diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/2004-03-hrdbh10h.htm')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/2004-03-hrdbh10h.htm | 5743 |
1 files changed, 5743 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/2004-03-hrdbh10h.htm b/old/2004-03-hrdbh10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2bac0dc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2004-03-hrdbh10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5743 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> +<!-- saved from url=(0035)http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/menorot/ --> +<html> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> +<title> +Project Gutenberg's The Herd Boy and His Hermit, by Charlotte M. Yonge +</title> +</head> +<body> +<pre> +Project Gutenberg's The Herd Boy and His Hermit, by Charlotte M. Yonge +#32 in our series by Charlotte M. Yonge + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Herd Boy and His Hermit + +Author: Charlotte M. Yonge + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5313] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 29, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HERD BOY AND HIS HERMIT *** + + + + +This Project Gutenberg Etext of The Herdboy and His Hermit was prepared +by Sandra Laythorpe, laythorpe@tiscali.co.uk. +A web page for Charlotte M Yonge may be found at www.menorot.com/cmyonge.htm + + + + +</pre> + +<p> </p> + +<h1>THE HERD BOY AND HIS HERMIT</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h3>CHARLOTTE M. YONGE</h3> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Henry, thou of holy birth,<br> +Thou, to whom thy Windsor gave<br> +Nativity and name and grave<br> +Heavily upon his head<br> +Ancestral crimes were visited.<br> +Meek in heart and undefiled,<br> +Patiently his soul resigned,<br> +Blessing, while he kissed the rod,<br> +His Redeemer and his God.</p> + +<p>SOUTHEY</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<h3>CHAPTER</h3> + +<p><b>I. IN THE MOSS</b></p> + +<p><b>II. THE SNOW-STORM</b></p> + +<p><b>III. OVER THE MOOR</b></p> + +<p><b>IV. A SPORTING PRIORESS</b></p> + +<p><b>V. MOTHER AND SON</b></p> + +<p><b>VI. A CAUTIOUS STEPFATHER</b></p> + +<p><b>VII. ON DERWENT BANKS</b></p> + +<p><b>VIII. THE HERMIT</b></p> + +<p><b>IX. HENRY OF WINDSOR</b></p> + +<p><b>X. THE SCHOLAR OF THE MOUNTAINS</b></p> + +<p><b>XI. THE RED ROSE</b></p> + +<p><b>XII. A PRUDENT RECEPTION</b></p> + +<p><b>XIII. FELLOW TRAVELLERS</b></p> + +<p><b>XIV. THE JOURNEY</b></p> + +<p><b>XV. BLETSO</b></p> + +<p><b>XVI. THE HERMIT IN THE TOWER</b></p> + +<p><b>XVII. A CAPTIVE KING</b></p> + +<p><b>XVIII. AT THE MINORESSES</b></p> + +<p><b>XIX. A STRANGE EASTER EVE</b></p> + +<p><b>XX. BARNET</b></p> + +<p><b>XXI. TEWKESBURY</b></p> + +<p><b>XXII. THE NUT BROWN MAID</b></p> + +<p><b>XXIII. BROUGHAM CASTLE</b></p> + +<h2>THE HERD BOY AND HIS HERMIT</h2> + +<h3>CHAPTER I. IN THE MOSS</h3> + +<p>I can conduct you, lady, to a low<br> +But loyal cottage where you may be safe<br> +Till further quest.--MILTON.</p> + +<p>On a moorland slope where sheep and goats were dispersed among +the rocks, there lay a young lad on his back, in a stout canvas +cassock over his leathern coat, and stout leathern leggings over +wooden shoes. Twilight was fast coming on; only a gleam of purple +light rested on the top of the eastern hills, but was gradually +fading away, though the sky to the westward still preserved a +little pale golden light by the help of the descending crescent +moon.</p> + +<p>'Go away, horned moon,' murmured the boy. 'I want to see my +stars come out before Hob comes to call me home, and the goats are +getting up already. Moon, moon, thou mayst go quicker. Thou wilt +have longer time to-morrow--and be higher in the sky, as well as +bigger, and thou mightst let me see my star to-night! Ah! there is +one high in the sunset, pale and fair, but not mine! That's the +evening star--one of the wanderers. Is it the same as comes in the +morning betimes, when we do not have it at night? Like that it +shines with steady light and twinkles not. I would that I knew! +There! there's mine, my own star, far up, only paling while the sun +glaring blazes in the sky; mine own, he that from afar drives the +stars in Charles's Wain. There they come, the good old twinkling +team of three, and the four of the Wain! Old Billy Goat knows them +too! Up he gets, and all in his wake "Ha-ha-ha" he calls, and the +Nannies answer. Ay, and the sheep are rising up too! How white they +look in the moonshine! Piers--deaf as he is--waking at their music. +Ba, they call the lambs! Nay, that's no call of sheep or goat! 'Tis +some child crying, all astray! Ha! Hilloa, where beest thou? Tarry +till I come! Move not, or thou mayst be in the bogs and mosses! +Come, Watch'--to a great unwieldy collie puppy--'let us find +her.'</p> + +<p>A feeble piteous sound answered him, and following the direction +of the reply, he strode along, between the rocks and thorn-bushes +that guarded the slope of the hill, to a valley covered with thick +moss, veiling treacherously marshy ground in which it was easy to +sink.</p> + +<p>The cry came from the further side, where a mountain stream had +force enough to struggle through the swamp. There were +stepping-stones across the brook, which the boy knew, and he made +his way from one to the other, calling out cheerily to the little +figure that he began to discern in the fading light, and who +answered him with tones evidently girlish, 'O come, come, shepherd! +Here I am! I am lost and lorn! They will reward thee! Oh, come +fast!'</p> + +<p>'All in good time, lassie! Haste is no good here! I must look to +my footing.'</p> + +<p>Presently he was by the side of the wanderer, and could see that +it was a maiden of ten or twelve years old, who somehow, even in +the darkness, had not the air of one of the few inhabitants of that +wild mountain district.</p> + +<p>'Lost art thou, maiden,' he said, as he stood beside her; 'where +is thine home?'</p> + +<p>'I am at Greystone Priory,' replied the girl. 'I went out +hawking to-day with the Mother Prioress and the rest. My pony fell +with me when we were riding after a heron. No one saw me or heard +me, and my pony galloped home. I saw none of them, and I have been +wandering miles and miles! Oh take me back, good lad; the Mother +Prioress will give thee--'</p> + +<p>''Tis too far to take thee back to-night,' he said. 'Thou must +come with me to Hob Hogward, where Doll will give thee supper and +bed, and we will have thee home in the morning.'</p> + +<p>'I never lay in a hogward's house,' she said primly.</p> + +<p>'Belike, but there be worse spots to be harboured in. Here, I +must carry thee over the burn, it gets wider below! Nay, 'tis no +use trying to leap it in the dark, thou wouldst only sink in. +There!'</p> + +<p>And as he raised her in his arms, the touch of her garment was +delicate, and she on her side felt that his speech, gestures and +touch were not those of a rustic shepherd boy; but nothing was said +till he had waded through the little narrow stream, and set her +down on a fairly firm clump of grass on the other side. Then she +asked, 'What art thou, lad?--Who art thou?'</p> + +<p>'They call me Hal,' was the answer; 'but this is no time for +questions. Look to thy feet, maid, or thou wilt be in a swamp-hole +whence I may hardly drag thee out.'</p> + +<p>He held her hand, for he could hardly carry her farther, since +she was almost as tall as himself, and more plump; and the rest of +the conversation for some little time consisted of, 'There!' +'Where?' 'Oh, I was almost down!' 'Take heed; give me thy other +hand! Thou must leap this!' 'Oh! what a place! Is there much more +of it?' 'Not much! Come bravely on! There's a good maid.' 'Oh, I +must get my breath.' 'Don't stand still. That means sinking. Leap! +Leap! That's right. No, not that way, turn to the big stair.' +'Oh--h!' 'That's my brave wench! Not far now.' 'I'm down, I'm +down!' 'Up! Here, this is safe! On that white stone! Now, here's +sound ground! Hark!' Wherewith he emitted a strange wild whoop, and +added, 'That's Hob come out to call me!' He holloaed again. 'We +shall soon be at home now. There's Mother Doll's light! Her light +below, the star above,' he added to himself.</p> + +<p>By this time it was too dark for the two young people to see +more than dim shapes of one another, but the boy knew that the hand +he still held was a soft and delicate one, and the girl that those +which had grasped and lifted her were rough with country labours. +She began to assert her dignity and say again, 'Who art thou, lad? +We will guerdon thee well for aiding me. The Lord St. John is my +father. And who art thou?'</p> + +<p>'I? Oh, I am Hob Hogward's lad,' he answered in an odd off-hand +tone, before whooping again his answer to the shouts of Hob, which +were coming nearer.</p> + +<p>'I am so hungry!' said the little lady, in a weak, famished +tone. 'Hast aught to eat?'</p> + +<p>'I have finished my wallet, more's the pity!' said the boy, 'but +never fear! Hold out but a few steps more, and Mother Doll will +give thee bite and sup and bed.'</p> + +<p>'Alack! Is it much further! My feet! they are so sore and +weary--'</p> + +<p>'Poor maiden, let me bear thee on!'</p> + +<p>Hal took her up again, but they went more slowly, and were glad +to see a tall figure before them, and hear the cry, 'How now, Hal +boy, where hast been? What hast thou there?'</p> + +<p>'A sorely weary little lady, Daddy Hob, lost from the hawking +folk from the Priory,' responded Hal, panting a little as he set +his burthen down, and Hob's stronger arms received her.</p> + +<p>Hal next asked whether the flock had come back under charge of +Piers, and was answered that all were safely at home, and after +'telling the tale' Hob had set out to find him. 'Thou shouldst not +stray so far,' he said.</p> + +<p>'I heard the maid cry, and went after her,' said Hal, 'all the +way to the Blackreed Moss, and the springs, and 'twas hard getting +over the swamp.'</p> + +<p>'Well indeed ye were not both swallowed in it,' said Hob; 'God +be praised for bringing you through! Poor wee bairn! Thou hast come +far! From whence didst say?'</p> + +<p>'From Greystone Priory,' wearily said the girl, who had her head +down on Hob's shoulder, and seemed ready to fall asleep there.</p> + +<p>'Her horse fell with her, and they were too bent on their sport +to heed her,' explained the boy, as he trudged along beside Hob and +his charge,' so she wandered on foot till by good hap I heard her +moan.'</p> + +<p>'Ay, there will be a rare coil to-night for having missed her,' +said Hob; 'but I've heard tell, my Lady Prioress heeds her hawks +more than her nuns! But be she who she may, we'll have her home, +and Mother Doll shall see to her, for she needs it sure, poor +bairn. She is asleep already.'</p> + +<p>So she was, with her head nestled into the shepherd's neck, nor +did she waken when after a tramp of more than a mile the bleatings +of the folded sheep announced that they were nearly arrived, and in +the low doorway there shone a light, and in the light stood a +motherly form, in a white woollen hood and dark serge dress. Tired +as he was, Hal ran on to her, exclaiming 'All well, Mammy +Doll?'</p> + +<p>'Ah well!' she answered, 'thank the good God! I was in fear for +thee, my boy! What's that Daddy hath? A strayed lamb?'</p> + +<p>'Nay, Mammy, but a strayed maiden! 'Twas that kept me so long. I +had to bear her through the burn at Blackreed, and drag her on as +best I might, and she is worn out and weary.'</p> + +<p>'Ay,' said Hob, as he came up. 'How now, my bit lassie?' as he +put her into the outstretched arms of his wife, who sat down on the +settle to receive her, still not half awake.</p> + +<p>'She is well-nigh clemmed,' said Hal. 'She has had no bite nor +sup all day, since her pony fell with her out a-hawking, and all +were so hot on the chase that none heeded her.'</p> + +<p>Mother Doll's exclamations of pity were profuse. There was a +kettle of broth on the peat fire, and after placing the girl in a +corner of the settle, she filled three wooden bowls, two of which +she placed before Hal and the shepherd, making signs to the +heavy-browed Piers to wait; and getting no reply from her worn-out +guest, she took her in her arms, and fed her from a wooden spoon. +Though without clear waking, mouthfuls were swallowed down, till +the bowl was filled again and set before Piers.</p> + +<p>'There, that will be enough this day!' said the good dame. 'Poor +bairn! 'Twas scurvy treatment. Now will we put her to bed, and in +the morn we will see how to deal with her.'</p> + +<p>Hal insisted that the little lady should have his own bed--a +chaff-stuffed mattress, covered with a woollen rug, in the recess +behind the projecting hearth--a strange luxury for a farm boy; and +Doll yielded very unwillingly when he spoke in a tone that savoured +of command. The shaggy Piers had already curled himself up in a +corner and gone to sleep.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER II. THE SNOW-STORM</h3> + +<p>Yet stay, fair lady, rest awhile<br> +Beneath the cottage wall;<br> +See, through the hawthorns blows the cold wind,<br> +And drizzling rain doth fall.--OLD BALLAD.</p> + +<p>Though Hal had gone to sleep very tired the night before, and +only on a pile of hay, curled up with Watch, having yielded his own +bed to the strange guest, he was awake before the sun, for it was +the decline of the year, and the dawn was not early.</p> + +<p>He was not the first awake--Hob and Piers were already busy on +the outside, and Mother Doll had emerged from the box bed which +made almost a separate apartment, and was raking together the peat, +so as to revive the slumbering fire. The hovel, for it was hardly +more, was built of rough stone and thatched with reeds, with large +stones to keep the roof down in the high mountain blasts. There was +only one room, earthen floored, and with no furniture save a big +chest, a rude table, a settle and a few stools, besides the big +kettle and a few crocks and wooden bowls. Yet whereas all was +clean, it had an air of comfort and civilisation beyond any of the +cabins in the neighbourhood, more especially as there was even a +rude chimney-piece projecting far into the room, and in the niche +behind this lay the little girl in her clothes, fast asleep.</p> + +<p>Very young and childish she looked as she lay, her lips partly +unclosed, her dark hair straying beyond her hand, and her black +lashes resting on her delicate brunette cheeks, slightly flushed +with sleep. Hal could not help standing for a minute gazing at her +in a sort of wondering curiosity, till roused by the voice of +Mother Doll.</p> + +<p>'Go thy ways, my bairn, to wash in the burn. Here's thy comb. I +must have the lassie up before the shepherd comes back, though 'tis +amost a pity to wake her! There, she is stirring! Best be off with +thee, my bonnie lad.'</p> + +<p>It was spoken more in the tone of nurse to nursling than of +mother to son, still less that of mistress to farm boy; but Hal +obeyed, only observing, 'Take care of her.'</p> + +<p>'Ay, my pretty, will not I,' murmured the old woman, as the +child turned round on her pillow, put up a hand, rubbed her eyes, +and disclosed a pair of sleepy brown orbs, gazed about, and +demanded, 'What's this? Who's this?'</p> + +<p>''Tis Hob Hogward's hut, my bonnie lamb, where you are full +welcome! Here, take a sup of warm milk.'</p> + +<p>'I mind me now,' said the girl, sitting up, and holding out her +hands for the bowl. 'They all left me, and the lad brought me--a +great lubber lout--'</p> + +<p>'Nay, nay, mistress, you'll scarce say so when you see him by +day--a well-grown youth as can bear himself with any.'</p> + +<p>'Where is he?' asked the girl, gazing round; 'I want him to take +me back. This place is not one for me. The Sisters will be seeking +me! Oh, what a coil they must be in!'</p> + +<p>'We will have you back, my bairn, so soon as my goodman can go +with you, but now I would have you up and dressed, ay, and washed, +ere he and Hal come in. Then after meat and prayer you will be +ready to go.'</p> + +<p>'To Greystone Priory,' returned the girl. 'Yea, I would have +thee to know,' she added, with a little dignity that sat drolly on +her bare feet and disordered hair and cap as she rose out of bed, +'that the Sisters are accountable for me. I am the Lady Anne St. +John. My father is a lord in Bedfordshire, but he is gone to the +wars in Burgundy, and bestowed me in a convent at York while he was +abroad, but the Mother thought her house would be safer if I were +away at the cell at Greystone when Queen Margaret and the Red Rose +came north.'</p> + +<p>'And is that the way they keep you safe?' asked the hostess, who +meanwhile was attending to her in a way that, if the Lady Anne had +known it, was like the tendance of her own nurse at home, instead +of that of a rough peasant woman.</p> + +<p>'Oh, we all like the chase, and the Mother had a new cast of +hawks that she wanted to fly. There came out a heron, and she threw +off the new one, and it went careering up--and up--and we all rode +after, and just as the bird was about to pounce down, into a dyke +went my pony, Imp, and not one of them saw! Not Bertram Selby, the +Sisters, nor the groom, nor the rabble rout that had come out of +Greystone; and before I could get free they were off; and the pony, +Imp of Evil that he is, has not learnt to know me or my voice, and +would not let me catch him, but cantered off--either after the +other horses or to the Priory. I knew not where I was, and halloaed +myself hoarse, but no one heard, and I went on and on, and lost my +way!'</p> + +<p>'I did hear tell that the Lady Prioress minded her hawks more +than her Hours,' said Mother Doll.</p> + +<p>'And that's sooth,' said the Lady Anne, beginning to prove +herself a chatterbox. 'The merlins have better hoods than the +Sisters; and as to the Hours, no one ever gets up in the night to +say Nocturns or even Matins but old Sister Scholastica, and she is +as strict and cross as may be.'</p> + +<p>Here the flow of confidence was interrupted by the return of +Hal, who gazed eagerly, though in a shamefaced way, at the guest as +he set down a bowl of ewe milk. She was a well-grown girl of ten, +slender, and bearing herself like one high bred and well trained in +deportment; and her face was delicately tinted on an olive skin, +with fine marked eyebrows, and dark bright eyes, and her little +hunting dress of green, and the hood, set on far back, became the +dark locks that curled in rings beneath.</p> + +<p>She saw a slender lad, dark-haired and dark-eyed, ruddy and +embrowned by mountain sun and air; and the bow with which he bent +before her had something of the rustic lout, and there was a +certain shyness over him that hindered him from addressing her.</p> + +<p>'So, shepherd,' she said, 'when wilt thou take me back to +Greystone?'</p> + +<p>'Father will fix that,' interposed the housewife; 'meanwhile, ye +had best eat your porridge. Here is Father, in good time with the +cows' milk.'</p> + +<p>The rugged broad-shouldered shepherd made his salutation duly to +the young lady, and uttered the information that there was a black +cloud, like snow, coming up over the fells to the south-west.</p> + +<p>'But I must fare back to Greystone!' said the damsel. 'They will +be in a mighty coil what has become of me.'</p> + +<p>'They would be in a worse coil if they found your bones under a +snow wreath.'</p> + +<p>Hal went to the door and spied out, as if the tidings were +rather pleasant to him than otherwise. The goodwife shivered, and +reached out to close the shutter, and there being no glass to the +windows, all the light that came in was through the chinks.</p> + +<p>'It would serve them right for not minding me better,' said the +maiden composedly. 'Nay, it is as merry here as at Greystone, with +Sister Margaret picking out one's broidery, and Father Cuthbert +making one pore over his crabbed parchments.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, does this Father teach Latin?' exclaimed Hal with eager +interest.</p> + +<p>'Of course he doth! The Mother at York promised I should learn +whatever became a damsel of high degree,' said the girl, drawing +herself up.</p> + +<p>'I would he would teach me!' sighed the boy.</p> + +<p>'Better break thy fast and mind thy sheep,' said the old woman, +as if she feared his getting on dangerous ground; and placing the +bowl of porridge on the rough table, she added, 'Say the +Benedicite, lad, and fall to.' Then, as he uttered the blessing, +she asked the guest whether she preferred ewes' milk or cows' milk, +a luxury no one else was allowed, all eating their porridge +contentedly with a pinch of salt, Hob showing scant courtesy, the +less since his guest's rank had been made known.</p> + +<p>By the time they had finished, snowflakes--an early autumn +storm--were drifting against the shutter, and a black cloud was +lowering over the hills. Hob foretold a heavy fall of snow, and +called on Hal to help him and Piers fold the flock more securely, +sleepy Watch and his old long-haired collie mother rising at the +same call. Lady Anne sprang up at the same time, insisting that she +must go and help to feed the poor sheep, but she was withheld, much +against her will, by Mother Dolly, though she persisted that snow +was nothing to her, and it was a fine jest to be out of the reach +of the Sisters, who mewed her up in a cell, like a messan dog. +However, she was much amused by watching, and thinking she assisted +in, Mother Dolly's preparations for ewe milk cheese-making; and +by-and-by Hal came in, shaking the snow off the sheepskin he had +worn over his leathern coat. Hob had sent him in, as the weather +was too bad for him, and he and Anne crouched on opposite sides of +the wide hearth as he dried and warmed himself, and cosseted the +cat which Anne had tried to caress, but which showed a decided +preference for the older friend.</p> + +<p>'Our Baudrons at Greystone loves me better than that,' said +Anne. 'She will come to me sooner than even to Sister +Scholastica!'</p> + +<p>'My Tib came with us when we came here. Ay, Tib! purr thy best!' +as he held his fingers over her, and she rubbed her smooth head +against him.</p> + +<p>'Can she leap? Baudrons leaps like a horse in the +tilt-yard.'</p> + +<p>'Cannot she! There, my lady pussy, show what thou canst do to +please the demoiselle,' and he held his arms forward with clasped +hands, so that the grey cat might spring over them, and Lady Anne +cried out with delight.</p> + +<p>Again and again the performance was repeated, and pussy was +induced to dance after a string dangled before her, to roll over +and play in apparent ecstasy with a flake of wool, as if it were a +mouse, and Watch joined in the game in full amity. Mother Dolly, +busy with her distaff, looked on, not displeased, except when she +had to guard her spindle from the kitten's pranks, but she was less +happy when the children began to talk.</p> + +<p>'You have seen a tilt-yard?'</p> + +<p>'Yea, indeed,' he answered dreamily. 'The poor squire was +hurt--I did not like it! It is gruesome.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, no! It is a noble sport! I loved our tilt-yard at Bletso. +Two knights could gallop at one another in the lists, as if they +were out hunting. Oh! to hear the lances ring against the shields +made one's heart leap up! Where was yours?'</p> + +<p>Here Dolly interrupted hastily, 'Hal, lad, gang out to the shed +and bring in some more sods of turf. The fire is getting low.'</p> + +<p>'Here's a store, mother--I need not go out,' said Hal, passing +to a pile in the corner. 'It is too dark for thee to see it.'</p> + +<p>'But where was your castle?' continued the girl. 'I am sure you +have lived in a castle.'</p> + +<p>Insensibly the two children had in addressing one another +changed the homely singular pronoun to the more polite, if less +grammatical, second person plural. The boy laughed, nodded his +head, and said, 'You are a little witch.'</p> + +<p>'No great witchcraft to hear that you speak as we do at home in +Bedfordshire, not like these northern boors, that might as well be +Scots!'</p> + +<p>'I am not from Bedfordshire,' said the lad, looking much amused +at her perplexity.</p> + +<p>'Who art thou then?' she cried peremptorily.</p> + +<p>'I? I am Hal the shepherd boy, as I told thee before.'</p> + +<p>'No shepherd boy are you! Come, tell me true.'</p> + +<p>Dolly thought it time to interfere. She heard an imaginary +bleat, and ordered Hal out to see what was the matter, hindering +the girl by force from running after him, for the snow was coming +down in larger flakes than ever. Nevertheless, when her husband was +heard outside she threw a cloak over her head and hurried out to +speak with him. 'That maid will make our lad betray himself ere +another hour is over their heads!'</p> + +<p>'Doth she do it wittingly?' asked the shepherd gravely.</p> + +<p>'Nay, 'tis no guile, but each child sees that the other is of +gentle blood, and women's wits be sharp and prying, and the maid +will never rest till she has wormed out who he is.'</p> + +<p>'He promised me never to say, nor doth he know.'</p> + +<p>'Thee! Much do the hests of an old hogherd weigh against the +wiles of a young maid!'</p> + +<p>'Lord Hal is a lad of his word. Peace with thy lords and ladies, +woman, thou'lt have the archers after him at once.'</p> + +<p>'She makes no secret of being of gentle blood--a St. John of +Bletso.'</p> + +<p>'A pestilent White Rose lot! We shall have them on the scent ere +many days are over our head! An unlucky chance this same snow, or I +should have had the wench off to Greystone ere they could exchange +a word.'</p> + +<p>'Thou wouldst have been caught in the storm. Ill for the maid to +have fallen into a drift!'</p> + +<p>'Well for the lad if she never came out of it!' muttered the +gruff old shepherd. 'Then were her tongue stilled, and those of the +clacking wenches at York--Yorkists every one of them.'</p> + +<p>Mother Dolly's eyes grew round. 'Mind thee, Hob!' she said; 'I +ken thy bark is worse than thy bite, but I would have thee to know +that if aught befall the maid between this and Greystone, I shall +hold thee--and so will my Lady--guilty of a foul deed.'</p> + +<p>'No fouler than was done on the stripling's father,' muttered +the shepherd. 'Get thee in, wife! Who knows what folly those two +may be after while thou art away? Mind thee, if the maid gets an +inkling of who the boy is, it will be the worse for her.'</p> + +<p>'Oh!' murmured the goodwife, 'I moaned once that our Piers there +should be deaf and well-nigh dumb, but I thank God for it now! No +fear of perilous word going out through him, or I durst not have +kept my poor sister's son!'</p> + +<p>Mother Doll trusted that her husband would never have the heart +to leave the pretty dark-haired girl in the snow, but she was +relieved to find Hal marking down on the wide flat hearth-stone, +with a bit of charcoal, all the stars he had observed. 'Hob calls +that the Plough--those seven!' he said; 'I call it Charles's +Wain!'</p> + +<p>'Methinks I have seen that!' she said, 'winter and summer +both.'</p> + +<p>'Ay, he is a meuseful husbandman, that Charles! And see here! +This middle mare of the team has a little foal running beside +her'--he made a small spot beside the mark that stood for the +central star of what we call the Bear's Tail.</p> + +<p>'I never saw that!'</p> + +<p>'No, 'tis only to be seen on a clear bright night. I have seen +it, but Hob mocks at it. He thinks the only use of the Wain is to +find the North Star, up beyond there, pointing by the back of the +Plough, and go by it when you are lost.'</p> + +<p>'What good would finding the North Star do? It would not have +helped me home if you had not found me!'</p> + +<p>'Look here, Lady Anne! Which way does Greystone lie?'</p> + +<p>'How should I tell?'</p> + +<p>'Which way did the sun lie when you crossed the moor?'</p> + +<p>Anne could not remember at first, but by-and-by recollected that +it dazzled her eyes just as she was looking for the runaway pony; +and Hal declared that it proved that the convent must have been to +the south of the spot of her fall; but his astronomy, though +eagerly demonstrated, was not likely to have brought her back to +Greystone. Still Doll was thankful for the safe subject, as he went +on to mark out what he promised that she should see in the +winter--the swarm of glow-worms, as he called the Pleiades; and +'Our Lady's Rock,' namely, distaff, the northern name for Orion; +and then he talked of the stars that so perplexed him, namely, the +planets, that never stayed in their places.</p> + +<p>By-and-by, when Mother Dolly's work was over the kettle was on +the fire, and she was able to take out her own spinning, she +essayed to fill up the time by telling them lengthily the old +stories and ballads handed down from minstrel to minstrel, from +nurse to nurse, and they sat entranced, listening to the stories, +more than even Hal knew she possessed, and holding one another by +the hand as they listened.</p> + +<p>Meantime the snow had ceased--it was but a scud of early autumn +on the mountains--the sun came out with bright slanting beams +before his setting, there was a soft south wind; and Hob, when he +came in, growled out that the thaw had set in, and he should be +able to take the maid back in the morning. He sat scowling and +silent during supper, and ordered Hal about with sharp sternness, +sending him out to attend to the litter of the cattle, before all +had finished, and manifestly treated him as the shepherd's boy, the +drudge of the house, and threatening him with a staff if he +lingered, soon following himself. Mother Dolly insisted on putting +the little lady to bed before they should return, and convent-bred +Anne had sufficient respect for proprieties to see that it was +becoming. She heard no more that night.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER III. OVER THE MOOR</h3> + +<p>In humblest, simplest habit clad,<br> +But these were all to me.--GOLDSMITH.</p> + +<p>'Hal! What is your name?'</p> + +<p>She stood at the door of the hovel, the rising sun lighting up +her bright dark eyes, and smiling in the curly rings of her hair +while Hal stood by, and Watch bounded round them.</p> + +<p>'You have heard,' he said, half smiling, and half +embarrassed.</p> + +<p>'Hal! That's no name.'</p> + +<p>'Harry, an it like you better.'</p> + +<p>'Harry what?' with a little stamp of her foot.</p> + +<p>'Harry Hogward, as you see, or Shepherd, so please you.'</p> + +<p>'You are no Hogward, nor shepherd! These folk be no kin to you, +I can see. Come, an you love me, tell me true! I told you true who +I am, Red Rose though I see you be! Why not trust me the same?'</p> + +<p>'Lady, I verily ken no name save Harry. I would trust you, +verily I would, but I know not myself.'</p> + +<p>'I guess! I guess!' she cried, clapping her hands, but at the +moment Dolly laid a hand on her shoulder.</p> + +<p>'Do not guess, maiden,' she said. 'If thou wouldst not bring +evil on the lad that found thee, and the roof that sheltered thee, +guess not, yea, and utter not a word save that thou hast lain in a +shepherd's hut. Forget all, as though thou hadst slept in the +castle on the hill that fades away with the day.'</p> + +<p>She ended hastily, for her husband was coming up with a rough +pony's halter in his hand. He was in haste to be off, lest a search +for the lost child might extend to his abode, and his gloomy +displeasure and ill-masked uneasiness reduced every-one to silence +in his presence.</p> + +<p>'Up and away, lady wench!' he said. 'No time to lose if you are +to be at Greystone ere night! Thou Hal, thou lazy lubber, go with +Piers and the sheep--'</p> + +<p>'I shall go with you,' replied Hal, in a grave tone of +resolution. 'I will only go within view of the convent, but go with +you I will.'</p> + +<p>He spoke with a decided tone of authority, and Hob Hogward +muttered a little to himself, but yielded.</p> + +<p>Hal assisted the young lady to mount, and they set off along the +track of the moss, driving the cows, sheep, and goats before +them--not a very considerable number--till they came to another +hut, much smaller and more rude than that where they had left +Mother Doll.</p> + +<p>Piers was a wild, shaggy-haired lad, with a sheepskin over his +shoulders, and legs bare below the knee, and to him the charge of +the flock was committed, with signs which he evidently understood +and replied to with a gruff 'Ay, ay!' The three went on the way, +over the slope of a hill, partly clothed with heather, holly and +birch trees, as it rose above the moss. Hob led the pony, and there +was something in his grim air and manner that hindered any +conversation between the two young people. Only Hal from time to +time gathered a flower for the young lady, scabious and globe +flowers, and once a very pink wild rose, mingled with white ones. +Lady Anne took them with a meaning smile, and a merry gesture, as +though she were going to brush Hal's face with the petals. Hal +laughed, and said, 'You will make them shed.'