Part 21 (2/2)
”Mark ues upon us before two hours are out; forgive us they never will; and if we get off with our lives, which I don't much expect, we shall leave our horses behind; for we can hold the house, sir, well enough till , but the courtyard we can't, that's certain!”
”We had better march at once, then”
”Think, sir; if they catch us up--as they are sure to do, knowing the country better than we--hoill our shot stand their arrows?”
”True, old wisdoether; and so be a mark for them, while they will be behind every rock and bank; and two or three flights of arroill do our business for us Hu forward he spoke-- ”Eustace, you will be so kind as to go back to your lambs; and tell theht, we are ready and willing to fight to the death, and have plenty of shot and powder at their service Father Parsons, you will be so kind as to accoe for his sheep”
”If you carry me off this spot, sir, you carry my corpse only,” said Parsons ”I ed elsewhere, like my martyred brother Campian”
”If you take him, you must take me too,” said Eustace
”What if on't?”
”Hoill you gain by that? you can only leave s, if I do not choose”
As, and things in general He was in a great hurry to get to Bideford, and he feared that this business would delay hi Parsons, he did not want to hang Eustace; and Eustace, he kneell aware of that latter fact, and played his galy; but tih: ”Well then; if you, Eustace, will go and give e to your converts, I will proain before we coard for his life, to see that your eloquence be persuasive enough; for as sure as I as attack us, the first bullet that I shall fire at theh his scoundrelly brains”
Parsons still kicked
”Very well, then, entleht away up into Dartround there till , and then carry him into Okehampton to the nearest justice If he chooses to delay me in my journey, it is fair that I shouldfast tied by his arside his horse for several weary miles, while Yeo walked by his side, like a friar by a condemned criminal; and in order to keep up his spirits, told hiate, and hoas found starved to death in a bog
”And if you wish, sir, to follow in his blessed steps, which I heartily hope you will do, you have only to go over that big cow- backed hill there on your right hand, and down again the other side to Craw to die in as ever Jesuit needed; and your ghost rass tu for you till the day of judgination Yeo was actually heard, for the first and last tih most heartily
His ho-ho's had scarcely died ahen they saw shi+ning under the moon the old tower of Lydford castle
”Cast the fellow off now,” said Amyas
”Ay, ay, sir!” and Yeo and Simon Evans stopped behind, and did not come up for ten ?”
”Why, sir,” said Evans, ”you see the man had a very fair pair of hose on, and a bran-new kersey doublet, very warood clothes should be wasted on such noxious trade, we've just brought theyptians,” said Yeo as comment
”And what have you done with the man?”
”Hove hi furze-bush, and for aught I know, there he'll bide”
”You rascal, have you killed him?
”Never fear, sir,” said Yeo, in his cool fashi+on ”A Jesuit has as many lives as a cat, and, I believe, rides broomsticks post, like a witch He would be at Lydford now before us, if hison their left Lydford and its ill-omened castle (which, a century after, was one of the principal scenes of Judge Jeffreys's cruelty), Ah the mire toward Okehampton till sunrise; and ere the vapors had lifted fro slopes from Sourton dohile Yestor and Amicombe slept steep and black beneath theirfar below unseen, ”Ock loud”
The voice of the streae had spoken them upon the day of his triumph He recollected, too, his vexation on that day at not seeing Rose Salterne Why, he had never seen her since Never seen her now for six years and more! Of her ripened beauty he knew only by hearsay; she was still to hiirl for whose sake he had smitten the Barnstaple draper over the quay What a chain of petty accidents had kept theh so often within a mile of each other! ”And what a lucky one!” said practical old Aht have loved her as Frank does--poor Frank! ill he say? What does he say, for he ht I to say--to do rather, for talking is no use on this side the grave, nor on the other either, I expect!” And then he asked hi; whether it was a mere tavern frolic, or a sacred duty And he held, the more that he looked at it, that iton earth but his sword, so he could not travel to find her After all, she ht be a erated scandal He would hope so And yet it was evident that there had been soes between her and Don Guzman Eustace's mysterious words about the pro that he was a villain; but just the one to win a woman's heart, too Frank had been away--all the Brotherhood away What a fool he had been, to turn the wolf loose into the sheepfold! And yet ould have drea to co I stood no ainst the Don So there is no use for me to cry about the eneral frailty of woreat disposition to cry”
