inn, Ambrose undertook to cut out the dog's name on the bark, but he
had hardly made the first incision when Tibble, the singed foreman,
offered to do it for him, and made a much more sightly inscription
than he could have done. Master Headley's sword was found
honourably broken under the tree, and was reserved to form a base
for his intended ex voto. He uttered the vow in due form like a
funeral oration, when Stephen, with a swelling heart, had laid the
companion of his life in the little grave, which was speedily
covered in.



CHAPTER V. THE DRAGON COURT



"A citizen
Of credit and renown;
A trainband captain eke was he
Of famous London town."

COWPER.


In spite of his satisfaction at the honourable obsequies of his dog,
Stephen Birkenholt would fain have been independent, and thought it
provoking and strange that every one should want to direct his
movements, and assume the charge of one so well able to take care of
himself; but he could not escape as he had done before from the
Warden of St. Elizabeth, for Ambrose had readily accepted the