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diff --git a/old/whtco10.txt b/old/whtco10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8356c0c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/whtco10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16886 @@ +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of The White Company by Doyle*** +#12 in our series by Arthur Conan Doyle + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association within the 60 + days following each date you prepare (or were legally + required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent periodic) + tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + +A. CONAN DOYLE + +THE WHITE COMPANY + +CONTENTS. +I. How the Black Sheep came forth from the Fold +II. How Alleyne Edricson came out into the World +III. How Hordle John cozened the Fuller of Lymington +IV. How the Bailiff of Southampton Slew the Two Masterless +Men IV. How a Strange Company Gathered at the "Pied Merlin" +VI. How Samkin Aylward Wagered his Feather-bed +VII. How the Three Comrades Journeyed through the Woodlands +VIII. The Three Friends +IX. How Strange Things Befel in Minsted Wood +X. How Hordle John Found a Man whom he Might Follow XI. + How a Young Shepherd had a Perilous Flock +XII. How Alleyne Learned More than he could Teach +XIII. How the White Company set forth to the Wars +XIV. How Sir Nigel sought for a Wayside Venture +XV. How the Yellow Cog sailed forth from Life +XVI. How the Yellow Cog fought the Two Rover Galleys +XVII. How the Yellow Cog crossed the Bar of Gironde +XVIII. How Sir Nigel Loring put a Patch upon his Eye +XIX. How there was Stir at the Abbey of St. Andrews +XX. How Alleyne Won his Place in an Honorable Guild +XXI. How Agostino Pisano Risked his Head +XXII. How the Bowmen held Wassail at the "Rose de Guienne" +XXIII. How England held the Lists at Bordeaux +XXIV. How a Champion came forth from the East +XXV. How Sir Nigel wrote to Twynham Castle +XXVI. How the Three Comrades Gained a Mighty Treasure +XXVII. How Roger Club-foot was Passed into Paradise +XXVIII. How the Comrades came over the Marshes of France +XXIX. How the Blessed Hour of Sight Came to the Lady Tiphaine +XXX. How the Brushwood Men came to the Chateau of Villefranche +XXXI. How Five Men held the Keep of Villefranche +XXXII. How the Company took Counsel Round the Fallen Tree +XXXIII. How the Army made the Passage of Roncesvalles +XXXIV. How the Company Made Sport in the Vale of Pampeluna +XXXV. How Sir Nigel Hawked at an Eagle +XXXVI. How Sir Nigel Took the Patch from his Eye +XXXVII. How the White Company came to be Disbanded +XXXVIII .Of the Home-coming to Hampshire + + + +CHAPTER I. + +HOW THE BLACK SHEEP CAME FORTH FROM THE FOLD. + +THE great bell of Beaulieu was ringing. Far away through the +forest might be heard its musical clangor and swell, Peat-cutters +on Blackdown and fishers upon the Exe heard the distant throbbing +rising and falling upon the sultry summer air. It was a common +sound in those parts--as common as the chatter of the jays and +the booming of the bittern. Yet the fishers and the peasants +raised their heads and looked questions at each other, for the +angelus had already gone and vespers was still far off. Why +should the great bell of Beaulieu toll when the shadows were +neither short nor long? + +All round the Abbey the monks were trooping in. Under the long +green-paved avenues of gnarled oaks and of lichened beeches the +white-robed brothers gathered to the sound, From the vine-yard +and the vine-press, from the bouvary or ox-farm, from the marl- +pits and salterns, even from the distant iron-works of Sowley and +the outlying grange of St. Leonard's, they had all turned their +steps homewards. It had been no sudden call. A swift messenger +had the night before sped round to the outlying dependencies of +the Abbey, and had left the summons for every monk to be back in +the cloisters by the third hour after noontide. So urgent a +message had not been issued within the memory of old lay-brother +Athanasius, who had cleaned the Abbey knocker since the year +after the Battle of Bannockburn. + +A stranger who knew nothing either of the Abbey or of its immense +resources might have gathered from the appearance of the brothers +some conception of the varied duties which they were called upon +to perform, and of the busy, wide-spread life which centred in +the old monastery. As they swept gravely in by twos and by +threes, with bended heads and muttering lips there were few who +did not bear upon them some signs of their daily toil. Here were +two with wrists and sleeves all spotted with the ruddy grape +juice. There again was a bearded brother with a broad-headed axe +and a bundle of faggots upon his shoulders, while beside him +walked another with the shears under his arm and the white wool +still clinging to his whiter gown. A long, straggling troop +bore spades and mattocks while the two rearmost of all staggered +along under a huge basket o' fresh-caught carp, for the morrow +was Friday, and there were fifty platters to be filled and as +many sturdy trenchermen behind them. Of all the throng there was +scarce one who was not labor-stained and weary, for Abbot +Berghersh was a hard man to himself and to others. + +Meanwhile, in the broad and lofty chamber set apart for occasions +of import, the Abbot himself was pacing impatiently backwards and +forwards, with his long white nervous hands clasped in front of +him. His thin, thought-worn features and sunken, haggard cheeks +bespoke one who had indeed beaten down that inner foe whom every +man must face, but had none the less suffered sorely in the +contest. In crushing his passions he had well-nigh crushed +himself. Yet, frail as was his person there gleamed out ever and +anon from under his drooping brows a flash of fierce energy, +which recalled to men's minds that he came of a fighting stock, +and that even now his twin-brother, Sir Bartholomew Berghersh, +was one of the most famous of those stern warriors who had +planted the Cross of St. George before the gates of Paris. With +lips compressed and clouded brow, he strode up and down the oaken +floor, the very genius and impersonation of asceticism, while the +great bell still thundered and clanged above his head. At last +the uproar died away in three last, measured throbs, and ere +their echo had ceased the Abbot struck a small gong which +summoned a lay-brother to his presence. + +"Have the brethern come?" he asked, in the Anglo-French dialect +used in religious houses. + +"They are here; "the other answered, with his eyes cast down and +his hands crossed upon his chest. + +"All?" + +"Two and thirty of the seniors and fifteen of the novices, most +holy father. Brother Mark of the Spicarium is sore smitten with +a fever and could not come. He said that--" + +"It boots not what he said. Fever or no, he should have come at +my call. His spirit must be chastened, as must that of many more +in this Abbey. You yourself, brother Francis, have twice raised +your voice, so it hath come to my ears, when the reader in the +refectory hath been dealing with the lives of God's most blessed +saints. What hast thou to say?" + +The lay-brother stood meek and silent, with his arms still +crossed in front of him. + +"One thousand aves and as many credos, said standing with arms +outstretched before the shrine of the Virgin, may help thee to +remember that the Creator hath given us two ears and but one +mouth, as a token that there is twice the work for the one as for +the other. Where is the master of the novices?" + +"He is without, most holy father." + +"Send him hither." + +The sandalled feet clattered over the wooden floor, and the iron- +bound door creaked upon its hinges. In a few moments it opened +again to admit a short square monk with a heavy, composed face +and an authoritative manner. + +"You have sent for me, holy father?" + +"Yes, brother Jerome, I wish that this matter be disposed of with +as little scandal as may be, and yet it is needful that the +example should be a public one." The Abbot spoke in Latin now, +as a language which was more fitted by its age and solemnity to +convey the thoughts of two high dignitaries of the order. + +"It would, perchance, be best that the novices be not admitted," +suggested the master. "This mention of a woman may turn their +minds from their pious meditations to worldly and evil thoughts." + +"Woman! woman!" groaned the Abbot. "Well has the holy Chrysostom +termed them radix malorum. From Eve downwards, what good hath +come from any of them? Who brings the plaint?" + +"It is brother Ambrose." + +"A holy and devout young man." + +"A light and a pattern to every novice." + +"Let the matter be brought to an issue then according to our old- +time monastic habit. Bid the chancellor and the sub-chancellor +lead in the brothers according to age, together with brother +John, the accused, and brother Ambrose, the accuser. And the +novices?" + +"Let them bide in the north alley of the cloisters. Stay! Bid +the sub-chancellor send out to them Thomas the lector to read +unto them from the 'Gesta beati Benedicti.' It may save them +from foolish and pernicious babbling." + +The Abbot was left to himself once more, and bent his thin gray +face over his illuminated breviary. So he remained while the +senior monks filed slowly and sedately into the chamber seating +themselves upon the long oaken benches which lined the wall on +either side. At the further end, in two high chairs as large as +that of the Abbot, though hardly as elaborately carved, sat the +master of the novices and the chancellor, the latter a broad and +portly priest, with dark mirthful eyes and a thick outgrowth of +crisp black hair all round his tonsured head. Between them stood +a lean, white-faced brother who appeared to be ill at ease, +shifting his feet from side to side and tapping his chin +nervously with the long parchment roll which he held in his hand. +The Abbot, from his point of vantage, looked down on the two long +lines of faces, placid and sun-browned for the most part, with +the large bovine eyes and unlined features which told of their +easy, unchanging existence. Then he turned his eager fiery gaze +upon the pale-faced monk who faced him. + +"This plaint is thine, as I learn, brother Ambrose," said he. +"May the holy Benedict, patron of our house, be present this day +and aid us in our findings! How many counts are there?" + +"Three, most holy father," the brother answered in a low and +quavering voice. + +"Have you set them forth according to rule?" + +"They are here set down, most holy father, upon a cantle of +sheep-skin." + +"Let the sheep-skin be handed to the chancellor. Bring in +brother John, and let him hear the plaints which have been urged +against him." + +At this order a lay-brother swung open the door, and two other +lay-brothers entered leading between them a young novice of the +order. He was a man of huge stature, dark-eyed and red-headed, +with a peculiar half-humorous, half-defiant expression upon his +bold, well-marked features. His cowl was thrown back upon his +shoulders, and his gown, unfastened at the top, disclosed a +round, sinewy neck, ruddy and corded like the bark of the fir. +Thick, muscular arms, covered with a reddish down, protruded from +the wide sleeves of his habit, while his white shirt, looped up +upon one side, gave a glimpse of a huge knotty leg, scarred and +torn with the scratches of brambles. With a bow to the Abbot, +which had in it perhaps more pleasantry than reverence, the +novice strode across to the carved prie-dieu which had been set +apart for him, and stood silent and erect with his hand upon the +gold bell which was used in the private orisons of the Abbot's +own household. His dark eyes glanced rapidly over the assembly, +and finally settled with a grim and menacing twinkle upon the +face of his accuser. + +The chamberlain rose, and having slowly unrolled the parchment- +scroll, proceeded to read it out in a thick and pompous voice, +while a subdued rustle and movement among the brothers bespoke +the interest with which they followed the proceedings. + +"Charges brought upon the second Thursday after the Feast of the +Assumption, in the year of our Lord thirteen hundred and sixty- +six, against brother John, formerly known as Hordle John, or John +of Hordle, but now a novice in the holy monastic order of the +Cistercians. Read upon the same day at the Abbey of Beaulieu in +the presence of the most reverend Abbot Berghersh and of the +assembled order. + +"The charges against the said brother John are the following, +namely, to wit: + +"First, that on the above-mentioned Feast of the Assumption, +small beer having been served to the novices in the proportion of +one quart to each four, the said brother John did drain the pot +at one draught to the detriment of brother Paul, brother Porphyry +and brother Ambrose, who could scarce eat their none-meat of +salted stock-fish on account of their exceeding dryness," + +At this solemn indictment the novice raised his hand and twitched +his lip, while even the placid senior brothers glanced across at +each other and coughed to cover their amusement. The Abbot alone +sat gray and immutable, with a drawn face and a brooding eye. + +"Item, that having been told by the master of the novices that he +should restrict his food for two days to a single three-pound +loaf of bran and beans, for the greater honoring and glorifying +of St. Monica, mother of the holy Augustine, he was heard by +brother Ambrose and others to say that he wished twenty thousand +devils would fly away with the said Monica, mother of the holy +Augustine, or any other saint who came between a man and his +meat. Item, that upon brother Ambrose reproving him for this +blasphemous wish, he did hold the said brother face downwards +over the piscatorium or fish-pond for a space during which the +said brother was able to repeat a pater and four aves for the +better fortifying of his soul against impending death." + +There was a buzz and murmur among the white-frocked brethren at +this grave charge; but the Abbot held up his long quivering hand. +"What then?" said he. + +"Item, that between nones and vespers on the feast of James the +Less the said brother John was observed upon the Brockenhurst +road, near the spot which is known as Hatchett's Pond in converse +with a person of the other sex, being a maiden of the name of +Mary Sowley, the daughter of the King's verderer. Item, that +after sundry japes and jokes the said brother John did lift up +the said Mary Sowley and did take, carry, and convey her across a +stream, to the infinite relish of the devil and the exceeding +detriment of his own soul, which scandalous and wilful falling +away was witnessed by three members of our order." + +A dead silence throughout the room, with a rolling of heads and +upturning of eyes, bespoke the pious horror of the community. + +The Abbot drew his gray brows low over his fiercely questioning +eyes. + +"Who can vouch for this thing?" he asked. + +"That can I," answered the accuser. "So too can brother +Porphyry, who was with me, and brother Mark of the Spicarium, who +hath been so much stirred and inwardly troubled by the sight that +he now lies in a fever through it." + +"And the woman?" asked the Abbot. "Did she not break into +lamentation and woe that a brother should so demean himself?" + +"Nay, she smiled sweetly upon him and thanked him. I can vouch +it and so can brother Porphyry." + +"Canst thou?" cried the Abbot, in a high, tempestuous tone. +"Canst thou so? Hast forgotten that the five-and-thirtieth rule +of the order is that in the presence of a woman the face should +be ever averted and the eyes cast down? Hast forgot it, I say? +If your eyes were upon your sandals, how came ye to see this +smile of which ye prate? A week in your cells, false brethren, a +week of rye-bread and lentils, with double lauds and double +matins, may help ye to remembrance of the laws under which ye +live." + +At this sudden outflame of wrath the two witnesses sank their +faces on to their chests, and sat as men crushed. The Abbot +turned his angry eyes away from them and bent them upon the +accused, who met his searching gaze with a firm and composed +face. + +"What hast thou to say, brother John, upon these weighty things +which are urged against you?" + +"Little enough, good father, little enough," said the novice, +speaking English with a broad West Saxon drawl. The brothers, +who were English to a man, pricked up their ears at the sound of +the homely and yet unfamiliar speech; but the Abbot flushed red +with anger, and struck his hand upon the oaken arm of his chair. + +"What talk is this?" he cried. "Is this a tongue to be used +within the walls of an old and well-famed monastery? But grace +and learning have ever gone hand in hand, and when one is lost it +is needless to look for the other." + +"I know not about that," said brother John. "I know only that +the words come kindly to my mouth, for it was the speech of my +fathers before me. Under your favor, I shall either use it now +or hold my peace." + +The Abbot patted his foot and nodded his head, as one who passes +a point but does not forget it. + +"For the matter of the ale," continued brother John, "I had come +in hot from the fields and had scarce got the taste of the thing +before mine eye lit upon the bottom of the pot. It may be, too, +that I spoke somewhat shortly concerning the bran and the beans, +the same being poor provender and unfitted for a man of my +inches. It is true also that I did lay my hands upon this jack- +fool of a brother Ambrose, though, as you can see, I did him +little scathe. As regards the maid, too, it is true that I did +heft her over the stream, she having on her hosen and shoon, +whilst I had but my wooden sandals, which could take no hurt +from the waver. I should have thought shame upon my manhood, as +well as my monkhood, if I had held back my hand from her." He +glanced around as he spoke with the half-amused look which he had +worn during the whole proceedings. + +"There is no need to go further," said the Abbot. "He has +confessed to all. It only remains for me to portion out the +punishment which is due to his evil conduct." + +He rose, and the two long lines of brothers followed his example, +looking sideways with scared faces at the angry prelate. + +"John of Hordle," he thundered, "you have shown yourself during +the two months of your novitiate to be a recreant monk, and one +who is unworthy to wear the white garb which is the outer symbol +of the spotless spirit. That dress shall therefore be stripped +from thee, and thou shalt be cast into the outer world without +benefit of clerkship, and without lot or part in the graces and +blessings of those who dwell under the care of the Blessed +Benedict. Thou shalt come back neither to Beaulieu nor to any of +the granges of Beaulieu, and thy name shall be struck off the +scrolls of the order." + +The sentence appeared a terrible one to the older monks, who had +become so used to the safe and regular life of the Abbey that +they would have been as helpless as children in the outer world. +From their pious oasis they looked dreamily out at the desert of +life, a place full of stormings and strivings--comfortless, +restless, and overshadowed by evil. The young novice, however, +appeared to have other thoughts, for his eyes sparkled and his +smile broadened. It needed but that to add fresh fuel to the +fiery mood of the prelate. + +"So much for thy spiritual punishment," he cried. "But it is to +thy grosser feelings that we must turn in such natures as thine, +and as thou art no longer under the shield of holy church there +is the less difficulty. Ho there! lay-brothers--Francis, Naomi, +Joseph--seize him and bind his arms! Drag him forth, and let the +foresters and the porters scourge him from the precincts!" + +As these three brothers advanced towards him to carry out the +Abbot's direction, the smile faded from the novice's face, and he +glanced right and left with his fierce brown eyes, like a bull at +a baiting. Then, with a sudden deep-chested shout, he tore up +the heavy oaken prie-dieu and poised it to strike, taking two +steps backward the while, that none might take him at a vantage. + +"By the black rood of Waltham!" he roared, "if any knave among +you lays a finger-end upon the edge of my gown, I will crush his +skull like a filbert!" With his thick knotted arms, his +thundering voice, and his bristle of red hair, there was +something so repellent in the man that the three brothers flew +back at the very glare of him; and the two rows of white monks +strained away from him like poplars in a tempest. The Abbot only +sprang forward with shining eyes; but the chancellor and the +master hung upon either arm and wrested him back out of danger's +way. + +"He is possessed of a devil!" they shouted. "Run, brother +Ambrose, brother Joachim! Call Hugh of the Mill, and Woodman +Wat, and Raoul with his arbalest and bolts. Tell them that we +are in fear of our lives! Run, run! for the love of the Virgin!" + +But the novice was a strategist as well as a man of action. +Springing forward, he hurled his unwieldy weapon at brother +Ambrose, and, as desk and monk clattered on to the floor +together, he sprang through the open door and down the winding +stair. Sleepy old brother Athanasius, at the porter's cell, had +a fleeting vision of twinkling feet and flying skirts; but before +he had time to rub his eyes the recreant had passed the lodge, +and was speeding as fast as his sandals could patter along the +Lyndhurst Road. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +HOW ALLEYNE EDRICSON CAME OUT INTO THE WORLD. + +NEVER had the peaceful atmosphere of the old Cistercian house +been so rudely ruffled. Never had there been insurrection so +sudden, so short, and so successful. Yet the Abbot Berghersh was +a man of too firm a grain to allow one bold outbreak to imperil +the settled order of his great household. In a few hot and +bitter words, he compared their false brother's exit to the +expulsion of our first parents from the garden, and more than +hinted that unless a reformation occurred some others of the +community might find themselves in the same evil and perilous +case. Having thus pointed the moral and reduced his flock to a +fitting state of docility, he dismissed them once more to their +labors and withdrew himself to his own private chamber, there to +seek spiritual aid in the discharge of the duties of his high +office. + +The Abbot was still on his knees, when a gentle tapping at the +door of his cell broke in upon his orisons. + +Rising in no very good humor at the interruption, he gave the +word to enter; but his look of impatience softened down into a +pleasant and paternal smile as his eyes fell upon his visitor. + +He was a thin-faced, yellow-haired youth, rather above the middle +size, comely and well shapen, with straight, lithe figure and +eager, boyish features. His clear, pensive gray eyes, and quick, +delicate expression, spoke of a nature which had unfolded far +from the boisterous joys and sorrows of the world. Yet there was +a set of the mouth and a prominence of the chin which relieved +him of any trace of effeminacy. Impulsive he might be, +enthusiastic, sensitive, with something sympathetic and adaptive +in his disposition; but an observer of nature's tokens would have +confidently pledged himself that there was native firmness and +strength underlying his gentle, monk-bred ways. + +The youth was not clad in monastic garb, but in lay attire, +though his jerkin, cloak and hose were all of a sombre hue, as +befitted one who dwelt in sacred precincts. A broad leather +strap hanging from his shoulder supported a scrip or satchel such +as travellers were wont to carry. In one hand he grasped a thick +staff pointed and shod with metal, while in the other he held his +coif or bonnet, which bore in its front a broad pewter medal +stamped with the image of Our Lady of Rocamadour. + +"Art ready, then, fair son?" said the Abbot. "This is indeed a +day of comings and of going. It is strange that in one twelve +hours the Abbey should have cast off its foulest weed and should +now lose what we are fain to look upon as our choicest blossom." + +"You speak too kindly, father," the youth answered. "If I had my +will I should never go forth, but should end my days here in +Beaulieu. It hath been my home as far back as my mind can carry +me, and it is a sore thing for me to have to leave it." + +"Life brings many a cross," said the Abbot gently. "Who is +without them? Your going forth is a grief to us as well as to +yourself. But there is no help. I had given my foreword and +sacred promise to your father, Edric the Franklin, that at the +age of twenty you should be sent out into the world to see for +yourself how you liked the savor of it. Seat thee upon the +settle, Alleyne, for you may need rest ere long." + +The youth sat down as directed, but reluctantly and with +diffidence. The Abbot stood by the narrow window, and his long +black shadow fell slantwise across the rush-strewn floor. + +"Twenty years ago," he said, "your father, the Franklin of +Minstead, died, leaving to the Abbey three hides of rich land in +the hundred of Malwood, and leaving to us also his infant son on +condition that we should rear him until he came to man's estate. +This he did partly because your mother was dead, and partly +because your elder brother, now Socman of Minstead, had already +given sign of that fierce and rude nature which would make him no +fit companion for you. It was his desire and request, however, +that you should not remain in the cloisters, but should at a ripe +age return into the world." + +"But, father," interrupted the young man "it is surely true that +I am already advanced several degrees in clerkship?" + +"Yes, fair son, but not so far as to bar you from the garb you +now wear or the life which you must now lead. You have been +porter?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Exorcist?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Reader?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Acolyte?" + +"But have sworn no vow of constancy or chastity?" + +"No, father." + +"Then you are free to follow a worldly life. But let me hear, +ere you start, what gifts you take away with you from Beaulieu? +Some I already know. There is the playing of the citole and the +rebeck. Our choir will be dumb without you. You carve too?" + +The youth's pale face flushed with the pride of the skilled +workman. "Yes, holy father," he answered. "Thanks to good +brother Bartholomew, I carve in wood and in ivory, and can do +something also in silver and in bronze. From brother Francis I +have learned to paint on vellum, on glass, and on metal, with a +knowledge of those pigments and essences which can preserve the +color against damp or a biting air. Brother Luke hath given me +some skill in damask work, and in the enamelling of shrines, +tabernacles, diptychs and triptychs. For the rest, I know a +little of the making of covers, the cutting of precious stones, +and the fashioning of instruments." + +"A goodly list, truly," cried the superior with a smile. "What +clerk of Cambrig or of Oxenford could say as much? But of thy +reading--hast not so much to show there, I fear?" + +"No, father, it hath been slight enough. Yet, thanks to our good +chancellor, I am not wholly unlettered. I have read Ockham, +Bradwardine, and other of the schoolmen, together with the +learned Duns Scotus and the book of the holy Aquinas." + +"But of the things of this world, what have you gathered from +your reading? From this high window you may catch a glimpse over +the wooden point and the smoke of Bucklershard of the mouth of +the Exe, and the shining sea. Now, I pray you Alleyne, if a man +were to take a ship and spread sail across yonder waters, where +might he hope to arrive?" + +The youth pondered, and drew a plan amongst the rushes with the +point of his staff. "Holy father," said he, "he would come upon +those parts of France which are held by the King's Majesty. But +if he trended to the south he might reach Spain and the Barbary +States. To his north would be Flanders and the country of the +Eastlanders and of the Muscovites." + +"True. And how if, after reaching the King's possessions, he +still journeyed on to the eastward?" + +"He would then come upon that part of France which is still in +dispute, and he might hope to reach the famous city of Avignon, +where dwells our blessed father, the prop of Christendom." + +"And then?" + +"Then he would pass through the land of the Almains and the great +Roman Empire, and so to the country of the Huns and of the +Lithuanian pagans, beyond which lies the great city of +Constantine and the kingdom of the unclean followers of Mahmoud." + +"And beyond that, fair son?" + +"Beyond that is Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and the great river +which hath its source in the Garden of Eden." + +"And then?" + +"Nay, good father, I cannot tell. Methinks the end of the world +is not far from there." + +"Then we can still find something to teach thee, Alleyne," said +the Abbot complaisantly. "Know that many strange nations lie +betwixt there and the end of the world. There is the country of +the Amazons, and the country of the dwarfs, and the country of +the fair but evil women who slay with beholding, like the +basilisk. Beyond that again is the kingdom of Prester John and +of the great Cham. These things I know for very sooth, for I had +them from that pious Christian and valiant knight, Sir John de +Mandeville, who stopped twice at Beaulieu on his way to and from +Southampton, and discoursed to us concerning what he had seen +from the reader's desk in the refectory, until there was many a +good brother who got neither bit nor sup, so stricken were they +by his strange tales." + +"I would fain know, father," asked the young man, "what there may +be at the end of the world?" + +"There are some things," replied the Abbot gravely, "into which +it was never intended that we should inquire. But you have a +long road before you. Whither will you first turn?" + +"To my brother's at Minstead. If he be indeed an ungodly and +violent man, there is the more need that I should seek him out +and see whether I cannot turn him to better ways." + +The Abbot shook his head. "The Socman of Minstead hath earned an +evil name over the country side," he said. "If you must go to +him, see at least that he doth not turn you from the narrow path +upon which you have learned to tread. But you are in God's +keeping, and Godward should you ever look in danger and in +trouble. Above all, shun the snares of women, for they are ever +set for the foolish feet of the young. Kneel down, my child, and +take an old man's blessing." + +Alleyne Edricson bent his head while the Abbot poured out his +heartfelt supplication that Heaven would watch over this young +soul, now going forth into the darkness and danger of the world. +It was no mere form for either of them. To them the outside life +of mankind did indeed seem to be one of violence and of sin, +beset with physical and still more with spiritual danger. +Heaven, too, was very near to them in those days. God's direct +agency was to be seen in the thunder and the rainbow, the +whirlwind and the lightning. To the believer, clouds of angels +and confessors, and martyrs, armies of the sainted and the +saved, were ever stooping over their struggling brethren upon +earth, raising, encouraging, and supporting them. It was then +with a lighter heart and a stouter courage that the young man +turned from the Abbot's room, while the latter, following him to +the stair-head, finally commended him to the protection of the +holy Julian, patron of travellers. + +Underneath, in the porch of the Abbey, the monks had gathered to +give him a last God-speed. Many had brought some parting token +by which he should remember them. There was brother Bartholomew +with a crucifix of rare carved ivory, and brother Luke With a +white-backed psalter adorned with golden bees, and brother +Francis with the "Slaying of the Innocents" most daintily set +forth upon vellum. All these were duly packed away deep in the +traveller's scrip, and above them old pippin-faced brother +Athanasius had placed a parcel of simnel bread and rammel cheese, +with a small flask of the famous blue-sealed Abbey wine. So, +amid hand-shakings and laughings and blessings, Alleyne Edricson +turned his back upon Beaulieu. + +At the turn of the road he stopped and gazed back. There was the +wide-spread building which he knew so well, the Abbot's house, +the long church, the cloisters with their line of arches, all +bathed and mellowed in the evening sun. There too was the broad +sweep of the river Exe, the old stone well, the canopied niche of +the Virgin, and in the centre of all the cluster of white-robed +figures who waved their hands to him. A sudden mist swam up +before the young man's eyes, and he turned away upon his journey +with a heavy heart and a choking throat. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +HOW HORDLE JOHN COZENED THE FULLER OF LYMINGTON. + +IT is not, however, in the nature of things that a lad of twenty, +with young life glowing in his veins and all the wide world +before him, should spend his first hours of freedom in mourning +for what he had left. Long ere Alleyne was out of sound of the +Beaulieu bells he was striding sturdily along, swinging his staff +and whistling as merrily as the birds in the thicket. It was an +evening to raise a man's heart. The sun shining slantwise +through the trees threw delicate traceries across the road, with +bars of golden light between. Away in the distance before and +behind, the green boughs, now turning in places to a coppery +redness, shot their broad arches across the track. The still +summer air was heavy with the resinous smell of the great forest. +Here and there a tawny brook prattled out from among the +underwood and lost itself again in the ferns and brambles upon +the further side. Save the dull piping of insects and the sough +of the leaves, there was silence everywhere--the sweet restful +silence of nature. + +And yet there was no want of life--the whole wide wood was full +of it. Now it was a lithe, furtive stoat which shot across the +path upon some fell errand of its own; then it was a wild cat +which squatted upon the outlying branch of an oak and peeped at +the traveller with a yellow and dubious eye. Once it was a wild +sow which scuttled out of the bracken, with two young sounders at +her heels, and once a lordly red staggard walked daintily out +from among the tree trunks, and looked around him with the +fearless gaze of one who lived under the King's own high +protection. Alleyne gave his staff a merry flourish, however, +and the red deer bethought him that the King was far off, so +streaked away from whence he came. + +The youth had now journeyed considerably beyond the furthest +domains of the Abbey. He was the more surprised therefore when, +on coming round a turn in the path, he perceived a man clad in +the familiar garb of the order, and seated in a clump of heather +by the roadside. Alleyne had known every brother well, but this +was a face which was new to him--a face which was very red and +puffed, working this way and that, as though the man were sore +perplexed in his mind. Once he shook both hands furiously in the +air, and twice he sprang from his seat and hurried down the road. +When he rose, however, Alleyne observed that his robe was much +too long and loose for him in every direction, trailing upon the +ground and bagging about his ankles, so that even with trussed-up +skirts he could make little progress. He ran once, but the long +gown clogged him so that he slowed down into a shambling walk, +and finally plumped into the heather once more. + +"Young friend," said he, when Alleyne was abreast of him, "I fear +from thy garb that thou canst know little of the Abbey of +Beaulieu?" + +"Then you are in error, friend," the clerk answered, "for I have +spent all my days within its walls." + +"Hast so indeed?" cried he. "Then perhaps canst tell me the name +of a great loathly lump of a brother wi' freckled face an' a hand +like a spade. His eyes were black an' his hair was red an' his +voice like the parish bull. I trow that there cannot be two +alike in the same cloisters." + +"That surely can be no other than brother John," said Alleyne. +"I trust he has done you no wrong, that you should be so hot +against him." + +"Wrong, quotha!" cried the other, jumping out of the heather. +"Wrong! why he hath stolen every plack of clothing off my back, +if that be a wrong, and hath left me here in this sorry frock of +white falding, so that I have shame to go back to my wife, lest +she think that I have donned her old kirtle. Harrow and alas +that ever I should have met him!" + +"But how came this?" asked the young clerk, who could scarce keep +from laughter at the sight of the hot little man so swathed in +the great white cloak. + +"It came in this way," he said, sitting down once more: "I was +passing this way, hoping to reach Lymington ere nightfall when I +came on this red-headed knave seated even where we are sitting +now. I uncovered and louted as I passed thinking that he might +be a holy man at his orisons, but he called to me and asked me if +I had heard speak of the new indulgence in favor of the +Cistercians. 'Not I,' I answered. 'Then the worse for thy +soul!' said he; and with that he broke into a long tale how that +on account of the virtues of the Abbot Berghersh it had been +decreed by the Pope that whoever should wear the habit of a monk +of Beaulieu for as long as he might say the seven psalms of David +should be assured of the kingdom of Heaven. When I heard this I +prayed him on my knees that he would give me the use of his gown, +which after many contentions he at last agreed to do, on my +paying him three marks towards the regilding of the image of +Laurence the martyr. Having stripped his robe, I had no choice +but to let him have the wearing of my good leathern jerkin and +hose, for, as he said, it was chilling to the blood and unseemly +to the eye to stand frockless whilst I made my orisons. He had +scarce got them on, and it was a sore labor, seeing that my +inches will scarce match my girth--he had scarce got them on, I +say, and I not yet at the end of the second psalm, when he bade +me do honor to my new dress, and with that set off down the road +as fast as feet would carry him. For myself, I could no more run +than if I had been sown in a sack; so here I sit, and here I am +like to sit, before I set eyes upon my clothes again." + +"Nay, friend, take it not so sadly," said Alleyne, clapping the +disconsolate one upon the shoulder. "Canst change thy robe for a +jerkin once more at the Abbey, unless perchance you have a friend +near at hand." + +"That have I," he answered, "and close; but I care not to go nigh +him in this plight, for his wife hath a gibing tongue, and will +spread the tale until I could not show my face in any market from +Fordingbridge to Southampton. But if you, fair sir, out of your +kind charity would be pleased to go a matter of two bow-shots out +of your way, you would do me such a service as I could scarce +repay." + +"With all my heart," said Alleyne readily. + +"Then take this pathway on the left, I pray thee, and then the +deer-track which passes on the right. You will then see under a +great beech-tree the hut of a charcoal-burner. Give him my name, +good sir, the name of Peter the fuller, of Lymington, and ask him +for a change of raiment, that I may pursue my journey without +delay. There are reasons why he would be loth to refuse me." + +Alleyne started off along the path indicated, and soon found the +log-hut where the burner dwelt. He was away faggot-cutting in +the forest, but his wife, a ruddy bustling dame, found the +needful garments and tied them into a bundle. While she busied +herself in finding and folding them, Alleyne Edricson stood by +the open door looking in at her with much interest and some +distrust, for he had never been so nigh to a woman before. She +had round red arms, a dress of some sober woollen stuff, and a +brass brooch the size of a cheese-cake stuck in the front of it. + +"Peter the fuller!" she kept repeating. "Marry come up! if I +were Peter the fuller's wife I would teach him better than to +give his clothes to the first knave who asks for them. But he +was always a poor, fond, silly creature, was Peter, though we are +beholden to him for helping to bury our second son Wat, who was a +'prentice to him at Lymington in the year of the Black Death. +But who are you, young sir?" + +"I am a clerk on my road from Beaulieu to Minstead." + +"Aye, indeed! Hast been brought up at the Abbey then. I could +read it from thy reddened cheek and downcast eye, Hast learned +from the monks, I trow, to fear a woman as thou wouldst a lazar- +house. Out upon them! that they should dishonor their own +mothers by such teaching. A pretty world it would be with all +the women out of it." + +"Heaven forfend that such a thing should come to pass!" said +Alleyne. + +"Amen and amen! But thou art a pretty lad, and the prettier for +thy modest ways. It is easy to see from thy cheek that thou hast +not spent thy days in the rain and the heat and the wind, as my +poor Wat hath been forced to do." + +"I have indeed seen little of life, good dame." + +"Wilt find nothing in it to pay for the loss of thy own +freshness. Here are the clothes, and Peter can leave them when +next he comes this way. Holy Virgin! see the dust upon thy +doublet! It were easy to see that there is no woman to tend to +thee. So!--that is better. Now buss me, boy." + +Alleyne stooped and kissed her, for the kiss was the common +salutation of the age, and, as Erasmus long afterwards remarked, +more used in England than in any other country. Yet it sent the +blood to his temples again, and he wondered, as he turned away, +what the Abbot Berghersh would have answered to so frank an +invitation. He was still tingling from this new experience when +he came out upon the high-road and saw a sight which drove all +other thoughts from his mind. + +Some way down from where he had left him the unfortunate Peter +was stamping and raving tenfold worse than before. Now, however, +instead of the great white cloak, he had no clothes on at all, +save a short woollen shirt and a pair of leather shoes. Far down +the road a long-legged figure was running, with a bundle under +one arm and the other hand to his side, like a man who laughs +until he is sore. + +"See him!" yelled Peter. "Look to him! You shall be my witness. +He shall see Winchester jail for this. See where he goes with my +cloak under his arm!" + +"Who then?" cried Alleyne. + +"Who but that cursed brother John. He hath not left me clothes +enough to make a gallybagger. The double thief hath cozened me +out of my gown." + +"Stay though, my friend, it was his gown," objected Alleyne. + +"It boots not. He hath them all--gown, jerkin, hosen and all. +Gramercy to him that he left me the shirt and the shoon. I doubt +not that he will be back for them anon." + +"But how came this?" asked Alleyne, open-eyed with astonishment. + +"Are those the clothes? For dear charity's sake give them to me. +Not the Pope himself shall have these from me, though he sent the +whole college of cardinals to ask it. How came it? Why, you had +scarce gone ere this loathly John came running back again, and, +when I oped mouth to reproach him, he asked me whether it was +indeed likely that a man of prayer would leave his own godly +raiment in order to take a layman's jerkin. He had, he said, but +gone for a while that I might be the freer for my devotions. On +this I plucked off the gown, and he with much show of haste did +begin to undo his points; but when I threw his frock down he +clipped it up and ran off all untrussed, leaving me in this sorry +plight. He laughed so the while, like a great croaking frog, +that I might have caught him had my breath not been as short as +his legs were long." + +The young man listened to this tale of wrong with all the +seriousness that he could maintain; but at the sight of the pursy +red-faced man and the dignity with which he bore him, the +laughter came so thick upon him that he had to lean up against a +tree-trunk. The fuller looked sadly and gravely at him; but +finding that he still laughed, he bowed with much mock politeness +and stalked onwards in his borrowed clothes. Alleyne watched him +until he was small in the distance, and then, wiping the tears +from his eyes, he set off briskly once more upon his journey. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +HOW THE BAILIFF OF SOUTHAMPTON SLEW THE TWO MASTERLESS MEN. + +THE road along which he travelled was scarce as populous as most +other roads in the kingdom, and far less so than those which lie +between the larger towns. Yet from time to time Alleyne met +other wayfarers, and more than once was overtaken by strings of +pack mules and horsemen journeying in the same direction as +himself. Once a begging friar came limping along in a brown +habit, imploring in a most dolorous voice to give him a single +groat to buy bread wherewith to save himself from impending +death. Alleyne passed him swiftly by, for he had learned from +the monks to have no love for the wandering friars, and, besides, +there was a great half-gnawed mutton bone sticking out of his +pouch to prove him a liar. Swiftly as he went, however, he could +not escape the curse of the four blessed evangelists which the +mendicant howled behind him. So dreadful are his execrations +that the frightened lad thrust his fingers into his ear-holes, +and ran until the fellow was but a brown smirch upon the yellow +road. + +Further on, at the edge of the woodland, he came upon a chapman +and his wife, who sat upon a fallen tree. He had put his pack +down as a table, and the two of them were devouring a great +pasty, and washing it down with some drink from a stone jar. The +chapman broke a rough jest as he passed, and the woman called +shrilly to Alleyne to come and join them, on which the man, +turning suddenly from mirth to wrath, began to belabor her with +his cudgel. Alleyne hastened on, lest he make more mischief, and +his heart was heavy as lead within him. Look where he would, he +seemed to see nothing but injustice and violence and the +hardness of man to man. + +But even as he brooded sadly over it and pined for the sweet +peace of the Abbey, he came on an open space dotted with holly +bushes, where was the strangest sight that he had yet chanced +upon. Near to the pathway lay a long clump of greenery, and from +behind this there stuck straight up into the air four human legs +clad in parti-colored hosen, yellow and black. Strangest of all +was when a brisk tune struck suddenly up and the four legs began +to kick and twitter in time to the music. Walking on tiptoe +round the bushes, he stood in amazement to see two men bounding +about on their heads, while they played, the one a viol and the +other a pipe, as merrily and as truly as though they were seated +in a choir. Alleyne crossed himself as he gazed at this +unnatural sight, and could scarce hold his ground with a steady +face, when the two dancers, catching sight of him, came bouncing +in his direction. A spear's length from him, they each threw a +somersault into the air, and came down upon their feet with +smirking faces and their hands over their hearts. + +"A guerdon--a guerdon, my knight of the staring eyes!" cried one. + +"A gift, my prince!" shouted the other. "Any trifle will serve-- +a purse of gold, or even a jewelled goblet." + +Alleyne thought of what he had read of demoniac possession --the +jumpings, the twitchings, the wild talk. It was in his mind to +repeat over the exorcism proper to such attacks; but the two +burst out a-laughing at his scared face, and turning on to their +heads once more, clapped their heels in derision. + +"Hast never seen tumblers before?" asked the elder, a black- +browed, swarthy man, as brown and supple as a hazel twig. "Why +shrink from us, then, as though we were the spawn of the Evil +One?" + +"Why shrink, my honey-bird? Why so afeard, my sweet cinnamon?" +exclaimed the other, a loose-jointed lanky youth with a dancing, +roguish eye. + +"Truly, sirs, it is a new sight to me," the clerk answered. +"When I saw your four legs above the bush I could scarce credit +my own eyes. Why is it that you do this thing?" + +"A dry question to answer," cried the younger, coming back on to +his feet. "A most husky question, my fair bird! But how? A +flask, a flask!--by all that is wonderful!" He shot out his hand +as he spoke, and plucking Alleyne's bottle out of his scrip, he +deftly knocked the neck off, and poured the half of it down his +throat. The rest he handed to his comrade, who drank the wine, +and then, to the clerk's increasing amazement, made a show of +swallowing the bottle, with such skill that Alleyne seemed to see +it vanish down his throat. A moment later, however, he flung it +over his head, and caught it bottom downwards upon the calf of +his left leg. + +"We thank you for the wine, kind sir," said he, "and for the +ready courtesy wherewith you offered it. Touching your question, +we may tell you that we are strollers and jugglers, who, having +performed with much applause at Winchester fair, are now on our +way to the great Michaelmas market at Ringwood. As our art is a +very fine and delicate one, however, we cannot let a day go by +without exercising ourselves in it, to which end we choose some +quiet and sheltered spot where we may break our journey. Here +you find us; and we cannot wonder that you, who are new to +tumbling, should be astounded, since many great barons, earls, +marshals and knight, who have wandered as far as the Holy Land, +are of one mind in saying that they have never seen a more noble +or gracious performance. if you will be pleased to sit upon that +stump, we will now continue our exercise." + +Alleyne sat down willingly as directed with two great bundles on +either side of him which contained the strollers' dresses-- +doublets of flame-colored silk and girdles of leather, spangled +with brass and tin. The jugglers were on their heads once more, +bounding about with rigid necks, playing the while in perfect +time and tune. It chanced that out of one of the bundles there +stuck the end of what the clerk saw to be a cittern, so drawing +it forth, he tuned it up and twanged a harmony to the merry lilt +which the dancers played. On that they dropped their own +instruments, and putting their hands to the ground they hopped +about faster and faster, ever shouting to him to play more +briskly, until at last for very weariness all three had to stop. + +"Well played, sweet poppet!" cried the younger. "Hast a rare +touch on the strings." + +"How knew you the tune?" asked the other. + +"I knew it not. I did but follow the notes I heard." + +Both opened their eyes at this, and stared at Alleyne with as +much amazement as he had shown at them. + +"You have a fine trick of ear then," said one. "We have long +wished to meet such a man. Wilt join us and jog on to Ringwood? +Thy duties shall be light, and thou shalt have two-pence a day +and meat for supper every night." + +"With as much beer as you can put away," said the other "and a +flask of Gascon wine on Sabbaths." + +"Nay, it may not be. I have other work to do. I have tarried +with you over long," quoth Alleyne, and resolutely set forth upon +his journey once more. They ran behind him some little way, +offering him first fourpence and then sixpence a day, but he only +smiled and shook his head, until at last they fell away from him. +Looking back, he saw that the smaller had mounted on the +younger's shoulders, and that they stood so, some ten feet high, +waving their adieus to him. He waved back to them, and then +hastened on, the lighter of heart for having fallen in with these +strange men of pleasure. + +Alleyne had gone no great distance for all the many small +passages that had befallen him. Yet to him, used as he was to a +life of such quiet that the failure of a brewing or the altering +of an anthem had seemed to be of the deepest import, the quick +changing play of the lights and shadows of life was strangely +startling and interesting. A gulf seemed to divide this brisk +uncertain existence from the old steady round of work and of +prayer which he had left behind him. The few hours that had +passed since he saw the Abbey tower stretched out in his memory +until they outgrew whole months of the stagnant life of the +cloister. As he walked and munched the soft bread from his +scrip, it seemed strange to him to feel that it was still warm +from the ovens of Beaulieu. + +When he passed Penerley, where were three cottages and a barn, he +reached the edge of the tree country, and found the great barren +heath of Blackdown stretching in front of him, all pink with +heather and bronzed with the fading ferns. On the left the woods +were still thick, but the road edged away from them and wound +over the open. The sun lay low in the west upon a purple cloud, +whence it threw a mild, chastening light over the wild moorland +and glittered on the fringe of forest turning the withered leaves +into flakes of dead gold, the brighter for the black depths +behind them. To the seeing eye decay is as fair as growth, and +death as life. The thought stole into Alleyne's heart as he +looked upon the autumnal country side and marvelled at its +beauty. He had little time to dwell upon it however, for there +were still six good miles between him and the nearest inn. He +sat down by the roadside to partake of his bread and cheese, and +then with a lighter scrip he hastened upon his way. + +There appeared to be more wayfarers on the down than in the +forest. First he passed two Dominicans in their long black +dresses, who swept by him with downcast looks and pattering lips, +without so much as a glance at him. Then there came a gray +friar, or minorite, with a good paunch upon him, walking slowly +and looking about him with the air of a man who was at peace with +himself and with all men. He stopped Alleyne to ask him whether +it was not true that there was a hostel somewhere in those parts +which was especially famous for the stewing of eels. The clerk +having made answer that he had heard the eels of Sowley well +spoken of, the friar sucked in his lips and hurried forward. +Close at his heels came three laborers walking abreast, with +spade and mattock over their shoulders. They sang some rude +chorus right tunefully as they walked, but their English was so +coarse and rough that to the ears of a cloister-bred man it +sounded like a foreign and barbarous tongue. One of them carried +a young bittern which they had caught upon the moor, and they +offered it to Alleyne for a silver groat. Very glad he was to +get safely past them, for, with their bristling red beards and +their fierce blue eyes, they were uneasy men to bargain with upon +a lonely moor. + +Yet it is not always the burliest and the wildest who are the +most to be dreaded. The workers looked hungrily at him, and then +jogged onwards upon their way in slow, lumbering Saxon style. A +worse man to deal with was a wooden-legged cripple who came +hobbling down the path, so weak and so old to all appearance that +a child need not stand in fear of him. Yet when Alleyne had +passed him, of a sudden, out of pure devilment, he screamed out a +curse at him, and sent a jagged flint stone hurtling past his +ear. So horrid was the causeless rage of the crooked creature, +that the clerk came over a cold thrill, and took to his heels +until he was out of shot from stone or word. It seemed to him +that in this country of England there was no protection for a man +save that which lay in the strength of his own arm and the speed +of his own foot. In the cloisters he had heard vague talk of the +law--the mighty law which was higher than prelate or baron, yet +no sign could he see of it. What was the benefit of a law +written fair upon parchment, he wondered, if there were no +officers to enforce it. As it tell out, however, he had that +very evening, ere the sun had set, a chance of seeing how stern +was the grip of the English law when it did happen to seize the +offender. + +A mile or so out upon the moor the road takes a very sudden dip +into a hollow, with a peat-colored stream running swiftly down +the centre of it. To the right of this stood, and stands to this +day, an ancient barrow, or burying mound, covered deeply in a +bristle of heather and bracken. Alleyne was plodding down the +slope upon one side, when he saw an old dame coming towards him +upon the other, limping with weariness and leaning heavily upon a +stick. When she reached the edge of the stream she stood +helpless, looking to right and to left for some ford. Where the +path ran down a great stone had been fixed in the centre of the +brook, but it was too far from the bank for her aged and +uncertain feet. Twice she thrust forward at it, and twice she +drew back, until at last, giving up in despair, she sat herself +down by the brink and wrung her hands wearily. There she still +sat when Alleyne reached the crossing. + +"Come, mother," quoth he, "it is not so very perilous a passage." + +"Alas! good youth," she answered, "I have a humor in the eyes, +and though I can see that there is a stone there I can by no +means be sure as to where it lies." + +"That is easily amended," said he cheerily, and picking her +lightly up, for she was much worn with time, he passed across +with her. He could not but observe, however, that as he placed +her down her knees seemed to fail her, and she could scarcely +prop herself up with her staff. + +"You are weak, mother," said he. "Hast journeyed far, I wot." + +"From Wiltshire, friend," said she, in a quavering voice; "three +days have I been on the road. I go to my son, who is one of the +King's regarders at Brockenhurst. He has ever said that he would +care for me in mine old age." + +"And rightly too, mother, since you cared for him in his youth. +But when have you broken fast?" + +"At Lyndenhurst; but alas! my money is at an end, and I could but +get a dish of bran-porridge from the nunnery. Yet I trust that I +may be able to reach Brockenhurst to-night, where I may have all +that heart can desire; for oh! sir, but my son is a fine man, +with a kindly heart of his own, and it is as good as food to me +to think that he should have a doublet of Lincoln green to his +back and be the King's own paid man." + +"It is a long road yet to Brockenhurst," said Alleyne; "but here +is such bread and cheese as I have left, and here, too, is a +penny which may help you to supper. May God be with you!" + +"May God be with you, young man!" she cried. "May He make your +heart as glad as you have made mine!" She turned away, still +mumbling blessings, and Alleyne saw her short figure and her long +shadow stumbling slowly up the slope. + +He was moving away himself, when his eyes lit upon a strange +sight, and one which sent a tingling through his skin. Out of +the tangled scrub on the old overgrown barrow two human faces +were looking out at him; the sinking sun glimmered full upon +them, showing up every line and feature. The one was an oldish +man with a thin beard, a crooked nose, and a broad red smudge +from a birth-mark over his temple; the other was a negro, a thing +rarely met in England at that day, and rarer still in the quiet +southland parts. Alleyne had read of such folk, but had never +seen one before, and could scarce take his eyes from the fellow's +broad pouting lip and shining teeth. Even as he gazed, however, +the two came writhing out from among the heather, and came down +towards him with such a guilty, slinking carriage, that the clerk +felt that there was no good in them, and hastened onwards upon +his way. + +He had not gained the crown of the slope, when he heard a sudden +scuffle behind him and a feeble voice bleating for help. Looking +round, there was the old dame down upon the roadway, with her red +whimple flying on the breeze, while the two rogues, black and +white, stooped over her, wresting away from her the penny and +such other poor trifles as were worth the taking. At the sight +of her thin limbs struggling in weak resistance, such a glow of +fierce anger passed over Alleyne as set his head in a whirl. +Dropping his scrip, he bounded over the stream once more, and +made for the two villains, with his staff whirled over his +shoulder and his gray eyes blazing with fury. + +The robbers, however, were not disposed to leave their victim +until they had worked their wicked will upon her. The black man, +with the woman's crimson scarf tied round his swarthy head, stood +forward in the centre of the path, with a long dull-colored knife +in his hand, while the other, waving a ragged cudgel, cursed at +Alleyne and dared him to come on. His blood was fairly aflame, +however, and he needed no such challenge. Dashing at the black +man, he smote at him with such good will that the other let his +knife tinkle into the roadway, and hopped howling to a safer +distance. The second rogue, however, made of sterner stuff, +rushed in upon the clerk, and clipped him round the waist with a +grip like a bear, shouting the while to his comrade to come round +and stab him in the back. At this the negro took heart of +grace, and picking up his dagger again he came stealing with +prowling step and murderous eye, while the two swayed backwards +and forwards, staggering this way and that. In the very midst of +the scuffle, however, whilst Alleyne braced himself to feel the +cold blade between his shoulders, there came a sudden scurry of +hoofs, and the black man yelled with terror and ran for his life +through the heather. The man with the birth-mark, too, struggled +to break away, and Alleyne heard his teeth chatter and felt his +limbs grow limp to his hand. At this sign of coming aid the +clerk held on the tighter, and at last was able to pin his man +down and glanced behind him to see where all the noise was coming +from. + +Down the slanting road there was riding a big, burly man, clad in +a tunic of purple velvet and driving a great black horse as hard +as it could gallop. He leaned well over its neck as he rode, and +made a heaving with his shoulders at every bound as though he +were lifting the steed instead of it carrying him. In the rapid +glance Alleyne saw that he had white doeskin gloves, a curling +white feather in his flat velvet cap, and a broad gold, +embroidered baldric across his bosom. Behind him rode six +others, two and two, clad in sober brown jerkins, with the long +yellow staves of their bows thrusting out from behind their right +shoulders. Down the hill they thundered, over the brook and up +to the scene of the contest. + +"Here is one!" said the leader, springing down from his reeking +horse, and seizing the white rogue by the edge of his jerkin. +"This is one of them. I know him by that devil's touch upon his +brow. Where are your cords, Peterkin? So! --bind him hand and +foot. His last hour has come. And you, young man, who may you +be?" + +"I am a clerk, sir, travelling from Beaulieu." + +"A clerk!" cried the other. "Art from Oxenford or from +Cambridge? Hast thou a letter from the chancellor of thy college +giving thee a permit to beg? Let me see thy letter." He had a +stern, square face, with bushy side whiskers and a very +questioning eye. + +"I am from Beaulieu Abbey, and I have no need to beg," said +Alleyne, who was all of a tremble now that the ruffle was over. + +"The better for thee," the other answered. "Dost know who I am?" + +"No, sir, I do not." + +"I am the law!"--nodding his head solemnly. "I am the law of +England and the mouthpiece of his most gracious and royal +majesty, Edward the Third." + +Alleyne louted low to the King's representative. "Truly you came +in good time, honored sir," said he. "A moment later and they +would have slain me." + +"But there should be another one," cried the man in the purple +coat. "There should be a black man. A shipman with St. +Anthony's fire, and a black man who had served him as cook--those +are the pair that we are in chase of." + +"The black man fled over to that side," said Alleyne, pointing +towards the barrow. + +"He could not have gone far, sir bailiff," cried one of the +archers, unslinging his bow. "He is in hiding somewhere, for he +knew well, black paynim as he is, that our horses' four legs +could outstrip his two." + +"Then we shall have him," said the other. "It shall never be +said, whilst I am bailiff of Southampton, that any waster, +riever, draw-latch or murtherer came scathless away from me and +my posse. Leave that rogue lying. Now stretch out in line, my +merry ones, with arrow on string, and I shall show you such sport +as only the King can give. You on the left, Howett, and Thomas +of Redbridge upon the right. So! Beat high and low among the +heather, and a pot of wine to the lucky marksman." + +As it chanced, however, the searchers had not far to seek. The +negro had burrowed down into his hiding-place upon the barrow, +where he might have lain snug enough, had it not been for the red +gear upon his head. As he raised himself to look over the +bracken at his enemies, the staring color caught the eye of the +bailiff, who broke into a long screeching whoop and spurred +forward sword in hand. Seeing himself discovered, the man rushed +out from his hiding-place, and bounded at the top of his speed +down the line of archers, keeping a good hundred paces to the +front of them. The two who were on either side of Alleyne bent +their bows as calmly as though they were shooting at the popinjay +at the village fair. + +"Seven yards windage, Hal," said one, whose hair was streaked +with gray. + +"Five," replied the other, letting loose his string. Alleyne +gave a gulp in his throat, for the yellow streak seemed to pass +through the man; but he still ran forward. + +"Seven, you jack-fool," growled the first speaker, and his bow +twanged like a harp-string. The black man sprang high up into +the air, and shot out both his arms and his legs, coming down all +a-sprawl among the heather. "Right under the blade bone!" quoth +the archer, sauntering forward for his arrow. + +"The old hound is the best when all is said," quoth the bailiff +of Southampton, as they made back for the roadway. "That means a +quart of the best Malmsey in Southampton this very night, Matthew +Atwood. Art sure that he is dead?" + +"Dead as Pontius Pilate, worshipful sir." + +"It is well. Now, as to the other knave. There are trees and to +spare over yonder, but we have scarce leisure to make for them. +Draw thy sword, Thomas of Redbridge, and hew me his head from his +shoulders." + +"A boon, gracious sir, a boon!" cried the condemned man. What +then?" asked the bailiff. + +"I will confess to my crime. It was indeed I and the black cook, +both from the ship 'La Rose de Gloire,' of Southampton, who did +set upon the Flanders merchant and rob him of his spicery and his +mercery, for which, as we well know, you hold a warrant against +us." + +"There is little merit in this confession," quoth the bailiff +sternly. "Thou hast done evil within my bailiwick, and must +die." + +"But, sir," urged Alleyne, who was white to the lips at these +bloody doings, "he hath not yet come to trial." + +"Young clerk," said the bailiff, "you speak of that of which you +know nothing. It is true that he hath not come to trial, but the +trial hath come to him. He hath fled the law and is beyond its +pale. Touch not that which is no concern of thine. But what is +this boon, rogue, which you would crave?" + +"I have in my shoe, most worshipful sir, a strip of wood which +belonged once to the bark wherein the blessed Paul was dashed up +against the island of Melita. I bought it for two rose nobles +from a shipman who came from the Levant. The boon I crave is +that you will place it in my hands and let me die still grasping +it. In this manner, not only shall my own eternal salvation be +secured, but thine also, for I shall never cease to intercede for +thee." + +At the command of the bailiff they plucked off the fellow's shoe, +and there sure enough at the side of the instep, wrapped in a +piece of fine sendall, lay a long, dark splinter of wood. The +archers doffed caps at the sight of it, and the bailiff crossed +himself devoutly as he handed it to the robber. + +"If it should chance," he said, "that through the surpassing +merits of the blessed Paul your sin-stained soul should gain a +way into paradise, I trust that you will not forget that +intercession which you have promised. Bear in mind too, that it +is Herward the bailiff for whom you pray, and not Herward the +sheriff, who is my uncle's son. Now, Thomas, I pray you +dispatch, for we have a long ride before us and sun has already +set." + +Alleyne gazed upon the scene--the portly velvet-clad official the +knot of hard-faced archers with their hands to the bridles of +their horses, the thief with his arms trussed back and his +doublet turned down upon his shoulders. By the side of the track +the old dame was standing, fastening her red whimple once more +round her head. Even as he looked one of the archers drew his +sword with a sharp whirr of steel and stept up to the lost man. +The clerk hurried away in horror; but, ere he had gone many +paces, he heard a sudden, sullen thump, with a choking, +whistling sound at the end of it. A minute later the bailiff and +four of his men rode past him on their journey back to +Southampton, the other two having been chosen as grave-diggers. +As they passed Alleyne saw that one of the men was wiping his +sword-blade upon the mane of his horse. A deadly sickness came +over him at the sight, and sitting down by the wayside he burst +out weeping, with his nerves all in a jangle. It was a terrible +world thought he, and it was hard to know which were the most to +be dreaded, the knaves or the men of the law. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +HOW A STRANGE COMPANY GATHERED AT THE "PIED MERLIN." + +THE night had already fallen, and the moon was shining between +the rifts of ragged, drifting clouds, before Alleyne Edricson, +footsore and weary from the unwonted exercise, found himself in +front of the forest inn which stood upon the outskirts of +Lyndhurst. The building was long and low, standing back a little +from the road, with two flambeaux blazing on either side of the +door as a welcome to the traveller. From one window there thrust +forth a long pole with a bunch of greenery tied to the end of it- +-a sign that liquor was to be sold within. As Alleyne walked up +to it he perceived that it was rudely fashioned out of beams of +wood, with twinkling lights all over where the glow from within +shone through the chinks. The roof was poor and thatched; but in +strange contrast to it there ran all along under the eaves a line +of wooden shields, most gorgeously painted with chevron, bend, +and saltire. and every heraldic de-vice. By the door a horse +stood tethered, the ruddy glow beating strongly upon his brown +head and patient eyes, while his body stood back in the shadow. + +Alleyne stood still in the roadway for a few minutes reflecting +upon what he should do. It was, he knew, only a few miles +further to Minstead, where his brother dwelt. On the other hand, +he had never seen this brother since childhood, and the reports +which had come to his ears concerning him were seldom to his +advantage. By all accounts he was a hard and a bitter man. + +It might be an evil start to come to his door so late and claim +the shelter of his root: Better to sleep here at this inn, and +then travel on to Minstead in the morning. If his brother would +take him in, well and good. + +He would bide with him for a time and do what he might to serve +him. If, on the other hand, he should have hardened his heart +against him, he could only go on his way and do the best he might +by his skill as a craftsman and a scrivener. At the end of a +year he would be free to return to the cloisters, for such had +been his father's bequest. A monkish upbringing, one year in the +world after the age of twenty, and then a free selection one way +or the other--it was a strange course which had been marked out +for him. Such as it was, however, he had no choice but to follow +it, and if he were to begin by making a friend of his brother he +had best wait until morning before he knocked at his dwelling. + +The rude plank door was ajar, but as Alleyne approached it there +came from within such a gust of rough laughter and clatter of +tongues that he stood irresolute upon the threshold. Summoning +courage, however, and reflecting that it was a public dwelling, +in which he had as much right as any other man, he pushed it open +and stepped into the common room. + +Though it was an autumn evening and somewhat warm, a huge fire of +heaped billets of wood crackled and sparkled in a broad, open +grate, some of the smoke escaping up a rude chimney, but the +greater part rolling out into the room, so that the air was thick +with it, and a man coming from without could scarce catch his +breath. On this fire a great cauldron bubbled and simmered, +giving forth a rich and promising smell. Seated round it were a +dozen or so folk, of all ages and conditions, who set up such a +shout as Alleyne entered that he stood peering at them through +the smoke, uncertain what this riotous greeting might portend. + +"A rouse! A rouse!" cried one rough looking fellow in a tattered +jerkin. "One more round of mead or ale and the score to the last +comer." + +" 'Tis the law of the 'Pied Merlin,' " shouted another. "Ho +there, Dame Eliza! Here is fresh custom come to the house, and +not a drain for the company." + +"I will take your orders, gentles; I will assuredly take your +orders," the landlady answered, bustling in with her hands full +of leathern drinking-cups. "What is it that you drink, then? +Beer for the lads of the forest, mead for the gleeman, strong +waters for the tinker, and wine for the rest. It is an old +custom of the house, young sir. It has been the use at the 'Pied +Merlin' this many a year back that the company should drink to +the health of the last comer. Is it your pleasure to humor it?" + +"Why, good dame," said Alleyne, "I would not offend the customs +of your house, but it is only sooth when I say that my purse is a +thin one. As far as two pence will go, however, I shall be right +glad to do my part." + +"Plainly said and bravely spoken, my sucking friar," roared a +deep voice, and a heavy hand fell upon Alleyne's shoulder. +Looking up, he saw beside him his former cloister companion the +renegade monk, Hordle John. + +"By the thorn of Glastonbury! ill days are coming upon Beaulieu," +said he. "Here they have got rid in one day of the only two men +within their walls--for I have had mine eyes upon thee, +youngster, and I know that for all thy baby-face there is the +making of a man in thee. Then there is the Abbot, too. I am no +friend of his, nor he of mine; but he has warm blood in his +veins. He is the only man left among them. The others, what are +they?" + +"They are holy men," Alleyne answered gravely. + +"Holy men? Holy cabbages! Holy bean-pods! What do they do but +live and suck in sustenance and grow fat? If that be holiness, I +could show you hogs in this forest who are fit to head the +calendar. Think you it was for such a life that this good arm +was fixed upon my shoulder, or that head placed upon your neck? +There is work in the world, man, and it is not by hiding behind +stone walls that we shall do it." + +"Why, then, did you join the brothers?" asked Alleyne. + +"A fair enough question; but it is as fairly answered. I joined +them because Margery Alspaye, of Bolder, married Crooked Thomas +of Ringwood, and left a certain John of Hordle in the cold, for +that he was a ranting, roving blade who was not to be trusted in +wedlock. That was why, being fond and hot-headed, I left the +world; and that is why, having had time to take thought, I am +right glad to find myself back in it once more. Ill betide the +day that ever I took off my yeoman's jerkin to put on the white +gown!" + +Whilst he was speaking the landlady came in again, bearing a +broad platter, upon which stood all the beakers and flagons +charged to the brim with the brown ale or the ruby wine. Behind +her came a maid with a high pile of wooden plates, and a great +sheaf of spoons, one of which she handed round to each of the +travellers. + +Two of the company, who were dressed in the weather-stained green +doublet of foresters, lifted the big pot off the fire, and a +third, with a huge pewter ladle, served out a portion of steaming +collops to each guest. Alleyne bore his share and his ale-mug +away with him to a retired trestle in the corner, where he could +sup in peace and watch the strange scene, which was so different +to those silent and well-ordered meals to which he was +accustomed. + +The room was not unlike a stable. The low ceiling, smoke- +blackened and dingy, was pierced by several square trap-doors +with rough-hewn ladders leading up to them. The walls of bare +unpainted planks were studded here and there with great wooden +pins, placed at irregular intervals and heights, from which hung +over-tunics, wallets, whips, bridles, and saddles. Over the +fireplace were suspended six or seven shields of wood, with +coats-of-arms rudely daubed upon them, which showed by their +varying degrees of smokiness and dirt that they had been placed +there at different periods. There was no furniture, save a +single long dresser covered with coarse crockery, and a number of +wooden benches and trestles, the legs of which sank deeply into +the soft clay floor, while the only light, save that of the fire, +was furnished by three torches stuck in sockets on the wall, +which flickered and crackled, giving forth a strong resinous +odor. All this was novel and strange to the cloister-bred youth; +but most interesting of all was the motley circle of guests who +sat eating their collops round the blaze. They were a humble +group of wayfarers, such as might have been found that night in +any inn through the length and breadth of England; but to him +they represented that vague world against which he had been so +frequently and so earnestly warned. It did not seem to him from +what he could see of it to be such a very wicked place after all. + +Three or four of the men round the fire were evidently +underkeepers and verderers from the forest, sunburned and +bearded, with the quick restless eye and lithe movements of the +deer among which they lived. Close to the corner of the chimney +sat a middle-aged gleeman, clad in a faded garb of Norwich cloth, +the tunic of which was so outgrown that it did not fasten at the +neck and at the waist. His face was swollen and coarse, and his +watery protruding eyes spoke of a life which never wandered very +far from the wine-pot. A gilt harp, blotched with many stains +and with two of its strings missing, was tucked under one of his +arms, while with the other he scooped greedily at his platter. +Next to him sat two other men of about the same age, one with a +trimming of fur to his coat, which gave him a dignity which was +evidently dearer to him than his comfort, for he still drew it +round him in spite of the hot glare of the faggots. The other, +clad in a dirty russet suit with a long sweeping doublet, had a +cunning, foxy face with keen, twinkling eyes and a peaky beard. +Next to him sat Hordle John, and beside him three other rough +unkempt fellows with tangled beards and matted hair-free laborers +from the adjoining farms, where small patches of freehold +property had been suffered to remain scattered about in the +heart of the royal demesne. The company was completed by a +peasant in a rude dress of undyed sheepskin, with the old- +fashioned galligaskins about his legs, and a gayly dressed young +man with striped cloak jagged at the edges and parti-colored +hosen, who looked about him with high disdain upon his face, and +held a blue smelling-flask to his nose with one hand, while he +brandished a busy spoon with the other. In the corner a very fat +man was lying all a-sprawl upon a truss, snoring stertorously, +and evidently in the last stage of drunkenness. + +"That is Wat the limner," quoth the landlady, sitting down beside +Alleyne, and pointing with the ladle to the sleeping man. "That +is he who paints the signs and the tokens. Alack and alas that +ever I should have been fool enough to trust him! Now, young man, +what manner of a bird would you suppose a pied merlin to be--that +being the proper sign of my hostel?" + +"Why," said Alleyne, "a merlin is a bird of the same form as an +eagle or a falcon. I can well remember that learned brother +Bartholomew, who is deep in all the secrets of nature, pointed +one out to me as we walked together near Vinney Ridge." + +"A falcon or an eagle, quotha? And pied, that is of two several +colors. So any man would say except this barrel of lies. He +came to me, look you, saying that if I would furnish him with a +gallon of ale, wherewith to strengthen himself as he worked, and +also the pigments and a board, he would paint for me a noble pied +merlin which I might hang along with the blazonry over my door. +I, poor simple fool, gave him the ale and all that he craved, +leaving him alone too, because he said that a man's mind must be +left untroubled when he had great work to do. When I came back +the gallon jar was empty, and he lay as you see him, with the +board in front of him with this sorry device." She raised up a +panel which was leaning against the wall, and showed a rude +painting of a scraggy and angular fowl, with very long legs and a +spotted body. + +"Was that," she asked, like the bird which thou hast seen?" + +Alleyne shook his head, smiling. + +"No, nor any other bird that ever wagged a feather. It is most +like a plucked pullet which has died of the spotted fever. And +scarlet too! What would the gentles Sir Nicholas Boarhunte, or +Sir Bernard Brocas, of Roche Court, say if they saw such a thing- +-or, perhaps, even the King's own Majesty himself, who often has +ridden past this way, and who loves his falcons as he loves his +sons? It would be the downfall of my house." + +"The matter is not past mending," said Alleyne. "I pray you, +good dame, to give me those three pigment-pots and the brush, and +I shall try whether I cannot better this painting." + +Dame Eliza looked doubtfully at him, as though fearing some other +stratagem, but, as he made no demand for ale, she finally brought +the paints, and watched him as he smeared on his background, +talking the while about the folk round the fire. + +"The four forest lads must be jogging soon," she said. "They +bide at Emery Down, a mile or more from here. Yeomen prickers +they are, who tend to the King's hunt. The gleeman is called +Floyting Will. He comes from the north country, but for many +years he hath gone the round of the forest from Southampton to +Christchurch. He drinks much and pays little but it would make +your ribs crackle to hear him sing the 'Jest of Hendy Tobias.' +Mayhap he will sing it when the ale has warmed him." + +"Who are those next to him?" asked Alleyne, much interested. "He +of the fur mantle has a wise and reverent face." + +"He is a seller of pills and salves, very learned in humors, and +rheums, and fluxes, and all manner of ailments. He wears, as you +perceive, the vernicle of Sainted Luke, the first physician, upon +his sleeve. May good St. Thomas of Kent grant that it may be +long before either I or mine need his help! He is here to-night +for herbergage, as are the others except the foresters. His +neighbor is a tooth-drawer. That bag at his girdle is full of +the teeth that he drew at Winchester fair. I warrant that there +are more sound ones than sorry, for he is quick at his work and a +trifle dim in the eye. The lusty man next him with the red head +I have not seen before. The four on this side are all workers, +three of them in the service of the bailiff of Sir Baldwin +Redvers, and the other, he with the sheepskin, is, as I hear, a +villein from the midlands who hath run from his master. His year +and day are well-nigh up, when he will be a free man." + +"And the other?" asked Alleyne in a whisper. "He is surely some +very great man, for he looks as though he scorned those who were +about him." + +The landlady looked at him in a motherly way and shook her head. +"You have had no great truck with the world," she said, "or you +would have learned that it is the small men and not the great who +hold their noses in the air. Look at those shields upon my wall +and under my eaves. Each of them is the device of some noble +lord or gallant knight who hath slept under my roof at one time +or another. Yet milder men or easier to please I have never +seen: eating my bacon and drinking my wine with a merry face, and +paying my score with some courteous word or jest which was dearer +to me than my profit. Those are the true gentles. But your +chapman or your bearward will swear that there is a lime in the +wine, and water in the ale, and fling off at the last with a +curse instead of a blessing. This youth is a scholar from +Cambrig, where men are wont to be blown out by a little +knowledge, and lose the use of their hands in learning the laws +of the Romans. But I must away to lay down the beds. So may the +saints keep you and prosper you in your undertaking!" + +Thus left to himself, Alleyne drew his panel of wood where the +light of one of the torches would strike full upon it, and worked +away with all the pleasure of the trained craftsman, listening +the while to the talk which went on round the fire. The peasant +in the sheepskins, who had sat glum and silent all evening, had +been so heated by his flagon of ale that he was talking loudly +and angrily with clenched hands and flashing eyes. + +"Sir Humphrey Tennant of Ashby may till his own fields for me," +he cried. "The castle has thrown its shadow upon the cottage +over long. For three hundred years my folk have swinked and +sweated, day in and day out, to keep the wine on the lord's table +and the harness on the lord's back. Let him take off his plates +and delve himself, if delving must be done." + +"A proper spirit, my fair son!" said one of the free laborers. +"I would that all men were of thy way of thinking." + +"He would have sold me with his acres," the other cried, in a +voice which was hoarse with passion. " 'The man, the woman and +their litter'--so ran the words of the dotard bailiff. Never a +bullock on the farm was sold more lightly. Ha! he may wake some +black night to find the flames licking about his ears--for fire +is a good friend to the poor man, and I have seen a smoking heap +of ashes where over night there stood just such another +castlewick as Ashby." + +"This is a lad of mettle!" shouted another of the laborers. He +dares to give tongue to what all men think. Are we not all from +Adam's loins, all with flesh and blood, and with the same mouth +that must needs have food and drink? Where all this difference +then between the ermine cloak and the leathern tunic, if what +they cover is the same?" + +"Aye, Jenkin," said another, "our foeman is under the stole and +the vestment as much as under the helmet and plate of proof. We +have as much to fear from the tonsure as from the hauberk. +Strike at the noble and the priest shrieks, strike at priest and +the noble lays his hand upon glaive. They are twin thieves who +live upon our labor." + +"It would take a clever man to live upon thy labor, Hugh," +remarked one of the foresters, "seeing that the half of thy time +is spent in swilling mead at the 'Pied Merlin.' " + +"Better that than stealing the deer that thou art placed to +guard, like some folk I know." + +"If you dare open that swine's mouth against me," shouted the +woodman, "I'll crop your ears for you before the hangman has the +doing of it, thou long-jawed lackbrain." + +"Nay, gentles, gentles!" cried Dame Eliza, in a singsong heedless +voice, which showed that such bickerings were nightly things +among her guests. "No brawling or brabbling, gentles! Take heed +to the good name of the house." + +"Besides, if it comes to the cropping of ears, there are other +folk who may say their say," quoth the third laborer. "We are +all freemen, and I trow that a yeoman's cudgel is as good as a +forester's knife. By St. Anselm! it would be an evil day if we +had to bend to our master's servants as well as to our masters." + +"No man is my master save the King," the woodman answered. "Who +is there, save a false traitor, who would refuse to serve the +English king?" + +"I know not about the English king," said the man Jenkin. "What +sort of English king is it who cannot lay his tongue to a word of +English? You mind last year when he came down to Malwood, with +his inner marshal and his outer marshal, his justiciar, his +seneschal, and his four and twenty guardsmen. One noontide I was +by Franklin Swinton's gate, when up he rides with a yeoman +pricker at his heels. 'Ouvre,' he cried, 'ouvre,' or some such +word, making signs for me to open the gate; and then 'Merci,' as +though he were adrad of me. And you talk of an English king?" + +"I do not marvel at it," cried the Cambrig scholar, speaking in +the high drawling voice which was common among his class. "It is +not a tongue for men of sweet birth and delicate upbringing. It +is a foul, snorting, snarling manner of speech. For myself, I +swear by the learned Polycarp that I have most ease with Hebrew, +and after that perchance with Arabian." + +"I will not hear a word said against old King Ned," cried Hordle +John in a voice like a bull. "What if he is fond of a bright eye +and a saucy face. I know one of his subjects who could match him +at that. If he cannot speak like an Englishman I trow that he +can fight like an Englishman, and he was hammering at the gates +of Paris while alehouse topers were grutching and grumbling at +home." + +This loud speech, coming from a man of so formidable an +appearance, somewhat daunted the disloyal party, and they fell +into a sullen silence, which enabled Alleyne to hear something of +the talk which was going on in the further corner between the +physician, the tooth-drawer and the gleeman. + +"A raw rat," the man of drugs was saying, "that is what it is +ever my use to order for the plague--a raw rat with its paunch +cut open." + +"Might it not be broiled, most learned sir?" asked the tooth- +drawer. "A raw rat sounds a most sorry and cheerless dish." + +"Not to be eaten," cried the physician, in high disdain. "Why +should any man eat such a thing?" + +"Why indeed?" asked the gleeman, taking a long drain at his +tankard. + +"It is to be placed on the sore or swelling. For the rat, mark +you, being a foul-living creature, hath a natural drawing or +affinity for all foul things, so that the noxious humors pass +from the man into the unclean beast." + +"Would that cure the black death, master?" asked Jenkin. + +"Aye, truly would it, my fair son." + +"Then I am right glad that there were none who knew of it. The +black death is the best friend that ever the common folk had in +England." + +"How that then?" asked Hordle John. + +"Why, friend, it is easy to see that you have not worked with +your hands or you would not need to ask. When half the folk in +the country were dead it was then that the other half could pick +and choose who they would work for, and for what wage. That is +why I say that the murrain was the best friend that the borel +folk ever had." + +"True, Jenkin," said another workman; "but it is not all good +that is brought by it either. We well know that through it corn- +land has been turned into pasture, so that flocks of sheep with +perchance a single shepherd wander now where once a hundred men +had work and wage." + +"There is no great harm in that," remarked the tooth-drawer, "for +the sheep give many folk their living. There is not only the +herd, but the shearer and brander, and then the dresser, the +curer, the dyer, the fuller, the webster, the merchant, and a +score of others." + +"If it come to that." said one of the foresters, "the tough meat +of them will wear folks teeth out, and there is a trade for the +man who can draw them." + +A general laugh followed this sally at the dentist's expense, in +the midst of which the gleeman placed his battered harp upon his +knee, and began to pick out a melody upon the frayed strings, + +"Elbow room for Floyting Will!" cried the woodmen. "Twang us a +merry lilt." + +"Aye, aye, the 'Lasses of Lancaster,' " one suggested. + +"Or 'St. Simeon and the Devil.' " + +"Or the 'Jest of Hendy Tobias.' " + +To all these suggestions the jongleur made no response, but sat +with his eye fixed abstractedly upon the ceiling, as one who +calls words to his mind. Then, with a sudden sweep across the +strings, he broke out into a song so gross and so foul that ere +he had finished a verse the pure-minded lad sprang to his feet +with the blood tingling in his face. + +"How can you sing such things?" he cried. "You, too, an old man +who should be an example to others." + +The wayfarers all gazed in the utmost astonishment at the +interruption. + +"By the holy Dicon of Hampole! our silent clerk has found his +tongue," said one of the woodmen. "What is amiss with the song +then? How has it offended your babyship?" + +"A milder and better mannered song hath never been heard within +these walls," cried another. "What sort of talk is this for a +public inn?" + +"Shall it be a litany, my good clerk?" shouted a third; "or would +a hymn be good enough to serve?" + +The jongleur had put down his harp in high dudgeon. "Am I to be +preached to by a child?" he cried, staring across at Alleyne with +an inflamed and angry countenance. "Is a hairless infant to +raise his tongue against me, when I have sung in every fair from +Tweed to Trent, and have twice been named aloud by the High Court +of the Minstrels at Beverley? I shall sing no more to-night." + +"Nay, but you will so," said one of the laborers. "Hi, Dame +Eliza, bring a stoup of your best to Will to clear his throat. +Go forward with thy song, and if our girl-faced clerk does not +love it he can take to the road and go whence he came." + +"Nay, but not too last," broke in Hordle John. "There are two +words in this matter. It may be that my little comrade has been +over quick in reproof, he having gone early into the cloisters +and seen little of the rough ways and words of the world. Yet +there is truth in what he says, for, as you know well, the song +was not of the cleanest. I shall stand by him, therefore, and he +shall neither be put out on the road, nor shall his ears be +offended indoors." + +"Indeed, your high and mighty grace," sneered one of the yeomen, +"have you in sooth so ordained?" + +"By the Virgin!" said a second, "I think that you may both chance +to find yourselves upon the road before long." + +"And so belabored as to be scarce able to crawl along it," cried +a third. + +"Nay, I shall go! I shall go!" said Alleyne hurriedly, as Hordle +John began to slowly roll up his sleeve, and bare an arm like a +leg of mutton. "I would not have you brawl about me." + +"Hush! lad," he whispered, "I count them not a fly. They may +find they have more tow on their distaff than they know how to +spin. Stand thou clear and give me space." + +Both the foresters and the laborers had risen from their bench, +and Dame Eliza and the travelling doctor had flung themselves +between the two parties with soft words and soothing gestures, +when the door of the "Pied Merlin" was flung violently open, and +the attention of the company was drawn from their own quarrel to +the new-comer who had burst so unceremoniously upon them. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HOW SAMKIN AYLWARD WAGERED HIS FEATHER-BED. + +HE was a middle-sized man, of most massive and robust build, with +an arching chest and extraordinary breadth of shoulder. His +shaven face was as brown as a hazel-nut, tanned and dried by the +weather, with harsh, well-marked features, which were not +improved by a long white scar which stretched from the corner of +his left nostril to the angle of the jaw. His eyes were bright +and searching, with something of menace and of authority in their +quick glitter, and his mouth was firm-set and hard, as befitted +one who was wont to set his face against danger. A straight +sword by his side and a painted long-bow jutting over his +shoulder proclaimed his profession, while his scarred brigandine +of chain-mail and his dinted steel cap showed that he was no +holiday soldier, but one who was even now fresh from the wars. A +white surcoat with the lion of St. George in red upon the centre +covered his broad breast, while a sprig of new-plucked broom at +the side of his head-gear gave a touch of gayety and grace to his +grim, war-worn equipment. + +"Ha!" he cried, blinking like an owl in the sudden glare. "Good +even to you, comrades! Hola! a woman, by my soul!" and in an +instant he had clipped Dame Eliza round the waist and was kissing +her violently. His eye happening to wander upon the maid, +however, he instantly abandoned the mistress and danced off after +the other, who scurried in confusion up one of the ladders, and +dropped the heavy trap-door upon her pursuer. He then turned +back and saluted the landlady once more with the utmost relish +and satisfaction. + +"La petite is frightened," said he. "Ah, c'est l'amour, l'amour! +Curse this trick of French, which will stick to my throat. I +must wash it out with some good English ale. By my hilt! +camarades, there is no drop of French blood in my body, and I am +a true English bowman, Samkin Aylward by name; and I tell you, +mes amis, that it warms my very heart-roots to set my feet on the +dear old land once more. When I came off the galley at Hythe, +this very day, I down on my bones, and I kissed the good brown +earth, as I kiss thee now, ma belle, for it was eight long years +since I had seen it. The very smell of it seemed life to me. +But where are my six rascals? Hola, there! En avant!" + +At the order, six men, dressed as common drudges, marched +solemnly into the room, each bearing a huge bundle upon his head. +They formed in military line, while the soldier stood in front of +them with stern eyes, checking off their several packages. + +"Number one--a French feather-bed with the two counter-panes of +white sandell," said he. + +"Here, worthy sir," answered the first of the bearers, laying a +great package down in the corner. + +"Number two--seven ells of red Turkey cloth and nine ells of +cloth of gold. Put it down by the other. Good dame, I prythee +give each of these men a bottrine of wine or a jack of ale. +Three-a full piece of white Genoan velvet with twelve ells of +purple silk. Thou rascal, there is dirt on the hem! Thou hast +brushed it against some wall, coquin!" + +"Not I, most worthy sir," cried the carrier, shrinking away from +the fierce eyes of the bowman. + +"I say yes, dog! By the three kings! I have seen a man gasp out +his last breath for less. Had you gone through the pain and +unease that I have done to earn these things you would be at more +care. I swear by my ten finger-bones that there is not one of +them that hath not cost its weight in French blood! Four--an +incense-boat, a ewer of silver, a gold buckle and a cope worked +in pearls. I found them, camarades, at the Church of St. Denis +in the harrying of Narbonne, and I took them away with me lest +they fall into the hands of the wicked. Five--a cloak of fur +turned up with minever, a gold goblet with stand and cover, and a +box of rose-colored sugar. See that you lay them together. Six- +-a box of monies, three pounds of Limousine gold-work, a pair of +boots, silver tagged, and, lastly, a store of naping linen. So, +the tally is complete! Here is a groat apiece, and you may go." + +"Go whither, worthy sir?" asked one of the carriers. + +"Whither? To the devil if ye will. What is it to me? Now, ma +belle, to supper. A pair of cold capons, a mortress of brawn, or +what you will, with a flask or two of the right Gascony. I have +crowns in my pouch, my sweet, and I mean to spend them. Bring in +wine while the food is dressing. Buvons my brave lads; you shall +each empty a stoup with me." + +Here was an offer which the company in an English inn at that or +any other date are slow to refuse. The flagons were re-gathered +and came back with the white foam dripping over their edges. Two +of the woodmen and three of the laborers drank their portions off +hurriedly and trooped off together, for their homes were distant +and the hour late. The others, however, drew closer, leaving the +place of honor to the right of the gleeman to the free-handed +new-comer. He had thrown off his steel cap and his brigandine, +and had placed them with his sword, his quiver and his painted +long-bow, on the top of his varied heap of plunder in the corner. +Now, with his thick and somewhat bowed legs stretched in front of +the blaze, his green jerkin thrown open, and a great quart pot +held in his corded fist, he looked the picture of comfort and of +good-fellowship. His hard-set face had softened, and the thick +crop of crisp brown curls which had been hidden by his helmet +grew low upon his massive neck. He might have been forty years +of age, though hard toil and harder pleasure had left their grim +marks upon his features. Alleyne had ceased painting his pied +merlin, and sat, brush in hand, staring with open eyes at a type +of man so strange and so unlike any whom he had met. Men had +been good or had been bad in his catalogue, but here was a man +who was fierce one instant and gentle the next, with a curse on +his lips and a smile in his eye. What was to be made of such a +man as that? + +It chanced that the soldier looked up and saw the questioning +glance which the young clerk threw upon him. He raised his +flagon and drank to him, with a merry flash of his white teeth. + +"A toi, mon garcon," he cried. "Hast surely never seen a man-at- +arms, that thou shouldst stare so?" + +"I never have," said Alleyne frankly, "though I have oft heard +talk of their deeds." + +"By my hilt!" cried the other, "if you were to cross the narrow +sea you would find them as thick as bees at a tee-hole. Couldst +not shoot a bolt down any street of Bordeaux, I warrant, but you +would pink archer, squire, or knight. There are more +breastplates than gaberdines to be seen, I promise you." + +"And where got you all these pretty things?" asked Hordle John, +pointing at the heap in the corner. + +"Where there is as much more waiting for any brave lad to pick it +up. Where a good man can always earn a good wage, and where he +need look upon no man as his paymaster, but just reach his hand +out and help himself. Aye, it is a goodly and a proper life. +And here I drink to mine old comrades, and the saints be with +them! Arouse all together, me, enfants, under pain of my +displeasure. To Sir Claude Latour and the White Company!" + +"Sir Claude Latour and the White Company!" shouted the +travellers, draining off their goblets. + +"Well quaffed, mes braves! It is for me to fill your cups again, +since you have drained them to my dear lads of the white jerkin. +Hola! mon ange, bring wine and ale. How runs the old stave?-- + + We'll drink all together To the gray goose feather And the +land where the gray goose flew." + +He roared out the catch in a harsh, unmusical voice, and ended +with a shout of laughter. "I trust that I am a better bowman +than a minstrel," said he. + +"Methinks I have some remembrance of the lilt," remarked the +gleeman, running his fingers over the strings, "Hoping that it +will give thee no offence, most holy sir"--with a vicious snap at +Alleyne--"and with the kind permit of the company, I will even +venture upon it." + +Many a time in the after days Alleyne Edricson seemed to see that +scene, for all that so many which were stranger and more stirring +were soon to crowd upon him. The fat, red-faced gleeman, the +listening group, the archer with upraised finger beating in time +to the music, and the huge sprawling figure of Hordle John, all +thrown into red light and black shadow by the flickering fire in +the centre--memory was to come often lovingly back to it. At the +time he was lost in admiration at the deft way in which the +jongleur disguised the loss of his two missing strings, and the +lusty, hearty fashion in which he trolled out his little ballad +of the outland bowmen, which ran in some such fashion as this: + + What of the bow? The bow was made in England: Of true wood, of +yew wood, The wood of English bows; So men who are free Love the +old yew tree And the land where the yew tree grows. + + What of the cord? The cord was made in England: A rough cord, a +tough cord, A cord that bowmen love; So we'll drain our jacks To +the English flax And the land where the hemp was wove. + + What of the shaft? The shaft was cut in England: A long shaft, +a strong shaft, Barbed and trim and true; So we'll drink all +together To the gray goose feather And the land where the gray +goose flew. + + What of the men? The men were bred in England: The bowman--the +yeoman-- The lads of dale and fell Here's to you--and to you; To +the hearts that are true And the land where the true hearts +dwell. + +"Well sung, by my hilt!" shouted the archer in high delight. +"Many a night have I heard that song, both in the old war-time +and after in the days of the White Company, when Black Simon of +Norwich would lead the stave, and four hundred of the best bowmen +that ever drew string would come roaring in upon the chorus. I +have seen old John Hawkwood, the same who has led half the +Company into Italy, stand laughing in his beard as he heard it, +until his plates rattled again. But to get the full smack of it +ye must yourselves be English bowmen, and be far off upon an +outland soil." + +Whilst the song had been singing Dame Eliza and the maid had +placed a board across two trestles, and had laid upon it the +knife the spoon, the salt, the tranchoir of bread, and finally +the smoking dish which held the savory supper. The archer +settled himself to it like one who had known what it was to find +good food scarce; but his tongue still went as merrily as his +teeth. + +"It passes me," he cried, "how all you lusty fellows can bide +scratching your backs at home when there are such doings over the +seas. Look at me--what have I to do? It is but the eye to the +cord, the cord to the shaft, and the shaft to the mark. There is +the whole song of it. It is but what you do yourselves for +pleasure upon a Sunday evening at the parish village butts." + +"And the wage?" asked a laborer. + +"You see what the wage brings," he answered. "I eat of the best, +and I drink deep. I treat my friend, and I ask no friend to +treat me. I clap a silk gown on my girl's back. Never a +knight's lady shall be better betrimmed and betrinketed. How of +all that, mon garcon? And how of the heap of trifles that you +can see for yourselves in yonder corner? They are from the South +French, every one, upon whom I have been making war. By my hilt! +camarades, I think that I may let my plunder speak for itself." + +"It seems indeed to be a goodly service," said the tooth-drawer. + +"Tete bleu! yes, indeed. Then there is the chance of a ransom. +Why, look you, in the affair at Brignais some four years back, +when the companies slew James of Bourbon, and put his army to the +sword, there was scarce a man of ours who had not count, baron, +or knight. Peter Karsdale, who was but a common country lout +newly brought over, with the English fleas still hopping under +his doublet, laid his great hands upon the Sieur Amaury de +Chatonville, who owns half Picardy, and had five thousand crowns +out of him, with his horse and harness. 'Tis true that a French +wench took it all off Peter as quick as the Frenchman paid it; +but what then? By the twang of string! it would be a bad thing +if money was not made to be spent; and how better than on woman-- +eh, ma belle?" + +"It would indeed be a bad thing if we had not our brave archers +to bring wealth and kindly customs into the country," quoth Dame +Eliza, on whom the soldier's free and open ways had made a deep +impression. + +"A toi, ma cherie!" said he, with his hand over his heart. +"Hola! there is la petite peeping from behind the door. A toi, +aussi, ma petite! Mon Dieu! but the lass has a good color!" + +"There is one thing, fair sir," said the Cambridge student in his +piping voice, "which I would fain that you would make more clear. +As I understand it, there was peace made at the town of Bretigny +some six years back between our most gracious monarch and the +King of the French. This being so, it seems most passing strange +that you should talk so loudly of war and of companies when there +is no quarrel between the French and us." + +"Meaning that I lie," said the archer, laying down his knife. + +"May heaven forfend!" cried the student hastily. "Magna est +veritas sed rara, which means in the Latin tongue that archers +are all honorable men. I come to you seeking knowledge, for it +is my trade to learn." + +"I fear that you are yet a 'prentice to that trade," quoth the +soldier; "for there is no child over the water but could answer +what you ask. Know then that though there may be peace between +our own provinces and the French, yet within the marches of +France there is always war, for the country is much divided +against itself, and is furthermore harried by bands of flayers, +skinners, Brabacons, tardvenus, and the rest of them. When every +man's grip is on his neighbor's throat, and every five-sous-piece +of a baron is marching with tuck of drum to fight whom he will, +it would be a strange thing if five hundred brave English boys +could not pick up a living. Now that Sir John Hawkwood hath gone +with the East Anglian lads and the Nottingham woodmen into the +service of the Marquis of Montferrat to fight against the Lord of +Milan, there are but ten score of us left, yet I trust that I may +be able to bring some back with me to fill the ranks of the White +Company. By the tooth of Peter! it would be a bad thing if I +could not muster many a Hamptonshire man who would be ready to +strike in under the red flag of St. George, and the more so if +Sir Nigel Loring, of Christchurch, should don hauberk once more +and take the lead of us." + +"Ah, you would indeed be in luck then," quoth a woodman; "for it +is said that, setting aside the prince, and mayhap good old Sir +John Chandos, there was not in the whole army a man of such tried +courage." + +"It is sooth, every word of it," the archer answered. "I have +seen him with these two eyes in a stricken field, and never did +man carry himself better. Mon Dieu! yes, ye would not credit it +to look at him, or to hearken to his soft voice, but from the +sailing from Orwell down to the foray to Paris, and that is clear +twenty years, there was not a skirmish, onfall, sally, bushment, +escalado or battle, but Sir Nigel was in the heart of it. I go +now to Christchurch with a letter to him from Sir Claude Latour +to ask him if he will take the place of Sir John Hawkwood; and +there is the more chance that he will if I bring one or two +likely men at my heels. What say you, woodman: wilt leave the +bucks to loose a shaft at a nobler mark?" + +The forester shook his head. "I have wife and child at Emery +Down," quoth he; "I would not leave them for such a venture." + +You, then, young sir?" asked the archer. + +"Nay, I am a man of peace," said Alleyne Edricson. "Besides, I +have other work to do." + +"Peste!" growled the soldier, striking his flagon on the board +until the dishes danced again. "What, in the name of the devil, +hath come over the folk? Why sit ye all moping by the fireside, +like crows round a dead horse, when there is man's work to be +done within a few short leagues of ye? Out upon you all, as a +set of laggards and hang-backs! By my hilt I believe that the +men of England are all in France already, and that what is left +behind are in sooth the women dressed up in their paltocks and +hosen." + +"Archer," quoth Hordle John, "you have lied more than once and +more than twice; for which, and also because I see much in you to +dislike, I am sorely tempted to lay you upon your back." + +"By my hilt! then, I have found a man at last!" shouted the +bowman. "And, 'fore God, you are a better man than I take you +for if you can lay me on my back, mon garcon. I have won the ram +more times than there are toes to my feet, and for seven long +years I have found no man in the Company who could make my jerkin +dusty." + +"We have had enough bobance and boasting," said Hordle John, +rising and throwing off his doublet. "I will show you that there +are better men left in England than ever went thieving to +France." + +"Pasques Dieu!" cried the archer, loosening his jerkin, and +eyeing his foeman over with the keen glance of one who is a judge +of manhood. "I have only once before seen such a body of a man. +By your leave, my red-headed friend, I should be right sorry to +exchange buffets with you; and I will allow that there is no man +in the Company who would pull against you on a rope; so let that +be a salve to your pride. On the other hand I should judge that +you have led a life of ease for some months back, and that my +muscle is harder than your own. I am ready to wager upon myself +against you if you are not afeard." + +"Afeard, thou lurden!" growled big John. "I never saw the face +yet of the man that I was afeard of. Come out, and we shall see +who is the better man." + +"But the wager?" + +"I have nought to wager. Come out for the love and the lust of +the thing." + +"Nought to wager!" cried the soldier. "Why, you have that which +I covet above all things. It is that big body of thine that I am +after. See, now, mon garcon. I have a French feather-bed there, +which I have been at pains to keep these years back. I had it at +the sacking of Issodum, and the King himself hath not such a bed. +If you throw me, it is thine; but, if I throw you, then you are +under a vow to take bow and bill and hie with me to France, there +to serve in the White Company as long as we be enrolled." + +"A fair wager!" cried all the travellers, moving back their +benches and trestles, so as to give fair field for the wrestlers. + +"Then you may bid farewell to your bed, soldier," said Hordle +John. + +"Nay; I shall keep the bed, and I shall have you to France in +spite of your teeth, and you shall live to thank me for it. How +shall it be, then, mon enfant? Collar and elbow, or close-lock, +or catch how you can?" + +"To the devil with your tricks," said John, opening and shutting +his great red hands. "Stand forth, and let me clip thee." + +"Shalt clip me as best you can then," quoth the archer, moving +out into the open space, and keeping a most wary eye upon his +opponent. He had thrown off his green jerkin, and his chest was +covered only by a pink silk jupon, or undershirt, cut low in the +neck and sleeveless. Hordle John was stripped from his waist +upwards, and his huge body, with his great muscles swelling out +like the gnarled roots of an oak, towered high above the soldier. +The other, however, though near a foot shorter, was a man of +great strength; and there was a gloss upon his white skin which +was wanting in the heavier limbs of the renegade monk. He was +quick on his feet, too, and skilled at the game; so that it was +clear, from the poise of head and shine of eye, that he counted +the chances to be in his favor. It would have been hard that +night, through the whole length of England, to set up a finer +pair in face of each other. + +Big John stood waiting in the centre with a sullen, menacing eye, +and his red hair in a bristle, while the archer paced lightly and +swiftly to the right and the left with crooked knee and hands +advanced. Then with a sudden dash, so swift and fierce that the +eye could scarce follow it, he flew in upon his man and locked +his leg round him. It was a grip that, between men of equal +strength, would mean a fall; but Hordle John tore him off from +him as he might a rat, and hurled him across the room, so that +his head cracked up against the wooden wall. + +"Ma foi!" cried the bowman, passing his fingers through his +curls, "you were not far from the feather-bed then, mon gar. A +little more and this good hostel would have a new window." + +Nothing daunted, he approached his man once more, but this time +with more caution than before. With a quick feint he threw the +other off his guard, and then, bounding upon him, threw his legs +round his waist and his arms round his bull-neck, in the hope of +bearing him to the ground with the sudden shock. With a bellow +of rage, Hordle John squeezed him limp in his huge arms; and +then, picking him up, cast him down upon the floor with a force +which might well have splintered a bone or two, had not the +archer with the most perfect coolness clung to the other's +forearms to break his fall. As it was, he dropped upon his feet +and kept his balance, though it sent a jar through his frame +which set every joint a-creaking. He bounded back from his +perilous foeman; but the other, heated by the bout, rushed madly +after him, and so gave the practised wrestler the very vantage +for which he had planned. As big John flung himself upon him, +the archer ducked under the great red hands that clutched for +him, and, catching his man round the thighs, hurled him over his +shoulder--helped as much by his own mad rush as by the trained +strength of the heave. To Alleyne's eye, it was as if John had +taken unto himself wings and flown. As he hurtled through the +air, with giant limbs revolving, the lad's heart was in his +mouth; for surely no man ever yet had such a fall and came +scathless out of it. In truth, hardy as the man was, his neck +had been assuredly broken had he not pitched head first on the +very midriff of the drunken artist, who was slumbering so +peacefully in the corner, all unaware of these stirring doings. +The luckless limner, thus suddenly brought out from his dreams, +sat up with a piercing yell, while Hordle John bounded back into +the circle almost as rapidly as he had left it. + +"One more fall, by all the saints!" he cried, throwing out his +arms. + +"Not I," quoth the archer, pulling on his clothes, "I have come +well out of the business. I would sooner wrestle with the great +bear of Navarre." + +"It was a trick," cried John. + +"Aye was it. By my ten finger-bones! it is a trick that will add +a proper man to the ranks of the Company." + +"Oh, for that," said the other, "I count it not a fly; for I had +promised myself a good hour ago that I should go with thee, since +the life seems to be a goodly and proper one. Yet I would fain +have had the feather-bed." + +"I doubt it not, mon ami," quoth the archer, going back to his +tankard. "Here is to thee, lad, and may we be good comrades to +each other! But, hola! what is it that ails our friend of the +wrathful face?" + +The unfortunate limner had been sitting up rubbing himself +ruefully and staring about with a vacant gaze, which showed that +he knew neither where he was nor what had occurred to him. +Suddenly, however, a flash of intelligence had come over his +sodden features, and he rose and staggered for the door. " 'Ware +the ale!" he said in a hoarse whisper, shaking a warning finger +at the company. "Oh, holy Virgin, 'ware the ale!" and slapping +his hands to his injury, he flitted off into the darkness, amid a +shout of laughter, in which the vanquished joined as merrily as +the victor. The remaining forester and the two laborers were +also ready for the road, and the rest of the company turned to +the blankets which Dame Eliza and the maid had laid out for them +upon the floor. Alleyne, weary with the unwonted excitements of +the day, was soon in a deep slumber broken only by fleeting +visions of twittering legs, cursing beggars, black robbers, and +the many strange folk whom he had met at the "Pied Merlin." + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +HOW THE THREE COMRADES JOURNEYED THROUGH THE WOODLANDS. + +AT early dawn the country inn was all alive, for it was rare +indeed that an hour of daylight would be wasted at a time when +lighting was so scarce and dear. Indeed, early as it was when +Dame Eliza began to stir, it seemed that others could be earlier +still, for the door was ajar, and the learned student of +Cambridge had taken himself off, with a mind which was too intent +upon the high things of antiquity to stoop to consider the four- +pence which he owed for bed and board. It was the shrill out-cry +of the landlady when she found her loss, and the clucking of the +hens, which had streamed in through the open door, that first +broke in upon the slumbers of the tired wayfarers. + +Once afoot, it was not long before the company began to disperse. +A sleek mule with red trappings was brought round from some +neighboring shed for the physician, and he ambled away with much +dignity upon his road to Southampton. The tooth-drawer and the +gleeman called for a cup of small ale apiece, and started off +together for Ringwood fair, the old jongleur looking very yellow +in the eye and swollen in the face after his overnight potations. +The archer, however, who had drunk more than any man in the room, +was as merry as a grig, and having kissed the matron and chased +the maid up the ladder once more, he went out to the brook, and +came back with the water dripping from his face and hair. + +"Hola! my man of peace," he cried to Alleyne, "whither are you +bent this morning?" + +"To Minstead," quoth he. "My brother Simon Edricson is socman +there, and I go to bide with him for a while. I prythee, let me +have my score, good dame." + +"Score, indeed!" cried she, standing with upraised hands in front +of the panel on which Alleyne had worked the night before. "Say, +rather what it is that I owe to thee, good youth. Aye, this is +indeed a pied merlin, and with a leveret under its claws, as I am +a living woman. By the rood of Waltham! but thy touch is deft +and dainty." + +"And see the red eye of it!" cried the maid. + +"Aye, and the open beak." + +"And the ruffled wing," added Hordle John. + +"By my hilt!" cried the archer, "it is the very bird itself." + +The young clerk flushed with pleasure at this chorus of praise, +rude and indiscriminate indeed, and yet so much heartier and less +grudging than any which he had ever heard from the critical +brother Jerome, or the short-spoken Abbot. There was, it would +seem, great kindness as well as great wickedness in this world, +of which he had heard so little that was good. His hostess would +hear nothing of his paying either for bed or for board, while the +archer and Hordle John placed a hand upon either shoulder and led +him off to the board, where some smoking fish, a dish of spinach, +and a jug of milk were laid out for their breakfast. + +"I should not be surprised to learn, mon camarade," said the +soldier, as he heaped a slice of fish upon Alleyne's tranchoir of +bread, "that you could read written things, since you are so +ready with your brushes and pigments." + +"It would be shame to the good brothers of Beaulieu if I could +not," he answered, "seeing that I have been their clerk this ten +years back." + +The bowman looked at him with great respect. "Think of that!" +said he. "And you with not a hair to your face, and a skin like +a girl. I can shoot three hundred and fifty paces with my little +popper there, and four hundred and twenty with the great war-bow; +yet I can make nothing of this, nor read my own name if you were +to set 'Sam Aylward' up against me. In the whole Company there +was only one man who could read, and he fell down a well at the +taking of Ventadour, which proves what the thing is not suited to +a soldier, though most needful to a clerk." + +"I can make some show at it," said big John; "though I was scarce +long enough among the monks to catch the whole trick of it. + +"Here, then, is something to try upon," quoth the archer, pulling +a square of parchment from the inside of his tunic. It was tied +securely with a broad band of purple silk, and firmly sealed at +either end with a large red seal. John pored long and earnestly +over the inscription upon the back, with his brows bent as one +who bears up against great mental strain. + +"Not having read much of late," he said, "I am loth to say too +much about what this may be. Some might say one thing and some +another, just as one bowman loves the yew, and a second will not +shoot save with the ash. To me, by the length and the look of +it, I should judge this to be a verse from one of the Psalms." + +The bowman shook his head. "It is scarce likely," he said, "that +Sir Claude Latour should send me all the way across seas with +nought more weighty than a psalm-verse. You have clean overshot +the butts this time, mon camarade. Give it to the little one. I +will wager my feather-bed that he makes more sense of it." + +"Why, it is written in the French tongue," said Alleyne, "and in +a right clerkly hand. This is how it runs: 'A le moult puissant +et moult honorable chevalier, Sir Nigel Loring de Christchurch, +de son tres fidele amis Sir Claude Latour, capitaine de la +Compagnie blanche, chatelain de Biscar, grand seigneur de +Montchateau, vavaseurde le renomme Gaston, Comte de Foix, tenant +les droits de la haute justice, de la milieu, et de la basse.' +Which signifies in our speech: 'To the very powerful and very +honorable knight, Sir Nigel Loring of Christchurch, from his very +faithful friend Sir Claude Latour, captain of the White Company, +chatelain of Biscar, grand lord of Montchateau and vassal to the +renowed Gaston, Count of Foix, who holds the rights of the high +justice, the middle and the low.' " + +"Look at that now!" cried the bowman in triumph. "That is just +what he would have said." + +"I can see now that it is even so," said John, examining the +parchment again. "Though I scarce understand this high, middle +and low." + +"By my hilt! you would understand it if you were Jacques +Bonhomme. The low justice means that you may fleece him, and the +middle that you may torture him, and the high that you may slay +him. That is about the truth of it. But this is the letter +which I am to take; and since the platter is clean it is time +that we trussed up and were afoot. You come with me, mon gros +Jean; and as to you, little one, where did you say that you +journeyed?" + +"To Minstead." + +"Ah, yes. I know this forest country well, though I was born +myself in the Hundred of Easebourne, in the Rape of Chichester, +hard by the village of Midhurst. Yet I have not a word to say +against the Hampton men, for there are no better comrades or +truer archers in the whole Company than some who learned to loose +the string in these very parts. We shall travel round with you +to Minstead lad, seeing that it is little out of our way." + +"I am ready," said Alleyne, right pleased at the thought of such +company upon the road. + +"So am not I. I must store my plunder at this inn, since the +hostess is an honest woman. Hola! ma cherie, I wish to leave +with you my gold-work, my velvet, my silk, my feather bed, my +incense-boat, my ewer, my naping linen, and all the rest of it. +I take only the money in a linen bag, and the box of rose colored +sugar which is a gift from my captain to the Lady Loring. Wilt +guard my treasure for me?" + +"It shall be put in the safest loft, good archer. Come when you +may, you shall find it ready for you." + +"Now, there is a true friend!" cried the bowman, taking her hand. +"There is a bonne amie! English land and English women, say I, +and French wine and French plunder. I shall be back anon, mon +ange. I am a lonely man, my sweeting, and I must settle some day +when the wars are over and done. Mayhap you and I----Ah, +mechante, mechante! There is la petite peeping from behind the +door. Now, John, the sun is over the trees; you must be brisker +than this when the bugleman blows 'Bows and Bills.' " + +"I have been waiting this time back," said Hordle John gruffly. + +"Then we must be off. Adieu, ma vie! The two livres shall +settle the score and buy some ribbons against the next kermesse. +Do not forget Sam Aylward, for his heart shall ever be thine +alone--and thine, ma petite! So, marchons, and may St. Julian +grant us as good quarters elsewhere!" + +The sun had risen over Ashurst and Denny woods, and was shining +brightly, though the eastern wind had a sharp flavor to it, and +the leaves were flickering thickly from the trees. In the High +Street of Lyndhurst the wayfarers had to pick their way, for the +little town was crowded with the guardsmen, grooms, and yeomen +prickers who were attached to the King's hunt. The King himself +was staying at Castle Malwood, but several of his suite had been +compelled to seek such quarters as they might find in the wooden +or wattle-and-daub cottages of the village. Here and there a +small escutcheon, peeping from a glassless window, marked the +night's lodging of knight or baron. These coats-of-arms could be +read, where a scroll would be meaningless, and the bowman, like +most men of his age, was well versed in the common symbols of +heraldry. + +"There is the Saracen's head of Sir Bernard Brocas," quoth he. +"I saw him last at the ruffle at Poictiers some ten years back, +when he bore himself like a man. He is the master of the King's +horse, and can sing a right jovial stave, though in that he +cannot come nigh to Sir John Chandos, who is first at the board +or in the saddle. Three martlets on a field azure, that must be +one of the Luttrells. By the crescent upon it, it should be the +second son of old Sir Hugh, who had a bolt through his ankle at +the intaking of Romorantin, he having rushed into the fray ere +his squire had time to clasp his solleret to his greave. There +too is the hackle which is the old device of the De Brays. I +have served under Sir Thomas de Bray, who was as jolly as a pie, +and a lusty swordsman until he got too fat for his harness." + +So the archer gossiped as the three wayfarers threaded their way +among the stamping horses, the busy grooms, and the knots of +pages and squires who disputed over the merits of their masters' +horses and deerhounds. As they passed the old church, which +stood upon a mound at the left-hand side of the village street +the door was flung open, and a stream of worshippers wound down +the sloping path, coming from the morning mass, all chattering +like a cloud of jays. Alleyne bent knee and doffed hat at the +sight of the open door; but ere he had finished an ave his +comrades were out of sight round the curve of the path, and he +had to run to overtake them." + +"What!" he said, "not one word of prayer before God's own open +house? How can ye hope for His blessing upon the day?" + +"My friend," said Hordle John, "I have prayed so much during the +last two months, not only during the day, but at matins, lauds, +and the like, when I could scarce keep my head upon my shoulders +for nodding, that I feel that I have somewhat over-prayed +myself." + +"How can a man have too much religion?" cried Alleyne earnestly. +"It is the one thing that availeth. A man is but a beast as he +lives from day to day, eating and drinking, breathing and +sleeping. It is only when he raises himself, and concerns +himself with the immortal spirit within him, that he becomes in +very truth a man. Bethink ye how sad a thing it would be that +the blood of the Redeemer should be spilled to no purpose." + +"Bless the lad, if he doth not blush like any girl, and yet +preach like the whole College of Cardinals," cried the archer. + +"In truth I blush that any one so weak and so unworthy as I +should try to teach another that which he finds it so passing +hard to follow himself." + +"Prettily said, mon garcon. Touching that same slaying of the +Redeemer, it was a bad business. A good padre in France read to +us from a scroll the whole truth of the matter. The soldiers +came upon him in the garden. In truth, these Apostles of His may +have been holy men, but they were of no great account as men-at- +arms. There was one, indeed, Sir Peter, who smote out like a +true man; but, unless he is belied, he did but clip a varlet's +ear, which was no very knightly deed. By these ten finger-bones! +had I been there with Black Simon of Norwich, and but one score +picked men of the Company, we had held them in play. Could we do +no more, we had at least filled the false knight, Sir Judas, so +full of English arrows that he would curse the day that ever he +came on such an errand." + +The young clerk smiled at his companion's earnestness. "Had He +wished help," he said, "He could have summoned legions of +archangels from heaven, so what need had He of your poor bow and +arrow? Besides, bethink you of His own words--that those who +live by the sword shall perish by the sword." + +"And how could man die better?" asked the archer. "If I had my +wish, it would be to fall so--not, mark you, in any mere skirmish +of the Company, but in a stricken field, with the great lion +banner waving over us and the red oriflamme in front, amid the +shouting of my fellows and the twanging of the strings. But let +it be sword, lance, or bolt that strikes me down: for I should +think it shame to die from an iron ball from the hre-crake or +bombard or any such unsoldierly weapon, which is only fitted to +scare babes with its foolish noise and smoke." + +"I have heard much even in the quiet cloisters of these new and +dreadful engines," quoth Alleyne. "It is said, though I can +scarce bring myself to believe it, that they will send a ball +twice as far as a bowman can shoot his shaft, and with such force +as to break through armor of proof." + +"True enough, my lad. But while the armorer is thrusting in his +devil's-dust, and dropping his ball, and lighting his flambeau, I +can very easily loose six shafts, or eight maybe, so he hath no +great vantage after all. Yet I will not deny that at the +intaking of a town it is well to have good store of bombards. I +am told that at Calais they made dints in the wall that a man +might put his head into. But surely, comrades, some one who is +grievously hurt hath passed along this road before us." + +All along the woodland track there did indeed run a scattered +straggling trail of blood-marks, sometimes in single drops, and +in other places in broad, ruddy gouts, smudged over the dead +leaves or crimsoning the white flint stones. + +"It must be a stricken deer," said John. + +"Nay, I am woodman enough to see that no deer hath passed this +way this morning; and yet the blood is fresh. But hark to the +sound!" + +They stood listening all three with sidelong heads. Through the +silence of the great forest there came a swishing, whistling +sound, mingled with the most dolorous groans, and the voice of a +man raised in a high quavering kind of song. The comrades +hurried onwards eagerly, and topping the brow of a small rising +they saw upon the other side the source from which these strange +noises arose. + +A tall man, much stooped in the shoulders, was walking slowly +with bended head and clasped hands in the centre of the path. He +was dressed from head to foot in a long white linen cloth, and a +high white cap with a red cross printed upon it. His gown was +turned back from his shoulders, and the flesh there was a sight +to make a man wince, for it was all beaten to a pulp, and the +blood was soaking into his gown and trickling down upon the +ground. Behind him walked a smaller man with his hair touched +with gray, who was clad in the same white garb. He intoned a +long whining rhyme in the French tongue, and at the end of every +line he raised a thick cord, all jagged with pellets of lead, and +smote his companion across the shoulders until the blood spurted +again. Even as the three wayfarers stared, however, there was a +sudden change, for the smaller man, having finished his song, +loosened his own gown and handed the scourge to the other, who +took up the stave once more and lashed his companion with all the +strength of his bare and sinewy arm. So, alternately beating and +beaten, they made their dolorous way through the beautiful woods +and under the amber arches of the fading beech-trees, where the +calm strength and majesty of Nature might serve to rebuke the +foolish energies and misspent strivings of mankind. + +Such a spectacle was new to Hordle John or to Alleyne Edricson; +but the archer treated it lightly, as a common matter enough. + +"These are the Beating Friars, otherwise called the Flagellants," +quoth he. "I marvel that ye should have come upon none of them +before, for across the water they are as common as gallybaggers. +I have heard that there are no English among them, but that they +are from France, Italy and Bohemia. En avant, camarades! that we +may have speech with them." + +As they came up to them, Alleyne could hear the doleful dirge +which the beater was chanting, bringing down his heavy whip at +the end of each line, while the groans of the sufferer formed a +sort of dismal chorus. It was in old French, and ran somewhat in +this way: + +Or avant, entre nous tous freres Battons nos charognes bien fort +En remembrant la grant misere De Dieu et sa piteuse mort Qui fut +pris en la gent amere Et vendus et traia a tort Et bastu sa +chair, vierge et dere Au nom de se battons plus fort. + + Then at the end of the verse the scourge changed hands and the +chanting began anew. + +"Truly, holy fathers," said the archer in French as they came +abreast of them, "you have beaten enough for to-day. The road is +all spotted like a shambles at Martinmas. Why should ye +mishandle yourselves thus?" + +"C'est pour vos peches--pour vos peches," they droned, looking at +the travellers with sad lack-lustre eyes, and then bent to their +bloody work once more without heed to the prayers and persuasions +which were addressed to them. Finding all remonstrance useless, +the three comrades hastened on their way, leaving these strange +travellers to their dreary task. + +"Mort Dieu!" cried the bowman, "there is a bucketful or more of +my blood over in France, but it was all spilled in hot fight, and +I should think twice before I drew it drop by drop as these +friars are doing. By my hilt! our young one here is as white as +a Picardy cheese. What is amiss then, mon cher?" + +"It is nothing," Alleyne answered. "My life has been too quiet, +I am not used to such sights." + +"Ma foi!" the other cried, "I have never yet seen a man who was +so stout of speech and yet so weak of heart." + +"Not so, friend," quoth big John; "it is not weakness of heart +for I know the lad well. His heart is as good as thine or mine +but he hath more in his pate than ever you will carry under that +tin pot of thine, and as a consequence he can see farther into +things, so that they weigh upon him more." + +"Surely to any man it is a sad sight," said Alleyne, "to see +these holy men, who have done no sin themselves, suffering so for +the sins of others. Saints are they, if in this age any may +merit so high a name." + +"I count them not a fly," cried Hordle John; "for who is the +better for all their whipping and yowling? They are like other +friars, I trow, when all is done. Let them leave their backs +alone, and beat the pride out of their hearts." + +"By the three kings! there is sooth in what you say," remarked +the archer. "Besides, methinks if I were le bon Dieu, it would +bring me little joy to see a poor devil cutting the flesh off his +bones; and I should think that he had but a small opinion of me, +that he should hope to please me by such provost-marshal work. +No, by my hilt! I should look with a more loving eye upon a jolly +archer who never harmed a fallen foe and never feared a hale +one." + +"Doubtless you mean no sin," said Alleyne. "If your words are +wild, it is not for me to judge them. Can you not see that there +are other foes in this world besides Frenchmen, and as much glory +to be gained in conquering them? Would it not be a proud day for +knight or squire if he could overthrow seven adversaries in the +lists? Yet here are we in the lists of life, and there come the +seven black champions against us Sir Pride, Sir Covetousness, Sir +Lust, Sir Anger, Sir Gluttony, Sir Envy, and Sir Sloth. Let a +man lay those seven low, and he shall have the prize of the day, +from the hands of the fairest queen of beauty, even from the +Virgin-Mother herself. It is for this that these men mortify +their flesh, and to set us an example, who would pamper +ourselves overmuch. I say again that they are God's own saints, +and I bow my head to them." + +"And so you shall, mon petit," replied the archer. "I have not +heard a man speak better since old Dom Bertrand died, who was at +one time chaplain to the White Company. He was a very valiant +man, but at the battle of Brignais he was spitted through the +body by a Hainault man-at-arms. For this we had an +excommunication read against the man, when next we saw our holy +father at Avignon; but as we had not his name, and knew nothing +of him, save that he rode a dapple-gray roussin, I have feared +sometimes that the blight may have settled upon the wrong man." + +"Your Company has been, then, to bow knee before our holy father, +the Pope Urban, the prop and centre of Christendom?" asked +Alleyne, much interested. "Perchance you have yourself set eyes +upon his august face?" + +"Twice I saw him," said the archer. "He was a lean little rat of +a man, with a scab on his chin. The first time we had five +thousand crowns out of him, though he made much ado about it. +The second time we asked ten thousand, but it was three days +before we could come to terms, and I am of opinion myself that we +might have done better by plundering the palace. His chamberlain +and cardinals came forth, as I remember, to ask whether we would +take seven thousand crowns with his blessing and a plenary +absolution, or the ten thousand with his solemn ban by bell, book +and candle. We were all of one mind that it was best to have the +ten thousand with the curse; but in some way they prevailed upon +Sir John, so that we were blest and shriven against our will. +Perchance it is as well, for the Company were in need of it about +that time." + +The pious Alleyne was deeply shocked by this reminiscence. +Involuntarily he glanced up and around to see if there were any +trace of those opportune levin-flashes and thunderbolts which, in +the "Acta Sanctorum," were wont so often to cut short the loose +talk of the scoffer. The autumn sun streamed down as brightly as +ever, and the peaceful red path still wound in front of them +through the rustling, yellow-tinted forest, Nature seemed to be +too busy with her own concerns to heed the dignity of an outraged +pontiff. Yet he felt a sense of weight and reproach within his +breast, as though he had sinned himself in giving ear to such +words. The teachings of twenty years cried out against such +license. It was not until he had thrown himself down before one +of the many wayside crosses, and had prayed from his heart both +for the archer and for himself, that the dark cloud rolled back +again from his spirit. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE THREE FRIENDS. + +HIS companions had passed on whilst he was at his orisons; but +his young blood and the fresh morning air both invited him to a +scamper. His staff in one hand and his scrip in the other, with +springy step and floating locks, he raced along the forest path, +as active and as graceful as a young deer. He had not far to go, +however; for, on turning a corner, he came on a roadside cottage +with a wooden fence-work around it, where stood big John and +Aylward the bowman, staring at something within. As he came up +with them, he saw that two little lads, the one about nine years +of age and the other somewhat older, were standing on the plot in +front of the cottage, each holding out a round stick in their +left hands, with their arms stiff and straight from the shoulder, +as silent and still as two small statues. They were pretty, +blue-eyed, yellow-haired lads, well made and sturdy, with bronzed +skins, which spoke of a woodland life. + +"Here are young chips from an old bow stave!" cried the soldier +in great delight. "This is the proper way to raise children. By +my hilt! I could not have trained them better had I the ordering +of it myself," + +"What is it then?" asked Hordle John. "They stand very stiff, +and I trust that they have not been struck so." + +"Nay, they are training their left arms, that they may have a +steady grasp of the bow. So my own father trained me. and six +days a week I held out his walking-staff till my arm was heavy as +lead. Hola, mes enfants! how long will you hold out?" + +"Until the sun is over the great lime-tree, good master," the +elder answered. + +What would ye be, then? Woodmen? Verderers?" + +Nay, soldiers," they cried both together. + +"By the beard of my father! but ye are whelps of the true breed. +Why so keen, then, to be soldiers?" + +"That we may fight the Scots," they answered. "Daddy will send +us to fight the Scots." + +"And why the Scots, my pretty lads? We have seen French and +Spanish galleys no further away than Southampton, but I doubt +that it will be some time before the Scots find their way to +these parts." + +"Our business is with the Scots," quoth the elder; "for it was +the Scots who cut off daddy's string fingers and his thumbs." + +"Aye, lads, it was that," said a deep voice from behind Alleyne's +shoulder. Looking round, the wayfarers saw a gaunt, big-boned +man, with sunken cheeks and a sallow face, who had come up behind +them. He held up his two hands as he spoke, and showed that the +thumbs and two first fingers had been torn away from each of +them. + +"Ma foi, camarade!" cried Aylward. "Who hath served thee in so +shameful a fashion?" + +"It is easy to see, friend, that you were born far from the +marches of Scotland," quoth the stranger, with a bitter smile. +"North of Humber there is no man who would not know the handiwork +of Devil Douglas, the black Lord James." + +"And how fell you into his hands?" asked John. + +"I am a man of the north country, from the town of Beverley and +the wapentake of Holderness," he answered. "There was a day +when, from Trent to Tweed, there was no better marksman than +Robin Heathcot. Yet, as you see, he hath left me, as he hath +left many another poor border archer, with no grip for bill or +bow. Yet the king hath given me a living here in the southlands, +and please God these two lads of mine will pay off a debt that +hath been owing over long. What is the price of daddy's thumbs, +boys?" + +"Twenty Scottish lives," they answered together. + +"And for the fingers?" + +"Half a score." + +"When they can bend my war-bow, and bring down a squirrel at a +hundred paces, I send them to take service under Johnny Copeland, +the Lord of the Marches and Governor of Carlisle. By my soul! I +would give the rest of my fingers to see the Douglas within +arrow-flight of them." + +"May you live to see it," quoth the bowman. "And hark ye, mes +enfants, take an old soldier's rede and lay your bodies to the +bow, drawing from hip and thigh as much as from arm. Learn also, +I pray you, to shoot with a dropping shaft; for though a bowman +may at times be called upon to shoot straight and fast, yet it is +more often that he has to do with a town-guard behind a wall, or +an arbalestier with his mantlet raised when you cannot hope to do +him scathe unless your shaft fall straight upon him from the +clouds. I have not drawn string for two weeks, but I may be able +to show ye how such shots should be made." He loosened his +long-bow, slung his quiver round to the front, and then glanced +keenly round for a fitting mark. There was a yellow and withered +stump some way off, seen under the drooping branches of a lofty +oak. The archer measured the distance with his eye; and then, +drawing three shafts, he shot them off with such speed that the +first had not reached the mark ere the last was on the string. +Each arrow passed high over the oak; and, of the three, two stuck +fair into the stump; while the third, caught in some wandering +puff of wind, was driven a foot or two to one side. + +"Good!" cried the north countryman. "Hearken to him lads! He is +a master bowman, Your dad says amen to every word he says." + +"By my hilt!" said Aylward, "if I am to preach on bowmanship, the +whole long day would scarce give me time for my sermon. We have +marksmen in the Company who will knotch with a shaft every +crevice and joint of a man-at-arm's harness, from the clasp of +his bassinet to the hinge of his greave. But, with your favor, +friend, I must gather my arrows again, for while a shaft costs a +penny a poor man can scarce leave them sticking in wayside +stumps. We must, then, on our road again, and I hope from my +heart that you may train these two young goshawks here until they +are ready for a cast even at such a quarry as you speak of." + +Leaving the thumbless archer and his brood, the wayfarers struck +through the scattered huts of Emery Down, and out on to the broad +rolling heath covered deep in ferns and in heather, where droves +of the half-wild black forest pigs were rooting about amongst the +hillocks. The woods about this point fall away to the left and +the right, while the road curves upwards and the wind sweeps +keenly over the swelling uplands. The broad strips of bracken +glowed red and yellow against the black peaty soil, and a queenly +doe who grazed among them turned her white front and her great +questioning eyes towards the wayfarers. + +Alleyne gazed in admiration at the supple beauty of the creature; +but the archer's fingers played with his quiver, and his eyes +glistened with the fell instinct which urges a man to slaughter. + +"Tete Dieu!" he growled, "were this France, or even Guienne, we +should have a fresh haunch for our none-meat. Law or no law, I +have a mind to loose a bolt at her." + +"I would break your stave across my knee first," cried John, +laying his great hand upon the bow. "What! man, I am forest- +born, and I know what comes of it. In our own township of Hordle +two have lost their eyes and one his skin for this very thing. +On my troth, I felt no great love when I first saw you, but since +then I have conceived over much regard for you to wish to see the +verderer's flayer at work upon you." + +"It is my trade to risk my skin," growled the archer; but none +the less he thrust his quiver over his hip again and turned his +face for the west. + +As they advanced, the path still tended upwards, running from +heath into copses of holly and yew, and so back into heath again. +It was joyful to hear the merry whistle of blackbirds as they +darted from one clump of greenery to the other. Now and again a +peaty amber colored stream rippled across their way, with ferny +over-grown banks, where the blue kingfisher flitted busily from +side to side, or the gray and pensive heron, swollen with trout +and dignity, stood ankle-deep among the sedges. Chattering jays +and loud wood-pigeons flapped thickly overhead, while ever and +anon the measured tapping of Nature's carpenter, the great green +woodpecker, sounded from each wayside grove. On either side, as +the path mounted, the long sweep of country broadened and +expanded, sloping down on the one side through yellow forest and +brown moor to the distant smoke of Lymington and the blue misty +channel which lay alongside the sky-line, while to the north the +woods rolled away, grove topping grove, to where in the furthest +distance the white spire of Salisbury stood out hard and clear +against the cloudless sky. To Alleyne whose days had been spent +in the low-lying coastland, the eager upland air and the wide +free country-side gave a sense of life and of the joy of living +which made his young blood tingle in his veins. Even the heavy +John was not unmoved by the beauty of their road, while the +bowman whistled lustily or sang snatches of French love songs in +a voice which might have scared the most stout-hearted maiden +that ever hearkened to serenade. + +"I have a liking for that north countryman," he remarked +presently. "He hath good power of hatred. Couldst see by his +cheek and eye that he is as bitter as verjuice. I warm to a man +who hath some gall in his liver." + +"Ah me!" sighed Alleyne. "Would it not be better if he had some +love in his heart?" + +"I would not say nay to that. By my hilt! I shall never be said +to be traitor to the little king. Let a man love the sex. +Pasques Dieu! they are made to be loved, les petites, from +whimple down to shoe-string! I am right glad, mon garcon, to see +that the good monks have trained thee so wisely and so well." + +"Nay, I meant not worldly love, but rather that his heart should +soften towards those who have wronged him." + +The archer shook his head. "A man should love those of his own +breed," said he. "But it is not nature that an English-born man +should love a Scot or a Frenchman. Ma foi! you have not seen a +drove of Nithsdale raiders on their Galloway nags, or you would +not speak of loving them. I would as soon take Beelzebub himself +to my arms. I fear, mon gar., that they have taught thee but +badly at Beaulieu, for surely a bishop knows more of what is +right and what is ill than an abbot can do, and I myself with +these very eyes saw the Bishop of Lincoln hew into a Scottish +hobeler with a battle-axe, which was a passing strange way of +showing him that he loved him." + +Alleyne scarce saw his way to argue in the face of so decided an +opinion on the part of a high dignitary of the Church. "You have +borne arms against the Scots, then?" he asked. + +"Why, man, I first loosed string in battle when I was but a lad, +younger by two years than you, at Neville's Cross, under the Lord +Mowbray. Later, I served under the Warden of Berwick, that very +John Copeland of whom our friend spake, the same who held the +King of Scots to ransom. Ma foi! it is rough soldiering, and a +good school for one who would learn to be hardy and war-wise." + +"I have heard that the Scots are good men of war," said Hordle +John. + +"For axemen and for spearmen I have not seen their match," the +archer answered. "They can travel, too, with bag of meal and +gridiron slung to their sword-belt, so that it is ill to follow +them. There are scant crops and few beeves in the borderland, +where a man must reap his grain with sickle in one fist and brown +bill in the other. On the other hand, they are the sorriest +archers that I have ever seen, and cannot so much as aim with the +arbalest, to say nought of the long-bow. Again, they are mostly +poor folk, even the nobles among them, so that there are few who +can buy as good a brigandine of chain-mail as that which I am +wearing, and it is ill for them to stand up against our own +knights, who carry the price of five Scotch farms upon their +chest and shoulders. Man for man, with equal weapons, they are +as worthy and valiant men as could be found in the whole of +Christendom." + +"And the French?" asked Alleyne, to whom the archer's light +gossip had all the relish that the words of the man of action +have for the recluse. + +"The French are also very worthy men. We have had great good +fortune in France, and it hath led to much bobance and camp-fire +talk, but I have ever noticed that those who know the most have +the least to say about it. I have seen Frenchmen fight both in +open field, in the intaking and the defending of towns or +castlewicks, in escalados, camisades, night forays, bushments, +sallies, outfalls, and knightly spear-runnings. Their knights +and squires, lad, are every whit as good as ours, and I could +pick out a score of those who ride behind Du Guesclin who would +hold the lists with sharpened lances against the best men in the +army of England. On the other hand, their common folk are so +crushed down with gabelle, and poll-tax, and every manner of +cursed tallage, that the spirit has passed right out of them. It +is a fool's plan to teach a man to be a cur in peace, and think +that he will be a lion in war. Fleece them like sheep and sheep +they will remain. If the nobles had not conquered the poor folk +it is like enough that we should not have conquered the nobles." + +"But they must be sorry folk to bow down to the rich in such a +fashion," said big John. "I am but a poor commoner of England +myself, and yet I know something of charters, liberties +franchises, usages, privileges, customs, and the like. If these +be broken, then all men know that it is time to buy arrow-heads." + +"Aye, but the men of the law are strong in France as well as the +men of war. By my hilt! I hold that a man has more to fear there +from the ink-pot of the one than from the iron of the other. +There is ever some cursed sheepskin in their strong boxes to +prove that the rich man should be richer and the poor man poorer. +It would scarce pass in England, but they are quiet folk over the +water." + +"And what other nations have you seen in your travels, good sir?" +asked Alleyne Edricson. His young mind hungered for plain facts +of life, after the long course of speculation and of mysticism on +which he had been trained. + +"I have seen the low countryman in arms, and I have nought to say +against him. Heavy and slow is he by nature, and is not to be +brought into battle for the sake of a lady's eyelash or the twang +of a minstrel's string, like the hotter blood of the south. + +But ma foi! lay hand on his wool-bales, or trifle with his velvet +of Bruges, and out buzzes every stout burgher, like bees from the +tee-hole, ready to lay on as though it were his one business in +life. By our lady! they have shown the French at Courtrai and +elsewhere that they are as deft in wielding steel as in welding +it." + +"And the men of Spain?" + +"They too are very hardy soldiers, the more so as for many +hundred years they have had to fight hard against the cursed +followers of the black Mahound, who have pressed upon them from +the south, and still, as I understand, hold the fairer half of +the country. I had a turn with them upon the sea when they came +over to Winchelsea and the good queen with her ladies sat upon +the cliffs looking down at us, as if it had been joust or +tourney. By my hilt! it was a sight that was worth the seeing, +for all that was best in England was out on the water that day. +We went Forth in little ships and came back in great galleys--for +of fifty tall ships of Spain, over two score flew ,the Cross of +St. George ere the sun had set. But now, youngster, I have +answered you freely, and I trow it is time what you answered me. +Let things be plat and plain between us. I am a man who shoots +straight at his mark. You saw the things I had with me at yonder +hostel: name which you will, save only the box of rose-colored +sugar which I take to the Lady Loring, and you shall have it if +you will but come with me to France." + +"Nay," said Alleyne, "I would gladly come with ye to France or +where else ye will, just to list to your talk, and because ye are +the only two friends that I have in the whole wide world outside +of the cloisters; but, indeed, it may not be, for my duty is +towards my brother, seeing that father and mother are dead, and +he my elder. Besides, when ye talk of taking me to France, ye do +not conceive how useless I should be to you, seeing that neither +by training nor by nature am I fitted for the wars, and there +seems to be nought but strife in those parts." + +"That comes from my fool's talk," cried the archer; "for being a +man of no learning myself, my tongue turns to blades and targets, +even as my hand does. Know then that for every parchment in +England there are twenty in France. For every statue, cut gem, +shrine, carven screen, or what else might please the eye of a +learned clerk, there are a good hundred to our one. At the +spoiling of Carcasonne I have seen chambers stored with writing, +though not one man in our Company could read them. Again, in +Arlis and Nimes, and other towns that I could name, there are the +great arches and fortalices still standing which were built of +old by giant men who came from the south. Can I not see by your +brightened eye how you would love to look upon these things? +Come then with me, and, by these ten finger-bones! there is not +one of them which you shall not see." + +"I should indeed love to look upon them," Alleyne answered; "but +I have come from Beaulieu for a purpose, and I must be true to my +service, even as thou art true to thine." + +"Bethink you again, mon ami," quoth Aylward, "that you might do +much good yonder, since there are three hundred men in the +Company, and none who has ever a word of grace for them, and yet +the Virgin knows that there was never a set of men who were in +more need of it. Sickerly the one duty may balance the other. +Your brother hath done without you this many a year, and, as I +gather, he hath never walked as far as Beaulieu to see you during +all that time, so he cannot be in any great need of you." + +"Besides," said John, "the Socman of Minstead is a by-word +through the forest, from Bramshaw Hill to Holmesley Walk. He is +a drunken, brawling, perilous churl, as you may find to your +cost." + +"The more reason that I should strive to mend him," quoth +Alleyne. "There is no need to urge me, friends, for my own +wishes would draw me to France, and it would be a joy to me if I +could go with you. But indeed and indeed it cannot be, so here I +take my leave of you, for yonder square tower amongst the trees +upon the right must surely be the church of Minstead, and I may +reach it by this path through the woods." + +"Well, God be with thee, lad!" cried the archer, pressing Alleyne +to his heart. "I am quick to love, and quick to hate and 'fore +God I am loth to part." + +"Would it not be well," said John, "that we should wait here, and +see what manner of greeting you have from your brother. You may +prove to be as welcome as the king's purveyor to the village +dame." + +"Nay, nay," he answered; "ye must not bide for me, for where I go +I stay." + +"Yet it may be as well that you should know whither we go," said +the archer. "We shall now journey south through the woods until +we come out upon the Christchurch road, and so onwards, hoping +to-night to reach the castle of Sir William Montacute, Earl of +Salisbury, of which Sir Nigel Loring is constable. There we +shall bide, and it is like enough that for a month or more you +may find us there, ere we are ready for our viage back to +France." + +It was hard indeed for Alleyne to break away from these two new +but hearty friends, and so strong was the combat between his +conscience and his inclinations that he dared not look round, +lest his resolution should slip away from him. It was not until +he was deep among the tree trunks that he cast a glance +backwards, when he found that he could still see them through the +branches on the road above him. The archer was standing with +folded arms, his bow jutting from over his shoulder, and the sun +gleaming brightly upon his head-piece and the links of his +chain-mail. Beside him stood his giant recruit, still clad in +the home-spun and ill-fitting garments of the fuller of +Lymington, with arms and legs shooting out of his scanty garb. +Even as Alleyne watched them they turned upon their heels and +plodded off together upon their way. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOW STRANGE THINGS BEFELL IN MINSTEAD WOOD. + +THE path which the young clerk had now to follow lay through a +magnificent forest of the very heaviest timber, where the giant +bowls of oak and of beech formed long aisles in every direction, +shooting up their huge branches to build the majestic arches of +Nature's own cathedral. Beneath lay a broad carpet of the +softest and greenest moss, flecked over with fallen leaves, but +yielding pleasantly to the foot of the traveller. The track +which guided him was one so seldom used that in places it lost +itself entirely among the grass, to reappear as a reddish rut +between the distant tree trunks. It was very still here in the +heart of the woodlands. The gentle rustle of the branches and +the distant cooing of pigeons were the only sounds which broke in +upon the silence, save that once Alleyne heard afar off a merry +call upon a hunting bugle and the shrill yapping of the hounds. + +It was not without some emotion that he looked upon the scene +around him, for, in spite of his secluded life, he knew enough of +the ancient greatness of his own family to be aware that the time +had been when they had held undisputed and paramount sway over +all that tract of country. His father could trace his pure Saxon +lineage back to that Godfrey Malf who had held the manors of +Bisterne and of Minstead at the time when the Norman first set +mailed foot upon English soil. The afforestation of the +district, however, and its conversion into a royal demesne had +clipped off a large section of his estate, while other parts had +been confiscated as a punishment for his supposed complicity in +an abortive Saxon rising. The fate of the ancestor had been +typical of that of his descendants. During three hundred years +their domains had gradually contracted, sometimes through royal +or feudal encroachment, and sometimes through such gifts to the +Church as that with which Alleyne's father had opened the doors +of Beaulieu Abbey to his younger son. The importance of the +family had thus dwindled, but they still retained the old Saxon +manor-house, with a couple of farms and a grove large enough to +afford pannage to a hundred pigs--"sylva de centum porcis," as +the old family parchments describe it. Above all, the owner of +the soil could still hold his head high as the veritable Socman +of Minstead--that is, as holding the land in free socage, with +no feudal superior, and answerable to no man lower than the king. +Knowing this, Alleyne felt some little glow of worldly pride as +he looked for the first time upon the land with which so many +generations of his ancestors had been associated. He pushed on +the quicker, twirling his staff merrily, and looking out at every +turn of the path for some sign of the old Saxon residence. He +was suddenly arrested, however, by the appearance of a wild- +looking fellow armed with a club, who sprang out from behind a +tree and barred his passage. He was a rough, powerful peasant, +with cap and tunic of untanned sheepskin, leather breeches, and +galligaskins round legs and feet. + +"Stand!" he shouted, raising his heavy cudgel to enforce the +order. "Who are you who walk so freely through the wood? +Whither would you go, and what is your errand?" + +"Why should I answer your questions, my friend?" said Alleyne, +standing on his guard. + +"Because your tongue may save your pate. But where have I looked +upon your face before?" + +"No longer ago than last night at the 'Pied Merlin,' " the clerk +answered, recognizing the escaped serf who had been so outspoken +as to his wrongs. + +"By the Virgin! yes. You were the little clerk who sat so mum in +the corner, and then cried fy on the gleeman. What hast in the +scrip?" + +"Naught of any price." + +"How can I tell that, clerk? Let me see." + +"Not I." + +"Fool! I could pull you limb from limb like a pullet. What +would you have? Hast forgot that we are alone far from all men? +How can your clerkship help you? Wouldst lose scrip and life +too?" + +"I will part with neither without fight." + +"A fight, quotha? A fight betwixt spurred cock and new hatched +chicken! Thy fighting days may soon be over." + +"Hadst asked me in the name of charity I would have given +freely," cried Alleyne. "As it stands, not one farthing shall +you have with my free will, and when I see my brother. the +Socman of Minstead, he will raise hue and cry from vill to vill, +from hundred to hundred, until you are taken as a common robber +and a scourge to the country." + +The outlaw sank his club. "The Socman's brother!" he gasped. +"Now, by the keys of Peter! I had rather that hand withered and +tongue was palsied ere I had struck or miscalled you. If you are +the Socman's brother you are one of the right side, I warrant, +for all your clerkly dress." + +"His brother I am," said Alleyne. "But if I were not, is that +reason why you should molest me on the king's ground?" + +"I give not the pip of an apple for king or for noble," cried the +serf passionately. "Ill have I had from them, and ill I shall +repay them. I am a good friend to my friends, and, by the +Virgin! an evil foeman to my foes." + +And therefore the worst of foemen to thyself," said Alleyne. +"But I pray you, since you seem to know him, to point out to me +the shortest path to my brother's house." + +The serf was about to reply, when the clear ringing call of a +bugle burst from the wood close behind them, and Alleyne caught +sight for an instant of the dun side and white breast of a lordly +stag glancing swiftly betwixt the distant tree trunks. A minute +later came the shaggy deer-hounds, a dozen or fourteen of them, +running on a hot scent, with nose to earth and tail in air. As +they streamed past the silent forest around broke suddenly into +loud life, with galloping of hoofs, crackling of brushwood, and +the short, sharp cries of the hunters. Close behind the pack +rode a fourrier and a yeoman-pricker, whooping on the laggards +and encouraging the leaders, in the shrill half-French jargon +which was the language of venery and woodcraft. Alleyne was +still gazing after them, listening to the loud "Hyke-a-Bayard! +Hyke-a-Pomers! Hyke-a-Lebryt!" with which they called upon their +favorite hounds, when a group of horsemen crashed out through the +underwood at the very spot where the serf and he were standing. + +The one who led was a man between fifty and sixty years of age, +war-worn and weather-beaten, with a broad, thoughtful forehead +and eyes which shone brightly from under his fierce and overhung +brows, His beard, streaked thickly with gray, bristled forward +from his chin, and spoke of a passionate nature, while the long, +finely cut face and firm mouth marked the leader of men. His +figure was erect and soldierly, and he rode his horse with the +careless grace of a man whose life had been spent in the saddle. +In common garb, his masterful face and flashing eye would have +marked him as one who was born to rule; but now, with his silken +tunic powdered with golden fleurs-de-lis, his velvet mantle lined +with the royal minever, and the lions of England stamped in +silver upon his harness, none could fail to recognize the noble +Edward, most warlike and powerful of all the long line of +fighting monarchs who had ruled the Anglo-Norman race. Alleyne +doffed hat and bowed head at the sight of him, but the serf +folded his hands and leaned them upon his cudgel, looking with +little love at the knot of nobles and knights-in-waiting who rode +behind the king. + +"Ha!" cried Edward, reining up for an instant his powerful black +steed. "Le cerf est passe? Non? Ici, Brocas; tu parles +Anglais." + +"The deer, clowns?" said a hard-visaged, swarthy-faced man, who +rode at the king's elbow. "If ye have headed it back it is as +much as your ears are worth." + +"It passed by the blighted beech there," said Alleyne, pointing, +"and the hounds were hard at its heels." + +"It is well," cried Edward, still speaking in French: for, though +he could understand English, he had never learned to express +himself in so barbarous and unpolished a tongue. "By my faith, +sirs," he continued, half turning in his saddle to address his +escort, "unless my woodcraft is sadly at fault, it is a stag of +six tines and the finest that we have roused this journey. A +golden St. Hubert to the man who is the first to sound the mort." + +He shook his bridle as he spoke, and thundered away, his knights +lying low upon their horses and galloping as hard as whip and +spur would drive them, in the hope of winning the king's prize. +Away they drove down the long green glade--bay horses, black and +gray, riders clad in every shade of velvet, fur, or silk, with +glint of brazen horn and flash of knife and spear. One only +lingered, the black-browed Baron Brocas, who, making a gambade +which brought him within arm-sweep of the serf, slashed him +across the face with his riding-whip. "Doff, dog, doff," he +hissed, "when a monarch deigns to lower his eyes to such as +you!"--then spurred through the underwood and was gone, with a +gleam of steel shoes and flutter of dead leaves. + +The villein took the cruel blow without wince or cry, as one to +whom stripes are a birthright and an inheritance. His eyes +flashed, however, and he shook his bony hand with a fierce wild +gesture after the retreating figure. + +"Black hound of Gascony," he muttered, "evil the day that you and +those like you set foot in free England! I know thy kennel of +Rochecourt. The night will come when I may do to thee and thine +what you and your class have wrought upon mine and me. May God +smite me if I fail to smite thee, thou French robber, with thy +wife and thy child and all that is under thy castle roof!" + +"Forbear!" cried Alleyne. "Mix not God's name with these +unhallowed threats! And yet it was a coward's blow, and one to +stir the blood and loose the tongue of the most peaceful. Let me +find some soothing simples and lay them on the weal to draw the +sting," + +"Nay, there is but one thing that can draw the sting, and that +the future may bring to me. But, clerk, if you would see your +brother you must on, for there is a meeting to-day, and his merry +men will await him ere the shadows turn from west to east. I +pray you not to hold him back, for it would be an evil thing if +all the stout lads were there and the leader a-missing. I would +come with you, but sooth to say I am stationed here and may not +move. The path over yonder, betwixt the oak and the thorn, +should bring you out into his nether field." + +Alleyne lost no time in following the directions of the wild, +masterless man, whom he left among the trees where he had found +him. His heart was the heavier for the encounter, not only +because all bitterness and wrath were abhorrent to his gentle +nature, but also because it disturbed him to hear his brother +spoken of as though he were a chief of outlaws or the leader of a +party against the state. Indeed, of all the things which he had +seen yet in the world to surprise him there was none more strange +than the hate which class appeared to bear to class. The talk of +laborer, woodman and villein in the inn had all pointed to the +wide-spread mutiny, and now his brother's name was spoken as +though he were the very centre of the universal discontent. In +good truth, the commons throughout the length and breadth of the +land were heart-weary of this fine game of chivalry which had +been played so long at their expense. So long as knight and +baron were a strength and a guard to the kingdom they might be +endured, but now, when all men knew that the great battles in +France had been won by English yeomen and Welsh stabbers, warlike +fame, the only fame to which his class had ever aspired, appeared +to have deserted the plate-clad horsemen. The sports of the +lists had done much in days gone by to impress the minds of the +people, but the plumed and unwieldy champion was no longer an +object either of fear or of reverence to men whose fathers and +brothers had shot into the press at Crecy or Poitiers, and seen +the proudest chivalry in the world unable to make head against +the weapons of disciplined peasants. Power had changed hands. +The protector had become the protected, and the whole fabric of +the feudal system was tottering to a fall. Hence the fierce +mutterings of the lower classes and the constant discontent, +breaking out into local tumult and outrage, and culminating some +years later in the great rising of Tyler. What Alleyne saw and +wondered at in Hampshire would have appealed equally to the +traveller in any other English county from the Channel to the +marches of Scotland, + +He was following the track, his misgivings increasing with every +step which took him nearer to that home which he had never seen, +when of a sudden the trees began to thin and the sward to spread +out onto a broad, green lawn, where five cows lay in the sunshine +and droves of black swine wandered unchecked. A brown forest +stream swirled down the centre of this clearing, with a rude +bridge flung across it, and on the other side was a second field +sloping up to a long, low-lying wooden house, with thatched roof +and open squares for windows. Alleyne gazed across at it with +flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes--for this, he knew, must be the +home of his fathers. A wreath of blue smoke floated up through a +hole in the thatch, and was the only sign of life in the place, +save a great black hound which lay sleeping chained to the door- +post. In the yellow shimmer of the autumn sunshine it lay as +peacefully and as still as he had oft pictured it to himself in +his dreams. + +He was roused, however, from his pleasant reverie by the sound of +voices, and two people emerged from the forest some little way to +his right and moved across the field in the direction of the +bridge. The one was a man with yellow flowing beard and very +long hair of the same tint drooping over his shoulders; his dress +of good Norwich cloth and his assured bearing marked him as a man +of position, while the sombre hue of his clothes and the absence +of all ornament contrasted with the flash and glitter which had +marked the king's retinue. By his side walked a woman, tall and +slight and dark, with lithe, graceful figure and clear-cut, +composed features. Her jet-black hair was gathered back under a +light pink coif, her head poised proudly upon her neck, and her +step long and springy, like that of some wild, tireless woodland +creature. She held her left hand in front of her, covered with a +red velvet glove, and on the wrist a little brown falcon, very +fluffy and bedraggled, which she smoothed and fondled as she +walked. As she came out into the sunshine, Alleyne noticed that +her light gown, slashed with pink, was all stained with earth and +with moss upon one side from shoulder to hem. He stood in the +shadow of an oak staring at her with parted lips, for this woman +seemed to him to be the most beautiful and graceful creature that +mind could conceive of. Such had he imagined the angels, and +such he had tried to paint them in the Beaulieu missals; but here +there was something human, were it only in the battered hawk and +discolored dress, which sent a tingle and thrill through his +nerves such as no dream of radiant and stainless spirit had ever +yet been able to conjure up. Good, quiet, uncomplaining mother +Nature, long slighted and miscalled, still bide, her time and +draws to her bosom the most errant of her children. + +The two walked swiftly across the meadow to the narrow bridge, he +in front and she a pace or two behind. There they paused, and +stood for a few minutes face to face talking earnestly. Alleyne +had read and had heard of love and of lovers. Such were these, +doubtless--this golden-bearded man and the fair damsel with the +cold, proud face. Why else should they wander together in the +woods, or be so lost in talk by rustic streams? And yet as he +watched, uncertain whether to advance from the cover or to choose +some other path to the house, he soon came to doubt the truth of +this first conjecture. The man stood, tall and square, blocking +the entrance to the bridge, and throwing out his hands as he +spoke in a wild eager fashion, while the deep tones of his stormy +voice rose at times into accents of menace and of anger. She +stood fearlessly in front of him, still stroking her bird; but +twice she threw a swift questioning glance over her shoulder, as +one who is in search of aid. So moved was the young clerk by +these mute appeals, that he came forth from the trees and crossed +the meadow, uncertain what to do, and yet loth to hold back from +one who might need his aid. So intent were they upon each other +that neither took note of his approach; until, when he was close +upon them, the man threw his arm roughly round the damsel's waist +and drew her towards him, she straining her lithe, supple figure +away and striking fiercely at him, while the hooded hawk screamed +with ruffled wings and pecked blindly in its mistress's defence. +Bird and maid, however, had but little chance against their +assailant who, laughing loudly, caught her wrist in one hand +while he drew her towards him with the other. + +"The best rose has ever the longest thorns," said he. "Quiet, +little one, or you may do yourself a hurt. Must pay Saxon toll +on Saxon land, my proud Maude, for all your airs and graces." + +"You boor!" she hissed. "You base underbred clod! Is this your +care and your hospitality? I would rather wed a branded serf +from my father's fields. Leave go, I say---- Ah! good youth, +Heaven has sent you. Make him loose me! By the honor of your +mother, I pray you to stand by me and to make this knave loose +me." + +"Stand by you I will, and that blithely." said Alleyne. +"Surely, sir, you should take shame to hold the damsel against +her will." + +The man turned a face upon him which was lion-like in its +strength and in its wrath. With his tangle of golden hair, his +fierce blue eyes, and his large, well-marked features, he was the +most comely man whom Alleyne had ever seen, and yet there was +something so sinister and so fell in his expression that child or +beast might well have shrunk from him. His brows were drawn, his +cheek flushed, and there was a mad sparkle in his eyes which +spoke of a wild, untamable nature. + +"Young fool!" he cried, holding the woman still to his side, +though every line of her shrinking figure spoke her abhorrence. +"Do you keep your spoon in your own broth. I rede you to go on +your way, lest worse befall you. This little wench has come with +me and with me she shall bide." + +"Liar!" cried the woman; and, stooping her head, she suddenly bit +fiercely into the broad brown hand which held her. He whipped it +back with an oath, while she tore herself free and slipped behind +Alleyne, cowering up against him like the trembling leveret who +sees the falcon poising for the swoop above him. + +"Stand off my land!" the man said fiercely, heedless of the blood +which trickled freely from his fingers. "What have you to do +here? By your dress you should be one of those cursed clerks who +overrun the land like vile rats, poking and prying into other +men's concerns, too caitiff to fight and too lazy to work. By +the rood! if I had my will upon ye, I should nail you upon the +abbey doors, as they hang vermin before their holes. Art neither +man nor woman, young shaveling. Get thee back to thy fellows ere +I lay hands upon you: for your foot is on my land, and I may slay +you as a common draw-latch." + +"Is this your land, then?" gasped Alleyne. + +"Would you dispute it, dog? Would you wish by trick or quibbie +to juggle me out of these last acres? Know, base-born knave, +that you have dared this day to stand in the path of one whose +race have been the advisers of kings and the leaders of hosts, +ere ever this vile crew of Norman robbers came into the land, or +such half-blood hounds as you were let loose to preach that the +thief should have his booty and the honest man should sin if he +strove to win back his own." + +"You are the Socman of Minstead?" + +"That am I; and the son of Edric the Socman, of the pure blood of +Godfrey the thane, by the only daughter of the house of Aluric, +whose forefathers held the white-horse banner at the fatal fight +where our shield was broken and our sword shivered. I tell you, +clerk, that my folk held this land from Bramshaw Wood to the +Ringwood road; and, by the soul of my father! it will be a +strange thing if I am to be bearded upon the little that is left +of it. Begone, I say, and meddle not with my affair." + +"If you leave me now," whispered the woman, "then shame forever +upon your manhood." + +"Surely, sir," said Alleyne, speaking in as persuasive and +soothing a way as he could, "if your birth is gentle, there is +the more reason that your manners should be gentle too. I am +well persuaded that you did but jest with this lady, and that you +will now permit her to leave your land either alone or with me as +a guide, if she should need one, through the wood. As to birth, +it does not become me to boast, and there is sooth in what you +say as to the unworthiness of clerks, but it is none the less +true that I am as well born as you." + +"Dog!" cried the furious Socman, "there is no man in the south +who can saw as much." + +"Yet can I," said Alleyne smiling; "for indeed I also am the son +of Edric the Socman, of the pure blood of Godfrey the thane, by +the only daughter of Aluric of Brockenhurst. Surely, dear +brother," he continued, holding out his hand, "you have a warmer +greeting than this for me. There are but two boughs left upon +this old, old Saxon trunk." + +His elder brother dashed his hand aside with an oath, while an +expression of malignant hatred passed over his passion-drawn +features. "You are the young cub of Beaulieu, then," said he. +"I might have known it by the sleek face and the slavish manner +too monk-ridden and craven in spirit to answer back a rough word. +Thy father, shaveling, with all his faults, had a man's heart; +and there were few who could look him in the eyes on the day of +his anger. But you! Look there, rat, on yonder field where the +cows graze, and on that other beyond, and on the orchard hard by +the church. Do you know that all these were squeezed out of your +dying father by greedy priests, to pay for your upbringing in the +cloisters? I, the Socman, am shorn of my lands that you may +snivel Latin and eat bread for which you never did hand's turn. +You rob me first, and now you would come preaching and whining, +in search mayhap of another field or two for your priestly +friends. Knave! my dogs shall be set upon you; but, meanwhile, +stand out of my path, and stop me at your peril!" As he spoke he +rushed forward, and, throwing the lad to one side, caught the +woman's wrist. Alleyne, however, as active as a young deer- +hound, sprang to her aid and seized her by the other arm, raising +his iron-shod staff as he did so. + +"You may say what you will to me," he said between his clenched +teeth--"it may be no better than I deserve; but, brother or no, I +swear by my hopes of salvation that I will break your arm if you +do not leave hold of the maid." + +There was a ring in his voice and a flash in his eyes which +promised that the blow would follow quick at the heels of the +word. For a moment the blood of the long line of hot-headed +thanes was too strong for the soft whisperings of the doctrine of +meekness and mercy. He was conscious of a fierce wild thrill +through his nerves and a throb of mad gladness at his heart, as +his real human self burst for an instant the bonds of custom and +of teaching which had held it so long. The socman sprang back, +looking to left and to right for some stick or stone which might +serve him for weapon; but finding none, he turned and ran at the +top of his speed for the house, blowing the while upon a shrill +whistle. + +"Come!" gasped the woman. "Fly, friend, ere he come back." + +"Nay, let him come!" cried Alleyne. "I shall not budge a foot +for him or his dogs." + +"Come, come!" she cried, tugging at his arm. "I know the man: he +will kill you. Come, for the Virgin's sake, or for my sake, for +I cannot go and leave you here." + +"Come, then," said he; and they ran together to the cover of the +woods. As they gained the edge of the brushwood, Alleyne, +looking back, saw his brother come running out of the house +again, with the sun gleaming upon his hair and his beard. He +held something which flashed in his right hand, and he stooped at +the threshold to unloose the black hound. + +"This way!" the woman whispered, in a low eager voice. "Through +the bushes to that forked ash. Do not heed me; I can run as fast +as you, I trow. Now into the stream--right in, over ankles, to +throw the dog off, though I think it is but a common cur, like +its master." As she spoke, she sprang herself into the shallow +stream and ran swiftly up the centre of it, with the brown water +bubbling over her feet and her hand out-stretched toward the +clinging branches of bramble or sapling. Alleyne followed close +at her heels, with his mind in a whirl at this black welcome and +sudden shifting of all his plans and hopes. Yet, grave as were +his thoughts, they would still turn to wonder as he looked at the +twinkling feet of his guide and saw her lithe figure bend this +way and that, dipping under boughs, springing over stones, with a +lightness and ease which made it no small task for him to keep up +with her. At last, when he was almost out of breath, she +suddenly threw herself down upon a mossy bank, between two holly- +bushes, and looked ruefully at her own dripping feet and +bedraggled skirt. + +"Holy Mary!" said she, "what shall I do? Mother will keep me to +my chamber for a month, and make me work at the tapestry of the +nine bold knights. She promised as much last week, when I fell +into Wilverly bog, and yet she knows that I cannot abide needle- +work." + +Alleyne, still standing in the stream, glanced down at the +graceful pink-and-white figure, the curve of raven-black hair, +and the proud, sensitive face which looked up frankly and +confidingly at his own. + +"We had best on," he said. "He may yet overtake us." + +"Not so. We are well off his land now, nor can he tell in this +great wood which way we have taken. But you--you had him at your +mercy. Why did you not kill him?" + +"Kill him! My brother!" + +"And why not?"--with a quick gleam of her white teeth. "He would +have killed you. I know him, and I read it in his eyes. Had I +had your staff I would have tried--aye, and done it, too." She +shook her clenched white hand as she spoke, and her lips +tightened ominously. + +"I am already sad in heart for what I have done," said he, +sitting down on the bank, and sinking his face into his hands. +"God help me!--all that is worst in me seemed to come uppermost. +Another instant, and I had smitten him: the son of my own mother, +the man whom I have longed to take to my heart. Alas! that I +should still be so weak." + +"Weak!" she exclaimed, raising her black eyebrows. "I do not +think that even my father himself, who is a hard judge of +manhood, would call you that. But it is, as you may think, sir, +a very pleasant thing for me to hear that you are grieved at what +you have done, and I can but rede that we should go back +together, and you should make your peace with the Socman by +handing back your prisoner. It is a sad thing that so small a +thing as a woman should come between two who are of one blood." + +Simple Alleyne opened his eyes at this little spurt of feminine +bitterness. "Nay, lady," said he, "that were worst of all. What +man would be so caitiff and thrall as to fail you at your need? +I have turned my brother against me, and now, alas! I appear to +have given you offence also with my clumsy tongue. But, indeed, +lady, I am torn both ways, and can scarce grasp in my mind what +it is that has befallen." + +"Nor can I marvel at that," said she, with a little tinkling +laugh. "You came in as the knight does in the jongleur's +romances, between dragon and damsel, with small time for the +asking of questions. Come," she went on, springing to her feet, +and smoothing down her rumpled frock, "let us walk through the +shaw together, and we may come upon Bertrand with the horses. If +poor Troubadour had not cast a shoe, we should not have had this +trouble. Nay, I must have your arm: for, though I speak lightly, +now that all is happily over I am as frightened as my brave +Roland. See how his chest heaves, and his dear feathers all +awry--the little knight who would not have his lady mishandled." +So she prattled on to her hawk, while Alleyne walked by her side, +stealing a glance from time to time at this queenly and wayward +woman. In silence they wandered together over the velvet turf +and on through the broad Minstead woods, where the old lichen- +draped beeches threw their circles of black shadow upon the +sunlit sward. + +"You have no wish, then, to hear my story?" said she, at last. + +"If it pleases you to tell it me," he answered. + +"Oh!" she cried tossing her head, "if it is of so little interest +to you, we had best let it bide." + +"Nay," said he eagerly, "I would fain hear it." + +"You have a right to know it, if you have lost a brother's favor +through it. And yet----Ah well, you are, as I understand, a +clerk, so I must think of you as one step further in orders, and +make you my father-confessor. Know then that this man has been a +suitor for my hand, less as I think for my own sweet sake than +because he hath ambition and had it on his mind that he might +improve his fortunes by dipping into my father's strong box-- +though the Virgin knows that he would have found little enough +therein. My father, however, is a proud man, a gallant knight +and tried soldier of the oldest blood, to whom this man's +churlish birth and low descent----Oh, lackaday! I had forgot +that he was of the same strain as yourself." + +"Nay, trouble not for that," said Alleyne, "we are all from good +mother Eve." + +"Streams may spring from one source, and yet some be clear and +some be foul," quoth she quickly. "But, to be brief over the +matter, my father would have none of his wooing, nor in sooth +would I. On that he swore a vow against us, and as he is known +to be a perilous man, with many outlaws and others at his back, +my father forbade that I should hawk or hunt in any part of the +wood to the north of the Christchurch road. As it chanced, +however, this morning my little Roland here was loosed at a +strong-winged heron, and page Bertrand and I rode on, with no +thoughts but for the sport, until we found ourselves in Minstead +woods. Small harm then, but that my horse Troubadour trod with a +tender foot upon a sharp stick, rearing and throwing me to the +ground. See to my gown, the third that I have befouled within +the week. Wo worth me when Agatha the tire-woman sets eyes upon +it!" + +"And what then, lady?" asked Alleyne. + +"Why, then away ran Troubadour, for belike I spurred him in +falling, and Bertrand rode after him as hard as hoofs could bear +him. When I rose there was the Socman himself by my side, with +the news that I was on his land, but with so many courteous words +besides, and such gallant bearing, that he prevailed upon me to +come to his house for shelter, there to wait until the page +return. By the grace of the Virgin and the help of my patron St. +Magdalen, I stopped short ere I reached his door, though, as you +saw, he strove to hale me up to it. And then--ah-h-h-h!"--she +shivered and chattered like one in an ague-fit. + +"What is it?" cried Alleyne, looking about in alarm. + +"Nothing, friend, nothing! I was but thinking how I bit into his +hand. Sooner would I bite living toad or poisoned snake. Oh, I +shall loathe my lips forever! But you--how brave you were, and +how quick! How meek for yourself, and how bold for a stranger! +If I were a man, I should wish to do what you have done." + +"It was a small thing," he answered, with a tingle of pleasure at +these sweet words of praise. "But you--what will you do?" + +"There is a great oak near here, and I think that Bertrand will +bring the horses there, for it is an old hunting-tryst of ours. +Then hey for home, and no more hawking to-day! A twelve-mile +gallop will dry feet and skirt." + +"But your father?" + +"Not one word shall I tell him. You do not know him; but I can +tell you he is not a man to disobey as I have disobeyed him. He +would avenge me, it is true, but it is not to him that I shall +look for vengeance. Some day, perchance, in joust or in tourney, +knight may wish to wear my colors, and then I shall tell him that +if he does indeed crave my favor there is wrong unredressed, and +the wronger the Socman of Minstead. So my knight shall find a +venture such as bold knights love, and my debt shall be paid, and +my father none the wiser, and one rogue the less in the world. +Say, is not that a brave plan?" + +"Nay, lady, it is a thought which is unworthy of you. How can +such as you speak of violence and of vengeance. Are none to be +gentle and kind, none to be piteous and forgiving? Alas! it is a +hard, cruel world, and I would that I had never left my abbey +cell. To hear such words from your lips is as though I heard an +angel of grace preaching the devil's own creed." + +She started from him as a young colt who first feels the bit. +"Gramercy for your rede, young sir!" she said, with a little +curtsey. "As I understand your words, you are grieved that you +ever met me, and look upon me as a preaching devil. Why, my +father is a bitter man when he is wroth, but hath never called me +such a name as that. It may be his right and duty, but certes it +is none of thine. So it would be best, since you think so lowly +of me, that you should take this path to the left while I keep on +upon this one; for it is clear that I can be no fit companion for +you." So saying, with downcast lids and a dignity which was +somewhat marred by her bedraggled skirt, she swept off down the +muddy track, leaving Alleyne standing staring ruefully after her. +He waited in vain for some backward glance or sign of relenting, +but she walked on with a rigid neck until her dress was only a +white flutter among the leaves. Then, with a sunken head and a +heavy heart, he plodded wearily down the other path, wroth with +himself for the rude and uncouth tongue which had given offence +where so little was intended. + +He had gone some way, lost in doubt and in self-reproach, his +mind all tremulous with a thousand new-found thoughts and fears +and wonderments, when of a sudden there was a light rustle of the +leaves behind him, and, glancing round, there was this graceful, +swift-footed creature, treading in his very shadow, with her +proud head bowed, even as his was--the picture of humility and +repentance. + +"I shall not vex you, nor even speak," she said; "but I would +fain keep with you while we are in the wood." + +"Nay, you cannot vex me," he answered, all warm again at the very +sight of her. "It was my rough words which vexed you; but I have +been thrown among men all my life, and indeed, with all the will, +I scarce know how to temper my speech to a lady's ear." + +"Then unsay it," cried she quickly; "say that I was right to wish +to have vengeance on the Socman." + +"Nay, I cannot do that," he answered gravely. + +"Then who is ungentle and unkind now?" she cried in triumph. +"How stern and cold you are for one so young! Art surely no mere +clerk, but bishop or cardinal at the least. Shouldst have +crozier for staff and mitre for cap. Well, well, for your sake I +will forgive the Socman and take vengeance on none but on my own +wilful self who must needs run into danger's path. So will that +please you, sir?" + +"There spoke your true self," said he; "and you will find more +pleasure in such forgiveness than in any vengeance." + +She shook her head, as if by no means assured of it, and then +with a sudden little cry, which had more of surprise than of joy +in it, "Here is Bertrand with the horses!" + +Down the glade there came a little green-clad page with laughing +eyes, and long curls floating behind him. He sat perched on a +high bay horse, and held on to the bridle of a spirited black +palfrey, the hides of both glistening from a long run. + +"I have sought you everywhere, dear Lady Maude," said he in a +piping voice, springing down from his horse and holding the +stirrup. "Troubadour galloped as far as Holmhill ere I could +catch him. I trust that you have had no hurt or scath?" He shot +a questioning glance at Alleyne as he spoke. + +"No, Bertrand," said she, "thanks to this courteous stranger. +And now, sir," she continued, springing into her saddle, "it is +not fit that I leave you without a word more. Clerk or no, you +have acted this day as becomes a true knight. King Arthur and +all his table could not have done more. It may be that, as some +small return, my father or his kin may have power to advance your +interest. He is not rich, but he is honored and hath great +friends. Tell me what is your purpose, and see if he may not aid +it." + +"Alas! lady, I have now no purpose. I have but two friends in +the world, and they have gone to Christchurch, where it is likely +I shall join them." + +"And where is Christchurch?" + +"At the castle which is held by the brave knight, Sir Nigel +Loring, constable to the Earl of Salisbury." + +To his surprise she burst out a-laughing, and, spurring her +palfrey, dashed off down the glade, with her page riding behind +her. Not one word did she say, but as she vanished amid the +trees she half turned in her saddle and waved a last greeting. +Long time he stood, half hoping that she might again come back to +him; but the thud of the hoofs had died away, and there was no +sound in all the woods but the gentle rustle and dropping of the +leaves. At last he turned away and made his way back to the +high-road--another person from the light-hearted boy who had left +it a short three hours before. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HOW HORDLE JOHN FOUND A MAN WHOM HE MIGHT FOLLOW. + +IF he might not return to Beaulieu within the year, and if his +brother's dogs were to be set upon him if he showed face upon +Minstead land, then indeed he was adrift upon earth. North, +south, east, and west--he might turn where he would, but all was +equally chill and cheerless. The Abbot had rolled ten silver +crowns in a lettuce-leaf and hid them away in the bottom of his +scrip, but that would be a sorry support for twelve long months. +In all the darkness there was but the one bright spot of the +sturdy comrades whom he had left that morning; if he could find +them again all would be well. The afternoon was not very +advanced, for all that had befallen him. When a man is afoot at +cock-crow much may be done in the day. If he walked fast he +might yet overtake his friends ere they reached their +destination. He pushed on therefore, now walking and now +running. As he journeyed he bit into a crust which remained from +his Beaulieu bread, and he washed it down by a draught from a +woodland stream. + +It was no easy or light thing to journey through this great +forest, which was some twenty miles from east to west and a good +sixteen from Bramshaw Woods in the north to Lymington in the +south. Alleyne, however, had the good fortune to fall in with a +woodman, axe upon shoulder, trudging along in the very direction +that he wished to go. With his guidance he passed the fringe of +Bolderwood Walk, famous for old ash and yew, through Mark Ash +with its giant beech-trees, and on through the Knightwood groves, +where the giant oak was already a great tree, but only one of +many comely brothers. They plodded along together, the woodman +and Alleyne, with little talk on either side, for their thoughts +were as far asunder as the poles. The peasant's gossip had been +of the hunt, of the brocken, of the grayheaded kites that had +nested in Wood Fidley, and of the great catch of herring brought +back by the boats of Pitt's Deep. The clerk's mind was on his +brother, on his future--above all on this strange, fierce, +melting, beautiful woman who had broken so suddenly into his +life, and as suddenly passed out of it again. So distrait was he +and so random his answers, that the wood man took to whistling, +and soon branched off upon the track to Burley, leaving Alleyne +upon the main Christchurch road. + +Down this he pushed as fast as he might, hoping at every turn and +rise to catch sight of his companions of the morning. From +Vinney Ridge to Rhinefield Walk the woods grow thick and dense up +to the very edges of the track, but beyond the country opens up +into broad dun-colored moors, flecked with clumps of trees, and +topping each other in long, low curves up to the dark lines of +forest in the furthest distance. Clouds of insects danced and +buzzed in the golden autumn light, and the air was full of the +piping of the song-birds. Long, glinting dragonflies shot across +the path, or hung tremulous with gauzy wings and gleaming bodies. +Once a white-necked sea eagle soared screaming high over the +traveller's head, and again a flock of brown bustards popped up +from among the bracken, and blundered away in their clumsy +fashion, half running, half flying, with strident cry and whirr +of wings. + +There were folk, too, to be met upon the road--beggars and +couriers, chapmen and tinkers--cheery fellows for the most part, +with a rough jest and homely greeting for each other and for +Alleyne. Near Shotwood he came upon five seamen, on their way +from Poole to Southampton--rude red-faced men, who shouted at him +in a jargon which he could scarce understand, and held out to him +a great pot from which they had been drinking--nor would they let +him pass until he had dipped pannikin in and taken a mouthful, +which set him coughing and choking, with the tears running down +his cheeks. Further on he met a sturdy black-bearded man, +mounted on a brown horse, with a rosary in his right hand and a +long two-handed sword jangling against his stirrup-iron. By his +black robe and the eight-pointed cross upon his sleeve, Alleyne +recognized him as one of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of +Jerusalem, whose presbytery was at Baddesley. He held up two +fingers as he passed, with a "Benedice, filie meus!" whereat +Alleyne doffed hat and bent knee, looking with much reverence at +one who had devoted his life to the overthrow of the infidel. +Poor simple lad! he had not learned yet that what men are and +what men profess to be are very wide asunder, and that the +Knights of St. John, having come into large part of the riches of +the ill-fated Templars, were very much too comfortable to think +of exchanging their palace for a tent, or the cellars of England +for the thirsty deserts of Syria. + +Yet ignorance may be more precious than wisdom, for Alleyne as he +walked on braced himself to a higher life by the thought of this +other's sacrifice, and strengthened himself by his example which +he could scarce have done had he known that the Hospitaller's +mind ran more upon malmsey than on mamalukes, and on venison +rather than victories. + +As he pressed on the plain turned to woods once more in the +region of Wilverley Walk, and a cloud swept up from the south +with the sun shining through the chinks of it. A few great drops +came pattering loudly down, and then in a moment the steady swish +of a brisk shower, with the dripping and dropping of the leaves. +Alleyne, glancing round for shelter, saw a thick and lofty holly- +bush, so hollowed out beneath that no house could have been +drier. Under this canopy of green two men were already squatted, +who waved their hands to Alleyne that he should join them. As he +approached he saw that they had five dried herrings laid out in +front of them, with a great hunch of wheaten bread and a leathern +flask full of milk, but instead of setting to at their food they +appeared to have forgot all about it, and were disputing together +with flushed faces and angry gestures. It was easy to see by +their dress and manner that they were two of those wandering +students who formed about this time so enormous a multitude in +every country in Europe. The one was long and thin, with +melancholy features, while the other was fat and sleek, with a +loud voice and the air of a man who is not to be gainsaid. + +"Come hither, good youth," he cried, "come hither! Vultus +ingenui puer. Heed not the face of my good coz here. Foenum +habet in cornu, as Dan Horace has it; but I warrant him harmless +for all that." + +"Stint your bull's bellowing!" exclaimed the other. "If it come +to Horace, I have a line in my mind: Loquaces si sapiat---- How +doth it run? The English o't being that a man of sense should +ever avoid a great talker. That being so, if all were men of +sense then thou wouldst be a lonesome man, coz." + +"Alas! Dicon, I fear that your logic is as bad as your +philosophy or your divinity--and God wot it would be hard to say +a worse word than that for it. For, hark ye: granting, propter +argumentum, that I am a talker, then the true reasoning runs that +since all men of sense should avoid me, and thou hast not avoided +me, but art at the present moment eating herrings with me under a +holly-bush, ergo you are no man of sense, which is exactly what I +have been dinning into your long ears ever since I first clapped +eyes on your sunken chops." + +"Tut, tut!" cried the other. "Your tongue goes like the clapper +of a mill-wheel. Sit down here, friend, and partake of this +herring. Understand first, however, that there are certain +conditions attached to it." + +"I had hoped," said Alleyne, falling into the humor of the twain, +"that a tranchoir of bread and a draught of milk might be +attached to it." + +"Hark to him, hark to him!" cried the little fat man. "It is +even thus, Dicon! Wit, lad, is a catching thing, like the itch +or the sweating sickness. I exude it round me; it is an aura. I +tell you, coz, that no man can come within seventeen feet of me +without catching a spark. Look at your own case. A duller man +never stepped, and yet within the week you have said three things +which might pass, and one thing the day we left Fordingbridge +which I should not have been ashamed of myself." + +"Enough, rattle-pate, enough!" said the other. "The milk you +shall have and the bread also, friend, together with the herring, +but you must hold the scales between us." + +"If he hold the herring he holds the scales, my sapient brother," +cried the fat man. "But I pray you, good youth, to tell us +whether you are a learned clerk, and, if so, whether you have +studied at Oxenford or at Paris." + +"I have some small stock of learning," Alleyne answered, picking +at his herring, "but I have been at neither of these places. I +was bred amongst the Cistercian monks at Beaulieu Abbey." + +"Pooh, pooh!" they cried both together. "What sort of an +upbringing is that?" + +"Non cuivis contingit adire Corinthum," quoth Alleyne. + +"Come, brother Stephen, he hath some tincture of letters," said +the melancholy man more hopefully. "He may be the better judge, +since he hath no call to side with either of us. Now, attention, +friend, and let your ears work as well as your nether jaw. Judex +damnatur--you know the old saw. Here am I upholding the good +fame of the learned Duns Scotus against the foolish quibblings +and poor silly reasonings of Willie Ockham." + +"While I," quoth the other loudly, "do maintain the good sense +and extraordinary wisdom of that most learned William against the +crack-brained fantasies of the muddy Scotchman, who hath hid such +little wit as he has under so vast a pile of words, that it is +like one drop of Gascony in a firkin of ditch-water. Solomon his +wisdom would not suffice to say what the rogue means." + +"Certes, Stephen Hapgood, his wisdom doth not suffice," cried the +other. "It is as though a mole cried out against the morning +star, because he could not see it. But our dispute, friend, is +concerning the nature of that subtle essence which we call +thought. For I hold with the learned Scotus that thought is in +very truth a thing, even as vapor or fumes, or many other +substances which our gross bodily eyes are blind to. For, look +you, that which produces a thing must be itself a thing, and if a +man's thought may produce a written book, then must thought +itself be a material thing, even as the book is. Have I +expressed it? Do I make it plain?" + +"Whereas I hold," shouted the other, "with my revered preceptor, +doctor, preclarus et excellentissimus, that all things are but +thought; for when thought is gone I prythee where are the things +then? Here are trees about us, and I see them because I think I +see them, but if I have swooned, or sleep, or am in wine, then, +my thought having gone forth from me, lo the trees go forth also. +How now, coz, have I touched thee on the raw?" + +Alleyne sat between them munching his bread, while the twain +disputed across his knees, leaning forward with flushed faces and +darting hands, in all the heat of argument. Never had he heard +such jargon of scholastic philosophy, such fine-drawn +distinctions, such cross-fire of major and minor, proposition, +syllogism, attack and refutation. Question clattered upon answer +like a sword on a buckler. The ancients, the fathers of the +Church, the moderns, the Scriptures, the Arabians, were each sent +hurtling against the other, while the rain still dripped and the +dark holly-leaves glistened with the moisture. At last the fat +man seemed to weary of it, for he set to work quietly upon his +meal, while his opponent, as proud as the rooster who is left +unchallenged upon the midden, crowed away in a last long burst of +quotation and deduction. Suddenly, however, his eyes dropped +upon his food, and he gave a howl of dismay. + +"You double thief!" he cried, "you have eaten my herrings, and I +without bite or sup since morning." + +"That," quoth the other complacently, "was my final argument, my +crowning effort, or peroratio, as the orators have it. For, coz, +since all thoughts are things, you have but to think a pair of +herrings, and then conjure up a pottle of milk wherewith to wash +them down." + +"A brave piece of reasoning," cried the other, "and I know of but +one reply to it." On which, leaning forward, he caught his +comrade a rousing smack across his rosy cheek. "Nay, take it not +amiss," he said, "since all things are but thoughts, then that +also is but a thought and may be disregarded." + +This last argument, however, by no means commended itself to the +pupil of Ockham, who plucked a great stick from the ground and +signified his dissent by smiting the realist over the pate with +it. By good fortune, the wood was so light and rotten that it +went to a thousand splinters, but Alleyne thought it best to +leave the twain to settle the matter at their leisure, the more +so as the sun was shining brightly once more. Looking back down +the pool-strewn road, he saw the two excited philosophers waving +their hands and shouting at each other, but their babble soon +became a mere drone in the distance, and a turn in the road hid +them from his sight. + +And now after passing Holmesley Walk and the Wooton Heath, the +forest began to shred out into scattered belts of trees, with +gleam of corn-field and stretch of pasture-land between. Here +and there by the wayside stood little knots of wattle-and-daub +huts with shock-haired laborers lounging by the doors and red- +cheeked children sprawling in the roadway. Back among the groves +he could see the high gable ends and thatched roofs of the +franklin's houses, on whose fields these men found employment, or +more often a thick dark column of smoke marked their position and +hinted at the coarse plenty within. By these signs Alleyne knew +that he was on the very fringe of the forest, and therefore no +great way from Christchurch. The sun was lying low in the west +and shooting its level rays across the long sweep of rich green +country, glinting on the white-fleeced sheep and throwing long +shadows from the red kine who waded knee-deep in the juicy +clover. Right glad was the traveller to see the high tower of +Christchurch Priory gleaming in the mellow evening light, and +gladder still when, on rounding a corner, he came upon his +comrades of the morning seated astraddle upon a fallen tree. +They had a flat space before them, on which they alternately +threw little square pieces of bone, and were so intent upon +their occupation that they never raised eye as he approached +them. He observed with astonishment, as he drew near, that the +archer's bow was on John's back, the archer's sword by John's +side, and the steel cap laid upon the tree-trunk between them. + +"Mort de ma vie!" Aylward shouted, looking down at the dice. +"Never had I such cursed luck. A murrain on the bones! I have +not thrown a good main since I left Navarre. A one and a three! +En avant, camarade!" + +"Four and three," cried Hordle John, counting on his great +fingers, "that makes seven. Ho, archer, I have thy cap! Now +have at thee for thy jerkin!" + +"Mon Dieu!" he growled, "I am like to reach Christchurch in my +shirt." Then suddenly glancing up, "Hola, by the splendor of +heaven, here is our cher petit! Now, by my ten finger bones! +this is a rare sight to mine eyes." He sprang up and threw his +arms round Alleyne's neck, while John, no less pleased, but more +backward and Saxon in his habits, stood grinning and bobbing by +the wayside, with his newly won steel cap stuck wrong side +foremost upon his tangle of red hair. + +"Hast come to stop?" cried the bowman, patting Alleyne all over +in his delight. "Shall not get away from us again!" + +"I wish no better," said he, with a pringling in the eyes at this +hearty greeting. + +"Well said, lad!" cried big John. "We three shall to the wars +together, and the devil may fly away with the Abbot of Beaulieu! +But your feet and hosen are all besmudged. Hast been in the +water, or I am the more mistaken." + +"I have in good sooth," Alleyne answered, and then as they +journeyed on their way he told them the many things that had +befallen him, his meeting with the villein, his sight of the +king, his coming upon his brother, with all the tale of the black +welcome and of the fair damsel. They strode on either side, each +with an ear slanting towards him, but ere he had come to the end +of his story the bowman had spun round upon his heel, and was +hastening back the way they had come, breathing loudly through +his nose. + +"What then?" asked Alleyne, trotting after him and gripping at +his jerkin. + +"I am back for Minstead, lad." + +"And why, in the name of sense?" + +"To thrust a handful of steel into the Socman. What! hale a +demoiselle against her will, and then loose dogs at his own +brother! Let me go!" + +"Nenny, nenny!" cried Alleyne, laughing. "There was no scath +done. Come back, friend"--and so, by mingled pushing and +entreaties, they got his head round for Christchurch once more. +Yet he walked with his chin upon his shoulder, until, catching +sight of a maiden by a wayside well, the smiles came back to his +face and peace to his heart. + +"But you," said Alleyne, "there have been changes with you also. +Why should not the workman carry his tools? Where are bow and +sword and cap--and why so warlike, John?" + +"It is a game which friend Aylward hath been a-teaching of me." + +"And I found him an over-apt pupil," grumbled the bowman. "He +hath stripped me as though I had fallen into the hands of the +tardvenus. But, by my hilt! you must render them back to me, +camarade, lest you bring discredit upon my mission, and I will +pay you for them at armorers' prices." + +"Take them back, man, and never heed the pay," said John. "I did +but wish to learn the feel of them, since I am like to have such +trinkets hung to my own girdle for some years to come." + +"Ma foi, he was born for a fr companion!" cried Aylward, "He hath +the very trick of speech and turn of thought. I take them back +then, and indeed it gives me unease not to feel my yew-stave +tapping against my leg bone. But see, mes garcons, on this side +of the church rises the square and darkling tower of Earl +Salisbury's castle, and even from here I seem to see on yonder +banner the red roebuck of the Montacutes." + +"Red upon white," said Alleyne, shading his eyes; "but whether +roebuck or no is more than I could vouch. How black is the great +tower, and how bright the gleam of arms upon the wall! See below +the flag, how it twinkles like a star!" + +"Aye, it is the steel head-piece of the watchman," remarked the +archer. "But we must on, if we are to be there before the +drawbridge rises at the vespers bugle; for it is likely that sir +Nigel, being so renowned a soldier, may keep hard discipline +within the walls, and let no man enter after sundown." So +saying, he quickened his pace, and the three comrades were soon +close to the straggling and broad-spread town which centered +round the noble church and the frowning castle. + +It chanced on that very evening that Sir Nigel Loring, having +supped before sunset, as was his custom, and having himself seen +that Pommers and Cadsand, his two war-horses, with the thirteen +hacks, the five jennets, my lady's three palfreys, and the great +dapple-gray roussin, had all their needs supplied, had taken his +dogs for an evening breather. Sixty or seventy of them, large +and small, smooth and shaggy--deer-hound, boar-hound, blood- +hound, wolf-hound, mastiff, alaun, talbot, lurcher, terrier, +spaniel--snapping, yelling and whining, with score of lolling +tongues and waving tails, came surging down the narrow lane which +leads from the Twynham kennels to the bank of Avon. Two russet- +clad varlets, with loud halloo and cracking whips, walked thigh- +deep amid the swarm, guiding, controlling, and urging. Behind +came Sir Nigel himself, with Lady Loring upon his arm, the pair +walking slowly and sedately, as befitted both their age and their +condition, while they watched with a smile in their eyes the +scrambling crowd in front of them. They paused, however, at the +bridge, and, leaning their elbows upon the stonework, they stood +looking down at their own faces in the glassy stream, and at the +swift flash of speckled trout against the tawny gravel. + +Sir Nigel was a slight man of poor stature, with soft lisping +voice and gentle ways. So short was he that his wife, who was no +very tall woman, had the better of him by the breadth of three +fingers. His sight having been injured in his early wars by a +basketful of lime which had been emptied over him when he led the +Earl of Derby's stormers up the breach at Bergerac, he had +contracted something of a stoop, with a blinking, peering +expression of face. His age was six and forty, but the constant +practice of arms. together with a cleanly life, had preserved +his activity and endurance unimpaired, so that from a distance he +seemed to have the slight limbs and swift grace of a boy. His +face, however, was tanned of a dull yellow tint, with a leathery, +poreless look, which spoke of rough outdoor doings, and the +little pointed beard which he wore, in deference to the +prevailing fashion, was streaked and shot with gray. His +features were small, delicate, and regular, with clear-cut, +curving nose, and eyes which jutted forward from the lids. His +dress was simple and yet spruce. A Flandrish hat of beevor, +bearing in the band the token of Our Lady of Embrun, was drawn +low upon the left side to hide that ear which had been partly +shorn from his head by a Flemish man-at-arms in a camp broil +before Tournay. His cote-hardie, or tunic, and trunk-hosen were +of a purple plum color, with long weepers which hung from either +sleeve to below his knees. His shoes were of red leather, +daintily pointed at the toes, but not yet prolonged to the +extravagant lengths which the succeeding reign was to bring into +fashion. A gold-embroidered belt of knighthood encircled his +loins, with his arms, five roses gules on a field argent, +cunningly worked upon the clasp. So stood Sir Nigel Loring upon +the bridge of Avon, and talked lightly with his lady. + +And, certes, had the two visages alone been seen, and the +stranger been asked which were the more likely to belong to the +bold warrior whose name was loved by the roughest soldiery of +Europe, he had assuredly selected the lady's. Her face was large +and square and red, with fierce, thick brows, and the eyes of one +who was accustomed to rule. Taller and broader than her husband, +her flowing gown of sendall, and fur-lined tippet, could not +conceal the gaunt and ungraceful outlines of her figure. It was +the age of martial women. The deeds of black Agnes of Dunbar, of +Lady Salisbury and of the Countess of Montfort, were still fresh +in the public minds. With such examples before them the wives of +the English captains had become as warlike as their mates, and +ordered their castles in their absence with the prudence and +discipline of veteran seneschals. Right easy were the Montacutes +of their Castle of Twynham, and little had they to dread from +roving galley or French squadron, while Lady Mary Loring had the +ordering of it. Yet even in that age it was thought that, though +a lady might have a soldier's heart, it was scarce as well that +she should have a soldier's face. There were men who said that +of all the stern passages and daring deeds by which Sir Nigel +Loring had proved the true temper of his courage, not the least +was his wooing and winning of so forbidding a dame. + +"I tell you, my fair lord," she was saying, "that it is no fit +training for a demoiselle: hawks and hounds, rotes and citoles +singing a French rondel, or reading the Gestes de Doon de +Mayence, as I found her yesternight, pretending sleep, the +artful, with the corner of the scroll thrusting forth from under +her pillow. Lent her by Father Christopher of the priory, +forsooth --that is ever her answer. How shall all this help her +when she has castle of her own to keep, with a hundred mouths all +agape for beef and beer?" + +"True, my sweet bird, true," answered the knight, picking a +comfit from his gold drageoir. "The maid is like the young +filly, which kicks heels and plunges for very lust of life. Give +her time, dame, give her time." + +"Well, I know that my father would have given me, not time, but a +good hazel-stick across my shoulders. Ma foi! I know not what +the world is coming to, when young maids may flout their elders. +I wonder that you do not correct her, my fair lord." + +"Nay, my heart's comfort, I never raised hand to woman yet, and +it would be a passing strange thing if I began on my own flesh +and blood. It was a woman's hand which cast this lime into mine +eyes, and though I saw her stoop, and might well have stopped her +ere she threw, I deemed it unworthy of my knighthood to hinder or +balk one of her sex." + +"The hussy!" cried Lady Loring clenching her broad right hand. +"I would I had been at the side of her!" + +"And so would I, since you would have been the nearer me my own. +But I doubt not that you are right, and that Maude's wings need +clipping, which I may leave in your hands when I am gone, for, in +sooth, this peaceful life is not for me, and were it not for your +gracious kindness and loving care I could not abide it a week. I +hear that there is talk of warlike muster at Bordeaux once more, +and by St. Paul! it would be a new thing if the lions of England +and the red pile of Chandos were to be seen in the field, and the +roses of Loring were not waving by their side." + +"Now wo worth me but I feared it!" cried she, with the color all +struck from her face. "I have noted your absent mind, your +kindling eye, your trying and rivetting of old harness. Consider +my sweet lord, that you have already won much honor, that we have +seen but little of each other, that you bear upon your body the +scar of over twenty wounds received in I know not how many bloody +encounters. Have you not done enough for honor and the public +cause?" + +"My lady, when our liege lord, the king, at three score years, +and my Lord Chandos at three-score and ten, are blithe and ready +to lay lance in rest for England's cause, it would ill be-seem me +to prate of service done. It is sooth that I have received seven +and twenty wounds. There is the more reason that I should be +thankful that I am still long of breath and sound in limb. I +have also seen some bickering and scuffling. Six great land +battles I count, with four upon sea, and seven and fifty onfalls, +skirmishes and bushments. I have held two and twenty towns, and +I have been at the intaking of thirty-one. Surely then it would +be bitter shame to me, and also to you, since my fame is yours, +that I should now hold back if a man's work is to be done. +Besides, bethink you how low is our purse, with bailiff and reeve +ever croaking of empty farms and wasting lands. Were it not for +this constableship which the Earl of Salisbury hath bestowed +upon us we could scarce uphold the state which is fitting to our +degree. Therefore, my sweeting, there is the more need that I +should turn to where there is good pay to be earned and brave +ransoms to be won." + +"Ah, my dear lord," quoth she, with sad, weary eyes. "I thought +that at last I had you to mine own self, even though your youth +had been spent afar from my side. Yet my voice, as I know well, +should speed you on to glory and renown, not hold you back when +fame is to be won. Yet what can I say, for all men know that +your valor needs the curb and not the spur. It goes to my heart +that you should ride forth now a mere knight bachelor, when there +is no noble in the land who hath so good a claim to the square +pennon, save only that you have not the money to uphold it." + +"And whose fault that, my sweet bird?" said he. + +"No fault, my fair lord, but a virtue: for how many rich ransoms +have you won, and yet have scattered the crowns among page and +archer and varlet, until in a week you had not as much as would +buy food and forage. It is a most knightly largesse, and yet +withouten money how can man rise?" + +"Dirt and dross!" cried he. + +"What matter rise or fall, so that duty be done and honor gained. +Banneret or bachelor, square pennon or forked, I would not give a +denier for the difference, and the less since Sir John Chandos, +chosen flower of English chivalry, is himself but a humble +knight. But meanwhile fret not thyself, my heart's dove, for it +is like that there may be no war waged, and we must await the +news. But here are three strangers, and one, as I take it, a +soldier fresh from service. It is likely that he may give us +word of what is stirring over the water." + +Lady Loring, glancing up, saw in the fading light three +companions walking abreast down the road, all gray with dust, and +stained with travel, yet chattering merrily between themselves. +He in the midst was young and comely, with boyish open face and +bright gray eyes, which glanced from right to left as though he +found the world around him both new and pleasing. To his right +walked a huge red-headed man, with broad smile and merry twinkle, +whose clothes seemed to be bursting and splitting at every seam, +as though he were some lusty chick who was breaking bravely from +his shell. On the other side, with his knotted hand upon the +young man's shoulder, came a stout and burly archer, brown and +fierce eyed, with sword at belt and long yellow yew-stave +peeping over his shoulder. Hard face, battered head piece, +dinted brigandine, with faded red lion of St. George ramping on a +discolored ground, all proclaimed as plainly as words that he was +indeed from the land of war. He looked keenly at Sir Nigel as he +approached, and then, plunging his hand under his breastplate, he +stepped up to him with a rough, uncouth bow to the lady. + +"Your pardon, fair sir," said he, "but I know you the moment I +clap eyes on you, though in sooth I have seen you oftener in +steel than in velvet. I have drawn string besides you at La +Roche-d'Errien, Romorantin, Maupertuis, Nogent, Auray, and other +places." + +"Then, good archer, I am right glad to welcome you to Twynham +Castle, and in the steward s room you will find provant for +yourself and comrades. To me also your face is known, though +mine eyes play such tricks with me that I can scarce be sure of +my own squire. Rest awhile, and you shall come to the hall anon +and tell us what is passing in France, for I have heard that it +is likely that our pennons may flutter to the south of the great +Spanish mountains ere another year be passed." + +"There was talk of it in Bordeaux," answered the archer, "and I +saw myself that the armorers and smiths were as busy as rats in a +wheat-rick. But I bring you this letter from the valiant Gascon +knight, Sir Claude Latour. And to you, Lady," he added after a +pause, "I bring from him this box of red sugar of Narbonne, with +every courteous and knightly greeting which a gallant cavalier +may make to a fair and noble dame." + +This little speech had cost the blunt bowman much pains and +planning; but he might have spared his breath, for the lady was +quite as much absorbed as her lord in the letter, which they held +between them, a hand on either corner, spelling it out very +slowly, with drawn brows and muttering lips. As they read it, +Alleyne, who stood with Hordle John a few paces back from their +comrade, saw the lady catch her breath, while the knight laughed +softly to himself. + +"You see, dear heart," said he, "that they will not leave the old +dog in his kennel when the game is afoot. And what of this White +Company, archer?" + +"Ah, sir, you speak of dogs," cried Aylward; "but there are a +pack of lusty hounds who are ready for any quarry, if they have +but a good huntsman to halloo them on. Sir, we have been in the +wars together, and I have seen many a brave following but never +such a set of woodland boys as this. They do but want you at +their head, and who will bar the way to them!" + +"Pardieu!" said Sir Nigel, "if they are all like their messenger, +they are indeed men of whom a leader may be proud. Your name, +good archer?" + +"Sam Aylward, sir, of the Hundred of Easebourne and the Rape of +Chichester." + +"And this giant behind you?" + +"He is big John, of Hordle, a forest man, who hath now taken +service in the Company." + +"A proper figure of a man at-arms," said the little knight. +"Why, man, you are no chicken, yet I warrant him the stronger +man. See to that great stone from the coping which hath fallen +upon the bridge. Four of my lazy varlets strove this day to +carry it hence. I would that you two could put them to shame by +budging it, though I fear that I overtask you, for it is of a +grievous weight." + +He pointed as he spoke to a huge rough-hewn block which lay by +the roadside, deep sunken from its own weight in the reddish +earth. The archer approached it, rolling back the sleeves of his +jerkin, but with no very hopeful countenance, for indeed it was a +mighty rock. John, however, put him aside with his left hand, +and, stooping over the stone, he plucked it single-handed from +its soft bed and swung it far into the stream. There it fell +with mighty splash, one jagged end peaking out above the surface, +while the waters bubbled and foamed with far-circling eddy. + +"Good lack!" cried Sir Nigel, and "Good lack!" cried his lady, +while John stood laughing and wiping the caked dirt from his +fingers. + +"I have felt his arms round my ribs," said the bowman, "and they +crackle yet at the thought of it. This other comrade of mine is +a right learned clerk, for all that he is so young, hight +Alleyne, the son of Edric, brother to the Socman of Minstead." + +"Young man," quoth Sir Nigel, sternly, "if you are of the same +way of thought as your brother, you may not pass under portcullis +of mine." + +"Nay, fair sir," cried Aylward hastily, "I will be pledge for it +that they have no thought in common; for this very day his +brother hath set his dogs upon him, and driven him from his +lands." + +"And are you, too, of the White Company?" asked Sir Nigel. "Hast +had small experience of war, if I may judge by your looks and +bearing." + +"I would fain to France with my friends here," Alleyne answered; +"but I am a man of peace--a reader, exorcist, acolyte, and +clerk." + +"That need not hinder," quoth Sir Nigel. + +"No, fair sir," cried the bowman joyously. "Why, I myself have +served two terms with Arnold de Cervolles, he whom they called +the archpriest. By my hilt! I have seen him ere now, with monk's +gown trussed to his knees, over his sandals in blood in the fore- +front of the battle. Yet, ere the last string had twanged, he +would be down on his four bones among the stricken, and have them +all houseled and shriven, as quick as shelling peas. Ma foi! +there were those who wished that he would have less care for +their souls and a little more for their bodies!" + +"It is well to have a learned clerk in every troop," said Sir +Nigel. "By St. Paul, there are men so caitiff that they think +more of a scrivener's pen than of their lady's smile, and do +their devoir in hopes that they may fill a line in a chronicle or +make a tag to a jongleur's romance. I remember well that, at the +siege of Retters, there was a little, sleek, fat clerk of the +name of Chaucer, who was so apt at rondel, sirvente, or tonson, +that no man dare give back a foot from the walls, lest he find it +all set down in his rhymes and sung by every underling and varlet +in the camp. But, my soul's bird, you hear me prate as though +all were decided, when I have not yet taken counsel either with +you or with my lady mother. Let us to the chamber, while these +strangers find such fare as pantry and cellar may furnish." + +"The night air strikes chill," said the lady, and turned down the +road with her hand upon her lord's arm. The three comrades +dropped behind and followed: Aylward much the lighter for having +accomplished his mission, Alleyne full of wonderment at the +humble bearing of so renowned a captain, and John loud with +snorts and sneers, which spoke his disappointment and contempt. + +"What ails the man?" asked Aylward in surprise. + +"I have been cozened and bejaped," quoth he gruffly. + +"By whom, Sir Samson the strong?" + +"By thee, Sir Balaam the false prophet." + +"By my hilt!" cried the archer, I though I be not Balaam, yet I +hold converse with the very creature that spake to him. What is +amiss, then, and how have I played you false?" + +"Why, marry, did you not say, and Alleyne here will be my +witness, that, if I would hie to the wars with you, you would +place me under a leader who was second to none in all England for +valor? Yet here you bring me to a shred of a man, peaky and ill- +nourished, with eyes like a moulting owl, who must needs, +forsooth, take counsel with his mother ere he buckle sword to +girdle." + +"Is that where the shoe galls?" cried the bowman, and laughed +aloud. "I will ask you what you think of him three months hence, +if we be all alive; for sure I am that----" + +Aylward's words were interrupted by an extraordinary hubbub which +broke out that instant some little way down the street in the +direction of the Priory. There was deep-mouthed shouting of men, +frightened shrieks of women, howling and barking of curs, and +over all a sullen, thunderous rumble, indescribably menacing and +terrible. Round the corner of the narrow street there came +rushing a brace of whining dogs with tails tucked under their +legs, and after them a white-faced burgher, with outstretched +hands and wide-spread fingers, his hair all abristle and his eyes +glinting back from one shoulder to the other, as though some +great terror were at his very heels. "Fly, my lady, fly!" he +screeched, and whizzed past them like bolt from bow; while close +behind came lumbering a huge black bear, with red tongue lolling +from his mouth, and a broken chain jangling behind him. To right +and left the folk flew for arch and doorway. Hordle John caught +up the Lady Loring as though she had been a feather, and sprang +with her into an open porch; while Aylward, with a whirl of +French oaths, plucked at his quiver and tried to unsling his bow. +Alleyne, all unnerved at so strange and unwonted a sight, shrunk +up against the wall with his eyes fixed upon the frenzied +creature, which came bounding along with ungainly speed, looking +the larger in the uncertain light, its huge jaws agape, with +blood and slaver trickling to the ground. Sir Nigel alone, +unconscious to all appearance of the universal panic, walked +with unfaltering step up the centre of the road, a silken +handkerchief in one hand and his gold comfit-box in the other. +It sent the blood cold through Alleyne's veins to see that as +they came together--the man and the beast--the creature reared +up, with eyes ablaze with fear and hate, and whirled its great +paws above the knight to smite him to the earth. He, however, +blinking with puckered eyes, reached up his kerchief, and flicked +the beast twice across the snout with it. "Ah, saucy! saucy," +quoth he, with gentle chiding; on which the bear, uncertain and +puzzled, dropped its four legs to earth again, and, waddling +back, was soon swathed in ropes by the bear-ward and a crowd of +peasants who had been in close pursuit. + +A scared man was the keeper; for, having chained the brute to a +stake while he drank a stoup of ale at the inn, it had been +baited by stray curs, until, in wrath and madness, it had plucked +loose the chain, and smitten or bitten all who came in its path. +Most scared of all was he to find that the creature had come nigh +to harm the Lord and Lady of the castle, who had power to place +him in the stretch-neck or to have the skin scourged from his +shoulders. Yet, when he came with bowed head and humble entreaty +for forgiveness, he was met with a handful of small silver from +Sir Nigel, whose dame, however, was less charitably disposed, +being much ruffled in her dignity by the manner in which she had +been hustled from her lord's side. + +As they passed through the castle gate, John plucked at Aylward's +sleeve, and the two fell behind. + +"I must crave your pardon, comrade," said he, bluntly. "I was a +fool not to know that a little rooster may be the gamest. I +believe that this man is indeed a leader whom we may follow." + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +HOW A YOUNG SHEPHERD HAD A PERILOUS FLOCK. + +BLACK was the mouth of Twynham Castle, though a pair of torches +burning at the further end of the gateway cast a red glare over +the outer bailey, and sent a dim, ruddy flicker through the +rough-hewn arch, rising and falling with fitful brightness. Over +the door the travellers could discern the escutcheon of the +Montacutes, a roebuck gules on a field argent, flanked on either +side by smaller shields which bore the red roses of the veteran +constable. As they passed over the drawbridge, Alleyne marked +the gleam of arms in the embrasures to right and left, and they +had scarce set foot upon the causeway ere a hoarse blare burst +from a bugle, and, with screech of hinge and clank of chain, the +ponderous bridge swung up into the air, drawn by unseen hands. +At the same instant the huge portcullis came rattling down from +above, and shut off the last fading light of day. Sir Nigel and +his lady walked on in deep talk, while a fat under-steward took +charge of the three comrades, and led them to the buttery, where +beef, bread, and beer were kept ever in readiness for the +wayfarer. After a hearty meal and a dip in the trough to wash +the dust from them, they strolled forth into the bailey, where +the bowman peered about through the darkness at wall and at keep, +with the carping eyes of one who has seen something of sieges, +and is not likely to be satisfied. To Alleyne and to John, +however, it appeared to be as great and as stout a fortress as +could be built by the hands of man. + +Erected by Sir Balwin de Redvers in the old fighting days of the +twelfth century, when men thought much of war and little of +comfort, Castle Twynham had been designed as a stronghold pure +and simple, unlike those later and more magnificent structures +where warlike strength had been combined with the magnificence of +a palace. From the time of the Edwards such buildings as Conway +or Caernarvon castles, to say nothing of Royal Windsor, had shown +that it was possible to secure luxury in peace as well as +security in times of trouble. Sir Nigel's trust, however, still +frowned above the smooth-flowing waters of the Avon, very much as +the stern race of early Anglo-Normans had designed it. There +were the broad outer and inner bailies, not paved, but sown with +grass to nourish the sheep and cattle which might be driven in on +sign of danger. All round were high and turreted walls, with at +the corner a bare square-faced keep, gaunt and windowless, +rearing up from a lofty mound, which made it almost inaccessible +to an assailant. + +Against the bailey-walls were rows of frail wooden houses and +leaning sheds, which gave shelter to the archers and men-at-arms +who formed the garrison. The doors of these humble dwellings +were mostly open, and against the yellow glare from within +Alleyne could see the bearded fellows cleaning their harness, +while their wives would come out for a gossip, with their +needlework in their hands, and their long black shadows streaming +across the yard. The air was full of the clack of their voices +and the merry prattling of children, in strange contrast to the +flash of arms and constant warlike challenge from the walls +above. + +"Methinks a company of school lads could hold this place against +an army," quoth John. + +"And so say I," said Alleyne. + +"Nay, there you are wide of the clout," the bowman said gravely. +"By my hilt! I have seen a stronger fortalice carried in a summer +evening. I remember such a one in Picardy, with a name as long +as a Gascon's pedigree. It was when I served under Sir Robert +Knolles, before the days of the Company; and we came by good +plunder at the sacking of it. I had myself a great silver bowl, +with two goblets, and a plastron of Spanish steel. Pasques Dieu! +there are some fine women over yonder! Mort de ma vie! see to +that one in the doorway! I will go speak to her. But whom have +we here?" + +"Is there an archer here hight Sam Aylward?" asked a gaunt man- +at-arms, clanking up to them across the courtyard. + +"My name, friend," quoth the bowman. + +"Then sure I have no need to tell thee mine," said the other. + +"By the rood! if it is not Black Simon of Norwich!" cried +Aylward. "A mon coeur, camarade, a mon coeur! Ah, but I am +blithe to see thee!" The two fell upon each other and hugged +like bears. + +"And where from, old blood and bones?" asked the bowman. + +"I am in service here. Tell me, comrade, is it sooth that we +shall have another fling at these Frenchmen? It is so rumored in +the guard-room, and that Sir Nigel will take the field once +more." + +"It is like enough, mon gar., as things go." + +"Now may the Lord be praised!" cried the other. "This very night +will I set apart a golden ouche to be offered on the shrine of my +name-saint. I have pined for this, Aylward, as a young maid +pines for her lover." + +"Art so set on plunder then? Is the purse so light that there is +not enough for a rouse? I have a bag at my belt, camarade, and +you have but to put your fist into it for what you want. It was +ever share and share between us." + +"Nay, friend, it is not the Frenchman's gold, but the Frenchman's +blood that I would have. I should not rest quiet in the grave, +coz, if I had not another turn at them. For with us in France it +has ever been fair and honest war--a shut fist for the man, but a +bended knee for the woman. But how was it at Winchelsea when +their galleys came down upon it some few years back? I had an +old mother there, lad, who had come down thither from the +Midlands to be the nearer her son. They found her afterwards by +her own hearthstone, thrust through by a Frenchman's bill. My +second sister, my brother's wife, and her two children, they +were but ash-heaps in the smoking ruins of their house. I will +not say that we have not wrought great scath upon France, but +women and children have been safe from us. And so, old friend, +my heart is hot within me, and I long to hear the old battle-cry +again, and, by God's truth I if Sir Nigel unfurls his pennon, +here is one who will be right glad to feel the saddle-flaps under +his knees." + +"We have seen good work together, old war-dog," quoth Aylward; +"and, by my hilt! we may hope to see more ere we die. But we are +more like to hawk at the Spanish woodcock than at the French +heron, though certes it is rumored that Du Guesclin with all the +best lances of France have taken service under the lions and +towers of Castile. But, comrade, it is in my mind that there is +some small matter of dispute still open between us." + +" 'Fore God, it is sooth!" cried the other; "I had forgot it. +The provost-marshal and his men tore us apart when last we met." + +"On which, friend, we vowed that we should settle the point when +next we came together. Hast thy sword, I see, and the moon +throws glimmer enough for such old night-birds as we. On guard, +mon gar.! I have not heard clink of steel this month or more." + +"Out from the shadow then," said the other, drawing his sword. +"A vow is a vow, and not lightly to be broken." + +"A vow to the saints," cried Alleyne, "is indeed not to be set +aside; but this is a devil's vow, and, simple clerk as I am, I am +yet the mouthpiece of the true church when I say that it were +mortal sin to fight on such a quarrel. What! shall two grown men +carry malice for years, and fly like snarling curs at each +other's throats?" + +"No malice, my young clerk, no malice," quoth Black Simon, "I +have not a bitter drop in my heart for mine old comrade; but the +quarrel, as he hath told you, is still open and unsettled. Fall +on, Aylward!" + +"Not whilst I can stand between you," cried Alleyne, springing +before the bowman. "It is shame and sin to see two Christian +Englishmen turn swords against each other like the frenzied +bloodthirsty paynim." + +"And, what is more," said Hordle John, suddenly appearing out of +the buttery with the huge board upon which the pastry was rolled, +"if either raise sword I shall flatten him like a Shrovetide +pancake. By the black rood! I shall drive him into the earth, +like a nail into a door, rather than see you do scath to each +other." + +" 'Fore God, this is a strange way of preaching peace," cried +Black Simon. "You may find the scath yourself, my lusty friend, +if you raise your great cudgel to me. I had as lief have the +castle drawbridge drop upon my pate." + +"Tell me, Aylward," said Alleyne earnestly, with his hands +outstretched to keep the pair asunder, "what is the cause of +quarrel, that we may see whether honorable settlement may not be +arrived at?" + +The bowman looked down at his feet and then up at the moons +"Parbleu!" he cried, "the cause of quarrel? Why, mon petit, it +was years ago in Limousin, and how can I bear in mind what was +the cause of it? Simon there hath it at the end of his tongue." + +"Not I, in troth," replied the other; "I have had other things to +think of. There was some sort of bickering over dice, or wine, +or was it a woman, coz?" + +"Pasques Dieu! but you have nicked it," cried Aylward. "It was +indeed about a woman; and the quarrel must go forward, for I am +still of the same mind as before." + +"What of the woman, then?" asked Simon. "May the murrain strike +me if I can call to mind aught about her." + +"It was La Blanche Rose, maid at the sign of the 'Trois Corbeaux' +at Limoges. Bless her pretty heart! Why, mon gar., I loved +her." + +"So did a many,"quoth Simon. "I call her to mind now. On the +very day that we fought over the little hussy, she went off with +Evan ap Price, a long-legged Welsh dagsman. They have a hostel +of their own now, somewhere on the banks of the Garonne, where +the landlord drinks so much of the liquor that there is little +left for the customers." + +"So ends our quarrel, then," said Aylward, sheathing his sword. +"A Welsh dagsman, i' faith! C'etait mauvais goot, camarade, and +the more so when she had a jolly archer and a lusty man-at-arms +to choose from." + +"True, old lad. And it is as well that we can compose our +differences honorably, for Sir Nigel had been out at the first +clash of steel; and he hath sworn that if there be quarrelling in +the garrison he would smite the right hand from the broilers. +You know him of old, and that he is like to be as good as his +word." + +"Mort-Dieu! yes. But there are ale, mead, and wine in the +buttery, and the steward a merry rogue, who will not haggle over +a quart or two. Buvons, mon gar., for it is not every day that +two old friends come together." + +The old soldiers and Hordle John strode off together in all good +fellowship. Alleyne had turned to follow them, when he felt a +touch upon his shoulder, and found a young page by his side. + +"The Lord Loring commands," said the boy, "that you will follow +me to the great chamber, and await him there." + +"But my comrades?" + +"His commands were for you alone." + +Alleyne followed the messenger to the east end of the courtyard, +where a broad flight of steps led up to the doorway of the main +hall, the outer wall of which is washed by the waters of the +Avon. As designed at first, no dwelling had been allotted to the +lord of the castle and his family but the dark and dismal +basement storey of the keep. A more civilized or more effeminate +generation, however, had refused to be pent up in such a cellar, +and the hall with its neighboring chambers had been added for +their accommodation. Up the broad steps Alleyne went, still +following his boyish guide, until at the folding oak doors the +latter paused, and ushered him into the main hall of the castle. + +On entering the room the clerk looked round; but, seeing no one, +he continued to stand, his cap in his hand, examining with the +greatest interest a chamber which was so different to any to +which he was accustomed. The days had gone by when a nobleman's +hall was but a barn-like, rush-strewn enclosure, the common +lounge and eating-room of every inmate of the castle. The +Crusaders had brought back with them experiences of domestic +luxuries, of Damascus carpets and rugs of Aleppo, which made them +impatient of the hideous bareness and want of privacy which they +found in their ancestral strongholds. Still stronger, however, +had been the influence of the great French war; for, however well +matched the nations might be in martial exercises, there could be +no question but that our neighbors were infinitely superior to us +in the arts of peace. A stream of returning knights, of wounded +soldiers, and of unransomed French noblemen, had been for a +quarter of a century continually pouring into England, every one +of whom exerted an influence in the direction of greater domestic +refinement, while shiploads of French furniture from Calais, +Rouen, and other plundered towns, had supplied our own artizans +with models on which to shape their work. Hence, in most English +castles, and in Castle Twynham among the rest, chambers were to +be found which would seem to be not wanting either in beauty or +in comfort. + +In the great stone fireplace a log fire was spurting and +crackling, throwing out a ruddy glare which, with the four +bracket-lamps which stood at each corner of the room, gave a +bright and lightsome air to the whole apartment. Above was a +wreath-work of blazonry, extending up to the carved and corniced +oaken roof; while on either side stood the high canopied chairs +placed for the master of the house and for his most honored +guest. The walls were hung all round with most elaborate and +brightly colored tapestry, representing the achievements of Sir +Bevis of Hampton, and behind this convenient screen were stored +the tables dormant and benches which would be needed for banquet +or high festivity. The floor was of polished tiles, with a +square of red and black diapered Flemish carpet in the centre; +and many settees, cushions, folding chairs, and carved bancals +littered all over it. At the further end was a long black buffet +or dresser, thickly covered with gold cups, silver salvers, and +other such valuables. All this Alleyne examined with curious +eyes; but most interesting of all to him was a small ebony table +at his very side, on which, by the side of a chess-board and the +scattered chessmen, there lay an open manuscript written in a +right clerkly hand, and set forth with brave flourishes and +devices along the margins. In vain Alleyne bethought him of +where he was, and of those laws of good breeding and decorum +which should restrain him: those colored capitals and black even +lines drew his hand down to them, as the loadstone draws the +needle, until, almost before he knew it, he was standing with the +romance of Garin de Montglane before his eyes, so absorbed in its +contents as to be completely oblivious both of where he was and +why he had come there. + +He was brought back to himself, however, by a sudden little +ripple of quick feminine laughter. Aghast, he dropped the +manuscript among the chessmen and stared in bewilderment round +the room. It was as empty and as still as ever. Again he +stretched his hand out to the romance, and again came that +roguish burst of merriment. He looked up at the ceiling, back at +the closed door, and round at the stiff folds of motionless +tapestry. Of a sudden, however, he caught a quick shimmer from +the corner of a high-backed bancal in front of him, and, shifting +a pace or two to the side, saw a white slender hand, which held a +mirror of polished silver in such a way that the concealed +observer could see without being seen. He stood irresolute, +uncertain whether to advance or to take no notice; but, even as +he hesitated, the mirror was whipped in, and a tall and stately +young lady swept out from behind the oaken screen, with a dancing +light of mischief in her eyes. Alleyne started with astonishment +as he recognized the very maiden who had suffered from his +brother's violence in the forest. She no longer wore her gay +riding-dress, however, but was attired in a long sweeping robe of +black velvet of Bruges, with delicate tracery of white lace at +neck and at wrist, scarce to be seen against her ivory skin. +Beautiful as she had seemed to him before, the lithe charm of her +figure and the proud, free grace of her bearing were enhanced now +by the rich simplicity of her attire. + +"Ah, you start," said she, with the same sidelong look of +mischief, "and I cannot marvel at it. Didst not look to see the +distressed damosel again. Oh that I were a minstrel, that I +might put it into rhyme, with the whole romance--the luckless +maid, the wicked socman, and the virtuous clerk! So might our +fame have gone down together for all time, and you be numbered +with Sir Percival or Sir Galahad, or all the other rescuers of +oppressed ladies." + +"What I did," said Alleyne, "was too small a thing for thanks; +and yet, if I may say it without offence, it was too grave and +near a matter for mirth and raillery. I had counted on my +brother's love, but God has willed that it should be otherwise. +It is a joy to me to see you again, lady, and to know that you +have reached home in safety, if this be indeed your home." + +"Yes, in sooth, Castle Twynham is my home, and Sir Nigel Loring +my father, I should have told you so this morning, but you said +that you were coming thither, so I bethought me that I might hold +it back as a surprise to you. Oh dear, but it was brave to see +you!" she cried, bursting out a-laughing once more, and standing +with her hand pressed to her side, and her half-closed eyes +twinkling with amusement. "You drew back and came forward with +your eyes upon my book there, like the mouse who sniffs the +cheese and yet dreads the trap." + +"I take shame," said Alleyne, "that I should have touched it." + +"Nay, it warmed my very heart to see it. So glad was I, that I +laughed for very pleasure. My fine preacher can himself be +tempted then, thought I; he is not made of another clay to the +rest of us." + +"God help me! I am the weakest of the weak," groaned Alleyne. +"I pray that I may have more strength." + +"And to what end?" she asked sharply. "If you are, as I +understand, to shut yourself forever in your cell within the four +walls of an abbey, then of what use would it be were your prayer +to be answered?" + +"The use of my own salvation." + +She turned from him with a pretty shrug and wave. "Is that all?" +she said. "Then you are no better than Father Christopher and +the rest of them. Your own, your own, ever your own! My father +is the king's man, and when he rides into the press of fight he +is not thinking ever of the saving of his own poor body; he recks +little enough if he leave it on the field. Why then should you, +who are soldiers of the Spirit, be ever moping or hiding in cell +or in cave, with minds full of your own concerns, while the +world, which you should be mending, is going on its way, and +neither sees nor hears you? Were ye all as thoughtless of your +own souls as the soldier is of his body, ye would be of more +avail to the souls of others." + +"There is sooth in what you say, lady," Alleyne answered; "and +yet I scarce can see what you would have the clergy and the +church to do." + +"I would have them live as others and do men's work in the world, +preaching by their lives rather than their words. I would have +them come forth from their lonely places, mix with the borel +folks, feel the pains and the pleasures, the cares and the +rewards, the temptings and the stirrings of the common people. +Let them toil and swinken, and labor, and plough the land, and +take wives to themselves----" + +"Alas! alas!" cried Alleyne aghast, "you have surely sucked this +poison from the man Wicliffe, of whom I have heard such evil +things." + +"Nay, I know him not. I have learned it by looking from my own +chamber window and marking these poor monks of the priory, their +weary life, their profitless round. I have asked myself if the +best which can be done with virtue is to shut it within high +walls as though it were some savage creature. If the good will +lock themselves up, and if the wicked will still wander free, +then alas for the world!" + +Alleyne looked at her in astonishment, for her cheek was flushed, +her eyes gleaming, and her whole pose full of eloquence and +conviction. Yet in an instant she had changed again to her old +expression of merriment leavened with mischief. + +"Wilt do what I ask?" said she. + +"What is it, lady?" + +"Oh, most ungallant clerk! A true knight would never have asked, +but would have vowed upon the instant. 