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the fewer i dare say observed the master of the house you may dare to say that agreed infinitely relieved as big a rogue as there is between here and he turned up his toes like a lam b but it was a nasty thing to look at i dare say you ve seen dead men in your time my lord he added glancing at the many said the old man i have followed the wars as you imagine laid down his knife and fork which he had just taken up again were any of them bald he asked oh yes and with hair as white as mine i don t think i should mind the white so much said his was red and he had a return of his shuddering and tendency to laughter which he drowned with a great draught of wine i m a little put out when i think of it he went en i knew him damn him and then the cold gives a man fancies or the fancies give a man cold i don t know which have you any money asked the old man i have one white returned the poet laughing i got it out of a dead s in a porch she was as dead as caesar poor and as cold as a church with bits of ribbon sticking in her hair this is a hard world in winter for wolves and and poor like me i said the old man am de ia e de du who and what may you be rose and made a suitable reverence i am called francis he said a poor master of arts of this university i know some latin and a deal of vice i can make and and i am very fond of wine i was new nights born in a garret and i shall not die upon the gallows i may add my lord that from this night forward i am your s very servant to command no servant of mine said the knight my guest for this evening and no more a very grateful guest said politely and he drank in dumb show to his you are shrewd began the old man tapping his forehead very shrewd you have learning you are a clerk and yet you take a small piece of money off a dead woman in the street is it not a kind of it is a kind of much practised in the wars my lord the wars are the field of honor returned the old man proudly there a man plays his life upon the cast he fights in the name of his lord the king his lord god and all their the holy saints and angels put it said that i were really a thief should i not play my life also and against heavier for gain but not for honor gain repeated with a shrug gain the poor fellow wants supper and takes it so does the soldier in a campaign why what are all these we hear so much about if they are not gain to those who take them they are loss enough to the others the men at arms drink by a good fire while the his nails to buy them wine and wood i have seen a good many swinging on trees about the country ay i have seen thirty on one elm and a very poor figure they made and when i asked how all these came to be hanged i was told it was because they could not scrape together enough crowns to satisfy the men at arms these things are a necessity of war which the low i born must endure with constancy it is true that a lodging for the night captains drive there are spirits in every rank not easily moved by pity and indeed many follow arms who are no better than you see said the poet you cannot separate the soldier from the and what is a thief but an isolated with manners i steal a couple of mutton without so much as disturbing people s sleep the farmer a bit but none the less on what remains you come up blowing on a trumpet take away the whole sheep and beat the er into the bargain i have no trumpet i am only tom dick or harry i am a rogue and a dog and hanging s too good for me with all my heart but just ask the farmer which of us he prefers just find out which of us he lies awake to curse on cold nights look at us two said his i am old strong and honored if i were turned from my house to morrow hundreds would be proud to shelter me poor people would go out and pass the night in the streets with their children if i merely hinted that i wished to be alone and i find you up wandering and picking off dead women by the i fear no man and nothing i have seen you tremble and lose countenance at a word i wait god s summons in my own house or if it please the king to call me out again upon the field of battle you look for the gallows a rough swift death without hope or honor is there no difference between these two as far as to the moon but if i had been born lord of and you had been the poor scholar francis would the difference have been any the less should not i have been warming my knees at this pan and would not you have been groping for in the snow should not i have been the soldier and you the thief a thief cried the old man la thief i if you understood your words you would repent them ne w nights turned out his hands with a gesture of impudence	38
if your had done me the honor to follow my argument he said i do you too much honor in to your presence said the knight learn to your tongue when you speak with old and honorable men or some one than i may you in a fashion and he rose and paced the lower end of the apartment struggling with anger and his cup and settled himself more comfortably in the chair crossing his knees and leaning his head upon one hand and the elbow against the back of the chair he was now and warm and he was in frightened for his host having him as justly as was possible between two such different characters the night was far spent and in a very comfortable fashion after all and he felt morally certain of a safe departure on the morrow tell me one thing said the old man pausing in his walk are you really a thief i claim the sacred rights of hospitality returned the poet my lord i am you are very young the knight continued i should never have been so old replied showing his fingers if i had not helped myself with these ten talents they have been my nursing mothers and my nursing fathers you may still repent and change i repent daily said the poet there are few people more given to repentance than poor francis as for change let somebody change my circumstances a man must continue to eat if it were only that he may continue to repent the change must begin in the heart returned the old man solemnly my dear lord answered do you really fancy that i steal for pleasure i hate stealing like any other piece of work or of danger my teeth chatter when i see a gallows but i must eat i must drink a a lodging for the night i must mix in society of some sort what the devil man is not a solitary animal cut make me king s make me of st make me of the and then i shall be changed indeed but as long as you leave me the poor scholar francis without a why of course i remain the same the grace of god is all powerful i should be a to question it said francis it has made you lord of and of the it has given me nothing but the quick wits under my hat and these ten toes upon my hands may i help myself to wine i thank you respectfully by god s grace you have a very superior the lord of walked to and fro with his hands behind his back perhaps he was i t yet quite settled in his mind about the parallel between thieves and soldiers perhaps had interested him by some cross thread of sympathy perhaps his wits were simply by so much reasoning but whatever the cause he somehow to convert the young man to a better way of thinking and could not make up his mind to drive him forth again into the street there is something more than i can understand in this he said at length your mouth is full of and the devil has led you very far astray but the devil is only a very weak spirit before god s truth and all his vanish at a word of true honor like darkness at morning listen to me once more i learned long ago that a gentleman should live and lovingly to god and the king and his lady and though i have seen many strange things done i have still to command my ways upon that rule it is not only written in all noble histories but in every man s heart if he will take care to read you speak of food and wine and i know very well that hunger is a difficult trial to endure but you do not speak of other wants you say nothing of honor of faith to god ne w nights and other men of courtesy of love without reproach it may be that i am not very wise and yet i think i am but you seem to me like one who has lost his way and made a great error in life you are attending to the little wants and you have totally forgotten the great and only real ones like a man who should be on the judgment day for such things as honor and love and faith are not only nobler than food and drink but indeed i think we desire them more and suffer more sharply for their absence i speak to you as i think you will most easily understand me are you not while careful to fill your belly another appetite in your heart which spoils the pleasure of your life and keeps you continually wretched was sensibly under all this you think i have no sense of honor he cried i m poor enough god knows it s hard to see rich people with their gloves and you blowing in your hands an empty belly is a bitter thing although you speak so lightly of it if you had had as many as i perhaps you would change your tune any way i m a thief make the most of but i m not a devil from hell god strike me dead i would have you to know i ve an honor of my own as good as yours though i don t about it all day long as if it was a god s miracle to have any it seems quite natural to me i keep it in its box till its wanted why now look you here how long have i been in this room with you did you not tell me you were alone in the house look at your gold plate you re strong if you	38
like but you re old and and i have my knife what did i want but a jerk of the elbow and here would have been you with the cold steel in your and there would have been me in the streets with an of golden cups did you suppose i hadn t wit enough to see that and i scorned the action there are your damned as safe as in a church there are you with your heart as a lodging for the night good as new and here am i ready to go out again as poor as i came in with my one white that you threw in my teeth and you think i have no sense of honor god strike me dead the old man stretched out his right arm i will tell you what you are he said you are a rogue my man an impudent and black hearted rogue and vagabond i have passed an hour with you oh i believe me i feel myself disgraced and you have eaten and drunk at my table but now i am sick at your presence the day has come and the night bird should be off to his will you go before or after which you please returned the poet rising i believe you to be strictly honorable he thoughtfully emptied his cup i wish i could add you were intelligent he went on knocking on his head with his age age the brains stiff and the old man preceded him from a point of followed whistling with his in his god pity you said the lord of at the door good bye papa returned with a many thanks for the cold mutton the door closed behind him the dawn was breaking over the white roofs a chill uncomfortable morning ushered in the day stood and heartily stretched himself in the middle of the road a very dull old gentleman he thought i wonder what his may be worth the de s door i the de door de was not yet two but he counted himself a grown man and a very accomplished into the bargain lads were early formed in that rough epoch and when one has been in a pitched battle and a has killed one s man in an honorable fashion and knows a thing or two of and mankind a certain in the gait is surely to be he had put up his horse with due care and with due deliberation and then in a very agreeable frame of mind went out to pay a visit in the gray of the evening it was not a very wise proceeding on the young man s part he would have done better to remain beside the fire or go decently to bed for the town was full of the troops of and england under a mixed command and though was there on safe conduct his safe conduct was like to serve him little on a chance encounter it was september the weather had fallen sharp a wind laden with showers beat about the and the dead leaves ran riot along the streets here and there a window was already lighted up and the noise of men at arms merry over supper within came forth in fits and was swallowed up and carried away by the wind the night fell swiftly the flag of england fluttering on the spire top grew ever fainter and fainter the flying clouds a black speck like a swallow in the tumultuous leaden chaos of the sky as the nigh fell the wind rose and began to under and roar amid the tree tops in the valley below the town de walked fast and was soon knock new nights ing at his friend s door but though he promised himself to stay only a little while and make an early return his welcome was so pleasant and he found so much to delay him that it was already long past midnight before he said good bye upon the threshold the wind had fallen again in the meanwhile the night was as black as the grave not a star nor a glimmer of slipped through the of cloud was ill acquainted with the intricate lanes of even by daylight he had found some trouble in picking his way and in this absolute darkness he soon lost it altogether he was certain of one thing only to keep mounting the hill for his friend s house lay at the lower end or tail of while the inn was up at the head under the great church spire with this clue to go upon he stumbled and forward now breathing more freely in open places where there was a good of sky overhead now feeling along the wall in stifling it is an and mysterious position to be thus in blackness in an almost unknown town the silence is in its possibilities the touch of cold window bars to the exploring hand the man like the touch of a the of the pavement shake his heart into his mouth a piece of darkness an or a chasm in the pathway and where the air is brighter the houses put on strange and bewildering appearances as if to lead him farther from his way for who had to regain his inn without notice there was real danger as well as mere discomfort in the walk and he went and boldly at once and at every corner paused to make an observation he had been for some time a lane so narrow that he could touch a wall with either hand when it began to open out and go sharply downward plainly this lay no longer in the direction of his inn but the hope of a little more light tempted him forward to the lane ended in a terrace with a v the de tr it s door which gave	38
idea went to his with a shock and he faced about suddenly as if to defend his life then for the first time he became aware of a light about the level of his eyes and at some distance in the interior of the house a thread of towards the bottom such as might escape between ne y nights two wings of over a doorway to see anything was a relief to it was like a piece of solid ground to a man laboring in a his mind seized upon it with and he stood staring at it and trying to piece together some logical conception of his surroundings plainly there was a flight of steps ascending from his own level to that of this illuminated doorway and indeed he thought he could make out another thread of light as fine as a needle and as faint as which might very well be reflected along the polished wood of a since he had begun to suspect that he was not alone his heart had continued to beat with violence and an intolerable desire for action of any sort had possessed itself of his spirit he was in deadly peril he believed what could be more natural than to mount the staircase lift the curtain and his difficulty at once at least he would be dealing with something at least he would be no longer in the dark he stepped slowly forward with outstretched hands until his foot struck the bottom step then he rapidly the stairs stood for a moment to compose his expression lifted the and went in he found himself in a large apartment of polished stone there were three doors one on each of three sides all with the fourth side was occupied by two large windows and a great stone chimney piece carved with the arms of the recognized the bearings and was gratified to find himself in such good hands the room was strongly illuminated but it contained little furniture except a heavy table and a chair or two the hearth was innocent of fire and the pavement was but strewn with rushes clearly many days old on a high chair beside the chimney and directly facing as he entered sat a little old gentleman in a fur he sat with his legs crossed and his hands folded and a cup of wine stood by his elbow on a on the wall his countenance had j the de s door a strongly masculine cast not properly human but such as we see in the bull the goat or the domestic something and something greedy brutal and dangerous the upper lip was full as though swollen by a blow or a and the smile the eyebrows and the small strong eyes were and almost evil in expression beautiful white hair hung straight all round his head like a saint s and fell in a single curl upon the his beard and moustache were the pink of venerable sweetness age probably in consequence of precautions had left no mark upon his hands and the hand was famous it would be difficult to imagine anything at once so and so delicate in design the fingers were like those of one of s women the fork of the thumb made a when closed the nails were perfectly shaped and of a dead surprising whiteness it rendered his aspect more that a man with hands like these should keep them devoutly folded like a virgin martyr that a man with so intent and startling an expression of face should sit patiently on his seat and contemplate people with an stare like a god or a god s statue his seemed and treacherous it fitted so poorly with his looks such was de and he looked silently at each other for a second or two pray step in said the de i have been expecting you all the evening he had not risen but he accompanied his words with a smile and a slight but courteous inclination of the head partly from the smile partly from the strange musical murmur with which the his observation felt a strong shudder of disgust go through his and what with disgust and honest confusion of mind he could scarcely get words together in reply new nights i fear he said that this is a double accident i am not the person you suppose me it seems you were looking for a visit but for my part nothing was further from my thoughts nothing could be more contrary to my wishes than this intrusion well well replied the old gentleman here you are which is the main point seat yourself my friend and put yourself entirely at your ease we shall arrange our little affairs presently perceived that the matter was still complicated with some and he hastened to continue his explanations your door he began about my door asked the other raising his eyebrows a little piece of ingenuity and he shrugged his shoulders a hospitable fancy by your own account you were not desirous of making my acquaintance we old people look for such reluctance now and then when it touches our honor we cast about until we find some way of it you arrive but believe me very welcome you persist in error sir said there can be no question between you and me i am a stranger in this my name is de if you see me in your house it is only my young friend interrupted the other you will permit me to have my own ideas on that subject they probably differ from yours at the present moment he added with a but time will show which of us is in the right was convinced he had to do with a lunatic he seated himself with a shrug content to wait the and a pause ensued during which he thought he could distinguish a	38
her lips with a piercing scream she covered her face with her hands and sank upon the chapel floor ne w nights that is not the man she cried my that is not the man the de agreeably of course not he said i expected as much it was so unfortunate you could not remember his name indeed she cried indeed i have never seen this person till this i have never so much as set eyes upon him never wish to see him again sir she said turning to if you are a gentleman you will bear me out have i ever seen you have you ever seen me before this accursed hour to speak for myself i have never had that pleasure answered the young man this is the first time that i have met with your engaging niece the old gentleman shrugged his shoulders i am distressed to hear it he said but it is never too late to begin i had little more acquaintance with my own late lady ere i married her which proves he added with a that these marriages may often produce an excellent understanding in the long run as the bridegroom is to have a voice in the matter i will give him two hours to make up for lost time before we proceed with the ceremony and he turned toward the door followed by the clergyman the girl was on her feet in a moment my uncle you cannot be in earnest she said i declare before god i will myself rather than be forced on that young man the heart rises at it god you your white hair oh my uncle pity me there is not a woman in all the world but would prefer death to such a is it possible she added faltering is it possible that you do not believe me that you still think this and she pointed at with a tremor of anger and contempt that you still think this to be the man frankly said the old gentleman pausing on the threshold i do but let me explain to you once for the de s door all de my way of thinking about this affair when you took it into your head to my family and the name that i have borne in peace and war for more than three score years you not only the right to question my designs but that of looking me in the face if your father had been alive he would have on you and turned you out of doors his was the hand of iron you may bless your god you have only to deal with the hand of velvet it was my duty to get you married without delay out of pure good will i have tried to find your own gallant for you and i believe i have succeeded but before god and all the holy angels de if i have not i care not one jack straw so let me recommend you to be polite to our young friend for upon my word your next groom may be less and with that he went out with the at his heels and the fell behind the pair the girl turned upon with flashing eyes and what sir she demanded may be the meaning of all this god knows returned gloomily i am a prisoner in this house which seems full of mad people more i know not and nothing do i understand and pray how came you here she asked he told her as briefly as he could for the rest he added perhaps you will follow my example and tell me the answer to all these and what god s name is like to be the end of it she stood silent for a little and he could see her lips tremble and her eyes burn with a feverish lustre then she pressed her forehead in both hands alas how my head she said wearily lo say nothing of my poor heart but it is due to you to know my story as it must seem i am called de i have been without father or mother for oh for as long as i can recollect and indeed i have been most unhappy all my life ne w nights three months ago a young captain began to stand near me every day in church i could see that i pleased him i am much to blame but i was so glad that anyone should love me and when he passed me a letter i took it home with me and read it with great pleasure since that time he has written many he was so anxious to speak with me poor fellow and kept asking me to leave the door open some evening that we might have two words upon the stair for he knew how much my uncle trusted me she gave something like a sob at that and it was a moment before she could go on my uncle is a hard man but he is very shrewd she said at last he has performed many in war and was a great person at court and much trusted by queen in old days how he came to suspect me i cannot tell but it is hard to keep anything from his knowledge and this morning as we came from mass he took my hand into his forced it open and read my little walking by my side all the while when he finished he gave it back to me with great politeness it contained another request to have the door left open and this has been the ruin of us all my uncle kept me strictly in my room until evening and then ordered me to dress myself as you see me a hard mockery for a young girl do you	38
not think so i suppose when he could not prevail with me to tell him the young captain s name he must have laid a trap for him into which alas you have fallen in the anger of god i looked for much confusion for how could i tell whether he was willing to take me for his wife on these sharp terms he might have been trifling with me from the first or i might have made myself too cheap in his eyes but truly i had not looked for such a shameful punishment as this i could not think that god would let a girl be so disgraced before a young man and now i tell you all and i can scarcely hope that you will not despise me made her a respectful inclination the de s door madam he said you have honored me by your confidence it remains for me to prove that i am not unworthy of the honor is de at hand i believe he is writing in the without she answered may i lead you thither madam asked offering his hand with his most bearing she accepted it and the pair passed out of the chapel in a very drooping and condition but and in the consciousness of a mission and the boyish certainty pi it with honor the de rose to meet them with an sir said with the possible air i believe i am to have some say in the matter of this marriage and let me tell you at once i will be no party to forcing the inclination of this young lady had it been freely offered to me i should have been proud to accept her hand for i perceive she is as good as she is beautiful but as things are i have now the honor of refusing looked at him with gratitude in her eyes but the old gentleman only smiled and smiled until his smile grew positively sickening to i am afraid he said de that you do not perfectly understand the choice i have offered you follow me i you to this window and he led the way to one of the large windows which stood open on the night you observe he went on th re is an iron ring in the upper and through that a very rope now mark my words if you should find your to my niece s person i shall have you hanged out of this window before sunrise i shall only proceed to such an extremity with the greatest regret you may believe me for it is not at all your death that i desire but my niece s i nights in life at the same time it must come to that if you prove obstinate your family de is very well in its way but if you sprang from you should not refuse the hand of a with not if she had been as common as the paris road not if she were as hideous as the over my door neither my niece nor you nor my own private feelings move me at all in this matter the honor of my house has been i believe you to be the guilty person at least you are now in the secret and you can hardly wonder if i request you to wipe out the stain if you will not your blood be on your own head it will be no great satisfaction to me to have your interesting relics kicking their heels in the breeze below my windows but half a loaf is better than no bread and if i cannot cure the i shall at least stop the scandal there was a pause i believe there are other ways of settling such among gentlemen said you wear a sword and i hear you have used it with distinction the de made a signal to the who crossed the room with long silent strides and raised the over the third of the three doors it was only a moment before he let it fall again but had time to see a dusky passage full of armed men when i was a little younger i should have been delighted to honor you de said but i am now too old faithful are the of age and i must employ the strength i have this is one of the hardest things to swallow as a man grows up in years but with a little patience even this becomes habitual you and the lady seem to prefer the for what remains of your two hours and as i have no desire to cross your preference i shall resign it to your use with all the pleasure in the world no haste he added holding up his hand as he saw a dangerous look come into de s face the de s door if your mind revolt against hanging it will be time enough two hours hence to throw yourself out of the window or upon the of my two hours of life are always two hours a great many things may turn up in even as little a while as that and besides if i understand her appearance my niece has something to say to you you will not your last hours by a want of politeness to a lady looked at and she made him an imploring gesture it is likely that the old gentleman was pleased at this symptom of an understanding for he smiled on both and added if you will give me your word of honor de to await my return at the end of the two hours before attempting anything desperate i shall withdraw my and let you speak in greater privacy with again glanced at the girl who seemed to him to agree i give you my word of honor he said de bowed and proceeded to limp about the apartment clearing	38
his throat the while with that odd musical which had already grown so in the ears of de he first possessed himself of some papers which lay upon the table then he went to the mouth of the passage and appeared to give an order to the men behind the and lastly he out through the door by which had come in turning upon the threshold to address a last smiling bow to the young couple and followed by the with a hand lamp no sooner were they alone than advanced towards with her hands extended her face was flushed and excited and her eyes shone with tears you shall not die she cried you shall marry me after all you seem to think madam replied that i stand much in fear of death oh no no she said i see you are no new nights it is for my own sake i could not bear to have you slain for such a scruple i am afraid returned that you the difficulty madam what you may be too generous to refuse i may be too proud to accept in a moment of noble feeling towards me you forgot what you perhaps owe to others he had the decency to keep his eyes on the floor as he said this and after he had finished so as not to spy upon her confusion she stood silent for a moment then walked suddenly away and falling on her uncle s chair fairly burst out sobbing was in the of embarrassment he looked round as if to seek for inspiration and seeing a stool down upon it for something to do there he sat playing with the guard of his and wishing himself dead a thousand times over and buried in the kitchen heap in france his eyes wandered round the apartment but found nothing to arrest them there were such wide spaces between the furniture the light fell so badly and over all the dark outside air looked in so coldly through the windows that he thought he had never seen a church so vast nor a tomb so melancholy the regular sobs of de measured out the time like the of a clock he read the device upon the shield over and over again until his eyes became obscured he stared into shadowy corners until he imagined they were with horrible animals and every now and again he awoke with a start to remember that his last two hours were running and death was on the march oftener and often er as the time went on did his glance settle on the girl herself her face was bowed forward and covered with her hands and she was shaken at intervals by the of grief even thus she was not an unpleasant object to dwell upon so plump and yet so fine with a warm brown skin and the most beautiful hair thought in the whole world of her hands were like the de s door her uncle s but they were more in place at the end of her young arms and looked infinitely soft and caressing he remembered how her blue eyes had shone upon him full of anger pity and innocence and the more he dwelt on her the death looked and the more deeply was he smitten with at her continued tears now he felt that no man could have the courage to leave a world which contained so beautiful a creature and now he would have given forty minutes of his last hour to have his cruel speech suddenly a hoarse and ragged peal of rose to their ears from the dark below the windows and this noise in the silence of all around was like a light in a dark place and shook them both out of their reflections alas can i do nothing to help you she said looking up madam replied with a fine if i have said anything to wound you believe me it was for your own sake and not for mine she thanked him with a tearful look i feel your position cruelly he went on the world has been bitter hard on you your uncle is a disgrace to mankind believe me madam there is no young gentleman in all france but would be glad of my opportunity to die in doing you a momentary service i know already that you can be very brave and generous she answered what i want to know is whether i can serve you now or afterwards she added with a most certainly he answered with a smile let me sit beside you as if i were a friend instead of a foolish intruder try to forget how awkwardly we are placed to one another make my last moments go pleasantly and you will do me the chief service possible you are very gallant she added with a yet ne w nights deeper sadness very gallant and it somehow pains me but draw nearer if you please and if you find anything to say to me you will at least make certain of a very friendly listener ah de she broke forth ah de how can i look you in the face and she fell to weeping again with a renewed madam said taking her hand in both of his reflect on the little time i have before me and the great bitterness into which i am cast by the sight of your distress spare me in my last moments the spectacle of what i cannot cure even with the sacrifice of my life i am very selfish answered i will be de for your sake but think if i can do you no kindness in the future if you have no friends to whom i could carry your adieu x charge me as heavily as you can every burden will by so little the invaluable gratitude i owe	38
you put it in my power to do something more for you than weep my mother is married again and has a young family to care for my brother will inherit my and if i am not in error that will content him amply for my death life is a little that away as we are told by those in holy orders when a man is in a fair way and sees all life open in front of him he seems to himself to make a very important figure in the world his horse to him the trumpets blow and the girls look out of window as he rides into town before his company he receives many assurances of trust and regard sometimes by express in a letter sometimes face to face with persons of great consequence falling on his neck it is not wonderful if his head is turned for a time but once he is dead were he as brave as or as wise as solomon he is soon forgotten it is not ten years since my father fell with many other knights around him in a very fierce encounter and i do not the de s door i think that any one of them nor so much as the name of the fight is now remembered no no madam the nearer you come to it you see that death is a dark and dusty corner where a man gets into his tomb and has the door shut after him till the judgment day i have few friends just now and once i am dead i shall have none ah de she exclaimed you forget de you have a sweet nature madam and you are pleased to estimate a little service far beyond its worth it is not that she answered you mistake me if you think i am easily touched by my own concerns i say so because you are the noblest man i have ever met because i recognize in you a spirit that would have made even a common person famous in the land and yet here i die in a with no more noise about it than my own answered he a look of pain crossed her face and she was silent for a little while then a light came into her eye and with a smile she spoke again i cannot have my champion think of himself anyone who gives his life for another will be met in paradise by all the and angels of the lord god and you have no such cause to hang your head for pray do you think me beautiful she asked with a deep flush indeed madam i do he said i am glad of that she answered heartily do you think there are many men in france who have been asked in marriage by a beautiful maiden with her own lips and who have refused her to her face know you men would half despise such a triumph b it believe we women know more of what is precious in love there is nothing that should set a person higher in his own esteem and we women would prize nothing more dearly you are very good he said but you cannot ii ne w nights make me forget that i was asked in pity and not for love i am not so sure of that she replied holding down her head hear me to an end de i know how you must despise me i feel you are right to do so i am too poor a creature to occupy one thought of your mind although alas you must die for me this morning but when i asked you to marry me indeed and indeed it was because i respected and admired you and loved you with my whole soul from the very moment that you took my part against my uncle if you had seen yourself and how noble you looked you would pity rather than despise n e and now she went on hurriedly checking him with her hand although i have laid aside all reserve and told you so much remember that i know your sentiments towards me already i would not believe me being nobly born weary you with into consent i too have a pride of my own and i declare before the holy mother of god if you should now go back from your word already given i would no more marry you than i would marry my uncle s groom smiled a little bitterly it is a small love he said that at a little pride she made no answer although she probably had her own thoughts come hither to the window he said with a sigh here is the dawn and indeed the dawn was already beginning the hollow of the sky was full of essential daylight and clean and the valley underneath was with a gray reflection a few thin clung in the of the forest or lay along the course of the river the scene disengaged a surprising effect of stillness which was hardly interrupted when the began once more to crow among the perhaps the same fellow who had made so horrid a the de s door in the darkness not half an hour before now sent up the cheer to greet the coming day a little wind went bustling and among the tree tops underneath the windows and still the daylight kept out of the east which was soon to grow and cast up that red hot cannon ball the rising sun looked out over all this with a bit of a shiver he had taken her hand and retained it in his almost unconsciously has the day begun already she said and then enough the night has been so long alas what shall we say to my uncle when he returns what you will said and he pressed her	38
alone accustomed as he was to the of his profession was affected by the landlord s manner said he to his wife mark my words le is a tragic folly wait till we see what we take replied we shall take nothing returned we shall feed upon i have an eye i have a spirit of and this place is accursed the landlord has been the will be brutal the audience will be sordid and ne w it nights and you will take a cold upon your throat we have been enough to come the die is cast it will be a second was a town hateful to the not only from patriotism for they were french and answered after the flesh to the somewhat homely name of but because it had been the scene of their most sad in that place they had lain three weeks in for their hotel bill and had it not been for a surprising stroke of fortune they might have been lying there in until this day to mention the name of was for the to dip the brush in earthquake and count his hat with a gesture expressive of despair and even felt as if ill fortune had been personally let us ask for breakfast said she with a woman s tact the of police of le was a large red and subject to a strong i have repeated the name of his office because he was so very much more a than a man the spirit of his dignity had entered into him he carried his as if it were something official whenever he insulted a common citizen it seemed to him as if he were flattering the government by a side wind in of dignity he was brutal from an over sense of duty his office was a den whence could hear rude accents laying down not the law but the good pleasure of the six se times in the course of the day did m hurry thither in quest of the requisite permission for his evening s entertainment six several times he found the official was abroad began to grow quite a familiar figure in the streets of le he became a local and was pointed out as the man who was looking for the idle children attached themselves to his footsteps and trotted after him back and forward v providence and the between the hotel and the office might try as he liked he might roll he might he might cock his hat at a dozen different inclinations the part of was under the circumstances difficult to play as he passed the market place upon the seventh excursion the was pointed out to him where he stood with his waistcoat and his hands behind his back to the sale and of butter his way through the market and baskets and the with a bow which was a triumph of the art i have the honor he asked of meeting m le the c was affected by the nobility of his address he in the depth if not in the airy grace of his salutation the honor said he is mine i am continued the strolling player i am sir an artist and i have permitted myself to interrupt you on an affair of business to night i give a trifling musical entertainment at the of the triumphs of the plough permit me to offer you this little programme and i have come to ask you for the necessary at the word artist the had replaced his hat with the air of a j who having condescended too far should suddenly remember the duties of his rank go go said he i am busy i am measuring butter heathen jew thought permit me sir he resumed aloud i have gone six times already put up your bills if you choose interrupted the in an hour or so i will examine your papers at the office but now go i am busy ne w nights measuring butter thought oh france and it is for this that we made the preparations were soon made the bills posted laid on the dinner table of every hotel in the town and a stage erected at one end of the of the triumphs of the plough but when returned to the office the was once more abroad he is like madame thought and just then he met the man face to face here sir said he are my papers will you ba pleased to but the was now intent upon dinner no use he replied no use i am busy i am quite satisfied give your entertainment and he hurried on i thought chapter ii the audience was pretty large and the proprietor of the made a thing of it in beer but the exerted themselves in vain was radiant in he had a way of smoking a between his songs that was worth money in itself he his comic points so that the in le had a notion when to laugh and he handled his in a manner worthy of himself indeed his play with that instrument was as good as a whole romantic drama it was so dashing so and so on the other hand sang her and romantic songs with more than usual expression her voice had charm and and as looked at her in her low dress with her arms bare to the shoulder and a red flower set in her he repeated to himself for the many hun time that she was one of the loveliest creatures in the world of women alas when she went round with the the golden youth of le turned from her coldly here and there a single was forth coming the net result of a collection never exceeded half a and the himself after seven had contributed exactly a certain chill began to settle upon the artists themselves it	38
seemed as if they were singing to himself might have lost heart with such an audience the struggled against the impression they put their back into their work they sang loud and louder the like a living thing and at last arose in his might and burst with conviction his great song k a des never had he given more proof of his artistic mastery ne w nights it was his intimate conviction that formed an exception to the law he was now and was peopled exclusively by thieves and and yet as i say he flung it down like a challenge he it forth like an article of faith and his face so beamed the while that you would have thought he must make of the benches he was at the top of his register with his head thrown back and his mouth open when the door was thrown violently open and a pair of new comers marched into the it was the followed by the the still continued to proclaim y a des tes but now the sentiment produced an audible among the audience wondered why he did not know the of the he had never heard of a little story about but the public knew al about the and enjoyed the coincidence the planted himself upon a vacant chair with somewhat the air of visiting the and spoke in occasional whispers to the who remained respectfully standing at his back the eyes of both were directed upon who persisted in his statement y a des he was just for the twentieth time when up got the upon his feet and waved to the singer with his cane is it me you want inquired stopping in his song it is you replied the thought and he descended from the stage and made his way to the how does it happen sir said the swelling in person that i find you in a public without my permission providence and the without cried the indignant permit me to remind you come come sir said the i desire no explanations i care nothing about what you desire returned the singer i choose to give them and i will not be i am an artist sir a distinction that you cannot comprehend i received your permission and stand here upon the strength of it interfere with me who dare you have not got my signature i tell you cried the show me my signature where is my signature that was just the question where was his signature recognized that he was in a hole but his spirit rose with the occasion and he nobly tossing back his curls the played up to him in the character of tyrant and as the one leaned farther forward the other leaned farther back majesty fury the audience had transferred their attention to this new performance and listened with that silent gravity common to all in the neighborhood of the police had sat down she was used to these and it was rather melancholy than fear that now oppressed her another word cried the and i arrest you arrest me shouted i defy you i am the of police said the official commanded his feelings and replied with great delicacy of so it would appear the point was too refined for le it did not raise a smile and as for the he simply bade the singer follow him to his office and directed his proud footsteps towards the door there was nothing for it but to obey did so with a proper of indifference but it was a to eat and there was no denying it i o ne w nights the had slipped out and was already waiting at the s door now the in france is the refuge of the oppressed he stands between his people and the boisterous of the police he can sometimes understand what is said to him he is not always puffed up beyond measure by his dignity tis a thing worth the knowledge of when all seems over and a man has made up his mind to injustice he has still like the heroes of romance a little at his belt whereon to blow and the a comfortable ex may still descend to deliver him from the of the law the of le although inaccessible to the charms of music as by the had no hesitation whatever as to the rights of the matter he instantly fell foul of the in very high terms and the pricked by this humiliation accepted battle on the point of fact the argument lasted little while with varying success until at length victory inclined so plainly to the s side that the was fain to re assert himself by an exercise of authority he had been but he was still the and so turning from his he briefly but kindly recommended to go back to his concert it is already growing late he added did not wait to be told twice he returned to the of the triumphs of the plough with all expedition alas the audience had melted away during his absence was sitting in a very attitude on the box she had watched the company by and and the prolonged spectacle had somewhat overwhelmed her spirits each man she reflected retired with a certain proportion of her in his pockets and she saw to night s board and to morrow s railway expenses and finally even to morrow s dinner walk one after another out of the door and disappear into the night what was it she asked languidly providence and the but did not answer he was looking round him on the scene of defeat scarce a score of listeners remained and these of the least promising sort the minute hand of the clock was already climbing upward towards eleven it s a lost battle said he and then taking up the money box he turned it	38
by some thick a door with a letter box and an iron bell pull that was all that could be seen of the s l on took the bell pull in both hands and danced furiously upon the side walk the bell itself was just upon the other side of the wall it responded to his activity and scattered an alarming far and wide into the night a window was thrown open in a house across the street and a voice inquired the cause of this uproar providence and the i i wish the said he has been in bed this hour returned the voice he must get up again retorted and he was for the bell pull once more you will never make him hear responded the voice the garden is of great extent the house is at the farther end and both the and his housekeeper are deaf said pausing the is deaf is he that explains and he thought of the evening s concert with a momentary feeling of relief ah he continued and so the is deaf and the garden vast and the house at the far end and you might ring all night added the voice and be none the for it you would only keep me awake thank you neighbor replied the singer you shall sleep and he made off again at his best pace for the s was still walking to and fro before the door he has not come asked not he she replied good returned i am sure our s inside let me see the case i shall lay this siege in form i am angry i am indignant i am inclined but i thank my maker i have still a sense of fun the unjust judge shall be in a set him up and set him up he had the case opened by this time struck a few and fell into an attitude which was irresistibly spanish now he continued feel your voice are you ready follow me the and the two voices in harmony and with a startling the chorus of a song of old b s bat sa new nights the stones of le thrilled at this audacious hitherto had the night been sacred to repose and and now what was this window after window was opened matches scratched and candles began to swollen sleepy faces peered forth into the there were two figures before the s house each bolt upright with head thrown back and eyes the heavens the shouted and like an and the voices with a crisp and spirited delivery hurled the appropriate burden at the s window all the echoes repeated the s name it was more like an in a farce of re s than a passage of real life in the if he was not the first was the last of the neighbors to yield to the influence of music and furiously throw open the window of his bedroom he was beside himself with rage he leaned far over the window sill and the of his white night cap danced like a thing of life he opened his mouth to dimensions hitherto and yet his voice instead of escaping from it in a roar came shrill and choked and tottering a little more and it was clear he would be better acquainted with the i scorn to his language he touched upon too many serious topics by the way for a quiet although he was known for a man who was prompt with his tongue and had a power of strong expression at command he himself so remarkably this one maiden lady who had got out of bed like the rest to hear the was obliged to shut her window at the second even what she had heard her conscience and next day she said she scarcely reckoned as a maiden lady any longer tried to explain his but he providence and the received nothing but threats of arrest by way of answer if i come down to you cried the aye said do i will not cried the you dare not answered p at that the closed his window all is over said the singer the was perhaps ill judged these have no sense of humor let us get away from here said with a shiver all these people looking it is so rude and so brutal and then giving way once more to passion brutes she cried aloud to the candle lit brutes brutes brutes qui said you have done it now and taking the in one hand and the case in the other he led the way with something too to be merely called from the scene of this absurd adventure chapter iv to the west of le four rows of venerable lime trees formed in this night a avenue with two side of pitch darkness here and there tone benches were disposed between the trunks there was not a breath of wind a heavy atmosphere of perfume hung about the and every leaf stood stock still upon its hither after vainly knocking at an inn or two the came at length to pass the night after an amiable insisted on giving his coat to and they sat down together on the first bench in silence made a which he smoked to an end looking up into the trees and beyond them at the of which he tried vainly to recall the names the silence was broken by the church bell it rang the four quarters on a light and measure then followed a sing le deep stroke that died slowly away with a thrill and stillness resumed its empire one said four hours till daylight it is warm it is i have matches and tobacco do not let us the experience is positively charming i feel a glow within me i am born again this is the poetry of life think of	38
s novels my dear she said fiercely how can you talk such wicked infamous nonsense to pass all night out of doors it is like a nightmare we shall die you suffer yourself to be led away he replied soothingly it is not unpleasant here only you brood come now let us repeat a scene shall we try and c ne no or a passage from the two come now it will occupy your h providence and the mind i will play up to you as i never have played before i feel art moving in my bones hold your tongue she cried or you will drive me mad will nothing you not even this hideous situation oh hideous objected hideous is not the word why where would you be la he well now he went on opening the case there s another idea for you sing sing la it will compose your spirits i am sure and without waiting an answer he began to the the first awoke a young man who was lying asleep upon a neighbouring bench cried the young man who are you under which king the artist speak or die or if it was not exactly that it was something to much the same purpose from a french tragedy the young man drew near in the twilight he was a tall powerful gentlemanly fellow with a somewhat face dressed in a gray suit with a hat of the same material and as he now came forward he carried a upon one arm are you out here too he asked with a strong english accent i m not sorry for company explained their and the other told them that he was a cambridge on a walking tour that he had run short of money could no longer pay for his night s lodging had already been out for two nights and feared he should require to continue the same for at least two nights more luckily it s jolly weather he concluded you hear that said madame he went on is affected by this trifling occurrence for my part i find it roman new nights romantic ho courageous and how are you pleased with my land how does the scenery affect you among these wild hills of ours well the fact is began he was about to say that he didn t care for scenery which was not at all true being on the contrary only an but he had begun to suspect that liked a different sort of meat and something else the fact is i think it jolly they told me it was no good up here even the guide book said so but i don t know what they meant i think it is pretty upon my word i do at this moment in the most unexpected manner burst into tears my voice she cried if i stay here i shall lose my voice you shall not stay another moment cried the actor if i have to beat in a door if i have to burn the town i shall find you shelter with that he replaced the and comforting her with some caresses drew her arm through his said he taking off his hat the reception i offer you is rather but let me you to give us the pleasure of your society you are a little embarrassed for the moment you must indeed permit me to advance what may be necessary i ask it as a favor we must not part so soon after having met so strangely oh come you know said i can t let a fellow like you and there he paused feeling somehow or other on a wrong tack i do not wish to employ continued with a smile but if you refuse indeed i shall not take it kindly i don t quite see my way out of it thought the and then after a pause he said aloud and enough all right i i m very much obliged of course and he proceeded to follow them thinking in his heart but it s bad form all the same to an obligation on a fellow chapter v strode ahead as if he knew exactly where he was going the sobs of madame were still faintly audible and no one uttered a word a dog furiously in a court yard as they went by then the church clock struck two and many domestic followed of preceded it in tones and just then a light it burned in a small house on the outskirts of the town and thither the party now directed their steps it is always a chance said the house in question stood back from the street behind an open space part garden part field and several stood forward from either wing at right angles to the front one of these had recently undergone some change an enormous window looking towards the north had been effected in the wall and roof and began to hope it was a if it s only a painter he said with a chuckle ten to one we get as good a welcome as we want i thought painters were principally poor said ah cried l on you do not know the world as i do the poorer the better for us and the advanced into the field the light was in the ground floor as one window was brightly illuminated and two others more faintly it might be supposed that there was a single lamp in one corner of a large apartment and a certain and temporary showed that a live fire contributed to the effect the sound of a voice now became audible and the paused to listen it was pitched in a high angry key but had still a good full and masculine note in it the utter new nights ance was too even to be quite distinct a	38
stream of words rising and falling with ever and again a phrase thrown out by itself as if the speaker reckoned on its virtue suddenly another voice joined in this time it was a woman s and if the man were angry the woman was to the degree of fury there was that absolutely blank composure known to suffering that unnatural speech which shows a spirit accurately balanced between and the tone in which the best of women sometimes utter words worse than death to those most dear to them if abstract bones and were to be endowed with the gift of speech thus and not otherwise would it discourse l on was a brave man and i fear he was somewhat given he had been educated in a country but the habit of childhood prevailed and he crossed himself devoutly he had met several women in his career it was obvious that his instinct had not deceived him for the male voice broke forth instantly in a towering passion the who had not understood the significance of the woman s contribution pricked up his ears at the change upon the man there s going to be a free fight he there was another retort from the woman still calm but a little higher asked of his wife is that the stage direction how should i know returned somewhat oh woman woman said beginning to open the case it is one of the burdens of my life they support each other they always pretend there is no system they say it s nature even madame who is a dramatic artist you are heartless said that woman is in trouble providence and the and the man my angel inquired passing the ribbon of his and the man m he is a man she answered you hear that said to it is not too late for you mark the and now he continued what are we to give them are you going to sing asked i am a replied i claim a welcome by and for my art if i were a banker could i do as much well you wouldn t need you know the said but that s true that is true of course it is she replied did you not know it my dear answered i know nothing but what is agreeable even my knowledge of life is a work of art composed but what are we to give them it should be something appropriate visions of let dogs delight passed through the s mind but it occurred to him that the poetry was english and that he did not know the air hence he contributed no suggestion something about our said i have it cried and he broke forth into a song of s ou mai ce joined in so did with a good ear and voice but an imperfect acquaintance with the music and the were equal to the situation the actor his throat notes with and enthusiasm and as he looked up to heaven in his heroic way tossing the black it seemed to him that the very stars contributed a dumb applause ne w nights to his efforts and the universe lent him its silence for a chorus that is one of the best features of the heavenly bodies that they belong to everybody in particular and a man like l on a who managed to get along without encouragement is always the world s centre for himself he alone and it is to be noted he was the worst singer of the three took the music seriously to heart and judged the from a high artistic point oi view on the other hand was about their reception and as for he considered the whole affair in the light of a broad joke know you the of may the lovely month went the three voices in the field the inhabitants were plainly fluttered the light moved to and fro in one window in another and then the door was thrown open and a man in a appeared on the threshold carrying a lamp he was a powerful young fellow with bewildered hair and beard wearing his neck open his was stained with oil colors in a disorder and there was something rural in the and of his trousers from immediately behind him and indeed over his shoulder a woman s face looked out into the darkness it was pale and a little weary although still young it wore a disappearing soon to be quite gone and the expression was both gentle and sour and reminded one faintly of the taste of certain for all that it was not a face to dislike when the had vanished it seemed as if a certain pale beauty might step in to take its place and as both the and the were characters of youth it might be hoped that with years both would into a constant brave and not temper what is all this cried the man chapter had his hat in his hand at once he came for ward with his customary grace it was a moment which would have earned him a round of cheering on the stage and advanced behind him like a couple of s sheep following the god sir said the hour is late and our little has the air of an impertinence believe me sir it is an appeal is an artist i perceive we are here three artists and shelter one a woman a delicate woman in evening dress in an interesting situation this will not fail to touch the woman s heart of madame whom i perceive behind her husband and whose face speaks of a well regulated mind ah madame one generous movement and you make three people happy two or three hours beside your fire i ask it of in the name of art i ask it of madame	38
