Her anxiety for Edmund was of course at its height during this
search, and it was not till the evening that she could gain any
intelligence. Edmund's danger had indeed been great. Harry Fletcher
saw the rebels coming in time to prepare. He advised his guest not
to remain in the house, as if he wished to avoid observation, but to
come out, as if afraid of nothing. His cavalier dress had been
carefully destroyed or concealed; he wore the fisherman's rough
clothes, and had even sacrificed his long dark hair, covering his
head with one of Harry's red woollen caps. He was altogether so
different in appearance from what he had been yesterday, that he
ventured forward, and leant whistling against the side of the boat,
while Harry parleyed with the soldiers. Perhaps they suspected Harry
a little, for they insisted on searching his hut, and as they were
coming out, one of them began to tell him of the penalties that
fishermen would incur by favouring the escape of the Royalists.
Harry did not lose countenance, but went on hammering at his boat as
if he cared not at all, till observing that one of the soldiers was
looking hard at Edmund, he called out, "I say, Ned, what's the use of
loitering there, listening to what's no concern of yours? Fetch the
oar out of yon shed. I never lit on such a lazy comrade in my life.
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