"I tell you, father John," interrupted Isabella, "that even at this moment a leader of the rebels is before the counciland ere to-morrow's sun shall set, the turbulent villeins will be either hanged or driven backand you will be beheaded!"
"What ails you, Stephen," asked Margaret, alarmed at the strange paleness of the yeoman's countenance, and the agitation of his manner as he entered the cottage on the afternoon the child died. But Holgrave, without replying to her interrogatory, hastily closed and bolted the door. He then drew the large oak table from the side of the wall, and placed it as a barricade before it. "Stephen, what means this bolting and barring?" inquired Edith, as she saw with surprise his defensive preparations. "What fear you, my son?"
