ssed in the smith's clothes, we'll get
him soon enough, but he may have friends...."

"Friends?"

"He may have been a real prince, your Honor," said Pyot with a laugh,
which contradicted his own suggestion.

"Aye! aye! ... Mayhap!"

"He may have powerful friends ... or such as would resist the watches
... resist us, mayhap ... a warrant would be useful...."

"Aye! aye! you are right, constable," said Boatfield, still a little
bewildered, "do you come along to Sarre with me, I'll give you a warrant
this very night. Have you a horse here?"

"Nay, your Honor," rejoined the man, "an it please you, my going to
Sarre would delay matters and the watches could not start their search
this night."

"Then what am I to do?" exclaimed the squire, somewhat impatient of the
whole thing now, longing to get away, and to forget, beside his own
comfortable fireside, all the harrowing excitement of this unforgettable
day.

"Young Lambert is a bookworm, your Honor," suggested Pyot, who was keen
on the business, seeing that his zeal, if accompanied by success, would
surely mean promotion; "there'll be ink and paper in the cottage.... An
your Honor would but write a few words and sign them, something I could
show to a commanding officer, if perchance I needed the help of
soldiery, or to the chief constable resident at Dover, for methinks some
of us must push on that way ... your Honor must forgive ... we should be
blamed--punished, mayhap--if we allowed such a scoundrel to remain
unhung...."

"As you will, man, as you will," sighed the worthy squire impatiently,
"but wait!" he added, as Pyot, overjoyed, had already turned towards the
cottage, "wait until Sir Marmaduke de Chavasse and the ladies have
gone."

He called his serving-men to him and ordered them to start on their way
towards home, but to wait for him, with his cob, at the bend of the
road, just in the rear of the little church.

Some instinct, for which he could not rightly have accounted, roused in
him the desire to keep his return to the cottage a secret from Sir
Marmaduke. Attended by Pyot, he followed his men down the road, and the
angle of the cottage soon hid him from view.

De Chavasse in the meanwhile had ordered his own men to escort the
ladies home. Busy and Toogood lighted their lanterns, whilst Sue and
Editha, wrapping their cloaks and hoods closely round their heads and
shoulders, prepared to follow them.

Anon the little procession began slowly to wi