Рафаэль Сабатини – Captain Blood: His Odyssey / Одиссея капитана Блада (страница 3)

“What other rebels are you hiding?”

“None other, sir. Lord Gildoy…”

“Lord Gildoy is on the way to Bridgewater. We’ll now search your house. And, by God, if you’ve lied to me…” He turned back to his men and gave them an order. Four of his dragoons went out. In a moment they were moving noisily in the other room. Meanwhile, the Captain was going around the hall.

Mr. Blood did not see why he should stay there any longer.

“I would like to wish you a very good day,” he said.

“I would like you to stay here for a while,” the Captain commanded.

Mr. Blood sat down. “You’re tiresome,” he said. “I wonder why your colonel hasn’t discovered it yet.”

But the Captain did not pay attention to him. He picked up a dirty hat from the floor. It was near the clothes-press where the unfortunate young Pitt was hiding. The Captain smiled in a very unkind way. He looked first at Baynes, then at the two women, and finally at Mr. Blood. The doctor sat with one leg over the other. He tried to look indifferent, but in fact he was not.

The Captain went to the press, and opened it. He took young Pitt by the collar, and pulled him out into the open.

“And who is this?” he asked. “Another nobleman?”

Mr. Blood imagined the gallows, and how the Captain would hang this unfortunate young sailor without trial, in the place of Lord Gildoy. On the spot he invented not only a title but a whole family for the young man.

“You’ve said it, Captain. This is Viscount Pitt, first cousin to Sir Thomas Vernon, who’s married to Moll Kirke, sister to your colonel.”

Both the Captain and his prisoner were surprised. Young Pitt tried hard not to show it. Mr. Blood’s words made the Captain very angry. He looked at his prisoner again.

“He’s lying, is he not?” he demanded, looking into young Pitt’s face.

“If you think so,” said Blood, “hang him, and see what happens to you.”

The dragoon looked at the doctor and then at his prisoner. “Pah!” He gave an order to his men. “Bring this Viscount Pitt to Bridgewater. And him also,” he pointed to Baynes. “We’ll show him what it means to help rebels.”

Baynes tried to fight the dragoons. The women screamed, but then the Captain came up to them and they stopped screaming in terror. He took the girl by the shoulders. She was pretty, with golden hair and blue eyes. She looked up into the face of the dragoon and hoped he would let her go. He took her chin in his hand and kissed her.

“Let that quiet you, little rebel,” he said, “Till I’ve finished with them.”

And he left her in the arms of her mother. His men stood, waiting for orders, holding the two prisoners.

“Take them away.” He looked at the girl again. “I’ll stay for a while – to search this place. There may be other rebels here.” And then he pointed to Mr. Blood and added: “And take him with you.”.

Mr. Blood had been thinking that he could use one of his instruments to fight Captain Hobart. But he did not know how to get to his instrument case. He was beginning to think that he could tell the Captain some tale of hidden treasure, but then Captain Hobart’s words stopped him.

“It will suit me very well,” Mr. Blood said. “I am going to Bridgewater myself.”

“You are going to prison there.”

“Ah, bah! You’re surely joking!”

“There’s a gallows for you if you prefer it. It’s only a question of now or later.”

The dragoons held Mr. Blood, and the instrument case was on the table out of his reach. The doctor tried to escape, but the dragoons did not let him. They tied his wrists behind his back.

“Take him away,” said Hobart, and turned to the other waiting dragoons. “Go search the house.”

The soldiers went out by the door leading to the other rooms. The guards took Mr. Blood into the courtyard, where Pitt and Baynes had already been waiting. Mr. Blood looked back at Captain Hobart. The doctor was very angry. He wanted to tell Hobart what he would do to him, but decided to keep quiet.

After a short while, the dragoons took the prisoners to Bridgewater. From the homestead came the screams of a woman in agony. Baynes tried to run back to the homestead, his face pale. As a consequence he fell down and the dragoons dragged him a yard or two.

Mr. Blood thought, as he went under the apple-trees of the orchard on that July morning, that man was the worst work of God, and that only a fool would want to be a doctor and help people.

