ph. "If they're not beggars, they have
lost their way."

He pushed back the hilt of his sword, and drew up one leg, covered with
its high, buff-leather boot, beneath him, holding it as he waited for
the party to come slowly up; and as they did, they halted where he sat,
at the side of the road, and the leader, puffing and panting, took off
his rusty morion with his left hand, and wiped his pink, bald head,
covered with drops of perspiration, with his right, as he rolled his
eyes at the lad.

"Hallo, young springald!" he cried, in a blustering manner. "Why don't
you jump up and salute your officer?"

"Because I can't see him," cried the lad sharply.

"What? And you carry a toasting-iron, like a rat's tail, by your side.
Here, who made this cursed road, where it ought to have been a ladder?"

"I don't know," said Ralph angrily. "Who are you? What do you want?
This road does not lead anywhere."

"That's a lie, my young cock-a-hoop; if it did not lead somewhere, it
would not have been made."

The man's companions burst into a hoarse fit of laughter, and the boy
flushed angrily.

"Well," he said haughtily, "it leads up to Cliff Castle, and no
farther."

"That's far enough for us, my game chicken. Is that heap of blocks of
stone on the top there the castle?"

"Yes! What do you want?"

The man looked the lad up and down, rolled one of his eyes, which looked
something like that of a lobster, and then winked the lid over the
inflated orb, and said:

"Gentlemen on an ambassage don't read their despatches to every
springald they see by the roadside. Here, jump up, and show us the way,
and I'll ask Sir Morton Darley to give you a stoup of wine for your
trouble, or milk and water."

"You ask Sir Morton to give you wine!" cried the lad angrily. "Why, who
are you, to dare such a thing?"

"What!" roared the man. "Dare? Who talks to Captain Purlrose, his
Highness's trusted soldier, about dare?" and he put on a tremendously
fierce look, blew out his cheeks, drew his brows over his eyes, and
slapped his sword-hilt heavily, as if to keep it in its sheath, for fear
it should leap out and kill the lad, adding, directly after, in a hoarse
whisper: "Lie still, good sword, lie still."

All this theatrical display was evidently meant to awe the lad, but
instead of doing so, it made him angry, for he flushed up, and said
quickly:

"I dare," and the men laughed.

"You dare!" cried the leader; "and pray, who may y