'Tis but to bear me out +in what I say to my father." + +"In what?" + +"In saying, if he ask, that it was south of the Christchurch road +that I met you. I shall be shut up with the tire-women else, and +have a week of spindle and bodkin, when I would fain be galloping +Troubadour up Wilverly Walk, or loosing little Roland at the +Vinney Ridge herons." + +"I shall not answer him if he ask." + +"Not answer! But he will have an answer. Nay, but you must not +fail me, or it will go ill with me." + +"But, lady," cried poor Alleyne in great distress, "how can I say +that it was to the south of the road when I know well that it was +four miles to the north." + +"You will not say it?" + +"Surely you will not, too, when you know that it is not so?" + +"Oh, I weary of your preaching!" she cried, and swept away with a +toss of her beautiful head, leaving Alleyne as cast down and +ashamed as though he had himself proposed some infamous thing. +She was back again in an instant, however, in another of her +varying moods. + +"Look at that, my friend!" said she. "If you had been shut up in +abbey or in cell this day you could not have taught a wayward +maiden to abide by the truth. Is it not so? What avail is the +shepherd if he leaves his sheep." + +"A sorry shepherd!" said Alleyne humbly. "But here is your noble +father." + +"And you shall see how worthy a pupil I am. Father, I am much +beholden to this young clerk, who was of service to me and helped +me this very morning in Minstead Woods, four miles to the north +of the Christchurch road, where I had no call to be, you having +ordered it otherwise." All this she reeled off in a loud voice, +and then glanced with sidelong, questioning eyes at Alleyne for +his approval. + +Sir Nigel, who had entered the room with a silvery-haired old +lady upon his arm, stared aghast at this sudden outburst of +candor. + +"Maude, Maude!" said he, shaking his head, "it is more hard for +me to gain obedience from you than from the ten score drunken +archers who followed me to Guienne. Yet, hush! little one, for +your fair lady-mother will be here anon, and there is no need +that she should know it. We will keep you from the provost- +marshal this journey. Away to your chamber, sweeting, and keep a +blithe face, for she who confesses is shriven. And now, fair +mother," he continued, when his daughter had gone, "sit you here +by the fire, for your blood runs colder than it did. Alleyne +Edricson, I would have a word with you, for I would fain that you +should take service under me. And here in good time comes my +lady, without whose counsel it is not my wont to decide aught of +import; but, indeed, it was her own thought that you should +come." + +"For I have formed a good opinion of you, and can see that you +are one who may be trusted," said the Lady Loring. "And in good +sooth my dear lord hath need of such a one by his side, for he +recks so little of himself that there should be one there to look +to his needs and meet his wants. You have seen the cloisters; it +were well that you should see the world too, ere you make choice +for life between them." + +"It was for that very reason that my father willed that I should +come forth into the world at my twentieth year," said Alleyne. + +"Then your father was a man of good counsel," said she, "and you +cannot carry out his will better than by going on this path, +where all that is noble and gallant in England will be your +companions." + +"You can ride?" asked Sir Nigel, looking at the youth with +puckered eyes. + +"Yes, I have ridden much at the abbey." + +"Yet there is a difference betwixt a friar's hack and a warrior's +destrier. You can sing and play?" + +"On citole, flute and rebeck." + +"Good! You can read blazonry?" + +"Indifferent well." + +"Then read this," quoth Sir Nigel, pointing upwards to one of the +many quarterings which adorned the wall over the fireplace. + +"Argent," Alleyne answered, "a fess azure charged with three +lozenges dividing three mullets sable. Over all, on an +escutcheon of the first, a jambe gules." + +"A jambe gules erased," said Sir Nigel, shaking his head +solemnly. "Yet it is not amiss for a monk-bred man. I trust +that you are lowly and serviceable?" + +"I have served all my life, my lord." + +"Canst carve too?" + +"I have carved two days a week for the brethren." + +"A model truly! Wilt make a squire of squires. But tell me, I +pray, canst curl hair?" + +"No, my lord, but I could learn." + +"It is of import," said he, "for I love to keep my hair well +ordered, seeing that the weight of my helmet for thirty years +hath in some degree frayed it upon the top." He pulled off his +velvet cap of maintenance as he spoke, and displayed a pate which +was as bald as an egg, and shone bravely in the firelight. "You +see," said he, whisking round, and showing one little strip where +a line of scattered hairs, like the last survivors in some fatal +field, still barely held their own against the fate which had +fallen upon their comrades; "these locks need some little oiling +and curling, for I doubt not that if you look slantwise at my +head, when the light is good, you will yourself perceive that +there are places where the hair is sparse." + +"It is for you also to bear the purse," said the lady; "for my +sweet lord is of so free and gracious a temper that he would give +it gayly to the first who asked alms of him. All these things, +with some knowledge of venerie, and of the management of horse, +hawk and hound, with the grace and hardihood and courtesy which +are proper to your age, will make you a fit squire for Sir Nigel +Loring." + +"Alas! lady," Alleyne answered, "I know well the great honor that +you have done me in deeming me worthy to wait upon so renowned a +knight, yet I am so conscious of my own weakness that I scarce +dare incur duties which I might be so ill-fitted to fulfil." + +"Modesty and a humble mind," said she, "are the very first and +rarest gifts in page or squire. Your words prove that you have +these, and all the rest is but the work of use and time. But +there is no call for haste. Rest upon it for the night, and let +your orisons ask for guidance in the matter. We knew your father +well, and would fain help his son, though we have small cause to +love your brother the Socman, who is forever stirring up strife +in the county." + +"We can scare hope," said Nigel, "to have all ready for our start +before the feast of St. Luke, for there is much to be done in the +time. You will have leisure, therefore, if it please you to take +service under me, in which to learn your devoir. Bertrand, my +daughter's page, is hot to go; but in sooth he is over young for +such rough work as may be before us." + +"And I have one favor to crave from you," added the lady of the +castle, as Alleyne turned to leave their presence. "You have, as +I understand, much learning which you have acquired at Beaulieu." + +"Little enough, lady, compared with those who were my teachers." + +"Yet enough for my purpose, I doubt not. For I would have you +give an hour or two a day whilst you are with us in discoursing +with my daughter, the Lady Maude; for she is somewhat backward, I +fear, and hath no love for letters, save for these poor fond +romances, which do but fill her empty head with dreams of +enchanted maidens and of errant cavaliers. Father Christopher +comes over after nones from the priory, but he is stricken with +years and slow of speech, so that she gets small profit from his +teaching. I would have you do what you can with her, and with +Agatha my young tire-woman, and with Dorothy Pierpont." + +And so Alleyne found himself not only chosen as squire to a +knight but also as squire to three damosels, which was even +further from the part which he had thought to play in the world. +Yet he could but agree to do what he might, and so went forth +from the castle hall with his face flushed and his head in a +whirl at the thought of the strange and perilous paths which his +feet were destined to tread. + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +HOW ALLEYNE LEARNED MORE THAN HE COULD TEACH. + +AND now there came a time of stir and bustle, of furbishing of +arms and clang of hammer from all the southland counties. Fast +spread the tidings from thorpe to thorpe and from castle to +castle, that the old game was afoot once more, and the lions and +lilies to be in the field with the early spring. Great news this +for that fierce old country, whose trade for a generation had +been war, her exports archers and her imports prisoners. For six +years her sons had chafed under an unwonted peace. Now they flew +to their arms as to their birthright. The old soldiers of Crecy, +of Nogent, and of Poictiers were glad to think that they might +hear the war-trumpet once more, and gladder still were the hot +youth who had chafed for years under the martial tales of their +sires. To pierce the great mountains of the south, to fight the +tawners of the fiery Moors, to follow the greatest captain of the +age, to find sunny cornfields and vineyards, when the marches of +Picardy and Normandy were as rare and bleak as the Jedburgh +forests--here was a golden prospect for a race of warriors. From +sea to sea there was stringing of bows in the cottage and clang +of steel in the castle. + +Nor did it take long for every stronghold to pour forth its +cavalry, and every hamlet its footmen. Through the late autumn +and the early winter every road and country lane resounded with +nakir and trumpet, with the neigh of the war-horse and the +clatter of marching men. From the Wrekin in the Welsh marches to +the Cotswolds in the west or Butser in the south, there was no +hill-top from which the peasant might not have seen the bright +shimmer of arms, the toss and flutter of plume and of pensil. +From bye-path, from woodland clearing, or from winding moor-side +track these little rivulets of steel united in the larger roads +to form a broader stream, growing ever fuller and larger as it +approached the nearest or most commodious seaport. And there all +day, and day after day, there was bustle and crowding and labor, +while the great ships loaded up, and one after the other spread +their white pinions and darted off to the open sea, amid the +clash of cymbals and rolling of drums and lusty shouts of those +who went and of those who waited. From Orwell to the Dart there +was no port which did not send forth its little fleet, gay with +streamer and bunting, as for a joyous festival. Thus in the +season of the waning days the might of England put forth on to +the waters. + +In the ancient and populous county of Hampshire there was no lack +of leaders or of soldiers for a service which promised either +honor or profit. In the north the Saracen's head of the Brocas +and the scarlet fish of the De Roches were waving over a strong +body of archers from Holt, Woolmer, and Harewood forests. De +Borhunte was up in the east, and Sir John de Montague in the +west. Sir Luke de Ponynges, Sir Thomas West, Sir Maurice de +Bruin, Sir Arthur Lipscombe, Sir Walter Ramsey, and stout Sir +Oliver Buttesthorn were all marching south with levies from +Andover, Arlesford, Odiham and Winchester, while from Sussex came +Sir John Clinton, Sir Thomas Cheyne, and Sir John Fallislee, with +a troop of picked men-at-arms, making for their port at +Southampton. Greatest of all the musters, however, was that of +Twynham Castle, for the name and the fame of Sir Nigel Loring +drew towards him the keenest and boldest spirits, all eager to +serve under so valiant a leader. Archers from the New Forest and +the Forest of Bere, billmen from the pleasant country which is +watered by the Stour, the Avon, and the Itchen, young cavaliers +from the ancient Hampshire houses, all were pushing for +Christchurch to take service under the banner of the five +scarlet roses. + +And now, could Sir Nigel have shown the bachelles of land which +the laws of rank required, he might well have cut his forked +pennon into a square banner, and taken such a following into the +field as would have supported the dignity of a banneret. + +But poverty was heavy upon him, his land was scant, his coffers +empty, and the very castle which covered him the holding of +another. Sore was his heart when he saw rare bowmen and war- +hardened spearmen turned away from his gates, for the lack of the +money which might equip and pay them. Yet the letter which +Aylward had brought him gave him powers which he was not slow to +use. In it Sir Claude Latour, the Gascon lieutenant of the White +Company, assured him that there remained in his keeping enough to +fit out a hundred archers and twenty men-at-arms, which, joined +to the three hundred veteran companions already in France, would +make a force which any leader might be proud to command. +Carefully and sagaciously the veteran knight chose out his men +from the swarm of volunteers. Many an anxious consultation he +held with Black Simon, Sam Aylward, and other of his more +experienced followers, as to who should come and who should stay. +By All Saints' day, however ere the last leaves had fluttered to +earth in the Wilverley and Holmesley glades, he had filled up his +full numbers, and mustered under his banner as stout a following +of Hampshire foresters as ever twanged their war-bows. Twenty +men-at-arms, too, well mounted and equipped, formed the cavalry +of the party, while young Peter Terlake of Fareham, and Walter +Ford of Botley, the martial sons of martial sires, came at their +own cost to wait upon Sir Nigel and to share with Alleyne +Edricson the duties of his squireship. + +Yet, even after the enrolment, there was much to be done ere the +party could proceed upon its way. For armor, swords, and lances, +there was no need to take much forethought, for they were to be +had both better and cheaper in Bordeaux than in England. With +the long-bow, however, it was different. Yew staves indeed might +be got in Spain, but it was well to take enough and to spare with +them. Then three spare cords should be carried for each bow, +with a great store of arrow-heads, besides the brigandines of +chain mail, the wadded steel caps, and the brassarts or arm- +guards, which were the proper equipment of the archer. Above +all, the women for miles round were hard at work cutting the +white surcoats which were the badge of the Company, and adorning +them with the red lion of St. George upon the centre of the +breast. When all was completed and the muster called in the +castle yard the oldest soldier of the French wars was fain to +confess that he had never looked upon a better equipped or more +warlike body of men, from the old knight with his silk jupon, +sitting his great black war-horse in the front of them, to Hordle +John, the giant recruit, who leaned carelessly upon a huge black +bow-stave in the rear. Of the six score, fully half had seen +service before, while a fair sprinkling were men who had followed +the wars all their lives, and had a hand in those battles which +had made the whole world ring with the fame and the wonder of the +island infantry. + +Six long weeks were taken in these preparations, and it was close +on Martinmas ere all was ready for a start. Nigh two months had +Alleyne Edricson been in Castle Twynham--months which were fated +to turn the whole current of his life, to divert it from that +dark and lonely bourne towards which it tended, and to guide it +into freer and more sunlit channels. Already he had learned to +bless his father for that wise provision which had made him seek +to know the world ere he had ventured to renounce it. + +For it was a different place from that which he had pictured -- +very different from that which he had heard described when the +master of the novices held forth to his charges upon she ravening +wolves who lurked for them beyond the peaceful folds of Beaulicu. +There was cruelty in it, doubtless, and lust and sin and sorrow; +but were there not virtues to atone, robust positive virtues +which did not shrink from temptation, which held their own in all +the rough blasts of the work-a-day world? How colorless by +contrast appeared the sinlessness which came from inability to +sin, the conquest which was attained by flying from the enemy! +Monk-bred as he was, Alleyne had native shrewdness and a mind +which was young enough to form new conclusions and to outgrow old +ones. He could not fail to see that the men with whom he was +thrown in contact, rough-tongued, fierce and quarrelsome as they +were, were yet of deeper nature and of more service in the world +than the ox-eyed brethren who rose and ate and slept from year's +end to year's end in their own narrow, stagnant circle of +existence. Abbot Berghersh was a good man, but how was he better +than this kindly knight, who lived as simple a life, held as +lofty and inflexible an ideal of duty, and did with all his +fearless heart whatever came to his hand to do? In turning from +the service of the one to that of the other, Alleyne could not +feel that he was lowering his aims in life. True that his gentle +and thoughtful nature recoiled from the grim work of war, yet in +those days of martial orders and militant brotherhoods there was +no gulf fixed betwixt the priest and the soldier. The man of God +and the man of the sword might without scandal be united in the +same individual. Why then should he, a mere clerk, have scruples +when so fair a chance lay in his way of carrying out the spirit +as well as the letter of his father's provision. Much struggle +it cost him, anxious spirit-questionings and midnight prayings, +with many a doubt and a misgiving; but the issue was that ere he +had been three days in Castle Twynham he had taken service under +Sir Nigel, and had accepted horse and harness, the same to be +paid for out of his share of the profits of the expedition. +Henceforth for seven hours a day he strove in the tilt-yard to +qualify himself to be a worthy squire to so worthy a knight. +Young, supple and active, with all the pent energies from years +of pure and healthy living, it was not long before he could +manage his horse and his weapon well enough to earn an approving +nod from critical men-at-arms, or to hold his own against Terlake +and Ford, his fellow-servitors. + +But were there no other considerations which swayed him from the +cloisters towards the world? So complex is the human spirit that +it can itself scarce discern the deep springs which impel it to +action. Yet to Alleyne had been opened now a side of life of +which he had been as innocent as a child, but one which was of +such deep import that it could not fail to influence him in +choosing his path. A woman, in monkish precepts, had been the +embodiment and concentration of what was dangerous and evil--a +focus whence spread all that was to be dreaded and avoided. So +defiling was their presence that a true Cistercian might not +raise his eyes to their face or touch their finger-tips under ban +of church and fear of deadly sin. Yet here, day after day for an +hour after nones, and for an hour before vespers, he found +himself in close communion with three maidens, all young, all +fair, and all therefore doubly dangerous from the monkish +standpoint. Yet he found that in their presence he was conscious +of a quick sympathy, a pleasant ease, a ready response to all +that was most gentle and best in himself, which filled his soul +with a vague and new-found joy. + +And yet the Lady Maude Loring was no easy pupil to handle. An +older and more world-wise man might have been puzzled by her +varying moods, her sudden prejudices, her quick resentment at all +constraint and authority. Did a subject interest her was there +space in it for either romance or imagination, she would fly +through it with her subtle, active mind, leaving her two fellow- +students and even her teacher toiling behind her. On the other +hand, were there dull patience needed with steady toil and strain +of memory, no single fact could by any driving be fixed in her +mind. Alleyne might talk to her of the stories of old gods and +heroes, of gallant deeds and lofty aims, or he might hold forth +upon moon and stars, and let his fancy wander over the hidden +secrets of the universe, and he would have a wrapt listener with +flushed cheeks and eloquent eyes, who could repeat after him the +very words which had fallen from his lips. But when it came to +almagest and astrolabe, the counting of figures and reckoning of +epicycles, away would go her thoughts to horse and hound, and a +vacant eye and listless face would warn the teacher that he had +lost his hold upon his scholar. Then he had but to bring out the +old romance book from the priory, with befingered cover of +sheepskin and gold letters upon a purple ground, to entice her +wayward mind back to the paths of learning. + +At times, too, when the wild fit was upon her, she would break +into pertness and rebel openly against Alleyne's gentle firmness. +Yet he would jog quietly on with his teachings, taking no heed to +her mutiny, until suddenly she would be conquered by his +patience, and break into self-revilings a hundred times stronger +than her fault demanded. It chanced however that, on one of +these mornings when the evil mood was upon her, Agatha the young +tire-woman, thinking to please her mistress, began also to toss +her head and make tart rejoinder to the teacher's questions. In +an instant the Lady Maude had turned upon her two blazing eyes +and a face which was blanched with anger. + +"You would dare!" said she. "You would dare!" The frightened +tire-woman tried to excuse herself. "But my fair lady," she +stammered, "what have I done? I have said no more than I heard." + +"You would dare!" repeated the lady in a choking voice. "You, a +graceless baggage, a foolish lack-brain, with no thought above +the hemming of shifts. And he so kindly and hendy and long- +suffering! You would--ha, you may well flee the room!" + +She had spoken with a rising voice, and a clasping and opening of +her long white fingers, so that it was no marvel that ere the +speech was over the skirts of Agatha were whisking round the door +and the click of her sobs to be heard dying swiftly away down the +corridor. + +Alleyne stared open-eyed at this tigress who had sprung so +suddenly to his rescue. "There is no need for such anger," he +said mildly. "The maid's words have done me no scath. It is you +yourself who have erred." + +"I know it," she cried, "I am a most wicked woman. But it is bad +enough that one should misuse you. Ma foi! I will see that there +is not a second one." + +"Nay, nay, no one has misused me," he answered. "But the fault +lies in your hot and bitter words. You have called her a baggage +and a lack-brain, and I know not what." + +"And you are he who taught me to speak the truth," she cried. +"Now I have spoken it, and yet I cannot please you. Lack-brain +she is, and lack-brain I shall call her." + +Such was a sample of the sudden janglings which marred the peace +of that little class. As the weeks passed, however, they became +fewer and less violent, as Alleyne's firm and constant nature +gained sway and influence over the Lady Maude. And yet, sooth to +say, there were times when he had to ask himself whether it was +not the Lady Maude who was gaining sway and influence over him. +If she were changing, so was he. In drawing her up from the +world, he was day by day being himself dragged down towards it. +In vain he strove and reasoned with himself as to the madness of +letting his mind rest upon Sir Nigel's daughter. What was he--a +younger son, a penniless clerk, a squire unable to pay for his +own harness--that he should dare to raise his eyes to the +fairest maid in Hampshire? So spake reason; but, in spite of all, +her voice was ever in his ears and her image in his heart. +Stronger than reason, stronger than cloister teachings, stronger +than all that might hold him back, was that old, old tyrant who +will brook no rival in the kingdom of youth. + +And yet it was a surprise and a shock to himself to find how +deeply she had entered into his life; how completely those vague +ambitions and yearnings which had filled his spiritual nature +centred themselves now upon this thing of earth. He had scarce +dared to face the change which had come upon him, when a few +sudden chance words showed it all up hard and clear, like a +lightning flash in the darkness. + +He had ridden over to Poole, one November day, with his fellow- +squire, Peter Terlake, in quest of certain yew-staves from Wat +Swathling, the Dorsetshire armorer. The day for their departure +had almost come, and the two youths spurred it over the lonely +downs at the top of their speed on their homeward course, for +evening had fallen and there was much to be done. Peter was a +hard, wiry, brown faced, country-bred lad who looked on the +coming war as the schoolboy looks on his holidays This day, +however, he had been sombre and mute, with scarce a word a mile +to bestow upon his comrade. + +"Tell me Alleyne Edricson," he broke out, suddenly, as they +clattered along the winding track which leads over the +Bournemouth hills, "has it not seemed to you that of late the +Lady Maude is paler and more silent than is her wont?" + +"It may be so," the other answered shortly. + +"And would rather sit distrait by her oriel than ride gayly to +the chase as of old. Methinks, Alleyne, it is this learning +which you have taught her that has taken all the life and sap +from her. It is more than she can master, like a heavy spear to a +light rider." + +"Her lady-mother has so ordered it," said Alleyne. + +"By our Lady! and withouten disrespect," quoth Terlake, "it is in +my mind that her lady-mother is more fitted to lead a company to +a storming than to have the upbringing of this tender and milk- +white maid. Hark ye, lad Alleyne, to what I never told man or +woman yet. I love the fair Lady Maude, and would give the last +drop of my heart's blood to serve her. He spoke with a gasping +voice, and his face flushed crimson in the moonlight. + +Alleyne said nothing, but his heart seemed to turn to a lump of +ice in his bosom. + +"My father has broad acres," the other continued, "from Fareham +Creek to the slope of the Portsdown Hill. There is filling of +granges, hewing of wood, malting of grain, and herding of sheep +as much as heart could wish, and I the only son. Sure am I that +Sir Nigel would be blithe at such a match." + +"But how of the lady?" asked Alleyne, with dry lips. + +"Ah, lad, there lies my trouble. It is a toss of the head and a +droop of the eyes if I say one word of what is in my mind. +'Twere as easy to woo the snow-dame that we shaped last winter in +our castle yard. I did but ask her yesternight for her green +veil, that I might bear it as a token or lambrequin upon my helm; +but she flashed out at me that she kept it for a better man, and +then all in a breath asked pardon for that she had spoke so +rudely. Yet she would not take back the words either, nor would +she grant the veil. Has it seemed to thee, Alleyne, that she +loves any one?" + +"Nay, I cannot say," said Alleyne, with a wild throb of sudden +hope in his heart. + +"I have thought so, and yet I cannot name the man. Indeed, gave +myself, and Walter Ford, and you, who are half a clerk, and +Father Christopher of the Priory, and Bertrand the page, who is +there whom she sees?" + +"I cannot tell," quoth Alleyne shortly; and the two squires rode +on again, each intent upon his own thoughts. + +Next day at morning lesson the teacher observed that his pupil +was indeed looking pale and jaded, with listless eyes and a weary +manner. He was heavy-hearted to note the grievous change in her. + +"Your mistress, I fear, is ill, Agatha," he said to the tire- +woman, when the Lady Maude had sought her chamber. + +The maid looked aslant at him with laughing eyes. "It is not an +illness that kills," quoth she. + +"Pray God not!" he cried. "But tell me, Agatha, what it is that +ails her?" + +"Methinks that I could lay my hand upon another who is smitten +with the same trouble," said she, with the same sidelong look. +"Canst not give a name to it, and thou so skilled in leech- +craft?" + +"Nay, save that she seems aweary." + +"Well, bethink you that it is but three days ere you will all be +gone, and Castle Twynham be as dull as the Priory. Is there not +enough there to cloud a lady's brow?" + +"In sooth, yes," he answered; "I had forgot that she is about to +lose her father." + +"Her father!" cried the tire-woman, with a little trill of +laughter. "Oh simple, simple!" And she was off down the passage +like arrow from bow, while Alleyne stood gazing after her, +betwixt hope and doubt, scarce daring to put faith in the meaning +which seemed to underlie her words. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +HOW THE WHITE COMPANY SET FORTH TO THE WARS. + +ST. LUKE'S day had come and had gone, and it was in the season of +Martinmas, when the oxen are driven in to the slaughter, that the +White Company was ready for its journey. Loud shrieked the +brazen bugles from keep and from gateway, and merry was the +rattle of the war-drum, as the men gathered in the outer bailey, +with torches to light them, for the morn had not yet broken. +Alleyne, from the window of the armory, looked down upon the +strange scene--the circles of yellow flickering light, the lines +of stern and bearded faces, the quick shimmer of arms, and the +lean heads of the horses. In front stood the bow-men, ten deep, +with a fringe of under-officers, who paced hither and thither +marshalling the ranks with curt precept or short rebuke. Behind +were the little clump of steel-clad horsemen, their lances +raised, with long pensils drooping down the oaken shafts. So +silent and still were they, that they might have been metal- +sheathed statues, were it not for the occasional quick, impatient +stamp of their chargers, or the rattle of chamfron against neck- +plates as they tossed and strained. A spear's length in front of +them sat the spare and long-limbed figure of Black Simon, the +Norwich fighting man, his fierce, deep-lined face framed in +steel, and the silk guidon marked with the five scarlet roses +slanting over his right shoulder. All round, in the edge of the +circle of the light, stood the castle servants, the soldiers who +were to form the garrison, and little knots of women. who sobbed +in their aprons and called shrilly to their name-saints to watch +over the Wat, or Will, or Peterkin who had turned his hand to the +work of war. + +The young squire was leaning forward, gazing at the stirring and +martial scene, when he heard a short, quick gasp at his shoulder, +and there was the Lady Maude, with her hand to her heart, leaning +up against the wall, slender and fair, like a half-plucked lily. +Her face was turned away from him, but he could see, by the sharp +intake of her breath, that she was weeping bitterly. + +"Alas! alas!" he cried, all unnerved at the sight, "why is it +that you are so sad, lady?" + +"It is the sight of these brave men," she answered; "and to think +how many of them go and how few are like to find their way back. +I have seen it before, when I was a little maid, in the year of +the Prince's great battle. I remember then how they mustered in +the bailey, even as they do now, and my lady-mother holding me in +her arms at this very window that I might see the show." + +"Please God, you will see them all back ere another year be out," +said he. + +She shook her head, looking round at him with flushed cheeks and +eyes that sparkled in the lamp-light. "Oh, but I hate myself for +being a woman!" she cried, with a stamp of her little foot. +"What can I do that is good? Here I must bide, and talk and sew +and spin, and spin and sew and talk. Ever the same dull round, +with nothing at the end of it. And now you are going too, who +could carry my thoughts out of these gray walls, and raise my +mind above tapestry and distaffs. What can I do? I am of no more +use or value than that broken bowstave." + +"You are of such value to me," he cried, in a whirl of hot, +passionate words, "that all else has become nought. You are my +heart, my life, my one and only thought. Oh, Maude, I cannot +live without you, I cannot leave you without a word of love. All +is changed to me since I have known you. I am poor and lowly and +all unworthy of you; but if great love may weigh down such +defects, then mine may do it. Give me but one word of hope to +take to the wars with me--but one. Ah, you shrink, you shudder! +My wild words have frightened you." + +Twice she opened her lips, and twice no sound came from them. At +last she spoke in a hard and measured voice, as one who dare not +trust herself to speak too freely. + +"This is over sudden," she said; "it is not so long since the +world was nothing to you. You have changed once; perchance you +may change again." + +"Cruel!" he cried, "who hath changed me?" + +"And then your brother," she continued with a little laugh, +disregarding his question. "Methinks this hath become a family +custom amongst the Edricsons. Nay, I am sorry; I did not mean a +jibe. But, indeed, Alleyne, this hath come suddenly upon me, and +I scarce know what to say." + +"Say some word of hope, however distant--some kind word that I +may cherish in my heart." + +"Nay, Alleyne, it were a cruel kindness, and you have been too +good and true a friend to me that I should use you despitefully. +There cannot be a closer link between us. It is madness to think +of it. Were there no other reasons, it is enough that my father +and your brother would both cry out against it." + +"My brother, what has he to do with it? And your father----" + +"Come, Alleyne, was it not you who would have me act fairly to +all men, and, certes, to my father amongst them?" + +"You say truly," he cried, "you say truly. But you do not reject +me, Maude? You give me some ray of hope? I do not ask pledge or +promise. Say only that I am not hateful to you--that on some +happier day I may hear kinder words from you." + +Her eyes softened upon him, and a kind answer was on her lips, +when a hoarse shout, with the clatter of arms and stamping of +steeds, rose up from the bailey below. At the sound her face set +her eyes sparkled, and she stood with flushed cheek and head +thrown back--a woman's body, with a soul of fire. + +"My father hath gone down," she cried. "Your place is by his +side. Nay, look not at me, Alleyne. It is no time for dallying. +Win my father's love, and all may follow. It is when the brave +soldier hath done his devoir that he hopes for his reward, +Farewell, and may God be with you!" She held out her white, slim +hand to him, but as he bent his lips over it she whisked away and +was gone, leaving in his outstretched hand the very green veil +for which poor Peter Terlake had craved in vain. Again the +hoarse cheering burst out from below, and he heard the clang of +the rising portcullis. Pressing the veil to his lips, he thrust +it into the bosom of his tunic, and rushed as fast as feet could +bear him to arm himself and join the muster. + +The raw morning had broken ere the hot spiced ale had been served +round and the last farewell spoken. A cold wind blew up from the +sea and ragged clouds drifted swiftly across the sky. + +The Christchurch townsfolk stood huddled about the Bridge of +Avon, the women pulling tight their shawls and the men swathing +themselves in their gaberdines, while down the winding path from +the castle came the van of the little army, their feet clanging +on the hard, frozen road. First came Black Simon with his +banner, bestriding a lean and powerful dapple-gray charger, as +hard and wiry and warwise as himself. After him, riding three +abreast, were nine men-at-arms, all picked soldiers, who had +followed the French wars before, and knew the marches of Picardy +as they knew the downs of their native Hampshire. They were +armed to the teeth with lance, sword, and mace, with square +shields notched at the upper right-hand corner to serve as a +spear-rest. For defence each man wore a coat of interlaced +leathern thongs, strengthened at the shoulder, elbow, and upper +arm with slips of steel. Greaves and knee-pieces were also of +leather backed by steel, and their gauntlets and shoes were of +iron plates, craftily jointed, So, with jingle of arms and +clatter of hoofs, they rode across the Bridge of Avon, while the +burghers shouted lustily for the flag of the five roses and its +gallant guard. + +Close at the heels of the horses came two-score archers bearded +and burly, their round targets on their backs and their long +yellow bows, the most deadly weapon that the wit of man had yet +devised, thrusting forth from behind their shoulders. From each +man's girdle hung sword or axe, according to his humor, and over +the right hip there jutted out the leathern quiver with its +bristle of goose, pigeon, and peacock feathers. Behind the +bowmen strode two trumpeters blowing upon nakirs, and two +drummers in parti-colored clothes. After them came twenty-seven +sumpter horses carrying tent-poles, cloth, spare arms, spurs, +wedges, cooking kettles, horse-shoes, bags of nails and the +hundred other things which experience had shown to be needful in +a harried and hostile country. A white mule with red trappings, +led by a varlet, carried Sir Nigel's own napery and table +comforts. Then came two-score more archers, ten more men-at- +arms, and finally a rear guard of twenty bowmen, with big John +towering in the front rank and the veteran Aylward marching by +the side, his battered harness and faded surcoat in strange +contrast with the snow-white jupons and shining brigandines of +his companions. A quick cross-fire of greetings and questions +and rough West Saxon jests flew from rank to rank, or were +bandied about betwixt the marching archers and the gazing crowd. + +"Hola, Gaffer Higginson!" cried Aylward, as he spied the portly +figure of the village innkeeper. "No more of thy nut-brown, mon +gar. We leave it behind us." + +"By St. Paul, no!" cried the other. "You take it with you. +Devil a drop have you left in the great kilderkin. It was time +for you to go." + +"If your cask is leer, I warrant your purse is full, gaffer," +shouted Hordle John. "See that you lay in good store of the best +for our home-coming." + +"See that you keep your throat whole for the drinking of it +archer," cried a voice, and the crowd laughed at the rough +pleasantry. + +"If you will warrant the beer, I will warrant the throat," said +John composedly. + +"Close up the ranks!" cried Aylward. "En avant, mes enfants! +Ah, by my finger bones, there is my sweet Mary from the Priory +Mill! Ma foi, but she is beautiful! Adieu, Mary ma cherie! Mon +coeur est toujours a toi. Brace your belt, Watkins, man, and +swing your shoulders as a free companion should. By my hilt! +your jerkins will be as dirty as mine ere you clap eyes on +Hengistbury Head again." + +The company had marched to the turn of the road ere Sir Nigel +Loring rode out from the gateway, mounted on Pommers, his great +black war-horse, whose ponderous footfall on the wooden +drawbridge echoed loudly from the gloomy arch which spanned it. +Sir Nigel was still in his velvet dress of peace, with flat +velvet cap of maintenance, and curling ostrich feather clasped in +a golden brooch. To his three squires riding behind him it +looked as though he bore the bird's egg as well as its feather, +for the back of his bald pate shone like a globe of ivory. He +bore no arms save the long and heavy sword which hung at his +saddle-bow; but Terlake carried in front of him the high wivern- +crested bassinet, Ford the heavy ash spear with swallow-tail +pennon, while Alleyne was entrusted with the emblazoned shield. +The Lady Loring rode her palfrey at her lord's bridle-arm, for +she would see him as far as the edge of the forest, and ever and +anon she turned her hard-lined face up wistfully to him and ran a +questioning eye over his apparel and appointments + +"I trust that there is nothing forgot," she said, beckoning to +Alleyne to ride on her further side. "I trust him to you, +Edricson. Hosen, shirts, cyclas, and under-jupons are in the +brown basket on the left side of the mule. His wine he takes hot +when the nights are cold, malvoisie or vernage, with as much +spice as would cover the thumb-nail. See that he hath a change +if he come back hot from the tilting. There is goose-grease in a +box, if the old scars ache at the turn of the weather. Let his +blankets be dry and----" + +"Nay, my heart's life," the little knight interrupted, "trouble +not now about such matters. Why so pale and wan, Edricson? Is it +not enow to make a man's heart dance to see this noble Company, +such valiant men-at-arms, such lusty archers? By St. Paul! I +would be ill to please if I were not blithe to see the red roses +flying at the head of so noble a following!" + +"The purse I have already given you, Edricson," continue the +lady. "There are in it twenty-three marks, one noble, three +shillings and fourpence, which is a great treasure for one man to +carry. And I pray you to bear in mind, Edricson, that he hath +two pair of shoes, those of red leather for common use, and the +others with golden toe-chains, which he may wear should he chance +to drink wine with the Prince or with Chandos." + +"My sweet bird," said Sir Nigel, "I am right loth to part from +you, but we are now at the fringe of the forest, and it is not +right that I should take the chatelaine too far from her trust." + +"But oh, my dear lord," she cried with a trembling lip, "let me +bide with you for one furlong further--or one and a half perhaps. +You may spare me this out of the weary miles that you will +journey along." + +"Come, then, my heart's comfort," he answered. "But I must crave +a gage from thee. It is my custom, dearling, and hath been since +I have first known thee, to proclaim by herald in such camps, +townships, or fortalices as I may chance to visit, that my lady- +love, being beyond compare the fairest and sweetest in +Christendom, I should deem it great honor and kindly +condescension if any cavalier would run three courses against me +with sharpened lances, should he chance to have a lady whose +claim he was willing to advance. I pray you then my fair dove, +that you will vouchsafe to me one of those doeskin gloves, that I +may wear it as the badge of her whose servant I shall ever be." + +"Alack and alas for the fairest and sweetest!" she cried. "Fair +and sweet I would fain be for your dear sake, my lord, but old I +am and ugly, and the knights would laugh should you lay lance in +rest in such a cause." + +"Edricson," quoth Sir Nigel, "you have young eyes, and mine are +somewhat bedimmed. Should you chance to see a knight laugh, or +smile, or even, look you, arch his brows, or purse his mouth, or +in any way show surprise that I should uphold the Lady Mary, you +will take particular note of his name, his coat-armor, and his +lodging. Your glove, my life's desire!" + +The Lady Mary Loring slipped her hand from her yellow leather +gauntlet, and he, lifting it with dainty reverence, bound it to +the front of his velvet cap. + +"It is with mine other guardian angels," quoth he, pointing at +the saints' medals which hung beside it. "And now, my dear-est, +you have come far enow. May the Virgin guard and prosper thee! +One kiss!" He bent down from his saddle, and then, striking +spurs into his horse's sides, he galloped at top speed after his +men, with his three squires at his heels. Half a mile further, +where the road topped a hill, they looked back, and the Lady Mary +on her white palfrey was still where they had left her. A moment +later they were on the downward slope, and she had vanished from +their view. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +HOW SIR NIGEL SOUGHT FOR A WAYSIDE VENTURE. + +FOR a time Sir Nigel was very moody and downcast, with bent brows +and eyes upon the pommel of his saddle. Edricson and Terlake +rode behind him in little better case, while Ford, a careless and +light-hearted youth, grinned at the melancholy of his companions, +and flourished his lord's heavy spear, making a point to right +and a point to left, as though he were a paladin contending +against a host of assailants. Sir Nigel happened, however, to +turn himself in his saddle-Ford instantly became as stiff and as +rigid as though he had been struck with a palsy. The four rode +alone, for the archers had passed a curve in the road, though +Alleyne could still hear the heavy clump, clump of their +marching, or catch a glimpse of the sparkle of steel through the +tangle of leafless branches. + +"Ride by my side, friends, I entreat of you," said the knight, +reining in his steed that they might come abreast of him. "For, +since it hath pleased you to follow me to the wars, it were well +that you should know how you may best serve me. I doubt not, +Terlake, that you will show yourself a worthy son of a valiant +father; and you, Ford, of yours; and you, Edricson, that you are +mindful of the old-time house from which all men know that you +are sprung. And first I would have you bear very steadfastly in +mind that our setting forth is by no means for the purpose of +gaining spoil or exacting ransom, though it may well happen that +such may come to us also. We go to France, and from thence I +trust to Spain, in humble search of a field in which we may win +advancement and perchance some small share of glory. For this +purpose I would have you know that it is not my wont to let any +occasion pass where it is in any way possible that honor may be +gained. I would have you bear this in mind, and give great heed +to it that you may bring me word of all cartels, challenges, +wrongs, tyrannies, infamies, and wronging of damsels. Nor is any +occasion too small to take note of, for I have known such trifles +as the dropping of a gauntlet, or the flicking of a breadcrumb, +when well and properly followed up, lead to a most noble spear- +running. But, Edricson, do I not see a cavalier who rides down +yonder road amongst the nether shaw? It would be well, +perchance, that you should give him greeting from me. And, +should he be of gentle blood it may be that he would care to +exchange thrusts with me." + +"Why, my lord," quoth Ford, standing in his stirrups and shading +his eyes, "it is old Hob Davidson, the fat miller of Milton!" + +"Ah, so it is, indeed," said Sir Nigel, puckering his cheeks; +"but wayside ventures are not to be scorned, for I have seen no +finer passages than are to be had from such chance meetings, when +cavaliers are willing to advance themselves. I can well remember +that two leagues from the town of Rheims I met a very valiant and +courteous cavalier of France, with whom I had gentle and most +honorable contention for upwards of an hour. It hath ever +grieved me that I had not his name, for he smote upon me with a +mace and went upon his way ere I was in condition to have much +speech with him; but his arms were an allurion in chief above a +fess azure. I was also on such an occasion thrust through the +shoulder by Lyon de Montcourt, whom I met on the high road +betwixt Libourne and Bordeaux. I met him but the once, but I +have never seen a man for whom I bear a greater love and esteem. +And so also with the squire Le Bourg Capillet, who would have +been a very valiant captain had he lived." + +"He is dead then?" asked Alleyne Edricson. + +"Alas! it was my ill fate to slay him in a bickering which broke +out in a field near the township of Tarbes. I cannot call to +mind how the thing came about, for it was in the year of the +Prince's ride through Langued'oc, when there was much fine +skirmishing to be had at barriers. By St. Paul! I do not think +that any honorable cavalier could ask for better chance of +advancement than might be had by spurring forth before the army +and riding to the gateways of Narbonne, or Bergerac or Mont +Giscar, where some courteous gentleman would ever be at wait to +do what he might to meet your wish or ease you of your vow. Such +a one at Ventadour ran three courses with me betwixt daybreak and +sunrise, to the great exaltation of his lady." + +"And did you slay him also, my lord?" asked Ford with reverence. + +"I could never learn, for he was carried within the barrier, and +as I had chanced to break the bone of my leg it was a great +unease for me to ride or even to stand. Yet, by the goodness of +heaven and the pious intercession of the valiant St. George, I +was able to sit my charger in the ruffle of Poictiers, which was +no very long time afterwards. But what have we here? A very +fair and courtly maiden, or I mistake." + +It was indeed a tall and buxom country lass, with a basket of +spinach-leaves upon her head, and a great slab of bacon tucked +under one arm. She bobbed a frightened curtsey as Sir Nigel +swept his velvet hat from his head and reined up his great +charger. + +"God be with thee, fair maiden!" said he. + +"God guard thee, my lord!" she answered, speaking in the broadest +West Saxon speech, and balancing herself first on one foot and +then on the other in her bashfulness. + +"Fear not, my fair damsel," said Sir Nigel, "but tell me if +perchance a poor and most unworthy knight can in any wise be of +service to you. Should it chance that you have been used +despitefully, it may be that I may obtain justice for you." + +"Lawk no, kind sir," she answered, clutching her bacon the +tighter, as though some design upon it might be hid under this +knightly offer. "I be the milking wench o' fairmer Arnold, and +he be as kind a maister as heart could wish." + +"It is well," said he, and with a shake of the bridle rode on +down the woodland path. "I would have you bear in mind," he +continued to his squires, "that gentle courtesy is not, as is the +base use of so many false knights, to be shown only to maidens of +high degree, for there is no woman so humble that a true knight +may not listen to her tale of wrong. But here comes a cavalier +who is indeed in haste. Perchance it would be well that we +should ask him whither he rides, for it may be that he is one who +desires to advance himself in chivalry." + +The bleak, hard, wind-swept road dipped down in front of them +into a little valley, and then, writhing up the heathy slope upon +the other side, lost itself among the gaunt pine-trees. Far away +between the black lines of trunks the quick glitter of steel +marked where the Company pursued its way. To the north stretched +the tree country, but to the south, between two swelling downs, a +glimpse might be caught of the cold gray shimmer of the sea, with +the white fleck of a galley sail upon the distant sky-line. Just +in front of the travellers a horseman was urging his steed up the +slope, driving it on with whip and spur as one who rides for a +set purpose. As he clattered up, Alleyne could see that the roan +horse was gray with dust and flecked with foam, as though it had +left many a mile behind it. The rider was a stern-faced man, +hard of mouth and dry of eye, with a heavy sword clanking at his +side, and a stiff white bundle swathed in linen balanced across +the pommel of his saddle. + +"The king's messenger," he bawled as he came up to them. "The +messenger of the king. Clear the causeway for the king's own +man." + +"Not so loudly, friend," quoth the little knight, reining his +horse half round to bar the path. "I have myself been the king's +man for thirty years or more, but I have not been wont to halloo +about it on a peaceful highway." + +"I ride in his service," cried the other, "and I carry that which +belongs to him. You bar my path at your peril." + +"Yet I have known the king's enemies claim to ride in his same," +said Sir Nigel. "The foul fiend may lurk beneath a garment of +light. We must have some sign or warrant of your mission." + +"Then must I hew a passage," cried the stranger, with his +shoulder braced round and his hand upon his hilt. "I am not to +be stopped on the king's service by every gadabout." + +"Should you be a gentleman of quarterings and coat-armor," lisped +Sir Nigel, "I shall be very blithe to go further into the matter +with you. If not, I have three very worthy squires, any one of +whom would take the thing upon himself, and debate it with you in +a very honorable way." + +The man scowled from one to the other, and his hand stole away +from his sword. + +"You ask me for a sign," he said. "Here is a sign for you, since +you must have one." As he spoke he whirled the covering from the +object in front of him and showed to their horror that it was a +newly-severed human leg. "By God's tooth!" he continued, with a +brutal laugh, "you ask me if I am a man of quarterings, and it is +even so, for I am officer to the verderer's court at Lyndhurst. +This thievish leg is to hang at Milton, and the other is already +at Brockenhurst, as a sign to all men of what comes of being +over-fond of venison pasty." + +"Faugh!" cried Sir Nigel. "Pass on the other side of the road, +fellow, and let us have the wind of you. We shall trot our +horses, my friends, across this pleasant valley, for, by Our +Lady! a breath of God's fresh air is right welcome after such a +sight." + +"We hoped to snare a falcon," said he presently, "but we netted a +carrion-crow. Ma foi! but there are men whose hearts are tougher +than a boar's hide. For me, I have played the old game of war +since ever I had hair on my chin, and I have seen ten thousand +brave men in one day with their faces to the sky, but I swear by +Him who made me that I cannot abide the work of the butcher." + +"And yet, my fair lord," said Edricson, "there has, from what I +hear, been much of such devil's work in France." + +"Too much, too much," he answered. "But I have ever observed +that the foremost in the field are they who would scorn to +mishandle a prisoner. By St. Paul! it is not they who carry the +breach who are wont to sack the town, but the laggard knaves who +come crowding in when a way has been cleared for them. But what +is this among the trees?" + +"It is a shrine of Our Lady," said Terlake, "and a blind beggar +who lives by the alms of those who worship there." + +"A shrine!" cried the knight. "Then let us put up an orison." +Pulling off his cap, and clasping his hands, he chanted in a +shrill voice: "Benedictus dominus Deus meus, qui docet manus +meas ad proelium, et digitos meos ad bellum." A strange figure +he seemed to his three squires, perched on his huge horse, with +his eyes upturned and the wintry sun shimmering upon his bald +head. "It is a noble prayer," he remarked, putting on his hat +again, "and it was taught to me by the noble Chandos himself. +But how fares it with you, father? Methinks that I should have +ruth upon you, seeing that I am myself like one who looks through +a horn window while his neighbors have the clear crystal. Yet, +by St. Paul! there is a long stride between the man who hath a +horn casement and him who is walled in on every hand." + +"Alas! fair sir," cried the blind old man, "I have not seen the +blessed blue of heaven this two-score years, since a levin flash +burned the sight out of my head." + +"You have been blind to much that is goodly and fair," quoth Sir +Nigel, "but you have also been spared much that is sorry and +foul. This very hour our eyes have been shocked with that which +would have left you unmoved. But, by St. Paul! we must on, or +our Company will think that they have lost their captain somewhat +early in the venture. Throw the man my purse, Edricson, and let +us go." + +Alleyne, lingering behind, bethought him of the Lady Loring's +counsel, and reduced the noble gift which the knight had so +freely bestowed to a single penny, which the beggar with many +mumbled blessings thrust away into his wallet. Then, spurring +his steed, the young squire rode at the top of his speed after +his companions, and overtook them just at the spot where the +trees fringe off into the moor and the straggling hamlet of +Hordle lies scattered on either side of the winding and deeply- +rutted track. The Company was already well-nigh through the +village; but, as the knight and his squires closed up upon them, +they heard the clamor of a strident voice, followed by a roar of +deep-chested laughter from the ranks of the archers. Another +minute brought them up with the rear-guard, where every man +marched with his beard on his shoulder and a face which was a- +grin with merriment. By the side of the column walked a huge +red-headed bowman, with his hands thrown out in argument and +expostulation, while close at his heels followed a little +wrinkled woman who poured forth a shrill volley of abuse, varied +by an occasional thwack from her stick, given with all the force +of her body, though she might have been beating one of the +forest trees for all the effect that she seemed likely to +produce. + +"I trust, Aylward," said Sir Nigel gravely, as he rode up, "that +this doth not mean that any violence hath been offered to women. +If such a thing happened, I tell you that the man shall hang, +though he were the best archer that ever wore brassart." + +"Nay, my fair lord," Aylward answered with a grin, "it is +violence which is offered to a man. He comes from Hordle, and +this is his mother who hath come forth to welcome him." + +"You rammucky lurden," she was howling, with a blow between each +catch of her breath, "you shammocking, yaping, over-long good- +for-nought. I will teach thee! I will baste thee! Aye, by my +faith!" + +"Whist, mother," said John, looking back at her from the tail of +his eye, "I go to France as an archer to give blows and to take +them." + +"To France, quotha?" cried the old dame. "Bide here with me, and +I shall warrant you more blows than you are like to get in +France. If blows be what you seek, you need not go further than +Hordle." + +"By my hilt! the good dame speaks truth," said Aylward. "It +seems to be the very home of them." + +"What have you to say, you clean-shaved galley-beggar?" cried the +fiery dame, turning upon the archer. "Can I not speak with my +own son but you must let your tongue clack? A soldier, quotha, +and never a hair on his face. I have seen a better soldier with +pap for food and swaddling clothes for harness." + +"Stand to it, Aylward," cried the archers, amid a fresh burst of +laughter. + +"Do not thwart her, comrade," said big John. "She hath a proper +spirit for her years and cannot abide to be thwarted. It is +kindly and homely to me to hear her voice and to feel that she is +behind me. But I must leave you now, mother, for the way is +over-rough for your feet; but I will bring you back a silken +gown, if there be one in France or Spain, and I will bring Jinny +a silver penny; so good-bye to you, and God have you in His +keeping!" Whipping up the little woman, he lifted her lightly to +his lips, and then, taking his place in the ranks again, marched +on with the laughing Company. + +"That was ever his way," she cried, appealing to Sir Nigel, who +reined up his horse and listened with the greatest courtesy. "He +would jog on his own road for all that I could do to change him. +First he must be a monk forsooth, and all because a wench was +wise enough to turn her back on him. Then he joins a rascally +crew and must needs trapse off to the wars, and me with no one to +bait the fire if I be out, or tend the cow if I be home. Yet I +have been a good mother to him. Three hazel switches a day have +I broke across his shoulders, and he takes no more notice than +you have seen him to-day." + +"Doubt not that he will come back to you both safe and +prosperous, my fair dame," quoth Sir Nigel. "Meanwhile it +grieves me that as I have already given my purse to a beggar up +the road I----" + +"Nay, my lord," said Alleyne, "I still have some moneys +remaining." + +"Then I pray you to give them to this very worthy woman." He +cantered on as he spoke, while Alleyne, having dispensed two more +pence, left the old dame standing by the furthest cottage of +Hordle, with her shrill voice raised in blessings instead of +revilings. + +There were two cross-roads before they reached the Lymington +Ford, and at each of then Sir Nigel pulled up his horse, and +waited with many a curvet and gambade, craning his neck this way +and that to see if fortune would send him a venture. Crossroads +had, as he explained, been rare places for knightly spear- +runnings, and in his youth it was no uncommon thing for a +cavalier to abide for weeks at such a point, holding gentle +debate with all comers, to his own advancement and the great +honor of his lady. The times were changed, however, and the +forest tracks wound away from them deserted and silent, with no +trample of war-horse or clang of armor which might herald the +approach of an adversary--so that Sir Nigel rode on his way +disconsolate. At the Lymington River they splashed through the +ford, and lay in the meadows on the further side to eat the bread +and salt meat which they carried upon the sumpter horses. Then, +ere the sun was on the slope of the heavens, they had deftly +trussed up again, and were swinging merrily upon their way, two +hundred feet moving like two. + +There is a third cross-road where the track from Boldre runs down +to the old fishing village of Pitt's Deep. Down this, as they +came abreast of it, there walked two men, the one a pace or two +behind the other. The cavaliers could not but pull up their +horses to look at them, for a stranger pair were never seen +journeying together. The first was a misshapen, squalid man with +cruel, cunning eyes and a shock of tangled red hair, bearing in +his hands a small unpainted cross, which he held high so that all +men might see it. He seemed to be in the last extremity of +fright, with a face the color of clay and his limbs all ashake as +one who hath an ague. Behind him, with his toe ever rasping upon +the other's heels, there walked a very stern, black-bearded man +with a hard eye and a set mouth. He bore over his shoulder a +great knotted stick with three jagged nails stuck in the head of +it, and from time to time he whirled it up in the air with a +quivering arm, as though he could scarce hold back from dashing +his companion's brains out. So in silence they walked under the +spread of the branches on the grass-grown path from Boldre. + +"By St. Paul!" quoth the knight, "but this is a passing strange +sight, and perchance some very perilous and honorable venture may +arise from it. I pray you, Edricson, to ride up to them and to +ask them the cause of it." + +There was no need, however, for him to move, for the twain came +swiftly towards them until they were within a spear's length, +when the man with the cross sat himself down sullenly upon a +tussock of grass by the wayside, while the other stood beside him +with his great cudgel still hanging over his head. So intent was +he that he raised his eyes neither to knight nor squires, but +kept them ever fixed with a savage glare upon his comrade. + +"I pray you, friend," said Sir Nigel, "to tell us truthfully who +you are, and why you follow this man with such bitter enmity? + +"So long as I am within the pale of the king's law," the stranger +answered, "I cannot see why I should render account to every +passing wayfarer." + +"You are no very shrewd reasoner, fellow," quoth the knight; "for +if it be within the law for you to threaten him with your club, +then it is also lawful for me to threaten you with my sword." + +The man with the cross was down in an instant on his knees upon +the ground, with hands clasped above him and his face shining +with hope. "For dear Christ's sake, my fair lord," he cried in a +crackling voice, "I have at my belt a bag with a hundred rose +nobles, and I will give it to you freely if you will but pass +your sword through this man's body." + +"How, you foul knave?" exclaimed Sir Nigel hotly. "Do you think +that a cavalier's arm is to be bought like a packman's ware. By +St. Paul! I have little doubt that this fellow hath some very +good cause to hold you in hatred." + +"Indeed, my fair sir, you speak sooth," quoth he with the club, +while the other seated himself once more by the wayside. "For +this man is Peter Peterson, a very noted rieve, draw-latch, and +murtherer, who has wrought much evil for many years in the parts +about Winchester. It was but the other day, upon the feasts of +the blessed Simon and Jude, that he slew my younger brother +William in Bere Forest--for which, by the black thorn of +Glastonbury! I shall have his heart's blood, though I walk behind +him to the further end of earth." + +"But if this be indeed so," asked Sir Nigel, "why is it that you +have come with him so far through the forest?" + +"Because I am an honest Englishman, and will take no more than +the law allows. For when the deed was done this foul and base +wretch fled to sanctuary at St. Cross, and I, as you may think, +after him with all the posse. The prior, however, hath so +ordered that while he holds this cross no man may lay hand upon +him without the ban of church, which heaven forfend from me or +mine. Yet, if for an instant he lay the cross aside, or if he +fail to journey to Pitt's Deep, where it is ordered that he shall +take ship to outland parts, or if he take not the first ship, or +if until the ship be ready he walk not every day into the sea as +far as his loins, then he becomes outlaw, and I shall forthwith +dash out his brains." + +At this the man on the ground snarled up at him like a rat, while +the other clenched his teeth, and shook his club, and looked down +at him with murder in his eyes. Knight and squire gazed from +rogue to avenger, but as it was a matter which none could mend +they tarried no longer, but rode upon their way. Alleyne, +looking back, saw that the murderer had drawn bread and cheese +from his scrip, and was silently munching it, with the protecting +cross still hugged to his breast, while the other, black and +grim, stood in the sunlit road and threw his dark shadow athwart +him. + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +HOW THE YELLOW COG SAILED FORTH FROM LEPE. + +THAT night the Company slept at St. Leonard's, in the great +monastic barns and spicarium--ground well known both to Alleyne +and to John, for they were almost within sight of the Abbey of +Beaulieu. A strange thrill it gave to the young squire to see +the well-remembered white dress once more, and to hear the +measured tolling of the deep vespers bell, At early dawn they +passed across the broad, sluggish, reed-girt stream--men, horses, +and baggage in the flat ferry barges--and so journeyed on through +the fresh morning air past Exbury to Lepe. Topping the heathy +down, they came of a sudden full in sight of the old sea-port--a +cluster of houses, a trail of blue smoke, and a bristle of +masts. To right and left the long blue curve of the Solent +lapped in a fringe of foam upon the yellow beach. Some way out +from the town a line of pessoners, creyers, and other small craft +were rolling lazily on the gentle swell. Further out still lay a +great merchant-ship, high ended, deep waisted, painted of a +canary yellow, and towering above the fishing-boats like a swan +among ducklings. + +"By St. Paul!" said the knight, "our good merchant of Southampton +hath not played us false, for methinks I can see our ship down +yonder. He said that she would be of great size and of a yellow +shade." + +"By my hilt, yes!" muttered Aylward; "she is yellow as a kite's +claw, and would carry as many men as there are pips in a +pomegranate." + +"It is as well," remarked Terlake; "for methinks, my fair lord, +that we are not the only ones who are waiting a passage to +Gascony. Mine eye catches at times a flash and sparkle among +yonder houses which assuredly never came from shipman's jacket or +the gaberdine of a burgher." + +"I can also see it," said Alleyne, shading his eyes with his +hand. "And I can see men-at-arms in yonder boats which ply +betwixt the vessel and the shore. But methinks that we are very +welcome here, for already they come forth to meet us." + +A tumultuous crowd of fishermen, citizens, and women had indeed +swarmed out from the northern gate, and approached them up the +side of the moor, waving their hands and dancing with joy, as +though a great fear had been rolled back from their minds. At +their head rode a very large and solemn man with a long chin and +a drooping lip. He wore a fur tippet round his neck and a heavy +gold chain over it, with a medallion which dangled in front of +him. + +"Welcome, most puissant and noble lord," he cried, doffing his +bonnet to Black Simon. "I have heard of your lordship's valiant +deeds, and in sooth they might be expected from your lordship's +face and bearing. Is there any small matter in which I may +oblige you?" + +"Since you ask me," said the man-at-arms, "I would take it kindly +if you could spare a link or two of the chain which hangs round +your neck." + +"What, the corporation chain!" cried the other in horror. "The +ancient chain of the township of Lepe! This is but a sorry jest, +Sir Nigel." + +"What the plague did you ask me for then?" said Simon. "But if +it is Sir Nigel Loring with whom you would speak, that is he upon +the black horse." + +The Mayor of Lepe gazed with amazement on the mild face and +slender frame of the famous warrior. + +"Your pardon, my gracious lord," he cried. "You see in me the +mayor and chief magistrate of the ancient and powerful town of +Lepe. I bid you very heartily welcome, and the more so as you +are come at a moment when we are sore put to it for means of +defence.' + +"Ha!" cried Sir Nigel, pricking up his ears. + +"Yes, my lord, for the town being very ancient and the walls as +old as the town, it follows that they are very ancient too. But +there is a certain villainous and bloodthirsty Norman pirate +hight Tete-noire, who, with a Genoan called Tito Caracci, +commonly known as Spade-beard, hath been a mighty scourge upon +these coasts. Indeed, my lord, they are very cruel and black- +hearted men, graceless and ruthless, and if they should come to +the ancient and powerful town of Lepe then--" + +"Then good-bye to the ancient and powerful town of Lepe," quoth +Ford, whose lightness of tongue could at times rise above his awe +of Sir Nigel. + +The knight, however, was too much intent upon the matter in hand +to give heed to the flippancy of his squire. "Have you then +cause," he asked, "to think that these men are about to venture +an attempt upon you?" + +"They have come in two great galleys," answered the mayor, "with +two bank of oars on either side, and great store of engines of +war and of men-at-arms. At Weymouth and at Portland they have +murdered and ravished. Yesterday morning they were at Cowes, and +we saw the smoke from the burning crofts. To-day they lie at +their ease near Freshwater, and we fear much lest they come upon +us and do us a mischief." + +"We cannot tarry," said Sir Nigel, riding towards the town, with +the mayor upon his left side; "the Prince awaits us at Bordeaux, +and we may not be behind the general muster. Yet I will promise +you that on our way we shall find time to pass Freshwater and to +prevail upon these rovers to leave you in peace." + +"We are much beholden to you!" cried the mayor "But I cannot see, +my lord, how, without a war-ship, you may venture against these +men. With your archers, however, you might well hold the town +and do them great scath if they attempt to land." + +"There is a very proper cog out yonder," said Sir Nigel, "it +would be a very strange thing if any ship were not a war-ship +when it had such men as these upon her decks. Certes, we shall +do as I say, and that no later than this very day." + +"My lord," said a rough-haired, dark-faced man, who walked by the +knight's other stirrup, with his head sloped to catch all that he +was saying. "By your leave, I have no doubt that you are skilled +in land fighting and the marshalling of lances, but, by my soul! +you will find it another thing upon the sea. I am the master- +shipman of this yellow cog, and my name is Goodwin Hawtayne. I +have sailed since I was as high as this staff, and I have fought +against these Normans and against the Genoese, as well as the +Scotch, the Bretons, the Spanish, and the Moors. I tell you, +sir, that my ship is over light and over frail for such work, and +it will but end in our having our throats cut, or being sold as +slaves to the Barbary heathen." + +"I also have experienced one or two gentle and honorable ventures +upon the sea," quoth Sir Nigel, "and I am right blithe to have so +fair a task before us. I think, good master-shipman, that you +and I may win great honor in this matter, and I can see very +readily that you are a brave and stout man." + +"I like it not," said the other sturdily. "In God's name, I like +it not. And yet Goodwin Hawtayne is not the man to stand back +when his fellows are for pressing forward. By my soul! be it +sink or swim, I shall turn her beak into Freshwater Bay, and if +good Master Witherton, of Southampton, like not my handling of +his ship then he may find another master-shipman." + +They were close by the old north gate of the little town, and +Alleyne, half turning in his saddle, looked back at the motley +crowd who followed. The bowmen and men-at-arms had broken their +ranks and were intermingled with the fishermen and citizens, +whose laughing faces and hearty gestures bespoke the weight of +care from which this welcome arrival had relieved them. Here and +there among the moving throng of dark jerkins and of white +surcoats were scattered dashes of scarlet and blue, the whimples +or shawls of the women. Aylward, with a fishing lass on either +arm, was vowing constancy alternately to her on the right and her +on the leit, while big John towered in the rear with a little +chubby maiden enthroned upon his great shoulder, her soft white +arm curled round his shining headpiece. So the throng moved on, +until at the very gate it was brought to a stand by a wondrously +fat man, who came darting forth from the town with rage in every +feature of his rubicund face. + +"How now, Sir Mayor?" he roared, in a voice like a bull. "How +now, Sir Mayor? How of the clams and the scallops?" + +"By Our Lady! my sweet Sir Oliver," cried the mayor. "I have had +so much to think of, with these wicked villains so close upon us, +that it had quite gone out of my head." + +"Words, words!" shouted the other furiously. "Am I to be put off +with words? I say to you again, how of the clams and scallops?" + +"My fair sir, you flatter me," cried the mayor. "I am a peaceful +trader, and I am not wont to be so shouted at upon so small a +matter." + +"Small!" shrieked the other. "Small! Clams and scallops! Ask me +to your table to partake of the dainty of the town, and when I +come a barren welcome and a bare board! Where is my spear- +bearer?" + +"Nay, Sir Oliver, Sir Oliver!" cried Sir Nigel, laughing. + +Let your anger be appeased, since instead of this dish you come +upon an old friend and comrade." + +"By St. Martin of Tours!" shouted the fat knight, his wrath all +changed in an instant to joy, "if it is not my dear little game +rooster of the Garonne. Ah, my sweet coz, I am right glad to see +you. What days we have seen together!" + +"Aye, by my faith," cried Sir Nigel, with sparkling eyes, "we +have seen some valiant men, and we have shown our pennons in some +noble skirmishes. By St. Paul! we have had great joys in +France." + +"And sorrows also," quoth the other. "I have some sad memories +of the land. Can you recall that which befell us at Libourne?" + +"Nay, I cannot call to mind that we ever so much as drew sword at +the place." + +"Man, man," cried Sir Oliver, "your mind still runs on nought but +blades and bassinets. Hast no space in thy frame for the softer +joys. Ah, even now I can scarce speak of it unmoved. So noble a +pie, such tender pigeons, and sugar in the gravy instead of salt! +You were by my side that day, as were Sir Claude Latour and the +Lord of Pommers." + +"I remember it," said Sir Nigel, laughing, "and how you harried +the cook down the street, and spoke of setting fire to the inn. +By St. Paul! most worthy mayor, my old friend is a perilous man, +and I rede you that you compose your difference with him on such +terms as you may." + +"The clams and scallops shall be ready within the hour," the +mayor answered. "I had asked Sir Oliver Buttesthorn to do my +humble board the honor to partake at it of the dainty upon which +we take some little pride, but in sooth this alarm of pirates +hath cast such a shadow on my wits that I am like one distrait. +But I trust, Sir Nigel, that you will also partake of none-meat +with me?" + +"I have overmuch to do," Sir Nigel answered, "for we must be +aboard, horse and man, as early as we may. How many do you +muster, Sir Oliver?" + +"Three and forty. The forty are drunk, and the three are but +indifferent sober. I have them all safe upon the ship." + +"They had best find their wits again, for I shall have work for +every man of them ere the sun set. It is my intention, if it +seems good to you, to try a venture against these Norman and +Genoese rovers." + +"They carry caviare and certain very noble spices from the Levant +aboard of ships from Genoa," quoth Sir Oliver. "We may come to +great profit through the business. I pray you, master-shipman, +that when you go on board you pour a helmetful of sea-water over +any of my rogues whom you may see there." + +Leaving the lusty knight and the Mayor of Lepe, Sir Nigel led the +Company straight down to the water's edge, where long lines of +flat lighters swiftly bore them to their vessel. Horse after +horse was slung by main force up from the barges, and after +kicking and plunging in empty air was dropped into the deep waist +of the yellow cog, where rows of stalls stood ready for their +safe keeping. Englishmen in those days were skilled and prompt +in such matters, for it was so not long before that Edward had +embarked as many as fifty thousand men in the port of Orwell, +with their horses and their baggage, all in the space of four- +and-twenty hours. So urgent was Sir Nigel on the shore, and so +prompt was Goodwin Hawtayne on the cog, that Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn had scarce swallowed his last scallop ere the peal of +the trumpet and clang of nakir announced that all was ready and +the anchor drawn. In the last boat which left the shore the two +commanders sat together in the sheets, a strange contrast to one +another, while under the feet of the rowers was a litter of huge +stones which Sir Nigel had ordered to be carried to the cog. +These once aboard, the ship set her broad mainsail, purple in +color, and with a golden St. Christopher bearing Christ upon his +shoulder in the centre of it. The breeze blew, the sail bellied, +over heeled the portly vessel, and away she plunged through the +smooth blue rollers, amid the clang of the minstrels on her poop +and the shouting of the black crowd who fringed the yellow beach. +To the left lay the green Island of Wight, with its long, low, +curving hills peeping over each other's shoulders to the sky- +line; to the right the wooded Hampshire coast as far as eye could +reach; above a steel-blue heaven, with a wintry sun shimmering +down upon them, and enough of frost to set the breath a-smoking. + +"By St. Paul!" said Sir Nigel gayly, as he stood upon the poop +and looked on either side of him, "it is a land which is very +well worth fighting for, and it were pity to go to France for +what may be had at home. Did you not spy a crooked man upon the +beach?" + +"Nay, I spied nothing," grumbled Sir Oliver, "for I was hurried +down with a clam stuck in my gizzard and an untasted goblet of +Cyprus on the board behind me." + +"I saw him, my fair lord," said Terlake, "an old man with one +shoulder higher than the other." + +" 'Tis a sign of good fortune," quoth Sir Nigel. "Our path was +also crossed by a woman and by a priest, so all should be well +with us. What say you, Edricson?" + +"I cannot tell, my fair lord. The Romans of old were a very wise +people, yet, certes, they placed their faith in such matters. +So, too, did the Greeks, and divers other ancient peoples who +were famed for their learning. Yet of the moderns there are many +who scoff at all omens." + +"There can be no manner of doubt about it," said Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn, "I can well remember that in Navarre one day it +thundered on the left out of a cloudless sky. We knew that ill +would come of it, nor had we long to wait. Only thirteen days +after, a haunch of prime venison was carried from my very tent +door by the wolves, and on the same day two flasks of old vernage +turned sour and muddy." + +"You may bring my harness from below," said Sir Nigel to his +squires, "and also, I pray you, bring up Sir Oliver's and we +shall don it here. Ye may then see to your own gear; for this +day you will, I hope, make a very honorable entrance into the +field of chivalry, and prove yourselves to be very worthy and +valiant squires. And now, Sir Oliver, as to our dispositions: +would it please you that I should order them or will you?" + +"You, my cockerel, you. By Our Lady! I am no chicken, but I +cannot claim to know as much of war as the squire of Sir Walter +Manny. Settle the matter to your own liking." + +"You shall fly your pennon upon the fore part, then, and I upon +the poop. For foreguard I shall give you your own forty men, +with two-score archers. Two-score men, with my own men-at-arms +and squires, will serve as a poop-guard. Ten archers, with +thirty shipmen, under the master, may hold the waist while ten +lie aloft with stones and arbalests. How like you that?" + +"Good, by my faith, good! But here comes my harness, and I must +to work, for I cannot slip into it as I was wont when first I set +my face to the wars." + +Meanwhile there had been bustle and preparation in all parts of +the great vessel. The archers stood in groups about the decks, +new-stringing their bows, and testing that they were firm at the +nocks. Among them moved Aylward and other of the older soldiers, +with a few whispered words of precept here and of warning there. + +"Stand to it, my hearts of gold," said the old bowman as he +passed from knot to knot. "By my hilt! we are in luck this +journey. Bear in mind the old saying of the Company." + +"What is that, Aylward?" cried several, leaning on their bows and +laughing at him. + +" 'Tis the master-bowyer's rede: 'Every bow well bent. Every +shaft well sent. Every stave well nocked. Every string well +locked.' There, with that jingle in his head, a bracer on his +left hand, a shooting glove on his right, and a farthing's-worth +of wax in his girdle, what more doth a bowman need?" + +"It would not be amiss," said Hordle John, "if under his girdle +he had tour farthings'-worth of wine." + +"Work first, wine afterwards, mon camarade. But it is time that +we took our order, for methinks that between the Needle rocks and +the Alum cliffs yonder I can catch a glimpse of the topmasts of +the galleys. Hewett, Cook, Johnson, Cunningham, your men are of +the poop-guard. Thornbury, Walters, Hackett, Baddlesmere, you +are with Sir Oliver on the forecastle. Simon, you bide with your +lord's banner; but ten men must go forward." + +Quietly and promptly the men took their places, lying flat upon +their faces on the deck, for such was Sir Nigel's order. Near +the prow was planted Sir Oliver's spear, with his arms--a boar's +head gules upon a field of gold. Close by the stern stood Black +Simon with the pennon of the house of Loring. In the waist +gathered the Southampton mariners, hairy and burly men, with +their jerkins thrown off, their waists braced tight, swords, +mallets, and pole-axes in their hands. Their leader, Goodwin +Hawtayne, stood upon the poop and talked with Sir Nigel, casting +his eye up sometimes at the swelling sail, and then glancing +back at the two seamen who held the tiller. + +"Pass the word," said Sir Nigel, "that no man shall stand to arms +or draw his bow-string until my trumpeter shall sound. It would +be well that we should seem to be a merchant-ship from +Southampton and appear to flee from them." + +"We shall see them anon," said the master-shipman. "Ha, said I +not so? There they lie, the water-snakes, in Freshwater Bay; and +mark the reek of smoke from yonder point, where they have been at +their devil's work. See how their shallops pull from the land! +They have seen us and called their men aboard. Now they draw +upon the anchor. See them like ants upon the forecastle! They +stoop and heave like handy ship men. But, my fair lord, these +are no niefs. I doubt but we have taken in hand more than we can +do. Each of these ships is a galeasse, and of the largest and +swiftest make." + +"I would I had your eyes," said Sir Nigel, blinking at the pirate +galleys. "They seem very gallant ships, and I trust that we +shall have much pleasance from our meeting with them. It would +be well to pass the word that we should neither give nor take +quarter this day. Have you perchance a priest or friar aboard +this ship, Master Hawtayne?" + +"No, my fair lord." + +"Well, well, it is no great matter for my Company, for they were +all houseled and shriven ere we left Twynham Castle; and Father +Christopher of the Priory gave me his word that they were as fit +to march to heaven as to Gascony. But my mind misdoubts me as to +these Winchester men who have come with Sir Oliver, for they +appear to be a very ungodly crew. Pass the word that the men +kneel, and that the under-officers repeat to them the pater, the +ave, and the credo." + +With a clank of arms, the rough archers and seamen took to their +knees, with bent heads and crossed hands, listening to the hoarse +mutter from the file-leaders. It was strange to mark the hush; +so that the lapping of the water, the straining of the sail, and +the creaking of the timbers grew louder of a sudden upon the ear. +Many of the bowmen had drawn amulets and relics from their +bosoms, while he who possessed some more than usually sanctified +treasure passed it down the line of his comrades, that all might +kiss and reap the virtue. + +The yellow cog had now shot out from the narrow waters of the +Solent, and was plunging and rolling on the long heave of the +open channel. The wind blew freshly from the east, with a very +keen edge to it; and the great sail bellied roundly out, laying +the vessel over until the water hissed beneath her lee bulwarks. +Broad and ungainly, she floundered from wave to wave, dipping her +round bows deeply into the blue rollers, and sending the white +flakes of foam in a spatter over her decks. On her larboard +quarter lay the two dark galleys, which had already hoisted sail, +and were shooting out from Freshwater Bay in swift pursuit, their +double line of oars giving them a vantage which could not fail to +bring them up with any vessel which trusted to sails alone. High +and bluff the English cog; long, black and swift the pirate +galleys, like two fierce lean wolves which have seen a lordly +and unsuspecting stag walk past their forest lair. + +"Shall we turn, my fair lord, or shall we carry on?" asked the +master-shipman, looking behind him with anxious eyes. + +"Nay, we must carry on and play the part of the helpless +merchant." + +"But your pennons? They will see that we have two knights with +us." + +"Yet it would not be to a knight's honor or good name to lower +his pennon. Let them be, and they will think that we are a wine- +ship for Gascony, or that we bear the wool-bales of some mercer +of the Staple. Ma foi, but they are very swift! They swoop upon +us like two goshawks on a heron. Is there not some symbol or +device upon their sails?" + +"That on the right," said Edricson, "appears to have the head of +an Ethiop upon it." + +" 'Tis the badge of Tete-noire, the Norman," cried a seaman- +mariner. "I have seen it before, when he harried us at +Winchelsea. He is a wondrous large and strong man, with no ruth +for man, woman, or beast. They say that he hath the strength of +six; and, certes, he hath the crimes of six upon his soul. See, +now, to the poor souls who swing at either end of his yard-arm!" + +At each end of the yard there did indeed hang the dark figure of +a man, jolting and lurching with hideous jerkings of its limbs at +every plunge and swoop of the galley. + +"By St. Paul!" said Sir Nigel, "and by the help of St. George and +Our Lady, it will be a very strange thing if our black-headed +friend does not himself swing thence ere he be many hours older. +But what is that upon the other galley?" + +"It is the red cross of Genoa. This Spade-beard is a very noted +captain, and it is his boast that there are no seamen and no +archers in the world who can compare with those who serve the +Doge Boccanegra." + +"That we shall prove," said Goodwin Hawtayne; "but it would be +well, ere they close with us, to raise up the mantlets and +pavises as a screen against their bolts." He shouted a hoarse +order, and his seamen worked swiftly and silently, heightening +the bulwarks and strengthening them. The three ship's anchors +were at Sir Nigel's command carried into the waist, and tied to +the mast, with twenty feet of cable between, each under the care +of four seamen. Eight others were stationed with leather water- +bags to quench any fire-arrows which might come aboard, while +others were sent up the mast, to lie along the yard and drop +stones or shoot arrows as the occasion served. + +"Let them be supplied with all that is heavy and weighty in the +ship," said Sir Nigel. + +"Then we must send them up Sir Oliver Buttesthorn," quoth Ford. + +The knight looked at him with a face which struck the smile from +his lips. "No squire of mine," he said, "shall ever make jest of +a belted knight. And yet," he added, his eyes softening, "I know +that it is but a boy's mirth, with no sting in it. Yet I should +ill do my part towards your father if I did not teach you to curb +your tongue-play." + +"They will lay us aboard on either quarter, my lord," cried the +master. "See how they stretch out from each other! The Norman +hath a mangonel or a trabuch upon the forecastle. See, they bend +to the levers! They are about to loose it." + +"Aylward," cried the knight, "pick your three trustiest archers, +and see if you cannot do something to hinder their aim. Methinks +they are within long arrow flight." + +"Seventeen score paces," said the archer, running his eye +backwards and forwards. By my ten finger-bones! it would be a +strange thing if we could not notch a mark at that distance. +Here, Watkin of Sowley, Arnold, Long Williams, let us show the +rogues that they have English bowmen to deal with." + +The three archers named stood at the further end of the poop, +balancing themselves with feet widely spread and bows drawn, +until the heads of the cloth-yard arrows were level with the +centre of the stave. "You are the surer, Watkin," said Aylward, +standing by them with shaft upon string. "Do you take the rogue +with the red coif. You two bring down the man with the head- +piece, and I will hold myself ready if you miss. Ma foi! they +are about to loose her. Shoot, mes garcons, or you will be too +late." + +The throng of pirates had cleared away from the great wooden +catapult, leaving two of their number to discharge it. One in a +scarlet cap bent over it, steadying the jagged rock which was +balanced on the spoon-shaped end of the long wooden lever. The +other held the loop of the rope which would release the catch and +send the unwieldy missile hurtling through the air. So for an +instant they stood, showing hard and clear against the white sail +behind them. The next, redcap had fallen across the stone with +an arrow between his ribs; and the other, struck in the leg and +in the throat, was writhing and spluttering upon the ground. As +he toppled backwards he had loosed the spring, and the huge beam +of wood, swinging round with tremendous force, cast the corpse of +his comrade so close to the English ship that its mangled and +distorted limbs grazed their very stern. As to the stone, it +glanced off obliquely and fell midway between the vessels. A +roar of cheering and of laughter broke from the rough archers and +seamen at the sight, answered by a yell of rage from their +pursuers. + +"Lie low, mes enfants," cried Aylward, motioning with his left +hand. "They will learn wisdom. They are bringing forward shield +and mantlet. We shall have some pebbles about our ears ere +long." + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +HOW THE YELLOW COG FOUGHT THE TWO ROVER GALLEYS. + +THE three vessels had been sweeping swiftly westwards, the cog +still well to the front, although the galleys were slowly drawing +in upon either quarter. To the left was a hard skyline unbroken +by a sail. The island already lay like a cloud behind them, +while right in front was St. Alban's Head, with Portland looming +mistily in the farthest distance. Alleyne stood by the tiller, +looking backwards, the fresh wind full in his teeth, the crisp +winter air tingling on his face and blowing his yellow curls from +under his bassinet. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes +shining, for the blood of a hundred fighting Saxon ancestors was +beginning to stir in his veins. + +"What was that?" he asked, as a hissing, sharp-drawn voice seemed +to whisper in his ear. The steersman smiled, and pointed with +his foot to where a short heavy cross-bow quarrel stuck quivering +in the boards. At the same instant the man stumbled forward upon +his knees, and lay lifeless upon the deck, a blood-stained +feather jutting out from his back. As Alleyne stooped to raise +him, the air seemed to be alive with the sharp zip-zip of the +bolts, and he could hear them pattering on the deck like apples +at a tree-shaking. + +"Raise two more mantlets by the poop lanthorn," said Sir Nigel +quietly. + +"And another man to the tiller," cried the master-shipman. + +"Keep them in play, Aylward, with ten of your men," the knight +continued. "And let ten of Sir Oliver's bowmen do as much for +the Genoese. I have no mind as yet to show them how much they +have to fear from us." + +Ten picked shots under Aylward stood in line across the broad +deck, and it was a lesson to the young squires who had seen +nothing of war to note how orderly and how cool were these old +soldiers, how quick the command, and how prompt the carrying out, +ten moving like one. Their comrades crouched beneath the +bulwarks, with many a rough jest and many a scrap of criticism or +advice. "Higher, Wat, higher!" "Put thy body into it, Will!" +"Forget not the wind, Hal!" So ran the muttered chorus, while +high above it rose the sharp avanging of the strings, the hiss of +the shafts, and the short "Draw your arrow! Nick your arrow! +Shoot wholly together!" from the master-bowman. + +And now both mangonels were at work from the galleys, but so +covered and protected that, save at the moment of discharge, no +glimpse could be caught of them. A huge brown rock from the +Genoese sang over their heads, and plunged sullenly into the +slope of a wave. Another from the Norman whizzed into the waist, +broke the back of a horse, and crashed its way through the side +of the vessel. Two others, flying together, tore a great gap in +the St. Christopher upon the sail, and brushed three of Sir +Oliver's men-at-arms from the forecastle. The master-shipman +looked at the knight with a troubled face. + +"They keep their distance from us," said he. "Our archery is +over-good, and they will not close. What defence can we make +against the stones?" + +"I think I may trick them," the knight answered cheerfully, and +passed his order to the archers. Instantly five of them threw up +their hands and fell prostrate upon the deck. One had already +been slain by a bolt, so that there were but four upon their +feet. + +"That should give them heart," said Sir Nigel, eyeing the +galleys, which crept along on either side, with a slow, measured +swing of their great oars, the water swirling and foaming under +their sharp stems. + +"They still hold aloof," cried Hawtayne. + +"Then down with two more," shouted their leader. "That will do. +Ma foi! but they come to our lure like chicks to the fowler. To +your arms, men! The pennon behind me, and the squires round the +pennon. Stand fast with the anchors in the waist, and be ready +for a cast. Now blow out the trumpets, and may God's benison be +with the honest men!" + +As he spoke a roar of voices and a roll of drums came from either +galley, and the water was lashed into spray by the hurried beat +of a hundred oars. Down they swooped, one on the right, one on +the left, the sides and shrouds black with men and bristling with +weapons. In heavy clusters they hung upon the forecastle all +ready for a spring-faces white, faces brown, faces yellow, and +faces black, fair Norsemen, swarthy Italians, fierce rovers from +the Levant, and fiery Moors from the Barbary States, of all hues +and countries, and marked solely by the common stamp of a wild- +beast ferocity. Rasping up on either side, with oars trailing to +save them from snapping, they poured in a living torrent with +horrid yell and shrill whoop upon the defenceless merchantman. + +But wilder yet was the cry, and shriller still the scream, when +there rose up from the shadow of those silent bulwarks the long +lines of the English bowmen, and the arrows whizzed in a deadly +sleet among the unprepared masses upon the pirate decks. From +the higher sides of the cog the bowmen could shoot straight down, +at a range which was so short as to enable a cloth-yard shaft to +pierce through mail-coats or to transfix a shield, though it were +an inch thick of toughened wood. One moment Alleyne saw the +galley's poop crowded with rushing figures, waving arms, exultant +faces; the next it was a blood-smeared shambles, with bodies +piled three deep upon each other, the living cowering behind the +dead to shelter themselves from that sudden storm-blast of +death. On either side the seamen whom Sir Nigel had chosen for +the purpose had cast their anchors over the side of the galleys, +so that the three vessels, locked in an iron grip, lurched +heavily forward upon the swell. + +And now set in a fell and fierce fight, one of a thousand of +which no chronicler has spoken and no poet sung. Through all the +centuries and over all those southern waters nameless men have +fought in nameless places, their sole monuments a protected coast +and an unravaged country-side. + +Fore and aft the archers had cleared the galleys' decks, but from +either side the rovers had poured down into the waist, where the +seamen and bowmen were pushed back and so mingled with their foes +that it was impossible for their comrades above to draw string to +help them. It was a wild chaos where axe and sword rose and +fell, while Englishman, Norman, and Italian staggered and reeled +on a deck which was cumbered with bodies and slippery with blood. +The clang of blows, the cries of the stricken, the short, deep +shout of the islanders, and the fierce whoops of the rovers, rose +together in a deafening tumult, while the breath of the panting +men went up in the wintry air like the smoke from a furnace. The +giant Tete-noire, towering above his fellows and clad from head +to foot in plate of proof, led on his boarders, waving a huge +mace in the air, with which he struck to the deck every man who +approached him. On the other side, Spade-beard, a dwarf in +height, but of great breadth of shoulder and length of arm, had +cut a road almost to the mast, with three-score Genoese men-at- +arms close at his heels. Between these two formidable assailants +the seamen were being slowly wedged more closely together, until +they stood back to back under the mast with the rovers raging +upon every side of them. + +But help was close at hand. Sir Oliver Buttesthorn with his +men-at-arms had swarmed down from the forecastle, while Sir +Nigel, with his three squires, Black Simon, Aylward, Hordle John, +and a score more, threw themselves from the poop and hurled +themselves into the thickest of the fight. Alleyne, as in duty +bound, kept his eyes fixed ever on his lord and pressed forward +close at his heels. Often had he heard of Sir Nigel's prowess +and skill with all knightly weapons, but all the tales that had +reached his ears fell far short of the real quickness and +coolness of the man. It was as if the devil was in him, for he +sprang here and sprang there, now thrusting and now cutting, +catching blows on his shield, turning them with his blade, +stooping under the swing of an axe, springing over the sweep of a +sword, so swift and so erratic that the man who braced himself +for a blow at him might find him six paces off ere he could bring +it down. Three pirates had fallen before him, and he had wounded +Spade-beard in the neck, when the Norman giant sprang at him from +the side with a slashing blow from his deadly mace. Sir Nigel +stooped to avoid it, and at the same instant turned a thrust from +the Genoese swordsman, but, his foot slipping in a pool of blood, +he fell heavily to the ground. Alleyne sprang in front of the +Norman, but his sword was shattered and he himself beaten to the +ground by a second blow from the ponderous weapon. Ere the +pirate chief could repeat it, however, John's iron grip fell upon +his wrist, and he found that for once he was in the hands of a +stronger man than himself. + +Fiercely he strove to disengage his weapon, but Hordle John bent +his arm slowly back until, with a sharp crack, like a breaking +stave, it turned limp in his grasp, and the mace dropped from the +nerveless fingers. In vain he tried to pluck it up with the +other hand. Back and back still his foeman bent him, until, with +a roar of pain and of fury, the giant clanged his full length +upon the boards, while the glimmer of a knife before the bars of +his helmet warned him that short would be his shrift if he moved. + +Cowed and disheartened by the loss of their leader, the Normans +had given back and were now streaming over the bulwarks on to +their own galley, dropping a dozen at a time on to her deck, But +the anchor still held them in its crooked claw, and Sir Oliver +with fifty men was hard upon their heels. Now, too, the archers +had room to draw their bows once more, and great stones from the +yard of the cog came thundering and crashing among the flying +rovers. Here and there they rushed with wild screams and curses, +diving under the sail, crouching behind booms, huddling into +corners like rabbits when the ferrets are upon them, as helpless +and as hopeless. They were stern days, and if the honest +soldier, too poor for a ransom, had no prospect of mercy upon the +battle-field, what ruth was there for sea robbers, the enemies of +humankind, taken in the very deed, with proofs of their crimes +still swinging upon their yard-arm. + +But the fight had taken a new and a strange turn upon the other +side. Spade-beard and his men had given slowly back, hard +pressed by Sir Nigel, Aylward, Black Simon, and the poop-guard. +Foot by foot the Italian had retreated, his armor running blood +at every joint, his shield split, his crest shorn, his voice +fallen away to a mere gasping and croaking. Yet he faced his +foemen with dauntless courage, dashing in, springing back, sure- +footed, steady-handed, with a point which seemed to menace three +at once. Beaten back on to the deck of his own vessel, and +closely followed by a dozen Englishmen, he disengaged himself +from them, ran swiftly down the deck, sprang back into the cog +once more, cut the rope which held the anchor, and was back in an +instant among his crossbow-men. At the same time the Genoese +sailors thrust with their oars against the side of the cog, and a +rapidly widening rift appeared between the two vessels. + +"By St. George!" cried Ford, "we are cut off from Sir Nigel." + +"He is lost," gasped Terlake. "Come, let us spring for it." The +two youths jumped with all their strength to reach the departing +galley. Ford's feet reached the edge of the bulwarks, and his +hand clutching a rope he swung himself on board. Terlake fell +short, crashed in among the oars, and bounded off into the sea. +Alleyne, staggering to the side, was about to hurl himself after +him, but Hordle John dragged him back by the girdle. + +"You can scarce stand, lad, far less jump," said he. "See how +the blood rips from your bassinet." + +"My place is by the flag," cried Alleyne, vainly struggling to +break from the other's hold. + +"Bide here, man. You would need wings ere you could reach Sir +Nigel's side." + +The vessels were indeed so far apart now that the Genoese could +use the full sweep of their oars, and draw away rapidly from the +cog. + +"My God, but it is a noble fight!" shouted big John, clapping his +hands. "They have cleared the poop, and they spring into the +waist. Well struck, my lord! Well struck, Aylward! See to +Black Simon, how he storms among the shipmen! But this Spade- +beard is a gallant warrior. He rallies his men upon the +forecastle. He hath slain an archer. Ha! my lord is upon him. +Look to it, Alleyne! See to the whirl and glitter of it!" + +"By heaven, Sir Nigel is down!" cried the squire. + +"Up!" roared John. "It was but a feint. He bears him back. He +drives him to the side. Ah, by Our Lady, his sword is through +him! They cry for mercy. Down goes the red cross, and up +springs Simon with the scarlet roses!" + +The death of the Genoese leader did indeed bring the resistance +to an end. Amid a thunder of cheering from cog and from galleys +the forked pennon fluttered upon the forecastle, and the galley, +sweeping round, came slowly back, as the slaves who rowed it +learned the wishes of their new masters. + +The two knights had come aboard the cog, and the grapplings +having been thrown off, the three vessels now moved abreast +through all the storm and rush of the fight Alleyne had been +aware of the voice of Goodwin Hawtayne, the master-shipman, with +his constant "Hale the bowline! Veer the sheet!" and strange it +was to him to see how swiftly the blood-stained sailors turned +from the strife to the ropes and back. Now the cog's head was +turned Francewards, and the shipman walked the deck, a peaceful +master-mariner once more. + +There is sad scath done to the cog, Sir Nigel," said he. "Here +is a hole in the side two ells across, the sail split through the +centre, and the wood as bare as a friar's poll. In good sooth, I +know not what I shall say to Master Witherton when I see the +Itchen once more." + +"By St. Paul! it would be a very sorry thing if we suffered you +to be the worse of this day's work," said Sir Nigel. "You shall +take these galleys back with you, and Master Witherton may sell +them. Then from the moneys he shall take as much as may make +good the damage, and the rest he shall keep until our home- +coming, when every man shall have his share. An image of silver +fifteen inches high I have vowed to the Virgin, to be placed in +her chapel within the Priory, for that she was pleased to allow +me to come upon this Spade-beard, who seemed to me from what I +have seen of him to be a very sprightly and valiant gentleman. +But how fares it with you, Edricson?" + +"It is nothing, my fair lord," said Alleyne, who had now loosened +his bassinet, which was cracked across by the Norman's blow. +Even as he spoke, however, his head swirled round, and he fell to +the deck with the blood gushing from his nose and mouth. + +"He will come to anon," said the knight, stooping over him and +passing his fingers through his hair. "I have lost one very +valiant and gentle squire this day. I can ill afford to lose +another. How many men have fallen?" + +"I have pricked off the tally," said Aylward, who had come aboard +with his lord. "There are seven of the Winchester men, eleven +seamen, your squire, young Master Terlake, and nine archers." + +"And of the others?" + +"They are all dead--save only the Norman knight who stands behind +you. What would you that we should do with him?" + +"He must hang on his own yard," said Sir Nigel. "It was my vow +and must be done." + +The pirate leader had stood by the bulwarks, a cord round his +arms, and two stout archers on either side. At Sir Nigel's words +he started violently, and his swarthy features blanched to a +livid gray. + +"How, Sir Knight?" he cried in broken English. "Que ditesvous? +To hang, le mort du chien! To hang!" + +"It is my vow," said Sir Nigel shortly. "From what I hear, you +thought little enough of hanging others." + +"Peasants, base roturiers," cried the other. "It is their +fitting death. Mais Le Seigneur d'Andelys, avec le sang des rois +dans ses veins! C'est incroyable!" + +Sir Nigel turned upon his heel, while two seamen cast a noose +over the pirate's neck. At the touch of the cord he snapped the +bonds which bound him, dashed one of the archers to the deck, and +seizing the other round the waist sprang with him into the sea. + +"By my hilt, he is gone!" cried Aylward, rushing to the side. +"They have sunk together like a stone." + +"I am right glad of it," answered Sir Nigel; "for though it was +against my vow to loose him, I deem that he has carried himself +like a very gentle and debonnaire cavalier." + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +HOW THE YELLOW COG CROSSED THE BAR OF GIRONDE. + +FOR two days the yellow cog ran swiftly before a northeasterly +wind, and on the dawn of the third the high land of Ushant lay +like a mist upon the shimmering sky-line. There came a plump of +rain towards mid-day and the breeze died down, but it freshened +again before nightfall, and Goodwin Hawtayne veered his sheet and +held head for the south. Next morning they had passed Belle +Isle, and ran through the midst of a fleet of transports +returning from Guienne. Sir Nigel Loring and Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn at once hung their shields over the side, and +displayed their pennons as was the custom, noting with the +keenest interest the answering symbols which told the names of +the cavaliers who had been constrained by ill health or wounds to +leave the prince at so critical a time. + +That evening a great dun-colored cloud banked up in the west, and +an anxious man was Goodwin Hawtayne, for a third part of his crew +had been slain, and half the remainder were aboard the galleys, +so that, with an injured ship, he was little fit to meet such a +storm as sweeps over those waters. All night it blew in short +fitful puffs, heeling the great cog over until the water curled +over her lee bulwarks. As the wind still freshened the yard was +lowered half way down the mast in the morning. Alleyne, +wretchedly ill and weak, with his head still ringing from the +blow which he had received, crawled up upon deck, Water-swept and +aslant, it was preferable to the noisome, rat-haunted dungeons +which served as cabins. There, clinging to the stout halliards +of the sheet, he gazed with amazement at the long lines of black +waves, each with its curling ridge of foam, racing in endless +succession from out the inexhaustible west. A huge sombre cloud, +flecked with livid blotches, stretched over the whole seaward +sky-line, with long ragged streamers whirled out in front of it. +Far behind them the two galleys labored heavily, now sinking +between the rollers until their yards were level with the waves, +and again shooting up with a reeling, scooping motion until every +spar and rope stood out hard against the sky. On the left the +low-lying land stretched in a dim haze, rising here and there +into a darker blur which marked the higher capes and headlands. +The land of France! Alleyne's eyes shone as he gazed upon it. +The land of France!--the very words sounded as the call of a +bugle in the ears of the youth of England. The land where their +fathers had bled, the home of chivalry and of knightly deeds, the +country of gallant men, of courtly women, of princely buildings, +of the wise, the polished and the sainted. There it lay, so +still and gray beneath the drifting wrack--the home of things +noble and of things shameful--the theatre where a new name might +be made or an old one marred. From his bosom to his lips came +the crumpled veil, and he breathed a vow that if valor and +goodwill could raise him to his lady's side, then death alone +should hold him back from her. His thoughts were still in the +woods of Minstead and the old armory of Twynham Castle, when the +hoarse voice of the master-shipman brought them back once more to +the Bay of Biscay. + +"By my troth, young sir," he said, "you are as long in the face +as the devil at a christening, and I cannot marvel at it, for I +have sailed these waters since I was as high as this whinyard, +and yet I never saw more sure promise of an evil night." + +"Nay, I had other things upon my mind," the squire answered. + +"And so has every man," cried Hawtayne in an injured voice. "Let +the shipman see to it. It is the master-shipman's affair. Put +it all upon good Master Hawtayne! Never had I so much care since +first I blew trumpet and showed cartel at the west gate of +Southampton." + +"What is amiss then?" asked Alleyne, for the man's words were as +gusty as the weather. + +"Amiss, quotha? Here am I with but half my mariners, and a hole +in the ship where that twenty-devil stone struck us big enough to +fit the fat widow of Northam through. It is well enough on this +tack, but I would have you tell me what I am to do on the other. +We are like to have salt water upon us until we be found pickled +like the herrings in an Easterling's barrels." + +"What says Sir Nigel to it?" + +"He is below pricking out the coat-armor of his mother's uncle. +'Pester me not with such small matters!' was all that I could get +from him. Then there is Sir Oliver. 'Fry them in oil with a +dressing of Gascony,' quoth he, and then swore at me because I +had not been the cook. 'Walawa,' thought I, 'mad master, sober +man'--so away forward to the archers. Harrow and alas! but they +were worse than the others." + +"Would they not help you then?" + +"Nay, they sat tway and tway at a board, him that they call +Aylward and the great red-headed man who snapped the Norman's +arm-bone, and the black man from Norwich, and a score of others, +rattling their dice in an archer's gauntlet for want of a box. +'The ship can scarce last much longer, my masters,' quoth I. +'That is your business, old swine's-head,' cried the black +galliard. 'Le diable t'emporte,' says Aylward. 'A five, a four +and the main,' shouted the big man, with a voice like the flap of +a sail. Hark to them now, young sir, and say if I speak not +sooth." + +As he spoke, there sounded high above the shriek of the gale and +the straining of the timbers a gust of oaths with a roar of deep- +chested mirth from the gamblers in the forecastle. + +"Can I be of avail?" asked Alleyne. "Say the word and the thing +is done, if two hands may do it." + +"Nay, nay, your head I can see is still totty, and i' faith +little head would you have, had your bassinet not stood your +friend. All that may be done is already carried out, for we have +stuffed the gape with sails and corded it without and within. +Yet when we bale our bowline and veer the sheet our lives will +hang upon the breach remaining blocked. See how yonder headland +looms upon us through the mist! We must tack within three arrow +flights, or we may find a rock through our timbers. Now, St. +Christopher be praised! here is Sir Nigel, with whom I may +confer." + +"I prythee that you will pardon me," said the knight, clutching +his way along the bulwark. "I would not show lack of courtesy +toward a worthy man, but I was deep in a matter of some weight, +concerning which, Alleyne, I should be glad of your rede. It +touches the question of dimidiation or impalement in the coat of +mine uncle, Sir John Leighton of Shropshire, who took unto wife +the widow of Sir Henry Oglander of Nunwell. The case has been +much debated by pursuivants and kings-of-arms. But how is it +with you, master shipman?" + +"Ill enough, my fair lord. The cog must go about anon, and I +know not how we may keep the water out of her." + +"Go call Sir Oliver!" said Sir Nigel, and presently the portly +knight made his way all astraddle down the slippery deck. + +"By my soul, master-shipman, this passes all patience!" he cried +wrathfully. "If this ship of yours must needs dance and skip +like a clown at a kermesse, then I pray you that you will put me +into one of these galeasses. I had but sat down to a flask of +malvesie and a mortress of brawn, as is my use about this hour, +when there comes a cherking, and I find my wine over my legs and +the flask in my lap, and then as I stoop to clip it there comes +another cursed cherk, and there is a mortress of brawn stuck fast +to the nape of my neck. At this moment I have two pages coursing +after it from side to side, like hounds behind a leveret. Never +did living pig gambol more lightly. But you have sent for me, +Sir Nigel?" + +"I would fain have your rede, Sir Oliver, for Master Hawtayne +hath fears that when we veer there may come danger from the hole +in our side." + +"Then do not veer," quoth Sir Oliver hastily. "And now, fair +sir, I must hasten back to see how my rogues have fared with the +brawn." + +"Nay, but this will scarce suffice," cried the shipman. "If we +do not veer we will be upon the rocks within the hour." + +"Then veer," said Sir Oliver. "There is my rede; and now, Sir +Nigel, I must crave----" + +At this instant, however, a startled shout rang out from two +seamen upon the forecastle. "Rocks!" they yelled, stabbing into +the air with their forefingers. "Rocks beneath our very bows!" +Through the belly of a great black wave, not one hundred paces to +the front of them, there thrust forth a huge jagged mass of brown +stone, which spouted spray as though it were some crouching +monster, while a dull menacing boom and roar filled the air. + +"Yare! yare!" screamed Goodwin Hawtayne, flinging himself upon +the long pole which served as a tiller. "Cut the halliard! Haul +her over! Lay her two courses to the wind!" + +Over swung the great boom, and the cog trembled and quivered +within five spear-lengths of the breakers. + +"She can scarce draw clear," cried Hawtayne, with his eyes from +the sail to the seething line of foam. "May the holy Julian +stand by us and the thrice-sainted Christopher!" + +"If there be such peril, Sir Oliver," quoth Sir Nigel, "it would +be very knightly and fitting that we should show our pennons. I +pray you. Edricson, that you will command my guidon-bearer to +put forward my banner." + +"And sound the trumpets!" cried Sir Oliver. "In manus tuas, +Domine! I am in the keeping of James of Compostella, to whose +shrine I shall make pilgrimage, and in whose honor I vow that I +will eat a carp each year upon his feast-day. Mon Dieu, but the +waves roar! How is it with us now, master-shipman?" + +"We draw! We draw!" cried Hawtayne, with his eyes still fixed +upon the foam which hissed under the very bulge of the side. +"Ah, Holy Mother, be with us now!" + +As he spoke the cog rasped along the edge of the reef, and a long +white curling sheet of wood was planed off from her side from +waist to poop by a jutting horn of the rock. At the same instant +she lay suddenly over, the sail drew full, and she plunged +seawards amid the shoutings of the seamen and the archers. + +"The Virgin be praised!" cried the shipman, wiping his brow. +"For this shall bell swing and candle burn when I see Southampton +Water once more. Cheerily, my hearts! Pull yarely on the +bowline!" + +"By my soul! I would rather have a dry death," quoth Sir Oliver. +"Though, Mort Dieu! I have eaten so many fish that it were but +justice that the fish should eat me. Now I must back to the +cabin, for I have matters there which crave my attention." + +"Nay, Sir Oliver, you had best bide with us, and still show your +ensign," Sir Nigel answered; "for, if I understand the matter +aright, we have but turned from one danger to the other." + +"Good Master Hawtayne," cried the boatswain, rushing aft, "the +water comes in upon us apace. The waves have driven in the sail +wherewith we strove to stop the hole." As he spoke the seamen +came swarming on to the poop and the forecastle to avoid the +torrent which poured through the huge leak into the waist. High +above the roar of the wind and the clash of the sea rose the +shrill half-human cries of the horses, as they found the water +rising rapidly around them. + +"Stop it from without!" cried Hawtayne, seizing the end of the +wet sail with which the gap had been plugged. "Speedily, my +hearts, or we are gone!" Swiftly they rove ropes to the corners, +and then, rushing forward to the bows, they lowered them under +the keel, and drew them tight in such a way that the sail should +cover the outer face of the gap. The force of the rush of water +was checked by this obstacle, but it still squirted plentifully +from every side of it. At the sides the horses were above the +belly, and in the centre a man from the poop could scarce touch +the deck with a seven-foot spear. The cog lay lower in the water +and the waves splashed freely over the weather bulwark. + +"I fear that we can scarce bide upon this tack," cried Hawtayne; +"and yet the other will drive us on the rocks." + +"Might we not haul down sail and wait for better times?" +suggested Sir Nigel. + +"Nay, we should drift upon the rocks. Thirty years have I been +on the sea, and never yet in greater straits. Yet we are in the +hands of the Saints." + +"Of whom," cried Sir Oliver, "I look more particularly to St. +James of Compostella, who hath already befriended us this day, +and on whose feast I hereby vow that I shall eat a second carp, +if he will but interpose a second time." + +The wrack had thickened to seaward, and the coast was but a +blurred line. Two vague shadows in the offing showed where the +galeasses rolled and tossed upon the great Atlantic rollers, +Hawtayne looked wistfully in their direction. + +"If they would but lie closer we might find safety, even should +the cog founder. You will bear me out with good Master Witherton +of Southampton that I have done all that a shipman might. It +would be well that you should doff camail and greaves, Sir Nigel, +for, by the black rood! it is like enough that we shall have to +swim for it." + +"Nay," said the little knight, "it would be scarce fitting that a +cavalier should throw off his harness for the fear of every puff +of wind and puddle of water. I would rather that my Company +should gather round me here on the poop, where we might abide +together whatever God may be pleased to send. But, certes, +Master Hawtayne, for all that my sight is none of the best, it is +not the first time that I have seen that headland upon the left." + +The seaman shaded his eyes with his hand, and gazed earnestly +through the haze and spray. Suddenly he threw up his arms and +shouted aloud in his joy. + +" 'Tis the point of La Tremblade!" he cried. "I had not thought +that we were as far as Oleron. The Gironde lies before us, and +once over the bar, and under shelter of the Tour de Cordouan, all +will be well with us. Veer again, my hearts, and bring her to +try with the main course!" + +The sail swung round once more, and the cog, battered and torn +and well-nigh water-logged, staggered in for this haven of +refuge. A bluff cape to the north and a long spit to the south +marked the mouth of the noble river, with a low-lying island of +silted sand in the centre, all shrouded and curtained by the +spume of the breakers. A line of broken water traced the +dangerous bar, which in clear day and balmy weather has cracked +the back of many a tall ship. + +"There is a channel," said Hawtayne, "which was shown to me by +the Prince's own pilot. Mark yonder tree upon the bank, and see +the tower which rises behind it. If these two be held in a line, +even as we hold them now, it may be done, though our ship draws +two good ells more than when she put forth." + +"God speed you, Master Hawtayne!" cried Sir Oliver. "Twice have +we come scathless out of peril, and now for the third time I +commend me to the blessed James of Compostella, to whom I vow---- +" + +"Nay, nay, old friend," whispered Sir Nigel. "You are like to +bring a judgment upon us with these vows, which no living man +could accomplish. Have I not already heard you vow to eat two +carp in one day, and now you would venture upon a third?" + +"I pray you that you will order the Company to lie down," cried +Hawtayne, who had taken the tiller and was gazing ahead with a +fixed eye. "In three minutes we shall either be lost or in +safety." + +Archers and seamen lay flat upon the deck, waiting in stolid +silence for whatever fate might come. Hawtayne bent his weight +upon the tiller, and crouched to see under the bellying sail. +Sir Oliver and Sir Nigel stood erect with hands crossed in front +of the poop. Down swooped the great cog into the narrow channel +which was the portal to safety. On either bow roared the shallow +bar. Right ahead one small lane of black swirling water marked +the pilot's course. But true was the eye and firm the hand which +guided. A dull scraping came from beneath, the vessel quivered +and shook, at the waist, at the quarter, and behind sounded that +grim roaring of the waters, and with a plunge the yellow cog was +over the bar and speeding swiftly up the broad and tranquil +estuary of the Gironde. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +HOW SIR NIGEL LORING PUT A PATCH UPON HIS EYE. + +IT was on the morning of Friday, the eight-and twentieth day of +November, two days before the feast of St. Andrew, that the cog +and her two prisoners, after a weary tacking up the Girondo and +the Garonne, dropped anchor at last in front of the noble city of +Bordeaux. With wonder and admiration, Alleyne, leaning over the +bulwarks, gazed at the forest of masts, the swarm of boats +darting hither and thither on the bosom of the broad curving +stream, and the gray crescent-shaped city which stretched with +many a tower and minaret along the western shore. Never had he +in his quiet life seen so great a town, nor was there in the +whole of England, save London alone, one which might match it in +size or in wealth. Here came the merchandise of all the fair +countries which are watered by the Garonne and the Dordogne--the +cloths of the south, the skins of Guienne, the wines of the +Medoc--to be borne away to Hull, Exeter, Dartmouth, Bristol or +Chester, in exchange for the wools and woolfels of England. Here +too dwelt those famous smelters and welders who had made the +Bordeaux steel the most trusty upon earth, and could give a +temper to lance or to sword which might mean dear life to its +owner. Alleyne could see the smoke of their forges reeking up +in the clear morning air. The storm had died down now to a +gentle breeze, which wafted to his ears the long-drawn stirring +bugle-calls which sounded from the ancient ramparts. + +"Hola, mon petit!" said Aylward, coming up to where he stood. +"Thou art a squire now, and like enough to win the golden spurs, +while I am still the master-bowman, and master-bowman I shall +bide. I dare scarce wag my tongue so freely with you as when we +tramped together past Wilverley Chase, else I might be your guide +now, for indeed I know every house in Bordeaux as a friar knows +the beads on his rosary." + +"Nay, Aylward," said Alleyne, laying his hand upon the sleeve of +his companion's frayed jerkin, "you cannot think me so thrall as +to throw aside an old friend because I have had some small share +of good fortune. I take it unkind that you should have thought +such evil of me." + +"Nay, mon gar. 'Twas but a flight shot to see if the wind blew +steady, though I were a rogue to doubt it." + +"Why, had I not met you, Aylward, at the Lynhurst inn, who can +say where I had now been! Certes, I had not gone to Twynham +Castle, nor become squire to Sir Nigel, nor met----" He paused +abruptly and flushed to his hair, but the bowman was too busy +with his own thoughts to notice his young companion's +embarrassment. + +"It was a good hostel, that of the 'Pied Merlin,' " he remarked. +"By my ten finger bones! when I hang bow on nail and change my +brigandine for a tunic, I might do worse than take over the dame +and her business." + +"I thought," said Alleyne, "that you were betrothed to some one +at Christchurch." + +"To three," Aylward answered moodily, "to three. I fear I may +not go back to Christchurch. I might chance to see hotter +service in Hampshire than I have ever done in Gascony. But mark +you now yonder lofty turret in the centre, which stands back from +the river and hath a broad banner upon the summit. See the +rising sun flashes full upon it and sparkles on the golden +lions. 'Tis the royal banner of England, crossed by the prince's +label. There he dwells in the Abbey of St. Andrew, where he hath +kept his court these years back. Beside it is the minster of the +same saint, who hath the town under his very special care." + +"And how of yon gray turret on the left?" + +" 'Tis the fane of St. Michael, as that upon the right is of St. +Remi. There, too, above the poop of yonder nief, you see the +towers of Saint Croix and of Pey Berland. Mark also the mighty +ramparts which are pierced by the three water-gates, and sixteen +others to the landward side." + +"And how is it, good Aylward, that there comes so much music from +the town? I seem to hear a hundred trumpets, all calling in +chorus." + +"It would be strange else, seeing that all the great lords of +England and of Gascony are within the walls, and each would have +his trumpeter blow as loud as his neighbor, lest it might be +thought that his dignity had been abated. Ma foi! they make as +much louster as a Scotch army, where every man fills himself with +girdle-cakes, and sits up all night to blow upon the toodle-pipe. +See all along the banks how the pages water the horses, and there +beyond the town how they gallop them over the plain! For every +horse you see a belted knight hath herbergage in the town, for, +as I learn, the men-at-arms and archers have already gone forward +to Dax." + +"I trust, Aylward," said Sir Nigel, coming upon deck, "that the +men are ready for the land. Go tell them that the boats will be +for them within the hour." + +The archer raised his hand in salute, and hastened forward. In +the meantime Sir Oliver had followed his brother knight, and the +two paced the poop together, Sir Nigel in his plum-colored velvet +suit with flat cap of the same, adorned in front with the Lady +Loring's glove and girt round with a curling ostrich feather. +The lusty knight, on the other hand, was clad in the very latest +mode, with cote-hardie, doublet, pourpoint, courtpie, and paltock +of olive-green, picked out with pink and jagged at the edges. A +red chaperon or cap, with long hanging cornette, sat daintily on +the back of his black-curled head, while his gold-hued shoes were +twisted up a la poulaine, as though the toes were shooting forth +a tendril which might hope in time to entwine itself around his +massive leg. + +"Once more, Sir Oliver," said Sir Nigel, looking shorewards with +sparkling eyes, "do we find ourselves at the gate of honor, the +door which hath so often led us to all that is knightly and +worthy. There flies the prince's banner, and it would be well +that we haste ashore and pay our obeisance to him. The boats +already swarm from the bank." + +"There is a goodly hostel near the west gate, which is famed for +the stewing of spiced pullets," remarked Sir Oliver. "We might +take the edge of our hunger off ere we seek the prince, for +though his tables are gay with damask and silver he is no +trencherman himself, and hath no sympathy for those who are his +betters." + +"His betters!" + +"His betters before the tranchoir, lad. Sniff not treason where +none is meant. I have seen him smile in his quiet way because I +had looked for the fourth time towards the carving squire. And +indeed to watch him dallying with a little gobbet of bread, or +sipping his cup of thrice-watered wine, is enough to make a man +feel shame at his own hunger. Yet war and glory, my good friend, +though well enough in their way, will not serve to tighten such a +belt as clasps my waist." + +"How read you that coat which hangs over yonder galley, Alleyne?" +asked Sir Nigel. + +"Argent, a bend vert between cotises dancette gules." + +"It is a northern coat. I have seen it in the train of the +Percies. From the shields, there is not one of these vessels +which hath not knight or baron aboard. I would mine eyes were +better. How read you this upon the left?" + +"Argent and azure, a barry wavy of six." + +"Ha, it is the sign of the Wiltshire Stourtons! And there beyond +I see the red and silver of the Worsleys of Apuldercombe, who +like myself are of Hampshire lineage, Close behind us is the +moline cross of the gallant William Molyneux, and beside it the +bloody chevrons of the Norfork Woodhouses, with the amulets of +the Musgraves of Westmoreland. By St. Paul! it would be a very +strange thing if so noble a company were to gather without some +notable deed of arms arising from it. And here is our boat, Sir +Oliver, so it seems best to me that we should go to the abbey +with our squires, leaving Master Hawtayne to have his own way in +the unloading." + +The horses both of knights and squires were speedily lowered into +a broad lighter, and reached the shore almost as soon as their +masters. Sir Nigel bent his knee devoutly as he put foot on +land, and taking a small black patch from his bosom he bound it +tightly over his left eye. + +"May the blessed George and the memory of my sweet lady-love +raise high my heart!" quoth he. "And as a token I vow that I +will not take this patch from my eye until I have seen something +of this country of Spain, and done such a small deed as it lies +in me to do. And this I swear upon the cross of my sword and +upon the glove of my lady." + +"In truth, you take me back twenty years, Nigel," quoth Sir +Oliver, as they mounted and rode slowly through the water-gate. +"After Cadsand, I deem that the French thought that we were an +army of the blind, for there was scarce a man who had not closed +an eye for the greater love and honor of his lady. Yet it goes +hard with you that you should darken one side, when with both +open you can scarce tell a horse from a mule. In truth, friend, +I think that you step over the line of reason in this matter." + +"Sir Oliver Buttesthorn," said the little knight shortly, "I +would have you to understand that, blind as I am, I can yet see +the path of honor very clearly, and that that is the road upon +which I do not crave another man's guidance." + +"By my soul," said Sir Oliver, "you are as tart as verjuice this +morning! If you are bent upon a quarrel with me I must leave you +to your humor and drop into the 'Tete d'Or' here, for I marked a +varlet pass the door who bare a smoking dish, which had, +methought, a most excellent smell." + +"Nenny, nenny," cried his comrade, laying his hand upon his knee; +"we have known each other over long to fall out, Oliver, like two +raw pages at their first epreuves. You must come with me first +to the prince, and then back to the hostel; though sure I am that +it would grieve his heart that any gentle cavalier should turn +from his board to a common tavern. But is not that my Lord +Delewar who waves to us? Ha! my fair lord, God and Our Lady be +with you! And there is Sir Robert Cheney. Good-morrow, Robert! +I am right glad to see you." + +The two knights walked their horses abreast, while Alleyne and +Ford, with John Northbury, who was squire to Sir Oliver, kept +some paces behind them, a spear's-length in front of Black Simon +and of the Winchester guidon-bearer. Northbury, a lean, silent +man, had been to those parts before, and sat his hosse with a +rigid neck; but the two young squires gazed eagerly to right or +left, and plucked each other's sleeves to call attention to the +many strange things on every side of them. + +"See to the brave stalls!" cried Alleyne. "See to the noble +armor set forth, and the costly taffeta--and oh, Ford, see to +where the scrivener sits with the pigments and the ink-horns, and +the rolls of sheepskin as white as the Beaulieu napery! Saw man +ever the like before?" + +"Nay, man, there are finer stalls in Cheapside," answered Ford, +whose father had taken him to London on occasion of one of the +Smithfield joustings. "I have seen a silversmith's booth there +which would serve to buy either side of this street. But mark +these houses, Alleyne, how they thrust forth upon the top. And +see to the coats-of-arms at every window, and banner or pensel on +the roof." + +"And the churches!" cried Alleyne. "The Priory at Christ church +was a noble pile, but it was cold and bare, methinks, by one of +these, with their frettings, and their carvings, and their +traceries, as though some great ivy-plant of stone had curled and +wantoned over the walls." + +"And hark to the speech of the folk!" said Ford. "Was ever such +a hissing and clacking? I wonder that they have not wit to learn +English now that they have come under the English crown. By +Richard of Hampole! there are fair faces amongst them. See the +wench with the brown whimple! Out on you, Alleyne, that you +would rather gaze upon dead stone than on living flesh!" + +It was little wonder that the richness and ornament, not only of +church and of stall, but of every private house as well, should +have impressed itself upon the young squires. The town was now +at the height of its fortunes. Besides its trade and its +armorers, other causes had combined to pour wealth into it. War, +which had wrought evil upon so many fair cities around, had +brought nought but good to this one. As her French sisters +decayed she increased, for here, from north, and from east, and +from south, came the plunder to be sold and the ransom money to +be spent. Through all her sixteen landward gates there had set +for many years a double tide of empty-handed soldiers hurrying +Francewards, and of enriched and laden bands who brought their +spoils home. The prince's court, too, with its swarm of noble +barons and wealthy knights, many of whom, in imitation of their +master, had brought their ladies and their children from England, +all helped to swell the coffers of the burghers. Now, with this +fresh influx of noblemen and cavaliers, food and lodging were +scarce to be had, and the prince was hurrying forward his forces +to Dax in Gascony to relieve the overcrowding of his capital. + +In front of the minster and abbey of St. Andrews was a large +square crowded with priests, soldiers, women, friars, and +burghers, who made it their common centre for sight-seeing and +gossip. Amid the knot of noisy and gesticulating townsfolk, many +small parties of mounted knights and squires threaded their way +towards the prince's quarters, where the huge iron-clamped doors +were thrown back to show that he held audience within. Two-score +archers stood about the gateway, and beat back from time to time +with their bow-staves the inquisitive and chattering crowd who +swarmed round the portal. Two knights in full armor, with lances +raised and closed visors, sat their horses on either side, while +in the centre, with two pages to tend upon him, there stood a +noble-faced man in flowing purple gown, who pricked off upon a +sheet of parchment the style and title of each applicant, +marshalling them in their due order, and giving to each the place +and facility which his rank demanded. His long white beard and +searching eyes imparted to him an air of masterful dignity, which +was increased by his tabard-like vesture and the heraldic barret +cap with triple plume which bespoke his office. + +"It is Sir William de Pakington, the prince's own herald and +scrivener," whispered Sir Nigel, as they pulled up amid the line +of knights who waited admission. "Ill fares it with the man who +would venture to deceive him. He hath by rote the name of every +knight of France or of England; and all the tree of his family, +with his kinships, coat-armor, marriages, augmentations, +abatements, and I know not what beside. We may leave our horses +here with the varlets, and push forward with our squires." + +Following Sir Nigel's counsel, they pressed on upon foot until +they were close to the prince's secretary, who was in high debate +with a young and foppish knight, who was bent upon making his way +past him. + +"Mackworth!" said the king-at-arms. "It is in my mind, young +sir, that you have not been presented before." + +"Nay, it is but a day since I set foot in Bordeaux, but I feared +lest the prince should think it strange that I had not waited +upon him." + +"The prince hath other things to think upon," quoth Sir William +de Pakington; "but if you be a Mackworth you must be a Mackworth +of Normanton, and indeed I see now that your coat is sable and +ermine." + +"I am a Mackworth of Normanton," the other answered, with some +uneasiness of manner. + +"Then you must be Sir Stephen Mackworth, for I learn that when +old Sir Guy died he came in for the arms and the name, the war- +cry and the profit." + +"Sir Stephen is my elder brother, and I am Arthur, the second +son," said the youth. + +"In sooth and in sooth!" cried the king-at-arms with scornful +eyes. "And pray, sir second son, where is the cadency mark which +should mark your rank. Dare you to wear your brother's coat +without the crescent which should stamp you as his cadet. Away +to your lodgings, and come not nigh the prince until the armorer +hath placed the true charge upon your shield." As the youth +withdrew in confusion, Sir William's keen eye singled out the +five red roses from amid the overlapping shields and cloud of +pennons which faced him. + +"Ha!" he cried, "there are charges here which are above +counterfeit. "The roses of Loring and the boar's head of +Buttesthorn may stand back in peace, but by my faith! they are +not to be held back in war. Welcome, Sir Oliver, Sir Nigel! +Chandos will be glad to his very heart-roots when he sees you. +This way, my fair sirs. Your squires are doubtless worthy the +fame of their masters. Down this passage, Sir Oliver! Edricson! +Ha! one of the old strain of Hampshire Edricsons, I doubt not. +And Ford, they are of a south Saxon stock, and of good repute. +There are Norburys in Cheshire and in Wiltshire, and also, as I +have heard, upon the borders. So, my fair sirs, and I shall see +that you are shortly admitted." + +He had finished his professional commentary by flinging open a +folding door, and ushering the party into a broad hall, which was +filled with a great number of people who were waiting, like +themselves, for an audience. The room was very spacious, lighted +on one side by three arched and mullioned windows, while opposite +was a huge fireplace in which a pile of faggots was blazing +merrily. Many of the company had crowded round the flames, for +the weather was bitterly cold; but the two knights seated +themselves upon a bancal, with their squires standing behind +them. Looking down the room, Alleyne marked that both floor and +ceiling were of the richest oak, the latter spanned by twelve +arching beams, which were adorned at either end by the lilies and +the lions of the royal arms. On the further side was a small +door, on each side of which stood men-at-arms. From time to time +an elderly man in black with rounded shoulders and a long white +wand in his hand came softly forth from this inner room, and +beckoned to one or other of the company, who doffed cap and +followed him. + +The two knights were deep in talk, when Alleyne became aware of a +remarkable individual who was walking round the room in their +direction. As he passed each knot of cavaliers every head turned +to look after him, and it was evident, from the bows and +respectful salutations on all sides, that the interest which he +excited was not due merely to his strange personal appearance. +He was tall and straight as a lance, though of a great age, for +his hair, which curled from under his velvet cap of maintenance, +was as white as the new-fallen snow. Yet, from the swing of his +stride and the spring of his step, it was clear that he had not +yet lost the fire and activity of his youth. His fierce hawk- +like face was clean shaven like that of a priest, save for a long +thin wisp of white moustache which drooped down half way to his +shoulder. That he had been handsome might be easily judged from +his high aquiline nose and clear-cut chin; but his features had +been so distorted by the seams and scars of old wounds, and by +the loss of one eye which had been torn from the socket, that +there was little left to remind one of the dashing young knight +who had been fifty years ago the fairest as well as the boldest +of the English chivalry. Yet what knight was there in that hall +of St. Andrews who would not have gladly laid down youth, beauty, +and all that he possessed to win the fame of this man? For who +could be named with Chandos, the stainless knight, the wise +councillor, the valiant warrior, the hero of Crecy, of +Winchelsea, of Poictiers, of Auray, and of as many other battles +as there were years to his life? + +"Ha, my little heart of gold!" he cried, darting forward suddenly +and throwing his arms round Sir Nigel. "I heard that you were +here and have been seeking you." + +"My fair and dear lord," said the knight, returning the warrior's +embrace, "I have indeed come back to you, for where else shall I +go that I may learn to be a gentle and a hardy knight?" + +"By my troth!" said Chandos with a smile, "it is very fitting +that we should be companions, Nigel, for since you have tied up +one of your eyes, and I have had the mischance to lose one of +mine, we have but a pair between us. Ah, Sir Oliver! you were on +the blind side of me and I saw you not. A wise woman hath made +prophecy that this blind side will one day be the death of me. +We shall go in to the prince anon; but in truth he hath much upon +his hands, for what with Pedro, and the King of Majorca, and the +King of Navarre, who is no two days of the same mind, and the +Gascon barons who are all chaffering for terms like so many +hucksters, he hath an uneasy part to play. But how left you the +Lady Loring?" + +"She was well, my fair lord, and sent her service and greetings +to you." + +"I am ever her knight and slave. And your journey, I trust that +it was pleasant?" + +"As heart could wish. We had sight of two rover galleys, and +even came to have some slight bickering with them." + +"Ever in luck's way, Nigel!" quoth Sir John. "We must hear the +tale anon. But I deem it best that ye should leave your squires +and come with me, for, howsoe'er pressed the prince may be, I am +very sure that he would be loth to keep two old comrades-in-arms +upon the further side of the door. Follow close behind me, and I +will forestall old Sir William, though I can scarce promise to +roll forth your style and rank as is his wont." So saying, he led +the way to the inner chamber, the two companions treading close +at his heels, and nodding to right and left as they caught sight +of familiar faces among the crowd. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +HOW THERE WAS STIR AT THE ABBEY OF ST. ANDREWS. + +THE prince's reception-room, although of no great size, was +fitted up with all the state and luxury which the fame and power +of its owner demanded. A high dais at the further end was roofed +in by a broad canopy of scarlet velvet spangled with silver +fleurs-de-lis, and supported at either corner by silver rods. +This was approached by four steps carpeted with the same +material, while all round were scattered rich cushions, oriental +mats and costly rugs of fur. The choicest tapestries which the +looms of Arras could furnish draped the walls, whereon the +battles of Judas Maccabaeus were set forth, with the Jewish +warriors in plate of proof, with crest and lance and banderole, +as the naive artists of the day were wont to depict them. A few +rich settles and bancals, choicely carved and decorated with +glazed leather hangings of the sort termed or basane, completed +the furniture of the apartment, save that at one side of the dais +there stood a lofty perch, upon which a cast of three solemn +Prussian gerfalcons sat, hooded and jesseled, as silent and +motionless as the royal fowler who stood beside them. + +In the centre of the dais were two very high chairs with +dorserets, which arched forwards over the heads of the occupants, +the whole covered with light-blue silk thickly powdered with +golden stars. On that to the right sat a very tall and well +formed man with red hair, a livid face, and a cold blue eye, +which had in it something peculiarly sinister and menacing. He +lounged back in a careless position, and yawned repeatedly as +though heartily weary of the proceedings, stooping from time to +time to fondle a shaggy Spanish greyhound which lay stretched at +his feet. On the other throne there was perched bolt upright, +with prim demeanor, as though he felt himself to be upon his +good behavior, a little, round, pippin faced person, who smiled +and bobbed to every one whose eye he chanced to meet. Between +and a little in front of them on a humble charette or stool, sat +a slim, dark young man, whose quiet attire and modest manner +would scarce proclaim him to be the most noted prince in Europe. +A jupon of dark blue cloth, tagged with buckles and pendants of +gold, seemed but a sombre and plain attire amidst the wealth of +silk and ermine and gilt tissue of fustian with which he was +surrounded. He sat with his two hands clasped round his knee, +his head slightly bent, and an expression of impatience and of +trouble upon his clear, well-chiselled features. Behind the +thrones there stood two men in purple gowns, with ascetic, clean- +shaven faces, and half a dozen other high dignitaries and office- +holders of Aquitaine. Below on either side of the steps were +forty or fifty barons, knights, and courtiers, ranged in a triple +row to the right and the left, with a clear passage in the +centre. + +"There sits the prince," whispered Sir John Chandos, as they +entered. "He on the right is Pedro, whom we are about to put +upon the spanish throne. The other is Don James, whom we purpose +with the aid of God to help to his throne in Majorca. Now follow +me, and take it not to heart if he be a little short in his +speech, for indeed his mind is full of many very weighty +concerns." + +The prince, however, had already observed their entrance, and, +springing to his feet, he had advanced with a winning smile and +the light of welcome in his eyes. + +"We do not need your good offices as herald here, Sir John," said +he in a low but clear voice; "these valiant knights are very well +known to me. Welcome to Aquitaine, Sir Nigel Loring and Sir +Oliver Buttesthorn. Nay, keep your knee for my sweet father at +Windsor. I would have your hands, my friends. We are like to +give you some work to do ere you see the downs of Hampshire once +more. Know you aught of Spain, Sir Oliver?" + +"Nought, my sire, save that I have heard men say that there is a +dish named an olla which is prepared there, though I have never +been clear in my mind as to whether it was but a ragout such as +is to be found in the south, or whether there is some seasoning +such as fennel or garlic which is peculiar to Spain." + +"Your doubts, Sir Oliver, shall soon be resolved," answered the +prince, laughing heartily, as did many of the barons who +surrounded them. "His majesty here will doubtless order that you +have this dish hotly seasoned when we are all safely in Castile." + +"I will have a hotly seasoned dish for some folk I know of," +answered Don Pedro with a cold smile. + +"But my friend Sir Oliver can fight right hardily without either +bite or sup," remarked the prince. "Did I not see him at +Poictiers, when for two days we had not more than a crust of +bread and a cup of foul water, yet carrying himself most +valiantly. With my own eyes I saw him in the rout sweep the head +from a knight of Picardy with one blow of his sword." + +"The rogue got between me and the nearest French victual wain," +muttered Sir Oliver, amid a fresh titter from those who were near +enough to catch his words. + +"How many have you in your train?" asked the prince, assuming a +graver mien. + +"I have forty men-at-arms, sire," said Sir Oliver. + +"And I have one hundred archers and a score of lancers, but there +are two hundred men who wait for me on this side of the water +upon the borders of Navarre." + +"And who are they, Sir Nigel?" + +"They are a free company, sire, and they are called the White +Company." + +To the astonishment of the knight, his words provoked a burst of +merriment from the barons round, in which the two kings and the +prince were fain to join. Sir Nigel blinked mildly from one to +the other, until at last perceiving a stout black-bearded knight +at his elbow, whose laugh rang somewhat louder than the others, +he touched him lightly upon the sleeve. + +"Perchance, my fair sir," he whispered, "there is some small vow +of which I may relieve you. Might we not have some honorable +debate upon the matter. Your gentle courtesy may perhaps grant +me an exchange of thrusts." + +"Nay, nay, Sir Nigel," cried the prince, "fasten not the offence +upon Sir Robert Briquet, for we are one and all bogged in the +same mire. Truth to say, our ears have just been vexed by the +doings of the same company, and I have even now made vow to hang +the man who held the rank of captain over it. I little thought +to find him among the bravest of my own chosen chieftains. But +the vow is now nought, for, as you have never seen your company, +it would be a fool's act to blame you for their doings." + +"My liege," said Sir Nigel, "it is a very small matter that I +should be hanged, albeit the manner of death is somewhat more +ignoble than I had hoped for. On the other hand, it would be a +very grievous thing that you, the Prince of England and the +flower of knighthood, should make a vow, whether in ignorance or +no, and fail to bring it to fulfilment." + +"Vex not your mind on that," the prince answered, smiling. "We +have had a citizen from Montauban here this very day, who told us +such a tale of sack and murder and pillage that it moved our +blood; but our wrath was turned upon the man who was in authority +over them." + +"My dear and honored master," cried Nigel, in great anxiety, "I +fear me much that in your gentleness of heart you are straining +this vow which you have taken. If there be so much as a shadow +of a doubt as to the form of it, it were a thousand times best--- +-" + +"Peace! peace!" cried the prince impatiently. "I am very well +able to look to my own vows and their performance. We hope to +see you both in the banquet-hall anon. Meanwhile you will attend +upon us with our train." He bowed, and Chandos, plucking Sir +Oliver by the sleeve, led them both away to the back of the press +of courtiers. + +"Why, little coz," he whispered, "you are very eager to have your +neck in a noose. By my soul! had you asked as much from our new +ally Don Pedro, he had not baulked you. Between friends, there +is overmuch of the hangman in him, and too little of the prince. +But indeed this White Company is a rough band, and may take some +handling ere you find yourself safe in your captaincy." + +"I doubt not, with the help of St. Paul, that I shall bring them +to some order," Sir Nigel answered. "But there are many faces +here which are new to me, though others have been before me since +first I waited upon my dear master, Sir Walter. I pray you to +tell me, Sir John, who are these priests upon the dais?" + +"The one is the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Nigel, and the other the +Bishop of Agen." + +"And the dark knight with gray-streaked beard? By my troth, he +seems to be a man of much wisdom and valor." + +"He is Sir William Fenton, who, with my unworthy self, is the +chief counsellor of the prince, he being high steward and I the +seneschal of Aquitaine." + +"And the knights upon the right, beside Von Pedro?" + +"They are cavaliers of Spain who have followed him in his exile. +The one at his elbow is Fernando de Castro, who is as brave and +true a man as heart could wish. In front to the right are the +Gascon lords. You may well tell them by their clouded brows, for +there hath been some ill-will of late betwixt the prince and +them. The tall and burly man is the Captal de Buch, whom I doubt +not that you know, for a braver knight never laid lance in rest. +That heavy-faced cavalier who plucks his skirts and whispers in +his ear is Lord Oliver de Clisson, known also as the butcher. He +it is who stirs up strife, and forever blows the dying embers +into flame. The man with the mole upon his cheek is the Lord +Pommers, and his two brothers stand behind him, with the Lord +Lesparre, Lord de Rosem, Lord de Mucident, Sir Perducas d'Albret, +the Souldich de la Trane, and others. Further back are knights +from Quercy, Limousin, Saintonge, Poitou, and Aquitaine, with the +valiant Sir Guiscard d'Angle. That is he in the rose-colored +doublet with the ermine." + +"And the knights upon this side?" + +"They are all Englishmen, some of the household and others who +like yourself, are captains of companies. There is Lord Neville, +Sir Stephen Cossington, and Sir Matthew Gourney, with Sir Walter +Huet, Sir Thomas Banaster, and Sir Thomas Felton, who is the +brother of the high steward. Mark well the man with the high +nose and flaxen beard who hath placed his hand upon the shoulder +of the dark hard-faced cavalier in the rust-stained jupon." + +"Aye, by St. Paul!" observed Sir Nigel, "they both bear the print +of their armor upon their cotes-hardies. Methinks they are men +who breathe freer in a camp than a court." + +"There are many of us who do that, Nigel," said Chandos, "and the +head of the court is, I dare warrant, among them. But of these +two men the one is Sir Hugh Calverley, and the other is Sir +Robert Knolles." + +Sir Nigel and Sir Oliver craned their necks to have the clearer +view of these famous warriors, the one a chosen leader of free +companies, the other a man who by his fierce valor and energy had +raised himself from the lowest ranks until he was second only to +Chandos himself in the esteem of the army. + +"He hath no light hand in war, hath Sir Robert," said Chandos. +"If he passes through a country you may tell it for some years to +come. I have heard that in the north it is still the use to call +a house which hath but the two gable ends left, without walls or +roof, a Knolles' mitre." + +"I have often heard of him," said Nigel, "and I have hoped to be +so far honored as to run a course with him. But hark, Sir John, +what is amiss with the prince?" + +Whilst Chandos had been conversing with the two knights a +continuous stream of suitors had been ushered in, adventurers +seeking to sell their swords and merchants clamoring over some +grievance, a ship detained for the carriage of troops, or a tun +of sweet wine which had the bottom knocked out by a troop of +thirsty archers. A few words from the prince disposed of each +case, and, if the applicant liked not the judgment, a quick +glance from the prince's dark eyes sent him to the door with the +grievance all gone out of him. The younger ruler had sat +listlessly upon his stool with the two puppet monarchs enthroned +behind him, but of a sudden a dark shadow passed over his face, +and he sprang to his feet in one of those gusts of passion which +were the single blot upon his noble and generous character. + +"How now, Don Martin de la Carra?" he cried. "How now, sirrah? +What message do you bring to us from our brother of Navarre?" + +The new-comer to whom this abrupt query had been addressed was a +tall and exceedingly handsome cavalier who had just been ushered +into the apartment. His swarthy cheek and raven black hair spoke +of the fiery south, and he wore his long black cloak swathed +across his chest and over his shoulders in a graceful sweeping +fashion, which was neither English nor French. With stately +steps and many profound bows, he advanced to the foot of the dais +before replying to the prince's question. + +"My powerful and illustrious master," he began, "Charles, King of +Navarre, Earl of Evreux, Count of Champagne, who also writeth +himself Overlord of Bearn, hereby sends his love and greetings to +his dear cousin Edward, the Prince of Wales, Governor of +Aquitaine, Grand Commander of----" + +"Tush! tush! Don Martin!" interrupted the prince, who had been +beating the ground with his foot impatiently during this stately +preamble. "We already know our cousin's titles and style, and, +certes, we know our own. To the point, man, and at once, Are the +passes open to us, or does your master go back from his word +pledged to me at Libourne no later than last Michaelmas?" + +"It would ill become my gracious master, sire, to go back from +promise given. He does but ask some delay and certain conditions +and hostages----" + +"Conditions! Hostages! Is he speaking to the Prince of England, +or is it to the bourgeois provost of some half-captured town! +Conditions, quotha? He may find much to mend in his own +condition ere long. The passes are, then, closed to us?" + +"Nay, sire----" + +"They are open, then?" + +"Nay, sire, if you would but----" + +"Enough, enough, Don Martin," cried the prince. "It is a sorry +sight to see so true a knight pleading in so false a cause. We +know the doings of our cousin Charles. We know that while with +the right hand he takes our fifty thousand crowns for the holding +of the passes open, he hath his left outstretched to Henry of +Trastamare, or to the King of France, all ready to take as many +more for the keeping them closed. I know our good Charles, and, +by my blessed name-saint the Confessor, he shall learn that I +know him. He sets his kingdom up to the best bidder, like some +scullion farrier selling a glandered horse. He is----" + +"My lord," cried Don Martin, "I cannot stand there to hear such +words of my master. Did they come from other lips, I should know +better how to answer them." + +Don Pedro frowned and curled his lip, but the prince smiled and +nodded his approbation. + +"Your bearing and your words, Don Martin, are such I should have +looked for in you," he remarked. "You will tell the king, your +master, that he hath been paid his price and that if he holds to +his promise he hath my word for it that no scath shall come to +his people, nor to their houses or gear. If, however, we have +not his leave, I shall come close at the heels of this message +without his leave, and bearing a key with me which shall open all +that he may close." He stooped and whispered to Sir Robert +Knolles and Sir Huge Calverley, who smiled as men well pleased, +and hastened from the room. + +"Our cousin Charles has had experience of our friendship," the +prince continued, "and now, by the Saints! he shall feel a touch +of our displeasure. I send now a message to our cousin Charles +which his whole kingdom may read. Let him take heed lest worse +befall him. Where is my Lord Chandos? Ha, Sir John, I commend +this worthy knight to your care. You will see that he hath +refection, and such a purse of gold as may defray his charges, +for indeed it is great honor to any court to have within it so +noble and gentle a cavalier. How say you, sire?" he asked, +turning to the Spanish refugee, while the herald of Navarre was +conducted from the chamber by the old warrior. + +"It is not our custom in Spain to reward pertness in a +messenger," Don Pedro answered, patting the head of his +greyhound. "Yet we have all heard the lengths to which your +royal generosity runs." + +"In sooth, yes," cried the King of Majorca. + +"Who should know it better than we?" said Don Pedro bitterly, +"since we have had to fly to you in our trouble as to the natural +protector of all who are weak." + +"Nay, nay, as brothers to a brother," cried the prince, with +sparkling eyes. "We doubt not, with the help of God, to see you +very soon restored to those thrones from which you have been so +traitorously thrust." + +"When that happy day comes," said Pedro, "then Spain shall be to +you as Aquitaine, and, be your project what it may, you may ever +count on every troop and every ship over which flies the banner +of Castile." + +"And," added the other, "upon every aid which the wealth and +power of Majorca can bestow." + +"Touching the hundred thousand crowns in which I stand your +debtor," continued Pedro carelessly, "it can no doubt----" + +"Not a word, sire, not a word!" cried the prince. "It is not now +when you are in grief that I would vex your mind with such base +and sordid matters. I have said once and forever that I am yours +with every bow-string of my army and every florin in my coffers." + +"Ah! here is indeed a mirror of chivalry," said Don Pedro. "I +think, Sir Fernando, since the prince's bounty is stretched so +far, that we may make further use of his gracious goodness to the +extent of fifty thousand crowns. Good Sir William Felton, here, +will doubtless settle the matter with you." + +The stout old English counsellor looked somewhat blank at this +prompt acceptance of his master's bounty. + +"If it please you, sire," he said, "the public funds are at their +lowest, seeing that I have paid twelve thousand men of the +companies, and the new taxes--the hearth-tax and the wine-tax-- +not yet come in. If you could wait until the promised help from +England comes----" + +"Nay, nay, my sweet cousin," cried Don Pedro. "Had we known that +your own coffers were so low, or that this sorry sum could have +weighed one way or the other, we had been loth indeed----" + +"Enough, sire, enough!" said the prince, flushing with vexation. +"If the public funds be, indeed, so backward, Sir William, there +is still, I trust, my own private credit, which hath never been +drawn upon for my own uses, but is now ready in the cause of a +friend in adversity. Go, raise this money upon our own jewels, +if nought else may serve, and see that it be paid over to Don +Fernando." + +"In security I offer----" cried Don Pedro. + +"Tush! tush!" said the prince. "I am not a Lombard, sire. Your +kingly pledge is my security, without bond or seal. But I have +tidings for you, my lords and lieges, that our brother of +Lancaster is on his way for our capital with four hundred lances +and as many archers to aid us in our venture. When he hath come, +and when our fair consort is recovered in her health, which I +trust by the grace of God may be ere many weeks be past, we shall +then join the army at Dax, and set our banners to the breeze once +more." + +A buzz of joy at the prospect of immediate action rose up from +the group of warriors. The prince smiled at the martial ardor +which shone upon every face around him. + +"It will hearten you to know," he continued, "that I have sure +advices that this Henry is a very valiant leader, and that he has +it in his power to make such a stand against us as promises to +give us much honor and pleasure. Of his own people he hath +brought together, as I learn, some fifty thousand, with twelve +thousand of the French free companies, who are, as you know very +valiant and expert men-at-arms. It is certain also, that the +brave and worthy Bertrand de Guesclin hath ridden into France to +the Duke of Anjou, and purposes to take back with him great +levies from Picardy and Brittany. We hold Bertrand in high +esteem, for he has oft before been at great pains to furnish us +with an honorable encounter. What think you of it, my worthy +Captal? He took you at Cocherel, and, by my soul I you will have +the chance now to pay that score." + +The Gascon warrior winced a little at the allusion, nor were his +countrymen around him better pleased, for on the only occasion +when they had encountered the arms of France without English aid +they had met with a heavy defeat. + +"There are some who say, sire," said the burly De Clisson, "that +the score is already overpaid, for that without Gascon help +Bertrand had not been taken at Auray, nor had King John been +overborne at Poictiers." + +"By heaven! but this is too much," cried an English nobleman. +"Methinks that Gascony is too small a cock to crow so lustily." + +"The smaller cock, my Lord Audley, may have the longer spur," +remarked the Captal de Buch. + +"May have its comb clipped if it make over-much noise," broke in +an Englishman. + +"By our Lady of Rocamadour!" cried the Lord of Mucident, "this is +more than I can abide. Sir John Charnell, you shall answer to me +for those words!" + +"Freely, my lord, and when you will," returned the Englishman +carelessly. + +"My Lord de Clisson," cried Lord Audley, "you look some, what +fixedly in my direction. By God's soul! I should be right glad +to go further into the matter with you." + +"And you, my Lord of Pommers," said Sir Nigel, pushing his way to +the front, "it is in my mind that we might break a lance in +gentle and honorable debate over the question." + +For a moment a dozen challenges flashed backwards and forwards at +this sudden bursting of the cloud which had lowered so long +between the knights of the two nations. Furious and +gesticulating the Gascons, white and cold and sneering the +English, while the prince with a half smile glanced from one +party to the other, like a man who loved to dwell upon a fiery +scene, and yet dreaded least the mischief go so far that he might +find it beyond his control. + +"Friends, friends!" he cried at last, "this quarrel must go no +further. The man shall answer to me, be he Gascon or English, +who carries it beyond this room. I have overmuch need for your +swords that you should turn them upon each other. Sir John +Charnell, Lord Audley, you do not doubt the courage of our +friends of Gascony?" + +"Not I, sire," Lord Audley answered. "I have seen them fight too +often not to know that they are very hardy and valiant +gentlemen." + +"And so say I," quoth the other Englishman; "but, certes, there +is no fear of our forgetting it while they have a tongue in their +heads." + +"Nay, Sir John," said the prince reprovingly, "all peoples have +their own use and customs. There are some who might call us cold +and dull and silent. But you hear, my lords of Gascony, that +these gentlemen had no thought to throw a slur upon your honor or +your valor, so let all anger fade from your mind. Clisson, +Captal, De Pommers, I have your word?" + +"We are your subjects, sire," said the Gascon barons, though with +no very good grace. "Your words are our law." + +"Then shall we bury all cause of unkindness in a flagon of +Malvoisie," said the prince, cheerily. "Ho, there! the doors of +the banquet-hall! I have been over long from my sweet spouse but +I shall be back with you anon. Let the sewers serve and the +minstrels play, while we drain a cup to the brave days that are +before us in the south!" He turned away, accompanied by the two +monarchs, while the rest of the company, with many a compressed +lip and menacing eye, filed slowly through the side-door to the +great chamber in which the royal tables were set forth. + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +HOW ALLEYNE WON HIS PLACE IN AN HONORABLE GUILD. + +WHILST the prince's council was sitting, Alleyne and Ford had +remained in the outer hall, where they were soon surrounded by a +noisy group of young Englishmen of their own rank, all eager to +hear the latest news from England. + +"How is it with the old man at Windsor?" asked one. + +"And how with the good Queen Philippa?" + +"And how with Dame Alice Perrers?" cried a third. + +"The devil take your tongue, Wat!" shouted a tall young man, +seizing the last speaker by the collar and giving him an +admonitory shake. "The prince would take your head off for those +words." + +"By God's coif! Wat would miss it but little," said another. "It +is as empty as a beggar's wallet." + +"As empty as an English squire, coz," cried the first speaker. +"What a devil has become of the maitre-destables and his sewers? +They have not put forth the trestles yet." + +"Mon Dieu! if a man could eat himself into knighthood, Humphrey, +you had been a banneret at the least," observed another, amid a +burst of laughter. + +"And if you could drink yourself in, old leather-head, you had +been first baron of the realm," cried the aggrieved Humphrey. +"But how of England, my lads of Loring?" + +"I take it," said Ford, "that it is much as it was when you were +there last, save that perchance there is a little less noise +there." + +"And why less noise, young Solomon?" + +"Ah, that is for your wit to discover." + +"Pardieu! here is a paladin come over, with the Hampshire mud +still sticking to his shoes. He means that the noise is less for +our being out of the country." + +"They are very quick in these parts," said Ford, turning to +Alleyne. + +"How are we to take this, sir?" asked the ruffling squire. + +"You may take it as it comes," said Ford carelessly. + +"Here is pertness!" cried the other. + +"Sir, I honor your truthfulness," said Ford. + +"Stint it, Humphrey," said the tall squire, with a burst of +laughter. "You will have little credit from this gentleman, I +perceive. Tongues are sharp in Hampshire, sir." + +"And swords?" + +"Hum! we may prove that. In two days' time is the vepres du +tournoi, when we may see if your lance is as quick as your wit." + +"All very well, Roger Harcomb," cried a burly, bullnecked young +man, whose square shoulders and massive limbs told of exceptional +personal strength. "You pass too lightly over the matter. We +are not to be so easily overcrowed. The Lord Loring hath given +his proofs; but we know nothing of his squires, save that one of +them hath a railing tongue. And how of you, young sir?" bringing +his heavy hand down on Alleyne's shoulder. + +"And what of me, young sir?" + +"Ma foi! this is my lady's page come over. Your cheek will be +browner and your hand harder ere you see your mother again." + +"If my hand is not hard, it is ready." + +"Ready? Ready for what? For the hem of my lady's train?" + +"Ready to chastise insolence, sir," cried Alleyne with hashing +eyes. + +"Sweet little coz!" answered the burly squire. "Such a dainty +color! Such a mellow voice! Eyes of a bashful maid, and hair +like a three years' babe! Voila!" He passed his thick fingers +roughly through the youth's crisp golden curls. + +"You seek to force a quarrel, sir," said the young man, white +with anger. + +"And what then?" + +"Why, you do it like a country boor, and not like a gentle +squire. Hast been ill bred and as ill taught. I serve a master +who could show you how such things should he done." + +"And how would he do it, O pink of squires?" + +"He would neither be loud nor would he be unmannerly, but rather +more gentle than is his wont. He would say, 'Sir, I should take +it as an honor to do some small deed of arms against you, not for +mine own glory or advancement, but rather for the fame of my lady +and for the upholding of chivalry.' Then he would draw his +glove, thus, and throw it on the ground; or, if he had cause to +think that he had to deal with a churl, he might throw it in his +face--as I do now!" + +A buzz of excitement went up from the knot of squires as Alleyne, +his gentle nature turned by this causeless attack into fiery +resolution, dashed his glove with all his strength into the +sneering face of his antagonist. From all parts of the hall +squires and pages came running, until a dense, swaying crowd +surrounded the disputants. + +"Your life for this!" said the bully, with a face which was +distorted with rage. + +"If you can take it," returned Alleyne. + +"Good lad!" whispered Ford. "Stick to it close as wax." + +"I shall see justice," cried Newbury, Sir Oliver's silent +attendant. + +"You brought it upon yourself, John Tranter," said the tall +squire, who had been addressed as Roger Harcomb. "You must ever +plague the new-comers. But it were shame if this went further. +The lad hath shown a proper spirit." + +"But a blow! a blow!" cried several of the older squires. "There +must be a finish to this." + +"Nay; Tranter first laid hand upon his head," said Harcomb. "How +say you, Tranter? The matter may rest where it stands?" + +"My name is known in these parts," said Tranter, proudly, "I can +let pass what might leave a stain upon another. Let him pick up +his glove and say that he has done amiss." + +"I would see him in the claws of the devil first," whispered +Ford. + +"You hear, young sir?" said the peacemaker. "Our friend will +overlook the matter if you do but say that you have acted in heat +and haste." + +"I cannot say that," answered Alleyne. + +"It is our custom, young sir, when new squires come amongst us +from England, to test them in some such way. Bethink you that if +a man have a destrier or a new lance he will ever try it in time +of peace, lest in days of need it may fail him. How much more +then is it proper to test those who are our comrades in arms." + +"I would draw out if it may honorably be done," murmured Norbury +in Alleyne's ear. "The man is a noted swordsman and far above +your strength." + +Edricson came, however, of that sturdy Saxon blood which is very +slowly heated, but once up not easily to be cooled. The hint of +danger which Norbury threw out was the one thing needed to harden +his resolution. + +"I came here at the back of my master," he said, "and I looked on +every man here as an Englishman and a friend. This gentleman +hath shown me a rough welcome, and if I have answered him in the +same spirit he has but himself to thank. I will pick the glove +up; but, certes, I shall abide what I have done unless he first +crave my pardon for what he hath said and done." + +Tranter shrugged his shoulders. "You have done what you could to +save him, Harcomb," said he. "We had best settle at once." + +"So say I," cried Alleyne. + +"The council will not break up until the banquet," remarked a +gray-haired squire. "You have a clear two hours." + +"And the place?" + +"The tilting-yard is empty at this hour." + +"Nay; it must not be within the grounds of the court, or it may +go hard with all concerned if it come to the ears of the prince." + +"But there is a quiet spot near the river," said one youth. "We +have but to pass through the abbey grounds, along the armory +wall, past the church of St. Remi, and so down the Rue des +Apotres." + +"En avant, then!" cried Tranter shortly, and the whole assembly +flocked out into the open air, save only those whom the special +orders of their masters held to their posts. These unfortunates +crowded to the small casements, and craned their necks after the +throng as far as they could catch a glimpse of them. + +Close to the banks of the Garonne there lay a little tract of +green sward, with the high wall of a prior's garden upon one side +and an orchard with a thick bristle of leafless apple-trees upon +the other. The river ran deep and swift up to the steep bank; +but there were few boats upon it, and the ships were moored far +out in the centre of the stream. Here the two combatants drew +their swords and threw off their doublets, for neither had any +defensive armor. The duello with its stately etiquette had not +yet come into vogue, but rough and sudden encounters were as +common as they must ever be when hot-headed youth goes abroad +with a weapon strapped to its waist. In such combats, as well as +in the more formal sports of the tilting-yard, Tranter had won a +name for strength and dexterity which had caused Norbury to utter +his well-meant warning. On the other hand, Alleyne had used his +weapons in constant exercise and practice for every day for many +months, and being by nature quick of eye and prompt of hand, he +might pass now as no mean swordsman. A strangely opposed pair +they appeared as they approached each other: Tranter dark and +stout and stiff, with hairy chest and corded arms, Alleyne a +model of comeliness and grace, with his golden hair and his skin +as fair as a woman's. An unequal fight it seemed to most; but +there were a few, and they the most experienced, who saw +something in the youth's steady gray eye and wary step which left +the issue open to doubt. + +"Hold, sirs, hold!" cried Norbury, ere a blow had been struck. +"This gentleman hath a two-handed sword, a good foot longer than +that of our friend." + +"Take mine, Alleyne," said Ford. + +"Nay, friends," he answered, "I understand the weight and balance +of mine own. To work, sir, for our lord may need us at the +abbey!" + +Tranter's great sword was indeed a mighty vantage in his favor. +He stood with his feet close together, his knees bent outwards, +ready for a dash inwards or a spring out. The weapon he held +straight up in front of him with blade erect, so that he might +either bring it down with a swinging blow, or by a turn of the +heavy blade he might guard his own head and body. A further +protection lay in the broad and powerful guard which crossed the +hilt, and which was furnished with a deep and narrow notch, in +which an expert swordsman might catch his foeman's blade, and by +a quick turn of his wrist might snap it across. Alleyne, on the +other hand, must trust for his defence to his quick eye and +active foot--for his sword, though keen as a whetstone could +make it, was of a light and graceful build with a narrow, sloping +pommel and a tapering steel. + +Tranter well knew his advantage and lost no time in putting it to +use. As his opponent walked towards him he suddenly bounded +forward and sent in a whistling cut which would have severed the +other in twain had he not sprung lightly back from it. So close +was it that the point ripped a gash in the jutting edge of his +linen cyclas. Quick as a panther, Alleyne sprang in with a +thrust, but Tranter, who was as active as he was strong, had +already recovered himself and turned it aside with a movement of +his heavy blade. Again he whizzed in a blow which made the +spectators hold their breath, and again Alleyne very quickly and +swiftly slipped from under it, and sent back two lightning +thrusts which the other could scarce parry. So close were they +to each other that Alleyne had no time to spring back from the +next cut, which beat down his sword and grazed his forehead, +sending the blood streaming into his eyes and down his cheeks. +He sprang out beyond sword sweep, and the pair stood breathing +heavily, while the crowd of young squires buzzed their applause. + +"Bravely struck on both sides!" cried Roger Harcomb. "You have +both won honor from this meeting, and it would be sin and shame +to let it go further." + +"You have done enough, Edricson," said Norbury. + +"You have carried yourself well," cried several of the older +squires. + +"For my part, I have no wish to slay this young man," said +Tranter, wiping his heated brow. + +"Does this gentleman crave my pardon for having used me +despitefully?" asked Alleyne. + +"Nay, not I." + +"Then stand on your guard, sir!" With a clatter and dash the two +blades met once more, Alleyne pressing in so as to keep within +the full sweep of the heavy blade, while Tranter as continually +sprang back to have space for one of his fatal cuts. A three- +parts-parried blow drew blood from Alleyne's left shoulder, but +at the same moment he wounded Tranter slightly upon the thigh. +Next instant, however, his blade had slipped into the fatal +notch, there was a sharp cracking sound with a tinkling upon the +ground, and he found a splintered piece of steel fifteen inches +long was all that remained to him of his weapon. + +"Your life is in my hands!" cried Tranter, with a bitter smile. + +"Nay, nay, he makes submission!" broke in several squires. +Another sword!" cried Ford. + +"Nay, sir," said Harcomb, "that is not the custom." + +"Throw down your hilt, Edricson," cried Norbury. + +"Never!" said Alleyne. "Do you crave my pardon, sir?" + +"You are mad to ask it." + +"Then on guard again!" cried the young squire, and sprang in with +a fire and a fury which more than made up for the shortness of +his weapon. It had not escaped him that his opponent was +breathing in short, hoarse gasps, like a man who is dizzy with +fatigue. Now was the time for the purer living and the more +agile limb to show their value. Back and back gave Tranter, ever +seeking time for a last cut. On and on came Alleyne, his jagged +point now at his foeman's face, now at his throat, now at his +chest, still stabbing and thrusting to pass the line of steel +which covered him. Yet his experienced foeman knew well that +such efforts could not be long sustained. Let him relax for one +instant, and his death-blow had come. Relax he must! Flesh and +blood could not stand the strain. Already the thrusts were less +fierce, the foot less ready, although there was no abatement of +the spirit in the steady gray eyes. Tranter, cunning and wary +from years of fighting, knew that his chance had come. He +brushed aside the frail weapon which was opposed to him, whirled +up his great blade, sprang back to get the fairer sweep--and +vanished into the waters of the Garonne. + +So intent had the squires, both combatants and spectators, been +on the matter in hand, that all thought of the steep bank and +swift still stream had gone from their minds. It was not until +Tranter, giving back before the other's fiery rush, was upon the +very brink, that a general cry warned him of his danger. That +last spring, which he hoped would have brought the fight to a +bloody end, carried him clear of the edge, and he found himself +in an instant eight feet deep in the ice-cold stream. Once and +twice his gasping face and clutching fingers broke up through the +still green water, sweeping outwards in the swirl of the current. +In vain were sword-sheaths, apple-branches and belts linked +together thrown out to him by his companions. Alleyne had +dropped his shattered sword and was standing, trembling in every +limb, with his rage all changed in an instant to pity. For the +third time the drowning man came to the surface, his hands full +of green slimy water-plants, his eyes turned in despair to the +shore. Their glance fell upon Alleyne, and he could not +withstand the mute appeal which he read in them. In an instant +he, too, was in the Garonne, striking out with powerful strokes +for his late foeman, + +Yet the current was swift and strong, and, good swimmer as he +was, it was no easy task which Alleyne had set himself. To +clutch at Tranter and to seize him by the hair was the work of a +few seconds, but to hold his head above water and to make their +way out of the current was another matter. For a hundred strokes +he did not seem to gain an inch. Then at last, amid a shout of +joy and praise from the bank, they slowly drew clear into more +stagnant water, at the instant that a rope, made of a dozen +sword-belts linked together by the buckles, was thrown by Ford +into their very hands. Three pulls from eager arms, and the two +combatants, dripping and pale, were dragged up the bank, and lay +panting upon the grass. + +John Tranter was the first to come to himself, for although he +had been longer in the water, he had done nothing during that +fierce battle with the current. He staggered to his feet and +looked down upon his rescuer, who had raised himself upon his +elbow, and was smiling faintly at the buzz of congratulation and +of praise which broke from the squires around him. + +"I am much beholden to you, sir," said Tranter, though in no very +friendly voice. "Certes, I should have been in the river now but +for you, for I was born in Warwickshire, which is but a dry +county, and there are few who swim in those parts." + +"I ask no thanks," Alleyne answered shortly. "Give me your hand +to rise, Ford." + +"The river has been my enemy," said Tranter, "but it hath been a +good friend to you, for it has saved your life this day." + +"That is as it may be," returned Alleyne. + +"But all is now well over," quoth Harcomb, "and no scath come of +it, which is more than I had at one time hoped for. Our young +friend here hath very fairly and honestly earned his right to be +craftsman of the Honorable Guild of the Squires of Bordeaux. +Here is your doublet, Tranter." + +"Alas for my poor sword which lies at the bottom of the Garonne!" +said the squire. + +"Here is your pourpoint, Edricson," cried Norbury. "Throw it +over your shoulders, that you may have at least one dry garment." + +"And now away back to the abbey!" said several. + +"One moment, sirs," cried Alleyne, who was leaning on Ford's +shoulder, with the broken sword, which he had picked up, still +clutched in his right hand. "My ears may be somewhat dulled by +the water, and perchance what has been said has escaped me, but I +have not yet heard this gentleman crave pardon for the insults +which he put upon me in the hall." + +"What! do you still pursue the quarrel?" asked Trenter. + +"And why not, sir? I am slow to take up such things, but once +afoot I shall follow it while I have life or breath." + +"Ma foi! you have not too much of either, for you are as white as +marble," said Harcomb bluntly. "Take my rede, sir, and let it +drop, for you have come very well out from it." + +"Nay," said Alleyne, "this quarrel is none of my making; but, now +that I am here, I swear to you that I shall never leave this spot +until I have that which I have come for: so ask my pardon, sir, +or choose another glaive and to it again." + +The young squire was deadly white from his exertions, both on the +land and in the water. Soaking and stained, with a smear of +blood on his white shoulder and another on his brow, there was +still in his whole pose and set of face the trace of an +inflexible resolution. His opponent's duller and more material +mind quailed before the fire and intensity of a higher spiritual +nature. + +"I had not thought that you had taken it so amiss," said he +awkwardly. "It was but such a jest as we play upon each other, +and, if you must have it so, I am sorry for it." + +"Then I am sorry too," quoth Alleyne warmly, "and here is my hand +upon it." + +"And the none-meat horn has blown three times," quoth Harcomb, as +they all streamed in chattering groups from the ground. "I know +not what the prince's maitre-de-cuisine will say or think. By my +troth! master Ford, your friend here is in need of a cup of wine, +for he hath drunk deeply of Garonne water. I had not thought +from his fair face that he had stood to this matter so shrewdly." + +"Faith," said Ford, "this air of Bordeaux hath turned our turtle- +dove into a game-cock. A milder or more courteous youth never +came out of Hampshire." + +"His master also, as I understand, is a very mild and courteous +gentleman," remarked Harcomb; "yet I do not think that they are +either of them men with whom it is very safe to trifle." + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +HOW AGOSTINO PISANO RISKED HIS HEAD. + +EVEN the squires' table at the Abbey of St. Andrew's at Bordeaux +was on a very sumptuous scale while the prince held his court +there. Here first, after the meagre fare of Beaulieu and the +stinted board of the Lady Loring, Alleyne learned the lengths to +which luxury and refinement might be pushed. Roasted peacocks, +with the feathers all carefully replaced, so that the bird lay +upon the dish even as it had strutted in life, boars' heads with +the tusks gilded and the mouth lined with silver foil, jellies in +the shape of the Twelve Apostles, and a great pasty which formed +an exact model of the king's new castle at Windsor--these were a +few of the strange dishes which faced him. An archer had brought +him a change of clothes from the cog, and he had already, with +the elasticity of youth, shaken off the troubles and fatigues of +the morning. A page from the inner banqueting-hall had come with +word that their master intended to drink wine at the lodgings of +the Lord Chandos that night, and that he desired his squires to +sleep at the hotel of the "Half Moon" on the Rue des Apotres. +Thither then they both set out in the twilight after the long +course of juggling tricks and glee-singing with which the +principal meal was concluded. + +A thin rain was falling as the two youths, with their cloaks over +their heads, made their way on foot through the streets of the +old town, leaving their horses in the royal stables. An +occasional oil lamp at the corner of a street, or in the portico +of some wealthy burgher, threw a faint glimmer over the shining +cobblestones, and the varied motley crowd who, in spite of the +weather, ebbed and flowed along every highway. In those +scattered circles of dim radiance might be seen the whole busy +panorama of life in a wealthy and martial city. Here passed the +round-faced burgher, swollen with prosperity, his sweeping dark- +clothed gaberdine, flat velvet cap, broad leather belt and +dangling pouch all speaking of comfort and of wealth. Behind him +his serving wench, her blue whimple over her head, and one hand +thrust forth to bear the lanthorn which threw a golden bar of +light along her master's path. Behind them a group of +swaggering, half-drunken Yorkshire dalesmen, speaking a dialect +which their own southland countrymen could scarce comprehend, +their jerkins marked with the pelican, which showed that they had +come over in the train of the north-country Stapletons. The +burgher glanced back at their fierce faces and quickened his +step, while the girl pulled her whimple closer round her, for +there was a meaning in their wild eyes, as they stared at the +purse and the maiden, which men of all tongues could understand. +Then came archers of the guard, shrill-voiced women of the camp, +English pages with their fair skins and blue wondering eyes, +dark-robed friars, lounging men-at-arms, swarthy loud-tongued +Gascon serving-men, seamen from the river, rude peasants of the +Medoc, and becloaked and befeathered squires of the court, all +jostling and pushing in an ever-changing, many-colored stream, +while English, French, Welsh, Basque, and the varied dialects of +Gascony and Guienne filled the air with their babel. From time +to time the throng would be burst asunder and a lady's horse- +litter would trot past towards the abbey, or there would come a +knot of torch-bearing archers walking in front of Gascon baron or +English knight, as he sought his lodgings after the palace +revels. Clatter of hoofs, clinking of weapons, shouts {rom the +drunken brawlers, and high laughter of women, they all rose up, +like the mist from a marsh, out of the crowded streets of the +dim-lit city. + +One couple out of the moving throng especially engaged the +attention of the two young squires, the more so as they were +going in their own direction and immediately in front of them. +They consisted of a man and a girl, the former very tall with +rounded shoulders, a limp of one foot, and a large flat object +covered with dark cloth under his arm. His companion was young +and straight, with a quick, elastic step and graceful bearing, +though so swathed in a black mantle that little could be seen of +her face save a flash of dark eyes and a curve of raven hair. +The tall man leaned heavily upon her to take the weight off his +tender foot, while he held his burden betwixt himself and the +wall, cuddling it jealously to his side, and thrusting forward +his young companion to act as a buttress whenever the pressure of +the crowd threatened to bear him away. The evident anxiety of +the man, the appearance of his attendant, and the joint care with +which they defended their concealed possession, excited the +interest of the two young Englishmen who walked within hand-touch +of them. + +"Courage, child!" they heard the tall man exclaim in strange +hybrid French. "If we can win another sixty paces we are safe." + +"Hold it safe, father," the other answered, in the same soft, +mincing dialect. "We have no cause for fear," + +"Verily, they are heathens and barbarians," cried the man; "mad, +howling, drunken barbarians! Forty more paces, Tita mia, and I +swear to the holy Eloi, patron of all learned craftsmen, that I +will never set foot over my door again until the whole swarm are +safely hived in their camp of Dax, or wherever else they curse +with their presence. Twenty more paces, my treasure: Ah, my God! +how they push and brawl! Get in their way, Tita mia! Put your +little elbow bravely out! Set your shoulders squarely against +them, girl! Why should you give way to these mad islanders? Ah, +cospetto! we are ruined and destroyed!" + +The crowd had thickened in front, so that the lame man and the +girl had come to a stand. Several half-drunken English archers, +attracted, as the squires had been, by their singular appearance, +were facing towards them, and peering at them through the dim +light. + +"By the three kings!" cried one, "here is an old dotard shrew to +have so goodly a crutch! Use the leg that God hath given you, +man, and do not bear so heavily upon the wench." + +"Twenty devils fly away with him!" shouted another. "What, how, +man! are brave archers to go maidless while an old man uses one +as a walking-staff?" + +"Come with me, my honey-bird!" cried a third, plucking at the +girl's mantle. + +"Nay, with me, my heart's desire!" said the first. "By St. +George! our life is short, and we should be merry while we may. +May I never see Chester Bridge again, if she is not a right +winsome lass!" + +"What hath the old toad under his arm?" cried one of the others. +"He hugs it to him as the devil hugged the pardoner." + +"Let us see, old bag of bones; let us see what it is that you +have under your arm!" They crowded in upon him, while he, +ignorant of their language, could but clutch the girl with one +hand and the parcel with the other, looking wildly about in +search of help. + +"Nay, lads, nay!" cried Ford, pushing back the nearest archer. +"This is but scurvy conduct. Keep your hands off, or it will be +the worse for you." + +"Keep your tongue still, or it will be the worse for you," +shouted the most drunken of the archers. "Who are you to spoil +sport?" + +"A raw squire, new landed," said another. "By St. Thomas of +Kent! we are at the beck of our master, but we are not to be +ordered by every babe whose mother hath sent him as far as +Aquitaine." + +"Oh, gentlemen," cried the girl in broken French, "for dear +Christ's sake stand by us, and do not let these terrible men do +us an injury." + +"Have no fears, lady," Alleyne answered. "We shall see that all +is well with you. Take your hand from the girl's wrist, you +north-country rogue!" + +"Hold to her, Wat!" said a great black-bearded man-at-arms, whose +steel breast-plate glimmered in the dusk. "Keep your hands from +your bodkins, you two, for that was my trade before you were +born, and, by God's soul! I will drive a handful of steel through +you if you move a finger." + +"Thank God!" said Alleyne suddenly, as he spied in the lamplight +a shock of blazing red hair which fringed a steel cap high above +the heads of the crowd. "Here is John, and Aylward, too! Help +us, comrades, for there is wrong being done to this maid and to +the old man." + +"Hola, mon petit," said the old bowman, pushing his way through +the crowd, with the huge forester at his heels. "What is all +this, then? By the twang of string! I think that you will have +some work upon your hands if you are to right all the wrongs that +you may see upon this side of the water. It is not to be thought +that a troop of bowmen, with the wine buzzing in their ears, will +be as soft-spoken as so many young clerks in an orchard. When +you have been a year with the Company you will think less of such +matters. But what is amiss here? The provost-marshal with his +archers is coming this way, and some of you may find yourselves +in the stretch-neck, if you take not heed." + +"Why, it is old Sam Aylward of the White Company!" shouted the +man-at-arms. "Why, Samkin, what hath come upon thee? I can call +to mind the day when you were as roaring a blade as ever called +himself a free companion. By my soul! from Limoges to Navarre, +who was there who would kiss a wench or cut a throat as readily +as bowman Aylward of Hawkwood's company?" + +"Like enough, Peter," said Aylward, "and, by my hilt! I may not +have changed so much. But it was ever a fair loose and a clear +mark with me. The wench must be willing, or the man must be +standing up against me, else, by these ten finger bones I either +were safe enough for me." + +A glance at Aylward's resolute face, and at the huge shoulders of +Hordle John, had convinced the archers that there was little to +be got by violence. The girl and the old man began to shuffle on +in the crowd without their tormentors venturing to stop them. +Ford and Alleyne followed slowly behind them, but Aylward caught +the latter by the shoulder. + +"By my hilt! camarade," said he, "I hear that you have done great +things at the Abbey to-day, but I pray you to have a care, for it +was I who brought you into the Company, and it would be a black +day for me if aught were to befall you." + +"Nay, Aylward, I will have a care." + +"Thrust not forward into danger too much, mon petit. In a little +time your wrist will be stronger and your cut more shrewd. + +There will be some of us at the 'Rose de Guienne' to-night, which +is two doors from the hotel of the 'Half Moon,' so if you would +drain a cup with a few simple archers you will be right welcome." + +Alleyne promised to be there if his duties would allow, and then, +slipping through the crowd, he rejoined Ford, who was standing in +talk with the two strangers, who had now reached their own +doorstep. + +"Brave young signor," cried the tall man, throwing his arms round +Alleyne, "how can we thank you enough for taking our parts +against those horrible drunken barbarians. What should we have +done without you? My Tita would have been dragged away, and my +head would have been shivered into a thousand fragments." + +"Nay, I scarce think that they would have mishandled you so," +said Alleyne in surprise. + +"Ho, ho!" cried he with a high crowing laugh, "it is not the head +upon my shoulders that I think of. Cospetto! no. It is the head +under my arm which you have preserved." + +"Perhaps the signori would deign to come under our roof, father," +said the maiden. "If we bide here, who knows that some fresh +tumult may not break out." + +"Well said, Tita! Well said, my girl! I pray you, sirs, to +honor my unworthy roof so far. A light, Giacomo! There are five +steps up. Now two more. So! Here we are at last in safety. +Corpo di Baccho! I would not have given ten maravedi for my head +when those children of the devil were pushing us against the +wall. Tita mia, you have been a brave girl, and it was better +that you should be pulled and pushed than that my head should be +broken." + +"Yes indeed, father," said she earnestly. + +"But those English! Ach! Take a Goth, a Hun, and a Vandal, mix +them together and add a Barbary rover; then take this creature +and make him drunk--and you have an Englishman. My God I were +ever such people upon earth! What place is free from them? I +hear that they swarm in Italy even as they swarm here. +Everywhere you will find them, except in heaven." + +"Dear father," cried Tita, still supporting the angry old man, as +he limped up the curved oaken stair. "You must not forget that +these good signori who have preserved us are also English." + +"Ah, yes. My pardon, sirs! Come into my rooms here. There are +some who might find some pleasure in these paintings, but I learn +the art of war is the only art which is held in honor in your +island." + +The low-roofed, oak-panelled room into which he conducted them +was brilliantly lit by four scented oil lamps. Against the +walls, upon the table, on the floor, and in every part of the +chamber were great sheets of glass painted in the most brilliant +colors. Ford and Edricson gazed around them in amazement, for +never had they seen such magnificent works of art. + +"You like them then," the lame artist cried, in answer to the +look of pleasure and of surprise in their faces. "There are then +some of you who have a taste for such trifling." + +"I could not have believed it," exclaimed Alleyne. "What color! +What outlines! See to this martyrdom of the holy Stephen, Ford. +Could you not yourself pick up one of these stones which lie to +the hand of the wicked murtherers?" + +"And see this stag, Alleyne, with the cross betwixt its horns. +By my faith! I have never seen a better one at the Forest of +Bere." + +"And the green of this grass--how bright and clear! Why all the +painting that I have seen is but child's play beside this. This +worthy gentleman must be one of those great painters of whom I +have oft heard brother Bartholomew speak in the old days at +Beaulieu." + +The dark mobile face of the artist shone with pleasure at the +unaffected delight of the two young Englishmen. His daughter had +thrown off her mantle and disclosed a face of the finest and most +delicate Italian beauty, which soon drew Ford's eyes from the +pictures in front of him. Alleyne, however, continued with +little cries of admiration and of wonderment to turn from the +walls to the table and yet again to the walls. + +"What think you of this, young sir?" asked the painter, tearing +off the cloth which concealed the flat object which he had borne +beneath his arm. It was a leaf-shaped sheet of glass bearing +upon it a face with a halo round it, so delicately outlined, and +of so perfect a tint, that it might have been indeed a human face +which gazed with sad and thoughtful eyes upon the young squire. +He clapped his hands, with that thrill of joy which true art will +ever give to a true artist. + +"It is great!" he cried. "It is wonderful! But I marvel, sir, +that you should have risked a work of such beauty and value by +bearing it at night through so unruly a crowd." + +"I have indeed been rash," said the artist. "Some wine, Tita, +from the Florence flask! Had it not been for you, I tremble to +think of what might have come of it. See to the skin tint: it is +not to be replaced, for paint as you will, it is not once in a +hundred times that it is not either burned too brown in the +furnace or else the color will not hold, and you get but a sickly +white. There you can see the very veins and the throb of thee +blood. Yes, diavolo! if it had broken, my heart would have +broken too. It is for the choir window in the church of St. +Remi, and we had gone, my little helper and I, to see if it was +indeed of the size for the stonework. Night had fallen ere we +finished, and what could we do save carry it home as best we +might? But you, young sir, you speak as if you too knew +something of the art." + +"So little that I scarce dare speak of it in your presence," +Alleyne answered. "I have been cloister-bred, and it was no very +great matter to handle the brush better than my brother novices." + +"There are pigments, brush, and paper," said the old artist. "I +do not give you glass, for that is another matter, and takes much +skill in the mixing of colors. Now I pray you to show me a touch +of your art. I thank you, Tita! The Venetian glasses, cara mia, +and fill them to the brim. A seat, signor!" + +While Ford, in his English-French, was conversing with Tita in +her Italian French, the old man was carefully examining his +precious head to see that no scratch had been left upon its +surface. When he glanced up again, Alleyne had, with a few bold +strokes of the brush, tinted in a woman's face and neck upon the +white sheet in front of him. + +"Diavolo!" exclaimed the old artist, standing with his head on +one side, "you have power; yes, cospetto! you have power, it is +the face of an angel!" + +"It is the face of the Lady Maude Loring!" cried Ford, even more +astonished. + +"Why, on my faith, it is not unlike her!" said Alleyne, in some +confusion. + +"Ah! a portrait! So much the better. Young man, I am Agostino +Pisano, the son of Andrea Pisano, and I say again that you have +power. Further, I say, that, if you will stay with me, I will +teach you all the secrets of the glass-stainers' mystery: the +pigments and their thickening, which will fuse into the glass and +which will not, the furnace and the glazing--every trick and +method you shall know." + +"I would be right glad to study under such a master," said +Alleyne; "but I am sworn to follow my lord whilst this war +lasts." + +"War! war!" cried the old Italian. "Ever this talk of war. And +the men that you hold to be great--what are they? Have I not +heard their names? Soldiers, butchers, destroyers! Ah, per +Bacco! we have men in Italy who are in very truth great. You +pull down, you despoil; but they build up, they restore. Ah, if +you could but see my own dear Pisa, the Duomo, the cloisters of +Campo Santo, the high Campanile, with the mellow throb of her +bells upon the warm Italian air! Those are the works of great +men. And I have seen them with my own eyes, these very eyes +which look upon you. I have seen Andrea Orcagna, Taddeo Gaddi, +Giottino, Stefano, Simone Memmi--men whose very colors I am not +worthy to mix. And I have seen the aged Giotto, and he in turn +was pupil to Cimabue, before whom there was no art in Italy, for +the Greeks were brought to paint the chapel of the Gondi at +Florence. Ah, signori, there are the real great men whose names +will be held in honor when your soldiers are shown to have been +the enemies of humankind." + +"Faith, sir," said Ford, "there is something to say for the +soldiers also, for, unless they be defended, how are all these +gentlemen whom you have mentioned to preserve the pictures which +they have painted?" + +"And all these!" said Alleyne. "Have you indeed done them all?-- +and where are they to go?" + +"Yes, signor, they are all from my hand. Some are, as you see, +upon one sheet, and some are in many pieces which may fasten +together, There are some who do but paint upon the glass, and +then, by placing another sheet of glass upon the top and +fastening it, they keep the air from their painting. Yet I hold +that the true art of my craft lies as much in the furnace as in +the brush. See this rose window, which is from the model of the +Church of the Holy Trinity at Vendome, and this other of the +'Finding of the Grail,' which is for the apse of the Abbey +church. Time was when none but my countrymen could do these +things; but there is Clement of Chartres and others in France who +are very worthy workmen. But, ah! there is that ever shrieking +brazen tongue which will not let us forget for one short hour +that it is the arm of the savage, and not the hand of the master, +which rules over the world." + +A stern, clear bugle call had sounded close at hand to summon +some following together for the night. + +"It is a sign to us as well," said Ford. "I would fain stay here +forever amid all these beautiful things--" staring hard at the +blushing Tita as he spoke--"but we must be back at our lord's +hostel ere he reach it." Amid renewed thanks and with promises +to come again, the two squires bade their leave of the old +Italian glass-stainer and his daughter. The streets were clearer +now, and the rain had stopped, so they made their way quickly +from the Rue du Roi, in which their new friends dwelt, to the Rue +des Apotres, where the hostel of the "Half Moon" was situated. + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +HOW THE BOWMEN HELD WASSAIL AT THE "ROSE DE GUIENNE." + +"MON Dieu! Alleyne, saw you ever so lovely a face?" cried Ford +as they hurried along together. "So pure, so peaceful, and so +beautiful!" + +"In sooth, yes. And the hue of the skin the most perfect that +ever I saw. Marked you also how the hair curled round the brow? +It was wonder fine." + +"Those eyes, too!" cried Ford. "How clear and how tender -- +simple. and yet so full of thought!" + +"If there was a weakness it was in the chin," said Alleyne. + +"Nay. I saw none." + +"It was well curved, it is true." + +"Most daintily so." + +"And yet----" + +"What then, Alleyne? Wouldst find flaw in the sun?" + +"Well, bethink you, Ford, would not more power and expression +have been put into the face by a long and noble beard?" + +"Holy Virgin!" cried Ford, "the man is mad. A beard on the face +of little Tita!" + +"Tita! Who spoke of Tita?" + +"Who spoke of aught else?" + +"It was the picture of St. Remy, man, of which I have been +discoursing." + +"You are indeed," cried Ford, laughing, "a Goth, Hun, and Vandal, +with all the other hard names which the old man called us. How +could you think so much of a smear of pigments, when there was +such a picture painted by the good God himself in the very room +with you? But who is this?" + +"If it please you, sirs," said an archer, running across to them, +"Aylward and others would be right glad to see you. They are +within here. He bade me say to you that the Lord Loring will not +need your service to-night, as he sleeps with the Lord Chandos." + +"By my faith!" said Ford, "we do not need a guide to lead us to +their presence." As he spoke there came a roar of singing from +the tavern upon the right, with shouts of laughter and stamping +of feet. Passing under a low door, and down a stone-flagged +passage, they found themselves in a long narrow hall lit up by a +pair of blazing torches, one at either end. Trusses of straw had +been thrown down along the walls, and reclining on them were some +twenty or thirty archers, all of the Company, their steel caps +and jacks thrown off, their tunics open and their great limbs +sprawling upon the clay floor. At every man's elbow stood his +leathern blackjack of beer, while at the further end a hogshead +with its end knocked in promised an abundant supply for the +future. Behind the hogshead, on a half circle of kegs, boxes, +and rude settles, sat Aylward, John, Black Simon and three or +four other leading men of the archers, together with Goodwin +Hawtayne, the master-shipman, who had left his yellow cog in the +river to have a last rouse with his friends of the Company. Ford +and Alleyne took their seats between Aylward and Black Simon, +without their entrance checking in any degree the hubbub which +was going on. + +"Ale, mes camarades?" cried the bowman, "or shall it be wine? +Nay, but ye must have the one or the other. Here, Jacques, thou +limb of the devil, bring a bottrine of the oldest vernage, and +see that you do not shake it. Hast heard the news?" + +"Nay," cried both the squires. + +"That we are to have a brave tourney." + +"A tourney?" + +"Aye, lads. For the Captal du Buch hath sworn that he will find +five knights from this side of the water who will ride over any +five Englishmen who ever threw leg over saddle; and Chandos hath +taken up the challenge, and the prince hath promised a golden +vase for the man who carries himself best, and all the court is +in a buzz over it." + +"Why should the knights have all the sport?" growled Hordle John. +"Could they not set up five archers for the honor of Aquitaine +and of Gascony?" + +"Or five men-at-arms," said Black Simon. + +"But who are the English knights?" asked Hawtayne. + +"There are three hundred and forty-one in the town," said +Aylward, "and I hear that three hundred and forty cartels and +defiances have already been sent in, the only one missing being +Sir John Ravensholme, who is in his bed with the sweating +sickness, and cannot set foot to ground." + +"I have heard of it from one of the archers of the guard," cried +a bowman from among the straw; "I hear that the prince wished to +break a lance, but that Chandos would not hear of it, for the +game is likely to be a rough one." + +"Then there is Chandos." + +"Nay, the prince would not permit it. He is to be marshal of the +lists, with Sir William Felton and the Duc d'Armagnac. The +English will be the Lord Audley, Sir Thomas Percy, Sir Thomas +Wake, Sir William Beauchamp, and our own very good lord and +leader." + +"Hurrah for him, and God be with him!" cried several. "It is +honor to draw string in his service," + +"So you may well say," said Aylward. "By my ten finger-bones! if +you march behind the pennon of the five roses you are like to see +all that a good bowman would wish to see. Ha! yes, mes garcons, +you laugh, but, by my hilt! you may not laugh when you find +yourselves where he will take you, for you can never tell what +strange vow he may not have sworn to. I see that he has a patch +over his eye, even as he had at Poictiers. There will come +bloodshed of that patch, or I am the more mistaken." + +"How chanced it at Poictiers, good Master Aylward?" asked one of +the young archers, leaning upon his elbows, with his eyes fixed +respectfully upon the old bowman's rugged face. + +"Aye, Aylward, tell us of it," cried Hordle John, + +"Here is to old Samkin Aylward!" shouted several at the further +end of the room, waving their blackjacks in the air. + +"Ask him!" said Aylward modestly, nodding towards Black Simon. +"He saw more than I did. And yet, by the holy nails! there was +not very much that I did not see either." + +"Ah, yes," said Simon, shaking his head, "it was a great day. I +never hope to see such another. There were some fine archers who +drew their last shaft that day. We shall never see better men, +Aylward." + +"By my hilt! no. There was little Robby Withstaff, and Andrew +Salblaster, and Wat Alspaye, who broke the neck of the German. +Mon Dieu! what men they were! Take them how you would, at long +butts or short, hoyles, rounds, or rovers, better bowmen never +twirled a shaft over their thumb-nails." + +"But the fight, Aylward, the fight!" cried several impatiently. + +"Let me fill my jack first, boys, for it is a thirsty tale. It +was at the first fall of the leaf that the prince set forth, and +he passed through Auvergne, and Berry, and Anjou, and Touraine. +In Auvergne the maids are kind, but the wines are sour. In Berry +it is the women that are sour, but the wines are rich. Anjou, +however, is a very good land for bowmen, for wine and women are +all that heart could wish. In Touraine I got nothing save a +broken pate, but at Vierzon I had a great good fortune, for I had +a golden pyx from the minster, for which I afterwards got nine +Genoan janes from the goldsmith in the Rue Mont Olive. From +thence we went to Bourges, were I had a tunic of flame-colored +silk and a very fine pair of shoes with tassels of silk and drops +of silver." + +"From a stall, Aylward?" asked one of the young archers. + +"Nay, from a man's feet, lad. I had reason to think that he +might not need them again, seeing that a thirty-inch shaft had +feathered in his back." + +"And what then, Aylward?" + +"On we went, coz, some six thousand of us, until we came to +Issodun, and there again a very great thing befell." + +"A battle, Aylward?" + +"Nay, nay; a greater thing than that. There is little to be +gained out of a battle, unless one have the fortune to win a +ransom. At Issodun I and three Welshmen came upon a house which +all others had passed, and we had the profit of it to ourselves. +For myself, I had a fine feather-bed--a thing which you will not +see in a long day's journey in England. You have seen it, +Alleyne, and you, John. You will bear me out that it is a noble +bed. We put it on a sutler's mule, and bore it after the army. +It was on my mind that I would lay it by until I came to start +house of mine own, and I have it now in a very safe place near +Lyndhurst." + +"And what then, master-bowman?" asked Hawtayne. "By St. +Christopher! it is indeed a fair and goodly life which you have +chosen, for you gather up the spoil as a Warsash man gathers +lobsters, without grace or favor from any man." + +"You are right, master-shipman," said another of the older +archers. "It is an old bowyer's rede that the second feather of +a fenny goose is better than the pinion of a tame one. Draw on +old lad, for I have come between you and the clout." + +"On we went then," said Aylward, after a long pull at his +blackjack. "There were some six thousand of us, with the prince +and his knights, and the feather-bed upon a sutler's mule in the +centre. We made great havoc in Touraine, until we came into +Romorantin, where I chanced upon a gold chain and two bracelets +of jasper, which were stolen from me the same day by a black-eyed +wench from the Ardennes. Mon Dieu! there are some folk who have +no fear of Domesday in them, and no sign of grace in their souls, +for ever clutching and clawing at another's chattels." + +"But the battle, Aylward, the battle!" cried several, amid a +burst of laughter. + +"I come to it, my young war-pups. Well, then, the King of France +had followed us with fifty thousand men, and he made great haste +to catch us, but when he had us he scarce knew what to do with +us, for we were so drawn up among hedges and vineyards that they +could not come nigh us, save by one lane. On both sides were +archers, men-at-arms and knights behind, and in the centre the +baggage, with my feather-bed upon a sutler's mule. Three hundred +chosen knights came straight for it, and, indeed, they were very +brave men, but such a drift of arrows met them that few came +back. Then came the Germans, and they also fought very bravely, +so that one or two broke through the archers and came as far as +the feather-bed, but all to no purpose. Then out rides our own +little hothead with the patch over his eye, and my Lord Audley +with his four Cheshire squires, and a few others of like kidney, +and after them went the prince and Chandos, and then the whole +throng of us, with axe and sword, for we had shot away our +arrows. Ma foi! it was a foolish thing, for we came forth from +the hedges, and there was naught to guard the baggage had they +ridden round behind us. But all went well with us, and the king +was taken, and little Robby Withstaff and I fell in with a wain +with twelve, firkins of wine for the king's own table, and, by my +hilt! if you ask me what happened after that, I cannot answer +you, nor can little Robby Withstaff either." + +"And next day?" + +"By my faith! we did not tarry long, but we hied back to +Bordeaux, where we came in safety with the King of France and +also the feather-bed. I sold my spoil, mes garcons, for as many +gold-pieces as I could hold in my hufken, and for seven days I +lit twelve wax candles upon the altar of St. Andrew; for if you +forget the blessed when things are well with you, they are very +likely to forget you when you have need of them. I have a score +of one hundred and nineteen pounds of wax against the holy +Andrew, and, as he was a very just man, I doubt not that I shall +have full weigh and measure when I have most need of it." + +"Tell me, master Aylward," cried a young fresh-faced archer at +the further end of the room, "what was this great battle about?" + +"Why, you jack-fool, what would it be about save who should wear +the crown of France?" + +"I thought that mayhap it might be as to who should have this +feather-bed of thine." + +"If I come down to you, Silas, I may lay my belt across your +shoulders," Aylward answered, amid a general shout of laughter. +"But it is time young chickens went to roost when they dare +cackle against their elders. It is late, Simon." + +"Nay, let us have another song." + +"Here is Arnold of Sowley will troll as good a stave as any man +in the Company." + +"Nay, we have one here who is second to none," said Hawtayne, +laying his hand upon big John's shoulder. "I have heard him on +the cog with a voice like the wave upon the shore. I pray you, +friend, to give us 'The Bells of Milton,' or, if you will, 'The +Franklin's Maid.' " + +Hordle John drew the back of his hand across his mouth, fixed his +eyes upon the corner of the ceiling, and bellowed forth, in a +voice which made the torches flicker, the southland ballad for +which he had been asked:-- + + The franklin he hath gone to roam, The franklin's maid she bides +at home, But she is cold and coy and staid, And who may win the +franklin's maid? + + There came a knight of high renown In bassinet and ciclatoun; On +bended knee full long he prayed, He might not win the franklin's +maid. + + There came a squire so debonair His dress was rich, his words +were fair, He sweetly sang, he deftly played: He could not win +the franklin's maid. + + There came a mercer wonder-fine With velvet cap and gaberdine; +For all his ships, for all his trade He could not buy the +franklin's maid. + + There came an archer bold and true, With bracer guard and stave +of yew; His purse was light, his jerkin frayed; Haro, alas! the +franklin's maid! + + Oh, some have laughed and some have cried And some have scoured +the country-side! But off they ride through wood and glade, The +bowman and the franklin's maid. + + A roar of delight from his audience, with stamping of feet and +beating of blackjacks against the ground, showed how thoroughly +the song was to their taste, while John modestly retired into a +quart pot, which he drained in four giant gulps. "I sang that +ditty in Hordle ale-house ere I ever thought to be an archer +myself," quoth he. + +"Fill up your stoups!" cried Black Simon, thrusting his own +goblet into the open hogshead in front of him. "Here is a last +cup to the White Company, and every brave boy who walks behind +the roses of Loring!" + +"To the wood, the flax, and the gander's wing!" said an old gray- +headed archer on the right, + +"To a gentle loose, and the king of Spain for a mark at fourteen +score!" cried another. + +"To a bloody war!" shouted a fourth. "Many to go and few to +come!" + +"With the most gold to the best steel!" added a fifth. + +And a last cup to the maids of our heart!" cried Aylward "A +steady hand and a true eye, boys; so let two quarts be a bowman's +portion." With shout and jest and snatch of song they streamed +from the room, and all was peaceful once more in the "Rose de +Guienne." + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +HOW ENGLAND HELD THE LISTS AT BORDEAUX. + +SO used were the good burghers of Bordeaux to martial display and +knightly sport, that an ordinary joust or tournament was an +everyday matter with them. The fame and brilliancy of the +prince's court had drawn the knights-errant and pursuivants-of- +arms from every part of Europe. In the long lists by the Garonne +on the landward side of the northern gate there had been many a +strange combat, when the Teutonic knight, fresh from the conquest +of the Prussian heathen, ran a course against the knight of +Calatrava, hardened by continual struggle against the Moors, or +cavaliers from Portugal broke a lance with Scandinavian warriors +from the further shore of the great Northern Ocean. Here +fluttered many an outland pennon, bearing symbol and blazonry +from the banks of the Danube, the wilds of Lithuania and the +mountain strongholds of Hungary; for chivalry was of no clime and +of no race, nor was any land so wild that the fame and name of +the prince had not sounded through it from border to border. + +Great, however, was the excitement through town and district when +it was learned that on the third Wednesday in Advent there would +be held a passage-at-arms in which five knights of England would +hold the lists against all comers. The great concourse of +noblemen and famous soldiers, the national character of the +contest, and the fact that this was a last trial of arms before +what promised to be an arduous and bloody war, all united to make +the event one of the most notable and brilliant that Bordeaux had +ever seen. On the eve of the contest the peasants flocked in +from the whole district of the Medoc, and the fields beyond the +walls were whitened with the tents of those who could find no +warmer lodging. From the distant camp of Dax, too, and from +Blaye, Bourge, Libourne, St. Emilion, Castillon, St. Macaire, +Cardillac, Ryons, and all the cluster of flourishing towns which +look upon Bordeaux as their mother, there thronged an unceasing +stream of horsemen and of footmen, all converging upon the great +city. By the morning of the day on which the courses were to be +run, not less than eighty people had assembled round the lists +and along the low grassy ridge which looks down upon the scene of +the encounter. + +It was, as may well be imagined, no easy matter among so many +noted cavaliers to choose out five on either side who should have +precedence over their fellows. A score of secondary combats had +nearly arisen from the rivalries and bad blood created by the +selection, and it was only the influence of the prince and the +efforts of the older barons which kept the peace among so many +eager and fiery soldiers. Not till the day before the courses +were the shields finally hung out for the inspection of the +ladies and the heralds, so that all men might know the names of +the champions and have the opportunity to prefer any charge +against them, should there be stain upon them which should +disqualify them from taking part in so noble and honorable a +ceremony. + +Sir Hugh Calverley and Sir Robert Knolles had not yet returned +from their raid into the marches of the Navarre, so that the +English party were deprived of two of their most famous lances. +Yet there remained so many good names that Chandos and Felton, to +whom the selection had been referred, had many an earnest +consultation, in which every feat of arms and failure or success +of each candidate was weighed and balanced against the rival +claims of his companions. Lord Audley of Cheshire, the hero of +Poictiers, and Loring of Hampshire, who was held to be the +second lance in the army, were easily fixed upon. Then, of the +younger men, Sir Thomas Percy of Northumberland, Sir Thomas Wake +of Yorkshire, and Sir William Beauchamp of Gloucestershire, were +finally selected to uphold the honor of England. On the other +side were the veteran Captal de Buch and the brawny Olivier de +Clisson, with the free companion Sir Perducas d'Albert, the +valiant Lord of Mucident, and Sigismond von Altenstadt, of the +Teutonic Order. The older soldiers among the English shook their +heads as they looked upon the escutcheons of these famous +warriors, for they were all men who had spent their lives upon +the saddle, and bravery and strength can avail little against +experience and wisdom of war. + +"By my faith! Sir John," said the prince as he rode through the +winding streets on his way to the list, "I should have been glad +to have splintered a lance to-day. You have seen me hold a spear +since I had strength to lift one, and should know best whether I +do not merit a place among this honorable company." + +"There is no better seat and no truer lance, sire," said Chandos; +"but, if I may say so without fear of offence, it were not +fitting that you should join in this debate." + +"And why, Sir John?" + +"Because, sire, it is not for you to take part with Gascons +against English, or with English against Gascons, seeing that you +are lord of both. We are not too well loved by the Gascons now, +and it is but the golden link of your princely coronet which +holds us together. If that be snapped I know not what would +follow." + +"Snapped, Sir John!" cried the prince, with an angry sparkle in +his dark eyes. "What manner of talk is this? You speak as +though the allegiance of our people were a thing which might be +thrown off or on like a falcon's jessel." + +"With a sorry hack one uses whip and spur, sire," said Chandos; +"but with a horse of blood and spirit a good cavalier is gentle +and soothing, coaxing rather than forcing. These folk are +strange people, and you must hold their love, even as you have it +now, for you will get from their kindness what all the pennons in +your army could not wring from them." + +"You are over-grave to-day, John," the prince answered. "We may +keep such questions for our council-chamber. But how now, my +brothers of Spain, and of Majorca. what think you of this +challenge?" + +"I look to see some handsome joisting," said Don Pedro, who rode +with the King of Majorca upon the right of the prince, while +Chandos was on the left. "By St. James of Compostella! but these +burghers would bear some taxing. See to the broadcloth and +velvet that the rogues bear upon their backs! By my troth! if +they were my subjects they would be glad enough to wear falding +and leather ere I had done with them. But mayhap it is best to +let the wool grow long ere you clip it." + +"It is our pride," the prince answered coldly, "that we rule over +freemen and not slaves." + +"Every man to his own humor," said Pedro carelessly. "Carajo! +there is a sweet face at yonder window! Don Fernando, I pray you +to mark the house, and to have the maid brought to us at the +abbey." + +"Nay, brother, nay!" cried the prince impatiently. "I have had +occasion to tell you more than once that things are not ordered +in this way in Aquitaine." + +"A thousand pardons, dear friend," the Spaniard answered quickly, +for a flush of anger had sprung to the dark cheek of the English +prince. "You make my exile so like a home that I forget at times +that I am not in very truth back in Castile. Every land hath +indeed its ways and manners; but I promise you, Edward, that when +you are my guest in Toledo or Madrid you shall not yearn in vain +for any commoner's daughter on whom you may deign to cast your +eye." + +"Your talk, sire," said the prince still more coldly, "is not +such as I love to hear from your lips. I have no taste for such +amours as you speak of, and I have sworn that my name shall be +coupled with that of no woman save my ever dear wife." + +"Ever the mirror of true chivalry!" exclaimed Pedro, while James +of Majorca, frightened at the stern countenance of their all- +powerful protector, plucked hard at the mantle of his brother +exile. + +"Have a care, cousin," he whispered; "for the sake of the Virgin +have a care, for you have angered him." + +"Pshaw! fear not," the other answered in the same low tone. "If +I miss one stoop I will strike him on the next. Mark me else. +Fair cousin," he continued, turning to the prince, "these be rare +men-at-arms and lusty bowmen. It would be hard indeed to match +them." + +"They have Journeyed far, sire, but they have never yet found +their match." + +"Nor ever will, I doubt not. I feel myself to be back upon my +throne when I look at them. But tell me, dear coz, what shall we +do next, when we have driven this bastard Henry from the kingdom +which he hath filched?" + +"We shall then compel the King of Aragon to place our good friend +and brother James of Majorca upon the throne." + +"Noble and generous prince!" cried the little monarch. + +"That done," said King Pedro, glancing out of the corners of his +eyes at the young conqueror, "we shall unite the forces of +England, of Aquitaine, of Spain and of Majorca. It would be +shame to us if we did not do some great deed with such forces +ready to our hand." + +"You say truly, brother," cried the prince, his eyes kindling at +the thought. "Methinks that we could not do anything more +pleasing to Our Lady than to drive the heathen Moors out of the +country." + +"I am with you, Edward, as true as hilt to blade. But, by St. +James! we shall not let these Moors make mock at us from over the +sea. We must take ship and thrust them from Africa." + +"By heaven, yes!" cried the prince. "And it is the dream of my +heart that our English pennons shall wave upon the Mount of +Olives, and the lions and lilies float over the holy city." + +"And why not, dear coz? Your bowmen have cleared a path to +Paris, and why not to Jerusalem? Once there, your arms might +rest." + +"Nay, there is more to be done," cried the prince, carried away +by the ambitious dream. "There is still the city of Constantine +to be taken, and war to be waged against the Soldan of Damascus. +And beyond him again there is tribute to be levied from the Cham +of Tartary and from the kingdom of Cathay. Ha! John, what say +you? Can we not go as far eastward as Richard of the Lion +Heart?" + +"Old John will bide at home, sire," said the rugged soldier. "By +my soul! as long as I am seneschal of Aquitaine I will find +enough to do in guarding the marches which you have entrusted to +me. It would be a blithe day for the King of France when he +heard that the seas lay between him and us." + +"By my soul! John," said the prince, "I have never known you turn +laggard before." + +"The babbling hound, sire, is not always the first at the mort," +the old knight answered. + +"Nay, my true-heart! I have tried you too often not to know. +But, by my soul! I have not seen so dense a throng since the day +that we brought King John down Cheapside." + +It was indeed an enormous crowd which covered the whole vast +plain from the line of vineyards to the river bank. From the +northern gate the prince and his companions looked down at a dark +sea of heads, brightened here and there by the colored hoods of +the women, or by the sparkling head-pieces of archers and men-at- +arms. In the centre of this vast assemblage the lists seemed but +a narrow strip of green marked out with banners and streamers, +while a gleam of white with a flutter of pennons at either end +showed where the marquees were pitched which served as the +dressing-rooms of the combatants. A path had been staked off +from the city gate to the stands which had been erected for the +court and the nobility. Down this, amid the shouts of the +enormous multitude, the prince cantered with his two attendant +kings, his high officers of state, and his long train of lords +and ladies, courtiers, counsellors, and soldiers, with toss of +plume and flash of jewel, sheen of silk and glint of gold--as +rich and gallant a show as heart could wish. The head of the +cavalcade had reached the lists ere the rear had come clear of +the city gate, for the fairest and the bravest had assembled from +all the broad lands which are watered by the Dordogne and the +Garonne. Here rode dark-browed cavaliers from the sunny south, +fiery soldiers from Gascony, graceful courtiers of Limousin or +Saintonge, and gallant young Englishmen from beyond the seas. +Here too were the beautiful brunettes of the Gironde, with eyes +which out-flashed their jewels, while beside them rode their +blonde sisters of England, clear cut and aquiline, swathed in +swans'-down and in ermine, for the air was biting though the sun +was bright. Slowly the long and glittering train wound into the +lists, until every horse had been tethered by the varlets in +waiting, and every lord and lady seated in the long stands which +stretched, rich in tapestry and velvet and blazoned arms, on +either side of the centre of the arena. + +The holders of the lists occupied the end which was nearest to +the city gate. There, in front of their respective pavilions, +flew the martlets of Audley, the roses of Loring, the scarlet +bars of Wake. the lion of the Percies and the silver wings of +the Beauchamps, each supported by a squire clad in hanging green +stuff to represent so many Tritons, and bearing a huge conch- +shell in their left hands. Behind the tents the great war- +horses, armed at all points, champed and reared, while their +masters sat at the doors of their pavilions, with their helmets +upon their knees, chatting as to the order of the day's doings. +The English archers and men-at-arms had mustered at that end of +the lists, but the vast majority of the spectators were in favor +of the attacking party, for the English had declined in +popularity ever since the bitter dispute as to the disposal of +the royal captive after the battle of Poictiers. Hence the +applause was by no means general when the herald-at-arms +proclaimed, after a flourish of trumpets, the names and styles of +the knights who were prepared, for the honor of their country +and for the love of their ladies, to hold the field against all +who might do them the favor to run a course with them. On the +other hand, a deafening burst of cheering greeted the rival +herald, who, advancing from the other end of the lists, rolled +forth the well-known titles of the five famous warriors who had +accepted the defiance. + +"Faith, John," said the prince, "it sounds as though you were +right. "Ha! my grace D'Armagnac, it seems that our friends on +this side will not grieve if our English champions lose the day." + +"It may be so, sire," the Gascon nobleman answered. "I have +little doubt that in Smithfield or at Windsor an English crowd +would favor their own countrymen." + +"By my faith! that's easily seen," said the prince, laughing, +"for a few score English archers at yonder end are bellowing as +though they would out-shout the mighty multitude. I fear that +they will have little to shout over this journey, for my gold +vase has small prospect of crossing the water. What are the +conditions, John?" + +"They are to tilt singly not less than three courses, sire, and +the victory to rest with that party which shall have won the +greater number of courses, each pair continuing till one or other +have the vantage. He who carries himself best of the victors +hath the prize, and he who is judged best of the other party hath +a jewelled clasp. Shall I order that the nakirs sound, sire?" + +The prince nodded, and the trumpets rang out, while the champions +rode forth one after the other, each meeting his opponent in the +centre of the lists. Sir William Beauchamp went down before the +practiced lance of the Captal de Buch. Sir Thomas Percy won the +vantage over the Lord of Mucident, and the Lord Audley struck Sir +Perducas d'Albert from the saddle. The burly De Clisson, +however, restored the hopes of the attackers by beating to the +ground Sir Thomas Wake of Yorkshire. So far, there was little to +choose betwixt challengers and challenged. + +"By Saint James of Santiago!" cried Don Pedro, with a tinge of +color upon his pale cheeks, "win who will, this has been a most +notable contest." + +"Who comes next for England, John?" asked the prince in a voice +which quivered with excitement. + +"Sir Nigel Loring of Hampshire, sire." + +"Ha! he is a man of good courage, and skilled in the use of all +weapons." + +"He is indeed, sire. But his eyes, like my own, are the worse +for wars. Yet he can tilt or play his part at hand-strokes as +merrily as ever. It was he, sire, who won the golden crown which +Queen Philippa, your royal mother, gave to be jousted for by all +the knights of England after the harrying of Calais. I have +heard that at Twynham Castle there is a buffet which groans +beneath the weight of his prizes." + +"I pray that my vase may join them," said the prince. "But here +is the cavalier of Germany, and by my soul! he looks like a man +of great valor and hardiness. Let them run their full three +courses, for the issue is over-great to hang upon one." + +As the prince spoke, amid a loud flourish of trumpets and the +shouting of the Gascon party, the last of the assailants rode +gallantly into the lists. He was a man of great size, clad in +black armor without blazonry or ornament of any kind, for all +worldly display was forbidden by the rules of the military +brotherhood to which he belonged. No plume or nobloy fluttered +from his plain tilting salade, and even his lance was devoid of +the customary banderole. A white mantle fluttered behind him, +upon the left side of which was marked the broad black cross +picked out with silver which was the well-known badge of the +Teutonic Order. Mounted upon a horse as large, as black, and as +forbidding as himself, he cantered slowly forward, with none of +those prancings and gambades with which a cavalier was accustomed +to show his command over his charger. Gravely and sternly he +inclined his head to the prince, and took his place ar the +further end of the arena. + +He had scarce done so before Sir Nigel rode out from the holders' +enclosure, and galloping at full speed down the lists, drew his +charger up before the prince's stand with a jerk which threw it +back upon its haunches. With white armor, blazoned shield, and +plume of ostrich-feathers from his helmet, he carried himself in +so jaunty and joyous a fashion, with tossing pennon and +curvetting charger, that a shout of applause ran the full circle +of the arena. With the air of a man who hastes to a joyous +festival, he waved his lance in salute, and reining the pawing- +horse round without permitting its fore-feet to touch the ground, +he hastened back to his station. + +A great hush fell over the huge multitude as the two last +champions faced each other. A double issue seemed to rest upon +their contest, for their personal fame was at stake as well as +their party's honor. Both were famous warriors, but as their +exploits had been performed in widely sundered countries, they +had never before been able to cross lances. A course between +such men would have been enough in itself to cause the keenest +interest, apart from its being the crisis which would decide who +should be the victors of the day. For a moment they waited--the +German sombre and collected, Sir Nigel quivering in every fibre +with eagerness and fiery resolution. Then, amid a long-drawn +breath from the spectators, the glove fell from the marshal's +hand, and the two steel-clad horsemen met like a thunderclap in +front of the royal stand. The German, though he reeled for an +instant before the thrust of the Englishman, struck his opponent +so fairly upon the vizor that the laces burst, the plumed helmet +flew to pieces, and Sir Nigel galloped on down the lists with his +bald head shimmering in the sunshine. A thousand waving scarves +and tossing caps announced that the first bout had fallen to the +popular party. + +The Hampshire knight was not a man to be disheartened by a +reverse. He spurred back to the pavilion, and was out in a few +instants with another helmet. The second course was so equal +that the keenest judges could not discern any vantage. Each +struck fire from the other's shield, and each endured the jarring +shock as though welded to the horse beneath him. In the final +bout, however, Sir Nigel struck his opponent with so true an aim +that the point of the lance caught between the bars of his vizor +and tore the front of his helmet out, while the German, aiming +somewhat low, and half stunned by the shock, had the misfortune +to strike his adversary upon the thigh, a breach of the rules of +the tilting-yard, by which he not only sacrificed his chances of +success, but would also have forfeited his horse and his armor, +had the English knight chosen to claim them. A roar of applause +from the English soldiers, with an ominous silence from the vast +crowd who pressed round the barriers, announced that the balance +of victory lay with the holders. Already the ten champions had +assembled in front of the prince to receive his award, when a +harsh bugle call from the further end of the lists drew all eyes +to a new and unexpected arrival. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +HOW A CHAMPION CAME FORTH FROM THE EAST. + +THE Bordeaux lists were, as has already been explained, situated +upon the plain near the river upon those great occasions when the +tilting-ground in front of the Abbey of St. Andrew's was deemed +to be too small to contain the crowd. On the eastern side of +this plain the country-side sloped upwards, thick with vines in +summer, but now ridged with the brown bare enclosures. Over the +gently rising plain curved the white road which leads inland, +usually flecked with travellers, but now with scarce a living +form upon it, so completely had the lists drained all the +district of its inhabitants. Strange it was to see such a vast +concourse of people, and then to look upon that broad, white, +empty highway which wound away, bleak and deserted, until it +narrowed itself to a bare streak against the distant uplands. + +Shortly after the contest had begun, any one looking from the +lists along this road might have remarked, far away in the +extreme distance, two brilliant and sparkling points which +glittered and twinkled in the bright shimmer of the winter sun. +Within an hour these had become clearer and nearer, until they +might be seen to come from the reflection from the head-pieces of +two horsemen who were riding at the top of their speed in the +direction of Bordeaux. Another half-hour had brought them so +close that every point of their bearing and equipment could be +discerned. The first was a knight in full armor, mounted upon a +brown horse with a white blaze upon breast and forehead. He was +a short man of great breadth of shoulder, with vizor closed, and +no blazonry upon his simple white surcoat or plain black shield. +The other, who was evidently his squire and attendant, was +unarmed save for the helmet upon his head, but bore in his right +hand a very long and heavy oaken spear which belonged to his +master. In his left hand the squire held not only the reins of +his own horse but those of a great black war-horse, fully +harnessed, which trotted along at his side. Thus the three +horses and their two riders rode swiftly to the lists, and it was +the blare of the trumpet sounded by the squire as his lord rode +into the arena which had broken in upon the prize-giving and +drawn away the attention and interest of the spectators. + +"Ha, John!" cried the prince, craning h s neck, "who is this +cavalier, and what is it that he desires?" + +"On my word, sire," replied Chandos, with the utmost surprise +upon his face, "it is my opinion that he is a Frenchman." + +"A Frenchman!" repeated Don Pedro. "And how can you tell that, +my Lord Chandos, when he has neither coat-armor, crest, or +blazonry?" + +"By his armor, sire, which is rounder at elbow and at shoulder +than any of Bordeaux or of England. Italian he might be were his +bassinet more sloped, but I will swear that those plates were +welded betwixt this and Rhine. Here comes his squire, however, +and we shall hear what strange fortune hath brought him over the +marches." + +As he spoke the attendant cantered up the grassy enclosure, and +pulling up his steed in front of the royal stand, blew a second +fanfare upon his bugle. He was a raw-boned, swarthy-cheeked man, +with black bristling beard and a swaggering bearing. + +Having sounded his call, he thrust the bugle into his belt, and, +pushing his way betwixt the groups of English and of Gascon +knights, he reined up within a spear's length of the royal party. + +"I come," he shouted in a hoarse, thick voice, with a strong +Breton accent, "as squire and herald from my master, who is a +very valiant pursuivant-of-arms, and a liegeman to the great and +powerful monarch, Charles, king of the French. My master has +heard that there is jousting here, and prospect of honorable +advancement, so he has come to ask that some English cavalier +will vouchsafe for the love of his lady to run a course with +sharpened lances with him, or to meet him with sword, mace, +battle-axe, or dagger. He bade me say, however, that he would +fight only with a true Englishman, and not with any mongrel who +is neither English nor French, but speaks with the tongue of the +one, and fights under the banner of the other." + +"Sir!" cried De Clisson, with a voice of thunder, while his +countrymen clapped their hands to their swords. The squire, +however, took no notice of their angry faces, but continued with +his master's message. + +"He is now ready, sire," he said, "albeit his destrier has +travelled many miles this day, and fast, for we were in fear lest +we come too late for the jousting." + +"Ye have indeed come too late," said the prince, "seeing that the +prize is about to be awarded; yet I doubt not that one of these +gentlemen will run a course for the sake of honor with this +cavalier of France." + +"And as to the prize, sire," quoth Sir Nigel, "I am sure that I +speak for all when I say this French knight hath our leave to +bear it away with him if he can fairly win it." + +"Bear word of this to your master," said the prince, "and ask him +which of these five Englishmen he would desire to meet. But +stay; your master bears no coat-armor, and we have not yet heard +his name." + +"My master, sire, is under vow to the Virgin neither to reveal +his name nor to open his vizor until he is back upon French +ground once more." + +"Yet what assurance have we," said the prince, "that this is not +some varlet masquerading in his master's harness, or some caitiff +knight, the very touch of whose lance might bring infamy upon an +honorable gentleman?" + +"It is not so, sire," cried the squire earnestly. "There is no +man upon earth who would demean himself by breaking a lance with +my master." + +"You speak out boldly, squire," the prince answered; "but unless +I have some further assurance of your master's noble birth and +gentle name I cannot match the choicest lances of my court +against him." + +"You refuse, sire?" + +"I do refuse." + +"Then, sire, I was bidden to ask you from my master whether you +would consent if Sir John Chandos, upon hearing my master's name, +should assure you that he was indeed a man with whom you might +yourself cross swords without indignity." + +"I ask no better," said the prince. + +"Then I must ask, Lord Chandos, that you will step forth. I have +your pledge that the name shall remain ever a secret, and that +you will neither say nor write one word which might betray it. +The name is ----" He stooped down from his horse and whispered +something into the old knight's ear which made him start with +surprise, and stare with much curiosity at the distant Knight, +who was sitting his charger at the further end of the arena. + +"Is this indeed sooth?" he exclaimed. + +"It is, my lord, and I swear it by St. Ives of Brittany." + +"I might have known it," said Chandos, twisting his mousetache, +and still looking thoughtfully at the cavalier. + +"What then, Sir John?" asked the prince. + +"Sire, this is a knight whom it is indeed great honor to meet, +and I would that your grace would grant me leave to send my +squire for my harness, for I would dearly love to run a course +with him. + +"Nay, nay, Sir John, you have gained as much honor as one man can +bear, and it were hard if you could not rest now. But I pray +you, squire, to tell your master that he is very welcome to our +court, and that wines and spices will be served him, if he would +refresh himself before jousting." + +"My master will not drink," said the squire. + +"Let him then name the gentleman with whom he would break a +spear." + +"He would contend with these five knights, each to choose such +weapons as suit him best." + +"I perceive," said the prince, "that your master is a man of +great heart and high of enterprise. But the sun already is low +in the west, and there will scarce be light for these courses. I +pray you, gentlemen, to take your places, that we may see whether +this stranger's deeds are as bold as his words." + +The unknown knight had sat like a statue of steel, looking +neither to the right nor to the left during these preliminaries. +He had changed from the horse upon which he had ridden, and +bestrode the black charger which his squire had led beside him. +His immense breadth, his stern composed appearance, and the mode +in which he handled his shield and his lance, were enough in +themselves to convince the thousands of critical spectators that +he was a dangerous opponent. Aylward, who stood in the front row +of the archers with Simon, big John, and others of the Company, +had been criticising the proceedings from the commencement with +the ease and freedom of a man who had spent his life under arms +and had learned in a hard school to know at a glance the points +of a horse and his rider. He stared now at the stranger with a +wrinkled brow and the air of a man who is striving to stir his +memory. + +"By my hilt! I have seen the thick body of him before to-day. Yet +I cannot call to mind where it could have been. At Nogent +belike, or was it at Auray? Mark me, lads, this man will prove to +be one of the best lances of France, and there are no better in +the world." + +"It is but child's play, this poking game," said John. "I would +fain try my hand at it, for, by the black rood! I think that it +might be amended." + +"What then would you do, John?" asked several. + +"There are many things which might be done," said the forester +thoughtfully. "Methinks that I would begin by breaking my +spear." + +"So they all strive to do." + +"Nay, but not upon another man's shield. I would break it over +my own knee." + +"And what the better for that, old beef and bones?" asked Black +Simon. + +"So I would turn what is but a lady's bodkin of a weapon into a +very handsome club." + +"And then, John?" + +"Then I would take the other's spear into my arm or my leg, or +where it pleased him best to put it, and I would dash out his +brains with my club." + +"By my ten finger-bones! old John," said Aylward, "I would give +my feather-bed to see you at a spear-running. This is a most +courtly and gentle sport which you have devised." + +"So it seems to me," said John seriously. "Or, again, one might +seize the other round the middle, pluck him off his horse and +bear him to the pavilion, there to hold him to ransom." + +"Good!" cried Simon, amid a roar of laughter from all the archers +round. "By Thomas of Kent I we shall make a camp-marshal of +thee, and thou shalt draw up rules for our jousting. But, John, +who is it that you would uphold in this knightly and pleasing +fashion?" + +"What mean you?" + +"Why, John, so strong and strange a tilter must fight for the +brightness of his lady's eyes or the curve of her eyelash, even +as Sir Nigel does for the Lady Loring." + +"I know not about that," said the big archer, scratching his head +in perplexity. "Since Mary hath played me false, I can scarce +fight for her." + +"Yet any woman will serve." + +"There is my mother then," said John. "She was at much pains at +my upbringing, and, by my soul! I will uphold the curve of her +eyelashes, for it tickleth my very heart-root to think of her. +But who is here?" + +"It is Sir William Beauchamp. He is a valiant man, but I fear +that he is scarce firm enough upon the saddle to bear the thrust +of such a tilter as this stranger promises to be." + +Aylward's words were speedily justified, for even as he spoke the +two knights met in the centre of the lists. Beauchamp struck his +opponent a shrewd blow upon the helmet, but was met with so +frightful a thrust that he whirled out of his saddle and rolled +over and over upon the ground. Sir Thomas Percy met with little +better success, for his shield was split, his vambrace torn and +he himself wounded slightly in the side. Lord Audley and the +unknown knight struck each other fairly upon the helmet; but, +while the stranger sat as firm and rigid as ever upon his +charger, the Englishman was bent back to his horse's crupper by +the weight of the blow, and had galloped half-way down the lists +ere he could recover himself. Sir Thomas Wake was beaten to the +ground with a battle-axe--that being the weapon which he had +selected--and had to be carried to his pavilion. These rapid +successes, gained one after the other over four celebrated +warriors, worked the crowd up to a pitch of wonder and +admiration. Thunders of applause from the English soldiers, as +well as from the citizens and peasants, showed how far the love +of brave and knightly deeds could rise above the rivalries of +race. + +"By my soul! John," cried the prince, with his cheek flushed and +his eyes shining, "this is a man of good courage and great +hardiness. I could not have thought that there was any single +arm upon earth which could have overthrown these four champions." + +"He is indeed, as I have said, sire, a knight from whom much +honor is to be gained. But the lower edge of the sun is wet, and +it will be beneath the sea ere long." + +"Here is Sir Nigel Loring, on foot and with his sword," said the +prince. "I have heard that he is a fine swordsman." + +"The finest in your army, sire," Chandos answered. "Yet I doubt +not that he will need all his skill this day." + +As he spoke, the two combatants advanced from either end in full +armor with their two-handed swords sloping over their shoulders. +The stranger walked heavily and with a measured stride, while the +English knight advanced as briskly as though there was no iron +shell to weigh down the freedom of his limbs. At four paces +distance they stopped, eyed each other for a moment, and then in +an instant fell to work with a clatter and clang as though two +sturdy smiths were busy upon their anvils. Up and down went the +long, shining blades, round and round they circled in curves of +glimmering light, crossing, meeting, disengaging, with flash of +sparks at every parry. Here and there bounded Sir Nigel, his +head erect, his jaunty plume fluttering in the air, while his +dark opponent sent in crashing blow upon blow, following +fiercely up with cut and with thrust, but never once getting past +the practised blade of the skilled swordsman. The crowd roared +with delight as Sir Nigel would stoop his head to avoid a blow, +or by some slight movement of his body allow some terrible thrust +to glance harmlessly past him. Suddenly, however, his time came. +The Frenchman, whirling up his sword, showed for an instant a +chink betwixt his shoulder piece and the rerebrace which guarded +his upper arm. In dashed Sir Nigel, and out again so swiftly +that the eye could not follow the quick play of his blade, but a +trickle of blood from the stranger's shoulder, and a rapidly +widening red smudge upon his white surcoat, showed where the +thrust had taken effect. The wound was, however, but a slight +one, and the Frenchman was about to renew his onset, when, at a +sign from the prince, Chandos threw down his baton, and the +marshals of the lists struck up the weapons and brought the +contest to an end. + +"It were time to check it," said the prince, smiling, "for Sir +Nigel is too good a man for me to lose, and, by the five holy +wounds! if one of those cuts came home I should have fears for +our champion. What think you, Pedro?" + +"I think, Edward, that the little man was very well able to take +care of himself. For my part, I should wish to see so well +matched a pair fight on while a drop of blood remained in their +veins." + +"We must have speech with him. Such a man must not go from my +court without rest or sup. Bring him hither, Chandos, and, +certes, if the Lord Loring hath resigned his claim upon this +goblet, it is right and proper that this cavalier should carry it +to France with him as a sign of the prowess that he has shown +this day." + +As he spoke, the knight-errant, who had remounted his warhorse, +galloped forward to the royal stand, with a silken kerchief bound +round his wounded arm. The setting sun cast a ruddy glare upon +his burnished arms, and sent his long black shadow streaming +behind him up the level clearing. Pulling up his steed, he +slightly inclined his head, and sat in the stern and composed +fashion with which he had borne himself throughout, heedless of +the applauding shouts and the flutter of kerchiefs from the long +lines of brave men and of fair women who were looking down upon +him. + +"Sir knight," said the prince, "we have all marvelled this day at +this great skill and valor with which God has been pleased to +endow you. I would fain that you should tarry at our court, for +a time at least, until your hurt is healed and your horses +rested.." + +"My hurt is nothing, sire, nor are my horses weary," returned the +stranger in a deep, stern voice. + +"Will you not at least hie back to Bordeaux with us, that you may +drain a cup of muscadine and sup at our table?" + +"I will neither drink your wine nor sit at your table," returned +the other. "I bear no love for you or for your race, and there +is nought that I wish at your hands until the day when I see the +last sail which bears you back to your island vanishing away +against the western sky." + +"These are bitter words, sir knight," said Prince Edward, with an +angry frown. + +"And they come from a bitter heart," answered the unknown knight. +"How long is it since there has been peace in my hapless country? +Where are the steadings, and orchards, and vineyards, which made +France fair? Where are the cities which made her great? From +Providence to Burgundy we are beset by every prowling hireling in +Christendom, who rend and tear the country which you have left +too weak to guard her own marches. Is it not a by-word that a +man may ride all day in that unhappy land without seeing thatch +upon roof or hearing the crow of cock? Does not one fair kingdom +content you, that you should strive so for this other one which +has no love for you? Pardieu! a true Frenchman's words may well +be bitter, for bitter is his lot and bitter his thoughts as he +rides through his thrice unhappy country." + +"Sir knight," said the prince, "you speak like a brave man, and +our cousin of France is happy in having a cavalier who is so fit +to uphold his cause either with tongue or with sword. But if you +think such evil of us, how comes it that you have trusted +yourselves to us without warranty or safe-conduct?" + +"Because I knew that you would be here, sire. Had the man who +sits upon your right been ruler of this land, I had indeed +thought twice before I looked to him for aught that was knightly +or generous." With a soldierly salute, he wheeled round his +horse, and, galloping down the lists, disappeared amid the dense +crowd of footmen and of horsemen who were streaming away from the +scene of the tournament. + +"The insolent villain!" cried Pedro, glaring furiously after him. +"I have seen a man's tongue torn from his jaws for less. Would +it not be well even now, Edward, to send horsemen to hale him +back? Bethink you that it may be one of the royal house of +France, or at least some knight whose loss would be a heavy blow +to his master. Sir William Felton, you are well mounted, gallop +after the caitiff, I pray you." + +"Do so, Sir William," said the prince," and give him this purse +of a hundred nobles as a sign of the respect which I bear for +him; for, by St. George! he has served his master this day even +as I would wish liegeman of mine to serve me." So saying, the +prince turned his back upon the King of Spain, and springing upon +his horse, rode slowly homewards to the Abbey of Saint Andrew's. + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +HOW SIR NIGEL WROTE TO TWYNHAM CASTLE. + +ON the morning after the jousting, when Alleyne Edricson went, as +was his custom, into his master's chamber to wait upon him in his +dressing and to curl his hair, he found him already up and very +busily at work. He sat at a table by the window, a deerhound on +one side of him and a lurcher on the other, his feet tucked away +under the trestle on which he sat, and his tongue in his cheek, +with the air of a man who is much perplexed. A sheet of vellum +lay upon the board in front of him, and he held a pen in his +hand, with which he had been scribbling in a rude schoolboy hand. +So many were the blots, however, and so numerous the scratches +and erasures, that he had at last given it up in despair, and +sat with his single uncovered eye cocked upwards at the ceiling, +as one who waits upon inspiration. + +"By Saint Paul!" he cried, as Alleyne entered, "you are the man +who will stand by me in this matter. I have been in sore need of +you, Alleyne." + +"God be with you, my fair lord!" the squire answered. "I trust +that you have taken no hurt from all that you have gone through +yesterday." + +"Nay; I feel the fresher for it, Alleyne. It has eased my +joints, which were somewhat stiff from these years of peace. I +trust, Alleyne, that thou didst very carefully note and mark the +bearing and carriage of this knight of France; for it is time, +now when you are young, that you should see all that is best, and +mould your own actions in accordance. This was a man from whom +much honor might be gained, and I have seldom met any one for +whom I have conceived so much love and esteem. Could I but learn +his name, I should send you to him with my cartel, that we might +have further occasion to watch his goodly feats of arms." + +"It is said, my fair lord, that none know his name save only the +Lord Chandos, and that he is under vow not to speak it. So ran +the gossip at the squires' table." + +"Be he who he might, he was a very hardy gentleman. But I have a +task here, Alleyne, which is harder to me than aught that was set +before me yesterday." + +"Can I help you, my lord?" + +"That indeed you can. I have been writing my greetings to my +sweet wife; for I hear that a messenger goes from the prince to +Southampton within the week, and he would gladly take a packet +for me. I pray you, Alleyne, to cast your eyes upon what I have +written, and see it they are such words as my lady will +understand. My fingers, as you can see, are more used to iron +and leather than to the drawing of strokes and turning of +letters. What then? Is there aught amiss, that you should +stare so?" + +"It is this first word, my lord. In what tongue were you pleased +to write?" + +"In English; for my lady talks it more than she doth French. + +"Yet this is no English word, my sweet lord. Here are four t's +and never a letter betwixt them." + +"By St. Paul! it seemed strange to my eye when I wrote it," said +Sir Nigel. "They bristle up together like a clump of lances. We +must break their ranks and set them farther apart. The word is +'that.' Now I will read it to you, Alleyne, and you shall write +it out fair; for we leave Bordeaux this day, and it would be +great joy to me to think that the Lady Loring had word from me." + +Alleyne sat down as ordered, with a pen in his hand and a fresh +sheet of parchment before him, while Sir Nigel slowly spelled out +his letter, running his forefinger on from word to word. + +"That my heart is with thee, my dear sweeting, is what thine own +heart will assure thee of. All is well with us here, save that +Pepin hath the mange on his back, and Pommers hath scarce yet got +clear of his stiffness from being four days on ship-board, and +the more so because the sea was very high, and we were like to +founder on account of a hole in her side, which was made by a +stone cast at us by certain sea-rovers, who may the saints have +in their keeping, for they have gone from amongst us, as has +young Terlake, and two-score mariners and archers, who would be +the more welcome here as there is like to be a very fine war, +with much honor and all hopes of advancement, for which I go to +gather my Company together, who are now at Montaubon, where they +pillage and destroy; yet I hope that, by God's help, I may be +able to show that I am their master, even as, my sweet lady, I am +thy servant." + +"How of that, Alleyne?" continued Sir Nigel, blinking at his +squire, with an expression of some pride upon his face. "Have I +not told her all that hath befallen us?" + +"You have said much, my fair lord; and yet, if I may say so, it +is somewhat crowded together, so that my Lady Loring can, mayhap, +scarce follow it. Were it in shorter periods----" + +"Nay, it boots me not how you marshal them, as long as they are +all there at the muster. Let my lady have the words, and she +will place them in such order as pleases her best. But I would +have you add what it would please her to know." + +"That will I," said Alleyne, blithely, and bent to the task. + +"My fair lady and mistress," he wrote, "God hath had us in His +keeping, and my lord is well and in good cheer. He hath won much +honor at the jousting before the prince, when he alone was able +to make it good against a very valiant man from France. Touching +the moneys, there is enough and to spare until we reach +Montaubon. Herewith, my fair lady, I send my humble regards, +entreating you that you will give the same to your daughter, the +Lady Maude. May the holy saints have you both in their keeping +is ever the prayer of thy servant, + "ALLEYNE EDRICSON." + +"That is very fairly set forth," said Sir Nigel, nodding his bald +head as each sentence was read to him. "And for thyself, +Alleyne, if there be any dear friend to whom you would fain give +greeting, I can send it for thee within this packet." + +"There is none," said Alleyne, sadly. + +"Have you no kinsfolk, then?" + +"None, save my brother." + +"Ha! I had forgotten that there was ill blood betwixt you. But +are there none in all England who love thee?" + +"None that I dare say so." + +"And none whom you love?" + +"Nay, I will not say that," said Alleyne. + +Sir Nigel shook his head and laughed softly to himself, "I see +how it is with you," he said. "Have I not noted your frequent +sighs and vacant eye? Is she fair?" + +"She is indeed," cried Alleyne from his heart, all tingling at +this sudden turn of the talk. + +"And good?" + +"As an angel." + +"And yet she loves you not?" + +"Nay, I cannot say that she loves another." + +"Then you have hopes?" + +"I could not live else." + +"Then must you strive to be worthy of her love. Be brave and +pure, fearless to the strong and humble to the weak; and so, +whether this love prosper or no, you will have fitted yourself to +be honored by a maiden's love, which is, in sooth, the highest +guerdon which a true knight can hope for." + +"Indeed, my lord, I do so strive," said Alleyne; "but she is so +sweet, so dainty, and of so noble a spirit, that I fear me that I +shall never be worthy of her." + +"By thinking so you become worthy. Is she then of noble birth?" + +"She is, my lord," faltered Alleyne. + +"Of a knightly house?" + +"Yes." + +"Have a care, Alleyne, have a care!" said Sir Nigel, kindly. "The +higher the steed the greater the fall. Hawk not at that which +may be beyond thy flight." + +"My lord, I know little of the ways and usages of the world," +cried Alleyne, "but I would fain ask your rede upon the matter. +You have known my father and my kin: is not my family one of good +standing and repute?" + +"Beyond all question." + +"And yet you warn me that I must not place my love too high." + +"Were Minstead yours, Alleyne, then, by St. Paul! I cannot think +that any family in the land would not be proud to take you among +them, seeing that you come of so old a strain. But while the +Socman lives----Ha, by my soul!" if this is not Sir Oliver's step +I am the more mistaken." + +As he spoke, a heavy footfall was heard without, and the portly +knight flung open the door and strode into the room. + +"Why, my little coz," said he, "I have come across to tell you +that I live above the barber's in the Rue de la Tour, and that +there is a venison pasty in the oven and two flasks of the right +vintage on the table. By St. James! a blind man might find the +place, for one has but to get in the wind from it, and follow the +savory smell. Put on your cloak, then, and come, for Sir Walter +Hewett and Sir Robert Briquet, with one or two others, are +awaiting us." + +"Nay, Oliver, I cannot be with you, for I must to Montaubon this +day." + +"To Montaubon? But I have heard that your Company is to come +with my forty Winchester rascals to Dax." + +"If you will take charge of them, Oliver. For I will go to +Montaubon with none save my two squires and two archers. Then, +when I have found the rest of my Company I shall lead them to +Dax. We set forth this morning." + +"Then I must back to my pasty," said Sir Oliver. "You will find +us at Dax, I doubt not, unless the prince throw me into prison, +for he is very wroth against me." + +"And why, Oliver?" + +"Pardieu! because I have sent my cartel, gauntlet, and defiance +to Sir John Chandos and to Sir William Felton." + +"To Chandos? In God's name, Oliver, why have you done this?" + +"Because he and the other have used me despitefully." + +"And how?" + +"Because they have passed me over in choosing those who should +joust for England. Yourself and Audley I could pass, coz, for +you are mature men; but who are Wake, and Percy, and Beauchamp? +By my soul! I was prodding for my food into a camp-kettle when +they were howling for their pap. Is a man of my weight and +substance to be thrown aside for the first three half-grown lads +who have learned the trick of the tilt-yard? But hark ye, coz, I +think of sending my cartel also to the prince." + +"Oliver! Oliver! You are mad!" + +"Not I, i' faith! I care not a denier whether he be prince or +no. By Saint James! I see that your squire's eyes are starting +from his head like a trussed crab. Well, friend, we are all +three men of Hampshire, and not lightly to be jeered at." + +"Has he jeered at you than?" + +"Pardieu! yes, 'Old Sir Oliver's heart is still stout,' said one +of his court. 