The Young Apprentice; or, The Watch-Words of Old London — page 307: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE YOUNG APPRENTICE; OR, ‘ gommitted none. Therefore, to place you upon the same scaffold as that on which your father suffered would be a crime.” “ Then will you grant mean asylum for three days?" asked the prince, “T will,” said the armourer, “ on one con- n. ‘Name it,” returned the ce, “and if it is one which I can comply with without soiling my honour, I will do so.’ “That to no one, under any circumstances, you will reveal the name of the person who thus saved you from the anger of the people.” “TI agree at once,” said the prince, extending his hand; ‘‘you are a brave and honest man, and were J in power I would see that you had the position and the wealth xo merit,” The armourer shook the prince’s hand warmly. ‘¢ Have you any fear that you will be followed?” said he, ‘ There were truly some ill-looking characters lurking about here,” said Richard Penderel, ‘who were watching us as we entered, but whether or not they really know us or only sus- pect us, or whether thay will take the trouble to await our departure, I cannot say.” Frank Leslie smiled, ‘“ Well,” he said, “if they saw you enter here, they will scarcely wait for your departure. No one would ever suspect that Prince Charles Stuart would enter the house of the republican armourer Leslie.” He turned to Harold, a Harold,” he said, “ you share my sentiments?” “TI do.’ ° ‘‘Then conduct the prince to the room that was formerly occupied by Leicester. [ have only that one chamber to give you, gentlemen, but for men who are flying for their lives, it will not seem 80 very small or so very gloomy.” The prince smiled. ‘You are right,” he said ; ‘to me who had to put up with an oak’s branches for a bed, such a chamber seems a palatial apartment.” For nearly a week, Prince Charles and Richard Penderel, his friend, remained concealed in the house of the armourer. During this time he came into constant com- panionship with Ettie Leslie, " The prince at once became violently en- amoured of her. Regardless, as usual, of all save his own pleasure and passions, he forgot, in the ad- miration of ker beauty, all his periJa and mia- fortunes. To look at her, to allow his eyes to wanton over her many beauties, to hear her voice, to hold her hand, and, in fact, to be in the society of this young and innocent girl, was to him far better than to court safety and life in flight. The prince was no secret wooer. Everyone in the household was enabled to see what was passing in his mind, and Ettie herself became at length so painfully conscious of it, that she avoided carefully the company of the prince. On the last day of his sojourn at the house of the armourer, Ettie was passing alone along the passage when the door of the prinne’s room suddenly opened, and the prince appeared. She was about to hurry away. He detained her. “ Stay, my darling,” he cried, passing his arm round her waist and daringly imprinting a kiss upon her cherry lips, “I must speak with you a moment,”* “ Unhand me!" exclaimed Ettie, indignantly. ‘“Unhand me! Why should you subject me to such an insult as this?’ “Insult,” said the prince, as he gazed rapturously at her crimsoning face and the white bosom, which heaved and trembled with the violence of her emotion, “insult, to be kissed by a prince, the fature King of England |” ‘Remember your father,” said Ettie, still struggling with him. “ I can remember nothing but you, and your beauty,” he said, ‘‘Oome,” he added, releasing her and placing one hand upon the shoulder of the indignant beanty, “I have let you go now, and I ask you to answer me.” ‘Be quick, then, sir, or I must leave you,” said Ettie, still blushing crimson beneath his gaze. « To-morrow, I quit London,” he said, “ I fly to France, where no English assassins can reach me. I have no one whom I can love or who loves me, Will you, sweet Ettie, then, be the partner of my flight ?” Kttie drew back in alarm. - “Infamous!” she said. “You measure the virtue of England’s daughters by a poor standard indeed. Hark ! there is Harold coming. Back into your room if you value your life. Prince as you are, I would not answer for your safety, if he knew what proposal you had made to me,’ The light step of the Young Apprentice was indeed heard ascending the stairs, and angry and disappointed, Prince Charles retired to his chamber, The next evening, when it was quite dark, he quitted London, without even having the satie- faction of seeing the one who had taken such possession of his heart, Fate seemed to have resolved that they shonld again meet, however, and in order, as it seemed, the more easily to secure this result, an order came from Cromwell to Harold Fordyce to pro- ceed on a secret mission to France, On this mission it was permitted to him to take whomsoever he pleased ; and, as may well be imagined, he selected as his companion, Frank Leslie, the armourer. Ettie Leslie, it might, indeed, have been thought, would have had enough of adventure ; enough of travelling hither and thither, and being hurried to and fro. But she feared remaining in London, and having a friend whom she had not for many years seen, residing at Brighthelmstone, she in- sisted upon accompanying them thither. We shall see in our next chapter the events which made her for awhile so bitterly regret her journey. book