to find out what part of
the forest I am in."

Edward took up the candle and went into the room in which he had laid
the boy on the bed. He found him in a sound sleep. "Poor fellow," said
Edward, "he has for a time forgotten his misery. What a beautiful boy
he is! I long to know his history. Sleep on, my poor fellow! It will
do you service."

Edward then returned to the other room, and recollected, or rather was
reminded, that he had had no supper, and it was now nearly dawn of day.
He looked into a cupboard and found plenty of provisions and some flasks
of wine. "I have earned my supper," thought he, "and I will not,
therefore, deny myself." So he brought out the viands and a flask of
wine, and made a hearty meal. "It is long since I have tasted wine,"
thought he, "and it may be long ere I drink it again. I have little
relish for it now; it is too fiery to the palate. I recollect, when a
child, how my father used to have me at the table, and give me a stoup
of claret, which I could hardly lift to my lips, to drink to the health
of the king." The memory of the king raised other thoughts in Edward's
mind, and he again sank into one of his reveries, which lasted till he
fell into a slumber. When he woke up, it was at the voice of the boy,
who in his sleep had cried out "Father!" Edward started up, and found
that the sun was an hour high, and that he must have slept some time.
He gently opened the cottage-door, looked at the bodies of the two men,
and then walked out to survey the locality of the cottage, which he had
but faintly made out during the night. He found that it was surrounded
by a thicket of trees and underwood, so close and thick that there
appeared to him no outlet in any direction. "What a place for
concealment!" thought Edward, "but still these prowling thieves
discovered it. Why, troops of horse might scour the forest for months,
and never discover such a hiding-place." Edward walked round by the
side of the thicket, to find out the track by which the robbers had
entered when he followed them, and at last succeeded in doing so. He
followed the path through the thicket until he was clear of it and again
in the forest, but the scenery outside was unknown to him, and he had
not an idea as to what part of the forest it was in. "I must question
the boy," thought Edward. "I will go back and wake him up, for it is
time that I was moving." As he was again turning into the thicket he
heard a