Unclasp your arms, wife; how can I fight while you hang about my neck?
What! Must I strike you?
Then, there and there!" She loosed her grasp, and, groaning, fell back upon the breast of Emlyn, who half led, half carried her across the courtyard, where their scared horses galloped loose.
"Whither go we ?" sobbed Cicely.
"To the central tower," answered Emlyn; "it seems safest there." To this tower, whence the place took its name, they groped their way.
Unlike the rest of the house, which for the most part was of wood, it was built of stone, being part of an older fabric dating from the Norman days.

Slowly they stumbled up the steps till at length they reached the roof, for some instinct prompted them to find a spot whence they could see, should the stars break out.

Here, on this lofty perch, they crouched them down and waited the end, whatever it might be--waited in silence.
A while passed--they never knew how long--till at length a sudden flame shot up above the roof of the kitchens at the rear, which the wind caught and blew on to the timbers of the main building, so that presently this began to blaze also.

The house had been fired, by whom was never known, though it was said that the traitor, Jonathan Dicksey, had returned and done it, either for a bribe or that his own sin might be forgotten in this great catastrophe.
"The house burns," said Emlyn in her quiet voice.

"Now, if you would save your life, follow me.