The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 3: Books for ChildrenLamb, Charles
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The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 3: Books for Children
Lamb, Charles
Children's poetry; Children's stories
Come, Leoline, take her by the arm,
and walk with her." "No, madam," said Marina, "I pray you let me
not deprive you of your servant:" for Leoline was one of Dionysia's
attendants. "Come, come," said this artful woman, who wished for a
pretence to leave her alone with Leoline, "I love the prince, your
father, and I love you. We every day expect your father here; and when
he comes, and finds you so changed by grief from the paragon of beauty
we reported you, he will think we have taken no care of you. Go,
I pray you, walk, and be cheerful once again. Be careful of that
excellent complexion, which stole the hearts of old and young."
Marina, being thus importuned, said, "Well, I will go, but yet I
have no desire to it." As Dionysia walked away, she said to Leoline,
"_Remember what I have said!_"--shocking words, for their meaning was
that he should remember to kill Marina.
Marina looked towards the sea, her birthplace, and said, "Is the wind
westerly that blows?" "South-west," replied Leoline. "When I was born
the wind was north," said she: and then the storm and tempest, and all
her father's sorrows, and her mother's death, came full into her mind;
and she said, "My father, as Lychorida told me, did never fear, but
cried, _Courage, good seamen_, to the sailors, galling his princely
hands with the ropes, and, clasping to the mast, he endured a sea
that almost split the deck." "When was this?" said Leoline. "When I
was born," replied Marina: "never were waves nor wind more violent."
And then she described the storm, the action of the sailors, the
boatswain's whistle, and the loud call of the master, "Which," said
she, "trebled the confusion of the ship." Lychorida had so often
recounted to Marina the story of her hapless birth, that these things
seemed ever present to her imagination. But here Leoline interrupted
her with desiring her to say her prayers. "What mean you?" said
Marina, who began to fear, she knew not why. "If you require a little
space for prayer, I grant it," said Leoline; "but be not tedious, the
gods are quick of ear, and I am sworn to do my work in haste." "Will
you kill me?" said Marina: "alas! why?" "To satisfy my lady," replied
Leoline. "Why would she have me killed?" said Marina: "now, as I can
remember, I never hurt her in all my life. I never spake bad word,
nor did any ill turn to any living creature. Believe me now, I never
killed a mouse, nor hurt a fly. I trod upon a worm once against my
will, but I wept for it. How have I offended?" The murderer replied,
"My commission is not to reason on the deed, but do it." And he was
just going to kill her, when certain pirates happened to land at that
very moment, who seeing Marina, bore her off as a prize to their ship.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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