"We need not trouble to take him to the castle; off with his hand, and let him go."
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. Let him go."
"Hadst thou not better try to rescue him? Thou hast not yet found an opportunity to show thy prowess."