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diff --git a/26448.txt b/26448.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b3a0d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/26448.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4409 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dragon of Wantley, by Owen Wister + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Dragon of Wantley + His Tale + +Author: Owen Wister + +Illustrator: John Stewardson + +Release Date: August 28, 2008 [EBook #26448] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAGON OF WANTLEY *** + + + + +Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + THE DRAGON + OF + WANTLEY + + HIS TALE + + _By_ Owen Wister + + _Illustrations by John Stewardson_ + + SECOND EDITION + + Philadelphia + J.B.LIPPINCOTT COMPANY + 1895 + + + + +[Illustration: .COPYRIGHT.1892. + +.BY.J.B.LIPPINCOTT.COMPANY. + +PRINTED.BY.J.B.LIPPINCOTT.COMPANY + +.PHILADELPHIA.USA.] + + + + + TO + MY ANCIENT PLAYMATES IN APPIAN + WAY CAMBRIDGE THIS LIKELY + STORY IS DEDICATED FOR REASONS + BEST KNOWN TO THEMSELVES + + + + + Preface + + + When Betsinda held the Rose + And the Ring decked Giglio's finger + Thackeray! 'twas sport to linger + With thy wise, gay-hearted prose. + Books were merry, goodness knows! + When Betsinda held the Rose. + + Who but foggy drudglings doze + While Rob Gilpin toasts thy witches, + While the Ghost waylays thy breeches, + Ingoldsby? Such tales as those + Exorcised our peevish woes + When Betsinda held the Rose. + + Realism, thou specious pose! + Haply it is good we met thee; + But, passed by, we'll scarce regret thee; + For we love the light that glows + Where Queen Fancy's pageant goes, + And Betsinda holds the Rose. + + Shall we dare it? Then let's close + Doors to-night on things statistic, + Seek the hearth in circle mystic, + Till the conjured fire-light shows + Where Youth's bubbling Fountain flows, + And Betsinda holds the Rose. + + + + + PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION + + +We two--the author and his illustrator--did not know what we had done +until the newspapers told us. But the press has explained it in the +following poised and consistent criticism: + + "Too many suggestions of profanity." + --_Congregationalist_, Boston, 8 Dec. '92. + + "It ought to be the delight of the nursery." + --_National Tribune_, Washington, 22 Dec. '92. + + "Grotesque and horrible." + --_Zion's Herald_, Boston, 21 Dec. '92. + + "Some excellent moral lessons." + --_Citizen_, Brooklyn, 27 Nov. '92. + + "If it has any lesson to teach, we have been unable to find + it." + --_Independent_, New York, 10 Nov. '92. + + "The story is a familiar one." + --_Detroit Free Press_, 28 Nov. '92. + + "Refreshingly novel." + --_Cincinnati Commercial Gazette_, 17 Dec. '92. + + "It is a burlesque." + --_Atlantic Monthly_, Dec. '92. + + "All those who love lessons drawn from life will enjoy this + book." + --_Christian Advocate_, Cincinnati, 2 Nov. '92. + + "The style of this production is difficult to define." + --_Court Journal_, London, 26 Nov. '92. + + "One wonders why writer and artist should put so much + labor on a production which seems to have so little reason + for existence." + --_Herald and Presbyterian_, Cincinnati. + +Now the public knows exactly what sort of book this is, and we cannot +be held responsible. + + + + + TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I. + PAGE +How Sir Godfrey came to lose his Temper 19 + + CHAPTER II. +How his Daughter, Miss Elaine, behaved herself in Consequence 35 + + CHAPTER III. +Reveals the Dragon in his Den 52 + + CHAPTER IV. +Tells you more about Him than was ever told before to Anybody 62 + + CHAPTER V. +In which the Hero makes his First Appearance and is Locked Up +immediately 77 + + CHAPTER VI. +In which Miss Elaine loses her Heart, and finds Something of the +Greatest Importance 91 + + CHAPTER VII. +Shows what Curious Things you may see, if you don't go to Bed +when you are sent 113 + + CHAPTER VIII. +Contains a Dilemma with two simply egregious Horns 136 + + CHAPTER IX. +Leaves much Room for guessing about Chapter Ten 168 + + CHAPTER X. +The great White Christmas at Wantley 187 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Page + +Ornamented title 3 +Copyright notice 4 +Head-piece--Preface 7 +Head-piece--Preface to the Second Edition 9 +Head-piece--Table of Contents 11 +Head-piece--List of Illustrations 13 +Half-title to Chapter I 17 +Head-piece to Chapter I 19 +Popham awaiteth the Result with Dignity 27 +The Baron pursueth Whelpdale into the Buttery 32 +Tail-piece to Chapter I 33 +Half-title to Chapter II 34 +Head-piece to Chapter II 35 +Sir Godfrey maketh him ready for the Bath 39 +Sir Godfrey getteth into his Bath 41 +Mistletoe consulteth the Cooking Book 43 +Elaine maketh an unexpected Remark 49 +Half-title to Chapter III 51 +Head-piece to Chapter III 52 +Hubert sweepeth the Steps 55 +Half-title to Chapter IV 61 +Head-piece to Chapter IV 62 +Hubert looketh out of the Window 69 +Tail-piece to Chapter IV 75 +Half-title to Chapter V 76 +Head-piece to Chapter V 77 +Geoffrey replieth with deplorable Flippancy to Father Anselm 84 +Tail-piece to Chapter V 89 +Half-title to Chapter VI 90 +Head-piece to Chapter VI 91 +The Baron setteth forth his Plan for circumventing the Dragon 96 +Geoffrey tuggeth at the Bars 101 +Tail-piece to Chapter VI 111 +Half-title to Chapter VII 112 +Head-piece to Chapter VII 113 +Elaine cometh into the Cellar 120 +Geoffrey goeth to meet the Dragon 128 +Half-title to Chapter VIII 135 +Head-piece to Chapter VIII 136 +The Dragon thinketh to slake his Thirst 142 +The Dragon perceiveth Himself to be Entrapped 148 +A Noise in the Cellar 155, 156 +Half-title to Chapter IX 167 +Head-piece to Chapter IX 168 +Sir Francis decideth to go down again 176 +Brother Hubert goeth back to Oyster-le-Main for the last Time 181 +Tail-piece to Chapter IX 185 +Half-title to Chapter X 186 +Head-piece to Chapter X 187 +Sir Thomas de Brie hastens to accept the Baron's polite + Invitation 192 +The Court-yard 198 +The Dragon maketh his last Appearance 203 +L'Envoi 208 + +[Illustration: QUI NE SAULTE SAULTE SERA] + + + + + CHAPTER I + + How _Sir Godfrey_ came to lose his Temper + +[Illustration: THE BVTLER HIS BOY GODFREY DISSEISIN] + + +There was something wrong in the cellar at Wantley Manor. Little +Whelpdale knew it, for he was Buttons, and Buttons always knows what +is being done with the wine, though he may look as if he did not. And +old Popham knew it, too. He was Butler, and responsible to Sir Godfrey +for all the brandy, and ale, and cider, and mead, and canary, and +other strong waters there were in the house. + +Now, Sir Godfrey Disseisin, fourth Baron of Wantley, and immediate +tenant by knight-service to His Majesty King John of England, was +particular about his dogs, and particular about his horses, and about +his only daughter and his boy Roland, and had been very particular +indeed about his wife, who, I am sorry to say, did not live long. But +all this was nothing to the fuss he made about his wine. When the +claret was not warm enough, or the Moselle wine was not cool enough, +you could hear him roaring all over the house; for, though generous in +heart and a staunch Churchman, he was immoderately choleric. Very +often, when Sir Godfrey fell into one of his rages at dinner, old +Popham, standing behind his chair, trembled so violently that his +calves would shake loose, thus obliging him to hasten behind the tall +leathern screen at the head of the banquet-hall and readjust them. + +Twice in each year the Baron sailed over to France, where he visited +the wine-merchants, and tasted samples of all new vintages,--though +they frequently gave him unmentionable aches. Then, when he was +satisfied that he had selected the soundest and richest, he returned +to Wantley Manor, bringing home wooden casks that were as big as +hay-stacks, and so full they could not gurgle when you tipped them. +Upon arriving, he sent for Mrs. Mistletoe, the family governess and +(for economy's sake) housekeeper, who knew how to write,--something +the Baron's father and mother had never taught him when he was a +little boy, because they didn't know how themselves, and despised +people who did,--and when Mrs. Mistletoe had cut neat pieces of +card-board for labels and got ready her goose-quill, Sir Godfrey would +say, "Write, Chateau Lafitte, 1187;" or, "Write, Chambertin, 1203." +(Those, you know, were the names and dates of the vintages.) "Yes, my +lord," Mistletoe always piped up; on which Sir Godfrey would peer over +her shoulder at the writing, and mutter, "Hum; yes, that's correct," +just as if he knew how to read, the old humbug! Then Mistletoe, who +was a silly girl and had lost her husband early, would go "Tee-hee, +Sir Godfrey!" as the gallant gentleman gave her a kiss. Of course, +this was not just what he should have done; but he was a widower, you +must remember, and besides that, as the years went on this little +ceremony ceased to be kept up. When it was "Chateau Lafitte, 1187," +kissing Mistletoe was one thing; but when it came to "Chambertin, +1203," the lady weighed two hundred and twenty-five pounds, and wore a +wig. + +But, wig and all, Mistletoe had a high position in Wantley Manor. The +household was conducted on strictly feudal principles. Nobody, except +the members of the family, received higher consideration than did the +old Governess. She and the Chaplain were on a level, socially, and +they sat at the same table with the Baron. That drew the line. Old +Popham the Butler might tell little Whelpdale as often as he pleased +that he was just as good as Mistletoe; but he had to pour out +Mistletoe's wine for her, notwithstanding. If she scolded him (which +she always did if Sir Godfrey had been scolding her), do you suppose +he dared to answer back? Gracious, no! He merely kicked the two +head-footmen, Meeson and Welsby, and spoke severely to the nine +house-maids. Meeson and Welsby then made life a painful thing for the +five under-footmen and the grooms, while the nine house-maids boxed +the ears of Whelpdale the Buttons, and Whelpdale the Buttons punched +the scullion's eye. As for the scullion, he was bottom of the list; +but he could always relieve his feelings by secretly pulling the tails +of Sir Godfrey's two tame ravens, whose names were Croak James and +Croak Elizabeth. I never knew what these birds did at that; but +something, you may be sure. So you see that I was right when I said +the household was conducted on strictly feudal principles. The Cook +had a special jurisdiction of her own, and everybody was more or less +afraid of her. + +Whenever Sir Godfrey had come home with new wine, and after the labels +had been pasted on the casks, then Popham, with Whelpdale beside him, +had these carefully set down in the cellar, which was a vast dim room, +the ceilings supported by heavy arches; the barrels, bins, kegs, +hogsheads, tuns, and demijohns of every size and shape standing like +forests and piled to the ceiling. And now something was wrong there. + +"This 'ere's a hawful succumstence, sir," observed Whelpdale the +Buttons to his superior, respectfully. + +"It is, indeed, a himbroglio," replied Popham, who had a wide command +of words, and knew it. + +Neither domestic spoke again for some time. They were seated in the +buttery. The Butler crossed his right leg over his left, and waved +the suspended foot up and down,--something he seldom did unless very +grievously perturbed. As for poor little Whelpdale, he mopped his brow +with the napkins that were in a basket waiting for the wash. + +Then the bell rang. + +"His ludship's study-bell," said Popham. "Don't keep him waiting." + +"Hadn't you better apprise his ludship of the facks?" asked Whelpdale, +in a weak voice. + +Popham made no reply. He arose and briefly kicked Buttons out of the +buttery. Then he mounted a chair to listen better. "He has hentered +his ludship's apawtment," he remarked, hearing the sound of voices +come faintly down the little private staircase that led from Sir +Godfrey's study to the buttery: the Baron was in the habit of coming +down at night for crackers and cheese before he went to bed. Presently +one voice grew much louder than the other. It questioned. There came a +sort of whining in answer. Then came a terrific stamp on the ceiling +and a loud "Go on, sir!" + +"Now, now, now!" thought Popham. + +Do you want to hear at once, without waiting any longer, what little +Whelpdale is telling Sir Godfrey? Well, you must know that for the +past thirteen years, ever since 1190, the neighbourhood had been +scourged by a terrible Dragon. The monster was covered with scales, +and had a long tail and huge unnatural wings, beside fearful jaws that +poured out smoke and flame whenever they opened. He always came at +dead of night, roaring, bellowing, and sparkling and flaming over the +hills, and horrid claps of thunder were very likely to attend his +progress. Concerning the nature and quality of his roaring, the honest +copyholders of Wantley could never agree, although every human being +had heard him hundreds of times. Some said it was like a mad bull, +only much louder and worse. Old Gaffer Piers the ploughman swore that +if his tomcat weighed a thousand pounds it would make a noise almost +as bad as that on summer nights, with the moon at the full and other +cats handy. But farmer Stiles said, "Nay, 'tis like none of your bulls +nor cats. But when I have come home too near the next morning, my +wife can make me think of this Dragon as soon as ever her mouth be +open." + +[Illustration: Popham awaiteth the Result with Dignity] + +This shows you that there were divers opinions. If you were not afraid +to look out of the window about midnight, you could see the sky begin +to look red in the quarter from which he was approaching, just as it +glares when some distant house is on fire. But you must shut the +window and hide before he came over the hill; for very few that had +looked upon the Dragon ever lived to that day twelvemonth. This +monster devoured the substance of the tenantry and yeomen. When their +fields of grain were golden for the harvest, in a single night he cut +them down and left their acres blasted by his deadly fire. He ate the +cows, the sheep, the poultry, and at times even sucked eggs. Many +pious saints had visited the district, but not one had been able by +his virtue to expel the Dragon; and the farmers and country folk used +to repeat a legend that said the Dragon was a punishment for the great +wickedness of the Baron's ancestor, the original Sir Godfrey +Disseisin, who, when summoned on the first Crusade to Palestine, had +entirely refused to go and help his cousin Godfrey de Bouillon wrest +the Holy Sepulchre from the Paynim. The Baron's ancestor, when a stout +young lad, had come over with William the Conqueror; and you must know +that to have an ancestor who had come over with William the Conqueror +was in those old days a much rarer thing than it is now, and any one +who could boast of it was held in high esteem by his neighbours, who +asked him to dinner and left their cards upon him continually. But the +first Sir Godfrey thought one conquest was enough for any man; and in +reply to his cousin's invitation to try a second, answered in his +blunt Norman French, "Nul tiel verte dedans ceot oyle," which +displeased the Church, and ended forever all relations between the +families. The Dragon did not come at once, for this gentleman's son, +the grandfather of our Sir Godfrey, as soon as he was twenty-one, went +off to the Holy Land himself, fought very valiantly, and was killed, +leaving behind him at Wantley an inconsolable little wife and an heir +six months old. This somewhat appeased the Pope; but the present Sir +Godfrey, when asked to accompany King Richard Lion Heart on his +campaign against the Infidel, did not avail himself of the opportunity +to set the family right in the matter of Crusades. This hereditary +impiety, which the Pope did not consider at all mended by the Baron's +most regular attendance at the parish church on all Sundays, feast +days, fast days, high days, low days, saints' days, vigils, and +octaves, nor by his paying his tithes punctually to Father Anselm, +Abbot of Oyster-le-Main (a wonderful person, of whom I shall have a +great deal to tell you presently), this impiety, I say, finished the +good standing of the House of Wantley. Rome frowned, the earth +trembled, and the Dragon came. And (the legend went on to say) this +curse would not be removed until a female lineal descendant of the +first Sir Godfrey, a young lady who had never been married, and had +never loved anybody except her father and mother and her sisters and +brothers, should go out in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve, +all by herself, and encounter the Dragon single handed. + +Now, of course, this is not what little Whelpdale is trying to tell +the Baron up in the study; for everybody in Wantley knew all about the +legend except one person, and that was Miss Elaine, Sir Godfrey's only +daughter, eighteen years old at the last Court of Piepoudre, when her +father (after paying all the farmers for all the cows and sheep they +told him had been eaten by the Dragon since the last Court) had made +his customary proclamation, to wit: his good-will and protection to +all his tenantry; and if any man, woman, child, or other person, +caused his daughter, Miss Elaine, to hear anything about the legend, +such tale-bearer should be chained to a tree, and kept fat until the +Dragon found him and ate him. So everybody obligingly kept the Baron's +secret. + +Sir Godfrey is just this day returned from France with some famous +tuns of wine, and presents for Elaine and Mrs. Mistletoe. His humour +is (or was, till Whelpdale, poor wretch! answered the bell) of the +best possible. And now, this moment, he is being told by the luckless +Buttons that the Dragon of Wantley has taken to drinking, as well as +eating, what does not belong to him; has for the last three nights +burst the big gates of the wine-cellar that open on the hillside the +Manor stands upon; that a hogshead of the Baron's best Burgundy is +going; and that two hogsheads of his choicest Malvoisie are gone! + +One hundred and twenty-eight gallons in three nights' work! But I +suppose a fire-breathing Dragon must be very thirsty. + +There was a dead silence in the study overhead, and old Popham's +calves were shaking loose as he waited. + +"And so you stood by and let this black, sneaking, prowling, thieving" +(here the Baron used some shocking expressions which I shall not set +down) "Dragon swill my wine?" + +"St--st--stood by, your ludship?" said little Whelpdale. "No, sir; no +one didn't do any standing by, sir. He roared that terrible, sir, we +was all under the bed." + +"Now, by my coat of mail and great right leg!" shouted Sir Godfrey. +The quaking Popham heard no more. The door of the private staircase +flew open with a loud noise, and down came little Whelpdale head over +heels into the buttery. After him strode Sir Godfrey in full mail +armour, clashing his steel fists against the banisters. The nose-piece +of his helmet was pushed up to allow him to speak plainly,--and most +plainly did he speak, I can assure you, all the way down stairs, +keeping his right eye glaring upon Popham in one corner of the +buttery, and at the same time petrifying Whelpdale with his left. From +father to son, the Disseisins had always been famous for the manner in +which they could straddle their eyes; and in Sir Godfrey the family +trait was very strongly marked. + +[Illustration: The Baron pursueth Whelpdale into the Buttery] + +Arrived at the bottom, he stopped for a moment to throw a ham through +the stained-glass window, and then made straight for Popham. But the +head Butler was an old family servant, and had learned to know his +place. + +With surprising agility he hopped on a table, so that Sir Godfrey's +foot flew past its destined goal and caught a shelf that was loaded +with a good deal of his wedding china. The Baron was far too dignified +a person to take any notice of this mishap, and he simply strode on, +out of the buttery, and so through the halls of the Manor, where all +who caught even the most distant sight of his coming, promptly +withdrew into the privacy of their apartments. