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Micah Clarke

Chapter 5 Of the Man with the Drooping Lids

Word Count: 2624    |    Released on: 18/11/2017

ng pipe of Oronooko, and she working at her embroidery. The moment that I opened the door the man whom I had brought stepped briskly in, and

kersey stuff with flat new gilded brass buttons, beneath which was a whitish callamanca vest edged with silver. Round the neck of his coat was a broad white collar after the Dutch fashion, out of which his long scraggy throat shot upwards with his round head and bristle of hair balanced upon the top of it, like th

ely to come of all this. My father may grumble over his beer jugs, but

o need for you to meddle in the business

he crackling of sticks showed that she was busy in building a fire. Decimus Saxon was seated at the edge of the iron-bound oak chest at the side of my father, and was watching

he turned to the commencement and read it very carefully through, after which he turned it over and read it again. Clearly it brought no unwelcome news, for his eyes sparkled with joy

the contents, your own sense will tell you that I would scarce risk my neck by bearing a message without I knew what the message was. I am no chicken at the trade, sir. Carte

her. 'You are yourself

row and thorny track,' said he, speaking through h

no prelate can guide

t and the Lord is a

il his own are dried. My boots, too, may perchance be useful - my riding ones of untanned leather. A hat with silver braiding hangs above them in the cupboard. See that he l

may be fired falconets at him, though we are not so informed in Holy Writ. Let us pray, my friends!' Then in a high-toned chanting voice he offered up a long prayer of thanksgiving, winding up with a petition for grace and enlightenment for the house and all its inmates. Having concluded by a sonorous amen, he at last suffered himself to be led upstairs; while my mother, who had slipped in and listened wit

which sat upon him better than the pert and flippant carriage which he had shown towards us in the boat. Truth to say, if he was now more reserved, there was a very good reason for it, for he played such havoc amongst the eatables that there was little time for talk. At last, after passing from the round of cold beef to a capon

seen hard service,' my father remarked when the board h

Christendom in general when warring against the Turk. There is blood of mine, sir, Spotted all over the map of Europe. Some of it, I confess, was spilled in no public cause, but for the protection of mine own honour in the private duello or holmgang, as it was called among the nations

ord?' my father asked, shifting uneasily in his seat,

modesty, but with backsword, sword and dagger, sword and buckler, single falchion, case of falchions, or any other s

ger I should have at you! My backsword play hath been thought well of by stout

ster Richard Rumbold himself spake of your deeds of arms to th

ne both at praying and at fighting. We have ridden knee to knee in the field, and we have sought truth together in the chamber. So, Dick will be in harness o

ew and sinew, and can use proud words too upon occasion, as I have good cause to know, e

vy brows. 'But I pray you, friend Saxon, to give us some further account upon these matt

inute or more in silence, as one who is

ered across the Continent, much cast down at the strange peace which prevailed in every quarter. At last, however, on reaching the Lowlands, I chanced to hear that the Providence, owned and commanded by my two brothers, Nonus and Quartus, was about to start from Amsterdam for an adventure to the Guinea coast. I proposed to them that I should join them, and was a

hey came into the wate

ey down they must have. I then proceeded to prove, both by the Aristotelian and by the Platonic or deductive method, that having no guineas in my possession it was impossible for me to produce a thousand of them, at the same time pointing out that the association of an honest man in the business was in itself an ample return for the money, since their own reputations had been somewhat blown on. I further offered in the same frank and friendly spirit to meet either of them with sword or with pistol, a proposal which should have satisfied any honour-loving Cavaliero. Their base mercantile souls p

en picked up by the son of the v

other letters which must all be delivered by hand. If you will permi

it were your own

r his heart. 'This is indeed a haven of rest after the ungodly and profane company o

hich my mother had left on the table. He took it with him, he explained, as a precaution against Persian ague, contracted while battling against the Ottoman, and

u of my find,

uth he has brought me news so much after my heart, tha

news,

s I had best sleep the night upon it, and read it tomorrow when our heads are clearer. May the Lord guide my pa

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1 Chapter 1 Of Cornet Joseph Clarke of the Ironsides2 Chapter 2 Of my going to school and of my coming thence3 Chapter 3 Of Two Friends of my Youth4 Chapter 4 Of the Strange Fish that we Caught at Spithead5 Chapter 5 Of the Man with the Drooping Lids6 Chapter 6 Of the Letter that came from the Lowlands7 Chapter 7 Of the Horseman who rode from the West8 Chapter 8 Of our Start for the Wars9 Chapter 9 Of a Passage of Arms at the Blue Boar10 Chapter 10 Of our Perilous Adventure on the Plain11 Chapter 11 Of the Lonely Man and the Gold Chest12 Chapter 12 Of certain Passages upon the Moor13 Chapter 13 Of Sir Gervas Jerome, Knight Banneret of the County of Surrey14 Chapter 14 Of the Stiff-legged Parson and his Flock15 Chapter 15 Of our Brush with the King's Dragoons16 Chapter 16 Of our Coming to Taunton17 Chapter 17 Of the Gathering in the Market-square18 Chapter 18 Of Master Stephen Timewell, Mayor of Taunton19 Chapter 19 Of a Brawl in the Night20 Chapter 20 Of the Muster of the Men of the West21 Chapter 21 Of my Hand-grips with the Brandenburger22 Chapter 22 Of the News from Havant23 Chapter 23 Of the Snare on the Weston Road24 Chapter 24 Of the Welcome that met me at Badminton25 Chapter 25 Of Strange Doings in the Boteler Dungeon26 Chapter 26 Of the Strife in the Council27 Chapter 27 Of the Affair near Keynsham Bridge28 Chapter 28 Of the Fight in Wells Cathedral29 Chapter 29 Of the Great Cry from the Lonely House30 Chapter 30 Of the Swordsman with the Brown Jacket31 Chapter 31 Of the Maid of the Marsh and the Bubble which rose from the Bog32 Chapter 32 Of the Onfall at Sedgemoor33 Chapter 33 Of my Perilous Adventure at the Mill34 Chapter 34 Of the Coming of Solomon Sprent35 Chapter 35 Of the Devil in Wig and Gown36 Chapter 36 Of the End of it All37 Appendix