ain hidden all day,
and were but making our escape."

"How can that be, madam? We had a guard all round the castle, and know
that none can have escaped."

"Being an esquire, you are a gentleman, sir, and will not disclose what
I am about to tell you; though, indeed, now that our father's house is
in your hands, it boots not much whether the secret is known. There is
a secret passage from the castle that opens into these bushes, and it
was through that that we issued out; having been in hiding all day, in
the secret chamber from which it leads.

"Well, sir, we are your prisoners; and shall, I suppose, be sent to
London, there to be held until our father is in the usurper's hands,
which will not be, believe me, for years yet."

Oswald was silent. The two girls, some seventeen or eighteen years of
age, both possessed singular beauty they had inherited from their
father; and bore themselves with an air of fearlessness that won his
admiration. He was still but a lad and, thinking of the years these
fair girls might pass in a prison, he felt a deep pity for them. He
drew Roger aside.

"What think you, Roger? Must we send these fair young girls to prison?"

"In faith, I know not, master. Having been shut up many a time in a
cell, I have a sort of fellow feeling for prisoners; and indeed, two
fairer maidens I have never seen. Our orders were to look after
Welshmen, and see that they did not attack us. No word was said of
Welsh women. And besides, they were running away, and not thinking of
attacking us."

"That is all very well, Roger, but I cannot deceive myself. There is no
doubt that it is our duty to take these two maidens prisoners, but my
heart aches at the thought that they might pass years of their lives in
a prison. They are not responsible for their father's misdeeds and
ambition, and it may be that, if they are restored, Glendower may be
induced to treat those who fall into his hands mercifully. None but
ourselves know of this, and no one need ever know.

"I will risk it, anyhow," he said after a short pause. "I know that I
am not doing my duty in letting them go; and that, were it ever known,
I should lose all chance of further advancement, if indeed I did not
lose my life. However, it need never be known, and my conscience would
sorely trouble me, whenever I thought of them shut up in one of King
Henry's prisons."

He turned to the girls again.

"Think you, ladies," he asked, "that were you in the king