The Days of Bruce Vol 1 eBook

Grace Aguilar
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 523 pages of information about The Days of Bruce Vol 1.

The Days of Bruce Vol 1 eBook

Grace Aguilar
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 523 pages of information about The Days of Bruce Vol 1.

“Insult—­interruption!” fiercely exclaimed the king, starting up.  “Who has dared—­who loves his life so little as to do this?  But speak on, speak on, we listen.”

“Pardon me, your highness, I came to tender my resignation, not an accusation,” resumed the wily earl, cautiously lashing his sovereign into fury, aware that it was much easier to gain what he wished in such moods than as he found him now.  “I came but to beseech your highness to resume that which your own royal hands had given me.  My authority trampled upon, my loyalty insulted, my zeal in your grace’s service derided, my very men compelled, perforce of arms, to disobey me, and this by one high in your grace’s estimation, nay, connected with your royal self.  Surely, my gracious liege, I do but right in resigning the high honor your highness bestowed.  I can have little merit to retain it, and such things be.”

“But they shall not be, sir.  As there is a God above us, they shall not be!” exclaimed the king, in towering wrath, and striking his hand on a small table of crystal near him with such violence as to shiver it to pieces.  “By heaven and hell! they shall repent this, be it mine own son who hath been thus insolent.  Speak out, I tell thee, as thou lovest thy life, speak out; drive me not mad by this cautiously-worded tale.  Who hath dared trample on authority mine own hand and seal hath given—­who is the traitor?  Speak out, I charge thee!” and strengthened by his own passion, the king sate upright on his couch, clenching his hand till the blood sprung, and fixing his dark, fiery eyes on the earl.  It was the mood he had tried for, and now artfully and speciously, with many additions, he narrated all that had passed the preceding day in the castle-yard of Berwick.  Fiercer and fiercer waxed the wrath of the king.

“Fling him in the lowest dungeon, load him with the heaviest fetters hands can forge!” were the words first distinguished, when passion permitted articulation.  “The villain, the black-faced traitor! it is not enough he hath dared raise arms against me, but he must beard me to the very teeth, defy me in my very palace, throw scorn upon me, maltreat an officer of mine own person!  Is there no punishment but death for this foul insolence!  As there is a God in heaven, he shall feel my vengeance ere he reach the scaffold—­feel it, aye, till death be but too welcome!” He sunk back, exhausted by his own violence; but not a minute passed ere again he burst forth.  “And Hereford, the traitor Hereford, he dared defend him! dared assault thee in the pursuance of thy duty, the audacious insolent!  Doth he think, forsooth, his work in Scotland will exempt him from the punishment of insolence, of treason? as an aider and abettor of treachery he shares its guilt, and shall know whom he hath insulted.  Back to thy citadel, my Lord of Berwick, see to the strict incarceration of this foul branch of treachery, aye, and look well about ye, lest any seditious citizen

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Days of Bruce Vol 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.