fate smiled upon their path, others would share in the sunshine of their
good fortune.

And so the boys rose to their feet again to meet a proud, glad smile
from the eyes of the kind old man; and though Margot's face was buried
in her apron, and honest Jean was not ashamed to let the tears run down
his weatherbeaten face, there was no attempt made to hinder or to sadden
the eager lads. They kissed their good nurse with many protestations of
love and gratitude, telling her of the days to come when they would
return as belted knights, riding on fine horses, and with their esquires
by their side, and how they would tell the story of how they had been
born and bred in this very mill, and of all they owed to those who had
sheltered them in their helpless infancy.

The farewells once over, with the inevitable sadness that such scenes
must entail, the boys' spirits rose with wonderful celerity. True, they
looked back with fond glances at the peaceful homestead where their
childhood had been passed, as they reached the ridge of the undulating
plain from which the last glimpse of the red roofs and tumbling water
was to be had. Raymond even felt a mist rise before his eyes as he stood
and gazed, and Gaston dashed his hand impatiently across his eyes as
though something hindered his vision; but his voice was steady and full
of courage as he waved his right arm and cried aloud:

"We will come back! we will see this place again! Ah, Raymond, methinks
I shall love it better then than I do today; for though it has been a
timely place of shelter, it has not been -- it never could be -- our
true home. Our home is Basildene, in the fair realm of England's King. I
will rest neither day nor night until I have looked upon the home our
mother dwelt in, and have won the right to call that home our own."