“Open! Unbar the gates!”
The soldier that had maltreated Tom obeyed promptly; and as the prince burst through the portal, half-smothered with royal wrath, the soldier fetched him a sounding box on the ear that sent him whirling to the roadway, and said—
“Take that, thou beggar’s spawn, for what thou got’st me from his Highness!”
The crowd roared with laughter. The prince picked himself out of the mud, and made fiercely at the sentry, shouting—
“I am the Prince of Wales, my person is sacred; and thou shalt hang for laying thy hand upon me!”
The soldier brought his halberd to a present-arms and said mockingly—
“I salute your gracious Highness.” Then angrily—“Be off, thou crazy rubbish!”
Here the jeering crowd closed round the poor little prince, and hustled him far down the road, hooting him, and shouting—