oomily at the
weapon he held.

He gazed moodily across the lake again, and then thought of his father's
words about his duty to his country; and his young brow grew more and
more wrinkled.

"Yes," he said; "I ought to do my duty to my country. Those people can
hold us off, and there'll be a desperate fight, and some of our men will
be killed, and nearly all theirs. I could stop it all and make an end
of the fight easily enough by doing my duty to my country. But if I
did, I should be sending Sir Godfrey and poor old Scar to prison,
perhaps get them killed, because they would fight desperately, and I
should make Lady Markham and poor little Lil miserable, and be behaving
like a wretch. I don't like doing such duty."

"Let me see," continued Fred, as he gazed across the lake, "how should I
do it? Easily enough. Get thirty or forty men, and take them in the
old boat across to the mouth of the passage, ten at a time. What
nonsense! March them after dark round to the wilderness, pull away the
boughs, drop down, and thread our way right along the old passage into
the Hall, surprise every one, and the place would be ours.

"And a nice treacherous thing to do; and I should fail," he cried
joyously, "for Scar will have given me the credit of planning such a
thing, and I'll be bound to say he has blocked the place up with stones.

"No; I couldn't do that, and if ever we meet again as friends, and Scar
tells me he was sure I should attack them there, and that he guarded
against it, I'll kick him for thinking me such a dishonourable traitor."

Fred sat musing still--wondering what the garrison were doing, and
fighting hard to keep the thought of the secret passage out of his mind.

What would his father say if he knew of the secret he was keeping back?
and conscience ran him very hard on the score of duty to his country.

"But," he said at last, "duty to one's country does not mean being
treacherous to one's old friends. I'm obliged to fight against them;
but I'll fight fairly and openly. I will not, duty to my country or no
duty, go crawling through passages to stab them in the dark."

It was a glorious day, succeeding two during which a western gale had
been blowing, drenching the attacking party, and making everything
wretched around; and as Fred lose from where he had been seated and
walked slowly along by the edge of the lake towards its eastern end, the
water, moor, and woodlands looked so lovely that there