CHAPTER X.IN PERIL.
"Halt! and declare yourselves!" cried a hoarse voice speaking in the French tongue.
"Now for it, Tom," said Lord Claud quietly, speaking between his shut teeth.

"Remember what I have told you.

Be wary, be ready.

We shall get through all right.

There are but two or three score, and none of them mounted." The travellers were passing now through the narrow territory of the Margrave of Baden, with the Rhine upon their right, the only protection from the frontier of France with all its hostile hosts.
The slow and inactive policy of the Margrave of Baden naturally encouraged the enemy to send small parties of soldiers across to harry his country; and already Tom and his master had had to dodge and hide, or go out of their way, to avoid meeting with these bands of inimical marauders.