</p> + +<p>'Well and good, so the disputes be shed,' said Anne, with more +meaning than perhaps Hal understood. 'And the white overcomes the +red.'</p> + +<p>'May be the red will have its way with spring--'</p> + +<p>But there Hob looked round on them, and growled out, 'Have done +with that folly! What has a herd boy like thee to do with roses and +frippery? Come away from the lady's rein. Thou art over-held to +thrust thyself upon her.'</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, as Hal fell back, the dark eyes shot a meaning +glance at him, and the party went on in silence, except that now +and then Hob launched at Hal an order that he endeavoured to render +savagely contemptuous and harsh, so that Lady Anne interfered to +say, 'Nay, the poor lad is doing no harm.'</p> + +<p>'Scathe enough,' answered Hob. 'He always will be doing ill if +he can. Heed him not, lady, it only makes him the more +malapert.'</p> + +<p>'Malapert,' repeated Anne, not able to resist a little teasing +of the grim escort; 'that's scarce a word of the dales. 'Tis more +like a man-at-arms.'</p> + +<p>This Hob would not hear, and if he did, it produced a rough +imprecation on the pony, and a sharp cut with his switch.</p> + +<p>They had crossed another burn, travelled through the moss, and +mounted to the brow of another hill, when, far away against the +sky, on the top of yet another height, were to be seen moving +figures, not cattle, but Anne recognised them at once. +'Men-at-arms! archers! lances! A search party for me! The Prioress +must have sent to the Warden's tower.'</p> + +<p>'Off with thee, lad!' said Hob, at once turning round upon Hal. +'I'll not have thee lingering to gape at the men-at-arms! Off I +say, or--'</p> + +<p>He raised his stout staff as though to beat the boy, who looked +up in his face with a laugh, as if in very little alarm at his +threat, smiled up in the young lady's face, and as she held out her +hand with</p> + +<p>'Farewell, Hal; I'll keep your rose-leaves in my breviary,' he +bent over and kissed the fingers.</p> + +<p>'How now! This impudence passes! As if thou wert of the same +blood as the damsel!' exclaimed Hob in considerable anger, bringing +down his stick. 'Away with thee, ill-bred lubber! Back to thy +sheep, thou lazy loiterer! Get thee gone and thy whelp with +thee!'</p> + +<p>Hal obeyed, though not without a parting grin at Anne, and had +sped away down the side of the hill, among the hollies and birches, +which entirely concealed him and the bounding puppy.</p> + +<p>Hob went on in a gruff tone: 'The insolence of these loutish +lads! See you, lady, he is a stripling that I took up off the +roadside out of mere charity, and for the love of Heaven--a mere +foundling as you may say, and this is the way he presumes!'</p> + +<p>'A foundling, sayest thou?' said Anne, unable to resist teasing +him a little, and trying to gratify her own curiosity.</p> + +<p>'Ay, you may say so! There's a whole sort of these orphans, +after all the bad luck to the land, to be picked up on every +wayside.'</p> + +<p>'On Towton Moor, mayhap,' said Anne demurely, as she saw her +surly guide start. But he was equal to the occasion, and +answered:</p> + +<p>'Ay, ay, Towton Moor; 'twas shame to see such bloody work; and +there were motherless and fatherless children, stray lambs, to be +met with, weeping their little hearts out, and starving all around +unless some good Christian took pity on them.'</p> + +<p>'Was Hal one of these?' asked Lady Anne.</p> + +<p>'I tell you, lady, I looked into a church that was full of +weeping and wailing folk, women and children in deadly fear of the +cruel, bloody-minded York folk, and the Lord of March that is +himself King Edward now, a murrain on him!'</p> + +<p>'Don't let those folk hear you say so!' laughed Lady Anne. 'They +would think nothing of hauling thee off for a black traitor, or +hanging thee up on the first tree stout enough to bear thee.'</p> + +<p>She said it half mischievously, but the only effect was a grunt, +and a stolid shrug of his shoulders, nor did he vouchsafe another +word for the rest of the way before they came through the valley, +and through the low brushwood on the bank, and were in sight of the +search party, who set up a joyful halloo of welcome on perceiving +her.</p> + +<p>A young man, the best mounted and armed, evidently an esquire, +rode forward, exclaiming, 'Well met, fair Lady Anne! Great have +been the Mother Prioress's fears for you, and she has called up +half the country side, lest you should be fallen into the hands of +Robin of Redesdale, or some other Lancastrian rogue.'</p> + +<p>'Much she heeded me in comparison with hawk and heron!' +responded Anne. 'Thanks for your heed, Master Bertram.'</p> + +<p>'I must part from thee and thy sturdy pony. Thanks for the use +of it,' added she, as the squire proceeded to take her from the +pony. He would have lifted her down, but she only touched his hand +lightly and sprang to the ground, then stood patting its neck. +'Thanks again, good pony. I am much beholden to thee, Gaffer Hob! +Stay a moment.'</p> + +<p>'Nay, lady, it would be well to mount you behind Archie. His +beast is best to carry a lady.'</p> + +<p>Archie was an elderly man, stout but active, attached to the +service of the convent. He had leapt down, and was putting on a +belt, and arranging a pad for the damsel, observing, 'Ill hap we +lost you, damsel! I saw you not fall.'</p> + +<p>'Ay,' returned Anne, 'your merlin charmed you far more. Master +Bertram, the loan of your purse. I would reward the honest man who +housed me.'</p> + +<p>Bertram laughed and said, tossing up the little bag that hung to +his girdle, 'Do you think, fair damsel, that a poor Border squire +carries about largesse in gold and silver? Let your clown come with +us to Greystone, and thence have what meed the Prioress may bestow +on him, for a find that your poor servant would have given worlds +to make.'</p> + +<p>'Hearest thou, Hob?' said Anne. 'Come with us to the convent, +and thou shalt have thy guerdon.'</p> + +<p>Hob, however, scratched his head, with a more boorish air than +he had before manifested, and muttered something about a cow that +needed his attention, and that he could not spare the time from his +herd for all that the Prioress was like to give him.</p> + +<p>'Take this, then,' said Anne, disengaging a gold clasp from her +neck, and giving it to him. 'Bear it to the goodwife and bid her +recollect me in her prayers.'</p> + +<p>'I shall come and redeem it from thee, sulky carle as thou art,' +said Bertram. 'Such jewels are not for greasy porridge-fed +housewives. Hark thee, have it ready for me! I shall be at thy +hovel ere long'--as Anne waved to Hob when she was lifted to her +seat.</p> + +<p>But Hob had already turned away, and Anne, as she held on by +Archie's leathern belt, in her gay tone was beginning to defend him +by declaring that porridge and grease did not go together, so the +nickname was not rightly bestowed on the kindly goodwife.</p> + +<p>'Ay! Greasy from his lord's red deer,' said Bertram, 'or his +tainted mutton. Trust one of these herds, and a sheep is tainted +whenever he wants a good supper. Beshrew me but that stout fellow +looks lusty and hearty enough, as if he lived well.'</p> + +<p>'They were good and kind, and treated me well,' said Anne. 'I +should be dead if they had not succoured me.'</p> + +<p>'The marvel is you are not dead with the stench of their hovel, +and the foulness of their food.'</p> + +<p>'It was very good food--milk, meat, and oaten porridge,' replied +Anne.</p> + +<p>'Marvellous, I say!' cried Bertram with a sudden thought. 'Was +it not said that there were some of those traitorous Lancastrian +folk lurking about the mountains and fells? That rogue had the +bearing of a man-at-arms, far more than of a mere herd. Deemedst +thou not so, Archie?' to the elderly man who rode before the young +damsel.</p> + +<p>'Herdsmen here are good with the quarter-staff. They know how to +stand against the Scots, and do not get bowed like our Midland +serfs,' put in Anne, before Archie could answer, which he did with +something of a snarl, as Bertram laughed somewhat jeeringly, and +declared that the Lady Anne had become soft-hearted. She looked +down at her roses, but in the dismounting and mounting again the +petals of the red rose had floated away, and nothing was left of it +save a slender pink bud enclosed within a dark calyx.</p> + +<p>Archie, hard pressed, declared, 'There are poor fellows lurking +about here and there, but bad blood is over among us. No need to +ferret about for them.'</p> + +<p>'Eh! Not when there may be a lad among them for whose head the +king and his brothers would give the weight of it in gold +nobles?'</p> + +<p>Anne shivered a little at this, but she cried out, 'Shame on +you, Master Bertram Selby, if you would take a price for the head +of a brave foe! You, to aspire to be a knight!'</p> + +<p>'Nay, lady, I was but pointing out to Archie and the other +grooms here, how they might fill their pouches if they would. I +verily believe thou knowst of some lurking-place, thou art so +prompt to argue! Did I not see another with thee, who made off when +we came in view? Say! Was he a blood-stained Clifford? I heard of +the mother having married in these parts.'</p> + +<p>'He was Hob Hogward's herd boy,' answered Anne, as composedly as +she could. 'He hied him back to mind his sheep.'</p> + +<p>Nor would Anne allow another word to be extracted from her ere +the grey walls of the Priory of Greystone rose before her, and the +lay Sister at the gate shrieked for joy at seeing her riding behind +Archie.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER IV. A SPORTING PRIORESS</h3> + +<p>Yet nothing stern was she in cell,<br> +And the nuns loved their abbess well.--SCOTT.</p> + +<p>The days of the Wars of the Roses were evil times for the +discipline of convents, which, together with the entire Western +Church, suffered from the feuds of the Popes with the Italian +princes.</p> + +<p>Small remote houses, used as daughters or auxiliaries to the +large convents, were especially apt to fall into a lax state, and +in truth the little priory of Greystone, with its half-dozen of +Sisters, had been placed under the care of the Lady Agnes Selby +because she was too highly connected to be dealt with sharply, and +too turbulent and unmanageable for the soberminded house at York. +So there she was sent, with the deeply devout and strict Sister +Scholastica, to keep the establishment in order, and deal with the +younger nuns and lay Sisters. Being not entirely out of reach of a +raid from the Scottish border, it was hardly a place for the timid, +although the better sort of moss troopers generally spared monastic +houses. Anne St. John had been sent thither at the time when Queen +Margaret was making her attempt in the north, where the city of +York was Lancastrian, as the Mother Abbess feared that her presence +might bring vengeance upon the Sisterhood.</p> + +<p>There was no great harm in the Mother Agnes, only she was a +maiden whom nothing but family difficulties could have forced into +a monastic life--a lively, high-spirited, out-of-door creature, +whom the close conventionalities of castle life and even whipping +could not tame, and who had been the despair of her mother and of +the discreet dames to whom her first childhood had been committed, +to say nothing of a Lady Abbess or two. Indeed, from the Mother of +Sopwell, Dame Julian Berners, she had imbibed nothing but a +vehement taste for hawk, horse, and hound. The recluses of St. +Mary, York, after being heartily scandalised by her habits, were +far from sorry to have a good excuse for despatching her to their +outlying cell, where, as they observed, she would know how to show +a good face in case the Armstrongs came over the Border.</p> + +<p>She came flying down on the first rumour of Lady Anne's return, +her veil turned back, her pace not at all accordant with the solemn +gait of a Prioress, her arms outstretched, her face, not young nor +handsome, but sunburnt, weather-beaten and healthy, and full of +delight. 'My child, my Nan, here thou art! I was just mounting to +seek for thee to the west, while Bertram sought again over the +mosses where we sent yester morn. Where hast thou been in the +snow?'</p> + +<p>'A shepherd took me to his hut, Lady Mother,' answered Anne +rather coldly.</p> + +<p>'Little didst thou think of our woe and grief when thy palfrey +was found standing riderless at the stable door, and Sister +Scholastica told us that there he had been since nones! And she had +none to send in quest but Cuddie, the neatherd.'</p> + +<p>'My palfrey fell with me when you were in full chase of hawk and +heron, 'and none ever turned a head towards me nor heard me +call.'</p> + +<p>'Poor maid! But it was such a chase as never you did watch. On +and on went the heron, the falcon ever mounting higher and higher, +till she was but a speck in the clouds, and Tam Falconer shouting +and galloping, mad lest she should go down the wind. Methought she +would have been back to Norroway, the foul jade!'</p> + +<p>'Did you capture her, Mother?' asked Anne.</p> + +<p>'Ay, she pounced at last, and well-nigh staked herself on the +heron's beak! But we had a long ride, and were well-nigh at the +Tyne before we had caught her. Full of pranks, but a noble hawk, as +I shall write to my brother by the next messenger that comes our +way. I call it a hawk worth her meat that leads one such a +gallop.'</p> + +<p>'What would you have done, reverend Mother, if she had crossed +the Border?' asked Bertram.</p> + +<p>'Ridden after her. No Scot would touch a Lady Prioress on the +chase,' responded Mother Agnes, looking not at all like a reverend +Mother. 'Now, poor Anne, thou must be hungered. Thou shalt eat with +Master Bertram and me in the refectory anon. Take her, Sister Joan, +and make her ready to break her fast with us.'</p> + +<p>Anne quickly went to her chamber. It was not quite a cell, the +bare stone walls being hung with faded woollen tapestry, the floor +covered with a deerskin, the small window filled with dark green +glass, a chest serving the double purpose of seat and wardrobe, and +further, a bed hung with thick curtains, in which she slept with +the lay Sister, Joan, who further fetched a wooden bowl of water +from the fountain in the court that she might wash her face and +hands. She changed her soiled riding-dress for a tight-fitting +serge garment of dark green with long hanging sleeves, assisted by +Joan, who also arranged her dark hair in two plaits, and put over +it a white veil, fastened over a framework to keep it from hanging +too closely.</p> + +<p>All the time Joan talked, telling of the fright the Mother had +been in when the loss of the Lady Anne had been discovered, and how +it was feared that she had been seized by Scottish reivers, or lost +in the snow on the hills, or captured by the Lancastrians.</p> + +<p>'For there be many of the Red Rose rogues about on the +mosses--comrades, 'tis said, of that noted thief Robin of +Redesdale.'</p> + +<p>'I was with good folk, in a shepherd's sheiling,' replied +Anne.</p> + +<p>'Ay, ay. Out on the north hill, methinks.'</p> + +<p>'Nay. Beyond Deadman's Pool,' said Anne. 'By Blackreed Moss. +That was where the pony fell.'</p> + +<p>'Blackreed Moss! That moor belongs to the De Vescis, the +blackest Lancaster fellow of all! His daughter is the widow of the +red-handed Clifford, who slew young Earl Edmund on Wakefield +Bridge. They say her young son is in hiding in some moss in his +lands, for the King holds him in deadly feud for his brother's +death.'</p> + +<p>'He was a babe, and had nought to do with it,' said Anne.</p> + +<p>'He is of his father's blood,' returned Sister Joan, who in her +convent was still a true north country woman. 'Ay, Lady Anne, you +from your shires know nought of how deep goes the blood feud in us +of the Borderland! Ay, lady, was not mine own grandfather slain by +the Musgrave of Leit Hill, and did not my father have his revenge +on his son by Solway Firth? Yea, and now not a Graeme can meet a +Musgrave but they come to blows.'</p> + +<p>'Nay, but that is not what the good Fathers teach,' Anne +interposed.</p> + +<p>'The Fathers have neither chick nor child to take up their +quarrel. They know nought about blood crying for blood! If King +Edward caught that brat of Clifford he would make him know what +'tis to be born of a bloody house.'</p> + +<p>Anne tried to say something, but the lay Sister pushed her +along. 'There, there, go you down--you know nothing about what +honour requires of you! You are but a south country maid, and have +no notion of what is due to them one came from.'</p> + +<p>Joan Graeme was only a lay Sister, her father a small farmer +when not a moss trooper; but all the Border, on both sides, had the +strongest ideas of persistent vendetta, such as happily had never +been held in the midland and southern counties, where there was +less infusion of Celtic blood. Anne was a good deal shocked at the +doctrine propounded by the attendant Sister, a mild, good-natured +woman in daily life, but the conversation confirmed her suspicions, +and put her on her guard as she remembered Hob's warning. She had +liked the shepherd lad far too much, and was far too grateful to +him, to utter a word that might give him up to the revengers of +blood.</p> + +<p>At the foot of the stone stairs that led into the quadrangle she +met the black-robed, heavily hooded Sister Scholastica on her way +to the chapel. The old nun held out her arms. 'Safely returned, my +child! God be thanked! Art thou come to join thy thanksgiving with +ours at this hour of nones?'</p> + +<p>'Nay, I am bound to break my fast with the Mother and Master +Bertram.'</p> + +<p>'Ah! thou must needs be hungered! It is well! But do but utter +thy thanks to Him Who kept thee safe from the storm and from foul +doers.'</p> + +<p>Anne did not break away from the good Sister, but went as far as +the chapel porch, was touched with holy water, and bending her +knee, uttered in a low voice her 'Gratias ago,' then hastened +across the court to the refectory, where the Prioress received her +with a laugh and, 'So Sister Scholastica laid hands on thee; I +thought I should have to come and rescue thee ere the grouse grew +cold.'</p> + +<p>Bertram, as a courteous squire of dames, came forward bowing +low, and the party were soon seated at the board--literally a +board, supported upon trestles, only large enough to receive the +Prioress, the squire and the recovered girl, but daintily veiled in +delicate white napery.</p> + +<p>It was screened off from the rest of the refectory, where the +few Sisters had already had their morning's meal after Holy +Communion; and from it there was a slight barrier, on the other +side of which Bertram Selby ought to have been, but rules sat very +lightly on the Prioress Selby. Bertram was of kin to her, and she +had no demur as to admitting him to her private table. He was, in +fact, a squire of the household of the Marquess of Montagu, brother +of the Kingmaker and had been despatched with letters to the south. +He had made a halt at his cousin's priory, had been persuaded to +join in flying the new hawks, and then had first been detained by +the snow-storm, and then joined in the quest for the lost Lady Anne +St. John.</p> + +<p>No doubt had then arisen that the Nevils were firm in their +attachment to Edward IV., and, as a consequence, in enmity to the +House of Clifford, and both these scions of Selby had been excited +at a rumour that the widow of the Baron who had slain young Edmund +of York had married Sir Lancelot Threlkeld of Threlkeld, and that +her eldest son, the heir of the line, might be hidden somewhere on +the De Vesci estates.</p> + +<p>Bertram had already told the Prioress that his men had spied a +lad accompanying the shepherd who escorted the lady, and who, he +thought, had a certain twang of south country speech; and no sooner +had he carved for the ladies, according to the courtly duty of an +esquire, than the inquiry began as to who had found the maiden and +where she had been lodged. Prioress Agnes, who had already broken +her fast, sat meantime with the favourite hawk on her wrist and a +large dog beside her, feeding them alternately with the bones of +the grouse.</p> + +<p>'Come, tell us all, sweet Nan! Where wast thou in that untimely +snow-storm? In a cave, starved with cold, eh?'</p> + +<p>'I was safe in a cabin with a kind old gammer.'</p> + +<p>'Eh! And how cam'st thou there? Wandering thither?'</p> + +<p>'Nay, the shepherd heard me call.'</p> + +<p>'The shepherd! What, the churl that came with thee?'</p> + +<p>'He carried me to the hut.'</p> + +<p>Anne was on her guard, though Bertram probed her well. Was there +only one shepherd? Was there not a boy with her on the hill-side +where Bertram met her? The shepherd lad in sooth! What became of +him? The shepherd sent him back, he had been too long away from his +flock. What was his name? What was the shepherd's name? Who was his +master? Anne did not know--she had heard no names save Hob and Hal, +she had seen no arms, she had heard nothing southland. The lad was +a mere herd-boy, ordered out to milk ewes and tend the sheep. She +answered briefly, and with a certain sullenness, and young Selby at +last turned on her. 'Look thee here, fair lady, there's a saying +abroad that the heir of the red-handed House of Clifford is lurking +here, on the look-out to favour Queen Margaret and her son. Couldst +thou put us on the scent, King Edward would favour thee and make +thee a great dame, and have thee to his Court--nay, maybe give thee +what is left of the barony of Clifford.'</p> + +<p>'I know nothing of young lords,' sulkily growled Anne, who had +been hitherto busy with her pets, striking her hand on the +table.</p> + +<p>'And I tell thee, Bertram Selby,' exclaimed the Prioress, 'that +if thou art ware of a poor fatherless lad lurking in hiding in +these parts, it is not the part of an honest man to seek him out +for his destruction, and still less to try to make the maid he +rescued betray him. Well done, little Anne, thou knowest how to +hold thy tongue.'</p> + +<p>'Reverend Mother,' expostulated Bertram, 'if you knew what some +would give to be on the scent of the wolf-cub!'</p> + +<p>'I know not, nor do I wish to know, for what price a Selby would +sell his honour and his bowels of mercy,' said Mother Agnes. 'Come +away, Nan; thou hast done well.</p> + +<p>Bertram muttered something about having thought her a better +Yorkist, women not understanding, and mischief that might be +brewing; but the Prioress, taking Anne by the hand, went her way, +leaving Bertram standing confused.</p> + +<p>'Oh, mother,' sighed Anne, 'do you think he will go after him? +He will think I was treacherous!'</p> + +<p>'I doubt me whether he will dare,' said the Prioress. 'Moreover, +it is too late in the day for a search, and another snow-shower +seems coming up again. I cannot turn the youth, my kinsman, from my +door, and he is safer here than on his quest, but he shall see no +more of thee or me to-night. I may hold that Edward of March has +the right, but that does not mean hunting down an orphan +child.'</p> + +<p>'Mother, mother, you are good indeed!' cried Anne, almost +weeping for joy.</p> + +<p>Bertram, though hurt and offended, was obliged by advance of +evening to remain all night in the hospitium, with only the +chaplain to bear him company, and it was reported that though he +rode past Blackpool, no trace of shepherd or hovel was found.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER V. MOTHER AND SON</h3> + +<p>My own, my own, thy fellow-guest<br> +I may not be, but rest thee, rest--<br> +The lowly shepherd's life is best.--WORDSWORTH.</p> + +<p>The Lady Threlkeld stood in the lower storey of her castle, a +sort of rough-built hall or crypt, with a stone stair leading +upward to the real castle hall above, while this served as a place +where she met her husband's retainers and the poor around, and +administered to their wants with her own hands, assisted by the +maidens of her household.</p> + +<p>Among the various hungry and diseased there limped in a sturdy +beggar with a wallet on his back, and a broad shady hat, as though +on pilgrimage. He was evidently a stranger among the rest, and had +his leg and foot bound up, leaning heavily on a stout staff.</p> + +<p>'Italy pilgrim, what ails thee?' demanded the lady, as he +approached her.</p> + +<p>'Alack, noble dame! we poor pilgrims must ever be moving on, +however much it irks foot and limb, over these northern stones,' he +answered, and his accent and tone were such that a thrill seemed to +pass over the lady's whole person, but she controlled it, and only +said, 'Tarry till these have received their alms, then will I see +to thee and thy maimed foot. Give him a stool, Alice, while he +waits.'</p> + +<p>The various patients who claimed the lady's assistance were +attended to, those who needed food were relieved, and in due time +the hall was cleared, excepting of the lady, an old female servant, +and Hob, who had sat all the time with his foot on a stool, and his +back against the wall, more than half asleep after the toils and +long journey of the night.</p> + +<p>Then the Lady Threlkeld came to him, and making him a sign not +to rise, said aloud, 'Good Gaffer, let me see what ails thy leg.' +Then kneeling down and busying herself with the bandages, she +looked up piteously in his face, with the partly breathed inquiry, +'My son?'</p> + +<p>'Well, my lady, and grown into a stalwart lad,' was Hob's +answer, with an eye on the door, and in a voice as low as his gruff +tones would permit.</p> + +<p>'And wherefore? What is it?' she asked anxiously. 'Be they on +the track of my poor boy?'</p> + +<p>'They may be,' answered Hob, 'wherefore I deemed it well to +shift our quarters. As hap would have it, the lad fell upon a +little wench lost in the mosses, and there was nothing for it but +to bring her home for the night. I would have had her away as soon +as day dawned, and no questions asked, but the witches, or the foul +fiend himself, must needs bring up a snow-storm, and there was +nothing for it but to let her bide in the cot all day, giving +tongue as none but womenfolk can do; and behold she is the child of +the Lord St. John of Bletso.'</p> + +<p>'Nay, what should bring her north?'</p> + +<p>'She wonnes at Greystone with the wild Prioress Selby, who lost +her out hawking. Her father is a black Yorkist. I saw him up to his +stirrups in blood at St. Albans!'</p> + +<p>'But sure my boy did not make himself known to her?' exclaimed +the lady.</p> + +<p>'I trow not. He has been well warned, and is a lad of his word; +but the two bairns, left to themselves, could scarce help finding +out that each was of gentle blood and breeding, and how much more +my goodwife cannot tell. I took the maid back so soon as it was +safe yester morn, and sent back my young lord, much against his +will, half-way to Greystone. And well was it I did so, for he was +scarce over the ridge when a plump of spears came in sight on the +search for him, and led by the young squire of Selby.'</p> + +<p>'Ah! and if the damsel does but talk, even if she knows nought, +the foe will draw their conclusions!' said the lady, clasping her +hands. 'Oh, would that I had sent him abroad with his little +brothers!'</p> + +<p>'Nay, then might he have fallen into the hands of Bletso +himself, and they say Burgundy is all for the Yorkists now,' said +Hob. 'This is what I have done, gracious lady. I bade my good woman +carry off all she could from the homestead and burn the rest; and +for him we wot on, I sent him and his flock off westward, +appointing each of them the same trysting-place--on the slope +beneath Derwent Hill, my lady--whence I thought, if it were your +will and the good knight Sir Lancelot's, we might go nigher to the +sea and the firth, where the Selby clan have no call, being at +deadly feud with the Ridleys. So if the maiden's tongue goes fast, +and the Prioress follows up the quest with young Selby, they will +find nought for their pains.'</p> + +<p>'Thou art a good guardian, Hob! Ah! where would my boy be save +for thee? And thou sayest he is even now at the very border of the +forest ground! Sure, there can be no cause that I should not go and +see him. My heart hungers for my children. Oh, let me go with +thee!'</p> + +<p>'Sir Lancelot--' began Hob.</p> + +<p>'He is away at the Warden's summons. He will scarce be back for +a week or more. I will, I must go with thee, good Hob.'</p> + +<p>'Not in your own person, good madam,' stipulated Hob. 'As thou +knowest, there are those in Sir Lancelot's following who might be +too apt to report of secret visits, and that were as ill as the +Priory folk.'</p> + +<p>It was then decided that the lady should put on the disguise of +a countrywoman bringing eggs and meat to sell at the castle, and +meet Hob near the postern, whence a path led to Penrith.</p> + +<p>Hob, having received a lump of oatcake and a draught of very +small ale, limped out of the court, and, so soon as he could find a +convenient spot behind the gorse bushes, divested himself of his +bandages, and changed the side of his shepherd's plaid to one much +older and more weather-beaten; also his pilgrim's hat for one in +his pouch--a blue bonnet, more like the national Scottish +head-gear, hiding the hat in the gorse.</p> + +<p>Then he lay down and waited, where he could see a window, whence +a red kerchief was to be fluttered to show when the lady would be +ready for him to attend her. He waited long, for she had first to +disarm suspicion by presiding at the general meal of the household, +and showing no undue haste.</p> + +<p>At last, though not till after he had more than once fallen +asleep and feared that he had missed the signal, or that his wife +and 'Hal' might be tempted to some imprudence while waiting, he +beheld the kerchief waving in the sunset light of the afternoon, +and presently, shrouded in such a black and white shepherd's maud +as his own, and in a russet gown with a basket on her arm, his lady +came forth and joined him.</p> + +<p>His first thought was how would she return again, when the +darkness was begun, but her only answer was, 'Heed not that! My +child, I must see.'</p> + +<p>Indeed, she was almost too breathless and eager with haste, as +he guided her over the rough and difficult path, or rather track, +to answer his inquiries as to what was to be done next. Her view, +however, agreed with his, that they must lurk in the borders of the +woodland for a day or two till Sir Lancelot's return, when he would +direct them to a place where he could put them under the protection +of one of the tenants of his manor. It was a long walk, longer than +Hob had perhaps felt when he had undertaken to conduct the lady +through it, for ladies, though inured to many dangers in those +days, were unaccustomed to travelling on their own feet; but the +mother's heart seemed to heed no obstacle, though moments came when +she had to lean heavily on her companion, and he even had to lift +her over brooks or pools; but happily the sun had not set when they +made their way through the tangles of the wood, and at last saw +before them the fitful glow of a fire of dead leaves, branches and +twigs, while the bark of a dog greeted the rustling, they made.</p> + +<p>'Sweetheart, my faithful!' then shouted Hob, and in another +moment there was a cry, 'Ha! Halloa! Master Hob--beest there?'</p> + +<p>'His voice!--my son's!' gasped the lady, and sank for a moment +of overwhelming joy against the faithful retainer, while the shaggy +dog leapt upon them both.</p> + +<p>'Ay, lad, here--and some one else.'</p> + +<p>The boy crashed through the underwood, and stood on the path in +a moment's hesitation. Mother and son were face to face!</p> + +<p>The years that had passed had changed the lad from almost a babe +into a well-grown strong boy but the mother was little altered, and +as she held out her arms no word was wasted ere he sprang into +them, and his face was hidden on her neck as when he knew his way +into her embrace of old!</p> + +<p>When the intense rapturous hold was loosed they were aware of +Goodwife Dolly looking on with clasped hands and streaming eyes, +giving thanks for the meeting of her dear lady and the charge whom +she and her husband had so faithfully kept.</p> + +<p>When the mother and son had leisure to look round, and there was +a pleased survey of the boy's height and strength, Goodwife Dolly +came forward to beg the lady to come to her fire, and rest under +the gipsy tent which she and nephew Piers--her _real_ herd-boy, a +rough, shaggy, almost dumb and imbecile lad--had raised with +branches, skins and canvas, to protect their few articles of +property. There was a smouldering fire, over which Doll had +prepared a rabbit which the dog had caught, and which she had +intended for Hal's supper and that of her husband if he came home +in time. While the lady lavished thanks upon her for all she had +done for the boy she was intent on improving the rude meal, so as +to strengthen her mistress after her long walk, and for the return. +The lady, however, could see and think of nothing but her son, +while he returned her tearful gaze with open eyes, gathering up his +old recollections of her.