A Gentleman Player; His Adventures on a Secret Mission for Queen Elizabeth

by Robert Neilson Stephens

  CHAPTER XV.

  TREACHERY.

  "God pless you, Aunchient Pistol! you scurvy, lousy knave, God plessyou!"--_Henry V._

  "Here is the snow thou hast foretold," said Master Marryott to AnthonyUnderhill, as the cavalcade set out, three hours after midnight.

  "And a plague of wind," put in Captain Rumney, with a good humor inwhich Marryott smelt some purpose of cultivating confidence.

  The riders wrapped themselves in their cloaks, and muffled their necksto keep out the pelting flakes. The night being at its darkest, the snowwas more "perceptible to feeling" than "to sight," save where it flewand eddied in the light of a torch carried by Bottle at the head of theline, and of a lanthorn that Hal had caused to be attached to the rearof the coach. Between these two dim centres of radiance, the horsemenshivered and grumbled unseen, and cursed their steeds, and wished redmurrains and black plagues, and poxes of no designated color, upon theweather.

  They passed through Keighley about dawn. Two miles further on, theystopped at an isolated house for breakfast. As Marryott opened the coachcurtain (it had been closed against the whirling snow), to convey to theprisoners some cakes and milk, Mistress Hazlehurst motioned Francis toset the platter on a coach seat, and said to Hal:

  "If you wish not to murder me, you will let me walk a little rather thaneat. I seem to have lost the use of legs and arms, penned up in thiscage these two days."

  "Nay, 'tis but a day and a half," corrected Marryott. "But you may walkwhiles we tarry here, an you choose. The snow is ankle-deep in the road,however."

  "I care not if it be knee-deep."

  "Will you promise to return to the coach at my word, if I let you out towalk?" Hal did not feel equal to putting her into the coach again bybodily force.

  "God's light, yes! What choice have I?"

  "And while you walk, I must walk beside you, and Francis at my otherside."

  "I have said, what choice have I?"

  He offered his hand to assist her from the coach. But she leaped outunaided, and started forthwith in the direction whence the travellershad just come. Hal waited for Francis, and then strode after her,holding the page by a sleeve. Kit Bottle was busy looking to therefreshment of the horses. Captain Rumney was stalking up and down theroad, his whole attention apparently concentrated upon a pot of ale hecarried. Anthony Underhill had ridden back to a slightly elevated spot,to keep watch.

  Master Marryott was soon at his prisoner's side. She could not, for snowand wind, long maintain the pace at which she had started from thecoach. The weather reddened her cheeks, which took hue also from hercrimson cloak and hood. Hal thought her very beautiful,--a thing ofbloom and rich color in a bleak, white desert. It smote him keenly toremember that she deemed him her brother's slayer. He was half temptedto tell her the truth, now that she was his prisoner and could not goback to undeceive Roger Barnet. But would she believe him? And if sheshould, was it certain that she might not escape ere the next two dayswere up? Prudence counselled Hal to take no risks. So, in faintest hopeof shaking her hatred a little, of creating at least a doubt in hisfavor, he fell back on the poor device of which he had already made oneor two abortive trials.

  "I swear to you, Mistress Hazlehurst," he began, somewhat awkwardly,"'twas not I that gave your brother his unhappy wound. There issomething unexplained, touching that occurrence, that will be cleared toyou in time."

  A little to his surprise, she did not cut short all possible discussionby some sharp derisive or contemptuous answer. Though her tone showed nofalling away from conviction, she yet evinced a passive willingness totalk of the matter.

  "There hath been explanation enough for me," she answered. "I had thefull story of my brother's servants, who saw all."

  "The officers of justice could not have had a like story," said Hal, atrandom. "Else why came they never to Fleetwood house?"

  "You well know. The quarrel was witnessed of none but your man and mybrother's servants. They kept all quiet; your man, for your safety'ssake; my brother's men, for--for the reason--My brother's men kept allquiet, too, till I came home."

  "And why did your brother's men so? You broke off there."

