Seeing he was not to be put to the wall and spitted on the spot, the lawyer recovered himself.

“’Tis not the criminal at the bar who dictates terms, Captain Ireton,” he said, with his hateful smirk.  “You are under sentence of death, and that by a court lawful enough in war time.”

“You refuse?” I said.

He shrugged.

“Speaking for myself, I shall leave no stone unturned to bring you to book, Captain,—­when it suits my purpose.”

I was loath to go to extremities with either of them; but my bridge of glass must be defended at all hazards.

“You would best reconsider, Mr. Pengarvin.  At this present moment I am of my Lord Cornwallis’s military family and I have his confidence.  A word from me will put you both in arrest as persons whose loyalty in times past has been somewhat more than blown upon.”

“Bah!” said the pettifogger.  “Bluster is a good dog, but Holdfast is the better.  You can prove nothing, as you well know.  Moreover, with your own neck in a noose you dare not mess and meddle with other men’s affairs.”

“Dare not, you say?  I’ll tell you what I may dare, Master Attorney.  If you are not disposed to meet me half way in this matter, I shall go to my Lord, tell him how I have been cheated out of my estate, declare the marriage with Mistress Margery, and see that you get your just deserts.  And you may rest assured that this soldier-earl will right me, come what may.”

’Twas a bold stroke, the boldest of any I had made that morning; but I was wholly unprepared for its effect upon the lawyer.  His rage was like that of some venomous little animal, a thing to make an onlooker shudder and draw back.

“Never!” he hissed; “never, I say!  I’ll kill her first—­I’ll—­” He choked in the very exuberance of his malignance, and his face was like the face of a man in a fit.

’Twas then that I saw the pointing of his villainy and knew what Margery had meant when she said that for reasons of his own he was holding my betrayal in abeyance.  He was Falconnet’s successor and my rival.  This little reptile aspired to be the master of my father’s acres and the husband of my dear lady!  And his holding off from denouncing me at once was also explained.  Taking it for granted that the wife would bargain for the husband’s life, he had made a whip of his leniency to flog Margery into subjection.

My determination was taken upon the instant.  There was no safety for Margery whilst this plotting pettifogger was at large, and I stepped to the door and called the sentry.  The Darmstaedter came back and I pointed to the lawyer.  Then, indeed, the furious little madman found his tongue and shrilled out his defiance.

“Curse you!” he yelled.  “I’ll be quits with you for this, Master Spy!  ’Tis your hearing now, but mine will come, and you shall hang like a dog!  I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth—­I’ll—­”

I made a sign and the soldier brought his musket into play and pricked his prisoner with the bayonet in token that time pressed.  So we were rid of the lawyer in bodily presence, though I could hear his snarlings and spittings as the big Darmstaedter ran him out at the bayonet’s point.