"Nay," said the old woman, shrinking back, "they bear no grudge to me;
I am too old to do aught but burthen ye. I will stay, and perchance
save the house and the chattels, and poor master's deft contrivance.
Whist! thou knowest his heart would break if none were by to guard
it."

With that the faithful servant thrust the broad pieces that yet
remained of the king's gift into the gipsire Sibyll wore at her
girdle, and then closed and rebarred the door before they could detain
her.

"It is base to leave her," said the scholar-gentleman.

The noble Sibyll could not refute her father. Afar they heard the
tramping of feet; suddenly, a dark red light shot up into the blue
air, a light from the flame of many torches.

"The wizard, the wizard! Death to the wizard, who would starve the
poor!" yelled forth, and was echoed by a stern hurrah.

Adam stood motionless, Sibyll by his side.

"The wizard and his daughter!" shrieked a sharp single voice, the
voice of Graul the tymbestere.

Adam turned. "Fly, my child,--they now threaten thee. Come, come,
come!" and, taking her by the hand, he hurried her across the fields,
skirting the hedge, their shadows dodging, irregular and quaint, on
the starlit sward. The father had lost all thought, all care but for