“Thou art a good wench and a brave one,” he said, “and I am proud that my roof is the one to shelter thee from those lawless men, who are the curse of our poor country.

“Jack, I told the mother that you must be going courting, and that I should be right glad when you brought a bride to the old home.  And a bride this brave girl shall be as soon as Holy Church can make you man and wife; and we will love her none the less for what her father was.  I always heard that the Fire Eater, as they call him, had carried off and married a fair maiden, too good by a thousand times for the like of him; and if this is that poor lady’s daughter, I can well believe the tale.  But she is her mother’s child, not her fierce father’s, and we will love her as our own.

“Take her to your heart, good mother.  A brave lass deserves a warm welcome to her husband’s home.”

The gentle but high-spirited Eva had gone through the dangers of the night with courage and resolution, but tears sprang to her eyes at hearing these kindly words; and whilst Jack wrung his father’s hand and thanked him warmly for his goodwill.  The girl buried her face upon the shoulder of Mistress Devenish, and was once more wrapped in a maternal embrace.

And then, having got the question of Eva’s adoption as Jack’s betrothed bride so quickly and happily settled, they all turned their attention to poor Paul, who for a few minutes had been almost forgotten.

There was a warm little chamber scarce larger than a closet opening from the room where the farmer and his wife slept, and as there was a bed therein always in readiness against the arrival of some unlooked-for guest, Paul was quickly transported thither, and tenderly laid between the clean but coarse coverings.  He only moaned a little, and never opened his eyes or recognized where he was or by whom he was tended; whilst the sight of his lacerated back and shoulders drew from the woman many an exclamation of pity, and from the farmer those of anger and reprobation.

It was some time before they understood what had happened, or realized that the young kinsman (as they had called him) of Paul’s was really the Prince of Wales, the son of the now reigning Henry, and that the two lads had been actually living and travelling together with this secret between them.  But Eva had heard much about both, and told how the presence of the prince in the country had become known to her father and his band first through the suspicions of the peddler, who had seen the one pearl clasp still owned and kept by the robber chief, and had at once recognized its fellow; and secondly, from the identification of Paul’s companion with the Prince of Wales by one of the band who had been over to France not long ago, and had seen the prince there.