Part 18 (1/2)
Writing nohat his own eyes beheld, Lord Henry tells us how Sir John leapt to snatch a weapon frole word in Arabic, and how at that word a half-dozen of his supple blackareyhounds upon a hare and bore hiround
Lady Henry screa, or else modesty keeps him silent on the score of it Rosamund, white to the lips, continued to look on, whilst Lionel, overcome, covered his face with his hands in sheer horror One and all of thehastly deed of blood perfor of a capon's neck But no such thing took place The corsairs ed his wrists behind hi performed that duty with a speedy, silent dexterity they abandoned hiriain and pointed to Lionel, who leapt up in sudden terror, with a cry that was entirely inarticulate Lithe brown arion of snakes Powerless, he was lifted in the air and borne swiftly away For an instant he found himself held face to face with his turbaned brother Into that pallid terror-stricken huers Then deliberately and after the fashi+on of the Muslirowled, and through the press of corsairs that thronged the hall behind him a lane iftly opened and Lionel ed up, lost to the view of those within the room
”What murderous deed do you intend?” cried Sir John indonified in his bonds
”Will you murder your own brother as younow for the first ti to overspread her pallor She saw hier perish in his face, leaving it vacant for a ain with a fresh resolve Her words had altered all the current of his intentions They fixed in hie They silenced the explanations which he was come to offer, and which he scorned to offer here after that taunt
”It see that was”I wonder will you love hih, faith, naught would surprise me in a woman and her love Yet I ahed ”I have a ratify myself I will not separate you--not just yet”
He advanced upon her ”Come thou with me, lady,” he commanded, and held out his hand
And now Lord Henry seems to have been stirred to futile action
”At that,” he writes, ”I thrust ,' I cried,'thou shalt be made to suffer!'
”'Suffer?' quoth he, and h 'I have suffered already 'Tis for that reason I aain, thou pirate out of hell!' I warned hie as God's my life!'
”'Shall I so?' quoth he, very calm and sinister 'And at whose hands, I pray you?'
”'At reat fury
”'At thine?' he sneered 'Thou'lt hunt the hawk of the sea? Thou? Thou pluain Sir Oliver spoke that short Arabic command, whereupon a dozen blackamoors whirled the Queen's Lieutenant aside and bound him to a chair
Face to face stood now Sir Oliver with Rosa years, and he realized that in every moment of that time the certainty had never departed fro
”Come, lady,” he bade her sternly
Ain the clear depths of her deep blue eyes Then swiftly as lightning she snatched a knife from the board and drove it at his heart But his hand moved as swiftly to seize her wrist, and the knife clattered to the ground, its errand unfulfilled
A shuddering sob escaped her then to express at once her horror of her own atte until it overpowered her, she sank suddenly against him in a swoon
Instinctively his ar the last occasion on which she had lain against his breast, on an evening five years and rey wall of Godolphin Court above the river What prophet could have told him that when next he so held her the conditions would be these? It was all grotesque and incredible, like the fantastic dream of soain
He shi+fted his grip to her waist, heaved her to hisabout, his business at Arwenack accomplished--indeed, more of it acco less
”Away, away!” he cried to his rovers, and away they sped as fleetly and silently as they had co now so h the hall and across the courtyard flowed that hu the crest of the hill it surged, then away down the slope towards the beach where their boats awaited the wo across his shoulder Ahead of hied and pinioned brother
Once only before they dipped frohts of Arwenack did Oliver check He paused to look across the dark shi+ water to the woods that screened the house of Penarrow from his view It had been part of his purpose to visit it, as we know But the necessity had now been re of disappointain upon his hohts just then came two of his officers--Oth one with the other As they overtook him, Othmani set now a hand upon his arhts of Smithick and Penycumwick
”My lord,” he cried, ”there will be lads and maidens there should fetch fat prices in the sok-el-Abeed”