At

eral miles, but being very full it was nowhere fordable or swimmable. They came upon no other bridge there was none nearer than Burton or Nottingham-and it would appear that in anticipation of the invasion all boats had been removed or hidden away. Castle Donington they were confronted by a levy in mass of the inhabitants, armed with stick and stone, scythe, hedge-knife and bill, fowling-piece, blunderbuss and horse-pistol. They were forced to turn southwards; went as far as the wintry wilderness of Charnwood Forest, where they maintained themselves for a week or two by open pillage and petty larceny. When that country became too hot for them, they stole back across the Trent by night, perhaps over the bridge at Nottingham.

At Hucknall Torkard, eight miles north of that bridge, there is a respectable family claiming to be descended from a Scotch officer who had been left behind ill by the rebel army. Having been concealed and nursed back to health by some friendly stranger he remained, took a common English surname, married and begot English children. Would it be offensive to imagine that the Scotch officer was but one of our Highland marauders? And on

that surmise could we build the halfprobability that by some instinct they nosed their way to Thorney wood chase and lost themselves in Sherwood forest for a while? All however we know is that, travelling chiefly in the dark with no guidance but the stars, they contrived by a circuitous route and after many adventures, many narow escapes, without loss of life, limb or liberty, to arrive at the wildest and most northerly part of Derbyshire.

CHAPTER XXIV.

TALLY-HO!

When night seemed deadest and Mistress Ann was so nicely balanced be

tween sleep and wakefulness as to lack none of the discomforts of either state, she was stirred out of that chill backaching conscious unconsciousness by hearing Roland exclaim:

"They've mizzled!"

There was no sound but of that ceaseless drip; the fire had died out; nothing could be seen but a narrow band of something less than pure dark at the other end of the cave where the entrance was. It must have been that he felt the absence of the caterans.

"Wake William up," said Mistress Ann.

A moderate employment of voice and hand having failed, Roland at last roused him with his boot. He took the news very calmly, saying between two yawns:

"We can mak shift wi'out 'em."

Roland went quietly forward. The cavern was unoccupied but by themselves. He clambered to its mouth and looked forth. Day had not yet broken, but moonlight permeated the foggy air and was palely returned by the hoar-frost that covered the ground. He crept out, then with William's help got Mistress Ann through into the open.

"Do you know the place?" she said to her man.

"No, ma'am," he answered, “and I dunna much care if I nivver see't again."

It was a bank on the skirts of a little grassy knoll. But the front of the bank was shorn away so as to show a thin seam of limestone under the grass; and below the stone, level with their feet, was an opening down into the ground, say nine yards long and just wide enough to admit a man sidling through. It was like the grin, too narrow for the gape, of some fossil monster, and those jags of stone might pass for his few irregular tusks and teeth. One might have passed within a few yards of it and not no

ticed it. On their right hand close by was a little quarry carved into the knoll. Opposite the cave, rising above the moon-lighted mist, a mountainous ridge loomed large. They turned in the opposite direction, probably from a repulsion to that steep ascent. and without more delay moved quietly off. Immediately two or three Highlanders came up out of the quarry, and running after them round the knoll bade them stand in terms undistinguishable but in tones that were unmistakable. The rest of the band came up in a body, evidently ready to march and with their booty about them. One man had a couple of turkeys slung over a shoulder and a costly porcelain timepiece under the opposite arm; a second carried a miscellaneous bundle of clothing, others a sack of meal and a set of brass fire-irons, an inlaid cabinet together with a lady's riding-saddle, a pewter shaving-pot and a pair of silver candlesticks, a paltry framed print highly colored and a goldmounted jewel-casket containing I know not what valuables; while the rest had their plunder hidden in various pouches, baskets and sacks, and one had improvised a capacious hold-all by drawing together the waist-band of a woman's red flannel petticoat.

They evidently intended no further violence or restraint. Their voluble speeches were of course incomprehensible, but the fingers of their right hands plainly pointed the way their prisoners were to take. Doubtless they knowingly chose that direction for them, as being the one in which a traveller would be longest in coming to an inhabited place where a hue and cry might be raised. They themselves were on the right-about for that high ridge when William, his teeth all chattering, caught sight of the ruffian who wore with much satisfaction his own respectable wrap-rascal. That with cold and hunger upset the balance

Highlandman, gripped him by the collar and cried:

"Gimme back my coat, thou lousy thief!"

The man's dirk was out.

"Ah, do, thou bitch's son! do if thou dare!"

