“This shall be your room. I will instruct the servants that you are to come and go as you please. I am setting out now to keep an appointment with the Earl. He too is engaged in a death struggle with the patroon. Methinks the three of us shall win a victory.” With that she left me alone. I glanced about the room which contained everything for a person’s comfort. From the window I could look out beyond the Wall to the rolling hills covered with woodland. Then I threw myself upon the bed and put my face in my hands. CHAPTER IX THE RED BAND AT DRILL When I think back upon the mysterious occurrences of the night which followed my introduction into the household of Lady Marmaduke, I hardly know how to tell them. It was not till long afterward that I knew exactly what I had done that night. I was like a man gone half asleep. Surely I ought to bear no blame for my lack of reason. For the last ten years, with the exception of those short weeks in Captain Donaldson’s ship, I had been searching endlessly for my sister. During that long period there had been moments of despondency; at times my search was quite neglected; yet never for an instant had I given up all hope. Now everything was at an end. My life seemed snapped in two. Had such a blow come ten years before I might have cursed God in my folly. I might have plunged recklessly into the first danger that awaited me. But years of restrained impulse had greatly changed my character. I had passed the rash age of youth, and now I almost sank beneath the burden that seemed greater than I could bear. [Illustration: “SOON I CAME UPON A WOMAN KNEELING IN THE GRASS.”—_p. 103_ ] In this state of mind my little room in the gable of Marmaduke Hall was too confining. It seemed as if I could not get my breath, and it made my head reel to look down from the high window. I could see the swaying trees upon the hills beyond the city, and they seemed to beckon me to come to their solitary shade for comfort, and I went. I can recollect very little of what followed. I remember that I paused once by the city gate to look back at the house which I had left. A picture came into my eye of the relentless woman who had told me news that was bitter as wormwood; yet she was kind and considerate withal. I turned away and set my face towards the sighing woodland.