'Else had it been out of keeping with the rest of +him,' quoth the prince. 'And his arm is strong,' said another. +'So is the backbone of his horse,' quoth the prince. This very +day I will send him my cartel and defiance." + +"Nay, nay, my dear Oliver," said Sir Nigel, laying his hand upon +his angry friend's arm. "There is naught in this, for it was but +saying that you were a strong and robust man, who had need of a +good destrier. And as to Chandos and Felton, bethink you that if +when you yourself were young the older lances had ever been +preferred, how would you then have had the chance to earn the +good name and fame which you now bear? You do not ride as light +as you did, Oliver, and I ride lighter by the weight of my hair, +but it would be an ill thing if in the evening of our lives we +showed that our hearts were less true and loyal than of old. If +such a knight as Sir Oliver Buttesthorn may turn against his own +prince for the sake of a light word, then where are we to look +for steadfast faith and constancy?" + +"Ah! my dear little coz, it is easy to sit in the sunshine and +preach to the man in the shadow. Yet you could ever win me over +to your side with that soft voice of yours. Let us think no more +of it then. But, holy Mother! I had forgot the pasty, and it +will be as scorched as Judas Iscariot! Come, Nigel, lest the +foul fiend get the better of me again." + +"For one hour, then; for we march at mid-day. Tell Aylward, +Alleyne, that he is to come with me to Montaubon, and to choose +one archer for his comrade. The rest will to Dax when the prince +starts, which will be before the feast of the Epiphany. Have +Pommers ready at mid-day with my sycamore lance, and place my +harness on the sumpter mule." + +With these brief directions, the two old soldiers strode off +together, while Alleyne hastened to get all in order for their +journey. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +HOW THE THREE COMRADES GAINED A MIGHTY TREASURE + +IT was a bright, crisp winter's day when the little party set off +from Bordeaux on their journey to Montaubon, where the missing +half of their Company had last been heard of. Sir Nigel and Ford +had ridden on in advance, the knight upon his hackney, while his +great war-horse trotted beside his squire. Two hours later +Alleyne Edricson followed; for he had the tavern reckoning to +settle, and many other duties which fell to him as squire of the +body. With him came Aylward and Hordle John, armed as of old, +but mounted for their journey upon a pair of clumsy Landes +horses, heavy-headed and shambling, but of great endurance, and +capable of jogging along all day, even when between the knees of +the huge archer, who turned the scale at two hundred and seventy +pounds. They took with them the sumpter mules, which carried in +panniers the wardrobe and table furniture of Sir Nigel; for the +knight, though neither fop nor epicure, was very dainty in small +matters, and loved, however bare the board or hard the life, that +his napery should still be white and his spoon of silver. + +There had been frost during the night, and the white hard road +rang loud under their horses' irons as they spurred through the +east gate of the town, along the same broad highway which the +unknown French champion had traversed on the day of the jousts. +The three rode abreast, Alleyne Edricson with his eyes cast down +and his mind distrait, for his thoughts were busy with the +conversation which he had had with Sir Nigel in the morning. Had +he done well to say so much, or had he not done better to have +said more? What would the knight have said had he confessed to +his love for the Lady Maude? Would he cast him off in disgrace, +or might he chide him as having abused the shelter of his roof? +It had been ready upon his tongue to tell him all when Sir Oliver +had broken in upon them. Perchance Sir Nigel, with his love of +all the dying usages of chivalry, might have contrived some +strange ordeal or feat of arms by which his love should be put to +the test. Alleyne smiled as he wondered what fantastic and +wondrous deed would be exacted from him. Whatever it was, he was +ready for it, whether it were to hold the lists in the court of +the King of Tartary, to carry a cartel to the Sultan of Baghdad, +or to serve a term against the wild heathen of Prussia. Sir +Nigel had said that his birth was high enough for any lady, if +his fortune could but be amended. Often had Alleyne curled his +lip at the beggarly craving for land or for gold which blinded +man to the higher and more lasting issues of life. Now it +seemed as though it were only by this same land and gold that he +might hope to reach his heart's desire. But then, again, the +Socman of Minstead was no friend to the Constable of Twynham +Castle. It might happen that, should he amass riches by some +happy fortune of war, this feud might hold the two families +aloof. Even if Maude loved him, he knew her too well to think +that she would wed him without the blessing of her father. Dark +and murky was it all, but hope mounts high in youth, and it ever +fluttered over all the turmoil of his thoughts like a white plume +amid the shock of horsemen. + +If Alleyne Edricson had enough to ponder over as he rode through +the bare plains of Guienne, his two companions were more busy +with the present and less thoughtful of the future. Aylward rode +for half a mile with his chin upon his shoulder, looking back at +a white kerchief which fluttered out of the gable window of a +high house which peeped over the corner of the battlements. When +at last a dip of the road hid it from his view, he cocked his +steel cap, shrugged his broad shoulders, and rode on with +laughter in his eyes, and his weatherbeaten face all ashine with +pleasant memories. John also rode in silence, but his eyes +wandered slowly from one side of the road to the other, and he +stared and pondered and nodded his head like a traveller who +makes his notes and saves them up for the re-telling + +"By the rood!" he broke out suddenly, slapping his thigh with his +great red hand, "I knew that there was something a-missing, but I +could not bring to my mind what it was." + +"What was it then?" asked Alleyne, coming with a start out of his +reverie. + +"Why, it is the hedgerows," roared John, with a shout of +laughter. "The country is all scraped as clear as a friar's +poll. But indeed I cannot think much of the folk in these parts. +Why do they not get to work and dig up these long rows of black +and crooked stumps which I see on every hand? A franklin of +Hampshire would think shame to have such litter upon his soil." + +"Thou foolish old John!" quoth Aylward. "You should know better, +since I have heard that the monks of Beaulieu could squeeze a +good cup of wine from their own grapes. Know then that if these +rows were dug up the wealth of the country would be gone, and +mayhap there would be dry throats and gaping mouths in England, +for in three months' time these black roots will blossom and +snoot and burgeon, and from them will come many a good ship-load +of Medoc and Gascony which will cross the narrow seas. But see +the church in the hollow, and the folk who cluster in the +churchyard! By my hilt! it is a burial, and there is a passing +bell!" He pulled off his steel cap as he spoke and crossed +himself, with a muttered prayer for the repose of the dead. + +"There too," remarked Alleyne, as they rode on again, "that which +seems to the eye to be dead is still full of the sap of life, +even as the vines were. Thus God hath written Himself and His +laws very broadly on all that is around us, if our poor dull eyes +and duller souls could but read what He hath set before us." + +"Ha! mon petit," cried the bowman, "you take me back to the days +when you were new fledged, as sweet a little chick as ever pecked +his way out of a monkish egg. I had feared that in gaining our +debonair young man-at-arms we had lost our soft-spoken clerk. In +truth, I have noted much change in you since we came from Twynham +Castle." + +"Surely it would be strange else, seeing that I have lived in a +world so new to me. Yet I trust that there are many things in +which I have not changed. If I have turned to serve an earthly +master, and to carry arms for an earthly king, it would be an ill +thing if I were to lose all thought of the great high King and +Master of all, whose humble and unworthy servant I was ere ever I +left Beaulieu. You, John, are also from the cloisters, but I +trow that you do not feel that you have deserted the old service +in taking on the new." + +"I am a slow-witted man," said John, "and, in sooth, when l try +to think about such matters it casts a gloom upon me. Yet I do +not look upon myself as a worse man in an archer's jerkin than I +was in a white cowl, if that be what you mean." + +"You have but changed from one white company to the other," quoth +Aylward. "But, by these ten finger-bones! it is a passing +strange thing to me to think that it was but in the last fall of +the leaf that we walked from Lyndhurst together, he so gentle and +maidenly, and you, John, like a great red-limbed overgrown moon- +calf; and now here you are as sprack a squire and as lusty an +archer as ever passed down the highway from Bordeaux, while I am +still the same old Samkin Aylward, with never a change, save that +I have a few more sins on my soul and a few less crowns in my +pouch. But I have never yet heard, John, what the reason was why +you should come out of Beaulieu." + +"There were seven reasons," said John thoughtfully. "The first +of them was that they threw me out." + +"Ma foi! camarade, to the devil with the other six! That is +enough for me and for thee also. I can see that they are very +wise and discreet folk at Beaulieu. Ah! mon ange, what have you +in the pipkin?" + +"It is milk, worthy sir," answered the peasant-maid, who stood by +the door of a cottage with a jug in her hand. "Would it please +you, gentles, that I should bring you out three horns of it?" + +"Nay, ma petite, but here is a two-sous piece for thy kindly +tongue and for the sight of thy pretty face. Ma foi! but she has +a bonne mine. I have a mind to bide and speak with her." + +"Nay, nay, Aylward," cried Alleyne. "Sir Nigel will await us, +and he in haste." + +"True, true, camarade! Adieu, ma cherie! mon coeur est toujours +a toi. Her mother is a well-grown woman also. See where she +digs by the wayside. Ma foi! the riper fruit is ever the +sweeter. Bon jour, ma belle dame! God have you in his keeping! +Said Sir Nigel where he would await us?" + +"At Marmande or Aiguillon. He said that we could not pass him, +seeing that there is but the one road." + +"Aye, and it is a road that I know as I know the Midhurst parish +butts," quoth the bowman. "Thirty times have I journeyed it, +forward and backward, and, by the twang of string! I am wont to +come back this way more laden than I went. I have carried all +that I had into France in a wallet, and it hath taken four +sumpter-mules to carry it back again. God's benison on the man +who first turned his hand to the making of war! But there, down +in the dingle, is the church of Cardillac, and you may see the +inn where three poplars grow beyond the village. Let us on, for a +stoup of wine would hearten us upon our way." + +The highway had lain through the swelling vineyard country, which +stretched away to the north and east in gentle curves, with many +a peeping spire and feudal tower, and cluster of village houses, +all clear cut and hard in the bright wintry air. To their right +stretched the blue Garonne, running swiftly seawards, with boats +and barges dotted over its broad bosom. On the other side lay a +strip of vineyard, and beyond it the desolate and sandy region of +the Landes, all tangled with faded gorse and heath and broom, +stretching away in unbroken gloom to the blue hills which lay low +upon the furthest sky-line. Behind them might still be seen the +broad estuary of the Gironde, with the high towers of Saint Andre +and Saint Remi shooting up from the plain. In front, amid +radiating lines of poplars, lay the riverside townlet of +Cardillac--gray walls, white houses, and a feather of blue smoke. + +"This is the 'Mouton d'Or,' " said Aylward, as they pulled up +their horses at a whitewashed straggling hostel. "What ho +there!" he continued, beating upon the door with the hilt of his +sword. "Tapster, ostler, varlet, hark hither, and a wannion on +your lazy limbs! Ha! Michel, as red in the nose as ever! Three +jacks of the wine of the country, Michel--for the air bites +shrewdly. I pray you, Alleyne, to take note of this door, for I +have a tale concerning it." + +"Tell me, friend," said Alleyne to the portly red-faced inn- +keeper, "has a knight and a squire passed this way within the +hour?" + +"Nay, sir, it would be two hours back. Was he a small man, weak +in the eyes, with a want of hair, and speaks very quiet when he +is most to be feared?" + +"The same," the squire answered. "But I marvel how you should +know how he speaks when he is in wrath, for he is very gentle- +minded with those who are beneath him." + +"Praise to the saints! it was not I who angered him," said the +fat Michel. + +"Who, then?" + +"It was young Sieur de Crespigny of Saintonge, who chanced to be +here, and made game of the Englishman, seeing that he was but a +small man and hath a face which is full of peace. But indeed +this good knight was a very quiet and patient man, for he saw +that the Sieur de Crespigny was still young and spoke from an +empty head, so he sat his horse and quaffed his wine, even as you +are doing now, all heedless of the clacking tongue." And what +then, Michel?" + +"Well, messieurs, it chanced that the Sieur de Crespigny, having +said this and that, for the laughter of the varlets, cried out at +last about the glove that the knight wore in his coif, asking if +it was the custom in England for a man to wear a great archer's +glove in his cap. Pardieu! I have never seen a man get off his +horse as quick as did that stranger Englishman. Ere the words +were past the other's lips he was beside him, his face nigh +touching, and his breath hot upon his cheeks. 'I think, young +sir,' quoth he softly, looking into the other's eyes, 'that now +that I am nearer you will very clearly see that the glove is not +an archer's glove.' 'Perchance not,' said the Sieur de Crespigny +with a twitching lip. 'Nor is it large, but very small,' quoth +the Englishman. 'Less large than I had thought,' said the other, +looking down, for the knight's gaze was heavy upon his eyelids. +'And in every way such a glove as might be worn by the fairest +and sweetest lady in England,' quoth the Englishman. 'It may be +so,' said the Sieur de Crespigny, turning his face from him. 'I +am myself weak in the eyes, and have often taken one thing for +another,' quoth the knight, as he sprang back into his saddle and +rode off, leaving the Sieur de Crespigny biting his nails before +the door. Ha! by the five wounds, many men of war have drunk my +wine, but never one was more to my fancy than this little +Englishman." + +"By my hilt! he is our master, Michel," quoth Aylward, "and such +men as we do not serve under a laggart. But here are four +deniers, Michel, and God be with you! En avant, camarades! for +we have a long road before us." + +At a brisk trot the three friends left Cardillac and its wine- +house behind them, riding without a halt past St. Macaire, and on +by ferry over the river Dorpt. At the further side the road +winds through La Reolle, Bazaille, and Marmande, with the sunlit +river still gleaming upon the right, and the bare poplars +bristling up upon either side. John and Alleyne rode silent on +either side, but every inn, farm-steading, or castle brought back +to Aylward some remembrance of love, foray, or plunder, with +which to beguile the way. + +"There is the smoke from Bazas, on the further side of Garonne," +quoth he. "There were three sisters yonder, the daughters of a +farrier, and, by these ten finger-bones! a man might ride for a +long June day and never set eyes upon such maidens. There was +Marie, tall and grave, and Blanche petite and gay, and the dark +Agnes, with eyes that went through you like a waxed arrow. I +lingered there as long as four days, and was betrothed to them +all; for it seemed shame to set one above her sisters, and might +make ill blood in the family. Yet, for all my care, things were +not merry in the house, and I thought it well to come away. +There, too, is the mill of Le Souris. Old Pierre Le Caron, who +owned it, was a right good comrade, and had ever a seat and a +crust for a weary archer. He was a man who wrought hard at all +that he turned his hand to; but he heated himself in grinding +bones to mix with his flour, and so through over-diligence he +brought a fever upon himself and died." + +"Tell me, Aylward," said Alleyne, "what was amiss with the door +of yonder inn that you should ask me to observe it." + +"Pardieu! yes, I had well-nigh forgot. What saw you on yonder +door?" + +"I saw a square hole, through which doubtless the host may peep +when he is not too sure of those who knock." + +"And saw you naught else?" + +"I marked that beneath this hole there was a deep cut in the +door, as though a great nail had been driven in." + +"And naught else?" + +"No." + +"Had you looked more closely you might have seen that there was a +stain upon the wood. The first time that I ever heard my comrade +Black Simon laugh was in front of that door. I heard him once +again when he slew a French squire with his teeth, he being +unarmed and the Frenchman having a dagger." + +"And why did Simon laugh in front of the inn-door!" asked John. + +"Simon is a hard and perilous man when he hath the bitter drop in +him; and, by my hilt! he was born for war, for there is little +sweetness or rest in him. This inn, the 'Mouton d'Or,' was kept +in the old days by one Francois Gourval, who had a hard fist and +a harder heart. It was said that many and many an archer coming +from the wars had been served with wine with simples in it, until +he slept, and had then been stripped of all by this Gourval. +Then on the morrow, if he made complaint, this wicked Gourval +would throw him out upon the road or beat him, for he was a very +lusty man, and had many stout varlets in his service. This +chanced to come to Simon's ears when we were at Bordeaux +together, and he would have it that we should ride to Cardillac +with a good hempen cord, and give this Gourval such a scourging +as he merited. Forth we rode then, but when we came to the +Mouton d'Or,' Gourval had had word of our coming and its purpose, +so that the door was barred, nor was there any way into the +house. 'Let us in, good Master Gourval!' cried Simon, and 'Let +us in, good Master Gourval!' cried I, but no word could we get +through the hole in the door, save that he would draw an arrow +upon us unless we went on our way. 'Well, Master Gourval,' quoth +Simon at last, 'this is but a sorry welcome, seeing that we have +ridden so far just to shake you by the hand.' 'Canst shake me by +the hand without coming in,' said Gourval. 'And how that?' asked +Simon. 'By passing in your hand through the hole,' said he. +'Nay, my hand is wounded,' quoth Simon, 'and of such a size that +I cannot pass it in.' 'That need not hinder,' said Gourval, who +was hot to be rid of us, 'pass in your left hand.' 'But I have +something for thee, Gourval,' said Simon. 'What then?' he asked. +'There was an English archer who slept here last week of the name +of Hugh of Nutbourne.' 'We have had many rogues here,' said +Gourval. 'His conscience hath been heavy within him because he +owes you a debt of fourteen deniers, having drunk wine for which +he hath never paid. For the easing of his soul, he asked me to +pay the money to you as I passed.' Now this Gourval was very +greedy for money, so he thrust forth his hand for the fourteen +deniers, but Simon had his dagger ready and he pinned his hand to +the door. 'I have paid the Englishman's debt, Gourval!' quoth +he, and so rode away, laughing so that he could scarce sit his +horse, leaving mine host still nailed to his door. Such is the +story of the hole which you have marked, and of the smudge upon +the wood. I have heard that from that time English archers have +been better treated in the auberge of Cardillac. But what have +we here by the wayside?" + +"It appears to be a very holy man," said Alleyne. + +"And, by the rood! he hath some strange wares," cried John. +"What are these bits of stone, and of wood, and rusted nails, +which are set out in front of him?" + +The man whom they had remarked sat with his back against a +cherry-tree, and his legs shooting out in front of him, like one +who is greatly at his ease. Across his thighs was a wooden +board, and scattered over it all manner of slips of wood and +knobs of brick and stone, each laid separate from the other, as a +huckster places his wares. He was dressed in a long gray gown, +and wore a broad hat of the same color, much weather-stained, +with three scallop-shells dangling from the brim. As they +approached, the travellers observed that he was advanced in +years, and that his eyes were upturned and yellow. + +"Dear knights and gentlemen," he cried in a high crackling voice, +"worthy Christian cavaliers, will ye ride past and leave an aged +pilgrim to die of hunger? The sight hast been burned from mine +eyes by the sands of the Holy Land, and I have had neither crust +of bread nor cup of wine these two days past." + +"By my hilt! father," said Aylward, looking keenly at him, "it is +a marvel to me that thy girdle should have so goodly a span and +clip thee so closely, if you have in sooth had so little to place +within it." + +"Kind stranger," answered the pilgrim, "you have unwittingly +spoken words which are very grievous to me to listen to. Yet I +should be loth to blame you, for I doubt not that what you said +was not meant to sadden me, nor to bring my sore affliction back +to my mind. It ill becomes me to prate too much of what I have +endured for the faith, and yet, since you have observed it, I +must tell you that this thickness and roundness of the waist is +caused by a dropsy brought on by over-haste in journeying from +the house of Pilate to the Mount of Olives." + +"There, Aylward," said Alleyne, with a reddened cheek, "let that +curb your blunt tongue. How could you bring a fresh pang to this +holy man, who hath endured so much and hath journeyed as far as +Christ's own blessed tomb?" + +"May the foul fiend strike me dumb!" cried the bowman in hot +repentance; but both the palmer and Alleyne threw up their hands +to stop him. + +"I forgive thee from my heart, dear brother," piped the blind +man. "But, oh, these wild words of thine are worse to mine ears +than aught which you could say of me." + +"Not another word shall I speak," said Aylward; "but here is a +franc for thee and I crave thy blessing." + +"And here is another," said Alleyne. + +"And another," cried Hordle John. + +But the blind palmer would have none of their alms. "Foolish, +foolish pride!" he cried, beating upon his chest with his large +brown hand. "Foolish, foolish pride! How long then will it be +ere I can scourge it forth? Am I then never to conquer it? Oh, +strong, strong are the ties of flesh, and hard it is to subdue +the spirit! I come, friends, of a noble house, and I cannot +bring myself to touch this money, even though it be to save me +from the grave." + +"Alas! father," said Alleyne, "how then can we be of help to +thee?" + +"I had sat down here to die," quoth the palmer; "but for many +years I have carried in my wallet these precious things which you +see set forth now before me. It were sin, thought I, that my +secret should perish with me. I shall therefore sell these +things to the first worthy passers-by, and from them I shall have +money enough to take me to the shrine of Our Lady at Rocamadour, +where I hope to lay these old bones." + +"What are these treasures, then, father?" asked Hordle John. "I +can but see an old rusty nail, with bits of stone and slips of +wood." + +"My friend," answered the palmer, "not all the money that is in +this country could pay a just price for these wares of mine. This +nail," he continued, pulling off his hat and turning up his +sightless orbs, "is one of those wherewith man's salvation was +secured. I had it, together with this piece of the true rood, +from the five-and-twentieth descendant of Joseph of Arimathea, +who still lives in Jerusalem alive and well, though latterly much +afflicted by boils. Aye, you may well cross yourselves, and I +beg that you will not breathe upon it or touch it with your +fingers." + +"And the wood and stone, holy father?" asked Alleyne, with bated +breath, as he stared awe-struck at his precious relics. + +"This cantle of wood is from the true cross, this other from Noah +his ark, and the third is from the door-post of the temple of the +wise King Solomon. This stone was thrown at the sainted Stephen, +and the other two are from the Tower of Babel. Here, too, is +part of Aaron's rod, and a lock of hair from Elisha the prophet." + +"But, father," quoth Alleyne, "the holy Elisha was bald, which +brought down upon him the revilements of the wicked children." + +"It is very true that he had not much hair," said the palmer +quickly, "and it is this which makes this relic so exceeding +precious. Take now your choice of these, my worthy gentlemen, +and pay such a price as your consciences will suffer you to +offer; for I am not a chapman nor a huckster, and I would never +part with them, did I not know that I am very near to my reward." + +"Aylward," said Alleyne excitedly, "This is such a chance as few +folk have twice in one life. The nail I must have, and I will +give it to the abbey of Beaulieu, so that all the folk in England +may go thither to wonder and to pray." + +"And I will have the stone from the temple," cried Hordle John. +"What would not my old mother give to have it hung over her bed?" + +"And I will have Aaron's rod," quoth Aylward. "I have but five +florins in the world, and here are four of them." + +"Here are three more," said John. + +"And here are five more," added Alleyne. "Holy father, I hand +you twelve florins, which is all that we can give, though we well +know how poor a pay it is for the wondrous things which you sell +us." + +"Down, pride, down!" cried the pilgrim, still beating upon his +chest. "Can I not bend myself then to take this sorry sum which +is offered me for that which has cost me the labors of a life. +Give me the dross! Here are the precious relics, and, oh, I pray +you that you will handle them softly and with reverence, else had +I rather left my unworthy bones here by the wayside." + +With doffed caps and eager hands, the comrades took their new and +precious possessions, and pressed onwards upon their journey, +leaving the aged palmer still seated under the cherry-tree. They +rode in silence, each with his treasure in his hand, glancing at +it from time to time, and scarce able to believe that chance had +made them sole owners of relics of such holiness and worth that +every abbey and church in Christendom would have bid eagerly for +their possession. So they journeyed, full of this good fortune, +until opposite the town of Le Mas, where John's horse cast a +shoe, and they were glad to find a wayside smith who might set +the matter to rights. To him Aylward narrated the good hap which +had befallen them; but the smith, when his eyes lit upon the +relics, leaned up against his anvil and laughed, with his hand to +his side, until the tears hopped down his sooty cheeks. + +"Why, masters," quoth he, "this man is a coquillart, or seller of +false relics, and was here in the smithy not two hours ago. This +nail that he hath sold you was taken from my nail-box, and as to +the wood and the stones, you will see a heap of both outside from +which he hath filled his scrip." + +"Nay, nay," cried Alleyne, "this was a holy man who had journeyed +to Jerusalem, and acquired a dropsy by running from the house of +Pilate to the Mount of Olives," + +"I know not about that," said the smith; "but I know that a man +with a gray palmer's hat and gown was here no very long time ago, +and that he sat on yonder stump and ate a cold pullet and drank a +flask of wine. Then he begged from me one of my nails, and +filling his scrip with stones, he went upon his way. Look at +these nails, and see if they are not the same as that which he +has sold you." + +"Now may God save us!" cried Alleyne, all aghast. "Is there no +end then to the wickedness of humankind? He so humble, so aged, +so loth to take our money--and yet a villain and a cheat. Whom +can we trust or believe in?" + +"I will after him," said Aylward, flinging himself into the +saddle. "Come, Alleyne, we may catch him ere John's horse be +shod." + +Away they galloped together, and ere long they saw the old gray +palmer walking slowly along in front of them. He turned, +however, at the sound of their hoofs, and it was clear that his +blindness was a cheat like all the rest of him, for he ran +swiftly through a field and so into a wood, where none could +follow him. They hurled their relics after him, and so rode back +to the blacksmith's the poorer both in pocket and in faith. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +HOW RODGER CLUB-FOOT WAS PASSED INTO PARADISE. + +IT was evening before the three comrades came into Aiguillon, +There they found Sir Nigel Loring and Ford safely lodged at the +sign of the "Baton Rouge," where they supped on good fare and +slept between lavender-scented sheets. It chanced, however, that +a knight of Poitou, Sir Gaston d'Estelle, was staying there on +his way back from Lithuania, where he had served a term with the +Teutonic knights under the land-master of the presbytery of +Marienberg. He and Sir Nigel sat late in high converse as to +bushments, outfalls, and the intaking of cities, with many tales +of warlike men and valiant deeds. Then their talk turned to +minstrelsy, and the stranger knight drew forth a cittern, upon +which he played the minne-lieder of the north, singing the while +in a high cracked voice of Hildebrand and Brunhild and Siegfried, +and all the strength and beauty of the land of Almain. To this +Sir Nigel answered with the romances of Sir Eglamour, and of Sir +Isumbras, and so through the long winter night they sat by the +crackling wood-fire answering each other's songs until the +crowing cocks joined in their concert. Yet, with scarce an hour +of rest, Sir Nigel was as blithe and bright as ever as they set +forth after breakfast upon their way. + +"This Sir Gaston is a very worthy man," said he to his squires as +they rode from the "Baton Rouge." "He hath a very strong desire +to advance himself, and would have entered upon some small +knightly debate with me, had he not chanced to have his arm-bone +broken by the kick of a horse. I have conceived a great love for +him, and I have promised him that when his bone is mended I will +exchange thrusts with him. But we must keep to this road upon +the left." + +"Nay, my fair lord," quoth Aylward. "The road to Montaubon is +over the river, and so through Quercy and the Agenois." + +"True, my good Aylward; but I have learned from this worthy +knight, who hath come over the French marches, that there is a +company of Englishmen who are burning and plundering in the +country round Villefranche. I have little doubt, from what he +says, that they are those whom we seek." + +"By my hilt! it is like enough," said Aylward. "By all accounts +they had been so long at Montaubon, that there would be little +there worth the taking. Then as they have already been in the +south, they would come north to the country of the Aveyron." + +"We shall follow the Lot until we come to Cahors, and then cross +the marches into Villefranche," said Sir Nigel. "By St. Paul! as +we are but a small band, it is very likely that we may have some +very honorable and pleasing adventure, for I hear that there is +little peace upon the French border." + +All morning they rode down a broad and winding road, barred with +the shadows of poplars. Sir Nigel rode in front with his +squires, while the two archers followed behind with the sumpter +mule between them. They had left Aiguillon and the Garonne far +to the south, and rode now by the tranquil Lot, which curves blue +and placid through a gently rolling country. Alleyne could not +but mark that, whereas in Guienne there had been many townlets +and few castles, there were now many castles and few houses. On +either hand gray walls and square grim keeps peeped out at every +few miles from amid the forests while the few villages which they +passed were all ringed round with rude walls, which spoke of the +constant fear and sudden foray of a wild frontier land. Twice +during the morning there came bands of horsemen swooping down +upon them from the black gateways of wayside strongholds, with +short, stern questions as to whence they came and what their +errand. Bands of armed men clanked along the highway, and the +few lines of laden mules which carried the merchandise of the +trader were guarded by armed varlets, or by archers hired for the +service. + +"The peace of Bretigny hath not made much change in these parts," +quoth Sir Nigel, "for the country is overrun with free companions +and masterless men. Yonder towers, between the wood and the +hill, mark the town of Cahors, and beyond it is the land of +France. But here is a man by the wayside, and as he hath two +horses and a squire I make little doubt that he is a knight. I +pray you, Alleyne, to give him greeting from me, and to ask him +for his titles and coat-armor. It may be that I can relieve him +of some vow, or perchance he hath a lady whom he would wish to +advance." + +"Nay, my fair lord," said Alleyne, "these are not horses and a +squire, but mules and a varlet. The man is a mercer, for he hath +a great bundle beside him." + +"Now, God's blessing on your honest English voice!" cried the +stranger, pricking up his ears at the sound of Alleyne's words. +"Never have I heard music that was so sweet to mine ear. Come, +Watkin lad, throw the bales over Laura's back! My heart was nigh +broke, for it seemed that I had left all that was English behind +me, and that I would never set eyes upon Norwich market square +again." He was a tall, lusty, middle-aged man with a ruddy face, +a brown forked beard shot with gray, and a broad Flanders hat set +at the back of his head. His servant, as tall as himself, but +gaunt and raw-boned, had swung the bales on the back of one mule, +while the merchant mounted upon the other and rode to join the +party. It was easy to see, as he approached, from the quality +of his dress and the richness of his trappings, that he was a man +of some wealth and position. + +"Sir knight," said he, "my name is David Micheldene, and I am a +burgher and alderman of the good town of Norwich, where I live +five doors from the church of Our Lady, as all men know on the +banks of Yare. I have here my bales of cloth which I carry to +Cahors--woe worth the day that ever I started on such an errand! +I crave your gracious protection upon the way for me, my servant, +and my mercery; for I have already had many perilous passages, +and have now learned that Roger Club-foot, the robber-knight of +Quercy, is out upon the road in front of me. I hereby agree to +give you one rose-noble if you bring me safe to the inn of the +'Angel' in Cahors, the same to be repaid to me or my heirs if any +harm come to me or my goods." + +"By Saint Paul!" answered Sir Nigel, "I should be a sorry knight +if I ask pay for standing by a countryman in a strange land. You +may ride with me and welcome, Master Micheldene, and your varlet +may follow with my archers." + +"God's benison upon thy bounty!" cried the stranger. "Should you +come to Norwich you may have cause to remember that you have been +of service to Alderman Micheldene. It is not very far to Cahors, +for surely I see the cathedral towers against the sky-line; but I +have heard much of this Roger Clubfoot, and the more I hear the +less do I wish to look upon his face. Oh, but I am sick and +weary of it all, and I would give half that I am worth to see my +good dame sitting in peace beside me, and to hear the bells of +Norwich town." + +"Your words are strange to me," quoth Sir Nigel, "for you have +the appearance of a stout man, and I see that you wear a sword by +your side." + +"Yet it is not my trade," answered the merchant. "I doubt not +that if I set you down in my shop at Norwich you might scarce +tell fustian from falding, and know little difference between the +velvet of Genoa and the three-piled cloth of Bruges. There you +might well turn to me for help. But here on a lone roadside, +with thick woods and robber-knights, I turn to you, for it is the +business to which you have been reared." + +"There is sooth in what you say, Master Micheldene," said Sir +Nigel, "and I trust that we may come upon this Roger Clubfoot, +for I have heard that he is a very stout and skilful soldier, and +a man from whom much honor is to be gained." + +"He is a bloody robber," said the trader, curtly, "and I wish I +saw him kicking at the end of a halter." + +"It is such men as he," Sir Nigel remarked, "who give the true +knight honorable deeds to do, whereby he may advance himself." + +"It is such men as he," retorted Micheldene, "who are like rats +in a wheat-rick or moths in a woolfels, a harm and a hindrance to +all peaceful and honest men." + +"Yet, if the dangers of the road weigh so heavily upon you, +master alderman, it is a great marvel to me that you should +venture so far from home." + +"And sometimes, sir knight, it is a marvel to myself. But I am a +man who may grutch and grumble, but when I have set my face to do +a thing I will not turn my back upon it until it be done. There +is one, Francois Villet, at Cahors, who will send me wine-casks +for my cloth-bales, so to Cahors I will go, though all the +robber-knights of Christendom were to line the roads like yonder +poplars." + +"Stoutly spoken, master alderman! But how have you fared +hitherto?" + +"As a lamb fares in a land of wolves. Five times we have had to +beg and pray ere we could pass. Twice I have paid toll to the +wardens of the road. Three times we have had to draw, and once +at La Reolle we stood seer our wool-bales, Watkin and I, and we +laid about us for as long as a man might chant a litany, slaying +one rogue and wounding two others. By God's coif! we are men of +peace, but we are free English burghers, not to be mishandled +either in our country or abroad. Neither lord, baron, knight, or +commoner shall have as much as a strike of flax of mine whilst I +have strength to wag this sword." + +"And a passing strange sword it is," quoth Sir Nigel. "What make +you, Alleyne, of these black lines which are drawn across the +sheath?" + +"I cannot tell what they are, my fair lord." + +"Nor can I," said Ford. + +The merchant chuckled to himself. "It was a thought of mine +own," said he; "for the sword was made by Thomas Wilson, the +armorer, who is betrothed to my second daughter Margery. Know +then that the sheath is one cloth-yard, in length, marked off +according to feet and inches to serve me as a measuring wand. It +is also of the exact weight of two pounds, so that I may use it +in the balance." + +"By Saint Paul!" quoth Sir Nigel, "it is very clear to me that +the sword is like thyself, good alderman, apt either for war or +for peace. But I doubt not that even in England you have had +much to suffer from the hands of robbers and outlaws." + +"It was only last Lammastide, sir knight, that I was left for +dead near Reading as I journeyed to Winchester fair. Yet I had +the rogues up at the court of pie-powder, and they will harm no +more peaceful traders." + +"You travel much then!" + +"To Winchester, Linn mart, Bristol fair, Stourbridge, and +Bartholomew's in London Town. The rest of the year you may ever +find me five doors from the church of Our Lady, where I would +from my heart that I was at this moment, for there is no air like +Norwich air, and no water like the Yare, nor can all the wines of +France compare with the beer of old Sam Yelverton who keeps the +'Dun Cow.' But, out and alack, here is an evil fruit which hangs +upon this chestnut-tree!" + +As he spoke they had ridden round a curve of the road and come +upon a great tree which shot one strong brown branch across their +path. From the centre of this branch there hung a man, with his +head at a horrid slant to his body and his toes just touching the +ground. He was naked save for a linen under shirt and pair of +woollen drawers. Beside him on a green bank there sat a small +man with a solemn face, and a great bundle of papers of all +colors thrusting forth from the scrip which lay beside him. He +was very richly dressed, with furred robes, a scarlet hood, and +wide hanging sleeves lined with flame-colored silk. A great gold +chain hung round his neck, and rings glittered from every finger +of his hands. On his lap he had a little pile of gold and of +silver, which he was dropping, coin by coin, into a plump pouch +which hung from his girdle. + +"May the saints be with you, good travellers!" he shouted, as the +party rode up. "May the four Evangelists watch over you! May +the twelve Apostles bear you up! May the blessed army of martyrs +direct your feet and lead you to eternal bliss!" + +"Gramercy for these good wishes!" said Sir Nigel. "But I +perceive, master alderman, that this man who hangs here is, by +mark of foot, the very robber-knight of whom we have spoken. But +there is a cartel pinned upon his breast, and I pray you, +Alleyne, to read it to me." + +The dead robber swung slowly to and fro in the wintry wind, a +fixed smile upon his swarthy face, and his bulging eyes still +glaring down the highway of which he had so long been the terror; +on a sheet of parchment upon his breast was printed in rude +characters; + + ROGER PIED-BOT. + +Par l'ordre du Senechal de Castelnau, et de l'Echevin de Cahors, +servantes fideles du tres vaillant et tres puissant Edouard, +Prince de Galles et d'Aquitaine. Ne touchez pas, Ne coutez +pas, Ne depechez pas. + +"He took a sorry time in dying," said the man who sat beside him. +"He could stretch one toe to the ground and bear him self up, so +that I thought he would never have done. Now at last, however, +he is safely in paradise, and so I may jog on upon my earthly +way." He mounted, as he spoke, a white mule which had been +grazing by the wayside, all gay with fustian of gold and silver +bells, and rode onward with Sir Nigel's party. + +"How know you then that he is in paradise?" asked Sir Nigel. +"All things are possible to God, but, certes, without a miracle, +I should scarce expect to find the soul of Roger Clubfoot amongst +the just," + +"I know that he is there because I have just passed him in +there," answered the stranger, rubbing his bejewelled hands +together in placid satisfaction. "It is my holy mission to be a +sompnour or pardoner. I am the unworthy servant and delegate of +him who holds the keys. A contrite heart and ten nobles to holy +mother Church may stave off perdition; but he hath a pardon of +the first degree, with a twenty-five livre benison, so that I +doubt if he will so much as feel a twinge of purgatory. I came +up even as the seneschal's archers were tying him up, and I gave +him my fore-word that I would bide with him until he had passed. +There were two leaden crowns among the silver, but I would not +for that stand in the way of his salvation." + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, "if you have indeed this power +to open and to shut the gates of hope, then indeed you stand high +above mankind. But if you do but claim to have it, and yet have +it not, then it seems to me, master clerk, that you may yourself +find the gate barred when you shall ask admittance." + +"Small of faith! Small of faith!" cried the sompnour. "Ah, Sir +Didymus yet walks upon earth! And yet no words of doubt can +bring anger to mine heart, or a bitter word to my lip, for am I +not a poor unworthy worker in the cause of gentleness and peace? +Of all these pardons which I bear every one is stamped and signed +by our holy father, the prop and centre of Christendom." + +"Which of them?" asked Sir Nigel. + +"Ha, ha!" cried the pardoner, shaking a jewelled forefinger. Thou +wouldst be deep in the secrets of mother Church? Know then that +I have both in my scrip. Those who hold with Urban shall have +Urban's pardon, while I have Clement's for the Clementist--or he +who is in doubt may have both, so that come what may he shall be +secure. I pray you that you will buy one, for war is bloody +work, and the end is sudden with little time for thought or +shrift. Or you, sir, for you seem to me to be a man who would do +ill to trust to your own merits." This to the alderman of +Norwich, who had listened to him with a frowning brow and a +sneering lip. + +"When I sell my cloth," quoth he, "he who buys may weigh and feel +and handle. These goods which you sell are not to be seen, nor +is there any proof that you hold them. Certes, if mortal man +might control God's mercy, it would be one of a lofty and God- +like life, and not one who is decked out with rings and chains +and silks, like a +pleasure-wench at a kermesse. + +"Thou wicked and shameless man!" cried the clerk. "Dost thou +dare to raise thy voice against the unworthy servant of mother +Church?" + +"Unworthy enough!" quoth David Micheldene. "I would have you to +know, clerk, that I am a free English burgher, and that I dare +say my mind to our father the Pope himself, let alone such a +lacquey's lacquey as you!" + +"Base-born and foul-mouthed knave!" cried the sompnour. "You +prate of holy things, to which your hog's mind can never rise. +Keep silence, lest I call a curse upon you!" + +"Silence yourself!" roared the other. "Foul bird!" we found thee +by the gallows like a carrion-crow. A fine life thou hast of it +with thy silks and thy baubles, cozening the last few shillings +from the pouches of dying men. A fig for thy curse! Bide here, +if you will take my rede, for we will make England too hot for +such as you, when Master Wicliff has the ordering of it. Thou +vile thief!" it is you, and such as you, who bring an evil name +upon the many churchmen who lead a pure and a holy life. Thou +outside the door of heaven! Art more like to be inside the door +of hell." + +At this crowning insult the sompnour, with a face ashen with +rage, raised up a quivering hand and began pouring Latin +imprecations upon the angry alderman. The latter, however, was +not a man to be quelled by words, for he caught up his ell- +measure sword-sheath and belabored the cursing clerk with it. The +latter, unable to escape from the shower of blows, set spurs to +his mule and rode for his life, with his enemy thundering behind +him. At sight of his master's sudden departure, the varlet +Watkin set off after him, with the pack-mule beside him, so that +the four clattered away down the road together, until they swept +round a curve and their babble was but a drone in the distance. +Sir Nigel and Alleyne gazed in astonishment at one another, while +Ford burst out a-laughing. + +"Pardieu!" said the knight, "this David Micheldene must be one of +those Lollards about whom Father Christopher of the priory had so +much to say. Yet he seemed to be no bad man from what I have +seen of him." + +"I have heard that Wicliff hath many followers in Norwich," +answered Alleyne. + +"By St. Paul! I have no great love for them," quoth Sir Nigel. +"I am a man who am slow to change; and, if you take away from me +the faith that I have been taught, it would be long ere I could +learn one to set in its place. It is but a chip here and a chip +there, yet it may bring the tree down in time. Yet, on the other +hand, I cannot but think it shame that a man should turn God's +mercy on and off, as a cellarman doth wine with a spigot." + +"Nor is it," said Alleyne, "part of the teachings of that mother +Church of which he had so much to say. There was sooth in what +the alderman said of it." + +"Then, by St. Paul! they may settle it betwixt them," quoth Sir +Nigel. "For me, I serve God, the king and my lady; and so long +as I can keep the path of honor I am well content. My creed +shall ever be that of Chandos: + + " 'Fais ce que dois--adviegne que peut, C'est +commande au chevalier.' " + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +HOW THE COMRADES CAME OVER THE MARCHES OF FRANCE + +AFTER passing Cahors, the party branched away from the main road, +and leaving the river to the north of them, followed a smaller +track which wound over a vast and desolate plain. This path led +them amid marshes and woods, until it brought them out into a +glade with a broad stream swirling swiftly down the centre of it. +Through this the horses splashed their way, and on the farther +shore Sir Nigel announced to them that they were now within the +borders of the land of France. For some miles they still +followed the same lonely track, which led them through a dense +wood, and then widening out, curved down to an open rolling +country, such as they had traversed between Aiguillon and +Cahors. + +If it were grim and desolate upon the English border, however, +what can describe the hideous barrenness of this ten times +harried tract of France? The whole face of the country was +scarred and disfigured, mottled over with the black blotches of +burned farm-steadings, and the gray, gaunt gable-ends of what had +been chateaux. Broken fences, crumbling walls, vineyards +littered with stones, the shattered arches of bridges--look where +you might, the signs of ruin and rapine met the eye. Here and +there only, on the farthest sky-line, the gnarled turrets of a +castle, or the graceful pinnacles of church or of monastery +showed where the forces of the sword or of the spirit had +preserved some small islet of security in this universal flood of +misery. Moodily and in silence the little party rode along the +narrow and irregular track, their hearts weighed down by this +far-stretching land of despair. It was indeed a stricken and a +blighted country, and a man might have ridden from Auvergne in +the north to the marches of Foix, nor ever seen a smiling village +or a thriving homestead. + +From time to time as they advanced they saw strange lean figures +scraping and scratching amid the weeds and thistles, who, on +sight of the band of horsemen, threw up their arms and dived in +among the brushwood, as shy and as swift as wild animals. More +than once, however, they came on families by the wayside, who +were too weak from hunger and disease to fly, so that they could +but sit like hares on a tussock, with panting chests and terror +in their eyes. So gaunt were these poor folk, so worn and spent- +-with bent and knotted frames, and sullen, hopeless, mutinous +faces--that it made the young Englishman heart-sick to look upon +them. Indeed, it seemed as though all hope and light had gone so +far from them that it was not to be brought back; for when Sir +Nigel threw down a handful of silver among them there came no +softening of their lined faces, but they clutched greedily at the +coins, peering questioningly at him, and champing with their +animal jaws. Here and there amid the brushwood the travellers +saw the rude bundle of sticks which served them as a home--more +like a fowl's nest than the dwelling-place of man. Yet why +should they build and strive, when the first adventurer who +passed would set torch to their thatch, and when their own feudal +lord would wring from them with blows and curses the last fruits +of their toil? They sat at the lowest depth of human misery, and +hugged a bitter comfort to their souls as they realized that they +could go no lower. Yet they had still the human gift of speech, +and would take council among themselves in their brushwood +hovels, glaring with bleared eyes and pointing with thin fingers +at the great widespread chateaux which ate like a cancer into +the life of the country-side. When such men, who are beyond hope +and fear, begin in their dim minds to see the source their woes, +it may be an evil time for those who have wronged them. The weak +man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he feel +the wild, mad thrill of despair. High and strong the chateaux, +lowly and weak the brushwood hut; but God help the seigneur and +his lady when the men of the brushwood set their hands to the +work of revenge! + +Through such country did the party ride for eight or it might be +nine miles, until the sun began to slope down in the west and +their shadows to stream down the road in front of them. Wary and +careful they must be, with watchful eyes to the right and the +left, for this was no man's land, and their only passports were +those which hung from their belts. Frenchmen and Englishmen, +Gascon and Provencal, Brabanter, Tardvenu, Scorcher, Flayer, and +Free Companion, wandered and struggled over the whole of this +accursed district. So bare and cheerless was the outlook, and so +few and poor the dwellings, that Sir Nigel began to have fears as +to whether he might find food and quarters for his little troop. +It was a relief to him, therefore, when their narrow track opened +out upon a larger road, and they saw some little way down it a +square white house with a great bunch of holly hung out at the +end of a stick from one of the upper windows. + +"By St. Paul!" said he, "I am right glad; for I had feared that +we might have neither provant nor herbergage. Ride on, Alleyne, +and tell this inn-keeper that an English knight with his party +will lodge with him this night." + +Alleyne set spurs to his horse and reached the inn door a long +bow-shot before his companions. Neither varlet nor ostler could +be seen, so he pushed open the door and called loudly for the +landlord. Three times he shouted, but, receiving no reply, he +opened an inner door and advanced into the chief guest-room of +the hostel. + +A very cheerful wood-fire was sputtering and cracking in an open +grate at the further end of the apartment. At one side of this +fire, in a high-backed oak chair, sat a lady, her face turned +towards the door. The firelight played over her features, and +Alleyne thought that he had never seen such queenly power, such +dignity and strength, upon a woman's face. She might have been +five-and-thirty years of age, with aquiline nose, firm yet +sensitive mouth, dark curving brows, and deep-set eyes which +shone and sparkled with a shifting brilliancy. Beautiful as she +was, it was not her beauty which impressed itself upon the +beholder; it was her strength, her power, the sense of wisdom +which hung over the broad white brow, the decision which lay in +the square jaw and delicately moulded chin. A chaplet of pearls +sparkled amid her black hair, with a gauze of silver network +flowing back from it over her shoulders; a black mantle was +swathed round her, and she leaned back in her chair as one who is +fresh from a journey. + +In the opposite corner there sat a very burly and broad- +shouldered man, clad in a black jerkin trimmed with sable, with a +black velvet cap with curling white feather cocked upon the side +of his head. A flask of red wine stood at his elbow, and he +seemed to be very much at his ease, for his feet were stuck up on +a stool, and between his thighs he held a dish full of nuts. +These he cracked between his strong white teeth and chewed in a +leisurely way, casting the shells into the blaze. As Alleyne +gazed in at him he turned his face half round and cocked an eye +at him over his shoulder. It seemed to the young Englishman that +he had never seen so hideous a face, for the eyes were of the +lightest green, the nose was broken and driven inwards, while the +whole countenance was seared and puckered with wounds. The +voice, too, when he spoke, was as deep and as fierce as the growl +of a beast of prey. + +"Young man," said he, "I know not who you may be, and I am not +much inclined to bestir myself, but if it were not that I am bent +upon taking my ease, I swear, by the sword of Joshua! that I +would lay my dog-whip across your shoulders for daring to fill +the air with these discordant bellowings." + +Taken aback at this ungentle speech, and scarce knowing how to +answer it fitly in the presence of the lady, Alleyne stood with +his hand upon the handle of the door, while Sir Nigel and his +companions dismounted. At the sound of these fresh voices, and +of the tongue in which they spoke, the stranger crashed his dish +of nuts down upon the floor, and began himself to call for the +landlord until the whole house re-echoed with his roarings. With +an ashen face the white-aproned host came running at his call, +his hands shaking and his very hair bristling with apprehension. +"For the sake of God, sirs," he whispered as he passed, "speak +him fair and do not rouse him! For the love of the Virgin, be +mild with him!" + +"Who is this, then?" asked Sir Nigel. + +Alleyne was about to explain, when a fresh roar from the stranger +interrupted him. + +"Thou villain inn-keeper," he shouted, "did I not ask you when I +brought my lady here whether your inn was clean?" + +"You did, sire." + +"Did I not very particularly ask you whether there were any +vermin in it?" + +"You did, sire." + +"And you answered me?" + +"That there were not, sire." + +"And yet ere I have been here an hour I find Englishmen crawling +about within it. Where are we to be free from this pestilent +race? Can a Frenchman upon French land not sit down in a French +auberge without having his ears pained by the clack of their +hideous talk? Send them packing, inn-keeper, or it may be the +worse for them and for you." + +"I will, sire, I will!" cried the frightened host, and bustled +from the room, while the soft, soothing voice of the woman was +heard remonstrating with her furious companion. + +"Indeed, gentlemen, you had best go," said mine host. "It is but +six miles to Villefranche, where there are very good quarters at +the sign of the 'Lion Rouge.' " + +"Nay," answered Sir Nigel, "I cannot go until I have seen more of +this person, for he appears to be a man from whom much is to be +hoped. What is his name and title?" + +"It is not for my lips to name it unless by his desire. But I +beg and pray you, gentlemen, that you will go from my house, for +I know not what may come of it if his rage should gain the +mastery of him." + +"By Saint Paul!" lisped Sir Nigel, "this is certainly a man whom +it is worth journeying far to know. Go tell him that a humble +knight of England would make his further honorable acquaintance, +not from any presumption, pride, or ill-will, but for the +advancement of chivalry and the glory of our ladies. Give him +greeting from Sir Nigel Loring, and say that the glove which I +bear in my cap belongs to the most peerless and lovely of her +sex, whom I am now ready to uphold against any lady whose claim +he might be desirous of advancing." + +The landlord was hesitating whether to carry this message or no, +when the door of the inner room was flung open, and the stranger +bounded out like a panther from its den, his hair bristling and +his deformed face convulsed with anger. + +"Still here!" he snarled. "Dogs of England, must ye be lashed +hence? Tiphaine, my sword!" He turned to seize his weapon, but +as he did so his gaze fell upon the blazonry of sir Nigel's +shield, and he stood staring, while the fire in his strange green +eyes softened into a sly and humorous twinkle. + +"Mort Dieu!" cried he, "it is my little swordsman of Bordeaux. I +should remember that coat-armor, seeing that it is but three days +since I looked upon it in the lists by Garonne. Ah! Sir Nigel, +Sir Nigel! you owe me a return for this," and he touched his +right arm, which was girt round just under the shoulder with a +silken kerchief. + +But the surprise of the stranger at the sight of Sir Nigel was as +nothing compared with the astonishment and the delight which +shone upon the face of the knight of Hampshire as he looked upon +the strange face of the Frenchman. Twice he opened his mouth and +twice he peered again, as though to assure himself that his eyes +had not played him a trick. + +"Bertrand!" he gasped at last. "Bertrand du Guesclin!" + +"By Saint Ives!" shouted the French soldier, with a hoarse roar +of laughter, "it is well that I should ride with my vizor down, +for he that has once seen my face does not need to be told my +name. It is indeed I, Sir Nigel, and here is my hand! I give you +my word that there are but three Englishmen in this world whom I +would touch save with the sharp edge of the sword: the prince is +one, Chandos the second, and you the third; for I have heard much +that is good of you." + +"I am growing aged, and am somewhat spent in the wars," quoth Sir +Nigel; "but I can lay by my sword now with an easy mind, for I +can say that I have crossed swords with him who hath the bravest +heart and the strongest arm of all this great kingdom of France. +I have longed for it, I have dreamed of it, and now I can scarce +bring my mind to understand that this great honor hath indeed +been mine." + +"By the Virgin of Rennes! you have given me cause to be very +certain of it," said Du Guesclin, with a gleam of his broad white +teeth. + +"And perhaps, most honored sir, it would please you to continue +the debate. Perhaps you would condescend to go farther into the +matter. God He knows that I am unworthy of such honor, yet I can +show my four-and-sixty quarterings, and I have been present at +some bickerings and scufflings during these twenty years." + +"Your fame is very well known to me, and I shall ask my lady to +enter your name upon my tablets," said Sir Bertrand. "There are +many who wish to advance themselves, and who bide their turn, for +I refuse no man who comes on such an errand. At present it may +not be, for mine arm is stiff from this small touch, and I would +fain do you full honor when we cross swords again. Come in with +me, and let your squires come also, that my sweet spouse, the +Lady Tiphaine, may say that she hath seen so famed and gentle a +knight." + +Into the chamber they went in all peace and concord, where the +Lady Tiphaine sat like queen on throne for each in turn to be +presented to her. Sooth to say, the stout heart of Sir Nigel, +which cared little for the wrath of her lion-like spouse, was +somewhat shaken by the calm, cold face of this stately dame, for +twenty years of camp-life had left him more at ease in the lists +than in a lady's boudoir. He bethought him, too, as he looked at +her set lips and deep-set questioning eyes, that he had heard +strange tales of this same Lady Tiphaine du Guesclin. Was it not +she who was said to lay hands upon the sick and raise them from +their couches when the leeches had spent their last nostrums? +Had she not forecast the future, and were there not times when in +the loneliness of her chamber she was heard to hold converse with +some being upon whom mortal eye never rested--some dark familiar +who passed where doors were barred and windows high? Sir Nigel +sunk his eye and marked a cross on the side of his leg as he +greeted this dangerous dame, and yet ere five minutes had passed +he was hers, and not he only but his two young squires as well. +The mind had gone out of them, and they could but look at this +woman and listen to the words which fell from her lips--words +which thrilled through their nerves and stirred their souls like +the battle-call of a bugle. + +Often in peaceful after-days was Alleyne to think of that scene +of the wayside inn of Auvergne. The shadows of evening had +fallen, and the corners of the long, low, wood-panelled room were +draped in darkness. The sputtering wood fire threw out a circle +of red flickering light which played over the little group of +wayfarers, and showed up every line and shadow upon their faces. +Sir Nigel sat with elbows upon knees, and chin upon hands, his +patch still covering one eye, but his other shining like a star, +while the ruddy light gleamed upon his smooth white head. Ford +was seated at his left, his lips parted, his eyes staring, and a +fleck of deep color on either cheek, his limbs all rigid as one +who fears to move. On the other side the famous French captain +leaned back in his chair, a litter of nut-shells upon his lap, +his huge head half buried in a cushion, while his eyes wandered +with an amused gleam from his dame to the staring, enraptured +Englishmen. Then, last of all, that pale clear-cut face, that +sweet clear voice, with its high thrilling talk of the +deathlessness of glory, of the worthlessness of life, of the pain +of ignoble joys, and of the joy which lies in all pains which +lead to a noble end. Still, as the shadows deepened, she spoke +of valor and virtue, of loyalty, honor, and fame, and still they +sat drinking in her words while the fire burned down and the red +ash turned to gray. + +"By the sainted Ives!" cried Du Guesclin at last, "it is time +that we spoke of what we are to do this night, for I cannot think +that in this wayside auberge there are fit quarters for an +honorable company." + +Sir Nigel gave a long sigh as he came back from the dreams of +chivalry and hardihood into which this strange woman's words had +wafted him. "I care not where I sleep," said he; "but these are +indeed somewhat rude lodgings for this fair lady." + +"What contents my lord contents me," quoth she. "I perceive, Sir +Nigel, that you are under vow," she added, glancing at his +covered eye. + +"It is my purpose to attempt some small deed," he answered. + +"And the glove--is it your lady's?" + +"It is indeed my sweet wife's." + +"Who is doubtless proud of you." + +"Say rather I of her," quoth he quickly. "God He knows that I am +not worthy to be her humble servant. It is easy, lady, for a man +to ride forth in the light of day, and do his devoir when all men +have eyes for him. But in a woman's heart there is a strength +and truth which asks no praise, and can but be known to him whose +treasure it is." + +The Lady Tiphaine smiled across at her husband. "You have often +told me, Bertrand, that there were very gentle knights amongst +the English," quoth she. + +"Aye, aye," said he moodily. "But to horse, Sir Nigel, you and +yours and we shall seek the chateau of Sir Tristram de Rochefort, +which is two miles on this side of Villefranche. He is Seneschal +of Auvergne, and mine old war companion." + +"Certes, he would have a welcome for you," quoth Sir Nigel; "but +indeed he might look askance at one who comes without permit over +the marches." + +"By the Virgin! when he learns that you have come to draw away +these rascals he will be very blithe to look upon your face. Inn- +keeper, here are ten gold pieces. What is over and above your +reckoning you may take off from your charges to the next needy +knight who comes this way. Come then, for it grows late and the +horses are stamping in the roadway." + +The Lady Tiphaine and her spouse sprang upon their steeds without +setting feet to stirrup, and away they jingled down the white +moonlit highway, with Sir Nigel at the lady's bridle-arm, and +Ford a spear's length behind them. Alleyne had lingered for an +instant in the passage, and as he did so there came a wild outcry +from a chamber upon the left, and out there ran Aylward and John, +laughing together like two schoolboys who are bent upon a prank. +At sight of Alleyne they slunk past him with somewhat of a shame- +faced air, and springing upon their horses galloped after their +party. The hubbub within the chamber did not cease, however, but +rather increased, with yells of: "A moi, mes amis! A moi, +camarades! A moi, l'honorable champion de l'Eveque de Montaubon! +A la recouse de l'eglise sainte!" So shrill was the outcry that +both the inn-keeper and Alleyne, with every varlet within +hearing, rushed wildly to the scene of the uproar. + +It was indeed a singular scene which met their eyes. The room +was a long and lofty one, stone floored and bare, with a fire at +the further end upon which a great pot was boiling. A deal table +ran down the centre, with a wooden wine-pitcher upon it and two +horn cups. Some way from it was a smaller table with a single +beaker and a broken wine-bottle. From the heavy wooden rafters +which formed the roof there hung rows of hooks which held up +sides of bacon, joints of smoked beef, and strings of onions for +winter use. In the very centre of all these, upon the largest +hook of all, there hung a fat little red-faced man with enormous +whiskers, kicking madly in the air and clawing at rafters, hams, +and all else that was within hand-grasp. The huge steel hook had +been passed through the collar of his leather jerkin, and there +he hung like a fish on a line, writhing, twisting, and screaming, +but utterly unable to free himself from his extraordinary +position. It was not until Alleyne and the landlord had mounted +on the table that they were able to lift him down, when he sank +gasping with rage into a seat, and rolled his eyes round in every +direction. + +"Has he gone?" quoth he. + +"Gone? Who?" + +"He, the man with the red head, the giant man." + +"Yes," said Alleyne, "he hath gone." + +"And comes not back?" + +"No." + +"The better for him!" cried the little man, with a long sigh of +relief. "Mon Dieu! What! am I not the champion of the Bishop of +Montaubon? Ah, could I have descended, could I have come down, +ere he fled! Then you would have seen. You would have beheld a +spectacle then. There would have been one rascal the less upon +earth. Ma, foi, yes!" + +"Good master Pelligny," said the landlord, "these gentlemen have +not gone very fast, and I have a horse in the stable at your +disposal, for I would rather have such bloody doings as you +threaten outside the four walls of mine auberge." + +"I hurt my leg and cannot ride," quoth the bishop's champion. "I +strained a sinew on the day that I slew the three men at +Castelnau." + +"God save you, master Pelligny!" cried the landlord. "It must be +an awesome thing to have so much blood upon one's soul. And yet +I do not wish to see so valiant a man mishandled, and so I will, +for friendship's sake, ride after this Englishman and bring him +back to you." + +"You shall not stir," cried the champion, seizing the inn-keeper +in a convulsive grasp. "I have a love for you, Gaston, and I +would not bring your house into ill repute, nor do such scath to +these walls and chattels as must befall if two such men as this +Englishman and I fall to work here." + +"Nay, think not of me!" cried the inn-keeper. "What are my walls +when set against the honor of Francois Poursuivant d'Amour +Pelligny, champion of the Bishop of Montaubon. My horse, Andre!" + +"By the saints, no! Gaston, I will not have it! You have said +truly that it is an awesome thing to have such rough work upon +one's soul. I am but a rude soldier, yet I have a mind. Mon +Dieu! I reflect, I weigh, I balance. Shall I not meet this man +again? Shall I not bear him in mind? Shall I not know him by +his great paws and his red head? Ma foi, yes!" + +"And may I ask, sir," said Alleyne, "why it is that you call +yourself champion of the Bishop of Montaubon?" + +"You may ask aught which it is becoming to me to answer. The +bishop hath need of a champion, because, if any cause be set to +test of combat, it would scarce become his office to go down into +the lists with leather and shield and cudgel to exchange blows +with any varlet. He looks around him then for some tried +fighting man, some honest smiter who can give a blow or take one. +It is not for me to say how far he hath succeeded, but it is +sooth that he who thinks that he hath but to do with the Bishop +of Montaubon, finds himself face to face with Francois +Poursuivant d'Amour Pelligny." + +At this moment there was a clatter of hoofs upon the road, and a +varlet by the door cried out that one of the Englishmen was +coming back. The champion looked wildly about for some corner of +safety, and was clambering up towards the window, when Ford's +voice sounded from without, calling upon Alleyne to hasten, or he +might scarce find his way. Bidding adieu to landlord and to +champion, therefore, he set off at a gallop, and soon overtook +the two archers. + +"A pretty thing this, John," said he. "Thou wilt have holy +Church upon you if you hang her champions upon iron hooks in an +inn kitchen." + +"It was done without thinking," he answered apologetically, while +Aylward burst into a shout of laughter. + +"By my hilt! mon petit," said he, "you would have laughed also +could you have seen it. For this man was so swollen with pride +that he would neither drink with us, nor sit at the same table +with us, nor as much as answer a question, but must needs talk to +the varlet all the time that it was well there was peace, and +that he had slain more Englishmen than there were tags to his +doublet. Our good old John could scarce lay his tongue to French +enough to answer him, so he must needs reach out his great hand +to him and place him very gently where you saw him. But we must +on, for I can scarce hear their hoofs upon the road." + +"I think that I can see them yet," said Ford, peering down the +moonlit road. + +"Pardieu! yes. Now they ride forth from the shadow. And yonder +dark clump is the Castle of Villefranche. En avant camarades! or +Sir Nigel may reach the gates before us. But hark, mes amis, +what sound is that?" + +As he spoke the hoarse blast of a horn was heard from some woods +upon the right. An answering call rung forth upon their left, +and hard upon it two others from behind them. + +"They are the horns of swine-herds," quoth Aylward. "Though why +they blow them so late I cannot tell." + +"Let us on, then," said Ford, and the whole party, setting their +spurs to their horses, soon found themselves at the Castle of +Villefranche, where the drawbridge had already been lowered and +the portcullis raised in response to the summons of Du Guesclin. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +HOW THE BLESSED HOUR OF SIGHT CAME TO THE LADY TIPHAINE. + +SIR TRISTRAM DE ROCHEFORT, Seneschal of Auvergne and Lord of +Villefranche, was a fierce and renowned soldier who had grown +gray in the English wars. As lord of the marches and guardian of +an exposed country-side, there was little rest for him even in +times of so-called peace, and his whole life was spent in raids +and outfalls upon the Brabanters, late-comers, flayers free +companions, and roving archers who wandered over his province. +At times he would come back in triumph, and a dozen corpses +swinging from the summit of his keep would warn evil-doers that +there was still a law in the land. At others his ventures were +not so happy, and he and his troop would spur it over the +drawbridge with clatter of hoofs hard at their heels and whistle +of arrows about their ears. Hard he was of hand and harder of +heart, hated by his foes, and yet not loved by those whom he +protected, for twice he had been taken prisoner, and twice his +ransom had been wrung by dint of blows and tortures out of the +starving peasants and ruined farmers. Wolves or watch-dogs, it +was hard to say from which the sheep had most to fear. + +The Castle of Villefranche was harsh and stern as its master. A +broad moat, a high outer wall turreted at the corners, with a +great black keep towering above all--so it lay before them in the +moonlight. By the light of two flambeaux, protruded through the +narrow slit-shaped openings at either side of the ponderous gate, +they caught a glimpse of the glitter of fierce eyes and of the +gleam of the weapons of the guard. The sight of the two-headed +eagle of Du Guesclin, however, was a passport into any fortalice +in France, and ere they had passed the gate the old border knight +came running forwards with hands out-thrown to greet his famous +countryman. Nor was he less glad to see Sir Nigel, when the +Englishman's errand was explained to him, for these archers had +been a sore thorn in his side and had routed two expeditions +which he had sent against them. A happy day it would be for the +Seneschal of Auvergne when they should learn that the last yew +bow was over the marches. + +The material for a feast was ever at hand in days when, if there +was grim want in the cottage, there was at least rude plenty in +the castle. Within an hour the guests were seated around a board +which creaked under the great pasties and joints of meat, varied +by those more dainty dishes in which the French excelled, the +spiced ortolan and the truffled beccaficoes. The Lady Rochefort, +a bright and +laughter-loving dame, sat upon the left of her warlike spouse, +with Lady Tiphaine upon the right. Beneath sat Du Guesclin and +Sir Nigel, with Sir Amory Monticourt, of the order of the +Hospitallers, and Sir Otto Harnit, a wandering knight from the +kingdom of Bohemia. These with Alleyne and Ford, four French +squires, and the castle chaplain, made the company who sat +together that night and made good cheer in the (Castle of +Villefranche. The great fire crackled in the grate, the hooded +hawks slept upon their perches, the rough deer-hounds with +expectant eyes crouched upon the tiled floor; close at the elbows +of the guests stood the dapper little lilac-coated pages; the +laugh and jest circled round and all was harmony and comfort. +Little they recked of the brushwood men who crouched in their +rags along the fringe of the forest and looked with wild and +haggard eyes at the rich, warm glow which shot a golden bar of +light from the high arched windows of the castle. + +Supper over, the tables dormant were cleared away as by magic and +trestles and bancals arranged around the blazing fire, for there +was a bitter nip in the air. The Lady Tiphaine had sunk back in +her cushioned chair, and her long dark lashes drooped low over +her sparkling eyes. Alleyne, glancing at her, noted that her +breath came quick and short, and that her cheeks had blanched to +a lily white. Du Guesclin eyed her keenly from time to time, and +passed his broad brown fingers through his crisp, curly black +hair with the air of a man who is perplexed in his mind. + +"These folk here," said the knight of Bohemia, "they do not seem +too well fed." + +"Ah, canaille!" cried the Lord of Villefranche. "You would +scarce credit it, and yet it is sooth that when I was taken at +Poictiers it was all that my wife and foster-brother could do to +raise the money from them for my ransom. The sulky dogs would +rather have three twists of a rack, or the thumbikins for an +hour, than pay out a denier for their own feudal father and liege +lord. Yet there is not one of them but hath an old stocking full +of gold pieces hid away in a snug corner." + +"Why do they not buy food then?" asked Sir Nigel. "By St. Paul! +it seemed to me their bones were breaking through their skin." + +"It is their grutching and grumbling which makes them thin. We +have a saying here, Sir Nigel, that if you pummel Jacques +Bonhomme he will pat you, but if you pat him he will pummel you. +Doubtless you find it so in England." + +"Ma foi, no!" said Sir Nigel. "I have two Englishmen of this +class in my train, who are at this instant, I make little doubt, +as full of your wine as any cask in your cellar. He who +pummelled them might come by such a pat as he would be likely to +remember." + +"I cannot understand it," quoth the seneschal, "for the English +knights and nobles whom I have met were not men to brook the +insolence of the base born." + +"Perchance, my fair lord, the poor folk are sweeter and of a +better countenance in England," laughed the Lady Rochefort. "Mon +Dieu! you cannot conceive to yourself how ugly they are! +Without hair, without teeth, all twisted and bent; for me, I +cannot think how the good God ever came to make such people. I +cannot bear it, I, and so my trusty Raoul goes ever before me +with a cudgel to drive them from my path." + +"Yet they have souls, fair lady, they have souls!" murmured the +chaplain, a white-haired man with a weary, patient face. + +"So I have heard you tell them," said the lord of the castle; +"and for myself, father, though I am a true son of holy Church, +yet I think that you were better employed in saying your mass and +in teaching the children of my men-at-arms, than in going over +the country-side to put ideas in these folks' heads which would +never have been there but for you. I have heard that you have +said to them that their souls are as good as ours, and that it is +likely that in another life they may stand as high as the oldest +blood of Auvergne. For my part, I believe that there are so many +worthy knights and gallant gentlemen in heaven who know how such +things should be arranged, that there is little fear that we +shall find ourselves mixed up with base roturiers and swine- +herds. Tell your beads, father, and con your psalter, but do not +come between me and those whom the king has given to me!" + +"God help them!" cried the old priest. "A higher King than yours +has given them to me, and I tell you here in your own castle +hall, Sir Tristram de Rochefort, that you have sinned deeply in +your dealings with these poor folk, and that the hour will come, +and may even now be at hand, when God's hand will be heavy upon +you for what you have done." He rose as he spoke, and walked +slowly from the room. + +"Pest take him!" cried the French knight. "Now, what is a man to +do with a priest, Sir Bertrand?--for one can neither fight him +like a man nor coax him like a woman." + +"Ah, Sir Bertrand knows, the naughty one!" cried the Lady +Rochefort. "Have we not all heard how he went to Avignon and +squeezed fifty thousand crowns out of the Pope." + +"Ma foi!" said Sir Nigel, looking with a mixture of horror and +admiration at Du Guesclin. "Did not your heart sink within you? +Were you not smitten with fears? Have you not felt a curse hang +over you?" + +"I have not observed it," said the Frenchman carelessly. "But by +Saint Ives! Tristram, this chaplain of yours seems to me to be a +worthy man, and you should give heed to his words, for though I +care nothing for the curse of a bad pope, it would be a grief to +me to have aught but a blessing from a good priest." + +"Hark to that, my fair lord," cried the Lady Rochefort. "Take +heed, I pray thee, for I do not wish to have a blight cast over +me, nor a palsy of the limbs. I remember that once before you +angered Father Stephen, and my tire-woman said that I lost more +hair in seven days than ever before in a month." + +"If that be sign of sin, then, by Saint Paul! I have much upon +my soul," said Sir Nigel, amid a general laugh. "But in very +truth, Sir Tristram, if I may venture a word of counsel, I should +advise that you make your peace with this good man." + +"He shall have four silver candlesticks," said the seneschal +moodily. "And yet I would that he would leave the folk alone. +You cannot conceive in your mind how stubborn and brainless they +are. Mules and pigs are full of reason beside them. God He +knows that I have had great patience with them. It was but last +week that, having to raise some money, I called up to the castle +Jean Goubert, who, as all men know, has a casketful of gold +pieces hidden away in some hollow tree. I give you my word that +I did not so much as lay a stripe upon his fool's back, but after +speaking with him, and telling him how needful the money was to +me, I left him for the night to think over the matter in my +dungeon. What think you that the dog did? Why, in the morning +we found that he had made a rope from strips of his leathern +jerkin, and had hung himself to the bar of the window." + +"For me, I cannot conceive such wickedness!" cried the lady. + +"And there was Gertrude Le Boeuf, as fair a maiden as eye could +see, but as bad and bitter as the rest of them. When young Amory +de Valance was here last Lammastide he looked kindly upon the +girl, and even spoke of taking her into his service. What does +she do, with her dog of a father? Why, they tie themselves +together and leap into the Linden Pool, where the water is five +spears'-lengths deep. I give you my word that it was a great +grief to young Amory, and it was days ere he could cast it from +his mind. But how can one serve people who are so foolish and so +ungrateful?" + +Whilst the Seneschal of Villefranche had been detailing the evil +doings of his tenants, Alleyne had been unable to take his eyes +from the face of Lady Tiphaine. She had lain back in her chair, +with drooping eyelids and bloodless face, so that he had feared +at first her journey had weighed heavily upon her, and that the +strength was ebbing out of her. Of a sudden, however, there came +a change, for a dash of bright color flickered up on to either +cheek, and her lids were slowly raised again upon eyes which +sparkled with such lustre as Alleyne had never seen in human eyes +before, while their gaze was fixed intently, not on the company, +but on the dark tapestry which draped the wall. So transformed +and so ethereal was her expression, that Alleyne, in his +loftiest dream of archangel or of seraph, had never pictured so +sweet, so womanly, and yet so wise a face. Glancing at Du +Guesclin, Alleyne saw that he also was watching his wife closely, +and from the twitching of his features, and the beads upon his +brick-colored brow, it was easy to see that he was deeply +agitated by the change which he marked in her. + +"How is it with you, lady?" he asked at last, in a tremulous +voice. + +Her eyes remained fixed intently upon the wall, and there was a +long pause ere she answered him. Her voice, too, which had been +so clear and ringing, was now low and muffled as that of one who +speaks from a distance. + +"All is very well with me, Bertrand," said she. "The blessed +hour of sight has come round to me again." + +"I could see it come! I could see it come!" he exclaimed, +passing his fingers through his hair with the same perplexed +expression as before. + +"This is untoward, Sir Tristram," he said at last. "And I scarce +know in what words to make it clear to you, and to your fair +wife, and to Sir Nigel Loring, and to these other stranger +knights. My tongue is a blunt one, and fitter to shout word of +command than to clear up such a matter as this, of which I can +myself understand little. This, however, I know, that my wife is +come of a very sainted race, whom God hath in His wisdom endowed +with wondrous powers, so that Tiphaine Raquenel was known +throughout Brittany ere ever I first saw her at Dinan. Yet these +powers are ever used for good, and they are the gift of God and +not of the devil, which is the difference betwixt white magic and +black." + +"Perchance it would be as well that we should send for Father +Stephen," said Sir Tristram. + +"It would be best that he should come," cried the Hospitaller + +"And bring with him a flask of holy water," added the knight of +Bohemia. + +"Not so, gentlemen," answered Sir Bertrand. "It is not needful +that this priest should be called, and it is in my mind that in +asking for this ye cast some slight shadow or slur upon the good +name of my wife, as though it were still doubtful whether her +power came to her from above or below. If ye have indeed such a +doubt I pray that you will say so, that we may discuss the matter +in a fitting way." + +"For myself," said Sir Nigel, "I have heard such words fall from +the lips of this lady that I am of the opinion that there is no +woman, save only one, who can be in any way compared to her in +beauty and in goodness. Should any gentleman think otherwise, I +should deem it great honor to run a small course with him, or +debate the matter in whatever way might be most pleasing to him." + +"Nay, it would ill become me to cast a slur upon a lady who is +both my guest and the wife of my comrade-in-arms," said the +Seneschal of Villefranche. "I have perceived also that on her +mantle there is marked a silver cross, which is surely sign +enough that there is nought of evil in these strange powers which +you say that she possesses." + +This argument of the seneschal's appealed so powerfully to the +Bohemian and to the Hospitaller that they at once intimated that +their objections had been entirely overcome, while even the Lady +Rochefort, who had sat shivering and crossing herself, ceased to +cast glances at the door, and allowed her fears to turn to +curiosity. + +"Among the gifts which hare been vouchsafed to my wife," said Du +Guesclin, "there is the wondrous one of seeing into the future; +but it comes very seldom upon her, and goes as quickly, for none +can command it. The blessed hour of sight, as she hath named it, +has come but twice since I have known her, and I can vouch for it +that all that she hath told me was true, for on the evening of +the Battle of Auray she said that the morrow would be an ill day +for me and for Charles of Blois. Ere the sun had sunk again he +was dead, and I the prisoner of Sir John Chandos. Yet it is not +every question that she can answer, but only those----" + +"Bertrand, Bertrand!" cried the lady in the same mutterings far- +away voice, "the blessed hour passes. Use it, Bertrand, while +you may." + +"I will, my sweet. Tell me, then, what fortune comes upon me?" + +"Danger, Bertrand--deadly, pressing danger--which creeps upon you +and you know it not." + +The French soldier burst into a thunderous laugh, and his green +eyes twinkled with amusement. "At what time during these twenty +years would not that have been a true word?" he cried. "Danger +is in the air that I breathe. But is this so very close, +Tiphaine?" + +"Here--now--close upon you!" The words came out in broken, +strenuous speech, while the lady's fair face was writhed and +drawn like that of one who looks upon a horror which strikes, the +words from her lips. Du Guesclin gazed round the tapestried +room, at the screens, the tables, the abace, the credence, the +buffet with its silver salver, and the half-circle of friendly, +wondering faces. There was an utter stillness, save for the +sharp breathing of the Lady Tiphaine and for the gentle soughing +of the wind outside, which wafted to their ears the distant call +upon a swine-herd's horn. + +"The danger may bide," said he, shrugging his broad shoulders. +"And now, Tiphaine, tell us what will come of this war in Spain." + +"I can see little," she answered, straining her eyes and +puckering her brow, as one who would fain clear her sight. +"There are mountains, and dry plains, and flash of arms and +shouting of battle-cries, Yet it is whispered to me that by +failure you will succeed." + +"Ha! Sir Nigel, how like you that?" quoth Bertrand, shaking his +head. "It is like mead and vinegar, half sweet, half sour. And +is there no question which you would ask my lady?" + +"Certes there is. I would fain know, fair lady, how all things +are at Twynham Castle, and above all how my sweet lady employs +herself." + +"To answer this I would fain lay hand upon one whose thoughts +turn strongly to this castle which you have named. Nay, my Lord +Loring, it is whispered to me that there is another here who hath +thought more deeply of it than you." + +"Thought more of mine own home?" cried Sir Nigel. "Lady, I fear +that in this matter at least you are mistaken." + +"Not so, Sir Nigel. Come hither, young man, young English squire +with the gray eyes! Now give me your hand, and place it here +across my brow, that I may see that which you have seen. What is +this that rises before me? Mist, mist, rolling mist with a +square black tower above it. See it shreds out, it thins, it +rises, and there lies a castle in green plain, with the sea +beneath it, and a great church within a bow-shot. There are two +rivers which run through the meadows, and between them lie the +tents of the besiegers." + +"The besiegers!" cried Alleyne, Ford, and Sir Nigel, all three in +a breath. + +"Yes, truly, and they press hard upon the castle, for they are an +exceeding multitude and full of courage. See how they storm and +rage against the gate, while some rear ladders, and others, line +after line, sweep the walls with their arrows. They are many +leaders who shout and beckon, and one, a tall man with a golden +beard, who stands before the gate stamping his foot and hallooing +them on, as a pricker doth the hounds. But those in the castle +fight bravely. There is a woman, two women, who stand upon the +walls, and give heart to the men-at-arms. They shower down +arrows, darts and great stones. Ah I they have struck down the +tall leader, and the others give back. The mist thickens and I +can see no more." + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, "I do not think that there can +be any such doings at Christchurch, and I am very easy of the +fortalice so long as my sweet wife hangs the key of the outer +bailey at the head of her bed. Yet I will not deny that you have +pictured the castle as well as I could have done myself, and I am +full of wonderment at all that I have heard and seen." + +"I would, Lady Tiphaine," cried the Lady Rochefort, "that you +would use your power to tell me what hath befallen my golden +bracelet which I wore when hawking upon the second Sunday of +Advent, and have never set eyes upon since." + +"Nay, lady," said du Guesclin, "it does not befit so great and +wondrous a power to pry and search and play the varlet even to +the beautiful chatelaine of Villefranche. Ask a worthy question, +and, with the blessing of God, you shall have a worthy answer." + +"Then I would fain ask," cried one of the French squires, "as to +which may hope to conquer in these wars betwixt the English and +ourselves." + +"Both will conquer and each will hold its own," answered the Lady +Tiphaine. + +"Then we shall still hold Gascony and Guienne?" cried Sir Nigel. + +The lady shook her head. "French land, French blood, French +speech," she answered. "They are French, and France shall have +them." + +"But not Bordeaux?" cried Sir Nigel excitedly. + +"Bordeaux also is for France." + +"But Calais?" + +"Calais too." + +"Woe worth me then, and ill hail to these evil words! If +Bordeaux and Calais be gone, then what is left for England?" + +"It seems indeed that there are evil times coming upon your +country," said Du Guesclin. "In our fondest hopes we never +thought to hold Bordeaux. By Saint Ives! this news hath warmed +the heart within me. Our dear country will then be very great in +the future, Tiphaine?" + +"Great, and rich, and beautiful," she cried. "Far down the +course of time I can see her still leading the nations, a wayward +queen among the peoples, great in war, but greater in peace, +quick in thought, deft in action, with her people's will for her +sole monarch, from the sands of Calais to the blue seas of the +south." + +"Ha!" cried Du Guesclin, with his eyes flashing in triumph, "you +hear her, Sir Nigel?--and she never yet said word which was not +sooth." + +The English knight shook his head moodily. "What of my own poor +country?" said he. "I fear, lady, that what you have said bodes +but small good for her." + +The lady sat with parted lips, and her breath came quick and +fast. "My God!" she cried, "what is this that is shown me? +Whence come they, these peoples, these lordly nations, these +mighty countries which rise up before me? I look beyond, and +others rise, and yet others, far and farther to the shores of the +uttermost waters. They crowd! They swarm! The world is given +to them, and it resounds with the clang of their hammers and the +ringing of their church bells. They call them many names, and +they rule them this way or that but they are all English, for I +can hear the voices of the people. On I go, and onwards over +seas where man hath never yet sailed, and I see a great land +under new stars and a stranger sky, and still the land is +England. Where have her children not gone? What have they not +done? Her banner is planted on ice. Her banner is scorched in +the sun. She lies athwart the lands, and her shadow is over the +seas. Bertrand, Bertrand! we are undone for the buds of her bud +are even as our choicest flower!" Her voice rose into a wild cry, +and throwing up her arms she sank back white and nerveless into +the deep oaken chair. + +"It is over," said Du Guesclin moodily, as he raised her drooping +head with his strong brown hand. "Wine for the lady, squire! +The blessed hour of sight hath passed." + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +HOW THE BRUSHWOOD MEN CAME TO THE CHATEAU OF VILLEFRANCHE. + +IT was late ere Alleyne Edricson, having carried Sir Nigel the +goblet of spiced wine which it was his custom to drink after the +curling of his hair, was able at last to seek his chamber. It +was a +stone-flagged room upon the second floor, with a bed in a recess +for him, and two smaller pallets on the other side, on which +Aylward and Hordle John were already snoring. Alleyne had knelt +down to his evening orisons, when there came a tap at his door, +and Ford entered with a small lamp in his hand. His face was +deadly pale, and his hand shook until the shadows flickered up +and down the wall. + +"What is it, Ford?" cried Alleyne, springing to his feet. + +"I can scarce tell you, said he, sitting down on the side of the +couch, and resting his chin upon his hand. "I know not what to +say or what to think." + +"Has aught befallen you, then?" + +"Yes, or I have been slave to my own fancy. I tell you, lad, +that I am all undone, like a fretted bow-string. Hark hither, +Alleyne! it cannot be that you have forgotten little Tita, the +daughter of the old glass-stainer at Bordeaux?" + +"I remember her well." + +"She and I, Alleyne, broke the lucky groat together ere we +parted, and she wears my ring upon her finger. 'Caro mio,' quoth +she when last we parted, 'I shall be near thee in the wars, and +thy danger will be my danger.' Alleyne, as God is my help, as I +came up the stairs this night I saw her stand before me, her face +in tears, her hands out as though in warning--I saw it, Alleyne, +even as I see those two archers upon their couches. Our very +finger-tips seemed to meet, ere she thinned away like a mist in +the sunshine." + +"I would not give overmuch thought to it," answered Alleyne. "Our +minds will play us strange pranks, and bethink you that these +words of the Lady Tiphaine Du Guesclin have wrought upon us and +shaken us." + +Ford shook his head. "I saw little Tita as clearly as though I +were back at the Rue des Apotres at Bordeaux," said he. + +"But the hour is late, and I must go." + +"Where do you sleep, then?" + +"In the chamber above you. May the saints be with us all!" He +rose from the couch and left the chamber, while Alleyne could +hear his feet sounding upon the winding stair. The young squire +walked across to the window and gazed out at the moonlit +landscape, his mind absorbed by the thought of the Lady Tiphaine, +and of the strange words that she had spoken as to what was going +forward at Castle Twynham. Leaning his elbows upon the +stonework, he was deeply plunged in reverie, when in a moment his +thoughts were brought back to Villefranche and to the scene +before him. + +The window at which he stood was in the second floor of that +portion of the castle which was nearest to the keep. In front +lay the broad moat, with the moon lying upon its surface, now +clear and round, now drawn lengthwise as the breeze stirred the +waters. Beyond, the plain sloped down to a thick wood, while +further to the left a second wood shut out the view. Between the +two an open glade stretched, silvered in the moonshine, with the +river curving across the lower end of it. + +As he gazed, he saw of a sudden a man steal forth from the wood +into the open clearing. He walked with his head sunk, his +shoulders curved, and his knees bent, as one who strives hard to +remain unseen. Ten paces from the fringe of trees he glanced +around, and waving his hand he crouched down, and was lost to +sight among a belt of furze-bushes. After him there came a +second man, and after him a third, a fourth, and a fifth stealing +across the narrow open space and darting into the shelter of the +brushwood. Nine-and-seventy Alleyne counted of these dark +figures flitting across the line of the moonlight. Many bore +huge burdens upon their backs, though what it was that they +carried he could not tell at the distance. Out of the one wood +and into the other they passed, all with the same crouching, +furtive gait, until the black bristle of trees had swallowed up +the last of them. + +For a moment Alleyne stood in the window, still staring down at +the silent forest, uncertain as to what he should think of these +midnight walkers. Then he bethought him that there was one +beside him who was fitter to judge on such a matter. His fingers +had scarce rested upon Aylward's shoulder ere the bowman was on +his feet, with his hand outstretched to his sword. + +"Qui va?" he cried. "Hola! mon petit. By my hilt! I thought +there had been a camisade. What then, mon gar.?" + +"Come hither by the window, Aylward," said Alleyne. "I have seen +four-score men pass from yonder shaw across the glade, and nigh +every man of them had a great burden on his back. What think you +of it?" + +"I think nothing of it, mon camarade! There are as many +masterless folk in this country as there are rabbits on Cowdray +Down, and there are many who show their faces by night but would +dance in a hempen collar if they stirred forth in the day. On all +the French marches are droves of outcasts, reivers, spoilers, and +draw-latches, of whom I judge that these are some, though I +marvel that they should dare to come so nigh to the castle of the +seneschal. All seems very quiet now," he added, peering out of +the window. + +"They are in the further wood," said Alleyne. + +"And there they may bide. Back to rest, mon petit; for, by my +hilt! each day now will bring its own work. Yet it would be well +to shoot the bolt in yonder door when one is in strange quarters. +So!" He threw himself down upon his pallet and in an instant was +fast asleep. + +It might have been about three o'clock in the morning when +Alleyne was aroused from a troubled sleep by a low cry or +exclamation. He listened, but, as he heard no more, he set it +down as the challenge of the guard upon the walls, and dropped +off to sleep once more. A few minutes later he was disturbed by +a gentle creaking of his own door, as though some one were +pushing cautiously against it, and immediately afterwards he +heard the soft thud of cautious footsteps upon the stair which +led to the room above, followed by a confused noise and a muffled +groan. Alleyne sat up on his couch with all his nerves in a +tingle, uncertain whether these sounds might come from a simple +cause--some sick archer and visiting leech perhaps--or whether +they might have a more sinister meaning, But what danger could +threaten them here in this strong castle, under the care of +famous warriors, with high walls and a broad moat around them? +Who was there that could injure them? He had well-nigh persuaded +himself that his fears were a foolish fancy, when his eyes fell +upon that which sent the blood cold to his heart and left him +gasping, with hands clutching at the counterpane. + +Right in front of him was the broad window of the chamber, with +the moon shining brightly through it. For an instant something +had obscured the light, and now a head was bobbing up and down +outside, the face looking in at him, and swinging slowly from one +side of the window to the other. Even in that dim light there +could be no mistaking those features. Drawn, distorted and +blood-stained, they were still those of the young fellow-squire +who had sat so recently upon his own couch. With a cry of horror +Alleyne sprang from his bed and rushed to the casement, while the +two archers, aroused by the sound, seized their weapons and +stared about them in bewilderment. One glance was enough to show +Edricson that his fears were but too true. Foully murdered, +with a score of wounds upon him and a rope round his neck, his +poor friend had been cast from the upper window and swung slowly +in the night wind, his body rasping against the wall and his +disfigured face upon a level with the casement. + +"My God!" cried Alleyne, shaking in every limb. "What has come +upon us? What devil's deed is this?" + +"Here is flint and steel," said John stolidly. "The lamp, +Aylward! This moonshine softens a man's heart. Now we may use +the eyes which God hath given us." + +"By my hilt!" cried Aylward, as the yellow flame flickered up, +"it is indeed young master Ford, and I think that this seneschal +is a black villain, who dare not face us in the day but would +murther us in our sleep. By the twang of string I if I do not +soak a goose's feather with his heart's blood, it will be no +fault of Samkin Aylward of the White Company." + +"But, Aylward, think of the men whom I saw yesternight," said +Alleyne. "It may not be the seneschal. It may be that others +have come into the castle. I must to Sir Nigel ere it be too +late. Let me go, Aylward, for my place is by his side." + +"One moment, mon gar. Put that steel head-piece on the end of my +yew-stave. So! I will put it first through the door; for it is +ill to come out when you can neither see nor guard yourself. Now, +camarades, out swords and stand ready! Hola, by my hilt! it is +time that we were stirring!" + +As he spoke, a sudden shouting broke forth in the castle, with +the scream of a woman and the rush of many feet. Then came the +sharp clink of clashing steel, and a roar like that of an angry +lion--"Notre Dame Du Guesclin! St. Ives! St. Ives!" The bow-man +pulled back the bolt of the door, and thrust out the headpiece at +the end of the bow. A clash, the clatter of the steel-cap upon +the ground, and, ere the man who struck could heave up for +another blow, the archer had passed his sword through his body. +"On, camarades, on!" he cried; and, breaking fiercely past two +men who threw themselves in his way, he sped down the broad +corridor in the direction of the shouting. + +A sharp turning, and then a second one, brought them to the head +of a short stair, from which they looked straight down upon the +scene of the uproar. A square oak-floored hall lay beneath them, +from which opened the doors of the principal guest-chambers. +This hall was as light as day, for torches burned in numerous +sconces upon the walls, throwing strange shadows from the tusked +or antlered heads which ornamented them. At the very foot of the +stair, close to the open door of their chamber, lay the seneschal +and his wife: she with her head shorn from her shoulders, he +thrust through with a sharpened stake, which still protruded from +either side of his body. Three servants of the castle lay dead +beside them, all torn and draggled, as though a pack of wolves +had been upon them. In front of the central guest-chamber stood +Du Guesclin and Sir Nigel, half-clad and unarmored, with the mad +joy of battle gleaming in their eyes. Their heads were thrown +back, their lips compressed, their blood-stained swords poised +over their right shoulders, and their left feet thrown out. +Three dead men lay huddled together in front of them: while a +fourth, with the blood squirting from a severed vessel, lay back +with updrawn knees, breathing in wheezy gasps. Further back--all +panting together, like the wind in a tree--there stood a group of +fierce, wild creatures, bare-armed and bare-legged, gaunt, +unshaven, with deep-set murderous eyes and wild beast faces. +With their flashing teeth, their bristling hair, their mad +leapings and screamings, they seemed to Alleyne more like fiends +from the pit than men of flesh and blood. Even as he looked, +they broke into a hoarse yell and dashed once more upon the two +knights, hurling themselves madly upon their sword-points; +clutching, scrambling, biting, tearing, careless of wounds if +they could but drag the two soldiers to earth. Sir Nigel was +thrown down by the sheer weight of them, and Sir Bertrand with +his thunderous war-cry was swinging round his heavy sword to +clear a space for him to rise, when the whistle of two long +English arrows, and the rush of the squire and the two English +archers down the stairs, turned the tide of the combat. The +assailants gave back, the knights rushed forward, and in a very +few moments the hall was cleared, and Hordle John had hurled the +last of the wild men down the steep steps which led from the end +of it. + +"Do not follow them," cried Du Guesclin. "We are lost if we +scatter. For myself I care not a denier, though it is a poor +thing to meet one's end at the hands of such scum; but I have my +dear lady here, who must by no means be risked. We have +breathing-space now, and I would ask you, Sir Nigel, what it is +that you would counsel?" + +"By St. Paul!" answered Sir Nigel, "I can by no means understand +what hath befallen us, save that I have been woken up by your +battle-cry, and, rushing forth, found myself in the midst of this +small bickering. Harrow and alas for the lady and the seneschal! +What dogs are they who have done this bloody deed?" + +"They are the Jacks, the men of the brushwood. They have the +castle, though I know not how it hath come to pass, Look from +this window into the bailey." + +"By heaven!" cried Sir Nigel, "it is as bright as day with the +torches. The gates stand open, and there are three thousand of +them within the walls. See how they rush and scream and wave! +What is it that they thrust out through the postern door? My +God! it is a man-at-arms, and they pluck him limb from limb like +hounds on a wolf. Now another, and yet another. They hold the +whole castle, for I see their faces at the windows. See, there +are some with great bundles on their backs." + +"It is dried wood from the forest. They pile them against the +walls and set them in a blaze. Who is this who tries to check +them? By St. Ives! it is the good priest who spake for them in +the hall. He kneels, he prays, he implores! What! villains, +would ye raise hands against those who have befriended you? Ah, +the butcher has struck him! He is down! They stamp him under +their feet! They tear off his gown and wave it in the air! See +now, how the flames lick up the walls! Are there none left to +rally round us? With a hundred men we might hold our own." + +"Oh, for my Company!" cried Sir Nigel. "But where is Ford, +Alleyne?" + +"He is foully murdered, my fair lord." + +"The saints receive him! May he rest in peace! But here come +some at last who may give us counsel, for amid these passages it +is ill to stir without a guide." + +As he spoke, a French squire and the Bohemian knight came rushing +down the steps, the latter bleeding from a slash across his +forehead. + +"All is lost!" he cried. "The castle is taken and on fire, the +seneschal is slain, and there is nought left for us." + +"On the contrary," quoth Sir Nigel, "there is much left to us, +for there is a very honorable contention before us, and a fair +lady for whom to give our lives. There are many ways in which a +man might die, but none better than this." + +"You can tell us, Godfrey," said Du Guesclin to the French +squire: "how came these men into the castle, and what succors can +we count upon? By St. Ives! if we come not quickly to some +counsel we shall be burned like young rooks in a nest." + +The squire, a dark, slender stripling, spoke firmly and quickly, +as one who was trained to swift action. "There is a passage +under the earth into the castle," said he, "and through it some +of the Jacks made their way, casting open the gates for the +others. They have had help from within the walls, and the men-at- +arms were heavy with wine: they must have been slain in their +beds, for these devils crept from room to room with soft step and +ready knife. Sir Amory the Hospitaller was struck down with an +axe as he rushed before us from his sleeping-chamber. Save only +ourselves, I do not think that there are any left alive." + +"What, then, would you counsel?" + +"That we make for the keep. It is unused, save in time of war, +and the key hangs from my poor lord and master's belt." + +"There are two keys there." + +"It is the larger. Once there, we might hold the narrow stair; +and at least, as the walls are of a greater thickness, it would +be longer ere they could burn them. Could we but carry the lady +across the bailey, all might be well with us." + +"Nay; the lady hath seen something of the work of war," said +Tiphaine coming forth, as white, as grave, and as unmoved as +ever. "I would not be a hamper to you, my dear spouse and +gallant friend. Rest assured of this, that if all else fail I +have always a safeguard here"--drawing a small silver-hilted +poniard from her bosom--"which sets me beyond the fear of these +vile and blood-stained wretches." + +"Tiphaine," cried Du Guesclin, "I have always loved you; and now, +by Our Lady of Rennes! I love you more than ever. Did I not know +that your hand will be as ready as your words I would myself turn +my last blow upon you, ere you should fall into their hands. +Lead on, Godfrey! A new golden pyx will shine in the minster of +Dinan if we come safely through with it." + +The attention of the insurgents had been drawn away from murder +to plunder, and all over the castle might be heard their cries +and whoops of delight as they dragged forth the rich tapestries, +the silver flagons, and the carved furniture. Down in the +courtyard half-clad wretches, their bare limbs all mottled with +blood-stains, strutted about with plumed helmets upon their +heads, or with the Lady Rochefort's silken gowns girt round their +loins and trailing on the ground behind them. Casks of choice +wine had been rolled out from the cellars, and starving peasants +squatted, goblet in hand, draining off vintages which De +Rochefort had set aside for noble and royal guests. Others, with +slabs of bacon and joints of dried meat upon the ends of their +pikes, held them up to the blaze or tore at them ravenously with +their teeth. Yet all order had not been lost amongst them, for +some hundreds of the better armed stood together in a silent +group, leaning upon their rude weapons and looking up at the +fire, which had spread so rapidly as to involve one whole side of +the castle. Already Alleyne could hear the crackling and roaring +of the flames, while the air was heavy with heat and full of the +pungent whiff of burning wood. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +HOW FIVE MEN HELD THE KEEP OF VILLEFRANCHE + +UNDER the guidance of the French squire the party passed down two +narrow corridors. The first was empty, but at the head of the +second stood a peasant sentry, who started off at the sight of +them, yelling loudly to his comrades. "Stop him, or we are +undone!" cried Du Guesclin, and had started to run, when +Aylward's great war-bow twanged like a harp-string, and the man +fell forward upon his face, with twitching limbs and clutching +fingers. Within five paces of where he lay a narrow and little- +used door led out into the bailey. From beyond it came such a +Babel of hooting and screaming, horrible oaths and yet more +horrible laughter, that the stoutest heart might have shrunk from +casting down the frail barrier which faced them. + +"Make straight for the keep!" said Du Guesclin, in a sharp, stern +whisper. "The two archers in front, the lady in the centre, a +squire on either side, while we three knights shall bide behind +and beat back those who press upon us. So! Now open the door, +and God have us in his holy keeping!" + +For a few moments it seemed that their object would be attained +without danger, so swift and so silent had been their movements. +They were half-way across the bailey ere the frantic, howling +peasants made a movement to stop them. The few who threw +themselves in their way were overpowered or brushed aside, while +the pursuers were beaten back by the ready weapons of the three +cavaliers. Unscathed they fought their way to the door of the +keep, and faced round upon the swarming mob, while the squire +thrust the great key into the lock. + +"My God!" he cried, "it is the wrong key." + +"The wrong key!" + +"Dolt, fool that I am! This is the key of the castle gate; the +other opens the keep. I must back for it!" He turned, with some +wild intention of retracing his steps, but at the instant a great +jagged rock, hurled by a brawny peasant, struck him full upon the +ear, and he dropped senseless to the ground. + +"This is key enough for me!" quoth Hordle John, picking up the +huge stone, and hurling it against the door with all the strength +of his enormous body. The lock shivered, the wood smashed, the +stone flew into five pieces, but the iron clamps still held the +door in its position. Bending down, he thrust his great fingers +under it, and with a heave raised the whole mass of wood and iron +from its hinges. For a moment it tottered and swayed, and then, +falling outward, buried him in its ruin, while his comrades +rushed into the dark archway which led to safety. + +"Up the steps, Tiphaine!" cried Du Guesclin. "Now round, +friends, and beat them back!" The mob of peasants had surged in +upon their heels, but the two trustiest blades in Europe gleamed +upon that narrow stair, and four of their number dropped upon the +threshold. The others gave back, and gathered in a half circle +round the open door, gnashing their teeth and shaking their +clenched hands at the defenders. The body of the French squire +had been dragged out by them and hacked to pieces, Three or four +others had pulled John from under the door, when he suddenly +bounded to his feet, and clutching one in either hand dashed +them together with such force that they fell senseless across +each other upon the ground. With a kick and a blow he freed +himself from two others who clung to him, and in a moment he was +within the portal with his comrades. + +Yet their position was a desperate one. The peasants from far +and near had been assembled for this deed of vengeance, and not +less than six thousand were within or around the walls of the +Chateau of Villefranche. Ill armed and half starved, they were +still desperate men, to whom danger had lost all fears: for what +was death that they should shun it to cling to such a life as +theirs? The castle was theirs, and the roaring flames were +spurting through the windows and flickering high above the +turrets on two sides of the quadrangle. From either side they +were sweeping down from room to room and from bastion to bastion +in the direction of the keep. Faced by an army, and girt in by +fire, were six men and one woman; but some of them were men so +trained to danger and so wise in war that even now the combat was +less unequal than it seemed. Courage and resource were penned in +by desperation and numbers, while the great yellow sheets of +flame threw their lurid glare over the scene of death. + +"There is but space for two upon a step to give free play to our +sword-arms," said Du Guesclin. "Do you stand with me, Nigel, +upon the lowest. France and England will fight together this +night. Sir Otto, I pray you to stand behind us with this young +squire. The archers may go higher yet and shoot over our heads. +I would that we had our harness, Nigel." + +"Often have I heard my dear Sir John Chandos say that a knight +should never, even when a guest, be parted from it. Yet it will +be more honor to us if we come well out of it. We have a vantage, +since we see them against the light and they can scarce see us. +It seems to me that they muster for an onslaught." + +"If we can but keep them in play," said the Bohemian, "it is +likely that these flames may bring us succor if there be any true +men in the country." + +"Bethink you, my fair lord," said Alleyne to Sir Nigel, "that we +have never injured these men, nor have we cause of quarrel +against them. Would it not be well, if but for the lady's sake, +to speak them fair and see if we may not come to honorable terms +with them?" + +"Not so, by St. Paul!" cried Sir Nigel. "It does not accord with +mine honor, nor shall it ever be said that I, a knight of +England, was ready to hold parley with men who have slain a fair +lady and a holy priest." + +"As well hold parley with a pack of ravening wolves," said the +French captain. "Ha! Notre Dame Du Guesclin! Saint Ives! +Saint Ives!" + +As he thundered forth his war-cry, the Jacks who had been +gathering before the black arch of the gateway rushed in madly in +a desperate effort to carry the staircase. Their leaders were a +small man, dark in the face, with his beard done up in two +plaits, and another larger man, very bowed in the shoulders, with +a huge club studded with sharp nails in his hand. The first had +not taken three steps ere an arrow from Aylward's bow struck him +full in the chest, and he fell coughing and spluttering across +the threshold. The other rushed onwards, and breaking between Du +Guesclin and Sir Nigel he dashed out the brains of the Bohemian +with a single blow of his clumsy weapon. With three swords +through him he still struggled on, and had almost won his way +through them ere he fell dead upon the stair. Close at his heels +came a hundred furious peasants, who flung themselves again and +again against the five swords which confronted them. It was cut +and parry and stab as quick as eye could see or hand act. The +door was piled with bodies, and the stone floor was slippery with +blood. The deep shout of Du Guesclin, the hard, hissing breath +of the pressing multitude, the clatter of steel, the thud of +falling bodies, and the screams of the stricken, made up such a +medley as came often in after years to break upon Alleyne's +sleep. Slowly and sullenly at last the throng drew off, with +many a fierce backward glance, while eleven of their number lay +huddled in front of the stair which they had failed to win. + +"The dogs have had enough," said Du Guesclin. + +"By Saint Paul! there appear to be some very worthy and valiant +persons among them," observed Sir Nigel. "They are men from +whom, had they been of better birth, much honor and advancement +might be gained. Even as it is, it is a great pleasure to have +seen them. But what is this that they are bringing forward?" + +"It is as I feared," growled Du Guesclin. "They will burn us +out, since they cannot win their way past us. Shoot straight and +hard, archers; for, by St. Ives! our good swords are of little +use to us." + +As he spoke, a dozen men rushed forward, each screening himself +behind a huge fardel of brushwood. Hurling their burdens in one +vast heap within the portal, they threw burning torches upon the +top of it. The wood had been soaked in oil, for in an instant it +was ablaze, and a long, hissing, yellow flame licked over the +heads of the defenders, and drove them further up to the first +floor of the keep. They had scarce reached it, however, ere they +found that the wooden joists and planks of the flooring were +already on fire. Dry and worm-eaten, a spark upon them became a +smoulder, and a smoulder a blaze. A choking smoke filled the +air, and the five could scarce grope their way to the staircase +which led up to the very summit of the square tower. + +Strange was the scene which met their eyes from this eminence. +Beneath them on every side stretched the long sweep of peaceful +country, rolling plain, and tangled wood, all softened and +mellowed in the silver moonshine. No light, nor movement, nor +any sign of human aid could be seen, but far away the hoarse +clangor of a heavy bell rose and fell upon the wintry air. Be- +neath and around them blazed the huge fire, roaring find +crackling on every side of the bailey, and even as they looked +the two corner turrets fell in with a deafening crash, and the +whole castle was but a shapeless mass, spouting flames and smoke +from every window and embrasure. The great black tower upon +which they stood rose like a last island of refuge amid this sea +of fire but the ominous crackling and roaring below showed that +it would not be long ere it was engulfed also in the common ruin. +At their very feet was the square courtyard, crowded with the +howling and dancing peasants, their fierce faces upturned, their +clenched hands waving, all drunk with bloodshed and with +vengeance. A yell of execration and a scream of hideous laughter +burst from the vast throng, as they saw the faces of the last +survivors of their enemies peering down at them from the height +of the keep. They still piled the brushwood round the base of +the tower, and gambolled hand in hand around the blaze, screaming +out the doggerel lines which had long been the watchword of the +Jacquerie: + +Cessez, cessez, gens d'armes et pletons, De piller et manger le +bonhomme Qui de longtemps Jacques Bonhomme Se homme. + +Their thin, shrill voices rose high above the roar of the flames +and the crash of the masonry, like the yelping of a pack of +wolves who see their quarry before them and know that they have +well-nigh run him down. + +"By my hilt!" said Aylward to John, "it is in my mind that we +shall not see Spain this journey. It is a great joy to me that I +have placed my feather-bed and other things of price with that +worthy woman at Lyndhurst, who will now have the use of them. I +have thirteen arrows yet, and if one of them fly unfleshed, then, +by the twang of string! I shall deserve my doom. First at him +who flaunts with my lady's silken frock. Clap in the clout, by +God! though a hand's-breadth lower than I had meant. Now for the +rogue with the head upon his pike. Ha! to the inch, John. When +my eye is true, I am better at rovers than at long-butts or +hoyles. A good shoot for you also, John! The villain hath +fallen forward into the fire. But I pray you, John, to loose +gently, and not to pluck with the drawing-hand, for it is a trick +that hath marred many a fine bowman." + +Whilst the two archers were keeping up a brisk fire upon the mob +beneath them, Du Guesclin and his lady were consulting with Sir +Nigel upon their desperate situation. + +" 'Tis a strange end for one who has seen so many stricken +fields," said the French chieftain. "For me one death is as +another, but it is the thought of my sweet lady which goes to my +heart." + +"Nay, Bertrand, I fear it as little as you," said she. "Had I my +dearest wish, it would be that we should go together." + +"Well answered, fair lady!" cried Sir Nigel. "And very sure I am +that my own sweet wife would have said the same. If the end be +now come, I have had great good fortune in having lived in times +when so much glory was to be won, and in knowing so many valiant +gentlemen and knights. But why do you pluck my sleeve, Alleyne?" + +"If it please you, my fair lord, there are in this corner two +great tubes of iron, with many heavy balls, which may perchance +be those bombards and shot of which I have heard." + +"By Saint Ives! it is true," cried Sir Bertrand, striding across +to the recess where the ungainly, funnel-shaped, thick-ribbed +engines were standing. "Bombards they are, and of good size. We +may shoot down upon them." + +"Shoot with them, quotha?" cried Aylward in high disdain, for +pressing danger is the great leveller of classes. "How is a man +to take aim with these fool's toys, and how can he hope to do +scath with them?" + +"I will show you," answered Sir Nigel; "for here is the great box +of powder, and if you will raise it for me, John, I will show you +how it may be used. Come hither, where the folk are thickest +round the fire. Now, Aylward, crane thy neck and see what would +have been deemed an old wife's tale when we first turned our +faces to the wars. Throw back the lid, John, and drop the box +into the fire!" + +A deafening roar, a fluff of bluish light, and the great square +tower rocked and trembled from its very foundations, swaying this +way and that like a reed in the wind. Amazed and dizzy, the +defenders, clutching at the cracking parapets for support, saw +great stones, burning beams of wood, and mangled bodies hurtling +past them through the air. When they staggered to their feet +once more, the whole keep had settled down upon one side, so that +they could scarce keep their footing upon the sloping platform. +Gazing over the edge, they looked down upon the horrible +destruction which had been caused by the explosion. For forty +yards round the portal the ground was black with writhing, +screaming figures, who struggled up and hurled themselves down +again, tossing this way and that, sightless, scorched, with fire +bursting from their tattered clothing. Beyond this circle of +death their comrades, bewildered and amazed, cowered away from +this black tower and from these invincible men, who were most to +be dreaded when hope was furthest from their hearts. + +"A sally, Du Guesclin, a sally!" cried Sir Nigel. "By Saint +Paul! they are in two minds, and a bold rush may turn them." He +drew his sword as he spoke and darted down the winding stairs, +closely followed by his four comrades. Ere he was at the first +floor, however, he threw up his arms and stopped. "Mon Dieu!" he +said, "we are lost men!" + +"What then?" cried those behind him. + +"The wail hath fallen in, the stair is blocked, and the fire +still rages below. By Saint Paul! friends, we have fought a very +honorable fight, and may say in all humbleness that we have done +our devoir, but I think that we may now go back to the Lady +Tiphaine and say our orisons, for we have played our parts in +this world, and it is time that we made ready for another." + +The narrow pass was blocked by huge stones littered in wild +confusion over each other, with the blue choking smoke reeking up +through the crevices. The explosion had blown in the wall and +cut off the only path by which they could descend. Pent in, a +hundred feet from earth, with a furnace raging under them and a +ravening multitude all round who thirsted for their blood, it +seemed indeed as though no men had ever come through such peril +with their lives. Slowly they made their way back to the summit, +but as they came out upon it the Lady Tiphaine darted forward and +caught her husband by the wrist. + +"Bertrand," said she, "hush and listen! I have heard the voices +of men all singing together in a strange tongue." + +Breathless they stood and silent, but no sound came up to them, +save the roar of the flames and the clamor of their enemies. + +"It cannot be, lady," said Du Guesclin. "This night hath over +wrought you, and your senses play you false. What men ere there +in this country who would sing in a strange tongue?" + +"Hola!" yelled Aylward, leaping suddenly into the air with waving +hands and joyous face. "I thought I heard it ere we went down, +and now I hear it again. We are saved, comrades! By these ten +finger-bones, we are saved! It is the marching song of the White +Company. Hush!" + +With upraised forefinger and slanting head, he stood listening. +Suddenly there came swelling up a deep-voiced, rollicking chorus +from somewhere out of the darkness. Never did choice or dainty +ditty of Provence or Languedoc sound more sweetly in the ears +than did the rough-tongued Saxon to the six who strained their +ears from the blazing keep: + + We'll drink all together To the gray goose feather And the land +where the gray goose flew. + + "Ha, by my hilt!" shouted Aylward, "it is the dear old bow song +of the Company. Here come two hundred as tight lads as ever +twirled a shaft over their thumbnails. Hark to the dogs, how +lustily they sing!" + +Nearer and clearer, swelling up out of the night, came the gay +marching lilt: + + What of the bow? The bow was made in England. Of true wood, of +yew wood, The wood of English bows; For men who are free Love +the old yew-tree And the land where the yew tree grows. + + What of the men? The men were bred in England, The bowmen, the +yeomen, The lads of the dale and fell, Here's to you and to you, +To the hearts that are true, And the land where the true hearts +dwell. + +"They sing very joyfully," said Du Guesclin, "as though they were +going to a festival." + +"It is their wont when there is work to be done." + +"By Saint Paul!" quoth Sir Nigel, "it is in my mind that they +come too late, for I cannot see how we are to come down from this +tower." + +"There they come, the hearts of gold!" cried Aylward. "See, they +move out from the shadow, Now they cross the meadow. They are on +the further side of the moat. Hola camarades, hola! Johnston, +Eccles, Cooke, Harward, Bligh! Would ye see a fair lady and two +gallant knights done foully to death?" + +"Who is there?" shouted a deep voice from below. "Who is this +who speaks with an English tongue?" + +"It is I, old lad. It is Sam Aylward of the Company; and here is +your captain, Sir Nigel Loring, and four others, all laid out to +be grilled like an Easterling's herrings." + +"Curse me if I did not think that it was the style of speech of +old Samkin Aylward," said the voice, amid a buzz from the ranks. +"Wherever there are knocks going there is Sammy in the heart of +it. But who are these ill-faced rogues who block the path? To +your kennels, canaille! What! you dare look us in the eyes? Out +swords, lads, and give them the flat of them! Waste not your +shafts upon such runagate knaves." + +There was little fight left in the peasants, however, still dazed +by the explosion, amazed at their own losses and disheartened by +the arrival of the disciplined archers. In a very few minutes +they were in full flight for their brushwood homes, leaving the +morning sun to rise upon a blackened and blood-stained ruin, +where it had left the night before the magnificent castle of the +Seneschal of Auvergne. Already the white lines in the east were +deepening into pink as the archers gathered round the keep and +took counsel how to rescue the survivors. + +"Had we a rope," said Alleyne, "there is one side which is not +yet on fire, down which we might slip." + +"But how to get a rope?" + +"It is an old trick," quoth Aylward. "Hola! Johnston, cast me up +a rope, even as you did at Maupertius in the war time." + +The grizzled archer thus addressed took several lengths of rope +from his comrades, and knotting them firmly together, he +stretched them out in the long shadow which the rising sun threw +from the frowning keep. Then he fixed the yew-stave of his bow +upon end and measured the long, thin, black line which it threw +upon the turf. + +"A six-foot stave throws a twelve-foot shadow," he muttered. "The +keep throws a shadow of sixty paces. Thirty paces of rope will +be enow and to spare. Another strand, Watkin! Now pull at the +end that all may be safe. So! It is ready for them.' + +"But how are they to reach it?" asked the young archer beside +him. + +"Watch and see, young fool's-head," growled the old bowman. He +took a long string from his pouch and fastened one end to an +arrow. + +"All ready, Samkin?" + +"Ready, camarade." + +"Close to your hand then." With an easy pull he sent the shaft +flickering gently up, falling upon the stonework within a foot of +where Aylward was standing. The other end was secured to the +rope, so that in a minute a good strong cord was dangling from +the only sound side of the blazing and shattered tower. The Lady +Tiphaine was lowered with a noose drawn fast under the arms, and +the other five slid swiftly down, amid the cheers and joyous +outcry of their rescuers. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +HOW THE COMPANY TOOK COUNSEL ROUND THE FALLEN TREE. + +"WHERE is Sir Claude Latour?" asked Sir Nigel, as his feet +touched ground. + +"He is in camp, near Montpezat, two hours' march from here, my +fair lord," said Johnston, the grizzled bowman who commanded the +archers. + +"Then we shall march thither, for I would fain have you all back +at Dax in time to be in the prince's vanguard." + +"My lord," cried Alleyne, joyfully, "here are our chargers in the +field, and I see your harness amid the plunder which these rogues +have left behind them." + +"By Saint Ives! you speak sooth, young squire," said Du Guesclin. +"There is my horse and my lady's jennet. The knaves led them +from the stables, but fled without them. Now, Nigel, it is great +joy to me to have seen one of whom I have often heard. Yet we +must leave you now, for I must be with the King of Spain ere your +army crosses the mountains." + +"I had thought that you were in Spain with the valiant Henry of +Trastamare." + +"I have been there, but I came to France to raise succor for him. +I shall ride back, Nigel, with four thousand of the best lances +of France at my back, so that your prince may find he hath a task +which is worthy of him. God be with you, friend, and may we meet +again in better times!" + +"I do not think," said Sir Nigel, as he stood by Alleyne's side +looking after the French knight and his lady, "that in all +Christendom you will meet with a more stout-hearted man or a +fairer and sweeter dame. But your face is pale and sad, Alleyne! +Have you perchance met with some hurt during the ruffle?" + +"Nay, my fair lord, I was but thinking of my friend Ford, and how +he sat upon my couch no later than yesternight." + +Sir Nigel shook his head sadly. "Two brave squires have I lost," +said he. "I know not why the young shoots should be plucked, and +an old weed left standing, yet certes there must be come good +reason, since God hath so planned it. Did you not note, Alleyne, +that the Lady Tiphaine did give us warning last night that danger +was coming upon us?" + +"She did, my lord." + +"By Saint Paul! my mind misgives me as to what she saw at Twyham +Castle. And yet I cannot think that any Scottish or French +rovers could land in such force as to beleaguer the fortalice. +Call the Company together, Aylward; and let us on, for it will be +shame to us if we are not at Dax upon the trysting day." + +The archers had spread themselves over the ruins, but a blast +upon a bugle brought them all back to muster, with such booty as +they could bear with them stuffed into their pouches or slung +over their shoulders. As they formed into ranks, each man +dropping silently into his place, Sir Nigel ran a questioning eye +over them, and a smile of pleasure played over his face. Tall +and sinewy, and brown, clear-eyed, hard-featured, with the stern +and prompt bearing of experienced soldiers, it would be hard +indeed for a leader to seek for a choicer following. Here and +there in the ranks were old soldiers of the French wars, grizzled +and lean, with fierce, puckered features and shaggy, bristling +brows. The most, however, were young and dandy archers, with +fresh English faces, their beards combed out, their hair curling +from under their close steel hufkens, with gold or jewelled +earrings gleaming in their ears, while their gold-spangled +baldrics, their silken belts, and the chains which many of them +wore round their thick brown necks, all spoke of the brave times +which they had had as free companions. Each had a yew or hazel +stave slung over his shoulder, plain and serviceable with the +older men, but gaudily painted and carved at either end with the +others. Steel caps, mail brigandines, white surcoats with the +red lion of St. George, and sword or battle-axe swinging from +their belts, completed this equipment, while in some cases the +murderous maule or five-foot mallet was hung across the +bowstave, being fastened to their leathern shoulder-belt by a +hook in the centre of the handle. Sir Nigel's heart beat high as +he looked upon their free bearing and fearless faces. + +For two hours they marched through forest and marshland, along +the left bank of the river Aveyron; Sir Nigel riding behind his +Company, with Alleyne at his right hand, and Johnston, the old +master bowman, walking by his left stirrup. Ere they had reached +their journey's end the knight had learned all that he would know +of his men, their doings and their intentions. Once, as they +marched, they saw upon the further bank of the river a body of +French men-at-arms, riding very swiftly in the direction of +Villefranche. + +"It is the Seneschal of Toulouse, with his following," said +Johnston, shading his eyes with his hand. "Had he been on this +side of the water he might have attempted something upon us." + +"I think that it would be well that we should cross," said Sir +Nigel. "It were pity to balk this worthy seneschal, should he +desire to try some small feat of arms." + +"Nay, there is no ford nearer than Tourville," answered the old +archer. "He is on his way to Villefranche, and short will be the +shrift of any Jacks who come into his hands, for he is a man of +short speech. It was he and the Seneschal of Beaucair who hung +Peter Wilkins, of the Company, last Lammastide; for which, by the +black rood of Waltham! they shall hang themselves, if ever they +come into our power. But here are our comrades, Sir Nigel, and +here is our camp." + +As he spoke, the forest pathway along which they marched opened +out into a green glade, which sloped down towards the river. +High, leafless trees girt it in on three sides, with a thick +undergrowth of holly between their trunks. At the farther end of +this forest clearing there stood forty or fifty huts, built very +neatly from wood and clay, with the blue smoke curling out from +the roofs. A dozen tethered horses and mules grazed around the +encampment, while a number of archers lounged about: some +shooting at marks, while others built up great wooden fires in +the open, and hung their cooking kettles above them. At the +sight of their returning comrades there was a shout of welcome, +and a horseman, who had been exercising his charger behind the +camp, came cantering down to them. He was a dapper, brisk man, +very richly clad, with a round, clean-shaven face, and very +bright black eyes, which danced and sparkled with excitement. + +"Sir Nigel!" he cried. "Sir Nigel Loring, at last! By my soul +we have awaited you this month past. Right welcome, Sir Nigel! +You have had my letter?" + +"It was that which brought me here," said Sir Nigel. "But +indeed, Sir Claude Latour, it is a great wonder to me that you +did not yourself lead these bowmen, for surely they could have +found no better leader?" + +"None, none, by the Virgin of L'Esparre!" he cried, speaking in +the strange, thick Gascon speech which turns every _v_ into a +_b_. "But you know what these islanders of yours are, Sir Nigel. +They will not be led by any save their own blood and race. There +is no persuading them. Not even I, Claude Letour Seigneur of +Montchateau, master of the high justice, the middle and the low, +could gain their favor. They must needs hold a council and put +their two hundred thick heads together, and then there comes this +fellow Aylward and another, as their spokesmen, to say that they +will disband unless an Englishman of good name be set over them. +There are many of them, as I understand, who come from some great +forest which lies in Hampi, or Hampti--I cannot lay my tongue to +the name. Your dwelling is in those parts, and so their thoughts +turned to you as their leader. But we had hoped that you would +bring a hundred men with you." + +"They are already at Dax, where we shall join them," said Sir +Nigel. "But let the men break their fast, and we shall then take +counsel what to do." + +"Come into my hut," said Sir Claude. "It is but poor fare that I +can lay before you--milk, cheese, wine, and bacon--yet your +squire and yourself will doubtless excuse it. This is my house +where the pennon flies before the door--a small residence to +contain the Lord of Montchateau." + +Sir Nigel sat silent and distrait at his meal, while Alleyne +hearkened to the clattering tongue of the Gascon, and to his talk +of the glories of his own estate, his successes in love, and his +triumphs in war. + +"And now that you are here, Sir Nigel," he said at last, "I have +many fine ventures all ready for us. I have heard that Montpezat +is of no great strength, and that there are two hundred thousand +crowns in the castle. At Castelnau also there is a cobbler who +is in my pay, and who will throw us a rope any dark night from +his house by the town wall. I promise you that you shall thrust +your arms elbow-deep among good silver pieces ere the nights are +moonless again; for on every hand of us are fair women, rich +wine, and good plunder, as much as heart could wish." + +"I have other plans," answered Sir Nigel curtly; "for I have come +hither to lead these bowmen to the help of the prince, our +master, who may have sore need of them ere he set Pedro upon the +throne of Spain. It is my purpose to start this very day for Dax +upon the Adour, where he hath now pitched his camp." + +The face of the Gascon darkened, and his eyes flashed with +resentment, "For me," he said, "I care little for this war, and I +find the life which I lead a very joyous and pleasant one. I +will not go to Dax." + +"Nay, think again, Sir Claude," said Sir Nigel gently; "for you +have ever had the name of a true and loyal knight. Surely you +will not hold back now when your master hath need of you." + +"I will not go to Dax," the other shouted. + +"But your devoir--your oath of fealty?" + +"I say that I will not go." + +"Then, Sir Claude, I must lead the Company without you." + +"If they will follow," cried the Gascon with a sneer. "These are +not hired slaves, but free companions, who will do nothing save +by their own good wills. In very sooth, my Lord Loring, they are +ill men to trifle with, and it were easier to pluck a bone from a +hungry bear than to lead a bowman out of a land of plenty and of +pleasure." + +"Then I pray you to gather them together," said Sir Nigel, "and I +will tell them what is in my mind; for if I am their leader they +must to Dax, and if I am not then I know not what I am doing in +Auvergne. Have my horse ready, Alleyne; for, by St. Paul! come +what may, I must be upon the homeward road ere mid-day." + +A blast upon the bugle summoned the bowmen to counsel, and they +gathered in little knots and groups around a great fallen tree +which lay athwart the glade. Sir Nigel sprang lightly upon the +trunk, and stood with blinking eye and firm lips looking down at +the ring of upturned warlike faces. + +"They tell me, bowmen," said he, "that ye have grown so fond of +ease and plunder and high living that ye are not to be moved from +this pleasant country. But, by Saint Paul! I will believe no +such thing of you, for I can readily see that you are all very +valiant men, who would scorn to live here in peace when your +prince hath so great a venture before him. Ye have chosen me as +a leader, and a leader I will be if ye come with me to Spain; and +I vow to you that my pennon of the five roses shall, if God give +me strength and life, be ever where there is most honor to be +gained. But if it be your wish to loll and loiter in these +glades, bartering glory and renown for vile gold and ill-gotten +riches, then ye must find another leader; for I have lived in +honor, and in honor I trust that I shall die. If there be forest +men or Hampshire men amongst ye, I call upon them to say whether +they will follow the banner of Loring." + +"Here's a Romsey man for you!" cried a young bowman with a sprig +of evergreen set in his helmet. + +"And a lad from Alresford!" shouted another. + +"And from Milton!" + +"And from Burley!" + +"And from Lymington!" + +"And a little one from Brockenhurst!" shouted a huge-limbed +fellow who sprawled beneath a tree. + +"By my hilt! lads," cried Aylward, jumping upon the fallen trunk, +"I think that we could not look the girls in the eyes if we let +the prince cross the mountains and did not pull string to clear a +path for him. It is very well in time of peace to lead such a +life as we have had together, but now the war-banner is in the +wind once more, and, by these ten finger-bones! if he go alone, +old Samkin Aylward will walk beside it." + +These words from a man as popular as Aylward decided many of the +waverers, and a shout of approval burst from his audience. + +"Far be it from me," said Sir Claude Latour suavely, "to persuade +you against this worthy archer, or against Sir Nigel Loring; yet +we have been together in many ventures, and per-chance it may not +be amiss if I say to you what I think upon the matter." + +"Peace for the little Gascon!" cried the archers. "Let every man +have his word. Shoot straight for the mark, lad, and fair play +for all." + +"Bethink you, then," said Sir Claude, "that you go under a hard +rule, with neither freedom nor pleasure--and for what? For +sixpence a day, at the most; while now you may walk across the +country and stretch out either hand to gather in whatever you +have a mind for. What do we not hear of our comrades who have +gone with Sir John Hawkwood to Italy? In one night they have +held to ransom six hundred of the richest noblemen of Mantua. +They camp before a great city, and the base burghers come forth +with the keys, and then they make great spoil; or, if it please +them better, they take so many horse-loads of silver as a +composition; and so they journey on from state to state, rich and +free and feared by all. Now, is not that the proper life for a +soldier?" + +"The proper life for a robber!" roared Hordle John, in his +thundering voice. + +"And yet there is much in what the Gascon says," said a swarthy +fellow in a weather-stained doublet; "and I for one would rather +prosper in Italy than starve in Spain." + +"You were always a cur and a traitor, Mark Shaw," cried Aylward. +"By my hilt! if you will stand forth and draw your sword I will +warrant you that you will see neither one nor the other." + +"Nay, Aylward," said Sir Nigel, "we cannot mend the matter by +broiling. Sir Claude, I think that what you have said does you +little honor, and if my words aggrieve you I am ever ready to go +deeper into the matter with you. But you shall have such men as +will follow you, and you may go where you will, so that you come +not with us. Let all who love their prince and country stand +fast, while those who think more of a well-lined purse step forth +upon the farther side." + +Thirteen bowmen, with hung heads and sheepish faces, stepped +forward with Mark Shaw and ranged themselves behind Sir Claude. +Amid the hootings and hissings of their comrades, they marched +off together to the Gascon's hut, while the main body broke up +their meeting and set cheerily to work packing their possessions, +furbishing their weapons, and preparing for the march which lay +before them. Over the Tarn and the Garonne, through the vast +quagmires of Armagnac, past the swift-flowing Losse, and so down +the long valley of the Adour, there was many a long league to be +crossed ere they could join themselves to that dark war-cloud +which was drifting slowly southwards to the line of the snowy +peaks, beyond which the banner of England had never yet been +seen. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +HOW THE ARMY MADE THE PASSAGE OF RONCESVALLES. + +THE whole vast plain of Gascony and of Languedoc is an arid and +profitless expanse in winter save where the swift-flowing Adour +and her snow-fed tributaries, the Louts, the Oloron and the Pau, +run down to the sea of Biscay. South of the Adour the jagged +line of mountains which fringe the sky-line send out long granite +claws, running down into the lowlands and dividing them into +"gaves" or stretches of valley. Hillocks grow into hills, and +hills into mountains, each range overlying its neighbor, until +they soar up in the giant chain which raises its spotless and +untrodden peaks, white and dazzling, against the pale blue wintry +sky. + +A quiet land is this--a land where the slow-moving Basque, with +his flat biretta-cap, his red sash and his hempen sandals, tills +his scanty farm or drives his lean flock to their hill-side +pastures. It is the country of the wolf and the isard, of the +brown bear and the mountain-goat, a land of bare rock and of +rushing water. Yet here it was that the will of a great prince +had now assembled a gallant army; so that from the Adour to the +passes of Navarre the barren valleys and wind-swept wastes were +populous with soldiers and loud with the shouting of orders and +the neighing of horses. For the banners of war had been flung to +the wind once more, and over those glistening peaks was the +highway along which Honor pointed in an age when men had chosen +her as their guide. + +And now all was ready for the enterprise. From Dax to St. Jean +Pied-du-Port the country was mottled with the white tents of +Gascons, Aquitanians and English, all eager for the advance. From +all sides the free companions had trooped in, until not less than +twelve thousand of these veteran troops were cantoned along the +frontiers of Navarre. From England had arrived the prince's +brother, the Duke of Lancaster, with four hundred knights in his +train and a strong company of archers. Above all, an heir to the +throne had been born in Bordeaux, and the prince might leave his +spouse with an easy mind, for all was well with mother and with +child. + +The keys of the mountain passes still lay in the hands of the +shifty and ignoble Charles of Navarre, who had chaffered and +bargained both with the English and with the Spanish, taking +money from the one side to hold them open and from the other to +keep them sealed. The mallet hand of Edward, however, had +shattered all the schemes and wiles of the plotter. Neither +entreaty nor courtly remonstrance came from the English prince; +but Sir Hugh Calverley passed silently over the border with his +company, and the blazing walls of the two cities of Miranda and +Puenta della Reyna warned the unfaithful monarch that there were +other metals besides gold, and that he was dealing with a man to +whom it was unsafe to lie. His price was paid, his objections +silenced, and the mountain gorges lay open to the invaders. From +the Feast of the Epiphany there was mustering and massing, until, +in the first week of February--three days after the White Company +joined the army--the word was given for a general advance through +the defile of Roncesvalles. At five in the cold winter's morning +the bugles were blowing in the hamlet of St. Jean Pied-du-Port, +and by six Sir Nigel's Company, three hundred strong, were on +their way for the defile, pushing swiftly in the dim light up the +steep curving road; for it was the prince's order that they +should be the first to pass through, and that they should remain +on guard at the further end until the whole army had emerged from +the mountains. Day was already breaking in the east, and the +summits of the great peaks had turned rosy red, while the valleys +still lay in the shadow, when they found themselves with the +cliffs on either hand and the long, rugged pass stretching away +before them. + +Sir Nigel rode his great black war-horse at the head of his +archers, dressed in full armor, with Black Simon bearing his +banner behind him, while Alleyne at his bridle-arm carried his +blazoned shield and his well-steeled ashen spear. A proud and +happy man was the knight, and many a time he turned in his saddle +to look at the long column of bowmen who swung swiftly along +behind him. + +"By Saint Paul! Alleyne," said he, "this pass is a very perilous +place, and I would that the King of Navarre had held it against +us, for it would have been a very honorable venture had it fallen +to us to win a passage. I have heard the minstrels sing of one +Sir Rolane who was slain by the infidels in these very parts." + +"If it please you, my fair lord," said Black Simon, "I know +something of these parts, for I have twice served a term with the +King of Navarre. There is a hospice of monks yonder, where you +may see the roof among the trees, and there it was that Sir +Roland was slain. The village upon the left is Orbaiceta, and I +know a house therein where the right wine of Jurancon is to be +bought, if it would please you to quaff a morning cup," + +"There is smoke yonder upon the right." + +"That is a village named Les Aldudes, and I know a hostel there +also where the wine is of the best. It is said that the inn- +keeper hath a buried treasure, and I doubt not, my fair lord, +that if you grant me leave I could prevail upon him to tell us +where he hath hid it." + +"Nay, nay, Simon," said Sir Nigel curtly, "I pray you to forget +these free companion tricks. Ha! Edricson, I see that you stare +about you, and in good sooth these mountains must seem wondrous +indeed to one who hath but seen Butser or the Portsdown hill." + +The broken and rugged road had wound along the crests of low +hills, with wooded ridges on either side of it over which peeped +the loftier mountains, the distant Peak of the South and the vast +Altabisca, which towered high above them and cast its black +shadow from left to right across the valley. From where they now +stood they could look forward down a long vista of beech woods +and jagged rock-strewn wilderness, all white with snow, to where +the pass opened out upon the uplands beyond. Behind them they +could still catch a glimpse of the gray plains of Gascony, and +could see her rivers gleaming like coils of silver in the +sunshine. As far as eye could see from among the rocky gorges +and the bristles of the pine woods there came the quick twinkle +and glitter of steel, while the wind brought with it sudden +distant bursts of martial music from the great host which rolled +by every road and by-path towards the narrow pass of +Roncesvalles. On the cliffs on either side might also be seen +the flash of arms and the waving of pennons where the force of +Navarre looked down upon the army of strangers who passed +through their territories. + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, blinking up at them, "I think +that we have much to hope for from these cavaliers, for they +cluster very thickly upon our flanks. Pass word to the men, +Aylward, that they unsling their bows, for I have no doubt that +there are some very worthy gentlemen yonder who may give us some +opportunity for honorable advancement." + +"I hear that the prince hath the King of Navarre as hostage," +said Alleyne, "and it is said that he hath sworn to put him to +death if there be any attack upon us." + +"It was not so that war was made when good King Edward first +turned his hand to it," said Sir Nigel sadly. "Ah! Alleyne, I +fear that you will never live to see such things, for the minds +of men are more set upon money and gain than of old. By Saint +Paul! it was a noble sight when two great armies would draw +together upon a certain day, and all who had a vow would ride +forth to discharge themselves of it. What noble spear-runnings +have I not seen, and even in an humble way had a part in, when +cavaliers would run a course for the easing of their souls and +for the love of their ladies! Never a bad word have I for the +French, for, though I have ridden twenty times up to their array, +I have never yet failed to find some very gentle and worthy +knight or squire who was willing to do what he might to enable me +to attempt some small feat of arms. Then, when all cavaliers had +been satisfied, the two armies would come to hand-strokes, and +fight right merrily until one or other had the vantage. By Saint +Paul! it was not our wont in those days to pay gold for the +opening of passes, nor would we hold a king as hostage lest his +people come to thrusts with us. In good sooth, if the war is to +be carried out in such a fashion, then it is grief to me that I +ever came away from Castle Twynham, for I would not have left my +sweet lady had I not thought that there were deeds of arms to be +done." + +"But surely, my fair lord," said Alleyne, "you have done some +great feats of arms since we left the Lady Loring." + +"I cannot call any to mind," answered Sir Nigel. + +"There was the taking of the sea-rovers, and the holding of the +keep against the Jacks." + +"Nay, nay," said the knight, "these were not feats of arms, but +mere wayside ventures and the chances of travel. By Saint Paul! +if it were not that these hills are over-steep for Pommers, I +would ride to these cavaliers of Navarre and see if there were +not some among them who would help me to take this patch from +mine eye. It is a sad sight to see this very fine pass, which my +own Company here could hold against an army, and yet to ride +through it with as little profit as though it were the lane from +my kennels to the Avon." + +All morning Sir Nigel rode in a very ill-humor, with his Company +tramping behind him. It was a toilsome march over broken ground +and through snow, which came often as high as the knee, yet ere +the sun had begun to sink they had reached the spot where the +gorge opens out on to the uplands of Navarre, and could see the +towers of Pampeluna jutting up against the southern sky-line. +Here the Company were quartered in a scattered mountain hamlet, +and Alleyne spent the day looking down upon the swarming army +which poured with gleam of spears and flaunt of standards through +the narrow pass. + +"Hola, mon gar.," said Aylward, seating himself upon a boulder by +his side. "This is indeed a fine sight upon which it is good to +look, and a man might go far ere he would see so many brave men +and fine horses. By my hilt! our little lord is wroth because we +have come peacefully through the passes, but I will warrant him +that we have fighting enow ere we turn our faces northward again. +It is said that there are four-score thousand men behind the King +of Spain, with Du Guesclin and all the best lances of France, who +have sworn to shed their heart's blood ere this Pedro come again +to the throne." + +"Yet our own army is a great one," said Alleyne. + +"Nay, there are but seven-and-twenty thousand men. Chandos hath +persuaded the prince to leave many behind, and indeed I think +that he is right, for there is little food and less water in +these parts for which we are bound. A man without his meat or a +horse without his fodder is like a wet bow-string, fit for +little. But voila, mon petit, here comes Chandos and his +company, and there is many a pensil and banderole among yonder +squadrons which show that the best blood of England is riding +under his banners." + +Whilst Aylward had been speaking, a strong column of archers had +defiled through the pass beneath them. They were followed by a +banner-bearer who held high the scarlet wedge upon a silver field +which proclaimed the presence of the famous warrior. He rode +himself within a spear's-length of his standard, clad from neck +to foot in steel, but draped in the long linen gown or parement +which was destined to be the cause of his death. His plumed +helmet was carried behind him by his body-squire, and his head +was covered by a small purple cap, from under which his snow- +white hair curled downwards to his shoulders. With his long +beak-like nose and his single gleaming eye, which shone brightly +from under a thick tuft of grizzled brow, he seemed to Alleyne to +have something of the look of some fierce old bird of prey. For +a moment he smiled, as his eye lit upon the banner of the five +roses waving from the hamlet; but his course lay for Pampeluna, +and he rode on after the archers. + +Close at his heels came sixteen squires, all chosen from the +highest families, and behind them rode twelve hundred English +knights, with gleam of steel and tossing of plumes, their harness +jingling, their long straight swords clanking against their +stirrup-irons, and the beat of their chargers' hoofs like the low +deep roar of the sea upon the shore. Behind them marched six +hundred Cheshire and Lancashire archers, bearing the badge of the +Audleys, followed by the famous Lord Audley himself, with the +four valiant squires, Dutton of Dutton, Delves of Doddington, +Fowlehurst of Crewe, and Hawkstone of Wainehill, who had all won +such glory at Poictiers. Two hundred heavily-armed cavalry rode +behind the Audley standard, while close at their heels came the +Duke of Lancaster with a glittering train, heralds tabarded with +the royal arms riding three deep upon cream-colored chargers in +front of him. On either side of the young prince rode the two +seneschals of Aquitaine, Sir Guiscard d'Angle and Sir Stephen +Cossington, the one bearing the banner of the province and the +other that of Saint George. Away behind him as far as eye could +reach rolled the far-stretching, unbroken river of steel-rank +after rank and column after column, with waving of plumes, +glitter of arms, tossing of guidons, and flash and flutter of +countless armorial devices. All day Alleyne looked down upon the +changing scene, and all day the old bowman stood by his elbow, +pointing out the crests of famous warriors and the arms of noble +houses. Here were the gold mullets of the Pakingtons, the sable +and ermine of the Mackworths, the scarlet bars of the Wakes, the +gold and blue of the Grosvenors, the cinque-foils of the +Cliftons, the annulets of the Musgraves, the silver pinions of +the Beauchamps, the crosses of the Molineux the bloody chevron of +the Woodhouses, the red and silver of the Worsleys, the swords of +the Clarks, the boars'-heads of the Lucies, the crescents of the +Boyntons, and the wolf and dagger of the Lipscombs. So through +the sunny winter day the chivalry of England poured down through +the dark pass of Roncesvalles to the plains of Spain. + +It was on a Monday that the Duke of Lancaster's division passed +safely through the Pyrenees. On the Tuesday there was a bitter +frost, and the ground rung like iron beneath the feet of the +horses; yet ere evening the prince himself, with the main battle +of his army, had passed the gorge and united with his vanguard at +Pampeluna. With him rode the King of Majorca, the hostage King +of Navarre, and the fierce Don Pedro of Spain, whose pale blue +eyes gleamed with a sinister light as they rested once more upon +the distant peaks of the land which had disowned him. Under the +royal banners rode many a bold Gascon baron and many a hot- +blooded islander. Here were the high stewards of Aquitaine, of +Saintonge, of La Rochelle, of Quercy, of Limousin, of Agenois, of +Poitou, and of Bigorre, with the banners and musters of their +provinces. Here also were the valiant Earl of Angus, Sir Thomas +Banaster with his garter over his greave, Sir Nele Loring, second +cousin to Sir Nigel, and a long column of Welsh footmen who +marched under the red banner of Merlin. From dawn to sundown the +long train wound through the pass, their breath reeking up upon +the frosty air like the steam from a cauldron. + +The weather was less keen upon the Wednesday, and the rear-guard +made good their passage, with the bombards and the wagon-train. +Free companions and Gascons made up this portion of the army to +the number of ten thousand men. The fierce Sir Hugh Calverley, +with his yellow mane, and the rugged Sir Robert Knolles, with +their war-hardened and veteran companies of English bowmen, +headed the long column; while behind them came the turbulent +bands of the Bastard of Breteuil Nandon de Bagerant, one-eyed +Camus, Black Ortingo, La Nuit and others whose very names seem to +smack of hard hands and ruthless deeds. With them also were the +pick of the Gascon chivalry--the old Duc d'Armagnac, his nephew +Lord d'Albret, brooding and scowling over his wrongs, the giant +Oliver de Clisson, the Captal de Buch, pink of knighthood, the +sprightly Sir Perducas d'Albert, the red-bearded Lord d'Esparre, +and a long train of needy and grasping border nobles, with long +pedigrees and short purses, who had come down from their hill- +side strongholds, all hungering for the spoils and the ransoms of +Spain. By the Thursday morning the whole army was encamped in +the Vale of Pampeluna, and the prince had called his council to +meet him in the old palace of the ancient city of Navarre. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +HOW THE COMPANY MADE SPORT IN THE VALE OF PAMPELUNA. + +WHILST the council was sitting in Pampeluna the White Company, +having encamped in a neighboring valley, close to the companies +of La Nuit and of Black Ortingo, were amusing themselves with +sword-play, wrestling, and shooting at the shields, which they +had placed upon the hillside to serve them as butts. The younger +archers, with their coats of mail thrown aside, their brown or +flaxen hair tossing in the wind, and their jerkins turned back to +give free play to their brawny chests and arms, stood in lines, +each loosing his shaft in turn, while Johnston, Aylward, Black +Simon, and half-a-score of the elders lounged up and down with +critical eyes, and a word of rough praise or of curt censure for +the marksmen. Behind stood knots of Gascon and Brabant +crossbowmen from the companies of Ortingo and of La Nuit, leaning +upon their unsightly weapons and watching the practice of the +Englishmen. + +"A good shot, Hewett, a good shot!" said old Johnston to a young +bowman, who stood with his bow in his left hand, gazing with +parted lips after his flying shaft. "You see, she finds the +ring, as I knew she would from the moment that your string +twanged." + +"Loose it easy, steady, and yet sharp," said Aylward. "By my +hilt! mon gar., it is very well when you do but shoot at a +shield. but when there is a man behind the shield, and he rides +at you with wave of sword and glint of eyes from behind his +vizor, you may find him a less easy mark." + +"It is a mark that I have found before now," answered the young +bowman. + +"And shall again, camarade, I doubt not. But hola! Johnston, who +is this who holds his bow like a crow-keeper?" + +"It is Silas Peterson, of Horsham. Do not wink with one eye and +look with the other, Silas, and do not hop and dance after you +shoot, with your tongue out, for that will not speed it upon its +way. Stand straight and firm, as God made you. Move not the bow +arm, and steady with the drawing hand!" + +"I' faith," said Black Simon, "I am a spearman myself, and am +more fitted for hand-strokes than for such work as this. Yet I +have spent my days among bowmen, and I have seen many a brave +shaft sped. I will not say but that we have some good marksmen +here, and that this Company would be accounted a fine body of +archers at any time or place. Yet I do not see any men who bend +so strong a bow or shoot as true a shaft as those whom I have +known." + +"You say sooth," said Johnston, turning his seamed and grizzled +face upon the man-at-arms. "See yonder," he added, pointing to a +bombard which lay within the camp: "there is what hath done scath +to good bowmanship, with its filthy soot and foolish roaring +mouth. I wonder that a true knight, like our prince, should +carry such a scurvy thing in his train. Robin, thou red-headed +lurden, how oft must I tell thee not to shoot straight with a +quarter-wind blowing across the mark?" + +"By these ten finger-bones! there were some fine bowmen at the +intaking of Calais," said Aylward. "I well remember that, on +occasion of an outfall, a Genoan raised his arm over his mantlet, +and shook it at us, a hundred paces from our line. There were +twenty who loosed shafts at him, and when the man was afterwards +slain it was found that he had taken eighteen through his +forearm." + +"And I can call to mind," remarked Johnston, "that when the great +cog 'Christopher,' which the French had taken from us, was moored +two hundred paces from the shore, two archers, little Robin +Withstaff and Elias Baddlesmere, in four shots each cut every +strand of her hempen anchor-cord, so that she well-nigh came upon +the rocks." + +"Good shooting, i' faith rare shooting!" said Black Simon. "But I +have seen you, Johnston, and you, Samkin Aylwart, and one or two +others who are still with us, shoot as well as the best. Was it +not you, Johnston, who took the fat ox at Finsbury butts against +the pick of London town?" + +A sunburnt and black-eyed Brabanter had stood near the old +archers, leaning upon a large crossbow and listening to their +talk, which had been carried on in that hybrid camp dialect which +both nations could understand. He was a squat, bull-necked man, +clad in the iron helmet, mail tunic, and woollen gambesson of his +class. A jacket with hanging sleeves, slashed with velvet at the +neck and wrists, showed that he was a man of some consideration, +an under-officer, or file-leader of his company. + +"I cannot think," said he, "why you English should be so fond of +your six-foot stick. If it amuse you to bend it, well and good; +but why should I strain and pull, when my little moulinet will do +all for me, and better than I can do it for myself?" + +"I have seen good shooting with the prod and with the latch," +said Aylward, "but, by my hilt! camarade, with all respect to you +and to your bow, I think that is but a woman's weapon, which a +woman can point and loose as easily as a man." + +"I know not about that," answered the Brabanter, "but this I +know, that though I have served for fourteen years, I have never +yet seen an Englishman do aught with the long-bow which I could +not do better with my arbalest. By the three kings! I would +even go further, and say that I have done things with my arbalest +which no Englishman could do with his long-bow." + +"Well said, mon gar.," cried Aylward. "A good cock has ever a +brave call. Now, I have shot little of late, but there is +Johnston here who will try a round with you for the honor of the +Company." + +"And I will lay a gallon of Jurancon wine upon the long-bow," +said Black Simon, "though I had rather, for my own drinking, that +it were a quart of Twynham ale." + +"I take both your challenge and your wager," said the man of +Brabant, throwing off his jacket and glancing keenly about him +with his black, twinkling eyes. "I cannot see any fitting mark, +for I care not to waste a bolt upon these shields, which a +drunken boor could not miss at a village kermesse." + +"This is a perilous man," whispered an English man-at-arms, +plucking at Aylward's sleeve. "He is the best marksman of all +the crossbow companies and it was he who brought down the +Constable de Bourbon at Brignais, I fear that your man will come +by little honor with him." + +"Yet I have seen Johnston shoot these twenty years, and I will +not flinch from it. How say you, old warhound, will you not have +a flight shot or two with this springald?" + +"Tut, tut, Aylward," said the old bowman. " My day is past, and +it is for the younger ones to hold what we have gained. I take +it unkindly of thee, Samkin, that thou shouldst call all eyes +thus upon a broken bowman who could once shoot a fair shaft. Let +me feel that bow, Wilkins! It is a Scotch bow, I see, for the +upper nock is without and the lower within. By the black rood! +it is a good piece of yew, well nocked, well strung, well waxed, +and very joyful to the feel. I think even now that I might hit +any large and goodly mark with a bow like this. Turn thy quiver +to me, Aylward. I love an ash arrow pierced with cornel-wood for +a roving shaft." + +"By my hilt! and so do I," cried Aylward. "These three gander- +winged shafts are such." + +"So I see, comrade. It has been my wont to choose a saddle- +backed feather for a dead shaft, and a swine-backed for a smooth +flier. I will take the two of them. Ah! Samkin, lad, the eye +grows dim and the hand less firm as the years pass." + +"Come then, are you not ready?" said the Brabanter, who had +watched with ill-concealed impatience the slow and methodic +movements of his antagonist. + +"I will venture a rover with you, or try long-butts or hoyles," +said old Johnston. "To my mind the long-bow is a better weapon +than the arbalest, but it may be ill for me to prove it." + +"So I think," quoth the other with a sneer. He drew his moulinet +from his girdle, and fixing it to the windlass, he drew back the +powerful double cord until it had clicked into the catch. Then +from his quiver he drew a short, thick quarrel, which he placed +with the utmost care upon the groove. Word had spread of what +was going forward, and the rivals were already surrounded, not +only by the English archers of the Company, but by hundreds of +arbalestiers and men-at-arms from the bands of Ortingo and La +Nuit, to the latter of which the Brabanter belonged. + +"There is a mark yonder on the hill," said he; "mayhap you can +discern it." + +"I see something," answered Johnston, shading his eyes with his +hand; "but it is a very long shoot." + +"A fair shoot--a fair shoot! Stand aside, Arnaud, lest you find +a bolt through your gizzard. Now, comrade, I take no flight +shot, and I give you the vantage of watching my shaft." + +As he spoke he raised his arbalest to his shoulder and was about +to pull the trigger, when a large gray stork flapped heavily into +view skimming over the brow of the hill, and then soaring up into +the air to pass the valley. Its shrill and piercing cries drew +all eyes upon it, and, as it came nearer, a dark spot which +circled above it resolved itself into a peregrine falcon, which +hovered over its head, poising itself from time to time, and +watching its chance of closing with its clumsy quarry. Nearer +and nearer came the two birds, all absorbed in their own contest, +the stork wheeling upwards, the hawk still fluttering above it, +until they were not a hundred paces from the camp. The Brabanter +raised his weapon to the sky, and there came the short, deep +twang of his powerful string. His bolt struck the stork just +where its wing meets the body, and the bird whirled aloft in a +last convulsive flutter before falling wounded and flapping to +the earth. A roar of applause burst from the crossbowmen; but at +the instant that the bolt struck its mark old Johnston, who had +stood listlessly with arrow on string, bent his bow and sped a +shaft through the body of the falcon. Whipping the other from +his belt, he sent it skimming some few feet from the earth with +so true an aim that it struck and transfixed the stork for the +second time ere it could reach the ground. A deep-chested shout +of delight burst from the archers at the sight of this double +feat, and Aylward, dancing with joy, threw his arms round the old +marksman and embraced him with such vigor that their mail tunics +clanged again. + +"Ah! camarade," he cried, "you shall have a stoup with me for +this! What then, old dog, would not the hawk please thee, but +thou must have the stork as well. Oh, to my heart again!" + +"It is a pretty piece of yew, and well strung," said Johnston +with a twinkle in his deep-set gray eyes. "Even an old broken +bowman might find the clout with a bow like this." + +"You have done very well," remarked the Brabanter in a surly +voice. "But it seems to me that you have not yet shown yourself +to be a better marksman than I, for I have struck that at which I +aimed, and, by the three kings! no man can do more." + +"It would ill beseem me to claim to be a better marksman," +answered Johnston, "for I have heard great things of your skill. +I did but wish to show that the long-bow could do that which an +arbalest could not do, for you could not with your moulinet have +your string ready to speed another shaft ere the bird drop to the +earth." + +"In that you have vantage," said the crossbowman. "By Saint +James! it is now my turn to show you where my weapon has the +better of you. I pray you to draw a flight shaft with all your +strength down the valley, that we may see the length of your +shoot." + +"That is a very strong prod of yours," said Johnston, shaking his +grizzled head as he glanced at the thick arch and powerful +strings of his rival's arbalest. "I have little doubt that you +can overshoot me, and yet I have seen bowmen who could send a +cloth-yard arrow further than you could speed a quarrel." + +"So I have heard," remarked the Brabanter; "and yet it is a +strange thing that these wondrous bowmen are never where I chance +to be. Pace out the distances with a wand at every five score, +and do you, Arnaud, stand at the fifth wand to carry back my +bolts to me." + +A line was measured down the valley, and Johnston, drawing an +arrow to the very head, sent it whistling over the row of wands. + +"Bravely drawn! A rare shoot!" shouted the bystanders. + +"It is well up to the fourth mark." + +"By my hilt! it is over it," cried Aylward. "I can see where +they have stooped to gather up the shaft." + +"We shall hear anon," said Johnston quietly, and presently a +young archer came running to say that the arrow had fallen twenty +paces beyond the fourth wand. + +"Four hundred paces and a score," cried Black Simon. "I' faith, +it is a very long flight. Yet wood and steel may do more than +flesh and blood." + +The Brabanter stepped forward with a smile of conscious triumph, +and loosed the cord of his weapon. A shout burst from his +comrades as they watched the swift and lofty flight of the heavy +bolt. + +"Over the fourth!" groaned Aylward. "By my hilt! I think that it +is well up to the fifth." + +"It is over the fifth!" cried a Gascon loudly, and a comrade came +running with waving arms to say that the bolt had pitched eight +paces beyond the mark of the five hundred. + +"Which weapon hath the vantage now?" cried the Brabanter, +Strutting proudly about with shouldered arbalest, amid the +applause of his companions. + +"You can overshoot me," said Johnston gently. + +"Or any other man who ever bent a long-bow," cried his victorious +adversary. + +"Nay, not so fast," said a huge archer, whose mighty shoulders +and red head towered high above the throng of his comrades. "I +must have a word with you ere you crow so loudly. Where is my +little popper? By sainted Dick of Hampole! it will be a strange +thing if I cannot outshoot that thing of thine, which to my eyes +is more like a rat-trap than a bow. Will you try another flight, +or do you stand by your last?" + +"Five hundred and eight paces will serve my turn," answered the +Brabanter, looking askance at this new opponent. + +"Tut, John," whispered Aylward, "you never were a marksman. Why +must you thrust your spoon into this dish?" + +"Easy and slow, Aylward. There are very many things which I +cannot do, but there are also one or two which I have the trick +of. It is in my mind that I can beat this shoot, if my bow will +but hold together." + +"Go on, old babe of the woods!" "Have at it, Hampshire!" cried +the archers laughing. + +"By my soul! you may grin," cried John. "But I learned how to +make the long shoot from old Hob Miller of Milford." He took up a +great black bow, as he spoke, and sitting down upon the ground he +placed his two feet on either end of the stave. With an arrow +fitted, he then pulled the string towards him with both hands +until the head of the shaft was level with the wood. The great +bow creaked and groaned and the cord vibrated with the tension. + +"Who is this fool's-head who stands in the way of my shoot?" said +he, craning up his neck from the ground. + +"He stands on the further side of my mark," answered the +Brabanter, "so he has little to fear from you." + +"Well, the saints assoil him!" cried John. "Though I think he is +over-near to be scathed." As he spoke he raised his two feet, +with the bow-stave upon their soles, and his cord twanged with a +deep rich hum which might be heard across the valley. The +measurer in the distance fell flat upon his face, and then +jumping up again, he began to run in the opposite direction. + +"Well shot, old lad! It is indeed over his head," cried the +bowmen. + +"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed the Brabanter, "who ever saw such a shoot?" + +"It is but a trick," quoth John. "Many a time have I won a +gallon of ale by covering a mile in three flights down Wilverley +Chase." + +"It fell a hundred and thirty paces beyond the fifth mark," +shouted an archer in the distance. + +"Six hundred and thirty paces! Mon Dieu! but that is a shoot! +And yet it says nothing for your weapon, mon gros camarade, for +it was by turning yourself into a crossbow that you did it." + +"By my hilt! there is truth in that," cried Aylward. "And now, +friend, I will myself show you a vantage of the long-bow. I pray +you to speed a bolt against yonder shield with all your force. +It is an inch of elm with bull's hide over it." + +"I scarce shot as many shafts at Brignais," growled the man of +Brabant; "though I found a better mark there than a cantle of +bull's hide. But what is this, Englishman? The shield hangs not +one hundred paces from me, and a blind man could strike it." He +screwed up his string to the furthest pitch, and shot his quarrel +at the dangling shield. Aylward, who had drawn an arrow from his +quiver, carefully greased the head of it, and sped it at the same +mark. + +"Run, Wilkins," quoth he, "and fetch me the shield." + +Long were the faces of the Englishmen and broad the laugh of the +crossbowmen as the heavy mantlet was carried towards them, for +there in the centre was the thick Brabant bolt driven deeply into +the wood, while there was neither sign nor trace of the cloth- +yard shaft. + +"By the three kings!" cried the Brabanter, "this time at least +there is no gainsaying which is the better weapon, or which the +truer hand that held it. You have missed the shield, +Englishman." + +"Tarry a bit! tarry a bit, mon gar.!" quoth Aylward, and turning +round the shield he showed a round clear hole in the wood at the +back of it. "My shaft has passed through it, camarade, and I +trow the one which goes through is more to be feared than that +which bides on the way," + +The Brabanter stamped his foot with mortification, and was about +to make some angry reply, when Alleyne Edricson came riding up to +the crowds of archers. + +"Sir Nigel will be here anon," said he, "and it is his wish to +speak with the Company." + +In an instant order and method took the place of general +confusion. Bows, steel caps, and jacks were caught up from the +grass. A long cordon cleared the camp of all strangers, while +the main body fell into four lines with under-officers and file- +leaders in front and on either flank. So they stood, silent and +motionless, when their leader came riding towards them, his face +shining and his whole small figure swelling with the news which +he bore. + +"Great honor has been done to us, men," cried he: "for, of all +the army, the prince has chosen us out that we should ride +onwards into the lands of Spain to spy upon our enemies. Yet, as +there are many of us, and as the service may not be to the liking +of all, I pray that those will step forward from the ranks who +have the will to follow me." + +There was a rustle among the bowmen, but when Sir Nigel looked up +at them no man stood forward from his fellows, but the four lines +of men stretched unbroken as before. Sir Nigel blinked at them +in amazement, and a look of the deepest sorrow shadowed his face. + +"That I should live to see the day!" he cried, "What! not one---- +" + +"My fair lord," whispered Alleyne, "they have all stepped +forward." + +"Ah, by Saint Paul! I see how it is with them. I could not think +that they would desert me. We start at dawn to-morrow, and ye +are to have the horses of Sir Robert Cheney's company. Be ready, +I pray ye, at early cock-crow." + +A buzz of delight burst from the archers, as they broke their +ranks and ran hither and thither, whooping and cheering like boys +who have news of a holiday. Sir Nigel gazed after them with a +smiling face, when a heavy hand fell upon his shoulder. + +"What ho! my knight-errant of Twynham!" said a voice, "You are +off to Ebro, I hear; and, by the holy fish of Tobias! you must +take me under your banner." + +"What! Sir Oliver Buttesthorn!" cried Sir Nigel. "I had heard +that you were come into camp, and had hoped to see you. Glad and +proud shall I be to have you with me." + +"I have a most particular and weighty reason for wishing to go," +said the sturdy knight. + +"I can well believe it," returned Sir Nigel; "I have met no man +who is quicker to follow where honor leads." + +"Nay, it is not for honor that I go, Nigel." + +"For what then?" + +"For pullets." + +"Pullets?" + +"Yes, for the rascal vanguard have cleared every hen from the +country-side. It was this very morning that Norbury, my squire, +lamed his horse in riding round in quest of one, for we have a +bag of truffles, and nought to eat with them. Never have I seen +such locusts as this vanguard of ours. Not a pullet shall we see +until we are in front of therm; so I shall leave my Winchester +runagates to the care of the provost-marshal, and I shall hie +south with you, Nigel, with my truffles at my saddle-bow." + +"Oliver, Oliver, I know you over-well," said Sir Nigel, shaking +his head, and the two old soldiers rode off together to their +pavilion. + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +HOW SIR NIGEL HAWKED AT AN EAGLE. + +TO the south of Pampeluna in the kingdom of Navarre there +stretched a high table-land, rising into bare, sterile hills, +brown or gray in color, and strewn with huge boulders of granite. +On the Gascon side of the great mountains there had been running +streams, meadows, forests, and little nestling villages. Here, on +the contrary, were nothing but naked rocks, poor pasture, and +savage, stone-strewn wastes. Gloomy defiles or barrancas +intersected this wild country with mountain torrents dashing and +foaming between their rugged sides. The clatter of waters, the +scream of the eagle, and the howling of wolves the only sounds +which broke upon the silence in that dreary and inhospitable +region. + +Through this wild country it was that Sir Nigel and his Company +pushed their way, riding at times through vast defiles where the +brown, gnarled cliffs shot up on either side of them, and the sky +was but a long winding blue slit between the clustering lines of +box which fringed the lips of the precipices; or, again leading +their horses along the narrow and rocky paths worn by the +muleteers upon the edges of the chasm, where under their very +elbows they could see the white streak which marked the gave +which foamed a thousand feet below them. So for two days they +pushed their way through the wild places of Navarre, past Fuente, +over the rapid Ega, through Estella, until upon a winter's +evening the mountains fell away from in front of them, and they +saw the broad blue Ebro curving betwixt its double line or +homesteads and of villages. The fishers of Viana were aroused +that night by rough voices speaking in a strange tongue, and ere +morning Sir Nigel and his men had ferried the river and were safe +upon the land of Spain. + +All the next day they lay in a pine wood near to the town of +Logrono, resting their horses and taking counsel as to what they +should do. Sir Nigel had with him Sir William Felton, Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn, stout old Sir Simon Burley, the Scotch knight- +errant, the Earl of Angus, and Sir Richard Causton, all accounted +among the bravest knights in the army, together with sixty +veteran men-at-arms, and three hundred and twenty archers. Spies +had been sent out in the morning, and returned after nightfall to +say that the King of Spain was encamped some fourteen miles off +in the direction of Burgos, having with him twenty thousand horse +and forty-five thousand foot. A dry-wood fire had been lit, and +round this the leaders crouched, the glare beating upon their +rugged faces, while the hardy archers lounged and chatted amid +the tethered horses, while they munched their scanty provisions. + +"For my part," said Sir Simon Burley, "I am of opinion that we +have already done that which we have come for. For do we not now +know where the king is, and how great a following he hath, which +was the end of our journey." + +"True," answered Sir William Felton, "but I have come on this +venture because it is a long time since I have broken a spear in +war, and, certes, I shall not go back until I have run a course +with some cavalier of Spain. Let those go back who will, but I +must see more of these Spaniards ere I turn." + +"I will not leave you, Sir William," returned Sir Simon Burley; +"and yet, as an old soldier and one who hath seen much of war, I +cannot but think that it is an ill thing for four hundred men to +find themselves between an army of sixty thousand on the one side +and a broad river on the other." + +"Yet," said Sir Richard Causton, "we cannot for the honor of +England go back without a blow struck." + +"Nor for the honor of Scotland either," cried the Earl of Angus. +"By Saint Andrew! I wish that I may never set eyes upon the water +of Leith again, if I pluck my horse's bridle ere I have seen this +camp of theirs." + +"By Saint Paul! you have spoken very well," said Sir Nigel, "and +I have always heard that there were very worthy gentlemen among +the Scots, and fine skirmishing to be had upon their border. +Bethink you, Sir Simon, that we have this news from the lips of +common spies, who can scarce tell us as much of the enemy and of +his forces as the prince would wish to hear." + +"You are the leader in this venture, Sir Nigel," the other +answered, "and I do but ride under your banner." + +"Yet I would fain have your rede and counsel, Sir Simon. But, +touching what you say of the river, we can take heed that we +shall not have it at the back of us, for the prince hath now +advanced to Salvatierra, and thence to Vittoria, so that if we +come upon their camp from the further side we can make good our +retreat." + +"What then would you propose?" asked Sir Simon, shaking his +grizzled head as one who is but half convinced. + +"That we ride forward ere the news reach them that we have +crossed the river. In this way we may have sight of their army, +and perchance even find occasion for some small deed against +them." + +"So be it, then," said Sir Simon Burley; and the rest of the +council having approved, a scanty meal was hurriedly snatched, +and the advance resumed under the cover of the darkness. All +night they led their horses, stumbling and groping through wild +defiles and rugged valleys, following the guidance of a +frightened peasant who was strapped by the wrist to Black Simon's +stirrup-leather. With the early dawn they found themselves in a +black ravine, with others sloping away from it on either side, +and the bare brown crags rising in long bleak terraces all round +them. + +"If it please you, fair lord," said Black Simon, "this man hath +misled us, and since there is no tree upon which we may hang him, +it might be well to hurl him over yonder cliff." + +The peasant, reading the soldier's meaning in his fierce eyes and +harsh accents dropped upon his knees, screaming loudly for mercy. + +"How comes it, dog?" asked Sir William Felton in Spanish. "Where +is this camp to which you swore that you would lead us?" + +"By the sweet Virgin! By the blessed Mother of God! cried the +trembling peasant, "I swear to you that in the darkness I have +myself lost the path." + +"Over the cliff with him!" shouted half a dozen voices; but ere +the archers could drag him from the rocks to which he clung Sir +Nigel had ridden up and called upon them to stop. + +"How is this, sirs?" said he. "As long as the prince doth me the +honor to entrust this venture to me, it is for me only to give +orders; and, by Saint Paul! I shall be right blithe to go very +deeply into the matter with any one to whom my words may give +offence. How say you, Sir William? Or you, my Lord of Angus? +Or you, Sir Richard?" + +"Nay, nay, Nigel!" cried Sir William. "This base peasant is too +small a matter for old comrades to quarrel over. But he hath +betrayed us, and certes he hath merited a dog's death." + +"Hark ye, fellow," said Sir Nigel. "We give you one more chance +to find the path. We are about to gain much honor, Sir William, +in this enterprise, and it would be a sorry thing if the first +blood shed were that of an unworthy boor. Let us say our morning +orisons, and it may chance that ere we finish he may strike upon +the track." + +With bowed heads and steel caps in hand, the archers stood at +their horse's heads, while Sir Simon Burley repeated the Pater, +the Ave, and the Credo. Long did Alleyne bear the scene in mind- +-the knot of knights in their dull leaden-hued armor, the ruddy +visage of Sir Oliver, the craggy features of the Scottish earl, +the shining scalp of Sir Nigel, with the dense ring of hard, +bearded faces and the long brown heads of the horses, all topped +and circled by the beetling cliffs. Scarce had the last deep +"amen" broken from the Company, when, in an instant, there rose +the scream of a hundred bugles, with the deep rolling of drums +and the clashing of cymbals, all sounding together in one +deafening uproar. Knights and archers sprang to arms, convinced +that some great host was upon them; but the guide dropped upon +his knees and thanked Heaven for its mercies. + +"We have found them, caballeros!" he cried. "This is their +morning call. If ye will but deign to follow me, I will set them +before you ere a man might tell his beads." + +As he spoke he scrambled down one of the narrow ravines, and, +climbing over a low ridge at the further end, he led them into a +short valley with a stream purling down the centre of it and a +very thick growth of elder and of box upon either side. Pushing +their way through the dense brushwood, they looked out upon a +scene which made their hearts beat harder and their breath come +faster. + +In front of them there lay a broad plain, watered by two winding +streams and covered with grass, stretching away to where, in the +furthest distance, the towers of Burgos bristled up against the +light blue morning sky. Over all this vast meadow there lay a +great city of tents--thousands upon thousands of them, laid out +in streets and in squares like a well-ordered town. High silken +pavilions or colored marquees, shooting up from among the crowd +of meaner dwellings, marked where the great lords and barons of +Leon and Castile displayed their standards, while over the white +roofs, as far as eye could reach, the waving of ancients, pavons, +pensils, and banderoles, with flash of gold and glow of colors, +proclaimed that all the chivalry of Iberia were mustered in the +plain beneath them. Far off, in the centre of the camp, a huge +palace of red and white silk, with the royal arms of Castile +waiving from the summit, announced that the gallant Henry lay +there in the midst of his warriors. + +As the English adventurers, peeping out from behind their +brushwood screen, looked down upon this wondrous sight they could +see that the vast army in front of them was already afoot. The +first pink light of the rising sun glittered upon the steel caps +and breastplates of dense masses of slingers and of crossbowmen, +who drilled and marched in the spaces which had been left for +their exercise. A thousand columns of smoke reeked up into the +pure morning air where the faggots were piled and the camp- +kettles already simmering. In the open plain clouds of light +horse galloped and swooped with swaying bodies and waving +javelins, after the fashion which the Spanish had adopted from +their Moorish enemies. All along by the sedgy banks of the +rivers long lines of pages led their masters' chargers down to +water, while the knights themselves lounged in gayly-dressed +groups about the doors of their pavilions, or rode out, with +their falcons upon their wrists and their greyhounds behind them, +in quest of quail or of leveret. + +"By my hilt! mon gar.," whispered Aylward to Alleyne, as the +young squire stood with parted lips and wondering eyes, gazing +down at the novel scene before him, "we have been seeking them +all night, but now that we have found them I know not what we are +to do with them." + +"You say sooth, Samkin," quoth old Johnston. "I would that we +were upon the far side of Ebro again, for there is neither honor +nor profit to be gained here. What say you, Simon?" + +"By the rood!" cried the fierce man-at-arms, "I will see the +color of their blood ere I turn my mare's head for the mountains. +Am I a child, that I should ride for three days and nought but +words at the end of it?" + +"Well said, my sweet honeysuckle!" cried Hordle John. "I am with +you, like hilt to blade. Could I but lay hands upon one of those +gay prancers yonder, I doubt not that I should have ransom enough +from him to buy my mother a new cow." + +"A cow!" said Aylward. "Say rather ten acres and a homestead on +the banks of Avon." + +"Say you so? Then, by our Lady! here is for yonder one in the red +jerkin!" + +He was about to push recklessly forward into the open, when Sir +Nigel himself darted in front of him, with his hand upon his +breast. + +"Back!" said he. "Our time is not yet come, and we must lie here +until evening. Throw off your jacks and headpieces, least their +eyes catch the shine, and tether the horses among the rocks." + +The order was swiftly obeyed, and in ten minutes the archers were +stretched along by the side of the brook, munching the bread and +the bacon which they had brought in their bags, and craning their +necks to watch the ever-changing scene beneath them. Very quiet +and still they lay, save for a muttered jest or whispered order, +for twice during the long morning they heard bugle-calls from +amid the hills on either side of them, which showed that they had +thrust themselves in between the outposts of the enemy. The +leaders sat amongst the box-wood, and took counsel together as to +what they should do; while from below there surged up the buzz of +voices, the shouting, the neighing of horses, and all the uproar +of a great camp. + +"What boots it to wait?" said Sir William Felton. "Let us ride +down upon their camp ere they discover us." + +"And so say I," cried the Scottish earl; "for they do not know +that there is any enemy within thirty long leagues of them." + +"For my part," said Sir Simon Burley, "I think that it is +madness, for you cannot hope to rout this great army; and where +are you to go and what are you to do when they have turned upon +you? How say you, Sir Oliver Buttesthorn?" + +"By the apple of Eve!" cried the fat knight, "it appears to me +that this wind brings a very savory smell of garlic and of onions +from their cooking-kettles. I am in favor of riding down upon +them at once, if my old friend and comrade here is of the same +mind." + +"Nay," said Sir Nigel, "I have a plan by which we may attempt +some small deed upon them, and yet, by the help of God, may be +able to draw off again; which, as Sir Simon Burley hath said, +would be scarce possible in any other way." + +"How then, Sir Nigel?" asked several voices. + +"We shall lie here all day; for amid this brushwood it is ill for +them to see us. Then when evening comes we shall sally out upon +them and see if we may not gain some honorable advancement from +them." + +"But why then rather than now?" + +"Because we shall have nightfall to cover us when we draw off, so +that we may make our way back through the mountains. I would +station a score of archers here in the pass, with all our pennons +jutting forth from the rocks, and as many nakirs and drums and +bugles as we have with us, so that those who follow us in the +fading light may think that the whole army of the prince is upon +them, and fear to go further. What think you of my plan, Sir +Simon?" + +"By my troth! I think very well of it," cried the prudent old +commander. "If four hundred men must needs run a tilt against +sixty thousand, I cannot see how they can do it better or more +safely." + +"And so say I," cried Felton, heartily. "But I wish the day were +over, for it will be an ill thing for us if they chance to light +upon us." + +The words were scarce out of his mouth when there came a clatter +of loose stones, the sharp clink of trotting hoofs, and a dark- +faced cavalier, mounted upon a white horse, burst through the +bushes and rode swiftly down the valley from the end which was +farthest from the Spanish camp. Lightly armed, with his vizor +open and a hawk perched upon his left wrist, he looked about him +with the careless air of a man who is bent wholly upon pleasure, +and unconscious of the possibility of danger. Suddenly, however, +his eyes lit upon the fierce faces which glared out at him from +the brushwood. With a cry of terror, he thrust his spurs into +his horse's sides and dashed for the narrow opening of the gorge. +For a moment it seemed as though he would have reached it, for he +had trampled over or dashed aside the archers who threw +themselves in his way; but Hordle John seized him by the foot in +his grasp of iron and dragged him from the saddle, while two +others caught the frightened horse. + +"Ho, ho!" roared the great archer. "How many cows wilt buy my +mother, if I set thee free?" + +"Hush that bull's bellowing!" cried Sir Nigel impatiently. "Bring +the man here. By St. Paul! it is not the first time that we have +met; for, if I mistake not, it is Don Diego Alvarez, who was once +at the prince's court." + +"It is indeed I," said the Spanish knight, speaking in the French +tongue, "and I pray you to pass your sword through my heart, for +how can I live--I, a caballero of Castile--after being dragged +from my horse by the base hands of a common archer?" + +"Fret not for that," answered Sir Nigel. "For, in sooth, had he +not pulled you down, a dozen cloth-yard shafts had crossed each +other in your body." + +"By St. James! it were better so than to be polluted by his +touch," answered the Spaniard, with his black eyes sparkling with +rage and hatred. "I trust that I am now the prisoner of some +honorable knight or gentleman." + +"You are the prisoner of the man who took you, Sir Diego," +answered Sir Nigel. "And I may tell you that better men than +either you or I have found themselves before now prisoners in the +hands of archers of England." + +"What ransom, then, does he demand?" asked the Spaniard. + +Big John scratched his red head and grinned in high delight when +the question was propounded to him. "Tell him," said he, "that I +shall have ten cows and a bull too, if it be but a little one. +Also a dress of blue sendall for mother and a red one for Joan; +with five acres of pasture-land, two scythes, and a fine new +grindstone. Likewise a small house, with stalls for the cows, +and thirty-six gallons of beer for the thirsty weather." + +"Tut, tut!" cried Sir Nigel, laughing. "All these things may be +had for money; and I think, Don Diego, that five thousand crowns +is not too much for so renowned a knight." + +"It shall be duly paid him." + +"For some days we must keep you with us; and I must crave leave +also to use your shield, your armor, and your horse." + +"My harness is yours by the law of arms," said the Spaniard, +gloomily. + +"I do but ask the loan of it. I have need of it this day, but it +shall be duly returned to you. Set guards, Aylward, with arrow +on string, at either end of the pass; for it may happen that some +other cavaliers may visit us ere the time be come." All day the +little band of Englishmen lay in the sheltered gorge, looking +down upon the vast host of their unconscious enemies. Shortly +after mid-day, a great uproar of shouting and cheering broke out +in the camp, with mustering of men and calling of bugles. +Clambering up among the rocks, the companions saw a long rolling +cloud of dust along the whole eastern sky-line, with the glint +of spears and the flutter of pennons, which announced the +approach of a large body of cavalry, For a moment a wild hope +came upon them that perhaps the prince had moved more swiftly +than had been planned, that he had crossed the Ebro, and that +this was his vanguard sweeping to the attack. + +"Surely I see the red pile of Chandos at the head of yonder +squadron!" cried Sir Richard Causton, shading his eyes with his +hand. + +"Not so," answered Sir Simon Burley, who had watched the +approaching host with a darkening face. "It is even as I feared. +That is the double eagle of Du Guesclin." + +"You say very truly," cried the Earl of Angus. "These are the +levies of France, for I can see the ensigns of the Marshal +d'Andreghen, with that of the Lord of Antoing and of Briseuil, +and of many another from Brittany and Anjou." + +"By St. Paul! I am very glad of it," said Sir Nigel. "Of these +Spaniards I know nothing; but the French are very worthy +gentlemen, and will do what they can for our advancement." + +"There are at the least four thousand of them, and all men-at- +arms," cried Sir William Felton. "See, there is Bertrand +himself, beside his banner, and there is King Henry, who rides to +welcome him. Now they all turn and come into the camp together." + +As he spoke, the vast throng of Spaniards and of Frenchmen +trooped across the plain, with brandished arms and tossing +banners. All day long the sound of revelry and of rejoicing from +the crowded camp swelled up to the ears of the Englishmen, and +they could see the soldiers of the two nations throwing +themselves into each other's arms and dancing hand-in-hand round +the blazing fires. The sun had sunk behind a cloud-bank in the +west before Sir Nigel at last gave word that the men should +resume their arms and have their horses ready. He had himself +thrown off his armor, and had dressed himself from head to foot +in the harness of the captured Spaniard. + +"Sir William," said he, "it is my intention to attempt a small +deed, and I ask you therefore that you will lead this outfall +upon the camp. For me, I will ride into their camp with my +squire and two archers. I pray you to watch me, and to ride +forth when I am come among the tents. You will leave twenty men +behind here, as we planned this morning, and you will ride back +here after you have ventured as far as seems good to you." + +"I will do as you order, Nigel; but what is it that you propose +to do?" + +"You will see anon, and indeed it is but a trifling matter. +Alleyne, you will come with me, and lead a spare horse by the +bridle. I will have the two archers who rode with us through +France, for they are trusty men and of stout heart. Let them +ride behind us, and let them leave their bows here among the +bushes for it is not my wish that they should know that we are +Englishmen. Say no word to any whom we may meet, and, if any +speak to you, pass on as though you heard them not. Are you +ready?" + +"I am ready, my fair lord," said Alleyne. + +"And I," "And I," cried Aylward and John. + +"Then the rest I leave to your wisdom, Sir William; and if God +sends us fortune we shall meet you again in this gorge ere it be +dark." + +So saying, Sir Nigel mounted the white horse of the Spanish +cavalier, and rode quietly forth from his concealment with his +three companions behind him, Alleyne leading his master's own +steed by the bridle. So many small parties of French and Spanish +horse were sweeping hither and thither that the small band +attracted little notice, and making its way at a gentle trot +across the plain, they came as far as the camp without challenge +or hindrance. On and on they pushed past the endless lines of +tents, amid the dense swarms of horsemen and of footmen, until +the huge royal pavilion stretched in front of them. They were +close upon it when of a sudden there broke out a wild hubbub from +a distant portion of the camp, with screams and war-cries and all +the wild tumult of battle. At the sound soldiers came rushing +from their tents, knights shouted loudly for their squires, and +there was mad turmoil on every hand of bewildered men and +plunging horses. At the royal tent a crowd of gorgeously dressed +servants ran hither and thither in helpless panic for the guard +of soldiers who were stationed there had already ridden off in +the direction of the alarm. A man-at-arms on either side of the +doorway were the sole protectors of the royal dwelling. + +"I have come for the king," whispered Sir Nigel; "and, by Saint +Paul! he must back with us or I must bide here." + +Alleyne and Aylward sprang from their horses, and flew at the two +sentries, who were disarmed and beaten down in an instant by so +furious and unexpected an attack. Sir Nigel dashed into the +royal tent, and was followed by Hordle John as soon as the horses +had been secured. From within came wild screamings and the clash +of steel, and then the two emerged once more, their swords and +forearms reddened with blood, while John bore over his shoulder +the senseless body of a man whose gay surcoat, adorned with the +lions and towers of Castile, proclaimed him to belong to the +royal house. A crowd of white-faced sewers and pages swarmed at +their heels, those behind pushing forwards, while the foremost +shrank back from the fierce faces and reeking weapons of the +adventurers. The senseless body was thrown across the spare +horse, the four sprang to their saddles, and away they thundered +with loose reins and busy spurs through the swarming camp. + +But confusion and disorder still reigned among the Spaniards for +Sir William Felton and his men had swept through half their camp, +leaving a long litter of the dead and the dying to mark their +course. Uncertain who were their attackers, and unable to tell +their English enemies from their newly-arrived Breton allies, the +Spanish knights rode wildly hither and thither in aimless fury. +The mad turmoil, the mixture of races, and the fading light, were +all in favor of the four who alone knew their own purpose among +the vast uncertain multitude. Twice ere they reached open ground +they had to break their way through small bodies of horses, and +once there came a whistle of arrows and singing of stones about +their ears; but, still dashing onwards, they shot out from among +the tents and found their own comrades retreating for the +mountains at no very great distance from them. Another five +minutes of wild galloping over the plain, and they were all back +in their gorge, while their pursuers fell back before the rolling +of drums and blare of trumpets, which seemed to proclaim that the +whole army of the prince was about to emerge from the mountain +passes. + +"By my soul! Nigel," cried Sir Oliver, waving a great boiled ham +over his head, "I have come by something which I may eat with my +truffles! I had a hard fight for it, for there were three of +them with their mouths open and the knives in their hands, all +sitting agape round the table, when I rushed in upon them. How +say you, Sir William, will you not try the smack of the famed +Spanish swine, though we have but the brook water to wash it +down?" + +"Later, Sir Oliver," answered the old soldier, wiping his grimed +face. "We must further into the mountains ere we be in safety. +But what have we here, Nigel?" + +"It is a prisoner whom I have taken, and in sooth, as he came +from the royal tent and wears the royal arms upon his jupon, I +trust that he is the King of Spain." + +"The King of Spain!" cried the companions, crowding round in +amazement. + +"Nay, Sir Nigel," said Felton, peering at the prisoner through +the uncertain light, "I have twice seen Henry of Transtamare, and +certes this man in no way resembles him." + +"Then, by the light of heaven! I will ride back for him," cried +Sir Nigel. + +"Nay, nay, the camp is in arms, and it would be rank madness. +Who are you, fellow?" he added in Spanish, "and how is it that +you dare to wear the arms of Castile?" + +The prisoner was bent recovering the consciousness which had been +squeezed from him by the grip of Hordle John. "If it please +you," he answered, "I and nine others are the body-squires of the +king, and must ever wear his arms, so as to shield him from even +such perils as have threatened him this night. The king is at the +tent of the brave Du Guesclin, where he will sup to night. But I +am a caballero of Aragon, Don Sancho Penelosa, and, though I be +no king, I am yet ready to pay a fitting price for my ransom." + +"By Saint Paul! I will not touch your gold," cried Sir Nigel. "Go +back to your master and give him greeting from Sir Nigel Loring +of Twynham Castle, telling him that I had hoped to make his +better acquaintance this night, and that, if I have disordered +his tent, it was but in my eagerness to know so famed and +courteous a knight. Spur on, comrades! for we must cover many a +league ere we can venture to light fire or to loosen girth. I had +hoped to ride without this patch to-night, but it seems that I +must carry it yet a little longer." + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +HOW SIR NIGEL TOOK THE PATCH FROM HIS EYE. + +IT was a cold, bleak morning in the beginning of March, and the +mist was drifting in dense rolling clouds through the passes of +the Cantabrian mountains. The Company, who had passed the night +in a sheltered gully, were already astir, some crowding round the +blazing fires and others romping or leaping over each other's +backs for their limbs were chilled and the air biting. Here and +there, through the dense haze which surrounded them, there loomed +out huge pinnacles and jutting boulders of rock: while high above +the sea of vapor there towered up one gigantic peak, with the +pink glow of the early sunshine upon its snow-capped head. The +ground was wet, the rocks dripping, the grass and ever-greens +sparkling with beads of moisture; yet the camp was loud with +laughter and merriment, for a messenger had ridden in from the +prince with words of heart-stirring praise for what they had +done, and with orders that they should still abide in the +forefront of the army. + +Round one of the fires were clustered four or five of the leading +men of the archers, cleaning the rust from their weapons, and +glancing impatiently from time to time at a great pot which +smoked over the blaze. There was Aylward squatting cross-legged +in his shirt, while he scrubbed away at his chain-mail +brigandine, whistling loudly the while. On one side of him sat +old Johnston, who was busy in trimming the feathers of some +arrows to his liking; and on the other Hordle John, who lay with +his great limbs all asprawl, and his headpiece balanced upon his +uplifted foot. Black Simon of Norwich crouched amid the rocks, +crooning an Eastland ballad to himself, while he whetted his +sword upon a flat stone which lay across his knees; while beside +him sat Alleyne Edricson, and Norbury, the silent squire of Sir +Oliver, holding out their chilled hands towards the crackling +faggots + +"Cast on another culpon, John, and stir the broth with thy +sword-sheath," growled Johnston, looking anxiously for the +twentieth time at the reeking pot. + +"By my hilt!" cried Aylward, "now that John hath come by this +great ransom, he will scarce abide the fare of poor archer lads. +How say you, camarade? When you see Hordle once more, there will +be no penny ale and fat bacon, but Gascon wines and baked meats +every day of the seven." + +"I know not about that," said John, kicking his helmet up into +the air and catching it in his hand. "I do but know that whether +the broth be ready or no, I am about to dip this into it." + +"It simmers and it boils," cried Johnston, pushing his hard-lined +face through the smoke. In an instant the pot had been plucked +from the blaze, and its contents had been scooped up in half a +dozen steel head-pieces, which were balanced betwixt their +owners' knees, while, with spoon and gobbet of bread, they +devoured their morning meal. + +"It is ill weather for bows," remarked John at last, when, with a +long sigh, he drained the last drop from his helmet. "My strings +are as limp as a cow's tail this morning." + +"You should rub them with water glue," quoth Johnston. "You +remember, Samkin, that it was wetter than this on the morning of +Crecy, and yet I cannot call to mind that there was aught amiss +with our strings." + +"It is in my thoughts," said Black Simon, still pensively +grinding his sword, "that we may have need of your strings ere +sundown. I dreamed of the red cow last night." + +"And what is this red cow, Simon?" asked Alleyne. + +"I know not, young sir; but I can only say that on the eve of +Cadsand, and on the eve of Crecy, and on the eve of Nogent, I +dreamed of a red cow; and now the dream has come upon me again, +so I am now setting a very keen edge to my blade." + +"Well said, old war-dog!" cried Aylward. "By my hilt! I pray +that your dream may come true, for the prince hath not set us out +here to drink broth or to gather whortleberries. One more fight, +and I am ready to hang up my bow, marry a wife, and take to the +fire corner. But how now, Robin? Whom is it that you seek?" + +"The Lord Loring craves your attendance in his tent," said a +young archer to Alleyne. + +The squire rose and proceeded to the pavilion, where he found the +knight seated upon a cushion, with his legs crossed in front of +him and a broad ribbon of parchment laid across his knees, over +which he was poring with frowning brows and pursed lips. + +"It came this morning by the prince's messenger," said he, "and +was brought from England by Sir John Fallislee, who is new come +from Sussex. What make you of this upon the outer side?" + +"It is fairly and clearly written," Alleyne answered, "and it +signifies To Sir Nigel Loring, Knight Constable of Twynham +Castle, by the hand of Christopher, the servant of God at the +Priory of Christchurch." + +"So I read it," said Sir Nigel. "Now I pray you to read what is +set forth within." + +Alleyne turned to the letter, and, as his eyes rested upon it, +his face turned pale and a cry of surprise and grief burst from +his lips. + +"What then?" asked the knight, peering up at him anxiously. +"There is nought amiss with the Lady Mary or with the Lady +Maude?" + +"It is my brother--my poor unhappy brother!" cried Alleyne, with +his hand to his brow. "He is dead." + +"By Saint Paul! I have never heard that he had shown so much +love for you that you should mourn him so." + +"Yet he was my brother--the only kith or kin that I had upon +earth. Mayhap he had cause to be bitter against me, for his land +was given to the abbey for my upbringing. Alas! alas! and I +raised my staff against him when last we met! He has been slain- +-and slain, I fear, amidst crime and violence." + +"Ha!" said Sir Nigel. "Read on, I pray you." + +" 'God be with thee, my honored lord, and have thee in his holy +keeping. The Lady Loring hath asked me to set down in writing +what hath befallen at Twynham, and all that concerns the death of +thy ill neighbor the Socman of Minstead. For when ye had left +us, this evil man gathered around him all outlaws, villeins, and +masterless men, until they were come to such a force that they +slew and scattered the king's men who went against them. Then, +coming forth from the woods, they laid siege to thy castle, and +for two days they girt us in and shot hard against us, with such +numbers as were a marvel to see. Yet the Lady Loring held the +place stoutly, and on the second day the Socman was slain--by his +own men, as some think--so that we were delivered from their +hands; for which praise be to all the saints, and more especially +to the holy Anselm, upon whose feast it came to pass. The Lady +Loring, and the Lady Maude, thy fair daughter, are in good +health; and so also am I, save for an imposthume of the toe- +joint, which hath been sent me for my sins. May all the saints +preserve thee!' " + +"It was the vision of the Lady Tiphaine," said Sir Nigel, after a +pause. "Marked you not how she said that the leader was one with +a yellow beard, and how he fell before the gate. But how came +it, Alleyne, that this woman, to whom all things are as crystal, +and who hath not said one word which has not come to pass, was +yet so led astray as to say that your thoughts turned to Twynham +Castle even more than my own?" + +"My fair lord," said Alleyne, with a flush on his weather-stained +cheeks, "the Lady Tiphaine may have spoken sooth when she said +it; for Twynham Castle is in my heart by day and in my dreams by +night." + +"Ha!" cried Sir Nigel, with a sidelong glance. + +"Yes, my fair lord; for indeed I love your daughter, the Lady +Maude; and, unworthy as I am, I would give my heart's blood to +serve her." + +"By St. Paul! Edricson," said the knight coldly, arching his +eyebrows, "you aim high in this matter. Our blood is very old." + +"And mine also is very old," answered the squire. + +"And the Lady Maude is our single child. All our name and lands +centre upon her." + +"Alas! that I should say it, but I also am now the only +Edricson." + +"And why have I not heard this from you before, Alleyne? In +sooth, I think that you have used me ill." + +"Nay, my fair lord, say not so; for I know not whether your +daughter loves me, and there is no pledge between us." + +Sir Nigel pondered for a few moments, and then burst out a- +laughing. "By St. Paul!" said he, "I know not why I should mix +in the matter; for I have ever found that the Lady Maude was very +well able to look to her own affairs. Since first she could +stamp her little foot, she hath ever been able to get that for +which she craved; and if she set her heart on thee, Alleyne, and +thou on her, I do not think that this Spanish king, with his +three-score thousand men, could hold you apart. Yet this I will +say, that I would see you a full knight ere you go to my daughter +with words of love. I have ever said that a brave lance should +wed her; and, by my soul! Edricson, if God spare you, I think +that you will acquit yourself well. But enough of such trifles, +for we have our work before us, and it will be time to speak of +this matter when we see the white cliffs of England once more. +Go to Sir William Felton, I pray you, and ask him to come hither, +for it is time that we were marching. There is no pass at the +further end of the valley, and it is a perilous place should an +enemy come upon us." + +Alleyne delivered his message, and then wandered forth from the +camp, for his mind was all in a whirl with this unexpected news, +and with his talk with Sir Nigel. Sitting upon a rock, with his +burning brow resting upon his hands, he thought of his brother, +of their quarrel, of the Lady Maude in her bedraggled riding- +dress, of the gray old castle, of the proud pale face in the +armory, and of the last fiery words with which she had sped him +on his way. Then he was but a penniless, monk-bred lad, unknown +and unfriended. Now he was himself Socman of Minstead, the head +of an old stock, and the lord of an estate which, if reduced from +its former size, was still ample to preserve the dignity of his +family. Further, he had become a man of experience, was counted +brave among brave men, had won the esteem and confidence of her +father, and, above all, had been listened to by him when he told +him the secret of his love. As to the gaining of knighthood, in +such stirring times it was no great matter for a brave squire of +gentle birth to aspire to that honor. He would leave his bones +among these Spanish ravines, or he would do some deed which would +call the eyes of men upon him. + +Alleyne was still seated on the rock, his griefs and his joys +drifting swiftly over his mind like the shadow of clouds upon a +sunlit meadow, when of a sudden he became conscious of a low, +deep sound which came booming up to him through the fog. Close +behind him he could hear the murmur of the bowmen, the occasional +bursts of hoarse laughter, and the champing and stamping of their +horses. Behind it all, however, came that low-pitched, deep- +toned hum, which seemed to come from every quarter and to fill +the whole air. In the old monastic days he remembered to have +heard such a sound when he had walked out one windy night at +Bucklershard, and had listened to the long waves breaking upon +the shingly shore. Here, however, was neither wind nor sea, and +yet the dull murmur rose ever louder and stronger out of the +heart of the rolling sea of vapor. He turned and ran to the camp, +shouting an alarm at the top of his voice. + +It was but a hundred paces, and yet ere he had crossed it every +bowman was ready at his horse's head, and the group of knights +were out and listening intently to the ominous sound. + +"It is a great body of horse," said Sir William Felton, "and they +are riding very swiftly hitherwards." + +"Yet they must be from the prince's army," remarked Sir Richard +Causton, "for they come from the north." + +"Nay," said the Earl of Angus, "it is not so certain; for the +peasant with whom we spoke last night said that it was rumored +that Don Tello, the Spanish king's brother, had ridden with six +thousand chosen men to beat up the prince's camp. It may be that +on their backward road they have come this way." + +"By St. Paul!" cried Sir Nigel, "I think that it is even as you +say, for that same peasant had a sour face and a shifting eye, as +one who bore us little good will. I doubt not that he has +brought these cavaliers upon us." + +"But the mist covers us," said Sir Simon Burley. "We have yet +time to ride through the further end of the pass." + +"Were we a troop of mountain goats we might do so," answered Sir +William Felton, "but it is not to be passed by a company of +horsemen. If these be indeed Don Tello and his men, then we must +bide where we are, and do what we can to make them rue the day +that they found us in their path." + +"Well spoken, William!" cried Sir Nigel, in high delight. "If +there be so many as has been said, then there will be much honor +to be gained from them and every hope of advancement. But the +sound has ceased, and I fear that they have gone some other way." + +"Or mayhap they have come to the mouth of the gorge, and are +marshalling their ranks. Hush and hearken! for they are no great +way from us." + +The Company stood peering into the dense fog-wreath, amidst a +silence so profound that the dripping of the water from the rocks +and the breathing of the horses grew loud upon the ear. Suddenly +from out the sea of mist came the shrill sound of a neigh, +followed by a long blast upon a bugle. + +"It is a Spanish call, my fair lord," said Black Simon. "It is +used by their prickers and huntsmen when the beast hath not fled, +but is still in its lair." + +"By my faith!" said Sir Nigel, smiling, "if they are in a humor +for venerie we may promise them some sport ere they sound the +mort over us. But there is a hill in the centre of the gorge on +which we might take our stand." + +"I marked it yester-night," said Felton, "and no better spot +could be found for our purpose, for it is very steep at the back. +It is but a bow-shot to the left, and, indeed, I can see the +shadow of it." + +The whole Company, leading their horses, passed across to the +small hill which loomed in front of them out of the mist. It was +indeed admirably designed for defence, for it sloped down in +front, all jagged and boulder-strewn, while it fell away in a +sheer cliff of a hundred feet or more. On the summit was a small +uneven plateau, with a stretch across of a hundred paces, and a +depth of half as much again. + +"Unloose the horses!" said Sir Nigel. "We have no space for +them, and if we hold our own we shall have horses and to spare +when this day's work is done. Nay, keep yours, my fair sirs, for +we may have work for them. Aylward, Johnston, let your men form +a harrow on either side of the ridge. Sir Oliver and you, my +Lord Angus, I give you the right wing, and the left to you, Sir +Simon, and to you, Sir Richard Causten. I and Sir William Felton +will hold the centre with our men-at-arms. Now order the ranks, +and fling wide the banners, for our souls are God's and our +bodies the king's, and our swords for Saint George and for +England!" + +Sir Nigel had scarcely spoken when the mist seemed to thin in the +valley, and to shred away into long ragged clouds which trailed +from the edges of the cliffs. The gorge in which they had camped +was a mere wedge-shaped cleft among the hills, three-quarters of +a mile deep, with the small rugged rising upon which they stood +at the further end, and the brown crags walling it in on three +sides. As the mist parted, and the sun broke through, it gleamed +and shimmered with dazzling brightness upon the armor and +headpieces of a vast body of horsemen who stretched across the +barranca from one cliff to the other, and extended backwards +until their rear guard were far out upon the plain beyond. Line +after line, and rank after rank, they choked the neck of the +valley with a long vista of tossing pennons, twinkling lances, +waving plumes and streaming banderoles, while the curvets and +gambades of the chargers lent a constant motion and shimmer to +the glittering, many-colored mass. A yell of exultation, and a +forest of waving steel through the length and breadth of their +column, announced that they could at last see their entrapped +enemies, while the swelling notes of a hundred bugles and drums, +mixed with the clash of Moorish cymbals, broke forth into a proud +peal of martial triumph. Strange it was to these gallant and +sparkling cavaliers of Spain to look upon this handful of men +upon the hill, the thin lines of bowmen, the knots of knights and +men-at-arms with armor rusted and discolored from long service, +and to learn that these were indeed the soldiers whose fame and +prowess had been the camp-fire talk of every army in Christendom. +Very still and silent they stood, leaning upon their bows, while +their leaders took counsel together in front of them. No clang +of bugle rose from their stern ranks, but in the centre waved the +leopards of England, on the right the ensign of their Company +with the roses of Loring, and on the left, over three score of +Welsh bowmen, there floated the red banner of Merlin with the +boars'-heads of the Buttesthorns. Gravely and sedately they +stood beneath the morning sun waiting for the onslaught of their +foemen. + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, gazing with puckered eye down +the valley, "there appear to be some very worthy people among +them. What is this golden banner which waves upon the left?" + +"It is the ensign of the Knights of Calatrava," answered Felton. + +"And the other upon the right?" + +"It marks the Knights of Santiago, and I see by his flag that +their grand-master rides at their head. There too is the banner +of Castile amid yonder sparkling squadron which heads the main +battle. There are six thousand men-at-arms with ten squadrons of +slingers as far as I may judge their numbers." + +"There are Frenchmen among them, my fair lord," remarked Black +Simon. "I can see the pennons of De Couvette, De Brieux, Saint +Pol, and many others who struck in against us for Charles of +Blois." + +"You are right," said Sir William, "for I can also see them. +There is much Spanish blazonry also, if I could but read it. Don +Diego, you know the arms of your own land. Who are they who have +done us this honor?" + +The Spanish prisoner looked with exultant eyes upon the deep and +serried ranks of his countrymen. + +"By Saint James!" said he, "if ye fall this day ye fall by no +mean hands, for the flower of the knighthood of Castile ride +under the banner of Don Tello, with the chivalry of Asturias, +Toledo, Leon, Cordova, Galicia, and Seville. I see the guidons +of Albornez, Cacorla, Rodriguez, Tavora, with the two great +orders, and the knights of France and of Aragon. If you will +take my rede you will come to a composition with them, for they +will give you such terms as you have given me." + +"Nay, by Saint Paul! it were pity if so many brave men were drawn +together, and no little deed of arms to come of it. Ha! William, +they advance upon us; and, by my soul! it is a sight that is +worth coming over the seas to see." + +As he spoke, the two wings of the Spanish host, consisting of the +Knights of Calatrava on the one side and of Santiago upon the +other, came swooping swiftly down the valley, while the main body +followed more slowly behind. Five hundred paces from the English +the two great bodies of horse crossed each other, and, sweeping +round in a curve, retired in feigned confusion towards their +centre. Often in bygone wars had the Moors tempted the hot- +blooded Spaniards from their places of strength by such pretended +flights, but there were men upon the hill to whom every ruse an +trick of war were as their daily trade and practice. Again and +even nearer came the rallying Spaniards, and again with cry of +fear and stooping bodies they swerved off to right and left, but +the English still stood stolid and observant among their rocks. +The vanguard halted a long bow shot from the hill, and with +waving spears and vaunting shouts challenged their enemies to +come forth, while two cavaliers, pricking forward from the +glittering ranks, walked their horses slowly between the two +arrays with targets braced and lances in rest like the +challengers in a tourney. + +"By Saint Paul!" cried Sir Nigel, with his one eye glowing like +an ember, "these appear to be two very worthy and debonair +gentlemen. I do not call to mind when I have seen any people who +seemed of so great a heart and so high of enterprise. We have our +horses, Sir William: shall we not relieve them of any vow which +they may have upon their souls?" + +Felton's reply was to bound upon his charger, and to urge it down +the slope, while Sir Nigel followed not three spears'-lengths +behind him. It was a rugged course, rocky and uneven, yet the +two knights, choosing their men, dashed onwards at the top of +their speed, while the gallant Spaniards flew as swiftly to meet +them. The one to whom Felton found himself opposed was a tall +stripling with a stag's head upon his shield, while Sir Nigel's +man was broad and squat with plain steel harness, and a pink and +white torse bound round his helmet. The first struck Felton on +the target with such force as to split it from side to side, but +Sir William's lance crashed through the camail which shielded +the Spaniard's throat, and he fell, screaming hoarsely, to the +ground. Carried away by the heat and madness of fight, the +English knight never drew rein, but charged straight on into the +array of the knights of Calatrava. Long time the silent ranks +upon the hill could see a swirl and eddy deep down in the heart +of the Spanish column, with a circle of rearing chargers and +flashing blades, Here and there tossed the white plume of the +English helmet, rising and falling like the foam upon a wave, +with the fierce gleam and sparkle ever circling round it until at +last it had sunk from view, and another brave man had turned from +war to peace. + +Sir Nigel, meanwhile, had found a foeman worthy of his steel for +his opponent was none other than Sebastian Gomez, the picked +lance of the monkish Knights of Santiago, who had won fame in a +hundred bloody combats with the Moors of Andalusia. So fierce was +their meeting that their spears shivered up to the very grasp, +and the horses reared backwards until it seemed that they must +crash down upon their riders. Yet with consummate horsemanship +they both swung round in a long curvet, and then plucking out +their swords they lashed at each other like two lusty smiths +hammering upon an anvil. The chargers spun round each other, +biting and striking, while the two blades wheeled and whizzed and +circled in gleams of dazzling light. Cut, parry, and thrust +followed so swiftly upon each other that the eye could not follow +them, until at last coming thigh to thigh, they cast their arms +around each other and rolled off their saddles to the ground. +The heavier Spaniard threw himself upon his enemy, and pinning +him down beneath him raised his sword to slay him, while a shout +of triumph rose from the ranks of his countrymen. But the fatal +blow never fell, for even as his arm quivered before descending, +the Spaniard gave a shudder, and stiffening himself rolled +heavily over upon his side, with the blood gushing from his +armpit and from the slit of his vizor. Sir Nigel sprang to his +feet with his bloody dagger in his left hand and gazed down upon +his adversary, but that fatal and sudden stab in the vital spot, +which the Spaniard had exposed by raising his arm, had proved +instantly mortal. The Englishman leaped upon his horse and made +for the hill, at the very instant that a yell of rage from a +thousand voices and the clang of a score of bugles announced the +Spanish onset. + +But the islanders were ready and eager for the encounter. With +feet firmly planted, their sleeves rolled back to give free play +to their muscles, their long yellow bow-staves in their left +hands, and their quivers slung to the front, they had waited in +the four-deep harrow formation which gave strength to their +array, and yet permitted every man to draw his arrow freely +without harm to those in front. Aylward and Johnston had been +engaged in throwing light tufts of grass into the air to gauge +the wind force, and a hoarse whisper passed down the ranks from +the file-leaders to the men, with scraps of advice and +admonition. + +"Do not shoot outside the fifteen-score paces," cried Johnston. +"We may need all our shafts ere we have done with them." + +"Better to overshoot than to undershoot," added Aylward. "Better +to strike the rear guard than to feather a shaft in the earth." + +"Loose quick and sharp when they come," added another. "Let it be +the eye to the string, the string to the shaft, and the shaft to +the mark. By Our Lady! their banners advance, and we must hold +our ground now if ever we are to see Southampton Water again." + +Alleyne, standing with his sword drawn amidst the archers, saw a +long toss and heave of the glittering squadrons. Then the front +ranks began to surge slowly forward, to trot, to canter, to +gallop, and in an instant the whole vast array was hurtling +onward, line after line, the air full of the thunder of their +cries, the ground shaking with the beat of their hoots, the +valley choked with the rushing torrent of steel, topped by the +waving plumes, the slanting spears and the fluttering banderoles. +On they swept over the level and up to the slope, ere they met +the blinding storm of the English arrows. Down went the whole +ranks in a whirl of mad confusion, horses plunging and kicking, +bewildered men falling, rising, staggering on or back, while +ever new lines of horsemen came spurring through the gaps and +urged their chargers up the fatal slope. All around him Alleyne +could hear the stern, short orders of the master-bowmen, while +the air was filled with the keen twanging of the strings and the +swish and patter of the shafts. Right across the foot of the +hill there had sprung up a long wall of struggling horses and +stricken men, which ever grew and heightened as fresh squadrons +poured on the attack. One young knight on a gray jennet leaped +over his fallen comrades and galloped swiftly up the hill, +shrieking loudly upon Saint James, ere he fell within a spear- +length of the English line, with the feathers of arrows thrusting +out from every crevice and joint of his armor. So for five long +minutes the gallant horsemen of Spain and of France strove ever +and again to force a passage, until the wailing note of a bugle +called them back, and they rode slowly out of bow-shot, leaving +their best and their bravest in the ghastly, blood-mottled heap +behind them. + +But there was little rest for the victors. Whilst the knights +had charged them in front the slingers had crept round upon +either flank and had gained a footing upon the cliffs and behind +the outlying rocks. A storm of stones broke suddenly upon the +defenders, who, drawn up in lines upon the exposed summit, +offered a fair mark to their hidden foes. Johnston, the old +archer, was struck upon the temple and fell dead without a groan, +while fifteen of his bowmen and six of the men-at-arms were +struck down at the same moment. The others lay on their faces to +avoid the deadly hail, while at each side of the plateau a fringe +of bowmen exchanged shots with the slingers and crossbowmen +among the rocks, aiming mainly at those who had swarmed up the +cliffs, and bursting into laughter and cheers when a well-aimed +shaft brought one of their opponents toppling down from his lofty +perch. + +"I think, Nigel," said Sir Oliver, striding across to the little +knight, "that we should all acquit ourselves better had we our +none-meat, for the sun is high in the heaven." + +"By Saint Paul!" quoth Sir Nigel, plucking the patch from his +eye, "I think that I am now clear of my vow, for this Spanish +knight was a person from whom much honor might be won. Indeed, he +was a very worthy gentleman, of good courage, and great +hardiness, and it grieves me that he should have come by such a +hurt. As to what you say of food, Oliver, it is not to be +thought of, for we have nothing with us upon the hill." + +"Nigel!" cried Sir Simon Burley, hurrying up with consternation +upon his face, "Aylward tells me that there are not ten-score +arrows left in all their sheaves. See! they are springing from +their horses, and cutting their sollerets that they may rush upon +us. Might we not even now make a retreat?" + +"My soul will retreat from my body first!" cried the little +knight. "Here I am, and here I bide, while God gives me strength +to lift a sword." + +"And so say I!" shouted Sir Oliver, throwing his mace high into +the air and catching it again by the handle. + +"To your arms, men!" roared Sir Nigel. "Shoot while you may, and +then out sword, and let us live or die together!" + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +HOW THE WHITE COMPANY CAME TO BE DISBANDED. + +THEN uprose from the hill in the rugged Calabrian valley a sound +such as had not been heard in those parts before, nor was again, +until the streams which rippled amid the rocks had been frozen by +over four hundred winters and thawed by as many returning +springs. Deep and full and strong it thundered down the ravine, +the fierce battle-call of a warrior race, the last stern welcome +to whoso should join with them in that world-old game where the +stake is death. Thrice it swelled forth and thrice it sank away, +echoing and reverberating amidst the crags. Then, with set +faces, the Company rose up among the storm of stones, and looked +down upon the thousands who sped swiftly up the slope against +them. Horse and spear had been set aside, but on foot, with +sword and battle-axe, their broad shields slung in front of them, +the chivalry of Spain rushed to the attack. + +And now arose a struggle so fell, so long, so evenly sustained, +that even now the memory of it is handed down amongst the +Calabrian mountaineers and the ill-omened knoll is still pointed +out by fathers to their children as the "Altura de los Inglesos," +where the men from across the sea fought the great fight with the +knights of the south. The last arrow was quickly shot, nor could +the slingers hurl their stones, so close were friend and foe. +From side to side stretched the thin line of the English, lightly +armed and quick-footed, while against it stormed and raged the +pressing throng of fiery Spaniards and of gallant Bretons. The +clink of crossing sword-blades, the dull thudding of heavy blows, +the panting and gasping of weary and wounded men, all rose +together in a wild, long-drawn note, which swelled upwards to the +ears of the wondering peasants who looked down from the edges of +the cliffs upon the swaying turmoil of the battle beneath them. +Back and forward reeled the leopard banner, now borne up the +slope by the rush and weight of the onslaught, now pushing +downwards again as Sir Nigel, Burley, and Black Simon with their +veteran men-at arms, flung themselves madly into the fray. +Alleyne, at his lord's right hand, found himself swept hither and +thither in the desperate struggle, exchanging savage thrusts one +instant with a Spanish cavalier, and the next torn away by the +whirl of men and dashed up against some new antagonist. To the +right Sir Oliver, Aylward, Hordle John, and the bowmen of the +Company fought furiously against the monkish Knights of Santiago, +who were led up the hill by their prior--a great, deep-chested +man, who wore a brown monastic habit over his suit of mail. +Three archers he slew in three giant strokes, but Sir Oliver +flung his arms round him, and the two, staggering and straining, +reeled backwards and fell, locked in each other's grasp, over the +edge of the steep cliff which flanked the hill. In vain his +knights stormed and raved against the thin line which barred +their path: the sword of Aylward and the great axe of John +gleamed in the forefront of the battle and huge jagged pieces of +rock, hurled by the strong arms of the bowmen, crashed and +hurtled amid their ranks. Slowly they gave back down the hill, +the archers still hanging upon their skirts, with a long litter +of writhing and twisted figures to mark the course which they +had taken. At the same instant the Welshmen upon the left, led +on by the Scotch earl, had charged out from among the rocks which +sheltered them, and by the fury of their outfall had driven the +Spaniards in front of them in headlong flight down the hill. In +the centre only things seemed to be going ill with the defenders. +Black Simon was down--dying, as he would wish to have died, like +a grim old wolf in its lair with a ring of his slain around him. +Twice Sir Nigel had been overborne, and twice Alleyne had fought +over him until he had staggered to his feet once more. Burley +lay senseless, stunned by a blow from a mace, and half of the +men-at-arms lay littered upon the ground around him. Sir Nigel's +shield was broken, his crest shorn, his armor cut and smashed, +and the vizor torn from his helmet; yet he sprang hither and +thither with light foot and ready hand, engaging two Bretons and +a Spaniard at the same instant--thrusting, stooping, dashing in, +springing out--while Alleyne still fought by his side, stemming +with a handful of men the fierce tide which surged up against +them. Yet it would have fared ill with them had not the archers +from either side closed in upon the flanks of the attackers, and +pressed them very slowly and foot by foot down the long slope, +until they were on the plain once more, where their fellows were +already rallying for a fresh assault. + +But terrible indeed was the cost at which the last had been +repelled. Of the three hundred and seventy men who had held the +crest, one hundred and seventy-two were left standing, many of +whom were sorely wounded and weak from loss of blood. Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn, Sir Richard Causten, Sir Simon Burley, Black Simon, +Johnston, a hundred and fifty archers, and forty-seven men-at- +arms had fallen, while the pitiless hail of stones was already +whizzing and piping once more about their ears, threatening every +instant to further reduce their numbers. + +Sir Nigel looked about him at his shattered ranks, and his face +flushed with a soldier's pride. + +"By St. Paul!" he cried, "I have fought in many a little +bickering, but never one that I would be more loth to have missed +than this. But you are wounded, Alleyne?" + +"It is nought," answered his squire, stanching the blood which +dripped from a sword-cut across his forehead. + +"These gentlemen of Spain seem to be most courteous and worthy +people. I see that they are already forming to continue this +debate with us. Form up the bowmen two deep instead of four. By +my faith! some very brave men have gone from among us. Aylward, +you are a trusty soldier, for all that your shoulder has never +felt accolade, nor your heels worn the gold spurs. Do you take +charge of the right; I will hold the centre, and you, my Lord of +Angus, the left." + +"Ho! for Sir Samkin Aylward!" cried a rough voice among the +archers, and a roar of laughter greeted their new leader. + +"By my hilt!" said the old bowman, "I never thought to lead a +wing in a stricken field. Stand close, camarades, for, by these +finger-bones! we must play the man this day." + +"Come hither, Alleyne," said Sir Nigel, walking back to the edge +of the cliff which formed the rear of their position. "And you, +Norbury," he continued, beckoning to the squire of Sir Oliver, +"do you also come here." + +The two squires hurried across to him, and the three stood +looking down into the rocky ravine which lay a hundred and fifty +feet beneath them. + +"The prince must hear of how things are with us," said the +knight. "Another onfall we may withstand, but they are many and +we are few, so that the time must come when we can no longer form +line across the hill. Yet if help were brought us we might hold +the crest until it comes. See yonder horses which stray among +the rocks beneath us?" + +"I see them, my fair lord." + +"And see yonder path which winds along the hill upon the further +end of the valley?" + +"I see it." + +"Were you on those horses, and riding up yonder track, steep and +rough as it is, I think that ye might gain the valley beyond. +Then on to the prince, and tell him how we fare." + +"But, my fair lord, how can we hope to reach the horses?" asked +Norbury. + +"Ye cannot go round to them, for they would be upon ye ere ye +could come to them. Think ye that ye have heart enough to +clamber down this cliff?" + +"Had we but a rope." + +"There is one here. It is but one hundred feet long, and for the +rest ye must trust to God and to your fingers. Can you try it, +Alleyne?" + +"With all my heart, my dear lord, but how can I leave you in such +a strait?" + +"Nay, it is to serve me that ye go. And you, Norbury?" + +The silent squire said nothing, but he took up the rope, and, +having examined it, he tied one end firmly round a projecting +rock. Then he cast off his breast-plate, thigh pieces, and +greaves, while Alleyne followed his example. + +"Tell Chandos, or Calverley, or Knolles, should the prince have +gone forward," cried Sir Nigel. "Now may God speed ye, for ye +are brave and worthy men." + +It was, indeed, a task which might make the heart of the bravest +sink within him. The thin cord dangling down the face of the +brown cliff seemed from above to reach little more than half-way +down it. Beyond stretched the rugged rock, wet and shining, with +a green tuft here and there thrusting out from it, but little +sign of ridge or foothold. Far below the jagged points of the +boulders bristled up, dark and menacing. Norbury tugged thrice +with all his strength upon the cord, and then lowered himself +over the edge, while a hundred anxious faces peered over at him +as he slowly clambered downwards to the end of the rope. Twice +he stretched out his foot, and twice he failed to reach the point +at which he aimed, but even as he swung himself for a third +effort a stone from a sling buzzed like a wasp from amid the +rocks and struck him full upon the side of his head. His grasp +relaxed, his feet slipped, and in an instant he was a crushed and +mangled corpse upon the sharp ridges beneath him. + +"If I have no better fortune," said Alleyne, leading Sir Nigel +aside. "I pray you, my dear lord, that you will give my humble +service to the Lady Maude, and say to her that I was ever her +true servant and most unworthy cavalier." + +The old knight said no word, but he put a hand on either +shoulder, and kissed his squire, with the tears shining in his +eyes. Alleyne sprang to the rope, and sliding swiftly down, soon +found himself at its extremity. From above it seemed as though +rope and cliff were well-nigh touching, but now, when swinging a +hundred feet down, the squire found that he could scarce reach +the face of the rock with his foot, and that it was as smooth as +glass, with no resting-place where a mouse could stand. Some +three feet lower, however, his eye lit upon a long jagged crack +which slanted downwards, and this he must reach if he would save +not only his own poor life, but that of the eight-score men +above him. Yet it were madness to spring for that narrow slit +with nought but the wet, smooth rock to cling to. He swung for a +moment, full of thought, and even as he hung there another of the +hellish stones sang through his curls, and struck a chip from the +face of the cliff. Up he clambered a few feet, drew up the loose +end after him, unslung his belt, held on with knee and with elbow +while he spliced the long, tough leathern belt to the end of the +cord: then lowering himself as far as he could go, he swung +backwards and forwards until his hand reached the crack, when he +left the rope and clung to the face of the cliff. Another stone +struck him on the side, and he heard a sound like a breaking +stick, with a keen stabbing pain which shot through his chest. +Yet it was no time now to think of pain or ache. There was his +lord and his eight-score comrades, and they must be plucked from +the jaws of death. On he clambered, with his hand shuffling down +the long sloping crack, sometimes bearing all his weight upon his +arms, at others finding some small shelf or tuft on which to rest +his foot. Would he never pass over that fifty feet? He dared not +look down and could but grope slowly onwards, his face to the +cliff, his fingers clutching, his feet scraping and feeling for a +support. Every vein and crack and mottling of that face of rock +remained forever stamped upon his memory. At last, however, his +foot came upon a broad resting-place and he ventured to cast a +glance downwards. Thank God! he had reached the highest of those +fatal pinnacles upon which his comrade had fallen. Quickly now he +sprang from rock to rock until his feet were on the ground, and +he had his hand stretched out for the horse's rein, when a +sling-stone struck him on the head, and he dropped senseless upon +the ground. + +An evil blow it was for Alleyne, but a worse one still for him +who struck it. The Spanish slinger, seeing the youth lie slain, +and judging from his dress that he was no common man, rushed +forward to plunder him, knowing well that the bowmen above him +had expended their last shaft. He was still three paces, +however, from his victim's side when John upon the cliff above +plucked up a huge boulder, and, poising it for an instant, +dropped it with fatal aim upon the slinger beneath him. It +struck upon his shoulder, and hurled him, crushed and screaming, +to the ground, while Alleyne, recalled to his senses by these +shrill cries in his very ear, staggered on to his feet, and gazed +wildly about him. His eyes fell upon the horses, grazing upon +the scanty pasture, and in an instant all had come back to him-- +his mission, his comrades, the need for haste. He was dizzy, +sick, faint, but he must not die, and he must not tarry, for his +life meant many lives that day. In an instant he was in his +saddle and spurring down the valley. Loud rang the swift +charger's hoofs over rock and reef, while the fire flew from the +stroke of iron, and the loose stones showered up behind him. But +his head was whirling round, the blood was gushing from his brow, +his temple, his mouth. Ever keener and sharper was the deadly +pain which shot like a red-hot arrow through his side. He felt +that his eye was glazing, his senses slipping from him, his +grasp upon the reins relaxing. Then with one mighty effort, he +called up all his strength for a single minute. Stooping down, +he loosened the stirrup-straps, bound his knees tightly to his +saddle-flaps, twisted his hands in the bridle, and then, putting +the gallant horse's head for the mountain path, he dashed the +spurs in and fell forward fainting with his face buried in the +coarse, black mane. + +Little could he ever remember of that wild ride. Half conscious, +but ever with the one thought beating in his mind, he goaded the +horse onwards, rushing swiftly down steep ravines over huge +boulders, along the edges of black abysbes. Dim memories he had +of beetling cliffs, of a group of huts with wondering faces at +the doors, of foaming, clattering water, and of a bristle of +mountain beeches. Once, ere he had ridden far, he heard behind +him three deep, sullen shouts, which told him that his comrades +had set their faces to the foe once more. Then all was blank, +until he woke to find kindly blue English eyes peering down upon +him and to hear the blessed sound of his country's speech. They +were but a foraging party--a hundred archers and as many men at- +arms-but their leader was Sir Hugh Calverley, and he was not a +man to bide idle when good blows were to be had not three leagues +from him. A scout was sent flying with a message to the camp, +and Sir Hugh, with his two hundred men, thundered off to the +rescue. With them went Alleyne, still bound to his saddle, still +dripping with blood, and swooning and recovering, and swooning +once again. On they rode, and on, until, at last, topping a +ridge, they looked down upon the fateful valley. Alas! and alas! +for the sight that met their eyes. + +There, beneath them, was the blood-bathed hill, and from the +highest pinnacle there flaunted the yellow and white banner with +the lions and the towers of the royal house of Castile. Up the +long slope rushed ranks and ranks of men exultant, shouting, with +waving pennons and brandished arms. Over the whole summit were +dense throngs of knights, with no enemy that could be seen to +face them, save only that at one corner of the plateau an eddy +and swirl amid the crowded mass seemed to show that all +resistance was not yet at an end. At the sight a deep groan of +rage and of despair went up from the baffled rescuers, and, +spurring on their horses, they clattered down the long and +winding path which led to the valley beneath. + +But they were too late to avenge, as they had been too late to +save. Long ere they could gain the level ground, the Spaniards, +seeing them riding swiftly amid the rocks, and being ignorant of +their numbers, drew off from the captured hill, and, having +secured their few prisoners, rode slowly in a long column, with +drum-beating and cymbal-clashing, out of the valley. Their rear +ranks were already passing out of sight ere the new-comers were +urging their panting, foaming horses up the slope which had been +the scene of that long drawn and bloody fight. + +And a fearsome sight it was that met their eyes! Across the +lower end lay the dense heap of men and horses where the first +arrow-storm had burst. Above, the bodies of the dead and the +dying--French, Spanish, and Aragonese--lay thick and thicker, +until they covered the whole ground two and three deep in one +dreadful tangle of slaughter. Above them lay the Englishmen in +their lines, even as they had stood, and higher yet upon the +plateau a wild medley of the dead of all nations, where the last +deadly grapple had left them. In the further corner, under the +shadow of a great rock, there crouched seven bowmen, with great +John in the centre of them--all wounded, weary, and in sorry +case, but still unconquered, with their blood-stained weapons +waving and their voices ringing a welcome to their countrymen. +Alleyne rode across to John, while Sir Hugh Calverley followed +close behind him. + +"By Saint George!" cried Sir Hugh, "I have never seen signs of so +stern a fight, and I am right glad that we have been in time to +save you." + +"You have saved more than us," said John, pointing to the banner +which leaned against the rock behind him. + +"You have done nobly," cried the old free companion, gazing with +a soldier's admiration at the huge frame and bold face of the +archer. "But why is it, my good fellow, that you sit upon this +man." + +"By the rood! I had forgot him," John answered, rising and +dragging from under him no less a person than the Spanish +caballero, Don Diego Alvarez. "This man, my fair lord, means to +me a new house, ten cows, one bull--if it be but a little one--a +grindstone, and I know not what besides; so that I thought it +well to sit upon him, lest he should take a fancy to leave me." + +"Tell me, John," cried Alleyne faintly: "where is my dear lord, +Sir Nigel Loring?" + +"He is dead, I fear. I saw them throw his body across a horse +and ride away with it, but I fear the life had gone from him." + +"Now woe worth me! And where is Aylward?" + +"He sprang upon a riderless horse and rode after Sir Nigel to +save him. I saw them throng around him, and he is either taken +or slain." + +"Blow the bugles!" cried Sir Hugh, with a scowling brow. "We must +back to camp, and ere three days I trust that we may see these +Spaniards again. I would fain have ye all in my company." + +"We are of the White Company, my fair lord," said John. + +"Nay, the White Company is here disbanded," answered Sir Hugh +solemnly, looking round him at the lines of silent figures, "Look +to the brave squire, for I fear that he will never see the sun +rise again." + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +OF THE HOME-COMING TO HAMPSHIRE. + +IT was a bright July morning four months after that fatal fight +in the Spanish batranca. A blue heaven stretched above, a green +rolling plain undulated below, intersected with hedge-rows and +flecked with grazing sheep. The sun was yet low in the heaven, +and the red cows stood in the long shadow of the elms, chewing +the cud and gazing with great vacant eyes at two horsemen who +were spurring it down the long white road which dipped and curved +away back to where the towers and pinnacles beneath the flat- +topped hill marked the old town of Winchester. + +Of the riders one was young, graceful, and fair, clad in plain +doublet and hosen of blue Brussels cloth, which served to show +his active and well-knit figure. A flat velvet cap was drawn +forward to keep the glare from his eyes, and he rode with lips +compressed and anxious face, as one who has much care upon his +mind. Young as he was, and peaceful as was his dress, the dainty +golden spurs which twinkled upon his heels proclaimed his +knighthood, while a long seam upon his brow and a scar upon his +temple gave a manly grace to his refined and delicate +countenance. His comrade was a large, red-headed man upon a +great black horse, with a huge canvas bag slung from his saddle- +bow, which jingled and clinked with every movement of his steed. +His broad, brown face was lighted up by a continual smile, and he +looked slowly from side to side with eyes which twinkled and +shone with delight. Well might John rejoice, for was he not back +in his native Hampshire, had he not Don Diego's five thousand +crowns rasping against his knee, and above all was he not himself +squire now to Sir Alleyne Edricson, the young Socman of Minstead +lately knighted by the sword of the Black Prince himself, and +esteemed by the whole army as one of the most rising of the +soldiers of England. + +For the last stand of the Company had been told throughout +Christendom wherever a brave deed of arms was loved, and honors +had flowed in upon the few who had survived it. For two months +Alleyne had wavered betwixt death and life, with a broken rib and +a shattered head; yet youth and strength and a cleanly life were +all upon his side, and he awoke from his long delirium to find +that the war was over, that the Spaniards and their allies had +been crushed at Navaretta, and that the prince had himself heard +the tale of his ride for succor and had come in person to his +bedside to touch his shoulder with his sword and to insure that +so brave and true a man should die, if he could not live, within +the order of chivalry. The instant that he could set foot to +ground Alleyne had started in search of his lord, but no word +could he hear of him, dead or alive, and he had come home now +sad-hearted, in the hope of raising money upon his estates and so +starting upon his quest once more. Landing at London, he had +hurried on with a mind full of care, for he had heard no word +from Hampshire since the short note which had announced his +brother's death. + +"By the rood!" cried John, looking around him exultantly, "where +have we seen since we left such noble cows, such fleecy sheep, +grass so green, or a man so drunk as yonder rogue who lies in the +gap of the hedge?" + +"Ah, John," Alleyne answered wearily, "it is well for you, but I +never thought that my home-coming would be so sad a one. My +heart is heavy for my dear lord and for Aylward, and I know not +how I may break the news to the Lady Mary and to the Lady Maude, +if they have not yet had tidings of it." + +John gave a groan which made the horses shy. "It is indeed a +black business," said he. "But be not sad, for I shall give half +these crowns to my old mother, and half will I add to the money +which you may have, and so we shall buy that yellow cog wherein +we sailed to Bordeaux, and in it we shall go forth and seek Sir +Nigel." + +Alleyne smiled, but shook his head. "Were he alive we should +have had word of him ere now," said he. "But what is this town +before us?" + +"Why, it is Romsey!" cried John. "See the tower of the old gray +church, and the long stretch of the nunnery. But here sits a +very holy man, and I shall give him a crown for his prayers." + +Three large stones formed a rough cot by the roadside, and beside +it, basking in the sun, sat the hermit, with clay-colored face, +dull eyes, and long withered hands. With crossed ankles and +sunken head. he sat as though all his life had passed out of +him, with the beads slipping slowly through his thin, yellow +fingers. Behind him lay the narrow cell, clay-floored and damp, +comfortless, profitless and sordid. Beyond it there lay amid the +trees the wattle-and-daub hut of a laborer, the door open, and +the single room exposed to the view. The man ruddy and yellow- +haired, stood leaning upon the spade wherewith he had been at +work upon the garden patch. From behind him came the ripple of a +happy woman's laughter, and two young urchins darted forth from +the hut, bare-legged and towsy, while the mother, stepping out, +laid her hand upon her husband's arm and watched the gambols of +the children. The hermit frowned at the untoward noise which +broke upon his prayers, but his brow relaxed as he looked upon +the broad silver piece which John held out to him. + +"There lies the image of our past and of our future," cried +Alleyne, as they rode on upon their way. "Now, which is better, +to till God's earth, to have happy faces round one's knee, and to +love and be loved, or to sit forever moaning over one's own soul, +like a mother over a sick babe?" + +"I know not about that," said John, "for it casts a great cloud +over me when I think of such matters. But I know that my crown +was well spent, for the man had the look of a very holy person. +As to the other, there was nought holy about him that I could +see, and it would be cheaper for me to pray for myself than to +give a crown to one who spent his days in digging for lettuces." + +Ere Alleyne could answer there swung round the curve of the road +a lady's carriage drawn by three horses abreast with a postilion +upon the outer one. Very fine and rich it was, with beams +painted and gilt, wheels and spokes carved in strange figures, +and over all an arched cover of red and white tapestry. Beneath +its shade there sat a stout and elderly lady in a pink cote- +hardie, leaning back among a pile of cushions, and plucking out +her eyebrows with a small pair of silver tweezers. None could +seem more safe and secure and at her ease than this lady, yet +here also was a symbol of human life, for in an instant, even as +Alleyne reined aside to let the carriage pass, a wheel flew out +from among its fellows, and over it all toppled--carving, +tapestry and gilt--in one wild heap, with the horses plunging, +the postilion shouting, and the lady screaming from within. In +an instant Alleyne and John were on foot, and had lifted her +forth all in a shake with fear, but little the worse for her +mischance. + +"Now woe worth me!" she cried, "and ill fall on Michael Easover +of Romsey! for I told him that the pin was loose, and yet he must +needs gainsay me, like the foolish daffe that he is." + +"I trust that you have taken no hurt, my fair lady," said +Alleyne, conducting her to the bank, upon which John had already +placed a cushion. + +"Nay, I have had no scath, though I have lost my silver tweezers. +Now, lack-a-day! did God ever put breath into such a fool as +Michael Easover of Romsey? But I am much beholden to you, gentle +sirs. Soldiers ye are, as one may readily see. I am myself a +soldier's daughter," she added, casting a somewhat languishing +glance at John, "and my heart ever goes out to a brave man." + +"We are indeed fresh from Spain," quoth Alleyne. + +"From Spain, say you? Ah! it was an ill and sorry thing that so +many should throw away the lives that Heaven gave them. In +sooth, it is bad for those who fall, but worse for those who bide +behind. I have but now bid farewell to one who hath lost all in +this cruel war." + +"And how that, lady?" + +"She is a young damsel of these parts, and she goes now into a +nunnery. Alack! it is not a year since she was the fairest maid +from Avon to Itchen, and now it was more than I could abide to +wait at Rumsey Nunnery to see her put the white veil upon her +face, for she was made for a wife and not for the cloister. Did +you ever, gentle sir, hear of a body of men called 'The White +Company' over yonder?" + +"Surely so," cried both the comrades. + +"Her father was the leader of it, and her lover served under him +as squire. News hath come that not one of the Company was left +alive, and so, poor lamb, she hath----" + +"Lady!" cried Alleyne, with catching breath, "is it the Lady +Maude Loring of whom you speak?" + +"It is, in sooth." + +"Maude! And in a nunnery! Did, then, the thought of her +father's death so move her?" + +"Her father!" cried the lady, smiling. "Nay; Maude is a good +daughter, but I think it was this young golden-haired squire of +whom I have heard who has made her turn her back upon the world." + +"And I stand talking here!" cried Alleyne wildly. "Come, John, +come!" + +Rushing to his horse, he swung himself into the saddle, and was +off down the road in a rolling cloud of dust as fast as his good +steed could bear him. + +Great had been the rejoicing amid the Romsey nuns when the Lady +Maude Loring had craved admission into their order--for was she +not sole child and heiress of the old knight, with farms and +fiefs which she could bring to the great nunnery? Long and +earnest had been the talks of the gaunt lady abbess, in which she +had conjured the young novice to turn forever from the world, and +to rest her bruised heart under the broad and peaceful shelter of +the church. And now, when all was settled, and when abbess and +lady superior had had their will, it was but fitting that some +pomp and show should mark the glad occasion. Hence was it that +the good burghers of Romsey were all in the streets, that gay +flags and flowers brightened the path from the nunnery to the +church, and that a long procession wound up to the old arched +door leading up the bride to these spiritual nuptials. There was +lay-sister Agatha with the high gold crucifix, and the three +incense-bearers, and the two-and-twenty garbed in white, who cast +flowers upon either side of them and sang sweetly the while. +Then, with four attendants, came the novice, her drooping head +wreathed with white blossoms, and, behind, the abbess and her +council of older nuns, who were already counting in their minds +whether their own bailiff could manage the farms of Twynham, or +whether a reve would be needed beneath him, to draw the utmost +from these new possessions which this young novice was about to +bring them. + +But alas! for plots and plans when love and youth and nature, and +above all, fortune are arrayed against them. Who is this travel- +stained youth who dares to ride so madly through the lines of +staring burghers? Why does he fling himself from his horae and +stare so strangely about him? See how he has rushed through the +incense-bearers, thrust aside lay-sister Agatha, scattered the +two-and-twenty damosels who sang so sweetly--and he stands before +the novice with his hands out-stretched, and his face shining, +and the light of love in his gray eyes. Her foot is on the very +lintel of the church, and yet he bars the way--and she, she +thinks no more of the wise words and holy rede of the lady +abbess, but she hath given a sobbing cry and hath fallen forward +with his arms around her drooping body and her wet cheek upon his +breast. A sorry sight this for the gaunt abbess, an ill lesson +too for the stainless two-and-twenty who have ever been taught +that the way of nature is the way of sin. But Maude and Alleyne +care little for this. A dank, cold air comes out from the black +arch before them. Without, the sun shines bright and the birds +are singing amid the ivy on the drooping beeches. Their choice +is made, and they turn away hand-in-hand, with their backs to the +darkness and their faces to the light. + +Very quiet was the wedding in the old priory church at +Christchurch, where Father Christopher read the service, and +there were few to see save the Lady Loring and John, and a dozen +bowmen from the castle. The Lady of Twynham had drooped and +pined for weary months, so that her face was harsher and less +comely than before, yet she still hoped on, for her lord had come +through so many dangers that she could scarce believe that he +might be stricken down at last. It had been her wish to start +for Spain and to search for him, but Alleyne had persuaded her +to let him go in her place. There was much to look after, now +that the lands of Minstead were joined to those of Twynham, and +Alleyne had promised her that if she would but bide with his wife +he would never come back to Hampshire again until he had gained +some news, good or ill, of her lord and lover. + +The yellow cog had been engaged, with Goodwin Hawtayne in +command, and a month after the wedding Alleyne rode down to +Bucklershard to see if she had come round yet from Southampton. +On the way he passed the fishing village of Pitt's Deep, and +marked that a little creyer or brig was tacking off the land, as +though about to anchor there. On his way back, as he rode +towards the village, he saw that she had indeed anchored, and +that many boats were round her, bearing cargo to the shore. + +A bow-shot from Pitt's Deep there was an inn a little back from +the road, very large and wide-spread, with a great green bush +hung upon a pole from one of the upper windows. At this window +he marked, as he rode up, that a man was seated who appeared to +be craning his neck in his direction. Alleyne was still looking +up at him, when a woman came rushing from the open door of the +inn, and made as though she would climb a tree, looking back the +while with a laughing face. Wondering what these doings might +mean, Alleyne tied his horse to a tree, and was walking amid the +trunks towards the inn, when there shot from the entrance a +second woman who made also for the trees. Close at her heels +came a burly, brown-faced man, who leaned against the door-post +and laughed loudly with his hand to his side, "Ah, mes belles!" +he cried, "and is it thus you treat me? Ah, mes petites! I +swear by these finger-bones that I would not hurt a hair of your +pretty heads; but I have been among the black paynim, and, by my +hilt! it does me good to look at your English cheeks. Come, +drink a stoup of muscadine with me, mes anges, for my heart is +warm to be among ye again." + +At the sight of the man Alleyne had stood staring, but at the +sound of his voice such a thrill of joy bubbled up in his heart +that he had to bite his lip to keep himself from shouting +outright. But a deeper pleasure yet was in store. Even as he +looked, the window above was pushed outwards, and the voice of +the man whom he had seen there came out from it. "Aylward," +cried the voice, "I have seen just now a very worthy person come +down the road, though my eyes could scarce discern whether he +carried coat-armor. I pray you to wait upon him and tell him +that a very humble knight of England abides here, so that if he +be in need of advancement, or have any small vow upon his soul, +or desire to exalt his lady, I may help him to accomplish it." + +Aylward at this order came shuffling forward amid the trees, and +in an instant the two men were clinging in each other's arms, +laughing and shouting and patting each other in their delight; +while old Sir Nigel came running with his sword, under the +impression that some small bickering had broken out, only to +embrace and be embraced himself, until all three were hoarse with +their questions and outcries and congratulations. + +On their journey home through the woods Alleyne learnt their +wondrous story: how, when Sir Nigel came to his senses, he with +his fellow-captive had been hurried to the coast, and conveyed by +sea to their captor's castle; how upon the way they had been +taken by a Barbary rover, and how they exchanged their light +captivity for a seat on a galley bench and hard labor at the +pirate's oars; how, in the port at Barbary, Sir Nigel had slain +the Moorish captain, and had swum with Aylward to a small coaster +which they had taken, and so made their way to England with a +rich cargo to reward them for their toils. All this Alleyne +listened to, until the dark keep of Twynham towered above them +in the gloaming, and they saw the red sun lying athwart the +rippling Avon. No need to speak of the glad hearts at Twynham +Castle that night, nor of the rich offerings from out that +Moorish cargo which found their way to the chapel of Father +Christopher. + +Sir Nigel Loring lived for many years, full of honor and laden +with every blessing. He rode no more to the wars, but he found +his way to every jousting within thirty miles; and the Hampshire +youth treasured it as the highest honor when a word of praise +fell from him as to their management of their horses, or their +breaking of their lances. So he lived and so he died, the most +revered and the happiest man in all his native shire. + +For Sir Alleyne Edricson and for his beautiful bride the future +had also naught but what was good. Twice he fought in France, +and came back each time laden with honors. A high place at court +was given to him, and he spent many years at Windsor under the +second Richard and the fourth Henry--where he received the honor +of the Garter, and won the name of being a brave soldier, a true- +hearted gentleman, and a great lover and patron of every art and +science which refines or ennobles life. + +As to John, he took unto himself a village maid, and settled in +Lyndhurst, where his five thousand crowns made him the richest +franklin for many miles around. For many years he drank his ale +every night at the "Pied Merlin," which was now kept by his +friend Aylward, who had wedded the good widow to whom he had +committed his plunder. The strong men and the bowmen of the +country round used to drop in there of an evening to wrestle a +fall with John or to shoot a round with Aylward; but, though a +silver shilling was to be the prize of the victory, it has never +been reported that any man earned much money in that fashion. So +they lived, these men, in their own lusty, cheery fashion--rude +and rough, but honest, kindly and true. Let us thank God if we +have outgrown their vices. Let us pray to God that we may ever +hold their virtues. The sky may darken, and the clouds may +gather, and again the day may come when Britain may have sore +need of her children, on whatever shore of the sea they be found. +Shall they not muster at her call? + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The White Company by Doyle + diff --git a/old/whtco10.zip b/old/whtco10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..866cba8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/whtco10.zip diff --git a/old/whtco11.txt b/old/whtco11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b503f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/whtco11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17053 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The White Company +by Arthur Conan Doyle +(#12 in our series by Arthur Conan Doyle) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. 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How Strange Things Befell in Minstead Wood + X. How Hordle John Found a Man whom he Might Follow + XI. How a Young Shepherd had a Perilous Flock + XII. How Alleyne Learned More than he could Teach + XIII. How the White Company set forth to the Wars + XIV. How Sir Nigel sought for a Wayside Venture + XV. How the Yellow Cog sailed forth from Lepe + XVI. How the Yellow Cog fought the Two Rover Galleys + XVII. How the Yellow Cog crossed the Bar of Gironde + XVIII. How Sir Nigel Loring put a Patch upon his Eye + XIX. How there was Stir at the Abbey of St. Andrew's + XX. How Alleyne Won his Place in an Honorable Guild + XXI. How Agostino Pisano Risked his Head + XXII. How the Bowmen held Wassail at the "Rose de Guienne" + XXIII. How England held the Lists at Bordeaux + XXIV. How a Champion came forth from the East + XXV. How Sir Nigel wrote to Twynham Castle + XXVI. How the Three Comrades Gained a Mighty Treasure + XXVII. How Roger Club-foot was Passed into Paradise + XXVIII. How the Comrades came over the Marches of France + XXIX. How the Blessed Hour of Sight Came to the Lady Tiphaine + XXX. How the Brushwood Men came to the Chateau of Villefranche + XXXI. How Five Men held the Keep of Villefranche + XXXII. How the Company took Counsel Round the Fallen Tree + XXXIII. How the Army made the Passage of Roncesvalles + XXXIV. How the Company Made Sport in the Vale of Pampeluna + XXXV. How Sir Nigel Hawked at an Eagle + XXXVI. How Sir Nigel Took the Patch from his Eye + XXXVII. How the White Company came to be Disbanded + XXXVIII. Of the Home-coming to Hampshire + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +HOW THE BLACK SHEEP CAME FORTH FROM THE FOLD. + + +The great bell of Beaulieu was ringing. Far away through the +forest might be heard its musical clangor and swell. Peat-cutters +on Blackdown and fishers upon the Exe heard the distant throbbing +rising and falling upon the sultry summer air. It was a common +sound in those parts--as common as the chatter of the jays and +the booming of the bittern. Yet the fishers and the peasants +raised their heads and looked questions at each other, for the +angelus had already gone and vespers was still far off. Why +should the great bell of Beaulieu toll when the shadows were +neither short nor long? + +All round the Abbey the monks were trooping in. Under the long +green-paved avenues of gnarled oaks and of lichened beeches the +white-robed brothers gathered to the sound. From the vine-yard +and the vine-press, from the bouvary or ox-farm, from the marl-pits +and salterns, even from the distant iron-works of Sowley and the +outlying grange of St. Leonard's, they had all turned their steps +homewards. It had been no sudden call. A swift messenger had +the night before sped round to the outlying dependencies of the +Abbey, and had left the summons for every monk to be back in the +cloisters by the third hour after noontide. So urgent a message +had not been issued within the memory of old lay-brother +Athanasius, who had cleaned the Abbey knocker since the year +after the Battle of Bannockburn. + +A stranger who knew nothing either of the Abbey or of its immense +resources might have gathered from the appearance of the brothers +some conception of the varied duties which they were called upon +to perform, and of the busy, wide-spread life which centred in +the old monastery. As they swept gravely in by twos and by +threes, with bended heads and muttering lips there were few who +did not bear upon them some signs of their daily toil. Here were +two with wrists and sleeves all spotted with the ruddy grape +juice. There again was a bearded brother with a broad-headed axe +and a bundle of faggots upon his shoulders, while beside him +walked another with the shears under his arm and the white wool +still clinging to his whiter gown. A long, straggling troop +bore spades and mattocks while the two rearmost of all staggered +along under a huge basket o' fresh-caught carp, for the morrow +was Friday, and there were fifty platters to be filled and as +many sturdy trenchermen behind them. Of all the throng there was +scarce one who was not labor-stained and weary, for Abbot +Berghersh was a hard man to himself and to others. + +Meanwhile, in the broad and lofty chamber set apart for occasions +of import, the Abbot himself was pacing impatiently backwards and +forwards, with his long white nervous hands clasped in front of +him. His thin, thought-worn features and sunken, haggard cheeks +bespoke one who had indeed beaten down that inner foe whom every +man must face, but had none the less suffered sorely in the +contest. In crushing his passions he had well-nigh crushed +himself. Yet, frail as was his person there gleamed out ever and +anon from under his drooping brows a flash of fierce energy, +which recalled to men's minds that he came of a fighting stock, +and that even now his twin-brother, Sir Bartholomew Berghersh, +was one of the most famous of those stern warriors who had +planted the Cross of St. George before the gates of Paris. With +lips compressed and clouded brow, he strode up and down the oaken +floor, the very genius and impersonation of asceticism, while the +great bell still thundered and clanged above his head. At last +the uproar died away in three last, measured throbs, and ere +their echo had ceased the Abbot struck a small gong which +summoned a lay-brother to his presence. + +"Have the brethren come?" he asked, in the Anglo-French dialect +used in religious houses. + +"They are here; "the other answered, with his eyes cast down and +his hands crossed upon his chest. + +"All?" + +"Two and thirty of the seniors and fifteen of the novices, most +holy father. Brother Mark of the Spicarium is sore smitten with +a fever and could not come. He said that--" + +"It boots not what he said. Fever or no, he should have come at +my call. His spirit must be chastened, as must that of many more +in this Abbey. You yourself, brother Francis, have twice raised +your voice, so it hath come to my ears, when the reader in the +refectory hath been dealing with the lives of God's most blessed +saints. What hast thou to say?" + +The lay-brother stood meek and silent, with his arms still +crossed in front of him. + +"One thousand Aves and as many Credos, said standing with arms +outstretched before the shrine of the Virgin, may help thee to +remember that the Creator hath given us two ears and but one +mouth, as a token that there is twice the work for the one as for +the other. Where is the master of the novices?" + +"He is without, most holy father." + +"Send him hither." + +The sandalled feet clattered over the wooden floor, and the +iron-bound door creaked upon its hinges. In a few moments it +opened again to admit a short square monk with a heavy, composed +face and an authoritative manner. + +"You have sent for me, holy father?" + +"Yes, brother Jerome, I wish that this matter be disposed of with +as little scandal as may be, and yet it is needful that the +example should be a public one." The Abbot spoke in Latin now, +as a language which was more fitted by its age and solemnity to +convey the thoughts of two high dignitaries of the order. + +"It would, perchance, be best that the novices be not admitted," +suggested the master. "This mention of a woman may turn their +minds from their pious meditations to worldly and evil thoughts." + +"Woman! woman!" groaned the Abbot. "Well has the holy Chrysostom +termed them _radix malorum_. From Eve downwards, what good hath +come from any of them? Who brings the plaint?" + +"It is brother Ambrose." + +"A holy and devout young man." + +"A light and a pattern to every novice." + +"Let the matter be brought to an issue then according to our old-time +monastic habit. Bid the chancellor and the sub-chancellor lead +in the brothers according to age, together with brother John, the +accused, and brother Ambrose, the accuser." + +"And the novices?" + +"Let them bide in the north alley of the cloisters. Stay! Bid +the sub-chancellor send out to them Thomas the lector to read +unto them from the `Gesta beati Benedicti.' It may save them +from foolish and pernicious babbling." + +The Abbot was left to himself once more, and bent his thin gray +face over his illuminated breviary. So he remained while the +senior monks filed slowly and sedately into the chamber seating +themselves upon the long oaken benches which lined the wall on +either side. At the further end, in two high chairs as large as +that of the Abbot, though hardly as elaborately carved, sat the +master of the novices and the chancellor, the latter a broad and +portly priest, with dark mirthful eyes and a thick outgrowth of +crisp black hair all round his tonsured head. Between them stood +a lean, white-faced brother who appeared to be ill at ease, +shifting his feet from side to side and tapping his chin +nervously with the long parchment roll which he held in his hand. +The Abbot, from his point of vantage, looked down on the two long +lines of faces, placid and sun-browned for the most part, with +the large bovine eyes and unlined features which told of their +easy, unchanging existence. Then he turned his eager fiery gaze +upon the pale-faced monk who faced him. + +"This plaint is thine, as I learn, brother Ambrose," said he. +"May the holy Benedict, patron of our house, be present this day +and aid us in our findings! How many counts are there?" + +"Three, most holy father," the brother answered in a low and +quavering voice. + +"Have you set them forth according to rule?" + +"They are here set down, most holy father, upon a cantle of +sheep-skin." + +"Let the sheep-skin be handed to the chancellor. Bring in +brother John, and let him hear the plaints which have been urged +against him." + +At this order a lay-brother swung open the door, and two other +lay-brothers entered leading between them a young novice of the +order. He was a man of huge stature, dark-eyed and red-headed, +with a peculiar half-humorous, half-defiant expression upon his +bold, well-marked features. His cowl was thrown back upon his +shoulders, and his gown, unfastened at the top, disclosed a +round, sinewy neck, ruddy and corded like the bark of the fir. +Thick, muscular arms, covered with a reddish down, protruded from +the wide sleeves of his habit, while his white shirt, looped up +upon one side, gave a glimpse of a huge knotty leg, scarred and +torn with the scratches of brambles. With a bow to the Abbot, +which had in it perhaps more pleasantry than reverence, the +novice strode across to the carved prie-dieu which had been set +apart for him, and stood silent and erect with his hand upon the +gold bell which was used in the private orisons of the Abbot's +own household. His dark eyes glanced rapidly over the assembly, +and finally settled with a grim and menacing twinkle upon the +face of his accuser. + +The chancellor rose, and having slowly unrolled the +parchment-scroll, proceeded to read it out in a thick and pompous +voice, while a subdued rustle and movement among the brothers +bespoke the interest with which they followed the proceedings. + +"Charges brought upon the second Thursday after the Feast of the +Assumption, in the year of our Lord thirteen hundred and sixty-six, +against brother John, formerly known as Hordle John, or John +of Hordle, but now a novice in the holy monastic order of the +Cistercians. Read upon the same day at the Abbey of Beaulieu in +the presence of the most reverend Abbot Berghersh and of the +assembled order. + +"The charges against the said brother John are the following, +namely, to wit: + +"First, that on the above-mentioned Feast of the Assumption, +small beer having been served to the novices in the proportion of +one quart to each four, the said brother John did drain the pot +at one draught to the detriment of brother Paul, brother Porphyry +and brother Ambrose, who could scarce eat their none-meat of +salted stock-fish on account of their exceeding dryness," + +At this solemn indictment the novice raised his hand and twitched +his lip, while even the placid senior brothers glanced across at +each other and coughed to cover their amusement. The Abbot alone +sat gray and immutable, with a drawn face and a brooding eye. + +"Item, that having been told by the master of the novices that he +should restrict his food for two days to a single three-pound +loaf of bran and beans, for the greater honoring and glorifying +of St. Monica, mother of the holy Augustine, he was heard by +brother Ambrose and others to say that he wished twenty thousand +devils would fly away with the said Monica, mother of the holy +Augustine, or any other saint who came between a man and his +meat. Item, that upon brother Ambrose reproving him for this +blasphemous wish, he did hold the said brother face downwards +over the piscatorium or fish-pond for a space during which the +said brother was able to repeat a pater and four aves for the +better fortifying of his soul against impending death." + +There was a buzz and murmur among the white-frocked brethren at +this grave charge; but the Abbot held up his long quivering hand. +"What then?" said he. + +"Item, that between nones and vespers on the feast of James the +Less the said brother John was observed upon the Brockenhurst +road, near the spot which is known as Hatchett's Pond in converse +with a person of the other sex, being a maiden of the name of +Mary Sowley, the daughter of the King's verderer. Item, that +after sundry japes and jokes the said brother John did lift up +the said Mary Sowley and did take, carry, and convey her across a +stream, to the infinite relish of the devil and the exceeding +detriment of his own soul, which scandalous and wilful falling +away was witnessed by three members of our order." + +A dead silence throughout the room, with a rolling of heads and +upturning of eyes, bespoke the pious horror of the community. + +The Abbot drew his gray brows low over his fiercely questioning +eyes. + +"Who can vouch for this thing?" he asked. + +"That can I," answered the accuser. "So too can brother +Porphyry, who was with me, and brother Mark of the Spicarium, who +hath been so much stirred and inwardly troubled by the sight that +he now lies in a fever through it." + +"And the woman?" asked the Abbot. "Did she not break into +lamentation and woe that a brother should so demean himself?" + +"Nay, she smiled sweetly upon him and thanked him. I can vouch +it and so can brother Porphyry." + +"Canst thou?" cried the Abbot, in a high, tempestuous tone. +"Canst thou so? Hast forgotten that the five-and-thirtieth rule +of the order is that in the presence of a woman the face should +be ever averted and the eyes cast down? Hast forgot it, I say? +If your eyes were upon your sandals, how came ye to see this +smile of which ye prate? A week in your cells, false brethren, a +week of rye-bread and lentils, with double lauds and double +matins, may help ye to remembrance of the laws under which ye +live." + +At this sudden outflame of wrath the two witnesses sank their +faces on to their chests, and sat as men crushed. The Abbot +turned his angry eyes away from them and bent them upon the +accused, who met his searching gaze with a firm and composed +face. + +"What hast thou to say, brother John, upon these weighty things +which are urged against you?" + +"Little enough, good father, little enough," said the novice, +speaking English with a broad West Saxon drawl. The brothers, +who were English to a man, pricked up their ears at the sound of +the homely and yet unfamiliar speech; but the Abbot flushed red +with anger, and struck his hand upon the oaken arm of his chair. + +"What talk is this?" he cried. "Is this a tongue to be used +within the walls of an old and well-famed monastery? But grace +and learning have ever gone hand in hand, and when one is lost it +is needless to look for the other." + +"I know not about that," said brother John. "I know only that +the words come kindly to my mouth, for it was the speech of my +fathers before me. Under your favor, I shall either use it now +or hold my peace." + +The Abbot patted his foot and nodded his head, as one who passes +a point but does not forget it. + +"For the matter of the ale," continued brother John, "I had come +in hot from the fields and had scarce got the taste of the thing +before mine eye lit upon the bottom of the pot. It may be, too, +that I spoke somewhat shortly concerning the bran and the beans, +the same being poor provender and unfitted for a man of my +inches. It is true also that I did lay my hands upon this +jack-fool of a brother Ambrose, though, as you can see, I did him +little scathe. As regards the maid, too, it is true that I did +heft her over the stream, she having on her hosen and shoon, +whilst I had but my wooden sandals, which could take no hurt from +the water. I should have thought shame upon my manhood, as well +as my monkhood, if I had held back my hand from her." He glanced +around as he spoke with the half-amused look which he had worn +during the whole proceedings. + +"There is no need to go further," said the Abbot. "He has +confessed to all. It only remains for me to portion out the +punishment which is due to his evil conduct." + +He rose, and the two long lines of brothers followed his example, +looking sideways with scared faces at the angry prelate. + +"John of Hordle," he thundered, "you have shown yourself during +the two months of your novitiate to be a recreant monk, and one +who is unworthy to wear the white garb which is the outer symbol +of the spotless spirit. That dress shall therefore be stripped +from thee, and thou shalt be cast into the outer world without +benefit of clerkship, and without lot or part in the graces and +blessings of those who dwell under the care of the Blessed +Benedict. Thou shalt come back neither to Beaulieu nor to any of +the granges of Beaulieu, and thy name shall be struck off the +scrolls of the order." + +The sentence appeared a terrible one to the older monks, who had +become so used to the safe and regular life of the Abbey that +they would have been as helpless as children in the outer world. +From their pious oasis they looked dreamily out at the desert of +life, a place full of stormings and strivings--comfortless, +restless, and overshadowed by evil. The young novice, however, +appeared to have other thoughts, for his eyes sparkled and his +smile broadened. It needed but that to add fresh fuel to the +fiery mood of the prelate. + +"So much for thy spiritual punishment," he cried. "But it is to +thy grosser feelings that we must turn in such natures as thine, +and as thou art no longer under the shield of holy church there +is the less difficulty. Ho there! lay-brothers--Francis, Naomi, +Joseph--seize him and bind his arms! Drag him forth, and let the +foresters and the porters scourge him from the precincts!" + +As these three brothers advanced towards him to carry out the +Abbot's direction, the smile faded from the novice's face, and he +glanced right and left with his fierce brown eyes, like a bull at +a baiting. Then, with a sudden deep-chested shout, he tore up +the heavy oaken prie-dieu and poised it to strike, taking two +steps backward the while, that none might take him at a vantage. + +"By the black rood of Waltham!" he roared, "if any knave among +you lays a finger-end upon the edge of my gown, I will crush his +skull like a filbert!" With his thick knotted arms, his +thundering voice, and his bristle of red hair, there was +something so repellent in the man that the three brothers flew +back at the very glare of him; and the two rows of white monks +strained away from him like poplars in a tempest. The Abbot only +sprang forward with shining eyes; but the chancellor and the +master hung upon either arm and wrested him back out of danger's +way. + +"He is possessed of a devil!" they shouted. "Run, brother +Ambrose, brother Joachim! Call Hugh of the Mill, and Woodman +Wat, and Raoul with his arbalest and bolts. Tell them that we +are in fear of our lives! Run, run! for the love of the Virgin!" + +But the novice was a strategist as well as a man of action. +Springing forward, he hurled his unwieldy weapon at brother +Ambrose, and, as desk and monk clattered on to the floor +together, he sprang through the open door and down the winding +stair. Sleepy old brother Athanasius, at the porter's cell, had +a fleeting vision of twinkling feet and flying skirts; but before +he had time to rub his eyes the recreant had passed the lodge, +and was speeding as fast as his sandals could patter along the +Lyndhurst Road. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +HOW ALLEYNE EDRICSON CAME OUT INTO THE WORLD. + + +Never had the peaceful atmosphere of the old Cistercian house +been so rudely ruffled. Never had there been insurrection so +sudden, so short, and so successful. Yet the Abbot Berghersh was +a man of too firm a grain to allow one bold outbreak to imperil +the settled order of his great household. In a few hot and +bitter words, he compared their false brother's exit to the +expulsion of our first parents from the garden, and more than +hinted that unless a reformation occurred some others of the +community might find themselves in the same evil and perilous +case. Having thus pointed the moral and reduced his flock to a +fitting state of docility, he dismissed them once more to their +labors and withdrew himself to his own private chamber, there to +seek spiritual aid in the discharge of the duties of his high +office. + +The Abbot was still on his knees, when a gentle tapping at the +door of his cell broke in upon his orisons. + +Rising in no very good humor at the interruption, he gave the +word to enter; but his look of impatience softened down into a +pleasant and paternal smile as his eyes fell upon his visitor. + +He was a thin-faced, yellow-haired youth, rather above the middle +size, comely and well shapen, with straight, lithe figure and +eager, boyish features. His clear, pensive gray eyes, and quick, +delicate expression, spoke of a nature which had unfolded far +from the boisterous joys and sorrows of the world. Yet there was +a set of the mouth and a prominence of the chin which relieved +him of any trace of effeminacy. Impulsive he might be, +enthusiastic, sensitive, with something sympathetic and adaptive +in his disposition; but an observer of nature's tokens would have +confidently pledged himself that there was native firmness and +strength underlying his gentle, monk-bred ways. + +The youth was not clad in monastic garb, but in lay attire, +though his jerkin, cloak and hose were all of a sombre hue, as +befitted one who dwelt in sacred precincts. A broad leather +strap hanging from his shoulder supported a scrip or satchel such +as travellers were wont to carry. In one hand he grasped a thick +staff pointed and shod with metal, while in the other he held his +coif or bonnet, which bore in its front a broad pewter medal +stamped with the image of Our Lady of Rocamadour. + +"Art ready, then, fair son?" said the Abbot. "This is indeed a +day of comings and of goings. It is strange that in one twelve +hours the Abbey should have cast off its foulest weed and should +now lose what we are fain to look upon as our choicest blossom." + +"You speak too kindly, father," the youth answered. "If I had my +will I should never go forth, but should end my days here in +Beaulieu. It hath been my home as far back as my mind can carry +me, and it is a sore thing for me to have to leave it." + +"Life brings many a cross," said the Abbot gently. "Who is +without them? Your going forth is a grief to us as well as to +yourself. But there is no help. I had given my foreword and +sacred promise to your father, Edric the Franklin, that at the +age of twenty you should be sent out into the world to see for +yourself how you liked the savor of it. Seat thee upon the +settle, Alleyne, for you may need rest ere long." + +The youth sat down as directed, but reluctantly and with +diffidence. The Abbot stood by the narrow window, and his long +black shadow fell slantwise across the rush-strewn floor. + +"Twenty years ago," he said, "your father, the Franklin of +Minstead, died, leaving to the Abbey three hides of rich land in +the hundred of Malwood, and leaving to us also his infant son on +condition that we should rear him until he came to man's estate. +This he did partly because your mother was dead, and partly +because your elder brother, now Socman of Minstead, had already +given sign of that fierce and rude nature which would make him no +fit companion for you. It was his desire and request, however, +that you should not remain in the cloisters, but should at a ripe +age return into the world." + +"But, father," interrupted the young man "it is surely true that +I am already advanced several degrees in clerkship?" + +"Yes, fair son, but not so far as to bar you from the garb you +now wear or the life which you must now lead. You have been +porter?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Exorcist?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Reader?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Acolyte?" + +"Yes, father." + +"But have sworn no vow of constancy or chastity?" + +"No, father." + +"Then you are free to follow a worldly life. But let me hear, +ere you start, what gifts you take away with you from Beaulieu? +Some I already know. There is the playing of the citole and the +rebeck. Our choir will be dumb without you. You carve too?" + +The youth's pale face flushed with the pride of the skilled +workman. "Yes, holy father," he answered. "Thanks to good +brother Bartholomew, I carve in wood and in ivory, and can do +something also in silver and in bronze. From brother Francis I +have learned to paint on vellum, on glass, and on metal, with a +knowledge of those pigments and essences which can preserve the +color against damp or a biting air. Brother Luke hath given me +some skill in damask work, and in the enamelling of shrines, +tabernacles, diptychs and triptychs. For the rest, I know a +little of the making of covers, the cutting of precious stones, +and the fashioning of instruments." + +"A goodly list, truly," cried the superior with a smile. "What +clerk of Cambrig or of Oxenford could say as much? But of thy +reading--hast not so much to show there, I fear?" + +"No, father, it hath been slight enough. Yet, thanks to our good +chancellor, I am not wholly unlettered. I have read Ockham, +Bradwardine, and other of the schoolmen, together with the +learned Duns Scotus and the book of the holy Aquinas." + +"But of the things of this world, what have you gathered from +your reading? From this high window you may catch a glimpse over +the wooden point and the smoke of Bucklershard of the mouth of +the Exe, and the shining sea. Now, I pray you Alleyne, if a man +were to take a ship and spread sail across yonder waters, where +might he hope to arrive?" + +The youth pondered, and drew a plan amongst the rushes with the +point of his staff. "Holy father," said he, "he would come upon +those parts of France which are held by the King's Majesty. But +if he trended to the south he might reach Spain and the Barbary +States. To his north would be Flanders and the country of the +Eastlanders and of the Muscovites." + +"True. And how if, after reaching the King's possessions, he +still journeyed on to the eastward?" + +"He would then come upon that part of France which is still in +dispute, and he might hope to reach the famous city of Avignon, +where dwells our blessed father, the prop of Christendom." + +"And then?" + +"Then he would pass through the land of the Almains and the great +Roman Empire, and so to the country of the Huns and of the +Lithuanian pagans, beyond which lies the great city of +Constantine and the kingdom of the unclean followers of Mahmoud." + +"And beyond that, fair son?" + +"Beyond that is Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and the great river +which hath its source in the Garden of Eden." + +"And then?" + +"Nay, good father, I cannot tell. Methinks the end of the world +is not far from there." + +"Then we can still find something to teach thee, Alleyne," said +the Abbot complaisantly. "Know that many strange nations lie +betwixt there and the end of the world. There is the country of +the Amazons, and the country of the dwarfs, and the country of +the fair but evil women who slay with beholding, like the +basilisk. Beyond that again is the kingdom of Prester John and +of the great Cham. These things I know for very sooth, for I had +them from that pious Christian and valiant knight, Sir John de +Mandeville, who stopped twice at Beaulieu on his way to and from +Southampton, and discoursed to us concerning what he had seen +from the reader's desk in the refectory, until there was many a +good brother who got neither bit nor sup, so stricken were they +by his strange tales." + +"I would fain know, father," asked the young man, "what there may +be at the end of the world?" + +"There are some things," replied the Abbot gravely, "into which +it was never intended that we should inquire. But you have a +long road before you. Whither will you first turn?" + +"To my brother's at Minstead. If he be indeed an ungodly and +violent man, there is the more need that I should seek him out +and see whether I cannot turn him to better ways." + +The Abbot shook his head. "The Socman of Minstead hath earned an +evil name over the country side," he said. "If you must go to +him, see at least that he doth not turn you from the narrow path +upon which you have learned to tread. But you are in God's +keeping, and Godward should you ever look in danger and in +trouble. Above all, shun the snares of women, for they are ever +set for the foolish feet of the young. Kneel down, my child, and +take an old man's blessing." + +Alleyne Edricson bent his head while the Abbot poured out his +heartfelt supplication that Heaven would watch over this young +soul, now going forth into the darkness and danger of the world. +It was no mere form for either of them. To them the outside life +of mankind did indeed seem to be one of violence and of sin, +beset with physical and still more with spiritual danger. +Heaven, too, was very near to them in those days. God's direct +agency was to be seen in the thunder and the rainbow, the +whirlwind and the lightning. To the believer, clouds of angels +and confessors, and martyrs, armies of the sainted and the +saved, were ever stooping over their struggling brethren upon +earth, raising, encouraging, and supporting them. It was then +with a lighter heart and a stouter courage that the young man +turned from the Abbot's room, while the latter, following him to +the stair-head, finally commended him to the protection of the +holy Julian, patron of travellers. + +Underneath, in the porch of the Abbey, the monks had gathered to +give him a last God-speed. Many had brought some parting token +by which he should remember them. There was brother Bartholomew +with a crucifix of rare carved ivory, and brother Luke With a +white-backed psalter adorned with golden bees, and brother +Francis with the "Slaying of the Innocents" most daintily set +forth upon vellum. All these were duly packed away deep in the +traveller's scrip, and above them old pippin-faced brother +Athanasius had placed a parcel of simnel bread and rammel cheese, +with a small flask of the famous blue-sealed Abbey wine. So, +amid hand-shakings and laughings and blessings, Alleyne Edricson +turned his back upon Beaulieu. + +At the turn of the road he stopped and gazed back. There was the +wide-spread building which he knew so well, the Abbot's house, +the long church, the cloisters with their line of arches, all +bathed and mellowed in the evening sun. There too was the broad +sweep of the river Exe, the old stone well, the canopied niche of +the Virgin, and in the centre of all the cluster of white-robed +figures who waved their hands to him. A sudden mist swam up +before the young man's eyes, and he turned away upon his journey +with a heavy heart and a choking throat. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +HOW HORDLE JOHN COZENED THE FULLER OF LYMINGTON. + + +It is not, however, in the nature of things that a lad of twenty, +with young life glowing in his veins and all the wide world +before him, should spend his first hours of freedom in mourning +for what he had left. Long ere Alleyne was out of sound of the +Beaulieu bells he was striding sturdily along, swinging his staff +and whistling as merrily as the birds in the thicket. It was an +evening to raise a man's heart. The sun shining slantwise +through the trees threw delicate traceries across the road, with +bars of golden light between. Away in the distance before and +behind, the green boughs, now turning in places to a coppery +redness, shot their broad arches across the track. The still +summer air was heavy with the resinous smell of the great forest. +Here and there a tawny brook prattled out from among the +underwood and lost itself again in the ferns and brambles upon +the further side. Save the dull piping of insects and the sough +of the leaves, there was silence everywhere--the sweet restful +silence of nature. + +And yet there was no want of life--the whole wide wood was full +of it. Now it was a lithe, furtive stoat which shot across the +path upon some fell errand of its own; then it was a wild cat +which squatted upon the outlying branch of an oak and peeped at +the traveller with a yellow and dubious eye. Once it was a wild +sow which scuttled out of the bracken, with two young sounders at +her heels, and once a lordly red staggard walked daintily out +from among the tree trunks, and looked around him with the +fearless gaze of one who lived under the King's own high +protection. Alleyne gave his staff a merry flourish, however, +and the red deer bethought him that the King was far off, so +streaked away from whence he came. + +The youth had now journeyed considerably beyond the furthest +domains of the Abbey. He was the more surprised therefore when, +on coming round a turn in the path, he perceived a man clad in +the familiar garb of the order, and seated in a clump of heather +by the roadside. Alleyne had known every brother well, but this +was a face which was new to him--a face which was very red and +puffed, working this way and that, as though the man were sore +perplexed in his mind. Once he shook both hands furiously in the +air, and twice he sprang from his seat and hurried down the road. +When he rose, however, Alleyne observed that his robe was much +too long and loose for him in every direction, trailing upon the +ground and bagging about his ankles, so that even with trussed-up +skirts he could make little progress. He ran once, but the long +gown clogged him so that he slowed down into a shambling walk, +and finally plumped into the heather once more. + +"Young friend," said he, when Alleyne was abreast of him, "I fear +from thy garb that thou canst know little of the Abbey of +Beaulieu." + +"Then you are in error, friend," the clerk answered, "for I have +spent all my days within its walls." + +"Hast so indeed?" cried he. "Then perhaps canst tell me the name +of a great loathly lump of a brother wi' freckled face an' a hand +like a spade. His eyes were black an' his hair was red an' his +voice like the parish bull. I trow that there cannot be two +alike in the same cloisters." + +"That surely can be no other than brother John," said Alleyne. +"I trust he has done you no wrong, that you should be so hot +against him." + +"Wrong, quotha?" cried the other, jumping out of the heather. +"Wrong! why he hath stolen every plack of clothing off my back, +if that be a wrong, and hath left me here in this sorry frock of +white falding, so that I have shame to go back to my wife, lest +she think that I have donned her old kirtle. Harrow and alas +that ever I should have met him!" + +"But how came this?" asked the young clerk, who could scarce keep +from laughter at the sight of the hot little man so swathed in +the great white cloak. + +"It came in this way," he said, sitting down once more: "I was +passing this way, hoping to reach Lymington ere nightfall when I +came on this red-headed knave seated even where we are sitting +now. I uncovered and louted as I passed thinking that he might +be a holy man at his orisons, but he called to me and asked me if +I had heard speak of the new indulgence in favor of the +Cistercians. `Not I,' I answered. `Then the worse for thy +soul!' said he; and with that he broke into a long tale how that +on account of the virtues of the Abbot Berghersh it had been +decreed by the Pope that whoever should wear the habit of a monk +of Beaulieu for as long as he might say the seven psalms of David +should be assured of the kingdom of Heaven. When I heard this I +prayed him on my knees that he would give me the use of his gown, +which after many contentions he at last agreed to do, on my +paying him three marks towards the regilding of the image of +Laurence the martyr. Having stripped his robe, I had no choice +but to let him have the wearing of my good leathern jerkin and +hose, for, as he said, it was chilling to the blood and unseemly +to the eye to stand frockless whilst I made my orisons. He had +scarce got them on, and it was a sore labor, seeing that my +inches will scarce match my girth--he had scarce got them on, I +say, and I not yet at the end of the second psalm, when he bade +me do honor to my new dress, and with that set off down the road +as fast as feet would carry him. For myself, I could no more run +than if I had been sown in a sack; so here I sit, and here I am +like to sit, before I set eyes upon my clothes again." + +"Nay, friend, take it not so sadly," said Alleyne, clapping the +disconsolate one upon the shoulder. "Canst change thy robe for a +jerkin once more at the Abbey, unless perchance you have a friend +near at hand." + +"That have I," he answered, "and close; but I care not to go nigh +him in this plight, for his wife hath a gibing tongue, and will +spread the tale until I could not show my face in any market from +Fordingbridge to Southampton. But if you, fair sir, out of your +kind charity would be pleased to go a matter of two bow-shots out +of your way, you would do me such a service as I could scarce +repay." + +"With all my heart," said Alleyne readily. + +"Then take this pathway on the left, I pray thee, and then the +deer-track which passes on the right. You will then see under a +great beech-tree the hut of a charcoal-burner. Give him my name, +good sir, the name of Peter the fuller, of Lymington, and ask him +for a change of raiment, that I may pursue my journey without +delay. There are reasons why he would be loth to refuse me." + +Alleyne started off along the path indicated, and soon found the +log-hut where the burner dwelt. He was away faggot-cutting in +the forest, but his wife, a ruddy bustling dame, found the +needful garments and tied them into a bundle. While she busied +herself in finding and folding them, Alleyne Edricson stood by +the open door looking in at her with much interest and some +distrust, for he had never been so nigh to a woman before. She +had round red arms, a dress of some sober woollen stuff, and a +brass brooch the size of a cheese-cake stuck in the front of it. + +"Peter the fuller!" she kept repeating. "Marry come up! if I +were Peter the fuller's wife I would teach him better than to +give his clothes to the first knave who asks for them. But he +was always a poor, fond, silly creature, was Peter, though we are +beholden to him for helping to bury our second son Wat, who was a +'prentice to him at Lymington in the year of the Black Death. +But who are you, young sir?" + +"I am a clerk on my road from Beaulieu to Minstead." + +"Aye, indeed! Hast been brought up at the Abbey then. I could +read it from thy reddened cheek and downcast eye. Hast learned +from the monks, I trow, to fear a woman as thou wouldst a +lazar-house. Out upon them! that they should dishonor their own +mothers by such teaching. A pretty world it would be with all +the women out of it." + +"Heaven forfend that such a thing should come to pass!" said +Alleyne. + +"Amen and amen! But thou art a pretty lad, and the prettier for +thy modest ways. It is easy to see from thy cheek that thou hast +not spent thy days in the rain and the heat and the wind, as my +poor Wat hath been forced to do." + +"I have indeed seen little of life, good dame." + +"Wilt find nothing in it to pay for the loss of thy own +freshness. Here are the clothes, and Peter can leave them when +next he comes this way. Holy Virgin! see the dust upon thy +doublet! It were easy to see that there is no woman to tend to +thee. So!--that is better. Now buss me, boy." + +Alleyne stooped and kissed her, for the kiss was the common +salutation of the age, and, as Erasmus long afterwards remarked, +more used in England than in any other country. Yet it sent the +blood to his temples again, and he wondered, as he turned away, +what the Abbot Berghersh would have answered to so frank an +invitation. He was still tingling from this new experience when +he came out upon the high-road and saw a sight which drove all +other thoughts from his mind. + +Some way down from where he had left him the unfortunate Peter +was stamping and raving tenfold worse than before. Now, however, +instead of the great white cloak, he had no clothes on at all, +save a short woollen shirt and a pair of leather shoes. Far down +the road a long-legged figure was running, with a bundle under +one arm and the other hand to his side, like a man who laughs +until he is sore. + +"See him!" yelled Peter. "Look to him! You shall be my witness. +He shall see Winchester jail for this. See where he goes with my +cloak under his arm!" + +"Who then?" cried Alleyne. + +"Who but that cursed brother John. He hath not left me clothes +enough to make a gallybagger. The double thief hath cozened me +out of my gown." + +"Stay though, my friend, it was his gown," objected Alleyne. + +"It boots not. He hath them all--gown, jerkin, hosen and all. +Gramercy to him that he left me the shirt and the shoon. I doubt +not that he will be back for them anon." + +"But how came this?" asked Alleyne, open-eyed with astonishment. + +"Are those the clothes? For dear charity's sake give them to me. +Not the Pope himself shall have these from me, though he sent the +whole college of cardinals to ask it. How came it? Why, you had +scarce gone ere this loathly John came running back again, and, +when I oped mouth to reproach him, he asked me whether it was +indeed likely that a man of prayer would leave his own godly +raiment in order to take a layman's jerkin. He had, he said, but +gone for a while that I might be the freer for my devotions. On +this I plucked off the gown, and he with much show of haste did +begin to undo his points; but when I threw his frock down he +clipped it up and ran off all untrussed, leaving me in this sorry +plight. He laughed so the while, like a great croaking frog, +that I might have caught him had my breath not been as short as +his legs were long." + +The young man listened to this tale of wrong with all the +seriousness that he could maintain; but at the sight of the pursy +red-faced man and the dignity with which he bore him, the +laughter came so thick upon him that he had to lean up against a +tree-trunk. The fuller looked sadly and gravely at him; but +finding that he still laughed, he bowed with much mock politeness +and stalked onwards in his borrowed clothes. Alleyne watched him +until he was small in the distance, and then, wiping the tears +from his eyes, he set off briskly once more upon his journey. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +HOW THE BAILIFF OF SOUTHAMPTON SLEW THE TWO MASTERLESS MEN. + + +The road along which he travelled was scarce as populous as most +other roads in the kingdom, and far less so than those which lie +between the larger towns. Yet from time to time Alleyne met +other wayfarers, and more than once was overtaken by strings of +pack mules and horsemen journeying in the same direction as +himself. Once a begging friar came limping along in a brown +habit, imploring in a most dolorous voice to give him a single +groat to buy bread wherewith to save himself from impending +death. Alleyne passed him swiftly by, for he had learned from +the monks to have no love for the wandering friars, and, besides, +there was a great half-gnawed mutton bone sticking out of his +pouch to prove him a liar. Swiftly as he went, however, he could +not escape the curse of the four blessed evangelists which the +mendicant howled behind him. So dreadful are his execrations +that the frightened lad thrust his fingers into his ear-holes, +and ran until the fellow was but a brown smirch upon the yellow +road. + +Further on, at the edge of the woodland, he came upon a chapman +and his wife, who sat upon a fallen tree. He had put his pack +down as a table, and the two of them were devouring a great +pasty, and washing it down with some drink from a stone jar. The +chapman broke a rough jest as he passed, and the woman called +shrilly to Alleyne to come and join them, on which the man, +turning suddenly from mirth to wrath, began to belabor her with +his cudgel. Alleyne hastened on, lest he make more mischief, and +his heart was heavy as lead within him. Look where he would, he +seemed to see nothing but injustice and violence and the +hardness of man to man. + +But even as he brooded sadly over it and pined for the sweet +peace of the Abbey, he came on an open space dotted with holly +bushes, where was the strangest sight that he had yet chanced +upon. Near to the pathway lay a long clump of greenery, and from +behind this there stuck straight up into the air four human legs +clad in parti-colored hosen, yellow and black. Strangest of all +was when a brisk tune struck suddenly up and the four legs began +to kick and twitter in time to the music. Walking on tiptoe +round the bushes, he stood in amazement to see two men bounding +about on their heads, while they played, the one a viol and the +other a pipe, as merrily and as truly as though they were seated +in a choir. Alleyne crossed himself as he gazed at this +unnatural sight, and could scarce hold his ground with a steady +face, when the two dancers, catching sight of him, came bouncing +in his direction. A spear's length from him, they each threw a +somersault into the air, and came down upon their feet with +smirking faces and their hands over their hearts. + +"A guerdon--a guerdon, my knight of the staring eyes!" cried one. + +"A gift, my prince!" shouted the other. "Any trifle will serve--a +purse of gold, or even a jewelled goblet." + +Alleyne thought of what he had read of demoniac possession--the +jumpings, the twitchings, the wild talk. It was in his mind to +repeat over the exorcism proper to such attacks; but the two +burst out a-laughing at his scared face, and turning on to their +heads once more, clapped their heels in derision. + +"Hast never seen tumblers before?" asked the elder, a black-browed, +swarthy man, as brown and supple as a hazel twig. "Why shrink +from us, then, as though we were the spawn of the Evil One?" + +"Why shrink, my honey-bird? Why so afeard, my sweet cinnamon?" +exclaimed the other, a loose-jointed lanky youth with a dancing, +roguish eye. + +"Truly, sirs, it is a new sight to me," the clerk answered. +"When I saw your four legs above the bush I could scarce credit +my own eyes. Why is it that you do this thing?" + +"A dry question to answer," cried the younger, coming back on to +his feet. "A most husky question, my fair bird! But how? A +flask, a flask!--by all that is wonderful!" He shot out his hand +as he spoke, and plucking Alleyne's bottle out of his scrip, he +deftly knocked the neck off, and poured the half of it down his +throat. The rest he handed to his comrade, who drank the wine, +and then, to the clerk's increasing amazement, made a show of +swallowing the bottle, with such skill that Alleyne seemed to see +it vanish down his throat. A moment later, however, he flung it +over his head, and caught it bottom downwards upon the calf of +his left leg. + +"We thank you for the wine, kind sir," said he, "and for the +ready courtesy wherewith you offered it. Touching your question, +we may tell you that we are strollers and jugglers, who, having +performed with much applause at Winchester fair, are now on our +way to the great Michaelmas market at Ringwood. As our art is a +very fine and delicate one, however, we cannot let a day go by +without exercising ourselves in it, to which end we choose some +quiet and sheltered spot where we may break our journey. Here +you find us; and we cannot wonder that you, who are new to +tumbling, should be astounded, since many great barons, earls, +marshals and knight, who have wandered as far as the Holy Land, +are of one mind in saying that they have never seen a more noble +or gracious performance. If you will be pleased to sit upon that +stump, we will now continue our exercise." + +Alleyne sat down willingly as directed with two great bundles on +either side of him which contained the strollers' dresses--doublets +of flame-colored silk and girdles of leather, spangled with brass +and tin. The jugglers were on their heads once more, bounding +about with rigid necks, playing the while in perfect time and +tune. It chanced that out of one of the bundles there stuck the +end of what the clerk saw to be a cittern, so drawing it forth, +he tuned it up and twanged a harmony to the merry lilt which the +dancers played. On that they dropped their own instruments, and +putting their hands to the ground they hopped about faster and +faster, ever shouting to him to play more briskly, until at last +for very weariness all three had to stop. + +"Well played, sweet poppet!" cried the younger. "Hast a rare +touch on the strings." + +"How knew you the tune?" asked the other. + +"I knew it not. I did but follow the notes I heard." + +Both opened their eyes at this, and stared at Alleyne with as +much amazement as he had shown at them. + +"You have a fine trick of ear then," said one. "We have long +wished to meet such a man. Wilt join us and jog on to Ringwood? +Thy duties shall be light, and thou shalt have two-pence a day +and meat for supper every night." + +"With as much beer as you can put away," said the other "and a +flask of Gascon wine on Sabbaths." + +"Nay, it may not be. I have other work to do. I have tarried +with you over long," quoth Alleyne, and resolutely set forth upon +his journey once more. They ran behind him some little way, +offering him first fourpence and then sixpence a day, but he only +smiled and shook his head, until at last they fell away from him. +Looking back, he saw that the smaller had mounted on the +younger's shoulders, and that they stood so, some ten feet high, +waving their adieus to him. He waved back to them, and then +hastened on, the lighter of heart for having fallen in with these +strange men of pleasure. + +Alleyne had gone no great distance for all the many small +passages that had befallen him. Yet to him, used as he was to a +life of such quiet that the failure of a brewing or the altering +of an anthem had seemed to be of the deepest import, the quick +changing play of the lights and shadows of life was strangely +startling and interesting. A gulf seemed to divide this brisk +uncertain existence from the old steady round of work and of +prayer which he had left behind him. The few hours that had +passed since he saw the Abbey tower stretched out in his memory +until they outgrew whole months of the stagnant life of the +cloister. As he walked and munched the soft bread from his +scrip, it seemed strange to him to feel that it was still warm +from the ovens of Beaulieu. + +When he passed Penerley, where were three cottages and a barn, he +reached the edge of the tree country, and found the great barren +heath of Blackdown stretching in front of him, all pink with +heather and bronzed with the fading ferns. On the left the woods +were still thick, but the road edged away from them and wound +over the open. The sun lay low in the west upon a purple cloud, +whence it threw a mild, chastening light over the wild moorland +and glittered on the fringe of forest turning the withered leaves +into flakes of dead gold, the brighter for the black depths +behind them. To the seeing eye decay is as fair as growth, and +death as life. The thought stole into Alleyne's heart as he +looked upon the autumnal country side and marvelled at its +beauty. He had little time to dwell upon it however, for there +were still six good miles between him and the nearest inn. He +sat down by the roadside to partake of his bread and cheese, and +then with a lighter scrip he hastened upon his way. + +There appeared to be more wayfarers on the down than in the +forest. First he passed two Dominicans in their long black +dresses, who swept by him with downcast looks and pattering lips, +without so much as a glance at him. Then there came a gray +friar, or minorite, with a good paunch upon him, walking slowly +and looking about him with the air of a man who was at peace with +himself and with all men. He stopped Alleyne to ask him whether +it was not true that there was a hostel somewhere in those parts +which was especially famous for the stewing of eels. The clerk +having made answer that he had heard the eels of Sowley well +spoken of, the friar sucked in his lips and hurried forward. +Close at his heels came three laborers walking abreast, with +spade and mattock over their shoulders. They sang some rude +chorus right tunefully as they walked, but their English was so +coarse and rough that to the ears of a cloister-bred man it +sounded like a foreign and barbarous tongue. One of them carried +a young bittern which they had caught upon the moor, and they +offered it to Alleyne for a silver groat. Very glad he was to +get safely past them, for, with their bristling red beards and +their fierce blue eyes, they were uneasy men to bargain with upon +a lonely moor. + +Yet it is not always the burliest and the wildest who are the +most to be dreaded. The workers looked hungrily at him, and then +jogged onwards upon their way in slow, lumbering Saxon style. A +worse man to deal with was a wooden-legged cripple who came +hobbling down the path, so weak and so old to all appearance that +a child need not stand in fear of him. Yet when Alleyne had +passed him, of a sudden, out of pure devilment, he screamed out a +curse at him, and sent a jagged flint stone hurtling past his +ear. So horrid was the causeless rage of the crooked creature, +that the clerk came over a cold thrill, and took to his heels +until he was out of shot from stone or word. It seemed to him +that in this country of England there was no protection for a man +save that which lay in the strength of his own arm and the speed +of his own foot. In the cloisters he had heard vague talk of the +law--the mighty law which was higher than prelate or baron, yet +no sign could he see of it. What was the benefit of a law +written fair upon parchment, he wondered, if there were no +officers to enforce it. As it tell out, however, he had that +very evening, ere the sun had set, a chance of seeing how stern +was the grip of the English law when it did happen to seize the +offender. + +A mile or so out upon the moor the road takes a very sudden dip +into a hollow, with a peat-colored stream running swiftly down +the centre of it. To the right of this stood, and stands to this +day, an ancient barrow, or burying mound, covered deeply in a +bristle of heather and bracken. Alleyne was plodding down the +slope upon one side, when he saw an old dame coming towards him +upon the other, limping with weariness and leaning heavily upon a +stick. When she reached the edge of the stream she stood +helpless, looking to right and to left for some ford. Where the +path ran down a great stone had been fixed in the centre of the +brook, but it was too far from the bank for her aged and +uncertain feet. Twice she thrust forward at it, and twice she +drew back, until at last, giving up in despair, she sat herself +down by the brink and wrung her hands wearily. There she still +sat when Alleyne reached the crossing. + +"Come, mother," quoth he, "it is not so very perilous a passage." + +"Alas! good youth," she answered, "I have a humor in the eyes, +and though I can see that there is a stone there I can by no +means be sure as to where it lies." + +"That is easily amended," said he cheerily, and picking her +lightly up, for she was much worn with time, he passed across +with her. He could not but observe, however, that as he placed +her down her knees seemed to fail her, and she could scarcely +prop herself up with her staff. + +"You are weak, mother," said he. "Hast journeyed far, I wot." + +"From Wiltshire, friend," said she, in a quavering voice; "three +days have I been on the road. I go to my son, who is one of the +King's regarders at Brockenhurst. He has ever said that he would +care for me in mine old age." + +"And rightly too, mother, since you cared for him in his youth. +But when have you broken fast?" + +"At Lyndenhurst; but alas! my money is at an end, and I could but +get a dish of bran-porridge from the nunnery. Yet I trust that I +may be able to reach Brockenhurst to-night, where I may have all +that heart can desire; for oh! sir, but my son is a fine man, +with a kindly heart of his own, and it is as good as food to me +to think that he should have a doublet of Lincoln green to his +back and be the King's own paid man." + +"It is a long road yet to Brockenhurst," said Alleyne; "but here +is such bread and cheese as I have left, and here, too, is a +penny which may help you to supper. May God be with you!" + +"May God be with you, young man!" she cried. "May He make your +heart as glad as you have made mine!" She turned away, still +mumbling blessings, and Alleyne saw her short figure and her long +shadow stumbling slowly up the slope. + +He was moving away himself, when his eyes lit upon a strange +sight, and one which sent a tingling through his skin. Out of +the tangled scrub on the old overgrown barrow two human faces +were looking out at him; the sinking sun glimmered full upon +them, showing up every line and feature. The one was an oldish +man with a thin beard, a crooked nose, and a broad red smudge +from a birth-mark over his temple; the other was a negro, a thing +rarely met in England at that day, and rarer still in the quiet +southland parts. Alleyne had read of such folk, but had never +seen one before, and could scarce take his eyes from the fellow's +broad pouting lip and shining teeth. Even as he gazed, however, +the two came writhing out from among the heather, and came down +towards him with such a guilty, slinking carriage, that the clerk +felt that there was no good in them, and hastened onwards upon +his way. + +He had not gained the crown of the slope, when he heard a sudden +scuffle behind him and a feeble voice bleating for help. Looking +round, there was the old dame down upon the roadway, with her red +whimple flying on the breeze, while the two rogues, black and +white, stooped over her, wresting away from her the penny and +such other poor trifles as were worth the taking. At the sight +of her thin limbs struggling in weak resistance, such a glow of +fierce anger passed over Alleyne as set his head in a whirl. +Dropping his scrip, he bounded over the stream once more, and +made for the two villains, with his staff whirled over his +shoulder and his gray eyes blazing with fury. + +The robbers, however, were not disposed to leave their victim +until they had worked their wicked will upon her. The black man, +with the woman's crimson scarf tied round his swarthy head, stood +forward in the centre of the path, with a long dull-colored knife +in his hand, while the other, waving a ragged cudgel, cursed at +Alleyne and dared him to come on. His blood was fairly aflame, +however, and he needed no such challenge. Dashing at the black +man, he smote at him with such good will that the other let his +knife tinkle into the roadway, and hopped howling to a safer +distance. The second rogue, however, made of sterner stuff, +rushed in upon the clerk, and clipped him round the waist with a +grip like a bear, shouting the while to his comrade to come round +and stab him in the back. At this the negro took heart of +grace, and picking up his dagger again he came stealing with +prowling step and murderous eye, while the two swayed backwards +and forwards, staggering this way and that. In the very midst of +the scuffle, however, whilst Alleyne braced himself to feel the +cold blade between his shoulders, there came a sudden scurry of +hoofs, and the black man yelled with terror and ran for his life +through the heather. The man with the birth-mark, too, struggled +to break away, and Alleyne heard his teeth chatter and felt his +limbs grow limp to his hand. At this sign of coming aid the +clerk held on the tighter, and at last was able to pin his man +down and glanced behind him to see where all the noise was coming +from. + +Down the slanting road there was riding a big, burly man, clad in +a tunic of purple velvet and driving a great black horse as hard +as it could gallop. He leaned well over its neck as he rode, and +made a heaving with his shoulders at every bound as though he +were lifting the steed instead of it carrying him. In the rapid +glance Alleyne saw that he had white doeskin gloves, a curling +white feather in his flat velvet cap, and a broad gold, +embroidered baldric across his bosom. Behind him rode six +others, two and two, clad in sober brown jerkins, with the long +yellow staves of their bows thrusting out from behind their right +shoulders. Down the hill they thundered, over the brook and up +to the scene of the contest. + +"Here is one!" said the leader, springing down from his reeking +horse, and seizing the white rogue by the edge of his jerkin. +"This is one of them. I know him by that devil's touch upon his +brow. Where are your cords, Peterkin? So! Bind him hand and +foot. His last hour has come. And you, young man, who may you +be?" + +"I am a clerk, sir, travelling from Beaulieu." + +"A clerk!" cried the other. "Art from Oxenford or from +Cambridge? Hast thou a letter from the chancellor of thy college +giving thee a permit to beg? Let me see thy letter." He had a +stern, square face, with bushy side whiskers and a very +questioning eye. + +"I am from Beaulieu Abbey, and I have no need to beg," said +Alleyne, who was all of a tremble now that the ruffle was over. + +"The better for thee," the other answered. "Dost know who I am?" + +"No, sir, I do not." + +"I am the law!"--nodding his head solemnly. "I am the law of +England and the mouthpiece of his most gracious and royal +majesty, Edward the Third." + +Alleyne louted low to the King's representative. "Truly you came +in good time, honored sir," said he. "A moment later and they +would have slain me." + +"But there should be another one," cried the man in the purple +coat. "There should be a black man. A shipman with St. +Anthony's fire, and a black man who had served him as cook--those +are the pair that we are in chase of." + +"The black man fled over to that side," said Alleyne, pointing +towards the barrow. + +"He could not have gone far, sir bailiff," cried one of the +archers, unslinging his bow. "He is in hiding somewhere, for he +knew well, black paynim as he is, that our horses' four legs +could outstrip his two." + +"Then we shall have him," said the other. "It shall never be +said, whilst I am bailiff of Southampton, that any waster, +riever, draw-latch or murtherer came scathless away from me and +my posse. Leave that rogue lying. Now stretch out in line, my +merry ones, with arrow on string, and I shall show you such sport +as only the King can give. You on the left, Howett, and Thomas +of Redbridge upon the right. So! Beat high and low among the +heather, and a pot of wine to the lucky marksman." + +As it chanced, however, the searchers had not far to seek. The +negro had burrowed down into his hiding-place upon the barrow, +where he might have lain snug enough, had it not been for the red +gear upon his head. As he raised himself to look over the +bracken at his enemies, the staring color caught the eye of the +bailiff, who broke into a long screeching whoop and spurred +forward sword in hand. Seeing himself discovered, the man rushed +out from his hiding-place, and bounded at the top of his speed +down the line of archers, keeping a good hundred paces to the +front of them. The two who were on either side of Alleyne bent +their bows as calmly as though they were shooting at the popinjay +at the village fair. + +"Seven yards windage, Hal," said one, whose hair was streaked +with gray. + +"Five," replied the other, letting loose his string. Alleyne +gave a gulp in his throat, for the yellow streak seemed to pass +through the man; but he still ran forward. + +"Seven, you jack-fool," growled the first speaker, and his bow +twanged like a harp-string. The black man sprang high up into +the air, and shot out both his arms and his legs, coming down all +a-sprawl among the heather. "Right under the blade bone!" quoth +the archer, sauntering forward for his arrow. + +"The old hound is the best when all is said," quoth the bailiff +of Southampton, as they made back for the roadway. "That means a +quart of the best malmsey in Southampton this very night, Matthew +Atwood. Art sure that he is dead?" + +"Dead as Pontius Pilate, worshipful sir." + +"It is well. Now, as to the other knave. There are trees and to +spare over yonder, but we have scarce leisure to make for them. +Draw thy sword, Thomas of Redbridge, and hew me his head from his +shoulders." + +"A boon, gracious sir, a boon!" cried the condemned man. What +then?" asked the bailiff. + +"I will confess to my crime. It was indeed I and the black cook, +both from the ship `La Rose de Gloire,' of Southampton, who did +set upon the Flanders merchant and rob him of his spicery and his +mercery, for which, as we well know, you hold a warrant against +us." + +"There is little merit in this confession," quoth the bailiff +sternly. "Thou hast done evil within my bailiwick, and must +die." + +"But, sir," urged Alleyne, who was white to the lips at these +bloody doings, "he hath not yet come to trial." + +"Young clerk," said the bailiff, "you speak of that of which you +know nothing. It is true that he hath not come to trial, but the +trial hath come to him. He hath fled the law and is beyond its +pale. Touch not that which is no concern of thine. But what is +this boon, rogue, which you would crave?" + +"I have in my shoe, most worshipful sir, a strip of wood which +belonged once to the bark wherein the blessed Paul was dashed up +against the island of Melita. I bought it for two rose nobles +from a shipman who came from the Levant. The boon I crave is +that you will place it in my hands and let me die still grasping +it. In this manner, not only shall my own eternal salvation be +secured, but thine also, for I shall never cease to intercede for +thee." + +At the command of the bailiff they plucked off the fellow's shoe, +and there sure enough at the side of the instep, wrapped in a +piece of fine sendall, lay a long, dark splinter of wood. The +archers doffed caps at the sight of it, and the bailiff crossed +himself devoutly as he handed it to the robber. + +"If it should chance," he said, "that through the surpassing +merits of the blessed Paul your sin-stained soul should gain a +way into paradise, I trust that you will not forget that +intercession which you have promised. Bear in mind too, that it +is Herward the bailiff for whom you pray, and not Herward the +sheriff, who is my uncle's son. Now, Thomas, I pray you +dispatch, for we have a long ride before us and sun has already +set." + +Alleyne gazed upon the scene--the portly velvet-clad official the +knot of hard-faced archers with their hands to the bridles of +their horses, the thief with his arms trussed back and his +doublet turned down upon his shoulders. By the side of the track +the old dame was standing, fastening her red whimple once more +round her head. Even as he looked one of the archers drew his +sword with a sharp whirr of steel and stept up to the lost man. +The clerk hurried away in horror; but, ere he had gone many +paces, he heard a sudden, sullen thump, with a choking, +whistling sound at the end of it. A minute later the bailiff and +four of his men rode past him on their journey back to +Southampton, the other two having been chosen as grave-diggers. +As they passed Alleyne saw that one of the men was wiping his +sword-blade upon the mane of his horse. A deadly sickness came +over him at the sight, and sitting down by the wayside he burst +out weeping, with his nerves all in a jangle. It was a terrible +world thought he, and it was hard to know which were the most to +be dreaded, the knaves or the men of the law. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +HOW A STRANGE COMPANY GATHERED AT THE "PIED MERLIN." + + +The night had already fallen, and the moon was shining between +the rifts of ragged, drifting clouds, before Alleyne Edricson, +footsore and weary from the unwonted exercise, found himself in +front of the forest inn which stood upon the outskirts of +Lyndhurst. The building was long and low, standing back a little +from the road, with two flambeaux blazing on either side of the +door as a welcome to the traveller. From one window there thrust +forth a long pole with a bunch of greenery tied to the end of +it--a sign that liquor was to be sold within. As Alleyne walked +up to it he perceived that it was rudely fashioned out of beams +of wood, with twinkling lights all over where the glow from +within shone through the chinks. The roof was poor and thatched; +but in strange contrast to it there ran all along under the eaves +a line of wooden shields, most gorgeously painted with chevron, +bend, and saltire, and every heraldic device. By the door a +horse stood tethered, the ruddy glow beating strongly upon his +brown head and patient eyes, while his body stood back in the +shadow. + +Alleyne stood still in the roadway for a few minutes reflecting +upon what he should do. It was, he knew, only a few miles +further to Minstead, where his brother dwelt. On the other hand, +he had never seen this brother since childhood, and the reports +which had come to his ears concerning him were seldom to his +advantage. By all accounts he was a hard and a bitter man. + +It might be an evil start to come to his door so late and claim +the shelter of his root: Better to sleep here at this inn, and +then travel on to Minstead in the morning. If his brother would +take him in, well and good. + +He would bide with him for a time and do what he might to serve +him. If, on the other hand, he should have hardened his heart +against him, he could only go on his way and do the best he might +by his skill as a craftsman and a scrivener. At the end of a +year he would be free to return to the cloisters, for such had +been his father's bequest. A monkish upbringing, one year in the +world after the age of twenty, and then a free selection one way +or the other--it was a strange course which had been marked out +for him. Such as it was, however, he had no choice but to follow +it, and if he were to begin by making a friend of his brother he +had best wait until morning before he knocked at his dwelling. + +The rude plank door was ajar, but as Alleyne approached it there +came from within such a gust of rough laughter and clatter of +tongues that he stood irresolute upon the threshold. Summoning +courage, however, and reflecting that it was a public dwelling, +in which he had as much right as any other man, he pushed it open +and stepped into the common room. + +Though it was an autumn evening and somewhat warm, a huge fire of +heaped billets of wood crackled and sparkled in a broad, open +grate, some of the smoke escaping up a rude chimney, but the +greater part rolling out into the room, so that the air was thick +with it, and a man coming from without could scarce catch his +breath. On this fire a great cauldron bubbled and simmered, +giving forth a rich and promising smell. Seated round it were a +dozen or so folk, of all ages and conditions, who set up such a +shout as Alleyne entered that he stood peering at them through +the smoke, uncertain what this riotous greeting might portend. + +"A rouse! A rouse!" cried one rough looking fellow in a tattered +jerkin. "One more round of mead or ale and the score to the last +comer." + +"'Tis the law of the `Pied Merlin,'" shouted another. "Ho +there, Dame Eliza! Here is fresh custom come to the house, and +not a drain for the company." + +"I will take your orders, gentles; I will assuredly take your +orders," the landlady answered, bustling in with her hands full +of leathern drinking-cups. "What is it that you drink, then? +Beer for the lads of the forest, mead for the gleeman, strong +waters for the tinker, and wine for the rest. It is an old +custom of the house, young sir. It has been the use at the `Pied +Merlin' this many a year back that the company should drink to +the health of the last comer. Is it your pleasure to humor it?" + +"Why, good dame," said Alleyne, "I would not offend the customs +of your house, but it is only sooth when I say that my purse is a +thin one. As far as two pence will go, however, I shall be right +glad to do my part." + +"Plainly said and bravely spoken, my sucking friar," roared a +deep voice, and a heavy hand fell upon Alleyne's shoulder. +Looking up, he saw beside him his former cloister companion the +renegade monk, Hordle John. + +"By the thorn of Glastonbury! ill days are coming upon Beaulieu," +said he. "Here they have got rid in one day of the only two men +within their walls--for I have had mine eyes upon thee, +youngster, and I know that for all thy baby-face there is the +making of a man in thee. Then there is the Abbot, too. I am no +friend of his, nor he of mine; but he has warm blood in his +veins. He is the only man left among them. The others, what are +they?" + +"They are holy men," Alleyne answered gravely. + +"Holy men? Holy cabbages! Holy bean-pods! What do they do but +live and suck in sustenance and grow fat? If that be holiness, I +could show you hogs in this forest who are fit to head the +calendar. Think you it was for such a life that this good arm +was fixed upon my shoulder, or that head placed upon your neck? +There is work in the world, man, and it is not by hiding behind +stone walls that we shall do it." + +"Why, then, did you join the brothers?" asked Alleyne. + +"A fair enough question; but it is as fairly answered. I joined +them because Margery Alspaye, of Bolder, married Crooked Thomas +of Ringwood, and left a certain John of Hordle in the cold, for +that he was a ranting, roving blade who was not to be trusted in +wedlock. That was why, being fond and hot-headed, I left the +world; and that is why, having had time to take thought, I am +right glad to find myself back in it once more. Ill betide the +day that ever I took off my yeoman's jerkin to put on the white +gown!" + +Whilst he was speaking the landlady came in again, bearing a +broad platter, upon which stood all the beakers and flagons +charged to the brim with the brown ale or the ruby wine. Behind +her came a maid with a high pile of wooden plates, and a great +sheaf of spoons, one of which she handed round to each of the +travellers. Two of the company, who were dressed in the +weather-stained green doublet of foresters, lifted the big pot +off the fire, and a third, with a huge pewter ladle, served out a +portion of steaming collops to each guest. Alleyne bore his +share and his ale-mug away with him to a retired trestle in the +corner, where he could sup in peace and watch the strange scene, +which was so different to those silent and well-ordered meals to +which he was accustomed. + +The room was not unlike a stable. The low ceiling, smoke-blackened +and dingy, was pierced by several square trap-doors with rough-hewn +ladders leading up to them. The walls of bare unpainted planks +were studded here and there with great wooden pins, placed at +irregular intervals and heights, from which hung over-tunics, +wallets, whips, bridles, and saddles. Over the fireplace were +suspended six or seven shields of wood, with coats-of-arms rudely +daubed upon them, which showed by their varying degrees of +smokiness and dirt that they had been placed there at different +periods. There was no furniture, save a single long dresser +covered with coarse crockery, and a number of wooden benches and +trestles, the legs of which sank deeply into the soft clay floor, +while the only light, save that of the fire, was furnished by +three torches stuck in sockets on the wall, which flickered and +crackled, giving forth a strong resinous odor. All this was +novel and strange to the cloister-bred youth; but most +interesting of all was the motley circle of guests who sat eating +their collops round the blaze. They were a humble group of +wayfarers, such as might have been found that night in any inn +through the length and breadth of England; but to him they +represented that vague world against which he had been so +frequently and so earnestly warned. It did not seem to him from +what he could see of it to be such a very wicked place after all. + +Three or four of the men round the fire were evidently +underkeepers and verderers from the forest, sunburned and +bearded, with the quick restless eye and lithe movements of the +deer among which they lived. Close to the corner of the chimney +sat a middle-aged gleeman, clad in a faded garb of Norwich cloth, +the tunic of which was so outgrown that it did not fasten at the +neck and at the waist. His face was swollen and coarse, and his +watery protruding eyes spoke of a life which never wandered very +far from the wine-pot. A gilt harp, blotched with many stains +and with two of its strings missing, was tucked under one of his +arms, while with the other he scooped greedily at his platter. +Next to him sat two other men of about the same age, one with a +trimming of fur to his coat, which gave him a dignity which was +evidently dearer to him than his comfort, for he still drew it +round him in spite of the hot glare of the faggots. The other, +clad in a dirty russet suit with a long sweeping doublet, had a +cunning, foxy face with keen, twinkling eyes and a peaky beard. +Next to him sat Hordle John, and beside him three other rough +unkempt fellows with tangled beards and matted hair-free laborers +from the adjoining farms, where small patches of freehold +property had been suffered to remain scattered about in the heart +of the royal demesne. The company was completed by a peasant in +a rude dress of undyed sheepskin, with the old-fashioned +galligaskins about his legs, and a gayly dressed young man with +striped cloak jagged at the edges and parti-colored hosen, who +looked about him with high disdain upon his face, and held a blue +smelling-flask to his nose with one hand, while he brandished a +busy spoon with the other. In the corner a very fat man was +lying all a-sprawl upon a truss, snoring stertorously, and +evidently in the last stage of drunkenness. + +"That is Wat the limner," quoth the landlady, sitting down beside +Alleyne, and pointing with the ladle to the sleeping man. "That +is he who paints the signs and the tokens. Alack and alas that +ever I should have been fool enough to trust him! Now, young man, +what manner of a bird would you suppose a pied merlin to be--that +being the proper sign of my hostel?" + +"Why," said Alleyne, "a merlin is a bird of the same form as an +eagle or a falcon. I can well remember that learned brother +Bartholomew, who is deep in all the secrets of nature, pointed +one out to me as we walked together near Vinney Ridge." + +"A falcon or an eagle, quotha? And pied, that is of two several +colors. So any man would say except this barrel of lies. He +came to me, look you, saying that if I would furnish him with a +gallon of ale, wherewith to strengthen himself as he worked, and +also the pigments and a board, he would paint for me a noble pied +merlin which I might hang along with the blazonry over my door. +I, poor simple fool, gave him the ale and all that he craved, +leaving him alone too, because he said that a man's mind must be +left untroubled when he had great work to do. When I came back +the gallon jar was empty, and he lay as you see him, with the +board in front of him with this sorry device." She raised up a +panel which was leaning against the wall, and showed a rude +painting of a scraggy and angular fowl, with very long legs and a +spotted body. + +"Was that," she asked, "like the bird which thou hast seen?" + +Alleyne shook his head, smiling. + +"No, nor any other bird that ever wagged a feather. It is most +like a plucked pullet which has died of the spotted fever. And +scarlet too! What would the gentles Sir Nicholas Boarhunte, or +Sir Bernard Brocas, of Roche Court, say if they saw such a +thing--or, perhaps, even the King's own Majesty himself, who +often has ridden past this way, and who loves his falcons as he +loves his sons? It would be the downfall of my house." + +"The matter is not past mending," said Alleyne. "I pray you, +good dame, to give me those three pigment-pots and the brush, and +I shall try whether I cannot better this painting." + +Dame Eliza looked doubtfully at him, as though fearing some other +stratagem, but, as he made no demand for ale, she finally brought +the paints, and watched him as he smeared on his background, +talking the while about the folk round the fire. + +"The four forest lads must be jogging soon," she said. "They +bide at Emery Down, a mile or more from here. Yeomen prickers +they are, who tend to the King's hunt. The gleeman is called +Floyting Will. He comes from the north country, but for many +years he hath gone the round of the forest from Southampton to +Christchurch. He drinks much and pays little but it would make +your ribs crackle to hear him sing the `Jest of Hendy Tobias.' +Mayhap he will sing it when the ale has warmed him." + +"Who are those next to him?" asked Alleyne, much interested. +"He of the fur mantle has a wise and reverent face." + +"He is a seller of pills and salves, very learned in humors, and +rheums, and fluxes, and all manner of ailments. He wears, as you +perceive, the vernicle of Sainted Luke, the first physician, upon +his sleeve. May good St. Thomas of Kent grant that it may be +long before either I or mine need his help! He is here to-night +for herbergage, as are the others except the foresters. His +neighbor is a tooth-drawer. That bag at his girdle is full of +the teeth that he drew at Winchester fair. I warrant that there +are more sound ones than sorry, for he is quick at his work and a +trifle dim in the eye. The lusty man next him with the red head +I have not seen before. The four on this side are all workers, +three of them in the service of the bailiff of Sir Baldwin +Redvers, and the other, he with the sheepskin, is, as I hear, a +villein from the midlands who hath run from his master. His year +and day are well-nigh up, when he will be a free man." + +"And the other?" asked Alleyne in a whisper. "He is surely some +very great man, for he looks as though he scorned those who were +about him." + +The landlady looked at him in a motherly way and shook her head. +"You have had no great truck with the world," she said, "or you +would have learned that it is the small men and not the great who +hold their noses in the air. Look at those shields upon my wall +and under my eaves. Each of them is the device of some noble +lord or gallant knight who hath slept under my roof at one time +or another. Yet milder men or easier to please I have never +seen: eating my bacon and drinking my wine with a merry face, and +paying my score with some courteous word or jest which was dearer +to me than my profit. Those are the true gentles. But your +chapman or your bearward will swear that there is a lime in the +wine, and water in the ale, and fling off at the last with a +curse instead of a blessing. This youth is a scholar from +Cambrig, where men are wont to be blown out by a little +knowledge, and lose the use of their hands in learning the laws +of the Romans. But I must away to lay down the beds. So may the +saints keep you and prosper you in your undertaking!" + +Thus left to himself, Alleyne drew his panel of wood where the +light of one of the torches would strike full upon it, and worked +away with all the pleasure of the trained craftsman, listening +the while to the talk which went on round the fire. The peasant +in the sheepskins, who had sat glum and silent all evening, had +been so heated by his flagon of ale that he was talking loudly +and angrily with clenched hands and flashing eyes. + +"Sir Humphrey Tennant of Ashby may till his own fields for me," +he cried. "The castle has thrown its shadow upon the cottage +over long. For three hundred years my folk have swinked and +sweated, day in and day out, to keep the wine on the lord's table +and the harness on the lord's back. Let him take off his plates +and delve himself, if delving must be done." + +"A proper spirit, my fair son!" said one of the free laborers. +"I would that all men were of thy way of thinking." + +"He would have sold me with his acres," the other cried, in a +voice which was hoarse with passion. "`The man, the woman and +their litter'--so ran the words of the dotard bailiff. Never a +bullock on the farm was sold more lightly. Ha! he may wake some +black night to find the flames licking about his ears--for fire +is a good friend to the poor man, and I have seen a smoking heap +of ashes where over night there stood just such another +castlewick as Ashby." + +"This is a lad of mettle!" shouted another of the laborers. He +dares to give tongue to what all men think. Are we not all from +Adam's loins, all with flesh and blood, and with the same mouth +that must needs have food and drink? Where all this difference +then between the ermine cloak and the leathern tunic, if what +they cover is the same?" + +"Aye, Jenkin," said another, "our foeman is under the stole and +the vestment as much as under the helmet and plate of proof. We +have as much to fear from the tonsure as from the hauberk. +Strike at the noble and the priest shrieks, strike at priest and +the noble lays his hand upon glaive. They are twin thieves who +live upon our labor." + +"It would take a clever man to live upon thy labor, Hugh," +remarked one of the foresters, "seeing that the half of thy time +is spent in swilling mead at the `Pied Merlin.'" + +"Better that than stealing the deer that thou art placed to +guard, like some folk I know." + +"If you dare open that swine's mouth against me," shouted the +woodman, "I'll crop your ears for you before the hangman has the +doing of it, thou long-jawed lackbrain." + +"Nay, gentles, gentles!" cried Dame Eliza, in a singsong heedless +voice, which showed that such bickerings were nightly things +among her guests. "No brawling or brabbling, gentles! Take heed +to the good name of the house." + +"Besides, if it comes to the cropping of ears, there are other +folk who may say their say," quoth the third laborer. "We are +all freemen, and I trow that a yeoman's cudgel is as good as a +forester's knife. By St. Anselm! it would be an evil day if we +had to bend to our master's servants as well as to our masters." + +"No man is my master save the King," the woodman answered. "Who +is there, save a false traitor, who would refuse to serve the +English king?" + +"I know not about the English king," said the man Jenkin. "What +sort of English king is it who cannot lay his tongue to a word of +English? You mind last year when he came down to Malwood, with +his inner marshal and his outer marshal, his justiciar, his +seneschal, and his four and twenty guardsmen. One noontide I was +by Franklin Swinton's gate, when up he rides with a yeoman +pricker at his heels. `Ouvre,' he cried, `ouvre,' or some such +word, making signs for me to open the gate; and then `Merci,' as +though he were adrad of me. And you talk of an English king?" + +"I do not marvel at it," cried the Cambrig scholar, speaking in +the high drawling voice which was common among his class. "It is +not a tongue for men of sweet birth and delicate upbringing. It +is a foul, snorting, snarling manner of speech. For myself, I +swear by the learned Polycarp that I have most ease with Hebrew, +and after that perchance with Arabian." + +"I will not hear a word said against old King Ned," cried Hordle +John in a voice like a bull. "What if he is fond of a bright eye +and a saucy face. I know one of his subjects who could match him +at that. If he cannot speak like an Englishman I trow that he +can fight like an Englishman, and he was hammering at the gates +of Paris while ale-house topers were grutching and grumbling at +home." + +This loud speech, coming from a man of so formidable an +appearance, somewhat daunted the disloyal party, and they fell +into a sullen silence, which enabled Alleyne to hear something of +the talk which was going on in the further corner between the +physician, the tooth-drawer and the gleeman. + +"A raw rat," the man of drugs was saying, "that is what it is +ever my use to order for the plague--a raw rat with its paunch +cut open." + +"Might it not be broiled, most learned sir?" asked the tooth-drawer. +"A raw rat sounds a most sorry and cheerless dish." + +"Not to be eaten," cried the physician, in high disdain. "Why +should any man eat such a thing?" + +"Why indeed?" asked the gleeman, taking a long drain at his +tankard. + +"It is to be placed on the sore or swelling. For the rat, mark +you, being a foul-living creature, hath a natural drawing or +affinity for all foul things, so that the noxious humors pass +from the man into the unclean beast." + +"Would that cure the black death, master?" asked Jenkin. + +"Aye, truly would it, my fair son." + +"Then I am right glad that there were none who knew of it. The +black death is the best friend that ever the common folk had in +England." + +"How that then?" asked Hordle John. + +"Why, friend, it is easy to see that you have not worked with +your hands or you would not need to ask. When half the folk in +the country were dead it was then that the other half could pick +and choose who they would work for, and for what wage. That is +why I say that the murrain was the best friend that the borel +folk ever had." + +"True, Jenkin," said another workman; "but it is not all good +that is brought by it either. We well know that through it +corn-land has been turned into pasture, so that flocks of sheep +with perchance a single shepherd wander now where once a hundred +men had work and wage." + +"There is no great harm in that," remarked the tooth-drawer, "for +the sheep give many folk their living. There is not only the +herd, but the shearer and brander, and then the dresser, the +curer, the dyer, the fuller, the webster, the merchant, and a +score of others." + +"If it come to that." said one of the foresters, "the tough meat +of them will wear folks teeth out, and there is a trade for the +man who can draw them." + +A general laugh followed this sally at the dentist's expense, in +the midst of which the gleeman placed his battered harp upon his +knee, and began to pick out a melody upon the frayed strings. + +"Elbow room for Floyting Will!" cried the woodmen. "Twang us a +merry lilt." + +"Aye, aye, the `Lasses of Lancaster,'" one suggested. + +"Or `St. Simeon and the Devil.'" + +"Or the `Jest of Hendy Tobias.'" + +To all these suggestions the jongleur made no response, but sat +with his eye fixed abstractedly upon the ceiling, as one who +calls words to his mind. Then, with a sudden sweep across the +strings, he broke out into a song so gross and so foul that ere +he had finished a verse the pure-minded lad sprang to his feet +with the blood tingling in his face. + +"How can you sing such things?" he cried. "You, too, an old man +who should be an example to others." + +The wayfarers all gazed in the utmost astonishment at the +interruption. + +"By the holy Dicon of Hampole! our silent clerk has found his +tongue," said one of the woodmen. "What is amiss with the song +then? How has it offended your babyship?" + +"A milder and better mannered song hath never been heard within +these walls," cried another. "What sort of talk is this for a +public inn?" + +"Shall it be a litany, my good clerk?" shouted a third; "or would +a hymn be good enough to serve?" + +The jongleur had put down his harp in high dudgeon. "Am I to be +preached to by a child?" he cried, staring across at Alleyne with +an inflamed and angry countenance. "Is a hairless infant to +raise his tongue against me, when I have sung in every fair from +Tweed to Trent, and have twice been named aloud by the High Court +of the Minstrels at Beverley? I shall sing no more to-night." + +"Nay, but you will so," said one of the laborers. "Hi, Dame +Eliza, bring a stoup of your best to Will to clear his throat. +Go forward with thy song, and if our girl-faced clerk does not +love it he can take to the road and go whence he came." + +"Nay, but not too last," broke in Hordle John. "There are two +words in this matter. It may be that my little comrade has been +over quick in reproof, he having gone early into the cloisters +and seen little of the rough ways and words of the world. Yet +there is truth in what he says, for, as you know well, the song +was not of the cleanest. I shall stand by him, therefore, and he +shall neither be put out on the road, nor shall his ears be +offended indoors." + +"Indeed, your high and mighty grace," sneered one of the yeomen, +"have you in sooth so ordained?" + +"By the Virgin!" said a second, "I think that you may both chance +to find yourselves upon the road before long." + +"And so belabored as to be scarce able to crawl along it," cried +a third. + +"Nay, I shall go! I shall go!" said Alleyne hurriedly, as Hordle +John began to slowly roll up his sleeve, and bare an arm like a +leg of mutton. "I would not have you brawl about me." + +"Hush! lad," he whispered, "I count them not a fly. They may +find they have more tow on their distaff than they know how to +spin. Stand thou clear and give me space." + +Both the foresters and the laborers had risen from their bench, +and Dame Eliza and the travelling doctor had flung themselves +between the two parties with soft words and soothing gestures, +when the door of the "Pied Merlin" was flung violently open, and +the attention of the company was drawn from their own quarrel to +the new-comer who had burst so unceremoniously upon them. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HOW SAMKIN AYLWARD WAGERED HIS FEATHER-BED. + + +He was a middle-sized man, of most massive and robust build, with +an arching chest and extraordinary breadth of shoulder. His +shaven face was as brown as a hazel-nut, tanned and dried by the +weather, with harsh, well-marked features, which were not +improved by a long white scar which stretched from the corner of +his left nostril to the angle of the jaw. His eyes were bright +and searching, with something of menace and of authority in their +quick glitter, and his mouth was firm-set and hard, as befitted +one who was wont to set his face against danger. A straight +sword by his side and a painted long-bow jutting over his +shoulder proclaimed his profession, while his scarred brigandine +of chain-mail and his dinted steel cap showed that he was no +holiday soldier, but one who was even now fresh from the wars. A +white surcoat with the lion of St. George in red upon the centre +covered his broad breast, while a sprig of new-plucked broom at +the side of his head-gear gave a touch of gayety and grace to his +grim, war-worn equipment. + +"Ha!" he cried, blinking like an owl in the sudden glare. "Good +even to you, comrades! Hola! a woman, by my soul!" and in an +instant he had clipped Dame Eliza round the waist and was kissing +her violently. His eye happening to wander upon the maid, +however, he instantly abandoned the mistress and danced off after +the other, who scurried in confusion up one of the ladders, and +dropped the heavy trap-door upon her pursuer. He then turned +back and saluted the landlady once more with the utmost relish +and satisfaction. + +"La petite is frightened," said he. "Ah, c'est l'amour, l'amour! +Curse this trick of French, which will stick to my throat. I +must wash it out with some good English ale. By my hilt! +camarades, there is no drop of French blood in my body, and I am +a true English bowman, Samkin Aylward by name; and I tell you, +mes amis, that it warms my very heart-roots to set my feet on the +dear old land once more. When I came off the galley at Hythe, +this very day, I down on my bones, and I kissed the good brown +earth, as I kiss thee now, ma belle, for it was eight long years +since I had seen it. The very smell of it seemed life to me. +But where are my six rascals? Hola, there! En avant!" + +At the order, six men, dressed as common drudges, marched +solemnly into the room, each bearing a huge bundle upon his head. +They formed in military line, while the soldier stood in front of +them with stern eyes, checking off their several packages. + +"Number one--a French feather-bed with the two counter-panes of +white sendall," said he. + +"Here, worthy sir," answered the first of the bearers, laying a +great package down in the corner. + +"Number two--seven ells of red Turkey cloth and nine ells of +cloth of gold. Put it down by the other. Good dame, I prythee +give each of these men a bottrine of wine or a jack of ale. +Three--a full piece of white Genoan velvet with twelve ells of +purple silk. Thou rascal, there is dirt on the hem! Thou hast +brushed it against some wall, coquin!" + +"Not I, most worthy sir," cried the carrier, shrinking away from +the fierce eyes of the bowman. + +"I say yes, dog! By the three kings! I have seen a man gasp out +his last breath for less. Had you gone through the pain and +unease that I have done to earn these things you would be at more +care. I swear by my ten finger-bones that there is not one of +them that hath not cost its weight in French blood! Four--an +incense-boat, a ewer of silver, a gold buckle and a cope worked +in pearls. I found them, camarades, at the Church of St. Denis +in the harrying of Narbonne, and I took them away with me lest +they fall into the hands of the wicked. Five--a cloak of fur +turned up with minever, a gold goblet with stand and cover, and a +box of rose-colored sugar. See that you lay them together. +Six--a box of monies, three pounds of Limousine gold-work, a pair +of boots, silver tagged, and, lastly, a store of naping linen. +So, the tally is complete! Here is a groat apiece, and you may go." + +"Go whither, worthy sir?" asked one of the carriers. + +"Whither? To the devil if ye will. What is it to me? Now, ma +belle, to supper. A pair of cold capons, a mortress of brawn, or +what you will, with a flask or two of the right Gascony. I have +crowns in my pouch, my sweet, and I mean to spend them. Bring in +wine while the food is dressing. Buvons my brave lads; you shall +each empty a stoup with me." + +Here was an offer which the company in an English inn at that or +any other date are slow to refuse. The flagons were re-gathered +and came back with the white foam dripping over their edges. Two +of the woodmen and three of the laborers drank their portions off +hurriedly and trooped off together, for their homes were distant +and the hour late. The others, however, drew closer, leaving the +place of honor to the right of the gleeman to the free-handed +new-comer. He had thrown off his steel cap and his brigandine, +and had placed them with his sword, his quiver and his painted +long-bow, on the top of his varied heap of plunder in the corner. +Now, with his thick and somewhat bowed legs stretched in front of +the blaze, his green jerkin thrown open, and a great quart pot +held in his corded fist, he looked the picture of comfort and of +good-fellowship. His hard-set face had softened, and the thick +crop of crisp brown curls which had been hidden by his helmet +grew low upon his massive neck. He might have been forty years +of age, though hard toil and harder pleasure had left their grim +marks upon his features. Alleyne had ceased painting his pied +merlin, and sat, brush in hand, staring with open eyes at a type +of man so strange and so unlike any whom he had met. Men had +been good or had been bad in his catalogue, but here was a man +who was fierce one instant and gentle the next, with a curse on +his lips and a smile in his eye. What was to be made of such a +man as that? + +It chanced that the soldier looked up and saw the questioning +glance which the young clerk threw upon him. He raised his +flagon and drank to him, with a merry flash of his white teeth. + +"A toi, mon garcon," he cried. "Hast surely never seen a +man-at-arms, that thou shouldst stare so?" + +"I never have," said Alleyne frankly, "though I have oft heard +talk of their deeds." + +"By my hilt!" cried the other, "if you were to cross the narrow +sea you would find them as thick as bees at a tee-hole. Couldst +not shoot a bolt down any street of Bordeaux, I warrant, but you +would pink archer, squire, or knight. There are more +breastplates than gaberdines to be seen, I promise you." + +"And where got you all these pretty things?" asked Hordle John, +pointing at the heap in the corner. + +"Where there is as much more waiting for any brave lad to pick it +up. Where a good man can always earn a good wage, and where he +need look upon no man as his paymaster, but just reach his hand +out and help himself. Aye, it is a goodly and a proper life. +And here I drink to mine old comrades, and the saints be with +them! Arouse all together, me, enfants, under pain of my +displeasure. To Sir Claude Latour and the White Company!" + +"Sir Claude Latour and the White Company!" shouted the +travellers, draining off their goblets. + +"Well quaffed, mes braves! It is for me to fill your cups again, +since you have drained them to my dear lads of the white jerkin. +Hola! mon ange, bring wine and ale. How runs the old stave?-- + + We'll drink all together + To the gray goose feather + And the land where the gray goose flew." + +He roared out the catch in a harsh, unmusical voice, and ended +with a shout of laughter. "I trust that I am a better bowman +than a minstrel," said he. + +"Methinks I have some remembrance of the lilt," remarked the +gleeman, running his fingers over the strings, "Hoping that it +will give thee no offence, most holy sir"--with a vicious snap at +Alleyne--"and with the kind permit of the company, I will even +venture upon it." + +Many a time in the after days Alleyne Edricson seemed to see that +scene, for all that so many which were stranger and more stirring +were soon to crowd upon him. The fat, red-faced gleeman, the +listening group, the archer with upraised finger beating in time +to the music, and the huge sprawling figure of Hordle John, all +thrown into red light and black shadow by the flickering fire in +the centre--memory was to come often lovingly back to it. At the +time he was lost in admiration at the deft way in which the +jongleur disguised the loss of his two missing strings, and the +lusty, hearty fashion in which he trolled out his little ballad +of the outland bowmen, which ran in some such fashion as this: + + What of the bow? + The bow was made in England: + Of true wood, of yew wood, + The wood of English bows; + So men who are free + Love the old yew tree + And the land where the yew tree grows. + + What of the cord? + The cord was made in England: + A rough cord, a tough cord, + A cord that bowmen love; + So we'll drain our jacks + To the English flax + And the land where the hemp was wove. + + What of the shaft? + The shaft was cut in England: + A long shaft, a strong shaft, + Barbed and trim and true; + So we'll drink all together + To the gray goose feather + And the land where the gray goose flew. + + What of the men? + The men were bred in England: + The bowman--the yeoman-- + The lads of dale and fell + Here's to you--and to you; + To the hearts that are true + And the land where the true hearts dwell. + +"Well sung, by my hilt!" shouted the archer in high delight. +"Many a night have I heard that song, both in the old war-time +and after in the days of the White Company, when Black Simon of +Norwich would lead the stave, and four hundred of the best bowmen +that ever drew string would come roaring in upon the chorus. I +have seen old John Hawkwood, the same who has led half the +Company into Italy, stand laughing in his beard as he heard it, +until his plates rattled again. But to get the full smack of it +ye must yourselves be English bowmen, and be far off upon an +outland soil." + +Whilst the song had been singing Dame Eliza and the maid had +placed a board across two trestles, and had laid upon it the +knife the spoon, the salt, the tranchoir of bread, and finally +the smoking dish which held the savory supper. The archer +settled himself to it like one who had known what it was to find +good food scarce; but his tongue still went as merrily as his +teeth. + +"It passes me," he cried, "how all you lusty fellows can bide +scratching your backs at home when there are such doings over the +seas. Look at me--what have I to do? It is but the eye to the +cord, the cord to the shaft, and the shaft to the mark. There is +the whole song of it. It is but what you do yourselves for +pleasure upon a Sunday evening at the parish village butts." + +"And the wage?" asked a laborer. + +"You see what the wage brings," he answered. "I eat of the best, +and I drink deep. I treat my friend, and I ask no friend to +treat me. I clap a silk gown on my girl's back. Never a +knight's lady shall be better betrimmed and betrinketed. How of +all that, mon garcon? And how of the heap of trifles that you +can see for yourselves in yonder corner? They are from the South +French, every one, upon whom I have been making war. By my hilt! +camarades, I think that I may let my plunder speak for itself." + +"It seems indeed to be a goodly service," said the tooth-drawer. + +"Tete bleu! yes, indeed. Then there is the chance of a ransom. +Why, look you, in the affair at Brignais some four years back, +when the companies slew James of Bourbon, and put his army to the +sword, there was scarce a man of ours who had not count, baron, +or knight. Peter Karsdale, who was but a common country lout +newly brought over, with the English fleas still hopping under +his doublet, laid his great hands upon the Sieur Amaury de +Chatonville, who owns half Picardy, and had five thousand crowns +out of him, with his horse and harness. 'Tis true that a French +wench took it all off Peter as quick as the Frenchman paid it; +but what then? By the twang of string! it would be a bad thing +if money was not made to be spent; and how better than on +woman--eh, ma belle?" + +"It would indeed be a bad thing if we had not our brave archers +to bring wealth and kindly customs into the country," quoth Dame +Eliza, on whom the soldier's free and open ways had made a deep +impression. + +"A toi, ma cherie!" said he, with his hand over his heart. +"Hola! there is la petite peeping from behind the door. A toi, +aussi, ma petite! Mon Dieu! but the lass has a good color!" + +"There is one thing, fair sir," said the Cambridge student in his +piping voice, "which I would fain that you would make more clear. +As I understand it, there was peace made at the town of Bretigny +some six years back between our most gracious monarch and the +King of the French. This being so, it seems most passing strange +that you should talk so loudly of war and of companies when there +is no quarrel between the French and us." + +"Meaning that I lie," said the archer, laying down his knife. + +"May heaven forfend!" cried the student hastily. "_Magna est +veritas sed rara_, which means in the Latin tongue that archers +are all honorable men. I come to you seeking knowledge, for it +is my trade to learn." + +"I fear that you are yet a 'prentice to that trade," quoth the +soldier; "for there is no child over the water but could answer +what you ask. Know then that though there may be peace between +our own provinces and the French, yet within the marches of +France there is always war, for the country is much divided +against itself, and is furthermore harried by bands of flayers, +skinners, Brabacons, tardvenus, and the rest of them. When every +man's grip is on his neighbor's throat, and every five-sous-piece +of a baron is marching with tuck of drum to fight whom he will, +it would be a strange thing if five hundred brave English boys +could not pick up a living. Now that Sir John Hawkwood hath gone +with the East Anglian lads and the Nottingham woodmen into the +service of the Marquis of Montferrat to fight against the Lord of +Milan, there are but ten score of us left, yet I trust that I may +be able to bring some back with me to fill the ranks of the White +Company. By the tooth of Peter! it would be a bad thing if I +could not muster many a Hamptonshire man who would be ready to +strike in under the red flag of St. George, and the more so if +Sir Nigel Loring, of Christchurch, should don hauberk once more +and take the lead of us." + +"Ah, you would indeed be in luck then," quoth a woodman; "for it +is said that, setting aside the prince, and mayhap good old Sir +John Chandos, there was not in the whole army a man of such tried +courage." + +"It is sooth, every word of it," the archer answered. "I have +seen him with these two eyes in a stricken field, and never did +man carry himself better. Mon Dieu! yes, ye would not credit it +to look at him, or to hearken to his soft voice, but from the +sailing from Orwell down to the foray to Paris, and that is clear +twenty years, there was not a skirmish, onfall, sally, bushment, +escalado or battle, but Sir Nigel was in the heart of it. I go +now to Christchurch with a letter to him from Sir Claude Latour +to ask him if he will take the place of Sir John Hawkwood; and +there is the more chance that he will if I bring one or two +likely men at my heels. What say you, woodman: wilt leave the +bucks to loose a shaft at a nobler mark?" + +The forester shook his head. "I have wife and child at Emery +Down," quoth he; "I would not leave them for such a venture." + +You, then, young sir?" asked the archer. + +"Nay, I am a man of peace," said Alleyne Edricson. "Besides, I +have other work to do." + +"Peste!" growled the soldier, striking his flagon on the board +until the dishes danced again. "What, in the name of the devil, +hath come over the folk? Why sit ye all moping by the fireside, +like crows round a dead horse, when there is man's work to be +done within a few short leagues of ye? Out upon you all, as a +set of laggards and hang-backs! By my hilt I believe that the +men of England are all in France already, and that what is left +behind are in sooth the women dressed up in their paltocks and +hosen." + +"Archer," quoth Hordle John, "you have lied more than once and +more than twice; for which, and also because I see much in you to +dislike, I am sorely tempted to lay you upon your back." + +"By my hilt! then, I have found a man at last!" shouted the +bowman. "And, 'fore God, you are a better man than I take you +for if you can lay me on my back, mon garcon. I have won the ram +more times than there are toes to my feet, and for seven long +years I have found no man in the Company who could make my jerkin +dusty." + +"We have had enough bobance and boasting," said Hordle John, +rising and throwing off his doublet. "I will show you that there +are better men left in England than ever went thieving to +France." + +"Pasques Dieu!" cried the archer, loosening his jerkin, and +eyeing his foeman over with the keen glance of one who is a judge +of manhood. "I have only once before seen such a body of a man. +By your leave, my red-headed friend, I should be right sorry to +exchange buffets with you; and I will allow that there is no man +in the Company who would pull against you on a rope; so let that +be a salve to your pride. On the other hand I should judge that +you have led a life of ease for some months back, and that my +muscle is harder than your own. I am ready to wager upon myself +against you if you are not afeard." + +"Afeard, thou lurden!" growled big John. "I never saw the face +yet of the man that I was afeard of. Come out, and we shall see +who is the better man." + +"But the wager?" + +"I have nought to wager. Come out for the love and the lust of +the thing." + +"Nought to wager!" cried the soldier. "Why, you have that which +I covet above all things. It is that big body of thine that I am +after. See, now, mon garcon. I have a French feather-bed there, +which I have been at pains to keep these years back. I had it at +the sacking of Issodun, and the King himself hath not such a bed. +If you throw me, it is thine; but, if I throw you, then you are +under a vow to take bow and bill and hie with me to France, there +to serve in the White Company as long as we be enrolled." + +"A fair wager!" cried all the travellers, moving back their +benches and trestles, so as to give fair field for the wrestlers. + +"Then you may bid farewell to your bed, soldier," said Hordle +John. + +"Nay; I shall keep the bed, and I shall have you to France in +spite of your teeth, and you shall live to thank me for it. How +shall it be, then, mon enfant? Collar and elbow, or close-lock, +or catch how you can?" + +"To the devil with your tricks," said John, opening and shutting +his great red hands. "Stand forth, and let me clip thee." + +"Shalt clip me as best you can then," quoth the archer, moving +out into the open space, and keeping a most wary eye upon his +opponent. He had thrown off his green jerkin, and his chest was +covered only by a pink silk jupon, or undershirt, cut low in the +neck and sleeveless. Hordle John was stripped from his waist +upwards, and his huge body, with his great muscles swelling out +like the gnarled roots of an oak, towered high above the soldier. +The other, however, though near a foot shorter, was a man of +great strength; and there was a gloss upon his white skin which +was wanting in the heavier limbs of the renegade monk. He was +quick on his feet, too, and skilled at the game; so that it was +clear, from the poise of head and shine of eye, that he counted +the chances to be in his favor. It would have been hard that +night, through the whole length of England, to set up a finer +pair in face of each other. + +Big John stood waiting in the centre with a sullen, menacing eye, +and his red hair in a bristle, while the archer paced lightly and +swiftly to the right and the left with crooked knee and hands +advanced. Then with a sudden dash, so swift and fierce that the +eye could scarce follow it, he flew in upon his man and locked +his leg round him. It was a grip that, between men of equal +strength, would mean a fall; but Hordle John tore him off from +him as he might a rat, and hurled him across the room, so that +his head cracked up against the wooden wall. + +"Ma foi!" cried the bowman, passing his fingers through his +curls, "you were not far from the feather-bed then, mon gar. A +little more and this good hostel would have a new window." + +Nothing daunted, he approached his man once more, but this time +with more caution than before. With a quick feint he threw the +other off his guard, and then, bounding upon him, threw his legs +round his waist and his arms round his bull-neck, in the hope of +bearing him to the ground with the sudden shock. With a bellow +of rage, Hordle John squeezed him limp in his huge arms; and +then, picking him up, cast him down upon the floor with a force +which might well have splintered a bone or two, had not the +archer with the most perfect coolness clung to the other's +forearms to break his fall. As it was, he dropped upon his feet +and kept his balance, though it sent a jar through his frame +which set every joint a-creaking. He bounded back from his +perilous foeman; but the other, heated by the bout, rushed madly +after him, and so gave the practised wrestler the very vantage +for which he had planned. As big John flung himself upon him, +the archer ducked under the great red hands that clutched for +him, and, catching his man round the thighs, hurled him over his +shoulder--helped as much by his own mad rush as by the trained +strength of the heave. To Alleyne's eye, it was as if John had +taken unto himself wings and flown. As he hurtled through the +air, with giant limbs revolving, the lad's heart was in his +mouth; for surely no man ever yet had such a fall and came +scathless out of it. In truth, hardy as the man was, his neck +had been assuredly broken had he not pitched head first on the +very midriff of the drunken artist, who was slumbering so +peacefully in the corner, all unaware of these stirring doings. +The luckless limner, thus suddenly brought out from his dreams, +sat up with a piercing yell, while Hordle John bounded back into +the circle almost as rapidly as he had left it. + +"One more fall, by all the saints!" he cried, throwing out his +arms. + +"Not I," quoth the archer, pulling on his clothes, "I have come +well out of the business. I would sooner wrestle with the great +bear of Navarre." + +"It was a trick," cried John. + +"Aye was it. By my ten finger-bones! it is a trick that will add +a proper man to the ranks of the Company." + +"Oh, for that," said the other, "I count it not a fly; for I had +promised myself a good hour ago that I should go with thee, since +the life seems to be a goodly and proper one. Yet I would fain +have had the feather-bed." + +"I doubt it not, mon ami," quoth the archer, going back to his +tankard. "Here is to thee, lad, and may we be good comrades to +each other! But, hola! what is it that ails our friend of the +wrathful face?" + +The unfortunate limner had been sitting up rubbing himself +ruefully and staring about with a vacant gaze, which showed that +he knew neither where he was nor what had occurred to him. +Suddenly, however, a flash of intelligence had come over his +sodden features, and he rose and staggered for the door. "'Ware +the ale!" he said in a hoarse whisper, shaking a warning finger +at the company. "Oh, holy Virgin, 'ware the ale!" and slapping +his hands to his injury, he flitted off into the darkness, amid a +shout of laughter, in which the vanquished joined as merrily as +the victor. The remaining forester and the two laborers were +also ready for the road, and the rest of the company turned to +the blankets which Dame Eliza and the maid had laid out for them +upon the floor. Alleyne, weary with the unwonted excitements of +the day, was soon in a deep slumber broken only by fleeting +visions of twittering legs, cursing beggars, black robbers, and +the many strange folk whom he had met at the "Pied Merlin." + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +HOW THE THREE COMRADES JOURNEYED THROUGH THE WOODLANDS. + + +At early dawn the country inn was all alive, for it was rare +indeed that an hour of daylight would be wasted at a time when +lighting was so scarce and dear. Indeed, early as it was when +Dame Eliza began to stir, it seemed that others could be earlier +still, for the door was ajar, and the learned student of +Cambridge had taken himself off, with a mind which was too intent +upon the high things of antiquity to stoop to consider the +four-pence which he owed for bed and board. It was the shrill +out-cry of the landlady when she found her loss, and the clucking +of the hens, which had streamed in through the open door, that +first broke in upon the slumbers of the tired wayfarers. + +Once afoot, it was not long before the company began to disperse. +A sleek mule with red trappings was brought round from some +neighboring shed for the physician, and he ambled away with much +dignity upon his road to Southampton. The tooth-drawer and the +gleeman called for a cup of small ale apiece, and started off +together for Ringwood fair, the old jongleur looking very yellow +in the eye and swollen in the face after his overnight potations. +The archer, however, who had drunk more than any man in the room, +was as merry as a grig, and having kissed the matron and chased +the maid up the ladder once more, he went out to the brook, and +came back with the water dripping from his face and hair. + +"Hola! my man of peace," he cried to Alleyne, "whither are you +bent this morning?" + +"To Minstead," quoth he. "My brother Simon Edricson is socman +there, and I go to bide with him for a while. I prythee, let me +have my score, good dame." + +"Score, indeed!" cried she, standing with upraised hands in front +of the panel on which Alleyne had worked the night before. "Say, +rather what it is that I owe to thee, good youth. Aye, this is +indeed a pied merlin, and with a leveret under its claws, as I am +a living woman. By the rood of Waltham! but thy touch is deft +and dainty." + +"And see the red eye of it!" cried the maid. + +"Aye, and the open beak." + +"And the ruffled wing," added Hordle John. + +"By my hilt!" cried the archer, "it is the very bird itself." + +The young clerk flushed with pleasure at this chorus of praise, +rude and indiscriminate indeed, and yet so much heartier and less +grudging than any which he had ever heard from the critical +brother Jerome, or the short-spoken Abbot. There was, it would +seem, great kindness as well as great wickedness in this world, +of which he had heard so little that was good. His hostess would +hear nothing of his paying either for bed or for board, while the +archer and Hordle John placed a hand upon either shoulder and led +him off to the board, where some smoking fish, a dish of spinach, +and a jug of milk were laid out for their breakfast. + +"I should not be surprised to learn, mon camarade," said the +soldier, as he heaped a slice of fish upon Alleyne's tranchoir of +bread, "that you could read written things, since you are so +ready with your brushes and pigments." + +"It would be shame to the good brothers of Beaulieu if I could +not," he answered, "seeing that I have been their clerk this ten +years back." + +The bowman looked at him with great respect. "Think of that!" +said he. "And you with not a hair to your face, and a skin like +a girl. I can shoot three hundred and fifty paces with my little +popper there, and four hundred and twenty with the great war-bow; +yet I can make nothing of this, nor read my own name if you were +to set `Sam Aylward' up against me. In the whole Company there +was only one man who could read, and he fell down a well at the +taking of Ventadour, which proves what the thing is not suited to +a soldier, though most needful to a clerk." + +"I can make some show at it," said big John; "though I was scarce +long enough among the monks to catch the whole trick of it. + +"Here, then, is something to try upon," quoth the archer, pulling +a square of parchment from the inside of his tunic. It was tied +securely with a broad band of purple silk, and firmly sealed at +either end with a large red seal. John pored long and earnestly +over the inscription upon the back, with his brows bent as one +who bears up against great mental strain. + +"Not having read much of late," he said, "I am loth to say too +much about what this may be. Some might say one thing and some +another, just as one bowman loves the yew, and a second will not +shoot save with the ash. To me, by the length and the look of +it, I should judge this to be a verse from one of the Psalms." + +The bowman shook his head. "It is scarce likely," he said, "that +Sir Claude Latour should send me all the way across seas with +nought more weighty than a psalm-verse. You have clean overshot +the butts this time, mon camarade. Give it to the little one. I +will wager my feather-bed that he makes more sense of it." + +"Why, it is written in the French tongue," said Alleyne, "and in +a right clerkly hand. This is how it runs: `A le moult puissant +et moult honorable chevalier, Sir Nigel Loring de Christchurch, +de son tres fidele ami Sir Claude Latour, capitaine de la +Compagnie blanche, chatelain de Biscar, grand seigneur de +Montchateau, vavaseur de le renomme Gaston, Comte de Foix, tenant +les droits de la haute justice, de la milieu, et de la basse.' +Which signifies in our speech: `To the very powerful and very +honorable knight, Sir Nigel Loring of Christchurch, from his very +faithful friend Sir Claude Latour, captain of the White Company, +chatelain of Biscar, grand lord of Montchateau and vassal to the +renowned Gaston, Count of Foix, who holds the rights of the high +justice, the middle and the low.'" + +"Look at that now!" cried the bowman in triumph. "That is just +what he would have said." + +"I can see now that it is even so," said John, examining the +parchment again. "Though I scarce understand this high, middle +and low." + +"By my hilt! you would understand it if you were Jacques +Bonhomme. The low justice means that you may fleece him, and the +middle that you may torture him, and the high that you may slay +him. That is about the truth of it. But this is the letter +which I am to take; and since the platter is clean it is time +that we trussed up and were afoot. You come with me, mon gros +Jean; and as to you, little one, where did you say that you +journeyed?" + +"To Minstead." + +"Ah, yes. I know this forest country well, though I was born +myself in the Hundred of Easebourne, in the Rape of Chichester, +hard by the village of Midhurst. Yet I have not a word to say +against the Hampton men, for there are no better comrades or +truer archers in the whole Company than some who learned to loose +the string in these very parts. We shall travel round with you +to Minstead lad, seeing that it is little out of our way." + +"I am ready," said Alleyne, right pleased at the thought of such +company upon the road. + +"So am not I. I must store my plunder at this inn, since the +hostess is an honest woman. Hola! ma cherie, I wish to leave +with you my gold-work, my velvet, my silk, my feather bed, my +incense-boat, my ewer, my naping linen, and all the rest of it. +I take only the money in a linen bag, and the box of rose colored +sugar which is a gift from my captain to the Lady Loring. Wilt +guard my treasure for me?" + +"It shall be put in the safest loft, good archer. Come when you +may, you shall find it ready for you." + +"Now, there is a true friend!" cried the bowman, taking her hand. +"There is a bonne amie! English land and English women, say I, +and French wine and French plunder. I shall be back anon, mon +ange. I am a lonely man, my sweeting, and I must settle some day +when the wars are over and done. Mayhap you and I----Ah, +mechante, mechante! There is la petite peeping from behind the +door. Now, John, the sun is over the trees; you must be brisker +than this when the bugleman blows `Bows and Bills.'" + +"I have been waiting this time back," said Hordle John gruffly. + +"Then we must be off. Adieu, ma vie! The two livres shall +settle the score and buy some ribbons against the next kermesse. +Do not forget Sam Aylward, for his heart shall ever be thine +alone--and thine, ma petite! So, marchons, and may St. Julian +grant us as good quarters elsewhere!" + +The sun had risen over Ashurst and Denny woods, and was shining +brightly, though the eastern wind had a sharp flavor to it, and +the leaves were flickering thickly from the trees. In the High +Street of Lyndhurst the wayfarers had to pick their way, for the +little town was crowded with the guardsmen, grooms, and yeomen +prickers who were attached to the King's hunt. The King himself +was staying at Castle Malwood, but several of his suite had been +compelled to seek such quarters as they might find in the wooden +or wattle-and-daub cottages of the village. Here and there a +small escutcheon, peeping from a glassless window, marked the +night's lodging of knight or baron. These coats-of-arms could be +read, where a scroll would be meaningless, and the bowman, like +most men of his age, was well versed in the common symbols of +heraldry. + +"There is the Saracen's head of Sir Bernard Brocas," quoth he. +"I saw him last at the ruffle at Poictiers some ten years back, +when he bore himself like a man. He is the master of the King's +horse, and can sing a right jovial stave, though in that he +cannot come nigh to Sir John Chandos, who is first at the board +or in the saddle. Three martlets on a field azure, that must be +one of the Luttrells. By the crescent upon it, it should be the +second son of old Sir Hugh, who had a bolt through his ankle at +the intaking of Romorantin, he having rushed into the fray ere +his squire had time to clasp his solleret to his greave. There +too is the hackle which is the old device of the De Brays. I +have served under Sir Thomas de Bray, who was as jolly as a pie, +and a lusty swordsman until he got too fat for his harness." + +So the archer gossiped as the three wayfarers threaded their way +among the stamping horses, the busy grooms, and the knots of +pages and squires who disputed over the merits of their masters' +horses and deer-hounds. As they passed the old church, which +stood upon a mound at the left-hand side of the village street +the door was flung open, and a stream of worshippers wound down +the sloping path, coming from the morning mass, all chattering +like a cloud of jays. Alleyne bent knee and doffed hat at the +sight of the open door; but ere he had finished an ave his +comrades were out of sight round the curve of the path, and he +had to run to overtake them." + +"What!" he said, "not one word of prayer before God's own open +house? How can ye hope for His blessing upon the day?" + +"My friend," said Hordle John, "I have prayed so much during the +last two months, not only during the day, but at matins, lauds, +and the like, when I could scarce keep my head upon my shoulders +for nodding, that I feel that I have somewhat over-prayed +myself." + +"How can a man have too much religion?" cried Alleyne earnestly. +"It is the one thing that availeth. A man is but a beast as he +lives from day to day, eating and drinking, breathing and +sleeping. It is only when he raises himself, and concerns +himself with the immortal spirit within him, that he becomes in +very truth a man. Bethink ye how sad a thing it would be that +the blood of the Redeemer should be spilled to no purpose." + +"Bless the lad, if he doth not blush like any girl, and yet +preach like the whole College of Cardinals," cried the archer. + +"In truth I blush that any one so weak and so unworthy as I +should try to teach another that which he finds it so passing +hard to follow himself." + +"Prettily said, mon garcon. Touching that same slaying of the +Redeemer, it was a bad business. A good padre in France read to +us from a scroll the whole truth of the matter. The soldiers +came upon him in the garden. In truth, these Apostles of His may +have been holy men, but they were of no great account as +men-at-arms. There was one, indeed, Sir Peter, who smote out +like a true man; but, unless he is belied, he did but clip a +varlet's ear, which was no very knightly deed. By these ten +finger-bones! had I been there with Black Simon of Norwich, and +but one score picked men of the Company, we had held them in +play. Could we do no more, we had at least filled the false +knight, Sir Judas, so full of English arrows that he would curse +the day that ever he came on such an errand." + +The young clerk smiled at his companion's earnestness. "Had He +wished help," he said, "He could have summoned legions of +archangels from heaven, so what need had He of your poor bow and +arrow? Besides, bethink you of His own words--that those who +live by the sword shall perish by the sword." + +"And how could man die better?" asked the archer. "If I had my +wish, it would be to fall so--not, mark you, in any mere skirmish +of the Company, but in a stricken field, with the great lion +banner waving over us and the red oriflamme in front, amid the +shouting of my fellows and the twanging of the strings. But let +it be sword, lance, or bolt that strikes me down: for I should +think it shame to die from an iron ball from the fire-crake or +bombard or any such unsoldierly weapon, which is only fitted to +scare babes with its foolish noise and smoke." + +"I have heard much even in the quiet cloisters of these new and +dreadful engines," quoth Alleyne. "It is said, though I can +scarce bring myself to believe it, that they will send a ball +twice as far as a bowman can shoot his shaft, and with such force +as to break through armor of proof." + +"True enough, my lad. But while the armorer is thrusting in his +devil's-dust, and dropping his ball, and lighting his flambeau, I +can very easily loose six shafts, or eight maybe, so he hath no +great vantage after all. Yet I will not deny that at the +intaking of a town it is well to have good store of bombards. I +am told that at Calais they made dints in the wall that a man +might put his head into. But surely, comrades, some one who is +grievously hurt hath passed along this road before us." + +All along the woodland track there did indeed run a scattered +straggling trail of blood-marks, sometimes in single drops, and +in other places in broad, ruddy gouts, smudged over the dead +leaves or crimsoning the white flint stones. + +"It must be a stricken deer," said John. + +"Nay, I am woodman enough to see that no deer hath passed this +way this morning; and yet the blood is fresh. But hark to the +sound!" + +They stood listening all three with sidelong heads. Through the +silence of the great forest there came a swishing, whistling +sound, mingled with the most dolorous groans, and the voice of a +man raised in a high quavering kind of song. The comrades +hurried onwards eagerly, and topping the brow of a small rising +they saw upon the other side the source from which these strange +noises arose. + +A tall man, much stooped in the shoulders, was walking slowly +with bended head and clasped hands in the centre of the path. He +was dressed from head to foot in a long white linen cloth, and a +high white cap with a red cross printed upon it. His gown was +turned back from his shoulders, and the flesh there was a sight +to make a man wince, for it was all beaten to a pulp, and the +blood was soaking into his gown and trickling down upon the +ground. Behind him walked a smaller man with his hair touched +with gray, who was clad in the same white garb. He intoned a +long whining rhyme in the French tongue, and at the end of every +line he raised a thick cord, all jagged with pellets of lead, and +smote his companion across the shoulders until the blood spurted +again. Even as the three wayfarers stared, however, there was a +sudden change, for the smaller man, having finished his song, +loosened his own gown and handed the scourge to the other, who +took up the stave once more and lashed his companion with all the +strength of his bare and sinewy arm. So, alternately beating and +beaten, they made their dolorous way through the beautiful woods +and under the amber arches of the fading beech-trees, where the +calm strength and majesty of Nature might serve to rebuke the +foolish energies and misspent strivings of mankind. + +Such a spectacle was new to Hordle John or to Alleyne Edricson; +but the archer treated it lightly, as a common matter enough. + +"These are the Beating Friars, otherwise called the Flagellants," +quoth he. "I marvel that ye should have come upon none of them +before, for across the water they are as common as gallybaggers. +I have heard that there are no English among them, but that they +are from France, Italy and Bohemia. En avant, camarades! that we +may have speech with them." + +As they came up to them, Alleyne could hear the doleful dirge +which the beater was chanting, bringing down his heavy whip at +the end of each line, while the groans of the sufferer formed a +sort of dismal chorus. It was in old French, and ran somewhat in +this way: + + Or avant, entre nous tous freres + Battons nos charognes bien fort + En remembrant la grant misere + De Dieu et sa piteuse mort + Qui fut pris en la gent amere + Et vendus et trais a tort + Et bastu sa chair, vierge et dere + Au nom de ce battons plus fort. + +Then at the end of the verse the scourge changed hands and the +chanting began anew. + +"Truly, holy fathers," said the archer in French as they came +abreast of them, "you have beaten enough for to-day. The road is +all spotted like a shambles at Martinmas. Why should ye +mishandle yourselves thus?" + +"C'est pour vos peches--pour vos peches," they droned, looking at +the travellers with sad lack-lustre eyes, and then bent to their +bloody work once more without heed to the prayers and persuasions +which were addressed to them. Finding all remonstrance useless, +the three comrades hastened on their way, leaving these strange +travellers to their dreary task. + +"Mort Dieu!" cried the bowman, "there is a bucketful or more of +my blood over in France, but it was all spilled in hot fight, and +I should think twice before I drew it drop by drop as these +friars are doing. By my hilt! our young one here is as white as +a Picardy cheese. What is amiss then, mon cher?" + +"It is nothing," Alleyne answered. "My life has been too quiet, +I am not used to such sights." + +"Ma foi!" the other cried, "I have never yet seen a man who was +so stout of speech and yet so weak of heart." + +"Not so, friend," quoth big John; "it is not weakness of heart +for I know the lad well. His heart is as good as thine or mine +but he hath more in his pate than ever you will carry under that +tin pot of thine, and as a consequence he can see farther into +things, so that they weigh upon him more." + +"Surely to any man it is a sad sight," said Alleyne, "to see +these holy men, who have done no sin themselves, suffering so for +the sins of others. Saints are they, if in this age any may +merit so high a name." + +"I count them not a fly," cried Hordle John; "for who is the +better for all their whipping and yowling? They are like other +friars, I trow, when all is done. Let them leave their backs +alone, and beat the pride out of their hearts." + +"By the three kings! there is sooth in what you say," remarked +the archer. "Besides, methinks if I were le bon Dieu, it would +bring me little joy to see a poor devil cutting the flesh off his +bones; and I should think that he had but a small opinion of me, +that he should hope to please me by such provost-marshal work. +No, by my hilt! I should look with a more loving eye upon a jolly +archer who never harmed a fallen foe and never feared a hale +one." + +"Doubtless you mean no sin," said Alleyne. "If your words are +wild, it is not for me to judge them. Can you not see that there +are other foes in this world besides Frenchmen, and as much glory +to be gained in conquering them? Would it not be a proud day for +knight or squire if he could overthrow seven adversaries in the +lists? Yet here are we in the lists of life, and there come the +seven black champions against us Sir Pride, Sir Covetousness, Sir +Lust, Sir Anger, Sir Gluttony, Sir Envy, and Sir Sloth. Let a +man lay those seven low, and he shall have the prize of the day, +from the hands of the fairest queen of beauty, even from the +Virgin-Mother herself. It is for this that these men mortify +their flesh, and to set us an example, who would pamper +ourselves overmuch. I say again that they are God's own saints, +and I bow my head to them." + +"And so you shall, mon petit," replied the archer. "I have not +heard a man speak better since old Dom Bertrand died, who was at +one time chaplain to the White Company. He was a very valiant +man, but at the battle of Brignais he was spitted through the +body by a Hainault man-at-arms. For this we had an +excommunication read against the man, when next we saw our holy +father at Avignon; but as we had not his name, and knew nothing +of him, save that he rode a dapple-gray roussin, I have feared +sometimes that the blight may have settled upon the wrong man." + +"Your Company has been, then, to bow knee before our holy father, +the Pope Urban, the prop and centre of Christendom?" asked +Alleyne, much interested. "Perchance you have yourself set eyes +upon his august face?" + +"Twice I saw him," said the archer. "He was a lean little rat of +a man, with a scab on his chin. The first time we had five +thousand crowns out of him, though he made much ado about it. +The second time we asked ten thousand, but it was three days +before we could come to terms, and I am of opinion myself that we +might have done better by plundering the palace. His chamberlain +and cardinals came forth, as I remember, to ask whether we would +take seven thousand crowns with his blessing and a plenary +absolution, or the ten thousand with his solemn ban by bell, book +and candle. We were all of one mind that it was best to have the +ten thousand with the curse; but in some way they prevailed upon +Sir John, so that we were blest and shriven against our will. +Perchance it is as well, for the Company were in need of it about +that time." + +The pious Alleyne was deeply shocked by this reminiscence. +Involuntarily he glanced up and around to see if there were any +trace of those opportune levin-flashes and thunderbolts which, in +the "Acta Sanctorum," were wont so often to cut short the loose +talk of the scoffer. The autumn sun streamed down as brightly as +ever, and the peaceful red path still wound in front of them +through the rustling, yellow-tinted forest, Nature seemed to be +too busy with her own concerns to heed the dignity of an outraged +pontiff. Yet he felt a sense of weight and reproach within his +breast, as though he had sinned himself in giving ear to such +words. The teachings of twenty years cried out against such +license. It was not until he had thrown himself down before one +of the many wayside crosses, and had prayed from his heart both +for the archer and for himself, that the dark cloud rolled back +again from his spirit. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE THREE FRIENDS. + + +His companions had passed on whilst he was at his orisons; but +his young blood and the fresh morning air both invited him to a +scamper. His staff in one hand and his scrip in the other, with +springy step and floating locks, he raced along the forest path, +as active and as graceful as a young deer. He had not far to go, +however; for, on turning a corner, he came on a roadside cottage +with a wooden fence-work around it, where stood big John and +Aylward the bowman, staring at something within. As he came up +with them, he saw that two little lads, the one about nine years +of age and the other somewhat older, were standing on the plot in +front of the cottage, each holding out a round stick in their +left hands, with their arms stiff and straight from the shoulder, +as silent and still as two small statues. They were pretty, +blue-eyed, yellow-haired lads, well made and sturdy, with bronzed +skins, which spoke of a woodland life. + +"Here are young chips from an old bow stave!" cried the soldier +in great delight. "This is the proper way to raise children. By +my hilt! I could not have trained them better had I the ordering +of it myself," + +"What is it then?" asked Hordle John. "They stand very stiff, +and I trust that they have not been struck so." + +"Nay, they are training their left arms, that they may have a +steady grasp of the bow. So my own father trained me, and six +days a week I held out his walking-staff till my arm was heavy as +lead. Hola, mes enfants! how long will you hold out?" + +"Until the sun is over the great lime-tree, good master," the +elder answered. + +"What would ye be, then? Woodmen? Verderers?" + +"Nay, soldiers," they cried both together. + +"By the beard of my father! but ye are whelps of the true breed. +Why so keen, then, to be soldiers?" + +"That we may fight the Scots," they answered. "Daddy will send +us to fight the Scots." + +"And why the Scots, my pretty lads? We have seen French and +Spanish galleys no further away than Southampton, but I doubt +that it will be some time before the Scots find their way to +these parts." + +"Our business is with the Scots," quoth the elder; "for it was +the Scots who cut off daddy's string fingers and his thumbs." + +"Aye, lads, it was that," said a deep voice from behind Alleyne's +shoulder. Looking round, the wayfarers saw a gaunt, big-boned +man, with sunken cheeks and a sallow face, who had come up behind +them. He held up his two hands as he spoke, and showed that the +thumbs and two first fingers had been torn away from each of +them. + +"Ma foi, camarade!" cried Aylward. "Who hath served thee in so +shameful a fashion?" + +"It is easy to see, friend, that you were born far from the +marches of Scotland," quoth the stranger, with a bitter smile. +"North of Humber there is no man who would not know the handiwork +of Devil Douglas, the black Lord James." + +"And how fell you into his hands?" asked John. + +"I am a man of the north country, from the town of Beverley and +the wapentake of Holderness," he answered. "There was a day +when, from Trent to Tweed, there was no better marksman than +Robin Heathcot. Yet, as you see, he hath left me, as he hath +left many another poor border archer, with no grip for bill or +bow. Yet the king hath given me a living here in the southlands, +and please God these two lads of mine will pay off a debt that +hath been owing over long. What is the price of daddy's thumbs, +boys?" + +"Twenty Scottish lives," they answered together. + +"And for the fingers?" + +"Half a score." + +"When they can bend my war-bow, and bring down a squirrel at a +hundred paces, I send them to take service under Johnny Copeland, +the Lord of the Marches and Governor of Carlisle. By my soul! I +would give the rest of my fingers to see the Douglas within +arrow-flight of them." + +"May you live to see it," quoth the bowman. "And hark ye, mes +enfants, take an old soldier's rede and lay your bodies to the +bow, drawing from hip and thigh as much as from arm. Learn also, +I pray you, to shoot with a dropping shaft; for though a bowman +may at times be called upon to shoot straight and fast, yet it is +more often that he has to do with a town-guard behind a wall, or +an arbalestier with his mantlet raised when you cannot hope to do +him scathe unless your shaft fall straight upon him from the +clouds. I have not drawn string for two weeks, but I may be able +to show ye how such shots should be made." He loosened his +long-bow, slung his quiver round to the front, and then glanced +keenly round for a fitting mark. There was a yellow and withered +stump some way off, seen under the drooping branches of a lofty +oak. The archer measured the distance with his eye; and then, +drawing three shafts, he shot them off with such speed that the +first had not reached the mark ere the last was on the string. +Each arrow passed high over the oak; and, of the three, two stuck +fair into the stump; while the third, caught in some wandering +puff of wind, was driven a foot or two to one side. + +"Good!" cried the north countryman. "Hearken to him lads! He is +a master bowman, Your dad says amen to every word he says." + +"By my hilt!" said Aylward, "if I am to preach on bowmanship, the +whole long day would scarce give me time for my sermon. We have +marksmen in the Company who will notch with a shaft every +crevice and joint of a man-at-arm's harness, from the clasp of +his bassinet to the hinge of his greave. But, with your favor, +friend, I must gather my arrows again, for while a shaft costs a +penny a poor man can scarce leave them sticking in wayside +stumps. We must, then, on our road again, and I hope from my +heart that you may train these two young goshawks here until they +are ready for a cast even at such a quarry as you speak of." + +Leaving the thumbless archer and his brood, the wayfarers struck +through the scattered huts of Emery Down, and out on to the broad +rolling heath covered deep in ferns and in heather, where droves +of the half-wild black forest pigs were rooting about amongst the +hillocks. The woods about this point fall away to the left and +the right, while the road curves upwards and the wind sweeps +keenly over the swelling uplands. The broad strips of bracken +glowed red and yellow against the black peaty soil, and a queenly +doe who grazed among them turned her white front and her great +questioning eyes towards the wayfarers. Alleyne gazed in +admiration at the supple beauty of the creature; but the archer's +fingers played with his quiver, and his eyes glistened with the +fell instinct which urges a man to slaughter. + +"Tete Dieu!" he growled, "were this France, or even Guienne, we +should have a fresh haunch for our none-meat. Law or no law, I +have a mind to loose a bolt at her." + +"I would break your stave across my knee first," cried John, +laying his great hand upon the bow. "What! man, I am +forest-born, and I know what comes of it. In our own township of +Hordle two have lost their eyes and one his skin for this very +thing. On my troth, I felt no great love when I first saw you, +but since then I have conceived over much regard for you to wish +to see the verderer's flayer at work upon you." + +"It is my trade to risk my skin," growled the archer; but none +the less he thrust his quiver over his hip again and turned his +face for the west. + +As they advanced, the path still tended upwards, running from +heath into copses of holly and yew, and so back into heath again. +It was joyful to hear the merry whistle of blackbirds as they +darted from one clump of greenery to the other. Now and again a +peaty amber colored stream rippled across their way, with ferny +over-grown banks, where the blue kingfisher flitted busily from +side to side, or the gray and pensive heron, swollen with trout +and dignity, stood ankle-deep among the sedges. Chattering jays +and loud wood-pigeons flapped thickly overhead, while ever and +anon the measured tapping of Nature's carpenter, the great green +woodpecker, sounded from each wayside grove. On either side, as +the path mounted, the long sweep of country broadened and +expanded, sloping down on the one side through yellow forest and +brown moor to the distant smoke of Lymington and the blue misty +channel which lay alongside the sky-line, while to the north the +woods rolled away, grove topping grove, to where in the furthest +distance the white spire of Salisbury stood out hard and clear +against the cloudless sky. To Alleyne whose days had been spent +in the low-lying coastland, the eager upland air and the wide +free country-side gave a sense of life and of the joy of living +which made his young blood tingle in his veins. Even the heavy +John was not unmoved by the beauty of their road, while the +bowman whistled lustily or sang snatches of French love songs in +a voice which might have scared the most stout-hearted maiden +that ever hearkened to serenade. + +"I have a liking for that north countryman," he remarked +presently. "He hath good power of hatred. Couldst see by his +cheek and eye that he is as bitter as verjuice. I warm to a man +who hath some gall in his liver." + +"Ah me!" sighed Alleyne. "Would it not be better if he had some +love in his heart?" + +"I would not say nay to that. By my hilt! I shall never be said +to be traitor to the little king. Let a man love the sex. +Pasques Dieu! they are made to be loved, les petites, from +whimple down to shoe-string! I am right glad, mon garcon, to see +that the good monks have trained thee so wisely and so well." + +"Nay, I meant not worldly love, but rather that his heart should +soften towards those who have wronged him." + +The archer shook his head. "A man should love those of his own +breed," said he. "But it is not nature that an English-born man +should love a Scot or a Frenchman. Ma foi! you have not seen a +drove of Nithsdale raiders on their Galloway nags, or you would +not speak of loving them. I would as soon take Beelzebub himself +to my arms. I fear, mon gar., that they have taught thee but +badly at Beaulieu, for surely a bishop knows more of what is +right and what is ill than an abbot can do, and I myself with +these very eyes saw the Bishop of Lincoln hew into a Scottish +hobeler with a battle-axe, which was a passing strange way of +showing him that he loved him." + +Alleyne scarce saw his way to argue in the face of so decided an +opinion on the part of a high dignitary of the Church. "You have +borne arms against the Scots, then?" he asked. + +"Why, man, I first loosed string in battle when I was but a lad, +younger by two years than you, at Neville's Cross, under the Lord +Mowbray. Later, I served under the Warden of Berwick, that very +John Copeland of whom our friend spake, the same who held the +King of Scots to ransom. Ma foi! it is rough soldiering, and a +good school for one who would learn to be hardy and war-wise." + +"I have heard that the Scots are good men of war," said Hordle +John. + +"For axemen and for spearmen I have not seen their match," the +archer answered. "They can travel, too, with bag of meal and +gridiron slung to their sword-belt, so that it is ill to follow +them. There are scant crops and few beeves in the borderland, +where a man must reap his grain with sickle in one fist and brown +bill in the other. On the other hand, they are the sorriest +archers that I have ever seen, and cannot so much as aim with the +arbalest, to say nought of the long-bow. Again, they are mostly +poor folk, even the nobles among them, so that there are few who +can buy as good a brigandine of chain-mail as that which I am +wearing, and it is ill for them to stand up against our own +knights, who carry the price of five Scotch farms upon their +chest and shoulders. Man for man, with equal weapons, they are +as worthy and valiant men as could be found in the whole of +Christendom." + +"And the French?" asked Alleyne, to whom the archer's light +gossip had all the relish that the words of the man of action +have for the recluse. + +"The French are also very worthy men. We have had great good +fortune in France, and it hath led to much bobance and camp-fire +talk, but I have ever noticed that those who know the most have +the least to say about it. I have seen Frenchmen fight both in +open field, in the intaking and the defending of towns or +castlewicks, in escalados, camisades, night forays, bushments, +sallies, outfalls, and knightly spear-runnings. Their knights +and squires, lad, are every whit as good as ours, and I could +pick out a score of those who ride behind Du Guesclin who would +hold the lists with sharpened lances against the best men in the +army of England. On the other hand, their common folk are so +crushed down with gabelle, and poll-tax, and every manner of +cursed tallage, that the spirit has passed right out of them. It +is a fool's plan to teach a man to be a cur in peace, and think +that he will be a lion in war. Fleece them like sheep and sheep +they will remain. If the nobles had not conquered the poor folk +it is like enough that we should not have conquered the nobles." + +"But they must be sorry folk to bow down to the rich in such a +fashion," said big John. "I am but a poor commoner of England +myself, and yet I know something of charters, liberties +franchises, usages, privileges, customs, and the like. If these +be broken, then all men know that it is time to buy arrow-heads." + +"Aye, but the men of the law are strong in France as well as the +men of war. By my hilt! I hold that a man has more to fear there +from the ink-pot of the one than from the iron of the other. +There is ever some cursed sheepskin in their strong boxes to +prove that the rich man should be richer and the poor man poorer. +It would scarce pass in England, but they are quiet folk over the +water." + +"And what other nations have you seen in your travels, good sir?" +asked Alleyne Edricson. His young mind hungered for plain facts +of life, after the long course of speculation and of mysticism on +which he had been trained. + +"I have seen the low countryman in arms, and I have nought to say +against him. Heavy and slow is he by nature, and is not to be brought +into battle for the sake of a lady's eyelash or the twang of a +minstrel's string, like the hotter blood of the south. But ma foi! +lay hand on his wool-bales, or trifle with his velvet of Bruges, and +out buzzes every stout burgher, like bees from the tee-hole, ready to +lay on as though it were his one business in life. By our lady! they +have shown the French at Courtrai and elsewhere that they are as deft +in wielding steel as in welding it." + +"And the men of Spain?" + +"They too are very hardy soldiers, the more so as for many +hundred years they have had to fight hard against the cursed +followers of the black Mahound, who have pressed upon them from +the south, and still, as I understand, hold the fairer half of +the country. I had a turn with them upon the sea when they came +over to Winchelsea and the good queen with her ladies sat upon +the cliffs looking down at us, as if it had been joust or +tourney. By my hilt! it was a sight that was worth the seeing, +for all that was best in England was out on the water that day. +We went forth in little ships and came back in great galleys--for +of fifty tall ships of Spain, over two score flew the Cross of +St. George ere the sun had set. But now, youngster, I have +answered you freely, and I trow it is time what you answered me. +Let things be plat and plain between us. I am a man who shoots +straight at his mark. You saw the things I had with me at yonder +hostel: name which you will, save only the box of rose-colored +sugar which I take to the Lady Loring, and you shall have it if +you will but come with me to France." + +"Nay," said Alleyne, "I would gladly come with ye to France or +where else ye will, just to list to your talk, and because ye are +the only two friends that I have in the whole wide world outside +of the cloisters; but, indeed, it may not be, for my duty is +towards my brother, seeing that father and mother are dead, and +he my elder. Besides, when ye talk of taking me to France, ye do +not conceive how useless I should be to you, seeing that neither +by training nor by nature am I fitted for the wars, and there +seems to be nought but strife in those parts." + +"That comes from my fool's talk," cried the archer; "for being a +man of no learning myself, my tongue turns to blades and targets, +even as my hand does. Know then that for every parchment in +England there are twenty in France. For every statue, cut gem, +shrine, carven screen, or what else might please the eye of a +learned clerk, there are a good hundred to our one. At the +spoiling of Carcasonne I have seen chambers stored with writing, +though not one man in our Company could read them. Again, in +Arles and Nimes, and other towns that I could name, there are the +great arches and fortalices still standing which were built of +old by giant men who came from the south. Can I not see by your +brightened eye how you would love to look upon these things? +Come then with me, and, by these ten finger-bones! there is not +one of them which you shall not see." + +"I should indeed love to look upon them," Alleyne answered; "but +I have come from Beaulieu for a purpose, and I must be true to my +service, even as thou art true to thine." + +"Bethink you again, mon ami," quoth Aylward, "that you might do +much good yonder, since there are three hundred men in the +Company, and none who has ever a word of grace for them, and yet +the Virgin knows that there was never a set of men who were in +more need of it. Sickerly the one duty may balance the other. +Your brother hath done without you this many a year, and, as I +gather, he hath never walked as far as Beaulieu to see you during +all that time, so he cannot be in any great need of you." + +"Besides," said John, "the Socman of Minstead is a by-word +through the forest, from Bramshaw Hill to Holmesley Walk. He is +a drunken, brawling, perilous churl, as you may find to your +cost." + +"The more reason that I should strive to mend him," quoth +Alleyne. "There is no need to urge me, friends, for my own +wishes would draw me to France, and it would be a joy to me if I +could go with you. But indeed and indeed it cannot be, so here I +take my leave of you, for yonder square tower amongst the trees +upon the right must surely be the church of Minstead, and I may +reach it by this path through the woods." + +"Well, God be with thee, lad!" cried the archer, pressing Alleyne +to his heart. "I am quick to love, and quick to hate and 'fore +God I am loth to part." + +"Would it not be well," said John, "that we should wait here, and +see what manner of greeting you have from your brother. You may +prove to be as welcome as the king's purveyor to the village +dame." + +"Nay, nay," he answered; "ye must not bide for me, for where I go +I stay." + +"Yet it may be as well that you should know whither we go," said +the archer. "We shall now journey south through the woods until +we come out upon the Christchurch road, and so onwards, hoping +to-night to reach the castle of Sir William Montacute, Earl of +Salisbury, of which Sir Nigel Loring is constable. There we +shall bide, and it is like enough that for a month or more you +may find us there, ere we are ready for our viage back to +France." + +It was hard indeed for Alleyne to break away from these two new +but hearty friends, and so strong was the combat between his +conscience and his inclinations that he dared not look round, +lest his resolution should slip away from him. It was not until +he was deep among the tree trunks that he cast a glance +backwards, when he found that he could still see them through the +branches on the road above him. The archer was standing with +folded arms, his bow jutting from over his shoulder, and the sun +gleaming brightly upon his head-piece and the links of his +chain-mail. Beside him stood his giant recruit, still clad in +the home-spun and ill-fitting garments of the fuller of +Lymington, with arms and legs shooting out of his scanty garb. +Even as Alleyne watched them they turned upon their heels and +plodded off together upon their way. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOW STRANGE THINGS BEFELL IN MINSTEAD WOOD. + + +The path which the young clerk had now to follow lay through a +magnificent forest of the very heaviest timber, where the giant +bowls of oak and of beech formed long aisles in every direction, +shooting up their huge branches to build the majestic arches of +Nature's own cathedral. Beneath lay a broad carpet of the +softest and greenest moss, flecked over with fallen leaves, but +yielding pleasantly to the foot of the traveller. The track +which guided him was one so seldom used that in places it lost +itself entirely among the grass, to reappear as a reddish rut +between the distant tree trunks. It was very still here in the +heart of the woodlands. The gentle rustle of the branches and +the distant cooing of pigeons were the only sounds which broke in +upon the silence, save that once Alleyne heard afar off a merry +call upon a hunting bugle and the shrill yapping of the hounds. + +It was not without some emotion that he looked upon the scene +around him, for, in spite of his secluded life, he knew enough of +the ancient greatness of his own family to be aware that the time +had been when they had held undisputed and paramount sway over +all that tract of country. His father could trace his pure Saxon +lineage back to that Godfrey Malf who had held the manors of +Bisterne and of Minstead at the time when the Norman first set +mailed foot upon English soil. The afforestation of the +district, however, and its conversion into a royal demesne had +clipped off a large section of his estate, while other parts had +been confiscated as a punishment for his supposed complicity in +an abortive Saxon rising. The fate of the ancestor had been +typical of that of his descendants. During three hundred years +their domains had gradually contracted, sometimes through royal +or feudal encroachment, and sometimes through such gifts to the +Church as that with which Alleyne's father had opened the doors +of Beaulieu Abbey to his younger son. The importance of the +family had thus dwindled, but they still retained the old Saxon +manor-house, with a couple of farms and a grove large enough to +afford pannage to a hundred pigs--"sylva de centum porcis," as +the old family parchments describe it. Above all, the owner of +the soil could still hold his head high as the veritable Socman +of Minstead--that is, as holding the land in free socage, with +no feudal superior, and answerable to no man lower than the king. +Knowing this, Alleyne felt some little glow of worldly pride as +he looked for the first time upon the land with which so many +generations of his ancestors had been associated. He pushed on +the quicker, twirling his staff merrily, and looking out at every +turn of the path for some sign of the old Saxon residence. He +was suddenly arrested, however, by the appearance of a wild-looking +fellow armed with a club, who sprang out from behind a tree and +barred his passage. He was a rough, powerful peasant, with cap +and tunic of untanned sheepskin, leather breeches, and +galligaskins round legs and feet. + +"Stand!" he shouted, raising his heavy cudgel to enforce the +order. "Who are you who walk so freely through the wood? +Whither would you go, and what is your errand?" + +"Why should I answer your questions, my friend?" said Alleyne, +standing on his guard. + +"Because your tongue may save your pate. But where have I looked +upon your face before?" + +"No longer ago than last night at the `Pied Merlin,'" the clerk +answered, recognizing the escaped serf who had been so outspoken +as to his wrongs. + +"By the Virgin! yes. You were the little clerk who sat so mum in +the corner, and then cried fy on the gleeman. What hast in the +scrip?" + +"Naught of any price." + +"How can I tell that, clerk? Let me see." + +"Not I." + +"Fool! I could pull you limb from limb like a pullet. What +would you have? Hast forgot that we are alone far from all men? +How can your clerkship help you? Wouldst lose scrip and life +too?" + +"I will part with neither without fight." + +"A fight, quotha? A fight betwixt spurred cock and new hatched +chicken! Thy fighting days may soon be over." + +"Hadst asked me in the name of charity I would have given +freely," cried Alleyne. "As it stands, not one farthing shall +you have with my free will, and when I see my brother, the +Socman of Minstead, he will raise hue and cry from vill to vill, +from hundred to hundred, until you are taken as a common robber +and a scourge to the country." + +The outlaw sank his club. "The Socman's brother!" he gasped. +"Now, by the keys of Peter! I had rather that hand withered and +tongue was palsied ere I had struck or miscalled you. If you are +the Socman's brother you are one of the right side, I warrant, +for all your clerkly dress." + +"His brother I am," said Alleyne. "But if I were not, is that +reason why you should molest me on the king's ground?" + +"I give not the pip of an apple for king or for noble," cried the +serf passionately. "Ill have I had from them, and ill I shall +repay them. I am a good friend to my friends, and, by the +Virgin! an evil foeman to my foes." + +"And therefore the worst of foemen to thyself," said Alleyne. +"But I pray you, since you seem to know him, to point out to me +the shortest path to my brother's house." + +The serf was about to reply, when the clear ringing call of a +bugle burst from the wood close behind them, and Alleyne caught +sight for an instant of the dun side and white breast of a lordly +stag glancing swiftly betwixt the distant tree trunks. A minute +later came the shaggy deer-hounds, a dozen or fourteen of them, +running on a hot scent, with nose to earth and tail in air. As +they streamed past the silent forest around broke suddenly into +loud life, with galloping of hoofs, crackling of brushwood, and +the short, sharp cries of the hunters. Close behind the pack +rode a fourrier and a yeoman-pricker, whooping on the laggards +and encouraging the leaders, in the shrill half-French jargon +which was the language of venery and woodcraft. Alleyne was +still gazing after them, listening to the loud "Hyke-a-Bayard! +Hyke-a-Pomers! Hyke-a-Lebryt!" with which they called upon their +favorite hounds, when a group of horsemen crashed out through the +underwood at the very spot where the serf and he were standing. + +The one who led was a man between fifty and sixty years of age, +war-worn and weather-beaten, with a broad, thoughtful forehead +and eyes which shone brightly from under his fierce and overhung +brows. His beard, streaked thickly with gray, bristled forward +from his chin, and spoke of a passionate nature, while the long, +finely cut face and firm mouth marked the leader of men. His +figure was erect and soldierly, and he rode his horse with the +careless grace of a man whose life had been spent in the saddle. +In common garb, his masterful face and flashing eye would have +marked him as one who was born to rule; but now, with his silken +tunic powdered with golden fleurs-de-lis, his velvet mantle lined +with the royal minever, and the lions of England stamped in +silver upon his harness, none could fail to recognize the noble +Edward, most warlike and powerful of all the long line of +fighting monarchs who had ruled the Anglo-Norman race. Alleyne +doffed hat and bowed head at the sight of him, but the serf +folded his hands and leaned them upon his cudgel, looking with +little love at the knot of nobles and knights-in-waiting who rode +behind the king. + +"Ha!" cried Edward, reining up for an instant his powerful black +steed. "Le cerf est passe? Non? Ici, Brocas; tu parles Anglais." + +"The deer, clowns?" said a hard-visaged, swarthy-faced man, who +rode at the king's elbow. "If ye have headed it back it is as +much as your ears are worth." + +"It passed by the blighted beech there," said Alleyne, pointing, +"and the hounds were hard at its heels." + +"It is well," cried Edward, still speaking in French: for, though +he could understand English, he had never learned to express +himself in so barbarous and unpolished a tongue. "By my faith, +sirs," he continued, half turning in his saddle to address his +escort, "unless my woodcraft is sadly at fault, it is a stag of +six tines and the finest that we have roused this journey. A +golden St. Hubert to the man who is the first to sound the mort." +He shook his bridle as he spoke, and thundered away, his knights +lying low upon their horses and galloping as hard as whip and +spur would drive them, in the hope of winning the king's prize. +Away they drove down the long green glade--bay horses, black and +gray, riders clad in every shade of velvet, fur, or silk, with +glint of brazen horn and flash of knife and spear. One only +lingered, the black-browed Baron Brocas, who, making a gambade +which brought him within arm-sweep of the serf, slashed him +across the face with his riding-whip. "Doff, dog, doff," he +hissed, "when a monarch deigns to lower his eyes to such as +you!"--then spurred through the underwood and was gone, with a +gleam of steel shoes and flutter of dead leaves. + +The villein took the cruel blow without wince or cry, as one to +whom stripes are a birthright and an inheritance. His eyes +flashed, however, and he shook his bony hand with a fierce wild +gesture after the retreating figure. + +"Black hound of Gascony," he muttered, "evil the day that you and +those like you set foot in free England! I know thy kennel of +Rochecourt. The night will come when I may do to thee and thine +what you and your class have wrought upon mine and me. May God +smite me if I fail to smite thee, thou French robber, with thy +wife and thy child and all that is under thy castle roof!" + +"Forbear!" cried Alleyne. "Mix not God's name with these +unhallowed threats! And yet it was a coward's blow, and one to +stir the blood and loose the tongue of the most peaceful. Let me +find some soothing simples and lay them on the weal to draw the +sting," + +"Nay, there is but one thing that can draw the sting, and that +the future may bring to me. But, clerk, if you would see your +brother you must on, for there is a meeting to-day, and his merry +men will await him ere the shadows turn from west to east. I +pray you not to hold him back, for it would be an evil thing if +all the stout lads were there and the leader a-missing. I would +come with you, but sooth to say I am stationed here and may not +move. The path over yonder, betwixt the oak and the thorn, +should bring you out into his nether field." + +Alleyne lost no time in following the directions of the wild, +masterless man, whom he left among the trees where he had found +him. His heart was the heavier for the encounter, not only +because all bitterness and wrath were abhorrent to his gentle +nature, but also because it disturbed him to hear his brother +spoken of as though he were a chief of outlaws or the leader of a +party against the state. Indeed, of all the things which he had +seen yet in the world to surprise him there was none more strange +than the hate which class appeared to bear to class. The talk of +laborer, woodman and villein in the inn had all pointed to the +wide-spread mutiny, and now his brother's name was spoken as +though he were the very centre of the universal discontent. In +good truth, the commons throughout the length and breadth of the +land were heart-weary of this fine game of chivalry which had +been played so long at their expense. So long as knight and +baron were a strength and a guard to the kingdom they might be +endured, but now, when all men knew that the great battles in +France had been won by English yeomen and Welsh stabbers, warlike +fame, the only fame to which his class had ever aspired, appeared +to have deserted the plate-clad horsemen. The sports of the +lists had done much in days gone by to impress the minds of the +people, but the plumed and unwieldy champion was no longer an +object either of fear or of reverence to men whose fathers and +brothers had shot into the press at Crecy or Poitiers, and seen +the proudest chivalry in the world unable to make head against +the weapons of disciplined peasants. Power had changed hands. +The protector had become the protected, and the whole fabric of +the feudal system was tottering to a fall. Hence the fierce +mutterings of the lower classes and the constant discontent, +breaking out into local tumult and outrage, and culminating some +years later in the great rising of Tyler. What Alleyne saw and +wondered at in Hampshire would have appealed equally to the +traveller in any other English county from the Channel to the +marches of Scotland, + +He was following the track, his misgivings increasing with every +step which took him nearer to that home which he had never seen, +when of a sudden the trees began to thin and the sward to spread +out onto a broad, green lawn, where five cows lay in the sunshine +and droves of black swine wandered unchecked. A brown forest +stream swirled down the centre of this clearing, with a rude +bridge flung across it, and on the other side was a second field +sloping up to a long, low-lying wooden house, with thatched roof +and open squares for windows. Alleyne gazed across at it with +flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes--for this, he knew, must be the +home of his fathers. A wreath of blue smoke floated up through a +hole in the thatch, and was the only sign of life in the place, +save a great black hound which lay sleeping chained to the +door-post. In the yellow shimmer of the autumn sunshine it lay +as peacefully and as still as he had oft pictured it to himself +in his dreams. + +He was roused, however, from his pleasant reverie by the sound of +voices, and two people emerged from the forest some little way to +his right and moved across the field in the direction of the +bridge. The one was a man with yellow flowing beard and very +long hair of the same tint drooping over his shoulders; his dress +of good Norwich cloth and his assured bearing marked him as a man +of position, while the sombre hue of his clothes and the absence +of all ornament contrasted with the flash and glitter which had +marked the king's retinue. By his side walked a woman, tall and +slight and dark, with lithe, graceful figure and clear-cut, +composed features. Her jet-black hair was gathered back under a +light pink coif, her head poised proudly upon her neck, and her +step long and springy, like that of some wild, tireless woodland +creature. She held her left hand in front of her, covered with a +red velvet glove, and on the wrist a little brown falcon, very +fluffy and bedraggled, which she smoothed and fondled as she +walked. As she came out into the sunshine, Alleyne noticed that +her light gown, slashed with pink, was all stained with earth and +with moss upon one side from shoulder to hem. He stood in the +shadow of an oak staring at her with parted lips, for this woman +seemed to him to be the most beautiful and graceful creature that +mind could conceive of. Such had he imagined the angels, and +such he had tried to paint them in the Beaulieu missals; but here +there was something human, were it only in the battered hawk and +discolored dress, which sent a tingle and thrill through his +nerves such as no dream of radiant and stainless spirit had ever +yet been able to conjure up. Good, quiet, uncomplaining mother +Nature, long slighted and miscalled, still bide, her time and +draws to her bosom the most errant of her children. + +The two walked swiftly across the meadow to the narrow bridge, he +in front and she a pace or two behind. There they paused, and +stood for a few minutes face to face talking earnestly. Alleyne +had read and had heard of love and of lovers. Such were these, +doubtless--this golden-bearded man and the fair damsel with the +cold, proud face. Why else should they wander together in the +woods, or be so lost in talk by rustic streams? And yet as he +watched, uncertain whether to advance from the cover or to choose +some other path to the house, he soon came to doubt the truth of +this first conjecture. The man stood, tall and square, blocking +the entrance to the bridge, and throwing out his hands as he +spoke in a wild eager fashion, while the deep tones of his stormy +voice rose at times into accents of menace and of anger. She +stood fearlessly in front of him, still stroking her bird; but +twice she threw a swift questioning glance over her shoulder, as +one who is in search of aid. So moved was the young clerk by +these mute appeals, that he came forth from the trees and crossed +the meadow, uncertain what to do, and yet loth to hold back from +one who might need his aid. So intent were they upon each other +that neither took note of his approach; until, when he was close +upon them, the man threw his arm roughly round the damsel's waist +and drew her towards him, she straining her lithe, supple figure +away and striking fiercely at him, while the hooded hawk screamed +with ruffled wings and pecked blindly in its mistress's defence. +Bird and maid, however, had but little chance against their +assailant who, laughing loudly, caught her wrist in one hand +while he drew her towards him with the other. + +"The best rose has ever the longest thorns," said he. "Quiet, +little one, or you may do yourself a hurt. Must pay Saxon toll +on Saxon land, my proud Maude, for all your airs and graces." + +"You boor!" she hissed. "You base underbred clod! Is this your +care and your hospitality? I would rather wed a branded serf +from my father's fields. Leave go, I say---- Ah! good youth, +Heaven has sent you. Make him loose me! By the honor of your +mother, I pray you to stand by me and to make this knave loose +me." + +"Stand by you I will, and that blithely." said Alleyne. +"Surely, sir, you should take shame to hold the damsel against +her will." + +The man turned a face upon him which was lion-like in its +strength and in its wrath. With his tangle of golden hair, his +fierce blue eyes, and his large, well-marked features, he was the +most comely man whom Alleyne had ever seen, and yet there was +something so sinister and so fell in his expression that child or +beast might well have shrunk from him. His brows were drawn, his +cheek flushed, and there was a mad sparkle in his eyes which +spoke of a wild, untamable nature. + +"Young fool!" he cried, holding the woman still to his side, +though every line of her shrinking figure spoke her abhorrence. +"Do you keep your spoon in your own broth. I rede you to go on +your way, lest worse befall you. This little wench has come with +me and with me she shall bide." + +"Liar!" cried the woman; and, stooping her head, she suddenly bit +fiercely into the broad brown hand which held her. He whipped it +back with an oath, while she tore herself free and slipped behind +Alleyne, cowering up against him like the trembling leveret who +sees the falcon poising for the swoop above him. + +"Stand off my land!" the man said fiercely, heedless of the blood +which trickled freely from his fingers. "What have you to do +here? By your dress you should be one of those cursed clerks who +overrun the land like vile rats, poking and prying into other +men's concerns, too caitiff to fight and too lazy to work. By +the rood! if I had my will upon ye, I should nail you upon the +abbey doors, as they hang vermin before their holes. Art neither +man nor woman, young shaveling. Get thee back to thy fellows ere +I lay hands upon you: for your foot is on my land, and I may slay +you as a common draw-latch." + +"Is this your land, then?" gasped Alleyne. + +"Would you dispute it, dog? Would you wish by trick or quibble +to juggle me out of these last acres? Know, base-born knave, +that you have dared this day to stand in the path of one whose +race have been the advisers of kings and the leaders of hosts, +ere ever this vile crew of Norman robbers came into the land, or +such half-blood hounds as you were let loose to preach that the +thief should have his booty and the honest man should sin if he +strove to win back his own." + +"You are the Socman of Minstead?" + +"That am I; and the son of Edric the Socman, of the pure blood of +Godfrey the thane, by the only daughter of the house of Aluric, +whose forefathers held the white-horse banner at the fatal fight +where our shield was broken and our sword shivered. I tell you, +clerk, that my folk held this land from Bramshaw Wood to the +Ringwood road; and, by the soul of my father! it will be a +strange thing if I am to be bearded upon the little that is left +of it. Begone, I say, and meddle not with my affair." + +"If you leave me now," whispered the woman, "then shame forever +upon your manhood." + +"Surely, sir," said Alleyne, speaking in as persuasive and +soothing a way as he could, "if your birth is gentle, there is +the more reason that your manners should be gentle too. I am +well persuaded that you did but jest with this lady, and that you +will now permit her to leave your land either alone or with me as +a guide, if she should need one, through the wood. As to birth, +it does not become me to boast, and there is sooth in what you +say as to the unworthiness of clerks, but it is none the less +true that I am as well born as you." + +"Dog!" cried the furious Socman, "there is no man in the south +who can saw as much." + +"Yet can I," said Alleyne smiling; "for indeed I also am the son +of Edric the Socman, of the pure blood of Godfrey the thane, by +the only daughter of Aluric of Brockenhurst. Surely, dear +brother," he continued, holding out his hand, "you have a warmer +greeting than this for me. There are but two boughs left upon +this old, old Saxon trunk." + +His elder brother dashed his hand aside with an oath, while an +expression of malignant hatred passed over his passion-drawn +features. "You are the young cub of Beaulieu, then," said he. +"I might have known it by the sleek face and the slavish manner +too monk-ridden and craven in spirit to answer back a rough word. +Thy father, shaveling, with all his faults, had a man's heart; +and there were few who could look him in the eyes on the day of +his anger. But you! Look there, rat, on yonder field where the +cows graze, and on that other beyond, and on the orchard hard by +the church. Do you know that all these were squeezed out of your +dying father by greedy priests, to pay for your upbringing in the +cloisters? I, the Socman, am shorn of my lands that you may +snivel Latin and eat bread for which you never did hand's turn. +You rob me first, and now you would come preaching and whining, +in search mayhap of another field or two for your priestly +friends. Knave! my dogs shall be set upon you; but, meanwhile, +stand out of my path, and stop me at your peril!" As he spoke he +rushed forward, and, throwing the lad to one side, caught the +woman's wrist. Alleyne, however, as active as a young deer-hound, +sprang to her aid and seized her by the other arm, raising +his iron-shod staff as he did so. + +"You may say what you will to me," he said between his clenched +teeth--"it may be no better than I deserve; but, brother or no, I +swear by my hopes of salvation that I will break your arm if you +do not leave hold of the maid." + +There was a ring in his voice and a flash in his eyes which +promised that the blow would follow quick at the heels of the +word. For a moment the blood of the long line of hot-headed +thanes was too strong for the soft whisperings of the doctrine of +meekness and mercy. He was conscious of a fierce wild thrill +through his nerves and a throb of mad gladness at his heart, as +his real human self burst for an instant the bonds of custom and +of teaching which had held it so long. The socman sprang back, +looking to left and to right for some stick or stone which might +serve him for weapon; but finding none, he turned and ran at the +top of his speed for the house, blowing the while upon a shrill +whistle. + +"Come!" gasped the woman. "Fly, friend, ere he come back." + +"Nay, let him come!" cried Alleyne. "I shall not budge a foot +for him or his dogs." + +"Come, come!" she cried, tugging at his arm. "I know the man: he +will kill you. Come, for the Virgin's sake, or for my sake, for +I cannot go and leave you here." + +"Come, then," said he; and they ran together to the cover of the +woods. As they gained the edge of the brushwood, Alleyne, +looking back, saw his brother come running out of the house +again, with the sun gleaming upon his hair and his beard. He +held something which flashed in his right hand, and he stooped at +the threshold to unloose the black hound. + +"This way!" the woman whispered, in a low eager voice. "Through +the bushes to that forked ash. Do not heed me; I can run as fast +as you, I trow. Now into the stream--right in, over ankles, to +throw the dog off, though I think it is but a common cur, like +its master." As she spoke, she sprang herself into the shallow +stream and ran swiftly up the centre of it, with the brown water +bubbling over her feet and her hand out-stretched toward the +clinging branches of bramble or sapling. Alleyne followed close +at her heels, with his mind in a whirl at this black welcome and +sudden shifting of all his plans and hopes. Yet, grave as were +his thoughts, they would still turn to wonder as he looked at the +twinkling feet of his guide and saw her lithe figure bend this +way and that, dipping under boughs, springing over stones, with a +lightness and ease which made it no small task for him to keep up +with her. At last, when he was almost out of breath, she +suddenly threw herself down upon a mossy bank, between two +holly-bushes, and looked ruefully at her own dripping feet and +bedraggled skirt. + +"Holy Mary!" said she, "what shall I do? Mother will keep me to +my chamber for a month, and make me work at the tapestry of the +nine bold knights. She promised as much last week, when I fell +into Wilverley bog, and yet she knows that I cannot abide +needle-work." + +Alleyne, still standing in the stream, glanced down at the +graceful pink-and-white figure, the curve of raven-black hair, +and the proud, sensitive face which looked up frankly and +confidingly at his own. + +"We had best on," he said. "He may yet overtake us." + +"Not so. We are well off his land now, nor can he tell in this +great wood which way we have taken. But you--you had him at your +mercy. Why did you not kill him?" + +"Kill him! My brother!" + +"And why not?"--with a quick gleam of her white teeth. "He would +have killed you. I know him, and I read it in his eyes. Had I +had your staff I would have tried--aye, and done it, too." She +shook her clenched white hand as she spoke, and her lips +tightened ominously. + +"I am already sad in heart for what I have done," said he, +sitting down on the bank, and sinking his face into his hands. +"God help me!--all that is worst in me seemed to come uppermost. +Another instant, and I had smitten him: the son of my own mother, +the man whom I have longed to take to my heart. Alas! that I +should still be so weak." + +"Weak!" she exclaimed, raising her black eyebrows. "I do not +think that even my father himself, who is a hard judge of +manhood, would call you that. But it is, as you may think, sir, +a very pleasant thing for me to hear that you are grieved at what +you have done, and I can but rede that we should go back +together, and you should make your peace with the Socman by +handing back your prisoner. It is a sad thing that so small a +thing as a woman should come between two who are of one blood." + +Simple Alleyne opened his eyes at this little spurt of feminine +bitterness. "Nay, lady," said he, "that were worst of all. What +man would be so caitiff and thrall as to fail you at your need? +I have turned my brother against me, and now, alas! I appear to +have given you offence also with my clumsy tongue. But, indeed, +lady, I am torn both ways, and can scarce grasp in my mind what +it is that has befallen." + +"Nor can I marvel at that," said she, with a little tinkling +laugh. "You came in as the knight does in the jongleur's +romances, between dragon and damsel, with small time for the +asking of questions. Come," she went on, springing to her feet, +and smoothing down her rumpled frock, "let us walk through the +shaw together, and we may come upon Bertrand with the horses. If +poor Troubadour had not cast a shoe, we should not have had this +trouble. Nay, I must have your arm: for, though I speak lightly, +now that all is happily over I am as frightened as my brave +Roland. See how his chest heaves, and his dear feathers all +awry--the little knight who would not have his lady mishandled." +So she prattled on to her hawk, while Alleyne walked by her side, +stealing a glance from time to time at this queenly and wayward +woman. In silence they wandered together over the velvet turf +and on through the broad Minstead woods, where the old +lichen-draped beeches threw their circles of black shadow upon +the sunlit sward. + +"You have no wish, then, to hear my story?" said she, at last. + +"If it pleases you to tell it me," he answered. + +"Oh!" she cried tossing her head, "if it is of so little interest +to you, we had best let it bide." + +"Nay," said he eagerly, "I would fain hear it." + +"You have a right to know it, if you have lost a brother's favor +through it. And yet----Ah well, you are, as I understand, a +clerk, so I must think of you as one step further in orders, and +make you my father-confessor. Know then that this man has been a +suitor for my hand, less as I think for my own sweet sake than +because he hath ambition and had it on his mind that he might +improve his fortunes by dipping into my father's strong +box--though the Virgin knows that he would have found little +enough therein. My father, however, is a proud man, a gallant +knight and tried soldier of the oldest blood, to whom this man's +churlish birth and low descent----Oh, lackaday! I had forgot that +he was of the same strain as yourself." + +"Nay, trouble not for that," said Alleyne, "we are all from good +mother Eve." + +"Streams may spring from one source, and yet some be clear and +some be foul," quoth she quickly. "But, to be brief over the +matter, my father would have none of his wooing, nor in sooth +would I. On that he swore a vow against us, and as he is known +to be a perilous man, with many outlaws and others at his back, +my father forbade that I should hawk or hunt in any part of the +wood to the north of the Christchurch road. As it chanced, +however, this morning my little Roland here was loosed at a +strong-winged heron, and page Bertrand and I rode on, with no +thoughts but for the sport, until we found ourselves in Minstead +woods. Small harm then, but that my horse Troubadour trod with a +tender foot upon a sharp stick, rearing and throwing me to the +ground. See to my gown, the third that I have befouled within +the week. Woe worth me when Agatha the tire-woman sets eyes upon +it!" + +"And what then, lady?" asked Alleyne. + +"Why, then away ran Troubadour, for belike I spurred him in +falling, and Bertrand rode after him as hard as hoofs could bear +him. When I rose there was the Socman himself by my side, with +the news that I was on his land, but with so many courteous words +besides, and such gallant bearing, that he prevailed upon me to +come to his house for shelter, there to wait until the page +return. By the grace of the Virgin and the help of my patron St. +Magdalen, I stopped short ere I reached his door, though, as you +saw, he strove to hale me up to it. And then--ah-h-h-h!"--she +shivered and chattered like one in an ague-fit. + +"What is it?" cried Alleyne, looking about in alarm. + +"Nothing, friend, nothing! I was but thinking how I bit into his +hand. Sooner would I bite living toad or poisoned snake. Oh, I +shall loathe my lips forever! But you--how brave you were, and +how quick! How meek for yourself, and how bold for a stranger! +If I were a man, I should wish to do what you have done." + +"It was a small thing," he answered, with a tingle of pleasure at +these sweet words of praise. "But you--what will you do?" + +"There is a great oak near here, and I think that Bertrand will +bring the horses there, for it is an old hunting-tryst of ours. +Then hey for home, and no more hawking to-day! A twelve-mile +gallop will dry feet and skirt." + +"But your father?" + +"Not one word shall I tell him. You do not know him; but I can +tell you he is not a man to disobey as I have disobeyed him. He +would avenge me, it is true, but it is not to him that I shall +look for vengeance. Some day, perchance, in joust or in tourney, +knight may wish to wear my colors, and then I shall tell him that +if he does indeed crave my favor there is wrong unredressed, and +the wronger the Socman of Minstead. So my knight shall find a +venture such as bold knights love, and my debt shall be paid, and +my father none the wiser, and one rogue the less in the world. +Say, is not that a brave plan?" + +"Nay, lady, it is a thought which is unworthy of you. How can +such as you speak of violence and of vengeance. Are none to be +gentle and kind, none to be piteous and forgiving? Alas! it is a +hard, cruel world, and I would that I had never left my abbey +cell. To hear such words from your lips is as though I heard an +angel of grace preaching the devil's own creed." + +She started from him as a young colt who first feels the bit. +"Gramercy for your rede, young sir!" she said, with a little +curtsey. "As I understand your words, you are grieved that you +ever met me, and look upon me as a preaching devil. Why, my +father is a bitter man when he is wroth, but hath never called me +such a name as that. It may be his right and duty, but certes it +is none of thine. So it would be best, since you think so lowly +of me, that you should take this path to the left while I keep on +upon this one; for it is clear that I can be no fit companion for +you." So saying, with downcast lids and a dignity which was +somewhat marred by her bedraggled skirt, she swept off down the +muddy track, leaving Alleyne standing staring ruefully after her. +He waited in vain for some backward glance or sign of relenting, +but she walked on with a rigid neck until her dress was only a +white flutter among the leaves. Then, with a sunken head and a +heavy heart, he plodded wearily down the other path, wroth with +himself for the rude and uncouth tongue which had given offence +where so little was intended. + +He had gone some way, lost in doubt and in self-reproach, his +mind all tremulous with a thousand new-found thoughts and fears +and wonderments, when of a sudden there was a light rustle of the +leaves behind him, and, glancing round, there was this graceful, +swift-footed creature, treading in his very shadow, with her +proud head bowed, even as his was--the picture of humility and +repentance. + +"I shall not vex you, nor even speak," she said; "but I would +fain keep with you while we are in the wood." + +"Nay, you cannot vex me," he answered, all warm again at the very +sight of her. "It was my rough words which vexed you; but I have +been thrown among men all my life, and indeed, with all the will, +I scarce know how to temper my speech to a lady's ear." + +"Then unsay it," cried she quickly; "say that I was right to wish +to have vengeance on the Socman." + +"Nay, I cannot do that," he answered gravely. + +"Then who is ungentle and unkind now?" she cried in triumph. +"How stern and cold you are for one so young! Art surely no mere +clerk, but bishop or cardinal at the least. Shouldst have +crozier for staff and mitre for cap. Well, well, for your sake I +will forgive the Socman and take vengeance on none but on my own +wilful self who must needs run into danger's path. So will that +please you, sir?" + +"There spoke your true self," said he; "and you will find more +pleasure in such forgiveness than in any vengeance." + +She shook her head, as if by no means assured of it, and then +with a sudden little cry, which had more of surprise than of joy +in it, "Here is Bertrand with the horses!" + +Down the glade there came a little green-clad page with laughing +eyes, and long curls floating behind him. He sat perched on a +high bay horse, and held on to the bridle of a spirited black +palfrey, the hides of both glistening from a long run. + +"I have sought you everywhere, dear Lady Maude," said he in a +piping voice, springing down from his horse and holding the +stirrup. "Troubadour galloped as far as Holmhill ere I could +catch him. I trust that you have had no hurt or scath?" He shot +a questioning glance at Alleyne as he spoke. + +"No, Bertrand," said she, "thanks to this courteous stranger. +And now, sir," she continued, springing into her saddle, "it is +not fit that I leave you without a word more. Clerk or no, you +have acted this day as becomes a true knight. King Arthur and +all his table could not have done more. It may be that, as some +small return, my father or his kin may have power to advance your +interest. He is not rich, but he is honored and hath great +friends. Tell me what is your purpose, and see if he may not aid +it." + +"Alas! lady, I have now no purpose. I have but two friends in +the world, and they have gone to Christchurch, where it is likely +I shall join them." + +"And where is Christchurch?" + +"At the castle which is held by the brave knight, Sir Nigel +Loring, constable to the Earl of Salisbury." + +To his surprise she burst out a-laughing, and, spurring her +palfrey, dashed off down the glade, with her page riding behind +her. Not one word did she say, but as she vanished amid the +trees she half turned in her saddle and waved a last greeting. +Long time he stood, half hoping that she might again come back to +him; but the thud of the hoofs had died away, and there was no +sound in all the woods but the gentle rustle and dropping of the +leaves. At last he turned away and made his way back to the +high-road--another person from the light-hearted boy who had left +it a short three hours before. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HOW HORDLE JOHN FOUND A MAN WHOM HE MIGHT FOLLOW. + + +If he might not return to Beaulieu within the year, and if his +brother's dogs were to be set upon him if he showed face upon +Minstead land, then indeed he was adrift upon earth. North, +south, east, and west--he might turn where he would, but all was +equally chill and cheerless. The Abbot had rolled ten silver +crowns in a lettuce-leaf and hid them away in the bottom of his +scrip, but that would be a sorry support for twelve long months. +In all the darkness there was but the one bright spot of the +sturdy comrades whom he had left that morning; if he could find +them again all would be well. The afternoon was not very +advanced, for all that had befallen him. When a man is afoot at +cock-crow much may be done in the day. If he walked fast he +might yet overtake his friends ere they reached their +destination. He pushed on therefore, now walking and now +running. As he journeyed he bit into a crust which remained from +his Beaulieu bread, and he washed it down by a draught from a +woodland stream. + +It was no easy or light thing to journey through this great +forest, which was some twenty miles from east to west and a good +sixteen from Bramshaw Woods in the north to Lymington in the +south. Alleyne, however, had the good fortune to fall in with a +woodman, axe upon shoulder, trudging along in the very direction +that he wished to go. With his guidance he passed the fringe of +Bolderwood Walk, famous for old ash and yew, through Mark Ash +with its giant beech-trees, and on through the Knightwood groves, +where the giant oak was already a great tree, but only one of +many comely brothers. They plodded along together, the woodman +and Alleyne, with little talk on either side, for their thoughts +were as far asunder as the poles. The peasant's gossip had been +of the hunt, of the bracken, of the gray-headed kites that had +nested in Wood Fidley, and of the great catch of herring brought +back by the boats of Pitt's Deep. The clerk's mind was on his +brother, on his future--above all on this strange, fierce, +melting, beautiful woman who had broken so suddenly into his +life, and as suddenly passed out of it again. So _distrait_ was he +and so random his answers, that the wood man took to whistling, +and soon branched off upon the track to Burley, leaving Alleyne +upon the main Christchurch road. + +Down this he pushed as fast as he might, hoping at every turn and +rise to catch sight of his companions of the morning. From +Vinney Ridge to Rhinefield Walk the woods grow thick and dense up +to the very edges of the track, but beyond the country opens up +into broad dun-colored moors, flecked with clumps of trees, and +topping each other in long, low curves up to the dark lines of +forest in the furthest distance. Clouds of insects danced and +buzzed in the golden autumn light, and the air was full of the +piping of the song-birds. Long, glinting dragonflies shot across +the path, or hung tremulous with gauzy wings and gleaming bodies. +Once a white-necked sea eagle soared screaming high over the +traveller's head, and again a flock of brown bustards popped up +from among the bracken, and blundered away in their clumsy +fashion, half running, half flying, with strident cry and whirr +of wings. + +There were folk, too, to be met upon the road--beggars and +couriers, chapmen and tinkers--cheery fellows for the most part, +with a rough jest and homely greeting for each other and for +Alleyne. Near Shotwood he came upon five seamen, on their way +from Poole to Southampton--rude red-faced men, who shouted at him +in a jargon which he could scarce understand, and held out to him +a great pot from which they had been drinking--nor would they let +him pass until he had dipped pannikin in and taken a mouthful, +which set him coughing and choking, with the tears running down +his cheeks. Further on he met a sturdy black-bearded man, +mounted on a brown horse, with a rosary in his right hand and a +long two-handed sword jangling against his stirrup-iron. By his +black robe and the eight-pointed cross upon his sleeve, Alleyne +recognized him as one of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of +Jerusalem, whose presbytery was at Baddesley. He held up two +fingers as he passed, with a "_Benedic, fili mi!_" whereat +Alleyne doffed hat and bent knee, looking with much reverence at +one who had devoted his life to the overthrow of the infidel. +Poor simple lad! he had not learned yet that what men are and +what men profess to be are very wide asunder, and that the +Knights of St. John, having come into large part of the riches of +the ill-fated Templars, were very much too comfortable to think +of exchanging their palace for a tent, or the cellars of England +for the thirsty deserts of Syria. Yet ignorance may be more +precious than wisdom, for Alleyne as he walked on braced himself +to a higher life by the thought of this other's sacrifice, and +strengthened himself by his example which he could scarce have +done had he known that the Hospitaller's mind ran more upon +malmsey than on Mamelukes, and on venison rather than victories. + +As he pressed on the plain turned to woods once more in the +region of Wilverley Walk, and a cloud swept up from the south +with the sun shining through the chinks of it. A few great drops +came pattering loudly down, and then in a moment the steady swish +of a brisk shower, with the dripping and dropping of the leaves. +Alleyne, glancing round for shelter, saw a thick and lofty +holly-bush, so hollowed out beneath that no house could have been +drier. Under this canopy of green two men were already squatted, +who waved their hands to Alleyne that he should join them. As he +approached he saw that they had five dried herrings laid out in +front of them, with a great hunch of wheaten bread and a leathern +flask full of milk, but instead of setting to at their food they +appeared to have forgot all about it, and were disputing together +with flushed faces and angry gestures. It was easy to see by +their dress and manner that they were two of those wandering +students who formed about this time so enormous a multitude in +every country in Europe. The one was long and thin, with +melancholy features, while the other was fat and sleek, with a +loud voice and the air of a man who is not to be gainsaid. + +"Come hither, good youth," he cried, "come hither! _Vultus +ingenui puer_. Heed not the face of my good coz here. _Foenum +habet in cornu_, as Dan Horace has it; but I warrant him harmless +for all that." + +"Stint your bull's bellowing!" exclaimed the other. "If it come +to Horace, I have a line in my mind: _Loquaces si sapiat_---- How +doth it run? The English o't being that a man of sense should +ever avoid a great talker. That being so, if all were men of +sense then thou wouldst be a lonesome man, coz." + +"Alas! Dicon, I fear that your logic is as bad as your +philosophy or your divinity--and God wot it would be hard to say +a worse word than that for it. For, hark ye: granting, _propter +argumentum_, that I am a talker, then the true reasoning runs that +since all men of sense should avoid me, and thou hast not avoided +me, but art at the present moment eating herrings with me under a +holly-bush, ergo you are no man of sense, which is exactly what I +have been dinning into your long ears ever since I first clapped +eyes on your sunken chops." + +"Tut, tut!" cried the other. "Your tongue goes like the clapper +of a mill-wheel. Sit down here, friend, and partake of this +herring. Understand first, however, that there are certain +conditions attached to it." + +"I had hoped," said Alleyne, falling into the humor of the twain, +"that a tranchoir of bread and a draught of milk might be +attached to it." + +"Hark to him, hark to him!" cried the little fat man. "It is +even thus, Dicon! Wit, lad, is a catching thing, like the itch +or the sweating sickness. I exude it round me; it is an aura. I +tell you, coz, that no man can come within seventeen feet of me +without catching a spark. Look at your own case. A duller man +never stepped, and yet within the week you have said three things +which might pass, and one thing the day we left Fordingbridge +which I should not have been ashamed of myself." + +"Enough, rattle-pate, enough!" said the other. "The milk you +shall have and the bread also, friend, together with the herring, +but you must hold the scales between us." + +"If he hold the herring he holds the scales, my sapient brother," +cried the fat man. "But I pray you, good youth, to tell us +whether you are a learned clerk, and, if so, whether you have +studied at Oxenford or at Paris." + +"I have some small stock of learning," Alleyne answered, picking +at his herring, "but I have been at neither of these places. I +was bred amongst the Cistercian monks at Beaulieu Abbey." + +"Pooh, pooh!" they cried both together. "What sort of an +upbringing is that?" + +"_Non cuivis contingit adire Corinthum_," quoth Alleyne. + +"Come, brother Stephen, he hath some tincture of letters," said +the melancholy man more hopefully. "He may be the better judge, +since he hath no call to side with either of us. Now, attention, +friend, and let your ears work as well as your nether jaw. _Judex +damnatur_--you know the old saw. Here am I upholding the good +fame of the learned Duns Scotus against the foolish quibblings +and poor silly reasonings of Willie Ockham." + +"While I," quoth the other loudly, "do maintain the good sense +and extraordinary wisdom of that most learned William against the +crack-brained fantasies of the muddy Scotchman, who hath hid such +little wit as he has under so vast a pile of words, that it is +like one drop of Gascony in a firkin of ditch-water. Solomon his +wisdom would not suffice to say what the rogue means." + +"Certes, Stephen Hapgood, his wisdom doth not suffice," cried the +other. "It is as though a mole cried out against the morning +star, because he could not see it. But our dispute, friend, is +concerning the nature of that subtle essence which we call +thought. For I hold with the learned Scotus that thought is in +very truth a thing, even as vapor or fumes, or many other +substances which our gross bodily eyes are blind to. For, look +you, that which produces a thing must be itself a thing, and if a +man's thought may produce a written book, then must thought +itself be a material thing, even as the book is. Have I +expressed it? Do I make it plain?" + +"Whereas I hold," shouted the other, "with my revered preceptor, +_doctor, praeclarus et excellentissimus_, that all things are but +thought; for when thought is gone I prythee where are the things +then? Here are trees about us, and I see them because I think I +see them, but if I have swooned, or sleep, or am in wine, then, +my thought having gone forth from me, lo the trees go forth also. +How now, coz, have I touched thee on the raw?" + +Alleyne sat between them munching his bread, while the twain +disputed across his knees, leaning forward with flushed faces and +darting hands, in all the heat of argument. Never had he heard +such jargon of scholastic philosophy, such fine-drawn +distinctions, such cross-fire of major and minor, proposition, +syllogism, attack and refutation. Question clattered upon answer +like a sword on a buckler. The ancients, the fathers of the +Church, the moderns, the Scriptures, the Arabians, were each sent +hurtling against the other, while the rain still dripped and the +dark holly-leaves glistened with the moisture. At last the fat +man seemed to weary of it, for he set to work quietly upon his +meal, while his opponent, as proud as the rooster who is left +unchallenged upon the midden, crowed away in a last long burst of +quotation and deduction. Suddenly, however, his eyes dropped +upon his food, and he gave a howl of dismay. + +"You double thief!" he cried, "you have eaten my herrings, and I +without bite or sup since morning." + +"That," quoth the other complacently, "was my final argument, my +crowning effort, or _peroratio_, as the orators have it. For, coz, +since all thoughts are things, you have but to think a pair of +herrings, and then conjure up a pottle of milk wherewith to wash +them down." + +"A brave piece of reasoning," cried the other, "and I know of but +one reply to it." On which, leaning forward, he caught his +comrade a rousing smack across his rosy cheek. "Nay, take it not +amiss," he said, "since all things are but thoughts, then that +also is but a thought and may be disregarded." + +This last argument, however, by no means commended itself to the +pupil of Ockham, who plucked a great stick from the ground and +signified his dissent by smiting the realist over the pate with +it. By good fortune, the wood was so light and rotten that it +went to a thousand splinters, but Alleyne thought it best to +leave the twain to settle the matter at their leisure, the more +so as the sun was shining brightly once more. Looking back down +the pool-strewn road, he saw the two excited philosophers waving +their hands and shouting at each other, but their babble soon +became a mere drone in the distance, and a turn in the road hid +them from his sight. + +And now after passing Holmesley Walk and the Wooton Heath, the +forest began to shred out into scattered belts of trees, with +gleam of corn-field and stretch of pasture-land between. Here +and there by the wayside stood little knots of wattle-and-daub +huts with shock-haired laborers lounging by the doors and +red-cheeked children sprawling in the roadway. Back among the +groves he could see the high gable ends and thatched roofs of the +franklins' houses, on whose fields these men found employment, or +more often a thick dark column of smoke marked their position and +hinted at the coarse plenty within. By these signs Alleyne knew +that he was on the very fringe of the forest, and therefore no +great way from Christchurch. The sun was lying low in the west +and shooting its level rays across the long sweep of rich green +country, glinting on the white-fleeced sheep and throwing long +shadows from the red kine who waded knee-deep in the juicy +clover. Right glad was the traveller to see the high tower of +Christchurch Priory gleaming in the mellow evening light, and +gladder still when, on rounding a corner, he came upon his +comrades of the morning seated astraddle upon a fallen tree. +They had a flat space before them, on which they alternately +threw little square pieces of bone, and were so intent upon +their occupation that they never raised eye as he approached +them. He observed with astonishment, as he drew near, that the +archer's bow was on John's back, the archer's sword by John's +side, and the steel cap laid upon the tree-trunk between them. + +"Mort de ma vie!" Aylward shouted, looking down at the dice. +"Never had I such cursed luck. A murrain on the bones! I have +not thrown a good main since I left Navarre. A one and a three! +En avant, camarade!" + +"Four and three," cried Hordle John, counting on his great +fingers, "that makes seven. Ho, archer, I have thy cap! Now +have at thee for thy jerkin!" + +"Mon Dieu!" he growled, "I am like to reach Christchurch in my +shirt." Then suddenly glancing up, "Hola, by the splendor of +heaven, here is our cher petit! Now, by my ten finger bones! +this is a rare sight to mine eyes." He sprang up and threw his +arms round Alleyne's neck, while John, no less pleased, but more +backward and Saxon in his habits, stood grinning and bobbing by +the wayside, with his newly won steel cap stuck wrong side +foremost upon his tangle of red hair. + +"Hast come to stop?" cried the bowman, patting Alleyne all over +in his delight. "Shall not get away from us again!" + +"I wish no better," said he, with a pringling in the eyes at this +hearty greeting. + +"Well said, lad!" cried big John. "We three shall to the wars +together, and the devil may fly away with the Abbot of Beaulieu! +But your feet and hosen are all besmudged. Hast been in the +water, or I am the more mistaken." + +"I have in good sooth," Alleyne answered, and then as they +journeyed on their way he told them the many things that had +befallen him, his meeting with the villein, his sight of the +king, his coming upon his brother, with all the tale of the black +welcome and of the fair damsel. They strode on either side, each +with an ear slanting towards him, but ere he had come to the end +of his story the bowman had spun round upon his heel, and was +hastening back the way they had come, breathing loudly through +his nose. + +"What then?" asked Alleyne, trotting after him and gripping at +his jerkin. + +"I am back for Minstead, lad." + +"And why, in the name of sense?" + +"To thrust a handful of steel into the Socman. What! hale a +demoiselle against her will, and then loose dogs at his own +brother! Let me go!" + +"Nenny, nenny!" cried Alleyne, laughing. "There was no scath +done. Come back, friend"--and so, by mingled pushing and +entreaties, they got his head round for Christchurch once more. +Yet he walked with his chin upon his shoulder, until, catching +sight of a maiden by a wayside well, the smiles came back to his +face and peace to his heart. + +"But you," said Alleyne, "there have been changes with you also. +Why should not the workman carry his tools? Where are bow and +sword and cap--and why so warlike, John?" + +"It is a game which friend Aylward hath been a-teaching of me." + +"And I found him an over-apt pupil," grumbled the bowman. "He +hath stripped me as though I had fallen into the hands of the +tardvenus. But, by my hilt! you must render them back to me, +camarade, lest you bring discredit upon my mission, and I will +pay you for them at armorers' prices." + +"Take them back, man, and never heed the pay," said John. "I did +but wish to learn the feel of them, since I am like to have such +trinkets hung to my own girdle for some years to come." + +"Ma foi, he was born for a free companion!" cried Aylward, "He hath +the very trick of speech and turn of thought. I take them back +then, and indeed it gives me unease not to feel my yew-stave +tapping against my leg bone. But see, mes garcons, on this side +of the church rises the square and darkling tower of Earl +Salisbury's castle, and even from here I seem to see on yonder +banner the red roebuck of the Montacutes." + +"Red upon white," said Alleyne, shading his eyes; "but whether +roebuck or no is more than I could vouch. How black is the great +tower, and how bright the gleam of arms upon the wall! See below +the flag, how it twinkles like a star!" + +"Aye, it is the steel head-piece of the watchman," remarked the +archer. "But we must on, if we are to be there before the +drawbridge rises at the vespers bugle; for it is likely that sir +Nigel, being so renowned a soldier, may keep hard discipline +within the walls, and let no man enter after sundown." So +saying, he quickened his pace, and the three comrades were soon +close to the straggling and broad-spread town which centered +round the noble church and the frowning castle. + +It chanced on that very evening that Sir Nigel Loring, having +supped before sunset, as was his custom, and having himself +seen that Pommers and Cadsand, his two war-horses, with the +thirteen hacks, the five jennets, my lady's three palfreys, and +the great dapple-gray roussin, had all their needs supplied, had +taken his dogs for an evening breather. Sixty or seventy of +them, large and small, smooth and shaggy--deer-hound, boar-hound, +blood-hound, wolf-hound, mastiff, alaun, talbot, lurcher, +terrier, spaniel--snapping, yelling and whining, with score of +lolling tongues and waving tails, came surging down the narrow +lane which leads from the Twynham kennels to the bank of Avon. +Two russet-clad varlets, with loud halloo and cracking whips, +walked thigh-deep amid the swarm, guiding, controlling, and +urging. Behind came Sir Nigel himself, with Lady Loring upon his +arm, the pair walking slowly and sedately, as befitted both their +age and their condition, while they watched with a smile in their +eyes the scrambling crowd in front of them. They paused, +however, at the bridge, and, leaning their elbows upon the +stonework, they stood looking down at their own faces in the +glassy stream, and at the swift flash of speckled trout against +the tawny gravel. + +Sir Nigel was a slight man of poor stature, with soft lisping +voice and gentle ways. So short was he that his wife, who was no +very tall woman, had the better of him by the breadth of three +fingers. His sight having been injured in his early wars by a +basketful of lime which had been emptied over him when he led the +Earl of Derby's stormers up the breach at Bergerac, he had +contracted something of a stoop, with a blinking, peering +expression of face. His age was six and forty, but the constant +practice of arms. together with a cleanly life, had preserved +his activity and endurance unimpaired, so that from a distance he +seemed to have the slight limbs and swift grace of a boy. His +face, however, was tanned of a dull yellow tint, with a leathery, +poreless look, which spoke of rough outdoor doings, and the +little pointed beard which he wore, in deference to the +prevailing fashion, was streaked and shot with gray. His +features were small, delicate, and regular, with clear-cut, +curving nose, and eyes which jutted forward from the lids. His +dress was simple and yet spruce. A Flandrish hat of beevor, +bearing in the band the token of Our Lady of Embrun, was drawn +low upon the left side to hide that ear which had been partly +shorn from his head by a Flemish man-at-arms in a camp broil +before Tournay. His cote-hardie, or tunic, and trunk-hosen were +of a purple plum color, with long weepers which hung from either +sleeve to below his knees. His shoes were of red leather, +daintily pointed at the toes, but not yet prolonged to the +extravagant lengths which the succeeding reign was to bring into +fashion. A gold-embroidered belt of knighthood encircled his +loins, with his arms, five roses gules on a field argent, +cunningly worked upon the clasp. So stood Sir Nigel Loring upon +the bridge of Avon, and talked lightly with his lady. + +And, certes, had the two visages alone been seen, and the +stranger been asked which were the more likely to belong to the +bold warrior whose name was loved by the roughest soldiery of +Europe, he had assuredly selected the lady's. Her face was large +and square and red, with fierce, thick brows, and the eyes of one +who was accustomed to rule. Taller and broader than her husband, +her flowing gown of sendall, and fur-lined tippet, could not +conceal the gaunt and ungraceful outlines of her figure. It was +the age of martial women. The deeds of black Agnes of Dunbar, of +Lady Salisbury and of the Countess of Montfort, were still fresh +in the public minds. With such examples before them the wives of +the English captains had become as warlike as their mates, and +ordered their castles in their absence with the prudence and +discipline of veteran seneschals. Right easy were the Montacutes +of their Castle of Twynham, and little had they to dread from +roving galley or French squadron, while Lady Mary Loring had the +ordering of it. Yet even in that age it was thought that, though +a lady might have a soldier's heart, it was scarce as well that +she should have a soldier's face. There were men who said that +of all the stern passages and daring deeds by which Sir Nigel +Loring had proved the true temper of his courage, not the least +was his wooing and winning of so forbidding a dame. + +"I tell you, my fair lord," she was saying, "that it is no fit +training for a demoiselle: hawks and hounds, rotes and citoles +singing a French rondel, or reading the Gestes de Doon de +Mayence, as I found her yesternight, pretending sleep, the +artful, with the corner of the scroll thrusting forth from under +her pillow. Lent her by Father Christopher of the priory, +forsooth--that is ever her answer. How shall all this help her +when she has castle of her own to keep, with a hundred mouths all +agape for beef and beer?" + +"True, my sweet bird, true," answered the knight, picking a +comfit from his gold drageoir. "The maid is like the young +filly, which kicks heels and plunges for very lust of life. Give +her time, dame, give her time." + +"Well, I know that my father would have given me, not time, but a +good hazel-stick across my shoulders. Ma foi! I know not what +the world is coming to, when young maids may flout their elders. +I wonder that you do not correct her, my fair lord." + +"Nay, my heart's comfort, I never raised hand to woman yet, and +it would be a passing strange thing if I began on my own flesh +and blood. It was a woman's hand which cast this lime into mine +eyes, and though I saw her stoop, and might well have stopped her +ere she threw, I deemed it unworthy of my knighthood to hinder or +balk one of her sex." + +"The hussy!" cried Lady Loring clenching her broad right hand. +"I would I had been at the side of her!" + +"And so would I, since you would have been the nearer me my own. +But I doubt not that you are right, and that Maude's wings need +clipping, which I may leave in your hands when I am gone, for, in +sooth, this peaceful life is not for me, and were it not for your +gracious kindness and loving care I could not abide it a week. I +hear that there is talk of warlike muster at Bordeaux once more, +and by St. Paul! it would be a new thing if the lions of England +and the red pile of Chandos were to be seen in the field, and the +roses of Loring were not waving by their side." + +"Now woe worth me but I feared it!" cried she, with the color all +struck from her face. "I have noted your absent mind, your +kindling eye, your trying and riveting of old harness. Consider +my sweet lord, that you have already won much honor, that we have +seen but little of each other, that you bear upon your body the +scar of over twenty wounds received in I know not how many bloody +encounters. Have you not done enough for honor and the public +cause?" + +"My lady, when our liege lord, the king, at three score years, +and my Lord Chandos at three-score and ten, are blithe and ready +to lay lance in rest for England's cause, it would ill be-seem me +to prate of service done. It is sooth that I have received seven +and twenty wounds. There is the more reason that I should be +thankful that I am still long of breath and sound in limb. I +have also seen some bickering and scuffling. Six great land +battles I count, with four upon sea, and seven and fifty onfalls, +skirmishes and bushments. I have held two and twenty towns, and +I have been at the intaking of thirty-one. Surely then it would +be bitter shame to me, and also to you, since my fame is yours, +that I should now hold back if a man's work is to be done. +Besides, bethink you how low is our purse, with bailiff and reeve +ever croaking of empty farms and wasting lands. Were it not for +this constableship which the Earl of Salisbury hath bestowed +upon us we could scarce uphold the state which is fitting to our +degree. Therefore, my sweeting, there is the more need that I +should turn to where there is good pay to be earned and brave +ransoms to be won." + +"Ah, my dear lord," quoth she, with sad, weary eyes. "I thought +that at last I had you to mine own self, even though your youth +had been spent afar from my side. Yet my voice, as I know well, +should speed you on to glory and renown, not hold you back when +fame is to be won. Yet what can I say, for all men know that +your valor needs the curb and not the spur. It goes to my heart +that you should ride forth now a mere knight bachelor, when there +is no noble in the land who hath so good a claim to the square +pennon, save only that you have not the money to uphold it." + +"And whose fault that, my sweet bird?" said he. + +"No fault, my fair lord, but a virtue: for how many rich ransoms +have you won, and yet have scattered the crowns among page and +archer and varlet, until in a week you had not as much as would +buy food and forage. It is a most knightly largesse, and yet +withouten money how can man rise?" + +"Dirt and dross!" cried he. + +"What matter rise or fall, so that duty be done and honor gained. +Banneret or bachelor, square pennon or forked, I would not give a +denier for the difference, and the less since Sir John Chandos, +chosen flower of English chivalry, is himself but a humble +knight. But meanwhile fret not thyself, my heart's dove, for it +is like that there may be no war waged, and we must await the +news. But here are three strangers, and one, as I take it, a +soldier fresh from service. It is likely that he may give us +word of what is stirring over the water." + +Lady Loring, glancing up, saw in the fading light three +companions walking abreast down the road, all gray with dust, and +stained with travel, yet chattering merrily between themselves. +He in the midst was young and comely, with boyish open face and +bright gray eyes, which glanced from right to left as though he +found the world around him both new and pleasing. To his right +walked a huge red-headed man, with broad smile and merry twinkle, +whose clothes seemed to be bursting and splitting at every seam, +as though he were some lusty chick who was breaking bravely from +his shell. On the other side, with his knotted hand upon the +young man's shoulder, came a stout and burly archer, brown and +fierce eyed, with sword at belt and long yellow yew-stave +peeping over his shoulder. Hard face, battered head piece, +dinted brigandine, with faded red lion of St. George ramping on a +discolored ground, all proclaimed as plainly as words that he was +indeed from the land of war. He looked keenly at Sir Nigel as he +approached, and then, plunging his hand under his breastplate, he +stepped up to him with a rough, uncouth bow to the lady. + +"Your pardon, fair sir," said he, "but I know you the moment I +clap eyes on you, though in sooth I have seen you oftener in +steel than in velvet. I have drawn string besides you at La +Roche-d'Errien, Romorantin, Maupertuis, Nogent, Auray, and other +places." + +"Then, good archer, I am right glad to welcome you to Twynham +Castle, and in the steward's room you will find provant for +yourself and comrades. To me also your face is known, though +mine eyes play such tricks with me that I can scarce be sure of +my own squire. Rest awhile, and you shall come to the hall anon +and tell us what is passing in France, for I have heard that it +is likely that our pennons may flutter to the south of the great +Spanish mountains ere another year be passed." + +"There was talk of it in Bordeaux," answered the archer, "and I +saw myself that the armorers and smiths were as busy as rats in a +wheat-rick. But I bring you this letter from the valiant Gascon +knight, Sir Claude Latour. And to you, Lady," he added after a +pause, "I bring from him this box of red sugar of Narbonne, with +every courteous and knightly greeting which a gallant cavalier +may make to a fair and noble dame." + +This little speech had cost the blunt bowman much pains and +planning; but he might have spared his breath, for the lady was +quite as much absorbed as her lord in the letter, which they held +between them, a hand on either corner, spelling it out very +slowly, with drawn brows and muttering lips. As they read it, +Alleyne, who stood with Hordle John a few paces back from their +comrade, saw the lady catch her breath, while the knight laughed +softly to himself. + +"You see, dear heart," said he, "that they will not leave the old +dog in his kennel when the game is afoot. And what of this White +Company, archer?" + +"Ah, sir, you speak of dogs," cried Aylward; "but there are a +pack of lusty hounds who are ready for any quarry, if they have +but a good huntsman to halloo them on. Sir, we have been in the +wars together, and I have seen many a brave following but never +such a set of woodland boys as this. They do but want you at +their head, and who will bar the way to them!" + +"Pardieu!" said Sir Nigel, "if they are all like their messenger, +they are indeed men of whom a leader may be proud. Your name, +good archer?" + +"Sam Aylward, sir, of the Hundred of Easebourne and the Rape of +Chichester." + +"And this giant behind you?" + +"He is big John, of Hordle, a forest man, who hath now taken +service in the Company." + +"A proper figure of a man at-arms," said the little knight. +"Why, man, you are no chicken, yet I warrant him the stronger +man. See to that great stone from the coping which hath fallen +upon the bridge. Four of my lazy varlets strove this day to +carry it hence. I would that you two could put them to shame by +budging it, though I fear that I overtask you, for it is of a +grievous weight." + +He pointed as he spoke to a huge rough-hewn block which lay by +the roadside, deep sunken from its own weight in the reddish +earth. The archer approached it, rolling back the sleeves of his +jerkin, but with no very hopeful countenance, for indeed it was a +mighty rock. John, however, put him aside with his left hand, +and, stooping over the stone, he plucked it single-handed from +its soft bed and swung it far into the stream. There it fell +with mighty splash, one jagged end peaking out above the surface, +while the waters bubbled and foamed with far-circling eddy. + +"Good lack!" cried Sir Nigel, and "Good lack!" cried his lady, +while John stood laughing and wiping the caked dirt from his +fingers. + +"I have felt his arms round my ribs," said the bowman, "and they +crackle yet at the thought of it. This other comrade of mine is +a right learned clerk, for all that he is so young, hight +Alleyne, the son of Edric, brother to the Socman of Minstead." + +"Young man," quoth Sir Nigel, sternly, "if you are of the same +way of thought as your brother, you may not pass under portcullis +of mine." + +"Nay, fair sir," cried Aylward hastily, "I will be pledge for it +that they have no thought in common; for this very day his +brother hath set his dogs upon him, and driven him from his +lands." + +"And are you, too, of the White Company?" asked Sir Nigel. "Hast +had small experience of war, if I may judge by your looks and +bearing." + +"I would fain to France with my friends here," Alleyne answered; +"but I am a man of peace--a reader, exorcist, acolyte, and +clerk." + +"That need not hinder," quoth Sir Nigel. + +"No, fair sir," cried the bowman joyously. "Why, I myself have +served two terms with Arnold de Cervolles, he whom they called +the archpriest. By my hilt! I have seen him ere now, with monk's +gown trussed to his knees, over his sandals in blood in the +fore-front of the battle. Yet, ere the last string had twanged, +he would be down on his four bones among the stricken, and have +them all houseled and shriven, as quick as shelling peas. Ma +foi! there were those who wished that he would have less care +for their souls and a little more for their bodies!" + +"It is well to have a learned clerk in every troop," said Sir +Nigel. "By St. Paul, there are men so caitiff that they think +more of a scrivener's pen than of their lady's smile, and do +their devoir in hopes that they may fill a line in a chronicle or +make a tag to a jongleur's romance. I remember well that, at the +siege of Retters, there was a little, sleek, fat clerk of the +name of Chaucer, who was so apt at rondel, sirvente, or tonson, +that no man dare give back a foot from the walls, lest he find it +all set down in his rhymes and sung by every underling and varlet +in the camp. But, my soul's bird, you hear me prate as though +all were decided, when I have not yet taken counsel either with +you or with my lady mother. Let us to the chamber, while these +strangers find such fare as pantry and cellar may furnish." + +"The night air strikes chill," said the lady, and turned down the +road with her hand upon her lord's arm. The three comrades +dropped behind and followed: Aylward much the lighter for having +accomplished his mission, Alleyne full of wonderment at the +humble bearing of so renowned a captain, and John loud with +snorts and sneers, which spoke his disappointment and contempt. + +"What ails the man?" asked Aylward in surprise. + +"I have been cozened and bejaped," quoth he gruffly. + +"By whom, Sir Samson the strong?" + +"By thee, Sir Balaam the false prophet." + +"By my hilt!" cried the archer, I though I be not Balaam, yet I +hold converse with the very creature that spake to him. What is +amiss, then, and how have I played you false?" + +"Why, marry, did you not say, and Alleyne here will be my +witness, that, if I would hie to the wars with you, you would +place me under a leader who was second to none in all England for +valor? Yet here you bring me to a shred of a man, peaky and +ill-nourished, with eyes like a moulting owl, who must needs, +forsooth, take counsel with his mother ere he buckle sword to +girdle." + +"Is that where the shoe galls?" cried the bowman, and laughed +aloud. "I will ask you what you think of him three months hence, +if we be all alive; for sure I am that----" + +Aylward's words were interrupted by an extraordinary hubbub which +broke out that instant some little way down the street in the +direction of the Priory. There was deep-mouthed shouting of men, +frightened shrieks of women, howling and barking of curs, and +over all a sullen, thunderous rumble, indescribably menacing and +terrible. Round the corner of the narrow street there came +rushing a brace of whining dogs with tails tucked under their +legs, and after them a white-faced burgher, with outstretched +hands and wide-spread fingers, his hair all abristle and his eyes +glinting back from one shoulder to the other, as though some +great terror were at his very heels. "Fly, my lady, fly!" he +screeched, and whizzed past them like bolt from bow; while close +behind came lumbering a huge black bear, with red tongue lolling +from his mouth, and a broken chain jangling behind him. To right +and left the folk flew for arch and doorway. Hordle John caught +up the Lady Loring as though she had been a feather, and sprang +with her into an open porch; while Aylward, with a whirl of +French oaths, plucked at his quiver and tried to unsling his bow. +Alleyne, all unnerved at so strange and unwonted a sight, shrunk +up against the wall with his eyes fixed upon the frenzied +creature, which came bounding along with ungainly speed, looking +the larger in the uncertain light, its huge jaws agape, with +blood and slaver trickling to the ground. Sir Nigel alone, +unconscious to all appearance of the universal panic, walked +with unfaltering step up the centre of the road, a silken +handkerchief in one hand and his gold comfit-box in the other. +It sent the blood cold through Alleyne's veins to see that as +they came together--the man and the beast--the creature reared +up, with eyes ablaze with fear and hate, and whirled its great +paws above the knight to smite him to the earth. He, however, +blinking with puckered eyes, reached up his kerchief, and flicked +the beast twice across the snout with it. "Ah, saucy! saucy," +quoth he, with gentle chiding; on which the bear, uncertain and +puzzled, dropped its four legs to earth again, and, waddling +back, was soon swathed in ropes by the bear-ward and a crowd of +peasants who had been in close pursuit. + +A scared man was the keeper; for, having chained the brute to a +stake while he drank a stoup of ale at the inn, it had been +baited by stray curs, until, in wrath and madness, it had plucked +loose the chain, and smitten or bitten all who came in its path. +Most scared of all was he to find that the creature had come nigh +to harm the Lord and Lady of the castle, who had power to place +him in the stretch-neck or to have the skin scourged from his +shoulders. Yet, when he came with bowed head and humble entreaty +for forgiveness, he was met with a handful of small silver from +Sir Nigel, whose dame, however, was less charitably disposed, +being much ruffled in her dignity by the manner in which she had +been hustled from her lord's side. + +As they passed through the castle gate, John plucked at Aylward's +sleeve, and the two fell behind. + +"I must crave your pardon, comrade," said he, bluntly. "I was a +fool not to know that a little rooster may be the gamest. I +believe that this man is indeed a leader whom we may follow." + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +HOW A YOUNG SHEPHERD HAD A PERILOUS FLOCK. + + +Black was the mouth of Twynham Castle, though a pair of torches +burning at the further end of the gateway cast a red glare over +the outer bailey, and sent a dim, ruddy flicker through the +rough-hewn arch, rising and falling with fitful brightness. Over +the door the travellers could discern the escutcheon of the +Montacutes, a roebuck gules on a field argent, flanked on either +side by smaller shields which bore the red roses of the veteran +constable. As they passed over the drawbridge, Alleyne marked +the gleam of arms in the embrasures to right and left, and they +had scarce set foot upon the causeway ere a hoarse blare burst +from a bugle, and, with screech of hinge and clank of chain, the +ponderous bridge swung up into the air, drawn by unseen hands. +At the same instant the huge portcullis came rattling down from +above, and shut off the last fading light of day. Sir Nigel and +his lady walked on in deep talk, while a fat under-steward took +charge of the three comrades, and led them to the buttery, where +beef, bread, and beer were kept ever in readiness for the +wayfarer. After a hearty meal and a dip in the trough to wash +the dust from them, they strolled forth into the bailey, where +the bowman peered about through the darkness at wall and at keep, +with the carping eyes of one who has seen something of sieges, +and is not likely to be satisfied. To Alleyne and to John, +however, it appeared to be as great and as stout a fortress as +could be built by the hands of man. + +Erected by Sir Balwin de Redvers in the old fighting days of the +twelfth century, when men thought much of war and little of +comfort, Castle Twynham had been designed as a stronghold pure +and simple, unlike those later and more magnificent structures +where warlike strength had been combined with the magnificence of +a palace. From the time of the Edwards such buildings as Conway +or Caernarvon castles, to say nothing of Royal Windsor, had shown +that it was possible to secure luxury in peace as well as +security in times of trouble. Sir Nigel's trust, however, still +frowned above the smooth-flowing waters of the Avon, very much as +the stern race of early Anglo-Normans had designed it. There +were the broad outer and inner bailies, not paved, but sown with +grass to nourish the sheep and cattle which might be driven in on +sign of danger. All round were high and turreted walls, with at +the corner a bare square-faced keep, gaunt and windowless, +rearing up from a lofty mound, which made it almost inaccessible +to an assailant. Against the bailey-walls were rows of frail +wooden houses and leaning sheds, which gave shelter to the +archers and men-at-arms who formed the garrison. The doors of +these humble dwellings were mostly open, and against the yellow +glare from within Alleyne could see the bearded fellows cleaning +their harness, while their wives would come out for a gossip, +with their needlework in their hands, and their long black +shadows streaming across the yard. The air was full of the clack +of their voices and the merry prattling of children, in strange +contrast to the flash of arms and constant warlike challenge from +the walls above. + +"Methinks a company of school lads could hold this place against +an army," quoth John. + +"And so say I," said Alleyne. + +"Nay, there you are wide of the clout," the bowman said gravely. +"By my hilt! I have seen a stronger fortalice carried in a summer +evening. I remember such a one in Picardy, with a name as long +as a Gascon's pedigree. It was when I served under Sir Robert +Knolles, before the days of the Company; and we came by good +plunder at the sacking of it. I had myself a great silver bowl, +with two goblets, and a plastron of Spanish steel. Pasques Dieu! +there are some fine women over yonder! Mort de ma vie! see to +that one in the doorway! I will go speak to her. But whom have +we here?" + +"Is there an archer here hight Sam Aylward?" asked a gaunt +man-at-arms, clanking up to them across the courtyard. + +"My name, friend," quoth the bowman. + +"Then sure I have no need to tell thee mine," said the other. + +"By the rood! if it is not Black Simon of Norwich!" cried +Aylward. "A mon coeur, camarade, a mon coeur! Ah, but I am +blithe to see thee!" The two fell upon each other and hugged +like bears. + +"And where from, old blood and bones?" asked the bowman. + +"I am in service here. Tell me, comrade, is it sooth that we +shall have another fling at these Frenchmen? It is so rumored in +the guard-room, and that Sir Nigel will take the field once +more." + +"It is like enough, mon gar., as things go." + +"Now may the Lord be praised!" cried the other. "This very night +will I set apart a golden ouche to be offered on the shrine of my +name-saint. I have pined for this, Aylward, as a young maid +pines for her lover." + +"Art so set on plunder then? Is the purse so light that there is +not enough for a rouse? I have a bag at my belt, camarade, and +you have but to put your fist into it for what you want. It was +ever share and share between us." + +"Nay, friend, it is not the Frenchman's gold, but the Frenchman's +blood that I would have. I should not rest quiet in the grave, +coz, if I had not another turn at them. For with us in France it +has ever been fair and honest war--a shut fist for the man, but a +bended knee for the woman. But how was it at Winchelsea when +their galleys came down upon it some few years back? I had an +old mother there, lad, who had come down thither from the +Midlands to be the nearer her son. They found her afterwards by +her own hearthstone, thrust through by a Frenchman's bill. My +second sister, my brother's wife, and her two children, they +were but ash-heaps in the smoking ruins of their house. I will +not say that we have not wrought great scath upon France, but +women and children have been safe from us. And so, old friend, +my heart is hot within me, and I long to hear the old battle-cry +again, and, by God's truth I if Sir Nigel unfurls his pennon, +here is one who will be right glad to feel the saddle-flaps under +his knees." + +"We have seen good work together, old war-dog," quoth Aylward; +"and, by my hilt! we may hope to see more ere we die. But we are +more like to hawk at the Spanish woodcock than at the French +heron, though certes it is rumored that Du Guesclin with all the +best lances of France have taken service under the lions and +towers of Castile. But, comrade, it is in my mind that there is +some small matter of dispute still open between us." + +"'Fore God, it is sooth!" cried the other; "I had forgot it. +The provost-marshal and his men tore us apart when last we met." + +"On which, friend, we vowed that we should settle the point when +next we came together. Hast thy sword, I see, and the moon +throws glimmer enough for such old night-birds as we. On guard, +mon gar.! I have not heard clink of steel this month or more." + +"Out from the shadow then," said the other, drawing his sword. +"A vow is a vow, and not lightly to be broken." + +"A vow to the saints," cried Alleyne, "is indeed not to be set +aside; but this is a devil's vow, and, simple clerk as I am, I am +yet the mouthpiece of the true church when I say that it were +mortal sin to fight on such a quarrel. What! shall two grown men +carry malice for years, and fly like snarling curs at each +other's throats?" + +"No malice, my young clerk, no malice," quoth Black Simon, "I +have not a bitter drop in my heart for mine old comrade; but the +quarrel, as he hath told you, is still open and unsettled. Fall +on, Aylward!" + +"Not whilst I can stand between you," cried Alleyne, springing +before the bowman. "It is shame and sin to see two Christian +Englishmen turn swords against each other like the frenzied +bloodthirsty paynim." + +"And, what is more," said Hordle John, suddenly appearing out of +the buttery with the huge board upon which the pastry was rolled, +"if either raise sword I shall flatten him like a Shrovetide +pancake. By the black rood! I shall drive him into the earth, +like a nail into a door, rather than see you do scath to each +other." + +"'Fore God, this is a strange way of preaching peace," cried +Black Simon. "You may find the scath yourself, my lusty friend, +if you raise your great cudgel to me. I had as lief have the +castle drawbridge drop upon my pate." + +"Tell me, Aylward," said Alleyne earnestly, with his hands +outstretched to keep the pair asunder, "what is the cause of +quarrel, that we may see whether honorable settlement may not be +arrived at?" + +The bowman looked down at his feet and then up at the moons +"Parbleu!" he cried, "the cause of quarrel? Why, mon petit, it +was years ago in Limousin, and how can I bear in mind what was +the cause of it? Simon there hath it at the end of his tongue." + +"Not I, in troth," replied the other; "I have had other things to +think of. There was some sort of bickering over dice, or wine, +or was it a woman, coz?" + +"Pasques Dieu! but you have nicked it," cried Aylward. "It was +indeed about a woman; and the quarrel must go forward, for I am +still of the same mind as before." + +"What of the woman, then?" asked Simon. "May the murrain strike +me if I can call to mind aught about her." + +"It was La Blanche Rose, maid at the sign of the `Trois Corbeaux' +at Limoges. Bless her pretty heart! Why, mon gar., I loved +her." + +"So did a many," quoth Simon. "I call her to mind now. On the +very day that we fought over the little hussy, she went off with +Evan ap Price, a long-legged Welsh dagsman. They have a hostel +of their own now, somewhere on the banks of the Garonne, where +the landlord drinks so much of the liquor that there is little +left for the customers." + +"So ends our quarrel, then," said Aylward, sheathing his sword. +"A Welsh dagsman, i' faith! C'etait mauvais gout, camarade, and +the more so when she had a jolly archer and a lusty man-at-arms +to choose from." + +"True, old lad. And it is as well that we can compose our +differences honorably, for Sir Nigel had been out at the first +clash of steel; and he hath sworn that if there be quarrelling in +the garrison he would smite the right hand from the broilers. +You know him of old, and that he is like to be as good as his +word." + +"Mort-Dieu! yes. But there are ale, mead, and wine in the +buttery, and the steward a merry rogue, who will not haggle over +a quart or two. Buvons, mon gar., for it is not every day that +two old friends come together." + +The old soldiers and Hordle John strode off together in all good +fellowship. Alleyne had turned to follow them, when he felt a +touch upon his shoulder, and found a young page by his side. + +"The Lord Loring commands," said the boy, "that you will follow +me to the great chamber, and await him there." + +"But my comrades?" + +"His commands were for you alone." + +Alleyne followed the messenger to the east end of the courtyard, +where a broad flight of steps led up to the doorway of the main +hall, the outer wall of which is washed by the waters of the +Avon. As designed at first, no dwelling had been allotted to the +lord of the castle and his family but the dark and dismal +basement story of the keep. A more civilized or more effeminate +generation, however, had refused to be pent up in such a cellar, +and the hall with its neighboring chambers had been added for +their accommodation. Up the broad steps Alleyne went, still +following his boyish guide, until at the folding oak doors the +latter paused, and ushered him into the main hall of the castle. + +On entering the room the clerk looked round; but, seeing no one, +he continued to stand, his cap in his hand, examining with the +greatest interest a chamber which was so different to any to +which he was accustomed. The days had gone by when a nobleman's +hall was but a barn-like, rush-strewn enclosure, the common +lounge and eating-room of every inmate of the castle. The +Crusaders had brought back with them experiences of domestic +luxuries, of Damascus carpets and rugs of Aleppo, which made them +impatient of the hideous bareness and want of privacy which they +found in their ancestral strongholds. Still stronger, however, +had been the influence of the great French war; for, however well +matched the nations might be in martial exercises, there could be +no question but that our neighbors were infinitely superior to us +in the arts of peace. A stream of returning knights, of wounded +soldiers, and of unransomed French noblemen, had been for a +quarter of a century continually pouring into England, every one +of whom exerted an influence in the direction of greater domestic +refinement, while shiploads of French furniture from Calais, +Rouen, and other plundered towns, had supplied our own artisans +with models on which to shape their work. Hence, in most English +castles, and in Castle Twynham among the rest, chambers were to +be found which would seem to be not wanting either in beauty or +in comfort. + +In the great stone fireplace a log fire was spurting and +crackling, throwing out a ruddy glare which, with the four +bracket-lamps which stood at each corner of the room, gave a +bright and lightsome air to the whole apartment. Above was a +wreath-work of blazonry, extending up to the carved and corniced +oaken roof; while on either side stood the high canopied chairs +placed for the master of the house and for his most honored +guest. The walls were hung all round with most elaborate and +brightly colored tapestry, representing the achievements of Sir +Bevis of Hampton, and behind this convenient screen were stored +the tables dormant and benches which would be needed for banquet +or high festivity. The floor was of polished tiles, with a +square of red and black diapered Flemish carpet in the centre; +and many settees, cushions, folding chairs, and carved bancals +littered all over it. At the further end was a long black buffet +or dresser, thickly covered with gold cups, silver salvers, and +other such valuables. All this Alleyne examined with curious +eyes; but most interesting of all to him was a small ebony table +at his very side, on which, by the side of a chess-board and the +scattered chessmen, there lay an open manuscript written in a +right clerkly hand, and set forth with brave flourishes and +devices along the margins. In vain Alleyne bethought him of +where he was, and of those laws of good breeding and decorum +which should restrain him: those colored capitals and black even +lines drew his hand down to them, as the loadstone draws the +needle, until, almost before he knew it, he was standing with the +romance of Garin de Montglane before his eyes, so absorbed in its +contents as to be completely oblivious both of where he was and +why he had come there. + +He was brought back to himself, however, by a sudden little +ripple of quick feminine laughter. Aghast, he dropped the +manuscript among the chessmen and stared in bewilderment round +the room. It was as empty and as still as ever. Again he +stretched his hand out to the romance, and again came that +roguish burst of merriment. He looked up at the ceiling, back at +the closed door, and round at the stiff folds of motionless +tapestry. Of a sudden, however, he caught a quick shimmer from +the corner of a high-backed bancal in front of him, and, shifting +a pace or two to the side, saw a white slender hand, which held a +mirror of polished silver in such a way that the concealed +observer could see without being seen. He stood irresolute, +uncertain whether to advance or to take no notice; but, even as +he hesitated, the mirror was whipped in, and a tall and stately +young lady swept out from behind the oaken screen, with a dancing +light of mischief in her eyes. Alleyne started with astonishment +as he recognized the very maiden who had suffered from his +brother's violence in the forest. She no longer wore her gay +riding-dress, however, but was attired in a long sweeping robe of +black velvet of Bruges, with delicate tracery of white lace at +neck and at wrist, scarce to be seen against her ivory skin. +Beautiful as she had seemed to him before, the lithe charm of her +figure and the proud, free grace of her bearing were enhanced now +by the rich simplicity of her attire. + +"Ah, you start," said she, with the same sidelong look of +mischief, "and I cannot marvel at it. Didst not look to see the +distressed damosel again. Oh that I were a minstrel, that I +might put it into rhyme, with the whole romance--the luckless +maid, the wicked socman, and the virtuous clerk! So might our +fame have gone down together for all time, and you be numbered +with Sir Percival or Sir Galahad, or all the other rescuers of +oppressed ladies." + +"What I did," said Alleyne, "was too small a thing for thanks; +and yet, if I may say it without offence, it was too grave and +near a matter for mirth and raillery. I had counted on my +brother's love, but God has willed that it should be otherwise. +It is a joy to me to see you again, lady, and to know that you +have reached home in safety, if this be indeed your home." + +"Yes, in sooth, Castle Twynham is my home, and Sir Nigel Loring +my father, I should have told you so this morning, but you said +that you were coming thither, so I bethought me that I might hold +it back as a surprise to you. Oh dear, but it was brave to see +you!" she cried, bursting out a-laughing once more, and standing +with her hand pressed to her side, and her half-closed eyes +twinkling with amusement. "You drew back and came forward with +your eyes upon my book there, like the mouse who sniffs the +cheese and yet dreads the trap." + +"I take shame," said Alleyne, "that I should have touched it." + +"Nay, it warmed my very heart to see it. So glad was I, that I +laughed for very pleasure. My fine preacher can himself be +tempted then, thought I; he is not made of another clay to the +rest of us." + +"God help me! I am the weakest of the weak," groaned Alleyne. +"I pray that I may have more strength." + +"And to what end?" she asked sharply. "If you are, as I +understand, to shut yourself forever in your cell within the four +walls of an abbey, then of what use would it be were your prayer +to be answered?" + +"The use of my own salvation." + +She turned from him with a pretty shrug and wave. "Is that all?" +she said. "Then you are no better than Father Christopher and +the rest of them. Your own, your own, ever your own! My father +is the king's man, and when he rides into the press of fight he +is not thinking ever of the saving of his own poor body; he recks +little enough if he leave it on the field. Why then should you, +who are soldiers of the Spirit, be ever moping or hiding in cell +or in cave, with minds full of your own concerns, while the +world, which you should be mending, is going on its way, and +neither sees nor hears you? Were ye all as thoughtless of your +own souls as the soldier is of his body, ye would be of more +avail to the souls of others." + +"There is sooth in what you say, lady," Alleyne answered; "and +yet I scarce can see what you would have the clergy and the +church to do." + +"I would have them live as others and do men's work in the world, +preaching by their lives rather than their words. I would have +them come forth from their lonely places, mix with the borel +folks, feel the pains and the pleasures, the cares and the +rewards, the temptings and the stirrings of the common people. +Let them toil and swinken, and labor, and plough the land, and +take wives to themselves----" + +"Alas! alas!" cried Alleyne aghast, "you have surely sucked this +poison from the man Wicliffe, of whom I have heard such evil +things." + +"Nay, I know him not. I have learned it by looking from my own +chamber window and marking these poor monks of the priory, their +weary life, their profitless round. I have asked myself if the +best which can be done with virtue is to shut it within high +walls as though it were some savage creature. If the good will +lock themselves up, and if the wicked will still wander free, +then alas for the world!" + +Alleyne looked at her in astonishment, for her cheek was flushed, +her eyes gleaming, and her whole pose full of eloquence and +conviction. Yet in an instant she had changed again to her old +expression of merriment leavened with mischief. + +"Wilt do what I ask?" said she. + +"What is it, lady?" + +"Oh, most ungallant clerk! A true knight would never have asked, +but would have vowed upon the instant. 