as he did so, "I warrant Lord Scroope will be too glad to see thee to
think much about the truce, and if thou art so scrupulous, thou needest
not be hanged for a couple of days; the walls of Carlisle Castle are
thick enough to guard thee till then. Be quick, my lads," he went on,
turning to his men; "we have a good fourteen miles to ride yet, and I
have no mind to be benighted ere we reach firmer ground."

So they tied my father's feet together under his horse, and his hands
behind his back, and fastened his bridle rein to that of a trooper, and
the word was given for the men to form up, and they began to move
forward as sharply as the boggy nature of the ground would allow.

I followed in the rear with a heavy heart. I could easily have escaped
had I wanted to do so, for no one paid any attention to me; but I felt
that, as long as I could, I must stay near my father, whose massive head
and proud set face I could see towering above the surrounding soldiers,
for he was many inches taller than any of them.

The spring evening was fast drawing to a close as we came to the banks
of the Liddle, and splashed down a stony track to a place where there
was a ford. As we paused for a moment or two to give the horses a drink,
my father's voice rang out above the careless jesting of the troopers.

"Let me say good-bye to my eldest son, Sakelde, and send him home; or do
the English war with bairns?"

I saw the blood rise to the English leader's thin sallow face at the
taunt, but he answered quietly enough, "Let the boy speak to him and
then go back," and a way was opened up for me to where my father sat, a
bound and helpless prisoner, on his huge white horse.

One trooper, kinder than the rest, took my pony's rein as I slid off its
back and ran to him. Many a time when I was little, had I had a ride on
White Charlie, and I needed no help to scramble up to my old place on
the big horse's neck.

My father could not move, but he looked down at me with all the anger
and defiance gone out of his face, and a look on it which I had only
seen there once before, and that was when he lifted me up on his knee
after my mother died and told me that I must do my best to help him, and
try to look after the little ones.

That look upset me altogether, and, forgetting the many eyes that
watched us, and the fact that I was eleven years old, and almost a man,
I threw my arms round his neck and kissed him again and again, sobbing
and greeting