Turning to the Pirate he added: "The boy is as stiff-necked as a pig; but
even a pig can be led if you ring his snout. I beg you leave him to me."
"Take him away!" exclaimed Angria, clapping his hands.
Two attendants came in answer to his summons, and Desmond was led off and
escorted by them to his workshop.
Angry and disgusted as he was with both the Maratha and Diggle, he was
still more anxious at this unexpected turn in his affairs. He had but
three days! If he had not escaped before the fourth day dawned, his fate
would be the most terrible that could befall a living creature. The
tender mercies of the wicked are cruel! He had seen, among the prisoners,
some of the victims of Angria's cruelty; they had suffered tortures too
terrible to be named, and dragged out a life of unutterable degradation
and misery, longing for death as a blissful end. With his quick
imagination he already felt the hands of the torturers upon him; and for
all the self control which his life in Gheria had induced, he was for
some moments so wholly possessed by terror that he could scarcely endure
the consciousness of existence.
But when the first tremors were past, and he began to go about his usual
tasks, and was able to think calmly, not for an instant did he waver in
his resolve. Betray his countrymen! It was not to be thought of. Give his
word to Angria and then forswear himself! Ah! even Diggle knew that he
would not do that. Freedom, wealth, a high place in some prince's court!
He would buy none of them at the price of his honor.
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