“I have a friend, then!  I have you, Alexander.  Never this hour shall I regret.  If all else I lose, I have saved mijn jongen.”

The old men bent to each other; there were tears in their eyes.  Without speaking, they were aware of kindness and faithfulness and gratitude beyond the power of words.  They smoked a pipe together, and sometimes changed glances and smiles, as they looked at, or listened to, Lysbet and Janet Semple, who had renewed their long kindness in the sympathy of their patriotic hopes and fears.

Hyde and Katherine were walking in the garden, lingering in the sweet June twilight by the lilac hedge and the river-bank.  All Hyde’s business was arranged:  he was going into the fight without any anxiety beyond such as was natural to the circumstances.  While he was away, his wife and son were to remain with Lysbet.  He could desire no better home for them; their lives would be so quiet and orderly that he could almost tell what they would be doing at every hour.  And while he was in the din and danger of siege and battle, he felt that it would be restful to think of Katherine in the still, fair rooms and the sweet garden of her first home.

If he never came back, ample provision had been made for his wife and son’s welfare; but—­and he suddenly turned to Katherine, as if she had been conscious of his thoughts—­“The war will not last very long, dear heart; and when liberty is won, and the foundation for a great commonwealth laid, why then we will buy a large estate somewhere upon the banks of this beautiful river.  It will be delightful, in the midst of trees and parks, to build a grander Hyde Manor House.  Most completely we will furnish it, in all respects; and the gardens you shall make at your own will and discretion.  A hundred years after this, your descendants shall wander among the treillages and cut hedges and boxed walks, and say, ’What a sweet taste our dear great-great-grandmother had!’”

And Katharine laughed at his merry talk and forecasting, and praised his uniform, and told him how soldierly and handsome he looked in it.  And she touched his sword, and asked, “Is it the old sword, my Richard?”

“The old sword, Kate, my sweet.  With it I won my wife.  Oh, indeed, yes!  You know it was pity for my sufferings made you marry me that blessed October day, when I could not stand up beside you.  It has a fight twice worthy of its keen edge now.”  He drew it partially from its sheath, and mused a moment.  Then he slowly untwisted the ribbon and tassel of bullion at the hilt, and gave it into her hand.  “I have a better hilt-ribbon than that,” he said; “and when we go into the house, I will re-trim my sword.”

She thought little of the remark at the time, though she carefully put the tarnished tassel away among her dearest treasures; but it acquired a new meaning in the morning.  The troops were to leave very early; and soon after dawn, she heard the clatter of galloping horses and the calls of the men as they reined up at their commander’s door.  Bram, as his father’s lieutenant, was with them.  The horses of Joris and Hyde were waiting.