"William Morris - The Wood Beyond the World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris William)

house. He held his peace awhile, and then he said in a voice as of an angry man:

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“What, Arnold! and did he die in his bed, or how? for he was neither old nor ailing when we
parted.”


Said Arnold: “Yea, in his bed he died: but first he was somewhat sword-bitten.”


“Yea, and how?” quoth Walter.


Said Arnold: “When thou wert gone, in a few days’ wearing, thy father sent thy wife out of his
house back to her kindred of the Reddings with no honour, and yet with no such shame as might
have been, without blame to us of those who knew the tale of thee and her; which, God-a-mercy,
will be pretty much the whole of the city.”


“Nevertheless, the Reddings took it amiss, and would have a mote with us Goldings to talk of
booting. By ill-luck we yea-said that for the saving of the city’s peace. But what betid? We met
in our Gild-hall, and there befell the talk between us; and in that talk certain words could not be
hidden, though they were none too seemly nor too meek. And the said words once spoken drew
forth the whetted steel; and there then was the hewing and thrusting! Two of ours were slain
outright on the floor, and four of theirs, and many were hurt on either side. Of these was thy
father, for as thou mayst well deem, he was nought backward in the fray; but despite his hurts,
two in the side and one on the arm, he went home on his own feet, and we deemed that we had
come to our above. But well-a-way! it was an evil victory, whereas in ten days he died of his
hurts. God have his soul! But now, my master, thou mayst well wot that I am not come to tell
thee this only, but moreover to bear the word of the kindred, to wit that thou come back with me
straightway in the swift cutter which hath borne me and the tidings; and thou mayst look to it,
that though she be swift and light, she is a keel full weatherly.”


Then said Walter: “This is a bidding of war. Come back will I, and the Reddings shall wot of my
coming. Are ye all-boun?”




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“Yea,” said Arnold, “we may up anchor this very day, or to-morrow morn at latest. But what
aileth thee, master, that thou starest so wild over my shoulder? I pray thee take it not so much to
heart! Ever it is the wont of fathers to depart this world before their sons.”


But Walter’s visage from wrathful red had become pale, and he pointed up street, and cried out:
“Look! dost thou see?”