Darnley; or, The Field of the Cloth of GoldJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
History
Darnley; or, The Field of the Cloth of Gold
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Great Britain -- History -- Henry VIII, 1509-1547 -- Fiction; Henry VIII, King of England, 1491-1547 -- Fiction
"Silence!" said Sir Payan; "again I say, silence! My good Richard, I
assure you, you shall be satisfied. Clerk, swear Wilson to the
depositions he made. Oh! here is the Portingallo. Captain, is that the
man you remember having seen in Cornwall when you were last there?"
"Yes, yes, el Pero! that was himself!" cried the captain; "I sawed him
at the ale-house at Penzance with my own eye, when I went to fetch the
cargo of coal."
"You mean of tin, captain," said Sir Payan.
"Yes, yes, of ten," replied the Portuguese. "It was just ten, I
remember."
Sir Osborne's patience was exhausted.
"Vagabond! thief!" cried he, "do you remember my scourging you with
the stirrup-leathers in Flanders, till there was not an inch of skin
upon your back?"
"Yes, yes, that was your turn," said the captain; "I scourge you now."
"Remark what he says," cried Sir Osborne, to those who stood round,
"and all of you bear witness in case----"
"Prisoner, you stand committed," cried Sir Payan, in a loud voice.
"Take him away! Suffer him not to speak! Richard Heartley, place him
in the strong-room at the foot of the stair-case, and having locked
the door, keep guard over him. Captain, stay you with me; all the
rest, go."
The commands of Sir Payan were instantly obeyed; and the room being
cleared, he pressed his hands before his eyes, and thought deeply for
some moments.
"He is mine!" cried he at length, "he is mine! And shall I let him out
of my own hands now that I have him, when 'twould be so easy to
furnish him with a hook and a halter wherewith to hang himself, as the
good chaplain and John Bellringer did to the heretic Hun, in the
Lollards' Tower last year? But no, that is too fresh in the minds of
men, and too many suspicions are already busy. So, my captain--I
forgot. Sit down, my good captain. I am, as we agreed, about to give
this young man into your hands to take to Cornwall. Why do you laugh?"
"He! he! Cornwall," cried the captain; "I do not go in Cornwall."
"Nay, some time in your life you will probably voyage to Cornwall as
well as to other lands," said Sir Payan. "Now, 'tis the same to me
whether you take him there now or a hundred years hence: you may carry
him all over the world if you will, and drop him at the antipodes."
"I understand, I understand," replied the Portingal; "you have much
need to get rid of him, and you give him to me. Well, I will take your
present, if you give me two hundred golden angels with him." Sir Payan
nodded assent. "But let me understand quite all well," continued the
captain: "you want me to take him to Cornwall. There is one Cornwall
at the bottom of the sea; do you mean that?"
"'Twere fully as good as the other," said Sir Payan, "if the journey
were short, and the conveyance sure."
"Two cannon-shot will make it a quick passage," replied the captain;
"but they must be made of gold, my good worship."
"Why of gold?" demanded Sir Payan. "Oh! I catch your meaning. But you
grow exorbitant."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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