FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167  
168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   >>   >|  
do for one night. None would molest him here. "Can I have a room until daybreak to-morrow and a meal?" he asked of a slatternly looking woman leaning against the doorpost; "I have ridden some distance and am very fatigued." "Without doubt," she answered. "'Tis for that we keep house. Come in." "And my horse?" "That also--hard by," she said. "I will call my good man," and uttering a shriek, which was answered from the back by a gruff male voice, she called out again: "Come and take the traveller's horse, _scelerat_! _Mon Dieu_, have you nothing else to do but sit drinking there all day?" A heavy footfall sounded in the passage, and presently a large, unkempt man came along it, and, seeing the traveller standing there, put up a dirty hand to his tousled hair and said, "_Bon jour, voyageur._" But the next moment he pushed that hair away from his eyes and, staring at St. Georges, said: "I know your face, stranger. Where have I seen it before?" "How can I say?" St. Georges asked in reply. "I at least do not know yours." Yet he turned pale as he answered, and regarded the man fixedly, for he had recognised the other at once. The fellow before him had been one of the _comites_ of a galley in which St. Georges had rowed before being transferred to L'Idole--had thrashed and belaboured him often. Of all the brutal overseers this man had been, perhaps, the most cruel! He was in a trap if he should recall where he had seen him before, a trap from which escape would be difficult. For at a word from him he would never be allowed to pass the gates of Bayeux, but would be arrested at once, taken before the president of the city, and--sent back to the galleys if not executed, as he would undoubtedly be if it leaked out that he had fought against France! "All the same, I know you," the man replied. "I must reflect. I must think. In my time I have known----" "_Dinde!_" shrieked the woman at him, "will you keep the traveller standing all day in the passage while you indulge in your accursed recollections? _Mon Dieu!_ are we so overrun with customers that you have naught else to do but gape at them? _Sot!_ take his horse to the forge outside." The fellow--who seemed bemused by frequent drinkings in the back place whence the termagant had called him forth--did as he was bid, and, seizing the nag's head, led it down an alley running at a left angle to the house, and so to a forge--in which, however, there was no sign
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167  
168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

answered

 

traveller

 

Georges

 
passage
 

called

 
standing
 

fellow

 

Bayeux

 

leaked

 

fought


France

 

undoubtedly

 

executed

 

president

 

galleys

 
arrested
 

difficult

 

overseers

 
brutal
 

belaboured


allowed

 

recall

 

escape

 

seizing

 

termagant

 

frequent

 

drinkings

 
running
 

bemused

 

shrieked


thrashed
 

indulge

 
accursed
 

reflect

 

recollections

 

naught

 
overrun
 

customers

 

replied

 

drinking


morrow

 

scelerat

 

slatternly

 

footfall

 
daybreak
 

unkempt

 

sounded

 
presently
 

Without

 

fatigued