第21章

'What aileth thee?' asked a whisper near him. 'Who art thou calling?'

'Sir William Herbert. Who art thou?'

'I? Who should I be, but thy sister Nan? Oh, Tom, I had forgot!

Tbou'rt mad yet- poor lad thou'rt mad yet, would I had never woke to know it again! But, prithee, master thy tongue, lest we be all beaten till we die!'

The startled prince sprang partly up, but a sharp reminder from his stiffened bruises brought him to himself, and he sunk back among his foul straw with a moan and the ejaculation:

'Alas, it was no dream, then!'

In a moment all the heavy sorrow and misery which sleep had banished were upon him again, and he realized that he was no longer a petted prince in a palace, with the adoring eyes of a nation upon him, but a pauper, an outcast, clothed in rags, prisoner in a den fit only for beasts, and consorting with beggars and thieves.

In the midst of his grief he began to be conscious of hilarious noises and shoutings, apparently but a block or two away. The next moment there were several sharp raps at the door; John Canty ceased from snoring and said:

'Who knocketh? What wilt thou?'

A voice answered:

'Know'st thou who it was thou laid thy cudgel on?'

'No. Neither know I, nor care.'

'Belike thou'lt change thy note eftsoons. An thou would save thy neck, nothing but flight may stead thee. The man is this moment delivering up the ghost. 'Tis the priest, Father Andrew!'

'God-a-mercy!' exclaimed Canty. He roused his family, and hoarsely commanded, 'Up with ye all and fly- or bide where ye are and perish!'

Scarcely five minutes later the Canty household were in the street and flying for their lives. John Canty held the prince by the wrist, and hurried him along the dark way, giving him this caution in a low voice:

'Mind thy tongue, thou mad fool, and speak not our name. I will choose me a new name, speedily, to throw the law's dogs off the scent.

Mind thy tongue, I tell thee!'

He growled these words to the rest of the family:

'If it so chance that we be separated, let each make for London Bridge; whoso findeth himself as far as the last linen-draper's shop on the bridge, let him tarry there till the others be come, then will we flee into Southwark together.'

At this moment the party burst suddenly out of darkness into light; and not only into light, but into the midst of a multitude of singing, dancing, and shouting people, massed together on the river-frontage. There was a line of bonfires stretching as far as one could see, up and down the Thames; London Bridge was illuminated; Southwark Bridge likewise; the entire river was aglow with the flash and sheen of colored lights, and constant explosions of fireworks filled the skies with an intricate commingling of shooting splendors and a thick rain of dazzling sparks that almost turned night into day; everywhere were crowds of revelers; all London seemed to be at large.

John Canty delivered himself of a furious curse and commanded a retreat; but it was too late. He and his tribe were swallowed up in that swarming hive of humanity, and hopelessly separated from each other in an instant. We are not considering that the prince was one of his tribe; Canty still kept his grip upon him. The prince's heart was beating high with hopes of escape now. A burly waterman, considerably exalted with liquor, found himself rudely shoved by Canty in his efforts to plow through the crowd; he laid his great hand on Canty's shoulder and said:

'Nay, whither so fast, friend? Dost canker thy soul with sordid business when all that be leal men and true make holiday?'

'Mine affairs are mine own, they concern thee not,' answered Canty, roughly; 'take away thy hand and let me pass.'

'Sith that is thy humor, thou'lt not pass till thou'st drunk to the Prince of Wales, I tell thee that,' said the waterman, barring the way resolutely.

'Give me the cup, then, and make speed, make speed.'

Other revelers were interested by this time. They cried out:

'The loving-cup, the loving-cup! make the sour knave drink the loving-cup, else will we feed him to the fishes.'

So a huge loving-cup was brought; the waterman, grasping it by one of its handles, and with his other hand bearing up the end of an imaginary napkin, presented it in due and ancient form to Canty, who had to grasp the opposite handle with one of his hands and take off the lid with the other, according to ancient custom.*(6) This left the prince hand-free for a second, of course. He wasted no time, but dived among the forest of legs about him and disappeared. In another moment he could not have been harder to find, under that tossing sea of life, if its billows had been the Atlantic's and he a lost sixpence.

He very soon realized this fact, and straightway busied himself about his own affairs without further thought of John Canty. He quickly realized another thing, too. To wit, that a spurious Prince of Wales was being feasted by the city in his stead. He easily concluded that the pauper lad, Tom Canty, had deliberately taken advantage of his stupendous opportunity and become a usurper.

Therefore there was but one course to pursue- find his way to the Guildhall, make himself known, and denounce the impostor. He also made up his mind that Tom should be allowed a reasonable time for spiritual preparation, and then be hanged, drawn, and quartered, according to the law and usage of the day, in cases of high treason.