"
"Away with him!" cried the priest, who seemed nothing loath to begin his
torments. "Thou shalt to my Lord Derby, and he will know how to deal
with such a bitter and foul-mouthed heretic."
All was uproar and confusion. The Justice was even moved from his chair,
and swore out lustily that by ten o'clock the day following, unless this
blasphemer were delivered at Lathom, he would imprison the whole family
of them: such a pestilent fellow being fit, as he said, to infect all
the parish with the plague of heresy.
Roger Wrinstone and his crew were preparing to drag him down-stairs; but
the Justice, hobbling on his crutch, preceded them, leaning on the arm
of his priest. The party, on their entrance into the hall, found
Marsh's two kinsmen awaiting the event. They soon found that no favour
was intended.
"See to it, knaves," bellowed the knight, "that this fellow is delivered
up to my lord at Lathom by to-morrow, or your own carcases shall answer
for his."
Then did these poor men pray and beseech their kinsman that he would in
some wise conform to the religion of his superiors, or find some way of
escape from a cruel and ignominious death.
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