"Acknowledge your marriage with me before this holy man," she continued:
"although he is a Christian, I have heard that he is honest--and I will
leave you for a time."
"Peace, Zillah!" interrupted Burrell; "there was no marriage. It is a
fable of your own invention--you have no proof."
"Have I not?" she replied, and, with woman's luckless imprudence, she
drew forth a small packet and held it for an instant towards him. That
instant was enough: he snatched the documents from her hand, and held
them before her with the exultation of a demon. His triumph, however,
was but short-lived, for Fleetword, who comprehended what had passed,
was sufficiently alive to its importance to seize the papers from the
Master of Burrell before he had the least idea that the preacher would
have dared such an act. Sir Willmott stood amazed at his presumption:
but instantly Fleetword drew forth the basket-hilted sword we have
before noticed, and with more real intellect, and excellent feeling,
than a cavalier would have believed he possessed, exclaimed,-"Sir Willmott Burrell! When Solomon sat in judgment in Israel, he
despised not the cause even of the worst. It hath been given me to
understand the tongues of many lands--not by the intervention of the
Holy Spirit, but by the industry and labour of my poor brain, aided, as
all just and fitting things are, by the blessing of the Lord! If what
this person says is true, it would be most unseemly for you to become
the husband of Mistress Constantia Cecil; if it is not true, why the
person must fall by its (for of a truth I cannot determine the sex)--its
own falsehood! But keep off, Master of Burrell! Jonas Fleetword can
fight for the truth by strength of hand as well as of voice; the
documents shall be heard of at the seat of judgment in our New
Jerusalem."
Sir Willmott, thus run down on all sides, had now recourse to stratagem.
After a brief pause, during which both Zillah and the preacher, as if
having come to the same determination, kept silence, he said,-"Well; perhaps it is best. Will you, Zillah, go with me to Cecil Place?"
"No!" was her reply. "I will meet you there; but I frankly tell you, I
will not trust myself in your company under any roof, unless it be with
many persons."
"Then come there at seven o' the clock this evening--and I swear----"
"I have no faith in your oaths--but I will trust to this man; and if he
assures me that the accursed marriage shall not take place until I hold
commune with the woman you would wed--safe, and undisturbed commune--I
will leave you until night."