To avoid all further importunities, as soon as
the mittimus was made out, he girded up his loins, and strode back to
his seat of empire, accompanied by his interceding friend, Slingsby,
and followed by a detachment of the gipsy gang, who hung on his rear,
assailing him with mingled prayers and execrations.
The question now was, how to dispose of the prisoner--a matter of
great moment in this peaceful establishment, where so formidable a
character as Starlight Tom was like a hawk entrapped in a dove-cote.
As the hubbub and examination had occupied a considerable time, it was
too late in the day to send him to the county prison, and that of the
village was sadly out of repair, from long want of occupation. Old
Christy, who took great interest in the affair, proposed that the
culprit should be committed for the night to an upper loft of a kind
of tower in one of the outhouses, where he and the gamekeeper would
mount guard. After much deliberation, this measure was adopted; the
premises in question were examined and made secure, and Christy and
his trusty ally, the one armed with a fowling-piece, the other with an
ancient blunderbuss, turned out as sentries to keep watch over this
donjon-keep.
Such is the momentous affair that has just taken place, and it is an
event of too great moment in this quiet little world, not to turn it
completely topsy-turvy.
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