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER II + + How his Daughter, Miss Elaine, behaued in Consequence + +[Illustration: ELAINE MISTLETOE] + + +The Baron walked on, his rage mounting as he went, till presently he +began talking aloud to himself. "Mort d'aieul and Cosenage!" he +muttered, grinding his teeth over these oaths; "matters have come to a +pretty pass, per my and per tout! And this is what my wine-bibbing +ancestor has brought on his posterity by his omission to fight for the +True Faith!" + +Sir Godfrey knew the outrageous injustice of this remark as well as +you or I do; and so did the portrait of his ancestor, which he +happened to be passing under, for the red nose in the tapestry turned +a deeper ruby in scornful anger. But, luckily for the nerves of its +descendant, the moths had eaten its mouth away so entirely, that the +retort it attempted to make sounded only like a faint hiss, which the +Baron mistook for a little gust of wind behind the arras. + +"My ruddy Burgundy!" he groaned, "going, going! and my rich, fruity +Malvoisie,--all gone! Father Anselm didn't appreciate it, either, that +night he dined here last September. He said I had put egg-shells in +it. Egg-shells! Pooh! As if any parson could talk about wine. These +Church folk had better mind their business, and say grace, and eat +their dinner, and be thankful. That's what I say. Egg-shells, +forsooth!" The Baron was passing through the chapel, and he +mechanically removed his helmet; but he did not catch sight of the +glittering eye of Father Anselm himself, who had stepped quickly into +the confessional, and there in the dark watched Sir Godfrey with a +strange, mocking smile. When he had the chapel to himself again, the +tall gray figure of the Abbot appeared in full view, and craftily +moved across the place. If you had been close beside him, and had +listened hard, you could have heard a faint clank and jingle beneath +his gown as he moved, which would have struck you as not the sort of +noise a hair-shirt ought to make. But I am glad you were not there; +for I do not like the way the Abbot looked at all, especially so near +Christmas-tide, when almost every one somehow looks kinder as he goes +about in the world. Father Anselm moved out of the chapel, and passed +through lonely corridors out of Wantley Manor, out of the court-yard, +and so took his way to Oyster-le-Main in the gathering dusk. The few +people who met him received his blessing, and asked no questions; for +they were all serfs of the glebe, and well used to meeting the Abbot +going and coming near Wantley Manor. + +Meanwhile, Sir Godfrey paced along. "To think," he continued, aloud, +"to think the country could be rid of this monster, this guzzling +serpent, in a few days! Plenty would reign again. Public peace of mind +would be restored. The cattle would increase, the crops would grow, my +rents treble, and my wines be drunk no more by a miserable, +ignorant--but, no! I'm her father. Elaine shall never be permitted to +sacrifice herself for one dragon, or twenty dragons, either." + +"Why, what's the matter, papa?" + +Sir Godfrey started. There was Miss Elaine in front of him; and she +had put on one of the new French gowns he had brought over with him. + +"Matter? Plenty of matter!" he began, unluckily. "At least, nothing is +the matter at all, my dear. What a question! Am I not back all safe +from the sea? Nothing is the matter, of course! Hasn't your old father +been away from you two whole months? And weren't those pretty dresses +he has carried back with him for his little girl? And isn't the +wine--Zounds, no, the wine isn't--at least, certainly it is--to be +sure it's what it ought to be--_what_ it ought to be? Yes! But, Mort +d'aieul! not _where_ it ought to be! Hum! hum! I think I am going +mad!" And Sir Godfrey, forgetting he held the helmet all this while, +dashed his hands to his head with such violence that the steel edge +struck hard above the ear, and in one minute had raised a lump there +as large as the egg of a fowl. + +"Poor, poor papa," said Miss Elaine. And she ran and fetched some cold +water, and, dipping her dainty lace handkerchief into it, she bathed +the Baron's head. + +"Thank you, my child," he murmured, presently. "Of course, nothing is +the matter. They were very slow in putting the new" (here he gave a +gulp) "casks of wine into the cellar; that's all. 'Twill soon be +dinner-time. I must make me ready." + +And so saying, the Baron kissed his daughter and strode away towards +his dressing-room. But she heard him shout "Mort d'aieul!" more than +once before he was out of hearing. Then his dressing-room door shut +with a bang, and sent echoes all along the entries above and below. + +[Illustration: Sir Godfrey maketh him ready for the Bath] + +The December night was coming down, and a little twinkling lamp hung +at the end of the passage. Towards this Miss Elaine musingly turned +her steps, still squeezing her now nearly dry handkerchief. + +"What did he mean?" she said to herself. + +"Elaine!" shouted Sir Godfrey, away off round a corner. + +"Yes, papa, I'm coming." + +"Don't come. I'm going to the bath. A--did you hear me say anything +particular?" + +"Do you mean when I met you?" answered Elaine. "Yes--no--that is,--not +exactly, papa." + +"Then don't dare to ask me any questions, for I won't have it." And +another door slammed. + +"What did papa mean?" said Miss Elaine, once more. + +Her bright brown eyes were looking at the floor as she walked slowly +on towards the light, and her lips, which had been a little open so +that you could have seen what dainty teeth she had, shut quite close. +In fact, she was thinking, which was something you could seldom accuse +her of. I do not know exactly what her thoughts were, except that the +words "dragon" and "sacrifice" kept bumping against each other in +them continually; and whenever they bumped, Miss Elaine frowned a +little deeper, till she really looked almost solemn. In this way she +came under the hanging lamp and entered the door in front of which it +shone. + +[Illustration: SIR GODFREY getteth in to hys Bath] + +This was the ladies' library, full of the most touching romances about +Roland, and Walter of Aquitaine, and Sir Tristram, and a great number +of other excitable young fellows, whose behaviour had invariably got +them into dreadful difficulties, but had as invariably made them, in +the eyes of every damsel they saw, the most attractive, fascinating, +sweet, dear creatures in the world. Nobody ever read any of these +books except Mrs. Mistletoe and the family Chaplain. These two were, +indeed, the only people in the household that knew how to read,--which +may account for it in some measure. It was here that Miss Elaine came +in while she was thinking so hard, and found old Mistletoe huddled to +the fire. She had been secretly reading the first chapters of a new +and pungent French romance, called "Roger and Angelica," that was +being published in a Paris and a London magazine simultaneously. Only +thus could the talented French author secure payment for his books in +England; for King John, who had recently murdered his little nephew +Arthur, had now turned his attention to obstructing all arrangements +for an international copyright. In many respects, this monarch was no +credit to his family. + +[Illustration: MISTLETOE; CONSVLTETH YE COOKYNGE BOOKE] + +When the Governess heard Miss Elaine open the door behind her, she +thought it was the family Chaplain, and, quickly throwing the shocking +story on the floor, she opened the household cookery-book,--an +enormous volume many feet square, suspended from the ceiling by strong +chains, and containing several thousand receipts for English, French, +Italian, Croatian, Dalmatian, and Acarnanian dishes, beginning with a +poem in blank verse written to his confectioner by the Emperor Charles +the Fat. German cooking was omitted. + +"I'm looking up a new plum-pudding for Christmas," said Mistletoe, +nervously, keeping her virtuous eyes on the volume. + +"Ah, indeed!" Miss Elaine answered, indifferently. She was thinking +harder than ever,--was, in fact, inventing a little plan. + +"Oh, so it's you, deary!" cried the Governess, much relieved. She had +feared the Chaplain might pick up the guilty magazine and find its +pages cut only at the place where the French story was. And I am +grieved to have to tell you that this is just what he did do later in +the evening, and sat down in his private room and read about Roger and +Angelica himself. + +"Here's a good one," said Mistletoe. "Number 39, in the Appendix to +Part Fourth. Chop two pounds of leeks and----" + +"But I may not be here to taste it," said Elaine. + +"Bless the child!" said Mistletoe. "And where else would you be on +Christmas-day but in your own house?" + +"Perhaps far away. Who knows?" + +"You haven't gone and seen a young man and told him----" + +"A young man, indeed!" said Elaine, with a toss of her head. "There's +not a young man in England I would tell anything save to go about his +business." + +Miss Elaine had never seen any young men except when they came to dine +on Sir Godfrey's invitation; and his manner on those occasions so awed +them that they always sat on the edge of their chairs, and said, "No, +thank you," when the Baron said, "Have some more capon?" Then the +Baron would snort, "Nonsense! Popham, bring me Master Percival's +plate," upon which Master Percival invariably simpered, and said that +really he did believe he _would_ take another slice. After these +dinners, Miss Elaine retired to her own part of the house; and that +was all she ever saw of young men, whom she very naturally deemed a +class to be despised as silly and wholly lacking in self-assertion. + +"Then where in the name of good saints are you going to be?" Mistletoe +went on. + +"Why," said Elaine, slowly (and here she looked very slyly at the old +Governess, and then quickly appeared to be considering the lace on her +dress), "why, of course, papa would not permit me to sacrifice myself +for one dragon or twenty dragons." + +"What!" screamed Mistletoe, all in a flurry (for she was a fool). +"What?" + +"Of course, I know papa would say that," said Miss Elaine, demure as +possible. + +"Oh, mercy me!" squeaked Mistletoe; "we are undone!" + +"To be sure, I might agree with papa," said the artful thing, knowing +well enough she was on the right track. + +"Oo--oo!" went the Governess, burying her nose in the household +cookery-book and rocking from side to side. + +"But then I might not agree with papa, you know. I might think,--might +think----" Miss Elaine stopped at what she might think, for really she +hadn't the slightest idea what to say next. + +"You have no right to think,--no right at all!" burst out Mistletoe. +"And you sha'n't be allowed to think. I'll tell Sir Godfrey at once, +and he'll forbid you. Oh, dear! oh, dear! just before Christmas Eve, +too! The only night in the year! She has no time to change her mind; +and she'll be eaten up if she goes, I know she will. What villain told +you of this, child? Let me know, and he shall be punished at once." + +"I shall not tell you that," said Elaine. + +"Then everybody will be suspected," moaned Mistletoe. "Everybody. The +whole household. And we shall all be thrown to the Dragon. Oh, dear! +was there ever such a state of things?" The Governess betook herself +to weeping and wringing her hands, and Elaine stood watching her and +wondering how in the world she could find out more. She knew now just +enough to keep her from eating or sleeping until she knew everything. + +"I don't agree with papa, at all," she said, during a lull in the +tears. This was the only remark she could think of. + +"He'll lock you up, and feed you on bread and water till you +do--oo--oo!" sobbed Mistletoe; "and by that time we shall all be +ea--ea--eaten up!" + +"But I'll talk to papa, and make him change his mind." + +"He won't. Do you think you're going to make him care more about a lot +of sheep and cows than he does about his only daughter? Doesn't he pay +the people for everything the Dragon eats up? Who would pay him for +you, when you were eaten up?" + +"How do you know that I should be eaten up?" asked Miss Elaine. + +"Oh, dear! oh, dear! and how could you stop it? What could a girl do +alone against a dragon in the middle of the night?" + +"But on Christmas Eve?" suggested the young lady. "There might be +something different about that. He might feel better, you know, on +Christmas Eve." + +"Do you suppose a wicked, ravenous dragon with a heathen tail is going +to care whether it is Christmas Eve or not? He'd have you for his +Christmas dinner, and that's all the notice he would take of the day. +And then perhaps he wouldn't leave the country, after all. How can you +be sure he would go away, just because that odious, vulgar legend says +so? Who would rely on a dragon? And so there you would be gone, and he +would be here, and everything!" + +Mistletoe's tears flowed afresh; but you see she had said all that +Miss Elaine was so curious to know about, and the fatal secret was +out. + +[Illustration: ELAINE MAKETH AN VNEXPECTED REMARK] + +The Quarter-Bell rang for dinner, and both the women hastened to +their rooms to make ready; Mistletoe still boo-hooing and snuffling, +and declaring that she had always said some wretched, abominable +villain would tell her child about that horrid, ridiculous legend, +that was a perfect falsehood, as anybody could see, and very likely +invented by the Dragon himself, because no human being with any +feelings at all would think of such a cruel, absurd idea; and if they +ever did, they deserved to be eaten themselves; and she would not have +it. + +She said a great deal more that Elaine, in the next room, could not +hear (though the door was open between), because the Governess put her +fat old face under the cold water in the basin, and, though she went +on talking just the same, it only produced an angry sort of bubbling, +which conveyed very little notion of what she meant. + +So they descended the stairway, Miss Elaine walking first, very +straight and solemn; and that was the way she marched into the +banquet-hall, where Sir Godfrey waited. + +"Papa," said she, "I think I'll meet the Dragon on Christmas Eve!" + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER III + + Reueals the _Dragon_ in his Den + +[Illustration: BROTHER HUBERT] + + +Around the sullen towers of Oyster-le-Main the snow was falling +steadily. It was slowly banking up in the deep sills of the windows, +and Hubert the Sacristan had given up sweeping the steps. Patches of +it, that had collected on the top of the great bell as the slanting +draughts blew it in through the belfry-window, slid down from time to +time among the birds which had nestled for shelter in the beams below. +From the heavy main outer-gates, the country spread in a white +unbroken sheet to the woods. Twice, perhaps, through the morning had +wayfarers toiled by along the nearly-obliterated high-road. + +"Good luck to the holy men!" each had said to himself as he looked at +the chill and austere walls of the Monastery. "Good luck! and I hope +that within there they be warmer than I am." Then I think it very +likely that as he walked on, blowing the fingers of the hand that held +his staff, he thought of his fireside and his wife, and blessed +Providence for not making him pious enough to be a monk and a +bachelor. + +This is what was doing in the world outside. Now inside the stone +walls of Oyster-le-Main, whose grim solidity spoke of narrow cells and +of pious knees continually bent in prayer, not a monk paced the +corridors, and not a step could be heard above or below in the +staircase that wound up through the round towers. Silence was +everywhere, save that from a remote quarter of the Monastery came a +faint sound of music. Upon such a time as Christmas Eve, it might well +be that carols in plenty would be sung or studied by the saintly men. +But this sounded like no carol. At times the humming murmur of the +storm drowned the measure, whatever it was, and again it came along +the dark, cold entries, clearer than before. Away in a long vaulted +room, whose only approach was a passage in the thickness of the walls, +safe from the intrusion of the curious, a company is sitting round a +cavernous chimney, where roars and crackles a great blazing heap of +logs. Surely, for a monkish song, their melody is most odd; yet monks +they are, for all are clothed in gray, like Father Anselm, and a rope +round the waist of each. But what can possibly be in that huge silver +rundlet into which they plunge their goblets so often? The song grows +louder than ever. + + We are the monks of Oyster-le-Main, + Hooded and gowned as fools may see; + Hooded and gowned though we monks be, + Is that a reason we should abstain + From cups of the gamesome Burgundie? + + Though our garments make it plain + That we are Monks of Oyster-le-Main, + That is no reason we should abstain + From cups of the gamesome Burgundie. + +"I'm sweating hot," says one. "How for disrobing, brothers? No danger +on such a day as this, foul luck to the snow!" + +Which you see was coarse and vulgar language for any one to be heard +to use, and particularly so for a godly celibate. But the words were +scarce said, when off fly those monks' hoods, and the waist-ropes +rattle as they fall on the floor, and the gray gowns drop down and are +kicked away. + +Every man jack of them is in black armour, with a long sword buckled +to his side. + +"Long cheer to the Guild of Go-as-you-Please!" they shouted, hoarsely, +and dashed their drinking-horns on the board. Then filled them again. + +"Give us a song, Hubert," said one. "The day's a dull one out in the +world." + +[Illustration] + +"Wait a while," replied Hubert, whose nose was hidden in his cup; +"this new Wantley tipple is a vastly comfortable brew. What d'ye call +the stuff?" + +"Malvoisie, thou oaf?" said another; "and of a delicacy many degrees +above thy bumpkin palate. Leave profaning it, therefore, and to thy +refrain without more ado." + +"Most unctuous sir," replied Hubert, "in demanding me this favour, you +seem forgetful that the juice of Pleasure is sweeter than the milk of +Human Kindness. I'll not sing to give thee an opportunity to outnumber +me in thy cups." + +And he filled and instantly emptied another sound bumper of the +Malvoisie, lurching slightly as he did so. "Health!" he added, +preparing to swallow the next. + +"A murrain on such pagan thirst!" exclaimed he who had been toasted, +snatching the cup away. "Art thou altogether unslakable? Is thy belly +a lime-kiln? Nay, shalt taste not a single drop more, Hubert, till we +have a stave. Come, tune up, man!" + +"Give me but leave to hold the empty vessel, then," the singer +pleaded, falling on one knee in mock supplication. + +"Accorded, thou sot!" laughed the other. "Carol away, now!" + +They fell into silence, each replenishing his drinking-horn. The snow +beat soft against the window, and from outside, far above them, +sounded the melancholy note of the bell ringing in the hour for +meditation. + +So Hubert began: + + When the sable veil of night + Over hill and glen is spread, + The yeoman bolts his door in fright, + And he quakes within his bed. + Far away on his ear + There strikes a sound of dread: + Something comes! it is here! + It is passed with awful tread. + There's a flash of unholy flame; + There is smoke hangs hot in the air: + 'Twas the Dragon of Wantley came: + Beware of him, beware! + + But we beside the fire + Sit close to the steaming bowl; + We pile the logs up higher, + And loud our voices roll. + + When the yeoman wakes at dawn + To begin his round of toil, + His garner's bare, his sheep are gone, + And the Dragon holds the spoil. + All day long through the earth + That yeoman makes his moan; + All day long there is mirth + Behind these walls of stone. + For we are the Lords of Ease, + The gaolers of carking Care, + The Guild of Go-as-you-Please! + Beware of us, beware! + + So we beside the fire + Sit down to the steaming bowl; + We pile the logs up higher, + And loud our voices roll. + +The roar of twenty lusty throats and the clatter of cups banging on +the table rendered the words of the chorus entirely inaudible. + +"Here's Malvoisie for thee, Hubert," said one of the company, dipping +into the rundlet. But his hand struck against the dry bottom. They had +finished four gallons since breakfast, and it was scarcely eleven gone +on the clock! + +"Oh, I am betrayed!" Hubert sang out. Then he added, "But there is a +plenty where that came from." And with that he reached for his gown, +and, fetching out a bunch of great brass keys, proceeded towards a +tall door in the wall, and turned the lock. The door swung open, and +Hubert plunged into the dark recess thus disclosed. An exclamation of +chagrin followed, and the empty hide of a huge crocodile, with a pair +of trailing wings to it, came bumping out from the closet into the +hall, giving out many hollow cracks as it floundered along, fresh from +a vigourous kick that the intemperate minstrel had administered in his +rage at having put his hand into the open jaws of the monster instead +of upon the neck of the demijohn that contained the Malvoisie. + +"Beshrew thee, Hubert!" said the voice of a new-comer, who stood +eyeing the proceedings from a distance, near where he had entered; +"treat the carcase of our patron saint with a more befitting +reverence, or I'll have thee caged and put upon bread and water. +Remember, that whosoever kicks that skin in some sort kicks me." + +"Long life to the Dragon of Wantley!" said Hubert, reappearing, very +dusty, but clasping a plump demijohn. + +"Hubert, my lad," said the new-comer, "put back that vessel of +inebriation; and, because I like thee well for thy youth and thy sweet +voice, do not therefore presume too far with me." + +A somewhat uneasy pause followed upon this; and while Hubert edged +back into the closet with his demijohn, Father Anselm frowned slightly +as his eyes turned upon the scene of late hilarity. + +But where is the Dragon in his den? you ask. Are we not coming to him +soon? Ah, but we have come to him. You shall hear the truth. Never +believe that sham story about More of More Hall, and how he slew the +Dragon of Wantley. It is a gross fabrication of some unscrupulous and +mediocre literary person, who, I make no doubt, was in the pay of More +to blow his trumpet so loud that a credulous posterity might hear it. +My account of the Dragon is the only true one. + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + Tells all about him + +[Illustration] + + +In those days of shifting fortunes, of turbulence and rapine, of +knights-errant and minstrels seeking for adventure and love, and of +solitary pilgrims and bodies of pious men wandering over Europe to +proclaim that the duty of all was to arise and quell the pagan +defilers of the Holy Shrine, good men and bad men, undoubted saints +and unmistakable sinners, drifted forward and back through every +country, came by night and by day to every household, and lived their +lives in that unbounded and perilous freedom that put them at one +moment upon the top limit of their ambition or their delight, and +plunged them into violent and bloody death almost ere the moment was +gone. It was a time when "fatten at thy neighbour's expense" was the +one commandment observed by many who outwardly maintained a profound +respect for the original ten; and any man whose wit taught him how +this commandment could be obeyed with the greatest profit and the +least