"I can keep my prisoner
without advice. If I now order irons to be put upon him and his
accomplice, it is because I see fit to do so, and not because of your
suggestion, my lord. You wish to take this opportunity to have
speech with him, - to that I can have no objection."
The speaker moved away. As his footsteps died in the distance my
lord laughed, and his merriment was echoed by three or four harsh
voices. Some one struck flint against steel, and there was a sudden
flare of torches and the steadier light of a lantern. A man with a
brutal, weather-beaten face - the master of the ship, we guessed -
came down the ladder, lantern in hand, turned when he had
reached the foot, aud held up the lantern to light my lord down. I
lay and watched the King's favorite as he descended. The torches
held slantingly above cast a fiery light over his stately figure and
the face which had raised him from the low estate of a doubtful
birth and a most lean purse to a pinnacle too near the sun for men
to gaze at with undazzled eyes. In his rich dress and the splendor
of his beauty, with the red glow enveloping him, he lit the darkness
like a baleful star.
The two torchbearers and a third man descended, closing the hatch
after them. When all were down, my lord, the master at his heels,
came and stood over me. I raised myself, though with difficulty,
for the fever had left me weak as a babe, and met his gaze.
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