Via Crucis: A Romance of the Second CrusadeCrawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
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Via Crucis: A Romance of the Second Crusade
Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
Crusades -- Second, 1147-1149 -- Fiction
"They think that some great force is with us, and are afraid," said the
Jewish boy. "Speak to them, sir, for they do not understand my tongue."
And the interpreter explained what he said. Then Gilbert spoke in
English, for he supposed that Curboil's men must be Englishmen, but the
Jewish boy knew that the words should sound otherwise.
"In Greek, sir! Speak to them in Greek, for they are all Greeks. That
is why they are afraid. All Greeks are afraid."
The interpreter began to speak in Greek, clear and loud, but no sound
came. Yet when Gilbert put his ear to the door he thought that he heard
something like a child's moaning. It had a sound of pain in it, and his
blood rose at the thought that some weak creature was being hurt. So he
took little Alric's leathern belt, such as grooms wear, and bound it
round his hand to guard the flesh, and he struck the door where the
leaves joined in the middle, once and twice and three times, and it
began to open inward, so that they could see the iron bolt bent half
double. Then with his shoulder he forced it in, so that the bolt
slipped from the socket, and the leaves flew open.
There was a little court within, around which the house was built, with
a well for rain-water in the middle, after the fashion that was half
Roman and half Eastern. Gilbert went in, and bade all be silent that he
might hear whence the moaning came; for it was more distinct now, and
it seemed to come from the well, with a little splashing of water; so
he went and looked down, and when he saw what was there he cried aloud
for fear.
For there he saw an upturned face, half dead, with a white thing bound
across the mouth, and hands tied together, and struggling to strike the
water, but heavily weighted and it was the face of Beatrix, two fathoms
below him. There were holes opposite each other, in the two sides of
the well, for a man's hands and feet, for climbing down into the
cistern; and Gilbert lost no moment, but began to descend at once yet
long before he had got the bound hands together in his own, stooping
and himself in peril of falling, the face had sunk below the bubbling
water.
With his feet firmly planted in the holes, and standing as it might be
astride of the well, he lifted the girl up and though she was so
slight, it was one of the hardest things he ever had to do, for her
clothes were full of water, and he was at a disadvantage; nor could his
men help him till he had raised her so high that he could rest her
weight on his right knee and against his own body. Then the others
climbed down and slipped their belts under her arms, and she was taken
out in safety and laid upon the pavement of the little court. And then
the Jewish boy went to call his mother from the house of her sister,
where they two had gone to live, for Beatrix had need of a woman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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