"It is thick
enough to hide us, you think?"
"Yes; it was lopped a few years ago, and has grown out again very close
and bushy. We will be as safe there as behind a thick-set hedge."
"So let it be, then," said the prince.
Obtaining some food from their host,--bread, cheese, and small beer,
enough for the day,--the two fugitives, Charles and Careless, climbed
into what has since been known as the "royal oak," and remained there
the whole day, looking down in safety on soldiers who were searching
the wood for royalist fugitives. From time to time, indeed, parties of
search passed under the very tree which bore such royal fruit, and the
prince and the major heard their chat with no little amusement.
Charles light-hearted by nature, and a mere boy in years,--he had just
passed twenty-one,--was rising above the heavy sense of depression which
had hitherto borne him down. His native temperament was beginning to
declare itself, and he and the major, couched like squirrels in their
leafy covert, laughed quietly to themselves at the baffled searchers,
while they ate their bread and cheese with fresh appetites.
When night had fallen they left the tree, and the prince, parting with
his late companion, sought a neighboring house where he was promised
shelter in one of those hiding-places provided for proscribed priests.
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