“I deemed that such was your errand,” the boy said.  “You played your part well; but not well enough.  You might have deceived grown-up people; but you would hardly take in a boy of your own age.  Now that you have told me frankly, I will, if I can, do anything to aid.  I care nothing for the opinions of one side or the other; but as I have to go to the cathedral three times on Sunday, and to sit each time for two hours listening to the harangues of Master Ezekiel Proudfoot, I would gladly join in anything which would be likely to end by silencing that fellow and his gang.  It is monstrous that, upon the only day in the week we have to ourselves, we should be compelled to undergo the punishment of listening to these long-winded divines.”

When Harry was not engaged in taking notes, backward and forward, between the merchant and those with whom he was negotiating, he was occupied in the shop.  There the merchant kept up appearances before the scrivener and any customers who might come in, by instructing him in the mysteries of his trade; by showing him the value of the different velvets and silks; and by teaching him his private marks, by which, in case of the absence of the merchant or his apprentice, he could state the price of any article to a trader who might come in.  Harry judged, by the conversations which he had with his host, that the latter was not sanguine as to the success of the negotiations which he was carrying on.

“If,” he said, “the king could obtain one single victory, his friends would raise their heads, and would assuredly be supported by the great majority of the population, who wish only for peace; but so long as the armies stood facing each other, and the Puritans are all powerful in the Parliament and Council of the city, men are afraid to be the first to move, not being sure how popular support would be given.”

One evening after work was over Harry and Jacob walked together up the Cheap, and took their place among a crowd listening to a preacher at Paul’s Cross.  He was evidently a popular character, and a large number of grave men, of the straitest Puritan appearance, were gathered round him.

“I wish we could play some trick with these somber-looking knaves,” Jacob whispered.

“Yes,” Harry said; “I would give much to be able to do so; but at the present moment I scarcely wish to draw attention upon myself.”

“Let us get out of this, then,” Jacob said, “if there is no fun to be had.  I am sick of these long-winded orations.”

They turned to go, and as they made their way through the crowd, Harry trod upon the toe of a small man in a high steeple hat and black coat.

“I beg your pardon,” Harry said, as there burst from the lips of the little man an exclamation which was somewhat less decorous than would have been expected from a personage so gravely clad.  The little man stared Harry in the face, and uttered another exclamation, this time of surprise.  Harry, to his dismay, saw that the man with whom he had come in contact was the preacher whom he had left gagged on the guardroom bed at Westminster.