mounted police were fired on if they approached too near the turrets. A
plague on parliament; starvation to all imbued with the new philosophy;
and death to the younger branch of the Mauprats--such were the
watchwords of these men who, to crown all, gave themselves the airs of
knights-errant of the twelfth century. My grandfather talked of nothing
but his pedigree and the prowess of his ancestors. He regretted the good
old days when every lordling had instruments of torture in his manor,
and dungeons, and, best, of all cannon. In ours we only had pitchforks
and sticks, and a second-rate culverin which my Uncle John used to
point--and point very well, in fact--and which was sufficient to keep at
a respectful distance the military force of the district.




II

Old Mauprat was a treacherous animal of the carnivorous order, a
cross between a lynx and a fox. Along with a copious and easy flow of
language, he had a veneer of education which helped his cunning. He made
a point of excessive politeness, and had great powers of persuasion,
even with the objects of his vengeance. He knew how to entice them to
his castle, where he would make them undergo frightful ill-treatment,
for which, however, having no witnesses, they were unable to obtain
redress by law. All his villainies bore the stamp of such consummate
skill that the country came to view them with a sort of awe akin to
respect. No one could ever catch him out of his den, though he issued
forth often enough, and apparently without taking many precautions. In
truth, he was a man with a genius for evil; and his sons, bound to him
by no ties of affection, of which, indeed, they were incapable, yet