He never had expected to win her, and yet it seemed bitter to know that she was lost to him forever It was not so easy for a heart of his e of a first love; and all the less easy because that ie was stained and ruined
”Curses on the man who had done that deed! I will yet have his heart's blood soain to find him If there's no law for it on earth, there's law in heaven, or I'm much ly, dirty, and stupid town of Okehae perversity) has chosen to defile one of the loveliest sites in the pleasant land of Devon And heartily did Amyas abuse the old town that day; for he was detained there, as he expected, full three hours, while the Justice Shallow of the place was sent for froone at sunrise, after the early-rising fashi+on of those days) to take Yeo's deposition concerning last night's affray Moreover, when Shallow caht to have beenwhich ensued, was very near finding out what A fresh loss of time and worse evils beside) had commanded to be concealed, namely, the presence of Jesuits in that Moorland Utopia Then, in broadest Devon-- ”And do you call this Christian conduct, sir, to set a quietto risk my precious life--no, nor ever a constable to Okehas, and by Lydfor' law if they will, hang first and try after; but as for me, I've rade my Bible, and 'He thatby the ears' So if you choose to sit down and ate your breakfast with ood: but depositions I'll have none If your , in course; but I expect mortally” (with a wink), ”you wain't hear much ood rule, but leave ill alone is a better'--So we says round about here; and so you'll say, captain, when you be so old as I”
So Amyas sat down and ate his breakfast, and went on afterwards a long and weary day's journey, till he saw at last beneath hie, and the white houses piled up the hill-side; and beyond, over Raleigh downs, the dear old tower of Northaether a desert to him then; and Bideford, as it turned out, hardly less so For when he rode up to Sir Richard's door, he found that the good knight was still in Ireland, and Lady Grenville at Stow Whereupon he rode back again down the High Street to that same boed shi+p Tavern where the Brotherhood of the Rose made their vow, and settled himself in the very rooh now, I beg pardon,” quothstirring, sir What with Sir Richard to Ireland, and Sir John to London, and all the young gentleood liquor, and no one to court the young ladies, neither Sack, sir? I hope so I haven't brewed a gallon of it this fortnight, if you'll believe me; ale, sir, and aqua vitae, and such low-bred trade, is all I dra-a-days Try a pint of sherry, sir, now, to give you an appetite You ar, quick, while I pull off the captain's boots”
Amyas sat weary and sad, while the innkeeper chattered on
”Ah, sir! two or three like you would set the young ladies all alive again By-the-by, there's been strange doings a them since you were here last You mind Mistress Salterne!”
”For God's sake, don't let us have that story, h of it at Plymouth!” said Amyas, in so disturbed a tone that entleman, he's one of the hard-hit ones”
”How is the old h, sir; but a changed man Never speaks to a soul, if he can help it Soht in his head; or turned ht but bread and water, and sits up all night in the rooarments Heaven knohat's on his mind--they do say he was over hard on her, and that drove her to it All I know is, he has never been in here for a drop of liquor (and he ca as the town clock, sir) since she went, except a ten days ago, and then heMr Cary at the door, and I heard him ask Mr Cary when you would be hoo and see him”
”Bless you, sir! What, without your sack?”
”Drink it yourself, ht on an empty stomach, now?”
”Fill my men's stomachs for them, and never mind mine It's market-day, is it not? Send out, and see whether Mr Cary is still in town;” and Aeland Street, and knocked at Mr Salterne's door
Salterne himself opened it, with his usual stern courtesy
”I saw you co this honor froht, and ht before that too Welcoeneral is well”
”The good knight eneral is with God who made him, Mr Salterne”
”Dead, sir?”
”Foundered at sea on our way horowled Salterne, after a one No matter--I can afford it, sir, and er than I! And Draper Heard was buried yesterday, five years younger--How is it that every one can die, except otten my manners
And he led Amyas into his parlor, and called to the apprentices to run one way, and to the cook to run another
”You et h, sir, and the best of wine too; and old Salterne had a good tap of Alicant in old time, old time, old time, sir! and you must drink it nohether he does or not!” and out he bustled