Richard de Ashby

“ The time is short, for as soon as the Prince returns, he shall be made acquainted with all the facts."
"But, Alured, explain!" exclaimed Richard de Ashby.
"No need of explanation," replied his cousin; "you will hear enough of it ere long, if you wait. Let your conscience be your guide to stay or fly. At any rate, remain not here. I go for a moment to, shake hands with Hugh de Monthermer, ere I meet him to-morrow at the lance's point, and to tell him that I bear him no ill will, though honour compels me to appear in arms against him. ”

“ Richard de Ashby! So--so!--Boy, this is news, indeed, you have brought me. Have you aught else to tell?"
"Not now," answered the boy, "for I must be back to Nottingham with all speed, lest I be missed. To-morrow will do for my other tidings--I cannot think he will be so hasty there."
"Nay--nay, if thou hast aught to tell," exclaimed Robin; "tell it now. One never can say to-morrow's sun will rise. There are precipices at every rood on the highway of human life, over which our best intentions fall, and dash themselves to pieces. Speak out--speak out! it will but take thee a spare minute." ”

“ Ralph Harland bent down his eyes with a look of bitter disappointment. "If that be your only hope, it is all in vain," he said; "the Monthermer is linked to the Earl of Ashby by a common cause; and in the great movements of people such as these, the feelings, and even the rights of us lesser men are never heeded. The old Earl, good as he is, will not quarrel with Richard de Ashby for John Greenly's daughter, lest it breed a feud between him and the other Lord. There is but cold hope to be found there." ”

“ Richard de Ashby looked at him with a sneering smiles though his heart was full of wrath, and he answered--
"You must think me some boy, raw from the colleges, and ready to play against you with piped dice. No, no, Dighton! Ellerby, you are mistaken! Being all of us of that kind and character of man who does not trust his neighbour, we must have mutual sureties, that is clear. Now hear me:--I will make over to you by bond, this day, my castle in Hereford, with all the land thereunto appertaining.--You know it well.--In the bond there shall be a clause of redemption ”

“ The boy stayed near the door, but Richard de Ashby advanced with the porter, the latter bowing low to his lord as he came up.
"Who brought the letter given to my father just before he went out yesterday?" demanded the young Earl, in a stern tone.
"Dickon, the son of Ugtred, the swine-driver, my lord," replied the porter; "he lives hard by, and there he stands." ”

“ They are our support, and our strength, and we must avoid in all things giving them just cause of complaint. Scathelock?--Scathelock?--I have heard that name."
"You must have heard if often, my father," said Alured de Ashby. "It is the name of one of our good forest outlaws of Sherwood. I have seen the man twice in the neighbourhood of our own place, and though I did not mark this fellow with the arrow much, he has the same look and air."
"Seen him twice, and did not arrest him?" cried Richard de Ashby, with marked emphasis. ”

“ Sir William Geary paused for a moment with a thoughtful and somewhat bitter smile--"Well, De Margan," he said at length, drawing him aside from the rest, "if you want vengeance, methinks I know where there is a man to be found who will help you with his whole heart. No one knows of his being in Nottingham but myself; but I have found him out, and will take you to him if you like to go."
"Who is he--who is he?" demanded the other.
"No less a person than Richard de Ashby, the fair lady's cousin," answered Geary. ”

“ And notwithstanding the misery of the injured father, a great deal of merriment and jesting was the first effect produced by the complaint of the host.
"If this tale be true," said Hugh de Monthermer, who had been looking down with a frowning brow, "I would strongly advise Sir Richard de Ashby to mount his horse, put his spurs to the flanks, and not draw a rein till he is safe in Nottingham. There be people about this neighbourhood who are likely to render such a course expedient." ”

“ The spot where the body had lain was plainly to be seen, marked, both by some blood which must have flowed after the fall from above, and also by a fragment of the Earl's silken pourpoint, which had been caught and torn off by a black thornbush, as he fell.
"They cannot be far off," said the peasant, "for the poor gentleman was a heavy man to carry, and there seemed nobody near when I was here."
"Pshaw!" cried Richard de Ashby, "there might have been a hundred amongst the bushes and trees without your seeing them. However," he continued, eagerly, "let us beat the ground all round. ”

