end to him," began Eph, plunging into his story
without delay. "The lord had some papers that would have hung a lot of
people if the king's enemies got hold of 'em, so when he heard one day,
all of a sudden, that soldiers were at the castle-gate to carry him
off, he had just time to call his girl to him, and say: 'I may be going
to my death, but I won't betray my master. There is no time to burn the
papers, and I can not take them with me; they are hidden in the old
leathern chair where I sit. No one knows this but you, and you must
guard them till I come or send you a safe messenger to take them away.
Promise me to be brave and silent, and I can go without fear.' You see,
he wasn't afraid to die, but he _was_ to seem a traitor. Lady Matildy
promised solemnly, and the words were hardly out of her mouth when the
men came in, and her father was carried away a prisoner and sent off to
the Tower.

"But she didn't cry; she just called her brother, and sat down in that
chair, with her head leaning back on those papers, like a queen, and
waited while the soldiers hunted the house over for 'em: wasn't that a
smart girl?" cried Tilly, beaming with pride, for she was named for this
ancestress, and knew the story by heart.

"I reckon she was scared, though, when the men came swearin' in and
asked her if she knew anything about it. The boy did his part then, for
_he_ didn't know, and fired up and stood before his sister; and he says,
says he, as bold as a lion: 'If my lord had told us where the papers be,
we would die before we would betray him. But we are children and know
nothing, and it is cowardly of you to try to fright us with oaths and
drawn swords!'"

As Eph quoted from the book, Seth planted himself before Tilly, with the
long poker in his hand, saying, as he flourished it valiantly:

"Why didn't the boy take his father's sword and lay about him? I would,
if any one was ha'sh to Tilly."

"You bantam! He was only a bit of a boy, and couldn't do anything. Sit
down and hear the rest of it," commanded Tilly, with a pat on the yellow
head, and a private resolve that Seth should have the largest piece of
pie at dinner next day, as reward for his chivalry.

"Well, the men went off after turning the castle out of window, but they
said they should come again; so faithful Matildy was full of trouble,
and hardly dared to leave the room where the chair stood. All day she
sat there, and at night her sleep was so full of fear abou