d behaving as if he was everybody.--You won't fight
him, sir?"

"No!"--emphatically.

"Then why not do something just to show him he isn't everybody, and that
you are not afraid of him?"

"You know I am not afraid of him, Samson," cried Fred, hotly.

"Of course I do, sir; but the men don't know. How could they? There
isn't one there as took you in hand from a little one, when you was
always tumbling down and knocking the skin off your knees."

Fred made an impatient gesture.

"You see, sir, if you'd only do something it wouldn't so much matter.
Any one would think, to see the airs he puts on, that he was Prince
Rupert himself."

Fred turned away, and stood with his back to his henchman, lest Samson
should see from his face how he longed to forget his duty, and to cease
being an officer for a few minutes, becoming once more the careless boy
who could retaliate sharply for the blow received.

"He's sitting yonder, sir, in his scarlet and gold and feathers, and
tossing his head so as to make his ringlets shake all over his
shoulders. Proud as a peacock he is, and looking down on us all like my
brother Nat did till I sheared off his long hair, and made him a
crop-ear too. It's done him no end of good. I only wish some one would
serve his lordship the same."

Samson little thought what effect his words would have on his young
leader, who again turned away and walked up and down to master the
emotion which troubled him. The blow he had received seemed to smart;
he pictured the faces of his men looking at him with covert smiles on
their lips, and he seemed to see Scarlett sneering at him as some one so
cowardly as to be utterly beneath his notice; and he was suffering all
this because he believed it to be his duty.

The blood rushed up into Fred's cheeks, and then to his brain, making
him feel giddy as he strode away to avoid temptation, for his nerves
were all a-tingle, and the desire kept on intensifying to seize some
stout staff and thrash his prisoner till he begged his pardon before all
the men.

But he could not do such a thing. He told himself he must suffer and be
strong. He had certain duties to perform, and he would do them, boy as
he was, like a man. And to this end he walked quietly back to the
little camp, giving a long look round to see that all was safe.

The mossy ground beneath the trees deadened his footsteps as he
approached his prisoners to see that all were right; and there, as
Sam