第52章
The Vengeance By the time the girl reached the servants' hall they were seated at supper.A loud, confused exclamation arose when she entered.No one made room for her; all stared with unfriendly eyes.A page, who entered the next minute by another door, came to her side.
'Where do you come from, hussy?' shouted the butler, and knocked his fist on the table with a loud clang.
He had gone to fetch wine, had found the stair door broken open and the cellar door locked, and had turned and fled.Among his fellows, however, he had now regained what courage could be called his.
'From the cellar,' she replied.'The messenger broke open the door, and sent me to you again.'
'The messenger! Pooh! What messenger?'
'The same who sent me before to tell you to repent.'
'What! Will you go fooling it still? Haven't you had enough of it?' cried the butler in a rage, and starting to his feet, drew near threateningly.
'I must do as I am told,' said the girl.
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'Hands off, Mr Butler!' said the page, and stepped between.
'Oh, ho!' cried the butler, and pointed his fat finger at him.
'That's you, is it, my fine fellow? So it's you that's up to her tricks, is it?'
The youth did not answer, only stood with flashing eyes fixed on him, until, growing angrier and angrier, but not daring a step nearer, he burst out with a rude but quavering authority:
'Leave the house, both of you! Be off, or I'll have Mr Steward to talk to you.Threaten your masters, indeed! Out of the house with you, and show us the way you tell us of!'
Two or three of the footmen got up and ranged themselves behind the butler.
'Don't say I threaten you, Mr Butler,' expostulated the girl from behind the page.'The messenger said I was to tell you again, and give you one chance more.'
'Did the messenger mention me in particular?' asked the butler, looking the page unsteadily in the face.
'No, sir,' answered the girl.
'I thought not! I should like to hear him!'
'Then hear him now,' said Curdie, who that moment entered at the opposite corner of the hall.'I speak of the butler in particular when I say that I know more evil of him than of any of the rest.
He will not let either his own conscience or my messenger speak to him: I therefore now speak myself.I proclaim him a villain, and a traitor to His Majesty the king.But what better is any one of you who cares only for himself, eats, drinks, takes good money, and gives vile service in return, stealing and wasting the king's property, and making of the palace, which ought to be an example of order and sobriety, a disgrace to the country?'
For a moment all stood astonished into silence by this bold speech from a stranger.True, they saw by his mattock over his shoulder that he was nothing but a miner boy, yet for a moment the truth told notwithstanding.Then a great roaring laugh burst from the biggest of the footmen as he came shouldering his way through the crowd toward Curdie.
'Yes, I'm right,' he cried; 'I thought as much! This messenger, forsooth, is nothing but a gallows bird - a fellow the city marshal was going to hang, but unfortunately put it off till he should be starved enough to save rope and be throttled with a pack thread.
He broke prison, and here he is preaching!' As he spoke, he stretched out his great hand to lay hold of him.Curdie caught it in his left hand, and heaved his mattock with the other.Finding, however, nothing worse than an ox hoof, he restrained himself, stepped back a pace or two, shifted his mattock to his left hand, and struck him a little smart blow on the shoulder.His arm dropped by his side, he gave a roar, and drew back.
His fellows came crowding upon Curdie.Some called to the dogs;others swore; the women screamed; the footmen and pages got round him in a half circle, which he kept from closing by swinging his mattock, and here and there threatening a blow.
'Whoever confesses to having done anything wrong in this house, however small, however great, and means to do better, let him come to this corner of the room,' he cried.
None moved but the page, who went toward him skirting the wall.
When they caught sight of him, the crowd broke into a hiss of derision.
'There! See! Look at the sinner! He confesses! Actually confesses! Come, what is it you stole? The barefaced hypocrite!
There's your sort to set up for reproving other people! Where's the other now?'