His hands came in contact with a tangle of creepers, hanging
loose, from the wall. The ladder was broken!
Martin Fairley went swiftly to the terrace and on to one of the stone
bridges over the stream. Then he paused and listened.
"He will have to cry loudly to be heard to-night. Grant that he may find
no escape until morning."
Then he crossed the bridge and went swiftly through the woods.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE FLIGHT
Dorchester was in mourning. If there had been any hope that Mercy and
Justice would go hand in hand, if there were a lingering belief that
Judge Jeffreys might not be so cruel as it was said, such hopes and
beliefs were quickly dispelled the moment that court with its scarlet
hangings was opened. Even Judge Marriott shrank a little as his learned
brother bullied and laughed and swore at the prisoners, bidding them
plead guilty as their only hope of escape, and then condemning them to
the gibbet with the ferocity of a drunken fiend. Pity crept into the
hard faces of rough soldiers; the devilishness of this judge appalled
even them.
Since she had no maid to attend to her, Watson took Barbara her food;
but, although he had received no instructions to discontinue his efforts
to break her courage by detailing the horrors of the punishment which
was being administered to rebels, he spoke of them no more.
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