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Updated: June 8, 2025
After a while Leonard sat down upon a stool, which he placed close to Juanna's bed, just where the beam of light pierced the shadows, and groaned aloud in the bitterness of his heart. It was over; the pure-hearted martyr, Francisco, was dead, and with him Otter, his faithful friend and servant.
Then a new thought struck him, and he added, "You say that the Deliverer is your husband, Queen, and these men bear witness to it, all except your lord himself! Now tell me one thing more: do you love him and would you be sorry if he died?" Juanna's brow burnt red as the ruby stone upon it, for with the exception of her black robe she was prepared to proceed to the temple.
And now I would sleep." On the following morning at dawn Leonard rose and, accompanied by Francisco, walked into the courtyard. This time the soldiers did not try to stop them, but the priests were still standing in front of Juanna's door, looking like spectres in the grey mist.
"Praise him, children of my father, since but for him none of us would see the light to-day." At this juncture Leonard himself arrived upon the scene, just in time to hear Juanna's words. All the people of the Settlement took up the cry, and hundreds of other natives collected there joined in it. They rushed towards him shouting: "Praise to thee, Shepherd of the Shepherdess!
Very soon they were asleep, for even terror must yield at last to the necessities of rest, and a dense silence reigned over the palace, broken only by the tramp of the sentries without. Once Leonard opened his eyes, hearing something move, and instantly stretched out his hand to assure himself of Juanna's safety. She was there, for in her sleep her fingers closed instinctively upon his own.
When Leonard was ready they adjourned to Juanna's room, where breakfast was prepared for them. Here they found Otter, looking somewhat disturbed. "Baas, Baas," he said, "they have come and will not go away!" "Who?" asked Leonard. "The woman, Baas: she who was given to me to wife, and many other women her servants with her. There are more than twenty of them outside, Baas, and all of them very big.
From that hour till a certain conversation opened his eyes, struggle as he would against it, Leonard disliked Francisco. He had a foolish British aversion to his class, and Juanna's marked partiality towards this particular individual did not lessen it in this instance.
At the instant when he saw her she was in the act of springing back from the breech of the gun, the lanyard in her hand. Then came the roar of the shot and the shriek of the smitten. "Wow!" said Otter, "the old woman has not been idle. She is clever as a man, that one." Another minute and they were helping to reload the piece, that is, except Soa, who was on her knees kissing Juanna's hands.
I do not believe that men forget their first loves, Leonard, though they may persuade themselves to the contrary when they are a long way from them." "Don't you think that we might drop Jane, dear?" he answered with some impatience, for Juanna's words brought back to his mind visions of another love-scene that had taken place amid the English snows more than seven years before.
"So that is how it is done," thought Leonard to himself, turning his head to watch the process, no detail of which escaped him. Otter, who had followed Leonard from Juanna's chamber, saw them go, though from some little distance, for, like a cat, the dwarf could see in the dark. When the rock had closed again, he returned to Francisco, who sat upon the bed lost in prayer or thought.
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