"Yes, I have seen him unlock that gate too. What of it?"
"Jamie, if you had that key some evening at dusk, and if we had hidden out yonder in our hollow tree some of my clothes, made to fit you, so that none could suspect you were a boy, could you so arrange that Colonel Bamfield should be awaiting you at the river side with a wherry to take you to some vessel bound for Holland? I have still left a little of the gold that our father entrusted to me. And I am told that seafaring folk will brave much for gold. Colonel Bamfield could arrange all that."
"But how, how could I gain that key and use it at such an hour?"
questioned James, in an eager whisper. "How could such a thing be? Are we not followed and watched everywhere?"
"Yet have you not eluded all watchful eyes times without number in your games with Harry? Have we not often searched the house for an hour, and then have had to call you to come to us? If you can elude watchful eyes in play, why not in earnest some day, whilst they think the play is going on, and will make no marvel of missing you for an hour or more?
The days are getting long. Let us have our game after supper instead of before. Let us so play night by night for a week or more, that they will not dream we have any motive in the change. Let our friend the Colonel, if he is to be trusted, make his plans. Then, upon a certain night, when all is in readiness, and the boat is lying waiting for you, we will play our hide-and-seek with a difference, and whilst brother and servants are seeking for James within the house, and even the gardens--he will be far down the river, making for the vessel that is to carry him hence."
"But the key, Elizabeth, the key!" cried James, in great excitement; "how can I gain possession of that?"
"Listen, Jamie," answered Elizabeth, "I have thought of that. You must begin to pretend to have exhausted the hiding-places of our portion of the house, and you must ask to-day that the house steward will let you conceal yourself in his pantry. Then the next day get leave of the cook to hide somewhere in the kitchen. Another day be bolder still, and get into the hay-loft, where the coachman will be proud and merry to hide you. And then when the day comes that you ask the gardener for the key of his cottage, to hide you there awhile, neither he nor any other who hears will think it aught but a merry jest. Then as Harry will every day be an hour and more in hunting you, that should be time enough for you to change your attire and slip away through the gate; and if Colonel Bamfield only do his part, you should be out of reach ere the pursuit has fairly begun."
James suddenly flung his arms about his sister"s neck.
"Oh! Elizabeth, Elizabeth! and you have thought of all that?"
"I think of nothing else whilst we are playing hide-and-seek night by night."
"And suppose they find out that you were privy to the scheme all the while, what will they do to you, Elizabeth!"
She looked into his eyes, a brave smile on her pale face.
"Think not of that, Jamie; in sooth I care little what they do to me. If you only get safe away let them take me to the Tower, or whither they will. Little Harry is too young to care greatly, so long as we are together; and I do not think they will take him from me, even though they do more straitly confine us."
"But you--what would you do in that grim place?" asked James, with something of a shudder.
"I think all places are alike to me now," answered Elizabeth, with her strangely spiritual smile, pathetic on the face of one so young; "G.o.d will take care of us there as well as here. Do not fear for me, Jamie.
We must strive to do what our father wished. I shall be happy indeed in knowing that you are safe and free. For my part, I am content in feeling myself near to him, and in knowing that if he is a prisoner--so am I."
Who would have thought, to watch the merry games of the Royal children during the bright spring evenings that followed, what tumultuous thoughts were surging within them, and what a daring plan had been hatched in the brain of that delicate young girl, who so patiently hunted the house, evening by evening, with her little brother, in search of that clever hider, James.
The servants were by this time devoted to the children, who treated them with that invariable high-bred courtesy that never failed the hapless Stuarts, whatever else they might lack or fail in. Coachman, steward, cook, pantler--all were ready to a.s.sist the young Duke to some new hiding-place, night by night. They enjoyed the game almost as much as the children themselves. Indeed, they seemed to take a pride in lengthening out the search, though in the end some whispered hint would be given to the little brother if his energies showed signs of flagging, and he would start forth hot upon the scent that would eventually lead him to the hiding-place, if James did not spring out upon him first.
The Earl and Countess were well used to the shouts and cries of little Harry as he ran hither and thither through the house. The Earl generally visited his young charges early in the evening, often just after supper, and then he left them to their games till about nine o"clock, when he attended first the younger Prince, and then the elder to their rooms, and paid them the compliment of superintending in person their toilet for the night.
At last came the long-awaited Friday, the twenty-first day of April. The twilight lingered long now, and the game of hide-and-seek was regularly played after supper, lasting generally till the bedtime of the Duke of Gloucester.
[Ill.u.s.tration: He stopped short on seeing the Countess.
_Page 125._]
The Countess of Northumberland visited Elizabeth and her brothers this evening, and sat awhile with the Princess after supper. Little Harry was playing in a corner of the room; but the Countess looked rather anxiously into Elizabeth"s face, and remarked how white it was.
