ls overhead continued for some seconds to clang upon
the air, some wind of the disaster seemed to find its way at last even
to the chamber where the ringers were leaping on their ropes, and they
also desisted from their merry labours.

Right in the midst of the nave the bridegroom lay stone-dead, pierced by
two black arrows. The bride had fainted. Sir Daniel stood, towering
above the crowd in his surprise and anger, a cloth-yard shaft quivering
in his left forearm, and his face streaming blood from another which had
grazed his brow.

Long before any search could be made for them, the authors of this
tragic interruption had clattered down a turn-pike stair and decamped by
a postern door.

But Dick and Lawless still remained in pawn; they had, indeed, arisen on
the first alarm, and pushed manfully to gain the door; but what with the
narrowness of the stalls and the crowding of terrified priests and
choristers, the attempt had been in vain, and they had stoically resumed
their places.

And now, pale with horror, Sir Oliver rose to his feet and called upon
Sir Daniel, pointing with one hand to Dick.

"Here," he cried, "is Richard Shelton--alas the hour!--blood guilty!
Seize him!--bid him be seized! For all our lives' sakes, take him and
bind him surely! He hath sworn our fall."

Sir Daniel was blinded by anger--blinded by the hot blood that still
streamed across his face.

[Illustration: _First came the bride, a sorry sight, as pale as the
winter, clinging to Sir Daniel's arm_]

"Where?" he bellowed. "Hale him forth! By the cross of Holywood, but he
shall rue this hour!"

The crowd fell back, and a party of archers invaded the choir, laid
rough hands on Dick, dragged him head-foremost from the stall, and
thrust him by the shoulders down the chancel steps. Lawless, on his
part, sat as still as a mouse.

Sir Daniel, brushing the blood out of his eyes, stared blinkingly upon
his captive.

"Ay," he said, "treacherous and insolent, I have thee fast; and by all
potent oaths, for every drop of blood that now trickles in mine eyes, I
will wring a groan out of thy carcase. Away with him!" he added. "Here
is no place! Off with him to my house. I will number every joint of thy
body with a torture."

But Dick, putting off his captors, uplifted his voice.

"Sanctuary!" he shouted. "Sanctuary! Ho, there, my fathers! They would
drag me from the church!"

"From the church thou hast defiled with murder, boy," added a tall