Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

364 'THE WHITE DOE OF RYLSTONE: [xiI.
led in chains to York, and were condemned to die.
Francis had followed them, got access to their prison,
and received the last commands of his father with his
blessing.
The banner was, by the cruel order of Sussex, to be
carried before them in mockery to the place of execu-
tion. But Francis, claiming it as his own by right,
takes it from the hands of the soldier to whom it was
entrusted, and bears it off through the unresisting crowd.
Richard Norton and his eight sons go forth, and calmly
and reverently meet their doom.
Emily returns to Rylstone Hall to await the coming
of her now only brother. But he comes not. As he
was leaving York, there fell on his ear the sound of
the minster bell, tolling the knell of his father and his
brothers. Bearing the banner, though not without mis-
givings as to his own consistency in doing so, he held
west over the great plain of York, up Wharfdale, and on
the second day reaches a summit whence he can descry
the far-off towers of Bolton. On that spot he is over-
taken by a band of horsemen sent by Sussex, under
command of Sir George Bowes, is accused of being a
coward and traitor, who had held aloof from the rising,
only to save his father's land, and is overpowered and
slain. Two days his body lay unheeded ; on the third
it was found in that lonely place by one of the Norton
tenantry, who, along with other yeomen, bears it to
Bolton Priory, and there, with the aid of the priest,