But how hath this canting
hermit gotten the writing into his possession?"
"I know not, my lord, unless it be that the like arts have enabled him
to appropriate it by other means than those of honesty and good faith.
But give me a band of men, together with leave so to deal with him as I
shall see fit, and I trust ere long to render a good account of the
matter. I will come upon him unawares, ere he can render his body
inaccessible, and lay hold of the traitor."
"Traitor!" echoed a voice from behind a screen at the lower extremity of
the hall. Every eye was turned in that direction; when lo! the hermit
himself, the end and object of their deliberations, stalked forth,
unquestioned and unobstructed.
The baron rose, and his grim eyebrows were fiercely knit and contracted.
He looked inquiringly towards the dean, who, for a moment, was
confounded by this unexpected event. Yet his presence of mind and
fertility of expedient did not forsake him.
"Let him be instantly bound, my lord," whispered De Whalley, "and holden
by main force, or he will escape like a limed bird from the twigs. Let
him be led forthwith to the dungeon, where I myself will question him.
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