“Forbear not out of consideration to me, I prithee, good master messenger” Stelfax rejoined. “Speak out, and fear not.”
“Thus, then, spake he, captain,” Nehemiah rejoined, boldly. “He offers you friendship and aid; but if you reject them, you may count upon his enmity.”
“I laugh at his threats, good master messenger,” Stelfax rejoined. “Go tell him so, and rid me of your presence.”
“We grieve that our mission to thee has failed,” said Lawrence Greek. “Fear not our troubling thee again, for we are both about to depart, on the instant, from this village of Ovingdean. Fare thee well, captain. Peradventure, thou mayst regret thou didst not listen to the peacemakers.”
With this the two men departed; while the Ironside leader turning impatiently on his heel, strode off in a different direction across the grass-plot.
“A pertinacious and malicious knave this Mickelegift!” ejaculated Stelfax, as he continued angrily to pace the sward, “and doubtless he will do me an ill turn if he can; but I despise him. The pitiful varlet hath the presumption to aspire to the hand of the lovely Dulcia; but even if she would listen to his suit—which is most unlikely—he shall never have her. No; she shall be mine. Of that I am resolved. No damsel hath ever pleased me so much. She seems to scorn me, but I will find means to bend her stubborn spirit. Ah! I have it!” he exclaimed, his eye kindling, as a plan suddenly flashed across him. “She shall help me to discover those I seek. They are in that room, I am certain.”
No sooner was the plan formed than it was acted upon. Reentering the house, he went upstairs to the old Cavalier’s chamber, and ordered Delves to summon Colonel Maunsel, with Mr. Beard and Dulcia, to his presence.
In a few minutes the three persons thus sent for made their appearance, preceded by the sergeant, and guarded by half a dozen troopers, armed with carabines, among whom were Besadaiah, Tola, and Helpless Henly. The lynx-eyed captain of the Ironsides watched the Royalists closely on their entrance, and detected certain glances from which he drew tolerably correct inferences.
“I shall have the fugitives now,” he thought.
Clothing his countenance with its most awful frowns, Stelfax strode up to the little group, and said, in a threatening voice, “I have sent for you, Colonel Maunsel, to put an end to this business. I perceive that I have been trifled with, and am therefore resolved to pursue a different course. I ask you, for the last time, will you deliver up these fugitives to me?”
“I have but one answer to give to the question,” the old Cavalier said, “and that is a refusal.”
“And you likewise persist in refusing to disclose their hiding-place, eh, Master Beard?” pursued Stelfax.
“I do,” the clergyman answered, firmly.
“My final appeal must be made to you, damsel,” the Ironside captain went on; “and I would fain hope that you may spare me from a painful task which stern duty imposes. By enabling me to secure these fugitives—who can be nothing to you—nothing in comparison, I mean—you will save Colonel Maunsel and your father from the torture.”
“From torture!” ejaculated Dulcia, in affright.
“Heed not what this crafty and cruel man says to you, Dulcia,” cried the colonel, “and let not a word escape your lips that may imperil those whose lives hang on your firmness. He dares not put his threat in execution.”
“Dares not!” exclaimed Stelfax. “Look you, Colonel Maunsel, I have already been told in this very room that I dare not execute my threats, but the time is come when you will find out your error. My warrant is not from the Parliament, or even from the Council, but from the Lord General himself, and I am empowered by it to deal with refractory malignants as I see fit—as I see fit, colonel—there is some latitude in that phrase, methinks! If I think fit to shoot you in your own court-yard, or to hang you at your own gate, I can do it, and my warrant will bear me out.”
“I doubt not that the murderer of his most sacred Majesty will absolve his followers from any crime, however foul,” rejoined the colonel.