Title:  Sir Mortimer

Author:  Mary Johnston

Release Date:  October 20, 2004 [EBook #13812]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of this project gutenberg EBOOK sir Mortimer ***

Produced by Rick Niles, John Hagerson, Rick Niles, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

Sir Mortimer

A Novel

BY

Mary Johnston

Author of “To have and to hold”
“Prisoners of hope” Etc.

1904

TO

J.A.J.  And W.A.J.

Illustrations

“‘Oh, I envied her!’ She cried”  . . . . . . . . . . . .  Frontispiece

“Sir John thrust himself between the two”  . . . . . . . ._Facing p_. 16

“It was Baldry’s ship, the little STAR”  . . . . . . . . . . . . .  52

“‘Do you purpose, then, that he shall die?’ Demanded Baldry” . . . . 138

“‘I beg the shortest shrift that you may give’”  . . . . . . . . . . 174

“‘Damaris, they call him traitor’” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

‘"Ah, look not so upon me!’” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

“The friar presented A blank countenance to sir Mortimer’s queries” 260

“‘Lad, lad,’ he whispered, ‘where is thy master?’” . . . . . . . . . 284

Sir Mortimer

I

“But if we return not from our adventure,” ended Sir Mortimer, “if the sea claims us, and upon his sandy floor, amid his Armida gardens, the silver-singing mermaiden marvel at that wreckage which was once a tall ship and at those bones which once were animate,—­if strange islands know our resting-place, sunk for evermore in huge and most unkindly forests,—­if, being but pawns in a mighty game, we are lost or changed, happy, however, in that the white hand of our Queen hath touched us, giving thereby consecration to our else unworthiness,—­if we find no gold, nor take one ship of Spain, nor any city treasure-stored,—­if we suffer a myriad sort of sorrows and at the last we perish miserably—­”