'She is,' replied Lady Caroline's husband, shaking hands cordially with me, 'but I must tell you that we are hiding here. Our hostess, Lady Mary Peterson, dared not have us staying with her openly. Even now I have only ventured to leave the house by a subterranean passage from the cellars to yonder clump of willows by the river, and if you wish to remain over the night with us you will have to accompany me that way. But who are those men?' He asked the question with anxiety, pointing as he did so to two of the men who were following us about.
They stood near a thick hedge, which partly screened them from observation.
'Oh, those! I have an account to settle with them,' cried Sir Hubert angrily, at once giving chase to the rascals.
There was a spice of boyishness always about Sir William, and now, like a boy, he forgot all about me and ran off to aid Sir Hubert in the pursuit.
I was left alone, and neither Sir Hubert nor Sir William heard my pitiful little cry—
'Oh, do not leave me!'
By the light of the moon, which had now risen, I saw my escort disappear, with feelings of great misgiving, and sat down disconsolately upon a big boulder by the river side.
It was very lonely there. The water flowed placidly by, with scarcely a murmur. A corncrake in a field behind made mournful music, with monotonous persistence. A dog howled somewhere on the other side of the river. From the town behind us proceeded subdued sounds of horses' hoofs, men's voices, the clashing of steel and, presently, the ringing of the curfew bell.
What a long time my knights were in catching, or frightening, or punishing the spies, if the men were spies, and it seemed evident that they were. Supposing that they had run in the direction of their fellows, and the two knights following them were caught in a trap, overpowered by numbers and taken to prison for rebelling against Queen Mary, what could I do all by myself?
I was horribly frightened, and clasped my hands and strained my eyes in my endeavour to see one or other of my knights returning for me. But in vain. No one was visible. Should I go forward and look for them? No; better to remain where they had left me, lest I missed them altogether.