She was, he considered, unfit to be left alone with no more stalwart companions than old Digger, the maids, and the children; but her repeated assurances that she felt no foreboding at last conquered, and that morning, as we have seen, he had ridden off.
"You know, father," she had told him again and again, "Philip is close at hand, and truly I can see no danger.

Was not I alone for days and nights together when you were with the King and the Prince ?" "Well, well," the Colonel had responded at last; "but I shall speak a word to Matthew as I pass the forge to-day, and he will keep his eye on the place." Matthew Hale, the blacksmith, had served under Colonel Myddelton in more than one campaign, and he rang as true as his own anvil.
Thus it was that Barbara was left alone in the great house, with none to bear her company but Jack, who was but twelve, and Marjorie, who was but eight, and little Alys, and old Digger, the odd man, and the maids.
There were also, it is true, stablemen and gardeners, but they lived in the village.
The next of age to Barbara was Philip (Philip Sidney Myddelton in full, so named after that sweet and noble gentleman and soldier who fell at Zutphen).

Philip was sixteen, and at this time was still at his lessons with Mr.Fullarton, of Framshott, a village eight miles distant.

Mr.
Fullarton was a ripe scholar who kept a house wherein some score of boys whose parents had no strong liking for the great grammar schools were received and fitted with enough learning to take them into Oxford or Cambridge.

The boys ranged in age from ten to seventeen, and at this time Philip was their leader.