CHARLES. At the same time let every man make his whistle ring through the forest, and gallop about in every direction, so that our numbers may appear the more formidable. And let all the dogs be unchained, and set on upon their ranks, that they may be broken and dispersed and run in the way of our fire. We three, Roller, Schweitzer, and myself, will fight wherever the fray is hottest. SCHWEITZER. Masterly! excellent! We will so bewilder them with balls that they shall not know whence the salutes are coming. I have more than once shot away a cherry from the mouth. Only let them come on (SCHUFTERLE is pulling SCHWEITZER; the latter takes the captain aside, and entreats him in a low voice.) CHARLES. Silence! SCHWEITZER. I entreat you-- CHARLES. Away! Let him have the benefit of his disgrace; it has saved him. He shall not die on the same field with myself, my Schweitzer, and my Roller. Let him change his apparel, and I will say he is a traveller whom I have plundered. Make yourself easy, Schweitzer. Take my word for it he will be hanged yet. Enter FATHER DOMINIC. FATHER DOM. (to himself, starts). Is this the dragon's nest? With your leave, sirs! I am a servant of the church; and yonder are seventeen hundred men who guard every hair of my head. SCHWEITZER. Bravo! bravo! Well spoken to keep his courage warm. CHARLES. Silence, comrade! Will you tell us briefly, good father, what is your errand here? FATHER Dom. I am delegated by the high justices, on whose sentence hangs life or death--ye thieves--ye incendiaries--ye villains--ye venomous generation of vipers, crawling about in the dark, and stinging in secret--ye refuse of humanity--brood of hell--food for ravens and worms--colonists for the gallows and the wheel-- SCHWEITZER. Dog! a truce with your foul tongue! or ------ (He holds the butt-end of his gun before FATHER DOMINIC'S face.) CHARLES. Fie, fie, Schweitzer! You cut the thread of his discourse. He has got his sermon so nicely by heart. Pray go on, Sir! "for the gallows and the wheel?" FATHER Dom. And thou, their precious captain!--commander-in-chief of cut-purses!--king of sharpers! Grand Mogul of all the rogues under the sun!--great prototype of that first hellish ringleader who imbued a thousand legions of innocent angels with the flame of rebellion, and drew them down with him into the bottomless pit of damnation! The agonizing cries of bereaved mothers pursue thy footsteps! Thou drinkest blood like water! and thy murderous knife holds men cheaper than air-bubbles! CHARLES. Very true--exceedingly true! Pray proceed, Sir! FATHER DOM. What do you mean? Very true--exceedingly true! Is that an answer? CHARLES. How, Sir? You were not prepared for that, it seems? Go on-- by all means go on. What more were you going to say?