</p> + +<p>'Mother!' he said--with a half-wondering tone, as the +recollections of six years old came back to him more fully, and +then he nestled again in her arms as if she were far more real to +him than at first--'Mother!' And then, as she sobbed over him, 'The +little one?'</p> + +<p>'The babe is well, when last I heard of her, in a convent at +York. Thou rememberest her?'</p> + +<p>'Ay--my little sister! Ay,' he said, with a considering +interrogative sound, 'I mind her well, and old Bunce too, that +taught me to ride.'</p> + +<p>But Hob interrupted the reminiscences by bringing up the pony on +which Anne had ridden, and insisting that the lady should not tarry +longer. 'He,' indicating Hal, might walk beside her through the +wood, and thus prolong their interview, but, as she well knew, it +was entirely unsafe to remain any longer away from the castle.</p> + +<p>There were embraces and sobbing thanks exchanged between the +lady and her son's old nurse, and then Hal, at a growling hint from +Hob, came forward, and awkwardly helped her to her saddle. He +walked by her side through the wood, holding her rein, while Hob, +going before, did his best in the twilight to clear away the +tangled branches and brambles that fell across the path, and were +near of striking the lady across the face as she rode.</p> + +<p>On the way she talked to her son about his remembrances, anxious +to know how far his dim recollections went of the old paternal +castle in Bedfordshire, of his infant sister and brother, and his +father. Of him he had little recollection, only of being lifted in +his arms, kissed and blessed, and seeing him ride away with his +troop, clanking in their armour. After that he remembered nothing, +save the being put into a homelier dress, and travelling on Nurse +Dolly's lap in a wain, up and down, it seemed to him, for ever, +till at last clearer recollections awoke in him, and he knew +himself as Hal the shepherd's boy, with the sheep around him, and +the blue starry sky above him.</p> + +<p>'Dost thou remember what thou wast called in those times?' asked +his mother.</p> + +<p>'I was always Hal. The little one was Meg,' he said.</p> + +<p>'Even so, my boy, my dear boy! But knowst thou no more than +this?'</p> + +<p>'Methinks, methinks there were serving-men that called me the +young Lord. Ay, so! But nurse said I must forget all that. Mother +dear, when that maiden came and talked of tilts and lances, +meseemed that I recollected somewhat. Was then my father a +knight?'</p> + +<p>'Alack! alack! my child, that thou shouldst not know!'</p> + +<p>'Memories came back with that maiden's voice and thine,' said +Hal, in a bewildered tone. 'My father! Was he then slain when he +rode farther?'</p> + +<p>'Ah! I may tell thee now thou art old enough to guard thyself,' +she said. 'Thy father, whom our blessed Lord assoilzie, was the +Lord Clifford, slain by savage hands on Towton field for his faith +to King Harry! Thou, my poor boy, art the Baron of Clifford, though +while this cruel House of York be in power thou must keep in hiding +from them in this mean disguise. Woe worth the day!'</p> + +<p>'And am I then a baron--a lord?' said the boy. 'Great lords have +books. Were there not some big ones on the hall window seats? Did +not Brother Eldred begin to teach me my letters? I would that I +could go on to learn more!'</p> + +<p>'Oh, I would that thou couldst have all knightly training, and +learn to use sword and lance like thy gallant father!'</p> + +<p>'Nay, but I saw a poor man fall off his horse and lie hurt, I do +not want those hard, cruel ways. And my father was slain. Must a +lord go to battle?'</p> + +<p>'Boy, boy, thou wilt not belie thy Clifford blood,' cried the +lady in consternation, which was increased when he said, 'I have no +mind to go out and kill folks or be killed. I had rather mark the +stars and tend my sheep.'</p> + +<p>'Alack! alack! This comes of keeping company with the sheep. +That my son, and my lord's son, should be infected with their +sheepish nature!'</p> + +<p>'Never fear, madam,' said Hob. 'When occasion comes, and +strength is grown, his blood will show itself.'</p> + +<p>'If I could only give him knightly breeding!' sighed the lady. +'Sir Lancelot may find the way. I cannot see him grow up a mere +shepherd boy.'</p> + +<p>'Content you, madam,' said Hob. 'Never did I see a shepherd boy +with the wisdom and the thought there is in that curly pate!'</p> + +<p>'Wisdom! thought!' muttered the lady. 'Those did not save our +good King, only made him a saint. I had rather hear the boy talk of +sword and lance than prate of books and stars! And that wench, whom +to our misfortune thou didst find! What didst tell her?'</p> + +<p>'I told her nought, mother, for I had nought to tell.'</p> + +<p>'She scented mystery, though,' said Hob. 'She saw he was no herd +boy.'</p> + +<p>'Nay? Though he holds himself like a lout untrained! Would that +I could have thee in hand, my son, to make thee meet to tread in +thy brave father's steps! But now, comrade of sheep thou art, and I +fear me thou wilt ever be! But that maid, I trust that she +perceived nothing in thy bearing or speech?'</p> + +<p>'She will not betray whatever she perceived,' said Hal +stoutly.</p> + +<p>The wood was by this time nearly past, and the moment of parting +had come. The lady had decided on going on foot to the little grey +stone church whose low square tower could be seen rising like +another rock. Thither she could repair in her plaid, and by-and-by +throw it off, and return in her own character to the castle, as +though she had gone forth to worship there. When lifted off the +shaggy pony she threw her arms round Hal, kissed him passionately, +and bade him never breathe a word of it, but never to forget that a +baron he was, and bound to be a good brave knight, fit to avenge +his father's death!</p> + +<p>Hal came to understand from Dolly's explanations that his recent +abode had been on the estate of his grandfather, Baron de Vesci, at +Londesborough, but his mother had since married Sir Lancelot +Threlkeld, and had intimated that her boy should be removed thither +as soon as might be expedient, and therefore the house on the +Yorkshire moor had been broken up.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER VI. A CAUTIOUS STEPFATHER</h3> + +<p>Thou tree of covert and of rest<br> +For this young bird that was distrest.-- WORDSWORTH.</p> + +<p>A baron--bound to be a good knight, and to avenge my father's +death! What does it all mean?' murmured Hal to himself as he lay on +his back in the morning sunshine, on the hill-side, the wood behind +him, and before him a distance of undulating ground, ending in the +straight mysterious blue-grey line that Hob Hogward had told him +was the sea.</p> + +<p>'Baron! Lord Clifford, like my father! He was a man in steel +armour; I remember how it rang, and how his gorget--yes, that was +the thing round his throat--how it hurt me when he lifted me up to +kiss me, and how they blamed me for crying out. Ay, and he lived in +a castle with dark, dull, narrow chambers, all save the hall, where +there was ever a tramping and a clamouring, and smells of hot +burning meat, and horses, and all sorts of things, and they sat and +sat over their meat and wine, and drank health to King Harry and +the Red Rose. I mind now how they shouted and roared, and how I +wanted to go and hide on the stairs, and my father would have me +shout with them, and drink confusion to York out of his cup, and +shook me and cuffed me when I cried. Oh! must one be like that to +be a knight? I had rather live on these free green hills with the +clear blue sky above me, and my good old ewe for my comrade'--and +he fell to caressing the face of an old sheep which had come up to +him, a white, mountain-bleached sheep with fine and delicate limbs. +'Yes, I love thee, good, gentle, little ewe, and thee, faithful +Watch,' as a young collie pressed up to him, thrusting a long nose +into his hand, 'far better than those great baying hounds, or the +fierce-eyed hawks that only want to kill. If I be a baron, must it +be in that sort? Avenge! avenge! what does that mean? Is it, as in +Goodwife Dolly's ballads, going forth to kill? Why should I? I had +rather let them be! Hark! Yea, Watch,' as the dog pricked his ears +and raised his graceful head, then sprang up and uttered a +deep-mouthed bark. The sheep darted away to her companions, and Hal +rose to his feet, as the dog began to wave his tail, and Hob came +forward accompanied by a tall, grave-looking gentleman. 'Here he +be, sir. Hal, come thou and ask the blessing of thy knightly +stepfather.'</p> + +<p>Hal obeyed the summons, and coming forward put a knee to the +ground, while Sir Lancelot Threlkeld uttered the conventional +blessing, adding, 'Fair son, I am glad to see thee. Would that we +might be better acquainted, but I fear it is not safe for thee to +come and be trained for knighthood in my poor house. Thou art a +well grown lad, I rejoice to see, and strong and hearty I have no +doubt.'</p> + +<p>'Ay, sir, he is strong enow, I wis; we have done our best for +him,' responded Hob, while Hal stood shy and shamefaced; but there +was something about his bearing that made Sir Lancelot observe, +'Ay, ay, he shows what he comes of more than his mother made me +fear. Only thou must not slouch, my fair son. Raise thy head more. +Put thy shoulders back. So! so! Nay.'</p> + +<p>Poor Hal tried to obey, the colour mounting in his face, but he +only became more and more stiff when he tried to be upright, and +his expression was such that Sir Lancelot cried out, 'Put not on +the visage of one of thine own sheep! Ah! how shalt thou be trained +to be a worthy knight? I cannot take thee to mine house, for I have +men there who might inform King Edward that thy mother harboured +thee. And unless I could first make interest with Montagu or +Salisbury, that would be thy death, if not mine.'</p> + +<p>The boy had nothing to say to this, and stood shy by, while his +stepfather explained his designs to Hal. It was needful to remove +the young Baron as far as possible from the suspicion of the +greater part of Sir Lancelot Threlkeld's household, and the present +resting-place, within a walk of his castle, was therefore unsafe; +besides that, freebooters might be another danger, so near the +outskirts of the wood, since the northern districts of moor and +wood were by no means clear of the remnants of the contending +armies, people who were generally of the party opposite to that +which they intended to rob.</p> + +<p>But on the banks of the Derwent, not far from its fall into the +sea, Sir Lancelot had granted a tenure to an old retainer of the De +Vescis, who had followed his mistress in her misfortunes; and on +his lands Hob Hogward might be established as a guardian of the +herds with his family, which would excite no suspicion. Moreover, +he could train the young Baron in martial exercises, the only other +way of fitting him for his station unless he could be sent to +France or Burgundy like his brother; but besides that the journey +was a difficulty, it was always uncertain whether there would be +revengeful exiles of one or other side in the service of their +King, who might wreak the wrongs of their party on Clifford's +eldest son. There was reported to be a hermit on the coast, who, if +he was a scholar, might teach the young gentleman. To Sir +Lancelot's surprise, his stepson's face lighted up more at this +suggestion than at that of being trained in arms.</p> + +<p>Hob had done nothing in that way, not even begun to teach him +the quarterstaff, though he avouched that when there was cause the +young lord was no craven, no more than any Clifford ever +was--witness when he drove off the great hound, which some said was +a wolf, when it fell upon the flock, or when none could hold him +from climbing down the Giant's Cliff after the lamb that had +fallen. No fear but he had heart enough to make his hand keep his +own or other folks' heads.</p> + +<p>'That is well,' said Sir Lancelot, looking at the lad, who stood +twisting his hands in the speechless silence induced by being the +subject of discussion; 'but it would be better, as my lady saith, +if he could only learn not to bear himself so like a clown.'</p> + +<p>However, there was no more time, for Simon Bunce, the old +man-at-arms whom Sir Lancelot had appointed to meet him there, came +in sight through the trees, riding an old grey war-horse, much +resembling himself in the battered and yet strong and effective air +of both. Springing down, the old man bent very low before the young +Baron, raising his cap as he gave thanks to Heaven for permitting +him to see his master's son. Then, after obeisance to his present +master, he and Hob eagerly shook hands as old comrades and +fellow-soldiers who had thought never to meet again.</p> + +<p>Then turning again to the young noble, he poured out his love, +devotion and gratitude for being able to serve his beloved lord's +noble son; while poor Hal stood under the discomfort of being +surrounded with friends who knew exactly what to say and do to him, +their superior, while he himself was entirely at a loss how to show +himself gracious or grateful as he knew he ought to do. It was a +relief when Sir Lancelot said 'Enough, good Simon! Forget his +nobility for the present while he goes with thee to Derwentside as +herd boy to Halbert Halstead here; only thou must forget both their +names, and know them only as Hal and Hob.'</p> + +<p>With a gesture of obedience, Simon listened to the further +directions, and how he was to explain that these south country +folks had been sent up in charge of an especial flock of my lady's +which she wished to have on the comparatively sheltered valley of +the Derwent. Perhaps further directions as to the training of the +young Baron were added later, but Hal did not hear them. He was +glad to be dismissed to find Piers and gather the sheep together in +preparation for the journey to their new quarters. Yet he did not +fail to hear the sigh with which his stepfather noted that his +parting salutation was far too much in the character of the herd +boy.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER VII. ON DERWENT BANKS</h3> + +<p>When under cloud of fear he lay<br> +A shepherd clad in homely grey.--WORDSWORTH.</p> + +<p>Simon Bunce came himself to conduct his new tenants to their +abode. It was a pleasant spot, a ravine, down which the clear +stream rushed on its course to mingle its waters with those of the +ocean. The rocks and brushwood veiled the approach to an open glade +where stood a rude stone hovel, rough enough, but possessing two +rooms, a hearth and a chimney, and thus superior to the hut that +had been left on the moor. There were sheds for the cattle around, +and the grass was fresh and green so that the sheep, the goat and +the cow began eagerly feeding, as did the pony which Hal and Piers +were unloading.</p> + +<p>On one side stretched the open moor rising into the purple +hills, just touched with snow. On the other was the wooded valley +of the Derwent, growing wider ever before it debouched amid rocks +into the sea. The goodwife at once discovered that there had been +recent habitation, and asked what had become of the former dwellers +there.</p> + +<p>'The woman fretted for company,' said Simon, 'and vowed she was +in fear of the Scots, so I even let her have her way and go down to +the town.'</p> + +<p>The town in north country parlance only meant a small village, +and Hob asked where it lay.</p> + +<p>It was near the junction of the two streams, where Simon lived +himself in a slightly fortified farmhouse, just high up enough to +be fairly safe from flood tides. He did not advise his newly +arrived tenants to be much seen at this place, where there were +people who might talk. They were almost able to provide for their +daily needs themselves, excepting for meal and for ale, and he +would himself see to this being supplied from a more distant farm +on the coast, which Hob and Piers might visit from time to time +with the pony.</p> + +<p>Goodwife Dolly inquired whether they might safely go to church, +from which she had been debarred all the time they had been on the +move. 'So ill for both us and the lad,' she said.</p> + +<p>Simon looked doubtful. 'If thou canst not save thy soul +without,' he said, 'thou mightst go on some feast day, when there +is such a concourse of folk that thou mightst not be noticed, and +come away at once without halting for idle clavers, as they call +them here.'</p> + +<p>'That's what the women folk are keen for with their +church-going,' said Hob with a grin.</p> + +<p>'Now, husband, thou knowst,' said Dolly, injured, though she was +more than aware he spoke with intent to tease her. 'Have I not +lived all this while with none to speak to save thee and the +blessed lads, and never murmured.'</p> + +<p>'Though thy tongue be sore for want of speech!' laughed Hob, +'thou beest a good wife, Dolly, and maybe thy faithfulness will +tell as much in the saving of thy soul as going to church.'</p> + +<p>'Nay, but,' said Hal with eagerness, 'is there not a +priest?'</p> + +<p>'The priest comes of a White Rose house--I trust not him. Ay, +goodwife, beware of showing thyself to him. I give him my dues, +that he may have no occasion against me or Sir Lancelot, but I +would not have him pry into knowledge that concerns him not.'</p> + +<p>'Did not Sir Lancelot say somewhat of a scholarly hermit who +might learn me in what I ought to know?' asked the boy.</p> + +<p>'Never you fear, sir! Here are Hob Halstead and I, able to train +any young noble in what behoves him most to know.'</p> + +<p>'Yea, in arms and sports. They must be learnt I know, but a +noble needs booklore too,' said the boy. 'Cannot this same hermit +help me? Sir Lancelot--'</p> + +<p>Simon Bunce interrupted sharply. 'Sir Lancelot knows nought of +the hermit! He is--he is--a holy man.'</p> + +<p>'A priest,' broke in Dolly, 'a priest!'</p> + +<p>'No such thing, dame, no clerk at all, I tell thee. And ye lads +had best not molest him! He is for ever busy with his prayers, and +wants none near him.'</p> + +<p>Hal was disappointed, for his mind was far less set on the +exercises of a young knight than on the desire to acquire +knowledge, that study which seemed to be thrown away on the +unwilling ears of Anne St. John.</p> + +<p>Hob had been awakened by contact with his lady and her husband, +as well as with the old comrade, Simon Bunce, to perceive that if +there were any chance of the young Lord Clifford's recovering his +true position he must not be allowed to lounge and slouch about +like Piers, and he was continually calling him to order, making him +sit and stand upright, as he had seen the young pages forced to do +at the castle, learn how to handle a sword, and use the long stick +which was the substitute for a lance, and to mount and sit on the +old pony as a knight should do, till poor Hal had no peace, and was +glad to get away upon the moor with Piers and the sheep, where +there was no one to criticise him, or predict that nothing would +ever make him do honour to his name if he were proved ten times a +baron.</p> + +<p>It was still worse when Bunce came over, and brought a taller +horse, and such real weapons as he deemed that the young lord might +be taught to use, and there were doleful auguries and sharp +reproofs, designed in comically respectful phrases, till he was +almost beside himself with being thus tormented, and ready to wish +never to hear of being a baron.</p> + +<p>His relief was to wander away upon the moors, watch the lights +and shadows on the wondrous mountains, or dream on the banks of the +river, by which he could make his way to the seashore, a place of +endless wonder and contemplation, as he marvelled why the waters +flowed in and retreated again, watched the white crests, and the +glassy rolls of the waves, felt his mind and aspiration stretched +as by something illimitable, even as when he looked up to the sky, +and saw star beyond star, differing from one another in brightness. +There were those white birds too, differing from all the night-jars +and plovers he had seen on the moor, floating now over the waves, +now up aloft and away, as if they were soaring into the very skies. +Oh, would that he could follow them, and rise with them to know +what were those great grey or white clouds, and what was above or +below in those blue vastnesses! And whence came all those strange +things that the water spread at his feet the long, brown, wet +streamers, or the delicate red tracery that could be seen in the +clear pools, where were sometimes those lumps like raw flesh when +closed, but which opened into flowers? Or the things like the +snails on the heath, yet not snails, and all the strange creatures +that hopped and danced in the water?</p> + +<p>Why would no one explain such things to him? Nay, what a pity +everyone treated it as mere childish folly in him to be thus +interested! They did not quite dare to beat him for it--that was +one use of being a baron. Indeed, one day when Simon Bunce struck +him sharply and hard over the shoulders for dragging home a great +piece of sea-weed with numerous curious creatures upon it, Goodwife +Dolly rushed out and made such an outcry that the esquire was fain +to excuse himself by declaring that it was time that my lord should +know how to bide a buffet, and answer it. He was ready and glad to +meet the stroke in return! 'Come on, sir!'</p> + +<p>And Hob put a stout headless lance in the boy's hand, while +Simon stood up straight before him. Hob adjusted the weapon in his +inert hand, and told him how and where to strike. But 'It is not in +sooth. I don't want to hurt Master Simon,' said the child, as they +laughed, and yet with displeasure as his blow fell weak and +uncertain.</p> + +<p>'Is it a mouse's tail?' cried Simon in derision.</p> + +<p>'Come, sir, try again,' said Hob. 'Strike as you did when the +black bull came down. Why cannot you do the like now, when you are +tingling from Bunce's stroke?'</p> + +<p>'Ah! then I thought the bull would fall on Piers,' said Hal.</p> + +<p>'Come on, think so now, sir. One blow to do my heart good, and +show you have the arm of your forebears.'</p> + +<p>Thus incited, with Hob calling out to him to take heart of +grace, while Simon made a feint of trying to beat Mother Dolly, Hal +started forward and dealt a blow sufficient to make Simon cry out, +'Ha, well struck, sir, if you had had a better grip of your lance! +I even feel it through my buff coat.'</p> + +<p>He spoke as though it had been a kiss; but oh! and alack! why +were these rough and dreary exercises all that these +guardians--yea, and even Sir Lancelot and his mother--thought worth +his learning, when there was so much more that awoke his delight +and interest? Was it really childish to heed these things? Yet even +to his young, undeveloped brain it seemed as if there must be +mysteries in sky and sea, the unravelling of which would make life +more worth having than the giving and taking of blows, which was +all they heeded.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII. THE HERMIT</h3> + +<p>No hermit e'er so welcome crost<br> +A child's lone path in woodland lost.--KEBLE.</p> + +<p>Hal had wandered farther than his wont, rather hoping to be out +of call if Simon arrived to give him a lesson in chivalrous sports. +He found himself on the slope of one of the gorges down which +smaller streams rushed in wet weather to join the Derwent. There +was a sound of tinkling water, and leaning forward, Hal saw that a +tiny thread of water dropped between the ferns and the stones. +Therewith a low, soft chant in a manly voice, mingling with the +drip of the water.</p> + +<p>The words were strange to him--</p> + +<center>Lucis Creator optime,<br> +Lucem dierum proferens--</center> + +<p>but they were very sweet, and in leaning forward to look between +the rowan branches and hear and see more, his foot slipped, and +with Watch barking round him, he rolled helplessly down the rock, +and found himself before a tall light-haired man, in a dark dress, +who gave a hand to raise him, asking kindly, 'Art hurt, my +child?'</p> + +<p>'Oh, no, sir! Off, off, Watch!' as the dog was about to resent +anyone's touching his master. 'Holy sir, thanks, great thanks,' as +a long fair hand helped him to his feet, and brushed his soiled +garment.</p> + +<p>'Unhurt, I see,' said that sweet voice. 'Hast thou lost thy way? +Good dog, thou lovest thy master! Art thou astray?'</p> + +<p>'No, sir, thank you, I know my way home.'</p> + +<p>'Thou art the boy who lives with the shepherd at Derwentside, on +Bunce's ground?'</p> + +<p>'Ay, Hob Hogward's herd boy,' said Hal. Oh, sir, are you the +holy hermit of the Derwent vale?'</p> + +<p>'A hermit for the nonce I am,' was the answer, with something of +a smile responsive to the eager face.</p> + +<p>'Oh, sir, if you be not too holy to look at me or speak to me! +If you would help me to some better knowledge--not only of sword +and single-stick!'</p> + +<p>'Better knowledge, my child! Of thy God?' said the hermit, a +sweet look of joy spreading over his face.</p> + +<p>'Goodwife Dolly has told me of Him, and taught me my Pater and +Credo, but we have lived far off, and she has not been able to go +to church for weeks and years. But what I long after is to tell me +what means all this--yonder sea, and all the stars up above. And +they will call me a simpleton for marking such as these, and only +want me to heed how to shoot an arrow, or give a stroke hard enough +to hurt another. Do such rude doings alone, fit for a bull or a ram +as meseems, go to the making of a knight, fair sir?'</p> + +<p>'They go to the knight's keeping of his own, for others whom he +ought to defend,' said the hermit sadly; 'I would have thee learn +and practise them. But for the rest, thou knowest, sure, who made +the stars?'</p> + +<p>'Oh yes! Nurse Dolly told me. She saw it all in a mystery play +long long ago--when a Hand came out, and put in the stars and sun +and moon.'</p> + +<p>'Knowest thou whose Hand was figured there, my child?'</p> + +<p>'The Hand of God,' said Hal, removing his cap. 'They be sparks +to show His glory! But why do some move about among the others--one +big one moves from the Bull's face one winter to half-way beyond +it. And is the morning star the evening one?'</p> + +<p>'Ah! thou shouldst know Ptolemy and the Almagest,' said the +hermit smiling, 'to understand the circuits of those wandering +stars--Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei.'</p> + +<p>'That is Latin,' said the boy, startled. 'Are you a priest, +sir?'</p> + +<p>'No, not I--I am not worthy,' was the answer, 'but in some +things I may aid thee, and I shall be blessed in so doing. Canst +say thy prayers?'</p> + +<p>'Oh, yes! nurse makes me say them when I lie down and when I get +up--Credo and Pater. She says the old parson used to teach them our +own tongue for them, but she has well-nigh forgot. Can you tell me, +holy man?'</p> + +<p>'That will I, with all my heart,' responded the hermit, laying +his long delicate hand on Hal's head. 'Blessed be He who has sent +thee to me!'</p> + +<p>The boy sat at the hermit's feet, listening with the eagerness +of one whose soul and mind had alike been under starvation, and how +time went neither knew till there was a rustling and a step. Watch +sprang up, but in another moment Simon Bunce, cap in hand, stood +before the hut, beginning with 'How now, sir?'</p> + +<p>The hermit raised his hand, as if to make a sign, saying, 'Thou +seest I have a guest, good friend.'</p> + +<p>Bunce started back with 'Oh! the young Lord! Sworn to silence, I +trust! I bade him not meddle with you, sir.'</p> + +<p>'It was against his will, I trow,' said the hermit. 'He fell +over the rock by the waterfall, but since he is here, I will answer +for him that he does no hurt by word or deed!'</p> + +<p>'Never, holy sir!' eagerly exclaimed Hal. 'Hob Hogward knows +that I can keep my mouth shut. And may I come again?'</p> + +<p>Simon was shaking his head, but the hermit took on him to say, +'Gladly will I welcome thee, my fair child, whensoever thou canst +find thy way to the weary old anchoret! Go thy way now! Or hast +thou lost it?'</p> + +<p>'No, sir; I ken the woodland and can soon be at home,' replied +Hal; then, putting a knee to the ground, 'May I have your blessing, +holy man?'</p> + +<p>'Alack, I told thee I am no priest,' said the hermit; 'but for +such as I am, I bless thee with all my soul, thou fatherless lad,' +and he laid his hand on the young lad's wondering brow, then bade +him begone, since Simon and himself had much to say to one +another.</p> + +<p>Hal summoned Watch, and turned to a path through the wood, +leading towards the coast, wondering as he walked how the hermit +seemed to know him--him whose presence had been so sedulously +concealed. Could it be that so very holy a man had something of the +spirit of prophecy?</p> + +<p>He kept his promise of silence, and indeed his guardians were so +much accustomed to his long wanderings that he encountered no +questions, only one of Hob's growls that he should always steal +away whenever there was a chance of Master Bunce's coming to try to +make a man of him.</p> + +<p>However, Bunce himself arrived shortly after, and informed Hob +that since young folks always pried where they were least wanted, +and my lord had stumbled incontinently on the anchoret's den, it +was the holy man's will that he might come there whenever he chose. +A pity and shame it was, but it would make him more than ever a +mere priestling, ever hankering after books and trash!</p> + +<p>'Were it not better to ask my lady and Sir Lancelot if they +would have it so? I could walk over to Threlkeld!'</p> + +<p>'No, no, no, on your life not,' exclaimed Simon, striking his +staff on the ground in his vehemence. 'Never a word to the +Threlkeld or any of his kin! Let well alone! I only wish the lad +had never gone a-roaming there! But holy men must not be gainsaid, +even if it does make a poor craven scholar out of his father's +son.'</p> + +<p>And thus began a time of great contentment to the Lord Clifford. +There were few days on which he did not visit the hermitage. It was +a small log hut, but raised with some care, and made weatherproof +with moss and clay in the crevices, and there was an inner +apartment, with a little oil lamp burning before a rough wooden +cross, where Hal, if the hermit were not outside, was certain to +find him saying his prayers. Food was supplied by Simon himself, +and, since Hal's admission, was often carried by him, and the +hermit seemed to spend his time either in prayer or in a gentle +dreamy state of meditation, though he always lighted up into +animation at the arrival of the boy whom he had made his friend. +Hal had thought him old at first, on the presumption that all +hermits must be aged, nor was it likely that age should be +estimated by one living such a life, but the light hair, untouched +with grey, the smooth cheeks and the graceful figure did not belong +to more than a year or two above forty. And he had no air of ill +health, yet this calm solitary residence in the wooded valley +seemed to be infinite rest to him.</p> + +<p>Hal had no knowledge nor experience to make him wonder, and +accepted the great quiet and calm of the hermit as the token of his +extreme holiness and power of meditation. He himself was always +made welcome with Watch by his side, and encouraged to talk and ask +questions, which the hermit answered with what seemed to the boy +the utmost wisdom, but older heads would have seen not to be that +of a clever man, but of one who had been fairly educated for the +time, had had experience of courts and camps, and referred all the +inquiries and wonderments which were far beyond him direct to +Almighty Power.</p> + +<p>The mind of the boy advanced much in this intercourse with the +first cultivated person he had encountered, and who made a point of +actually teaching and explaining to him all those mysteries of +religion which poor old Dolly only blindly accepted and imparted as +blindly to her nursling. Of actual instruction, nothing was +attempted. A little portuary, or abbreviated manual of the service, +was all that the hermit possessed, treasured with his small +crucifix in his bosom, and of course it was in Latin. The Hours of +the Church he knew by heart, and never failed to observe them, +training his young pupil in the repetition and English meaning of +such as occurred during his visits. He also told much of the +history of the world, as he knew it, and of the Church and the +saints, to the eager mind that absorbed everything and reflected on +it, coming with fresh questions that would have been too deep and +perplexing for his friend if he had not always determined +everything with 'Such is the will of God.'