es than of her own.

What would happen to her, she wondered, were the Romans to come this
way and find out that she was giving shelter to the vanquished
chieftain?

She trembled as she thought that soon this poor hut might shelter her
no longer; that her few belongings might be taken away from her, and
she herself be driven out to perish upon the cold hill-side.

As she looked at her guest, lying asleep in a corner, and frowning a
little with the pain of his wound, she felt as though she hated him.

An ugly look came into her face as she realised her helplessness.

Presently she heard cries echoing in the valley, and peeping from the
door of the hut she saw some flying Britons, closely pursued by two
Roman soldiers.

The Britons disappeared in a thicket and were lost, and as the woman
watched the soldiers beating the bushes and brambles with their swords
in a vain search for the fugitives, a very evil thought came into her
mind.

She left the hut, and crept along in the shelter of the rocks and
trees, so that the soldiers might not see where she had come from.

The soldiers were very much surprised when a little wild-looking,
wrinkled old woman stood before them, trying to tell them something in
the language that the Britons spoke.

They soon understood that she was offering to show them the
hiding-place of a captive far more important than the poor British
warriors whom they had been pursuing.

'Come along then, old woman,' said one of the soldiers; 'show us the
way.'

A sly look came into the woman's small twinkling eyes. 'Wait a
little,' she said; 'what are you going to give me for delivering this
great captive into your hands?'

The soldiers looked at each other; and then one of them offered her a
gold coin.

The old woman shook her head.

'No,' she said; 'this is a very, very great man, and the Romans would
like very much to catch him. You must give me far more than that if I
show you the way to his hiding-place.'

The soldiers consulted together for a moment. From the old woman's
manner, she evidently had a noted chief or leader in her power.

'Here, old dame,' they said, 'if your prisoner is of such importance,
you must come with us to the general.'

The old woman was delighted. The Roman general was of course a very
rich man, and no doubt he would give her a great deal of money for the
captive.

'Let us be quick,' she said; 'my prisoner may wake up and go away
before we come back.'