darted out, as a cloud of smoke began to rise from the straw yard.
Poor children, they screamed again at what was before them. Rusha
ran wildly away at sight of the soldiers, but Patience, with the baby
in her arms, came up. She did not see her father at first, and only
cried aloud to the gentlemen.

"O sir, don't let them do it. If they take our cows, the babe will
die. He has no mother!"

"They shall not, the villains! Brother, can nothing be done?" cried
the youth, with a face of grief and horror. And then there was a
great confusion.

The two young officers were vehemently angry at sight of the fire,
and shouted fierce orders to the guard of soldiers who had
accompanied them to endeavour to extinguish it, themselves doing
their best, and making the men release Steadfast, whom they had
seized upon as he was trying to trample out the flame, kindled by a
match from one of the soldiers who had scattered themselves about the
yard during the struggle with Jephthah.

But either the fire was too strong, or the men did not exert
themselves; it was soon plain that the house could not be saved, and
the elder remounted, saying in German, "'Tis of no use, Maurice, we
must not linger here."

"And can nothing be done?" again asked Prince Maurice. "This is as
bad as in Germany itself."

"You are new to the trade, Maurice. You will see many such sights, I