in good keeping, together
with the two years' payment for the cabaret. Are you thinking of going
to Scotland yourself, colonel?"

"Certainly not to Scotland, I have no friends there, and from all that
I have heard the people are so hard and bigoted, so full of their
religious differences, that I should feel sorely out of place with them.

"Well, MacIntosh, as soon as I am settled in England I will have a
letter conveyed to you in some way at the address of The Scottish
Soldier. Wherever I am, there will be a home always open to you, and
glad indeed I shall be to have you near me. My four troopers are going
to accompany me. I have talked the matter over with them, and have
promised that I will find a house with a small farm for them on any
estate I may purchase, where they can do such an amount of work as
pleases them, or that they can remain in my service on the present
conditions. You can make the same offer in my name to your two comrades.
After all, things are not so settled across the water that I can
dispense with old friends on whom I can rely. Paolo, of course, goes
with me, and will be my right hand."

"I will think it all over, Hector, and maybe one of these days I and
the other two may knock at your door. It is hard if seven old fellow
soldiers could not end their days happily and quietly together."

As soon as the meal had been eaten Hector went to say goodbye to the
governor, and heard how Vendome's men had been refused entrance. After
thanking him for the courtesy that he had shown him, he returned to the
inn. As the party would require horses on landing, and there was plenty
of room on board the vessel that he had engaged, Hector shipped the
three horses that Conde had given him, and four others for the use of
his men, and after a hearty farewell to MacIntosh on his part and that
of the ladies, they went on board, and a few minutes later the sails
were set and the vessel started down the river. The wind was favourable,
and they made a fast voyage down to the sea. Before they reached the
mouth of the river, however, Hector had ascertained to his satisfaction
that Norah O'More returned the feeling that he felt for her.

"I have loved you," she said, "from the moment when you came to us as
our saviour from death on the summit of the turret; and though as time
went on I did not venture to think that you, who had so fair a future
before you, would ever think of the girl who with her mother you had so
nobly