SEARCH
0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Prev | Current Page 401 | Next

Yonge, Charlotte Mary, 1823-1901

"Stray Pearls"


He bowed.
He should be drummed out of the service.
He bowed.
He should be shot.
He bowed.
We were choking with laughter, and trying to persuade her that
threats were unworthy; but she said that kindness had no effect, and
that she must now use threats, and that she knew she should succeed,
for an astrologer had told her that everything she did between this
Wednesday and Friday should prosper--she had the prediction in her
pocket. By this time we had coasted along the moat till we came to
the Loire, where a whole swarm of boatmen, honest fellows in red caps
and striped shirts, came up, shouting, 'Vive Monsieur!' 'Vive
Mademoiselle!' and declaring that it was a shame to lock her out of
her fathers own town.
She asked them to row her to the water-gate of La Faux, but they
answered that there was an old wooden door close by which they could
more easily break down. She gave them money and bade them do so, and
to encourage them climbed up a steep mound of earth close by all over
bushes and briars, while poor Madame de Breaute stood shrieking
below, and I scrambled after.
The door was nearly burst in, but it was on the other side of the
moat. The water was very low, so two boats were dragged up to serve
as a bridge, but they were so much below the top of the ditch that a
ladder was put down into one, up which Mademoiselle dauntlessly
mounted, unheeding that one step was broken, and I came after her.


Pages:
389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413