heart, I thank you. Fare ye right well."

"Well, lad," returned Dick, taking the hand which was offered him,

"good speed to you, if speed you may. But I misdoubt it shrewdly.

Y' are too disputatious." So then they separated for the second

time; and presently it was Dick who was running after Matcham.

"Here," he said, "take my cross-bow; shalt not go unarmed."

"A cross-bow!" said Matcham. "Nay, boy, I have neither the

strength to bend nor yet the skill to aim with it. It were no help

to me, good boy. But yet I thank you."

The night had now fallen, and under the trees they could no longer

read each other's face.

"I will go some little way with you," said Dick. "The night is

dark. I would fain leave you on a path, at least. My mind

misgiveth me, y' are likely to be lost."

Without any more words, he began to walk forward, and the other

once more followed him. The blackness grew thicker and thicker.

Only here and there, in open places, they saw the sky, dotted with

small stars. In the distance, the noise of the rout of the

Lancastrian army still continued to be faintly audible; but with

every step they left it farther in the rear.

At the end of half an hour of silent progress they came forth upon

a broad patch of heathy open. It glimmered in the light of the

stars, shaggy with fern and islanded with clumps of yew. And here

they paused and looked upon each other.

"Y' are weary?" Dick said.

"Nay, I am so weary," answered Matcham, "that methinks I could lie

down and die."

"I hear the chiding of a river," returned Dick. "Let us go so far

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