'I will know first, master,--' began the man.
'Dost not hear the bell?' cried Richard. 'How long wilt thou
endanger the castle by thy dulness?'
'I shall know first,' repeated the man deliberately, 'what that
bell--'
Ere he could finish the sentence, the butt of Richard's whip had
laid him along the threshold of the gate. Richard flung himself from
his horse, and turned the key. But his enemies were now close at
hand--Eccles and the men of his guard. If the porter had but fallen
the other way! Ere he could drag aside his senseless body and open
the gate, they were upon him with blows and curses. But the
puritan's blood was up, and with the heavy handle of his whip he had
felled one and wounded another ere he was himself stretched on the
ground with a sword-cut in the head.
CHAPTER XXX.
RICHARD AND THE MARQUIS.
A very few strokes of the brazen-tongued clamourer had been enough
to wake the whole castle. Dorothy flew back to her chamber, and
hurrying on her clothes, descended again to the court.
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