United States or Gabon ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
For the dare-devil Welshman, much to the Earl's regret, persisted in running up and down the trenches "with a great plume of feathers in his gilt morion," and in otherwise making a very conspicuous mark of himself "within pointblank of a caliver." Notwithstanding these mishaps, however, the siege went successfully forward.
Alwyn found it hard to resist the charm of the earl's manner and voice; but, convinced in his own mind that the age was against Warwick, and that commerce and London would be little advantaged by the earl's rule, the trading spirit prevailed in his breast. "Gracious my lord," he said, bending his knee in no servile homage, "he who befriends my order, commands me."
So speaking, he shook back his surcoat, drew his cap over his brow, and passed to the broad stairs, at the foot of which fifty rowers, with their badges on their shoulders, waited in the huge barge, gilt richly at prow and stern, and with an awning of silk, wrought with the earl's arms and cognizance.
But he is certainly not married, for the dame is akin to him within the degrees of the Church." "Hem, not married! that is well; and this Algar, or Elgar, he is not now with the Welch, I hear." "No; sore ill at Chester with wounds and much chafing, for he hath sense to see that his cause is lost. The Norwegian fleet have been scattered over the seas by the Earl's ships, like birds in a storm.
He has cultivated his fields so as to bear rich crops of every kind, and he has made an excellent kitchen-garden, with a hot-house. I had never seen any of the family: but there had been a card of invitation written by the honourable Charles Boyd, the earl's brother.
Then I said, speaking my thoughts: "I must go west into Wessex with the earl's ships, and I have more partings to come therefore." She made no answer at once, and I thought that none was needed; but when she spoke again her voice was graver than before. "You would be near our king if possible by doing so?" "That is my thought," I answered.
The night before the earl's departure on the solitary expedition to which she condemned him, he surprised her with a visit of farewell, so that he need not disturb her in the early morning, he said. She was reading beside her open jewel-box, and she closed it with the delicate touch of a hand turned backward while listening to him, with no sign of nervousness.
In latter days, since the late Earl's death, when there came upon him, as the first of his troubles, the necessity of setting aside that madman's will, Mr. Flick had been his chief counsellor; and yet in all his communications with Mr. Flick he had assumed to be his own guide and master. Now it seemed that he must in truth guide himself, but he knew not how to do it. Of one thing he felt certain.
On the other hand, there was Yvonne. His reason revolted against the idea of that sweet girl being a party to any such conspiracy. No, probably it was only the Earl's unfortunate manner. Perhaps he suffered from some muscular weakness of the face which made him smile like that. Nevertheless, he certainly wished that he had not allowed himself to be deprived of his sword and armour.
"I may not believe that," said she; "else why should you carry it?" "I do so," said he, "because it was so my fathers did in the ancient ages; and I have neither a better reason nor a worse." Now the Earl's daughter could not find it in her mind to believe him. "Come," quoth she, "sell me this, for I am sure it is a thing of price." "Nay," said the man, "the thing is not for sale."
Word Of The Day