Under One Sceptre, or Mortimer's Mission: The Story of the Lord of the Marches — John Shaqi
Under One Sceptre, or Mortimer's Mission: The Story of the Lord of the MarchesHolt, Emily Sarah
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Under One Sceptre, or Mortimer's Mission: The Story of the Lord of the Marches
Holt, Emily Sarah
Historical fiction; Mortimer, Roger de, Earl of March, 1328-1360 -- Fiction
"Thou go whistle for a fair wind! Here goes!" And little Roger,
gathering all his forces, gave a wild upward leap from the settle,
intent on catching the brass rod which was part of the ornamentation of
the press, and was not very firmly fixed. To Lawrence’s surprise, he
caught it; but the next moment the end of the rod came out in his hand,
and the natural result followed. Down came the rod, and down came
Roger, overturning the settle, and bringing his head into violent
contact with the floor. There he lay stunned, with Lawrence looking at
him in a terrible fright.
"Gramercy, what a to-do is here!" said the voice of Master Salveyn at
the door. "Were ye not bidden be good lads til!—— Mercy, Saint Mary!
my Lord bleeds! How happened this?"
Lawrence tremblingly replied that he had been climbing, and had fallen.
His own nerves had received a much worse shock than those of Salveyn.
"Good lack, will lads ever be out of mischief?" demanded that gentleman.
"Shut them up in a chamber where you should think none ill could hap
them short of earth-moving,[#] and ere you shall well have turned your
back, they shall be killing either themselves or one another! Run thou
to call Mistress Grenestede, while I bear my young Lord to his chamber."
[#] Earthquake.
Lawrence rushed off for the middle-aged and useful person in question,
the children’s nurse, governess, prescriber, chemist, confectioner, and
general factotum: and in a few minutes Roger was laid in bed, and
Mistress Grenestede was bathing his injured head with warm water. She
improved the occasion by giving a lecture to Lawrence—who did not need
it—on imprudence and rashness. But when time went on, and her little
patient did not return to consciousness, Mistress Grenestede began to
look uneasy. A whispered consultation with Salveyn resulted in the
sending of a varlet on some errand. Another half-hour elapsed without
change, and then Lawrence, standing beside his master’s bed, half hidden
by the curtain, heard somebody say, "He is come." A step forward to
enable him to see who it was, and a smothered exclamation of pleasure
broke from him. Master Salveyn was ushering in a priest in long black
robe—all physicians were priests at that date—and though the new-comer
failed to recognise Lawrence, the boy knew him.
"Father Robesart! God be thanked!"
The priest heard him, and turned towards him.
"Who art thou, my son?"
Lawrence’s delight overcame his shyness.
"Father Robesart, wit you not me? I am Lawrence, son of Nicholas,
tanner, in the huts at Usk, that went away these two years gone. I bade
you farewell in the church aisle, and you blessed me, and told me I
should pass word to you never to go any whither that I had not first
asked our Lord to be with me."
"Good, my son. I remember thee now, and will have more talk with thee
anon. Now let me look on the sick child. Is it my little Lord of
March?"
"That is he, good Father."
"How gat he this hurt?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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