with England.




CHAPTER II: THE RESCUE OF COLDINGHAM


It was a lonely tract of road, marked only by the bare space trodden by
feet of man and horse, and yet, in truth, the highway between Berwick and
Edinburgh, which descended from a heathery moorland into a somewhat
spacious valley, with copsewood clothing one side, in the midst of which
rose a high mound or knoll, probably once the site of a camp, for it
still bore lines of circumvallation, although it was entirely deserted,
except by the wandering shepherds of the neighbourhood, or occasionally
by outlaws, who found an admirable ambush in the rear.

The spring had hung the hazels with tassels, bedecked the willows with
golden downy tufts, and opened the primroses and celandines beneath them,
when the solitary dale was disturbed by the hasty clatter of horses'
feet, and hard, heavy breathing as of those who had galloped headlong
beyond their strength. Here, however, the foremost of the party, an old
esquire, who grasped the bridle-rein of youth by his side, drew up his
own horse, and that which he was dragging on with him, saying--

'We may breathe here a moment; there is shelter in the wood. And you,
Rab, get ye up to the top of Jill's Knowe, and keep a good look-out.'

'Let me go back, you false villain!' sobbed the boy, with the first use
of his recovered breath.