her, was dragged recklessly back into the wood by the strong arms of her companion.
"Cry away—Goggle now—Goggle now—Goggle now—scream on, you poor fool—scream, but there's no help for you."
And as the old beldam thus answered to the prayers of the girl, she was stricken aside and hurled like a stone into the bush, even while the fiendish soliloquy was upon her lips, by the raging brother who now darted forward. In another instant, and he had dashed the ravisher to the earth—torn his sister, now almost exhausted, from his grasp—and with his knee upon the breast of Hastings, and his knife bared in his hands, that moment would have been the last of life to the ruffian, but for the intervention of the two troopers, who, hearing the shriek, had also rushed forward from the recesses in the wood where the providence of Humphries had placed them. They prevented the blow, but with their aid the sergeant was gagged, bound, and dragged down into the copse where the horses awaited them.
"Oh, brother—dear brother William!" cried the terrified girl—"believe me, brother William, but it's not my fault—I didn't mean to do wrong! I am innocent—that I am!"
She hung upon him as if she feared his suspicions. He pressed her to his arms, while weeping like a very child over her.
"I know it—I know it, Bella! and God knows how glad I am to know it! Had I not heard all between you, and that old hag of hell, I'd ha' put this knife into you, just the same as if you were not my own flesh and blood. But go now—run to church, and pray to have some sense as well as innocence; for innocence without sense is like a creeping baby that has not yet got the use of its arms and legs. Go now—run all the way—and mind that you say nothing to the old man about it."
Throwing her arms about his neck and kissing him, she hurried upon her way with the speed of a bird just escaping, and narrowly, from the net of the fowler.
