Part 17 (1/2)
”I think I could give a guess,” muttered Nicholas. ”Better remove her to the Abbey,” he added aloud to the knight.
”You are right,” said Sir Ralph. ”Our cousin d.i.c.k is near her, I observe. He shall see her conveyed there at once.”
At this moment Lady a.s.sheton and Mrs. Nutter, with some of the other ladies, came up.
”Just in time, Nell,” cried the knight. ”Have you your smelling-bottle about you? The May Queen has fainted.”
”Indeed!” exclaimed Lady a.s.sheton, springing towards Alizon, who was now sustained by young Richard a.s.sheton; the forester having surrendered her to him. ”How has this happened?” she inquired, giving her to breathe at a small phial.
”That I cannot tell you, cousin,” replied Richard a.s.sheton, ”unless from some sudden fright.”
”That was it, Master Richard,” cried Robin Hood; ”she cried out on hearing the clas.h.i.+ng of swords just now, and, I think, p.r.o.nounced your name, on finding you engaged with Sir Thomas, and immediately after turned pale, and would have fallen if I had not caught her.”
”Ah, indeed!” exclaimed Lady a.s.sheton, glancing at Richard, whose eyes fell before her inquiring gaze. ”But see, she revives,” pursued the lady. ”Let me support her head.”
As she spoke Alizon opened her eyes, and perceiving Richard a.s.sheton, who had relinquished her to his relative, standing beside her, she exclaimed, ”Oh! you are safe! I feared”-And then she stopped, greatly embarra.s.sed.
”You feared he might be in danger from his fierce adversary,” supplied Lady a.s.sheton; ”but no. The conflict is happily over, and he is unhurt.”
”I am glad of it,” said Alizon, earnestly.
”She had better be taken to the Abbey,” remarked Sir Ralph, coming up.
”Nay, she will be more at ease at home,” observed Lady a.s.sheton with a significant look, which, however, failed in reaching her husband.
”Yes, truly shall I, gracious lady,” replied Alizon, ”far more so. I have given you trouble enough already.”
”No trouble at all,” said Sir Ralph, kindly; ”her ladys.h.i.+p is too happy to be of service in a case like this. Are you not, Nell? The faintness will pa.s.s off presently. But let her go to the Abbey at once, and remain there till the evening's festivities, in which she takes part, commence. Give her your arm, d.i.c.k.”
Sir Ralph's word was law, and therefore Lady a.s.sheton made no remonstrance. But she said quickly, ”I will take care of her myself.”
”I require no a.s.sistance, madam,” replied Alizon, ”since Sir Ralph will have me go. Nay, you are too kind, too condescending,” she added, reluctantly taking Lady a.s.sheton's proffered arm.
And in this way they proceeded slowly towards the Abbey, escorted by Richard a.s.sheton, and attended by Mistress Braddyll and some others of the ladies.
Amongst those who had watched the progress of the May Queen's restoration with most interest was Mistress Nutter, though she had not interfered; and as Alizon departed with Lady a.s.sheton, she observed to Nicholas, who was standing near,
”Can this be the daughter of Elizabeth Device, and grand-daughter of-”
”Your old Pendle witch, Mother Demdike,” supplied Nicholas; ”the very same, I a.s.sure you, Mistress Nutter.”
”She is wholly unlike the family,” observed the lady, ”and her features resemble some I have seen before.”
”She does not resemble her mother, undoubtedly,” replied Nicholas, ”though what her grand-dame may have been some sixty years ago, when she was Alizon's age, it would be difficult to say.-She is no beauty now.”
”Those finely modelled features, that graceful figure, and those delicate hands, cannot surely belong to one lowly born and bred?” said Mistress Nutter.
”They differ from the ordinary peasant mould, truly,” replied Nicholas. ”If you ask me for the lineage of a steed, I can give a guess at it on sight of the animal, but as regards our own race I'm at fault, Mistress Nutter.”
”I must question Elizabeth Device about her,” observed Alice. ”Strange, I should never have seen her before, though I know the family so well.”