from his clutches, even if he
knew where she was, which Tom took care he should not. And, to make all
surer, there was that English soldier--Ludar's prisoner, whom he had
charged to protect her--hovering near, true to his trust and ready to
defend her from all and every foe that should assail her.

Therefore, I felt easy in my mind to leave her thus secure, and set
myself to win my mistress' and master's good-will for my match with the
sweet Jeannette.

'Twas no easy task. For my mistress said the child was over young; and
my master told me I had somewhat else to think of than such tomfoolery.
Howbeit, when I told them that, say what they pleased, Jeannette was
mine, and that so soon as my time was up two years hence I should take
her to myself with leave or without, they thought better of it, and
yielded somewhat.

My mistress said, two years hence we should all be grown older, and if
we were then of the same mind perchance she might be of another. My
master, too, counting to retain me in his service as a son-in-law, said
there was time enough betwixt now and then. And thus it came to pass
Jeannette and I were left to our hopes, and needed no sweeter comfort to
make the weeks fly.

But, one day early in February, as I walked on my master's business near
Charing, I saw a sight which made me uneasy on another's behalf. For
there, at the road corner as you go to Whitehall, I perceived a man who
pulled out a purse and gave it to another; and when I looked closer, I
saw that he who gave was Captain Merriman, and he who received was my
old fellow-apprentice, Peter Stoupe.

Instantly, although I heard not a word, and there might have been a
hundred other considerations, I took it into my head that this business
meant mischief to Ludar. And, cudgelling my brains further, I called to
mind how, that memorable night in Moorfields, while I talked with the
drunken sergeant, Peter had sneaked past us, and put my sweet little
mistress in a flutter.

What if, instead of heeding us, he had been listening to what the
soldier said? He knew or guessed enough of the maiden's story--having
heard me tell it often--to put two and two together. What if he, as
well as I, had learned the soldier's secret; and, to despite me and
profit himself, had sold it to the one man from whom it was by all means
to be kept?

I cursed my wickedness, who, lapped in my own happy fortune, had thus
neglected my absent master's interest and let t