, of the
thickest untanned leather, that reached considerably above his knees,
and from frequent immersion in the tide had assumed a deep brown hue.
His hat was conical, and only distinguished by a small dirk glittering
in the band, which he carried there as a place of safety from contact
with the sea-water.

"My gay Ranger travelling in open day, when there is such wild news
abroad!" he said.

Robin made no reply; and Jabez, who was pulling at the huge cable, which
then, as well as now, towed the boats across, stopped and looked at him.

"My bonny Robin, what ails ye, man? Hast been cheated by the excise, or
plundered by the Roundheads, or does the strange trouble they say has
come upon Hugh Dalton affect ye so much?"

Robin turned his head away; his grief was too deep to covet witnesses.

"There's a guard of Ironsides at Cecil Place by this time," continued
the man, who began to think that Robin was relapsing into one of his
taciturn fits, "and Noll himself on the road, which I heard, not an hour
past, from two soldiers, who have been sent on with his own physician to
Sir Robert, who's gone mad as a March hare; and they do say that his
Highness has a plan of his own to destroy all free trade on the island
for ever: but I'm thinking Hugh has scented it, and is far enough off by
this time."

Robin looked inquiringly into the man's face, but did not speak.

"Some time or other, master," continued the ferryman, whose boat now
touched the strand, "you'll maybe condescend to unriddle me how Dalton
could have a daughter brought up by----"

Robin Hays did not wait for the conclusion of the sentence, but sprang
right on the land, with the air of a man bereft of reason, confirming
Jabez in the idea that he was again labouring under his old infirmity.

The Ranger took not the direct road to Minster, which he ought to have
passed on his way to the Gull's Nest, where he resolved to ascertain if
Barbara's body was at Cecil Place; but after crossing the downs, that
were brightening in the summer's sun and alive with multitudes of sheep,
wound round the base of the hill on which the mansion stood, and as its
mixture of ancient and modern architecture became developed, he paused
to look upon a spot so endeared by many affectionate recollections. The
trees that encircled the fairy ring were conspicuous for their height
and beauty of colour; there, too, was the casement window which he had
so often watched, knowing that Barbar