  "Oh, I care not if I say it! My brother's servants were not as near theencounter as your man was, and they saw ill; they were of a delusionthat you struck in self-defence. And my brother, too, bade them hush thematter."

  "'Twas as much as to admit that he was the offender."

  "Well, what matters that? At best there was little zeal he might expectof his neighbors in visiting the law upon you. He was a man of toostrong mettle; he was too hated in the county to hope for justice, evenagainst a Catholic. Well you know that, Sir Valentine Fleetwood! But Iwould have had my rights of the law, or paid you in mine own way,[27]had not this other means of vengeance come to my hand! Self-defence orno self-defence, you shed my brother's blood, and I will be a cause ofthe shedding of yours!"

  "But I say naught of self-defence. I say I am not he that, rightly orwrongly, shed your brother's blood!"

  "God-'a'-mercy, sir, I marvel at you! Tis sheer impudence to deny whatmine own family servants saw with their eyes and told me with theirlips! Think you, because I am some miles and days from all witnesses ofthe quarrel, save your own man, my mind is to be clouded upon it?"

  "I say only that there is a strange circumstance in all this business,that may not yet be opened to you. Well, I see that till time shallpermit explanation, I must despair of seeming other to you than stainedwith your brother's blood. My word of honor, my oath, avail not--"

  "Speak you of oaths and words of honor? There was some talk of oaths twodays ago, before the constable of Clown!"

  Hal sighed. He did not notice that, in drawing him further intoconversation, she had drawn him further from the coach, which was indeednow hidden behind a slight turn of the road.

  "Well," quoth he, resignedly, "time shall clear me; and show, too, why Ihave had to put so admired a lady to so irksome a constraint."

  "Say, rather, time shall give your prisoner revenge for all constraint.Think not you have put me to much distress! What says the play? Womencan endure mewing up, so that you tie not their tongues!"

  "I thank heaven you have not given me cause to tie your tongue!"

  "Given you cause,--how?" she asked, looking full at him.

  "Why, suppose, in the towns we passed, you had cried out from the coachto people, and I had found the closed curtain of no avail."

  "What would you have done then?"

  "Bound with a silken kerchief the shapeliest mouth in England! Ay, withthese very hands of mine!"

  "Ere that were done, I should have made stir enough to draw a concourse.Were I hard put to it, be sure I would attract questioners to whom you'dhave to give account."

  "Account were easy given. I should declare you were a mad womancommitted to my charge."

  "More perjury!"

  "Nay, there is truly some madness in a woman's taking vengeance into herown small hands."

  She answered nothing, and presently they returned to the coach. CaptainRumney stood pensively by his horse, his gaze averted, as if he thoughtof the past or the far away. He now looked mildly up, and mounted. Theother robbers were already on their horses, Bottle at their head.Mistress Hazlehurst let Hal lift her into the coach. Francis followed.Marryott then whistled for Anthony, and got into the saddle.

  "The snow falls thicker and thicker," remarked Captain Rumney, in abland, sociable tone, while the caravan waited for the Puritan.

  As soon as Anthony was in place, Hal motioned to Bottle, at whose wordthe robbers, with whip and rein, set their horses in motion. The harnessstrained, the coach creaked, the wheels turned reluctantly in the snow.The procession moved forward a short distance; then, suddenly, there wasa splitting sound, a rear wheel fell inward, and the adjacent part ofthe coach dropped heavily to the ground. The vehicle, thereupon, wasstill, halting the horses with a violent jerk.

  Anthony Underhill leaped from his saddle, and turned over the
loosewheel. A single glance revealed that the axle had been, within a veryshort time past, cut nearly through with a saw.

