“Shall we light a fire, Master Rupert?”

“No, Hugh; at any rate unless we see that the shutters and door will close tightly.  There may be scores of deserters in the wood, and we had better run no risk.  The night is not cold.  We will just sit down against the wall till morning.  Before we do, though, we will look round, outside the hut.  If it has been lately inhabited, there may be a few vegetables or something the horses can munch.”

Nothing, however, was found.

“We will take it by turns to watch, Hugh.  I will take first watch; when I am sleepy I will wake you.”

Without a word Hugh unstrapped his cloak, felt for a level piece of ground in the hut, and with his cloak for his pillow, was soon asleep.

Rupert sat down on the log of a tree, that lay outside the hut, and leaned against its wall.  For two hours he sat, and thought over the adventures and the prospects of the war, and then gradually a drowsiness crept over him, and he fell fast asleep.

His waking was not pleasant.  Indeed, he was hardly aware that he was awake; for he first came to the consciousness that he was lying on the ground, with a number of wild-looking figures around him, some of whom bore torches, while Hugh, held by two of them, was close by.

It was Hugh’s voice, indeed, that first recalled him to a consciousness of what had happened.

“Master Rupert, Master Rupert!” he exclaimed.  “Tell me that you are not killed!”

“No, I am not killed, Hugh,” Rupert said, raising himself on his elbow.  “But it would have served me right if I had been, for going to sleep on my watch.”

One of their captors now stooped down, seized Rupert by the shoulder, and gave him a rough kick to intimate that he was to get up.

“I am sorry, Hugh, that I have sacrificed your life as well as my own by my folly, for I have no doubt these fellows mean to kill us.  They are charcoal burners, as rough a lot as there exists in Europe, and now naturally half mad at the flames they see all over the land.”

In the meantime, a dialogue was going on between their captors as to the best and most suitable method of putting them to death.

“They are fond of burning houses,” one said at last, “let them try how they like it.  Let us make a blaze here, and toss them in, and let them roast in their own shells.”

The proposal was received with a shout of approval.  Some of them scattered in the forest, and soon returned laden with dry branches and small logs, which were piled up in a great heap against the hut, which was itself constructed of rough-hewn logs.  The heap of dry wood was then lighted, and ere long a great sheet of flame arose, the logs and the shingles of the roof caught, and ere many minutes the hut was a pile of fire.

“They’re going to throw us in there, Hugh.”

“God’s will be done, Master Rupert; but I should like to have died sword in hand.”