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40 - Montezuma's Daughter by H Rider Haggard · Montezumas Daughter

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty nine, Thomas comes back from the Dead Now.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: On the morrow of my visit to Marina, the Captain
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Diaz came to see me and told me that a
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: friend of his was in command of a carrack which
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: was due to sail from the port of Vera Cruz
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: for Cadiz within ten days, and that this friend was
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: willing to give me a passage if I wished to
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: leave Mexico. I thought for a while and said that
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I would go, and that very night, having bid farewell
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: to the Captain Diaz home, may God prosper, for he
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: was a good man among many bad ones, I set
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: out from the city for the last time, in the
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: company of some merchants. A week's journey took us safely
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: down the mountains to Vera Cruz, a hot, unhealthy town
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: with an indifferent anchorage, much exposed to the fierce northerly winds.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Here I presented my letters of recommendation to the commander
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: of the carrack, who gave me passage without question. I
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: laying in a stock of food for the journey. Three
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: nights later we set sail with a fair wind, and
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: on the following morning, at daybreak, all that was left
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: in sight of the land of Annuhuac was the snowy
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: crest of the Vulcan Arrizaba. Presently that vanished into the clouds.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: And thus did I bid farewell to the far country,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: where so many things had happened to me, and which,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: according to my reckoning, I had first sighted this very day,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: eighteen years before of my journey to Spain. I have
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: nothing of note to hell. It was more prosperous than
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: such voyageous. After an hour, and within ten weeks of
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the date of our lifting anchor at Vera, Cruz, we
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: let it drop in the harbor of Cadiz. Here I
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: sojourned for two days, and as it chanced, there was
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: an English ship in the harbor trading to London, and
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: in her I took a passage. Though I was obliged
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: to sell the smallest of the emeralds from the necklace,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: to find the means to do so, the money that
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Marina gave me being spent, this emerald sold for a
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: great sum, however, with part of which I purchase clothing
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: suitable for a person of rank. Taking the rest of
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the gold with me, I grieved to part with the
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: stone indeed, though it was but a pendant to the
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  Speaker 1: pendant of the color. But necessity knows no law. The
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  Speaker 1: pendant stone itself a fine gem, though flawed, I gave
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  Speaker 1: in after years to her gracious majesty, Queen Elizabeth. On
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  Speaker 1: board the English ship, they thought me a Spanish adventurer
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  Speaker 1: who had made moneys in the Indies, and I did
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  Speaker 1: not undeceive them, since I would be left to my
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: own company for a while, that I might prepare my
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: mind to return to ways of thought and life that
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: it had long forgotten. Herefore I sat apart like some
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: proud dawn, saying little, but listening much, and learning all
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: I could of what had chanced in England since I
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: left it some twenty years before. At length, our voyage
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: came to an end, and on the certain twelfth of June,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I found myself in the mighty city of London, that
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: I had no yet visited. And, kneeling down in the
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  Speaker 1: chamber of my inn, I thanked God that, after enduring
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: so many dangers and hardships, it had pleased him to
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  Speaker 1: preserve me to set foot again on English soil. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: to this hour I counted nothing short of marvelous that
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  Speaker 1: this frail body of a man should survive all the
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  Speaker 1: sorrows and risks of death by sickness, hunger, battle, murder, drowning,
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  Speaker 1: wild beasts, and the cruelty of men to which mine
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  Speaker 1: had been exposed for many years. In London, I bought
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  Speaker 1: a good horse through the kind officers of the host
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  Speaker 1: of my inn, and on the morrow, at daybreak, I
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: set out upon the Ipswich road. That very morning, my
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: last adventure befell me. For as I jogged along, musing
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  Speaker 1: of the beauty of the English landscape and drinking in
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the sweet air of June, a cowardly thief fired a
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  Speaker 1: pistol at me from behind a hedge, purposing to plunder
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  Speaker 1: me if I fell. The bullet passed through my hat,
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  Speaker 1: grazing the skull. But before I could do anything, the
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  Speaker 1: rascal fled, seeing that he had missed his mark, and
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: I went on with my journey, thinking to myself that
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: it would indeed have been strange if, after passing such
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  Speaker 1: great dangers in safety, I had died at last by
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  Speaker 1: the hand of a miserable footpad within five miles of
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  Speaker 1: London Town. I rode hard all that day and the next,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and my horse, being stout and swift. By half past
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: seven o'clock of the evening, I pulled up upon the
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  Speaker 1: little hill whence I had looked my last on Bungay,
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  Speaker 1: when I rode thence for Yamouth with my father. Below
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  Speaker 1: me lay the red roofs of the town. There to
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  Speaker 1: the right were the oaks of Ditchingham and the beautiful
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  Speaker 1: tower of Saint Mary's Church. Yonder, the stream of Waveny wandered,
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  Speaker 1: and before me stretched the meadow lands, purple and golden,
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  Speaker 1: with marsh weeds in bloom. All was as it had been.