  Anthony looked at Master Marryott, who gazed at the axle with asingularly self-communing, close-mouthed expression. All was very clearto Master Marryott; a train of events had rushed through his mind in aneye's twinkling: Mistress Hazlehurst's subjugation of Captain Rumney bythe use of her eyes; the nocturnal visit of her page to the robber inthe single opportunity afforded by Hal's movements; the walk in whichshe had drawn Hal from the coach at a time when Anthony was on guard andKit Bottle concerned with the horses. A few words would have sufficedfor the message borne by Francis to Rumney, such as, "My mistressdesires you to wreck the coach; she will make an opportunity." She hadnot asked Rumney to rescue her by force, for he might prove a worsecaptor than her present one. She had not asked him to injure the horsesduring the night, for the watch kept by Hal might prevent that, or therobber might be unwilling to sacrifice his own animals. What she soughtwas delay for the coming of Barnet; not an open revolt of the robbers,which might be so victorious as to put her at their mercy. And Rumneyhad obeyed her to the letter; had, doubtless, after receiving hermessage, searched the outhouses for a suitable tool; and probablycarried at the present moment, beneath his leather jerkin, the hand-sawwith which, during Hal's walk with Mistress Hazlehurst, he had severedthe axle.

  But, whatever lay concealed under his jerkin or his skull, CaptainRumney was now looking down at the wheel with a most surprised, puzzled,curious, how-in-God's-name-could-this-have-come-to-pass expression offace.

  It was but the early morning of the fourth day of the flight. Could Halbut defer the inevitable break with his ally, for this day and another!Until the five days were up, an open breach with, or secret flight from,these robbers, meant the risk of either his mission or her safety. Forsuch break or flight might leave her in their hands. This horrible issuecould be provided against only by Hal's consigning her to protection insome town or some gentleman's house; but such provision he dared notmake till his mission was accomplished, lest she defeat that mission bydisclosures that would either cause his own seizure or raise doubts inBarnet as to his identity.

  Decidedly, patience was the proper virtue here, and the best policy wasthat of temporizing.

  "'Tis a curious smooth break," said Hal, with an indescribable somethingin his voice for the benefit of Anthony, and of Kit, who had ridden backto see what stayed the coach. "But I have seen wood break so, when decayhath eaten a straight way through it. Mistress, I rejoice to see you arenot hurt by the sudden jar."

  He spoke to her through the coach doorway. Both she and Francis weresitting quite undisturbed. The jar had, in fact, not been sudden tothem. As Hal knew, they had expected the breakdown. But his dissemblingmust be complete.

  "Here's delay!" put in Captain Rumney, most sympathetically vexed.

  "Yes," said Marryott, very dismally, as if bereft of hope. His wisestcourse lay in holding the plotters passive by making them think they hadalready accomplished enough. If Mistress Hazlehurst supposed thatsufficient delay was now obtained, she would not further instigateRumney. And without instigation Rumney was not likely to invite openwarfare at a place only two miles from Keighley. In fact, he would not,of his own initiative, have chosen a spot so near a town, for causingthe breakdown, which might result in tumult. He would have waited for amore solitary neighborhood. He was of no mind for needlessly chancingany kind of violent contact with the authorities. Mistress Hazlehurst,not divining his feelings on this point, had created the opportunity atthis spot, and he had taken the risk. But he was well content that thesupposed Sir Valentine accused him not. In roads more remote, accusationmight be positively welcome; but not in close vicinity to a centre oflaw and order.

  With a kind of vague, general sense of what Captain Rumney's mentalattitude must be, Marryott felt that he need fear no interruption tothe plan his mind now formed, in a moment's time, for an earlyresumption of the flight. But he did not communicate this plan to anybut Anthony, who alone was necessary to its inauguration. Even Bottlewas kept in the dark, in order that Rumney might not find, in beingexcepted from a council of leaders, a pretext for subsequent complaint.

  As for his instructions to the Puritan, Hal gave them very quickly, inwhispers, leaning down from his saddle to approach more nearly theother's ear.

  Anthony, having listened without speech or sign, remounted his horse,rode to the house at which the breakfast had been obtained, and made afew brief inquiries of the man who came to the door.

  The result of his questions was evidently not satisfactory; for he rodefrom the door, shaking his head in the negative to Master Marryott; andforthwith cantered off through the falling snow, toward Keighley.

