Richard reached Whitehall, and inquired his way to Prince Rupert's lodging in the Stone Gallery, still half dazed with the rush of conflicting thoughts. Then he controlled himself, and knocked; and not till he heard that the prince was indeed arrived in London did he realize how heartily he had hoped that his search would be in vain.
He found with some surprise a negro boy, the only attendant in waiting in the ante-room. He had imagined that a royal ante-chamber must be thronged with courtiers and suitors, and his shy pride was relieved to find the way was at least not barred by gilded grooms-in-waiting, or fashionable loungers. The boy greeting him with a flash of white teeth, made no formality over admitting an entire stranger, but at once introduced him into a little book-closet on the ground floor, where a gentleman was busily engaged in unpacking folios from a great sea chest; and as he turned to receive the visitor, Dick, to his inexpressible relief, saw a face that had been familiar to him in Scotland.
"Zounds! Captain Harrison," cried the gentleman, merrily, "are you the first swallow that heralds a summer? I swear you are the first visitor that has crossed the threshold since we landed yesterday, and I thought you were anchored in Edinburgh. But all men meet in London! Well, and are you come to crush a cup with me in memory of the merry days we had in Old Reekie?"
"Nay, Mr. Cowth, it is as a suitor I come," began Harrison, rather awkwardly.
"A suitor! 'Tis admirable!" cried the lively youth. "Why, man, we scarce believe ourselves royal till some one comes to beg a favour! Good faith, 'tis but a poor trade this of royalty!"
"Why, sir," returned Richard, making an effort to respond to the geniality of the gentleman in waiting, "I thought you were on the sunny side of the hedge nowadays?"
"Ay, ay; but we had some shrewd blasts to weather before we got here! And I am not yet well assured which way the weather-cock will swing yet. Hark in your ear, 'tisn't every one in England that is glad to see us. There is a fat old fox they have just made Earl of Clarendon who makes my master mad every time he sets eyes on him, and that fox holds the weather-cock by a string, I fancy. Prim old self-seeking rascal. But we'll have some merry times yet, which ever way the wind sets, hey, Captain Harrison?"
"I fear," answered Richard, gravely, "the merry times are at an end for me and my friends."
"Say you so? I' faith, I was near forgetting that your party is down in the world, you have so little the cut of a square-toed roundhead! I am heartily sorry you are in trouble. But cheer up, man. There sits his Highness above stairs that has been wrecked and imprisoned and ruined a dozen times over, and yet here has he come full sail into port. And I'll warrant he'll sit at the king's table long after old Clarendon's sun has set."
"I fear my fortune is scarce like to be so good," answered Richard. "I have not a kins to my cousin."