"And therefore the Princess will
accept me as the other party to the bargain, and as her hostage."
Again at the sound of my laugh she shrunk a little; but presently
frowned.
"Have you considered, cavalier," she asked coldly, "that Giuseppe is
not certain of recovery?"
"Still less certain is my friend," answered I, and with a shrug of
the shoulders walked away to Nat's sick-couch. There, twenty minutes
later, my father took leave of me, after giving some last
instructions for the care of the invalid. In one hand he carried his
musket, in the other his camp-stool.
"Say the word even now, lad," he offered, "and we will abide till he
recovers."
But I shook my head.
Billy Priske carried an enormous wine-skin slung across his
shoulders; Mr. Fett a sack of provender. Mr. Badcock had begged or
borrowed or purchased an enormous gridiron.
"But what is that for? I asked him, as we shook hands.
"For cooking the wild goose," he answered solemnly, "which in these
parts, as I am given to understand, is an animal they call the
_mufflone_. He partakes in some degree of the nature of a sheep.
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