im
across the moat."

"Yes, I am sure you could," she said, eagerly, but with the pain in her
eyes growing plainer. "Well, it would be bitter for me to part with
you, but go."

Roy laughed outright once more.

"Why, you dear, darling, silly old mother!" he cried, flinging his arms
about her neck, and kissing her; "just as if I could go away and leave
you here. I should look a nice young cavalier when I met my father--
shouldn't I?--and he asked where I had left you. No! I'm only
grumbling like old Ben does about being shut up, though General Hepburn
does treat us very well."

"Yes; no gentleman could behave to us with more consideration, my boy."

"But why doesn't father or the king, or some one of his officers, come
and attack this place? All this time gone by, and the general here
seems to hold the country for miles round, and all the gentry are
friendly to him. Do you know Parson Meldew was here yesterday to see
the beast?"

Lady Royland looked at him wonderingly.

"Well, I can't help calling him that. He is a beast, and he lives in a
den. No one seems to associate with him. I believe he hates the
general, but the general told me one day that Pawson was not good enough
to hate."

"Don't mention his name in my presence," said Lady Royland, sternly.

The conversation came to an end, Roy walking off into the court-yard, a
garden no longer, to see a squadron of horse drawn up before starting
upon some reconnoissance.

They rode out to the sound of the trumpet; and as the horses' hoofs
echoed on the lowered bridge, and mingled with their snorting and the
jingle of the accoutrements, Roy felt his heart burn within him, and the
longing to be free grew almost unbearable.

As the drawbridge was raised again, a grunt behind him made the boy turn
sharply, to face the old sergeant, who had come up, his step unheard
amidst the tramping of the horses as they passed over the planks.

"Sets one longing, sir, don't it?" said Ben.

"Ay, it does," said Roy, sighing.

"'Tick'larly at your age, sir. Why, I almost wish my wound hadn't got
well. It did give me something to think about. If I go on with nothing
to do much longer, they'll have to dig a hole to bury me."

"Nonsense, Ben!"

"No, it aren't nonsense, sir; for you see I always was a busy man. Now
there's no armour to polish, no guns to look after, no powder-magazine
to work at, and no one to drill. I'm just getting rusty, right through
to the he