"Once more," he cried, "all help, it must be supernatural if it still stands."
Suiting the action to the word the Earl, Musgrave, and the Captain, leant their full weight against the framework, and the Marquis throwing back his form once more struck the door with his shoulder. Before the shock of the young Titan it yielded like a thin panel before the boxer's glove, and with a terrible crash the whole fell in, tearing with it, in its descent, the iron hinges soldered into the masonry, that fell like powder; and the bolts, that drew out the framework with them as they yielded. A loud shout of joy followed this wonderful display of strength, and a louder cry still, partly of joy, partly of that wild fury with which foe meets foe, partly of that bounding thrill when we save the life of a fellow being—especially if she be fair and young, partly of that yell of vengeance when we behold the miscreant, on whom a just punishment is to fall. A wilder shout still when they saw, over the wreck of the portal, her whom they had ridden and striven so hard to save, and him they had ridden and striven so hard to be avenged on. In the silver beams of the moon stood Ellen, trembling. More in the shade still, and for a moment hardly discernible, stood Edward L'Estrange, calm, unmoved, placid, yet they who read his eye saw in him the fury of the lion, brought to bay. In his hand he held a pistol. There might be a hard struggle yet ere they held him captive.
CHAPTER XXIV.[H]
"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania."
Midsummer Night's Dream.
"My strength thou mayest indeed overcome, for God made women weak, and trusted their defence to man's generosity."—Ivanhoe.
"Ha! my fair damsel," said Captain de Vere, as he entered the room with Stacy and L'Estrange, for to them we must again return; "you see we are come to drill you in true love-making, and teach changeable girls their duty to return to their first love."
"How dare you enter a lady's room?" replied Ellen, in a haughty voice. "You, an officer in the King's army! Do you not blush to own it? You, a man, and insult an unprotected maiden!"
"Ho! that does not go down with me," said the Captain. "Hear her, Bill. Egad! one would think she was queen, and we her humble prisoners!" and he gave a brutal laugh at his jest. "You are proud, my fine girl; we will bring you down a bit; were you proud as Lucifer you should bend. I have never been bearded by man in my life, and, by G—! a girl in her teens does not do so!"
As he said these words he walked forward to where Ellen stood.