his own head!" As Major
Bridgenorth spoke, Whitaker threw open the door, and showed that, with
the alertness of an old soldier, who was not displeased to see things
tend once more towards a state of warfare, he had got with him four
stout fellows in the Knight of the Peak's livery, well armed with swords
and carabines, buff-coats, and pistols at their girdles.

"I will see," said Major Bridgenorth, "if any of these men be so
desperate as to stop me, a freeborn Englishman, and a magistrate in the
discharge of my duty."

So saying, he advanced upon Whitaker and his armed assistants, with his
hand on the hilt of his sword.

"Do not be so desperate, Master Bridgenorth," exclaimed Lady Peveril;
and added, in the same moment, "Lay hold upon, and disarm him, Whitaker;
but do him no injury."

Her commands were obeyed. Bridgenorth, though a man of moral resolution,
was not one of those who undertook to cope in person with odds of a
description so formidable. He half drew his sword, and offered such show
of resistance as made it necessary to secure him by actual force; but
then yielded up his weapon, and declared that, submitting to force
which one man was unable to resist, he made those who commanded, and
who employed it, responsible for assailing his liberty without a legal
warrant.

"Never mind a warrant on a pinch, Master Bridgenorth," said old
Whitaker; "sure enough you have often acted upon a worse yourself. My
lady's word is as good as a warrant, sure, as Old Noll's commission; and
you bore that many a day, Master Bridgenorth, and, moreover, you laid
me in the stocks for drinking the King's health, Master Bridgenorth, and
never cared a farthing about the laws of England."

"Hold your saucy tongue, Whitaker," said the Lady Peveril; "and do you,
Master Bridgenorth, not take it to heart that you are detained prisoner
for a few hours, until the Countess of Derby can have nothing to fear
from your pursuit. I could easily send an escort with her that might
bid defiance to any force you could muster; but I wish, Heaven knows, to
bury the remembrance of old civil dissensions, not to awaken new. Once
more, will you think better of it--assume your sword again, and forget
whom you have now seen at Martindale Castle?"

"Never," said Bridgenorth. "The crime of this cruel woman will be the
last of human injuries which I can forget. The last thought of earthly
kind which will leave me, will be the desire that justice shall be don