It is the pity and reproach of this poor land . '' The men upon the hillock lay , closely observing them , while they trailed upward from the beach and wound inland among desolate sand-hills ; for a mile or so they even hung upon the rear of the march , ready , at a sign , to pour another volley on the weary and dispirited fugitives ; and it was only when , striking at length upon a firm high-road , Dick began to call his men to some more martial order , that these jealous guardians of the coast of England silently disappeared among the snow . They had done what they desired ; they had protected their own homes and farms , their own families and cattle ; and their private interest being thus secured , it mattered not the weight of a straw to any one of them , although the Frenchmen should carry blood and fire to every other parish in the realm of England . BOOK IV -- THE DISGUISE CHAPTER I -- THE DEN The place where Dick had struck the line of a high-road was not far from Holywood , and within nine or ten miles of Shoreby-on-the-Till ; and here , after making sure that they were pursued no longer , the two bodies separated . Lord Foxham 's followers departed , carrying their wounded master towards the comfort and security of the great abbey ; and Dick , as he saw them wind away and disappear in the thick curtain of the falling snow , was left alone with near upon a dozen outlaws , the last remainder of his troop of volunteers . Some were wounded ; one and all were furious at their ill-success and long exposure ; and though they were now too cold and hungry to do more , they grumbled and cast sullen looks upon their leaders . Dick emptied his purse among them , leaving himself nothing ; thanked them for the courage they had displayed , though he could have found it more readily in his heart to rate them for poltroonery ; and having thus somewhat softened the effect of his prolonged misfortune , despatched them to find their way , either severally or in pairs , to Shoreby and the Goat and Bagpipes . For his own part , influenced by what he had seen on board of the Good Hope , he chose Lawless to be his companion on the walk . The snow was falling , without pause or variation , in one even , blinding cloud ; the wind had been strangled , and now blew no longer ; and the whole world was blotted out and sheeted down below that silent inundation . There was great danger of wandering by the way and perishing in drifts ; and Lawless , keeping half a step in front of his companion , and holding his head forward like a hunting dog upon the scent , inquired his way of every tree , and studied out their path as though he were conning a ship among dangers . About a mile into the forest they came to a place where several ways met , under a grove of lofty and contorted oaks . Even in the narrow horizon of the falling snow , it was a spot that could not fail to be recognised ; and Lawless evidently recognised it with particular delight . `` Now , Master Richard , '' said he , `` an y ' are not too proud to be the guest of a man who is neither a gentleman by birth nor so much as a good Christian , I can offer you a cup of wine and a good fire to melt the marrow in your frozen bones . '' `` Lead on , Will , '' answered Dick . `` A cup of wine and a good fire ! Nay , I would go a far way round to see them . '' Lawless turned aside under the bare branches of the grove , and , walking resolutely forward for some time , came to a steepish hollow or den , that had now drifted a quarter full of snow . On the verge , a great beech-tree hung , precariously rooted ; and here the old outlaw , pulling aside some bushy underwood , bodily disappeared into the earth . The beech had , in some violent gale , been half-uprooted , and had torn up a considerable stretch of turf and it was under this that old Lawless had dug out his forest hiding-place . The roots served him for rafters , the turf was his thatch ; for walls and floor he had his mother the earth .
Rude as it was , the hearth in one corner , blackened by XXXXX , and the presence in another of a large oaken chest well fortified with iron , showed it at one glance to be the den of a man , and not the burrow of a digging beast .
Dick Holywood Lawless Richard Shoreby Shoreby-on-the-Till fire hiding-place hillock left