danger was in high standing among his fellows. + +Hence it was that Francis Almoign, Knight of the Voracious Stomach, +cumbered with no domestic ties worthy of mention, a tall slim fellow +who knew the appropriate hour to slit a throat or to wheedle a maid, +came to be Grand Marshal of the Guild of Go-as-you-Please. + +This secret band, under its Grand Marshal, roved over Europe and +thrived mightily. Each member was as stout hearted a villain as you +could see. Sometimes their doings came to light, and they were forced +to hasten across the borders of an outraged territory into new +pastures. Yet they fared well in the main, for they could fight and +drink and sing; and many a fair one smiled upon them, in spite of +their perfectly outrageous morals. + +So, one day, they came into the neighbourhood of Oyster-le-Main, where +much confusion reigned among the good monks. Sir Godfrey Disseisin +over at Wantley had let Richard Lion Heart depart for the Holy Wars +without him. "Like father like son," the people muttered in their +discontent. "Sure, the Church will gravely punish this second +offence." To all these whisperings of rumour the Grand Marshal of the +Guild paid fast attention; for he was a man who laid his plans deeply, +and much in advance of the event. He saw the country was fat and the +neighbours foolish. He took note of the handsome tithes that came in +to Oyster-le-Main for the support of the monks. He saw all these +things, and set himself to thinking. + +Upon a stormy afternoon, when the light was nearly gone out of the +sky, a band of venerable pilgrims stood at the great gates of the +Monastery. Their garments were tattered, their shoes were in sad +disrepair. They had walked (they said) all the way from Jerusalem. +Might they find shelter for the night? The tale they told, and the +mere sight of their trembling old beards, would have melted hearts far +harder than those which beat in the breasts of the monks of +Oyster-le-Main. But above all, these pilgrims brought with them as +convincing proofs of their journey a collection of relics and +talismans (such as are to be met with only in Eastern countries) of +great wonder and virtue. With singular generosity, which they +explained had been taught them by the Arabs, they presented many of +these treasures to the delighted inmates of the Monastery, who +hastened to their respective cells,--this one reverently cherishing a +tuft of hair from the tail of one of Daniel's lions; another handling +with deep fervour a strip of the coat of many colours once worn by the +excellent Joseph. But the most extraordinary relic among them all was +the skin of a huge lizard beast, the like of which none in England had +ever seen. This, the Pilgrims told their hosts, was no less a thing +than a crocodile from the Nile, the renowned river of Moses. It had +been pressed upon them, as they were departing from the City of +Damascus, by a friend, a blameless chiropodist, whose name was Omar +Khayyam. He it was who eked out a pious groat by tending the feet of +all outward and inward bound pilgrims. Seated at the entrance of his +humble booth, with the foot of some holy man in his lap, he would +speak words of kindness and wisdom as he reduced the inflammation. One +of his quaintest sayings was, "If the Pope has bid thee wear hair next +thy bare skin, my son, why, clap a wig over thy shaven scalp." So the +monks in proper pity and kindness, when they had shut the great gates +as night came down, made their pilgrim guests welcome to bide at +Oyster-le-Main as long as they pleased. The solemn bell for retiring +rolled forth in the darkness with a single deep clang, and the sound +went far and wide over the neighbouring district. Those peasants who +were still awake in their scattered cottages, crossed themselves as +they thought, "The holy men at Oyster-le-Main are just now going to +their rest." + +And thus the world outside grew still, and the thick walls of the +Monastery loomed up against the stars. + +Deep in the midnight, many a choking cry rang fearfully through the +stony halls, but came not to the outer air; and the waning moon shone +faintly down upon the enclosure of the garden, where worked a band of +silent grave-diggers, clad in black armour, and with blood-red hands. +The good country folk, who came at early morning with their presents +of poultry and milk, little guessed what sheep's clothing the gray +cowls and gowns of Oyster-le-Main had become in a single night, nor +what impious lips those were which now muttered blessings over their +bent heads. + +The following night, hideous sounds were heard in the fields, and +those who dared to open their shutters to see what the matter was, +beheld a huge lizard beast, with fiery breath and accompanied by +rattling thunder, raging over the soil, which he hardly seemed to +touch! + +In this manner did the dreaded Dragon of Wantley make his appearance, +and in this manner did Sir Francis Almoign, Knight of the Voracious +Stomach, stand in the shoes of that Father Anselm whom he had put so +comfortably out of the way under the flower-beds in the Monastery +garden,--and never a soul in the world except his companions in orgy +to know the difference. He even came to be welcome at Sir Godfrey's +table; for after the Dragon's appearance, the Baron grew civil to all +members of the Church. By day this versatile sinner, the Grand +Marshal, would walk in the sight of the world with staid step, clothed +in gray, his hood concealing his fierce, unchurchly eyes; by night, +inside the crocodile skin, he visited what places he chose, unhindered +by the terrified dwellers, and after him came his followers of the +Guild to steal the plunder and bear it back inside the walls of +Oyster-le-Main. Never in all their adventures had these superb +miscreants been in better plight; but now the trouble had begun, as +you are going to hear. We return to Hubert and the company. + +"Hubert and all of you," said Father Anselm, or rather Sir Francis, +the Grand Marshal, as we know him to be, "they say that whom the gods +desire to destroy, him do they first make drunk with wine." + +"The application! the application!" they shouted in hoarse and +mirthful chorus, for they were certainly near that state favourable to +destruction by the gods. One black fellow with a sliding gait ran into +the closet and brought a sheet of thin iron, and a strange torch-like +tube, which he lighted at the fire and blew into from the other end. A +plume of spitting flame immediately shot far into the air. + +[Illustration: Hubert Looketh out of ye Window] + +"Before thy sermon proceeds, old Dragon," he said, puffing unsteady +but solemn breaths between his words, "wrap up in lightning and +thunder that we may be--may be--lieve what you say." Then he shook the +iron till it gave forth a frightful shattering sound. The Grand +Marshal said not a word. With three long steps he stood towering in +front of the man and dealt him a side blow under the ear with his +steel fist. He fell instantly, folding together like something +boneless, and lay along the floor for a moment quite still, except +that some piece in his armour made a light rattling as though there +were muscles that quivered beneath it. Then he raised himself slowly +to a bench where his brothers sat waiting, soberly enough. Only young +Hubert grinned aside to his neighbour, who, perceiving it, kept his +eyes fixed as far from that youth as possible. + +"Thy turn next, if art not careful, Hubert," said Sir Francis very +quietly, as he seated himself. + +"Wonder of saints!" Hubert thought secretly, not moving at all, "how +could he have seen that?" + +"'Tis no small piece of good fortune," continued the Grand Marshal, +"that some one among us can put aside his slavish appetites, and keep +a clear eye on the watch against misadventure. Here is my news. That +hotch-pot of lies we set going among the people has fallen foul of +us. The daughter of Sir Godfrey has heard our legend, and last week +told her sire that to-night she would follow it out to the letter, and +meet the Dragon of Wantley alone in single combat." + +"Has she never loved any man?" asked one. + +"She fulfils every condition." + +"Who told her?" + +"That most consummate of fools, the Mistletoe," said the Grand +Marshal. + +"What did Sir Godfrey do upon that?" inquired Hubert. + +"He locked up his girl and chained the Governess to a rock, where she +has remained in deadly terror ever since, but kept fat for me to +devour her. Me!" and Sir Francis permitted himself to smile, though +not very broadly. + +"How if Sir Dragon had found the maid chained instead of the ancient +widow?" Hubert said, venturing to tread a little nearer to familiarity +on the strength of the amusement which played across the Grand +Master's face. + +"Ah, Hubert boy," he replied, "I see it is not in the Spring only, +but in Autumn and Summer and Winter as well, that thy fancy turns to +thoughts of love. Did the calendar year but contain a fifth season, in +that also wouldst thou be making honey-dew faces at somebody." + +But young Hubert only grinned, and closed his flashing eyes a little, +in satisfaction at the character which had been given him. + +"Time presses," Sir Francis said. "By noon we shall receive an +important visit. There has been a great sensation at Wantley. The +country folk are aroused; the farmers have discovered that the secret +of our legend has been revealed to Miss Elaine. Not one of the clowns +would have dared reveal it himself, but all rejoice in the bottom of +their hearts that she knows it, and chooses to risk battle with the +Dragon. Their honest Saxon minds perceive the thrift of such an +arrangement. Therefore there is general anxiety and disturbance to +know if Sir Godfrey will permit the conflict. The loss of his +Malvoisie tried him sorely,--but he remains a father." + +"That's kind in him," said Hubert. + +Sir Francis turned a cold eye on Hubert. "As befits a clean-blooded +man," he proceeded, "I have risen at the dawn and left you wine-pots +in your thick sleep. From the wood's edge over by Wantley I've watched +the Baron come eagerly to an upper window in his white night-shift. +And when he looks out on Mistletoe and sees she is not devoured, he +bursts into a rage that can be plainly seen from a distance. These six +mornings I laughed so loud at this spectacle, that I almost feared +discovery. Next, the Baron visits his daughter, only to find her food +untasted and herself silent. I fear she is less of a fool than the +rest. But now his paternal heart smites him, and he has let her out. +Also the Governess is free." + +"Such a girl as that would not flinch from meeting our Dragon," said +Hubert; "aye, or from seeking him." + +"She must never meet the Dragon," Sir Francis declared. "What could I +do shut up in the crocodile, and she with a sword, of course?" + +They were gloomily silent. + +"I could not devour her properly as a dragon should. Nor could I carry +her away," pursued Sir Francis. + +Here Hubert, who had gone to the window, returned hastily, exclaiming, +"They are coming!" + +"Who are coming?" asked several. + +"The Baron, his daughter, the Governess, and all Wantley at their +backs, to ask our pious advice," said the Grand Marshal. "Quick, into +your gowns, one and all! Be monks outside, though you stay men +underneath." For a while the hall was filled with jostling gray +figures entangled in the thick folds of the gowns, into which the +arms, legs, and heads had been thrust regardless of direction; the +armour clashed invisible underneath as the hot and choked members of +the Guild plunged about like wild animals sewed into sacks, in their +struggles to reappear in decent monastic attire. The winged crocodile +was kicked into the closet, after it were hurled the thunder machine +and the lightning torch, and after them clattered the cups and the +silver rundlet. Barely had Hubert turned the key, when knocking at the +far-off gate was heard. + +"Go down quickly, Hubert," said the Grand Marshal, "and lead them all +here." + +Presently the procession of laity, gravely escorted by Hubert, began +to file into the now barren-looking room, while the monks stood with +hands folded, and sang loudly what sounded to the uninstructed ears of +each listener like a Latin hymn. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER V + + In which the Hero makes his first + Appearance & is at Once locked up. + +[Illustration: FATHER ANSELM SIR GODFREY] + + +With the respect that was due to holy men, Sir Godfrey removed his +helmet, and stood waiting in a decent attitude of attention to the +hymn, although he did not understand a single word of it. The long +deliberate Latin words rolled out very grand to his ear, and, to tell +you the truth, it is just as well his scholarship was faulty, for this +is the English of those same words: + + "It is my intention + To die in a tavern, + With wine in the neighbourhood, + Close by my thirsty mouth; + That angels in chorus + May sing, when they reach me,-- + 'Let Bacchus be merciful + Unto this wine-bibber.'" + +But so devoutly did the monks dwell upon the syllables, so earnestly +were the arms of each one folded against his breast, that you would +never have suspected any unclerical sentiments were being expressed. +The proximity of so many petticoats and kirtles caused considerable +restlessness to Hubert; but he felt the burning eye of the Grand +Marshal fixed upon him, and sang away with all his might. + +Sir Godfrey began to grow impatient. + +"Hem!" he said, moving his foot slightly. + +This proceeding, however, was without result. The pious chant +continued to resound, and the monks paid not the least attention to +their visitors, but stood up together in a double line, vociferating +Latin with as much zest as ever. + +"Mort d'aieul!" growled Sir Godfrey, shifting his other foot, and not +so gingerly this second time. + +By chance the singing stopped upon the same instant, so that the +Baron's remark and the noise his foot had made sounded all over the +room. This disconcerted him; for he felt his standing with the Church +to be weak, and he rolled his eyes from one side to the other, +watching for any effect his disturbance might have made. But, with the +breeding of a true man of the world, the Grand Marshal merely +observed, "Benedicite, my son!" + +"Good-morning, Father," returned Sir Godfrey. + +"And what would you with me?" pursued the so-called Father Anselm. +"Speak, my son." + +"Well, the fact is----" the Baron began, marching forward; but he +encountered the eye of the Abbot, where shone a cold surprise at this +over-familiar fashion of speech; so he checked himself, and, in as +restrained a voice as he could command, told his story. How his +daughter had determined to meet the Dragon, and so save Wantley; how +nothing that a parent could say had influenced her intentions in the +least; and now he placed the entire matter in the hands of the Church. + +"Which would have been more becoming if you had done it at the first," +said Father Anselm, reprovingly. Then he turned to Miss Elaine, who +all this while had been looking out of the window with the utmost +indifference. + +"How is this, my daughter?" he said gravely, in his deep voice. + +"Oh, the dear blessed man!" whispered Mistletoe, admiringly, to +herself. + +"It is as you hear, Father," said Miss Elaine, keeping her eyes away. + +"And why do you think that such a peril upon your part would do away +with this Dragon?" + +"Says not the legend so?" she replied. + +"And what may the legend be, my daughter?" + +With some surprise that so well informed a person as Father Anselm +should be ignorant of this prominent topic of the day, Sir Godfrey +here broke in and narrated the legend to him with many vigourous +comments. + +"Ah, yes," said the Father, smiling gently when the story was done; "I +do now remember that some such child's tale was in the mouths of the +common folk once; but methought the nonsense was dead long since." + +"The nonsense, Father!" exclaimed Elaine. + +"Of a surety, my child. Dost suppose that Holy Church were so unjust +as to visit the sins of thy knightly relatives upon the head of any +weak woman, who is not in the order of creation designed for personal +conflict with men, let alone dragons?" + +"Bravo, Dragon!" thought Hubert, as he listened to this wily talk of +his chief. + +But the words "weak woman" had touched the pride of Miss Elaine. "I +know nothing of weak women," she said, very stately; "but I do know +that I am strong enough to meet this Dragon, and, moreover, firmly +intend to do so this very night." + +"Peace, my daughter," said the monk; "and listen to the voice of thy +mother the Church speaking through the humblest of her servants. This +legend of thine holds not a single grain of truth. 'Tis a conceit of +the common herd, set afoot by some ingenious fellow who may have +thought he was doing a great thing in devising such fantastic mixture. +True it is that the Monster is a visitation to punish the impiety of +certain members of thy family. True it is that he will not depart till +a member of that family perform a certain act. But it is to be a male +descendant." + +Now Sir Godfrey's boy Roland was being instructed in knightly arts +and conduct away from home. + +"Who told you that?" inquired the Baron, as the thought of his +precious wine-cellar came into his head. + +"On last Christmas Eve I had a vision," replied Father Anselm. "Thy +grandfather, the brave youth who by journeying to the Holy War averted +this curse until thine own conduct caused it to descend upon us, +appeared to me in shining armour. 'Anselm,' he said, and raised his +right arm, 'the Dragon is a grievous burden on the people. I can see +that from where I am. Now, Anselm, when the fitting hour shall come, +and my great-grandson's years be mature enough to have made a man of +him, let him go to the next Holy War that is proclaimed, and on the +very night of his departure the curse will be removed and our family +forgiven. More than this, Anselm, if any male descendant from me +direct shall at any time attend a Crusade when it is declared, the +country will be free forever.' So saying, he dissolved out of my sight +in a silver gleaming mist." Here Father Anselm paused, and from under +his hood watched with a trifle of anxiety the effect of his speech. + +There was a short silence, and then Sir Godfrey said, "Am I to +understand this thing hangs on the event of another Crusade?" + +The Abbot bowed. + +"Meanwhile, till that event happen, the Dragon can rage unchecked?" + +The Abbot bowed again. + +"Will there be another Crusade along pretty soon?" Sir Godfrey +pursued. + +"These things lie not in human knowledge," replied Father Anselm. He +little dreamed what news the morrow's sun would see. + +"Oh, my sheep!" groaned many a poor farmer. + +"Oh, my Burgundy!" groaned Sir Godfrey. + +"In that case," exclaimed Elaine, her cheeks pink with excitement, "I +shall try the virtue of the legend, at any rate." + +"Most impious, my daughter, most impious will such conduct be in the +sight of Mother Church," said Father Anselm. + +"Hear me, all people!" shouted Sir Godfrey, foreseeing that before +the next Crusade came every drop of wine in his cellar would be +swallowed by the Dragon; "hear me proclaim and solemnly promise: +legend true or legend false, my daughter shall not face this risk. But +if her heart go with it, her hand shall be given to that man who by +night or light brings me this Dragon, alive or dead!" + +[Illustration: Geoffrey replyeth with deplorable Flippancy to Father +Anselm.] + +"A useless promise, Sir Godfrey!" said Father Anselm, shrugging his +shoulders. "We dare not discredit the word of thy respected +grandsire." + +"My respected grandsire be----" + +"_What?