Ravenswood, who had assumed the disguise of a
sewer upon the occasion, answered, in a stern voice, "I bide my time";
and at the same moment a bull's head, the ancient symbol of death, was
placed upon the table. The explosion of the conspiracy took place upon
the signal, and the usurper and his followers were put to death. Perhaps
there was something in this still known and often repeated story which
came immediately home to the breast and conscience of the Lord Keeper;
for, putting from him the paper on which he had begun his report, and
carefully locking the memoranda which he had prepared into a cabinet
which stood beside him, he proceeded to walk abroad, as if for
the purpose of collecting his ideas, and reflecting farther on the
consequences of the step which he was about to take, ere yet they became
inevitable.
In passing through a large Gothic ante-room, Sir William Ashton heard
the sound of his daughter's lute. Music, when the performers are
concealed, affects us with a pleasure mingled with surprise, and
reminds us of the natural concert of birds among the leafy bowers.
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