The two old women were drowned now--their murderers thirsted for more blood, and Sir Claudius, smarting from the treatment he had received from the hands of my good Joseph, yearned above all things for revenge. 'Eh, lads! What shall we do to my lady?' he asked mockingly, pointing to me. 'Drown her also,' suggested one, with a hoarse laugh. 'Strangle her,' cried another. 'Carry her away to some remote country place, and then get money from her friends before we will tell them where she is,' said a third. Cries of approval and many alternative suggestions arose from the mob. Looking from one to the other, I could see no pity, no relenting anywhere, least of all in Sir Claudius. I spoke to him. 'I am a lady,' I said; 'where is your chivalry?' The man had not any, but I thought it as well to cry out for what ought to have been there. 'You tried to save those witches,' he began. 'And you will try to save me, will you not?' I asked, looking at him, with the vain hope that I should see something which was not there. 'That I will not!' cried the churl. 'Shall we drown her, Sir Claudius? Shall we drown her, too?' demanded many voices. 'Help! Help for a lady! Help for Mistress Brown!' shouted the lacquey Joseph with his loud, stentorian voice. The honest fellow had been bound hand and foot; he had nothing left but his voice with which to serve me, and the next moment it was silenced with a blow and a gag; but it had done good work. Noiselessly over a soft fallow field a little group of horsemen had approached, and at the sound of that loud, manly cry of my poor Joseph's they charged into the mob, calling out lustily:-- 'Disperse, in the King's name! In the King's name I say disperse!' Bullies are cowards all the world over. The men who had drowned old women and were threatening a defenceless girl with a like fate, took to their heels with one accord, knocking down each other and falling over each other in their flight, whilst, alarmed and struck, first on this side and then on that, my horses set off galloping, and dashed, with the litter, amongst the crowd, treading down some and crushing others. The damage they did was appalling. Curses, shouts, groans and screams filled the air on every side. In a few moments none of the roughs remained near me, and I was enabled to look up at my deliverer. He was a handsome knight of medium size and frank, soldier-like deportment and bearing; as I found afterwards, he was scarcely twenty-six, yet he looked much older, having seen service in the profession of arms from his boyhood. He was dressed in crimson velvet, very worn and travel-stained. Indeed, both he and his horse bore traces of a rapid journey across country, as did also his followers and their horses. 'How shall I thank you?' I said gratefully. 'Sir, you have saved my life.' 'I thank God that I came in time,' he said. 'I fear those rascals have terrified you much.'