said Dick.

"How! May not?" asked the knight.

"Look ye, Sir Daniel, this is my marriage morn," said Dick; "and yon sun
that is to rise will make the brightest day that ever shone for me. Your
life is forfeit--doubly forfeit, for my father's death and your own
practices to meward. But I myself have done amiss; I have brought about
men's deaths; and upon this glad day I will be neither judge nor hangman.
An ye were the devil, I would not lay a hand on you. An ye were the
devil, ye might go where ye will for me. Seek God's forgiveness; mine ye
have freely. But to go on to Holywood is different. I carry arms for
York, and I will suffer no spy within their lines. Hold it, then, for
certain, if ye set one foot before another, I will uplift my voice and
call the nearest post to seize you."

"Ye mock me," said Sir Daniel. "I have no safety out of Holywood."

"I care no more," returned Richard. "I let you go east, west, or south;
north I will not. Holywood is shut against you. Go, and seek not to
return. For, once ye are gone, I will warn every post about this army,
and there will be so shrewd a watch upon all pilgrims that, once again,
were ye the very devil, ye would find it ruin to make the essay."

"Ye doom me," said Sir Daniel, gloomily.

"I doom you not," returned Richard. "If it so please you to set your
valour against mine, come on; and though I fear it be disloyal to my
party, I will take the challenge openly and fully, fight you with mine
own single strength, and call for none to help me. So shall I avenge my
father, with a perfect conscience."

"Ay," said Sir Daniel, "y' have a long sword against my dagger."

"I rely upon Heaven only," answered Dick, casting his sword some way
behind him on the snow. "Now, if your ill-fate bids you, come; and,
under the pleasure of the Almighty, I make myself bold to feed your bones
to foxes."

"I did but try you, Dickon," returned the knight, with an uneasy
semblance of a laugh. "I would not spill your blood."

"Go, then, ere it be too late," replied Shelton. "In five minutes I will
call the post. I do perceive that I am too long-suffering. Had but our
places been reversed, I should have been bound hand and foot some minutes
past."

"Well, Dickon, I will go," replied Sir Daniel. "When we next meet, it
shall repent you that ye were so harsh."

And with these words, the knight turned and began to move off under the
trees. Dick watched him with stra