"No," replied Falgate boldly, "else I do not think I should ever have got on one again. But, in pity, good Captain Barecolt, don't go at such a rate, or faith you must leave me behind, which would not be like a good _camarado_." "No, no; we won't leave you behind, Falgate," replied Barecolt, "and for that reason we will make you go first. So shall we be ready to pick you up if you fall off; and you can go at your own pace, though it must be the quickest you can manage." "Oh, butter and eggs for ever!" cried Falgate, putting himself in the van, and going on at a jog-trot: "if an old market-woman can keep her seat and not break her eggs, I do not see why one of the lords of the creation should tumble off and crack his bones." "Nor I either," replied Barecolt; "and if he do, he deserves to break his head. But get on a little faster, Master Falgate, or we shall have the fat citizens of Hull at our heels." "Oh, no fear! no fear!" rejoined Falgate; "they are all miraculous horsemen, and ride as well as I do; so, unless the governor pursue you in person, and bring all the horses out of his own stable, you may ride to York and back before any of them will stir. Would that the man who sold me this horse were in as sore a skin as he who bought it," he continued, after a short pause; "I am sure he must have had an ill-will at my poor bones--plague light upon him!" "Ah, no!" cried Arrah Neil. "He is a good and a kind man." "He is a very close one," replied Barecolt; "for I know, young lady, I tried my best yesterday to worm out of him all the secrets that we wanted to know; but he held his mouth as tight shut as the shell of an oyster." "He had a reason, doubtless," answered Arrah Neil, falling into thought again. "Well, if he have told you all about it," rejoined Barecolt, assuming an indifferent air, "it does not matter. I have no curiosity. Only when we wish to send despatches securely, we give a copy to two separate messengers, and if, as I understood him, you are to tell Lord Walton or the young lady, it might have been better to inform me too, as then I could have carried them the intelligence in case of our being separated and of my seeing them first." "Perhaps it might have been better," said Arrah Neil; "but all promises are sacred things, and, methinks, more especially, promises to the dead." "Ay, that they are," answered Barecolt, who saw that he was not likely to learn from his fair companion what had been the substance of her conversation with O'Donnell. "Ay, that they are. I remember a very curious and entertaining story about that, which happened at the siege of a certain town, when I was serving in the north. I will tell it to you as we go; it will serve to while away the time." CAPTAIN BARECOLT'S STORY.