_" said the Abbot. + +"Became a credit to his family," said the Baron, quite mildly; "and I +slight no word of his. But he did not contradict this legend in the +vision, I think." + +"No, he did not, papa," Miss Elaine put in. "He only mentioned +another way of getting rid of this horrible Dragon. Now, papa, +whatever you may say about--about my heart and hand," she continued +firmly, "I am going to meet the Monster alone myself, to-night." + +"That you shall not," said Sir Godfrey. + +"A hundred times no!" said a new voice from the crowd. "I will meet +him myself!" + +All turned and saw a knight pushing his way through the people. + +"Who are you?" inquired the Baron. + +The stranger bowed haughtily; and Elaine watched him remove his +helmet, and reveal underneath it the countenance of a young man who +turned to her, and---- + +Why, what's this, Elaine? Why does everything seem to swim and grow +misty as his eye meets yours? And why does he look at you so, and +deeply flush to the very rim of his curly hair? And as his glance +grows steadier and more intent upon your eyes that keep stealing over +at him, can you imagine why his hand trembles on the hilt of his +sword? Don't you remember what the legend said? + +"Who are you?" the Baron repeated, impatiently. + +"I am Geoffrey, son of Bertram of Poictiers," answered the young man. + +"And what," asked Father Anselm, with a certain irony in his voice, +"does Geoffrey, son of Bertram of Poictiers, so far away from his papa +in this inclement weather?" + +The knight surveyed the monk for a moment, and then said, "As thou art +not my particular Father Confessor, stick to those matters which +concern thee." + +This reply did not please any man present, for it seemed to savour of +disrespect. But Elaine lost no chance of watching the youth, who now +stood alone in the middle of the hall. Sir Francis detected this, and +smiled with a sly smile. + +"Will some person inquire of this polite young man," he said, "what he +wishes with us?" + +"Show me where this Dragon of Wantley comes," said Geoffrey, "for I +intend to slay him to-night." + +"Indeed, sir," fluttered Elaine, stepping towards him a little, "I +hope--that is, I beg you'll do no such dangerous thing as that for my +sake." + +"For your sake?" Father Anselm broke in. "For your sake? And why so? +What should Elaine, daughter of Sir Godfrey Disseisin, care for the +carcase of Geoffrey, son of Bertram of Poictiers?" + +But Elaine, finding nothing to answer, turned rosy pink instead. + +"That rules you out!" exclaimed the Father, in triumph. "Your legend +demands a maid who never has cared for any man." + +"Pooh!" said Geoffrey, "leave it to me." + +"Seize him!" shouted Sir Godfrey in a rage. "He had ruled out my +daughter." Consistency had never been one of the Baron's strong +points. + +"Seize him!" said Father Anselm. "He outrages Mother Church." + +The vassals closed up behind young Geoffrey, who was pinioned in a +second. He struggled with them till the veins stood out in his +forehead in blue knots; but, after all, one young man of twenty is not +much among a band of stout yeomen; and they all fell in a heap on the +floor, pulling and tugging at Geoffrey, who had blacked several eyes, +and done in a general way as much damage as he possibly could under +the circumstances. + +But Elaine noticed one singular occurrence. Not a monk had moved to +seize the young man, except one, who rushed forward, and was stopped, +as though struck to stone, by Father Anselm's saying to him in a +terrible undertone, "Hubert!" + +Simply that word, spoken quickly; but not before this Hubert had +brushed against her so that she was aware that there was something +very hard and metallic underneath his gray gown. She betrayed no sign +of knowledge or surprise on her face, however, but affected to be +absorbed wholly in the fortunes of young Geoffrey, whom she saw +collared and summarily put into a cage-like prison whose front was +thick iron bars, and whose depth was in the vast outer wall of the +Monastery, with a little window at the rear, covered with snow. The +spring-lock of the gate shut upon him. + +"And now," said Father Anselm, as the Monastery bell sounded once +more, "if our guests will follow us, the mid-day meal awaits us below. +We will deal with this hot-head later," he added, pointing to the +prisoner. + +So they slowly went out, leaving Geoffrey alone with his thoughts. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: ELAINE] + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + Miss Elaine loses her Heart & finds Something of the greatest + Importance. + +[Illustration] + + +Down stairs the Grace was said, and the company was soon seated and +ready for their mid-day meal. + +"Our fare," said Father Anselm pleasantly to Sir Godfrey, who sat on +his right, "is plain, but substantial." + +"Oh--ah, very likely," replied the Baron, as he received a wooden +basin of black-bean broth. + +"Our drink is----" + +The Baron lifted his eye hopefully. + +"----remarkably pure water," Father Anselm continued. "Clement!" he +called to the monk whose turn it was that day to hand the dishes, +"Clement, a goblet of our well-water for Sir Godfrey Disseisin. One of +the large goblets, Clement. We are indeed favoured, Baron, in having +such a pure spring in the midst of our home." + +"Oh--ah!" observed the Baron again, and politely nerved himself for a +swallow. But his thoughts were far away in his own cellar over at +Wantley, contemplating the casks whose precious gallons the Dragon had +consumed. Could it be the strength of his imagination, or else why was +it that through the chilling, unwelcome liquid he was now drinking he +seemed to detect a lurking flavour of the very wine those casks had +contained, his favourite Malvoisie? + +Father Anselm noticed the same taste in his own cup, and did not set +it down to imagination, but afterwards sentenced Brother Clement to +bread and water during three days, for carelessness in not washing the +Monastery table-service more thoroughly. + +"This simple food keeps you in beautiful health, Father," said +Mistletoe, ogling the swarthy face of the Abbot with an affection that +he duly noted. + +"My daughter," he replied, gravely, "bodily infirmity is the reward of +the glutton. I am well, thank you." + +Meanwhile, Elaine did not eat much. Her thoughts were busy, and +hurrying over recent events. Perhaps you think she lost her heart in +the last Chapter, and cannot lose it in this one unless it is given +back to her. But I do not agree with you; and I am certain that, if +you suggested such a notion to her, she would become quite angry, and +tell you not to talk such foolish nonsense. People are so absurd about +hearts, and all that sort of thing! No: I do not really think she has +lost her heart yet; but as she sits at table these are the things she +is feeling: + +1. Not at all hungry. + +2. Not at all thirsty. + +3. What a hateful person that Father Anselm is! + +4. Poor, poor young man! + +5. Not that she thinks of him in _that_ way, of course. The idea! +Horrid Father Anselm! + +6. Any girl at all--no, not girl, _anybody_ at all--who had human +justice would feel exactly as she did about the whole matter. + +7. He was very good-looking, too. + +8. Did he have--yes, they were blue. Very, very dark blue. + +9. And a moustache? Well, yes. + +Here she laughed, but no one noticed her idling with her spoon. Then +her eyes filled with tears, and she pretended to be absorbed with the +black-bean broth, though, as a matter of fact, she did not see it in +the least. + +10. Why had he come there at all? + +11. It was a perfect shame, treating him so. + +12. Perhaps they were not blue, after all. But, oh! what a beautiful +sparkle was in them! + +After this, she hated Father Anselm worse than ever. And the more she +hated him, the more some very restless delicious something made her +draw long breaths. She positively must go up-stairs and see what He +was doing and what He really looked like. This curiosity seized hold +of her and set her thinking of some way to slip away unseen. The +chance came through all present becoming deeply absorbed in what Sir +Godfrey was saying to Father Anselm. + +"Such a low, coarse, untaught brute as a dragon," he explained, +"cannot possibly distinguish good wine from bad." + +"Of a surety, no!" responded the monk. + +"You agree with me upon that point?" said the Baron. + +"Most certainly. Proceed." + +"Well, I'm going to see that he gets nothing but the cider and small +beer after this." + +"But how will you prevent him, if he visit your cellar again?" Father +Anselm inquired. + +"I shall change all the labels, in the first place," the Baron +answered. + +"Ha! vastly well conceived," said Father Anselm. "You will label your +Burgundy as if it were beer." + +"And next," continued Sir Godfrey, "I shall shift the present +positions of the hogsheads. That I shall do to-day, after relabelling. +In the northern corner of the first wine vault I shall----" + +Just as he reached this point, it was quite wonderful how strict an +attention every monk paid to his words. They leaned forward, +forgetting their dinner, and listened with all their might. + +One of them, who had evidently received an education, took notes +underneath the table. Thus it was that Elaine escaped observation +when she left the refectory. + +[Illustration: The Baron setteth forth his Plan for circumuenting the +Dragon] + +As she came up-stairs into the hall where Geoffrey was caged, she +stepped lightly and kept where she could not be seen by him. All was +quiet when she entered; but suddenly she heard the iron bars of the +cage begin to rattle and shake, and at the same time Geoffrey's voice +broke out in rage. + +"I'll twist you loose," he said, "you--(rattle, shake)--you--(kick, +bang)----" And here the shocking young man used words so violent and +wicked that Elaine put her hands tight over her ears. "Why, he is just +as dreadful as papa, just exactly!" she exclaimed to herself. "Whoever +would have thought that that angelic face--but I suppose they are all +like that sometimes." And she took her hands away again. + +"Yes, I will twist you loose," he was growling hoarsely, while the +kicks and wrenches grew fiercer than ever, "or twist myself stark, +staring blind--and----" + +"Oh, sir!" she said, running out in front of the cage. + +He stopped at once, and stood looking at her. His breast-plate and +gauntlets were down on the floor, so his muscles might have more easy +play in dealing with the bars. Elaine noticed that the youth's shirt +was of very costly Eastern silk. + +"I was thinking of getting out," he said at length, still standing and +looking at her. + +"I thought I might--that is--you might----" began Miss Elaine, and +stopped. Upon which another silence followed. + +"Lady, who sent you here?" he inquired. + +"Oh, they don't know!" she replied, hastily; and then, seeing how +bright his face became, and hearing her own words, she looked down, +and the crimson went over her cheeks as he watched her. + +"Oh, if I could get out!" he said, desperately. "Lady, what is your +name, if I might be so bold." + +"My name, sir, is Elaine. Perhaps there is a key somewhere," she said. + +"And I am called Geoffrey," he said, in reply. + +"I think we might find a key," Elaine repeated. + +She turned towards the other side of the room, and there hung a great +bunch of brass keys dangling from the lock of a heavy door. + +Ah, Hubert! thou art more careless than Brother Clement, I think, to +have left those keys in such a place! + +Quickly did Elaine cross to that closed door, and laid her hand upon +the bunch. The door came open the next moment, and she gave a shriek +to see the skin of a huge lizard-beast fall forward at her feet, and +also many cups and flagons, that rolled over the floor, dotting it +with little drops of wine. + +Hearing Elaine shriek, and not able to see from his prison what had +befallen her, Geoffrey shouted out in terror to know if she had come +to any hurt. + +"No," she told him; and stood eyeing first the crocodile's hide and +then the cups, setting her lips together very firmly. "And they were +not even dry," she said after a while. For she began to guess a little +of the truth. + +"Not dry? Who?" inquired Geoffrey. + +"Oh, Geoffrey!" she burst out in deep anger, and then stopped, +bewildered. But his heart leaped to hear her call his name. + +"Are there no keys?" he asked. + +"Keys? Yes!" she cried, and, running with them back to the bars, began +trying one after another in trembling haste till the lock clicked +pleasantly, and out marched young Geoffrey. + +Now what do you suppose this young man did when he found himself free +once more, and standing close by the lovely young person to whom he +owed his liberty? Did he place his heels together, and let his arms +hang gracefully, and so bow with respect and a manner at once +dignified and urbane, and say, "Miss Elaine, permit me to thank you +for being so kind as to let me out of prison?" That is what he ought +to have done, of course, if he had known how to conduct himself like a +well-brought-up young man. But I am sorry to have to tell you that +Geoffrey did nothing of the sort, but, instead of that, behaved in a +most outrageous manner. He did not thank her at all. He did not say +one single word to her. He simply put one arm round her waist and gave +her a kiss! + +"Geoffrey!" she murmured, "don't!" + +But Geoffrey did, with the most astonishing and complacent +disobedience. + +"Oh, Geoffrey!" she whispered, looking the other way, "how wrong of +you! And of me!" she added a little more softly still, escaping from +him suddenly, and facing about. + +"I don't see that," said Geoffrey. "I love you, Elaine. Elaine, +darling, I----" + +"Oh, but you mustn't!" answered she, stepping back as he came nearer. + +[Illustration: Geoffrey tuggeth at the Bars] + +This was simply frightful! And so sudden. To think of +her--Elaine!--but she couldn't think at all. Happy? Why, how wicked! +How had she ever---- + +"No, you must not," she repeated, and backed away still farther. + +"But I will!" said this lover, quite loudly, and sprang so quickly to +where she stood that she was in his arms again, and this time without +the faintest chance of getting out of them until he should choose to +free her. + +It was no use to struggle now, and she was still, like some wild bird. +But she knew that she was really his, and was glad of it. And she +looked up at him and said, very softly, "Geoffrey, we are wasting +time." + +"Oh, no, not at all," said Geoffrey. + +"But we are." + +"Say that you love me." + +"But haven't I--ah, Geoffrey, please don't begin again." + +"Say that you love me." + +She did. + +Then, taking his hand, she led him to the door she had opened. He +stared at the crocodile, at the wine-cups, and then he picked up a +sheet of iron and a metal torch. + +"I suppose it is their museum," he said; "don't you?" + +"Their museum! Geoffrey, think a little." + +"They seem to keep very good wine," he remarked, after smelling at the +demijohn. + +"Don't you see? Can't you understand?" she said. + +"No, not a bit. What's that thing, do you suppose?" he added, giving +the crocodile a kick. + +"Oh, me, but men are simple, men are simple!" said Elaine, in despair. +"Geoffrey, listen! That wine is my father's wine, from his own cellar. +There is none like it in all England." + +"Then I don't see why he gave it to a parcel of monks," replied the +young man. + +Elaine clasped her hands in hopelessness, gave him a kiss, and became +mistress of the situation. + +"Now, Geoffrey," she said, "I will tell you what you and I have really +found out." Then she quickly recalled all the recent events. How her +father's cellar had been broken into; how Mistletoe had been chained +to a rock for a week and no dragon had come near her. She bade him +remember how just now Father Anselm had opposed every plan for meeting +the Dragon, and at last she pointed to the crocodile. + +"Ha!" said Geoffrey, after thinking for a space. "Then you mean----" + +"Of course I do," she interrupted. "The Dragon of Wantley is now +down-stairs with papa eating dinner, and pretending he never drinks +anything stronger than water. What do you say to that, sir?" + +"This is a foul thing!" cried the knight. "Here have I been damnably +duped. Here----" but speech deserted him. He glared at the crocodile +with a bursting countenance, then drove his toe against it with such +vigour that it sailed like a foot-ball to the farther end of the hall. + +"Papa has been duped, and everybody," said Elaine. "Papa's French +wine----" + +"They swore to me in Flanders I should find a real dragon here," he +continued, raging up and down, and giving to the young lady no part of +his attention. She began to fear he was not thinking of her. + +"Geoffrey----" she ventured. + +"They swore it. They had invited me to hunt a dragon with them in +Flanders,--Count Faux Pas and his Walloons. We hunted day and night, +and the quest was barren. They then directed me to this island of +Britain, in which they declared a dragon might be found by any man who +so desired. They lied in their throats. I have come leagues for +nothing." Here he looked viciously at the distant hide of the +crocodile. "But I shall slay the monk," he added. "A masquerading +caitiff! Lying varlets! And all for nothing! The monk shall die, +however." + +"Have you come for nothing, Geoffrey?" murmured Elaine. + +"Three years have I been seeking dragons in all countries, chasing +deceit over land and sea. And now once more my dearest hope falls +empty and stale. Why, what's this?" A choking sound beside him stopped +the flow of his complaints. + +"Oh, Geoffrey,--oh, miserable me!" The young lady was dissolved in +tears. + +"Elaine--dearest--don't." + +"You said you had come for n--nothing, and it was all st--stale." + +"Ha, I am a fool, indeed! But it was the Dragon, dearest. I had made +so sure of an honest one in this adventure." + +"Oh, oh!" went Miss Elaine, with her head against his shoulder. + +"There, there! You're sweeter than all the dragons in the world, my +little girl," said he. And although this does not appear to be a great +compliment, it comforted her wonderfully in the end; for he said it in +her ear several times without taking his lips away. "Yes," he +continued, "I was a fool. By your father's own word you're mine. I +have caught the Dragon. Come, my girl! We'll down to the refectory +forthwith and denounce him." + +With this, he seized Elaine's hand and hastily made for the stairs. + +"But hold, Geoffrey, hold! Oh--I am driven to act not as maidens +should," sighed Elaine. "He it is who ought to do the thinking. But, +dear me! he does not know how. Do you not see we should both be lost, +were you to try any such wild plan?" + +"Not at all. Your father would give you to me." + +"Oh, no, no, Geoffrey; indeed, papa would not. His promise was about a +dragon. A live or a dead dragon must be brought to him. Even if he +believed you now, even if that dreadful Father Anselm could not invent +some lie to put us in the wrong, you and I could never--that is--papa +would not feel bound by his promise simply because you did that. There +must be a dragon somehow." + +"How can there be a dragon if there is not a dragon?" asked Geoffrey. + +"Wait, wait, Geoffrey! Oh, how can I think of everything all at +once?" and Elaine pressed her hands to her temples. + +"Darling," said the knight, with his arms once more around her, "let +us fly now." + +"Now? They would catch us at once." + +"Catch us! not they! with my sword----" + +"Now, Geoffrey, of course you are brave. But do be sensible. You are +only one. No! I won't even argue such nonsense. They must never know +about what we have been doing up here; and you must go back into that +cage at once." + +"What, and be locked up, and perhaps murdered to-night, and never see +your face again?" + +"But you shall see me again, and soon. That is what I am thinking +about." + +"How can you come in here, Elaine?" + +"You must come to me. I have it! To-night, at half-past eleven, come +to the cellar-door at the Manor, and I will be there to let you in. +Then we can talk over everything quietly. I have no time to think +now." + +"The cellar! at the Manor! And how, pray, shall I get out of that +cage?" + +"Cannot you jump from the little window at the back?" + +Geoffrey ran in to see. "No," he said, returning; "it is many spans +from the earth." + +Elaine had hurried into the closet, whence she returned with a dusty +coil of rope. "Here, Geoffrey; quickly! put it about your waist. Wind +it so. But how clumsy you are!" + +He stood smiling down at her, and she very deftly wound the cord up +and down, over and over his body, until its whole length lay +comfortably upon him. + +"Now, your breast-plate, quick!" + +She helped him put his armour on again; and, as they were engaged at +that, singing voices came up the stairs from the distant dining-hall. + +"The Grace," she exclaimed; "they will be here in a moment." + +Geoffrey took a last kiss, and bolted into his cage. She, with the +keys, made great haste to push the crocodile and other objects once +more into their hiding-place. Cups and flagons and all rattled back +without regard to order, as they had already been flung not two hours +before. The closet-door shut, and Elaine hung the keys from the lock +as she had found them. + +"Half-past eleven," she said to Geoffrey, as she ran by his cage +towards the stairs. + +"One more, darling,--please, one! through the bars!" he besought her, +in a voice so tender, that for my part I do not see how she had the +heart to refuse him. But she continued her way, and swiftly descending +the stairs was found by the company, as they came from the hall, +busily engaged in making passes with Sir Godfrey's sword, which he had +left leaning near the door. + +"A warlike daughter, Sir Godfrey!" said Father Anselm. + +"Ah, if I were a man to go on a Crusade!" sighed Miss Elaine. + +"Hast thou, my daughter," said Father Anselm, "thought better of thy +rash intentions concerning this Dragon?" + +"I am travelling towards better thoughts, Father," she answered. + +But Sir Francis did not wholly believe the young lady; and was not at +rest until Sir Godfrey assured him her good conduct should be no +matter of her own choosing. + +"You see," insinuated the Abbot, "so sweet a maid as yours would be a +treat for the unholy beast. A meal like that would incline him to +remain in a neighbourhood where such dainties were to be found." + +"I'll have no legends and fool's tricks," exclaimed the Baron. "She +shall be locked in her room to-night." + +"Not if she can help it," thought Miss Elaine. Her father had +imprudently spoken too loud. + +"'Twere a wise precaution," murmured Father Anselm. "What are all the +vintages of this earth by the side of a loving daughter?" + +"Quite so, quite so!" Sir Godfrey assented. "Don't you think," he +added, wistfully, "that another Crusade may come along soon?" + +"Ah, my son, who can say? Tribulation is our meted heritage. Were thy +thoughts more high, the going of thy liquors would not cause thee such +sorrow. Learn to enjoy the pure cold water." + +"Good-afternoon," said the Baron. + +When all the guests had departed and the door was shut safe behind +them, the Father and his holy companions broke into loud mirth. "The +Malvoisie is drunk up," said they; "to-night we'll pay his lordship's +cellars another visit." