Part 14 (1/2)
”Nay, ye knoell,” returned dick ”Seek not to put me by”
”I tell you I know not,” repeated Carter
”Then,” said dick, ”ye shall die unshriven Here am I, and here shall stay There shall no priest come near you, rest assured For of what avail is penitence, an ye have no s ye had a hand in? and without penitence, confession is but mockery”
”Ye say what ye mean not, Master dick,” said Carter, co, and becometh you (to speak truth) little And for as little as it commends you, it shall serve you less Stay, an ye please Ye will conde! There is my last word to you” And the wounded man turned upon the other side
Now, dick, to say truth, had spoken hastily, and was ashamed of his threat But he made one more effort
”Carter,” he said, ”mistake me not I knoere but an instrument in the hands of others; a churl must obey his lord; I would not bear heavily on such an one But I begin to learn upon norance, to avenge ood Carter, set aside the oodwill and honest penitence give me a word of help”
The wounded man lay silent; nor, say what dick pleased, could he extract another word froo call the priest to you as ye desired; for howsoever ye be in fault to ly in fault to any, least of all to one upon the last change”
Again the old soldier heard hiroans he had suppressed; and as dick turned and left the rooed fortitude
”And yet,” he thought, ”of what use is courage without wit? Had his hands been clean, he would have spoken; his silence did confess the secret louder than words Nay, upon all sides, proof floweth on ”
dick paused in the stone passage with a heavy heart At that hour, in the ebb of Sir Daniel's fortune, when he was beleaguered by the archers of the Black Arrow and proscribed by the victorious Yorkists, was dick, also, to turn upon the ht hily protected his youth? The necessity, if it should prove to be one, was cruel
”Pray Heaven he be innocent!” he said
And then steps sounded on the flagging, and Sir Oliver caravely towards the lad
”One seeketh you earnestly,” said dick
”I aood Richard,” said the priest ”It is this poor Carter Alack, he is beyond cure”
”And yet his soul is sicker than his body,” answered dick
”Have ye seen him?” asked Sir Oliver, with a manifest start
”I do but come from him,” replied dick
”What said he? what said he?” snapped the priest, with extraordinary eagerness
”He but cried for you the o the faster, for his hurt is grievous,” returned the lad
”I aht for him,” was the reply ”Well, we have all our sins We ood Richard”
”Ay, sir; and it ell if we all came fairly,” answered dick