"Come back!" the Dean exclaimed, fearful lest this man might do
something yet more rash, if he had not already betrayed their
presence by his mad gestures. "You do not know this robber lord. He
would flout you or the Lord Cardinal, anything and anybody that
belongs to the Church, as readily as he would beat down one of his
own soldiers who dared to disobey him!"
The Dean stepped forward, and, with a strong grip on the Churchman's
arm, drew him away forcibly among the trees.
"I pray God we were not seen," Herman heard the Dean say.
What Cochlaeus and his companions did after that Herman could not
tell, but as time went on, and he heard no sound to indicate their
presence, and saw no more of them, he concluded that they had gone
back.
Convinced that this was so, he watched for Tyndale, wondering whether
the robber lord would only concern himself with booty and let the men
on board alone.
The boats went to and fro, until the _Marburg's_ hold must have been
emptied of all that was worth carrying away; and now Herman was eager
to know what would follow. The man whose body had been hanging over
the handrail began to revive, and he staggered over to a coil of rope
on which he sat with evident pain. He was apparently waiting for the
worst. The moonlight falling on the face made Herman aware that it
was the captain of the ship.
Someone went to him--a tall man, clothed in the garb of a nobleman,
and giving one the impression of immensity. He must have been
Schouts, the predatory lord of whom the Dean had spoken. The captain
lifted his face as if to answer a question, and it was crumpled and
lined with pain, and ghostly in its paleness; and even while Schouts
was speaking, he fell sideways, and lay on the deck like one who was
dead.
The other swung round on his heel after gazing at the prostrate man
for a few moments, and, tramping along the deck, moved down the
ladder into the waist of the _Marburg_. Before many minutes had
passed a man's loud voice rang out, and the soldiers on board began
to search in obscure places for something.
Were they looking for Tyndale?
The unspoken question was answered quickly. Two men came along the
lower deck, and between them walked a bearded man.
It was William Tyndale.
He did not walk cravenly, although he moved slowly and with bowed
head. The soldiers, with their swords drawn, took him to Schouts,
whose weapon-point rested on the deck. Something was said, although
Herman heard no sound of voices, and the robber lord, turning his
back on his prisoner, walked to the ship's side, the prisoner
following. One by one the men came down the rope-ladder into a boat,
Schouts first, then Tyndale, and after him the two soldiers. As soon
as they were seated, the boat was pulled to the landing-place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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