nel, sir, is dead. He was under yonder wall as it fell. The
men, sir, look to you for orders.'

"Morgan sprang to his feet like one electrified.

"`Call the men off,' he cried hoarsely, `instantly--without another
blow, and bring the prisoners to the camp--to me. Lose not a moment,
friend.'

"The order was obeyed. The Roundheads were glad enough to get clear of
the tottering walls without being too particular as to who escaped and
who was captured.

"Among the prisoners who next morning were reported to the captain as
safe were Fulke, his daughter, and one manservant.

"Morgan's heart failed him. He could not, dared not see them. He
ordered them to be kept in safe custody, and, meanwhile, summoned two of
his most trusty soldiers to receive orders respecting them.

"That night a small boat was brought round to the bottom of yonder
cliff, where you see the little creak, sir. And in it Fulke and the
young lady and their servant were rowed secretly to W--, where a
fishing-boat waited to carry them to Ireland. That's the story, sir."

"And what became of Morgan?" said I.

"No one heard of him after this affair, sir. And they do say he was
punished as a traitor. But whatever the end of him was, he never
repented his night's work at the burning of Fulke Castle."

CHAPTER TWELVE.

FALLEN AMONG THIEVES.

A GRANDFATHER'S YARN.

Sub-Chapter I.

"When I was a young fellow," began my grandfather--

There was a general silence and a settling of ourselves in our seats, as
the wavering voice of the old man uttered these magical words.

No one had asked him to tell a story, some of us had almost forgotten
that he was sitting there in his big chair, one of the group which
crowded round his own Christmas fire at Culverton Manor.

He was an old, old man, was my grandfather. The proverbial "threescore
years and ten" was an old story with him, and even the "fourscore"
awarded to the strong was receding into the distance. Yet there he sat,
in his old straight-back chair, hale and bright, as he looked round on
us his descendants, sons and daughters grey-haired already,
grandchildren, who some of them were staid heads of families themselves,
and the little group of great-grandchildren, who knew as well as any one
that when their father's grandfather began to talk of "the days when he
was young," it was worth their while to hold their peace and prick up
their ears.

"When I was a young fellow," began my gran