"To dig up the old witch out of the grave!" inquired the foreman with a stare of astonishment. "To unearth a dead body! By the green wax! man, your long fast has touched your brain!"The young man turned from him, half-dazed. Dying! Naomi! A sudden wild pang smote through his heart for the mother of his children."Robin Wells!" repeated Holgrave, with a long inquiring look. "Noyou are safe! I hardly think the foul fiend himself would detect you. Now I call you to mindyour eyes and mouth are little Robin'sbut the brown skin and the black hair"
ONE:"And is this thy counsel, father John?" said Tyler, reproachfully: "but, by St. Nicholas! this robber of the high altar shall not depart scatheless. Kentish men!my horse, my horse!" and he stamped his armed heels upon the pavement.
THREE:"It can't be done," said the young man in the open-work socks"it can't be done. And why should we want to do it?is not Nature the Mother and Nurse of[Pg 459] us all?and is it not best for us simply to lie on her bosom and trust her for our welfare?"
THREE:"You're frighted."Tilly was more frightened than ever. She had never heard anything about the great Gate controversy, and could not understand why Reuben was so angry with Albert. The verses seemed to her quite harmless, they[Pg 187] were not even about love. However, she could not disobey her father, so she ran and fetched Albert out of the corn-chamber, begging him to be careful what he said, "fur f?ather's unaccountable vrothered to-night about something."
The hostile party reached the cottage, and the latch was quickly raised; but, finding it resist their attempts, the voice of Calverley, in an authoritative tone, pronounced"I suppose they didn't care for farming?"Two sons were gone now. Life was hitting him hard. But he would have no traitors in his camp. Albert was his son no longer.
