United States -- History -- Constitutional period, 1789-1809 -- Fiction
Alone in the little room, he straightened, mechanically, the objects
upon the table, paced for a time or two the narrow, cell-like place,
then went out again upon the porch and stood with his hands on the
railing, and his eyes raised to the white moon, full and serene in the
cloudless night. "For without," he said, "are dogs and sorcerers and
murderers and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." He stood for a long
while without movement, but at last let fall his hands, turned, and went
indoors. When, a little later, he threw himself upon his bed and drew
his hand across his eyes, he found that it was wet with tears. He spoke
aloud, though hardly above his breath. "No, Ludwell, no! In this sole
thing I am right. It is not revenge. I am not vindictive, I am not
revengeful. This is justice, and I can no other than pursue it. It will
not grieve you where you are." He turned and buried his face in the
pillow. "O brother--O friend--"
The emotion passed and he lay staring at the ceiling, reconstructing
midday of September the seventh beside Indian Run.
CHAPTER XXXIX
UNITY AND JACQUELINE
The library at Fontenoy lay west and north. In the afternoon the sun
struck through the windows and through the glass door, brightening the
tall clock-face, the faint gilt and brown of old books, and the portrait
of Henry Churchill with the swords crossed beneath. Upon the forenoon in
question, and even though the month was May, the room looked a sombre
place, chill and dusk, shaded and grave as a hermit's cell.
In the great chair upon the hearth sat Colonel Churchill, somewhat bowed
together and with his hand over his eyes. By the window stood Major
Edward, very upright, very meagre, soldierly, and grey. The northern
light was upon him; with his pinned-up sleeve and lifted head he looked
a figure of old defeats and indomitable mind. From the middle of the
room Fairfax Cary faced both the Churchills.
In his dark riding-dress, standing with his gloved hand upon the table,
he gave in look and attitude a suggestion of formality, a subtle
conveyance of determination. He had been speaking, and now, after an
interruption from one of the brothers, he continued. "That was two weeks
ago. I have it clear, and I have my witness. The murderer, leaving the
body of my brother beside Indian Run, turned his horse, and, at a point
just east of the rock where grows the mountain ash, he quitted the road
for the mountain-side. It is desperate riding over that ridge, but he
made it as, two weeks ago, I made it, and he came out, as I came out,
upon the high bank above the main road, a few yards below the blasted
oak. That, Colonel Churchill, is what he did, and what a jury shall see
that he did."
Colonel Dick let fall his hand. "Fair, Fair, I never gainsaid that he
was a villain--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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