‘You will have to take your chance of that,’ said Luke. ‘I don’t believe he will, though. He has a name already for being just and fair-minded, and his reign only began a little while ago.’
‘It is a good thing the King is here now,’ Anne put in. ‘For there’s surely no time to lose, with Father so hard-pressed that he’s about to sell the house over our heads.’
‘That’s very true,’ said Luke. ‘All right, then, if you’re willing, Giles, let us lay our plans.’
‘Couldn’t he just go to the palace and say that he has a message for the King?’ asked Anne. ‘After all, it is a kind of message, isn’t it?’
‘No,’ said Luke. ‘The King will be much too closely guarded for that. Your brother would be questioned by a dozen people and any message would have to be carried in by someone else. You see the King has enemies, people who want to take his crown away from him and what not. So there will be the greatest care taken over who is allowed to come near him.’
Then the lame boy told them just how he thought the business should be done. And in the end they both agreed with him and went home.
14 His Majesty comes
It was a great day when the King entered the town. All the streets were gay with bunting and coloured poles. Great arches had been set up, with pictures painted on them. From almost every window hung garlands of flowers and silken scarves. And all the people were dressed in their best clothes.
The royal party, greeted in the market-place by the Mayor and all the notables of the city, was made up of many persons, many horses and many coaches. It was a big, long procession—so long that when the head of it had reached the market-place the tail of it was still stretching away off into the country outside the town.
Anne, watching it come in, wondered how all those people and horses and baggage were going to find room within the Duke’s castle; while Giles fell to dreaming over what it must be like to be a king. For he could not take his eyes off that young man on the beautiful white horse, who kept rising in his stirrups and, with smiling face and waving hand, answered the roar of welcome that came from the people. Giles had never known the town held so many men, women and children. There seemed to be seas of faces wherever you looked. The streets were full of faces—the windows and the doors were crowded with faces—even the roofs of many houses were covered with people who had risked their necks to get places to see the King.