ey have come to set thee free! Pray Heaven
they have come as our deliverers!"

Joan started and ran to the casement. She was just in time to see the
flash of the November sunlight upon the steel caps of the last of the
band of horsemen whose approach had been observed by Nat. Only a very
small portion of the avenue leading to Basildene could be seen from
these upper casements, and the riders must have been close to the house
before their approach was marked by the old man.

Now Joan flung open the casement in great excitement, and leaned far out.

"Hark!" she exclaimed, in great excitement, "I hear the sound of heavy
blows, and of voices raised in stern command."

"Open in the King's name; open to the Prince of Wales!"

These words were distinctly borne to Joan's listening ears as she stood
with her head thrust through the lattice, every faculty absorbed in the
strain of eager desire to hear.

"The King! the Prince!" she cried, her breath coming thick and fast,
whilst her heart beat almost to suffocation. "O Nat, good Nat! what can
it mean? The Prince! what can have brought him hither?"

"Doubtless he comes to save thee, sweet lady," cried the old retainer,
to whom it seemed but natural that the heir of England should come forth
to save his fair young mistress from her fate.

But Joan shook her head, perplexed beyond measure, yet not able to
restrain the wildest hopes.

The Prince -- that noble youth so devoted to chivalry, so generous and
fearless, and the friend of the twin brothers, one of whom was her lost
Raymond! Oh, could it be that some rumour had reached his ears? Could it
be that he had come to set her free? It seemed scarce possible, and yet
what besides could have brought him hither? And at least with help so
near she could surely make her woeful case known to him!

For the first time for many days hope shot up in Joan's heart -- hope of
release from her hated lover by some other means than that of death; and
with that hope came surging up the love of life so deeply implanted in
human nature, the wild hope that her lover might yet live, that she had
been tricked and deceived by the false Sanghurst --all manner of vague
and unformed hopes, to which there was no time to give definite form
even in her thoughts. She was only conscious that a ray of golden
sunshine had fallen athwart her path, and that the darkness in which she
had been enwrapped was changing -- changing to what?

There were strange s