</p> + +<p>Somewhat to the surprise of Simon Bunce and Hob Hogward, Hal +improved greatly, not only in speech but in bearing; he showed no +such dislike or backwardness in chivalrous exercises as previously; +and when once Sir Lancelot Threlkeld came over to see him, he was +absolutely congratulated on looking so much more like a young +knight.</p> + +<p>'Ay,' said Bunce, taking all the merit to himself, 'there's +nought like having an old squire trained in the wars in France to +show a stripling how to hold a lance.'</p> + +<p>Hal had been too well tutored to utter a word of him to whom his +improvement was really due, not by actual training, but partly by +unconscious example in dignified grace and courtesy of demeanour, +and partly by the rather sad assurances that it was well that a man +born to his station, if he ever regained it, should be able to +defend himself and others, and not be a helpless burthen on their +hands. Tales of the Seven Champions of Christendom and of King +Arthur and his Knights likewise had their share in the moulding of +the youthful Lord Clifford.</p> + +<p>His great desire was to learn to read, but it was not encouraged +by the hermit, nor was there any book available save the portuary, +crookedly and contractedly written on vellum, so as to be illegible +to anyone unfamiliar with writing, with Latin, or the service. +However, the anchoret yielded to his importunity so far as to let +him learn the alphabet, traced on the door in charcoal, and +identify the more sacred words in the book--which, indeed, were all +in gold, red and blue.</p> + +<p>He did not advance more than this, for his teacher was apt to go +off in a musing dream of meditation, repeating over and over in low +sweet tones the holy phrases, and not always rousing himself when +his pupil made a remark or asked a question. Yet he was always +concerned at his own inattention when awakened, and would apologise +in a tone of humility that always made Hal feel grieved and ashamed +of having been importunate. For there was a dignity and gentleness +about the hermit that always made the boy feel the contrast with +his own roughness and uncouthness, and reverence him as something +from a holier world.</p> + +<p>'Nurse, I do think he is a saint,' one day said Hal.</p> + +<p>'Nay, nay, my laddie, saints don't come down from heaven in +these days of evil.'</p> + +<p>'I would thou could see him when one comes upon him at his +prayers. His face is like the angel at the cross I saw so long ago +in the castle chapel.'</p> + +<p>'Dost thou remember that chapel? Thou wert a babe when we +quitted it.'</p> + +<p>'I had well nigh forgotten it, but the good hermit's face +brought all back again, and the voice of the father when he said +the Service.'</p> + +<p>'That thou shouldst mind so long! This hermit is no priest, thou +sayst?'</p> + +<p>'No, he said he was not worthy; but sure all saints were not +priests, nurse.'</p> + +<p>'Nay, it is easy to be more worthy than the Jack Priests I have +known. Though I would they would let me go to church. But look thee +here, Hal, if he be such a saint as thou sayst, maybe thou couldst +get him to bestow a blessing on poor Piers, and give him his +hearing and voice.'</p> + +<p>Hal was sure that his own special saint was holy enough for +anything, and accordingly asked permission of him to bring his +silent companion for blessing and healing.</p> + +<p>The mild blue eye lighted for a moment. 'Is the poor child then +afflicted with the King's Evil?' the hermit asked.</p> + +<p>'Nay, he is sound enough in skin and limb. It is that he can +neither hear nor speak, and if you, holy sir, would lay thine hand +on him, and sign him with the rood, and pray, mayhap your +holiness--'</p> + +<p>'Peace, peace,' cried the hermit impetuously, lifting up his +hand. 'Dost not know that I am a sinner like unto the rest--nay, a +greater sinner, in that a burthen was laid on me that I had not the +soul to rise to, so that the sin and wickedness of thousands have +been caused by my craven faint heart for well nigh two score years? +O miserere Domine.'</p> + +<p>He threw himself on the ground with clasped hands, and Hal, +standing by in awestruck amazement, heard no more save sobs, +mingled with the supplications of the fifty-first Psalm.</p> + +<p>He was obliged at last to go away without having been able to +recall the attention of his friend from his agony of prayer. With +the reticence that had grown upon him, he did not mention at home +the full effect of his request, but when he thought it over he was +all the more convinced that his friend was a great saint. Had he +not always heard that saints believed themselves great sinners, and +went through many penances? And why did he speak as if he could +have cured the King's Evil? He asked Dolly what it was, and she +replied that it was the sickness that only the King's touch could +heal.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER IX. HENRY OF WINDSOR</h3> + +<p>My crown is in my heart, not on my head;<br> +Not deck'd with diamonds, and Indian stones,<br> +</p> + +<p>Nor to be seen. My crown is call'd Content.--SHAKESPEARE.</p> + +<p>Summer had faded, and an early frost had tinted the fern-leaves +with gold here and there, and made the hermit wrap himself close in +a cloak lined with thick brown fur.</p> + +<p>Simon, who was accustomed very respectfully to take the command +of him, insisted that he should have a fire always burning on a +rock close to his door, and that Piers, if not Hal, should always +take care that it never went out, smothering it with peat, as every +shepherd boy knew how to do, so as to keep it alight, or, in case +of need, to conceal it with turf.</p> + +<p>One afternoon, as Hal lay on the grass, whiling away the time by +alternately playing with Watch and trying to unravel the mysteries +of a flower of golden-rod, until the hermit should have finished +his prayers and be ready to attend to him, Piers came through the +wood, evidently sent on a message, and made him understand that he +was immediately wanted at home.</p> + +<p>Hal turned to take leave of his host, but the hermit's eyes were +raised in such rapt contemplation as to see nought, and, indeed, it +might be matter of doubt whether he had ever perceived the presence +of his visitor.</p> + +<p>Hal directed Piers to arrange the fire, and hurried away, +becoming conscious as he came in sight of the cottage that there +were horses standing before it, and guessing at once that it must +be a visit from Sir Lancelot Threlkeld.</p> + +<p>It was Simon Bunce, however, who, with demonstrations of looking +for him, came out to meet him as he emerged from the brushwood, and +said in a gruff whisper, clutching his shoulder hard, 'Not a word +to give a clue! Mum! More than your life hangs on it.'</p> + +<p>No more could pass, to explain the clue intended, whether to the +presence of the young Lord Clifford himself, which was his first +thought, or to the inhabitant of the hermitage. For Sir Lancelot's +cheerful voice was exclaiming, 'Here he is, my lady! Here's your +son! How now, my young lord? Thou hast learnt to hold up thy head! +Ay, and to bow in better sort,' as, bending with due grace, Hal +paused for a second ere hurrying forward to kneel before his +mother, who raised him in her arms and kissed him with fervent +affection. 'My son! mine own dear boy, how art thou grown! Thou +hast well nigh a knightly bearing!' she exclaimed. 'Master Bunce +hath done well by thee.'</p> + +<p>'Good blood will out, my lady,' quoth Simon, well pleased at her +praise.</p> + +<p>'He hath had no training but thine?' said Sir Lancelot, looking +full at Simon.</p> + +<p>'None, Sir Knight, unless it be honest Halstead's here.'</p> + +<p>'Methought I heard somewhat of the hermit in the glen,' put in +the lady.</p> + +<p>'He is a saint!' declared two or three voices, as if this +precluded his being anything more.</p> + +<p>'A saint,' repeated the lady. 'Anchorets are always saints. What +doth he?'</p> + +<p>'Prayeth,' answered Simon. 'Never doth a man come in but he is +at his prayers. 'Tis always one hour or another!'</p> + +<p>'Ay?' said Sir Lancelot, interrogatively. 'Sayest thou so? Is he +an old man?'</p> + +<p>Simon put in his word before Hal could speak: 'Men get so +knocked about in these wars that there's no guessing their age. I +myself should deem that the poor rogue had had some clouts on the +head that dazed him and made him fit for nought save saying his +prayers.'</p> + +<p>Here Sir Lancelot beckoned Simon aside, and walked him away, so +as to leave the mother and son alone together.</p> + +<p>Lady Threlkeld questioned closely as to the colour of the eyes +and hair, and the general appearance of the hermit, and Hal +replied, without suspicion, that the eyes were blue, the hair, he +thought, of a light colour, the frame tall and slight, graceful +though stooping; he had thought at first that the hermit must be +old, very old, but had since come to a different conclusion. His +dress was a plain brown gown like a countryman's. There was nobody +like him, no one whom Hal so loved and venerated, and he could not +help, as he stood by his mother, pouring out to her all his feeling +for the hermit, and the wise patient words that now and then +dropped from him, such as 'Patience is the armour and conquest of +the godly;' or, 'Shall a man complain for the punishment of his +sins?' 'Yet,' said Hal, 'what sins could the anchoret have? Never +did I know that a man could be so holy here on earth. I deemed that +was only for the saints in heaven.'</p> + +<p>The lady kissed the boy and said, 'I trow thou hast enjoyed a +great honour, my child.'</p> + +<p>But she did not say what it was, and when her husband summoned +her, she joined him to repair to Penrith, where they were keeping +an autumn retirement at a monastery, and had contrived to leave +their escort and make this expedition on their way.</p> + +<p>Simon examined Hal closely on what he had said to his mother, +sighed heavily, and chided him for prating when he had been warned +against it, but that was what came of dealing with children and +womenfolk.</p> + +<p>'What can be the hurt?' asked Hal. 'Sir Lancelot knows well who +I am! No lack of prudence in him would put men on my track.'</p> + +<p>'Hear him!' cried Simon; 'he thinks there is no nobler quarry in +the woods than his lordship!'</p> + +<p>'The hermit! Oh, Simon, who is he?'</p> + +<p>But Simon began to shout for Hob Hogward, and would not hear any +further questions before he rode away, as far as Hal could see, in +the opposite direction to the hermitage. But when he repaired +thither the next day he was startled by hearing voices and the +stamp of horses, and as he reconnoitred through the trees he saw +half a dozen rough-looking men, with bows and arrows, buff coats, +and steel-guarded caps--outlaws and robbers as he believed.</p> + +<p>His first thought was that they meant harm to the gentle hermit, +and his impulse was to start forward to his protection or +assistance, but as he sprang into sight one of the strangers cried +out: 'How now! Here's a shepherd thrusting himself in. Back, lad, +or 'twill be the worse for you.'</p> + +<p>'The hermit! the hermit! Do not meddle with him! He's a saint,' +shouted Hal.</p> + +<p>But even as he spoke he became aware of Simon, who called out: +'Hold, sir; back, Giles; this is one well nigh in as much need of +hiding as him yonder. Well come, since you be come, my lord, for we +cannot get _him_ there away without a message to you, and 'tis well +he should be off ere the sleuth-hounds can get on the scent.'</p> + +<p>'What! Where! Who?' demanded the bewildered boy, breaking off, +as at that moment his friend appeared at the door of the hovel, no +longer in the brown anchoret's gown but in riding gear, partially +defended by slight armour, and with a cap on his head, which made +him look much younger than he had before done.</p> + +<p>'Child, art thou there? It is well; I could scarce have gone +without bidding thee farewell,' he said in his sweet voice; 'thou, +the dear companion of my loneliness.'</p> + +<p>'O sir, sir, and are you going away?'</p> + +<p>'Yea, so they will have it! These good fellows are come to guard +me.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! may I not go with thee?'</p> + +<p>'Nay, my fair son. Thou art beneath thy mother's wing, while I +am like one who was hunted as a partridge on the mountains.'</p> + +<p>'Whither, oh whither?' gasped Hal.</p> + +<p>'That I know not! It is in the breasts of these good men, who +are charged by my brave wife to have me in their care.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! sir, sir, what shall I do without you? You that have helped +me, and taught me, and opened mine eyes to all I need to know.'</p> + +<p>'Hush, hush; it is a better master than I could ever be that +thou needest. But,' as tokens of impatience manifested themselves +among the rude escort, 'take thou this,' giving him the little +service-book, as he knelt to receive it, scarce knowing why. 'One +day thou wilt be able to read it. Poor child! whose lot it is to be +fatherless and landless for me and mine, I would I could do more +for thee.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! you have done all,' sobbed Hal.</p> + +<p>'Nay, now, but this be our covenant, my boy! If thou, and if +mine own son both come to your own, thou wilt be a true and loyal +man to him, even as thy father was to me, and may God Almighty make +it go better with you both.'</p> + +<p>'I will, I will! I swear by all that is holy!' gasped Hal +Clifford, with a flash of perception, as he knelt.</p> + +<p>'Come, my liege, we have far to go ere night. No time for more +parting words and sighs.'</p> + +<p>Hal scarcely knew more except that the hands were laid on his +head, and the voice he had learnt to love so well said: 'The +blessing of God the Father be upon thee, thou fatherless boy, and +may He reward thee sevenfold for what thy father was, who died for +his faithfulness to me, a sinner! Fare thee well, my boy.'</p> + +<p>As the hand that Hal was fervently kissing was withdrawn from +him he sank upon his face, weeping as one heartbroken. He scarce +heard the sounds of mounting and the trampling of feet, and when he +raised his head he was alone, the woods and rocks were +forsaken.</p> + +<p>He sprang up and ran along at his utmost speed on the trampled +path, but when he emerged from it he could only see a dark party, +containing a horseman or two, so far on the way that it was +hopeless to overtake them.</p> + +<p>He turned back slowly to the deserted hut, and again threw +himself on the ground, weeping bitterly. He knew now that his +friend and master had been none other than the fugitive King, Henry +of Windsor.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER X. THE SCHOLAR OF THE MOUNTAINS</h3> + +<p>Not in proud pomp nor courtly state;<br> +Him his own thoughts did elevate,<br> +Most happy in the shy recess.--WORDSWORTH.</p> + +<p>The departure of King Henry was the closing of the whole +intellectual and religious world that had been opened to the young +Lord Clifford. To the men of his own court, practical men of the +world, there were times when poor Henry seemed almost imbecile, and +no doubt his attack of melancholy insanity, the saddest of his +ancestral inheritances, had shattered his powers of decision and +action; but he was one who 'saw far on holy ground,' and he was a +well-read man in human learning, besides having the ordinary +experience of having lived in the outer world, so that in every way +his companionship was delightful to a thoughtful boy, wakening to +the instincts of his race.</p> + +<p>To think of being left to the society of the sheep, of dumb +Piers and his peasant parents was dreariness in the extreme to one +who had begun to know something like conversation, and to have his +countless questions answered, or at any rate attended to. Add to +this, he had a deep personal love and reverence for his saint, long +before the knowing him as his persecuted King, and thus his sorrow +might well be profound, as well as rendered more acute by the +terror lest his even unconscious description to his mother might +have been treason!</p> + +<p>He wept till he could weep no longer, and lay on the ground in +his despair till darkness was coming on, and Piers came and pulled +him up, indicating by gestures and uncouth sounds that he must go +home. Goodwife Dolly was anxiously looking out for him.</p> + +<p>'Laddie, there thou beest at last! I had begun to fear me +whether the robber gang had got a hold of thee. Only Hob said he +saw Master Simon with them. Have they mishandled thee, mine own lad +nurse's darling? Thou lookest quite distraught.'</p> + +<p>All Hal's answer was to hide his head in her lap and weep like a +babe, though she could, with all her caresses, elicit nothing from +him but that his hermit was gone. No, no, the outlaws had not hurt +him, but they had taken him away, and he would never come back.</p> + +<p>'Ay, ay, thou didst love him and he was a holy man, no doubt, +but one of these days thou shalt have a true knight, and that is +better for a young baron to look to than a saint fitter for Heaven +than for earth! Come now, stand up and eat thy supper. Don't let +Hob come in and find thee crying like a swaddled babe.'</p> + +<p>With which worldly consolations and exhortations Goodwife Dolly +brought him to rise and accept his bowl of pottage, though he could +not swallow much, and soon put it aside and sought his bed.</p> + +<p>It was not till late the next day that Simon Bunce was seen +riding his rough pony over the moor. Hal repaired to him at once, +with the breathless inquiry, 'Where is he?'</p> + +<p>'In safe hands! Never you fear, sir! But best know nought.'</p> + +<p>'O Simon, was I--? Did I do him any scathe?--I--I never knew--I +only told my lady mother it was a saint.'</p> + +<p>'Ay, ay, lad, more's the pity that he is more saint than king! +If my lady guessed aught, she would be loyal as became your +father's wife, and methinks she would not press you hard for fear +she should be forced to be aware of the truth.'</p> + +<p>'But Sir Lancelot?'</p> + +<p>'As far as I can gather,' explained Simon, 'Sir Lancelot is one +that hath kept well with both sides, and so is able to be a +protector. But down came orders from York and his crew that King +Harry is reported to be lurking in some of these moors, and the +Countess Clifford being his wife, he fell under suspicion of +harbouring him. Nay, there was some perilous talk in his own +household, so that, as I understand the matter, he saw the need of +being able to show that he knew nothing; or, if he found that the +King was living within these lands, of sending him a warning ere +avowing that he had been there. So I read what was said to me.'</p> + +<p>'He knew nothing from me! Neither he nor my lady mother,' +eagerly said Hal. 'When I mind me I am sure my mother cut me short +when I described the hermit too closely, lest no doubt she should +guess who he was.'</p> + +<p>'Belike! It would be like my lady, who is a loyal Lancastrian at +heart, though much bent on not offending her husband lest his +protection should be withdrawn from you.'</p> + +<p>'Better--O, a thousand times better!--he gave me up than the +King!'</p> + +<p>'Hush! What good would that do? A boy like you? Unless they took +you in hand to make you a traitor, and offered you your lands if +you would swear allegiance to King Edward, as he calls +himself.'</p> + +<p>'Never, though I were cut into quarters!' averred Hal, with a +fierce gesture, clasping his staff. 'But the King? Where and what +have they done with him?'</p> + +<p>'Best not to know, my lord,' said Simon. 'In sooth, I myself do +not know whither he is gone, only that he is with friends.'</p> + +<p>'But who--what were they? They looked like outlaws!'</p> + +<p>'So they were; many a good fellow is of Robin of Redesdale's +train. There are scores of them haunting the fells and woods, all +Red Rose men, keeping a watch on the King,' replied Simon. 'We had +made up our minds that he had been long enough in one place, and +that he must have taken shelter the winter through, when I got +notice of these notions of Sir Lancelot, and forthwith sent word to +them to have him away before worse came of it.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! why did you not let me go with him? I would have saved him, +waited on him, fought for him.'</p> + +<p>'Fine fighting--when there's no getting you to handle a lance, +except as if you wanted to drive a puddock with a reed! Though you +have been better of late, little as your hermit seemed the man to +teach you.'</p> + +<p>'He said it was right and became a man! Would I were with him! +He, my true King! Let me go to him when you know where, good Simon. +I, that am his true and loving liegeman, should be with him.'</p> + +<p>'Ay! when you are a man to keep his head and your own.'</p> + +<p>'But I could wait on him.'</p> + +<p>'Would you have us bested to take care of two instead of one, +and my lady, moreover, in a pother about her son, and Sir Lancelot +stirred to make a hue and cry all the more? No, no, sir, bide in +peace in the safe homestead where you are sheltered, and learn to +be a man, minding your exercises as well as may be till the time +shall come.'</p> + +<p>'When I shall be a man and a knight, and do deeds of derring-do +in his cause,' cried Hal.</p> + +<p>And the stimulus drove him on to continual calls to Hob, in +Simon's default, to jousts with sword or spear, represented +generally by staves; and when these could not be had, he was making +arrows and practising with them, so as to become a terror to the +wild ducks and other neighbours on the wolds, the great geese and +strange birds that came in from the sea in the cold weather. When +it was not possible to go far afield in the frosts and snows, he +conned King Henry's portuary, trying to identify the written words +with those he knew by heart, and sometimes trying to trace the +shapes of the letters on the snow with a stick; visiting, too, the +mountains and looking into the limpid grey waters of the lakes, +striving hard to guess why, when the sea rose in tides, they were +still. More than ever, too, did the starry skies fill him with +contemplation and wonder, as he dwelt on the scraps alike of +astronomy, astrology, and devotion which he had gathered from his +oracle in the hermitage, and longed more and more for the time to +return when he should again meet his teacher, his saint, and his +King.</p> + +<p>Alas! that time was never to come. The outlawed partisans of the +Red Rose had secret communications which spread intelligence +rapidly throughout the country, and long before Sir Lancelot and +his lady knew, and thus it was that Simon Bunce learnt, through the +outlaws, that poor King Henry had been betrayed by treachery, and +seized by John Talbot at Waddington Hall in Lancashire. Deep were +the curses that the outlaws uttered, and fierce were the threats +against the Talbot if ever he should venture himself on the +Cumbrian moors; and still hotter was their wrath, more bitter the +tears of the shepherd lord, when the further tidings were received +that the Earl of Warwick had brought the gentle, harmless prince, +to whom he had repeatedly sworn fealty, into London with his feet +tied to the stirrups of a sorry jade, and men crying before him, +'Behold the traitor!'</p> + +<p>The very certainty that the meek and patient King would bear all +with rejoicing in the shame and reproach that led him in the steps +of his Master, only added to the misery of Hal as he heard the +tale; and he lay on the ground before his hut, grinding his teeth +with rage and longing to take revenge on Warwick, Edward, +Talbot--he knew not whom--and grasping at the rocks as if they were +the stones of the Tower which he longed to tear down and liberate +his beloved saint.</p> + +<p>Nor, from that time, was there any slackness in acquiring or +practising all skill in chivalrous exercises.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XI. THE RED ROSE</h3> + +<p>That Edward is escaped from your brother<br> +And fled, as he hears since, to Burgundy.--SHAKESPEARE.</p> + +<p>Years passed on, and still Henry Clifford continued to be the +shepherd. Matters were still too unsettled, and there were too many +Yorkists in the north, keeping up the deadly hatred of the family +against that of Clifford, for it to be safe for him to show himself +openly. He was a tall, well-made, strong youth, and his stepfather +spoke of his going to learn war in Burgundy; but not only was his +mother afraid to venture him there, but he could not bear to leave +England while there was a hope of working in the cause of the +captive King, though the Red Rose hung withered on the +branches.</p> + +<p>Reports of misunderstandings between King Edward and the Earl of +Warwick came from time to time, and that Queen Margaret and her son +were busy beyond seas, which kept up hope; and in the meantime Hal +grew in the knowledge of all country lore, of herd and wood, and +added to it all his own earnest love of the out-of-door world, of +sun, moon, and stars, sea and hills, beast and bird. The hermit +King, who had been a well-educated, well-read man in his earlier +days, had given him the framework of such natural science as had +come down to the fifteenth century, backed by the deepest faith in +scriptural descriptions; and these inferences and this philosophy +were enough to lead a far acuter and more able intellect, with +greater opportunities of observation, much further into the fields +of the mystery of nature than ever the King had gone.</p> + +<p>He said nothing, for never had he met one who understood a word +he said apart from fortune telling, excepting the royal teacher +after whom he longed; but he watched, he observed, and he dreamt, +and came to conclusions that his King's namesake cousin, Enrique of +Portugal, the discoverer, in his observatory at St. Vincent, might +have profited by. Brother Brian, a friar, for whose fidelity Simon +Bunce's outlaw could absolutely answer, and who was no Friar Tuck, +in spite of his rough life, gave Dolly much comfort religiously, +carried on some of the education for which Hal longed, and tried to +teach him astrology. Some of the yearnings of his young soul were +thus gratified, but they were the more extended as he grew nearer +manhood, and many a day he stood with eyes stretched over the sea +to the dim line of the horizon, with arms spread for a moment as if +he would join the flight of the sea-gulls floating far, far away, +then clasped over his breast in a sort of despair at being bound to +one spot, then pressed the tighter in the strong purpose of +fighting for his imprisoned King when the time should come.</p> + +<p>For this he diligently practised with bow and arrow when alone, +or only with Piers, and learnt all the feats of arms that Simon +Runce or Giles Spearman could teach him. Spearman was evidently an +accomplished knight or esquire; he had fought in France as well as +in the home wars, and knew all the refinements of warfare in an age +when the extreme weight of the armour rendered training and skill +doubly necessary. Spearman was evidently not his real name, and it +was evident that he had some knowledge of Hal's real rank, though +he never hazarded mention of other name or title. The great +drawback was the want of horses. The little mountain ponies did not +adequately represent the warhorses trained to charge under an +enormous load, and the buff jerkins and steel breast-plates of the +outlaws were equally far from showing how to move under 'mail and +plates of Milan steel.' Nor would Sir Lancelot Threlkeld lend or +give what was needful. Indeed, he was more cautious than ever, and +seemed really alarmed as well as surprised to see how tall and +manly his step-son was growing, and how like his father. He would +not hear of a visit to Threlkeld under any disguise, though Lady +Clifford was in failing health, nor would he do anything to forward +the young lord's knightly training. In effect, he only wanted to +keep as quiet and unobserved as possible, for everything was in a +most unsettled and dangerous condition, and there was no knowing +what course was the safest for one by no means prepared to lose +life or lands in any cause.</p> + +<p>The great Earl of Warwick, on whom the fate of England had +hitherto hinged, was reported to have never forgiven King Edward +for his marriage with Dame Elizabeth Grey, and to be meditating +insurrection. Encouraged by this there was a great rising in +Yorkshire of the peasants under Robin of Redesdale, and a message +was brought to Giles Spearman and his followers to join them, but +he and Brother Brian demurred, and news soon came that the Marquess +of Montagu had defeated the rising and beheaded Redesdale.</p> + +<p>Sir Lancelot congratulated his step-son on having been too late +to take up arms, and maintained that the only safe policy was to do +nothing, a plan which suited age much better than youth.</p> + +<p>He still lived with Hob and Piers, and slept at the hut, but he +went further and further afield among the hills and mosses, often +with no companion save Watch, so that he might without interruption +watch the clear streams and wonder what filled their fountains, and +why the sea was never full, or stand on the sea-shore studying the +tides, and trying to construct a theory about them. King Henry was +satisfied with 'Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther,' but He +who gave that decree must have placed some cause or rule in nature +thus to affect them. Could it be the moon? The waves assuredly +obeyed the changes of the moon, and Hal was striving to keep a +record in strokes marked by a stick on soft earth or rows of +pebbles, so as to establish a rule. 'Aye, aye,' quoth Hob. 'Poor +fellow, he is not much wiser than the hermit. See how he plays with +pebbles and stones. You'll make nought of him, fine grown lad as he +is. Why, he'll sit dazed and moonstruck half a day, and all the +night, staring up at the stars as if he would count them!'</p> + +<p>So spoke the stout shepherd to Simon Bunce, pointing to the +young man, who lay at his length upon the grass calculating the +proportions of the stones that marked the relations of hours of the +flood tide and those of the height of the moon. Above and beyond +was a sundial cut out in the turf, from his own observations after +the hints that the hermit and the friar had given him.</p> + +<p>'Ha now, my lord, I have rare news for you.'</p> + +<p>The unwonted title did not strike Hal's unaccustomed ears, and +he continued moving his lips, 'High noon, spring tide.'</p> + +<p>'There, d'ye see?' said Hob, 'he heeds nothing. 'That I and my +goodwife should have bred up a mooncalf! Here, Hal, don't you know +Simon? Hear his tidings!'</p> + +<p>'Tidings enow! King Henry is freed, King Edward is fled. My Lord +of Warwick has turned against him for good and all. King Henry is +proclaimed in all the market-places! I heard it with my own ears at +Penrith!' And throwing up his cap into the air, while the example +was followed by Hob, with 'God save King Henry, and you my Lord of +Clifford.'</p> + +<p>The sound was echoed by a burst of voices, and out of the brake +suddenly stood the whole band of outlaws, headed by Giles Spearman, +but Hal still stood like one dazed. 'King Harry, the hermit, free +and on his throne,' he murmured, as one in a dream.</p> + +<p>'Ay, all things be upset and reversed,' said Spearman, with a +hand on his shoulder. 'No herd boy now, but my Lord of +Clifford.'</p> + +<p>'Come to his kingdom,' repeated Hal. 'My own King Harry the +hermit! I would fain go and see him.'</p> + +<p>'So you shall, my brave youth, and carry him your homage and +mine,' said Spearman. 'He will know me for poor Giles Musgrave, who +upheld his standard in many a bloody field. We will off to Sir +Lancelot at Threlkeld now! Spite of his policy of holes and +corners, he will not now refuse to own you for what you are, aye, +and fit you out as becomes a knight.'</p> + +<p>'God grant he may!' muttered Bunce, 'without his hum and ha, and +swaying this way and that, till he never moves at all! Betwixt his +caution, and this lad's moonstruck ways, you have a fair course +before you, Sir Giles! See, what's the lad doing now?'</p> + +<p>The lad was putting into his pouch the larger white pebbles that +had represented tens in his calculation, and murmuring the numbers +they stood for. 'He will understand,' he said almost to himself, +but he showed himself ready to go with the party to Threlkeld, +merely pausing at Hob's cottage to pick up a few needful +equipments. In the skin of a rabbit, carefully prepared, and next +wrapped in a silken kerchief, and kept under his chaff pillow, was +the hermit's portuary, which was carefully and silently transferred +by Hal to his own bosom. Sir Giles Musgrave objected to Watch, in +city or camp, and Hal was obliged to leave him to Goodwife Dolly +and to Piers.