the
road, Sir Daniel had begun already to scatter his command.

At all hazards, one chance being equal to another, Dick continued to
pursue the straight trail; and that, after an hour's riding, in which it
led into the very depths of the forest, suddenly split, like a bursting
shell, into two dozen others, leading to every point of the compass.

Dick drew bridle in despair. The short winter's day was near an end; the
sun, a dull red orange, shorn of rays, swam low among the leafless
thickets; the shadows were a mile long upon the snow; the frost bit
cruelly at the finger-nails; and the breath and steam of the horses
mounted in a cloud.

"Well, we are outwitted," Dick confessed. "Strike we for Holywood, after
all. It is still nearer us than Tunstall--or should be by the station of
the sun."

So they wheeled to their left, turning their backs on the red shield of
sun, and made across country for the abbey. But now times were changed
with them; they could no longer spank forth briskly on a path beaten firm
by the passage of their foes, and for a goal to which that path itself
conducted them. Now they must plough at a dull pace through the
encumbering snow, continually pausing to decide their course, continually
floundering in drifts. The sun soon left them; the glow of the west
decayed; and presently they were wandering in a shadow of blackness,
under frosty stars.

Presently, indeed, the moon would clear the hilltops, and they might
resume their march. But till then, every random step might carry them
wider of their march. There was nothing for it but to camp and wait.

Sentries were posted; a spot of ground was cleared of snow, and, after
some failures, a good fire blazed in the midst. The men-at-arms sat
close about this forest hearth, sharing such provisions as they had, and
passing about the flask; and Dick, having collected the most delicate of
the rough and scanty fare, brought it to Lord Risingham's niece, where
she sat apart from the soldiery against a tree.

She sat upon one horse-cloth, wrapped in another, and stared straight
before her at the firelit scene. At the offer of food she started, like
one wakened from a dream, and then silently refused.

"Madam," said Dick, "let me beseech you, punish me not so cruelly.
Wherein I have offended you, I know not; I have, indeed, carried you
away, but with a friendly violence; I have, indeed, exposed you to the
inclemency of night, but the hurry that