Page 204 - A Jacobite Exile

Overgrown as it now was, with trees and undergrowth, he could see that a
village once stood there. It must, however, have been abandoned a very

long time, as trees of considerable size grew among the low walls and piles
of stones that marked where cottages had stood. The place occupied by the

brigands had, in former times, been a castellated building of some strength,
standing on a knoll in the middle of the village, which had probably been
inhabited by the retainers of its owner. Part of the wall had fallen, but a

large arched room, that had doubtless been the banqueting hall of the castle,
remained almost intact, and here the brigands had established themselves.

Several fires burned on the flagged floors, the smoke finding its way out
through holes and crevices in the roof. Some fifty men were gathered round
these, and were occupied in cooking their midday meal.

"I am glad to see that you have arrived," the captain said, coming across to

Charlie. "I expected you two hours ago, and intended, as soon as we had
finished our meal, to send out another four men to meet you and help to
carry you in."

"Thank you," Charlie said. "It is not the men's fault we are late, but the last

part of the way we came on very slowly. I was getting so exhausted that I
had to stop every few hundred yards."

"Well, you had better eat something, and then lie down for a sleep. Meat is
plentiful with us, for there are thousands of goats in the forest, and

occasionally we get a deer or wild boar. If we had but bread and wine we
should live like nobles. Our supplies, however, are low at present, and we
shall have to make an expedition, tomorrow or next day, to replenish them."

Charlie ate a few mouthfuls of meat, and then lay down and slept, for some

hours, on a bed of leaves. He was awoke by loud and excited talking among
the men, and learnt from Honred that one of the men, who had been left on
watch at the mouth of the path by which he had entered the forest, had just

brought in the news that a party of a hundred infantry, led by the Jew, had
arrived with a cart. In this the body of Ben Soloman had been sent off,

while the troops had established themselves in the little clearing round the
hut.