</p> + +<p>With each it was a piteous parting, for Dolly had been as a +mother to him for almost all his boyhood, and had supplied the +tenderness that his mother's fears and Sir Lancelot's precautions +had prevented his receiving at Threlkeld. He was truly as a son to +her, and she sobbed over him, declaring that she never would see +him again, even if he came to his own, which she did not believe +was possible, and who would see to his clean shirts?</p> + +<p>'Never fear, goodwife,' said Giles Musgrave; 'he shall be looked +to as mine own son.'</p> + +<p>'And what's that to a gentle lad that has always been tended as +becomes him?'</p> + +<p>'Heed not, mother! Be comforted! I must have gone to the wars, +anyway. If so be I thrive, I'll send for thee to mine own castle, +to reign there as I remember of old. Here now! Comfort Piers as +thou only canst do.'</p> + +<p>Piers, poor fellow, wept bitterly, only able to understand that +something had befallen his comrade of seven years, which would take +him away from field and moor. He clung to Hal, and both lads shed +tears, till Hob roughly snatched Piers away and threw him to his +aunt, with threats that drew indignant, though useless, +interference from Hal, though Simon Bunce was muttering, 'As lief +take one lad as the other!' while Dolly's angry defence of her +nursling's wisdom broke the sadness of the parting.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XII. A PRUDENT RECEPTION</h3> + +<p>So doth my heart misgive me in these conflicts,<br> +What may befall him to his harm and ours.--SHAKESPEARE.</p> + +<p>Through the woods the party went to the fortified house of +Threlkeld, where the gateway was evidently prepared to resist any +passing attack, by stout gates and a little watch-tower.</p> + +<p>Sir Giles blew a long blast on his bugle-horn, and had to repeat +it twice before a porter looked cautiously out at a wicket opening +in the heavy door, and demanded 'Who comes?'</p> + +<p>'Open, porter, open in the name of King Harry, to the Lords of +Clifford and of Peelholm.'</p> + +<p>The porter fell back, observing, 'Sir, pardon, while I have +speech with my master, Sir Lancelot Threlkeld.'</p> + +<p>Some delay and some sounds of conversation were heard, then, on +a renewed and impatient blast on Sir Giles's horn, Sir Lancelot +Threlkeld himself came to the wicket, and his thin anxious voice +might be heard demanding, 'What madness is this?'</p> + +<p>'The madness is past, soundness is come,' responded Sir Giles. +'King Harry is on his throne, the traitors are fled, and your own +fair son comes forth in his proper person to uphold the lawful +sovereign; but he would fain first see his lady mother, and take +her blessing with him.'</p> + +<p>'And by his impatience destroy himself, after all the burthen of +care and peril he hath been to me all these years,' lamented Sir +Lancelot. 'But come in, fair lad. Open the gates, porter. I give +you welcome, Lord Musgrave of Peelholm. But who are these?' he +added, looking at the troop of buff-coated archers in the rear.</p> + +<p>'They are bold champions of the Red Rose, returned Sir Giles, +'who have lived with me in the wolds, and now are on the way to +maintain our King's quarrel.'</p> + +<p>Sir Lancelot, however, would not hear of admitting the outlaws. +Young Clifford and the Lord of Peelholm should be welcome, or more +truly he could not help receiving them, but the archers must stay +outside, their entertainment in beef and ale being committed to +Bunce and the chief warder, while the two noblemen were conducted +to the castle hall. For the first time in his life Clifford was +received in his mother's home, and accepted openly, as he knelt +before her to ask her blessing. A fine, active, handsome youth was +he, with bright, keen eyes, close-curled black locks and hardy +complexion, telling of his out-of-door life, and a free use of his +limbs, and upright carriage, though still with more of the grace of +the free mountain than of the training of pagedom and +squiredom.</p> + +<p>Nor could he speak openly and freely to her, not knowing how +much he might say of his past intercourse with King Henry, and of +her endeavour to discover it; and he sat beside her, neither of +them greatly at ease, at the long table, which, by the array of +silver cups, of glasses and the tall salt cellar separating the +nobility and their followers, recalled to him dim recollections of +the scenes of his youth.</p> + +<p>He asked for his sister--he knew his little brother had died in +the Netherlands--and he heard that she had been in the Priory of +St. Helen's, and was now in the household of my Lady of Hungerford, +who had promised to find a good match for her. There was but one +son of the union with the knight of Threlkeld, and him Hal had +never seen; nor was he at home, being a page in the household of +the Earl of Westmoreland, according to the prevailing fashion of +the castles of the great feudal nobles becoming schools of arms, +courtesy and learning for the young gentlemen around. Indeed, Lady +Clifford surveyed her eldest son with a sigh that such breeding was +denied him, as she observed one or two little deficiencies in what +would be called his table manners--not very important, but +revealing that he had grown up in the byre instead of the castle, +where there was a very strict and punctilious code, which figured +in catechisms for the young.</p> + +<p>She longed to keep him, and train him for his station, but in +the first place, Sir Lancelot still held that it could not safely +be permitted, since he had little confidence in the adherence of +the House of Nevil to the Red Rose; and moreover Hal himself +utterly refused to remain concealed in Cumberland instead of +carrying his service to the King he loved.</p> + +<p>In fact, when he heard the proposal of leaving him in the north, +he stood up, and, with far more energy than had been expected from +him, said, 'Go I must, to my lawful King's banner, and my father's +cause. To King Harry I carry my homage and whatever my hand can +do!'</p> + +<p>Such an expression of energy lighted his hitherto dreamy eyes, +that all beholders turned their glances on his face with a look of +wonder. Sir Lancelot again objected that he would be rushing to his +ruin.</p> + +<p>'Be it so,' replied Hal. 'It is my duty.'</p> + +<p>'The time seems to me to be come,' added Musgrave, 'that my +young lord should put himself forward, though it may be only in a +losing cause. Not so much for the sake of success, as to make +himself a man and a noble.'</p> + +<p>'But what can he do?' persisted Threlkeld; 'he has none of the +training of a knight. How can you tilt in plate armour, you who +have never bestridden a charger? These are not the days of Du +Guesclin, when a lad came in from the byre and bore down all foes +before him.'</p> + +<p>The objection was of force, for the defensive armour of the +fifteenth century had reached a pitch of cumbrousness that required +long practice for a man to be capable of moving under it.</p> + +<p>'So please you, sir,' said Hal, 'I am not wholly unskilled. The +good Sir Giles and Simon Bunce have taught me enough to strike a +blow with a good will for a good cause.'</p> + +<p>'With horse and arms as befits him,' began Musgrave.</p> + +<p>'I know not that a horse is here that could be depended on,' +began Threlkeld. 'Armour too requires to be fitted and proved.'</p> + +<p>He spoke in a hesitating voice that showed his unwillingness, +and Hal exclaimed, 'My longbow is mine own, and so are my feet. Sir +Giles, will you own me as an archer in your troop, where I will +strive not to disgrace you or my name?'</p> + +<p>'Bravely spoken, young lord,' said Sir Giles heartily; 'right +willingly will I be your godfather in chivalry, since you find not +one nigher home.'</p> + +<p>'So may it best be,' observed his mother, 'since he is bent on +going. Thus his name and rank may be kept back till it be plain +whether the enmity of my Lords of Warwick and Montagu still remain +against our poor house.'</p> + +<p>There was no desire on either side to object when the Lord +Musgrave of Peelholm decided on departing early on the morrow. +Their host was evidently not sorry to speed them on their way, and +his reluctant hospitality made them anxious to cumber him no longer +than needful; and his mind was relieved when it was decided that +the heir of the De Vescis and Cliffords should be known as Harry of +Derwentdale.</p> + +<p>Only, when all was preparation in the morning, and a hearty +service had been said in the chapel, the lady called her son aside, +and looking up into his dark eyes, said in a low voice, 'Be not +angered with my lord husband's prudence, my son. Remember it is +only by caution that he has saved thine head, or mine, or thy +sister's!'</p> + +<p>'Ay, ay, mother, I know,' he said, more impatiently than perhaps +he knew.</p> + +<p>'It was by the same care that he preserved us all when +Edgecotefield was fought. Chafe not at him. Thou mayst be thankful +even now, mayhap, to find a shelter preserved, while that rogue and +robber Nevil holds our lands.'</p> + +<p>'I am more like to have to protect thee, lady mother, and bring +thee to thy true home again!' said Hal.</p> + +<p>'Meantime, my child, take this purse and equip thyself at York +or whenever thou canst. Nay, thou needst not shrug and refuse! How +like thy father the gesture, though I would it were more gracious +and seemly. But this is mine, mine own, none of my husband's, +though he would be willing. It comes from the De Vesci lands, and +those will be thine after me, and thine if thou winnest not back +thy Clifford inheritance. And oh! my son, crave of Sir Giles to +teach thee how to demean thyself that they may not say thou art but +a churl.'</p> + +<p>'I trust to be no churl in heart, if I be in manners,' said Hal, +looking down on his small clinging mother.</p> + +<p>'Only be cautious, my son. Remember that you are the last of the +name, and it is your part to bring it to honour.'</p> + +<p>'Which I shall scarce do by being cautious,' he said, with +something of a smile. That was not my father's way.'</p> + +<p>'Ah me! You have his spirit in you, and how did it end?'</p> + +<p>'My Lord of Clifford,' said a voice from the court, 'you are +waited for!'</p> + +<p>'And remember,' cried his mother, with a last embrace, 'there +will be safety here whenever thou shalt need it.'</p> + +<p>'With God's grace, I am more like to protect you and your +husband,' said the lad, bending for another kiss and hurrying +away.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIII. FELLOW TRAVELLERS</h3> + +<p>And sickerlie she was of great disport,<br> +And full pleasant and amiable of port;<br> +Of small hounds had she that she fed<br> +With roasted flesh and milk and wastel bread.--CHAUCER.</p> + +<p>Sir Giles Musgrave of Peelholm was an old campaigner, and when +Hal came out beyond the gate of the Threlkeld fortalice, he found +him reviewing his troop; a very disorderly collection, as Sir +Lancelot pronounced with a sneer, looking out on them, and strongly +advising his step-son not to cast in his lot with them, but to wait +and see what would befall, and whether the Nevils were in earnest +in their desertion of the House of York.</p> + +<p>Hal restrained himself with difficulty enough to take a +courteous leave of his mother's husband, to whose prudence and +forbearance he was really much beholden; though, with his spirit +newly raised and burning for his King, it was hard to have patience +with neutrality.</p> + +<p>He found Sir Giles employed in examining his followers, and +rigidly sending home all not properly equipped with bow, sheaf of +arrows, strong knife or pike, buff coat, head-piece and stout +shoes; also a wallet of provisions for three days, or a certain +amount of coin. He would have no marauding on the way, and refused +to take any mere lawless camp follower, thus disposing of a good +many disreputable-looking fellows who had flocked in his wake. Sir +Lancelot's steward seconded him heartily by hunting back his +master's retainers; and there remained only about +five-and-twenty--mostly, in fact, yeomen or their sons--men who had +been in arms for Queen Margaret and had never made their +submission, but lived on unmolested in the hills, really outlawed, +but not coming in collision with the authorities enough to have +their condition inquired into. They had sometimes attacked Yorkist +parties, sometimes resisted Scottish raids, or even made a foray in +return, and they were well used to arms. These all had full +equipments, and some more coin in their pouches than they cared to +avow. Three or four of them brought an ox, calf or sheep, or a +rough pony loaded with provisions, and driven by a herd boy or a +son eager to see life and 'the wars.' Simon Bunce, well armed, was +of this party. Hob Hogward, though he had come to see what became +of his young lord, was pronounced too stiff and aged to join the +band, which might now really be called a troop, not a mere lawless +crowd of rough lads. There were three trained men-at-arms, the +regular retainers of Sir Giles, who held a little peel tower on the +borders where nobody durst molest him, and these marshalled the +little band in fair order.</p> + +<p>It was no season for roses, but a feather was also the +cognisance of Henry VI., and every one's barret-cap mounted a +feather, generally borrowed from the goodwife's poultry yard at +home, but sometimes picked up on the moors, and showing the barred +black and brown patterns of the hawk's or the owl's plumage. It was +a heron's feather that Hal assumed, on the counsel of Sir Giles, +who told him it was an old badge of the Cliffords, and it became +well his bright dark hair and brown face.</p> + +<p>On they went, a new and wonderful march to Hal, who had only +looked with infant eyes on anything beyond the fells, and had very +rarely been into a little moorland church, or seen enough people +together for a market day in Penrith. Sir Giles directed their +course along the sides of the hills till he should gain further +intelligence, and know how they would be received. For the most +part the people were well inclined to King Henry, though unwilling +to stir on his behalf in fear of Edward's cruelty.</p> + +<p>However, it was as they had come down from the hills intending +to obtain fresh provisions at one of the villages, and Hal was +beginning to recognise the moors he had known in earlier childhood, +that they perceived a party on the old Roman road before them, +which the outlaws' keen eyes at once discovered to be somewhat of +their own imputed trade. There seemed to be a waggon upset, persons +bound, and a buzz of men, like wasps around a honeycomb preying on +it. Something like women's veiled forms could be seen. 'Ha! Mere +robbery. This must not be. Upon them! Form! Charge!' were the brief +commands of the leader, and the compact body ran at a rapid but a +regulated pace down the little slope that gave them an advantage of +ground with some concealment by a brake of gorse. 'Halt! Pikes +forward!' was the next order. The little band were already close +upon the robbers, in whom they began to recognise some of those +whom Sir Giles had dismissed as mere ruffians unequipped a few days +before. It was with a yell of indignation that the troop fell on +them, Sir Giles with a sharp blow severing the bridle of a horse +that a man was leading, but there was a cry back, 'We are for King +Harry! These be Yorkists!'</p> + +<p>'Nay! nay!' came back the voices of the overthrown. 'Help! help! +for King Harry and Queen Margaret! These be rank thieves who have +set on us! Holy women are here!'</p> + +<p>These exclamations came broken and in utter confusion, mingled +with cries for mercy and asseverations on the part of the thieves, +and fierce shouts from Sir Giles's men. All was hubbub, barking +dogs, shouting men, and Hal scarcely knew anything till he was +aware of two or three shrouded nuns, as it seemed, standing by +their ponies, of merchantmen or carters trying to quiet and harness +frightened mules, of waggons overturned, of a general confusion +over which arose Lord Musgrave's powerful authoritative voice.</p> + +<p>'Kit of Clumber! Why should I not hang you for thieving on +yonder tree, with your fellow thieves?'</p> + +<p>'Yorkists, sir! It was all in the good cause,' responded a +sullen voice, as a grim red and scarred face was seen on a ruffian +held by two of the archers.</p> + +<p>'No Yorkists we, sir!' began a stout figure, coming forward from +the waggon. 'We be peaceable merchants and this is a holy dame, +the--'</p> + +<p>'The Prioress Selby of Greystone,' interrupted one of the nuns, +coming forward with a hawk on her wrist. 'Sir Giles of Musgrave, I +am beholden to you! I was on my way to take the young damsel of +Bletso to her father, the Lord St. John, with Earl Warwick in +London. He sent us an escort, but they being arrant cravens, as it +seems, we thought it well to join company with these same +merchants, and thus we became a bait for the outlaws of the +Border.'</p> + +<p>'Lady, lady,' burst from one of the prisoners, 'I swear that we +kenned not holy dames to be of the company! Sir, my lord, we +thought to serve the cause of King Harry, and how any man is to +guess which side is Earl Warwick's is past an honest man.'</p> + +<p>'An honest man whose cause is his own pouch!' returned Sir +Giles. 'Miscreants all! But I trow we are scarce yet out of the +land of misrule! So if the Lady Prioress will say a word for such a +sort of sorners, I'll e'en let you go on your way.'</p> + +<p>'They have had a warning, the poor rogues, and that will suffice +for this time! Nay, now, fellows, let my wimple alone! You'll not +find another lord to let you off so easy, nor another Prioress to +stand your friend. Get off, I say.'</p> + +<p>An archer enforced her words with a blow, and by some means, +rough or otherwise, a certain amount of order was restored, the +ruffians slinking off among the gorse bushes, their flight hastened +by the pointing of pikes and levelling of arrows at them. While the +merchants, diving into their packages, produced horns of ale which +a younger man offered to their defenders, the chief of the party, a +portly fellow, interrupted certain civilities between the Prioress +and Sir Giles by praying them to partake of a cup of malmsey, and +adding an entreaty that they might be allowed to join company with +so brave an escort, explaining that he was a poor merchant of +London and the Hans towns who had been beguiled into an expedition +to Scotland to the young King James, who was said to have a fair +taste. He waved his hands as if his sufferings had been beyond +description.</p> + +<p>'Went for wool and came back shorn!' said the Prioress, +laughing. 'Well, my Lord Musgrave, what say you to letting us join +company?--as I see your band is afoot it will be no great delay, +and the more the safer as well as the merrier! Here, let me present +to you my young maid, the Lady Anne of Bletso, whom I in person am +about to deliver to her father.'</p> + +<p>'And let me present privately to both ladies,' said Sir Giles, +'the young squire Harry of Derwentdale, who hath been living as a +shepherd in the hills during the York rule.'</p> + +<p>'Ha! my lord, methinks this may not be the first meeting between +Lady Anne and you, though she would not know who the herd boy was +who found her, a stray lambkin on the moor.'</p> + +<p>The young people looked at each other with eyes of recognition, +and as Hal made his best bow, he said, 'Forsooth, lady, I did not +know myself till afterwards.'</p> + +<p>'Your shepherd and his wife gave me to understand that I should +do hurt by inquiring too much,' said the young lady smiling, and +holding out her hand, which Hal did not know whether to kiss or to +shake. 'I hope the kind old goodwife is well, who cosseted me so +lovingly.'</p> + +<p>'She fares well, indeed, lady, only grieved at parting with +me.'</p> + +<p>'There now,' said the Prioress, 'since we are quit of the +robbers, methinks we cannot do better than halt awhile for Master +Lorimer's folk to mend the tackling of their gear, while we make +our noonday meal and provide for our further journey. Allow me to +be your hostess for the nonce, my lords.'</p> + +<p>And between the lady's sumpter mules and the merchant's stores a +far more sumptuous meal was produced than would have otherwise been +the share of the Lancastrian party.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIV. THE JOURNEY</h3> + +<p>'Twas sweet to see these holy maids,<br> +Like birds escaped to greenwood shades,--SCOTT.</p> + +<p>The Prioress Agnes Selby of Greystone was a person who would +have made a much fitter lady of a castle than head of a nunnery. +She would have worked for and with her lord, defended his lands for +him, governed his house and managed her sons with untiring zest and +energy. But a vow of her parents had consigned her to a monastic +life at York, where she could only work off her vigour by teasing +the more devout and grave sisters, and when honourably banished to +the more remote Greystone, in field sports, and in fortifying her +convent against Scots or Lancastrians who, somewhat to her +disappointment, never did attack her. No complaint or scandal had +ever attached itself to her name, and she let Mother Scholastica +manage the nuns, and regulate the devotions, while Greystone was +known as a place where a thirsty warrior might be refreshed, where +tales and ballads of Border raids were welcome, and where good hawk +or hound was not despised.</p> + +<p>It had occurred to the Lord St. John of Bletso that the little +daughter whom he had left at York might be come to a marriageable +age, and he had listened to the proposal of one of the cousins of +the house of Nevil for a contract between her and his son, sending +an escort northwards to fetch her, properly accompanied.</p> + +<p>She had been all these years at Greystone, and the Prioress +immediately decided that this would be an excellent opportunity of +seeing the southern world, and going on a round of pilgrimages +which would make the expedition highly decorous. The ever restless +spirit within her rose in delight, and the Sisterhood of York were +ready to acquiesce, having faith in Mother Agnes' good sense to +guide her and her pupil to his castle in Bedfordshire by the help +of Father Martin through any tangles of the White and Red Roses +that might await her, as well to her real principle for avoiding +actual evil, though she might startle monastic proprieties.</p> + +<p>There was no doubt but that conversation, when she could have +it, was as great a joy to her as ever was galloping after a deer; +and there she sat with her beautiful hound by her side, and her +hawk on a pole, exchanging sentiments of speculation as to +Warwick's change of front with Sir Giles Musgrave, Father Martin, +and Master Ralph Lorimer, while discussing a pasty certainly very +superior to anything that had come out of the Penrith stores.</p> + +<p>Young Clifford and Lady Anne sat on the grass near, too shy for +the present to renew their acquaintance, but looking up at one +another under their eyelashes, and the first time their eyes met, +the girl breaking into a laugh, but it was not till towards the end +of the refection that they were startled into intercourse by a +general growling and leaping up of the great hound, and of the two +big ungainly dogs chained to the waggon, as wet, lean, bristling +but ecstatic, Watch dashed in among them, and fell on his +master.</p> + +<p>For four days (unless he was tied up at first) the good dog must +have been tracking him. 'Off! off!' cried the Prioress, holding +back her deer-hound by main strength. 'Off, Florimond! he sets thee +a pattern of faithfulness! Be quiet and learn thy devoir!'</p> + +<p>'O sir, I cannot send him back!' entreated Hal, also embracing +and caressing the shaggy neck.</p> + +<p>'Send him back! Nay, indeed. As saith the Reverend Mother, it +were well if some earls and lords minded his example,' said Sir +Giles.</p> + +<p>'Here! Watch, I mind thee well,' added Anne. 'Here's a slice of +pasty to reward thee. Oh! thou art very hungry,' as the big mouth +bolted it whole.</p> + +<p>'Nearly famished, poor rogue!' said Hal, administering a bone. +'How far hast thou run, mine own lad! Art fain to come with thy +master and see the hermit?'</p> + +<p>'Thou must e'en go,' growled Simon Bunce, 'unless the lady's dog +make an end of thee! 'Tis ever the worthless that turn up.'</p> + +<p>'I would Florimond would show himself as true,' said the +Prioress. 'Don't show thy teeth, sir! I can honour Watch, yet love +thee.'</p> + +<p>''Tis jealousy as upsets faith,' said the merchant. 'The hound +is a knightly beast with his proud head, but he brooks not to see a +Woodville creep in.'</p> + +<p>'Nay, or a Beaufort!' suggested Sir Giles.</p> + +<p>'No treason, Lord Musgrave!' said the Prioress, laughing.</p> + +<p>'Ah, madam,' responded Sir Giles, 'what is treason?'</p> + +<p>'Whatever is against him that has the best of it,' observed +Master Lorimer. 'Well that it is not the business of a poor dealer +in horse-gear and leather-work. He asks not which way his bridles +are to turn! How now, Tray and Blackchaps? Never growl and gird. +You have no part in the fray!'</p> + +<p>For they were chained, and could only champ, bark and howl, +while Florimond and Watch turned one another over, and had to be +pulled forcibly back, by Hal on the one hand and on the other by +the Mother Agnes, who would let nobody touch Florimond except +herself. After this, the two dogs subsided into armed neutrality, +and gradually became devoted friends.</p> + +<p>The curiously composed cavalcade moved on their way southward. +The Prioress was mounted on the fine chestnut horse that Sir Giles +had rescued. She was attended by a nun, Sister Mabel, and a lay +Sister, both as hardy as herself, and riding sturdy mountain +ponies; but her chaplain, a thin delicate-looking man with a bad +cough, only ventured upon a sturdy ass; Anne St. John had a pretty +little white palfrey and two men-at-arms. There were two grooms, +countrymen, who had run away on the onset of the thieves, but came +sneaking back again, to be soundly rated by the Prioress, who +threatened to send them home again or have them well scourged, but +finally laughed and forgave them.</p> + +<p>The merchant, Master Lorimer--who dealt primarily in all sorts +of horse furniture, but added thereto leather-work for knights and +men-at-arms, and all that did not too closely touch the armourer's +trade--had three sturdy attendants, having lost one in an attack by +the Scottish Borderers, and he had four huge Flemish horses, who +sped along the better for their loads having been lightened by +sales in Edinburgh, where he had hardly obtained skins enough to +make up for the weight. His headquarters, he said, were at Barnet, +since tanning and leather-dressing, necessary to his work, though a +separate guild, literally stank in the nostrils of the citizens of +London.</p> + +<p>To these were added Sir Giles Musgrave's twenty archers, making +a very fair troop, wherewith to proceed, and the Prioress decided +on not going to York. She was not particularly anxious for an +interview with the Abbess of her Order, and it would have +considerably lengthened the journey, which both Musgrave and +Lorimer were anxious to make as short as possible. They preferred +likewise to keep to the country, that was still chiefly open and +wild, with all its destiny in manufactories yet to come, though +there were occasionally such towns, villages and convents on the +way where provisions and lodging could be obtained.</p> + +<p>Every fresh scene of civilisation was a new wonder to Hal +Clifford, and scarcely less so to Anne St. John, though her life in +the moorland convent had begun when she was not quite so young as +he had been when taken to the hills of Londesborough. He had only +been two or three times in the church at Threlkeld, which was +simple and bare, and the full display of a monastic church was an +absolute amazement, making him kneel almost breathless with awe, +recollecting what the royal hermit had told him. He was too +illiterate to follow the service, but the music and the majestic +flow of the chants overwhelmed him, and he listened with hands +clasped over his face, not daring to raise his eyes to the dazzling +gold of the altar, lighted by innumerable wax tapers.</p> + +<p>The Prioress was amused. 'Art dazed, my friend? This is but a +poor country cell; we will show you something much finer when we +get to Derby.'</p> + +<p>Hal drew a long breath. 'Is that meant to be like the saints in +Heaven?' he said. 'Is that the way they sing there?'</p> + +<p>'I should hope they pronounce their Latin better,' responded the +Prioress, who, it may be feared, was rather a light-minded woman. +At any rate there was a chill upon Hal which prevented him from +directing any of his remarks or questions to her for the future. +The chaplain told him something of what he wanted to know, but he +met with the most sympathy from the Lady Anne.</p> + +<p>'Which, think you, is the fittest temple and worship?' he said; +as they rode out together, after hearing an early morning service, +gone through in haste, and partaking of a hurried meal. The sun was +rising over the hills of Derbyshire, dyeing them of a red purple, +standing out sharply against a flaming sky, flecked here and there +with rosy clouds, and fading into blue that deepened as it rose +higher. The elms and beeches that bordered the monastic fields had +begun to put on their autumn livery, and yellow leaves here and +there were like sparks caught from the golden light.</p> + +<p>Hal drew off his cap as in homage to the glorious sight.</p> + +<p>'Ah, it is fine!' said Anne, 'it is like the sunrise upon our +own moors, when one breathes freely, and the clouds grow white +instead of grey.'</p> + +<p>'Ah!' said Hal, 'I used to go out to the high ground and say the +prayer the hermit taught me--"Jam Lucis," it began. He said it was +about the morning light.'</p> + +<p>'I know that "Jam Lucis,"' said Anne; 'the Sisters sing it at +prime, and Sister Scholastica makes us think how it means about +light coming and our being kept from ill,' and she hummed the chant +of the first verse.</p> + +<p>'I think this blue sky and royal sun, and the moon and stars at +night, are God's great hall of praise,' said Hal, still keeping his +cap off, as he had done through Anne's chant of praise.</p> + +<p>'Verily it is! It is the temple of God Almighty, Creator of +Heaven and earth, as the Credo says,' replied Anne, 'but, maybe, we +come nearer still to Him in God the Son when we are in church.'</p> + +<p>'I do not know. The dark vaulted roof and the dimness seem to +crush me down,' said the mountain lad, 'though the singing lifts me +sometimes, though at others it comes like a wailing gust, all +mournful and sad! If I could only understand! My royal hermit would +tell me when I can come to him.'</p> + +<p>'Do you think, now he is a king again, he will be able to take +heed to you?'</p> + +<p>'I know he cares for me,' said Hal with confidence.</p> + +<p>'Ah yea, but will the folk about him care to let him talk to +you? I have heard say that he was but a puppet in their hands. Yea, +you are a great lord, that is true, but will that great masterful +Earl Warwick let you to him, or say all these thoughts of his and +yours are but fancies for babes?'</p> + +<p>'Simon Bunce did mutter such things, and that one of us was as +great an innocent as the other,' said Hal, 'but I trust my hermit's +love.'</p> + +<p>'Ay, you know you are going to someone you love, and who loves +you,' sighed Anne, 'but how will it be with me?'</p> + +<p>'Your father?' suggested Hal.</p> + +<p>'My father! What knows he of me or I of him? I tell thee, Harry +Clifford, he left me at York when I was not eight years old, and I +have never seen him since. He gave a charge on his lands to a +goldsmith at York to pay for my up-bringing, and I verily believe +thought no more of me than if I had been a messan dog. He wedded a +lady in Flanders and had a son or twain, but I have never seen them +nor my stepdame; and now Gilbert there, who brought the letter to +the Mother Prioress, says she is dead, and the little heir, whose +birth makes me nobody, is at a monastery school at Ghent. But my +Lord of Redgrave must needs make overtures to my father for me, +whether for his son or himself Gilbert cannot say. So my father +sends to bring me back for a betrothal. The good Prioress goes with +me. She saith that if it be the old Lord, who is a fierce old rogue +with as ill a name as Tiptoft himself, the butcher, she will make +my Lord St. John know the reason why! But what will he care?'</p> + +<p>'It would be hard not to hear my Lady Prioress!' said Hal, +looking back at the determined black figure, gesticulating as she +talked to Sir Giles.</p> + +<p>Anne laughed, half sadly, 'So you think! But you have never seen +the grim faces at Bletso! They will say she is but a woman and a +nun, and what are her words to alliance with a friend of the Lord +of Warwick? Ah! it is a heartless hope, when I come to that +castle!'