"Yes--yes, it is Mr. Price. Will you show me up to him? I have a very important message from the governor."
He was trembling in every limb, for he expected to be hurled from the house.
Robert went into the street in a sort of maze.
He felt a strange foreboding that all was not right, and that Giles Peram had some deep scheme on foot.
"I will kill the knave, if the governor should hang me for it the next moment," he said in a fit of anger.
It was not long before Robert was at the house of Mr. Lawrence, where he met his friends Drummond and Cheeseman. The three were engaged in a close consultation as if discussing a matter of vital importance. They did not at first recognize Robert, who had grown to manhood; but as soon as he made himself known, they welcomed him back among them, and warm-hearted Cheeseman said:
"I know full well you can be relied upon in this great crisis."
"What is the crisis?" Robert asked.
"We seem on the verge of some sort of a revolution. Virginia welcomed Charles II. and Governor Berkeley as the frogs welcomed the stork, and they, stork like, have begun devouring us."
"I have heard something of the grievances of the people of Virginia; but I do not know all of them. What leads up to this revolution?"