sell my
convictions of right and duty for your favour. My father, you would not
have your son a slave?"

"I would that I had no son at all!" groaned the old man, covering his
eyes with his hands.

"Forgive me, oh, forgive me the pain I have caused you, my father; and
let me remain at home with you still; only don't ask me to be a traitor
to my conscience!" implored Harry.

"I _ask_ you nothing," said Master Drury. "I _command_ you to swear this
moment that you will enter the King's service without delay; and if you
do not obey me, you leave this house at once, and I have no son from
this night."

Harry slowly rose from his knees with bowed head.

"I cannot swear," he said. "I will serve my country, not sell her into
the power of tyrants," and he turned to leave the room. But at the door
he paused for a moment, and then turned back. "You will give me your
blessing once more, my father, before I depart?" he said; and he would
have knelt to receive it, but the old man waved him off.

"Leave me, leave me at once, lest I curse you!" he said, in a hoarse
voice; and Harry, without glancing at the purse, which still lay on the
table, retreated from that look of stern wrath which had settled on his
face.

The two young men walked straight out into the fields, and for some time
neither spoke; but at length Harry said,--

"What are we to do, Clayton?"

"We had better get round to the barn for to-night, and sleep there,"
replied Gilbert, "and then to-morrow you had better see your father
again."

But Harry shook his head sadly.

"Marry, it will be of no use," he said.

"By my troth, I would try, though you cannot marvel that he is angry,
speaking as you did," said Gilbert, warmly.

"Yes, I know I was wrong; but you do not know my father, Gilbert, or you
would not advise me to thrust myself into his presence again for a
while. No, no; I must go to London now, and seek my fortune there."

"But you will stay here to-night?" said his friend.

"Yes, to-night," sighed Harry; "for I must see Maud to-morrow."

Clayton hoped that Master Drury's anger might be somewhat appeased by
the next day, and he resolved to see him, if possible, when he went to
the house for his things, which in the hurry and confusion had been left
behind.

Anxiety kept Harry awake as much as his strange quarters that night; but
Clayton, who had many times slept out in the open field when upon the
march, did not feel much inconvenience from slee