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his brain swam dizzily, like a man struggling in the eddies of a furious river. But the tall man who had already answered Dick, by a prodigious exercise of voice restored silence and order in the mob. "Search them," he said, "for arms. We may so judge of their intentions." Upon Dick they found no weapon but his poniard, and this told in his favour, until one man officiously drew it from its sheath, and found it still uncleansed of the blood of Rutter. At this there was a great shout among Sir Daniel's followers, which the tall man suppressed by a gesture and an imperious glance. But when it came to the turn of Lawless, there was found under his gown a sheaf of arrows identical with those that had been shot. "How say ye now?" asked the tall man, frowningly, of Dick. "Sir," replied Dick, "I am here in sanctuary, is it not so? Well, sir, I see by your bearing that ye are high in station, and I read in your countenance the marks of piety and justice. To you, then, I will yield me prisoner, and that blithely, foregoing the advantage of this holy place. But rather than to be yielded into the discretion of that man--whom I do here accuse with a loud voice to be the murderer of my natural father and the unjust retainer of my lands and revenues--rather than that, I would beseech you, under favour, with your own gentle hand, to despatch me on the spot. Your own ears have heard him, how before that I was proven guilty he did threaten me with torments. It standeth not with your own honour to deliver me to my sworn enemy and old oppressor, but to try me fairly by the way of law, and, if that I be guilty indeed, to slay me mercifully." "My lord," cried Sir Daniel, "ye will not hearken to this wolf? His bloody dagger reeks him the lie into his face." "Nay, but suffer me, good knight," returned the tall stranger; "your own vehemence doth somewhat tell against yourself." And here the bride, who had come to herself some minutes past and looked wildly on upon this scene, broke loose from those that held her, and fell upon her knees before the last speaker. "My Lord of Risingham," she cried, "hear me, in justice. I am here in this man's custody by mere force, reft from mine own people. Since that day I had never pity, countenance, nor comfort from the face of man--but from him only--Richard Shelton--whom they now accuse and labour to undo. My lord, if he was yesternight in Sir Daniel's mansion, it was I that
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