Sir Ludar: A Story of the Days of the Great Queen BessReed, Talbot Baines
History
Sir Ludar: A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess
Reed, Talbot Baines
Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Juvenile fiction
I was well out of temper by this time, and, but that he looked so
miserable and ill-fed, I would have rattled his bones a bit. At last:
"That cloak," said he, coming up to me, "contained papers sent by your
master to me; which, if they be found on any one's person, mean Tyburn.
Do you understand that?"
"Yes," said I, beginning to see the drift of his coil, "and if you had
told me so at first, I had been half-way back to get it by this time.
Heaven is my witness, you are welcome to the cloak if that is what it
contains; and I doubt not my friend will give it up to do you a
pleasure."
"Hasten!" cried he, with tears of vexation in his eyes, "there is not a
moment to be lost--nay, I will go with you. Where did you leave it?
Come!"
"Nay," said I, remembering it for the first time, "I am not very sure
where it was. 'Twas at a river-side inn, about four miles from here."
"And who is your friend? Is he a true man?"
"I know not that either," said I. "He is a valiant man, and hath a dirk
at his girdle; and I pity the man who tries to take the cloak from him
by force."
Master Penry made another speech to himself in Welsh.
"Fool!" exclaimed he, half blubbering. "This precious missive you leave
at an inn you know not where; with a man you know not whom; and yet your
master speaks of you as a trusty lad. Bah! Lead on!"
I swallowed my wrath and obeyed him. He stalked impatiently at my side,
saying nothing, but urging me forward so that I could scarcely keep pace
with him. I was in luck, in one way, to have his escort; for as I came
near the East Bridge, there lurked not a few of the townsmen who had
been in the fight when I assaulted the Mayor. Seeing me with Master
Penry, who, I suppose, was a man of some standing, they did not look
twice at me; else I might have been caught, and put to rest my limbs in
the cage. When we had crossed the bridge, and were in the country, my
companion suddenly stopped.
"This friend of yours," said he, "with the dirk in his girdle. Was he a
scholar?"
"He lent me this gown," said I.
"An Irishman?"
"I know not. He spoke good English, with a foreign trip of the tongue."
"A great big boy, with wild fair hair, and hands that never are still?"
"The very man. You know him?"
"Do I know him? For two months I have endured the pains of the lost
through him. A wild, untameable savage, subject to no laws, a heathen,
a butcher, a scoffer at things holy, an idler, a highwayman, a traitor,
a rebel, an Irish Papist wolf-hound! Do I know my own pupil? And--oh
my God!--is it he who has the coat? Oh, we are doubly lost! Knaves,
fools, all conspire to ruin us!"
I let him run on, for he was like one demented. But you may suppose I
opened my eyes as I heard this brave character of my new friend.
"Your pupil, is he?" said I at last; "then I counsel you to stay where
you are; for he will assuredly eat you alive if he gets you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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