Lord Montagu's Page: An Historical RomanceJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
History
Lord Montagu's Page: An Historical Romance
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
France -- History -- Louis XIII, 1610-1643 -- Fiction
rising again, and held out the thickest end of my rod to him. It was
barely within his reach; but he grasped it with one hand so sharply as
almost to pull me over into the pool with him. I got my feet between two
large masses of stone, however, and pulled hard, drawing him toward me
till he could get hold of the rock with his hands. His safety was then
easily insured; and I only remarked two things peculiar in his demeanor:
one was, that he never thanked me; and the other, that in all the
struggle he had contrived to retain his fishing-rod.
"'Can you not swim?' he asked, as soon as we had both reached the bank.
I answered in the negative, and he added, 'Learn to swim. Please God, it
may save your life some day. Learn to swim.' I offered to take him up to
the parsonage that he might dry his clothes; but he refused, not very
civilly; and then he asked my name, looking me very steadily in the
face, without the slightest expression of gratitude for the aid I had
rendered him, and no trace of either agitation or trouble from the
danger he had run. 'You have kept your rod,' I said, 'but you have
broken your line.'
"'I never let go my hold,' he answered; 'but, as you say, I have broken
my line and lost my fish. Are you Sir Richard Langdale's son, the man up
at Buckley?' I answered that I was, and in a few minutes after we
parted. I did not forget his advice, however, for a part of every day
during that summer I passed in the water, learning and practising the
art of swimming, till none could swim better or longer. I have never
seen that man since; but he has fully repaid my service by inducing me
to learn that which has more than once been of great service to me.
"It was the month of October before I once more visited Buckley; and
then my father sent for me. I found the same young man still there whom
I had seen on my former visit; but now my father removed all doubt of
who he was, by saying, 'Edward, it is time that you should know that
this is your brother Richard,--your elder brother.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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