"It
is for mine honor, sir," she said. "I know that I ask your death."
I could not bear to see her weep, and so I spoke roughly. "I have
told you before," I said, "that your honor is my honor. Do you think
I would sleep to-morrow night, in the hold of the Santa Teresa,
knowing that my wife supped with my Lord Carnal?"
I crossed the room to take my pistols from the rack. As I passed
her she caught my hand in hers, and bending pressed her lips upon
it. "You have been very good to me," she murmured. "Do not think
me an ingrate."
Five minutes later she came from her own room, hooded and
mantled, and with a packet of clothing in her hand. I extinguished
the torches, then opened the door. As we crossed the threshold, we
paused as by one impulse and looked back into the firelit warmth
of the room; then I closed the door softly behind us, and we went
out into the night.
CHAPTER XIX IN WHICH WE HAVE UNEXPECTED COMPANY
THE wind, which had heretofore come in fierce blasts, was now
steadying to a gale. What with the flying of the heaped clouds, the
slanting, groaning pines, and the rushing of the river, the whole
earth seemed a fugitive, fleeing breathless to the sea. From across
the neck of land came the long-drawn howl of wolves, and in the
wood beyond the church a catamount screamed and screamed. The
town before us lay as dark and as still as the grave; from the
garden where we were we could not see the Governor's house.
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