from the saddle of one of the troopers. In those
days the yeomen carried ropes fit for hanging men as they went through
the country. The unconscious man was carried from the meeting-house
and hung up on the only tree large enough to bear his weight. Lord
Dunseveric, with his watch in his hand, saw the thing done with a quiet
smile. Then he spoke again to Captain Twinely.

"You had better proceed with your search for the cannon. It is getting
late, and you have already wasted a great deal of time."

More torches were lit. The men, now thoroughly cowed, dragged down the
pulpit and the precentor's pew. The earth under them was not beaten hard
as was the earth of the rest of the floor. Captain Twinely took a torch
and peered at it.

"Fetch a spade," he said.

They shovelled the earth into a heap against the wall and uncovered four
cannons. They were wrapped in oily rags, and well preserved, in spite of
their damp hiding-place. Lord Dunseveric looked at them carefully.

"Ah," he said. "Four of the six-pounders which I bought for my company
of volunteer artillery in 1778. I often wondered what had become of
them. Now, Captain Twinely, you have got the cannon, you had better go
on to arrest your prisoners. I shall go with you, and remember I shall
permit no violence unless resistance is offered. I have given your men
one lesson to-night already. I am quite prepared to give them another if
necessary."

The rain had ceased when Maurice and Neal, with their charge, left the
meeting-house. The direction of the wind had changed since sunset. It
blew in from the north and was sweeping the clouds away. The moon, then
in its first quarter, seemed to be racing across the sky among the torn
fragments of black cloud. Now and then it reached an open space and shed
a pale, white light over the landscape. Again, it was hidden and the
night was very dark. Already the wind had aroused the sea to its old
warfare against the rocks and strands. Its hollow roaring was borne far
inland. For a time the little party walked in silence. The Comtesse was
the first to speak.

"If that is the way your loyal troops behave, Maurice, I think that I
prefer the _sans culottes_. Ugh! my clothes are half torn off my back. I
shall never be able to wear this dress again. It will smell, positively
smell, of the grimy hands of that drunken wretch."

"What brought you out?" asked Maurice. "If you had stayed at home
nothing would have happened to you."

"