“There are but two places in which to hide, as I can see,” said he; “and I do not think either of them would afford us much protection. One is up the chimney; the other, under the bed.”
Already the clank of arms filled the kitchen below. Boots and spurs rang on the stairs. They were coming up.
“They shall not enter!” cried the woman, with an almost childish impotence.
She ran to the door and turned the key in the lock. The King rose from his chair, still laughing. The act of the unhappy lady was that of a child. What could a frail piece of wood avail against a company of armed men? The door was tried and shaken.
“Open!” said a stern, excited voice.
“Oh, my King, my King!” the woman cried in her despair. “They must not, they shall not take you!”
She set her back against the door. The next instant the first shivering blow fell upon it from without. The lock started; the hinges groaned. A second blow and the door was open, and the woman was driven hard against the bed. But as the foremost man entered the chamber she turned upon him, and made as if to thrust him back. Neither he nor those behind him heeded her, however. They pressed inexorably forward into the room.
The King stood awaiting them with an absolute indifference, as though he were hardly conscious of their presence, let alone their errand. He did not speak and he did not move. Indeed, so unconcerned did he appear, that his features seemed to relapse into those of Will Jackson. They grew utterly blank and destitute of emotion; and this, in unison with his dirty, stained countenance and mean dress and appearance, caused the first of the soldiers to enter the room, Captain Culpeper, hardly to regard him at all.
He turned to the man in the bed. The face of Lord Farnham, worn with illness as it was, and racked with pain, betrayed the strong excitement under which he was labouring. His dress and the manner in which he lay were far more calculated to attract attention to him than the King, whose garb and impassivity were wonderful foils to his true condition.
For a moment Captain Culpeper, who apparently was not at all familiar with the King’s appearance, looked at Lord Farnham a little doubtfully, and in that moment Lady Farnham’s strange resolve was born.