Arab countries -- Fiction; Crusades -- Fiction; Great Britain -- History -- Medieval period, 1066-1485 -- Fiction
As he spoke Wulf heard a sound behind him, and of a sudden Godwin threw
up his arms and sank to his knees. Round he sprang, and there upon his
feet stood that man whom they had thought dead, and in his hand a
bloody sword. At him leapt Wulf, and so fierce were the blows he smote
that the first severed his sword arm and the second shore through cloak
and mail deep into the thief’s side; so that this time he fell, never
to stir again. Then he looked at his brother and saw that the blood was
running down his face and blinding him.
“Save yourself, Wulf, for I am sped,” murmured Godwin.
“Nay, or you could not speak.” And he cast his arm round him and kissed
him on the brow.
Then a thought came into his mind, and lifting Godwin as though he were
a child, he ran back to where the horses stood, and heaved him onto the
saddle.
“Hold fast!” he cried, “by mane and pommel. Keep your mind, and hold
fast, and I will save you yet.”
Passing the reins over his left arm, Wulf leapt upon the back of his
own horse, and turned it. Ten seconds more, and the pirates, who were
gathering with the oars where the paths joined at the root of the
causeway, saw the two great horses thundering down upon them. On one a
sore wounded man, his bright hair dabbled with blood, his hands
gripping mane and saddle, and on the other the warrior Wulf, with
starting eyes and a face like the face of a flame, shaking his red
sword, and for the second time that day shouting aloud: “_A D’Arcy! a
D’Arcy! Contre D’Arcy, contre Mort!_”
They saw, they shouted, they massed themselves together and held up the
oars to meet them. But Wulf spurred fiercely, and, short as was the
way, the heavy horses, trained to tourney, gathered their speed. Now
they were on them. The oars were swept aside like reeds; all round them
flashed the swords, and Wulf felt that he was hurt, he knew not where.
But his sword flashed also, one blow—there was no time for more—yet the
man beneath it sank like an empty sack.
By St. Peter! They were through, and Godwin still swayed upon the
saddle, and yonder, nearing the further shore, the grey horse with its
burden still battled in the tide. They were through! they were through!
while to Wulf’s eyes the air swam red, and the earth seemed as though
it rose up to meet them, and everywhere was flaming fire.
But the shouts had died away behind them, and the only sound was the
sound of the galloping of their horses’ hoofs. Then that also grew
faint and died away, and silence and darkness fell upon the mind of
Wulf.
Chapter II.
Sir Andrew D’Arcy
Godwin dreamed that he was dead, and that beneath him floated the
world, a glowing ball, while he was borne to and fro through the
blackness, stretched upon a couch of ebony. There were bright watchers
by his couch also, watchers twain, and he knew them for his guardian
angels, given him at birth. Moreover, now and again presences would
come and question the watchers who sat at his head and foot. One asked:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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