sent
discomfort to hear it. He seemed to stiffen all over with the shock of
horror, and then hung a dead weight on Stephen's arm. It would have
dragged him down, but there was no room to fall, and the wretchedness of
the lad against whom he staggered found vent in a surly imprecation,
which was lost among the cries and the entreaties of some of the others.
The London magistracy were some of them in tears, but the indictment
for high treason removed the poor lads from their jurisdiction to that
of the Earl Marshal, and thus they could do nothing to save the fourteen
foremost victims. The others were again driven out of the hall to
return to their prisons; the nearest pair of lads doing their best to
help Stephen drag his burthen along in the halt outside, to arrange the
sad processions, one of the guards, of milder mood, cut the cord that
bound the lifeless weight to Stephen, and permitted the child to be laid
on the stones of the court, his collar unbuttoned, and water to be
brought. Jasper was just reviving when the word came to march, but
still he could not stand, and Stephen was therefore permitted the free
use of his arms, in order to carry the poor little fellow. Thirteen
years made a considerable load for seventeen, though Stephen's arms were
exercised in the smithy, and it was a sore pull from the Guildhall.
Jasper presently recovered enough to walk with a good deal of support.
When he was laid on the bed he fell into an exhausted sleep, while
Stephen kneeling, as the strokes of the knell smote on his ear, prayed--
as he had never prayed before--for his comrade, for his enemy, and for
all the unhappy boys who were being led to their death wherever the
outrages had been committed.

Once indeed there was a strange sound coming across that of the knell.
It almost sounded like an acclamation of joy. Could people be so cruel,
thought Stephen, as to mock poor Giles's agonies? There were the knells
still sounding. How long he did not know, for a beneficent drowsiness
stole over him as he knelt, and he was only awakened, at the same time
as Jasper, by the opening of his door.

He looked up to see three figures--his brother, his uncle, his master.
Were they come to take leave of him? But the one conviction that their
faces beamed with joy was all that he could gather, for little Jasper
sprang up with a scream of terror, "Stephen, Stephen, save me! They
will cut out my heart," and clung trembling to his breast,