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  Speaker 1: I could see no change at all. The only change
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  Speaker 1: was in myself. I dismounted, and going to a pool
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: of water near the roadway, I looked at the reflection
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: of my own face. I was changed. Indeed, scarcely should
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  Speaker 1: I have known it for that of a lad who
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: had ridden up this hill some twenty years ago. Now
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  Speaker 1: alas the eyes were sunken and very sorrowful, the features
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  Speaker 1: were sharp, and there was more gray than black in
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  Speaker 1: the beard. And here I should scarcely have known it myself.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Would any others know it? I wondered? Would there be
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: any to know it? Indeed, in twenty years, many die,
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  Speaker 1: anothers pass out of sight. Should I find a friend
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  Speaker 1: at all among the living? Since I read the letters
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  Speaker 1: which Captain Bell of the Adventuress had brought me before
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: I sailed for Hispaniola, I had heard no tidings from
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  Speaker 1: my home, and what tidings awaited me? Now? Above all?
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: What of Lily? Was she dead? Or married or gone?
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Mounting my horse, I pushed on again at a canter,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: taking the road past Wayingford Mills, through the forts of
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Pernhau Town, leaving Bungay. Upon my left. In ten minutes
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: I was at the gate of the bridle path that
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: runs from the Norwich Road for half a mile or more,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: beneath the steep and wooded bank, under the shelter of
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: which stands the lodge at Ditchingham. By the gate, a
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  Speaker 1: man loitered in the last rays of the sun. I
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: looked at him and knew him. It was Billy Min's,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: that same fool who had loose de Gaucier when I
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  Speaker 1: left him, bound that I might run to meet my sweetheart.
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  Speaker 1: He was an old man now, and his white hair
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  Speaker 1: hung about his withered face. Moreover, he was unclean and
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  Speaker 1: dressed in rags, But I could have fallen on his
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  Speaker 1: neck and embraced him. So rejoice was I to look
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  Speaker 1: once more on one whom I had known in youth.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Seeing me come, he hobbled on his stick to the
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  Speaker 1: gate to open it for me, whining a prayer for arms.
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  Speaker 1: Does mister Wingfield live here? I said, pointing up the path,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: And my breath came quick as I asked, mister Wingfield, Sir,
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  Speaker 1: mister Wingfield, which of them? He answered, the old gentleman,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: He's been dead nigh upon twenty years. I helped to
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: dig his grave in the chancel of Yonder Church. I did.
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  Speaker 1: We laid him by his wife. Heard that was murdered.
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  Speaker 1: Then there's mister Jeffrey. What of him? I asked, He's
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: dead too, twelve years gone or more. He drank hisself
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  Speaker 1: to dead, he did. And mister Thomas, he's dead, drowned overseas,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: they say, many a winter bag. They're all dead, all dead. Ah.
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  Speaker 1: He was a rare one, mister Thomas. Was I mind me? Well?
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: How I let that farriner go? And he rambled off
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  Speaker 1: into the tail of how he had set the gacier
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  Speaker 1: on his horse after I had beaten him nor could
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  Speaker 1: I bring him back from it. Casting the piece of money,
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  Speaker 1: I set spurs to my weary horse and cantered up
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  Speaker 1: the bridle path, leaving the mill house on my left.
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  Speaker 1: And as I went, the beat of his hoofs seemed
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  Speaker 1: to echo the old man's words, all dead, all dead.