“ It seems, however, that he well knew what he was about."
"God send he met him not too surely!" burst forth Alured de Ashby, with his eyes flashing.
"After all, we may be quite mistaken," observed Richard, who knew that now, having sown the suspicions,--ay, and watered them, too,--it was his task to affect candour, and seem to repress them; as a man lops off branches from a tree to make it grow the stronger. "Hugh de Monthermer was always noble and true, and of a generous nature, as you well said last night, Alured." ”

“ I've got to catch a plane out of here in an hour. Enjoyed talking with you, Doctor Mosby. We'll get together again." He nodded his thanks. "And you, Ed? Are you in on this nozzle project?"
"Don't know." Ed Wilkes regarded Julie's eagerness. "Let's leave it up to you, Julie. I'll be a big thing for the school. You see, Pete, the place is only partly State supported—Julie's family has been making up most of the balance for years—and they must be weary of it. I don't like the idea of bigger and better weapons—you both know me that well—but I guess I hate what's with Europe and Asia even worse." ”

“ ASHBY, RICHARD (1614–1680) , a Jesuit, whose real name was Thimelby, was the fifth son of Richard Thimelby, Esq., of Irnham, Lincolnshire, by his wife Mary, daughter of Edward Brookesby, Esq., grand-daughter of Lord Vaux of Harrowden. He was born in Lincolnshire in 1614, entered the Society of Jesus in 1632, and was professed of the four vows in 1646. After having taught philosophy and theology at Liège for sixteen years, he was sent on the English mission about 1648, and laboured chiefly in his native county. ”

“ Both were foreigners, but the common people liked Richard and hated John, who was not only a tyrant, but was also planning to seize his brother's throne. He had had Richard imprisoned in Austria, and had surrounded himself with ambitious and dissatisfied Norman knights. The tournament at Ashby was really a trial at arms between the Prince's followers and those of Richard, of whom Ivanhoe was one.
The lists now presented a most splendid spectacle.
The sloping galleries were crowded with all that was
noble, great, wealthy, and beautiful in the northern and
midland parts of England ”

“ Creatures who could make themselves invisible, who had mastered space travel, who worked in magic more powerful than that of Law's, who could whiff out entire solar systems, who could survive incredible mishaps and hardships. ”

“ His first few minutes of exploration in the tree house were disappointing. There was no life, no corpses about for him to dissect and study. But the hunting club puzzled him. Obviously tooled by machinery and scuffed from much killing, it bore what might be a word burnt into its thickened end: "SPAULDING." He realized he was in an extremely primitive section of the planet, for this weapon was, no doubt, a trade article from some more advanced portion of the globe. ”

“ Creatures who were no less than Gods!
A wave of fear tore at the Commander as the glittering moon faded away. Eternal nothingness of grey enclosed the ship....
The sun was up when Eddie recovered consciousness. Stiff and cold, he sat and looked around sleepily a moment before remembering. Then, as he saw Rags sitting before him, tail wagging happily, it all began to come back: Last night, sometime; humming lights above the tree house, someone moving about up there, himself sneaking up to see, then ... nothing. He must have tripped and knocked himself out, somehow. ”

“ Life had blundered into the outer edges of his field.
Hastily, the Scout put a score of his latest finds into his sack and left the tree house. And without bothering to search for the life that had triggered his alarm (Law specified a Scout was to flee in such an instance) he adjusted his weight and rose up to his waiting ship.
Minutes later he had passed the world's satellite and was in view of his parent craft. ”

“ And when Rags leaped after him, he too crumpled as if dead....
The Commander left his report-strewn desk and strode heavily over to the forward port. Glumly, he looked down at the frosty pitted surface of the satellite a thousand miles away, and in his imagination saw the planet that swung on the dead orb's opposite side. It was nonsense to have to hide behind a moon from such a primitive planet, waiting and waiting like a coward for reassuring information. But such prudence had ever been part of holy Law.
He sighed, turned away from the huge wall of window. ”

