The men knotted the cords, and rose to their feet, to be dismissed
by my lord with a curt "You may go." They drew back to the foot
of the ladder, while the master of the ship went and perched
himself upon one of the rungs. "The air is fresher here beneath the
hatch," he remarked.
As for me, though I lay at my enemy's feet, I could yet set my teeth
and look him in the eyes. The cup was bitter, but I could drink it
with an unmoved face.
"Art paid?" he demanded. "Art paid for the tree in the red forest
without the haunted wood? Art paid, thou bridegroom?"
"No," I answered. "Bring her here to laugh at me as she laughed in
the twilight beneath the guesthouse window."
I thought he would murder me with the poniard he drew, but
presently he put it up.
"She is come to her senses," he said. "Up in the state cabin are
bright lights, and wine and laughter. There are gentlewomen
aboard, and I have been singing to the lute, to them - and to her.
She is saved from the peril into which you plunged her; she knows
that the King's Court of High Commission, to say nothing of the
hangman, will soon snap the fetters which she now shudders to
think of; that the King and one besides will condone her past short
madness. Her cheeks are roses, her eyes are stars. But now, when I
pressed her hand between the verses of my song, she smiled and
sighed and blushed.
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