shton, "to found any legal claim on
that paper, sir, do not expect to receive any answer to an extrajudicial
question."

"Sir William Ashton," said Ravenswood, "I pray you, and all who hear
me, that you will not mistake my purpose. If this young lady, of her own
free will, desires the restoration of this contract, as her letter
would seem to imply, there is not a withered leaf which this autumn wind
strews on the heath that is more valueless in my eyes. But I must and
will hear the truth from her own mouth; without this satisfaction I will
not leave this spot. Murder me by numbers you possibly may; but I am
an armed man--I am a desperate man, and I will nto die without ample
vengeance. This is my resolution, take it as you may. I WILL hear her
determination from her own mouth; from her own mouth, alone, and without
witnesses, will I hear it. Now, choose," he said, drawing his sword with
the right hand, and, with the left, by the same motion taking a pistol
from his belt and cocking it, but turning the point of one weapon and
the muzzle of the other to the ground--"choose if you will have this
hall floated with blood, or if you will grant me the decisive interview
with my affianced bride which the laws of God and the country alike
entitle me to demand."

All recoiled at the sound of his voice and the determined action by
which it was accompanied; for the ecstasy of real desperation seldom
fails to overpower the less energetic passions by which it may be
opposed. The clergyman was the first to speak. "In the name of God," he
said, "receive an overture of peace from the meanest of His servants.
What this honourable person demands, albeit it is urged with over
violence, hath yet in it something of reason. Let him hear from Miss
Lucy's own lips that she hath dutifully acceded to the will of her
parents, and repenteth her of her covenant with him; and when he is
assured of this he will depart in peace unto his own dwelling, and
cumber us no more. Alas! the workings of the ancient Adam are strong
even in the regenerate; surely we should have long-suffering with those
who, being yet in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity, are swept
forward by the uncontrollable current of worldly passion. Let then, the
Master of Ravenswood have the interview on which he insisteth; it can
but be as a passing pang to this honourable maiden, since her faith is
now irrevocably pledged to the choice of her parents. Let it, I say, be
this: