Whereafter I very soon found myself again alone, the rest departing in charge of M. de Rondiniacque, commissioned by our host to show each gentleman where he should lie. I say I was alone; for the sentry at the door of the stair to the Prince's chamber counted little as company, which I was fain to seek in the dancing of the flames upon the hearth and in my own thoughts. These were not uneasy, for I knew that Ned must return as he had gone, and that a word to him would be my protection if aught inconvenient should arise; nor were they long, for he soon returned. CHAPTER XIV The high back of the settle where I sat being between us, Captain Royston upon his return did not perceive me until, having dismissed the sentry and set his candlestick upon a table, he drew near the fire to warm himself; then, his eyes falling upon me--"Heyday, lad!" he cried, "I did think you abed and asleep by this. I scarce know how I came to forget you. Let me see--where should you lie to-night? The house is mighty full, and I would not put you with----" "Let me share your watch here an hour, Captain," I said. "I am very wakeful, and it will be company for us both." "Will you do so?" he asked with some eagerness, and once more glancing at me with that same look, at once curious and shy, that I had before noted. "Indeed I shall be glad of your company, were it only to help me keep open eyes." And with that he flung himself wearily into a seat over against me, hitching round his belt so that his sword lay between the long legs that, to rest them the better, he stretched full before him. "I was in the saddle all last night," he went on, "and indeed it seems a week since I was in a bed. So here let us sit, you and I, with the fate of England in our hands,"--at which he pointed to the door of the Prince's stairway. "Hast recovered of the spleen?" I answered him that I was recovered. "How came he to anger you?" he then asked me. "Why, sir," I replied, "he did give bad names to all things in England; and then he fell foul of the women--and--and I do not like him." "De Rondiniacque," said Captain Royston, "is a good comrade and a brave soldier; and, faith, I did think all women were fair to him. He will fall in love and again fall out thrice in a day. But no woman is long fair in his eyes when his fortune has been ill. There was a lass in Flanders--" and here he broke into a laugh, and I into a yawn of subterfuge, in hope to put him off his tale. For I feared, unjustly enough, more talk of that kind that I had comprehended but sufficiently to dislike. Whereat he asked if he wearied me, and I answered that he did not so, but that I would know if he were of a like complexion with M. de Rondiniacque in matters of women and love. "Nay, indeed, lad," he answered, laughing again; "De Rondiniacque and I are little akin in such matters. I have, as he would say, the slower temper--perhaps the more constant."