After some further expostulation on the part of the nurse she consented that the girl should go to meet the lad, carrying some of his mother’s clothes which he should don, and so arrayed come back to the cottage.
“I wonder,” mused Nurse Johnson, “if he knew that the English general hath his headquarters in the palace. ’Tis a rash proceeding to venture so near. If he is taken they will make him either swear allegiance to the king, or else give him a parole. Fairfax will take neither, so it means prison for the boy. Foolish, foolish, to venture here!”
“But all will be well if we can but get him here unbeknown to the guard,” consoled Peggy. “Friend nurse, cook many cakes, and regale them so bountifully that they will linger long over the meal; and it may be that Fairfax can slip in unobserved.”
“The very thing!” ejaculated the nurse excitedly. “What a wit you have, Peggy. I begin to think that we can get him here, after all.”
She bundled up one of her frocks hastily, saying as she gave it to the girl:
“Of course you must be guided by circumstances, my child, but come back as quickly as possible lest the guard be through with the meal. If they can be occupied——”
“I will hasten,” promised Peggy. “And now good-bye. Oh, I’ll warrant those guards will never have again such a meal as thee will give them. Now don’t be too anxious.”
“But I shall be,” answered the nurse with a sigh. “Not only anent Fairfax but you also.”
Peggy passed out of the cottage quickly, and went toward the hospital. It was so usual a thing for her to go back and forth that the going attracted no attention from the guards. Now the hospital had an entrance that opened directly into the palace grounds, and Peggy availed herself of this convenience.
The grounds were very large, and it was fortunate that she knew the exact situation of the grove of linden trees, else she must have become bewildered. The lawns were in a sad state of neglect, overrun with vines and wild growths; for, since Lord Dunmore, the last royal governor, had left, the mansion had held but an occasional tenant. So much of underbrush was there that it was a comparatively easy matter for Peggy to pass unobserved through the trees in the gathering dusk of the twilight. A guard had been placed in the immediate vicinity of the mansion, and the town itself was thoroughly picketed so that sentinels in the remoter parts of the grounds were infrequent. And unobserved Peggy presently reached the great grove of lindens, the pride of the former royal governor.