Some of them concerned her Grace of the
Scots.... These he had answered. Then, again, association came back....
"As Thy arms, O Christ ..." he whispered.
"Now then," came the sharp voice in his ear, so close and harsh as to
distress him. "These questions again.... Were there any other places
besides at Padley and Booth's Edge, in the parish of Hathersage, where
you said mass?"
"... O Christ, were extended on the Cross--" began the tortured man
dreamily. "Ah-h-h!"....
It was a scream, whispered rather than shrieked, that was torn from him
by the sharpness of the agony. His body had lifted from the floor
without will of his own, twisting a little; and what seemed as strings
of fiery pain had shot upwards from his feet and downwards from his
wrists as the roller was suddenly jerked again. He hung there perhaps
ten or fifteen seconds, conscious only of the blinding pain--questions,
questioners, roof and faces all gone and drowned again in a whirling
tumult of darkness and red streaks. The sweat poured again suddenly from
his whole body.... Then again he sank relaxed upon the floor, and the
pulses beat in his head, and he thought that Marjorie and her mother and
his own father were all looking at him....
He heard presently the same voice talking:
"--and answer the questions that are put to you.... Now then, we will
begin the others, if it please you better.... In what month was it that
you first became privy to the plot against her Grace?"
"Wait!" whispered the priest.
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