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THE BLACK ARROW
“Well, Dickon, I will go,” replied Sir Daniel. “When we
next meet, it shall repent you that ye were so harsh.”
And with these words, the knight turned and began to
move off under the trees. Dick watched him with strangelymingled feelings, as he went, swiftly and warily, and ever and
again turning a wicked eye upon the lad who had spared him,
and whom he still suspected.
There was upon one side of where he went a thicket,
strongly matted with green ivy, and, even in its winter state,
impervious to the eye. Herein, all of a sudden, a bow sounded
like a note of music. An arrow fl ew, and with a great, choked
cry of agony and anger, the Knight of Tunstall threw up his
hands and fell forward in the snow.
Dick bounded to his side and raised him. His face desperately worked; his whole body was shaken by contorting spasms.
“Is the arrow black?” he gasped.
“It is black,” replied Dick, gravely.
And then, before he could add one word, a desperate seizure of pain shook the wounded man from head to foot, so that
his body leaped in Dick’s supporting arms, and with the extremity of that pang his spirit fl ed in silence.
The young man laid him back gently on the snow and
prayed for that unprepared and guilty spirit, and as he
prayed the sun came up at a bound, and the robins began
chirping in the ivy.
When he rose to his feet, he found another man upon his
knees but a few steps behind him, and, still with uncovered
head, he waited until that prayer also should be over. It took
long; the man, with his head bowed and his face covered with
321
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
his hands, prayed like one in a great disorder or distress of
mind; and by the bow that lay beside him, Dick judged that
he was no other than the archer who had laid Sir Daniel low.
At length he, also, rose, and showed the countenance of Ellis Duckworth.
“Richard,” he said, very gravely, “I heard you. Ye took
the better part and pardoned; I took the worse, and there lies
the clay of mine enemy. Pray for me.”
And he wrung him by the hand.
“Sir,” said Richard, “I will pray for you, indeed; though
how I may prevail I wot not. But if ye have so long pursued
revenge, and fi nd it now of such a sorry fl avour, bethink ye,
were it not well to pardon others? Hatch – he is dead, poor
shrew! I would have spared a better; and for Sir Daniel, here
lies his body. But for the priest, if I might anywise prevail,
I would have you let him go.”
A fl ash came into the eyes of Ellis Duckworth.
“Nay,” he said, “the devil is still strong within me. But be at
rest; the Black Arrow fl ieth nevermore – the fellowship is
broken. They that still live shall come to their quiet and ripe
end, in Heaven’s good time, for me; and for yourself, go where
your better fortune calls you, and think no more of Ellis.”
CHAPTER VIII
CONCLUSION
About nine in the morning, Lord Foxham was leading his
ward, once more dressed as befi tted her sex, and followed by
Alicia Risingham, to the church of Holywood, when Richard
Crookback, his brow already heavy with cares, crossed their
path and paused.
“Is this the maid?” he asked; and when Lord Foxham had
replied in the affi rmative, “Minion,” he added, “hold up your
face until I see its favour.”
He looked upon her sourly for a little.
“Ye are fair,” he said at last, “and, as they tell me, dowered.
How if I offered you a brave marriage, as became your face and
parentage?”
“My lord duke,” replied Joanna, “may it please your grace,
I had rather wed with Sir Richard.”
“How so?” he asked, harshly. “Marry but the man I name to
you, and he shall be my lord, and you my lady, before night.
For Sir Richard, let me tell you plainly, he will die Sir Richard.”
“I ask no more of Heaven, my lord, than but to die Sir Richard’s wife,” returned Joanna.
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ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
“Look ye at that, my lord,” said Gloucester, turning to Lord
Foxham. “Here be a pair for you. The lad, when for good services I gave him his choice of my favour, chose but the grace of
an old, drunken shipman. I did warn him freely, but he was
stout in his besottedness. ‘Here dieth your favour,’ said I;
and he, my lord, with a most assured impertinence, ‘Mine be
the loss,’ quoth he. It shall be so, by the rood!”
“Said he so?” cried Alicia. “Then well said, lion-driver!”
“Who is this?” asked the duke.
“A prisoner of Sir Richard’s,” answered Lord Foxham; “Mistress Alicia Risingham.”
“See that she be married to a sure man,” said the duke.
“I had thought of my kinsman, Hamley, an it like your
grace,” returned Lord Foxham. “He hath well served the cause.”
“It likes me well,” said Richard. “Let them be wedded speedily. Say, fair maid, will you wed?”
“My lord duke,” said Alicia, “so as the man is straight” – And
there, in a perfect consternation, the voice died on her tongue.
“He is straight, my mistress,” replied Richard, calmly. “I am
the only crookback of my party; we are else passably well shapen. Ladies, and you, my lord,” he added, with a sudden change to
grave courtesy, “judge me not too churlish if I leave you. A captain, in the time of war, hath not the ordering of his hours.”
And with a very handsome salutation he passed on, followed by his offi cers.
“Alack,” cried Alicia, “I am shent!”
“Ye know him not,” replied Lord Foxham. “It is but a trifl e;
he hath already clean forgot your words.”
“He is, then, the very fl ower of knighthood,” said Alicia.
324
THE BLACK ARROW
“Nay, he but mindeth other things,” returned Lord Foxham. “Tarry we no more.”
In the chancel they found Dick waiting, attended by a few
young men; and there were he and Joan united. When they came
forth again, happy and yet serious, into the frosty air and sunlight, the long fi les of the army were already winding forward up
the road; already the Duke of Gloucester’s banner was unfolded
and began to move from before the abbey in a clump of spears;
and behind it, girt by steel-clad knights, the bold, black-hearted,
and ambitious hunchback moved on towards his brief kingdom and his lasting infamy. But the wedding party turned upon
the other side, and sat down, with sober merriment, to breakfast.
The father cellarer attended on their wants, and sat with them at
table. Hamley, all jealousy forgotten, began to ply the nowise loth
Alicia with courtship. And there, amid the sounding of tuckets
and the clash of armoured soldiery and horses continually moving forth, Dick and Joan sat side by side, tenderly held hands, and
looked, with ever growing affection, in each other’s eyes.
Thenceforth the dust and blood of that unruly epoch
passed them by. They dwelt apart from alarms in the green forest where their love began.
Two old men in the meanwhile enjoyed pensions in great
prosperity and peace, and with perhaps a superfl uity of ale and
wine, in Tunstall hamlet. One had been all his life a shipman,
and continued to the last to lament his man Tom. The other,
who had been a bit of everything, turned in the end towards
piety, and made a most religious death under the name of
Brother Honestus in the neighbouring abbey. So Lawless had
his will, and died a friar.
Литературно-художественное издание
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Black Arrow
Выпускающий редактор: И. Краснова
Редактор: П. Воронин
Корректор: И. Иванова
Компьютерная верстка: Т. Серёгина
Художественное оформление: М. Соколова
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