“Is that all?” I answered. “If any act of mine lead to his death, how shall I answer it to his father and mother, and to Annas?”
“They gave him up to the Cause, my dear, when they sent him forth to join the Prince. A soldier must always do his duty.”
“Forgive me, Madam. I was not questioning his duty, but my own.”
“Too late for that, Miss Courtenay. My dear, he is ready for death. I would more of us were!”
I read in the superb eyes above me that she was not.
“Forward!” she said, as if giving a word of command.
Somehow, I felt as if I must go. Her Ladyship was right: it was too late to draw back. So Ephraim and I set forth on our dangerous errand.
I cannot undertake to say how we went, or where. It all comes back to me as if I had walked it in a dream: and I felt as if I were dreaming all the while. At last, as we went along, carrying the basket, Ephraim suddenly set it down with, “Hallo! what’s that?” I knew then that we must be close to the prison, and that he was about to leave me.
“I say, I must see after that. You go on, Bet!” cried Ephraim; and he was off in a minute—in what direction I could not even see.
“Gemini!” cried I, catching up the word I had heard from Mrs Cropland’s Betty. “Joel! I say, Joel! You bad fellow, can’t you come back? How am I to lift this great thing, I should like to know?”