by the of womanhood the two as by a consent drew back from the door come in said the man madame said the woman the door opened directly upon the kitchen of the house which was to all appearance the only the furniture was both plain and scanty but there were one or two on the wall handsomely framed as if they had already visited the committee rooms of an exhibition and been thence walked up to the pictures and represented the part of a before each in turn with his usual dramatic insight and force the master of the house as if irresistibly attracted followed ne w nights him from canvas to canvas with the lamp was led directly to the fire where she proceeded to warm herself while stood in the middle of the floor and followed the proceedings of with mild astonishment in his eyes you should see them by daylight said the artist i promise myself that pleasure said you possess sir if you will permit me an observation the art of composition to a t you are very good returned the other but should you not draw nearer to the fire with all my heart said and the whole party soon gathered at the table over a hasty and not an elegant cold supper washed down with the least of small nobody liked the meal but nobody complained they put a good face upon it one and all and made a great of knives and forks to see eating a single cold was to see a triumph by the time he had done he had got through as much as would have for a baron of beef and he had the relaxed expression of the over eaten as had naturally taken a place by the side of l on and as naturally although i believe unconsciously by the side of the host and hostess were left together yet it was to be noted that they never addressed a word to each other nor so much as suffered their eyes to meet the interrupted still survived in ill feeling and the instant the guests departed it would break forth again as bitterly as ever the talk wandered from this to that subject for with one accord the party had declared it was too late to go to bed but those two never relaxed towards each other and in a were not more bent on enmity it chanced that was so much tired by all the little of the night that for once she laid aside her company manners which were both easy and correct and in the most natural manner in the providence and the leaned her head on s shoulder at the same time fatigue suggesting tenderness she locked the fingers of her right hand into those of her husband s left and half closing her eyes off into a golden between sleep and waking but all the time she was not unaware of what was passing and saw the painter s wife studying her with looks between contempt and envy it occurred to that his constitution demanded the use of some tobacco and he his fingers from s in order to roll a it was gently done and he took care that his indulgence should in no other way disturb his wife s position but it seemed to catch the eye of the painter s wife with a special she looked straight before her for an instant and then with a swift and stealthy movement took hold of her husband s hand below the table alas she might have spared herself the dexterity for the poor fellow was so overcome by this caress that he stopped with his mouth open in the middle of a word and by the expression of his face plainly declared to all the company that his thoughts had been diverted into softer channels if it had not been rather amiable it would have been droll his wife at once withdrew her touch but it was plain she had to exert some force thereupon the young man colored and looked for a moment beautiful and both observed the by play and a shock passed from one to the other for they were match makers especially between those who were already married i beg your pardon said suddenly i see no use in pretending before we came in here we heard sounds indicating if i may so express an imperfect harmony sir began the man but the woman was b it is quite true she said i see no cause to be new nights ashamed if my husband is mad i shall at least do my utmost to prevent the consequences picture to yourself and madame she went on for she passed over that this wretched person a an not fit to be a sign receives this morning an admirable offer from an uncle an uncle of my own my mother s brother and tenderly beloved of a with nearly a hundred and fifty pounds a year and that he picture to yourself he refuses it why for the sake of art he says look at his art i say look at it is it fit to be seen ask him is it fit to be sold and it is for this and madame that he me to the most deplorable existence without luxuries without comforts in a vile of a country town o non she cried non je ne me pas c est fort i take these gentlemen and this lady for judges is this kind is it decent is it manly do i not deserve better at his hands after having married him and a visible done everything in the world to please him i doubt if there were ever a more embarrassed company at a table looked like a fool and the	38
husband like the biggest the art of however said breaking the silence is not wanting in distinction it has this distinction said the wife that nobody will buy it i should have supposed a began art is art swept in i salute art it is the beautiful the divine it is the spirit of the world and the pride of life but and the actor paused a began i ll tell you what it is said the painter i am an artist and as this gentleman says art is this and the other but of course if my wife is going to make my life a piece of all day long i prefer to go and drown myself out of hand providence and the go said his wife i should like to see you i was going to say resumed that a fellow may be a clerk and paint almost as much as he likes i know a fellow in a bank o makes capital water color sketches he even sold one for seven to both the women this seemed a plank of safety each the countenance of her lord even an artist herself but indeed there must be something permanently in the female nature the two men exchanged a glance it was tragic not otherwise might two philosophers salute as at the end of a laborious life each recognized that he was still a mystery to his arose art is art he repeated sadly it is not sketches nor on a piano it is a life to be lived and in the meantime people starve observed the woman of the house if that sa life it is not one for me i ll tell you what burst forth you madame go into another room and talk it over with my wife and i ll stay here and talk it over with your husband it may come to nothing but let s try i am very willing replied the young woman and she proceeded to light a candle this way if you please and she led upstairs into a bedroom the fact is said she sitting down that my husband cannot paint no more can mine act replied i should have thought he could returned the other he seems clever he is so and the best of men besides said but he cannot act at least he is not a sheer like mine he can at least sing you mistake returned his wife warmly he does not even pretend to sing he has too fine a taste he does so for a living and believe me neither j pr ai nights of the men are they are people a mission which they cannot carry out or not replied the other you came very near passing the night in the fields and for my part i live in terror of starvation i should think it was a man s mission to think twice about his wife but it appears not nothing is their mission but to play the fool oh she broke out is it not something dreary to think of that man of mine if he could only do it who would care but no not he no more than i can have you any children asked no but then i may children change so much said with a sigh and then from the room below there flew up a sudden snapping cord on the one followed after another then the voice of joined in and there was an air being played and sung that stopped the speech of the two women the wife of the painter stood like a person looking into her eyes could see all manner of beautiful memories and kind thoughts that were passing in and out of her soul with every note it was a piece of her youth that went before her a green french plain the smell of apple flowers the far and shining of a river and the words and presence of love has hit the nail thought to herself i wonder how the how was plain enough has asked the painter if there were no air connected with courtship and pleasant times and having learned what he wished allowed an interval to pass he had forth into o mon o mon l pardon me madame said the painter s wife your husband sings admirably well providence and the he sings that with some feeling replied although she was a little moved herself for the song cut both ways in the upper chamber but it is as an actor and not as a life is very sad said the other it so away under one s fingers have not found it so replied i think the good parts of it last and grow greater every day frankly how would you advise me frankly i would let my husband do what he wished he is obviously a very loving painter you have not yet tried him as a clerk and ou know if it were only as the possible father of your children it is as well to keep him at his best he is an excellent fellow said the wife they kept it up till sunrise with music and all manner of good fellowship and at sunrise while the sky was still temperate and clear they separated on the threshold with a thousand excellent wishes for each other s welfare le was beginning to send up its smoke against the golden east and the f bell was ringing six my is a familiar spirit said i as he and took th e nearest way toward the inn it a created an english and reconciled a man and wife on his went off into the morning with reflections of his own they are all mad thought he all but wonderfully decent the list of books of fiction published by charles s sons new york	38
mary an honorable surrender l mo the belongs distinctly to the school of modem fiction the situations are those of every day the characters are not in the least eccentric the dialogue is never extravagant the descriptive and passages are neither nor too the sum of all these is a charming book full of a genuine human interest william an romance l mo it is well called a romance and no romance indeed could be more effective than the extraordinary extract from italian annals of the i th century which it preserves in such vivid colors the incidents are presented with dramatic art the movement of the story never z york a wheel of fire i mo the novel with character rather than incident and is from one of the most terrible of moral problems with a not unlike that of one cannot all the fine points of artistic skill which make this study so wonderful in its insight so rare in its combination of dramatic power and tenderness the critic h l mo i i mo tales from two l mo on the and other stories l mo queen l mo mr s stories possess a sweetness a tenderness and a that are fascinating and yet they are no more than they are strong the home journal s brief list of fiction c the story of a new york house by a b frost l mo the l mo i oo in with l mo paper cloth it is mr s delicacy of touch and appreciation of is literary art that give his writings quality everything mr shows the happy appreciation of an author who has not alone mental but the artistic appreciation the author and the artist both one another in this excellent story of a new york house t new york that o s illustrated paper cents cloth h s illustrated l mo i th rough one tion l l mo i s a fair l mo surly tim and other stories l mo the above in uniform binding j o per set little lord illustrated by r b vo or what happened at miss s illustrated by r b earlier stories by the same author each i mo paper covers s luck t pretty mrs gracious secrets in rough and natures the sweetness that often their bitterness the soul of goodness in things evil she seems to have an perception of character if we apprehend her personages and i think we do clearly it is not because she describes them to us but because they reveal themselves in their actions mrs s characters are as veritable as s richard henry william butler a tale of the imperial city l mo under a veil made transparent the author a running fire of good natured at contemporary social follies there is a delicate love story running through the book the author s style is highly finished one might term it old fashioned in its exquisite and precision the new york journal of commerce s brief list of fiction george w cable the l mo old days l mo l also in two parts l mo cloth each paper each dr l mo paper cloth a pastoral of l mo the j oo there are few living american writers who can for us more perfectly than mr cable does in his best moments the speech the manners the whole social atmosphere of a remote time and a peculiar people a delicious flavor of humor his stories and the tr ic portions are handled with rare strength the new york mary and others l mo mrs has a marked gift of being constantly entertaining there is a certain and of flavor in her work which makes even the slightest things that come from her pen pleasant and profitable reading the new york evening post edward l mo l the circuit rider mo the illustrated i me the mystery of metropolis vi illustrated l mo the end of the world illustrated l mo the set j s dr s career as a has been a peculiar one his first work achieved a swift and le success its fresh and vivid of a phase of life and manners hitherto almost in literature its boldly contrasted characters its hearty religious spirit and its reflection of the vigorous individuality of the author took hold of the public imagination the christian union friend the illustrated to the madame the of the invasion of france in a miller s story of the war illustrated each j mo i s r not only are these stories interesting but they present pleasant well constructed plots serving in each case to connect the great events which they so treat the philadelphia s brief list of fiction s brother s wife l mo a novel that stands out in clear relief against the fiction of the time it is made of is serious without being heavy brisk and interesting without being takes hold of real life with an easy yet firm and confident that habits of thought as well as a comfortable mastery of the literary medium the times robert grant face to face i mo paper cloth this is a well told story the interest of which turns upon a game of cross purposes between an accomplished english girl as a free and easy american miller and an american gentleman somewhat given to the manners of the english the express edward hale philip s friends l mo there is no question we think that this is mr hale s and best novel the characters are for the most part well drawn and several of them are admirable the atlantic monthly a chronicle of old virginia l mo paper cloth i mo fiction has afforded no more	38
charming glimpses of old virginia life than are found in this delightful story with its quaint pictures its admirably drawn characters its wit a d its frankness the daily times free joe and other l mo the author s skill as a story writer has never been more illustrated than in this volume the title story is meagre almost to in incident but its quaint humor its simple but characters and above all its pathos combine to make it a of its kind the new york sun the s ring a romance of mount l mo paper cloth the conception of the story is excellent it a a to artistic literary effect and a fine power of selection in material the boston traveller s brief list of fiction e t iv weird tales with portrait i mo knew how to a ghost story quite as as and with a good deal more sense of reality all those who are in search of a genuine literary sensation or who care for the and supernatural will find these two volumes fascinating reading christian union dr y g holland seven the bay path arthur bon miss each i i the j dr holland will always find a congenial audience in the homes of culture and refinement he does not affect the play ot the darker and passions but delights in the sweet images that cluster around the domestic hearth he a strong fellow feeling with the pure and tranquil life in the modest social circles of the american people and has thus won his way to the companionship of many friendly hearts the new york thomas a color studies i mo novel and ingenious these little stories with all their simplicity have excited a wide interest the best of them d is a little wonder in its dramatic effect its ingenious construction the critic virginia w johnson the of l mo the plot is good and in its working out original is miss johnson s and her pen sketches of the the playing clergyman and the rising young doctor the sentimental painter the rival etc are quite up to her best work the boston j d j a desperate chance i mo paper cloth this novel is of the good old fashioned exciting kind though it is a sea story all the action is not on board ship there is a well mystery and while it is in no sense readers may be assured that they will not be out by descriptions nor will they find a dull page from first to last the union the king s men a tale of to morrow by robert grant john o j s of and john t l mo brief list of fiction the mark of l mo c fl no one can deny that it is crammed as full of incident as it will hold or that the elaborate plot is worked out with most ingenious the saturday review george p l mo paper cloth i an echo of passion l paper cloth in the distance l mo paper cloth i it is one of the charms of mr s style that it appeals to the imagination of the reader by a delicate which lies like a fine atmosphere over the landscape of the story his novels have the refinement of motive which the school but his manner is far more direct and dramatic the christian union the secret of the sea and other i mo paper cloth the last meeting l mo paper cloth in with h c l mo paper cloth mr is a man of wide observation and of much familiarity with the world his literary style is bright and crisp with a peculiar sparkle about it wit and humor mingled which renders his pages more than ordinarily interesting the post express g dr l mo the author finds scenes and characters enough in a single parish to furnish the of the book there are capital descriptions of parish life home scenes love making hard cases and men and women their ways habits in short all the and going to make the texture of this isolated rural life there are few writers in this country who have ever surpassed the author in the description of rural new england life the san fit james the diamond with other mo paper cloth these stories are the only things in literature to be compared with s works and if they do not equal it in they certainly do not yield to it in originality philadelphia record s brief list of fiction thomas page in mar e and other l mo there are qualities in these stories of mr page which we do not find in those of any other southern author or not to the same extent and in the same force and they are the qualities which are too often wanting in modem literature n y mail and express within the l simplicity earnestness and are the appropriate qualities of a tale supposed to be by an old sea captain as he sits by the chimney comer in a happy old age the proves to possess all the wonderful elements of romance and adventure ta boston journal s stories first series miller fl tha elder s wife wife was she the how one woman her s love letters second series four farmer s my joe hale s red s escape each j i mo paper o j cloth i oo s characters ar strongly drawn and she goes right to the heart of human experience as one who knows the way we heartily commend them as wholesome and sufficiently exciting stories the advance tiger lily and other stories l mo v each of the fine short stories in the p collection is	38
original in subject and unique in treatment and the story of tiger lily is in its way short as it is a the critic robert louis strange case of dr and mr i mo paper cloth l mo paper cloth illustrated i the merry men and other tales and l mo paper cloth new nights l mo paper cloth the with mrs l mo paper cloth if there is any writer of the time about whom the critics of england and america agree it is mr robert louis there is something in his work precisely what it is not easy to say which and the attention from the first page to the last which shapes itself before the mind s eye while reading and which refuses to be forgotten long after the which revealed it has been closed and put away the york m il and express s brief list of fiction of l mo r cloth i the crime of henry l mo the sentimental head pieces by f g i mo the author of that very bright witty and audacious story has written another the crime of henry which is just as witty in many of its chapters and has more of a purpose in its whole structure no young in this country seems better equipped than mr is he shows unusual gifts in this and in hb other stories the philadelphia frank r l mo paper cloth by a b frost q i mo the late mrs i the lady or the tiger and other i mo paper cloth the christmas wreck and other stories l mo paper doth i the bee man of and other fanciful tales i mo cloth and other stories l mo paper cloth of mr s stories what is there to say but that they are an blessing and delight he is surely one of tiie most of talents discovering not only a new kind in humor and fancy but an inexhaustible wealth of details in each fresh achievement the least of which would be riches from another hand w d h dwells in s magazine stories by american authors cloth i mo each set lo j s oo cabinet ed in sets only y so describing the series sent on application to the the public ought to appreciate the value of this series which is preserving permanently in american literature short stories that have contributed to its advancement american writers lead all others in this form of fiction and their best work appears in these volumes the boston globe t r roses of shadow l mo the characters of the story have a remarkable and individuality every one of them which mark at once mr s strongest promise as a all of his men are excellent john the grimly pathetic old beau sometimes reminds us of a touch of the star john t a child of the century l mo paper cloth this is one of the most thoroughly novels that has been published for a long time it is a story of to day of american life and character a typical story of political and social life free from or morbid and over with fun which is never vulgar the christian at work c s robert louis s books strange case of dr and mr i paper c cloth being of the adventures of david in the year with full page illustrations i without illustrations paper c cloth the merry men and other tales and i mo paper c cloth new nights i mo cloth oo paper the new nights with mrs i mo cloth paper c memories and portraits z cloth x oo familiar studies of men and books i mo and other papers cloth of cloth i mo cloth t oo a child s garden of verse cloth mr is a wonder a for his space and time are as naught no line of circumstance refuses to yield at his bidding yet it is by the simplest of straightforward truth telling that he brings us under his spell mr has too like the perfect sense of proportion which never an exaggeration or a the nation charles s sons t is s new robert louis s books ei thousand st range c of dr and mr cloth fine library edition gilt top i oo paper c he ho s chosen the oldest of all the strife between good and evil there is no abstract discussion no argument of philosophy or of y but he sets before u the two elements in a man s nature and lets them fight it out before our eyes n y evening post being of the adventures of david in the year ho k he was and cast away his sufferings in a desert i su his journey in the wild his acquaintance with t and other notorious j with au that he suffered at the hands of his uncle of sh a so called i vol i mo cloth with full page illustrations by the eminent english artist william hole without illustrations cloth paper c no better book of its kind than these of the adventures of david has ever been written n y nation it is written with a beautiful and that convince the reader with every sentence he is reading a true history while the author s wonderful power of description his cunning of character and his charming english combine to make the story boston the y men and tales and f at i mo cloth paper yellow covers cents contents the merry men chap i chap ii what the wreck had brought to chap iii land and sea in bay chap iv the gale chap v a man out of the sea will o the mill the of a story in eight	38
as reversed in the other court i wonder will it be the same with its successor r l s lake contents john a all i the two lads i at the sign op the sun in ii in the in the iv a company v bloody as the hunter g vi to the day s end vii the face ii the moat house i dick asks questions ii the two oaths hi the room over the chapel iv the passage v how dick changed sides vi contents iii my lord i thb house by the shore ii a in the dark iii st bride s cross iv the good hope v the good hope continued vi the good hope concluded iv the disguise i the den ii in mine enemies house iii the dead spy iv in the abbey church v earl vi again v i the shrill trumpet ii the battle of in the battle of concluded iv the sack of v in the woods i vi night in the woods concluded dick and vii dick s revenge conclusion a j i the black arrow a tale of the two b e john all on a certain afternoon in the late the bell upon moat house was heard ringing at an hour far and near in the forest and in the fields along the river people began to desert their labours and hurry towards the sound and in hamlet a group of poor country folk stood wondering at the summons hamlet at that period in the reign of old king henry vi wore much the same appearance as it wears to day a score or so of houses heavily framed with oak stood scattered in a long green valley ascending from the river at the foot the road crossed a bridge and mounting on the other side disappeared into the of the forest on its way to the moat house and further forth to abbey half way up the village the church stood among on every tub black arrow side the slopes were crowned and the view bounded by the green elms and oak trees of the forest hard by the bridge there was a stone cross upon a and here the group had collected half a dozen women and one tall fellow in a discussing what the bell an express had gone through the hamlet half an hour before and drunk a pot of ale in the saddle not daring to for the hurry of his errand but he had been ignorant himself of what was forward and only bore sealed letters from sir daniel to sir the parson who kept the moat house in the master s absence but now there was the noise of a horse and soon out of the edge of the wood and over the echoing bridge there rode up young master richard sir daniel s ward he at the least would know and they hailed him and begged him to explain he drew bridle willingly enough sl young fellow not yet eighteen sun and grey eyed in a jacket of deer s leather with a black velvet collar a green hood upon his head and a steel at his back the express it appeared had brought great news a battle was impending sir daniel had sent for every man that could draw a bow or carry a bill to go post haste to under pain of his severe displeasure but for whom they were to fight or of where the battle was expected dick knew nothing sir would come shortly himself and was at that moment for he it was who should lead the party john all o it is the ruin of this kind land a woman said if the live at war must eat roots nay said dick every man that follows shall have sixpence a day and twelve if they live returned the woman that may very well be but how if they die my master they cannot better die than for their natural lord said dick no natural lord of mine said the man in the i followed the so we all did down way till two years ago come and now i must side with it was the law that did it call ye that natural but now what with sir daniel and what with sir that knows more of law than honesty i have no natural lord but poor king harry the god bless him the poor innocent that cannot tell his right hand from his left ye speak with an ill tongue friend answered dick to your good master and my lord the king in the same but king harry praised be the saints has come again into his right mind and will have all things ordained and as for sir daniel y are very brave behind his back but i will be no tale bearer and let that suffice i say no harm of you master richard returned the peasant y are a lad but when ye come to a man s inches ye will find ye have an empty pocket i say no more the saints help sir daniel s neighbours and the blessed maid protect his wards i b the black said richard you speak what i cannot hear with honour sir daniel is good master and my guardian come now will ye read me a riddle returned on whose side is sir daniel i know not said dick colouring a little for his guardian had changed sides continually in the troubles of that period and every change had brought him some increase of fortune ay returned you nor no man for indeed he is one that goes to bed and gets up york just then the bridge rang under horse shoe iron and the party turned and saw come galloping a brown fellow heavy of hand and grim of	38
mien armed with sword and spear a steel on his head a leather jack upon his body he was a great man in these parts sir daniel s right hand in peace and war and at that time by his master s interest of the hundred he shouted to the moat house and send all other the same gate will give you jack and we must ride before look to it he that is last at the gate sir daniel shall reward look to it right well i know you for a man of naught he added to one of the women is old up town i ll warrant you replied the woman in his field for sure john all so the group dispersed and while walked leisurely over the bridge and young rode up the road together through the village and past the church ye will see the old said he will waste more time grumbling and of harry the than would serve a man to shoe a horse and all because he has been to the french wars the house to which they were bound was the last in the village standing alone among and beyond it on three sides there was open meadow rising towards the borders of the wood dismounted threw his rein over the fence and walked down the field dick keeping close at his elbow to where the old soldier was digging knee deep in his and now and again in a cracked voice singing a snatch of song he was all dressed in leather only his hood and were of black and tied with scarlet his face was like a shell both for colour and wrinkles but his old grey eye was still clear enough and his sight perhaps he was deaf perhaps he thought it unworthy of an old of to pay any heed to such but neither the surly notes of the alarm bell nor the near approach of and the lad appeared at all to move him and he continued digging and up very thin and now dear lady if thy will be i pray you that yon will on me the black nick said sir him to you and bids that ye shall come within this hour to the moat house there to take command the old fellow looked up save you my masters i he said grinning and where master master is off to with every man that we can horse returned there is a fight toward it seems and my lord stays a ay verily returned and what will ye leave me to garrison withal i leave you six good men and sir to boot answered it ll not hold the place said the not it would take two score to make it good why it s for that we came to you old i replied the other who else is there but you that could do aught in such a house with such a garrison ay when the pinch comes ye remember the old shoe returned nick there is not a man of you can back a horse or hold a bill and as for st michael if old harry the were back again he would stand and let ye shoot at him for a a shoot nay nick there s some can draw a good bow yet said draw a good bow cried yes but john all who ll shoot me a good shoot it s there the eye comes in and the head between your shoulders now what might you call a long shoot well said looking about him it would be a long shoot from here into the forest ay it would be a shoot said the old fellow turning to look over his shoulder and then he put up his hand over his eyes and stood staring why what are you looking at asked with a chuckle do you see harry the t the continued looking up the hill in silence the sun shone over the meadows a few white sheep wandered all was still but the distant of the bell what is it asked dick why the birds said and sure enough over the top of the forest where it ran down in a tongue among the meadows and ended in a pair of goodly green elms about a from the field where they were standing a flight of birds was to and fro in evident disorder what of the birds said ay i returned y are a wise man to go to war master birds are a good in forest places they be the first line of battle look you now if we lay here in camp there might be down to get the wind of us and here would you be none the wiser why old said there be no men the black arrow nearer us than sir daniel s at y are as safe as in london tower and ye raise upon a man for a few and hear him grinned how many a rogue would give his two crop ears to have a shoot at either of us i saint michael man they hate us like two pole cats well it is they hate sir answered a little ay they hate sir daniel and they hate every man that serves with him said and in the first order of they hate and old the see ye here if there was a stout fellow yonder in the wood edge and you and i stood fair for him as by saint george we stand which think ye would he choose you for a good answered my to a leather belt it would be you cried the old ye burned they ll ne er forgive you that my master and as for me i ll soon be in a good place god grant and out of bow shoot ay and cannon shoot of all	38
their i am an old man and draw fast to homeward where the bed is ready but for you y are to remain behind here at your own peril and if ye come to my years the old true blue english spirit will be dead y are the old in forest returned visibly ruffled by these threats get ye to your arms before sir come and leave john all for one good while an ye had talked so much with harry the his ears would ha heen richer than his an arrow sang in the air like a huge it struck old between the shoulder blades and pierced him clean through and he fell forward on his face among the with a broken cry into the air then stooping double he ran for the cover of the house and in the meanwhile dick had dropped behind a and had his bent and shouldered covering the point of forest not a leaf stirred the sheep were patiently the birds had settled but there lay the old man with a arrow standing in his back and there were holding to the and dick crouching and ready behind the bush d ye see aught cried not a said dick i think shame to leave him lying said coming forward once more with hesitating steps and a very pale countenance keep a good eye on the wood master keep a clear eye on the wood the saints us here was a good shoot raised the old on his knee he was not yet dead his face worked and his eyes shut and opened like machinery and he had a most horrible ugly look of one in pain can ye hear old nick asked have ye a last wish before ye old brother the black arrow pluck out the shafts and let me pass s name gasped i be done with old england pluck it out master dick said come hither and pull me a good pull upon the arrow he would fain pass the poor sinner dick laid down his and pulling hard upon the arrow drew it forth a of blood followed the old scrambled half upon his feet called once upon the name of god and then fell dead upon his knees among the prayed fervently for the welfare of the passing spirit but even as he prayed it was plain that his mind was still divided and he kept ever an eye upon the comer of the wood from which the shot had come when he had done he got to his feet again drew off one of his and wiped his pale face which was all wet with terror ay he said it ll be my turn next who hath done this richard asked still holding the arrow in his hand nay the saints know said here are a good two score christian souls that we have hunted out of house and holding he and i he has paid his shot poor nor will it be long ere i pay mine sir daniel over hard this is a strange shaft said the lad looking at the arrow in his hand ay by my faith cried black and black here is an ill favoured shaft by my john all i for they say burial and here be words written wipe the blood away what read ye fro all read what should this nay i like it not returned the shaking his head john all here is a rogue s name for those that be up in the world but why stand we here to make a mark take him by the knees good master while i lift him by the shoulders and let us lay him in his house this will be a rare to poor sir he will turn paper colour he will pray like a they took up the old and carried him between them into his house where he had dwelt alone and there they laid him on the floor out of regard for the and sought as best they might to and compose his limbs s house was clean and bare there was a bed with a blue cover a cupboard a great chest a pair of joint a table in the chimney corner and hung upon the wall the old soldier s of bows and began to look about him curiously nick had money he said he may have had three score pounds put by i would i could light upon t when ye lose an old friend master richard the best consolation is to heir him see now this chest i would go a mighty there is a of gold the black therein he had a strong hand to get and a hard hand to keep withal had the now may god rest his spirit near eighty year he was and about and ever getting but now he s on the broad of his back poor and no more and if his came to a good friend he would be in heaven come said dick respect his stone blind eyes would ye rob the man before his body nay he would walk made several signs of the cross but by this time his natural complexion had returned and he was not easily to be dashed from any purpose it would have gone hard with the chest had not the gate sounded and presently after the door of the house opened and admitted a tall ruddy black eyed man of near fifty in a and black robe the was saying as he entered but he stopped dead ave maria i he cried saints be our shield what cheer is this cold cheer with sir parson answered with perfect cheerfulness shot at his own door and even now at gates ay there if tales be true he shall lack neither coal nor candle sir his way to a joint stool and sat down upon it sick	38
and white tliis is a judgment o a great stroke he sobbed and rattled off a of prayers john all meanwhile reverently his and knelt down ay said the priest somewhat recovering and what may this be what enemy hath done this here sir is the arrow see it is written upon with words said dick nay cried the priest this is a foul hearing john all a right word and black of hue as for an omen this arrow likes me not but it rather to take counsel who should this be you of so many black ill which should he be that doth so us i do much question it the nay they are not yet so broken they still think to have the law over us when times change there was too how think ye what think ye sir returned of nay never nay not he said the priest there never any rising from below so all judicious in their opinion but rebellion ever downward from above and when dick tom and harry take them to their bills look ever narrowly to see what lord is thereby now sir daniel having once more joined him to the queen s party is in ill with the lords thence comes the blow by what the black arrow i yet seek but therein lies the nerve of this discomfiture an t please you sir said the are so hot in this country that i have long been smelling fire so did this poor sinner and by your leave men s spirits are so inclined to all of us that it needs neither york nor to spur them on hear my plain thoughts you that are a clerk and sir daniel that sails on any wind ye have taken many men s goods and beaten and hanged not a few y are called to count for this in the end i not how ye have ever the uppermost at law and ye think all patched but give me leave sir the man that ye have and beaten is but the and some day when the black devil is by he will up with his bow and me a yard of arrow through your nay y are in the wrong ye should ba glad to be corrected said sir y are a a a your mouth is wider than your two ears mend it mend it nay i say no more have it as ye list said the the priest now rose from the stool nd from the writing case that hung about his neck took forth wax and a and a flint and steel with these he sealed up the chest and the cupboard with sir daniel s arms looking on and then the whole party john all proceeded somewhat to sally from the house and get to horse tis time we were on the road sir said as he held the priest s while he mounted ay but things are changed returned the parson there is now no rest his soul to keep the garrison i shall keep you i must have a good man to rest me on in this day of black arrows the arrow that by day the i have no mind o the nay i am a priest i am too deep in men s affairs well let us ride forth master the should be at the church by now so they rode forward down the road with the wind after them blowing the tails of the parson s cloak and behind them as they went clouds began to arise and blot out the sinking sun they had passed three of the scattered houses that make up hamlet when coming to a turn they saw the church before them ten or a dozen houses clustered immediately round it but to the back the churchyard was next the meadows at the gate near a score of men were gathered some in the saddle some standing by their horses heads they were armed and mounted some with some with bills some with bows and some plough horses still with the mire of the for these were the very of the country and all the better men and the fair the black arrow were already with sir daniel in the field we have not done amiss praised be the cross of sir daniel will be right well content observed the priest inwardly the troop who goes stand if ye be true shouted a man was seen slipping through the churchyard among the and at the sound of this summons he discarded all concealment and fairly took to his heels for the forest the men at the gate who had been hitherto unaware of the stranger s presence woke and scattered those who had dismounted began into the saddle the rest rode in pursuit but they had to make the circuit of the consecrated ground and it was plain their would escape them roaring an oath put his horse at the hedge to head him off but the beast refused and sent his rider in the dust and though he was up again in a moment and had caught the bridle the time had gone by and the fugitive had gained too great a lead for any hope of capture the wisest of all had been dick instead of starting in a vain pursuit he had whipped his from his back bent it and set a quarrel to the string and now when the others had he turned to and asked if he should shoot shoot shoot cried the priest with violence john all cover him master dick said bring me him down like a ripe apple the fugitive was now within but a few leaps of safety but this last part of the meadow ran very and the man ran slower in proportion what i the of the falling night and the movements of	38
the it was no easy aim and as dick his bow he felt a kind of pity and a half desire that he might miss the quarrel sped the man stumbled and fell and a great cheer arose from and the but they were counting their corn before the harvest the man fell lightly he was lightly again turned and waved his cap in a and was out of sight next moment in the margin of the wood and the plague go with him i cried he has thieves heels he can run by st but you touched him master he has stolen your quarrel may he never have good i grudge him nay but what made he by the church asked sir i am there has been mischief here good fellow get ye down from your horse and search thoroughly among the was gone but a little while ere he returned carrying a paper this writing was pinned to the church door he the black arrow said handing it to the parson i found naught else sir parson now by the power of mother church cried sir but this runs hard on for the king s good pleasure or the lord of the well but that every run the hedge in a green should fasten papers to the door nay it runs hard on hard and men have burned for matters of less weight but what have we here the light falls good master richard y have young eyes bead me i pray this dick took the paper in his hand and read it aloud it contained some lines of a very rugged hardly even written in a gross character and most with the somewhat this is how they ran i had four arrows under my belt four for the s that i have felt four for the of ill that have me now and then one is gone one is sped old is one is for that walls and one for sir that cut sir harry s throat sir daniel ye have the f we shall think it fair sport john all ye each have your own part a arrow in each heart ye to knees for to pray ye are by yea and nay all of the green wood and his jolly item we have mo and cord for of your following now well a day for charity and the christian graces cried sir this is an ill world and daily worse i will swear upon the cross of i am as innocent of that good knight s hurt whether in act or purpose as the babe neither was his throat cut for therein they are again in error as there still live witnesses to show it boots not sir parson said here is talk nay master not so keep ye in your due place good answered the priest i shall make mine innocence appear i will upon no consideration lose my poor life in error i take all men to witness that i am clear of this matter i was not even in the moat house i was sent of an errand before nine upon the clock sir said interrupting since it please you not to stop this sermon i will take other means sound to horse and while the was sounding moved c the black close to the bewildered parson and whispered violently in his ear dick saw the priest s eye turned upon him for an instant in a startled glance he had some cause for thought for this sir harry was his own natural father but he said never a word and kept his countenance unmoved and sir discussed together for awhile their altered situation ten men it was decided between them should be reserved not only to garrison the moat house but to escort the priest across the wood in the meantime as was to remain behind the command of the was given to master indeed there was no choice the men were fellows dull and in war while dick was not only popular but resolute and grave beyond his age although his youth had been spent in these rough country places the lad had been well taught in letters by sir and himself had shown him the management of arms and the first principles of command had always been kind and he was one of those who are cruel as the grave to those they call their enemies but faithful and well willing to their friends and now while sir entered the next house to write in his swift exquisite a of the last to his master sir daniel came up to his pupil to wish him god speed upon his enterprise yo must go the long way about master john all he said round by the bridge for your life keep a sure man fifty paces afore you to draw shots and go softly till y are past the wood if the fall upon you ride for t ye will do naught by standing and keep ever forward master turn me not back again an ye love your life there is no help in mind ye that and now since ye go to the great wars about the king and i continue to dwell here in extreme of my life and the saints alone can if we shall meet again below i give you my last counsels now at your riding keep an eye on sir daniel he is put not your trust in the he not amiss but doth the will of others it is a hand gun for sir daniel i get you good where ye go make you strong friends look to it and think ever a while on there are worse than so god speed i and heaven be with you returned dick ye were a good friend to me ward and so i shall say ever and look ye master added with	38
a certain embarrassment if this all should get a shaft into me ye might lay out a gold mark or a pound for my poor soul for it is like to go stiff with me in ye shall have your will of it answered dick but what cheer man i we shall meet again where ye shall have more need of ale than masses the black the saints so grant it master dick returned the other but here comes sir an he were as quick with the long bow as with the pen he would be a brave man at arms sir gave dick a sealed packet with this to my ul master sir daniel be in haste and dick putting it in the bosom of his jacket gave the word and set forth westward up the village a i the two lads chapter i at the sign of the sun in sm daniel and his men lay in and about that night warmly and well but the knight of was one who never rested from money getting and even now when he was on the brink of an adventure which should make or mar him he was up an hour after midnight to squeeze poor neighbours he was one who greatly in disputed it was his way to buy out the most and then by the favour he with great lords about the king procure unjust in his favour or if that was too to seize the disputed by force of arms and rely on his influence and sir s cunning in the law to hold what he had snatched was one such place it had come very lately into his he still met with opposition from the tenants and it was to discontent that he had led his troops that way by two in the morning sir daniel sat in the inn room close by the fireside for it was cold at that hour the black among the of by his elbow stood a of ale he had taken off his and sat with his bald head and thin dark resting on one hand wrapped warmly in a cloak at the lower end of the room about a dozen of his men stood over the door or lay asleep on benches and somewhat nearer hand a young lad apparently of twelve or thirteen was stretched in a mantle on the floor the host of the sun stood before the great man now mark me mine host sir daniel said follow but mine orders and i shall be your good lord ever i must have good men for head and i will have adam a more high see to it narrowly if other men be chosen it shall avail you nothing rather it shall be found to your sore cost for those that have paid rent to i shall take good measure you among the rest mine host good knight said tt j host i will swear upon the cross of i did but pay to upon nay bully knight i love not the rogue they were as poor as thieves bully knight give me a great lord like you nay ask me among the neighbours i am stout for it may be said sir daniel ye shall then pay twice the made a horrid but this was a piece of bad luck that might readily befall a tenant in at the op in these times and he was perhaps glad to make his peace so easily bring up yon fellow i cried the knight and one of his led up a poor old man as pale as a candle and all shaking with the fever said sir daniel your name an t please your worship replied the man my name is of at your good worship s pleasure i have heard you ill reported on returned the knight ye deal in treason rogue ye the country y are heavily of the death of how fellow are ye so bold but i will bring you down honourable and my reverend lord the man cried here is some your good presence i am but a poor private man and have none the under did report of you most said the knight seize me he that of my good lord is my poor name said the unfortunate or it is all one i sir daniel coolly for by my y are here and i do suspect your honesty if you would save your neck write me swiftly an obligation for twenty pound the black arrow for twenty pound my good lord cried here is madness my whole estate not to seventy shillings or returned sir daniel grinning i will run my peril of that loss write me down twenty and when i have recovered all i may i will be good lord to you and pardon you the rest alas my good lord it may not be i have no skill to write said well a day returned the knight here then is no remedy yet i would fain have spared you had my conscience suffered take me this old softly to the nearest elm and hang me him tenderly by the neck where i may see him at my riding fare ye well good master dear master y are post haste for paradise fare ye then well nay my right pleasant lord replied forcing an an ye be so as doth right well become you i will even with all my poor skill do your good bidding friend sir daniel ye will now write two score go to y are too cunning for a of seventy shillings see him write me this in good form and have it duly witnessed and sir daniel who was a very merry knight none in england took a drink of his ale and lay back smiling meanwhile the boy upon the floor began to stir at the sign of the sun in	38
and presently sat up and looked about him with a scare hither said sir daniel and as the other rose at his command and came slowly towards him he leaned back and laughed outright by the he cried a sturdy boy the lad flashed crimson with anger and darted a look of hate out of his dark eyes now that he was on his legs it was more difficult to make certain of his age his face looked somewhat older in expression but it was as smooth as a young child s and in bone and body he was unusually slender and somewhat awkward of gait ye have called me sir daniel he said was it to laugh at my poor plight nay now let laugh said the knight good let laugh i pray you an ye could see yourself i warrant ye would laugh the first well cried the lad flushing ye shall answer this when ye answer for the other laugh while yet ye may nay now good cousin replied sir daniel with some earnestness think not that i mock at you except in mirth as between and singular friends i will make you a marriage of a thousand pounds go to and cherish you exceedingly i took you indeed roughly as the time demanded but from henceforth i shall maintain and cheerfully serve you ye shall be mrs lady d the arrow by my for the lad bravely tut ye will not shy for honest laughter it melancholy they are no who laugh good cousin good mine host lay me a meal now for my cousin master john sit ye down sweetheart and eat nay said master john i will break no bread since ye force me to this sin i will fast for my soul s interest but good mine host i pray you of courtesy give me a cup of fair water i shall be much to your courtesy indeed ye shall have a go to cried the knight shalt be well by my faith content you then and eat but the lad was obstinate drank a cup of water and once more himself closely in his mantle sat in a far corner brooding in an hour or two there rose a stir in the village of and the clatter of arms and horses and then a troop drew up by the inn door and richard with mud presented himself upon the threshold save you sir daniel he said how i cried the knight and at the mention of dick s name the other lad looked curiously across what please you sir knight to take of this packet from sir wherein are all things fully stated answered richard presenting the priest s letter at the sign of thb sun in and please you farther ye were best make all speed to for on the way hither we encountered one riding furiously with letters and by his report my lord of was sore and lacked exceedingly your presence how say you sore returned the knight nay then we will make speed sitting down good richard as the world goes in this poor realm of england he that rides rides delay they say peril but it is rather this of doing that men mark it dick but let me see first what cattle ye have brought a link here at the door and sir daniel strode forth into the village street and by the red glow of a torch his new troops he was an neighbour and an master but as a leader in war he was well beloved by those who rode behind his his dash his proved courage his for the soldiers comfort even his rough were all to the taste of the bold blades in jack and nay by the i he cried what poor dogs are these here be some as crooked as a bow and some as lean as a spear friends ye shall ride in the front of the battle i can spare you friends mark me this old villain on the a two year mutton riding on a would look more ha are ye there old rat y are a man i could lose with a good heart ye shall go in front of all with a bull s eye so the black arrow painted on your jack to be the better butt for ye shall show me the way i will show you any way sir daniel but the way to change sides returned sir daniel laughed a why well said he cried hast a shrewd tongue in thy mouth go to i will forgive you for that merry word see them fed both man and brute the knight re entered the inn now friend dick he said fall to here is good ale and bacon eat while that i read sir daniel opened the packet and as he read his brow darkened when he had done he sat a little musing then he looked sharply at his ward dick said he y have seen this penny rhyme f the lad replied in the affirmative it bears your father s name continued the knight and our poor of a parson is by some mad soul accused of him he did most eagerly deny it answered dick he did cried the knight very sharply heed him not he has a loose tongue he like a jack some day when i may find the leisure dick i will myself more fully inform you of these matters there was one blamed for it but the times were troubled and there was no justice to be got at the sign op the sun in it at the moat house dick ventured with a beating at his heart it between the moat house and replied sir daniel calmly but he shot a covert glance black with suspicion at dick s face and now added the knight speed you with your meal ye shall	38
