“Of course!”
“Then will you speak to my lady, and ask her to give Master Pawson a couple of rooms in the private part somewhere, or one room ought to be enough now, for I want those two chambers of his badly?”
“He won’t like that, Ben,” said Roy, quickly.
“I s’pose not, sir; and there’ll be a lot of things none of us will like, but we’ve got to put up with them. If you’ll see about that at once, I shall be glad.”
“Is it very necessary, Ben?”
“You know best about that, sir.”
“Yes, it is very necessary, Ben,” said Roy; and he hurried off to talk the matter over with his mother, visiting the ramparts on his way.
He found Lady Royland busy writing, and she looked up with a smile.
“I am keeping a diary of all that has taken place since we began the defence. But tell me first—Raynes’s men—are we to give them up?”
“I’m afraid so, mother. They have not failed us, but have been taken prisoners.”