Presently Mistress Barbara checked her laughter, slipped from her pony and crossed to the whipping-post where the sobbing boy stood watching the scene with eager eyes in which hope and fear still strove for the mastery.
"Loose him," she cried imperiously, and the troopers hastened to obey her.
"My poor brave laddie," she murmured, bending over him tenderly. "Ah! but they have hurt thee cruelly. Get away to thy mother and fear not. They shall not touch thee again."
Then drawing herself up to her full height, and she was more than common tall, she faced round upon the group of men.
"Brutes," she cried. "Brutes ye are, and no men to treat a poor helpless laddie thus. What! Have ye no manhood? Think shame of yourselves to stand by and let such work go on. An I were but a man I'd teach you a lesson you would not soon forget."
"'Tis well enough to talk," grumbled one of the troopers angrily; "but the lad's father is in hiding and we must know where he is, The boy could tell us well enough an he would speak. We caught him slipping thro' the wood an hour back. Yon basket of food he carried was for him, I warrant."
"'Tis very like," answered Barbara coldly. "What then?"
"What then? Why the fellow is a rebel."
"And what of that, pray? An his father be a rebel to King James, is that reason why the lad should be traitor to his own father? Shame on you! You who are fathers yourselves; would you have your sons cast such a teaching in your teeth?"
By this time the corporal had freed his neck from the lash and recovered his equanimity. Now he bustled to the front with an air of importance.