But where is my old friend Winter?"

The two gentlemen turned away their heads in silence.

"In Strafford's company," said Mordaunt, tauntingly.

Charles shuddered. The demon had known how to wound him. The remembrance
of Strafford was a source of lasting remorse to him, the shadow that
haunted him by day and night. The king looked around him. He saw a
corpse at his feet. It was Winter's. He uttered not a word, nor shed
a tear, but a deadly pallor spread over his face; he knelt down on the
ground, raised Winter's head, and unfastening the Order of the Saint
Esprit, placed it on his own breast.

"Lord Winter is killed, then?" inquired D'Artagnan, fixing his eyes on
the corpse.

"Yes," said Athos, "by his own nephew."

"Come, he was the first of us to go; peace be to him! he was an honest
man," said D'Artagnan.

"Charles Stuart," said the colonel of the English regiment, approaching
the king, who had just put on the insignia of royalty, "do you yield
yourself a prisoner?"

"Colonel Tomlison," said Charles, "kings cannot yield; the man alone
submits to force."

"Your sword."

The king drew his sword and broke it on his knee.

At this moment a horse without a rider, covered with foam, his nostrils
extended and eyes all fire, galloped up, and recognizing his master,
stopped and neighed with pleasure; it was Arthur.

The king smiled, patted it with his hand and jumped lightly into the
saddle.

"Now, gentlemen," said he, "conduct me where you will."

Turning back again, he said, "I thought I saw Winter move; if he still
lives, by all you hold most sacred, do not abandon him."

"Never fear, King Charles," said Mordaunt, "the bullet pierced his
heart."

"Do not breathe a word nor make the least sign to me or Porthos," said
D'Artagnan to Athos and Aramis, "that you recognize this man, for Milady
is not dead; her soul lives in the body of this demon."

The detachment now moved toward the town with the royal captive; but
on the road an aide-de-camp, from Cromwell, sent orders that Colonel
Tomlison should conduct him to Holdenby Castle.

At the same time couriers started in every direction over England
and Europe to announce that Charles Stuart was the prisoner of Oliver
Cromwell.

57. Oliver Cromwell.

"Have you been to the general?" said Mordaunt to D'Artagnan and Porthos;
"you know he sent for you after the action."

"We want first to put our prisoners in a place of safety," replied
D'Artag