Baithene was silent a few minutes, and then he said in a low, deep voice, taking his sister’s hands in his own—
“If ever we are lifted back to our place among the few, little sister, God grant we may never lose the lessons learnt by living down among the many!”
CHAPTER XV.
RANSOMS AND CAPTIVITIES.
One winter morning, not long after the Epiphany, when Damaris and Ethne were sitting together quietly reading in a room opening on the long pillared corridor, they were surprised by the angry barking of a dog, followed by cries of pain from a human voice. In a moment Ethne was away.
“It is Bran!” she said; “he is killing something, or some one is killing him; perhaps both.”