d his companions are prisoners in the hands of the man
who never knew what pity was.'

We all started in our chairs at this, and looked at one another aghast,
save only Sir Gervas Jerome, whose natural serenity was, I am well
convinced, proof against any disturbance. For you may remember, my
children, that I stated when I first took it in hand to narrate to you
these passages of my life, that the hopes of Monmouth's party rested
very much upon the raid which Argyle and the Scottish exiles had
made upon Ayrshire, where it was hoped that they would create such a
disturbance as would divert a good share of King James's forces, and so
make our march to London less difficult. This was the more confidently
expected since Argyle's own estates lay upon that side of Scotland,
where he could raise five thousand swordsmen among his own clansmen.
The western counties abounded, too, in fierce zealots who were ready to
assert the cause of the Covenant, and who had proved themselves in many
a skirmish to be valiant warriors. With the help of the Highlanders and
of the Covenanters it seemed certain that Argyle would be able to hold
his own, the more so since he took with him to Scotland the English
Puritan Rumbold, and many others skilled in warfare. This sudden news
of his total defeat and downfall was therefore a heavy blow, since it
turned the whole forces of the Government upon ourselves.

'Have you the news from a trusty source?' asked Decimus Saxon, after a
long silence.

'It is beyond all doubt or question,' Master Stephen Timewell answered.
'Yet I can well understand your surprise, for the Duke had trusty
councillors with him. There was Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth--'

'All talk and no fight,' said Saxon.

'And Richard Rumbold.'

'All fight and no talk,' quoth our companion. 'He should, methinks, have
rendered a better account of himself.'

'Then there was Major Elphinstone.'

'A bragging fool!' cried Saxon.'

'And Sir John Cochrane.'

'A captious, long-tongued, short-witted sluggard,' said the soldier of
fortune. 'The expedition was doomed from the first with such men at
its head. Yet I had thought that could they have done nought else, they
might at least have flung themselves into the mountain country, where
these bare-legged caterans could have held their own amid their native
clouds and mists. All taken, you say! It is a lesson and a warning
to us. I tell you that unless Monmouth infuses more energy into his
c