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  Speaker 1: Doubtless Lily was dead also, or if she was not dead,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: when the tidings came that I had been drowned at sea,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: she would have married. Being so fair and sweet, she
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: would surely not have lacked for suitors. Nor could it
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: be believed that she had worn her life away mourning
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: over the lost love of her youth. Now the lodge
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  Speaker 1: was before me. It had changed no whit, except that
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  Speaker 1: the ivies and creepers on its front had grown higher
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  Speaker 1: to the roof. Indeed, and I could see the people
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  Speaker 1: lived in the house, for it was well kept, and
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: smoke hung above the chimneys. The gate was locked, and
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  Speaker 1: there was no serving men about, for night fell fast
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  Speaker 1: and all had ceased from their labor. Leaving the house
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  Speaker 1: on the right, I passed round it to the stables
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  Speaker 1: that are at the back near the hillside garden. But
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: here the gate was also locked, and I dismounted, not
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  Speaker 1: knowing what to do. Indeed, I was so unmanned with
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  Speaker 1: fear and doubt that for a while I seemed bewildered.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: And leaving the horse to crop the grass where he stood,
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  Speaker 1: I wandered to the foot of the church path and
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: gazed up the hill as though I waited for the
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  Speaker 1: coming of one whom I should meet. What if they
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  Speaker 1: were all dead? What if she were dead and gone? Oh?
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  Speaker 1: I buried my face in my hands and prayed to
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  Speaker 1: the Almighty, who had protected me through so many years,
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  Speaker 1: to spare me this last bitterness. I was crushed with sorrow,
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  Speaker 1: and I felt that I could bear no more if
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Lily were lost to me. Also, then I thought that
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  Speaker 1: it would be best that I should die, since there
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: was nothing left for which I cared to live. Thus
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: I prayed for some while, trembling like a leaf, And
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: when I looked up again ere, I turned to seek
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: tidings from those that dwelt in the house, whoever they
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  Speaker 1: might be. The twilight had fallen completely, and lo, the
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: nightingales sang both far and near. I listened to their song,
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  Speaker 1: and as I listened, some troubled memory came back to me.
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  Speaker 1: That at first I could not grasp. Then suddenly there
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  Speaker 1: rose up in my mind a vision of the splendid
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  Speaker 1: chamber of Montezuma's palace at Tenoptaclon, and of myself sleeping
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  Speaker 1: on a golden bed, and dreaming on that bed, I
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  Speaker 1: knew it. Now I was a god tesquat, and on
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  Speaker 1: the morrow I must be sacrifice. And I slept in misery.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: And as I slept I dreamed. I dreamed that I
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  Speaker 1: stood where I stood this night, that the scent of
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  Speaker 1: the English flowers was in my nostrils, as it was
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  Speaker 1: this night, and that the sweet song of the nightingales
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  Speaker 1: rang in my ears as at this present hour. I
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  Speaker 1: dreamed that as I mused and listened, the moon came
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  Speaker 1: up over the green ash and oaks, and lo there
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  Speaker 1: she shone. I dreamed that I heard the sound of
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  Speaker 1: singing on the hill. But now I awoke from this
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  Speaker 1: vision of the past and a long lost stream, for
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: as I stood, the sweet voice of a woman began
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  Speaker 1: to sing yonder on the brow of the slope. I
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  Speaker 1: was not mad. I heard it clearly, and the sound
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: grew ever nearer. As the singer drew down the steep hillside.
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  Speaker 1: It was so near now that I could catch the
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  Speaker 1: very words of the sad song, which to this day
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: I remember. Now I could see the woman's shape in
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: the moonlight. It was tall and stately, and clad in
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  Speaker 1: a white robe. Presently she lifted her head to watch
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: the flitter of a bat, and the moonlit lit upon
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  Speaker 1: her face. It was the face of Lily Bozard, my
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: lost love, beautiful as of yore, though grown older and
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: stamped with the seal of some great sorrow. I saw,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: And so deeply was I stirred at the sight, that
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: had it not been for the low paling to which
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: I clung, I must have fallen to the earth, and
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: a deep groan broke from my lips. She heard the
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: groan and ceased her song. Then, catching sight of the
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: figure of a man, she stopped and turned as though
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: to fly. I stood quite still and wonder Overcoming her fear,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: she drew nearer and spoke in the sweet, soft, low
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: voice that I remembered well, saying, who wonders here? So late?
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  Speaker 1: Is it you? John? Now? When I heard her speak,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: thus a new fear took me. Doubtless, she was married,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: and John was her husband. I had found her, but
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: to lose her more completely. Of a sudden it came
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: into my mind that I would not discover myself till
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: I knew the truth. I advanced at a pace, but
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: not so far as to pass from the shadows of
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: the shrubs which grew here, and taking my stand in
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  Speaker 1: such a fashion that the moonlight did not strike upon
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: my face, I bowed low in a courtly Spanish fashion,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: and disguising my voice, spoke as a Spaniard might, in
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  Speaker 1: broken English, which I was spared to write down. Madam,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: I said, have either the honor to speak to one who,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: in bygone year it was named the Senora Lilli Bouzard.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: That my name? She answered, what is your Errand with me,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: sir now, I trembled afresh, but spoke on boldly before
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  Speaker 1: I answer, Madam, forgive me, for if I ask another question,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: is this still your name? It is still my name?