  Bottle, who had sat his horse in silent observation of these movements,as had Rumney also, now glanced at Hal as if to question the proprietyof sending the Puritan away.

  "Fear not," said Hal, reassuringly. "If he see thy friend Barnet ere hefind what he seeks, he will drop all and come back a-flying. And then weshall meet Barnet, or dodge him, in what manner we must!"

  It has been told that Marryott was always prepared, as a last resource,to use his forces in resistance to the pursuivant. A close meeting wasto be avoided to the utmost, however; not only for its uncertainty ofissue to the immediate participants, but for its likelihood of informingBarnet that the pursued man was not Sir Valentine. In the event of thatdisclosure, Hal saw safety for his mission in one desperate course; thatwas, to kill or disable the pursuivant and all his men. But such a featof arms was barely within possibility, a fact which made Master Halextremely unwilling that matters should come to an encounter. Thereforehe groaned and fretted inwardly during the minutes of inaction thatfollowed Anthony's departure. He sought relief from thoughts of apossible combat with his pursuers, in following out his plan for hisforward movement; and saw with joy that the very method he had chosenfor going on with his prisoner was the better adapted to his bearing hersafely off from Rumney in case of a conflict with that gentleman.

  "Have your men take their horses from the coach. Captain Rumney," Halhad said very soon after Anthony had departed. The words were spokenlightly, not as if they accorded with a plan, but as if they indeed hadno other inspiration than was shown when Hal added, "'Tis no use nowkeeping them hitched to this moveless heap of lumber."

  Prompt obedience had been given to an order so suggestive of greaterdelay. And now the robbers idly sat their horses, jesting, railing atone another, grumbling, and some of them wondering in dull discontentwhither in the fiend's name they were bound. Anne and her page kepttheir places in the derelict vehicle, withholding their thoughts. Bottleand Rumney rode up and down, saying little. They were old soldiers, andused to waiting. Moreover, in the days of slow transit, patience was ahabit, especially with those who travelled.

  At last Anthony's figure reappeared, rising and falling in the whirlingsnow as his movements obeyed those of his horse. His manner showed thathe did not bear any tidings of Barnet. He brought with him an oldpillion and a collection of battered hunting-horns, the former behindhis saddle, the latter all slung upon a single cord. It was to procurethese things that he had gone back to Keighley, where there weresaddlers, innkeepers, hostlers, smiths, and others from whom sucharticles were to be had. Hal's companions looked with curiosity at theseacquisitions.

  Marryott now ordered both Anthony and Kit to dismount. He then had thehorse formerly ridden by Francis led back to the coach doorway. Here hecaused Bottle to hold the animal, and Anthony to adjust the pillionbehind the saddle thereon.

  "Now, mistress," said Hal, when this was done, "pray let me aid you tothe pillion."

  From her seat in the coach she did not move, nor made she the smallestanswer. She merely cast a look at Captain Rumney.

  Hal saw the need of swift action; delay would give her mute appeal tothe robber time to take effect. Summary proceedings would bewilder him.

  "Tom Cobble, hold my horse," he said, and was afoot
in an instant. Inanother, he was inside the coach, raising Mistress Hazlehurst bodilyfrom her seat, and conveying her out of the doorway to the pillion,which was not too high or far to permit his placing her upon it. Takenquite by surprise, she found herself on horseback ere she thought tobrace herself for physical resistance.

  "The cord, Anthony," called Hal. The Puritan threw it to him, havingalready unfastened it from the hunting-horns. Before Mistress Hazlehursthad time to think of sliding from the pillion to the ground. Hal had herwaist twice encircled by the cord, of which he retained both ends. Hethen, from the coach doorway, mounted the saddle in front of her,brought the rope's ends together before him, joined them in a knot, andlet Kit Bottle lead the horse a few paces forward so that his prisonermight not impede matters by seizing hold of the coach.

