mington."

"Well, and where is the old lady, then? Did you see and speak to her?"

"I saw her, Jacob, but I did not speak to her. I forgot to say, that
when she broke Southwold's neck, she broke her own too."

"Then the old lady is dead?"

"Yes, that she is," replied Benjamin; "but who cares about her? It's
the poor children that I pity. Martha has been crying ever since."

"I don't wonder."

"I was at the `Cavalier,' and the troopers were there, and they were
boasting of what they had done, and called it a righteous work. I could
not stand that, and I asked one of them if it were a righteous work to
burn poor children in their beds? So he turned round, and struck his
sword upon the floor, and asked me whether I was one of them--`Who are
you then?' and I--all my courage went away, and I answered, I was a poor
rat-catcher. `A rat-catcher, are you? Well then, Mr Rat-catcher, when
you are killing rats, if you find a nest of young ones, don't you kill
them too? Or do you leave them to grow, and become mischievous,
eh?'--`I kill the young ones, of course,' replied I. `Well, so do we
Malignants whenever we find them.' I didn't say a word more, so I went
out of the house as fast as I could."

"Have you heard anything about the king?" inquired Jacob.

"No, nothing; but the troopers are all out again, and, I hear, are gone
to the forest."

"Well, Benjamin, good-bye; I shall be off from this part of the
country--it's no use my staying here. Where's Agatha and cook?"

"They came to Lymington early this morning."

"Wish them good-bye for me, Benjamin."

"Where are you going then?"

"I can't exactly say, but I think London way. I only stayed here to
watch over the children; and now that they are gone, I shall leave
Arnwood for ever."

Jacob, who was anxious, on account of the intelligence he had received
of the troopers being in the forest, to return to the cottage, shook
hands with Benjamin, and hastened away. "Well," thought Jacob, as he
wended his way, "I'm sorry for the poor old lady; but still, perhaps,
it's all for the best. Who knows what they might do with these
children?--Destroy the nest as well as the rats, indeed:--they must find
the nest first." And the old forester continued his journey in deep
thought.

We may here observe that, bloodthirsty as many of the Levellers were, we
do not think that Jacob Armitage had grounds for the fears which he
expressed and felt that is to say, we beli