were fifty times my child."

Then Dorothy awakened. The girl was herself again. Now it was only for
herself she had to fear.

Her heart kept saying, "This for his sake, this for his sake." Out of her
love came fortitude, and out of her fortitude came action.

Her father's oath had hardly been spoken till the girl tore her bodice
from her shoulders. She threw the garment to the floor and said:--

"I am ready for the whip, I am ready. Who is to do the deed, father, you
or the butcher? It must be done. You have sworn it, and I swear before God
and by my maidenhood that I will not tell you the name of the man who
wrote the letter. I love him, and before I will tell you his name or
forego his love for me, or before I will abate one jot or tittle of my
love for him, I will gladly die by the whip in your hand. I am ready for
the whip, father. I am ready. Let us have it over quickly."

The girl, whose shoulders were bare, took a few steps toward the door
leading to the upper court, but Sir George did not move. I was deeply
affected by the terrible scene, and I determined to prevent the flogging
if to do so should cost Sir George's life at my hands. I would have
killed him ere he should have laid a single lash of the whip upon
Dorothy's back.

"Father," continued the terrible girl, "are you not going to flog me?
Remember your oaths. Surely you would not be forsworn before God and upon
your knighthood. A forsworn Christian? A forsworn knight? A forsworn
Vernon? The lash, father, the lash--I am eager for it."

Sir George stood in silence, and Dorothy continued to move toward the
door. Her face was turned backward over her shoulder to her father, and
she whispered the words, "Forsworn, forsworn, forsworn!"

As she put her hand on the latch the piteous old man held forth his arms
toward her and in a wail of agony cried: "Doll! Doll! My daughter! My
child! God help me!"

He covered his face with his hands, his great form shook for a moment as
the tree trembles before the fall, and he fell prone to the floor sobbing
forth the anguish of which his soul was full.

In an instant Dorothy was by her father's side holding his head upon her
lap. She covered his face with her kisses, and while the tears streamed
from her eyes she spoke incoherent words of love and repentance.

"I will tell you all, father; I will tell you all. I will give him up; I
will see him never again. I will try not to love him. Oh, father, forgive
me, forg