Great Britain -- History -- Mary I, 1553-1558 -- Fiction; Historical fiction
There was a little stir at the farther end of the room, and he came
forward, moving slowly and reluctantly. I saw that he was the man whom
Penruddocke had called back when we entered, a man of great height,
though slender, and closely cloaked. A drooping gray mustache covered
his mouth, and that was almost all I made out before Sir Thomas, with
some sharpness, bade him uncover. He did so with an abrupt gesture,
and reaching out his hand grasped the other end of the book as though
he would take it from me. His manner was so strange that I looked hard
at him, and he, jerking up his head with a gesture of defiance, looked
at me too, his face very pale.
I heard Penruddocke's voice droning the words of the oath, but I paid
no attention to them--I was busied with something else. Where had I
seen the sinister gleam in those eyes before, and that forehead high
and narrow, and those lean, swarthy cheeks? Where had I before
confronted that very face which now glared into mine across the book?
Its look was bold and defiant, but low down in the cheek I saw a
little pulse beating furiously, a pulse which told of anxiety, and the
jaws, half veiled by the ragged mustache, were set in an iron grip.
Where? Ha! I knew. I dropped my end of the book and stepped back.
"Look to the door!" I cried, my voice sounding harsh and strange in my
own ears. "Let no one leave! I denounce that man!" And raising my hand
I pointed pitilessly at my oath-fellow. "I denounce him--he is a spy
and traitor!"
"I a spy?" the man shouted fiercely--with the fierceness of despair.
"Ay, you! you! Clarence, or Crewdson, or whatever you call yourself, I
denounce you! My time has come!"
[Illustration: ". . . HE IS A SPY AND A TRAITOR!"]
CHAPTER XIX.
FERDINAND CLUDDE.
The bitterness of that hour long past, when he had left me for death,
when he had played with the human longing for life, and striven
without a thought of pity to corrupt me by hopes and fears the most
awful that mortals know, was in my voice as I spoke. I rejoiced that
vengeance had come upon him at last, and that I was its instrument. I
saw the pallor of a great fear creep into his dark cheek, and read in
his eyes the vicious passion of a wild beast trapped, and felt no
pity. "Master Clarence!" I said, and laughed--laughed mockingly. "You
do not look pleased to see your friends. Or perhaps you do not
remember me. Stand forward, Master Bertie! Maybe he will recognize
you."
But though Master Bertie came forward and stood by my side gazing at
him, the villain's eyes did not for an instant shift from mine. "It is
the man!" my companion said after a solemn pause--for the other,
breathing fast, made no answer. "He was a spy in the pay of Bishop
Gardiner, when I knew him. At the Bishop's death I heard that he
passed into the service of the Spanish Ambassador, the Count de Feria.
He called himself at that time Clarence. I recognize him."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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