The king's sad face brightened with a look of surprise and pleasure, and his manner towards the soldier took on an indescribable air of gracious dignity. But Harrison's expression did not respond; he continued to speak with grave, almost severe earnestness, and the surprise with which the king heard him quickly froze into a look of offence, and then abruptly his Majesty dismissed Major Harrison with a slight inclination of his head, and came forward to the supper-table; while Harrison, with a silent greeting to his friends by the fire, called Dick, and left the room.
Their horses were in waiting outside, and for a few minutes they rode in silence through the gathering twilight towards their lodging. Then Major Harrison spoke.
"Dick! the king even now asked me whether we do intend to murder him."
"To murder him?" echoed the boy, in horror.
"Ay, to murder him. There are some here that have whispered him that we wait to slay him privily, as we go to London! I told him, Dick, I did abhor the very thought of it." An indignant sincerity rang in his voice. "Nevertheless, I told him roundly that the law is equal for great and small, and justice hath no respect of persons. The blood of Englishmen hath been poured out like water at the word of this man, it crieth out against him unto God; the Cause needeth not the aid of any secret assassin; he shall render his account in public unto the high court of Parliament."
"But what can the parliament do to the king?" asked the boy, lowering his voice, as if the very stones in the road might cry out against the thought he did not venture to speak plainly.
"Do justice," said Harrison, with a sudden fire in his voice that made the boy's blood leap in response. "Justice in the name of the Lord to whom kings and peoples are but dust in the balance. The Lord hath owned us by marvellous victories, and the Cause is His, His day of reckoning is at hand, and Charles Stuart shall answer unto Him and His saints for the men he hath slain."
"But can they—dare they—touch the king? He is not as other men," hazarded the boy.
"Ay, will they," replied Harrison, sternly. "And if they hang back, the army will see to it that the work is done. In the face of the sun, in the eyes of all the world, shall the great deed be accomplished."
"The deed?" whispered the boy, with dilated eyes, "the judgment?"