Part 11 (1/2)
”But have a care,” he added, ”or you shall taste the joys of the Paradise you preach of Come, sir parson; afoot!”
A prey to a fear that co obedience, the fellow rose with alacrity
”Stand there, sir So,” commanded Crispin, his point within an inch of the man's Geneva bands ”Take your kerchief, Kenneth, and pinion his wrists behind him”
That done, Crispin bade the lad unbuckle and remove the parson's belt
Next he ordered that man of texts to be seated upon their only chair, and with that sath the Puritan was safely bound, Crispin lowered his rapier, and seated hie beside him
”Now, sir parson,” quoth he, ”let us talk a while At your first outcry I shall hurry you into that future world whither it is your uide the souls of others Maybe you'll find it a better world to preach of than to inhabit, and so, for your own sake, I ood sense and a parson's natural horror of a lie, I look for truth in answer to what questions Ime, sir, I shall see that your falsehood overtakes you” And eloquently raising his blade, he intimated the exact course he would adopt ”Now, sir, attend to me How soon are our friends likely to discover this topsy-turvydom?”
”When they come for you,” answered the parson meekly
”And how soon, O prophet, will they come?”
”In an hour's ti towards theas he spoke Galliard followed his glance, and observed that the light was growing perceptibly stronger
”Aye,” he coh to hang us by Is there no chance of anyone coine The only other occupants of the house are a party of half a dozen troopers in the guardroom below”
”Where is the Lord General?”
”Away--I know not where But he will be here at sunrise”
”And the sentry that was at our door--is he not to a changed 'twixt this and hanging-tiuard was relieved just before I cauardroom--answer ?”
”Alas, sir, they have drunk enough this night to put a rakehelly Cavalier to sha theirdle, a s ont to carry--had dropped out This Kenneth had placed upon the table Galliard now took it up, and, holding it before the Puritan's eyes, he watched him narrowly the while
”Will you swear by this book that you have answered nothing but the truth?”
Without a ed his oath, that, to the best of his belief, he had answered accurately
”That is well, sir And now, though it grieve ht discomfort, Ihis sword upon the table, he passed behind the Puritan, and taking the ed hi to the lad Then he stopped abruptly as if sht Presently--”Kenneth,” he continued in a different tone, ”a while ago I mind me you said that were your liberty restored you, you would join hands withthe evildoers recked my life”
”I did, Sir Crispin”
For athat he was about to do, he told himself, and as he realized how vile, his impulse was to say no more; to abandon the suddenly formed project and to trust to his own unaided wits and hands But as again he thought of the vast use this lad would be to him--this lad as the betrothed of Cynthia Ashburn--he saw that the ed and dished it in the balance of his e that did they succeed in ood their escape, Kenneth would naturally fly for shelter to his friends the Ashburns--the usurpers of Castle Marleigh What thenwith him the er of recapture? And with so plausible a h, how easy would not his vengeance becoraces, and afterwards--
Before his e; one that should be worthy of him, and commensurate with the foul deed that called for it
In the other scale the treacherous flavour of this hed heavily He proposed to bind the lad to a promise, the shape of whose fulfilive, and yet, one that he must sooner die than enter into, did he but knohat manner of fulfil the lad into a betrayal of his friends--the people of his future wife Whatever the issue for Crispin, 'twas odds Kenneth's prospect of wedding this Cynthia would be blighted for all time by the action into which Galliard proposed to thrust him all unconscious
So stood the case in Galliard's mind, and the scales fell now on one side, now on the other But against his scruples rose the memory of the treatht; the harshness of the boy's judgment; the irrevocable contempt wherein he had clearly seen that he was held by this fatuous milksop All this aroused his rancour now, and steeled his heart against the voice of honour What was this boy to hio for hins? How had this lad earned any consideration froht! Still, he would not decide in haste