"0 God, that you should be subjected to this!" he cried. "That you
should have suffered what you have suffered! The humiliation of it, the
barbarous cruelty! Oh!" He covered his haggard face with his hands.
She touched him gently on the arm.
"What I have suffered is but a little thing," she said, and her voice
was wonderfully steady and soothing. Have I not said that these
Godolphins were brave folk? Even their women were held to have
something of the male spirit in their breasts; and to this none can
doubt that Rosamund now bore witness. "Do not pity me, Lionel, for my
sufferings are at an end or very nearly." She smiled strangely, the
smile of exaltation that you may see upon the martyr's face in the hour
of doom.
"How?" quoth he, in faint surprise.
"How?" she echoed. "Is there not always a way to thrust aside life's
burden when it grows too heavy--heavier than God would have us bear?"
His only answer was a groan. Indeed, he had done little but groan in
all the hours they had spent together since they were brought ashore
from the carack; and had the season permitted her so much reflection,
she might have considered that she had found him singularly wanting
during those hours of stress when a man of worth would have made some
effort, however desperate, to enhearten her rather than repine upon his
own plight.
Slaves entered bearing four enormous flaming torches which they set in
iron sconces protruding from the wall of the house.
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