other."

"Piercing," replied the other, striking his feet upon the ground.

"You are welcome to a mouthful of my spirit-warmer," added the first,
taking a bottle from beneath his cloak.

"Thank ye!" rejoined the sentinel; "but I don't know your voice. You
don't belong to our corps, I think."

"No," answered the other; "but it matters not for that--brother soldiers
should give and take."

The sentinel took the bottle and raised it to his lips; he drank, and
swore the liquor was excellent.

"Drink again," said the other; "you are welcome; it is as good as a
double cloak around you." And the sentinel drank again.

"Good night, comrade," said the trooper. "Good night," replied the
sentinel; and the stranger passed on.

Within half an hour, the same soldier, still muffled up in his cloak,
returned. The sentinel had fallen against the door of the house, and was
fast asleep. The stranger proceeded to the window--he raised it--he
entered. "Fear nothing," he whispered to the prisoners, who were bound
to staples that had been driven into the opposite wall of the room. He
cut the cords with which their hands and their feet were fastened.

"Heaven reward ye for the mercy o' yer heart, and the courage o' this
deed," said John.

"Say nothing," whispered their deliverer, "but follow me."

Each man crept from the window, and the stranger again closed it behind
them. "Follow me, and speak not," whispered he again; and, walking at
his utmost speed, he conducted them for several miles across the hills;
but still he spoke not. Old John marvelled at the manner of their
deliverer; and he marvelled yet more when he led them to Philiphaugh,
and to the very spot where, more than thirty years before, he had found
the child on the bosom of its dead mother; and there the stranger stood
still, and, turning round to those he had delivered--"Here we part,"
said he; "hasten to your own house, but tarry not. You will find horses
in readiness, and flee into Westmoreland; inquire there for the person
to whom this letter is addressed; he will protect you." And he put a
sealed letter into the hands of the old man, and, at the same time,
placed a purse in the hands of Daniel, saying, "This will bear your
expenses by the way--Farewell!--farewell!" They would have detained him,
but he burst away, again exclaiming, as he ran--"Farewell!"

"This is a marvellous deliverance," said John; "it is a mystery, an'
for him to leave us on this spot--on _th