tles when they crack a flagon of wine. Of business
habits he must be, too, forsooth, for is there not a busy hostel and two
hundred good pounds a year to pass through his fingers? If Jane Hobson
is to be led to the altar again it must be by such a man as this.'

Saxon had listened with much attention to the widow's words, and had
just opened his mouth to make some reply to her when a clattering and
bustle outside announced the arrival of some traveller. Our
hostess drank off her wine and pricked up her ears, but when a loud
authoritative voice was heard in the passage, demanding a private room
and a draught of sack, her call to duty overcame her private concerns,
and she bustled off with a few words of apology to take the measure of
the new-comer.

'Body o' me, lads!' quoth Decimus Saxon the moment that she disappeared,
'ye can see how the land lies. I have half a mind to let Monmouth carve
his own road, and to pitch my tent in this quiet English township.'

'Your tent, indeed!' cried Reuben; 'it is a brave tent that is furnished
with cellars of such wine as we are drinking. And as to the quiet, my
illustrious, if you take up your residence here I'll warrant that the
quiet soon comes to an end.'

'You have seen the woman,' said Saxon, with his brow all in a wrinkle
with thought. 'She hath much to commend her. A man must look to himself.
Two hundred pounds a year are not to be picked off the roadside every
June morning. It is not princely, but it is something for an old soldier
of fortune who hath been in the wars for five-and-thirty years, and
foresees the time when his limbs will grow stiff in his harness. What
sayeth our learned Fleming--"an mulier--" but what in the name of the
devil have we here?'

Our companion's ejaculation was called forth by a noise as of a slight
scuffle outside the door, with a smothered 'Oh, sir!' and 'What will the
maids think?' The contest was terminated by the door being opened, and
Dame Hobson re-entering the room with her face in a glow, and a slim
young man dressed in the height of fashion at her heels.

'I am sure, good gentlemen,' said she, 'that ye will not object to this
young nobleman drinking his wine in the same room with ye, since all the
others are filled with the townsfolk and commonalty.'

'Faith! I must needs be mine own usher,' said the stranger, sticking his
gold-laced cap under his left arm and laying his hand upon his heart,
while he bowed until his forehead nearl