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + Shows what curious Things you may see, + if you don't go to Bed when you are sent + +[Illustration: GEOFFREY] + + +To have steered a sudden course among dangerous rocks and rapids and +come safe through, puts in the breast of the helmsman a calm content +with himself, for which no man will blame him. What in this world is +there so lifts one into complacency as the doing of a bold and +cool-headed thing? Let the helmsman sleep sound when he has got to +land! But if his content overtake him still on the water, so that he +grows blind to the treacherous currents that eddy where all looks +placid to the careless eye, let him beware! + +Sir Francis came in front of the cage where sat young Geoffrey inside, +on the floor. The knight had put his head down between his knees, and +seemed doleful enough. + +"Aha!" thought Sir Francis, giving the motionless figure a dark look, +"my hawk is moulting. We need scarcely put a hood on such a tersel." + +Next he looked at the shut door of the closet, and a shaft of alarm +shot through him to see the keys hanging for anybody to make use of +them that pleased. He thought of Elaine, and her leaving the table +without his seeing her go. What if she had paid this room a visit? + +"Perhaps that bird with head under wing in there," he mused, looking +once more at Geoffrey, "is not the simple-witted nestling he looks. My +son!" he called. + +But the youth did not care to talk, and so showed no sign. + +"My son, peace be with you!" repeated Father Anselm, coming to the +bars and wearing a benevolent mien. + +Geoffrey remained quite still. + +"If repentance for thy presumption hath visited thee----" went on the +Father. + +"Hypocrite!" was the word that jumped to the youth's lips; but +fortunately he stopped in time, and only moved his legs with some +impatience. + +"I perceive with pain, my son," said Father Anselm, "that repentance +hath not yet visited thee. Well, 'twill come. And that's a blessing +too," he added, sighing very piously. + +"He plays a part pretty well," thought Geoffrey as he listened. "So +will I." Then he raised his head. + +"How long am I to stay in this place?" he inquired, taking a tone of +sullen humour, such as he thought would fit a prisoner. + +"Certainly until thy present unbridled state of sin is purged out of +thee," replied the Father. + +"Under such a dose as thou art," Geoffrey remarked, "that will be +soon." + +"This is vain talk, my son," said the Abbot. "Were I of the children +of this world, my righteous indignation----" + +"Pooh!" said Geoffrey. + +"----would light on thee heavily. But we who have renounced the world +and its rottenness" (here his voice fell into a manner of chanting) +"make a holiday of forgiving injuries, and find a pleasure even in +pain." + +"Open this door then," Geoffrey answered, "and I'll provide thee with +a whole week of joy." + +"Nay," said Father Anselm, "I had never gathered from thy face that +thou wert such a knave." + +"At least in the matter of countenances I have the advantage of thee," +the youth observed. + +"I perceive," continued the Father, "that I must instruct thy spirit +in many things,--submission, among others. Therefore thou shalt bide +with us for a month or two." + +"That I'll not!" shouted Geoffrey, forgetting his role of prisoner. + +"She cannot unlock thee," Father Anselm said, with much art slipping +Elaine into the discourse. + +Geoffrey glared at the Abbot, who now hoped to lay a trap for him by +means of his temper. So he went further in the same direction. "Her +words are vainer than most women's," he said; "though a lover would +trust in them, of course." + +The knight swelled in his rage, and might have made I know not what +unsafe rejoinder; but the cords that Elaine had wound about him +naturally tightened as he puffed out, and seemed by their pressure to +check his speech and bid him be wary. So he changed his note, and said +haughtily, "Because thy cowl and thy gown shield thee, presume not to +speak of one whose cause I took up in thy presence, and who is as high +above thee in truth as she is in every other quality and virtue." + +"This callow talk, my son," said the Abbot quietly, "wearies me much. +Lay thee down and sleep thy sulks off, if thou art able." Upon this, +he turned away to the closet where hung the brass keys, and opened the +door a-crack. He saw the hide of the crocodile leaning against it, and +the overturned cups. "Just as that boy Hubert packed them," he thought +to himself in satisfaction; "no one has been prying here. I flatter +myself upon a skilful morning's work. I have knocked the legend out of +the Baron's head. He'll see to it the girl keeps away. And as for yon +impudent witling in the cage, we shall transport him beyond the seas, +if convenient; if not, a knife in his gullet will make him forget the +Dragon of Wantley. Truly, I am master of the situation!" And as his +self-esteem grew, the Grand Marshal rubbed his hands, and went out of +the hall, too much pleased with himself to notice certain little drops +of wine dotted here and there close by the closet, and not yet quite +dry, which, had his eye fallen upon them, might have set him +a-thinking. + +So Geoffrey was left in his prison to whatever comfort meditation +might bring him; and the monks of Oyster-le-Main took off their gowns, +and made themselves ready for another visit to the wine-cellars of +Wantley Manor. + +The day before Christmas came bleakly to its end over dingle and fen, +and the last gray light died away. Yet still you could hear the +hissing snow beat down through the bramble-thorn and the dry leaves. +After evening was altogether set in, Hubert brought the knight a +supper that was not a meal a hungry man might be over joyful at +seeing; yet had Hubert (in a sort of fellowship towards one who seemed +scarcely longer seasoned in manhood than himself, and whom he had seen +blacken eyes in a very valiant manner) secretly prepared much better +food than had been directed by his worship the Abbot. + +The prisoner feigned sleep, and started up at the rattle which the +plate made as it was set down under his bars. + +"Is it morning?" he asked. + +"Morning, forsooth!" Hubert answered. "Three more hours, and we reach +only midnight." And both young men (for different reasons) wished in +their hearts it were later. + +"Thou speakest somewhat curtly for a friar," said Geoffrey. + +"Alas, I am but a novice, brother," whined the minstrel, "and fall +easily back into my ancient and godless syntax. There is food. Pax +vobiscum, son of the flesh." Then Hubert went over to the closet, and +very quietly unlocking the door removed the crocodile and the various +other implements that were necessary in bringing into being the dread +Dragon of Wantley. He carried them away to a remote quarter of the +Monastery, where the Guild began preparations that should terrify any +superstitious witness of their journey to get the Baron's wine. +Geoffrey, solitary and watchful in his chilly cage, knew what work +must be going on, and waited his time in patience. + +[Illustration: Elaine cometh into the Cellar] + +At supper over at Wantley there was but slight inclination to polite +banter. Only the family Chaplain, mindful that this was Christmas Eve, +attempted to make a little small talk with Sir Godfrey. + +"Christmas," he observed to the Baron, "is undoubtedly coming." + +As the Baron did not appear to have any rejoinder to this, the young +divine continued, pleasantly. + +"Though indeed," he said, "we might make this assertion upon any day +of the three hundred and sixty-five, and (I think) remain accurate." + +"The celery," growled the Baron, looking into his plate. + +"Quite so," cried the Chaplain, cheerily. He had failed to catch the +remark. "Though of course everything does depend on one's point of +view, after all." + +"That celery, Whelpdale!" roared Sir Godfrey. + +The terrified Buttons immediately dropped a large venison pasty into +Mrs. Mistletoe's lap. She, having been somewhat tried of late, began +screeching. Whelpdale caught up the celery, and blindly rushed towards +Sir Godfrey, while Popham, foreseeing trouble, rapidly ascended the +sideboard. The Baron stepped out of Whelpdale's path, and as he passed +by administered so much additional speed that little Buttons flew +under the curtained archway and down many painful steps into the +scullery, and was not seen again during that evening. + +When Sir Godfrey had reseated himself, it seemed to the Rev. Hucbald +(such was the Chaplain's name) that the late interruption might be +well smoothed over by conversation. So he again addressed the Baron. + +"To be sure," said he, taking a manner of sleek clerical pleasantry, +"though we can so often say 'Christmas is coming,' I suppose that if +at some suitable hour to-morrow afternoon I said to you, 'Christmas +is going,' you would grant it to be a not inaccurate remark?" The +Baron ate his dinner. + +"I think so," pursued the Rev. Hucbald. "Yes. And by the way, I notice +with pleasure that this snow, which falls so continually, makes the +event of a green Christmas most improbable. Indeed,--of course the +proverb is familiar to you?--the graveyards should certainly not be +fat this season. I like a lean graveyard," smiled the Rev. Hucbald. + +"I hate a ---- fool!" exclaimed Sir Godfrey, angrily. + +After this the family fell into silence. Sir Godfrey munched his food, +brooding gloomily over his plundered wine-cellar; Mrs. Mistletoe +allowed fancy to picture herself wedded to Father Anselm, if only he +had not been a religious person; and Elaine's thoughts were hovering +over the young man who sat in a cage till time came for him to steal +out and come to her. But the young lady was wonderfully wise, +nevertheless. + +"Papa," she said, as they left the banquet-hall, "if it is about me +you're thinking, do not be anxious any more at all." + +"Well, well; what's the matter now?" said the Baron. + +"Papa, dear," began Elaine, winsomely pulling at a tassel on his +dining-coat, "do you know, I've been thinking." + +"Think some more, then," he replied. "It will come easier when you're +less new at it." + +"Now, papa! just when I've come to say--when I want--when you--it's +very hard----" and here the artful minx could proceed no further, but +turned a pair of shining eyes at him, and then looked the other way, +blinking rapidly. + +"Oh, good Lord!" muttered Sir Godfrey, staring hard at the wall. + +"Papa--it's about the Dragon--and I've been wrong. Very wrong. Yes; I +know I have. I was foolish." She was silent again. Was she going to +cry, after all? The Baron shot a nervous glance at her from the corner +of his eye. Then he said, "Hum!" He hoped very fervently there were to +be no tears. He desired to remain in a rage, and lock his daughter +up, and not put anything into her stocking this Christmas Eve; and +here she was, threatening to be sorry for the past, and good for the +future, and everything a parent could wish. Never mind. You can't +expect to get off as easily as all that. She had been very outrageous. +Now he would be dignified and firm. + +"Of course I should obey Father Anselm," she continued. + +"You should obey me," said Sir Godfrey. + +"And I do hope another Crusade will come soon. Don't you think they +might have one, papa? How happy I shall be when your wine is safe from +that horrid Dragon!" + +"Don't speak of that monster!" shouted the Baron, forgetting all about +firmness and dignity. "Don't dare to allude to the reptile in my +presence. Look here!" He seized up a great jug labelled "Chateau +Lafitte," and turned it upside down. + +"Why, it's empty!" said Elaine. + +"Ha!" snorted the Baron; "empty indeed." Then he set the jug down +wrong side up, and remained glaring at it fixedly, while his chest +rose and fell in deep heavings. + +"Don't mind it so much, papa," said Elaine, coming up to him. "This +very next season will Mistletoe and I brew a double quantity of +cowslip wine." + +"Brrrrooo!" went Sir Godfrey, with a shiver. + +"And I'm sure they'll have another Crusade soon; and then my brother +Roland can go, and the Drag-- and the curse will be removed. Of +course, I know that is the only way to get rid of it, if Father Anselm +said so. I was very foolish and wrong. Indeed I was," said she, and +looked up in his face with eyes where shone such dear, good, sweet, +innocent, daughterly affection, that nobody in the wide world could +have suspected she was thinking as hard as she could think, "If only +he won't lock me up! if only he won't! But, oh, it's dreadful in me to +be deceiving him so!" + +"There, there!" said the Baron, and cleared his throat. Then he kissed +her. Where were firmness and dignity now? + +He let her push him into the chimney-corner, and down into a seat; and +then what did this sly, shocking girl do but sit on his knee and tell +him nobody ever had such a papa before, and she could never possibly +love any one half so much as she loved him, and weren't he and she +going to have a merry Christmas to-morrow? + +"How about that pretty young man? Hey? What?" said Sir Godfrey, in +high good-humour. + +"Who?" snapped Elaine. + +"I think this girl knows," he answered, adopting a roguish +countenance. + +"Oh, I suppose you mean that little fellow this morning. Pooh!" + +"Ho! ho!" said her father. "Ho! ho! Little fellow! He was a pretty +large fellow in somebody's eyes, I thought. What are you so red about? +Ho! ho!" and the Baron popped his own eyes at her with vast relish. + +"Really, papa," said Miss Elaine, rising from his knee, with much +coldness, "I hardly understand you, I think. If you find it amusing +(and you seem to) to pretend that I----" she said no more, but gave a +slight and admirable toss of the head. "And now I am very sleepy," she +added. "What hour is it?" + +Sir Godfrey took out his grandfather's sun-dial, and held it to the +lamp. "Bless my soul," he exclaimed; "it's twenty-two o'clock." +(That's ten at night nowadays, young people, and much too late for you +to be down-stairs, any of you.) + +"Get to your bed at once," continued Sir Godfrey, "or you'll never be +dressed in time for Chapel on Christmas morning." + +So Elaine went to her room, and took off her clothes, and hung up her +stocking at the foot of the bed. Did she go to sleep? Not she. She +laid with eyes and ears wide open. And now alone here in the dark, +where she had nothing to do but wait, she found her heart beating in +answer to her anxious and expectant thoughts. She heard the wind come +blustering from far off across the silent country. Then a snore from +Mistletoe in the next room made her jump. Twice a bar of moonlight +fell along the floor, wavering and weak, then sank out, and the pat of +the snow-flakes began again. After a while came a step through the +halls to her door, and stopped. She could scarcely listen, so hard she +was breathing. Was her father going to turn the key in her door, +after all? No such thought was any longer in his mind. She shut her +eyes quickly as he entered. His candle shone upon her quiet head, that +was nearly buried out of sight; then laughter shook him to see the +stocking, and he went softly out. He had put on his bed-room slippers; +but, as he intended to make a visit to the cellar before retiring, it +seemed a prudent thing to wear his steel breast-plate; and over this +he had slipped his quilted red silk dressing-gown, for it was a very +cold night. + +[Illustration: GEOFFREY GOETH TO MEET THE DRAGON] + +Was there a sound away off somewhere out-of-doors? No. He descended +heavily through the sleeping house. When the candle burned upright and +clear yellow, his gait was steady; but he started many times at +corners where its flame bobbed and flattened and shrunk to a blue, +sickly rag half torn from the wick. "Ouf! Mort d'aieul!" he would +mutter. "But I must count my wine to-night." And so he came down into +the wide cellars, and trod tiptoe among the big round tuns. With a +wooden mallet he tapped them, and shook his head to hear the hollow +humming that their emptiness gave forth. No oath came from him at all, +for the matter was too grievous. The darkness that filled everywhere +save just next to the candle, pressed harder and harder upon him. He +looked at the door which led from inside here out into the night, and +it was comfortable to know how thick were the panels and how stout the +bolts and hinges. + +"I can hold my own against any man, and have jousted fairly in my +time," he thought to himself, and touched his sword. "But--um!" The +notion of meeting a fiery dragon in combat spoke loudly to the better +part of his valour. Suddenly a great rat crossed his foot. Ice and +fire went from his stomach all through him, and he sprang on a wooden +stool, and then found he was shaking. Soon he got down, with sweaty +hands. + +"Am I getting a coward?" he asked aloud. He seized the mallet that had +fallen, and struck a good knock against the nearest hogshead. Ah--ha! +This one, at least, was full. He twisted the wooden stop and drank +what came, from the hollow of his hand. It was cowslip wine. Ragingly +he spluttered and gulped, and then kicked the bins with all his might. +While he was stooping to rub his toe, who should march in but Miss +Elaine, dressed and ready for young Geoffrey. But she caught sight of +her father in time, and stepped back into the passage in a flutter. +Good heavens! This would never do. Geoffrey might be knocking at the +cellar-door at any moment. Her papa must be got away at once. + +"Papa! papa!" she cried, running in. + +Sir Godfrey sprang into the air, throwing mallet and candle against +the wine-butts. Then he saw it was only his daughter. + +"Wretched girl! you--you--if you don't want to become an orphan, never +tamper like that with my nerves again in your life. What are you come +here for? How dare you leave your bed at such an hour?" + +"Oh, mercy forgive us!" whimpered a new voice. + +There was Mistletoe at the door of the passage, a candle lifted high +above her head and wobbling, so that it shook the grease all over her +night-cap. With the other hand she clutched her camisole, while +beneath a yellow flannel petticoat her fat feet were rocking in the +raw-wool foot-mittens she wore. + +"Oh, dear: oh, Sir Godfrey! Oh, me!" said she. + +"Saint Charity! What do you want? Holy Ragbag, what's the matter? Is +everybody in my house going stark mad?" Here the Baron fell over the +stool in the dark. "Give me my candle!" he roared. "Light my candle! +What business have either of you to come here?" + +"Please, sir, it's Miss Elaine I came for. Oh, me! I'll catch my death +of cold. Her door shutting waked me up-stairs. Oh, dear! Where are we +coming to?" + +"You old mattrass!" said Sir Godfrey. Then he turned to his daughter. +But this young lady had had a little time to gather her thoughts in. +So she cut short all awkward questionings with excellent promptness. + +"Papa!" she began, breathlessly. "There! I heard it again!" + +"Heard it? What?" cried the Baron, his eyes starting. + +"It waked me up-stairs, and I ran to get you in your room, and +you----" + +"It--it? What's it? What waked you?" broke in Sir Godfrey, his voice +rising to a shriek. + +"There it is again!" exclaimed Elaine, clasping her hands. "He's +coming! I hear him. The Dragon! Oh!" + +With this, she pretended to rush for the passage, where the squeaks of +Mistletoe could be heard already growing distant in the house. Away +bolted Sir Godfrey after her, shouting to Elaine in terror +undisguised, "Lock your door! Lock your door!" as he fled up-stairs. + +So there stood Miss Elaine alone, with the coast clear, and no danger +from these two courageous guardians. Then came a knock from outside, +and her heart bounded as she ran through the cellar and undid the +door. + +"You darling!" said Geoffrey, jumping in with legs all covered with +snow. He left the door open wide, and had taken four or five kisses at +the least before she could stop him. "The moon was out for a while," +he continued, "and the snow stopped. So I came a long way round-about, +that my tracks should not be seen. That's good strategy." + +But this strange young lady said no word, and looked at him as if she +were going to cry. + +"Why, what's the matter, dear?" he asked. + +"Oh, Geoffrey! I have been deceiving papa so." + +"Pooh! It's not to be thought of." + +"But I can't help thinking. I never supposed I could do so. And it +comes so terribly easy. And I'm not a bit clever when I'm good. +And--oh!" She covered her face and turned away from him. + +"Stuff and nonsense!" Geoffrey broke out. "Do be reasonable. Here is a +dragon. Isn't there?" + +"Yes." + +"And everybody wants to get rid of him?" + +"Yes." + +"And he's robbing your father?" + +"Yes." + +"So you're acting for your father's good?" + +"Y--yes." + +"Then----" + +"Now, Geoffrey, all your talking doesn't hide the badness in the least +bit." + +She was silent again; then suddenly seemed greatly relieved. "I don't +care," she declared. "Papa locked me up for a whole week, when all I +wanted was to help him and everybody get rid of the Dragon. And I am +too old to be treated so. And now I am just going to pretend there's a +dragon when there's not. Oh, what's that?" + +This time it was no sham. Faint and far from the direction of +Oyster-le-Main came the roar of the Dragon of Wantley over fields and +farms. + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + Contains a Dilemma with two simply egregious Horns. + +[Illustration] + + +"Run instantly into the house," said Geoffrey to Elaine, and he +dragged out his sword. + +But she stared at him, and nothing further. + +"Or no. Stay here and see me kill him," the boy added, pridefully. + +"Kill him!" said she, in amazement. "Do you suppose that papa, with +all his experience, couldn't tell it was an imitation dragon? And you +talk of strategy! I have thought much about to-night,--and, Geoffrey, +you must do just the thing that I bid you, and nothing else. Promise." + +"I think we'll hear first what your wisdom is," said he, shaking his +head like the sage youth that he was. + +"Promise!" she repeated, "else I go away at once, and leave you. Now! +One--two--thrrr----" + +"I promise!" he shouted. + +"'Sh! Papa's window is just round the tower. Now, sir, you must go +over yonder within those trees." + +"Where?" + +"There where the snow has dipped the branches low down. And leave me +alone in the cellar with the Dragon." + +"With the Dragon? Alone? I did not know you counted me a lunatic," +replied Geoffrey. Then, after a look over the fields where the storm +was swirling, he gave attention to the point of his sword. + +"Where's your promise?" said she. "Will