"
"Then we must get leave to go inside the prison, and see him
before he gets outside."
After a good deal of discussion this was the plan they decided on
adopting, and having so decided, Theobald wrote to the governor of the
gaol asking whether he could be admitted inside the gaol to receive
Ernest when his sentence had expired. He received answer in the
affirmative, and the pair left Battersby the day before Ernest was
to come out of prison.
Ernest had not reckoned on this, and was rather surprised on being
told a few minutes before nine that he was to go into the receiving
room before he left the prison, as there were visitors waiting to
see him. His heart fell, for he guessed who they were, but he
screwed up his courage and hastened to the receiving room. There, sure
enough, standing at the end of the table nearest the door were the two
people whom he regarded as the most dangerous enemies he had in all
the world- his father and mother.
He could not fly, but he knew that if he wavered he was lost.
His mother was crying, but she sprang forward to meet him and
clasped him in her arms. "Oh, my boy, my boy," she sobbed, and she
could say no more.
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