Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 4 — page 144: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

650 would say that may further the right cause of Parliament, and at the same time save this youth from the gibbet, which still awaits him?” “The right cause?” said my lady with a little smile. ‘‘ Mayhap, sir, we differ there, but argament would ill fall from a woman’s lips in these times. And what I may say, even should it bring trial upon myself, I say merely that justice may not be ill-serv ‘“‘T shall honor the truce, and ha’ mind of your thought,” said Cromwell. “ Know then,” she went on calmly, ‘“ that on several nights before the battle of Naseby the king and his staff did lodge at Eveleigh Manor. After the defeat, having mind of my father’s loyalty—and mine, perhaps—the king, almost a fugitive, took thought of my house as a temporary refuge until his forces might be reordered.” She paused a moment, turning over in her mind, it seemed to me, the advisability of frankness in a matter which she would fain forget. The flush on her face deepened, and she bit her lip. I saw her gaze move for a single instant to Jonas Slythey, who stood there pale and rhoist with agitation. Suddenly her eyes widened and blazed. “Before that, sir—between the king's first and second coming, this man,” indi- cating Slythey as if she loathed naming him, “learning that I had harbored his majesty, did threaten me with exposure to the king’s enemies, did I not ”—she hesi- tated—‘ did I not foreswear my—my re-- ligious faith. ‘‘ Later, failing to move me to his pur- pose, as I walked in the village with Mis- tress Prynne I was set upon by a mob, led by this man, and accused of witchcraft.” Cromwell, his face dark as a storm-cloud, turned upon the trembling Slythey. “By the mace!” he cried. “I ha’ mind o’ that before, and of this lad, Brooke, and the red-haired champion by the green. Ods! But is there no law in England that every Tom, Dick, and Harry administers justice to his own fancy?” ‘* Sir—your excellency!’’ stammered Sly- they. ‘‘ You do misjudge me, sir. Thou knowest my calling. I did so act only in my zeal—’”’ ry Gor ogle ‘Truth. pet ee ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. “ Zeal!” interrupted Bunyan in a belli- cose voice. “‘ Zeal! Great Gog and Magog! Lust, ye painted hypocrite! ‘“‘ Hear me, sir!” Bunyan cried, turning to Cromwell, who this time made no at- tempt to silence him. “I will tell thee of that which this lady's modesty cannot.” “Oh, Master Bunyan, I pray thee—no!”’ Mistress Joyce protested; but her plea was lost upon Hobgoblin Jack. In the voice of a Nemesis he told of Slythey’s record, much as he had rehearsed it that day by the duck-pond, describing the varying hues of that worthy’s profes- sional coat and how, particularly, be was expelled from the king’s army in which he was an officer at Edgehill. “Aye, sir! Turned out like the evil thing of gambling, drunkenness, such ungodliness. And mark this well, sir —I know these things of old, for he is of . my owh village of Elstow in Bedford, where ‘twas common gossip—’twas this lady’s father, Sir William Eveleigh, who was his accuser! “That have I found out since. And first, for vengeance, did this shedskin ligard persecute the orphaned daughter when! he did find her alone and unprotected, and, second, later being smitten with her beauty—” He suddenly took hold of Ruth’s wrist again and pulled her forwarc\into plainer view. ‘ Speak, girl!” he cried. ‘“ As thy hus- band, I command thee! Say that which thine own modesty said ye could ‘ reveal to no man,’ but which my light makes clear to me as the written tablet!” Poor Ruth. She tried to speak, to sup- port her John, to spare her mistress, to save me, perhaps. But she could not in Puritan modesty bring herself to utter the words. Her face crimsoned, and she burst into hot tears. “Very well!” cried John Zealous-far- “TI will even put words to it my- self! Know, then, sir, that Master Sly- they, becoming enamored of this lady’s beauty—the which I do not deny myself— hoped to terrorize her to his vile thought by the fear of death as a witch! ‘‘ Aye, on the very green of Naseby, ere NG AAS Cc ~ - - Uridginal Torr -- og GIOO