  "And now the boy, Anthony. Carry him on your saddle-bow," saidMarryott. The Puritan, reaching into the coach with both arms, laid holdof the page, and placed him on the saddle-bow; then, at a gesture,mounted behind him.

  "Take one of the horns, Kit," was Hal's next command. "Give one to me,one to Anthony, one to Captain Rumney, and the other to Tom Cobble. JohnHatch, lead the spare horse. And now all to your saddles. Kit, ride atthe head. Anthony, you shall go at my right hand; Tom Cobble, at myleft. Captain Rumney shall choose his place. And heed this, all of you:When I sound this horn, all ye that have like instruments, blow yourloudest; the rest, halloo your lustiest; and every mother's son set hishorse a-galloping till I call halt, taking heed to keep together. Andnow, forward!"

  A minute later, the cavalcade was moving through the downcoming flakes,leaving the wrecked coach to bury itself in the snow.

  Mistress Hazlehurst could not but see her captor's reason for the orderof which a blast from his horn was to be the signal. Now that she was nolonger concealed in the coach, it would be easier--the temptation wouldbe greater--for her to make an outcry when passing habitations. Thenoise of the horns and of the hallooing would drown the words she mightutter, and the galloping would rob her gesticulations of their intendedeffect. The conduct of the whole party would strike beholders as thesportive ebullition of a company of merry blades bent on astonishing thenatives; and any cries or motions she might make would seem, in theflash of time while they might be witnessed, but of a piece with thebehavior of her boisterous companions. There were roysterers of thegentler sex in those days,--witness Mary Frith, otherwise "MollCutpurse," who was indeed a very devil of a fellow.[28] Such roaringwomen were not of Mistress Hazlehurst's quality; but who would have timeto discern her quality in the brief while of the company's mad transitthrough such small towns as lay before them?

  It was less clear to her why her enemy should have placed her on thesame horse with himself, when he might have bound her upon another, ofwhich he could have retained hold of the bridle. But the case was thus:Though a possible contest with Rumney or Barnet might result in Hal'sown personal escape, such a contest might, were she on another horse,enable her to free herself, and either make disclosures fatal to Hal'smission, or fall prisoner to the robber. But, she being on his horse,and unable to act independently of him, Hal's escape would leave herstill his captive. That escape he must, then, contrive to make. He thussimplified his course in the event of an encounter; twined two threadsinto one; united two separate lines of possible befalling--his line and hers--so that they might be determined by a single,concentrated exertion of his own prowess.

  "THE BRAZEN NOTES CLOVE THE AIR."]

  Should matters so shape that her life be endangered by her position, Halmight, at the last moment, sever with his dagger the cord that bound herto him. She, being now deprived of weapons, could not do this.

  As for Francis, stealthy and resolute as recent occurrences had shownhim to be, there was nothing to fear from him while he bestrode thesaddle-bow of Anthony Underhill.

  It was eight o'clock when they started from the abandoned coach. Alittle after nine they passed through Skipton. The town was halfinvisible through the falling snow, which, as it came, was the sport ofthe same wind that made casements rattle and weather-cocks creak, andstreet-folk muffle themselves and pay small heed to passing riders.

  To test his device and his men, Master Marryott, when half way throughthe town, sounded his horn and gave his horse the spur. The response,from all but Captain Rumney, was instant and hearty. The brazen notesclove the air, the men emitted a score of unearthly yells, the horsesdashed forward; and the clamor, which caused the few snow-blindedoutdoor folk to stare blinkingly, might well have awakened the ghosts ofthe ancient castle of the Cliffords. But neither ghosts nor townspeoplestayed the turbulent strangers.

  When Hal ordered a cessation, outside the town, he found that the menwere in the better humor for the little outlet to their pent-updeviltry; all with the exception of Rumney, who had galloped with therest, but in silence.

  Rumney had indeed been moody since the abandonment of the coach. He hadkept his place behind Marryott, in full range of the eyes of the lady onthe pillion, who, as she sat sidewise, could look back at him with ease.Her glances, eloquent of a kind of surprise at his inaction, gave him anill opinion of himself which he soon burned to revenge upon some one.And his feelings were not sweetened by his men's good humor over anincident from which he had excluded himself.

