United States or Samoa ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I was spared from witnessing this blasphemy; I was then at Sendomir. But the day after I had heard of it, I saw the carriage which contained the good Stanislaus guarded like a traitor's out of the gates, and that very hour I left the city. I made my way to Hamburgh, where I took a passage to Harwich.
The journey had consumed the whole night, but in spite of their fatigue, each member of the party of seven was on his mettle. Now, as Nicolas drew closer, Ivan took a step in advance of the others to greet him. The traitor's face lighted with pleasure as he recognized the big Cossack. "Ah, Ivan," he said, "I am glad to see you." He noticed the others, and a slight frown flitted across his face.
"That these Normans at Winchester were so in the traitor's favor, that the king had to have him out and cut off his head in the gray of the morning, ere folks were up and about; that the fellow was so holy that he past all his time in prison in weeping and praying, and said over the whole Psalter every day, because his mother had taught it him, I wish she had taught him to be an honest man; and that when his head was on the block he said all the Paternoster, as far as 'Lead us not into temptation, and then off went his head; whereon, his head being off, finished the prayer with you know best what comes next, Abbot?"
Had the prelate deemed his vow irrefragable, he would have died the Roman's death, rather than live the traitor's life; and strange indeed was the revolution created in this man's character, that he, "so self-dependent," he who had hitherto deemed himself his sole judge below of cause and action, now felt the whole life of his life committed to the word of a cloistered shaveling.
"But whom do I see here?" said Neville, his eyes suddenly resting upon Sir Kenneth. "A traitor," said the King, starting to his feet, and seizing the curtal-axe, which was ever near his bed "a traitor! whom thou shalt see die a traitor's death." And he drew back the weapon as in act to strike.
Putnam strode about the room, giving vent to his passion in language neither choice nor gentle, for he had been much troubled by spies and informers since he had been there. Then, stopping, he said: "Some one was with you to-night-some of my men. Tell me that traitor's name and I'll spare your life and hang him before the whole army." The prisoner turned pale and dropped his head.
He was so hemmed in by difficulties, that he had no power to act, though he tried hard for it. The villain Jeromio " "I heard of that," interrupted Robin; "Roupall told me all: he met me but a little time past in the Fox Glen; and there, too, I saw the traitor's head, with the ravens feasting on their prey!" "Ah! ah!" exclaimed Dalton, "is that the way Sir Willmott treats his wedding present!
While he was yet uninformed of the traitor's retreat, it served to divert his mind from his own calamity, and to entertain it with another prospect. The brother and sister of his false favourite had no such relief; everything in their history, past and present, gave his delinquency a more afflicting meaning to them.
Then Sir Tristram called to them to leave their traitor's work and look to themselves; with the word, one he pierced through with his spear and the other he cut down, and setting King Arthur again upon his horse, he rode with him until they met with certain of Arthur's knights.
Malcolm touched the horse with his spur and it bounded forward; he parried the blow which Leslie struck at him, and, with a sweeping cut full on the traitor's helmet, struck him to the ground and then dashed onward. A sentry was beginning to shut the gate, and his comrades were running out from the guardhouse as Malcolm galloped up.
Word Of The Day