curls clustered
round the noble head in classic fashion, but were not suffered to
grow long enough to reach the shoulders, as in childhood's day; and
the active, graceful, well-knit figure gave indication of great
strength as well as of great agility.

Paul's dress, too, was improved since we saw him last; for one of
the travelling peddlers or hawkers who roamed the country with
their wares, and supplied the remote villages with the greater part
of those articles not made at home, had recently visited Figeon's
Farm, and Paul had been able to supply himself with a new and
serviceable suit of clothes, in which his tall figure was set off
to the best advantage.

It was made of crimson cloth and the best Spanish leather, and was
cut after one of the most recent but least extravagant fashions of
the day. Paul had been able to purchase it without difficulty, for
he had by no means exhausted the funds he had in his possession,
and the leather belt he wore next his person was still heavy with
broad gold pieces.

Lady Stukely had seemed to have a prevision of coming trouble for
her youngest-born son for many long years before the troubles
actually came, and she had been making preparation for the same
with the patience and completeness that only a mother's heart would
have prompted. She had made with her own hands a stout leather
belt, constructed of a number of small pouches, each one of which
could contain a score of broad gold pieces. She knew full well that
lands might be confiscated, valuables forfeited, houses taken in
possession by foes, but the owner of the current gold of the land
would never be utterly destitute; so for years before her death she
bad been filling this ingeniously contrived belt, and had stored
within its many receptacles gold enough to be a small fortune in
itself. This belt had been in Paul's possession ever since the sad
day when she had kissed him for the last time and had commended him
to the care of Heaven. He had by no means yet exhausted its
contents, for he had often won wages for himself by following one
or another great noble in his private enterprises against some
lawless retainer or an encroaching neighbour.

A little money went a long way in those days, when open house was
kept by almost all the great of the land, and free quarters and
food were always to be had at any monastery or abbey to which
chance might guide the wanderer's feet. So Paul had not been forced
to draw largely upo