The Emperor satisfied turned away, unmindful of the fact that this
projectile he had launched had caught among the bushes below, and
presently struggled and found itself still a living man. It could
scramble down to the road and, what is more wonderful, hope for
mercy. An hour and it stood before Christophe again, with an arm
broken and bloody and a face torn, a battered thing now but with a
faint flavour of pride in its bearing. "Your bidding has been done,
Sire," it said.
"So," said the Emperor, unappeased. "And you live? Well-- Leap
again. . . ."
And then came other stories. The young man told them as he had
heard them, stories of ferocious wholesale butcheries, of men
standing along the walls of the banqueting chamber to be shot one by
one as the feast went on, of exquisite and terrifying cruelties, and
his one note of wonder, his refrain was, "HERE! Not a hundred years
ago. . . . It makes one almost believe that somewhere things of
this sort are being done now."
They ate their lunch together amidst the weedy flowery ruins.
Pages:
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498