In Honours Cause | Page 3

by the Whigs. I always feel ready to laugh in his face."
"I say," cried Frank, looking at his companion in horror, "do you know what you are saying?"
"Oh yes; and I don't think a great deal of the Prince. My father got me here; but I don't feel in my place, and I'm not going to sacrifice myself, even if I am one of the pages. I believe in the Stuarts, and I always shall."
"This is more treasonable than what you said before."
"Well, it's the truth."
"Perhaps it is. I say, you're a head taller than I am."
"Yes, I know that."
"But you don't seem to know that if you talk like that you'll soon be the same height."
"What, you think my principles will keep me standing still, while yours make you grow tall?"
"No. I think if it gets known you'll grow short all in a moment."
"They'll chop my head off? Pooh! I'm not afraid. You won't blab."
"But you've no business to be here."
"Oh yes, I have. Plenty think as I do. You will one of these days."
"Never! What, go against the King!"
"This German usurper you mean. Oh, you'll come over to our side."
"What, with my father in the King's Guards, and my mother one of the Princess's ladies of the bed-chamber! Nice thing for a man to have a son who turned traitor."
"What a red-hot Whig you are, Frank! You're too young and too fresh to London and the court to understand these things. He's King because a few Whigs brought him over here. If you were to go about London, you'd find every one nearly on the other side."
"I don't believe it."
"Come for a few walks with me, and I'll take you where you can hear people talking about it."
"I don't want to hear people talk treason, and I can't get away."
"Oh yes, you can; I'll manage it. Don't you want to go out?"
"Yes; but not to hear people talk as you say. They must be only the scum who say such things."
"Better be the scum which rises than the dregs which sink to the bottom. Come, I know you'd like a run."
"I'll go with you in the evening, and try and catch some of the fish in that lake."
"What, the King's carp! Ha--ha! You want old Bigwig to give you five pounds."
"Old Bigwig--who's he?"
"You know; the King."
"Sh!"
"Pooh! no one can hear."
"But what do you mean about the five pounds?"
"Didn't you hear? They say he wrote to some one in Hanover saying that he could not understand the English, for when he came to the Palace they told him it was his, and when he looked out of the window he saw a park with a long canal in it, and they told him that was his too. Then next day the ranger sent him a big brace of carp out of it, and when they told him he was to behave like a prince and give the messenger five guineas, he was astonished. Oh, he isn't a bit like a king."
"I say, do be quiet. I don't want you to get into trouble."
"Of course you don't," said the lad merrily. "But you mustn't think of going fishing now. Hark! there are the Guards."
He hurried to the window, through which the trampling of horses and jingling of spurs could be heard, and directly after the leaders of a long line of horse came along between the rows of trees, the men gay in their scarlet and gold, their accoutrements glittering in the sunshine.
"Look well, don't they?" said Andrew Forbes. "They ought to have given my father a command like that. If he had a few regiments of horse, and as many of foot, he'd soon make things different for old England."
"I say, do be quiet, Drew. You'll be getting in trouble, I know you will. Why can't you let things rest."
"Because I'm a Royalist."
"No, you're not; you're a Jacobite. I say, why do they call them Jacobites? What Jacob is it who leads them?"
"And you just fresh from Winchester! Where's your Latin?"
"Oh, I see," cried the boy: "Jacobus--James."
"That's right; you may go up. I wish I was an officer in the Guards."
"Behave yourself then, and some day the Prince may get you a commission."
"Not he. Perhaps I shall have one without. Well, you'll go with me this evening?"
"Oh, I don't know."
"That means you would if you could. Well, I'll manage it. And I'll soon show you what the people in London think about the King."
"Sh! some one coming."
The two lads darted from the window as one of the doors was thrown open, and an attendant made an announcement which resulted in the pages going to the other end to open the farther door and draw back to allow the Prince and Princess with a little following of ladies to pass