For my own part it seemed to me that with so just a cause we
should have done best to ride boldly up to his door and summon
him to surrender the lady. But there I was wrong. For the one
thing which every Englishman fears is the law. He makes it
himself, and when he has once made it it becomes a terrible
tyrant before whom the bravest quails. He will smile at breaking
his neck, but he will turn pale at breaking the law. It seems,
then, from what Lord Rufton told me as we walked through the
park, that we were on the wrong side of the law in this matter.
Lord Dacre was in the right in carrying off his wife, since she
did indeed belong to him, and our own position now was nothing
better than that of burglars and trespassers. It was not for
burglars to openly approach the front door. We could take the
lady by force or by craft, but we could not take her by right,
for the law was against us. This was what my friend explained to
me as we crept up toward the shelter of a shrubbery which was
close to the windows of the house.
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