er Lampard. When we git to th' old thorn let me out
o' the cart and let me stand under it one minnit and no more."

"Be you wanting to hang yourself before the trial then?" said the
constable, trying to make a joke of it.

"I couldn't do that," said Johnnie, simply, "seeing my hands be fast and
you'd be standing by."

"No, no, Johnnie, 'tis nought but just foolishness. What do you say,
Daddy?"

The old man turned round with a look of sudden rage in his grey face
which startled Lampard; but he said nothing, he only opened and shut his
mouth two or three times without a sound.

Meanwhile the pony had been going slower and slower for the last thirty
or forty yards, and now when they were abreast of the tree stood still.

"What be stopping for?" cried Lampard. "Get on--get on, or we'll never
get to Salisbury this day."

Then at length old Blaskett found a voice.

"Does thee know what thee's saying, Master Lampard, or be thee a
stranger in this parish?"

"What d'ye mean, Daddy? I be no stranger; I've a-known this parish and
known 'ee these nine years."

"Thee asked why I stopped when 'twas the pony stopped, knowing where
we'd got to. But thee's not born here or thee'd a-known what a hoss
knows. An' since 'ee asks what I says, I say this, 'twill not hurt 'ee
to let Johnnie Budd stand one minute by the tree."

Feeling insulted and puzzled the constable was about to assert his
authority when he was arrested by Johnnie's cry, "Oh, Master Lampard,
'tis my last hope!" and by the sight of the agony of suspense on his
swollen face. After a short hesitation he swung himself out over the
side of the cart, and letting down the tailboard laid rough hands on
Johnnie and half helped, half dragged him out.

They were quickly by the tree, where Johnnie stood silent with downcast
eyes a few moments; then dropping upon his knees leant his face against
the bark, his eyes closed, his lips murmuring.

"Time's up!" cried Lampard presently, and taking him by the collar
pulled him to his feet; in a couple of minutes more they were in the
cart and on their way.

It was grey weather, very cold, with an east wind blowing, but for the
rest of that dreary thirteen-miles journey Johnnie was very quiet and
submissive and shed no more tears.

III

What had been his motive in wishing to stand by the tree? What did he
expect when he said it was his last hope? During the way up the long,
laborious slope, an incident of his early y