Freedom's a good the smallest share of which
Is worth a life to win. Its feeblest smile
Will break our outer gloom, and cheer us on
To all our birthright. Liberty! its beam
Aslant and far, will lift the slave's wan brow,
And light it up, as the sun lights the dawn."
The meeting of Aylmere and Lord Say in the lonely wood was rendered in a way that formed a picture of retributive and awful sublimity. Say was the lord who long years before had caused the elder Cade to be tortured and murdered. And more recently he had ordered the burning of the widow Cade's cottage and forced her to perish in the flames. The avenger confronts this man, but is ignorant of his name and person:
"Say. Sirrah! I am a peer!
Aylmere. And so
Am I—thy peer, and any man's—ten times