Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 5, 2025
Think ye that the fear of all the water in James River will awe me to silence?" "No, by the mass, it will not," answered his companion. "Lawrence Evans, unholy papist, do not touch me!" "I am not a papist." "Come, Ann Linkon, let us have this execution done with," put in Joshua, dragging the woman along. The scene was now ridiculous enough to excite the laughter of even the gravest Puritans.
It was quite evident that he was making some request which the sheriff would not grant, for he shook his head in a very emphatic manner, and those nearest heard the official answer: "No, no, the judgment of the court, the judgment of the court." Dame Woodley, turning to a matron near, whispered: "Sarah Drummond, there is John Stevens, the husband of the woman who had Ann Linkon adjudged.
Silly John Stevens yielded to his wife and consented to set apart for luxuries some of the small amount he was to leave. Mrs. Stevens was born to squander. Ann Linkon had said of her: "She could cast from the window more than the good husband could throw in at the door." But Ann was adjudged of slander, and ducked for the charge. John paid his mother a visit before departing.
"Good wives," said a hard-featured dame of fifty, "I will tell you a piece of my mind. It would be greatly for the public behoof, if we women being of mature age and church members in good repute like Ann Linkon might speak our minds of such baggage as Dorothe Stevens without being adjudged and sent to the ducking-stool as she is to be done.
Again Stevens was seen talking with the sheriff; but he shook his head with the inexorable: "The judgment of the court the judgment of the court." Stevens turned away with a look of disappointment on his face. The sight of him seemed to increase the anger of Ann Linkon, and she railed and struggled until, exhausted, she panted for breath.
All the while, Ann Linkon had been struggling with her executioners; but now, helpless and exhausted, she was bound in the chair. The sheriff, who was a humane man as well as a stern official, remonstrated with her. "Ann Linkon, do not so exert and heat yourself, or else when you be plunged into the water you will take your death." "Death! Take my death!
The pond and ducking-stool were in sight, and Ann Linkon, with a persistence and strength that was marvellous, began to pull back, and when she had set her heels firmly in the ground it required the united strength of both guards to move her. "I won't go! I won't be ducked! I won't! I won't!" she screamed at the top of her voice.
"Nay, Ann, bright flower of loveliness, you shall have a soft seat." "Shame on you, Joshua, to drag an old woman like me by the arm." "Marry! I am not dragging you, dame Linkon. Your heels do stick like a ploughshare in the ground."
"Duty; but such a duty!" She still braced her heels against the ground, and it required all the strength of her guards to push and pull her along. "Verily, I say such a duty," answered Joshua, on whose grave features there came a smile. "Dame Linkon, if you would limber your joints we could make more speed." "I am in no hurry," she answered.
Oh, how Ann did scold and rave, and it was a merry sight to see her plunged beneath the water." The stranger asked some questions about Ann Linkon and was informed that she had died several years before. "But to the last," the narrator resumed, "she hated Dorothe Stevens. She rejoiced when poverty assailed her, brought on by her own extravagance, after her husband had gone away.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking