He sauntered across the room as if to get a light for his pipe, and said, in low tones: 

“Colonel Wyndham, I am Harry Furness.  Is there any way I can serve his majesty?”

“Ah!  Colonel Furness, I am glad to see you,” the king said heartily; “though if you are hunted as shrewdly as I am, your state is a perilous one.”

“The landlord is to be trusted,” Colonel Wyndham said.  “We had best call him in.  He said nothing before you, deeming you a stranger.”

The landlord was called in, and told Harry was a friend, whereupon he barred the door and closed the shutters, as if for the night.  Then turning to Colonel Wyndham, whom alone he knew, he said: 

“I am sorry to say that my news is bad, sir.  An hour since I went round to the man who had engaged to take you across to St. Malo, but his wife has got an inkling of his intentions.  She has locked him into his room, and swears that if he attempts to come forth she will give the alarm to the Parliament troops; for that she will not have herself and her children sacrificed by meddlings of his in the affairs of state.”

CHAPTER XXIV.

Across the sea.

The announcement of the innkeeper struck consternation into the party.

“This is bad news indeed,” Colonel Wyndham said; “what does your majesty advise now?”

“I know not, my good Wyndham,” King Charles replied.  “Methinks ’twere better that I should give myself up at once.  Fate seems against us, and I’m only bringing danger on all my friends.”

“Your friends are ready to risk the danger,” Colonel Wyndham said; “and I doubt not that we shall finally place your majesty in safety.  I think we had best try Bridport.  Unfortunately, the Roundheads are so sure of your being on the coast that it is well-nigh impossible to procure a ship, so strict is the search of all who leave port.  If we could but put them off your scent, and lead them to believe that you have given it up in despair here, and are trying again to reach Scotland, it might throw them off their guard, and make it more easy for us to find a ship.”

“I might do that,” Harry said.  “I have with me my comrade Jacob, who is about the king’s height and stature.  I will travel north again, and will in some way excite suspicion that he is the king.  The news that your majesty has been seen traveling there will throw them off your track here.”

“But you may be caught yourself,” the king said.  “The Earl of Derby and other officers have been executed.  There would be small chance for you were you to fall into their hands.”

“I trust that I shall escape, sire.  My friend Jacob is as cunning as a fox, and will, I warrant me, throw dust in their eyes.  And how has it fared with your majesty since I left you at White Ladies?”