FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
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   >>   >|  
been stolen from her?--With a woman struggling with such anguish?" "The Prince!--Our King! _Sanctissima Maria!_ San Marco confound the knaves!" Every man's hand sought his sword with a murmured oath of loyalty and vengeance. Questions stormed upon her: but she commanded silence with a gesture. It was news indeed; no hint of it had passed beyond the walls of the Fortress. "Of where he may be hidden, naught is known. Yet the galley of Naples lieth in our port, and one may reach it at low tide over the shallows--a few feet away from the tower of the Fort. It were easy to carry the child there unseen." "Aye; it were easy--and not so hard to find him--if he were there." "Nay, but to hold him when found! Do it not rashly, lest harm come to him. The Bernardini will plan the emprise. Tell him the Lady Margherita came at risk of life--in this disguise--to put his true men on the quest. Tell him----" She was interrupted by an exclamation. "Margherita!--the Lady de Iblin--_thus!_" The Bernardini had just entered the court of the Palace. A vivid flush rose to her cheek, but she stood quite still in the place where he had found her, and he came and bent his knee and kissed her hand with the customary homage. "Else might I not have crossed the Piazza," she said, "nor left the gate of the Castle. It is easy to forfeit one's head at a moment of wrath where Rizzo commandeth! And one--a guard within the Fortress, friend to our cause unguessed of the Council--hath lent me this disguise that I might bring thee my so weighty tidings of woe." "'So weighty tidings of woe?'" he echoed startled. "These will tell it thee," she went on hurriedly, "for I must be returned to my chamber ere the change of guard--lest he be called on duty and fail to respond with this full toggery of steel, because he hath shown me this favor." "The Queen?" he gasped. "The Queen still liveth; but--oh, my Lord, Aluisi!"--her voice broke and her lips quivered, she stretched out her hands to him, the nervous fingers interlaced in a passion of pleading--"they have stolen the baby-Prince: she will go mad if they keep him from her!" "They shall not!" he thundered with a terrible oath: he--whose speech was fair as a woman's. "Tell her we pledge our lives to find him--to save them both--_all these and many more_." With a gesture he included all the company. "Heaven hear us!" they swore in deep, angry, concert. She turned her face
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142  
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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Fortress
 

Bernardini

 

Prince

 
disguise
 

Margherita

 

stolen

 

gesture

 

tidings

 

weighty

 

called


Castle

 
chamber
 

change

 
respond
 
echoed
 

unguessed

 

forfeit

 

Council

 

startled

 

moment


commandeth

 

friend

 

hurriedly

 

returned

 

pledge

 
terrible
 

thundered

 

speech

 

concert

 

turned


included

 

company

 
Heaven
 

Aluisi

 

liveth

 

gasped

 

toggery

 

quivered

 

pleading

 

passion


interlaced
 
stretched
 

nervous

 

fingers

 

exclamation

 
hidden
 

naught

 
passed
 
galley
 

Naples