Yet men have ere now been haled to prison and to the gallows for sins that have been less theirs than those who set them on." Tom's face was very grave.

He was not afraid of adventure and peril; but the thought of prison and disgrace--to say nothing of a felon's death--seemed to paralyze the beating of his heart with a numb sense of horror.

Truly, if this sort of danger dogged his steps, the sooner he was out of the country the better for himself! But he would see Rosamund once more, and spend one happy day in her company.

If he went out into the streets, it had better be after the summer dusk had fallen, when Cale took his daughter home.

He agreed, therefore, to remain within doors all that day; and he was not sorry he had done so when presently he observed two of his enemies slowly prowling past the house, scanning the windows furtively, and talking together in very earnest tones.
Could it be possible that these men had been of the company travelling with the troopers that night?
Could they have got wind in some mysterious way of what was afoot, and have followed to seek his ruin?
Tom had reason to know that these men bore him a grudge, and had threatened revenge, and that they hated Lord Claud equally with himself.