My Father As
Usual Went Out To Meet Them, Whereupon They Demanded Fresh Horses In
Loud Menacing Voices.
Indoors we were all gathered in the large sitting-room, waiting the
upshot in a state of intense anxiety, for no preparations had been
made and no means of defence existed in the event of a sudden attack
on the house.
We watched the proceedings from the interior, which was
too much in shadow for our dangerous visitors to see that they were
only women and children there and one man, a visitor, who had
withdrawn to the further end of the room and sat leaning back in an
easy chair, trembling and white as a corpse, with a naked sword in his
hand. He explained to us afterwards, when the danger was all over,
that fortunately he was an excellent swordsman, and that having found
the weapon in the room, he had resolved to give a good account of the
ten ruffians if they had made a rush to get in.
My father replied to these men as he had done to the others, assuring
them that he had no horses to give them. Meanwhile we who were indoors
all noticed that one of the ten men was an officer, a beardless young
man of about twenty-one or two, with a singularly engaging face. He
took no part in the proceedings, but sat silent on his horse, watching
the others with a peculiar expression, half contemptuous and half
anxious, on his countenance.
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