The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Truce of God, by Mary Roberts Rinehart,
Illustrated by Harold Sichel


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Title: The Truce of God

Author: Mary Roberts Rinehart

Release Date: January 3, 2005 [eBook #14573]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)


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THE TRUCE OF GOD

by

MARY ROBERTS RINEHART

Decorations by Harold Sichel

New York
George H. Doran Company

1920







[Illustration: "Softly," he said ... "No harsh words."]



[Illustration]



[Illustration: Chapter One]




The Truce of God

I


Now the day of the birth of our Lord dawned that year grey and dreary,
and a Saturday. But, despite the weather, in the town at the foot of the
hill there was rejoicing, as befitted so great a festival. The day
before a fat steer had been driven to the public square and there
dressed and trussed for the roasting. The light of morning falling on
his carcass revealed around it great heaps of fruits and vegetables. For
the year had been prosperous.

But the young overlord sulked in his castle at the cliff top, and bit
his nails. From Thursday evening of each week to the morning of Monday,
Mother Church had decreed peace, a Truce of God. Three full days out of
each week his men-at-arms polished their weapons and grew fat. Three
full days out of each week his grudge against his cousin, Philip of the
Black Beard, must feed on itself.

His dark mood irritated the Bishop of Tours, who had come to speak of
certain scandalous things which had come to his ears. Charles hea

Martha Finley (1828 - 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26th, 1828 in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the psodonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

Anonymous may refer to: Anonymus, the Latin spelling, may refer to: