Herman hurried to the spot where he had stood for his first glimpse
of the grass slope. It was in his mind that he might see Tyndale
more closely, and who could tell whether, in God's mercy, something
might happen whereby he might effect his escape? It was a wild hope,
but he did not set it aside.
He passed the hollow where the horse stood quietly and tiredly, and
reached the place just as Tyndale made his way among the heaps of
pirated merchandise. There were half a score of armed retainers
about him now, and the hope of rescue passed.
Looking out on the river, while Tyndale was kept standing to wait for
further commands, Herman saw the sailors moving away from the spot
where they had been penned in by the soldiers. He heard the sound of
the winch, as they slowly raised the anchor which had been dropped on
Schouts' demand, and before long the sails were bellying in the wind,
and the ship moved up the stream.
A call came on the night air, and the company, of which Tyndale was
the centre, began to move. He came slowly, as though he were ill,
but the soldiers, apparently realising this, suited their pace to
his. Schouts moved up the slope without waiting, but halted close to
where Herman stood, to call back to the men to begin to carry the
spoil to the castle.
Tyndale drew level with Herman's standing spot, and, scarce knowing
why, the young man went in and out among the trees and bushes,
anxious to watch the prisoner. It was a perilous venture, for a
false step might cause him to make some sound, and the captain of
Tyndale's guard, expecting an attack, might send some of his men into
the forest to search. It could scarcely mean less than death if they
found him, and what excuse could he make but this, that, having
occasion to pass on through the forest, he had found his way barred
by the soldiers? They would laugh his explanation to scorn, perhaps,
and run him through with a sword or carry him to one of the dungeons
in the castle.
The castle gate was reached at last. The drawbridge was already
down, but the portcullis had to be raised before any of the party
could pass in. Herman so stood that as the moonlight fell on the
face of the prisoner he saw how he cast a wistful look around him, as
though this might be the last he would ever have beneath God's open
heavens. Hopelessness, too, so Herman thought, was on the tired
man's face, and the traces of bitter disappointment because the work
on which he had been engaged might never be completed.
When Tyndale stood at the drawbridge, waiting for it to be raised,
Herman heard sounds behind him, like the stealthy movements of men,
and felt alarmed for his own safety. But another idea came. Was it
possible that some were approaching with the intention of attempting
Tyndale's rescue? But who would be so mad when, at the clangour of
the castle bell, a hundred armed men would be on the spot?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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