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The Master of Appleby

Chapter 10 HOW A FORLORN HOPE CAME TO GRIEF

Word Count: 1742    |    Released on: 06/12/2017

w it, as I thought-I screened the candle and stood beside the open window, not to see or hear, but rather from the lack of sight or sound to gathe

t was plain enough that nothing less than a miracle could bring success. Tarleton's Legion was made up of veterans schooled well in border warfare, and though the bivouac seemed but a camp of motionless figures fast manacled in sleep-I could see them strewn lik

e to the bone. For now it came to me that while I would be saving life, mayhap I had been periling it again. There was small doubt that if the messenger were taken with my letter, his life would pay the f

like the forecast. Suddenly, and in silence, out of the ghostly shadows of the trees and into the wan moonlight of the open space beneath my window, with neither shout no

would be loyal to her friend at any cost. Having no messenger she could trust-she knew it well when she h

le yet I looked and choked with rage and grief; and then the bivouac buzzed alive, and men came running, some with arms and some with torches, these last to flash the light

s of hell gat hold upon me and I did pray as I had never prayed before that God would grant me this one boon-to stand beside her in this time of trial; to g

hat agonizing plea was answered. While yet the anguish of it wrung my soul there came a hasty trampling in the corridor, the sentry's challenge

think me broken-spirited because I let them. In any other cause but this I hope I should have fought to

hen I stole a glance at her I was fain to think my coming gave her courage and support. For you must know

id to show themselves too boldly in such a coil, were Gilbert Stair and that smooth parchment-visaged knave, his factor. The while the

e pale. Yet she was more beautiful than I had ever seen her-so beautiful that I would swear the sum of all the precious

forward, the colonel made sho

angling of the lady in your treason," he be

the shortest word were ever the best. "Yet I may say that the lady knew not what she did, nor wh

e guard and so got leave to keep a midnight tryst with you, but not you." An

she did then. One moment she stood a woman tremulous and tearful as any woman caught in desperate deed; the next she

I wish you joy of it. 'Twas I who bribed your

d and shot a gibe

so too high? By God, sir, I think you will come over-late, if ever you

een the plainest way, dumb rage would still have held me tongue-tied. So I could only mop and mow and stammer, and, when the words were found, make shift to blunder o

th the colonel, went the rounds in jeering grins of incredulity. And on

ffed. "Next you will say she k

ew not what the message

nd them full of tearful pleading. "Oh, tell the trut

his hand; and then I understood the flas

we have trapped you fairly and you may as well make a clean breast of it. Your mistress

d set it quivering in the mark. I would not stop to measure it; to look aside at her or any other lest one brief glance apart

this, Colonel Tarleton-that it was done for love? We

ay you? Ho

being so tightly bound;

or is not wholly dead, s

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1 Chapter 1 IN WHICH I WHET MY FATHER'S SWORD2 Chapter 2 WHICH KNITS UP SOME BROKEN ENDS3 Chapter 3 IN WHICH MY ENEMY SCORES FIRST4 Chapter 4 WHICH MAY BE PASSED OVER LIGHTLY5 Chapter 5 HOW I LOST WHAT I HAD NEVER GAINED6 Chapter 6 SHOWING HOW RED WRATH MAY HEAL A WOUND7 Chapter 7 IN WHICH MY LADY HATH NO PART8 Chapter 8 IN WHICH I TASTE THE QUALITY OF MERCY9 Chapter 9 HOW A GOLDEN KEY UNLOCKED A DOOR10 Chapter 10 HOW A FORLORN HOPE CAME TO GRIEF11 Chapter 11 HOW A LIE WAS MADE THE VERY TRUTH12 Chapter 12 HOW THE NEWS CAME TO UNWELCOME EARS13 Chapter 13 IN WHICH A PILGRIMAGE BEGINS14 Chapter 14 HOW THE BARONET PLAYED ROUGE-ET-NOIR15 Chapter 15 IN WHICH A HATCHET SINGS A MAN TO SLEEP16 Chapter 16 HOW JENNIFER THREW A MAIN WITH DEATH17 Chapter 17 SHOWING HOW LOVE TOOK TOLL OF FRIENDSHIP18 Chapter 18 IN WHICH WE HEAR NEWS FROM THE SOUTH19 Chapter 19 HOW A STUMBLING HORSE BROUGHT TIDINGS20 Chapter 20 IN WHICH WE STRIVE AS MEN TO RUN A RACE21 Chapter 21 HOW WE KEPT LENTEN VIGILS IN TRINITYTIDE22 Chapter 22 HOW THE FATES GAVE LARGESS OF DESPAIR23 Chapter 23 HOW WE KEPT THE FEAST OF BITTER HERBS24 Chapter 24 HOW WE FOUND THE SUNKEN VALLEY25 Chapter 25 HOW UNCANOOLA TRAPPED THE GREAT BEAR26 Chapter 26 WE TAKE THE CHARRED STICK FOR A GUIDE27 Chapter 27 HOW A KING'S TROOPER BECAME A WASTREL28 Chapter 28 IN WHICH I SADDLE THE BLACK MARE29 Chapter 29 IN WHICH, HAVING DANCED, WE PAY THE PIPER30 Chapter 30 HOW EPHRAIM YEATES PRAYED FOR HIS ENEMIES31 Chapter 31 IN WHICH WE MAKE A FORCED MARCH32 Chapter 32 IN WHICH I AM BEDDED IN A GARRET33 Chapter 33 IN WHICH I HEAR CHANCEFUL TIDINGS34 Chapter 34 HOW I MET A GREAT LORD AS MAN TO MAN35 Chapter 35 IN WHICH I FIGHT THE DEVIL WITH FIRE36 Chapter 36 HOW I RODE POST ON THE KING'S BUSINESS37 Chapter 37 OF WHAT BEFELL AT KING'S CREEK38 Chapter 38 IN WHICH WE FIND THE GUN-MAKER39 Chapter 39 THE THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS AND THE SHOUTING40 Chapter 40 VAE VICTIS41 Chapter 41 HOW I PLAYED THE HOST AT MY OWN FIRESIDE42 Chapter 42 IN WHICH MY LORD HAS HIS MARCHING ORDERS43 Chapter 43 IN WHICH I DRINK A DISH OF TEA44 Chapter 44 HOW WE CAME TO THE BEGINNING OF THE END45 Chapter 45 IN WHICH WE FIND WHAT WE NEVER SOUGHT46 Chapter 46 HOW OUR PIECE MISSED FIRE AT HARNDON ACRES47 Chapter 47 ARMS AND THE MAN48 Chapter 48 HOW WE KEPT TRYST AT APPLEBY HUNDRED49 Chapter 49 IN WHICH A LAWYER HATH HIS FEE50 Chapter 50 HOW RICHARD COVERDALE'S DEBT WAS PAID51 Chapter 51 IN WHICH THE GOOD CAUSE GAINS A CONVERT52 Chapter 52 WHICH BRINGS US TO THE JOURNEY'S END