"Yes," said Lady Gowan sadly, after her meeting with her son, "it is
terrible; but after all my teaching, telling you of your duty to be
loyal to those whom we serve and who have been such friends to us, I
could not nerve myself to tell you the dreadful truth. You are right,
my boy. More than ever now we are out of place here; we must go."
"Yes, mother," said the boy gravely, "we must go."
"Let me read the letter, Frank."
"Read it, mother? I have repeated every word. It wanted no learning.
I knew it when I had read it once."
"Yes; but I must read your father's letter to you myself."
"How could I keep it?" he said, almost fiercely. "I expected to be
arrested and searched. It is burned."
Lady Gowan uttered a weary sigh, and clung to her boy's hand.
"Going, dear?" she said; "so soon?"
"Yes, mother; I have so much to do. I can't stay now. Perhaps I shall
be a prisoner again after this business, and coming back here protected
by a riotous crowd."
"No, no, dear; the Prince, however stern his father may be, is just, and
he will not punish you."
"I don't know," said the boy drearily. "I want to do something before I
am stopped;" and he hurried away, looking older and more careworn than
ever, to go at once to the officers' quarters, intending to see Captain
Murray; but the first person he met was the doctor, who caught him by
the arm, and almost dragged him into his room.
"Sit down there," he cried sharply, as he scanned the boy with his
searching gaze.
"Don't stop me, sir, please," said Frank appealingly. "I am very busy.
Do you want me?"
"No; but you look as if you want me."
"No, sir--no."
"But I say you do. Don't contradict me. Think I don't know what I'm
saying? You do want me. A boy of your years has no business to look
like that. What have you been doing? Why, your pulse is galloping
nineteen to the dozen, and your head's as hot as fire. You've been
eating too much, you voracious young wolf. It's liver and bile. All
right, my fine fellow! Pill hydrarg, to-night, and to-morrow morning a
delicious goblet before breakfast--sulph mag, tinct sennae, ditto
calumba. That will set you right."
Frank looked at him for a moment piteously, and then burst into a
strange laugh.
"Eh, hallo!" cried the doctor; "don't laugh in that maniacal way, boy.
Have I got hold of the pig by the wrong tail? Bah! I mean the wrong
tail by the pig. Nonsense! nonsense! I mean the wrong pig by--Oh, I
see now. Why, Frank, my boy, of course. Ah, poor lad! poor lad!
Murray has been telling me. Well, it's a bad job, and I shouldn't have
thought it of Rob Gowan. But there, I don't know: _humanum est errare_.
Not so much erroring in it either. Circumstances alter cases, and I
dare say that if I were kicked out of the army, and I had a chance to be
made chief surgeon to the forces of you know whom, I should accept the
post."
The boy's head sank down upon his hands, and he did not seem to hear the
doctor's words.
"Poor lad!" he continued; "it's a very sad affair, and I'm very sorry
for you. I always liked your father, and I never disliked you, which is
saying a deal, for I hate boys as a rule. Confounded young monkeys, and
no good whatever, except to get into mischief. There, I see now--ought
to have seen it with half an eye. There, there, there, my lad; don't
take on about it. Cheer up! You're amongst friends who like you, and
the sun will come out again, even if it does get behind the black clouds
sometimes."
He patted the boy's shoulder, and stroked his back, meaning, old
bachelor as he was, to be very tender and fatherly; but it was clumsily
done, for the doctor had never served his time to playing at being
father, and begun by practising on babies. Hence he only irritated the
boy.
"He talks to me and pats me as if I were a dog," said Frank to himself;
and he would have manifested his annoyance in some way to one who was
doing his best, when fortunately there was a sharp rap at the door, and
a familiar voice cried:
"May I come in, doctor?"
"No, sir, no. I'm particularly engaged. Oh, it's you, Murray!--Mind
his coming in, Gowan?"
"Oh no; I want to see him!" cried the boy, springing up.
"Come in!" shouted the doctor.
"You here, Frank?" said the captain, holding out his hands, in which the
boy sadly placed his own, but withdrew them quickly.
"Yes, of course he is," said the doctor testily. "Came to see his
friends. In trouble, and wants comforting."
"Yes," said Captain Murray quietly, as he laid his hand upon the boy's
shoulder. "Then you know the truth now, Frank?"
"Yes, sir," said the boy humbly. "I was coming to apologise to you,
when the doctor met me and drew me in here."
"Yes; looked so ill. Thought I'd got a job to tinker him up; but he
only wants a bit of comforting, to show him he's amongst friends."
"You were coming to do what, boy?" said the captain, as soon as he could
get in a word,--"apologise?"
"Yes, sir; I was very obstinate and rude to you."
"Yes, thank goodness, my lad!" cried the captain, holding the boy by
both shoulders now, as he hung his head. "Look up. Apologise! Why,
Frank, you made me feel very proud of my old friend's son. I always
liked you, boy; but never half so well as when you spoke out as you did
to the Prince. So you know all now?"
"Yes," said the boy bitterly.
"How?"
"My father has written to me telling me it is true."
"Hah! Well, it's a bad job, my lad; but we will not judge him. Robert
Gowan must have suffered bitterly, and been in despair of ever coming
back, before he changed his colours. But we can't see why, and how
things are. I want no apology, Frank, only for you to come to me as
your father's old friend."
