Part 26 (1/2)
About a mile into the forest they carove of lofty and contorted oaks Even in the narrow horizon of the falling snow, it was a spot that could not fail to be recognised; and Lawless evidently recognised it with particular delight
”Now, Master Richard,” said he, ”an y' are not too proud to be the guest of a ood Christian, I can offer you a cup of wine and a good fire to melt the marrow in your frozen bones”
”Lead on, Will,” answered dick ”A cup of wine and a good fire! Nay, I would go a far way round to see them”
Lawless turned aside under the bare branches of the grove, and, walking resolutely forward for some time, came to a steepish hollow or den, that had now drifted a quarter full of snow On the verge, a great beech-tree hung, precariously rooted; and here the old outlaw, pulling aside some bushy underwood, bodily disappeared into the earth
The beech had, in soale, been half-uprooted, and had torn up a considerable stretch of turf and it was under this that old Lawless had dug out his forest hiding-place The roots served him for rafters, the turf was his thatch; for walls and floor he had his mother the earth
Rude as it was, the hearth in one corner, blackened by fire, and the presence in another of a large oaken chest well fortified with iron, showed it at one glance to be the den of a h the snow had drifted at the mouth and sifted in upon the floor of this earth cavern, yet was the air much warmer than without; and when Lawless had struck a spark, and the dry furze bushes had begun to blaze and crackle on the hearth, the place assumed, even to the eye, an air of coreat contentment, Lawless spread his broad hands before the fire, and seemed to breathe the smoke
”Here, then,” he said, ”is this old Lawless's rabbit-hole; pray Heaven there come no terrier! Far I have rolled hither and thither, and here and about, since that I was fourteen years of e and first ran away froold chain and a land and France and Burgundy, and in Spain, too, on a pilgrie for my poor soul; and upon the sea, which is no man's country But here is my place, Master Shelton This is my native land, this burrow in the earth! Come rain or wind--and whether it's April, and the birds all sing, and the blossoms fall about ossip the fire, and robin red breast twitters in the woods--here, is my church and market, and my wife and child It's here I come back to, and it's here, so please the saints, that I would like to die”
”'Tis a warm corner, to be sure,” replied dick, ”and a pleasant, and a well hid”
”It had need to be,” returned Lawless, ”for an they found it, Master Shelton, it would break ers in the sandy floor, ”here isstingo”
Sure enough, after but a little digging, he produced a big leathern bottle of about a gallon, nearly three-parts full of a very heady and sine; and when they had drunk to each other coain, the pair lay at full length, thawing and stea, and divinely warm
”Master Shelton,” observed the outlaw, ”y' 'ave had two mischances this last while, and y' are like to lose the ht!” returned dick, nodding his head
”Well, now,” continued Lawless, ”hear an old fool that hath been nigh-hand everything, and seen nigh-hand all! Ye go too o on Ellis's; but he desireth rather the death of Sir Daniel Ye go on Lord Foxham's; well--the saints preserve hiood dick Coet you Be ready; and when the chance shall come, off with her at the saddle-bow”
”Ay, but, Lawless, beyond doubt she is now in Sir Daniel's own o we,” replied the outlaw
dick stared at him
”Nay, I mean it,” nodded Lawless ”And if y' are of so little faith, and stu a key froroping deep airdle of rope; and then a huge rosary of wood, heavy enough to be counted as a weapon
”Here,” he said, ”is for you On with them!”
And then, when dick had clothed hiuise, Lawless produced soreatest cunning, to disguise his face The eyebrows he thickened and produced; to the moustache, which was yet hardly visible, he rendered a like service; while, by a few lines around the eye, he changed the expression and increased the apparent age of this young monk
”Now,” he resumed, ”when I have done the like, we shall make as bonny a pair of friars as the eye could wish Boldly to Sir Daniel's we shall go, and there be hospitably welcome for the love of Mother Church”
”And how, dear Lawless,” cried the lad, ”shall I repay you?”