`` Well , we are outwitted , '' Dick confessed . `` Strike we for Holywood , after all . It is still nearer us than Tunstall -- or should be by the station of the sun . '' So they wheeled to their left , turning their backs on the red shield of sun , and made across country for the abbey . But now times were changed with them ; they could no longer spank forth briskly on a path beaten firm by the passage of their foes , and for a goal to which that path itself conducted them . Now they must plough at a dull pace through the encumbering snow , continually pausing to decide their course , continually floundering in drifts . The sun soon left them ; the glow of the west decayed ; and presently they were wandering in a shadow of blackness , under frosty stars . Presently , indeed , the moon would clear the hilltops , and they might resume their march . But till then , every random step might carry them wider of their march . There was nothing for it but to camp and wait . Sentries were posted ; a spot of ground was cleared of snow , and , after some failures , a good fire blazed in the midst . The men-at-arms sat close about this forest hearth , sharing such provisions as they had , and passing about the flask ; and Dick , having collected the most delicate of the rough and scanty fare , brought it to Lord Risingham 's niece , where she sat apart from the soldiery against a tree . She sat upon one horse-cloth , wrapped in another , and stared straight before her at the firelit scene . At the offer of food she started , like one wakened from a dream , and then silently refused . `` Madam , '' said Dick , `` let me beseech you , punish me not so cruelly . Wherein I have offended you , I know not ; I have , indeed , carried you away , but with a friendly violence ; I have , indeed , exposed you to the inclemency of night , but the hurry that lies upon me hath for its end the preservation of another , who is no less frail and no less unfriended than yourself . At least , madam , punish not yourself ; and eat , if not for hunger , then for strength . '' `` I will eat nothing at the hands that slew my kinsman , '' she replied . `` Dear madam , '' Dick cried , `` I swear to you upon the rood I touched him not . '' `` Swear to me that he still lives , '' she returned .
`` I will not palter with you , '' answered XXXXX .
Dick Holywood Risingham Sentries Tunstall horse-cloth kinsman left night violence