e shabby."

"Not that, sir. Your old character stands in your way."

"Oh, this is hard--this is hard. You rich, and with everything
comfortable, while I am poor, and unrewarded for all my labour and risk
by an ungrateful Scot."

"Don't insult your sovereign, sir!" cried Sir Morton.

"Oh, this is hard--this is hard."

"Look here, Michael Purlrose, if you had been an officer and a gentleman
in distress, I would have helped you."

"Do you mean to say that I am not an officer, and a gentleman in
distress, sir?" cried the captain, clapping his hand to the hilt of his
sword, a movement imitated by Ralph, angrily. But Sir Morton stood
back, unmoved.

"Let your sword alone, boy," he said sternly. "You, Michael Purlrose,
knowing you as I do of old, for a mouthing, cowardly bully, do you think
that I am going to be frightened by your swagger? Yes, I tell you that
you are no gentleman."

"Oh, this is too much," cried the visitor. "It is enough to make me
call in my men."

"Indeed!" said Sir Morton coolly. "Why call them in to hear me
recapitulate your disgrace? As to your appeals to me for help, and your
claim, which you profess to have upon me, let me remind you that you
were engaged as a soldier of fortune, and well paid for your services,
though you and yours disgraced the royal army by your robberies and
outrages. All you gained you wasted in riot and drunkenness, and now
that you are suffering for your follies, you come and make claims upon
me."

"Oh, this is too hard upon a poor soldier who has bled in his country's
service. Did I not once save your life, when you were at your last
gasp?"

"No, sir; it was the other way on. I saved yours, and when I was
surrounded, and would have been glad of your help, you ran away."

"Ha-ha-ha!" cried Ralph, bursting into a roar of laughter.

"Ah-h-ah!" cried the captain fiercely, as he half drew his sword; but he
drove it back with a loud clang into its sheath directly. "Stay there,
brave blade, my only true and trusted friend. He is the son of my old
companion-in-arms, and I cannot draw upon a boy."

Ralph laughed aloud again, and the captain scowled, and rolled his eyes
fiercely; but he did not startle the lad in the least, and after a long,
fierce stare, the man turned to Sir Morton.

"Don't be hard upon an old brother-soldier, Morton Darley," he said.

"No, I will not," said Sir Morton quietly. "You and your men can
refresh yourselves in the hall, an