Frank looked at him wonderingly.
"Come with me, boy."
Frank looked at him still, but his eyes were wistful now and full of
question.
"I want you to come with me to the Prince."
"Yes, sir," said Frank gravely. "I want to beg for an audience before I
go."
"Before you go, Frank?"
"Yes, sir. Of course we cannot stay here now."
"Humph! Ah, yes, I see what you mean," said the captain quietly.
"Well, come. You are half a soldier, Frank, and the Prince is a
soldier, I want you to come and speak out to him, and apologise as you
did to me--like a man."
"Yes, sir," replied Frank, "that is what I wished to do."
"Then forward!" cried the captain. "Let's make our charge, even if we
are repulsed."
"Good-bye, and thank you, doctor," said Frank.
"What for? Pooh! nonsense, my lad; that's all right. And, I say,
people generally come and see me when they want something, physic or
plasters, or to have bullet holes stopped up, or arms and legs sewn on
again. Don't you wait for anything of that sort, boy; you come
sometimes for a friendly bit of chat."
Frank smiled gratefully, but shook his head as he followed Captain
Murray out into the stable-yard.
"Come along, Frank; there's nothing like making a bold advance, and
getting a trouble over. We may not be able to get an audience with so
many officers coming and going; but I'll send in my name."
Frank followed him into the anteroom, the place looking strange to him,
and seeming as if it were a year since he had been there last, a fancy
assisted by the fact that some five-and-twenty officers, whose faces
were strange, stood waiting their turns when Captain Murray sent in his
name by a gentleman in attendance.
But, bad as the prospect looked, they did not have long to wait, for, at
the end of about a quarter of an hour, the attendant came out, passing
over all those who looked up eagerly ready to answer to their names, and
walked to where Captain Murray was seated talking in a low voice to
Frank.
"His Royal Highness will see you at once, gentlemen."
Frank did not feel in the slightest degree nervous as he entered, but
followed the captain with his head erect, ready to speak out and say
that for which he had come, when the Prince condescended to hear; but he
took no notice of the boy at first, raising his head at last from his
writing, and saying:
"Well, Captain Murray, what news?"
"None, your Royal Highness," said the soldier bluffly. "I have only
come to bring Frank Gowan, your page, before you."
"Eh? Oh yes. The boy who was so impudent, and told me I was no speaker
of the truth."
"I beg your Royal Highness's pardon."
"And you ought, boy. What more have you to say?"
"That I was wrong, sir. I believed it could not be true. I have found
out since that it was as you said."
"Hah! You ought always to believe what a royal personage says--eh,
Murray?"
The captain bowed, and smiled grimly.
"Don't agree with me," said the Prince sharply. "Well, boy, you are
very sorry, eh?"
"Yes, your Royal Highness, I am very sorry," said Frank firmly. "I know
better now, and I apologise to you."
The Prince, moving himself round in his chair, frowning to hide a
feeling of amusement, stared hard at the lad as if to look him down, and
frowned in all seriousness as he found the boy looked him full in the
eyes without a quiver of the lid.
"Humph! So you, my page, consider it your duty to come and apologise to
me for doubting my word?"
"Yes, your Highness, and to ask your forgiveness."
"And suppose I refuse to give it to so bold and impudent a boy, what
then?" and he gazed hard once more in the lad's flushing face.
"I should be very, very sorry, sir; for you and the Princess have been
very good and kind to my poor mother and me."
"Yes, yes," said the Prince, "too kind, perhaps, to have such a return
as--"
He stopped short as he saw a spasm contract the boy's features.
"But there," he continued, "you are not to blame, and I do forgive you,
boy. I liked the bold, brave way in which you showed your belief in
your father."
Captain Murray darted a quick glance at his young companion, as much as
to say, "I told you so."
"Go on, my boy, as you have begun, and you will make a firm, strong,
trustworthy man; and, goodness knows, we want them badly enough. There,
I will not say any more--yes, I will one word, my boy. I am sorry that
your father was not recalled some time back. He was a brave soldier,
for whom I felt respect."
Frank could bear no more, and he bent his head to conceal the workings
of his face.
"There, take him away, Murray, and keep him under your eye. There's
good stuff in the boy, and we must get him a commission as soon as he is
old enough."
"No, your Highness," said Frank, recovering himself.
"Eh? What?"
"I came to beg your Royal Highness's pardon, and to ask your permission
for my mother and me to leave the royal service at once. We both feel
that it is not the place for us now."
"Humph!" ejaculated the Prince, frowning; "and I think differently.
Take him away, Murray; the boy is hurt--wounded now.--That will do,
Gowan; go. No: I refuse absolutely. The Princess does not wish Lady
Gowan to leave; and _I_ want _you_."
"There!" cried Captain Murray, as they crossed the courtyard on their
way back to the officers' quarters; "it is what I expected of the
Prince. You can't leave us unless you run away, Frank; and you've
proved yourself too much of a gentleman for that. You see, everybody
wants you here."
Frank could not trust himself to speak, for he was, in spite of his
troubles, some years short of manhood and manhood's strength.