"I am sorry for it," said George Brooke; "it is an instructive sight. This fat gentleman submits with all patience, because, as you say, there is no help for it; but he has his squeak, notwithstanding. Nevertheless, you will let us have a cup of wine before we go. On my faith, I am both hungry and thirsty; and if you look at the countenances of those three fair gentlemen opposite, you will see that they are somewhat incommoded at the stomach."
"Come, come, I can't stay," replied the officer. "You may have some wine when you get to the Tower."
"Oh, the Tower!" said George Brooke: "we are to be taken there first, are we?"
"No, sir--first to Cobham House," answered their captor.
"Cobham House?" exclaimed George Brooke, with an affectation of surprise. "What, is poor Cobham in the scrape too? I have sins enough to answer for, so that my only puzzle is, which I am arrested for. But Cobham, poor fellow, is as innocent as a sucking dove."
"I have a warrant against him for high treason, however," replied the officer; "and I thought to find him here. But we have been deceived, it seems."
"Heaven send you the like good fortune for the future!" replied Brooke; "but if I must ride, the sooner the better, and if you could spare me the gay bracelets you talk of, I would give you my word of honour neither to make use of my own two legs, nor the horse's four in anything less seemly than a slow and quiet procession to the Tower."
"No, no, Master Lightheart, I can't trust you," replied the officer; "come, go to business, my masters!" and, in about five minutes more, Brooke and his companions were mounted, and on their way to London, guarded by a strong party of officers and soldiers.
The streets of the great city were dull and desolate; for the plague was raging sadly in the English capital, and not a soul ventured beyond the threshold of his own door, unless driven to do so by urgent business. Passing along one of the once thronged thoroughfares, they at length reached Cobham House; and, pausing at a little distance from the door, the officer in command dismounted, with two or three of his men, and, approaching with a quiet step, rang the bell. A burly porter instantly appeared; and two other servants were seen slumbering on either side of the empty fire-place. Everything betokened feelings of security; but when the porter saw by the dresses of those without, the nature of their calling and object, he would fain have banged the door to, in the chief officer's face.
Experience, however, had taught the latter to provide against all such contingencies; and the moment that the large mass of wood rolled back, he had put his foot against it, so as to frustrate the porter's efforts at once.