'Tis but to bear me out +in what I say to my father." + +"In what?" + +"In saying, if he ask, that it was south of the Christchurch road +that I met you. I shall be shut up with the tire-women else, and +have a week of spindle and bodkin, when I would fain be galloping +Troubadour up Wilverley Walk, or loosing little Roland at the +Vinney Ridge herons." + +"I shall not answer him if he ask." + +"Not answer! But he will have an answer. Nay, but you must not +fail me, or it will go ill with me." + +"But, lady," cried poor Alleyne in great distress, "how can I say +that it was to the south of the road when I know well that it was +four miles to the north." + +"You will not say it?" + +"Surely you will not, too, when you know that it is not so?" + +"Oh, I weary of your preaching!" she cried, and swept away with a +toss of her beautiful head, leaving Alleyne as cast down and +ashamed as though he had himself proposed some infamous thing. +She was back again in an instant, however, in another of her +varying moods. + +"Look at that, my friend!" said she. "If you had been shut up in +abbey or in cell this day you could not have taught a wayward +maiden to abide by the truth. Is it not so? What avail is the +shepherd if he leaves his sheep." + +"A sorry shepherd!" said Alleyne humbly. "But here is your noble +father." + +"And you shall see how worthy a pupil I am. Father, I am much +beholden to this young clerk, who was of service to me and helped +me this very morning in Minstead Woods, four miles to the north +of the Christchurch road, where I had no call to be, you having +ordered it otherwise." All this she reeled off in a loud voice, +and then glanced with sidelong, questioning eyes at Alleyne for +his approval. + +Sir Nigel, who had entered the room with a silvery-haired old +lady upon his arm, stared aghast at this sudden outburst of +candor. + +"Maude, Maude!" said he, shaking his head, "it is more hard for +me to gain obedience from you than from the ten score drunken +archers who followed me to Guienne. Yet, hush! little one, for +your fair lady-mother will be here anon, and there is no need +that she should know it. We will keep you from the provost-marshal +this journey. Away to your chamber, sweeting, and keep a +blithe face, for she who confesses is shriven. And now, fair +mother," he continued, when his daughter had gone, "sit you here +by the fire, for your blood runs colder than it did. Alleyne +Edricson, I would have a word with you, for I would fain that you +should take service under me. And here in good time comes my +lady, without whose counsel it is not my wont to decide aught of +import; but, indeed, it was her own thought that you should +come." + +"For I have formed a good opinion of you, and can see that you +are one who may be trusted," said the Lady Loring. "And in good +sooth my dear lord hath need of such a one by his side, for he +recks so little of himself that there should be one there to look +to his needs and meet his wants. You have seen the cloisters; it +were well that you should see the world too, ere you make choice +for life between them." + +"It was for that very reason that my father willed that I should +come forth into the world at my twentieth year," said Alleyne. + +"Then your father was a man of good counsel," said she, "and you +cannot carry out his will better than by going on this path, +where all that is noble and gallant in England will be your +companions." + +"You can ride?" asked Sir Nigel, looking at the youth with +puckered eyes. + +"Yes, I have ridden much at the abbey." + +"Yet there is a difference betwixt a friar's hack and a warrior's +destrier. You can sing and play?" + +"On citole, flute and rebeck." + +"Good! You can read blazonry?" + +"Indifferent well." + +"Then read this," quoth Sir Nigel, pointing upwards to one of the +many quarterings which adorned the wall over the fireplace. + +"Argent," Alleyne answered, "a fess azure charged with three +lozenges dividing three mullets sable. Over all, on an +escutcheon of the first, a jambe gules." + +"A jambe gules erased," said Sir Nigel, shaking his head +solemnly. "Yet it is not amiss for a monk-bred man. I trust +that you are lowly and serviceable?" + +"I have served all my life, my lord." + +"Canst carve too?" + +"I have carved two days a week for the brethren." + +"A model truly! Wilt make a squire of squires. But tell me, I +pray, canst curl hair?" + +"No, my lord, but I could learn." + +"It is of import," said he, "for I love to keep my hair well +ordered, seeing that the weight of my helmet for thirty years +hath in some degree frayed it upon the top." He pulled off his +velvet cap of maintenance as he spoke, and displayed a pate which +was as bald as an egg, and shone bravely in the firelight. "You +see," said he, whisking round, and showing one little strip where +a line of scattered hairs, like the last survivors in some fatal +field, still barely held their own against the fate which had +fallen upon their comrades; "these locks need some little oiling +and curling, for I doubt not that if you look slantwise at my +head, when the light is good, you will yourself perceive that +there are places where the hair is sparse." + +"It is for you also to bear the purse," said the lady; "for my +sweet lord is of so free and gracious a temper that he would give +it gayly to the first who asked alms of him. All these things, +with some knowledge of venerie, and of the management of horse, +hawk and hound, with the grace and hardihood and courtesy which +are proper to your age, will make you a fit squire for Sir Nigel +Loring." + +"Alas! lady," Alleyne answered, "I know well the great honor that +you have done me in deeming me worthy to wait upon so renowned a +knight, yet I am so conscious of my own weakness that I scarce +dare incur duties which I might be so ill-fitted to fulfil." + +"Modesty and a humble mind," said she, "are the very first and +rarest gifts in page or squire. Your words prove that you have +these, and all the rest is but the work of use and time. But +there is no call for haste. Rest upon it for the night, and let +your orisons ask for guidance in the matter. We knew your father +well, and would fain help his son, though we have small cause to +love your brother the Socman, who is forever stirring up strife +in the county." + +"We can scare hope," said Nigel, "to have all ready for our start +before the feast of St. Luke, for there is much to be done in the +time. You will have leisure, therefore, if it please you to take +service under me, in which to learn your devoir. Bertrand, my +daughter's page, is hot to go; but in sooth he is over young for +such rough work as may be before us." + +"And I have one favor to crave from you," added the lady of the +castle, as Alleyne turned to leave their presence. "You have, as +I understand, much learning which you have acquired at Beaulieu." + +"Little enough, lady, compared with those who were my teachers." + +"Yet enough for my purpose, I doubt not. For I would have you +give an hour or two a day whilst you are with us in discoursing +with my daughter, the Lady Maude; for she is somewhat backward, I +fear, and hath no love for letters, save for these poor fond +romances, which do but fill her empty head with dreams of +enchanted maidens and of errant cavaliers. Father Christopher +comes over after nones from the priory, but he is stricken with +years and slow of speech, so that she gets small profit from his +teaching. I would have you do what you can with her, and with +Agatha my young tire-woman, and with Dorothy Pierpont." + +And so Alleyne found himself not only chosen as squire to a +knight but also as squire to three damosels, which was even +further from the part which he had thought to play in the world. +Yet he could but agree to do what he might, and so went forth +from the castle hall with his face flushed and his head in a +whirl at the thought of the strange and perilous paths which his +feet were destined to tread. + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +HOW ALLEYNE LEARNED MORE THAN HE COULD TEACH. + + +And now there came a time of stir and bustle, of furbishing of +arms and clang of hammer from all the southland counties. Fast +spread the tidings from thorpe to thorpe and from castle to +castle, that the old game was afoot once more, and the lions and +lilies to be in the field with the early spring. Great news this +for that fierce old country, whose trade for a generation had +been war, her exports archers and her imports prisoners. For six +years her sons had chafed under an unwonted peace. Now they flew +to their arms as to their birthright. The old soldiers of Crecy, +of Nogent, and of Poictiers were glad to think that they might +hear the war-trumpet once more, and gladder still were the hot +youth who had chafed for years under the martial tales of their +sires. To pierce the great mountains of the south, to fight the +tamers of the fiery Moors, to follow the greatest captain of the +age, to find sunny cornfields and vineyards, when the marches of +Picardy and Normandy were as rare and bleak as the Jedburgh +forests--here was a golden prospect for a race of warriors. From +sea to sea there was stringing of bows in the cottage and clang +of steel in the castle. + +Nor did it take long for every stronghold to pour forth its +cavalry, and every hamlet its footmen. Through the late autumn +and the early winter every road and country lane resounded with +nakir and trumpet, with the neigh of the war-horse and the +clatter of marching men. From the Wrekin in the Welsh marches to +the Cotswolds in the west or Butser in the south, there was no +hill-top from which the peasant might not have seen the bright +shimmer of arms, the toss and flutter of plume and of pensil. +From bye-path, from woodland clearing, or from winding moor-side +track these little rivulets of steel united in the larger roads +to form a broader stream, growing ever fuller and larger as it +approached the nearest or most commodious seaport. And there all +day, and day after day, there was bustle and crowding and labor, +while the great ships loaded up, and one after the other spread +their white pinions and darted off to the open sea, amid the +clash of cymbals and rolling of drums and lusty shouts of those +who went and of those who waited. From Orwell to the Dart there +was no port which did not send forth its little fleet, gay with +streamer and bunting, as for a joyous festival. Thus in the +season of the waning days the might of England put forth on to +the waters. + +In the ancient and populous county of Hampshire there was no lack +of leaders or of soldiers for a service which promised either +honor or profit. In the north the Saracen's head of the Brocas +and the scarlet fish of the De Roches were waving over a strong +body of archers from Holt, Woolmer, and Harewood forests. De +Borhunte was up in the east, and Sir John de Montague in the +west. Sir Luke de Ponynges, Sir Thomas West, Sir Maurice de +Bruin, Sir Arthur Lipscombe, Sir Walter Ramsey, and stout Sir +Oliver Buttesthorn were all marching south with levies from +Andover, Arlesford, Odiham and Winchester, while from Sussex came +Sir John Clinton, Sir Thomas Cheyne, and Sir John Fallislee, with +a troop of picked men-at-arms, making for their port at +Southampton. Greatest of all the musters, however, was that of +Twynham Castle, for the name and the fame of Sir Nigel Loring +drew towards him the keenest and boldest spirits, all eager to +serve under so valiant a leader. Archers from the New Forest and +the Forest of Bere, billmen from the pleasant country which is +watered by the Stour, the Avon, and the Itchen, young cavaliers +from the ancient Hampshire houses, all were pushing for +Christchurch to take service under the banner of the five +scarlet roses. + +And now, could Sir Nigel have shown the bachelles of land which +the laws of rank required, he might well have cut his forked +pennon into a square banner, and taken such a following into the +field as would have supported the dignity of a banneret. But +poverty was heavy upon him, his land was scant, his coffers +empty, and the very castle which covered him the holding of +another. Sore was his heart when he saw rare bowmen and +war-hardened spearmen turned away from his gates, for the lack of +the money which might equip and pay them. Yet the letter which +Aylward had brought him gave him powers which he was not slow to +use. In it Sir Claude Latour, the Gascon lieutenant of the White +Company, assured him that there remained in his keeping enough to +fit out a hundred archers and twenty men-at-arms, which, joined +to the three hundred veteran companions already in France, would +make a force which any leader might be proud to command. +Carefully and sagaciously the veteran knight chose out his men +from the swarm of volunteers. Many an anxious consultation he +held with Black Simon, Sam Aylward, and other of his more +experienced followers, as to who should come and who should stay. +By All Saints' day, however ere the last leaves had fluttered to +earth in the Wilverley and Holmesley glades, he had filled up his +full numbers, and mustered under his banner as stout a following +of Hampshire foresters as ever twanged their war-bows. Twenty +men-at-arms, too, well mounted and equipped, formed the cavalry +of the party, while young Peter Terlake of Fareham, and Walter +Ford of Botley, the martial sons of martial sires, came at their +own cost to wait upon Sir Nigel and to share with Alleyne +Edricson the duties of his squireship. + +Yet, even after the enrolment, there was much to be done ere the +party could proceed upon its way. For armor, swords, and lances, +there was no need to take much forethought, for they were to be +had both better and cheaper in Bordeaux than in England. With +the long-bow, however, it was different. Yew staves indeed might +be got in Spain, but it was well to take enough and to spare with +them. Then three spare cords should be carried for each bow, +with a great store of arrow-heads, besides the brigandines of +chain mail, the wadded steel caps, and the brassarts or arm-guards, +which were the proper equipment of the archer. Above +all, the women for miles round were hard at work cutting the +white surcoats which were the badge of the Company, and adorning +them with the red lion of St. George upon the centre of the +breast. When all was completed and the muster called in the +castle yard the oldest soldier of the French wars was fain to +confess that he had never looked upon a better equipped or more +warlike body of men, from the old knight with his silk jupon, +sitting his great black war-horse in the front of them, to Hordle +John, the giant recruit, who leaned carelessly upon a huge black +bow-stave in the rear. Of the six score, fully half had seen +service before, while a fair sprinkling were men who had followed +the wars all their lives, and had a hand in those battles which +had made the whole world ring with the fame and the wonder of the +island infantry. + +Six long weeks were taken in these preparations, and it was close +on Martinmas ere all was ready for a start. Nigh two months had +Alleyne Edricson been in Castle Twynham--months which were fated +to turn the whole current of his life, to divert it from that +dark and lonely bourne towards which it tended, and to guide it +into freer and more sunlit channels. Already he had learned to +bless his father for that wise provision which had made him seek +to know the world ere he had ventured to renounce it. + +For it was a different place from that which he had pictured--very +different from that which he had heard described when the +master of the novices held forth to his charges upon she ravening +wolves who lurked for them beyond the peaceful folds of Beaulieu. +There was cruelty in it, doubtless, and lust and sin and sorrow; +but were there not virtues to atone, robust positive virtues +which did not shrink from temptation, which held their own in all +the rough blasts of the work-a-day world? How colorless by +contrast appeared the sinlessness which came from inability to +sin, the conquest which was attained by flying from the enemy! +Monk-bred as he was, Alleyne had native shrewdness and a mind +which was young enough to form new conclusions and to outgrow old +ones. He could not fail to see that the men with whom he was +thrown in contact, rough-tongued, fierce and quarrelsome as they +were, were yet of deeper nature and of more service in the world +than the ox-eyed brethren who rose and ate and slept from year's +end to year's end in their own narrow, stagnant circle of +existence. Abbot Berghersh was a good man, but how was he better +than this kindly knight, who lived as simple a life, held as +lofty and inflexible an ideal of duty, and did with all his +fearless heart whatever came to his hand to do? In turning from +the service of the one to that of the other, Alleyne could not +feel that he was lowering his aims in life. True that his gentle +and thoughtful nature recoiled from the grim work of war, yet in +those days of martial orders and militant brotherhoods there was +no gulf fixed betwixt the priest and the soldier. The man of God +and the man of the sword might without scandal be united in the +same individual. Why then should he, a mere clerk, have scruples +when so fair a chance lay in his way of carrying out the spirit +as well as the letter of his father's provision. Much struggle +it cost him, anxious spirit-questionings and midnight prayings, +with many a doubt and a misgiving; but the issue was that ere he +had been three days in Castle Twynham he had taken service under +Sir Nigel, and had accepted horse and harness, the same to be +paid for out of his share of the profits of the expedition. +Henceforth for seven hours a day he strove in the tilt-yard to +qualify himself to be a worthy squire to so worthy a knight. +Young, supple and active, with all the pent energies from years +of pure and healthy living, it was not long before he could +manage his horse and his weapon well enough to earn an approving +nod from critical men-at-arms, or to hold his own against Terlake +and Ford, his fellow-servitors. + +But were there no other considerations which swayed him from the +cloisters towards the world? So complex is the human spirit that +it can itself scarce discern the deep springs which impel it to +action. Yet to Alleyne had been opened now a side of life of +which he had been as innocent as a child, but one which was of +such deep import that it could not fail to influence him in +choosing his path. A woman, in monkish precepts, had been the +embodiment and concentration of what was dangerous and evil--a +focus whence spread all that was to be dreaded and avoided. So +defiling was their presence that a true Cistercian might not +raise his eyes to their face or touch their finger-tips under ban +of church and fear of deadly sin. Yet here, day after day for an +hour after nones, and for an hour before vespers, he found +himself in close communion with three maidens, all young, all +fair, and all therefore doubly dangerous from the monkish +standpoint. Yet he found that in their presence he was conscious +of a quick sympathy, a pleasant ease, a ready response to all +that was most gentle and best in himself, which filled his soul +with a vague and new-found joy. + +And yet the Lady Maude Loring was no easy pupil to handle. An +older and more world-wise man might have been puzzled by her +varying moods, her sudden prejudices, her quick resentment at all +constraint and authority. Did a subject interest her was there +space in it for either romance or imagination, she would fly +through it with her subtle, active mind, leaving her two +fellow-students and even her teacher toiling behind her. On the +other hand, were there dull patience needed with steady toil and +strain of memory, no single fact could by any driving be fixed in +her mind. Alleyne might talk to her of the stories of old gods +and heroes, of gallant deeds and lofty aims, or he might hold +forth upon moon and stars, and let his fancy wander over the +hidden secrets of the universe, and he would have a rapt listener +with flushed cheeks and eloquent eyes, who could repeat after him +the very words which had fallen from his lips. But when it came +to almagest and astrolabe, the counting of figures and reckoning +of epicycles, away would go her thoughts to horse and hound, and +a vacant eye and listless face would warn the teacher that he had +lost his hold upon his scholar. Then he had but to bring out the +old romance book from the priory, with befingered cover of +sheepskin and gold letters upon a purple ground, to entice her +wayward mind back to the paths of learning. + +At times, too, when the wild fit was upon her, she would break +into pertness and rebel openly against Alleyne's gentle firmness. +Yet he would jog quietly on with his teachings, taking no heed to +her mutiny, until suddenly she would be conquered by his +patience, and break into self-revilings a hundred times stronger +than her fault demanded. It chanced however that, on one of +these mornings when the evil mood was upon her, Agatha the young +tire-woman, thinking to please her mistress, began also to toss +her head and make tart rejoinder to the teacher's questions. In +an instant the Lady Maude had turned upon her two blazing eyes +and a face which was blanched with anger. + +"You would dare!" said she. "You would dare!" The frightened +tire-woman tried to excuse herself. "But my fair lady," she +stammered, "what have I done? I have said no more than I heard." + +"You would dare!" repeated the lady in a choking voice. "You, a +graceless baggage, a foolish lack-brain, with no thought above +the hemming of shifts. And he so kindly and hendy and +long-suffering! You would--ha, you may well flee the room!" + +She had spoken with a rising voice, and a clasping and opening of +her long white fingers, so that it was no marvel that ere the +speech was over the skirts of Agatha were whisking round the door +and the click of her sobs to be heard dying swiftly away down the +corridor. + +Alleyne stared open-eyed at this tigress who had sprung so +suddenly to his rescue. "There is no need for such anger," he +said mildly. "The maid's words have done me no scath. It is you +yourself who have erred." + +"I know it," she cried, "I am a most wicked woman. But it is bad +enough that one should misuse you. Ma foi! I will see that there +is not a second one." + +"Nay, nay, no one has misused me," he answered. "But the fault +lies in your hot and bitter words. You have called her a baggage +and a lack-brain, and I know not what." + +"And you are he who taught me to speak the truth," she cried. +"Now I have spoken it, and yet I cannot please you. Lack-brain +she is, and lack-brain I shall call her." + +Such was a sample of the sudden janglings which marred the peace +of that little class. As the weeks passed, however, they became +fewer and less violent, as Alleyne's firm and constant nature +gained sway and influence over the Lady Maude. And yet, sooth to +say, there were times when he had to ask himself whether it was +not the Lady Maude who was gaining sway and influence over him. +If she were changing, so was he. In drawing her up from the +world, he was day by day being himself dragged down towards it. +In vain he strove and reasoned with himself as to the madness of +letting his mind rest upon Sir Nigel's daughter. What was he--a +younger son, a penniless clerk, a squire unable to pay for his +own harness--that he should dare to raise his eyes to the +fairest maid in Hampshire? So spake reason; but, in spite of all, +her voice was ever in his ears and her image in his heart. +Stronger than reason, stronger than cloister teachings, stronger +than all that might hold him back, was that old, old tyrant who +will brook no rival in the kingdom of youth. + +And yet it was a surprise and a shock to himself to find how +deeply she had entered into his life; how completely those vague +ambitions and yearnings which had filled his spiritual nature +centred themselves now upon this thing of earth. He had scarce +dared to face the change which had come upon him, when a few +sudden chance words showed it all up hard and clear, like a +lightning flash in the darkness. + +He had ridden over to Poole, one November day, with his +fellow-squire, Peter Terlake, in quest of certain yew-staves from +Wat Swathling, the Dorsetshire armorer. The day for their +departure had almost come, and the two youths spurred it over the +lonely downs at the top of their speed on their homeward course, +for evening had fallen and there was much to be done. Peter was +a hard, wiry, brown faced, country-bred lad who looked on the +coming war as the schoolboy looks on his holidays This day, +however, he had been sombre and mute, with scarce a word a mile +to bestow upon his comrade. + +"Tell me Alleyne Edricson," he broke out, suddenly, as they +clattered along the winding track which leads over the +Bournemouth hills, "has it not seemed to you that of late the +Lady Maude is paler and more silent than is her wont?" + +"It may be so," the other answered shortly. + +"And would rather sit distrait by her oriel than ride gayly to +the chase as of old. Methinks, Alleyne, it is this learning +which you have taught her that has taken all the life and sap +from her. It is more than she can master, like a heavy spear to a +light rider." + +"Her lady-mother has so ordered it," said Alleyne. + +"By our Lady! and withouten disrespect," quoth Terlake, "it is in +my mind that her lady-mother is more fitted to lead a company to +a storming than to have the upbringing of this tender and +milk-white maid. Hark ye, lad Alleyne, to what I never told man +or woman yet. I love the fair Lady Maude, and would give the +last drop of my heart's blood to serve her." He spoke with a +gasping voice, and his face flushed crimson in the moonlight. + +Alleyne said nothing, but his heart seemed to turn to a lump of +ice in his bosom. + +"My father has broad acres," the other continued, "from Fareham +Creek to the slope of the Portsdown Hill. There is filling of +granges, hewing of wood, malting of grain, and herding of sheep +as much as heart could wish, and I the only son. Sure am I that +Sir Nigel would be blithe at such a match." + +"But how of the lady?" asked Alleyne, with dry lips. + +"Ah, lad, there lies my trouble. It is a toss of the head and a +droop of the eyes if I say one word of what is in my mind. +'Twere as easy to woo the snow-dame that we shaped last winter in +our castle yard. I did but ask her yesternight for her green +veil, that I might bear it as a token or lambrequin upon my helm; +but she flashed out at me that she kept it for a better man, and +then all in a breath asked pardon for that she had spoke so +rudely. Yet she would not take back the words either, nor would +she grant the veil. Has it seemed to thee, Alleyne, that she +loves any one?" + +"Nay, I cannot say," said Alleyne, with a wild throb of sudden +hope in his heart. + +"I have thought so, and yet I cannot name the man. Indeed, gave +myself, and Walter Ford, and you, who are half a clerk, and +Father Christopher of the Priory, and Bertrand the page, who is +there whom she sees?" + +"I cannot tell," quoth Alleyne shortly; and the two squires rode +on again, each intent upon his own thoughts. + +Next day at morning lesson the teacher observed that his pupil +was indeed looking pale and jaded, with listless eyes and a weary +manner. He was heavy-hearted to note the grievous change in her. + +"Your mistress, I fear, is ill, Agatha," he said to the tire-woman, +when the Lady Maude had sought her chamber. + +The maid looked aslant at him with laughing eyes. "It is not an +illness that kills," quoth she. + +"Pray God not!" he cried. "But tell me, Agatha, what it is that +ails her?" + +"Methinks that I could lay my hand upon another who is smitten +with the same trouble," said she, with the same sidelong look. +"Canst not give a name to it, and thou so skilled in leech-craft?" + +"Nay, save that she seems aweary." + +"Well, bethink you that it is but three days ere you will all be +gone, and Castle Twynham be as dull as the Priory. Is there not +enough there to cloud a lady's brow?" + +"In sooth, yes," he answered; "I had forgot that she is about to +lose her father." + +"Her father!" cried the tire-woman, with a little trill of +laughter. "Oh simple, simple!" And she was off down the passage +like arrow from bow, while Alleyne stood gazing after her, +betwixt hope and doubt, scarce daring to put faith in the meaning +which seemed to underlie her words. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +HOW THE WHITE COMPANY SET FORTH TO THE WARS. + + +St. Luke's day had come and had gone, and it was in the season of +Martinmas, when the oxen are driven in to the slaughter, that the +White Company was ready for its journey. Loud shrieked the +brazen bugles from keep and from gateway, and merry was the +rattle of the war-drum, as the men gathered in the outer bailey, +with torches to light them, for the morn had not yet broken. +Alleyne, from the window of the armory, looked down upon the +strange scene--the circles of yellow flickering light, the lines +of stern and bearded faces, the quick shimmer of arms, and the +lean heads of the horses. In front stood the bow-men, ten deep, +with a fringe of under-officers, who paced hither and thither +marshalling the ranks with curt precept or short rebuke. Behind +were the little clump of steel-clad horsemen, their lances +raised, with long pensils drooping down the oaken shafts. So +silent and still were they, that they might have been +metal-sheathed statues, were it not for the occasional quick, +impatient stamp of their chargers, or the rattle of chamfron +against neck-plates as they tossed and strained. A spear's +length in front of them sat the spare and long-limbed figure of +Black Simon, the Norwich fighting man, his fierce, deep-lined +face framed in steel, and the silk guidon marked with the five +scarlet roses slanting over his right shoulder. All round, in +the edge of the circle of the light, stood the castle servants, +the soldiers who were to form the garrison, and little knots of +women. who sobbed in their aprons and called shrilly to their +name-saints to watch over the Wat, or Will, or Peterkin who had +turned his hand to the work of war. + +The young squire was leaning forward, gazing at the stirring and +martial scene, when he heard a short, quick gasp at his shoulder, +and there was the Lady Maude, with her hand to her heart, leaning +up against the wall, slender and fair, like a half-plucked lily. +Her face was turned away from him, but he could see, by the sharp +intake of her breath, that she was weeping bitterly. + +"Alas! alas!" he cried, all unnerved at the sight, "why is it +that you are so sad, lady?" + +"It is the sight of these brave men," she answered; "and to think +how many of them go and how few are like to find their way back. +I have seen it before, when I was a little maid, in the year of +the Prince's great battle. I remember then how they mustered in +the bailey, even as they do now, and my lady-mother holding me in +her arms at this very window that I might see the show." + +"Please God, you will see them all back ere another year be out," +said he. + +She shook her head, looking round at him with flushed cheeks and +eyes that sparkled in the lamp-light. "Oh, but I hate myself for +being a woman!" she cried, with a stamp of her little foot. +"What can I do that is good? Here I must bide, and talk and sew +and spin, and spin and sew and talk. Ever the same dull round, +with nothing at the end of it. And now you are going too, who +could carry my thoughts out of these gray walls, and raise my +mind above tapestry and distaffs. What can I do? I am of no more +use or value than that broken bowstave." + +"You are of such value to me," he cried, in a whirl of hot, +passionate words, "that all else has become nought. You are my +heart, my life, my one and only thought. Oh, Maude, I cannot +live without you, I cannot leave you without a word of love. All +is changed to me since I have known you. I am poor and lowly and +all unworthy of you; but if great love may weigh down such +defects, then mine may do it. Give me but one word of hope to +take to the wars with me--but one. Ah, you shrink, you shudder! +My wild words have frightened you." + +Twice she opened her lips, and twice no sound came from them. At +last she spoke in a hard and measured voice, as one who dare not +trust herself to speak too freely. + +"This is over sudden," she said; "it is not so long since the +world was nothing to you. You have changed once; perchance you +may change again." + +"Cruel!" he cried, "who hath changed me?" + +"And then your brother," she continued with a little laugh, +disregarding his question. "Methinks this hath become a family +custom amongst the Edricsons. Nay, I am sorry; I did not mean a +jibe. But, indeed, Alleyne, this hath come suddenly upon me, and +I scarce know what to say." + +"Say some word of hope, however distant--some kind word that I +may cherish in my heart." + +"Nay, Alleyne, it were a cruel kindness, and you have been too +good and true a friend to me that I should use you despitefully. +There cannot be a closer link between us. It is madness to think +of it. Were there no other reasons, it is enough that my father +and your brother would both cry out against it." + +"My brother, what has he to do with it? And your father----" + +"Come, Alleyne, was it not you who would have me act fairly to +all men, and, certes, to my father amongst them?" + +"You say truly," he cried, "you say truly. But you do not reject +me, Maude? You give me some ray of hope? I do not ask pledge or +promise. Say only that I am not hateful to you--that on some +happier day I may hear kinder words from you." + +Her eyes softened upon him, and a kind answer was on her lips, +when a hoarse shout, with the clatter of arms and stamping of +steeds, rose up from the bailey below. At the sound her face set +her eyes sparkled, and she stood with flushed cheek and head +thrown back--a woman's body, with a soul of fire. + +"My father hath gone down," she cried. "Your place is by his +side. Nay, look not at me, Alleyne. It is no time for dallying. +Win my father's love, and all may follow. It is when the brave +soldier hath done his devoir that he hopes for his reward, +Farewell, and may God be with you!" She held out her white, slim +hand to him, but as he bent his lips over it she whisked away and +was gone, leaving in his outstretched hand the very green veil +for which poor Peter Terlake had craved in vain. Again the +hoarse cheering burst out from below, and he heard the clang of +the rising portcullis. Pressing the veil to his lips, he thrust +it into the bosom of his tunic, and rushed as fast as feet could +bear him to arm himself and join the muster. + +The raw morning had broken ere the hot spiced ale had been served +round and the last farewell spoken. A cold wind blew up from the +sea and ragged clouds drifted swiftly across the sky. + +The Christchurch townsfolk stood huddled about the Bridge of +Avon, the women pulling tight their shawls and the men swathing +themselves in their gaberdines, while down the winding path from +the castle came the van of the little army, their feet clanging +on the hard, frozen road. First came Black Simon with his +banner, bestriding a lean and powerful dapple-gray charger, as +hard and wiry and warwise as himself. After him, riding three +abreast, were nine men-at-arms, all picked soldiers, who had +followed the French wars before, and knew the marches of Picardy +as they knew the downs of their native Hampshire. They were +armed to the teeth with lance, sword, and mace, with square +shields notched at the upper right-hand corner to serve as a +spear-rest. For defence each man wore a coat of interlaced +leathern thongs, strengthened at the shoulder, elbow, and upper +arm with slips of steel. Greaves and knee-pieces were also of +leather backed by steel, and their gauntlets and shoes were of +iron plates, craftily jointed, So, with jingle of arms and +clatter of hoofs, they rode across the Bridge of Avon, while the +burghers shouted lustily for the flag of the five roses and its +gallant guard. + +Close at the heels of the horses came two-score archers bearded +and burly, their round targets on their backs and their long +yellow bows, the most deadly weapon that the wit of man had yet +devised, thrusting forth from behind their shoulders. From each +man's girdle hung sword or axe, according to his humor, and over +the right hip there jutted out the leathern quiver with its +bristle of goose, pigeon, and peacock feathers. Behind the +bowmen strode two trumpeters blowing upon nakirs, and two +drummers in parti-colored clothes. After them came twenty-seven +sumpter horses carrying tent-poles, cloth, spare arms, spurs, +wedges, cooking kettles, horse-shoes, bags of nails and the +hundred other things which experience had shown to be needful in +a harried and hostile country. A white mule with red trappings, +led by a varlet, carried Sir Nigel's own napery and table +comforts. Then came two-score more archers, ten more +men-at-arms, and finally a rear guard of twenty bowmen, with big +John towering in the front rank and the veteran Aylward marching +by the side, his battered harness and faded surcoat in strange +contrast with the snow-white jupons and shining brigandines of +his companions. A quick cross-fire of greetings and questions +and rough West Saxon jests flew from rank to rank, or were +bandied about betwixt the marching archers and the gazing crowd. + +"Hola, Gaffer Higginson!" cried Aylward, as he spied the portly +figure of the village innkeeper. "No more of thy nut-brown, mon +gar. We leave it behind us." + +"By St. Paul, no!" cried the other. "You take it with you. +Devil a drop have you left in the great kilderkin. It was time +for you to go." + +"If your cask is leer, I warrant your purse is full, gaffer," +shouted Hordle John. "See that you lay in good store of the best +for our home-coming." + +"See that you keep your throat whole for the drinking of it +archer," cried a voice, and the crowd laughed at the rough +pleasantry. + +"If you will warrant the beer, I will warrant the throat," said +John composedly. + +"Close up the ranks!" cried Aylward. "En avant, mes enfants! +Ah, by my finger bones, there is my sweet Mary from the Priory +Mill! Ma foi, but she is beautiful! Adieu, Mary ma cherie! Mon +coeur est toujours a toi. Brace your belt, Watkins, man, and +swing your shoulders as a free companion should. By my hilt! +your jerkins will be as dirty as mine ere you clap eyes on +Hengistbury Head again." + +The Company had marched to the turn of the road ere Sir Nigel +Loring rode out from the gateway, mounted on Pommers, his great +black war-horse, whose ponderous footfall on the wooden +drawbridge echoed loudly from the gloomy arch which spanned it. +Sir Nigel was still in his velvet dress of peace, with flat +velvet cap of maintenance, and curling ostrich feather clasped in +a golden brooch. To his three squires riding behind him it +looked as though he bore the bird's egg as well as its feather, +for the back of his bald pate shone like a globe of ivory. He +bore no arms save the long and heavy sword which hung at his +saddle-bow; but Terlake carried in front of him the high +wivern-crested bassinet, Ford the heavy ash spear with +swallow-tail pennon, while Alleyne was entrusted with the +emblazoned shield. The Lady Loring rode her palfrey at her +lord's bridle-arm, for she would see him as far as the edge of +the forest, and ever and anon she turned her hard-lined face up +wistfully to him and ran a questioning eye over his apparel and +appointments + +"I trust that there is nothing forgot," she said, beckoning to +Alleyne to ride on her further side. "I trust him to you, +Edricson. Hosen, shirts, cyclas, and under-jupons are in the +brown basket on the left side of the mule. His wine he takes hot +when the nights are cold, malvoisie or vernage, with as much +spice as would cover the thumb-nail. See that he hath a change +if he come back hot from the tilting. There is goose-grease in a +box, if the old scars ache at the turn of the weather. Let his +blankets be dry and----" + +"Nay, my heart's life," the little knight interrupted, "trouble +not now about such matters. Why so pale and wan, Edricson? Is it +not enow to make a man's heart dance to see this noble Company, +such valiant men-at-arms, such lusty archers? By St. Paul! I +would be ill to please if I were not blithe to see the red roses +flying at the head of so noble a following!" + +"The purse I have already given you, Edricson," continue the +lady. "There are in it twenty-three marks, one noble, three +shillings and fourpence, which is a great treasure for one man to +carry. And I pray you to bear in mind, Edricson, that he hath +two pair of shoes, those of red leather for common use, and the +others with golden toe-chains, which he may wear should he chance +to drink wine with the Prince or with Chandos." + +"My sweet bird," said Sir Nigel, "I am right loth to part from +you, but we are now at the fringe of the forest, and it is not +right that I should take the chatelaine too far from her trust." + +"But oh, my dear lord," she cried with a trembling lip, "let me +bide with you for one furlong further--or one and a half perhaps. +You may spare me this out of the weary miles that you will +journey along." + +"Come, then, my heart's comfort," he answered. "But I must crave +a gage from thee. It is my custom, dearling, and hath been since +I have first known thee, to proclaim by herald in such camps, +townships, or fortalices as I may chance to visit, that my +lady-love, being beyond compare the fairest and sweetest in +Christendom, I should deem it great honor and kindly condescension +if any cavalier would run three courses against me with sharpened +lances, should he chance to have a lady whose claim he was +willing to advance. I pray you then my fair dove, that you will +vouchsafe to me one of those doeskin gloves, that I may wear it +as the badge of her whose servant I shall ever be." + +"Alack and alas for the fairest and sweetest!" she cried. "Fair +and sweet I would fain be for your dear sake, my lord, but old I +am and ugly, and the knights would laugh should you lay lance in +rest in such a cause." + +"Edricson," quoth Sir Nigel, "you have young eyes, and mine are +somewhat bedimmed. Should you chance to see a knight laugh, or +smile, or even, look you, arch his brows, or purse his mouth, or +in any way show surprise that I should uphold the Lady Mary, you +will take particular note of his name, his coat-armor, and his +lodging. Your glove, my life's desire!" + +The Lady Mary Loring slipped her hand from her yellow leather +gauntlet, and he, lifting it with dainty reverence, bound it to +the front of his velvet cap. + +"It is with mine other guardian angels," quoth he, pointing at +the saints' medals which hung beside it. "And now, my dearest, +you have come far enow. May the Virgin guard and prosper thee! +One kiss!" He bent down from his saddle, and then, striking +spurs into his horse's sides, he galloped at top speed after his +men, with his three squires at his heels. Half a mile further, +where the road topped a hill, they looked back, and the Lady Mary +on her white palfrey was still where they had left her. A moment +later they were on the downward slope, and she had vanished from +their view. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +HOW SIR NIGEL SOUGHT FOR A WAYSIDE VENTURE. + + +For a time Sir Nigel was very moody and downcast, with bent brows +and eyes upon the pommel of his saddle. Edricson and Terlake +rode behind him in little better case, while Ford, a careless and +light-hearted youth, grinned at the melancholy of his companions, +and flourished his lord's heavy spear, making a point to right +and a point to left, as though he were a paladin contending +against a host of assailants. Sir Nigel happened, however, to +turn himself in his saddle-Ford instantly became as stiff and as +rigid as though he had been struck with a palsy. The four rode +alone, for the archers had passed a curve in the road, though +Alleyne could still hear the heavy clump, clump of their +marching, or catch a glimpse of the sparkle of steel through the +tangle of leafless branches. + +"Ride by my side, friends, I entreat of you," said the knight, +reining in his steed that they might come abreast of him. "For, +since it hath pleased you to follow me to the wars, it were well +that you should know how you may best serve me. I doubt not, +Terlake, that you will show yourself a worthy son of a valiant +father; and you, Ford, of yours; and you, Edricson, that you are +mindful of the old-time house from which all men know that you +are sprung. And first I would have you bear very steadfastly in +mind that our setting forth is by no means for the purpose of +gaining spoil or exacting ransom, though it may well happen that +such may come to us also. We go to France, and from thence I +trust to Spain, in humble search of a field in which we may win +advancement and perchance some small share of glory. For this +purpose I would have you know that it is not my wont to let any +occasion pass where it is in any way possible that honor may be +gained. I would have you bear this in mind, and give great heed +to it that you may bring me word of all cartels, challenges, +wrongs, tyrannies, infamies, and wronging of damsels. Nor is any +occasion too small to take note of, for I have known such trifles +as the dropping of a gauntlet, or the flicking of a breadcrumb, +when well and properly followed up, lead to a most noble +spear-running. But, Edricson, do I not see a cavalier who rides +down yonder road amongst the nether shaw? It would be well, +perchance, that you should give him greeting from me. And, +should he be of gentle blood it may be that he would care to +exchange thrusts with me." + +"Why, my lord," quoth Ford, standing in his stirrups and shading +his eyes, "it is old Hob Davidson, the fat miller of Milton!" + +"Ah, so it is, indeed," said Sir Nigel, puckering his cheeks; +"but wayside ventures are not to be scorned, for I have seen no +finer passages than are to be had from such chance meetings, when +cavaliers are willing to advance themselves. I can well remember +that two leagues from the town of Rheims I met a very valiant and +courteous cavalier of France, with whom I had gentle and most +honorable contention for upwards of an hour. It hath ever +grieved me that I had not his name, for he smote upon me with a +mace and went upon his way ere I was in condition to have much +speech with him; but his arms were an allurion in chief above a +fess azure. I was also on such an occasion thrust through the +shoulder by Lyon de Montcourt, whom I met on the high road +betwixt Libourne and Bordeaux. I met him but the once, but I +have never seen a man for whom I bear a greater love and esteem. +And so also with the squire Le Bourg Capillet, who would have +been a very valiant captain had he lived." + +"He is dead then?" asked Alleyne Edricson. + +"Alas! it was my ill fate to slay him in a bickering which broke +out in a field near the township of Tarbes. I cannot call to +mind how the thing came about, for it was in the year of the +Prince's ride through Languedoc, when there was much fine +skirmishing to be had at barriers. By St. Paul! I do not think +that any honorable cavalier could ask for better chance of +advancement than might be had by spurring forth before the army +and riding to the gateways of Narbonne, or Bergerac or Mont +Giscar, where some courteous gentleman would ever be at wait to +do what he might to meet your wish or ease you of your vow. Such +a one at Ventadour ran three courses with me betwixt daybreak and +sunrise, to the great exaltation of his lady." + +"And did you slay him also, my lord?" asked Ford with reverence. + +"I could never learn, for he was carried within the barrier, and +as I had chanced to break the bone of my leg it was a great +unease for me to ride or even to stand. Yet, by the goodness of +heaven and the pious intercession of the valiant St. George, I +was able to sit my charger in the ruffle of Poictiers, which was +no very long time afterwards. But what have we here? A very +fair and courtly maiden, or I mistake." + +It was indeed a tall and buxom country lass, with a basket of +spinach-leaves upon her head, and a great slab of bacon tucked +under one arm. She bobbed a frightened curtsey as Sir Nigel +swept his velvet hat from his head and reined up his great +charger. + +"God be with thee, fair maiden!" said he. + +"God guard thee, my lord!" she answered, speaking in the broadest +West Saxon speech, and balancing herself first on one foot and +then on the other in her bashfulness. + +"Fear not, my fair damsel," said Sir Nigel, "but tell me if +perchance a poor and most unworthy knight can in any wise be of +service to you. Should it chance that you have been used +despitefully, it may be that I may obtain justice for you." + +"Lawk no, kind sir," she answered, clutching her bacon the +tighter, as though some design upon it might be hid under this +knightly offer. "I be the milking wench o' fairmer Arnold, and +he be as kind a maister as heart could wish." + +"It is well," said he, and with a shake of the bridle rode on +down the woodland path. "I would have you bear in mind," he +continued to his squires, "that gentle courtesy is not, as is the +base use of so many false knights, to be shown only to maidens of +high degree, for there is no woman so humble that a true knight +may not listen to her tale of wrong. But here comes a cavalier +who is indeed in haste. Perchance it would be well that we +should ask him whither he rides, for it may be that he is one who +desires to advance himself in chivalry." + +The bleak, hard, wind-swept road dipped down in front of them +into a little valley, and then, writhing up the heathy slope upon +the other side, lost itself among the gaunt pine-trees. Far away +between the black lines of trunks the quick glitter of steel +marked where the Company pursued its way. To the north stretched +the tree country, but to the south, between two swelling downs, a +glimpse might be caught of the cold gray shimmer of the sea, with +the white fleck of a galley sail upon the distant sky-line. Just +in front of the travellers a horseman was urging his steed up the +slope, driving it on with whip and spur as one who rides for a +set purpose. As he clattered up, Alleyne could see that the roan +horse was gray with dust and flecked with foam, as though it had +left many a mile behind it. The rider was a stern-faced man, +hard of mouth and dry of eye, with a heavy sword clanking at his +side, and a stiff white bundle swathed in linen balanced across +the pommel of his saddle. + +"The king's messenger," he bawled as he came up to them. "The +messenger of the king. Clear the causeway for the king's own +man." + +"Not so loudly, friend," quoth the little knight, reining his +horse half round to bar the path. "I have myself been the king's +man for thirty years or more, but I have not been wont to halloo +about it on a peaceful highway." + +"I ride in his service," cried the other, "and I carry that which +belongs to him. You bar my path at your peril." + +"Yet I have known the king's enemies claim to ride in his same," +said Sir Nigel. "The foul fiend may lurk beneath a garment of +light. We must have some sign or warrant of your mission." + +"Then must I hew a passage," cried the stranger, with his +shoulder braced round and his hand upon his hilt. "I am not to +be stopped on the king's service by every gadabout." + +"Should you be a gentleman of quarterings and coat-armor," lisped +Sir Nigel, "I shall be very blithe to go further into the matter +with you. If not, I have three very worthy squires, any one of +whom would take the thing upon himself, and debate it with you in +a very honorable way." + +The man scowled from one to the other, and his hand stole away +from his sword. + +"You ask me for a sign," he said. "Here is a sign for you, since +you must have one." As he spoke he whirled the covering from the +object in front of him and showed to their horror that it was a +newly-severed human leg. "By God's tooth!" he continued, with a +brutal laugh, "you ask me if I am a man of quarterings, and it is +even so, for I am officer to the verderer's court at Lyndhurst. +This thievish leg is to hang at Milton, and the other is already +at Brockenhurst, as a sign to all men of what comes of being +over-fond of venison pasty." + +"Faugh!" cried Sir Nigel. "Pass on the other side of the road, +fellow, and let us have the wind of you. We shall trot our +horses, my friends, across this pleasant valley, for, by Our +Lady! a breath of God's fresh air is right welcome after such a +sight." + +"We hoped to snare a falcon," said he presently, "but we netted a +carrion-crow. Ma foi! but there are men whose hearts are tougher +than a boar's hide. For me, I have played the old game of war +since ever I had hair on my chin, and I have seen ten thousand +brave men in one day with their faces to the sky, but I swear by +Him who made me that I cannot abide the work of the butcher." + +"And yet, my fair lord," said Edricson, "there has, from what I +hear, been much of such devil's work in France." + +"Too much, too much," he answered. "But I have ever observed +that the foremost in the field are they who would scorn to +mishandle a prisoner. By St. Paul! it is not they who carry the +breach who are wont to sack the town, but the laggard knaves who +come crowding in when a way has been cleared for them. But what +is this among the trees?" + +"It is a shrine of Our Lady," said Terlake, "and a blind beggar +who lives by the alms of those who worship there." + +"A shrine!" cried the knight. "Then let us put up an orison." +Pulling off his cap, and clasping his hands, he chanted in a +shrill voice: "Benedictus dominus Deus meus, qui docet manus +meas ad proelium, et digitos meos ad bellum." A strange figure +he seemed to his three squires, perched on his huge horse, with +his eyes upturned and the wintry sun shimmering upon his bald +head. "It is a noble prayer," he remarked, putting on his hat +again, "and it was taught to me by the noble Chandos himself. +But how fares it with you, father? Methinks that I should have +ruth upon you, seeing that I am myself like one who looks through +a horn window while his neighbors have the clear crystal. Yet, +by St. Paul! there is a long stride between the man who hath a +horn casement and him who is walled in on every hand." + +"Alas! fair sir," cried the blind old man, "I have not seen the +blessed blue of heaven this two-score years, since a levin flash +burned the sight out of my head." + +"You have been blind to much that is goodly and fair," quoth Sir +Nigel, "but you have also been spared much that is sorry and +foul. This very hour our eyes have been shocked with that which +would have left you unmoved. But, by St. Paul! we must on, or +our Company will think that they have lost their captain somewhat +early in the venture. Throw the man my purse, Edricson, and let +us go." + +Alleyne, lingering behind, bethought him of the Lady Loring's +counsel, and reduced the noble gift which the knight had so +freely bestowed to a single penny, which the beggar with many +mumbled blessings thrust away into his wallet. Then, spurring +his steed, the young squire rode at the top of his speed after +his companions, and overtook them just at the spot where the +trees fringe off into the moor and the straggling hamlet of +Hordle lies scattered on either side of the winding and +deeply-rutted track. The Company was already well-nigh through +the village; but, as the knight and his squires closed up upon +them, they heard the clamor of a strident voice, followed by a +roar of deep-chested laughter from the ranks of the archers. +Another minute brought them up with the rear-guard, where every +man marched with his beard on his shoulder and a face which was +agrin with merriment. By the side of the column walked a huge +red-headed bowman, with his hands thrown out in argument and +expostulation, while close at his heels followed a little +wrinkled woman who poured forth a shrill volley of abuse, varied +by an occasional thwack from her stick, given with all the force +of her body, though she might have been beating one of the forest +trees for all the effect that she seemed likely to produce. + +"I trust, Aylward," said Sir Nigel gravely, as he rode up, "that +this doth not mean that any violence hath been offered to women. +If such a thing happened, I tell you that the man shall hang, +though he were the best archer that ever wore brassart." + +"Nay, my fair lord," Aylward answered with a grin, "it is +violence which is offered to a man. He comes from Hordle, and +this is his mother who hath come forth to welcome him." + +"You rammucky lurden," she was howling, with a blow between each +catch of her breath, "you shammocking, yaping, over-long +good-for-nought. I will teach thee! I will baste thee! Aye, by my +faith!" + +"Whist, mother," said John, looking back at her from the tail of +his eye, "I go to France as an archer to give blows and to take +them." + +"To France, quotha?" cried the old dame. "Bide here with me, and +I shall warrant you more blows than you are like to get in +France. If blows be what you seek, you need not go further than +Hordle." + +"By my hilt! the good dame speaks truth," said Aylward. "It +seems to be the very home of them." + +"What have you to say, you clean-shaved galley-beggar?" cried the +fiery dame, turning upon the archer. "Can I not speak with my +own son but you must let your tongue clack? A soldier, quotha, +and never a hair on his face. I have seen a better soldier with +pap for food and swaddling clothes for harness." + +"Stand to it, Aylward," cried the archers, amid a fresh burst of +laughter. + +"Do not thwart her, comrade," said big John. "She hath a proper +spirit for her years and cannot abide to be thwarted. It is +kindly and homely to me to hear her voice and to feel that she is +behind me. But I must leave you now, mother, for the way is +over-rough for your feet; but I will bring you back a silken +gown, if there be one in France or Spain, and I will bring Jinny +a silver penny; so good-bye to you, and God have you in His +keeping!" Whipping up the little woman, he lifted her lightly to +his lips, and then, taking his place in the ranks again, marched +on with the laughing Company. + +"That was ever his way," she cried, appealing to Sir Nigel, who +reined up his horse and listened with the greatest courtesy. "He +would jog on his own road for all that I could do to change him. +First he must be a monk forsooth, and all because a wench was +wise enough to turn her back on him. Then he joins a rascally +crew and must needs trapse off to the wars, and me with no one to +bait the fire if I be out, or tend the cow if I be home. Yet I +have been a good mother to him. Three hazel switches a day have +I broke across his shoulders, and he takes no more notice than +you have seen him to-day." + +"Doubt not that he will come back to you both safe and +prosperous, my fair dame," quoth Sir Nigel. "Meanwhile it +grieves me that as I have already given my purse to a beggar up +the road I----" + +"Nay, my lord," said Alleyne, "I still have some moneys +remaining." + +"Then I pray you to give them to this very worthy woman." He +cantered on as he spoke, while Alleyne, having dispensed two more +pence, left the old dame standing by the furthest cottage of +Hordle, with her shrill voice raised in blessings instead of +revilings. + +There were two cross-roads before they reached the Lymington +Ford, and at each of then Sir Nigel pulled up his horse, and +waited with many a curvet and gambade, craning his neck this way +and that to see if fortune would send him a venture. Crossroads +had, as he explained, been rare places for knightly spear-runnings, + and in his youth it was no uncommon thing for a cavalier to +abide for weeks at such a point, holding gentle debate with all +comers, to his own advancement and the great honor of his lady. +The times were changed, however, and the forest tracks wound away +from them deserted and silent, with no trample of war-horse or +clang of armor which might herald the approach of an +adversary--so that Sir Nigel rode on his way disconsolate. At +the Lymington River they splashed through the ford, and lay in +the meadows on the further side to eat the bread and salt meat +which they carried upon the sumpter horses. Then, ere the sun +was on the slope of the heavens, they had deftly trussed up +again, and were swinging merrily upon their way, two hundred feet +moving like two. + +There is a third cross-road where the track from Boldre runs down +to the old fishing village of Pitt's Deep. Down this, as they +came abreast of it, there walked two men, the one a pace or two +behind the other. The cavaliers could not but pull up their +horses to look at them, for a stranger pair were never seen +journeying together. The first was a misshapen, squalid man with +cruel, cunning eyes and a shock of tangled red hair, bearing in +his hands a small unpainted cross, which he held high so that all +men might see it. He seemed to be in the last extremity of +fright, with a face the color of clay and his limbs all ashake as +one who hath an ague. Behind him, with his toe ever rasping upon +the other's heels, there walked a very stern, black-bearded man +with a hard eye and a set mouth. He bore over his shoulder a +great knotted stick with three jagged nails stuck in the head of +it, and from time to time he whirled it up in the air with a +quivering arm, as though he could scarce hold back from dashing +his companion's brains out. So in silence they walked under the +spread of the branches on the grass-grown path from Boldre. + +"By St. Paul!" quoth the knight, "but this is a passing strange +sight, and perchance some very perilous and honorable venture may +arise from it. I pray you, Edricson, to ride up to them and to +ask them the cause of it." + +There was no need, however, for him to move, for the twain came +swiftly towards them until they were within a spear's length, +when the man with the cross sat himself down sullenly upon a +tussock of grass by the wayside, while the other stood beside him +with his great cudgel still hanging over his head. So intent was +he that he raised his eyes neither to knight nor squires, but +kept them ever fixed with a savage glare upon his comrade. + +"I pray you, friend," said Sir Nigel, "to tell us truthfully who +you are, and why you follow this man with such bitter enmity? + +"So long as I am within the pale of the king's law," the stranger +answered, "I cannot see why I should render account to every +passing wayfarer." + +"You are no very shrewd reasoner, fellow," quoth the knight; "for +if it be within the law for you to threaten him with your club, +then it is also lawful for me to threaten you with my sword." + +The man with the cross was down in an instant on his knees upon +the ground, with hands clasped above him and his face shining +with hope. "For dear Christ's sake, my fair lord," he cried in a +crackling voice, "I have at my belt a bag with a hundred rose +nobles, and I will give it to you freely if you will but pass +your sword through this man's body." + +"How, you foul knave?" exclaimed Sir Nigel hotly. "Do you think +that a cavalier's arm is to be bought like a packman's ware. By +St. Paul! I have little doubt that this fellow hath some very +good cause to hold you in hatred." + +"Indeed, my fair sir, you speak sooth," quoth he with the club, +while the other seated himself once more by the wayside. "For +this man is Peter Peterson, a very noted rieve, draw-latch, and +murtherer, who has wrought much evil for many years in the parts +about Winchester. It was but the other day, upon the feasts of +the blessed Simon and Jude, that he slew my younger brother +William in Bere Forest--for which, by the black thorn of +Glastonbury! I shall have his heart's blood, though I walk behind +him to the further end of earth." + +"But if this be indeed so," asked Sir Nigel, "why is it that you +have come with him so far through the forest?" + +"Because I am an honest Englishman, and will take no more than +the law allows. For when the deed was done this foul and base +wretch fled to sanctuary at St. Cross, and I, as you may think, +after him with all the posse. The prior, however, hath so +ordered that while he holds this cross no man may lay hand upon +him without the ban of church, which heaven forfend from me or +mine. Yet, if for an instant he lay the cross aside, or if he +fail to journey to Pitt's Deep, where it is ordered that he shall +take ship to outland parts, or if he take not the first ship, or +if until the ship be ready he walk not every day into the sea as +far as his loins, then he becomes outlaw, and I shall forthwith +dash out his brains." + +At this the man on the ground snarled up at him like a rat, while +the other clenched his teeth, and shook his club, and looked down +at him with murder in his eyes. Knight and squire gazed from +rogue to avenger, but as it was a matter which none could mend +they tarried no longer, but rode upon their way. Alleyne, +looking back, saw that the murderer had drawn bread and cheese +from his scrip, and was silently munching it, with the protecting +cross still hugged to his breast, while the other, black and +grim, stood in the sunlit road and threw his dark shadow athwart +him. + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +HOW THE YELLOW COG SAILED FORTH FROM LEPE. + + +That night the Company slept at St. Leonard's, in the great +monastic barns and spicarium--ground well known both to Alleyne +and to John, for they were almost within sight of the Abbey of +Beaulieu. A strange thrill it gave to the young squire to see +the well-remembered white dress once more, and to hear the +measured tolling of the deep vespers bell, At early dawn they +passed across the broad, sluggish, reed-girt stream--men, horses, +and baggage in the flat ferry barges--and so journeyed on through +the fresh morning air past Exbury to Lepe. Topping the heathy +down, they came of a sudden full in sight of the old sea-port--a +cluster of houses, a trail of blue smoke, and a bristle of masts. +To right and left the long blue curve of the Solent lapped in a +fringe of foam upon the yellow beach. Some way out from the town +a line of pessoners, creyers, and other small craft were rolling +lazily on the gentle swell. Further out still lay a great +merchant-ship, high ended, deep waisted, painted of a canary +yellow, and towering above the fishing-boats like a swan among +ducklings. + +"By St. Paul!" said the knight, "our good merchant of Southampton +hath not played us false, for methinks I can see our ship down +yonder. He said that she would be of great size and of a yellow +shade." + +"By my hilt, yes!" muttered Aylward; "she is yellow as a kite's +claw, and would carry as many men as there are pips in a +pomegranate." + +"It is as well," remarked Terlake; "for methinks, my fair lord, +that we are not the only ones who are waiting a passage to +Gascony. Mine eye catches at times a flash and sparkle among +yonder houses which assuredly never came from shipman's jacket or +the gaberdine of a burgher." + +"I can also see it," said Alleyne, shading his eyes with his +hand. "And I can see men-at-arms in yonder boats which ply +betwixt the vessel and the shore. But methinks that we are very +welcome here, for already they come forth to meet us." + +A tumultuous crowd of fishermen, citizens, and women had indeed +swarmed out from the northern gate, and approached them up the +side of the moor, waving their hands and dancing with joy, as +though a great fear had been rolled back from their minds. At +their head rode a very large and solemn man with a long chin and +a drooping lip. He wore a fur tippet round his neck and a heavy +gold chain over it, with a medallion which dangled in front of +him. + +"Welcome, most puissant and noble lord," he cried, doffing his +bonnet to Black Simon. "I have heard of your lordship's valiant +deeds, and in sooth they might be expected from your lordship's +face and bearing. Is there any small matter in which I may +oblige you?" + +"Since you ask me," said the man-at-arms, "I would take it kindly +if you could spare a link or two of the chain which hangs round +your neck." + +"What, the corporation chain!" cried the other in horror. "The +ancient chain of the township of Lepe! This is but a sorry jest, +Sir Nigel." + +"What the plague did you ask me for then?" said Simon. "But if +it is Sir Nigel Loring with whom you would speak, that is he upon +the black horse." + +The Mayor of Lepe gazed with amazement on the mild face and +slender frame of the famous warrior. + +"Your pardon, my gracious lord," he cried. "You see in me the +mayor and chief magistrate of the ancient and powerful town of +Lepe. I bid you very heartily welcome, and the more so as you +are come at a moment when we are sore put to it for means of +defence.' + +"Ha!" cried Sir Nigel, pricking up his ears. + +"Yes, my lord, for the town being very ancient and the walls as +old as the town, it follows that they are very ancient too. But +there is a certain villainous and bloodthirsty Norman pirate +hight Tete-noire, who, with a Genoan called Tito Caracci, +commonly known as Spade-beard, hath been a mighty scourge upon +these coasts. Indeed, my lord, they are very cruel and +black-hearted men, graceless and ruthless, and if they should +come to the ancient and powerful town of Lepe then--" + +"Then good-bye to the ancient and powerful town of Lepe," quoth +Ford, whose lightness of tongue could at times rise above his awe +of Sir Nigel. + +The knight, however, was too much intent upon the matter in hand +to give heed to the flippancy of his squire. "Have you then +cause," he asked, "to think that these men are about to venture +an attempt upon you?" + +"They have come in two great galleys," answered the mayor, "with +two bank of oars on either side, and great store of engines of +war and of men-at-arms. At Weymouth and at Portland they have +murdered and ravished. Yesterday morning they were at Cowes, and +we saw the smoke from the burning crofts. To-day they lie at +their ease near Freshwater, and we fear much lest they come upon +us and do us a mischief." + +"We cannot tarry," said Sir Nigel, riding towards the town, with +the mayor upon his left side; "the Prince awaits us at Bordeaux, +and we may not be behind the general muster. Yet I will promise +you that on our way we shall find time to pass Freshwater and to +prevail upon these rovers to leave you in peace." + +"We are much beholden to you!" cried the mayor "But I cannot see, +my lord, how, without a war-ship, you may venture against these +men. With your archers, however, you might well hold the town +and do them great scath if they attempt to land." + +"There is a very proper cog out yonder," said Sir Nigel, "it +would be a very strange thing if any ship were not a war-ship +when it had such men as these upon her decks. Certes, we shall +do as I say, and that no later than this very day." + +"My lord," said a rough-haired, dark-faced man, who walked by the +knight's other stirrup, with his head sloped to catch all that he +was saying. "By your leave, I have no doubt that you are skilled +in land fighting and the marshalling of lances, but, by my soul! +you will find it another thing upon the sea. I am the master-shipman +of this yellow cog, and my name is Goodwin Hawtayne. I have +sailed since I was as high as this staff, and I have fought +against these Normans and against the Genoese, as well as the +Scotch, the Bretons, the Spanish, and the Moors. I tell you, +sir, that my ship is over light and over frail for such work, and +it will but end in our having our throats cut, or being sold as +slaves to the Barbary heathen." + +"I also have experienced one or two gentle and honorable ventures +upon the sea," quoth Sir Nigel, "and I am right blithe to have so +fair a task before us. I think, good master-shipman, that you +and I may win great honor in this matter, and I can see very +readily that you are a brave and stout man." + +"I like it not," said the other sturdily. "In God's name, I like +it not. And yet Goodwin Hawtayne is not the man to stand back +when his fellows are for pressing forward. By my soul! be it +sink or swim, I shall turn her beak into Freshwater Bay, and if +good Master Witherton, of Southampton, like not my handling of +his ship then he may find another master-shipman." + +They were close by the old north gate of the little town, and +Alleyne, half turning in his saddle, looked back at the motley +crowd who followed. The bowmen and men-at-arms had broken their +ranks and were intermingled with the fishermen and citizens, +whose laughing faces and hearty gestures bespoke the weight of +care from which this welcome arrival had relieved them. Here and +there among the moving throng of dark jerkins and of white +surcoats were scattered dashes of scarlet and blue, the whimples +or shawls of the women. Aylward, with a fishing lass on either +arm, was vowing constancy alternately to her on the right and her +on the left, while big John towered in the rear with a little +chubby maiden enthroned upon his great shoulder, her soft white +arm curled round his shining headpiece. So the throng moved on, +until at the very gate it was brought to a stand by a wondrously +fat man, who came darting forth from the town with rage in every +feature of his rubicund face. + +"How now, Sir Mayor?" he roared, in a voice like a bull. "How +now, Sir Mayor? How of the clams and the scallops?" + +"By Our Lady! my sweet Sir Oliver," cried the mayor. "I have had +so much to think of, with these wicked villains so close upon us, +that it had quite gone out of my head." + +"Words, words!" shouted the other furiously. "Am I to be put off +with words? I say to you again, how of the clams and scallops?" + +"My fair sir, you flatter me," cried the mayor. "I am a peaceful +trader, and I am not wont to be so shouted at upon so small a +matter." + +"Small!" shrieked the other. "Small! Clams and scallops! Ask me +to your table to partake of the dainty of the town, and when I +come a barren welcome and a bare board! Where is my spear-bearer?" + +"Nay, Sir Oliver, Sir Oliver!" cried Sir Nigel, laughing. + +Let your anger be appeased, since instead of this dish you come +upon an old friend and comrade." + +"By St. Martin of Tours!" shouted the fat knight, his wrath all +changed in an instant to joy, "if it is not my dear little game +rooster of the Garonne. Ah, my sweet coz, I am right glad to see +you. What days we have seen together!" + +"Aye, by my faith," cried Sir Nigel, with sparkling eyes, "we +have seen some valiant men, and we have shown our pennons in some +noble skirmishes. By St. Paul! we have had great joys in +France." + +"And sorrows also," quoth the other. "I have some sad memories +of the land. Can you recall that which befell us at Libourne?" + +"Nay, I cannot call to mind that we ever so much as drew sword at +the place." + +"Man, man," cried Sir Oliver, "your mind still runs on nought but +blades and bassinets. Hast no space in thy frame for the softer +joys. Ah, even now I can scarce speak of it unmoved. So noble a +pie, such tender pigeons, and sugar in the gravy instead of salt! +You were by my side that day, as were Sir Claude Latour and the +Lord of Pommers." + +"I remember it," said Sir Nigel, laughing, "and how you harried +the cook down the street, and spoke of setting fire to the inn. +By St. Paul! most worthy mayor, my old friend is a perilous man, +and I rede you that you compose your difference with him on such +terms as you may." + +"The clams and scallops shall be ready within the hour," the +mayor answered. "I had asked Sir Oliver Buttesthorn to do my +humble board the honor to partake at it of the dainty upon which +we take some little pride, but in sooth this alarm of pirates +hath cast such a shadow on my wits that I am like one distrait. +But I trust, Sir Nigel, that you will also partake of none-meat +with me?" + +"I have overmuch to do," Sir Nigel answered, "for we must be +aboard, horse and man, as early as we may. How many do you +muster, Sir Oliver?" + +"Three and forty. The forty are drunk, and the three are but +indifferent sober. I have them all safe upon the ship." + +"They had best find their wits again, for I shall have work for +every man of them ere the sun set. It is my intention, if it +seems good to you, to try a venture against these Norman and +Genoese rovers." + +"They carry caviare and certain very noble spices from the Levant +aboard of ships from Genoa," quoth Sir Oliver. "We may come to +great profit through the business. I pray you, master-shipman, +that when you go on board you pour a helmetful of sea-water over +any of my rogues whom you may see there." + +Leaving the lusty knight and the Mayor of Lepe, Sir Nigel led the +Company straight down to the water's edge, where long lines of +flat lighters swiftly bore them to their vessel. Horse after +horse was slung by main force up from the barges, and after +kicking and plunging in empty air was dropped into the deep waist +of the yellow cog, where rows of stalls stood ready for their +safe keeping. Englishmen in those days were skilled and prompt +in such matters, for it was so not long before that Edward had +embarked as many as fifty thousand men in the port of Orwell, +with their horses and their baggage, all in the space of +four-and-twenty hours. So urgent was Sir Nigel on the shore, +and so prompt was Goodwin Hawtayne on the cog, that Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn had scarce swallowed his last scallop ere the peal of +the trumpet and clang of nakir announced that all was ready and +the anchor drawn. In the last boat which left the shore the two +commanders sat together in the sheets, a strange contrast to one +another, while under the feet of the rowers was a litter of huge +stones which Sir Nigel had ordered to be carried to the cog. +These once aboard, the ship set her broad mainsail, purple in +color, and with a golden St. Christopher bearing Christ upon his +shoulder in the centre of it. The breeze blew, the sail bellied, +over heeled the portly vessel, and away she plunged through the +smooth blue rollers, amid the clang of the minstrels on her poop +and the shouting of the black crowd who fringed the yellow beach. +To the left lay the green Island of Wight, with its long, low, +curving hills peeping over each other's shoulders to the sky-line; +to the right the wooded Hampshire coast as far as eye could +reach; above a steel-blue heaven, with a wintry sun shimmering +down upon them, and enough of frost to set the breath a-smoking. + +"By St. Paul!" said Sir Nigel gayly, as he stood upon the poop +and looked on either side of him, "it is a land which is very +well worth fighting for, and it were pity to go to France for +what may be had at home. Did you not spy a crooked man upon the +beach?" + +"Nay, I spied nothing," grumbled Sir Oliver, "for I was hurried +down with a clam stuck in my gizzard and an untasted goblet of +Cyprus on the board behind me." + +"I saw him, my fair lord," said Terlake, "an old man with one +shoulder higher than the other." + +"'Tis a sign of good fortune," quoth Sir Nigel. "Our path was +also crossed by a woman and by a priest, so all should be well +with us. What say you, Edricson?" + +"I cannot tell, my fair lord. The Romans of old were a very wise +people, yet, certes, they placed their faith in such matters. +So, too, did the Greeks, and divers other ancient peoples who +were famed for their learning. Yet of the moderns there are many +who scoff at all omens." + +"There can be no manner of doubt about it," said Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn, "I can well remember that in Navarre one day it +thundered on the left out of a cloudless sky. We knew that ill +would come of it, nor had we long to wait. Only thirteen days +after, a haunch of prime venison was carried from my very tent +door by the wolves, and on the same day two flasks of old vernage +turned sour and muddy." + +"You may bring my harness from below," said Sir Nigel to his +squires, "and also, I pray you, bring up Sir Oliver's and we +shall don it here. Ye may then see to your own gear; for this +day you will, I hope, make a very honorable entrance into the +field of chivalry, and prove yourselves to be very worthy and +valiant squires. And now, Sir Oliver, as to our dispositions: +would it please you that I should order them or will you?" + +"You, my cockerel, you. By Our Lady! I am no chicken, but I +cannot claim to know as much of war as the squire of Sir Walter +Manny. Settle the matter to your own liking." + +"You shall fly your pennon upon the fore part, then, and I upon +the poop. For foreguard I shall give you your own forty men, +with two-score archers. Two-score men, with my own men-at-arms +and squires, will serve as a poop-guard. Ten archers, with +thirty shipmen, under the master, may hold the waist while ten +lie aloft with stones and arbalests. How like you that?" + +"Good, by my faith, good! But here comes my harness, and I must +to work, for I cannot slip into it as I was wont when first I set +my face to the wars." + +Meanwhile there had been bustle and preparation in all parts of +the great vessel. The archers stood in groups about the decks, +new-stringing their bows, and testing that they were firm at the +nocks. Among them moved Aylward and other of the older soldiers, +with a few whispered words of precept here and of warning there. + +"Stand to it, my hearts of gold," said the old bowman as he +passed from knot to knot. "By my hilt! we are in luck this +journey. Bear in mind the old saying of the Company." + +"What is that, Aylward?" cried several, leaning on their bows and +laughing at him. + +"'Tis the master-bowyer's rede: `Every bow well bent. Every +shaft well sent. Every stave well nocked. Every string well +locked.' There, with that jingle in his head, a bracer on his +left hand, a shooting glove on his right, and a farthing's-worth +of wax in his girdle, what more doth a bowman need?" + +"It would not be amiss," said Hordle John, "if under his girdle +he had tour farthings'-worth of wine." + +"Work first, wine afterwards, mon camarade. But it is time that +we took our order, for methinks that between the Needle rocks and +the Alum cliffs yonder I can catch a glimpse of the topmasts of +the galleys. Hewett, Cook, Johnson, Cunningham, your men are of +the poop-guard. Thornbury, Walters, Hackett, Baddlesmere, you +are with Sir Oliver on the forecastle. Simon, you bide with your +lord's banner; but ten men must go forward." + +Quietly and promptly the men took their places, lying flat upon +their faces on the deck, for such was Sir Nigel's order. Near +the prow was planted Sir Oliver's spear, with his arms--a boar's +head gules upon a field of gold. Close by the stern stood Black +Simon with the pennon of the house of Loring. In the waist +gathered the Southampton mariners, hairy and burly men, with +their jerkins thrown off, their waists braced tight, swords, +mallets, and pole-axes in their hands. Their leader, Goodwin +Hawtayne, stood upon the poop and talked with Sir Nigel, casting +his eye up sometimes at the swelling sail, and then glancing +back at the two seamen who held the tiller. + +"Pass the word," said Sir Nigel, "that no man shall stand to arms +or draw his bow-string until my trumpeter shall sound. It would +be well that we should seem to be a merchant-ship from +Southampton and appear to flee from them." + +"We shall see them anon," said the master-shipman. "Ha, said I +not so? There they lie, the water-snakes, in Freshwater Bay; and +mark the reek of smoke from yonder point, where they have been at +their devil's work. See how their shallops pull from the land! +They have seen us and called their men aboard. Now they draw +upon the anchor. See them like ants upon the forecastle! They +stoop and heave like handy ship men. But, my fair lord, these +are no niefs. I doubt but we have taken in hand more than we can +do. Each of these ships is a galeasse, and of the largest and +swiftest make." + +"I would I had your eyes," said Sir Nigel, blinking at the pirate +galleys. "They seem very gallant ships, and I trust that we +shall have much pleasance from our meeting with them. It would +be well to pass the word that we should neither give nor take +quarter this day. Have you perchance a priest or friar aboard +this ship, Master Hawtayne?" + +"No, my fair lord." + +"Well, well, it is no great matter for my Company, for they were +all houseled and shriven ere we left Twynham Castle; and Father +Christopher of the Priory gave me his word that they were as fit +to march to heaven as to Gascony. But my mind misdoubts me as to +these Winchester men who have come with Sir Oliver, for they +appear to be a very ungodly crew. Pass the word that the men +kneel, and that the under-officers repeat to them the pater, the +ave, and the credo." + +With a clank of arms, the rough archers and seamen took to their +knees, with bent heads and crossed hands, listening to the hoarse +mutter from the file-leaders. It was strange to mark the hush; +so that the lapping of the water, the straining of the sail, and +the creaking of the timbers grew louder of a sudden upon the ear. +Many of the bowmen had drawn amulets and relics from their +bosoms, while he who possessed some more than usually sanctified +treasure passed it down the line of his comrades, that all might +kiss and reap the virtue. + +The yellow cog had now shot out from the narrow waters of the +Solent, and was plunging and rolling on the long heave of the +open channel. The wind blew freshly from the east, with a very +keen edge to it; and the great sail bellied roundly out, laying +the vessel over until the water hissed beneath her lee bulwarks. +Broad and ungainly, she floundered from wave to wave, dipping her +round bows deeply into the blue rollers, and sending the white +flakes of foam in a spatter over her decks. On her larboard +quarter lay the two dark galleys, which had already hoisted sail, +and were shooting out from Freshwater Bay in swift pursuit, their +double line of oars giving them a vantage which could not fail to +bring them up with any vessel which trusted to sails alone. High +and bluff the English cog; long, black and swift the pirate +galleys, like two fierce lean wolves which have seen a lordly +and unsuspecting stag walk past their forest lair. + +"Shall we turn, my fair lord, or shall we carry on?" asked the +master-shipman, looking behind him with anxious eyes. + +"Nay, we must carry on and play the part of the helpless +merchant." + +"But your pennons? They will see that we have two knights with +us." + +"Yet it would not be to a knight's honor or good name to lower +his pennon. Let them be, and they will think that we are a +wine-ship for Gascony, or that we bear the wool-bales of some +mercer of the Staple. Ma foi, but they are very swift! They +swoop upon us like two goshawks on a heron. Is there not some +symbol or device upon their sails?" + +"That on the right," said Edricson, "appears to have the head of +an Ethiop upon it." + +"'Tis the badge of Tete-noire, the Norman," cried a seaman-mariner. +"I have seen it before, when he harried us at Winchelsea. He is +a wondrous large and strong man, with no ruth for man, woman, or +beast. They say that he hath the strength of six; and, certes, +he hath the crimes of six upon his soul. See, now, to the poor +souls who swing at either end of his yard-arm!" + +At each end of the yard there did indeed hang the dark figure of +a man, jolting and lurching with hideous jerkings of its limbs at +every plunge and swoop of the galley. + +"By St. Paul!" said Sir Nigel, "and by the help of St. George and +Our Lady, it will be a very strange thing if our black-headed +friend does not himself swing thence ere he be many hours older. +But what is that upon the other galley?" + +"It is the red cross of Genoa. This Spade-beard is a very noted +captain, and it is his boast that there are no seamen and no +archers in the world who can compare with those who serve the +Doge Boccanegra." + +"That we shall prove," said Goodwin Hawtayne; "but it would be +well, ere they close with us, to raise up the mantlets and +pavises as a screen against their bolts." He shouted a hoarse +order, and his seamen worked swiftly and silently, heightening +the bulwarks and strengthening them. The three ship's anchors +were at Sir Nigel's command carried into the waist, and tied to +the mast, with twenty feet of cable between, each under the care +of four seamen. Eight others were stationed with leather +water-bags to quench any fire-arrows which might come aboard, +while others were sent up the mast, to lie along the yard and +drop stones or shoot arrows as the occasion served. + +"Let them be supplied with all that is heavy and weighty in the +ship," said Sir Nigel. + +"Then we must send them up Sir Oliver Buttesthorn," quoth Ford. + +The knight looked at him with a face which struck the smile from +his lips. "No squire of mine," he said, "shall ever make jest of +a belted knight. And yet," he added, his eyes softening, "I know +that it is but a boy's mirth, with no sting in it. Yet I should +ill do my part towards your father if I did not teach you to curb +your tongue-play." + +"They will lay us aboard on either quarter, my lord," cried the +master. "See how they stretch out from each other! The Norman +hath a mangonel or a trabuch upon the forecastle. See, they bend +to the levers! They are about to loose it." + +"Aylward," cried the knight, "pick your three trustiest archers, +and see if you cannot do something to hinder their aim. Methinks +they are within long arrow flight." + +"Seventeen score paces," said the archer, running his eye +backwards and forwards. "By my ten finger-bones! it would be a +strange thing if we could not notch a mark at that distance. +Here, Watkin of Sowley, Arnold, Long Williams, let us show the +rogues that they have English bowmen to deal with." + +The three archers named stood at the further end of the poop, +balancing themselves with feet widely spread and bows drawn, +until the heads of the cloth-yard arrows were level with the +centre of the stave. "You are the surer, Watkin," said Aylward, +standing by them with shaft upon string. "Do you take the rogue +with the red coif. You two bring down the man with the head-piece, +and I will hold myself ready if you miss. Ma foi! they are about +to loose her. Shoot, mes garcons, or you will be too late." + +The throng of pirates had cleared away from the great wooden +catapult, leaving two of their number to discharge it. One in a +scarlet cap bent over it, steadying the jagged rock which was +balanced on the spoon-shaped end of the long wooden lever. The +other held the loop of the rope which would release the catch and +send the unwieldy missile hurtling through the air. So for an +instant they stood, showing hard and clear against the white sail +behind them. The next, redcap had fallen across the stone with +an arrow between his ribs; and the other, struck in the leg and +in the throat, was writhing and spluttering upon the ground. As +he toppled backwards he had loosed the spring, and the huge beam +of wood, swinging round with tremendous force, cast the corpse of +his comrade so close to the English ship that its mangled and +distorted limbs grazed their very stern. As to the stone, it +glanced off obliquely and fell midway between the vessels. A +roar of cheering and of laughter broke from the rough archers and +seamen at the sight, answered by a yell of rage from their +pursuers. + +"Lie low, mes enfants," cried Aylward, motioning with his left +hand. "They will learn wisdom. They are bringing forward shield +and mantlet. We shall have some pebbles about our ears ere +long." + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +HOW THE YELLOW COG FOUGHT THE TWO ROVER GALLEYS. + + +The three vessels had been sweeping swiftly westwards, the cog +still well to the front, although the galleys were slowly drawing +in upon either quarter. To the left was a hard skyline unbroken +by a sail. The island already lay like a cloud behind them, +while right in front was St. Alban's Head, with Portland looming +mistily in the farthest distance. Alleyne stood by the tiller, +looking backwards, the fresh wind full in his teeth, the crisp +winter air tingling on his face and blowing his yellow curls from +under his bassinet. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes +shining, for the blood of a hundred fighting Saxon ancestors was +beginning to stir in his veins. + +"What was that?" he asked, as a hissing, sharp-drawn voice seemed +to whisper in his ear. The steersman smiled, and pointed with +his foot to where a short heavy cross-bow quarrel stuck quivering +in the boards. At the same instant the man stumbled forward upon +his knees, and lay lifeless upon the deck, a blood-stained +feather jutting out from his back. As Alleyne stooped to raise +him, the air seemed to be alive with the sharp zip-zip of the +bolts, and he could hear them pattering on the deck like apples +at a tree-shaking. + +"Raise two more mantlets by the poop-lanthorn," said Sir Nigel +quietly. + +"And another man to the tiller," cried the master-shipman. + +"Keep them in play, Aylward, with ten of your men," the knight +continued. "And let ten of Sir Oliver's bowmen do as much for +the Genoese. I have no mind as yet to show them how much they +have to fear from us." + +Ten picked shots under Aylward stood in line across the broad +deck, and it was a lesson to the young squires who had seen +nothing of war to note how orderly and how cool were these old +soldiers, how quick the command, and how prompt the carrying out, +ten moving like one. Their comrades crouched beneath the +bulwarks, with many a rough jest and many a scrap of criticism or +advice. "Higher, Wat, higher!" "Put thy body into it, Will!" +"Forget not the wind, Hal!" So ran the muttered chorus, while +high above it rose the sharp twanging of the strings, the hiss +of the shafts, and the short "Draw your arrow! Nick your arrow! +Shoot wholly together!" from the master-bowman. + +And now both mangonels were at work from the galleys, but so +covered and protected that, save at the moment of discharge, no +glimpse could be caught of them. A huge brown rock from the +Genoese sang over their heads, and plunged sullenly into the +slope of a wave. Another from the Norman whizzed into the waist, +broke the back of a horse, and crashed its way through the side +of the vessel. Two others, flying together, tore a great gap in +the St. Christopher upon the sail, and brushed three of Sir +Oliver's men-at-arms from the forecastle. The master-shipman +looked at the knight with a troubled face. + +"They keep their distance from us," said he. "Our archery is +over-good, and they will not close. What defence can we make +against the stones?" + +"I think I may trick them," the knight answered cheerfully, and +passed his order to the archers. Instantly five of them threw up +their hands and fell prostrate upon the deck. One had already +been slain by a bolt, so that there were but four upon their +feet. + +"That should give them heart," said Sir Nigel, eyeing the +galleys, which crept along on either side, with a slow, measured +swing of their great oars, the water swirling and foaming under +their sharp stems. + +"They still hold aloof," cried Hawtayne. + +"Then down with two more," shouted their leader. "That will do. +Ma foi! but they come to our lure like chicks to the fowler. To +your arms, men! The pennon behind me, and the squires round the +pennon. Stand fast with the anchors in the waist, and be ready +for a cast. Now blow out the trumpets, and may God's benison be +with the honest men!" + +As he spoke a roar of voices and a roll of drums came from either +galley, and the water was lashed into spray by the hurried beat +of a hundred oars. Down they swooped, one on the right, one on +the left, the sides and shrouds black with men and bristling with +weapons. In heavy clusters they hung upon the forecastle all +ready for a spring-faces white, faces brown, faces yellow, and +faces black, fair Norsemen, swarthy Italians, fierce rovers from +the Levant, and fiery Moors from the Barbary States, of all hues +and countries, and marked solely by the common stamp of a +wild-beast ferocity. Rasping up on either side, with oars +trailing to save them from snapping, they poured in a living +torrent with horrid yell and shrill whoop upon the defenceless +merchantman. + +But wilder yet was the cry, and shriller still the scream, when +there rose up from the shadow of those silent bulwarks the long +lines of the English bowmen, and the arrows whizzed in a deadly +sleet among the unprepared masses upon the pirate decks. From +the higher sides of the cog the bowmen could shoot straight down, +at a range which was so short as to enable a cloth-yard shaft to +pierce through mail-coats or to transfix a shield, though it were +an inch thick of toughened wood. One moment Alleyne saw the +galley's poop crowded with rushing figures, waving arms, exultant +faces; the next it was a blood-smeared shambles, with bodies +piled three deep upon each other, the living cowering behind the +dead to shelter themselves from that sudden storm-blast of +death. On either side the seamen whom Sir Nigel had chosen for +the purpose had cast their anchors over the side of the galleys, +so that the three vessels, locked in an iron grip, lurched +heavily forward upon the swell. + +And now set in a fell and fierce fight, one of a thousand of +which no chronicler has spoken and no poet sung. Through all the +centuries and over all those southern waters nameless men have +fought in nameless places, their sole monuments a protected coast +and an unravaged country-side. + +Fore and aft the archers had cleared the galleys' decks, but from +either side the rovers had poured down into the waist, where the +seamen and bowmen were pushed back and so mingled with their foes +that it was impossible for their comrades above to draw string to +help them. It was a wild chaos where axe and sword rose and +fell, while Englishman, Norman, and Italian staggered and reeled +on a deck which was cumbered with bodies and slippery with blood. +The clang of blows, the cries of the stricken, the short, deep +shout of the islanders, and the fierce whoops of the rovers, rose +together in a deafening tumult, while the breath of the panting +men went up in the wintry air like the smoke from a furnace. The +giant Tete-noire, towering above his fellows and clad from head +to foot in plate of proof, led on his boarders, waving a huge +mace in the air, with which he struck to the deck every man who +approached him. On the other side, Spade-beard, a dwarf in +height, but of great breadth of shoulder and length of arm, had +cut a road almost to the mast, with three-score Genoese men-at-arms +close at his heels. Between these two formidable assailants the +seamen were being slowly wedged more closely together, until they +stood back to back under the mast with the rovers raging upon +every side of them. + +But help was close at hand. Sir Oliver Buttesthorn with his +men-at-arms had swarmed down from the forecastle, while Sir +Nigel, with his three squires, Black Simon, Aylward, Hordle John, +and a score more, threw themselves from the poop and hurled +themselves into the thickest of the fight. Alleyne, as in duty +bound, kept his eyes fixed ever on his lord and pressed forward +close at his heels. Often had he heard of Sir Nigel's prowess +and skill with all knightly weapons, but all the tales that had +reached his ears fell far short of the real quickness and +coolness of the man. It was as if the devil was in him, for he +sprang here and sprang there, now thrusting and now cutting, +catching blows on his shield, turning them with his blade, +stooping under the swing of an axe, springing over the sweep of a +sword, so swift and so erratic that the man who braced himself +for a blow at him might find him six paces off ere he could bring +it down. Three pirates had fallen before him, and he had wounded +Spade-beard in the neck, when the Norman giant sprang at him from +the side with a slashing blow from his deadly mace. Sir Nigel +stooped to avoid it, and at the same instant turned a thrust from +the Genoese swordsman, but, his foot slipping in a pool of blood, +he fell heavily to the ground. Alleyne sprang in front of the +Norman, but his sword was shattered and he himself beaten to the +ground by a second blow from the ponderous weapon. Ere the +pirate chief could repeat it, however, John's iron grip fell upon +his wrist, and he found that for once he was in the hands of a +stronger man than himself. + +Fiercely he strove to disengage his weapon, but Hordle John bent +his arm slowly back until, with a sharp crack, like a breaking +stave, it turned limp in his grasp, and the mace dropped from the +nerveless fingers. In vain he tried to pluck it up with the +other hand. Back and back still his foeman bent him, until, with +a roar of pain and of fury, the giant clanged his full length +upon the boards, while the glimmer of a knife before the bars of +his helmet warned him that short would be his shrift if he moved. + +Cowed and disheartened by the loss of their leader, the Normans +had given back and were now streaming over the bulwarks on to +their own galley, dropping a dozen at a time on to her deck, But +the anchor still held them in its crooked claw, and Sir Oliver +with fifty men was hard upon their heels. Now, too, the archers +had room to draw their bows once more, and great stones from the +yard of the cog came thundering and crashing among the flying +rovers. Here and there they rushed with wild screams and curses, +diving under the sail, crouching behind booms, huddling into +corners like rabbits when the ferrets are upon them, as helpless +and as hopeless. They were stern days, and if the honest +soldier, too poor for a ransom, had no prospect of mercy upon the +battle-field, what ruth was there for sea robbers, the enemies of +humankind, taken in the very deed, with proofs of their crimes +still swinging upon their yard-arm. + +But the fight had taken a new and a strange turn upon the other +side. Spade-beard and his men had given slowly back, hard +pressed by Sir Nigel, Aylward, Black Simon, and the poop-guard. +Foot by foot the Italian had retreated, his armor running blood +at every joint, his shield split, his crest shorn, his voice +fallen away to a mere gasping and croaking. Yet he faced his +foemen with dauntless courage, dashing in, springing back, +sure-footed, steady-handed, with a point which seemed to menace +three at once. Beaten back on to the deck of his own vessel, and +closely followed by a dozen Englishmen, he disengaged himself +from them, ran swiftly down the deck, sprang back into the cog +once more, cut the rope which held the anchor, and was back in an +instant among his crossbow-men. At the same time the Genoese +sailors thrust with their oars against the side of the cog, and a +rapidly widening rift appeared between the two vessels. + +"By St. George!" cried Ford, "we are cut off from Sir Nigel." + +"He is lost," gasped Terlake. "Come, let us spring for it." The +two youths jumped with all their strength to reach the departing +galley. Ford's feet reached the edge of the bulwarks, and his +hand clutching a rope he swung himself on board. Terlake fell +short, crashed in among the oars, and bounded off into the sea. +Alleyne, staggering to the side, was about to hurl himself after +him, but Hordle John dragged him back by the girdle. + +"You can scarce stand, lad, far less jump," said he. "See how +the blood rips from your bassinet." + +"My place is by the flag," cried Alleyne, vainly struggling to +break from the other's hold. + +"Bide here, man. You would need wings ere you could reach Sir +Nigel's side." + +The vessels were indeed so far apart now that the Genoese could +use the full sweep of their oars, and draw away rapidly from the +cog. + +"My God, but it is a noble fight!" shouted big John, clapping his +hands. "They have cleared the poop, and they spring into the +waist. Well struck, my lord! Well struck, Aylward! See to +Black Simon, how he storms among the shipmen! But this Spade-beard +is a gallant warrior. He rallies his men upon the forecastle. +He hath slain an archer. Ha! my lord is upon him. Look to it, +Alleyne! See to the whirl and glitter of it!" + +"By heaven, Sir Nigel is down!" cried the squire. + +"Up!" roared John. "It was but a feint. He bears him back. He +drives him to the side. Ah, by Our Lady, his sword is through +him! They cry for mercy. Down goes the red cross, and up +springs Simon with the scarlet roses!" + +The death of the Genoese leader did indeed bring the resistance +to an end. Amid a thunder of cheering from cog and from galleys +the forked pennon fluttered upon the forecastle, and the galley, +sweeping round, came slowly back, as the slaves who rowed it +learned the wishes of their new masters. + +The two knights had come aboard the cog, and the grapplings +having been thrown off, the three vessels now moved abreast +through all the storm and rush of the fight Alleyne had been +aware of the voice of Goodwin Hawtayne, the master-shipman, with +his constant "Hale the bowline! Veer the sheet!" and strange it +was to him to see how swiftly the blood-stained sailors turned +from the strife to the ropes and back. Now the cog's head was +turned Francewards, and the shipman walked the deck, a peaceful +master-mariner once more. + +There is sad scath done to the cog, Sir Nigel," said he. "Here +is a hole in the side two ells across, the sail split through the +centre, and the wood as bare as a friar's poll. In good sooth, I +know not what I shall say to Master Witherton when I see the +Itchen once more." + +"By St. Paul! it would be a very sorry thing if we suffered you +to be the worse of this day's work," said Sir Nigel. "You shall +take these galleys back with you, and Master Witherton may sell +them. Then from the moneys he shall take as much as may make +good the damage, and the rest he shall keep until our home-coming, +when every man shall have his share. An image of silver fifteen +inches high I have vowed to the Virgin, to be placed in her +chapel within the Priory, for that she was pleased to allow me to +come upon this Spade-beard, who seemed to me from what I have +seen of him to be a very sprightly and valiant gentleman. But +how fares it with you, Edricson?" + +"It is nothing, my fair lord," said Alleyne, who had now loosened +his bassinet, which was cracked across by the Norman's blow. +Even as he spoke, however, his head swirled round, and he fell to +the deck with the blood gushing from his nose and mouth. + +"He will come to anon," said the knight, stooping over him and +passing his fingers through his hair. "I have lost one very +valiant and gentle squire this day. I can ill afford to lose +another. How many men have fallen?" + +"I have pricked off the tally," said Aylward, who had come aboard +with his lord. "There are seven of the Winchester men, eleven +seamen, your squire, young Master Terlake, and nine archers." + +"And of the others?" + +"They are all dead--save only the Norman knight who stands behind +you. What would you that we should do with him?" + +"He must hang on his own yard," said Sir Nigel. "It was my vow +and must be done." + +The pirate leader had stood by the bulwarks, a cord round his +arms, and two stout archers on either side. At Sir Nigel's words +he started violently, and his swarthy features blanched to a +livid gray. + +"How, Sir Knight?" he cried in broken English. "Que dites vous? +To hang, le mort du chien! To hang!" + +"It is my vow," said Sir Nigel shortly. "From what I hear, you +thought little enough of hanging others." + +"Peasants, base roturiers," cried the other. "It is their +fitting death. Mais Le Seigneur d'Andelys, avec le sang des rois +dans ses veins! C'est incroyable!" + +Sir Nigel turned upon his heel, while two seamen cast a noose +over the pirate's neck. At the touch of the cord he snapped the +bonds which bound him, dashed one of the archers to the deck, and +seizing the other round the waist sprang with him into the sea. + +"By my hilt, he is gone!" cried Aylward, rushing to the side. +"They have sunk together like a stone." + +"I am right glad of it," answered Sir Nigel; "for though it was +against my vow to loose him, I deem that he has carried himself +like a very gentle and debonnaire cavalier." + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +HOW THE YELLOW COG CROSSED THE BAR OF GIRONDE. + + +For two days the yellow cog ran swiftly before a northeasterly +wind, and on the dawn of the third the high land of Ushant lay +like a mist upon the shimmering sky-line. There came a plump of +rain towards mid-day and the breeze died down, but it freshened +again before nightfall, and Goodwin Hawtayne veered his sheet and +held head for the south. Next morning they had passed Belle +Isle, and ran through the midst of a fleet of transports +returning from Guienne. Sir Nigel Loring and Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn at once hung their shields over the side, and +displayed their pennons as was the custom, noting with the +keenest interest the answering symbols which told the names of +the cavaliers who had been constrained by ill health or wounds to +leave the prince at so critical a time. + +That evening a great dun-colored cloud banked up in the west, and +an anxious man was Goodwin Hawtayne, for a third part of his crew +had been slain, and half the remainder were aboard the galleys, +so that, with an injured ship, he was little fit to meet such a +storm as sweeps over those waters. All night it blew in short +fitful puffs, heeling the great cog over until the water curled +over her lee bulwarks. As the wind still freshened the yard was +lowered half way down the mast in the morning. Alleyne, +wretchedly ill and weak, with his head still ringing from the +blow which he had received, crawled up upon deck, Water-swept and +aslant, it was preferable to the noisome, rat-haunted dungeons +which served as cabins. There, clinging to the stout halliards +of the sheet, he gazed with amazement at the long lines of black +waves, each with its curling ridge of foam, racing in endless +succession from out the inexhaustible west. A huge sombre cloud, +flecked with livid blotches, stretched over the whole seaward +sky-line, with long ragged streamers whirled out in front of it. +Far behind them the two galleys labored heavily, now sinking +between the rollers until their yards were level with the waves, +and again shooting up with a reeling, scooping motion until every +spar and rope stood out hard against the sky. On the left the +low-lying land stretched in a dim haze, rising here and there +into a darker blur which marked the higher capes and headlands. +The land of France! Alleyne's eyes shone as he gazed upon it. +The land of France!--the very words sounded as the call of a +bugle in the ears of the youth of England. The land where their +fathers had bled, the home of chivalry and of knightly deeds, the +country of gallant men, of courtly women, of princely buildings, +of the wise, the polished and the sainted. There it lay, so +still and gray beneath the drifting wrack--the home of things +noble and of things shameful--the theatre where a new name might +be made or an old one marred. From his bosom to his lips came +the crumpled veil, and he breathed a vow that if valor and +goodwill could raise him to his lady's side, then death alone +should hold him back from her. His thoughts were still in the +woods of Minstead and the old armory of Twynham Castle, when the +hoarse voice of the master-shipman brought them back once more to +the Bay of Biscay. + +"By my troth, young sir," he said, "you are as long in the face +as the devil at a christening, and I cannot marvel at it, for I +have sailed these waters since I was as high as this whinyard, +and yet I never saw more sure promise of an evil night." + +"Nay, I had other things upon my mind," the squire answered. + +"And so has every man," cried Hawtayne in an injured voice. "Let +the shipman see to it. It is the master-shipman's affair. Put +it all upon good Master Hawtayne! Never had I so much care since +first I blew trumpet and showed cartel at the west gate of +Southampton." + +"What is amiss then?" asked Alleyne, for the man's words were as +gusty as the weather. + +"Amiss, quotha? Here am I with but half my mariners, and a hole +in the ship where that twenty-devil stone struck us big enough to +fit the fat widow of Northam through. It is well enough on this +tack, but I would have you tell me what I am to do on the other. +We are like to have salt water upon us until we be found pickled +like the herrings in an Easterling's barrels." + +"What says Sir Nigel to it?" + +"He is below pricking out the coat-armor of his mother's uncle. +`Pester me not with such small matters!' was all that I could get +from him. Then there is Sir Oliver. `Fry them in oil with a +dressing of Gascony,' quoth he, and then swore at me because I +had not been the cook. `Walawa,' thought I, `mad master, sober +man'--so away forward to the archers. Harrow and alas! but they +were worse than the others." + +"Would they not help you then?" + +"Nay, they sat tway and tway at a board, him that they call +Aylward and the great red-headed man who snapped the Norman's +arm-bone, and the black man from Norwich, and a score of others, +rattling their dice in an archer's gauntlet for want of a box. +`The ship can scarce last much longer, my masters,' quoth I. +`That is your business, old swine's-head,' cried the black +galliard. `Le diable t'emporte,' says Aylward. `A five, a four +and the main,' shouted the big man, with a voice like the flap of +a sail. Hark to them now, young sir, and say if I speak not +sooth." + +As he spoke, there sounded high above the shriek of the gale and +the straining of the timbers a gust of oaths with a roar of +deep-chested mirth from the gamblers in the forecastle. + +"Can I be of avail?" asked Alleyne. "Say the word and the thing +is done, if two hands may do it." + +"Nay, nay, your head I can see is still totty, and i' faith +little head would you have, had your bassinet not stood your +friend. All that may be done is already carried out, for we have +stuffed the gape with sails and corded it without and within. +Yet when we bale our bowline and veer the sheet our lives will +hang upon the breach remaining blocked. See how yonder headland +looms upon us through the mist! We must tack within three arrow +flights, or we may find a rock through our timbers. Now, St. +Christopher be praised! here is Sir Nigel, with whom I may +confer." + +"I prythee that you will pardon me," said the knight, clutching +his way along the bulwark. "I would not show lack of courtesy +toward a worthy man, but I was deep in a matter of some weight, +concerning which, Alleyne, I should be glad of your rede. It +touches the question of dimidiation or impalement in the coat of +mine uncle, Sir John Leighton of Shropshire, who took unto wife +the widow of Sir Henry Oglander of Nunwell. The case has been +much debated by pursuivants and kings-of-arms. But how is it +with you, master shipman?" + +"Ill enough, my fair lord. The cog must go about anon, and I +know not how we may keep the water out of her." + +"Go call Sir Oliver!" said Sir Nigel, and presently the portly +knight made his way all astraddle down the slippery deck. + +"By my soul, master-shipman, this passes all patience!" he cried +wrathfully. "If this ship of yours must needs dance and skip +like a clown at a kermesse, then I pray you that you will put me +into one of these galeasses. I had but sat down to a flask of +malvoisie and a mortress of brawn, as is my use about this hour, +when there comes a cherking, and I find my wine over my legs and +the flask in my lap, and then as I stoop to clip it there comes +another cursed cherk, and there is a mortress of brawn stuck fast +to the nape of my neck. At this moment I have two pages coursing +after it from side to side, like hounds behind a leveret. Never +did living pig gambol more lightly. But you have sent for me, +Sir Nigel?" + +"I would fain have your rede, Sir Oliver, for Master Hawtayne +hath fears that when we veer there may come danger from the hole +in our side." + +"Then do not veer," quoth Sir Oliver hastily. "And now, fair +sir, I must hasten back to see how my rogues have fared with the +brawn." + +"Nay, but this will scarce suffice," cried the shipman. "If we +do not veer we will be upon the rocks within the hour." + +"Then veer," said Sir Oliver. "There is my rede; and now, Sir +Nigel, I must crave----" + +At this instant, however, a startled shout rang out from two +seamen upon the forecastle. "Rocks!" they yelled, stabbing into +the air with their forefingers. "Rocks beneath our very bows!" +Through the belly of a great black wave, not one hundred paces to +the front of them, there thrust forth a huge jagged mass of brown +stone, which spouted spray as though it were some crouching +monster, while a dull menacing boom and roar filled the air. + +"Yare! yare!" screamed Goodwin Hawtayne, flinging himself upon +the long pole which served as a tiller. "Cut the halliard! Haul +her over! Lay her two courses to the wind!" + +Over swung the great boom, and the cog trembled and quivered +within five spear-lengths of the breakers. + +"She can scarce draw clear," cried Hawtayne, with his eyes from +the sail to the seething line of foam. "May the holy Julian +stand by us and the thrice-sainted Christopher!" + +"If there be such peril, Sir Oliver," quoth Sir Nigel, "it would +be very knightly and fitting that we should show our pennons. I +pray you. Edricson, that you will command my guidon-bearer to +put forward my banner." + +"And sound the trumpets!" cried Sir Oliver. "In manus tuas, +Domine! I am in the keeping of James of Compostella, to whose +shrine I shall make pilgrimage, and in whose honor I vow that I +will eat a carp each year upon his feast-day. Mon Dieu, but the +waves roar! How is it with us now, master-shipman?" + +"We draw! We draw!" cried Hawtayne, with his eyes still fixed +upon the foam which hissed under the very bulge of the side. +"Ah, Holy Mother, be with us now!" + +As he spoke the cog rasped along the edge of the reef, and a long +white curling sheet of wood was planed off from her side from +waist to poop by a jutting horn of the rock. At the same instant +she lay suddenly over, the sail drew full, and she plunged +seawards amid the shoutings of the seamen and the archers. + +"The Virgin be praised!" cried the shipman, wiping his brow. +"For this shall bell swing and candle burn when I see Southampton +Water once more. Cheerily, my hearts! Pull yarely on the +bowline!" + +"By my soul! I would rather have a dry death," quoth Sir Oliver. +"Though, Mort Dieu! I have eaten so many fish that it were but +justice that the fish should eat me. Now I must back to the +cabin, for I have matters there which crave my attention." + +"Nay, Sir Oliver, you had best bide with us, and still show your +ensign," Sir Nigel answered; "for, if I understand the matter +aright, we have but turned from one danger to the other." + +"Good Master Hawtayne," cried the boatswain, rushing aft, "the +water comes in upon us apace. The waves have driven in the sail +wherewith we strove to stop the hole." As he spoke the seamen +came swarming on to the poop and the forecastle to avoid the +torrent which poured through the huge leak into the waist. High +above the roar of the wind and the clash of the sea rose the +shrill half-human cries of the horses, as they found the water +rising rapidly around them. + +"Stop it from without!" cried Hawtayne, seizing the end of the +wet sail with which the gap had been plugged. "Speedily, my +hearts, or we are gone!" Swiftly they rove ropes to the corners, +and then, rushing forward to the bows, they lowered them under +the keel, and drew them tight in such a way that the sail should +cover the outer face of the gap. The force of the rush of water +was checked by this obstacle, but it still squirted plentifully +from every side of it. At the sides the horses were above the +belly, and in the centre a man from the poop could scarce touch +the deck with a seven-foot spear. The cog lay lower in the water +and the waves splashed freely over the weather bulwark. + +"I fear that we can scarce bide upon this tack," cried Hawtayne; +"and yet the other will drive us on the rocks." + +"Might we not haul down sail and wait for better times?" +suggested Sir Nigel. + +"Nay, we should drift upon the rocks. Thirty years have I been +on the sea, and never yet in greater straits. Yet we are in the +hands of the Saints." + +"Of whom," cried Sir Oliver, "I look more particularly to St. +James of Compostella, who hath already befriended us this day, +and on whose feast I hereby vow that I shall eat a second carp, +if he will but interpose a second time." + +The wrack had thickened to seaward, and the coast was but a +blurred line. Two vague shadows in the offing showed where the +galeasses rolled and tossed upon the great Atlantic rollers, +Hawtayne looked wistfully in their direction. + +"If they would but lie closer we might find safety, even should +the cog founder. You will bear me out with good Master Witherton +of Southampton that I have done all that a shipman might. It +would be well that you should doff camail and greaves, Sir Nigel, +for, by the black rood! it is like enough that we shall have to +swim for it." + +"Nay," said the little knight, "it would be scarce fitting that a +cavalier should throw off his harness for the fear of every puff +of wind and puddle of water. I would rather that my Company +should gather round me here on the poop, where we might abide +together whatever God may be pleased to send. But, certes, +Master Hawtayne, for all that my sight is none of the best, it is +not the first time that I have seen that headland upon the left." + +The seaman shaded his eyes with his hand, and gazed earnestly +through the haze and spray. Suddenly he threw up his arms and +shouted aloud in his joy. + +"'Tis the point of La Tremblade!" he cried. "I had not thought +that we were as far as Oleron. The Gironde lies before us, and +once over the bar, and under shelter of the Tour de Cordouan, all +will be well with us. Veer again, my hearts, and bring her to +try with the main course!" + +The sail swung round once more, and the cog, battered and torn +and well-nigh water-logged, staggered in for this haven of +refuge. A bluff cape to the north and a long spit to the south +marked the mouth of the noble river, with a low-lying island of +silted sand in the centre, all shrouded and curtained by the +spume of the breakers. A line of broken water traced the +dangerous bar, which in clear day and balmy weather has cracked +the back of many a tall ship. + +"There is a channel," said Hawtayne, "which was shown to me by +the Prince's own pilot. Mark yonder tree upon the bank, and see +the tower which rises behind it. If these two be held in a line, +even as we hold them now, it may be done, though our ship draws +two good ells more than when she put forth." + +"God speed you, Master Hawtayne!" cried Sir Oliver. "Twice have +we come scathless out of peril, and now for the third time I +commend me to the blessed James of Compostella, to whom I vow----" + +"Nay, nay, old friend," whispered Sir Nigel. "You are like to +bring a judgment upon us with these vows, which no living man +could accomplish. Have I not already heard you vow to eat two +carp in one day, and now you would venture upon a third?" + +"I pray you that you will order the Company to lie down," cried +Hawtayne, who had taken the tiller and was gazing ahead with a +fixed eye. "In three minutes we shall either be lost or in +safety." + +Archers and seamen lay flat upon the deck, waiting in stolid +silence for whatever fate might come. Hawtayne bent his weight +upon the tiller, and crouched to see under the bellying sail. +Sir Oliver and Sir Nigel stood erect with hands crossed in front +of the poop. Down swooped the great cog into the narrow channel +which was the portal to safety. On either bow roared the shallow +bar. Right ahead one small lane of black swirling water marked +the pilot's course. But true was the eye and firm the hand which +guided. A dull scraping came from beneath, the vessel quivered +and shook, at the waist, at the quarter, and behind sounded that +grim roaring of the waters, and with a plunge the yellow cog was +over the bar and speeding swiftly up the broad and tranquil +estuary of the Gironde. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +HOW SIR NIGEL LORING PUT A PATCH UPON HIS EYE. + + +It was on the morning of Friday, the eight-and-twentieth day of +November, two days before the feast of St. Andrew, that the cog +and her two prisoners, after a weary tacking up the Gironde and +the Garonne, dropped anchor at last in front of the noble city of +Bordeaux. With wonder and admiration, Alleyne, leaning over the +bulwarks, gazed at the forest of masts, the swarm of boats +darting hither and thither on the bosom of the broad curving +stream, and the gray crescent-shaped city which stretched with +many a tower and minaret along the western shore. Never had he +in his quiet life seen so great a town, nor was there in the +whole of England, save London alone, one which might match it in +size or in wealth. Here came the merchandise of all the fair +countries which are watered by the Garonne and the Dordogne--the +cloths of the south, the skins of Guienne, the wines of the +Medoc--to be borne away to Hull, Exeter, Dartmouth, Bristol or +Chester, in exchange for the wools and woolfels of England. Here +too dwelt those famous smelters and welders who had made the +Bordeaux steel the most trusty upon earth, and could give a +temper to lance or to sword which might mean dear life to its +owner. Alleyne could see the smoke of their forges reeking up +in the clear morning air. The storm had died down now to a +gentle breeze, which wafted to his ears the long-drawn stirring +bugle-calls which sounded from the ancient ramparts. + +"Hola, mon petit!" said Aylward, coming up to where he stood. +"Thou art a squire now, and like enough to win the golden spurs, +while I am still the master-bowman, and master-bowman I shall +bide. I dare scarce wag my tongue so freely with you as when we +tramped together past Wilverley Chase, else I might be your guide +now, for indeed I know every house in Bordeaux as a friar knows +the beads on his rosary." + +"Nay, Aylward," said Alleyne, laying his hand upon the sleeve of +his companion's frayed jerkin, "you cannot think me so thrall as +to throw aside an old friend because I have had some small share +of good fortune. I take it unkind that you should have thought +such evil of me." + +"Nay, mon gar. 'Twas but a flight shot to see if the wind blew +steady, though I were a rogue to doubt it." + +"Why, had I not met you, Aylward, at the Lynhurst inn, who can +say where I had now been! Certes, I had not gone to Twynham +Castle, nor become squire to Sir Nigel, nor met----" He paused +abruptly and flushed to his hair, but the bowman was too busy +with his own thoughts to notice his young companion's +embarrassment. + +"It was a good hostel, that of the `Pied Merlin,'" he remarked. +"By my ten finger bones! when I hang bow on nail and change my +brigandine for a tunic, I might do worse than take over the dame +and her business." + +"I thought," said Alleyne, "that you were betrothed to some one +at Christchurch." + +"To three," Aylward answered moodily, "to three. I fear I may +not go back to Christchurch. I might chance to see hotter +service in Hampshire than I have ever done in Gascony. But mark +you now yonder lofty turret in the centre, which stands back from +the river and hath a broad banner upon the summit. See the +rising sun flashes full upon it and sparkles on the golden +lions. 'Tis the royal banner of England, crossed by the prince's +label. There he dwells in the Abbey of St. Andrew, where he hath +kept his court these years back. Beside it is the minster of the +same saint, who hath the town under his very special care." + +"And how of yon gray turret on the left?" + +"'Tis the fane of St. Michael, as that upon the right is of +St. Remi. There, too, above the poop of yonder nief, you see the +towers of Saint Croix and of Pey Berland. Mark also the mighty +ramparts which are pierced by the three water-gates, and sixteen +others to the landward side." + +"And how is it, good Aylward, that there comes so much music from +the town? I seem to hear a hundred trumpets, all calling in +chorus." + +"It would be strange else, seeing that all the great lords of +England and of Gascony are within the walls, and each would have +his trumpeter blow as loud as his neighbor, lest it might be +thought that his dignity had been abated. Ma foi! they make as +much louster as a Scotch army, where every man fills himself with +girdle-cakes, and sits up all night to blow upon the toodle-pipe. +See all along the banks how the pages water the horses, and there +beyond the town how they gallop them over the plain! For every +horse you see a belted knight hath herbergage in the town, for, +as I learn, the men-at-arms and archers have already gone forward +to Dax." + +"I trust, Aylward," said Sir Nigel, coming upon deck, "that the +men are ready for the land. Go tell them that the boats will be +for them within the hour." + +The archer raised his hand in salute, and hastened forward. In +the meantime Sir Oliver had followed his brother knight, and the +two paced the poop together, Sir Nigel in his plum-colored velvet +suit with flat cap of the same, adorned in front with the Lady +Loring's glove and girt round with a curling ostrich feather. +The lusty knight, on the other hand, was clad in the very latest +mode, with cote-hardie, doublet, pourpoint, court-pie, and paltock +of olive-green, picked out with pink and jagged at the edges. A +red chaperon or cap, with long hanging cornette, sat daintily on +the back of his black-curled head, while his gold-hued shoes were +twisted up _a la poulaine_, as though the toes were shooting forth +a tendril which might hope in time to entwine itself around his +massive leg. + +"Once more, Sir Oliver," said Sir Nigel, looking shorewards with +sparkling eyes, "do we find ourselves at the gate of honor, the +door which hath so often led us to all that is knightly and +worthy. There flies the prince's banner, and it would be well +that we haste ashore and pay our obeisance to him. The boats +already swarm from the bank." + +"There is a goodly hostel near the west gate, which is famed for +the stewing of spiced pullets," remarked Sir Oliver. "We might +take the edge of our hunger off ere we seek the prince, for +though his tables are gay with damask and silver he is no +trencherman himself, and hath no sympathy for those who are his +betters." + +"His betters!" + +"His betters before the tranchoir, lad. Sniff not treason where +none is meant. I have seen him smile in his quiet way because I +had looked for the fourth time towards the carving squire. And +indeed to watch him dallying with a little gobbet of bread, or +sipping his cup of thrice-watered wine, is enough to make a man +feel shame at his own hunger. Yet war and glory, my good friend, +though well enough in their way, will not serve to tighten such a +belt as clasps my waist." + +"How read you that coat which hangs over yonder galley, Alleyne?" +asked Sir Nigel. + +"Argent, a bend vert between cotises dancette gules." + +"It is a northern coat. I have seen it in the train of the +Percies. From the shields, there is not one of these vessels +which hath not knight or baron aboard. I would mine eyes were +better. How read you this upon the left?" + +"Argent and azure, a barry wavy of six." + +"Ha, it is the sign of the Wiltshire Stourtons! And there beyond +I see the red and silver of the Worsleys of Apuldercombe, who +like myself are of Hampshire lineage, Close behind us is the +moline cross of the gallant William Molyneux, and beside it the +bloody chevrons of the Norfork Woodhouses, with the amulets of +the Musgraves of Westmoreland. By St. Paul! it would be a very +strange thing if so noble a company were to gather without some +notable deed of arms arising from it. And here is our boat, Sir +Oliver, so it seems best to me that we should go to the abbey +with our squires, leaving Master Hawtayne to have his own way in +the unloading." + +The horses both of knights and squires were speedily lowered into +a broad lighter, and reached the shore almost as soon as their +masters. Sir Nigel bent his knee devoutly as he put foot on +land, and taking a small black patch from his bosom he bound it +tightly over his left eye. + +"May the blessed George and the memory of my sweet lady-love +raise high my heart!" quoth he. "And as a token I vow that I +will not take this patch from my eye until I have seen something +of this country of Spain, and done such a small deed as it lies +in me to do. And this I swear upon the cross of my sword and +upon the glove of my lady." + +"In truth, you take me back twenty years, Nigel," quoth Sir +Oliver, as they mounted and rode slowly through the water-gate. +"After Cadsand, I deem that the French thought that we were an +army of the blind, for there was scarce a man who had not closed +an eye for the greater love and honor of his lady. Yet it goes +hard with you that you should darken one side, when with both +open you can scarce tell a horse from a mule. In truth, friend, +I think that you step over the line of reason in this matter." + +"Sir Oliver Buttesthorn," said the little knight shortly, "I +would have you to understand that, blind as I am, I can yet see +the path of honor very clearly, and that that is the road upon +which I do not crave another man's guidance." + +"By my soul," said Sir Oliver, "you are as tart as verjuice this +morning! If you are bent upon a quarrel with me I must leave you +to your humor and drop into the `Tete d'Or' here, for I marked a +varlet pass the door who bare a smoking dish, which had, +methought, a most excellent smell." + +"Nenny, nenny," cried his comrade, laying his hand upon his knee; +"we have known each other over long to fall out, Oliver, like two +raw pages at their first epreuves. You must come with me first +to the prince, and then back to the hostel; though sure I am that +it would grieve his heart that any gentle cavalier should turn +from his board to a common tavern. But is not that my Lord +Delewar who waves to us? Ha! my fair lord, God and Our Lady be +with you! And there is Sir Robert Cheney. Good-morrow, Robert! +I am right glad to see you." + +The two knights walked their horses abreast, while Alleyne and +Ford, with John Norbury, who was squire to Sir Oliver, kept +some paces behind them, a spear's-length in front of Black Simon +and of the Winchester guidon-bearer. Norbury, a lean, silent +man, had been to those parts before, and sat his horse with a +rigid neck; but the two young squires gazed eagerly to right or +left, and plucked each other's sleeves to call attention to the +many strange things on every side of them. + +"See to the brave stalls!" cried Alleyne. "See to the noble +armor set forth, and the costly taffeta--and oh, Ford, see to +where the scrivener sits with the pigments and the ink-horns, and +the rolls of sheepskin as white as the Beaulieu napery! Saw man +ever the like before?" + +"Nay, man, there are finer stalls in Cheapside," answered Ford, +whose father had taken him to London on occasion of one of the +Smithfield joustings. "I have seen a silversmith's booth there +which would serve to buy either side of this street. But mark +these houses, Alleyne, how they thrust forth upon the top. And +see to the coats-of-arms at every window, and banner or pensil on +the roof." + +"And the churches!" cried Alleyne. "The Priory at Christ church +was a noble pile, but it was cold and bare, methinks, by one of +these, with their frettings, and their carvings, and their +traceries, as though some great ivy-plant of stone had curled and +wantoned over the walls." + +"And hark to the speech of the folk!" said Ford. "Was ever such +a hissing and clacking? I wonder that they have not wit to learn +English now that they have come under the English crown. By +Richard of Hampole! there are fair faces amongst them. See the +wench with the brown whimple! Out on you, Alleyne, that you +would rather gaze upon dead stone than on living flesh!" + +It was little wonder that the richness and ornament, not only of +church and of stall, but of every private house as well, should +have impressed itself upon the young squires. The town was now +at the height of its fortunes. Besides its trade and its +armorers, other causes had combined to pour wealth into it. War, +which had wrought evil upon so many fair cities around, had +brought nought but good to this one. As her French sisters +decayed she increased, for here, from north, and from east, and +from south, came the plunder to be sold and the ransom money to +be spent. Through all her sixteen landward gates there had set +for many years a double tide of empty-handed soldiers hurrying +Francewards, and of enriched and laden bands who brought their +spoils home. The prince's court, too, with its swarm of noble +barons and wealthy knights, many of whom, in imitation of their +master, had brought their ladies and their children from England, +all helped to swell the coffers of the burghers. Now, with this +fresh influx of noblemen and cavaliers, food and lodging were +scarce to be had, and the prince was hurrying forward his forces +to Dax in Gascony to relieve the overcrowding of his capital. + +In front of the minster and abbey of St. Andrew's was a large +square crowded with priests, soldiers, women, friars, and +burghers, who made it their common centre for sight-seeing and +gossip. Amid the knot of noisy and gesticulating townsfolk, many +small parties of mounted knights and squires threaded their way +towards the prince's quarters, where the huge iron-clamped doors +were thrown back to show that he held audience within. Two-score +archers stood about the gateway, and beat back from time to time +with their bow-staves the inquisitive and chattering crowd who +swarmed round the portal. Two knights in full armor, with lances +raised and closed visors, sat their horses on either side, while +in the centre, with two pages to tend upon him, there stood a +noble-faced man in flowing purple gown, who pricked off upon a +sheet of parchment the style and title of each applicant, +marshalling them in their due order, and giving to each the place +and facility which his rank demanded. His long white beard and +searching eyes imparted to him an air of masterful dignity, which +was increased by his tabardlike vesture and the heraldic barret +cap with triple plume which bespoke his office. + +"It is Sir William de Pakington, the prince's own herald and +scrivener," whispered Sir Nigel, as they pulled up amid the line +of knights who waited admission. "Ill fares it with the man who +would venture to deceive him. He hath by rote the name of every +knight of France or of England; and all the tree of his family, +with his kinships, coat-armor, marriages, augmentations, +abatements, and I know not what beside. We may leave our horses +here with the varlets, and push forward with our squires." + +Following Sir Nigel's counsel, they pressed on upon foot until +they were close to the prince's secretary, who was in high debate +with a young and foppish knight, who was bent upon making his way +past him. + +"Mackworth!" said the king-at-arms. "It is in my mind, young +sir, that you have not been presented before." + +"Nay, it is but a day since I set foot in Bordeaux, but I feared +lest the prince should think it strange that I had not waited +upon him." + +"The prince hath other things to think upon," quoth Sir William +de Pakington; "but if you be a Mackworth you must be a Mackworth +of Normanton, and indeed I see now that your coat is sable and +ermine." + +"I am a Mackworth of Normanton," the other answered, with some +uneasiness of manner. + +"Then you must be Sir Stephen Mackworth, for I learn that when +old Sir Guy died he came in for the arms and the name, the +war-cry and the profit." + +"Sir Stephen is my elder brother, and I am Arthur, the second +son," said the youth. + +"In sooth and in sooth!" cried the king-at-arms with scornful +eyes. "And pray, sir second son, where is the cadency mark which +should mark your rank. Dare you to wear your brother's coat +without the crescent which should stamp you as his cadet. Away +to your lodgings, and come not nigh the prince until the armorer +hath placed the true charge upon your shield." As the youth +withdrew in confusion, Sir William's keen eye singled out the +five red roses from amid the overlapping shields and cloud of +pennons which faced him. + +"Ha!" he cried, "there are charges here which are above +counterfeit. The roses of Loring and the boar's head of +Buttesthorn may stand back in peace, but by my faith! they are +not to be held back in war. Welcome, Sir Oliver, Sir Nigel! +Chandos will be glad to his very heart-roots when he sees you. +This way, my fair sirs. Your squires are doubtless worthy the +fame of their masters. Down this passage, Sir Oliver! Edricson! +Ha! one of the old strain of Hampshire Edricsons, I doubt not. +And Ford, they are of a south Saxon stock, and of good repute. +There are Norburys in Cheshire and in Wiltshire, and also, as I +have heard, upon the borders. So, my fair sirs, and I shall see +that you are shortly admitted." + +He had finished his professional commentary by flinging open a +folding door, and ushering the party into a broad hall, which was +filled with a great number of people who were waiting, like +themselves, for an audience. The room was very spacious, lighted +on one side by three arched and mullioned windows, while opposite +was a huge fireplace in which a pile of faggots was blazing +merrily. Many of the company had crowded round the flames, for +the weather was bitterly cold; but the two knights seated +themselves upon a bancal, with their squires standing behind +them. Looking down the room, Alleyne marked that both floor and +ceiling were of the richest oak, the latter spanned by twelve +arching beams, which were adorned at either end by the lilies and +the lions of the royal arms. On the further side was a small +door, on each side of which stood men-at-arms. From time to time +an elderly man in black with rounded shoulders and a long white +wand in his hand came softly forth from this inner room, and +beckoned to one or other of the company, who doffed cap and +followed him. + +The two knights were deep in talk, when Alleyne became aware of a +remarkable individual who was walking round the room in their +direction. As he passed each knot of cavaliers every head turned +to look after him, and it was evident, from the bows and +respectful salutations on all sides, that the interest which he +excited was not due merely to his strange personal appearance. +He was tall and straight as a lance, though of a great age, for +his hair, which curled from under his velvet cap of maintenance, +was as white as the new-fallen snow. Yet, from the swing of his +stride and the spring of his step, it was clear that he had not +yet lost the fire and activity of his youth. His fierce +hawk-like face was clean shaven like that of a priest, save for a +long thin wisp of white moustache which drooped down half way to +his shoulder. That he had been handsome might be easily judged +from his high aquiline nose and clear-cut chin; but his features +had been so distorted by the seams and scars of old wounds, and +by the loss of one eye which had been torn from the socket, that +there was little left to remind one of the dashing young knight +who had been fifty years ago the fairest as well as the boldest +of the English chivalry. Yet what knight was there in that hall +of St. Andrew's who would not have gladly laid down youth, beauty, +and all that he possessed to win the fame of this man? For who +could be named with Chandos, the stainless knight, the wise +councillor, the valiant warrior, the hero of Crecy, of +Winchelsea, of Poictiers, of Auray, and of as many other battles +as there were years to his life? + +"Ha, my little heart of gold!" he cried, darting forward suddenly +and throwing his arms round Sir Nigel. "I heard that you were +here and have been seeking you." + +"My fair and dear lord," said the knight, returning the warrior's +embrace, "I have indeed come back to you, for where else shall I +go that I may learn to be a gentle and a hardy knight?" + +"By my troth!" said Chandos with a smile, "it is very fitting +that we should be companions, Nigel, for since you have tied up +one of your eyes, and I have had the mischance to lose one of +mine, we have but a pair between us. Ah, Sir Oliver! you were on +the blind side of me and I saw you not. A wise woman hath made +prophecy that this blind side will one day be the death of me. +We shall go in to the prince anon; but in truth he hath much upon +his hands, for what with Pedro, and the King of Majorca, and the +King of Navarre, who is no two days of the same mind, and the +Gascon barons who are all chaffering for terms like so many +hucksters, he hath an uneasy part to play. But how left you the +Lady Loring?" + +"She was well, my fair lord, and sent her service and greetings +to you." + +"I am ever her knight and slave. And your journey, I trust that +it was pleasant?" + +"As heart could wish. We had sight of two rover galleys, and +even came to have some slight bickering with them." + +"Ever in luck's way, Nigel!" quoth Sir John. "We must hear the +tale anon. But I deem it best that ye should leave your squires +and come with me, for, howsoe'er pressed the prince may be, I am +very sure that he would be loth to keep two old comrades-in-arms +upon the further side of the door. Follow close behind me, and I +will forestall old Sir William, though I can scarce promise to +roll forth your style and rank as is his wont." So saying, he led +the way to the inner chamber, the two companions treading close +at his heels, and nodding to right and left as they caught sight +of familiar faces among the crowd. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +HOW THERE WAS STIR AT THE ABBEY OF ST. ANDREW'S. + + +The prince's reception-room, although of no great size, was +fitted up with all the state and luxury which the fame and power +of its owner demanded. A high dais at the further end was roofed +in by a broad canopy of scarlet velvet spangled with silver +fleurs-de-lis, and supported at either corner by silver rods. +This was approached by four steps carpeted with the same +material, while all round were scattered rich cushions, oriental +mats and costly rugs of fur. The choicest tapestries which the +looms of Arras could furnish draped the walls, whereon the +battles of Judas Maccabaeus were set forth, with the Jewish +warriors in plate of proof, with crest and lance and banderole, +as the naive artists of the day were wont to depict them. A few +rich settles and bancals, choicely carved and decorated with +glazed leather hangings of the sort termed _or basane_, completed +the furniture of the apartment, save that at one side of the dais +there stood a lofty perch, upon which a cast of three solemn +Prussian gerfalcons sat, hooded and jesseled, as silent and +motionless as the royal fowler who stood beside them. + +In the centre of the dais were two very high chairs with +dorserets, which arched forwards over the heads of the occupants, +the whole covered with light-blue silk thickly powdered with +golden stars. On that to the right sat a very tall and well +formed man with red hair, a livid face, and a cold blue eye, +which had in it something peculiarly sinister and menacing. He +lounged back in a careless position, and yawned repeatedly as +though heartily weary of the proceedings, stooping from time to +time to fondle a shaggy Spanish greyhound which lay stretched at +his feet. On the other throne there was perched bolt upright, +with prim demeanor, as though he felt himself to be upon his +good behavior, a little, round, pippin faced person, who smiled +and bobbed to every one whose eye he chanced to meet. Between +and a little in front of them on a humble charette or stool, sat +a slim, dark young man, whose quiet attire and modest manner +would scarce proclaim him to be the most noted prince in Europe. +A jupon of dark blue cloth, tagged with buckles and pendants of +gold, seemed but a sombre and plain attire amidst the wealth of +silk and ermine and gilt tissue of fustian with which he was +surrounded. He sat with his two hands clasped round his knee, +his head slightly bent, and an expression of impatience and of +trouble upon his clear, well-chiselled features. Behind the +thrones there stood two men in purple gowns, with ascetic, +clean-shaven faces, and half a dozen other high dignitaries and +office-holders of Aquitaine. Below on either side of the steps +were forty or fifty barons, knights, and courtiers, ranged in a +triple row to the right and the left, with a clear passage in the +centre. + +"There sits the prince," whispered Sir John Chandos, as they +entered. "He on the right is Pedro, whom we are about to put +upon the Spanish throne. The other is Don James, whom we purpose +with the aid of God to help to his throne in Majorca. Now follow +me, and take it not to heart if he be a little short in his +speech, for indeed his mind is full of many very weighty +concerns." + +The prince, however, had already observed their entrance, and, +springing to his feet, he had advanced with a winning smile and +the light of welcome in his eyes. + +"We do not need your good offices as herald here, Sir John," said +he in a low but clear voice; "these valiant knights are very well +known to me. Welcome to Aquitaine, Sir Nigel Loring and Sir +Oliver Buttesthorn. Nay, keep your knee for my sweet father at +Windsor. I would have your hands, my friends. We are like to +give you some work to do ere you see the downs of Hampshire once +more. Know you aught of Spain, Sir Oliver?" + +"Nought, my sire, save that I have heard men say that there is a +dish named an olla which is prepared there, though I have never +been clear in my mind as to whether it was but a ragout such as +is to be found in the south, or whether there is some seasoning +such as fennel or garlic which is peculiar to Spain." + +"Your doubts, Sir Oliver, shall soon be resolved," answered the +prince, laughing heartily, as did many of the barons who +surrounded them. "His majesty here will doubtless order that you +have this dish hotly seasoned when we are all safely in Castile." + +"I will have a hotly seasoned dish for some folk I know of," +answered Don Pedro with a cold smile. + +"But my friend Sir Oliver can fight right hardily without either +bite or sup," remarked the prince. "Did I not see him at +Poictiers, when for two days we had not more than a crust of +bread and a cup of foul water, yet carrying himself most +valiantly. With my own eyes I saw him in the rout sweep the head +from a knight of Picardy with one blow of his sword." + +"The rogue got between me and the nearest French victual wain," +muttered Sir Oliver, amid a fresh titter from those who were near +enough to catch his words. + +"How many have you in your train?" asked the prince, assuming a +graver mien. + +"I have forty men-at-arms, sire," said Sir Oliver. + +"And I have one hundred archers and a score of lancers, but there +are two hundred men who wait for me on this side of the water +upon the borders of Navarre." + +"And who are they, Sir Nigel?" + +"They are a free company, sire, and they are called the White +Company." + +To the astonishment of the knight, his words provoked a burst of +merriment from the barons round, in which the two kings and the +prince were fain to join. Sir Nigel blinked mildly from one to +the other, until at last perceiving a stout black-bearded knight +at his elbow, whose laugh rang somewhat louder than the others, +he touched him lightly upon the sleeve. + +"Perchance, my fair sir," he whispered, "there is some small vow +of which I may relieve you. Might we not have some honorable +debate upon the matter. Your gentle courtesy may perhaps grant +me an exchange of thrusts." + +"Nay, nay, Sir Nigel," cried the prince, "fasten not the offence +upon Sir Robert Briquet, for we are one and all bogged in the +same mire. Truth to say, our ears have just been vexed by the +doings of the same company, and I have even now made vow to hang +the man who held the rank of captain over it. I little thought +to find him among the bravest of my own chosen chieftains. But +the vow is now nought, for, as you have never seen your company, +it would be a fool's act to blame you for their doings." + +"My liege," said Sir Nigel, "it is a very small matter that I +should be hanged, albeit the manner of death is somewhat more +ignoble than I had hoped for. On the other hand, it would be a +very grievous thing that you, the Prince of England and the +flower of knighthood, should make a vow, whether in ignorance or +no, and fail to bring it to fulfilment." + +"Vex not your mind on that," the prince answered, smiling. "We +have had a citizen from Montauban here this very day, who told us +such a tale of sack and murder and pillage that it moved our +blood; but our wrath was turned upon the man who was in authority +over them." + +"My dear and honored master," cried Nigel, in great anxiety, "I +fear me much that in your gentleness of heart you are straining +this vow which you have taken. If there be so much as a shadow +of a doubt as to the form of it, it were a thousand times best----" + +"Peace! peace!" cried the prince impatiently. "I am very well +able to look to my own vows and their performance. We hope to +see you both in the banquet-hall anon. Meanwhile you will attend +upon us with our train." He bowed, and Chandos, plucking Sir +Oliver by the sleeve, led them both away to the back of the press +of courtiers. + +"Why, little coz," he whispered, "you are very eager to have your +neck in a noose. By my soul! had you asked as much from our new +ally Don Pedro, he had not baulked you. Between friends, there +is overmuch of the hangman in him, and too little of the prince. +But indeed this White Company is a rough band, and may take some +handling ere you find yourself safe in your captaincy." + +"I doubt not, with the help of St. Paul, that I shall bring them +to some order," Sir Nigel answered. "But there are many faces +here which are new to me, though others have been before me since +first I waited upon my dear master, Sir Walter. I pray you to +tell me, Sir John, who are these priests upon the dais?" + +"The one is the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Nigel, and the other the +Bishop of Agen." + +"And the dark knight with gray-streaked beard? By my troth, he +seems to be a man of much wisdom and valor." + +"He is Sir William Felton, who, with my unworthy self, is the +chief counsellor of the prince, he being high steward and I the +seneschal of Aquitaine." + +"And the knights upon the right, beside Don Pedro?" + +"They are cavaliers of Spain who have followed him in his exile. +The one at his elbow is Fernando de Castro, who is as brave and +true a man as heart could wish. In front to the right are the +Gascon lords. You may well tell them by their clouded brows, for +there hath been some ill-will of late betwixt the prince and +them. The tall and burly man is the Captal de Buch, whom I doubt +not that you know, for a braver knight never laid lance in rest. +That heavy-faced cavalier who plucks his skirts and whispers in +his ear is Lord Oliver de Clisson, known also as the butcher. He +it is who stirs up strife, and forever blows the dying embers +into flame. The man with the mole upon his cheek is the Lord +Pommers, and his two brothers stand behind him, with the Lord +Lesparre, Lord de Rosem, Lord de Mucident, Sir Perducas d'Albret, +the Souldich de la Trane, and others. Further back are knights +from Quercy, Limousin, Saintonge, Poitou, and Aquitaine, with the +valiant Sir Guiscard d'Angle. That is he in the rose-colored +doublet with the ermine." + +"And the knights upon this side?" + +"They are all Englishmen, some of the household and others who +like yourself, are captains of companies. There is Lord Neville, +Sir Stephen Cossington, and Sir Matthew Gourney, with Sir Walter +Huet, Sir Thomas Banaster, and Sir Thomas Felton, who is the +brother of the high steward. Mark well the man with the high +nose and flaxen beard who hath placed his hand upon the shoulder +of the dark hard-faced cavalier in the rust-stained jupon." + +"Aye, by St. Paul!" observed Sir Nigel, "they both bear the print +of their armor upon their cotes-hardies. Methinks they are men +who breathe freer in a camp than a court." + +"There are many of us who do that, Nigel," said Chandos, "and the +head of the court is, I dare warrant, among them. But of these +two men the one is Sir Hugh Calverley, and the other is Sir +Robert Knolles." + +Sir Nigel and Sir Oliver craned their necks to have the clearer +view of these famous warriors, the one a chosen leader of free +companies, the other a man who by his fierce valor and energy had +raised himself from the lowest ranks until he was second only to +Chandos himself in the esteem of the army. + +"He hath no light hand in war, hath Sir Robert," said Chandos. +"If he passes through a country you may tell it for some years to +come. I have heard that in the north it is still the use to call +a house which hath but the two gable ends left, without walls or +roof, a Knolles' mitre." + +"I have often heard of him," said Nigel, "and I have hoped to be +so far honored as to run a course with him. But hark, Sir John, +what is amiss with the prince?" + +Whilst Chandos had been conversing with the two knights a +continuous stream of suitors had been ushered in, adventurers +seeking to sell their swords and merchants clamoring over some +grievance, a ship detained for the carriage of troops, or a tun +of sweet wine which had the bottom knocked out by a troop of +thirsty archers. A few words from the prince disposed of each +case, and, if the applicant liked not the judgment, a quick +glance from the prince's dark eyes sent him to the door with the +grievance all gone out of him. The younger ruler had sat +listlessly upon his stool with the two puppet monarchs enthroned +behind him, but of a sudden a dark shadow passed over his face, +and he sprang to his feet in one of those gusts of passion which +were the single blot upon his noble and generous character. + +"How now, Don Martin de la Carra?" he cried. "How now, sirrah? +What message do you bring to us from our brother of Navarre?" + +The new-comer to whom this abrupt query had been addressed was a +tall and exceedingly handsome cavalier who had just been ushered +into the apartment. His swarthy cheek and raven black hair spoke +of the fiery south, and he wore his long black cloak swathed +across his chest and over his shoulders in a graceful sweeping +fashion, which was neither English nor French. With stately +steps and many profound bows, he advanced to the foot of the dais +before replying to the prince's question. + +"My powerful and illustrious master," he began, "Charles, King of +Navarre, Earl of Evreux, Count of Champagne, who also writeth +himself Overlord of Bearn, hereby sends his love and greetings to +his dear cousin Edward, the Prince of Wales, Governor of +Aquitaine, Grand Commander of----" + +"Tush! tush! Don Martin!" interrupted the prince, who had been +beating the ground with his foot impatiently during this stately +preamble. "We already know our cousin's titles and style, and, +certes, we know our own. To the point, man, and at once, Are the +passes open to us, or does your master go back from his word +pledged to me at Libourne no later than last Michaelmas?" + +"It would ill become my gracious master, sire, to go back from +promise given. He does but ask some delay and certain conditions +and hostages----" + +"Conditions! Hostages! Is he speaking to the Prince of England, +or is it to the bourgeois provost of some half-captured town! +Conditions, quotha? He may find much to mend in his own +condition ere long. The passes are, then, closed to us?" + +"Nay, sire----" + +"They are open, then?" + +"Nay, sire, if you would but----" + +"Enough, enough, Don Martin," cried the prince. "It is a sorry +sight to see so true a knight pleading in so false a cause. We +know the doings of our cousin Charles. We know that while with +the right hand he takes our fifty thousand crowns for the holding +of the passes open, he hath his left outstretched to Henry of +Trastamare, or to the King of France, all ready to take as many +more for the keeping them closed. I know our good Charles, and, +by my blessed name-saint the Confessor, he shall learn that I +know him. He sets his kingdom up to the best bidder, like some +scullion farrier selling a glandered horse. He is----" + +"My lord," cried Don Martin, "I cannot stand there to hear such +words of my master. Did they come from other lips, I should know +better how to answer them." + +Don Pedro frowned and curled his lip, but the prince smiled and +nodded his approbation. + +"Your bearing and your words, Don Martin, are such I should have +looked for in you," he remarked. "You will tell the king, your +master, that he hath been paid his price and that if he holds to +his promise he hath my word for it that no scath shall come to +his people, nor to their houses or gear. If, however, we have +not his leave, I shall come close at the heels of this message +without his leave, and bearing a key with me which shall open all +that he may close." He stooped and whispered to Sir Robert +Knolles and Sir Huge Calverley, who smiled as men well pleased, +and hastened from the room. + +"Our cousin Charles has had experience of our friendship," the +prince continued, "and now, by the Saints! he shall feel a touch +of our displeasure. I send now a message to our cousin Charles +which his whole kingdom may read. Let him take heed lest worse +befall him. Where is my Lord Chandos? Ha, Sir John, I commend +this worthy knight to your care. You will see that he hath +refection, and such a purse of gold as may defray his charges, +for indeed it is great honor to any court to have within it so +noble and gentle a cavalier. How say you, sire?" he asked, +turning to the Spanish refugee, while the herald of Navarre was +conducted from the chamber by the old warrior. + +"It is not our custom in Spain to reward pertness in a +messenger," Don Pedro answered, patting the head of his +greyhound. "Yet we have all heard the lengths to which your +royal generosity runs." + +"In sooth, yes," cried the King of Majorca. + +"Who should know it better than we?" said Don Pedro bitterly, +"since we have had to fly to you in our trouble as to the natural +protector of all who are weak." + +"Nay, nay, as brothers to a brother," cried the prince, with +sparkling eyes. "We doubt not, with the help of God, to see you +very soon restored to those thrones from which you have been so +traitorously thrust." + +"When that happy day comes," said Pedro, "then Spain shall be to +you as Aquitaine, and, be your project what it may, you may ever +count on every troop and every ship over which flies the banner +of Castile." + +"And," added the other, "upon every aid which the wealth and +power of Majorca can bestow." + +"Touching the hundred thousand crowns in which I stand your +debtor," continued Pedro carelessly, "it can no doubt----" + +"Not a word, sire, not a word!" cried the prince. "It is not now +when you are in grief that I would vex your mind with such base +and sordid matters. I have said once and forever that I am yours +with every bow-string of my army and every florin in my coffers." + +"Ah! here is indeed a mirror of chivalry," said Don Pedro. "I +think, Sir Fernando, since the prince's bounty is stretched so +far, that we may make further use of his gracious goodness to the +extent of fifty thousand crowns. Good Sir William Felton, here, +will doubtless settle the matter with you." + +The stout old English counsellor looked somewhat blank at this +prompt acceptance of his master's bounty. + +"If it please you, sire," he said, "the public funds are at their +lowest, seeing that I have paid twelve thousand men of the +companies, and the new taxes--the hearth-tax and the +wine-tax--not yet come in. If you could wait until the promised +help from England comes----" + +"Nay, nay, my sweet cousin," cried Don Pedro. "Had we known that +your own coffers were so low, or that this sorry sum could have +weighed one way or the other, we had been loth indeed----" + +"Enough, sire, enough!" said the prince, flushing with vexation. +"If the public funds be, indeed, so backward, Sir William, there +is still, I trust, my own private credit, which hath never been +drawn upon for my own uses, but is now ready in the cause of a +friend in adversity. Go, raise this money upon our own jewels, +if nought else may serve, and see that it be paid over to Don +Fernando." + +"In security I offer----" cried Don Pedro. + +"Tush! tush!" said the prince. "I am not a Lombard, sire. Your +kingly pledge is my security, without bond or seal. But I have +tidings for you, my lords and lieges, that our brother of +Lancaster is on his way for our capital with four hundred lances +and as many archers to aid us in our venture. When he hath come, +and when our fair consort is recovered in her health, which I +trust by the grace of God may be ere many weeks be past, we shall +then join the army at Dax, and set our banners to the breeze once +more." + +A buzz of joy at the prospect of immediate action rose up from +the group of warriors. The prince smiled at the martial ardor +which shone upon every face around him. + +"It will hearten you to know," he continued, "that I have sure +advices that this Henry is a very valiant leader, and that he has +it in his power to make such a stand against us as promises to +give us much honor and pleasure. Of his own people he hath +brought together, as I learn, some fifty thousand, with twelve +thousand of the French free companies, who are, as you know very +valiant and expert men-at-arms. It is certain also, that the +brave and worthy Bertrand de Guesclin hath ridden into France to +the Duke of Anjou, and purposes to take back with him great +levies from Picardy and Brittany. We hold Bertrand in high +esteem, for he has oft before been at great pains to furnish us +with an honorable encounter. What think you of it, my worthy +Captal? He took you at Cocherel, and, by my soul I you will have +the chance now to pay that score." + +The Gascon warrior winced a little at the allusion, nor were his +countrymen around him better pleased, for on the only occasion +when they had encountered the arms of France without English aid +they had met with a heavy defeat. + +"There are some who say, sire," said the burly De Clisson, "that +the score is already overpaid, for that without Gascon help +Bertrand had not been taken at Auray, nor had King John been +overborne at Poictiers." + +"By heaven! but this is too much," cried an English nobleman. +"Methinks that Gascony is too small a cock to crow so lustily." + +"The smaller cock, my Lord Audley, may have the longer spur," +remarked the Captal de Buch. + +"May have its comb clipped if it make over-much noise," broke in +an Englishman. + +"By our Lady of Rocamadour!" cried the Lord of Mucident, "this is +more than I can abide. Sir John Charnell, you shall answer to me +for those words!" + +"Freely, my lord, and when you will," returned the Englishman +carelessly. + +"My Lord de Clisson," cried Lord Audley, "you look some, what +fixedly in my direction. By God's soul! I should be right glad +to go further into the matter with you." + +"And you, my Lord of Pommers," said Sir Nigel, pushing his way to +the front, "it is in my mind that we might break a lance in +gentle and honorable debate over the question." + +For a moment a dozen challenges flashed backwards and forwards at +this sudden bursting of the cloud which had lowered so long +between the knights of the two nations. Furious and +gesticulating the Gascons, white and cold and sneering the +English, while the prince with a half smile glanced from one +party to the other, like a man who loved to dwell upon a fiery +scene, and yet dreaded least the mischief go so far that he might +find it beyond his control. + +"Friends, friends!" he cried at last, "this quarrel must go no +further. The man shall answer to me, be he Gascon or English, +who carries it beyond this room. I have overmuch need for your +swords that you should turn them upon each other. Sir John +Charnell, Lord Audley, you do not doubt the courage of our +friends of Gascony?" + +"Not I, sire," Lord Audley answered. "I have seen them fight too +often not to know that they are very hardy and valiant +gentlemen." + +"And so say I," quoth the other Englishman; "but, certes, there +is no fear of our forgetting it while they have a tongue in their +heads." + +"Nay, Sir John," said the prince reprovingly, "all peoples have +their own use and customs. There are some who might call us cold +and dull and silent. But you hear, my lords of Gascony, that +these gentlemen had no thought to throw a slur upon your honor or +your valor, so let all anger fade from your mind. Clisson, +Captal, De Pommers, I have your word?" + +"We are your subjects, sire," said the Gascon barons, though with +no very good grace. "Your words are our law." + +"Then shall we bury all cause of unkindness in a flagon of +Malvoisie," said the prince, cheerily. "Ho, there! the doors of +the banquet-hall! I have been over long from my sweet spouse but +I shall be back with you anon. Let the sewers serve and the +minstrels play, while we drain a cup to the brave days that are +before us in the south!" He turned away, accompanied by the two +monarchs, while the rest of the company, with many a compressed +lip and menacing eye, filed slowly through the side-door to the +great chamber in which the royal tables were set forth. + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +HOW ALLEYNE WON HIS PLACE IN AN HONORABLE GUILD. + + +Whilst the prince's council was sitting, Alleyne and Ford had +remained in the outer hall, where they were soon surrounded by a +noisy group of young Englishmen of their own rank, all eager to +hear the latest news from England. + +"How is it with the old man at Windsor?" asked one. + +"And how with the good Queen Philippa?" + +"And how with Dame Alice Perrers?" cried a third. + +"The devil take your tongue, Wat!" shouted a tall young man, +seizing the last speaker by the collar and giving him an +admonitory shake. "The prince would take your head off for those +words." + +"By God's coif! Wat would miss it but little," said another. "It +is as empty as a beggar's wallet." + +"As empty as an English squire, coz," cried the first speaker. +"What a devil has become of the maitre-des-tables and his sewers? +They have not put forth the trestles yet." + +"Mon Dieu! if a man could eat himself into knighthood, Humphrey, +you had been a banneret at the least," observed another, amid a +burst of laughter. + +"And if you could drink yourself in, old leather-head, you had +been first baron of the realm," cried the aggrieved Humphrey. +"But how of England, my lads of Loring?" + +"I take it," said Ford, "that it is much as it was when you were +there last, save that perchance there is a little less noise +there." + +"And why less noise, young Solomon?" + +"Ah, that is for your wit to discover." + +"Pardieu! here is a paladin come over, with the Hampshire mud +still sticking to his shoes. He means that the noise is less for +our being out of the country." + +"They are very quick in these parts," said Ford, turning to +Alleyne. + +"How are we to take this, sir?" asked the ruffling squire. + +"You may take it as it comes," said Ford carelessly. + +"Here is pertness!" cried the other. + +"Sir, I honor your truthfulness," said Ford. + +"Stint it, Humphrey," said the tall squire, with a burst of +laughter. "You will have little credit from this gentleman, I +perceive. Tongues are sharp in Hampshire, sir." + +"And swords?" + +"Hum! we may prove that. In two days' time is the vepres du +tournoi, when we may see if your lance is as quick as your wit." + +"All very well, Roger Harcomb," cried a burly, bull-necked young +man, whose square shoulders and massive limbs told of exceptional +personal strength. "You pass too lightly over the matter. We +are not to be so easily overcrowed. The Lord Loring hath given +his proofs; but we know nothing of his squires, save that one of +them hath a railing tongue. And how of you, young sir?" bringing +his heavy hand down on Alleyne's shoulder. + +"And what of me, young sir?" + +"Ma foi! this is my lady's page come over. Your cheek will be +browner and your hand harder ere you see your mother again." + +"If my hand is not hard, it is ready." + +"Ready? Ready for what? For the hem of my lady's train?" + +"Ready to chastise insolence, sir," cried Alleyne with hashing +eyes. + +"Sweet little coz!" answered the burly squire. "Such a dainty +color! Such a mellow voice! Eyes of a bashful maid, and hair +like a three years' babe! Voila!" He passed his thick fingers +roughly through the youth's crisp golden curls. + +"You seek to force a quarrel, sir," said the young man, white +with anger. + +"And what then?" + +"Why, you do it like a country boor, and not like a gentle +squire. Hast been ill bred and as ill taught. I serve a master +who could show you how such things should he done." + +"And how would he do it, O pink of squires?" + +"He would neither be loud nor would he be unmannerly, but rather +more gentle than is his wont. He would say, `Sir, I should take +it as an honor to do some small deed of arms against you, not for +mine own glory or advancement, but rather for the fame of my lady +and for the upholding of chivalry.' Then he would draw his +glove, thus, and throw it on the ground; or, if he had cause to +think that he had to deal with a churl, he might throw it in his +face--as I do now!" + +A buzz of excitement went up from the knot of squires as Alleyne, +his gentle nature turned by this causeless attack into fiery +resolution, dashed his glove with all his strength into the +sneering face of his antagonist. From all parts of the hall +squires and pages came running, until a dense, swaying crowd +surrounded the disputants. + +"Your life for this!" said the bully, with a face which was +distorted with rage. + +"If you can take it," returned Alleyne. + +"Good lad!" whispered Ford. "Stick to it close as wax." + +"I shall see justice," cried Norbury, Sir Oliver's silent +attendant. + +"You brought it upon yourself, John Tranter," said the tall +squire, who had been addressed as Roger Harcomb. "You must ever +plague the new-comers. But it were shame if this went further. +The lad hath shown a proper spirit." + +"But a blow! a blow!" cried several of the older squires. "There +must be a finish to this." + +"Nay; Tranter first laid hand upon his head," said Harcomb. "How +say you, Tranter? The matter may rest where it stands?" + +"My name is known in these parts," said Tranter, proudly, "I can +let pass what might leave a stain upon another. Let him pick up +his glove and say that he has done amiss." + +"I would see him in the claws of the devil first," whispered +Ford. + +"You hear, young sir?" said the peacemaker. "Our friend will +overlook the matter if you do but say that you have acted in heat +and haste." + +"I cannot say that," answered Alleyne. + +"It is our custom, young sir, when new squires come amongst us +from England, to test them in some such way. Bethink you that if +a man have a destrier or a new lance he will ever try it in time +of peace, lest in days of need it may fail him. How much more +then is it proper to test those who are our comrades in arms." + +"I would draw out if it may honorably be done," murmured Norbury +in Alleyne's ear. "The man is a noted swordsman and far above +your strength." + +Edricson came, however, of that sturdy Saxon blood which is very +slowly heated, but once up not easily to be cooled. The hint of +danger which Norbury threw out was the one thing needed to harden +his resolution. + +"I came here at the back of my master," he said, "and I looked on +every man here as an Englishman and a friend. This gentleman +hath shown me a rough welcome, and if I have answered him in the +same spirit he has but himself to thank. I will pick the glove +up; but, certes, I shall abide what I have done unless he first +crave my pardon for what he hath said and done." + +Tranter shrugged his shoulders. "You have done what you could to +save him, Harcomb," said he. "We had best settle at once." + +"So say I," cried Alleyne. + +"The council will not break up until the banquet," remarked a +gray-haired squire. "You have a clear two hours." + +"And the place?" + +"The tilting-yard is empty at this hour." + +"Nay; it must not be within the grounds of the court, or it may +go hard with all concerned if it come to the ears of the prince." + +"But there is a quiet spot near the river," said one youth. "We +have but to pass through the abbey grounds, along the armory wall, +past the church of St. Remi, and so down the Rue des Apotres." + +"En avant, then!" cried Tranter shortly, and the whole assembly +flocked out into the open air, save only those whom the special +orders of their masters held to their posts. These unfortunates +crowded to the small casements, and craned their necks after the +throng as far as they could catch a glimpse of them. + +Close to the banks of the Garonne there lay a little tract of +green sward, with the high wall of a prior's garden upon one side +and an orchard with a thick bristle of leafless apple-trees upon +the other. The river ran deep and swift up to the steep bank; +but there were few boats upon it, and the ships were moored far +out in the centre of the stream. Here the two combatants drew +their swords and threw off their doublets, for neither had any +defensive armor. The duello with its stately etiquette had not +yet come into vogue, but rough and sudden encounters were as +common as they must ever be when hot-headed youth goes abroad +with a weapon strapped to its waist. In such combats, as well as +in the more formal sports of the tilting-yard, Tranter had won a +name for strength and dexterity which had caused Norbury to utter +his well-meant warning. On the other hand, Alleyne had used his +weapons in constant exercise and practice for every day for many +months, and being by nature quick of eye and prompt of hand, he +might pass now as no mean swordsman. A strangely opposed pair +they appeared as they approached each other: Tranter dark and +stout and stiff, with hairy chest and corded arms, Alleyne a +model of comeliness and grace, with his golden hair and his skin +as fair as a woman's. An unequal fight it seemed to most; but +there were a few, and they the most experienced, who saw +something in the youth's steady gray eye and wary step which left +the issue open to doubt. + +"Hold, sirs, hold!" cried Norbury, ere a blow had been struck. +"This gentleman hath a two-handed sword, a good foot longer than +that of our friend." + +"Take mine, Alleyne," said Ford. + +"Nay, friends," he answered, "I understand the weight and balance +of mine own. To work, sir, for our lord may need us at the +abbey!" + +Tranter's great sword was indeed a mighty vantage in his favor. +He stood with his feet close together, his knees bent outwards, +ready for a dash inwards or a spring out. The weapon he held +straight up in front of him with blade erect, so that he might +either bring it down with a swinging blow, or by a turn of the +heavy blade he might guard his own head and body. A further +protection lay in the broad and powerful guard which crossed the +hilt, and which was furnished with a deep and narrow notch, in +which an expert swordsman might catch his foeman's blade, and by +a quick turn of his wrist might snap it across. Alleyne, on the +other hand, must trust for his defence to his quick eye and +active foot--for his sword, though keen as a whetstone could +make it, was of a light and graceful build with a narrow, sloping +pommel and a tapering steel. + +Tranter well knew his advantage and lost no time in putting it to +use. As his opponent walked towards him he suddenly bounded +forward and sent in a whistling cut which would have severed the +other in twain had he not sprung lightly back from it. So close +was it that the point ripped a gash in the jutting edge of his +linen cyclas. Quick as a panther, Alleyne sprang in with a +thrust, but Tranter, who was as active as he was strong, had +already recovered himself and turned it aside with a movement of +his heavy blade. Again he whizzed in a blow which made the +spectators hold their breath, and again Alleyne very quickly and +swiftly slipped from under it, and sent back two lightning +thrusts which the other could scarce parry. So close were they +to each other that Alleyne had no time to spring back from the +next cut, which beat down his sword and grazed his forehead, +sending the blood streaming into his eyes and down his cheeks. +He sprang out beyond sword sweep, and the pair stood breathing +heavily, while the crowd of young squires buzzed their applause. + +"Bravely struck on both sides!" cried Roger Harcomb. "You have +both won honor from this meeting, and it would be sin and shame +to let it go further." + +"You have done enough, Edricson," said Norbury. + +"You have carried yourself well," cried several of the older +squires. + +"For my part, I have no wish to slay this young man," said +Tranter, wiping his heated brow. + +"Does this gentleman crave my pardon for having used me +despitefully?" asked Alleyne. + +"Nay, not I." + +"Then stand on your guard, sir!" With a clatter and dash the +two blades met once more, Alleyne pressing in so as to keep +within the full sweep of the heavy blade, while Tranter as +continually sprang back to have space for one of his fatal cuts. +A three-parts-parried blow drew blood from Alleyne's left shoulder, +but at the same moment he wounded Tranter slightly upon the thigh. +Next instant, however, his blade had slipped into the fatal +notch, there was a sharp cracking sound with a tinkling upon the +ground, and he found a splintered piece of steel fifteen inches +long was all that remained to him of his weapon. + +"Your life is in my hands!" cried Tranter, with a bitter smile. + +"Nay, nay, he makes submission!" broke in several squires. +Another sword!" cried Ford. + +"Nay, sir," said Harcomb, "that is not the custom." + +"Throw down your hilt, Edricson," cried Norbury. + +"Never!" said Alleyne. "Do you crave my pardon, sir?" + +"You are mad to ask it." + +"Then on guard again!" cried the young squire, and sprang in with +a fire and a fury which more than made up for the shortness of +his weapon. It had not escaped him that his opponent was +breathing in short, hoarse gasps, like a man who is dizzy with +fatigue. Now was the time for the purer living and the more +agile limb to show their value. Back and back gave Tranter, ever +seeking time for a last cut. On and on came Alleyne, his jagged +point now at his foeman's face, now at his throat, now at his +chest, still stabbing and thrusting to pass the line of steel +which covered him. Yet his experienced foeman knew well that +such efforts could not be long sustained. Let him relax for one +instant, and his death-blow had come. Relax he must! Flesh and +blood could not stand the strain. Already the thrusts were less +fierce, the foot less ready, although there was no abatement of +the spirit in the steady gray eyes. Tranter, cunning and wary +from years of fighting, knew that his chance had come. He +brushed aside the frail weapon which was opposed to him, whirled +up his great blade, sprang back to get the fairer sweep--and +vanished into the waters of the Garonne. + +So intent had the squires, both combatants and spectators, been +on the matter in hand, that all thought of the steep bank and +swift still stream had gone from their minds. It was not until +Tranter, giving back before the other's fiery rush, was upon the +very brink, that a general cry warned him of his danger. That +last spring, which he hoped would have brought the fight to a +bloody end, carried him clear of the edge, and he found himself +in an instant eight feet deep in the ice-cold stream. Once and +twice his gasping face and clutching fingers broke up through the +still green water, sweeping outwards in the swirl of the current. +In vain were sword-sheaths, apple-branches and belts linked +together thrown out to him by his companions. Alleyne had +dropped his shattered sword and was standing, trembling in every +limb, with his rage all changed in an instant to pity. For the +third time the drowning man came to the surface, his hands full +of green slimy water-plants, his eyes turned in despair to the +shore. Their glance fell upon Alleyne, and he could not +withstand the mute appeal which he read in them. In an instant +he, too, was in the Garonne, striking out with powerful strokes +for his late foeman, + +Yet the current was swift and strong, and, good swimmer as he +was, it was no easy task which Alleyne had set himself. To +clutch at Tranter and to seize him by the hair was the work of a +few seconds, but to hold his head above water and to make their +way out of the current was another matter. For a hundred strokes +he did not seem to gain an inch. Then at last, amid a shout of +joy and praise from the bank, they slowly drew clear into more +stagnant water, at the instant that a rope, made of a dozen +sword-belts linked together by the buckles, was thrown by Ford +into their very hands. Three pulls from eager arms, and the two +combatants, dripping and pale, were dragged up the bank, and lay +panting upon the grass. + +John Tranter was the first to come to himself, for although he +had been longer in the water, he had done nothing during that +fierce battle with the current. He staggered to his feet and +looked down upon his rescuer, who had raised himself upon his +elbow, and was smiling faintly at the buzz of congratulation and +of praise which broke from the squires around him. + +"I am much beholden to you, sir," said Tranter, though in no very +friendly voice. "Certes, I should have been in the river now but +for you, for I was born in Warwickshire, which is but a dry +county, and there are few who swim in those parts." + +"I ask no thanks," Alleyne answered shortly. "Give me your hand +to rise, Ford." + +"The river has been my enemy," said Tranter, "but it hath been a +good friend to you, for it has saved your life this day." + +"That is as it may be," returned Alleyne. + +"But all is now well over," quoth Harcomb, "and no scath come of +it, which is more than I had at one time hoped for. Our young +friend here hath very fairly and honestly earned his right to be +craftsman of the Honorable Guild of the Squires of Bordeaux. +Here is your doublet, Tranter." + +"Alas for my poor sword which lies at the bottom of the Garonne!" +said the squire. + +"Here is your pourpoint, Edricson," cried Norbury. "Throw it +over your shoulders, that you may have at least one dry garment." + +"And now away back to the abbey!" said several. + +"One moment, sirs," cried Alleyne, who was leaning on Ford's +shoulder, with the broken sword, which he had picked up, still +clutched in his right hand. "My ears may be somewhat dulled by +the water, and perchance what has been said has escaped me, but I +have not yet heard this gentleman crave pardon for the insults +which he put upon me in the hall." + +"What! do you still pursue the quarrel?" asked Tranter. + +"And why not, sir? I am slow to take up such things, but once +afoot I shall follow it while I have life or breath." + +"Ma foi! you have not too much of either, for you are as white as +marble," said Harcomb bluntly. "Take my rede, sir, and let it +drop, for you have come very well out from it." + +"Nay," said Alleyne, "this quarrel is none of my making; but, now +that I am here, I swear to you that I shall never leave this spot +until I have that which I have come for: so ask my pardon, sir, +or choose another glaive and to it again." + +The young squire was deadly white from his exertions, both on the +land and in the water. Soaking and stained, with a smear of +blood on his white shoulder and another on his brow, there was +still in his whole pose and set of face the trace of an +inflexible resolution. His opponent's duller and more material +mind quailed before the fire and intensity of a higher spiritual +nature. + +"I had not thought that you had taken it so amiss," said he +awkwardly. "It was but such a jest as we play upon each other, +and, if you must have it so, I am sorry for it." + +"Then I am sorry too," quoth Alleyne warmly, "and here is my hand +upon it." + +"And the none-meat horn has blown three times," quoth Harcomb, as +they all streamed in chattering groups from the ground. "I know +not what the prince's maitre-de-cuisine will say or think. By my +troth! master Ford, your friend here is in need of a cup of wine, +for he hath drunk deeply of Garonne water. I had not thought +from his fair face that he had stood to this matter so shrewdly." + +"Faith," said Ford, "this air of Bordeaux hath turned our +turtle-dove into a game-cock. A milder or more courteous youth +never came out of Hampshire." + +"His master also, as I understand, is a very mild and courteous +gentleman," remarked Harcomb; "yet I do not think that they are +either of them men with whom it is very safe to trifle." + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +HOW AGOSTINO PISANO RISKED HIS HEAD. + + +Even the squires' table at the Abbey of St. Andrew's at Bordeaux +was on a very sumptuous scale while the prince held his court +there. Here first, after the meagre fare of Beaulieu and the +stinted board of the Lady Loring, Alleyne learned the lengths to +which luxury and refinement might be pushed. Roasted peacocks, +with the feathers all carefully replaced, so that the bird lay +upon the dish even as it had strutted in life, boars' heads with +the tusks gilded and the mouth lined with silver foil, jellies in +the shape of the Twelve Apostles, and a great pasty which formed +an exact model of the king's new castle at Windsor--these were a +few of the strange dishes which faced him. An archer had brought +him a change of clothes from the cog, and he had already, with +the elasticity of youth, shaken off the troubles and fatigues of +the morning. A page from the inner banqueting-hall had come with +word that their master intended to drink wine at the lodgings of +the Lord Chandos that night, and that he desired his squires to +sleep at the hotel of the "Half Moon" on the Rue des Apotres. +Thither then they both set out in the twilight after the long +course of juggling tricks and glee-singing with which the +principal meal was concluded. + +A thin rain was falling as the two youths, with their cloaks over +their heads, made their way on foot through the streets of the +old town, leaving their horses in the royal stables. An +occasional oil lamp at the corner of a street, or in the portico +of some wealthy burgher, threw a faint glimmer over the shining +cobblestones, and the varied motley crowd who, in spite of the +weather, ebbed and flowed along every highway. In those +scattered circles of dim radiance might be seen the whole busy +panorama of life in a wealthy and martial city. Here passed the +round-faced burgher, swollen with prosperity, his sweeping +dark-clothed gaberdine, flat velvet cap, broad leather belt and +dangling pouch all speaking of comfort and of wealth. Behind him +his serving wench, her blue whimple over her head, and one hand +thrust forth to bear the lanthorn which threw a golden bar of +light along her master's path. Behind them a group of +swaggering, half-drunken Yorkshire dalesmen, speaking a dialect +which their own southland countrymen could scarce comprehend, +their jerkins marked with the pelican, which showed that they had +come over in the train of the north-country Stapletons. The +burgher glanced back at their fierce faces and quickened his +step, while the girl pulled her whimple closer round her, for +there was a meaning in their wild eyes, as they stared at the +purse and the maiden, which men of all tongues could understand. +Then came archers of the guard, shrill-voiced women of the camp, +English pages with their fair skins and blue wondering eyes, +dark-robed friars, lounging men-at-arms, swarthy loud-tongued +Gascon serving-men, seamen from the river, rude peasants of the +Medoc, and becloaked and befeathered squires of the court, all +jostling and pushing in an ever-changing, many-colored stream, +while English, French, Welsh, Basque, and the varied dialects of +Gascony and Guienne filled the air with their babel. From time +to time the throng would be burst asunder and a lady's horse-litter + would trot past towards the abbey, or there would come a knot of +torch-bearing archers walking in front of Gascon baron or English +knight, as he sought his lodgings after the palace revels. +Clatter of hoofs, clinking of weapons, shouts from the drunken +brawlers, and high laughter of women, they all rose up, like the +mist from a marsh, out of the crowded streets of the dim-lit +city. + +One couple out of the moving throng especially engaged the +attention of the two young squires, the more so as they were +going in their own direction and immediately in front of them. +They consisted of a man and a girl, the former very tall with +rounded shoulders, a limp of one foot, and a large flat object +covered with dark cloth under his arm. His companion was young +and straight, with a quick, elastic step and graceful bearing, +though so swathed in a black mantle that little could be seen of +her face save a flash of dark eyes and a curve of raven hair. +The tall man leaned heavily upon her to take the weight off his +tender foot, while he held his burden betwixt himself and the +wall, cuddling it jealously to his side, and thrusting forward +his young companion to act as a buttress whenever the pressure of +the crowd threatened to bear him away. The evident anxiety of +the man, the appearance of his attendant, and the joint care with +which they defended their concealed possession, excited the +interest of the two young Englishmen who walked within hand-touch +of them. + +"Courage, child!" they heard the tall man exclaim in strange +hybrid French. "If we can win another sixty paces we are safe." + +"Hold it safe, father," the other answered, in the same soft, +mincing dialect. "We have no cause for fear," + +"Verily, they are heathens and barbarians," cried the man; "mad, +howling, drunken barbarians! Forty more paces, Tita mia, and I +swear to the holy Eloi, patron of all learned craftsmen, that I +will never set foot over my door again until the whole swarm are +safely hived in their camp of Dax, or wherever else they curse +with their presence. Twenty more paces, my treasure: Ah, my God! +how they push and brawl! Get in their way, Tita mia! Put your +little elbow bravely out! Set your shoulders squarely against +them, girl! Why should you give way to these mad islanders? Ah, +cospetto! we are ruined and destroyed!" + +The crowd had thickened in front, so that the lame man and the +girl had come to a stand. Several half-drunken English archers, +attracted, as the squires had been, by their singular appearance, +were facing towards them, and peering at them through the dim +light. + +"By the three kings!" cried one, "here is an old dotard shrew to +have so goodly a crutch! Use the leg that God hath given you, +man, and do not bear so heavily upon the wench." + +"Twenty devils fly away with him!" shouted another. "What, how, +man! are brave archers to go maidless while an old man uses one +as a walking-staff?" + +"Come with me, my honey-bird!" cried a third, plucking at the +girl's mantle. + +"Nay, with me, my heart's desire!" said the first. "By St. +George! our life is short, and we should be merry while we may. +May I never see Chester Bridge again, if she is not a right +winsome lass!" + +"What hath the old toad under his arm?" cried one of the others. +"He hugs it to him as the devil hugged the pardoner." + +"Let us see, old bag of bones; let us see what it is that you +have under your arm!" They crowded in upon him, while he, +ignorant of their language, could but clutch the girl with one +hand and the parcel with the other, looking wildly about in +search of help. + +"Nay, lads, nay!" cried Ford, pushing back the nearest archer. +"This is but scurvy conduct. Keep your hands off, or it will be +the worse for you." + +"Keep your tongue still, or it will be the worse for you," +shouted the most drunken of the archers. "Who are you to spoil +sport?" + +"A raw squire, new landed," said another. "By St. Thomas of +Kent! we are at the beck of our master, but we are not to be +ordered by every babe whose mother hath sent him as far as +Aquitaine." + +"Oh, gentlemen," cried the girl in broken French, "for dear +Christ's sake stand by us, and do not let these terrible men do +us an injury." + +"Have no fears, lady," Alleyne answered. "We shall see that all +is well with you. Take your hand from the girl's wrist, you +north-country rogue!" + +"Hold to her, Wat!" said a great black-bearded man-at-arms, whose +steel breast-plate glimmered in the dusk. "Keep your hands from +your bodkins, you two, for that was my trade before you were +born, and, by God's soul! I will drive a handful of steel through +you if you move a finger." + +"Thank God!" said Alleyne suddenly, as he spied in the lamp-light +a shock of blazing red hair which fringed a steel cap high above +the heads of the crowd. "Here is John, and Aylward, too! Help +us, comrades, for there is wrong being done to this maid and to +the old man." + +"Hola, mon petit," said the old bowman, pushing his way through +the crowd, with the huge forester at his heels. "What is all +this, then? By the twang of string! I think that you will have +some work upon your hands if you are to right all the wrongs that +you may see upon this side of the water. It is not to be thought +that a troop of bowmen, with the wine buzzing in their ears, will +be as soft-spoken as so many young clerks in an orchard. When +you have been a year with the Company you will think less of such +matters. But what is amiss here? The provost-marshal with his +archers is coming this way, and some of you may find yourselves +in the stretch-neck, if you take not heed." + +"Why, it is old Sam Aylward of the White Company!" shouted the +man-at-arms. "Why, Samkin, what hath come upon thee? I can call +to mind the day when you were as roaring a blade as ever called +himself a free companion. By my soul! from Limoges to Navarre, +who was there who would kiss a wench or cut a throat as readily +as bowman Aylward of Hawkwood's company?" + +"Like enough, Peter," said Aylward, "and, by my hilt! I may not +have changed so much. But it was ever a fair loose and a clear +mark with me. The wench must be willing, or the man must be +standing up against me, else, by these ten finger bones I either +were safe enough for me." + +A glance at Aylward's resolute face, and at the huge shoulders of +Hordle John, had convinced the archers that there was little to +be got by violence. The girl and the old man began to shuffle on +in the crowd without their tormentors venturing to stop them. +Ford and Alleyne followed slowly behind them, but Aylward caught +the latter by the shoulder. + +"By my hilt! camarade," said he, "I hear that you have done great +things at the Abbey to-day, but I pray you to have a care, for it +was I who brought you into the Company, and it would be a black +day for me if aught were to befall you." + +"Nay, Aylward, I will have a care." + +"Thrust not forward into danger too much, mon petit. In a little +time your wrist will be stronger and your cut more shrewd. There +will be some of us at the `Rose de Guienne' to-night, which is +two doors from the hotel of the `Half Moon,' so if you would +drain a cup with a few simple archers you will be right welcome." + +Alleyne promised to be there if his duties would allow, and then, +slipping through the crowd, he rejoined Ford, who was standing in +talk with the two strangers, who had now reached their own +doorstep. + +"Brave young signor," cried the tall man, throwing his arms round +Alleyne, "how can we thank you enough for taking our parts +against those horrible drunken barbarians. What should we have +done without you? My Tita would have been dragged away, and my +head would have been shivered into a thousand fragments." + +"Nay, I scarce think that they would have mishandled you so," +said Alleyne in surprise. + +"Ho, ho!" cried he with a high crowing laugh, "it is not the head +upon my shoulders that I think of. Cospetto! no. It is the head +under my arm which you have preserved." + +"Perhaps the signori would deign to come under our roof, father," +said the maiden. "If we bide here, who knows that some fresh +tumult may not break out." + +"Well said, Tita! Well said, my girl! I pray you, sirs, to +honor my unworthy roof so far. A light, Giacomo! There are five +steps up. Now two more. So! Here we are at last in safety. +Corpo di Bacco! I would not have given ten maravedi for my head +when those children of the devil were pushing us against the +wall. Tita mia, you have been a brave girl, and it was better +that you should be pulled and pushed than that my head should be +broken." + +"Yes indeed, father," said she earnestly. + +"But those English! Ach! Take a Goth, a Hun, and a Vandal, mix +them together and add a Barbary rover; then take this creature +and make him drunk--and you have an Englishman. My God I were +ever such people upon earth! What place is free from them? I +hear that they swarm in Italy even as they swarm here. +Everywhere you will find them, except in heaven." + +"Dear father," cried Tita, still supporting the angry old man, as +he limped up the curved oaken stair. "You must not forget that +these good signori who have preserved us are also English." + +"Ah, yes. My pardon, sirs! Come into my rooms here. There are +some who might find some pleasure in these paintings, but I learn +the art of war is the only art which is held in honor in your +island." + +The low-roofed, oak-panelled room into which he conducted them +was brilliantly lit by four scented oil lamps. Against the +walls, upon the table, on the floor, and in every part of the +chamber were great sheets of glass painted in the most brilliant +colors. Ford and Edricson gazed around them in amazement, for +never had they seen such magnificent works of art. + +"You like them then," the lame artist cried, in answer to the +look of pleasure and of surprise in their faces. "There are then +some of you who have a taste for such trifling." + +"I could not have believed it," exclaimed Alleyne. "What color! +What outlines! See to this martyrdom of the holy Stephen, Ford. +Could you not yourself pick up one of these stones which lie to +the hand of the wicked murtherers?" + +"And see this stag, Alleyne, with the cross betwixt its horns. +By my faith! I have never seen a better one at the Forest of +Bere." + +"And the green of this grass--how bright and clear! Why all the +painting that I have seen is but child's play beside this. This +worthy gentleman must be one of those great painters of whom I +have oft heard brother Bartholomew speak in the old days at +Beaulieu." + +The dark mobile face of the artist shone with pleasure at the +unaffected delight of the two young Englishmen. His daughter had +thrown off her mantle and disclosed a face of the finest and most +delicate Italian beauty, which soon drew Ford's eyes from the +pictures in front of him. Alleyne, however, continued with +little cries of admiration and of wonderment to turn from the +walls to the table and yet again to the walls. + +"What think you of this, young sir?" asked the painter, tearing +off the cloth which concealed the flat object which he had borne +beneath his arm. It was a leaf-shaped sheet of glass bearing +upon it a face with a halo round it, so delicately outlined, and +of so perfect a tint, that it might have been indeed a human face +which gazed with sad and thoughtful eyes upon the young squire. +He clapped his hands, with that thrill of joy which true art will +ever give to a true artist. + +"It is great!" he cried. "It is wonderful! But I marvel, sir, +that you should have risked a work of such beauty and value by +bearing it at night through so unruly a crowd." + +"I have indeed been rash," said the artist. "Some wine, Tita, +from the Florence flask! Had it not been for you, I tremble to +think of what might have come of it. See to the skin tint: it is +not to be replaced, for paint as you will, it is not once in a +hundred times that it is not either burned too brown in the +furnace or else the color will not hold, and you get but a sickly +white. There you can see the very veins and the throb of thee +blood. Yes, diavolo! if it had broken, my heart would have +broken too. It is for the choir window in the church of St. +Remi, and we had gone, my little helper and I, to see if it was +indeed of the size for the stonework. Night had fallen ere we +finished, and what could we do save carry it home as best we +might? But you, young sir, you speak as if you too knew +something of the art." + +"So little that I scarce dare speak of it in your presence," +Alleyne answered. "I have been cloister-bred, and it was no very +great matter to handle the brush better than my brother novices." + +"There are pigments, brush, and paper," said the old artist. "I +do not give you glass, for that is another matter, and takes much +skill in the mixing of colors. Now I pray you to show me a touch +of your art. I thank you, Tita! The Venetian glasses, cara mia, +and fill them to the brim. A seat, signor!" + +While Ford, in his English-French, was conversing with Tita in +her Italian French, the old man was carefully examining his +precious head to see that no scratch had been left upon its +surface. When he glanced up again, Alleyne had, with a few bold +strokes of the brush, tinted in a woman's face and neck upon the +white sheet in front of him. + +"Diavolo!" exclaimed the old artist, standing with his head on +one side, "you have power; yes, cospetto! you have power, it is +the face of an angel!" + +"It is the face of the Lady Maude Loring!" cried Ford, even more +astonished. + +"Why, on my faith, it is not unlike her!" said Alleyne, in some +confusion. + +"Ah! a portrait! So much the better. Young man, I am Agostino +Pisano, the son of Andrea Pisano, and I say again that you have +power. Further, I say, that, if you will stay with me, I will +teach you all the secrets of the glass-stainers' mystery: the +pigments and their thickening, which will fuse into the glass and +which will not, the furnace and the glazing--every trick and +method you shall know." + +"I would be right glad to study under such a master," said +Alleyne; "but I am sworn to follow my lord whilst this war +lasts." + +"War! war!" cried the old Italian. "Ever this talk of war. And +the men that you hold to be great--what are they? Have I not +heard their names? Soldiers, butchers, destroyers! Ah, per +Bacco! we have men in Italy who are in very truth great. You +pull down, you despoil; but they build up, they restore. Ah, if +you could but see my own dear Pisa, the Duomo, the cloisters of +Campo Santo, the high Campanile, with the mellow throb of her +bells upon the warm Italian air! Those are the works of great +men. And I have seen them with my own eyes, these very eyes +which look upon you. I have seen Andrea Orcagna, Taddeo Gaddi, +Giottino, Stefano, Simone Memmi--men whose very colors I am not +worthy to mix. And I have seen the aged Giotto, and he in turn +was pupil to Cimabue, before whom there was no art in Italy, for +the Greeks were brought to paint the chapel of the Gondi at +Florence. Ah, signori, there are the real great men whose names +will be held in honor when your soldiers are shown to have been +the enemies of humankind." + +"Faith, sir," said Ford, "there is something to say for the +soldiers also, for, unless they be defended, how are all these +gentlemen whom you have mentioned to preserve the pictures which +they have painted?" + +"And all these!" said Alleyne. "Have you indeed done them +all?--and where are they to go?" + +"Yes, signor, they are all from my hand. Some are, as you see, +upon one sheet, and some are in many pieces which may fasten +together, There are some who do but paint upon the glass, and +then, by placing another sheet of glass upon the top and +fastening it, they keep the air from their painting. Yet I hold +that the true art of my craft lies as much in the furnace as in +the brush. See this rose window, which is from the model of the +Church of the Holy Trinity at Vendome, and this other of the +`Finding of the Grail,' which is for the apse of the Abbey +church. Time was when none but my countrymen could do these +things; but there is Clement of Chartres and others in France who +are very worthy workmen. But, ah! there is that ever shrieking +brazen tongue which will not let us forget for one short hour +that it is the arm of the savage, and not the hand of the master, +which rules over the world." + +A stern, clear bugle call had sounded close at hand to summon +some following together for the night. + +"It is a sign to us as well," said Ford. "I would fain stay here +forever amid all these beautiful things--" staring hard at the +blushing Tita as he spoke--"but we must be back at our lord's +hostel ere he reach it." Amid renewed thanks and with promises +to come again, the two squires bade their leave of the old +Italian glass-stainer and his daughter. The streets were clearer +now, and the rain had stopped, so they made their way quickly +from the Rue du Roi, in which their new friends dwelt, to the Rue +des Apotres, where the hostel of the "Half Moon" was situated. + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +HOW THE BOWMEN HELD WASSAIL AT THE "ROSE DE GUIENNE." + + +"Mon Dieu! Alleyne, saw you ever so lovely a face?" cried Ford +as they hurried along together. "So pure, so peaceful, and so +beautiful!" + +"In sooth, yes. And the hue of the skin the most perfect that +ever I saw. Marked you also how the hair curled round the brow? +It was wonder fine." + +"Those eyes, too!" cried Ford. "How clear and how tender--simple, +and yet so full of thought!" + +"If there was a weakness it was in the chin," said Alleyne. + +"Nay. I saw none." + +"It was well curved, it is true." + +"Most daintily so." + +"And yet----" + +"What then, Alleyne? Wouldst find flaw in the sun?" + +"Well, bethink you, Ford, would not more power and expression +have been put into the face by a long and noble beard?" + +"Holy Virgin!" cried Ford, "the man is mad. A beard on the face +of little Tita!" + +"Tita! Who spoke of Tita?" + +"Who spoke of aught else?" + +"It was the picture of St. Remi, man, of which I have been +discoursing." + +"You are indeed," cried Ford, laughing, "a Goth, Hun, and Vandal, +with all the other hard names which the old man called us. How +could you think so much of a smear of pigments, when there was +such a picture painted by the good God himself in the very room +with you? But who is this?" + +"If it please you, sirs," said an archer, running across to them, +"Aylward and others would be right glad to see you. They are +within here. He bade me say to you that the Lord Loring will not +need your service to-night, as he sleeps with the Lord Chandos." + +"By my faith!" said Ford, "we do not need a guide to lead us to +their presence." As he spoke there came a roar of singing from +the tavern upon the right, with shouts of laughter and stamping +of feet. Passing under a low door, and down a stone-flagged +passage, they found themselves in a long narrow hall lit up by a +pair of blazing torches, one at either end. Trusses of straw had +been thrown down along the walls, and reclining on them were some +twenty or thirty archers, all of the Company, their steel caps +and jacks thrown off, their tunics open and their great limbs +sprawling upon the clay floor. At every man's elbow stood his +leathern blackjack of beer, while at the further end a hogshead +with its end knocked in promised an abundant supply for the +future. Behind the hogshead, on a half circle of kegs, boxes, +and rude settles, sat Aylward, John, Black Simon and three or +four other leading men of the archers, together with Goodwin +Hawtayne, the master-shipman, who had left his yellow cog in the +river to have a last rouse with his friends of the Company. Ford +and Alleyne took their seats between Aylward and Black Simon, +without their entrance checking in any degree the hubbub which +was going on. + +"Ale, mes camarades?" cried the bowman, "or shall it be wine? +Nay, but ye must have the one or the other. Here, Jacques, thou +limb of the devil, bring a bottrine of the oldest vernage, and +see that you do not shake it. Hast heard the news?" + +"Nay," cried both the squires. + +"That we are to have a brave tourney." + +"A tourney?" + +"Aye, lads. For the Captal du Buch hath sworn that he will find +five knights from this side of the water who will ride over any +five Englishmen who ever threw leg over saddle; and Chandos hath +taken up the challenge, and the prince hath promised a golden +vase for the man who carries himself best, and all the court is +in a buzz over it." + +"Why should the knights have all the sport?" growled Hordle John. +"Could they not set up five archers for the honor of Aquitaine +and of Gascony?" + +"Or five men-at-arms," said Black Simon. + +"But who are the English knights?" asked Hawtayne. + +"There are three hundred and forty-one in the town," said +Aylward, "and I hear that three hundred and forty cartels and +defiances have already been sent in, the only one missing being +Sir John Ravensholme, who is in his bed with the sweating +sickness, and cannot set foot to ground." + +"I have heard of it from one of the archers of the guard," cried +a bowman from among the straw; "I hear that the prince wished to +break a lance, but that Chandos would not hear of it, for the +game is likely to be a rough one." + +"Then there is Chandos." + +"Nay, the prince would not permit it. He is to be marshal of the +lists, with Sir William Felton and the Duc d'Armagnac. The +English will be the Lord Audley, Sir Thomas Percy, Sir Thomas +Wake, Sir William Beauchamp, and our own very good lord and +leader." + +"Hurrah for him, and God be with him!" cried several. "It is +honor to draw string in his service," + +"So you may well say," said Aylward. "By my ten finger-bones! +if you march behind the pennon of the five roses you are like to +see all that a good bowman would wish to see. Ha! yes, mes +garcons, you laugh, but, by my hilt! you may not laugh when you +find yourselves where he will take you, for you can never tell +what strange vow he may not have sworn to. I see that he has a +patch over his eye, even as he had at Poictiers. There will come +bloodshed of that patch, or I am the more mistaken." + +"How chanced it at Poictiers, good Master Aylward?" asked one of +the young archers, leaning upon his elbows, with his eyes fixed +respectfully upon the old bowman's rugged face. + +"Aye, Aylward, tell us of it," cried Hordle John, + +"Here is to old Samkin Aylward!" shouted several at the further +end of the room, waving their blackjacks in the air. + +"Ask him!" said Aylward modestly, nodding towards Black Simon. +"He saw more than I did. And yet, by the holy nails! there was +not very much that I did not see either." + +"Ah, yes," said Simon, shaking his head, "it was a great day. I +never hope to see such another. There were some fine archers who +drew their last shaft that day. We shall never see better men, +Aylward." + +"By my hilt! no. There was little Robby Withstaff, and Andrew +Salblaster, and Wat Alspaye, who broke the neck of the German. +Mon Dieu! what men they were! Take them how you would, at long +butts or short, hoyles, rounds, or rovers, better bowmen never +twirled a shaft over their thumb-nails." + +"But the fight, Aylward, the fight!" cried several impatiently. + +"Let me fill my jack first, boys, for it is a thirsty tale. It +was at the first fall of the leaf that the prince set forth, and +he passed through Auvergne, and Berry, and Anjou, and Touraine. +In Auvergne the maids are kind, but the wines are sour. In Berry +it is the women that are sour, but the wines are rich. Anjou, +however, is a very good land for bowmen, for wine and women are +all that heart could wish. In Touraine I got nothing save a +broken pate, but at Vierzon I had a great good fortune, for I had +a golden pyx from the minster, for which I afterwards got nine +Genoan janes from the goldsmith in the Rue Mont Olive. From +thence we went to Bourges, were I had a tunic of flame-colored +silk and a very fine pair of shoes with tassels of silk and drops +of silver." + +"From a stall, Aylward?" asked one of the young archers. + +"Nay, from a man's feet, lad. I had reason to think that he +might not need them again, seeing that a thirty-inch shaft had +feathered in his back." + +"And what then, Aylward?" + +"On we went, coz, some six thousand of us, until we came to +Issodun, and there again a very great thing befell." + +"A battle, Aylward?" + +"Nay, nay; a greater thing than that. There is little to be +gained out of a battle, unless one have the fortune to win a +ransom. At Issodun I and three Welshmen came upon a house which +all others had passed, and we had the profit of it to ourselves. +For myself, I had a fine feather-bed--a thing which you will not +see in a long day's journey in England. You have seen it, +Alleyne, and you, John. You will bear me out that it is a noble +bed. We put it on a sutler's mule, and bore it after the army. +It was on my mind that I would lay it by until I came to start +house of mine own, and I have it now in a very safe place near +Lyndhurst." + +"And what then, master-bowman?" asked Hawtayne. "By St. +Christopher! it is indeed a fair and goodly life which you have +chosen, for you gather up the spoil as a Warsash man gathers +lobsters, without grace or favor from any man." + +"You are right, master-shipman," said another of the older +archers. "It is an old bowyer's rede that the second feather of +a fenny goose is better than the pinion of a tame one. Draw on +old lad, for I have come between you and the clout." + +"On we went then," said Aylward, after a long pull at his +blackjack. "There were some six thousand of us, with the prince +and his knights, and the feather-bed upon a sutler's mule in the +centre. We made great havoc in Touraine, until we came into +Romorantin, where I chanced upon a gold chain and two bracelets +of jasper, which were stolen from me the same day by a black-eyed +wench from the Ardennes. Mon Dieu! there are some folk who have +no fear of Domesday in them, and no sign of grace in their souls, +for ever clutching and clawing at another man's chattels." + +"But the battle, Aylward, the battle!" cried several, amid a +burst of laughter. + +"I come to it, my young war-pups. Well, then, the King of France +had followed us with fifty thousand men, and he made great haste +to catch us, but when he had us he scarce knew what to do with +us, for we were so drawn up among hedges and vineyards that they +could not come nigh us, save by one lane. On both sides were +archers, men-at-arms and knights behind, and in the centre the +baggage, with my feather-bed upon a sutler's mule. Three hundred +chosen knights came straight for it, and, indeed, they were very +brave men, but such a drift of arrows met them that few came +back. Then came the Germans, and they also fought very bravely, +so that one or two broke through the archers and came as far as +the feather-bed, but all to no purpose. Then out rides our own +little hothead with the patch over his eye, and my Lord Audley +with his four Cheshire squires, and a few others of like kidney, +and after them went the prince and Chandos, and then the whole +throng of us, with axe and sword, for we had shot away our +arrows. Ma foi! it was a foolish thing, for we came forth from +the hedges, and there was naught to guard the baggage had they +ridden round behind us. But all went well with us, and the king +was taken, and little Robby Withstaff and I fell in with a wain +with twelve firkins of wine for the king's own table, and, by my +hilt! if you ask me what happened after that, I cannot answer +you, nor can little Robby Withstaff either." + +"And next day?" + +"By my faith! we did not tarry long, but we hied back to +Bordeaux, where we came in safety with the King of France and +also the feather-bed. I sold my spoil, mes garcons, for as many +gold-pieces as I could hold in my hufken, and for seven days I +lit twelve wax candles upon the altar of St. Andrew; for if you +forget the blessed when things are well with you, they are very +likely to forget you when you have need of them. I have a score +of one hundred and nineteen pounds of wax against the holy +Andrew, and, as he was a very just man, I doubt not that I shall +have full weigh and measure when I have most need of it." + +"Tell me, master Aylward," cried a young fresh-faced archer at +the further end of the room, "what was this great battle about?" + +"Why, you jack-fool, what would it be about save who should wear +the crown of France?" + +"I thought that mayhap it might be as to who should have this +feather-bed of thine." + +"If I come down to you, Silas, I may lay my belt across your +shoulders," Aylward answered, amid a general shout of laughter. +"But it is time young chickens went to roost when they dare +cackle against their elders. It is late, Simon." + +"Nay, let us have another song." + +"Here is Arnold of Sowley will troll as good a stave as any man +in the Company." + +"Nay, we have one here who is second to none," said Hawtayne, +laying his hand upon big John's shoulder. "I have heard him on +the cog with a voice like the wave upon the shore. I pray you, +friend, to give us `The Bells of Milton,' or, if you will, `The +Franklin's Maid.'" + +Hordle John drew the back of his hand across his mouth, fixed his +eyes upon the corner of the ceiling, and bellowed forth, in a +voice which made the torches flicker, the southland ballad for +which he had been asked:-- + + The franklin he hath gone to roam, + The franklin's maid she bides at home, + But she is cold and coy and staid, + And who may win the franklin's maid? + + There came a knight of high renown + In bassinet and ciclatoun; + On bended knee full long he prayed, + He might not win the franklin's maid. + + There came a squire so debonair + His dress was rich, his words were fair, + He sweetly sang, he deftly played: + He could not win the franklin's maid. + + There came a mercer wonder-fine + With velvet cap and gaberdine; + For all his ships, for all his trade + He could not buy the franklin's maid. + + There came an archer bold and true, + With bracer guard and stave of yew; + His purse was light, his jerkin frayed; + Haro, alas! the franklin's maid! + + Oh, some have laughed and some have cried + And some have scoured the country-side! + But off they ride through wood and glade, + The bowman and the franklin's maid. + +A roar of delight from his audience, with stamping of feet and +beating of blackjacks against the ground, showed how thoroughly +the song was to their taste, while John modestly retired into a +quart pot, which he drained in four giant gulps. "I sang that +ditty in Hordle ale-house ere I ever thought to be an archer +myself," quoth he. + +"Fill up your stoups!" cried Black Simon, thrusting his own +goblet into the open hogshead in front of him. "Here is a last +cup to the White Company, and every brave boy who walks behind +the roses of Loring!" + +"To the wood, the flax, and the gander's wing!" said an old +gray-headed archer on the right, + +"To a gentle loose, and the King of Spain for a mark at fourteen +score!" cried another. + +"To a bloody war!" shouted a fourth. "Many to go and few to +come!" + +"With the most gold to the best steel!" added a fifth. + +"And a last cup to the maids of our heart!" cried Aylward. "A +steady hand and a true eye, boys; so let two quarts be a bowman's +portion." With shout and jest and snatch of song they streamed +from the room, and all was peaceful once more in the "Rose de +Guienne." + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +HOW ENGLAND HELD THE LISTS AT BORDEAUX. + + +So used were the good burghers of Bordeaux to martial display and +knightly sport, that an ordinary joust or tournament was an everyday +matter with them. The fame and brilliancy of the prince's court had +drawn the knights-errant and pursuivants-of-arms from every part of +Europe. In the long lists by the Garonne on the landward side of +the northern gate there had been many a strange combat, when the +Teutonic knight, fresh from the conquest of the Prussian heathen, +ran a course against the knight of Calatrava, hardened by continual +struggle against the Moors, or cavaliers from Portugal broke a +lance with Scandinavian warriors from the further shore of the great +Northern Ocean. Here fluttered many an outland pennon, bearing +symbol and blazonry from the banks of the Danube, the wilds of +Lithuania and the mountain strongholds of Hungary; for chivalry +was of no clime and of no race, nor was any land so wild that the +fame and name of the prince had not sounded through it from +border to border. + +Great, however, was the excitement through town and district when +it was learned that on the third Wednesday in Advent there would +be held a passage-at-arms in which five knights of England would +hold the lists against all comers. The great concourse of +noblemen and famous soldiers, the national character of the +contest, and the fact that this was a last trial of arms before +what promised to be an arduous and bloody war, all united to make +the event one of the most notable and brilliant that Bordeaux had +ever seen. On the eve of the contest the peasants flocked in +from the whole district of the Medoc, and the fields beyond the +walls were whitened with the tents of those who could find no +warmer lodging. From the distant camp of Dax, too, and from +Blaye, Bourge, Libourne, St. Emilion, Castillon, St. Macaire, +Cardillac, Ryons, and all the cluster of flourishing towns which +look upon Bordeaux as their mother, there thronged an unceasing +stream of horsemen and of footmen, all converging upon the great +city. By the morning of the day on which the courses were to be +run, not less than eighty people had assembled round the lists +and along the low grassy ridge which looks down upon the scene of +the encounter. + +It was, as may well be imagined, no easy matter among so many +noted cavaliers to choose out five on either side who should have +precedence over their fellows. A score of secondary combats had +nearly arisen from the rivalries and bad blood created by the +selection, and it was only the influence of the prince and the +efforts of the older barons which kept the peace among so many +eager and fiery soldiers. Not till the day before the courses +were the shields finally hung out for the inspection of the +ladies and the heralds, so that all men might know the names of +the champions and have the opportunity to prefer any charge +against them, should there be stain upon them which should +disqualify them from taking part in so noble and honorable a +ceremony. + +Sir Hugh Calverley and Sir Robert Knolles had not yet returned +from their raid into the marches of the Navarre, so that the +English party were deprived of two of their most famous lances. +Yet there remained so many good names that Chandos and Felton, to +whom the selection had been referred, had many an earnest +consultation, in which every feat of arms and failure or success +of each candidate was weighed and balanced against the rival +claims of his companions. Lord Audley of Cheshire, the hero of +Poictiers, and Loring of Hampshire, who was held to be the +second lance in the army, were easily fixed upon. Then, of the +younger men, Sir Thomas Percy of Northumberland, Sir Thomas Wake +of Yorkshire, and Sir William Beauchamp of Gloucestershire, were +finally selected to uphold the honor of England. On the other +side were the veteran Captal de Buch and the brawny Olivier de +Clisson, with the free companion Sir Perducas d'Albret, the +valiant Lord of Mucident, and Sigismond von Altenstadt, of the +Teutonic Order. The older soldiers among the English shook their +heads as they looked upon the escutcheons of these famous +warriors, for they were all men who had spent their lives upon +the saddle, and bravery and strength can avail little against +experience and wisdom of war. + +"By my faith! Sir John," said the prince as he rode through the +winding streets on his way to the list, "I should have been glad +to have splintered a lance to-day. You have seen me hold a spear +since I had strength to lift one, and should know best whether I +do not merit a place among this honorable company." + +"There is no better seat and no truer lance, sire," said Chandos; +"but, if I may say so without fear of offence, it were not +fitting that you should join in this debate." + +"And why, Sir John?" + +"Because, sire, it is not for you to take part with Gascons +against English, or with English against Gascons, seeing that you +are lord of both. We are not too well loved by the Gascons now, +and it is but the golden link of your princely coronet which +holds us together. If that be snapped I know not what would +follow." + +"Snapped, Sir John!" cried the prince, with an angry sparkle in +his dark eyes. "What manner of talk is this? You speak as +though the allegiance of our people were a thing which might be +thrown off or on like a falcon's jessel." + +"With a sorry hack one uses whip and spur, sire," said Chandos; +"but with a horse of blood and spirit a good cavalier is gentle +and soothing, coaxing rather than forcing. These folk are +strange people, and you must hold their love, even as you have it +now, for you will get from their kindness what all the pennons in +your army could not wring from them." + +"You are over-grave to-day, John," the prince answered. "We may +keep such questions for our council-chamber. But how now, my +brothers of Spain, and of Majorca, what think you of this +challenge?" + +"I look to see some handsome joisting," said Don Pedro, who rode +with the King of Majorca upon the right of the prince, while +Chandos was on the left. "By St. James of Compostella! but these +burghers would bear some taxing. See to the broadcloth and +velvet that the rogues bear upon their backs! By my troth! if +they were my subjects they would be glad enough to wear falding +and leather ere I had done with them. But mayhap it is best to +let the wool grow long ere you clip it." + +"It is our pride," the prince answered coldly, "that we rule over +freemen and not slaves." + +"Every man to his own humor," said Pedro carelessly. "Carajo! +there is a sweet face at yonder window! Don Fernando, I pray you +to mark the house, and to have the maid brought to us at the +abbey." + +"Nay, brother, nay!" cried the prince impatiently. "I have had +occasion to tell you more than once that things are not ordered +in this way in Aquitaine." + +"A thousand pardons, dear friend," the Spaniard answered quickly, +for a flush of anger had sprung to the dark cheek of the English +prince. "You make my exile so like a home that I forget at times +that I am not in very truth back in Castile. Every land hath +indeed its ways and manners; but I promise you, Edward, that when +you are my guest in Toledo or Madrid you shall not yearn in vain +for any commoner's daughter on whom you may deign to cast your +eye." + +"Your talk, sire," said the prince still more coldly, "is not +such as I love to hear from your lips. I have no taste for such +amours as you speak of, and I have sworn that my name shall be +coupled with that of no woman save my ever dear wife." + +"Ever the mirror of true chivalry!" exclaimed Pedro, while James +of Majorca, frightened at the stern countenance of their all-powerful +protector, plucked hard at the mantle of his brother +exile. + +"Have a care, cousin," he whispered; "for the sake of the Virgin +have a care, for you have angered him." + +"Pshaw! fear not," the other answered in the same low tone. "If +I miss one stoop I will strike him on the next. Mark me else. +Fair cousin," he continued, turning to the prince, "these be rare +men-at-arms and lusty bowmen. It would be hard indeed to match +them." + +"They have Journeyed far, sire, but they have never yet found +their match." + +"Nor ever will, I doubt not. I feel myself to be back upon my +throne when I look at them. But tell me, dear coz, what shall we +do next, when we have driven this bastard Henry from the kingdom +which he hath filched?" + +"We shall then compel the King of Aragon to place our good friend +and brother James of Majorca upon the throne." + +"Noble and generous prince!" cried the little monarch. + +"That done," said King Pedro, glancing out of the corners of his +eyes at the young conqueror, "we shall unite the forces of +England, of Aquitaine, of Spain and of Majorca. It would be +shame to us if we did not do some great deed with such forces +ready to our hand." + +"You say truly, brother," cried the prince, his eyes kindling at +the thought. "Methinks that we could not do anything more +pleasing to Our Lady than to drive the heathen Moors out of the +country." + +"I am with you, Edward, as true as hilt to blade. But, by St. +James! we shall not let these Moors make mock at us from over the +sea. We must take ship and thrust them from Africa." + +"By heaven, yes!" cried the prince. "And it is the dream of my +heart that our English pennons shall wave upon the Mount of +Olives, and the lions and lilies float over the holy city." + +"And why not, dear coz? Your bowmen have cleared a path to +Paris, and why not to Jerusalem? Once there, your arms might +rest." + +"Nay, there is more to be done," cried the prince, carried away +by the ambitious dream. "There is still the city of Constantine +to be taken, and war to be waged against the Soldan of Damascus. +And beyond him again there is tribute to be levied from the Cham +of Tartary and from the kingdom of Cathay. Ha! John, what say +you? Can we not go as far eastward as Richard of the Lion +Heart?" + +"Old John will bide at home, sire," said the rugged soldier. "By +my soul! as long as I am seneschal of Aquitaine I will find +enough to do in guarding the marches which you have entrusted to +me. It would be a blithe day for the King of France when he +heard that the seas lay between him and us." + +"By my soul! John," said the prince, "I have never known you turn +laggard before." + +"The babbling hound, sire, is not always the first at the mort," +the old knight answered. + +"Nay, my true-heart! I have tried you too often not to know. +But, by my soul! I have not seen so dense a throng since the day +that we brought King John down Cheapside." + +It was indeed an enormous crowd which covered the whole vast +plain from the line of vineyards to the river bank. From the +northern gate the prince and his companions looked down at a dark +sea of heads, brightened here and there by the colored hoods of +the women, or by the sparkling head-pieces of archers and +men-at-arms. In the centre of this vast assemblage the lists +seemed but a narrow strip of green marked out with banners and +streamers, while a gleam of white with a flutter of pennons at +either end showed where the marquees were pitched which served as +the dressing-rooms of the combatants. A path had been staked off +from the city gate to the stands which had been erected for the +court and the nobility. Down this, amid the shouts of the +enormous multitude, the prince cantered with his two attendant +kings, his high officers of state, and his long train of lords +and ladies, courtiers, counsellors, and soldiers, with toss of +plume and flash of jewel, sheen of silk and glint of gold--as +rich and gallant a show as heart could wish. The head of the +cavalcade had reached the lists ere the rear had come clear of +the city gate, for the fairest and the bravest had assembled from +all the broad lands which are watered by the Dordogne and the +Garonne. Here rode dark-browed cavaliers from the sunny south, +fiery soldiers from Gascony, graceful courtiers of Limousin or +Saintonge, and gallant young Englishmen from beyond the seas. +Here too were the beautiful brunettes of the Gironde, with eyes +which out-flashed their jewels, while beside them rode their +blonde sisters of England, clear cut and aquiline, swathed in +swans'-down and in ermine, for the air was biting though the sun +was bright. Slowly the long and glittering train wound into the +lists, until every horse had been tethered by the varlets in +waiting, and every lord and lady seated in the long stands which +stretched, rich in tapestry and velvet and blazoned arms, on +either side of the centre of the arena. + +The holders of the lists occupied the end which was nearest to +the city gate. There, in front of their respective pavilions, +flew the martlets of Audley, the roses of Loring, the scarlet +bars of Wake, the lion of the Percies and the silver wings of +the Beauchamps, each supported by a squire clad in hanging green +stuff to represent so many Tritons, and bearing a huge +conch-shell in their left hands. Behind the tents the great +war-horses, armed at all points, champed and reared, while their +masters sat at the doors of their pavilions, with their helmets +upon their knees, chatting as to the order of the day's doings. +The English archers and men-at-arms had mustered at that end of +the lists, but the vast majority of the spectators were in favor +of the attacking party, for the English had declined in +popularity ever since the bitter dispute as to the disposal of +the royal captive after the battle of Poictiers. Hence the +applause was by no means general when the herald-at-arms +proclaimed, after a flourish of trumpets, the names and styles of +the knights who were prepared, for the honor of their country and +for the love of their ladies, to hold the field against all who +might do them the favor to run a course with them. On the other +hand, a deafening burst of cheering greeted the rival herald, +who, advancing from the other end of the lists, rolled forth the +well-known titles of the five famous warriors who had accepted +the defiance. + +"Faith, John," said the prince, "it sounds as though you were +right. "Ha! my grace D'Armagnac, it seems that our friends on +this side will not grieve if our English champions lose the day." + +"It may be so, sire," the Gascon nobleman answered. "I have +little doubt that in Smithfield or at Windsor an English crowd +would favor their own countrymen." + +"By my faith! that's easily seen," said the prince, laughing, +"for a few score English archers at yonder end are bellowing as +though they would out-shout the mighty multitude. I fear that +they will have little to shout over this journey, for my gold +vase has small prospect of crossing the water. What are the +conditions, John?" + +"They are to tilt singly not less than three courses, sire, and +the victory to rest with that party which shall have won the +greater number of courses, each pair continuing till one or other +have the vantage. He who carries himself best of the victors +hath the prize, and he who is judged best of the other party hath +a jewelled clasp. Shall I order that the nakirs sound, sire?" + +The prince nodded, and the trumpets rang out, while the champions +rode forth one after the other, each meeting his opponent in the +centre of the lists. Sir William Beauchamp went down before the +practiced lance of the Captal de Buch. Sir Thomas Percy won the +vantage over the Lord of Mucident, and the Lord Audley struck Sir +Perducas d'Albret from the saddle. The burly De Clisson, +however, restored the hopes of the attackers by beating to the +ground Sir Thomas Wake of Yorkshire. So far, there was little to +choose betwixt challengers and challenged. + +"By Saint James of Santiago!" cried Don Pedro, with a tinge of +color upon his pale cheeks, "win who will, this has been a most +notable contest." + +"Who comes next for England, John?" asked the prince in a voice +which quivered with excitement. + +"Sir Nigel Loring of Hampshire, sire." + +"Ha! he is a man of good courage, and skilled in the use of all +weapons." + +"He is indeed, sire. But his eyes, like my own, are the worse +for wars. Yet he can tilt or play his part at hand-strokes as +merrily as ever. It was he, sire, who won the golden crown which +Queen Philippa, your royal mother, gave to be jousted for by all +the knights of England after the harrying of Calais. I have +heard that at Twynham Castle there is a buffet which groans +beneath the weight of his prizes." + +"I pray that my vase may join them," said the prince. "But here +is the cavalier of Germany, and by my soul! he looks like a man +of great valor and hardiness. Let them run their full three +courses, for the issue is over-great to hang upon one." + +As the prince spoke, amid a loud flourish of trumpets and the +shouting of the Gascon party, the last of the assailants rode +gallantly into the lists. He was a man of great size, clad in +black armor without blazonry or ornament of any kind, for all +worldly display was forbidden by the rules of the military +brotherhood to which he belonged. No plume or nobloy fluttered +from his plain tilting salade, and even his lance was devoid of +the customary banderole. A white mantle fluttered behind him, +upon the left side of which was marked the broad black cross +picked out with silver which was the well-known badge of the +Teutonic Order. Mounted upon a horse as large, as black, and as +forbidding as himself, he cantered slowly forward, with none of +those prancings and gambades with which a cavalier was accustomed +to show his command over his charger. Gravely and sternly he +inclined his head to the prince, and took his place at the +further end of the arena. + +He had scarce done so before Sir Nigel rode out from the holders' +enclosure, and galloping at full speed down the lists, drew his +charger up before the prince's stand with a jerk which threw it +back upon its haunches. With white armor, blazoned shield, and +plume of ostrich-feathers from his helmet, he carried himself in +so jaunty and joyous a fashion, with tossing pennon and curveting +charger, that a shout of applause ran the full circle of the arena. +With the air of a man who hastes to a joyous festival, he waved +his lance in salute, and reining the pawing horse round without +permitting its fore-feet to touch the ground, he hastened back to +his station. + +A great hush fell over the huge multitude as the two last +champions faced each other. A double issue seemed to rest upon +their contest, for their personal fame was at stake as well as +their party's honor. Both were famous warriors, but as their +exploits had been performed in widely sundered countries, they +had never before been able to cross lances. A course between +such men would have been enough in itself to cause the keenest +interest, apart from its being the crisis which would decide who +should be the victors of the day. For a moment they waited--the +German sombre and collected, Sir Nigel quivering in every fibre +with eagerness and fiery resolution. Then, amid a long-drawn +breath from the spectators, the glove fell from the marshal's +hand, and the two steel-clad horsemen met like a thunderclap in +front of the royal stand. The German, though he reeled for an +instant before the thrust of the Englishman, struck his opponent +so fairly upon the vizor that the laces burst, the plumed helmet +flew to pieces, and Sir Nigel galloped on down the lists with his +bald head shimmering in the sunshine. A thousand waving scarves +and tossing caps announced that the first bout had fallen to the +popular party. + +The Hampshire knight was not a man to be disheartened by a +reverse. He spurred back to the pavilion, and was out in a few +instants with another helmet. The second course was so equal +that the keenest judges could not discern any vantage. Each +struck fire from the other's shield, and each endured the jarring +shock as though welded to the horse beneath him. In the final +bout, however, Sir Nigel struck his opponent with so true an aim +that the point of the lance caught between the bars of his vizor +and tore the front of his helmet out, while the German, aiming +somewhat low, and half stunned by the shock, had the misfortune +to strike his adversary upon the thigh, a breach of the rules of +the tilting-yard, by which he not only sacrificed his chances of +success, but would also have forfeited his horse and his armor, +had the English knight chosen to claim them. A roar of applause +from the English soldiers, with an ominous silence from the vast +crowd who pressed round the barriers, announced that the balance +of victory lay with the holders. Already the ten champions had +assembled in front of the prince to receive his award, when a +harsh bugle call from the further end of the lists drew all eyes +to a new and unexpected arrival. