Newmarket. If he had had any sinister' motive, he would not have spoken as frankly as he did."

"Then who stole your powder-flask, and drew the bullets out of your pistols?" asked Brinsmead.

"Not the man you speak of, certainly," said Jack. "I looked at the priming of my pistols this morning, and they were all right, though to be sure, not thinking that they might have been tampered with, I did not examine the charges. However, he could not have done it while riding alongside of me. In what state did you find your pistols, Brinsmead?"

"I must own, Jack, they would not go off either; and yet I did this morning what I always do, examine them before starting, when I have my master's property to defend upon the road."

"But did you never lose sight of them after you had examined them?" asked Deane.

Brinsmead thought a few moments.

"Yes, I remember now, for once I did; and now I think of it, I remember seeing a man, very like the fellow who has just left us, watching me as I went out. That's it, depend on it."

While Brinsmead was speaking, he pulled out his pistols and examined them with his ramrod. The charge of both had been withdrawn. He put them back into his holsters with a look of annoyance.

"Ah! these are old tricks, and more shame to me I was not up to them; but now, for the sake of the poor fellows we have got here, we must push on as fast as we can get the drove over this mud and these mortally bad roads. There's a house called Winn's Farm about three

miles off from here, where we shall be able to get good pasturage, and the men will be well looked after."

Pushing on, in the course of another hour the drove approached Winn's Farm which had been spoken of, when Deane walked on before that he might explain to the farmer what had happened, and make arrangements for remaining there during the night. The names of Mr. Strelley of Nottingham and his old drover were well known along the road, and accordingly a kindly welcome was given to the whole party. The kine were turned into some good grazing-ground, and the wounded. drovers were carefully placed on a bed, and their hurts looked to by Dame Winn, the farmer's wife. The good woman prided herself on her surgical knowledge, having received instructions from her mother, who in her younger days had had unhappily, during the Civil Wars, too much opportunity of gaining experience in the art of attending to gun-shot wounds.

"We must have better laws, Master Brinsmead; these sort of things cannot be allowed in the country," observed Farmer Winn, when his guests were seated round his hospitable board, at which all his family, as well as the drovers and his old farm-servants, were also assembled. "I have suffered from some of these caterans from the north, so I have a fellow-feeling with you, I can tell you."

"The laws are not so bad," answered Brinsmead, "but we want people to carry them out. The king is willing enough, but it is hard to get people to assist him. However, things are improving in many respects, and

depend upon it these gentlemen have not a much longer course to run."

Will Brinsmead had no objection to the good things of life, and while enjoying the substantial fare set before him by Farmer Winn and his good dame, soon forgot the annoyance he had suffered.

A

CHAPTER IX.

Stourbridge Fair-Adventures at Cambridge.

S Will Brinsmead and John Deane with their charge approached Cambridge, they found the

roads, always far from good, becoming worse and worse, in consequence of the vast amount of traffic which had passed over them; while crowds of other small dealers and purchasers from all parts of the country would account for the vast concourse of people who were to be seen both in the town of Cambridge, along the banks of the river, and thickly scattered over the meadows. From all directions were seen moving on carts, waggons, caravans, and vehicles of all sorts, from London and elsewhere, as well as innumerable trains of pack-horses laden with Yorkshire goods from Leeds, Halifax, and other towns in an apparently endless succession, bound for the Duddery, the great mart for wholesale dealers in woollen manufactures, which was to occupy a considerable portion of the meadow in which the fair was held. In the vehicles from London were conveyed milliners, toy-sellers, goldsmiths, turners, haber

dashers, mercers, drapers, hatters, and in fact representatives of all the trades of the metropolis.

At a short distance from Cambridge the drove came fairly to a stop, when, as it chanced, Brinsmead and Jack found close to them, mounted on a tall pack-horse, a personage who by the peculiar cut of his somewhat threadbare garments they took to be a humble student of divinity. He wore a shabby cassock and a shovel. hat, sitting the animal on which he journeyed sideways with a book in his hand, making a reading-desk occasionally of a bale of some sort which towered above the horse's neck. Old Will at once entered into conversation with him, and confided afterwards to Jack that he had been highly edified by his correct and judicious remarks. Jack had, however, remarked a peculiar twinkle in the student's eye when talking to the old man, which made him suspect his sincerity. He appeared, however, to be very well informed on many subjects, and still further won Master Brinsmead's heart by showing that he possessed some knowledge of the art of breeding cattle, and of healing their diseases, but little understood in those days. They were, however, again separated, and no more was seen of the divinity student.

At length the towers and spires of Cambridge, rising from the groves and gardens of the classic Cam, came in sight.

When Jack Deane rode up to the far-famed meadow, he might well be astonished at the scene he beheld. The sun shone brilliantly on a vast expanse of canvas, with bright-coloured streamers flying over it, and appropriate sign-boards, gilt weathercocks, and other painted