Great Britain -- History -- James I, 1603-1625 -- Fiction; Witchcraft -- Fiction
“And that night, at home, I slept and dreamed—and saw not thee.”
“There are glories in our lives. With every pain and sorrow counted in,
we have not been unhappy.”
“No. Pain did not win. And the light was brighter yesterday than the
day before, and brighter to-day than yesterday.... Look at the bird
flying up!”
The third night the troop did not arrive, in time for rest, at any
town or village. A heavy rain had fallen and delayed progress. They
came at dark to three or four mean houses, clustered around one of
better proportions, an inn by the sign just made out through the dusk
and the autumn mists. There was not much to eat, but it might be made
to do—straw could be shaken down—there was a great fireplace where
blazing warmth might be had.... To Joan and Aderhold, accustomed to
the sun, good was this warmth! There was one great stone-flagged room,
large as a baron’s hall. When the dozen men of their guard disposed
themselves, there was yet space where the ruddy glow might reach them,
dry their clothing wet with the rain, warm their bodies. Where there
was not overmuch for any, their portion of supper was small, indeed,
but it sufficed. When all would sleep, lying about the fire upon the
straw which the inn’s servitors brought in, the two were thrust to a
corner at the far end of the place, farthest from the door. A watch was
set—a stanch man relieved each two hours by another. The sheriff meant
no slipping of the wizard and witch out of his fingers. But sleeping
time was not yet come. The two sat to one side, watched, but no more
closely than was thought necessary.
Beside the sheriff and his men there were the host and hostess, three
or four uncouth serving-men and maids, and one other traveller, belated
like the rest. This was a gentle-faced old man, the parson, it was
learned, of a parish a dozen miles away.... The night before, in a town
of fair size, the names of his prisoners becoming known, the sheriff
had had trouble to rescue them from the mob that gathered. This day,
therefore, he would keep secret the full heinousness of the pair—along
the way and here it was said only that they were a man and woman
accused of witchcraft and apostasy, being transferred from one gaol to
another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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