"It's ruined for best," said I, "but it will do for market days. And now,
madam, it's cold enough to freeze askers, as Joe Braggs says, and for
toilet you must e'en be content with first a shiver and then a shake. I
will await you at the yard gate, and pray close the door behind you. The
quicker the better."

She rejoined me in two or three minutes. I closed the gate cautiously
behind me, and we started our journey. From the farm we got away quite
unobserved, but I looked behind me at every other step to make surer, till
we turned the top of the knoll, and it was with great relief that I saw
the chimney-pots sink out of sight.

For a time we walked along briskly and in silence. So far I had carried
everything with a high hand and successfully, but the cold grey of the
morning began to creep into my thoughts as I looked ahead over miles and
miles of dreariness and danger. Houses were few and far between; every
village was a source of danger; the high roads were closed to us by our
fear of the troops. Further, the object we had in view was vague and
unformed, if not impossible of achievement, for even if we arrived at the
very place where Colonel Waynflete was held prisoner, what could we do to
help him? We should be safe from immediate need and danger if we could
reach the Prince's army, but where that was, and which way it was
travelling, were unknown to us. Certain it was that between us and any
real help ranged some thirty miles of cold, bleak country packed with
enemies for miles ahead. And here we were, on foot, penniless and hungry.
I had longed for a man's work; this was a regiment's.

A sidelong look at my companion drove all the mist and frost out of my
heart. Something about her made me feel a sneak and a traitor even for