dman, who was licenced to go about as he
pleased, being perfectly harmless.

Another day passed, and Roy was walking up and down in his favourite
part of the court-yard thinking of when he should ask General Hepburn
for a written permission to go about on the ramparts, for the officer
had spoken rather sharply to him after he had run up on the occasion of
the blowing up of the tunnel.

But he did not ask the general, for the events that followed came one
upon another so quickly that the matter passed out of his mind.

For all at once, just as Ben was coming slowly up to him, one of the
sentinels shouted to the officer of the guard below, and word was passed
to the general that a dragoon was galloping up along the road as fast as
he could hurry his horse along.

A few minutes later, in the midst of a little excitement, the man drew
rein at the outer gate-way, held up a packet in answer to a challenge,
and as soon as the drawbridge was lowered, he dismounted and walked his
horse over, for the poor beast was terribly distressed, and the rider
appeared exhausted.

Roy stood eagerly watching, for this evidently meant something
important, otherwise the messenger would not have nearly ridden his
horse to death, the poor beast standing drooping in the middle of the
court-yard; while the man, whose face was blackened with dust and sweat,
and disfigured by a broad strip of plaster which extended from high up
among the roots of his closely-cropped hair on the left temple down to
his right eyebrow, leaned heavily on the sun-dial and asked for water.

The general read his despatch carefully twice, and then turned to the
messenger to question him in a low voice, looking at him searchingly the
while.

"Did General Braxley give you this despatch to bring?"

The man straightened himself up, but reeled and snatched at the sun-dial
again from weakness.

"No, sir; to my comrade. We met a vedette of the enemy, and had to make
a running fight for it till he went down, and I snatched up the despatch
and came on."

"How far from here are the enemy?"

"About five-and-twenty miles, sir, I should say."

"In what direction?"

"Towards Exeter, sir. I did hear say that the king was with them."

"Hah! And how strong are they, do you suppose?"

"'Bout four hundred horsemen, I heard say, sir; but it was only what my
comrade told me."

"Go into the guard-room and get some refreshment," said the general,
after reading his despatch