United States or Mali ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Secondly, my friend, under my new names, various as they are, Jackson and Howard, Russell and Pigwiggin, Villiers and Gotobed, Cavendish and Solomons, you may well suppose that the good persons in the neighbourhood of Thames Court have no suspicion that the adventurous and accomplished ruffler, at present captain of this district, under the new appellation of Lovett, is in reality no other than the obscure and surnameless Paul of the Mug.
"But I had met you," said he, "long ago." "What!" she cried, and her eyes danced. "You actually remember?" "Yes; do you?" he answered. "I stood in Jones's field and heard you singing, and I remembered. It was a long time since I had heard you sing: "'I was a ruffler of Flanders, And fought for a florin's hire. You were the dame of my captain And sang to my heart's desire.
As bold and dominant as any ruffler of them all where men and perils were concerned, young Everard was timid, bashful and without assertiveness with women. He had withdrawn from the contest ere it was well lost, leaving an easy victory to his friend. And how had that friend used it? Most foully, as you shall learn. Leaving Rotherby in Normandy, Everard had returned to Paris.
His doublet and trunks were of rich material, but faded and threadbare, and their gold-lace adornments were sadly tarnished; his ruff was rumpled and damaged; the plume in his slouched hat was broken and had a bedraggled and disreputable look; at his side he wore a long rapier in a rusty iron sheath; his swaggering carriage marked him at once as a ruffler of the camp.
THOU? An' I get my hands upon thee " "Tut-tut!" said the burley Ruffler, interposing in time to save the King, and emphasising this service by knocking Hobbs down with his fist, "hast respect for neither Kings NOR Rufflers? An' thou insult my presence so again, I'll hang thee up myself."
This also served to increase the hardships of the prisoner's lot, and he now found himself deprived of the former companionship of his friends and surrounded by strangers, the one familiar face remaining being that of Lieutenant Bach, a Danish officer, a braggart swordsman and ruffler, who had always been hostile to him.
Tell me, was it not this very Sir Henry Lee, who, by the force of his buffcoats and his greenjerkins, enforced the Papist Laie's order to remove the altar to the eastern end of the church at Woodstock? and did not he swear by his beard, that he would hang in the very street of Woodstock whoever should deny to drink the King's health? and is not his hand red with the blood of the saints? and hath there been a ruffler in the field for prelacy and high prerogative more unmitigable or fiercer?"
It ran thus: A tumbler of blue ruin, fill, fill for me! Red tape those as likes it may drain; But whatever the lush, it a bumper must be, If we ne'er drinks a bumper again! Now now in the crib, where a ruffler may lie, Without fear that the traps should distress him, With a drop in the mouth, and a drop in the eye, Here's to Gentleman George, God bless him! God bless him, God bless him!
"Oh! she said that he must be tall, and under forty, fair-haired and bearded, since she loved not these shaven effeminates, who look half woman and half priest; one who had known war, and yet was no ruffler; a person of open mind, who had learnt and could learn more. Well, now that I think of it, by all the Saints! yes, much such a man as you are, Olaf."
"Lie still, you scorpion!" growled the ruffler, breathing hard from his exertions. He rose, took the shaft with the letter tied about it, read the superscription "To the High and Mighty Lord Gian Maria Sforza" and with a chuckle of mingled relish and scorn, he was gone, locking the door.
Word Of The Day