“No, I will not withdraw. I protest against thy cruel order,” Micklegift cried, resolutely. “I lift up my voice against it, and if thou harmest this good man, thou and thy men will repent it.”
“I have heard enough,” cried Stelfax, fiercely. “Thrust him from the room, and obey my order.”
“I will resist them—yea, I will resist them with force,” said Micklegift.
The troopers hesitated, not liking to lay hands upon the Independent minister.
At this moment the door opened, and Colonel Maunsel and Dulcia entered the room. The old Cavalier looked pale as death, and greatly agitated. He cast an anxious look around, as if apprehensive that his son’s retreat had been discovered. Dulcia was equally alarmed.
“My father! my father!” she shrieked, flying towards the poor clergyman.
Book V
Fox and Wolf
I
HOW CLAVERING CAME DOWN THE CHIMNEY; AND HOW MICKELGIFT LENT HIM AID FOR THE SECOND TIME
ILL news travels quickly. Colonel Maunsel was warned of the danger awaiting him, long before he reached the Grange. Some half-dozen loyal villagers mounting the down at the rear of the mansion, stationed themselves near the old barrow, and as soon as they descried the little party descending the gorse-coloured slopes of the furthest hill on the north-west, they ran to meet the colonel, and gave him the alarming intelligence that his habitation was in the hands of the Ironsides, every door guarded, and no one allowed to come forth. The faithful rustics, of course, were unable to state what had taken place inside the house, or what discoveries had been made, but enough was related to fill the colonel with deepest disquietude:—the only relief to his anxiety being afforded by the certitude which he likewise derived from his informants that Ninian had reached the Grange before the enemy.
On approaching Ovingdean, the loyal rustics took leave of the old Cavalier and Dulcia, who proceeded to the mansion. Dismounting at the porch, and giving their horses to Eustace Saxby, they both went in, no hindrance being offered by the sentinels posted at the door.
Old Martin Geere met them in the entrance-hall—his wobegone looks announcing disaster. The old serving-man, we may remark, dreading lest he should betray himself by some indiscreet observation, had quitted the colonel’s chamber before Stelfax was entrapped by the agency of Micklegift, and consequently he could give no account of that occurrence, or what had followed it; but he knew enough to heighten his master’s and Dulcia’s alarm, and fearing the worst—the worst with them being the discovery of Clavering’s hiding-place—they hurried upstairs, entering the room, as previously narrated, at the moment when. Increase Micklegift interposed to prevent Mr. Beard from undergoing the torture.
Their entrance operated as a check upon the threatened violence. At the sight of Dulcia, Stelfax, by a sudden effort, constrained his wrath; while the two troopers involuntarily drew back as the shrieking maiden rushed up to Mr. Beard, and flung her arms around his neck.
“What would these barbarous men do to you, my father?” she asked.
“They would torture him,” Micklegift replied, answering for Mr. Beard, whose agitation almost deprived him of the power of utterance.
“Torture an unoffending clergyman—an old man—impossible!” cried Dulcia, in an agonized voice. “Cruel as they are, they cannot mean it. They must have some respect for religion—some reverence for grey hairs.”
“Alas! they have none, my child,” Mr. Beard observed. “Neither my age nor my sacred calling would have protected me from outrage, but for this good man’s interposition.” And, as he spoke, he cast a grateful look at Micklegift.
“Is this so?” cried Dulcia to Stelfax. “Do you still hold to your savage purpose?”
“Nay, I meant but to work upon thy father’s fears, damsel, and so extort a confession from him,” the Ironside captain replied. “I did not design to proceed to extremities with him.”
“Heaven alone can read our secret thoughts,” observed Micklegift, in a tone of incredulity. “But thy part was so well played, that at least it imposed upon me.”
Stelfax bent his brows, but took no other notice of the observation.
Colonel Maunsel had not hitherto spoken, but had looked on in the utmost anxiety, being ignorant, of course, of his son’s evasion. He now addressed himself to Stelfax, in the hope of eliciting some information from him.