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 fire , 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 . Though the snow had drifted at the mouth and sifted in upon the floor of this earth cavern , yet was the air much warmer than without ; and when Lawless had struck a spark , and the dry furze bushes had begun to blaze and crackle on the hearth , the place assumed , even to the eye , an air of comfort and of home . With a sigh of great contentment , Lawless spread his broad hands before the fire , and seemed to breathe the smoke . `` Here , then , '' he said , `` is this old Lawless 's rabbit-hole ; pray Heaven there come no terrier ! Far I have rolled hither and thither , and here and about , since that I was fourteen years of mine age and first ran away from mine abbey , with the sacrist 's gold chain and a mass-book that I sold for four marks . I have been in England and France and Burgundy , and in Spain , too , on a pilgrimage for my poor soul ; and upon the sea , which is no man 's country . But here is my place , Master Shelton . This is my native land , this burrow in the earth !
Come rain or wind -- and whether it 's April , and the birds all sing , and the blossoms fall about my bed -- or whether it 's winter , and I sit alone with my good gossip the XXXXX , and robin red breast twitters in the woods -- here , is my church and market , and my wife and child .
Dick Richard fire first furze inundation rabbit-hole sacrist thatch years