When I had finished it seemed to me as though my strength had come back to me as if by a miracle.
"Presently, presently;" and I gave her the coin I had promised.
"Ah, here be my man comin';" and I noticed a farmer's man come up, who looked at me wonderingly.
It was at this time that I realized the condition of my clothes. They were covered with dirt; and catching reflection of my face in a bucket of water, I saw that it was much bruised and smeared with blood.
"I will have a wash, good dame," I said, "after which I would like to talk with you."
"Ay, and 'ere's water, master," she said; and I washed myself while she looked on in silence.
"Servant, sir." The man saluted me as he spoke, and moved a step nearer.
"Thank you for a good breakfast," I said. "I have been out all night, and lost my way among the woods."
"Easy enough to do," he replied, nodding towards the great forest from which I had come.
He shook his head. "Pycroft woods," he added presently.
"And no one lives at Pycroft Hall, I suppose?"
"I saw great heaps of stones in the woods."
"Ay, it is said there was a great mine at one time."
Beyond this the man could tell me nothing, though I asked him many questions. I also made inquiries in a roundabout way concerning Pycroft Hall, but he only shook his head. Evidently he knew nothing of it. I also asked him concerning the day of the week, and I found that I must have been full thirty hours alone in the bowels of the earth. I concluded that old Solomon had not come to seek me, neither did he believe that I should be able to find my way out.
After a time I felt sleepy, and the woman having offered me a bed whereon to rest, I fell into a sleep, from which I did not awake until past noon. After the dame had given me a meal consisting of boiled bacon and potatoes, I felt strong enough to walk back to Folkestone, which, after giving the woman another coin, I did.
I found that my absence had caused no surprise at the _Barley Sheaf_; indeed, the news that the king was to land at Dover the next day but one seemed to drive all other thoughts from their minds. I made many inquiries, but could hear nothing of either Sir Charles Denman or his wife. The woman had come mysteriously into my life, and had passed out of it again just as mysteriously. And yet I thought much of her. I felt in a way which I cannot explain that my life was linked with hers, and that some time in the future I should see her again.