Great Britain -- History -- James III, 1701-1766 -- Fiction
Heavily, mechanically, Rotherby got to his feet. Now that the fit of
rage was over, he was himself all stricken at the thing he had done. He
looked at the limp figure on the turf, huddled against the knee of Major
Gascoigne; looked at the white face, the closed eyes and the stain of
blood oozing farther and farther across the Holland shirt, and, as white
himself as the stricken man, he shuddered and his mouth was drawn wide
with horror.
But pitiful though he looked, he inspired no pity in the Duke of
Wharton, who considered him with an eye of unspeakable severity. “If Mr.
Caryll dies,” said he coldly, “I shall see to it that you hang, my lord.
I'll not rest until I bring you to the gallows.”
And then, before more could be said, there came a sound of running
steps and labored breathing, and his grace swore softly to himself as he
beheld no other than Lord Ostermore advancing rapidly, all out of breath
and apoplectic of face, a couple of footmen pressing close upon his
heels, and, behind these, a score of sightseers who had followed them.
“What's here?” cried the earl, without glancing at his son. “Is he dead?
Is he dead?”
Gascoigne, who was busily endeavoring to stanch the bleeding, answered
without looking up: “It is in God's hands. I think he is very like to
die.”
Ostermore swung round upon Rotherby. He had paled suddenly, and his
mouth trembled. He raised his clenched hand, and it seemed that he was
about to strike his son; then he let it fall again. “You villain!” he
panted, breathless from running and from rage. “I saw it! I saw it all.
It was murder, and, as God's my life, if Mr. Caryll dies, I shall see to
it that you hang--I, your own father.”
Thus assailed on every side, some of the cowering, shrinking manner
left the viscount. His antagonism to his father spurred him to a prouder
carriage. He shrugged indifferently. “So be it,” he said. “I have been
told that already. I don't greatly care.”
Mainwaring, who had been stooping over Mr. Caryll, and who had perhaps
more knowledge of wounds than any present, shook his head ominously.
“'Twould be dangerous to move him far,” said he. “'Twill increase the
hemorrhage.”
“My men shall carry him across to Stretton House,” said Lord Ostermore.
“Lend a hand here, you gaping oafs.”
The footmen advanced. The crowd, which was growing rapidly and was
watching almost in silence, awed, pressed as close as it dared upon
these gentlemen. Mainwaring procured a couple of cloaks and improvised
a stretcher with them. Of this he took one corner himself, Gascoigne
another, and the footmen the remaining two. Thus, as gently as might be,
they bore the wounded man from the enclosure, through the crowd that
had by now assembled in the street, and over the threshold of Stretton
House.
A groom had been dispatched for a doctor, and his Grace of Wharton had
compelled Rotherby to accompany them into his father's house, sternly
threatening to hand him over to a constable at once if he refused.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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