“I would much rather go with you to Oxford,” the lad said.  “I am weary of velvets and silks, and though I do not know that wars and battles will be more to my taste, I would fain try them also.  You are a gentleman, and high in the trust of the king and those around him.  If you will take me with you as your servant I will be a faithful knave to you, and doubt not that as you profit by your advantages, some of the good will fall to my share also.”

“In faith,” Harry said, “I should hardly like you to be my servant, Jacob, although I have no other office to bestow at present.  But if you come with me you shall be rather in the light of a major-domo, though I have no establishment of which you can be the head.  In these days, however, the distinctions of master and servant are less broad than before, and in the field we shall be companions rather than master and follower.  So, if you like to cast in your fortunes with mine, here is my hand on it.  You have already proved your friendship to me as well as your quickness and courage, and believe me, you will not find me or my father ungrateful.  But for you, I should now be in the cells, and your old master in no slight danger of finding himself in prison, to say nothing of the upset of the negotiations for which I came to London.  Therefore, you have deserved well, not only of me, but of the king, and the adventure may not turn out so badly as it has begun.  We had best strike south, and go round by Tunbridge, and thence keeping west, into Berkshire, and so to Oxford.  In this way we shall miss the Parliament men lying round London, and those facing the Royalists between Reading and Oxford.”

This order was carried out.  The lads met with but few questioners, and replying always that they were London apprentices upon their way home to visit their friends for a short time, passed unsuspected.  At first the want of funds had troubled them, for Harry had forgotten the money sewn up in his shoe.  But presently, remembering this, and taking two gold pieces out of their hiding-place, they went merrily along the road and in five days from starting arrived at Oxford.

CHAPTER VII.

In A hot place.

Making inquiries, Harry found that his father was living at a house in the college of Brazenose, and thither he made his way.  Not a little surprised was the trooper, who was on guard before the door, to recognize his master’s son in one of the two lads who, in the clothes of apprentices shrunk with water and stained with mud and travel, presented themselves before him.  Harry ascended at once to Sir Henry’s room, and the latter was delighted to see him again, for he had often feared that be had acted rashly in sending him to London.  Harry briefly told his adventures, and introduced his friend Jacob to his father.