"The twenty that were with me lie stark under the stars in Newlington's garden," he told her, as Richard had told her already.

"I escaped by a miracle, no less, but for what?
Feversham will demand of me a stern account of those lives, whilst if I am found in Bridgwater there will be a short shrift for me at the rebel hands--for my share in this affair is known, my name on every lip in the town.

And why ?" he asked with a sudden increase of fierceness.

"Why?
Because that craven villain there betrayed me." "He did not," she answered in so assured a voice that not only did it give him pause, but caused Richard, cowering behind her, to raise his head in wonder.
Sir Rowland smiled his disbelief, and that smile, twisting his blood-smeared countenance, was grotesque and horrible.

"I left him to guard our backs and give me warning if any approached," he informed her.
"I knew him for too great a coward to be trusted in the fight; so I gave him a safe task, and yet in that he failed me-failed me because he had betrayed and sold me." "He had not.