"
Their hunting knives, with which they were accustomed to "break up"
the deer, were in their girdles, and, shame to say, the other two
youths at once assented to Etienne's proposal to execute the law
themselves.
So they dragged their intended victim to a stump, and Etienne
prepared to execute the cruel operation which he had witnessed too
often not to know how to do it.
Poor Eadwin appealed in vain for mercy. They were laughing at his
fright, and indeed there was so little sympathy between Norman lord
and English thrall, that pity found no place to enter into the
relations between them: it was the old Roman and his slave over
again.
But an unexpected deliverer was at hand.
Just as the young "noble" was about to execute the threat; when the
poor wrist was already extended by force on a rude stump; when the
knife was already drawn from its sheath, Wilfred appeared on the
scene, and, in a tone the Norman lads started to hear from him,
exclaimed:
"Let him go; touch him if you dare; he is my foster brother; my
thrall, if anybody's."
"Like cleaves to like," said Etienne, sarcastically; "but, my fair
brother, thou wilt hardly interfere with the due course of the
law."
"Law! the law of butchers and worse than butchers--devils.
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