The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses by Robert Louis Stevenson

Author:Robert Louis Stevenson
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: War stories, Knights and knighthood -- Fiction, Bildungsromans, Outlaws -- Fiction, 1455-1485 -- Fiction, Young men -- Fiction, Historical fiction, Great Britain -- History -- Wars of the Roses, Guardian and ward -- Fiction
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2023-04-24T03:39:58+00:00

IV

The “Good Hope”

An hour there­after, Dick was back at the Goat and Bag­pipes, break­ing his fast, and re­ceiv­ing the re­port of his mes­sen­gers and sentries. Duck­worth was still ab­sent from Shoreby; and this was fre­quently the case, for he played many parts in the world, shared many dif­fer­ent in­terests, and con­duc­ted many vari­ous af­fairs. He had foun­ded that fel­low­ship of the Black Ar­row, as a ruined man long­ing for ven­geance and money; and yet among those who knew him best, he was thought to be the agent and emis­sary of the great king­maker of Eng­land, Richard, Earl of War­wick.

In his ab­sence, at any rate, it fell upon Richard Shelton to com­mand af­fairs in Shoreby; and, as he sat at meat, his mind was full of care, and his face heavy with con­sid­er­a­tion. It had been de­term­ined, between him and the Lord Fox­ham, to make one bold stroke that even­ing, and, by brute force, to set Joanna free. The obstacles, how­ever, were many; and as one after an­oth­er of his scouts ar­rived, each brought him more dis­com­fort­able news.

Sir Daniel was alarmed by the skir­mish of the night be­fore. He had in­creased the gar­ris­on of the house in the garden; but not con­tent with that, he had sta­tioned horse­men in all the neigh­bour­ing lanes, so that he might have in­stant word of any move­ment. Mean­while, in the court of his man­sion, steeds stood saddled, and the riders, armed at every point, awaited but the sig­nal to ride.

The ad­ven­ture of the night ap­peared more and more dif­fi­cult of ex­e­cu­tion, till sud­denly Dick’s coun­ten­ance lightened.

“Law­less!” he cried, “you that were a ship­man, can ye steal me a ship?”

“Mas­ter Dick,” replied Law­less, “if ye would back me, I would agree to steal York Min­ster.”

Presently after, these two set forth and des­cen­ded to the har­bour. It was a con­sid­er­able basin, ly­ing among sand-hills, and sur­roun­ded with patches of down, an­cient ru­in­ous lum­ber, and tumble­down slums of the town. Many decked ships and many open boats either lay there at an­chor, or had been drawn up on the beach. A long dur­a­tion of bad weath­er had driv­en them from the high seas in­to the shel­ter of the port; and the great troop­ing of black clouds, and the cold squalls that fol­lowed one an­oth­er, now with a sprink­ling of dry snow, now in a mere swoop of wind, prom­ised no im­prove­ment but rather threatened a more ser­i­ous storm in the im­me­di­ate fu­ture.

The sea­men, in view of the cold and the wind, had for the most part slunk ashore, and were now roar­ing and singing in the shoreside tav­erns. Many of the ships already rode un­guarded at their an­chors; and as the day wore on, and the weath­er offered no ap­pear­ance of im­prove­ment, the num­ber was con­tinu­ally be­ing aug­men­ted. It was to these deser­ted ships, and, above all, to those of them that lay far out, that Law­less dir­ec­ted his at­ten­tion; while Dick, seated upon an an­chor that was half em­bed­ded in the sand, and giv­ing ear, now to

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