"Is it all right, Hugh?" he asked, as Hugh drew up at the door.

"All right, Master Rupert. Father has sent thee twenty-five pounds
out of the rent that will be due at Lady day; and he doubts not
that the colonel will approve of what he has done. H ow long have
you been here?"

"Only some five minutes, Hugh. We had best let the horses feed, and
then ride quietly into Leicester, it's only fifteen miles away. I
see you've got a sword."

"A sword and pistols, Master Rupert; and as you have the same,
methinks any highwayman chaps we might meet would think twice ere
they venture to cry 'Stand and deliver.'"

"You heard no word of whether James Brownlow was alive or dead,
Hugh? I should be very glad to hear that he is not killed."

"No word of the matter had come to the farm when I came away," Hugh
said; "but I should not worry about it one way or the other, Master
Rupert. You'll kill lots more when you get to the wars; and the
country won't grieve over James Brownlow. Young as he was, he was a
bad one; I've heard more than one dark story whispered of him.
Folks say he took after his father, who was as wild and as bad as
any man in Derbyshire when he was young."



Chapter 4: The Sedan Chair.