tate.

So he yielded; and before the king had arisen he left the camp, after a
hasty meal, and rode as rapidly as the roads would permit towards his
desolated home.

CHAPTER XXIII. LOVE STRONG AS DEATH.

Meanwhile Father Swithin had gone alone and unprotected, save by his
sacred character, into the very jaws of the lion; or rather, would have
gone, had he been suffered to do so; for when he approached the hall he
found the drawbridge up, and the whole place guarded as in a state of siege.

He advanced, nothing daunted, in front of the yawning gap where the
bridge should have been, and cried aloud--"What ho! porter; I demand
speech of my lord Redwald."

"You may demand speech--swine may demand pearls--but I don't think
you will get it. Deliver me your message."

"Tell your lord, rude churl, that I, Father Swithin, of the holy Order
of St. Benedict, have come, in the name of the rightful owners of this
house, and in the power of the Church, to demand that he deliver up
Elfric of Aescendune to the safe keeping of his friends."

"I will send your message; but keep a civil tongue in your mouth, Sir
Monk, and don't begin muttering any of your accursed Latin, or I will
see whether the Benedictine frock is proof against an arrow."

In a short time Redwald appeared on the roof, above the gateway.

"What dost thou require, Sir Monk?" said he; "thy words sound strange in
my ears."

"I am come, false traitor," said Father Swithin, waxing wroth, "to
demand the person of Elfric of Aescendune, whom thou detainest contrary
to God's law and the king's."

"Elfric of Aescendune! right glad am I to hear that he is alive; my
followers have brought me word that they saw him fall in battle."

"Nay, spare thy deceit, thou son of perdition, for well do we know that
he was brought home wounded last night. One of his bearers escaped thy
toils, even as a bird the snare of the fowler, and is now with us."

"Assuredly the loon has lied unto you. Rejoiced should I be to see the
unhappy youth, and to know that he yet lived. I but hold this place,
faithful to his lord and mine, Edwy, King of all England."

"Then why hast thou expelled the rightful dwellers therein from their
house and home? We know Elfric is with thee, and that thou art a
traitor, wherefore, deliver him up, or we will even excommunicate thee."

"Thou hadst better not begin in the hearing of the men who sit upon the
wall; for myself, excommunication cannot hurt a