. "Jack, lad, the time being thus
late, canst kill some hen or chickens about the house, to serve and fit
the present occasion withal? I will recompense it to thee afterward."

Jack readily undertook the commission, and brought up a very appetising
dish with great diligence and promptness.

"Master," said he, "you shall need drink, and the butler is in bed; to
call on him for the key might rouse suspicion. Pray you, shall I run in
the town to my mother, and fetch you drink from thence?"

"So do, honest Jack, and hie thee back quickly. See, here is a tester
for thee."

Honest Jack picked up the tester, and disappeared.

It does seem strange, considering the danger which was thus run, that
the fugitives should not have been satisfied to drink water with their
supper, since even thus they would have fared much better than they had
done for some time past. But in truth, the very idea of drinking water
was foreign to men's minds in those days, except in the light of a very
cruel hardship, and about the last strait to which a starving man could
be reduced.

The mother of Jack kept a small tavern in the village. Thither he ran
to fill his jug, and to pour into the ears of the hostess the
interesting fact that the traitors then sought for by the King's
proclamation were at that moment entertained in Master Humphrey's
chamber at Hagley Park.

"Pray you, Mother," he added, "when morning breaketh, raise the town to
take them, for I fear lest I may not, unsuspected, get forth again to do
it."

Having made which little arrangement, honest Jack and his jug returned
to the Park, where the trio of traitors finished their supper, and
proceeded to sleep three in a bed.

To make assurance doubly sure, Jack rapped at Mr Hazelwood's door, and
bestowed upon him the same interesting information already given to Mrs
Fynwood.

The morning being come, the cook paid another visit to his prisoners,
whom he found nearly dressed, and looking out of the window to see the
meaning of the noise they heard, which was in fact the arrival of the
Sheriff's officer and his men. Even then, so complete was their
confidence in Jack, that they never imagined themselves betrayed, and
Humphrey, having stowed his friends for more complete security in a
closet-room opening out of his chamber, went down into the hall--and met
the officer of the law.

"Sir, I understand there be in this house certain traitors, so charged
by proclamation of his sa