.. her Grace of the Scots;
and ... 'As Thy arms, O Christ....'"
"Now then; now then--! So your saw her Grace? And what was that for?"
"I saw her Grace ... and ... and told her what Mr. Babington had told
me."
"What was that, then?"
"That ... that he was her servant till death; and ... and a thousand if
he had them. And so, 'As Thy arms, O--'"
"Water," barked the voice.
Again came the rush as of cataracts; and a sensation of drowning. There
followed an instant's glow of life; and then the intolerable pain came
back; and the heavy, red-streaked darkness....
II
He found himself, after some period, lying more easily. He could not
move hand or foot. His body only appeared to live. From his shoulders to
his thighs he was alive; the rest was nothing. But he opened his eyes
and saw that his arms were laid by his side; and that he was no longer
in the wooden trough. He wondered at his hands; he wondered even if they
were his ... they were of an unusual colour and bigness; and there was
something like a tight-fitting bracelet round each wrist. Then he
perceived that he was shirtless and hoseless; and that the bracelets
were not bracelets, but rings of swollen flesh. But there was no longer
any pain or even sensation in them; and he was aware that his mouth
glowed as if he had drunk ardent spirits.
He was considering all this, slowly, like a child contemplating a new
toy. Then there came something between him and the light; he saw a
couple of faces eyeing him.
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