The next moment the weapon would have been in the provoker's body, had not the red-haired orator of the night before seized his comrade's wrist and at the same time thrust his stalwart body between him and the Englishman. He also said something sharp and short, which being accompanied by a glance towards the lady probably had reference to her presence. Anyhow the man with the dagger dropped his purpose of instant vengeance, but stood with a look of haughty wrath bent on William; who seeing it threw off Roland's great-coat and exclaimed:

"Here's for oad England and the Derby hills that are so free! Hull away thy bloody steel, thou murdersome villyand, an' faight it out wi' me like a mon."

He chose his ground well, a level plot finely turfed and clear of the knobs of limestone which here and there cropped up through that inch-deep soil. There he planted himself firmly, his fists advanced in the proper boxing attitude, and said:

"Coom on! 'Tis no sweating job stanning here nak'd. Art feared? Thou'rt ken enoo to slice men up an' steal their coats, an' yit thou denies 'em Christían satisfaction."

The universal language of expression interpreted the words to the Gael. Darkly scowling he again raised his dagger. His comrades uttered a shout, apparently of remonstrance.

"Well, sooner nor hae no contentment at all I'll faight thee wi' one hond tied behind."

William put his left arm behind his

back and offered his right to the battle. His opponent perfectly understood the taunt. He turned livid with fury, looked round on his fellows as though seeking counsel under circumstances SO unusual, perceived the look of amused expectation on their countenances, cast his dirk away, uttered a Gaelic war-cry and sprang at his challenger's throat. William's fist met him on the mouth and laid him flat. "First knock-down blow! First blood!" cried Roland. "And we shall win it!"

The Highlander rose none the worse except in appearance and again rushed in. William's fist landed on his nose, but less effective merely thrust him back. Again gathering himself together he sprang upon the slower Englishman like a live battering-ram, took him by surprise, butted him in the wind and bore him to the ground. Gaels raised a congratulatory shout. William lay and gasped, but between the gasps said:

The

"I'm all reet, sir. I shall-toe the line-afore Broughton's hafe minute's up. I wish he'd putten a pound o' beef -into my belly-i'stead o' his fow yed."

The Highlandman, looking all the grimmer for his bloody nose, swelled his chest out, folded his arms over it and gazed down on his prostrate foe with an air of triumphant contempt. The mist had cleared somewhat and the moon showed its round pale face. If it occupied the west then that mountainous ridge stretched along the north. Its crest was now plainly to be seen, and lay on it like some huge sleeping beast of the lumbering lumpish sort, walrus or whale, couched on a dark cloud. In due time William was on his legs again, offering battle.

"Do stop fighting, William," said Mistress Ann.

"I conna, ma'am," answered he; "once a mon begins he mun keep on."

"I know where we are now. Yonder's Mam Tor."

"Dang Mam Tor, ma'am, by your lave. The mon afore me's enoo for one bellyful. I'll swaller Mam Tor when I've disgested him."

The Highlander, challenged again, again leapt to the attack; William had to look to himself. He had had nothing to eat since yesternoon; and though the advantage was his in science, weight and coolness, the other man was far harder, suppler and nimbler. He made no attempt to counter or parry, but knock-down blows had no more effect on him than just to knock him down. He rose immediately, and came on again as soon as he had risen. William began to lose breath, and give ground, his adversary to press more persistently. At last he got close in and threw his sinewy arms tightly about William's body. There was a rough struggle for a minute or two, pully-hauly; and the combatants' bodies swayed to and fro like trees in a hurricane. William's fists made their mark upon the Highlander's face; the Highlander's ever-tightening hug was gradually squeezing William's breath out of him. The freebooters urged their man on with eager ejaculations. The two English bystanders looked with equal interest, but Roland's well-meant encouragements were annulled by those loud opposing voices. In the end William's breath gave out and he was again thrown.

Neverthless in good time he rose again and said to his mistress, who would have persuaded him that he had had punishment enough:

"Not a bit on't, ma'am. I shouldna mind it a brass farthing if the varmint didna stink so. It's nobbut that as floors me."

He still panted a little, his fists were swollen and bloody, his erstwhile florid cheeks pale. On the other hand one of the Highlandman's eyes was

closed up and his mouth and nose were bleeding freely. Which was more to look at than in effect, for he came on again in rushes as vigorous and frequent as ever. William confined himself entirely to the defensive. There was a lightening of the sky in the east, there was a stirring of the wind from the north, there was a routing of the mist along the ground; day was at hand. Mam Tor's cloudy base now appeared as sordid as its crest, and therefrom a lower ridge extended on either hand until it was lost in the gloom.

"This is the Buxton road," said Mistress Ann at a pause in the fight; "and that is the Winnats."

With her back to Mam Tor she pointed to a road close by, and again to a craggy gap about a furlong off in the high ground beyond, apparently the mouth of a pass, to which the road ran and then seemed to plunge into the earth.

"I send 'em both," said William, "to t' same place as Mam Tor. Ma'm, it behooves me hae noat on my mind just now but how to best my mon."

