atitude
towards Dunstan."

"Rather the contrary."

"Rather the contrary, as you say. But what sound was that? Surely
something stirred the bush!"

"A rabbit or a hare. You are becoming fanciful and timid. Well, you will
remember that tomorrow there must be no timidity, no yielding to what
some would call conscience, but wise men the scruples of superstition.
We shall not reach the monastery till dark, most of the visitors will
then have quitted it, and we shall take the old fox in a trap."

"You will not slay him in cold blood!"

"No. I shall bid him follow me to the king, and if he and his resist, as
probably they will, then their blood be on their own heads. But surely--"

At that moment a large stone, which Alfred had most inopportunely
dislodged, rolled down the bank, and made Elfric, who was in its path,
leap aside. Alfred, whose foot had rested upon it, slipped, and for a
moment seemed in danger of following the stone, but he had happily time
to grasp the tree securely, and by its aid he drew himself back and
darted into the wood.

Luckily there was moonlight enough to guide him by the track he had
hitherto followed, and he ran forward, dreading nothing so much as to
fall into the hands of the friends of his brother, and trusting that he
might prevent the execution of the foul deed he had heard meditated. He
ran for a long distance before he paused, when he became aware that
pursuers were on his track. Luckily his life had been spent so much in
the open air that he was capable of great exertion, and could run well.
So he resumed his course, although he knew not where it would lead him,
and soon had the pleasure of feeling that he was distancing his
pursuers. Yet every time he ran over a piece of smooth turf he fancied
he could hear them in his rear, and it was with the greatest feeling of
relief that he suddenly emerged from the wood upon the Foss Way, and saw
the lights of the hostelry at no great distance below him.

His pursuers did not follow him farther, probably unwilling to betray
their presence to the neighbourhood, and perhaps utterly unconscious
that the intruder upon their peace was possessed of any dangerous
secrets, or other than some rustic woodman belated on his homeward way,
who would be unable in any degree to interfere with them or to guess
their designs.

But it was not till the ardour of his flight had abated, that Alfred
could fully realise that his unhappy brother was committed to