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +HOW A CHAMPION CAME FORTH FROM THE EAST. + + +The Bordeaux lists were, as has already been explained, situated +upon the plain near the river upon those great occasions when the +tilting-ground in front of the Abbey of St. Andrew's was deemed +to be too small to contain the crowd. On the eastern side of +this plain the country-side sloped upwards, thick with vines in +summer, but now ridged with the brown bare enclosures. Over the +gently rising plain curved the white road which leads inland, +usually flecked with travellers, but now with scarce a living +form upon it, so completely had the lists drained all the +district of its inhabitants. Strange it was to see such a vast +concourse of people, and then to look upon that broad, white, +empty highway which wound away, bleak and deserted, until it +narrowed itself to a bare streak against the distant uplands. + +Shortly after the contest had begun, any one looking from the +lists along this road might have remarked, far away in the +extreme distance, two brilliant and sparkling points which +glittered and twinkled in the bright shimmer of the winter sun. +Within an hour these had become clearer and nearer, until they +might be seen to come from the reflection from the head-pieces of +two horsemen who were riding at the top of their speed in the +direction of Bordeaux. Another half-hour had brought them so +close that every point of their bearing and equipment could be +discerned. The first was a knight in full armor, mounted upon a +brown horse with a white blaze upon breast and forehead. He was +a short man of great breadth of shoulder, with vizor closed, and +no blazonry upon his simple white surcoat or plain black shield. +The other, who was evidently his squire and attendant, was +unarmed save for the helmet upon his head, but bore in his right +hand a very long and heavy oaken spear which belonged to his +master. In his left hand the squire held not only the reins of +his own horse but those of a great black war-horse, fully +harnessed, which trotted along at his side. Thus the three +horses and their two riders rode swiftly to the lists, and it was +the blare of the trumpet sounded by the squire as his lord rode +into the arena which had broken in upon the prize-giving and +drawn away the attention and interest of the spectators. + +"Ha, John!" cried the prince, craning his neck, "who is this +cavalier, and what is it that he desires?" + +"On my word, sire," replied Chandos, with the utmost surprise +upon his face, "it is my opinion that he is a Frenchman." + +"A Frenchman!" repeated Don Pedro. "And how can you tell that, +my Lord Chandos, when he has neither coat-armor, crest, or +blazonry?" + +"By his armor, sire, which is rounder at elbow and at shoulder +than any of Bordeaux or of England. Italian he might be were his +bassinet more sloped, but I will swear that those plates were +welded betwixt this and Rhine. Here comes his squire, however, +and we shall hear what strange fortune hath brought him over the +marches." + +As he spoke the attendant cantered up the grassy enclosure, and +pulling up his steed in front of the royal stand, blew a second +fanfare upon his bugle. He was a raw-boned, swarthy-cheeked man, +with black bristling beard and a swaggering bearing. + +Having sounded his call, he thrust the bugle into his belt, and, +pushing his way betwixt the groups of English and of Gascon +knights, he reined up within a spear's length of the royal party. + +"I come," he shouted in a hoarse, thick voice, with a strong +Breton accent, "as squire and herald from my master, who is a +very valiant pursuivant-of-arms, and a liegeman to the great and +powerful monarch, Charles, king of the French. My master has +heard that there is jousting here, and prospect of honorable +advancement, so he has come to ask that some English cavalier +will vouchsafe for the love of his lady to run a course with +sharpened lances with him, or to meet him with sword, mace, +battle-axe, or dagger. He bade me say, however, that he would +fight only with a true Englishman, and not with any mongrel who +is neither English nor French, but speaks with the tongue of the +one, and fights under the banner of the other." + +"Sir!" cried De Clisson, with a voice of thunder, while his +countrymen clapped their hands to their swords. The squire, +however, took no notice of their angry faces, but continued with +his master's message. + +"He is now ready, sire," he said, "albeit his destrier has +travelled many miles this day, and fast, for we were in fear lest +we come too late for the jousting." + +"Ye have indeed come too late," said the prince, "seeing that the +prize is about to be awarded; yet I doubt not that one of these +gentlemen will run a course for the sake of honor with this +cavalier of France." + +"And as to the prize, sire," quoth Sir Nigel, "I am sure that I +speak for all when I say this French knight hath our leave to +bear it away with him if he can fairly win it." + +"Bear word of this to your master," said the prince, "and ask him +which of these five Englishmen he would desire to meet. But +stay; your master bears no coat-armor, and we have not yet heard +his name." + +"My master, sire, is under vow to the Virgin neither to reveal +his name nor to open his vizor until he is back upon French +ground once more." + +"Yet what assurance have we," said the prince, "that this is not +some varlet masquerading in his master's harness, or some caitiff +knight, the very touch of whose lance might bring infamy upon an +honorable gentleman?" + +"It is not so, sire," cried the squire earnestly. "There is no +man upon earth who would demean himself by breaking a lance with +my master." + +"You speak out boldly, squire," the prince answered; "but unless +I have some further assurance of your master's noble birth and +gentle name I cannot match the choicest lances of my court +against him." + +"You refuse, sire?" + +"I do refuse." + +"Then, sire, I was bidden to ask you from my master whether you +would consent if Sir John Chandos, upon hearing my master's name, +should assure you that he was indeed a man with whom you might +yourself cross swords without indignity." + +"I ask no better," said the prince. + +"Then I must ask, Lord Chandos, that you will step forth. I have +your pledge that the name shall remain ever a secret, and that +you will neither say nor write one word which might betray it. +The name is----" He stooped down from his horse and whispered +something into the old knight's ear which made him start with +surprise, and stare with much curiosity at the distant Knight, +who was sitting his charger at the further end of the arena. + +"Is this indeed sooth?" he exclaimed. + +"It is, my lord, and I swear it by St. Ives of Brittany." + +"I might have known it," said Chandos, twisting his moustache, +and still looking thoughtfully at the cavalier. + +"What then, Sir John?" asked the prince. + +"Sire, this is a knight whom it is indeed great honor to meet, +and I would that your grace would grant me leave to send my +squire for my harness, for I would dearly love to run a course +with him. + +"Nay, nay, Sir John, you have gained as much honor as one man can +bear, and it were hard if you could not rest now. But I pray +you, squire, to tell your master that he is very welcome to our +court, and that wines and spices will be served him, if he would +refresh himself before jousting." + +"My master will not drink," said the squire. + +"Let him then name the gentleman with whom he would break a +spear." + +"He would contend with these five knights, each to choose such +weapons as suit him best." + +"I perceive," said the prince, "that your master is a man of +great heart and high of enterprise. But the sun already is low +in the west, and there will scarce be light for these courses. I +pray you, gentlemen, to take your places, that we may see whether +this stranger's deeds are as bold as his words." + +The unknown knight had sat like a statue of steel, looking +neither to the right nor to the left during these preliminaries. +He had changed from the horse upon which he had ridden, and +bestrode the black charger which his squire had led beside him. +His immense breadth, his stern composed appearance, and the mode +in which he handled his shield and his lance, were enough in +themselves to convince the thousands of critical spectators that +he was a dangerous opponent. Aylward, who stood in the front row +of the archers with Simon, big John, and others of the Company, +had been criticising the proceedings from the commencement with +the ease and freedom of a man who had spent his life under arms +and had learned in a hard school to know at a glance the points +of a horse and his rider. He stared now at the stranger with a +wrinkled brow and the air of a man who is striving to stir his +memory. + +"By my hilt! I have seen the thick body of him before to-day. +Yet I cannot call to mind where it could have been. At Nogent +belike, or was it at Auray? Mark me, lads, this man will prove to +be one of the best lances of France, and there are no better in +the world." + +"It is but child's play, this poking game," said John. "I would +fain try my hand at it, for, by the black rood! I think that it +might be amended." + +"What then would you do, John?" asked several. + +"There are many things which might be done," said the forester +thoughtfully. "Methinks that I would begin by breaking my +spear." + +"So they all strive to do." + +"Nay, but not upon another man's shield. I would break it over +my own knee." + +"And what the better for that, old beef and bones?" asked Black +Simon. + +"So I would turn what is but a lady's bodkin of a weapon into a +very handsome club." + +"And then, John?" + +"Then I would take the other's spear into my arm or my leg, or +where it pleased him best to put it, and I would dash out his +brains with my club." + +"By my ten finger-bones! old John," said Aylward, "I would give +my feather-bed to see you at a spear-running. This is a most +courtly and gentle sport which you have devised." + +"So it seems to me," said John seriously. "Or, again, one might +seize the other round the middle, pluck him off his horse and +bear him to the pavilion, there to hold him to ransom." + +"Good!" cried Simon, amid a roar of laughter from all the archers +round. "By Thomas of Kent I we shall make a camp-marshal of +thee, and thou shalt draw up rules for our jousting. But, John, +who is it that you would uphold in this knightly and pleasing +fashion?" + +"What mean you?" + +"Why, John, so strong and strange a tilter must fight for the +brightness of his lady's eyes or the curve of her eyelash, even +as Sir Nigel does for the Lady Loring." + +"I know not about that," said the big archer, scratching his head +in perplexity. "Since Mary hath played me false, I can scarce +fight for her." + +"Yet any woman will serve." + +"There is my mother then," said John. "She was at much pains at +my upbringing, and, by my soul! I will uphold the curve of her +eyelashes, for it tickleth my very heart-root to think of her. +But who is here?" + +"It is Sir William Beauchamp. He is a valiant man, but I fear +that he is scarce firm enough upon the saddle to bear the thrust +of such a tilter as this stranger promises to be." + +Aylward's words were speedily justified, for even as he spoke the +two knights met in the centre of the lists. Beauchamp struck his +opponent a shrewd blow upon the helmet, but was met with so +frightful a thrust that he whirled out of his saddle and rolled +over and over upon the ground. Sir Thomas Percy met with little +better success, for his shield was split, his vambrace torn and +he himself wounded slightly in the side. Lord Audley and the +unknown knight struck each other fairly upon the helmet; but, +while the stranger sat as firm and rigid as ever upon his +charger, the Englishman was bent back to his horse's cropper by +the weight of the blow, and had galloped half-way down the lists +ere he could recover himself. Sir Thomas Wake was beaten to the +ground with a battle-axe--that being the weapon which he had +selected--and had to be carried to his pavilion. These rapid +successes, gained one after the other over four celebrated +warriors, worked the crowd up to a pitch of wonder and +admiration. Thunders of applause from the English soldiers, as +well as from the citizens and peasants, showed how far the love +of brave and knightly deeds could rise above the rivalries of +race. + +"By my soul! John," cried the prince, with his cheek flushed and +his eyes shining, "this is a man of good courage and great +hardiness. I could not have thought that there was any single +arm upon earth which could have overthrown these four champions." + +"He is indeed, as I have said, sire, a knight from whom much +honor is to be gained. But the lower edge of the sun is wet, and +it will be beneath the sea ere long." + +"Here is Sir Nigel Loring, on foot and with his sword," said the +prince. "I have heard that he is a fine swordsman." + +"The finest in your army, sire," Chandos answered. "Yet I doubt +not that he will need all his skill this day." + +As he spoke, the two combatants advanced from either end in full +armor with their two-handed swords sloping over their shoulders. +The stranger walked heavily and with a measured stride, while the +English knight advanced as briskly as though there was no iron +shell to weigh down the freedom of his limbs. At four paces +distance they stopped, eyed each other for a moment, and then in +an instant fell to work with a clatter and clang as though two +sturdy smiths were busy upon their anvils. Up and down went the +long, shining blades, round and round they circled in curves of +glimmering light, crossing, meeting, disengaging, with flash of +sparks at every parry. Here and there bounded Sir Nigel, his +head erect, his jaunty plume fluttering in the air, while his +dark opponent sent in crashing blow upon blow, following +fiercely up with cut and with thrust, but never once getting past +the practised blade of the skilled swordsman. The crowd roared +with delight as Sir Nigel would stoop his head to avoid a blow, +or by some slight movement of his body allow some terrible thrust +to glance harmlessly past him. Suddenly, however, his time came. +The Frenchman, whirling up his sword, showed for an instant a +chink betwixt his shoulder piece and the rerebrace which guarded +his upper arm. In dashed Sir Nigel, and out again so swiftly +that the eye could not follow the quick play of his blade, but a +trickle of blood from the stranger's shoulder, and a rapidly +widening red smudge upon his white surcoat, showed where the +thrust had taken effect. The wound was, however, but a slight +one, and the Frenchman was about to renew his onset, when, at a +sign from the prince, Chandos threw down his baton, and the +marshals of the lists struck up the weapons and brought the +contest to an end. + +"It were time to check it," said the prince, smiling, "for Sir +Nigel is too good a man for me to lose, and, by the five holy +wounds! if one of those cuts came home I should have fears for +our champion. What think you, Pedro?" + +"I think, Edward, that the little man was very well able to take +care of himself. For my part, I should wish to see so well +matched a pair fight on while a drop of blood remained in their +veins." + +"We must have speech with him. Such a man must not go from my +court without rest or sup. Bring him hither, Chandos, and, +certes, if the Lord Loring hath resigned his claim upon this +goblet, it is right and proper that this cavalier should carry it +to France with him as a sign of the prowess that he has shown +this day." + +As he spoke, the knight-errant, who had remounted his warhorse, +galloped forward to the royal stand, with a silken kerchief bound +round his wounded arm. The setting sun cast a ruddy glare upon +his burnished arms, and sent his long black shadow streaming +behind him up the level clearing. Pulling up his steed, he +slightly inclined his head, and sat in the stern and composed +fashion with which he had borne himself throughout, heedless of +the applauding shouts and the flutter of kerchiefs from the long +lines of brave men and of fair women who were looking down upon +him. + +"Sir knight," said the prince, "we have all marvelled this day at +this great skill and valor with which God has been pleased to +endow you. I would fain that you should tarry at our court, for +a time at least, until your hurt is healed and your horses +rested.." + +"My hurt is nothing, sire, nor are my horses weary," returned the +stranger in a deep, stern voice. + +"Will you not at least hie back to Bordeaux with us, that you may +drain a cup of muscadine and sup at our table?" + +"I will neither drink your wine nor sit at your table," returned +the other. "I bear no love for you or for your race, and there +is nought that I wish at your hands until the day when I see the +last sail which bears you back to your island vanishing away +against the western sky." + +"These are bitter words, sir knight," said Prince Edward, with an +angry frown. + +"And they come from a bitter heart," answered the unknown knight. +"How long is it since there has been peace in my hapless country? +Where are the steadings, and orchards, and vineyards, which made +France fair? Where are the cities which made her great? From +Providence to Burgundy we are beset by every prowling hireling in +Christendom, who rend and tear the country which you have left +too weak to guard her own marches. Is it not a by-word that a +man may ride all day in that unhappy land without seeing thatch +upon roof or hearing the crow of cock? Does not one fair kingdom +content you, that you should strive so for this other one which +has no love for you? Pardieu! a true Frenchman's words may well +be bitter, for bitter is his lot and bitter his thoughts as he +rides through his thrice unhappy country." + +"Sir knight," said the prince, "you speak like a brave man, and +our cousin of France is happy in having a cavalier who is so fit +to uphold his cause either with tongue or with sword. But if you +think such evil of us, how comes it that you have trusted +yourselves to us without warranty or safe-conduct?" + +"Because I knew that you would be here, sire. Had the man who +sits upon your right been ruler of this land, I had indeed +thought twice before I looked to him for aught that was knightly +or generous." With a soldierly salute, he wheeled round his +horse, and, galloping down the lists, disappeared amid the dense +crowd of footmen and of horsemen who were streaming away from the +scene of the tournament. + +"The insolent villain!" cried Pedro, glaring furiously after him. +"I have seen a man's tongue torn from his jaws for less. Would +it not be well even now, Edward, to send horsemen to hale him +back? Bethink you that it may be one of the royal house of +France, or at least some knight whose loss would be a heavy blow +to his master. Sir William Felton, you are well mounted, gallop +after the caitiff, I pray you." + +"Do so, Sir William," said the prince," and give him this purse +of a hundred nobles as a sign of the respect which I bear for +him; for, by St. George! he has served his master this day even +as I would wish liegeman of mine to serve me." So saying, the +prince turned his back upon the King of Spain, and springing upon +his horse, rode slowly homewards to the Abbey of Saint Andrew's. + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +HOW SIR NIGEL WROTE TO TWYNHAM CASTLE. + + +On the morning after the jousting, when Alleyne Edricson went, as +was his custom, into his master's chamber to wait upon him in his +dressing and to curl his hair, he found him already up and very +busily at work. He sat at a table by the window, a deer-hound on +one side of him and a lurcher on the other, his feet tucked away +under the trestle on which he sat, and his tongue in his cheek, +with the air of a man who is much perplexed. A sheet of vellum +lay upon the board in front of him, and he held a pen in his +hand, with which he had been scribbling in a rude schoolboy hand. +So many were the blots, however, and so numerous the scratches +and erasures, that he had at last given it up in despair, and +sat with his single uncovered eye cocked upwards at the ceiling, +as one who waits upon inspiration. + +"By Saint Paul!" he cried, as Alleyne entered, "you are the man +who will stand by me in this matter. I have been in sore need of +you, Alleyne." + +"God be with you, my fair lord!" the squire answered. "I trust +that you have taken no hurt from all that you have gone through +yesterday." + +"Nay; I feel the fresher for it, Alleyne. It has eased my +joints, which were somewhat stiff from these years of peace. I +trust, Alleyne, that thou didst very carefully note and mark the +bearing and carriage of this knight of France; for it is time, +now when you are young, that you should see all that is best, and +mould your own actions in accordance. This was a man from whom +much honor might be gained, and I have seldom met any one for +whom I have conceived so much love and esteem. Could I but learn +his name, I should send you to him with my cartel, that we might +have further occasion to watch his goodly feats of arms." + +"It is said, my fair lord, that none know his name save only the +Lord Chandos, and that he is under vow not to speak it. So ran +the gossip at the squires' table." + +"Be he who he might, he was a very hardy gentleman. But I have a +task here, Alleyne, which is harder to me than aught that was set +before me yesterday." + +"Can I help you, my lord?" + +"That indeed you can. I have been writing my greetings to my +sweet wife; for I hear that a messenger goes from the prince to +Southampton within the week, and he would gladly take a packet +for me. I pray you, Alleyne, to cast your eyes upon what I have +written, and see it they are such words as my lady will +understand. My fingers, as you can see, are more used to iron +and leather than to the drawing of strokes and turning of +letters. What then? Is there aught amiss, that you should +stare so?" + +"It is this first word, my lord. In what tongue were you pleased +to write?" + +"In English; for my lady talks it more than she doth French. + +"Yet this is no English word, my sweet lord. Here are four t's +and never a letter betwixt them." + +"By St. Paul! it seemed strange to my eye when I wrote it," said +Sir Nigel. "They bristle up together like a clump of lances. We +must break their ranks and set them farther apart. The word is +`that.' Now I will read it to you, Alleyne, and you shall write +it out fair; for we leave Bordeaux this day, and it would be +great joy to me to think that the Lady Loring had word from me." + +Alleyne sat down as ordered, with a pen in his hand and a fresh +sheet of parchment before him, while Sir Nigel slowly spelled out +his letter, running his forefinger on from word to word. + +"That my heart is with thee, my dear sweeting, is what thine own +heart will assure thee of. All is well with us here, save that +Pepin hath the mange on his back, and Pommers hath scarce yet got +clear of his stiffness from being four days on ship-board, and +the more so because the sea was very high, and we were like to +founder on account of a hole in her side, which was made by a +stone cast at us by certain sea-rovers, who may the saints have +in their keeping, for they have gone from amongst us, as has +young Terlake, and two-score mariners and archers, who would be +the more welcome here as there is like to be a very fine war, +with much honor and all hopes of advancement, for which I go to +gather my Company together, who are now at Montaubon, where they +pillage and destroy; yet I hope that, by God's help, I may be +able to show that I am their master, even as, my sweet lady, I am +thy servant." + +"How of that, Alleyne?" continued Sir Nigel, blinking at his +squire, with an expression of some pride upon his face. "Have I +not told her all that hath befallen us?" + +"You have said much, my fair lord; and yet, if I may say so, it +is somewhat crowded together, so that my Lady Loring can, mayhap, +scarce follow it. Were it in shorter periods----" + +"Nay, it boots me not how you marshal them, as long as they are +all there at the muster. Let my lady have the words, and she +will place them in such order as pleases her best. But I would +have you add what it would please her to know." + +"That will I," said Alleyne, blithely, and bent to the task. + +"My fair lady and mistress," he wrote, "God hath had us in His +keeping, and my lord is well and in good cheer. He hath won much +honor at the jousting before the prince, when he alone was able +to make it good against a very valiant man from France. Touching +the moneys, there is enough and to spare until we reach +Montaubon. Herewith, my fair lady, I send my humble regards, +entreating you that you will give the same to your daughter, the +Lady Maude. May the holy saints have you both in their keeping +is ever the prayer of thy servant, + + "ALLEYNE EDRICSON." + +"That is very fairly set forth," said Sir Nigel, nodding his bald +head as each sentence was read to him. "And for thyself, +Alleyne, if there be any dear friend to whom you would fain give +greeting, I can send it for thee within this packet." + +"There is none," said Alleyne, sadly. + +"Have you no kinsfolk, then?" + +"None, save my brother." + +"Ha! I had forgotten that there was ill blood betwixt you. But +are there none in all England who love thee?" + +"None that I dare say so." + +"And none whom you love?" + +"Nay, I will not say that," said Alleyne. + +Sir Nigel shook his head and laughed softly to himself, "I see +how it is with you," he said. "Have I not noted your frequent +sighs and vacant eye? Is she fair?" + +"She is indeed," cried Alleyne from his heart, all tingling at +this sudden turn of the talk. + +"And good?" + +"As an angel." + +"And yet she loves you not?" + +"Nay, I cannot say that she loves another." + +"Then you have hopes?" + +"I could not live else." + +"Then must you strive to be worthy of her love. Be brave and +pure, fearless to the strong and humble to the weak; and so, +whether this love prosper or no, you will have fitted yourself to +be honored by a maiden's love, which is, in sooth, the highest +guerdon which a true knight can hope for." + +"Indeed, my lord, I do so strive," said Alleyne; "but she is so +sweet, so dainty, and of so noble a spirit, that I fear me that I +shall never be worthy of her." + +"By thinking so you become worthy. Is she then of noble birth?" + +"She is, my lord," faltered Alleyne. + +"Of a knightly house?" + +"Yes." + +"Have a care, Alleyne, have a care!" said Sir Nigel, kindly. "The +higher the steed the greater the fall. Hawk not at that which +may be beyond thy flight." + +"My lord, I know little of the ways and usages of the world," +cried Alleyne, "but I would fain ask your rede upon the matter. +You have known my father and my kin: is not my family one of good +standing and repute?" + +"Beyond all question." + +"And yet you warn me that I must not place my love too high." + +"Were Minstead yours, Alleyne, then, by St. Paul! I cannot think +that any family in the land would not be proud to take you among +them, seeing that you come of so old a strain. But while the +Socman lives----Ha, by my soul! if this is not Sir Oliver's step +I am the more mistaken." + +As he spoke, a heavy footfall was heard without, and the portly +knight flung open the door and strode into the room. + +"Why, my little coz," said he, "I have come across to tell you +that I live above the barber's in the Rue de la Tour, and that +there is a venison pasty in the oven and two flasks of the right +vintage on the table. By St. James! a blind man might find the +place, for one has but to get in the wind from it, and follow the +savory smell. Put on your cloak, then, and come, for Sir Walter +Hewett and Sir Robert Briquet, with one or two others, are +awaiting us." + +"Nay, Oliver, I cannot be with you, for I must to Montaubon this +day." + +"To Montaubon? But I have heard that your Company is to come +with my forty Winchester rascals to Dax." + +"If you will take charge of them, Oliver. For I will go to +Montaubon with none save my two squires and two archers. Then, +when I have found the rest of my Company I shall lead them to +Dax. We set forth this morning." + +"Then I must back to my pasty," said Sir Oliver. "You will find +us at Dax, I doubt not, unless the prince throw me into prison, +for he is very wroth against me." + +"And why, Oliver?" + +"Pardieu! because I have sent my cartel, gauntlet, and defiance +to Sir John Chandos and to Sir William Felton." + +"To Chandos? In God's name, Oliver, why have you done this?" + +"Because he and the other have used me despitefully." + +"And how?" + +"Because they have passed me over in choosing those who should +joust for England. Yourself and Audley I could pass, coz, for +you are mature men; but who are Wake, and Percy, and Beauchamp? +By my soul! I was prodding for my food into a camp-kettle when +they were howling for their pap. Is a man of my weight and +substance to be thrown aside for the first three half-grown lads +who have learned the trick of the tilt-yard? But hark ye, coz, I +think of sending my cartel also to the prince." + +"Oliver! Oliver! You are mad!" + +"Not I, i' faith! I care not a denier whether he be prince or no. +By Saint James! I see that your squire's eyes are starting from +his head like a trussed crab. Well, friend, we are all three men +of Hampshire, and not lightly to be jeered at." + +"Has he jeered at you than?" + +"Pardieu! yes, `Old Sir Oliver's heart is still stout,' said one +of his court. `Else had it been out of keeping with the rest of +him,' quoth the prince. `And his arm is strong,' said another. +`So is the backbone of his horse,' quoth the prince. This very +day I will send him my cartel and defiance." + +"Nay, nay, my dear Oliver," said Sir Nigel, laying his hand upon +his angry friend's arm. "There is naught in this, for it was but +saying that you were a strong and robust man, who had need of a +good destrier. And as to Chandos and Felton, bethink you that if +when you yourself were young the older lances had ever been +preferred, how would you then have had the chance to earn the +good name and fame which you now bear? You do not ride as light +as you did, Oliver, and I ride lighter by the weight of my hair, +but it would be an ill thing if in the evening of our lives we +showed that our hearts were less true and loyal than of old. If +such a knight as Sir Oliver Buttesthorn may turn against his own +prince for the sake of a light word, then where are we to look +for steadfast faith and constancy?" + +"Ah! my dear little coz, it is easy to sit in the sunshine and +preach to the man in the shadow. Yet you could ever win me over +to your side with that soft voice of yours. Let us think no more +of it then. But, holy Mother! I had forgot the pasty, and it +will be as scorched as Judas Iscariot! Come, Nigel, lest the +foul fiend get the better of me again." + +"For one hour, then; for we march at mid-day. Tell Aylward, +Alleyne, that he is to come with me to Montaubon, and to choose +one archer for his comrade. The rest will to Dax when the prince +starts, which will be before the feast of the Epiphany. Have +Pommers ready at mid-day with my sycamore lance, and place my +harness on the sumpter mule." + +With these brief directions, the two old soldiers strode off +together, while Alleyne hastened to get all in order for their +journey. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +HOW THE THREE COMRADES GAINED A MIGHTY TREASURE + + +It was a bright, crisp winter's day when the little party set off +from Bordeaux on their journey to Montaubon, where the missing +half of their Company had last been heard of. Sir Nigel and Ford +had ridden on in advance, the knight upon his hackney, while his +great war-horse trotted beside his squire. Two hours later +Alleyne Edricson followed; for he had the tavern reckoning to +settle, and many other duties which fell to him as squire of the +body. With him came Aylward and Hordle John, armed as of old, +but mounted for their journey upon a pair of clumsy Landes +horses, heavy-headed and shambling, but of great endurance, and +capable of jogging along all day, even when between the knees of +the huge archer, who turned the scale at two hundred and seventy +pounds. They took with them the sumpter mules, which carried in +panniers the wardrobe and table furniture of Sir Nigel; for the +knight, though neither fop nor epicure, was very dainty in small +matters, and loved, however bare the board or hard the life, that +his napery should still be white and his spoon of silver. + +There had been frost during the night, and the white hard road +rang loud under their horses' irons as they spurred through the +east gate of the town, along the same broad highway which the +unknown French champion had traversed on the day of the jousts. +The three rode abreast, Alleyne Edricson with his eyes cast down +and his mind distrait, for his thoughts were busy with the +conversation which he had had with Sir Nigel in the morning. Had +he done well to say so much, or had he not done better to have +said more? What would the knight have said had he confessed to +his love for the Lady Maude? Would he cast him off in disgrace, +or might he chide him as having abused the shelter of his roof? +It had been ready upon his tongue to tell him all when Sir Oliver +had broken in upon them. Perchance Sir Nigel, with his love of +all the dying usages of chivalry, might have contrived some +strange ordeal or feat of arms by which his love should be put to +the test. Alleyne smiled as he wondered what fantastic and +wondrous deed would be exacted from him. Whatever it was, he was +ready for it, whether it were to hold the lists in the court of +the King of Tartary, to carry a cartel to the Sultan of Baghdad, +or to serve a term against the wild heathen of Prussia. Sir +Nigel had said that his birth was high enough for any lady, if +his fortune could but be amended. Often had Alleyne curled his +lip at the beggarly craving for land or for gold which blinded +man to the higher and more lasting issues of life. Now it +seemed as though it were only by this same land and gold that he +might hope to reach his heart's desire. But then, again, the +Socman of Minstead was no friend to the Constable of Twynham +Castle. It might happen that, should he amass riches by some +happy fortune of war, this feud might hold the two families +aloof. Even if Maude loved him, he knew her too well to think +that she would wed him without the blessing of her father. Dark +and murky was it all, but hope mounts high in youth, and it ever +fluttered over all the turmoil of his thoughts like a white plume +amid the shock of horsemen. + +If Alleyne Edricson had enough to ponder over as he rode through +the bare plains of Guienne, his two companions were more busy +with the present and less thoughtful of the future. Aylward rode +for half a mile with his chin upon his shoulder, looking back at +a white kerchief which fluttered out of the gable window of a +high house which peeped over the corner of the battlements. When +at last a dip of the road hid it from his view, he cocked his +steel cap, shrugged his broad shoulders, and rode on with +laughter in his eyes, and his weather-beaten face all ashine with +pleasant memories. John also rode in silence, but his eyes +wandered slowly from one side of the road to the other, and he +stared and pondered and nodded his head like a traveller who +makes his notes and saves them up for the re-telling. + +"By the rood!" he broke out suddenly, slapping his thigh with his +great red hand, "I knew that there was something a-missing, but I +could not bring to my mind what it was." + +"What was it then?" asked Alleyne, coming with a start out of his +reverie. + +"Why, it is the hedgerows," roared John, with a shout of +laughter. "The country is all scraped as clear as a friar's +poll. But indeed I cannot think much of the folk in these parts. +Why do they not get to work and dig up these long rows of black +and crooked stumps which I see on every hand? A franklin of +Hampshire would think shame to have such litter upon his soil." + +"Thou foolish old John!" quoth Aylward. "You should know better, +since I have heard that the monks of Beaulieu could squeeze a +good cup of wine from their own grapes. Know then that if these +rows were dug up the wealth of the country would be gone, and +mayhap there would be dry throats and gaping mouths in England, +for in three months' time these black roots will blossom and +snoot and burgeon, and from them will come many a good ship-load +of Medoc and Gascony which will cross the narrow seas. But see +the church in the hollow, and the folk who cluster in the +churchyard! By my hilt! it is a burial, and there is a passing +bell!" He pulled off his steel cap as he spoke and crossed +himself, with a muttered prayer for the repose of the dead. + +"There too," remarked Alleyne, as they rode on again, "that which +seems to the eye to be dead is still full of the sap of life, +even as the vines were. Thus God hath written Himself and His +laws very broadly on all that is around us, if our poor dull eyes +and duller souls could but read what He hath set before us." + +"Ha! mon petit," cried the bowman, "you take me back to the days +when you were new fledged, as sweet a little chick as ever pecked +his way out of a monkish egg. I had feared that in gaining our +debonair young man-at-arms we had lost our soft-spoken clerk. In +truth, I have noted much change in you since we came from Twynham +Castle." + +"Surely it would be strange else, seeing that I have lived in a +world so new to me. Yet I trust that there are many things in +which I have not changed. If I have turned to serve an earthly +master, and to carry arms for an earthly king, it would be an ill +thing if I were to lose all thought of the great high King and +Master of all, whose humble and unworthy servant I was ere ever I +left Beaulieu. You, John, are also from the cloisters, but I +trow that you do not feel that you have deserted the old service +in taking on the new." + +"I am a slow-witted man," said John, "and, in sooth, when I try +to think about such matters it casts a gloom upon me. Yet I do +not look upon myself as a worse man in an archer's jerkin than I +was in a white cowl, if that be what you mean." + +"You have but changed from one white company to the other," quoth +Aylward. "But, by these ten finger-bones! it is a passing +strange thing to me to think that it was but in the last fall of +the leaf that we walked from Lyndhurst together, he so gentle and +maidenly, and you, John, like a great red-limbed overgrown moon-calf; +and now here you are as sprack a squire and as lusty an archer as +ever passed down the highway from Bordeaux, while I am still the +same old Samkin Aylward, with never a change, save that I have +a few more sins on my soul and a few less crowns in my pouch. +But I have never yet heard, John, what the reason was why you +should come out of Beaulieu." + +"There were seven reasons," said John thoughtfully. "The first +of them was that they threw me out." + +"Ma foi! camarade, to the devil with the other six! That is +enough for me and for thee also. I can see that they are very +wise and discreet folk at Beaulieu. Ah! mon ange, what have you +in the pipkin?" + +"It is milk, worthy sir," answered the peasant-maid, who stood by +the door of a cottage with a jug in her hand. "Would it please +you, gentles, that I should bring you out three horns of it?" + +"Nay, ma petite, but here is a two-sous piece for thy kindly +tongue and for the sight of thy pretty face. Ma foi! but she has +a bonne mine. I have a mind to bide and speak with her." + +"Nay, nay, Aylward," cried Alleyne. "Sir Nigel will await us, +and he in haste." + +"True, true, camarade! Adieu, ma cherie! mon coeur est toujours a +toi. Her mother is a well-grown woman also. See where she digs by +the wayside. Ma foi! the riper fruit is ever the sweeter. Bon +jour, ma belle dame! God have you in his keeping! Said Sir Nigel +where he would await us?" + +"At Marmande or Aiguillon. He said that we could not pass him, +seeing that there is but the one road." + +"Aye, and it is a road that I know as I know the Midhurst parish +butts," quoth the bowman. "Thirty times have I journeyed it, +forward and backward, and, by the twang of string! I am wont to +come back this way more laden than I went. I have carried all +that I had into France in a wallet, and it hath taken four +sumpter-mules to carry it back again. God's benison on the man +who first turned his hand to the making of war! But there, down +in the dingle, is the church of Cardillac, and you may see the +inn where three poplars grow beyond the village. Let us on, for a +stoup of wine would hearten us upon our way." + +The highway had lain through the swelling vineyard country, which +stretched away to the north and east in gentle curves, with many +a peeping spire and feudal tower, and cluster of village houses, +all clear cut and hard in the bright wintry air. To their right +stretched the blue Garonne, running swiftly seawards, with boats +and barges dotted over its broad bosom. On the other side lay a +strip of vineyard, and beyond it the desolate and sandy region of +the Landes, all tangled with faded gorse and heath and broom, +stretching away in unbroken gloom to the blue hills which lay low +upon the furthest sky-line. Behind them might still be seen the +broad estuary of the Gironde, with the high towers of Saint Andre +and Saint Remi shooting up from the plain. In front, amid +radiating lines of poplars, lay the riverside townlet of +Cardillac--gray walls, white houses, and a feather of blue smoke. + +"This is the `Mouton d'Or,'" said Aylward, as they pulled up +their horses at a whitewashed straggling hostel. "What ho +there!" he continued, beating upon the door with the hilt of his +sword. "Tapster, ostler, varlet, hark hither, and a wannion on +your lazy limbs! Ha! Michel, as red in the nose as ever! Three +jacks of the wine of the country, Michel--for the air bites +shrewdly. I pray you, Alleyne, to take note of this door, for I +have a tale concerning it." + +"Tell me, friend," said Alleyne to the portly red-faced inn-keeper, +"has a knight and a squire passed this way within the hour?" + +"Nay, sir, it would be two hours back. Was he a small man, weak +in the eyes, with a want of hair, and speaks very quiet when he +is most to be feared?" + +"The same," the squire answered. "But I marvel how you should +know how he speaks when he is in wrath, for he is very gentle-minded +with those who are beneath him." + +"Praise to the saints! it was not I who angered him," said the +fat Michel. + +"Who, then?" + +"It was young Sieur de Crespigny of Saintonge, who chanced to be +here, and made game of the Englishman, seeing that he was but a +small man and hath a face which is full of peace. But indeed +this good knight was a very quiet and patient man, for he saw +that the Sieur de Crespigny was still young and spoke from an +empty head, so he sat his horse and quaffed his wine, even as you +are doing now, all heedless of the clacking tongue." And what +then, Michel?" + +"Well, messieurs, it chanced that the Sieur de Crespigny, having +said this and that, for the laughter of the varlets, cried out at +last about the glove that the knight wore in his coif, asking if +it was the custom in England for a man to wear a great archer's +glove in his cap. Pardieu! I have never seen a man get off his +horse as quick as did that stranger Englishman. Ere the words +were past the other's lips he was beside him, his face nigh +touching, and his breath hot upon his cheeks. `I think, young +sir,' quoth he softly, looking into the other's eyes, `that now +that I am nearer you will very clearly see that the glove is not +an archer's glove.' `Perchance not,' said the Sieur de Crespigny +with a twitching lip. `Nor is it large, but very small,' quoth +the Englishman. `Less large than I had thought,' said the other, +looking down, for the knight's gaze was heavy upon his eyelids. +`And in every way such a glove as might be worn by the fairest +and sweetest lady in England,' quoth the Englishman. `It may be +so,' said the Sieur de Crespigny, turning his face from him. `I +am myself weak in the eyes, and have often taken one thing for +another,' quoth the knight, as he sprang back into his saddle and +rode off, leaving the Sieur de Crespigny biting his nails before +the door. Ha! by the five wounds, many men of war have drunk my +wine, but never one was more to my fancy than this little +Englishman." + +"By my hilt! he is our master, Michel," quoth Aylward, "and such +men as we do not serve under a laggart. But here are four +deniers, Michel, and God be with you! En avant, camarades! for +we have a long road before us." + +At a brisk trot the three friends left Cardillac and its wine-house +behind them, riding without a halt past St. Macaire, and on +by ferry over the river Dorpt. At the further side the road +winds through La Reolle, Bazaille, and Marmande, with the sunlit +river still gleaming upon the right, and the bare poplars +bristling up upon either side. John and Alleyne rode silent on +either side, but every inn, farm-steading, or castle brought back +to Aylward some remembrance of love, foray, or plunder, with +which to beguile the way. + +"There is the smoke from Bazas, on the further side of Garonne," +quoth he. "There were three sisters yonder, the daughters of a +farrier, and, by these ten finger-bones! a man might ride for a +long June day and never set eyes upon such maidens. There was +Marie, tall and grave, and Blanche petite and gay, and the dark +Agnes, with eyes that went through you like a waxed arrow. I +lingered there as long as four days, and was betrothed to them +all; for it seemed shame to set one above her sisters, and might +make ill blood in the family. Yet, for all my care, things were +not merry in the house, and I thought it well to come away. +There, too, is the mill of Le Souris. Old Pierre Le Caron, who +owned it, was a right good comrade, and had ever a seat and a +crust for a weary archer. He was a man who wrought hard at all +that he turned his hand to; but he heated himself in grinding +bones to mix with his flour, and so through over-diligence he +brought a fever upon himself and died." + +"Tell me, Aylward," said Alleyne, "what was amiss with the door +of yonder inn that you should ask me to observe it." + +"Pardieu! yes, I had well-nigh forgot. What saw you on yonder +door?" + +"I saw a square hole, through which doubtless the host may peep +when he is not too sure of those who knock." + +"And saw you naught else?" + +"I marked that beneath this hole there was a deep cut in the +door, as though a great nail had been driven in." + +"And naught else?" + +"No." + +"Had you looked more closely you might have seen that there was a +stain upon the wood. The first time that I ever heard my comrade +Black Simon laugh was in front of that door. I heard him once +again when he slew a French squire with his teeth, he being +unarmed and the Frenchman having a dagger." + +"And why did Simon laugh in front of the inn-door!" asked John. + +"Simon is a hard and perilous man when he hath the bitter drop in +him; and, by my hilt! he was born for war, for there is little +sweetness or rest in him. This inn, the `Mouton d'Or,' was kept +in the old days by one Francois Gourval, who had a hard fist and +a harder heart. It was said that many and many an archer coming +from the wars had been served with wine with simples in it, until +he slept, and had then been stripped of all by this Gourval. +Then on the morrow, if he made complaint, this wicked Gourval +would throw him out upon the road or beat him, for he was a very +lusty man, and had many stout varlets in his service. This +chanced to come to Simon's ears when we were at Bordeaux +together, and he would have it that we should ride to Cardillac +with a good hempen cord, and give this Gourval such a scourging +as he merited. Forth we rode then, but when we came to the +Mouton d'Or,' Gourval had had word of our coming and its purpose, +so that the door was barred, nor was there any way into the +house. `Let us in, good Master Gourval!' cried Simon, and `Let +us in, good Master Gourval!' cried I, but no word could we get +through the hole in the door, save that he would draw an arrow +upon us unless we went on our way. `Well, Master Gourval,' quoth +Simon at last, `this is but a sorry welcome, seeing that we have +ridden so far just to shake you by the hand.' `Canst shake me by +the hand without coming in,' said Gourval. `And how that?' +asked Simon. `By passing in your hand through the hole,' said +he. `Nay, my hand is wounded,' quoth Simon, `and of such a size +that I cannot pass it in.' `That need not hinder,' said Gourval, +who was hot to be rid of us, `pass in your left hand.' `But I +have something for thee, Gourval,' said Simon. `What then?' he +asked. `There was an English archer who slept here last week of +the name of Hugh of Nutbourne.' `We have had many rogues here,' +said Gourval. `His conscience hath been heavy within him because +he owes you a debt of fourteen deniers, having drunk wine for +which he hath never paid. For the easing of his soul, he asked +me to pay the money to you as I passed.' Now this Gourval was +very greedy for money, so he thrust forth his hand for the +fourteen deniers, but Simon had his dagger ready and he pinned +his hand to the door. `I have paid the Englishman's debt, +Gourval!' quoth he, and so rode away, laughing so that he could +scarce sit his horse, leaving mine host still nailed to his door. +Such is the story of the hole which you have marked, and of the +smudge upon the wood. I have heard that from that time English +archers have been better treated in the auberge of Cardillac. +But what have we here by the wayside?" + +"It appears to be a very holy man," said Alleyne. + +"And, by the rood! he hath some strange wares," cried John. +"What are these bits of stone, and of wood, and rusted nails, +which are set out in front of him?" + +The man whom they had remarked sat with his back against a +cherry-tree, and his legs shooting out in front of him, like one +who is greatly at his ease. Across his thighs was a wooden +board, and scattered over it all manner of slips of wood and +knobs of brick and stone, each laid separate from the other, as a +huckster places his wares. He was dressed in a long gray gown, +and wore a broad hat of the same color, much weather-stained, +with three scallop-shells dangling from the brim. As they +approached, the travellers observed that he was advanced in +years, and that his eyes were upturned and yellow. + +"Dear knights and gentlemen," he cried in a high crackling voice, +"worthy Christian cavaliers, will ye ride past and leave an aged +pilgrim to die of hunger? The sight hast been burned from mine +eyes by the sands of the Holy Land, and I have had neither crust +of bread nor cup of wine these two days past." + +"By my hilt! father," said Aylward, looking keenly at him, "it is +a marvel to me that thy girdle should have so goodly a span and +clip thee so closely, if you have in sooth had so little to place +within it." + +"Kind stranger," answered the pilgrim, "you have unwittingly +spoken words which are very grievous to me to listen to. Yet I +should be loth to blame you, for I doubt not that what you said +was not meant to sadden me, nor to bring my sore affliction back +to my mind. It ill becomes me to prate too much of what I have +endured for the faith, and yet, since you have observed it, I +must tell you that this thickness and roundness of the waist is +caused by a dropsy brought on by over-haste in journeying from +the house of Pilate to the Mount of Olives." + +"There, Aylward," said Alleyne, with a reddened cheek, "let that +curb your blunt tongue. How could you bring a fresh pang to this +holy man, who hath endured so much and hath journeyed as far as +Christ's own blessed tomb?" + +"May the foul fiend strike me dumb!" cried the bowman in hot +repentance; but both the palmer and Alleyne threw up their hands +to stop him. + +"I forgive thee from my heart, dear brother," piped the blind +man. "But, oh, these wild words of thine are worse to mine ears +than aught which you could say of me." + +"Not another word shall I speak," said Aylward; "but here is a +franc for thee and I crave thy blessing." + +"And here is another," said Alleyne. + +"And another," cried Hordle John. + +But the blind palmer would have none of their alms. "Foolish, +foolish pride!" he cried, beating upon his chest with his large +brown hand. "Foolish, foolish pride! How long then will it be +ere I can scourge it forth? Am I then never to conquer it? Oh, +strong, strong are the ties of flesh, and hard it is to subdue +the spirit! I come, friends, of a noble house, and I cannot +bring myself to touch this money, even though it be to save me +from the grave." + +"Alas! father," said Alleyne, "how then can we be of help to +thee?" + +"I had sat down here to die," quoth the palmer; "but for many +years I have carried in my wallet these precious things which you +see set forth now before me. It were sin, thought I, that my +secret should perish with me. I shall therefore sell these +things to the first worthy passers-by, and from them I shall have +money enough to take me to the shrine of Our Lady at Rocamadour, +where I hope to lay these old bones." + +"What are these treasures, then, father?" asked Hordle John. "I +can but see an old rusty nail, with bits of stone and slips of +wood." + +"My friend," answered the palmer, "not all the money that is in +this country could pay a just price for these wares of mine. This +nail," he continued, pulling off his hat and turning up his +sightless orbs, "is one of those wherewith man's salvation was +secured. I had it, together with this piece of the true rood, +from the five-and-twentieth descendant of Joseph of Arimathea, +who still lives in Jerusalem alive and well, though latterly much +afflicted by boils. Aye, you may well cross yourselves, and I +beg that you will not breathe upon it or touch it with your +fingers." + +"And the wood and stone, holy father?" asked Alleyne, with bated +breath, as he stared awe-struck at his precious relics. + +"This cantle of wood is from the true cross, this other from Noah +his ark, and the third is from the door-post of the temple of the +wise King Solomon. This stone was thrown at the sainted Stephen, +and the other two are from the Tower of Babel. Here, too, is +part of Aaron's rod, and a lock of hair from Elisha the prophet." + +"But, father," quoth Alleyne, "the holy Elisha was bald, which +brought down upon him the revilements of the wicked children." + +"It is very true that he had not much hair," said the palmer +quickly, "and it is this which makes this relic so exceeding +precious. Take now your choice of these, my worthy gentlemen, +and pay such a price as your consciences will suffer you to +offer; for I am not a chapman nor a huckster, and I would never +part with them, did I not know that I am very near to my reward." + +"Aylward," said Alleyne excitedly, "This is such a chance as few +folk have twice in one life. The nail I must have, and I will +give it to the abbey of Beaulieu, so that all the folk in England +may go thither to wonder and to pray." + +"And I will have the stone from the temple," cried Hordle John. +"What would not my old mother give to have it hung over her bed?" + +"And I will have Aaron's rod," quoth Aylward. "I have but five +florins in the world, and here are four of them." + +"Here are three more," said John. + +"And here are five more," added Alleyne. "Holy father, I hand +you twelve florins, which is all that we can give, though we well +know how poor a pay it is for the wondrous things which you sell +us." + +"Down, pride, down!" cried the pilgrim, still beating upon his +chest. "Can I not bend myself then to take this sorry sum which +is offered me for that which has cost me the labors of a life. +Give me the dross! Here are the precious relics, and, oh, I pray +you that you will handle them softly and with reverence, else had +I rather left my unworthy bones here by the wayside." + +With doffed caps and eager hands, the comrades took their new and +precious possessions, and pressed onwards upon their journey, +leaving the aged palmer still seated under the cherry-tree. They +rode in silence, each with his treasure in his hand, glancing at +it from time to time, and scarce able to believe that chance had +made them sole owners of relics of such holiness and worth that +every abbey and church in Christendom would have bid eagerly for +their possession. So they journeyed, full of this good fortune, +until opposite the town of Le Mas, where John's horse cast a +shoe, and they were glad to find a wayside smith who might set +the matter to rights. To him Aylward narrated the good hap which +had befallen them; but the smith, when his eyes lit upon the +relics, leaned up against his anvil and laughed, with his hand to +his side, until the tears hopped down his sooty cheeks. + +"Why, masters," quoth he, "this man is a coquillart, or seller of +false relics, and was here in the smithy not two hours ago. This +nail that he hath sold you was taken from my nail-box, and as to +the wood and the stones, you will see a heap of both outside from +which he hath filled his scrip." + +"Nay, nay," cried Alleyne, "this was a holy man who had journeyed +to Jerusalem, and acquired a dropsy by running from the house of +Pilate to the Mount of Olives," + +"I know not about that," said the smith; "but I know that a man +with a gray palmer's hat and gown was here no very long time ago, +and that he sat on yonder stump and ate a cold pullet and drank a +flask of wine. Then he begged from me one of my nails, and +filling his scrip with stones, he went upon his way. Look at +these nails, and see if they are not the same as that which he +has sold you." + +"Now may God save us!" cried Alleyne, all aghast. "Is there no +end then to the wickedness of humankind? He so humble, so aged, +so loth to take our money--and yet a villain and a cheat. Whom +can we trust or believe in?" + +"I will after him," said Aylward, flinging himself into the +saddle. "Come, Alleyne, we may catch him ere John's horse be +shod." + +Away they galloped together, and ere long they saw the old gray +palmer walking slowly along in front of them. He turned, +however, at the sound of their hoofs, and it was clear that his +blindness was a cheat like all the rest of him, for he ran +swiftly through a field and so into a wood, where none could +follow him. They hurled their relics after him, and so rode back +to the blacksmith's the poorer both in pocket and in faith. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +HOW ROGER CLUB-FOOT WAS PASSED INTO PARADISE. + + +It was evening before the three comrades came into Aiguillon, +There they found Sir Nigel Loring and Ford safely lodged at the +sign of the "Baton Rouge," where they supped on good fare and +slept between lavender-scented sheets. It chanced, however, that +a knight of Poitou, Sir Gaston d'Estelle, was staying there on +his way back from Lithuania, where he had served a term with the +Teutonic knights under the land-master of the presbytery of +Marienberg. He and Sir Nigel sat late in high converse as to +bushments, outfalls, and the intaking of cities, with many tales +of warlike men and valiant deeds. Then their talk turned to +minstrelsy, and the stranger knight drew forth a cittern, upon +which he played the minne-lieder of the north, singing the while +in a high cracked voice of Hildebrand and Brunhild and Siegfried, +and all the strength and beauty of the land of Almain. To this +Sir Nigel answered with the romances of Sir Eglamour, and of Sir +Isumbras, and so through the long winter night they sat by the +crackling wood-fire answering each other's songs until the +crowing cocks joined in their concert. Yet, with scarce an hour +of rest, Sir Nigel was as blithe and bright as ever as they set +forth after breakfast upon their way. + +"This Sir Gaston is a very worthy man," said he to his squires as +they rode from the "Baton Rouge." "He hath a very strong desire +to advance himself, and would have entered upon some small +knightly debate with me, had he not chanced to have his arm-bone +broken by the kick of a horse. I have conceived a great love for +him, and I have promised him that when his bone is mended I will +exchange thrusts with him. But we must keep to this road upon +the left." + +"Nay, my fair lord," quoth Aylward. "The road to Montaubon is +over the river, and so through Quercy and the Agenois." + +"True, my good Aylward; but I have learned from this worthy +knight, who hath come over the French marches, that there is a +company of Englishmen who are burning and plundering in the +country round Villefranche. I have little doubt, from what he +says, that they are those whom we seek." + +"By my hilt! it is like enough," said Aylward. "By all accounts +they had been so long at Montaubon, that there would be little +there worth the taking. Then as they have already been in the +south, they would come north to the country of the Aveyron." + +"We shall follow the Lot until we come to Cahors, and then cross +the marches into Villefranche," said Sir Nigel. "By St. Paul! as +we are but a small band, it is very likely that we may have some +very honorable and pleasing adventure, for I hear that there is +little peace upon the French border." + +All morning they rode down a broad and winding road, barred with +the shadows of poplars. Sir Nigel rode in front with his +squires, while the two archers followed behind with the sumpter +mule between them. They had left Aiguillon and the Garonne far +to the south, and rode now by the tranquil Lot, which curves blue +and placid through a gently rolling country. Alleyne could not +but mark that, whereas in Guienne there had been many townlets +and few castles, there were now many castles and few houses. On +either hand gray walls and square grim keeps peeped out at every +few miles from amid the forests while the few villages which they +passed were all ringed round with rude walls, which spoke of the +constant fear and sudden foray of a wild frontier land. Twice +during the morning there came bands of horsemen swooping down +upon them from the black gateways of wayside strongholds, with +short, stern questions as to whence they came and what their +errand. Bands of armed men clanked along the highway, and the +few lines of laden mules which carried the merchandise of the +trader were guarded by armed varlets, or by archers hired for the +service. + +"The peace of Bretigny hath not made much change in these parts," +quoth Sir Nigel, "for the country is overrun with free companions +and masterless men. Yonder towers, between the wood and the +hill, mark the town of Cahors, and beyond it is the land of +France. But here is a man by the wayside, and as he hath two +horses and a squire I make little doubt that he is a knight. I +pray you, Alleyne, to give him greeting from me, and to ask him +for his titles and coat-armor. It may be that I can relieve him +of some vow, or perchance he hath a lady whom he would wish to +advance." + +"Nay, my fair lord," said Alleyne, "these are not horses and a +squire, but mules and a varlet. The man is a mercer, for he hath +a great bundle beside him." + +"Now, God's blessing on your honest English voice!" cried the +stranger, pricking up his ears at the sound of Alleyne's words. +"Never have I heard music that was so sweet to mine ear. Come, +Watkin lad, throw the bales over Laura's back! My heart was nigh +broke, for it seemed that I had left all that was English behind +me, and that I would never set eyes upon Norwich market square +again." He was a tall, lusty, middle-aged man with a ruddy face, +a brown forked beard shot with gray, and a broad Flanders hat set +at the back of his head. His servant, as tall as himself, but +gaunt and raw-boned, had swung the bales on the back of one mule, +while the merchant mounted upon the other and rode to join the +party. It was easy to see, as he approached, from the quality +of his dress and the richness of his trappings, that he was a man +of some wealth and position. + +"Sir knight," said he, "my name is David Micheldene, and I am a +burgher and alderman of the good town of Norwich, where I live +five doors from the church of Our Lady, as all men know on the +banks of Yare. I have here my bales of cloth which I carry to +Cahors--woe worth the day that ever I started on such an errand! +I crave your gracious protection upon the way for me, my servant, +and my mercery; for I have already had many perilous passages, +and have now learned that Roger Club-foot, the robber-knight of +Quercy, is out upon the road in front of me. I hereby agree to +give you one rose-noble if you bring me safe to the inn of the +`Angel' in Cahors, the same to be repaid to me or my heirs if any +harm come to me or my goods." + +"By Saint Paul!" answered Sir Nigel, "I should be a sorry knight +if I ask pay for standing by a countryman in a strange land. You +may ride with me and welcome, Master Micheldene, and your varlet +may follow with my archers." + +"God's benison upon thy bounty!" cried the stranger. "Should you +come to Norwich you may have cause to remember that you have been +of service to Alderman Micheldene. It is not very far to Cahors, +for surely I see the cathedral towers against the sky-line; but I +have heard much of this Roger Clubfoot, and the more I hear the +less do I wish to look upon his face. Oh, but I am sick and +weary of it all, and I would give half that I am worth to see my +good dame sitting in peace beside me, and to hear the bells of +Norwich town." + +"Your words are strange to me," quoth Sir Nigel, "for you have +the appearance of a stout man, and I see that you wear a sword by +your side." + +"Yet it is not my trade," answered the merchant. "I doubt not +that if I set you down in my shop at Norwich you might scarce +tell fustian from falding, and know little difference between the +velvet of Genoa and the three-piled cloth of Bruges. There you +might well turn to me for help. But here on a lone roadside, +with thick woods and robber-knights, I turn to you, for it is the +business to which you have been reared." + +"There is sooth in what you say, Master Micheldene," said Sir +Nigel, "and I trust that we may come upon this Roger Clubfoot, +for I have heard that he is a very stout and skilful soldier, and +a man from whom much honor is to be gained." + +"He is a bloody robber," said the trader, curtly, "and I wish I +saw him kicking at the end of a halter." + +"It is such men as he," Sir Nigel remarked, "who give the true +knight honorable deeds to do, whereby he may advance himself." + +"It is such men as he," retorted Micheldene, "who are like rats +in a wheat-rick or moths in a woolfels, a harm and a hindrance to +all peaceful and honest men." + +"Yet, if the dangers of the road weigh so heavily upon you, +master alderman, it is a great marvel to me that you should +venture so far from home." + +"And sometimes, sir knight, it is a marvel to myself. But I am a +man who may grutch and grumble, but when I have set my face to do +a thing I will not turn my back upon it until it be done. There +is one, Francois Villet, at Cahors, who will send me wine-casks +for my cloth-bales, so to Cahors I will go, though all the +robber-knights of Christendom were to line the roads like yonder +poplars." + +"Stoutly spoken, master alderman! But how have you fared +hitherto?" + +"As a lamb fares in a land of wolves. Five times we have had to +beg and pray ere we could pass. Twice I have paid toll to the +wardens of the road. Three times we have had to draw, and once +at La Reolle we stood seer our wool-bales, Watkin and I, and we +laid about us for as long as a man might chant a litany, slaying +one rogue and wounding two others. By God's coif! we are men of +peace, but we are free English burghers, not to be mishandled +either in our country or abroad. Neither lord, baron, knight, or +commoner shall have as much as a strike of flax of mine whilst I +have strength to wag this sword." + +"And a passing strange sword it is," quoth Sir Nigel. "What make +you, Alleyne, of these black lines which are drawn across the +sheath?" + +"I cannot tell what they are, my fair lord." + +"Nor can I," said Ford. + +The merchant chuckled to himself. "It was a thought of mine +own," said he; "for the sword was made by Thomas Wilson, the +armorer, who is betrothed to my second daughter Margery. Know +then that the sheath is one cloth-yard, in length, marked off +according to feet and inches to serve me as a measuring wand. It +is also of the exact weight of two pounds, so that I may use it +in the balance." + +"By Saint Paul!" quoth Sir Nigel, "it is very clear to me that +the sword is like thyself, good alderman, apt either for war or +for peace. But I doubt not that even in England you have had +much to suffer from the hands of robbers and outlaws." + +"It was only last Lammastide, sir knight, that I was left for +dead near Reading as I journeyed to Winchester fair. Yet I had +the rogues up at the court of pie-powder, and they will harm no +more peaceful traders." + +"You travel much then!" + +"To Winchester, Linn mart, Bristol fair, Stourbridge, and +Bartholomew's in London Town. The rest of the year you may ever +find me five doors from the church of Our Lady, where I would +from my heart that I was at this moment, for there is no air like +Norwich air, and no water like the Yare, nor can all the wines of +France compare with the beer of old Sam Yelverton who keeps the +`Dun Cow.' But, out and alack, here is an evil fruit which hangs +upon this chestnut-tree!" + +As he spoke they had ridden round a curve of the road and come +upon a great tree which shot one strong brown branch across their +path. From the centre of this branch there hung a man, with his +head at a horrid slant to his body and his toes just touching the +ground. He was naked save for a linen under shirt and pair of +woollen drawers. Beside him on a green bank there sat a small +man with a solemn face, and a great bundle of papers of all +colors thrusting forth from the scrip which lay beside him. He +was very richly dressed, with furred robes, a scarlet hood, and +wide hanging sleeves lined with flame-colored silk. A great gold +chain hung round his neck, and rings glittered from every finger +of his hands. On his lap he had a little pile of gold and of +silver, which he was dropping, coin by coin, into a plump pouch +which hung from his girdle. + +"May the saints be with you, good travellers!" he shouted, as the +party rode up. "May the four Evangelists watch over you! May +the twelve Apostles bear you up! May the blessed army of martyrs +direct your feet and lead you to eternal bliss!" + +"Gramercy for these good wishes!" said Sir Nigel. "But I +perceive, master alderman, that this man who hangs here is, by +mark of foot, the very robber-knight of whom we have spoken. But +there is a cartel pinned upon his breast, and I pray you, +Alleyne, to read it to me." + +The dead robber swung slowly to and fro in the wintry wind, a +fixed smile upon his swarthy face, and his bulging eyes still +glaring down the highway of which he had so long been the terror; +on a sheet of parchment upon his breast was printed in rude +characters; + + ROGER PIED-BOT. + + Par l'ordre du Senechal de + Castelnau, et de l'Echevin de + Cahors, servantes fideles du + tres vaillant et tres puissant + Edouard, Prince de Galles et + d'Aquitaine. + Ne touchez pas, + Ne coutez pas, + Ne depechez pas + +"He took a sorry time in dying," said the man who sat beside him. +"He could stretch one toe to the ground and bear him self up, so +that I thought he would never have done. Now at last, however, +he is safely in paradise, and so I may jog on upon my earthly +way." He mounted, as he spoke, a white mule which had been +grazing by the wayside, all gay with fustian of gold and silver +bells, and rode onward with Sir Nigel's party. + +"How know you then that he is in paradise?" asked Sir Nigel. +"All things are possible to God, but, certes, without a miracle, +I should scarce expect to find the soul of Roger Clubfoot amongst +the just," + +"I know that he is there because I have just passed him in +there," answered the stranger, rubbing his bejewelled hands +together in placid satisfaction. "It is my holy mission to be a +sompnour or pardoner. I am the unworthy servant and delegate of +him who holds the keys. A contrite heart and ten nobles to holy +mother Church may stave off perdition; but he hath a pardon of +the first degree, with a twenty-five livre benison, so that I +doubt if he will so much as feel a twinge of purgatory. I came +up even as the seneschal's archers were tying him up, and I gave +him my fore-word that I would bide with him until he had passed. +There were two leaden crowns among the silver, but I would not +for that stand in the way of his salvation." + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, "if you have indeed this power +to open and to shut the gates of hope, then indeed you stand high +above mankind. But if you do but claim to have it, and yet have +it not, then it seems to me, master clerk, that you may yourself +find the gate barred when you shall ask admittance." + +"Small of faith! Small of faith!" cried the sompnour. "Ah, Sir +Didymus yet walks upon earth! And yet no words of doubt can +bring anger to mine heart, or a bitter word to my lip, for am I +not a poor unworthy worker in the cause of gentleness and peace? +Of all these pardons which I bear every one is stamped and signed +by our holy father, the prop and centre of Christendom." + +"Which of them?" asked Sir Nigel. + +"Ha, ha!" cried the pardoner, shaking a jewelled forefinger. Thou +wouldst be deep in the secrets of mother Church? Know then that +I have both in my scrip. Those who hold with Urban shall have +Urban's pardon, while I have Clement's for the Clementist--or he +who is in doubt may have both, so that come what may he shall be +secure. I pray you that you will buy one, for war is bloody +work, and the end is sudden with little time for thought or +shrift. Or you, sir, for you seem to me to be a man who would do +ill to trust to your own merits." This to the alderman of +Norwich, who had listened to him with a frowning brow and a +sneering lip. + +"When I sell my cloth," quoth he, "he who buys may weigh and feel +and handle. These goods which you sell are not to be seen, nor +is there any proof that you hold them. Certes, if mortal man +might control God's mercy, it would be one of a lofty and God-like +life, and not one who is decked out with rings and chains and +silks, like a pleasure-wench at a kermesse. + +"Thou wicked and shameless man!" cried the clerk. "Dost thou +dare to raise thy voice against the unworthy servant of mother +Church?" + +"Unworthy enough!" quoth David Micheldene. "I would have you to +know, clerk, that I am a free English burgher, and that I dare +say my mind to our father the Pope himself, let alone such a +lacquey's lacquey as you!" + +"Base-born and foul-mouthed knave!" cried the sompnour. "You +prate of holy things, to which your hog's mind can never rise. +Keep silence, lest I call a curse upon you!" + +"Silence yourself!" roared the other. "Foul bird! we found thee +by the gallows like a carrion-crow. A fine life thou hast of it +with thy silks and thy baubles, cozening the last few shillings +from the pouches of dying men. A fig for thy curse! Bide here, +if you will take my rede, for we will make England too hot for +such as you, when Master Wicliff has the ordering of it. Thou +vile thief! it is you, and such as you, who bring an evil name +upon the many churchmen who lead a pure and a holy life. Thou +outside the door of heaven! Art more like to be inside the door +of hell." + +At this crowning insult the sompnour, with a face ashen with +rage, raised up a quivering hand and began pouring Latin +imprecations upon the angry alderman. The latter, however, was +not a man to be quelled by words, for he caught up his ell-measure +sword-sheath and belabored the cursing clerk with it. The +latter, unable to escape from the shower of blows, set spurs to +his mule and rode for his life, with his enemy thundering behind +him. At sight of his master's sudden departure, the varlet +Watkin set off after him, with the pack-mule beside him, so that +the four clattered away down the road together, until they swept +round a curve and their babble was but a drone in the distance. +Sir Nigel and Alleyne gazed in astonishment at one another, while +Ford burst out a-laughing. + +"Pardieu!" said the knight, "this David Micheldene must be one of +those Lollards about whom Father Christopher of the priory had so +much to say. Yet he seemed to be no bad man from what I have +seen of him." + +"I have heard that Wicliff hath many followers in Norwich," +answered Alleyne. + +"By St. Paul! I have no great love for them," quoth Sir Nigel. +"I am a man who am slow to change; and, if you take away from me +the faith that I have been taught, it would be long ere I could +learn one to set in its place. It is but a chip here and a chip +there, yet it may bring the tree down in time. Yet, on the other +hand, I cannot but think it shame that a man should turn God's +mercy on and off, as a cellarman doth wine with a spigot." + +"Nor is it," said Alleyne, "part of the teachings of that mother +Church of which he had so much to say. There was sooth in what +the alderman said of it." + +"Then, by St. Paul! they may settle it betwixt them," quoth Sir +Nigel. "For me, I serve God, the king and my lady; and so long +as I can keep the path of honor I am well content. My creed +shall ever be that of Chandos: + + "Fais ce que dois--adviegne que peut, + C'est commande au chevalier." + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +HOW THE COMRADES CAME OVER THE MARCHES OF FRANCE + + +After passing Cahors, the party branched away from the main road, +and leaving the river to the north of them, followed a smaller +track which wound over a vast and desolate plain. This path led +them amid marshes and woods, until it brought them out into a +glade with a broad stream swirling swiftly down the centre of it. +Through this the horses splashed their way, and on the farther +shore Sir Nigel announced to them that they were now within the +borders of the land of France. For some miles they still +followed the same lonely track, which led them through a dense +wood, and then widening out, curved down to an open rolling +country, such as they had traversed between Aiguillon and +Cahors. + +If it were grim and desolate upon the English border, however, +what can describe the hideous barrenness of this ten times +harried tract of France? The whole face of the country was +scarred and disfigured, mottled over with the black blotches of +burned farm-steadings, and the gray, gaunt gable-ends of what had +been chateaux. Broken fences, crumbling walls, vineyards +littered with stones, the shattered arches of bridges--look where +you might, the signs of ruin and rapine met the eye. Here and +there only, on the farthest sky-line, the gnarled turrets of a +castle, or the graceful pinnacles of church or of monastery +showed where the forces of the sword or of the spirit had +preserved some small islet of security in this universal flood of +misery. Moodily and in silence the little party rode along the +narrow and irregular track, their hearts weighed down by this +far-stretching land of despair. It was indeed a stricken and a +blighted country, and a man might have ridden from Auvergne in +the north to the marches of Foix, nor ever seen a smiling village +or a thriving homestead. + +From time to time as they advanced they saw strange lean figures +scraping and scratching amid the weeds and thistles, who, on +sight of the band of horsemen, threw up their arms and dived in +among the brushwood, as shy and as swift as wild animals. More +than once, however, they came on families by the wayside, who +were too weak from hunger and disease to fly, so that they could +but sit like hares on a tussock, with panting chests and terror +in their eyes. So gaunt were these poor folk, so worn and +spent--with bent and knotted frames, and sullen, hopeless, +mutinous faces--that it made the young Englishman heart-sick to +look upon them. Indeed, it seemed as though all hope and light +had gone so far from them that it was not to be brought back; for +when Sir Nigel threw down a handful of silver among them there +came no softening of their lined faces, but they clutched +greedily at the coins, peering questioningly at him, and champing +with their animal jaws. Here and there amid the brushwood the +travellers saw the rude bundle of sticks which served them as a +home--more like a fowl's nest than the dwelling-place of man. +Yet why should they build and strive, when the first adventurer +who passed would set torch to their thatch, and when their own +feudal lord would wring from them with blows and curses the last +fruits of their toil? They sat at the lowest depth of human +misery, and hugged a bitter comfort to their souls as they +realized that they could go no lower. Yet they had still the +human gift of speech, and would take council among themselves in +their brushwood hovels, glaring with bleared eyes and pointing +with thin fingers at the great widespread chateaux which ate like +a cancer into the life of the country-side. When such men, who +are beyond hope and fear, begin in their dim minds to see the +source their woes, it may be an evil time for those who have +wronged them. The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, +for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair. High +and strong the chateaux, lowly and weak the brushwood hut; but +God help the seigneur and his lady when the men of the brushwood +set their hands to the work of revenge! + +Through such country did the party ride for eight or it might be +nine miles, until the sun began to slope down in the west and +their shadows to stream down the road in front of them. Wary and +careful they must be, with watchful eyes to the right and the +left, for this was no man's land, and their only passports were +those which hung from their belts. Frenchmen and Englishmen, +Gascon and Provencal, Brabanter, Tardvenu, Scorcher, Flayer, and +Free Companion, wandered and struggled over the whole of this +accursed district. So bare and cheerless was the outlook, and so +few and poor the dwellings, that Sir Nigel began to have fears as +to whether he might find food and quarters for his little troop. +It was a relief to him, therefore, when their narrow track opened +out upon a larger road, and they saw some little way down it a +square white house with a great bunch of holly hung out at the +end of a stick from one of the upper windows. + +"By St. Paul!" said he, "I am right glad; for I had feared that +we might have neither provant nor herbergage. Ride on, Alleyne, +and tell this inn-keeper that an English knight with his party +will lodge with him this night." + +Alleyne set spurs to his horse and reached the inn door a long +bow-shot before his companions. Neither varlet nor ostler could +be seen, so he pushed open the door and called loudly for the +landlord. Three times he shouted, but, receiving no reply, he +opened an inner door and advanced into the chief guest-room of +the hostel. + +A very cheerful wood-fire was sputtering and cracking in an open +grate at the further end of the apartment. At one side of this +fire, in a high-backed oak chair, sat a lady, her face turned +towards the door. The firelight played over her features, and +Alleyne thought that he had never seen such queenly power, such +dignity and strength, upon a woman's face. She might have been +five-and-thirty years of age, with aquiline nose, firm yet +sensitive mouth, dark curving brows, and deep-set eyes which +shone and sparkled with a shifting brilliancy. Beautiful as she +was, it was not her beauty which impressed itself upon the +beholder; it was her strength, her power, the sense of wisdom +which hung over the broad white brow, the decision which lay in +the square jaw and delicately moulded chin. A chaplet of pearls +sparkled amid her black hair, with a gauze of silver network +flowing back from it over her shoulders; a black mantle was +swathed round her, and she leaned back in her chair as one who is +fresh from a journey. + +In the opposite corner there sat a very burly and broad-shouldered +man, clad in a black jerkin trimmed with sable, with a black +velvet cap with curling white feather cocked upon the side +of his head. A flask of red wine stood at his elbow, and he +seemed to be very much at his ease, for his feet were stuck up on +a stool, and between his thighs he held a dish full of nuts. +These he cracked between his strong white teeth and chewed in a +leisurely way, casting the shells into the blaze. As Alleyne +gazed in at him he turned his face half round and cocked an eye +at him over his shoulder. It seemed to the young Englishman that +he had never seen so hideous a face, for the eyes were of the +lightest green, the nose was broken and driven inwards, while the +whole countenance was seared and puckered with wounds. The +voice, too, when he spoke, was as deep and as fierce as the growl +of a beast of prey. + +"Young man," said he, "I know not who you may be, and I am not +much inclined to bestir myself, but if it were not that I am bent +upon taking my ease, I swear, by the sword of Joshua! that I +would lay my dog-whip across your shoulders for daring to fill +the air with these discordant bellowings." + +Taken aback at this ungentle speech, and scarce knowing how to +answer it fitly in the presence of the lady, Alleyne stood with +his hand upon the handle of the door, while Sir Nigel and his +companions dismounted. At the sound of these fresh voices, and +of the tongue in which they spoke, the stranger crashed his dish +of nuts down upon the floor, and began himself to call for the +landlord until the whole house re-echoed with his roarings. With +an ashen face the white-aproned host came running at his call, +his hands shaking and his very hair bristling with apprehension. +"For the sake of God, sirs," he whispered as he passed, "speak +him fair and do not rouse him! For the love of the Virgin, be +mild with him!" + +"Who is this, then?" asked Sir Nigel. + +Alleyne was about to explain, when a fresh roar from the stranger +interrupted him. + +"Thou villain inn-keeper," he shouted, "did I not ask you when I +brought my lady here whether your inn was clean?" + +"You did, sire." + +"Did I not very particularly ask you whether there were any +vermin in it?" + +"You did, sire." + +"And you answered me?" + +"That there were not, sire." + +"And yet ere I have been here an hour I find Englishmen crawling +about within it. Where are we to be free from this pestilent +race? Can a Frenchman upon French land not sit down in a French +auberge without having his ears pained by the clack of their +hideous talk? Send them packing, inn-keeper, or it may be the +worse for them and for you." + +"I will, sire, I will!" cried the frightened host, and bustled +from the room, while the soft, soothing voice of the woman was +heard remonstrating with her furious companion. + +"Indeed, gentlemen, you had best go," said mine host. "It is but +six miles to Villefranche, where there are very good quarters at +the sign of the `Lion Rouge.'" + +"Nay," answered Sir Nigel, "I cannot go until I have seen more of +this person, for he appears to be a man from whom much is to be +hoped. What is his name and title?" + +"It is not for my lips to name it unless by his desire. But I +beg and pray you, gentlemen, that you will go from my house, for +I know not what may come of it if his rage should gain the +mastery of him." + +"By Saint Paul!" lisped Sir Nigel, "this is certainly a man whom +it is worth journeying far to know. Go tell him that a humble +knight of England would make his further honorable acquaintance, +not from any presumption, pride, or ill-will, but for the +advancement of chivalry and the glory of our ladies. Give him +greeting from Sir Nigel Loring, and say that the glove which I +bear in my cap belongs to the most peerless and lovely of her +sex, whom I am now ready to uphold against any lady whose claim +he might be desirous of advancing." + +The landlord was hesitating whether to carry this message or no, +when the door of the inner room was flung open, and the stranger +bounded out like a panther from its den, his hair bristling and +his deformed face convulsed with anger. + +"Still here!" he snarled. "Dogs of England, must ye be lashed +hence? Tiphaine, my sword!" He turned to seize his weapon, but +as he did so his gaze fell upon the blazonry of sir Nigel's +shield, and he stood staring, while the fire in his strange green +eyes softened into a sly and humorous twinkle. + +"Mort Dieu!" cried he, "it is my little swordsman of Bordeaux. I +should remember that coat-armor, seeing that it is but three days +since I looked upon it in the lists by Garonne. Ah! Sir Nigel, +Sir Nigel! you owe me a return for this," and he touched his +right arm, which was girt round just under the shoulder with a +silken kerchief. + +But the surprise of the stranger at the sight of Sir Nigel was as +nothing compared with the astonishment and the delight which +shone upon the face of the knight of Hampshire as he looked upon +the strange face of the Frenchman. Twice he opened his mouth and +twice he peered again, as though to assure himself that his eyes +had not played him a trick. + +"Bertrand!" he gasped at last. "Bertrand du Guesclin!" + +"By Saint Ives!" shouted the French soldier, with a hoarse roar +of laughter, "it is well that I should ride with my vizor down, +for he that has once seen my face does not need to be told my +name. It is indeed I, Sir Nigel, and here is my hand! I give you +my word that there are but three Englishmen in this world whom I +would touch save with the sharp edge of the sword: the prince is +one, Chandos the second, and you the third; for I have heard much +that is good of you." + +"I am growing aged, and am somewhat spent in the wars," quoth Sir +Nigel; "but I can lay by my sword now with an easy mind, for I +can say that I have crossed swords with him who hath the bravest +heart and the strongest arm of all this great kingdom of France. +I have longed for it, I have dreamed of it, and now I can scarce +bring my mind to understand that this great honor hath indeed +been mine." + +"By the Virgin of Rennes! you have given me cause to be very +certain of it," said Du Guesclin, with a gleam of his broad white +teeth. + +"And perhaps, most honored sir, it would please you to continue +the debate. Perhaps you would condescend to go farther into the +matter. God He knows that I am unworthy of such honor, yet I can +show my four-and-sixty quarterings, and I have been present at +some bickerings and scufflings during these twenty years." + +"Your fame is very well known to me, and I shall ask my lady to +enter your name upon my tablets," said Sir Bertrand. "There are +many who wish to advance themselves, and who bide their turn, for +I refuse no man who comes on such an errand. At present it may +not be, for mine arm is stiff from this small touch, and I would +fain do you full honor when we cross swords again. Come in with +me, and let your squires come also, that my sweet spouse, the +Lady Tiphaine, may say that she hath seen so famed and gentle a +knight." + +Into the chamber they went in all peace and concord, where the +Lady Tiphaine sat like queen on throne for each in turn to be +presented to her. Sooth to say, the stout heart of Sir Nigel, +which cared little for the wrath of her lion-like spouse, was +somewhat shaken by the calm, cold face of this stately dame, for +twenty years of camp-life had left him more at ease in the lists +than in a lady's boudoir. He bethought him, too, as he looked at +her set lips and deep-set questioning eyes, that he had heard +strange tales of this same Lady Tiphaine du Guesclin. Was it not +she who was said to lay hands upon the sick and raise them from +their couches when the leeches had spent their last nostrums? +Had she not forecast the future, and were there not times when in +the loneliness of her chamber she was heard to hold converse with +some being upon whom mortal eye never rested--some dark familiar +who passed where doors were barred and windows high? Sir Nigel +sunk his eye and marked a cross on the side of his leg as he +greeted this dangerous dame, and yet ere five minutes had passed +he was hers, and not he only but his two young squires as well. +The mind had gone out of them, and they could but look at this +woman and listen to the words which fell from her lips--words +which thrilled through their nerves and stirred their souls like +the battle-call of a bugle. + +Often in peaceful after-days was Alleyne to think of that scene +of the wayside inn of Auvergne. The shadows of evening had +fallen, and the corners of the long, low, wood-panelled room were +draped in darkness. The sputtering wood fire threw out a circle +of red flickering light which played over the little group of +wayfarers, and showed up every line and shadow upon their faces. +Sir Nigel sat with elbows upon knees, and chin upon hands, his +patch still covering one eye, but his other shining like a star, +while the ruddy light gleamed upon his smooth white head. Ford +was seated at his left, his lips parted, his eyes staring, and a +fleck of deep color on either cheek, his limbs all rigid as one +who fears to move. On the other side the famous French captain +leaned back in his chair, a litter of nut-shells upon his lap, +his huge head half buried in a cushion, while his eyes wandered +with an amused gleam from his dame to the staring, enraptured +Englishmen. Then, last of all, that pale clear-cut face, that +sweet clear voice, with its high thrilling talk of the +deathlessness of glory, of the worthlessness of life, of the pain +of ignoble joys, and of the joy which lies in all pains which +lead to a noble end. Still, as the shadows deepened, she spoke +of valor and virtue, of loyalty, honor, and fame, and still they +sat drinking in her words while the fire burned down and the red +ash turned to gray. + +"By the sainted Ives!" cried Du Guesclin at last, "it is time +that we spoke of what we are to do this night, for I cannot think +that in this wayside auberge there are fit quarters for an +honorable company." + +Sir Nigel gave a long sigh as he came back from the dreams of +chivalry and hardihood into which this strange woman's words had +wafted him. "I care not where I sleep," said he; "but these are +indeed somewhat rude lodgings for this fair lady." + +"What contents my lord contents me," quoth she. "I perceive, Sir +Nigel, that you are under vow," she added, glancing at his +covered eye. + +"It is my purpose to attempt some small deed," he answered. + +"And the glove--is it your lady's?" + +"It is indeed my sweet wife's." + +"Who is doubtless proud of you." + +"Say rather I of her," quoth he quickly. "God He knows that I am +not worthy to be her humble servant. It is easy, lady, for a man +to ride forth in the light of day, and do his devoir when all men +have eyes for him. But in a woman's heart there is a strength +and truth which asks no praise, and can but be known to him whose +treasure it is." + +The Lady Tiphaine smiled across at her husband. "You have often +told me, Bertrand, that there were very gentle knights amongst +the English," quoth she. + +"Aye, aye," said he moodily. "But to horse, Sir Nigel, you and +yours and we shall seek the chateau of Sir Tristram de Rochefort, +which is two miles on this side of Villefranche. He is Seneschal +of Auvergne, and mine old war companion." + +"Certes, he would have a welcome for you," quoth Sir Nigel; "but +indeed he might look askance at one who comes without permit over +the marches." + +"By the Virgin! when he learns that you have come to draw away +these rascals he will be very blithe to look upon your face. +Inn-keeper, here are ten gold pieces. What is over and above +your reckoning you may take off from your charges to the next +needy knight who comes this way. Come then, for it grows late +and the horses are stamping in the roadway." + +The Lady Tiphaine and her spouse sprang upon their steeds without +setting feet to stirrup, and away they jingled down the white +moonlit highway, with Sir Nigel at the lady's bridle-arm, and +Ford a spear's length behind them. Alleyne had lingered for an +instant in the passage, and as he did so there came a wild outcry +from a chamber upon the left, and out there ran Aylward and John, +laughing together like two schoolboys who are bent upon a prank. +At sight of Alleyne they slunk past him with somewhat of a +shame-faced air, and springing upon their horses galloped after +their party. The hubbub within the chamber did not cease, +however, but rather increased, with yells of: "A moi, mes amis! A +moi, camarades! A moi, l'honorable champion de l'Eveque de +Montaubon! A la recousse de l'eglise sainte!" So shrill was the +outcry that both the inn-keeper and Alleyne, with every varlet +within hearing, rushed wildly to the scene of the uproar. + +It was indeed a singular scene which met their eyes. The room +was a long and lofty one, stone floored and bare, with a fire at +the further end upon which a great pot was boiling. A deal table +ran down the centre, with a wooden wine-pitcher upon it and two +horn cups. Some way from it was a smaller table with a single +beaker and a broken wine-bottle. From the heavy wooden rafters +which formed the roof there hung rows of hooks which held up +sides of bacon, joints of smoked beef, and strings of onions for +winter use. In the very centre of all these, upon the largest +hook of all, there hung a fat little red-faced man with enormous +whiskers, kicking madly in the air and clawing at rafters, hams, +and all else that was within hand-grasp. The huge steel hook had +been passed through the collar of his leather jerkin, and there +he hung like a fish on a line, writhing, twisting, and screaming, +but utterly unable to free himself from his extraordinary +position. It was not until Alleyne and the landlord had mounted +on the table that they were able to lift him down, when he sank +gasping with rage into a seat, and rolled his eyes round in every +direction. + +"Has he gone?" quoth he. + +"Gone? Who?" + +"He, the man with the red head, the giant man." + +"Yes," said Alleyne, "he hath gone." + +"And comes not back?" + +"No." + +"The better for him!" cried the little man, with a long sigh of +relief. "Mon Dieu! What! am I not the champion of the Bishop +of Montaubon? Ah, could I have descended, could I have come down, +ere he fled! Then you would have seen. You would have beheld a +spectacle then. There would have been one rascal the less upon +earth. Ma, foi, yes!" + +"Good master Pelligny," said the landlord, "these gentlemen have +not gone very fast, and I have a horse in the stable at your +disposal, for I would rather have such bloody doings as you +threaten outside the four walls of mine auberge." + +"I hurt my leg and cannot ride," quoth the bishop's champion. "I +strained a sinew on the day that I slew the three men at +Castelnau." + +"God save you, master Pelligny!" cried the landlord. "It must be +an awesome thing to have so much blood upon one's soul. And yet +I do not wish to see so valiant a man mishandled, and so I will, +for friendship's sake, ride after this Englishman and bring him +back to you." + +"You shall not stir," cried the champion, seizing the inn-keeper +in a convulsive grasp. "I have a love for you, Gaston, and I +would not bring your house into ill repute, nor do such scath to +these walls and chattels as must befall if two such men as this +Englishman and I fall to work here." + +"Nay, think not of me!" cried the inn-keeper. "What are my +walls when set against the honor of Francois Poursuivant d'Amour +Pelligny, champion of the Bishop of Montaubon. My horse, Andre!" + +"By the saints, no! Gaston, I will not have it! You have said +truly that it is an awesome thing to have such rough work upon +one's soul. I am but a rude soldier, yet I have a mind. Mon +Dieu! I reflect, I weigh, I balance. Shall I not meet this man +again? Shall I not bear him in mind? Shall I not know him by +his great paws and his red head? Ma foi, yes!" + +"And may I ask, sir," said Alleyne, "why it is that you call +yourself champion of the Bishop of Montaubon?" + +"You may ask aught which it is becoming to me to answer. The +bishop hath need of a champion, because, if any cause be set to +test of combat, it would scarce become his office to go down into +the lists with leather and shield and cudgel to exchange blows +with any varlet. He looks around him then for some tried +fighting man, some honest smiter who can give a blow or take one. +It is not for me to say how far he hath succeeded, but it is +sooth that he who thinks that he hath but to do with the Bishop +of Montaubon, finds himself face to face with Francois Poursuivant +d'Amour Pelligny." + +At this moment there was a clatter of hoofs upon the road, and a +varlet by the door cried out that one of the Englishmen was +coming back. The champion looked wildly about for some corner of +safety, and was clambering up towards the window, when Ford's +voice sounded from without, calling upon Alleyne to hasten, or he +might scarce find his way. Bidding adieu to landlord and to +champion, therefore, he set off at a gallop, and soon overtook +the two archers. + +"A pretty thing this, John," said he. "Thou wilt have holy +Church upon you if you hang her champions upon iron hooks in an +inn kitchen." + +"It was done without thinking," he answered apologetically, while +Aylward burst into a shout of laughter. + +"By my hilt! mon petit," said he, "you would have laughed also +could you have seen it. For this man was so swollen with pride +that he would neither drink with us, nor sit at the same table +with us, nor as much as answer a question, but must needs talk to +the varlet all the time that it was well there was peace, and +that he had slain more Englishmen than there were tags to his +doublet. Our good old John could scarce lay his tongue to French +enough to answer him, so he must needs reach out his great hand +to him and place him very gently where you saw him. But we must +on, for I can scarce hear their hoofs upon the road." + +"I think that I can see them yet," said Ford, peering down the +moonlit road. + +"Pardieu! yes. Now they ride forth from the shadow. And yonder +dark clump is the Castle of Villefranche. En avant camarades! or +Sir Nigel may reach the gates before us. But hark, mes amis, +what sound is that?" + +As he spoke the hoarse blast of a horn was heard from some woods +upon the right. An answering call rung forth upon their left, +and hard upon it two others from behind them. + +"They are the horns of swine-herds," quoth Aylward. "Though why +they blow them so late I cannot tell." + +"Let us on, then," said Ford, and the whole party, setting their +spurs to their horses, soon found themselves at the Castle of +Villefranche, where the drawbridge had already been lowered and +the portcullis raised in response to the summons of Du Guesclin. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +HOW THE BLESSED HOUR OF SIGHT CAME TO THE LADY TIPHAINE. + + +Sir Tristram de Rochefort, Seneschal of Auvergne and Lord of +Villefranche, was a fierce and renowned soldier who had grown +gray in the English wars. As lord of the marches and guardian of +an exposed country-side, there was little rest for him even in +times of so-called peace, and his whole life was spent in raids +and outfalls upon the Brabanters, late-comers, flayers free +companions, and roving archers who wandered over his province. +At times he would come back in triumph, and a dozen corpses +swinging from the summit of his keep would warn evil-doers that +there was still a law in the land. At others his ventures were +not so happy, and he and his troop would spur it over the +drawbridge with clatter of hoofs hard at their heels and whistle +of arrows about their ears. Hard he was of hand and harder of +heart, hated by his foes, and yet not loved by those whom he +protected, for twice he had been taken prisoner, and twice his +ransom had been wrung by dint of blows and tortures out of the +starving peasants and ruined farmers. Wolves or watch-dogs, it +was hard to say from which the sheep had most to fear. + +The Castle of Villefranche was harsh and stern as its master. A +broad moat, a high outer wall turreted at the corners, with a +great black keep towering above all--so it lay before them in the +moonlight. By the light of two flambeaux, protruded through the +narrow slit-shaped openings at either side of the ponderous gate, +they caught a glimpse of the glitter of fierce eyes and of the +gleam of the weapons of the guard. The sight of the two-headed +eagle of Du Guesclin, however, was a passport into any fortalice +in France, and ere they had passed the gate the old border knight +came running forwards with hands out-thrown to greet his famous +countryman. Nor was he less glad to see Sir Nigel, when the +Englishman's errand was explained to him, for these archers had +been a sore thorn in his side and had routed two expeditions +which he had sent against them. A happy day it would be for the +Seneschal of Auvergne when they should learn that the last yew +bow was over the marches. + +The material for a feast was ever at hand in days when, if there +was grim want in the cottage, there was at least rude plenty in +the castle. Within an hour the guests were seated around a board +which creaked under the great pasties and joints of meat, varied +by those more dainty dishes in which the French excelled, the +spiced ortolan and the truffled beccaficoes. The Lady Rochefort, +a bright and laughter-loving dame, sat upon the left of her +warlike spouse, with Lady Tiphaine upon the right. Beneath sat +Du Guesclin and Sir Nigel, with Sir Amory Monticourt, of the +order of the Hospitallers, and Sir Otto Harnit, a wandering +knight from the kingdom of Bohemia. These with Alleyne and Ford, +four French squires, and the castle chaplain, made the company +who sat together that night and made good cheer in the Castle of +Villefranche. The great fire crackled in the grate, the hooded +hawks slept upon their perches, the rough deer-hounds with +expectant eyes crouched upon the tiled floor; close at the elbows +of the guests stood the dapper little lilac-coated pages; the +laugh and jest circled round and all was harmony and comfort. +Little they recked of the brushwood men who crouched in their +rags along the fringe of the forest and looked with wild and +haggard eyes at the rich, warm glow which shot a golden bar of +light from the high arched windows of the castle. + +Supper over, the tables dormant were cleared away as by magic and +trestles and bancals arranged around the blazing fire, for there +was a bitter nip in the air. The Lady Tiphaine had sunk back in +her cushioned chair, and her long dark lashes drooped low over +her sparkling eyes. Alleyne, glancing at her, noted that her +breath came quick and short, and that her cheeks had blanched to +a lily white. Du Guesclin eyed her keenly from time to time, and +passed his broad brown fingers through his crisp, curly black +hair with the air of a man who is perplexed in his mind. + +"These folk here," said the knight of Bohemia, "they do not seem +too well fed." + +"Ah, canaille!" cried the Lord of Villefranche. "You would +scarce credit it, and yet it is sooth that when I was taken at +Poictiers it was all that my wife and foster-brother could do to +raise the money from them for my ransom. The sulky dogs would +rather have three twists of a rack, or the thumbikins for an +hour, than pay out a denier for their own feudal father and liege +lord. Yet there is not one of them but hath an old stocking full +of gold pieces hid away in a snug corner." + +"Why do they not buy food then?" asked Sir Nigel. "By St. Paul! +it seemed to me their bones were breaking through their skin." + +"It is their grutching and grumbling which makes them thin. We +have a saying here, Sir Nigel, that if you pummel Jacques +Bonhomme he will pat you, but if you pat him he will pummel you. +Doubtless you find it so in England." + +"Ma foi, no!" said Sir Nigel. "I have two Englishmen of this +class in my train, who are at this instant, I make little doubt, +as full of your wine as any cask in your cellar. He who +pummelled them might come by such a pat as he would be likely to +remember." + +"I cannot understand it," quoth the seneschal, "for the English +knights and nobles whom I have met were not men to brook the +insolence of the base born." + +"Perchance, my fair lord, the poor folk are sweeter and of a +better countenance in England," laughed the Lady Rochefort. +"Mon Dieu! you cannot conceive to yourself how ugly they are! +Without hair, without teeth, all twisted and bent; for me, I +cannot think how the good God ever came to make such people. I +cannot bear it, I, and so my trusty Raoul goes ever before me +with a cudgel to drive them from my path." + +"Yet they have souls, fair lady, they have souls!" murmured the +chaplain, a white-haired man with a weary, patient face. + +"So I have heard you tell them," said the lord of the castle; +"and for myself, father, though I am a true son of holy Church, +yet I think that you were better employed in saying your mass and +in teaching the children of my men-at-arms, than in going over +the country-side to put ideas in these folks' heads which would +never have been there but for you. I have heard that you have +said to them that their souls are as good as ours, and that it is +likely that in another life they may stand as high as the oldest +blood of Auvergne. For my part, I believe that there are so many +worthy knights and gallant gentlemen in heaven who know how such +things should be arranged, that there is little fear that we +shall find ourselves mixed up with base roturiers and swine-herds. +Tell your beads, father, and con your psalter, but do not +come between me and those whom the king has given to me!" + +"God help them!" cried the old priest. "A higher King than yours +has given them to me, and I tell you here in your own castle +hall, Sir Tristram de Rochefort, that you have sinned deeply in +your dealings with these poor folk, and that the hour will come, +and may even now be at hand, when God's hand will be heavy upon +you for what you have done." He rose as he spoke, and walked +slowly from the room. + +"Pest take him!" cried the French knight. "Now, what is a man to +do with a priest, Sir Bertrand?--for one can neither fight him +like a man nor coax him like a woman." + +"Ah, Sir Bertrand knows, the naughty one!" cried the Lady +Rochefort. "Have we not all heard how he went to Avignon and +squeezed fifty thousand crowns out of the Pope." + +"Ma foi!" said Sir Nigel, looking with a mixture of horror and +admiration at Du Guesclin. "Did not your heart sink within you? +Were you not smitten with fears? Have you not felt a curse hang +over you?" + +"I have not observed it," said the Frenchman carelessly. "But by +Saint Ives! Tristram, this chaplain of yours seems to me to be a +worthy man, and you should give heed to his words, for though I +care nothing for the curse of a bad pope, it would be a grief to +me to have aught but a blessing from a good priest." + +"Hark to that, my fair lord," cried the Lady Rochefort. "Take +heed, I pray thee, for I do not wish to have a blight cast over +me, nor a palsy of the limbs. I remember that once before you +angered Father Stephen, and my tire-woman said that I lost more +hair in seven days than ever before in a month." + +"If that be sign of sin, then, by Saint Paul! I have much upon +my soul," said Sir Nigel, amid a general laugh. "But in very +truth, Sir Tristram, if I may venture a word of counsel, I should +advise that you make your peace with this good man." + +"He shall have four silver candlesticks," said the seneschal +moodily. "And yet I would that he would leave the folk alone. +You cannot conceive in your mind how stubborn and brainless they +are. Mules and pigs are full of reason beside them. God He +knows that I have had great patience with them. It was but last +week that, having to raise some money, I called up to the castle +Jean Goubert, who, as all men know, has a casketful of gold +pieces hidden away in some hollow tree. I give you my word that +I did not so much as lay a stripe upon his fool's back, but after +speaking with him, and telling him how needful the money was to +me, I left him for the night to think over the matter in my +dungeon. What think you that the dog did? Why, in the morning +we found that he had made a rope from strips of his leathern +jerkin, and had hung himself to the bar of the window." + +"For me, I cannot conceive such wickedness!" cried the lady. + +"And there was Gertrude Le Boeuf, as fair a maiden as eye could +see, but as bad and bitter as the rest of them. When young Amory +de Valance was here last Lammastide he looked kindly upon the +girl, and even spoke of taking her into his service. What does +she do, with her dog of a father? Why, they tie themselves +together and leap into the Linden Pool, where the water is five +spears'-lengths deep. I give you my word that it was a great +grief to young Amory, and it was days ere he could cast it from +his mind. But how can one serve people who are so foolish and so +ungrateful?" + +Whilst the Seneschal of Villefranche had been detailing the evil +doings of his tenants, Alleyne had been unable to take his eyes +from the face of Lady Tiphaine. She had lain back in her chair, +with drooping eyelids and bloodless face, so that he had feared +at first her journey had weighed heavily upon her, and that the +strength was ebbing out of her. Of a sudden, however, there came +a change, for a dash of bright color flickered up on to either +cheek, and her lids were slowly raised again upon eyes which +sparkled with such lustre as Alleyne had never seen in human eyes +before, while their gaze was fixed intently, not on the company, +but on the dark tapestry which draped the wall. So transformed +and so ethereal was her expression, that Alleyne, in his +loftiest dream of archangel or of seraph, had never pictured so +sweet, so womanly, and yet so wise a face. Glancing at Du +Guesclin, Alleyne saw that he also was watching his wife closely, +and from the twitching of his features, and the beads upon his +brick-colored brow, it was easy to see that he was deeply +agitated by the change which he marked in her. + +"How is it with you, lady?" he asked at last, in a tremulous +voice. + +Her eyes remained fixed intently upon the wall, and there was a +long pause ere she answered him. Her voice, too, which had been +so clear and ringing, was now low and muffled as that of one who +speaks from a distance. + +"All is very well with me, Bertrand," said she. "The blessed +hour of sight has come round to me again." + +"I could see it come! I could see it come!" he exclaimed, +passing his fingers through his hair with the same perplexed +expression as before. + +"This is untoward, Sir Tristram," he said at last. "And I scarce +know in what words to make it clear to you, and to your fair +wife, and to Sir Nigel Loring, and to these other stranger +knights. My tongue is a blunt one, and fitter to shout word of +command than to clear up such a matter as this, of which I can +myself understand little. This, however, I know, that my wife is +come of a very sainted race, whom God hath in His wisdom endowed +with wondrous powers, so that Tiphaine Raquenel was known +throughout Brittany ere ever I first saw her at Dinan. Yet these +powers are ever used for good, and they are the gift of God and +not of the devil, which is the difference betwixt white magic and +black." + +"Perchance it would be as well that we should send for Father +Stephen," said Sir Tristram. + +"It would be best that he should come," cried the Hospitaller. + +"And bring with him a flask of holy water," added the knight of +Bohemia. + +"Not so, gentlemen," answered Sir Bertrand. "It is not needful +that this priest should be called, and it is in my mind that in +asking for this ye cast some slight shadow or slur upon the good +name of my wife, as though it were still doubtful whether her +power came to her from above or below. If ye have indeed such a +doubt I pray that you will say so, that we may discuss the matter +in a fitting way." + +"For myself," said Sir Nigel, "I have heard such words fall from +the lips of this lady that I am of the opinion that there is no +woman, save only one, who can be in any way compared to her in +beauty and in goodness. Should any gentleman think otherwise, I +should deem it great honor to run a small course with him, or +debate the matter in whatever way might be most pleasing to him." + +"Nay, it would ill become me to cast a slur upon a lady who is +both my guest and the wife of my comrade-in-arms," said the +Seneschal of Villefranche. "I have perceived also that on her +mantle there is marked a silver cross, which is surely sign +enough that there is nought of evil in these strange powers which +you say that she possesses." + +This argument of the seneschal's appealed so powerfully to the +Bohemian and to the Hospitaller that they at once intimated that +their objections had been entirely overcome, while even the Lady +Rochefort, who had sat shivering and crossing herself, ceased to +cast glances at the door, and allowed her fears to turn to +curiosity. + +"Among the gifts which hare been vouchsafed to my wife," said Du +Guesclin, "there is the wondrous one of seeing into the future; +but it comes very seldom upon her, and goes as quickly, for none +can command it. The blessed hour of sight, as she hath named it, +has come but twice since I have known her, and I can vouch for it +that all that she hath told me was true, for on the evening of +the Battle of Auray she said that the morrow would be an ill day +for me and for Charles of Blois. Ere the sun had sunk again he +was dead, and I the prisoner of Sir John Chandos. Yet it is not +every question that she can answer, but only those----" + +"Bertrand, Bertrand!" cried the lady in the same mutterings far-away +voice, "the blessed hour passes. Use it, Bertrand, while you may." + +"I will, my sweet. Tell me, then, what fortune comes upon me?" + +"Danger, Bertrand--deadly, pressing danger--which creeps upon you +and you know it not." + +The French soldier burst into a thunderous laugh, and his green +eyes twinkled with amusement. "At what time during these twenty +years would not that have been a true word?" he cried. "Danger +is in the air that I breathe. But is this so very close, +Tiphaine?" + +"Here--now--close upon you!" The words came out in broken, +strenuous speech, while the lady's fair face was writhed and +drawn like that of one who looks upon a horror which strikes, the +words from her lips. Du Guesclin gazed round the tapestried +room, at the screens, the tables, the abace, the credence, the +buffet with its silver salver, and the half-circle of friendly, +wondering faces. There was an utter stillness, save for the +sharp breathing of the Lady Tiphaine and for the gentle soughing +of the wind outside, which wafted to their ears the distant call +upon a swine-herd's horn. + +"The danger may bide," said he, shrugging his broad shoulders. +"And now, Tiphaine, tell us what will come of this war in Spain." + +"I can see little," she answered, straining her eyes and +puckering her brow, as one who would fain clear her sight. +"There are mountains, and dry plains, and flash of arms and +shouting of battle-cries, Yet it is whispered to me that by +failure you will succeed." + +"Ha! Sir Nigel, how like you that?" quoth Bertrand, shaking his +head. "It is like mead and vinegar, half sweet, half sour. And +is there no question which you would ask my lady?" + +"Certes there is. I would fain know, fair lady, how all things +are at Twynham Castle, and above all how my sweet lady employs +herself." + +"To answer this I would fain lay hand upon one whose thoughts +turn strongly to this castle which you have named. Nay, my Lord +Loring, it is whispered to me that there is another here who hath +thought more deeply of it than you." + +"Thought more of mine own home?" cried Sir Nigel. "Lady, I fear +that in this matter at least you are mistaken." + +"Not so, Sir Nigel. Come hither, young man, young English squire +with the gray eyes! Now give me your hand, and place it here +across my brow, that I may see that which you have seen. What is +this that rises before me? Mist, mist, rolling mist with a +square black tower above it. See it shreds out, it thins, it +rises, and there lies a castle in green plain, with the sea +beneath it, and a great church within a bow-shot. There are two +rivers which run through the meadows, and between them lie the +tents of the besiegers." + +"The besiegers!" cried Alleyne, Ford, and Sir Nigel, all three in +a breath. + +"Yes, truly, and they press hard upon the castle, for they are an +exceeding multitude and full of courage. See how they storm and +rage against the gate, while some rear ladders, and others, line +after line, sweep the walls with their arrows. They are many +leaders who shout and beckon, and one, a tall man with a golden +beard, who stands before the gate stamping his foot and hallooing +them on, as a pricker doth the hounds. But those in the castle +fight bravely. There is a woman, two women, who stand upon the +walls, and give heart to the men-at-arms. They shower down +arrows, darts and great stones. Ah I they have struck down the +tall leader, and the others give back. The mist thickens and I +can see no more." + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, "I do not think that there can +be any such doings at Christchurch, and I am very easy of the +fortalice so long as my sweet wife hangs the key of the outer +bailey at the head of her bed. Yet I will not deny that you have +pictured the castle as well as I could have done myself, and I am +full of wonderment at all that I have heard and seen." + +"I would, Lady Tiphaine," cried the Lady Rochefort, "that you +would use your power to tell me what hath befallen my golden +bracelet which I wore when hawking upon the second Sunday of +Advent, and have never set eyes upon since." + +"Nay, lady," said du Guesclin, "it does not befit so great and +wondrous a power to pry and search and play the varlet even to +the beautiful chatelaine of Villefranche. Ask a worthy question, +and, with the blessing of God, you shall have a worthy answer." + +"Then I would fain ask," cried one of the French squires, "as to +which may hope to conquer in these wars betwixt the English and +ourselves." + +"Both will conquer and each will hold its own," answered the Lady +Tiphaine. + +"Then we shall still hold Gascony and Guienne?" cried Sir Nigel. + +The lady shook her head. "French land, French blood, French +speech," she answered. "They are French, and France shall have +them." + +"But not Bordeaux?" cried Sir Nigel excitedly. + +"Bordeaux also is for France." + +"But Calais?" + +"Calais too." + +"Woe worth me then, and ill hail to these evil words! If +Bordeaux and Calais be gone, then what is left for England?" + +"It seems indeed that there are evil times coming upon your +country," said Du Guesclin. "In our fondest hopes we never +thought to hold Bordeaux. By Saint Ives! this news hath warmed +the heart within me. Our dear country will then be very great in +the future, Tiphaine?" + +"Great, and rich, and beautiful," she cried. "Far down the +course of time I can see her still leading the nations, a wayward +queen among the peoples, great in war, but greater in peace, +quick in thought, deft in action, with her people's will for her +sole monarch, from the sands of Calais to the blue seas of the +south." + +"Ha!" cried Du Guesclin, with his eyes flashing in triumph, "you +hear her, Sir Nigel?--and she never yet said word which was not +sooth." + +The English knight shook his head moodily. "What of my own poor +country?" said he. "I fear, lady, that what you have said bodes +but small good for her." + +The lady sat with parted lips, and her breath came quick and +fast. "My God!" she cried, "what is this that is shown me? +Whence come they, these peoples, these lordly nations, these +mighty countries which rise up before me? I look beyond, and +others rise, and yet others, far and farther to the shores of the +uttermost waters. They crowd! They swarm! The world is given +to them, and it resounds with the clang of their hammers and the +ringing of their church bells. They call them many names, and +they rule them this way or that but they are all English, for I +can hear the voices of the people. On I go, and onwards over +seas where man hath never yet sailed, and I see a great land +under new stars and a stranger sky, and still the land is +England. Where have her children not gone? What have they not +done? Her banner is planted on ice. Her banner is scorched in +the sun. She lies athwart the lands, and her shadow is over the +seas. Bertrand, Bertrand! we are undone for the buds of her bud +are even as our choicest flower!" Her voice rose into a wild cry, +and throwing up her arms she sank back white and nerveless into +the deep oaken chair. + +"It is over," said Du Guesclin moodily, as he raised her drooping +head with his strong brown hand. "Wine for the lady, squire! +The blessed hour of sight hath passed." + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +HOW THE BRUSHWOOD MEN CAME TO THE CHATEAU OF VILLEFRANCHE. + + +It was late ere Alleyne Edricson, having carried Sir Nigel the +goblet of spiced wine which it was his custom to drink after the +curling of his hair, was able at last to seek his chamber. It +was a stone-flagged room upon the second floor, with a bed in a +recess for him, and two smaller pallets on the other side, on +which Aylward and Hordle John were already snoring. Alleyne had +knelt down to his evening orisons, when there came a tap at his +door, and Ford entered with a small lamp in his hand. His face +was deadly pale, and his hand shook until the shadows flickered +up and down the wall. + +"What is it, Ford?" cried Alleyne, springing to his feet. + +"I can scarce tell you, said he, sitting down on the side of the +couch, and resting his chin upon his hand. "I know not what to +say or what to think." + +"Has aught befallen you, then?" + +"Yes, or I have been slave to my own fancy. I tell you, lad, +that I am all undone, like a fretted bow-string. Hark hither, +Alleyne! it cannot be that you have forgotten little Tita, the +daughter of the old glass-stainer at Bordeaux?" + +"I remember her well." + +"She and I, Alleyne, broke the lucky groat together ere we +parted, and she wears my ring upon her finger. `Caro mio,' quoth +she when last we parted, `I shall be near thee in the wars, and +thy danger will be my danger.' Alleyne, as God is my help, as I +came up the stairs this night I saw her stand before me, her face +in tears, her hands out as though in warning--I saw it, Alleyne, +even as I see those two archers upon their couches. Our very +finger-tips seemed to meet, ere she thinned away like a mist in +the sunshine." + +"I would not give overmuch thought to it," answered Alleyne. "Our +minds will play us strange pranks, and bethink you that these +words of the Lady Tiphaine Du Guesclin have wrought upon us and +shaken us." + +Ford shook his head. "I saw little Tita as clearly as though I +were back at the Rue des Apotres at Bordeaux," said he. + +"But the hour is late, and I must go." + +"Where do you sleep, then?" + +"In the chamber above you. May the saints be with us all!" He +rose from the couch and left the chamber, while Alleyne could +hear his feet sounding upon the winding stair. The young squire +walked across to the window and gazed out at the moonlit +landscape, his mind absorbed by the thought of the Lady Tiphaine, +and of the strange words that she had spoken as to what was going +forward at Castle Twynham. Leaning his elbows upon the +stonework, he was deeply plunged in reverie, when in a moment his +thoughts were brought back to Villefranche and to the scene +before him. + +The window at which he stood was in the second floor of that +portion of the castle which was nearest to the keep. In front +lay the broad moat, with the moon lying upon its surface, now +clear and round, now drawn lengthwise as the breeze stirred the +waters. Beyond, the plain sloped down to a thick wood, while +further to the left a second wood shut out the view. Between the +two an open glade stretched, silvered in the moonshine, with the +river curving across the lower end of it. + +As he gazed, he saw of a sudden a man steal forth from the wood +into the open clearing. He walked with his head sunk, his +shoulders curved, and his knees bent, as one who strives hard to +remain unseen. Ten paces from the fringe of trees he glanced +around, and waving his hand he crouched down, and was lost to +sight among a belt of furze-bushes. After him there came a +second man, and after him a third, a fourth, and a fifth stealing +across the narrow open space and darting into the shelter of the +brushwood. Nine-and-seventy Alleyne counted of these dark +figures flitting across the line of the moonlight. Many bore +huge burdens upon their backs, though what it was that they +carried he could not tell at the distance. Out of the one wood +and into the other they passed, all with the same crouching, +furtive gait, until the black bristle of trees had swallowed up +the last of them. + +For a moment Alleyne stood in the window, still staring down at +the silent forest, uncertain as to what he should think of these +midnight walkers. Then he bethought him that there was one +beside him who was fitter to judge on such a matter. His fingers +had scarce rested upon Aylward's shoulder ere the bowman was on +his feet, with his hand outstretched to his sword. + +"Qui va?" he cried. "Hola! mon petit. By my hilt! I thought +there had been a camisade. What then, mon gar.?" + +"Come hither by the window, Aylward," said Alleyne. "I have seen +four-score men pass from yonder shaw across the glade, and nigh +every man of them had a great burden on his back. What think you +of it?" + +"I think nothing of it, mon camarade! There are as many +masterless folk in this country as there are rabbits on Cowdray +Down, and there are many who show their faces by night but would +dance in a hempen collar if they stirred forth in the day. On all +the French marches are droves of outcasts, reivers, spoilers, and +draw-latches, of whom I judge that these are some, though I +marvel that they should dare to come so nigh to the castle of the +seneschal. All seems very quiet now," he added, peering out of +the window. + +"They are in the further wood," said Alleyne. + +"And there they may bide. Back to rest, mon petit; for, by my +hilt! each day now will bring its own work. Yet it would be well +to shoot the bolt in yonder door when one is in strange quarters. +So!" He threw himself down upon his pallet and in an instant was +fast asleep. + +It might have been about three o'clock in the morning when +Alleyne was aroused from a troubled sleep by a low cry or +exclamation. He listened, but, as he heard no more, he set it +down as the challenge of the guard upon the walls, and dropped +off to sleep once more. A few minutes later he was disturbed by +a gentle creaking of his own door, as though some one were +pushing cautiously against it, and immediately afterwards he +heard the soft thud of cautious footsteps upon the stair which +led to the room above, followed by a confused noise and a muffled +groan. Alleyne sat up on his couch with all his nerves in a +tingle, uncertain whether these sounds might come from a simple +cause--some sick archer and visiting leech perhaps--or whether +they might have a more sinister meaning, But what danger could +threaten them here in this strong castle, under the care of +famous warriors, with high walls and a broad moat around them? +Who was there that could injure them? He had well-nigh persuaded +himself that his fears were a foolish fancy, when his eyes fell +upon that which sent the blood cold to his heart and left him +gasping, with hands clutching at the counterpane. + +Right in front of him was the broad window of the chamber, with +the moon shining brightly through it. For an instant something +had obscured the light, and now a head was bobbing up and down +outside, the face looking in at him, and swinging slowly from one +side of the window to the other. Even in that dim light there +could be no mistaking those features. Drawn, distorted and +blood-stained, they were still those of the young fellow-squire +who had sat so recently upon his own couch. With a cry of horror +Alleyne sprang from his bed and rushed to the casement, while the +two archers, aroused by the sound, seized their weapons and +stared about them in bewilderment. One glance was enough to show +Edricson that his fears were but too true. Foully murdered, +with a score of wounds upon him and a rope round his neck, his +poor friend had been cast from the upper window and swung slowly +in the night wind, his body rasping against the wall and his +disfigured face upon a level with the casement. + +"My God!" cried Alleyne, shaking in every limb. "What has come +upon us? What devil's deed is this?" + +"Here is flint and steel," said John stolidly. "The lamp, +Aylward! This moonshine softens a man's heart. Now we may use +the eyes which God hath given us." + +"By my hilt!" cried Aylward, as the yellow flame flickered up, +"it is indeed young master Ford, and I think that this seneschal +is a black villain, who dare not face us in the day but would +murther us in our sleep. By the twang of string I if I do not +soak a goose's feather with his heart's blood, it will be no +fault of Samkin Aylward of the White Company." + +"But, Aylward, think of the men whom I saw yesternight," said +Alleyne. "It may not be the seneschal. It may be that others +have come into the castle. I must to Sir Nigel ere it be too +late. Let me go, Aylward, for my place is by his side." + +"One moment, mon gar. Put that steel head-piece on the end of my +yew-stave. So! I will put it first through the door; for it is +ill to come out when you can neither see nor guard yourself. +Now, camarades, out swords and stand ready! Hola, by my hilt! it +is time that we were stirring!" + +As he spoke, a sudden shouting broke forth in the castle, with +the scream of a woman and the rush of many feet. Then came the +sharp clink of clashing steel, and a roar like that of an angry +lion--"Notre Dame Du Guesclin! St. Ives! St. Ives!" The bow-man +pulled back the bolt of the door, and thrust out the headpiece at +the end of the bow. A clash, the clatter of the steel-cap upon +the ground, and, ere the man who struck could heave up for +another blow, the archer had passed his sword through his body. +"On, camarades, on!" he cried; and, breaking fiercely past two +men who threw themselves in his way, he sped down the broad +corridor in the direction of the shouting. + +A sharp turning, and then a second one, brought them to the head +of a short stair, from which they looked straight down upon the +scene of the uproar. A square oak-floored hall lay beneath them, +from which opened the doors of the principal guest-chambers. +This hall was as light as day, for torches burned in numerous +sconces upon the walls, throwing strange shadows from the tusked +or antlered heads which ornamented them. At the very foot of the +stair, close to the open door of their chamber, lay the seneschal +and his wife: she with her head shorn from her shoulders, he +thrust through with a sharpened stake, which still protruded from +either side of his body. Three servants of the castle lay dead +beside them, all torn and draggled, as though a pack of wolves +had been upon them. In front of the central guest-chamber stood +Du Guesclin and Sir Nigel, half-clad and unarmored, with the mad +joy of battle gleaming in their eyes. Their heads were thrown +back, their lips compressed, their blood-stained swords poised +over their right shoulders, and their left feet thrown out. +Three dead men lay huddled together in front of them: while a +fourth, with the blood squirting from a severed vessel, lay back +with updrawn knees, breathing in wheezy gasps. Further back--all +panting together, like the wind in a tree--there stood a group of +fierce, wild creatures, bare-armed and bare-legged, gaunt, +unshaven, with deep-set murderous eyes and wild beast faces. +With their flashing teeth, their bristling hair, their mad +leapings and screamings, they seemed to Alleyne more like fiends +from the pit than men of flesh and blood. Even as he looked, +they broke into a hoarse yell and dashed once more upon the two +knights, hurling themselves madly upon their sword-points; +clutching, scrambling, biting, tearing, careless of wounds if +they could but drag the two soldiers to earth. Sir Nigel was +thrown down by the sheer weight of them, and Sir Bertrand with +his thunderous war-cry was swinging round his heavy sword to +clear a space for him to rise, when the whistle of two long +English arrows, and the rush of the squire and the two English +archers down the stairs, turned the tide of the combat. The +assailants gave back, the knights rushed forward, and in a very +few moments the hall was cleared, and Hordle John had hurled the +last of the wild men down the steep steps which led from the end +of it. + +"Do not follow them," cried Du Guesclin. "We are lost if we +scatter. For myself I care not a denier, though it is a poor +thing to meet one's end at the hands of such scum; but I have my +dear lady here, who must by no means be risked. We have +breathing-space now, and I would ask you, Sir Nigel, what it is +that you would counsel?" + +"By St. Paul!" answered Sir Nigel, "I can by no means understand +what hath befallen us, save that I have been woken up by your +battle-cry, and, rushing forth, found myself in the midst of this +small bickering. Harrow and alas for the lady and the seneschal! +What dogs are they who have done this bloody deed?" + +"They are the Jacks, the men of the brushwood. They have the +castle, though I know not how it hath come to pass, Look from +this window into the bailey." + +"By heaven!" cried Sir Nigel, "it is as bright as day with the +torches. The gates stand open, and there are three thousand of +them within the walls. See how they rush and scream and wave! +What is it that they thrust out through the postern door? My +God! it is a man-at-arms, and they pluck him limb from limb like +hounds on a wolf. Now another, and yet another. They hold the +whole castle, for I see their faces at the windows. See, there +are some with great bundles on their backs." + +"It is dried wood from the forest. They pile them against the +walls and set them in a blaze. Who is this who tries to check +them? By St. Ives! it is the good priest who spake for them in +the hall. He kneels, he prays, he implores! What! villains, +would ye raise hands against those who have befriended you? Ah, +the butcher has struck him! He is down! They stamp him under +their feet! They tear off his gown and wave it in the air! See +now, how the flames lick up the walls! Are there none left to +rally round us? With a hundred men we might hold our own." + +"Oh, for my Company!" cried Sir Nigel. "But where is Ford, +Alleyne?" + +"He is foully murdered, my fair lord." + +"The saints receive him! May he rest in peace! But here come +some at last who may give us counsel, for amid these passages it +is ill to stir without a guide." + +As he spoke, a French squire and the Bohemian knight came rushing +down the steps, the latter bleeding from a slash across his +forehead. + +"All is lost!" he cried. "The castle is taken and on fire, the +seneschal is slain, and there is nought left for us." + +"On the contrary," quoth Sir Nigel, "there is much left to us, +for there is a very honorable contention before us, and a fair +lady for whom to give our lives. There are many ways in which a +man might die, but none better than this." + +"You can tell us, Godfrey," said Du Guesclin to the French +squire: "how came these men into the castle, and what succors can +we count upon? By St. Ives! if we come not quickly to some +counsel we shall be burned like young rooks in a nest." + +The squire, a dark, slender stripling, spoke firmly and quickly, +as one who was trained to swift action. "There is a passage +under the earth into the castle," said he, "and through it some +of the Jacks made their way, casting open the gates for the +others. They have had help from within the walls, and the +men-at-arms were heavy with wine: they must have been slain in +their beds, for these devils crept from room to room with soft +step and ready knife. Sir Amory the Hospitaller was struck down +with an axe as he rushed before us from his sleeping-chamber. +Save only ourselves, I do not think that there are any left +alive." + +"What, then, would you counsel?" + +"That we make for the keep. It is unused, save in time of war, +and the key hangs from my poor lord and master's belt." + +"There are two keys there." + +"It is the larger. Once there, we might hold the narrow stair; +and at least, as the walls are of a greater thickness, it would +be longer ere they could burn them. Could we but carry the lady +across the bailey, all might be well with us." + +"Nay; the lady hath seen something of the work of war," said +Tiphaine coming forth, as white, as grave, and as unmoved as +ever. "I would not be a hamper to you, my dear spouse and +gallant friend. Rest assured of this, that if all else fail I +have always a safeguard here"--drawing a small silver-hilted +poniard from her bosom--"which sets me beyond the fear of these +vile and blood-stained wretches." + +"Tiphaine," cried Du Guesclin, "I have always loved you; and now, +by Our Lady of Rennes! I love you more than ever. Did I not know +that your hand will be as ready as your words I would myself turn +my last blow upon you, ere you should fall into their hands. +Lead on, Godfrey! A new golden pyx will shine in the minster of +Dinan if we come safely through with it." + +The attention of the insurgents had been drawn away from murder +to plunder, and all over the castle might be heard their cries +and whoops of delight as they dragged forth the rich tapestries, +the silver flagons, and the carved furniture. Down in the +courtyard half-clad wretches, their bare limbs all mottled with +blood-stains, strutted about with plumed helmets upon their +heads, or with the Lady Rochefort's silken gowns girt round their +loins and trailing on the ground behind them. Casks of choice +wine had been rolled out from the cellars, and starving peasants +squatted, goblet in hand, draining off vintages which De +Rochefort had set aside for noble and royal guests. Others, with +slabs of bacon and joints of dried meat upon the ends of their +pikes, held them up to the blaze or tore at them ravenously with +their teeth. Yet all order had not been lost amongst them, for +some hundreds of the better armed stood together in a silent +group, leaning upon their rude weapons and looking up at the +fire, which had spread so rapidly as to involve one whole side of +the castle. Already Alleyne could hear the crackling and roaring +of the flames, while the air was heavy with heat and full of the +pungent whiff of burning wood. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +HOW FIVE MEN HELD THE KEEP OF VILLEFRANCHE + + +Under the guidance of the French squire the party passed down two +narrow corridors. The first was empty, but at the head of the +second stood a peasant sentry, who started off at the sight of +them, yelling loudly to his comrades. "Stop him, or we are +undone!" cried Du Guesclin, and had started to run, when +Aylward's great war-bow twanged like a harp-string, and the man +fell forward upon his face, with twitching limbs and clutching +fingers. Within five paces of where he lay a narrow and +little-used door led out into the bailey. From beyond it came +such a Babel of hooting and screaming, horrible oaths and yet +more horrible laughter, that the stoutest heart might have shrunk +from casting down the frail barrier which faced them. + +"Make straight for the keep!" said Du Guesclin, in a sharp, stern +whisper. "The two archers in front, the lady in the centre, a +squire on either side, while we three knights shall bide behind +and beat back those who press upon us. So! Now open the door, +and God have us in his holy keeping!" + +For a few moments it seemed that their object would be attained +without danger, so swift and so silent had been their movements. +They were half-way across the bailey ere the frantic, howling +peasants made a movement to stop them. The few who threw +themselves in their way were overpowered or brushed aside, while +the pursuers were beaten back by the ready weapons of the three +cavaliers. Unscathed they fought their way to the door of the +keep, and faced round upon the swarming mob, while the squire +thrust the great key into the lock. + +"My God!" he cried, "it is the wrong key." + +"The wrong key!" + +"Dolt, fool that I am! This is the key of the castle gate; the +other opens the keep. I must back for it!" He turned, with some +wild intention of retracing his steps, but at the instant a great +jagged rock, hurled by a brawny peasant, struck him full upon the +ear, and he dropped senseless to the ground. + +"This is key enough for me!" quoth Hordle John, picking up the +huge stone, and hurling it against the door with all the strength +of his enormous body. The lock shivered, the wood smashed, the +stone flew into five pieces, but the iron clamps still held the +door in its position. Bending down, he thrust his great fingers +under it, and with a heave raised the whole mass of wood and iron +from its hinges. For a moment it tottered and swayed, and then, +falling outward, buried him in its ruin, while his comrades +rushed into the dark archway which led to safety. + +"Up the steps, Tiphaine!" cried Du Guesclin. "Now round, +friends, and beat them back!" The mob of peasants had surged in +upon their heels, but the two trustiest blades in Europe gleamed +upon that narrow stair, and four of their number dropped upon the +threshold. The others gave back, and gathered in a half circle +round the open door, gnashing their teeth and shaking their +clenched hands at the defenders. The body of the French squire +had been dragged out by them and hacked to pieces, Three or four +others had pulled John from under the door, when he suddenly +bounded to his feet, and clutching one in either hand dashed +them together with such force that they fell senseless across +each other upon the ground. With a kick and a blow he freed +himself from two others who clung to him, and in a moment he was +within the portal with his comrades. + +Yet their position was a desperate one. The peasants from far +and near had been assembled for this deed of vengeance, and not +less than six thousand were within or around the walls of the +Chateau of Villefranche. Ill armed and half starved, they were +still desperate men, to whom danger had lost all fears: for what +was death that they should shun it to cling to such a life as +theirs? The castle was theirs, and the roaring flames were +spurting through the windows and flickering high above the +turrets on two sides of the quadrangle. From either side they +were sweeping down from room to room and from bastion to bastion +in the direction of the keep. Faced by an army, and girt in by +fire, were six men and one woman; but some of them were men so +trained to danger and so wise in war that even now the combat was +less unequal than it seemed. Courage and resource were penned in +by desperation and numbers, while the great yellow sheets of +flame threw their lurid glare over the scene of death. + +"There is but space for two upon a step to give free play to our +sword-arms," said Du Guesclin. "Do you stand with me, Nigel, +upon the lowest. France and England will fight together this +night. Sir Otto, I pray you to stand behind us with this young +squire. The archers may go higher yet and shoot over our heads. +I would that we had our harness, Nigel." + +"Often have I heard my dear Sir John Chandos say that a knight +should never, even when a guest, be parted from it. Yet it will +be more honor to us if we come well out of it. We have a vantage, +since we see them against the light and they can scarce see us. +It seems to me that they muster for an onslaught." + +"If we can but keep them in play," said the Bohemian, "it is +likely that these flames may bring us succor if there be any true +men in the country." + +"Bethink you, my fair lord," said Alleyne to Sir Nigel, "that we +have never injured these men, nor have we cause of quarrel +against them. Would it not be well, if but for the lady's sake, +to speak them fair and see if we may not come to honorable terms +with them?" + +"Not so, by St. Paul!" cried Sir Nigel. "It does not accord with +mine honor, nor shall it ever be said that I, a knight of +England, was ready to hold parley with men who have slain a fair +lady and a holy priest." + +"As well hold parley with a pack of ravening wolves," said the +French captain. "Ha! Notre Dame Du Guesclin! Saint Ives! +Saint Ives!" + +As he thundered forth his war-cry, the Jacks who had been +gathering before the black arch of the gateway rushed in madly in +a desperate effort to carry the staircase. Their leaders were a +small man, dark in the face, with his beard done up in two +plaits, and another larger man, very bowed in the shoulders, with +a huge club studded with sharp nails in his hand. The first had +not taken three steps ere an arrow from Aylward's bow struck him +full in the chest, and he fell coughing and spluttering across +the threshold. The other rushed onwards, and breaking between Du +Guesclin and Sir Nigel he dashed out the brains of the Bohemian +with a single blow of his clumsy weapon. With three swords +through him he still struggled on, and had almost won his way +through them ere he fell dead upon the stair. Close at his heels +came a hundred furious peasants, who flung themselves again and +again against the five swords which confronted them. It was cut +and parry and stab as quick as eye could see or hand act. The +door was piled with bodies, and the stone floor was slippery with +blood. The deep shout of Du Guesclin, the hard, hissing breath +of the pressing multitude, the clatter of steel, the thud of +falling bodies, and the screams of the stricken, made up such a +medley as came often in after years to break upon Alleyne's +sleep. Slowly and sullenly at last the throng drew off, with +many a fierce backward glance, while eleven of their number lay +huddled in front of the stair which they had failed to win. + +"The dogs have had enough," said Du Guesclin. + +"By Saint Paul! there appear to be some very worthy and valiant +persons among them," observed Sir Nigel. "They are men from +whom, had they been of better birth, much honor and advancement +might be gained. Even as it is, it is a great pleasure to have +seen them. But what is this that they are bringing forward?" + +"It is as I feared," growled Du Guesclin. "They will burn us +out, since they cannot win their way past us. Shoot straight and +hard, archers; for, by St. Ives! our good swords are of little +use to us." + +As he spoke, a dozen men rushed forward, each screening himself +behind a huge fardel of brushwood. Hurling their burdens in one +vast heap within the portal, they threw burning torches upon the +top of it. The wood had been soaked in oil, for in an instant it +was ablaze, and a long, hissing, yellow flame licked over the +heads of the defenders, and drove them further up to the first +floor of the keep. They had scarce reached it, however, ere they +found that the wooden joists and planks of the flooring were +already on fire. Dry and worm-eaten, a spark upon them became a +smoulder, and a smoulder a blaze. A choking smoke filled the +air, and the five could scarce grope their way to the staircase +which led up to the very summit of the square tower. + +Strange was the scene which met their eyes from this eminence. +Beneath them on every side stretched the long sweep of peaceful +country, rolling plain, and tangled wood, all softened and +mellowed in the silver moonshine. No light, nor movement, nor +any sign of human aid could be seen, but far away the hoarse +clangor of a heavy bell rose and fell upon the wintry air. +Beneath and around them blazed the huge fire, roaring and +crackling on every side of the bailey, and even as they looked +the two corner turrets fell in with a deafening crash, and the +whole castle was but a shapeless mass, spouting flames and smoke +from every window and embrasure. The great black tower upon +which they stood rose like a last island of refuge amid this sea +of fire but the ominous crackling and roaring below showed that +it would not be long ere it was engulfed also in the common ruin. +At their very feet was the square courtyard, crowded with the +howling and dancing peasants, their fierce faces upturned, their +clenched hands waving, all drunk with bloodshed and with +vengeance. A yell of execration and a scream of hideous laughter +burst from the vast throng, as they saw the faces of the last +survivors of their enemies peering down at them from the height +of the keep. They still piled the brushwood round the base of +the tower, and gambolled hand in hand around the blaze, screaming +out the doggerel lines which had long been the watchword of the +Jacquerie: + + Cessez, cessez, gens d'armes et pietons, + De piller et manger le bonhomme + Qui de longtemps Jacques Bonhomme + Se nomme. + +Their thin, shrill voices rose high above the roar of the flames +and the crash of the masonry, like the yelping of a pack of +wolves who see their quarry before them and know that they have +well-nigh run him down. + +"By my hilt!" said Aylward to John, "it is in my mind that we +shall not see Spain this journey. It is a great joy to me that I +have placed my feather-bed and other things of price with that +worthy woman at Lyndhurst, who will now have the use of them. I +have thirteen arrows yet, and if one of them fly unfleshed, then, +by the twang of string! I shall deserve my doom. First at him +who flaunts with my lady's silken frock. Clap in the clout, by +God! though a hand's-breadth lower than I had meant. Now for the +rogue with the head upon his pike. Ha! to the inch, John. When +my eye is true, I am better at rovers than at long-butts or +hoyles. A good shoot for you also, John! The villain hath +fallen forward into the fire. But I pray you, John, to loose +gently, and not to pluck with the drawing-hand, for it is a trick +that hath marred many a fine bowman." + +Whilst the two archers were keeping up a brisk fire upon the mob +beneath them, Du Guesclin and his lady were consulting with Sir +Nigel upon their desperate situation. + +"'Tis a strange end for one who has seen so many stricken +fields," said the French chieftain. "For me one death is as +another, but it is the thought of my sweet lady which goes to my +heart." + +"Nay, Bertrand, I fear it as little as you," said she. "Had I my +dearest wish, it would be that we should go together." + +"Well answered, fair lady!" cried Sir Nigel. "And very sure I am +that my own sweet wife would have said the same. If the end be +now come, I have had great good fortune in having lived in times +when so much glory was to be won, and in knowing so many valiant +gentlemen and knights. But why do you pluck my sleeve, Alleyne?" + +"If it please you, my fair lord, there are in this corner two +great tubes of iron, with many heavy balls, which may perchance +be those bombards and shot of which I have heard." + +"By Saint Ives! it is true," cried Sir Bertrand, striding across +to the recess where the ungainly, funnel-shaped, thick-ribbed +engines were standing. "Bombards they are, and of good size. We +may shoot down upon them." + +"Shoot with them, quotha?" cried Aylward in high disdain, for +pressing danger is the great leveller of classes. "How is a man +to take aim with these fool's toys, and how can he hope to do +scath with them?" + +"I will show you," answered Sir Nigel; "for here is the great box +of powder, and if you will raise it for me, John, I will show you +how it may be used. Come hither, where the folk are thickest +round the fire. Now, Aylward, crane thy neck and see what would +have been deemed an old wife's tale when we first turned our +faces to the wars. Throw back the lid, John, and drop the box +into the fire!" + +A deafening roar, a fluff of bluish light, and the great square +tower rocked and trembled from its very foundations, swaying this +way and that like a reed in the wind. Amazed and dizzy, the +defenders, clutching at the cracking parapets for support, saw +great stones, burning beams of wood, and mangled bodies hurtling +past them through the air. When they staggered to their feet +once more, the whole keep had settled down upon one side, so that +they could scarce keep their footing upon the sloping platform. +Gazing over the edge, they looked down upon the horrible +destruction which had been caused by the explosion. For forty +yards round the portal the ground was black with writhing, +screaming figures, who struggled up and hurled themselves down +again, tossing this way and that, sightless, scorched, with fire +bursting from their tattered clothing. Beyond this circle of +death their comrades, bewildered and amazed, cowered away from +this black tower and from these invincible men, who were most to +be dreaded when hope was furthest from their hearts. + +"A sally, Du Guesclin, a sally!" cried Sir Nigel. "By Saint +Paul! they are in two minds, and a bold rush may turn them." He +drew his sword as he spoke and darted down the winding stairs, +closely followed by his four comrades. Ere he was at the first +floor, however, he threw up his arms and stopped. "Mon Dieu!" he +said, "we are lost men!" + +"What then?" cried those behind him. + +"The wail hath fallen in, the stair is blocked, and the fire +still rages below. By Saint Paul! friends, we have fought a very +honorable fight, and may say in all humbleness that we have done +our devoir, but I think that we may now go back to the Lady +Tiphaine and say our orisons, for we have played our parts in +this world, and it is time that we made ready for another." + +The narrow pass was blocked by huge stones littered in wild +confusion over each other, with the blue choking smoke reeking up +through the crevices. The explosion had blown in the wall and +cut off the only path by which they could descend. Pent in, a +hundred feet from earth, with a furnace raging under them and a +ravening multitude all round who thirsted for their blood, it +seemed indeed as though no men had ever come through such peril +with their lives. Slowly they made their way back to the summit, +but as they came out upon it the Lady Tiphaine darted forward and +caught her husband by the wrist. + +"Bertrand," said she, "hush and listen! I have heard the voices +of men all singing together in a strange tongue." + +Breathless they stood and silent, but no sound came up to them, +save the roar of the flames and the clamor of their enemies. + +"It cannot be, lady," said Du Guesclin. "This night hath over +wrought you, and your senses play you false. What men ere there +in this country who would sing in a strange tongue?" + +"Hola!" yelled Aylward, leaping suddenly into the air with waving +hands and joyous face. "I thought I heard it ere we went down, +and now I hear it again. We are saved, comrades! By these ten +finger-bones, we are saved! It is the marching song of the White +Company. Hush!" + +With upraised forefinger and slanting head, he stood listening. +Suddenly there came swelling up a deep-voiced, rollicking chorus +from somewhere out of the darkness. Never did choice or dainty +ditty of Provence or Languedoc sound more sweetly in the ears +than did the rough-tongued Saxon to the six who strained their +ears from the blazing keep: + + We'll drink all together + To the gray goose feather + And the land where the gray goose flew. + +"Ha, by my hilt!" shouted Aylward, "it is the dear old bow song +of the Company. Here come two hundred as tight lads as ever +twirled a shaft over their thumbnails. Hark to the dogs, how +lustily they sing!" + +Nearer and clearer, swelling up out of the night, came the gay +marching lilt: + + What of the bow? + The bow was made in England. + Of true wood, of yew wood, + The wood of English bows; + For men who are free + Love the old yew-tree + And the land where the yew tree grows. + + What of the men? + The men were bred in England, + The bowmen, the yeomen, + The lads of the dale and fell, + Here's to you and to you, + To the hearts that are true, + And the land where the true hearts dwell. + +"They sing very joyfully," said Du Guesclin, "as though they were +going to a festival." + +"It is their wont when there is work to be done." + +"By Saint Paul!" quoth Sir Nigel, "it is in my mind that they +come too late, for I cannot see how we are to come down from this +tower." + +"There they come, the hearts of gold!" cried Aylward. "See, they +move out from the shadow, Now they cross the meadow. They are on +the further side of the moat. Hola camarades, hola! Johnston, +Eccles, Cooke, Harward, Bligh! Would ye see a fair lady and two +gallant knights done foully to death?" + +"Who is there?" shouted a deep voice from below. "Who is this +who speaks with an English tongue?" + +"It is I, old lad. It is Sam Aylward of the Company; and here is +your captain, Sir Nigel Loring, and four others, all laid out to +be grilled like an Easterling's herrings." + +"Curse me if I did not think that it was the style of speech of +old Samkin Aylward," said the voice, amid a buzz from the ranks. +"Wherever there are knocks going there is Sammy in the heart of +it. But who are these ill-faced rogues who block the path? To +your kennels, canaille! What! you dare look us in the eyes? Out +swords, lads, and give them the flat of them! Waste not your +shafts upon such runagate knaves." + +There was little fight left in the peasants, however, still dazed +by the explosion, amazed at their own losses and disheartened by +the arrival of the disciplined archers. In a very few minutes +they were in full flight for their brushwood homes, leaving the +morning sun to rise upon a blackened and blood-stained ruin, +where it had left the night before the magnificent castle of the +Seneschal of Auvergne. Already the white lines in the east were +deepening into pink as the archers gathered round the keep and +took counsel how to rescue the survivors. + +"Had we a rope," said Alleyne, "there is one side which is not +yet on fire, down which we might slip." + +"But how to get a rope?" + +"It is an old trick," quoth Aylward. "Hola! Johnston, cast me up +a rope, even as you did at Maupertuis in the war time." + +The grizzled archer thus addressed took several lengths of rope +from his comrades, and knotting them firmly together, he +stretched them out in the long shadow which the rising sun threw +from the frowning keep. Then he fixed the yew-stave of his bow +upon end and measured the long, thin, black line which it threw +upon the turf. + +"A six-foot stave throws a twelve-foot shadow," he muttered. "The +keep throws a shadow of sixty paces. Thirty paces of rope will +be enow and to spare. Another strand, Watkin! Now pull at the +end that all may be safe. So! It is ready for them.' + +"But how are they to reach it?" asked the young archer beside +him. + +"Watch and see, young fool's-head," growled the old bowman. He +took a long string from his pouch and fastened one end to an +arrow. + +"All ready, Samkin?" + +"Ready, camarade." + +"Close to your hand then." With an easy pull he sent the shaft +flickering gently up, falling upon the stonework within a foot of +where Aylward was standing. The other end was secured to the +rope, so that in a minute a good strong cord was dangling from +the only sound side of the blazing and shattered tower. The Lady +Tiphaine was lowered with a noose drawn fast under the arms, and +the other five slid swiftly down, amid the cheers and joyous +outcry of their rescuers. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +HOW THE COMPANY TOOK COUNSEL ROUND THE FALLEN TREE. + + +"Where is Sir Claude Latour?" asked Sir Nigel, as his feet +touched ground. + +"He is in camp, near Montpezat, two hours' march from here, my +fair lord," said Johnston, the grizzled bowman who commanded the +archers. + +"Then we shall march thither, for I would fain have you all back +at Dax in time to be in the prince's vanguard." + +"My lord," cried Alleyne, joyfully, "here are our chargers in the +field, and I see your harness amid the plunder which these rogues +have left behind them." + +"By Saint Ives! you speak sooth, young squire," said Du Guesclin. +"There is my horse and my lady's jennet. The knaves led them +from the stables, but fled without them. Now, Nigel, it is great +joy to me to have seen one of whom I have often heard. Yet we +must leave you now, for I must be with the King of Spain ere your +army crosses the mountains." + +"I had thought that you were in Spain with the valiant Henry of +Trastamare." + +"I have been there, but I came to France to raise succor for him. +I shall ride back, Nigel, with four thousand of the best lances +of France at my back, so that your prince may find he hath a task +which is worthy of him. God be with you, friend, and may we meet +again in better times!" + +"I do not think," said Sir Nigel, as he stood by Alleyne's side +looking after the French knight and his lady, "that in all +Christendom you will meet with a more stout-hearted man or a +fairer and sweeter dame. But your face is pale and sad, Alleyne! +Have you perchance met with some hurt during the ruffle?" + +"Nay, my fair lord, I was but thinking of my friend Ford, and how +he sat upon my couch no later than yesternight." + +Sir Nigel shook his head sadly. "Two brave squires have I lost," +said he. "I know not why the young shoots should be plucked, and +an old weed left standing, yet certes there must be come good +reason, since God hath so planned it. Did you not note, Alleyne, +that the Lady Tiphaine did give us warning last night that danger +was coming upon us?" + +"She did, my lord." + +"By Saint Paul! my mind misgives me as to what she saw at Twynham +Castle. And yet I cannot think that any Scottish or French +rovers could land in such force as to beleaguer the fortalice. +Call the Company together, Aylward; and let us on, for it will be +shame to us if we are not at Dax upon the trysting day." + +The archers had spread themselves over the ruins, but a blast +upon a bugle brought them all back to muster, with such booty as +they could bear with them stuffed into their pouches or slung +over their shoulders. As they formed into ranks, each man +dropping silently into his place, Sir Nigel ran a questioning eye +over them, and a smile of pleasure played over his face. Tall +and sinewy, and brown, clear-eyed, hard-featured, with the stern +and prompt bearing of experienced soldiers, it would be hard +indeed for a leader to seek for a choicer following. Here and +there in the ranks were old soldiers of the French wars, grizzled +and lean, with fierce, puckered features and shaggy, bristling +brows. The most, however, were young and dandy archers, with +fresh English faces, their beards combed out, their hair curling +from under their close steel hufkens, with gold or jewelled +earrings gleaming in their ears, while their gold-spangled +baldrics, their silken belts, and the chains which many of them +wore round their thick brown necks, all spoke of the brave times +which they had had as free companions. Each had a yew or hazel +stave slung over his shoulder, plain and serviceable with the +older men, but gaudily painted and carved at either end with the +others. Steel caps, mail brigandines, white surcoats with the +red lion of St. George, and sword or battle-axe swinging from +their belts, completed this equipment, while in some cases the +murderous maule or five-foot mallet was hung across the +bowstave, being fastened to their leathern shoulder-belt by a +hook in the centre of the handle. Sir Nigel's heart beat high as +he looked upon their free bearing and fearless faces. + +For two hours they marched through forest and marshland, along +the left bank of the river Aveyron; Sir Nigel riding behind his +Company, with Alleyne at his right hand, and Johnston, the old +master bowman, walking by his left stirrup. Ere they had reached +their journey's end the knight had learned all that he would know +of his men, their doings and their intentions. Once, as they +marched, they saw upon the further bank of the river a body of +French men-at-arms, riding very swiftly in the direction of +Villefranche. + +"It is the Seneschal of Toulouse, with his following," said +Johnston, shading his eyes with his hand. "Had he been on this +side of the water he might have attempted something upon us." + +"I think that it would be well that we should cross," said Sir +Nigel. "It were pity to balk this worthy seneschal, should he +desire to try some small feat of arms." + +"Nay, there is no ford nearer than Tourville," answered the old +archer. "He is on his way to Villefranche, and short will be the +shrift of any Jacks who come into his hands, for he is a man of +short speech. It was he and the Seneschal of Beaucaire who hung +Peter Wilkins, of the Company, last Lammastide; for which, by the +black rood of Waltham! they shall hang themselves, if ever they +come into our power. But here are our comrades, Sir Nigel, and +here is our camp." + +As he spoke, the forest pathway along which they marched opened +out into a green glade, which sloped down towards the river. +High, leafless trees girt it in on three sides, with a thick +undergrowth of holly between their trunks. At the farther end of +this forest clearing there stood forty or fifty huts, built very +neatly from wood and clay, with the blue smoke curling out from +the roofs. A dozen tethered horses and mules grazed around the +encampment, while a number of archers lounged about: some +shooting at marks, while others built up great wooden fires in +the open, and hung their cooking kettles above them. At the +sight of their returning comrades there was a shout of welcome, +and a horseman, who had been exercising his charger behind the +camp, came cantering down to them. He was a dapper, brisk man, +very richly clad, with a round, clean-shaven face, and very +bright black eyes, which danced and sparkled with excitement. + +"Sir Nigel!" he cried. "Sir Nigel Loring, at last! By my soul +we have awaited you this month past. Right welcome, Sir Nigel! +You have had my letter?" + +"It was that which brought me here," said Sir Nigel. "But +indeed, Sir Claude Latour, it is a great wonder to me that you +did not yourself lead these bowmen, for surely they could have +found no better leader?" + +"None, none, by the Virgin of L'Esparre!" he cried, speaking in +the strange, thick Gascon speech which turns every _v_ into a +_b_. "But you know what these islanders of yours are, Sir Nigel. +They will not be led by any save their own blood and race. There +is no persuading them. Not even I, Claude Latour Seigneur of +Montchateau, master of the high justice, the middle and the low, +could gain their favor. They must needs hold a council and put +their two hundred thick heads together, and then there comes this +fellow Aylward and another, as their spokesmen, to say that they +will disband unless an Englishman of good name be set over them. +There are many of them, as I understand, who come from some great +forest which lies in Hampi, or Hampti--I cannot lay my tongue to +the name. Your dwelling is in those parts, and so their thoughts +turned to you as their leader. But we had hoped that you would +bring a hundred men with you." + +"They are already at Dax, where we shall join them," said Sir +Nigel. "But let the men break their fast, and we shall then take +counsel what to do." + +"Come into my hut," said Sir Claude. "It is but poor fare that I +can lay before you--milk, cheese, wine, and bacon--yet your +squire and yourself will doubtless excuse it. This is my house +where the pennon flies before the door--a small residence to +contain the Lord of Montchateau." + +Sir Nigel sat silent and distrait at his meal, while Alleyne +hearkened to the clattering tongue of the Gascon, and to his talk +of the glories of his own estate, his successes in love, and his +triumphs in war. + +"And now that you are here, Sir Nigel," he said at last, "I have +many fine ventures all ready for us. I have heard that Montpezat +is of no great strength, and that there are two hundred thousand +crowns in the castle. At Castelnau also there is a cobbler who +is in my pay, and who will throw us a rope any dark night from +his house by the town wall. I promise you that you shall thrust +your arms elbow-deep among good silver pieces ere the nights are +moonless again; for on every hand of us are fair women, rich +wine, and good plunder, as much as heart could wish." + +"I have other plans," answered Sir Nigel curtly; "for I have come +hither to lead these bowmen to the help of the prince, our +master, who may have sore need of them ere he set Pedro upon the +throne of Spain. It is my purpose to start this very day for Dax +upon the Adour, where he hath now pitched his camp." + +The face of the Gascon darkened, and his eyes flashed with +resentment, "For me," he said, "I care little for this war, and I +find the life which I lead a very joyous and pleasant one. I +will not go to Dax." + +"Nay, think again, Sir Claude," said Sir Nigel gently; "for you +have ever had the name of a true and loyal knight. Surely you +will not hold back now when your master hath need of you." + +"I will not go to Dax," the other shouted. + +"But your devoir--your oath of fealty?" + +"I say that I will not go." + +"Then, Sir Claude, I must lead the Company without you." + +"If they will follow," cried the Gascon with a sneer. "These are +not hired slaves, but free companions, who will do nothing save +by their own good wills. In very sooth, my Lord Loring, they are +ill men to trifle with, and it were easier to pluck a bone from a +hungry bear than to lead a bowman out of a land of plenty and of +pleasure." + +"Then I pray you to gather them together," said Sir Nigel, "and I +will tell them what is in my mind; for if I am their leader they +must to Dax, and if I am not then I know not what I am doing in +Auvergne. Have my horse ready, Alleyne; for, by St. Paul! come +what may, I must be upon the homeward road ere mid-day." + +A blast upon the bugle summoned the bowmen to counsel, and they +gathered in little knots and groups around a great fallen tree +which lay athwart the glade. Sir Nigel sprang lightly upon the +trunk, and stood with blinking eye and firm lips looking down at +the ring of upturned warlike faces. + +"They tell me, bowmen," said he, "that ye have grown so fond of +ease and plunder and high living that ye are not to be moved from +this pleasant country. But, by Saint Paul! I will believe no +such thing of you, for I can readily see that you are all very +valiant men, who would scorn to live here in peace when your +prince hath so great a venture before him. Ye have chosen me as +a leader, and a leader I will be if ye come with me to Spain; and +I vow to you that my pennon of the five roses shall, if God give +me strength and life, be ever where there is most honor to be +gained. But if it be your wish to loll and loiter in these +glades, bartering glory and renown for vile gold and ill-gotten +riches, then ye must find another leader; for I have lived in +honor, and in honor I trust that I shall die. If there be forest +men or Hampshire men amongst ye, I call upon them to say whether +they will follow the banner of Loring." + +"Here's a Romsey man for you!" cried a young bowman with a sprig +of evergreen set in his helmet. + +"And a lad from Alresford!" shouted another. + +"And from Milton!" + +"And from Burley!" + +"And from Lymington!" + +"And a little one from Brockenhurst!" shouted a huge-limbed +fellow who sprawled beneath a tree. + +"By my hilt! lads," cried Aylward, jumping upon the fallen trunk, +"I think that we could not look the girls in the eyes if we let +the prince cross the mountains and did not pull string to clear a +path for him. It is very well in time of peace to lead such a +life as we have had together, but now the war-banner is in the +wind once more, and, by these ten finger-bones! if he go alone, +old Samkin Aylward will walk beside it." + +These words from a man as popular as Aylward decided many of the +waverers, and a shout of approval burst from his audience. + +"Far be it from me," said Sir Claude Latour suavely, "to persuade +you against this worthy archer, or against Sir Nigel Loring; yet +we have been together in many ventures, and perchance it may not +be amiss if I say to you what I think upon the matter." + +"Peace for the little Gascon!" cried the archers. "Let every man +have his word. Shoot straight for the mark, lad, and fair play +for all." + +"Bethink you, then," said Sir Claude, "that you go under a hard +rule, with neither freedom nor pleasure--and for what? For +sixpence a day, at the most; while now you may walk across the +country and stretch out either hand to gather in whatever you +have a mind for. What do we not hear of our comrades who have +gone with Sir John Hawkwood to Italy? In one night they have +held to ransom six hundred of the richest noblemen of Mantua. +They camp before a great city, and the base burghers come forth +with the keys, and then they make great spoil; or, if it please +them better, they take so many horse-loads of silver as a +composition; and so they journey on from state to state, rich and +free and feared by all. Now, is not that the proper life for a +soldier?" + +"The proper life for a robber!" roared Hordle John, in his +thundering voice. + +"And yet there is much in what the Gascon says," said a swarthy +fellow in a weather-stained doublet; "and I for one would rather +prosper in Italy than starve in Spain." + +"You were always a cur and a traitor, Mark Shaw," cried Aylward. +"By my hilt! if you will stand forth and draw your sword I will +warrant you that you will see neither one nor the other." + +"Nay, Aylward," said Sir Nigel, "we cannot mend the matter by +broiling. Sir Claude, I think that what you have said does you +little honor, and if my words aggrieve you I am ever ready to go +deeper into the matter with you. But you shall have such men as +will follow you, and you may go where you will, so that you come +not with us. Let all who love their prince and country stand +fast, while those who think more of a well-lined purse step forth +upon the farther side." + +Thirteen bowmen, with hung heads and sheepish faces, stepped +forward with Mark Shaw and ranged themselves behind Sir Claude. +Amid the hootings and hissings of their comrades, they marched +off together to the Gascon's hut, while the main body broke up +their meeting and set cheerily to work packing their possessions, +furbishing their weapons, and preparing for the march which lay +before them. Over the Tarn and the Garonne, through the vast +quagmires of Armagnac, past the swift-flowing Losse, and so down +the long valley of the Adour, there was many a long league to be +crossed ere they could join themselves to that dark war-cloud +which was drifting slowly southwards to the line of the snowy +peaks, beyond which the banner of England had never yet been +seen. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +HOW THE ARMY MADE THE PASSAGE OF RONCESVALLES. + + +The whole vast plain of Gascony and of Languedoc is an arid and +profitless expanse in winter save where the swift-flowing Adour +and her snow-fed tributaries, the Louts, the Oloron and the Pau, +run down to the sea of Biscay. South of the Adour the jagged +line of mountains which fringe the sky-line send out long granite +claws, running down into the lowlands and dividing them into +"gaves" or stretches of valley. Hillocks grow into hills, and +hills into mountains, each range overlying its neighbor, until +they soar up in the giant chain which raises its spotless and +untrodden peaks, white and dazzling, against the pale blue wintry +sky. + +A quiet land is this--a land where the slow-moving Basque, with +his flat biretta-cap, his red sash and his hempen sandals, tills +his scanty farm or drives his lean flock to their hill-side +pastures. It is the country of the wolf and the isard, of the +brown bear and the mountain-goat, a land of bare rock and of +rushing water. Yet here it was that the will of a great prince +had now assembled a gallant army; so that from the Adour to the +passes of Navarre the barren valleys and wind-swept wastes were +populous with soldiers and loud with the shouting of orders and +the neighing of horses. For the banners of war had been flung to +the wind once more, and over those glistening peaks was the +highway along which Honor pointed in an age when men had chosen +her as their guide. + +And now all was ready for the enterprise. From Dax to St. Jean +Pied-du-Port the country was mottled with the white tents of +Gascons, Aquitanians and English, all eager for the advance. From +all sides the free companions had trooped in, until not less than +twelve thousand of these veteran troops were cantoned along the +frontiers of Navarre. From England had arrived the prince's +brother, the Duke of Lancaster, with four hundred knights in his +train and a strong company of archers. Above all, an heir to the +throne had been born in Bordeaux, and the prince might leave his +spouse with an easy mind, for all was well with mother and with +child. + +The keys of the mountain passes still lay in the hands of the +shifty and ignoble Charles of Navarre, who had chaffered and +bargained both with the English and with the Spanish, taking +money from the one side to hold them open and from the other to +keep them sealed. The mallet hand of Edward, however, had +shattered all the schemes and wiles of the plotter. Neither +entreaty nor courtly remonstrance came from the English prince; +but Sir Hugh Calverley passed silently over the border with his +company, and the blazing walls of the two cities of Miranda and +Puenta de la Reyna warned the unfaithful monarch that there were +other metals besides gold, and that he was dealing with a man to +whom it was unsafe to lie. His price was paid, his objections +silenced, and the mountain gorges lay open to the invaders. From +the Feast of the Epiphany there was mustering and massing, until, +in the first week of February--three days after the White Company +joined the army--the word was given for a general advance through +the defile of Roncesvalles. At five in the cold winter's morning +the bugles were blowing in the hamlet of St. Jean Pied-du-Port, +and by six Sir Nigel's Company, three hundred strong, were on +their way for the defile, pushing swiftly in the dim light up the +steep curving road; for it was the prince's order that they +should be the first to pass through, and that they should remain +on guard at the further end until the whole army had emerged from +the mountains. Day was already breaking in the east, and the +summits of the great peaks had turned rosy red, while the valleys +still lay in the shadow, when they found themselves with the +cliffs on either hand and the long, rugged pass stretching away +before them. + +Sir Nigel rode his great black war-horse at the head of his +archers, dressed in full armor, with Black Simon bearing his +banner behind him, while Alleyne at his bridle-arm carried his +blazoned shield and his well-steeled ashen spear. A proud and +happy man was the knight, and many a time he turned in his saddle +to look at the long column of bowmen who swung swiftly along +behind him. + +"By Saint Paul! Alleyne," said he, "this pass is a very perilous +place, and I would that the King of Navarre had held it against +us, for it would have been a very honorable venture had it fallen +to us to win a passage. I have heard the minstrels sing of one +Sir Roland who was slain by the infidels in these very parts." + +"If it please you, my fair lord," said Black Simon, "I know +something of these parts, for I have twice served a term with the +King of Navarre. There is a hospice of monks yonder, where you +may see the roof among the trees, and there it was that Sir +Roland was slain. The village upon the left is Orbaiceta, and I +know a house therein where the right wine of Jurancon is to be +bought, if it would please you to quaff a morning cup," + +"There is smoke yonder upon the right." + +"That is a village named Les Aldudes, and I know a hostel there +also where the wine is of the best. It is said that the inn-keeper +hath a buried treasure, and I doubt not, my fair lord, that if +you grant me leave I could prevail upon him to tell us where he +hath hid it." + +"Nay, nay, Simon," said Sir Nigel curtly, "I pray you to forget +these free companion tricks. Ha! Edricson, I see that you stare +about you, and in good sooth these mountains must seem wondrous +indeed to one who hath but seen Butser or the Portsdown hill." + +The broken and rugged road had wound along the crests of low +hills, with wooded ridges on either side of it over which peeped +the loftier mountains, the distant Peak of the South and the vast +Altabisca, which towered high above them and cast its black +shadow from left to right across the valley. From where they now +stood they could look forward down a long vista of beech woods +and jagged rock-strewn wilderness, all white with snow, to where +the pass opened out upon the uplands beyond. Behind them they +could still catch a glimpse of the gray plains of Gascony, and +could see her rivers gleaming like coils of silver in the +sunshine. As far as eye could see from among the rocky gorges +and the bristles of the pine woods there came the quick twinkle +and glitter of steel, while the wind brought with it sudden +distant bursts of martial music from the great host which rolled +by every road and by-path towards the narrow pass of +Roncesvalles. On the cliffs on either side might also be seen +the flash of arms and the waving of pennons where the force of +Navarre looked down upon the army of strangers who passed +through their territories. + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, blinking up at them, "I think +that we have much to hope for from these cavaliers, for they +cluster very thickly upon our flanks. Pass word to the men, +Aylward, that they unsling their bows, for I have no doubt that +there are some very worthy gentlemen yonder who may give us some +opportunity for honorable advancement." + +"I hear that the prince hath the King of Navarre as hostage," +said Alleyne, "and it is said that he hath sworn to put him to +death if there be any attack upon us." + +"It was not so that war was made when good King Edward first +turned his hand to it," said Sir Nigel sadly. "Ah! Alleyne, I +fear that you will never live to see such things, for the minds +of men are more set upon money and gain than of old. By Saint +Paul! it was a noble sight when two great armies would draw +together upon a certain day, and all who had a vow would ride +forth to discharge themselves of it. What noble spear-runnings +have I not seen, and even in an humble way had a part in, when +cavaliers would run a course for the easing of their souls and +for the love of their ladies! Never a bad word have I for the +French, for, though I have ridden twenty times up to their array, +I have never yet failed to find some very gentle and worthy +knight or squire who was willing to do what he might to enable me +to attempt some small feat of arms. Then, when all cavaliers had +been satisfied, the two armies would come to hand-strokes, and +fight right merrily until one or other had the vantage. By Saint +Paul! it was not our wont in those days to pay gold for the +opening of passes, nor would we hold a king as hostage lest his +people come to thrusts with us. In good sooth, if the war is to +be carried out in such a fashion, then it is grief to me that I +ever came away from Castle Twynham, for I would not have left my +sweet lady had I not thought that there were deeds of arms to be +done." + +"But surely, my fair lord," said Alleyne, "you have done some +great feats of arms since we left the Lady Loring." + +"I cannot call any to mind," answered Sir Nigel. + +"There was the taking of the sea-rovers, and the holding of the +keep against the Jacks." + +"Nay, nay," said the knight, "these were not feats of arms, but +mere wayside ventures and the chances of travel. By Saint Paul! +if it were not that these hills are over-steep for Pommers, I +would ride to these cavaliers of Navarre and see if there were +not some among them who would help me to take this patch from +mine eye. It is a sad sight to see this very fine pass, which my +own Company here could hold against an army, and yet to ride +through it with as little profit as though it were the lane from +my kennels to the Avon." + +All morning Sir Nigel rode in a very ill-humor, with his Company +tramping behind him. It was a toilsome march over broken ground +and through snow, which came often as high as the knee, yet ere +the sun had begun to sink they had reached the spot where the +gorge opens out on to the uplands of Navarre, and could see the +towers of Pampeluna jutting up against the southern sky-line. +Here the Company were quartered in a scattered mountain hamlet, +and Alleyne spent the day looking down upon the swarming army +which poured with gleam of spears and flaunt of standards through +the narrow pass. + +"Hola, mon gar.," said Aylward, seating himself upon a boulder by +his side. "This is indeed a fine sight upon which it is good to +look, and a man might go far ere he would see so many brave men +and fine horses. By my hilt! our little lord is wroth because we +have come peacefully through the passes, but I will warrant him +that we have fighting enow ere we turn our faces northward again. +It is said that there are four-score thousand men behind the King +of Spain, with Du Guesclin and all the best lances of France, who +have sworn to shed their heart's blood ere this Pedro come again +to the throne." + +"Yet our own army is a great one," said Alleyne. + +"Nay, there are but seven-and-twenty thousand men. Chandos hath +persuaded the prince to leave many behind, and indeed I think +that he is right, for there is little food and less water in +these parts for which we are bound. A man without his meat or a +horse without his fodder is like a wet bow-string, fit for +little. But voila, mon petit, here comes Chandos and his +company, and there is many a pensil and banderole among yonder +squadrons which show that the best blood of England is riding +under his banners." + +Whilst Aylward had been speaking, a strong column of archers had +defiled through the pass beneath them. They were followed by a +banner-bearer who held high the scarlet wedge upon a silver field +which proclaimed the presence of the famous warrior. He rode +himself within a spear's-length of his standard, clad from neck +to foot in steel, but draped in the long linen gown or parement +which was destined to be the cause of his death. His plumed +helmet was carried behind him by his body-squire, and his head +was covered by a small purple cap, from under which his snow-white +hair curled downwards to his shoulders. With his long beak-like +nose and his single gleaming eye, which shone brightly from under +a thick tuft of grizzled brow, he seemed to Alleyne to have +something of the look of some fierce old bird of prey. For a +moment he smiled, as his eye lit upon the banner of the five +roses waving from the hamlet; but his course lay for Pampeluna, +and he rode on after the archers. + +Close at his heels came sixteen squires, all chosen from the +highest families, and behind them rode twelve hundred English +knights, with gleam of steel and tossing of plumes, their harness +jingling, their long straight swords clanking against their +stirrup-irons, and the beat of their chargers' hoofs like the low +deep roar of the sea upon the shore. Behind them marched six +hundred Cheshire and Lancashire archers, bearing the badge of the +Audleys, followed by the famous Lord Audley himself, with the +four valiant squires, Dutton of Dutton, Delves of Doddington, +Fowlehurst of Crewe, and Hawkestone of Wainehill, who had all won +such glory at Poictiers. Two hundred heavily-armed cavalry rode +behind the Audley standard, while close at their heels came the +Duke of Lancaster with a glittering train, heralds tabarded with +the royal arms riding three deep upon cream-colored chargers in +front of him. On either side of the young prince rode the two +seneschals of Aquitaine, Sir Guiscard d'Angle and Sir Stephen +Cossington, the one bearing the banner of the province and the +other that of Saint George. Away behind him as far as eye could +reach rolled the far-stretching, unbroken river of steel-rank +after rank and column after column, with waving of plumes, +glitter of arms, tossing of guidons, and flash and flutter of +countless armorial devices. All day Alleyne looked down upon the +changing scene, and all day the old bowman stood by his elbow, +pointing out the crests of famous warriors and the arms of noble +houses. Here were the gold mullets of the Pakingtons, the sable +and ermine of the Mackworths, the scarlet bars of the Wakes, +the gold and blue of the Grosvenors, the cinque-foils of the +Cliftons, the annulets of the Musgraves, the silver pinions of +the Beauchamps, the crosses of the Molineaux, the bloody chevron of +the Woodhouses, the red and silver of the Worsleys, the swords of +the Clarks, the boars'-heads of the Lucies, the crescents of the +Boyntons, and the wolf and dagger of the Lipscombs. So through +the sunny winter day the chivalry of England poured down through +the dark pass of Roncesvalles to the plains of Spain. + +It was on a Monday that the Duke of Lancaster's division passed +safely through the Pyrenees. On the Tuesday there was a bitter +frost, and the ground rung like iron beneath the feet of the +horses; yet ere evening the prince himself, with the main battle +of his army, had passed the gorge and united with his vanguard at +Pampeluna. With him rode the King of Majorca, the hostage King +of Navarre, and the fierce Don Pedro of Spain, whose pale blue +eyes gleamed with a sinister light as they rested once more upon +the distant peaks of the land which had disowned him. Under the +royal banners rode many a bold Gascon baron and many a hot-blooded +islander. Here were the high stewards of Aquitaine, of Saintonge, +of La Rochelle, of Quercy, of Limousin, of Agenois, of Poitou, +and of Bigorre, with the banners and musters of their provinces. +Here also were the valiant Earl of Angus, Sir Thomas Banaster +with his garter over his greave, Sir Nele Loring, second cousin +to Sir Nigel, and a long column of Welsh footmen who marched under +the red banner of Merlin. From dawn to sundown the long train +wound through the pass, their breath reeking up upon the frosty air +like the steam from a cauldron. + +The weather was less keen upon the Wednesday, and the rear-guard +made good their passage, with the bombards and the wagon-train. +Free companions and Gascons made up this portion of the army to +the number of ten thousand men. The fierce Sir Hugh Calverley, +with his yellow mane, and the rugged Sir Robert Knolles, with +their war-hardened and veteran companies of English bowmen, +headed the long column; while behind them came the turbulent +bands of the Bastard of Breteuil, Nandon de Bagerant, one-eyed +Camus, Black Ortingo, La Nuit and others whose very names seem to +smack of hard hands and ruthless deeds. With them also were the +pick of the Gascon chivalry--the old Duc d'Armagnac, his nephew +Lord d'Albret, brooding and scowling over his wrongs, the giant +Oliver de Clisson, the Captal de Buch, pink of knighthood, the +sprightly Sir Perducas d'Albret, the red-bearded Lord d'Esparre, +and a long train of needy and grasping border nobles, with long +pedigrees and short purses, who had come down from their hill-side +strongholds, all hungering for the spoils and the ransoms of Spain. +By the Thursday morning the whole army was encamped in the Vale +of Pampeluna, and the prince had called his council to meet him +in the old palace of the ancient city of Navarre. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +HOW THE COMPANY MADE SPORT IN THE VALE OF PAMPELUNA. + + +Whilst the council was sitting in Pampeluna the White Company, +having encamped in a neighboring valley, close to the companies +of La Nuit and of Black Ortingo, were amusing themselves with +sword-play, wrestling, and shooting at the shields, which they +had placed upon the hillside to serve them as butts. The younger +archers, with their coats of mail thrown aside, their brown or +flaxen hair tossing in the wind, and their jerkins turned back to +give free play to their brawny chests and arms, stood in lines, +each loosing his shaft in turn, while Johnston, Aylward, Black +Simon, and half-a-score of the elders lounged up and down with +critical eyes, and a word of rough praise or of curt censure for +the marksmen. Behind stood knots of Gascon and Brabant +crossbowmen from the companies of Ortingo and of La Nuit, leaning +upon their unsightly weapons and watching the practice of the +Englishmen. + +"A good shot, Hewett, a good shot!" said old Johnston to a young +bowman, who stood with his bow in his left hand, gazing with +parted lips after his flying shaft. "You see, she finds the +ring, as I knew she would from the moment that your string +twanged." + +"Loose it easy, steady, and yet sharp," said Aylward. "By my +hilt! mon gar., it is very well when you do but shoot at a +shield, but when there is a man behind the shield, and he rides +at you with wave of sword and glint of eyes from behind his +vizor, you may find him a less easy mark." + +"It is a mark that I have found before now," answered the young +bowman. + +"And shall again, camarade, I doubt not. But hola! Johnston, who +is this who holds his bow like a crow-keeper?" + +"It is Silas Peterson, of Horsham. Do not wink with one eye and +look with the other, Silas, and do not hop and dance after you +shoot, with your tongue out, for that will not speed it upon its +way. Stand straight and firm, as God made you. Move not the bow +arm, and steady with the drawing hand!" + +"I' faith," said Black Simon, "I am a spearman myself, and am +more fitted for hand-strokes than for such work as this. Yet I +have spent my days among bowmen, and I have seen many a brave +shaft sped. I will not say but that we have some good marksmen +here, and that this Company would be accounted a fine body of +archers at any time or place. Yet I do not see any men who bend +so strong a bow or shoot as true a shaft as those whom I have +known." + +"You say sooth," said Johnston, turning his seamed and grizzled +face upon the man-at-arms. "See yonder," he added, pointing to a +bombard which lay within the camp: "there is what hath done scath +to good bowmanship, with its filthy soot and foolish roaring +mouth. I wonder that a true knight, like our prince, should +carry such a scurvy thing in his train. Robin, thou red-headed +lurden, how oft must I tell thee not to shoot straight with a +quarter-wind blowing across the mark?" + +"By these ten finger-bones! there were some fine bowmen at the +intaking of Calais," said Aylward. "I well remember that, on +occasion of an outfall, a Genoan raised his arm over his mantlet, +and shook it at us, a hundred paces from our line. There were +twenty who loosed shafts at him, and when the man was afterwards +slain it was found that he had taken eighteen through his +forearm." + +"And I can call to mind," remarked Johnston, "that when the great +cog `Christopher,' which the French had taken from us, was moored +two hundred paces from the shore, two archers, little Robin +Withstaff and Elias Baddlesmere, in four shots each cut every +strand of her hempen anchor-cord, so that she well-nigh came upon +the rocks." + +"Good shooting, i' faith rare shooting!" said Black Simon. "But I +have seen you, Johnston, and you, Samkin Aylward, and one or two +others who are still with us, shoot as well as the best. Was it +not you, Johnston, who took the fat ox at Finsbury butts against +the pick of London town?" + +A sunburnt and black-eyed Brabanter had stood near the old +archers, leaning upon a large crossbow and listening to their +talk, which had been carried on in that hybrid camp dialect which +both nations could understand. He was a squat, bull-necked man, +clad in the iron helmet, mail tunic, and woollen gambesson of his +class. A jacket with hanging sleeves, slashed with velvet at the +neck and wrists, showed that he was a man of some consideration, +an under-officer, or file-leader of his company. + +"I cannot think," said he, "why you English should be so fond of +your six-foot stick. If it amuse you to bend it, well and good; +but why should I strain and pull, when my little moulinet will do +all for me, and better than I can do it for myself?" + +"I have seen good shooting with the prod and with the latch," +said Aylward, "but, by my hilt! camarade, with all respect to you +and to your bow, I think that is but a woman's weapon, which a +woman can point and loose as easily as a man." + +"I know not about that," answered the Brabanter, "but this I +know, that though I have served for fourteen years, I have never +yet seen an Englishman do aught with the long-bow which I could +not do better with my arbalest. By the three kings! I would +even go further, and say that I have done things with my arbalest +which no Englishman could do with his long-bow." + +"Well said, mon gar.," cried Aylward. "A good cock has ever a +brave call. Now, I have shot little of late, but there is +Johnston here who will try a round with you for the honor of the +Company." + +"And I will lay a gallon of Jurancon wine upon the long-bow," +said Black Simon, "though I had rather, for my own drinking, that +it were a quart of Twynham ale." + +"I take both your challenge and your wager," said the man of +Brabant, throwing off his jacket and glancing keenly about him +with his black, twinkling eyes. "I cannot see any fitting mark, +for I care not to waste a bolt upon these shields, which a +drunken boor could not miss at a village kermesse." + +"This is a perilous man," whispered an English man-at-arms, +plucking at Aylward's sleeve. "He is the best marksman of all +the crossbow companies and it was he who brought down the +Constable de Bourbon at Brignais, I fear that your man will come +by little honor with him." + +"Yet I have seen Johnston shoot these twenty years, and I will +not flinch from it. How say you, old war-hound, will you not have +a flight shot or two with this springald?" + +"Tut, tut, Aylward," said the old bowman. "My day is past, and +it is for the younger ones to hold what we have gained. I take +it unkindly of thee, Samkin, that thou shouldst call all eyes +thus upon a broken bowman who could once shoot a fair shaft. Let +me feel that bow, Wilkins! It is a Scotch bow, I see, for the +upper nock is without and the lower within. By the black rood! +it is a good piece of yew, well nocked, well strung, well waxed, +and very joyful to the feel. I think even now that I might hit +any large and goodly mark with a bow like this. Turn thy quiver +to me, Aylward. I love an ash arrow pierced with cornel-wood for +a roving shaft." + +"By my hilt! and so do I," cried Aylward. "These three gander-winged +shafts are such." + +"So I see, comrade. It has been my wont to choose a saddle-backed +feather for a dead shaft, and a swine-backed for a smooth +flier. I will take the two of them. Ah! Samkin, lad, the eye +grows dim and the hand less firm as the years pass." + +"Come then, are you not ready?" said the Brabanter, who had +watched with ill-concealed impatience the slow and methodic +movements of his antagonist. + +"I will venture a rover with you, or try long-butts or hoyles," +said old Johnston. "To my mind the long-bow is a better weapon +than the arbalest, but it may be ill for me to prove it." + +"So I think," quoth the other with a sneer. He drew his moulinet +from his girdle, and fixing it to the windlass, he drew back the +powerful double cord until it had clicked into the catch. Then +from his quiver he drew a short, thick quarrel, which he placed +with the utmost care upon the groove. Word had spread of what +was going forward, and the rivals were already surrounded, not +only by the English archers of the Company, but by hundreds of +arbalestiers and men-at-arms from the bands of Ortingo and La +Nuit, to the latter of which the Brabanter belonged. + +"There is a mark yonder on the hill," said he; "mayhap you can +discern it." + +"I see something," answered Johnston, shading his eyes with his +hand; "but it is a very long shoot." + +"A fair shoot--a fair shoot! Stand aside, Arnaud, lest you find +a bolt through your gizzard. Now, comrade, I take no flight +shot, and I give you the vantage of watching my shaft." + +As he spoke he raised his arbalest to his shoulder and was about +to pull the trigger, when a large gray stork flapped heavily into +view skimming over the brow of the hill, and then soaring up into +the air to pass the valley. Its shrill and piercing cries drew +all eyes upon it, and, as it came nearer, a dark spot which +circled above it resolved itself into a peregrine falcon, which +hovered over its head, poising itself from time to time, and +watching its chance of closing with its clumsy quarry. Nearer +and nearer came the two birds, all absorbed in their own contest, +the stork wheeling upwards, the hawk still fluttering above it, +until they were not a hundred paces from the camp. The Brabanter +raised his weapon to the sky, and there came the short, deep +twang of his powerful string. His bolt struck the stork just +where its wing meets the body, and the bird whirled aloft in a +last convulsive flutter before falling wounded and flapping to +the earth. A roar of applause burst from the crossbowmen; but at +the instant that the bolt struck its mark old Johnston, who had +stood listlessly with arrow on string, bent his bow and sped a +shaft through the body of the falcon. Whipping the other from +his belt, he sent it skimming some few feet from the earth with +so true an aim that it struck and transfixed the stork for the +second time ere it could reach the ground. A deep-chested shout +of delight burst from the archers at the sight of this double +feat, and Aylward, dancing with joy, threw his arms round the old +marksman and embraced him with such vigor that their mail tunics +clanged again. + +"Ah! camarade," he cried, "you shall have a stoup with me for +this! What then, old dog, would not the hawk please thee, but +thou must have the stork as well. Oh, to my heart again!" + +"It is a pretty piece of yew, and well strung," said Johnston +with a twinkle in his deep-set gray eyes. "Even an old broken +bowman might find the clout with a bow like this." + +"You have done very well," remarked the Brabanter in a surly +voice. "But it seems to me that you have not yet shown yourself +to be a better marksman than I, for I have struck that at which I +aimed, and, by the three kings! no man can do more." + +"It would ill beseem me to claim to be a better marksman," +answered Johnston, "for I have heard great things of your skill. +I did but wish to show that the long-bow could do that which an +arbalest could not do, for you could not with your moulinet have +your string ready to speed another shaft ere the bird drop to the +earth." + +"In that you have vantage," said the crossbowman. "By Saint +James! it is now my turn to show you where my weapon has the +better of you. I pray you to draw a flight shaft with all your +strength down the valley, that we may see the length of your +shoot." + +"That is a very strong prod of yours," said Johnston, shaking his +grizzled head as he glanced at the thick arch and powerful +strings of his rival's arbalest. "I have little doubt that you +can overshoot me, and yet I have seen bowmen who could send a +cloth-yard arrow further than you could speed a quarrel." + +"So I have heard," remarked the Brabanter; "and yet it is a +strange thing that these wondrous bowmen are never where I chance +to be. Pace out the distances with a wand at every five score, +and do you, Arnaud, stand at the fifth wand to carry back my +bolts to me." + +A line was measured down the valley, and Johnston, drawing an +arrow to the very head, sent it whistling over the row of wands. + +"Bravely drawn! A rare shoot!" shouted the bystanders. + +"It is well up to the fourth mark." + +"By my hilt! it is over it," cried Aylward. "I can see where +they have stooped to gather up the shaft." + +"We shall hear anon," said Johnston quietly, and presently a +young archer came running to say that the arrow had fallen twenty +paces beyond the fourth wand. + +"Four hundred paces and a score," cried Black Simon. "I' faith, +it is a very long flight. Yet wood and steel may do more than +flesh and blood." + +The Brabanter stepped forward with a smile of conscious triumph, +and loosed the cord of his weapon. A shout burst from his +comrades as they watched the swift and lofty flight of the heavy +bolt. + +"Over the fourth!" groaned Aylward. "By my hilt! I think that it +is well up to the fifth." + +"It is over the fifth!" cried a Gascon loudly, and a comrade came +running with waving arms to say that the bolt had pitched eight +paces beyond the mark of the five hundred. + +"Which weapon hath the vantage now?" cried the Brabanter, +Strutting proudly about with shouldered arbalest, amid the +applause of his companions. + +"You can overshoot me," said Johnston gently. + +"Or any other man who ever bent a long-bow," cried his victorious +adversary. + +"Nay, not so fast," said a huge archer, whose mighty shoulders +and red head towered high above the throng of his comrades. "I +must have a word with you ere you crow so loudly. Where is my +little popper? By sainted Dick of Hampole! it will be a strange +thing if I cannot outshoot that thing of thine, which to my eyes +is more like a rat-trap than a bow. Will you try another flight, +or do you stand by your last?" + +"Five hundred and eight paces will serve my turn," answered the +Brabanter, looking askance at this new opponent. + +"Tut, John," whispered Aylward, "you never were a marksman. Why +must you thrust your spoon into this dish?" + +"Easy and slow, Aylward. There are very many things which I +cannot do, but there are also one or two which I have the trick +of. It is in my mind that I can beat this shoot, if my bow will +but hold together." + +"Go on, old babe of the woods!" "Have at it, Hampshire!" cried +the archers laughing. + +"By my soul! you may grin," cried John. "But I learned how to +make the long shoot from old Hob Miller of Milford." He took up a +great black bow, as he spoke, and sitting down upon the ground he +placed his two feet on either end of the stave. With an arrow +fitted, he then pulled the string towards him with both hands +until the head of the shaft was level with the wood. The great +bow creaked and groaned and the cord vibrated with the tension. + +"Who is this fool's-head who stands in the way of my shoot?" said +he, craning up his neck from the ground. + +"He stands on the further side of my mark," answered the +Brabanter, "so he has little to fear from you." + +"Well, the saints assoil him!" cried John. "Though I think he is +over-near to be scathed." As he spoke he raised his two feet, +with the bow-stave upon their soles, and his cord twanged with a +deep rich hum which might be heard across the valley. The +measurer in the distance fell flat upon his face, and then +jumping up again, he began to run in the opposite direction. + +"Well shot, old lad! It is indeed over his head," cried the +bowmen. + +"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed the Brabanter, "who ever saw such a shoot?" + +"It is but a trick," quoth John. "Many a time have I won a +gallon of ale by covering a mile in three flights down Wilverley +Chase." + +"It fell a hundred and thirty paces beyond the fifth mark," +shouted an archer in the distance. + +"Six hundred and thirty paces! Mon Dieu! but that is a shoot! +And yet it says nothing for your weapon, mon gros camarade, for +it was by turning yourself into a crossbow that you did it." + +"By my hilt! there is truth in that," cried Aylward. "And now, +friend, I will myself show you a vantage of the long-bow. I pray +you to speed a bolt against yonder shield with all your force. +It is an inch of elm with bull's hide over it." + +"I scarce shot as many shafts at Brignais," growled the man of +Brabant; "though I found a better mark there than a cantle of +bull's hide. But what is this, Englishman? The shield hangs not +one hundred paces from me, and a blind man could strike it." He +screwed up his string to the furthest pitch, and shot his quarrel +at the dangling shield. Aylward, who had drawn an arrow from his +quiver, carefully greased the head of it, and sped it at the same +mark. + +"Run, Wilkins," quoth he, "and fetch me the shield." + +Long were the faces of the Englishmen and broad the laugh of the +crossbowmen as the heavy mantlet was carried towards them, for +there in the centre was the thick Brabant bolt driven deeply into +the wood, while there was neither sign nor trace of the +cloth-yard shaft. + +"By the three kings!" cried the Brabanter, "this time at least +there is no gainsaying which is the better weapon, or which the +truer hand that held it. You have missed the shield, +Englishman." + +"Tarry a bit! tarry a bit, mon gar.!" quoth Aylward, and turning +round the shield he showed a round clear hole in the wood at the +back of it. "My shaft has passed through it, camarade, and I +trow the one which goes through is more to be feared than that +which bides on the way," + +The Brabanter stamped his foot with mortification, and was about +to make some angry reply, when Alleyne Edricson came riding up to +the crowds of archers. + +"Sir Nigel will be here anon," said he, "and it is his wish to +speak with the Company." + +In an instant order and method took the place of general +confusion. Bows, steel caps, and jacks were caught up from the +grass. A long cordon cleared the camp of all strangers, while +the main body fell into four lines with under-officers and +file-leaders in front and on either flank. So they stood, silent +and motionless, when their leader came riding towards them, his +face shining and his whole small figure swelling with the news +which he bore. + +"Great honor has been done to us, men," cried he: "for, of all +the army, the prince has chosen us out that we should ride +onwards into the lands of Spain to spy upon our enemies. Yet, as +there are many of us, and as the service may not be to the liking +of all, I pray that those will step forward from the ranks who +have the will to follow me." + +There was a rustle among the bowmen, but when Sir Nigel looked up +at them no man stood forward from his fellows, but the four lines +of men stretched unbroken as before. Sir Nigel blinked at them +in amazement, and a look of the deepest sorrow shadowed his face. + +"That I should live to see the day!" he cried, "What! not one----" + +"My fair lord," whispered Alleyne, "they have all stepped +forward." + +"Ah, by Saint Paul! I see how it is with them. I could not think +that they would desert me. We start at dawn to-morrow, and ye +are to have the horses of Sir Robert Cheney's company. Be ready, +I pray ye, at early cock-crow." + +A buzz of delight burst from the archers, as they broke their +ranks and ran hither and thither, whooping and cheering like boys +who have news of a holiday. Sir Nigel gazed after them with a +smiling face, when a heavy hand fell upon his shoulder. + +"What ho! my knight-errant of Twynham!" said a voice, "You are +off to Ebro, I hear; and, by the holy fish of Tobias! you must +take me under your banner." + +"What! Sir Oliver Buttesthorn!" cried Sir Nigel. "I had heard +that you were come into camp, and had hoped to see you. Glad and +proud shall I be to have you with me." + +"I have a most particular and weighty reason for wishing to go," +said the sturdy knight. + +"I can well believe it," returned Sir Nigel; "I have met no man +who is quicker to follow where honor leads." + +"Nay, it is not for honor that I go, Nigel." + +"For what then?" + +"For pullets." + +"Pullets?" + +"Yes, for the rascal vanguard have cleared every hen from the +country-side. It was this very morning that Norbury, my squire, +lamed his horse in riding round in quest of one, for we have a +bag of truffles, and nought to eat with them. Never have I seen +such locusts as this vanguard of ours. Not a pullet shall we see +until we are in front of them; so I shall leave my Winchester +runagates to the care of the provost-marshal, and I shall hie +south with you, Nigel, with my truffles at my saddle-bow." + +"Oliver, Oliver, I know you over-well," said Sir Nigel, shaking +his head, and the two old soldiers rode off together to their +pavilion. + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +HOW SIR NIGEL HAWKED AT AN EAGLE. + + +To the south of Pampeluna in the kingdom of Navarre there +stretched a high table-land, rising into bare, sterile hills, +brown or gray in color, and strewn with huge boulders of granite. +On the Gascon side of the great mountains there had been running +streams, meadows, forests, and little nestling villages. Here, on +the contrary, were nothing but naked rocks, poor pasture, and +savage, stone-strewn wastes. Gloomy defiles or barrancas +intersected this wild country with mountain torrents dashing and +foaming between their rugged sides. The clatter of waters, the +scream of the eagle, and the howling of wolves the only sounds +which broke upon the silence in that dreary and inhospitable +region. + +Through this wild country it was that Sir Nigel and his Company +pushed their way, riding at times through vast defiles where the +brown, gnarled cliffs shot up on either side of them, and the sky +was but a long winding blue slit between the clustering lines of +box which fringed the lips of the precipices; or, again leading +their horses along the narrow and rocky paths worn by the +muleteers upon the edges of the chasm, where under their very +elbows they could see the white streak which marked the _gave_ +which foamed a thousand feet below them. So for two days they +pushed their way through the wild places of Navarre, past Fuente, +over the rapid Ega, through Estella, until upon a winter's +evening the mountains fell away from in front of them, and they +saw the broad blue Ebro curving betwixt its double line or +homesteads and of villages. The fishers of Viana were aroused +that night by rough voices speaking in a strange tongue, and ere +morning Sir Nigel and his men had ferried the river and were safe +upon the land of Spain. + +All the next day they lay in a pine wood near to the town of +Logrono, resting their horses and taking counsel as to what +they should do. Sir Nigel had with him Sir William Felton, +Sir Oliver Buttesthorn, stout old Sir Simon Burley, the Scotch +knight-errant, the Earl of Angus, and Sir Richard Causton, all +accounted among the bravest knights in the army, together with +sixty veteran men-at-arms, and three hundred and twenty archers. +Spies had been sent out in the morning, and returned after +nightfall to say that the King of Spain was encamped some +fourteen miles off in the direction of Burgos, having with him +twenty thousand horse and forty-five thousand foot. + +A dry-wood fire had been lit, and round this the leaders +crouched, the glare beating upon their rugged faces, while the +hardy archers lounged and chatted amid the tethered horses, while +they munched their scanty provisions. + +"For my part," said Sir Simon Burley, "I am of opinion that we +have already done that which we have come for. For do we not now +know where the king is, and how great a following he hath, which +was the end of our journey." + +"True," answered Sir William Felton, "but I have come on this +venture because it is a long time since I have broken a spear in +war, and, certes, I shall not go back until I have run a course +with some cavalier of Spain. Let those go back who will, but I +must see more of these Spaniards ere I turn." + +"I will not leave you, Sir William," returned Sir Simon Burley; +"and yet, as an old soldier and one who hath seen much of war, I +cannot but think that it is an ill thing for four hundred men to +find themselves between an army of sixty thousand on the one side +and a broad river on the other." + +"Yet," said Sir Richard Causton, "we cannot for the honor of +England go back without a blow struck." + +"Nor for the honor of Scotland either," cried the Earl of Angus. +"By Saint Andrew! I wish that I may never set eyes upon the water +of Leith again, if I pluck my horse's bridle ere I have seen this +camp of theirs." + +"By Saint Paul! you have spoken very well," said Sir Nigel, "and +I have always heard that there were very worthy gentlemen among +the Scots, and fine skirmishing to be had upon their border. +Bethink you, Sir Simon, that we have this news from the lips of +common spies, who can scarce tell us as much of the enemy and of +his forces as the prince would wish to hear." + +"You are the leader in this venture, Sir Nigel," the other +answered, "and I do but ride under your banner." + +"Yet I would fain have your rede and counsel, Sir Simon. But, +touching what you say of the river, we can take heed that we +shall not have it at the back of us, for the prince hath now +advanced to Salvatierra, and thence to Vittoria, so that if we +come upon their camp from the further side we can make good our +retreat." + +"What then would you propose?" asked Sir Simon, shaking his +grizzled head as one who is but half convinced. + +"That we ride forward ere the news reach them that we have +crossed the river. In this way we may have sight of their army, +and perchance even find occasion for some small deed against +them." + +"So be it, then," said Sir Simon Burley; and the rest of the +council having approved, a scanty meal was hurriedly snatched, +and the advance resumed under the cover of the darkness. All +night they led their horses, stumbling and groping through wild +defiles and rugged valleys, following the guidance of a +frightened peasant who was strapped by the wrist to Black Simon's +stirrup-leather. With the early dawn they found themselves in a +black ravine, with others sloping away from it on either side, +and the bare brown crags rising in long bleak terraces all round +them. + +"If it please you, fair lord," said Black Simon, "this man hath +misled us, and since there is no tree upon which we may hang him, +it might be well to hurl him over yonder cliff." + +The peasant, reading the soldier's meaning in his fierce eyes and +harsh accents dropped upon his knees, screaming loudly for mercy. + +"How comes it, dog?" asked Sir William Felton in Spanish. "Where +is this camp to which you swore that you would lead us?" + +"By the sweet Virgin! By the blessed Mother of God! cried the +trembling peasant, "I swear to you that in the darkness I have +myself lost the path." + +"Over the cliff with him!" shouted half a dozen voices; but ere +the archers could drag him from the rocks to which he clung Sir +Nigel had ridden up and called upon them to stop. + +"How is this, sirs?" said he. "As long as the prince doth me the +honor to entrust this venture to me, it is for me only to give +orders; and, by Saint Paul! I shall be right blithe to go very +deeply into the matter with any one to whom my words may give +offence. How say you, Sir William? Or you, my Lord of Angus? +Or you, Sir Richard?" + +"Nay, nay, Nigel!" cried Sir William. "This base peasant is too +small a matter for old comrades to quarrel over. But he hath +betrayed us, and certes he hath merited a dog's death." + +"Hark ye, fellow," said Sir Nigel. "We give you one more chance +to find the path. We are about to gain much honor, Sir William, +in this enterprise, and it would be a sorry thing if the first +blood shed were that of an unworthy boor. Let us say our morning +orisons, and it may chance that ere we finish he may strike upon +the track." + +With bowed heads and steel caps in hand, the archers stood at +their horse's heads, while Sir Simon Burley repeated the Pater, +the Ave, and the Credo. Long did Alleyne bear the scene in +mind--the knot of knights in their dull leaden-hued armor, the +ruddy visage of Sir Oliver, the craggy features of the Scottish +earl, the shining scalp of Sir Nigel, with the dense ring of +hard, bearded faces and the long brown heads of the horses, all +topped and circled by the beetling cliffs. Scarce had the last +deep "amen" broken from the Company, when, in an instant, there +rose the scream of a hundred bugles, with the deep rolling of +drums and the clashing of cymbals, all sounding together in one +deafening uproar. Knights and archers sprang to arms, convinced +that some great host was upon them; but the guide dropped upon +his knees and thanked Heaven for its mercies. + +"We have found them, caballeros!" he cried. "This is their +morning call. If ye will but deign to follow me, I will set them +before you ere a man might tell his beads." + +As he spoke he scrambled down one of the narrow ravines, and, +climbing over a low ridge at the further end, he led them into a +short valley with a stream purling down the centre of it and a +very thick growth of elder and of box upon either side. Pushing +their way through the dense brushwood, they looked out upon a +scene which made their hearts beat harder and their breath come +faster. + +In front of them there lay a broad plain, watered by two winding +streams and covered with grass, stretching away to where, in the +furthest distance, the towers of Burgos bristled up against the +light blue morning sky. Over all this vast meadow there lay a +great city of tents--thousands upon thousands of them, laid out +in streets and in squares like a well-ordered town. High silken +pavilions or colored marquees, shooting up from among the crowd +of meaner dwellings, marked where the great lords and barons of +Leon and Castile displayed their standards, while over the white +roofs, as far as eye could reach, the waving of ancients, pavons, +pensils, and banderoles, with flash of gold and glow of colors, +proclaimed that all the chivalry of Iberia were mustered in the +plain beneath them. Far off, in the centre of the camp, a huge +palace of red and white silk, with the royal arms of Castile +waiving from the summit, announced that the gallant Henry lay +there in the midst of his warriors. + +As the English adventurers, peeping out from behind their +brushwood screen, looked down upon this wondrous sight they could +see that the vast army in front of them was already afoot. The +first pink light of the rising sun glittered upon the steel caps +and breastplates of dense masses of slingers and of crossbowmen, +who drilled and marched in the spaces which had been left for +their exercise. A thousand columns of smoke reeked up into the +pure morning air where the faggots were piled and the camp-kettles + already simmering. In the open plain clouds of light horse +galloped and swooped with swaying bodies and waving javelins, +after the fashion which the Spanish had adopted from their +Moorish enemies. All along by the sedgy banks of the rivers +long lines of pages led their masters' chargers down to water, +while the knights themselves lounged in gayly-dressed groups +about the doors of their pavilions, or rode out, with their +falcons upon their wrists and their greyhounds behind them, +in quest of quail or of leveret. + +"By my hilt! mon gar.!" whispered Aylward to Alleyne, as the +young squire stood with parted lips and wondering eyes, gazing +down at the novel scene before him, "we have been seeking them +all night, but now that we have found them I know not what we are +to do with them." + +"You say sooth, Samkin," quoth old Johnston. "I would that we +were upon the far side of Ebro again, for there is neither honor +nor profit to be gained here. What say you, Simon?" + +"By the rood!" cried the fierce man-at-arms, "I will see the +color of their blood ere I turn my mare's head for the mountains. +Am I a child, that I should ride for three days and nought but +words at the end of it?" + +"Well said, my sweet honeysuckle!" cried Hordle John. "I am with +you, like hilt to blade. Could I but lay hands upon one of those +gay prancers yonder, I doubt not that I should have ransom enough +from him to buy my mother a new cow." + +"A cow!" said Aylward. "Say rather ten acres and a homestead on +the banks of Avon." + +"Say you so? Then, by our Lady! here is for yonder one in the red +jerkin!" + +He was about to push recklessly forward into the open, when Sir +Nigel himself darted in front of him, with his hand upon his +breast. + +"Back!" said he. "Our time is not yet come, and we must lie here +until evening. Throw off your jacks and headpieces, least their +eyes catch the shine, and tether the horses among the rocks." + +The order was swiftly obeyed, and in ten minutes the archers were +stretched along by the side of the brook, munching the bread and +the bacon which they had brought in their bags, and craning their +necks to watch the ever-changing scene beneath them. Very quiet +and still they lay, save for a muttered jest or whispered order, +for twice during the long morning they heard bugle-calls from +amid the hills on either side of them, which showed that they had +thrust themselves in between the outposts of the enemy. The +leaders sat amongst the box-wood, and took counsel together as to +what they should do; while from below there surged up the buzz of +voices, the shouting, the neighing of horses, and all the uproar +of a great camp. + +"What boots it to wait?" said Sir William Felton. "Let us ride +down upon their camp ere they discover us." + +"And so say I," cried the Scottish earl; "for they do not know +that there is any enemy within thirty long leagues of them." + +"For my part," said Sir Simon Burley, "I think that it is +madness, for you cannot hope to rout this great army; and where +are you to go and what are you to do when they have turned upon +you? How say you, Sir Oliver Buttesthorn?" + +"By the apple of Eve!" cried the fat knight, "it appears to me +that this wind brings a very savory smell of garlic and of onions +from their cooking-kettles. I am in favor of riding down upon +them at once, if my old friend and comrade here is of the same +mind." + +"Nay," said Sir Nigel, "I have a plan by which we may attempt +some small deed upon them, and yet, by the help of God, may be +able to draw off again; which, as Sir Simon Burley hath said, +would be scarce possible in any other way." + +"How then, Sir Nigel?" asked several voices. + +"We shall lie here all day; for amid this brushwood it is ill for +them to see us. Then when evening comes we shall sally out upon +them and see if we may not gain some honorable advancement from +them." + +"But why then rather than now?" + +"Because we shall have nightfall to cover us when we draw off, so +that we may make our way back through the mountains. I would +station a score of archers here in the pass, with all our pennons +jutting forth from the rocks, and as many nakirs and drums and +bugles as we have with us, so that those who follow us in the +fading light may think that the whole army of the prince is upon +them, and fear to go further. What think you of my plan, Sir +Simon?" + +"By my troth! I think very well of it," cried the prudent old +commander. "If four hundred men must needs run a tilt against +sixty thousand, I cannot see how they can do it better or more +safely." + +"And so say I," cried Felton, heartily. "But I wish the day were +over, for it will be an ill thing for us if they chance to light +upon us." + +The words were scarce out of his mouth when there came a clatter +of loose stones, the sharp clink of trotting hoofs, and a +dark-faced cavalier, mounted upon a white horse, burst through +the bushes and rode swiftly down the valley from the end which +was farthest from the Spanish camp. Lightly armed, with his +vizor open and a hawk perched upon his left wrist, he looked +about him with the careless air of a man who is bent wholly upon +pleasure, and unconscious of the possibility of danger. +Suddenly, however, his eyes lit upon the fierce faces which +glared out at him from the brushwood. With a cry of terror, he +thrust his spurs into his horse's sides and dashed for the narrow +opening of the gorge. For a moment it seemed as though he would +have reached it, for he had trampled over or dashed aside the +archers who threw themselves in his way; but Hordle John seized +him by the foot in his grasp of iron and dragged him from the +saddle, while two others caught the frightened horse. + +"Ho, ho!" roared the great archer. "How many cows wilt buy my +mother, if I set thee free?" + +"Hush that bull's bellowing!" cried Sir Nigel impatiently. "Bring +the man here. By St. Paul! it is not the first time that we have +met; for, if I mistake not, it is Don Diego Alvarez, who was once +at the prince's court." + +"It is indeed I," said the Spanish knight, speaking in the French +tongue, "and I pray you to pass your sword through my heart, for +how can I live--I, a caballero of Castile--after being dragged +from my horse by the base hands of a common archer?" + +"Fret not for that," answered Sir Nigel. "For, in sooth, had he +not pulled you down, a dozen cloth-yard shafts had crossed each +other in your body." + +"By St. James! it were better so than to be polluted by his +touch," answered the Spaniard, with his black eyes sparkling with +rage and hatred. "I trust that I am now the prisoner of some +honorable knight or gentleman." + +"You are the prisoner of the man who took you, Sir Diego," +answered Sir Nigel. "And I may tell you that better men than +either you or I have found themselves before now prisoners in the +hands of archers of England." + +"What ransom, then, does he demand?" asked the Spaniard. + +Big John scratched his red head and grinned in high delight when +the question was propounded to him. "Tell him," said he, "that I +shall have ten cows and a bull too, if it be but a little one. +Also a dress of blue sendall for mother and a red one for Joan; +with five acres of pasture-land, two scythes, and a fine new +grindstone. Likewise a small house, with stalls for the cows, +and thirty-six gallons of beer for the thirsty weather." + +"Tut, tut!" cried Sir Nigel, laughing. "All these things may be +had for money; and I think, Don Diego, that five thousand crowns +is not too much for so renowned a knight." + +"It shall be duly paid him." + +"For some days we must keep you with us; and I must crave leave +also to use your shield, your armor, and your horse." + +"My harness is yours by the law of arms," said the Spaniard, +gloomily. + +"I do but ask the loan of it. I have need of it this day, but it +shall be duly returned to you. Set guards, Aylward, with arrow +on string, at either end of the pass; for it may happen that some +other cavaliers may visit us ere the time be come." All day the +little band of Englishmen lay in the sheltered gorge, looking +down upon the vast host of their unconscious enemies. Shortly +after mid-day, a great uproar of shouting and cheering broke out +in the camp, with mustering of men and calling of bugles. +Clambering up among the rocks, the companions saw a long rolling +cloud of dust along the whole eastern sky-line, with the glint +of spears and the flutter of pennons, which announced the +approach of a large body of cavalry, For a moment a wild hope +came upon them that perhaps the prince had moved more swiftly +than had been planned, that he had crossed the Ebro, and that +this was his vanguard sweeping to the attack. + +"Surely I see the red pile of Chandos at the head of yonder +squadron!" cried Sir Richard Causton, shading his eyes with his +hand. + +"Not so," answered Sir Simon Burley, who had watched the +approaching host with a darkening face. "It is even as I feared. +That is the double eagle of Du Guesclin." + +"You say very truly," cried the Earl of Angus. "These are the +levies of France, for I can see the ensigns of the Marshal +d'Andreghen, with that of the Lord of Antoing and of Briseuil, +and of many another from Brittany and Anjou." + +"By St. Paul! I am very glad of it," said Sir Nigel. "Of these +Spaniards I know nothing; but the French are very worthy +gentlemen, and will do what they can for our advancement." + +"There are at the least four thousand of them, and all men-at-arms," +cried Sir William Felton. "See, there is Bertrand himself, beside +his banner, and there is King Henry, who rides to welcome him. +Now they all turn and come into the camp together." + +As he spoke, the vast throng of Spaniards and of Frenchmen +trooped across the plain, with brandished arms and tossing +banners. All day long the sound of revelry and of rejoicing from +the crowded camp swelled up to the ears of the Englishmen, and +they could see the soldiers of the two nations throwing +themselves into each other's arms and dancing hand-in-hand round +the blazing fires. The sun had sunk behind a cloud-bank in the +west before Sir Nigel at last gave word that the men should +resume their arms and have their horses ready. He had himself +thrown off his armor, and had dressed himself from head to foot +in the harness of the captured Spaniard. + +"Sir William," said he, "it is my intention to attempt a small +deed, and I ask you therefore that you will lead this outfall +upon the camp. For me, I will ride into their camp with my +squire and two archers. I pray you to watch me, and to ride +forth when I am come among the tents. You will leave twenty men +behind here, as we planned this morning, and you will ride back +here after you have ventured as far as seems good to you." + +"I will do as you order, Nigel; but what is it that you propose +to do?" + +"You will see anon, and indeed it is but a trifling matter. +Alleyne, you will come with me, and lead a spare horse by the +bridle. I will have the two archers who rode with us through +France, for they are trusty men and of stout heart. Let them +ride behind us, and let them leave their bows here among the +bushes for it is not my wish that they should know that we are +Englishmen. Say no word to any whom we may meet, and, if any +speak to you, pass on as though you heard them not. Are you +ready?" + +"I am ready, my fair lord," said Alleyne. + +"And I," "And I," cried Aylward and John. + +"Then the rest I leave to your wisdom, Sir William; and if God +sends us fortune we shall meet you again in this gorge ere it be +dark." + +So saying, Sir Nigel mounted the white horse of the Spanish +cavalier, and rode quietly forth from his concealment with his +three companions behind him, Alleyne leading his master's own +steed by the bridle. So many small parties of French and Spanish +horse were sweeping hither and thither that the small band +attracted little notice, and making its way at a gentle trot +across the plain, they came as far as the camp without challenge +or hindrance. On and on they pushed past the endless lines of +tents, amid the dense swarms of horsemen and of footmen, until +the huge royal pavilion stretched in front of them. They were +close upon it when of a sudden there broke out a wild hubbub from +a distant portion of the camp, with screams and war-cries and all +the wild tumult of battle. At the sound soldiers came rushing +from their tents, knights shouted loudly for their squires, and +there was mad turmoil on every hand of bewildered men and +plunging horses. At the royal tent a crowd of gorgeously dressed +servants ran hither and thither in helpless panic for the guard +of soldiers who were stationed there had already ridden off in +the direction of the alarm. A man-at-arms on either side of the +doorway were the sole protectors of the royal dwelling. + +"I have come for the king," whispered Sir Nigel; "and, by Saint +Paul! he must back with us or I must bide here." + +Alleyne and Aylward sprang from their horses, and flew at the two +sentries, who were disarmed and beaten down in an instant by so +furious and unexpected an attack. Sir Nigel dashed into the +royal tent, and was followed by Hordle John as soon as the horses +had been secured. From within came wild screamings and the clash +of steel, and then the two emerged once more, their swords and +forearms reddened with blood, while John bore over his shoulder +the senseless body of a man whose gay surcoat, adorned with the +lions and towers of Castile, proclaimed him to belong to the +royal house. A crowd of white-faced sewers and pages swarmed at +their heels, those behind pushing forwards, while the foremost +shrank back from the fierce faces and reeking weapons of the +adventurers. The senseless body was thrown across the spare +horse, the four sprang to their saddles, and away they thundered +with loose reins and busy spurs through the swarming camp. + +But confusion and disorder still reigned among the Spaniards for +Sir William Felton and his men had swept through half their camp, +leaving a long litter of the dead and the dying to mark their +course. Uncertain who were their attackers, and unable to tell +their English enemies from their newly-arrived Breton allies, the +Spanish knights rode wildly hither and thither in aimless fury. +The mad turmoil, the mixture of races, and the fading light, were +all in favor of the four who alone knew their own purpose among +the vast uncertain multitude. Twice ere they reached open ground +they had to break their way through small bodies of horses, and +once there came a whistle of arrows and singing of stones about +their ears; but, still dashing onwards, they shot out from among +the tents and found their own comrades retreating for the +mountains at no very great distance from them. Another five +minutes of wild galloping over the plain, and they were all back +in their gorge, while their pursuers fell back before the rolling +of drums and blare of trumpets, which seemed to proclaim that the +whole army of the prince was about to emerge from the mountain +passes. + +"By my soul! Nigel," cried Sir Oliver, waving a great boiled ham +over his head, "I have come by something which I may eat with my +truffles! I had a hard fight for it, for there were three of +them with their mouths open and the knives in their hands, all +sitting agape round the table, when I rushed in upon them. How +say you, Sir William, will you not try the smack of the famed +Spanish swine, though we have but the brook water to wash it +down?" + +"Later, Sir Oliver," answered the old soldier, wiping his grimed +face. "We must further into the mountains ere we be in safety. +But what have we here, Nigel?" + +"It is a prisoner whom I have taken, and in sooth, as he came +from the royal tent and wears the royal arms upon his jupon, I +trust that he is the King of Spain." + +"The King of Spain!" cried the companions, crowding round in +amazement. + +"Nay, Sir Nigel," said Felton, peering at the prisoner through +the uncertain light, "I have twice seen Henry of Transtamare, and +certes this man in no way resembles him." + +"Then, by the light of heaven! I will ride back for him," cried +Sir Nigel. + +"Nay, nay, the camp is in arms, and it would be rank madness. +Who are you, fellow?" he added in Spanish, "and how is it that +you dare to wear the arms of Castile?" + +The prisoner was bent recovering the consciousness which had been +squeezed from him by the grip of Hordle John. "If it please +you," he answered, "I and nine others are the body-squires of the +king, and must ever wear his arms, so as to shield him from even +such perils as have threatened him this night. The king is at the +tent of the brave Du Guesclin, where he will sup to night. But I +am a caballero of Aragon, Don Sancho Penelosa, and, though I be +no king, I am yet ready to pay a fitting price for my ransom." + +"By Saint Paul! I will not touch your gold," cried Sir Nigel. "Go +back to your master and give him greeting from Sir Nigel Loring +of Twynham Castle, telling him that I had hoped to make his +better acquaintance this night, and that, if I have disordered +his tent, it was but in my eagerness to know so famed and +courteous a knight. Spur on, comrades! for we must cover many a +league ere we can venture to light fire or to loosen girth. I had +hoped to ride without this patch to-night, but it seems that I +must carry it yet a little longer." + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +HOW SIR NIGEL TOOK THE PATCH FROM HIS EYE. + + +It was a cold, bleak morning in the beginning of March, and the +mist was drifting in dense rolling clouds through the passes of +the Cantabrian mountains. The Company, who had passed the night +in a sheltered gully, were already astir, some crowding round the +blazing fires and others romping or leaping over each other's +backs for their limbs were chilled and the air biting. Here and +there, through the dense haze which surrounded them, there loomed +out huge pinnacles and jutting boulders of rock: while high above +the sea of vapor there towered up one gigantic peak, with the +pink glow of the early sunshine upon its snow-capped head. The +ground was wet, the rocks dripping, the grass and ever-greens +sparkling with beads of moisture; yet the camp was loud with +laughter and merriment, for a messenger had ridden in from the +prince with words of heart-stirring praise for what they had +done, and with orders that they should still abide in the +forefront of the army. + +Round one of the fires were clustered four or five of the leading +men of the archers, cleaning the rust from their weapons, and +glancing impatiently from time to time at a great pot which +smoked over the blaze. There was Aylward squatting cross-legged +in his shirt, while he scrubbed away at his chain-mail +brigandine, whistling loudly the while. On one side of him sat +old Johnston, who was busy in trimming the feathers of some +arrows to his liking; and on the other Hordle John, who lay with +his great limbs all asprawl, and his headpiece balanced upon his +uplifted foot. Black Simon of Norwich crouched amid the rocks, +crooning an Eastland ballad to himself, while he whetted his +sword upon a flat stone which lay across his knees; while beside +him sat Alleyne Edricson, and Norbury, the silent squire of Sir +Oliver, holding out their chilled hands towards the crackling +faggots + +"Cast on another culpon, John, and stir the broth with thy +sword-sheath," growled Johnston, looking anxiously for the +twentieth time at the reeking pot. + +"By my hilt!" cried Aylward, "now that John hath come by this +great ransom, he will scarce abide the fare of poor archer lads. +How say you, camarade? When you see Hordle once more, there will +be no penny ale and fat bacon, but Gascon wines and baked meats +every day of the seven." + +"I know not about that," said John, kicking his helmet up into +the air and catching it in his hand. "I do but know that whether +the broth be ready or no, I am about to dip this into it." + +"It simmers and it boils," cried Johnston, pushing his hard-lined +face through the smoke. In an instant the pot had been plucked +from the blaze, and its contents had been scooped up in half a +dozen steel head-pieces, which were balanced betwixt their +owners' knees, while, with spoon and gobbet of bread, they +devoured their morning meal. + +"It is ill weather for bows," remarked John at last, when, with a +long sigh, he drained the last drop from his helmet. "My strings +are as limp as a cow's tail this morning." + +"You should rub them with water glue," quoth Johnston. "You +remember, Samkin, that it was wetter than this on the morning of +Crecy, and yet I cannot call to mind that there was aught amiss +with our strings." + +"It is in my thoughts," said Black Simon, still pensively +grinding his sword, "that we may have need of your strings ere +sundown. I dreamed of the red cow last night." + +"And what is this red cow, Simon?" asked Alleyne. + +"I know not, young sir; but I can only say that on the eve of +Cadsand, and on the eve of Crecy, and on the eve of Nogent, I +dreamed of a red cow; and now the dream has come upon me again, +so I am now setting a very keen edge to my blade." + +"Well said, old war-dog!" cried Aylward. "By my hilt! I pray +that your dream may come true, for the prince hath not set us out +here to drink broth or to gather whortle-berries. One more fight, +and I am ready to hang up my bow, marry a wife, and take to the +fire corner. But how now, Robin? Whom is it that you seek?" + +"The Lord Loring craves your attendance in his tent," said a +young archer to Alleyne. + +The squire rose and proceeded to the pavilion, where he found the +knight seated upon a cushion, with his legs crossed in front of +him and a broad ribbon of parchment laid across his knees, over +which he was poring with frowning brows and pursed lips. + +"It came this morning by the prince's messenger," said he, "and +was brought from England by Sir John Fallislee, who is new come +from Sussex. What make you of this upon the outer side?" + +"It is fairly and clearly written," Alleyne answered, "and it +signifies To Sir Nigel Loring, Knight Constable of Twynham +Castle, by the hand of Christopher, the servant of God at the +Priory of Christchurch." + +"So I read it," said Sir Nigel. "Now I pray you to read what is +set forth within." + +Alleyne turned to the letter, and, as his eyes rested upon it, +his face turned pale and a cry of surprise and grief burst from +his lips. + +"What then?" asked the knight, peering up at him anxiously. +"There is nought amiss with the Lady Mary or with the Lady +Maude?" + +"It is my brother--my poor unhappy brother!" cried Alleyne, with +his hand to his brow. "He is dead." + +"By Saint Paul! I have never heard that he had shown so much +love for you that you should mourn him so." + +"Yet he was my brother--the only kith or kin that I had upon +earth. Mayhap he had cause to be bitter against me, for his land +was given to the abbey for my upbringing. Alas! alas! and I +raised my staff against him when last we met! He has been +slain--and slain, I fear, amidst crime and violence." + +"Ha!" said Sir Nigel. "Read on, I pray you." + +"`God be with thee, my honored lord, and have thee in his holy +keeping. The Lady Loring hath asked me to set down in writing +what hath befallen at Twynham, and all that concerns the death of +thy ill neighbor the Socman of Minstead. For when ye had left +us, this evil man gathered around him all outlaws, villeins, and +masterless men, until they were come to such a force that they +slew and scattered the king's men who went against them. Then, +coming forth from the woods, they laid siege to thy castle, and +for two days they girt us in and shot hard against us, with such +numbers as were a marvel to see. Yet the Lady Loring held the +place stoutly, and on the second day the Socman was slain--by his +own men, as some think--so that we were delivered from their +hands; for which praise be to all the saints, and more especially +to the holy Anselm, upon whose feast it came to pass. The Lady +Loring, and the Lady Maude, thy fair daughter, are in good +health; and so also am I, save for an imposthume of the toe-joint, +which hath been sent me for my sins. May all the saints +preserve thee!'" + +"It was the vision of the Lady Tiphaine," said Sir Nigel, after a +pause. "Marked you not how she said that the leader was one with +a yellow beard, and how he fell before the gate. But how came +it, Alleyne, that this woman, to whom all things are as crystal, +and who hath not said one word which has not come to pass, was +yet so led astray as to say that your thoughts turned to Twynham +Castle even more than my own?" + +"My fair lord," said Alleyne, with a flush on his weather-stained +cheeks, "the Lady Tiphaine may have spoken sooth when she said +it; for Twynham Castle is in my heart by day and in my dreams by +night." + +"Ha!" cried Sir Nigel, with a sidelong glance. + +"Yes, my fair lord; for indeed I love your daughter, the Lady +Maude; and, unworthy as I am, I would give my heart's blood to +serve her." + +"By St. Paul! Edricson," said the knight coldly, arching his +eyebrows, "you aim high in this matter. Our blood is very old." + +"And mine also is very old," answered the squire. + +"And the Lady Maude is our single child. All our name and lands +centre upon her." + +"Alas! that I should say it, but I also am now the only +Edricson." + +"And why have I not heard this from you before, Alleyne? In +sooth, I think that you have used me ill." + +"Nay, my fair lord, say not so; for I know not whether your +daughter loves me, and there is no pledge between us." + +Sir Nigel pondered for a few moments, and then burst out a-laughing. +"By St. Paul!" said he, "I know not why I should mix in the matter; + for I have ever found that the Lady Maude was very well able to +look to her own affairs. Since first she could stamp her little +foot, she hath ever been able to get that for which she craved; +and if she set her heart on thee, Alleyne, and thou on her, I do +not think that this Spanish king, with his three-score thousand +men, could hold you apart. Yet this I will say, that I would see +you a full knight ere you go to my daughter with words of love. +I have ever said that a brave lance should wed her; and, by my +soul! Edricson, if God spare you, I think that you will acquit +yourself well. But enough of such trifles, for we have our work +before us, and it will be time to speak of this matter when we +see the white cliffs of England once more. Go to Sir William +Felton, I pray you, and ask him to come hither, for it is time +that we were marching. There is no pass at the further end of the +valley, and it is a perilous place should an enemy come upon us." + +Alleyne delivered his message, and then wandered forth from the +camp, for his mind was all in a whirl with this unexpected news, +and with his talk with Sir Nigel. Sitting upon a rock, with his +burning brow resting upon his hands, he thought of his brother, +of their quarrel, of the Lady Maude in her bedraggled riding-dress, +of the gray old castle, of the proud pale face in the armory, +and of the last fiery words with which she had sped him on his way. +Then he was but a penniless, monk-bred lad, unknown and unfriended. +Now he was himself Socman of Minstead, the head of an old stock, +and the lord of an estate which, if reduced from its former size, +was still ample to preserve the dignity of his family. Further, +he had become a man of experience, was counted brave among brave +men, had won the esteem and confidence of her father, and, above +all, had been listened to by him when he told him the secret of +his love. As to the gaining of knighthood, in such stirring times +it was no great matter for a brave squire of gentle birth to aspire +to that honor. He would leave his bones among these Spanish +ravines, or he would do some deed which would call the eyes of +men upon him. + +Alleyne was still seated on the rock, his griefs and his joys +drifting swiftly over his mind like the shadow of clouds upon a +sunlit meadow, when of a sudden he became conscious of a low, +deep sound which came booming up to him through the fog. Close +behind him he could hear the murmur of the bowmen, the occasional +bursts of hoarse laughter, and the champing and stamping of their +horses. Behind it all, however, came that low-pitched, deep-toned +hum, which seemed to come from every quarter and to fill the whole +air. In the old monastic days he remembered to have heard such a +sound when he had walked out one windy night at Bucklershard, and +had listened to the long waves breaking upon the shingly shore. +Here, however, was neither wind nor sea, and yet the dull murmur +rose ever louder and stronger out of the heart of the rolling sea +of vapor. He turned and ran to the camp, shouting an alarm at the +top of his voice. + +It was but a hundred paces, and yet ere he had crossed it every +bowman was ready at his horse's head, and the group of knights +were out and listening intently to the ominous sound. + +"It is a great body of horse," said Sir William Felton, "and they +are riding very swiftly hitherwards." + +"Yet they must be from the prince's army," remarked Sir Richard +Causton, "for they come from the north." + +"Nay," said the Earl of Angus, "it is not so certain; for the +peasant with whom we spoke last night said that it was rumored +that Don Tello, the Spanish king's brother, had ridden with six +thousand chosen men to beat up the prince's camp. It may be that +on their backward road they have come this way." + +"By St. Paul!" cried Sir Nigel, "I think that it is even as you +say, for that same peasant had a sour face and a shifting eye, as +one who bore us little good will. I doubt not that he has +brought these cavaliers upon us." + +"But the mist covers us," said Sir Simon Burley. "We have yet +time to ride through the further end of the pass." + +"Were we a troop of mountain goats we might do so," answered Sir +William Felton, "but it is not to be passed by a company of +horsemen. If these be indeed Don Tello and his men, then we must +bide where we are, and do what we can to make them rue the day +that they found us in their path." + +"Well spoken, William!" cried Sir Nigel, in high delight. "If +there be so many as has been said, then there will be much honor +to be gained from them and every hope of advancement. But the +sound has ceased, and I fear that they have gone some other way." + +"Or mayhap they have come to the mouth of the gorge, and are +marshalling their ranks. Hush and hearken! for they are no great +way from us." + +The Company stood peering into the dense fog-wreath, amidst a +silence so profound that the dripping of the water from the rocks +and the breathing of the horses grew loud upon the ear. Suddenly +from out the sea of mist came the shrill sound of a neigh, +followed by a long blast upon a bugle. + +"It is a Spanish call, my fair lord," said Black Simon. "It is +used by their prickers and huntsmen when the beast hath not fled, +but is still in its lair." + +"By my faith!" said Sir Nigel, smiling, "if they are in a humor +for venerie we may promise them some sport ere they sound the +mort over us. But there is a hill in the centre of the gorge on +which we might take our stand." + +"I marked it yester-night," said Felton, "and no better spot +could be found for our purpose, for it is very steep at the back. +It is but a bow-shot to the left, and, indeed, I can see the +shadow of it." + +The whole Company, leading their horses, passed across to the +small hill which loomed in front of them out of the mist. It was +indeed admirably designed for defence, for it sloped down in +front, all jagged and boulder-strewn, while it fell away in a +sheer cliff of a hundred feet or more. On the summit was a small +uneven plateau, with a stretch across of a hundred paces, and a +depth of half as much again. + +"Unloose the horses!" said Sir Nigel. "We have no space for +them, and if we hold our own we shall have horses and to spare +when this day's work is done. Nay, keep yours, my fair sirs, for +we may have work for them. Aylward, Johnston, let your men form +a harrow on either side of the ridge. Sir Oliver and you, my +Lord Angus, I give you the right wing, and the left to you, Sir +Simon, and to you, Sir Richard Causton. I and Sir William Felton +will hold the centre with our men-at-arms. Now order the ranks, +and fling wide the banners, for our souls are God's and our +bodies the king's, and our swords for Saint George and for +England!" + +Sir Nigel had scarcely spoken when the mist seemed to thin in the +valley, and to shred away into long ragged clouds which trailed +from the edges of the cliffs. The gorge in which they had camped +was a mere wedge-shaped cleft among the hills, three-quarters of +a mile deep, with the small rugged rising upon which they stood +at the further end, and the brown crags walling it in on three +sides. As the mist parted, and the sun broke through, it gleamed +and shimmered with dazzling brightness upon the armor and +headpieces of a vast body of horsemen who stretched across the +barranca from one cliff to the other, and extended backwards +until their rear guard were far out upon the plain beyond. Line +after line, and rank after rank, they choked the neck of the +valley with a long vista of tossing pennons, twinkling lances, +waving plumes and streaming banderoles, while the curvets and +gambades of the chargers lent a constant motion and shimmer to +the glittering, many-colored mass. A yell of exultation, and a +forest of waving steel through the length and breadth of their +column, announced that they could at last see their entrapped +enemies, while the swelling notes of a hundred bugles and drums, +mixed with the clash of Moorish cymbals, broke forth into a proud +peal of martial triumph. Strange it was to these gallant and +sparkling cavaliers of Spain to look upon this handful of men +upon the hill, the thin lines of bowmen, the knots of knights and +men-at-arms with armor rusted and discolored from long service, +and to learn that these were indeed the soldiers whose fame and +prowess had been the camp-fire talk of every army in Christendom. +Very still and silent they stood, leaning upon their bows, while +their leaders took counsel together in front of them. No clang +of bugle rose from their stern ranks, but in the centre waved the +leopards of England, on the right the ensign of their Company +with the roses of Loring, and on the left, over three score of +Welsh bowmen, there floated the red banner of Merlin with the +boars'-heads of the Buttesthorns. Gravely and sedately they +stood beneath the morning sun waiting for the onslaught of their +foemen. + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, gazing with puckered eye down +the valley, "there appear to be some very worthy people among +them. What is this golden banner which waves upon the left?" + +"It is the ensign of the Knights of Calatrava," answered Felton. + +"And the other upon the right?" + +"It marks the Knights of Santiago, and I see by his flag that +their grand-master rides at their head. There too is the banner +of Castile amid yonder sparkling squadron which heads the main +battle. There are six thousand men-at-arms with ten squadrons of +slingers as far as I may judge their numbers." + +"There are Frenchmen among them, my fair lord," remarked Black +Simon. "I can see the pennons of De Couvette, De Brieux, Saint +Pol, and many others who struck in against us for Charles of +Blois." + +"You are right," said Sir William, "for I can also see them. +There is much Spanish blazonry also, if I could but read it. Don +Diego, you know the arms of your own land. Who are they who have +done us this honor?" + +The Spanish prisoner looked with exultant eyes upon the deep and +serried ranks of his countrymen. + +"By Saint James!" said he, "if ye fall this day ye fall by no +mean hands, for the flower of the knighthood of Castile ride +under the banner of Don Tello, with the chivalry of Asturias, +Toledo, Leon, Cordova, Galicia, and Seville. I see the guidons +of Albornez, Cacorla, Rodriguez, Tavora, with the two great +orders, and the knights of France and of Aragon. If you will +take my rede you will come to a composition with them, for they +will give you such terms as you have given me." + +"Nay, by Saint Paul! it were pity if so many brave men were drawn +together, and no little deed of arms to come of it. Ha! William, +they advance upon us; and, by my soul! it is a sight that is +worth coming over the seas to see." + +As he spoke, the two wings of the Spanish host, consisting of the +Knights of Calatrava on the one side and of Santiago upon the +other, came swooping swiftly down the valley, while the main body +followed more slowly behind. Five hundred paces from the English +the two great bodies of horse crossed each other, and, sweeping +round in a curve, retired in feigned confusion towards their +centre. Often in bygone wars had the Moors tempted the hot-blooded +Spaniards from their places of strength by such pretended flights, +but there were men upon the hill to whom every ruse an trick of +war were as their daily trade and practice. Again and even nearer +came the rallying Spaniards, and again with cry of fear and +stooping bodies they swerved off to right and left, but the +English still stood stolid and observant among their rocks. +The vanguard halted a long bow shot from the hill, and with +waving spears and vaunting shouts challenged their enemies to +come forth, while two cavaliers, pricking forward from the +glittering ranks, walked their horses slowly between the two +arrays with targets braced and lances in rest like the +challengers in a tourney. + +"By Saint Paul!" cried Sir Nigel, with his one eye glowing like +an ember, "these appear to be two very worthy and debonair +gentlemen. I do not call to mind when I have seen any people who +seemed of so great a heart and so high of enterprise. We have our +horses, Sir William: shall we not relieve them of any vow which +they may have upon their souls?" + +Felton's reply was to bound upon his charger, and to urge it down +the slope, while Sir Nigel followed not three spears'-lengths +behind him. It was a rugged course, rocky and uneven, yet the +two knights, choosing their men, dashed onwards at the top of +their speed, while the gallant Spaniards flew as swiftly to meet +them. The one to whom Felton found himself opposed was a tall +stripling with a stag's head upon his shield, while Sir Nigel's +man was broad and squat with plain steel harness, and a pink and +white torse bound round his helmet. The first struck Felton on +the target with such force as to split it from side to side, but +Sir William's lance crashed through the camail which shielded +the Spaniard's throat, and he fell, screaming hoarsely, to the +ground. Carried away by the heat and madness of fight, the +English knight never drew rein, but charged straight on into the +array of the knights of Calatrava. Long time the silent ranks +upon the hill could see a swirl and eddy deep down in the heart +of the Spanish column, with a circle of rearing chargers and +flashing blades, Here and there tossed the white plume of the +English helmet, rising and falling like the foam upon a wave, +with the fierce gleam and sparkle ever circling round it until at +last it had sunk from view, and another brave man had turned from +war to peace. + +Sir Nigel, meanwhile, had found a foeman worthy of his steel for +his opponent was none other than Sebastian Gomez, the picked +lance of the monkish Knights of Santiago, who had won fame in a +hundred bloody combats with the Moors of Andalusia. So fierce was +their meeting that their spears shivered up to the very grasp, +and the horses reared backwards until it seemed that they must +crash down upon their riders. Yet with consummate horsemanship +they both swung round in a long curvet, and then plucking out +their swords they lashed at each other like two lusty smiths +hammering upon an anvil. The chargers spun round each other, +biting and striking, while the two blades wheeled and whizzed and +circled in gleams of dazzling light. Cut, parry, and thrust +followed so swiftly upon each other that the eye could not follow +them, until at last coming thigh to thigh, they cast their arms +around each other and rolled off their saddles to the ground. +The heavier Spaniard threw himself upon his enemy, and pinning +him down beneath him raised his sword to slay him, while a shout +of triumph rose from the ranks of his countrymen. But the fatal +blow never fell, for even as his arm quivered before descending, +the Spaniard gave a shudder, and stiffening himself rolled +heavily over upon his side, with the blood gushing from his +armpit and from the slit of his vizor. Sir Nigel sprang to his +feet with his bloody dagger in his left hand and gazed down upon +his adversary, but that fatal and sudden stab in the vital spot, +which the Spaniard had exposed by raising his arm, had proved +instantly mortal. The Englishman leaped upon his horse and made +for the hill, at the very instant that a yell of rage from a +thousand voices and the clang of a score of bugles announced the +Spanish onset. + +But the islanders were ready and eager for the encounter. With +feet firmly planted, their sleeves rolled back to give free play +to their muscles, their long yellow bow-staves in their left +hands, and their quivers slung to the front, they had waited in +the four-deep harrow formation which gave strength to their +array, and yet permitted every man to draw his arrow freely +without harm to those in front. Aylward and Johnston had been +engaged in throwing light tufts of grass into the air to gauge +the wind force, and a hoarse whisper passed down the ranks from +the file-leaders to the men, with scraps of advice and +admonition. + +"Do not shoot outside the fifteen-score paces," cried Johnston. +"We may need all our shafts ere we have done with them." + +"Better to overshoot than to undershoot," added Aylward. "Better +to strike the rear guard than to feather a shaft in the earth." + +"Loose quick and sharp when they come," added another. "Let it be +the eye to the string, the string to the shaft, and the shaft to +the mark. By Our Lady! their banners advance, and we must hold +our ground now if ever we are to see Southampton Water again." + +Alleyne, standing with his sword drawn amidst the archers, saw a +long toss and heave of the glittering squadrons. Then the front +ranks began to surge slowly forward, to trot, to canter, to +gallop, and in an instant the whole vast array was hurtling +onward, line after line, the air full of the thunder of their +cries, the ground shaking with the beat of their hoots, the +valley choked with the rushing torrent of steel, topped by the +waving plumes, the slanting spears and the fluttering banderoles. +On they swept over the level and up to the slope, ere they met +the blinding storm of the English arrows. Down went the whole +ranks in a whirl of mad confusion, horses plunging and kicking, +bewildered men falling, rising, staggering on or back, while ever +new lines of horsemen came spurring through the gaps and urged +their chargers up the fatal slope. All around him Alleyne could +hear the stern, short orders of the master-bowmen, while the air +was filled with the keen twanging of the strings and the swish +and patter of the shafts. Right across the foot of the hill +there had sprung up a long wall of struggling horses and stricken +men, which ever grew and heightened as fresh squadrons poured on +the attack. One young knight on a gray jennet leaped over his +fallen comrades and galloped swiftly up the hill, shrieking +loudly upon Saint James, ere he fell within a spear-length of the +English line, with the feathers of arrows thrusting out from +every crevice and joint of his armor. So for five long minutes +the gallant horsemen of Spain and of France strove ever and again +to force a passage, until the wailing note of a bugle called them +back, and they rode slowly out of bow-shot, leaving their best +and their bravest in the ghastly, blood-mottled heap behind them. + +But there was little rest for the victors. Whilst the knights +had charged them in front the slingers had crept round upon +either flank and had gained a footing upon the cliffs and behind +the outlying rocks. A storm of stones broke suddenly upon the +defenders, who, drawn up in lines upon the exposed summit, +offered a fair mark to their hidden foes. Johnston, the old +archer, was struck upon the temple and fell dead without a groan, +while fifteen of his bowmen and six of the men-at-arms were +struck down at the same moment. The others lay on their faces to +avoid the deadly hail, while at each side of the plateau a fringe +of bowmen exchanged shots with the slingers and crossbowmen +among the rocks, aiming mainly at those who had swarmed up the +cliffs, and bursting into laughter and cheers when a well-aimed +shaft brought one of their opponents toppling down from his lofty +perch. + +"I think, Nigel," said Sir Oliver, striding across to the little +knight, "that we should all acquit ourselves better had we our +none-meat, for the sun is high in the heaven." + +"By Saint Paul!" quoth Sir Nigel, plucking the patch from his +eye, "I think that I am now clear of my vow, for this Spanish +knight was a person from whom much honor might be won. Indeed, he +was a very worthy gentleman, of good courage, and great +hardiness, and it grieves me that he should have come by such a +hurt. As to what you say of food, Oliver, it is not to be +thought of, for we have nothing with us upon the hill." + +"Nigel!" cried Sir Simon Burley, hurrying up with consternation +upon his face, "Aylward tells me that there are not ten-score +arrows left in all their sheaves. See! they are springing from +their horses, and cutting their sollerets that they may rush upon +us. Might we not even now make a retreat?" + +"My soul will retreat from my body first!" cried the little +knight. "Here I am, and here I bide, while God gives me strength +to lift a sword." + +"And so say I!" shouted Sir Oliver, throwing his mace high into +the air and catching it again by the handle. + +"To your arms, men!" roared Sir Nigel. "Shoot while you may, and +then out sword, and let us live or die together!" + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +HOW THE WHITE COMPANY CAME TO BE DISBANDED. + + +Then up rose from the hill in the rugged Cantabrian valley a sound +such as had not been heard in those parts before, nor was again, +until the streams which rippled amid the rocks had been frozen by +over four hundred winters and thawed by as many returning +springs. Deep and full and strong it thundered down the ravine, +the fierce battle-call of a warrior race, the last stern welcome +to whoso should join with them in that world-old game where the +stake is death. Thrice it swelled forth and thrice it sank away, +echoing and reverberating amidst the crags. Then, with set +faces, the Company rose up among the storm of stones, and looked +down upon the thousands who sped swiftly up the slope against +them. Horse and spear had been set aside, but on foot, with +sword and battle-axe, their broad shields slung in front of them, +the chivalry of Spain rushed to the attack. + +And now arose a struggle so fell, so long, so evenly sustained, +that even now the memory of it is handed down amongst the +Cantabrian mountaineers and the ill-omened knoll is still pointed +out by fathers to their children as the "Altura de los Inglesos," +where the men from across the sea fought the great fight with the +knights of the south. The last arrow was quickly shot, nor could +the slingers hurl their stones, so close were friend and foe. +From side to side stretched the thin line of the English, lightly +armed and quick-footed, while against it stormed and raged the +pressing throng of fiery Spaniards and of gallant Bretons. The +clink of crossing sword-blades, the dull thudding of heavy blows, +the panting and gasping of weary and wounded men, all rose +together in a wild, long-drawn note, which swelled upwards to the +ears of the wondering peasants who looked down from the edges of +the cliffs upon the swaying turmoil of the battle beneath them. +Back and forward reeled the leopard banner, now borne up the +slope by the rush and weight of the onslaught, now pushing +downwards again as Sir Nigel, Burley, and Black Simon with their +veteran men-at arms, flung themselves madly into the fray. +Alleyne, at his lord's right hand, found himself swept hither and +thither in the desperate struggle, exchanging savage thrusts one +instant with a Spanish cavalier, and the next torn away by the +whirl of men and dashed up against some new antagonist. To the +right Sir Oliver, Aylward, Hordle John, and the bowmen of the +Company fought furiously against the monkish Knights of Santiago, +who were led up the hill by their prior--a great, deep-chested +man, who wore a brown monastic habit over his suit of mail. +Three archers he slew in three giant strokes, but Sir Oliver +flung his arms round him, and the two, staggering and straining, +reeled backwards and fell, locked in each other's grasp, over the +edge of the steep cliff which flanked the hill. In vain his +knights stormed and raved against the thin line which barred +their path: the sword of Aylward and the great axe of John +gleamed in the forefront of the battle and huge jagged pieces of +rock, hurled by the strong arms of the bowmen, crashed and +hurtled amid their ranks. Slowly they gave back down the hill, +the archers still hanging upon their skirts, with a long litter +of writhing and twisted figures to mark the course which they +had taken. At the same instant the Welshmen upon the left, led +on by the Scotch earl, had charged out from among the rocks which +sheltered them, and by the fury of their outfall had driven the +Spaniards in front of them in headlong flight down the hill. In +the centre only things seemed to be going ill with the defenders. +Black Simon was down--dying, as he would wish to have died, like +a grim old wolf in its lair with a ring of his slain around him. +Twice Sir Nigel had been overborne, and twice Alleyne had fought +over him until he had staggered to his feet once more. Burley +lay senseless, stunned by a blow from a mace, and half of the +men-at-arms lay littered upon the ground around him. Sir Nigel's +shield was broken, his crest shorn, his armor cut and smashed, +and the vizor torn from his helmet; yet he sprang hither and +thither with light foot and ready hand, engaging two Bretons and +a Spaniard at the same instant--thrusting, stooping, dashing in, +springing out--while Alleyne still fought by his side, stemming +with a handful of men the fierce tide which surged up against +them. Yet it would have fared ill with them had not the archers +from either side closed in upon the flanks of the attackers, and +pressed them very slowly and foot by foot down the long slope, +until they were on the plain once more, where their fellows were +already rallying for a fresh assault. + +But terrible indeed was the cost at which the last had been +repelled. Of the three hundred and seventy men who had held the +crest, one hundred and seventy-two were left standing, many of +whom were sorely wounded and weak from loss of blood. Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn, Sir Richard Causton, Sir Simon Burley, Black Simon, +Johnston, a hundred and fifty archers, and forty-seven +men-at-arms had fallen, while the pitiless hail of stones +was already whizzing and piping once more about their ears, +threatening every instant to further reduce their numbers. + +Sir Nigel looked about him at his shattered ranks, and his face +flushed with a soldier's pride. + +"By St. Paul!" he cried, "I have fought in many a little +bickering, but never one that I would be more loth to have missed +than this. But you are wounded, Alleyne?" + +"It is nought," answered his squire, stanching the blood which +dripped from a sword-cut across his forehead. + +"These gentlemen of Spain seem to be most courteous and worthy +people. I see that they are already forming to continue this +debate with us. Form up the bowmen two deep instead of four. By +my faith! some very brave men have gone from among us. Aylward, +you are a trusty soldier, for all that your shoulder has never +felt accolade, nor your heels worn the gold spurs. Do you take +charge of the right; I will hold the centre, and you, my Lord of +Angus, the left." + +"Ho! for Sir Samkin Aylward!" cried a rough voice among the +archers, and a roar of laughter greeted their new leader. + +"By my hilt!" said the old bowman, "I never thought to lead a +wing in a stricken field. Stand close, camarades, for, by these +finger-bones! we must play the man this day." + +"Come hither, Alleyne," said Sir Nigel, walking back to the edge +of the cliff which formed the rear of their position. "And you, +Norbury," he continued, beckoning to the squire of Sir Oliver, +"do you also come here." + +The two squires hurried across to him, and the three stood +looking down into the rocky ravine which lay a hundred and fifty +feet beneath them. + +"The prince must hear of how things are with us," said the +knight. "Another onfall we may withstand, but they are many and +we are few, so that the time must come when we can no longer form +line across the hill. Yet if help were brought us we might hold +the crest until it comes. See yonder horses which stray among +the rocks beneath us?" + +"I see them, my fair lord." + +"And see yonder path which winds along the hill upon the further +end of the valley?" + +"I see it." + +"Were you on those horses, and riding up yonder track, steep and +rough as it is, I think that ye might gain the valley beyond. +Then on to the prince, and tell him how we fare." + +"But, my fair lord, how can we hope to reach the horses?" asked +Norbury. + +"Ye cannot go round to them, for they would be upon ye ere ye +could come to them. Think ye that ye have heart enough to +clamber down this cliff?" + +"Had we but a rope." + +"There is one here. It is but one hundred feet long, and for the +rest ye must trust to God and to your fingers. Can you try it, +Alleyne?" + +"With all my heart, my dear lord, but how can I leave you in such +a strait?" + +"Nay, it is to serve me that ye go. And you, Norbury?" + +The silent squire said nothing, but he took up the rope, and, +having examined it, he tied one end firmly round a projecting +rock. Then he cast off his breast-plate, thigh pieces, and +greaves, while Alleyne followed his example. + +"Tell Chandos, or Calverley, or Knolles, should the prince have +gone forward," cried Sir Nigel. "Now may God speed ye, for ye +are brave and worthy men." + +It was, indeed, a task which might make the heart of the bravest +sink within him. The thin cord dangling down the face of the +brown cliff seemed from above to reach little more than half-way +down it. Beyond stretched the rugged rock, wet and shining, with +a green tuft here and there thrusting out from it, but little +sign of ridge or foothold. Far below the jagged points of the +boulders bristled up, dark and menacing. Norbury tugged thrice +with all his strength upon the cord, and then lowered himself +over the edge, while a hundred anxious faces peered over at him +as he slowly clambered downwards to the end of the rope. Twice +he stretched out his foot, and twice he failed to reach the point +at which he aimed, but even as he swung himself for a third +effort a stone from a sling buzzed like a wasp from amid the +rocks and struck him full upon the side of his head. His grasp +relaxed, his feet slipped, and in an instant he was a crushed and +mangled corpse upon the sharp ridges beneath him. + +"If I have no better fortune," said Alleyne, leading Sir Nigel +aside. "I pray you, my dear lord, that you will give my humble +service to the Lady Maude, and say to her that I was ever her +true servant and most unworthy cavalier." + +The old knight said no word, but he put a hand on either +shoulder, and kissed his squire, with the tears shining in his +eyes. Alleyne sprang to the rope, and sliding swiftly down, soon +found himself at its extremity. From above it seemed as though +rope and cliff were well-nigh touching, but now, when swinging a +hundred feet down, the squire found that he could scarce reach +the face of the rock with his foot, and that it was as smooth as +glass, with no resting-place where a mouse could stand. Some +three feet lower, however, his eye lit upon a long jagged crack +which slanted downwards, and this he must reach if he would save +not only his own poor life, but that of the eight-score men +above him. Yet it were madness to spring for that narrow slit +with nought but the wet, smooth rock to cling to. He swung for a +moment, full of thought, and even as he hung there another of the +hellish stones sang through his curls, and struck a chip from the +face of the cliff. Up he clambered a few feet, drew up the loose +end after him, unslung his belt, held on with knee and with elbow +while he spliced the long, tough leathern belt to the end of the +cord: then lowering himself as far as he could go, he swung +backwards and forwards until his hand reached the crack, when he +left the rope and clung to the face of the cliff. Another stone +struck him on the side, and he heard a sound like a breaking +stick, with a keen stabbing pain which shot through his chest. +Yet it was no time now to think of pain or ache. There was his +lord and his eight-score comrades, and they must be plucked from +the jaws of death. On he clambered, with his hand shuffling down +the long sloping crack, sometimes bearing all his weight upon his +arms, at others finding some small shelf or tuft on which to rest +his foot. Would he never pass over that fifty feet? He dared not +look down and could but grope slowly onwards, his face to the +cliff, his fingers clutching, his feet scraping and feeling for a +support. Every vein and crack and mottling of that face of rock +remained forever stamped upon his memory. At last, however, his +foot came upon a broad resting-place and he ventured to cast a +glance downwards. Thank God! he had reached the highest of those +fatal pinnacles upon which his comrade had fallen. Quickly now he +sprang from rock to rock until his feet were on the ground, and +he had his hand stretched out for the horse's rein, when a +sling-stone struck him on the head, and he dropped senseless upon +the ground. + +An evil blow it was for Alleyne, but a worse one still for him +who struck it. The Spanish slinger, seeing the youth lie slain, +and judging from his dress that he was no common man, rushed +forward to plunder him, knowing well that the bowmen above him +had expended their last shaft. He was still three paces, +however, from his victim's side when John upon the cliff above +plucked up a huge boulder, and, poising it for an instant, +dropped it with fatal aim upon the slinger beneath him. It +struck upon his shoulder, and hurled him, crushed and screaming, +to the ground, while Alleyne, recalled to his senses by these +shrill cries in his very ear, staggered on to his feet, and gazed +wildly about him. His eyes fell upon the horses, grazing upon +the scanty pasture, and in an instant all had come back to +him--his mission, his comrades, the need for haste. He was +dizzy, sick, faint, but he must not die, and he must not tarry, +for his life meant many lives that day. In an instant he was in +his saddle and spurring down the valley. Loud rang the swift +charger's hoofs over rock and reef, while the fire flew from the +stroke of iron, and the loose stones showered up behind him. But +his head was whirling round, the blood was gushing from his brow, +his temple, his mouth. Ever keener and sharper was the deadly +pain which shot like a red-hot arrow through his side. He felt +that his eye was glazing, his senses slipping from him, his grasp +upon the reins relaxing. Then with one mighty effort, he called +up all his strength for a single minute. Stooping down, he +loosened the stirrup-straps, bound his knees tightly to his +saddle-flaps, twisted his hands in the bridle, and then, putting +the gallant horse's head for the mountain path, he dashed the +spurs in and fell forward fainting with his face buried in the +coarse, black mane. + +Little could he ever remember of that wild ride. Half conscious, +but ever with the one thought beating in his mind, he goaded the +horse onwards, rushing swiftly down steep ravines over huge +boulders, along the edges of black abysses. Dim memories he had +of beetling cliffs, of a group of huts with wondering faces at +the doors, of foaming, clattering water, and of a bristle of +mountain beeches. Once, ere he had ridden far, he heard behind +him three deep, sullen shouts, which told him that his comrades +had set their faces to the foe once more. Then all was blank, +until he woke to find kindly blue English eyes peering down upon +him and to hear the blessed sound of his country's speech. +They were but a foraging party--a hundred archers and as many +men-at-arms--but their leader was Sir Hugh Calverley, and he was +not a man to bide idle when good blows were to be had not three +leagues from him. A scout was sent flying with a message to the +camp, and Sir Hugh, with his two hundred men, thundered off to the +rescue. With them went Alleyne, still bound to his saddle, still +dripping with blood, and swooning and recovering, and swooning +once again. On they rode, and on, until, at last, topping a +ridge, they looked down upon the fateful valley. Alas! and alas! +for the sight that met their eyes. + +There, beneath them, was the blood-bathed hill, and from the +highest pinnacle there flaunted the yellow and white banner with +the lions and the towers of the royal house of Castile. Up the +long slope rushed ranks and ranks of men exultant, shouting, with +waving pennons and brandished arms. Over the whole summit were +dense throngs of knights, with no enemy that could be seen to +face them, save only that at one corner of the plateau an eddy +and swirl amid the crowded mass seemed to show that all +resistance was not yet at an end. At the sight a deep groan of +rage and of despair went up from the baffled rescuers, and, +spurring on their horses, they clattered down the long and +winding path which led to the valley beneath. + +But they were too late to avenge, as they had been too late to +save. Long ere they could gain the level ground, the Spaniards, +seeing them riding swiftly amid the rocks, and being ignorant of +their numbers, drew off from the captured hill, and, having +secured their few prisoners, rode slowly in a long column, with +drum-beating and cymbal-clashing, out of the valley. Their rear +ranks were already passing out of sight ere the new-comers were +urging their panting, foaming horses up the slope which had been +the scene of that long drawn and bloody fight. + +And a fearsome sight it was that met their eyes! Across the +lower end lay the dense heap of men and horses where the first +arrow-storm had burst. Above, the bodies of the dead and the +dying--French, Spanish, and Aragonese--lay thick and thicker, +until they covered the whole ground two and three deep in one +dreadful tangle of slaughter. Above them lay the Englishmen in +their lines, even as they had stood, and higher yet upon the +plateau a wild medley of the dead of all nations, where the last +deadly grapple had left them. In the further corner, under the +shadow of a great rock, there crouched seven bowmen, with great +John in the centre of them--all wounded, weary, and in sorry +case, but still unconquered, with their blood-stained weapons +waving and their voices ringing a welcome to their countrymen. +Alleyne rode across to John, while Sir Hugh Calverley followed +close behind him. + +"By Saint George!" cried Sir Hugh, "I have never seen signs of so +stern a fight, and I am right glad that we have been in time to +save you." + +"You have saved more than us," said John, pointing to the banner +which leaned against the rock behind him. + +"You have done nobly," cried the old free companion, gazing with +a soldier's admiration at the huge frame and bold face of the +archer. "But why is it, my good fellow, that you sit upon this +man." + +"By the rood! I had forgot him," John answered, rising and +dragging from under him no less a person than the Spanish +caballero, Don Diego Alvarez. "This man, my fair lord, means to +me a new house, ten cows, one bull--if it be but a little one--a +grindstone, and I know not what besides; so that I thought it +well to sit upon him, lest he should take a fancy to leave me." + +"Tell me, John," cried Alleyne faintly: "where is my dear lord, +Sir Nigel Loring?" + +"He is dead, I fear. I saw them throw his body across a horse +and ride away with it, but I fear the life had gone from him." + +"Now woe worth me! And where is Aylward?" + +"He sprang upon a riderless horse and rode after Sir Nigel to +save him. I saw them throng around him, and he is either taken +or slain." + +"Blow the bugles!" cried Sir Hugh, with a scowling brow. "We must +back to camp, and ere three days I trust that we may see these +Spaniards again. I would fain have ye all in my company." + +"We are of the White Company, my fair lord," said John. + +"Nay, the White Company is here disbanded," answered Sir Hugh +solemnly, looking round him at the lines of silent figures, "Look +to the brave squire, for I fear that he will never see the sun +rise again." + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +OF THE HOME-COMING TO HAMPSHIRE. + + +It was a bright July morning four months after that fatal fight +in the Spanish barranca. A blue heaven stretched above, a green +rolling plain undulated below, intersected with hedge-rows and +flecked with grazing sheep. The sun was yet low in the heaven, +and the red cows stood in the long shadow of the elms, chewing +the cud and gazing with great vacant eyes at two horsemen who +were spurring it down the long white road which dipped and curved +away back to where the towers and pinnacles beneath the flat-topped +hill marked the old town of Winchester. + +Of the riders one was young, graceful, and fair, clad in plain +doublet and hosen of blue Brussels cloth, which served to show +his active and well-knit figure. A flat velvet cap was drawn +forward to keep the glare from his eyes, and he rode with lips +compressed and anxious face, as one who has much care upon his +mind. Young as he was, and peaceful as was his dress, the dainty +golden spurs which twinkled upon his heels proclaimed his +knighthood, while a long seam upon his brow and a scar upon his +temple gave a manly grace to his refined and delicate +countenance. His comrade was a large, red-headed man upon a +great black horse, with a huge canvas bag slung from his +saddle-bow, which jingled and clinked with every movement of his +steed. His broad, brown face was lighted up by a continual +smile, and he looked slowly from side to side with eyes which +twinkled and shone with delight. Well might John rejoice, for +was he not back in his native Hampshire, had he not Don Diego's +five thousand crowns rasping against his knee, and above all was +he not himself squire now to Sir Alleyne Edricson, the young +Socman of Minstead lately knighted by the sword of the Black +Prince himself, and esteemed by the whole army as one of the most +rising of the soldiers of England. + +For the last stand of the Company had been told throughout +Christendom wherever a brave deed of arms was loved, and honors +had flowed in upon the few who had survived it. For two months +Alleyne had wavered betwixt death and life, with a broken rib and +a shattered head; yet youth and strength and a cleanly life were +all upon his side, and he awoke from his long delirium to find +that the war was over, that the Spaniards and their allies had +been crushed at Navaretta, and that the prince had himself heard +the tale of his ride for succor and had come in person to his +bedside to touch his shoulder with his sword and to insure that +so brave and true a man should die, if he could not live, within +the order of chivalry. The instant that he could set foot to +ground Alleyne had started in search of his lord, but no word +could he hear of him, dead or alive, and he had come home now +sad-hearted, in the hope of raising money upon his estates and so +starting upon his quest once more. Landing at London, he had +hurried on with a mind full of care, for he had heard no word +from Hampshire since the short note which had announced his +brother's death. + +"By the rood!" cried John, looking around him exultantly, "where +have we seen since we left such noble cows, such fleecy sheep, +grass so green, or a man so drunk as yonder rogue who lies in the +gap of the hedge?" + +"Ah, John," Alleyne answered wearily, "it is well for you, but I +never thought that my home-coming would be so sad a one. My +heart is heavy for my dear lord and for Aylward, and I know not +how I may break the news to the Lady Mary and to the Lady Maude, +if they have not yet had tidings of it." + +John gave a groan which made the horses shy. "It is indeed a +black business," said he. "But be not sad, for I shall give half +these crowns to my old mother, and half will I add to the money +which you may have, and so we shall buy that yellow cog wherein +we sailed to Bordeaux, and in it we shall go forth and seek Sir +Nigel." + +Alleyne smiled, but shook his head. "Were he alive we should +have had word of him ere now," said he. "But what is this town +before us?" + +"Why, it is Romsey!" cried John. "See the tower of the old gray +church, and the long stretch of the nunnery. But here sits a +very holy man, and I shall give him a crown for his prayers." + +Three large stones formed a rough cot by the roadside, and beside +it, basking in the sun, sat the hermit, with clay-colored face, +dull eyes, and long withered hands. With crossed ankles and +sunken head. he sat as though all his life had passed out of +him, with the beads slipping slowly through his thin, yellow +fingers. Behind him lay the narrow cell, clay-floored and damp, +comfortless, profitless and sordid. Beyond it there lay amid +the trees the wattle-and-daub hut of a laborer, the door open, +and the single room exposed to the view. The man ruddy and +yellow-haired, stood leaning upon the spade wherewith he had +been at work upon the garden patch. From behind him came the +ripple of a happy woman's laughter, and two young urchins darted +forth from the hut, bare-legged and towsy, while the mother, +stepping out, laid her hand upon her husband's arm and watched +the gambols of the children. The hermit frowned at the untoward +noise which broke upon his prayers, but his brow relaxed as he +looked upon the broad silver piece which John held out to him. + +"There lies the image of our past and of our future," cried +Alleyne, as they rode on upon their way. "Now, which is better, +to till God's earth, to have happy faces round one's knee, and to +love and be loved, or to sit forever moaning over one's own soul, +like a mother over a sick babe?" + +"I know not about that," said John, "for it casts a great cloud +over me when I think of such matters. But I know that my crown +was well spent, for the man had the look of a very holy person. +As to the other, there was nought holy about him that I could +see, and it would be cheaper for me to pray for myself than to +give a crown to one who spent his days in digging for lettuces." + +Ere Alleyne could answer there swung round the curve of the road +a lady's carriage drawn by three horses abreast with a postilion +upon the outer one. Very fine and rich it was, with beams +painted and gilt, wheels and spokes carved in strange figures, +and over all an arched cover of red and white tapestry. +Beneath its shade there sat a stout and elderly lady in a pink +cote-hardie, leaning back among a pile of cushions, and plucking +out her eyebrows with a small pair of silver tweezers. None +could seem more safe and secure and at her ease than this lady, +yet here also was a symbol of human life, for in an instant, even +as Alleyne reined aside to let the carriage pass, a wheel flew +out from among its fellows, and over it all toppled--carving, +tapestry and gilt--in one wild heap, with the horses plunging, +the postilion shouting, and the lady screaming from within. In +an instant Alleyne and John were on foot, and had lifted her +forth all in a shake with fear, but little the worse for her +mischance. + +"Now woe worth me!" she cried, "and ill fall on Michael Easover +of Romsey! for I told him that the pin was loose, and yet he must +needs gainsay me, like the foolish daffe that he is." + +"I trust that you have taken no hurt, my fair lady," said +Alleyne, conducting her to the bank, upon which John had already +placed a cushion. + +"Nay, I have had no scath, though I have lost my silver tweezers. +Now, lack-a-day! did God ever put breath into such a fool as +Michael Easover of Romsey? But I am much beholden to you, gentle +sirs. Soldiers ye are, as one may readily see. I am myself a +soldier's daughter," she added, casting a somewhat languishing +glance at John, "and my heart ever goes out to a brave man." + +"We are indeed fresh from Spain," quoth Alleyne. + +"From Spain, say you? Ah! it was an ill and sorry thing that so +many should throw away the lives that Heaven gave them. In +sooth, it is bad for those who fall, but worse for those who bide +behind. I have but now bid farewell to one who hath lost all in +this cruel war." + +"And how that, lady?" + +"She is a young damsel of these parts, and she goes now into a +nunnery. Alack! it is not a year since she was the fairest maid +from Avon to Itchen, and now it was more than I could abide to +wait at Romsey Nunnery to see her put the white veil upon her +face, for she was made for a wife and not for the cloister. Did +you ever, gentle sir, hear of a body of men called `The White +Company' over yonder?" + +"Surely so," cried both the comrades. + +"Her father was the leader of it, and her lover served under him +as squire. News hath come that not one of the Company was left +alive, and so, poor lamb, she hath----" + +"Lady!" cried Alleyne, with catching breath, "is it the Lady +Maude Loring of whom you speak?" + +"It is, in sooth." + +"Maude! And in a nunnery! Did, then, the thought of her +father's death so move her?" + +"Her father!" cried the lady, smiling. "Nay; Maude is a good +daughter, but I think it was this young golden-haired squire of +whom I have heard who has made her turn her back upon the world." + +"And I stand talking here!" cried Alleyne wildly. "Come, John, +come!" + +Rushing to his horse, he swung himself into the saddle, and was +off down the road in a rolling cloud of dust as fast as his good +steed could bear him. + +Great had been the rejoicing amid the Romsey nuns when the Lady +Maude Loring had craved admission into their order--for was she +not sole child and heiress of the old knight, with farms and +fiefs which she could bring to the great nunnery? Long and +earnest had been the talks of the gaunt lady abbess, in which she +had conjured the young novice to turn forever from the world, and +to rest her bruised heart under the broad and peaceful shelter of +the church. And now, when all was settled, and when abbess and +lady superior had had their will, it was but fitting that some +pomp and show should mark the glad occasion. Hence was it that +the good burghers of Romsey were all in the streets, that gay +flags and flowers brightened the path from the nunnery to the +church, and that a long procession wound up to the old arched +door leading up the bride to these spiritual nuptials. There was +lay-sister Agatha with the high gold crucifix, and the three +incense-bearers, and the two-and-twenty garbed in white, who cast +flowers upon either side of them and sang sweetly the while. +Then, with four attendants, came the novice, her drooping head +wreathed with white blossoms, and, behind, the abbess and her +council of older nuns, who were already counting in their minds +whether their own bailiff could manage the farms of Twynham, or +whether a reeve would be needed beneath him, to draw the utmost +from these new possessions which this young novice was about to +bring them. + +But alas! for plots and plans when love and youth and nature, +and above all, fortune are arrayed against them. Who is this +travel-stained youth who dares to ride so madly through the lines +of staring burghers? Why does he fling himself from his horse +and stare so strangely about him? See how he has rushed through +the incense-bearers, thrust aside lay-sister Agatha, scattered the +two-and-twenty damosels who sang so sweetly--and he stands before +the novice with his hands out-stretched, and his face shining, +and the light of love in his gray eyes. Her foot is on the very +lintel of the church, and yet he bars the way--and she, she +thinks no more of the wise words and holy rede of the lady +abbess, but she hath given a sobbing cry and hath fallen forward +with his arms around her drooping body and her wet cheek upon his +breast. A sorry sight this for the gaunt abbess, an ill lesson +too for the stainless two-and-twenty who have ever been taught +that the way of nature is the way of sin. But Maude and Alleyne +care little for this. A dank, cold air comes out from the black +arch before them. Without, the sun shines bright and the birds +are singing amid the ivy on the drooping beeches. Their choice +is made, and they turn away hand-in-hand, with their backs to the +darkness and their faces to the light. + +Very quiet was the wedding in the old priory church at +Christchurch, where Father Christopher read the service, and +there were few to see save the Lady Loring and John, and a dozen +bowmen from the castle. The Lady of Twynham had drooped and +pined for weary months, so that her face was harsher and less +comely than before, yet she still hoped on, for her lord had come +through so many dangers that she could scarce believe that he +might be stricken down at last. It had been her wish to start +for Spain and to search for him, but Alleyne had persuaded her +to let him go in her place. There was much to look after, now +that the lands of Minstead were joined to those of Twynham, and +Alleyne had promised her that if she would but bide with his wife +he would never come back to Hampshire again until he had gained +some news, good or ill, of her lord and lover. + +The yellow cog had been engaged, with Goodwin Hawtayne in +command, and a month after the wedding Alleyne rode down to +Bucklershard to see if she had come round yet from Southampton. +On the way he passed the fishing village of Pitt's Deep, and +marked that a little creyer or brig was tacking off the land, as +though about to anchor there. On his way back, as he rode +towards the village, he saw that she had indeed anchored, and +that many boats were round her, bearing cargo to the shore. + +A bow-shot from Pitt's Deep there was an inn a little back from +the road, very large and wide-spread, with a great green bush +hung upon a pole from one of the upper windows. At this window +he marked, as he rode up, that a man was seated who appeared to +be craning his neck in his direction. Alleyne was still looking +up at him, when a woman came rushing from the open door of the +inn, and made as though she would climb a tree, looking back the +while with a laughing face. Wondering what these doings might +mean, Alleyne tied his horse to a tree, and was walking amid the +trunks towards the inn, when there shot from the entrance a +second woman who made also for the trees. Close at her heels +came a burly, brown-faced man, who leaned against the door-post +and laughed loudly with his hand to his side, "Ah, mes belles!" +he cried, "and is it thus you treat me? Ah, mes petites! I +swear by these finger-bones that I would not hurt a hair of your +pretty heads; but I have been among the black paynim, and, by my +hilt! it does me good to look at your English cheeks. Come, +drink a stoup of muscadine with me, mes anges, for my heart is +warm to be among ye again." + +At the sight of the man Alleyne had stood staring, but at the +sound of his voice such a thrill of joy bubbled up in his heart +that he had to bite his lip to keep himself from shouting +outright. But a deeper pleasure yet was in store. Even as he +looked, the window above was pushed outwards, and the voice of +the man whom he had seen there came out from it. "Aylward," +cried the voice, "I have seen just now a very worthy person come +down the road, though my eyes could scarce discern whether he +carried coat-armor. I pray you to wait upon him and tell him +that a very humble knight of England abides here, so that if he +be in need of advancement, or have any small vow upon his soul, +or desire to exalt his lady, I may help him to accomplish it." + +Aylward at this order came shuffling forward amid the trees, and +in an instant the two men were clinging in each other's arms, +laughing and shouting and patting each other in their delight; +while old Sir Nigel came running with his sword, under the +impression that some small bickering had broken out, only to +embrace and be embraced himself, until all three were hoarse with +their questions and outcries and congratulations. + +On their journey home through the woods Alleyne learnt their +wondrous story: how, when Sir Nigel came to his senses, he with +his fellow-captive had been hurried to the coast, and conveyed by +sea to their captor's castle; how upon the way they had been +taken by a Barbary rover, and how they exchanged their light +captivity for a seat on a galley bench and hard labor at the +pirate's oars; how, in the port at Barbary, Sir Nigel had slain +the Moorish captain, and had swum with Aylward to a small coaster +which they had taken, and so made their way to England with a +rich cargo to reward them for their toils. All this Alleyne +listened to, until the dark keep of Twynham towered above them +in the gloaming, and they saw the red sun lying athwart the +rippling Avon. No need to speak of the glad hearts at Twynham +Castle that night, nor of the rich offerings from out that +Moorish cargo which found their way to the chapel of Father +Christopher. + +Sir Nigel Loring lived for many years, full of honor and laden +with every blessing. He rode no more to the wars, but he found +his way to every jousting within thirty miles; and the Hampshire +youth treasured it as the highest honor when a word of praise +fell from him as to their management of their horses, or their +breaking of their lances. So he lived and so he died, the most +revered and the happiest man in all his native shire. + +For Sir Alleyne Edricson and for his beautiful bride the future +had also naught but what was good. Twice he fought in France, +and came back each time laden with honors. A high place at court +was given to him, and he spent many years at Windsor under the +second Richard and the fourth Henry--where he received the honor +of the Garter, and won the name of being a brave soldier, a +true-hearted gentleman, and a great lover and patron of every +art and science which refines or ennobles life. + +As to John, he took unto himself a village maid, and settled in +Lyndhurst, where his five thousand crowns made him the richest +franklin for many miles around. For many years he drank his ale +every night at the "Pied Merlin," which was now kept by his +friend Aylward, who had wedded the good widow to whom he had +committed his plunder. The strong men and the bowmen of the +country round used to drop in there of an evening to wrestle a +fall with John or to shoot a round with Aylward; but, though a +silver shilling was to be the prize of the victory, it has never +been reported that any man earned much money in that fashion. So +they lived, these men, in their own lusty, cheery fashion--rude +and rough, but honest, kindly and true. Let us thank God if we +have outgrown their vices. Let us pray to God that we may ever +hold their virtues. The sky may darken, and the clouds may +gather, and again the day may come when Britain may have sore +need of her children, on whatever shore of the sea they be found. +Shall they not muster at her call? + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The White Company +by Arthur Conan Doyle + diff --git a/old/whtco11.zip b/old/whtco11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..392f4af --- /dev/null +++ b/old/whtco11.zip diff --git a/old/whtco12.txt b/old/whtco12.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..360f20c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/whtco12.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17062 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The White Company, by Arthur Conan Doyle +(#12 in our series by Arthur Conan Doyle) + +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 White Company + +Author: Arthur Conan Doyle + +Release Date: May, 1997 [EBook #903] +[This file was first posted on September 16, 2003] +[Most recently updated: September 16, 2003] + +Edition: 12 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE WHITE COMPANY *** + + + + + + + + +Scanned by Charles Keller with OmniPage Professional OCR software. +Updates and fixes by Carlo Traverso, with further updates and fixes +by Tonya Allen and Samuel S. Johnson. + + + THE WHITE COMPANY + + Sir Arthur Conan Doyle + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + I. How the Black Sheep came forth from the Fold + II. How Alleyne Edricson came out into the World + III. How Hordle John cozened the Fuller of Lymington + IV. How the Bailiff of Southampton Slew the Two Masterless Men + IV. How a Strange Company Gathered at the "Pied Merlin" + VI. How Samkin Aylward Wagered his Feather-bed + VII. How the Three Comrades Journeyed through the Woodlands + VIII. The Three Friends + IX. How Strange Things Befell in Minstead Wood + X. How Hordle John Found a Man whom he Might Follow + XI. How a Young Shepherd had a Perilous Flock + XII. How Alleyne Learned More than he could Teach + XIII. How the White Company set forth to the Wars + XIV. How Sir Nigel sought for a Wayside Venture + XV. How the Yellow Cog sailed forth from Lepe + XVI. How the Yellow Cog fought the Two Rover Galleys + XVII. How the Yellow Cog crossed the Bar of Gironde + XVIII. How Sir Nigel Loring put a Patch upon his Eye + XIX. How there was Stir at the Abbey of St. Andrew's + XX. How Alleyne Won his Place in an Honorable Guild + XXI. How Agostino Pisano Risked his Head + XXII. How the Bowmen held Wassail at the "Rose de Guienne" + XXIII. How England held the Lists at Bordeaux + XXIV. How a Champion came forth from the East + XXV. How Sir Nigel wrote to Twynham Castle + XXVI. How the Three Comrades Gained a Mighty Treasure + XXVII. How Roger Club-foot was Passed into Paradise + XXVIII. How the Comrades came over the Marches of France + XXIX. How the Blessed Hour of Sight Came to the Lady Tiphaine + XXX. How the Brushwood Men came to the Chateau of Villefranche + XXXI. How Five Men held the Keep of Villefranche + XXXII. How the Company took Counsel Round the Fallen Tree + XXXIII. How the Army made the Passage of Roncesvalles + XXXIV. How the Company Made Sport in the Vale of Pampeluna + XXXV. How Sir Nigel Hawked at an Eagle + XXXVI. How Sir Nigel Took the Patch from his Eye + XXXVII. How the White Company came to be Disbanded + XXXVIII. Of the Home-coming to Hampshire + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +HOW THE BLACK SHEEP CAME FORTH FROM THE FOLD. + + +The great bell of Beaulieu was ringing. Far away through the +forest might be heard its musical clangor and swell. Peat-cutters +on Blackdown and fishers upon the Exe heard the distant throbbing +rising and falling upon the sultry summer air. It was a common +sound in those parts--as common as the chatter of the jays and +the booming of the bittern. Yet the fishers and the peasants +raised their heads and looked questions at each other, for the +angelus had already gone and vespers was still far off. Why +should the great bell of Beaulieu toll when the shadows were +neither short nor long? + +All round the Abbey the monks were trooping in. Under the long +green-paved avenues of gnarled oaks and of lichened beeches the +white-robed brothers gathered to the sound. From the vine-yard +and the vine-press, from the bouvary or ox-farm, from the marl-pits +and salterns, even from the distant iron-works of Sowley and the +outlying grange of St. Leonard's, they had all turned their steps +homewards. It had been no sudden call. A swift messenger had +the night before sped round to the outlying dependencies of the +Abbey, and had left the summons for every monk to be back in the +cloisters by the third hour after noontide. So urgent a message +had not been issued within the memory of old lay-brother +Athanasius, who had cleaned the Abbey knocker since the year +after the Battle of Bannockburn. + +A stranger who knew nothing either of the Abbey or of its immense +resources might have gathered from the appearance of the brothers +some conception of the varied duties which they were called upon +to perform, and of the busy, wide-spread life which centred in +the old monastery. As they swept gravely in by twos and by +threes, with bended heads and muttering lips there were few who +did not bear upon them some signs of their daily toil. Here were +two with wrists and sleeves all spotted with the ruddy grape +juice. There again was a bearded brother with a broad-headed axe +and a bundle of faggots upon his shoulders, while beside him +walked another with the shears under his arm and the white wool +still clinging to his whiter gown. A long, straggling troop +bore spades and mattocks while the two rearmost of all staggered +along under a huge basket o' fresh-caught carp, for the morrow +was Friday, and there were fifty platters to be filled and as +many sturdy trenchermen behind them. Of all the throng there was +scarce one who was not labor-stained and weary, for Abbot +Berghersh was a hard man to himself and to others. + +Meanwhile, in the broad and lofty chamber set apart for occasions +of import, the Abbot himself was pacing impatiently backwards and +forwards, with his long white nervous hands clasped in front of +him. His thin, thought-worn features and sunken, haggard cheeks +bespoke one who had indeed beaten down that inner foe whom every +man must face, but had none the less suffered sorely in the +contest. In crushing his passions he had well-nigh crushed +himself. Yet, frail as was his person there gleamed out ever and +anon from under his drooping brows a flash of fierce energy, +which recalled to men's minds that he came of a fighting stock, +and that even now his twin-brother, Sir Bartholomew Berghersh, +was one of the most famous of those stern warriors who had +planted the Cross of St. George before the gates of Paris. With +lips compressed and clouded brow, he strode up and down the oaken +floor, the very genius and impersonation of asceticism, while the +great bell still thundered and clanged above his head. At last +the uproar died away in three last, measured throbs, and ere +their echo had ceased the Abbot struck a small gong which +summoned a lay-brother to his presence. + +"Have the brethren come?" he asked, in the Anglo-French dialect +used in religious houses. + +"They are here," the other answered, with his eyes cast down and +his hands crossed upon his chest. + +"All?" + +"Two and thirty of the seniors and fifteen of the novices, most +holy father. Brother Mark of the Spicarium is sore smitten with +a fever and could not come. He said that--" + +"It boots not what he said. Fever or no, he should have come at +my call. His spirit must be chastened, as must that of many more +in this Abbey. You yourself, brother Francis, have twice raised +your voice, so it hath come to my ears, when the reader in the +refectory hath been dealing with the lives of God's most blessed +saints. What hast thou to say?" + +The lay-brother stood meek and silent, with his arms still +crossed in front of him. + +"One thousand Aves and as many Credos, said standing with arms +outstretched before the shrine of the Virgin, may help thee to +remember that the Creator hath given us two ears and but one +mouth, as a token that there is twice the work for the one as for +the other. Where is the master of the novices?" + +"He is without, most holy father." + +"Send him hither." + +The sandalled feet clattered over the wooden floor, and the +iron-bound door creaked upon its hinges. In a few moments it +opened again to admit a short square monk with a heavy, composed +face and an authoritative manner. + +"You have sent for me, holy father?" + +"Yes, brother Jerome, I wish that this matter be disposed of with +as little scandal as may be, and yet it is needful that the +example should be a public one." The Abbot spoke in Latin now, +as a language which was more fitted by its age and solemnity to +convey the thoughts of two high dignitaries of the order. + +"It would, perchance, be best that the novices be not admitted," +suggested the master. "This mention of a woman may turn their +minds from their pious meditations to worldly and evil thoughts." + +"Woman! woman!" groaned the Abbot. "Well has the holy Chrysostom +termed them _radix malorum_. From Eve downwards, what good hath +come from any of them? Who brings the plaint?" + +"It is brother Ambrose." + +"A holy and devout young man." + +"A light and a pattern to every novice." + +"Let the matter be brought to an issue then according to our old-time +monastic habit. Bid the chancellor and the sub-chancellor lead +in the brothers according to age, together with brother John, the +accused, and brother Ambrose, the accuser." + +"And the novices?" + +"Let them bide in the north alley of the cloisters. Stay! Bid +the sub-chancellor send out to them Thomas the lector to read +unto them from the `Gesta beati Benedicti.' It may save them +from foolish and pernicious babbling." + +The Abbot was left to himself once more, and bent his thin gray +face over his illuminated breviary. So he remained while the +senior monks filed slowly and sedately into the chamber seating +themselves upon the long oaken benches which lined the wall on +either side. At the further end, in two high chairs as large as +that of the Abbot, though hardly as elaborately carved, sat the +master of the novices and the chancellor, the latter a broad and +portly priest, with dark mirthful eyes and a thick outgrowth of +crisp black hair all round his tonsured head. Between them stood +a lean, white-faced brother who appeared to be ill at ease, +shifting his feet from side to side and tapping his chin +nervously with the long parchment roll which he held in his hand. +The Abbot, from his point of vantage, looked down on the two long +lines of faces, placid and sun-browned for the most part, with +the large bovine eyes and unlined features which told of their +easy, unchanging existence. Then he turned his eager fiery gaze +upon the pale-faced monk who faced him. + +"This plaint is thine, as I learn, brother Ambrose," said he. +"May the holy Benedict, patron of our house, be present this day +and aid us in our findings! How many counts are there?" + +"Three, most holy father," the brother answered in a low and +quavering voice. + +"Have you set them forth according to rule?" + +"They are here set down, most holy father, upon a cantle of +sheep-skin." + +"Let the sheep-skin be handed to the chancellor. Bring in +brother John, and let him hear the plaints which have been urged +against him." + +At this order a lay-brother swung open the door, and two other +lay-brothers entered leading between them a young novice of the +order. He was a man of huge stature, dark-eyed and red-headed, +with a peculiar half-humorous, half-defiant expression upon his +bold, well-marked features. His cowl was thrown back upon his +shoulders, and his gown, unfastened at the top, disclosed a +round, sinewy neck, ruddy and corded like the bark of the fir. +Thick, muscular arms, covered with a reddish down, protruded from +the wide sleeves of his habit, while his white shirt, looped up +upon one side, gave a glimpse of a huge knotty leg, scarred and +torn with the scratches of brambles. With a bow to the Abbot, +which had in it perhaps more pleasantry than reverence, the +novice strode across to the carved prie-dieu which had been set +apart for him, and stood silent and erect with his hand upon the +gold bell which was used in the private orisons of the Abbot's +own household. His dark eyes glanced rapidly over the assembly, +and finally settled with a grim and menacing twinkle upon the +face of his accuser. + +The chancellor rose, and having slowly unrolled the +parchment-scroll, proceeded to read it out in a thick and pompous +voice, while a subdued rustle and movement among the brothers +bespoke the interest with which they followed the proceedings. + +"Charges brought upon the second Thursday after the Feast of the +Assumption, in the year of our Lord thirteen hundred and sixty-six, +against brother John, formerly known as Hordle John, or John +of Hordle, but now a novice in the holy monastic order of the +Cistercians. Read upon the same day at the Abbey of Beaulieu in +the presence of the most reverend Abbot Berghersh and of the +assembled order. + +"The charges against the said brother John are the following, +namely, to wit: + +"First, that on the above-mentioned Feast of the Assumption, +small beer having been served to the novices in the proportion of +one quart to each four, the said brother John did drain the pot +at one draught to the detriment of brother Paul, brother Porphyry +and brother Ambrose, who could scarce eat their none-meat of +salted stock-fish on account of their exceeding dryness." + +At this solemn indictment the novice raised his hand and twitched +his lip, while even the placid senior brothers glanced across at +each other and coughed to cover their amusement. The Abbot alone +sat gray and immutable, with a drawn face and a brooding eye. + +"Item, that having been told by the master of the novices that he +should restrict his food for two days to a single three-pound +loaf of bran and beans, for the greater honoring and glorifying +of St. Monica, mother of the holy Augustine, he was heard by +brother Ambrose and others to say that he wished twenty thousand +devils would fly away with the said Monica, mother of the holy +Augustine, or any other saint who came between a man and his +meat. Item, that upon brother Ambrose reproving him for this +blasphemous wish, he did hold the said brother face downwards +over the piscatorium or fish-pond for a space during which the +said brother was able to repeat a pater and four aves for the +better fortifying of his soul against impending death." + +There was a buzz and murmur among the white-frocked brethren at +this grave charge; but the Abbot held up his long quivering hand. +"What then?" said he. + +"Item, that between nones and vespers on the feast of James the +Less the said brother John was observed upon the Brockenhurst +road, near the spot which is known as Hatchett's Pond in converse +with a person of the other sex, being a maiden of the name of +Mary Sowley, the daughter of the King's verderer. Item, that +after sundry japes and jokes the said brother John did lift up +the said Mary Sowley and did take, carry, and convey her across a +stream, to the infinite relish of the devil and the exceeding +detriment of his own soul, which scandalous and wilful falling +away was witnessed by three members of our order." + +A dead silence throughout the room, with a rolling of heads and +upturning of eyes, bespoke the pious horror of the community. + +The Abbot drew his gray brows low over his fiercely questioning +eyes. + +"Who can vouch for this thing?" he asked. + +"That can I," answered the accuser. "So too can brother +Porphyry, who was with me, and brother Mark of the Spicarium, who +hath been so much stirred and inwardly troubled by the sight that +he now lies in a fever through it." + +"And the woman?" asked the Abbot. "Did she not break into +lamentation and woe that a brother should so demean himself?" + +"Nay, she smiled sweetly upon him and thanked him. I can vouch +it and so can brother Porphyry." + +"Canst thou?" cried the Abbot, in a high, tempestuous tone. +"Canst thou so? Hast forgotten that the five-and-thirtieth rule +of the order is that in the presence of a woman the face should +be ever averted and the eyes cast down? Hast forgot it, I say? +If your eyes were upon your sandals, how came ye to see this +smile of which ye prate? A week in your cells, false brethren, a +week of rye-bread and lentils, with double lauds and double +matins, may help ye to remembrance of the laws under which ye +live." + +At this sudden outflame of wrath the two witnesses sank their +faces on to their chests, and sat as men crushed. The Abbot +turned his angry eyes away from them and bent them upon the +accused, who met his searching gaze with a firm and composed +face. + +"What hast thou to say, brother John, upon these weighty things +which are urged against you?" + +"Little enough, good father, little enough," said the novice, +speaking English with a broad West Saxon drawl. The brothers, +who were English to a man, pricked up their ears at the sound of +the homely and yet unfamiliar speech; but the Abbot flushed red +with anger, and struck his hand upon the oaken arm of his chair. + +"What talk is this?" he cried. "Is this a tongue to be used +within the walls of an old and well-famed monastery? But grace +and learning have ever gone hand in hand, and when one is lost it +is needless to look for the other." + +"I know not about that," said brother John. "I know only that +the words come kindly to my mouth, for it was the speech of my +fathers before me. Under your favor, I shall either use it now +or hold my peace." + +The Abbot patted his foot and nodded his head, as one who passes +a point but does not forget it. + +"For the matter of the ale," continued brother John, "I had come +in hot from the fields and had scarce got the taste of the thing +before mine eye lit upon the bottom of the pot. It may be, too, +that I spoke somewhat shortly concerning the bran and the beans, +the same being poor provender and unfitted for a man of my +inches. It is true also that I did lay my hands upon this +jack-fool of a brother Ambrose, though, as you can see, I did him +little scathe. As regards the maid, too, it is true that I did +heft her over the stream, she having on her hosen and shoon, +whilst I had but my wooden sandals, which could take no hurt from +the water. I should have thought shame upon my manhood, as well +as my monkhood, if I had held back my hand from her." He glanced +around as he spoke with the half-amused look which he had worn +during the whole proceedings. + +"There is no need to go further," said the Abbot. "He has +confessed to all. It only remains for me to portion out the +punishment which is due to his evil conduct." + +He rose, and the two long lines of brothers followed his example, +looking sideways with scared faces at the angry prelate. + +"John of Hordle," he thundered, "you have shown yourself during +the two months of your novitiate to be a recreant monk, and one +who is unworthy to wear the white garb which is the outer symbol +of the spotless spirit. That dress shall therefore be stripped +from thee, and thou shalt be cast into the outer world without +benefit of clerkship, and without lot or part in the graces and +blessings of those who dwell under the care of the Blessed +Benedict. Thou shalt come back neither to Beaulieu nor to any of +the granges of Beaulieu, and thy name shall be struck off the +scrolls of the order." + +The sentence appeared a terrible one to the older monks, who had +become so used to the safe and regular life of the Abbey that +they would have been as helpless as children in the outer world. +From their pious oasis they looked dreamily out at the desert of +life, a place full of stormings and strivings--comfortless, +restless, and overshadowed by evil. The young novice, however, +appeared to have other thoughts, for his eyes sparkled and his +smile broadened. It needed but that to add fresh fuel to the +fiery mood of the prelate. + +"So much for thy spiritual punishment," he cried. "But it is to +thy grosser feelings that we must turn in such natures as thine, +and as thou art no longer under the shield of holy church there +is the less difficulty. Ho there! lay-brothers--Francis, Naomi, +Joseph--seize him and bind his arms! Drag him forth, and let the +foresters and the porters scourge him from the precincts!" + +As these three brothers advanced towards him to carry out the +Abbot's direction, the smile faded from the novice's face, and he +glanced right and left with his fierce brown eyes, like a bull at +a baiting. Then, with a sudden deep-chested shout, he tore up +the heavy oaken prie-dieu and poised it to strike, taking two +steps backward the while, that none might take him at a vantage. + +"By the black rood of Waltham!" he roared, "if any knave among +you lays a finger-end upon the edge of my gown, I will crush his +skull like a filbert!" With his thick knotted arms, his +thundering voice, and his bristle of red hair, there was +something so repellent in the man that the three brothers flew +back at the very glare of him; and the two rows of white monks +strained away from him like poplars in a tempest. The Abbot only +sprang forward with shining eyes; but the chancellor and the +master hung upon either arm and wrested him back out of danger's +way. + +"He is possessed of a devil!" they shouted. "Run, brother +Ambrose, brother Joachim! Call Hugh of the Mill, and Woodman +Wat, and Raoul with his arbalest and bolts. Tell them that we +are in fear of our lives! Run, run! for the love of the Virgin!" + +But the novice was a strategist as well as a man of action. +Springing forward, he hurled his unwieldy weapon at brother +Ambrose, and, as desk and monk clattered on to the floor +together, he sprang through the open door and down the winding +stair. Sleepy old brother Athanasius, at the porter's cell, had +a fleeting vision of twinkling feet and flying skirts; but before +he had time to rub his eyes the recreant had passed the lodge, +and was speeding as fast as his sandals could patter along the +Lyndhurst Road. + + + +CHAPTER II. + +HOW ALLEYNE EDRICSON CAME OUT INTO THE WORLD. + + +Never had the peaceful atmosphere of the old Cistercian house +been so rudely ruffled. Never had there been insurrection so +sudden, so short, and so successful. Yet the Abbot Berghersh was +a man of too firm a grain to allow one bold outbreak to imperil +the settled order of his great household. In a few hot and +bitter words, he compared their false brother's exit to the +expulsion of our first parents from the garden, and more than +hinted that unless a reformation occurred some others of the +community might find themselves in the same evil and perilous +case. Having thus pointed the moral and reduced his flock to a +fitting state of docility, he dismissed them once more to their +labors and withdrew himself to his own private chamber, there to +seek spiritual aid in the discharge of the duties of his high +office. + +The Abbot was still on his knees, when a gentle tapping at the +door of his cell broke in upon his orisons. + +Rising in no very good humor at the interruption, he gave the +word to enter; but his look of impatience softened down into a +pleasant and paternal smile as his eyes fell upon his visitor. + +He was a thin-faced, yellow-haired youth, rather above the middle +size, comely and well shapen, with straight, lithe figure and +eager, boyish features. His clear, pensive gray eyes, and quick, +delicate expression, spoke of a nature which had unfolded far +from the boisterous joys and sorrows of the world. Yet there was +a set of the mouth and a prominence of the chin which relieved +him of any trace of effeminacy. Impulsive he might be, +enthusiastic, sensitive, with something sympathetic and adaptive +in his disposition; but an observer of nature's tokens would have +confidently pledged himself that there was native firmness and +strength underlying his gentle, monk-bred ways. + +The youth was not clad in monastic garb, but in lay attire, +though his jerkin, cloak and hose were all of a sombre hue, as +befitted one who dwelt in sacred precincts. A broad leather +strap hanging from his shoulder supported a scrip or satchel such +as travellers were wont to carry. In one hand he grasped a thick +staff pointed and shod with metal, while in the other he held his +coif or bonnet, which bore in its front a broad pewter medal +stamped with the image of Our Lady of Rocamadour. + +"Art ready, then, fair son?" said the Abbot. "This is indeed a +day of comings and of goings. It is strange that in one twelve +hours the Abbey should have cast off its foulest weed and should +now lose what we are fain to look upon as our choicest blossom." + +"You speak too kindly, father," the youth answered. "If I had my +will I should never go forth, but should end my days here in +Beaulieu. It hath been my home as far back as my mind can carry +me, and it is a sore thing for me to have to leave it." + +"Life brings many a cross," said the Abbot gently. "Who is +without them? Your going forth is a grief to us as well as to +yourself. But there is no help. I had given my foreword and +sacred promise to your father, Edric the Franklin, that at the +age of twenty you should be sent out into the world to see for +yourself how you liked the savor of it. Seat thee upon the +settle, Alleyne, for you may need rest ere long." + +The youth sat down as directed, but reluctantly and with +diffidence. The Abbot stood by the narrow window, and his long +black shadow fell slantwise across the rush-strewn floor. + +"Twenty years ago," he said, "your father, the Franklin of +Minstead, died, leaving to the Abbey three hides of rich land in +the hundred of Malwood, and leaving to us also his infant son on +condition that we should rear him until he came to man's estate. +This he did partly because your mother was dead, and partly +because your elder brother, now Socman of Minstead, had already +given sign of that fierce and rude nature which would make him no +fit companion for you. It was his desire and request, however, +that you should not remain in the cloisters, but should at a ripe +age return into the world." + +"But, father," interrupted the young man "it is surely true that +I am already advanced several degrees in clerkship?" + +"Yes, fair son, but not so far as to bar you from the garb you +now wear or the life which you must now lead. You have been +porter?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Exorcist?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Reader?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Acolyte?" + +"Yes, father." + +"But have sworn no vow of constancy or chastity?" + +"No, father." + +"Then you are free to follow a worldly life. But let me hear, +ere you start, what gifts you take away with you from Beaulieu? +Some I already know. There is the playing of the citole and the +rebeck. Our choir will be dumb without you. You carve too?" + +The youth's pale face flushed with the pride of the skilled +workman. "Yes, holy father," he answered. "Thanks to good +brother Bartholomew, I carve in wood and in ivory, and can do +something also in silver and in bronze. From brother Francis I +have learned to paint on vellum, on glass, and on metal, with a +knowledge of those pigments and essences which can preserve the +color against damp or a biting air. Brother Luke hath given me +some skill in damask work, and in the enamelling of shrines, +tabernacles, diptychs and triptychs. For the rest, I know a +little of the making of covers, the cutting of precious stones, +and the fashioning of instruments." + +"A goodly list, truly," cried the superior with a smile. "What +clerk of Cambrig or of Oxenford could say as much? But of thy +reading--hast not so much to show there, I fear?" + +"No, father, it hath been slight enough. Yet, thanks to our good +chancellor, I am not wholly unlettered. I have read Ockham, +Bradwardine, and other of the schoolmen, together with the +learned Duns Scotus and the book of the holy Aquinas." + +"But of the things of this world, what have you gathered from +your reading? From this high window you may catch a glimpse over +the wooden point and the smoke of Bucklershard of the mouth of +the Exe, and the shining sea. Now, I pray you Alleyne, if a man +were to take a ship and spread sail across yonder waters, where +might he hope to arrive?" + +The youth pondered, and drew a plan amongst the rushes with the +point of his staff. "Holy father," said he, "he would come upon +those parts of France which are held by the King's Majesty. But +if he trended to the south he might reach Spain and the Barbary +States. To his north would be Flanders and the country of the +Eastlanders and of the Muscovites." + +"True. And how if, after reaching the King's possessions, he +still journeyed on to the eastward?" + +"He would then come upon that part of France which is still in +dispute, and he might hope to reach the famous city of Avignon, +where dwells our blessed father, the prop of Christendom." + +"And then?" + +"Then he would pass through the land of the Almains and the great +Roman Empire, and so to the country of the Huns and of the +Lithuanian pagans, beyond which lies the great city of +Constantine and the kingdom of the unclean followers of Mahmoud." + +"And beyond that, fair son?" + +"Beyond that is Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and the great river +which hath its source in the Garden of Eden." + +"And then?" + +"Nay, good father, I cannot tell. Methinks the end of the world +is not far from there." + +"Then we can still find something to teach thee, Alleyne," said +the Abbot complaisantly. "Know that many strange nations lie +betwixt there and the end of the world. There is the country of +the Amazons, and the country of the dwarfs, and the country of +the fair but evil women who slay with beholding, like the +basilisk. Beyond that again is the kingdom of Prester John and +of the great Cham. These things I know for very sooth, for I had +them from that pious Christian and valiant knight, Sir John de +Mandeville, who stopped twice at Beaulieu on his way to and from +Southampton, and discoursed to us concerning what he had seen +from the reader's desk in the refectory, until there was many a +good brother who got neither bit nor sup, so stricken were they +by his strange tales." + +"I would fain know, father," asked the young man, "what there may +be at the end of the world?" + +"There are some things," replied the Abbot gravely, "into which +it was never intended that we should inquire. But you have a +long road before you. Whither will you first turn?" + +"To my brother's at Minstead. If he be indeed an ungodly and +violent man, there is the more need that I should seek him out +and see whether I cannot turn him to better ways." + +The Abbot shook his head. "The Socman of Minstead hath earned an +evil name over the country side," he said. "If you must go to +him, see at least that he doth not turn you from the narrow path +upon which you have learned to tread. But you are in God's +keeping, and Godward should you ever look in danger and in +trouble. Above all, shun the snares of women, for they are ever +set for the foolish feet of the young. Kneel down, my child, and +take an old man's blessing." + +Alleyne Edricson bent his head while the Abbot poured out his +heartfelt supplication that Heaven would watch over this young +soul, now going forth into the darkness and danger of the world. +It was no mere form for either of them. To them the outside life +of mankind did indeed seem to be one of violence and of sin, +beset with physical and still more with spiritual danger. +Heaven, too, was very near to them in those days. God's direct +agency was to be seen in the thunder and the rainbow, the +whirlwind and the lightning. To the believer, clouds of angels +and confessors, and martyrs, armies of the sainted and the +saved, were ever stooping over their struggling brethren upon +earth, raising, encouraging, and supporting them. It was then +with a lighter heart and a stouter courage that the young man +turned from the Abbot's room, while the latter, following him to +the stair-head, finally commended him to the protection of the +holy Julian, patron of travellers. + +Underneath, in the porch of the Abbey, the monks had gathered to +give him a last God-speed. Many had brought some parting token +by which he should remember them. There was brother Bartholomew +with a crucifix of rare carved ivory, and brother Luke with a +white-backed psalter adorned with golden bees, and brother +Francis with the "Slaying of the Innocents" most daintily set +forth upon vellum. All these were duly packed away deep in the +traveller's scrip, and above them old pippin-faced brother +Athanasius had placed a parcel of simnel bread and rammel cheese, +with a small flask of the famous blue-sealed Abbey wine. So, +amid hand-shakings and laughings and blessings, Alleyne Edricson +turned his back upon Beaulieu. + +At the turn of the road he stopped and gazed back. There was the +wide-spread building which he knew so well, the Abbot's house, +the long church, the cloisters with their line of arches, all +bathed and mellowed in the evening sun. There too was the broad +sweep of the river Exe, the old stone well, the canopied niche of +the Virgin, and in the centre of all the cluster of white-robed +figures who waved their hands to him. A sudden mist swam up +before the young man's eyes, and he turned away upon his journey +with a heavy heart and a choking throat. + + + +CHAPTER III. + +HOW HORDLE JOHN COZENED THE FULLER OF LYMINGTON. + + +It is not, however, in the nature of things that a lad of twenty, +with young life glowing in his veins and all the wide world +before him, should spend his first hours of freedom in mourning +for what he had left. Long ere Alleyne was out of sound of the +Beaulieu bells he was striding sturdily along, swinging his staff +and whistling as merrily as the birds in the thicket. It was an +evening to raise a man's heart. The sun shining slantwise +through the trees threw delicate traceries across the road, with +bars of golden light between. Away in the distance before and +behind, the green boughs, now turning in places to a coppery +redness, shot their broad arches across the track. The still +summer air was heavy with the resinous smell of the great forest. +Here and there a tawny brook prattled out from among the +underwood and lost itself again in the ferns and brambles upon +the further side. Save the dull piping of insects and the sough +of the leaves, there was silence everywhere--the sweet restful +silence of nature. + +And yet there was no want of life--the whole wide wood was full +of it. Now it was a lithe, furtive stoat which shot across the +path upon some fell errand of its own; then it was a wild cat +which squatted upon the outlying branch of an oak and peeped at +the traveller with a yellow and dubious eye. Once it was a wild +sow which scuttled out of the bracken, with two young sounders at +her heels, and once a lordly red staggard walked daintily out +from among the tree trunks, and looked around him with the +fearless gaze of one who lived under the King's own high +protection. Alleyne gave his staff a merry flourish, however, +and the red deer bethought him that the King was far off, so +streaked away from whence he came. + +The youth had now journeyed considerably beyond the furthest +domains of the Abbey. He was the more surprised therefore when, +on coming round a turn in the path, he perceived a man clad in +the familiar garb of the order, and seated in a clump of heather +by the roadside. Alleyne had known every brother well, but this +was a face which was new to him--a face which was very red and +puffed, working this way and that, as though the man were sore +perplexed in his mind. Once he shook both hands furiously in the +air, and twice he sprang from his seat and hurried down the road. +When he rose, however, Alleyne observed that his robe was much +too long and loose for him in every direction, trailing upon the +ground and bagging about his ankles, so that even with trussed-up +skirts he could make little progress. He ran once, but the long +gown clogged him so that he slowed down into a shambling walk, +and finally plumped into the heather once more. + +"Young friend," said he, when Alleyne was abreast of him, "I fear +from thy garb that thou canst know little of the Abbey of +Beaulieu." + +"Then you are in error, friend," the clerk answered, "for I have +spent all my days within its walls." + +"Hast so indeed?" cried he. "Then perhaps canst tell me the name +of a great loathly lump of a brother wi' freckled face an' a hand +like a spade. His eyes were black an' his hair was red an' his +voice like the parish bull. I trow that there cannot be two +alike in the same cloisters." + +"That surely can be no other than brother John," said Alleyne. +"I trust he has done you no wrong, that you should be so hot +against him." + +"Wrong, quotha?" cried the other, jumping out of the heather. +"Wrong! why he hath stolen every plack of clothing off my back, +if that be a wrong, and hath left me here in this sorry frock of +white falding, so that I have shame to go back to my wife, lest +she think that I have donned her old kirtle. Harrow and alas +that ever I should have met him!" + +"But how came this?" asked the young clerk, who could scarce keep +from laughter at the sight of the hot little man so swathed in +the great white cloak. + +"It came in this way," he said, sitting down once more: "I was +passing this way, hoping to reach Lymington ere nightfall when I +came on this red-headed knave seated even where we are sitting +now. I uncovered and louted as I passed thinking that he might +be a holy man at his orisons, but he called to me and asked me if +I had heard speak of the new indulgence in favor of the +Cistercians. `Not I,' I answered. `Then the worse for thy +soul!' said he; and with that he broke into a long tale how that +on account of the virtues of the Abbot Berghersh it had been +decreed by the Pope that whoever should wear the habit of a monk +of Beaulieu for as long as he might say the seven psalms of David +should be assured of the kingdom of Heaven. When I heard this I +prayed him on my knees that he would give me the use of his gown, +which after many contentions he at last agreed to do, on my +paying him three marks towards the regilding of the image of +Laurence the martyr. Having stripped his robe, I had no choice +but to let him have the wearing of my good leathern jerkin and +hose, for, as he said, it was chilling to the blood and unseemly +to the eye to stand frockless whilst I made my orisons. He had +scarce got them on, and it was a sore labor, seeing that my +inches will scarce match my girth--he had scarce got them on, I +say, and I not yet at the end of the second psalm, when he bade +me do honor to my new dress, and with that set off down the road +as fast as feet would carry him. For myself, I could no more run +than if I had been sown in a sack; so here I sit, and here I am +like to sit, before I set eyes upon my clothes again." + +"Nay, friend, take it not so sadly," said Alleyne, clapping the +disconsolate one upon the shoulder. "Canst change thy robe for a +jerkin once more at the Abbey, unless perchance you have a friend +near at hand." + +"That have I," he answered, "and close; but I care not to go nigh +him in this plight, for his wife hath a gibing tongue, and will +spread the tale until I could not show my face in any market from +Fordingbridge to Southampton. But if you, fair sir, out of your +kind charity would be pleased to go a matter of two bow-shots out +of your way, you would do me such a service as I could scarce +repay." + +"With all my heart," said Alleyne readily. + +"Then take this pathway on the left, I pray thee, and then the +deer-track which passes on the right. You will then see under a +great beech-tree the hut of a charcoal-burner. Give him my name, +good sir, the name of Peter the fuller, of Lymington, and ask him +for a change of raiment, that I may pursue my journey without +delay. There are reasons why he would be loth to refuse me." + +Alleyne started off along the path indicated, and soon found the +log-hut where the burner dwelt. He was away faggot-cutting in +the forest, but his wife, a ruddy bustling dame, found the +needful garments and tied them into a bundle. While she busied +herself in finding and folding them, Alleyne Edricson stood by +the open door looking in at her with much interest and some +distrust, for he had never been so nigh to a woman before. She +had round red arms, a dress of some sober woollen stuff, and a +brass brooch the size of a cheese-cake stuck in the front of it. + +"Peter the fuller!" she kept repeating. "Marry come up! if I +were Peter the fuller's wife I would teach him better than to +give his clothes to the first knave who asks for them. But he +was always a poor, fond, silly creature, was Peter, though we are +beholden to him for helping to bury our second son Wat, who was a +'prentice to him at Lymington in the year of the Black Death. +But who are you, young sir?" + +"I am a clerk on my road from Beaulieu to Minstead." + +"Aye, indeed! Hast been brought up at the Abbey then. I could +read it from thy reddened cheek and downcast eye. Hast learned +from the monks, I trow, to fear a woman as thou wouldst a +lazar-house. Out upon them! that they should dishonor their own +mothers by such teaching. A pretty world it would be with all +the women out of it." + +"Heaven forfend that such a thing should come to pass!" said +Alleyne. + +"Amen and amen! But thou art a pretty lad, and the prettier for +thy modest ways. It is easy to see from thy cheek that thou hast +not spent thy days in the rain and the heat and the wind, as my +poor Wat hath been forced to do." + +"I have indeed seen little of life, good dame." + +"Wilt find nothing in it to pay for the loss of thy own +freshness. Here are the clothes, and Peter can leave them when +next he comes this way. Holy Virgin! see the dust upon thy +doublet! It were easy to see that there is no woman to tend to +thee. So!--that is better. Now buss me, boy." + +Alleyne stooped and kissed her, for the kiss was the common +salutation of the age, and, as Erasmus long afterwards remarked, +more used in England than in any other country. Yet it sent the +blood to his temples again, and he wondered, as he turned away, +what the Abbot Berghersh would have answered to so frank an +invitation. He was still tingling from this new experience when +he came out upon the high-road and saw a sight which drove all +other thoughts from his mind. + +Some way down from where he had left him the unfortunate Peter +was stamping and raving tenfold worse than before. Now, however, +instead of the great white cloak, he had no clothes on at all, +save a short woollen shirt and a pair of leather shoes. Far down +the road a long-legged figure was running, with a bundle under +one arm and the other hand to his side, like a man who laughs +until he is sore. + +"See him!" yelled Peter. "Look to him! You shall be my witness. +He shall see Winchester jail for this. See where he goes with my +cloak under his arm!" + +"Who then?" cried Alleyne. + +"Who but that cursed brother John. He hath not left me clothes +enough to make a gallybagger. The double thief hath cozened me +out of my gown." + +"Stay though, my friend, it was his gown," objected Alleyne. + +"It boots not. He hath them all--gown, jerkin, hosen and all. +Gramercy to him that he left me the shirt and the shoon. I doubt +not that he will be back for them anon." + +"But how came this?" asked Alleyne, open-eyed with astonishment. + +"Are those the clothes? For dear charity's sake give them to me. +Not the Pope himself shall have these from me, though he sent the +whole college of cardinals to ask it. How came it? Why, you had +scarce gone ere this loathly John came running back again, and, +when I oped mouth to reproach him, he asked me whether it was +indeed likely that a man of prayer would leave his own godly +raiment in order to take a layman's jerkin. He had, he said, but +gone for a while that I might be the freer for my devotions. On +this I plucked off the gown, and he with much show of haste did +begin to undo his points; but when I threw his frock down he +clipped it up and ran off all untrussed, leaving me in this sorry +plight. He laughed so the while, like a great croaking frog, +that I might have caught him had my breath not been as short as +his legs were long." + +The young man listened to this tale of wrong with all the +seriousness that he could maintain; but at the sight of the pursy +red-faced man and the dignity with which he bore him, the +laughter came so thick upon him that he had to lean up against a +tree-trunk. The fuller looked sadly and gravely at him; but +finding that he still laughed, he bowed with much mock politeness +and stalked onwards in his borrowed clothes. Alleyne watched him +until he was small in the distance, and then, wiping the tears +from his eyes, he set off briskly once more upon his journey. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +HOW THE BAILIFF OF SOUTHAMPTON SLEW THE TWO MASTERLESS MEN. + + +The road along which he travelled was scarce as populous as most +other roads in the kingdom, and far less so than those which lie +between the larger towns. Yet from time to time Alleyne met +other wayfarers, and more than once was overtaken by strings of +pack mules and horsemen journeying in the same direction as +himself. Once a begging friar came limping along in a brown +habit, imploring in a most dolorous voice to give him a single +groat to buy bread wherewith to save himself from impending +death. Alleyne passed him swiftly by, for he had learned from +the monks to have no love for the wandering friars, and, besides, +there was a great half-gnawed mutton bone sticking out of his +pouch to prove him a liar. Swiftly as he went, however, he could +not escape the curse of the four blessed evangelists which the +mendicant howled behind him. So dreadful are his execrations +that the frightened lad thrust his fingers into his ear-holes, +and ran until the fellow was but a brown smirch upon the yellow +road. + +Further on, at the edge of the woodland, he came upon a chapman +and his wife, who sat upon a fallen tree. He had put his pack +down as a table, and the two of them were devouring a great +pasty, and washing it down with some drink from a stone jar. The +chapman broke a rough jest as he passed, and the woman called +shrilly to Alleyne to come and join them, on which the man, +turning suddenly from mirth to wrath, began to belabor her with +his cudgel. Alleyne hastened on, lest he make more mischief, and +his heart was heavy as lead within him. Look where he would, he +seemed to see nothing but injustice and violence and the +hardness of man to man. + +But even as he brooded sadly over it and pined for the sweet +peace of the Abbey, he came on an open space dotted with holly +bushes, where was the strangest sight that he had yet chanced +upon. Near to the pathway lay a long clump of greenery, and from +behind this there stuck straight up into the air four human legs +clad in parti-colored hosen, yellow and black. Strangest of all +was when a brisk tune struck suddenly up and the four legs began +to kick and twitter in time to the music. Walking on tiptoe +round the bushes, he stood in amazement to see two men bounding +about on their heads, while they played, the one a viol and the +other a pipe, as merrily and as truly as though they were seated +in a choir. Alleyne crossed himself as he gazed at this +unnatural sight, and could scarce hold his ground with a steady +face, when the two dancers, catching sight of him, came bouncing +in his direction. A spear's length from him, they each threw a +somersault into the air, and came down upon their feet with +smirking faces and their hands over their hearts. + +"A guerdon--a guerdon, my knight of the staring eyes!" cried one. + +"A gift, my prince!" shouted the other. "Any trifle will serve--a +purse of gold, or even a jewelled goblet." + +Alleyne thought of what he had read of demoniac possession--the +jumpings, the twitchings, the wild talk. It was in his mind to +repeat over the exorcism proper to such attacks; but the two +burst out a-laughing at his scared face, and turning on to their +heads once more, clapped their heels in derision. + +"Hast never seen tumblers before?" asked the elder, a black-browed, +swarthy man, as brown and supple as a hazel twig. "Why shrink +from us, then, as though we were the spawn of the Evil One?" + +"Why shrink, my honey-bird? Why so afeard, my sweet cinnamon?" +exclaimed the other, a loose-jointed lanky youth with a dancing, +roguish eye. + +"Truly, sirs, it is a new sight to me," the clerk answered. +"When I saw your four legs above the bush I could scarce credit +my own eyes. Why is it that you do this thing?" + +"A dry question to answer," cried the younger, coming back on to +his feet. "A most husky question, my fair bird! But how? A +flask, a flask!--by all that is wonderful!" He shot out his hand +as he spoke, and plucking Alleyne's bottle out of his scrip, he +deftly knocked the neck off, and poured the half of it down his +throat. The rest he handed to his comrade, who drank the wine, +and then, to the clerk's increasing amazement, made a show of +swallowing the bottle, with such skill that Alleyne seemed to see +it vanish down his throat. A moment later, however, he flung it +over his head, and caught it bottom downwards upon the calf of +his left leg. + +"We thank you for the wine, kind sir," said he, "and for the +ready courtesy wherewith you offered it. Touching your question, +we may tell you that we are strollers and jugglers, who, having +performed with much applause at Winchester fair, are now on our +way to the great Michaelmas market at Ringwood. As our art is a +very fine and delicate one, however, we cannot let a day go by +without exercising ourselves in it, to which end we choose some +quiet and sheltered spot where we may break our journey. Here +you find us; and we cannot wonder that you, who are new to +tumbling, should be astounded, since many great barons, earls, +marshals and knight, who have wandered as far as the Holy Land, +are of one mind in saying that they have never seen a more noble +or gracious performance. If you will be pleased to sit upon that +stump, we will now continue our exercise." + +Alleyne sat down willingly as directed with two great bundles on +either side of him which contained the strollers' dresses--doublets +of flame-colored silk and girdles of leather, spangled with brass +and tin. The jugglers were on their heads once more, bounding +about with rigid necks, playing the while in perfect time and +tune. It chanced that out of one of the bundles there stuck the +end of what the clerk saw to be a cittern, so drawing it forth, +he tuned it up and twanged a harmony to the merry lilt which the +dancers played. On that they dropped their own instruments, and +putting their hands to the ground they hopped about faster and +faster, ever shouting to him to play more briskly, until at last +for very weariness all three had to stop. + +"Well played, sweet poppet!" cried the younger. "Hast a rare +touch on the strings." + +"How knew you the tune?" asked the other. + +"I knew it not. I did but follow the notes I heard." + +Both opened their eyes at this, and stared at Alleyne with as +much amazement as he had shown at them. + +"You have a fine trick of ear then," said one. "We have long +wished to meet such a man. Wilt join us and jog on to Ringwood? +Thy duties shall be light, and thou shalt have two-pence a day +and meat for supper every night." + +"With as much beer as you can put away," said the other "and a +flask of Gascon wine on Sabbaths." + +"Nay, it may not be. I have other work to do. I have tarried +with you over long," quoth Alleyne, and resolutely set forth upon +his journey once more. They ran behind him some little way, +offering him first fourpence and then sixpence a day, but he only +smiled and shook his head, until at last they fell away from him. +Looking back, he saw that the smaller had mounted on the +younger's shoulders, and that they stood so, some ten feet high, +waving their adieus to him. He waved back to them, and then +hastened on, the lighter of heart for having fallen in with these +strange men of pleasure. + +Alleyne had gone no great distance for all the many small +passages that had befallen him. Yet to him, used as he was to a +life of such quiet that the failure of a brewing or the altering +of an anthem had seemed to be of the deepest import, the quick +changing play of the lights and shadows of life was strangely +startling and interesting. A gulf seemed to divide this brisk +uncertain existence from the old steady round of work and of +prayer which he had left behind him. The few hours that had +passed since he saw the Abbey tower stretched out in his memory +until they outgrew whole months of the stagnant life of the +cloister. As he walked and munched the soft bread from his +scrip, it seemed strange to him to feel that it was still warm +from the ovens of Beaulieu. + +When he passed Penerley, where were three cottages and a barn, he +reached the edge of the tree country, and found the great barren +heath of Blackdown stretching in front of him, all pink with +heather and bronzed with the fading ferns. On the left the woods +were still thick, but the road edged away from them and wound +over the open. The sun lay low in the west upon a purple cloud, +whence it threw a mild, chastening light over the wild moorland +and glittered on the fringe of forest turning the withered leaves +into flakes of dead gold, the brighter for the black depths +behind them. To the seeing eye decay is as fair as growth, and +death as life. The thought stole into Alleyne's heart as he +looked upon the autumnal country side and marvelled at its +beauty. He had little time to dwell upon it however, for there +were still six good miles between him and the nearest inn. He +sat down by the roadside to partake of his bread and cheese, and +then with a lighter scrip he hastened upon his way. + +There appeared to be more wayfarers on the down than in the +forest. First he passed two Dominicans in their long black +dresses, who swept by him with downcast looks and pattering lips, +without so much as a glance at him. Then there came a gray +friar, or minorite, with a good paunch upon him, walking slowly +and looking about him with the air of a man who was at peace with +himself and with all men. He stopped Alleyne to ask him whether +it was not true that there was a hostel somewhere in those parts +which was especially famous for the stewing of eels. The clerk +having made answer that he had heard the eels of Sowley well +spoken of, the friar sucked in his lips and hurried forward. +Close at his heels came three laborers walking abreast, with +spade and mattock over their shoulders. They sang some rude +chorus right tunefully as they walked, but their English was so +coarse and rough that to the ears of a cloister-bred man it +sounded like a foreign and barbarous tongue. One of them carried +a young bittern which they had caught upon the moor, and they +offered it to Alleyne for a silver groat. Very glad he was to +get safely past them, for, with their bristling red beards and +their fierce blue eyes, they were uneasy men to bargain with upon +a lonely moor. + +Yet it is not always the burliest and the wildest who are the +most to be dreaded. The workers looked hungrily at him, and then +jogged onwards upon their way in slow, lumbering Saxon style. A +worse man to deal with was a wooden-legged cripple who came +hobbling down the path, so weak and so old to all appearance that +a child need not stand in fear of him. Yet when Alleyne had +passed him, of a sudden, out of pure devilment, he screamed out a +curse at him, and sent a jagged flint stone hurtling past his +ear. So horrid was the causeless rage of the crooked creature, +that the clerk came over a cold thrill, and took to his heels +until he was out of shot from stone or word. It seemed to him +that in this country of England there was no protection for a man +save that which lay in the strength of his own arm and the speed +of his own foot. In the cloisters he had heard vague talk of the +law--the mighty law which was higher than prelate or baron, yet +no sign could he see of it. What was the benefit of a law +written fair upon parchment, he wondered, if there were no +officers to enforce it. As it fell out, however, he had that +very evening, ere the sun had set, a chance of seeing how stern +was the grip of the English law when it did happen to seize the +offender. + +A mile or so out upon the moor the road takes a very sudden dip +into a hollow, with a peat-colored stream running swiftly down +the centre of it. To the right of this stood, and stands to this +day, an ancient barrow, or burying mound, covered deeply in a +bristle of heather and bracken. Alleyne was plodding down the +slope upon one side, when he saw an old dame coming towards him +upon the other, limping with weariness and leaning heavily upon a +stick. When she reached the edge of the stream she stood +helpless, looking to right and to left for some ford. Where the +path ran down a great stone had been fixed in the centre of the +brook, but it was too far from the bank for her aged and +uncertain feet. Twice she thrust forward at it, and twice she +drew back, until at last, giving up in despair, she sat herself +down by the brink and wrung her hands wearily. There she still +sat when Alleyne reached the crossing. + +"Come, mother," quoth he, "it is not so very perilous a passage." + +"Alas! good youth," she answered, "I have a humor in the eyes, +and though I can see that there is a stone there I can by no +means be sure as to where it lies." + +"That is easily amended," said he cheerily, and picking her +lightly up, for she was much worn with time, he passed across +with her. He could not but observe, however, that as he placed +her down her knees seemed to fail her, and she could scarcely +prop herself up with her staff. + +"You are weak, mother," said he. "Hast journeyed far, I wot." + +"From Wiltshire, friend," said she, in a quavering voice; "three +days have I been on the road. I go to my son, who is one of the +King's regarders at Brockenhurst. He has ever said that he would +care for me in mine old age." + +"And rightly too, mother, since you cared for him in his youth. +But when have you broken fast?" + +"At Lyndenhurst; but alas! my money is at an end, and I could but +get a dish of bran-porridge from the nunnery. Yet I trust that I +may be able to reach Brockenhurst to-night, where I may have all +that heart can desire; for oh! sir, but my son is a fine man, +with a kindly heart of his own, and it is as good as food to me +to think that he should have a doublet of Lincoln green to his +back and be the King's own paid man." + +"It is a long road yet to Brockenhurst," said Alleyne; "but here +is such bread and cheese as I have left, and here, too, is a +penny which may help you to supper. May God be with you!" + +"May God be with you, young man!" she cried. "May He make your +heart as glad as you have made mine!" She turned away, still +mumbling blessings, and Alleyne saw her short figure and her long +shadow stumbling slowly up the slope. + +He was moving away himself, when his eyes lit upon a strange +sight, and one which sent a tingling through his skin. Out of +the tangled scrub on the old overgrown barrow two human faces +were looking out at him; the sinking sun glimmered full upon +them, showing up every line and feature. The one was an oldish +man with a thin beard, a crooked nose, and a broad red smudge +from a birth-mark over his temple; the other was a negro, a thing +rarely met in England at that day, and rarer still in the quiet +southland parts. Alleyne had read of such folk, but had never +seen one before, and could scarce take his eyes from the fellow's +broad pouting lip and shining teeth. Even as he gazed, however, +the two came writhing out from among the heather, and came down +towards him with such a guilty, slinking carriage, that the clerk +felt that there was no good in them, and hastened onwards upon +his way. + +He had not gained the crown of the slope, when he heard a sudden +scuffle behind him and a feeble voice bleating for help. Looking +round, there was the old dame down upon the roadway, with her red +whimple flying on the breeze, while the two rogues, black and +white, stooped over her, wresting away from her the penny and +such other poor trifles as were worth the taking. At the sight +of her thin limbs struggling in weak resistance, such a glow of +fierce anger passed over Alleyne as set his head in a whirl. +Dropping his scrip, he bounded over the stream once more, and +made for the two villains, with his staff whirled over his +shoulder and his gray eyes blazing with fury. + +The robbers, however, were not disposed to leave their victim +until they had worked their wicked will upon her. The black man, +with the woman's crimson scarf tied round his swarthy head, stood +forward in the centre of the path, with a long dull-colored knife +in his hand, while the other, waving a ragged cudgel, cursed at +Alleyne and dared him to come on. His blood was fairly aflame, +however, and he needed no such challenge. Dashing at the black +man, he smote at him with such good will that the other let his +knife tinkle into the roadway, and hopped howling to a safer +distance. The second rogue, however, made of sterner stuff, +rushed in upon the clerk, and clipped him round the waist with a +grip like a bear, shouting the while to his comrade to come round +and stab him in the back. At this the negro took heart of +grace, and picking up his dagger again he came stealing with +prowling step and murderous eye, while the two swayed backwards +and forwards, staggering this way and that. In the very midst of +the scuffle, however, whilst Alleyne braced himself to feel the +cold blade between his shoulders, there came a sudden scurry of +hoofs, and the black man yelled with terror and ran for his life +through the heather. The man with the birth-mark, too, struggled +to break away, and Alleyne heard his teeth chatter and felt his +limbs grow limp to his hand. At this sign of coming aid the +clerk held on the tighter, and at last was able to pin his man +down and glanced behind him to see where all the noise was coming +from. + +Down the slanting road there was riding a big, burly man, clad in +a tunic of purple velvet and driving a great black horse as hard +as it could gallop. He leaned well over its neck as he rode, and +made a heaving with his shoulders at every bound as though he +were lifting the steed instead of it carrying him. In the rapid +glance Alleyne saw that he had white doeskin gloves, a curling +white feather in his flat velvet cap, and a broad gold, +embroidered baldric across his bosom. Behind him rode six +others, two and two, clad in sober brown jerkins, with the long +yellow staves of their bows thrusting out from behind their right +shoulders. Down the hill they thundered, over the brook and up +to the scene of the contest. + +"Here is one!" said the leader, springing down from his reeking +horse, and seizing the white rogue by the edge of his jerkin. +"This is one of them. I know him by that devil's touch upon his +brow. Where are your cords, Peterkin? So! Bind him hand and +foot. His last hour has come. And you, young man, who may you +be?" + +"I am a clerk, sir, travelling from Beaulieu." + +"A clerk!" cried the other. "Art from Oxenford or from +Cambridge? Hast thou a letter from the chancellor of thy college +giving thee a permit to beg? Let me see thy letter." He had a +stern, square face, with bushy side whiskers and a very +questioning eye. + +"I am from Beaulieu Abbey, and I have no need to beg," said +Alleyne, who was all of a tremble now that the ruffle was over. + +"The better for thee," the other answered. "Dost know who I am?" + +"No, sir, I do not." + +"I am the law!"--nodding his head solemnly. "I am the law of +England and the mouthpiece of his most gracious and royal +majesty, Edward the Third." + +Alleyne louted low to the King's representative. "Truly you came +in good time, honored sir," said he. "A moment later and they +would have slain me." + +"But there should be another one," cried the man in the purple +coat. "There should be a black man. A shipman with St. +Anthony's fire, and a black man who had served him as cook--those +are the pair that we are in chase of." + +"The black man fled over to that side," said Alleyne, pointing +towards the barrow. + +"He could not have gone far, sir bailiff," cried one of the +archers, unslinging his bow. "He is in hiding somewhere, for he +knew well, black paynim as he is, that our horses' four legs +could outstrip his two." + +"Then we shall have him," said the other. "It shall never be +said, whilst I am bailiff of Southampton, that any waster, +riever, draw-latch or murtherer came scathless away from me and +my posse. Leave that rogue lying. Now stretch out in line, my +merry ones, with arrow on string, and I shall show you such sport +as only the King can give. You on the left, Howett, and Thomas +of Redbridge upon the right. So! Beat high and low among the +heather, and a pot of wine to the lucky marksman." + +As it chanced, however, the searchers had not far to seek. The +negro had burrowed down into his hiding-place upon the barrow, +where he might have lain snug enough, had it not been for the red +gear upon his head. As he raised himself to look over the +bracken at his enemies, the staring color caught the eye of the +bailiff, who broke into a long screeching whoop and spurred +forward sword in hand. Seeing himself discovered, the man rushed +out from his hiding-place, and bounded at the top of his speed +down the line of archers, keeping a good hundred paces to the +front of them. The two who were on either side of Alleyne bent +their bows as calmly as though they were shooting at the popinjay +at the village fair. + +"Seven yards windage, Hal," said one, whose hair was streaked +with gray. + +"Five," replied the other, letting loose his string. Alleyne +gave a gulp in his throat, for the yellow streak seemed to pass +through the man; but he still ran forward. + +"Seven, you jack-fool," growled the first speaker, and his bow +twanged like a harp-string. The black man sprang high up into +the air, and shot out both his arms and his legs, coming down all +a-sprawl among the heather. "Right under the blade bone!" quoth +the archer, sauntering forward for his arrow. + +"The old hound is the best when all is said," quoth the bailiff +of Southampton, as they made back for the roadway. "That means a +quart of the best malmsey in Southampton this very night, Matthew +Atwood. Art sure that he is dead?" + +"Dead as Pontius Pilate, worshipful sir." + +"It is well. Now, as to the other knave. There are trees and to +spare over yonder, but we have scarce leisure to make for them. +Draw thy sword, Thomas of Redbridge, and hew me his head from his +shoulders." + +"A boon, gracious sir, a boon!" cried the condemned man. + +"What then?" asked the bailiff. + +"I will confess to my crime. It was indeed I and the black cook, +both from the ship `La Rose de Gloire,' of Southampton, who did +set upon the Flanders merchant and rob him of his spicery and his +mercery, for which, as we well know, you hold a warrant against +us." + +"There is little merit in this confession," quoth the bailiff +sternly. "Thou hast done evil within my bailiwick, and must +die." + +"But, sir," urged Alleyne, who was white to the lips at these +bloody doings, "he hath not yet come to trial." + +"Young clerk," said the bailiff, "you speak of that of which you +know nothing. It is true that he hath not come to trial, but the +trial hath come to him. He hath fled the law and is beyond its +pale. Touch not that which is no concern of thine. But what is +this boon, rogue, which you would crave?" + +"I have in my shoe, most worshipful sir, a strip of wood which +belonged once to the bark wherein the blessed Paul was dashed up +against the island of Melita. I bought it for two rose nobles +from a shipman who came from the Levant. The boon I crave is +that you will place it in my hands and let me die still grasping +it. In this manner, not only shall my own eternal salvation be +secured, but thine also, for I shall never cease to intercede for +thee." + +At the command of the bailiff they plucked off the fellow's shoe, +and there sure enough at the side of the instep, wrapped in a +piece of fine sendall, lay a long, dark splinter of wood. The +archers doffed caps at the sight of it, and the bailiff crossed +himself devoutly as he handed it to the robber. + +"If it should chance," he said, "that through the surpassing +merits of the blessed Paul your sin-stained soul should gain a +way into paradise, I trust that you will not forget that +intercession which you have promised. Bear in mind too, that it +is Herward the bailiff for whom you pray, and not Herward the +sheriff, who is my uncle's son. Now, Thomas, I pray you +dispatch, for we have a long ride before us and sun has already +set." + +Alleyne gazed upon the scene--the portly velvet-clad official, the +knot of hard-faced archers with their hands to the bridles of +their horses, the thief with his arms trussed back and his +doublet turned down upon his shoulders. By the side of the track +the old dame was standing, fastening her red whimple once more +round her head. Even as he looked one of the archers drew his +sword with a sharp whirr of steel and stept up to the lost man. +The clerk hurried away in horror; but, ere he had gone many +paces, he heard a sudden, sullen thump, with a choking, +whistling sound at the end of it. A minute later the bailiff and +four of his men rode past him on their journey back to +Southampton, the other two having been chosen as grave-diggers. +As they passed Alleyne saw that one of the men was wiping his +sword-blade upon the mane of his horse. A deadly sickness came +over him at the sight, and sitting down by the wayside he burst +out weeping, with his nerves all in a jangle. It was a terrible +world thought he, and it was hard to know which were the most to +be dreaded, the knaves or the men of the law. + + + +CHAPTER V. + +HOW A STRANGE COMPANY GATHERED AT THE "PIED MERLIN." + + +The night had already fallen, and the moon was shining between +the rifts of ragged, drifting clouds, before Alleyne Edricson, +footsore and weary from the unwonted exercise, found himself in +front of the forest inn which stood upon the outskirts of +Lyndhurst. The building was long and low, standing back a little +from the road, with two flambeaux blazing on either side of the +door as a welcome to the traveller. From one window there thrust +forth a long pole with a bunch of greenery tied to the end of +it--a sign that liquor was to be sold within. As Alleyne walked +up to it he perceived that it was rudely fashioned out of beams +of wood, with twinkling lights all over where the glow from +within shone through the chinks. The roof was poor and thatched; +but in strange contrast to it there ran all along under the eaves +a line of wooden shields, most gorgeously painted with chevron, +bend, and saltire, and every heraldic device. By the door a +horse stood tethered, the ruddy glow beating strongly upon his +brown head and patient eyes, while his body stood back in the +shadow. + +Alleyne stood still in the roadway for a few minutes reflecting +upon what he should do. It was, he knew, only a few miles +further to Minstead, where his brother dwelt. On the other hand, +he had never seen this brother since childhood, and the reports +which had come to his ears concerning him were seldom to his +advantage. By all accounts he was a hard and a bitter man. + +It might be an evil start to come to his door so late and claim +the shelter of his roof. Better to sleep here at this inn, and +then travel on to Minstead in the morning. If his brother would +take him in, well and good. + +He would bide with him for a time and do what he might to serve +him. If, on the other hand, he should have hardened his heart +against him, he could only go on his way and do the best he might +by his skill as a craftsman and a scrivener. At the end of a +year he would be free to return to the cloisters, for such had +been his father's bequest. A monkish upbringing, one year in the +world after the age of twenty, and then a free selection one way +or the other--it was a strange course which had been marked out +for him. Such as it was, however, he had no choice but to follow +it, and if he were to begin by making a friend of his brother he +had best wait until morning before he knocked at his dwelling. + +The rude plank door was ajar, but as Alleyne approached it there +came from within such a gust of rough laughter and clatter of +tongues that he stood irresolute upon the threshold. Summoning +courage, however, and reflecting that it was a public dwelling, +in which he had as much right as any other man, he pushed it open +and stepped into the common room. + +Though it was an autumn evening and somewhat warm, a huge fire of +heaped billets of wood crackled and sparkled in a broad, open +grate, some of the smoke escaping up a rude chimney, but the +greater part rolling out into the room, so that the air was thick +with it, and a man coming from without could scarce catch his +breath. On this fire a great cauldron bubbled and simmered, +giving forth a rich and promising smell. Seated round it were a +dozen or so folk, of all ages and conditions, who set up such a +shout as Alleyne entered that he stood peering at them through +the smoke, uncertain what this riotous greeting might portend. + +"A rouse! A rouse!" cried one rough looking fellow in a tattered +jerkin. "One more round of mead or ale and the score to the last +comer." + +"'Tis the law of the `Pied Merlin,'" shouted another. "Ho +there, Dame Eliza! Here is fresh custom come to the house, and +not a drain for the company." + +"I will take your orders, gentles; I will assuredly take your +orders," the landlady answered, bustling in with her hands full +of leathern drinking-cups. "What is it that you drink, then? +Beer for the lads of the forest, mead for the gleeman, strong +waters for the tinker, and wine for the rest. It is an old +custom of the house, young sir. It has been the use at the `Pied +Merlin' this many a year back that the company should drink to +the health of the last comer. Is it your pleasure to humor it?" + +"Why, good dame," said Alleyne, "I would not offend the customs +of your house, but it is only sooth when I say that my purse is a +thin one. As far as two pence will go, however, I shall be right +glad to do my part." + +"Plainly said and bravely spoken, my suckling friar," roared a +deep voice, and a heavy hand fell upon Alleyne's shoulder. +Looking up, he saw beside him his former cloister companion the +renegade monk, Hordle John. + +"By the thorn of Glastonbury! ill days are coming upon Beaulieu," +said he. "Here they have got rid in one day of the only two men +within their walls--for I have had mine eyes upon thee, +youngster, and I know that for all thy baby-face there is the +making of a man in thee. Then there is the Abbot, too. I am no +friend of his, nor he of mine; but he has warm blood in his +veins. He is the only man left among them. The others, what are +they?" + +"They are holy men," Alleyne answered gravely. + +"Holy men? Holy cabbages! Holy bean-pods! What do they do but +live and suck in sustenance and grow fat? If that be holiness, I +could show you hogs in this forest who are fit to head the +calendar. Think you it was for such a life that this good arm +was fixed upon my shoulder, or that head placed upon your neck? +There is work in the world, man, and it is not by hiding behind +stone walls that we shall do it." + +"Why, then, did you join the brothers?" asked Alleyne. + +"A fair enough question; but it is as fairly answered. I joined +them because Margery Alspaye, of Bolder, married Crooked Thomas +of Ringwood, and left a certain John of Hordle in the cold, for +that he was a ranting, roving blade who was not to be trusted in +wedlock. That was why, being fond and hot-headed, I left the +world; and that is why, having had time to take thought, I am +right glad to find myself back in it once more. Ill betide the +day that ever I took off my yeoman's jerkin to put on the white +gown!" + +Whilst he was speaking the landlady came in again, bearing a +broad platter, upon which stood all the beakers and flagons +charged to the brim with the brown ale or the ruby wine. Behind +her came a maid with a high pile of wooden plates, and a great +sheaf of spoons, one of which she handed round to each of the +travellers. Two of the company, who were dressed in the +weather-stained green doublet of foresters, lifted the big pot +off the fire, and a third, with a huge pewter ladle, served out a +portion of steaming collops to each guest. Alleyne bore his +share and his ale-mug away with him to a retired trestle in the +corner, where he could sup in peace and watch the strange scene, +which was so different to those silent and well-ordered meals to +which he was accustomed. + +The room was not unlike a stable. The low ceiling, smoke-blackened +and dingy, was pierced by several square trap-doors with rough-hewn +ladders leading up to them. The walls of bare unpainted planks +were studded here and there with great wooden pins, placed at +irregular intervals and heights, from which hung over-tunics, +wallets, whips, bridles, and saddles. Over the fireplace were +suspended six or seven shields of wood, with coats-of-arms rudely +daubed upon them, which showed by their varying degrees of +smokiness and dirt that they had been placed there at different +periods. There was no furniture, save a single long dresser +covered with coarse crockery, and a number of wooden benches and +trestles, the legs of which sank deeply into the soft clay floor, +while the only light, save that of the fire, was furnished by +three torches stuck in sockets on the wall, which flickered and +crackled, giving forth a strong resinous odor. All this was +novel and strange to the cloister-bred youth; but most +interesting of all was the motley circle of guests who sat eating +their collops round the blaze. They were a humble group of +wayfarers, such as might have been found that night in any inn +through the length and breadth of England; but to him they +represented that vague world against which he had been so +frequently and so earnestly warned. It did not seem to him from +what he could see of it to be such a very wicked place after all. + +Three or four of the men round the fire were evidently +underkeepers and verderers from the forest, sunburned and +bearded, with the quick restless eye and lithe movements of the +deer among which they lived. Close to the corner of the chimney +sat a middle-aged gleeman, clad in a faded garb of Norwich cloth, +the tunic of which was so outgrown that it did not fasten at the +neck and at the waist. His face was swollen and coarse, and his +watery protruding eyes spoke of a life which never wandered very +far from the wine-pot. A gilt harp, blotched with many stains +and with two of its strings missing, was tucked under one of his +arms, while with the other he scooped greedily at his platter. +Next to him sat two other men of about the same age, one with a +trimming of fur to his coat, which gave him a dignity which was +evidently dearer to him than his comfort, for he still drew it +round him in spite of the hot glare of the faggots. The other, +clad in a dirty russet suit with a long sweeping doublet, had a +cunning, foxy face with keen, twinkling eyes and a peaky beard. +Next to him sat Hordle John, and beside him three other rough +unkempt fellows with tangled beards and matted hair--free laborers +from the adjoining farms, where small patches of freehold +property had been suffered to remain scattered about in the heart +of the royal demesne. The company was completed by a peasant in +a rude dress of undyed sheepskin, with the old-fashioned +galligaskins about his legs, and a gayly dressed young man with +striped cloak jagged at the edges and parti-colored hosen, who +looked about him with high disdain upon his face, and held a blue +smelling-flask to his nose with one hand, while he brandished a +busy spoon with the other. In the corner a very fat man was +lying all a-sprawl upon a truss, snoring stertorously, and +evidently in the last stage of drunkenness. + +"That is Wat the limner," quoth the landlady, sitting down beside +Alleyne, and pointing with the ladle to the sleeping man. "That +is he who paints the signs and the tokens. Alack and alas that +ever I should have been fool enough to trust him! Now, young man, +what manner of a bird would you suppose a pied merlin to be--that +being the proper sign of my hostel?" + +"Why," said Alleyne, "a merlin is a bird of the same form as an +eagle or a falcon. I can well remember that learned brother +Bartholomew, who is deep in all the secrets of nature, pointed +one out to me as we walked together near Vinney Ridge." + +"A falcon or an eagle, quotha? And pied, that is of two several +colors. So any man would say except this barrel of lies. He +came to me, look you, saying that if I would furnish him with a +gallon of ale, wherewith to strengthen himself as he worked, and +also the pigments and a board, he would paint for me a noble pied +merlin which I might hang along with the blazonry over my door. +I, poor simple fool, gave him the ale and all that he craved, +leaving him alone too, because he said that a man's mind must be +left untroubled when he had great work to do. When I came back +the gallon jar was empty, and he lay as you see him, with the +board in front of him with this sorry device." She raised up a +panel which was leaning against the wall, and showed a rude +painting of a scraggy and angular fowl, with very long legs and a +spotted body. + +"Was that," she asked, "like the bird which thou hast seen?" + +Alleyne shook his head, smiling. + +"No, nor any other bird that ever wagged a feather. It is most +like a plucked pullet which has died of the spotted fever. And +scarlet too! What would the gentles Sir Nicholas Boarhunte, or +Sir Bernard Brocas, of Roche Court, say if they saw such a +thing--or, perhaps, even the King's own Majesty himself, who +often has ridden past this way, and who loves his falcons as he +loves his sons? It would be the downfall of my house." + +"The matter is not past mending," said Alleyne. "I pray you, +good dame, to give me those three pigment-pots and the brush, and +I shall try whether I cannot better this painting." + +Dame Eliza looked doubtfully at him, as though fearing some other +stratagem, but, as he made no demand for ale, she finally brought +the paints, and watched him as he smeared on his background, +talking the while about the folk round the fire. + +"The four forest lads must be jogging soon," she said. "They +bide at Emery Down, a mile or more from here. Yeomen prickers +they are, who tend to the King's hunt. The gleeman is called +Floyting Will. He comes from the north country, but for many +years he hath gone the round of the forest from Southampton to +Christchurch. He drinks much and pays little but it would make +your ribs crackle to hear him sing the `Jest of Hendy Tobias.' +Mayhap he will sing it when the ale has warmed him." + +"Who are those next to him?" asked Alleyne, much interested. +"He of the fur mantle has a wise and reverent face." + +"He is a seller of pills and salves, very learned in humors, and +rheums, and fluxes, and all manner of ailments. He wears, as you +perceive, the vernicle of Sainted Luke, the first physician, upon +his sleeve. May good St. Thomas of Kent grant that it may be +long before either I or mine need his help! He is here to-night +for herbergage, as are the others except the foresters. His +neighbor is a tooth-drawer. That bag at his girdle is full of +the teeth that he drew at Winchester fair. I warrant that there +are more sound ones than sorry, for he is quick at his work and a +trifle dim in the eye. The lusty man next him with the red head +I have not seen before. The four on this side are all workers, +three of them in the service of the bailiff of Sir Baldwin +Redvers, and the other, he with the sheepskin, is, as I hear, a +villein from the midlands who hath run from his master. His year +and day are well-nigh up, when he will be a free man." + +"And the other?" asked Alleyne in a whisper. "He is surely some +very great man, for he looks as though he scorned those who were +about him." + +The landlady looked at him in a motherly way and shook her head. +"You have had no great truck with the world," she said, "or you +would have learned that it is the small men and not the great who +hold their noses in the air. Look at those shields upon my wall +and under my eaves. Each of them is the device of some noble +lord or gallant knight who hath slept under my roof at one time +or another. Yet milder men or easier to please I have never +seen: eating my bacon and drinking my wine with a merry face, and +paying my score with some courteous word or jest which was dearer +to me than my profit. Those are the true gentles. But your +chapman or your bearward will swear that there is a lime in the +wine, and water in the ale, and fling off at the last with a +curse instead of a blessing. This youth is a scholar from +Cambrig, where men are wont to be blown out by a little +knowledge, and lose the use of their hands in learning the laws +of the Romans. But I must away to lay down the beds. So may the +saints keep you and prosper you in your undertaking!" + +Thus left to himself, Alleyne drew his panel of wood where the +light of one of the torches would strike full upon it, and worked +away with all the pleasure of the trained craftsman, listening +the while to the talk which went on round the fire. The peasant +in the sheepskins, who had sat glum and silent all evening, had +been so heated by his flagon of ale that he was talking loudly +and angrily with clenched hands and flashing eyes. + +"Sir Humphrey Tennant of Ashby may till his own fields for me," +he cried. "The castle has thrown its shadow upon the cottage +over long. For three hundred years my folk have swinked and +sweated, day in and day out, to keep the wine on the lord's table +and the harness on the lord's back. Let him take off his plates +and delve himself, if delving must be done." + +"A proper spirit, my fair son!" said one of the free laborers. +"I would that all men were of thy way of thinking." + +"He would have sold me with his acres," the other cried, in a +voice which was hoarse with passion. "`The man, the woman and +their litter'--so ran the words of the dotard bailiff. Never a +bullock on the farm was sold more lightly. Ha! he may wake some +black night to find the flames licking about his ears--for fire +is a good friend to the poor man, and I have seen a smoking heap +of ashes where over night there stood just such another +castlewick as Ashby." + +"This is a lad of mettle!" shouted another of the laborers. He +dares to give tongue to what all men think. Are we not all from +Adam's loins, all with flesh and blood, and with the same mouth +that must needs have food and drink? Where all this difference +then between the ermine cloak and the leathern tunic, if what +they cover is the same?" + +"Aye, Jenkin," said another, "our foeman is under the stole and +the vestment as much as under the helmet and plate of proof. We +have as much to fear from the tonsure as from the hauberk. +Strike at the noble and the priest shrieks, strike at priest and +the noble lays his hand upon glaive. They are twin thieves who +live upon our labor." + +"It would take a clever man to live upon thy labor, Hugh," +remarked one of the foresters, "seeing that the half of thy time +is spent in swilling mead at the `Pied Merlin.'" + +"Better that than stealing the deer that thou art placed to +guard, like some folk I know." + +"If you dare open that swine's mouth against me," shouted the +woodman, "I'll crop your ears for you before the hangman has the +doing of it, thou long-jawed lackbrain." + +"Nay, gentles, gentles!" cried Dame Eliza, in a singsong heedless +voice, which showed that such bickerings were nightly things +among her guests. "No brawling or brabbling, gentles! Take heed +to the good name of the house." + +"Besides, if it comes to the cropping of ears, there are other +folk who may say their say," quoth the third laborer. "We are +all freemen, and I trow that a yeoman's cudgel is as good as a +forester's knife. By St. Anselm! it would be an evil day if we +had to bend to our master's servants as well as to our masters." + +"No man is my master save the King," the woodman answered. "Who +is there, save a false traitor, who would refuse to serve the +English king?" + +"I know not about the English king," said the man Jenkin. "What +sort of English king is it who cannot lay his tongue to a word of +English? You mind last year when he came down to Malwood, with +his inner marshal and his outer marshal, his justiciar, his +seneschal, and his four and twenty guardsmen. One noontide I was +by Franklin Swinton's gate, when up he rides with a yeoman +pricker at his heels. `Ouvre,' he cried, `ouvre,' or some such +word, making signs for me to open the gate; and then `Merci,' as +though he were adrad of me. And you talk of an English king?" + +"I do not marvel at it," cried the Cambrig scholar, speaking in +the high drawling voice which was common among his class. "It is +not a tongue for men of sweet birth and delicate upbringing. It +is a foul, snorting, snarling manner of speech. For myself, I +swear by the learned Polycarp that I have most ease with Hebrew, +and after that perchance with Arabian." + +"I will not hear a word said against old King Ned," cried Hordle +John in a voice like a bull. "What if he is fond of a bright eye +and a saucy face. I know one of his subjects who could match him +at that. If he cannot speak like an Englishman I trow that he +can fight like an Englishman, and he was hammering at the gates +of Paris while ale-house topers were grutching and grumbling at +home." + +This loud speech, coming from a man of so formidable an +appearance, somewhat daunted the disloyal party, and they fell +into a sullen silence, which enabled Alleyne to hear something of +the talk which was going on in the further corner between the +physician, the tooth-drawer and the gleeman. + +"A raw rat," the man of drugs was saying, "that is what it is +ever my use to order for the plague--a raw rat with its paunch +cut open." + +"Might it not be broiled, most learned sir?" asked the tooth-drawer. +"A raw rat sounds a most sorry and cheerless dish." + +"Not to be eaten," cried the physician, in high disdain. "Why +should any man eat such a thing?" + +"Why indeed?" asked the gleeman, taking a long drain at his +tankard. + +"It is to be placed on the sore or swelling. For the rat, mark +you, being a foul-living creature, hath a natural drawing or +affinity for all foul things, so that the noxious humors pass +from the man into the unclean beast." + +"Would that cure the black death, master?" asked Jenkin. + +"Aye, truly would it, my fair son." + +"Then I am right glad that there were none who knew of it. The +black death is the best friend that ever the common folk had in +England." + +"How that then?" asked Hordle John. + +"Why, friend, it is easy to see that you have not worked with +your hands or you would not need to ask. When half the folk in +the country were dead it was then that the other half could pick +and choose who they would work for, and for what wage. That is +why I say that the murrain was the best friend that the borel +folk ever had." + +"True, Jenkin," said another workman; "but it is not all good +that is brought by it either. We well know that through it +corn-land has been turned into pasture, so that flocks of sheep +with perchance a single shepherd wander now where once a hundred +men had work and wage." + +"There is no great harm in that," remarked the tooth-drawer, "for +the sheep give many folk their living. There is not only the +herd, but the shearer and brander, and then the dresser, the +curer, the dyer, the fuller, the webster, the merchant, and a +score of others." + +"If it come to that." said one of the foresters, "the tough meat +of them will wear folks teeth out, and there is a trade for the +man who can draw them." + +A general laugh followed this sally at the dentist's expense, in +the midst of which the gleeman placed his battered harp upon his +knee, and began to pick out a melody upon the frayed strings. + +"Elbow room for Floyting Will!" cried the woodmen. "Twang us a +merry lilt." + +"Aye, aye, the `Lasses of Lancaster,'" one suggested. + +"Or `St. Simeon and the Devil.'" + +"Or the `Jest of Hendy Tobias.'" + +To all these suggestions the jongleur made no response, but sat +with his eye fixed abstractedly upon the ceiling, as one who +calls words to his mind. Then, with a sudden sweep across the +strings, he broke out into a song so gross and so foul that ere +he had finished a verse the pure-minded lad sprang to his feet +with the blood tingling in his face. + +"How can you sing such things?" he cried. "You, too, an old man +who should be an example to others." + +The wayfarers all gazed in the utmost astonishment at the +interruption. + +"By the holy Dicon of Hampole! our silent clerk has found his +tongue," said one of the woodmen. "What is amiss with the song +then? How has it offended your babyship?" + +"A milder and better mannered song hath never been heard within +these walls," cried another. "What sort of talk is this for a +public inn?" + +"Shall it be a litany, my good clerk?" shouted a third; "or would +a hymn be good enough to serve?" + +The jongleur had put down his harp in high dudgeon. "Am I to be +preached to by a child?" he cried, staring across at Alleyne with +an inflamed and angry countenance. "Is a hairless infant to +raise his tongue against me, when I have sung in every fair from +Tweed to Trent, and have twice been named aloud by the High Court +of the Minstrels at Beverley? I shall sing no more to-night." + +"Nay, but you will so," said one of the laborers. "Hi, Dame +Eliza, bring a stoup of your best to Will to clear his throat. +Go forward with thy song, and if our girl-faced clerk does not +love it he can take to the road and go whence he came." + +"Nay, but not too last," broke in Hordle John. "There are two +words in this matter. It may be that my little comrade has been +over quick in reproof, he having gone early into the cloisters +and seen little of the rough ways and words of the world. Yet +there is truth in what he says, for, as you know well, the song +was not of the cleanest. I shall stand by him, therefore, and he +shall neither be put out on the road, nor shall his ears be +offended indoors." + +"Indeed, your high and mighty grace," sneered one of the yeomen, +"have you in sooth so ordained?" + +"By the Virgin!" said a second, "I think that you may both chance +to find yourselves upon the road before long." + +"And so belabored as to be scarce able to crawl along it," cried +a third. + +"Nay, I shall go! I shall go!" said Alleyne hurriedly, as Hordle +John began to slowly roll up his sleeve, and bare an arm like a +leg of mutton. "I would not have you brawl about me." + +"Hush! lad," he whispered, "I count them not a fly. They may +find they have more tow on their distaff than they know how to +spin. Stand thou clear and give me space." + +Both the foresters and the laborers had risen from their bench, +and Dame Eliza and the travelling doctor had flung themselves +between the two parties with soft words and soothing gestures, +when the door of the "Pied Merlin" was flung violently open, and +the attention of the company was drawn from their own quarrel to +the new-comer who had burst so unceremoniously upon them. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +HOW SAMKIN AYLWARD WAGERED HIS FEATHER-BED. + + +He was a middle-sized man, of most massive and robust build, with +an arching chest and extraordinary breadth of shoulder. His +shaven face was as brown as a hazel-nut, tanned and dried by the +weather, with harsh, well-marked features, which were not +improved by a long white scar which stretched from the corner of +his left nostril to the angle of the jaw. His eyes were bright +and searching, with something of menace and of authority in their +quick glitter, and his mouth was firm-set and hard, as befitted +one who was wont to set his face against danger. A straight +sword by his side and a painted long-bow jutting over his +shoulder proclaimed his profession, while his scarred brigandine +of chain-mail and his dinted steel cap showed that he was no +holiday soldier, but one who was even now fresh from the wars. A +white surcoat with the lion of St. George in red upon the centre +covered his broad breast, while a sprig of new-plucked broom at +the side of his head-gear gave a touch of gayety and grace to his +grim, war-worn equipment. + +"Ha!" he cried, blinking like an owl in the sudden glare. "Good +even to you, comrades! Hola! a woman, by my soul!" and in an +instant he had clipped Dame Eliza round the waist and was kissing +her violently. His eye happening to wander upon the maid, +however, he instantly abandoned the mistress and danced off after +the other, who scurried in confusion up one of the ladders, and +dropped the heavy trap-door upon her pursuer. He then turned +back and saluted the landlady once more with the utmost relish +and satisfaction. + +"La petite is frightened," said he. "Ah, c'est l'amour, l'amour! +Curse this trick of French, which will stick to my throat. I +must wash it out with some good English ale. By my hilt! +camarades, there is no drop of French blood in my body, and I am +a true English bowman, Samkin Aylward by name; and I tell you, +mes amis, that it warms my very heart-roots to set my feet on the +dear old land once more. When I came off the galley at Hythe, +this very day, I down on my bones, and I kissed the good brown +earth, as I kiss thee now, ma belle, for it was eight long years +since I had seen it. The very smell of it seemed life to me. +But where are my six rascals? Hola, there! En avant!" + +At the order, six men, dressed as common drudges, marched +solemnly into the room, each bearing a huge bundle upon his head. +They formed in military line, while the soldier stood in front of +them with stern eyes, checking off their several packages. + +"Number one--a French feather-bed with the two counter-panes of +white sendall," said he. + +"Here, worthy sir," answered the first of the bearers, laying a +great package down in the corner. + +"Number two--seven ells of red Turkey cloth and nine ells of +cloth of gold. Put it down by the other. Good dame, I prythee +give each of these men a bottrine of wine or a jack of ale. +Three--a full piece of white Genoan velvet with twelve ells of +purple silk. Thou rascal, there is dirt on the hem! Thou hast +brushed it against some wall, coquin!" + +"Not I, most worthy sir," cried the carrier, shrinking away from +the fierce eyes of the bowman. + +"I say yes, dog! By the three kings! I have seen a man gasp out +his last breath for less. Had you gone through the pain and +unease that I have done to earn these things you would be at more +care. I swear by my ten finger-bones that there is not one of +them that hath not cost its weight in French blood! Four--an +incense-boat, a ewer of silver, a gold buckle and a cope worked +in pearls. I found them, camarades, at the Church of St. Denis +in the harrying of Narbonne, and I took them away with me lest +they fall into the hands of the wicked. Five--a cloak of fur +turned up with minever, a gold goblet with stand and cover, and a +box of rose-colored sugar. See that you lay them together. +Six--a box of monies, three pounds of Limousine gold-work, a pair +of boots, silver tagged, and, lastly, a store of naping linen. +So, the tally is complete! Here is a groat apiece, and you may go." + +"Go whither, worthy sir?" asked one of the carriers. + +"Whither? To the devil if ye will. What is it to me? Now, ma +belle, to supper. A pair of cold capons, a mortress of brawn, or +what you will, with a flask or two of the right Gascony. I have +crowns in my pouch, my sweet, and I mean to spend them. Bring in +wine while the food is dressing. Buvons my brave lads; you shall +each empty a stoup with me." + +Here was an offer which the company in an English inn at that or +any other date are slow to refuse. The flagons were re-gathered +and came back with the white foam dripping over their edges. Two +of the woodmen and three of the laborers drank their portions off +hurriedly and trooped off together, for their homes were distant +and the hour late. The others, however, drew closer, leaving the +place of honor to the right of the gleeman to the free-handed +new-comer. He had thrown off his steel cap and his brigandine, +and had placed them with his sword, his quiver and his painted +long-bow, on the top of his varied heap of plunder in the corner. +Now, with his thick and somewhat bowed legs stretched in front of +the blaze, his green jerkin thrown open, and a great quart pot +held in his corded fist, he looked the picture of comfort and of +good-fellowship. His hard-set face had softened, and the thick +crop of crisp brown curls which had been hidden by his helmet +grew low upon his massive neck. He might have been forty years +of age, though hard toil and harder pleasure had left their grim +marks upon his features. Alleyne had ceased painting his pied +merlin, and sat, brush in hand, staring with open eyes at a type +of man so strange and so unlike any whom he had met. Men had +been good or had been bad in his catalogue, but here was a man +who was fierce one instant and gentle the next, with a curse on +his lips and a smile in his eye. What was to be made of such a +man as that? + +It chanced that the soldier looked up and saw the questioning +glance which the young clerk threw upon him. He raised his +flagon and drank to him, with a merry flash of his white teeth. + +"A toi, mon garcon," he cried. "Hast surely never seen a +man-at-arms, that thou shouldst stare so?" + +"I never have," said Alleyne frankly, "though I have oft heard +talk of their deeds." + +"By my hilt!" cried the other, "if you were to cross the narrow +sea you would find them as thick as bees at a tee-hole. Couldst +not shoot a bolt down any street of Bordeaux, I warrant, but you +would pink archer, squire, or knight. There are more +breastplates than gaberdines to be seen, I promise you." + +"And where got you all these pretty things?" asked Hordle John, +pointing at the heap in the corner. + +"Where there is as much more waiting for any brave lad to pick it +up. Where a good man can always earn a good wage, and where he +need look upon no man as his paymaster, but just reach his hand +out and help himself. Aye, it is a goodly and a proper life. +And here I drink to mine old comrades, and the saints be with +them! Arouse all together, me, enfants, under pain of my +displeasure. To Sir Claude Latour and the White Company!" + +"Sir Claude Latour and the White Company!" shouted the +travellers, draining off their goblets. + +"Well quaffed, mes braves! It is for me to fill your cups again, +since you have drained them to my dear lads of the white jerkin. +Hola! mon ange, bring wine and ale. How runs the old stave?-- + + We'll drink all together + To the gray goose feather + And the land where the gray goose flew." + +He roared out the catch in a harsh, unmusical voice, and ended +with a shout of laughter. "I trust that I am a better bowman +than a minstrel," said he. + +"Methinks I have some remembrance of the lilt," remarked the +gleeman, running his fingers over the strings, "Hoping that it +will give thee no offence, most holy sir"--with a vicious snap at +Alleyne--"and with the kind permit of the company, I will even +venture upon it." + +Many a time in the after days Alleyne Edricson seemed to see that +scene, for all that so many which were stranger and more stirring +were soon to crowd upon him. The fat, red-faced gleeman, the +listening group, the archer with upraised finger beating in time +to the music, and the huge sprawling figure of Hordle John, all +thrown into red light and black shadow by the flickering fire in +the centre--memory was to come often lovingly back to it. At the +time he was lost in admiration at the deft way in which the +jongleur disguised the loss of his two missing strings, and the +lusty, hearty fashion in which he trolled out his little ballad +of the outland bowmen, which ran in some such fashion as this: + + What of the bow? + The bow was made in England: + Of true wood, of yew wood, + The wood of English bows; + So men who are free + Love the old yew tree + And the land where the yew tree grows. + + What of the cord? + The cord was made in England: + A rough cord, a tough cord, + A cord that bowmen love; + So we'll drain our jacks + To the English flax + And the land where the hemp was wove. + + What of the shaft? + The shaft was cut in England: + A long shaft, a strong shaft, + Barbed and trim and true; + So we'll drink all together + To the gray goose feather + And the land where the gray goose flew. + + What of the men? + The men were bred in England: + The bowman--the yeoman-- + The lads of dale and fell + Here's to you--and to you; + To the hearts that are true + And the land where the true hearts dwell. + +"Well sung, by my hilt!" shouted the archer in high delight. +"Many a night have I heard that song, both in the old war-time +and after in the days of the White Company, when Black Simon of +Norwich would lead the stave, and four hundred of the best bowmen +that ever drew string would come roaring in upon the chorus. I +have seen old John Hawkwood, the same who has led half the +Company into Italy, stand laughing in his beard as he heard it, +until his plates rattled again. But to get the full smack of it +ye must yourselves be English bowmen, and be far off upon an +outland soil." + +Whilst the song had been singing Dame Eliza and the maid had +placed a board across two trestles, and had laid upon it the +knife, the spoon, the salt, the tranchoir of bread, and finally +the smoking dish which held the savory supper. The archer +settled himself to it like one who had known what it was to find +good food scarce; but his tongue still went as merrily as his +teeth. + +"It passes me," he cried, "how all you lusty fellows can bide +scratching your backs at home when there are such doings over the +seas. Look at me--what have I to do? It is but the eye to the +cord, the cord to the shaft, and the shaft to the mark. There is +the whole song of it. It is but what you do yourselves for +pleasure upon a Sunday evening at the parish village butts." + +"And the wage?" asked a laborer. + +"You see what the wage brings," he answered. "I eat of the best, +and I drink deep. I treat my friend, and I ask no friend to +treat me. I clap a silk gown on my girl's back. Never a +knight's lady shall be better betrimmed and betrinketed. How of +all that, mon garcon? And how of the heap of trifles that you +can see for yourselves in yonder corner? They are from the South +French, every one, upon whom I have been making war. By my hilt! +camarades, I think that I may let my plunder speak for itself." + +"It seems indeed to be a goodly service," said the tooth-drawer. + +"Tete bleu! yes, indeed. Then there is the chance of a ransom. +Why, look you, in the affair at Brignais some four years back, +when the companies slew James of Bourbon, and put his army to the +sword, there was scarce a man of ours who had not count, baron, +or knight. Peter Karsdale, who was but a common country lout +newly brought over, with the English fleas still hopping under +his doublet, laid his great hands upon the Sieur Amaury de +Chatonville, who owns half Picardy, and had five thousand crowns +out of him, with his horse and harness. 'Tis true that a French +wench took it all off Peter as quick as the Frenchman paid it; +but what then? By the twang of string! it would be a bad thing +if money was not made to be spent; and how better than on +woman--eh, ma belle?" + +"It would indeed be a bad thing if we had not our brave archers +to bring wealth and kindly customs into the country," quoth Dame +Eliza, on whom the soldier's free and open ways had made a deep +impression. + +"A toi, ma cherie!" said he, with his hand over his heart. +"Hola! there is la petite peeping from behind the door. A toi, +aussi, ma petite! Mon Dieu! but the lass has a good color!" + +"There is one thing, fair sir," said the Cambridge student in his +piping voice, "which I would fain that you would make more clear. +As I understand it, there was peace made at the town of Bretigny +some six years back between our most gracious monarch and the +King of the French. This being so, it seems most passing strange +that you should talk so loudly of war and of companies when there +is no quarrel between the French and us." + +"Meaning that I lie," said the archer, laying down his knife. + +"May heaven forfend!" cried the student hastily. "_Magna est +veritas sed rara_, which means in the Latin tongue that archers +are all honorable men. I come to you seeking knowledge, for it +is my trade to learn." + +"I fear that you are yet a 'prentice to that trade," quoth the +soldier; "for there is no child over the water but could answer +what you ask. Know then that though there may be peace between +our own provinces and the French, yet within the marches of +France there is always war, for the country is much divided +against itself, and is furthermore harried by bands of flayers, +skinners, Brabacons, tardvenus, and the rest of them. When every +man's grip is on his neighbor's throat, and every five-sous-piece +of a baron is marching with tuck of drum to fight whom he will, +it would be a strange thing if five hundred brave English boys +could not pick up a living. Now that Sir John Hawkwood hath gone +with the East Anglian lads and the Nottingham woodmen into the +service of the Marquis of Montferrat to fight against the Lord of +Milan, there are but ten score of us left, yet I trust that I may +be able to bring some back with me to fill the ranks of the White +Company. By the tooth of Peter! it would be a bad thing if I +could not muster many a Hamptonshire man who would be ready to +strike in under the red flag of St. George, and the more so if +Sir Nigel Loring, of Christchurch, should don hauberk once more +and take the lead of us." + +"Ah, you would indeed be in luck then," quoth a woodman; "for it +is said that, setting aside the prince, and mayhap good old Sir +John Chandos, there was not in the whole army a man of such tried +courage." + +"It is sooth, every word of it," the archer answered. "I have +seen him with these two eyes in a stricken field, and never did +man carry himself better. Mon Dieu! yes, ye would not credit it +to look at him, or to hearken to his soft voice, but from the +sailing from Orwell down to the foray to Paris, and that is clear +twenty years, there was not a skirmish, onfall, sally, bushment, +escalado or battle, but Sir Nigel was in the heart of it. I go +now to Christchurch with a letter to him from Sir Claude Latour +to ask him if he will take the place of Sir John Hawkwood; and +there is the more chance that he will if I bring one or two +likely men at my heels. What say you, woodman: wilt leave the +bucks to loose a shaft at a nobler mark?" + +The forester shook his head. "I have wife and child at Emery +Down," quoth he; "I would not leave them for such a venture." + +"You, then, young sir?" asked the archer. + +"Nay, I am a man of peace," said Alleyne Edricson. "Besides, I +have other work to do." + +"Peste!" growled the soldier, striking his flagon on the board +until the dishes danced again. "What, in the name of the devil, +hath come over the folk? Why sit ye all moping by the fireside, +like crows round a dead horse, when there is man's work to be +done within a few short leagues of ye? Out upon you all, as a +set of laggards and hang-backs! By my hilt I believe that the +men of England are all in France already, and that what is left +behind are in sooth the women dressed up in their paltocks and +hosen." + +"Archer," quoth Hordle John, "you have lied more than once and +more than twice; for which, and also because I see much in you to +dislike, I am sorely tempted to lay you upon your back." + +"By my hilt! then, I have found a man at last!" shouted the +bowman. "And, 'fore God, you are a better man than I take you +for if you can lay me on my back, mon garcon. I have won the ram +more times than there are toes to my feet, and for seven long +years I have found no man in the Company who could make my jerkin +dusty." + +"We have had enough bobance and boasting," said Hordle John, +rising and throwing off his doublet. "I will show you that there +are better men left in England than ever went thieving to +France." + +"Pasques Dieu!" cried the archer, loosening his jerkin, and +eyeing his foeman over with the keen glance of one who is a judge +of manhood. "I have only once before seen such a body of a man. +By your leave, my red-headed friend, I should be right sorry to +exchange buffets with you; and I will allow that there is no man +in the Company who would pull against you on a rope; so let that +be a salve to your pride. On the other hand I should judge that +you have led a life of ease for some months back, and that my +muscle is harder than your own. I am ready to wager upon myself +against you if you are not afeard." + +"Afeard, thou lurden!" growled big John. "I never saw the face +yet of the man that I was afeard of. Come out, and we shall see +who is the better man." + +"But the wager?" + +"I have nought to wager. Come out for the love and the lust of +the thing." + +"Nought to wager!" cried the soldier. "Why, you have that which +I covet above all things. It is that big body of thine that I am +after. See, now, mon garcon. I have a French feather-bed there, +which I have been at pains to keep these years back. I had it at +the sacking of Issodun, and the King himself hath not such a bed. +If you throw me, it is thine; but, if I throw you, then you are +under a vow to take bow and bill and hie with me to France, there +to serve in the White Company as long as we be enrolled." + +"A fair wager!" cried all the travellers, moving back their +benches and trestles, so as to give fair field for the wrestlers. + +"Then you may bid farewell to your bed, soldier," said Hordle +John. + +"Nay; I shall keep the bed, and I shall have you to France in +spite of your teeth, and you shall live to thank me for it. How +shall it be, then, mon enfant? Collar and elbow, or close-lock, +or catch how you can?" + +"To the devil with your tricks," said John, opening and shutting +his great red hands. "Stand forth, and let me clip thee." + +"Shalt clip me as best you can then," quoth the archer, moving +out into the open space, and keeping a most wary eye upon his +opponent. He had thrown off his green jerkin, and his chest was +covered only by a pink silk jupon, or undershirt, cut low in the +neck and sleeveless. Hordle John was stripped from his waist +upwards, and his huge body, with his great muscles swelling out +like the gnarled roots of an oak, towered high above the soldier. +The other, however, though near a foot shorter, was a man of +great strength; and there was a gloss upon his white skin which +was wanting in the heavier limbs of the renegade monk. He was +quick on his feet, too, and skilled at the game; so that it was +clear, from the poise of head and shine of eye, that he counted +the chances to be in his favor. It would have been hard that +night, through the whole length of England, to set up a finer +pair in face of each other. + +Big John stood waiting in the centre with a sullen, menacing eye, +and his red hair in a bristle, while the archer paced lightly and +swiftly to the right and the left with crooked knee and hands +advanced. Then with a sudden dash, so swift and fierce that the +eye could scarce follow it, he flew in upon his man and locked +his leg round him. It was a grip that, between men of equal +strength, would mean a fall; but Hordle John tore him off from +him as he might a rat, and hurled him across the room, so that +his head cracked up against the wooden wall. + +"Ma foi!" cried the bowman, passing his fingers through his +curls, "you were not far from the feather-bed then, mon gar. A +little more and this good hostel would have a new window." + +Nothing daunted, he approached his man once more, but this time +with more caution than before. With a quick feint he threw the +other off his guard, and then, bounding upon him, threw his legs +round his waist and his arms round his bull-neck, in the hope of +bearing him to the ground with the sudden shock. With a bellow +of rage, Hordle John squeezed him limp in his huge arms; and +then, picking him up, cast him down upon the floor with a force +which might well have splintered a bone or two, had not the +archer with the most perfect coolness clung to the other's +forearms to break his fall. As it was, he dropped upon his feet +and kept his balance, though it sent a jar through his frame +which set every joint a-creaking. He bounded back from his +perilous foeman; but the other, heated by the bout, rushed madly +after him, and so gave the practised wrestler the very vantage +for which he had planned. As big John flung himself upon him, +the archer ducked under the great red hands that clutched for +him, and, catching his man round the thighs, hurled him over his +shoulder--helped as much by his own mad rush as by the trained +strength of the heave. To Alleyne's eye, it was as if John had +taken unto himself wings and flown. As he hurtled through the +air, with giant limbs revolving, the lad's heart was in his +mouth; for surely no man ever yet had such a fall and came +scathless out of it. In truth, hardy as the man was, his neck +had been assuredly broken had he not pitched head first on the +very midriff of the drunken artist, who was slumbering so +peacefully in the corner, all unaware of these stirring doings. +The luckless limner, thus suddenly brought out from his dreams, +sat up with a piercing yell, while Hordle John bounded back into +the circle almost as rapidly as he had left it. + +"One more fall, by all the saints!" he cried, throwing out his +arms. + +"Not I," quoth the archer, pulling on his clothes, "I have come +well out of the business. I would sooner wrestle with the great +bear of Navarre." + +"It was a trick," cried John. + +"Aye was it. By my ten finger-bones! it is a trick that will add +a proper man to the ranks of the Company." + +"Oh, for that," said the other, "I count it not a fly; for I had +promised myself a good hour ago that I should go with thee, since +the life seems to be a goodly and proper one. Yet I would fain +have had the feather-bed." + +"I doubt it not, mon ami," quoth the archer, going back to his +tankard. "Here is to thee, lad, and may we be good comrades to +each other! But, hola! what is it that ails our friend of the +wrathful face?" + +The unfortunate limner had been sitting up rubbing himself +ruefully and staring about with a vacant gaze, which showed that +he knew neither where he was nor what had occurred to him. +Suddenly, however, a flash of intelligence had come over his +sodden features, and he rose and staggered for the door. "'Ware +the ale!" he said in a hoarse whisper, shaking a warning finger +at the company. "Oh, holy Virgin, 'ware the ale!" and slapping +his hands to his injury, he flitted off into the darkness, amid a +shout of laughter, in which the vanquished joined as merrily as +the victor. The remaining forester and the two laborers were +also ready for the road, and the rest of the company turned to +the blankets which Dame Eliza and the maid had laid out for them +upon the floor. Alleyne, weary with the unwonted excitements of +the day, was soon in a deep slumber broken only by fleeting +visions of twittering legs, cursing beggars, black robbers, and +the many strange folk whom he had met at the "Pied Merlin." + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +HOW THE THREE COMRADES JOURNEYED THROUGH THE WOODLANDS. + + +At early dawn the country inn was all alive, for it was rare +indeed that an hour of daylight would be wasted at a time when +lighting was so scarce and dear. Indeed, early as it was when +Dame Eliza began to stir, it seemed that others could be earlier +still, for the door was ajar, and the learned student of +Cambridge had taken himself off, with a mind which was too intent +upon the high things of antiquity to stoop to consider the +four-pence which he owed for bed and board. It was the shrill +out-cry of the landlady when she found her loss, and the clucking +of the hens, which had streamed in through the open door, that +first broke in upon the slumbers of the tired wayfarers. + +Once afoot, it was not long before the company began to disperse. +A sleek mule with red trappings was brought round from some +neighboring shed for the physician, and he ambled away with much +dignity upon his road to Southampton. The tooth-drawer and the +gleeman called for a cup of small ale apiece, and started off +together for Ringwood fair, the old jongleur looking very yellow +in the eye and swollen in the face after his overnight potations. +The archer, however, who had drunk more than any man in the room, +was as merry as a grig, and having kissed the matron and chased +the maid up the ladder once more, he went out to the brook, and +came back with the water dripping from his face and hair. + +"Hola! my man of peace," he cried to Alleyne, "whither are you +bent this morning?" + +"To Minstead," quoth he. "My brother Simon Edricson is socman +there, and I go to bide with him for a while. I prythee, let me +have my score, good dame." + +"Score, indeed!" cried she, standing with upraised hands in front +of the panel on which Alleyne had worked the night before. "Say, +rather what it is that I owe to thee, good youth. Aye, this is +indeed a pied merlin, and with a leveret under its claws, as I am +a living woman. By the rood of Waltham! but thy touch is deft +and dainty." + +"And see the red eye of it!" cried the maid. + +"Aye, and the open beak." + +"And the ruffled wing," added Hordle John. + +"By my hilt!" cried the archer, "it is the very bird itself." + +The young clerk flushed with pleasure at this chorus of praise, +rude and indiscriminate indeed, and yet so much heartier and less +grudging than any which he had ever heard from the critical +brother Jerome, or the short-spoken Abbot. There was, it would +seem, great kindness as well as great wickedness in this world, +of which he had heard so little that was good. His hostess would +hear nothing of his paying either for bed or for board, while the +archer and Hordle John placed a hand upon either shoulder and led +him off to the board, where some smoking fish, a dish of spinach, +and a jug of milk were laid out for their breakfast. + +"I should not be surprised to learn, mon camarade," said the +soldier, as he heaped a slice of fish upon Alleyne's tranchoir of +bread, "that you could read written things, since you are so +ready with your brushes and pigments." + +"It would be shame to the good brothers of Beaulieu if I could +not," he answered, "seeing that I have been their clerk this ten +years back." + +The bowman looked at him with great respect. "Think of that!" +said he. "And you with not a hair to your face, and a skin like +a girl. I can shoot three hundred and fifty paces with my little +popper there, and four hundred and twenty with the great war-bow; +yet I can make nothing of this, nor read my own name if you were +to set `Sam Aylward' up against me. In the whole Company there +was only one man who could read, and he fell down a well at the +taking of Ventadour, which proves what the thing is not suited to +a soldier, though most needful to a clerk." + +"I can make some show at it," said big John; "though I was scarce +long enough among the monks to catch the whole trick of it. + +"Here, then, is something to try upon," quoth the archer, pulling +a square of parchment from the inside of his tunic. It was tied +securely with a broad band of purple silk, and firmly sealed at +either end with a large red seal. John pored long and earnestly +over the inscription upon the back, with his brows bent as one +who bears up against great mental strain. + +"Not having read much of late," he said, "I am loth to say too +much about what this may be. Some might say one thing and some +another, just as one bowman loves the yew, and a second will not +shoot save with the ash. To me, by the length and the look of +it, I should judge this to be a verse from one of the Psalms." + +The bowman shook his head. "It is scarce likely," he said, "that +Sir Claude Latour should send me all the way across seas with +nought more weighty than a psalm-verse. You have clean overshot +the butts this time, mon camarade. Give it to the little one. I +will wager my feather-bed that he makes more sense of it." + +"Why, it is written in the French tongue," said Alleyne, "and in +a right clerkly hand. This is how it runs: `A le moult puissant +et moult honorable chevalier, Sir Nigel Loring de Christchurch, +de son tres fidele ami Sir Claude Latour, capitaine de la +Compagnie blanche, chatelain de Biscar, grand seigneur de +Montchateau, vavaseur de le renomme Gaston, Comte de Foix, tenant +les droits de la haute justice, de la milieu, et de la basse.' +Which signifies in our speech: `To the very powerful and very +honorable knight, Sir Nigel Loring of Christchurch, from his very +faithful friend Sir Claude Latour, captain of the White Company, +chatelain of Biscar, grand lord of Montchateau and vassal to the +renowned Gaston, Count of Foix, who holds the rights of the high +justice, the middle and the low.'" + +"Look at that now!" cried the bowman in triumph. "That is just +what he would have said." + +"I can see now that it is even so," said John, examining the +parchment again. "Though I scarce understand this high, middle +and low." + +"By my hilt! you would understand it if you were Jacques +Bonhomme. The low justice means that you may fleece him, and the +middle that you may torture him, and the high that you may slay +him. That is about the truth of it. But this is the letter +which I am to take; and since the platter is clean it is time +that we trussed up and were afoot. You come with me, mon gros +Jean; and as to you, little one, where did you say that you +journeyed?" + +"To Minstead." + +"Ah, yes. I know this forest country well, though I was born +myself in the Hundred of Easebourne, in the Rape of Chichester, +hard by the village of Midhurst. Yet I have not a word to say +against the Hampton men, for there are no better comrades or +truer archers in the whole Company than some who learned to loose +the string in these very parts. We shall travel round with you +to Minstead lad, seeing that it is little out of our way." + +"I am ready," said Alleyne, right pleased at the thought of such +company upon the road. + +"So am not I. I must store my plunder at this inn, since the +hostess is an honest woman. Hola! ma cherie, I wish to leave +with you my gold-work, my velvet, my silk, my feather bed, my +incense-boat, my ewer, my naping linen, and all the rest of it. +I take only the money in a linen bag, and the box of rose colored +sugar which is a gift from my captain to the Lady Loring. Wilt +guard my treasure for me?" + +"It shall be put in the safest loft, good archer. Come when you +may, you shall find it ready for you." + +"Now, there is a true friend!" cried the bowman, taking her hand. +"There is a bonne amie! English land and English women, say I, +and French wine and French plunder. I shall be back anon, mon +ange. I am a lonely man, my sweeting, and I must settle some day +when the wars are over and done. Mayhap you and I----Ah, +mechante, mechante! There is la petite peeping from behind the +door. Now, John, the sun is over the trees; you must be brisker +than this when the bugleman blows `Bows and Bills.'" + +"I have been waiting this time back," said Hordle John gruffly. + +"Then we must be off. Adieu, ma vie! The two livres shall +settle the score and buy some ribbons against the next kermesse. +Do not forget Sam Aylward, for his heart shall ever be thine +alone--and thine, ma petite! So, marchons, and may St. Julian +grant us as good quarters elsewhere!" + +The sun had risen over Ashurst and Denny woods, and was shining +brightly, though the eastern wind had a sharp flavor to it, and +the leaves were flickering thickly from the trees. In the High +Street of Lyndhurst the wayfarers had to pick their way, for the +little town was crowded with the guardsmen, grooms, and yeomen +prickers who were attached to the King's hunt. The King himself +was staying at Castle Malwood, but several of his suite had been +compelled to seek such quarters as they might find in the wooden +or wattle-and-daub cottages of the village. Here and there a +small escutcheon, peeping from a glassless window, marked the +night's lodging of knight or baron. These coats-of-arms could be +read, where a scroll would be meaningless, and the bowman, like +most men of his age, was well versed in the common symbols of +heraldry. + +"There is the Saracen's head of Sir Bernard Brocas," quoth he. +"I saw him last at the ruffle at Poictiers some ten years back, +when he bore himself like a man. He is the master of the King's +horse, and can sing a right jovial stave, though in that he +cannot come nigh to Sir John Chandos, who is first at the board +or in the saddle. Three martlets on a field azure, that must be +one of the Luttrells. By the crescent upon it, it should be the +second son of old Sir Hugh, who had a bolt through his ankle at +the intaking of Romorantin, he having rushed into the fray ere +his squire had time to clasp his solleret to his greave. There +too is the hackle which is the old device of the De Brays. I +have served under Sir Thomas de Bray, who was as jolly as a pie, +and a lusty swordsman until he got too fat for his harness." + +So the archer gossiped as the three wayfarers threaded their way +among the stamping horses, the busy grooms, and the knots of +pages and squires who disputed over the merits of their masters' +horses and deer-hounds. As they passed the old church, which +stood upon a mound at the left-hand side of the village street +the door was flung open, and a stream of worshippers wound down +the sloping path, coming from the morning mass, all chattering +like a cloud of jays. Alleyne bent knee and doffed hat at the +sight of the open door; but ere he had finished an ave his +comrades were out of sight round the curve of the path, and he +had to run to overtake them." + +"What!" he said, "not one word of prayer before God's own open +house? How can ye hope for His blessing upon the day?" + +"My friend," said Hordle John, "I have prayed so much during the +last two months, not only during the day, but at matins, lauds, +and the like, when I could scarce keep my head upon my shoulders +for nodding, that I feel that I have somewhat over-prayed +myself." + +"How can a man have too much religion?" cried Alleyne earnestly. +"It is the one thing that availeth. A man is but a beast as he +lives from day to day, eating and drinking, breathing and +sleeping. It is only when he raises himself, and concerns +himself with the immortal spirit within him, that he becomes in +very truth a man. Bethink ye how sad a thing it would be that +the blood of the Redeemer should be spilled to no purpose." + +"Bless the lad, if he doth not blush like any girl, and yet +preach like the whole College of Cardinals," cried the archer. + +"In truth I blush that any one so weak and so unworthy as I +should try to teach another that which he finds it so passing +hard to follow himself." + +"Prettily said, mon garcon. Touching that same slaying of the +Redeemer, it was a bad business. A good padre in France read to +us from a scroll the whole truth of the matter. The soldiers +came upon him in the garden. In truth, these Apostles of His may +have been holy men, but they were of no great account as +men-at-arms. There was one, indeed, Sir Peter, who smote out +like a true man; but, unless he is belied, he did but clip a +varlet's ear, which was no very knightly deed. By these ten +finger-bones! had I been there with Black Simon of Norwich, and +but one score picked men of the Company, we had held them in +play. Could we do no more, we had at least filled the false +knight, Sir Judas, so full of English arrows that he would curse +the day that ever he came on such an errand." + +The young clerk smiled at his companion's earnestness. "Had He +wished help," he said, "He could have summoned legions of +archangels from heaven, so what need had He of your poor bow and +arrow? Besides, bethink you of His own words--that those who +live by the sword shall perish by the sword." + +"And how could man die better?" asked the archer. "If I had my +wish, it would be to fall so--not, mark you, in any mere skirmish +of the Company, but in a stricken field, with the great lion +banner waving over us and the red oriflamme in front, amid the +shouting of my fellows and the twanging of the strings. But let +it be sword, lance, or bolt that strikes me down: for I should +think it shame to die from an iron ball from the fire-crake or +bombard or any such unsoldierly weapon, which is only fitted to +scare babes with its foolish noise and smoke." + +"I have heard much even in the quiet cloisters of these new and +dreadful engines," quoth Alleyne. "It is said, though I can +scarce bring myself to believe it, that they will send a ball +twice as far as a bowman can shoot his shaft, and with such force +as to break through armor of proof." + +"True enough, my lad. But while the armorer is thrusting in his +devil's-dust, and dropping his ball, and lighting his flambeau, I +can very easily loose six shafts, or eight maybe, so he hath no +great vantage after all. Yet I will not deny that at the +intaking of a town it is well to have good store of bombards. I +am told that at Calais they made dints in the wall that a man +might put his head into. But surely, comrades, some one who is +grievously hurt hath passed along this road before us." + +All along the woodland track there did indeed run a scattered +straggling trail of blood-marks, sometimes in single drops, and +in other places in broad, ruddy gouts, smudged over the dead +leaves or crimsoning the white flint stones. + +"It must be a stricken deer," said John. + +"Nay, I am woodman enough to see that no deer hath passed this +way this morning; and yet the blood is fresh. But hark to the +sound!" + +They stood listening all three with sidelong heads. Through the +silence of the great forest there came a swishing, whistling +sound, mingled with the most dolorous groans, and the voice of a +man raised in a high quavering kind of song. The comrades +hurried onwards eagerly, and topping the brow of a small rising +they saw upon the other side the source from which these strange +noises arose. + +A tall man, much stooped in the shoulders, was walking slowly +with bended head and clasped hands in the centre of the path. He +was dressed from head to foot in a long white linen cloth, and a +high white cap with a red cross printed upon it. His gown was +turned back from his shoulders, and the flesh there was a sight +to make a man wince, for it was all beaten to a pulp, and the +blood was soaking into his gown and trickling down upon the +ground. Behind him walked a smaller man with his hair touched +with gray, who was clad in the same white garb. He intoned a +long whining rhyme in the French tongue, and at the end of every +line he raised a thick cord, all jagged with pellets of lead, and +smote his companion across the shoulders until the blood spurted +again. Even as the three wayfarers stared, however, there was a +sudden change, for the smaller man, having finished his song, +loosened his own gown and handed the scourge to the other, who +took up the stave once more and lashed his companion with all the +strength of his bare and sinewy arm. So, alternately beating and +beaten, they made their dolorous way through the beautiful woods +and under the amber arches of the fading beech-trees, where the +calm strength and majesty of Nature might serve to rebuke the +foolish energies and misspent strivings of mankind. + +Such a spectacle was new to Hordle John or to Alleyne Edricson; +but the archer treated it lightly, as a common matter enough. + +"These are the Beating Friars, otherwise called the Flagellants," +quoth he. "I marvel that ye should have come upon none of them +before, for across the water they are as common as gallybaggers. +I have heard that there are no English among them, but that they +are from France, Italy and Bohemia. En avant, camarades! that we +may have speech with them." + +As they came up to them, Alleyne could hear the doleful dirge +which the beater was chanting, bringing down his heavy whip at +the end of each line, while the groans of the sufferer formed a +sort of dismal chorus. It was in old French, and ran somewhat in +this way: + + Or avant, entre nous tous freres + Battons nos charognes bien fort + En remembrant la grant misere + De Dieu et sa piteuse mort + Qui fut pris en la gent amere + Et vendus et trais a tort + Et bastu sa chair, vierge et dere + Au nom de ce battons plus fort. + +Then at the end of the verse the scourge changed hands and the +chanting began anew. + +"Truly, holy fathers," said the archer in French as they came +abreast of them, "you have beaten enough for to-day. The road is +all spotted like a shambles at Martinmas. Why should ye +mishandle yourselves thus?" + +"C'est pour vos peches--pour vos peches," they droned, looking at +the travellers with sad lack-lustre eyes, and then bent to their +bloody work once more without heed to the prayers and persuasions +which were addressed to them. Finding all remonstrance useless, +the three comrades hastened on their way, leaving these strange +travellers to their dreary task. + +"Mort Dieu!" cried the bowman, "there is a bucketful or more of +my blood over in France, but it was all spilled in hot fight, and +I should think twice before I drew it drop by drop as these +friars are doing. By my hilt! our young one here is as white as +a Picardy cheese. What is amiss then, mon cher?" + +"It is nothing," Alleyne answered. "My life has been too quiet, +I am not used to such sights." + +"Ma foi!" the other cried, "I have never yet seen a man who was +so stout of speech and yet so weak of heart." + +"Not so, friend," quoth big John; "it is not weakness of heart +for I know the lad well. His heart is as good as thine or mine +but he hath more in his pate than ever you will carry under that +tin pot of thine, and as a consequence he can see farther into +things, so that they weigh upon him more." + +"Surely to any man it is a sad sight," said Alleyne, "to see +these holy men, who have done no sin themselves, suffering so for +the sins of others. Saints are they, if in this age any may +merit so high a name." + +"I count them not a fly," cried Hordle John; "for who is the +better for all their whipping and yowling? They are like other +friars, I trow, when all is done. Let them leave their backs +alone, and beat the pride out of their hearts." + +"By the three kings! there is sooth in what you say," remarked +the archer. "Besides, methinks if I were le bon Dieu, it would +bring me little joy to see a poor devil cutting the flesh off his +bones; and I should think that he had but a small opinion of me, +that he should hope to please me by such provost-marshal work. +No, by my hilt! I should look with a more loving eye upon a jolly +archer who never harmed a fallen foe and never feared a hale +one." + +"Doubtless you mean no sin," said Alleyne. "If your words are +wild, it is not for me to judge them. Can you not see that there +are other foes in this world besides Frenchmen, and as much glory +to be gained in conquering them? Would it not be a proud day for +knight or squire if he could overthrow seven adversaries in the +lists? Yet here are we in the lists of life, and there come the +seven black champions against us Sir Pride, Sir Covetousness, Sir +Lust, Sir Anger, Sir Gluttony, Sir Envy, and Sir Sloth. Let a +man lay those seven low, and he shall have the prize of the day, +from the hands of the fairest queen of beauty, even from the +Virgin-Mother herself. It is for this that these men mortify +their flesh, and to set us an example, who would pamper +ourselves overmuch. I say again that they are God's own saints, +and I bow my head to them." + +"And so you shall, mon petit," replied the archer. "I have not +heard a man speak better since old Dom Bertrand died, who was at +one time chaplain to the White Company. He was a very valiant +man, but at the battle of Brignais he was spitted through the +body by a Hainault man-at-arms. For this we had an +excommunication read against the man, when next we saw our holy +father at Avignon; but as we had not his name, and knew nothing +of him, save that he rode a dapple-gray roussin, I have feared +sometimes that the blight may have settled upon the wrong man." + +"Your Company has been, then, to bow knee before our holy father, +the Pope Urban, the prop and centre of Christendom?" asked +Alleyne, much interested. "Perchance you have yourself set eyes +upon his august face?" + +"Twice I saw him," said the archer. "He was a lean little rat of +a man, with a scab on his chin. The first time we had five +thousand crowns out of him, though he made much ado about it. +The second time we asked ten thousand, but it was three days +before we could come to terms, and I am of opinion myself that we +might have done better by plundering the palace. His chamberlain +and cardinals came forth, as I remember, to ask whether we would +take seven thousand crowns with his blessing and a plenary +absolution, or the ten thousand with his solemn ban by bell, book +and candle. We were all of one mind that it was best to have the +ten thousand with the curse; but in some way they prevailed upon +Sir John, so that we were blest and shriven against our will. +Perchance it is as well, for the Company were in need of it about +that time." + +The pious Alleyne was deeply shocked by this reminiscence. +Involuntarily he glanced up and around to see if there were any +trace of those opportune levin-flashes and thunderbolts which, in +the "Acta Sanctorum," were wont so often to cut short the loose +talk of the scoffer. The autumn sun streamed down as brightly as +ever, and the peaceful red path still wound in front of them +through the rustling, yellow-tinted forest, Nature seemed to be +too busy with her own concerns to heed the dignity of an outraged +pontiff. Yet he felt a sense of weight and reproach within his +breast, as though he had sinned himself in giving ear to such +words. The teachings of twenty years cried out against such +license. It was not until he had thrown himself down before one +of the many wayside crosses, and had prayed from his heart both +for the archer and for himself, that the dark cloud rolled back +again from his spirit. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE THREE FRIENDS. + + +His companions had passed on whilst he was at his orisons; but +his young blood and the fresh morning air both invited him to a +scamper. His staff in one hand and his scrip in the other, with +springy step and floating locks, he raced along the forest path, +as active and as graceful as a young deer. He had not far to go, +however; for, on turning a corner, he came on a roadside cottage +with a wooden fence-work around it, where stood big John and +Aylward the bowman, staring at something within. As he came up +with them, he saw that two little lads, the one about nine years +of age and the other somewhat older, were standing on the plot in +front of the cottage, each holding out a round stick in their +left hands, with their arms stiff and straight from the shoulder, +as silent and still as two small statues. They were pretty, +blue-eyed, yellow-haired lads, well made and sturdy, with bronzed +skins, which spoke of a woodland life. + +"Here are young chips from an old bow stave!" cried the soldier +in great delight. "This is the proper way to raise children. By +my hilt! I could not have trained them better had I the ordering +of it myself." + +"What is it then?" asked Hordle John. "They stand very stiff, +and I trust that they have not been struck so." + +"Nay, they are training their left arms, that they may have a +steady grasp of the bow. So my own father trained me, and six +days a week I held out his walking-staff till my arm was heavy as +lead. Hola, mes enfants! how long will you hold out?" + +"Until the sun is over the great lime-tree, good master," the +elder answered. + +"What would ye be, then? Woodmen? Verderers?" + +"Nay, soldiers," they cried both together. + +"By the beard of my father! but ye are whelps of the true breed. +Why so keen, then, to be soldiers?" + +"That we may fight the Scots," they answered. "Daddy will send +us to fight the Scots." + +"And why the Scots, my pretty lads? We have seen French and +Spanish galleys no further away than Southampton, but I doubt +that it will be some time before the Scots find their way to +these parts." + +"Our business is with the Scots," quoth the elder; "for it was +the Scots who cut off daddy's string fingers and his thumbs." + +"Aye, lads, it was that," said a deep voice from behind Alleyne's +shoulder. Looking round, the wayfarers saw a gaunt, big-boned +man, with sunken cheeks and a sallow face, who had come up behind +them. He held up his two hands as he spoke, and showed that the +thumbs and two first fingers had been torn away from each of +them. + +"Ma foi, camarade!" cried Aylward. "Who hath served thee in so +shameful a fashion?" + +"It is easy to see, friend, that you were born far from the +marches of Scotland," quoth the stranger, with a bitter smile. +"North of Humber there is no man who would not know the handiwork +of Devil Douglas, the black Lord James." + +"And how fell you into his hands?" asked John. + +"I am a man of the north country, from the town of Beverley and +the wapentake of Holderness," he answered. "There was a day +when, from Trent to Tweed, there was no better marksman than +Robin Heathcot. Yet, as you see, he hath left me, as he hath +left many another poor border archer, with no grip for bill or +bow. Yet the king hath given me a living here in the southlands, +and please God these two lads of mine will pay off a debt that +hath been owing over long. What is the price of daddy's thumbs, +boys?" + +"Twenty Scottish lives," they answered together. + +"And for the fingers?" + +"Half a score." + +"When they can bend my war-bow, and bring down a squirrel at a +hundred paces, I send them to take service under Johnny Copeland, +the Lord of the Marches and Governor of Carlisle. By my soul! I +would give the rest of my fingers to see the Douglas within +arrow-flight of them." + +"May you live to see it," quoth the bowman. "And hark ye, mes +enfants, take an old soldier's rede and lay your bodies to the +bow, drawing from hip and thigh as much as from arm. Learn also, +I pray you, to shoot with a dropping shaft; for though a bowman +may at times be called upon to shoot straight and fast, yet it is +more often that he has to do with a town-guard behind a wall, or +an arbalestier with his mantlet raised when you cannot hope to do +him scathe unless your shaft fall straight upon him from the +clouds. I have not drawn string for two weeks, but I may be able +to show ye how such shots should be made." He loosened his +long-bow, slung his quiver round to the front, and then glanced +keenly round for a fitting mark. There was a yellow and withered +stump some way off, seen under the drooping branches of a lofty +oak. The archer measured the distance with his eye; and then, +drawing three shafts, he shot them off with such speed that the +first had not reached the mark ere the last was on the string. +Each arrow passed high over the oak; and, of the three, two stuck +fair into the stump; while the third, caught in some wandering +puff of wind, was driven a foot or two to one side. + +"Good!" cried the north countryman. "Hearken to him lads! He is +a master bowman. Your dad says amen to every word he says." + +"By my hilt!" said Aylward, "if I am to preach on bowmanship, the +whole long day would scarce give me time for my sermon. We have +marksmen in the Company who will notch with a shaft every +crevice and joint of a man-at-arm's harness, from the clasp of +his bassinet to the hinge of his greave. But, with your favor, +friend, I must gather my arrows again, for while a shaft costs a +penny a poor man can scarce leave them sticking in wayside +stumps. We must, then, on our road again, and I hope from my +heart that you may train these two young goshawks here until they +are ready for a cast even at such a quarry as you speak of." + +Leaving the thumbless archer and his brood, the wayfarers struck +through the scattered huts of Emery Down, and out on to the broad +rolling heath covered deep in ferns and in heather, where droves +of the half-wild black forest pigs were rooting about amongst the +hillocks. The woods about this point fall away to the left and +the right, while the road curves upwards and the wind sweeps +keenly over the swelling uplands. The broad strips of bracken +glowed red and yellow against the black peaty soil, and a queenly +doe who grazed among them turned her white front and her great +questioning eyes towards the wayfarers. Alleyne gazed in +admiration at the supple beauty of the creature; but the archer's +fingers played with his quiver, and his eyes glistened with the +fell instinct which urges a man to slaughter. + +"Tete Dieu!" he growled, "were this France, or even Guienne, we +should have a fresh haunch for our none-meat. Law or no law, I +have a mind to loose a bolt at her." + +"I would break your stave across my knee first," cried John, +laying his great hand upon the bow. "What! man, I am +forest-born, and I know what comes of it. In our own township of +Hordle two have lost their eyes and one his skin for this very +thing. On my troth, I felt no great love when I first saw you, +but since then I have conceived over much regard for you to wish +to see the verderer's flayer at work upon you." + +"It is my trade to risk my skin," growled the archer; but none +the less he thrust his quiver over his hip again and turned his +face for the west. + +As they advanced, the path still tended upwards, running from +heath into copses of holly and yew, and so back into heath again. +It was joyful to hear the merry whistle of blackbirds as they +darted from one clump of greenery to the other. Now and again a +peaty amber colored stream rippled across their way, with ferny +over-grown banks, where the blue kingfisher flitted busily from +side to side, or the gray and pensive heron, swollen with trout +and dignity, stood ankle-deep among the sedges. Chattering jays +and loud wood-pigeons flapped thickly overhead, while ever and +anon the measured tapping of Nature's carpenter, the great green +woodpecker, sounded from each wayside grove. On either side, as +the path mounted, the long sweep of country broadened and +expanded, sloping down on the one side through yellow forest and +brown moor to the distant smoke of Lymington and the blue misty +channel which lay alongside the sky-line, while to the north the +woods rolled away, grove topping grove, to where in the furthest +distance the white spire of Salisbury stood out hard and clear +against the cloudless sky. To Alleyne whose days had been spent +in the low-lying coastland, the eager upland air and the wide +free country-side gave a sense of life and of the joy of living +which made his young blood tingle in his veins. Even the heavy +John was not unmoved by the beauty of their road, while the +bowman whistled lustily or sang snatches of French love songs in +a voice which might have scared the most stout-hearted maiden +that ever hearkened to serenade. + +"I have a liking for that north countryman," he remarked +presently. "He hath good power of hatred. Couldst see by his +cheek and eye that he is as bitter as verjuice. I warm to a man +who hath some gall in his liver." + +"Ah me!" sighed Alleyne. "Would it not be better if he had some +love in his heart?" + +"I would not say nay to that. By my hilt! I shall never be said +to be traitor to the little king. Let a man love the sex. +Pasques Dieu! they are made to be loved, les petites, from +whimple down to shoe-string! I am right glad, mon garcon, to see +that the good monks have trained thee so wisely and so well." + +"Nay, I meant not worldly love, but rather that his heart should +soften towards those who have wronged him." + +The archer shook his head. "A man should love those of his own +breed," said he. "But it is not nature that an English-born man +should love a Scot or a Frenchman. Ma foi! you have not seen a +drove of Nithsdale raiders on their Galloway nags, or you would +not speak of loving them. I would as soon take Beelzebub himself +to my arms. I fear, mon gar., that they have taught thee but +badly at Beaulieu, for surely a bishop knows more of what is +right and what is ill than an abbot can do, and I myself with +these very eyes saw the Bishop of Lincoln hew into a Scottish +hobeler with a battle-axe, which was a passing strange way of +showing him that he loved him." + +Alleyne scarce saw his way to argue in the face of so decided an +opinion on the part of a high dignitary of the Church. "You have +borne arms against the Scots, then?" he asked. + +"Why, man, I first loosed string in battle when I was but a lad, +younger by two years than you, at Neville's Cross, under the Lord +Mowbray. Later, I served under the Warden of Berwick, that very +John Copeland of whom our friend spake, the same who held the +King of Scots to ransom. Ma foi! it is rough soldiering, and a +good school for one who would learn to be hardy and war-wise." + +"I have heard that the Scots are good men of war," said Hordle +John. + +"For axemen and for spearmen I have not seen their match," the +archer answered. "They can travel, too, with bag of meal and +gridiron slung to their sword-belt, so that it is ill to follow +them. There are scant crops and few beeves in the borderland, +where a man must reap his grain with sickle in one fist and brown +bill in the other. On the other hand, they are the sorriest +archers that I have ever seen, and cannot so much as aim with the +arbalest, to say nought of the long-bow. Again, they are mostly +poor folk, even the nobles among them, so that there are few who +can buy as good a brigandine of chain-mail as that which I am +wearing, and it is ill for them to stand up against our own +knights, who carry the price of five Scotch farms upon their +chest and shoulders. Man for man, with equal weapons, they are +as worthy and valiant men as could be found in the whole of +Christendom." + +"And the French?" asked Alleyne, to whom the archer's light +gossip had all the relish that the words of the man of action +have for the recluse. + +"The French are also very worthy men. We have had great good +fortune in France, and it hath led to much bobance and camp-fire +talk, but I have ever noticed that those who know the most have +the least to say about it. I have seen Frenchmen fight both in +open field, in the intaking and the defending of towns or +castlewicks, in escalados, camisades, night forays, bushments, +sallies, outfalls, and knightly spear-runnings. Their knights +and squires, lad, are every whit as good as ours, and I could +pick out a score of those who ride behind Du Guesclin who would +hold the lists with sharpened lances against the best men in the +army of England. On the other hand, their common folk are so +crushed down with gabelle, and poll-tax, and every manner of +cursed tallage, that the spirit has passed right out of them. It +is a fool's plan to teach a man to be a cur in peace, and think +that he will be a lion in war. Fleece them like sheep and sheep +they will remain. If the nobles had not conquered the poor folk +it is like enough that we should not have conquered the nobles." + +"But they must be sorry folk to bow down to the rich in such a +fashion," said big John. "I am but a poor commoner of England +myself, and yet I know something of charters, liberties +franchises, usages, privileges, customs, and the like. If these +be broken, then all men know that it is time to buy arrow-heads." + +"Aye, but the men of the law are strong in France as well as the +men of war. By my hilt! I hold that a man has more to fear there +from the ink-pot of the one than from the iron of the other. +There is ever some cursed sheepskin in their strong boxes to +prove that the rich man should be richer and the poor man poorer. +It would scarce pass in England, but they are quiet folk over the +water." + +"And what other nations have you seen in your travels, good sir?" +asked Alleyne Edricson. His young mind hungered for plain facts +of life, after the long course of speculation and of mysticism on +which he had been trained. + +"I have seen the low countryman in arms, and I have nought to say +against him. Heavy and slow is he by nature, and is not to be brought +into battle for the sake of a lady's eyelash or the twang of a +minstrel's string, like the hotter blood of the south. But ma foi! +lay hand on his wool-bales, or trifle with his velvet of Bruges, and +out buzzes every stout burgher, like bees from the tee-hole, ready to +lay on as though it were his one business in life. By our lady! they +have shown the French at Courtrai and elsewhere that they are as deft +in wielding steel as in welding it." + +"And the men of Spain?" + +"They too are very hardy soldiers, the more so as for many +hundred years they have had to fight hard against the cursed +followers of the black Mahound, who have pressed upon them from +the south, and still, as I understand, hold the fairer half of +the country. I had a turn with them upon the sea when they came +over to Winchelsea and the good queen with her ladies sat upon +the cliffs looking down at us, as if it had been joust or +tourney. By my hilt! it was a sight that was worth the seeing, +for all that was best in England was out on the water that day. +We went forth in little ships and came back in great galleys--for +of fifty tall ships of Spain, over two score flew the Cross of +St. George ere the sun had set. But now, youngster, I have +answered you freely, and I trow it is time what you answered me. +Let things be plat and plain between us. I am a man who shoots +straight at his mark. You saw the things I had with me at yonder +hostel: name which you will, save only the box of rose-colored +sugar which I take to the Lady Loring, and you shall have it if +you will but come with me to France." + +"Nay," said Alleyne, "I would gladly come with ye to France or +where else ye will, just to list to your talk, and because ye are +the only two friends that I have in the whole wide world outside +of the cloisters; but, indeed, it may not be, for my duty is +towards my brother, seeing that father and mother are dead, and +he my elder. Besides, when ye talk of taking me to France, ye do +not conceive how useless I should be to you, seeing that neither +by training nor by nature am I fitted for the wars, and there +seems to be nought but strife in those parts." + +"That comes from my fool's talk," cried the archer; "for being a +man of no learning myself, my tongue turns to blades and targets, +even as my hand does. Know then that for every parchment in +England there are twenty in France. For every statue, cut gem, +shrine, carven screen, or what else might please the eye of a +learned clerk, there are a good hundred to our one. At the +spoiling of Carcasonne I have seen chambers stored with writing, +though not one man in our Company could read them. Again, in +Arles and Nimes, and other towns that I could name, there are the +great arches and fortalices still standing which were built of +old by giant men who came from the south. Can I not see by your +brightened eye how you would love to look upon these things? +Come then with me, and, by these ten finger-bones! there is not +one of them which you shall not see." + +"I should indeed love to look upon them," Alleyne answered; "but +I have come from Beaulieu for a purpose, and I must be true to my +service, even as thou art true to thine." + +"Bethink you again, mon ami," quoth Aylward, "that you might do +much good yonder, since there are three hundred men in the +Company, and none who has ever a word of grace for them, and yet +the Virgin knows that there was never a set of men who were in +more need of it. Sickerly the one duty may balance the other. +Your brother hath done without you this many a year, and, as I +gather, he hath never walked as far as Beaulieu to see you during +all that time, so he cannot be in any great need of you." + +"Besides," said John, "the Socman of Minstead is a by-word +through the forest, from Bramshaw Hill to Holmesley Walk. He is +a drunken, brawling, perilous churl, as you may find to your +cost." + +"The more reason that I should strive to mend him," quoth +Alleyne. "There is no need to urge me, friends, for my own +wishes would draw me to France, and it would be a joy to me if I +could go with you. But indeed and indeed it cannot be, so here I +take my leave of you, for yonder square tower amongst the trees +upon the right must surely be the church of Minstead, and I may +reach it by this path through the woods." + +"Well, God be with thee, lad!" cried the archer, pressing Alleyne +to his heart. "I am quick to love, and quick to hate and 'fore +God I am loth to part." + +"Would it not be well," said John, "that we should wait here, and +see what manner of greeting you have from your brother. You may +prove to be as welcome as the king's purveyor to the village +dame." + +"Nay, nay," he answered; "ye must not bide for me, for where I go +I stay." + +"Yet it may be as well that you should know whither we go," said +the archer. "We shall now journey south through the woods until +we come out upon the Christchurch road, and so onwards, hoping +to-night to reach the castle of Sir William Montacute, Earl of +Salisbury, of which Sir Nigel Loring is constable. There we +shall bide, and it is like enough that for a month or more you +may find us there, ere we are ready for our viage back to +France." + +It was hard indeed for Alleyne to break away from these two new +but hearty friends, and so strong was the combat between his +conscience and his inclinations that he dared not look round, +lest his resolution should slip away from him. It was not until +he was deep among the tree trunks that he cast a glance +backwards, when he found that he could still see them through the +branches on the road above him. The archer was standing with +folded arms, his bow jutting from over his shoulder, and the sun +gleaming brightly upon his head-piece and the links of his +chain-mail. Beside him stood his giant recruit, still clad in +the home-spun and ill-fitting garments of the fuller of +Lymington, with arms and legs shooting out of his scanty garb. +Even as Alleyne watched them they turned upon their heels and +plodded off together upon their way. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOW STRANGE THINGS BEFELL IN MINSTEAD WOOD. + + +The path which the young clerk had now to follow lay through a +magnificent forest of the very heaviest timber, where the giant +bowls of oak and of beech formed long aisles in every direction, +shooting up their huge branches to build the majestic arches of +Nature's own cathedral. Beneath lay a broad carpet of the +softest and greenest moss, flecked over with fallen leaves, but +yielding pleasantly to the foot of the traveller. The track +which guided him was one so seldom used that in places it lost +itself entirely among the grass, to reappear as a reddish rut +between the distant tree trunks. It was very still here in the +heart of the woodlands. The gentle rustle of the branches and +the distant cooing of pigeons were the only sounds which broke in +upon the silence, save that once Alleyne heard afar off a merry +call upon a hunting bugle and the shrill yapping of the hounds. + +It was not without some emotion that he looked upon the scene +around him, for, in spite of his secluded life, he knew enough of +the ancient greatness of his own family to be aware that the time +had been when they had held undisputed and paramount sway over +all that tract of country. His father could trace his pure Saxon +lineage back to that Godfrey Malf who had held the manors of +Bisterne and of Minstead at the time when the Norman first set +mailed foot upon English soil. The afforestation of the +district, however, and its conversion into a royal demesne had +clipped off a large section of his estate, while other parts had +been confiscated as a punishment for his supposed complicity in +an abortive Saxon rising. The fate of the ancestor had been +typical of that of his descendants. During three hundred years +their domains had gradually contracted, sometimes through royal +or feudal encroachment, and sometimes through such gifts to the +Church as that with which Alleyne's father had opened the doors +of Beaulieu Abbey to his younger son. The importance of the +family had thus dwindled, but they still retained the old Saxon +manor-house, with a couple of farms and a grove large enough to +afford pannage to a hundred pigs--"sylva de centum porcis," as +the old family parchments describe it. Above all, the owner of +the soil could still hold his head high as the veritable Socman +of Minstead--that is, as holding the land in free socage, with +no feudal superior, and answerable to no man lower than the king. +Knowing this, Alleyne felt some little glow of worldly pride as +he looked for the first time upon the land with which so many +generations of his ancestors had been associated. He pushed on +the quicker, twirling his staff merrily, and looking out at every +turn of the path for some sign of the old Saxon residence. He +was suddenly arrested, however, by the appearance of a wild-looking +fellow armed with a club, who sprang out from behind a tree and +barred his passage. He was a rough, powerful peasant, with cap +and tunic of untanned sheepskin, leather breeches, and +galligaskins round legs and feet. + +"Stand!" he shouted, raising his heavy cudgel to enforce the +order. "Who are you who walk so freely through the wood? +Whither would you go, and what is your errand?" + +"Why should I answer your questions, my friend?" said Alleyne, +standing on his guard. + +"Because your tongue may save your pate. But where have I looked +upon your face before?" + +"No longer ago than last night at the `Pied Merlin,'" the clerk +answered, recognizing the escaped serf who had been so outspoken +as to his wrongs. + +"By the Virgin! yes. You were the little clerk who sat so mum in +the corner, and then cried fy on the gleeman. What hast in the +scrip?" + +"Naught of any price." + +"How can I tell that, clerk? Let me see." + +"Not I." + +"Fool! I could pull you limb from limb like a pullet. What +would you have? Hast forgot that we are alone far from all men? +How can your clerkship help you? Wouldst lose scrip and life +too?" + +"I will part with neither without fight." + +"A fight, quotha? A fight betwixt spurred cock and new hatched +chicken! Thy fighting days may soon be over." + +"Hadst asked me in the name of charity I would have given +freely," cried Alleyne. "As it stands, not one farthing shall +you have with my free will, and when I see my brother, the +Socman of Minstead, he will raise hue and cry from vill to vill, +from hundred to hundred, until you are taken as a common robber +and a scourge to the country." + +The outlaw sank his club. "The Socman's brother!" he gasped. +"Now, by the keys of Peter! I had rather that hand withered and +tongue was palsied ere I had struck or miscalled you. If you are +the Socman's brother you are one of the right side, I warrant, +for all your clerkly dress." + +"His brother I am," said Alleyne. "But if I were not, is that +reason why you should molest me on the king's ground?" + +"I give not the pip of an apple for king or for noble," cried the +serf passionately. "Ill have I had from them, and ill I shall +repay them. I am a good friend to my friends, and, by the +Virgin! an evil foeman to my foes." + +"And therefore the worst of foemen to thyself," said Alleyne. +"But I pray you, since you seem to know him, to point out to me +the shortest path to my brother's house." + +The serf was about to reply, when the clear ringing call of a +bugle burst from the wood close behind them, and Alleyne caught +sight for an instant of the dun side and white breast of a lordly +stag glancing swiftly betwixt the distant tree trunks. A minute +later came the shaggy deer-hounds, a dozen or fourteen of them, +running on a hot scent, with nose to earth and tail in air. As +they streamed past the silent forest around broke suddenly into +loud life, with galloping of hoofs, crackling of brushwood, and +the short, sharp cries of the hunters. Close behind the pack +rode a fourrier and a yeoman-pricker, whooping on the laggards +and encouraging the leaders, in the shrill half-French jargon +which was the language of venery and woodcraft. Alleyne was +still gazing after them, listening to the loud "Hyke-a-Bayard! +Hyke-a-Pomers! Hyke-a-Lebryt!" with which they called upon their +favorite hounds, when a group of horsemen crashed out through the +underwood at the very spot where the serf and he were standing. + +The one who led was a man between fifty and sixty years of age, +war-worn and weather-beaten, with a broad, thoughtful forehead +and eyes which shone brightly from under his fierce and overhung +brows. His beard, streaked thickly with gray, bristled forward +from his chin, and spoke of a passionate nature, while the long, +finely cut face and firm mouth marked the leader of men. His +figure was erect and soldierly, and he rode his horse with the +careless grace of a man whose life had been spent in the saddle. +In common garb, his masterful face and flashing eye would have +marked him as one who was born to rule; but now, with his silken +tunic powdered with golden fleurs-de-lis, his velvet mantle lined +with the royal minever, and the lions of England stamped in +silver upon his harness, none could fail to recognize the noble +Edward, most warlike and powerful of all the long line of +fighting monarchs who had ruled the Anglo-Norman race. Alleyne +doffed hat and bowed head at the sight of him, but the serf +folded his hands and leaned them upon his cudgel, looking with +little love at the knot of nobles and knights-in-waiting who rode +behind the king. + +"Ha!" cried Edward, reining up for an instant his powerful black +steed. "Le cerf est passe? Non? Ici, Brocas; tu parles Anglais." + +"The deer, clowns?" said a hard-visaged, swarthy-faced man, who +rode at the king's elbow. "If ye have headed it back it is as +much as your ears are worth." + +"It passed by the blighted beech there," said Alleyne, pointing, +"and the hounds were hard at its heels." + +"It is well," cried Edward, still speaking in French: for, though +he could understand English, he had never learned to express +himself in so barbarous and unpolished a tongue. "By my faith, +sirs," he continued, half turning in his saddle to address his +escort, "unless my woodcraft is sadly at fault, it is a stag of +six tines and the finest that we have roused this journey. A +golden St. Hubert to the man who is the first to sound the mort." +He shook his bridle as he spoke, and thundered away, his knights +lying low upon their horses and galloping as hard as whip and +spur would drive them, in the hope of winning the king's prize. +Away they drove down the long green glade--bay horses, black and +gray, riders clad in every shade of velvet, fur, or silk, with +glint of brazen horn and flash of knife and spear. One only +lingered, the black-browed Baron Brocas, who, making a gambade +which brought him within arm-sweep of the serf, slashed him +across the face with his riding-whip. "Doff, dog, doff," he +hissed, "when a monarch deigns to lower his eyes to such as +you!"--then spurred through the underwood and was gone, with a +gleam of steel shoes and flutter of dead leaves. + +The villein took the cruel blow without wince or cry, as one to +whom stripes are a birthright and an inheritance. His eyes +flashed, however, and he shook his bony hand with a fierce wild +gesture after the retreating figure. + +"Black hound of Gascony," he muttered, "evil the day that you and +those like you set foot in free England! I know thy kennel of +Rochecourt. The night will come when I may do to thee and thine +what you and your class have wrought upon mine and me. May God +smite me if I fail to smite thee, thou French robber, with thy +wife and thy child and all that is under thy castle roof!" + +"Forbear!" cried Alleyne. "Mix not God's name with these +unhallowed threats! And yet it was a coward's blow, and one to +stir the blood and loose the tongue of the most peaceful. Let me +find some soothing simples and lay them on the weal to draw the +sting." + +"Nay, there is but one thing that can draw the sting, and that +the future may bring to me. But, clerk, if you would see your +brother you must on, for there is a meeting to-day, and his merry +men will await him ere the shadows turn from west to east. I +pray you not to hold him back, for it would be an evil thing if +all the stout lads were there and the leader a-missing. I would +come with you, but sooth to say I am stationed here and may not +move. The path over yonder, betwixt the oak and the thorn, +should bring you out into his nether field." + +Alleyne lost no time in following the directions of the wild, +masterless man, whom he left among the trees where he had found +him. His heart was the heavier for the encounter, not only +because all bitterness and wrath were abhorrent to his gentle +nature, but also because it disturbed him to hear his brother +spoken of as though he were a chief of outlaws or the leader of a +party against the state. Indeed, of all the things which he had +seen yet in the world to surprise him there was none more strange +than the hate which class appeared to bear to class. The talk of +laborer, woodman and villein in the inn had all pointed to the +wide-spread mutiny, and now his brother's name was spoken as +though he were the very centre of the universal discontent. In +good truth, the commons throughout the length and breadth of the +land were heart-weary of this fine game of chivalry which had +been played so long at their expense. So long as knight and +baron were a strength and a guard to the kingdom they might be +endured, but now, when all men knew that the great battles in +France had been won by English yeomen and Welsh stabbers, warlike +fame, the only fame to which his class had ever aspired, appeared +to have deserted the plate-clad horsemen. The sports of the +lists had done much in days gone by to impress the minds of the +people, but the plumed and unwieldy champion was no longer an +object either of fear or of reverence to men whose fathers and +brothers had shot into the press at Crecy or Poitiers, and seen +the proudest chivalry in the world unable to make head against +the weapons of disciplined peasants. Power had changed hands. +The protector had become the protected, and the whole fabric of +the feudal system was tottering to a fall. Hence the fierce +mutterings of the lower classes and the constant discontent, +breaking out into local tumult and outrage, and culminating some +years later in the great rising of Tyler. What Alleyne saw and +wondered at in Hampshire would have appealed equally to the +traveller in any other English county from the Channel to the +marches of Scotland. + +He was following the track, his misgivings increasing with every +step which took him nearer to that home which he had never seen, +when of a sudden the trees began to thin and the sward to spread +out onto a broad, green lawn, where five cows lay in the sunshine +and droves of black swine wandered unchecked. A brown forest +stream swirled down the centre of this clearing, with a rude +bridge flung across it, and on the other side was a second field +sloping up to a long, low-lying wooden house, with thatched roof +and open squares for windows. Alleyne gazed across at it with +flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes--for this, he knew, must be the +home of his fathers. A wreath of blue smoke floated up through a +hole in the thatch, and was the only sign of life in the place, +save a great black hound which lay sleeping chained to the +door-post. In the yellow shimmer of the autumn sunshine it lay +as peacefully and as still as he had oft pictured it to himself +in his dreams. + +He was roused, however, from his pleasant reverie by the sound of +voices, and two people emerged from the forest some little way to +his right and moved across the field in the direction of the +bridge. The one was a man with yellow flowing beard and very +long hair of the same tint drooping over his shoulders; his dress +of good Norwich cloth and his assured bearing marked him as a man +of position, while the sombre hue of his clothes and the absence +of all ornament contrasted with the flash and glitter which had +marked the king's retinue. By his side walked a woman, tall and +slight and dark, with lithe, graceful figure and clear-cut, +composed features. Her jet-black hair was gathered back under a +light pink coif, her head poised proudly upon her neck, and her +step long and springy, like that of some wild, tireless woodland +creature. She held her left hand in front of her, covered with a +red velvet glove, and on the wrist a little brown falcon, very +fluffy and bedraggled, which she smoothed and fondled as she +walked. As she came out into the sunshine, Alleyne noticed that +her light gown, slashed with pink, was all stained with earth and +with moss upon one side from shoulder to hem. He stood in the +shadow of an oak staring at her with parted lips, for this woman +seemed to him to be the most beautiful and graceful creature that +mind could conceive of. Such had he imagined the angels, and +such he had tried to paint them in the Beaulieu missals; but here +there was something human, were it only in the battered hawk and +discolored dress, which sent a tingle and thrill through his +nerves such as no dream of radiant and stainless spirit had ever +yet been able to conjure up. Good, quiet, uncomplaining mother +Nature, long slighted and miscalled, still bides her time and +draws to her bosom the most errant of her children. + +The two walked swiftly across the meadow to the narrow bridge, he +in front and she a pace or two behind. There they paused, and +stood for a few minutes face to face talking earnestly. Alleyne +had read and had heard of love and of lovers. Such were these, +doubtless--this golden-bearded man and the fair damsel with the +cold, proud face. Why else should they wander together in the +woods, or be so lost in talk by rustic streams? And yet as he +watched, uncertain whether to advance from the cover or to choose +some other path to the house, he soon came to doubt the truth of +this first conjecture. The man stood, tall and square, blocking +the entrance to the bridge, and throwing out his hands as he +spoke in a wild eager fashion, while the deep tones of his stormy +voice rose at times into accents of menace and of anger. She +stood fearlessly in front of him, still stroking her bird; but +twice she threw a swift questioning glance over her shoulder, as +one who is in search of aid. So moved was the young clerk by +these mute appeals, that he came forth from the trees and crossed +the meadow, uncertain what to do, and yet loth to hold back from +one who might need his aid. So intent were they upon each other +that neither took note of his approach; until, when he was close +upon them, the man threw his arm roughly round the damsel's waist +and drew her towards him, she straining her lithe, supple figure +away and striking fiercely at him, while the hooded hawk screamed +with ruffled wings and pecked blindly in its mistress's defence. +Bird and maid, however, had but little chance against their +assailant who, laughing loudly, caught her wrist in one hand +while he drew her towards him with the other. + +"The best rose has ever the longest thorns," said he. "Quiet, +little one, or you may do yourself a hurt. Must pay Saxon toll +on Saxon land, my proud Maude, for all your airs and graces." + +"You boor!" she hissed. "You base underbred clod! Is this your +care and your hospitality? I would rather wed a branded serf +from my father's fields. Leave go, I say----Ah! good youth, +Heaven has sent you. Make him loose me! By the honor of your +mother, I pray you to stand by me and to make this knave loose +me." + +"Stand by you I will, and that blithely." said Alleyne. +"Surely, sir, you should take shame to hold the damsel against +her will." + +The man turned a face upon him which was lion-like in its +strength and in its wrath. With his tangle of golden hair, his +fierce blue eyes, and his large, well-marked features, he was the +most comely man whom Alleyne had ever seen, and yet there was +something so sinister and so fell in his expression that child or +beast might well have shrunk from him. His brows were drawn, his +cheek flushed, and there was a mad sparkle in his eyes which +spoke of a wild, untamable nature. + +"Young fool!" he cried, holding the woman still to his side, +though every line of her shrinking figure spoke her abhorrence. +"Do you keep your spoon in your own broth. I rede you to go on +your way, lest worse befall you. This little wench has come with +me and with me she shall bide." + +"Liar!" cried the woman; and, stooping her head, she suddenly bit +fiercely into the broad brown hand which held her. He whipped it +back with an oath, while she tore herself free and slipped behind +Alleyne, cowering up against him like the trembling leveret who +sees the falcon poising for the swoop above him. + +"Stand off my land!" the man said fiercely, heedless of the blood +which trickled freely from his fingers. "What have you to do +here? By your dress you should be one of those cursed clerks who +overrun the land like vile rats, poking and prying into other +men's concerns, too caitiff to fight and too lazy to work. By +the rood! if I had my will upon ye, I should nail you upon the +abbey doors, as they hang vermin before their holes. Art neither +man nor woman, young shaveling. Get thee back to thy fellows ere +I lay hands upon you: for your foot is on my land, and I may slay +you as a common draw-latch." + +"Is this your land, then?" gasped Alleyne. + +"Would you dispute it, dog? Would you wish by trick or quibble +to juggle me out of these last acres? Know, base-born knave, +that you have dared this day to stand in the path of one whose +race have been the advisers of kings and the leaders of hosts, +ere ever this vile crew of Norman robbers came into the land, or +such half-blood hounds as you were let loose to preach that the +thief should have his booty and the honest man should sin if he +strove to win back his own." + +"You are the Socman of Minstead?" + +"That am I; and the son of Edric the Socman, of the pure blood of +Godfrey the thane, by the only daughter of the house of Aluric, +whose forefathers held the white-horse banner at the fatal fight +where our shield was broken and our sword shivered. I tell you, +clerk, that my folk held this land from Bramshaw Wood to the +Ringwood road; and, by the soul of my father! it will be a +strange thing if I am to be bearded upon the little that is left +of it. Begone, I say, and meddle not with my affair." + +"If you leave me now," whispered the woman, "then shame forever +upon your manhood." + +"Surely, sir," said Alleyne, speaking in as persuasive and +soothing a way as he could, "if your birth is gentle, there is +the more reason that your manners should be gentle too. I am +well persuaded that you did but jest with this lady, and that you +will now permit her to leave your land either alone or with me as +a guide, if she should need one, through the wood. As to birth, +it does not become me to boast, and there is sooth in what you +say as to the unworthiness of clerks, but it is none the less +true that I am as well born as you." + +"Dog!" cried the furious Socman, "there is no man in the south +who can say as much." + +"Yet can I," said Alleyne smiling; "for indeed I also am the son +of Edric the Socman, of the pure blood of Godfrey the thane, by +the only daughter of Aluric of Brockenhurst. Surely, dear +brother," he continued, holding out his hand, "you have a warmer +greeting than this for me. There are but two boughs left upon +this old, old Saxon trunk." + +His elder brother dashed his hand aside with an oath, while an +expression of malignant hatred passed over his passion-drawn +features. "You are the young cub of Beaulieu, then," said he. +"I might have known it by the sleek face and the slavish manner +too monk-ridden and craven in spirit to answer back a rough word. +Thy father, shaveling, with all his faults, had a man's heart; +and there were few who could look him in the eyes on the day of +his anger. But you! Look there, rat, on yonder field where the +cows graze, and on that other beyond, and on the orchard hard by +the church. Do you know that all these were squeezed out of your +dying father by greedy priests, to pay for your upbringing in the +cloisters? I, the Socman, am shorn of my lands that you may +snivel Latin and eat bread for which you never did hand's turn. +You rob me first, and now you would come preaching and whining, +in search mayhap of another field or two for your priestly +friends. Knave! my dogs shall be set upon you; but, meanwhile, +stand out of my path, and stop me at your peril!" As he spoke he +rushed forward, and, throwing the lad to one side, caught the +woman's wrist. Alleyne, however, as active as a young deer-hound, +sprang to her aid and seized her by the other arm, raising +his iron-shod staff as he did so. + +"You may say what you will to me," he said between his clenched +teeth--"it may be no better than I deserve; but, brother or no, I +swear by my hopes of salvation that I will break your arm if you +do not leave hold of the maid." + +There was a ring in his voice and a flash in his eyes which +promised that the blow would follow quick at the heels of the +word. For a moment the blood of the long line of hot-headed +thanes was too strong for the soft whisperings of the doctrine of +meekness and mercy. He was conscious of a fierce wild thrill +through his nerves and a throb of mad gladness at his heart, as +his real human self burst for an instant the bonds of custom and +of teaching which had held it so long. The socman sprang back, +looking to left and to right for some stick or stone which might +serve him for weapon; but finding none, he turned and ran at the +top of his speed for the house, blowing the while upon a shrill +whistle. + +"Come!" gasped the woman. "Fly, friend, ere he come back." + +"Nay, let him come!" cried Alleyne. "I shall not budge a foot +for him or his dogs." + +"Come, come!" she cried, tugging at his arm. "I know the man: he +will kill you. Come, for the Virgin's sake, or for my sake, for +I cannot go and leave you here." + +"Come, then," said he; and they ran together to the cover of the +woods. As they gained the edge of the brushwood, Alleyne, +looking back, saw his brother come running out of the house +again, with the sun gleaming upon his hair and his beard. He +held something which flashed in his right hand, and he stooped at +the threshold to unloose the black hound. + +"This way!" the woman whispered, in a low eager voice. "Through +the bushes to that forked ash. Do not heed me; I can run as fast +as you, I trow. Now into the stream--right in, over ankles, to +throw the dog off, though I think it is but a common cur, like +its master." As she spoke, she sprang herself into the shallow +stream and ran swiftly up the centre of it, with the brown water +bubbling over her feet and her hand out-stretched toward the +clinging branches of bramble or sapling. Alleyne followed close +at her heels, with his mind in a whirl at this black welcome and +sudden shifting of all his plans and hopes. Yet, grave as were +his thoughts, they would still turn to wonder as he looked at the +twinkling feet of his guide and saw her lithe figure bend this +way and that, dipping under boughs, springing over stones, with a +lightness and ease which made it no small task for him to keep up +with her. At last, when he was almost out of breath, she +suddenly threw herself down upon a mossy bank, between two +holly-bushes, and looked ruefully at her own dripping feet and +bedraggled skirt. + +"Holy Mary!" said she, "what shall I do? Mother will keep me to +my chamber for a month, and make me work at the tapestry of the +nine bold knights. She promised as much last week, when I fell +into Wilverley bog, and yet she knows that I cannot abide +needle-work." + +Alleyne, still standing in the stream, glanced down at the +graceful pink-and-white figure, the curve of raven-black hair, +and the proud, sensitive face which looked up frankly and +confidingly at his own. + +"We had best on," he said. "He may yet overtake us." + +"Not so. We are well off his land now, nor can he tell in this +great wood which way we have taken. But you--you had him at your +mercy. Why did you not kill him?" + +"Kill him! My brother!" + +"And why not?"--with a quick gleam of her white teeth. "He would +have killed you. I know him, and I read it in his eyes. Had I +had your staff I would have tried--aye, and done it, too." She +shook her clenched white hand as she spoke, and her lips +tightened ominously. + +"I am already sad in heart for what I have done," said he, +sitting down on the bank, and sinking his face into his hands. +"God help me!--all that is worst in me seemed to come uppermost. +Another instant, and I had smitten him: the son of my own mother, +the man whom I have longed to take to my heart. Alas! that I +should still be so weak." + +"Weak!" she exclaimed, raising her black eyebrows. "I do not +think that even my father himself, who is a hard judge of +manhood, would call you that. But it is, as you may think, sir, +a very pleasant thing for me to hear that you are grieved at what +you have done, and I can but rede that we should go back +together, and you should make your peace with the Socman by +handing back your prisoner. It is a sad thing that so small a +thing as a woman should come between two who are of one blood." + +Simple Alleyne opened his eyes at this little spurt of feminine +bitterness. "Nay, lady," said he, "that were worst of all. What +man would be so caitiff and thrall as to fail you at your need? +I have turned my brother against me, and now, alas! I appear to +have given you offence also with my clumsy tongue. But, indeed, +lady, I am torn both ways, and can scarce grasp in my mind what +it is that has befallen." + +"Nor can I marvel at that," said she, with a little tinkling +laugh. "You came in as the knight does in the jongleur's +romances, between dragon and damsel, with small time for the +asking of questions. Come," she went on, springing to her feet, +and smoothing down her rumpled frock, "let us walk through the +shaw together, and we may come upon Bertrand with the horses. If +poor Troubadour had not cast a shoe, we should not have had this +trouble. Nay, I must have your arm: for, though I speak lightly, +now that all is happily over I am as frightened as my brave +Roland. See how his chest heaves, and his dear feathers all +awry--the little knight who would not have his lady mishandled." +So she prattled on to her hawk, while Alleyne walked by her side, +stealing a glance from time to time at this queenly and wayward +woman. In silence they wandered together over the velvet turf +and on through the broad Minstead woods, where the old +lichen-draped beeches threw their circles of black shadow upon +the sunlit sward. + +"You have no wish, then, to hear my story?" said she, at last. + +"If it pleases you to tell it me," he answered. + +"Oh!" she cried tossing her head, "if it is of so little interest +to you, we had best let it bide." + +"Nay," said he eagerly, "I would fain hear it." + +"You have a right to know it, if you have lost a brother's favor +through it. And yet----Ah well, you are, as I understand, a +clerk, so I must think of you as one step further in orders, and +make you my father-confessor. Know then that this man has been a +suitor for my hand, less as I think for my own sweet sake than +because he hath ambition and had it on his mind that he might +improve his fortunes by dipping into my father's strong +box--though the Virgin knows that he would have found little +enough therein. My father, however, is a proud man, a gallant +knight and tried soldier of the oldest blood, to whom this man's +churlish birth and low descent----Oh, lackaday! I had forgot that +he was of the same strain as yourself." + +"Nay, trouble not for that," said Alleyne, "we are all from good +mother Eve." + +"Streams may spring from one source, and yet some be clear and +some be foul," quoth she quickly. "But, to be brief over the +matter, my father would have none of his wooing, nor in sooth +would I. On that he swore a vow against us, and as he is known +to be a perilous man, with many outlaws and others at his back, +my father forbade that I should hawk or hunt in any part of the +wood to the north of the Christchurch road. As it chanced, +however, this morning my little Roland here was loosed at a +strong-winged heron, and page Bertrand and I rode on, with no +thoughts but for the sport, until we found ourselves in Minstead +woods. Small harm then, but that my horse Troubadour trod with a +tender foot upon a sharp stick, rearing and throwing me to the +ground. See to my gown, the third that I have befouled within +the week. Woe worth me when Agatha the tire-woman sets eyes upon +it!" + +"And what then, lady?" asked Alleyne. + +"Why, then away ran Troubadour, for belike I spurred him in +falling, and Bertrand rode after him as hard as hoofs could bear +him. When I rose there was the Socman himself by my side, with +the news that I was on his land, but with so many courteous words +besides, and such gallant bearing, that he prevailed upon me to +come to his house for shelter, there to wait until the page +return. By the grace of the Virgin and the help of my patron St. +Magdalen, I stopped short ere I reached his door, though, as you +saw, he strove to hale me up to it. And then--ah-h-h-h!"--she +shivered and chattered like one in an ague-fit. + +"What is it?" cried Alleyne, looking about in alarm. + +"Nothing, friend, nothing! I was but thinking how I bit into his +hand. Sooner would I bite living toad or poisoned snake. Oh, I +shall loathe my lips forever! But you--how brave you were, and +how quick! How meek for yourself, and how bold for a stranger! +If I were a man, I should wish to do what you have done." + +"It was a small thing," he answered, with a tingle of pleasure at +these sweet words of praise. "But you--what will you do?" + +"There is a great oak near here, and I think that Bertrand will +bring the horses there, for it is an old hunting-tryst of ours. +Then hey for home, and no more hawking to-day! A twelve-mile +gallop will dry feet and skirt." + +"But your father?" + +"Not one word shall I tell him. You do not know him; but I can +tell you he is not a man to disobey as I have disobeyed him. He +would avenge me, it is true, but it is not to him that I shall +look for vengeance. Some day, perchance, in joust or in tourney, +knight may wish to wear my colors, and then I shall tell him that +if he does indeed crave my favor there is wrong unredressed, and +the wronger the Socman of Minstead. So my knight shall find a +venture such as bold knights love, and my debt shall be paid, and +my father none the wiser, and one rogue the less in the world. +Say, is not that a brave plan?" + +"Nay, lady, it is a thought which is unworthy of you. How can +such as you speak of violence and of vengeance. Are none to be +gentle and kind, none to be piteous and forgiving? Alas! it is a +hard, cruel world, and I would that I had never left my abbey +cell. To hear such words from your lips is as though I heard an +angel of grace preaching the devil's own creed." + +She started from him as a young colt who first feels the bit. +"Gramercy for your rede, young sir!" she said, with a little +curtsey. "As I understand your words, you are grieved that you +ever met me, and look upon me as a preaching devil. Why, my +father is a bitter man when he is wroth, but hath never called me +such a name as that. It may be his right and duty, but certes it +is none of thine. So it would be best, since you think so lowly +of me, that you should take this path to the left while I keep on +upon this one; for it is clear that I can be no fit companion for +you." So saying, with downcast lids and a dignity which was +somewhat marred by her bedraggled skirt, she swept off down the +muddy track, leaving Alleyne standing staring ruefully after her. +He waited in vain for some backward glance or sign of relenting, +but she walked on with a rigid neck until her dress was only a +white flutter among the leaves. Then, with a sunken head and a +heavy heart, he plodded wearily down the other path, wroth with +himself for the rude and uncouth tongue which had given offence +where so little was intended. + +He had gone some way, lost in doubt and in self-reproach, his +mind all tremulous with a thousand new-found thoughts and fears +and wonderments, when of a sudden there was a light rustle of the +leaves behind him, and, glancing round, there was this graceful, +swift-footed creature, treading in his very shadow, with her +proud head bowed, even as his was--the picture of humility and +repentance. + +"I shall not vex you, nor even speak," she said; "but I would +fain keep with you while we are in the wood." + +"Nay, you cannot vex me," he answered, all warm again at the very +sight of her. "It was my rough words which vexed you; but I have +been thrown among men all my life, and indeed, with all the will, +I scarce know how to temper my speech to a lady's ear." + +"Then unsay it," cried she quickly; "say that I was right to wish +to have vengeance on the Socman." + +"Nay, I cannot do that," he answered gravely. + +"Then who is ungentle and unkind now?" she cried in triumph. +"How stern and cold you are for one so young! Art surely no mere +clerk, but bishop or cardinal at the least. Shouldst have +crozier for staff and mitre for cap. Well, well, for your sake I +will forgive the Socman and take vengeance on none but on my own +wilful self who must needs run into danger's path. So will that +please you, sir?" + +"There spoke your true self," said he; "and you will find more +pleasure in such forgiveness than in any vengeance." + +She shook her head, as if by no means assured of it, and then +with a sudden little cry, which had more of surprise than of joy +in it, "Here is Bertrand with the horses!" + +Down the glade there came a little green-clad page with laughing +eyes, and long curls floating behind him. He sat perched on a +high bay horse, and held on to the bridle of a spirited black +palfrey, the hides of both glistening from a long run. + +"I have sought you everywhere, dear Lady Maude," said he in a +piping voice, springing down from his horse and holding the +stirrup. "Troubadour galloped as far as Holmhill ere I could +catch him. I trust that you have had no hurt or scath?" He shot +a questioning glance at Alleyne as he spoke. + +"No, Bertrand," said she, "thanks to this courteous stranger. +And now, sir," she continued, springing into her saddle, "it is +not fit that I leave you without a word more. Clerk or no, you +have acted this day as becomes a true knight. King Arthur and +all his table could not have done more. It may be that, as some +small return, my father or his kin may have power to advance your +interest. He is not rich, but he is honored and hath great +friends. Tell me what is your purpose, and see if he may not aid +it." + +"Alas! lady, I have now no purpose. I have but two friends in +the world, and they have gone to Christchurch, where it is likely +I shall join them." + +"And where is Christchurch?" + +"At the castle which is held by the brave knight, Sir Nigel +Loring, constable to the Earl of Salisbury." + +To his surprise she burst out a-laughing, and, spurring her +palfrey, dashed off down the glade, with her page riding behind +her. Not one word did she say, but as she vanished amid the +trees she half turned in her saddle and waved a last greeting. +Long time he stood, half hoping that she might again come back to +him; but the thud of the hoofs had died away, and there was no +sound in all the woods but the gentle rustle and dropping of the +leaves. At last he turned away and made his way back to the +high-road--another person from the light-hearted boy who had left +it a short three hours before. + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HOW HORDLE JOHN FOUND A MAN WHOM HE MIGHT FOLLOW. + + +If he might not return to Beaulieu within the year, and if his +brother's dogs were to be set upon him if he showed face upon +Minstead land, then indeed he was adrift upon earth. North, +south, east, and west--he might turn where he would, but all was +equally chill and cheerless. The Abbot had rolled ten silver +crowns in a lettuce-leaf and hid them away in the bottom of his +scrip, but that would be a sorry support for twelve long months. +In all the darkness there was but the one bright spot of the +sturdy comrades whom he had left that morning; if he could find +them again all would be well. The afternoon was not very +advanced, for all that had befallen him. When a man is afoot at +cock-crow much may be done in the day. If he walked fast he +might yet overtake his friends ere they reached their +destination. He pushed on therefore, now walking and now +running. As he journeyed he bit into a crust which remained from +his Beaulieu bread, and he washed it down by a draught from a +woodland stream. + +It was no easy or light thing to journey through this great +forest, which was some twenty miles from east to west and a good +sixteen from Bramshaw Woods in the north to Lymington in the +south. Alleyne, however, had the good fortune to fall in with a +woodman, axe upon shoulder, trudging along in the very direction +that he wished to go. With his guidance he passed the fringe of +Bolderwood Walk, famous for old ash and yew, through Mark Ash +with its giant beech-trees, and on through the Knightwood groves, +where the giant oak was already a great tree, but only one of +many comely brothers. They plodded along together, the woodman +and Alleyne, with little talk on either side, for their thoughts +were as far asunder as the poles. The peasant's gossip had been +of the hunt, of the bracken, of the gray-headed kites that had +nested in Wood Fidley, and of the great catch of herring brought +back by the boats of Pitt's Deep. The clerk's mind was on his +brother, on his future--above all on this strange, fierce, +melting, beautiful woman who had broken so suddenly into his +life, and as suddenly passed out of it again. So _distrait_ was he +and so random his answers, that the woodman took to whistling, +and soon branched off upon the track to Burley, leaving Alleyne +upon the main Christchurch road. + +Down this he pushed as fast as he might, hoping at every turn and +rise to catch sight of his companions of the morning. From +Vinney Ridge to Rhinefield Walk the woods grow thick and dense up +to the very edges of the track, but beyond the country opens up +into broad dun-colored moors, flecked with clumps of trees, and +topping each other in long, low curves up to the dark lines of +forest in the furthest distance. Clouds of insects danced and +buzzed in the golden autumn light, and the air was full of the +piping of the song-birds. Long, glinting dragonflies shot across +the path, or hung tremulous with gauzy wings and gleaming bodies. +Once a white-necked sea eagle soared screaming high over the +traveller's head, and again a flock of brown bustards popped up +from among the bracken, and blundered away in their clumsy +fashion, half running, half flying, with strident cry and whirr +of wings. + +There were folk, too, to be met upon the road--beggars and +couriers, chapmen and tinkers--cheery fellows for the most part, +with a rough jest and homely greeting for each other and for +Alleyne. Near Shotwood he came upon five seamen, on their way +from Poole to Southampton--rude red-faced men, who shouted at him +in a jargon which he could scarce understand, and held out to him +a great pot from which they had been drinking--nor would they let +him pass until he had dipped pannikin in and taken a mouthful, +which set him coughing and choking, with the tears running down +his cheeks. Further on he met a sturdy black-bearded man, +mounted on a brown horse, with a rosary in his right hand and a +long two-handed sword jangling against his stirrup-iron. By his +black robe and the eight-pointed cross upon his sleeve, Alleyne +recognized him as one of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of +Jerusalem, whose presbytery was at Baddesley. He held up two +fingers as he passed, with a "_Benedic, fili mi!