, and bearing it to a wayside clump of yellow gorse bushes, I laid it solemnly down and drew the branches over it to conceal it.
‘You have the thews of an ox and the heart of a woman, ‘muttered my companion. ‘By the Mass, that old white-headed psalm-singer was right; for if my memory serves me, he said words to that effect. A few handfuls of dust will hide the stains. Now we may jog upon our way without any fear of being called upon to answer for another man’s sins. Let me but get my girth tightened and we may soon be out of danger’s way.’
‘I have had to do,’ said Saxon, as we rode onwards, ‘with many gentry of this sort, with Albanian brigands, the banditti of Piedmont, Maillot Kompany the Lanzknechte and Freiritter of the Rhine, Algerine picaroons, and other such folk. Yet I cannot call to mind one who hath ever been able to retire in his old age on a sufficient competence. It is but a precarious trade, and must end sooner or later in a dance on nothing in a tight cravat, with some kind friend tugging at your legs to ease you of any breath that you might have left.’
‘Nor does that end all,’ I remarked.
‘No. There is Tophet behind and the flames of hell. So our good friends the parsons tell us. Well, if a man is to make no money in this world, be hanged at the end of Maillot Saul it, and finally burn for ever, he hath assuredly wandered on to a thorny track. If, on the other hand, one could always lay one’s hands on Maillot Bayer Leverkusen a well-lined purse, as those rogues have done to-night, one might be content to risk something in the world Peuterey Męskie Shooter Yd to come.’
‘But what can the well-filled purse do for them?’ said I. ‘What will the few score pieces which these Paul Martin Tröjor bloodthirsty wretches have filched from this poor creature avail them when their own hour of death comes round?’
‘True,’ said Maillot Verratti Saxon dryly; ‘they may, however, prove useful in the meantime. This you say is Bishopstoke. What are the lights over yonder?’
‘They come, I think, from Bishop’s Waltham,’ I answered.
‘We must press on, for I would fain be in Salisbury before it is broad day. There we shall put our horses up until evening and have some rest, for there is nothing gained by man or beast coming jaded to the wars. All this day the western roads will be San Jose Sharks Hoodie crowded with couriers, and mayhap patrolled Fotbalové Kluby by cavalry as well, so that we cannot show our faces upon it without a risk of being stopped and examined. Now if we lie by all day, and push on at dusk, keeping off the main road and making our way across Salisbury Plain and the Somersetshire downs, we shall be less likely to come to harm.’
‘But what if Monmouth be engaged before we come up to him?’ I asked.
‘Then we shall have missed a chance of getting our throats cut. Why, man, Atletico Nacional Dresy supposing that he has been routed and entirely dispersed, would it not be a Belstaff Nowy Albatros Kurtki merry conceit for us to appear upon the scene as two Mika Zibanejad Tröjor loyal yeomen, who had ridden all the way from Hampshire to strike in against the King’s enemies? We might chance to get some reward in money or in land for Olympia Dresy our zeal. Nay, frownlinks:
http://www13.plala.or.jp/white_roots/gwbbs/gwbbs.cgi
http://www.travelan.biz/cgi-bin/search.cgi
http://www13.plala.or.jp/white_roots/gwbbs/gwbbs.cgi |