return to with a line from me dick s face fell sorely sir daniel he cried send one of the i you let me to the battle i can strike a stroke i promise you i it not replied sir daniel sitting down to write but here dick is no honour to be won i lie in till i have sure tidings of the war and then ride to join me with the conqueror cry not on cowardice it is but wisdom dick for this poor realm so with rebellion and the king s name and so hands that no man may be certain of the morrow toss pot and wit run in but my lord good counsel sits o one side waiting with that sir daniel turning his back to dick and quite at the farther end of the long table began to write his letter with his mouth on one side for this business of the black arrow stuck sorely in his throat meanwhile young was going on heartily enough with his breakfast when he felt a touch upon his arm and a very soft voice whispering in his ear make not a sign i do you said the voice but of your charity teach me the straight way to the black arrow you now good boy comfort a poor soul in peril and extreme distress and set me so far forth upon the way to my repose take the path by the answered dick in the same tone it will bring you to till there inquire again and without turning his head he fell again to eating but with the tail of his eye he caught a glimpse of the young lad called master john stealthily creeping from the room why thought dick he is as young as i good boy doth he call me an i had known i should have seen the hanged ere i had told him well if he goes through the i may come up with him and pull his ears half an hour later sir daniel gave dick the letter and bade him speed to the moat house and again some half an hour after dick s departure a messenger came in hot haste from my lord of sir daniel the messenger said ye lose great honour by my the fight began again this morning ere the dawn and we have beaten their van and scattered their right wing only the main battle fast an we had your fresh men we should you them all into the river what sir knight will ye be the last it stands not with your good credit nay cried the knight i was but now upon the march sound me the sir i am with at the sign of the sun in you on the instant it is not two hours since the more part of my command came in sir messenger what would ye have is good meat but yet it killed the bustle boys i by this time the was sounding cheerily in the morning and from all sides sir daniel s men poured into the main street and formed before the inn they had slept upon their arms with and in ten minutes five score men at arms and equipped and briskly stood and ready the chief part were in sir livery and blue which gave the greater show to their array the best armed rode first and away out of sight at the tail of the column came the sorry of the night before sir daniel looked with pride along the line here be the lads to serve you in a pinch he they are pretty men indeed replied the messenger it but my sorrow that ye had not marched the earlier said the knight what would ye the beginning of a feast and the end of a sir messenger and he mounted into his saddle why how now he cried john nay by the sacred where is she host where is that girl girl sir daniel cried the landlord nay sir i saw no girl d the black arrow boy then cried the knight could ye not see it was a she in the coloured she that broke her fast with water rogue where is she nay the saints bless us master john ye called him said the host well i thought none evil he is gone i saw him her i saw her in the stable a good hour a was a grey horse now by the cried sir daniel the was worth five hundred pound to me and more sir knight observed the messenger with bitterness while that ye are here roaring for five hundred pounds the realm of england is elsewhere being lost and won it is well said replied sir daniel fall me out with six cross hunt me her down i care not what it cost but at my returning let me find her at the moat house be it upon your head and now sir messenger we march and the troop broke into a good trot and and his six men were left behind upon the street of with the staring villagers in the chapter ii in the v it was near six in the may morning when dick began to ride down into the upon his homeward way the sky was all blue the jolly wind blew loud and steady the sails were spinning and the over all the rippling and like a field of corn he had been all night in the saddle but his heart was good and his body sounds and he rode right merrily the path went down and down into the marsh till he lost sight of all the neighbouring but on the behind him and the extreme top of forest far before on either hand there were great fields of blowing and pools of water shaking in the wind and treacherous as green as	38
to tempt and to betray the traveller the path lay almost straight through the it was already very ancient its foundation had been laid by roman in the lapse of ages much of it had sunk and every here and there for a few hundred yards it lay below the waters of the about a mile from dick came to one such break in the plain line of where the and grew like little islands and confused the eye the gap besides was more than d the ck usually long it was a place where any stranger might come readily to mischief and dick him with something like a pang of the lad whom he had so imperfectly directed as for himself one look backward to where the sails were turning black against the blue of heaven one look forward to the high ground of forest and he was sufficiently directed and held straight on the water washing to his horse s knees as safe as on a highway half way across and when he had already sighted the path rising high and dry upon the farther side he was aware of a great on his right and saw a grey horse sunk to its belly in the mud and still struggling instantly as though it had divined the neighbourhood of help the poor beast began to most it rolled meanwhile a eye insane with terror and as it in the clouds of insects rose and about it in the air thought dick can the poor lad have perished there is his horse for certain a brave grey nay comrade if thou to me so i will do all man can to help thee shalt not lie there to drown by inches and he made ready his and put a quarrel through the creature s head dick rode on after this act of rugged mercy somewhat in spirit and looking closely about him for any sign of his less happy in the way in the pen i would i had dared to tell him further he thought for i fear he has in the and just as he was so a voice cried upon his name from the side and looking over his shoulder he saw the lad s face peering from a of are ye there he said in ye lay so close among the that i had passed you by i saw your horse and put him from his agony which by my an ye had been a more merciful rider ye had done yourself but come forth out of your hiding here be none to trouble you nay good boy i have no arms nor skill to use them if i had replied the other stepping forth upon the pathway why call me boy cried dick y are not i the elder of us twain good master said the other forgive me i have none the least intention to offend rather i would in every way your gentleness and favour for i am now worse than ever having lost my way my cloak and my poor horse to have a riding rod and spurs and never a horse to sit upon and before all he added looking upon his clothes before all to be so tut cried dick would ye mind a blood of wound or dust of travel that s a man s thb black arrow nay then i like him better plain observed the lad but how shall i do good master richard help me with y ur good counsel if i come not safe to i am undone nay said dick i will give more than counsel take my horse and i will run awhile and when i am weary we shall change again that so riding and running both may go the so the change was made and they went forward as briskly as they on the dick with his hand upon the other s knee how call ye your name asked dick call me john replied the lad and what make ye to dick continued i seek from a man that would me was the answer the good of is a strong pillar to the weak and how came ye with sir daniel master pursued dick nay cried the other by the abuse of force he hath taken me by violence from my own place dressed me in these weeds ridden with me till my heart was sick me till i could a wept and when certain of my friends pursued thinking to have me back me in the rear to stand their shot i was even in the right foot and walk but nay there shall come a day between us he shall smart for all in the would ye shoot at the moon with a hand gun said dick tis a knight and hath a hand of iron an he guessed i had made or with your flight it would go sore with me ay poor boy returned the other y are his ward i know it by the same token so am i or so he or else he hath bought my marriage i not rightly which but it is some handle to me by boy again said dick nay then shall i call you girl good richard asked never a girl for me returned dick i do the crew of them ye speak said the other ye think more of them than ye pretend not i said dick stoutly they come not in my mind a plague of them say i give me to hunt and to fight and to feast and to live with jolly i never heard of a maid yet that was for any service save one only and she poor was burned for a witch and the wearing of men s clothes in spite of nature master crossed himself with and appeared to pray what make ye dick	38
inquired i pray for her spirit answered the other with a somewhat troubled voice for a witch s spirit f dick cried but pray for the ck arrow her an ye list she was the best in europe was this of arc old the ran from her he said as if she had been nay she was a brave well but good master richard resumed an ye like maids so little y are no true natural man for god made them twain by intention and brought true love into the world to be man s hope and woman s comfort said dick y are a milk baby so to harp on women an ye think i be no true man get down upon the path and whether at fists or bow and arrow i will prove my manhood on your body nay i am no said eagerly i mean no of offence i meant but and if i talk of women it is because i heard ye were to marry i to marry dick exclaimed well it is the first i hear of it and with whom was i to marry one replied colouring it was sir daniel s doing he hath money to gain upon both sides and indeed i have heard the poor herself of the match it seems she is of your mind or else to the bridegroom well marriage is like death it comes to all said dick with resignation and she herself i pray ye now see there bow in the are these girls to herself before that she had seen me do i myself not i an i be to marry i will marry dry eyed but if ye know her of what favour is she fair or foul and is she or pleasant nay what matters it said an y are to marry ye can but marry what matters foul or fair these be but toys y are no master richard ye will wed with dry eyes anyhow it is well said replied little i your lady wife is like to have a lord said she shall have the lord heaven made her for returned dick i there be worse as well as better ah the poor cried the other and why so poor asked dick to wed a man of wood replied his companion o me for a wooden husband i i think i be a man of wood indeed said dick to the while you ride my but it is good wood i good dick forgive me cried the other nay y are the best heart in england i but laughed forgive me now sweet dick nay no fool words returned dick a little embarrassed by his companion s warmth no harm is done i am not praise the saints and at that moment the wind which was blowing the black arrow straight behind them as they went brought them the rough flourish of sir daniel s hark said dick the ay said they have found my flight and now i am and he became pale as death nay what cheer returned dick y have a long start and we are near the and it is i that am i shall be taken cried the fugitive dick kind dick ye help me but a little why now what thee said dick i help you very but my heart is sorry for so a fellow and see ye here john john is your name i richard tide what come what may will see you safe in the saints so do to me again if i you come pick me up a good heart sir white face the way here spur me the horse faster faster nay mind not for me i can run like a deer so with the horse trotting hard and dick running easily alongside they crossed the remainder of the and came out upon the banks of the river by the s hut the pen iii the the river till was a wide water out of and in this part of its course it strained among some score of willow covered it was a dingy stream but upon this bright spirited morning everything was become beautiful the wind and the broke it up into innumerable and the reflection of the sky was scattered over all the surface in of smiling blue a creek ran up to meet the path and close under the bank the s hut lay it was of and clay and the grass grew green upon the roof dick went to the door and opened it within upon a foul old cloak the lay stretched and shivering a great of a man but lean and shaken by the country fever hey master he said be ye for the ill times ill times look to yourself there is a fellowship abroad ye were better turn round on your two heels and try the bridge nay time s in the saddle answered dick time will ride i am hot in haste a wilful man returned the rising an ye win safe to the moat house y have done the black arrow lucky but i say no more and then catching sight of who be this he asked as he paused on the threshold of his cabin it is my master answered dick give ye good day good said who had dismounted and now came forward leading the horse me your boat i we are sore in haste the gaunt continued staring by the mass he cried at length and laughed with open throat coloured to his neck and and dick with an angry countenance put his hand on the s shoulder how now he cried tall to thy business and leave mocking thy his boat and it a little forth into the deep water then dick led in the horse and followed ye be mortal small made master said with a wide grin something	38
o the wrong model nay master i am for you he added getting to his oars a cat may look at a king i did but take a shot of the eye at master no more words said dick bend me your back they were by that time at the mouth of the creek and the view opened up and down the river every the where it was enclosed with islands clay banks were in nodding waving dipping and there was no sign of man in the of waters my master said the f keeping the boat steady with one oar i have a shrewd guess that is on the island he bears me a black grudge to all sir how if i turned me up stream and landed you an arrow flight above the path ye were best not with john how then is he of this company asked dick nay is the word said but i would go up water dick how if master came by an arrow and he laughed again be it so answered dick look ye then pursued it shall so be me your cross bow so now make it ready good place me a quarrel ay keep it so and look upon me grimly what this asked dick why my master if i steal you across it must be under force or fear replied the f for else if john got wind of it he were like to prove my most neighbour do these ride so roughly dick inquired do they command sir daniel s own nay whispered the mark me sir daniel shall down his time is out he shall down i and he bent over his oars the black they pulled a long way up the river turned the tail of an island and came softly down a narrow channel next the opposite bank then held water in i must land you here among the he said here is no path but willow and answered dick master replied i dare not take ye nearer down for your own sake now he me the lying on his bow all that go by and owe sir daniel he down like i heard him swear it by the an i had not known you of old days ay and from so high upward i would v let you go on but for old days remembrance and because ye had this toy with you that s not fit for wounds or warfare i did risk my two poor ears to have you over whole content you i can no more on my salvation was still speaking lying on his oars when there came a great shout from among the on the island and sounds followed as of a strong man roughly through the wood a cried he was on the upper island all the while i he pulled straight for shore threat me with your bow good dick threat me with it plain he added i have tried to save your skins save you mine the boat ran into a tough thicket of with a pale but steady and alert at a sign the pen from dick ran along the and leaped ashore dick taking the horse by the bridle sought to follow but what with the animal s bulk and what with the of the thicket both stuck fast the horse and trampled and the boat which was swinging in an came on and off and pitched with violence it may not be here is no landing cried dick but he still struggled with the obstinate thicket and the startled animal a tall man appeared upon the shore of the island a long bow in his hand dick saw him for an instant with the comer of his eye bending the bow with a great effort his face crimson with hurry who goes he shouted who goes tis master john replied the stand dick the man upon the island ye shall have no hurt upon the stand back out dick cried a answer nay then ye shall go returned the man and he let drive an arrow the horse struck by the shaft lashed out in agony and terror the boat and next moment all were struggling in the of the river when dick came up he was within a yard of the bank and before his eyes were clear his hand had closed on something firm and strong that instantly black began to drag him forward it was the riding rod that crawling forth upon an overhanging willow had thrust into his grasp by the mass cried dick as he was helped ashore that makes a life i owe you i swim like a cannon ball and he turned instantly towards the island over was swimming with his boat while john a furious at the ill fortune of his shot to him to hurry come jack said run for it ere can hale his across or the pair of em can get it we may be out of cry and adding example to his words he began to run among the and in places leaping from to he had no time to look for his direction all he could do was to turn his back upon the river and put all his heart to running presently however the ground began to rise which showed him he was still in the right way and soon after they came forth upon a slope of solid turf where elms began to mingle with the but here who had been dragging far into the rear threw himself fairly down leave me dick he cried i can dick turned and came back to where his companion lay nay jack leave thee i he cried that were a lie e s trick to be sure when ye risked a shot and a ay and a drowning too to save my life drowning in	38
wind still blew the and the trees bent before the like they had just entered one of the when dick suddenly clapped down upon his face among the and began to crawl slowly backward towards the shelter of the grove in great bewilderment for he could see no reason for this flight still his companion s com se and it was not until they had gained the harbour of a thicket that he turned and begged him to explain for all reply dick pointed with his finger at the far end of the clearing a fir grew high above the neighbouring wood and planted its black shock of foliage clear against the sky for about fifty feet above the ground the trunk grew straight and solid like a column at that level it split into two massive boughs and in the fork like a mast headed seaman there stood a man in a green far and wide the sun upon his hair with one hand he shaded his eyes to look abroad and he kept slowly rolling his head from side to side with the regularity of a machine the lads exchanged glances the black let us try to the left said dick we had near fallen jack ten minutes afterwards they struck into a beaten path here is a piece of forest that i know not dick remarked where me this track let us even try said a few yards further the path came to the top of a ridge and began to go down abruptly into a cup shaped hollow at the foot out of a thick wood of two or three blackened as if by fire and a single tall chimney marked the ruins of a house what may this be whispered nay by the mass i know not answered dick i am all at sea let us go with beating hearts they descended through the here and there they passed signs of recent fruit trees and pot ran wild among the thicket a sun dial had fallen in the grass it seemed they were treading what once had been a garden yet a little farther and they came forth before the ruins of the house it had been a pleasant mansion and a strong a dry ditch was dug deep about it but it was now choked with and by a fallen the two farther walls still stood the sun shining through their empty windows but the remainder of the building had and now lay in a great of ruin a company with fire already in the interior a few plants were springing green among the now i me whispered dick this must be grim stone it was a hold of one sir daniel was his twas that burned it now five years in twas pity for it was a fair house down in the hollow where no wind blew it was both warm and still and laying one hand upon dick s arm held up a finger he said then came a strange sound breaking on the quiet it was twice repeated ere they recognised its nature it was the sound of a big man clearing his throat and just then a hoarse voice broke into singing then up and the master the king of the what make ye here my merry men among the and made answer he looked never o they must need to walk in wood that may not walk in town the singer paused a faint of iron followed and then silence the two lads stood looking at each other whoever he might be their invisible neighbour was just beyond the ruin and suddenly the colour came into s face and next moment he had crossed ths fallen and was climbing cautiously on the huge pile of lumber thk black that filled the interior of the house dick would have withheld him had he been in time as it was he was fain to follow right in the comer of the ruin two had fallen and protected a clear space no larger than a in church into this the lads silently lowered themselves there they were perfectly concealed and through an arrow commanded a view upon the farther side peering through this they were struck with terror at their to retreat was impossible they scarce dared to breathe upon the very margin of the ditch not thirty feet from where they crouched an iron and above a glowing fire and close by in an attitude of listening as though he had caught some sound of their among the ruins a tall red faced battered looking man stood poised an iron spoon in his right hand a horn and a formidable dagger at his belt plainly this was the singer plainly he had been stirring the when some step among the lumber had fallen upon his ear a little further another man lay rolled in a brown cloak with a butterfly hovering above his face all this was in a clearing white with and at the extreme verge a bow a of arrows and part of a deer s hung upon a presently the fellow relaxed from his attitude of attention raised the spoon to his mouth tasted it a company contents nodded and then fell again to stirring and singing they must need to walk in wood that may not walk in town he taking up his song where he had left it o sir we walk not here at all an evil thing to do but if we meet with the good king s deer to shoot a shaft into still as he sang he took from time to time another of the blew upon it and tasted it with all the airs of an experienced cook at length apparently he judged the mess was ready for taking the from his he blew three calls the other fellow awoke rolled over brushed away the butterfly and looked about him	38
how now brother he said dinner ay replied the cook dinner it is and a dry dinner too with neither ale nor bread but there is little pleasure in the now time was when a good fellow could live here like a set aside the rain and the white he had his heart s desire both of ale and wine but now are men s spirits dead and this john all save us and guard us but a stuffed to scare withal nay returned the other y are too set on meat and drinking lawless bide ye a bit the good time look ye returned the cook i have even waited for this good time t i so high i have been the black a grey i have been a king s i have been a and sailed the salt seas and i have been in before this and shot the king s deer what of it naught i were better to have in the john more than john all by r lady here they come one after another tall likely fellows began to stroll into the lawn each as he came produced a knife and a horn cup helped himself from the and sat down upon the grass to eat they were very equipped and armed some in rusty and with nothing but a knife and an old bow others in the height of forest gallantry all in green both hood and with dainty arrows in their a horn upon a and a sword and dagger at their sides they came in the silence of hunger and scarce growled a salutation but fell instantly to meat there were perhaps a score of them already gathered when a sound of suppressed cheering arose close by among the and immediately after five or six carrying a upon the lawn a tall fellow somewhat and as brown as a smoked ham walked before them with an air of some authority his bow at his back a bright spear in his hand lads he cried good all and my right merry friends y have sung this while on a dry whistle a company and lived at little ease but what said i ever abide fortune constantly she swift and lo here is her little even that good creature ale there was a murmur of applause as the set down the and displayed a goodly and now haste ye boys the man continued there is work toward a handful of are but now come to the j and blue is their wear they are our they shall all taste arrows no man of them shall struggle through this wood for lads we are here some fifty strong each man of us most wronged for some they have lost lands and some friends and some they have been all oppressed who then hath done this evil sir daniel by the shall he then profit shall he sit snug in our houses shall he till our fields shall he the bone he robbed us of i not he him strength at law he cases nay there is one case he shall not gain i have a writ here at my belt that please the saints shall conquer him lawless the cook was by this time already at his second horn of ale he raised it as if to pledge the speaker master he said y are for vengeance well it you but your poor brother o the that had never lands to lose nor friends to think upon rather for his poor part to the the ck arrow profit of the thing he had a gold noble and a of wine than all the in lawless replied the other to reach the moat house sir daniel must pass the forest we shall make that passage dearer than any battle then when he has got to earth with such ragged handful as us all his great friends fallen and fled away and none to give him aid we shall that old fox about and great shall be the fall of him tis a fat buck he will make a dinner for us all ay returned lawless i have eaten many of these dinners beforehand but the cooking of them is hot work good master and meanwhile what do we we make black arrows we write and we drink fair cold water that drink y are will lawless ye still smell of the grey is your answered we took twenty pounds from we took seven marks from the messenger last night a day ago we had fifty from the merchant and to day said one of the men i stopped a fat riding for here is his purse counted the contents five score shillings he grumbled fool he had more in his or into his y are but a child tom ye have lost the a company but for all that the purse with he stood leaning on his spear and looked round upon the rest they in various attitudes took of the and liberally washed it down with ale this was a good day they were in luck but business pressed and they were speedy in their eating the first comers had by this time even despatched their dinner some lay down upon the grass and fell instantly asleep like others talked together or their weapons and one whose humour was particularly gay holding forth an ale horn began to sing here is no law in good green here is no lack of meat tis merry and with deer for our diet in summer when all is sweet come winter again with wind and rain winter with snow and get home to your places with on your faces and sit by the fire and eat all this while the two lads had listened and lain close only richard had his cross bow and held ready in one	38
began to weep ye can weep for your own supper but when it was to save men s lives your heart was hard enough said dick contemptuously y ave seven deaths upon your conscience master john i ll ne er forgive you that conscience cried looking fiercely up mine and ye have the man s red blood upon your dagger and wherefore did ye him the poor soul he drew his arrow but he let not fly he held you in his hand and spared you tis as brave to kill a as a man that not himself dick was struck dumb i him fair i ran me in upon his bow he cried it was a coward blow returned y are to the day s end but a and bully master dick ye but abuse advantages let there come a stronger we will see you at his boot ye care not for vengeance neither for your father s death that goes and his poor ghost that for justice but if there come but a poor creature in your hands that skill and strength and would you down she shall go i dick was too furious to observe that she marry i he cried and here is news of any two the one will still be stronger the better man the worse and the worse is well served ye deserve a master for your and to me ward and what ye deserve ye shall have and dick who even in his temper still preserved the appearance of composure began to his belt here shall be your supper he said grimly had stopped his tears he was as white as a sheet but he looked dick steadily in the face and never moved dick took a step swinging the belt then he paused embarrassed by the large eyes and the thin weary face of his companion his courage began to say ye were in the wrong then he said nay said i was in the right come cruel i be lame i be weary i resist not i ne er did thee hurt come beat me coward dick raised the belt at this last provocation but the black and drew himself together with so cruel an apprehension that his heart failed him yet the fell by his side and he stood feeling like a fool a plague upon thee he said an ye be so feeble of hand ye should keep the closer guard upon your tongue but i ll be hanged before i beat you i and he put on his belt again beat you i will not he continued but forgive you never i knew ye not ye were my master s enemy i lent you my horse my dinner ye have eaten y ave called me a man o wood a coward and a bully nay by the mass the measure is filled and over tis a great thing to be weak i ye can do your worst yet shall none punish you ye may steal a man s weapons in the hour of need yet may the man not take his own again y are weak nay then if one charging at you with a lance and he is weak ye must let him pierce your body through tut fool words and yet ye beat me not returned let be said dick let be i will instruct you y ave been ill and yet ye have the of some good and beyond all question saved me from the river nay i had forgotten it i am as as but come let us on an we be for this night ay or to morrow early we had best set forward speedily but though dick had talked himself back into his usual good humour had forgiven him nothing his violence the recollection of the whom he had slain above all the vision of the belt were things not easily to be forgotten i will thank you for the sake said but in good master i had find my way alone here is a wide wood let each choose his path i owe you a dinner and a lesson fare ye well i nay cried dick if that be your tune so be it and a plague be with you i each turned aside and they began walking off with no thought of the direction intent solely on their quarrel bat dick had not gone ten paces ere his name was called and came running after dick he said it were to part so coldly here is my hand and my heart with it for all that wherein you have so served and helped me not for the form but from the heart i thank you fare ye right well well lad returned dick taking the hand which was offered him good speed to you if speed you may but i it y are too so then they separated for the second time and presently it was dick who was running after here he said take my bow shalt not go the black a cross bow said nay boy i have neither the strength to bend nor yet the skill to aim with it it were no help to me good boy but yet i thank you the night had now fallen and under the trees they could no longer read each other s face i will go some little way with you said dick the night is dark i would fain leave you on a path at least my mind me y are likely to be lost without any more words he began to walk forward and the other once more followed him the blackness grew thicker and thicker only here and there in open places they saw the sky dotted with small stars in the distance the noise of the of the army still continued to be faintly audible but with	38
every step they left it farther in the rear at the end of half an hour of silent progress they came forth upon a broad patch of open it in the light of the stars shaggy with and with of and here they paused and looked upon each other y are weary dick said nay i am so weary answered that i could lie down and die i hear the of a river returned dick let us go so far forth for i am sore the ground down gently and sure enough in the bottom they found a little murmuring river running among here they threw themselves the pace down together by the brink and putting their mouths to the level of a pool they drank their till dick said it may not be i can no more i saw a pit as we came down said dick let us he down therein and sleep nay but with all my heart i cried the pit was sandy and dry a shock of hung upon one edge and made a partial shelter j and there the two lads lay down keeping close together for the sake of warmth their quarrel all forgotten and soon sleep fell upon them like a cloud and under the dew and stars they rested peacefully chapter vii the face they awoke in the grey of the morning the birds were not yet in full song but here and there among the woods the sun was not yet up but the eastern sky was barred with solemn colours half starved and over weary as they were they lay without moving sunk in a delightful and as they thus lay the of a bell fell suddenly upon their ears a bell said dick sitting up can we be then so near to a little after the bell again but this time g the black arrow somewhat nearer hand and from that time f and still drawing nearer and nearer it continued to sound abroad in the silence of the morning nay what should this said dick who was now broad awake it is some one walking returned and the bell ever as he moves i see that well said dick but wherefore what he in woods jack he added laugh at me an ye will but i like not the hollow sound of it nay said with a shiver it hath a note an the day were not come but just then the bell its pace began to ring thick and hurried and then it gave a single and was silent for a space it is as though the bearer had run for a while and then leaped the river dick observed and now he again to pace forward added nay returned dick nay not so jack tis a man that you right speedily tis a man in some fear of his life or about some hurried business see ye not how swift the beating near it is now close by said they were now on the edge of the pit and as the pit itself was on a certain eminence they commanded a view over the greater proportion of the clearing up to the thick woods that closed it in the pace the daylight which was very clear and grey showed them a of white wandering among the it passed some hundred yards from the pit and ran the whole length of the clearing east and west by the line of its course dick judged it should lead more or less directly to the moat house upon this path stepping forth from the margin of the wood a white figure now appeared it paused a little and seemed to look about and then at a slow pace and bent almost double it began to draw near across the heath at every step the bell face it had none a white hood not even pierced with veiled the head and as the creature moved it seemed to feel its way with the tapping of a stick fear fell upon the lads as cold as death a i said dick hoarsely his touch is death said let us run not so returned dick see ye not he is stone blind he him with a let us lie still the wind towards the path and he will go by and hurt us not alas poor soul and we should rather pity him i will pity him when he is by replied the blind was now about half way towards and just then the sun rose and shone full on his veiled face he had been a tall man before he was bowed by his disgusting sickness and even now he walked with a vigorous step the dismal beating of his bell the of the stick the screen the black before his countenance and the knowledge that he was not only doomed to death and suffering but shut out for ever from the touch of his fellow men filled the lads with dismay and at every step that brought him nearer their courage and strength seemed to desert them as he came about level with the pit he paused and turned his face full upon the lads mary be my shield i he sees us said faintly hush whispered dick he doth but he is blind fool the looked or listened whichever he was really doing for some seconds then he began to move on again but presently paused once more and again turned and seemed to gaze upon the lads even dick became dead white and closed his eyes as if by the mere sight he might become but soon the bell sounded and this time without any farther hesitation the crossed the remainder of the little heath and disappeared into the covert of the woods he saw us said i could swear it tut returned dick recovering some sparks of courage he but heard us he was	38
in fear poor soul an ye were blind and walked in a perpetual night ye would start yourself if ever a or a bird cried peep dick good dick he saw us repeated when a man he doth not as this man he tub face doth otherwise dick this was seeing it was not hearing he means hark else if his bell be not stopped such was the case the bell rang no longer nay said dick i like not that nay he cried again i like that little what may this let us go by the mass he hath gone east added good dick let us go westward straight i shall not breathe till i have my back turned upon that jack y are too cowardly replied dick we shall go fair for or as fair at least as i can guide you and that will be due north they were at once passed the stream upon some stepping stones and began to mount on the other side which was towards the margin of the wood the ground became very full of and hollows trees grew scattered or in it became difficult to choose a path and the lads somewhat wandered they were weary besides with yesterday s exertions and the lack of food and they moved but heavily and dragged their feet among the sand presently coming to the top of a they were aware of the some hundred feet in front of them crossing the line of their march by a hollow his bell was silent his staff no longer tapped the ground and he went before him with the swift and assured footsteps of a man who sees next moment he had disappeared into a little thicket the black the lads at the first glimpse had crouched behind a of there they lay horror struck certain he us said dick certain he held the of his bell in one hand saw ye that it should not sound now may the saints aid and guide us for i have no strength to combat what he cried what doth he want who ever heard the like that a out of mere malice should pursue hath he not his bell to that very end that people may avoid him dick there is below this something deeper nay i care not moaned dick the strength is gone out of me my legs are like water the saints be mine assistance i would ye lie there idle cried let us back into the open we have the better chance he cannot steal upon us unawares not i said dick my time is come and he may pass us by bend me then your bow cried the other what will ye be a man dick crossed himself would ye have me shoot upon a he cried the hand would fail me nay now he added nay now let be with sound men i will fight but not with ghosts and which this is i not one or other heaven be our protection now said if this be man s courage the pace what a poor thing is man but ye will do naught let us lie close then came a single broken on the bell he hath missed his hold upon the whispered saints how near he is i but dick answered never a word his teeth were near chattering soon they saw a piece of the white robe between some bushes then the s head was thrust forth from behind a trunk and he seemed narrowly to the neighbourhood before he once again withdrew to their stretched senses the whole bush appeared alive with and the of twigs and they heard the beating of each other s heart suddenly with a cry the sprang into the open close by and ran straight upon the lads they shrieking aloud separated and began to run different ways but their horrible enemy fastened upon ran him swiftly down and had him almost instantly a prisoner the lad gave one scream that echoed high and far over the forest he had one of ling and then all his limbs relaxed and he fell limp into his s arms dick heard the cry and turned he saw fall and on the instant his spirit and his strength revived with a cry of pity and anger he and bent his but ere he had time to shoot the held up his hand hold your shot cried a familiar t black arrow voice hold your shot mad wag know ye not a friend and then laying down on the turf he the hood from os his face and disclosed the features of sir daniel sir daniel cried dick ay by the mass sir daniel returned the knight would ye shoot upon your guardian rogue but here is this and there he broke off and pointing to asked how call ye him dick nay said dick i call him master know ye him not he said ye knew him ay replied sir daniel i know the lad and he chuckled but he has fainted and by my he might have had less to faint for hey dick did i put the fear of death upon you indeed sir daniel ye did that said dick and sighed again at the mere recollection nay sir saving your respect i had as a met the devil in person and to speak truth i am yet all a but what made ye sir in such a guise sir daniel s brow grew suddenly black with anger what made i he said ye do well to mind me of what i for my poor life in my own wood of dick we were ill sped at the battle we but got there to be swept among the where be all my good men at arms dick by the mass i know not we were swept down the shot the face	38
fell thick among us i have not seen one man in my own colours since i saw three fall for myself i came sound to and being of the black arrow got me this gown and bell and came softly by the path for the moat house there is no disguise to be compared with it the of this bell would scare me the in the forest they would all turn pale to hear it at length i came by you and i could see but through this same hood and was not sure of you being chiefly and for many a good cause astonished at the finding you together moreover in the open where i had to go slowly and tap with my i feared to disclose myself but see he added this poor begins a little to revive a little good will comfort the heart of it the knight from under his long dress produced a stout bottle and began to rub the temples and wet the lips of the patient who returned gradually to consciousness and began to roll dim eyes from one to another what cheer jack said dick it was no after all it was sir daniel i see i swallow me a good draught of this said the knight this will give you manhood thereafter i will give you both a meal and we shall all three on to for dick he continued laying forth bread and n eat upon the grass i will to you in all good conscience it me sorely to be safe between the black four walls not since i backed a horse have i been pressed so hard peril of life of land and and to sum up all these in the wood to hunt me down but i be not yet some of my lads will pick me their way home hath ten fellows he had six nay we shall soon be strong again and if i can but buy my peace with my right fortunate and lord of york why dick we ll be a man again and go a horseback i and so saying the knight filled himself a horn of and pledged his ward in dumb show dick and he paused again sir daniel put down the wine how he cried in a changed voice speak what of dick stammered forth the tale of the and the the knight heard in silence but as he listened his countenance became with rage and grief now here he cried on my right hand i swear to it if that i fail if that i not ten men s souls for each may this hand from my body i broke this like a rush i him to his door i burned the above his head i drove him from this country and now he back to beard me nay but this time it shall go bitter hard he was silent for some time his face working the face eat he cried suddenly and you here he added to swear me an oath to follow straight to the moat house i will pledge mine honour replied what make i with your honour cried the knight swear me upon your mother s welfare gave the required oath and sir daniel the hood over his face and prepared his bell and staff to see him once more in that appalling somewhat revived the horror of his two companions but the knight was soon upon his feet eat with despatch he said and follow me to mine house and with that he set forth again into the woods and presently after the bell began to sound his steps and the two lads sat by their meal and heard it die slowly away up hill into the distance and so ye go to dick inquired yea verily said when needs must i am behind sir daniel s back than to his face they ate hastily and set forth along the path through the airy upper of the forest where great stood apart among green and the birds and made merry on the boughs two hours later they began to descend upon the other side and already among the tree tops saw before them the red walls and roofs of house here said pausing ye shall take your leave of your friend jack whom y are to see no the black arrow more come dick forgive him what he did amiss as he for his part cheerfully and lovingly you and wherefore so asked dick an we both go to i shall see you yet again i and that right often ye u never again see poor jack replied the other that was so fearful and and yet plucked you from the river ye u not see him more dick by mine honour he held his arms open and the lads embraced and kissed and dick continued my spirit ill y are now to see a new sir daniel for heretofore hath all in his hands exceedingly and fortune followed him but now when his fate hath come upon him and he runs the adventure of his life he will prove but a foul lord to both of us he may be brave in battle but he hath the liar s eye there is fear in his eye dick and fear is as cruel as the wolf we go down into that house saint mary guide us forth again i and so they continued their descent in silence and came out at last before sir daniel s forest where it stood low and shady with round towers and stained with moss and in the waters of the moat even as they appeared the doors were opened the bridge lowered and sir daniel himself with and the parson at his side stood ready to receive them j oft ii the moat house chapter i dick asks questions the moat house stood not far from	38
the rough forest road it was a compact of red stone at each corner by a round tower pierced for and at the top within it enclosed a narrow court the moat was perhaps twelve feet wide crossed by a single it was supplied with water by a leading to a forest pool and commanded through its whole length from the of the two southern towers except that one or two tall and thick trees had been suffered to remain within half a of the walls the house was in a good posture for defence in the court dick found a part of the garrison busy with preparations for defence and gloomily discussing the chances of a siege some were making arrows some swords that had long been but even as they worked they shook their heads twelve of sir daniel s party had escaped the battle run the through the wood and come alive to thb black arrow the moat house but out of this dozen three had been g wounded two at in the disorder of the one by john as he crossed the forest this raised the force of the garrison counting sir daniel and young to twenty two effective men and more might be continually expected to arrive the danger lay not therefore in the lack of men it was the terror of the black arrow that oppressed the spirits of the garrison for their open foes of the party of york in these most changing times they felt but a far away concern the world as people said in those days might change again before harm came but for their neighbours in the wood they trembled it was not sir daniel alone who was a mark for hatred his men conscious of had carried themselves cruelly through all the country harsh commands had been harshly executed and of the little band that now sat talking in the court there was not one but had been guilty of some act of oppression or and now by the fortune of war sir daniel had become powerless to protect his instruments now by the issue of some hours of battle at which many of them had not been present they had all become to the state outside the of the law a company in a poor fortress that was hardly and exposed upon all sides to the just resentment of their victims nor had there been lacking o f what they might expect dick asks questions at different periods of the evening and the night no fewer than seven horses had come in terror to the gate two were from s troop five belonged to men who had ridden with sir daniel to the field lastly a little before dawn a had come staggering to the moat side pierced by three arrows even as they carried him in his spirit had departed but by the words that he uttered in his agony he must have been the last of a considerable company of men himself showed under his sun brown the of anxiety and when he had taken dick aside and learned the fate of he fell on a stone bench and fairly wept the others from where they sat on or in the sunny angle of the court looked at him with wonder and alarm but none ventured to inquire the cause of his emotion nay master said at last nay but what said i we shall all go was a man of his hands he was like a brother to me well he has gone second well we shall all follow for what said their rhyme a black arrow in each black heart was it not so it went smith old gone and there poor john crying poor sinner for the priest dick gave ear out of a low window hard by where they were talking groans and murmurs came to his ear he there he asked n the black arrow ay in the second porter s chamber answered we could not bear him further soul and body were so bitterly at odds at every step we lifted him he thought to but now it is the soul that ever for the priest he and sir i not why still not be a long but poor and poor they had none dick stooped to the window and looked in the little cell was low and dark but he could make out the wounded soldier lying moaning on his poor friend how it he asked master returned the man in an excited whisper for the dear light of heaven bring the priest i am sped i am brought very low down my hurt is to the death ye may do me no more service this shall be the last now for my poor soul s interest and as a loyal gentleman you for i have that matter on my conscience that shall drag me deep he groaned and dick heard the grating of his teeth whether in pain or terror just then sir daniel appeared upon the threshold of the hall he had a letter in one hand lads he said we have had a we have had a tumble wherefore then deny it it to get speedily again to saddle this old harry the has had the wash we then our hands of him i have a good friend that next the duke the lord of well i have writ a dick asks questions letter to my friend praying his good and offering large satisfaction for the past and reasonable for the future doubt not but he will lend a favourable ear a prayer without gifts is like a song without music i him with promises boys i spare not to promise what then is lacking nay a great thing wherefore should i deceive you a great thing and a difficult a messenger to bear it the woods y are	38
not ignorant of that lie thick with our ill haste is most needful but without and caution all is naught which then of this company will take me this letter bear it to my lord of and bring me the answer back one man instantly arose i will an t like you said he i will even risk my nay not so returned the knight it likes me not y are sly indeed but not speedy ye were a ever an t be so sir daniel am i cried another the saints f said the knight y are speedy but not sly ye would blunder me into john camp i thank you both for your good courage but in it may not be then offered himself and he also was refused i want you here good y are my right hand indeed returned the knight and then several d the black coming forward in a group sir daniel at length selected one and g ve him the letter now he said upon your good speed and better discretion we do all depend bring me a good answer back and before three weeks i will have my forest of these that brave us to our faces but mark it well the matter is not easy ye must steal forth under night and go like a fox and how ye are to cross till i know not neither by the bridge nor i can swim returned i will come soundly fear not well friend get ye to the replied sir daniel ye shall swim first of all in nut brown ale and with that he turned back into the hall sir daniel hath a wise tongue said aside to dick see now where many a lesser man had the matter over he it out plainly to his company here is a danger a and here and in the very nay by saint he is a bom captain i not a man but he is some deal up see how they fall again to work this praise of sir daniel put a thought in the lad s head he said how came my father by his end ask me not that replied i had no hand nor knowledge in it i will even dick asks questions be silent master dick for look you in a man s own business there he may speak but of matters and of common talk not so ask me sir ay or if ye will not me and set off to make the rounds leaving dick in a muse wherefore would he not tell me thought the lad and wherefore named he nay then had a hand in it he entered the house and passing some little way along a and passage came to the door of the cell where the hurt man lay groaning at his entrance started eagerly have ye brought the priest he cried not yet awhile returned dick y ave a word to tell me first how came my father harry by his death the man s face altered instantly i know not he replied nay ye know well returned dick seek not to put me by i tell you i know not repeated then said dick ye shall die here am i and here shall stay there shall no priest come near you rest assured for of what avail is an ye have no mind to right those wrongs ye had a hand in and without confession is but mockery ye say what ye mean not master dick said u the black a it is ill threatening the dying and you to speak truth little and for as little as it you it shall serve you less stay an ye please ye will condemn my soul ye shall learn nothing 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 he said mistake me not i know ye were but an instrument in the hands of others a must obey his lord i would not bear heavily on such an one but i begin to learn upon many sides that this great duty on my youth and ignorance to my father then good set aside the memory of my and in pure good will and honest give me a word of help the wounded man lay silent nor say what dick pleased could he extract another word from him well said dick i will go call the priest to you as ye desired for ye be in fault to me or mine i would not be willingly in fault to any least of all to one upon the last change again the old soldier heard him without speech or motion even his groans he had suppressed and as dick turned and left the room he was filled with admiration for that rugged fortitude and yet he thought of what use is courage dick asks questions 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 on me sir daniel he or his men hath done this thing dick paused in the stone passage with a heavy heart at that hour in the ebb of sir daniel s fortune when he was by the of the black arrow and by the victorious was dick also to turn upon the man who had nourished and taught him who had severely punished indeed but yet 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 and sir came gravely towards the lad one you earnestly said dick i am upon the way good richard said the priest it is this poor he is beyond	38
cure and yet his soul is than his body answered dick have ye seen him asked sir 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 more sir it were well done to go the faster for his hurt is grievous returned the lad lam straight for him was the reply well the black arrow we have all our sins we must all come to our latter day good richard ay sir and it were well if we all came fairly answered dick the priest dropped his eyes and with an hurried on he too thought dick he that taught me in piety nay then what a world is this if all that care for me be blood guilty of my father s death vengeance i alas i what a sore fate is mine if i must be upon my friends the thought put in his head he smiled at the remembrance of his strange companion and then wondered where he was ever since they had come together to the doors of the moat house the younger lad had disappeared and dick began to weary for a word with him about an hour after mass being somewhat hastily run through by sir the company gathered in the hall for dinner it was a long low apartment strewn with green rushes and the walls hung with in a design of savage men and here and there hung and bows and a fire blazed in the big chimney there were covered benches round the wall and in the midst the table fairly spread awaited the arrival of the neither sir daniel nor his lady made their appearance sir himself was absent and here again there was no word of dick began to grow alarmed to dick asks questions recall his s melancholy and to wonder to himself if any foul play had befallen him in that house after dinner he found who was hurrying to my lady he said where is master i i saw ye go in with him when we arrived the old woman laughed aloud ah master dick she said y have a famous bright eye in your head to be sure and laughed again nay but where is he indeed persisted dick ye will never see him more she returned never it is sure an i do not returned the lad i will know the reason why he came not hither of his full free will such as i am i am his best protector and i will see him justly used there be too many mysteries i do begin to weary of the game but as dick was speaking a heavy hand fell on his shoulder it was that had come behind him with a jerk of his thumb the dismissed his wife friend dick he said as soon as they were alone are ye a natural an ye leave not certain things in peace ye were better in the salt sea than here in moat house y have questioned me y have y have the with hints bear ye more wisely fool and even now when sir daniel you show me a smooth the black arrow face for the love of wisdom y are to be sharply questioned look to your answers returned dick in all this i smell a guilty conscience an ye go not the wiser ye will soon smell blood replied i do but warn you and here one to call you and indeed at that very moment a messenger came across the court to summon dick into the presence of sir daniel chapter ii the two oaths sir daniel was in the hall there he paced angrily before the fire awaiting dick s arrival none was by except sir and he sat backward and muttering over his y have sent for me sir daniel said young i have sent for you indeed replied the knight for what to mine ears have i been to you so heavy a guardian that ye make haste to credit ill of me or that ye see me for the some do ye think to quit my party by the mass your father was not so i those he was near those he stood by come wind or weather but you dick y are the two oaths a fair day friend it and now seek to clear yourself of your an t please you sir daniel not so returned dick firmly i am grateful and faithful where gratitude and faith are due and before more is said i thank you and i thank sir y have great claims upon me both none can have more i were a hound if i forgot them it is well said sir daniel and then rising into anger gratitude and faith are words dick he continued but i look to deeds in this hour of my peril when my name is when my lands are when this wood is full of men that hunger and thirst for my destruction what doth gratitude what doth faith i have but a little company remaining is it grateful or faithful to poison me their hearts with your save me from such gratitude but come now what is it ye wish speak we are here to answer if ye have aught against me stand forth and say it sir replied dick my father fell when i was yet a child it hath come to mine ears that he was done by it hath come to mine ears for i will not that ye had a hand in his and in all i shall not be at peace in mine own mind nor very clear to help you till i have certain resolution of these doubts sir daniel sat down in a deep settle he took his chin in	38
