chamber, and I am quite willing."

"My mother?" asked Roy, in agony.

"Keeps to her room, boy. Her women are with her, and she knows that you
are safe."

"She knows that?" cried Roy.

"Well, yes. I am what you would call a brutal rebel and traitor to my
king; but I have a wife who knows what anxiety is about her husband and
her son during this cruel war, and I took the liberty of asking an
interview last night, before going to rest, and telling Lady Royland how
you had behaved."

"Thank you, General--General--"

"Hepburn, my lad," and he caught the hand the boy held out. "And let me
tell you that you have a mother of whom any boy should be proud--your
father a wife such as few men own. She passed the whole night tending
the wounded and winning our doctor's esteem. But come; I am hungry, and
so must you be too."

Roy followed him without a word, feeling that, prisoner though he was,
the salutes of the sentinels they passed were full of respect; and when
he reached the dining-room, in which about twenty officers were gathered
waiting their general's presence to begin, they rose like one man, and
pressed forward to shake him by the hand, making the boy flush with
mingled shame and pride, for had he taken the castle instead of losing
it, his reception could not have been more warm.

"Come," said the general, after their hasty meal was at an end, "you are
my prisoner, but I will not ask you to make promises not to escape. You
can go about the castle; the men will let you pass anywhere within the
portcullis. You will like to visit your wounded men, of course."

"And the other prisoners?" said Roy.

"I am going to parade them now; so come with me and see."

The strong force pretty well filled the square court-yard, but left a
vacant place in the middle into which the general strode; and then
giving his orders, there was a pause, during which Roy's gaze turned
involuntarily towards the little turret at the corner of the gate tower;
but no flag fluttered there, and he felt a pang as he gazed at the tall
pole with the halyard against it swayed by the wind.

But he had something else to take his attention directly as he glanced
round the walls.

There, standing at the window of the north-west tower, was the upper
part of the figure of Master Pawson, framed as it were in stone; and Roy
turned away in disgust as a hearty cheer arose, and he saw it was to
welcome the brave fellows, who marched from their priso