- Chapter 57






p {text-indent:2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:2px}
h1 {page-break-before:left}





Back | NextContents
Chapter 57
"Hernando!"
De Soto turned his head; something was coming from beyond the rise.
"Run! Run!"
His men were scattering, moving faster than they had moved in days.
Then he saw the demon.
"Cowards!" he shouted.
He drew and fired his wheel-lock pistol. Then drew the other from its saddle holster and fired again.
There'd be no time to reload. He drew his sword and spurred his mount.
The horse threw him. Then fled.
De Soto staggered to his feet. The demon might have gone after the horse, except that de Soto's fury was too great. On foot, he charged, staggering and reeling. He was still half-stunned from the impact of being thrown. Calling for the blessing of the virgin and the saints.
 
No man is a villain, in his own eyes. And whatever virtues were absent in the man named Hernando de Soto, courage was not among them.
All who observed his end, and survived to tell the tale, agreed that de Soto never stopped fighting. Not even after the demon's jaws had closed upon his middle and lifted him high, and his blood and intestines spilled everywhere. Still, he struck at the reptile head with his sword; and struck again, and again.
Some swore he struck a last blow as he disappeared into the maw. And believe he fights still, in Lucifer's very bowels.
 
Back | NextFramed