ghtening of the day and the return of his own senses at last enabled
him to recognise the object. It was a man hanging from the bough of a
tall oak. His head had fallen forward on his breast; but at every
stronger puff of wind his body span round and round, and his legs and
arms tossed, like some ridiculous plaything.

Dick clambered to his feet, and, staggering and leaning on the
tree-trunks as he went, drew near to this grim object.

The bough was perhaps twenty feet above the ground, and the poor fellow
had been drawn up so high by his executioners that his boots swung clear
above Dick's reach; and as his hood had been drawn over his face, it was
impossible to recognise the man.

Dick looked about him right and left; and at last he perceived that the
other end of the cord had been made fast to the trunk of a little
hawthorn which grew, thick with blossom, under the lofty arcade of the
oak. With his dagger, which alone remained to him of all his arms, young
Shelton severed the rope, and instantly, with a dead thump, the corpse
fell in a heap upon the ground.

Dick raised the hood; it was Throgmorton, Sir Daniel's messenger. He had
not gone far upon his errand. A paper, which had apparently escaped the
notice of the men of the Black Arrow, stuck from the bosom of his
doublet, and Dick, pulling it forth, found it was Sir Daniel's letter to
Lord Wensleydale.

"Come," thought he, "if the world changes yet again, I may have here the
wherewithal to shame Sir Daniel--nay, and perchance to bring him to the
block."

And he put the paper in his own bosom, said a prayer over the dead man,
and set forth again through the woods.

His fatigue and weakness increased; his ears sang, his steps faltered,
his mind at intervals failed him, so low had he been brought by loss of
blood. Doubtless he made many deviations from his true path, but at last
he came out upon the highroad, not very far from Tunstall hamlet.

A rough voice bid him stand.

"Stand?" repeated Dick. "By the mass, but I am nearer falling."

And he suited the action to the word, and fell all his length upon the
road.

Two men came forth out of the thicket, each in green forest jerkin, each
with long-bow and quiver and short sword.

"Why, Lawless," said the younger of the two, "it is young Shelton."

"Ay, this will be as good as bread to John Amend-All," returned the
other. "Though, faith, he hath been to the wars. Here is a tear in his
scalp that must 'a'