Lysbeth, a Tale of the DutchHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
History
Lysbeth, a Tale of the Dutch
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Netherlands -- History -- House of Habsburg, 1477-1556 -- Fiction
Even in that light, however, Martin saw that the wrist was cut and
swollen. He saw it, and because of that tender, merciful hand he
registered an oath about priests and Spaniards, which, as it chanced,
he lived to keep very thoroughly. Also, he paused awhile wondering
whether if all this was of any good, wondering if it would not be best
to let Foy die at once, or even to kill him.
“What are you thinking about, sir?” asked the lady on the other side of
the bars.
“I am thinking,” answered Martin, “that perhaps my young master here
would be better dead, and that I am a fool to stop the bleeding.”
“No, no,” said the sweet voice, “do your utmost and leave the rest to
God. It pleases God that I should die, which matters little as I am but
a weak girl; it may please Him that this young man shall live to be of
service to his country and his faith. I say, bind up his wounds, good
sir.”
“Perhaps you are right,” answered Martin. “Who knows, there’s a key to
every lock, if only it can be found.” Then he set to work upon Foy’s
wounds, binding them round with strips of the girl’s garment dipped in
water, and when he had done the best he could he clothed him again,
even to the chain shirt.
“Are you not hurt yourself?” asked the voice presently.
“A little, nothing to speak of; a few cuts and bruises, that’s all;
this bull’s hide turned their swords.”
“Tell me whom you have been fighting,” she said.
So, to while away the time while Foy still lay senseless, Martin told
her the story of the attack upon the shot tower, of how they had driven
the Spaniards down the ladder, of how they had drenched them with
molten lead, and of their last stand in the courtyard when they were
forced from the burning building.
“Oh! what a fearful fight—two against so many,” said the voice with a
ring of admiration in it.
“Yes,” answered Martin, “it was a good fight—the hottest that ever I
was in. For myself I don’t much care, for they’ve paid a price for my
carcase. I didn’t tell you, did I, that the mob set on them as they
haled us here and pulled four wounded men and those who carried them to
bits? Oh! yes, they have paid a price, a very good price for a Frisian
boor and a Leyden burgher.”
“God pardon their souls,” murmured the unknown.
“That’s as He likes,” said Martin, “and no affair of mine; I had only
to do with their bodies and—” At this moment Foy groaned, sat up and
asked for something to drink.
Martin gave him water from the pitcher.
“Where am I?” he asked, and he told him.
“Martin, old fellow,” said Foy in an uncertain voice, “we are in a very
bad way, but as we have lived through this”—here his characteristic
hopefulness asserted itself—“I believe, I believe that we shall live
through the rest.”
“Yes, young sir,” echoed the thin, faint notes out of the darkness
beyond the bars, “I believe, too, that you will live through the rest,
and I am praying that it may be so.”
“Who is that?” asked Foy drowsily.
“Another prisoner,” answered Martin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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