“You will never set out upon the expedition, lord abbot,” cried Demdike, planting his staff so suddenly into the ground before the horse’s head that the animal reared and nearly threw his rider.

“How now, fellow, what mean you?” cried the abbot, furiously.

“To warn you,” replied Demdike.

“Stand aside,” cried the abbot, spurring his steed, “or I will trample you beneath my horse’s feet.”

“I might let you ride to your own doom,” rejoined Demdike, with a scornful laugh, as he seized the abbot’s bridle.  “But you shall hear me.  I tell you, you will never go forth on this expedition.  I tell you that, ere to-morrow, Whalley Abbey will have passed for ever from your possession; and that, if you go thither again, your life will be forfeited.  Now will you listen to me?”

“I am wrong in doing so,” cried the abbot, who could not, however, repress some feelings of misgiving at this alarming address.  “Speak, what would you say?”

“Come out of earshot of the others, and I will tell you,” replied Demdike.  And he led the abbot’s horse to some distance further on the hill.

“Your cause will fail, lord abbot,” he then said.  “Nay, it is lost already.”

“Lost!” cried the abbot, out of all patience.  “Lost!  Look around.  Twenty fires are in sight—­ay, thirty, and every fire thou seest will summon a hundred men, at the least, to arms.  Before an hour, five hundred men will be gathered before the gates of Whalley Abbey.”

“True,” replied Demdike; “but they will not own the Earl of Poverty for their leader.”

“What leader will they own, then?” demanded the abbot, scornfully.

“The Earl of Derby,” replied Demdike.  “He is on his way thither with Lord Mounteagle from Preston.”

“Ha!” exclaimed Paslew, “let me go meet them, then.  But thou triflest with me, fellow.  Thou canst know nothing of this.  Whence gott’st thou thine information?”

“Heed it not,” replied the other; “thou wilt find it correct.  I tell thee, proud abbot, that this grand scheme of thine and of thy fellows, for the restitution of the Catholic Church, has failed—­utterly failed.”

“I tell thee thou liest, false knave!” cried the abbot, striking him on the hand with his scourge.  “Quit thy hold, and let me go.”

“Not till I have done,” replied Demdike, maintaining his grasp.  “Well hast thou styled thyself Earl of Poverty, for thou art poor and miserable enough.  Abbot of Whalley thou art no longer.  Thy possessions will be taken from thee, and if thou returnest thy life also will be taken.  If thou fleest, a price will be set upon thy head.  I alone can save thee, and I will do so on one condition.”

“Condition! make conditions with thee, bond-slave of Satan!” cried the abbot, gnashing his teeth.  “I reproach myself that I have listened to thee so long.  Stand aside, or I will strike thee dead.”

“You are wholly in my power,” cried Demdike with a disdainful laugh.  And as he spoke he pressed the large sharp bit against the charger’s mouth, and backed him quickly to the very edge of the hill, the sides of which here sloped precipitously down.  The abbot would have uttered a cry, but surprise and terror kept him silent.