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Then, in deadly truth, she heard Quinton Edge blow his whistle, and the darkness closed in upon her. For the second time the Doomsman raised the pipe to his lips. It slipped from his fingers and fell to the garden-table at his side. As he bent to recover it the subtle, uprising scent of the May-bloom struck him like a blow; a dark flush overspread his brow.
A moment before he had stumbled against a small keg that was rolling about under the feet of the struggling men; this he up-ended and mounted for a better look around. It was true; the Doomsmen were really giving way, and the victory was all but won. Yet not quite, for even as he gazed the onrushing line of the triumphant Stockaders sagged backward at the centre, and the Doomsman yell broke out.
Trust not the roses which your youth enjoyeth, Sisters, to man's faith, changeful as the moon! Beauty to me brought guilt its bloom destroyeth Lo, in the judgment court I curse the boon Tears in the headsman's gaze what tears? 'tis spoken! Quick, bind mine eyes all soon shall be forgot Doomsman the lily hast thou never broken? Pale Doomsman tremble not!
And, peradventure, when, long years afterwards, accusations of witchcraft, wantonness, and treason resounded in the ears of Hastings, and, at the signal of Gloucester, rushed in the armed doomsman, those ominous words echoed back upon his soul! At that very hour the gates of the Tower were thrown open to the multitude.
Did I give these papers to King Edward, the heads of fifty gallant men, whose error is but loyalty to their ancient sovereign, would glut the doomsman; but, he continued, 'I am yet true to my king and his cause; I shall know how to advise Edward to the frustrating all your schemes.
Was he never to stand before him as man to man? "It is just as well," continued the Doomsman, "since there have been other eyes who have kept watch for me. I am not entirely uninformed concerning a romantic adventure of two days ago at the pavilion in the garden. But perhaps on this count the maid may choose to answer for herself, speech being a woman's prerogative, and ofttimes her opportunity."
"This burner of peasants' hayricks, this pitiful plunderer of hen-roosts and cattle byres! If it were a man, now to nail the insult to his lips " "We lose time," interrupted the Doomsman. "I have named my price." "The price ah, yes, the price. Tennant, Constans, you heard what he said. But where is my child? Let the girl stand forth; she is her father's daughter, and she shall answer for herself."
As though satisfied that he had arrived in time, Quinton Edge now slackened his pace, making for the gateway on the side street. Whereupon Constans determined to scale the wall at the rear and take the short cut through the garden, so as to intercept the Doomsman at the entrance. Once over the wall, the way was clear.
In a passage already quoted from Christmas Eve the face of Christ is nobly imagined as the sun which bleaches a discoloured web. Here the poet's imagination is as intense in its presentation of Christ the doomsman: He stood there. Like the smoke Pillared o'er Sodom, when day broke I saw Him.
The Doomsman had ridden in cool defiance up to the very walls of the keep. It would have been an easy matter for one of the garrison to have bored his gay jacket through with a feathered shaft, and for a moment Constans trembled, fearing lest some overzealous partisan should thus rob him of his future vengeance. But the very audacity of the man proved the saving of his skin.
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