“ Frowning to cover his embarrassment, he took out the last of the Scout's finds. For a moment all of them were struck by the bright colors on the flat surface. The one old man reached out a trembling hand. "Records," he murmured incredulously. "Records such as our own race is said to have once made, long, long ago before Law." ”

“ What he saw made the blood drum in his ears, made his vision swim, and only faintly did he hear the old one's croaking words. "Praise to Law, which we so carelessly accepted, for Law has saved us from the fiendish denizens of this planet. Had we attempted to exterminate them, their space armadas would have taken instant revenge. For they are obviously mightier than we." He put down the bright record of space craft vaster than the one which they occupied and took up another. ”

“ A simple people indeed, he pondered. He was about to leave when he noticed the stack of artifacts in one corner. The Scout bent to examine them. They seemed to be composed of the same material as the white of the "CAMEL" cylinders, but thicker and bound together in long wide flat construction. ”

“ The Scout yawned, then lifted the ship from the mountain and arrowed it down into the folds of the valley. His visor translated the immediate night into light, showing him the typically repugnant surface features of a type J planet: Foliage, sharp young geology, water flowing in natural beds. A world like a hundred others he'd visited in the name of Law.
When the floor of the valley came up he leveled off, then silently sped along in search of dwellings. Beneath him, on level stretches of land, stood odd four-legged creatures. The dominants of this world? ”

“ Chuckling, Ed Wilkes put a soothing hand on the other's arm. "Hang on, Pete—simmer down. I told you we could use Julie. You see, weapons are her hobby. Check the library lists sometime. You'll find a sweet work there of hers dealing with every persuader from cross-bow to tommy gun." ”

“ And all of them were swaying gently in the night wind, twenty feet or so above the tree.
Rags went slowly ahead, two feet, three, four, then stopped ... belly almost to the dust. His teeth shone in a soundless snarl, not a muscle of his body moving. Eddie had never seen him act like this, not even when the bear had come down into the valley to raid for chickens. Rags was plainly terrified, and something of the dog's emotion communicated itself. The boy bit his lip grimly, then strained to listen, heard what the dog was hearing; someone ... something was moving about up in the oak. ”

“ Used all three of your names too. Like whisperin', it was. Captain, sir—you all right? Sir? There!—you hear 'em? A woman and a man, whisperin' something about a daft sorta gun. Who is it, Captain? How are we hearin' 'em? ”

“ Major Hall opened the booklet and hurried on. "We need a nozzle or nozzle lining that will stand the two or three second change from near zero to full blast temperatures. Frankly the long-range missile business is up a creek. It seems there's a limit to the range."
"Incandescence," Julie offered.
The major looked at her with new respect. "How'd you know? They go too far—they come down too fast. They burn up on reentering lower and denser air. We've got to slow up their approach somehow—anyhow." ”

“ Ed Wilkes riffled through the specification booklet. "Lump this for me, huh?"
"Right. But first you tell me something, chum. Why should you, an M.I.T. honor grad—a laddie with more degrees than the Kremlin has Reds—bury yourself down here in the mouldering South, presiding angel over the destiny of an insignificant little college?"
He waved his hand in an encompassing gesture that pointed up the stained lab table, the cracks in the wall and ceiling, the general air of save and make do that characterized the entire campus. "Insignificant and crumbling even when Lincoln was president." ”

“ Hall squinted, pursed his lips reflectively. "Something about mobility.... Got it—Mosby's raiders. Couple of hundred cutthroats who operated behind Northern lines in the Civil War. Each man carried four or five pistols. Mobility plus firepower. As I recall from a rather dull West Point course—and that was years ago, my children—he raised merry hell with the Union war effort for a time. Even captured a General, didn't he, Ed?"
"General Stoughton," Julie supplied. "And he would have snatched Grant but peace broke out. My father used to insist that he could have won the war for us." ”