A few minutes later, in the midst of a little excitement, the man drew rein at the outer gate-way, held up a packet in answer to a challenge, and as soon as the drawbridge was lowered, he dismounted and walked his horse over, for the poor beast was terribly distressed, and the rider appeared exhausted. Roy stood eagerly watching, for this evidently meant something important, otherwise the messenger would not have nearly ridden his horse to death, the poor beast standing drooping in the middle of the court-yard; while the man, whose face was blackened with dust and sweat, and disfigured by a broad strip of plaster which extended from high up among the roots of his closely-cropped hair on the left temple down to his right eyebrow, leaned heavily on the sun-dial and asked for water. The general read his despatch carefully twice, and then turned to the messenger to question him in a low voice, looking at him searchingly the while. "Did General Braxley give you this despatch to bring?" The man straightened himself up, but reeled and snatched at the sun-dial again from weakness. "No, sir; to my comrade. We met a vedette of the enemy, and had to make a running fight for it till he went down, and I snatched up the despatch and came on." "How far from here are the enemy?" "About five-and-twenty miles, sir, I should say." "In what direction?" "Towards Exeter, sir. I did hear say that the king was with them." "Hah! And how strong are they, do you suppose?" "'Bout four hundred horsemen, I heard say, sir; but it was only what my comrade told me." "Go into the guard-room and get some refreshment," said the general, after reading his despatch carefully again. The man turned to go, and just then his horse fell heavily, the blood gushed from its nostrils as it gave a few convulsive struggles, and then lay dead. The messenger went to its head, sank upon one knee, as Roy joined the group around, bent lower, kissed the poor animal's brow. Then he drew his sword, cut off a piece of its forelock, thrust it into his wallet, and amidst perfect silence, followed one of the men to the guard-room, hanging his head, while Roy longed to go and shake him by the hand. The next moment the silence was broken by the loud blare of a trumpet, and a gun was fired from the gate tower. Roy had directly after a specimen of the general's military capacity, for by the time the court was filling with armed men, one of the sentinels on the north-west tower announced the coming of the squadron of horse that had been camping by and in the ruined chapel; while, within half an hour, the troop in the castle rode out, each bearing a foot-soldier upon the crupper of his saddle,--the squadron without waiting to take on an equal number themselves. The general meanwhile sat upon his charger conversing in a low tone with the officer he was about to leave in command.