  Of the roads from Skipton, Marryott chose that which he thought wouldtake him soonest into the North Riding. The cavalcade had gone perhapsfour miles upon this road, when, suddenly, Captain Rumney called out:

  "Halt, lads, and close in upon this quarry!"

  His men checked their horses, some with surprise, some as if the ordermight have been expected. They drew their blades, too,--blades of everyvariety,--and turned their horses about.

  Captain Bottle instantly urged his steed back toward Hal, chargingthrough the confusion of plunging horses in true cavalry fashion.Marryott himself wheeled half around to face Rumney. Anthony Underhill,with Francis on his saddle-bow, grimly menaced the robbers who hadturned.

  "What means this, Captain Rumney?" said Hal, quietly. Every sword in thecompany was now unsheathed.

  "It means that I cry, stand and deliver!" replied the robber, findingall needful confidence and courage in the very utterance of the habitualchallenge. He felt himself now in his own role, and feared nothing.

  "Is it not foolish," answered Marryott, without raising his voice, "torisk your skin thus, for the sake of money that would be yours to-morrowin payment of service?"

  "To the devil with your money,--though I'll have that, too, ere all'sdone! First deliver me the lady!"

  "I am much more like to deliver you to the flames below!" replied Hal.

  "Say you so! Upon him, boys!" cried Rumney, raising a pistol, which hehad furtively got ready to fire.

  Two things occurred at the same moment: Anthony Underhill got his swordengaged with that of the nearest robber who had moved to obey Rumney'sorder; and Master Marryott struck Rumney's pistol aside with his rapier,so that it discharged itself harmlessly into the falling snow.

  Hal's next movement was to turn Rumney's sword-point with his dagger,which he held in the same hand with his rein. Behind him, MistressHazlehurst clung to her pillion, in a state of mind that may beimagined. In front of Anthony Underhill. Francis, the page, made himselfsmall, to avoid a possible wild thrust from the fellow that contestedwith the Puritan.

  By this time Kit Bottle had reached Anthony's side.

  "What, ye jolly bawcocks!" he cried to the robbers, his sword-pointraised aloft, as if he awaited the result of his words ere choosing avictim for it. "Will ye follow this cheap rascal Rumney 'gainstgentlemen? He'll prove traitor to you all, an ye trust him long enough;as he did to me in the Low Countries! Mr. Edward Moreton, and honestJohn Hatch, and good Oliver Bunch, I call on you stand by true men!"

  "And Tom Cobble!" shouted Hal, without looking back from his combat withRumney, which, although it was now one of rapiers, they continued towage on horseback. "You're my man, I wot! A raw rustical rogue likethis, is not fi
t for London lads to follow!"

  "What say ye, mates?" cried Tom Cobble. "I am for the gentleman!"

  "And I!" quoth John Hatch, stoutly; Ned Moreton, airily; Oliver Bunch,timidly; and two or three others.

  "A murrain on gentlemen!" roared a burly fellow, and a chorus ofapproving oaths and curses showed that a majority of Rumney's menremained faithful to their old leader.

  "Good, my hearts!" cried their captain, his brow clearing of the cloudthat had risen at the first defection. "There shall be the more pickingsfor you that are staunch! I'll kill every deserter!"

  "Look to't you be not killed yourself!" quoth Master Marryott, leaningforward to keep the area of steel-play far from Mistress Hazelhurst.

  Rumney had exchanged his emptied pistol for a dagger, and he imitatedHal in using it with the hand that held his rein. In rapier-and-daggerfights, the long weapon was used for thrusting, the short one forparrying. Such contests were not for horseback. When mounted enemiesmet, so armed, they would ordinarily dismount and fight afoot. ButMarryott was determined not to separate himself from his prisoner, andRumney chose to remain in readiness for pursuit in case his antagonistshould resort to flight.

