"

"Oh, they were taken again! They're right enough."

"Scarlett Markham?"

"Yes; he came up here yesterday to see how we were."

"Oh!"

"What's the matter, my lad?"

"My father--my charge. Samson, I'm disgraced for ever."

"What, because about sixty men surprised us in that hollow road, and cut
us all down? I don't see no disgrace in fighting like a man, and being
beaten by five to one, or more than that."

"But how came we to be surprised so suddenly?"

"Dunno, Master Fred. Some one must have known we were going through
that wood, and set a trap for us."

"And I allowed my poor fellows to walk right into it. Oh, Samson, I can
never look my father in the face again!"

"Hark at him! Nonsense! It's all ups and downs--sometimes one side
wins, sometimes t'other side. We had the best of it, and then they have
the best of it, and we're prisoners. Wait till we get well, and it will
be our side again. Long as we're not killed, what does it matter?"

"Then you are wounded, Samson?"

"Well, yes, lad; I got a tidy chop aside of the head, and a kick in the
ribs from a horse in the scrummage. Leastwise, it wasn't a kick, 'cause
it was done with a fore leg, when somebody's horse reared up after I'd
cut his master down."

"And there is some one else wounded?"

"Yes, sir--Duggen."

"Badly?"

"Tidy, sir; tidy chop. But we shall soon mend again. Bark 'll grow
over, same as it does when we've chopped an apple tree. I was afraid,
though, as you was badly, sir?"

"Was I wounded, Samson? I feel so weak."

"Wounded, sir! Well, it was a mercy you wasn't killed!"

"It seems all so confused. I cannot recollect much."

"Of course you can't, sir. All the sense was knocked out of your head.
But it'll soon come back again."

"Samson!"

"Yes, sir."

There was a pause, and Fred's henchman rose painfully on one arm to try
and make out the reason of the silence, but he could only see that the
young officer was staring at the window.

"Poor boy!" said Samson to himself. "Seems hard for him to be made into
a soldier at his time o' life. Ought to be at school instead of wearing
a sword."

"Yes, sir," he said aloud.

"Yes?"

"You called me, sir."

"Did I?" said Fred, vacantly.

"Yes, sir; you said `Samson.'"

"Oh yes, I remember. Did you see much of the fight, Samson?"

"As much as any one could for the dark."

"We were attacked front and rear, weren't we?"

"That's it, sir. Trapped."