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  Speaker 1: I am no married woman, she answered, and for a
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: moment the sky seemed to reel above me, and the
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: ground to heave beneath my feet like the lava crust
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: of Jhaka. But as yet I did not reveal myself,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: for I wished to learn if she still loved my memory, Senora,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: I said, I am a Spaniard who has served in
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the Indian Wars of Cortes, of which perhaps you have heard.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: She bowed her head, and I went on. In those wars,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I met a man who was named Tule, but who
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: had another name informed days. So he told me, on
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: his deathbed, some two years ago, what name? She asked
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: in a low voice. Ah, it was Thomas Wingfield. Now
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Lily moaned aloud, and in her turn caught at the
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: pails to save herself from falling. I deemed him dead
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: those eighteen years she gasped, drowned in the Indian seas
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: where his vessel founded. I have heard that he was
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: shipwrecked in those seas, Senora. But he escaped death and
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: fell among the Indians, who made a god of him
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: and gave him the daughter of their king in marriage.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: And I paused. She shivered, then said, in a hard voice, continue, sir,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I listened to you. My Frendule took the part of
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the Indians in the wars, as being the husband of
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: one of their princesses, he must do in honor, and
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: fought bravely for them for many years. At length the
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: town that he defended, was captured, his one remaining child
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: was murdered. His wife, the Princess, slew herself for sorrow,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and he himself was taken into captivity, where he languished
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: and died. A sad tale, sir, she said, with a
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: little laugh, a mournful laugh that was half choked by tears.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: A very sad tale, Senor, but one which is not finished.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: While he lay dying, my friend told me that in
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: his early life he had plighted troth with a certain
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: English maid named I know the name. Continue. He told
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: me that though he had been wedded and loved his wife,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: the Princess, who was a very royal woman, that many
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: times had risked her life for his aye, even to
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: lying at his side upon the stone of sacrifice and
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: of her own free will. Yet the memory of this
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: woman to whom he once betrothed, had companied him through life,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: and was strong upon him now at its close. Therefore,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: he prayed me, for our friendship's sake, to seek her
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: out when I returned to Europe, should she still live,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: and to give her a message from him, and to
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: make a prayer to her on his behalf. What message?
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: What prayer? Lily? Whispered this that he loved her at
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: the end of his life, as he heard loved her
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: at the beginning, that he humbly prayed her forgiveness because
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: he had broken the troth that they too swore beneath
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the tree at Ditchingham. Sir, she cried, what do you
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: know of that? Only what my friend told me. Senora,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Your friendship must have been close, and your memory must
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: be good, she murmured, which he had done. I went
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: on under strange circumstances, so strange indeed, that he dared
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: to hope that his broken troth might be renewed in
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: some better world than this. His last prayer was that
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: she should say to me, his messenger, that she forgave
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: him and still loved him, as to his death he
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: loved her. And how can such forgiveness or such an
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: avowal advantage a dead man, Lily asked, Watching me keenly
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: through the shadows, have their dead eyes to see and
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: ears to hear? Oh, how can I know, Senora? I
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: do but execute my mission? And how can I know
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: that you are a true stranger? It chants that I
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: had some tidings of the drowning of Thomas wingfield many
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: years ago. And this tale of Indians and princesses is
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: wondering strange, more like those that happen in romances than
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: in this plain world. Have you no token of your
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: good faith? Sir oh, I have such a token, Senora,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: But the light is too faint for you to see it.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Then follow me to the house. There we will get light.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: Now stay, and once more, going to the stable gate,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: she called John. An old man answered her, and I
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: knew the voice for that of one of my father's
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: serving men. To him, she spoke in low tones, then
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: led the way by the garden path to the front
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: door of the house, which she opened with a key
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: from her girdle, motioning me to pass in before her.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: I did so, and, thinking little of such matters at
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: the moment, turned by habit into the doorway of the
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: sitting room, which I knew so well, lifting my feet
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: to avoid stumbling on its step, and passing into the room,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: found my way through the gloom to the wide fireplace,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: where I took my stand. Lily watched me enter, then
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: following me, she lit a taper at the fire, which
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: smolded on the hearth, and placed it upon the table
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: in the window in such fashion that, though I was
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: now obliged to take off my hat, my face was
