Will came forward, and the old man in his heartiness did not note the ashamedness of Will's handshake. Will's respectful silence was rather what you would have looked for in him. "What d'ye think I have here, Will?--here's Kitty!" Katherine came forward, perfectly self-possessed, and with a gentle welcome. "Oh, Will, I am glad to see you. How thankful I shall always be that you were one of our preservers!" "I wish I could have died for you," he cried, with passionate earnestness. "She'd rather you lived for her," grunted her father. Will felt that he had no right to be so sure of this. "My Lord," began Captain Troubridge, "since you know Lieutenant Hardres, I shall with your permission detail him for attendance on you. I shall shortly, when my main body arrives by the carriage road with the stores, have a meal to offer you; and, judging by the dungeon in which you have been confined, I expect you need it." The chamber they had lately quitted was certainly poor accommodation for an old lord and a young lady; for it was not a dozen feet long or much over half a dozen feet wide, and was lighted only by a very small barred window near the vaulted roof, and paved with dirty flagstones. It was indeed a sort of strong store-room, generally used for provisions of a less perishable kind, and a few barrels were still about, on one of which Katherine had stood while she was waving her handkerchief--the prearranged signal. "Kitty is as good as a boy, after all, Will," said his Lordship, with the greatest pride, and to Will's pride too, though he was so disconcerted. "First she stood the fire of the great guns lately mounted on your works down there, and they knocked our feeble walls about to some tune; and then she first held her handkerchief, and then bound it to the bars under a dropping fire of musketry from those gallant gentry you have out there. With my legs you know I could no more reach the top of a barrel than a masthead." Will's eyes were full of pride and admiration. "Do you mind telling me how you got here, my Lord?" asked Captain Troubridge. "I'm d--d if I quite know, except how we got into this last hole. We were put there as a favour." "A curious sort of favour," said Captain Troubridge. "Oh, we haven't been locked up here for a month on the bread and water of affliction," retorted Katherine gaily. "The fact is, Captain Troubridge," she said, suddenly growing serious, "that our lives have been saved, and we have been spared not only outrages but discomforts by the chivalrousness of the gentleman who brought the flag of truce to you; and I was hoping that you would have come to terms with him, so that we could have informed you in his presence of all he has done for us." The Captain was moved, but silent. He had obeyed his orders; and it was not his way to throw the blame on them.