returned the knight i have sworn an oath indeed thou but shalt swear a greater it shall be on the blessed cross of holy wood look to it get the words ready it shall be sworn to night now may heaven you replied the priest may heaven incline your heart from this look you my good father said sir daniel if y are for piety i say no more ye begin late that is all but if y are in any sense bent upon wisdom hear me this lad to me like a i have a need for him for i would sell his marriage but i tell you in all if that he continue to weary me he shall go join his father i give oi now to change him to the chamber above the chapel if that ye can swear your with a good solid oath and an assured countenance it is well the lad will be at peace a little and i will spare him if that ye or or at the swearing he will not believe you and by the mass he shall die there is for your thinking on the chamber above the chapel gasped the priest that same replied the knight so if ye desire to save him save him and if ye desire not go to and let me be at peace for an i had been a hasty man i would already have put my sword through you for your intolerable cowardice and folly have ye chosen say the two oaths i have chosen said the priest heaven pardon me i will do evil for good t will swear for the lad s sake so is it best said sir daniel send for him then speedily ye shall see him alone yet i shall have an eye on you i shall be here in the room the knight raised the and let it fall again behind him there was the sound of a spring opening then followed the creaking of trod stairs sir left alone cast a glance upward at the covered wall and crossed himself with every appearance of terror and nay if he is in the chapel room the priest murmured were it at my soul s cost i must save him three minutes later dick who had been summoned by another messenger found sir standing by the hall table resolute and pale richard he said ye have required an oath from me i might complain i might deny but my heart is moved toward you for the past and i will even content you as ye choose by the true cross of i did not your father sir returned dick when first we read john all s paper i was convinced of so much but me to put two questions ye did not him granted but had ye no hand in it none said sir and at the same time he i the black arrow began to his face and signal with his mouth and eyebrows like one who desired to convey a warning yet dared not utter a sound dick regarded him in wonder then he turned and looked all about him at the empty hall what make ye he inquired why naught returned the priest hastily his countenance i make naught i do but suffer i am sick i i dick i must on the true cross of i am clean innocent alike of violence or treachery content ye good lad farewell and he made his escape from the apartment with unusual alacrity dick remained rooted to the spot his eyes wandering about the room his face a changing picture of various emotions wonder doubt suspicion and amusement gradually as his mind grew clearer suspicion took the upper hand and was succeeded by certainty of the worst he raised his head and as he did so violently started high upon the wall there was the figure of a savage hunter woven in the with one hand he held a horn to his mouth in the other he a stout spear his face was dark for he was meant to represent an african now here was what had startled richard the sun had moved away from the hall windows and at the same time the fire had blazed up high on the wide hearth and shed a glow upon the roof and the two oaths in this light the figure of the black hunter had winked at him with a white he continued staring at the eye the light shone upon it like a it was liquid it was alive again the white closed upon it for a of a second and the next moment it was gone there could be no mistake the live eye that had been watching him through a hole in the was gone the no longer shone on a reflecting surface and instantly dick awoke to the terrors of his position warning the mute of the priest this eye that had observed him from the wall ran together in his mind he saw he had been put upon his trial that he had once more betrayed his suspicions and that short of some miracle he was lost if i cannot get me forth out of this house he thought i am a dead man and this poor too to what a s nest have i not led him he was still so thinking when there came one in haste to bid him help in changing his arms his clothing and his two or three books to a new chamber a new chamber he repeated wherefore so what chamber tis one above the chapel answered the messenger it hath stood long empty said dick musing what manner of room is it i tub black arrow nay a brave room returned the man but yet lowering his voice they call it haunted haunted repeated dick with a chill i have	38
we are above the chapel it is my murderer in the secret passage well let him come it shall go hard with him and he ground his teeth blow me the lights out said the other perchance he will betray himself they blew out both the lamps and lay still as death the underneath were very fc but they were clearly audible several times they came and went and then there was a loud jar of a key turning in a lock followed by a considerable silence presently the steps began again and then all of a sudden a of light appeared in the of the room in a far corner it a trap door was being opened letting in a of light they could see the strong hand pushing it up and dick raised his waiting for the head to follow but now there came an interruption from a distant corner of the moat house shouts began to be heard and first one voice and then several crying aloud upon a name this noise had plainly the room over the chapel the murderer for the trap door was silently lowered to its place and the steps hurriedly returned passed once more close below the lads and died away in the distance here was a moment s dick breathed deep and then and not till then he gave ear to the disturbance which had interrupted the attack and which was now rather increasing than all about the moat house feet were running doors were opening and and still the voice of sir daniel above all this bustle shouting for repeated dick why who the should this be here is no nor ever hath been what it was silent he seemed to have drawn further away but only a little faint entered by the window and at the far end of the apartment where the pair were the darkness was complete jack said dick i not where ye were all day saw ye this nay returned i saw her not nor heard tell of her he pursued the steps drew nearer sir daniel was still roaring the name of from the did ye hear of her repeated dick i heard of her said how your voice i what you said dick tis a most excellent good fortune this it will take their minds from us the black dick cried i am lost we are both lost let us flee if there be yet time they will not rest till they have found me or see let me go forth when they have found me ye may flee let me forth dick good dick let me away she was groping for the bolt when dick at last comprehended by the mass he cried y are no jack y are y are the maid that would not marry me the girl paused and stood silent and motionless dick too was silent for a little then he spoke again he said y ave saved my life and i have saved yours and we have seen blood flow and been friends and enemies ay and i took my belt to you and all that time i thought ye were a boy but now death has me and my time s out and before i die i must say this y are the best maid and the under heaven and if only i could live i would marry you and live or die i love you she answered nothing come he said speak up jack come be a good maid and say ye love me why dick she cried would i be here well see ye here continued dick an we but escape whole we ll marry and an we re to die we die and there s an end on t but now that i think how found ye my chamber i asked it of dame she answered the room over the chapel well the dame s he answered she ll not tell upon you we have time before us and just then as if to contradict his words feet came down the corridor and a fist beat roughly on the door here cried a voice open master dick open dick neither moved nor answered it is all over said the girl and she put her arms about dick s neck one after another men came to the door then sir daniel arrived himself and there was a sudden of the noise dick cried the knight be not an ass the seven had been awake ere now we know she is within there open then the door man dick was again silent down with it said sir daniel and immediately his followers fell savagely upon the door with foot and fist solid as it was and strongly bolted it would soon have given way but once more fortune interfered over the of blows the cry of a was heard it was followed by another shouts ran along the shouts answered out of the wood in the first moment of alarm it sounded as if the were carrying the moat house by assault and sir daniel and his men instantly from their attack upon dick s chamber hurried to defend the walls the arrow now cried dick we are saved he seized the great old with both hands and bent himself in vain to move it help me jack for your life s sake help me stoutly i he cried between them with a huge effort they dragged the big frame of oak across the room and thrust it to the chamber door ye do but make things worse said sadly he will then enter by the trap not so replied dick he not tell his secret to so many it is by the trap that we shall flee hark i the attack is over nay it was none i it had indeed been no attack it was the arrival of another party of	38
i to be had it not come to sir daniel i had been wedded sure and never seen thee dick dear dick and here she took his hand and kissed it with the prettiest grace and dick drew her hand to him and did the like well she went on sir daniel took me unawares in the garden and made me dress in these men s clothes which is a deadly sin for a woman and besides they fit me not he rode with me to as ye saw telling me i was to marry you but i in my heart made sure i would marry in his teeth the passage ay cried dick and so ye loved this nay replied not i i did but hate sir daniel and then dick ye helped me and ye were right kind and very bold and my heart turned towards you in mine own despite and now if we can in any way compass it i would marry you with right and if by cruel destiny it may not be still ye u be dear to me while my heart beats it ll be true to you and i said dick that never cared a straw for any manner of woman until now i took to you when i thought ye were a boy i had a pity to you and knew not why when i would have you the hand failed me but when ye owned ye were a maid jack for still i will call you jack i made sure ye were the maid for me hark he said breaking off one and indeed a heavy tread was now audible in the echoing passage and the rats again fled in armies dick his position the sudden turn gave him a post of he could thus shoot in safety from the cover of the wall but it was plain the light was too near him and running some way forward he set down the lamp in the middle of the passage and then returned to watch presently at the far end of the passage in sight he seemed to be alone and he carried in his hand a burning torch which made him the better mark the black stand cried dick another step and y are dead so here ye are returned peering forward into the darkness i see you not y ave done wisely dick y ave put your lamp before you by my but though it was done to shoot my own body i do rejoice to see ye profit of my lessons and now what make ye what seek ye here why would ye shoot upon an old kind friend and have ye the young there nay it is i should question and you answer replied dick why am i in this of my life why do men come to me in my bed why am i now in mine own guardian s strong house and from the friends that i have lived among and never injured master dick master dick said what told i you y are brave but the most ty lad that i can think upon well returned dick i see ye know all and that i am doomed indeed it is well here where i am i stay let sir daniel get me out if he be able was silent for a space hark ye he began i return to sir daniel to tell him where ye are and how posted j for in truth it was to that end he sent me but you if ye are no fool had best be gone ere i return repeated dick i would already an i how i cannot move the trap how dick changed sides put me your hand into the corner and see what ye find there s rope is still in the chamber ye well and turning upon his heel disappeared again into the of the passage dick instantly returned for his lamp and proceeded to act upon the hint at one corner of the trap there was a deep in the wall pushing his arm into the dick found an iron bar which he thrust vigorously upwards there followed a snapping noise and the of stone instantly started in its bed they were free of the passage a little exercise of strength easily raised the trap and they came forth into a chamber opening on one hand upon the court where one or two fellows with bare arms were rubbing down the horses of the last a torch or two each stuck in an iron ring against the wall lit up the scene chapter v how dick changed sides dick blowing out his lamp lest it should attract attention led the way up stairs and along the corridor in the brown chamber the rope had been made fast to the frame of an exceeding heavy and ancient bed it had not been detached and dick taking the to the black arrow window began to lower it slowly and cautiously into the darkness of the night stood by but as the rope lengthened and still dick continued to pay it out extreme fear began to conquer her resolution dick she said is it so deep i may not essay it i should fall good dick it was just at the delicate moment of the operations that she spoke dick started the remainder of the slipped from his grasp and the end fell with a splash into the moat instantly from the above the voice of a cried who goes a cried dick we are paid now i down with you take the rope i cannot she cried an ye cannot no more can i said how can i swim the moat without you do ye desert me then dick she gasped i cannot the strength is gone from me by the mass then we are all he	38
the bough of a tall oak his head had fallen forward on his breast j but at every stronger of wind his body span round and round and his legs and arms tossed like some ridiculous dick to his feet and staggering and leaning on the tree trunks as he went drew near to this object the bough was perhaps twenty feet above the ground and the poor fellow had been drawn up so high by his that his boots swung clear above dick s reach and as his hood had been drawn over his face it was impossible to recognise the man dick looked about him right and left and at last he perceived that the other end of the cord had been made fast to the trunk of a little which grew thick with blossom under the lofty of the oak with how dick changed sides his dagger which alone remained to him of all his arms young severed the rope and instantly with a dead the corpse fell in a heap upon the ground dick raised the hood it was sir messenger he had not gone far upon his errand a paper which had apparently escaped the notice of the men of the black arrow stuck from the bosom of his and dick pulling it forth found it was sir letter to lord come thought he if the world changes yet again i may have here the to shame sir daniel nay and perchance to bring him to the block and he put the paper in his own bosom said a prayer over the dead man and set forth again through the woods his fatigue and weakness increased his ears sang his steps faltered his mind at intervals failed him so low had he been brought by loss of blood doubtless he made many from his true path but at last he came out upon the high road not very far from hamlet a rough voice bid him stand stand repeated dick by the mass but i am nearer falling and he suited the action to the word and fell all his length upon the road two men came forth out of the thicket each in the black arrow green forest each with long bow and quiver and short sword why lawless said the younger of the two it is young ay this will be as good as bread to john au returned the other though faith he hath been to the wars here is a tear in his that must a cost him many a good of blood and here added ms a hole in his shoulder that must have pricked him well who hath done this think ye if it be one of ours he may all to prayer will give him a short and a long rope up with the said lawless clap him on my back and then when dick had been hoisted to his shoulders and he had taken the lad s arms about his neck and got a firm hold of him the ex grey added keep ye the post brother i will on with him by myself so returned to his on the and lawless down the hill whistling as he went with dick still in a dead faint comfortably settled on his shoulders the sun rose as he came out of the skirts of the wood and saw hamlet straggling up the opposite hill all seemed quiet but a strong post of some half a score of lay close by the bridge on either how dick changed sides side of the road and as soon as they perceived lawless with his burden began to themselves and set arrow to string like who goes cried the man in command will lawless by the ye know me as well as your own hand returned the contemptuously give the word lawless returned the other now heaven thee thou great fool replied lawless did i not tell it thee myself but ye are all mad for this playing at soldiers when i am in the give me ways and my word for this tide is a fig for all mock i lawless ye but show an ill example give us the word fool said the commander of the post and if i had forgotten it asked the other an ye had forgotten it as i know y ave not by the mass i would clap an arrow your big body returned the first nay an y are so ill a said lawless ye shall have your word for m e and is the word and here to the illustration is on my shoulders and o do i carry him pass lawless said the and where is john asked the grey he a by the mass and rents as to the manner bom i cried another of the company so it proved when lawless got as far up the village as the little inn he found surrounded by sir daniel s tenants and by the right of the black his good company of coolly taking rents and giving written in return for them by the faces of the tenants it was plain how little this proceeding pleased them for they argued very rightly that they would simply have to pay them twice as soon as he knew what had brought lawless dismissed the remainder of the tenants and with every mark of interest and apprehension conducted dick into an inner chamber of the inn there the lad s hurts were looked to and he was recalled by simple to consciousness dear lad said pressing his hand y are in a friend s hands that loved your father and loves you for his sake rest ye a little quietly for ye are somewhat out of case then shall ye tell me your story and the two of us we shall find a remedy for all a little later in the	38
outside in the dark street and the man who had just come pointed to where two in the wind at a little distance the town was already sound asleep no one moved upon the streets and there was nothing easier than to follow the party without observation the two went first next followed a single man whose long cloak blew about him in the wind and the rear was brought up by the four each with his bow upon his arm they moved at a brisk walk the intricate lanes and drawing nearer to the shore he hath gone each night in this direction asked dick in a whisper this is the third night running master returned and still at the same hour and with the same small following as though his end were secret sir daniel and his six men were now come to the outskirts of the country was an open town and though the lords who lay there kept a strong guard on the main roads it was still possible to enter or depart unseen by any of the lesser streets or across the open country the lane which sir daniel had been following came the black to an abrupt end before him there was a stretch of rough down and the noise of the sea surf was audible upon one hand there were no guards in the neighbourhood nor any light in that quarter of the town dick and his two drew a little closer to the object of their chase and presently as they came forth from between the houses and could see a little farther upon either hand they were aware of another torch drawing near from another direction hey said dick i smell treason meanwhile sir daniel had come to a full halt the were stuck into the sand and the men lay down as if to await the arrival of the other party this drew near at a good rate it consisted of four men only a pair of a with a link and a gentleman walking in their midst is it you my lord cried sir daniel it is i indeed and if ever true knight gave proof i am that man replied the leader of the second troop for who would not rather face giants or than this cold my lord returned sir daniel beauty will be the more it not but shall we forth for the sooner ye have seen my the sooner shall we both get home but why keep ye her here good knight inquired the other an she be so young and so fair and so wealthy why do ye not bring her forth among her mates ye would soon make her a good marriage the house by the shore and no need to your fingers and risk arrow shots by going abroad at such seasons in the dark i have told you my lord replied sir daniel the reason thereof me only neither do i purpose to explain it farther suffice it that if ye be weary of your old gossip daniel publish it abroad that y are to wed and i give you my word ye will be quit of him right soon ye will find him with an arrow in his back meantime the two gentlemen were walking briskly forward over the down the three going before them stooping against the wind and scattering clouds of smoke and of flame and the rear brought up by the six close upon the heels of these dick followed he had of course heard no word of this conversation but he had recognised in the second of the old lord himself a man of an infamous reputation whom even sir daniel affected in public to condemn presently they came close down upon the beach the air smelt salt the noise of the surf increased and here in a large walled garden there stood a small house of two with stables and other offices the foremost torch bearer unlocked a door in the wall and after the whole party had passed into the garden again closed and locked it on the other side dick and his men were thus excluded from any farther following unless they should scale the wall and thus put their necks in a trap e the black they sat down in a of and waited the red glow of the moved up and down and to and fro within the as if the link steadily the garden twenty minutes passed and then the whole party issued forth again upon the down and sir daniel and the baron after an elaborate salutation separated and turned homeward each with his own following of men and lights as soon as the sound of their steps had been swallowed by the wind dick got to his feet as briskly as he was able for he was stiff and aching with the cold ye will give me a back up he said they advanced all three to the wall stooped and dick getting upon his shoulders on to the cope stone now whispered dick follow me up here lie flat upon your face that ye may be the less seen j and be ever ready to give me a hand if i fall on the other side and so saying he dropped into the garden it was all pitch dark there was no light in the house the wind whistled shrill among the poor shrubs and the surf beat upon the beach there was no other sound cautiously dick footed it forth stumbling among bushes and groping with his hands and presently the crisp noise of gravel told him that he had struck upon an alley here he paused and taking his cross bow from where the house by the shore he kept it concealed under his long he prepared it for instant action and went forward once more with greater resolution and assurance the path led	38
him straight to the group of buildings all seemed to be sorely the windows of the house were secured by crazy shutters the stables were open and empty there was no hay in the hay no corn in the corn box any one would have supposed the place to be deserted but dick had good reason to think otherwise he continued his inspection visiting the offices trying all the windows at length he came round to the sea side of the house and there sure enough there burned a pale light in one of the upper windows he stepped back a little way till he thought he could see the movement of a shadow on the wall of the apartment then he remembered that in the stable his groping hand had rested for a moment on a ladder and he returned with all despatch to bring it the ladder was very t but yet by standing on the round he could bring his hands as high as the iron bars of the window and seizing these he raised his body by main force until his eyes commanded the interior of the room two persons were within the first he readily knew to be dame the second a tall and beautiful and grave young lady in a long embroidered dress could that be his old wood companion jack whom he had thought to punish with a belt the black arrow he dropped back again to the top round of the ladder in a kind of amazement he had never thought of his sweetheart as of so superior a being and he was instantly taken with a feeling of but he had little opportunity for thought a low i sounded from close by and he hastened to descend the ladder who goes he whispered came the reply in tones guarded what want ye asked dick the house is watched master returned the we are not alone to watch it for even as i lay on my belly on the wall i saw men in the dark and heard them whistle softly one to the other by my said dick but this is passing strange i were they not men of sir nay sir that they were not returned for if i have eyes in my head every man jack of them me a white in his bonnet something with dark white with dark repeated dick faith tis a i know not it is none of this country s well an that be so let us slip as quietly forth from this garden as we may for here we are in an evil posture for defence beyond all question there are men of sir daniel s in that house and to be taken between two shots is a s position take me this ladder i must leave it where i found it the house by the shore they returned the ladder to the stable and their way to the place where they had entered had taken s position on the cope and now he leaned down his hand and first one and then the other pulled them cautiously and silently they dropped again upon the other side nor did they dare to speak until they had returned to their old in the now john said dick back with you to even as for your life bring me instantly what men ye can collect here shall be the or if the men be scattered and the day be near at hand before they muster let the place be something farther back and by the entering in of the town and i lie here to watch speed ye john and the saints aid you to despatch and now he continued as soon as had departed met thou and i go round about the garden in a wide circuit i would fain see whether thine eyes betrayed thee keeping well from the wall and by every height and hollow they passed about two sides beholding nothing on the third side the garden wall was built close upon the beach and to preserve the distance necessary to their purpose they had to go some way down upon the sands although the tide was still pretty far out the surf was so high and the sands so that at each a great sheet of and water came over the expanse and dick and made this part of their inspection thb black now to the ankles and now as deep as to the knees in the salt and icy waters of the german ocean suddenly against the comparative whiteness of the garden wall the figure of a man was seen like a faint chinese shadow violently with both arms as he dropped again to the earth another arose a little farther on and repeated the same performance and so like a silent these made the round of the garden they keep good watch dick whispered let us back to land good master answered we stand here too open for look ye when the seas break heavy and white out there behind us they shall see us plainly against the foam ye speak returned dick ashore with us right speedily chapter ii a in the dark thoroughly and chilled the two returned to their position in the i pray heaven that make good speed said dick i vow a candle to st mary of if he come before the hour y are in a hurry muster dick asked a in the dark ay good fellow answered dick for in that house my lady whom i love and who should these be that lie about her secretly by night for sure i well returned an john come speedily we shall give a good account of them they are not two score at the outside i judge so by the of their and taken where they are lying so widely one score would scatter them like and yet master	38
dick an she be in sir daniel s power already it will little hurt that she should change into another s who should these be i do suspect the lord of dick replied when came they they began to come master dick said about the time ye crossed the wall i had not lain there the space of a minute ere i marked the first of the crawling round the corner the last light had been already extinguished in the little house when they were in the wash of the and it was impossible to at what moment the lurking men about the garden wall might make their of two evils dick preferred the least he preferred that should remain under the of sir daniel rather than pass into the of lord s and his mind was made up if the house should be to come at once to the relief of the but the time passed and still there was no move tub black arrow ment quarter of an hour to quarter of an hour the same signal passed about the garden wall as if the leader desired to assure himself of the vigilance of his scattered followers but in every other particular the neighbourhood of the little house lay undisturbed presently dick s began to arrive the night was not yet old before nearly a score of men crouched beside him in the separating these into two bodies he took the command of the smaller himself and the larger to the of now said he to this last take me your men to the near angle of the garden wall upon the beach post them strongly and wait till that ye hear me falling on upon the other side it is those upon the sea front that i would fain make certain of for there will be the leader the rest will run even let them and now lads let no man draw an arrow ye will but hurt friends take to the steel and keep to the steel and if we have the uppermost i promise every man of you a gold noble when i come to mine estate out of the odd collection of broken men thieves and ruined whom had gathered together to serve the purposes of his revenge some of the and the most experienced in war had volunteered to follow richard the service of watching sir daniel s movements in the town of had from the first been irksome to their temper and they had of late begun to a in the dark loudly and threaten to the prospect of a sharp encounter and possible spoils restored them to good humour and they joyfully prepared for battle their long thrown aside they appeared some in plain green and some in stout under their many wore strengthened by iron plates and for offensive swords a few stout and a dozen of bright bills put them in a posture to engage even regular troops the bows and were concealed among the and the two bands set resolutely forward dick when he had reached the other side of the house posted his six men in a line about twenty yards from the garden wall and took position himself a few paces in front then they all shouted with one voice and closed upon the enemy these lying widely scattered stiff with cold and taken at unawares sprang to their feet and stood before they had time to get their courage about them or even to form an idea of the number and of their a similar shout of sounded in their ears from the far side of the thereupon they gave themselves up for lost and ran in this way the two small troops of the men of the black arrow closed upon the sea front of the garden wall and took a part of the strangers as it were between two fires j while the whole of the remainder ran the black arrow for their lives in different directions and were soon scattered in the darkness for all that the fight was but beginning dick s although they had the advantage of the surprise were still considerably by the men they had surrounded the tide had flowed in the meanwhile the beach was to a strip and on this wet field between the surf and the garden wall there began in the darkness a doubtful furious and deadly contest the strangers were well armed they fell in silence upon their and the became a series of single dick who had come first into the was engaged by three the first he cut down at the first blow but the other two coming upon him hotly he was fain to give ground before their one of these two was a huge fellow almost a giant for stature and armed with a two handed sword which he like a against this opponent with his reach of arm and the length and weight of his weapon dick and his bill were quite and had the other continued to join vigorously in the attack the lad must have fallen this second man however less in stature and slower in his movements paused for a moment to peer about him in the darkness and to give ear to the sounds of the battle the giant still pursued his advantage and still dick fled before him for his chance then the huge blade flashed and descended and the lad leaping on one side and running in sideways and upwards with a in the dark his bill a roar of agony responded and before the wounded man could raise his formidable weapon dick twice repeating his blow had brought him to the ground the next moment he was engaged upon more equal terms with his second here there was no great difference in size and though the man fighting with sword and dagger against a bill and being wary and quick of	38
fence had a certain superiority of arms dick more than made it up by his greater on foot neither at first gained any obvious advantage but the older man was still by the of the younger to lead him where he would and presently dick found that they had crossed the whole width of the beach and were now fighting above the knees in the and of the here his own superior activity was rendered useless he found himself more or less at the discretion of his foe yet a little and he had his back turned upon his own men and saw that this and skilful adversary was bent upon drawing him farther and farther away dick ground his teeth he determined to decide the combat instantly and when the wash of the next wave had and left them dry he rushed in caught a blow upon his bill and leaped right at the throat of his opponent the man went down backwards with dick still upon the top of him and the next wave speedily succeeding the last buried him below a rush of water the black arrow while he was still dick forced his dagger from his grasp and rose to his feet victorious yield ye he said i give you life i yield me said the other getting to his knees ye fight like a young man and but by the array of the saints ye fight bravely dick turned to the beach the combat was still raging doubtfully in the night over the hoarse roar of the steel upon steel and cries of pain and the shout of battle lead me to your captain youth said the conquered knight it is fit this should cease sir replied dick so far as these brave fellows have a captain the poor gentleman who here addresses you is he call off your dogs then and i will bid my hold returned the other there was something noble both in the voice and manner of his late opponent and dick instantly dismissed all fears of treachery lay down your arms men cried the stranger knight i have yielded me upon promise of life the tone of the stranger was one of absolute command and almost instantly the din and confusion of the ceased lawless cried dick are ye safe ay cried lawless safe and hearty light me lantern said dick a in the dark is not sir daniel here inquired the knight sir daniel echoed dick now by the i pray not it would go ill with me if he were with you fair sir inquired the other nay then if ye be not of sir daniel s party i profess i comprehend no longer wherefore then fell ye upon mine in what quarrel my young and very friend to what earthly purpose and to make a clear end of questioning to what good gentleman have i surrendered but before dick could answer a voice spoke in the darkness from close by dick could see the speaker s black and white and the respectful salute which he addressed to his superior my lord said he if these gentlemen be to sir daniel it is a pity indeed we should have been at blows with them but it were greater that either they or we should linger here the in the house unless they be all dead or deaf have heard our this quarter hour instantly they will have to the town and unless we be the in our e we are like to be taken both of us by a fresh foe is in the right added the lord how please ye sir whither shall we march nay my lord said dick go where you will for me i do begin to suspect we have some ground of friendship and if indeed i began our acquaintance somewhat i would not continue the arrow let its then separate my lord your laying your right in mine and at the hour and place that ye shall name let us encounter and agree y are too boy said the other but this time your trust is not i will meet you at the point of day at st bride s cross come lads follow the strangers disappeared from the scene with a rapidity that seemed suspicious and while the fell to the congenial task of the dead bodies dick made once more the circuit of the garden wall to examine the front of the house in a little upper of the roof he beheld a light set and as it would certainly be visible in town from the back windows of sir daniel s mansion he doubted not that this was the signal feared by and that ere long the of the knight of would arrive upon the scene he put his ear to the ground and it seemed to him as if he heard a and hollow noise from back to the beach he went hurrying but the work was already done the last body was and stripped to the skin and four fellows were already to commit it to the of the deep a few minutes later when there out of the nearest lanes of some two score hastily arrayed and moving at the gallop of their the neighbourhood of the house beside the sea was entirely silent and deserted st s cross meanwhile dick and his men had returned to the ale house of the goat and to snatch some hours of sleep before the morning chapter iii st bride s cross st bride s stood a little way back from on the skirts of forest two roads met one from holy wood across the forest one that road from down which we saw the of a army in disorder here the two joined issue and went on together down the hill to and a little back from the point of the summit of a little was	38
crowned by the ancient and weather beaten cross here then about seven in the morning dick arrived it was as cold as ever the earth was all grey and silver with the frost and the day began to break in the east with many colours of purple and orange dick set him down upon the lowest step of the cross wrapped himself well in his and looked upon all sides he had not long to wait down the road from a gentleman in very rich and bright and wearing over that a of the came pacing on a splendid twenty behind him followed a of but these halted as soon as they came in view of the l the arrow place while the gentleman in the fur continued to advance alone his was raised and showed a countenance of g at command and dignity to the richness of his attire and arms and it was with some confusion of manner that dick arose from the cross and stepped down the bank to meet his prisoner i thank you my lord for your he said very low will it please your to set foot to earth are ye here alone young man inquired the other i was not so simple answered dick and to be plain with your the woods upon either hand of this cross lie full of mine honest fellows lying on their weapons y ave done wisely said the lord it me the rather since last night ye fought and more like a lunatic than any christian warrior but it becomes not me to complain that had the ye had the indeed my lord since ye so fell returned dick but had the waves not me it was i that should have had the worst ye were pleased to make me yours with several dagger marks which i still carry and in fine my lord i had all the danger as well as all the profit of that little blind man s on the beach y are shrewd enough to make light of it i see returned the stranger st s cross nay ray lord not shrewd replied dick in that i shoot at no advantage to myself but when by the light of this new day i see how stout a knight hath yielded not to my arms alone but to fortune and the darkness and the surf and how easily the battle had gone otherwise with a soldier so and rustic as myself think it not strange my lord if i feel confounded with my victory ye speak well said the stranger your name my name an t like you is answered dick men call me the lord added the other then my lord and under your good favour ye are guardian to the sweetest maid in england replied dick and for your and the of such as were taken with you on the beach there will be no uncertainty of terms i pray you my lord of your and charity yield me the hand of my mistress and take ye upon the other part your liberty the liberty of these your followers and if ye will have it my gratitude and service till i die but are ye not ward to sir daniel if y are harry s son that i had heard it so reported said lord will it please you my lord to alight i would fain tell you fully who i am how and why so bold in my demands you my lord take place upon these steps hear me to a full end and judge me with allowance the black and so saying dick lent a hand to lord to led him up the to the cross him in the place where he had himself been sitting and standing respectfully before his noble prisoner related the story of his fortunes up to the events of the evening before lord listened gravely and when dick had done master he said ye are a most fortunate unfortunate young gentleman but what fortune y ave had that ye have amply and what ye have deserved be of a good cheer for ye have made a friend who is devoid neither of power nor favour for yourself although it fits not for a person of your birth to herd with i must own ye are both brave and honourable very dangerous in battle right courteous in peace a youth of excellent disposition and brave bearing for your estates ye will never see them till the world shall change again so long as hath the strong hand so long shall sir daniel enjoy them for his own for my ward it is another matter i had promised her before to a gentleman a of my house one j the promise is old ay my lord and now sir daniel hath promised her to my lord interrupted dick and his promise for all it is but young is still the to be made good lis the plain truth returned his and considering moreover that i am your prisoner upon no better composition than my bare life and over and above that that the maiden is unhappily in other hands i will so far consent aid me with your good fellows my lord cried dick they are these same that ye blame me for with let them be what they will they can fight returned lord help me then and if between us we regain the maid upon my honour she shall marry you dick bent his knee before his prisoner but he leaping up lightly from the cross caught the lad up and embraced him like a son come he said an y are to marry we must be early friends chapter iv the good hope an hour thereafter dick was back at the goat and breaking his fast and receiving the report of his messengers and was still absent from and this was frequently	38
the case for he played many parts in the world shared many different interests and conducted many various affairs he had founded that fellowship of the black arrow as a ruined man longing for vengeance and money and yet among thk black those who knew him best he was thought to be the agent and of the great king maker of england richard earl of in his absence at any rate it fell upon richard to command affairs in and as he sat at meat his mind was full of care and his face heavy with consideration it had been determined between him and the lord to make one bold strike that evening and by brute force to set free the obstacles however were many and as one after another of his arrived each brought him more news sir daniel was alarmed by the of the night before he had increased the garrison of the house in the garden but not content with that he had stationed in all the neighbouring lanes so that he might have instant word of any movement meanwhile in the court of his mansion stood and the armed at every point awaited but the signal to ride the adventure of the night appeared more and more difficult of execution till suddenly dick s countenance lightened lawless he cried you that were a can ye steal me a ship master dick replied lawless if ye would back me i would agree to steal york presently after these two set forth and descended to the harbour it was a considerable basin lying among the good hope sand hi l and surrounded with patches of down ancient lumber and tumble down of the town many ships and many open boats either lay there at anchor or had been drawn up on the beach a long duration of bad weather had driven them from the high seas into the shelter of the port and the great of black clouds and the cold that followed one another now with a of dry snow now in a mere of wind promised no improvement but rather threatened a more serious storm in the immediate future the in view of the cold and the wind had for the most part ashore and were now roaring and singing in the many of the ships already rode at their and as the day wore on and the weather offered no appearance of improvement the number was continually being it was to these deserted ships and above all to those of them that lay far out that lawless directed his attention while dick seated upon an anchor that was half in the sand and giving ear now to the rude potent and voices of the gale and now to the hoarse singing of the in a neighbouring tavern soon forgot his immediate surroundings and concerns in the agreeable recollection of lord s promise he was disturbed by a touch upon his shoulder it as lawless pointing to a small ship that lay somewhat by itself and within but a little of the harbour mouth black i where it heaved regularly and smoothly on the entering swell a pale gleam of winter sunshine fell at that moment on the vessel s deck her against a bank of cloud and in this momentary glitter dick could see a couple of men the alongside there sir said lawless mark ye it well there is the ship for to night presently the put out from the vessel s side and the two men keeping her head well to the wind pulled for shore lawless turned to a how call ye her he asked pointing to the little vessel they call her the good of replied the her captain by name he the bow oar in yon this was all that lawless wanted hurriedly thanking the man he moved round the shore to a certain sandy creek for which the was heading there he took up his position and as soon as they were within opened fire on the sailors of the good hope what gossip he cried why ye be well met nay gossip ye be right well met upon the and is that th good hope ay i would know her among ten thousand a sweet a sweet boat but marry come up my gossip will ye drink i have come into mine estate which doubtless ye remember to have heard on i am now rich i have left to sail upon the sea i do sail now for the most part upon ale come fellow thy hand upon t come drink with an old a long faced elderly man with a knife hanging about his neck by a cord and for all the world like any modem seaman in his gait and bearing had hung back in obvious amazement and distrust but the name of an estate and a certain air of simplicity and good fellowship which lawless very well combined to conquer his suspicious jealousy his countenance relaxed and he at once extended his open hand and squeezed that of the in a formidable grasp nay he said i cannot mind you but what o that i would drink with any man gossip and so would my man tom man tom he added addressing his here is my gossip whose name i cannot mind but no doubt a very good seaman let s go drink with him and his shore friend lawless led the way and they were soon seated in an which as it was very new and stood in an exposed and solitary station was less crowded than those nearer to the centre of the port it was but a shed of timber much like a block house in the of to day and was furnished with a press or two a number of naked benches and boards set upon barrels to play the part of tables in the middle and by half a	38
hundred violent the black arrow draughts a fire of wreck wood blazed and thick smoke ay now said lawless here is a s joy a good fire and a good e cup ashore with foul weather without and an sea gale a in the roof here s to the good hope may she ride easy ay said tis good weather to be ashore in that is man tom how say ye to that gossip ye speak well though i can never think upon your name but ye speak very well may the good hope ride easy amen friend resumed lawless addressing his commander ye have certain matters on hand unless i well be about them for here i be with the choice of all good company two tough old and till that ye return i will go warrant these brave fellows will bide here and drink me cup for cup we are not like shore men we old tough it is well meant returned the ye can go boy for i will keep your good friend and my good gossip company till ay and by st mary till the sun get up again for look ye when a man hath been long enough at sea the salt me into the clay upon his bones and let him drink a draw well he will never be thus encouraged upon all hands dick rose saluted his company and going forth again into the afternoon got him as speedily as he might to the goat and the good hope thence he sent word to my lord that so soon as ever the evening closed they would have a stout boat to keep the sea in and then leading along with him a couple of who had some experience of the sea he returned to the harbour and the little sandy creek the of the good hope lay among many others from which it was easily distinguished by its extreme and indeed when dick and his two men had taken their places and begun to put forth out of the creek into the open harbour the little dipped into the swell and staggered under every gust of wind like a thing upon the point of sinking the good hope as we have said was far out where the swell was heaviest no other vessel lay nearer than several length those that were the nearest were themselves entirely deserted and as the approached a thick of snow and a sudden darkening of the weather further concealed the movements of the from all possible in a they had leaped upon the heaving deck and the was dancing at the stern the good hope was captured she was a good stout boat in the bows and but open in the stem she carried one mast and was between a and a it would seem that r had made an excellent venture for the hold was full of pieces of french wine and in the little cabin besides the virgin mary in the bulk the black head which proved the captain s piety there were many and which showed him to be rich and careful a dog who was the sole of the vessel furiously and bit the heels of the but he was soon kicked into the cabin and the door shut n his just resentment a lamp was lit and fixed in the to mark the vessel clearly from the shore one of the wine pieces in the hold was and a cup of excellent emptied to the adventure of the evening and then while one of the began to get ready his bow and arrows and prepare to hold the ship against all comers the other hauled in the and got overboard where he held on waiting for dick well jack keep me a good watch said the young commander preparing to follow his subordinate ye will do right well why returned jack i shall do excellent well indeed so long as we lie here but once we put the nose of this poor ship outside the harbour see there she nay the poor heard the words and the heart her in her oak tree ribs but look master dick how black the weather the darkness ahead was indeed astonishing great heaved up out of the blackness one after another and one after another the good hope climbed and plunged upon the further side a thin of snow and thin of foam came flying the good hope and powdered the deck and the wind among the in it said dick but what cheer tis but a and presently it will blow over but in spite of his words he was affected by the bleak disorder of the sky and the wailing and of the wind and as he got over the side of the good hope and made once more for the landing creek with the best speed of oars he crossed himself devoutly and recommended to heaven the lives of all who should adventure on the sea at the landing creek there had already gathered about a dozen of the to these the was left and they were without delay a little further up the beach dick found lord hurrying in quest of him his face concealed with a dark hood and his bright covered by a long mantle of a poor appearance young he said are ye for sea then truly my lord replied richard they lie about the house with it may not be reached from the land side without and sir daniel once advertised of our adventure we can no more carry it to a good end than saving your presence we could ride upon the wind now in going round by sea we do run some peril by the elements but what much all we have a chance to make good our purpose and bear os the maid the black arrow well returned lord lead on i will	38
and here he made sure he could detect the shape of men and horses moving a strong assailed him if their enemies were really on the watch if they had the end of the pier he and lord were taken in a posture of very poor defence the sea behind the men in the dark upon a narrow he gave a cautious whistle the signal previously agreed upon it proved to be a signal for more than he desired instantly there fell through the black night a shower of arrows sent at a venture and so close were the men huddled on the pier that more than one was hit and the arrows were answered with cries of both fear and pain in this first discharge lord was struck down had him carried on board again at once and his men during the brief remainder of the fought when they fought at all without guidance that was perhaps the chief cause of the disaster which made haste to follow at the shore end of the pier for perhaps a minute dick held his own with a handful one or two were wounded upon either side steel crossed steel nor had there been the least signal of advantage when in the twinkling of an eye the tide turned against the party the good hope from the ship cried out that all was lost the men were in the very humour to lend an ear to a counsel the cry was taken up on board lads for your lives cried another a third with the true instinct of the coward raised that inevitable report on all we are betrayed and in a moment the whole mass of men went and backward down the pier turning their backs on their and piercing the night with one coward thrust off the ship s stem while another still held her by the bows the leaped screaming and were hauled on board or fell back and perished in the sea some were cut down upon the pier by the many were injured on the ship s deck in the blind haste and terror of the moment one man leaping upon another and a third on both at last and whether by design or accident the bows of the good hope were and the ever ready lawless who had maintained his place at the through all the by sheer strength of body and a liberal use of the cold steel instantly clapped her on the proper tack the ship began to move once more forward on the stormy sea its running blood its deck heaped with fallen men and struggling in the dark thereupon lawless his dagger and turning to his next neighbour i have left my mark on them gossip said he the coward hounds m the black arrow now while they were all leaping and struggling for their lives the men had not appeared to observe the rough and cutting with which lawless had held his post in the confusion but perhaps they had already begun to understand somewhat more clearly or perhaps another ear had overheard the s speech panic stricken troops recover slowly and men who have just disgraced themselves by cowardice as if to wipe out the memory of their fault will sometimes run straight into the opposite extreme of so it was now and the same men who had thrown away their weapons and been hauled feet foremost into the good rope began to cry out upon their leaders and demand that should be punished this growing ill feeling turned upon lawless in order to get a proper the old had put the head of the good hope to what one of the he us to tis cried another nay we are betrayed for sure and they all began to cry out in chorus that they were betrayed and in shrill tones and with abominable oaths bade lawless go about ship and bring them speedily ashore lawless grinding his teeth continued in silence to steer the true course guiding the good hope among the formidable to their empty terrors as to their threats between drink the good hope and dignity he scorned to make reply the drew together a little the mast and it was plain they were like for courage presently they would be fit for any extremity of injustice or ingratitude dick began to mount by the ladder eager to but one of the who was also something of a seaman got beforehand lads he began y are right wooden heads i think for to get back by the mass we must have an must we not and this old lawless struck the speaker on the mouth and the next moment as a fire springs among dry straw he was upon the deck trampled under the feet and despatched by the of his cowardly companions at this the wrath of lawless rose and broke steer yourselves he with a curse and careless of the result he left the the good hope was at that moment trembling on the summit of a swell she subsided with sickening upon the farther side a wave like a great black immediately in front of her and with a staggering blow she plunged head foremost through that liquid hill the green water passed right over her from stem to stern as high as a man s knees the ran higher than the mast and she rose again upon the other side with an appalling tremulous like a beast that has been deadly wounded six or seven of the had been carried bodily overboard and as for the remainder when the black arrow they found their tongues again it was to to the saints and wail upon lawless to come back and take the nor did lawless wait to be twice the terrible result of his fling of just resentment him completely he knew better than any one on board how nearly the good hope	38
that must not be delayed we have no priest aboard none replied dick here then to my interests resumed lord ye must be as good a friend to me dead as i found you a gallant enemy i was living i fall in an evil hour for me for england and for them that trusted me my men are being brought by he that was your rival they will in the long room at this ring from my finger will you to represent mine orders and i shall write besides two words upon this paper bidding yield to you the will ye obey i know not but my lord what orders inquired dick ay the baron ay the orders and he looked upon dick with hesitation are ye or york he asked at length i shame to say it answered dick t can scarce the good hope clearly answer but so much i think is certain since i serve with i serve the house of york well if that be so i declare for york it is well returned the other it is exceeding well for truly had ye said i not for the world what i had done but ye are for york me i came hither but to ch these lords at while mine excellent young lord richard of a sufficient force to fall upon and scatter them i have made me notes of their strength what watch they keep and how they lie and these i was to deliver to my young lord on sunday an hour before noon at st bride s cross beside the forest this i am not like to keep but i pray you of courtesy to keep it in my stead and see that not pleasure nor pain tempest wound nor withhold you from the hour and place for the welfare of england upon this cast i do take this upon me said dick in so far as in me your purpose shall be done it is good said the wounded man my lord duke shall order you farther and if ye obey him with spirit and good will then is your fortune made give me the lamp a little nearer to mine eyes till that i write these words for you he wrote a note to his sir at the date of this story richard could not have been created duke of bat for clearness with the reader s leave he shall so be called the arrow john and then a second which he left without external this is for the duke he said the word is england and edward and the counter england and york and my lord asked dick nay ye must get how ye can replied the baron i have named you for my choice in both these letters but ye must get her for yourself boy i have tried as ye see here before you and have lost my life more could no man do by this time the wounded man began to be very weary and dick putting the precious papers in his bosom bade him be of good cheer and left him to repose the day was beginning to break cold and blue with flying of snow close under the lee of the good the coast lay in alternate rocky and sandy and further inland the wooded hill tops of showed along the sky both the wind and the sea had gone down but the vessel deep and scarce rose upon the waves lawless was still fixed at the and by this time nearly all the men had crawled on deck and were now gazing with blank faces upon the coast are we going ashore asked dick ay said lawless unless we get first to the bottom the good and just then the ship rose so languidly to meet a sea and the water so loudly in her hold that dick involuntarily seized the by the arm by the mass i cried dick as the bows of the good re appeared above the foam i thought we had indeed my heart was at my throat in the waist green she ve and the better men of both companies were busy breaking up the deck to build a and to these dick joined himself working the harder to drown the memory of his but even as he worked every sea that struck the poor ship and every one of her dull as she tumbled among the waves recalled him with a horrid pan to the immediate of death presently looking up from his work he saw that they were close in below a a piece of against the base of which the sea broke white and heavy almost the deck and above that again a house appeared crowning a down inside the bay the seas ran gaily raised the good hope upon their foam shoulders carried her beyond the control of the and in a moment dropped her with a great on the sand and began to break over her half mast high and roll her to and fro another great wave followed raised her again and carried her yet farther in and then a third succeeded and left her far of the more dangerous upon a bank now boys cried lawless the saints have ha l a the black arrow care of us indeed the tide let us but sit down and drink a cup of wine and before half an hour ye may all march me ashore as safe as on a bridge a barrel was and sitting in what shelter they could find from the flying snow and spray the company handed the cup around and sought to warm their bodies and restore their spirits dick meanwhile returned to lord who lay m great perplexity and fear the floor of his cabin washing knee deep in water and the lamp which had been his only light broken and extinguished by	38
