ak.
"Hear what I came for," she added, mournfully, and almost impatiently.
"You must give over this work for to-day; and perhaps for many days
more. You must go away somewhere out of sight, till all the strangers
have left the place; or there is no saying what may happen. Father says
so; and it was my mother that bade me come. She could not come herself,
and so leave me among the soldiers."

"Soldiers! What soldiers?" asked all at once.

"The soldiers are come that we were warned would come whenever the Count
should bring his family home, and the Dauphiness pass through: and there
are so many that there is not a house within two miles of the village
that has not some quartered in it. We have three at home; and what we
are to do for them we don't know, nor how long they will stay. The
first thing, however, Charles, is for you to keep out of sight. Father
says if you don't, the Count's people will certainly be laying hold of
you for military service."

Charles struck his mallet against a tree, as if he wished to knock its
head off. Between fear, anger, and disappointment, he was quite in a
passion. He could not reasonably deny that all his and Marie's hopes
might depend on his hiding himself till the bustle was past; but it made
him wretched to think of skulking in idleness, when his protection and
assistance would be most wanted by Marie and her family.

"Now, don't do that, love," said Marie, gently holding his hand, as the
dull shock of his blows echoed through the wood. "That noise will bring
somebody. The Count himself, and his family, are not far off; and his
people are all about. Do be quiet, Charles."

"Quiet, indeed! And what are you to do with three soldiers, when you
have not enough for yourselves?"

"I don't know, indeed," said Marie, tearfully, as she remembered that
her mother's cherished pair of fowls were doomed already for supper.
She did not mention this; but said that the soldiers were calling for
fuel, as they liked a good fire in spring evenings; and that her
brothers must make haste home, each with a faggot, which would serve as
an excuse for having been so long in the wood, if the Count's people
should have their eyes upon them. She herself must make haste back,
Marie said, as the soldiers wanted their linen washed by the next
morning. Her mother was trying to borrow some wood-ashes, as they had
scarcely any soap; and it was time now that they were at the wash-tub.
She must be