“I hope, father,” Harry Furness said the following day, “that you will now permit me to join the troop.  I am getting on for sixteen, and could surely bear myself as a man in the fray.”

“If the time should come, Harry, when the fortune of war may compel the king to retire from Oxford—­which I trust may never be—­I would then grant your request, for after your encounter with the officer who commanded the Roundheads here, it would not be safe for you to remain behind.  But although you are too young to take part in the war, I may find you employment.  After a council that was held yesterday at Oxford, I learned, from one in the king’s secrets, that it was designed to send a messenger to London with papers of importance, and to keep up the communication with the king’s friends in that city.  There was some debate as to who should be chosen.  In London, at the present time, all strangers are closely scrutinized.  Every man is suspicious of his neighbor, and it is difficult to find one of sufficient trust whose person is unknown.  Then I have thought that maybe you could well fulfill this important mission.  A boy would be unsuspected, where a man’s every movement would be watched.  There is, of course, some danger attending the mission, and sharpness and readiness will be needed.  You have shown that you possess these, by the manner in which you made your escape from London, and methinks that, did you offer, your services would be accepted.  You would have, of course, to go in disguise, and to accept any situation which might appear conformable to your character and add to your safety.”

Harry at once gladly assented to the proposal.  He was at the age when lads are most eager for adventure, and he thought that it would be great fun to be living in London, watching the doings of the Commons, and, so far as was in his power, endeavoring to thwart them.  Accordingly in the afternoon he rode over with Sir Henry to Oxford.  They dismounted in the courtyard of the building which served as the king’s court, and entering, Sir Henry left Harry in an antechamber, and, craving an audience with his majesty, was at once ushered into the king’s cabinet.  A few minutes later he returned, and motioned to Harry to follow him.  The latter did so, and the next moment found himself in the presence of the king.  The latter held out his hand for the boy to kiss, and Harry, falling on one knee, and greatly abashed at the presence in which he found himself, pressed his lips to King Charles’ hand.

“I hear from your father, my trusty Sir Henry Furness, that you are willing to adventure your life in our cause, and to go as our messenger to London, and act there as our intermediary with our friends.  You seem young for so delicate a work; but your father has told me somewhat of the manner in which you escaped from the hands of the traitors at Westminster, and also how you bore yourself in the affair with the rebels at his residence.  It seems to me, then,