England. O, madam, I do see my sin. I am unfit for life. I will, for

penance sake and to avoid worse evil, once I have finished this

adventure, get me to a cloister. I will forswear Joanna and the trade of

arms. I will be a friar, and pray for your good kinsman's spirit all my

days."

It appeared to Dick, in this extremity of his humiliation and repentance,

that the young lady had laughed.

Raising his countenance, he found her looking down upon him, in the

fire-light, with a somewhat peculiar but not unkind expression.

"Madam," he cried, thinking the laughter to have been an illusion of his

hearing, but still, from her changed looks, hoping to have touched her

heart, "madam, will not this content you? I give up all to undo what I

have done amiss; I make heaven certain for Lord Risingham. And all this

upon the very day that I have won my spurs, and thought myself the

happiest young gentleman on ground."

O boy," she said--"good boy!"

And then, to the extreme surprise of Dick, she first very tenderly wiped

the tears away from his cheeks, and then, as if yielding to a sudden

impulse, threw both her arms about his neck, drew up his face, and kissed

him. A pitiful bewilderment came over simple-minded Dick.

But come," she said, with great cheerfulness, "you that are a captain,

The Black Arrow