Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603 -- Fiction; Historical fiction
Then he bade his men get together what balks of timber and wood they
could find and cast them into the hay that still burned in that lower
story so that the fire might spring up, and also to take torches and
cast them through the upper windows so that that tower might well burn
in all parts where it was wooden. After that he called before him that
Adam Hogarth and commended him for his faith to his master and commended
his sister as well. And he said that that man and his sister might have
for their own, to divide between them, such steers as had escaped during
the stampede of the night before, as well as three bulls that were upon
the upper pastures with several sheep, and some pigs and hens that were
in a barn by the river and had escaped observation. And he said that
Adam and his sister might dwell in that tower, after the fire had well
burned it so that it could not be held as a fortress, but it would
shelter them very well until he should decide whether he would hold that
tower himself or till the heirs of Sir Walter Limousin should compound
with him for his sister’s dower. For Sir Walter, he said, was as good
as a dead man. As for Adam Hogarth’s wife, they might do what they
liked for her, but he would give her nothing, for he held that she had
not done well in betraying her master’s secret, to keep which should be
the first duty of a servant, man or woman. And as for his reward to
Adam Hogarth, he gave him those things which would make him richer than
he had ever been in his life before in order to encourage such faith as
he had shown. And if he husbanded those cattle well they would increase
and multiply. But Adam Hogarth said no more than "Least said is soonest
mended," for he was a crabbed old man of few words.
Then the Young Lovell and his men made a breakfast of some small beer
and bread that they found in that tower, and so they rode away
northwards through the Wall, for it was five o’clock with the sun high
and they had far to go, but their little horses would carry them well.
He left two or three men to see that Adam Hogarth and his wife and
sister did not seek to quench that burning. But he did not think they
would, for when he looked back he could see against the pale sky the
pale flames rise over the hill.
But as soon as he was gone that Adam Hogarth fell upon his wife and beat
her very furiously. He said that he knew very well that that Young
Lovell would never have hung him, for there was no priest there to
confess him, and that never would he have betrayed that secret until
after the Young Lovell had let him be shriven. So the Young Lovell must
have paid him much money. Besides, he could have borne with hanging for
a quarter of an hour longer and come to no harm. So he beat that woman
and she screamed out, and the men that the Young Lovell had left behind
roared with laughter and the tower burned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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