25. XXV.
“Stand by, and when I speak—” were the words of
Amri to his followers.
“Stay—he comes! Be ready with thy aid when I
shall call thee.”
The three took shelter in the shadow of a jutting
wall, awaiting the approach of the page. Unconscious
of danger, and with thoughts rather too full of the image
of Pelayo to think of herself, Thyrza moved slowly along
beside the wall. On a sudden the arms of Amri were
thrown around her. She shrieked aloud in the extremity
of her terror.
“A woman's voice—I knew it,” was the half-muttered
exclamation of Urraca, as she came forward with her
companion.
“Give me thy cloak!” was the hurried demand of
Amri; “thy handkerchief,—help me to bind his mouth.”
The shrieks of the captive maiden in the meanwhile
rang through the otherwise silent streets. The tread of
a heavy and hurrying footstep was heard approaching
them.
“Hasten!” cried Amri,—“there!”
The maiden struggled, and strove vainly to cry aloud.
Her mouth was now effectually bandaged. But she
struggled still; and Amri, hearing the approaching footsteps,
bade the followers of Edacer stand between them
while he bore off the captive. One of them did so, but
the new-comer thrust aside the presented spear, with
a single stroke from a heavy mace which he bore, with
the ease of a giant. Urraca had prudently darted aside
without offering opposition. Before the foiled spearsman
could recover, Pelayo—for it was he—had approached
the seizer of the maiden, who continued to
struggle desperately in his grasp.
“What ho!” cried Amri; “approach not, whoever
thou art,—we serve the Lord Edacer. Behold his
badge.”
“Be paid for thy service, whomsoever thou callest
thy master,” cried the impetuous prince, for he had recognised
the voice of the page Lamech at the first alarm—
“thou hast claim for such pay:” and, as he spoke, with
one blow of his heavy mace, he smote the treacherous
Hebrew to the earth. Thyrza fell with him, as he still
retained her in his grasp, but she was unhurt. The
baffled spearsman, having recovered from the impetuosity
of the first attack, now rushed upon the prince; but
his thrust was unavailing, in opposition to one possessed
of the great skill and power of Pelayo. The spear of
the soldier was shivered in his hands by a single blow
of the mace, and he must in another instant have fared
like Amri, but that he prudently gave back, and left the
path of the victor unobstructed. Pelayo paused not an
instant to complete the rescue which he had so manfully
begun. He lifted the only half-animated form of Thyrza
in his arms, tore the handkerchief away with which
Amri had bandaged her mouth, and with as much ease
as if she had been an infant, he hurried off from the
scene of the affray without any farther interruption from
the soldier. The heavy mace being still vigorously
brandished by its owner, with an ease and adroitness
which warned him of the utter hopelessness and imprudence
of any second effort in a conflict with one so superior
to himself both in skill and prowess, he wisely
refrained from offering any farther resistance to his
progress.
