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This hanging of so many Doones caused some indignation among people who were used to them; and it seemed for a while to check the rest from any spirit of enterprise. And it grieved him more than anything he ever could have imagined, that his duty to his family, and the strong power of his conscience, so totally forbade him to come up and see after me.
'You are not a Doone, my Lorna, for that, at least, I can answer; though I know not what your name is. 'And my father your father what I mean is 'Your father and mine never met one another. Your father was killed by an accident in the Pyrenean mountains, and your mother by the Doones; or at least they caused her death, and carried you away from her.
'Got the worst of it! cried the boy; 'better be off all of you. Zoomerzett and Devon a vighting; and the Doones have drashed 'em both. Maister Ridd, even thee be drashed. We few, who yet remained of the force which was to have won the Doone-gate, gazed at one another, like so many fools, and nothing more.
At this my breath was quite taken away; for we think so much of our horses. By this time I could see our troopers, waiting in the shadow of the house, round the corner from where the Doones were, and expecting the order to fire. But Jeremy Stickles very wisely kept them in readiness, until the enemy should advance upon them.
When he put the case thus, I was glad enough to abide by his decision. And one thing was quite certain, that the Doones had never before received so rude a shock, and so violent a blow to their supremacy, since first they had built up their power, and become the Lords of Exmoor.
For women, as it seems to me, like strong men more than weak ones, feeling that they need some staunchness, something to hold fast by. And of all the men in our country, although we are of a thick-set breed, you scarce could find one in three-score fit to be placed among the Doones, without looking no more than a tailor.
And by this time there was no man, at least in our parish, but knew for the Parson himself had told us so that it was the devil groaning because the Doones were too many for him. Marwood de Whichehalse was not so alarmed but what he saw a fine opportunity. I hope he did not, because that to me would seem not the deed of a gentleman, and he was of good old family.
Now, whether this were an honest fight, God judge betwixt the Doones and me. It was more of woe than wonder, being such days of violence, that mother knew herself a widow, and her children fatherless. Of children there were only three, none of us fit to be useful yet, only to comfort mother, by making her to work for us.
* The cock-tailed beetle has earned this name in the West of England. 'All the Doones are gentlemen, answered the old man gravely, and looking as if he had never smiled since he was a baby.
But now, what with the fame of the Doones, and my own recollections, and Uncle Ben's insistence, all my attention was called forth, and the end was simple astonishment. The chine of highland, whereon we stood, curved to the right and left of us, keeping about the same elevation, and crowned with trees and brushwood.
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