Part 39 (1/2)
”Burned with her, sir!”
”Is this true, sir?” said A to the bishop, with a very quiet voice
”I, sir?” sta to do--I was co spectator-- the secular arm, sir; I could not interfere with that--anyto it--ask that gentle to do?” shrieked he, as Aan to lead hi you!” said Amyas ”If I had been a Spaniard and a priest like yourself, I should have burnt you alive”
”Hang me?” shrieked the wretched old Balaam; and burst into abject howls forhim too Lucy Passmore, do you know that fellow also?”
”No, sir,” said Lucy
”Lucky for you, Fray Gerundio,” said Will Cary; while the good friar hid his face in his hands, and burst into tears Lucky it was for hiedy ”Ah!” thought he, ”if life in this mad and sinful world be a reward, perhaps this escape is vouchsafed topleaded the cause of the poor Indian!”
But the bishop shrieked on
”Oh! not yet An hour, only an hour! I am not fit to die”
”That is no concern of mine,” said Amyas ”I only know that you are not fit to live”
”Let us at least make our peace with God,” said the dark le you up the back-stairs to heaven, they will do it without five ”
Fray Gerundio and the condemned man alike stopped their ears at the blasphemy
”Oh, Fray Gerundio!” screamed the bishop, ”pray for me I have treated you like a beast Oh, Fray, Fray!”
”Oh,down his face he followed his shrieking and struggling diocesan up the stairs, ”who am I? Ask no pardon of ainst the poor innocent savages, when you saw your harmless sheep butchered year after year, and yet never lifted up your voice to save the flock which God had committed to you Oh, confess that, my lord! confess it ere it be too late!”
”I will confess all about the Indians, and the gold, and tita too, Fray; peccavi, peccavi--only five race, while I confess to the good Fray!”--and he grovelled on the deck
”I will have no such mummery where I command,” said A Satan of his due”
”If you will confess,” said Bri fast, ”confess to the Lord, and He will forgive you Even at the last moment mercy is open Is it not, Fray Gerundio?”
”It is, senor; it is, my lord,” said Gerundio; but the bishop only clasped his hands over his head
”Then I a left to buy masses for ! I die like a dog and a!” said Amyas, while the dark Do of a smile of pity at the miserable bishop A man accustomed to cruelty, and fir as to inflict it; repeating to himself the necessary prayers, he called Fray Gerundio to witness that he died, however unworthy, a martyr, in charity with all men, and in the communion of the Holy Catholic Church; and then, as he fitted the cord to his own neck, gave Fray Gerundio various petty commissions about his sister and her children, and a little vineyard far away upon the sunny slopes of Castile; and so died, with a ”Domine, in manus tuas,” like a valiantin sole above his head At last he drew a long breath, as if a load was taken off his heart
Suddenly he looked round to his erly to knohat he would have done next
”Hearken to me, my masters all, and may God hearken too, and do so toas I have eyes to see a Spaniard, and hands to hew hi than hunt down that accursed nation day and night, and avenge all the innocent blood which has been shed by the Ferdinand drove out the Moors!”
”Amen!” said Salvation Yeo ”I need not to swear that oath, for I have sworn it long ago, and kept it Will your honor have us kill the rest of the idolaters?”
”God forbid!” said Cary ”You would not do that, Areat mercy this day, and we must be merciful in it We will land them at Cabo Velo But henceforth till I die no quarter to a Spaniard”
”Aed in the last half-hour He seerown years older His brorinkled, his lip compressed, his eyes full of a terrible stony calreat and dreadful purpose, and yet for that very reason could afford to be quiet under the burden of it, even cheerful; and when he returned to the cabin he bowed courteously to the co played the host so ill, and entreated him to finish his breakfast
”But, senor--is it possible? Is his holiness dead?”
”He is hanged and dead, senor I would have hanged, could I have caught the which was present at my brother's death, even to the very flies upon the wall No more words, senor; your conscience tells you that I am just”
”Senor,” said the commandant--”one word--I trust there are no listeners--none of my crew, I mean; but I must exculpate allery with me”
”To tell you the truth, senor--I trust in Heaven no one overhears-- You are just This Inquisition is the curse of us, the weight which is crushi+ng out the very life of Spain No hbor, no, not his child, or the wife of his bosoood Catholic, as I trust I am,” and he crossed himself, ”when any villain whom you may offend, any unnatural son or ishes to be rid of you, has but to hint heresy against you, and you vanish into the Holy Office--and then God have mercy on you, for man has none noble ladies of ht, we know not e dare not ask why To expostulate, even to inquire, would have been to share their fate There is one now, senor-- Heaven alone knohether she is alive or dead!--It was nine years since, and we have never heard; and we shall never hear”
And the cohtfully
”She was ed her?”
”On churchmen, senor, and I a Catholic? To be burned at the stake in this life, and after that to all eternity beside? Even a Spaniard dare not face that Beside, sir, the mob like this Inquisition, and an Auto-da-fe is even better sport to theht They would be the first to tear a man in pieces who dare touch an Inquisitor Sir, iveness forthose churched, sinner that I a to s as you have, a heretic, as you call it--a free Christian man, as we call it”
”Te himself fervently ”Let us say no more Obedience isto her infallible authority--for I areat sinner--I trust no one has overheard us!”
Amyas left him with a smile of pity, and went to look for Lucy Pass, while Ayacanora watched them with a puzzled face
”I will talk to you when you are better, Lucy,” said he, taking her hand ”Now youus lads of Devon”
”Oh, dear blessed sir, and you will send Sir John to pray with me? For I turned, sir, I turned: but I could not help it--I could not abear the torel--and more than I did Oh, dear me!”
”Lucy, I am not fit now to hear more You shall tell me all to- morrow;” and he turned away
”Why do you take her hand?” said Ayacanora, half-scornfully ”She is old, and ugly, and dirty”
”She is an Englishwo; and I would nurse her as I would lishwo that that old hag could do!”
”Instead of calling her nao and tend her; that would bemen”
Ayacanora darted from him, thrust the sailors aside, and took possession of Lucy Passmore