One evening lord Charles came to his father with the news that some score of fresh horses had arrived.

‘Have they brought provender with them, my lord?’ asked the marquis.

‘Alas, no, my lord, only teeth,’ answered the governor.

‘How stands the hay?’

‘At low ebb, my lord.  There is plenty of oats, however.’

’We hear to-day nothing of the round-heads:  what say you to turning them out and letting them have a last bellyful of sweet grass under the walls?’

’I say ’tis so good a plan, my lord, that I think we had better extend it, and let a few of the rest have a parting nibble.’

The marquis approved.

There was a postern in the outermost wall of the castle on the western side, seldom used, commanded by the guns of the tower, and opening upon a large field of grass, with nothing between but a ditch.  It was just wide enough to let one horse through at a time, and by this the governor resolved to turn them out, and as soon as it was nearly dark, ordered a few thick oak planks to be laid across the ditch, one above another, for a bridge.  The field was sufficiently fenced to keep them from straying, and with the first signs of dawn they would take them in again.

Dorothy, leaving the tower for the night, had reached the archway, when to her surprise she saw the figure of a huge horse move across the mouth of it, followed by another and another.  Except Richard’s mare on that eventful night she had never seen horse-kind there before.  One after another, till she had counted some five-and-twenty, she saw pass, then heard them cross the fountain court with heavy foot upon the tiles.  At length, dark as it was, she recognised her own little Dick moving athwart the opening.  She sprang forward, seized him by the halter, and drew him in beside her.  On and on they came, till she had counted eighty, and then the procession ceased.

Presently she heard the voice of lord Charles, as he crossed the hall and came out into the court, saying,

‘How many didst thou count, Shafto?’

‘Seventy-nine, my lord,’ answered the groom, coming from the direction of the gate.

‘I counted eighty at the hall-door as they went in.’

’I am certain no more than seventy-nine went through the gate, my lord.’

’What can have become of the eightieth?  He must have gone into the chapel, or up the archway, or he may be still in the hall.  Art sure he is not grazing on the turf?’

‘Certain sure, my lord,’ answered Shafto.

‘I am the thief, my lord,’ said Dorothy, coming from the archway behind him, leading her little horse. ’—­Good, my lord, let me keep Dick.  He is as useful as another—­more useful than some.’

‘How, cousin!’ cried lord Charles, ’didst imagine I was sending off thy genet to save the hay?  No, no!  An’ thou hadst looked well at the other horses, thou wouldst have seen they are such as we want for work—­such as may indeed save the hay, but after another fashion.  I but mean to do thy Dick a kindness, and give him a bite of grass with the rest.’