His bushy grey eyebrows threw a
strange and almost unnatural shade over the deep recesses beneath,
across which, at times, like the foam swept over the dark billows of the
spirit, a light and glowing track was visible, marking the powerful
conflict within.
"Nicholas Dewhurst and Daniel Haydock."
He shaded his eyes from the light, as he thus addressed the foremost of
the party who had just entered.
"From what quarter was the signal first visible?"
"My lord," said Dan, "we are but unworthy of your highness' grace, did
we not answer truly."
"Quick!--Thou art slower to thine answers than thy words. Why tarriest
thou?"
"If your highness will pardon"--
"What?" said Paslew, in a voice that made the culprits quake. "I pardon
nothing. What means this silence?"
"Please your reverence," said Will, now advancing from the rear, his
rhetorical flourishes somewhat curtailed, and his confidence thereby
wonderfully abated, "the first signal was our own, lighted by an
incendiary, to wit, and here we bring him to your highness' reverence
for judgment. We ordered the rope and the broad beam to be ready by
daybreak.
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