Page:Stories of the two drovers and Countess of Exeter.pdf/22

 He seconded the word with the action, and plunged the dagger, which he suddenly displayed, into the broad breast of the English yeoman, with such fatal certainty and force, that the hilt made a hollow sound against the breast-bone, and the double-edged point split the very heart of his victim. Henry Wakefield fell, and expired with a single groan. His assassin next seized the bailiff by the collar, and offered the bloody poinard to his throat, while dread and surprise rendered the man incapable of defence. “It were very just to lay you beside him,” he said, “but the blood of a base pick-thank shall never mix on my father’s dirk with that of a brave man.”

As He spoke, he cast the man from him with so much force that he fell on the floor, while Robin, with his other hand, threw the fatal weapon into the blazing turf-fire. “There,” he said, “take me who likes——and let fire cleanse blood if it can.”

The pause of astonishment still continuing, Robin Oig asked for a peace-officer, and a constable having stepped out, he surrendered himself to his custody. “A bloody night’s work you have made of it,” said the constable. “Your own fault,” said the Highlander. “Had you kept his hands off me twa hours since, he would have been now as well and merry as he was twa minutes since.” “It must be sorely answered,” said the peace-officer. “Never you mind that——death pays all debts; it will pay that too.”

The horror of the bystanders began now to give way to indignation; and the sight of a favourite companion murdered in the midst of them, the provocation being, in their opinion, so utterly inadequate to the excess of vengeance, might have induced them to kill the perpetrator of the deed even upon the very spot. The constable, however, did his duty on this occasion, and with the assistance of some of the more reasonable persons present, procured horses to guard the prisoner to Carlisle, to abide his doom at the next assizes. While the escort was preparing, the prisoner neither expressed the least interest, nor attempted the slightest reply.