  So this unique duel went on,--a single combat with rapier and dagger,on horseback, one of the contestants sharing his horse with a lady on apillion behind him! The combat remained single because Rumney's men hadall they could do in defending themselves against the vigorous attack ofKit Bottle. Anthony Underhill, and the deserters from their own band.

  These deserters, knowing that the defeat of the side they had takenwould leave them at the mercy of the Rumney party, fought with that furywhich comes of having no alternative but victory or death. There was notan idle or a shirking sword to be found on either side. Each man chosehis particular antagonist, and when one combatant had worsted hisopponent he found another or went to the aid of a comrade. In the narrowroadway, in blinding flakes, and with mingled cries of pain, rage, andelation, these riders plied their weapons one against another, untilblood dripped in many places on the fallen snow that was tramped by therearing horses.

  The strange miniature battle, fought in a place out of sight of humanhabitation, and with no witnesses but the two prisoners so dangerouslyplaced for viewing it, lasted for ten minutes. Then Master Marryott,whose adroitness, sureness, and swiftness had begun to appall andconfuse Rumney, ran his rapier through the latter's sword-arm.

  With a loud exclamation, the robber dropped the arm to his side, andbacked his horse out of reach with his left hand.

  But Hal, with a fierce cry "Talk you of killing?" spurred his horseforward as if to finish with the rascal. This was a pretence, but itworked its purpose.

  "Quarter," whimpered the robber captain, pale with fear.

  "Then call off your hounds!" replied Hal, hotly, checking his horse.

  "I will," answered the trembling Rumney, quickly. "Lads, a truce! Put upyour swords, curse you!"

  His men were not sorry to get this order, nor their opponents to hear itgiven. The fight had gone too evenly to please either side, andwounds--some of them perhaps destined to prove fatal--had been nearlyequally distributed. Hal's adherents ceased fighting when their foesdid, Kit Bottle being the last, and probably the only reluctant one, todesist.

  "And now you will turn back, Master Rumney," said Marryott, in a hard,menacing tone, "and find another road to travel! Take with you theknaves that stood by you. The others, an they choose, shall remain mymen, in my pay. Come, you rogues, march!"

  Master Marryott backed to the side of the road, that Rumney's followersmight pass. They did so, readily enough, those who were unhorsed beinglifted to saddles by their comrades. Until the two parties weredistinctly separated, and several paces were between them, every weaponand every eye on either side remained on the alert to meet treachery.All the deserters from Rumney stayed with Hal.

  "'God bless you, Ancient Rumney,'" called out Kit Bottle, slightlyaltering a remembered speech from a favorite play, as the robber turnedhis horse's head toward Skipton. "'You scurvy, lousy knave. God blessyou!'"

  Rumney and his men rode for some distance without answer; Hal and hiscompany, motionless, looking after them. Suddenly, when he was beyondeasy overtaking, the robber leader turned in his saddle, and shoutedback, vindictively:

  "I scorn you, Kit Bottle! You are no better than an Irish footboy! Andyour master there is a woman-stealing dog, that I'll be quits with yet.He's no gentleman, neither, but a scurvy fencing-master in falsefeathers!"

  "Shall I give chase and make him eat his words?" asked Kit of MasterMarryott.

  "Nay, the cur that whines for mercy, and receives it, and then snarlsback at a safe distance, is too foul for thy hands, Kit! Let thosefellows on the ground be put on horses and supported till we find a safeplace for them. I'll not abandon any that stood by me. And then,onward! Madam, I trust you were not incommoded. Your page, I see, issafe."

  Mistress Hazlehurst deigned no answer. Her feelings were wrapped in acloak of outward composure.

  The wounded men were soon made safe upon horses, and the northwardjourney was again in progress.

  "I thank heaven we are rid of Captain Rumney!" said Hal to Kit Bottle,who now rode beside him. Anthony having taken the lead.

  "I would thank heaven more heartily, an I were sure we _were_ rid ofhim!" growled Kit, blinking at the snowflakes.