master and reinstate his young Prince.
Among these loyal gentlemen Colonel Myddelton was not the least.

Colonel Myddelton was a widower, and Barbara, young though she was, had
long acted as the mistress of the household. Yet, in spite of her good
sense and caution, Barbara had been the obstacle to the Colonel's
departure. She was, he considered, unfit to be left alone with no more
stalwart companions than old Digger, the maids, and the children; but
her repeated assurances that she felt no foreboding at last conquered,
and that morning, as we have seen, he had ridden off.

"You know, father," she had told him again and again, "Philip is close
at hand, and truly I can see no danger. Was not I alone for days and
nights together when you were with the King and the Prince?"

"Well, well," the Colonel had responded at last; "but I shall speak a
word to Matthew as I pass the forge to-day, and he will keep his eye on
the place." Matthew Hale, the blacksmith, had served under Colonel
Myddelton in more than one campaign, and he rang as true as his own
anvil.

Thus it was that Barbara was left alone in the great house, with none
to bear her company but Jack, who was but twelve, and Marjorie, who was
but eight, and little Alys, and old Digger, the odd man, and the maids.
There were also, it is true, stablemen and gardeners, but they lived in
the village.

The next of age to Barbara was Philip (Philip Sidney Myddelton in full,
so named after that sweet and noble gentleman and soldier who fell at
Zutphen). Philip was sixteen, and at this time was still at his lessons
with Mr. Fullarton, of Framshott, a village eight miles distant. Mr.
Fullarton was a ripe scholar who kept a house wherein some score of
boys whose parents had no strong liking for the great grammar schools
were received and fitted with enough learning to take them into Oxford
or Cambridge. The boys ranged in age from ten to seventeen, and at this
time Philip was their leader. None could shoot with a crossbow as
skillfully as he (that very spring he had killed twenty-three
water-rats, and you know how wary they are); none was so fearless a
rider; none more expert at flying the hawk or training hounds. The
boys' worthy instructor received a liberal sum in payment for his
services, and his house was thus made more of a home than a mere
school. Each boy who wanted it was permitted to keep his own horse and
dog, and after lessons were over their liberty was little en