impossible that six men
should be able to clear a way through so many. Only two of my faithful
retainers still held the stairs, and it was but too evident that these
could not resist much longer; when one more had fallen I had resolved to
plunge this dagger into my daughter's heart and then into my own. Death
would have been a thousand times preferable to falling into the hands of
these wretches."

"How long have you been beleaguered, madam?"

"My men have been fighting for four hours. For upwards of three hours
they did well, for the peasants, being unable to use their weapons,
frequently drew back. Then they hit upon the device of fastening a hook
to the end of a pole, and, catching this round the leg of one of the
defenders, dragged him down, and then despatched him with their knives.
One by one four of my men were killed. For the last half hour the two
who remained stood back, one at each side of the doorway, so that they
could not be so entrapped, and slew those who, mounting the stairs,
tried to rush past them. Both were sorely spent, and the end must have
come soon had you not appeared. Whom have I to thank for this unlooked
for deliverance?"

"I am Colonel Campbell, Baron de la Villar," Hector replied, "and have
the honour to command his majesty's regiment of Poitou."

"Your name is not French," the lady said.

"No, madam, I am a Scotchman."

"Then," the lady said, speaking in English, "I must claim you as a
countryman, for I am Irish. My husband was an officer in the army of the
Duke of Lorraine; he was killed in a skirmish four years ago, and a
year later I married the Baron of Blenfoix, and was again widowed at the
battle of Freiburg, where my husband, who had followed the fortunes
of the Duke of Lorraine, his feudal lord, fell fighting by the side
of General Merci. This is my daughter Norah. But I see that you are
wounded," she went on as Hector bowed to the young lady.

"Not seriously, madam; but I feel somewhat faint from loss of blood, and
will remove my helmet. As it turned out," he went on somewhat faintly,
"it was unfortunate that I did not put on my body armour; but I had not
anticipated hard fighting, and preferred to ride without it. Thanks for
your offer, lady, but my men will see to me, they are all of them pretty
well accustomed to the bandaging of wounds."

He was now, indeed, almost too faint to stand, and Paolo and Nicholl
seated him against a battlement, and then proceeded to take o