It was such a daydawn as I have sometimes seen in the Carpathians; cool and clear, but with that sweet dewy wetness in the lower air which washes the over-night cobwebs from the brain, and is both meat and drink to one who breathes it. On the left the road was overhung by the bordering forest, and where the branches drooped lowest we brushed the fragrance from the wild-grape bloom in passing. On the right the river, late in flood, eddied softly; and sounds other than the murmuring of the waters, the matin songs of the birds, and the dust-muffled hoof-beats of our horses there were none. Peace, deep and abiding, was the key-note of nature's morning hymn; and in all this sylvan byway there was naught remindful of the fierce internecine warfare aflame in all the countryside. Some rough forging of this thought I hammered out for Jennifer as we rode along, and his laugh was not devoid of bitterness. "Old Mother Nature ruffles her feathers little enough for any teapot tempest of ours," he said. "But speaking of the cruelties, we provincial savages, as my Lord Cornwallis calls us, have no monopoly. The post-riders from the south bring blood-curdling stories of Colonel Tarleton's doings. 'Tis said he overtook some of Mr. Lincoln's reinforcements come too late. They gave battle but faint-heartedly, being all unready for an enemy, and presently threw down their arms and begged for quarter--begged, and were cut down as they stood." "Faugh!" said I. "That is but hangman's work. And yet in London I heard that this same Colonel Tarleton was with Lord Howe in Philadelphia and was made much of by the ladies." Jennifer's laugh was neither mirthful nor pleasant. "'Tis a weakness of the sex," he scoffed. "The women have a fondness for a man with a dash of the brute in him." I laughed also, but without bitterness. "You say it feelingly. Do you speak by the book?" "Aye, that I do. Now here is my lady Madge preaching peace and all manner of patience to me in one breath, and upholding in the next this baronet captain who, though I would have seconded him at a pinch, is but a pattern of his brutal colonel." I put two and two together. "So Falconnet is on terms at Appleby Hundred, is he?" "Oh, surely. Gilbert Stair keeps open house for any and all of the winning hand, as I told you." The thought of this unspoiled young maiden having aught to do with such a thrice-accursed despoiler of women made my blood boil afresh; and in the heat of it I let my secret slip, or rather some small part of it. "Sir Francis had ever a sure hand with the women," I said; and then I could have bitten my masterless tongue. "So?" queried Jennifer. "Then this is not your first knowing of him?" "No." So much I said and no more. We rode on in silence for a little space, and then my youthling must needs break out again in fresh beseechings. "Tell me what you know of him, and what it was he said of Madge," he entreated. "You can't deny me now, Jack."