the violence of the blow my lord said young fear not at all the saints are plainly for us the seas have cast us high upon a and as soon as the tide hath somewhat we may walk ashore upon our feet it was nearly an hour before the vessel was sufficiently deserted by the sea and they could set forth for the land which appeared dimly before them through a veil of driving snow upon a on one side of their way a party of men lay huddled together suspiciously observing the movements of the new they might draw near and offer us some comfort dick remarked well an they come not to us let us even turn aside to them said the sooner we come to a good fire and a dry bed the better for my poor lord the good hope but they had not moved far in the direction of the before the men with one consent rose suddenly to their feet and poured a flight of well directed arrows on the company back back cried his beware in heaven s name that ye reply not nay cried pulling an arrow from his leather jack we are in no posture to fight it is certain being wet dog weary and three parts frozen but for the love of old england what them to shoot thus cruelly on their poor country people in distress they take us to be french answered lord in these most troublesome and days we cannot keep our own shores of england but our old enemies whom we once chased on sea and land do now range at pleasure and and burning it is the pity and reproach of this poor land the men upon the lay closely observing them while they upward from the beach and wound inland among desolate sand hills for a mile or so they even hung upon the rear of the march ready at a sign to pour another on the weary and and it was only when striking at length upon a firm high road dick began to call his men to some more martial order that these jealous of the coast of england silently disappeared among the snow they had done what they desired the black they had protected their own homes and farms their own families and cattle and their private interest being thus secured it mattered not the weight of a straw to any one of them although the should carry blood and fire to every other parish in the realm of england iv the disguise chapter i the den the place where dick had struck the line of a high road was not far from holy wood and within nine or ten miles of on the till and here after making sure that they were pursued no longer the two bodies separated lord s followers departed carrying their wounded master towards the comfort and security of the great abbey and dick as he saw them wind away and disappear in the thick curtain of the falling snow was left alone with near upon a dozen the last remainder of his troop of some were wounded one and all were furious at their ill success and long exposure and though they were now too cold and hungry to do more they grumbled and cast sullen looks upon their leaders dick emptied his purse among them leaving himself nothing thanked them for the courage they had displayed though he could have found it more readily in his heart to rate them for and having thus somewhat softened the effect of his prolonged n the black arrow despatched them to find their way either or in pairs to and the goat and for his own part influenced by what he had seen on board of the good he chose lawless to be his companion on the walk the snow was falling without pause or in one even blinding cloud the wind had been and now blew no longer and the whole world was blotted out and down below that silent there was great danger of wandering by the way and in and lawless keeping half a step in front ef his companion and holding his head forward like a hunting dog upon the scent inquired his way of every tree and studied out their path as though he were a ship among dangers about a mile into the forest they came to a place where several ways met under a grove of lofty and oaks even in the narrow horizon of the falling snow it was a spot that could not fail to be recognised and lawless evidently recognised it with particular delight now master richard said he an y are not too proud to be the guest of a man who is neither a gentleman by birth nor so much as a good christian i can offer you a cup of wine and a good fire to melt the in your frozen bones lead on will answered dick a cup of wine and a good fire nay i would go a far way round to see them the lawless turned aside under the bare branches of the grove and walking resolutely forward for some time came to a hollow or den that had now drifted a quarter full of snow on the verge a great hung rooted and here the old pulling aside some bodily disappeared into the earth the had in some violent gale been and had torn up a considerable stretch of turf and it was under this that old lawless had dug out his forest hiding place the roots served him for the turf was his for walls and floor he had his mother the earth rude as it was the hearth in one corner blackened by fire and the presence in another of a large chest well fortified with iron showed it at one glance to be the den of a	38
man and not the of a digging beast though the snow had drifted at the mouth and in upon the floor of this earth yet was the air much warmer than without and when lawless had struck a spark and the dry bushes had begun to blaze and on the hearth the place assumed even to the eye an air of comfort and of home with a sigh of great contentment lawless spread his broad hands before the fire and seemed to breathe the smoke here then e said is this old lawless s pray heaven there come no i par i have rolled hither and thither and here and about since that n i tf thb black i was years of mine age and first ran away from mine abbey with the s gold chain and a mass book that i sold for four marks i have been in england and france and and in spain too on a e for my poor soul and npon the sea which is no man s country but here is my place master this is my native land this in the earth come rain or wind and whether it s april and the birds all sing and the blossoms about my bed or whether it s winter and i sit alone with my good gossip the fire and robin red breast in the woods here is my church and market my wife and child it s here i come back to and it s here so please the saints that i would like to die tis a warm comer to be sure replied dick and a pleasant and a well hid lt had need to be returned lawless for an they found it master it would break my heart but here he added with his stout fingers in the sandy floor here is my wine cellar and ye shall have a of excellent strong sure enough after but a little digging he produced a big bottle of about a nearly three parts full of a very and sweet wine and when they had drunk to each other and the fire had been and blazed up again the pair lay at full and steaming and warm master observed the y ave tub den had two this last while and y are like to lose the maid do i take it aright aright returned dick nodding his head well now continued lawless hear an old fool that hath been nigh hand everything and seen all ye go too much on other people s errands master dick ye go on s but he gather the death of sir daniel ye go on lord s well the saints preserve him doubtless he well but go ye upon your own good dick come right to the maid s side court her lest that she forget you be ready and when the chance shall come off with her at the ay but lawless beyond doubt she is now in sir daniel s own mansion answered dick thither then go we replied the dick stared at him nay i mean it nodded lawless and if y are of so little faith and at a word see here and the taking a key about his neck opened the oak chest and dipping and groping deep among its contents produced first a s robe and next a of rope and then a huge of wood heavy enough to be counted as a weapon here he said is for you on with them i and then when dick had clothed himself in this disguise lawless produced some colours and a pencil and proceeded with the greatest cunning to disguise his face the eyebrows he and the black arrow produced to the moustache which was yet hardly visible he rendered a like service while by a few lines around his eye he changed the expression and increased the apparent age of this young now he resumed when i have done the like we shall make as a pair of as the eye could wish boldly to sir daniel s we shall go and there be welcome for the love of mother church and how dear lawless cried the lad shall i repay you tut brother replied the i do naught but for my pleasure mind not for me i am one by the mass that for himself when that i lack i have a long tongue and a voice like the bell i do ask my son and where asking i do most usually take the old rogue made a humorous and although dick was displeased to lie under so great to so a personage he was yet unable to restrain his mirth with that lawless returned to the big chest and was soon disguised but below his gown dick wondered to observe him conceal a of black arrows wherefore do ye that asked the lad wherefore arrows when ye take no bow nay replied lawless lightly tis like there will be heads broke not to says backs ere you and i win sound from where we re going to and if any fall i the den would our fellowship should come by the credit on t a black arrow master dick is the seal of our abbey it you who writ the bill an ye prepare so carefully said dick i have here some papers that for mine own sake and the interest of those that trusted me were better left behind than found upon my body where shall i conceal them wiu nay replied lawless i will go forth into the wood and whistle me three verses of a song meanwhile do you bury them where ye please and smooth the sand upon the place never cried richard i trust you man i were base indeed if i not trusted you brother y are but a child replied the old pausing and turning	38
his face upon dick from the threshold of the den i am a kind old christian and no traitor to men s blood and no of mine own in a friend s but fool child i am a thief by trade and birth and habit if my bottle were empty and my mouth dry i would rob you dear child as sure as i love honour and admire your parts and person can it be clearer spoken no and he forth through the bushes with a snap of his big fingers dick thus left alone after a wondering thought upon the of his companion s character produced and buried his papers one only he reserved to carry along with him since it in the black arrow his friends and yet might serve him in a pinch against sir daniel that was the knight s own letter to lord sent by on the morrow of the defeat at and found next day by dick upon the body of the messenger then treading down the embers of the fire dick left the den and rejoined the old who stood awaiting him under the oaks and was already beginning to be powdered by the falling snow each looked upon the other and each laughed so thorough aud so droll was the disguise yet i would it were but summer and a clear day grumbled the that i might see myself in the mirror of a pool there be many of sir daniel s men that know me and if we fell to be recognised there might be two words for you my brother but as for me in a while i should be kicking in a rope send thus they set forth together along the road to which in this part of its course kept near along the margin of the forest coming forth from time to time in the open country and passing beside poor folks houses and small farms presently at sight of one of these lawless pulled up brother martin he said in a voice disguised and suited to his robe met us enter and seek from these poor i the den ay he added in his own voice tis as i feared i have somewhat lost the of it and by your leave good master ye must suffer me to practise in these country places before that i risk my fat neck by entering sir daniel s but look ye a little what an excellent thing it is to be a jack of all trades an i had not been a ye had gone down in the good hope an i had not been a thief i could not have painted me your face and but that i had been a grey and sung loud in the choir and ate hearty at the board i could not have carried this disguise but the ry dogs would have us out and at us for he was by this time close to the window of the farm and he rose on his tip toes and peeped in nay he cried better and better we shall here try our false faces with a vengeance and have a merry jest on brother to boot and so saying he opened the door and led the way into the house three of their own company sat at the table eating their stuck beside them in the board and the black and menacing looks which they continued to shower upon the people of the house proved that they owed their entertainment rather to force than favour on the two who now with a sort of humble dignity entered the kitchen of the farm they seemed to turn with a particular resentment and one it was john in person who seemed to the black play the leading part and rudely ordered them away we want no here he cried but another although he was as far from dick and lawless inclined to more moderate counsels not so he cried we be strong men and take these be weak and but in the latter end these shall be uppermost and we below mind him not my father but come drink of my cup and give me a y are men of a light mind and accursed said the now may the saints forbid that ever i should drink with such companions but here for the pity i bear to here i do leave you a blessed the which for your soul s interest i bid you kiss and cherish so far lawless thundered upon them like a preaching but with these words he drew from under his a black arrow tossed it on the board in front of the three startled turned in the same instant and taking dick along with him was out of the room and out of sight among the falling snow before they had time to utter a word or move a finger so he said we have proved our false faces master i will now adventure my poor where ye please good returned richard it me to be doing set we on for i in mine enemies house chapter ii sir daniel s residence in was a tall mansion framed in oak and covered by a low pitched roof of to the back there stretched a garden full of fruit trees and thick and overlooked from the far end by the tower of the abbey church the house might contain upon a pinch the of a greater person than sir daniel but even now it was filled with the court rang with arms and horse shoe iron the kitchen roared with like a bees hive and the players of instruments and the cries of sounded from the hall sir daniel in his profusion in the gaiety and gallantry of his establishment with lord and lord all guests were made welcome players of the of relics and and along with	38
these every sort of priest or pilgrim were made welcome to the lower table and slept together in the ample or on the bare boards of the long dining hall on the afternoon following the wreck of the good the the the stables the covered that surrounded two sides of the court were all crowded by idle people partly belonging to sir the black arrow daniel s establishment and attired in his livery of and blue partly strangers attracted to the town by and received by the knight through policy and because it was the fashion of the time the snow which still fell without interruption the extreme chill of the air and the approach of night combined to keep them under shelter wine ale and money were all plentiful many gambling in the straw of the barn many were still drunken from the meal to the eye of a modern it would have looked like the sack of a city to the eye of a contemporary it was like any other rich and noble household at a season two a young and an old had arrived late and were now warming themselves at a in a corner of the shed a mixed crowd surrounded them and soldiers and with these the elder of the two had soon engaged so brisk a conversation and exchanged so many loud and country that the group increased in number the younger companion in whom the reader has already recognised dick sat from first somewhat backward and gradually drew himself away he listened indeed closely but he opened not his mouth and by the grave expression of his countenance he made but little account of his companion s at last his eye which travelled continually to and fro and kept a guard upon all the of the in mine enemies house house lit upon a little procession entering by the main gate and crossing the court in an direction two ladies muffled in thick led the way and were followed by a pair of waiting women and four stout men at arms the next moment they had disappeared within the house and dick slipping through the crowd of in the shed was already giving hot pursuit the taller of these twain was lady he thought and where lady is will not be far at the door of the house the four men at arms had ceased to follow and the ladies were now mounting the of polished oak under no better escort than that of the two waiting women dick followed close behind it was already the dusk of the day and in the house the darkness of the night had almost come on the stair in iron down the long a lamp burned by every door and where the door stood open dick could look in upon covered walls and rush floors glowing in the light of the wood fires two floors were passed and at every landing the younger and shorter of the two ladies had looked back keenly at the he keeping his eyes lowered and affecting the manners that suited his disguise had but seen her once and was unaware that he had attracted her attention and now on the third floor the party separated the younger lady continuing black a to ascend alone the other followed by the descending the corridor to the right dick mounted with a swift foot and holding to the comer thrust forth his head and followed the three women with his eyes without turning or looking behind them they continued to descend the corridor it is right well thought dick let me but know my lady s chamber and it will go hard an i find not dame upon an errand and just then a hand was laid upon his shoulder and with a bound and a choked cry he turned to his he was somewhat abashed to find in the person whom he had so roughly seized the short young lady in the she on her part was shocked and terrified beyond expression and hung trembling in his grasp madam said dick her i cry you a thousand but i have no eyes behind and by the mass i could not tell ye were a maid the girl continued to look at him but by this time terror began to be succeeded by surprise and surprise by suspicion dick who could read these changes on her face became alarmed for his own safety in that hostile house pair maid he said affecting suffer me to kiss your hand in token ye forgive my and i will even go y are a strange young sir returned the young lady looking him both boldly and in in mine enemies house the face and now that my first astonishment hath somewhat passed away i can spy the in each word you utter what do ye here why are ye thus out come ye in peace or war and why spy ye after lady like a thief madam dick of one thing i pray you to be very sure i am no thief and even if i come here in war as in some degree i do i make no war upon fair maids and i entreat them to copy me so far and to leave me be for indeed fair mistress cry out if such be your pleasure cry but once and say what ye have seen and the poor gentleman before you is merely a dead man i cannot think ye would be cruel added dick and taking the girl s hand gently in both of his he looked at her with courteous admiration are ye then a spy a asked the maid madam he i am indeed a and in some sort a spy but that which me into this house the same which will win for me the pity and interest of your kind heart is	38
neither of york nor i will wholly put my life in your discretion i am a lover and my name but here the young lady clapped her hand suddenly upon dick s mouth looked hastily up and down and east and west and seeing the coast clear began to drag the young man with great strength and vehemence upstairs hush i she said and come shalt talk hereafter s black w dick himself to lie np tain n a and into a chamber lit like so of the others a blazing log upon the hearth now the lady him down a ff sit ye there and attend my i t a a i have life and death over yon and i will m t to abuse my power look to y ave cruelly my arm he knew not i was a maid be i had he known i was a maid he had ta en his belt to me and with these words she whipped out of the room and left dick with wonder and not very sore if he were dreaming or awake ta en my belt to her he repeated ta en my belt to her i and the recollection of that evening in the forest flowed back upon his mind and he once more saw s body and eyes and then he was recalled to the dangers of the present in the next room he heard a stir as of a moving then followed a sigh which sounded strangely near and then the rustle of skirts and tap of feet once more began as he stood he saw the wave along the wall there was the sound of a door being opened the divided and lamp in handy entered the apartment she was attired in costly of deep and warm colours such as the winter and the snow upon head her hair had been gathered together and in mine enemies became ber as a crown and she who bad seemed so little and so awkward in tbe attire of was now tall like a young willow and swam across the floor as though she scorned the di of walking without a start without a tremor she raised ber lamp and looked at the young what make ye here good brother she ye are doubtless ill directed whom do ye require and she set ber lamp upon the said dick and then his voice failed him he began again ye said ye loved me and the more fool i but i believed it dick she cried dick and then to the wonder of the lad this beautiful and tall young lady made but one step of it and threw her arms about his neck and gave him a hundred kisses all in one oh the fool fellow she cried oh dear dick oh if ye could see yourself she added pausing i have spoilt you dick i have knocked some of the paint off but that can be mended what cannot be mended or i much fear it cannot is my marriage with lord is it decided then asked the lad to morrow before noon dick in the abbey church she answered john and both shall come to a right miserable end there is no help in tears or i could weep mine eyes out i have not spared myself to pray but heaven on the black my petition and dear dick good dick but that ye can get me forth of this house before the morning we must even kiss and say good bye nay said dick not i i will never say that word tis like despair but while there s life there is hope yet will i hope ay by the mass and triumph look ye now when ye were but a name to me did i not follow did i not rouse good men did i not stake my life upon the quarrel and now that i have seen you for what ye are the fairest maid and of england think ye i would turn if the deep sea were there i would straight through it if the way were full of lions i would scatter them like ay she said ye make a great about a sky blue robe nay protested dick tis not alone the robe but ye were disguised here am i disguised and to the proof do i not cut a figure of fun a right fool s figure ay dick an that ye do she answered smiling well then he returned triumphant so was it with you poor in the forest in ye were a to laugh at but now so they ran on holding each other by both hands exchanging smiles and lovely looks and melting minutes into seconds and so they might have continued all night long but presently there was a noise behind them and they were aware of the short young lady with her finger on her lips in mine enemies house saints she cried but what a noise keep can ye not speak in compass and now my fair maid of the woods what will ye give your gossip for bringing you your sweetheart ran to her by way of answer and embraced her and you sir added the young lady what do ye give me madam said dick i would fain offer to pay you in the same money come then said the lady it is permitted you but dick blushing like a only kissed her hand what ye at my face fair sir she inquired to the very ground and then when dick had at length and most embraced her she added your sweetheart is very backward under your eyes but i warrant you when first we met he was more ready i am all black and blue trust me never if i be not black and blue and now she	38
continued have ye said your sayings for i must speedily dismiss the but at this they both cried out that they had said nothing that the night was still very young and that they would not be separated so early and supper asked the young lady must we not go down to supper nay to be sure i cried i had forgotten o tub black hide me then said dick put me behind the shut me in a chest or what ye will so that i may be here on your return indeed fair lady he added bear this in mind that we are sore and may never look upon each other s face from this night forward till we die at this the young lady melted and when a little after the bell summoned sir daniel s household to the board dick was planted very stiffly against the wall at a place where a division in the permitted him to breathe the more freely and even to see into the room he had not been long in this position when he was somewhat strangely disturbed the silence in that upper of the house was only broken by the flickering of the flames and the hissing of a green log in the chimney j but presently to dick s strained hearing there came the sound of some one walking with extreme precaution and soon after the door opened and a little black faced fellow in lord s colours pushed first his head and then his crooked body into the chamber his mouth was open as though to hear the better and his eyes which were very bright flitted and swiftly to and fro he went round and round the room striking here and there upon the but dick by a miracle escaped his notice then he looked below the furniture and examined the lamp and at last with an air of cruel disappointment was preparing to go away as in mine enemies silently as he had come when down he dropped upon his knees picked up something from among the rushes on the floor examined it and with every signal of delight concealed it in the at his belt dick s heart sank for the object in question was a from his own and it was plain to him that this spy who took a delight in his employment would lose no time in bearing it to his master the baron he was half tempted to throw aside the fall upon the scoundrel and at the risk of his life remove the tell tale token and while he was still hesitating a new cause of concern was added a voice hoarse and broken by drink began to be audible from the stair and presently after wandering and heavy footsteps sounded without along the passage what make ye here my merry men among the sang the voice what make ye here hey what make ye here it added with a rattle of drunken laughter and then once more breaking into song if ye should drink the wine fat john ye friend o mine if i should and ye drink who shall sing the mass d ye think p lawless alas rolling drunk was wandering the house seeking for a comer wherein to slumber off the effect of his dick inwardly raged the spy at first terrified had grown reassured as he found he had to deal with an man and now with s the black arrow a movement of cat like rapidity slipped from the chamber and was gone from richard s eyes what was to be done if he lost of lawless for the night he was left impotent whether to plan or carry forth s rescue if on the other hand he dared to address the drunken the spy might still be lingering within sights and the most fatal consequences it was nevertheless upon this last hazard that dick decided slipping from behind the he stood ready in the doorway of the chamber with a warning hand lawless flushed crimson with his eyes on his feet drew still nearer at last he caught sight of his commander and in despite of dick s imperious hailed him instantly and loudly by his name dick leaped upon and shook the furiously beast he beast and no man it is worse than treachery to be so we may all be for thy but lawless only laughed and staggered and tried to clap young on the back and just then dick s quick ear caught a rapid brushing in the he leaped towards the sound and the next moment a piece of the wall hanging had been torn down and dick and the spy were together in its folds over and over they rolled for each other s throat and still baffled by the and stiu silent in their deadly fury but the dead spy dick was by the stronger and soon the spy lay prostrate under his knee and with a single stroke of the long ceased to breathe chapter iii the dead spy throughout this furious and rapid passage lawless had looked on helplessly and even when all was over and dick already re arisen to his feet was listening with the most passionate attention to the distant bustle in the lower of the house the old was still wavering on his legs like a in a breeze of wind and still staring on the face of the dead man it is well said dick at length they have not heard us praise the saints i but now what shall i do with this poor spy at least i will take my from his so saying dick opened the within he found a few pieces of money the and a letter addressed to lord and sealed with my lord s seal the name awoke dick s recollection and he instantly broke the wax and read the contents of	38
the letter it was short but to dick s delight it gave evident proof that lord was corresponding with the house of york the black the young fellow usually carried his ink horn and implements about him and so now bending a knee beside the body of the dead spy he was able to write these words upon a corner of the paper my lord of ye that the letter ye why your man is p but let me yon marry not all he laid this paper on the breast of the corpse and then lawless who had been looking on upon these last with some flickering returns of intelligence suddenly drew a black arrow from below his robe and pinned the paper in its place the sight of this or as it almost seemed cruelty to the dead drew a cry of horror from young but the old only laughed nay i will have the credit for mine order he my jolly boys must have the credit on t the credit brother and then shutting his eyes tight and opening his mouth like a he began to thunder in a formidable voice if ye should drink the wine peace cried dick and thrust him hard against the wall in two words if so be that such a man can understand me who hath more wine than wit in him in two words and a mary s name out of this house where if ye continue to abide ye will not only hang yourself but m also faith then up foot i be or by the mass i may forget that dead spy i am in some sort your captain and in some year go the sham was now in some degree recovering the use of his intelligence and the ring in dick s voice and the glitter in dick s eye stamped home the meaning of his words by the mass cried lawless an i be not wanted i can go and he turned along the corridor and proceeded to down stairs against the wall so soon as he was out of sight dick returned to his hiding place resolutely fixed to see the matter out wisdom indeed moved him to be gone but love and curiosity were stronger time passed slowly for the young man bolt upright behind the the fire in the room began to die down and the lamp to bum low and to smoke and still there was no word of the return of any one to these upper quarters of the house still the faint hum and clatter of the supper party sounded from far below and still under the thick fall of the snow town lay silent upon every side at length however feet and voices began to draw near upon the stair and presently after several of sir daniel s guests arrived upon the landing and turning down the corridor beheld the torn and the body of the spy some ran forward and some back and all together began to cry aloud the black at the sound of their cries guests men at arms ladies servants and in a word all the inhabitants of that great house came flying from every and began to join their voices to the tumult soon a way was cleared and sir daniel came forth in person followed by the bridegroom of the morrow my lord my lord said sir daniel have i not told you of this black arrow to the proof behold it there it stands and by the my gossip in a man of yours or one that stole your colours i in good it was a man of mine replied lord hanging back i would i had more such he was keen as a and secret as a ay gossip truly asked sir daniel keenly and what came he smelling up so many stairs in my poor mansion but he will smell no more an t please you sir daniel said one here is a paper written upon with some matter pinned upon his breast give it me arrow and all said the knight and when he had taken into his hand the shaft he continued for some time to gaze upon it in a sullen musing ay he said addressing lord here is a hate that hard and close upon my heels this black stick or its just likeness shall yet bring me down and gossip suffer a plain knight to counsel you and if these hounds begin to wind you flee i tis like a sickness it still upon the limbs dead spy but let us see what they have written it is as i thought my lord y are marked like an old oak by the to morrow or next day by will come the axe but what wrote ye in a letter lord snatched the paper from the arrow read it it between his hands and the reluctance which had hitherto withheld him from approaching threw himself on his knees beside the body and eagerly in the he rose to his feet with a somewhat unsettled countenance gossip he said i have indeed lost a letter here that much imported and could i lay my hand upon the that took it he should grace a but let us first of all secure the issues of the house here is enough harm already by st george were posted close around the house and garden a on every landing of the stair a whole troop in the main entrance hall and yet another about the in the shed sir daniel s followers were by lord s there was thus no lack of men or weapons to make the house secure or to a lurking enemy should one be there meanwhile the body of the spy was carried out through the falling snow and deposited in the church it was not until these dispositions had been taken and	38
all had returned to a silence that the two girls drew richard from his place of the black concealment and made a full report to him of what had passed he upon his side the visit of the spy his dangerous discovery and speedy end leaned back very faint against the wall it will avail but little she said i shall be wed to morrow in the morning after all i what cried her friend and here is our that lions like i ye have little faith of a but come friend lion driver give us some comfort speak and let us hear bold counsels dick was confounded to be thus with his own exaggerated words but though he coloured he still spoke truly said he we are in straits yet could i but win out of this house for half an hour i do honestly tell myself that all might still go well and for the marriage it should be prevented and for the lions the girl they shall be driven i your excuse said dick i speak not now in any humour but rather as one inquiring after help or counsel for if i get not forth of this house through these i can do less than naught take me i pray you rightly why said ye he was rustic the girl inquired i warrant he hath a tongue in his head ready soft and bold is his speech at pleasure what would ye more th dead spy z l nay sighed with a smile they have changed me my friend dick tis sure enough when i beheld him he was rough indeed but it matters little there is no help for my hard case and i must still be lady nay then said dick i will even make the adventure a is not much regarded and if i found a good fairy to lead me up i may find another to carry me down how call they the name of this spy said the young lady and an excellent good name to call him by but how mean ye what is in your mind to do to offer boldly to go forth returned dick and if any stop me to keep an unchanged countenance and say i go to pray for butter they will be praying over his poor clay even now the device is somewhat simple replied the girl yet it may hold nay said young it is no device but mere boldness which often better in great straits ye say true she said well go a mary s name and may heaven speed you ye leave here a poor maid that loves you entirely and another that is most heartily your friend be wary for their and make not of your safety ay added go dick ye run no more peril whether ye go or stay go ye take my heart with you the saints defend you dick passed the first with bo assured a z black a iu w countenance that the fellow merely and stared but at the second landing the man carried his spear across and bade him name his business answered dick i go to pray over the body of this poor like enough returned the but to go alone is not permitted he leaned over the and whistled shrill one cried and then dick to pass at the foot of the stair he found the guard and awaiting his arrival and when he had once more repeated his story the commander of the post ordered four men out to accompany him to the church let him not slip my lads he said bring him to sir on your lives the door was then opened one of the men took dick by either arm another marched ahead with a link and the fourth with bent bow and the arrow on the string brought up the rear in this order they proceeded through the garden under the thick darkness of the night and the scattering snow and drew near to the dimly illuminated windows of the abbey church at the western a of stood taking what shelter they could find in the hollow of the arched and all powdered with the snow and it was not until dick s had exchanged a word with these that they were suffered to pass forth and enter the of the sacred edifice the church was doubtfully lighted by the the dead spy upon the great altar and by a lamp or two that swung from the arched roof before the private of illustrious families in the midst of the choir the dead spy lay his limbs composed upon a a hurried of prayer sounded along the arches figures knelt in the of the choir and on the steps of the high altar a priest in celebrated mass upon this fresh entrance one of the figures arose and coming down the steps which elevated the level of the choir above that of the demanded from the leader of the four men what business brought him to the church out of respect for the service and the dead they spoke in guarded tones but the echoes of that huge empty building caught up their words and repeated and repeated them along the a returned sir for he it was when he had heard the report of the my brother i looked not for your coming he added turning to young in all civility who are ye and at whose instance do ye join your to ours r dick keeping his about his face signed to sir to move a pace or two aside from the and so soon as the priest had done so i cannot hope to deceive you sir he said my life is in your hands sir violently started his stout cheeks grew pale and for a space he was silent tub black richard he said what brings you here i know not but	38
i much it to be evil nevertheless for the kindness that was i would not willingly deliver you to harm ye shall sit all night beside me in the ye shall sit there till my lord of be married and the party gone safe home and if all well and ye have planned no evil in the end ye shall go whither ye will but if your purpose be bloody it shall return upon your head amen and the priest devoutly crossed himself and turned and to the altar with that he spoke a few words more to the soldiers and taking dick by the hand led him up to the choir and placed him in the stall beside his own where for mere decency the lad had instantly to kneel and appear to be busy with his his mind and his eyes however were continually wandering three of the soldiers he observed instead of returning to the house had got them quietly into a point of in the aisle and he could not doubt that they had done so by sir s command here then he was here he must spend the night in the ghostly glimmer and shadow of the church and looking on the pale face of him he and here in the morning he must see his sweetheart married to another man before his eyes but for all that he obtained a command upon his mind and built himself up in patience to await the issue in the abbey chapter iv in the abbey in abbey church the prayers were kept up all night without now with the singing of now with a note or two upon the bell the spy was nobly there he lay meanwhile as they had arranged him his dead hands crossed upon his bosom his dead eyes staring on the roof and hard by in the stall the lad who had slain him waited in sore the coming o the morning once only in the course of the hours sir leaned across his captive richard he whispered my son if ye mean me evil i will on my soul s welfare ye design upon an innocent man sinful in the eye of heaven i do declare myself but sinful as against you i am not neither have been ever my father returned dick in the same tone of voice trust me i design nothing but as for your innocence i may not forget that ye cleared yourself but a man may be innocently guilty replied the priest he may be set upon a mission ignorant of its true scope so it was with me i did your father to his death but as heaven sees us in this sacred place i knew not what i did the black it may he returned dick but see what a strange web ye have woven that i should be at this hour at once your prisoner and your judge that ye should both threaten my days and my anger if ye had been all your life a true man and good priest ye would neither thus fear nor thus me and now to your prayers i do obey you since needs must but i will not be with your company the priest uttered a sigh so heavy that it had almost touched the lad into some sentiment of pity and he bowed his head upon his hands like a man borne down below a weight of care he joined no longer in the but dick could hear the beads rattle through his fingers and the prayers a between his teeth yet a little and the grey of the morning began to struggle through the painted of the church and to put to shame the glimmer of the the light slowly and brightened and presently through the south eastern a flush of rosy sunlight on the walls the storm was over the great clouds had their snow and fled farther on and the new day was breaking on a merry winter landscape in white a bustle of church officers followed the was carried forth to the and the of blood were from off the that no such ill spectacle should disgrace the marriage of lord at the same time the very who had been in the abbey church so engaged all night began to put on morning faces to do honour to the ceremony which was about to follow and further to announce the coming of the day the pious of the town began to and fall to prayer before their favourite or wait their turn at the favoured by this stir it was of course easily possible for any man to avoid the vigilance of sir daniel s at the door and presently dick looking about him wearily caught the eye of no less a person than will lawless still in his s habit the at the same moment recognised his leader and signed to him with hand and eye now dick was far from having forgiven the old rogue his most but he had no desire to involve him in his own and he back to him as plain as he was able to lawless as though he had understood disappeared at once behind a pillar and dick breathed again what then was his dismay to feel himself plucked by the sleeve and to find the old robber beside him upon the next seat and to all appearance plunged in his instantly sir arose from his place and gliding behind the made for the soldiers in the aisle if the priest s suspicions had been so lightly the harm was already done and lawless a prisoner in the church p thb black move not whispered dick we are in the pass thanks before all things to thy of when ye saw me here so strangely seated where i have neither right nor interest what a could ye not smell harm and get	38
ye gone from evil nay returned lawless i thought ye had heard from and were here on duty echoed dick is then returned for sure replied the he came last night and me sore for being in wine so there ye are my master a furious man is i he hath ridden me hot spur from to prevent this marriage and master dick ye know the way of do so he will nay then returned dick with composure you and i my poor brother are dead men for i sit here a prisoner upon suspicion and my neck was to answer for this very marriage that he to mar i had a fair choice by the to lose my sweetheart or else lose my life well the cast is thrown it is to be my life by the mass cried lawless half arising i am gone but dick had his hand at once upon his shoulder friend lawless sit ye still he said an ye have eyes look yonder at the corner by the arch see ye not that even upon the motion of your rising yon armed men are up and ready to you yield in the abbey church ye friend ye were bold aboard ship when ye thought to die a sea death be bold again now that y are to die presently upon the gallows master dick gasped lawless the thing hath come upon me somewhat of the but give me a moment till i fetch my breath again and by the mass i will be as stout hearted as yourself here is my bold fellow returned dick and yet lawless it goes hard against the grain with me to die but where nothing wherefore nay that indeed lawless and a fig for death at worst it has to be done my master soon or late and hanging in a good quarrel is an easy death they say though i could never hear of any that came back to say so and so saying the stout old rascal leaned back in his stall folded his arms and began to look about him with the greatest air of insolence and and for the matter of that dick added it is yet our best chance to keep quiet we not yet what purposes and when all is said and if the worst befall we may yet clear our feet of it now that they ceased talking they were aware of a very distant and thin strain of music which steadily drew nearer louder and the bells in the tower began to break forth into a peal and a greater and greater of people to crowd into the church shuffling the snow from off their feet and thb arrow clapping and blowing in their hands the western door was flung wide open showing a glimpse of snowy street and admitting in a great gust the shrewd air of the morning and in short it became plain by every sign that lord desired to be married very early in the day and that the wedding train was drawing near some of lord s men now cleared a passage down the middle aisle forcing the people back with lance stocks and just then outside the the could be drawing near over the frozen snow the and scarlet in the face with blowing the and the beating as for a these as they drew near the door of the sacred building filed on either side and marking time to their own vigorous music stood stamping in the snow as they thus opened their ranks the leaders of this noble train appeared behind and between them and such was the variety and gaiety of their attire such the display of and velvet fur and satin and lace that the procession showed forth upon the snow like a flower bed in a path or a painted window in a wall first came the bride a sorry sight as pale as winter clinging to sir daniel s arm and attended as by the short young lady who had dick the night before close behind in the most radiant toilet followed the bridegroom halting on a foot in the abbey and as he passed the threshold of the sacred building and his hat his bald head was seen to be rosy with emotion and now came the hour of dick who sat stunned among contrary emotions grasping the desk in front of him beheld a movement in the crowd people backward and eyes and arms uplifted following these signs he beheld three or four men with bent bows leaning from the gallery at the same instant they delivered their discharge and before the and cries of the astounded had time to swell fully upon the ear they had flitted from their perch and disappeared the was full of swaying heads and voices screaming the thronged in terror from their places the music ceased and though the bells continued for some seconds to upon the air some wind of the disaster seemed to find its way at last even to the chamber where the were leaping on their ropes and they also from their merry labours right in the midst of the the bridegroom lay stone dead pierced by two black arrows the bride had fainted sir daniel stood towering above the crowd in his surprise and anger a shaft quivering in his left and his face streaming blood from another which had his brow long before any search could be made for them the authors of this tragic interruption had the black down a stair and by a door but dick and lawless still remained in they had indeed arisen on the first alarm and pushed to gain the door but what with the of the and the crowding of terrified priests and the attempt had been in vain and they had resumed their places and now pale with horror sir rose to his feet	38
and called upon sir daniel pointing with one hand to dick here he cried is richard alas the hour blood guilty seize him bid him be seized i for all our lives take him and bind him surely he hath sworn our fall sir daniel was blinded by anger blinded by the hot blood that still streamed across his face where he hale him forth by the cross of but he shall this hour the crowd fell back and a party of invaded the choir laid rough hands on dick dragged him head foremost from the stall and thrust him by the shoulders down the steps lawless on his part sat as still as a mouse sir daniel brushing the blood out of his eyes stared upon his captive ay he said treacherous and insolent i have thee fast and by all potent oaths for every drop of blood that now in mine eyes i will a in the abbey church groan out of thy away with him he added here is no place i off with him to my house i will number every joint of thy body with a torture but dick putting off his uplifted his voice he shouted ho there my fathers they would drag me from the church from the church thou hast with murder boy added a tall man dressed on what cried dick they do accuse me indeed of some but have not proved one i was in truth a for this s hand and she i will be bold to say it repaid my suit with favour but what then to love a maid is no offence i nay nor to gain her love in all else i stand here free from there was a murmur of approval among the so boldly dick declared his innocence but at the same time a throng of arose upon the other side crying how he had been found last night in sir daniel s house how he wore a disguise and in the midst of the sir indicated lawless both by voice and gesture as to the fact he in his turn was dragged from his seat and set beside his leader the feelings of the crowd rose high on either side and while some dragged the prisoners to and fro to favour their escape others cursed and struck them with their fists dick s ears ran and the his brain swam like a man struggling in the of a furious river but the tall man who had already answered dick by a prodigious exercise of voice red silence and order in the mob search them he said for arms we may so judge of their intentions upon dick they found no weapon but his and this told in his until one man drew it from its and found it still of the blood of butter at this there was a great shout among sir daniel s followers which the tall man suppressed by a gesture and an imperious glance but when it came to the turn of lawless there was found under his gown a of arrows identical with those that had been shot how say ye now asked the tall man of dick sir replied dick i am here in is it not so well sir i see by your bearing that ye are high in station and i read in your countenance the marks of piety and justice to you then i will yield me prisoner and that foregoing the advantage of this holy place but rather than to be yielded into the discretion of that man whom i do here accuse with a loud voice to be the murderer of my natural father and the unjust of my lands and rather than that i would you under favour with your own gentle hand to despatch me on the spot in the abbey church your own ears have heard him how before that i was guilty he did threaten me with it not with your own honour to deliver me to my sworn enemy and old but to try me fairly by the way of law and if that i be guilty indeed to me my lord cried sir daniel ye will not to this wolf his bloody dagger him the lie into his face nay but suffer me good knight returned the tall stranger your own vehemence doth somewhat tell against yourself and here the bride who had come to herself some minutes past and looked wildly on upon this scene broke loose from those that held her and fell upon her knees before the last speaker my lord of she cried hear me in justice i am here in this man s by mere force from mine own people since that day i had never pity countenance nor comfort from the face of man but from him only richard whom they now accuse and labour to undo my lord if he was in sir daniel s mansion it was i that brought him there he came but at my prayer and thought to do no hurt while yet sir daniel was a good lord to him he fought with them of the black arrow but when his foul guardian sought his life by and he fled by night for his soul s sake out of that bloody house whither was he to turn s thb black he helpless and or if he be fallen among ill company whom should ye blame the lad that was handled j or the guardian that did abuse his trust and then the short young lady fell on her knees by s side and i my good lord and natural uncle she added i can bear testimony on my conscience and before the face of all that what this maiden is true it was i unworthy that did lead the young man in	38
earl had heard in silence and when the voices ceased he still stood silent for a space then he gave his hand to arise though it was to be observed that he did not the like courtesy to her who had called herself his niece sir daniel he said here is a right intricate affair the which with your good leave it shall be mine to examine and content ye then your business is in careful hands justice shall be done you and in the meanwhile ye home and have your hurts attended the air is shrewd and i would not ye took cold upon these he made a sign with his hand it was passed down the by servants who waited there upon his smallest gesture instantly without the church a sounded shrill and through the open and men at arms uniformly arrayed in the colours and wearing the of lord began to file into the church took dick and lawless from those who still detained them and closing their about the prisoners marched forth again and disappeared as they were passing both her hands to dick and cried him her farewell and the nothing downcast by her uncle s evident displeasure blew him a kiss with a keep your heart up that for the first time since the accident called up a smile to the faces of the crowd chapter v earl earl although by far the most important person then in was poorly lodged in the house of a private gentleman upon the extreme outskirts of the town nothing but the armed men at the doors and the mounted messengers that kept arriving and departing announced the temporary residence of a great lord thus it was that from lack of space dick and lawless were clapped into the same apartment well spoken master richard said the it was well spoken and for my part i thank you cordially here we are in good hands we shall be justly tried and some time this evening decently hanged on the same tree the black arrow indeed my poor friend i do believe it answered dick yet have we a string to our bow returned lawless is a man out of ten thousand he you right near his hearty both for your own and for your father s sake and knowing you of this fact he will stir earth and heaven to bear you clear it may not be said dick what can he do he hath but a handful if it were but tomorrow could i but keep a certain an hour before noon to morrow all were i think otherwise but now there is no help well concluded lawless an ye will stand to it for my innocence i will stand to it for yours and that stoutly it shall naught avail us but an i be to hang it shall not be for lack of swearing and then while dick gave himself over to his reflections the old rogue curled himself down into a corner pulled his hood about his face and composed himself to sleep soon he was loudly so utterly had his long life of hardship and adventure the sense of apprehension it was long after noon and the day was already failing before the door was opened and dick taken forth and led up stairs to where in a warm cabinet earl sat musing over the fire on his captive s entrance he looked up sir he said i knew your father who was a man of honour and this me to be the more but i may not hide from you that heavy charges lie against your character ye do with and robbers upon a clear ye have carried war against the king s peace ye are suspected to have seized upon a ship ye are found with a in your enemy s house a man is slain that very evening an it like you my lord dick interposed i will at once my guilt such as it is i sl w this fellow and to the proof searching in his bosom here is a letter from his lord took the letter and opened and read it twice ye have read this he inquired i have read it answered dick are ye for york or the earl demanded my lord it was but a little while back that i was asked that question and knew not how to answer it said dick but having answered once i will not vary my lord i am for york the earl nodded honestly replied he said but wherefore then deliver me this letter nay but against my lord are not all sides arrayed cried dick i would they were young gentleman returned the earl and i do at least approve your saying black there is more youth than g e in i do perceive and were not sir daniel a mighty man upon our side i were half tempted to your quarrel for i have inquired and it appears that you have been hardly dealt with and have much excuse but look ye sir i am before all else a leader in the queen s interest and though by nature a just man as i believe and leaning even to the excess of mercy yet must i order my for my party s interest and to keep sir daniel i would go far about my lord returned dick ye will think me very bold to counsel you but do ye count upon sir daniel s ith he had changed sides often nay it is the way of england what would ye have the earl demanded but ye are unjust to the knight of and as faith goes in this generation he hath of late been true to us of even in our last he stood firm an it please you then said dick to cast your eye upon this letter ye might	38