you break your word so soon?" + +A big gust of wind flung the snow sharp against their faces. + +"Did you expect----" began the young knight, and then said some words +that I suppose gentlemen in those old times were more prone to use +before ladies than they are to-day. Which shows the optimists are +right. + +Then, still distant, but not so distant, came another roar. + +"Geoffrey!" Elaine said, laying a hand upon his arm; "indeed, you must +hear me now, and make no delay with contrary notions. There is no +danger for me. Look. He will first be by himself to clear the way of +watchers. No one peeps out of windows when the Dragon's howling. Next, +the rest will come and all go into papa's cellar for the wine. But we +must get these others away, and that's for you." She paused. + +"Well? Well?" he said. + +"It will go thus: the passage shall hide me, and the door of it be +shut. You'll watch over by the trees, and when you see all have come +inside here, make some sort of noise at the edge of the wood." + +"What sort of noise?" + +"Oh,--not as if you suspected. Seem to be passing by. Play you are a +villager going home late. When they hear that, they'll run away for +fear of their secret. The Dragon will surely stay behind." + +"Why will he stay behind? Why will they run away?" + +"Dear Geoffrey, don't you see that if these men were to be seen in +company with the Dragon by one who till now knew them as monks, where +would their living be gone to? Of course, they will get themselves out +of sight, and the Dragon will remain as a sort of human scarecrow. +Then I'll come out from the passage-door." + +"One would almost think you desired that villain to kill you," said +Geoffrey. "No, indeed. I'll not consent to that part." + +"How shall he kill me here?" Elaine replied. "Do you not see the +Dragon of Wantley would have to carry a maiden away? He would not dare +to put me to the sword. When I come, I shall speak three words to him. +Before there is time for him to think what to do, you will hear me say +(for you must have now run up from the wood) 'the legend has come +true!' Then, when I tell him that, do you walk in ready with your +sword to keep him polite. Oh, indeed," said the lady, with her eyes +sparkling on Geoffrey, "we must keep his manners good for him. For I +think he's one of those persons who might turn out very rude in a +trying situation." + +All this was far from pleasing to young Geoffrey. But Elaine showed +him how no other way was to be found by which Sir Francis could be +trapped red-handed and distant from help. While the knight was bending +his brows down with trying to set his thoughts into some order that +should work out a better device, a glare shone over the next hill +against the falling flakes. + +"Quick!" said Elaine. + +She withdrew into the cellar on the instant, and the great door closed +between them. Geoffrey stood looking at it very anxiously, and then +walked backwards, keeping close to the walls, and so round the tower +and into the court, whence he turned and ploughed as fast as he could +through the deep drifts till he was inside the trees. "If they spy my +steps," he thought, "it will seem as though some one of the house had +gone in there to secure the door." + +Once more the glare flashed against the swiftly-descending curtains of +the storm. Slowly it approached, sometimes illuminating a tree-trunk +for a moment, then suddenly gleaming on the white mounds where rocks +lay deeply cloaked. + +"He is pretty slow," said Geoffrey, shifting the leg he was leaning +on. + +[Illustration: The Dragon thinketh to slake his thirst] + +A black mass moved into sight, and from it came spoutings of fire that +showed dark, jagged wings heavily flapping. It walked a little and +stopped; then walked again. Geoffrey could see a great snout and head +rocking and turning. Dismal and unspeakable sounds proceeded from the +creature as it made towards the cellar-door. After it had got close +and leaned against the panels in a toppling, swaying fashion, came a +noise of creaking and fumbling, and then the door rolled aside upon +its hinges. Next, the blurred white ridge towards Oyster-le-Main was +darkened with moving specks that came steadily near; and man by man of +the Guild reached the open door crouching, whispered a word or two, +and crept inside. They made no sound that could be heard above the +hissing of the downward flakes and the wind that moaned always, but +louder sometimes. Only Elaine, with her ear to the cold iron key-hole +of the passage-door, could mark the clink of armour, and shivered as +she stood in the dark. And now the cellar is full,--but not of gray +gowns. The candle flames show little glistening sparks in the black +coats of mail, and the sight of themselves cased in steel, and each +bearing an empty keg, stirred a laughter among them. Then the kegs +were set down without noise on the earthy floor among the bins. The +Dragon was standing on his crooked scaly hind-legs; and to see the +grim, changeless jaw and eyes brought a dead feeling around the +heart. But the two bungling fore-paws moved upwards, shaking like a +machine, and out of a slit in the hide came two white hands that +lifted to one side the brown knarled mask of the crocodile. There was +the black head of Sir Francis Almoign. "'Tis hot in there," he said; +and with two fingers he slung the drops of sweat from his forehead. + +"Wet thy whistle before we begin," said Hubert, filling a jug for him. +Sir Francis took it in both hands, and then clutched it tightly as a +sudden singing was set up out in the night. + + "Come, take a wife, + Come, take a wife, + Ere thou learnest age's treasons!" + +The tune came clear and jolly, cutting through the muffled noises of +the tempest. + +"Blood and death!" muttered Hubert. + +Each figure had sprung into a stiff position of listening. + + "Quit thy roving; + Shalt by loving + Not wax lean in stormy seasons. + Ho! ho! oh,--ho! + Not wax lean in----" + +Here the strain snapped off short. Then a whining voice said, "Oh, I +have fallen again! A curse on these roots. Lucifer fell only once, and +'twas enough for him. I have looked on the wine when it was red, and +my dame Jeanie will know it soon, oh, soon! But my sober curse on +these roots." + +"That's nothing," said Hubert. "There's a band of Christmas singers +has strolled into these parts to chant carols. One of them has stopped +too long at the tavern." + +"Do I see a light?" said the voice. "Help! Give me a light, and let me +go home. + + "Quit thy roving; + Shalt by loving----" + +"Shall I open his throat, that he may sing the next verse in heaven?" +Hubert inquired. + +"No, fool!" said Sir Francis. "Who knows if his brother sots are not +behind him to wake the house? This is too dangerous to-night. Away +with you, every one. Stoop low till ye are well among the fields, and +then to Oyster-le-Main! I'll be Dragon for a while, and follow +after." + +Quickly catching up his keg, each man left the cellar like a shadow. +Geoffrey, from the edge of the wood, saw them come out and dissolve +away into the night. With the tube of the torch at his lips, Sir +Francis blew a blast of fire out at the door, then covered his head +once more with the grinning crocodile. He roared twice, and heard +something creak behind him, so turned to see what had made it. There +was Miss Elaine on the passage-steps. Her lips moved to speak, but for +a short instant fear put a silence upon her that she found no voice to +break. He, with a notion she was there for the sake of the legend, +waved his great paws and trundled towards where she was standing. + +"Do not forget to roar, sir," said the young lady, managing her voice +so there was scarce any tremble to be heard in it. + +At this the Dragon stood still. + +"You perceive," she said to him, "after all, a dragon, like a mouse, +comes to the trap." + +"Not quite yet," cried Sir Francis, in a terrible voice, and rushed +upon her, meaning death. + +"The legend has come true!" she loudly said. + +A gleaming shaft of steel whistled across the sight of Sir Francis. + +"Halt there!" thundered Geoffrey, leaping between the two, and posing +his sword for a lunge. + +"My hour has come," Sir Francis thought. For he was cased in the stiff +hide, and could do nothing in defence. + +"Now shalt thou lick the earth with thy lying tongue," said Geoffrey. + +A sneer came through the gaping teeth of the crocodile. + +"Valiant, indeed!" the voice said. "Very valiant and knightly, oh son +of Bertram of Poictiers! Frenchmen know when to be bold. Ha! ha!" + +"Crawl out of that nut, thou maggot," answered Geoffrey, "and taste +thy doom." + +Here was a chance, the gift of a fool. The two white hands appeared +and shifted the mask aside, letting them see a cunning hope on his +face. + +"Do not go further, sir," said Elaine. "It is for the good of us all +that you abide where you are. As I shall explain." + +"What is this, Elaine?" said Geoffrey. + +"Your promise!" she answered, lifting a finger at him. + +There was a dry crack from the crocodile's hide. + +"Villain!" cried Geoffrey, seizing the half-extricated body by the +throat. "Thy false skin is honester than thyself, and warned us. Back +inside!" + +The robber's eyes shrivelled to the size of a snake's, as, with no +tenderness, the youth grappled with him still entangled, and with +hands, feet, and knees drove him into his shell as a hasty traveller +tramples his effects into a packing-case. + +"See," said Elaine, "how pleasantly we two have you at our disposal. +Shall the neighbours be called to have a sight of the Dragon?" + +"What do you want with me?" said Sir Francis, quietly. For he was a +philosopher. + +"In the first place," answered Geoffrey, "know that thou art caught. +And if I shall spare thee this night, it may well be they'll set thy +carcase swinging on the gallows-tree to-morrow morning,--or, being +Christmas, the day after." + +"I can see my case without thy help," Sir Francis replied. "What +next?" + +At this, Elaine came to Geoffrey and they whispered together. + +[Illustration: The Dragon perceiueth hymself to be entrapped] + +"Thy trade is done for," said the youth, at length. "There'll be no +more monks of Oyster-le-Main, and no more Dragon of Wantley. But thou +and the other curs may live, if ye so choose." + +"Through what do I buy my choice?" + +"Through a further exhibition of thine art. Thou must play Dragon +to-night once again for the last time. This, that I may show thee +captive to Sir Godfrey Disseisin." + +"And in chains, I think," added Elaine. "There is one behind the +post." It had belonged in the bear-pit during the lives of Orlando +Crumb and Furioso Bun, two bears trapped expressly for the Baron near +Roncevaux. + +"After which?" inquired Sir Francis. + +"Thou shalt go free, and I will claim this lady's hand from her +father, who promised her to any man that brought the Dragon to him +dead or alive." + +"Papa shall be kept at a distance from you," said Elaine, "and will +never suspect in this dimness, if you roar at him thoroughly." + +"Then," continued Geoffrey, "I shall lead thee away as my spoil, and +the people shall see the lizard-skin after a little while. But thou +must journey far from Wantley, and never show face again." + +"And go from Oyster-le-Main and the tithings?" exclaimed Sir Francis. +"My house and my sustenance?" + +"Sustain thyself elsewhere," said Geoffrey; "I care not how." + +"No!" said Sir Francis. "I'll not do this." + +"Then we call Sir Godfrey. The Baron will not love thee very much, +seeing how well he loves his Burgundy thou hast drank. Thou gavest him +sermons on cold spring-water. He'll remember that. I think thou'lt be +soon hanging. So choose." + +The Knight of the Voracious Stomach was silent. + +"This is a pretty scheme thou hast," he presently said. "And not thine +own. She has taught thee this wit, I'll be bound. Mated to her, +thou'lt prosper, I fear." + +"Come, thy choice," said Geoffrey, sternly. + +A sour smile moved the lips of Sir Francis. "Well," he said, "it has +been good while it lasted. Yes, I consent. Our interests lie together. +See how Necessity is the mother of Friendship, also." + +The mask was drawn over his face, and they wound the chain about the +great body. + +"There must be sounds of fighting," said Elaine. "Make them when I am +gone into the house." + +"If I had strangled thee in thy prison, which was in my mind," said +the voice of the hidden speaker, "this folly we--but there. Let it go, +and begin." + +Then they fell to making a wonderful disturbance. The Dragon's voice +was lifted in horrid howlings; and the young knight continually bawled +with all his lungs. They chased as children in a game do: forward, +back, and across to nowhere, knocking the barrels, clanking and +clashing, up between the rows and around corners; and the dry earth +was ground under their feet and swept from the floor upward in a fine +floating yellow powder that they sucked down into their windpipes, +while still they hustled and jangled and banged and coughed and grew +dripping wet, so the dust and the water mingled and ran black streams +along their bodies from the neck downwards, tickling their backs and +stomachs mightily. When the breath was no longer inside them, they +stopped to listen. + +The house was stone still, and no noise came, save always the wind's +same cheerless blowing. + +"How much more of this before they will awaken?" exclaimed Geoffrey, +in indignation. "'Tis a scandal people should sleep so." + +"They are saying their prayers," said Sir Francis. + +"It is a pity thou art such a miscreant," Geoffrey said, heartily; +"otherwise I could sweat myself into a good-humour with thee." + +But Sir Francis replied with coldness, "It is easy for the upper hand +to laugh." + +"We must at it again," said Geoffrey; "and this time I will let them +hear thou art conquered." The din and hubbub recommenced. And +Mistletoe could hear it where she quaked inside her closet holding the +door with both hands. And the Baron could hear it. He was locked in +the bath-room, dreadfully sorry he had not gone to the Crusade. Quite +unknowingly in his alarm he had laid hold of a cord that set going the +shower-bath; but he gave no heed at all to this trifle. And every man +and woman in the house heard the riot, from the scullion up through +the cook to Popham, who had unstrapped his calves before retiring, so +that now his lean shanks knocked together like hockey-sticks. Little +Whelpdale, freezing in his shirt-tail under the bed, was crying +piteously upon all Saints to forget about his sins and deliver him. +Only Miss Elaine standing in her room listened with calm; and she with +not much, being on the threshold of a chance that might turn untoward +so readily. Presently a victorious shouting came from far down through +the dark. + +"He is mine!" the voice bellowed. "I have laid him low. The Dragon is +taken." At this she hastened to summon Sir Godfrey. + +"Why, where can he be?" she exclaimed, stopping in astonishment at his +room, empty and the door open wide. + +Down in the cellar the voice continued to call on all people to come +and see the Dragon of Wantley. Also Elaine heard a splashing and +dripping that sounded in the bath-room. So she ran to the door and +knocked. + +"You can't come in!" said the Baron angrily. + +"Papa! They've caught the Dragon. Oh why are you taking your bath at +such a time?" + +"Taking my grandmother!" Sir Godfrey retorted in great dudgeon. But he +let the rope go, and the shower stopped running. "Go to your room," he +added. "I told you to lock your door. This Dragon----" + +"But he's caught, papa," cried Elaine through the key-hole. "Don't you +hear me? Geoff----somebody has got him." + +"How now?" said the Baron, unlocking the door and peering out. "What's +all this?" + +His dressing-gown was extremely damp, for stray spouts from the +shower-bath had squirted over him. Fortunately, the breast-plate +underneath had kept him dry as far as it went. + +"Hum," he said, after he had listened to the voice in the cellar. +"This is something to be cautious over." + +"If the people of this house do not come soon to bear witness of my +conquest," said the voice in tones of thunder, "I'll lead this Dragon +through every chamber of it myself." + +"Damnum absque injuria!" shrieked Sir Godfrey, and uttered much more +horrible language entirely unfit for general use. "What the Jeofailes +does the varlet mean by threatening an Englishman in his own house? I +should like to know who lives here? I should like to know who I am?" + +The Baron flew down the entry in a rage. He ran to his bedside and +pulled his sword from under the pillows where he always kept it at +night with his sun-dial. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +"We shall see who is master of this house," he said. "I am not going +to--does he suppose anybody that pleases can come carting their +dragons through my premises? Get up! Get up! Every one!" he shouted, +hurrying along the hall with the sword in his right hand and a lantern +in his left. His slippers were only half on, so they made a slithering +and slapping over the floor; and his speed was such that the quilted +red dressing-gown filled with the wind and spread behind him till he +looked like a huge new sort of bird or an eccentric balloon. Up and +down in all quarters of the house went Sir Godfrey, pounding against +every shut door. Out they came. Mistletoe from her closet, squeaking. +Whelpdale from under his bed. The Baron allowed him time to put on a +pair of breeches wrong side out. The cook came, and you could hear her +panting all the way down from the attic. Out came the nine house-maids +with hair in curl-papers. The seven footmen followed. Meeson and +Welsby had forgotten their wigs. The coachman and grooms and +stable-boys came in horse-blankets and boots. And last in the +procession, old Popham, one calf securely strapped on, and the other +dangling disgracefully. Breathless they huddled behind the Baron, who +strode to the cellar, where he flung the door open. Over in a corner +was a hideous monster, and every man fell against his neighbour and +shrieked. At which the monster roared most alarmingly, and all fell +together again. Young Geoffrey stood in the middle of the cellar, and +said not a word. One end of a chain was in his hand, and he waited +mighty stiff for the Baron to speak. But when he saw Miss Elaine come +stealing in after the rest so quiet and with her eyes fixed upon him, +his own eyes shone wonderfully. + +At the sight of the Dragon, Sir Godfrey forgot his late excitement, +and muttered "Bless my soul!" Then he stared at the beast for some +time. + +"Can--can't he do anything?" he inquired. + +"No," said Geoffrey shortly; "he can't." + +"Not fly up at one, for instance?" + +"I have broken his wing," replied the youth. + +"I--I'd like to look at him. Never saw one before," said the Baron; +and he took two steps. Then gingerly he moved another step. + +"Take care!" Geoffrey cried, with rapid alarm. + +The monster moved, and from his nostrils (as it seemed) shot a plume +of flame. + +Popham clutched the cook, and the nine house-maids sank instantly into +the arms of the seven footmen without the slightest regard to how +unsatisfactorily nine goes into seven. + +"Good heavens!" said the Baron, getting behind a hogshead, "what a +brute!" + +"Perhaps it might be useful if I excommunicated him," said the Rev. +Hucbald, who had come in rather late, with his clerical frock-coat +buttoned over his pyjamas. + +"Pooh!" said the Baron. "As if he'd care for that." + +"Very few men can handle a dragon," said Geoffrey, unconcernedly, and +stroked his upper lip, where a kindly-disposed person might see there +was going to be a moustache some day. + +"I don't know exactly what you mean to imply by that, young man," said +the Baron, coming out from behind the hogshead and puffing somewhat +pompously. + +"Why, zounds!" he exclaimed, "I left you locked up this afternoon, +and securely. How came you here?" + +Geoffrey coughed, for it was an awkward inquiry. + +"Answer me without so much throat-clearing," said the Baron. + +"I'll clear my throat as it pleases me," replied Geoffrey hotly. "How +I came here is no affair of yours that I can see. But ask Father +Anselm himself, and he will tell you." This was a happy thought, and +the youth threw a look at the Dragon, who nodded slightly. "I have a +question to ask you, sir," Geoffrey continued, taking a tone and +manner more polite. Then he pointed to the Dragon with his sword, and +was silent. + +"Well?" said Sir Godfrey, "don't keep me waiting." + +"I fear your memory's short, sir. By your word proclaimed this morning +the man who brought you this Dragon should have your daughter to wife +if she--if she----" + +"Ha!" said the Baron. "To be sure. Though it was hasty. Hum! Had I +foreseen the matter would be so immediately settled--she's a great +prize for any lad--and you're not hurt either. One should be hurt for +such a reward. You seem entirely sound of limb and without a scratch. +A great prize." + +"There's the Dragon," replied Geoffrey, "and here am I." + +Now Sir Godfrey was an honourable man. When he once had given his +word, you could hold him to it. That is very uncommon to-day, +particularly in the matter of contracts. He gathered his dressing-gown +about him, and looked every inch a parent. "Elaine," he said, "my +dear?" + +"Oh, papa!" murmured that young woman in a die-away voice. + +Geoffrey had just time to see the look in her brown eye as she turned +her head away. And his senses reeled blissfully, and his brain blew +out like a candle, and he ceased to be a man who could utter speech. +He stood stock-still with his gaze fixed upon Elaine. The nine +house-maids looked at the young couple with many sympathetic though +respectful sighings, and the seven footmen looked comprehensively at +the nine house-maids. + +Sir Godfrey smiled, and very kindly. "Ah, well," he said, "once I--but +tush! You're a brave lad, and I knew your father well. I'll consent, +of course. But if you don't mind, I'll give you rather a quick +blessing this evening. 