re it
from his neck, and covered it with kisses; then, her poor confused mind
clearing, she saw even by this token that her lost girl was dead, and
sank suddenly down shrieking and sobbing so over the poor hair, that the
crowd rushed on the assassin with one savage growl. His life had ended
then and speedily, for in those days all carried death at their girdles.
But Denys drew his sword directly, and shouting "A moi, camarades!" kept
the mob at bay. "Who lays a finger on him dies." Other archers backed
him, and with some difficulty they kept him uninjured, while Denys
appealed to those who shouted for his blood.

"What sort of vengeance is this? would you be so mad as rob the wheel,
and give the vermin an easy death?"

The mob was kept passive by the archers' steel rather than by Denys's
words, and growled at intervals with flashing eyes. The municipal
officers, seeing this, collected round, and with the archers made a
guard, and prudently carried the accused back to gaol.

The mob hooted them and the prisoners indiscriminately. Denys saw the
latter safely lodged, then made for "The White Hart," where he expected
to find Gerard.

On the way he saw two girls working at a first-floor window. He saluted
them. They smiled. He entered into conversation. Their manners were
easy, their complexion high.

He invited them to a repast at "The White Hart." They objected. He
acquiesced in their refusal. They consented. And in this charming
society he forgot all about poor Gerard, who meantime was carried off to
gaol; but on the way suddenly stopped, having now somewhat recovered
his presence of mind, and demanded to know by whose authority he was
arrested.

"By the vice-baillie's," said the constable.

"The vice-baillie? Alas! what have I, a stranger, done to offend a
vice-baillie? For this charge of sorcery must be a blind. No sorcerer am
I; but a poor true lad far from his home."

This vague shift disgusted the officer. "Show him the capias, Jacques,"
said he.

Jacques held out the writ in both hands about a yard and a half from
Gerard's eye; and at the same moment the large constable suddenly pinned
him; both officers were on tenterhooks lest the prisoner should grab the
document, to which they attached a superstitious importance.

But the poor prisoner had no such thought. Query whether he would have
touched it with the tongs. He just craned out his neck and read it, and
to his infinite surprise found the vice-baili