"But I am not sick, I thank you, Madam," said the girl gently. "Belike it is but the first of the springtide heat. I pray you not to send the doctor. He does but give me physic which I know not how to swallow. I shall be better anon--in a few days, I trust."
At that moment James came running into the room, as though to speak to his sister. He stopped short on seeing the Countess; but then, coming forward, joined in the conversation, and chatted merrily enough. None noted the quick glances that pa.s.sed between brother and sister, nor the strange wistfulness that brooded in Elizabeth"s eyes.
Suddenly James started up, as though just bethinking him.
"Why, Harry, we must have our game; shall I hide again? Then give me five minutes" grace, and come after me!" He looked at Elizabeth, and said, "Wilt thou go with him? Or art thou tired to-night, sister?"
"In sooth, I think she is aweary," said the Countess; and James put his hands on Elizabeth"s shoulders, boy fashion, and s.n.a.t.c.hed a kiss from her lips.
"Then go to bed, sweetheart, and one of the servants shall attend Harry," he said; "but he will not be content without his game of play."
The boy was gone, and Elizabeth was thankful that little Harry now claimed the attention of the Countess; for she felt as though every drop of blood had ebbed from her face. What would be the next thing that she heard of her brother?
She could not be persuaded to remain in her room. She roamed all over the house with Harry, whilst the Countess went back to her husband.
Harry"s bedtime came at last; it was dark outside, save for the light of the moon; the Earl came out, and asked where the boy was, and learned that he was still seeking his brother.
"Then I must needs help find him too," said the good-natured n.o.bleman, taking Harry"s hand, and as the child seemed somewhat weary of the search, he looked inquiringly at the servants.
Then one came forward, and whispered that the Duke was hiding in the gardener"s cottage, of which he had begged the key; and thither they all proceeded, Elizabeth commanding herself to laugh and chat with Harry, and wonder where next Jamie would hide, and how many more strange places were still left for him to find.
Harry ran gaily into the cottage, when somebody had forced open the locked door for him, at a sign from the Earl, whose face had suddenly clouded over. But ransack as they might, not a trace of the fugitive could be found.
With a stifled exclamation of dismay the Earl dashed down to the water-gate, which he found open. Then the truth flashed across him, and he bit his lips in perplexed confusion.
"Conduct the Princess and the Duke to the house," he said, "we must make further inquiries into this matter!"
Then Elizabeth knew at least that James had escaped from the Palace, though she could not know for many days whether he would succeed in making good his escape to Holland.
She sought the privacy of her own rooms, and, falling upon her knees, gave thanks to G.o.d for His great goodness in watching over them thus far.
Every day she expected to hear that some severe punishment was to be inflicted upon her--perhaps even death itself, so little did she understand the laws of the land--for the part she had taken in her brother"s escape. But strange to say her own complicity in the plot was never suspected at that time. Her very calmness and courage, which enabled her first to plan the clever scheme and then to go through her own part so tranquilly, averted all suspicion from her.
Even the Earl, when all the facts of the case were known, was exonerated from blame. He had before told the Parliament that he declined absolute responsibility with regard to the Royal children, unless he made actual prisoners of them--a thing he was not prepared to do; and although there was some angry discussion in the House, and several stringent measures were recommended by certain extreme men, yet in the end humane counsels prevailed, and the Princess Elizabeth, together with her little brother, were permitted to remain beneath the kindly care of the Earl and Countess of Northumberland.
James escaped after a few perils, and got safe over to Holland; but the hasty kiss he s.n.a.t.c.hed from his brave young sister upon that April evening was the last he ever gave or took from her.
The girl Elizabeth never recovered the shock of her father"s death two years later, and though she lingered for more than a year, winning the hearts of all about her by her sweetness of disposition and the wonderful courage and fort.i.tude she exhibited in the midst of so many trials and sufferings, she pa.s.sed peacefully away to a world where pain and partings are no more, and where the sorrowful and weary are at rest.
Little Harry was with her to the last, receiving at her hands such few poor possessions as remained to her. A while later, by an unwonted freak of generosity on Cromwell"s part, the boy was permitted to join his mother in France.
CHARLOTTE HONEYMAN
"Pirates! Oh, Charlotte, how romantic! How do you know? Are you sure?
Oh, how I should love to see a real live pirate!"
Charlotte smiled a little grimly.
"I"m not quite so sure of that, Adela; I rather think if you were to encounter him you would wish he were anything but a live pirate--you would much prefer him dead!"
"What a horrid idea, Charlotte!" and Adela shivered slightly. "But do go on! Tell me some more! I thought there were no pirates left now.