Jeniffer electronic book

What remains is not
dead, and cannot soon be done with. Some of us must meet it face to
face even yet. Wilson--that was his name in those days--was a Royalist
when I encountered him. What he had been before, God knows. At a
moment of peril he took his life at the hands of a Roundhead. He had
been guilty of treachery to the Royalists, and he was afraid to return
to his friends. I understood his position and sheltered him. When
Carlisle fell to us he clung closer to me, and when the campaign was
over he prayed to be permitted to follow me to these parts. I yielded
to him reluctantly. I distrusted him, but I took his anxiety to be
with me for gratitude, as he said it was. It was not that, Sim."
"Was it fear? Was he afeart of being hanged by friends or foes? Hadn't
he been a taistrel to both?"
"Partly fear, but partly greed, and partly revenge. He was hardly a
week at Shoulthwaite before I guessed his secret--I couldn't be blind
to that. When he married his young wife on the Borders, folks didn't
use to call her a witch.


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