THE SMUGGLER, 405 



carry them over Alps, that, viewed from their base, appear 

 insurmountable. 



Sir Robert Croyland did not venture into the drawing-room 

 before he went ; but he told the butler, who was waiting in 

 the hall, to inform Sir Edward Digby and the family that he 

 had been called away on business, and feared he should not 

 return till a late hour; and having left this message, he went 

 out upon the terrace. He found there a number of persons 

 assembled, with some twenty or thirty of the dragoons. Five 

 or six officers of the customs were present, besides Mowle; 

 but the darkness was too great to admit of their faces being 

 seen ; and Sir Robert Croyland mounted without speaking to 

 any one. Sir Henry Layton paused for an instant* to give 

 orders, that the boy should be taken back to Woodchurch, 

 and kept there under a safe guard. He then spoke a few 

 words to Digby 's servant, Somers, and springing on his horse 

 placed himself at Sir Robert Croyland's side. 



The night was as dark as either of the two which had pre- 

 ceded it; the same film of cloud covered the sky; not a star 

 was to be seen; the moon was far below the horizon; and 

 slowly the whole party moved on, two and two abreast, through 

 the narrow lanes and tortuous roads of that part of the country. 

 It halted for a minute in the nearest village, while Sir Robert 

 Croyland stopped at his clerk's house, and directed him to 

 follow as fast as possible to Mr. Radford's; and then, resum- 

 ing their march, the dragoons, and those who accompanied 

 them, wound on for between four and five miles further, when, 

 as they turned the angle of a wood, some lights, apparently 

 proceeding from the windows of a house half way up a gentle 

 slope, were seen shining out in the midst of the darkness. 



"Halt!'' said Sir Henry Lay ton; and before he proceeded 

 to give his orders for effectually surrounding the house and 

 grounds of Mr. Radford, he gazed steadfastly for a moment or 

 two upon the building which contained her who was most dear 

 to him, and whose heart he well knew was at that moment 

 wrung with the contention of many a painful feeling. " I 

 promised her I would bring her aid, dear girl," he thought, 

 " and so I have. Thanks be to God, who has enabled mel" 



Sir Robert Croyland, too, gazed, with very different feelings, 

 it is true, but still with a stern determination that was not 

 shaken in the least. It seemed, when ha thought of KatQ 



