Читать книгу A Queen of Nine Days онлайн

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'Oh, this is terrible—terrible!' I cried. Putting my head out of my litter, I called to the ruffians to cease their cruelty. 'It is murder,' I said; 'it is nothing but murder! "Thou shalt do no murder."'

But I might as well have spoken to the wind, which was beginning to rise in fitful gusts.

The mob—for by this time the crowd had become a howling mob—was in no mood to be stayed from proceeding to extremities. A shower of mud and stones was flung at my litter and its attendants, one of the men-servants receiving a blow upon the shoulder, which might have put it out of joint, being most violent.

'Wait till we have drowned the witches, then we will come for you!' shouted Sir Claudius cruelly.

'Ay, ay, sir!' chorused many voices.

This was alarming. My servants put their heads together, muttering their fears. I overheard them saying that they had seen the witch looking hard at me as she begged for mercy, and that I might be doomed, and what could three men and a woman do against more than a hundred ruffians?