the kinsmen spent the best part of the next days in teaching the
mettlesome though tractable creature how to answer to the rein and
submit to saddle and rider. It was shod at Ives's forge, and
christened by the name of Crusader, and soon learned to love the
lads, who, whilst showing themselves masters of its wildest moods,
were yet kindly and gentle in their handling.

The young prince was in great spirits during these days. He had
been all his life somewhat too much under the close restraint of an
affectionate but dictatorial mother, and had been master of none of
his own actions. Such restraint was galling to a high-spirited
youth; and although the sweetness of disposition inherited from his
father had carried the prince through life without rebellion or
repining, yet this foretaste of liberty was very delightful, and
the romance of being thus unknown and obscure, free to go where he
would unquestioned and unmarked, exercised a great fascination over
him, and made him almost forget the shadow which sometimes seemed
to hang over his path.

Paul was as light hearted as his companion in the main, though
there were moments when his joy at having his adored prince under
his care was dashed by the feeling of responsibility in such a
charge, and by the fear of peril to the hope of the House of
Lancaster. He wondered if it were his fancy that the farm was
watched; that there were often stealthy steps heard without in the
night--steps that set the dogs barking furiously, but which never
could be accounted for next day; that if he rode or walked down the
cart road to the village alone or with his comrade, their movements
were followed by watchful eyes--eyes that seemed now and again to
glare at him, as in the dusk that first evening, but which always
melted away into the shadows of the forest if looked at closely or
followed and tracked.

He was disposed to think it all the trick of an excited
imagination, but he began to be not sorry that the day for
departure was drawing near. If he had provoked the enmity of the
robber chief, or if by a remoter chance the identity of his
companion had been suspected, it would be better to be off without
much more delay so soon as the wedding should be over.

Joan herself was nervous and fearful, and seldom set foot outside
the door of her home. She sometimes said with a shiver that she was
certain there were fierce men hiding about the house ready to carry
her off if she did; and thou