Miles Hendon follows the tracks of the persons he is seeking part of the way through Southwark, but there all traces end. He returns to his lodgings, therefore, to rest so that he can scour the town thoroughly the next day. As he lies in bed, he decides that the prince is likely to have headed toward Hendon Hall, and he resolves to go that way, looking carefully along the way.
In the meantime, the boy who came to fetch the prince leads him through Southwark and onto the road beyond, the ruffian, the fellow who had seemed ready to join them, follows at a distance. When the prince balks at going any farther, he is told that a friend of his lies wounded in a wood ahead, news that speeds him on. He is brought to a decaying barn and the ruffian, who is actually John Canty in disguise, takes charge, making it clear that the prince is once again his prisoner.
While Canty and Hugo, the youth who brought the prince to the barn, confer, the prince withdraws to a pile of hay at the far end of the barn and falls asleep after crying over the death of his father, whom the prince loved very much. As he sleeps, the rest of the vagabonds—a grim and motley group of society’s outcasts—come into the barn. Eventually their rowdiness awakens the prince, and he realizes that they have feasted and drunk a good deal. He listens as “John Hobbs,” the name John Canty is now using, is brought up to date about the lives of the comrades he once had in this group before he went to live in London. Although he remains quiet, the prince is attentive and serious as he listens to the tales and hears of the ways that the laws of the land affect these people. For example, he hears about a farmer who was turned from his place, reduced to beggary, lashed through three towns, had his wife and children killed, had his ears chopped off, was whipped, and was finally sold as a slave. By this time, the prince is horrified and can keep silent no longer, and he proclaims an end to the law that allows such things to happen. When asked who he is, he answers, “with princely dignity, ‘I am Edward, King of England.’”
This, of course, sets the crowd to laughing uproariously. Furthermore, everything the prince does amuses them, until a tinker in the group proclaims Edward to be “Foo-Foo the First, King of the Mooncalves! “ The group crowns him with a tin basin, robes him in a tattered blanket, enthrones him upon a barrel, and gives him a soldering-iron as a scepter. They then fling themselves upon the floor before him and mock him:
“Be gracious to us, 0 sweet king!”
“Trample not upon thy beseeching worms, 0 noble majesty.”
“Pity thy slaves, and comfort them with a royal kick!”
This mockery continues for some time, and the prince’s eyes are filled with “tears of shame and indignation.” He feels that they could not be any more cruel to him if they tried; he offered to do a kindness for them and was repaid with unjust ridicule.
Early the next morning, the troop of vagabonds sets out; it is a grey and chilly day, and the entire troop is sullen and thirsty. As the day warms, however, they become more cheerful and begin to insult those they meet along the highway. They snatch things from the hedges, but the size of the troop protects them from any reprisal. They eat a farmer’s larder bare, insult his wife and daughters, bedevil the farmer and his sons, and threaten to burn the house with the family in it if any word of their passing comes to the ears of the authorities.
Late in the morning, the vagabonds reach the outskirts of a large village. The prince is sent with Hugo to steal something, but since they find no opportunity to do this, Hugo decides that they will beg instead. The prince, however, stoutly asserts that he will do no such thing, and a spirited argument follows. Before Hugo falls upon the prince to beat him, a gentleman suddenly appears. Hugo quickly instructs the prince as to how he should act and then starts moaning and reeling about; when the gentleman comes closer, Hugo sprawls on the ground. The man is very much concerned, and he is very nearly taken in by Hugo’s act until the prince tells him that Hugo is a beggar and a thief. When he hears the prince confess the truth, Hugo leaps to his feet and runs away, with the gentleman following and raising a great hue and cry.
Left by himself, the prince quickly flees in the opposite direction, moving as far and as fast as he can. Several times, he stops at farm houses for food, but he is driven away before he can even make a request. He keeps moving until well after dark, when he sees a lantern by the open door of a barn. He steals into the barn, quickly hiding himself when he hears voices. While the laborers do their chores, he looks about the barn, noting the position of a stall, as well as a pile of horse blankets.
After the men leave, he creeps to the stall and arranges the blankets so that he can sleep between them. Just as he is about to doze off, however, he feels something touch him. He is frightened, but he lies there, waiting to see if anything stirs. When it does not, he begins to drop off to sleep once more—and again something touches him. This time, he slowly and cautiously reaches out. After several moments of absolute dread, the prince discovers that a calf is sharing the stall with him. His first feeling is shame for having been so frightened, but then he grows delighted at the company. As he strokes the calf’s back, it occurs to him that the calf can provide warmth and comfort. Thus he snuggles up to the calf, falls asleep, and he is not disturbed, despite the moaning and whistling of the wind and the creaking and groaning of the barn.
In the morning, the prince awakens to find a rat sleeping on his chest. He takes this as a good omen; his fortunes, he reasons, can go no lower than this, so things must be about to turn for the better. A short time later, two little girls come into the barn. When they see him, they stop and look at him for a time; then they begin to discuss him. Finally, they ask who he is. He tells then that he is the king and, after a brief discussion of whether this can possibly be true, they calmly accept his word. They then bring him to their mother, who does not believe him, of course; she assumes, naturally, that he is a demented boy who has wandered away from his keepers. She tries to find out where he came from, but to no avail. The prince clearly has no idea of where the places are which she mentions. She continues trying to speak to him, describing various activities, trying to see if he has been apprenticed. But she remains disappointed, since Edward knows nothing of the things she talks about.
Finally, the good aroma in the kitchen and the prince’s hunger inspire him to discourse upon a variety of fine dishes; the woman leaps to the conclusion that perhaps he has helped in a kitchen some time or other. To test her theory, she leaves him to watch the food that is cooking, suggesting that he might create a few other dishes. Recalling that King Alfred once performed a similar task, the prince agrees, and he tries his best, but the woman’s experiment is a disaster.
Finally, the prince, the woman, and the two girls sit down and eat together, and Edward does not insist that they stand and serve him, since he feels that he must somehow atone for having failed the woman. For her part, she does not put him in a corner, as she would do to any other common tramp. She feels a bit guilty herself that she scolded him so harshly for his failure with the food. Neither one, however, realizes that the other has made an exception to his or her usual practice.
After the meal is finished, the woman sets the prince to washing dishes. Once again, the example of King Alfred leads him to do the job, which he finds much more difficult than he had thought that it would be. When he completes this task, he is set to paring apples, which he does so badly that he is given a knife to sharpen. Next, she gives him wool to card, and he begins to think that King Alfred’s example has been followed long enough.
After the noon meal, the prince is given a basket of kittens to drown. He is about to refuse to do this task, when he sees John Canty and Hugo approaching the front gate. He takes the kittens out the back way, and leaving them in an outhouse, he hurries down a narrow lane, away from the house.
As soon as the high hedge hides him from the house, the prince runs as quickly as he can toward a woods. When he is just about to hide within its shelter, he looks back and sees two figures in the distance. He turns and races even faster into the woods and only when he is far within it does he feel that he can safely stop and rest.
