She was very tired with riding all day long. She was frightened, too, at the strangeness of the place in which she stood, and troubled at Munn's not coming. If she had not promised her brother to be brave, she felt that she should have cried. From time to time she shut her eyes. She was so tired! Once, as she did so, she reeled and almost fell off the bench. Then she grew afraid that she might fall and be trampled on by the cattle, so she left the bench and crept into a shed that stood close by. There she sat down on a truss of straw to wait for Munn. When he did not come, she thought it no harm to lie down. She could wait for him just as well lying down as sitting, and she was very tired. It might have been minutes later, or hours later, when Merrylips woke up. It still was night, and the torches were burning, but the courtyard now was cleared of cattle. She sat up in the straw, and at first she scarcely knew where she was, or how she came there, or anything, except that she was lame and tired and cold. Then she saw, standing over her, a man who must have wakened her. She rubbed her eyes and looked again, and now she saw that it was Lieutenant Crashaw. He wore his doublet bound about his neck by the two sleeves, and his left hand rested bandaged in a sling. For a moment she stared at him, and wondered, for she had not remembered him like that. Then she came to herself. "Where's Munn?" she asked. "Where's my brother?" "My l-lad," said Crashaw, gravely, "thy b-brother is not here, nor will be here for l-long." Then, while Merrylips stared speechless into his haggard face and seemed to see it far off, Crashaw went on:-- "The Roundheads from Horsham--C-Colonel Hatcher and a troop of dragoons--set upon our rear at L-Loxford village. And one of our troopers, Plasket, had his h-horse shot under him. And thy b-brother like a g-gallant fool, reined up to take the f-fellow up behind him. And so the rebels c-closed with him. And so, my l-lad, we had to leave thy b-brother and the trooper, Plasket, p-prisoners in the hands of the enemy." CHAPTER XVI BROTHER OFFICERS When Merrylips next woke, she wondered for a minute where she was. Then she remembered last night. She remembered how Lieutenant Crashaw had led her across the courtyard, and through dim halls and passages, and up a narrow stair. She remembered how he had opened the door of a little chamber and had said:-- "This is thy b-brother's quarters. Thou canst l-lie here for now." So it was Munn's own room in which she woke. Munn's coats hung on the wall, and on the table, beneath the window, were paper and ink and two bitten apples. Munn must have sat there, writing and eating, before he started on the march from which he had not come back.