will become of us? The fight is lost, the King fled, and a whole
regiment of red-coats burning and plundering the whole country. Our
throats will be cut, every one of them!"

"You'll have a chance of being a mark for all the musketeers in the
Parliament army," said Walter, who even then could not miss a piece
of mischief.

"Joking now, Master Walter!" cried Deborah, very much shocked. "That
is what I call downright sinful. I hope you'll be made a mark of
yourself, that I do."

The children were running off to tell their mother, when Rose stopped
them, and desired to know how Deborah had heard the tidings. It was
from two little children from the village who had come to bring a
present of some pigeons to my lady. Rose went herself to examine the
children, but she could only learn that a packman had come into the
village and brought the report that the King had been defeated, and
had fled from the field. They knew no more, and Walter pronouncing
it to be all a cock-and-bull story of some rascally prick-eared
pedlar, declared he would go down to the village and enquire into the
rights of it.

These were the saddest times of English history, when the wrong cause
had been permitted for a time to triumph, and the true and rightful
side was persecuted; and among those who endured affliction for the
sake of their Church and their King, none suffered more, or more
patiently, than Lady Woodley, or, as she was called in the old
English fashion, Dame Mary Woodley, of Forest Lea.