The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900 ... - Gredos

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The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900) young grace and charm; and then as she had stood, such a few weeks ago, listening with downcast happy face when he talked to her of that memorable night — "Were you thinking of me, Simon? Tell me what you thought of me.” How the lovely colour had swept over her face, how the dimples had peeped in and out, how full of light had been the eyes raised at length to his in shy tenderness. Good God! and those were the same eyes which had gazed at him to-day, piteous, for all their fierce reproach, like those of a wounded animal. He rose hastily, and began to pace about the room as though in an unconscious attempt to escape from the agony of his thoughts; but the wraith of his love paced beside him, and her voice sounded ever in his ears. “Imagine if you please that I am already Mrs. Fleetwood,… You and I are staid old married folk,…" Oh, the irony of the words — oh pitiless voice, so unendurable in its arch softness, the more unendurable because the jesting prophecy had now become realised. They were married folk, in truth, and Rachel bore his name; yet their wedding-day was the one which had sundered them for ever. "Now we are quite safe” went on the mocking tones. "The knot is tied, Husband Simon. It is done, and can never be undone” And then the voice changed again, "Simon Fleetwood, may I never see your false traitor’s face again,… What is my hand to you? I would strike it off could I rid myself at the same time of its shame in having worn your pledge,” Rachel had said that. Rachel! Suddenly — it seemed to him as though for the first time — he realised the overwhelming fact. It was she who had pronounced those terrible words which burned and stabbed anew with each fresh repetition. Great God, it was she! The room seemed all at once to swim, his heart to swell to suffocation could not breathe; he could scarce stand; but after swaying [300] a moment, staggered blindly to the door in the instinctive effort to obtain relief from this physical oppression. Susan had not bolted the outer door — that was well, for his trembling fingers could scarce have withdrawn the bars.
The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900) Now he was out in the cool night, with the great peaceful moon riding over his head, and the stars twinkling in their clear radiance — the self-same stars which he and she had looked at together yesterday. He could draw his breath now but only in great sobs, each of which shook his mighty frame; his steps bore him rapidly onward he scarcely knew whither, and his tumultuous thoughts outpaced his strides. Thus through his own familiar fields wandered this desolate man. Now he was crossing the pasture where the young colts grazed, and at the sound of his heavy tread there was a rapid thud of hoofs, and a string of shadowy flying forms passed and vanished in the distance. On the other side of the hedge a slow regular munching was heard, and a dimly-defined horned head peered at him over the gate. As Simon let himself through there was a sudden stir among the cattle, a cessation of the placid cud chewing, as with clumsy haste the group moved out of his way. But he paid no heed to any of them, and walked straight ahead as though he had some definite object in view. By-and-bye a dark mass of trees rose between him and the horizon, and he brought himself to a standstill abruptly, for there, close to him, almost at his feet, a gleaming expanse of water reflected the star-lit sky. That terribly alert memory of Simon's recalled to him now with a flash that here, here in truth was the spot where Rachel had first come into his life. It was while standing here that he had heard her childish voice calling to him from the other bank; it was here where, after he had carried her across, he had wrapped her in his coat and warmed [301] her little frozen hands in his bosom. Oh, little hands! Surely they had not only pressed against his breast, but gasped his very heart. Confiding baby hands which lad suffered him to cherish them; loving, womanly lands which had caressed and clung to him; cruel, cruel hands which had flung him back the blood-stained wedding-ring. Oh, it was well to think of such things here, and now. Surely it was not chance which had led him to this spot to-night. Here, where the unconscious child had forged the first link of the chain which had bound the man's life to hers, here would he lay down that life, and
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