Part 3 (1/2)

Ashen grew his cheeks as his eyes fastened upon that naht a tremor, shook now like an aspen

Feverishly he spread the letter on his knee, and with a glance, frorown of a sudden fierce and cruel, he read the contents

DEAR KENNETH,

Again I write in the hope that I may prevail upon you to quit Scotland and your attach, whose fortunes prosper not, nor can prosper Cynthia is pining, and if you tarry longer froard lover Than this I have no uham, but this I think should prevail where others have failed me We await you then, and whilst e daily drink your health Cynthia commends herself to your memory as doth h Believe, my dear Kenneth, that whilst I am, I am yours in affection

GREGORY ASHBURN

Twice Crispin read the letter through Then with set teeth and straining eyes he sat lost in thought

Here indeed was a strange chance! This boy whom he had met at Perth, and enrolled in his company, was a friend of Ashburn's--the lover of Cynthia Who s upon the unfathomable ways of Fate--for Fate he now believed was here at work to help hin even at the very moment when he decried his luck Inwith the lad in the yard of Perth Castle a fortnight ago Soht Crispin's eye He had looked him over, then approached, and bluntly asked his name and on what business he was coh that he was Kenneth Stewart of Bailienochy, and that he was co

Thereupon he had interested hiained him a lieutenancy in his own company Why he was attracted to a youth on whom never before had he set eyes was a ht, the explanation of it It was the way of Fate

This boy was sent into his life by a Heaven that at last showed cos he had suffered; sent hiates of Castle Marleigh

In long strides he paced the cha the matter over in his mind Aye, he would use the lad should the need arise Why scruple? Had he ever received aught but disdain and scorn at the hands of Kenneth

Day was breaking ere he sought his bed, and already the sun was up when at length he fell into a troubled sleep, vowing that he would ainst the tiht have need of him

When later he restored the papers to Kenneth, explaining to what use he had put the coat, he refrained froory Ashburn The docility of his mood on that occasion came as a surprise to Kenneth, who set it down to Sir Crispin's desire to conciliate hian In that same connexion Crispin showed him cal hih the fear of this, partly won over by Crispin's persuasions, the lad deterret it thereafter, for throughout that tedious ularly meek and kindly

Indeed he see bluster disappeared; he drank less, diced less, blasphemed less, and stormed less than in the old days before the halt at Penrith; but rode, a silent, thoughtful figure, so self-contained and of so Godly a mien as would have rejoiced the heart of the sourest Puritan The wild tantivy boy had vanished, and the sobriquet of ”Tavern Knight” was fast beco ahim a penitent that had seen at last the error of his ways And thus things prevailed until the almost triumphal entry into the city of Worcester on the twenty-third of August

CHAPTER IV AT THE SIGN OF THE MITRE

For a week after the co to Worcester, Crispin's relations with Kenneth steadily improved By an evil chance, however, there befell on the eve of the battle that which reneith heightened intensity the enmity which the lad had fostered for him, but which lately he had al--leastways of that which led to it--was The Mitre Inn, in the High Street of Worcester

In the comladdened the soul of an old tantivy boy Youthful ensigns of Lesley's Scottish horse--caring never a fig for the Soleue and Covenant--rubbed shoulders with beribboned Cavaliers of Lord Talbot's cohlanders, unmindful of the Kirk's harsh commandments of sobriety, sat cheek by joith rakehelly officers of Dalzell's Brigade, and pledged the King in many a stoup of canary and many a can of stout March ale

On every hand spirits ran high and laughter filled the chahbour's quip, that of others having no source at all save in the wine they had taken

At one table sat a gentleman of the naht in that ill-fated camisado that should have resulted in the capture of Cro to a betrayal--as a Stuart not betrayed and sold?--roup about hientle, ”I tell you that, but for that roaring dog, Sir Crispin Galliard, the whole of Middleton's regiment had been cut to pieces There we stood on Red Hill, trapped as ever fish in a net, with the whole of Lilburne's round to enclose and destroy us A living wall of steel it was, and on every hand the call to surrender There was dismay in my heart, as I'll swear there was dismay in the heart of every entle we had thron our arms, so disheartened e by that ambush Then of a sudden there arose above the clatter of steel and Puritan cries, a loud, clear, defiant shout of 'Hey for Cavaliers!'”

”I turned, and there in his stirrups stood that ether with the power of his will, his courage, and his voice The sight of hientlemen; follow me!' he roared And then, with a hurricane of oaths, he hurled his coainst the pike-men The bloas irresistible, and above the din of it caain: 'Up, Cavaliers! Slash the cuckolds to ribbons, gentleave way, and like a river that has burst its da in their ranks and headed back for Worcester”