"The sentry listened a moment, then levelling his pistol, sent a shot through the gorse bush. It passed within a few inches of her head, but she had the presence of mind not to cry out or move. Evidently thinking he was mistaken, the sentry paced farther on, and Joyce, seizing her golden opportunity, slipped through the hole in the hedge. Still using the cover of bushes, she made her way across three fields, and reached the road. It was quite dark now, but she knew her direction, and turned up a by-lane where she would be unlikely to meet troopers. All night she walked, guiding herself partly by the stars, for she knew that Charles's Wain always pointed to the north. At dawn a very tired and worn-out little maiden presented herself at the gateway of Hepplethorpe Manor, demanding instant audience of Sir Roger Rivington. That worthy knight and loyal supporter of the Crown, on hearing her story, immediately sent horsemen with a letter to General Bright, of the King's forces, who lay encamped only five miles off; and he, marching without delay for Marlowe Grange, surprised the Parliamentarians and completely routed them. The half-starved garrison opened the great gates to their deliverers with shouts of joy, and, we may be sure, welcomed the supplies of food that poured into the house later on. As for Joyce, she must have been the heroine of the family." "Is that all?" asked the girls, as Veronica paused and began to count the stitches in the sock she was knitting. "All that's in the book, and I've embroidered it a little. It was told in such a very dull fashion, so I put it in my own words. It's quite true, though." "What became of Joyce afterwards?" "She married Sir Reginald Loveday, and became the lady of Clopgate Towers. The tomb is in Byford Church." "If she'd been shot by the trooper, I should have thought she was the ghost girl!" commented Ardiune. "I don't quite see how we could fix that up, though. It doesn't seem to fit. You're quite sure she escaped?" "Perfectly certain. How else could the Grange have been saved?" Veronica's argument settled the question, but the girls felt that the dramatic interest of the situation would have been better suited if the story had ended with the melancholy death of the heroine, and her subsequent haunting of the Manor. "I always heard that Cromwell's soldiers destroyed the walls and made those big holes in the gateway with their cannon-balls," said Morvyth, still only half convinced. "So they did, but that was two years afterwards, and the children were all sent safely away before the second siege." "It hasn't solved the mystery of the ghost girl," persisted Ardiune. "Ray, what do you think about it?" Raymonde, lost in a brown study, started almost guiltily, and recommenced her sewing with feverish haste. "Think? Why, it's a pretty story, of course. What more can I think? Why d'you ask me?" "Oh! I don't know, except that you generally have ideas about everything. Who can the ghost girl be?"