Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 095.djvu/264

 Rh The king started; he checked his horse, and gazed at Drost Peder with an inquiring look, which betrayed much of secret suspicion; then his eyelids began to wink violently.

Another influential nobleman tries to dissuade the king from carrying out his wishes with such unseemly haste, and to let the law take its usual course—but in vain.

The warder now entered the knights' hall with a guard of armed men, between two rows of whom walked Niels Ufred and his comrades; they entered boldly, while Sir Lavè Rimaardson hung back, as if ashamed of his companionship with them.

The king opened his eyes wide, and cast an uneasy look towards Kammersvend Ranè, who gave him a furtive glance in return, and pointed to the hilt of a poniard which peeped forth from a pocket in the breast of the rover’s dress.

"So,” said the king, turning again towards the freebooter, "you would work on my fears, or my curiosity, fellow, that you may escape—break out, perhaps, and commit fresh outrages; but I am too old a bird to be caught by chaff. If you have no better plea to urge, you shall not live beyond this hour."

"So be it; I shall but go before you. … Since you will have me to be