g man?" (To Henry.)--"You look pale. You can sit down till your turn
comes."

"Not in this house."

"And why not in this house, pray? Is your own house a better?"

No answer from Henry. A look of amazement and alarm from Grace. But she
was afraid to utter a word, after the admonition she had received.

"Well, sir," said Cole, "he was desecrating a church."

"So he was, and I shall talk to him in his turn. But you desecrated
it worse. He turned it into a blacksmith shop; you turned it into
a shambles. I shall commit you. You will be taken to Hillsborough
to-morrow; to-night you will remain in my strong-room. Fling him down
a mattress and some blankets, and give him plenty to eat and drink; I
wouldn't starve the devil on old Christmas Eve. There, take him away.
Stop; search his pockets before you leave him alone."

Cole was taken away, and Henry's turn came.

Just before this examination commenced, Grace clasped her hands, and
cast a deprecating look on Henry, as much as to say, "Be moderate." And
then her eyes roved to and fro, and the whole woman was in arms, and on
the watch.

Mr. Raby began on him. "As for you, your offense is not so criminal in
the eye of the law; but it is bad enough; you have broken into a church
by unlawful means; you have turned it into a smithy, defiled the graves
of the dead, and turned the tomb of a good knight into an oven, to the
scandal of men and the dishonor of god. Have you any excuse to offer?"

"Plenty. I was plying an honest trade, in a country where freedom is
the law. The Hillsborough Unions combined against me, and restrained my
freedom, and threatened my life, ay, and attempted my life too, before
to-day: and so the injustice and cruelty of men drove me to a sanctuary,
me and my livelihood. Blame the Trades, blame the public laws, blame the
useless police: but you can't blame me; a man must live."

"Why not set up your shop in the village? Why wantonly desecrate a
church?"

"The church was more secret, and more safe: and nobody worships in it.
The wind and the weather are allowed to destroy it; you care so little
for it you let it molder; then why howl if a fellow uses it and keeps it
warm?"

At this sally there was a broad rustic laugh, which, however, Mr. Raby
quelled with one glance of his eye.

"Come, don't be impertinent," said he to Little.

"Then don't you provoke a fellow," cried Henry, raising his voice.

Grace clasped her hands in dismay.

Jael Dence