For that offense she has been condemned to die." Here he was interrupted by a cry of rage which broke from the assembled foresters.

Continuing unmoved, he said: "Sir Rudolph, being unwilling to take the life of a woman, however justly forfeited by the law, commands me to say that if you will deliver yourself up to him by to-morrow at twelve the Dame Editha shall be allowed to go free.

But that if by the time the dial points to noon you have not delivered yourself up, he will hang her over the battlements of the castle." Cuthbert was very pale, and he waved his hand to restrain the fury which animated the outlaws.
"This man," he said to them, "is a herald, and, as such, is protected by all the laws of chivalry.

Whatsoever his message, it is none of his.

He is merely the mouthpiece of him who sent him." Then, turning to the herald, he said, "Tell the false knight, your master, on my part, that he is a foul ruffian, perjured to all the vows of knighthood; that this act of visiting upon a woman the enmity he bears her son will bring upon him the execration of all men; and that the offer which he makes me is as foul and villainous as himself.