ted him with a rash frankness of speech worthy of his own,
that she was journeying from the Ardennes towards the frontier of
Brabant, where her father was in high command; that the duenna her
companion, outwearied by the exercise, was taking her siesta within;
for that her pacing nag, having cast a shoe on reaching the wood, the
ferryman had undertaken to conduct to the nearest smithy the
venerable chaplain and serving-man constituting her escort.

"'Half a league from hence,' said she, 'my father's people are in
waiting to escort me during the rest of my journey.'

"'Yet surely, gentle lady,' observed the prince, 'considering the
military occupation of the province, your present protection is
somewhat of the weakest?'--

"'It was expressly so devised by my father,' replied the open-hearted
girl. 'The Spanish cavaliers are men of honour, who war not against
women and almoners. A more powerful attendance were more likely to
provoke animosity. Feebleness is sometimes the best security.'

"'_Home_ is a woman's only security in times like these!'--cried the
prince with animation.

"'And therefore to my home am I recalled,' rejoined the young girl,
with a heavy sigh. 'Since my mother's death, I have been residing
with her sister in the Ardennes. But my good aunt having had the
weakness to give way to my instances, and carry me to Namur last
summer, to take part in the entertainments offered to the Queen of
Navarre, my father has taken offence at both of us; and I am sent for
home to be submitted to sterner keeping.'

"You will believe that, ere all this was mutually explained, more
time had elapsed than I take in the telling it; and I could perceive
by the voices of the speakers that they had taken seats, and were
awaiting, without much impatience, the return of the ferryman. The
compassion of the silly child was excited by the severe accident
which the stranger described as the origin of his fractures and
contusions; nor need I tell you that the persuasive voice and
deportment of Don John are calculated to make even a more experienced
one than this pretty Ulrica forget his unseemly aspect and indigent
apparel."

"And all this time the careful gouvernante snored within, and the
obsequious aide-de-camp held at the door the bridles of the
Mecklenburgers"--

"Precisely. Nor found I the time hang much heavier than the prince;
for at first mistrustful, like yourself, that the reconnaissance into
which he had beguiled m