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When Hendon’s term of service in the stocks was finished, he was released and ordered to quit the region and come back no more. His sword was restored to him, and also his mule and his donkey.Ⓐalteration in the MS He mounted and rode off, followed by the king, the crowd opening with quiet respectfulness to let them pass, and then dispersing when they were gone.

Hendon was soon absorbed in thought.Ⓐalteration in the MS There were questions of high import to be answered. What should he do? Whither should he go? Powerful help must be found, somewhere, or he must relinquish his inheritance and remain under the imputation of being an impostor besides. Where could he hope to find this powerful help? Where, indeed! It was a knotty question. By and by a thought occurred to him which pointed to a possibility—the slenderest of slender possibilities, certainly, but still worth considering, for lack of any other that promised anything at all. He remembered what old AndrewsⒶalteration in the MS had said about the young king’s goodness and his generous [begin page 292]

championship of the wronged and unfortunate. Why not go and try to get speech of him and beg for justice? Ah, yes, but could so fantastic a pauper get admission to the august presence of a monarch? Never mind—let that matter take care of itself; it was a bridge that would not need to be crossed till he should come to it. He was an old campaigner, and used to inventingⒶalteration in the MS shifts and expedients; no doubt he would be able to find a way. Yes, he would strike for the capital. Maybe his father’s old friend Sir Humphrey Marlow would help him—“good old Sir Humphrey, Head Lieutenant of the late king’s kitchen, or stables, or something”—Miles could not remember just what or which.Ⓐalteration in the MS Now that he had something to turn his energies to, a distinctly defined object to accomplish, the fogⒶalteration in the MS of humiliation and depression which had settled down upon his spirits lifted and blew away, and he raised his head and looked about him. He was surprised to see how far he had come; the village was away behind him. The [begin page 293] king was jogging along in his wake, with his head bowed; for he, too, was deep in plans and thinkings. A sorrowfulⒶalteration in the MS misgiving clouded Hendon’s new-born cheerfulness: would the boy be willing to go again to a city where, duringⒶalteration in the MS all his brief life, he had never known anything but ill usage and pinching want? But the question must be asked; it could not be avoided; so Hendon reined up, and called out—

“I had forgotten to inquire whither we are bound. Thy commands, my liege!”

“To London!”

Hendon moved on again, mightilyⒶalteration in the MS contented withⒶalteration in the MS the answer—but astoundedⒶalteration in the MS at it, too.

The whole journey was made without an adventure of importance. But it ended with one. AboutⒶalteration in the MS ten o’clock on the night of the 19th of February, theyⒶalteration in the MS stepped upon London Bridge, in the midst of a writhing, struggling jam of howling and hurrahing people,Ⓐalteration in the MS whose beer-jolly faces stood out strongly in the glare from manifold torches—and at that instant the decayingⒶalteration in the MS head of some former duke or other [begin page 294] grandeeⒶalteration in the MS tumbled down between them, striking Hendon on the elbow and then bounding off among the hurrying confusion of feet. So evanescent and unstable are men’s works, in this world!—the late good king is but three weeks dead and three days in his grave,Ⓐalteration in the MS and already the adornments which he took such pains to select from prominent people for his noble bridge are falling. A citizen stumbled over that head, and drove his own head into the back of somebody in front of him, who turned and knocked down the first person that came handy, and was promptly laid out himself by that person’s friend. It was the right ripe time for a free fight, for the festivities of the morrow—Coronation Day—were already beginning; everybody was full of strong drink and patriotism; within five minutes the free fight was occupyingⒶalteration in the MS a good deal of ground; within ten or twelve it covered an acre or so, and wasⒶalteration in the MS become a riot. By this time Hendon and the king were hopelessly separated from each other and lost in the rush and turmoil of the roaring masses of humanity. And so we leave them.