ll have it," said Tobias Platt, and he quickly returned with a
small table, a jug of ale, and a pipe with some tobacco.

"Mind you don't go to sleep, though," said Tobias, as the sentry,
seating himself in the chair and placing his musket by his side,
stretched out his legs, when, taking a pull at the jug, he began to puff
away from the pipe which Tobias Platt had lighted for him. Tobias then,
having placed a lantern with the dark side turned away from the sentry,
quietly retired; he came back, however, before long, to find the beer
jug empty, while the man was snoring loudly.

"You will do," said Tobias, nodding as he passed. In a short time he
came back accompanied by a light figure in a dark cloak, and turning a
key, and noiselessly drawing back some bolts, glided into the room.
Both the prisoners were sleeping. She was loth to awake them, yet it
must be done. She turned the lantern on Stephen's face and uttered his
name. He started up in a moment. "Can you forgive me?" he whispered in
a low voice. "And yet you come as an angel of light to console me in my
sore trouble."

"I come not to blame you, Stephen, but to comfort you if I can. I would
inform you the means for your and your brother's escape have been
provided; you have simply to walk out of this room while the sentry is
sleeping. Your father is aware that you have been made prisoner, and he
has arranged for your concealment, or will endeavour to have you
conveyed northward where search is not likely to be made for you."

"Thanks, dearest, thanks a thousandfold," said Stephen. "For your sake
I would use every exertion to escape, but I cannot desert my companions.
I have already brought too many into trouble in endeavouring to get
clear of my foes. I have induced several to join our unhappy cause who
have lost their lives. I cannot run the risk of bringing the Colonel
and his family into trouble, which I should do were I to escape from his
house."

"Indeed, he is anxious to save you, I am sure of it, else he would not
have had you placed in this room," said Alice, "though he wisely would
not commit himself further. He knew that I brought you your clothing,
and he would willingly run any risk for the sake of saving you from the
clutches of Judge Jeffreys, who is expected every day at Dorchester to
commence the assize, and all who know him say that it will be a fearful
one."

"I must endure whatever I am called on to suffer," answered Stephen.