</p> + +<p>'Nay, Anne, if my King gives me my place then--</p> + +<p>'Lady Anne! Lady Anne!' called Sir Giles Musgrave, 'the Mother +Prioress thinks it not safe for you to keep so much in the front. +There might be ill-doers in the thickets.'</p> + +<p>Anne perforce reined in, but Hal fed on the idea that had +suddenly flashed on him.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XV. BLETSO</h3> + +<p>Matter of marriage was the charge he gave me.--SHAKESPEARE,</p> + +<p>The cavalcade journeyed on not very quickly, as the riders +accommodated themselves to those on foot. They avoided the towns +when they came into the more inhabited country, the Prioress +preferring the smaller hostels for pilgrims and travellers, and, it +may be suspected, monasteries to the nunneries, where she said the +ladies had nothing to talk about but wonder at her journey, and +advice to stay in shelter till after the winter weather. Meantime +it was a fine autumn still, and with bright colours on the woods, +where deer, hare, rabbit, or partridge tempted the hounds, not to +say their mistress, but she kept them well in leash, and her falcon +with hood and jesses, she being too well nurtured not to be well +aware of the strict laws of the chase, except when some +good-natured monk gave her leave and accompanied her--generally +Augustinians, who were more of country squires than ecclesiastics. +Watch needed no leash--he kept close to his master, except when +occasionally tempted to a little amateur shepherding, from which +Hal could easily call him off. The great stag-hounds evidently +despised him, and the curs of the waggon hated him, and snarled +whenever he came near them, but the Prioress respected him, and +could well believe that the hermit King had loved him. 'He had just +the virtues to suit the good King Harry,' she said, 'dutifulness +and harmlessness.'</p> + +<p>The Prioress was the life of the party, with her droll +descriptions of the ways of the nuns who received her, while the +males of the party had to be content with the hostel outside. Sir +Giles and Master Lorimer, riding on each side of her, might often +be heard laughing with her. The young people were much graver, +especially as there were fewer and fewer days' journeys to Bletso, +and Anne's unknown future would begin with separation from all she +had ever known, unless the Mother Prioress should be able to remain +with her.</p> + +<p>And to Harry Clifford the loss of her presence grew more and +more to be dreaded as each day's companionship drew them nearer +together in sympathy, and he began to build fanciful hopes of the +King's influence upon the plans of Lord St. John, unless the +contract of betrothal had been actually made, and therewith came a +certain zest in looking to his probable dignity such as he had +never felt before.</p> + +<p>The last day's journey had come. The escort who had acted as +guides were in familiar fields and lanes, and one, the leader, rode +up to Lady Anne and pointed to the grey outline among the trees of +her home, while he sent the other to hurry forward and announce +her.</p> + +<p>Anne shivered a little, and Hal kept close to her. He had made +the journey on foot, because he had chosen to be reckoned among +Musgrave's archers till he had received full knightly training; +and, besides, he had more freedom to attach himself to Anne's +bridle rein, and be at hand to help through difficult passages. Now +he came up close to her, and she held out her hand. He pressed it +warmly.</p> + +<p>'You will not forget?'</p> + +<p>'Never, never! That red rose in the snow--I have the leaf in my +breviary. And Goodwife Dolly, tell her I'll never forget how she +cosseted the wildered lamb.'</p> + +<p>'Poor Mother Dolly, when shall I see her?'</p> + +<p>'Oh! you will be able to have her to share your state, and Watch +too! I take none with me.'</p> + +<p>'If we are all in King Harry's cause, there will be hope of +meeting, and then if--'</p> + +<p>'Ah! I see a horseman coming! Is it my father?'</p> + +<p>It was a horseman who met them, taking off his cap of +maintenance and bowing low to the Prioress and the young lady, but +it was the seneschal of the castle, not the father whom Anne so +dreaded, but an old gentleman, Walter Wenlock, with whom there was +a greeting as of an old friend. My lord had gone with the Earl of +Warwick to Queen Margaret in France, and had sent a messenger with +a letter to meet his daughter at York, and tell her to go to the +house of the Poor Clares in London instead of coming home, 'and +there await him.'</p> + +<p>The route that had been taken by the party accounted for their +not having met the messenger and it was plain that they must go on +to London. The evening was beginning to draw in, and a night's +lodging was necessary. Anne assumed a little dignity.</p> + +<p>'My good friends who have guarded me, I hope you will do me the +honour to rest for the night in my father's castle.'</p> + +<p>The seneschal bowed acquiescence, but the poor man was evidently +sorely perplexed by such an extensive invitation on the part of his +young lady on his peace establishment, though the Prioress did her +best to assist Anne to set him at ease. 'Here is Sir Giles +Musgrave, the Lord of Peelholm on the Borders, a staunch friend of +King Harry, with a band of stout archers, and this gentleman from +the north is with him.' (It had been agreed that the Clifford name +should not be mentioned till the way had been felt with Warwick, +one of whose cousins had been granted the lands of the Black Lord +Clifford.)</p> + +<p>The seneschal bent before Musgrave courteously, saying he was +happy to welcome so good and brave a knight, and he prayed his +followers to excuse if their fare was scant and homely, being that +he was unprovided for the honour.</p> + +<p>'No matter, sir,' returned Musgrave; 'we are used to soldiers' +fare.'</p> + +<p>'And,' proceeded Anne, 'Master Lorimer must lie here, and his +wains.'</p> + +<p>'Master Lorimer,' said the Prioress, 'with whom belike--Lorimer +of Barnet--Sir Seneschal has had dealings,' and she put forward the +merchant, who had been falling back to his waggon.</p> + +<p>'Yea,' said Walter Wenlock frankly, holding out his hand. 'We +have bought your wares and made proof of them, good sir. I am glad +to welcome you, though I never saw you to the face before.'</p> + +<p>'Great thanks, good seneschal. All that I would ask would be +licence for my wains to stand in your court to-night while my +fellows and I sup and lodge at the hostel.'</p> + +<p>The hospitality of Bletso could not suffer this, and both Anne +and the seneschal were urgent that all should remain, Wenlock +reflecting that if the store for winter consumption were devoured, +even to the hog waiting to be killed, he could obtain fresh +supplies from the tenants, so he ushered all into the court, and +summoned steward, cooks, and scullions to do their best. It was not +a castle, only a castellated house, which would not have been +capable of long resistance in time of danger, but the court and +stables gave ample accommodation for the animals and the waggons, +and the men were bestowed in the great open hall, reaching to the +top of the house, where all would presently sup.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the seneschal conducted the ladies and their two +attendants to a tiny chamber, where an enormous bed was being made +ready by the steward's wife and her son, and in which all four +ladies would sleep, the Prioress and Anne one way, the other two +foot to foot with them! They had done so before, so were not +surprised, and the lack of furniture was a matter of course. Their +mails were brought up, a pitcher of water and a bowl, and they made +their preparations for supper. Anne was in high spirits at the +dreaded meeting, and still more dreaded parting, having been +deferred, and she skipped about the room, trying to gather up her +old recollections. 'Yes, I remember that bit of tapestry, and the +man that stands there among the sheep. Is it King David, think you, +Mother, about to throw his stone at the lion and the bear?'</p> + +<p>'Lion and bear, child! 'Tis the three goddesses and Paris +choosing the fairest to give the golden apple.'</p> + +<p>'Methought that was the lion's mane, but I see a face.'</p> + +<p>'What would the Lady Venus say to have her golden locks taken +for a lion's mane?'</p> + +<p>'I like black hair,' said Anne.</p> + +<p>'Better not fix thy mind on any hue! We poor women have no +choice save what fathers make for us.'</p> + +<p>'O good my mother, peace! They are all in France, and there's no +need to spoil this breathing time with thinking of what is coming! +Good old Wenlock! I used to ride on his shoulder! I'm right glad to +see him again! I must tell him in his ear to put Hal well above the +salt! May not I tell him in his ear who he is?'</p> + +<p>'Safer not, my maid, till we know what King Harry can do for +him. Better that his name should not get abroad till he can have +his own.'</p> + +<p>A great bell brought all down, and Anne was pleased to see that +her seneschal made no question about placing Harry Clifford beside +the Prioress, who sat next to the Lord of Peelholm, who sat next to +the young daughter of the house in the seat of honour.</p> + +<p>The nuns, Master Lorimer, and one of the archers, who was a +Border squire, besides Master Wenlock, occupied the high table on +the dais, and the archers, grooms, and the rest of the household +were below.</p> + +<p>The fare was not scanty nor unsubstantial, but evidently hastily +prepared, being chiefly broiled slices of beef, on which salting +had begun; but there was a lack of bread, even of barley, though +there was no want of drink.</p> + +<p>However, the Prioress was good-humoured, and forestalled all +excuses by jests about travellers' meals and surprises in the way +of guests, and both she and Sir Giles were anxious for Wenlock's +news of the state of things.</p> + +<p>He knew much more of the course of affairs than they in their +northern homes and on their journey.</p> + +<p>'The realm is divided,' he said. 'Those who hold to King Harry, +as you gentles do, are in high joy, but there be many, spoken with +respect, who cannot face about so fast, and hold still for York, +though they mislike the Queen's kindred. Of such are the +merchantmen of London.'</p> + +<p>'Is it so?' asked Lorimer. 'If King Edward be as deep in debt to +them as to me for housings and bridle reins methinks he should not +be in good odour in their nostrils.'</p> + +<p>'Yea,' said Wenlock, 'but if he be gone a beggar to Burgundy +what becomes of their debt?'</p> + +<p>'I would not give much for it were he restored a score of +times,' said the Prioress. 'What would he do but plunge +deeper?'</p> + +<p>'There would be hope, though, of getting an order on the royal +demesne, or the crown jewels, or the taxes,' said Lorimer. 'Nay, I +hold one even now that will be but waste if he come not back.'</p> + +<p>'And this poor King spendeth nothing save on priests and +masses,' said Wenlock.</p> + +<p>Hal started forward, eager to hear of his King, and Musgrave +said, 'A holy man is he.'</p> + +<p>'Too holy for a King,' said the seneschal. 'He looked like a +woolsack across a horse when my Lord of Warwick led him down +Cheapside; and only the rabble cried out "Long live King Harry!" +but some scoffed and said they saw a mere gross monk with a baby +face where they had been wont to see a comely prince full of +manhood, with a sword instead of beads.'</p> + +<p>'His son will please them,' said Musgrave. 'He was a goodly +child, full of spirit, when last I saw him.'</p> + +<p>'If so be he have not too much of the Frenchwoman, his mother, +in him,' said Wenlock. 'A losing lot, as poor as any rats, and as +proud as very peacocks.'</p> + +<p>'She was gracious enough and won all hearts on the Border,' +replied Musgrave.</p> + +<p>'Come, come!' put in the Prioress, 'you may have the chance yet +to break a lance on her behalf. No fear but she is royal enough to +shine down King Edward's low-born love, the Widow Grey!'</p> + +<p>'Ay, there lay the cause of discontent,' said Lorimer; 'the +upstart ways of her kin were not to be borne. To hear Dick +Woodville chaffer about the blazoning of his horse-gear when he was +wedding the fourscore-year-old Duchess of Norfolk, one would have +thought he was an emperor at the very least.'</p> + +<p>'Widow Grey has done something for her husband's cause,' said +the seneschal, 'in bringing him at last a fair son, all in his +exile, and she in sanctuary at Westminster. The London citizens are +ever touched through all the fat about their hearts by whatever +would sound well in the mouth of a ballad-monger.'</p> + +<p>'My King, my King, what of him?' sighed Hal in the Prioress's +ear, and she made the inquiry for him: 'What said you of King +Henry, Sir Seneschal? How did he fare in his captivity?'</p> + +<p>'Not so ill, methinks,' said the seneschal. 'He had the range of +the Tower, and St. Peter's in the Fetters to pray in, which was +what he heeded most; also he had a messan dog, and a tame bird. +Indeed, men said he had laid on much flesh since he had been mewed +up there; and my lord, who went with my Lord of Warwick to fetch +him, said his garments were scarce so cleanly as befitted. 'Twas +hard to make him understand. First he clasped his hands, and bowed +his head, crying out that he forgave those who came to slay him, +and when he found it was all the other way, he stood like one +dazed, let his hand be kissed, and they say is still in the hands +of my Lord Archbishop of York just as if he were the waxen image of +St. John in a procession.'</p> + +<p>'The Earl and the Queen will have to do the work,' said the +Prioress, 'and they will no more hold together than a couple of +wild hawks will hunt in company. How long do you give them to tear +out one another's eyes?'</p> + +<p>'Son and daughter may keep them together,' said Musgrave,</p> + +<p>'Hatred of the Woodvilles is more like, a poor band though it +be,' said the Prioress. 'These are stirring times! I'll not go back +to my anchoress lodge in the north till I see what works out of +them! Meantime, to our beds, sweet Anne, since 'tis an early start +tomorrow.'</p> + +<p>The Prioress, who had become warmly interested in Hal, and had +divined the feeling between him and Anne, thought that if she could +obtain access to the Archbishop of York, Warwick's brother George, +she could deal with him to procure Clifford's restitution in name +and in blood, and at least his De Vesci inheritance, if Dick Nevil, +who had grasped the Clifford lands, could not be induced to give +them up.</p> + +<p>'I have seen George Nevil,' she said, 'when I was instituted to +Greystone. He is of kindlier mood than his brothers, and more a +valiant trencherman and hunter than aught else. If I had him on the +moors and could show him some sport with a red deer, I could turn +him round my finger.'</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVI. THE HERMIT IN THE TOWER</h3> + +<p>Thy pity hath been balm to heal their wounds,<br> +Thy mildness hath allayed their swelling griefs,<br> +Thy mercy dried their ever flowing tears.--SHAKESPEARE.</p> + +<p>Early in the morning, while the wintry sun was struggling with +mists, and grass and leaves were dark with frost, the Prioress was +in her saddle. Perhaps the weather might have constrained a longer +stay, but that it was clear to her keen eyes that, however welcome +Wenlock might make his young lady, there was little provision and +no welcome for thorough-going Lancastrians like Sir Giles's troop, +who had besides a doubtful Robin Hood-like reputation; and as +neither she nor Anne wished to ride forward without them, they +decided to go on all together as before.</p> + +<p>And a very wet and slightly snowy journey they had, 'meeting in +snow and parting in snow,' as Hal said, as he marched by Anne's +bridle-rein, leading her pony, so as to leave her hands free to +hold cloak and hood close about her.</p> + +<p>She sighed, and put one hand on his, but a gust of wind took +that opportunity of getting under her cloak and sending it +fluttering over her back, so that he had to catch it and return it +to her grasp.</p> + +<p>'Let us take that as a prophecy that storms shall not hinder our +further meeting! It may be! It may be! Who knows what my King may +do for us?'</p> + +<p>'Only a storm can bring us together! But that may--'</p> + +<p>Her breath was blown away again before the sentence was +finished, if it was meant to be finished, and Master Lorimer came +to insist on the ladies taking shelter in his covered waggon, where +the Prioress was already installed.</p> + +<p>Through rain and sleet they reached Chipping Barnet in due time +on the third day's journey, and here they were to part from the +merchant's wains. He had sent forward, and ample cheer was provided +at the handsome timbered and gabled house at the porch of which +stood his portly wife, with son, daughter, and son-in-law, ready to +welcome the party, bringing them in to be warmed and dried before +sitting down to the excellent meal which it had been Mistress +Lorimer's pride and pleasure to provide. There was a small nunnery +at Barnet, but not very near, and the Prioress Agnes did not think +herself bound to make her way thither in the dark and snow, so she +remained, most devoutly waited on by her hostess, and discussed the +very last tidings, which had been brought that morning by the +foreman whom Mistress Lorimer had sent to bring the news to her +husband.</p> + +<p>It was probable that the Lord of Bletso was with Warwick and the +Queen, as he had not been heard of at his home. The King was in the +royal apartments of the Tower, under the charge of the Chancellor. +The Earl of Oxford, a steady partisan of the Red Rose, was +Constable of the Kingdom, and was guarding the Tower.</p> + +<p>On hearing this, Musgrave decided to repair at once to the Earl, +one of the few men in whom there was confidence, since he had never +changed his allegiance, and to take his counsel as to the +recognition of young Clifford. On the way to the Tower they would +leave the Prioress and her suite at the Sister Minoresses', till +news could be heard of the Baron St. John.</p> + +<p>So for the last time the travellers rode forth in slightly +improved weather. Harry's heart beat high with the longing soon to +be in the presence of him who had opened so many doors of life to +his young mind, whom he so heartily loved, and who, it might be, +could give him that which he began to feel would be the joy of his +life.</p> + +<p>The archers, who had been lodged in the warehouses, were drawn +up in a compact body, and Master Lorimer, who had a shop in +Cheapside, decided on accompanying them, partly to be at the scene +of action and partly to facilitate their entrance.</p> + +<p>So Hal walked by the side of Anne St. John's bridle-rein, with a +very full heart, swelling with sensations he did not understand, +and which kept him absolutely silent, untrained as he was in the +conventionalities which would have made speech easier to him. Nor +had Anne much more command of tongue, and all she did was to keep +her hand upon the shoulder of her squire; but there was much +involuntary meaning in the yearning grasp of those fingers, and +both fed on the hopes the Prioress had given them.</p> + +<p>Christmas was close at hand, and fatted cattle on their way to +market impeded the way, so that Hal's time was a good deal taken up +in steering the pony along, and in preventing Watch from getting +into a battle with the savage dogs that guarded them. Penrith +market, where once he had been, had never shown him anything like +such a concourse, and he could hear muttered exclamations from the +archers, who walked by Sir Giles's orders in a double line on each +side the horses, their pikes keeping off the blundering approach of +bullocks or sheep. 'By the halidome, if the Scots were among them, +they might victual their whole kingdom till Domesday!'</p> + +<p>The tall spire of old St. Paul's and the four turrets of the +Tower began to rise on them, and were pointed out by Master +Lorimer, for even Sir Giles had only once in his life visited the +City, and no one else of the whole band from the north had ever +been there. The road was bordered by the high walls of monasteries, +overshadowed by trees, and at the deep gateway of one of these +Lorimer called a halt. It was the house of the Minoresses or Poor +Clares, where the ladies were to remain. The six weeks' +companionship would come to an end, and the Prioress was heartily +sorry for it. 'I shall scarce meet such good company at the +Clares',' she said, laughing, as she took leave of Lord Musgrave, +'Mayhap when I go back to my hills I shall remember your goodwife's +offer of hospitality, Master Lorimer.'</p> + +<p>Master Lorimer bowed low, expressed his delight in the prospect, +and kissed the Prioress's hand, but the heavy door was already +being opened, and with an expressive look of drollery and +resignation, the good lady withdrew her hand, hastily brought her +Benedictine hood and veil closely over her face, and rode into the +court, followed by her suite. Anne had time to let her hand be +kissed by Sir Giles and Hal, who felt as if a world had closed on +him as the heavy doors clanged together behind the Sisters. But the +previous affection of his young life lay before him as Sir Giles +rode on to the fortified Aldgate, and after a challenge from the +guard, answered by a watchword from Lorimer, and an inquiry for +whom the knight held, they were admitted, and went on through an +increasing crowd trailing boughs of holly and mistletoe, to the +north gateway of the Tower. Here they parted with Lorimer, with +friendly greetings and promises to come and see his stall at +Cheapside.</p> + +<p>There was a man-at-arms with the star of the De Veres emblazoned +on his breast, and a red rosette on his steel cap, but he would not +admit the new-comers till Sir Giles had given his name, and it had +been sent in by another of the garrison to the Earl of Oxford.</p> + +<p>Presently, after some waiting in the rain, and looking up with +awe at the massive defences, two knights appeared with outstretched +hands of welcome. Down went the drawbridge, up went the portcullis, +the horses clattered over the moat, and the reception was hearty +indeed. 'Well met, my Lord of Musgrave! I knew you would soon be +where Red Roses grew.'</p> + +<p>'Welcome, Sir Giles! Methought you had escaped after the fight +at Hexham.'</p> + +<p>'Glad indeed to meet you, brave Sir John, and you, good Lord of +Holmdale! Is all well with the King?'</p> + +<p>'As well as ever it will be. The Constable is nigh at hand! You +have brought us a stout band of archers, I see! We will find a use +for them if March chooses to show his presumptuous nose here +again!'</p> + +<p>'And hither comes my Lord Constable! It rejoices his heart to +hear of such staunch following.'</p> + +<p>The Earl of Oxford, a stern, grave man of early middle age, was +coming across the court-yard, and received Sir Giles with the +heartiness that became the welcome of a proved and trustworthy +ally. After a few words, Musgrave turned and beckoned to Hal, who +advanced, shy and colouring.</p> + +<p>'Ha! young Lord Clifford! I am glad to see you! I knew your +father well, rest his soul! The King spoke to me of the son of a +loyal house living among the moors.'</p> + +<p>'The King was very good to me,' faltered Hal, crimson with +eagerness.</p> + +<p>'Ay, ay! I sent not after you, having enough to do here; and +besides, till we have the strong hand, and can do without that +heady kinsman of Warwick, it will be ill for you to disturb the +rogue--what's his name--to whom your lands have been granted, and +who might turn against the cause and maybe make a speedy end of you +if he knew you present. Be known for the present as Sir Giles +counsels. Better not put his name forward,' he added to +Musgrave.</p> + +<p>'I care not for lands,' said Hal, 'only to see the King.'</p> + +<p>'See him you shall, my young lord, and if he be not in one of +his trances, he will be right glad to see you and remember you. But +he is scarce half a man,' added Oxford, turning to Musgrave. 'Cares +for nought but his prayers! Keeps his Hours like a monk! We can +hardly bring him to sit in the Council, and when he is there he +sits scarce knowing what we say. 'Tis my belief, when the Queen and +Prince come, that we shall have to make the Prince rule in his +name, and let him alone to his prayers! He will be in the church. +'Tis nones, or some hour as they call it, and he makes one stretch +out to another.'</p> + +<p>They entered the low archway of St. Peter ad Vincula, and there +Hal perceived a figure in a dark mantle just touched with gold, +kneeling near the chancel step, almost crouching. Did he not know +the attitude, though the back was broader than of old? He paused, +as did his companions; but there was one who did not pause, and +would not be left outside. Watch unseen had pattered up, and was +rearing up, jumping and fawning. There was a call of 'Watch! here +sirrah!' but 'Watch! Watch! Good dog! Is it thou indeed?' was +exclaimed at the same moment, and with Watch springing up, King +Henry stood on his feet looking round with his dazed glance.</p> + +<p>'My King! my hermit father! Forgive! Down, Watch!' cried Hal, +falling down at his feet, with one arm holding down Watch, who +tried to lick his face and the King's hand by turns.</p> + +<p>'Is it thou, my child, my shepherd?' said Henry, his hands on +the lad's head. 'Bless thee! Oh, bless thee, much loved child of my +wanderings! I have longed after thee, and prayed for thee, and now +God hath given thee to me at this shrine! Kneel and give the Lord +thy best thanks, my lad! Ah! how tall thou art! I should not have +known thee, Hal, but for Watch.'</p> + +<p>'It is well,' muttered Oxford to Musgrave. 'I have not seen him +so well nor so cheery all this day. The lad will waken him up and +do him good.'</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVII. A CAPTIVE KING</h3> + +<p>And we see far on holy ground,<br> +If duly purged our mental view.--KEBLE.</p> + +<p>The King held Harry Clifford by the hand as he left St. Peter's +Church. 'My child, my shepherd boy,' he said, and he called Watch +after him, and interested himself in establishing a kind of +suspicious peace between the shaggy collie and his own 'Minion,' a +small white curly-haired dog, which belonged to a family that had +been brought by Queen Margaret from Provence.</p> + +<p>His attendant knight, Sir Nicolas Romford, told Sir Giles +Musgrave that he had really never seemed so happy since his +deliverance, and Sir Nicolas had waited on him ever since his +capture, six years previously. He led the youth along to the royal +rooms, asking on the way after his sheep and the goodwife who had +sent him presents of eggs, then showing him the bullfinch, that +greeted his return with loving chirps, and when released from its +cage came and sat upon his shoulder and played with his hair, 'A +better pet than a fierce hawk, eh, Hal?' he said.</p> + +<p>He laughed when he found that Harry thought he had spent all +this time in a dark underground dungeon with fetters on his +feet.</p> + +<p>'Oh no!' he said; 'they were kindly jailors. They dealt better +with me than with my Master.'</p> + +<p>'Sir, sir, that terrible ride through Cheapside!' said Harry. +'We heard of it at Derwent-side, and we longed to have our pikes at +the throats of the villain traitors.'</p> + +<p>The King looked as if he hardly remembered that cruel +procession, when he was set upon a sorry jade with his feet tied to +the stirrups, and shouts of 'Behold the traitor!' around him. Then +with a sweet smile of sudden recollection, he said, 'Ah! I recall +it, and how I rejoiced to be led in the steps of my Lord, and how +the cries sounded, "We will not have this man to reign over us!" +Gratias ago, unworthy me, who by my own fault could not reign.'</p> + +<p>Harry was silenced, awe-struck, and by-and-by the King took him +to see his old chamber in the White Tower, up a winding stone +stair. It was not much inferior to the royal lodgings, except in +the matter of dais, canopy, and tapestry, and the window looked out +into the country, so that the King said he had loved it, and it had +many a happy thought connected with it.</p> + +<p>Hal followed him in a sort of silent wonder, if not awe, not +daring to answer him in monosyllables. This was not quite the +hermit of Derwentdale. It was a broader man--not with the breadth +of full strength, but of inactivity and advance of years, though +the fiftieth year was only lately completed--and the royal robe of +crimson, touched with gold, suited him far less thaft the brown +serge of the anchoret. The face was no longer thin, sunburnt, and +worn, but pale, and his checks slightly puffed, and the eyes and +smile, with more of the strange look of innocent happiness than of +old, and of that which seemed to bring back to his young visitor +the sense of peace and well-being that the saintly hermit had +always given him.</p> + +<p>There was consultation that evening between Lord Oxford and Sir +Giles Musgrave. It was better, they agreed, to let young Clifford +remain with the King as much as possible, but without divulging his +name. The King knew it, and indeed had known it, when he received +the boy at his hermitage, but he seemed to have forgotten it, as he +had much besides. Oxford said that though he could be roused into +actual fulfilment of such forms as were required of him, and +understood what was set before him, his memory and other powers +seemed to have been much impaired, and it was held wiser not to +call on him more than could be helped, till the Queen and her son +should come to supply the energy that was wanting. They would make +the gay and brilliant appearance that the Londoners had admired in +Edward of York, and which could not be obtained from poor +Henry.</p> + +<p>His memory for actual matters was much impaired. Never for two +days together could he recollect that his son and Warwick's +daughter were married, and it was always by an effort that he +remembered that the Prince of Wales was not the eight-years-old +child whom he had last seen. As to young Clifford, he sometimes +seemed to think the tall nineteen-years-old stripling was just +where he had left the child of twelve or thirteen, and if he +perceived the age, was so far confused that it was not quite +certain that he might not mix him up with his own son, though the +knight in constant attendance was sure that he was clear on that +point, and only looked on 'Hal' as the child of his teaching and +prayers.</p> + +<p>But Harry Clifford could not persuade him to enter into that +which more and more lay near the youthful heart, the rescuing Anne +St. John from the suitor of whom little that was hopeful was heard; +and the obtaining her from his father. Of course this could not be +unless Harry could win his father's property, and no longer be +under the attaint in blood, so as to be able to lay claim to the +lands of the De Vescis through his mother; but though the King +listened with kindly interest to the story of the children's +adventure on the Londesborough moor, and the subsequent meeting in +Westmorland, the rescue from the outlaws, and the journey together, +it was all like a romance to him--he would nod his head and promise +to do what he could, if he could, but he never remembered it for +two days together, and if Hal ventured on anything like pressure, +the only answer was, 'Patience, my son, patience must have her +work! It is the will of God, it will be right.'</p> + +<p>And when Hal began to despair and work himself up and seek to do +more with one so impracticable, Lord Oxford and Sir Giles warned +him not to force his real name and claims too much, for he did not +need too many enemies nor to have Lord St. John and the Nevil who +held his lands both anxious to sweep him from their path.</p> + +<p>Nor was anything heard from or of the Prioress of Greystone, and +whenever the name of George Nevil, the Chancellor and Archbishop of +York, was heard, Hal's heart burnt with anxiety, and fear that the +lady had forgotten him, though as Dick Nevil, who held the lands of +Clifford, was known to be in his suite, it was probable that she +was acting out of prudence.</p> + +<p>The turmoil of anxious impatience seemed to be quelled when Hal +sat on a stool before the King, with Watch leaning against his +knee. The instruction or meditation seemed to be taken up much +where it had been left six years before, with the same unanswerable +questions, only the youth had thought out a great deal more, and +the hermit had advanced in a wisdom which was not that of the +rough, practical world.</p> + +<p>Part of Clifford's day was spent in the tilt-yard, where his two +friends, as well as himself, were anxious that he should acquire +proficiency and ease such as would become his station, when he +recovered it; and a martinet old squire of Oxford proved himself +nearly as hard a master as ever Simon Bunce had been.