nd again at
night, and eluding the vigilance of those who tried to follow him,
dodging, as he always did, and then doubling back and reaching the ruins
where they were not watched. It was not until General Hepburn had
realised that it would be a very long and tedious task to reduce the
castle, and only to be achieved at the cost of much bloodshed, that he,
after communication with headquarters, came to Pawson's terms, and then
the result was immediate.

Roy's first step on returning was to seek Lady Royland and tell her of
his visit, at the same time asking her opinion about the book, which she
remembered at once.

"Yes," she said, at last; "if ever we find that book again, we shall
read the story of our ruin there."

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

ROY HEARS THE SIMPLE TRUTH.

A month had passed, and the prisoners knew nothing of what was going on
in the outer world. Now and then rumours floated to Roy's ears through
different channels of how matters progressed in the country, but they
were rumours which, Lady Royland pointed out, could not be trustworthy.
One day it would be that the king was carrying everything before him,
and that the rebellion was nearly stamped out; while on another they
heard that the Parliamentarians held the whole country, and the king
hardly had a follower left.

The moat embraced the world of the prisoners during their captivity, and
they knew what went on within its enclosure,--little else.

"We must wait patiently, Roy," said Lady Royland.

"Yes, mother," he replied, with a smile full of annoyance; "we must
wait, but I can't do it patiently. In the old days I could fish and
climb after the jackdaws' nests, and make excursions, and read; but I
can't do any of those things now. I only seem able to think about
escaping."

"Well, my boy," said Lady Royland, sadly--one day when Roy said this for
perhaps the twentieth time, and she looked at him with a pained
expression in her eyes--"I know how hard it must be for a young bird to
beat its wings, shut in by a cage. Escape, then. You may be able to
find your father. But at the least you will be free."

Roy thought of Pawson's words about his father's death, but mentally
declared it was a lie like the other assertion, and burst out into a
mocking laugh, which made his mother look at him wonderingly.

"Escape?" he said. "I say, mother, do you know I've often thought how
easily I could get on to the ramparts, slide down a rope, and sw