n with
such deliberate delicacy that, though Halfman's head hummed for the
moment and his eyes saw stars, he rallied quickly enough to stare at
Evander where he stood with lowered point and to tender him a
salutation of honest admiration.

"Great Jove of glory!" he gasped; "who was it that ran liquid steel
into your spare body?"

Evander smiled at the new change in his chameleon companion.

"I learned a little fencing when I was in Paris," he admitted. "I
fear I was over-inclined for the pastime."

"A little fencing!" Halfman ejaculated. "A little fencing! Why, man,
that botte between the eyes would have done for me, even if you had
not spitted both my lungs first. No one can ever say of you that you
held your sword like a dancer. Give me your hand--by God! I must grip
your hand."

"Sir," said Evander, as the pair clasped hands with the hearty clasp
of true combatants, "you overpraise me; yet for your friendly
praises I have a favor to ask of you."

"Name it and it is done," Halfman asseverated, with an oath, "were it
to pluck a purple hair for you from the beard of the Grand Cham
himself."

"'Tis no such matter," Evander answered. "I do but entreat you of
your courtesy to take back your ring, for which in very truth I have
no use."

Halfman protested a little for form's sake, then gave way, glad
enough to pouch his jewel again.

"You are a gentleman," he declared. "Come, let us taste the air in
the gardens."

XV

MY LADY'S PLEASAUNCE

The gardens of Harby were captain jewels in the crown of Oxfordshire.
From the terrace they spread in spaces of changeful beauty over many
acres of fruitful earth. Evander had seen to it that no further harm
was done to these lovely spaces than was inevitable for the conduct
of the siege. There were some in his company, hissing hot zealots,
who were all for laying violating hands upon the temples of Baal and
the shrines of Ashtaroth, by which Evander rightly interpreted them
to mean the pleasaunces of clipped yews, the rose bowers, the box
hedges, and the generous autumnal orchards. They were eager to show
their scorn of the Amalekites by the lopping of ancient trees and the
treading of colored blossoms under the heel of Israel. But Evander
was as firm as these were frantic, and the gardens of Harby smiled
through familiar process of sun and rain and dew, untroubled by the
daily rattle of musketry and the nightly tramp of sentinels.

Evander reaped a reward for