"
"And who art thou that would approach my post?" said Sir
Kenneth, bending his eyes as keenly as he could on some object,
which he could just observe at the bottom of the ascent, without
being able to distinguish its form. "Beware--I am here for death
and life."
"Take up thy long-fanged Sathanas," said the voice, "or I will
conjure him with a bolt from my arblast."
At the same time was heard the sound of a spring or check, as
when a crossbow is bent.
"Unbend thy arblast, and come into the moonlight," said the Scot,
"or, by Saint Andrew, I will pin thee to the earth, be what or
whom thou wilt!"
As he spoke he poised his long lance by the middle, and, fixing
his eye upon the object, which seemed to move, he brandished the
weapon, as if meditating to cast it from his hand--a use of the
weapon sometimes, though rarely, resorted to when a missile was
necessary. But Sir Kenneth was ashamed of his purpose, and
grounded his weapon, when there stepped from the shadow into the
moonlight, like an actor entering upon the stage, a stunted,
decrepit creature, whom, by his fantastic dress and deformity, he
recognized, even at some distance, for the male of the two dwarfs
whom he had seen in the chapel at Engaddi.
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