"Andre Norton - Huon of the Horn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

the kill.

But Huon was no untried swordster and, seeing
how this stranger meant to spit him cleanly upon

28

lance point, he gathered his cloak about his arm
and flung it at the lanceтАФat the same time throw-
ing his body to one side. Thus did Chariot's lance
become entangled in the folds of cloth and Huon
passed unharmed by the charge although the
sharp point of steel pierced his tunic and bruised
the flesh beneath.

As Chariot strove to throw away his lance and
free his sword from its scabbard, Huon struck.
And so sharp and heavy was the blow that the
Prince fell from his charger and was dead even
before his body rolled in the roadway.

Huon troubled not to lift the visor of his dead
enemy or look closely upon him whom he had
killed. Rather did he busy himself with searching
out the deep wound in Gerard's side and binding
the yet-welling slash with linen torn from his own
back. Having so rudely stanched his brother's hurt
he lifted him up, still a-swoon, into the saddle of
his horse and walked beside him out of the valley,
leaving the dead Prince in the road alone.

Speedily was Huon joined by the knights and
men of his following. And they urged that all must
travel without pause lest the companions of the
dead knight come out of the wood to cut them
down. And all armed themselves for such an at-
tack.

But when they reached again the party of the
Abbot of Cluny, he bade them take heart for he
had seen, from the hilltop, men come out of the
wood to bear away the stranger. And none of these
had set out on Huon's trail.

Huon's anger was still hot and his heart was
dark with misgiving as he looked upon the white

29