"What made ye in the battle?" she retorted. "Y'are of no party; y'are
but a lad--but legs and body, without government of wit or counsel!
Wherefore did ye fight? For the love of hurt, pardy!"

"Nay," cried Dick, "I know not. But as the realm of England goes, if
that a poor gentleman fight not upon the one side, perforce he must
fight upon the other. He may not stand alone; 'tis not in nature."

"They that have no judgment should not draw the sword," replied the
young lady. "Ye that fight but for a hazard, what are ye but a butcher?
War is but noble by the cause, and y' have disgraced it."

"Madam," said the miserable Dick, "I do partly see mine error. I have
made too much haste; I have been busy before my time. Already I stole a
ship--thinking, I do swear it, to do well--and thereby brought about the
death of many innocent, and the grief and ruin of a poor old man whose
face this very day hath stabbed me like a dagger. And for this morning,
I did but design to do myself credit, and get fame to marry with, and,
behold! I have brought about the death of your dear kinsman that was
good to me. And what besides, I know not. For, alas! I may have set York
upon the throne, and that may be the worser cause, and may do hurt to
England. O, madam, I do see my sin. I am unfit for life. I will, for
penance' sake and to avoid worse evil, once I have finished this
adventure, get me to a cloister. I will forswear Joanna and the trade of
arms. I will be a friar, and pray for your good kinsman's spirit all my
days."

It appeared to Dick, in this extremity of his humiliation and
repentance, that the young lady had laughed.

Raising his countenance, he found her looking down upon him, in the
firelight, with a somewhat peculiar but not unkind expression.

"Madam," he cried, thinking the laughter to have been an illusion of his
hearing, but still, from her changed looks, hoping to have touched her
heart, "madam, will not this content you? I give up all to undo what I
have done amiss; I make heaven certain for Lord Risingham. And all this
upon the very day that I have won my spurs, and thought myself the
happiest young gentleman on ground."

"O boy," she said--"good boy!"

And then, to the extreme surprise of Dick, she first very tenderly wiped
the tears away from his cheeks, and then, as if yielding to a sudden
impulse, threw both her arms about his neck, drew up his face, and
kissed him. A pitiful bewilderment came over simple-min