me seven pieces of good wine a ship that was mine own and again was my father s before me a blessed mary of plane tree wood and parcel gilt and thirteen pounds in gold and silver hey what say ye a man that fought the french too for i have fought the french i have cut more french throats upon the high seas than ever a man that s out of come a penny piece neither dick nor lawless answer him a word lest he should recognise their voices and they stood there as helpless as a ship ashore not knowing where to turn nor what to hope are ye dumb boy inquired the mates he added with a they be dumb i like not this manner of for an a man be dumb so be as he s courteous he will still speak when he was spoken to by this time the sailor tom who was a man of great personal strength seemed to have conceived some suspicion of these two speechless figures and being than his captain stepped suddenly before him took lawless roughly by the shoulder and asked him with an oath what him that he held his tongue to this the thinking all was over made answer by a that stretched the sailor on the sand and calling upon dick to follow him took to his heels among the lumber the affair passed in a second before dick could run at all had him in his arms tom crawling on his had caught him by one foot tub black arrow and the third man had a drawn above his head it was not so much the danger it was not so much the annoyance that now bowed down the spirits of young it was the profound humiliation to have escaped sir daniel convinced lord and now fall helpless in the hands of this old drunken sailor and not merely helpless but as his conscience loudly told him when it was too late actually guilty actually the of the man whose ship he had stolen and lost bring me him back into the till i see his face said nay nay returned tom but let us first his lest the other lads cry share but though he was searched from head to foot not a penny was found upon him nothing but lord s which they plucked savagely from his finger turn me him to the moon said the and taking dick by the chin he cruelly jerked his head into the air blessed virgin he cried it is the hey cried tom by the virgin of it is the man himself repeated what sea thief do i hold you he cried where is my ship where is my wine hey have i you in my hands tom give me one end of a cord here i will so me this sea thief again hand and foot together like a turkey marry i will so bind him up and thereafter i will so beat so beat him and so he ran on winding the cord meanwhile about dick s limbs with the dexterity peculiar to and at every turn and cross securing it with a knot and the whole fabric with a savage pull when he had done the lad was a mere in his hands as helpless as the dead the held him at arm s length and laughed aloud then he fetched him a on the ear and then turned him about and furiously kicked and kicked him anger rose up in dick s bosom like a storm anger him and he thought to have died but when the sailor tired of this cruel play dropped him all his length upon the sand and turned to consult with his companions he instantly regained command of his temper here was a momentary ere they began again to torture him he might have found some method to escape from this degrading and fatal presently sure enough and while his were still discussing what to do with him he took heart of grace and with a pretty steady voice addressed them my masters he began are ye gone clean foolish here hath heaven put into your hands as pretty an occasion to grow rich as ever had such as ye might make thirty over sea adventures and not find again and by the mass what do ye beat me nay so s the black would an angry child i but for long headed that fear not fire nor water and that love gold as they love beef ye are not wise ay said tom now y are ye would us you repeated dick nay if ye be fools it would be easy but if ye be shrewd fellows as i ye are ye can see plainly where your interest lies when i took your ship from you we were many we were well clad and armed but now you a little who that array one that hath made much gold and if he being already rich to hunt after more even in the face of storms you once more shall there not be a treasure somewhere hidden what he asked one of the men why if ye have lost an old and a few of wine continued dick forget them for the they are and do ye rather to an adventure worth the name that shall in twelve hours make or mar you for ever but take me up from where i lie and let us go somewhere near at hand and talk across a for i am sore and frozen and my mouth is half among the snow he seeks but to us said tom contemptuously cried the third man i would i could see the man that could me he were a indeed nay i was not born yesterday can again see a church when	38
it hath a on it and for my part gossip there is some sense in this young man shall we go hear him indeed say shall we go hear him i would look gladly on a of strong ale good master returned how say ye tom but then the is empty i will said the other i will pay i would fain see this matter out i do believe upon my conscience there is gold in it nay if ye get again to drinking all is lost cried tom gossip ye suffer your fellow to have too much liberty returned master would ye be led by a hired man peace fellow said addressing tom will ye put your oar in truly a fine pass when the crew is to correct the well then go your way said tom i wash my hands of you set him then upon his feet said master i know a place where we may drink and discourse if i am to walk my friends ye must set my feet at liberty said dick when he had been once more planted upright like a post he true laughed truly he could not walk as ne is give it a out with your knife and it gossip tub black arrow even paused at this proposal but as his companion continued to insist and dick had the sense to keep the merest wooden indifference of expression and only shrugged his shoulders over the delay the consented at last and cut the which tied his prisoner s feet and legs not only did this enable dick to walk but the whole of his bonds being loosened he felt the arm behind his back begin to move more freely and could hope with time and trouble to entirely it so much he owed already to the and of master that worthy now assumed the lead and conducted them to the very same rude where lawless had taken on the day of the gale it was now quite deserted the fire was a pile of red embers the most ardent heat and when they had chosen their places and the landlord had set before them a measure of ale both and stretched forth their legs and their elbows like men bent upon a pleasant hour the table at which they sat like all the others in the consisted of a heavy square board set on a pair of barrels and each of the four curiously sat at one side of the square facing and dick opposite to the common sailor and now young man said to your tale it doth appear indeed that ye have somewhat abused our gossip but what then make it up to again him show him but this chance to become wealthy and i will go pledge he will forgive you so far dick had spoken pretty much at random but it was now necessary under the of six eyes to invent and tell some marvellous story and if it were possible get back into his hands the all important to time was the first necessity the longer his stay lasted the more would his drink and the should he be when he attempted his escape well dick was not much of an and what he told was pretty much the tale of with and forest for the east and the treasures of the rather exaggerated than diminished as the reader is aware it is an excellent story and has but one that it is not true and so as these three simple now heard it for the first time their eyes stood out of their faces and their mouths like at a s pretty soon a second measure of ale was called for and while dick was still spinning out the incidents a third followed the second here was the position of the parties towards the end three parts drunk and one half asleep hung helpless on his stool even tom had been much delighted with the tale and his vigilance had in proportion meanwhile dick had gradually his right arm clear of its bonds and was ready to risk all the arrow and so said y are one of these i was made bo replied dick against my will but an i could but get a sack or two of gold coin to my i should be a fool indeed to continue dwelling in a filthy cave and standing shot and like a soldier here be we four good let us then go forth into the forest to morrow ere the sun be up could we come honestly by a donkey it were better but an we cannot we have our four strong backs and i warrant me we shall come home staggering licked his lips and this magic he said this whereby the cave is opened how call ye it friend nay none know the word but the three chiefs returned dick but here is your great good fortune that on this very evening i should be the bearer of a spell to open it it is a thing not trusted twice a year beyond the captain s a spell said half awakening and upon dick with one eye thee i no i be a good christian ask my man tom else nay but this is white magic said dick it doth naught with the devil only the powers of numbers and ay ay said tis but white magic gossip there is no sin therein i do assure you but proceed good youth this in what should it consist again nay that i will show you answered dick have ye there the ring ye took from my finger good now hold it forth before you by the extreme finger at the arm s length and over against the shining of these embers tis so exactly thus then is the spell with a haggard glance dick saw the	38
the cry was somewhat irregular to the arrow to the arrow he shouted as he fell upon the rear of the these were stout fellows also for they gave not an inch at this surprise but faced about and fell with astonishing fury upon dick four against one the steel flashed about him in the the sparks flew fiercely one of the men opposed to him fell in b black the stir of the fight he hardly knew why then he himself was across the head and though the steel cap his hood protected him the blow beat him down upon one knee with a brain whirling like a sail meanwhile the man whom he had come to rescue instead of joining in the conflict had on the first sign of leaped and blown again and yet more and loudly on that same shrill trumpet that began the alarm next moment indeed his foes were on him and he was once more charging and leaping dropping to his knee and using indifferently sword and dagger foot and hand with the same courage and feverish energy and speed but that ear piercing summons had been heard at last there was a muffled rushing in the snow and in a good hour for dick who saw the sword points glitter already at his throat there poured forth out of the wood upon both sides a torrent of mounted men each in iron and with lowered each bearing his lance in rest or his sword and raised and each carrying so to speak a passenger in the shape of an or page who leaped one after another from their and had presently doubled the array the original seeing themselves and surrounded threw down their arms without a word seize me these fellows said the hero of the the trumpet trumpet and when his order had been obeyed he drew near to dick and looked him in the face dick returning this scrutiny was surprised to find in one who had displayed such strength skill and energy a lad no older than himself slightly with one shoulder higher than the other and of a pale painful and distorted countenance the eyes however were very clear and bold sir said this lad ye came in good time for me and none too early my lord returned dick with a faint sense that he was in the presence of a great personage ye are yourself so marvellous a good that i believe ye had managed them single handed it was certainly well for me that your men delayed no longer than they did how knew ye who i was demanded the stranger even now my lord dick answered i am ignorant of whom i speak with is it so asked the other and yet ye threw yourself head first into this unequal battle i saw one man against many replied dick and i had thought myself not to bear him aid a singular sneer played about the young nobleman s mouth as he made answer richard would have been really far younger at this date e the black these are very brave words but to the more essential are ye or york my lord i make no secret i am clear for york dick answered by the mass replied the other it is well for you and so sayings he turned towards one of his followers let me see he continued in the same and cruel tones let me see a clean end of these brave gentlemen me them up there were but five of the attacking party seized them by the arms they were hurried to the borders of the wood and each placed below a tree of suitable dimensions the rope was adjusted an carrying the end of it hastily overhead and before a minute was over and without a word passing upon either hand the five men were swinging by the neck and now cried the leader back to your posts and when i summon you next be to attend my lord duke said one man you not here alone keep but a handful of at your hand fellow said the duke i have to you for your cross me not therefore i trust my hand and arm for all that i be crooked ye were backward when the trumpet sounded and ye are the shrill trumpet now too forward with your counsels but it is ever so last with the lance and first with tongue let it be reversed and with a gesture that was not without a sort of dangerous nobility he waved them off the climbed again to their seats behind the men at arms and the whole party moved slowly away and disappeared in twenty different directions under the cover of the forest the day was by this time beginning to break and the stars to fade the first grey glimmer of dawn shone upon the countenances of the two young men who now turned once more to face each other here said the duke ye have seen my vengeance which is like my blade both sharp and ready but i would not have you for all suppose me you that came to my aid with a good sword and a better courage unless that ye from my mis come to my heart and so saying the young leader held out his arms for an embrace in the bottom of his heart dick already entertained a great terror and some hatred for the man whom he had rescued but the invitation was so that it would not have been merely but cruel to refuse or hesitate and he hastened to and now my lord duke he said when he had regained his freedom do i suppose aright are ye my lord duke of the black i am richard of returned the other and you how call they you dick told him his	38
name and presented lord s which the duke immediately recognised ye come too soon he said but why should i complain ye are like me that was here at watch two hours before the day but this is the first sally of mine arms upon this adventure master shall i make or mar the quality of my renown there lie mine enemies under two old skilled captains and well posted for strength i do believe but yet upon two sides without retreat enclosed the sea the harbour and the river here were a great blow to be stricken an we could strike it silently and suddenly i do think so indeed cried dick warming have ye my lord s notes inquired the duke and then dick having explained how he was without them for the moment made himself bold to offer information every as good of his own knowledge and for mine own part my lord duke he added an ye had men enough i would fall on even at this present for look ye at the peep of day the watches of the night are over but by day they keep neither watch nor ward only the outskirts with now then when the night watch is already and the rest are at their morning cup now were the time to break them the trumpet how many do ye count asked they number net two thousand dick replied i have seven hundred in the woods behind us said the duke seven hundred follow from and will be here anon behind these and farther are four hundred more and my lord hath five hundred half a day from here at holy wood shall we attend their coming or fall on my lord said dick when ye hanged these five poor ye did decide the question although they were in these uneasy times they will be lacked and looked for and the alarm be given therefore my lord if ye do count upon the advantage of a surprise ye have not in my poor opinion one whole hour in front of you i do think so indeed returned well before an hour ye shall be in the thick on t winning spurs a swift man to carrying lord s another along the road to speed my nay by the it may be done he once more set his trumpet to his lips and blew this time he was not long kept waiting in a moment the open space about the cross was filled with horse and foot richard of took his place upon the steps and despatched messenger after messenger to hasten the of the seven hundred men that lay hidden in the immediate neighbourhood the black arrow among the woods and before a quarter of an hour had passed all his dispositions being taken he put himself at their head and began to move down the hill towards his plan was simple he was to seize a quarter of the town of lying on the right hand of the high road and make his position good there in the narrow lanes until his followed if lord chose to retreat richard would follow upon his rear and take him between two fires or if he en ed to hold the town he would be shut in a trap there to be gradually overwhelmed by force of numbers there was but one danger but that was imminent and great s seven hundred might be rolled up and cut to pieces in the first encounter and to avoid this it was needful to make the surprise of their arrival as complete as possible the therefore were all once more taken up behind the and dick had the signal honour out to him of mounting behind himself for as far as there was any cover the troops moved slowly and when they came near the end of the trees that lined the highway stopped to breathe and the sun was now well up shining with a frosty brightness out of a yellow and right over against the a field of snowy roofs and ruddy was rolling up its columns of morning smoke the shrill trumpet turned round to dick in that poor place he said where people are cooking breakfast either you shall gain your spurs and i begin a life of mighty honour and glory in the world s eye or both of us as i conceive it shall fall dead and be unheard of two are we well then richard they shall be heard about these two their swords shall not ring more loudly on men s than their names shall ring in people s ears dick was astonished at so great a hunger after fame expressed with so great vehemence of voice and language and he answered very sensibly and quietly that for his part he promised he would do his duty and doubted not of victory if did the like by this time the horses were well breathed and the leader holding up his sword and giving rein the whole troop of broke into the gallop and thundered with their double load of fighting men down the remainder of the hill and across the snow covered plain that still divided them from chapter ii the battle of the whole distance to be crossed was not above a quarter of a mile but they had no sooner beyond the cover of the trees than they were aware of people and screaming in the snowy meadows the black arrow upon either hand almost at the same moment a great rumour began to arise and spread and grow continually louder in the town and they were not yet to the nearest house before the bells began to ring backward from the the young duke ground his teeth together by these so early of alarm he feared to find his enemies prepared and if he failed to gain a footing in the	38
town he knew that his small party would soon be broken and in the open in the town however the were far from being in so good a posture it was as dick had said the night guard had already their harness the rest were still hanging all unprepared for battle about their quarters and in the whole of there were not perhaps fifty men full armed or fifty ready to be mounted the beating of the bells the summons of men who ran about the streets crying and beating upon the doors aroused in an short space at least two score out of that half hundred these got speedily to horse and the alarm still flying wild and contrary galloped in different directions thus it that when richard of reached the first house of he was met in the mouth of the street by a mere handful of whom he swept before his as the storm the bark a hundred paces into the town dick touched the duke s arm the duke in answer gathered his reins i i i the battle of put the shrill trumpet to his mouth and blowing a point turned to the right hand out of the direct advance like a single rider his whole command turned after him and still at the full gallop of the swept up the narrow bye street only the last score of drew rein and faced about in the entrance the whom they carried behind them at the same instant to the earth and began some to bend their bows and others to break into and secure the houses upon either hand surprised at this sudden change of direction and by the firm front of the rear guard the few after a momentary consultation turned and rode farther into town to seek for the quarter of the town upon which by the advice of dick richard of had now seized consisted of five small streets of poor and ill inhabited houses occupying a very gentle eminence and lying open towards the back the five streets being each secured by a good guard the reserve would thus occupy the centre out of shot and yet ready to carry aid wherever it was needed such was the of the neighbourhood that none of the lords and but few of their had been lodged therein and the inhabitants with one accord deserted their houses and fled along the streets or over garden walls in the centre where the five ways all met a somewhat ill favoured displayed the sign of the g the black and here the duke of chose his for the day to dick he assigned the guard of one of the five streets go he said win your spurs win glory for me one richard for another i tell you if i rise ye shall rise by the same ladder go he added shaking him by the hand but as soon as dick was gone he turned to a little shabby at his elbow go and that right speedily he added follow that lad if ye find him faithful ye answer for his safety a head for a head woe unto you if ye return without him but if he be or for one instant ye him him from behind in the meanwhile dick hastened to secure his post the street he had to guard was very narrow and closely lined with houses which projected and the but narrow and dark as it was since it opened upon the market place of the town the main issue of the battle would probably fall to be decided on that spot the market place was full of in disorder but there was as yet no sign of any f ready to attack and dick judged he had some time before him to make ready his defence the two houses m the end stood deserted with open doors as the inhabitants had left them in their flight the battle op and from these he had the furniture hastily tossed forth and piled into a barrier in the entry of the lane a hundred men were placed at his disposal and of these he threw the more part into the houses where they might lie in shelter and deliver their arrows from the windows with the rest under his own immediate eye he lined the meanwhile the utmost uproar and confusion had continued to prevail throughout the town and what with the hurried of bells the sounding of trumpets the swift movement of bodies of horse the cries of the and the shrieks of women the noise was almost to the ear presently little by little the tumult began to and soon after of men in and bodies of began to and form in line of battle in the a large tion of this body were in and blue and in the mounted knight who ordered their array dick recognised sir daniel then there a long pause which was followed by the almost sounding of four trumpets from four different quarters of the town a fifth rang in answer from the market place and at the same moment the began to move and a shower of arrows rattled about the and sounded like blows upon the walls of the two houses the attack had begun by a common signal on all the five issues of the quarter was tub black arrow upon every side and dick judged if ho would make good his post he must rely entirely on the hundred men of his command seven of arrows followed one upon the other and in the very thick of the dick was touched from behind upon the arm and found a page holding out to him a jack strengthened with bright plates of mail it is from my lord of said the page he hath observed sir richard that ye went dick with a glow at his heart	38
at being so addressed got to his feet and with the assistance of the page the coat even as he did so two arrows rattled upon the plates and a third struck down the page wounded at his feet meantime the whole body of the enemy had been steadily drawing nearer across the market place and by this time were so close at hand that dick gave the order to return their shot immediately from behind the barrier and from the windows of the houses a of arrows sped carrying death but the as if they had but waited for a signal shouted loudly in answer and began to close at a run upon the barrier the still hanging back with lowered tl en followed an obstinate and deadly struggle hand to hand the their the battle op with one hand strove with the other to drag down the structure o the on the other side the parts were reversed and the exposed themselves like to protect their so for some minutes the contest raged almost in silence friend and foe falling one upon another but it is always the easier to destroy and when a single note upon the recalled the attacking party from this desperate service much of the had been removed and the whole fabric had sunk to half its height and to a general fall and now the in the market place fell back at a run on every side the who had been standing in a line two deep wheeled suddenly and made their flank into their front and as swift as a striking the long steel clad column was launched upon the of the first two one fell rider and and was ridden down by his companions the second leaped clean upon the summit of the an with his lance almost in the same instant he was dragged from the saddle and his horse despatched and then the full weight and of the charge burst upon and scattered the the men their fallen comrades and carried onward by the fury of their dashed through dick s broken line and poured thundering up the lane beyond as a stream and across a broken dam the yet was the fight not over still in the narrow jaws of the entrance dick and a few plied their bills like and already across the width of the passage there had been formed a second a higher and a more of fallen men and horses in the agonies of death baffled by this fresh obstacle the remainder of the cavalry fell back and as at the sight of this movement the flight of arrows from the of the houses their retreat had for a moment almost into flight almost at the same time those who had crossed the and charged farther up the street being met before the door of the by the formidable and the whole reserve of the began to come scattering backward in the excess of and terror dick and his fellows faced about fresh men poured out of the houses a cruel blast of arrows met the full in the face while was already riding down their rear in the inside of a minute and a half there was no living in the street then and not till then did dick hold up his blade and give the word to cheer meanwhile dismounted from his horse and came forward to inspect the post his face was as pale as linen but his eyes shone in his head like some strange jewel and his voice when he spoke was hoarse the battle of and broken with the exultation of battle and success he looked at the which neither friend nor foe could now approach without precaution so fiercely did the horses struggle in the of death and at the sight of that great he smiled upon one side despatch these horses he said they keep you from your richard he added ye have pleased me kneel the had already resumed their and the shafts fell thick in the mouth of the street but the duke them not at all deliberately drew his sword and richard a knight upon the spot and now sir richard he continued if that ye see lord send me an express upon the instant were it your last man let me hear of it i had rather venture the post than lose my stroke at him for mark me all of ye he added raising his voice if earl fall by another hand than mine i shall count this victory a defeat my lord duke said one of his attendants is your grace not weary of exposing his dear life why we here returned the duke here is the battle not elsewhere the rest are but feigned here must we and for the exposure if ye were an ugly and the children at you upon the street ye would count your body cheaper and an hour of glory worth a life if ye will let us ride on and visit the other posts sir richard the black here my be shall still hold this where he to the ankles in hot blood him can we trust but mark it sir richard ye are not yet done the worst is yet to ward sleep not he came right up to young looking him hard in the eyes and taking his band in both of gave it so extreme a squeeze that the blood had nearly dick before his eyes the insane excitement the courage and the cruelty that he read therein filled him with dismay about the future this young duke s was indeed a gallant spirit to ride foremost in the ranks of war but after the battle in the days of peace and in the circle of his trusted friends that mind it was to be dreaded would continue to bring forth the fi of death chapter iii the battle	38
of concluded dick once more left to his own counsels began to look about him the arrow shot had somewhat on all sides the enemy were falling back and the greater t of the market place was now left empty the snow here trampled into orange mud there with scattered all over with dead men and horses and thick with arrows on his own side the loss had been cruel the jaws tee battle of of the little street and the ruins of the were heaped with the dead and dying and out of the hundred men with whom he had begun the battle there were not seventy left who could still stand to arms at the same time the day was passing the first might be looked for to arrive at any moment and the already shaken by the result of their desperate but unsuccessful were in an ill temper to support a fresh there was a dial in the wall of one of the two houses and this in the frosty winter sunshine indicated ten of the dick turned to the man who was at his elbow a little insignificant binding a cut in his arm it was well fought he said and by my they will not charge us twice sir said the little ye have fought right well for york and better for yourself never hath man in so brief space prevailed so greatly on the duke s affections that he should have such a post to one he knew not is a marvel but look to your head sir richard if ye be ay if ye give way one f s breadth axe or cord shall punish it and i am set if ye do aught doubtful i will tell you honestly here to you from behind dick looked at the little man in you he cried and from behind it is right so returned the and because i like not the affair i tell it you ye must make the s the black arrow post sir richard at your peril o our a bold blade and a good warrior but whether in cold blood or in hot he will have all things done exact to his if any fail or hinder they shall die the death now by the saints cried richard is this so and will men follow such a leader nay they follow him replied the other for if he be exact to punish he is most open handed to reward and if he spare not the blood and sweat of others he is ever liberal of his own still in the first front of battle still the last to sleep he will go far will dick o i the young knight if he had before been brave and was now all the more inclined to and courage his sudden favour he began to perceive had brought perils in its train and he turned from the and once more anxiously the it lay empty as before i like not this he said doubtless they prepare us some surprise and as if in answer to his remark the began once more to advance against the and the arrows to fall thick but there was something hesitating in the attack they came not on but seemed rather to await a further signal dick looked uneasily about him for a hidden danger and sure enough about half way up the little street a door was suddenly opened from within and the the battle of sh house continued for some seconds and both by door and window to a torrent of these as they leaped down hurriedly stood to their ranks bent their bows and proceeded to pour upon dick s rear a flight of arrows at the same time the in the market place their shot and began to close in stoutly upon the dick called down his whole command out of the houses and them both ways and encouraging their both by word and gesture returned as best he could the double shower of shafts that fell about his post meanwhile house after house was opened in the street and the continued to pour out of the doors and leap down from the windows shouting victory until the number of enemies upon dick s rear was almost equal to the number in his face it was plain that he could hold the post no longer what was worse even if he could have held it it had now become useless and the whole army lay in a posture of helplessness upon the brink of a complete disaster the men behind him formed the vital flaw in the general defence and it was upon these that dick turned charging at the head of his men so vigorous was the attack that the gave ground and staggered and at last breaking their ranks began to crowd back into the houses from which they had recently and so thb black arrow meanwhile the men from the market place had across the and fell on hotly upon the other side and dick must once again face about and proceed to drive them back once again the spirit of his men prevailed they cleared the street in a triumphant style but even as they did so the others issued again of the houses and took them a third time upon the rear the began to be scattered several times dick f himself alone among his foes and his bright sword for life several times he was conscious of a hurt and meanwhile the fight swayed to and fro in the street without result suddenly dick was aware of a great about the outskirts of the town the war cry of york began to be rolled up to heaven as by many and triumphant voices and at the same time the men in front of him began to give ground rapidly streaming out of the street and	38
back upon the market place some one gave the word to fly trumpets were vn some for a rally some to charge it was plain that a great blow had been struck and the were thrown at least for the moment into full disorder and some degree of panic and then like a theatre trick there followed the last act of battle the men in front of richard turned tail like a dog that has been whistled home and fled like the wind at the same moment there came through the market place a storm of the battle of and pursuing the turning back to strike with the sword the riding them down at the point of the lance conspicuous in the dick beheld the he was already giving a f of that furious and skill to cut his way across the ranks of war which years afterwards upon the field of and when he was stained with crimes to change the fortunes of the day and the destiny of the english throne striking riding down he so forced and so his strong horse so defended himself and so liberally scattered death to his that he was now far ahead of the foremost of his knights his way with the of a bloody sword to where lord was the a moment more and they had met the tall splendid and famous warrior against the and sickly boy yet had never a doubt of the result and when the fight next opened for a moment the figure of the earl had disappeared but still in the first of the danger dick was his big horse and the of his sword thus by s courage in holding the mouth of the street against the first attack and by the arrival of his seven hundred the lad who was afterwards to be handed down to the of posterity under the name of richard iii had won his first considerable fight i the ck arrow chapter iv the sack of was not a foe left within striking distance and k as he looked about him on the remainder of his gallant force beg n to count the cost of victory he was himself now that the danger was ended so stiff and sore so bruised and cut and broken and above all so utterly exhausted by his desperate and labours in the fight that he seemed incapable of any fresh exertion but this was not yet the hour for repose had been taken by assault and though an open town and not in any manner to be charged with the resistance it was plain that these rough would be not less rough now that the fight was over and that the more horrid part of war would fell to be richard of was not the captain to protect the citizens from his and even if he had the will it might be questioned if he had the power it was therefore dick s business to find and to protect and with that end he looked about him at the faces of his men the three or four who seemed to be obedient an to keep sober he drew aside and promising them a rich reward and a special recommendation to the duke led them across the now empty of and into the streets upon the farther side the sack of every here and there small of from two to a dozen still raged npon the open street here and there a house was being the throwing out and tables on the heads of the the snow was strewn with arms and but except for these partial the streets were deserted and the houses some standing open and some and had for the most part ceased to give out smote dick the skirts of these led his followers briskly in the direction of the abbey church but when he came the length of the main street a cry of horror broke from his lips sir great house had been carried by assault the gates hung in from the hinges and a double throng kept pouring in and out through the entrance seeking and carrying meanwhile in the upper some resistance was still being offered to the for just as dick came within of the building a was burst open from within and a poor wretch in and blue screaming and resisting was forced through the and tossed into the street below the most sickening apprehension fell upon dick he ran forward like one possessed forced his way into the house among the foremost and mounted without pause to the chamber on the third floor where he had last parted from it was a mere wreck the furniture had been the broken the black open and in one place a trailing comer of the on the embers of the fire dick almost without thinking trod out the and then stood bewildered sir daniel sir all were gone but whether in the or safe escaped from who should say he caught a passing by the fellow he asked were ye here when this house was taken let be said the a i let be or i strike hark ye returned richard two can play at that stand and be plain but the man flushed with drink and battle struck dick upon the shoulder with one hand while with the other he away his garment thereupon the full wrath of the young leader burst from his control he seized the fellow in his strong embrace and crushed him on the plates of his bosom like a child then holding him at arm s length he bid him speak as he valued life i pray you mercy gasped the an i had thought ye were so angry i would a been of crossing you i was here indeed know ye sir daniel pursued dick well do i know him returned the man was he in the mansion ay	38
sir he was answered the but even thb sack of as we entered by the yard g te he rode forth by the garden alone cried dick he may v had a score of with him said the man no women then asked i saw not said the but there were none in the house if that be your quest i thank you said dick here is a piece for your pains but groping in his dick found nothing inquire for me to morrow he richard sir richard he corrected and i will see you handsomely rewarded and then an idea struck dick he hastily descended to the ran with all his might across the garden and came to the i door of the church it stood wide open within every comer of the pavement was crowded with fugitive surrounded by their families and laden with the most precious of their possessions while at the high altar priests in full were imploring the mercy of god even as dick entered the loud chorus began to thunder in the roofs he hurried through the groups of and came to the door of the stair that led into the and here a tall stepped before him and arrested his advance whither my son he asked severely the black my father answered dick i am here upon an errand of expedition stay me not i command here for my lord of for my lord of repeated the priest hath then the battle gone so sore the battle father is at an end clean sped my lord of heaven rest him left upon the field and now with your good leave i follow mine affairs and thrusting on one side the priest who seemed at the news dick pushed open the door and rattled up the stairs four at a bound and without pause or till he stepped upon the open platform at the top church tower not only commanded the town as in a map but looked far on both sides over sea and land it was now near upon noon the day exceeding bright the snow dazzling and as dick looked around him he could measure the consequences of the battle a confused growling uproar reached him from the streets and now and then but very rarely the clash of steel not a ship not so much as a remained in harbour but the sea was dotted with sails and laden with on shore too the surface of the snowy meadows was broken up with bands of some cutting their way towards the borders of the forest others who were doubtless of the side stoutly and beating them back upon the town over all the open ground there lay a thb sack op i prodigious quantity of fallen men and horses clearly defined upon the snow to complete the picture those of the foot soldiers as had not found place upon a ship still kept up an combat on the borders of the port and from the cover of the in that quarter also one or two houses had been fired and the smoke high in the frosty sunlight and blew to sea in folds already upon the margin of the woods and somewhat in the line of one particular of the attention of the young on the tower it was fairly numerous in no other quarter of the field did so many still hold together thus they had left a wide wake upon the snow and dick was able to trace them step by step from where they had left the town while dick stood watching them they had gained the fringe of the forest and turning a little from their direction the sun fell for a moment full on their array as it was relieved against the dusky wood and blue cried dick i swear it and blue the next moment he was descending the it was now his business to seek out the duke of who alone in the disorder of the forces might be able to supply him with a of men the black the fighting in the main town was now practically at an end and as dick ran hither and thither seeking the commander the streets were thick with wandering soldiers some laden with more than they could well under others shouting drunk none of them when questioned had the least notion of the duke s whereabouts and at last it was by sheer good fortune that dick found him where he sat in the saddle directing operations to the from the harbour side sir richard ye are well found he said i owe you one thing that i value little my life and one that i can never pay you for this victory if i had ten such captains as sir richard i would march on london but now sir claim your reward freely my lord said dick freely and loudly one hath escaped to whom i owe some and taken with him one whom i owe love and service give me then fifty that i may pursue and for any obligation that your is pleased to allow it shall be clean discharged how call ye him inquired the duke sir daniel answered richard out upon him double face i cried here is no reward sir richard here is fresh service offered and if that ye bring his head to me a fresh debt upon my conscience get him these knees and you sir ye in the meanwhile the sack of what pleasure honour or profit it shall be mine to give you just then the carried one of the in upon it on three sides and driving out or taking its dick was pleased to cheer the and pushing his horse a little nearer called to see the prisoners there were four or five of them two men of my lord s and one of lord s among	38
despair at length he reached the outskirts and there sure enough he saw straight before him the same broad beaten track across the snow that he had marked from the summit of the church here then he went the faster on but still as he rode he kept a bright eye upon the fallen men and horses that lay beside the track many of these he was relieved to see wore sir colours and the faces of some who lay upon their back he even recognised about half way between the town and the forest those whom he was following had plainly been assailed by for the lay pretty closely scattered each pierced by an arrow and here dick among the rest the body of a very young lad whose face was somehow familiar to him he halted his troop dismounted and raised the lad s t thb black head as he did bo the hood fell back and a profusion of long brown hair itself at the same time the eyes opened ah lion driver said a feeble voice she is farther on ride ride fast and then the poor young lady fainted once again one of dick s men carried a of some strong cordial and with this dick succeeded in consciousness then he took s friend upon his saddle bow and once more pushed toward the forest why do ye take me said the girl ye but delay your speed nay mistress replied dick is full of blood and and riot here ye are safe content ye will not be to any of your she cried set me down madam ye know not what ye say returned dick y are hurt i am not she said it was my horse was slain it matters not one replied richard ye are here in the midst of open snow and about with enemies whether ye will or not i carry you with me glad am i to have the occasion for thus shall i repay some portion of our debt for a little while she was silent then very suddenly she asked my uncle night in the woods my lord returned dick i would i had good news to give you madam but i have none i saw him once in the battle and once only let us hope the chapter v night in the woods it was almost certain that sir daniel had made for the moat house but considering the heavy snow the of the hour and the necessity under which he would lie of avoiding the few roads and striking across the wood it was equally certain that he could not hope to reach it ere the morrow there were two courses open to dick either to continue to follow in the knight s trail and if he were able to fall upon him that very night in camp or to strike out a path of his own and seek to place himself between sir daniel and his destination either scheme was open to serious objection and dick who feared to expose to the of a fight had not yet decided between them when he reached the borders of the wood at this point sir daniel had turned a little to his left and then plunged straight under a grove of very lofty timber party had then formed to a front in order to pass between the trees the black arrow and the track was trod deeper in the snow the eye followed it under the of the oaks running direct and narrow the trees stood over it with joints and the great uplifted forest of their boughs there was no sound whether of man or beast not so much as the stirring of a robin and over the field of snow the winter sun lay golden among shadows how say ye asked dick of one of the men to follow straight on or strike across for sir richard replied the man at arms i would follow the line they scatter ye are doubtless right returned dick but we came right hastily upon the errand even as the time commanded here are no houses neither for food nor shelter and by the morrow s dawn we shall know both cold fingers and an empty belly how say ye lads will ye stand a pinch for expedition s sake or shall we turn by and sup with mother church the case being somewhat doubtful i will drive no man yet if ye would suffer me to lead you ye would choose the first the men answered almost with one voice that they would follow sir richard where he would and dick setting spur to his horse began once more to go forward the snow in the trail had been trodden very hard and the had thus a great advantage over the pursued they pushed on indeed at a round trot night in the woods two hundred hoofs beating alternately on the dull pavement of the snow and the of weapons and the of horses raising a warlike noise along the arches of the silent wood presently the wide of the pursued came out upon the high road from holy wood it was there for a moment and where it once more plunged into the snow upon the farther side dick was surprised to see it and lighter trod plainly by the road sir daniel had began already to scatter his command at all one chance being equal to another dick continued to pursue the straight trail and that after an hour s riding in which it led into the very depths of the forest suddenly split like a bursting shell into two dozen others leading to every point of the compass dick drew bridle in despair the short winter s day was near an end the sun a dull red orange of rays swam low among the the shadows were a mile long upon the	38
had seen the fire he had moved out with his main force whether to attack his or to take them in the rear if they should venture the assault his had been throughout the part of a sagacious captain dick s the conduct of an eager boy and here was the young knight his sweetheart indeed holding him tightly by the hand but otherwise alone his whole command of men and horses dispersed in the night and the wide forest like a paper of pins in a hay barn the saints me i he thought it is well i was for this s matter this doth me little honour and thereupon still holding he began to run the silence of the night was now shattered by the shouts of the men of as they galloped hither and thither hunting and dick broke boldly through the and ran straight before him like a deer the silver clearness of the moon upon the open snow increased by contrast the obscurity of the and the extreme of the led the into widely paths hence in but a little while dick and paused in a close covert and heard the sounds of the pursuit scattering abroad indeed in all directions but yet fainting already in the distance an i had but kept a reserve of them together night in the woods dick cried bitterly i could have turned the tables yet well we live and learn next time it shall go better by the nay dick said what matters it here we are together once again he looked at her and there she was john m as of in and but now he knew her now even in that dress she smiled upon him bright with love and his heart was transported with joy sweetheart he said if ye forgive this what care i make we direct for holy wood there your good guardian and my better friend lord there shall we be wed and whether poor or wealthy famous or unknown what matters it this day dear love i won my spurs i was commended by great men for my i thought myself the man of war in all broad england then first i fell out of my favour with the great and now have i been well and clean lost my soldiers there was a for conceit i but dear i care not dear if ye still love me and will wed i would have my done away and mind it not a my dick i she cried and did they knight you ay dear ye are my lady now he answered fondly or ye shall ere noon to morrow will ye not the black that will i dick with a glad heart she an ay sir ye were to be a said a voice in their ears cried even so replied the young lady coming forward whom ye left for dead and whom your found and brought to life again and by my made love to if ye want to know v not believe it cried dick i dick i dick indeed ay fair sir and ye desert poor in distress she continued turning to the young knight ye leave them planted behind oaks but they say true the age of chivalry is dead madam cried dick in despair upon my soul i had forgotten you outright madam ye must try to pardon me ye see i had new found i did not suppose that ye had done it o purpose she retorted but i will be cruelly i will tell a secret to my lady she that is to be she added she continued i believe upon my soul your sweetheart is a bold fellow in a fight but he is let me tell you plainly the in england go to ye may do your pleasure with him and now fool children first kiss me either one of you for luck and kindness and then kiss each other just one minute by the glass and not one second longer and then let us all three night in the woods set forth for holy wood as fast as we can stir for these woods are full of peril and exceeding cold but did my dick make love to you asked clinging to her sweetheart s side nay fool girl returned it was i made love to him i offered to marry him indeed but he bade me go marry with my likes these were his words nay that i will say he is more plain than pleasant but now children for the sake of sense set forward shall we go once more over the or push straight for holy wood why said dick i would like dearly to get upon a horse for i have been sore and beaten one way and another these last days and my poor body is one but how think ye if the men upon the alarm of the fighting had fled away we should have gone about for nothing tis but some three short miles to holy wood the bell hath not beat nine the snow is pretty firm to walk upon the moon clear how if we went even as we are agreed cried but only pressed upon dick s arm forth then they went through open groves and down snow clad under the white face of the winter moon dick and walking hand in hand and in a heaven of pleasure and their light minded companion her own heartily forgotten followed a pace or two behind now them upon the black their silence and now drawing happy pictures of their future and united lives still indeed in the distance of the wood the of might be heard urging their pursuit and from time to time cries or the clash of steel announced the shock of enemies but in these young folk bred among the of war and	38
fellowship is broken they that still live shall come to their quiet and ripe end in heaven s time for me and for yourself go e your better fortune calls you and no more of conclusion chapter viii conclusion about nine in the morning lord was leading his ward once more dressed as her sex and followed by to the church of when richard his already heavy with cares crossed their path and paused is this the maid he asked and when lord had replied in the affirmative he added hold up your face until i see its favour he looked upon her for a little ye are fair he said at last and as they tell me how if i offered you a brave marriage as became your face and my lord duke replied may it please your grace i had rather wed with sir richard how so he asked harshly marry but the man i name to you and he shall be my lord and you my lady before night for sir richard let me tell you plainly he will die sir richard i ask no more of heaven my lord than but to die sir richard s wife returned look ye at that my lord said turning to lord here be a pair for you the lad when for good services i gave him his choice of my favour chose but the grace of an old drunken i did warn him freely but he was stout in his v the black arrow here your favour said i and he my lord with a most assured he the loss he it shall be so by the said he so cried then well said lion driver i who is this asked the duke a prisoner of sir richard s answered lord mistress see that she be married to a sure man said the duke i had thought of my an it like your grace returned lord he hath well served the cause it likes me well said richard let them be wedded speedily say fair maid will you wed my lord duke said so as the man is straight and there in a perfect consternation the voice died on her tongue he is straight my mistress replied richard calmly i am the only of my party we are else well ladies and you my lord he added with a sudden change grave courtesy judge me not too if i leave you a captain in the time of war hath not the ordering of his hours and with a very handsome salutation he passed on followed by his officers cried i am i ye know him not replied lord it is but a trifle he hath already clean forgot your words conclusion he is then the very flower of said nay he hut other things returned lord we no more in the they found dick waiting attended by a few young men and there were he and united when they came forth as ain happy and yet serious into the frosty air and sunlight the long of the army were already winding forward up the road already the duke of s banner was unfolded and began to move from before the abbey in a of and behind it by steel clad knights the bold black hearted and ambitious moved on towards his brief kingdom and his lasting but the wedding party turned upon the other side and sat down with sober merriment to breakfast the father attended on their wants and sat with them at table all jealousy forgotten began to the loth with courtship and there amid the sounding of and the clash of and horses continually moving forth dick and sat side by side tenderly held hands and looked with ever growing in each other s eyes oi th the dust and blood of that epoch passed them by they dwelt apart from in the green forest where their love began two old men in the meanwhile enjoyed in great prosperity and peace and with perhaps a the black of ale and wine in hamlet one had been all his life a and continued to the last to lament his man tom the other who had been a bit of everything turned in the end towards piety and made a most religious death under the name of brother in the neighbouring abbey so lawless had his will and died a the end by cab ll limited la e c a story of and the spanish main ne a edition with twenty five illustrations and map price s treasure island by robert louis a book for boys which will be delightful to all grown men who have the sentiment of treasure hunting saturday review as we follow the narrative of the boy jim we hold our breath at his dangers and breathe again at escapes mr s story is constructed and related with vivacity and genuine dramatic power it with a island a buried treasure the bold and all the stirring incidents of a merry life on the main the academy treasure island is a real work of art and at the same time so exciting that we are not ashamed to own that we it difficulty when we had once begun to lay it down the last page reached john bull ml has shown an extraordinary faculty of imagination and dramatic in treasure island standard we began to look at treasure island while the announcement of dinner but when the summons came we regretted the cook s that evening we were forced to go to the theatre but mr s book went too and between the acts we followed jim the youthful hero together with squire and dr who took him on the to treasure island till they were embarked at on board the during a short railway journey home after the theatre we landed with the at the island and there	38
