ng through the snow and ice, was
effected with silence and order; and on the further side, being then
within a short half mile of where Dick had seen the glimmer of the fire,
the party halted to breathe before the attack.

In the vast silence of the wood, the lightest sounds were audible from
far; and Alicia, who was keen of hearing, held up her finger warningly
and stooped to listen. All followed her example; but besides the groans
of the choked brook in the dingle close behind, and the barking of a fox
at a distance of many miles among the forest, to Dick's acutest
hearkening, not a breath was audible.

"But yet, for sure, I heard the clash of harness," whispered Alicia.

"Madam," returned Dick, who was more afraid of that young lady than of
ten stout warriors, "I would not hint ye were mistaken; but it might well
have come from either of the camps."

"It came not thence. It came from westward," she declared.

"It may be what it will," returned Dick; "and it must be as heaven
please. Reck we not a jot, but push on the livelier, and put it to the
touch. Up, friends--enough breathed."

As they advanced, the snow became more and more trampled with hoof-marks,
and it was plain that they were drawing near to the encampment of a
considerable force of mounted men. Presently they could see the smoke
pouring from among the trees, ruddily coloured on its lower edge and
scattering bright sparks.

And here, pursuant to Dick's orders, his men began to open out, creeping
stealthily in the covert, to surround on every side the camp of their
opponents. He himself, placing Alicia in the shelter of a bulky oak,
stole straight forth in the direction of the fire.

At last, through an opening of the wood, his eye embraced the scene of
the encampment. The fire had been built upon a heathy hummock of the
ground, surrounded on three sides by thicket, and it now burned very
strong, roaring aloud and brandishing flames. Around it there sat not
quite a dozen people, warmly cloaked; but though the neighbouring snow
was trampled down as by a regiment, Dick looked in vain for any horse.
He began to have a terrible misgiving that he was out-manoeuvred. At the
same time, in a tall man with a steel salet, who was spreading his hands
before the blaze, he recognised his old friend and still kindly enemy,
Bennet Hatch; and in two others, sitting a little back, he made out, even
in their male disguise, Joanna Sedley and Sir Daniel's wife