‘That is, an’ thou be one of the godly,’ supplemented Tom.

‘I thank thee, mistress,’ returned the sentinel, ’but not for the indulgence of carnal appetite will I forsake my post.  Who is he goeth with thee?’

’A fellow whose wit is greater than his courage, and yet he goeth with many for a born fool.  A parlous coward he is, else might he now be fighting the Amalekites with the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.  Yet in good sooth he serveth me well for the nonce.’

The sentry glanced at Tom, but could see little of him except a long white oval, and Tom was now collected enough to put in exercise his best wisdom, which consisted in holding his tongue.

’Answer me then, mistress, how, being a godly woman, as I doubt not from thy speech thou art, thee rides thus late with none but a fool to keep thee company?  Knowest thou not that the country is full of soldiers, whereof some, though that they be all true-hearted and right-minded men, would not mayhap carry themselves so civil to a woman as corporal Bearbanner?  And now, I bethink me, thou comest from the direction of Raglan!’

Here he drew himself up, summoned a voice from his chest a storey or two deeper, and asked in magisterial tone: 

’Whence comest thou, woman? and on what business gaddest thou so late?’

’I am come from visiting at a friend’s house, and am now almost on my own farm,’ answered Dorothy.

The man turned to Tom, and Dorothy began to regret she had brought him:  he was trembling visibly, and his mouth was wide open with terror.

‘See,’ she said, ’how thy gruff voice terrifieth the innocent!  If now he should fall in a fit thou wert to blame.’

As she spoke she put her hand in her pocket, and taking from it her untoothsome plum, popped it into Tom’s mouth.  Instantly he began to make such strange uncouth noises that the sentinel thought he had indeed terrified him into a fit.

‘I must get him straightway home.  Good-night, friend,’ said Dorothy, and giving Dick the rein, she was off like the wind, heedless of the shouts of the sentinel or the feeble cries of pursuing Tom, who, if he could not fight, could run.  Following his mistress at great speed, he was instantly lost in the darkness, and the sentinel, who had picketed his horse in a neighbouring field, sat down again on the parapet of the bridge, and began to examine all that Dorothy had said with a wondrous inclination to discover the strong points in it.

Having galloped a little way, Dorothy drew bridle and halted for Tom.  As soon as he came up, she released him, and telling him to lay hold of Dick’s mane and run alongside, kept him at a fast trot all the way to his mother’s house.

The moon had risen before they reached it, and Dorothy was therefore glad, when she dismounted at the gate, to think she need ride no further.  But while Tom went in to rouse his mother, she let Dick have a few bites of the grass before taking him into the kitchen—­lest the roundheads should find him.  The next moment, however, out came Tom in terror, saying there was a man in his mother’s closet, and he feared the roundheads were in possession.