Читать «Айвенго / Ivanhoe» онлайн - страница 55

“You thought wrong, Sir Knight,” said Athelstane, “My teeth are in good order, and my supper will know that in a moment – the Templar’s sword turned in his hand, so it struck me flat. I fell down, stunned, but unwounded. Others were beaten down and killed above me, so I never recovered my senses until I found myself in a coffin—(an open one, by good luck)—placed before the altar of the church of Saint Edmund’s. I sneezed, groaned and would have climbed out of it, when the Abbot, full of terror, came running at the noise, surprised and in no way happy to find the man alive, whose heir he imagined to be. I asked for wine, he gave me some, but he added something to it, because I fell asleep and didn’t wake up for many hours. When I did, I found that I was in a very dark place with my arms and feet tied. I had strange thoughts of what had happened, when the door of my dungeon opened, and two monks entered. They would have persuaded me I was in purgatory, but I knew too well the voice of the Abbot.”

“Have patience, noble Athelstane,” said the King, “take breath, tell your story. Such a story is as well worth listening to as a romance.”

“Yes, but there was no romance in the matter!” said Athelstane. – “A loaf of bread and a jug of water—that’s all that they gave me, their patron!”

“But, in the name of Our Lady, noble Athelstane,” said Cedric, grasping the hand of his friend, “how did you escape—did they let you go?”

“Let me go!” echoed Athelstane, “No, they left the monastery to eat my funeral feast and sing their psalms. Then the keeper who brought me food drank some wine and forgot to shut the door. My chains were old and rusty, I pulled and they went out of the wall. Then I climbed the stairs, struck the keeper senseless and left him on the floor. I ate some baked meat, and took a leathern bottle of wine, went to the stable, and found in a private stall my own best horse. Here I came with all the speed, everybody running from me wherever I came, taking me for a ghost.”

“And you have found me,” said Cedric, “ready to start again on our brave projects for saving the noble Saxon people.”

“Don’t talk to me about saving any one,” said Athelstane, “I am happy I am saved myself.”

“Shame on you, noble Athelstane,” said Cedric, “tell this Norman Prince, Richard of Anjou, that you have a right to sit on the throne of England.”

“How!” said Athelstane, “is this the noble King Richard?”

“It is Richard Plantagenet himself,” said Cedric.

“Then,” said Athelstane, “I here proclaim my loyalty to him. My mother, my friend, please, don’t talk about my rights. Bread and water and a dungeon kill unnecessary ambition, and I rise from the tomb a wiser man than I descended into it. This whole idea can only end in the deaths of some thousands of simple people. I tell you, I will be a King in my own lands, and nowhere else.”

“And my ward Rowena,” said Cedric, “will you marry her?”

“Father Cedric,” said Athelstane, “be reasonable. The Lady Rowena doesn’t love me, she loves my cousin Wilfred’s little finger more than my whole person. Don’t blush, Rowena, there is no shame in loving a good knight. Give me your hand for a minute. Here, cousin Wilfred of Ivanhoe, I now give up my claim… Hey! Our cousin Wilfred has disappeared! I saw him stand there a moment ago.”