Before they shall have either gathered their discomfited wits or raised their prostrate bones, my father will be out upon them, nor shall they find shelter for their shame ere every soul in the castle has witnessed their disgrace.' 'I had thought of the plan, my lord; but I dreaded the punishment might be too severe, not knowing what the water might do upon them.' 'There will be no danger to life, and little to limb,' said his lordship.

'The torrent will cease flowing the moment they are swept from the bridge.

But they shall be both bruised and shamed; and,' added his lordship, with an oath such as seldom crossed his lips, 'in such times as these, they will well deserve what shall befall them.

Intruding hounds!--But you must take heed, cousin Dorothy, that you forget not that you have yourself done.

Should you have occasion to go on the bridge after setting your vermin-trap, you must not omit to place your feet precisely where Caspar will show you, else you will have to ride a watery horse half-way, mayhap to the marble one--except indeed he throw you from his back against the chapel-door.' When her husband talked in long sentences, as he was not unfrequently given to do, lady Margaret, even when their sequences were not very clear, seldom interrupted him: she had learned that she gained more by letting him talk on; for however circuitous the route he might take, he never forgot where he was going.