Look not to their feet, for that they stand on!"
"Where, then, i' the name of all the saints?"
"Look over their heads," said Denys gravely.
Following this direction, Gerard presently discerned the outline of
a dark wooden beam passing from pillar to pillar; and as the pair got
nearer, walking now on tiptoe, one by one dark snake-like cords came out
in the moonlight, each pendent from the beam to a dead man, and tight as
wire.
Now as they came under this awful monument of crime and wholesale
vengeance a light air swept by, and several of the corpses swung, or
gently gyrated, and every rope creaked. Gerard shuddered at this ghastly
salute. So thoroughly had the gibbet, with its sickening load, seized
and held their eyes, that it was but now they perceived a fire right
underneath, and a living figure sitting huddled over it. His axe lay
beside him, the bright blade shining red in the glow. He was asleep.
Gerard started, but Denys only whispered, "courage, comrade, here is a
fire."
"Ay! but there is a man at it."
"There will soon be three;" and he began to heap some wood on it that
the watcher had prepared; during which the prudent Gerard seized the
man's axe, and sat down tight on it, grasping his own, and examining the
sleeper. There was nothing outwardly distinctive in the man. He wore the
dress of the country folk, and the hat of the district, a three-cornered
hat called a Brunswicker, stiff enough to turn a sword cut, and with a
thick brass hat-band.
Pages:
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235