were
called on to aid and comfort him in the due exercise of his mission, to
furnish him with a safe passage, and to obey his bidding without let or
question.

"Herein fail not at your peril!" said Ralph, eyeing the abbot with a
glance of cool and deliberate scorn.

"Why was not this protection from his grace given to me before?"
inquired Paslew, beseechingly.

"That thy deceit and double-dealing-might be the more manifest.
Yesternight thou didst refuse thine aid until the beacon of insurrection
should be kindled. When kindled, and upon thine own ground, too, still
thou holdest back! But think not to escape!--Think not to watch in
safety whilst others work. Whoever wins in this perilous game, thou wilt
lose. Marked out for destruction, thine own policy will betray thee.
Choose thee one party, and thou hast yet one chance of safety. But
double-dealers, such as thou, do ever tumble into the trap baited by
their own cunning."

"Will his Grace of York expect my presence at the camp?"

"It is needful thou make thy peace either with him or with the king,"
said Ralph: "yet am I bold to tell thee, that with Harry thine hope of
reconciliation is past. The news, ere this, hath reached Norfolk's ear,
and the beacon-light of Pendle, the first blaze and signal of the
insurrection, denounces the Abbot of Whalley as a ringleader, and as
having first kindled the torch of rebellion."

With a malicious smile, cruel as the triumph of the fiend at the
torments of his victim, did this mysterious foe exhibit to him the toils
that had been, during his unsuspecting security, wound about him.

"Thine only hope is from his grace; go with me, and thou mayest yet
dwell in safety, and thine house be established."

Paslew saw with dismay the dark gulf which yawned on either hand, and
the net so craftily prepared to entangle him. His only hope of security,
however, was a prompt acquiescence in the plan pointed out by the
stranger, who accordingly engaged to conduct him without delay to the
appointed rendezvous.

Passing over the difficulties of the journey, the accidents by the way,
the slips and damages of sumpter-horses, and their often trackless march
over the hills, let us behold Paslew, after some narrow escapes from the
royalist forces, taking up his quarters at an obscure lodging hard by
the town of Doncaster, and nigh to the cantonments of the rebel chiefs,
whose forces were once more in formidable array, occupying a conspicuous