This they did, and lay there for half an hour, listening intently for
pursuers. Then, as it seemed evident that the miller and his men had
given up the chase, they rose and walked on.
At a village near by lived an honest gentleman named Woolfe, who had
hiding-places in his house for priests. Day was at hand, and travelling
dangerous. Penderell proposed to go on and ask shelter from this person
for an English gentleman who dared not travel by day.
"Go, but look that you do not betray my name," said the prince.
Penderell left his royal charge in a field, sheltered under a hedge
beside a great tree, and sought Mr. Woolfe's house, to whose questions
he replied that the person seeking shelter was a fugitive from the
battle of Worcester.
"Then I cannot harbor him," was the good man's reply. "It is too
dangerous a business. I will not venture my neck for any man, unless it
be the king himself."
"Then you will for this man, for you have hit the mark; it is the king,"
replied the guide, quite forgetting the injunction given him.
"Bring him, then, in God's name," said Mr. Woolfe. "I will risk all I
have to help him."
Charles was troubled when he heard the story of his loose-tongued guide.
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