</p> + +<p>One very joyous day came to Henry in his regal capacity. +Christmas Day had been quietly spent. There was much noisy +revelling in the city, and the guards in the castle had their +feastings, but Warwick was daily expected to return from France, +and neither his brother nor the Archbishop thought that there was +much policy in making a public spectacle of a puppet King.</p> + +<p>But there was one ceremony from which Henry would not be +debarred. He would make the public offering on the Epiphany in +Westminster Abbey. He had done so ever since he was old enough to +totter up to the altar and hold the offerings; and his heart was +set on doing so once more. So a large and quiet cream-coloured +Flemish horse was brought for him, he was robed in purple and +ermine, with a coronal around the cap that covered his hair, fast +becoming white. His train in full array followed him, and the +streets were thronged, but there was an ominous lack of applause, +and even a few audible jeers at the monk dressed up like the +jackdaw in peacock's plumes, and comparisons with Edward, in sooth +a king worth looking at.</p> + +<p>Henry seemed not to heed or hear. His blue eyes looked upward, +his face was set in peaceful contemplation, his lips were moving, +and those who were near enough caught murmurs of 'Vidimus enim +stellam Ejus in Oriente et venimus adorare Eum.' Truly the one +might be a king to suit the kingdoms of this world, the other had a +soul near the Kingdom of Heaven.</p> + +<p>The Dean and choir received him at the west door, and with the +same rapt countenance he paced up to the sanctuary, and knelt +before the chair appropriated to him, while the grand Epiphany +Celebration was gone through, in all its glory and beauty of sound +and sight, and with the King kneeling with clasped hands, and a +radiant look of happiness almost transfiguring that worn face.</p> + +<p>When the offertory anthem was sung, he rose up, and advanced to +the altar. A salver of gold coins was presented to him, which he +took and solemnly laid on the altar, but paused for a moment, and +removed his crown with both hands, placing it likewise on the +altar, and kneeling for a moment ere he turned to take the vase +whence breathed the fragrant odour of frankincense; and presenting +this, and afterwards kneeling and bowing low with clasped hands, he +again took the salver in which the myrrh was laid. This again he +placed on the altar, and remained kneeling in intense devotion +through the remainder of the service, only looking up at the +'Sursum Corda,' when those near enough to see his countenance said +that they never knew before the full import of those words, nor how +the heart could be uplifted.</p> + +<p>It was the first time that Hal Clifford had ever joined in the +full ceremonial of the Church, or in such splendid accompaniment, +for though there had been the rightful ritual at St. Peter's in the +Tower, the space had been confined, and the clergy few, and the +whole, even on Christmas Day, had been more or less a training to +him to enter into what he now saw and heard. He had in these last +weeks gathered much of the meaning of all this from the King, who +perhaps never fully disentangled the full-grown youth from the boy +he had taught at Derwentdale, but who, perhaps for that very cause, +really suited better the strange mixture of ignorance, simplicity, +observation and aspiration of the shepherd lord.</p> + +<p>The King did not help more but less than he had done before in +Hal's researches and wonderings about natural objects; he had +forgotten the philosophies he had once read, and the supposed +circuits of moon, planets and stars only perplexed and worried his +brain. It was much more satisfactory to refer all to 'He hath made +them fast for ever and ever, He hath given them a law which shall +not be broken,' and he could not understand Hal's desire to find +out what that law was, and far less his calculations about the +tides. He had scarcely ever seen the sea, and as to its motions, +'Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther' was sufficient +explanation, and when Hal tried to show him the correspondence +between spring tides and full moons he either waved him away or +fell asleep.</p> + +<p>But on the spiritual side of his mind there was no torpor. He +loved to explain the sense of the prayers to his willing pupil, and +to tell him the Gospel story, dwelling on whatever could waken or +carry on the Christian life; and between the tiltyard and the +oratory Hal spent a strange life.</p> + +<p>That question which had occurred to him on the journey Hal +ventured to lay before his King--'Was it really and truly better +and more acceptable worship that came to breathe through him when +alone with God under the open vault of Heaven, with endless stars +above and beyond, or was the best that which was beautified and +guided by priests, with all that man's devices could lavish upon +its embellishment?' Such, though in more broken and hesitating +words, was the herd boy's difficulty, and Henry put his head back, +and after having once said, 'Adam had the one, God directed the +other,' he shut his eyes, and Hal feared he would put it aside as +he had with the moon and the tides, but after some delay, he leant +forward and said, 'My son, if man had always been innocent, that +worship as Adam and Eve had it might--nay, would--have sufficed +them. The more innocent man is, the better his heart rises. But sin +came into the world, and expiation was needed, not only here on +earth, but before the just God in Heaven above. Therefore doth He, +who hath once offered Himself in sacrifice for us, eternally +present His offering in Heaven before the Mercy-Seat, and we +endeavour as much as our poor feeble efforts can, to take part in +what He does above, and bring it home to our senses by all that can +represent to us the glories of Heaven.'</p> + +<p>There was much in this that went beyond Hal, who knitted his +brow, and would have asked further, but the King fell into a state +of contemplation, and noticed nothing, until presently he broke out +into a thanksgiving: 'Blessed be my Lord, who hath granted me once +more to follow in the steps of the kings of the East, though but as +in a dream, and lay my crown and my prayer before Him. Once more I +thank Thee, O my true King of kings, and Lord of lords.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, do not say once more!' exclaimed Hal. 'Again and again, I +trust, sir. It is no dream. It is real.'</p> + +<p>The King smiled and shook his head. 'It is all a dream to me,' +he said, 'the pageants and the whole. They will not last! Oh, no! +It is all but an empty show.'</p> + +<p>Hal looked up anxiously, and the King went on: 'Well do I +remember the day when, scarce able to walk, and weighed down by my +robes, I tottered up to the altar and was well pleased to make my +offering, and how my Lord of Warwick, who was then, took me in his +arms, and showed me my great father's figure on his grave, and told +me I was bound to be such a king as he! Alas! was it mine own error +that I so failed?--</p> + +<center>Henry born at Monmouth shall short live and gain all,<br> +Henry born at Windsor shall long live and lose all.'</center> + +<br> +<br> + + +<p>'Oh, sir, sir, do not speak of that old saw!'</p> + +<p>Still the King smiled. 'It has come true, my child. All is lost, +and it may be well for my soul that thus it should be, and that I +should go into the presence of my God freed from the load of what +was gained unjustly. I know not whether, if my hand had been +stronger, I should have striven to have borne up the burthen of +these two realms, but they never ought to have been mine, and if +the sins of the forefathers be visited on the children to the third +and fourth generation, no marvel that my brain and mine arm could +but sink under the weight. Would that I had yielded at once, and +spared the bloodshed and sacrilege! Miserere mei! My son was a +temptation. Oh, my poor boy! is he to be the heir to all that has +come on me? Have pity on him, good Lord!'</p> + +<p>'Nay, sir, your brave son will come home to comfort you, and +help you and make all well.'</p> + +<p>'I know not! I know not! I cannot believe that I shall see him +again, or that the visitation of these crimes is not still to come! +My son, my sweet son, I can only pray that he might give up his +soul sackless and freer of guilt than his father can be, when I +remember all that I ought to have hindered when I could think and +use my will! Now, now all is but confusion! God has taken away my +judgment, even as He did with my French grandsire, and I can only +let others act as they will, and pray for them and for myself.'</p> + +<p>He had never spoken at such length, nor so clearly, and whenever +he was required to come forward, he merely walked, rode, sat or +signed rolls as he was told to do, and continually made mistakes as +to the persons brought to him, generally calling them by their +fathers' names, if he recognised them at all, but still to his +nearest attendants, and especially to his beloved herd boy, he was +the same gentle, affectionate being, never so happy as at his +prayers, and sometimes speaking of holy things as one almost +inspired.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII. AT THE MINORESSES'</h3> + +<p>The bird that hath been limed in a bush,<br> +With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush.--SHAKESPEARE.</p> + +<p>One day, soon after that Twelfth Day, Hal accompanied Sir Giles +Musgrave to the shop or stall of Master Lorimer in Cheapside, a +wide space, open by day but closed by shutters at night, where all +sorts of gilded and emblazoned leather-works for man or horse were +displayed, and young 'prentices called, 'What d'ye lack?' 'Saddle +of the newest make?' 'Buff coat fit to keep out the spear of Black +Douglas himself?'</p> + +<p>''Tis Master Lorimer himself I lack,' said Musgrave with a +good-humoured smile, and the merchant appeared from a room in the +rear, something between a counting-house and a bedroom, where he +welcomed his former companions, and insisted on their tasting the +good sherris sack that had been sent with his last cargo of Spanish +leather.</p> + +<p>'I would I could send a flask to our good Prioress,' he said, +'to cheer her heart. I went to the Minoresses' as she bade me, to +settle some matters of account with her, and after some ado, Sister +Mabel came down to the parlour and told me the Prioress is very +sick with a tertian fever, and they misdoubt her recovering.'</p> + +<p>'And the young Lady of St. John.'</p> + +<p>'She is well enough, but sadly woeful as to the Mother Prioress, +and likewise as to what they hear of the Lord Redgrave. It is the +old man, not his son, a hard and stark old man, as I remember. He +would have bargained with me for the coats of the poor rogues slain +at St. Albans, and right evil was his face as he spoke thereof, he +being then for Queen Margaret; but then he went over to King +Edward, and glutted himself with slaughter at Towton, and here he +calls himself Red Rose again. Ill-luck to the poor young maid if +she falls to him!'</p> + +<p>It was terrible news for Hal, and Musgrave could not but gratify +him by riding by the Minories to endeavour to hear further tidings +of the Prioress.</p> + +<p>It was a grand building in fine pointed architecture, for the +Clares, though once poor, in imitation of St. Clara and St. +Francis, had been dispensed collectively from their vow of poverty, +and though singly incapable of holding property, had a considerable +accumulation en masse. They were themselves a strict Order, but +they often gave lodgings to ladies either in retreat or for any +cause detained near London.</p> + +<p>Sir Giles and Harry were only admitted to the outer court, +whence the portress went with their message of inquiry. They waited +a long time, and then the Greystone lay Sister who had been the +companion of their journey came back in company with the +portress.</p> + +<p>'Benedicite, dear gentles,' she said; 'oh, you are a sight for +sair een.'</p> + +<p>'And how fares the good Mother Prioress?' asked the Lord of +Peelholm.</p> + +<p>'Alack! she is woefully ill when the fever takes her, and she is +wasted away so that you would scarce know her; but this is one of +the better days, and if you, sir, will come into the parlour, she +will see you. She was arraying herself as I came down. She was +neither to have nor to hold when she heard you were there, and said +a north country face would be better to her than all the Sisters' +potions!'</p> + +<p>They were accordingly conducted through a graceful cloister, +overgrown with trailing ivy, to a bare room, with mullioned +windows, and frescoes on the Walls with the history of St. Francis +relieving beggars, preaching to the birds, &c., and with a +stout open work barrier cutting off half the room.</p> + +<p>Presently the Prioress tottered in, leaning heavily on the arms +of Sister Mabel and of Anne St. John, while her own lay Sister and +another placed a seat for her; but before she would sit down, she +would go up to the opening, and turning back her veil, put out a +hand to be grasped. 'Right glad am I to see you, good Sir Giles and +young Harry. Are you going back to the wholesome winds of our +moors?'</p> + +<p>'Not yet, holy Mother. It grieves me to see you faring so +ill.'</p> + +<p>'Ah! a breeze from the north would bring life back to my old +bones. Aye, Giles, this place has made an old woman of me.' And +truly her bright ruddy face was faded to a purple hue, and her +cheeks hung haggard and almost withered, but as her visitors +expressed their grief and sympathy, she went on in her own tone. +'And tell me somewhat of how things are going. How doth Richard of +Warwick comport himself to the King? Hath your King zest enough to +reign? Is my White Rose King still abroad in Burgundy?' And as Sir +Giles replied to each inquiry in turn, and told all he could of +political matters, she exclaimed: 'Ah! that is better than the +hearing whether the black hen hath laid an egg, or the skein of +yellow silk matches. I am weary, O! I am weary. Moreover, young +Hal, I know as matters are that could I see George Nevil face to +face I could do somewhat with him, and I laid my plans to obtain a +meeting, but therewith, what with vexation and weariness and lack +of air, comes this sickness, and I am laid aside and can do nought +but pray, and lay my plans to meet him some day in the fields, and +show him what a hawk can do, then shame him into listening to my +tale. But I must be a sound woman first! And maybe his brother +Warwick, being a sturdy gentleman who loves a brave man, will be +better to deal with. I am a sinful woman, and maybe my devotions +here will help me to be more worthy to be heard. Moreover, I hoped +you had done somewhat in thine own cause with thy King and Earl +Oxford,' she proceeded. 'Thou hast an esquire's coat; hast thou any +hope of thy lands?'</p> + +<p>'I must strive to earn them by deeds,' said Hal. 'And--'</p> + +<p>'Well spoken, lad! 'Tis the manly way; but methought you hadst +interest with this King of thine, or hath he only a royal memory +for services?'</p> + +<p>'He is good to me. Yea, most good,' began Harry.</p> + +<p>'Ay, he loves the boy,' said Sir Giles, 'no question about that; +but his memory for all that is about him hath failed, and there is +nothing for it save to wait for the Queen and the Prince, who will +bear the boy's father's services in mind.'</p> + +<p>'And wherefore tarries the French woman? This maid's father is +to come over with her. He is forming her English court, I trow; she +can have few beside from England.'</p> + +<p>'When he comes,' said Harry, with a look into Anne's eyes that +made them droop and her cheeks burn, 'then shall we put it to the +touch. Then shall I know whether I have mine own, and what is more +than mine own.'</p> + +<p>'Thine own,' whispered Anne. 'Oh, better live in the sheepfolds +with thee than with this Baron! I shudder at the thought.'</p> + +<p>This, and a few more such words were an aside, while the +Prioress continued her conversation with Sir Giles, and went on to +say that she was sure she should never recover till she was out of +these walls, and away from London smoke and London smells, and she +naughtily added in a whisper the weary talk of these good nuns, who +had never flown a hawk or chased a deer in their lives, and thought +Florimond a mere wolf, if not the evil one himself, and kept the +poor hound chained up like a malefactor in gyves, till she was fain +to send him away with Master Lorimer to keep for her.</p> + +<p>She would not go back to her Priory till Anne's fate was +settled, being in hopes of doing something yet for the poor wench; +but meantime she should die if she stayed there much longer, and +she meant to set forth on pilgrimage in good time, before she had +scandalised the good ladies enough to make them gossip to the dames +of St. Helen's, who would be only too glad to have a story against +the Benedictines. A ride over the Kentish downs was the only cure +for her or for Anne, who had been pining ever since they had been +mewed up here, though, looking across at the girl, whose head was +leaning against the bars, Sir Giles seemed to have brought a remedy +to judge by those cheeks.</p> + +<p>'Would that we could hope it would be an effectual and lasting +remedy,' sighed Sir Giles; 'but unless this poor King could be +roused to insist, or the Earl of Warwick fell out with his cousin, +I do not see much chance for the lad.'</p> + +<p>'Is it Warwick who is his chief foe or King Edward?' asked the +Prioress.</p> + +<p>'King Edward, doubtless, for his father's slaughter of young +Rutland at Wakefield.'</p> + +<p>'That bodes ill,' said the lady. 'By all I gather, King Edward +is a tiger when once roused, but at other times is like that same +tiger, purring and slow to move. But there's a bell that warns us +to vespers. They are mightily more strict here than ever we are at +Greystone. Ah! you won't tell tales, Sir Giles! You'll soon hear of +me at St. Thomas's shrine at Canterbury.'</p> + +<p>The knight took his leave. It was impossible not to like and +pity the Prioress, though the life among devout nuns was clearly +beyond her powers.</p> + +<p>The dreamy peaceful days of the Tower of London were stirred by +the arrival of the great Earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker, as people +already called him. He took up his residence in his own mighty +establishment at Warwick House near St. Paul's; and the day after +his arrival, he came clanking over London Bridge with a great +following of knights and squires to pay his respects to King +Henry.</p> + +<p>Henry Clifford was not disposed to meet him, and only watched +from a window when the drawbridge was lowered, and the sturdy man, +with grizzled hair and marked, determined features, rode into the +gateway, where he was received by the Earl of Oxford.</p> + +<p>The interview was long, and when it was finished, the two Earls +made the round of the defences, and Oxford drew up his garrison on +the Tower Green to be inspected.</p> + +<p>When Warwick had taken his leave, Hal was summoned to the +Constable's hall. 'We must be jogging, my young master,' he said. +'There are rumours of King Edward making another attempt for his +crown, and my Lord of Warwick would have me go and watch the +eastern seaboard. And you had best go with me.'</p> + +<p>'The King--' began Hal.</p> + +<p>'You will come back to the King by-and-by if so be he misses +you, but he was more dazed than ever to-day, and perhaps it was +well, for Warwick brought with him Dick Nevil, who has got your +lands of Clifford, and might be tempted to put you out of the way +in one of the dungeons that lie so handy.'</p> + +<p>'No one save the King knows who I am,' said Hal, 'and he forgets +from day to day all save that I am the herd boy, and I think it +cheers him to have me with him. I will stay beside him even as a +varlet.'</p> + +<p>'Nay, my lord, that may not be. 'Tis true he loves thee, but he +will forget anon, and I may not suffer the risk. Too many know or +guess.'</p> + +<p>Harry Clifford repeated that he recked not of the risk when he +could serve and comfort his beloved King, and, indeed, his mind was +made up on the subject. He had taken measures for remaining as one +of the men-at-arms of the garrison; but King Henry himself +surprised him by saying, 'My young Lord of Clifford, fare thee +well. Thou goest forth to-morrow with the Constable of Oxford. Take +my blessing with thee, my child. Thou hast been granted to me to +make life very sweet to me of late, and I thank God for it, but the +time is come that thou must part from me.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, sir, never! None was ever so dear to me! For weal or woe I +will be with you! Suffer me to be your meanest varlet, and serve +you as none other can do.'</p> + +<p>Henry shook his head. 'It may not be, my child, let not thy +blood also be on my head! Go with Oxford and his men. Thou hast +learnt to draw sword and use lance. Thou wilt be serving me still +if again there be, which Heaven forefend, stricken fields in my +cause or my son's.'</p> + +<p>'Sir, if I must fight, let no less holy hand than thine lay +knighthood on my shoulder,' sobbed Hal, kneeling.</p> + +<p>Henry smiled. 'I have well-nigh forgotten the fashion. But if it +will please thee, my son, give me thy sword, Oxford. In the name of +God and St. George of England I dub thee knight. For the Church, +for the honour of God, for a good cause, fight. Arise, Sir Henry +Clifford!'</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XIX. A STRANGE EASTER EVE</h3> + +<p>And spare, O spare<br> +The meek usurper's holy head.--GRAY.</p> + +<p>Once more, at the close of morning service, while it was still +dark, did Harry Clifford, the new-made knight, kneel before King +Henry and feel his hand in blessing on his head. Then he went forth +to join Musgrave and the troop that the Earl of Oxford was leading +from the Tower to raise the counties of East Anglia and watch the +coast against a descent of King Edward from the Low Countries.</p> + +<p>As they passed the walls enclosing the Minories Convent, and Hal +gazed at it wistfully, the wide gateway was opened and out came a +party of black-hooded nuns, mounted on ponies and mules, evidently +waiting till Oxford's band had gone by. Harry drew Sir Giles's +attention, and they lingered, as they became certain that they +beheld the Prioress Selby of Greystone, hawk, hound and all, riding +forth, nearly smothered in her hood, and not so upright as of +old.</p> + +<p>'Ay, here I am!' she said, as he reined up and bowed his +greeting. 'Here I am on my pilgrimage! I got Father Ridley, the +Benedictine head, to order me forth. Methinks he was glad, being a +north countryman, to send me out before I either died on the Poor +Clares' hands, or gave them a fuller store of tales against us of +St. Bennet's! Not but that they are good women, too godly and +devout for a poor wild north country Selby like me, who cannot live +without air.</p> + +<center>O the oak and the ash and the bonny ivy tree,<br> +They flourish best at home in the north countree.</center> + +<br> +<br> + + +<p>Flori, Flori, whither away? Ah! thou hast found thine old +friend. Birds of a feather. Eh? the young folk have foregathered +likewise. Watch! And thou, sir knight, whither are you away?'</p> + +<p>'On our way to Norfolk in case the Duke of York should show +himself on the coast. And yours, reverend Mother?'</p> + +<p>'To Canterbury first by easy journeys. We sleep to-night at the +Tabard, where we shall meet other pilgrims.'</p> + +<p>'Here, alack! our way severs from yours. Farewell, holy Mother, +may you find health on your pilgrimage.'</p> + +<p>'Every breath I take in is health,' said the Mother, who had +already manoeuvred an opening in her veil, and gasped to throw it +back as soon as she should attain an unfrequented place. 'There are +so many coming and going here that all the air is used up by their +greasy nostrils! Well! good luck, and God's blessing go with you, +and you, young Hal, I may say so far, whichever side ye be, but +still I hold that York has the right, and yours may be a saint, but +not a king.'</p> + +<p>Hal had meantime 'forgathered' as the Prioress said with Anne, +marching, in spite of his new honours, close to her stirrup, and +venturing to whisper to her that he was now her knight, and 'her +colours,' which he was to wear for her, were only a tiny scrap of +ribbon from her glove, which he cut off with his dagger, and +kissed, saying he should wear it next his heart, though he might +not do so openly.</p> + +<p>Their love was more implied than ever it had been before, and +she repeated her confidence that the kind Prioress would never +leave her till she had done her utmost for them both.</p> + +<p>'But you, my good stripling, I am ashamed to see you. I have +done nothing for you. I sent a humble message to ask to see the +Archbishop, but had no answer, and by-and-by, when I stirred again, +who should come to see me but young Bertram Selby, and "Kinswoman," +said he, "you had best keep quiet. The Archbishop hath asked me +whether rumours were sooth that yours was scarce a regular Priory." +The squire stood up for me and said, as became one of the family, +that an outlying cell, where there were ill neighbours of Scots, +thieves, borderers, and the like, could scarce look to be as trim +as a city nunnery, and that none had ever heard harm of Mother +Agnes. But then one of his priests took on him to whisper in his +ear, and he demanded whether we had not gone so far as to hide +traitors from justice, to which Bertram returned a stout denial as +well he might, though he thought it well to give me warning, but +for the present there was no use in attempting anything more. The +Archbishop was exceedingly busy with the work of his office and the +defence of London in case of Edward's threatened return; but he had +not yet come, and no one thought there was a reasonable doubt that +Warwick, the Kingmaker, would not be victorious, and he had carried +his son-in-law, the Duke of Clarence, with him.' After the cause of +the Red Rose was won, there was no fear but that the services of +Clifford would be remembered. So Harry Clifford parted with Anne, +promising himself and her that there should be fresh Clifford +services, winning a recognition of the De Vesci inheritance if of +no more.</p> + +<p>The ladies went on their way in the track which Chaucer has made +memorable, laying their count to meet Queen Margaret and her son, +and win their ears beforehand, and wondering that they came not. +Kentish breezes soon revived the Prioress, and she went through +many strange devotions at the shrine of Becket, which, it might be +feared, did not improve her spiritual, so much as her bodily, +health, while Anne's chiefly resolved themselves into prayers that +Harry Clifford might be guarded and restored, and that she herself +might be saved from the dreaded Lord Redgrave.</p> + +<p>They did not set out on the return to London till they had +inhaled plenty of sea breezes by visiting the shrine of St. Mildred +in the isle of Thanet, and St. Eanswith at Folkestone, till Lent +had begun, and the first fresh tidings that they met were that +Edward had landed in Yorkshire, but his fleet had been dispersed by +storms, and the people did not rise to join him, so that he was +fain to proclaim that he only came to assert his right to his +father's inheritance of the Dukedom of York.</p> + +<p>At the Minoresses' Convent they found that a messenger had +arrived, bidding Anne go to meet her father at his castle in +Bedfordshire. He was coming over with the Queen whenever she could +obtain a convoy from King Louis of France. Lord Redgrave was with +him, and the marriage should take place as soon as they +arrived.</p> + +<p>'Never fear, child,' said the Prioress; 'many is the slip +between the cup and the lip.'</p> + +<p>Further tidings came that Edward had thrown off his first plea, +that he had passed Warwick's brother Montagu at Pontefract, and +that men from his own hereditary estates were flocking to his royal +banner. Warwick was calling up his men in all directions, and both +armies were advancing on London. Then it was known that 'false, +fleeting, perjured Clarence' had deserted his father-in-law, and +returned to his brother; and worthless as he individually was, it +boded ill for Lancaster, though still hope continued in the uniform +success of the Kingmaker. Warwick was about twenty miles in advance +of Edward, till that King actually passed him and reached the town +of Warwick itself. Still the Earl wrote to his brother that if he +could only hold out London for forty-eight hours all would be +well.</p> + +<p>Once more poor King Henry was set on horseback and paraded +through the streets. Brother Martin went out with the chaplain of +the Poor Clares to gaze upon him, and they came back declaring that +he was more than ever like the image carried in a procession, +seeming quite as helpless and indifferent, except, said Brother +Martin, when he passed a church, and then a heavenly look came over +his still features as he bowed his head; but none of the crowd who +came out to gaze cried 'Save King Harry!' or 'God bless him!'</p> + +<p>There were two or three thousand Yorkists in the various +sanctuaries of London, and they were preparing to rise in favour of +their King Edward, and only a few hundred were mustering in St. +Paul's Churchyard for the Red Rose.</p> + +<p>The Poor Clares were in much terror, though nunneries and +religious houses, and indeed non-combatants in general, were +usually respected by each side in these wars; but the Prioress of +Greystone was not sorry that the summons to her protegee called her +party off on the way to Bedfordshire, and they all set forward +together, intending to make Master Lorimer's household at Chipping +Barnet their first stage, as they had engaged to do.</p> + +<p>Their intention had been notified to Lorimer's people in his +London shop, who had sent on word to their master, and the good man +came out to meet them, full of surprise at the valour of the ladies +in attempting the journey. But they could not possibly go further. +King Edward was at St. Albans, and was on his way to London, and +the Earl of Warwick was coming up from Dunstable with the Earls of +Somerset and Oxford. For ladies, even of religious orders, to ride +on between the two hosts was manifestly impossible, and he and his +wife were delighted to entertain the Lady Prioress till the roads +should be safe.</p> + +<p>The Prioress was nothing loth. She always enjoyed the freedom of +a secular household, and she was glad to remain within hearing of +the last news in this great crisis of York and Lancaster.</p> + +<p>'I marvel if there will be a battle,' she said. 'Never have I +had the good luck to see or hear one.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! Mother, are you not afraid?' cried Sister Mabel.</p> + +<p>'Afraid! What should I be afraid of, silly maid? Do you think +the men-at-arms are wolves to snap you up?'</p> + +<p>'And,' murmured Anne, 'we shall know how it goes with my Lord of +Oxford's people.'</p> + +<p>These were the last days of Lent, and were carefully kept in the +matter of food by the household, but the religious observances were +much disturbed by the tidings that poured in. King Henry and +Archbishop Nevil had taken refuge in the house of Bishop Kemp of +London, Urswick the Recorder, with the consent of the Aldermen, had +opened the gates to Edward, and the Good Friday Services at Barnet, +the Psalms and prayers in the church, were disturbed by men-at-arms +galloping to and fro, and reports coming in continually.</p> + +<p>There could be no going out to gather flowers to deck the Church +the next day, for King Edward was on the London side, and Warwick +with his army had reached the low hills of Hadley, and their tents, +their banners, and the glint of their armour might be seen over the +heathy slope between them and the lanes and fields, surrounded by +hedges, that fenced in the valley of Barnet. The little town +itself, though lying between the two armies, remained unoccupied by +either party, and only men-at-arms came down into it, not as +plunderers, but to buy food.</p> + +<p>Warwick's cannon, however, thundered all night, a very awful +sound to such unaccustomed ears, but they were so directed that the +charges flew far away from Barnet, under a false impression as to +the situation of the Yorkist forces.