were most thoroughly justified the worst suspicions that had been formed concerning the crew which the sc had so strangely got together a crew of who had sailed with captain and proposed to help themselves to the buried millions after going through what was to them the unimportant trifle of cutting tne throats of the doctor jim and their few the train stopped at our station just as jim had embarked in the to cut adrift the whose crew honest and were at war on the island itself and unable to wait till we reached home we stood under a lamp post and finished the chapter this narrative for the personal nature of which we will best show the reader the irresistible fascination of the book the interest never flags nor is it only the broad narrative that is the book is written with wonderful of detail one seems to be witness of the exciting events which are ted illustrated sporting and dramatic news tf company limited mil london and all the astonishing history o f tow n by q author of dead man s crown vo s it will be remembered tbat in dead man s rock advised mr and mr rider ha to look to their and suggested that these two authors had combined under the signature of q if no description is attempted of the astonishing history of town it is because none is possible and because whilst entirely different in character from his former work it is so h novel and that it will make a second reputation for thb author seventh thousand price dead rock by q have messrs louis and rider haggard combined under the signature of q to write at all events the first part of the weird and exciting romance entitled dead man s rock if not let those two authors look to their punch q has written a fascinating story and has exhibited in a marked d the of exciting and maintaining and of a woven of romantic with that feeling of awe and which is the triumph of the romance writer s art dead man s rock may be confidently recommended to those who have a taste for romance of the weird mystic and thrilling new illustrated edition fifty third thousand price s king mines by h rider haggard with full page original illustrations by walter to tell the truth we would give many novels say eight hundred that is about the yearly harvest for such a book as king solomon s mines saturday the success of mr ha s wonderful story king solomon s mines is not due exclusively to its merits though these are great the romance being one of the most exciting of its kind ever in a modern language s second edition price s a queer race by william author of the phantom city there is not a part of the story that is not intensely a vastly interesting and curious story which should take high rank in the library of romantic adventure time of india the island and its wonderful inhabitants are described with great and imaginative power the book with stirring incidents and exciting adventures times company limited hill london and au by g author of double cunning c price s is a tale of and life on the west indian main in the days when our countrymen were inspired with the fierce to glory and treasure at all from t e renowned of spain it will be readily understood that the subject itself to a of the most glaring forms of adventure and the public will not need to be assured that mr fills his book with vivid and striking scenes and incidents which will keep the reader s imagination at fever pitch from beginning to end the black arrow a tale of the two roses by robert louis crown vo cloth in this book mr s hosts of admirers are introduced into an entirely new region of adventure from that dealt with in his previous works whilst the same fine qualities and thrilling situations will be found in abundance the reader being held spell bound from the first to the last page of the work third edition price the phantom city a story of the regions of central america by william we have read the book from beginning to end with equal pleasure and excitement the times an exciting record of travel and adventure in phantom lands post a story which young people will read with delight and old people with a good deal of satisfaction second edition price captain a story of the gulf by w and a with twenty three full page and other illustrations so many escapes have rarely been crowded into any single volume as in this absorbing tale of adventure the interest is kept at high pressure throughout and the boldness of the author s imagination will stop any questioning of the probability of his rapid succession of startling incidents it is a romance which boys will daily company london and th in bo tu io the any one the book down before the last page ie st price s by robert author of treasure island is almost if not quite as fascinating as treasure island and in some respects we prefer it the interest is as steadily sustained and there is more in the sensations from the begin j to the end there is a rich variety of dramatic incidents j as we think ranks rather before treasure island i much as there are deeper and more delicate of character and that is rare in a short tale of stirring adventure although written with the romantic but of t ie times j it is the best he has ever done out of many good things better even than treasure nay and i would go farther and it is j the best thing	38
any man has done for many a long day the tale which is f genuine narrative a story pure and simple is told by a young lad by a old uncle who is keeping him out of his i kingdom and packed over sea to be sold to slavery in the i after some rousing scenes and especially a notable fight in which young i the story and one a adventurer a rare character worthy almost of sir walter keep the round house i against the whole ship s crew the is wrecked off the coast of i and thence onward the theme is the wanderings of and through the at that time swept backwards and forwards by king george s troops on the watch for a situation much complicated by the too removal of an inconvenient r world mr s in character in in its strength and its weakness is the best of the sort which has been written since bob boy if indeed it is not better than bob boy daily news its description of the scenery of the in the old wild times is as charming as a vivid imagination could make it and the description of the cowardly old who his nephew s death rather than give him up his inheritance is as vivid as anything which mr s singular genius has yet invented for m spectator a story here you ll find by l it beats the treasure island or any he has done from opening unto finish your attention s kept alive the scene is laid in scotland just after forty five lis a tale of wild adventure most told and the writer does his clever plot throughout the narrative we find the author at his best tis full of fight and bustle and of thrilling interest the characters are drawn you ll find with most skill a book you ought at once to read and read at once you will punch ds company limited hill london and all from company s l ine rt z and churches of england and wales the descriptive historical or wild england by the late richard s d along s great river by illustrated z s d american an by boards as cloth s d american and illustrated s nights the s edition with about illustrations d drawing by illustrated d art the magazine of yearly vol with c and several hundred choice x s behind time by george illustrated as d the theory of by d s prince by charles m a two d black arrow the a tale of the two roses by r l a british with original illustrations two s d each british battles on land and sea by the late james grant with about illustrations three to x s library edition x british battles recent illustrated s library edition british empire the by sir george m p s an introduction to the study of by a as d and european by w f with x coloured plates to s and cage birds the illustrated book of by w a w and a f with coloured plates s half a s and by thomas the vagabond x s captain by and s magazine yearly vol illustrated of the century being a dictionary of men and women of the nineteenth century a s problem the a text book with illustrations s d children of the cold the by as d choice poems by h w illustrated cloth a choice dishes at small cost by a g is christmas in the time by sir walter scott with original illustrations s d cities of the world three illustrated d each civil service guide to employment in the s d civil service guide to female employment in government offices is lor and students of medicine a of volumes forwarded post free on application to the clothing the influence of on health by f f r as colonies and india our how we got them and why we keep them by c colour by a h church new and enlarged with coloured plates s d the life and voyages of by washington three s d by g s dictionary of containing about nine thousand s d d co working men what they have done and what they are doing by a h m p and b jones a year s by s d from company s i shilling the largest and best work on the subject ever produced limp cloth cook book s new countries of the world the by robert brown m a d c complete in six with about illustrations to s d each by the author of john c s d miniature containing subjects s d with subjects brought down to the latest date with about s s i s by j p with coloured plates cloth dead man s rock a romance by q decisive events in history by thomas with sixteen illustrations boards s d cloth deserted village series the consisting of de of the most favourite poems of standard authors illustrated as d each songs i s village milton s l and il s on immortality i and lines on abbey character sketches from first second and third series with six original drawings in each by f in each of two by w h vol i the j vol ii the parliament each dog stories and dog lore by col w dog the by illustrated as d dog illustrated book of the by b a with coloured plates cloth s half s domestic dictionary the illustrated cloth d s illustrated by s s and illustrated by popular edition s fairy tales told again with by gallery the with illustrations by s milton s paradise lost illustrated by to earth our and its story by dr robert brown f l s vol i with coloured plates and numerous wood old and	38
three with illustrations each egypt descriptive historical and picturesque by g translated b bell with notes by samuel ll d c with original popular edition in two a novel by henry cloth d in the service of man with nearly illustrations practical by w e d age of from soul to by park d s d dictionary the a new and original work of reference to all the words in the english language complete in fourteen los d each or seven half each england s illustrated history of with illustrations ten to each new and edition i and ii each english history the dictionary of cloth ass english literature library of by henry five d each vol i shorter english poems vol ii illustrations op english vol iii english plays vol iv shorter works in english vol v sketches of longer works in english and english literature the story of by s d from company s english literature s first sketch of edition td english literature dictionary of by w edition d los od english writers by henry l it iii and iv crown vo s each s illustrated throughout by cheap edition cloth s d by s k with full page plates by old and modem s etiquette of good society is cloth is d europe pocket guide to s leather eye ear and throat the management of the s d fair trade by george w d family physician the by eminent and new and edition cloth s s g works by picture boards as each or cloth d each my being the notes of a navy surgeon dutch the the parson o the s people in cloth sweet j only poverty corner european by f l s with coloured plates by d f l s field s the by the rev j g wood and wood a s popular scientific works with several hundred illustrations in each s d each the human race i the ocean world world before the the vegetable world and birds the insect world fine art library the by john principal of the south art schools each book contains about illustrations s each the education of the artist by translated by bell non illustrated greek by on translated by dr j h artistic translated by f e the dutch school of painting by henry translated by g by le translated by r a m by engine translated by miss l j the english school of painting bye translated by l n with an introduction by the school of painting by a j translated by mrs henry five pound note the and other stories by g s jealous is flower painting with eight coloured plates s flowers and how to paint them by with coloured plates s of the anchor the a poem by sir samuel ll d with illustrations gilt edges s a history of british by sir richard k c b f r s c with plates in four france as it is by and paul with three maps crown vo cloth s d german war s history of the two with illustrations each fresh water fishes of europe the by h g f r s edition d from gold to grey being poems and pictures of life and nature by mary d illustrated d from garden flowers familiar by with coloured plates by f e k l s complete in five series d each popular illustrated a each drawing for army by h t m a aa first elements of by paul sa d practical solid by major as germany william of a biography of william i german emperor and king of by crown vo cloth d life of w e by g smith with portrait d from popular authors two with original illustrations to a each two in x s great bank robbery the a novel by boards s great of great britain three with about illustrations to cloth s d each great painters of the from to by john illustrated throughout d great northern railway the official illustrated guide to the is or in cloth as great western railway the official illustrated guide to the and edition with illustrations is cloth s s with by cheap edition cloth s d cloth gilt s boughs and bloom gathered on hills and plains by b gun and its development the by w w with illustrations los d guns modern shot by w w illustrated s health the book of by eminent and cloth s health the influence of clothing on bv f f r g s as health at school by m d b s s ed heavens the story of the by sir robert ball f r s f r a s with coloured plates and wood z d heroes of britain in peace and war in two with original illustrations s each or one vol library binding od homes our and how to make them healthy by eminent authorities illustrated horse keeper the practical by ll d f r s illustrated s d horse the book of the by samuel with coloured plates enlarged edition to half s horses the simple of by w f illustrated s household guide s illustrated four how climbed the mountain by rose with full page by as how women earn a living by mercy is india of by james grant with about illustrations library binding one vol s india the land and the people by sir j k d amusements card games and fireside fun s book of illustrated s od irish parliament the what it was and what it did by j g swift m a m p irish parliament a miniature history of the by j c d irish union the before and alter by a k m a s d john s curse by as d guide the practical by dr stables a ride to by col is d by r l	38
illustrated edition s king solomon s mines haggard s from company s ladies the a guide for women in the treatment ol their by a physician a lady by frank three cloth x d lady s world the an illustrated magazine of fashion and society yearly vol x s land question the by j m r a c including the land scare and production of s d landscape in a course of lessons in by a f grace with nine in colour cheap edition s law about going to by a j m f as d legends for by walter coloured illustrations s s and other time are now published exclusively by company a list free on application local standards gold and silver by j h local government in england and germany by the right hon sir robert g c b c london and south coast railway the official illustrated guide to the cloth as london and north western railway the official illustrated guide to the cloth as london and south western railway the official illustrated guide to the cloth as london greater by edward two with about illustrations each london old and new six each about illustrations and maps cloth os each edition x s s poetical works illustrated throughout s popular martin his life and times by peter ll d two vo pages cloth a s the practical dictionary of containing drawings four each medicine for students of a list forwarded post free railway official illustrated guide to the new and edition cloth as modem europe a history of by c a m a vol i from x to x vol ii from to music illustrated history of by by the rev sir f a illustrated two s d national library s in weekly volumes each containing about pages paper covers d cloth d i a list of the volumes already issued sent post free on application natural history s by e m a m d f l s with several hundred illustrations s d natural history s new by p martin m b f r s f g s complete in six with about illustrations cloth s each in the north or hunting and adventures in the regions by illustrated d nursing for the home and for the hospital a of by j wood edition d cloth as oil painting a manual of by the hon john as d the gold a novel by cloth d our own country six with z oo illustrations s d each out door sports and in door amusements s book of with more than illustrations cheap edition a pages medium vo cloth s d painting practical guides ta with coloured plates and full marine painting animal s china painting figure painting s od flower painting s flower pointing a books s each tree painting s water colour painting s s in a each or in one vol a flowers and how to them from f com an s s guide to m a of two by h w the parliament im the parliament x s flower garden by sir and three with too plates z is each of the world the in six by dr brown illustrated d each city the by w s for c illustrated is is d phrase and fable dictionary of the rev dr cloth s d or with leather back s d picturesque america complete in four with exquisite steel plates and about original wood j a as each picturesque canada with original illustrations a each picturesque europe complete in five each containing exquisite steel plates from original drawings and nearly illustrations los the popular edition is published in five x s each pigeon keeper the practical by illustrated s d the book o by robert and arranged by l with coloured plates x d half a as poets s miniature library of the milton two as d scott two as d as d and two as d shakespeare illustrated in in case police code and manual of the criminal law by c e m p as popular library s cloth each burns two as d two as d hood two as d two as d the russian empire the ous revolution in the i th century our empire john the man in the battle of life the story of the english domestic folk lore the rev hill preacher and wit and johnson their companions and hi of the free trade movement in england post office of fifty years ago the of sir hill s famous proposing penny poultry keeper the practical by with coloured plates and illustrations s d the illustrated book of by with fifty coloured plates cloth s d half a as poultry the book of by popular edition d pre the italian in the national gallery by illustrated is machinery and modern by j f and grey illustrated queen victoria the life and times of b robert complete in two with numerous illustrations each queer race a by w s quiver the yearly volume containing several hundred illustrations s d rabbit keeper the practical by illustrated s d representative poems of living poets american and english selected by the poets themselves republic of the future the by as royal river the the thames from source to sea with descriptive text and a series of beautiful a as from company s red library s stiff covers each cloth as each i a l of mr from hood s h and s e b la va t lo and martin i tbe of tho home of ei l david tom a cabin thb i t tie l of b works old tlie and the man handy scarlet of the pride and papers tales of the borders last days of n s sketch book the old curiosity shop heart of days of american	38
humour sketches by s lays and essays harry russia by sir m a with a new chapter s war s history of with about two each saturday journal yearly volume cloth s d science for all by dr robert brown illustrated five each sea the its story of adventure peril and heroism by f with illustrations four s d each section or the fatal letter a novel by boards as cloth s d sent back by the angels and other by bridge m a cloth s d popular edition is the seventh earl of k g the life and work of by with portraits three s popular edition in one vol s d the edition de king henry iv illustrated by los as you like it illustrated by los and illustrated by frank a r a s the with illustrations cloth s cloth gilt s d half los d cheap edition s d the royal with steel plates and wood three x s each shakespeare s edition by charles and mary and containing about illustrations by h c complete in three cloth gilt s shakespeare miniature illustrated in twelve in box or in red grain box to match with lock and key scenes and characters with steel plates and wood the text written by ships sailors and the sea by r j all jones illustrated s short studies from nature illustrated cheap edition as d from nature in water colours by with illustrations in skin and hair the management of the by m f r m and by m a s steam engine the theory and action of the for practical by w h c e d stock exchange year book the by thomas d summer tide little folks holiday number from s and shade with numerous exquisite s d of the craft of in with an introduction bv sir education by f c d character sketches from six new and original drawings by in town is tragedy of the a novel by l boards as cloth s d tragic mystery a a novel by boards as treasure island by r l illustrated s treatment the year book of trees familiar by g s f l s two series with full page plates from original paintings by w h j boot d each r of pictures in the of by the leading french artists the universal phrase book desk and pocket as d each united states s history of the by the late with illustrations three each united states the youth s history of the by edward s illustrated four volumes s universal history s illustrated four s each by john m d d p h veiled beyond the a novel by s b alexander cloth s d of and other works by illustrated s d cloth gilt edges what can do by as d who is john a by charles as cloth d wild birds familiar by w four series with coloured plates in each d each wild flowers familiar by f e f l s f s a five series with coloured plates in each d each wise the by george as d s world the yearly volume i s world of wit and humour the with illustrations cloth s d cloth gilt d world of wonders two with illustrations d each yoke of the the a novel by boards as cloth s d tide s christmas annual is illustrated magazines the quiver enlarged series monthly d family magazine monthly d magazine monthly d the magazine of art monthly is the a world monthly is saturday weekly id monthly s of company s which may be had at an or will be sent post free on to the complete catalogue particulars of upwards of one thousand s catalogue in which their works are arranged a to price from to t ven y guineas s catalogue containing particulars of company s works and students l company limited hill london from company s i bible the vn illustrated with about x original with c pages crown cloth s d bible s illustrated family with illustrations leather gilt edges a bible dictionary s with nearly illustrations s d bible the by the very rev dean d d wells with illustrations maps c four cloth s each bible work at home and abroad volume illustrated s s pilgrim s progress s illustrated to s d s pilgrim s progress with illustrations cloth s d child s life of christ the with illustrations child s bible the with illustrations ia d thousand d bible with illustrations by small cloth early days of christianity the by the ven library edition two a s as popular edition complete in one volume cloth s cloth gilt edges s d los d tree calf family prayer book the by rev m a and rev s martin extra crown to cloth s i s d d works by the holy land and the bible a book of scripture illustrations gathered in two vo with map a s hours with the bible six s each entering on life s d the precious promises s d the english s old testament characters s the life and words of christ illustrated library t o s students edition two x s cheap one vol s d glories of the man of sorrows the sermons preached at st james s by rev h g hunt d f r s ed as d gospel of grace the by a cloth s d heart a series of works by eminent bound in cloth red edges one shilling each my father my bible my work for god my object in life my aspirations my my body my soul my growth in divine life my hereafter my walk with god my to the divine life my sources of strength helps to belief a series of on the religious difficulties of the day by the rev	38
shore m a in ordinary to the queen cloth is each miracles by the rev creation by the lord bishop of the divinity of our lord by the lord bishop of the morality of the old by the rev d d m a prayer by the rev t shore m a the by he lord bishop of s b from f company i must short missionary bible by m covers d cloth gilt edges life of christ the by the d d f r s illustrated edition with about original illustrations extra crown doth gilt edges antique library edition two cloth popular edition in one vol vo cloth cloth gilt edges a d gilt edges los d tree calf martin his life and by ll d two vo pages cloth marriage ring the by william d d bound in white gilt edges in box s french ss d moses and or the harmony of the bible with science by the rev samuel d f r a s illustrated ck a b new testament for english readers the by the rt rev c j d d lord bishop of and in three volumes each vol i the four vol ii the acts vol iii the remaining books of the new testament old testament for english readers the by the right rev c j d d lord bishop of and complete in each vol i to numbers vol iii kings i to vol ii to vol iv job to samuel ii vol v to the history of by the rev j a ll d containing upwards of original i three each quiver yearly volume the high class illustrations s d religion the dictionary ot by the rev w b d st george for england and other sermons preached to children by the rev t shore m a s st paul the life and work of by the ven d d f r s in ordinary to the queen library edition two cloth s calf illustrated edition complete in one volume with about illustrations x a as popular edition one volume vo cloth s cloth gilt edges d los d tree calf life the gospel of the sermons preached at oxford by the hon w h of s shall we know one another by the rt rev j c d d bishop of liverpool new a td cloth limp is twilight of life the words of counsel and comfort for the aged by the rev john m a is d voice of time the by john cloth gilt is from company s s d the modern school by b sc lend with test cards list on application book keeping by jones for schools as cloth s for the million as cloth s books for jones s system as the public school by j h m a as d the new testament b the lord bishop of and handy volume edition st s d st mark s st s d st john s d the acts of the s d as d i and il s and s and and james s peter and john s the revelation s an introduction to the new testament s d old testament by bishop handy volume edition s d s s numbers as d as d copy books s eighteen books ad each copy books the modern school twelve books ad each drawing copies s new standard fourteen books books a to f for standards i to iv ad each books g h k l m o for standards v to vii d each books n and p d each drawing copies s modern school first grade is second grade as practical by w e s d energy and motion a text book of by william m a illustrated is d en literature first sketch of new and enlarged edition by s d english literature the story of by cloth boards s d s by m a the first four books of in paper d cloth elements of by paul fully illustrated is d french reader s public school by s as d french s lessons in and edition parts l and ii each as d complete s d d french english and english french dictionary entirely new and enlarged edition pages vo s d and s scientific by the rev fl m a and the rev m d d c l s a plane as d books i ii iii as d books iv v vi as d tables s d s d natural philosophy s d d s d ss steam engine s d part i cloth as d complete s d tides and currents with cards german english and english german dictionary s d german reading first lessons in by a illustrated german of to day by dr d of new code of by john f moss historical s coloured size in x in as each mounted on canvas and with s each historical course for schools s illustrated throughout i stories from english history is ii the simple outline of english is d iii the class history of england as from ell s dictionary s by j r v march ant m d latin english and latin dictionary by j r d d and c b a crown vo s m latin the n by j p crown vo as d of every day life by h o is d little folks history of england by illustrated is d making of the home the a book of domestic economy for school and home use by mrs samuel a d books examples s rules ia d french s d french grammar as d german grammar s d and machine examples in practical by r g m e with cloth as d music an manual of by henry is popular	38
complete in six each readers s higher class the world s lumber room illustrated as d short studies from nature illustrated as the world in pictures ten in series cloth as each readers s carefully extremely and illustrated throughout list on application readers s historical illustrated throughout printed on paper and strongly bound in cloth u ist application readers for schools coloured three books each containing pages including in colours d each reader the citizen by h o illustrated readers the modern school list on application readers the modem school illustrated list on book s illustrated school bank manual by price d s plays for school use books illustrated d each reading book the by h m a s d also issued in three books is each as a means of teaching the essential elements of education by lord d a complete manual of by j d ll d s illustrated throughout and d drawing for s building construction as cabinet makers drawing for s and drawing for s d s drawing and practical as drawing and the two in one s d and drawing for s d metal plate workers drawing for s model drawing and as practical perspective s drawing for s applied by sir r s ball ll d as drawing and as s new edition in four s each of by f k s and richard d sc m a throughout the of by s watch and clock making by d s d steel and iron by w h f c s m e c spinning and by w s b m p s d design in by t r s d practical by m e s d cutting tools worked by hand and machine by smith s d a on application test cards modem school s in sets for each standard each with mental on reverse side test cards s combination in sets each company limited hill from company s g for little folks half yearly volume containing to pages with about illustrations and pictures in colour boards s d or cloth gilt s bo peep a book for the little ones with original stories and verses illustrated throughout yearly volume boards d cloth gilt s d legends for new picture book by walter s s feast a of flowers and pictured by walter with pages in colours s day heroes by lane illustrated cloth as d the new children s to pages illustrated throughout s d the tales of the sixty by p v with an introduction by henry illustrated s the world s lumber room by as d books for young people illustrated cloth gilt s each under s banner by henry the palace by l t the b command a story for by for fortune and glory a story war by follow my or the boys of by reed by the romance of invention james the champion of or in the days of old by bound by a spell or the hunted witch of the forest by the hon mrs books for young people illustrated price s d each the cost of a mistake by a world of girls the story of a school by l t lost among white a boy s adventures on the upper by david on board the or martin s log by john c in quest of gk ld or under the falls by alfred st for queen and king loyal by henry perils afloat and ashore by freedom s sword a story of the d the cross and crown series consisting of stories founded on incidents which occurred during religious of past days with illustrations in each book s d each strong to suffer a story of the jews by e heroes of the empire or stories of and victory by foster in letters of flame a story of the by c l mat through trial to triumph by by fire and sword a story of the by thomas adam s vow a tale of and by s swan no xiii or the story of tho lost christian days a tale of ea ly by mar b hunt golden series the each book containing pages with four full page original illustrations crown vo cloth gilt as each by rev f e m a ear and forbear by foremost if i can by the log cabin series by edward s with four illustrations in each crown cloth as d each the lost trail i camp fire and i in the honour is my by mrs at a r sure end by he who by the author of may trial c from company s picture story books each containing sixty pages of pictures and stories c d each talks bright stare f toys tiny s story book dot s story book a neat of stories for small s stories s story book a of tales stories story books all illustrated mad containing interesting stories by well known writers the s gave uttle bird life and adventures oc the the boat uttle the college boys my first the shilling story books all illustrated and containing interesting stories and the boys the heir of the mystery at at and boy s thorns and the in the s nest john s mistake th history of five diamonds in the band bob the giant s cradle and doll s the mirror the cost of clever frank among the the of harry a banished seventeen cats illustrated books for the little ones containing stories all illustrated is each end down the garden i sorts of adventures our sunday stories our holiday indoors and out some farm friends those sands uttle mothers ft their children our pretty our hours creatures tame creatures	38
over the and brightest of the new town from their smoky ten stories high the look down upon the open squares and gardens of the wealthy j and gay people themselves along princes street with its mile of commercial palaces all upon some great occasion see across a valley picturesque notes on set with statues where the of the old town flutter in the breeze at its high windows and then upon all sides what a of architecture in this one valley where the life of the town goes most busily forward there may be seen shown one above and behind another by the accidents of the ground buildings in almost every style upon the globe egyptian and greek temples palaces and are huddled one over another in a most admired disorder while above all the brute mass of the castle and the summit of arthur s seat look down upon these with a becoming dignity as the works of nature may look down upon the monuments of art but nature is a more than we imagine and in no way frightened of a strong effect the birds as willingly among the as in the of the the same atmosphere and daylight clothe the eternal rock and yesterday s imitation and as the soft northern sunshine throws out everything into a distinctness or mists coming up with the blue evening all these features into one and the lamps begin to glitter along the street and faint lights to burn in the high windows across the valley the feeling grows upon you that this also is a piece of nature in the most intimate sense that this profusion of this dream in and living rock is not a drop scene in a theatre but a city in the world of every day reality connected by railway and telegraph wire with all the of europe and inhabited by citizens of the familiar type who keep and attend church and have sold their immortal portion to a daily paper by all the of romance the place demands to be half deserted and leaning towards decay picturesque notes on birds wc might admit in profusion the play of the sun and winds and a few in the chief thorough re but these citizens with their and their trains and are altogether out of key they make free with historic and rear their young among the most picturesque with a grand human indifference to see them by in their neat clothes and conscious moral and with a little air of possession that on the absurd is not the least striking feature of the place and the story of the town is as eccentric as its appearance for centuries it was a capital these sentences have i hear given offence in my native town and a pleasure to our rivals of i confess the news caused me both pain and merriment may i remark as a for wounded fellow that there is nothing deadly in my small blame to them if they keep tis an excellent business habit is not that ever i heard a subject of reproach decency of linen is a mark of prosperous affairs and conscious moral one of the tokens of good with and more than once in the evil days of english invasion it has gone up in flame to heaven a to ships at sea it was the ground of jealous not only on or by the king s stables where set were fought to the sound of trumpets and under the authority of the royal presence but in every alley where there was room to cross swords and in the main street where popular tumult under the blue blanket with the of and down in the palace john his queen in the accents of modern in the town in one of living it is not their fault if the city calls for more by way of inhabitants a man in a frock coat looks out of place upon an or although he has the virtues of a and the talents of a and let them console themselves they do as well as anybody the population of let us say would cut quite as a figure on the same romantic stage to the people i would say only one word but that is of gold i have not yet written a book about picturesque notes on those little shops like so many s nests among the of the old cathedral that familiar james vi would gladly share a bottle of wine with george the up on the hills that so quietly look down on the castle with the city lying in waves around it those mad and dismal the sweet singers haggard from long exposure on the sat day and night with tearful to see consumed with fire from heaven like another or there in the grass market heroes offered up the often unnecessary but not less honourable sacrifice of their lives and bade eloquent farewell to sun moon and stars and earthly or died silent to the roll of drums down by yon outlet rode of and his thirty with the town beating to arms behind their horses tails a sorry handful thus riding for their lives but with a man at the head who was to return in a different temper make a dash that staggered scotland to the heart and die happily in the thick of fight there was hanged for a piece of boyish incredulity there a few years afterwards david ruined philosophy and faith an undisturbed and well citizen and thither in yet a few years more burns came from the plough tail as to an academy of gilt and artificial letters there when the great was made across the valley and the new town began to spread abroad its and rear its long on the opposing hill there was such a flitting such a change of and as was never	38
in the history of cities the succeeded the earl the beggar himself by the judge s chimney what had been a palace was used as a refuge and great were so par picturesque notes on out among the least and lowest in society that the of the old proprietor was thought large enough to be off into a bedroom by the new chapter ii old town the lands tt he old town it is pretended is the chief characteristic and from a picturesque point of view the liver wing of it is one of the most common forms of to throw cold water on the whole bv over of a part since everything worth judging whether it be a man a work of art or only a fine city must be judged upon its merits as a whole the old town depends for much of its effect on the new quarters that lie around it on the of its situation and on the hills that back it up if you were to set it somewhere else by itself it would look remarkably like in a bolder and edition the point is to see this picturesque notes on planted in the midst of a large active and fantastic modern city for there the two re act in a picturesque sense and the one is the making of the other the old town a sloping ridge or tail of matter protected in some of the waters by the castle cliffs which it to the west on the one side of it and the other the new towns of the south and of the north occupy their lower broader and more gentle hill tops thus the quarter of the castle the whole city and keeps an open view to sea and land it for miles on every side and people on the decks of ships or in quiet country places over in can see the banner on the castle and the smoke of the old town blowing abroad over the country a city that is set upon a hill it was i suppose from this distant aspect that she got her r a t d po old town the lands name of perhaps it was given her hy people who had never crossed her doors day after day from their various rustic they had seen the pile of building on the hill top and the long of smoke over the plain so it appeared to them so it had appeared to their fathers the same field and as that was all they knew of the place it could be all expressed in these two words indeed even on a near the old town is properly smoked and though it is well washed with rain all the y ear it has a grim and aspects its it grew under the law that the growth of walled cities in precarious situations not in extent but in height and public buildings were forced wherever there was room for them into the midst of thorough were diminished into lanes houses sprang up story after story neighbour picturesque notes on mounting upon neighbour s shoulder as in some black hole of until the population slept fourteen or fifteen deep in a direction the of these lands as they are termed have long since been burnt out but to this day it is not uncommon to see eight or ten windows at a flight nd the cliff of building which hangs imminent over bridge would still put many natural to shame the are already high above the s head planted on the steep hill side as for the garret all the furniture may be in the but it commands a famous prospect to the hills the poor man may up there in the centre of and yet have a peep of the green country from his window he shall see the quarters of the well to do underneath with their broad squares and gardens he shall have nothing overhead but a few the old town the lands stone top of the city and perhaps the wind may reach him with a rustic and bring a of the sea or of in the spring it is almost the correct literary sentiment to the improvements of mr chambers and his following it is easy to be a of the of others indeed it is only our good qualities we find it irksome to assuredly in driving streets through the black a few curious old corners have b en away and some associations turned out of house but what of sunlight what of clean air have been let in and what a picturesque world remains untouched you go under dark arches and down dark stairs and the way is so narrow that you can lay a hand on either wall so steep that in greasy winter weather the pavement is almost picturesque notes on as treacherous as ice washing above washing from the windows the houses upon you see a bit of in a dark corner at the top of all a and a few are printed on the sky here you come into a court where the children are at play and the grown people sit upon their and perhaps a church spire shows itself above the roofs here in the of the entry you find a great old mansion still erect with some of its former state some some holy or courageous motto on the the local points out where famous and people had their lodging and as you look up out the head of a woman from the s window the camp within s palace walls and the old war ship is given over to the rats we are already a far way from the days when old bow had u old town the lands powdered heads were plentiful in these with jolly port wine faces underneath even in the chief	38
irish flutter at the windows and the are with these are a true character of the scene some shrewd scotch workmen may have paused on their way q a job church affairs and politics with their tools upon their arm but the most part are of different order jail birds bare foot children big mouth women in a sort of uniform of striped flannel and short shawl among these a few and a dismal of and broken men from higher ranks in society with some mark of better days upon them like a brand in a place no larger than and where the traffic is mostly in five or six chief streets the same face comes often picturesque notes on under the notice of an idle in fact from this point of view is not so much a small city as the largest of small towns it is scarce possible to avoid observing your neighbours and i never yet heard of any one who tried it has been my fortune in this accidental way to watch more than one of these downward travellers for some stages on the road to ruin one man must have been upwards of sixty before i first observed him and he made then a decent figure in of the best for three years he kept falling coming and buttons going from the square skirted coat the face puffing and the shoulders growing bowed the hair falling scant and grey upon his head and the last that ever saw of him he was standing at the mouth of an entry with several men in three parts drunk and his old black with mud i fancy that i still old town the call hear him laugh there was something heart breaking in this gradual at so advanced an age j you would have thought a man of sixty out of the reach of these you would have thought that he was by that time into a safe place in life whence he could pass quietly and into the grave one of the earliest marks of these is that the victim begins to disappear from the new town and takes to the high street like a wounded animal to the woods and such an one is the type of the quarter it also has fallen a over the door somewhat in sentiment where there is a washing at every window the old man when i saw him last wore the coat in which he had played the gentleman three years before and that was just what gave him so pre eminent an air of wretchedness picturesque on it is true that the over population was at least as dense in the epoch of lords and ladies and that now a days some customs which made notorious of have been fortunately but an of comfort is old town the lands not distasteful like an of the reverse nobody cares how many lords and ladies and and lawyers may have been crowded into these houses in the past perhaps the more the the glasses around the china punch bowl some one touches the there are feathers on the chimney and the burn clear and pale in the red that is not an ugly picture in itself nor will it become ugly upon repetition all the better if the were going on in every second room the only look the more inviting times are changed in one house perhaps families herd together and perhaps not one of them is wholly out of the reach of want the great hotel is given over to discomfort from the foundation to the everywhere a narrow habit scanty meals and an air of and dirt in the first room there is a birth in another a picturesque notes on deaths in a third a sordid drinking bout and the and the bible reader cross upon the stairs high words are audible from dwelling to dwell and children have a strange experience from the first only a robust soul you would think could grow up in such conditions without hurt and even if god his to the young and all the ill does not arise that our apprehensions may the sight of such a way of living is to people who are more happily social is nowhere more than at i have mentioned already how to the along princes street the high street its back it is true there is a garden between and although nothing could be more glaring by way of contrast sometimes the opposition is more immediate sometimes the thing lies in a and there is not so much as a blade of old town the lands q grass between the rich and poor to look over the south bridge and see the below full of crying is to view one rank of society from another in the twinkling of an eye one night i went along the after every one was a bed but the policeman and stopped by hazard before a tall land the moon touched upon its chimneys and shone on the upper windows j there was no light anywhere in the great bulk of building but as i stood there it seemed to me that i could hear quite a body of quiet sounds from the interior doubtless there were many and people on their backs and thus as i fancied the dense life within made itself faintly audible in my ears family after family its to the general hum and the whole pile beating in tune to its like a great disordered heart perhaps it picturesque notes on was little more than a fancy altogether but it was strangely impressive at the time and gave me an imaginative measure of the between the quantity of living flesh and the trifling walls that separated and contained it there was nothing fanciful at least but every circumstance of terror and reality in the fall	38
when he is brought forth once in a while too an advocate in wig and gown hand upon mouth full of sweeps to and fro in the listening to an agent and at certain regular hours a whole tide of lawyers across the space the parliament close has been the scene of marking incidents in history thus v i m the parliament close when the were from the in all fourteen of them gathered together with pale faces and stood in a cloud in the parliament close poor personages who were done with fair weather for life some of the west country standing by who would have rejoiced more than in great sums to be at their hanging them so rudely that they knocked their heads together it was not b r to enemies j but one at of the had groaned in the and all seen c their dear friends i again at the union ik that people crowded to escort their favourite from the last of people flushed with as would have said ready for acts and fresh from throwing stones at the author of robinson as he looked out of window picturesque notes on one of the pious in the century going to pass his trials as we now say for the bar beheld the parliament close open and had a vision of the mouth of hell this and small wonder was the means of his nor was the vision to the locality for after an hospital what piece is there in than a court of law hither come envy malice and all to it out in public crimes broken fortunes severed the and his victim to this low building with the to how many has not st s bell told the first hour after ruin i think i see them pause to count the strokes and wander on again into the moving high street stunned and sick at heart a pair of swing doors gives to a hall with a carved roof hung with legal portraits adorned with legal lighted by uie parliament close windows of painted glass and warmed by three vast fires this is the des pas of the bar here by a ferocious custom idle youths must from ten till two from end to end singly or in pairs or the gowns and go back and forward through a hum of talk and the tones of a announce a fresh cause and call upon the names of those concerned intelligent men have been walking here daily for ten or twenty years without a rag of business or a shilling of reward in process of time they may perhaps be made the substitute and fountain of justice at or there is nothing required you would say but a little patience and a taste for exercise and bad air to breathe dust and to feed the mind on gossip to hear three parts of a case and drink a glass of to long with indescribable for the hour when a man picturesque notes on may slip out of his and devote himself to for the rest of the afternoon and to do this day by day and year after year may seem so small a thing to the inexperienced but those who have made the experiment are of a different way of thinking and count it the most form of idleness more swing doors open into pigeon holes where judges of the first appeal sit singly and halls of audience where the supreme lords sit by three or four here you may see scott s place within the bar where he wrote many a page of novels to the of proceeding you will hear a good deal of and as their do not altogether disdain a fair proportion of dry fun the of broad scotch is now banished from the bench j but the courts still retain a certain national we have a solemn way of lingering on a case the parliament close we treat law as a fine art relish and a good distinction there is no hurry point after point must be rightly examined and reduced to principle judge after judge must utter forth his to delighted brethren besides the courts there are under the same roof no less than three two of no mean order confused and semi full of stairs and galleries j where you may see the most looking fishing out novels by light in the very place where the old council tortured as the parliament house is built upon a slope although it presents only one story to the north it measures half a dozen at least upon the south and range after range of extend below the few places are more characteristic of this capital you descend one stone stair after another and wander by the of a match in a of stone now picturesque notes on you pass below the outer hall and hear overhead brisk but ghostly the interminable of legal feet now you come upon a strong door with a on the other side are the of the police office and the trap stair that gives to the dock in the court many a foot that has gone up there lightly enough has been dead heavy in the descent many a man s life has been argued away from him during long hours in the court above but just now that tragic stage is empty and silent like a church on a week day with the bench all up and nothing moving but the on the wall a little farther and you strike upon a room not empty like the rest but crowded with productions from criminal cases a grim lumber weapons poisoned organs in a jar a door with a shot hole through the behind which a man fell dead i cannot fancy why they should preserve them the parliament close unless it were against the judgment day at length as	38
you continue to descend you see a peep of yellow and hear a whispering noise j next moment you turn a corner and there in a passage is a machinery belt turning on its wheels you would think the engine had grown there of its own accord like a cellar and would soon spin itself out and fill the from end to end with its mysterious labours in truth it is only some gear of the steam and you will find the at hand and may step out of their door into the sunlight for all this while you have not been descending towards the earth s centre but only to the bottom of the hill and the foundations of the parliament house low down to be sure but still under the open heaven and in a field of grass the daylight shines on the back windows of the irish quarter on broken shutters picturesque notes on old houses on the brink of ruin a crumbling human pig fit for human pigs there are few signs of life besides a scanty washing or a face at a window the are abroad but they will return at night and to their chapter iv legends t he character of a place is often most perfectly expressed in its associations an event strikes root and grows into a legend when it has happened amongst congenial surroundings ugly actions above all in ugly places have the true romantic quality and become an property of their scene to a man like scott the different appearances of nature seemed each to contain its own legend ready made which it was his to call forth in such or such a place only such or such events ought with propriety to happen and in this spirit he made the lady of the lake for ben the heart of for and the so indifferently written o picturesque notes on but so conceived for the desolate islands and roaring of the north the common run of mankind have from generation to generation an instinct almost as delicate as that of scott j but where he created new things they only forget what is among the old and by of the a body of tradition becomes a work of art so in the low and high flying of people may go back upon dark passages in the town s adventures and chill their with winter s tales about the fire tales that are singularly and characteristic not only of the old life but of the very constitution of built nature in that part and singularly well qualified to add horror to horror when the wind pipes around the tall lands and arched passages and the far spread wilderness of city lamps keeps and in the legends here it is the tale of the bank stricken to the heart at a blow and left in his til c blood within a step or two of the crowded high street there people hush their voices over and hare over and graves and the men their victims picturesque notes on with their knees here again the fame of is kept fresh a great man in his day was the well seen in good society with his hands as a and one who could sing a song with taste many a citizen was proud to welcome the to supper and dismissed him with regret at a hour who would have been vastly disconcerted had he known how soon and in what guise his visitor returned many stories are told of this but the one i have in my mind most vividly gives the key of all the rest a friend of s some way towards heaven in one of these great lands had told him of a projected visit to the country and afterwards detained by some affairs put it off and stayed the night in town the good man had lain some time awake it was far on in the small hours by the when suddenly there came a legends a jar a faint light softly he out of bed and up to a window which looked upon another room and there by the glimmer of a thieves lantern was his good friend the in a mask it rs characteristic of the town and the town s manners that this little episode should have been quietly over and quite a good tim e before a great robbery an a bow street a v cock fight an o ri in cupboard in and a last step in air off his own greatly improved gallows drop brought the career of william to an end but still by the mind s eye he may be seen a man harassed below a mountain of from a magistrate s supper room to a thieves ken and among the by the of a dark lamp or where the is out of favour perhaps some memory of the great f picturesque notes of and of fatal houses still to enter within the memory of man for in time of the discipline had been sharp and sudden and what we now call stamping out was carried on with deadly the officials in their gowns of grey with a white st s cross on back and breast and a white cloth carried before them on a staff the city adding the terror of man s justice to the fear of god s the dead they buried on the the living who had concealed the sickness were drowned if they were women in the holes and if they were men were hanged and at their own doors and wherever the evil had passed furniture was destroyed and houses closed and the most part of the story is about such houses two generations back they still stood dark and empty people avoided them as they passed by j the legends only shouted through the and made off for within it was supposed the	38
one swelling brutal of noise now one another and now behind it now five or six all strike on the pained at the same punctual instant of time and make together a dismal of discord and now for a second all seem to have to hold their peace indeed there are not many in this picturesque notes on world more dismal than that of the sabbath bells in a harsh the of calling on every separate to put up a protest each in his own against right hand extremes and left hand and surely there are few worse extremes than this extremity of zeal and few more deplorable than this to christian love shakespeare wrote a comedy of much about nothing the nation made a fantastic tragedy on the same subject and it is for the success of this remarkable piece that these bells are sounded every sabbath morning on the hills above the forth how many of them might rest silent in the how many of these ugly churches might be and turned once more into useful building material if people who think almost exactly the same thoughts about religion would legends condescend to worship god under the same roof but there are the chalk lines and which is to pocket pride and speak the foremost word chapter v tt was queen mary who threw open the gardens of the grey a new and semi rural in those days although it has grown an antiquity in its turn and been by half a dozen others the must have had a pleasant time on summer evenings for their gardens were situated to a wish with the tall castle and the of the in front even now it is one of our famous points of view and strangers are led thither to see by yet another instance how strangely the city lies upon her hills the is of an irregular shape the double church of old and new stands on the level at the top a few thorns are dotted here and there and the ground falls by terrace and steep slope towards the north the open shows many and table and all round the margin the place is by an array of aristocratic adorned setting aside the of which belong to the heroic order of art we scotch stand to my i ik highest among nations in the matter of grimly death we seem to love for their own s ke the of time and ch ae and even around country churches you find a wonderful exhibition of and and angels and trumpets for the judgment day every was a he had a deep consciousness of death and loved to put its terrors before the churchyard he was of rough hints upon and any dead farmer was o picturesque notes on seized upon to be a text the classical examples of this art are in grey in their time these were doubtless costly monuments and reckoned of a very elegant proportion by and now when the elegance is not so apparent the significance remains you may perhaps look with a smile on the profusion of latin some crawling up the shaft of a pillar some issuing on a from angels trumpets on the horrors the figures rising from the grave and all the in which it pleased our fathers to set forth their sorrow for the dead and their sense of earthly but it is not a hearty sort of mirth each ornament may have been executed by the whistling as he plied the but the original meaning of each and the combined effect of so many of them in this quiet is serious to the point of melancholy round a great part of the circuit houses of a low class present their backs to the churchyard only a few separate the living from the dead here a window is partly blocked up by the of a tomb where the street falls far below the level of the graves a chimney has been trained up the back of a monument and a red pot looks over from behind a damp smell of the finds its way into houses where workmen sit at meat domestic life on a small scale goes forward visibly at the windows the very solitude and stillness of the which lies apart from the town s traffic serves to the contrast as you walk upon the graves you see children scattering to feed the j you hear people singing or washing dishes or the sound of tears and the linen on a against or perhaps the cat c picturesque notes on slips over the and on a memorial urn and as there is nothing else these sights and noises take hold on the attention and the sadness of the i place is continually by cats i have seen one afternoon as many as thirteen of them seated on the grass beside old the master all sleek and fat and complacently as if they had fed upon strange old was with the saints as we may hope and cared little for the company about his grave but i confess the spectacle had an ugly side for me and i was glad to step forward and raise my eyes to where the castle and the roofs of the ow town ana the spire of the assembly hall stood against the sky with the precision of an open outlook is to be desired from a churchyard and a sight grey of the sky and some of the world s beauty a mind from morbid thoughts i shall never forget one visit it was a grey dropping day the grass was strung with and the people in the houses kept hanging out their shirts and and angrily taking them in again as the weather turned from wet to fair ai n a grave w tv and a of his i from the country one after another of the q	38
