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None of the new-comers had paid any heed to the sombre-habited prisoner; Halfman had forgotten his captive in his jealous study of the men who had raised the siege; Thoroughgood, with the Puritan's sword resting idly on his left arm, was as absorbed in the converse of Sir Rufus and his comrades as were his subordinates Garlinge and Clupp, who, though they gripped their prisoner tightly, were as indifferent to his existence as if he had been the turbaned dummy of a quintain.
"I thank you," he said, and followed Thoroughgood out of the room. Brilliana turned to Rufus. "I trust you will all feast here to-night." Rufus shook his head sadly. "Tears in my eyes and heart, but not possible. We join the King to-night for Banbury." He came close to her and spoke low. "Bright Brilliana, will you not give me your golden promise ere I go?"
Then resuming his sententious tone of military command, he took up the task where he had left it off. "Trail your pikes." The order was this time obeyed by the company with something approaching resemblance to the action of Thoroughgood, and Halfman went on. "Cheek your pikes." Out of the confused cluttering of weapons which ensued, Timothy Garlinge emerged tremulous.
Halfman swung round on his seat and stared at him curiously. "Why?" he asked. "Now that this truce is called," Thoroughgood answered, "that the Roundhead captain may have speech with my lady." "Why, what then?" questioned Halfman, with his eyes so fixed on Thoroughgood's that Thoroughgood, dogged as he was, averted his gaze. "Naught's left but surrender," he grunted, between his teeth.
His sword was naked in his hand as he spoke and he made a rush for the door. But before he could reach it it was flung open in his face and Halfman rushed in, waving his drawn sword, and followed by Thoroughgood carrying a gun and Garlinge and Clupp armed with pikes.
Thoroughgood, "many first-rate horses have had their knees broken through the carelessness of their drivers without any fault of their own, and from what I see of this horse I should say that is his case; but of course I do not wish to influence you. If you incline you can have him on trial, and then your coachman will see what he thinks of him."
Here in a window-seat, out of ear-shot of the other's speech, he seated himself to commune with his melancholy reflections, while Halfman, after stationing Thoroughgood at a little distance as a nominal guard upon the prisoner, dismissed Garlinge and Clupp from the room and rejoined the Cavaliers. Brilliana, who had still been standing with Sir Rufus, now addressed the others.
Adam Thoroughgood, although he came to Virginia as a servant or apprentice, became wealthy and powerful. His estates were of great extent and at one time he owned forty-nine sheep and one-hundred and seventeen cattle. Captain Ralph Hamor, a leading planter in the days of the Company, was the son of a merchant tailor.
Thoroughgood answered both in a breath. "Badly wounded. They bring him here." As he spoke, Garlinge and Clupp entered from the garden, bearing Halfman between them, wrapped in Evander's mantle. The man of gallant carriage, of swaggering alacrity, seemed to lie horribly limp in the men's arms.
It was as he thought these thoughts that a turn of the road brought him face to face with Harby Hall, and all the episodes of a busy, bloody life seemed to dwindle into insignificance as he crossed the moat and passed with John Thoroughgood through the guarded portals and found himself once again in the shelter of the great hall.
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