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: still in shadow. Now, sir, your token, if it pleases you.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Then I drew the posy ring from my finger and
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: gave it to her, and she sat down by the
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: table and examined it in the light of the candle.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: And as she sat thus, I saw how beautiful she
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: was still, and how little time had touched her, except
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: for the sadness of her face, though now she had
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: seen eight and thirty winters. I saw also that, though
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: she kept control of her features, as she looked upon
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: the ring, her breast heaved quickly and her hand shook.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: The token is a true one, she said at length.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: I know the ring, though it is somewhat worn, since
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: last I saw it. It was my mother's, and many
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: years ago I gave it as a love gage to
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: youth to whom I promise myself in marriage. Doubtless, all
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: your tale is true also, sir, and I thank you
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: for your courtesy in bringing it so far. It is
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: a sad tale, a very sad tale. And now, sir,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: as I may not ask you to stay in this
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: house where I live alone, and there is no inn nearby.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I propose to send serving men to conduct you to
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: my brother's dwelling, that is something more than a mile away. If, indeed,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: she added slowly, you do not already know the path.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: There you will find entertainment, and there the sister of
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: your dead companion, Mary Beauzard, will be glad to learn
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: the story of his strange adventures from your lips. I
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: bowed my head and answered, first, Senor, I would pray
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: your answer to my friend's dying prayer and message. It
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: is childish to send answers to the dead. Still I
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: pray for them as I was charged to do. How
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: reads the writing within the ring, sir, heart to heart,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: thou far apart, I said glibly, And next instance, I
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: could have bitten out my tongue. Ah, you know that also,
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: But doubtless you have carried the ring for many months
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: and learned the writing well, sir. Though we are far apart,
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: and though perchance I cherished the memory of him who
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: wore this ring, and for his sake, remained unwed, it
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: seemed that his heart went astraying through the breast, indeed
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: of some savage woman whom he married, and who bore
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: him children. That being so, my answer to the prayer
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: of your dead friend is that I forgive him indeed,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: but I must needs take back the vows which I
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: swore to him for this life and forever, since he
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: has broken them, And as best I may strive to
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: cast out the love I bore him, since he rejected
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and dishonored it. And standing up, Lily made as though
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: she tore at her breast and threw something from her,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: And at the same time she let fall the ring
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: upon the floor. I heard, and my heart stood still.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: So this was the end of it. Well, she had
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: the right of me. Though now I began to wish
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: that I had been less honest, for sometimes women can
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: forgive a lie sooner than such rankness. I said nothing.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: My tongue was tied, but a great misery and weariness
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: entered me. Stooping down, I found the ring, and replacing
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: it on my finger, I turned to seek the door,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: with a last glance at the woman who refused me.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Half Way thither, I paused for one second, wondering if
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: I should do well to declare myself. Then bethought me
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: that if she would not abate her anger towards me, dead,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: her pity for me living would be small. Nay, I
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: was dead to her, and dead I would remain. Now
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I was at the door, and my foot was on
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: its step, when suddenly a voice, Lily's voice, sounded in
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: my ears, and it was sweet and kind. Thomas said
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: the voice, Thomas, before you go, will you take count
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: of the gold and goods and land that you placed
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: in my keeping. Now I turned amazed, and lo, Lily
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: came towards me, slowly with her outstretched arms. Oh, foolish man,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: she whispered. Low, did you think to deceive a woman's
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: heart thus clumsily? You who talked of the beach in
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: the hall garden, You who found your way so well
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: to this dark chamber and spoke the writing of the
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: ring with the very voice of one who had been
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: dead so long. Listen, I forgive that friend of yours
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: his broken troth, for he was honest in the telling
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: of his fault. And it is hard for a man
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: to live alone so many years, and in strange companies
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: come strange adventures. Moreover, I will still say it. I
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: still love him as it seems he loves me, though
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: in truth I grow somewhat old, for love, who have
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: lingered long, waiting to find it beyond my grave. Thus
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Lily spoke, sobbing as she spoke. Then my arms closed
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: round her, and she said no more. And yet as
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: our lips met, I thought of Artomi, remembering her words,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: and remembering also that she had died by her own
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: hand on this very day, a year ago. Let us
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: pray that the dead have no vision of the living.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter thirty nine. Recording by Patrick seventy nine