elf will question him.
It is not fitting that this plotter should practise devilish devices
upon our assembly."

At a signal from their chief the soldiers surrounded him; but the
hermit, whose features were still hidden by the cowl, took hold of the
foremost, and with an incredible strength, dashed him to the ground. The
others drew back intimidated.

"Treason, my lord, treason!" cried the dean; "you behold him even in
your presence exercising forbidden arts. Away with him to the dungeon!
Guards, do your office."

"Miscreant, beware!" said the hermit. De Whalley, though bold and
generally undaunted, started back at the sound.

"What, this lawless intromission to our face, and in our council too?"
cried the baron. "Seize that hooded kite, knaves, or I will hang every
one o' ye on the Furca ere the sun be two hours older!"

Roger de Lacy, in a threatening attitude, approached the guards, who now
environed the hermit, using more caution than before. Suddenly they
rushed upon him, and he was pinioned ere he could make the least
resistance.

At this moment, so anxiously hoped for and expected by the dean, the
latter pushed towards him. Thrusting his hand into the hermit's bosom,
the long-coveted parchment was in his grasp, and in a twinkling it was
conveyed to his own.

"How now!" cried the baron, "wherefore in such haste? I trow the deed is
ours!"

With a great show of obedience and respect he drew the parchment again
from beneath his robe, and holding it cautiously beside him, exclaimed--

"My lord, ere this be read is it not prudent that we convey the traitor
to the dungeon, lest by his subtilty the writing be wrested from our
grasp?"

The hermit, yet held in close custody of the guards, cried with a loud
voice--

"Who is the traitor let the walls of my cell bear witness, when they
heard him offer a heavy bribe that this, the only evidence to the right
of the Fitz-Eustace, might be destroyed!"

"Fatherest thou the accursed progeny of thine avarice upon me?" cried
the dean, apparently indignant at so unjust an accusation.

"Give me the roll," said the constable, "and we will confront him by
what he would have withheld. After we have made our own right secure, we
adjudge him to his deserts."

The dean was obliged, however unwillingly, to obey; handing forward the
parchment, which Roger de Lacy unfolded in the presence of the hermit.
But it would be impossible to describe the consternation of the
chieftai