re--it's beneath your
dignity to make so much noise. So, you will not heed me? As you will."
Saying which, he deliberately cut the bell-cord, and drew out a brace of
pistols at the same time.

"Agnes!" shrieked Lady Rookwood, now seriously alarmed.

"I must caution your ladyship to be silent," said the robber, who, as
our readers will no doubt have already conjectured, was no other than
the redoubted Jack Palmer. "Agnes is already disposed of," said he,
cocking a pistol. "However like your deceased 'lord and master' I may
appear, you will find you have got a very different spirit from that of
Sir Piers to deal with. I am naturally the politest man breathing--have
been accounted the best-bred man on the road by every lady whom I have
had the honor of addressing; and I should be sorry to sully my
well-earned reputation by anything like rudeness. I must use a little
force, of the gentlest kind. Perhaps you will permit me to hand you to a
chair. Bless me! what a wrist your ladyship has got. Excuse me if I hurt
you, but you are so devilish strong. What ho! 'Sir Piers Rookwood
calls--'"

"Ready," cried a voice.

"That's the word," rejoined another; "ready;" and immediately two men,
their features entirely hidden by a shroud of black crape, accoutred in
rough attire, and each armed with pistols, rushed into the room.

"Lend a hand," said Jack.

Even in this perilous extremity Lady Rookwood's courage did not desert
her. Anticipating their purpose, ere her assailants could reach her she
extricated herself from Palmer's grasp, and rushed upon the foremost so
unexpectedly, that, before the man could seize her, she snatched a
pistol from his hand, and presented it at the group with an aspect like
that of a tigress at bay--her eye wandering from one to the other, as if
selecting a mark.

There was a pause of a few seconds, in which the men glanced at the
lady, and then at their leader. Jack looked blank.

"Hem!" said he, coolly; "this is something new--disarmed--defied by a
petticoat. Hark ye, Rob Rust, the disgrace rests with you. Clear your
character, by securing her at once. What! afraid of a woman?"

"A woman!" repeated Rust, in a surly tone; "devilish like a woman,
indeed. Few men could do what she has done. Give the word, and I fire.
As to seizing her, that's more than I'll engage to do."

"You are a coward," cried Jack. "I will steer clear of blood--if I can
help it. Come, madam, surrender, like the more sensible