willing to risk aught save he feel the gold already tickling his palm. And this my lord was not very pleased at, misdoubting the master's honesty, which, however, I will vouch for, knowing him to be a decent fellow, very disposed towards your Majesty's cause.'

  The Colonel interrupted to ask how soon the master would be ready to set sail, but beyond saying that no extraordinary delay was anticipated, Phelips could give him no definite answer, the date of sailing being one of the details to be agreed upon at the Bear Inn on Wednesday.

  The King seemed to be satisfied with this. He enquired after my Lord Wilmot, which made Phelips scratch his head, and wrinkle his brow as he tried to render a coherent account of my lord's starts.

  He left both the King and Wyndham with a hazy picture of my lord's calling upon first this loyal gentleman and then that to render all the assistance that lay in their power. Besides Mr John Coventry and old Dr Henchman, he seemed to have summoned to his side one Lawrence Hyde, of Hinton Daubnay, who was a cousin of the King's Chancellor, Sir Edward Hyde; and a Mr Henslow, of Burchant, who, in his turn, had drawn into the affair the Earl of Southampton.

  'Oddsfish!' exclaimed the King, with a comical lift of one eyebrow, 'how many more heads does Harry mean to thrust into my noose?'

  'Into your noose, sir?' repeated Phelips, bewildered and a little shocked.

  'Why, yes,' said the King, 'for to render me the least assistance is to place your head in a noose, or to receive a bullet through your chest: I know not which.'

  Upon the following morning, Colonel Phelips took leave of the King, and rode back to Salisbury. Since matters now seemed to be in good train for the King's escape out of the country, Colonel Wyndham thought it advisable to recall Captain Littleton from his search for a likely vessel at some other Hampshire port, and to depend upon the success of Robert Phelips's plans.

  Two days later, on Wednesday, 1st October, another messenger arrived from Salisbury, in the person of one Mr John Selleck, who announced himself to be Mr Coventry's chaplain.

  He was a nervous little man, very zealous to serve the King, but fearful of betraying him through some unwit ting slip or carelessness. He told Colonel Wyndham that he had been at pains to approach Trent by devious and unfrequented roads; and spoke in hushed tones, as though he suspected spies to be lurking even in the Colonel's sunny parlour. He had brought with him a letter in cypher from my Lord Wilmot, which had been rolled into a pellet no bigger than a musket-ball. 'To be swallowed at need!' he whispered.

  This made the King laugh, but Wyndham, spreading the paper out, applauded such caution, and said that if his Majesty desired to send a message back to my lord it should be in the same fashion. While he transcribed the cyphered letter, the King leaned on the back of his chair, looking over his shoulder. It was soon discov ered that my lord wrote not from the King's Arms at Salisbury, but from Hinton Daubnay, the home of Mr Lawrence Hyde. 'And where the devil may that be?' demanded the King, raising his head, and bending an enquiring look upon the chaplain.

  Mr Selleck made him a little bow. 'It is not far from Hambledon, if it please your Majesty, and near to the coast, about thirty miles from Salisbury, as I judge – to the south-east, of course.'

  'Thirty miles from Salisbury!' said the King in lively astonishment. 'What in the name of all that's wonderful took my lord so far from Salisbury?'

  'If it please your Majesty, my lord rode over to take counsel of Mr Hyde,' replied the chaplain, with another bow. 'My lord deemed his lodging in Salisbury too public, and Mr Hyde's house being very conve nient, and Mr Hyde pressing him to remain there, he thought it wisest to be gone from Salisbury.'

  'My lord in the toils of his own alarms!' said Wyndham scornfully, under his breath.

  'Fie on you, Frank, you are too severe!' said the King, with a chuckle. He bent again over the Colonel's shoulder. 'What's this? I am to lodge where?'

  'At Heale, the home of Mrs Hyde, a few miles north of Salisbury,' replied the Colonel, after wres tling with the cypher for a moment or two. 'Who is Mrs Hyde, Mr Selleck?'

  'A very trustworthy gentlewoman, sir, I do assure you, the relict of Mr Lawrence Hyde of Heale.'

  The King blinked. 'The relict? I thought my lord was the guest of Lawrence Hyde?'

  'Oh no, your Majesty! That is to say, yes, your Majesty. But Mr Lawrence Hyde of Hinton Daubnay is but the nephew of Mr Lawrence Hyde, deceased, of Heale, being the son of Nicholas Hyde, that was the eighth son of Sir Lawrence Hyde, a worshipful knight that was an uncle of Sir Edward Hyde, your Majesty's Chancellor.'

  The King flung up his hands. 'No more, I beseech you, Mr Selleck! You have named me three Lawrence Hydes already, and my poor head reels.'

  'But two are deceased, your Majesty,' explained the chaplain helpfully.

  'I give them thanks. What more, Frank?'

  The Colonel, who had by this time finished his tran scription, rose, and gave it to the King. Charles read it, remarking, when he came to the end: 'My lord is mighty urgent to convey me to Heale, it seems. I wish he had sent me tidings of the ship which is to carry me to France.' A cough from the chaplain made him look up. 'Well, Mr Selleck?'

  'Mr Coventry, sir, charged me most particularly to assure your Majesty that he and Colonel Robert Phelips are hopeful of all being in train for your Majesty's setting sail next week. And this also I am commanded to say, that Mr Coventry thinks your Majesty may lie safe in Mrs Hyde's house, Heale being distant from Salisbury a few miles, and very secluded.'

  'I think myself safe where I am,' replied the King, sitting down at the table, and picking up the Colonel's pen. 'Give me that cypher of yours, Frank: I must send Harry an answer to his letter. I shall tell him not to seek to remove me from your house until he is sure of a vessel to carry us both to France. I have had my fill of wandering about the country.'

  The Colonel watched his hand travel across the paper, filling it with his bold characters, with the cypher numbers lavishly interspersed between the words. There was a little trouble in his face, and after a moment's reflection, he said slowly: 'I think my lord's advice is wise, sir. It is in my mind that too many people know of your presence in my house.'

  The King paused, raising his head, and looking medi tatively at the Colonel. 'Would any of them betray me, think you?'

  'Nay, I think not, but how can I be sure of it, sir? When too many persons share a secret, it is a secret no longer, and I own to some uneasiness. Besides myself and my family, there are three servants who know you, and beyond the walls of this house there is my uncle, Sir Hugh Wyndham, who has a shrewd notion that you are here; Giles Strangways, who knows it for certain; and now Littleton, whom we sent into Hampshire. Furthermore, sir, the rebels had wind of your having been at Charmouth. It is my constant dread that at any moment they may descend upon us, and ransack the house in the hope of finding you here.'

  The King sighed. 'Well, then, I must truss up my baggage and be off, I suppose; for I would not play the knave so grossly as to bring you into danger of your life, my poor Frank.'

  'We are not talking of my life, dear sir, but of yours, which is of a little more importance, believe me!'

  'Indeed, sir,' ventured the chaplain, 'it will be a strange thing if the vessel Colonel Phelips has hired does not take your Majesty off.'

  'A great many strange things have befallen me in the past month, Mr Selleck,' said the King somewhat dryly.

  The chaplain rode back to Salisbury upon the following morning, bearing the King's letter to my Lord Wilmot, and the King resigned himself to another period of waiting.

  Since the Wyndhams dared not let him step outside the apartments set aside for his use, he was unable to stretch his legs, except by walking up and down his room, a restriction which he found hard to bear with patience. To his hosts, he was invariably cheerful, making light of his troubles; but when he was alone the weight upon his spirits occasionally overpowered him, and he would sit lost in gloom, unable to see any hope in the future. With a bitter curl to his lips, he reflected that those who begged him not to risk his person could scarcely have looked ahead to see what he saw so clearly: a life worn out in exile. At other times, the optimism of youth would assert itself, and he would think that although his twenty-one troubled years had culminated in the crushing defeat of Worcester, he would yet prevail over his enemies, and one day ascend his throne. Nothing of his hope or of his despair would he confide to his hosts. He had learned to keep his own counsel.

  As the days dragged past, he began to fret inwardly at his inaction. No soldiers rode into Trent to search for him, but rumours of his presence in Somerset were flying about the countryside, and he knew that it was time he slipped out of the country. When, upon the following Sunday, the 5th October, Colonel Robert Phelips arrived at Trent, he greeted him with hardly restrained eagerness, and, giving him his hand, asked swiftly: 'What tidings do you bring me? Where is my lord?'

  'Sir, I am come to beg you will remove to Heale,' replied Phelips.

  'Well, and so I will, but what of the vessel which is to carry me to France?'

  'Alas, sir, all our schemes have miscarried,' said Phelips heavily. 'When the master of that vessel came to the appointed place on Wednesday, it was but to tell me that his barque had been pressed to carry provisions to Blake's Fleet, which is lying before Jersey.' He saw the King's underlip begin to pout, and added: 'I would not have your Majesty despair, however. Dr Henchman has put my Lord Wilmot in the way of finding other means whereby you may escape out of England.'

  'What are these means?'

  'There is a very honest man living at Racton, by Chichester, sir, with whom Dr Henchman is well acquainted, and who, we believe, may help your Majesty to a ship at some port in Sussex. He is one Colonel George Gounter, who married Kate Hyde, that was sister to Lawrence Hyde of Heale. We believe him to have interest with sea-faring men, and my lord will go to Racton, with your Majesty's permission, to solicit his aid.'

  'What security for his Majesty is there at Heale?' demanded Wyndham.

  'The best, for Dr Henchman knows of a secret hiding-place there, which, in case of a surprise, his Majesty may enter into.'

  'And how many more know of it?'

  Colonel Phelips regarded him solidly. 'None but those who wish his Majesty well.'

  'I like it not!' Wyndham said impulsively.

  A faint smile warmed the King's eyes. 'Nay, but it was yourself told me I should go to Heale, Frank.'

  'When I supposed you would be upon your journey to Southampton, sir! Does this Mrs Hyde know that it is the King who comes to her house?'

  Colonel Phelips shook his head. 'She has been apprised only of a distressed Cavalier's being wishful to find safe shelter for a space, Dr Henchman not choosing to take it upon himself to disclose the secret without his Majesty's leave. But I warrant her to be a very staunch, loyal gentlewoman, and one whom his Majesty may depend upon.' His rather dull eyes trav elled from Wyndham's face to the King's. He added: 'If your Majesty will be pleased to go with me, it will be more convenient than your Majesty's remaining so far removed from Salisbury. I have made a particular study of the roads, and will engage to lead your Majesty by very safe ways.'

  The King nodded. 'I will go with you.'