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three men do against thirty or forty?" "They ought to take up somebody as an example to the rest." "They have offered, in the handsomest manner, to arrest me if Sir Charles will give me in charge," said Trefusis. "There!" said Lady Jane, turning to her husband. "Why don't you give him--or someone--in charge?" "You know nothing about it," said Sir Charles, vexed by a sense that she was publicly making him ridiculous. "If you don't, I will," she persisted. "The idea of having our ground broken into and our new wall knocked down! A nice state of things it would be if people were allowed to do as they liked with other peoples' property. I will give every one of them in charge." "Would you consign me to a dungeon?" said Trefusis, in melancholy tones. "I don't mean you exactly," she said, relenting. "But I will give that clergyman into charge, because he ought to know better. He is the ringleader of the whole thing." "He will be delighted, Lady Brandon; he pines for martyrdom. But will you really give him into custody?" "I will," she said vehemently, emphasizing the assurance by a plunge in the saddle that made the bay stagger. "On what charge?" he said, patting the horse and looking up at her. "I don't care what charge," she replied, conscious that she was being admired, and not displeased. "Let them take him up, that's all." Human beings on horseback are so far centaurs that liberties taken with their horses are almost as personal as liberties taken with themselves. When Sir Charles saw Trefusis patting the bay he felt as much outraged as if Lady Brandon herself were being patted, and he felt bitterly towards her for permitting the familiarity. He uas relieved by the arrival of the procession. It halted as the leader came up to Trefusis, who said gravely: "Gentlemen, I congratulate you on the firmness with which you have this day asserted the rights of the people of this place to the use of one of the few scraps of mother earth of which they have not been despoiled." "Gentlemen," shouted an excited member of the procession, "three cheers for the resumption of the land of England by the people of England! Hip, hip, hurrah!" The cheers were given with much spirit, Sir Charles's cheeks becoming redder at each repetition. He looked angrily at the clergyman, now distracted by the charms of Lady Brandon, whose scorn, as she surveyed the crowd, expressed itself by a pout which became her pretty lips
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