Yet this boy's story sounds strangely.--You say
you were examined, my young friend--Let me pray you to say whether you
told your name, and your means of gaining admission into the Park--if
so, they surely would not have detained you?"
"O, my lord," said the boy, "I took care not to tell them the name of
the friend that let me in; and as to my father--I would not he knew
where I now am for all the wealth in London!"
"But do you not expect," said Nigel, "that they will dismiss you till
you let them know who and what you are?"
"What good will it do them to keep so useless a creature as myself?"
said the boy; "they must let me go, were it but out of shame."
"Do not trust to that--tell me your name and station--I will
communicate them to the Lieutenant--he is a man of quality and honour,
and will not only be willing to procure your liberation, but also, I
have no doubt, will intercede with your father. I am partly answerable
for such poor aid as I can afford, to get you out of this
embarrassment, since I occasioned the alarm owing to which you were
arrested; so tell me your name, and your father's name."
"My name to you? O never, never!" answered the boy, in a tone of deep
emotion, the cause of which Nigel could not comprehend.
"Are you so much afraid of me, young man," he replied, "because I am
here accused and a prisoner? Consider, a man may be both, and deserve
neither suspicion nor restraint.
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