his Herne, who has more than once attacked
me, and I shall be glad to pay it."

"If you will take my advice, Hugh Dacre, you will ride on, and leave
the achievement of the adventure to these young galliards," interposed
Cryspyn.

"Nay, by the mass! that shall never be," rejoined Dacre, "if they have
no objection to our joining them. If they have, they have only to say
so, and we will go on."

"I will be plain with you, my masters," said Surrey. "We are determined
this night, as you have rightly conjectured, to seek out Herne the
Hunter; and we hope to obtain such clue to him as will ensure his
capture. If, therefore, you are anxious to join us, we shall be glad of
your aid. But you must be content to follow, and not lead--and to act
as you are directed--or you will only be in the way, and we would rather
dispense with your company."

"We are content with the terms--are we not, Tony?" said Dacre.

His companion answered somewhat sullenly in the affirmative.

"And now that the matter is arranged, may I ask when you propose to go?"
he continued.

"We are on our way to a hut on the lake, where we expect a companion to
join us," replied Surrey.

"What! Tristram Lyndwood's cottage?" demanded Dacre.

"Ay," replied the earl, "and we hope to recover his fair granddaughter
from the power of the demon."

"Ha! say you so?" cried Dacre; "that were a feat, indeed!"

The two strangers then rode apart for a few moments, and conversed
together in a low tone, during which Richmond expressed his doubts of
them to Surrey, adding that he was determined to get rid of them.

The new-comers, however, were not easily shaken off. As soon as they
perceived the duke's design, they stuck more pertinaciously to him and
the earl than before, and made it evident they would not be dismissed.

By this time they had passed Spring Hill, and were within a mile of
the valley in which lay the marsh, when a cry for help was heard in
the thicket on the left, and the troop immediately halted. The cry was
repeated, and Surrey, bidding the others follow him, dashed off in the
direction of the sound.

Presently, they perceived two figures beneath the trees, whom they
found, on a nearer approach, were Sir Thomas Wyat, with Mabel in a state
of insensibility in his arms.

Dismounting by the side of his friend, Surrey hastily demanded how he
came there, and what had happened?

"It is too long a story to relate now," said Wyat; "but the sum of it
i