“I will answer to the king, if need be,” Harry said, “for my conduct.  I am not under your orders, Sir Ralph, and shall use my discretion in this matter.  This gentleman is as a brother to me.”

“And I would cut down my brother,” Sir Ralph said furiously, “if I found him in the ranks of the enemy!”

“Then, sir, we differ,” Harry replied, “for that would not I. There are your friends,” he said to Herbert, pointing to a body of Roundheads at a short distance, “Give me your word, however, that you will not draw sword again to-day.”

Herbert readily gave the required promise, and riding off, was soon with his friends.  Sir Ralph and Harry came to high words after he had left; and the matter might then and there have been decided by the sword, had not a party of Roundheads, seeing two cavalry officers so near to them, charged down, and compelled them to ride for their lives.

The following day Sir Ralph reported the circumstance to the general, and he to Prince Rupert.  The prince laughed at the charge.

“Harry Furness,” he said, “is as loyal a gentleman as draws sword in our ranks, and as he and I have been well-nigh roasted together, it were vain indeed that any complaint were made to me touching his honor.  I will speak to him, however, and doubt not that his explanation will be satisfactory.”

The prince accordingly spoke to Harry, who explained the circumstances of his relations with the young Roundhead.

“Had he been a great captain, sir,” Harry said, “I might have deemed it my duty to hold him in durance, however near his relationship to myself.  But as a few weeks since he was but a schoolboy, methought that the addition of his sword to the Roundhead cause would make no great difference in our chances of victory that afternoon.  Moreover, I had received his pledge that he would not draw sword again in the battle.”

As even yet, although the bitterness was quickly increasing, it was far from having reached that point which it subsequently attained, and prisoners on both sides were treated with respect, no more was said regarding Harry’s conduct in allowing his friend to escape.  But from that moment, between himself and Sir Ralph Willoughby there grew up a strong feeling of animosity, which only needed some fitting pretext to break out.

It was, indeed, an unfortunate point in the royal cause, that there was very far from being unity among those who fought side by side.  There were intrigues and jealousies.  There were the king’s men, who would have supported his majesty in all lengths to which he might have gone, and who were ever advising him to resist all attempts at pacification, and to be content with nothing less than a complete defeat of his enemies.  Upon the other hand, there were the grave, serious men, who had drawn the sword with intense reluctance, and who desired nothing so much as peace—­a peace which would secure alike the rights of the crown and the rights of the people.