Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1900-01-04
THE TRYsr WITH THE PRINCESS.


As we were about to leave the place
fellow of the swashbuCkler stamp
,ame in with great clashing of his
icabbard.
He reeled against me and on the in
slant felt something plucked from the
inside of the open breast of my cloak.
This is pretty bauble, he grin.
ned. holding Princess Barbara 5 buckle
in his hand and even as clutched at
him he discovered the great price of
the stone and dashed past toward the
door With shouts of rage and many
threats we all sped after him, the poets
dropping their verses and running lus'
tily
The street was empty save for the
flving figure of the thief With fair
running ground before us, Tom and |
kept our wind for the chase, but the
rhv,ne writer's and Red Harding con
tinued bellowing ont and waving their
swords much to the danger of each
other head.
Soon we saw that the man with the
buckle 10y the manner of his running.
was much further in wine than any of
our party He stopped frequently to
take breath He fell over twice, and at
last with Tom at his beels dashed
aside in the doorway of IA tall house
In we went after him like pack OF
hounds
Then began an awful tripping across
each others legs and overturning ot
tables tor the hall was pitch dark. The
door slammed shut after the last yell
ing poet had scrambled in For awhile
we had a devil of time and when rY
some unseen agency the candles were
! lit we had much worse one for We
found ourselves in trap Of robbers and
Icutthroats. all CARRIED and armed like
soldiers and gentlemen And the man
who had ted us here was not so far
gone in drink as we had at first sup
posed
There. in the narrow, richly appoint
ed hall occurred a woeful fight The in
mates were two to onr one, but hap
pily owing to broken furniture ana
limited space, this gave them little ad
vantage
At the very first of it | Hinged at the
thief who still held Barbara buckle,
and spitted him clean through the side
1t was but the work Of a moment TO
snatch the trinket from his twltChing
fingers and faSten il on my own breast
v Aiie engaging a hurley thick leg
ged rascal across a bench | saw with
the corner of my eye one of the poets
shouting and stabbng at a man of
twice his size They spun about and
Ieaped back and on like crazy men aud
were both very drunk But presently
the scribe changed his rapier to his lett
hand and brought down a cracking
hroadsword cut On his antagonist 5
head which ended that little passage of
arms
Red Harding after sorely wounding
his man, went back and kicked tlo
ioor until it fell ont into the street
Dragging one Of the wounded with ua
we retreated, and the enemy fornore
following
After helping our wounded friend tc
the nearest inn we then returned to the
palace thanking the saints for taking
as ont Of 40 merry Il scrape alive
awoke curly on the morrow, anC
in getting ont OF bed felt Il severe pair
IN my left knee put my foot to the
floor and the agony brought an impa
tient oath to my lips Dropping bach
on to the bed | examined the painful
Joint, and. to my disgust, found i
pulled and blue This is what came O
lighting in the dark
After the doctor had looked at it anC
punched the swelling with his leal
hnger he shook his head till the wi:
settled over one ear
"You must go on crutches for n weel
or two my good sir, and no more rid
ing nor fencing till the inflammation
has gone, he said
The gentlemen of the guard, VIII,
We're clustered about, drew down thei
mouths in sorrow. all feeling tina
.rrutches were second only TO the coffin
The doctor stamped toward the door
but turned ON the threshold aud deiiY
. cred last remark
wine or malt liquor in the system
will add to the inflammation, Cavalle
= lsstens
lie left amid thunder of Rroaus.
V Ten minutes after sat with my tao
!, on a chair and played game Of chanc
u with Beverley and two of his fellows
u and the decanters stood on the table
u la the evening the big guards
. man came in and found me alone
+" After exchanging commonplace h
= began to tidget in his chair and look a
" me uneasily
u u pray part with it, my friend, "
" said gayly
10 by the sword Of st Peter, how di
, you know had anything to sayY b
y vsked
For answer passed him tobacc
pipe, knowing that the fashionabl
habit was strong upon him
After blowing ont few wreaths
" white smoke he said
Have you heard about the lett'
" your king wrote to Princess Barbara
:" shook my head
", ''Some one told me that few da,
~ ago ne sent her d letter accusing her (
faithlessness
" 4Iow did the countess come to be,
of ny interrupted
The big guardsman Clushed AID clal
. ped his heels together
. 1.-The person who told mo heard