"Ho! ho! ho!" laughed a voice behind them; "Master Tom the
greengoose has found fine company!"
"A fine comrade, truly, will he find he has got! What becomes of
all the strapping young fellows whom my Lord Claud takes pains to
notice and befriend?"
"They are like the butterflies--flutter for a season and are no
more seen after!"
"Or like the buzzing fly who is lured within the spider's web! 'Tis
easy fluttering in, but there is no getting out!"
"Ay, ay, the gallows noose must feel mightily like the strand of
the spider's web to the silly fly. And as the spider pounces upon
his victim ere it be dead, and sucks away its life blood, so does
the hangman cut down his victim alive and cut out his living heart!
Oh, 'tis a fine sight! a fine sight! Young Tom must e'en go and see
the next execution at Tyburn!"
These words were spoken with caution, and yet every one of them
fell full upon Tom's ears. These ears, be it noted, were very keen
ones, as is often the case with those who have tracked game and
hunted the fallow deer in the free forest. Moreover, Tom had not
yet grown callous to the sounds of talk and laughter in the
streets. He must needs listen to all he heard, and these phrases
were plainly meant to meet his ear.
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