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.

"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 man,
magnificently dressed.

"On what probation?" cried Dick. "They do accuse me, indeed, of some
complicity, but have not proved one tittle. I was, in truth, a suitor
for this damsel's hand; and she, I will be bold to say it, repaid my suit
with favour. But what then? To love a maid is no offence, I trow--nay,
nor to gain her love. In all else, I stand here free from guiltiness."

There was a murmur of approval among the bystanders, so boldly Dick
declared his innocence; but at the same time a throng of accusers arose
upon the other side, crying how he had been found last night in Sir
Daniel's house, how he wore a sacrilegious disguise; and in the midst of
the babel, Sir Oliver indicated Lawless, both by voice and gesture, as
accomplice to the fact. He, in his turn, was dragged from his seat and
set beside his leader. The feelings of the crowd rose high on either
side, and while some dragged the prisoners to and fro to favour their
escape, others cursed and struck them with their fists. Dick's ears rang
and