lad, wandering along the deserted street, heard it, began to tremble, and
sat down on a block of stone beside the doorway of a baker's shop. He
dropped his head on his arms and his chin on his knees, shutting out the
sound and sobbing quietly.

Yesterday his mother had been buried; to-night his father's door had been
closed in his face. He scarcely knew whether his being locked out was an
accident or whether it was intended. He thought of the time when his
father had ill-treated his mother and himself. That, however, had
stopped at last, for the woman had threatened the Royal Court, and the
man, having no wish to face its summary convictions, thereafter conducted
himself towards them both with a morose indifference.

The boy was called Ranulph, a name which had passed to him through
several generations of Jersey forebears--Ranulph Delagarde. He was being
taught the trade of ship-building in St. Aubin's Bay. He was not beyond
fourteen years of age, though he looked more, so tall and straight and
self-possessed was he.

His tears having ceased soon, he began to think of what he was to do
in the future. He would never go back to his father's house, or be
dependent on him for aught. Many plans came to his mind. He would
learn his trade of ship-building, he would become a master-builder, then
a shipowner, with fishing-vessels like the great company sending fleets
to Gaspe.

At the moment when these ambitious plans had reached the highest point of
imagination, the upper half of the door beside him opened suddenly, and
he heard men's voices. He was about to rise and disappear, but the words
of the men arrested him, and he cowered down beside the stone. One of