FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121  
122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   >>   >|  
men wearing a similar uniform, their muskets being piled in the middle of the room; while, apart from the rest, was a man standing with his back towards me, gazing abstractedly out of the window. He was dressed in the ordinary Corsican garb, and was leaning upon a long-barrelled musket, the butt of which rested upon the floor, his hands being crossed upon the muzzle of the barrel, and his chin resting upon them. "Good morning!" said I in English to the sergeant, as I struggled to my feet; "who are you, pray, and where have you come from?" "Approach, most amiable Guiseppe, and lend us your valuable aid as interpreter," said the sergeant, turning to the Corsican; "and see, my friend, that you interpret correctly. What was it he said?" The Corsican, whose brutal and sinister countenance fully justified the sergeant's previous remarks upon it, translated my salutation into excellent French. "Tell him," said the sergeant, "that you saw him land, and overheard sufficient of his conversation with his fellow-officer to satisfy you that he is the bearer of despatches from the English to one of your countrymen; that you betrayed him, and that I and my men were in consequence sent out to scour the country in search of him. Tell him also that, being found, he may make up his mind to be hanged before sunset; or--no, do not say anything about the hanging at present, he will know all about that soon enough, poor lad!" The rascal translated this speech in a manner to suit himself; that is, he said never a word concerning his own treachery, but to make up for the omission he included that part which had reference to my probable speedy fate. Of course I had learned pretty much all this in the first conversation between him and the sergeant; it was no news to me, but it terribly confirmed the surmises which had suggested themselves to my mind when I first became conscious that I was a prisoner. There was a single ray of hope, it is true, to which I clung, but it was by no means bright. I was evidently to be taken before his commanding officer, and I would acquaint him with the fact of my being a British officer, and claim to be treated as a prisoner of war. But then there was the ugly fact of my being in plain clothes--how was that to be got over? There was of course the shadow of a possibility that I might get out of my difficulties, could I but fabricate a sufficiently ingenious string of falsehoods; but now that it
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121  
122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
sergeant
 

Corsican

 

officer

 

conversation

 

English

 
translated
 
prisoner
 

reference

 
probable
 

speedy


wearing

 

omission

 
included
 

terribly

 
confirmed
 

surmises

 
ordinary
 
gazing
 

learned

 

pretty


treachery

 

leaning

 

present

 

hanging

 

manner

 

rascal

 

speech

 

suggested

 

shadow

 

clothes


possibility

 
ingenious
 

string

 

falsehoods

 

sufficiently

 
fabricate
 

difficulties

 
treated
 

single

 
conscious

dressed
 

acquaint

 
window
 
British
 

commanding

 

bright

 
evidently
 

interpreter

 
turning
 

friend