'Tis growing colder. Come here, Elaine. Come +here, sir. There! Now, I hate delay in these matters. You shall be +married to-morrow. Hey? What? You don't object, I suppose? Then why +did you jump? To-morrow, Christmas Day, and every church-bell in the +county shall ring three times more than usual. Once for the holy +Feast, and may the Lord bless it always! and once for my girl's +wedding. And once for the death and destruction of the Dragon of +Wantley." + +"Hurrah!" said the united household. + +"We'll have a nuptials that shall be the talk of our grandchildren's +children, and after them. We'll have all the people to see. And we'll +build the biggest pile of fagots that can be cut from my timber, and +the Dragon shall be chained on the top of it, and we'll cremate him +like an Ancient,--only alive! We'll cremate the monster alive!" + +Elaine jumped. Geoffrey jumped. The chain round the Dragon loudly +clanked. + +"Why--do you not find this a pleasant plan?" asked the Baron, +surprised. + +"It seems to me, sir," stuttered Geoffrey, beating his brains for +every next word, "it seems to me a monstrous pity to destroy this +Dragon so. He is a rare curiosity." + +"Did you expect me to clap him in a box-stall and feed him?" inquired +the Baron with scorn. + +"Why, no, sir. But since it is I who have tracked, stalked, and taken +him with the help of no other huntsman," said Geoffrey, "I make bold +to think the laws of sport vest the title to him in me." + +"No such thing," said Sir Godfrey. "You have captured him in my +cellar. I know a little law, I hope." + +"The law about wild beasts in Poictiers----" Geoffrey began. + +"What care I for your knavish and perverted foreign legalities over +the sea?" snorted Sir Godfrey. "This is England. And our Common Law +says you have trespassed." + +"My dear sir," said Geoffrey, "this wild beast came into your premises +after I had marked him." + +"Don't dear sir me!" shouted the Baron. "Will you hear the law for +what I say? I tell you this Dragon's my dragon. Don't I remember how +trespass was brought against Ralph de Coventry, over in Warwickshire? +Who did no more than you have done. And they held him. And there it +was but a little pheasant his hawk had chased into another's +warren--and you've chased a dragon, so the offence is greater." + +"But if--" remonstrated the youth, "if a fox----" + +"Fox me no foxes! Here is the case of Ralph de Coventry," replied Sir +Godfrey, looking learned, and seating himself on a barrel of beer. +"Ralph pleaded before the Judge saying, 'et nous lessamus nostre +faucon voler a luy, et il le pursuy en le garrein,'--'tis just your +position, only 'twas you that pursued and not your falcon, which does +not in the least distinguish the cases." + +"But," said Geoffrey again, "the Dragon started not on your premises." + +"No matter for that; for you have pursued him into my warren, that is, +my cellar, my enclosed cellar, where you had no business to be. And +the Court told Ralph no matter 'que le feisant leva hors de le +garrein, vostre faucon luy pursuy en le garrein.' So there's good +sound English law, and none of your foppish outlandishries in Latin," +finished the Baron, vastly delighted at being able to display the +little learning that he had. For you see, very few gentlemen in those +benighted days knew how to speak the beautiful language of the law so +fluently as that. + +"And besides," continued Sir Godfrey suddenly, "there is a contract." + +"What contract?" asked Geoffrey. + +"A good and valid one. When I said this morning that I would give my +daughter to the man who brought me the Dragon alive or dead, did I say +I would give him the Dragon too? So choose which you will take, for +both you cannot have." + +At this Elaine turned pale as death, and Geoffrey stood dumb. + +Had anybody looked at the Dragon, it was easy to see the beast was +much agitated. + +"Choose!" said Sir Godfrey. "'Tis getting too cold to stay here. What? +You hesitate between my daughter and a miserable reptile? I thought +the lads of France were more gallant. Come, sir! which shall it be? +The lady or the Dragon?" + +"Well," said Geoffrey, and his blood and heart stood still (and so did +Elaine's, and so did another person's), "I--I--think I will choose the +l--lady." + +"Hurrah!" cheered the household once more. + +"Oh, Lord!" said the Dragon, but nobody heard him. + +"Indeed!" observed Sir Godfrey. "And now we'll chain him in my +bear-pit till morning, and at noon he shall be burned alive by the +blazing fagots. Let us get some sleep now." + +The cloud of slimly-clad domestics departed with slow steps, and many +a look of fear cast backward at the captured monster. + +"This Dragon, sir," said Geoffrey, wondering at his own voice, "will +die of thirst in that pit. Bethink you how deep is his habit of +drinking." + +"Ha! I have often bethought me," retorted Sir Godfrey, rolling his +eyes over the empty barrels. "But here! I am a man of some heart, I +hope." + +He seized up a bucket and ran to the hogshead containing his +daughter's native cowslip wine. + +"There!" he observed when the bucket was pretty well filled. "Put that +in to moisten his last hours." + +Then the Baron led the way round the Manor to the court-yard where the +bear-pit was. His daughter kept pace with him not easily, for the +excellent gentleman desired to be a decent distance away from the +Dragon, whom young Geoffrey dragged along in the rear. + +[Illustration: HVCKBALD BELIEVES HE WILL TAKE JVST A LITTLE SIP] + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + Leaues much Room for guessing about Ch. X + +[Illustration] + + +As they proceeded towards the bear-pit, having some distance to go, +good-humour and benevolence began to rise up in the heart of Sir +Godfrey. + +"This is a great thing!" he said to Miss Elaine. "Ha! an important and +joyful occurrence. The news of it will fly far." + +"Yes," the young lady replied, but without enthusiasm. "The cattle +will be safe now." + +"The cattle, child! my Burgundy! Think of that!" + +"Yes, papa." + +"The people will come," continued the Baron, "from all sides +to-morrow--why, it's to-morrow now!" he cried. "From all sides they +will come to my house to see my Dragon. And I shall permit them to see +him. They shall see him cooked alive, if they wish. It is a very +proper curiosity. The brute had a wide reputation." + +To hear himself spoken of in the past tense, as we speak of the dead, +was not pleasant to Sir Francis, walking behind Geoffrey on all fours. + +"I shall send for Father Anselm and his monks," the Baron went on. + +Hearing this Geoffrey started. + +"What need have we of them, sir?" he inquired. To send for Father +Anselm! It was getting worse and worse. + +"Need of Father Anselm?" repeated Sir Godfrey. "Of course I shall need +him. I want the parson to tell me how he came to change his mind and +let you out." + +"Oh, to be sure," said Geoffrey, mechanically. His thoughts were +reeling helplessly together, with no one thing uppermost. + +"Not that I disapprove it. I have changed my own mind upon occasions. +But 'twas sudden, after his bundle of sagacity about Crusades and +visions of my ancestor and what not over there in the morning. Ha! ha! +These clericals are no more consistent than another person. I'll +never let the Father forget this." And the Baron chuckled. "Besides," +he said, "'tis suitable that these monks should be present at the +burning. This Dragon was a curse, and curses are somewhat of a church +matter." + +"True," said Geoffrey, for lack of a better reply. + +"Why, bless my soul!" shouted the Baron, suddenly wheeling round to +Elaine at his side, so that the cowslip wine splashed out of the +bucket he carried, "it's my girl's wedding-day too! I had clean +forgot. Bless my soul!" + +"Y--yes, papa," faltered Elaine. + +"And you, young fellow!" her father called out to Geoffrey with lusty +heartiness. "You're a lucky rogue, sir." + +"Yes, sir," said Geoffrey, but not gayly. He was wondering how it felt +to be going mad. Amid his whirling thoughts burned the one longing to +hide Elaine safe in his arms and tell her it would all come right +somehow. A silence fell on the group as they walked. Even to the +Baron, who was not a close observer, the present reticence of these +two newly-betrothed lovers was apparent. He looked from one to the +other, but in the face of neither could he see beaming any of the soft +transports which he considered were traditionally appropriate to the +hour. "Umph!" he exclaimed; "it was never like this in my day." Then +his thoughts went back some forty years, and his eyes mellowed from +within. + +"We'll cook the Dragon first," continued the old gentleman, "and then, +sir, you and my girl shall be married. Ha! ha! a great day for +Wantley!" The Baron swung his bucket, and another jet of its contents +slid out. He was growing more and more delighted with himself and his +daughter and her lover and everybody in the world. "And you're a stout +rogue, too, sir," he said. "Built near as well as an Englishman, I +think. And that's an excellent thing in a husband." + +The Baron continued to talk, now and then almost falling in the snow, +but not permitting such slight mishaps to interrupt his discourse, +which was addressed to nobody and had a general nature, touching upon +dragons, marriages, Crusades, and Burgundy. Could he have seen +Geoffrey's more and more woe-begone and distracted expression, he +would have concluded his future son-in-law was suffering from some +sudden and momentous bodily ill. + +The young man drew near the Dragon. "What shall we do?" he said in a +whisper. "Can I steal the keys of the pit? Can we say the Dragon +escaped?" The words came in nervous haste, wholly unlike the bold +deliberateness with which the youth usually spoke. It was plain he was +at the end of his wits. + +"Why, what ails thee?" inquired Sir Francis in a calm and unmoved +voice. "This is a simple matter." + +His tone was so quiet that Geoffrey stared in amazement. + +"But yonder pit!" he said. "We are ruined!" + +"Not at all," Sir Francis replied. "Truly thou art a deep thinker! +First a woman and now thine enemy has to assist thy distress." + +He put so much hatred and scorn into his tones that Geoffrey flamed +up. "Take care!" he muttered angrily. + +"That's right!" the prisoner said, laughing dryly. "Draw thy sword +and split our secret open. It will be a fine wedding-day thou'lt have +then. Our way out of this is plain enough. Did not the Baron say that +Father Anselm was to be present at the burning? He shall be present." + +"Yes," said the youth. "But how to get out of the pit? And how can +there be a dragon to burn if thou art to be Father Anselm? And +how----" he stopped. + +"I am full of pity for thy brains," said Sir Francis. + +"Here's the pit!" said the voice of Sir Godfrey. "Bring him along." + +"Hark!" said Sir Francis to Geoffrey. "Thou must go to Oyster-le-Main +with a message. Darest thou go alone?" + +"If I dare?" retorted Geoffrey, proudly. + +"It is well. Come to the pit when the Baron is safe in the house." + +Now they were at the iron door. Here the ground was on a level with +the bottom of the pit, but sloped steeply up to the top of its walls +elsewhere, so that one could look down inside. The Baron unlocked the +door and entered with his cowslip wine, which (not being a very +potent decoction) began to be covered with threads of ice as soon as +it was set down. The night was growing more bitter as its frosty hours +wore on; for the storm was departed, and the wind fallen to silence, +and the immense sky clean and cold with the shivering glitter of the +stars. + +Then Geoffrey led the Dragon into the pit. This was a rude and +desolate hole, and its furniture of that extreme simplicity common to +bear-pits in those barbarous times. From the middle of the stone floor +rose the trunk of a tree, ragged with lopped boughs and at its top +forking into sundry limbs possible to sit among. An iron trough was +there near a heap of stale greasy straw, and both were shapeless white +lumps beneath the snow. The chiselled and cemented walls rose round in +a circle and showed no crevice for the nails of either man or bear to +climb by. Many times had Orlando Crumb and Furioso Bun observed this +with sadness, and now Sir Francis observed it also. He took into his +chest a big swallow of air, and drove it out again between his teeth +with a weary hissing. + +"I will return at once," Geoffrey whispered as he was leaving. + +Then the door was shut to, and Sir Francis heard the lock grinding as +the key was turned. Then he heard the Baron speaking to Geoffrey. + +"I shall take this key away," he said; "there's no telling what +wandering fool might let the monster out. And now there's but little +time before dawn. Elaine, child, go to your bed. This excitement has +plainly tired you. I cannot have my girl look like that when she's a +bride to-day. And you too, sir," he added, surveying Geoffrey, "look a +trifle out of sorts. Well, I am not surprised. A dragon is no joke. +Come to my study." And he took Geoffrey's arm. + +"Oh, no!" said the youth. "I cannot. I--I must change my dress." + +"Pooh, sir! I shall send to the tavern for your kit. Come to my study. +You are pale. We'll have a little something hot. Aha! Something hot!" + +"But I think----" Geoffrey began. + +"Tush!" said the Baron. "You shall help me with the wedding +invitations." + +[Illustration: Sir Francis decideth to go down agayne] + +"Sir!" said Geoffrey haughtily, "I know nothing of writing and such +low habits." + +"Why no more do I, of course," replied Sir Godfrey; "nor would I +suspect you or any good gentleman of the practice, though I have made +my mark upon an indenture in the presence of witnesses." + +"A man may do that with propriety," assented the youth. "But I cannot +come with you now, sir. 'Tis not possible." + +"But I say that you shall!" cried the Baron in high good-humour. "I +can mull Malvoisie famously, and will presently do so for you. 'Tis to +help me seal the invitations that I want you. My Chaplain shall write +them. Come." + +He locked Geoffrey's arm in his own, and strode quickly forward. +Feeling himself dragged away, Geoffrey turned his head despairingly +back towards the pit. + +"Oh, he's safe enough in there," said Sir Godfrey. "No need to watch +him." + +Sir Francis had listened to this conversation with rising dismay. And +now he quickly threw off the crocodile hide and climbed up the tree as +the bears had often done before him. It came almost to a level with +the wall's rim, but the radius was too great a distance for jumping. + +"I should break my leg," he said, and came down the tree again, as the +bears had likewise often descended. + +The others were now inside the house. Elaine with a sinking heart +retired to her room, and her father after summoning the Rev. Hucbald +took Geoffrey into his study. The Chaplain followed with a bunch of +goose-quills and a large ink-horn, and seated himself at a table, +while the Baron mixed some savoury stuff, going down his private +staircase into the buttery to get the spice and honey necessary. + +"Here's to the health of all, and luck to-day," said the Baron; and +Geoffrey would have been quite happy if an earthquake had come and +altered all plans for the morning. Still he went through the form of +clinking goblets. But his heart ached, and his eyes grew hot as he sat +dismal and lonely away from his girl. + +"Whom shall we ask to the wedding?" queried the Rev. Hucbald, rubbing +his hands and looking at the pitcher in which Sir Godfrey had mixed +the beverage. + +"Ask the whole county," said Sir Godfrey. "The more the merrier. My +boy Roland will be here to-morrow. He'll find his sister has got ahead +of him. Have some," he added, holding the pitcher to the Rev. Hucbald. + +"I do believe I will take just a little sip," returned the divine. +"Thanks! ah--most delicious, Baron! A marriage on Christmas Day," he +added, "is--ahem!--highly irregular. But under the unusual, indeed the +truly remarkable, circumstances, I make no doubt that the Pope----" + +"Drat him!" said Sir Godfrey; at which the Chaplain smiled +reproachfully, and shook a long transparent taper finger at his +patron in a very playful manner, saying, "Baron! now, Baron!" + +"My boy Roland's learning to be a knight over at my uncle Mortmain's," +continued Sir Godfrey, pouring Geoffrey another goblet. "You'll like +him." + +But Geoffrey's thoughts were breeding more anxiety in him every +moment. + +"I'll get the sealing-wax," observed the Baron, and went to a cabinet. + +"This room is stifling," cried Geoffrey. "I shall burst soon, I +think." + +"It's my mulled Malvoisie you're not accustomed to," Sir Godfrey said, +as he rummaged in the cabinet. "Open the window and get some fresh +air, my lad. Now where the deuce is my family seal?" + +As Geoffrey opened the window, a soft piece of snow flew through the +air and dropped lightly on his foot. He looked quickly and perceived a +man's shadow jutting into the moonlight from an angle in the wall. +Immediately he plunged out through the casement, which was not very +high. + +"Merciful powers!" said the Rev. Hucbald, letting fall his quill and +spoiling the first invitation, "what an impulsive young man! Why, he +has run clean round the corner." + +"'Tis all my Malvoisie," said the Baron, hugely delighted, and +hurrying to the window. "Come back when you're sober!" he shouted +after Geoffrey with much mirth. Then he shut the window. + +"These French heads never can weather English brews," he remarked to +the Chaplain. "But I'll train the boy in time. He is a rare good lad. +Now, to work." + +Out in the snow, Geoffrey with his sword drawn came upon Hubert. + +"Thou mayest sheathe that knife," said the latter. + +"And be thy quarry?" retorted Geoffrey. + +"I have come too late for that!" Hubert answered. + +"Thou hast been to the bear-pit, then?" + +"Oh, aye!" + +"There's big quarry there!" observed Geoffrey, tauntingly. "Quite a +royal bird." + +"So royal the male hawk could not bring it down by himself, I hear," +Hubert replied. "Nay, there's no use in waxing wroth, friend! My +death now would clap thee in a tighter puzzle than thou art in +already--and I should be able to laugh down at thee from a better +world," he added, mimicking the priestly cadence, and looking at +Geoffrey half fierce and half laughing. + +He was but an apprentice at robbery and violence, and in the bottom of +his heart, where some honesty still was, he liked Geoffrey well. "Time +presses," he continued. "I must go. One thing thou must do. Let not +that pit be opened till the monks of Oyster-le-Main come here. We +shall come before noon." + +"I do not understand," said Geoffrey. + +[Illustration: Brother Hvbert goeth back to Oyster-le-Main for ye +last Time] + +"That's unimportant," answered Hubert. "Only play thy part. 'Tis a +simple thing to keep a door shut. Fail, and the whole of us are +undone. Farewell." + +"Nay, this is some foul trick," Geoffrey declared, and laid his hand +on Hubert. + +But the other shook his head sadly. "Dost suppose," he said, "that we +should have abstained from any trick that's known to the accumulated +wisdom of man? Our sport is up." + +"'Tis true," Geoffrey said, musingly, "we hold all of you in the +hollow of one hand." + +"Thou canst make a present of us to the hangman in twenty minutes if +thou choosest," said Hubert. + +"Though 'twould put me in quite as evil case." + +"Ho! what's the loss of a woman compared with death?" Hubert +exclaimed. + +"Thou'lt know some day," the young knight said, eying Hubert with a +certain pity; "that is, if ever thou art lucky to love truly." + +"And is it so much as that?" murmured Hubert wistfully. "'Twas good +fortune for thee and thy sweetheart I did not return to look for my +master while he was being taken to the pit," he continued; "we could +have stopped all your mouths till the Day of Judgment at least." + +"Wouldst thou have slain a girl?" asked Geoffrey, stepping back. + +"Not I, indeed! But for my master I would not be so sure. And he says +I'll come as far as that in time," added the apprentice with a shade +of bitterness. + +"Thou art a singular villain," said Geoffrey, "and wonderfully frank +spoken." + +"And so thou'rt to be married?" Hubert said gently. + +"By this next noon, if all goes well!" exclaimed the lover with +ardour. + +"Heigho!" sighed Hubert, turning to go, "'twill be a merry Christmas +for somebody." + +"Give me thy hand," cried Geoffrey, feeling universally hearty. + +"No," replied the freebooter; "what meaning would there be in that? I +would sever thy jugular vein in a moment if that would mend the broken +fortunes of my chief. Farewell, however. Good luck attend thee." + +The eyes of both young men met, and without unkindness in them. + +"But I am satisfied with my calling," Hubert asserted, repudiating +some thought that he imagined was lurking in Geoffrey's look. "Quite +content! It's very dull to be respectable. Look! the dawn will +discover us." + +"But this plan?" cried Geoffrey, hastening after him; "I know +nothing." + +"Thou needest know nothing. Keep the door of the pit shut. Farewell." + +And Geoffrey found himself watching the black form of Hubert dwindle +against the white rises of the ground. He walked towards the tavern in +miserable uncertainty, for the brief gust of elation had passed from +his heart. Then he returned irresolute, and looked into the pit. There +was Sir Francis, dressed in the crocodile. + +"Come in, come in, young fellow! Ha! ha! how's thy head?" The Baron +was at the window, calling out and beckoning with vigour. + +Geoffrey returned to the study. There was no help for it. + +"We have written fifty-nine already!" said the Rev. Hucbald. + +But the youth cast a dull eye upon the growing heap, and sealed them +very badly. What pleasure was it to send out invitations to his own +wedding that might never be coming off? + +As for Hubert out in the night, he walked slowly through the wide +white country. And as he went across the cold fields and saw how the +stars were paling out, and cast long looks at the moon setting across +the smooth snow, the lad's eyes filled so that the moon twinkled and +shot rays askew in his sight. He thought how the good times of +Oyster-le-Main were ended, and he thought of Miss Elaine so far beyond +the reach of such as he, and it seemed to him that he was outside the +comfortable world. