The news, ere this, hath reached Norfolk's ear,
and the beacon-light of Pendle, the first blaze and signal of the
insurrection, denounces the Abbot of Whalley as a ringleader, and as
having first kindled the torch of rebellion."
With a malicious smile, cruel as the triumph of the fiend at the
torments of his victim, did this mysterious foe exhibit to him the toils
that had been, during his unsuspecting security, wound about him.
"Thine only hope is from his grace; go with me, and thou mayest yet
dwell in safety, and thine house be established."
Paslew saw with dismay the dark gulf which yawned on either hand, and
the net so craftily prepared to entangle him. His only hope of security,
however, was a prompt acquiescence in the plan pointed out by the
stranger, who accordingly engaged to conduct him without delay to the
appointed rendezvous.
Passing over the difficulties of the journey, the accidents by the way,
the slips and damages of sumpter-horses, and their often trackless march
over the hills, let us behold Paslew, after some narrow escapes from the
royalist forces, taking up his quarters at an obscure lodging hard by
the town of Doncaster, and nigh to the cantonments of the rebel chiefs,
whose forces were once more in formidable array, occupying a conspicuous
position on the left bank of the river Don.
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