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 fire , and robin red breast twitters in the woods -- here , is my church and market , and my wife and child . It 's here I come back to , and it 's here , so please the saints , that I would like to die . '' '' 'T is a warm corner , to be sure , '' replied Dick , `` and a pleasant , and a well hid . '' `` It had need to be , '' returned Lawless , `` for an they found it , Master Shelton , it would break my heart . But here , '' he added , burrowing with his stout fingers in the sandy floor , `` here is my wine cellar ; and ye shall have a flask of excellent strong stingo . '' Sure enough , after but a little digging , he produced a big leathern bottle of about a gallon , nearly three-parts full of a very heady and sweet wine ; and when they had drunk to each other comradely , and the fire had been replenished and blazed up again , the pair lay at full length , thawing and steaming , and divinely warm . `` Master Shelton , '' observed the outlaw , `` y ' ` ave had two mischances this last while , and y ' are like to lose the maid -- do I take it aright ? '' `` Aright ! '' returned Dick , nodding his head .
`` Well , now , '' continued XXXXX , `` hear an old fool that hath been nigh-hand everything , and seen nigh-hand all !
Dick England Lawless Shelton first furze leathern mass-book mischances stingo