Chapter

I. The City of Wythburn

II.  The Crime in the Night

III.  In the Red Lion

IV.  The Outcast

V. The Empty Saddle

VI.  The House on the Moss

VII.  Sim’s Cave

VIII.  Robbie’s Redemption

IX.  The Shadow of the Crime

X. Mattha Branth’et “Flytes” the Parson

XI.  Liza’s Wiles

XII.  The Flight on the Fells

XIII.  A ’Batable Point

XIV.  Until the Day Break

XV.  Ralph’s Sacrifice

XVI.  At Sunrise on the Raise

XVII.  The Garths:  Mother and Son

XVIII.  The Dawn of Love

XIX.  The Betrothal

XX.  “Fool, of Thyself Speak Well”

XXI.  Mrs. Garth at Shoulthwaite

XXII.  The Threatened Outlawry

XXIII.  She Never Told Her Love

XXIV.  Treason or Murder

XXV.  Liza’s Device

XXVI.  “Fool, Do Not Flatter”

XXVII.  Ralph at Lancaster

XXVIII.  After Word Comes Weird

XXIX.  Robbie’s Quest Begun

XXX.  A Race Against Life

XXXI.  Robbie, Speed On!

XXXII.  What the Snow Gave Up

XXXIII.  Sepulture at Last

XXXIV.  Fate that Impedes, Fall Back

XXXV.  Robbie’s Quest Ended

XXXVI.  Rotha’s Confession

XXXVII.  Which Indictment?

XXXVIII.  Peine Forte et Dure

XXXIX.  The Fiery Hand

XL.  Garth and the Quakers

XLI.  A Horse’s Neigh

XLII.  The Fatal Witness

XLIII.  Love Known at Last

XLIV.  The Clew Discovered

XLV.  The Condemned in Doomsdale

XLVI.  The Skein Unravelled

XLVII.  The Black Camel at the Gate

XLVIII.  “Out, Out, Brief Candle”

XLIX.  Peace, Peace, and Rest

L. Next Morning

LI.  Six Months After

PREFACE.

The central incident of this novel is that most extraordinary of all punishments known to English criminal law, the peine forte et dure.  The story is not, however, in any sense historical.  A sketchy background of stirring history is introduced solely in order to heighten the personal danger of a brave man.  The interest is domestic, and, perhaps, in some degree psychological.  Around a pathetic piece of old jurisprudence I have gathered a mass of Cumbrian folk-lore and folk-talk with which I have been familiar from earliest youth.  To smelt and mould the chaotic memories into an organism such as may serve, among other uses, to give a view of Cumberland life in little, has been the work of one year.

The story, which is now first presented as a whole, has already had a career in the newspapers, and the interest it excited in those quarters has come upon me as a surprise.  I was hardly prepared to find that my plain russet-coated dalesmen were in touch with popular sympathy; but they have made me many friends.  To me they are very dear, for I have lived their life.  It is with no affected regret that I am now parting with these companions to make way for a group of younger comrades.