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + + CHAPTER X + + The Great White Christmas at Wantley. + +[Illustration] + + +Now are all the people long awake and out of their beds. Wantley Manor +is stirring busily in each quarter of the house and court, and the +whole county likewise is agog. By seven o'clock this morning it was +noised in every thatched cottage and in every gabled hall that the +great Dragon had been captured. Some said by Saint George in person, +who appeared riding upon a miraculous white horse and speaking a +tongue that nobody could understand, wherefore it was held to be the +language common in Paradise. Some declared Saint George had nothing to +do with it, and that this was the pious achievement of Father Anselm. +Others were sure Miss Elaine had fulfilled the legend and conquered +the monster entirely by herself. One or two, hearing the event had +taken place in Sir Godfrey's wine-cellar, said they thought the Baron +had done it,--and were immediately set down as persons of unsound +mind. But nobody mentioned Geoffrey at all, until the Baron's +invitations, requesting the honour of various people's presence at the +marriage of his daughter Elaine to that young man, were received; and +that was about ten o'clock, the ceremony being named for twelve that +day in the family chapel. Sir Godfrey intended the burning of the +Dragon to take place not one minute later than half-past eleven. +Accordingly, besides the invitation to the chapel, all friends and +neighbours whose position in the county or whose intimacy with the +family entitled them to a recognition less formal and more personal, +received a second card which ran as follows: "Sir Godfrey Disseisin at +home Wednesday morning, December the twenty-fifth, from half after +eleven until the following day. Dancing; also a Dragon will be +roasted. R. S. V. P." The Disseisin crest with its spirited motto, +"Saute qui peult," originated by the venerable Primer Disseisin, +followed by his son Tortious Disseisin, and borne with so much renown +in and out of a hundred battles by a thousand subsequent Disseisins, +ornamented the top left-hand corner. + +"I think we shall have but few refusals," said the Rev. Hucbald to Sir +Godfrey. "Not many will be prevented by previous engagements, I +opine." And the Chaplain smiled benignly, rubbing his hands. He had +published the banns of matrimony three times in a lump before +breakfast. "Which is rather unusual," he said; "but under the +circumstances we shall easily obtain a dispensation." + +"In providing such an entertainment for the county as this will be," +remarked the Baron, "I feel I have performed my duty towards society +for some time to come. No one has had a dragon at a private house +before me, I believe." + +"Oh, surely not," simpered the sleek Hucbald. "Not even Lady Jumping +Jack." + +"Fiddle!" grunted the Baron. "She indeed! Fandangoes!" + +"She's very pious," protested the Rev. Hucbald, whom the lady +sometimes asked to fish lunches in Lent. + +"Fandangoes!" repeated the Baron. He had once known her exceedingly +well, but she pursued variety at all expense, even his. As for +refusals, the Chaplain was quite right. There were none. Nobody had a +previous engagement--or kept it, if they had. + +"Good gracious, Rupert!" (or Cecil, or Chandos, as it might be,) each +dame in the county had exclaimed to her lord on opening the envelope +brought by private hand from Wantley, "we're asked to the Disseisins +to see a dragon,--and his daughter married." + +"By heaven, Muriel, we'll go!" the gentleman invariably replied, under +the impression that Elaine was to marry the Dragon, which would be a +show worth seeing. The answers came flying back to Wantley every +minute or two, most of them written in such haste that you could only +guess they were acceptances. And those individuals who lived so far +away across the county that the invitations reached them too late to +be answered, immediately rang every bell in the house and ordered the +carriage in frantic tones. + +Of _course_ nobody kept any engagement. Sir Guy Vol-au-Vent (and none +but a most abandoned desperado or advanced thinker would be willing to +do such a thing on Christmas) had accepted an invitation to an ambush +at three for the slaying of Sir Percy de Resistance. But the ambush +was put off till a more convenient day. Sir Thomas de Brie had been +going to spend his Christmas at a cock-fight in the Count de +Gorgonzola's barn. But he remarked to his man Edward, who brought the +trap to the door, that the Count de Gorgonzola might go ---- Never +mind what he remarked. It was not nice; though oddly enough it was +exactly the same remark that the Count had made about Sir Thomas on +telling his own man James to drive to Wantley and drop the cock-fight. +All these gentlemen, as soon as they heard the great news, started for +the Manor with the utmost speed. + +[Illustration: Sir Thomas de Brie hastens to accept the Baron's polite +Inuitation] + +Nor was it the quality alone who were so unanimous in their feelings. +The Tenantry (to whom Sir Godfrey had extended a very hospitable +bidding to come and they should find standing-room and good meat and +beer in the court-yard) went nearly mad. From every quarter of the +horizon they came plunging and ploughing along. The sun blazed down +out of a sky whence a universal radiance seemed to beat upon the +blinding white. Could you have mounted up bird-fashion over the +country, you would have seen the Manor like the centre of some great +wheel, with narrow tracks pointing in to it from the invisible rim of +a circle, paths wide and narrow, converging at the gate, trodden +across the new snow from anywhere and everywhere; and moving along +these like ants, all the inhabitants for miles around. And through +the wide splendour of winter no wind blowing, but the sound of chiming +bells far and near, clear frozen drops of music in the brittle air. + +Old Gaffer Piers, the ploughman, stumped along, "pretty well for +eighty, thanky," as he somewhat snappishly answered to the neighbours +who out-walked him on the road. They would get there first. + +"Wonderful old man," they said as they went on their way, and quickly +resumed their speculations upon the Dragon's capture. Farmer John +Stiles came driving his ox-team and snuffling, for it was pretty cold, +and his handkerchief at home. Upon his wagon on every part, like +swallows, hung as many of his relations as could get on. His mother, +who had been Lucy Baker, and grandmother Cecilia Kempe, and a litter +of cousin Thorpes. But his step-father Lewis Gay and the children of +the half-blood were not asked to ride; farmer Stiles had bitterly +resented the second marriage. This family knew all the particulars +concerning the Dragon, for they had them from the cook's second cousin +who was courting Bridget Stiles. They knew how Saint George had waked +Father Anselm up and put him on a white horse, and how the Abbot had +thus been able to catch the Dragon by his tail in the air just as he +was flying away with Miss Elaine, and how at that the white horse had +turned into a young man who had been bewitched by the Dragon, and was +going to marry Miss Elaine immediately. + +On the front steps, shaking hands with each person who came, was Sir +Godfrey. He had dressed himself excellently for the occasion; +something between a heavy father and an old beau, with a beautiful +part down the back of his head where the hair was. Geoffrey stood +beside him. + +"My son-in-law that's to be," Sir Godfrey would say. And the gentry +welcomed the young man, while the tenants bobbed him respectful +salutations. + +"You're one of us. Glad to know you," said Sir Thomas de Brie, +surveying the lad with approval. + +Lady Jumping Jack held his hand for a vanishing moment you could +hardly make sure of. "I had made up my mind to hate you for robbing me +of my dearest girl," she said, smiling gayly, and fixing him with her +odd-looking eyes. "But I see we're to be friends." Then she murmured a +choice nothing to the Baron, who snarled politely. + +"Don't let her play you," said he to Geoffrey when the lady had moved +on. And he tapped the youth's shoulder familiarly. + +"Oh, I've been through all that sort of thing over in Poictiers," +Geoffrey answered with indifference. + +"You're a rogue, sir, as I've told you before. Ha! Uncle Mortmain, how +d'ye do? Yes, this is Geoffrey. Where's my boy Roland? Coming, is he? +Well, he had better look sharp. It's after eleven, and I'll wait for +nobody. How d'ye do, John Stiles? That bull you sold me 's costing +thirty shillings a year in fences. You'll find something ready down by +those tables, I think." + +Hark to that roar! The crowd jostled together in the court-yard, for +it sounded terribly close. + +"The Dragon's quite safe in the pit, good people," shouted Sir +Godfrey. "A few more minutes and you'll all see him." + +The old gentleman continued welcoming the new arrivals, chatting +heartily, with a joke for this one and a kind inquiry for the other. +But wretched Geoffrey! So the Dragon was to be seen in a few minutes! +And where were the monks of Oyster-le-Main? Still, a bold face must be +kept. He was thankful that Elaine, after the custom of brides, was +invisible. The youth's left hand rested upon the hilt of his sword; he +was in rich attire, and the curly hair that surrounded his forehead +had been carefully groomed. Half-way up the stone steps as he stood, +his blue eyes watching keenly for the monks, he was a figure that made +many a humble nymph turn tender glances upon him. Old Piers, the +ploughman, remained beside a barrel of running ale and drank his +health all day. For he was a wonderful old man. + +Hither and thither the domestics scurried swiftly, making +preparations. Some were cooking rare pasties of grouse and ptarmigan, +goslings and dough-birds; some were setting great tables in-doors and +out; and some were piling fagots for the Dragon's funeral pyre. +Popham, with magnificent solemnity and a pair of new calves, gave +orders to Meeson and Welsby, and kept little Whelpdale panting for +breath with errands; while in and out, between everybody's legs, and +over or under all obstacles, stalked the two ravens Croak James and +Croak Elizabeth, a big white wedding-favour tied round the neck of +each. To see these grave birds, none would have suspected how +frequently they had been in the mince-pies that morning, though Popham +had expressly ruled (in somewhat stilted language) that they should +"take nothink by their bills." + +"Geoffrey," said the Baron, "I think we'll begin. Popham, tell them to +light that fire there." + +"The guests are still coming, sir," said Geoffrey. + +"No matter. It is half after eleven." The Baron showed his sun-dial, +and there was no doubt of it. "Here, take the keys," he said, "and +bring the monster out for us." + +"I'll go and put on my armour," suggested the young man. That would +take time; perhaps the monks might arrive. + +"Why, the brute's chained. You need no armour. Nonsense!" + +"But think of my clothes in that pit, sir,--on my wedding-day." + +"Pooh! That's the first sign of a Frenchman I've seen in you. Take the +keys, sir." + +The crackle of the kindling fagots came to Geoffrey's ears. He saw the +forty men with chains that were to haul the Dragon into the fire. + +"But there's Father Anselm yet to come," he protested. "Surely we wait +for him." + +[Illustration] + +"I'll wait for nobody. He with his Crusades and rubbish! Haven't I got +this Dragon, and there's no Crusade?--Ah, Cousin Modus, glad you +could come over. Just in time. The sherry's to your left. Yes, it's a +very fine day. Yes, yes, this is Geoffrey my girl's to marry and all +that.--What do I care about Father Anselm?" the old gentleman resumed +testily, when his cousin Modus had shuffled off. "Come, sir." + +He gave the keys into Geoffrey's unwilling hand, and ordered silence +proclaimed. + +"Hearken, good friends!" said he, and all talk and going to and fro +ceased. The tenantry stood down in the court-yard, a mass of +motionless russet and yellow, every face watching the Baron. The +gentry swarmed noiselessly out upon the steps behind him, their +handsome dresses bright against the Manor walls. There was a short +pause. Old Gaffer Piers made a slight disturbance falling over with +his cup of ale, but was quickly set on his feet by his neighbours. The +sun blazed down, and the growling of the Dragon came from the pit. + +"Yonder noise," pursued Sir Godfrey, "speaks more to the point than I +could. I'll give you no speech." All loudly cheered at this. + +"Don't you think," whispered the Rev. Hucbald in the Baron's ear, +"that a little something serious should be said on such an occasion? I +should like our brethren to be reminded----" + +"Fudge!" said the Baron. "For thirteen years," he continued, raising +his voice again, "this Dragon has been speaking for himself. You all +know and I know how that has been. And now we are going to speak for +ourselves. And when he is on top of that fire he'll know how that is. +Geoffrey, open the pit and get him out." + +Again there was a cheer, but a short one, for the spell of expectancy +was on all. The young man descended into the court, and the air seemed +to turn to a wavering mist as he looked up at the Manor windows +seeking to spy Elaine's face at one of them. Was this to be the end? +Could he kiss her one last good-by if disaster was in store for them +after all? Alas! no glimpse of her was to be seen as he moved along, +hardly aware of his own steps, and the keys jingling lightly as he +moved. Through the crowd he passed, and a whispering ran in his wake +followed by deeper silence than before. He reached the edge of the +people and crossed the open space beyond, passing the leaping blaze of +the fagots, and so drew near the iron door of the pit. The key went +slowly into the lock. All shrank with dismay at the roar which rent +the air. Geoffrey paused with his hand gripping the key, and there +came a sound of solemn singing over the fields. + +"The monks!" murmured a few under their breath; and silence fell +again, each listening. + +Men's voices it was, and their chanting rose by one sudden step to a +high note that was held for a moment, and then sank again, mellow like +the harmony of horns in a wood. Then over the ridge from +Oyster-le-Main the length of a slow procession began to grow. The gray +gowns hung to the earth straight with scarce any waving as the men +walked. The heavy hoods reached over each face so there was no telling +its features. None in the court-yard spoke at all, as the brooding +figures passed in under the gateway and proceeded to the door of the +bear-pit, singing always. Howlings that seemed born of terror now rose +from the imprisoned monster; and many thought, "evidently the evil +beast cannot endure the sound of holy words." + +Elaine in her white dress now gazed from an upper window, seeing her +lover with his enemies drawing continually closer around him. + +Perhaps it was well for him that his death alone would not have served +to lock their secret up again; that the white maiden in the window is +ready to speak the word and direct instant vengeance on them and their +dragon if any ill befall that young man who stands by the iron door. + +The song of the monks ended. Sir Godfrey on the steps was wondering +why Father Anselm did not stand out from the rest of the gray people +and explain his wishes. "Though he shall not interrupt the sport, +whatever he says," thought the Baron, and cast on the group of holy +men a less hospitable eye than had beamed on his other guests. +Geoffrey over at the iron door, surrounded by the motionless figures, +scanned each hood narrowly and soon met the familiar eyes of Hubert. +Hubert's gown, he noticed, bulged out in a manner ungainly and +mysterious. "Open the door," whispered that youth. At once Geoffrey +began to turn the key. And at its grinding all held their breath, and +a quivering silence hung over the court. The hasty drops pattered down +from the eaves from the snow that was melting on the roof. Then some +strip of metal inside the lock sprung suddenly, making a sharp song, +and ceased. The crowd of monks pressed closer together as the iron +door swung open. + +[Illustration: THE DRAGON MAKETH HIS LAST APPEARANCE] + +What did Geoffrey see? None but the monks could tell. Instantly a +single roar more terrible than any burst out, and the huge horrible +black head and jaws of the monster reared into the view of Sir Godfrey +and his guests. One instant the fearful vision in the door-way swayed +with a stiff strange movement over the knot of monks that surrounded +it, then sank out of sight among them. There was a sound of jerking +and fierce clanking of chains, mingled with loud chanting of pious +sentences. Then a plume of spitting flame flared upward with a mighty +roar, and the gray figures scattered right and left. There along the +ground lay the monster, shrivelled, twisted in dismal coils, and dead. +Close beside his black body towered Father Anselm, smoothing the folds +of his gray gown. Geoffrey was sheathing his sword and looking at +Hubert, whose dress bulged out no longer, but fitted him as usual. + +"We have been vouchsafed a miracle," said Father Anselm quietly, to +the gaping spectators. + +"There'll be no burning," said Geoffrey, pointing to the shrunken +skin. But though he spoke so coolly, and repelled all besieging +disturbance from the fortress of his calm visage and bearing, as a +bold and haughty youth should do, yet he could scarcely hold his +finger steady as it pointed to the blackened carcase. Then all at once +his eyes met those of Elaine where she watched from her window, and +relief and joy rushed through him. He stretched his arms towards her, +not caring who saw, and the look she sent him with a smile drove all +surrounding things to an immeasurable distance away. + +"Here indeed," Father Anselm repeated, "is a miracle. Lo, the empty +shell! The snake hath shed his skin." + +"This is very disappointing," said Sir Godfrey, bewildered. "Is there +no dragon to roast?" + +"The roasting," replied the Abbot, impressively, "is even now begun +for all eternity." He stretched out an arm and pointed downward +through the earth. "The evil spirit has fled. The Church hath taken +this matter into her own hands, and claims yon barren hide as a +relic." + +"Well,--I don't see why the Church can't let good sport alone," +retorted Sir Godfrey. + +"Hope she'll not take to breaking up my cock-fights this way," +muttered the Count de Gorgonzola, sulkily. + +"The Church cares nothing for such profane frivolities," observed +Father Anselm with cold dignity. + +"At all events, friends," said Sir Godfrey, cheering up, "the country +is rid of the Dragon of Wantley, and we've got a wedding and a +breakfast left." + +Just at this moment a young horseman rode furiously into the +court-yard. + +It was Roland, Sir Godfrey's son. "Great news!" he began at once. +"Another Crusade has been declared--and I am going. Merry Christmas! +Where's Elaine? Where's the Dragon?" + +Father Anselm's quick brain seized this chance. He and his monks +should make a more stately exit than he had planned. + +"See," he said in a clear voice to his monks, "how all is coming true +that was revealed to me this night! My son," he continued, turning to +young Roland, "thy brave resolve reached me ere thou hadst made it. +Know it has been through thee that the Dragon has gone!" + +Upon this there was profound silence. + +"And now," he added solemnly, "farewell. The monks of Oyster-le-Main +go hence to the Holy Land also, to battle for the true Faith. Behold! +we have made us ready to meet the toil." + +His haughty tones ceased, and he made a sign. The gray gowns fell to +the snow, and revealed a stalwart, fierce-looking crew in black +armour. But the Abbot kept his gray gown. + +"You'll stay for the wedding?" inquired Sir Godfrey of him. + +"Our duty lies to the sea. Farewell, for I shall never see thy face +again." + +He turned. Hubert gathered up the hide of the crocodile and threw a +friendly glance back at Geoffrey. Then again raising their song, the +black band slowly marched out under the gate and away over the snow +until the ridge hid them from sight, and only their singing could be +heard in the distant fields. + +"Well," exclaimed Sir Godfrey, "it's no use to stand staring. Now for +the wedding! Mistletoe, go up and tell Miss Elaine. Hucbald, tell the +organist to pipe up his music. And as soon as it's over we'll drink +the bride's health and health to the bridegroom. 'Tis a lucky thing +that between us all the Dragon is gone, for there's still enough of my +Burgundy to last us till midnight. Come, friends, come in, for +everything waits your pleasure!" + + +[Illustration] + + L'ENVOI + + Reader, if thou hast found thy Way thus far, + Sure then I've writ beneath a lucky Star; + And Nothing so becomes all Journeys' Ends + As that the Travellers should part as Friends. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dragon of Wantley, by Owen Wister + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DRAGON OF WANTLEY *** + +***** This file should be named 26448.txt or 26448.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/4/4/26448/ + +Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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