ot wronged _thee_!"

"Nor I"--

"Thou hast; the inheritance is mine; thou hast robbed me of my right,
but I will regain these lands or perish on them."

"And so thou mayest, unblushing traitor."

"Traitor!--ah! this word to me?"

"Yes, to thee, Robert de Whalley!"

"Thou art in my power, old man; ere I entered thy cell I left a trusty
keeper at the door," cried the dean, with a grin of savage exultation.

"In thy power!--never, miscreant."

"Give the deed to my keeping, and no harm shall happen thee; refuse, and
thou art my prisoner. Force may accomplish my wishes without thy
compliance."

The hermit's eyes glistened like twin fires in their hollow recesses. He
stood erect, confronting his visitor, who, bold in audacity and guilt,
repeated his demand.

"Never!" said the hermit.

"Then die, fond dotard!" cried De Whalley; and, sudden as the
lightning-stroke, he drew a dagger from his vest, aiming a blow at the
hermit's bosom; but, marvellous to relate, the steel hardly penetrated
the folds of his drapery, glancing back with a dull sound, his person
remaining uninjured. A look of unutterable scorn curled the features of
the charmed, and apparently invulnerable, being before him.

"Cowardly assassin!" he cried, "I hold thy threats at less worth than a
handful of this base dust beneath my feet, and utterly defy thy power. I
am free as the untrammelled air, and thou mayest as well attempt to
grasp the shadow or the sunbeam!"

Swift as the words he uttered the hermit disappeared! The effect was so
sudden, aided, in all likelihood, by the dimness and obscurity of the
cell, that, to the astonished apprehension of De Whalley, Ulphilas had
made himself more impalpable than the air he breathed, sinking like a
shadow through the rocky floor.

"Thou hast escaped me, fiend," said the dean, gnashing his teeth with
vexation; "but I will overmatch thy spells: with the aid of this good
hand I may yet retrieve the inheritance."

Saying this, he left the cell, and returned to his home at Whalley.

Early on the morrow the hermit entered the hall where Adam de Dutton was
preparing for another expedition to the forest. The seneschal looked
uneasy and surprised, but acknowledged his presence with great respect
and humility.

"Adam de Dutton, thou hast other work to do," cried the holy man, "than
rambling after these fools i' the forest! Thy lord will be here anon."

"How! whom meanest thou?" inquired the castellan, with