FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418  
419   420   421   422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   >>   >|  
or those two were so one in one, that they could make each other know whatever he or she had felt. And so my Lord went round the corner, with a fine young horse leaping up at the steps. 'They waited for him, long and long; but he never came again; and within a week, his mangled body lay in a little chapel-yard; and if the priests only said a quarter of the prayers they took the money for, God knows they can have no throats left; only a relaxation. 'My lady dwelled for six months more--it is a melancholy tale (what true tale is not so?)--scarcely able to believe that all her fright was not a dream. She would not wear a piece or shape of any mourning-clothes; she would not have a person cry, or any sorrow among us. She simply disbelieved the thing, and trusted God to right it. The Protestants, who have no faith, cannot understand this feeling. Enough that so it was; and so my Lady went to heaven. 'For when the snow came down in autumn on the roots of the Pyrenees, and the chapel-yard was white with it, many people told the lady that it was time for her to go. And the strongest plea of all was this, that now she bore another hope of repeating her husband's virtues. So at the end of October, when wolves came down to the farm-lands, the little English family went home towards their England. 'They landed somewhere on the Devonshire coast, ten or eleven years agone, and stayed some days at Exeter; and set out thence in a hired coach, without any proper attendance, for Watchett, in the north of Somerset. For the lady owned a quiet mansion in the neighbourhood of that town, and her one desire was to find refuge there, and to meet her lord, who was sure to come (she said) when he heard of his new infant. Therefore with only two serving-men and two maids (including Benita), the party set forth from Exeter, and lay the first night at Bampton. 'On the following morn they started bravely, with earnest hope of arriving at their journey's end by daylight. But the roads were soft and very deep, and the sloughs were out in places; and the heavy coach broke down in the axle, and needed mending at Dulverton; and so they lost three hours or more, and would have been wiser to sleep there. But her ladyship would not hear of it; she must be home that night, she said, and her husband would be waiting. How could she keep him waiting now, after such a long, long time? 'Therefore, although it was afternoon, and the year now come to Dec
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   394   395   396   397   398   399   400   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418  
419   420   421   422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Exeter

 

husband

 
Therefore
 

waiting

 

chapel

 

Watchett

 
proper
 
attendance
 

neighbourhood

 

mansion


desire
 
ladyship
 
Somerset
 

eleven

 

Devonshire

 

England

 
landed
 

afternoon

 

stayed

 

started


Bampton

 

bravely

 

earnest

 

sloughs

 

daylight

 

places

 

arriving

 

journey

 

needed

 

infant


serving

 

Dulverton

 

mending

 

including

 

Benita

 
refuge
 
throats
 

prayers

 

priests

 

quarter


relaxation
 
scarcely
 

melancholy

 

dwelled

 

months

 

mangled

 
corner
 

waited

 
leaping
 

fright