trate--I attend you to your apartment."

Major Bridgenorth placed himself betwixt them and the door, in a manner
which showed him determined to interrupt their passage; when the Lady
Peveril, who thought she already showed more deference to him in this
matter than her husband was likely to approve of, raised her voice, and
called loudly on her steward, Whitaker. That alert person, who had heard
high talking, and a female voice with which he was unacquainted, had
remained for several minutes stationed in the anteroom, much afflicted
with the anxiety of his own curiosity. Of course he entered in an
instant.

"Let three of the men instantly take arms," said the lady; "bring them
into the anteroom, and wait my farther orders."

CHAPTER VI

You shall have no worse prison than my chamber,
Nor jailer than myself.
--THE CAPTAIN.

The command which Lady Peveril laid on her domestics to arm themselves,
was so unlike the usual gentle acquiescence of her manners, that Major
Bridgenorth was astonished. "How mean you, madam?" said he; "I thought
myself under a friendly roof."

"And you are so, Master Bridgenorth," said the Lady Peveril, without
departing from the natural calmness of her voice and manner; "but it is
a roof which must not be violated by the outrage of one friend against
another."

"It is well, madam," said Bridgenorth, turning to the door of the
apartment. "The worthy Master Solsgrace has already foretold, that the
time was returned when high houses and proud names should be once more
an excuse for the crimes of those who inhabit the one and bear the
other. I believed him not, but now see he is wiser than I. Yet think not
I will endure this tamely. The blood of my brother--of the friend of my
bosom--shall not long call from the altar, 'How long, O Lord, how long!'
If there is one spark of justice left in this unhappy England, that
proud woman and I shall meet where she can have no partial friend to
protect her."

So saying, he was about to leave the apartment, when Lady Peveril said,
"You depart not from this place, Master Bridgenorth, unless you give me
your word to renounce all purpose against the noble Countess's liberty
upon the present occasion."

"I would sooner," answered he, "subscribe to my own dishonour, madam,
written down in express words, than to any such composition. If any
man offers to interrupt me, his blood be on