As soon as he had spoken and she had dropped her pointing hand, they heard the faint up-wind blast of a horn, and immediately a horseman rode up on to the road through the gap, as it were out of the ground. He saw them, blew his horn again and galloped towards them. Behind him came up some half-dozen horsemen more and galloped after him. With the sound of their hoofs mixed the up-wind baying of hounds. The Highlanders drew together and seemed at first to be intending flight; but either encouraged by the fewness of the horsemen or deterred by the speed of their horses or reluctant to abandon their booty, they suddenly changed their minds, dropped the heavier part of their loads, drew their swords and swung their hidebound targes to the front. The first

horseman checked his steed out of striking distance and drew a pistol from his holster; a youngish man richly dressed in a long light-blue huntingcoat and mounted on a beautiful black Spanish jennet. A silver horn hung from his shoulder by a silken cord. The other riders had come up, handsomely dressed and well mounted gentlemen, of whom the most importantlooking was an elderly person also wearing a light-blue coat, but the jennet he rode was white. By then a pack of hounds and their scarlet-coated attendants had come into sight up the same way, followed by a crowd of horsemen.

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"Dunna stop uz, please, your Grace," cried William. ""Tis a fair faight." "Then," said the elderly gentleman, "confounded be his politics who interferes. Set to, and may the best man win."

Then raising his hat to the lady, "Your humble servant, madam," he said; and to the Highlanders, "Your servant, gentlemen."

The first-come cavalier returned his pistol to its holster. The caterans understanding there was to be provisional peace put their weapons up, but came as near as they might to his Grace and never relaxed the watchfulness of their eyes.

"A contest of manhood, gentlemen," said his Grace to his followers, who had begun to ride up. "Please to keep the ring."

They made a ring, gentlemen, the pick of the county and the pink of fashion, on steeds of light build and great activity, yeomen and farmers in homespun on animals nearer to the cart-horse, with a fringe of footmen and boys from the neighboring villages. The huntsman and whippers-in stood behind shepherding their hounds. Most of the horsemen were armed, the gentlemen with pistols as well as swords, on account of the unsettled state of the

In

"There is a smack of that seasoning in my own less palatable dish. deed, your Grace, I know not what foot I am on here, whether of prisoner or spectator."

"You a prisoner, madam, and I stand by? Never."

"Then sure spectatorship is sometimes the most uncomfortable free thing in the world."

"It shall be our part, madam, to better its conditions."

Among the many gentlemen who saluted her the younger of the two cavaliers in blue was conspicuous.

"If there is any curiosity yet unawarded, madam," he said, "I humbly beg to put my claim in. I don't see your equipage anywhere."

"No, my Lord Hartington," she answered; "for 'tis not in sight."

"I would respectfully surmise that you have been deemed worthy to be promoted in this life to the angelic faculty of flight."

Mistress Ann laughed.

"No, my lord, my mode of progression is just as much angelic as my temper."

"Then, madam, I can have no doubt on't."

"Good Lord!" exclaimed a handsome youngster, 'in cheerful green arrayed,' "is that you, Aunt Nan?"

"I am Aunt Nan," she answered, "if you are Nephew Frank."

about you, for your Tom came last night and told us you was lost in the fog. So him and me and all the men have been out-oh, half the night looking for you."

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"Twas kindly done of you."

"And now father has rid off to Asher to learn the truth on't. I should have gone too, but you see, I should only have been i' the gate; and missed the meet besides. Good Gad! Why, that's Bill Drew! Then there'll be a fight on't. Goo to wark, Bill, goo to wark!" Not only the last speaker's but everybody's attention now left the banalities of courtesy to fix itself on the fight, which had begun anew. William was heartened up by the presence of so large a party of well-wishers to back him with their plaudits and encouragement; still he appeared to be more distressed than the Highlander and had again and again to give ground, until the red-coated huntsman piped forth in a high-pitched tenor:

"Thou wunna nivver finish it o' that back-ard how, Billy Drew. Goo forrards, mon, put all thy weight into't an' smak him i't' chaps; hearty like, mon."

William went forwards, put all his considerable weight to it, unexpectedly met the Highlander when his spring was undeveloped, his equilibrium least stable, with a smashing blow full on the jaw and felled him. They had changed ground during the struggle, and the fallen man's head struck one of the many knobs of rock which appeared through the turf. He lay stunned; most skulls would have been caved in by such a blow.

"Didna I tell thee?" piped the highvoiced huntsman triumphantly. "Bravo!" said the duke. "You have fought like a true-bred Derbyshire man."

"Strong i't' arm and thick i't'yed," said Mistress Ann's nephew.

"Excuse the forward boy, your