A Ladder of Swords: A Tale of Love, Laughter and TearsParker, Gilbert
History
A Ladder of Swords: A Tale of Love, Laughter and Tears
Parker, Gilbert
Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction; Huguenots -- Fiction; Jersey (Channel Islands) -- Fiction
There was no parish in Jersey that did not know their goodness, but
mostly in the parishes of St. Martin’s and Rozel were their faithful
labors done. From all parts of the island people came to hear Michel
speak, though that was but seldom; and when he spoke he always wore
the sword the Queen had given him and used the Book he had studied in
her palace. It was to their home that Buonespoir the pirate--faithful
to his promise to the Queen that he would harry English ships no
more--came wounded, after an engagement with a French boat sent to
capture him, carried thither by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It
was there he died, after having drunk a bottle of St. Ouen’s
muscadella, brought secretly to him by his unchanging friend
Lemprière, so hastening the end.
The Comtesse de Montgomery, who lived in a cottage near by, came
constantly to the little house on the hill-side by Rozel Bay. She had
never loved her own children more than she did the brown-haired child
with the deep-blue eyes which was the one pledge of the great
happiness of Michel and Angèle.
Soon after this child was born M. Aubert had been put to rest in St.
Martin’s churchyard, and there his tombstone might be seen so late as
a hundred years ago. So things went softly by for seven years, and
then Madame de Montgomery journeyed to England, on invitation of the
Queen and to better fortune, and Angèle and De la Forêt were left to
their quiet life in Jersey. Sometimes this quiet was broken by bitter
news from France of fresh persecution and fresh struggle on the part
of the Huguenots. Thereafter for hours, sometimes for days, De la
Forêt would be lost in sorrowful and restless meditation; and then he
fretted against his peaceful calling and his uneventful life. But the
gracious hand of his wife and the eyes of his child led him back to
cheerful ways again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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