Читать книгу A Queen of Nine Days онлайн

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'Forsooth, Mistress Marg'et,' said Joseph, my lacquey, coming to my litter, ''tis the country roughs that are just wild to drown yon old witch.'

'But they shall not!' declared I vigorously; 'they shall not! Stop it, Joseph! Stop it at once!'

'Mistress, I cannot! The men are just mad! Hark at their shouts! They are wild to do it.'

'They shall not do it!' cried I. 'Tell them, Joseph, that Mistress Margaret Brown forbids it.'

Joseph and Timothy, the head man, and John, the other lacquey, looked timidly towards the crowd of excited men and boys who were shouting, gesticulating and urging on each other to drag along the old woman with cuffs and kicks.

I got out of my litter and looked round. It was such a beautiful country, on one side great woods just bursting into leaf, on the other green meadowland, threaded by a silvery stream and studded here and there with blossoming hawthorn trees. Nowhere could I see a house, yet some there must be not far distant, judging from the crowd of men and boys. Alone, with my few servants, what could I do? Who would have suspected that in such a lovely place there could be doings so outrageous?