ake me break it, believe me Ronald."

"You will be benighted, sir, and brigandage is rife," exclaimed Colonel
Armytage, looking up with an angry glance, which Edda observed, but
Ronald did not.

"Go, go!" she exclaimed. "Heaven protect you?"

Morton shook hands with Mrs Armytage, bowed to the colonel, and walked
with as much dignity as he could command out of the room.

He threw himself on his horse, and rather than remain in the place he
determined to ride back to a village he had passed on his way there,
where he might find refreshment and rest both for man and beast during
the night.

As Ronald passed the group of Spaniards, he saw one of those who had
come in with Colonel Armytage stare very hard at him. It struck him at
the moment that he recollected the man's features. He had just mounted
his horse, when the person in question rushed down the steps, and
grasped him by the hand.

"I am ashamed, my brave friend, that I should not at once have known
you!" exclaimed the Spaniard. "But we both of us look to much greater
advantage than we did on the day we stormed the fort, when we were
covered with gunpowder and blood. But you must not go; come to my
house, it is not many leagues off. You can be spared from your ship for
a day or two longer."

Ronald thanked his friend Don Josef very warmly, but assured him that it
was his duty to make the best of his way to the coast, as the ship would
be standing in to take him.

"How unfortunate!" said the Spaniard. "I have to see your
commissioner--he seems a very great man--or I would accompany you all
the way, and we might stop at the houses of some of my friends. Still I
must go a little way with you. Wait a moment; I will send for my horse:
it is a poor animal--the only one those thieving French have left me.
But a day of retribution is coming, and soon, I hope."

The steed was brought out; it was a far better animal than Ronald
expected to see. The Spaniard mounted, and the cavalcade moved on.

The village was soon left behind. Ronald's new friend, however, had not
accompanied him more than a league when he said he must return, or he
should miss his interview altogether with the commissioner. He had
given Morton during that time a great deal of information as to the
state of the country, and the temper of the people generally. One
feeling seemed to pervade all classes--the deepest hatred of their late
master, and a desire to be free.

"Better times m