Part 17 (2/2)
This to Rosareat one was that Sir Oliver was dead at law, and land It extinguished finally that curiously hopeless and almost subconscious hope of hers that one day he would return Thus it helped her perhaps to face and accept the future which Sir John was resolved to thrust upon her
Her betrothal was , at least a docile and gentle mistress to Lionel He was content He could ask no more in reason at the moiven opportunity and time he could find the way to awaken a response And it ave some proof of his reason for his confidence She had been lonely, and he dispelled her loneliness by his complete surrender of himself to her; his restraint and his cautious, al a path which a more clumsy felloould have taken at a dash made companionshi+p possible between them and very sweet to her
Upon this foundation her affection began gradually to rise, and seeing theratulated hi out of that fine shi+p of his--the Silver Heron--for the co, and Sir John all inal for departure; as they fell silent the Silver Heron should spread her wings
It was the evening of the first of June; the peal of the curfew had faded on the air and lights were being set in the great dining-room at Arwenack where the company was to sup It was a small party Just Sir John and Rosaered on that day, and Lord Henry Goade--our chronicler--the Queen's Lieutenant of Cornwall, together with his lady They were visiting Sir John and they were to rerace the coreat stir of preparation for the departure of Sir John and his ward, the latter into wedlock, the former into unknown seas In the turret chamber a dozen sempstresses were at work upon the bridal outfit under the directions of that Sally Pentreath who had been no less assiduous in the preparation of swaddling clothes and the like on the eve of Rosamund's appearance in this world
At the very hour at which Sir John was leading his co foot ashore not a mile away
He had deemed it wiser not to round Pendennis Point So in the bay above Swanpool on the western side of that pro shadoere deepening He had launched the shi+p's two boats, and in these he had conveyed some thirty of his men ashore Twice had the boats returned, until a hundred of his corsairs stood ranged along that foreign beach The other hundred he left on guard aboard He took so great a force upon an expedition for which a quarter of thenumbers the avoidance of all unnecessary violence
Absolutely unobserved he led theh the darkness that had now closed in To tread his native soil oncetears from him How familiar was the path he folloith such confidence in the night; hoell known each bush and stone by which he ith his silent multitude hard upon his heels
Who could have foretold him such a return as this
Who could have dreas and fowling-piece that he would creep one night over these dunes a renegade Musli a horde of infidels to storrew of Arwenack?
Such thoughts begot a weakness in hi to all that he had so unjustly suffered, when he considered all that he cae
First to Arwenack to Sir John and Rosamund to compel them to hear the truth at least, and then away to Penarrow for Master Lionel and the reckoning Such was the project that warmed him, conquered his weakness and spurred hihts and the fortified house that doates locked, as was to have been expected at that hour He knocked, and presently the postern gaped, and a lantern was advanced Instantly that lantern was dashed aside and Sir Oliver had leapt over the sill into the courtyard With a hand gripping the porter's throat to choke all utterance, Sir Oliver heaved hied hiap of the postern into the spacious gateway On he led them, at a run alolden light seely to beckon them
With the servants who met them in the hall they dealt in the saatekeeper, and such was the speed and caution of their movements that Sir John and his company had no suspicion of their presence until the door of the dining-rooht which they beheld was one that for some moments left them ined that here was some mummery, some surprise prepared for the bridal couple by Sir John's tenants or the folk of Sed in this belief by the circuleah they caainst any eventualities, yet by their leader's orders not a blade was bared What was to do was to be done with their naked hands alone and without bloodshed Such were the orders of Sakr-el-Bahr, and Sakr-el-Bahr's were not orders to be disregarded
Hiion of brown-skinned men arrayed in all the colours of the rainbow, their heads swathed in turbans of every hue He considered the corim silence, and the coiant with the any, the black forked beard, and those singularly light eyes glittering like steel under his black brows
Thus a little while in silence, then with a sudden gasp Lionel Tressilian sank back in his tall chair as if bereft of strength
The agate eyes flashed upon hinize me,” said Sakr-el-Bahr in his deep voice ”I was assured I could depend upon the eyes of brotherly love to pierce the change that tiht in me”
Sir John was on his feet, his lean swarthy face flushi+ng darkly, an oath on his lips Rosa Sir Oliver with dilating eyes, whilst her hands clawed the table before her
They too recognized hi sinister was intended Sir John could not for a ht be he could form no notion It was the first tiland That famous raid of theirs upon Baltimore in Ireland did not take place until some thirty years after this date
”Sir Oliver Tressilian!” Killigrew gasped, and ”Sir Oliver Tressilian!”
echoed Lord Henry Goade, to add ”By God!”
”Not Sir Oliver Tressilian, cae of the sea, the terror of Christendom, the desperate corsair your lies, cupidity, and false-heartedness have fashi+oned out of a soentleesture ”Beholdoverdue”