truth hides at the bottom of a
well, why should you suppose justice to be in high places? I am for the
right at any price. Anna, leave the Castle; you are my sister; come
away, my dear, and save thy life!'

'Never!' says she. 'Do you plan to carry out this attack, and level the
Castle indeed?'

'Most certainly I do,' says he. 'What meaneth this army around us if not
so?'

'Then you will find the bones of your sister buried in the ruins you
cause!' said she. And without another word she turned and left him.

'Anna--abide with me!' he entreated. 'Blood is thicker than water, and
what is there in common between you and your husband now?'

But she shook her head and would not hear him and hastening out, mounted
her horse, and returned towards the Castle as she had come. Ay, many's
the time when I have been riding to hounds across that field that I have
thought of that scene!

When she had quite gone down the field, and over the intervening ground,
and round the bastion, so that he could no longer even see the tip of her
mare's white tail, he was much more deeply moved by emotions concerning
her and her welfare than he had been while she was before him. He wildly
reproached himself that he had not detained her by force for her own
good, so that, come what might, she would be under his protection and not
under that of her husband, whose impulsive nature rendered him too open
to instantaneous impressions and sudden changes of plan; he was now
acting in this cause and now in that, and lacked the cool judgment
necessary for the protection of a woman in these troubled times. Her
brother thought of her words again and again, and sighed, and even
considered if a sister were not of more value than a principle, and if he
would not have acted more naturally in throwing in his lot with hers.

The delay of the besiegers in attacking the Castle was said to be
entirely owing to this distraction on the part of their leader, who
remained on the spot attempting some indecisive operations, and parleying
with the Marquis, then in command, with far inferior forces, within the
Castle. It never occurred to him that in the meantime the young Lady
Baxby, his sister, was in much the same mood as himself. Her brother's
familiar voice and eyes, much worn and fatigued by keeping the field, and
by family distractions on account of this unhappy feud, rose upon her
vision all the afternoon, and as day waned she grew more and more
Parlia