"
He rose from his knee. "Ay, had he as many lives as here be hairs, I'd
have them all, by God," and he put the hair into his bosom. Then in a
sudden fury seized the landlord fiercely by the neck, and forced him to
his knees; and foot on head ground his face savagely among the bones
of his victims, where they lay thickest; and the assassin first yelled,
then whined and whimpered, just as a dog first yells, then whines, when
his nose is so forced into some leveret or other innocent he has killed.
"Now lend me thy bowstring, Philippe!" He passed it through the eyes of
a skull alternately, and hung the ghastly relic of mortality and crime
round the man's neck; then pulled him up and kicked him industriously
into the kitchen, where one of the aldermen of the burgh had arrived
with constables, and was even now taking an archer's deposition.
The grave burgher was much startled at sight of the landlord driven
in bleeding from a dozen scratches inflicted by the bones of his own
victims, and carrying his horrible collar. But Denys came panting after,
and in a few fiery words soon made all clear.
"Bind him like the rest," said the alderman sternly. "I count him the
blackest of them all."
While his hands were being bound, the poor wretch begged piteously that
"the skull might be taken from him."
"Humph!" said the alderman. "Certes I had not ordered such a thing to be
put on mortal man.
Pages:
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351