“Yes, indeed, madam,” said the soldier, eagerly. “Sergeant, tell them to make way there for the King’s servitor. Also those on the stairs; and do you see that they do so.”
“I thank you, sir,” said the man in the bed, with his courteous smile.
CHAPTER XV
“Way there for the King’s servitor”
THE King obediently began to move with stolid precision towards the chamber door. First one soldier stood back to let him pass; and then another; and then another. He walked through the door of the crowded chamber. With the same grave, steady, mechanical gait he reached the stairs.
“Way there,” said the officious Sergeant, behind him, “for the King’s servitor!”
With keen looks of curiosity, the men besieging the rickety old stairs found a passage for him somehow, through which he contrived to squeeze the royal person. His clothes and his body pressed against their pistols and their breast-pieces; their breaths saluted his face; but step by step he came down into the kitchen.
“Way there for the King’s servitor!” said the Sergeant again.
The kitchen was hardly so thronged as the stairs. There was one man in it, however, who might undo all. From his chair in the chimney corner peered the landlord’s astonished face.
“Way there for the King’s servitor!”