Chapter III

THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE[13]

Peter Blood was brought to trial two months later – on the 19th of September. He was charged with high treason. We know that he was not guilty of this; but by the time of the trial he felt he could do what he was charged with. After those two months he hated King James and his people. It shows that he was a brave man and that he had not gone mad.

What was happening to him was terrible, but there were two reasons to be grateful. The first was that his trial took place at all; the second was that his trial took place on the 19th of September, and not a day earlier. It helped him to escape the gallows.

Easily the bloodthirsty Colonel Kirke might have hanged him in the market-place in Bridgewater among other prisoners. The Colonel might have hanged all the prisoners, but Bishop Mews, who had been elected Bishop of Winchester a year earlier in 1684, finally put an end to the hanging.

Even so, in that first week after Sedgemoor, Kirke and Feversham put to death over a hundred men after a quick trial. They had built many gallows and they wanted to hang people on them. They did not care what innocent lives they took. The life of a man did not mean anything to them.

Peter Blood survived and had to march from Bridgewater to Taunton among many prisoners, chained in pairs. Wounded prisoners sat in carts. Many of them died on the way. When Blood said that he was a doctor and wanted to help the wounded, the guards told him that they would beat him with sticks. It was then that he actually regretted that he had not been out with Monmouth.

He was chained to Jeremy Pitt on the march. They had also been together in the crowded prison after their arrest during those hot days of July, August, and September.

In prison they got some news from the outside world. One of them was the story of Monmouth’s death. Many of those who supported the Duke refused to believe it. They said that a man who looked like Monmouth had been killed and that Monmouth had survived and would come again.

Mr. Blood did not care for any of these stories. But one thing moved him and made him hate King James even more. His Majesty had gone to see Monmouth before his death. He had not been going to pardon him; he had only wanted to see his unfortunate nephew suffer.

Later they heard that Lord Grey had bought his freedom for forty thousand pounds. He had been the main leader of the rebellion after the Duke or even before him.

“If I had known before what I know today, I would have been among the rebels.” And then he suddenly asked young Pitt: “And where is Lord Gildoy now?”

Young Pitt looked at him. His grey eyes were round and questioning. Blood explained:

“Sure, now, we’ve never seen him since that day at the farm. He is a rich man and he can buy his freedom. Only those who followed are waiting for the gallows now; those who had led them are free.”

He laughed.

Later Mr. Blood, Pitt, and Baynes went into the great hall of Taunton Castle to take their trial.

There were many people in the hall, most of them were ladies. The walls of the hall were red; the Lord Chief Justice was bloodthirsty, so he liked the colour.

In the hall sat the five Lords Commissioners[14]_{in their red} robes. Baron Jefrf eys of Wem sat in the middle place.

The prisoners walked in under guard one after the other. The crier called for silence, and the voices became quiet. Mr. Blood looked with interest at the twelve good and true members of the jury. They looked neither good nor true. They were twelve scared men and they stood between the sword of the Lord Chief Justice and their own conscience.

Then Mr. Blood looked at the Lords Commissioners and Lord Jefrf eys. He knew how bloodthirsty Lord Jefrf eys was.

Lord Jefrf eys was a tall man in his forties, with an oval beautiful face. His face was very pale, only his full lips were red. Something in those lips ruined that beautiful face. The doctor in Mr. Blood looked at him with interest. He knew that the man suffered from a disease and that he led such a life in spite of it – or even because of it.

“Peter Blood, hold up your hand!”

When Mr. Blood raised his hand, the clerk told him that he was a false traitor against King James the Second. Mr. Blood was then told to say whether he was guilty or not guilty. He answered more than was asked.

“I am innocent.”

A small man at a table before and to the right of him stood up. It was Mr. Pollexfen, the Judge-Advocate[15].

“Are you guilty or not guilty?” said this gentleman.

“Not guilty.” said Peter Blood. And he went on, speaking to the bench. “I am only guilty, because I didn’t have enough patience. I spent two months in prison with great danger to my health and even life…”

He would have said more; but then the Lord Chief Justice started speaking in a gentle and slightly sad voice.