The Collected Works of Rafael Sabatini. Rafael Sabatini

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СКАЧАТЬ Chevalier's rescue we took ship from that port to Santander.

      That same evening, as I leaned upon the taffrail watching the distant coast line of my beloved France, whose soil meseemed I was not like to tread again for years, Yvonne came softly up behind me.

      “Monsieur,” she said in a voice that trembled somewhat, “I have, indeed, misjudged you. The shame of it has made me hold aloof from you since we left Blois. I cannot tell you, Monsieur, how deep that shame has been, or with what sorrow I have been beset for the words I uttered at Canaples. Had I but paused to think—”

      “Nay, nay, Mademoiselle, 't was all my fault, I swear. I left you overlong the dupe of appearances.”

      “But I should not have believed them so easily. Say that I am forgiven, Monsieur,” she pleaded; “tell me what reparation I can make.”

      “There is one reparation that you can make if you are so minded,” I answered, “but 'tis a life-long reparation.”

      They were bold words, indeed, but my voice played the coward and shook so vilely that it bereft them of half their boldness. But, ah, Dieu, what joy, what ecstasy was mine to see how they were read by her; to remark the rich, warm blood dyeing her cheeks in a bewitching blush; to behold the sparkle that brightened her matchless eyes as they met mine!

      “Yvonne!”

      “Gaston!”

      She was in my arms at last, and the work of reparation was begun whilst together we gazed across the sun-gilt sea towards the fading shores of France.

      If you be curious to learn how, guided by the gentle hand of her who plucked me from the vile ways that in my old life I had trodden, I have since achieved greatness, honour, and renown, History will tell you.

      THE TAVERN KNIGHT

       Table of Contents

       Table of Contents

       Chapter I. On the March

       Chapter II. Arcades Ambo

       Chapter III. The Letter

       Chapter IV. At the Sign of the Mitre

       Chapter V. After Worcester Field

       Chapter VI. Companions in Misfortune

       Chapter VII. The Tavern Knight's Story

       Chapter VIII. The Twisted Bar

       Chapter IX. The Bargain

       Chapter X. The Escape

       Chapter XI. The Ashburns

       Chapter XII. The House that was Roland Marleigh's

       Chapter XIII. The Metamorphosis of Kenneth

       Chapter XIV. The Heart of Cynthia Ashburn

       Chapter XV. Joseph's Return

       Chapter XVI. The Reckoning

       Chapter XVII. Joseph Drives a Bargain

       Chapter XVIII. Counter-plot

       Chapter XIX. The Interrupted Journey

       Chapter XX. The Converted Hogan

       Chapter XXI. The Message Kenneth Bore

       Chapter XXII. Sir Crispin's Undertaking

       Chapter XXIII. Gregory's Attrition

       Chapter XXIV. The Wooing of Cynthia

       Chapter XXV. Cynthia's Flight

       Chapter XXVI. To France

       Chapter XXVII. The Auberge du Soleil

      CHAPTER I.

       ON THE MARCH

       Table of Contents

      He whom they called the Tavern Knight laughed an evil laugh—such a laugh as might fall from the lips of Satan in a sardonic moment.

      He sat within the halo of yellow light shed by two tallow candles, whose sconces were two empty bottles, and contemptuously he eyed the youth in black, standing with white face and quivering lip in a corner of the mean chamber. Then he laughed again, and in a hoarse voice, sorely suggestive of the bottle, he broke into song. He lay back in his chair, his long, spare legs outstretched, his spurs jingling to the lilt of his ditty whose burden ran:

      On the lip so red of the wench that's sped

       His passionate kiss burns, still-O!

       For 'tis April time, and of love and wine

       Youth's way is to take its fill-O!

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