The colonel bent quietly before the storm; and leaving the wounded man in the care of his daughter-in-law and the attendants, made his way to the stables, to inquire what had become of Rupert.  There he found that a few minutes before, Rupert, accompanied by Hugh Parsons, had ridden off at full speed, having placed valises and a brace of pistols in the holsters on their saddles.  The colonel was glad to hear that Rupert had his humble friend with him, and doubted not that he had made for London.  With a somewhat lightened heart he went back to the house.

After galloping fast for the first two miles, Rupert drew rein, for he had now time to think, and was assured that even should Sir William at once send into Derby for a warrant for his apprehension, he would be across the borders of the county long before he could be overtaken.

“Have you any money with you, Hugh?” he asked, suddenly; “for I have not a penny with me.”

“I have only two shillings, Master Rupert.  I got that yesterday in Derby for a nest of young owlets I found in the copse.”

Rupert reined up his horse in dismay.

“Two shillings between us, Hugh!  And it is 126 miles to London.  What are we to do?”

Hugh thought a moment.  “We can’t go on with that, sir.  Do you take these two shillings and ride on to the Red Dragon.  You will be outside the county there.  I will ride back to father’s.  It’s under two miles, and I shall be back here in half-an-hour again.  He will give me any money he may have in the house.  I may as well fill my valise too, while I am about it; and he’s got a pair of pistols, too, that he will give me.”

It was clearly the best course to take, and Rupert trotted forward on his way, while Hugh galloped back at full speed.  In a quarter of an hour the latter drew rein at his father’s door.

“Hullo, Hugh, lad,” the farmer, a hearty man of some fifty years of age, said, as he came to the door, “be’est thou?  What art doing on the squire’s horse?  He looks as if thou had ridden him unmercifully, surely?”

In a few words Hugh related what had taken place, and told him of his own offer to go to the wars with Rupert.

“That’s right, lad; that’s right and proper.  It’s according to the nature of things that when a Holliday rides to the war a Parsons should ride behind him.  It’s always been so, and will always be so, I hope.  Mother will grieve, no doubt; but she won’t want to fly in the face of nature.

“Here, mother, come out.  Master Rupert’s killed Sir William Brownlow’s son, and is off to the wars, and so our Hugh’s, natural-like, going with him.”

Mrs. Parsons after her first ejaculation of surprise burst into tears, but, as her husband had predicted, offered no objection whatever to what seemed to her, as to him, a matter of plain duty on the part of her son.  Hugh now explained the reason of his return.