"Yes, it is all smouldering!" Ralph exclaimed, putting it out with his hands.
"Have you got them all?" Captain O'Connor asked.
"Every one; not one has made his escape. It would have fared badly with us, though, if Lieutenant Adcock had not sent down the men to our assistance."
A WIFE'S STRATAGEM.
FROM "IN FREEDOM'S CAUSE."
[This story concerns the interesting period of Scottish history when Robert the Bruce was slowly wresting Scotland from the power of England. The great Edward I. ("Longshanks, the Hammer of the Scots") had died, and his son, Edward II., had succeeded him, and was advancing to Scotland with the immense army that was to meet destruction at Bannockburn.
Archie Forbes, a Scottish gentleman who had fought under Wallace and Bruce, was made prisoner by the English and taken to Berwick Castle, where he was confined in a cage fixed outside the wall, and opening into a small cell in which he passed the night. During the daytime he remained in the cage in sight of the passers-by.]
The position of the cage was about twenty-five feet above the moat. The moat itself was some forty feet wide, a public path ran along the other side, and people passing here had a full view of the prisoner. There were still many of Scottish birth in the town, in spite of the efforts which Edward had made to convert it into a complete English colony; and although the English were in the majority, Archie was subject to but little insult or annoyance.
Although for the present in English possession, Berwick had always been a Scotch town, and might yet again by the fortune of war fall into Scottish hands. Therefore even those most hostile to them felt that it would be prudent to refrain from any demonstrations against the Scottish prisoners; since in the event of the city again changing hands a fearful retaliation might be dealt them.
Occasionally a passing boy would shout out a word of contempt or hatred, or throw a stone at the prisoner, but such trifles were unheeded by him. More often men or women passing would stop and gaze up at him with pitying looks, and would go away wiping their eyes.