"I would rather you swept my head off with your long sword--it would better become my birth, than to die by the hands of such a foul churl." "Hear how he revileth," said the finisher of the law.

"Alas! how soon our best resolutions pass away!--he was in a blessed frame for departure but now, and in two minutes he has become a contemner of authorities." "Tell me at once," said the Archer, "what has this young man done." "Interfered," answered Trois Eschelles, with some earnestness, "to take down the dead body of a criminal, when the fleur de lys was marked on the tree where he was hung with my own proper hand." "How is this, young man ?" said the Archer; "how came you to have committed such an offence ?" "As I desire your protection," answered Durward, "I will tell you the truth as if I were at confession.

I saw a man struggling on the tree, and I went to cut him down out of mere humanity.

I thought neither of fleur de lys nor of clove gilliflower, and had no more idea of offending the King of France than our Father the Pope." "What a murrain had you to do with the dead body, then ?" said the Archer.

"You 'll see them hanging, in the rear of this gentleman, like grapes on every tree, and you will have enough to do in this country if you go a-gleaning after the hangman.