l and in which it gratified of old days to their old bones from neighbourhood in one under a sort of shrine we found a forlorn human very executed down to the detail of his stockings and holding in his hand a ticket with the date of his he looked most pitiful and ridiculous shut up by himself in his aristocratic like a bad old boy or an inferior for picturesque notes m gotten deity under a new the grew familiarly about his feet the rain all round him and the world maintained the most entire indifference as to who he was or whither he had gone in another a tomb handsome but horrible inside with damp and there were three of black earth and an uncovered bone this was the place oi it appeared of a family with whom the gardener had been long in service he was among old acquaintances i his ll be miss et s said he giving the bone a friendly kick the i have always an uncomfortable feeling in a at sight of so many to memories best forgotten but i never had the impression so strongly as that day people had been at some expense in both these cases to provoke a melancholy feeling of derision in the grey one and an insulting epithet in the other the proper inscription for the most part of mankind i began to think is the cynical that if anything will stop the mouth of a since it both admits the worst and carries the war triumphantly into the enemy s camp is a place of many associations there was one window in a house at the lower end now which was pointed out to me by the as a spot of interest the man infamous for so many at five shillings a head used to sit with pipe and to watch going forward on the green in a tomb higher up which must then have been but newly finished john according to the same had taken refuge in a turmoil of the behind the church is the haunted on of sir george bloody lord advocate in the troubles ai author of some pleasing s n m k s here in the last century an oh boy once police the y as that day pi a in both these on founder s day you of i never had the j fc pi h d at w children playing kiss in the ring and round the bush thus when the fugitive had managed to conceal himself in the tomb his old had a hundred opportunities to bring him food and there he lay in safety till a ship was found to him abroad but his must have been indeed a heart of brass to lie all day and night alone with the dead and other lads were far from him in courage when a man s soul is certainly in hell his body will scarce lie quiet in a tomb however costly some time or other the door must open and the come forth in the garments of the grave it was thought a high piece of to knock at the lord advocate s and challenge him to appear come if ye to ti g tj but sir george other affairs on hand and the author of picturesque notes on an essay on continues to sleep peacefully among the many whom he so helped to for this as it is in one of its own an inscription over which dr johnson passed a critical eye is in many ways sacred to the memory of the men whom persecuted it was here on the flat that the was signed by an enthusiastic people in the long arm of the churchyard that extends to the prisoners from both well bridge fed on bread and water and guarded life for life by lay five months looking for the or the and while the good work was going forward in the in might have heard the throb of the military drums that drowned the voices of the nor is this all for down in the corner farthest from sir george there stands a monument in uncouth verse to all who lost their lives in that there is no shot in a snow shower beside or co there is not one of the two hundred who were drowned off the nor so much as a poor over driven picturesque notes on slave in the american but can lay claim to a share in that memorial and if such things interest just men among the shades can boast he has a monument on earth as well as caesar or the where they may all lie i know not far scattered bones indeed but if the reader cares to learn how some of them or some part of some of them found their way at length to such honourable let him listen to the words of one who was their comrade in life and their when they were dead some of the insane matter i omit as well as some but leave the rest in s language and the never to be forgotten mr james told me that he was witness to their public murder at the between and when he saw the and off all their r five heads with s right hand their bodies were all buried at the gallows foot their heads with s hand were brought and put upon five on the p port mr told me also that it was the first public action that his hand was at to friends and lift their bodies and carried them to the west churchyard of not this time and buried them there then they came about the city and took down these five heads and that hand and day being come they went quickly up the and when they came to	38
yards upon the south side of the city they not venture being so light to go and bury their heads with their bodies which they designed it being present death if any of them had been found alexander a friend being with them who at that time was in these yards concluded to bury them in his yard being in a box wrapped in linen where they lay years except days being executed upon the th of october and found the th day of october that piece of ground lay for some years and picturesque notes on ing it the found them which him the box was consumed mr the owner of these yards caused lift them and lay them upon a table in his summer house mr mother was so kind as to cut out a and cover them they lay twelve days there where all had access to see them alexander the said when dying there was a treasure hid in his yard but neither gold nor silver daniel his son came along with me to that yard and told me that his father planted a white rose bush above them and farther down the yard a red rose bush which were more fruitful than any other bush in the yard many came to see the heads out of curiosity yet i rejoiced to see so many concerned grave men and women the dust of our there were six of us concluded to bury them upon the nineteenth day of october and every one of us to friends of the day and hour being wednesday the day of the week on which most of them were executed and at of the clock at night being the hour that most of them went to their resting grey graves we caused make a coffin i or them in black with four yards of fine linen the way that our corps were managed accordingly we kept the day and hour and doubled the linen and laid the half of it below them their jaws being parted from their heads but being young men their teeth remained all were witness to the holes in each of their heads which the broke with his hammer and according to the of their we laid the jaws to them and drew the other half of the linen above them and the coffin with some hard to go the chief parts o the city as was done at the revolution but this we refused considering that it looked airy and to make such show of them and inconsistent with the solid serious observing of such an unheard of but took the ordinary way of other from that place to wit we went cast the back of the wall and in at port and down the way to the head of the and turned up to the church yard where they were to the tomb with the notes on greatest multitude of people old and young men and women ministers and others that ever i saw together and o there they were at last in their resting graves so long as men do their duty even if it be greatly in a they will be leading pattern lives and whether or not they come to lie beside a monument we may be sure they will find a safe haven somewhere in the providence of god it is not well to think of death unless we temper the thought with that of heroes who despised it upon what ground is of small account if it be only the bishop who was burned for his faith in the his memory the heart and makes us walk undisturbed among graves and so the monument is a wholesome spot in the of the dead and as we look upon it a brave influence grey comes to us from the land of those who have won their discharge and in another phrase of s got off the stage h chapter vi new town town and country tt is as much a matter of course to the new town as to the old and the most celebrated authorities have picked out this quarter as the very emblem of what is in architecture much may be said much indeed has been said upon the text but to the who call anything pleasing if it only pleases them the new town of seems in itself not only gay and airy but highly picturesque an old ignorant of all theories of the sublime and beautiful once as his most radiant notion for paradise the new town of with the wind the matter of a point free he has now gone to new town town and country that sphere where all good are promised pleasant weather in the song and perhaps his thoughts fly somewhat higher but there are bright and temperate days with soft air coming from the inland hills military music sounding bravely from the hollow of the gardens the flags all waving on the palaces of princes street when i have seen the town through a sort of glory and shaken hands in sentiment with the old sailor and indeed for a man who has been much tumbled round what scene could be more agreeable to witness on such a day the valley wears a surprising air of festival it seems i do not know how else to put my meaning as if it were a trifle too good to be true it is what paris ought to be it has the quality that would best set off a of open air diversion it was meant by nature for the of the society of comic picturesque notes on and you can imagine if the climate were but how all the world and his wife would flock into these gardens in the cool of the evening to hear cheerful music to pleasant drinks to see the moon rise from	38
behind arthur s seat and shine upon the and monuments and the green tree tops in the valley alas and the next morning the rain is on the window and the passengers flee along princes street before the galloping it cannot be denied that the original design was and short sighted and did not fully profit by the of the situation the was essentially a town bird and he laid out the modern city with a view to street scenery and to street scenery alone the country did not enter into his plan he had never lifted his eyes to the hills if he had so chosen every street upon the northern slope new town town and country loi might have been a noble terrace and commanded an extensive and beautiful view but the space has been too closely built many of f i the houses from the wrong way intent like the man with the on what is not worth observation and standing hack foremost in the ranks and in a word it is too often only from windows or here picturesque notes on and there at a crossing that you can get a look beyond the city upon its surroundings but perhaps it is all the more surprising to come suddenly on a corner and see a perspective of a mile or more of falling street and beyond that woods and and a blue arm of sea and the hills upon the farther side our poet burns s model once saw a butterfly at the town cross and the sight inspired him with a worthless little this painted country man the of the rose garden looked far abroad in such a humming neighbourhood and you can fancy what moral considerations a youthful poet would supply but the incident in a fanciful sort of way is characteristic of the place into no other city does the sight of the country enter so far if you do not meet a butterfly you shall certainly new town town and country catch a glimpse of far away trees upon your walk and the place is full of theatre tricks in the way of scenery you peep under an arch you descend stairs that look as if they would land you in a cellar you turn to the back window of a in a lane and behold you are face to face with distant and bright prospects you turn a corner and there is the sun going down into the hills you look down an alley and see ships for the for the country people to see on her hill tops is one thing it is another for the citizen from the thick of his affairs to overlook the country it should be a genial and influence in life it should prompt good thoughts and remind him of nature s that he can watch from day to day as he how the spring green in the wood or the field grows picturesque notes on black under a moving i have been tempted in this to the slender faculties of the human race with its penny whistle of a voice its dull ears and its narrow range of sight if you could see as people are to see in heaven if you had eyes such as you can fancy for a superior race if you could take clear note of the objects of vision not only a few yards but a few miles from where you stand think how agreeably your sight would be entertained how pleasantly your thoughts would be as you walked the streets for you might pause in some business perplexity in the midst of the city traffic and perhaps catch the eye of a shepherd as he sat down to breathe upon a shoulder of the j or perhaps some in a country elm would put aside the leaves and show you his flushed and rustic or a racing new town town and country with the under his elbow and the sail sounding in the wind would fling you a salutation from between er and the may to be old is not the same thing as to be picturesque nor because the old town bears a strange does it at all follow that the new town shall look commonplace indeed apart from antique houses it is curious how much description would apply commonly to either the same sudden accidents of ground a similar site above the plain and the same of one rank of society over another are to be observed in both thus the broad and comely approach to princes street from the east lined with hotels and public offices makes a leap over the of the low if you cast a glance over the you look direct into that and of street and lo picturesque notes on the same tall houses open upon both this is only the new town passing overhead above its own walking so to speak over its own children as is the way of cities and the human race but at the dean bridge you may behold a spectacle of a more novel order the river runs at the bottom of a deep valley among rocks and between gardens the crest of either bank is occupied by some of the most streets and in the modern city and a handsome bridge the two over this every afternoon private carriages go spinning by and ladies with card cases pass to and fro about the duties of society and yet down below you may still see with its mills and foaming the little rural village of dean modern improvement has gone overhead on its high level and the extended city has and left what was new town town and country once the summer retreat of its comfortable citizens every town embraces in its growth herself has embraced a good few but it is strange to see one still and	38
to see it some hundreds of feet below your path is it that is built above buried was dead at least but the sun still shines upon tl oc dean the smoke still rises from its the dusty miller comes l at the water to the wheel and the birds about the na perhaps an air of his own to the for all the world as if were still the old on the castle hill and dean were still the of buried a mile or so in the green country it is not so long ago since david lent the authority of his example no picturesque notes on to the from the old town and took up his new abode in a street which is still so oddly may a jest become known as saint david street nor is the town so large but a holiday may harry a bird s nest within half a mile of his own door there are places that still smell of the plough in memory s nostrils here one had heard a on a there another was taken on summer evenings to eat and cream and you have seen a waving on the site of your present residence the memories of an boy are but partly memories of the town i look back with on many an of garden walls many a among full of birds many an in obscure quarters that were neither town nor country and i think that both for my companions and myself there was a special interest a point of new town town and country romance and a sentiment as of foreign travel when we hit in our excursions on the butt t end of some former hamlet and found a few rustic cottages among streets and squares the to the scotland street station the sight of the trains shooting out of its dark with the two guards upon the the thought of its length and the many ponderous and open above were certainly things of to a young mind it was a passage although of a larger bore than we were accustomed to in s novels and these two words passage were in themselves an irresistible attraction and seemed to bring us nearer in spirit to the heroes we loved and the black we secretly to imitate to scale the castle rock from west princes street gardens and lay a hand against the itself picturesque notes on was to taste a high order of romantic pleasure and there are other sights and exploits which crowd back upon my mind under a very strong illumination of remembered pleasure but the effect of not one of them all will compare with the s joy and the sense of old time and his slow changes on the face of this earth with which i such corners as or water lane or the of cottages at market they were more rural than the open country and gave a greater impression of antiquity than the oldest land upon the high street they too like s butterfly had a quaint air of having wandered far from their own place they looked abashed and homely with their and their creeping plants their outside stairs and running mill streams there were corners that smelt like the end of the country garden where i spent my and the people new town town and country stood to gossip at their doors as they might have done in or in a great measure we may and shall this haunting of the country the last elm is dead in elm row and the and the workmen s quarters spread on all the of the we can cut down the trees c n grass under dead s can d ive brisk streets through all and we may forget the stories arid fro of our boyhood but we have some possessions that not even the zeal of can utterly and destroy nothing can the hills unless it be a of nature which shall castle itself and lay all her in the dust and as long as we have the hills and the we have a to leave our children our windows at no expense i i picturesque notes on to us are mostly stained to represent a landscape and when the spring comes round and the begins to flower and the meadows to smell of young grass even in the of our streets the country find out a young man s eyes and set his heart beating for travel and pure air u m chapter vii the villa r s of the new town of as i have heard it repeated nearly all the stone and lime we have to show many however find a grand air and something settled and imposing in the better parts and upon many as i have said the confusion of an agreeable of the mind but upon the subject of our recent villa architecture i am frankly ready to mingle my tears with mr s and it is a subject which makes one envious of his large and eloquence day by day one new villa one new object of offence is added to another all around ii picturesque notes on and the keep springing up like the pleasant hills are loaded with them each in its garden each and carrying chimneys like a house and yet a glance of an eye their true character they are not houses i for they were not designed with a view to human habitation and the internal arrangements are as they tell me to the needs of man they are not buildings for you can scarcely say a thing is built where every is in with its neighbour they belong to no style of art only to a form of business much to be regretted why should it be cheaper to erect a structure where the size of the windows bears no rational relation to the	38
size of the front is there any profit in a chimney stalk does a hard working greedy gain more on a the villa than on a decent cottage of equal frankly we should say no bricks may be omitted and green timber employed in the construction of even a very elegant design and there is no reason why a chimney should be made to vent because it is so situated as to look comely from without on the other hand there is a noble way of being ugly a high like the fall of there are daring and gaudy buildings that manage to be offensive without being contemptible and we know that fools rush in where angels fear to tread but to aim at making a common place villa and to make it ugly in each particular to attempt the achievement and to attain the bottom of failure not to have any theory but and yet at an equal expense to all in the art of and rendering permanent de i picturesque notes on aiid to do all this in what is by nature one of the most agreeable in britain what are we to say but that this also is a distinction hard to earn although not greatly indifferent buildings give pain to the sensitive but these things the taste it is a danger which the of the town and as this keeps spreading on our borders we have ever the farther to walk among unpleasant sights before we gain the country air if the population of were a living body it would arise like one man and make night hideous with the and their would be driven to work like the jews of with the in one hand and the in the other and as soon as one of these wonders had been right minded the villa ill should fall and make an end of it at once possibly these words may meet the eye or a or two it is no use asking them to employ an for that would be to touch them in a delicate quarter and its use would largely depend on what they were minded to call in but let them get any in the world to point out any reasonably well villa not his own design and let them that model to chapter viii the calm hill i i he east of new is guarded by a hill of no great elevation which the town embraces the old london road runs on one side of it y while the new approach leaving it on the other hand the circuit you mount by stairs in a cutting of the rock to find yourself in a field of monuments has the honours of situation and architecture y burns is lower down upon a spur lord as a sailor gives his name to the of the hill this latter has been differently and yet in both cases compared to a and a apart it ranks the among the of men s but the chief feature is an unfinished range of columns the modern ruin as it has been called an imposing object from and near and giving even from the sea that hill false air of a modern which has earned for her so many speeches it was meant to be a national monument and its present state is a very suitable monument to certain national characteristics the old a brown building on the edge of the steep and the new picturesque notes on a classical edifice with a dome occupy the central of the summit all these are scattered on a green turf over by some sheep the scene suggests reflections on fame and on man s injustice to the dead you see rather more handsomely than burns immediately below in the churchyard lies robert burns s master in his art who died insane while yet a and if has been somewhat too the poet on the other hand is most forgotten the of burns a crew too common in all ranks in scotland and more remarkable for number than discretion eagerly suppress all mention of the lad who handed to him the poetic impulse and up to the time when he grew famous continued to influence him in the hill his manner and the choice of subjects burns himself not only acknowledged his debt in a fragment of but erected a tomb over the grave in churchyard this was worthy of an artist but it was done in vain and although i think i have read nearly all the of burns i cannot remember one in modesty of nature was not ft where was not sacrificed to the ir j s originality there k i admiration that would and bacon into one to have a bigger thing to at and a class of men who cannot one author without all others they are indeed mistaken if they think to please the great and whoever puts right with fame cannot do better than his labours to the memory of burns who will be the best delighted of the dead notes an of all places for a view this hill is perhaps the best since you can see the castle which you lose from the castle and arthur s c om bt seat which you cannot sec from arthur s seat it is the place to stroll on one of those days of sunshine and east wind which are so common in our more than temperate summer the breeze comes off the sea with a little of the the hill freshness and that touch of chill peculiar to the quarter which is delightful to certain very ruddy and greatly the reverse to the majority of mankind it brings with it a faint floating haze a cunning although not thick enough to obscure outlines near at hand but the haze lies more thickly to at the far end of bay and	38
over the links of and and the of the bass rock it the aspect of a bank of thin sea fog immediately underneath upon the south you command the yards of the high school and the towers and courts of the new jail a large place to the extent of folly standing by itself on the edge of a steep cliff and often joyfully hailed by as the castle in the one you may perhaps see female prisoners taking exercise like a string of in the other k picturesque notes on running at play and their shadows keeping step with them from the bottom of the valley a gigantic chimney rises almost to the level of the eye a taller and a edifice than s monument look a little farther and there is palace with its and ruined abbey and the red pacing to and fro before the door like a mechanical figure in a y way of an you can single out the little peak lodge over which s made their escape and where queen mary herself according to gossip bathed in white wine to entertain her loveliness behind and overhead lie the queen s park from s to st margaret s and the long wall of and thence by and rocky and slope the eye rises to the top of arthur s seat a hill for magnitude a mountain in virtue of its bold design this upon tht hill your upon the right the and of the old town climb one above another to where the prints its broad bulk and ed crown of on the western perhaps it is now one in the afternoon and at the same instant of time a ball rises to the summit of s close at hand and away a puff of followed by a report bursts from the half moon battery at the castle this is the time gun by which people set their watches as far as the sea coast or in hill farms upon the picturesque notes on to complete the view the eye princes street black with traffic and has a broad look over the valley between the old town and the new here full of railway trains and stepped over by the high north bridge upon its many columns and there green with trees and gardens on the north the hill is neither so abrupt in itself nor has it so exceptional an outlook and yet even here it commands a striking prospect a it from the new town this is where were burned and held in former days down that almost bank launched his horse and so first as they say attracted the bright eyes of mary it is now with sheets and blankets out to dry and the sound of people beating carpets is rarely absent beyond this the run out to on the sea salt tt the calm hill side with her forest of roads are full of ships at anchor the sun out the white upon island the extends on either hand from the to the may the towns of sit each in its bank of blowing smoke along the opposite coast and the hills the view except to the farthest east where the haze of the horizon rests upon the open sea there lies the road to nor c fc r road for sir and yonder smoke on the s i of law is from whence thej to seek a queen for scotland o may the ladies sit wi their into their hand or ere they see sir come sailing to the land the sight of the sea even from a city will picturesque notes on bring thoughts of storm and sea disaster the sailors wives of and the of not sitting with but crowding to the tail of the harbour with a shawl about their ears may look vainly for brave who will return no more or boats that have gone on their last fishing since sir sailed from what a multitude have gone down in the north sea yonder is where the london went ashore and cut the rings from ladies fingers and a few miles round ness is the fatal now a star of guidance y and the lee shore to the east of the is that coast where for his son these are the main features of the scene roughly how they are all by the inclination of the ground how each stands out in delicate relief against the rest what hill fold detail and play of sun and shadow and the picture is a matter for a person on the spot and turning swiftly on his heels to grasp and bind together in one comprehensive look it is the character of such a prospect to be full of change and of things moving the the eye and the mind among so much suffers itself to grow absorbed with single points you remark a tree in a or follow a cart along a country road you turn to the city and see children by distance into at play about you have a glimpse upon a where people are moving you note ridge after ridge of chimney running one behind another and church rising bravely from the sea of roofs at one of the innumerable windows you watch a figure moving on one of the multitude of roofs you watch picturesque notes on chimney sweeps the wind takes a run and the smoke bells are heard and near faint and loud to tell the hour or perhaps a bird goes dipping over the like a across the waves and here you are in the meantime on this pastoral among sheep and looked upon by buildings return thither on some clear dark night with a ring of frost in the air and only a star or two set in the vault of heaven and you will find a sight as as the summit of the the solitude	38
seems perfect the patient flat on his back under the dome and heaven s secrets is your only neighbour and yet from all round you there come up the dull hum of the city the tramp of countless people marching out of time the rattle of carriages and the continuous keen of the bells the hill an hour or so before the gas was turned on the in every house from kitchen to the windows kindled and gleamed forth into the dusk and so now although the town lies blue and on her hills innumerable spots of the bright element shine far and near along the and upon the high moving lights of the railway pass and re pass below the stationary lights upon the bridge lights burn in the jail lights burn high up in the tall lands and on the castle they burn low down in or along the park they run out one beyond the other into the dark country they walk in a procession down to and shine singly far along pier thus the plan of the city and her is out upon the ground of blackness as when a child a drawing full of and it before a candle not the darkest night of winter can conceal her picturesque notes on high station and fanciful design every evening in the year she proceeds to herself in honour of her own beauty and as if to complete the scheme or rather as if some prodigal were beginning to extend to the adjacent sea and country half way over to there is an of light upon and far to yet another on the may and while you are looking across upon the castle hill the drums and begin to recall the scattered garrison the air with the sound the sing aloud and the last rising flourish and into the darkness like a star a martial swan song in the labours of the day chapter ix winter and new tear t he scotch dialect is singularly rich in terms of reproach against the winter wind and are four of these significant they are all words that carry a shiver with them and for my part as i see them before me on the page i am persuaded that a big wind comes tearing over the from and the northern hills i think i can hear it howl in the chimney and as i set my face feel its kisses on my cheek even in the names of places there is often a desolate sound and i remember two from the near neighbourhood of and weary that would promise but starving picturesque notes on comfort to their inhabitants the of heaven which has thus endowed the language of scotland with words has also largely modified the spirit of its poetry both poverty and a northern climate teach men the love of the hearth and the sentiment of the family and the latter in its own right a poet to the praise of strong waters in scotland all our singers have a or two for blazing fires and stout to get indoors out of the wind and to swallow something hot to the stomach are benefits so easily appreciated where they dwelt and this is not only so in country districts where the shepherd must in the snow all day after his flock but in itself and nowhere more apparently stated than in the works of our poet he was a delicate youth i take it and willingly from the winter to an inn fire winter and new tear side love was absent from his life or only present if you prefer in such a form that even the least serious of burns s was by comparison and so there is nothing to temper the sentiment of which the poor boy s verses although it is characteristic of his native town and the manners of its youth to the present day this spirit has perhaps done something to his popularity he a supper party with something akin to tenderness and sounds the praises of the act of drinking as if it were virtuous or at least witty in itself the kindly jar the warm atmosphere of tavern and the of lawyers clerks do not offer by themselves the materials of a rich existence it was not choice so much as an external fate that kept in this round of sordid pleasures a of poetic temperament and without religious exaltation drops as if by nature l picturesque notes on into the public house the picture may not be pleading but what else is a man to do in this dog s weather to none but those who have themselves suffered the thing in the body can the gloom and depression of our winter be brought home for some there is something almost physically disgusting in the bleak of weather the wind the sickly sky them and they turn back from their walk to avoid the aspect of the sun going down among and pallid mists the days are so short that a man does much of his business and certainly all his pleasure by the haggard glare of gas lamps the roads are as heavy as a people go by so and that i have often wondered how they found the heart to and meantime the wind through the town as if it were an open meadow and new tear and if you lie awake all night you hear it shrieking and overhead with a noise of and of falling houses in a word life is so that there are times when the heart turns sick in a man s inside and the look of a tavern or the thought of the warm fire lit study is like the touch of land to one who has been long struggling with the seas as the weather towards frost the world begins to improve for people we enjoy superb sub	38
with the of the city stamped in upon a sky of luminous green the wind may still be cold but there is a in the air that good blood people do not all look equally sour and downcast they fall into two divisions one the knight of the blue face and hollow whom winter has gotten by the the other well lined with s fare conscious of the touch of cold notes on on his but stepping through it by the glow of his internal fires such an one i remember in whom no extremity of temperature could well would be his jovial salutation here s a and the look of these warm fellows is and their drooping fellow there is yet another class who do not depend on advantages but support the winter in virtue of a brave and merry heart one shivering evening cold enough for frost but with too high a wind and a little past when the lamps were beginning to their circles in the growing dusk a brace of were seen coming eastward in the teeth of the wind if the one was as much as nine the other was certainly not more than seven they were miserably clad and the pavement was so cold you would have thought no one could lay a winter and new tear naked foot on it yet they came along if you please while the elder sang a tune to give them music the person who saw this and whose heart was full of bitterness at the moment a reproof which has been of use to him ever since and which he now hands on with his good wishes to the reader at length with her hills and all the sloping country are up in white if it has happened in the dark hours nurses pluck their children out of bed and run with them to some commanding window whence they may see the change that has been worked upon earth s a the hills are covered wi they sing and winter s come fairly and the children at the silence and the white landscape find a spell appropriate to the season in the words the of the snow in picturesque notes on the pale daylight and brings all objects nearer the eye the are smooth and glittering with here and there the black ribbon of a dry stone and here and there if there be wind a cloud of blowing snow upon a shoulder the seems a leaden creek that a man might almost jump across between well powdered and and the effect is not as in other cities a thing of half a day the streets are soon trodden black but the country keeps its virgin white and you have only to lift your eyes and look over miles of country snow an indescribable cheerfulness breathes about the city and the well fed heart sits lightly and beats gaily in the bosom it is new year s weather new year s day the great national festival is a time of family and of deep sometimes by a sore stroke of fate winter and new tear for this people the year s falls upon a sunday when the are closed when singing and even whistling is banished from our homes and and the oldest feels called upon to go to church thus pulled about as if between two the scotch have to decide many nice cases of conscience and ride the narrowly between the weekly and the annual a party of next door to a friend of mine hung suspended in this manner on the brink of their from ten o clock on sunday night my friend heard them their instruments and as the hour of liberty drew near each must have had his music open his bow in readiness across the fiddle his foot already raised to mark the time and his nerves for execution for hardly had the twelfth stroke sounded from the earliest picturesque notes on before they had launched forth into a loaf is now popular eating in all for weeks before the great morning display of scotch a dense black substance to life and full of adorned with of or sugar in honour of the season and the family affections a new year to ye a for the folk at are among the most favoured of these devices can you not see the after half a day s journey on hill roads draw up before a cottage in or perhaps in among the and the old people receiving the parcel with moist eyes and a prayer for or in the city for at this season on the threshold of another year of calamity and stubborn conflict men feel a need to draw winter and tear closer the links that unite them they reckon the number of their friends like before a war and the prayers grow longer in the morning as the absent are recommended by name into god s keeping on the day itself the shops are all shut as on a sunday only and other holiday magazines keep open doors every one looks for his the and the have left at every house in their districts a copy of verses asking and thanking in a breath and it is characteristic of scotland that these verses may have sometimes a touch of reality in detail or sentiment and a measure of strength in the handling all over the town you may see d to their half crowns there are an of visits to be paid all the world is in the street except the classes the greeting is picturesque notes on heard upon all sides is much in people s mouths and and are articles of consumption from an early hour a stranger will be impressed by the number of drunken men and by afternoon has spread to the women with some classes of society it is as much a	38
on this side with wood and field running high upon their borders and all into innumerable and and with and the air comes briskly and sweetly off the hills pure from the elevation and scented by the plants and even at the toll you may hear the calling on its mate at certain seasons when the desert their the birds of sea and mountain hunt and scream together in the same field by the winged wild things their the the tree tops and fish among the of the plough these little craft of air are at home in all the world so long as they in their own element and like sailors ask but food and water from the shores they coast below over a stream the road passes bow to the hills bridge now a farm but once a of it chanced some time in the past century that the was on terms of good fellowship with the visiting officer of the latter was of an easy friendly disposition and a master of arts now and again he had to walk out of to measure the s stock and although it was agreeable to find his business lead him in a friend s direction it was unfortunate that the friend should be a by his visits accordingly when he got about the level of the would take his without which he never travelled from his pocket fit it together and set to playing as if for his own and inspired by the beauty of the scene his favourite air it seems was over the hills and far away at the first note the pricked his ears a at picturesque notes on and playing over the hills and far away this must be his friendly enemy the instantly horses were and sundry barrels of were got upon a cart driven at a gallop round hill end and buried in the behind in the same breath you may be sure a fat fowl was put to the fire and the prepared for the back parlour a little after the having had his fill of music for the moment came strolling down with the most innocent air imaginable and found the good people at bow bridge taken entirely unawares by his arrival but none the less glad to see him the s liquor and the s would combine to speed the moments of and when both were somewhat mellow they would wind up the evening with over the hills and far away to an accompaniment of knowing glances and at least there is a to the hills story with original and half features a little further the road to the right passes an upright stone in a field the country people call it general s monument according to them an officer of that name had perished there in battle at some indistinct period before the beginning of history the date is for i think cautious writers are silent on the general s exploits but the stone is connected with one of those remarkable of land which linger on into the modern world from whenever the sovereign passes by a certain landed proprietor is held bound to climb on to the top trumpet in hand and sound a flourish according to the measure of his knowledge in that art happily for a respectable family crowned heads have no great business in the hills but the story a character of to pictures notes on the stone and the by will chuckle to himself the district is dear to the superstitious hard by at the back gate of a beheld a lady in white with the most beautiful clear shoes upon her feet who looked upon him in a very ghastly manner and then vanished and just in front is the hunters once a roadside inn and not so long ago haunted by the devil in person satan led the inhabitants a pitiful existence he shook the four corners of the building with lamentable beat at the doors and windows in the dead hours of the morning and danced dances on the roof every kind of spiritual was put in chosen ministers were summoned out of and prayed by the hour pious neighbours sat up all night making a noise of but minded to the hills them no more than the wind about the and it was only after years of persecution that he left the hunters in peace to occupy himself with the remainder of mankind what with general and the white lady and this singular the neighbourhood offers great to the makers of sun and without exactly casting in one s lot with that school of writers one cannot help hearing a good deal of the winter wind in the last story that says burns in one of his happiest moments that a child might understand the had business on his hand and if people sit up all night in lone places on the hills with and tremulous they will be apt to hear some of the most noises in the world the wind will beat on doors and dance upon roofs picturesque notes on for them and make the hills howl around their cottage with a like the judgment day the road goes down through another valley and then finally begins to scale the main slope of the a of old trees stands round a white and from a neighbouring you can see smoke rising and leaves in the breeze straight above the hills climb a thousand feet into the air the neighbourhood about the time of is with the of flocks and you will be awakened in the grey of early summer mornings by the barking of a dog or the voice of a shepherd shouting to the echoes this with the hamlet lying behind unseen is the place in the is immediately connected with the city long ago this sheltered field was purchased by the for the sake of	38
the springs that rise or to the hills gather there after they had built their and laid their pipes it occurred to them that the place was suitable for once entertained with jovial and public funds the idea led speedily to accomplishment and could soon boast of a pleasure house the was turned into a garden and on the that it from the plain and the sea winds they built a cottage looking to the hills they brought and from old st s which they were then restoring and disposed them on the and over the door and about the garden and the which had supplied them with building material they draped with and with beds of roses so much for the pleasure of the eye for creature comfort they made a cellar in the and fitted it with of the stone in process of time picturesque notes on the trees grew higher and gave shade to the cottage and the sprang up and turned the into a thicket there purple relaxed themselves from the pursuit of ambition cocked hats about the garden and in and out among the drew upon the path and at night from high upon the hills a shepherd saw lighted windows through the foliage and heard the voice of city raised in song the farm is older it was first a of abbey and inhabited by rosy thence after the it passed into the hands of a true blue family during the troubles when a night was held upon the the farm doors stood open till the morning j the was laden with cheese and milk and brandy and the to the pent land hills kept slipping down from the hill between two exercises as couples visit the supper room between two dances of a modern ball in the forty five some from prince s army fell upon in the dawn the great grandfather of the late farmer was then a little child him they awakened by the blankets from his bed and he remembered when he was an old man their looks and uncouth speech the stood full of cream in the and with this they made their in high delight it was said one of them at last they made off laden like with their and farm has lain out of the way of history from that time forward i do not know what may be yet in store for it on dark days when the mist runs low upon the hill the house has a gloomy air as if suitable for private tragedy picturesque notes but in hot july you can fancy nothing more perfect than the garden laid out in and and bright old fashioned flower plots and ending in a miniature all and mo s and and from the sun under of broad foliage the hamlet behind is one of the least considerable of and consists of a few cottages on a green beside a burn some of them a strange thing in scotland are models of internal neatness the beds adorned with the shelves arrayed with plates the floors and tables bright with or and the very kettle polished like silver it is the sign of a contented old age in country places where there is little matter for gossip and no street sights becomes an art and at evening when the cottage interior shines and in the glow of the fire the folds to the j her hands and her finished picture the snow and the wind may do their worst she has made herself a pleasant corner in the world the city might be a thousand miles away and yet it was from close by that mr bough painted the distant view of which has been engraved for this collection and you have only to look at the cut to see how near it is at hand but hills and hill people are not easily and if you walk out here on a summer sunday it is as like as not the shepherd may set his dogs upon you but keep an unmoved countenance they look formidable at the charge but their hearts are in the right place and they will only bark and about you on the grass of their master s forms the north eastern angle of the range thence the off to south and west from the summit you picturesque notes on look over a great expanse of sloping to the sea and behold a large variety of distant hills there are the hills of the hills of the and the more or less in outline more or less blue with distance of the themselves you see a field of wild peaks with a pond gleaming in the midst and to that side the view is as desolate as if you were looking into or to turn to the other is like a piece of travel far out in the shows herself making a great smoke on clear days and spreading her about her for miles the castle rises darkly in the midst and close by arthur s seat makes a bold figure in the landscape all around cultivated fields and woods and smoking villages and white country roads the surface of the land trains crawl slowly abroad upon the railway i to the hills lines little ships are in the the shadow of a cloud as large as a parish travels before the wind the wind itself the wood and standing corn and sends of varying colour across the landscape so you sit like upon and look down from afar upon men s life the city is as silent as a city of the dead from all its not a voice not a reaches upon the hill the sea surf the cries of the streams and the mill wheels th r birds and the wind keep up an through the plain from farm to farm dogs and contend together in defiance and	38
while joseph was thus building himself up a reputation among the more cultivated portion of the ignorant his domestic life was suddenly overwhelmed by the death of his younger brother jacob him with the charge of two boys and john and in the course of the same year his family was still further swelled by the addition of a little girl the daughter of john henry esq a gentleman of small property and fewer friends he had met joseph only once at a in but from that experience he returned home to make a new will and his daughter and her fortune to the joseph had a kindly disposition and yet it was not without reluctance that he accepted this new responsibility advertised for a nurse and purchased a second hand and john he made more readily welcome not so much because of the tie of as because the leather business in which he hastened to invest their fortune of thirty thousand pounds had recently exhibited inexplicable symptoms of decline a young but capable was chosen as manager to the enterprise and the cares of business never again afflicted joseph leaving the box his charges in the hands of the capable who was married he began his extensive travels on the continent and in asia minor with a testament in one hand and a in the other he his way among the of eleven european languages the first of these guides is hardly to the purposes of the philosophic traveller and even the second is designed more expressly for the than for the expert in life but he pressed into his service whenever he could get their services for nothing and by one means and another filled many note books with the results of his in these wanderings he spent several years and only returned to england when the increasing age of his charges needed his attention the two lads had been placed in a good but economical school where they had received a sound commercial education which was somewhat awkward as the leather business was by no means in a state to court inquiry in fact when joseph went over his accounts preparatory to his trust he was dismayed to discover that his brother s fortune had not increased by his even by making over to his two wards every penny he had in the world there would still be a of seven thousand eight hundred pounds when these facts were communicated to the two brothers in the presence of a lawyer threatened his uncle with all the terrors of the law and in which was only prevented from taking extreme steps by the advice of the professional man you cannot get blood from a stone observed the lawyer and saw the point and came to terms with his uncle on the one side joseph gave up all that he possessed and assigned to his nephew his interest in the already quite a hopeful speculation on the other agreed to harbor his uncle and miss who had come to grief with the rest and to pay to each of them one pound a month as pocket money the allowance was amply sufficient for the old man it scarce appears how miss contrived to dress upon it but she did and what is more she never complained she was indeed sincerely attached to her guardian he had never been unkind his age spoke for him loudly there was something appealing in his whole quest of knowledge and innocent delight in the smallest mark of admiration and though the lawyer had warned her she was being sacrificed had refused to add to the of uncle joseph in a large dreary house in john street these four dwelt together a family in appearance in reality a financial association and uncle joseph were of course slaves john a gentleman with a taste for the the music hall the gaiety bar and the sporting papers must have been anywhere a secondary figure and the cares and delights of empire entirely upon the box that these are is one of the with which the bland the and the obscure but in the case of the bitter must have largely the sweet he no trouble to himself he spared none to others he called the servants in the morning he served out the stores with his own hand he took of the he numbered the remainder painful scenes took place over the weekly bills and the cook was frequently and the came and with him in the back parlor upon a question of three the superficial might have deemed him a in his own eyes he was simply a man who had been the world owed him seven thousand eight hundred pounds and he intended that the world should pay but it was in his dealings with joseph that s character particularly shone his uncle was a rather gambling stock in which he had invested heavily and he spared no pains in nursing the security the old man was seen monthly by a physician whether he was well or ill his diet his his occasional now to now to were out to him like to in bad weather he must keep the house in good weather by half past nine he must be ready in the hall would see that he had gloves and that his shoes were sound and the pair would start for the leather business arm in arm the way there was m which probably dreary enough for there was no pretence of friendly feeling had never ceased to his guardian with his and to lament the of miss and joseph though he was a mild enough soul regarded his nephew with something very near akin to hatred but the way there was nothing to the journey back for the mere sight of the place of business as well as every detail of its transactions was enough to poison life for	38
any joseph s name was still over the door it was he who still signed the but this was only policy on the part of and designed to other members of the in reality the business was entirely his and he found it an inheritance of sorrows he tried to sell it and the he received were quite he tried to extend it and it was only the he succeeded in extending to it and it was only the profits he managed to nobody had ever made money out of that concern except the capable who retired after his discharge to the neighborhood of and built a castle with his profits the memory of this would daily as he sat in the private office opening his mail with old joseph at another table sullenly awaiting orders or savagely to he knew not what and when the man of the pushed so far as to send him the announcement of his second marriage to eldest daughter of the alexander the wrong box it was really supposed that would have had a fit business hours in the leather trade had been cut to the quick even s strong sense of duty to himself was not strong enough to those walls and under the shadow of that and presently the manager and the clerks would draw a long breath and compose themselves for another day of raw haste on the authority of my lord is half sister to delay but the business habits are certainly her meanwhile the leather merchant would lead his living back to john street like a dog and having there him in the hall would depart for the day on the quest of seal rings the only passion of his life joseph had more than the vanity of man he had that of he owned he was in fault although more against by the capable than but had he his hands in he would still not deserve to be thus dragged at the chariot wheels of a young man to sit a captive in the halls of his own leather business to be entertained with comments oh his whole career to have his costume examined his collar pulled up the presence of his and to be taken out and brought home in like an infant with a nurse at the thought of it his soul would swell with and he would make haste to hang up his hat and coat and the detested and upstairs to and his note books the drawing room at in which m least was sacred from it belonged to the old man and the young girl it was there that she made her dresses it was there that he his spectacles over the of facts and the calculation of insignificant here he would sometimes lament his connection with the if it were not for that he cried one afternoon he would not care to keep me i might be a free man and i could so easily support myself by giving lectures to be sure you could said she and i think it one of the meanest things he ever did to deprive you of that amusement there were those nice people at the isle of cats wasn t it who wrote and asked you so very kindly to give them an address i did think he might have let you go to the isle of cats he is a man of no intelligence cried joseph he lives here literally surrounded by the absorbing spectacle of life and for all the good it does him he might just as well be in his n think of his opportunities the heart of any other young man would bum within him at the chance the amount of information that i have it in my power to convey if he would only listen is a thing that beggars language whatever you do my dear you mustn t excite yourself said for you know if you look at all ill the doctor will be sent for that is very true returned the old man humbly i the box will compose myself with a little he his gallery of note books i wonder he said i wonder since i see your hands are occupied whether it might not interest you why of course it would cried head me one of your nice stories there s a dear he had the volume down and his spectacles upon his nose as though to some possible what i propose to read to you said he through the pages is the notes of a highly important conversation with a dutch of the name of david which is the latin for its results are well worth the money it cost me for as at first appeared somewhat impatient i was induced to what is i believe singularly called stand him drink it runs only to about five and twenty yes here it is he cleared his throat and began to read mr according to his own report contributed about four hundred and ninety nine five of the interview and from literally nothing it was dull for who did not require to listen for the dutch who had to answer it must have been a perfect nightmare it would seem as if he had consoled himself by frequent to the bottle it would even seem that toward the end he had ceased to depend on joseph s generosity and called for the on his own account the effect at least of some in which influence was visible in the record became suddenly a willing witness he began to and had just looked up from her with something like a smile when burst into the house eagerly calling for his uncle and the next instant plunged into the room waving in the air the evening paper it was indeed with great news that he came charged the was announced of lieutenant general sir k o	38

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