The hangman has a rope for such as you.' 'Then you must drag me thither,' he groaned, and shut his eyes as though with faintness, and doubtless he was somewhat faint.
Now as I pondered on what should be done with the villain, it chanced that I looked up through a gap in the fence, and there, among the Grubswell Oaks three hundred yards or more away, I caught sight of the flutter of a white robe that I knew well, and it seemed to me that the wearer of that robe was moving towards the bridge of the 'watering' as though she were weary of waiting for one who did not come.
Then I thought to myself that if I stayed to drag this man to the village stocks or some other safe place, there would be an end of meeting with my love that day, and I did not know when I might find another chance.

Now I would not have missed that hour's talk with Lily to bring a score of murderous-minded foreigners to their deserts, and, moreover, this one had earned good payment for his behaviour.

Surely thought I, he might wait a while till I had done my love-making, and if he would not wait I could find a means to make him do so.

Not twenty paces from us the horse stood cropping the grass.

I went to him and undid his bridle rein, and with it fastened the Spaniard to a small wayside tree as best I was able.
'Now, here you stay,' I said, 'till I am ready to fetch you;' and I turned to go.
But as I went a great doubt took me, and once more I remembered my mother's fear, and how my father had ridden in haste to Yarmouth on business about a Spaniard.