United States or Tonga ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
We retreated together to the corridor, and there, with his help, I removed my jangling headgear, which I left him to restore to my chamber. Whilst he went upon that errand I returned once more on mine, and this time I gained the foot of the stairs without mishap, and stood in the hall. Ramiro's back was towards me.
I told him why I asked; I told him what I knew of Ramiro's attentions to Madonna, of the rejection they had suffered, and of the vengeance he had seemed to threaten. Filippo heard me patiently, but when I had done he shook his head.
But the odds are great, eleven of them, all tough fellows, and we but three and two women." Just then Ramiro's voice reached them across the stillness of the water.
He stood at his post by the buffet, and ever and anon he would come forward to replenish Messer Ramiro's cup in obedience to the monsters imperious orders. What fortitude was it, I wondered, that kept the old man outwardly so calm? His face was as the face of one who is dead, its features set and rigid, its colour ashen.
But Adrian thought of it, and even in the midst of his shame and misery wondered with a shiver how long he who was Ramiro's next of kin was likely to adorn this world. Till he had something that was worth inheriting, perhaps.
The executioner made shift to obey him when suddenly Madonna Paola leapt to her feet, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright with a new excitement. "Is there none here," he cried, appealing to Ramiro's officers, "that will draw his sword in the service of his overlord, the Duca Valentino? There stands a traitor, and there one who has proven his loyalty to Cesare Borgia.
"Shall I kill him?" said Martin to Foy, who with Elsa was bending over Adrian. "No," answered Foy grimly, "let him take his trial in Leyden. Oh! what accursed fools were we not to search him!" Ramiro's face turned a shade more ghastly. "It is your hour," he said in a hoarse voice, "you have won, thanks to that dog of a son of mine, who, I trust, may linger long before he dies, as die he must.
Where indeed could she be that Ramiro's men had failed to find her for all that they had scoured that part of the country in which I had left her to wait for my return? What if, by now, worse had befallen her than the capture with which Ramiro's lieutenant was charged? With such doubts as these to haunt me, fretted as I was by my utter inability to take a step in her service, I lay.
In seeking to recover himself he tripped over the feet of one of the halberdiers that guarded me, and measured his length upon the floor at Ramiro's feet, flooding the Governor's legs with the wine he carried. How shall I tell you of the horror that was the sequel? For just one instant Ramiro looked down at the sprawling lad, his eyes glowing like a madman's.
"Here, my son," said he. "Hasten to his Excellency." The lad took the beaker from his father's hands, and trembling in his fear of Ramiro's anger, he sprang forward to serve him. In his haste the poor youth slipped in some grease that had clung to the rushes.
Word Of The Day