To the castle with him! To the
castle! He will lodge to-night in the deepest dungeon of yon
fortification," pointing to the Curfew Tower above them, "there to await
the king's judgment; and to-morrow night it will be well for him if he is
not swinging from the gibbet near the bridge. Bring him along."
And followed by Morgan Fenwolf and the others, with the prisoner, he
strode up the hill.
Long before this Captain Bouchier had issued from the hostel and
joined the earl, and they walked together after the crowd. In a few
minutes the Duke of Shoreditch reached Henry the Eighth's Gate, where
he shouted to a sentinel, and told him what had occurred. After some
delay a wicket in the gate was opened, and the chief persons of the
party were allowed to pass through it with the prisoner, who was
assigned to the custody of a couple of arquebusiers.
By this time an officer had arrived, and it was agreed, at the suggestion
of the Duke of Shoreditch, to take the offender to the Curfew Tower.
Accordingly they crossed the lower ward, and passing beneath an
archway near the semicircular range of habitations allotted to the petty
canons, traversed the space before the west end of Saint George's
Chapel, and descending a short flight of stone steps at the left, and
threading a narrow passage, presently arrived at the arched entrance
in the Curfew, whose hoary walls shone brightly in the moonlight.
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