</p> + +<p>Mistress Lorimer had heard them before, but accompanied every +report with a pious prayer; Sister Mabel screamed at each, then +joined in; the Prioress was greatly excited, and walked about with +Master Lorimer, now on the roof, trying to see, now at the gate, +trying to hear. Anne fancied it meant victory to Hal's party, but +knelt, tried to pray while she listened, and the dogs barked +incessantly. And that Hal must be in the army above the little town +they guessed, for in the evening Watch came floundering into the +courtyard, hungry and muddy, but full of affectionate recognition +of his old friends and the quarters he had learnt to know. +Florimond, who happened to be loose, had a romp with him in their +old fashion, and to the vexation and alarm of his mistress, they +both ran off together, and must have gone hunting on the heath, for +there was no response to her silver whistle.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XX. BARNET</h3> + +<p>A dead hush fell; but when the dolorous day<br> +Grew drearier toward twilight falling, came<br> +A bitter wind, clear from the North, and blew<br> +The mist aside.--TENNYSON.</p> + +<p>And Sir Henry Clifford? Still he was Hal of Derwentdale, for the +perilous usurper, Sir Richard Nevil, was known to be continually +with Warwick, and Musgrave was convinced that the concealment was +safest.</p> + +<p>The youth then remained with the Peelholm men, and became a good +deal more practised in warlike affairs, and accustomed to +campaigning, during the three months when Oxford was watching the +eastern coast. On this Easter night he lay down on the hill-side +with Watch beside him, his shepherd's plaid round him, his heart +rising as he thought himself near upon gaining fame and honour +wherewith to win his early love, and winning victory and safety for +his beloved King, or rather his hermit. For as his hermit did that +mild unearthly face always come before him. He could not think of +it wearing that golden crown, which seemed alien to it, but rather, +as he lay on his back, after his old habit looking up at the stars, +either he saw and recognised the Northern Crown, or his dazed and +sleepy fancy wove a radiant coronet of stars above that meek +countenance that he knew and loved so well; and as at intervals the +cannon boomed and wakened him, he looked on at the bright Northern +Cross and dreamily linked together the cross and crown.</p> + +<p>Easter Sunday morning came dawning, but no one looked to see the +sun dance, even if the morning had not been dull and grey, a thick +fog covering everything; but through it came a dull and heavy +sound, and the clang of armour. Even by their own force the radiant +star of the De Veres could hardly be seen on the banner, as the +Earl of Oxford rode up and down, putting his men in battle array. +Hal was on foot as an archer, meaning to deserve the spurs that he +had not yet worn. The hosts were close to one another, and at first +only the continual rain of arrows darkened the air; but as the sun +rose and the two armies saw one another, Oxford's star was to be +seen carried into the very midst of the opposing force under Lord +Hastings. On, on, with cries of victory, the knights rode, the +archers ran across the heath carrying all before them, never +doubting that the day was theirs, but not knowing where they were +till trumpets sounded, halt was called, and they were drawn up +together, as best they might, round their leading star. But as they +advanced, behold there was an unexpected shout of treason. Arrows +came thickly on them, men-at-arms bearing Warwick's ragged staff +came thundering headlong upon them. 'Treason, treason,' echoed on +all sides, and with that sound in his ears Harry Clifford was cut +down, and fell under a huge horse and man, and lay senseless under +a gorse-bush.</p> + +<p>He knew no more but that horses and men seemed for ever +trampling over him and treading him down, and then all was lost to +him--for how long he knew not, but for one second he was roused so +far as to hear a furious growling and barking of Watch, but with +dazed senses he thought it was over the sheep, tried to raise +himself, could not, thought himself dying, and sank back again.</p> + +<p>The next thing he knew was 'Here, Master Lorimer, you know this +gear better than I; unfasten this buff coat. There, he can breathe. +Drink this, my lad.'</p> + +<p>It was the Prioress's voice! He felt a jolt as of a waggon, and +opened his eyes. It was dark, but he knew he was under the tilt of +Lorimer's waggon, which was moving on. The Prioress was kneeling +over him on one side, Lorimer on the other, and his head was on a +soft lap--nay, a warm tear dropped on his face, a sweet though +stifled voice said, 'Is he truly better?'</p> + +<p>Then came sounds of 'hushing,' yet of reassurance; and when +there was a halt, and clearer consciousness began to revive, while +kind hands were busy about him, and a cordial was poured down his +throat, by the light of a lantern cautiously shown, Hal found +speech to say, as he felt a long soft tongue on his face, 'Watch, +Watch, is it thou, man?'</p> + +<p>'Ay, Watch it is,' said the Prioress. 'Well may you thank him! +It is to him you owe all, and to my good Florimond.'</p> + +<p>'But what--how--where am I?' asked Hal, trying to look round, +but feeling sharp thrills and shoots of pain at every motion.</p> + +<p>'Lie still till they bring their bandages, and I will tell you. +Gently, Nan, gently--thy sobs shake him!' But, as he managed to +hold and press Anne's hand, the Prioress went on, 'You are in good +Lorimer's warehouse. Safer thus, though it is too odorous, for the +men of York do not respect sanctuary in the hour of victory.'</p> + +<p>The word roused Hal further. 'The victory was ours!' he said. +'We had driven Hastings' banner off the field! Say, was there a cry +of treason?'</p> + +<p>'Even so, my son. So far as Master Lorimer understands, Lord +Oxford's banner of the beaming star was mistaken for the sun of +York, and the men of Warwick turned on you as you came back from +the chase, but all was utter confusion. No one knows who was +staunch and who not, and the fields and lanes are full of blood and +slaughtered men; and Edward's royal banner is set up on the market +cross, and trumpets were sounding round it. And here come Master +Lorimer and the goodwife to bind these wounds.'</p> + +<p>'But Sir Giles Musgrave?' still asked Hal.</p> + +<p>'Belike fled with Lord Oxford and his men, who all made off at +the cry of treason,' was the answer.</p> + +<p>Lorimer returned with his wife and various appliances, and +likewise with fresh tidings. There was no doubt that the brothers +Warwick and Montagu had been slain. They had been found--Warwick +under a hedge impeded by his heavy armour, and Montagu on the field +itself. Each body had been thrown over a horse, and shown at the +market cross; and they would be carried to London on the morrow. +'And so end,' said Lorimer, 'two brave and open-handed gentlemen as +ever lived, with whom I have had many friendly dealings.'</p> + +<p>One thing more Hal longed to hear--namely, how he had been +saved. He remembered that Watch had come back to him with Florimond +the evening before. They had probably been hunting together, and +the hound, who had always been very fond of him on the journey, had +accompanied Watch to his side before going back to his chain in +Barnet; but he had lost sight of them in the morning, and regretted +that he could not find Watch to provide for his safety. He knew, he +said, by the presence of Florimond, who must be in Barnet. And he +also had a dim recollection of being licked by Watch's tongue as he +lay, and likewise of hearing a furious barking, yelling and +growling, whether of one or both dogs he was not sure.</p> + +<p>It seemed that towards the evening, when the battle-cries had +grown fainter, and the sun was going down, Florimond had burst in +on his mistress, panting and blood-stained--but not with his own +blood, as was soon ascertained--and made vehement demonstrations by +which, as a true dog-lover, the Prioress perceived that he wanted +her to follow him. And Anne, who thought she saw a piece of Hal's +plaid caught in his collar, was 'neither to have nor to hold,' as +the Mother said, till Master Lorimer was found, and entreated to +follow the hound, ay, and to take them with him. He demurred much +as to their safety, but the Prioress declared that it was the part +of the religious to take care of the wounded, and not inconsistent +with her vow. See the Sisters of St. Katharine's of the Tower! And +though her interpretation was a broad one, and would have shocked +alike her own Abbess and her of the Minoresses, he was fain to +accept it in such a cause; but he commanded his waggoners to bring +the wain in the rear, both as an excuse, and a possible protection +for the ladies, and, it might be, a conveyance for the wounded.</p> + +<p>Florimond, who had sprung about, barked, fawned and made +entreating sounds all this time (longer in narrative than in +reality) led them, not through the central field of slaughter, but +somewhat to the left, among the heath--where, in fact, Oxford had +lost his way in the fog, and his own allies had charged him, but +had not followed far beyond the place of Hal's fall, discovering +the fatal error that spread confusion through their ranks, where +everyone distrusted his fellow leader.</p> + +<p>There, after a weary and perilous way, diversified by the horrid +shouts of plunderers of the slain, happily not near at hand, and +when Lorimer, but for the ladies, would have given up the quest as +useless, they were greeted by Watch's bark, and found him lying +with his fine head alert and ready over his senseless master.</p> + +<p>There was no doubt but that the two good creatures, both +powerful and formidable animals, must have saved him from the +spoilers, and then been sagacious enough to let the hound go down +to fetch assistance while the sheep-dog remained as his master's +faithful guardian. How honoured and caressed they were can hardly +be described, but all will know.</p> + +<p>The joy and gratitude of knowing of Anne's devotion, and the +pleasure of his good dog's faithfulness, helped Hal through the +painful process of having his hurts dealt with. Surgeons, even +barbers, were fully occupied, and Lorimer did not wish to have it +known that a Lancastrian was in his house. His wife and her old +nurse, as well as the Prioress, had some knowledge of simple +practical surgery; and Hal's disasters proved to be a severe cut on +the head, a slash on the shoulder, various bruises, and a broken +rib and thigh-bone, all which were within their capabilities, with +assistance from the master's stronger hand. No one could tell +whether the savage nature of the York brothers might not slake +their revenge in a general massacre of their antagonists; so +Lorimer caused Hal's bed to be made in the waggon in the warehouse, +where he was safe from detection until the victorious army should +have quitted Barnet.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXI. TEWKESBURY</h3> + +<p>The last shoot of that ancient tree<br> +Was budding fair as fair might be;<br> +Its buds they crop<br> +Its branches lop<br> +Then leave the sapless stem to die.--SOPHOCLES (Anstice).</p> + +<p>Harry Clifford lay fevered, and knowing little of what passed, +for several days, only murmuring sometimes of his flock at home, +sometimes of the royal hermit, and sometimes in distress of the +men-at-arms with whom he had been thrown, and whose habits and +language had plainly been a great shock to his innocent mind, +trained by the company of the sheep, and the hermit. He took the +Prioress's hand for Good-wife Dolly's, but he generally knew Anne, +who could soothe him better than any other.</p> + +<p>Master Lorimer was fully occupied by combatants who came to have +their equipments renewed or repaired, and he spent the days in his +shop in London, but rode home in the long evenings with his budget +of news. King Henry was in the Tower again, as passive as ever, but +on the very day of the battle of Barnet Queen Margaret had landed +at Weymouth with her son, and the war would be renewed in +Somersetshire.</p> + +<p>Search for prisoners being over at Barnet, Hal was removed to +the guest chamber of his hosts, where he lay in a huge square bed, +and in the better air began to recover, understand what was going +on round him, and be anxious for his friends, especially Sir Giles +Musgrave and Simon Bunce. The ladies still attended to him, as +Lorimer pronounced the journey to be absolutely unsafe, while so +many soldiers disbanded, or on their way to the Queen's army, were +roaming about, and the Burgundians brought by Edward might not be +respectful to an English Prioress. It was safer to wait for tidings +from Lord St. John, which were certain to come either from Bletso +or the Minoresses'.</p> + +<p>So May had begun when Lorimer hurried home with the tidings that +a messenger had come in haste from King Edward from the battlefield +of Tewkesbury, with the tidings of a complete victory. Prince +Edward, the fair and spirited hope of Lancaster, was slain, +Somerset and his friends had taken sanctuary in the Abbey Church, +Queen Margaret and the young wife of the prince in a small convent, +and beyond all had been flight and slaughter.</p> + +<p>For a few days no more was known, but then came fuller and +sadder tidings. The young prince had been brutally slain by his +cousins, Edward, George, and Richard, excited as they were to +tiger-like ferocity by the late revolt. The nobles in the +sanctuary, who had for one night been protected by a cord drawn in +front of them by a priest, had in the morning been dragged out and +beheaded. Among them was Anne's father, Lord St. John of Bletso, +and on the field the heralds had recognised the corpse of her +suitor, Lord Redgrave. To expect that Anne felt any acute sorrow +for a father whom she had never seen since she was six years old, +and who then had never seemed to care for her, was not +possible.</p> + +<p>And what was to be her fate? Her young brother, the heir of +Bletso, was in Flanders with his foreign mother, and she knew not +what might be her own claims through her own mother, though the +Prioress and Master Lorimer knew that it could be ascertained +through the seneschal at Bletso, if he had not perished with his +lord, or the agents at York through whom Anne's pension had been +paid. If she were an heiress, she would become a ward of the Crown, +a dreary prospect, for it meant to be disposed of to some unknown +minion of the Court.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXII. THE NUT-BROWN MAID</h3> + +<p>All my wellfare to trouble and care<br> +Should change if you were gone,<br> +For in my mynde, of all mankind<br> +I love but you alone.--NUT-BROWN MAID.</p> + +<p>Anne St. John, in her 'doul' or deep mourning, sat by Hal's +couch or daybed in tears, as he lay in the deep bay of the +mullioned window, and told him of the consultation that had been +held.</p> + +<p>'Ah, dear lady!' he said, 'now am I grieved that I have not mine +own to endow you with! Well would I remain the landless shepherd +were it not for you.'</p> + +<p>'Nay,' she said, looking up through her tears, 'and wherefore +should I not share your shepherd's lot?'</p> + +<p>'You! Nan, sweet Nan, tenderly nurtured in the convent while I +have ever lived as a rough hardy shepherd!'</p> + +<p>'And I have ever been a moorland maid,' she answered, 'bred to +no soft ways. I know not how to be the lady of a castle--I shall be +a much better herdsman's wife, like your good old Dolly, whom I +have always loved and envied.'</p> + +<p>'You never saw us snowed up in winter with all things scarce, +and hardly able to milk a goat.'</p> + +<p>'Have not we been snowed up at Greystone for five weeks at a +time?'</p> + +<p>'Ay, but with thick walls round and a stack of peat at hand,' +said Hal, his heart beating violently as more and more he felt that +the maiden did not speak in jest, but in full earnestness of +love.</p> + +<p>'Verily one would deem you took me for a fine dainty dame, such +as I saw at the Minoresses', shivering at the least gust of fresh +wind, and not daring to wet their satin shoes if there had been a +shower of rain in the cloisters. Were we not all stifled within the +walls, and never breathed till we were out of them? Nay, Hal, there +is none to come between us now. Take me to your moors and hills! I +will be your good housewife and shepherdess, and make you such a +home! And you will teach me of the stars and of the flowers and all +the holy lore of your good royal hermit.'</p> + +<p>'Ah! my hermit, my master, how fares it with him? Would that I +could go and see!'</p> + +<p>'Which do you love best--me or the hermit?' asked Anne archly, +lifting up her head, which was lying on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>'I love you, mine own love and sweetheart, with all my heart,' +he said, regaining her hand, 'but my King and master with my soul; +and oh! that I had any strength to give him! I love him as my +master in holy things, and as my true prince, and what would I not +give to know how it is with him and how he bears these dreadful +tidings!'</p> + +<p>He bent his head, choking with sobs as he spoke, and Anne wept +with him, her momentary jealousy subdued by the picture of the +lonely prisoner, his friends slain in his cause, and his only child +cut off in early prime; but she tried the comfort of hoping that +his Queen would be with him. Thus talking now of love, now of +grief, now of the future, now of the past, the Prioress found them, +and as she was inclined to blame Anne for letting her patient weep, +the maiden looked up to her and said, 'Dear Mother, we are +disputing--I want this same Hal to wed me so soon as he can stand +and walk. Then I would go home with him to Derwentside, and take +care of him.'</p> + +<p>The Prioress burst out laughing. 'Make porridge, milk the ewes +and spin their wool? Eh? Meet work for a baron's daughter!'</p> + +<p>'So I tell her,' said Harry. 'She knows not how hard the life +is.'</p> + +<p>'Do I not?' said Anne. 'Have I not spent a night and day, the +happiest my childhood knew, in your hut? Has it not been a dream of +joy ever since?'</p> + +<p>'Ay, a summer's dream!' said Hal. 'Tell her the folly of +it.'</p> + +<p>'I verily believe he does not want me. If he had not a lame leg, +I trow he would be trying to be mewed up with his King!'</p> + +<p>'It would be my duty,' murmured Hal, 'nor should I love thee the +less.'</p> + +<p>''Tis a duty beyond your reach,' said the Prioress. 'Master +Lorimer hears that none have access to King Henry, God help him! +and he sits as in a trance, as though he understood and took heed +of nothing--not even of this last sore battle.'</p> + +<p>'God aid him! Aye, and his converse is with Him,' said Hal, with +a gush of tears. 'He minds nought of earth, not even earthly +griefs.'</p> + +<p>'But we, we are of earth still, and have our years before us,' +said Anne, 'and I will not spend mine the dreary lady of a dull +castle. Either I will back and take my vows in your Priory, +reverend Mother, if Hal there disdains to have me.'</p> + +<p>'Nan, Nan! when you know that all I dread is to have you mewed +behind a wall of snow as thick as the walls of the Tower and +freezing to the bone!'</p> + +<p>'With you behind it telling all the tales. Mother, prithee prove +to him that I am not made of sugar like the Clares, but that I love +a fresh wind and the open moorlands.'</p> + +<p>The Prioress laughed and took her away, but in private the +maiden convinced her that the proposal, however wild, was in full +earnest, and not in utter ignorance of the way of life that was +preferred.</p> + +<p>Afterwards the good lady discussed it with the Lorimers. 'For my +part,' she said, 'I see nought to gainsay the children having their +way. They are equal in birth and breeding, and love one another +heartily, and the times may turn about to bring them to their own +proper station.'</p> + +<p>'But the hardness and the roughness of the life,' objected +Mistress Lorimer, 'for a dainty, convent-bred lady.'</p> + +<p>'My convent--God, forgive me!--is not like the Poor Clares. We +knew there what cold and hunger mean, as well as what free air and +mountains are. Moreover, though the maid thinks not of it, I do not +believe the life will be so bare and comfortless. The lad's mother +hath not let him want, and there is a heritage through the Vescis +that must come to him, even if he never can claim the lands of +Clifford.'</p> + +<p>'And now that all Lancaster is gone, King Edward may be less +vindictive against the Red Rose,' said Lorimer.</p> + +<p>'There must be a dowry secured to the maid,' said the Prioress. +'Let them only lie quiet for a time till the remains of the late +tempest have blown over, and all will be well with them. Ay, and +Master Lorimer, the Lady Threlkeld, as well as myself, will fully +acquit ourselves of the heavy charges you have been put to for your +hospitality to us.'</p> + +<p>Master Lorimer disclaimed all save his delight in the honour +paid to his poor house, and appealed to his wife, who seconded him +courteously, though perhaps the expenses of a wounded knight, three +nuns, a noble damsel and their horses, were felt by her enough to +make the promise gratifying.</p> + +<p>While the elders talked, a horseman was heard in the court, +asking whether the young demoiselle of Bletso were lodged there. It +was the seneschal Wenlock, who had come with what might be called +the official report of his lord's death, and to consider of the +disposal of the young lady, being glad to find the Prioress of +Greystone, to whom she had originally been committed by her +father.</p> + +<p>Before summoning her, he explained to the Prioress that a small +estate which had belonged to her mother devolved upon her. The +proceeds of the property were not large, but they had been +sufficient to keep her at the convent, on the moderate charges of +the time. Anne was only eighteen, and at no time of their lives +were women, even widows, reckoned able to dispose of themselves. +She would naturally become a ward of the Crown, and Lord Redgrave +having been killed, the seneschal was about to go and inform King +Edward of the situation.</p> + +<p>'But,' said the Prioress, 'suppose you found her already +betrothed to a gentleman of equal birth, and with claims to an even +greater inheritance? Would you not be silent till the match was +concluded, and the King had no chance of breaking it?'</p> + +<p>'If it were well for the maid's honour and fortune,' said the +seneschal. 'If you, reverend Mother, have found a fair marriage for +her, it might be better to let well alone.'</p> + +<p>Then the Prioress set forth the situation and claims of young +Clifford, and the certainty, that even if it were more prudent not +to advance them at present, yet the ruin of the house of Nevil +removed one great barrier, and at least the Vesci inheritance held +by his mother must come to him, and she was the more likely to make +a portion over to him when she found that he had married nobly.</p> + +<p>The seneschal acquiesced, even though the Prioress confessed +that the betrothal had not actually taken place. In fact he was +relieved that the maiden, whom he had known as a fair child, should +be off his hands, and secured from the greed of some Yorkist +partisan needing a reward.</p> + +<p>When Anne, her dark eyes and hair shaded by her mourning veil, +came down, and had heard his greeting, with such details of her +father's death and the state of the family as he could give her, +she rose and said: 'Sir, there have been passages between Sir Harry +Clifford and myself, and I would wed none other than him.'</p> + +<p>Nor did the seneschal gainsay her.</p> + +<p>All that he desired was that what was decided upon should be +done quickly, before heralds or lawyers brought to the knowledge of +the Woodvilles that there was any sort of prize to be had in the +damsel of St. John, and he went off, early the next morning, back +to Bletso, that he might seem to know nothing of the matter.</p> + +<p>The Prioress laughed at men being so much more afraid than +women. She was willing to bear all the consequences, but then the +Plantagenets were not in the habit of treating ladies as traitors. +However, all agreed that it would be wiser to be out of reach of +London as soon as possible, and Master Lorimer, who had become +deeply interested in this romance of true love, arranged to send +one of his wains to York, in which the bride and bridegroom might +travel unsuspected, until the latter should be able to ride and all +were out of reach of pursuit. The Prioress would go thus far with +them, 'And then! And then,' she said sighing, 'I shall have to dree +my penance for all my friskings!'</p> + +<p>'But, oh, what kindly friskings!' cried Anne, throwing herself +into those tender arms.</p> + +<p>'Little they will reck of kindness out of rule,' sighed the +Prioress. 'If only they will send me back to Greystone, then shall +I hear of thee, and thou hadst better take Florimond, poor hound, +or the Sisters at York may put him to penance too!'</p> + +<p>Henry Clifford was able to walk again, though still lame, when, +in the early morning of Ascension Day, he and Anne St. John were +married in the hall of Master Lorimer's house by a trusty priest of +Barnet, and in the afternoon, when the thanksgiving worship at the +church had been gone through, they started in the waggon for the +first stage of the journey, to be overtaken at the halting-place by +the Prioress and Master Lorimer, who had had to ride into London to +finish some business.</p> + +<p>And he brought tidings that rendered that wedding-day one of +mournful, if peaceful, remembrances.</p> + +<p>For he had seen, borne from the Tower, along Cheapside, the bier +on which lay the body of King Henry, his hands clasped on his +breast, his white face upturned with that heavenly expression which +Hal knew so well, enhanced into perfect peace, every toil, every +grief at an end.</p> + +<p>Whether blood dropped as the procession moved along, Lorimer +could not certainly tell. Whether so it was, or whoever shed it, +there was no marring the absolute rest and joy that had crowned the +'meek usurper's holy head,' after his dreary half-century of +suffering under the retribution of the ancestral sins of two lines +of forefathers. All had been undergone in a deep and holy trust and +faith such as could render even his hereditary insanity an actual +shield from the poignancy of grief.</p> + +<p>Tears were shed, not bitter nor vengeful. Such thoughts would +have seemed out of place with the memory of the gentle countenance +of love, good-will and peace, and as Harry and Anne joined in the +service that the Prioress had requested to have in the early +daylight before starting, Hal felt that to the hermit saint of his +boyhood he verily owed his own self.</p> + +<h3>CHAPTER XXIII. BROUGHAM CASTLE</h3> + +<p>And now am I an Earlis son,<br> +And not a banished man.--NUT-BROWN MAID.</p> + +<p>That journey northward in the long summer days was a honeymoon +to the young couple. The Prioress left them as much to themselves +as possible, trying to rejoice fully in their gladness, and not to +think what might have been hers but for that vow of her parents, +keeping her hours diligently in preparation for the stricter rule +awaiting her.</p> + +<p>When they parted she sent Florimond with them, to be restored if +she were allowed to return to Greystone, and Anne parted with her +with many tears as the truest mother and friend she had ever +known.</p> + +<p>By this time Harry was able to ride, and the two, with a couple +of men-at-arms hired as escort, made their way over the moors, +Harry's head throbbing with gladness, as, with a shout of joy, he +hailed his own mountain-heads, Helvellyn and Saddleback, in all +their purple cloud-like majesty.</p> + +<p>They agreed first to go to Dolly's homestead, drawn as much by +affection as by prudence. Delight it was to Hal to point out the +rocks and bushes of his home; but when he came in sight of Piers +and the sheep, the dumb boy broke out into a cry of terror, and +rushed away headlong, nor did he turn till he felt Watch's very +substantial paws bounding on him in ecstasy.</p> + +<p>Watch was indeed a forerunner, for Dolly and her husband could +scarcely be induced by his solid presence and caresses to come out +and see for themselves that the tall knight and lady were no +ghostly shades, nor bewildered travellers, but that this was their +own nursling Hal, whom Simon Bunce had reported to be lying dead +under a gorse-bush at Barnet, and further that the lovely brunette +lady was the little lost child whom Dolly had mothered for a +night.</p> + +<p>While the happy goodwife was regaling them with the best she had +to offer, Hob set forth to announce their arrival at Threlkeld, +being not certain what the cautious Sir Lancelot would deem +advisable, since the Lancaster race had perished, and York was in +the ascendant.</p> + +<p>There was a long time to wait, but finally Sir Lancelot himself +came riding through the wood, no longer afraid to welcome his +stepson at the castle, and the more willing since the bride newly +arrived was no maiden of low degree, but a damsel of equal birth +and with unquestioned rights.</p> + +<p>So all was well, and the lady no longer had to embrace her son +in fear and trembling, but to see him a handsome and thoughtful +young man, well able to take his place in her halls.</p> + +<p>Since he had been actually in arms against King Edward it was +not thought safe to assert his claims to his father's domains, but +the lady gave up to him a portion of her own inheritance from the +Vescis, where he and Anne were able to live in Barden Tower in +Yorkshire, not far from Bolton Abbey. So Hal's shepherd days were +over, though he still loved country habits and ways. Hob came to be +once more his attendant, Dolly was Anne's bower-woman, and Simon +Bunce Sir Harry's squire, though he never ceased blaming himself +for having left his master, dead as he thought, when even a poor +hound was more trusty.</p> + +<p>Florimond was restored to the Prioress, who was reinstated at +Greystone, a graver woman than before she had set forth, the better +for having watched deeper devotion at the Minoresses', and still +more for the terrible realities of the battle of Barnet. At Bolton +Abbey Harry found monks who encouraged his craving for information +on natural science, and could carry him on much farther in these +researches than his hermit, though he always maintained that the +royal anchorite and prisoner saw farther into heavenly things than +any other whom he had known, and that his soul and insight rose the +higher with his outward troubles and bodily decay.</p> + +<p>So peacefully went the world with them till Henry was +one-and-thirty, and then the tidings of Bosworth Field came north. +The great tragedy of Plantagenet was complete, and the ambitious +and blood-stained house of York, who had avenged the usurpation of +Henry of Lancaster, had perished, chiefly by the hands of each +other, and the distantly related descendant of John of Gaunt, Henry +Tudor, triumphed.</p> + +<p>The Threlkelds were not slow to recollect that it was time for +the Cliffords to show their heads; moreover, that the St. Johns of +Bletso were related to the Tudors. Though now an aged woman, she +descended from her hills, called upon her son and his wife with +their little nine-year-old son to come with her, and pay homage to +the new sovereign in their own names, and rode with them to +Westminster.</p> + +<p>There a very different monarch from the saint of Harry's memory +received and favoured him. The lands of Westmoreland were granted +to him as his right, and on their return, Master Lorimer coming by +special invitation, the family were welcomed at Brougham Castle, +the cradle of their race, where Harry Clifford, no longer an +outlaw, began the career thus described:</p> + +<p> </p> + +<center>Love had he found in huts where poor men lie,<br> +His daily teachers had been woods and rills,<br> +The silence that is in the starry sky,<br> +The sleep that is among the lonely hills.<br> +<br> + + +<p>In him the savage virtue of the race,<br> +Revenge, and all ferocious thoughts were dead,<br> +Nor did he change, but kept in lofty place<br> +The wisdom that adversity had bred.</p> + +<p>Glad were the vales, and every cottage hearth,<br> +The Shepherd Lord was honoured more and more,<br> +And ages after he was laid in earth<br> +The Good Lord Clifford was the name he bore.</p> + +<h3>FINIS</h3> +</center> + +<p> </p> + +<p>The End of this Project Gutenberg Ebook of The Herd Boy and His +Hermit by Charlotte M Yonge.</p> + +<pre> + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HERD BOY AND HIS HERMIT *** + +This file should be named hrdbh10h.htm or hrdbh10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, hrdbh11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, hrdbh10ah.htm + +This Project Gutenberg Etext of The Herdboy and His Hermit was prepared +by Sandra Laythorpe, laythorpe@tiscali.co.uk. +A web page for Charlotte M Yonge may be found at www.menorot.com/cmyonge.htm + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart hart@pobox.com + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + +</pre> +</body> +</html> + + |