Hugh Gwyeth: A Roundhead CavalierDix, Beulah Marie
History
Hugh Gwyeth: A Roundhead Cavalier
Dix, Beulah Marie
Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649 -- Fiction
“If there be a drop of water in the place, fetch it,” Captain Gwyeth
bade; and a moment later Hugh’s head was lifted up and a cup set to his
lips. It was brackish water, and very little at that; he swallowed it
with one gulp, and opened his eyes to look for more. “Nay, that’s the
last,” the captain spoke out. “’Tis an ill lodging you have taken with
us. I would to God you were elsewhere!”
With the scant power of his returning strength, Hugh tried to move clear
of the arm that was about him. “I had hoped, this time, you would not be
sorry to see me,” he broke out, in a voice that quavered in spite of
himself.
He heard the captain give a sharp order to Ridydale to be off, and he
felt it was to save the dignity which had almost slipped from him. He
put his head down on the captain’s shoulder again. “Father, you are glad
to have me, after all,” he said softly.
He felt the sudden tension of the arm that drew him closer, though when
Captain Gwyeth spoke, his tone was of the driest: “After the trouble
I’ve had to get hold of you, do you not think ’tis reasonable I should
be glad?” Then he cut short all response with a hasty: “Lie you down
here now and be quiet. You’ve been knocked just enough for you to make a
fool of yourself if you try to talk.”
Hugh grinned weakly, and suffered his father to put him down with his
head upon a folded cloak. “I’ll send Ridydale to have an eye to you,”
the captain said in a low tone, “and if anything happens, I’ll be near.”
Then he rose and tramped away down the nave of the church, but Hugh,
watching him through half-shut eyes, saw him halt to glance back.
After that Hugh lay a long time in a heavy, half-waking state, where he
listened to the slow pacing up and down of those about him who kept
guard, and to the quicker step of men who, on other errands, hastened
across the reëchoing church; he heard men shout orders across the aisles
or nearer to him speak in curt monosyllables; and he heard, too, all the
time, the labored groaning of one who must lie somewhere near. Then
there were moments when, losing all sounds, he drifted off into an
unknown world, where he lived over again the happenings of the last
hours, and struggled in the water of the Arrow, and fought Oldesworth’s
troopers, and made the last run through the churchyard under the
Roundhead fire.
It was a relief to come back to consciousness and find himself lying
comfortably on the floor of the choir with the dark roof far above him.
A glint of purple sunlight from a broken window wavered on the ground
beside him, and, forcing his mind to follow one train of thought, he
contrived at last to reason out that it must be past noon. Pulling
himself up on his sound arm, he tried to look about the church, but the
effort made his head ache so he was glad to lie down. But he had got
sight of Ridydale, who stood on a bench beneath one of the tall windows
in speech with a trooper, and after a moment’s rest he called the
corporal by name.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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