And the result?
Would the law punish the Edens for the deed?
He felt that they would go free.

They were to a pretty good extent outlaws, and the deed would never be known beyond their district.

The moors and mountains shut them in.

But Sir Morton, Ralph felt, would never sit down quietly.

He would for certain attack and try to punish the Edens, and the feud would grow more deadly than ever.
Thoughts like these ran through his brain as he lay there, till the silence was broken by Mark Eden, whose face plainly told of the supreme pleasure he felt in seeing his young enemy humbled thus before him.
"Well," he said at last, "are you not going to beg to be set at liberty ?" Ralph looked at him defiantly.
"No," he said.
"Want to be taken up to the Tor, and hung from the tower as a scarecrow to keep away all the other thieves ?" "What is it to you ?" replied Ralph bitterly.
"You came and took our trout," said Mark, with a sneer; and he raised his foot as if tempted to plant it upon the prisoner's chest.
"Yes, I came and caught some trout: but I looked upon the river as free to me, as you thought our cliff was free to you." "Hah!" cried Mark triumphantly; "I knew you would begin to beg for your life." "I have not begged," said Ralph coldly.