_" whereat +Alleyne doffed hat and bent knee, looking with much reverence at +one who had devoted his life to the overthrow of the infidel. +Poor simple lad! he had not learned yet that what men are and +what men profess to be are very wide asunder, and that the +Knights of St. John, having come into large part of the riches of +the ill-fated Templars, were very much too comfortable to think +of exchanging their palace for a tent, or the cellars of England +for the thirsty deserts of Syria. Yet ignorance may be more +precious than wisdom, for Alleyne as he walked on braced himself +to a higher life by the thought of this other's sacrifice, and +strengthened himself by his example which he could scarce have +done had he known that the Hospitaller's mind ran more upon +malmsey than on Mamelukes, and on venison rather than victories. + +As he pressed on the plain turned to woods once more in the +region of Wilverley Walk, and a cloud swept up from the south +with the sun shining through the chinks of it. A few great drops +came pattering loudly down, and then in a moment the steady swish +of a brisk shower, with the dripping and dropping of the leaves. +Alleyne, glancing round for shelter, saw a thick and lofty +holly-bush, so hollowed out beneath that no house could have been +drier. Under this canopy of green two men were already squatted, +who waved their hands to Alleyne that he should join them. As he +approached he saw that they had five dried herrings laid out in +front of them, with a great hunch of wheaten bread and a leathern +flask full of milk, but instead of setting to at their food they +appeared to have forgot all about it, and were disputing together +with flushed faces and angry gestures. It was easy to see by +their dress and manner that they were two of those wandering +students who formed about this time so enormous a multitude in +every country in Europe. The one was long and thin, with +melancholy features, while the other was fat and sleek, with a +loud voice and the air of a man who is not to be gainsaid. + +"Come hither, good youth," he cried, "come hither! _Vultus +ingenui puer_. Heed not the face of my good coz here. _Foenum +habet in cornu_, as Don Horace has it; but I warrant him harmless +for all that." + +"Stint your bull's bellowing!" exclaimed the other. "If it come +to Horace, I have a line in my mind: _Loquaces si sapiat_----How +doth it run? The English o't being that a man of sense should +ever avoid a great talker. That being so, if all were men of +sense then thou wouldst be a lonesome man, coz." + +"Alas! Dicon, I fear that your logic is as bad as your +philosophy or your divinity--and God wot it would be hard to say +a worse word than that for it. For, hark ye: granting, _propter +argumentum_, that I am a talker, then the true reasoning runs that +since all men of sense should avoid me, and thou hast not avoided +me, but art at the present moment eating herrings with me under a +holly-bush, ergo you are no man of sense, which is exactly what I +have been dinning into your long ears ever since I first clapped +eyes on your sunken chops." + +"Tut, tut!" cried the other. "Your tongue goes like the clapper +of a mill-wheel. Sit down here, friend, and partake of this +herring. Understand first, however, that there are certain +conditions attached to it." + +"I had hoped," said Alleyne, falling into the humor of the twain, +"that a tranchoir of bread and a draught of milk might be +attached to it." + +"Hark to him, hark to him!" cried the little fat man. "It is +even thus, Dicon! Wit, lad, is a catching thing, like the itch +or the sweating sickness. I exude it round me; it is an aura. I +tell you, coz, that no man can come within seventeen feet of me +without catching a spark. Look at your own case. A duller man +never stepped, and yet within the week you have said three things +which might pass, and one thing the day we left Fordingbridge +which I should not have been ashamed of myself." + +"Enough, rattle-pate, enough!" said the other. "The milk you +shall have and the bread also, friend, together with the herring, +but you must hold the scales between us." + +"If he hold the herring he holds the scales, my sapient brother," +cried the fat man. "But I pray you, good youth, to tell us +whether you are a learned clerk, and, if so, whether you have +studied at Oxenford or at Paris." + +"I have some small stock of learning," Alleyne answered, picking +at his herring, "but I have been at neither of these places. I +was bred amongst the Cistercian monks at Beaulieu Abbey." + +"Pooh, pooh!" they cried both together. "What sort of an +upbringing is that?" + +"_Non cuivis contingit adire Corinthum_," quoth Alleyne. + +"Come, brother Stephen, he hath some tincture of letters," said +the melancholy man more hopefully. "He may be the better judge, +since he hath no call to side with either of us. Now, attention, +friend, and let your ears work as well as your nether jaw. _Judex +damnatur_--you know the old saw. Here am I upholding the good +fame of the learned Duns Scotus against the foolish quibblings +and poor silly reasonings of Willie Ockham." + +"While I," quoth the other loudly, "do maintain the good sense +and extraordinary wisdom of that most learned William against the +crack-brained fantasies of the muddy Scotchman, who hath hid such +little wit as he has under so vast a pile of words, that it is +like one drop of Gascony in a firkin of ditch-water. Solomon his +wisdom would not suffice to say what the rogue means." + +"Certes, Stephen Hapgood, his wisdom doth not suffice," cried the +other. "It is as though a mole cried out against the morning +star, because he could not see it. But our dispute, friend, is +concerning the nature of that subtle essence which we call +thought. For I hold with the learned Scotus that thought is in +very truth a thing, even as vapor or fumes, or many other +substances which our gross bodily eyes are blind to. For, look +you, that which produces a thing must be itself a thing, and if a +man's thought may produce a written book, then must thought +itself be a material thing, even as the book is. Have I +expressed it? Do I make it plain?" + +"Whereas I hold," shouted the other, "with my revered preceptor, +_doctor, praeclarus et excellentissimus_, that all things are but +thought; for when thought is gone I prythee where are the things +then? Here are trees about us, and I see them because I think I +see them, but if I have swooned, or sleep, or am in wine, then, +my thought having gone forth from me, lo the trees go forth also. +How now, coz, have I touched thee on the raw?" + +Alleyne sat between them munching his bread, while the twain +disputed across his knees, leaning forward with flushed faces and +darting hands, in all the heat of argument. Never had he heard +such jargon of scholastic philosophy, such fine-drawn +distinctions, such cross-fire of major and minor, proposition, +syllogism, attack and refutation. Question clattered upon answer +like a sword on a buckler. The ancients, the fathers of the +Church, the moderns, the Scriptures, the Arabians, were each sent +hurtling against the other, while the rain still dripped and the +dark holly-leaves glistened with the moisture. At last the fat +man seemed to weary of it, for he set to work quietly upon his +meal, while his opponent, as proud as the rooster who is left +unchallenged upon the midden, crowed away in a last long burst of +quotation and deduction. Suddenly, however, his eyes dropped +upon his food, and he gave a howl of dismay. + +"You double thief!" he cried, "you have eaten my herrings, and I +without bite or sup since morning." + +"That," quoth the other complacently, "was my final argument, my +crowning effort, or _peroratio_, as the orators have it. For, coz, +since all thoughts are things, you have but to think a pair of +herrings, and then conjure up a pottle of milk wherewith to wash +them down." + +"A brave piece of reasoning," cried the other, "and I know of but +one reply to it." On which, leaning forward, he caught his +comrade a rousing smack across his rosy cheek. "Nay, take it not +amiss," he said, "since all things are but thoughts, then that +also is but a thought and may be disregarded." + +This last argument, however, by no means commended itself to the +pupil of Ockham, who plucked a great stick from the ground and +signified his dissent by smiting the realist over the pate with +it. By good fortune, the wood was so light and rotten that it +went to a thousand splinters, but Alleyne thought it best to +leave the twain to settle the matter at their leisure, the more +so as the sun was shining brightly once more. Looking back down +the pool-strewn road, he saw the two excited philosophers waving +their hands and shouting at each other, but their babble soon +became a mere drone in the distance, and a turn in the road hid +them from his sight. + +And now after passing Holmesley Walk and the Wooton Heath, the +forest began to shred out into scattered belts of trees, with +gleam of corn-field and stretch of pasture-land between. Here +and there by the wayside stood little knots of wattle-and-daub +huts with shock-haired laborers lounging by the doors and +red-cheeked children sprawling in the roadway. Back among the +groves he could see the high gable ends and thatched roofs of the +franklins' houses, on whose fields these men found employment, or +more often a thick dark column of smoke marked their position and +hinted at the coarse plenty within. By these signs Alleyne knew +that he was on the very fringe of the forest, and therefore no +great way from Christchurch. The sun was lying low in the west +and shooting its level rays across the long sweep of rich green +country, glinting on the white-fleeced sheep and throwing long +shadows from the red kine who waded knee-deep in the juicy +clover. Right glad was the traveller to see the high tower of +Christchurch Priory gleaming in the mellow evening light, and +gladder still when, on rounding a corner, he came upon his +comrades of the morning seated astraddle upon a fallen tree. +They had a flat space before them, on which they alternately +threw little square pieces of bone, and were so intent upon +their occupation that they never raised eye as he approached +them. He observed with astonishment, as he drew near, that the +archer's bow was on John's back, the archer's sword by John's +side, and the steel cap laid upon the tree-trunk between them. + +"Mort de ma vie!" Aylward shouted, looking down at the dice. +"Never had I such cursed luck. A murrain on the bones! I have +not thrown a good main since I left Navarre. A one and a three! +En avant, camarade!" + +"Four and three," cried Hordle John, counting on his great +fingers, "that makes seven. Ho, archer, I have thy cap! Now +have at thee for thy jerkin!" + +"Mon Dieu!" he growled, "I am like to reach Christchurch in my +shirt." Then suddenly glancing up, "Hola, by the splendor of +heaven, here is our cher petit! Now, by my ten finger bones! +this is a rare sight to mine eyes." He sprang up and threw his +arms round Alleyne's neck, while John, no less pleased, but more +backward and Saxon in his habits, stood grinning and bobbing by +the wayside, with his newly won steel cap stuck wrong side +foremost upon his tangle of red hair. + +"Hast come to stop?" cried the bowman, patting Alleyne all over +in his delight. "Shall not get away from us again!" + +"I wish no better," said he, with a pringling in the eyes at this +hearty greeting. + +"Well said, lad!" cried big John. "We three shall to the wars +together, and the devil may fly away with the Abbot of Beaulieu! +But your feet and hosen are all besmudged. Hast been in the +water, or I am the more mistaken." + +"I have in good sooth," Alleyne answered, and then as they +journeyed on their way he told them the many things that had +befallen him, his meeting with the villein, his sight of the +king, his coming upon his brother, with all the tale of the black +welcome and of the fair damsel. They strode on either side, each +with an ear slanting towards him, but ere he had come to the end +of his story the bowman had spun round upon his heel, and was +hastening back the way they had come, breathing loudly through +his nose. + +"What then?" asked Alleyne, trotting after him and gripping at +his jerkin. + +"I am back for Minstead, lad." + +"And why, in the name of sense?" + +"To thrust a handful of steel into the Socman. What! hale a +demoiselle against her will, and then loose dogs at his own +brother! Let me go!" + +"Nenny, nenny!" cried Alleyne, laughing. "There was no scath +done. Come back, friend"--and so, by mingled pushing and +entreaties, they got his head round for Christchurch once more. +Yet he walked with his chin upon his shoulder, until, catching +sight of a maiden by a wayside well, the smiles came back to his +face and peace to his heart. + +"But you," said Alleyne, "there have been changes with you also. +Why should not the workman carry his tools? Where are bow and +sword and cap--and why so warlike, John?" + +"It is a game which friend Aylward hath been a-teaching of me." + +"And I found him an over-apt pupil," grumbled the bowman. "He +hath stripped me as though I had fallen into the hands of the +tardvenus. But, by my hilt! you must render them back to me, +camarade, lest you bring discredit upon my mission, and I will +pay you for them at armorers' prices." + +"Take them back, man, and never heed the pay," said John. "I did +but wish to learn the feel of them, since I am like to have such +trinkets hung to my own girdle for some years to come." + +"Ma foi, he was born for a free companion!" cried Aylward, "He hath +the very trick of speech and turn of thought. I take them back +then, and indeed it gives me unease not to feel my yew-stave +tapping against my leg bone. But see, mes garcons, on this side +of the church rises the square and darkling tower of Earl +Salisbury's castle, and even from here I seem to see on yonder +banner the red roebuck of the Montacutes." + +"Red upon white," said Alleyne, shading his eyes; "but whether +roebuck or no is more than I could vouch. How black is the great +tower, and how bright the gleam of arms upon the wall! See below +the flag, how it twinkles like a star!" + +"Aye, it is the steel head-piece of the watchman," remarked the +archer. "But we must on, if we are to be there before the +drawbridge rises at the vespers bugle; for it is likely that sir +Nigel, being so renowned a soldier, may keep hard discipline +within the walls, and let no man enter after sundown." So +saying, he quickened his pace, and the three comrades were soon +close to the straggling and broad-spread town which centered +round the noble church and the frowning castle. + +It chanced on that very evening that Sir Nigel Loring, having +supped before sunset, as was his custom, and having himself +seen that Pommers and Cadsand, his two war-horses, with the +thirteen hacks, the five jennets, my lady's three palfreys, and +the great dapple-gray roussin, had all their needs supplied, had +taken his dogs for an evening breather. Sixty or seventy of +them, large and small, smooth and shaggy--deer-hound, boar-hound, +blood-hound, wolf-hound, mastiff, alaun, talbot, lurcher, +terrier, spaniel--snapping, yelling and whining, with score of +lolling tongues and waving tails, came surging down the narrow +lane which leads from the Twynham kennels to the bank of Avon. +Two russet-clad varlets, with loud halloo and cracking whips, +walked thigh-deep amid the swarm, guiding, controlling, and +urging. Behind came Sir Nigel himself, with Lady Loring upon his +arm, the pair walking slowly and sedately, as befitted both their +age and their condition, while they watched with a smile in their +eyes the scrambling crowd in front of them. They paused, +however, at the bridge, and, leaning their elbows upon the +stonework, they stood looking down at their own faces in the +glassy stream, and at the swift flash of speckled trout against +the tawny gravel. + +Sir Nigel was a slight man of poor stature, with soft lisping +voice and gentle ways. So short was he that his wife, who was no +very tall woman, had the better of him by the breadth of three +fingers. His sight having been injured in his early wars by a +basketful of lime which had been emptied over him when he led the +Earl of Derby's stormers up the breach at Bergerac, he had +contracted something of a stoop, with a blinking, peering +expression of face. His age was six and forty, but the constant +practice of arms, together with a cleanly life, had preserved +his activity and endurance unimpaired, so that from a distance he +seemed to have the slight limbs and swift grace of a boy. His +face, however, was tanned of a dull yellow tint, with a leathery, +poreless look, which spoke of rough outdoor doings, and the +little pointed beard which he wore, in deference to the +prevailing fashion, was streaked and shot with gray. His +features were small, delicate, and regular, with clear-cut, +curving nose, and eyes which jutted forward from the lids. His +dress was simple and yet spruce. A Flandrish hat of beevor, +bearing in the band the token of Our Lady of Embrun, was drawn +low upon the left side to hide that ear which had been partly +shorn from his head by a Flemish man-at-arms in a camp broil +before Tournay. His cote-hardie, or tunic, and trunk-hosen were +of a purple plum color, with long weepers which hung from either +sleeve to below his knees. His shoes were of red leather, +daintily pointed at the toes, but not yet prolonged to the +extravagant lengths which the succeeding reign was to bring into +fashion. A gold-embroidered belt of knighthood encircled his +loins, with his arms, five roses gules on a field argent, +cunningly worked upon the clasp. So stood Sir Nigel Loring upon +the bridge of Avon, and talked lightly with his lady. + +And, certes, had the two visages alone been seen, and the +stranger been asked which were the more likely to belong to the +bold warrior whose name was loved by the roughest soldiery of +Europe, he had assuredly selected the lady's. Her face was large +and square and red, with fierce, thick brows, and the eyes of one +who was accustomed to rule. Taller and broader than her husband, +her flowing gown of sendall, and fur-lined tippet, could not +conceal the gaunt and ungraceful outlines of her figure. It was +the age of martial women. The deeds of black Agnes of Dunbar, of +Lady Salisbury and of the Countess of Montfort, were still fresh +in the public minds. With such examples before them the wives of +the English captains had become as warlike as their mates, and +ordered their castles in their absence with the prudence and +discipline of veteran seneschals. Right easy were the Montacutes +of their Castle of Twynham, and little had they to dread from +roving galley or French squadron, while Lady Mary Loring had the +ordering of it. Yet even in that age it was thought that, though +a lady might have a soldier's heart, it was scarce as well that +she should have a soldier's face. There were men who said that +of all the stern passages and daring deeds by which Sir Nigel +Loring had proved the true temper of his courage, not the least +was his wooing and winning of so forbidding a dame. + +"I tell you, my fair lord," she was saying, "that it is no fit +training for a demoiselle: hawks and hounds, rotes and citoles +singing a French rondel, or reading the Gestes de Doon de +Mayence, as I found her yesternight, pretending sleep, the +artful, with the corner of the scroll thrusting forth from under +her pillow. Lent her by Father Christopher of the priory, +forsooth--that is ever her answer. How shall all this help her +when she has castle of her own to keep, with a hundred mouths all +agape for beef and beer?" + +"True, my sweet bird, true," answered the knight, picking a +comfit from his gold drageoir. "The maid is like the young +filly, which kicks heels and plunges for very lust of life. Give +her time, dame, give her time." + +"Well, I know that my father would have given me, not time, but a +good hazel-stick across my shoulders. Ma foi! I know not what +the world is coming to, when young maids may flout their elders. +I wonder that you do not correct her, my fair lord." + +"Nay, my heart's comfort, I never raised hand to woman yet, and +it would be a passing strange thing if I began on my own flesh +and blood. It was a woman's hand which cast this lime into mine +eyes, and though I saw her stoop, and might well have stopped her +ere she threw, I deemed it unworthy of my knighthood to hinder or +balk one of her sex." + +"The hussy!" cried Lady Loring clenching her broad right hand. +"I would I had been at the side of her!" + +"And so would I, since you would have been the nearer me my own. +But I doubt not that you are right, and that Maude's wings need +clipping, which I may leave in your hands when I am gone, for, in +sooth, this peaceful life is not for me, and were it not for your +gracious kindness and loving care I could not abide it a week. I +hear that there is talk of warlike muster at Bordeaux once more, +and by St. Paul! it would be a new thing if the lions of England +and the red pile of Chandos were to be seen in the field, and the +roses of Loring were not waving by their side." + +"Now woe worth me but I feared it!" cried she, with the color all +struck from her face. "I have noted your absent mind, your +kindling eye, your trying and riveting of old harness. Consider +my sweet lord, that you have already won much honor, that we have +seen but little of each other, that you bear upon your body the +scar of over twenty wounds received in I know not how many bloody +encounters. Have you not done enough for honor and the public +cause?" + +"My lady, when our liege lord, the king, at three score years, +and my Lord Chandos at three-score and ten, are blithe and ready +to lay lance in rest for England's cause, it would ill be-seem me +to prate of service done. It is sooth that I have received seven +and twenty wounds. There is the more reason that I should be +thankful that I am still long of breath and sound in limb. I +have also seen some bickering and scuffling. Six great land +battles I count, with four upon sea, and seven and fifty onfalls, +skirmishes and bushments. I have held two and twenty towns, and +I have been at the intaking of thirty-one. Surely then it would +be bitter shame to me, and also to you, since my fame is yours, +that I should now hold back if a man's work is to be done. +Besides, bethink you how low is our purse, with bailiff and reeve +ever croaking of empty farms and wasting lands. Were it not for +this constableship which the Earl of Salisbury hath bestowed +upon us we could scarce uphold the state which is fitting to our +degree. Therefore, my sweeting, there is the more need that I +should turn to where there is good pay to be earned and brave +ransoms to be won." + +"Ah, my dear lord," quoth she, with sad, weary eyes. "I thought +that at last I had you to mine own self, even though your youth +had been spent afar from my side. Yet my voice, as I know well, +should speed you on to glory and renown, not hold you back when +fame is to be won. Yet what can I say, for all men know that +your valor needs the curb and not the spur. It goes to my heart +that you should ride forth now a mere knight bachelor, when there +is no noble in the land who hath so good a claim to the square +pennon, save only that you have not the money to uphold it." + +"And whose fault that, my sweet bird?" said he. + +"No fault, my fair lord, but a virtue: for how many rich ransoms +have you won, and yet have scattered the crowns among page and +archer and varlet, until in a week you had not as much as would +buy food and forage. It is a most knightly largesse, and yet +withouten money how can man rise?" + +"Dirt and dross!" cried he. + +"What matter rise or fall, so that duty be done and honor gained. +Banneret or bachelor, square pennon or forked, I would not give a +denier for the difference, and the less since Sir John Chandos, +chosen flower of English chivalry, is himself but a humble +knight. But meanwhile fret not thyself, my heart's dove, for it +is like that there may be no war waged, and we must await the +news. But here are three strangers, and one, as I take it, a +soldier fresh from service. It is likely that he may give us +word of what is stirring over the water." + +Lady Loring, glancing up, saw in the fading light three +companions walking abreast down the road, all gray with dust, and +stained with travel, yet chattering merrily between themselves. +He in the midst was young and comely, with boyish open face and +bright gray eyes, which glanced from right to left as though he +found the world around him both new and pleasing. To his right +walked a huge red-headed man, with broad smile and merry twinkle, +whose clothes seemed to be bursting and splitting at every seam, +as though he were some lusty chick who was breaking bravely from +his shell. On the other side, with his knotted hand upon the +young man's shoulder, came a stout and burly archer, brown and +fierce eyed, with sword at belt and long yellow yew-stave +peeping over his shoulder. Hard face, battered head piece, +dinted brigandine, with faded red lion of St. George ramping on a +discolored ground, all proclaimed as plainly as words that he was +indeed from the land of war. He looked keenly at Sir Nigel as he +approached, and then, plunging his hand under his breastplate, he +stepped up to him with a rough, uncouth bow to the lady. + +"Your pardon, fair sir," said he, "but I know you the moment I +clap eyes on you, though in sooth I have seen you oftener in +steel than in velvet. I have drawn string besides you at La +Roche-d'Errien, Romorantin, Maupertuis, Nogent, Auray, and other +places." + +"Then, good archer, I am right glad to welcome you to Twynham +Castle, and in the steward's room you will find provant for +yourself and comrades. To me also your face is known, though +mine eyes play such tricks with me that I can scarce be sure of +my own squire. Rest awhile, and you shall come to the hall anon +and tell us what is passing in France, for I have heard that it +is likely that our pennons may flutter to the south of the great +Spanish mountains ere another year be passed." + +"There was talk of it in Bordeaux," answered the archer, "and I +saw myself that the armorers and smiths were as busy as rats in a +wheat-rick. But I bring you this letter from the valiant Gascon +knight, Sir Claude Latour. And to you, Lady," he added after a +pause, "I bring from him this box of red sugar of Narbonne, with +every courteous and knightly greeting which a gallant cavalier +may make to a fair and noble dame." + +This little speech had cost the blunt bowman much pains and +planning; but he might have spared his breath, for the lady was +quite as much absorbed as her lord in the letter, which they held +between them, a hand on either corner, spelling it out very +slowly, with drawn brows and muttering lips. As they read it, +Alleyne, who stood with Hordle John a few paces back from their +comrade, saw the lady catch her breath, while the knight laughed +softly to himself. + +"You see, dear heart," said he, "that they will not leave the old +dog in his kennel when the game is afoot. And what of this White +Company, archer?" + +"Ah, sir, you speak of dogs," cried Aylward; "but there are a +pack of lusty hounds who are ready for any quarry, if they have +but a good huntsman to halloo them on. Sir, we have been in the +wars together, and I have seen many a brave following but never +such a set of woodland boys as this. They do but want you at +their head, and who will bar the way to them!" + +"Pardieu!" said Sir Nigel, "if they are all like their messenger, +they are indeed men of whom a leader may be proud. Your name, +good archer?" + +"Sam Aylward, sir, of the Hundred of Easebourne and the Rape of +Chichester." + +"And this giant behind you?" + +"He is big John, of Hordle, a forest man, who hath now taken +service in the Company." + +"A proper figure of a man at-arms," said the little knight. +"Why, man, you are no chicken, yet I warrant him the stronger +man. See to that great stone from the coping which hath fallen +upon the bridge. Four of my lazy varlets strove this day to +carry it hence. I would that you two could put them to shame by +budging it, though I fear that I overtask you, for it is of a +grievous weight." + +He pointed as he spoke to a huge rough-hewn block which lay by +the roadside, deep sunken from its own weight in the reddish +earth. The archer approached it, rolling back the sleeves of his +jerkin, but with no very hopeful countenance, for indeed it was a +mighty rock. John, however, put him aside with his left hand, +and, stooping over the stone, he plucked it single-handed from +its soft bed and swung it far into the stream. There it fell +with mighty splash, one jagged end peaking out above the surface, +while the waters bubbled and foamed with far-circling eddy. + +"Good lack!" cried Sir Nigel, and "Good lack!" cried his lady, +while John stood laughing and wiping the caked dirt from his +fingers. + +"I have felt his arms round my ribs," said the bowman, "and they +crackle yet at the thought of it. This other comrade of mine is +a right learned clerk, for all that he is so young, hight +Alleyne, the son of Edric, brother to the Socman of Minstead." + +"Young man," quoth Sir Nigel, sternly, "if you are of the same +way of thought as your brother, you may not pass under portcullis +of mine." + +"Nay, fair sir," cried Aylward hastily, "I will be pledge for it +that they have no thought in common; for this very day his +brother hath set his dogs upon him, and driven him from his +lands." + +"And are you, too, of the White Company?" asked Sir Nigel. "Hast +had small experience of war, if I may judge by your looks and +bearing." + +"I would fain to France with my friends here," Alleyne answered; +"but I am a man of peace--a reader, exorcist, acolyte, and +clerk." + +"That need not hinder," quoth Sir Nigel. + +"No, fair sir," cried the bowman joyously. "Why, I myself have +served two terms with Arnold de Cervolles, he whom they called +the archpriest. By my hilt! I have seen him ere now, with monk's +gown trussed to his knees, over his sandals in blood in the +fore-front of the battle. Yet, ere the last string had twanged, +he would be down on his four bones among the stricken, and have +them all houseled and shriven, as quick as shelling peas. Ma +foi! there were those who wished that he would have less care +for their souls and a little more for their bodies!" + +"It is well to have a learned clerk in every troop," said Sir +Nigel. "By St. Paul, there are men so caitiff that they think +more of a scrivener's pen than of their lady's smile, and do +their devoir in hopes that they may fill a line in a chronicle or +make a tag to a jongleur's romance. I remember well that, at the +siege of Retters, there was a little, sleek, fat clerk of the +name of Chaucer, who was so apt at rondel, sirvente, or tonson, +that no man dare give back a foot from the walls, lest he find it +all set down in his rhymes and sung by every underling and varlet +in the camp. But, my soul's bird, you hear me prate as though +all were decided, when I have not yet taken counsel either with +you or with my lady mother. Let us to the chamber, while these +strangers find such fare as pantry and cellar may furnish." + +"The night air strikes chill," said the lady, and turned down the +road with her hand upon her lord's arm. The three comrades +dropped behind and followed: Aylward much the lighter for having +accomplished his mission, Alleyne full of wonderment at the +humble bearing of so renowned a captain, and John loud with +snorts and sneers, which spoke his disappointment and contempt. + +"What ails the man?" asked Aylward in surprise. + +"I have been cozened and bejaped," quoth he gruffly. + +"By whom, Sir Samson the strong?" + +"By thee, Sir Balaam the false prophet." + +"By my hilt!" cried the archer, I though I be not Balaam, yet I +hold converse with the very creature that spake to him. What is +amiss, then, and how have I played you false?" + +"Why, marry, did you not say, and Alleyne here will be my +witness, that, if I would hie to the wars with you, you would +place me under a leader who was second to none in all England for +valor? Yet here you bring me to a shred of a man, peaky and +ill-nourished, with eyes like a moulting owl, who must needs, +forsooth, take counsel with his mother ere he buckle sword to +girdle." + +"Is that where the shoe galls?" cried the bowman, and laughed +aloud. "I will ask you what you think of him three months hence, +if we be all alive; for sure I am that----" + +Aylward's words were interrupted by an extraordinary hubbub which +broke out that instant some little way down the street in the +direction of the Priory. There was deep-mouthed shouting of men, +frightened shrieks of women, howling and barking of curs, and +over all a sullen, thunderous rumble, indescribably menacing and +terrible. Round the corner of the narrow street there came +rushing a brace of whining dogs with tails tucked under their +legs, and after them a white-faced burgher, with outstretched +hands and wide-spread fingers, his hair all abristle and his eyes +glinting back from one shoulder to the other, as though some +great terror were at his very heels. "Fly, my lady, fly!" he +screeched, and whizzed past them like bolt from bow; while close +behind came lumbering a huge black bear, with red tongue lolling +from his mouth, and a broken chain jangling behind him. To right +and left the folk flew for arch and doorway. Hordle John caught +up the Lady Loring as though she had been a feather, and sprang +with her into an open porch; while Aylward, with a whirl of +French oaths, plucked at his quiver and tried to unsling his bow. +Alleyne, all unnerved at so strange and unwonted a sight, shrunk +up against the wall with his eyes fixed upon the frenzied +creature, which came bounding along with ungainly speed, looking +the larger in the uncertain light, its huge jaws agape, with +blood and slaver trickling to the ground. Sir Nigel alone, +unconscious to all appearance of the universal panic, walked +with unfaltering step up the centre of the road, a silken +handkerchief in one hand and his gold comfit-box in the other. +It sent the blood cold through Alleyne's veins to see that as +they came together--the man and the beast--the creature reared +up, with eyes ablaze with fear and hate, and whirled its great +paws above the knight to smite him to the earth. He, however, +blinking with puckered eyes, reached up his kerchief, and flicked +the beast twice across the snout with it. "Ah, saucy! saucy," +quoth he, with gentle chiding; on which the bear, uncertain and +puzzled, dropped its four legs to earth again, and, waddling +back, was soon swathed in ropes by the bear-ward and a crowd of +peasants who had been in close pursuit. + +A scared man was the keeper; for, having chained the brute to a +stake while he drank a stoup of ale at the inn, it had been +baited by stray curs, until, in wrath and madness, it had plucked +loose the chain, and smitten or bitten all who came in its path. +Most scared of all was he to find that the creature had come nigh +to harm the Lord and Lady of the castle, who had power to place +him in the stretch-neck or to have the skin scourged from his +shoulders. Yet, when he came with bowed head and humble entreaty +for forgiveness, he was met with a handful of small silver from +Sir Nigel, whose dame, however, was less charitably disposed, +being much ruffled in her dignity by the manner in which she had +been hustled from her lord's side. + +As they passed through the castle gate, John plucked at Aylward's +sleeve, and the two fell behind. + +"I must crave your pardon, comrade," said he, bluntly. "I was a +fool not to know that a little rooster may be the gamest. I +believe that this man is indeed a leader whom we may follow." + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +HOW A YOUNG SHEPHERD HAD A PERILOUS FLOCK. + + +Black was the mouth of Twynham Castle, though a pair of torches +burning at the further end of the gateway cast a red glare over +the outer bailey, and sent a dim, ruddy flicker through the +rough-hewn arch, rising and falling with fitful brightness. Over +the door the travellers could discern the escutcheon of the +Montacutes, a roebuck gules on a field argent, flanked on either +side by smaller shields which bore the red roses of the veteran +constable. As they passed over the drawbridge, Alleyne marked +the gleam of arms in the embrasures to right and left, and they +had scarce set foot upon the causeway ere a hoarse blare burst +from a bugle, and, with screech of hinge and clank of chain, the +ponderous bridge swung up into the air, drawn by unseen hands. +At the same instant the huge portcullis came rattling down from +above, and shut off the last fading light of day. Sir Nigel and +his lady walked on in deep talk, while a fat under-steward took +charge of the three comrades, and led them to the buttery, where +beef, bread, and beer were kept ever in readiness for the +wayfarer. After a hearty meal and a dip in the trough to wash +the dust from them, they strolled forth into the bailey, where +the bowman peered about through the darkness at wall and at keep, +with the carping eyes of one who has seen something of sieges, +and is not likely to be satisfied. To Alleyne and to John, +however, it appeared to be as great and as stout a fortress as +could be built by the hands of man. + +Erected by Sir Balwin de Redvers in the old fighting days of the +twelfth century, when men thought much of war and little of +comfort, Castle Twynham had been designed as a stronghold pure +and simple, unlike those later and more magnificent structures +where warlike strength had been combined with the magnificence of +a palace. From the time of the Edwards such buildings as Conway +or Caernarvon castles, to say nothing of Royal Windsor, had shown +that it was possible to secure luxury in peace as well as +security in times of trouble. Sir Nigel's trust, however, still +frowned above the smooth-flowing waters of the Avon, very much as +the stern race of early Anglo-Normans had designed it. There +were the broad outer and inner bailies, not paved, but sown with +grass to nourish the sheep and cattle which might be driven in on +sign of danger. All round were high and turreted walls, with at +the corner a bare square-faced keep, gaunt and windowless, +rearing up from a lofty mound, which made it almost inaccessible +to an assailant. Against the bailey-walls were rows of frail +wooden houses and leaning sheds, which gave shelter to the +archers and men-at-arms who formed the garrison. The doors of +these humble dwellings were mostly open, and against the yellow +glare from within Alleyne could see the bearded fellows cleaning +their harness, while their wives would come out for a gossip, +with their needlework in their hands, and their long black +shadows streaming across the yard. The air was full of the clack +of their voices and the merry prattling of children, in strange +contrast to the flash of arms and constant warlike challenge from +the walls above. + +"Methinks a company of school lads could hold this place against +an army," quoth John. + +"And so say I," said Alleyne. + +"Nay, there you are wide of the clout," the bowman said gravely. +"By my hilt! I have seen a stronger fortalice carried in a summer +evening. I remember such a one in Picardy, with a name as long +as a Gascon's pedigree. It was when I served under Sir Robert +Knolles, before the days of the Company; and we came by good +plunder at the sacking of it. I had myself a great silver bowl, +with two goblets, and a plastron of Spanish steel. Pasques Dieu! +there are some fine women over yonder! Mort de ma vie! see to +that one in the doorway! I will go speak to her. But whom have +we here?" + +"Is there an archer here hight Sam Aylward?" asked a gaunt +man-at-arms, clanking up to them across the courtyard. + +"My name, friend," quoth the bowman. + +"Then sure I have no need to tell thee mine," said the other. + +"By the rood! if it is not Black Simon of Norwich!" cried +Aylward. "A mon coeur, camarade, a mon coeur! Ah, but I am +blithe to see thee!" The two fell upon each other and hugged +like bears. + +"And where from, old blood and bones?" asked the bowman. + +"I am in service here. Tell me, comrade, is it sooth that we +shall have another fling at these Frenchmen? It is so rumored in +the guard-room, and that Sir Nigel will take the field once +more." + +"It is like enough, mon gar., as things go." + +"Now may the Lord be praised!" cried the other. "This very night +will I set apart a golden ouche to be offered on the shrine of my +name-saint. I have pined for this, Aylward, as a young maid +pines for her lover." + +"Art so set on plunder then? Is the purse so light that there is +not enough for a rouse? I have a bag at my belt, camarade, and +you have but to put your fist into it for what you want. It was +ever share and share between us." + +"Nay, friend, it is not the Frenchman's gold, but the Frenchman's +blood that I would have. I should not rest quiet in the grave, +coz, if I had not another turn at them. For with us in France it +has ever been fair and honest war--a shut fist for the man, but a +bended knee for the woman. But how was it at Winchelsea when +their galleys came down upon it some few years back? I had an +old mother there, lad, who had come down thither from the +Midlands to be the nearer her son. They found her afterwards by +her own hearthstone, thrust through by a Frenchman's bill. My +second sister, my brother's wife, and her two children, they +were but ash-heaps in the smoking ruins of their house. I will +not say that we have not wrought great scath upon France, but +women and children have been safe from us. And so, old friend, +my heart is hot within me, and I long to hear the old battle-cry +again, and, by God's truth! if Sir Nigel unfurls his pennon, +here is one who will be right glad to feel the saddle-flaps under +his knees." + +"We have seen good work together, old war-dog," quoth Aylward; +"and, by my hilt! we may hope to see more ere we die. But we are +more like to hawk at the Spanish woodcock than at the French +heron, though certes it is rumored that Du Guesclin with all the +best lances of France have taken service under the lions and +towers of Castile. But, comrade, it is in my mind that there is +some small matter of dispute still open between us." + +"'Fore God, it is sooth!" cried the other; "I had forgot it. +The provost-marshal and his men tore us apart when last we met." + +"On which, friend, we vowed that we should settle the point when +next we came together. Hast thy sword, I see, and the moon +throws glimmer enough for such old night-birds as we. On guard, +mon gar.! I have not heard clink of steel this month or more." + +"Out from the shadow then," said the other, drawing his sword. +"A vow is a vow, and not lightly to be broken." + +"A vow to the saints," cried Alleyne, "is indeed not to be set +aside; but this is a devil's vow, and, simple clerk as I am, I am +yet the mouthpiece of the true church when I say that it were +mortal sin to fight on such a quarrel. What! shall two grown men +carry malice for years, and fly like snarling curs at each +other's throats?" + +"No malice, my young clerk, no malice," quoth Black Simon, "I +have not a bitter drop in my heart for mine old comrade; but the +quarrel, as he hath told you, is still open and unsettled. Fall +on, Aylward!" + +"Not whilst I can stand between you," cried Alleyne, springing +before the bowman. "It is shame and sin to see two Christian +Englishmen turn swords against each other like the frenzied +bloodthirsty paynim." + +"And, what is more," said Hordle John, suddenly appearing out of +the buttery with the huge board upon which the pastry was rolled, +"if either raise sword I shall flatten him like a Shrovetide +pancake. By the black rood! I shall drive him into the earth, +like a nail into a door, rather than see you do scath to each +other." + +"'Fore God, this is a strange way of preaching peace," cried +Black Simon. "You may find the scath yourself, my lusty friend, +if you raise your great cudgel to me. I had as lief have the +castle drawbridge drop upon my pate." + +"Tell me, Aylward," said Alleyne earnestly, with his hands +outstretched to keep the pair asunder, "what is the cause of +quarrel, that we may see whether honorable settlement may not be +arrived at?" + +The bowman looked down at his feet and then up at the moons +"Parbleu!" he cried, "the cause of quarrel? Why, mon petit, it +was years ago in Limousin, and how can I bear in mind what was +the cause of it? Simon there hath it at the end of his tongue." + +"Not I, in troth," replied the other; "I have had other things to +think of. There was some sort of bickering over dice, or wine, +or was it a woman, coz?" + +"Pasques Dieu! but you have nicked it," cried Aylward. "It was +indeed about a woman; and the quarrel must go forward, for I am +still of the same mind as before." + +"What of the woman, then?" asked Simon. "May the murrain strike +me if I can call to mind aught about her." + +"It was La Blanche Rose, maid at the sign of the `Trois Corbeaux' +at Limoges. Bless her pretty heart! Why, mon gar., I loved +her." + +"So did a many," quoth Simon. "I call her to mind now. On the +very day that we fought over the little hussy, she went off with +Evan ap Price, a long-legged Welsh dagsman. They have a hostel +of their own now, somewhere on the banks of the Garonne, where +the landlord drinks so much of the liquor that there is little +left for the customers." + +"So ends our quarrel, then," said Aylward, sheathing his sword. +"A Welsh dagsman, i' faith! C'etait mauvais gout, camarade, and +the more so when she had a jolly archer and a lusty man-at-arms +to choose from." + +"True, old lad. And it is as well that we can compose our +differences honorably, for Sir Nigel had been out at the first +clash of steel; and he hath sworn that if there be quarrelling in +the garrison he would smite the right hand from the broilers. +You know him of old, and that he is like to be as good as his +word." + +"Mort-Dieu! yes. But there are ale, mead, and wine in the +buttery, and the steward a merry rogue, who will not haggle over +a quart or two. Buvons, mon gar., for it is not every day that +two old friends come together." + +The old soldiers and Hordle John strode off together in all good +fellowship. Alleyne had turned to follow them, when he felt a +touch upon his shoulder, and found a young page by his side. + +"The Lord Loring commands," said the boy, "that you will follow +me to the great chamber, and await him there." + +"But my comrades?" + +"His commands were for you alone." + +Alleyne followed the messenger to the east end of the courtyard, +where a broad flight of steps led up to the doorway of the main +hall, the outer wall of which is washed by the waters of the +Avon. As designed at first, no dwelling had been allotted to the +lord of the castle and his family but the dark and dismal +basement story of the keep. A more civilized or more effeminate +generation, however, had refused to be pent up in such a cellar, +and the hall with its neighboring chambers had been added for +their accommodation. Up the broad steps Alleyne went, still +following his boyish guide, until at the folding oak doors the +latter paused, and ushered him into the main hall of the castle. + +On entering the room the clerk looked round; but, seeing no one, +he continued to stand, his cap in his hand, examining with the +greatest interest a chamber which was so different to any to +which he was accustomed. The days had gone by when a nobleman's +hall was but a barn-like, rush-strewn enclosure, the common +lounge and eating-room of every inmate of the castle. The +Crusaders had brought back with them experiences of domestic +luxuries, of Damascus carpets and rugs of Aleppo, which made them +impatient of the hideous bareness and want of privacy which they +found in their ancestral strongholds. Still stronger, however, +had been the influence of the great French war; for, however well +matched the nations might be in martial exercises, there could be +no question but that our neighbors were infinitely superior to us +in the arts of peace. A stream of returning knights, of wounded +soldiers, and of unransomed French noblemen, had been for a +quarter of a century continually pouring into England, every one +of whom exerted an influence in the direction of greater domestic +refinement, while shiploads of French furniture from Calais, +Rouen, and other plundered towns, had supplied our own artisans +with models on which to shape their work. Hence, in most English +castles, and in Castle Twynham among the rest, chambers were to +be found which would seem to be not wanting either in beauty or +in comfort. + +In the great stone fireplace a log fire was spurting and +crackling, throwing out a ruddy glare which, with the four +bracket-lamps which stood at each corner of the room, gave a +bright and lightsome air to the whole apartment. Above was a +wreath-work of blazonry, extending up to the carved and corniced +oaken roof; while on either side stood the high canopied chairs +placed for the master of the house and for his most honored +guest. The walls were hung all round with most elaborate and +brightly colored tapestry, representing the achievements of Sir +Bevis of Hampton, and behind this convenient screen were stored +the tables dormant and benches which would be needed for banquet +or high festivity. The floor was of polished tiles, with a +square of red and black diapered Flemish carpet in the centre; +and many settees, cushions, folding chairs, and carved bancals +littered all over it. At the further end was a long black buffet +or dresser, thickly covered with gold cups, silver salvers, and +other such valuables. All this Alleyne examined with curious +eyes; but most interesting of all to him was a small ebony table +at his very side, on which, by the side of a chess-board and the +scattered chessmen, there lay an open manuscript written in a +right clerkly hand, and set forth with brave flourishes and +devices along the margins. In vain Alleyne bethought him of +where he was, and of those laws of good breeding and decorum +which should restrain him: those colored capitals and black even +lines drew his hand down to them, as the loadstone draws the +needle, until, almost before he knew it, he was standing with the +romance of Garin de Montglane before his eyes, so absorbed in its +contents as to be completely oblivious both of where he was and +why he had come there. + +He was brought back to himself, however, by a sudden little +ripple of quick feminine laughter. Aghast, he dropped the +manuscript among the chessmen and stared in bewilderment round +the room. It was as empty and as still as ever. Again he +stretched his hand out to the romance, and again came that +roguish burst of merriment. He looked up at the ceiling, back at +the closed door, and round at the stiff folds of motionless +tapestry. Of a sudden, however, he caught a quick shimmer from +the corner of a high-backed bancal in front of him, and, shifting +a pace or two to the side, saw a white slender hand, which held a +mirror of polished silver in such a way that the concealed +observer could see without being seen. He stood irresolute, +uncertain whether to advance or to take no notice; but, even as +he hesitated, the mirror was whipped in, and a tall and stately +young lady swept out from behind the oaken screen, with a dancing +light of mischief in her eyes. Alleyne started with astonishment +as he recognized the very maiden who had suffered from his +brother's violence in the forest. She no longer wore her gay +riding-dress, however, but was attired in a long sweeping robe of +black velvet of Bruges, with delicate tracery of white lace at +neck and at wrist, scarce to be seen against her ivory skin. +Beautiful as she had seemed to him before, the lithe charm of her +figure and the proud, free grace of her bearing were enhanced now +by the rich simplicity of her attire. + +"Ah, you start," said she, with the same sidelong look of +mischief, "and I cannot marvel at it. Didst not look to see the +distressed damosel again. Oh that I were a minstrel, that I +might put it into rhyme, with the whole romance--the luckless +maid, the wicked socman, and the virtuous clerk! So might our +fame have gone down together for all time, and you be numbered +with Sir Percival or Sir Galahad, or all the other rescuers of +oppressed ladies." + +"What I did," said Alleyne, "was too small a thing for thanks; +and yet, if I may say it without offence, it was too grave and +near a matter for mirth and raillery. I had counted on my +brother's love, but God has willed that it should be otherwise. +It is a joy to me to see you again, lady, and to know that you +have reached home in safety, if this be indeed your home." + +"Yes, in sooth, Castle Twynham is my home, and Sir Nigel Loring +my father, I should have told you so this morning, but you said +that you were coming thither, so I bethought me that I might hold +it back as a surprise to you. Oh dear, but it was brave to see +you!" she cried, bursting out a-laughing once more, and standing +with her hand pressed to her side, and her half-closed eyes +twinkling with amusement. "You drew back and came forward with +your eyes upon my book there, like the mouse who sniffs the +cheese and yet dreads the trap." + +"I take shame," said Alleyne, "that I should have touched it." + +"Nay, it warmed my very heart to see it. So glad was I, that I +laughed for very pleasure. My fine preacher can himself be +tempted then, thought I; he is not made of another clay to the +rest of us." + +"God help me! I am the weakest of the weak," groaned Alleyne. +"I pray that I may have more strength." + +"And to what end?" she asked sharply. "If you are, as I +understand, to shut yourself forever in your cell within the four +walls of an abbey, then of what use would it be were your prayer +to be answered?" + +"The use of my own salvation." + +She turned from him with a pretty shrug and wave. "Is that all?" +she said. "Then you are no better than Father Christopher and +the rest of them. Your own, your own, ever your own! My father +is the king's man, and when he rides into the press of fight he +is not thinking ever of the saving of his own poor body; he recks +little enough if he leave it on the field. Why then should you, +who are soldiers of the Spirit, be ever moping or hiding in cell +or in cave, with minds full of your own concerns, while the +world, which you should be mending, is going on its way, and +neither sees nor hears you? Were ye all as thoughtless of your +own souls as the soldier is of his body, ye would be of more +avail to the souls of others." + +"There is sooth in what you say, lady," Alleyne answered; "and +yet I scarce can see what you would have the clergy and the +church to do." + +"I would have them live as others and do men's work in the world, +preaching by their lives rather than their words. I would have +them come forth from their lonely places, mix with the borel +folks, feel the pains and the pleasures, the cares and the +rewards, the temptings and the stirrings of the common people. +Let them toil and swinken, and labor, and plough the land, and +take wives to themselves----" + +"Alas! alas!" cried Alleyne aghast, "you have surely sucked this +poison from the man Wicliffe, of whom I have heard such evil +things." + +"Nay, I know him not. I have learned it by looking from my own +chamber window and marking these poor monks of the priory, their +weary life, their profitless round. I have asked myself if the +best which can be done with virtue is to shut it within high +walls as though it were some savage creature. If the good will +lock themselves up, and if the wicked will still wander free, +then alas for the world!" + +Alleyne looked at her in astonishment, for her cheek was flushed, +her eyes gleaming, and her whole pose full of eloquence and +conviction. Yet in an instant she had changed again to her old +expression of merriment leavened with mischief. + +"Wilt do what I ask?" said she. + +"What is it, lady?" + +"Oh, most ungallant clerk! A true knight would never have asked, +but would have vowed upon the instant. 'Tis but to bear me out +in what I say to my father." + +"In what?" + +"In saying, if he ask, that it was south of the Christchurch road +that I met you. I shall be shut up with the tire-women else, and +have a week of spindle and bodkin, when I would fain be galloping +Troubadour up Wilverley Walk, or loosing little Roland at the +Vinney Ridge herons." + +"I shall not answer him if he ask." + +"Not answer! But he will have an answer. Nay, but you must not +fail me, or it will go ill with me." + +"But, lady," cried poor Alleyne in great distress, "how can I say +that it was to the south of the road when I know well that it was +four miles to the north." + +"You will not say it?" + +"Surely you will not, too, when you know that it is not so?" + +"Oh, I weary of your preaching!" she cried, and swept away with a +toss of her beautiful head, leaving Alleyne as cast down and +ashamed as though he had himself proposed some infamous thing. +She was back again in an instant, however, in another of her +varying moods. + +"Look at that, my friend!" said she. "If you had been shut up in +abbey or in cell this day you could not have taught a wayward +maiden to abide by the truth. Is it not so? What avail is the +shepherd if he leaves his sheep." + +"A sorry shepherd!" said Alleyne humbly. "But here is your noble +father." + +"And you shall see how worthy a pupil I am. Father, I am much +beholden to this young clerk, who was of service to me and helped +me this very morning in Minstead Woods, four miles to the north +of the Christchurch road, where I had no call to be, you having +ordered it otherwise." All this she reeled off in a loud voice, +and then glanced with sidelong, questioning eyes at Alleyne for +his approval. + +Sir Nigel, who had entered the room with a silvery-haired old +lady upon his arm, stared aghast at this sudden outburst of +candor. + +"Maude, Maude!" said he, shaking his head, "it is more hard for +me to gain obedience from you than from the ten score drunken +archers who followed me to Guienne. Yet, hush! little one, for +your fair lady-mother will be here anon, and there is no need +that she should know it. We will keep you from the provost-marshal +this journey. Away to your chamber, sweeting, and keep a +blithe face, for she who confesses is shriven. And now, fair +mother," he continued, when his daughter had gone, "sit you here +by the fire, for your blood runs colder than it did. Alleyne +Edricson, I would have a word with you, for I would fain that you +should take service under me. And here in good time comes my +lady, without whose counsel it is not my wont to decide aught of +import; but, indeed, it was her own thought that you should +come." + +"For I have formed a good opinion of you, and can see that you +are one who may be trusted," said the Lady Loring. "And in good +sooth my dear lord hath need of such a one by his side, for he +recks so little of himself that there should be one there to look +to his needs and meet his wants. You have seen the cloisters; it +were well that you should see the world too, ere you make choice +for life between them." + +"It was for that very reason that my father willed that I should +come forth into the world at my twentieth year," said Alleyne. + +"Then your father was a man of good counsel," said she, "and you +cannot carry out his will better than by going on this path, +where all that is noble and gallant in England will be your +companions." + +"You can ride?" asked Sir Nigel, looking at the youth with +puckered eyes. + +"Yes, I have ridden much at the abbey." + +"Yet there is a difference betwixt a friar's hack and a warrior's +destrier. You can sing and play?" + +"On citole, flute and rebeck." + +"Good! You can read blazonry?" + +"Indifferent well." + +"Then read this," quoth Sir Nigel, pointing upwards to one of the +many quarterings which adorned the wall over the fireplace. + +"Argent," Alleyne answered, "a fess azure charged with three +lozenges dividing three mullets sable. Over all, on an +escutcheon of the first, a jambe gules." + +"A jambe gules erased," said Sir Nigel, shaking his head +solemnly. "Yet it is not amiss for a monk-bred man. I trust +that you are lowly and serviceable?" + +"I have served all my life, my lord." + +"Canst carve too?" + +"I have carved two days a week for the brethren." + +"A model truly! Wilt make a squire of squires. But tell me, I +pray, canst curl hair?" + +"No, my lord, but I could learn." + +"It is of import," said he, "for I love to keep my hair well +ordered, seeing that the weight of my helmet for thirty years +hath in some degree frayed it upon the top." He pulled off his +velvet cap of maintenance as he spoke, and displayed a pate which +was as bald as an egg, and shone bravely in the firelight. "You +see," said he, whisking round, and showing one little strip where +a line of scattered hairs, like the last survivors in some fatal +field, still barely held their own against the fate which had +fallen upon their comrades; "these locks need some little oiling +and curling, for I doubt not that if you look slantwise at my +head, when the light is good, you will yourself perceive that +there are places where the hair is sparse." + +"It is for you also to bear the purse," said the lady; "for my +sweet lord is of so free and gracious a temper that he would give +it gayly to the first who asked alms of him. All these things, +with some knowledge of venerie, and of the management of horse, +hawk and hound, with the grace and hardihood and courtesy which +are proper to your age, will make you a fit squire for Sir Nigel +Loring." + +"Alas! lady," Alleyne answered, "I know well the great honor that +you have done me in deeming me worthy to wait upon so renowned a +knight, yet I am so conscious of my own weakness that I scarce +dare incur duties which I might be so ill-fitted to fulfil." + +"Modesty and a humble mind," said she, "are the very first and +rarest gifts in page or squire. Your words prove that you have +these, and all the rest is but the work of use and time. But +there is no call for haste. Rest upon it for the night, and let +your orisons ask for guidance in the matter. We knew your father +well, and would fain help his son, though we have small cause to +love your brother the Socman, who is forever stirring up strife +in the county." + +"We can scare hope," said Nigel, "to have all ready for our start +before the feast of St. Luke, for there is much to be done in the +time. You will have leisure, therefore, if it please you to take +service under me, in which to learn your devoir. Bertrand, my +daughter's page, is hot to go; but in sooth he is over young for +such rough work as may be before us." + +"And I have one favor to crave from you," added the lady of the +castle, as Alleyne turned to leave their presence. "You have, as +I understand, much learning which you have acquired at Beaulieu." + +"Little enough, lady, compared with those who were my teachers." + +"Yet enough for my purpose, I doubt not. For I would have you +give an hour or two a day whilst you are with us in discoursing +with my daughter, the Lady Maude; for she is somewhat backward, I +fear, and hath no love for letters, save for these poor fond +romances, which do but fill her empty head with dreams of +enchanted maidens and of errant cavaliers. Father Christopher +comes over after nones from the priory, but he is stricken with +years and slow of speech, so that she gets small profit from his +teaching. I would have you do what you can with her, and with +Agatha my young tire-woman, and with Dorothy Pierpont." + +And so Alleyne found himself not only chosen as squire to a +knight but also as squire to three damosels, which was even +further from the part which he had thought to play in the world. +Yet he could but agree to do what he might, and so went forth +from the castle hall with his face flushed and his head in a +whirl at the thought of the strange and perilous paths which his +feet were destined to tread. + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +HOW ALLEYNE LEARNED MORE THAN HE COULD TEACH. + + +And now there came a time of stir and bustle, of furbishing of +arms and clang of hammer from all the southland counties. Fast +spread the tidings from thorpe to thorpe and from castle to +castle, that the old game was afoot once more, and the lions and +lilies to be in the field with the early spring. Great news this +for that fierce old country, whose trade for a generation had +been war, her exports archers and her imports prisoners. For six +years her sons had chafed under an unwonted peace. Now they flew +to their arms as to their birthright. The old soldiers of Crecy, +of Nogent, and of Poictiers were glad to think that they might +hear the war-trumpet once more, and gladder still were the hot +youth who had chafed for years under the martial tales of their +sires. To pierce the great mountains of the south, to fight the +tamers of the fiery Moors, to follow the greatest captain of the +age, to find sunny cornfields and vineyards, when the marches of +Picardy and Normandy were as rare and bleak as the Jedburgh +forests--here was a golden prospect for a race of warriors. From +sea to sea there was stringing of bows in the cottage and clang +of steel in the castle. + +Nor did it take long for every stronghold to pour forth its +cavalry, and every hamlet its footmen. Through the late autumn +and the early winter every road and country lane resounded with +nakir and trumpet, with the neigh of the war-horse and the +clatter of marching men. From the Wrekin in the Welsh marches to +the Cotswolds in the west or Butser in the south, there was no +hill-top from which the peasant might not have seen the bright +shimmer of arms, the toss and flutter of plume and of pensil. +From bye-path, from woodland clearing, or from winding moor-side +track these little rivulets of steel united in the larger roads +to form a broader stream, growing ever fuller and larger as it +approached the nearest or most commodious seaport. And there all +day, and day after day, there was bustle and crowding and labor, +while the great ships loaded up, and one after the other spread +their white pinions and darted off to the open sea, amid the +clash of cymbals and rolling of drums and lusty shouts of those +who went and of those who waited. From Orwell to the Dart there +was no port which did not send forth its little fleet, gay with +streamer and bunting, as for a joyous festival. Thus in the +season of the waning days the might of England put forth on to +the waters. + +In the ancient and populous county of Hampshire there was no lack +of leaders or of soldiers for a service which promised either +honor or profit. In the north the Saracen's head of the Brocas +and the scarlet fish of the De Roches were waving over a strong +body of archers from Holt, Woolmer, and Harewood forests. De +Borhunte was up in the east, and Sir John de Montague in the +west. Sir Luke de Ponynges, Sir Thomas West, Sir Maurice de +Bruin, Sir Arthur Lipscombe, Sir Walter Ramsey, and stout Sir +Oliver Buttesthorn were all marching south with levies from +Andover, Arlesford, Odiham and Winchester, while from Sussex came +Sir John Clinton, Sir Thomas Cheyne, and Sir John Fallislee, with +a troop of picked men-at-arms, making for their port at +Southampton. Greatest of all the musters, however, was that of +Twynham Castle, for the name and the fame of Sir Nigel Loring +drew towards him the keenest and boldest spirits, all eager to +serve under so valiant a leader. Archers from the New Forest and +the Forest of Bere, billmen from the pleasant country which is +watered by the Stour, the Avon, and the Itchen, young cavaliers +from the ancient Hampshire houses, all were pushing for +Christchurch to take service under the banner of the five +scarlet roses. + +And now, could Sir Nigel have shown the bachelles of land which +the laws of rank required, he might well have cut his forked +pennon into a square banner, and taken such a following into the +field as would have supported the dignity of a banneret. But +poverty was heavy upon him, his land was scant, his coffers +empty, and the very castle which covered him the holding of +another. Sore was his heart when he saw rare bowmen and +war-hardened spearmen turned away from his gates, for the lack of +the money which might equip and pay them. Yet the letter which +Aylward had brought him gave him powers which he was not slow to +use. In it Sir Claude Latour, the Gascon lieutenant of the White +Company, assured him that there remained in his keeping enough to +fit out a hundred archers and twenty men-at-arms, which, joined +to the three hundred veteran companions already in France, would +make a force which any leader might be proud to command. +Carefully and sagaciously the veteran knight chose out his men +from the swarm of volunteers. Many an anxious consultation he +held with Black Simon, Sam Aylward, and other of his more +experienced followers, as to who should come and who should stay. +By All Saints' day, however ere the last leaves had fluttered to +earth in the Wilverley and Holmesley glades, he had filled up his +full numbers, and mustered under his banner as stout a following +of Hampshire foresters as ever twanged their war-bows. Twenty +men-at-arms, too, well mounted and equipped, formed the cavalry +of the party, while young Peter Terlake of Fareham, and Walter +Ford of Botley, the martial sons of martial sires, came at their +own cost to wait upon Sir Nigel and to share with Alleyne +Edricson the duties of his squireship. + +Yet, even after the enrolment, there was much to be done ere the +party could proceed upon its way. For armor, swords, and lances, +there was no need to take much forethought, for they were to be +had both better and cheaper in Bordeaux than in England. With +the long-bow, however, it was different. Yew staves indeed might +be got in Spain, but it was well to take enough and to spare with +them. Then three spare cords should be carried for each bow, +with a great store of arrow-heads, besides the brigandines of +chain mail, the wadded steel caps, and the brassarts or arm-guards, +which were the proper equipment of the archer. Above +all, the women for miles round were hard at work cutting the +white surcoats which were the badge of the Company, and adorning +them with the red lion of St. George upon the centre of the +breast. When all was completed and the muster called in the +castle yard the oldest soldier of the French wars was fain to +confess that he had never looked upon a better equipped or more +warlike body of men, from the old knight with his silk jupon, +sitting his great black war-horse in the front of them, to Hordle +John, the giant recruit, who leaned carelessly upon a huge black +bow-stave in the rear. Of the six score, fully half had seen +service before, while a fair sprinkling were men who had followed +the wars all their lives, and had a hand in those battles which +had made the whole world ring with the fame and the wonder of the +island infantry. + +Six long weeks were taken in these preparations, and it was close +on Martinmas ere all was ready for a start. Nigh two months had +Alleyne Edricson been in Castle Twynham--months which were fated +to turn the whole current of his life, to divert it from that +dark and lonely bourne towards which it tended, and to guide it +into freer and more sunlit channels. Already he had learned to +bless his father for that wise provision which had made him seek +to know the world ere he had ventured to renounce it. + +For it was a different place from that which he had pictured--very +different from that which he had heard described when the +master of the novices held forth to his charges upon the ravening +wolves who lurked for them beyond the peaceful folds of Beaulieu. +There was cruelty in it, doubtless, and lust and sin and sorrow; +but were there not virtues to atone, robust positive virtues +which did not shrink from temptation, which held their own in all +the rough blasts of the work-a-day world? How colorless by +contrast appeared the sinlessness which came from inability to +sin, the conquest which was attained by flying from the enemy! +Monk-bred as he was, Alleyne had native shrewdness and a mind +which was young enough to form new conclusions and to outgrow old +ones. He could not fail to see that the men with whom he was +thrown in contact, rough-tongued, fierce and quarrelsome as they +were, were yet of deeper nature and of more service in the world +than the ox-eyed brethren who rose and ate and slept from year's +end to year's end in their own narrow, stagnant circle of +existence. Abbot Berghersh was a good man, but how was he better +than this kindly knight, who lived as simple a life, held as +lofty and inflexible an ideal of duty, and did with all his +fearless heart whatever came to his hand to do? In turning from +the service of the one to that of the other, Alleyne could not +feel that he was lowering his aims in life. True that his gentle +and thoughtful nature recoiled from the grim work of war, yet in +those days of martial orders and militant brotherhoods there was +no gulf fixed betwixt the priest and the soldier. The man of God +and the man of the sword might without scandal be united in the +same individual. Why then should he, a mere clerk, have scruples +when so fair a chance lay in his way of carrying out the spirit +as well as the letter of his father's provision. Much struggle +it cost him, anxious spirit-questionings and midnight prayings, +with many a doubt and a misgiving; but the issue was that ere he +had been three days in Castle Twynham he had taken service under +Sir Nigel, and had accepted horse and harness, the same to be +paid for out of his share of the profits of the expedition. +Henceforth for seven hours a day he strove in the tilt-yard to +qualify himself to be a worthy squire to so worthy a knight. +Young, supple and active, with all the pent energies from years +of pure and healthy living, it was not long before he could +manage his horse and his weapon well enough to earn an approving +nod from critical men-at-arms, or to hold his own against Terlake +and Ford, his fellow-servitors. + +But were there no other considerations which swayed him from the +cloisters towards the world? So complex is the human spirit that +it can itself scarce discern the deep springs which impel it to +action. Yet to Alleyne had been opened now a side of life of +which he had been as innocent as a child, but one which was of +such deep import that it could not fail to influence him in +choosing his path. A woman, in monkish precepts, had been the +embodiment and concentration of what was dangerous and evil--a +focus whence spread all that was to be dreaded and avoided. So +defiling was their presence that a true Cistercian might not +raise his eyes to their face or touch their finger-tips under ban +of church and fear of deadly sin. Yet here, day after day for an +hour after nones, and for an hour before vespers, he found +himself in close communion with three maidens, all young, all +fair, and all therefore doubly dangerous from the monkish +standpoint. Yet he found that in their presence he was conscious +of a quick sympathy, a pleasant ease, a ready response to all +that was most gentle and best in himself, which filled his soul +with a vague and new-found joy. + +And yet the Lady Maude Loring was no easy pupil to handle. An +older and more world-wise man might have been puzzled by her +varying moods, her sudden prejudices, her quick resentment at all +constraint and authority. Did a subject interest her, was there +space in it for either romance or imagination, she would fly +through it with her subtle, active mind, leaving her two +fellow-students and even her teacher toiling behind her. On the +other hand, were there dull patience needed with steady toil and +strain of memory, no single fact could by any driving be fixed in +her mind. Alleyne might talk to her of the stories of old gods +and heroes, of gallant deeds and lofty aims, or he might hold +forth upon moon and stars, and let his fancy wander over the +hidden secrets of the universe, and he would have a rapt listener +with flushed cheeks and eloquent eyes, who could repeat after him +the very words which had fallen from his lips. But when it came +to almagest and astrolabe, the counting of figures and reckoning +of epicycles, away would go her thoughts to horse and hound, and +a vacant eye and listless face would warn the teacher that he had +lost his hold upon his scholar. Then he had but to bring out the +old romance book from the priory, with befingered cover of +sheepskin and gold letters upon a purple ground, to entice her +wayward mind back to the paths of learning. + +At times, too, when the wild fit was upon her, she would break +into pertness and rebel openly against Alleyne's gentle firmness. +Yet he would jog quietly on with his teachings, taking no heed to +her mutiny, until suddenly she would be conquered by his +patience, and break into self-revilings a hundred times stronger +than her fault demanded. It chanced however that, on one of +these mornings when the evil mood was upon her, Agatha the young +tire-woman, thinking to please her mistress, began also to toss +her head and make tart rejoinder to the teacher's questions. In +an instant the Lady Maude had turned upon her two blazing eyes +and a face which was blanched with anger. + +"You would dare!" said she. "You would dare!" The frightened +tire-woman tried to excuse herself. "But my fair lady," she +stammered, "what have I done? I have said no more than I heard." + +"You would dare!" repeated the lady in a choking voice. "You, a +graceless baggage, a foolish lack-brain, with no thought above +the hemming of shifts. And he so kindly and hendy and +long-suffering! You would--ha, you may well flee the room!" + +She had spoken with a rising voice, and a clasping and opening of +her long white fingers, so that it was no marvel that ere the +speech was over the skirts of Agatha were whisking round the door +and the click of her sobs to be heard dying swiftly away down the +corridor. + +Alleyne stared open-eyed at this tigress who had sprung so +suddenly to his rescue. "There is no need for such anger," he +said mildly. "The maid's words have done me no scath. It is you +yourself who have erred." + +"I know it," she cried, "I am a most wicked woman. But it is bad +enough that one should misuse you. Ma foi! I will see that there +is not a second one." + +"Nay, nay, no one has misused me," he answered. "But the fault +lies in your hot and bitter words. You have called her a baggage +and a lack-brain, and I know not what." + +"And you are he who taught me to speak the truth," she cried. +"Now I have spoken it, and yet I cannot please you. Lack-brain +she is, and lack-brain I shall call her." + +Such was a sample of the sudden janglings which marred the peace +of that little class. As the weeks passed, however, they became +fewer and less violent, as Alleyne's firm and constant nature +gained sway and influence over the Lady Maude. And yet, sooth to +say, there were times when he had to ask himself whether it was +not the Lady Maude who was gaining sway and influence over him. +If she were changing, so was he. In drawing her up from the +world, he was day by day being himself dragged down towards it. +In vain he strove and reasoned with himself as to the madness of +letting his mind rest upon Sir Nigel's daughter. What was he--a +younger son, a penniless clerk, a squire unable to pay for his +own harness--that he should dare to raise his eyes to the +fairest maid in Hampshire? So spake reason; but, in spite of all, +her voice was ever in his ears and her image in his heart. +Stronger than reason, stronger than cloister teachings, stronger +than all that might hold him back, was that old, old tyrant who +will brook no rival in the kingdom of youth. + +And yet it was a surprise and a shock to himself to find how +deeply she had entered into his life; how completely those vague +ambitions and yearnings which had filled his spiritual nature +centred themselves now upon this thing of earth. He had scarce +dared to face the change which had come upon him, when a few +sudden chance words showed it all up hard and clear, like a +lightning flash in the darkness. + +He had ridden over to Poole, one November day, with his +fellow-squire, Peter Terlake, in quest of certain yew-staves from +Wat Swathling, the Dorsetshire armorer. The day for their +departure had almost come, and the two youths spurred it over the +lonely downs at the top of their speed on their homeward course, +for evening had fallen and there was much to be done. Peter was +a hard, wiry, brown faced, country-bred lad who looked on the +coming war as the schoolboy looks on his holidays. This day, +however, he had been sombre and mute, with scarce a word a mile +to bestow upon his comrade. + +"Tell me Alleyne Edricson," he broke out, suddenly, as they +clattered along the winding track which leads over the +Bournemouth hills, "has it not seemed to you that of late the +Lady Maude is paler and more silent than is her wont?" + +"It may be so," the other answered shortly. + +"And would rather sit distrait by her oriel than ride gayly to +the chase as of old. Methinks, Alleyne, it is this learning +which you have taught her that has taken all the life and sap +from her. It is more than she can master, like a heavy spear to a +light rider." + +"Her lady-mother has so ordered it," said Alleyne. + +"By our Lady! and withouten disrespect," quoth Terlake, "it is in +my mind that her lady-mother is more fitted to lead a company to +a storming than to have the upbringing of this tender and +milk-white maid. Hark ye, lad Alleyne, to what I never told man +or woman yet. I love the fair Lady Maude, and would give the +last drop of my heart's blood to serve her." He spoke with a +gasping voice, and his face flushed crimson in the moonlight. + +Alleyne said nothing, but his heart seemed to turn to a lump of +ice in his bosom. + +"My father has broad acres," the other continued, "from Fareham +Creek to the slope of the Portsdown Hill. There is filling of +granges, hewing of wood, malting of grain, and herding of sheep +as much as heart could wish, and I the only son. Sure am I that +Sir Nigel would be blithe at such a match." + +"But how of the lady?" asked Alleyne, with dry lips. + +"Ah, lad, there lies my trouble. It is a toss of the head and a +droop of the eyes if I say one word of what is in my mind. +'Twere as easy to woo the snow-dame that we shaped last winter in +our castle yard. I did but ask her yesternight for her green +veil, that I might bear it as a token or lambrequin upon my helm; +but she flashed out at me that she kept it for a better man, and +then all in a breath asked pardon for that she had spoke so +rudely. Yet she would not take back the words either, nor would +she grant the veil. Has it seemed to thee, Alleyne, that she +loves any one?" + +"Nay, I cannot say," said Alleyne, with a wild throb of sudden +hope in his heart. + +"I have thought so, and yet I cannot name the man. Indeed, save +myself, and Walter Ford, and you, who are half a clerk, and +Father Christopher of the Priory, and Bertrand the page, who is +there whom she sees?" + +"I cannot tell," quoth Alleyne shortly; and the two squires rode +on again, each intent upon his own thoughts. + +Next day at morning lesson the teacher observed that his pupil +was indeed looking pale and jaded, with listless eyes and a weary +manner. He was heavy-hearted to note the grievous change in her. + +"Your mistress, I fear, is ill, Agatha," he said to the tire-woman, +when the Lady Maude had sought her chamber. + +The maid looked aslant at him with laughing eyes. "It is not an +illness that kills," quoth she. + +"Pray God not!" he cried. "But tell me, Agatha, what it is that +ails her?" + +"Methinks that I could lay my hand upon another who is smitten +with the same trouble," said she, with the same sidelong look. +"Canst not give a name to it, and thou so skilled in leech-craft?" + +"Nay, save that she seems aweary." + +"Well, bethink you that it is but three days ere you will all be +gone, and Castle Twynham be as dull as the Priory. Is there not +enough there to cloud a lady's brow?" + +"In sooth, yes," he answered; "I had forgot that she is about to +lose her father." + +"Her father!" cried the tire-woman, with a little trill of +laughter. "Oh simple, simple!" And she was off down the passage +like arrow from bow, while Alleyne stood gazing after her, +betwixt hope and doubt, scarce daring to put faith in the meaning +which seemed to underlie her words. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +HOW THE WHITE COMPANY SET FORTH TO THE WARS. + + +St. Luke's day had come and had gone, and it was in the season of +Martinmas, when the oxen are driven in to the slaughter, that the +White Company was ready for its journey. Loud shrieked the +brazen bugles from keep and from gateway, and merry was the +rattle of the war-drum, as the men gathered in the outer bailey, +with torches to light them, for the morn had not yet broken. +Alleyne, from the window of the armory, looked down upon the +strange scene--the circles of yellow flickering light, the lines +of stern and bearded faces, the quick shimmer of arms, and the +lean heads of the horses. In front stood the bow-men, ten deep, +with a fringe of under-officers, who paced hither and thither +marshalling the ranks with curt precept or short rebuke. Behind +were the little clump of steel-clad horsemen, their lances +raised, with long pensils drooping down the oaken shafts. So +silent and still were they, that they might have been +metal-sheathed statues, were it not for the occasional quick, +impatient stamp of their chargers, or the rattle of chamfron +against neck-plates as they tossed and strained. A spear's +length in front of them sat the spare and long-limbed figure of +Black Simon, the Norwich fighting man, his fierce, deep-lined +face framed in steel, and the silk guidon marked with the five +scarlet roses slanting over his right shoulder. All round, in +the edge of the circle of the light, stood the castle servants, +the soldiers who were to form the garrison, and little knots of +women, who sobbed in their aprons and called shrilly to their +name-saints to watch over the Wat, or Will, or Peterkin who had +turned his hand to the work of war. + +The young squire was leaning forward, gazing at the stirring and +martial scene, when he heard a short, quick gasp at his shoulder, +and there was the Lady Maude, with her hand to her heart, leaning +up against the wall, slender and fair, like a half-plucked lily. +Her face was turned away from him, but he could see, by the sharp +intake of her breath, that she was weeping bitterly. + +"Alas! alas!" he cried, all unnerved at the sight, "why is it +that you are so sad, lady?" + +"It is the sight of these brave men," she answered; "and to think +how many of them go and how few are like to find their way back. +I have seen it before, when I was a little maid, in the year of +the Prince's great battle. I remember then how they mustered in +the bailey, even as they do now, and my lady-mother holding me in +her arms at this very window that I might see the show." + +"Please God, you will see them all back ere another year be out," +said he. + +She shook her head, looking round at him with flushed cheeks and +eyes that sparkled in the lamp-light. "Oh, but I hate myself for +being a woman!" she cried, with a stamp of her little foot. +"What can I do that is good? Here I must bide, and talk and sew +and spin, and spin and sew and talk. Ever the same dull round, +with nothing at the end of it. And now you are going too, who +could carry my thoughts out of these gray walls, and raise my +mind above tapestry and distaffs. What can I do? I am of no more +use or value than that broken bowstave." + +"You are of such value to me," he cried, in a whirl of hot, +passionate words, "that all else has become nought. You are my +heart, my life, my one and only thought. Oh, Maude, I cannot +live without you, I cannot leave you without a word of love. All +is changed to me since I have known you. I am poor and lowly and +all unworthy of you; but if great love may weigh down such +defects, then mine may do it. Give me but one word of hope to +take to the wars with me--but one. Ah, you shrink, you shudder! +My wild words have frightened you." + +Twice she opened her lips, and twice no sound came from them. At +last she spoke in a hard and measured voice, as one who dare not +trust herself to speak too freely. + +"This is over sudden," she said; "it is not so long since the +world was nothing to you. You have changed once; perchance you +may change again." + +"Cruel!" he cried, "who hath changed me?" + +"And then your brother," she continued with a little laugh, +disregarding his question. "Methinks this hath become a family +custom amongst the Edricsons. Nay, I am sorry; I did not mean a +jibe. But, indeed, Alleyne, this hath come suddenly upon me, and +I scarce know what to say." + +"Say some word of hope, however distant--some kind word that I +may cherish in my heart." + +"Nay, Alleyne, it were a cruel kindness, and you have been too +good and true a friend to me that I should use you despitefully. +There cannot be a closer link between us. It is madness to think +of it. Were there no other reasons, it is enough that my father +and your brother would both cry out against it." + +"My brother, what has he to do with it? And your father----" + +"Come, Alleyne, was it not you who would have me act fairly to +all men, and, certes, to my father amongst them?" + +"You say truly," he cried, "you say truly. But you do not reject +me, Maude? You give me some ray of hope? I do not ask pledge or +promise. Say only that I am not hateful to you--that on some +happier day I may hear kinder words from you." + +Her eyes softened upon him, and a kind answer was on her lips, +when a hoarse shout, with the clatter of arms and stamping of +steeds, rose up from the bailey below. At the sound her face set +her eyes sparkled, and she stood with flushed cheek and head +thrown back--a woman's body, with a soul of fire. + +"My father hath gone down," she cried. "Your place is by his +side. Nay, look not at me, Alleyne. It is no time for dallying. +Win my father's love, and all may follow. It is when the brave +soldier hath done his devoir that he hopes for his reward, +Farewell, and may God be with you!" She held out her white, slim +hand to him, but as he bent his lips over it she whisked away and +was gone, leaving in his outstretched hand the very green veil +for which poor Peter Terlake had craved in vain. Again the +hoarse cheering burst out from below, and he heard the clang of +the rising portcullis. Pressing the veil to his lips, he thrust +it into the bosom of his tunic, and rushed as fast as feet could +bear him to arm himself and join the muster. + +The raw morning had broken ere the hot spiced ale had been served +round and the last farewell spoken. A cold wind blew up from the +sea and ragged clouds drifted swiftly across the sky. + +The Christchurch townsfolk stood huddled about the Bridge of +Avon, the women pulling tight their shawls and the men swathing +themselves in their gaberdines, while down the winding path from +the castle came the van of the little army, their feet clanging +on the hard, frozen road. First came Black Simon with his +banner, bestriding a lean and powerful dapple-gray charger, as +hard and wiry and warwise as himself. After him, riding three +abreast, were nine men-at-arms, all picked soldiers, who had +followed the French wars before, and knew the marches of Picardy +as they knew the downs of their native Hampshire. They were +armed to the teeth with lance, sword, and mace, with square +shields notched at the upper right-hand corner to serve as a +spear-rest. For defence each man wore a coat of interlaced +leathern thongs, strengthened at the shoulder, elbow, and upper +arm with slips of steel. Greaves and knee-pieces were also of +leather backed by steel, and their gauntlets and shoes were of +iron plates, craftily jointed. So, with jingle of arms and +clatter of hoofs, they rode across the Bridge of Avon, while the +burghers shouted lustily for the flag of the five roses and its +gallant guard. + +Close at the heels of the horses came two-score archers bearded +and burly, their round targets on their backs and their long +yellow bows, the most deadly weapon that the wit of man had yet +devised, thrusting forth from behind their shoulders. From each +man's girdle hung sword or axe, according to his humor, and over +the right hip there jutted out the leathern quiver with its +bristle of goose, pigeon, and peacock feathers. Behind the +bowmen strode two trumpeters blowing upon nakirs, and two +drummers in parti-colored clothes. After them came twenty-seven +sumpter horses carrying tent-poles, cloth, spare arms, spurs, +wedges, cooking kettles, horse-shoes, bags of nails and the +hundred other things which experience had shown to be needful in +a harried and hostile country. A white mule with red trappings, +led by a varlet, carried Sir Nigel's own napery and table +comforts. Then came two-score more archers, ten more +men-at-arms, and finally a rear guard of twenty bowmen, with big +John towering in the front rank and the veteran Aylward marching +by the side, his battered harness and faded surcoat in strange +contrast with the snow-white jupons and shining brigandines of +his companions. A quick cross-fire of greetings and questions +and rough West Saxon jests flew from rank to rank, or were +bandied about betwixt the marching archers and the gazing crowd. + +"Hola, Gaffer Higginson!" cried Aylward, as he spied the portly +figure of the village innkeeper. "No more of thy nut-brown, mon +gar. We leave it behind us." + +"By St. Paul, no!" cried the other. "You take it with you. +Devil a drop have you left in the great kilderkin. It was time +for you to go." + +"If your cask is leer, I warrant your purse is full, gaffer," +shouted Hordle John. "See that you lay in good store of the best +for our home-coming." + +"See that you keep your throat whole for the drinking of it +archer," cried a voice, and the crowd laughed at the rough +pleasantry. + +"If you will warrant the beer, I will warrant the throat," said +John composedly. + +"Close up the ranks!" cried Aylward. "En avant, mes enfants! +Ah, by my finger bones, there is my sweet Mary from the Priory +Mill! Ma foi, but she is beautiful! Adieu, Mary ma cherie! Mon +coeur est toujours a toi. Brace your belt, Watkins, man, and +swing your shoulders as a free companion should. By my hilt! +your jerkins will be as dirty as mine ere you clap eyes on +Hengistbury Head again." + +The Company had marched to the turn of the road ere Sir Nigel +Loring rode out from the gateway, mounted on Pommers, his great +black war-horse, whose ponderous footfall on the wooden +drawbridge echoed loudly from the gloomy arch which spanned it. +Sir Nigel was still in his velvet dress of peace, with flat +velvet cap of maintenance, and curling ostrich feather clasped in +a golden brooch. To his three squires riding behind him it +looked as though he bore the bird's egg as well as its feather, +for the back of his bald pate shone like a globe of ivory. He +bore no arms save the long and heavy sword which hung at his +saddle-bow; but Terlake carried in front of him the high +wivern-crested bassinet, Ford the heavy ash spear with +swallow-tail pennon, while Alleyne was entrusted with the +emblazoned shield. The Lady Loring rode her palfrey at her +lord's bridle-arm, for she would see him as far as the edge of +the forest, and ever and anon she turned her hard-lined face up +wistfully to him and ran a questioning eye over his apparel and +appointments. + +"I trust that there is nothing forgot," she said, beckoning to +Alleyne to ride on her further side. "I trust him to you, +Edricson. Hosen, shirts, cyclas, and under-jupons are in the +brown basket on the left side of the mule. His wine he takes hot +when the nights are cold, malvoisie or vernage, with as much +spice as would cover the thumb-nail. See that he hath a change +if he come back hot from the tilting. There is goose-grease in a +box, if the old scars ache at the turn of the weather. Let his +blankets be dry and----" + +"Nay, my heart's life," the little knight interrupted, "trouble +not now about such matters. Why so pale and wan, Edricson? Is it +not enow to make a man's heart dance to see this noble Company, +such valiant men-at-arms, such lusty archers? By St. Paul! I +would be ill to please if I were not blithe to see the red roses +flying at the head of so noble a following!" + +"The purse I have already given you, Edricson," continue the +lady. "There are in it twenty-three marks, one noble, three +shillings and fourpence, which is a great treasure for one man to +carry. And I pray you to bear in mind, Edricson, that he hath +two pair of shoes, those of red leather for common use, and the +others with golden toe-chains, which he may wear should he chance +to drink wine with the Prince or with Chandos." + +"My sweet bird," said Sir Nigel, "I am right loth to part from +you, but we are now at the fringe of the forest, and it is not +right that I should take the chatelaine too far from her trust." + +"But oh, my dear lord," she cried with a trembling lip, "let me +bide with you for one furlong further--or one and a half perhaps. +You may spare me this out of the weary miles that you will +journey along." + +"Come, then, my heart's comfort," he answered. "But I must crave +a gage from thee. It is my custom, dearling, and hath been since +I have first known thee, to proclaim by herald in such camps, +townships, or fortalices as I may chance to visit, that my +lady-love, being beyond compare the fairest and sweetest in +Christendom, I should deem it great honor and kindly condescension +if any cavalier would run three courses against me with sharpened +lances, should he chance to have a lady whose claim he was +willing to advance. I pray you then my fair dove, that you will +vouchsafe to me one of those doeskin gloves, that I may wear it +as the badge of her whose servant I shall ever be." + +"Alack and alas for the fairest and sweetest!" she cried. "Fair +and sweet I would fain be for your dear sake, my lord, but old I +am and ugly, and the knights would laugh should you lay lance in +rest in such a cause." + +"Edricson," quoth Sir Nigel, "you have young eyes, and mine are +somewhat bedimmed. Should you chance to see a knight laugh, or +smile, or even, look you, arch his brows, or purse his mouth, or +in any way show surprise that I should uphold the Lady Mary, you +will take particular note of his name, his coat-armor, and his +lodging. Your glove, my life's desire!" + +The Lady Mary Loring slipped her hand from her yellow leather +gauntlet, and he, lifting it with dainty reverence, bound it to +the front of his velvet cap. + +"It is with mine other guardian angels," quoth he, pointing at +the saints' medals which hung beside it. "And now, my dearest, +you have come far enow. May the Virgin guard and prosper thee! +One kiss!" He bent down from his saddle, and then, striking +spurs into his horse's sides, he galloped at top speed after his +men, with his three squires at his heels. Half a mile further, +where the road topped a hill, they looked back, and the Lady Mary +on her white palfrey was still where they had left her. A moment +later they were on the downward slope, and she had vanished from +their view. + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +HOW SIR NIGEL SOUGHT FOR A WAYSIDE VENTURE. + + +For a time Sir Nigel was very moody and downcast, with bent brows +and eyes upon the pommel of his saddle. Edricson and Terlake +rode behind him in little better case, while Ford, a careless and +light-hearted youth, grinned at the melancholy of his companions, +and flourished his lord's heavy spear, making a point to right +and a point to left, as though he were a paladin contending +against a host of assailants. Sir Nigel happened, however, to +turn himself in his saddle-Ford instantly became as stiff and as +rigid as though he had been struck with a palsy. The four rode +alone, for the archers had passed a curve in the road, though +Alleyne could still hear the heavy clump, clump of their +marching, or catch a glimpse of the sparkle of steel through the +tangle of leafless branches. + +"Ride by my side, friends, I entreat of you," said the knight, +reining in his steed that they might come abreast of him. "For, +since it hath pleased you to follow me to the wars, it were well +that you should know how you may best serve me. I doubt not, +Terlake, that you will show yourself a worthy son of a valiant +father; and you, Ford, of yours; and you, Edricson, that you are +mindful of the old-time house from which all men know that you +are sprung. And first I would have you bear very steadfastly in +mind that our setting forth is by no means for the purpose of +gaining spoil or exacting ransom, though it may well happen that +such may come to us also. We go to France, and from thence I +trust to Spain, in humble search of a field in which we may win +advancement and perchance some small share of glory. For this +purpose I would have you know that it is not my wont to let any +occasion pass where it is in any way possible that honor may be +gained. I would have you bear this in mind, and give great heed +to it that you may bring me word of all cartels, challenges, +wrongs, tyrannies, infamies, and wronging of damsels. Nor is any +occasion too small to take note of, for I have known such trifles +as the dropping of a gauntlet, or the flicking of a breadcrumb, +when well and properly followed up, lead to a most noble +spear-running. But, Edricson, do I not see a cavalier who rides +down yonder road amongst the nether shaw? It would be well, +perchance, that you should give him greeting from me. And, +should he be of gentle blood it may be that he would care to +exchange thrusts with me." + +"Why, my lord," quoth Ford, standing in his stirrups and shading +his eyes, "it is old Hob Davidson, the fat miller of Milton!" + +"Ah, so it is, indeed," said Sir Nigel, puckering his cheeks; +"but wayside ventures are not to be scorned, for I have seen no +finer passages than are to be had from such chance meetings, when +cavaliers are willing to advance themselves. I can well remember +that two leagues from the town of Rheims I met a very valiant and +courteous cavalier of France, with whom I had gentle and most +honorable contention for upwards of an hour. It hath ever +grieved me that I had not his name, for he smote upon me with a +mace and went upon his way ere I was in condition to have much +speech with him; but his arms were an allurion in chief above a +fess azure. I was also on such an occasion thrust through the +shoulder by Lyon de Montcourt, whom I met on the high road +betwixt Libourne and Bordeaux. I met him but the once, but I +have never seen a man for whom I bear a greater love and esteem. +And so also with the squire Le Bourg Capillet, who would have +been a very valiant captain had he lived." + +"He is dead then?" asked Alleyne Edricson. + +"Alas! it was my ill fate to slay him in a bickering which broke +out in a field near the township of Tarbes. I cannot call to +mind how the thing came about, for it was in the year of the +Prince's ride through Languedoc, when there was much fine +skirmishing to be had at barriers. By St. Paul! I do not think +that any honorable cavalier could ask for better chance of +advancement than might be had by spurring forth before the army +and riding to the gateways of Narbonne, or Bergerac or Mont +Giscar, where some courteous gentleman would ever be at wait to +do what he might to meet your wish or ease you of your vow. Such +a one at Ventadour ran three courses with me betwixt daybreak and +sunrise, to the great exaltation of his lady." + +"And did you slay him also, my lord?" asked Ford with reverence. + +"I could never learn, for he was carried within the barrier, and +as I had chanced to break the bone of my leg it was a great +unease for me to ride or even to stand. Yet, by the goodness of +heaven and the pious intercession of the valiant St. George, I +was able to sit my charger in the ruffle of Poictiers, which was +no very long time afterwards. But what have we here? A very +fair and courtly maiden, or I mistake." + +It was indeed a tall and buxom country lass, with a basket of +spinach-leaves upon her head, and a great slab of bacon tucked +under one arm. She bobbed a frightened curtsey as Sir Nigel +swept his velvet hat from his head and reined up his great +charger. + +"God be with thee, fair maiden!" said he. + +"God guard thee, my lord!" she answered, speaking in the broadest +West Saxon speech, and balancing herself first on one foot and +then on the other in her bashfulness. + +"Fear not, my fair damsel," said Sir Nigel, "but tell me if +perchance a poor and most unworthy knight can in any wise be of +service to you. Should it chance that you have been used +despitefully, it may be that I may obtain justice for you." + +"Lawk no, kind sir," she answered, clutching her bacon the +tighter, as though some design upon it might be hid under this +knightly offer. "I be the milking wench o' fairmer Arnold, and +he be as kind a maister as heart could wish." + +"It is well," said he, and with a shake of the bridle rode on +down the woodland path. "I would have you bear in mind," he +continued to his squires, "that gentle courtesy is not, as is the +base use of so many false knights, to be shown only to maidens of +high degree, for there is no woman so humble that a true knight +may not listen to her tale of wrong. But here comes a cavalier +who is indeed in haste. Perchance it would be well that we +should ask him whither he rides, for it may be that he is one who +desires to advance himself in chivalry." + +The bleak, hard, wind-swept road dipped down in front of them +into a little valley, and then, writhing up the heathy slope upon +the other side, lost itself among the gaunt pine-trees. Far away +between the black lines of trunks the quick glitter of steel +marked where the Company pursued its way. To the north stretched +the tree country, but to the south, between two swelling downs, a +glimpse might be caught of the cold gray shimmer of the sea, with +the white fleck of a galley sail upon the distant sky-line. Just +in front of the travellers a horseman was urging his steed up the +slope, driving it on with whip and spur as one who rides for a +set purpose. As he clattered up, Alleyne could see that the roan +horse was gray with dust and flecked with foam, as though it had +left many a mile behind it. The rider was a stern-faced man, +hard of mouth and dry of eye, with a heavy sword clanking at his +side, and a stiff white bundle swathed in linen balanced across +the pommel of his saddle. + +"The king's messenger," he bawled as he came up to them. "The +messenger of the king. Clear the causeway for the king's own +man." + +"Not so loudly, friend," quoth the little knight, reining his +horse half round to bar the path. "I have myself been the king's +man for thirty years or more, but I have not been wont to halloo +about it on a peaceful highway." + +"I ride in his service," cried the other, "and I carry that which +belongs to him. You bar my path at your peril." + +"Yet I have known the king's enemies claim to ride in his same," +said Sir Nigel. "The foul fiend may lurk beneath a garment of +light. We must have some sign or warrant of your mission." + +"Then must I hew a passage," cried the stranger, with his +shoulder braced round and his hand upon his hilt. "I am not to +be stopped on the king's service by every gadabout." + +"Should you be a gentleman of quarterings and coat-armor," lisped +Sir Nigel, "I shall be very blithe to go further into the matter +with you. If not, I have three very worthy squires, any one of +whom would take the thing upon himself, and debate it with you in +a very honorable way." + +The man scowled from one to the other, and his hand stole away +from his sword. + +"You ask me for a sign," he said. "Here is a sign for you, since +you must have one." As he spoke he whirled the covering from the +object in front of him and showed to their horror that it was a +newly-severed human leg. "By God's tooth!" he continued, with a +brutal laugh, "you ask me if I am a man of quarterings, and it is +even so, for I am officer to the verderer's court at Lyndhurst. +This thievish leg is to hang at Milton, and the other is already +at Brockenhurst, as a sign to all men of what comes of being +over-fond of venison pasty." + +"Faugh!" cried Sir Nigel. "Pass on the other side of the road, +fellow, and let us have the wind of you. We shall trot our +horses, my friends, across this pleasant valley, for, by Our +Lady! a breath of God's fresh air is right welcome after such a +sight." + +"We hoped to snare a falcon," said he presently, "but we netted a +carrion-crow. Ma foi! but there are men whose hearts are tougher +than a boar's hide. For me, I have played the old game of war +since ever I had hair on my chin, and I have seen ten thousand +brave men in one day with their faces to the sky, but I swear by +Him who made me that I cannot abide the work of the butcher." + +"And yet, my fair lord," said Edricson, "there has, from what I +hear, been much of such devil's work in France." + +"Too much, too much," he answered. "But I have ever observed +that the foremost in the field are they who would scorn to +mishandle a prisoner. By St. Paul! it is not they who carry the +breach who are wont to sack the town, but the laggard knaves who +come crowding in when a way has been cleared for them. But what +is this among the trees?" + +"It is a shrine of Our Lady," said Terlake, "and a blind beggar +who lives by the alms of those who worship there." + +"A shrine!" cried the knight. "Then let us put up an orison." +Pulling off his cap, and clasping his hands, he chanted in a +shrill voice: "Benedictus dominus Deus meus, qui docet manus +meas ad proelium, et digitos meos ad bellum." A strange figure +he seemed to his three squires, perched on his huge horse, with +his eyes upturned and the wintry sun shimmering upon his bald +head. "It is a noble prayer," he remarked, putting on his hat +again, "and it was taught to me by the noble Chandos himself. +But how fares it with you, father? Methinks that I should have +ruth upon you, seeing that I am myself like one who looks through +a horn window while his neighbors have the clear crystal. Yet, +by St. Paul! there is a long stride between the man who hath a +horn casement and him who is walled in on every hand." + +"Alas! fair sir," cried the blind old man, "I have not seen the +blessed blue of heaven this two-score years, since a levin flash +burned the sight out of my head." + +"You have been blind to much that is goodly and fair," quoth Sir +Nigel, "but you have also been spared much that is sorry and +foul. This very hour our eyes have been shocked with that which +would have left you unmoved. But, by St. Paul! we must on, or +our Company will think that they have lost their captain somewhat +early in the venture. Throw the man my purse, Edricson, and let +us go." + +Alleyne, lingering behind, bethought him of the Lady Loring's +counsel, and reduced the noble gift which the knight had so +freely bestowed to a single penny, which the beggar with many +mumbled blessings thrust away into his wallet. Then, spurring +his steed, the young squire rode at the top of his speed after +his companions, and overtook them just at the spot where the +trees fringe off into the moor and the straggling hamlet of +Hordle lies scattered on either side of the winding and +deeply-rutted track. The Company was already well-nigh through +the village; but, as the knight and his squires closed up upon +them, they heard the clamor of a strident voice, followed by a +roar of deep-chested laughter from the ranks of the archers. +Another minute brought them up with the rear-guard, where every +man marched with his beard on his shoulder and a face which was +agrin with merriment. By the side of the column walked a huge +red-headed bowman, with his hands thrown out in argument and +expostulation, while close at his heels followed a little +wrinkled woman who poured forth a shrill volley of abuse, varied +by an occasional thwack from her stick, given with all the force +of her body, though she might have been beating one of the forest +trees for all the effect that she seemed likely to produce. + +"I trust, Aylward," said Sir Nigel gravely, as he rode up, "that +this doth not mean that any violence hath been offered to women. +If such a thing happened, I tell you that the man shall hang, +though he were the best archer that ever wore brassart." + +"Nay, my fair lord," Aylward answered with a grin, "it is +violence which is offered to a man. He comes from Hordle, and +this is his mother who hath come forth to welcome him." + +"You rammucky lurden," she was howling, with a blow between each +catch of her breath, "you shammocking, yaping, over-long +good-for-nought. I will teach thee! I will baste thee! Aye, by my +faith!" + +"Whist, mother," said John, looking back at her from the tail of +his eye, "I go to France as an archer to give blows and to take +them." + +"To France, quotha?" cried the old dame. "Bide here with me, and +I shall warrant you more blows than you are like to get in +France. If blows be what you seek, you need not go further than +Hordle." + +"By my hilt! the good dame speaks truth," said Aylward. "It +seems to be the very home of them." + +"What have you to say, you clean-shaved galley-beggar?" cried the +fiery dame, turning upon the archer. "Can I not speak with my +own son but you must let your tongue clack? A soldier, quotha, +and never a hair on his face. I have seen a better soldier with +pap for food and swaddling clothes for harness." + +"Stand to it, Aylward," cried the archers, amid a fresh burst of +laughter. + +"Do not thwart her, comrade," said big John. "She hath a proper +spirit for her years and cannot abide to be thwarted. It is +kindly and homely to me to hear her voice and to feel that she is +behind me. But I must leave you now, mother, for the way is +over-rough for your feet; but I will bring you back a silken +gown, if there be one in France or Spain, and I will bring Jinny +a silver penny; so good-bye to you, and God have you in His +keeping!" Whipping up the little woman, he lifted her lightly to +his lips, and then, taking his place in the ranks again, marched +on with the laughing Company. + +"That was ever his way," she cried, appealing to Sir Nigel, who +reined up his horse and listened with the greatest courtesy. "He +would jog on his own road for all that I could do to change him. +First he must be a monk forsooth, and all because a wench was +wise enough to turn her back on him. Then he joins a rascally +crew and must needs trapse off to the wars, and me with no one to +bait the fire if I be out, or tend the cow if I be home. Yet I +have been a good mother to him. Three hazel switches a day have +I broke across his shoulders, and he takes no more notice than +you have seen him to-day." + +"Doubt not that he will come back to you both safe and +prosperous, my fair dame," quoth Sir Nigel. "Meanwhile it +grieves me that as I have already given my purse to a beggar up +the road I----" + +"Nay, my lord," said Alleyne, "I still have some moneys +remaining." + +"Then I pray you to give them to this very worthy woman." He +cantered on as he spoke, while Alleyne, having dispensed two more +pence, left the old dame standing by the furthest cottage of +Hordle, with her shrill voice raised in blessings instead of +revilings. + +There were two cross-roads before they reached the Lymington +Ford, and at each of then Sir Nigel pulled up his horse, and +waited with many a curvet and gambade, craning his neck this way +and that to see if fortune would send him a venture. Crossroads +had, as he explained, been rare places for knightly spear-runnings, + and in his youth it was no uncommon thing for a cavalier to +abide for weeks at such a point, holding gentle debate with all +comers, to his own advancement and the great honor of his lady. +The times were changed, however, and the forest tracks wound away +from them deserted and silent, with no trample of war-horse or +clang of armor which might herald the approach of an +adversary--so that Sir Nigel rode on his way disconsolate. At +the Lymington River they splashed through the ford, and lay in +the meadows on the further side to eat the bread and salt meat +which they carried upon the sumpter horses. Then, ere the sun +was on the slope of the heavens, they had deftly trussed up +again, and were swinging merrily upon their way, two hundred feet +moving like two. + +There is a third cross-road where the track from Boldre runs down +to the old fishing village of Pitt's Deep. Down this, as they +came abreast of it, there walked two men, the one a pace or two +behind the other. The cavaliers could not but pull up their +horses to look at them, for a stranger pair were never seen +journeying together. The first was a misshapen, squalid man with +cruel, cunning eyes and a shock of tangled red hair, bearing in +his hands a small unpainted cross, which he held high so that all +men might see it. He seemed to be in the last extremity of +fright, with a face the color of clay and his limbs all ashake as +one who hath an ague. Behind him, with his toe ever rasping upon +the other's heels, there walked a very stern, black-bearded man +with a hard eye and a set mouth. He bore over his shoulder a +great knotted stick with three jagged nails stuck in the head of +it, and from time to time he whirled it up in the air with a +quivering arm, as though he could scarce hold back from dashing +his companion's brains out. So in silence they walked under the +spread of the branches on the grass-grown path from Boldre. + +"By St. Paul!" quoth the knight, "but this is a passing strange +sight, and perchance some very perilous and honorable venture may +arise from it. I pray you, Edricson, to ride up to them and to +ask them the cause of it." + +There was no need, however, for him to move, for the twain came +swiftly towards them until they were within a spear's length, +when the man with the cross sat himself down sullenly upon a +tussock of grass by the wayside, while the other stood beside him +with his great cudgel still hanging over his head. So intent was +he that he raised his eyes neither to knight nor squires, but +kept them ever fixed with a savage glare upon his comrade. + +"I pray you, friend," said Sir Nigel, "to tell us truthfully who +you are, and why you follow this man with such bitter enmity? + +"So long as I am within the pale of the king's law," the stranger +answered, "I cannot see why I should render account to every +passing wayfarer." + +"You are no very shrewd reasoner, fellow," quoth the knight; "for +if it be within the law for you to threaten him with your club, +then it is also lawful for me to threaten you with my sword." + +The man with the cross was down in an instant on his knees upon +the ground, with hands clasped above him and his face shining +with hope. "For dear Christ's sake, my fair lord," he cried in a +crackling voice, "I have at my belt a bag with a hundred rose +nobles, and I will give it to you freely if you will but pass +your sword through this man's body." + +"How, you foul knave?" exclaimed Sir Nigel hotly. "Do you think +that a cavalier's arm is to be bought like a packman's ware. By +St. Paul! I have little doubt that this fellow hath some very +good cause to hold you in hatred." + +"Indeed, my fair sir, you speak sooth," quoth he with the club, +while the other seated himself once more by the wayside. "For +this man is Peter Peterson, a very noted rieve, draw-latch, and +murtherer, who has wrought much evil for many years in the parts +about Winchester. It was but the other day, upon the feasts of +the blessed Simon and Jude, that he slew my younger brother +William in Bere Forest--for which, by the black thorn of +Glastonbury! I shall have his heart's blood, though I walk behind +him to the further end of earth." + +"But if this be indeed so," asked Sir Nigel, "why is it that you +have come with him so far through the forest?" + +"Because I am an honest Englishman, and will take no more than +the law allows. For when the deed was done this foul and base +wretch fled to sanctuary at St. Cross, and I, as you may think, +after him with all the posse. The prior, however, hath so +ordered that while he holds this cross no man may lay hand upon +him without the ban of church, which heaven forfend from me or +mine. Yet, if for an instant he lay the cross aside, or if he +fail to journey to Pitt's Deep, where it is ordered that he shall +take ship to outland parts, or if he take not the first ship, or +if until the ship be ready he walk not every day into the sea as +far as his loins, then he becomes outlaw, and I shall forthwith +dash out his brains." + +At this the man on the ground snarled up at him like a rat, while +the other clenched his teeth, and shook his club, and looked down +at him with murder in his eyes. Knight and squire gazed from +rogue to avenger, but as it was a matter which none could mend +they tarried no longer, but rode upon their way. Alleyne, +looking back, saw that the murderer had drawn bread and cheese +from his scrip, and was silently munching it, with the protecting +cross still hugged to his breast, while the other, black and +grim, stood in the sunlit road and threw his dark shadow athwart +him. + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +HOW THE YELLOW COG SAILED FORTH FROM LEPE. + + +That night the Company slept at St. Leonard's, in the great +monastic barns and spicarium--ground well known both to Alleyne +and to John, for they were almost within sight of the Abbey of +Beaulieu. A strange thrill it gave to the young squire to see +the well-remembered white dress once more, and to hear the +measured tolling of the deep vespers bell. At early dawn they +passed across the broad, sluggish, reed-girt stream--men, horses, +and baggage in the flat ferry barges--and so journeyed on through +the fresh morning air past Exbury to Lepe. Topping the heathy +down, they came of a sudden full in sight of the old sea-port--a +cluster of houses, a trail of blue smoke, and a bristle of masts. +To right and left the long blue curve of the Solent lapped in a +fringe of foam upon the yellow beach. Some way out from the town +a line of pessoners, creyers, and other small craft were rolling +lazily on the gentle swell. Further out still lay a great +merchant-ship, high ended, deep waisted, painted of a canary +yellow, and towering above the fishing-boats like a swan among +ducklings. + +"By St. Paul!" said the knight, "our good merchant of Southampton +hath not played us false, for methinks I can see our ship down +yonder. He said that she would be of great size and of a yellow +shade." + +"By my hilt, yes!" muttered Aylward; "she is yellow as a kite's +claw, and would carry as many men as there are pips in a +pomegranate." + +"It is as well," remarked Terlake; "for methinks, my fair lord, +that we are not the only ones who are waiting a passage to +Gascony. Mine eye catches at times a flash and sparkle among +yonder houses which assuredly never came from shipman's jacket or +the gaberdine of a burgher." + +"I can also see it," said Alleyne, shading his eyes with his +hand. "And I can see men-at-arms in yonder boats which ply +betwixt the vessel and the shore. But methinks that we are very +welcome here, for already they come forth to meet us." + +A tumultuous crowd of fishermen, citizens, and women had indeed +swarmed out from the northern gate, and approached them up the +side of the moor, waving their hands and dancing with joy, as +though a great fear had been rolled back from their minds. At +their head rode a very large and solemn man with a long chin and +a drooping lip. He wore a fur tippet round his neck and a heavy +gold chain over it, with a medallion which dangled in front of +him. + +"Welcome, most puissant and noble lord," he cried, doffing his +bonnet to Black Simon. "I have heard of your lordship's valiant +deeds, and in sooth they might be expected from your lordship's +face and bearing. Is there any small matter in which I may +oblige you?" + +"Since you ask me," said the man-at-arms, "I would take it kindly +if you could spare a link or two of the chain which hangs round +your neck." + +"What, the corporation chain!" cried the other in horror. "The +ancient chain of the township of Lepe! This is but a sorry jest, +Sir Nigel." + +"What the plague did you ask me for then?" said Simon. "But if +it is Sir Nigel Loring with whom you would speak, that is he upon +the black horse." + +The Mayor of Lepe gazed with amazement on the mild face and +slender frame of the famous warrior. + +"Your pardon, my gracious lord," he cried. "You see in me the +mayor and chief magistrate of the ancient and powerful town of +Lepe. I bid you very heartily welcome, and the more so as you +are come at a moment when we are sore put to it for means of +defence.' + +"Ha!" cried Sir Nigel, pricking up his ears. + +"Yes, my lord, for the town being very ancient and the walls as +old as the town, it follows that they are very ancient too. But +there is a certain villainous and bloodthirsty Norman pirate +hight Tete-noire, who, with a Genoan called Tito Caracci, +commonly known as Spade-beard, hath been a mighty scourge upon +these coasts. Indeed, my lord, they are very cruel and +black-hearted men, graceless and ruthless, and if they should +come to the ancient and powerful town of Lepe then--" + +"Then good-bye to the ancient and powerful town of Lepe," quoth +Ford, whose lightness of tongue could at times rise above his awe +of Sir Nigel. + +The knight, however, was too much intent upon the matter in hand +to give heed to the flippancy of his squire. "Have you then +cause," he asked, "to think that these men are about to venture +an attempt upon you?" + +"They have come in two great galleys," answered the mayor, "with +two bank of oars on either side, and great store of engines of +war and of men-at-arms. At Weymouth and at Portland they have +murdered and ravished. Yesterday morning they were at Cowes, and +we saw the smoke from the burning crofts. To-day they lie at +their ease near Freshwater, and we fear much lest they come upon +us and do us a mischief." + +"We cannot tarry," said Sir Nigel, riding towards the town, with +the mayor upon his left side; "the Prince awaits us at Bordeaux, +and we may not be behind the general muster. Yet I will promise +you that on our way we shall find time to pass Freshwater and to +prevail upon these rovers to leave you in peace." + +"We are much beholden to you!" cried the mayor "But I cannot see, +my lord, how, without a war-ship, you may venture against these +men. With your archers, however, you might well hold the town +and do them great scath if they attempt to land." + +"There is a very proper cog out yonder," said Sir Nigel, "it +would be a very strange thing if any ship were not a war-ship +when it had such men as these upon her decks. Certes, we shall +do as I say, and that no later than this very day." + +"My lord," said a rough-haired, dark-faced man, who walked by the +knight's other stirrup, with his head sloped to catch all that he +was saying. "By your leave, I have no doubt that you are skilled +in land fighting and the marshalling of lances, but, by my soul! +you will find it another thing upon the sea. I am the master-shipman +of this yellow cog, and my name is Goodwin Hawtayne. I have +sailed since I was as high as this staff, and I have fought +against these Normans and against the Genoese, as well as the +Scotch, the Bretons, the Spanish, and the Moors. I tell you, +sir, that my ship is over light and over frail for such work, and +it will but end in our having our throats cut, or being sold as +slaves to the Barbary heathen." + +"I also have experienced one or two gentle and honorable ventures +upon the sea," quoth Sir Nigel, "and I am right blithe to have so +fair a task before us. I think, good master-shipman, that you +and I may win great honor in this matter, and I can see very +readily that you are a brave and stout man." + +"I like it not," said the other sturdily. "In God's name, I like +it not. And yet Goodwin Hawtayne is not the man to stand back +when his fellows are for pressing forward. By my soul! be it +sink or swim, I shall turn her beak into Freshwater Bay, and if +good Master Witherton, of Southampton, like not my handling of +his ship then he may find another master-shipman." + +They were close by the old north gate of the little town, and +Alleyne, half turning in his saddle, looked back at the motley +crowd who followed. The bowmen and men-at-arms had broken their +ranks and were intermingled with the fishermen and citizens, +whose laughing faces and hearty gestures bespoke the weight of +care from which this welcome arrival had relieved them. Here and +there among the moving throng of dark jerkins and of white +surcoats were scattered dashes of scarlet and blue, the whimples +or shawls of the women. Aylward, with a fishing lass on either +arm, was vowing constancy alternately to her on the right and her +on the left, while big John towered in the rear with a little +chubby maiden enthroned upon his great shoulder, her soft white +arm curled round his shining headpiece. So the throng moved on, +until at the very gate it was brought to a stand by a wondrously +fat man, who came darting forth from the town with rage in every +feature of his rubicund face. + +"How now, Sir Mayor?" he roared, in a voice like a bull. "How +now, Sir Mayor? How of the clams and the scallops?" + +"By Our Lady! my sweet Sir Oliver," cried the mayor. "I have had +so much to think of, with these wicked villains so close upon us, +that it had quite gone out of my head." + +"Words, words!" shouted the other furiously. "Am I to be put off +with words? I say to you again, how of the clams and scallops?" + +"My fair sir, you flatter me," cried the mayor. "I am a peaceful +trader, and I am not wont to be so shouted at upon so small a +matter." + +"Small!" shrieked the other. "Small! Clams and scallops! Ask me +to your table to partake of the dainty of the town, and when I +come a barren welcome and a bare board! Where is my spear-bearer?" + +"Nay, Sir Oliver, Sir Oliver!" cried Sir Nigel, laughing. + +Let your anger be appeased, since instead of this dish you come +upon an old friend and comrade." + +"By St. Martin of Tours!" shouted the fat knight, his wrath all +changed in an instant to joy, "if it is not my dear little game +rooster of the Garonne. Ah, my sweet coz, I am right glad to see +you. What days we have seen together!" + +"Aye, by my faith," cried Sir Nigel, with sparkling eyes, "we +have seen some valiant men, and we have shown our pennons in some +noble skirmishes. By St. Paul! we have had great joys in +France." + +"And sorrows also," quoth the other. "I have some sad memories +of the land. Can you recall that which befell us at Libourne?" + +"Nay, I cannot call to mind that we ever so much as drew sword at +the place." + +"Man, man," cried Sir Oliver, "your mind still runs on nought but +blades and bassinets. Hast no space in thy frame for the softer +joys. Ah, even now I can scarce speak of it unmoved. So noble a +pie, such tender pigeons, and sugar in the gravy instead of salt! +You were by my side that day, as were Sir Claude Latour and the +Lord of Pommers." + +"I remember it," said Sir Nigel, laughing, "and how you harried +the cook down the street, and spoke of setting fire to the inn. +By St. Paul! most worthy mayor, my old friend is a perilous man, +and I rede you that you compose your difference with him on such +terms as you may." + +"The clams and scallops shall be ready within the hour," the +mayor answered. "I had asked Sir Oliver Buttesthorn to do my +humble board the honor to partake at it of the dainty upon which +we take some little pride, but in sooth this alarm of pirates +hath cast such a shadow on my wits that I am like one distrait. +But I trust, Sir Nigel, that you will also partake of none-meat +with me?" + +"I have overmuch to do," Sir Nigel answered, "for we must be +aboard, horse and man, as early as we may. How many do you +muster, Sir Oliver?" + +"Three and forty. The forty are drunk, and the three are but +indifferent sober. I have them all safe upon the ship." + +"They had best find their wits again, for I shall have work for +every man of them ere the sun set. It is my intention, if it +seems good to you, to try a venture against these Norman and +Genoese rovers." + +"They carry caviare and certain very noble spices from the Levant +aboard of ships from Genoa," quoth Sir Oliver. "We may come to +great profit through the business. I pray you, master-shipman, +that when you go on board you pour a helmetful of sea-water over +any of my rogues whom you may see there." + +Leaving the lusty knight and the Mayor of Lepe, Sir Nigel led the +Company straight down to the water's edge, where long lines of +flat lighters swiftly bore them to their vessel. Horse after +horse was slung by main force up from the barges, and after +kicking and plunging in empty air was dropped into the deep waist +of the yellow cog, where rows of stalls stood ready for their +safe keeping. Englishmen in those days were skilled and prompt +in such matters, for it was so not long before that Edward had +embarked as many as fifty thousand men in the port of Orwell, +with their horses and their baggage, all in the space of +four-and-twenty hours. So urgent was Sir Nigel on the shore, +and so prompt was Goodwin Hawtayne on the cog, that Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn had scarce swallowed his last scallop ere the peal of +the trumpet and clang of nakir announced that all was ready and +the anchor drawn. In the last boat which left the shore the two +commanders sat together in the sheets, a strange contrast to one +another, while under the feet of the rowers was a litter of huge +stones which Sir Nigel had ordered to be carried to the cog. +These once aboard, the ship set her broad mainsail, purple in +color, and with a golden St. Christopher bearing Christ upon his +shoulder in the centre of it. The breeze blew, the sail bellied, +over heeled the portly vessel, and away she plunged through the +smooth blue rollers, amid the clang of the minstrels on her poop +and the shouting of the black crowd who fringed the yellow beach. +To the left lay the green Island of Wight, with its long, low, +curving hills peeping over each other's shoulders to the sky-line; +to the right the wooded Hampshire coast as far as eye could +reach; above a steel-blue heaven, with a wintry sun shimmering +down upon them, and enough of frost to set the breath a-smoking. + +"By St. Paul!" said Sir Nigel gayly, as he stood upon the poop +and looked on either side of him, "it is a land which is very +well worth fighting for, and it were pity to go to France for +what may be had at home. Did you not spy a crooked man upon the +beach?" + +"Nay, I spied nothing," grumbled Sir Oliver, "for I was hurried +down with a clam stuck in my gizzard and an untasted goblet of +Cyprus on the board behind me." + +"I saw him, my fair lord," said Terlake, "an old man with one +shoulder higher than the other." + +"'Tis a sign of good fortune," quoth Sir Nigel. "Our path was +also crossed by a woman and by a priest, so all should be well +with us. What say you, Edricson?" + +"I cannot tell, my fair lord. The Romans of old were a very wise +people, yet, certes, they placed their faith in such matters. +So, too, did the Greeks, and divers other ancient peoples who +were famed for their learning. Yet of the moderns there are many +who scoff at all omens." + +"There can be no manner of doubt about it," said Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn, "I can well remember that in Navarre one day it +thundered on the left out of a cloudless sky. We knew that ill +would come of it, nor had we long to wait. Only thirteen days +after, a haunch of prime venison was carried from my very tent +door by the wolves, and on the same day two flasks of old vernage +turned sour and muddy." + +"You may bring my harness from below," said Sir Nigel to his +squires, "and also, I pray you, bring up Sir Oliver's and we +shall don it here. Ye may then see to your own gear; for this +day you will, I hope, make a very honorable entrance into the +field of chivalry, and prove yourselves to be very worthy and +valiant squires. And now, Sir Oliver, as to our dispositions: +would it please you that I should order them or will you?" + +"You, my cockerel, you. By Our Lady! I am no chicken, but I +cannot claim to know as much of war as the squire of Sir Walter +Manny. Settle the matter to your own liking." + +"You shall fly your pennon upon the fore part, then, and I upon +the poop. For foreguard I shall give you your own forty men, +with two-score archers. Two-score men, with my own men-at-arms +and squires, will serve as a poop-guard. Ten archers, with +thirty shipmen, under the master, may hold the waist while ten +lie aloft with stones and arbalests. How like you that?" + +"Good, by my faith, good! But here comes my harness, and I must +to work, for I cannot slip into it as I was wont when first I set +my face to the wars." + +Meanwhile there had been bustle and preparation in all parts of +the great vessel. The archers stood in groups about the decks, +new-stringing their bows, and testing that they were firm at the +nocks. Among them moved Aylward and other of the older soldiers, +with a few whispered words of precept here and of warning there. + +"Stand to it, my hearts of gold," said the old bowman as he +passed from knot to knot. "By my hilt! we are in luck this +journey. Bear in mind the old saying of the Company." + +"What is that, Aylward?" cried several, leaning on their bows and +laughing at him. + +"'Tis the master-bowyer's rede: `Every bow well bent. Every +shaft well sent. Every stave well nocked. Every string well +locked.' There, with that jingle in his head, a bracer on his +left hand, a shooting glove on his right, and a farthing's-worth +of wax in his girdle, what more doth a bowman need?" + +"It would not be amiss," said Hordle John, "if under his girdle +he had tour farthings'-worth of wine." + +"Work first, wine afterwards, mon camarade. But it is time that +we took our order, for methinks that between the Needle rocks and +the Alum cliffs yonder I can catch a glimpse of the topmasts of +the galleys. Hewett, Cook, Johnson, Cunningham, your men are of +the poop-guard. Thornbury, Walters, Hackett, Baddlesmere, you +are with Sir Oliver on the forecastle. Simon, you bide with your +lord's banner; but ten men must go forward." + +Quietly and promptly the men took their places, lying flat upon +their faces on the deck, for such was Sir Nigel's order. Near +the prow was planted Sir Oliver's spear, with his arms--a boar's +head gules upon a field of gold. Close by the stern stood Black +Simon with the pennon of the house of Loring. In the waist +gathered the Southampton mariners, hairy and burly men, with +their jerkins thrown off, their waists braced tight, swords, +mallets, and pole-axes in their hands. Their leader, Goodwin +Hawtayne, stood upon the poop and talked with Sir Nigel, casting +his eye up sometimes at the swelling sail, and then glancing +back at the two seamen who held the tiller. + +"Pass the word," said Sir Nigel, "that no man shall stand to arms +or draw his bow-string until my trumpeter shall sound. It would +be well that we should seem to be a merchant-ship from +Southampton and appear to flee from them." + +"We shall see them anon," said the master-shipman. "Ha, said I +not so? There they lie, the water-snakes, in Freshwater Bay; and +mark the reek of smoke from yonder point, where they have been at +their devil's work. See how their shallops pull from the land! +They have seen us and called their men aboard. Now they draw +upon the anchor. See them like ants upon the forecastle! They +stoop and heave like handy ship men. But, my fair lord, these +are no niefs. I doubt but we have taken in hand more than we can +do. Each of these ships is a galeasse, and of the largest and +swiftest make." + +"I would I had your eyes," said Sir Nigel, blinking at the pirate +galleys. "They seem very gallant ships, and I trust that we +shall have much pleasance from our meeting with them. It would +be well to pass the word that we should neither give nor take +quarter this day. Have you perchance a priest or friar aboard +this ship, Master Hawtayne?" + +"No, my fair lord." + +"Well, well, it is no great matter for my Company, for they were +all houseled and shriven ere we left Twynham Castle; and Father +Christopher of the Priory gave me his word that they were as fit +to march to heaven as to Gascony. But my mind misdoubts me as to +these Winchester men who have come with Sir Oliver, for they +appear to be a very ungodly crew. Pass the word that the men +kneel, and that the under-officers repeat to them the pater, the +ave, and the credo." + +With a clank of arms, the rough archers and seamen took to their +knees, with bent heads and crossed hands, listening to the hoarse +mutter from the file-leaders. It was strange to mark the hush; +so that the lapping of the water, the straining of the sail, and +the creaking of the timbers grew louder of a sudden upon the ear. +Many of the bowmen had drawn amulets and relics from their +bosoms, while he who possessed some more than usually sanctified +treasure passed it down the line of his comrades, that all might +kiss and reap the virtue. + +The yellow cog had now shot out from the narrow waters of the +Solent, and was plunging and rolling on the long heave of the +open channel. The wind blew freshly from the east, with a very +keen edge to it; and the great sail bellied roundly out, laying +the vessel over until the water hissed beneath her lee bulwarks. +Broad and ungainly, she floundered from wave to wave, dipping her +round bows deeply into the blue rollers, and sending the white +flakes of foam in a spatter over her decks. On her larboard +quarter lay the two dark galleys, which had already hoisted sail, +and were shooting out from Freshwater Bay in swift pursuit, their +double line of oars giving them a vantage which could not fail to +bring them up with any vessel which trusted to sails alone. High +and bluff the English cog; long, black and swift the pirate +galleys, like two fierce lean wolves which have seen a lordly +and unsuspecting stag walk past their forest lair. + +"Shall we turn, my fair lord, or shall we carry on?" asked the +master-shipman, looking behind him with anxious eyes. + +"Nay, we must carry on and play the part of the helpless +merchant." + +"But your pennons? They will see that we have two knights with +us." + +"Yet it would not be to a knight's honor or good name to lower +his pennon. Let them be, and they will think that we are a +wine-ship for Gascony, or that we bear the wool-bales of some +mercer of the Staple. Ma foi, but they are very swift! They +swoop upon us like two goshawks on a heron. Is there not some +symbol or device upon their sails?" + +"That on the right," said Edricson, "appears to have the head of +an Ethiop upon it." + +"'Tis the badge of Tete-noire, the Norman," cried a seaman-mariner. +"I have seen it before, when he harried us at Winchelsea. He is +a wondrous large and strong man, with no ruth for man, woman, or +beast. They say that he hath the strength of six; and, certes, +he hath the crimes of six upon his soul. See, now, to the poor +souls who swing at either end of his yard-arm!" + +At each end of the yard there did indeed hang the dark figure of +a man, jolting and lurching with hideous jerkings of its limbs at +every plunge and swoop of the galley. + +"By St. Paul!" said Sir Nigel, "and by the help of St. George and +Our Lady, it will be a very strange thing if our black-headed +friend does not himself swing thence ere he be many hours older. +But what is that upon the other galley?" + +"It is the red cross of Genoa. This Spade-beard is a very noted +captain, and it is his boast that there are no seamen and no +archers in the world who can compare with those who serve the +Doge Boccanegra." + +"That we shall prove," said Goodwin Hawtayne; "but it would be +well, ere they close with us, to raise up the mantlets and +pavises as a screen against their bolts." He shouted a hoarse +order, and his seamen worked swiftly and silently, heightening +the bulwarks and strengthening them. The three ship's anchors +were at Sir Nigel's command carried into the waist, and tied to +the mast, with twenty feet of cable between, each under the care +of four seamen. Eight others were stationed with leather +water-bags to quench any fire-arrows which might come aboard, +while others were sent up the mast, to lie along the yard and +drop stones or shoot arrows as the occasion served. + +"Let them be supplied with all that is heavy and weighty in the +ship," said Sir Nigel. + +"Then we must send them up Sir Oliver Buttesthorn," quoth Ford. + +The knight looked at him with a face which struck the smile from +his lips. "No squire of mine," he said, "shall ever make jest of +a belted knight. And yet," he added, his eyes softening, "I know +that it is but a boy's mirth, with no sting in it. Yet I should +ill do my part towards your father if I did not teach you to curb +your tongue-play." + +"They will lay us aboard on either quarter, my lord," cried the +master. "See how they stretch out from each other! The Norman +hath a mangonel or a trabuch upon the forecastle. See, they bend +to the levers! They are about to loose it." + +"Aylward," cried the knight, "pick your three trustiest archers, +and see if you cannot do something to hinder their aim. Methinks +they are within long arrow flight." + +"Seventeen score paces," said the archer, running his eye +backwards and forwards. "By my ten finger-bones! it would be a +strange thing if we could not notch a mark at that distance. +Here, Watkin of Sowley, Arnold, Long Williams, let us show the +rogues that they have English bowmen to deal with." + +The three archers named stood at the further end of the poop, +balancing themselves with feet widely spread and bows drawn, +until the heads of the cloth-yard arrows were level with the +centre of the stave. "You are the surer, Watkin," said Aylward, +standing by them with shaft upon string. "Do you take the rogue +with the red coif. You two bring down the man with the head-piece, +and I will hold myself ready if you miss. Ma foi! they are about +to loose her. Shoot, mes garcons, or you will be too late." + +The throng of pirates had cleared away from the great wooden +catapult, leaving two of their number to discharge it. One in a +scarlet cap bent over it, steadying the jagged rock which was +balanced on the spoon-shaped end of the long wooden lever. The +other held the loop of the rope which would release the catch and +send the unwieldy missile hurtling through the air. So for an +instant they stood, showing hard and clear against the white sail +behind them. The next, redcap had fallen across the stone with +an arrow between his ribs; and the other, struck in the leg and +in the throat, was writhing and spluttering upon the ground. As +he toppled backwards he had loosed the spring, and the huge beam +of wood, swinging round with tremendous force, cast the corpse of +his comrade so close to the English ship that its mangled and +distorted limbs grazed their very stern. As to the stone, it +glanced off obliquely and fell midway between the vessels. A +roar of cheering and of laughter broke from the rough archers and +seamen at the sight, answered by a yell of rage from their +pursuers. + +"Lie low, mes enfants," cried Aylward, motioning with his left +hand. "They will learn wisdom. They are bringing forward shield +and mantlet. We shall have some pebbles about our ears ere +long." + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +HOW THE YELLOW COG FOUGHT THE TWO ROVER GALLEYS. + + +The three vessels had been sweeping swiftly westwards, the cog +still well to the front, although the galleys were slowly drawing +in upon either quarter. To the left was a hard skyline unbroken +by a sail. The island already lay like a cloud behind them, +while right in front was St. Alban's Head, with Portland looming +mistily in the farthest distance. Alleyne stood by the tiller, +looking backwards, the fresh wind full in his teeth, the crisp +winter air tingling on his face and blowing his yellow curls from +under his bassinet. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes +shining, for the blood of a hundred fighting Saxon ancestors was +beginning to stir in his veins. + +"What was that?" he asked, as a hissing, sharp-drawn voice seemed +to whisper in his ear. The steersman smiled, and pointed with +his foot to where a short heavy cross-bow quarrel stuck quivering +in the boards. At the same instant the man stumbled forward upon +his knees, and lay lifeless upon the deck, a blood-stained +feather jutting out from his back. As Alleyne stooped to raise +him, the air seemed to be alive with the sharp zip-zip of the +bolts, and he could hear them pattering on the deck like apples +at a tree-shaking. + +"Raise two more mantlets by the poop-lanthorn," said Sir Nigel +quietly. + +"And another man to the tiller," cried the master-shipman. + +"Keep them in play, Aylward, with ten of your men," the knight +continued. "And let ten of Sir Oliver's bowmen do as much for +the Genoese. I have no mind as yet to show them how much they +have to fear from us." + +Ten picked shots under Aylward stood in line across the broad +deck, and it was a lesson to the young squires who had seen +nothing of war to note how orderly and how cool were these old +soldiers, how quick the command, and how prompt the carrying out, +ten moving like one. Their comrades crouched beneath the +bulwarks, with many a rough jest and many a scrap of criticism or +advice. "Higher, Wat, higher!" "Put thy body into it, Will!" +"Forget not the wind, Hal!" So ran the muttered chorus, while +high above it rose the sharp twanging of the strings, the hiss +of the shafts, and the short "Draw your arrow! Nick your arrow! +Shoot wholly together!" from the master-bowman. + +And now both mangonels were at work from the galleys, but so +covered and protected that, save at the moment of discharge, no +glimpse could be caught of them. A huge brown rock from the +Genoese sang over their heads, and plunged sullenly into the +slope of a wave. Another from the Norman whizzed into the waist, +broke the back of a horse, and crashed its way through the side +of the vessel. Two others, flying together, tore a great gap in +the St. Christopher upon the sail, and brushed three of Sir +Oliver's men-at-arms from the forecastle. The master-shipman +looked at the knight with a troubled face. + +"They keep their distance from us," said he. "Our archery is +over-good, and they will not close. What defence can we make +against the stones?" + +"I think I may trick them," the knight answered cheerfully, and +passed his order to the archers. Instantly five of them threw up +their hands and fell prostrate upon the deck. One had already +been slain by a bolt, so that there were but four upon their +feet. + +"That should give them heart," said Sir Nigel, eyeing the +galleys, which crept along on either side, with a slow, measured +swing of their great oars, the water swirling and foaming under +their sharp stems. + +"They still hold aloof," cried Hawtayne. + +"Then down with two more," shouted their leader. "That will do. +Ma foi! but they come to our lure like chicks to the fowler. To +your arms, men! The pennon behind me, and the squires round the +pennon. Stand fast with the anchors in the waist, and be ready +for a cast. Now blow out the trumpets, and may God's benison be +with the honest men!" + +As he spoke a roar of voices and a roll of drums came from either +galley, and the water was lashed into spray by the hurried beat +of a hundred oars. Down they swooped, one on the right, one on +the left, the sides and shrouds black with men and bristling with +weapons. In heavy clusters they hung upon the forecastle all +ready for a spring-faces white, faces brown, faces yellow, and +faces black, fair Norsemen, swarthy Italians, fierce rovers from +the Levant, and fiery Moors from the Barbary States, of all hues +and countries, and marked solely by the common stamp of a +wild-beast ferocity. Rasping up on either side, with oars +trailing to save them from snapping, they poured in a living +torrent with horrid yell and shrill whoop upon the defenceless +merchantman. + +But wilder yet was the cry, and shriller still the scream, when +there rose up from the shadow of those silent bulwarks the long +lines of the English bowmen, and the arrows whizzed in a deadly +sleet among the unprepared masses upon the pirate decks. From +the higher sides of the cog the bowmen could shoot straight down, +at a range which was so short as to enable a cloth-yard shaft to +pierce through mail-coats or to transfix a shield, though it were +an inch thick of toughened wood. One moment Alleyne saw the +galley's poop crowded with rushing figures, waving arms, exultant +faces; the next it was a blood-smeared shambles, with bodies +piled three deep upon each other, the living cowering behind the +dead to shelter themselves from that sudden storm-blast of +death. On either side the seamen whom Sir Nigel had chosen for +the purpose had cast their anchors over the side of the galleys, +so that the three vessels, locked in an iron grip, lurched +heavily forward upon the swell. + +And now set in a fell and fierce fight, one of a thousand of +which no chronicler has spoken and no poet sung. Through all the +centuries and over all those southern waters nameless men have +fought in nameless places, their sole monuments a protected coast +and an unravaged country-side. + +Fore and aft the archers had cleared the galleys' decks, but from +either side the rovers had poured down into the waist, where the +seamen and bowmen were pushed back and so mingled with their foes +that it was impossible for their comrades above to draw string to +help them. It was a wild chaos where axe and sword rose and +fell, while Englishman, Norman, and Italian staggered and reeled +on a deck which was cumbered with bodies and slippery with blood. +The clang of blows, the cries of the stricken, the short, deep +shout of the islanders, and the fierce whoops of the rovers, rose +together in a deafening tumult, while the breath of the panting +men went up in the wintry air like the smoke from a furnace. The +giant Tete-noire, towering above his fellows and clad from head +to foot in plate of proof, led on his boarders, waving a huge +mace in the air, with which he struck to the deck every man who +approached him. On the other side, Spade-beard, a dwarf in +height, but of great breadth of shoulder and length of arm, had +cut a road almost to the mast, with three-score Genoese men-at-arms +close at his heels. Between these two formidable assailants the +seamen were being slowly wedged more closely together, until they +stood back to back under the mast with the rovers raging upon +every side of them. + +But help was close at hand. Sir Oliver Buttesthorn with his +men-at-arms had swarmed down from the forecastle, while Sir +Nigel, with his three squires, Black Simon, Aylward, Hordle John, +and a score more, threw themselves from the poop and hurled +themselves into the thickest of the fight. Alleyne, as in duty +bound, kept his eyes fixed ever on his lord and pressed forward +close at his heels. Often had he heard of Sir Nigel's prowess +and skill with all knightly weapons, but all the tales that had +reached his ears fell far short of the real quickness and +coolness of the man. It was as if the devil was in him, for he +sprang here and sprang there, now thrusting and now cutting, +catching blows on his shield, turning them with his blade, +stooping under the swing of an axe, springing over the sweep of a +sword, so swift and so erratic that the man who braced himself +for a blow at him might find him six paces off ere he could bring +it down. Three pirates had fallen before him, and he had wounded +Spade-beard in the neck, when the Norman giant sprang at him from +the side with a slashing blow from his deadly mace. Sir Nigel +stooped to avoid it, and at the same instant turned a thrust from +the Genoese swordsman, but, his foot slipping in a pool of blood, +he fell heavily to the ground. Alleyne sprang in front of the +Norman, but his sword was shattered and he himself beaten to the +ground by a second blow from the ponderous weapon. Ere the +pirate chief could repeat it, however, John's iron grip fell upon +his wrist, and he found that for once he was in the hands of a +stronger man than himself. + +Fiercely he strove to disengage his weapon, but Hordle John bent +his arm slowly back until, with a sharp crack, like a breaking +stave, it turned limp in his grasp, and the mace dropped from the +nerveless fingers. In vain he tried to pluck it up with the +other hand. Back and back still his foeman bent him, until, with +a roar of pain and of fury, the giant clanged his full length +upon the boards, while the glimmer of a knife before the bars of +his helmet warned him that short would be his shrift if he moved. + +Cowed and disheartened by the loss of their leader, the Normans +had given back and were now streaming over the bulwarks on to +their own galley, dropping a dozen at a time on to her deck. But +the anchor still held them in its crooked claw, and Sir Oliver +with fifty men was hard upon their heels. Now, too, the archers +had room to draw their bows once more, and great stones from the +yard of the cog came thundering and crashing among the flying +rovers. Here and there they rushed with wild screams and curses, +diving under the sail, crouching behind booms, huddling into +corners like rabbits when the ferrets are upon them, as helpless +and as hopeless. They were stern days, and if the honest +soldier, too poor for a ransom, had no prospect of mercy upon the +battle-field, what ruth was there for sea robbers, the enemies of +humankind, taken in the very deed, with proofs of their crimes +still swinging upon their yard-arm. + +But the fight had taken a new and a strange turn upon the other +side. Spade-beard and his men had given slowly back, hard +pressed by Sir Nigel, Aylward, Black Simon, and the poop-guard. +Foot by foot the Italian had retreated, his armor running blood +at every joint, his shield split, his crest shorn, his voice +fallen away to a mere gasping and croaking. Yet he faced his +foemen with dauntless courage, dashing in, springing back, +sure-footed, steady-handed, with a point which seemed to menace +three at once. Beaten back on to the deck of his own vessel, and +closely followed by a dozen Englishmen, he disengaged himself +from them, ran swiftly down the deck, sprang back into the cog +once more, cut the rope which held the anchor, and was back in an +instant among his crossbow-men. At the same time the Genoese +sailors thrust with their oars against the side of the cog, and a +rapidly widening rift appeared between the two vessels. + +"By St. George!" cried Ford, "we are cut off from Sir Nigel." + +"He is lost," gasped Terlake. "Come, let us spring for it." The +two youths jumped with all their strength to reach the departing +galley. Ford's feet reached the edge of the bulwarks, and his +hand clutching a rope he swung himself on board. Terlake fell +short, crashed in among the oars, and bounded off into the sea. +Alleyne, staggering to the side, was about to hurl himself after +him, but Hordle John dragged him back by the girdle. + +"You can scarce stand, lad, far less jump," said he. "See how +the blood rips from your bassinet." + +"My place is by the flag," cried Alleyne, vainly struggling to +break from the other's hold. + +"Bide here, man. You would need wings ere you could reach Sir +Nigel's side." + +The vessels were indeed so far apart now that the Genoese could +use the full sweep of their oars, and draw away rapidly from the +cog. + +"My God, but it is a noble fight!" shouted big John, clapping his +hands. "They have cleared the poop, and they spring into the +waist. Well struck, my lord! Well struck, Aylward! See to +Black Simon, how he storms among the shipmen! But this Spade-beard +is a gallant warrior. He rallies his men upon the forecastle. +He hath slain an archer. Ha! my lord is upon him. Look to it, +Alleyne! See to the whirl and glitter of it!" + +"By heaven, Sir Nigel is down!" cried the squire. + +"Up!" roared John. "It was but a feint. He bears him back. He +drives him to the side. Ah, by Our Lady, his sword is through +him! They cry for mercy. Down goes the red cross, and up +springs Simon with the scarlet roses!" + +The death of the Genoese leader did indeed bring the resistance +to an end. Amid a thunder of cheering from cog and from galleys +the forked pennon fluttered upon the forecastle, and the galley, +sweeping round, came slowly back, as the slaves who rowed it +learned the wishes of their new masters. + +The two knights had come aboard the cog, and the grapplings +having been thrown off, the three vessels now moved abreast +through all the storm and rush of the fight Alleyne had been +aware of the voice of Goodwin Hawtayne, the master-shipman, with +his constant "Hale the bowline! Veer the sheet!" and strange it +was to him to see how swiftly the blood-stained sailors turned +from the strife to the ropes and back. Now the cog's head was +turned Francewards, and the shipman walked the deck, a peaceful +master-mariner once more. + +"There is sad scath done to the cog, Sir Nigel," said he. "Here +is a hole in the side two ells across, the sail split through the +centre, and the wood as bare as a friar's poll. In good sooth, I +know not what I shall say to Master Witherton when I see the +Itchen once more." + +"By St. Paul! it would be a very sorry thing if we suffered you +to be the worse of this day's work," said Sir Nigel. "You shall +take these galleys back with you, and Master Witherton may sell +them. Then from the moneys he shall take as much as may make +good the damage, and the rest he shall keep until our home-coming, +when every man shall have his share. An image of silver fifteen +inches high I have vowed to the Virgin, to be placed in her +chapel within the Priory, for that she was pleased to allow me to +come upon this Spade-beard, who seemed to me from what I have +seen of him to be a very sprightly and valiant gentleman. But +how fares it with you, Edricson?" + +"It is nothing, my fair lord," said Alleyne, who had now loosened +his bassinet, which was cracked across by the Norman's blow. +Even as he spoke, however, his head swirled round, and he fell to +the deck with the blood gushing from his nose and mouth. + +"He will come to anon," said the knight, stooping over him and +passing his fingers through his hair. "I have lost one very +valiant and gentle squire this day. I can ill afford to lose +another. How many men have fallen?" + +"I have pricked off the tally," said Aylward, who had come aboard +with his lord. "There are seven of the Winchester men, eleven +seamen, your squire, young Master Terlake, and nine archers." + +"And of the others?" + +"They are all dead--save only the Norman knight who stands behind +you. What would you that we should do with him?" + +"He must hang on his own yard," said Sir Nigel. "It was my vow +and must be done." + +The pirate leader had stood by the bulwarks, a cord round his +arms, and two stout archers on either side. At Sir Nigel's words +he started violently, and his swarthy features blanched to a +livid gray. + +"How, Sir Knight?" he cried in broken English. "Que dites vous? +To hang, le mort du chien! To hang!" + +"It is my vow," said Sir Nigel shortly. "From what I hear, you +thought little enough of hanging others." + +"Peasants, base roturiers," cried the other. "It is their +fitting death. Mais Le Seigneur d'Andelys, avec le sang des rois +dans ses veins! C'est incroyable!" + +Sir Nigel turned upon his heel, while two seamen cast a noose +over the pirate's neck. At the touch of the cord he snapped the +bonds which bound him, dashed one of the archers to the deck, and +seizing the other round the waist sprang with him into the sea. + +"By my hilt, he is gone!" cried Aylward, rushing to the side. +"They have sunk together like a stone." + +"I am right glad of it," answered Sir Nigel; "for though it was +against my vow to loose him, I deem that he has carried himself +like a very gentle and debonnaire cavalier." + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +HOW THE YELLOW COG CROSSED THE BAR OF GIRONDE. + + +For two days the yellow cog ran swiftly before a northeasterly +wind, and on the dawn of the third the high land of Ushant lay +like a mist upon the shimmering sky-line. There came a plump of +rain towards mid-day and the breeze died down, but it freshened +again before nightfall, and Goodwin Hawtayne veered his sheet and +held head for the south. Next morning they had passed Belle +Isle, and ran through the midst of a fleet of transports +returning from Guienne. Sir Nigel Loring and Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn at once hung their shields over the side, and +displayed their pennons as was the custom, noting with the +keenest interest the answering symbols which told the names of +the cavaliers who had been constrained by ill health or wounds to +leave the prince at so critical a time. + +That evening a great dun-colored cloud banked up in the west, and +an anxious man was Goodwin Hawtayne, for a third part of his crew +had been slain, and half the remainder were aboard the galleys, +so that, with an injured ship, he was little fit to meet such a +storm as sweeps over those waters. All night it blew in short +fitful puffs, heeling the great cog over until the water curled +over her lee bulwarks. As the wind still freshened the yard was +lowered half way down the mast in the morning. Alleyne, +wretchedly ill and weak, with his head still ringing from the +blow which he had received, crawled up upon deck. Water-swept and +aslant, it was preferable to the noisome, rat-haunted dungeons +which served as cabins. There, clinging to the stout halliards +of the sheet, he gazed with amazement at the long lines of black +waves, each with its curling ridge of foam, racing in endless +succession from out the inexhaustible west. A huge sombre cloud, +flecked with livid blotches, stretched over the whole seaward +sky-line, with long ragged streamers whirled out in front of it. +Far behind them the two galleys labored heavily, now sinking +between the rollers until their yards were level with the waves, +and again shooting up with a reeling, scooping motion until every +spar and rope stood out hard against the sky. On the left the +low-lying land stretched in a dim haze, rising here and there +into a darker blur which marked the higher capes and headlands. +The land of France! Alleyne's eyes shone as he gazed upon it. +The land of France!--the very words sounded as the call of a +bugle in the ears of the youth of England. The land where their +fathers had bled, the home of chivalry and of knightly deeds, the +country of gallant men, of courtly women, of princely buildings, +of the wise, the polished and the sainted. There it lay, so +still and gray beneath the drifting wrack--the home of things +noble and of things shameful--the theatre where a new name might +be made or an old one marred. From his bosom to his lips came +the crumpled veil, and he breathed a vow that if valor and +goodwill could raise him to his lady's side, then death alone +should hold him back from her. His thoughts were still in the +woods of Minstead and the old armory of Twynham Castle, when the +hoarse voice of the master-shipman brought them back once more to +the Bay of Biscay. + +"By my troth, young sir," he said, "you are as long in the face +as the devil at a christening, and I cannot marvel at it, for I +have sailed these waters since I was as high as this whinyard, +and yet I never saw more sure promise of an evil night." + +"Nay, I had other things upon my mind," the squire answered. + +"And so has every man," cried Hawtayne in an injured voice. "Let +the shipman see to it. It is the master-shipman's affair. Put +it all upon good Master Hawtayne! Never had I so much care since +first I blew trumpet and showed cartel at the west gate of +Southampton." + +"What is amiss then?" asked Alleyne, for the man's words were as +gusty as the weather. + +"Amiss, quotha? Here am I with but half my mariners, and a hole +in the ship where that twenty-devil stone struck us big enough to +fit the fat widow of Northam through. It is well enough on this +tack, but I would have you tell me what I am to do on the other. +We are like to have salt water upon us until we be found pickled +like the herrings in an Easterling's barrels." + +"What says Sir Nigel to it?" + +"He is below pricking out the coat-armor of his mother's uncle. +`Pester me not with such small matters!' was all that I could get +from him. Then there is Sir Oliver. `Fry them in oil with a +dressing of Gascony,' quoth he, and then swore at me because I +had not been the cook. `Walawa,' thought I, `mad master, sober +man'--so away forward to the archers. Harrow and alas! but they +were worse than the others." + +"Would they not help you then?" + +"Nay, they sat tway and tway at a board, him that they call +Aylward and the great red-headed man who snapped the Norman's +arm-bone, and the black man from Norwich, and a score of others, +rattling their dice in an archer's gauntlet for want of a box. +`The ship can scarce last much longer, my masters,' quoth I. +`That is your business, old swine's-head,' cried the black +galliard. `Le diable t'emporte,' says Aylward. `A five, a four +and the main,' shouted the big man, with a voice like the flap of +a sail. Hark to them now, young sir, and say if I speak not +sooth." + +As he spoke, there sounded high above the shriek of the gale and +the straining of the timbers a gust of oaths with a roar of +deep-chested mirth from the gamblers in the forecastle. + +"Can I be of avail?" asked Alleyne. "Say the word and the thing +is done, if two hands may do it." + +"Nay, nay, your head I can see is still totty, and i' faith +little head would you have, had your bassinet not stood your +friend. All that may be done is already carried out, for we have +stuffed the gape with sails and corded it without and within. +Yet when we bale our bowline and veer the sheet our lives will +hang upon the breach remaining blocked. See how yonder headland +looms upon us through the mist! We must tack within three arrow +flights, or we may find a rock through our timbers. Now, St. +Christopher be praised! here is Sir Nigel, with whom I may +confer." + +"I prythee that you will pardon me," said the knight, clutching +his way along the bulwark. "I would not show lack of courtesy +toward a worthy man, but I was deep in a matter of some weight, +concerning which, Alleyne, I should be glad of your rede. It +touches the question of dimidiation or impalement in the coat of +mine uncle, Sir John Leighton of Shropshire, who took unto wife +the widow of Sir Henry Oglander of Nunwell. The case has been +much debated by pursuivants and kings-of-arms. But how is it +with you, master shipman?" + +"Ill enough, my fair lord. The cog must go about anon, and I +know not how we may keep the water out of her." + +"Go call Sir Oliver!" said Sir Nigel, and presently the portly +knight made his way all astraddle down the slippery deck. + +"By my soul, master-shipman, this passes all patience!" he cried +wrathfully. "If this ship of yours must needs dance and skip +like a clown at a kermesse, then I pray you that you will put me +into one of these galeasses. I had but sat down to a flask of +malvoisie and a mortress of brawn, as is my use about this hour, +when there comes a cherking, and I find my wine over my legs and +the flask in my lap, and then as I stoop to clip it there comes +another cursed cherk, and there is a mortress of brawn stuck fast +to the nape of my neck. At this moment I have two pages coursing +after it from side to side, like hounds behind a leveret. Never +did living pig gambol more lightly. But you have sent for me, +Sir Nigel?" + +"I would fain have your rede, Sir Oliver, for Master Hawtayne +hath fears that when we veer there may come danger from the hole +in our side." + +"Then do not veer," quoth Sir Oliver hastily. "And now, fair +sir, I must hasten back to see how my rogues have fared with the +brawn." + +"Nay, but this will scarce suffice," cried the shipman. "If we +do not veer we will be upon the rocks within the hour." + +"Then veer," said Sir Oliver. "There is my rede; and now, Sir +Nigel, I must crave----" + +At this instant, however, a startled shout rang out from two +seamen upon the forecastle. "Rocks!" they yelled, stabbing into +the air with their forefingers. "Rocks beneath our very bows!" +Through the belly of a great black wave, not one hundred paces to +the front of them, there thrust forth a huge jagged mass of brown +stone, which spouted spray as though it were some crouching +monster, while a dull menacing boom and roar filled the air. + +"Yare! yare!" screamed Goodwin Hawtayne, flinging himself upon +the long pole which served as a tiller. "Cut the halliard! Haul +her over! Lay her two courses to the wind!" + +Over swung the great boom, and the cog trembled and quivered +within five spear-lengths of the breakers. + +"She can scarce draw clear," cried Hawtayne, with his eyes from +the sail to the seething line of foam. "May the holy Julian +stand by us and the thrice-sainted Christopher!" + +"If there be such peril, Sir Oliver," quoth Sir Nigel, "it would +be very knightly and fitting that we should show our pennons. I +pray you. Edricson, that you will command my guidon-bearer to +put forward my banner." + +"And sound the trumpets!" cried Sir Oliver. "In manus tuas, +Domine! I am in the keeping of James of Compostella, to whose +shrine I shall make pilgrimage, and in whose honor I vow that I +will eat a carp each year upon his feast-day. Mon Dieu, but the +waves roar! How is it with us now, master-shipman?" + +"We draw! We draw!" cried Hawtayne, with his eyes still fixed +upon the foam which hissed under the very bulge of the side. +"Ah, Holy Mother, be with us now!" + +As he spoke the cog rasped along the edge of the reef, and a long +white curling sheet of wood was planed off from her side from +waist to poop by a jutting horn of the rock. At the same instant +she lay suddenly over, the sail drew full, and she plunged +seawards amid the shoutings of the seamen and the archers. + +"The Virgin be praised!" cried the shipman, wiping his brow. +"For this shall bell swing and candle burn when I see Southampton +Water once more. Cheerily, my hearts! Pull yarely on the +bowline!" + +"By my soul! I would rather have a dry death," quoth Sir Oliver. +"Though, Mort Dieu! I have eaten so many fish that it were but +justice that the fish should eat me. Now I must back to the +cabin, for I have matters there which crave my attention." + +"Nay, Sir Oliver, you had best bide with us, and still show your +ensign," Sir Nigel answered; "for, if I understand the matter +aright, we have but turned from one danger to the other." + +"Good Master Hawtayne," cried the boatswain, rushing aft, "the +water comes in upon us apace. The waves have driven in the sail +wherewith we strove to stop the hole." As he spoke the seamen +came swarming on to the poop and the forecastle to avoid the +torrent which poured through the huge leak into the waist. High +above the roar of the wind and the clash of the sea rose the +shrill half-human cries of the horses, as they found the water +rising rapidly around them. + +"Stop it from without!" cried Hawtayne, seizing the end of the +wet sail with which the gap had been plugged. "Speedily, my +hearts, or we are gone!" Swiftly they rove ropes to the corners, +and then, rushing forward to the bows, they lowered them under +the keel, and drew them tight in such a way that the sail should +cover the outer face of the gap. The force of the rush of water +was checked by this obstacle, but it still squirted plentifully +from every side of it. At the sides the horses were above the +belly, and in the centre a man from the poop could scarce touch +the deck with a seven-foot spear. The cog lay lower in the water +and the waves splashed freely over the weather bulwark. + +"I fear that we can scarce bide upon this tack," cried Hawtayne; +"and yet the other will drive us on the rocks." + +"Might we not haul down sail and wait for better times?" +suggested Sir Nigel. + +"Nay, we should drift upon the rocks. Thirty years have I been +on the sea, and never yet in greater straits. Yet we are in the +hands of the Saints." + +"Of whom," cried Sir Oliver, "I look more particularly to St. +James of Compostella, who hath already befriended us this day, +and on whose feast I hereby vow that I shall eat a second carp, +if he will but interpose a second time." + +The wrack had thickened to seaward, and the coast was but a +blurred line. Two vague shadows in the offing showed where the +galeasses rolled and tossed upon the great Atlantic rollers, +Hawtayne looked wistfully in their direction. + +"If they would but lie closer we might find safety, even should +the cog founder. You will bear me out with good Master Witherton +of Southampton that I have done all that a shipman might. It +would be well that you should doff camail and greaves, Sir Nigel, +for, by the black rood! it is like enough that we shall have to +swim for it." + +"Nay," said the little knight, "it would be scarce fitting that a +cavalier should throw off his harness for the fear of every puff +of wind and puddle of water. I would rather that my Company +should gather round me here on the poop, where we might abide +together whatever God may be pleased to send. But, certes, +Master Hawtayne, for all that my sight is none of the best, it is +not the first time that I have seen that headland upon the left." + +The seaman shaded his eyes with his hand, and gazed earnestly +through the haze and spray. Suddenly he threw up his arms and +shouted aloud in his joy. + +"'Tis the point of La Tremblade!" he cried. "I had not thought +that we were as far as Oleron. The Gironde lies before us, and +once over the bar, and under shelter of the Tour de Cordouan, all +will be well with us. Veer again, my hearts, and bring her to +try with the main course!" + +The sail swung round once more, and the cog, battered and torn +and well-nigh water-logged, staggered in for this haven of +refuge. A bluff cape to the north and a long spit to the south +marked the mouth of the noble river, with a low-lying island of +silted sand in the centre, all shrouded and curtained by the +spume of the breakers. A line of broken water traced the +dangerous bar, which in clear day and balmy weather has cracked +the back of many a tall ship. + +"There is a channel," said Hawtayne, "which was shown to me by +the Prince's own pilot. Mark yonder tree upon the bank, and see +the tower which rises behind it. If these two be held in a line, +even as we hold them now, it may be done, though our ship draws +two good ells more than when she put forth." + +"God speed you, Master Hawtayne!" cried Sir Oliver. "Twice have +we come scathless out of peril, and now for the third time I +commend me to the blessed James of Compostella, to whom I vow----" + +"Nay, nay, old friend," whispered Sir Nigel. "You are like to +bring a judgment upon us with these vows, which no living man +could accomplish. Have I not already heard you vow to eat two +carp in one day, and now you would venture upon a third?" + +"I pray you that you will order the Company to lie down," cried +Hawtayne, who had taken the tiller and was gazing ahead with a +fixed eye. "In three minutes we shall either be lost or in +safety." + +Archers and seamen lay flat upon the deck, waiting in stolid +silence for whatever fate might come. Hawtayne bent his weight +upon the tiller, and crouched to see under the bellying sail. +Sir Oliver and Sir Nigel stood erect with hands crossed in front +of the poop. Down swooped the great cog into the narrow channel +which was the portal to safety. On either bow roared the shallow +bar. Right ahead one small lane of black swirling water marked +the pilot's course. But true was the eye and firm the hand which +guided. A dull scraping came from beneath, the vessel quivered +and shook, at the waist, at the quarter, and behind sounded that +grim roaring of the waters, and with a plunge the yellow cog was +over the bar and speeding swiftly up the broad and tranquil +estuary of the Gironde. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +HOW SIR NIGEL LORING PUT A PATCH UPON HIS EYE. + + +It was on the morning of Friday, the eight-and-twentieth day of +November, two days before the feast of St. Andrew, that the cog +and her two prisoners, after a weary tacking up the Gironde and +the Garonne, dropped anchor at last in front of the noble city of +Bordeaux. With wonder and admiration, Alleyne, leaning over the +bulwarks, gazed at the forest of masts, the swarm of boats +darting hither and thither on the bosom of the broad curving +stream, and the gray crescent-shaped city which stretched with +many a tower and minaret along the western shore. Never had he +in his quiet life seen so great a town, nor was there in the +whole of England, save London alone, one which might match it in +size or in wealth. Here came the merchandise of all the fair +countries which are watered by the Garonne and the Dordogne--the +cloths of the south, the skins of Guienne, the wines of the +Medoc--to be borne away to Hull, Exeter, Dartmouth, Bristol or +Chester, in exchange for the wools and woolfels of England. Here +too dwelt those famous smelters and welders who had made the +Bordeaux steel the most trusty upon earth, and could give a +temper to lance or to sword which might mean dear life to its +owner. Alleyne could see the smoke of their forges reeking up +in the clear morning air. The storm had died down now to a +gentle breeze, which wafted to his ears the long-drawn stirring +bugle-calls which sounded from the ancient ramparts. + +"Hola, mon petit!" said Aylward, coming up to where he stood. +"Thou art a squire now, and like enough to win the golden spurs, +while I am still the master-bowman, and master-bowman I shall +bide. I dare scarce wag my tongue so freely with you as when we +tramped together past Wilverley Chase, else I might be your guide +now, for indeed I know every house in Bordeaux as a friar knows +the beads on his rosary." + +"Nay, Aylward," said Alleyne, laying his hand upon the sleeve of +his companion's frayed jerkin, "you cannot think me so thrall as +to throw aside an old friend because I have had some small share +of good fortune. I take it unkind that you should have thought +such evil of me." + +"Nay, mon gar. 'Twas but a flight shot to see if the wind blew +steady, though I were a rogue to doubt it." + +"Why, had I not met you, Aylward, at the Lynhurst inn, who can +say where I had now been! Certes, I had not gone to Twynham +Castle, nor become squire to Sir Nigel, nor met----" He paused +abruptly and flushed to his hair, but the bowman was too busy +with his own thoughts to notice his young companion's +embarrassment. + +"It was a good hostel, that of the `Pied Merlin,'" he remarked. +"By my ten finger bones! when I hang bow on nail and change my +brigandine for a tunic, I might do worse than take over the dame +and her business." + +"I thought," said Alleyne, "that you were betrothed to some one +at Christchurch." + +"To three," Aylward answered moodily, "to three. I fear I may +not go back to Christchurch. I might chance to see hotter +service in Hampshire than I have ever done in Gascony. But mark +you now yonder lofty turret in the centre, which stands back from +the river and hath a broad banner upon the summit. See the +rising sun flashes full upon it and sparkles on the golden +lions. 'Tis the royal banner of England, crossed by the prince's +label. There he dwells in the Abbey of St. Andrew, where he hath +kept his court these years back. Beside it is the minster of the +same saint, who hath the town under his very special care." + +"And how of yon gray turret on the left?" + +"'Tis the fane of St. Michael, as that upon the right is of +St. Remi. There, too, above the poop of yonder nief, you see the +towers of Saint Croix and of Pey Berland. Mark also the mighty +ramparts which are pierced by the three water-gates, and sixteen +others to the landward side." + +"And how is it, good Aylward, that there comes so much music from +the town? I seem to hear a hundred trumpets, all calling in +chorus." + +"It would be strange else, seeing that all the great lords of +England and of Gascony are within the walls, and each would have +his trumpeter blow as loud as his neighbor, lest it might be +thought that his dignity had been abated. Ma foi! they make as +much louster as a Scotch army, where every man fills himself with +girdle-cakes, and sits up all night to blow upon the toodle-pipe. +See all along the banks how the pages water the horses, and there +beyond the town how they gallop them over the plain! For every +horse you see a belted knight hath herbergage in the town, for, +as I learn, the men-at-arms and archers have already gone forward +to Dax." + +"I trust, Aylward," said Sir Nigel, coming upon deck, "that the +men are ready for the land. Go tell them that the boats will be +for them within the hour." + +The archer raised his hand in salute, and hastened forward. In +the meantime Sir Oliver had followed his brother knight, and the +two paced the poop together, Sir Nigel in his plum-colored velvet +suit with flat cap of the same, adorned in front with the Lady +Loring's glove and girt round with a curling ostrich feather. +The lusty knight, on the other hand, was clad in the very latest +mode, with cote-hardie, doublet, pourpoint, court-pie, and paltock +of olive-green, picked out with pink and jagged at the edges. A +red chaperon or cap, with long hanging cornette, sat daintily on +the back of his black-curled head, while his gold-hued shoes were +twisted up _a la poulaine_, as though the toes were shooting forth +a tendril which might hope in time to entwine itself around his +massive leg. + +"Once more, Sir Oliver," said Sir Nigel, looking shorewards with +sparkling eyes, "do we find ourselves at the gate of honor, the +door which hath so often led us to all that is knightly and +worthy. There flies the prince's banner, and it would be well +that we haste ashore and pay our obeisance to him. The boats +already swarm from the bank." + +"There is a goodly hostel near the west gate, which is famed for +the stewing of spiced pullets," remarked Sir Oliver. "We might +take the edge of our hunger off ere we seek the prince, for +though his tables are gay with damask and silver he is no +trencherman himself, and hath no sympathy for those who are his +betters." + +"His betters!" + +"His betters before the tranchoir, lad. Sniff not treason where +none is meant. I have seen him smile in his quiet way because I +had looked for the fourth time towards the carving squire. And +indeed to watch him dallying with a little gobbet of bread, or +sipping his cup of thrice-watered wine, is enough to make a man +feel shame at his own hunger. Yet war and glory, my good friend, +though well enough in their way, will not serve to tighten such a +belt as clasps my waist." + +"How read you that coat which hangs over yonder galley, Alleyne?" +asked Sir Nigel. + +"Argent, a bend vert between cotises dancette gules." + +"It is a northern coat. I have seen it in the train of the +Percies. From the shields, there is not one of these vessels +which hath not knight or baron aboard. I would mine eyes were +better. How read you this upon the left?" + +"Argent and azure, a barry wavy of six." + +"Ha, it is the sign of the Wiltshire Stourtons! And there beyond +I see the red and silver of the Worsleys of Apuldercombe, who +like myself are of Hampshire lineage. Close behind us is the +moline cross of the gallant William Molyneux, and beside it the +bloody chevrons of the Norfork Woodhouses, with the amulets of +the Musgraves of Westmoreland. By St. Paul! it would be a very +strange thing if so noble a company were to gather without some +notable deed of arms arising from it. And here is our boat, Sir +Oliver, so it seems best to me that we should go to the abbey +with our squires, leaving Master Hawtayne to have his own way in +the unloading." + +The horses both of knights and squires were speedily lowered into +a broad lighter, and reached the shore almost as soon as their +masters. Sir Nigel bent his knee devoutly as he put foot on +land, and taking a small black patch from his bosom he bound it +tightly over his left eye. + +"May the blessed George and the memory of my sweet lady-love +raise high my heart!" quoth he. "And as a token I vow that I +will not take this patch from my eye until I have seen something +of this country of Spain, and done such a small deed as it lies +in me to do. And this I swear upon the cross of my sword and +upon the glove of my lady." + +"In truth, you take me back twenty years, Nigel," quoth Sir +Oliver, as they mounted and rode slowly through the water-gate. +"After Cadsand, I deem that the French thought that we were an +army of the blind, for there was scarce a man who had not closed +an eye for the greater love and honor of his lady. Yet it goes +hard with you that you should darken one side, when with both +open you can scarce tell a horse from a mule. In truth, friend, +I think that you step over the line of reason in this matter." + +"Sir Oliver Buttesthorn," said the little knight shortly, "I +would have you to understand that, blind as I am, I can yet see +the path of honor very clearly, and that that is the road upon +which I do not crave another man's guidance." + +"By my soul," said Sir Oliver, "you are as tart as verjuice this +morning! If you are bent upon a quarrel with me I must leave you +to your humor and drop into the `Tete d'Or' here, for I marked a +varlet pass the door who bare a smoking dish, which had, +methought, a most excellent smell." + +"Nenny, nenny," cried his comrade, laying his hand upon his knee; +"we have known each other over long to fall out, Oliver, like two +raw pages at their first epreuves. You must come with me first +to the prince, and then back to the hostel; though sure I am that +it would grieve his heart that any gentle cavalier should turn +from his board to a common tavern. But is not that my Lord +Delewar who waves to us? Ha! my fair lord, God and Our Lady be +with you! And there is Sir Robert Cheney. Good-morrow, Robert! +I am right glad to see you." + +The two knights walked their horses abreast, while Alleyne and +Ford, with John Norbury, who was squire to Sir Oliver, kept +some paces behind them, a spear's-length in front of Black Simon +and of the Winchester guidon-bearer. Norbury, a lean, silent +man, had been to those parts before, and sat his horse with a +rigid neck; but the two young squires gazed eagerly to right or +left, and plucked each other's sleeves to call attention to the +many strange things on every side of them. + +"See to the brave stalls!" cried Alleyne. "See to the noble +armor set forth, and the costly taffeta--and oh, Ford, see to +where the scrivener sits with the pigments and the ink-horns, and +the rolls of sheepskin as white as the Beaulieu napery! Saw man +ever the like before?" + +"Nay, man, there are finer stalls in Cheapside," answered Ford, +whose father had taken him to London on occasion of one of the +Smithfield joustings. "I have seen a silversmith's booth there +which would serve to buy either side of this street. But mark +these houses, Alleyne, how they thrust forth upon the top. And +see to the coats-of-arms at every window, and banner or pensil on +the roof." + +"And the churches!" cried Alleyne. "The Priory at Christ church +was a noble pile, but it was cold and bare, methinks, by one of +these, with their frettings, and their carvings, and their +traceries, as though some great ivy-plant of stone had curled and +wantoned over the walls." + +"And hark to the speech of the folk!" said Ford. "Was ever such +a hissing and clacking? I wonder that they have not wit to learn +English now that they have come under the English crown. By +Richard of Hampole! there are fair faces amongst them. See the +wench with the brown whimple! Out on you, Alleyne, that you +would rather gaze upon dead stone than on living flesh!" + +It was little wonder that the richness and ornament, not only of +church and of stall, but of every private house as well, should +have impressed itself upon the young squires. The town was now +at the height of its fortunes. Besides its trade and its +armorers, other causes had combined to pour wealth into it. War, +which had wrought evil upon so many fair cities around, had +brought nought but good to this one. As her French sisters +decayed she increased, for here, from north, and from east, and +from south, came the plunder to be sold and the ransom money to +be spent. Through all her sixteen landward gates there had set +for many years a double tide of empty-handed soldiers hurrying +Francewards, and of enriched and laden bands who brought their +spoils home. The prince's court, too, with its swarm of noble +barons and wealthy knights, many of whom, in imitation of their +master, had brought their ladies and their children from England, +all helped to swell the coffers of the burghers. Now, with this +fresh influx of noblemen and cavaliers, food and lodging were +scarce to be had, and the prince was hurrying forward his forces +to Dax in Gascony to relieve the overcrowding of his capital. + +In front of the minster and abbey of St. Andrew's was a large +square crowded with priests, soldiers, women, friars, and +burghers, who made it their common centre for sight-seeing and +gossip. Amid the knot of noisy and gesticulating townsfolk, many +small parties of mounted knights and squires threaded their way +towards the prince's quarters, where the huge iron-clamped doors +were thrown back to show that he held audience within. Two-score +archers stood about the gateway, and beat back from time to time +with their bow-staves the inquisitive and chattering crowd who +swarmed round the portal. Two knights in full armor, with lances +raised and closed visors, sat their horses on either side, while +in the centre, with two pages to tend upon him, there stood a +noble-faced man in flowing purple gown, who pricked off upon a +sheet of parchment the style and title of each applicant, +marshalling them in their due order, and giving to each the place +and facility which his rank demanded. His long white beard and +searching eyes imparted to him an air of masterful dignity, which +was increased by his tabardlike vesture and the heraldic barret +cap with triple plume which bespoke his office. + +"It is Sir William de Pakington, the prince's own herald and +scrivener," whispered Sir Nigel, as they pulled up amid the line +of knights who waited admission. "Ill fares it with the man who +would venture to deceive him. He hath by rote the name of every +knight of France or of England; and all the tree of his family, +with his kinships, coat-armor, marriages, augmentations, +abatements, and I know not what beside. We may leave our horses +here with the varlets, and push forward with our squires." + +Following Sir Nigel's counsel, they pressed on upon foot until +they were close to the prince's secretary, who was in high debate +with a young and foppish knight, who was bent upon making his way +past him. + +"Mackworth!" said the king-at-arms. "It is in my mind, young +sir, that you have not been presented before." + +"Nay, it is but a day since I set foot in Bordeaux, but I feared +lest the prince should think it strange that I had not waited +upon him." + +"The prince hath other things to think upon," quoth Sir William +de Pakington; "but if you be a Mackworth you must be a Mackworth +of Normanton, and indeed I see now that your coat is sable and +ermine." + +"I am a Mackworth of Normanton," the other answered, with some +uneasiness of manner. + +"Then you must be Sir Stephen Mackworth, for I learn that when +old Sir Guy died he came in for the arms and the name, the +war-cry and the profit." + +"Sir Stephen is my elder brother, and I am Arthur, the second +son," said the youth. + +"In sooth and in sooth!" cried the king-at-arms with scornful +eyes. "And pray, sir second son, where is the cadency mark which +should mark your rank. Dare you to wear your brother's coat +without the crescent which should stamp you as his cadet. Away +to your lodgings, and come not nigh the prince until the armorer +hath placed the true charge upon your shield." As the youth +withdrew in confusion, Sir William's keen eye singled out the +five red roses from amid the overlapping shields and cloud of +pennons which faced him. + +"Ha!" he cried, "there are charges here which are above +counterfeit. The roses of Loring and the boar's head of +Buttesthorn may stand back in peace, but by my faith! they are +not to be held back in war. Welcome, Sir Oliver, Sir Nigel! +Chandos will be glad to his very heart-roots when he sees you. +This way, my fair sirs. Your squires are doubtless worthy the +fame of their masters. Down this passage, Sir Oliver! Edricson! +Ha! one of the old strain of Hampshire Edricsons, I doubt not. +And Ford, they are of a south Saxon stock, and of good repute. +There are Norburys in Cheshire and in Wiltshire, and also, as I +have heard, upon the borders. So, my fair sirs, and I shall see +that you are shortly admitted." + +He had finished his professional commentary by flinging open a +folding door, and ushering the party into a broad hall, which was +filled with a great number of people who were waiting, like +themselves, for an audience. The room was very spacious, lighted +on one side by three arched and mullioned windows, while opposite +was a huge fireplace in which a pile of faggots was blazing +merrily. Many of the company had crowded round the flames, for +the weather was bitterly cold; but the two knights seated +themselves upon a bancal, with their squires standing behind +them. Looking down the room, Alleyne marked that both floor and +ceiling were of the richest oak, the latter spanned by twelve +arching beams, which were adorned at either end by the lilies and +the lions of the royal arms. On the further side was a small +door, on each side of which stood men-at-arms. From time to time +an elderly man in black with rounded shoulders and a long white +wand in his hand came softly forth from this inner room, and +beckoned to one or other of the company, who doffed cap and +followed him. + +The two knights were deep in talk, when Alleyne became aware of a +remarkable individual who was walking round the room in their +direction. As he passed each knot of cavaliers every head turned +to look after him, and it was evident, from the bows and +respectful salutations on all sides, that the interest which he +excited was not due merely to his strange personal appearance. +He was tall and straight as a lance, though of a great age, for +his hair, which curled from under his velvet cap of maintenance, +was as white as the new-fallen snow. Yet, from the swing of his +stride and the spring of his step, it was clear that he had not +yet lost the fire and activity of his youth. His fierce +hawk-like face was clean shaven like that of a priest, save for a +long thin wisp of white moustache which drooped down half way to +his shoulder. That he had been handsome might be easily judged +from his high aquiline nose and clear-cut chin; but his features +had been so distorted by the seams and scars of old wounds, and +by the loss of one eye which had been torn from the socket, that +there was little left to remind one of the dashing young knight +who had been fifty years ago the fairest as well as the boldest +of the English chivalry. Yet what knight was there in that hall +of St. Andrew's who would not have gladly laid down youth, beauty, +and all that he possessed to win the fame of this man? For who +could be named with Chandos, the stainless knight, the wise +councillor, the valiant warrior, the hero of Crecy, of +Winchelsea, of Poictiers, of Auray, and of as many other battles +as there were years to his life? + +"Ha, my little heart of gold!" he cried, darting forward suddenly +and throwing his arms round Sir Nigel. "I heard that you were +here and have been seeking you." + +"My fair and dear lord," said the knight, returning the warrior's +embrace, "I have indeed come back to you, for where else shall I +go that I may learn to be a gentle and a hardy knight?" + +"By my troth!" said Chandos with a smile, "it is very fitting +that we should be companions, Nigel, for since you have tied up +one of your eyes, and I have had the mischance to lose one of +mine, we have but a pair between us. Ah, Sir Oliver! you were on +the blind side of me and I saw you not. A wise woman hath made +prophecy that this blind side will one day be the death of me. +We shall go in to the prince anon; but in truth he hath much upon +his hands, for what with Pedro, and the King of Majorca, and the +King of Navarre, who is no two days of the same mind, and the +Gascon barons who are all chaffering for terms like so many +hucksters, he hath an uneasy part to play. But how left you the +Lady Loring?" + +"She was well, my fair lord, and sent her service and greetings +to you." + +"I am ever her knight and slave. And your journey, I trust that +it was pleasant?" + +"As heart could wish. We had sight of two rover galleys, and +even came to have some slight bickering with them." + +"Ever in luck's way, Nigel!" quoth Sir John. "We must hear the +tale anon. But I deem it best that ye should leave your squires +and come with me, for, howsoe'er pressed the prince may be, I am +very sure that he would be loth to keep two old comrades-in-arms +upon the further side of the door. Follow close behind me, and I +will forestall old Sir William, though I can scarce promise to +roll forth your style and rank as is his wont." So saying, he led +the way to the inner chamber, the two companions treading close +at his heels, and nodding to right and left as they caught sight +of familiar faces among the crowd. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +HOW THERE WAS STIR AT THE ABBEY OF ST. ANDREW'S. + + +The prince's reception-room, although of no great size, was +fitted up with all the state and luxury which the fame and power +of its owner demanded. A high dais at the further end was roofed +in by a broad canopy of scarlet velvet spangled with silver +fleurs-de-lis, and supported at either corner by silver rods. +This was approached by four steps carpeted with the same +material, while all round were scattered rich cushions, oriental +mats and costly rugs of fur. The choicest tapestries which the +looms of Arras could furnish draped the walls, whereon the +battles of Judas Maccabaeus were set forth, with the Jewish +warriors in plate of proof, with crest and lance and banderole, +as the naive artists of the day were wont to depict them. A few +rich settles and bancals, choicely carved and decorated with +glazed leather hangings of the sort termed _or basane_, completed +the furniture of the apartment, save that at one side of the dais +there stood a lofty perch, upon which a cast of three solemn +Prussian gerfalcons sat, hooded and jesseled, as silent and +motionless as the royal fowler who stood beside them. + +In the centre of the dais were two very high chairs with +dorserets, which arched forwards over the heads of the occupants, +the whole covered with light-blue silk thickly powdered with +golden stars. On that to the right sat a very tall and well +formed man with red hair, a livid face, and a cold blue eye, +which had in it something peculiarly sinister and menacing. He +lounged back in a careless position, and yawned repeatedly as +though heartily weary of the proceedings, stooping from time to +time to fondle a shaggy Spanish greyhound which lay stretched at +his feet. On the other throne there was perched bolt upright, +with prim demeanor, as though he felt himself to be upon his +good behavior, a little, round, pippin faced person, who smiled +and bobbed to every one whose eye he chanced to meet. Between +and a little in front of them on a humble charette or stool, sat +a slim, dark young man, whose quiet attire and modest manner +would scarce proclaim him to be the most noted prince in Europe. +A jupon of dark blue cloth, tagged with buckles and pendants of +gold, seemed but a sombre and plain attire amidst the wealth of +silk and ermine and gilt tissue of fustian with which he was +surrounded. He sat with his two hands clasped round his knee, +his head slightly bent, and an expression of impatience and of +trouble upon his clear, well-chiselled features. Behind the +thrones there stood two men in purple gowns, with ascetic, +clean-shaven faces, and half a dozen other high dignitaries and +office-holders of Aquitaine. Below on either side of the steps +were forty or fifty barons, knights, and courtiers, ranged in a +triple row to the right and the left, with a clear passage in the +centre. + +"There sits the prince," whispered Sir John Chandos, as they +entered. "He on the right is Pedro, whom we are about to put +upon the Spanish throne. The other is Don James, whom we purpose +with the aid of God to help to his throne in Majorca. Now follow +me, and take it not to heart if he be a little short in his +speech, for indeed his mind is full of many very weighty +concerns." + +The prince, however, had already observed their entrance, and, +springing to his feet, he had advanced with a winning smile and +the light of welcome in his eyes. + +"We do not need your good offices as herald here, Sir John," said +he in a low but clear voice; "these valiant knights are very well +known to me. Welcome to Aquitaine, Sir Nigel Loring and Sir +Oliver Buttesthorn. Nay, keep your knee for my sweet father at +Windsor. I would have your hands, my friends. We are like to +give you some work to do ere you see the downs of Hampshire once +more. Know you aught of Spain, Sir Oliver?" + +"Nought, my sire, save that I have heard men say that there is a +dish named an olla which is prepared there, though I have never +been clear in my mind as to whether it was but a ragout such as +is to be found in the south, or whether there is some seasoning +such as fennel or garlic which is peculiar to Spain." + +"Your doubts, Sir Oliver, shall soon be resolved," answered the +prince, laughing heartily, as did many of the barons who +surrounded them. "His majesty here will doubtless order that you +have this dish hotly seasoned when we are all safely in Castile." + +"I will have a hotly seasoned dish for some folk I know of," +answered Don Pedro with a cold smile. + +"But my friend Sir Oliver can fight right hardily without either +bite or sup," remarked the prince. "Did I not see him at +Poictiers, when for two days we had not more than a crust of +bread and a cup of foul water, yet carrying himself most +valiantly. With my own eyes I saw him in the rout sweep the head +from a knight of Picardy with one blow of his sword." + +"The rogue got between me and the nearest French victual wain," +muttered Sir Oliver, amid a fresh titter from those who were near +enough to catch his words. + +"How many have you in your train?" asked the prince, assuming a +graver mien. + +"I have forty men-at-arms, sire," said Sir Oliver. + +"And I have one hundred archers and a score of lancers, but there +are two hundred men who wait for me on this side of the water +upon the borders of Navarre." + +"And who are they, Sir Nigel?" + +"They are a free company, sire, and they are called the White +Company." + +To the astonishment of the knight, his words provoked a burst of +merriment from the barons round, in which the two kings and the +prince were fain to join. Sir Nigel blinked mildly from one to +the other, until at last perceiving a stout black-bearded knight +at his elbow, whose laugh rang somewhat louder than the others, +he touched him lightly upon the sleeve. + +"Perchance, my fair sir," he whispered, "there is some small vow +of which I may relieve you. Might we not have some honorable +debate upon the matter. Your gentle courtesy may perhaps grant +me an exchange of thrusts." + +"Nay, nay, Sir Nigel," cried the prince, "fasten not the offence +upon Sir Robert Briquet, for we are one and all bogged in the +same mire. Truth to say, our ears have just been vexed by the +doings of the same company, and I have even now made vow to hang +the man who held the rank of captain over it. I little thought +to find him among the bravest of my own chosen chieftains. But +the vow is now nought, for, as you have never seen your company, +it would be a fool's act to blame you for their doings." + +"My liege," said Sir Nigel, "it is a very small matter that I +should be hanged, albeit the manner of death is somewhat more +ignoble than I had hoped for. On the other hand, it would be a +very grievous thing that you, the Prince of England and the +flower of knighthood, should make a vow, whether in ignorance or +no, and fail to bring it to fulfilment." + +"Vex not your mind on that," the prince answered, smiling. "We +have had a citizen from Montauban here this very day, who told us +such a tale of sack and murder and pillage that it moved our +blood; but our wrath was turned upon the man who was in authority +over them." + +"My dear and honored master," cried Nigel, in great anxiety, "I +fear me much that in your gentleness of heart you are straining +this vow which you have taken. If there be so much as a shadow +of a doubt as to the form of it, it were a thousand times best----" + +"Peace! peace!" cried the prince impatiently. "I am very well +able to look to my own vows and their performance. We hope to +see you both in the banquet-hall anon. Meanwhile you will attend +upon us with our train." He bowed, and Chandos, plucking Sir +Oliver by the sleeve, led them both away to the back of the press +of courtiers. + +"Why, little coz," he whispered, "you are very eager to have your +neck in a noose. By my soul! had you asked as much from our new +ally Don Pedro, he had not baulked you. Between friends, there +is overmuch of the hangman in him, and too little of the prince. +But indeed this White Company is a rough band, and may take some +handling ere you find yourself safe in your captaincy." + +"I doubt not, with the help of St. Paul, that I shall bring them +to some order," Sir Nigel answered. "But there are many faces +here which are new to me, though others have been before me since +first I waited upon my dear master, Sir Walter. I pray you to +tell me, Sir John, who are these priests upon the dais?" + +"The one is the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Nigel, and the other the +Bishop of Agen." + +"And the dark knight with gray-streaked beard? By my troth, he +seems to be a man of much wisdom and valor." + +"He is Sir William Felton, who, with my unworthy self, is the +chief counsellor of the prince, he being high steward and I the +seneschal of Aquitaine." + +"And the knights upon the right, beside Don Pedro?" + +"They are cavaliers of Spain who have followed him in his exile. +The one at his elbow is Fernando de Castro, who is as brave and +true a man as heart could wish. In front to the right are the +Gascon lords. You may well tell them by their clouded brows, for +there hath been some ill-will of late betwixt the prince and +them. The tall and burly man is the Captal de Buch, whom I doubt +not that you know, for a braver knight never laid lance in rest. +That heavy-faced cavalier who plucks his skirts and whispers in +his ear is Lord Oliver de Clisson, known also as the butcher. He +it is who stirs up strife, and forever blows the dying embers +into flame. The man with the mole upon his cheek is the Lord +Pommers, and his two brothers stand behind him, with the Lord +Lesparre, Lord de Rosem, Lord de Mucident, Sir Perducas d'Albret, +the Souldich de la Trane, and others. Further back are knights +from Quercy, Limousin, Saintonge, Poitou, and Aquitaine, with the +valiant Sir Guiscard d'Angle. That is he in the rose-colored +doublet with the ermine." + +"And the knights upon this side?" + +"They are all Englishmen, some of the household and others who +like yourself, are captains of companies. There is Lord Neville, +Sir Stephen Cossington, and Sir Matthew Gourney, with Sir Walter +Huet, Sir Thomas Banaster, and Sir Thomas Felton, who is the +brother of the high steward. Mark well the man with the high +nose and flaxen beard who hath placed his hand upon the shoulder +of the dark hard-faced cavalier in the rust-stained jupon." + +"Aye, by St. Paul!" observed Sir Nigel, "they both bear the print +of their armor upon their cotes-hardies. Methinks they are men +who breathe freer in a camp than a court." + +"There are many of us who do that, Nigel," said Chandos, "and the +head of the court is, I dare warrant, among them. But of these +two men the one is Sir Hugh Calverley, and the other is Sir +Robert Knolles." + +Sir Nigel and Sir Oliver craned their necks to have the clearer +view of these famous warriors, the one a chosen leader of free +companies, the other a man who by his fierce valor and energy had +raised himself from the lowest ranks until he was second only to +Chandos himself in the esteem of the army. + +"He hath no light hand in war, hath Sir Robert," said Chandos. +"If he passes through a country you may tell it for some years to +come. I have heard that in the north it is still the use to call +a house which hath but the two gable ends left, without walls or +roof, a Knolles' mitre." + +"I have often heard of him," said Nigel, "and I have hoped to be +so far honored as to run a course with him. But hark, Sir John, +what is amiss with the prince?" + +Whilst Chandos had been conversing with the two knights a +continuous stream of suitors had been ushered in, adventurers +seeking to sell their swords and merchants clamoring over some +grievance, a ship detained for the carriage of troops, or a tun +of sweet wine which had the bottom knocked out by a troop of +thirsty archers. A few words from the prince disposed of each +case, and, if the applicant liked not the judgment, a quick +glance from the prince's dark eyes sent him to the door with the +grievance all gone out of him. The younger ruler had sat +listlessly upon his stool with the two puppet monarchs enthroned +behind him, but of a sudden a dark shadow passed over his face, +and he sprang to his feet in one of those gusts of passion which +were the single blot upon his noble and generous character. + +"How now, Don Martin de la Carra?" he cried. "How now, sirrah? +What message do you bring to us from our brother of Navarre?" + +The new-comer to whom this abrupt query had been addressed was a +tall and exceedingly handsome cavalier who had just been ushered +into the apartment. His swarthy cheek and raven black hair spoke +of the fiery south, and he wore his long black cloak swathed +across his chest and over his shoulders in a graceful sweeping +fashion, which was neither English nor French. With stately +steps and many profound bows, he advanced to the foot of the dais +before replying to the prince's question. + +"My powerful and illustrious master," he began, "Charles, King of +Navarre, Earl of Evreux, Count of Champagne, who also writeth +himself Overlord of Bearn, hereby sends his love and greetings to +his dear cousin Edward, the Prince of Wales, Governor of +Aquitaine, Grand Commander of----" + +"Tush! tush! Don Martin!" interrupted the prince, who had been +beating the ground with his foot impatiently during this stately +preamble. "We already know our cousin's titles and style, and, +certes, we know our own. To the point, man, and at once. Are the +passes open to us, or does your master go back from his word +pledged to me at Libourne no later than last Michaelmas?" + +"It would ill become my gracious master, sire, to go back from +promise given. He does but ask some delay and certain conditions +and hostages----" + +"Conditions! Hostages! Is he speaking to the Prince of England, +or is it to the bourgeois provost of some half-captured town! +Conditions, quotha? He may find much to mend in his own +condition ere long. The passes are, then, closed to us?" + +"Nay, sire----" + +"They are open, then?" + +"Nay, sire, if you would but----" + +"Enough, enough, Don Martin," cried the prince. "It is a sorry +sight to see so true a knight pleading in so false a cause. We +know the doings of our cousin Charles. We know that while with +the right hand he takes our fifty thousand crowns for the holding +of the passes open, he hath his left outstretched to Henry of +Trastamare, or to the King of France, all ready to take as many +more for the keeping them closed. I know our good Charles, and, +by my blessed name-saint the Confessor, he shall learn that I +know him. He sets his kingdom up to the best bidder, like some +scullion farrier selling a glandered horse. He is----" + +"My lord," cried Don Martin, "I cannot stand there to hear such +words of my master. Did they come from other lips, I should know +better how to answer them." + +Don Pedro frowned and curled his lip, but the prince smiled and +nodded his approbation. + +"Your bearing and your words, Don Martin, are such I should have +looked for in you," he remarked. "You will tell the king, your +master, that he hath been paid his price and that if he holds to +his promise he hath my word for it that no scath shall come to +his people, nor to their houses or gear. If, however, we have +not his leave, I shall come close at the heels of this message +without his leave, and bearing a key with me which shall open all +that he may close." He stooped and whispered to Sir Robert +Knolles and Sir Huge Calverley, who smiled as men well pleased, +and hastened from the room. + +"Our cousin Charles has had experience of our friendship," the +prince continued, "and now, by the Saints! he shall feel a touch +of our displeasure. I send now a message to our cousin Charles +which his whole kingdom may read. Let him take heed lest worse +befall him. Where is my Lord Chandos? Ha, Sir John, I commend +this worthy knight to your care. You will see that he hath +refection, and such a purse of gold as may defray his charges, +for indeed it is great honor to any court to have within it so +noble and gentle a cavalier. How say you, sire?" he asked, +turning to the Spanish refugee, while the herald of Navarre was +conducted from the chamber by the old warrior. + +"It is not our custom in Spain to reward pertness in a +messenger," Don Pedro answered, patting the head of his +greyhound. "Yet we have all heard the lengths to which your +royal generosity runs." + +"In sooth, yes," cried the King of Majorca. + +"Who should know it better than we?" said Don Pedro bitterly, +"since we have had to fly to you in our trouble as to the natural +protector of all who are weak." + +"Nay, nay, as brothers to a brother," cried the prince, with +sparkling eyes. "We doubt not, with the help of God, to see you +very soon restored to those thrones from which you have been so +traitorously thrust." + +"When that happy day comes," said Pedro, "then Spain shall be to +you as Aquitaine, and, be your project what it may, you may ever +count on every troop and every ship over which flies the banner +of Castile." + +"And," added the other, "upon every aid which the wealth and +power of Majorca can bestow." + +"Touching the hundred thousand crowns in which I stand your +debtor," continued Pedro carelessly, "it can no doubt----" + +"Not a word, sire, not a word!" cried the prince. "It is not now +when you are in grief that I would vex your mind with such base +and sordid matters. I have said once and forever that I am yours +with every bow-string of my army and every florin in my coffers." + +"Ah! here is indeed a mirror of chivalry," said Don Pedro. "I +think, Sir Fernando, since the prince's bounty is stretched so +far, that we may make further use of his gracious goodness to the +extent of fifty thousand crowns. Good Sir William Felton, here, +will doubtless settle the matter with you." + +The stout old English counsellor looked somewhat blank at this +prompt acceptance of his master's bounty. + +"If it please you, sire," he said, "the public funds are at their +lowest, seeing that I have paid twelve thousand men of the +companies, and the new taxes--the hearth-tax and the +wine-tax--not yet come in. If you could wait until the promised +help from England comes----" + +"Nay, nay, my sweet cousin," cried Don Pedro. "Had we known that +your own coffers were so low, or that this sorry sum could have +weighed one way or the other, we had been loth indeed----" + +"Enough, sire, enough!" said the prince, flushing with vexation. +"If the public funds be, indeed, so backward, Sir William, there +is still, I trust, my own private credit, which hath never been +drawn upon for my own uses, but is now ready in the cause of a +friend in adversity. Go, raise this money upon our own jewels, +if nought else may serve, and see that it be paid over to Don +Fernando." + +"In security I offer----" cried Don Pedro. + +"Tush! tush!" said the prince. "I am not a Lombard, sire. Your +kingly pledge is my security, without bond or seal. But I have +tidings for you, my lords and lieges, that our brother of +Lancaster is on his way for our capital with four hundred lances +and as many archers to aid us in our venture. When he hath come, +and when our fair consort is recovered in her health, which I +trust by the grace of God may be ere many weeks be past, we shall +then join the army at Dax, and set our banners to the breeze once +more." + +A buzz of joy at the prospect of immediate action rose up from +the group of warriors. The prince smiled at the martial ardor +which shone upon every face around him. + +"It will hearten you to know," he continued, "that I have sure +advices that this Henry is a very valiant leader, and that he has +it in his power to make such a stand against us as promises to +give us much honor and pleasure. Of his own people he hath +brought together, as I learn, some fifty thousand, with twelve +thousand of the French free companies, who are, as you know very +valiant and expert men-at-arms. It is certain also, that the +brave and worthy Bertrand de Guesclin hath ridden into France to +the Duke of Anjou, and purposes to take back with him great +levies from Picardy and Brittany. We hold Bertrand in high +esteem, for he has oft before been at great pains to furnish us +with an honorable encounter. What think you of it, my worthy +Captal? He took you at Cocherel, and, by my soul I you will have +the chance now to pay that score." + +The Gascon warrior winced a little at the allusion, nor were his +countrymen around him better pleased, for on the only occasion +when they had encountered the arms of France without English aid +they had met with a heavy defeat. + +"There are some who say, sire," said the burly De Clisson, "that +the score is already overpaid, for that without Gascon help +Bertrand had not been taken at Auray, nor had King John been +overborne at Poictiers." + +"By heaven! but this is too much," cried an English nobleman. +"Methinks that Gascony is too small a cock to crow so lustily." + +"The smaller cock, my Lord Audley, may have the longer spur," +remarked the Captal de Buch. + +"May have its comb clipped if it make over-much noise," broke in +an Englishman. + +"By our Lady of Rocamadour!" cried the Lord of Mucident, "this is +more than I can abide. Sir John Charnell, you shall answer to me +for those words!" + +"Freely, my lord, and when you will," returned the Englishman +carelessly. + +"My Lord de Clisson," cried Lord Audley, "you look some, what +fixedly in my direction. By God's soul! I should be right glad +to go further into the matter with you." + +"And you, my Lord of Pommers," said Sir Nigel, pushing his way to +the front, "it is in my mind that we might break a lance in +gentle and honorable debate over the question." + +For a moment a dozen challenges flashed backwards and forwards at +this sudden bursting of the cloud which had lowered so long +between the knights of the two nations. Furious and +gesticulating the Gascons, white and cold and sneering the +English, while the prince with a half smile glanced from one +party to the other, like a man who loved to dwell upon a fiery +scene, and yet dreaded least the mischief go so far that he might +find it beyond his control. + +"Friends, friends!" he cried at last, "this quarrel must go no +further. The man shall answer to me, be he Gascon or English, +who carries it beyond this room. I have overmuch need for your +swords that you should turn them upon each other. Sir John +Charnell, Lord Audley, you do not doubt the courage of our +friends of Gascony?" + +"Not I, sire," Lord Audley answered. "I have seen them fight too +often not to know that they are very hardy and valiant +gentlemen." + +"And so say I," quoth the other Englishman; "but, certes, there +is no fear of our forgetting it while they have a tongue in their +heads." + +"Nay, Sir John," said the prince reprovingly, "all peoples have +their own use and customs. There are some who might call us cold +and dull and silent. But you hear, my lords of Gascony, that +these gentlemen had no thought to throw a slur upon your honor or +your valor, so let all anger fade from your mind. Clisson, +Captal, De Pommers, I have your word?" + +"We are your subjects, sire," said the Gascon barons, though with +no very good grace. "Your words are our law." + +"Then shall we bury all cause of unkindness in a flagon of +Malvoisie," said the prince, cheerily. "Ho, there! the doors of +the banquet-hall! I have been over long from my sweet spouse but +I shall be back with you anon. Let the sewers serve and the +minstrels play, while we drain a cup to the brave days that are +before us in the south!" He turned away, accompanied by the two +monarchs, while the rest of the company, with many a compressed +lip and menacing eye, filed slowly through the side-door to the +great chamber in which the royal tables were set forth. + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +HOW ALLEYNE WON HIS PLACE IN AN HONORABLE GUILD. + + +Whilst the prince's council was sitting, Alleyne and Ford had +remained in the outer hall, where they were soon surrounded by a +noisy group of young Englishmen of their own rank, all eager to +hear the latest news from England. + +"How is it with the old man at Windsor?" asked one. + +"And how with the good Queen Philippa?" + +"And how with Dame Alice Perrers?" cried a third. + +"The devil take your tongue, Wat!" shouted a tall young man, +seizing the last speaker by the collar and giving him an +admonitory shake. "The prince would take your head off for those +words." + +"By God's coif! Wat would miss it but little," said another. "It +is as empty as a beggar's wallet." + +"As empty as an English squire, coz," cried the first speaker. +"What a devil has become of the maitre-des-tables and his sewers? +They have not put forth the trestles yet." + +"Mon Dieu! if a man could eat himself into knighthood, Humphrey, +you had been a banneret at the least," observed another, amid a +burst of laughter. + +"And if you could drink yourself in, old leather-head, you had +been first baron of the realm," cried the aggrieved Humphrey. +"But how of England, my lads of Loring?" + +"I take it," said Ford, "that it is much as it was when you were +there last, save that perchance there is a little less noise +there." + +"And why less noise, young Solomon?" + +"Ah, that is for your wit to discover." + +"Pardieu! here is a paladin come over, with the Hampshire mud +still sticking to his shoes. He means that the noise is less for +our being out of the country." + +"They are very quick in these parts," said Ford, turning to +Alleyne. + +"How are we to take this, sir?" asked the ruffling squire. + +"You may take it as it comes," said Ford carelessly. + +"Here is pertness!" cried the other. + +"Sir, I honor your truthfulness," said Ford. + +"Stint it, Humphrey," said the tall squire, with a burst of +laughter. "You will have little credit from this gentleman, I +perceive. Tongues are sharp in Hampshire, sir." + +"And swords?" + +"Hum! we may prove that. In two days' time is the vepres du +tournoi, when we may see if your lance is as quick as your wit." + +"All very well, Roger Harcomb," cried a burly, bull-necked young +man, whose square shoulders and massive limbs told of exceptional +personal strength. "You pass too lightly over the matter. We +are not to be so easily overcrowed. The Lord Loring hath given +his proofs; but we know nothing of his squires, save that one of +them hath a railing tongue. And how of you, young sir?" bringing +his heavy hand down on Alleyne's shoulder. + +"And what of me, young sir?" + +"Ma foi! this is my lady's page come over. Your cheek will be +browner and your hand harder ere you see your mother again." + +"If my hand is not hard, it is ready." + +"Ready? Ready for what? For the hem of my lady's train?" + +"Ready to chastise insolence, sir," cried Alleyne with hashing +eyes. + +"Sweet little coz!" answered the burly squire. "Such a dainty +color! Such a mellow voice! Eyes of a bashful maid, and hair +like a three years' babe! Voila!" He passed his thick fingers +roughly through the youth's crisp golden curls. + +"You seek to force a quarrel, sir," said the young man, white +with anger. + +"And what then?" + +"Why, you do it like a country boor, and not like a gentle +squire. Hast been ill bred and as ill taught. I serve a master +who could show you how such things should he done." + +"And how would he do it, O pink of squires?" + +"He would neither be loud nor would he be unmannerly, but rather +more gentle than is his wont. He would say, `Sir, I should take +it as an honor to do some small deed of arms against you, not for +mine own glory or advancement, but rather for the fame of my lady +and for the upholding of chivalry.' Then he would draw his +glove, thus, and throw it on the ground; or, if he had cause to +think that he had to deal with a churl, he might throw it in his +face--as I do now!" + +A buzz of excitement went up from the knot of squires as Alleyne, +his gentle nature turned by this causeless attack into fiery +resolution, dashed his glove with all his strength into the +sneering face of his antagonist. From all parts of the hall +squires and pages came running, until a dense, swaying crowd +surrounded the disputants. + +"Your life for this!" said the bully, with a face which was +distorted with rage. + +"If you can take it," returned Alleyne. + +"Good lad!" whispered Ford. "Stick to it close as wax." + +"I shall see justice," cried Norbury, Sir Oliver's silent +attendant. + +"You brought it upon yourself, John Tranter," said the tall +squire, who had been addressed as Roger Harcomb. "You must ever +plague the new-comers. But it were shame if this went further. +The lad hath shown a proper spirit." + +"But a blow! a blow!" cried several of the older squires. "There +must be a finish to this." + +"Nay; Tranter first laid hand upon his head," said Harcomb. "How +say you, Tranter? The matter may rest where it stands?" + +"My name is known in these parts," said Tranter, proudly, "I can +let pass what might leave a stain upon another. Let him pick up +his glove and say that he has done amiss." + +"I would see him in the claws of the devil first," whispered +Ford. + +"You hear, young sir?" said the peacemaker. "Our friend will +overlook the matter if you do but say that you have acted in heat +and haste." + +"I cannot say that," answered Alleyne. + +"It is our custom, young sir, when new squires come amongst us +from England, to test them in some such way. Bethink you that if +a man have a destrier or a new lance he will ever try it in time +of peace, lest in days of need it may fail him. How much more +then is it proper to test those who are our comrades in arms." + +"I would draw out if it may honorably be done," murmured Norbury +in Alleyne's ear. "The man is a noted swordsman and far above +your strength." + +Edricson came, however, of that sturdy Saxon blood which is very +slowly heated, but once up not easily to be cooled. The hint of +danger which Norbury threw out was the one thing needed to harden +his resolution. + +"I came here at the back of my master," he said, "and I looked on +every man here as an Englishman and a friend. This gentleman +hath shown me a rough welcome, and if I have answered him in the +same spirit he has but himself to thank. I will pick the glove +up; but, certes, I shall abide what I have done unless he first +crave my pardon for what he hath said and done." + +Tranter shrugged his shoulders. "You have done what you could to +save him, Harcomb," said he. "We had best settle at once." + +"So say I," cried Alleyne. + +"The council will not break up until the banquet," remarked a +gray-haired squire. "You have a clear two hours." + +"And the place?" + +"The tilting-yard is empty at this hour." + +"Nay; it must not be within the grounds of the court, or it may +go hard with all concerned if it come to the ears of the prince." + +"But there is a quiet spot near the river," said one youth. "We +have but to pass through the abbey grounds, along the armory wall, +past the church of St. Remi, and so down the Rue des Apotres." + +"En avant, then!" cried Tranter shortly, and the whole assembly +flocked out into the open air, save only those whom the special +orders of their masters held to their posts. These unfortunates +crowded to the small casements, and craned their necks after the +throng as far as they could catch a glimpse of them. + +Close to the banks of the Garonne there lay a little tract of +green sward, with the high wall of a prior's garden upon one side +and an orchard with a thick bristle of leafless apple-trees upon +the other. The river ran deep and swift up to the steep bank; +but there were few boats upon it, and the ships were moored far +out in the centre of the stream. Here the two combatants drew +their swords and threw off their doublets, for neither had any +defensive armor. The duello with its stately etiquette had not +yet come into vogue, but rough and sudden encounters were as +common as they must ever be when hot-headed youth goes abroad +with a weapon strapped to its waist. In such combats, as well as +in the more formal sports of the tilting-yard, Tranter had won a +name for strength and dexterity which had caused Norbury to utter +his well-meant warning. On the other hand, Alleyne had used his +weapons in constant exercise and practice for every day for many +months, and being by nature quick of eye and prompt of hand, he +might pass now as no mean swordsman. A strangely opposed pair +they appeared as they approached each other: Tranter dark and +stout and stiff, with hairy chest and corded arms, Alleyne a +model of comeliness and grace, with his golden hair and his skin +as fair as a woman's. An unequal fight it seemed to most; but +there were a few, and they the most experienced, who saw +something in the youth's steady gray eye and wary step which left +the issue open to doubt. + +"Hold, sirs, hold!" cried Norbury, ere a blow had been struck. +"This gentleman hath a two-handed sword, a good foot longer than +that of our friend." + +"Take mine, Alleyne," said Ford. + +"Nay, friends," he answered, "I understand the weight and balance +of mine own. To work, sir, for our lord may need us at the +abbey!" + +Tranter's great sword was indeed a mighty vantage in his favor. +He stood with his feet close together, his knees bent outwards, +ready for a dash inwards or a spring out. The weapon he held +straight up in front of him with blade erect, so that he might +either bring it down with a swinging blow, or by a turn of the +heavy blade he might guard his own head and body. A further +protection lay in the broad and powerful guard which crossed the +hilt, and which was furnished with a deep and narrow notch, in +which an expert swordsman might catch his foeman's blade, and by +a quick turn of his wrist might snap it across. Alleyne, on the +other hand, must trust for his defence to his quick eye and +active foot--for his sword, though keen as a whetstone could +make it, was of a light and graceful build with a narrow, sloping +pommel and a tapering steel. + +Tranter well knew his advantage and lost no time in putting it to +use. As his opponent walked towards him he suddenly bounded +forward and sent in a whistling cut which would have severed the +other in twain had he not sprung lightly back from it. So close +was it that the point ripped a gash in the jutting edge of his +linen cyclas. Quick as a panther, Alleyne sprang in with a +thrust, but Tranter, who was as active as he was strong, had +already recovered himself and turned it aside with a movement of +his heavy blade. Again he whizzed in a blow which made the +spectators hold their breath, and again Alleyne very quickly and +swiftly slipped from under it, and sent back two lightning +thrusts which the other could scarce parry. So close were they +to each other that Alleyne had no time to spring back from the +next cut, which beat down his sword and grazed his forehead, +sending the blood streaming into his eyes and down his cheeks. +He sprang out beyond sword sweep, and the pair stood breathing +heavily, while the crowd of young squires buzzed their applause. + +"Bravely struck on both sides!" cried Roger Harcomb. "You have +both won honor from this meeting, and it would be sin and shame +to let it go further." + +"You have done enough, Edricson," said Norbury. + +"You have carried yourself well," cried several of the older +squires. + +"For my part, I have no wish to slay this young man," said +Tranter, wiping his heated brow. + +"Does this gentleman crave my pardon for having used me +despitefully?" asked Alleyne. + +"Nay, not I." + +"Then stand on your guard, sir!" With a clatter and dash the +two blades met once more, Alleyne pressing in so as to keep +within the full sweep of the heavy blade, while Tranter as +continually sprang back to have space for one of his fatal cuts. +A three-parts-parried blow drew blood from Alleyne's left shoulder, +but at the same moment he wounded Tranter slightly upon the thigh. +Next instant, however, his blade had slipped into the fatal +notch, there was a sharp cracking sound with a tinkling upon the +ground, and he found a splintered piece of steel fifteen inches +long was all that remained to him of his weapon. + +"Your life is in my hands!" cried Tranter, with a bitter smile. + +"Nay, nay, he makes submission!" broke in several squires. + +"Another sword!" cried Ford. + +"Nay, sir," said Harcomb, "that is not the custom." + +"Throw down your hilt, Edricson," cried Norbury. + +"Never!" said Alleyne. "Do you crave my pardon, sir?" + +"You are mad to ask it." + +"Then on guard again!" cried the young squire, and sprang in with +a fire and a fury which more than made up for the shortness of +his weapon. It had not escaped him that his opponent was +breathing in short, hoarse gasps, like a man who is dizzy with +fatigue. Now was the time for the purer living and the more +agile limb to show their value. Back and back gave Tranter, ever +seeking time for a last cut. On and on came Alleyne, his jagged +point now at his foeman's face, now at his throat, now at his +chest, still stabbing and thrusting to pass the line of steel +which covered him. Yet his experienced foeman knew well that +such efforts could not be long sustained. Let him relax for one +instant, and his death-blow had come. Relax he must! Flesh and +blood could not stand the strain. Already the thrusts were less +fierce, the foot less ready, although there was no abatement of +the spirit in the steady gray eyes. Tranter, cunning and wary +from years of fighting, knew that his chance had come. He +brushed aside the frail weapon which was opposed to him, whirled +up his great blade, sprang back to get the fairer sweep--and +vanished into the waters of the Garonne. + +So intent had the squires, both combatants and spectators, been +on the matter in hand, that all thought of the steep bank and +swift still stream had gone from their minds. It was not until +Tranter, giving back before the other's fiery rush, was upon the +very brink, that a general cry warned him of his danger. That +last spring, which he hoped would have brought the fight to a +bloody end, carried him clear of the edge, and he found himself +in an instant eight feet deep in the ice-cold stream. Once and +twice his gasping face and clutching fingers broke up through the +still green water, sweeping outwards in the swirl of the current. +In vain were sword-sheaths, apple-branches and belts linked +together thrown out to him by his companions. Alleyne had +dropped his shattered sword and was standing, trembling in every +limb, with his rage all changed in an instant to pity. For the +third time the drowning man came to the surface, his hands full +of green slimy water-plants, his eyes turned in despair to the +shore. Their glance fell upon Alleyne, and he could not +withstand the mute appeal which he read in them. In an instant +he, too, was in the Garonne, striking out with powerful strokes +for his late foeman. + +Yet the current was swift and strong, and, good swimmer as he +was, it was no easy task which Alleyne had set himself. To +clutch at Tranter and to seize him by the hair was the work of a +few seconds, but to hold his head above water and to make their +way out of the current was another matter. For a hundred strokes +he did not seem to gain an inch. Then at last, amid a shout of +joy and praise from the bank, they slowly drew clear into more +stagnant water, at the instant that a rope, made of a dozen +sword-belts linked together by the buckles, was thrown by Ford +into their very hands. Three pulls from eager arms, and the two +combatants, dripping and pale, were dragged up the bank, and lay +panting upon the grass. + +John Tranter was the first to come to himself, for although he +had been longer in the water, he had done nothing during that +fierce battle with the current. He staggered to his feet and +looked down upon his rescuer, who had raised himself upon his +elbow, and was smiling faintly at the buzz of congratulation and +of praise which broke from the squires around him. + +"I am much beholden to you, sir," said Tranter, though in no very +friendly voice. "Certes, I should have been in the river now but +for you, for I was born in Warwickshire, which is but a dry +county, and there are few who swim in those parts." + +"I ask no thanks," Alleyne answered shortly. "Give me your hand +to rise, Ford." + +"The river has been my enemy," said Tranter, "but it hath been a +good friend to you, for it has saved your life this day." + +"That is as it may be," returned Alleyne. + +"But all is now well over," quoth Harcomb, "and no scath come of +it, which is more than I had at one time hoped for. Our young +friend here hath very fairly and honestly earned his right to be +craftsman of the Honorable Guild of the Squires of Bordeaux. +Here is your doublet, Tranter." + +"Alas for my poor sword which lies at the bottom of the Garonne!" +said the squire. + +"Here is your pourpoint, Edricson," cried Norbury. "Throw it +over your shoulders, that you may have at least one dry garment." + +"And now away back to the abbey!" said several. + +"One moment, sirs," cried Alleyne, who was leaning on Ford's +shoulder, with the broken sword, which he had picked up, still +clutched in his right hand. "My ears may be somewhat dulled by +the water, and perchance what has been said has escaped me, but I +have not yet heard this gentleman crave pardon for the insults +which he put upon me in the hall." + +"What! do you still pursue the quarrel?" asked Tranter. + +"And why not, sir? I am slow to take up such things, but once +afoot I shall follow it while I have life or breath." + +"Ma foi! you have not too much of either, for you are as white as +marble," said Harcomb bluntly. "Take my rede, sir, and let it +drop, for you have come very well out from it." + +"Nay," said Alleyne, "this quarrel is none of my making; but, now +that I am here, I swear to you that I shall never leave this spot +until I have that which I have come for: so ask my pardon, sir, +or choose another glaive and to it again." + +The young squire was deadly white from his exertions, both on the +land and in the water. Soaking and stained, with a smear of +blood on his white shoulder and another on his brow, there was +still in his whole pose and set of face the trace of an +inflexible resolution. His opponent's duller and more material +mind quailed before the fire and intensity of a higher spiritual +nature. + +"I had not thought that you had taken it so amiss," said he +awkwardly. "It was but such a jest as we play upon each other, +and, if you must have it so, I am sorry for it." + +"Then I am sorry too," quoth Alleyne warmly, "and here is my hand +upon it." + +"And the none-meat horn has blown three times," quoth Harcomb, as +they all streamed in chattering groups from the ground. "I know +not what the prince's maitre-de-cuisine will say or think. By my +troth! master Ford, your friend here is in need of a cup of wine, +for he hath drunk deeply of Garonne water. I had not thought +from his fair face that he had stood to this matter so shrewdly." + +"Faith," said Ford, "this air of Bordeaux hath turned our +turtle-dove into a game-cock. A milder or more courteous youth +never came out of Hampshire." + +"His master also, as I understand, is a very mild and courteous +gentleman," remarked Harcomb; "yet I do not think that they are +either of them men with whom it is very safe to trifle." + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +HOW AGOSTINO PISANO RISKED HIS HEAD. + + +Even the squires' table at the Abbey of St. Andrew's at Bordeaux +was on a very sumptuous scale while the prince held his court +there. Here first, after the meagre fare of Beaulieu and the +stinted board of the Lady Loring, Alleyne learned the lengths to +which luxury and refinement might be pushed. Roasted peacocks, +with the feathers all carefully replaced, so that the bird lay +upon the dish even as it had strutted in life, boars' heads with +the tusks gilded and the mouth lined with silver foil, jellies in +the shape of the Twelve Apostles, and a great pasty which formed +an exact model of the king's new castle at Windsor--these were a +few of the strange dishes which faced him. An archer had brought +him a change of clothes from the cog, and he had already, with +the elasticity of youth, shaken off the troubles and fatigues of +the morning. A page from the inner banqueting-hall had come with +word that their master intended to drink wine at the lodgings of +the Lord Chandos that night, and that he desired his squires to +sleep at the hotel of the "Half Moon" on the Rue des Apotres. +Thither then they both set out in the twilight after the long +course of juggling tricks and glee-singing with which the +principal meal was concluded. + +A thin rain was falling as the two youths, with their cloaks over +their heads, made their way on foot through the streets of the +old town, leaving their horses in the royal stables. An +occasional oil lamp at the corner of a street, or in the portico +of some wealthy burgher, threw a faint glimmer over the shining +cobblestones, and the varied motley crowd who, in spite of the +weather, ebbed and flowed along every highway. In those +scattered circles of dim radiance might be seen the whole busy +panorama of life in a wealthy and martial city. Here passed the +round-faced burgher, swollen with prosperity, his sweeping +dark-clothed gaberdine, flat velvet cap, broad leather belt and +dangling pouch all speaking of comfort and of wealth. Behind him +his serving wench, her blue whimple over her head, and one hand +thrust forth to bear the lanthorn which threw a golden bar of +light along her master's path. Behind them a group of +swaggering, half-drunken Yorkshire dalesmen, speaking a dialect +which their own southland countrymen could scarce comprehend, +their jerkins marked with the pelican, which showed that they had +come over in the train of the north-country Stapletons. The +burgher glanced back at their fierce faces and quickened his +step, while the girl pulled her whimple closer round her, for +there was a meaning in their wild eyes, as they stared at the +purse and the maiden, which men of all tongues could understand. +Then came archers of the guard, shrill-voiced women of the camp, +English pages with their fair skins and blue wondering eyes, +dark-robed friars, lounging men-at-arms, swarthy loud-tongued +Gascon serving-men, seamen from the river, rude peasants of the +Medoc, and becloaked and befeathered squires of the court, all +jostling and pushing in an ever-changing, many-colored stream, +while English, French, Welsh, Basque, and the varied dialects of +Gascony and Guienne filled the air with their babel. From time +to time the throng would be burst asunder and a lady's horse-litter + would trot past towards the abbey, or there would come a knot of +torch-bearing archers walking in front of Gascon baron or English +knight, as he sought his lodgings after the palace revels. +Clatter of hoofs, clinking of weapons, shouts from the drunken +brawlers, and high laughter of women, they all rose up, like the +mist from a marsh, out of the crowded streets of the dim-lit +city. + +One couple out of the moving throng especially engaged the +attention of the two young squires, the more so as they were +going in their own direction and immediately in front of them. +They consisted of a man and a girl, the former very tall with +rounded shoulders, a limp of one foot, and a large flat object +covered with dark cloth under his arm. His companion was young +and straight, with a quick, elastic step and graceful bearing, +though so swathed in a black mantle that little could be seen of +her face save a flash of dark eyes and a curve of raven hair. +The tall man leaned heavily upon her to take the weight off his +tender foot, while he held his burden betwixt himself and the +wall, cuddling it jealously to his side, and thrusting forward +his young companion to act as a buttress whenever the pressure of +the crowd threatened to bear him away. The evident anxiety of +the man, the appearance of his attendant, and the joint care with +which they defended their concealed possession, excited the +interest of the two young Englishmen who walked within hand-touch +of them. + +"Courage, child!" they heard the tall man exclaim in strange +hybrid French. "If we can win another sixty paces we are safe." + +"Hold it safe, father," the other answered, in the same soft, +mincing dialect. "We have no cause for fear." + +"Verily, they are heathens and barbarians," cried the man; "mad, +howling, drunken barbarians! Forty more paces, Tita mia, and I +swear to the holy Eloi, patron of all learned craftsmen, that I +will never set foot over my door again until the whole swarm are +safely hived in their camp of Dax, or wherever else they curse +with their presence. Twenty more paces, my treasure: Ah, my God! +how they push and brawl! Get in their way, Tita mia! Put your +little elbow bravely out! Set your shoulders squarely against +them, girl! Why should you give way to these mad islanders? Ah, +cospetto! we are ruined and destroyed!" + +The crowd had thickened in front, so that the lame man and the +girl had come to a stand. Several half-drunken English archers, +attracted, as the squires had been, by their singular appearance, +were facing towards them, and peering at them through the dim +light. + +"By the three kings!" cried one, "here is an old dotard shrew to +have so goodly a crutch! Use the leg that God hath given you, +man, and do not bear so heavily upon the wench." + +"Twenty devils fly away with him!" shouted another. "What, how, +man! are brave archers to go maidless while an old man uses one +as a walking-staff?" + +"Come with me, my honey-bird!" cried a third, plucking at the +girl's mantle. + +"Nay, with me, my heart's desire!" said the first. "By St. +George! our life is short, and we should be merry while we may. +May I never see Chester Bridge again, if she is not a right +winsome lass!" + +"What hath the old toad under his arm?" cried one of the others. +"He hugs it to him as the devil hugged the pardoner." + +"Let us see, old bag of bones; let us see what it is that you +have under your arm!" They crowded in upon him, while he, +ignorant of their language, could but clutch the girl with one +hand and the parcel with the other, looking wildly about in +search of help. + +"Nay, lads, nay!" cried Ford, pushing back the nearest archer. +"This is but scurvy conduct. Keep your hands off, or it will be +the worse for you." + +"Keep your tongue still, or it will be the worse for you," +shouted the most drunken of the archers. "Who are you to spoil +sport?" + +"A raw squire, new landed," said another. "By St. Thomas of +Kent! we are at the beck of our master, but we are not to be +ordered by every babe whose mother hath sent him as far as +Aquitaine." + +"Oh, gentlemen," cried the girl in broken French, "for dear +Christ's sake stand by us, and do not let these terrible men do +us an injury." + +"Have no fears, lady," Alleyne answered. "We shall see that all +is well with you. Take your hand from the girl's wrist, you +north-country rogue!" + +"Hold to her, Wat!" said a great black-bearded man-at-arms, whose +steel breast-plate glimmered in the dusk. "Keep your hands from +your bodkins, you two, for that was my trade before you were +born, and, by God's soul! I will drive a handful of steel through +you if you move a finger." + +"Thank God!" said Alleyne suddenly, as he spied in the lamp-light +a shock of blazing red hair which fringed a steel cap high above +the heads of the crowd. "Here is John, and Aylward, too! Help +us, comrades, for there is wrong being done to this maid and to +the old man." + +"Hola, mon petit," said the old bowman, pushing his way through +the crowd, with the huge forester at his heels. "What is all +this, then? By the twang of string! I think that you will have +some work upon your hands if you are to right all the wrongs that +you may see upon this side of the water. It is not to be thought +that a troop of bowmen, with the wine buzzing in their ears, will +be as soft-spoken as so many young clerks in an orchard. When +you have been a year with the Company you will think less of such +matters. But what is amiss here? The provost-marshal with his +archers is coming this way, and some of you may find yourselves +in the stretch-neck, if you take not heed." + +"Why, it is old Sam Aylward of the White Company!" shouted the +man-at-arms. "Why, Samkin, what hath come upon thee? I can call +to mind the day when you were as roaring a blade as ever called +himself a free companion. By my soul! from Limoges to Navarre, +who was there who would kiss a wench or cut a throat as readily +as bowman Aylward of Hawkwood's company?" + +"Like enough, Peter," said Aylward, "and, by my hilt! I may not +have changed so much. But it was ever a fair loose and a clear +mark with me. The wench must be willing, or the man must be +standing up against me, else, by these ten finger bones I either +were safe enough for me." + +A glance at Aylward's resolute face, and at the huge shoulders of +Hordle John, had convinced the archers that there was little to +be got by violence. The girl and the old man began to shuffle on +in the crowd without their tormentors venturing to stop them. +Ford and Alleyne followed slowly behind them, but Aylward caught +the latter by the shoulder. + +"By my hilt! camarade," said he, "I hear that you have done great +things at the Abbey to-day, but I pray you to have a care, for it +was I who brought you into the Company, and it would be a black +day for me if aught were to befall you." + +"Nay, Aylward, I will have a care." + +"Thrust not forward into danger too much, mon petit. In a little +time your wrist will be stronger and your cut more shrewd. There +will be some of us at the `Rose de Guienne' to-night, which is +two doors from the hotel of the `Half Moon,' so if you would +drain a cup with a few simple archers you will be right welcome." + +Alleyne promised to be there if his duties would allow, and then, +slipping through the crowd, he rejoined Ford, who was standing in +talk with the two strangers, who had now reached their own +doorstep. + +"Brave young signor," cried the tall man, throwing his arms round +Alleyne, "how can we thank you enough for taking our parts +against those horrible drunken barbarians. What should we have +done without you? My Tita would have been dragged away, and my +head would have been shivered into a thousand fragments." + +"Nay, I scarce think that they would have mishandled you so," +said Alleyne in surprise. + +"Ho, ho!" cried he with a high crowing laugh, "it is not the head +upon my shoulders that I think of. Cospetto! no. It is the head +under my arm which you have preserved." + +"Perhaps the signori would deign to come under our roof, father," +said the maiden. "If we bide here, who knows that some fresh +tumult may not break out." + +"Well said, Tita! Well said, my girl! I pray you, sirs, to +honor my unworthy roof so far. A light, Giacomo! There are five +steps up. Now two more. So! Here we are at last in safety. +Corpo di Bacco! I would not have given ten maravedi for my head +when those children of the devil were pushing us against the +wall. Tita mia, you have been a brave girl, and it was better +that you should be pulled and pushed than that my head should be +broken." + +"Yes indeed, father," said she earnestly. + +"But those English! Ach! Take a Goth, a Hun, and a Vandal, mix +them together and add a Barbary rover; then take this creature +and make him drunk--and you have an Englishman. My God I were +ever such people upon earth! What place is free from them? I +hear that they swarm in Italy even as they swarm here. +Everywhere you will find them, except in heaven." + +"Dear father," cried Tita, still supporting the angry old man, as +he limped up the curved oaken stair. "You must not forget that +these good signori who have preserved us are also English." + +"Ah, yes. My pardon, sirs! Come into my rooms here. There are +some who might find some pleasure in these paintings, but I learn +the art of war is the only art which is held in honor in your +island." + +The low-roofed, oak-panelled room into which he conducted them +was brilliantly lit by four scented oil lamps. Against the +walls, upon the table, on the floor, and in every part of the +chamber were great sheets of glass painted in the most brilliant +colors. Ford and Edricson gazed around them in amazement, for +never had they seen such magnificent works of art. + +"You like them then," the lame artist cried, in answer to the +look of pleasure and of surprise in their faces. "There are then +some of you who have a taste for such trifling." + +"I could not have believed it," exclaimed Alleyne. "What color! +What outlines! See to this martyrdom of the holy Stephen, Ford. +Could you not yourself pick up one of these stones which lie to +the hand of the wicked murtherers?" + +"And see this stag, Alleyne, with the cross betwixt its horns. +By my faith! I have never seen a better one at the Forest of +Bere." + +"And the green of this grass--how bright and clear! Why all the +painting that I have seen is but child's play beside this. This +worthy gentleman must be one of those great painters of whom I +have oft heard brother Bartholomew speak in the old days at +Beaulieu." + +The dark mobile face of the artist shone with pleasure at the +unaffected delight of the two young Englishmen. His daughter had +thrown off her mantle and disclosed a face of the finest and most +delicate Italian beauty, which soon drew Ford's eyes from the +pictures in front of him. Alleyne, however, continued with +little cries of admiration and of wonderment to turn from the +walls to the table and yet again to the walls. + +"What think you of this, young sir?" asked the painter, tearing +off the cloth which concealed the flat object which he had borne +beneath his arm. It was a leaf-shaped sheet of glass bearing +upon it a face with a halo round it, so delicately outlined, and +of so perfect a tint, that it might have been indeed a human face +which gazed with sad and thoughtful eyes upon the young squire. +He clapped his hands, with that thrill of joy which true art will +ever give to a true artist. + +"It is great!" he cried. "It is wonderful! But I marvel, sir, +that you should have risked a work of such beauty and value by +bearing it at night through so unruly a crowd." + +"I have indeed been rash," said the artist. "Some wine, Tita, +from the Florence flask! Had it not been for you, I tremble to +think of what might have come of it. See to the skin tint: it is +not to be replaced, for paint as you will, it is not once in a +hundred times that it is not either burned too brown in the +furnace or else the color will not hold, and you get but a sickly +white. There you can see the very veins and the throb of thee +blood. Yes, diavolo! if it had broken, my heart would have +broken too. It is for the choir window in the church of St. +Remi, and we had gone, my little helper and I, to see if it was +indeed of the size for the stonework. Night had fallen ere we +finished, and what could we do save carry it home as best we +might? But you, young sir, you speak as if you too knew +something of the art." + +"So little that I scarce dare speak of it in your presence," +Alleyne answered. "I have been cloister-bred, and it was no very +great matter to handle the brush better than my brother novices." + +"There are pigments, brush, and paper," said the old artist. "I +do not give you glass, for that is another matter, and takes much +skill in the mixing of colors. Now I pray you to show me a touch +of your art. I thank you, Tita! The Venetian glasses, cara mia, +and fill them to the brim. A seat, signor!" + +While Ford, in his English-French, was conversing with Tita in +her Italian French, the old man was carefully examining his +precious head to see that no scratch had been left upon its +surface. When he glanced up again, Alleyne had, with a few bold +strokes of the brush, tinted in a woman's face and neck upon the +white sheet in front of him. + +"Diavolo!" exclaimed the old artist, standing with his head on +one side, "you have power; yes, cospetto! you have power, it is +the face of an angel!" + +"It is the face of the Lady Maude Loring!" cried Ford, even more +astonished. + +"Why, on my faith, it is not unlike her!" said Alleyne, in some +confusion. + +"Ah! a portrait! So much the better. Young man, I am Agostino +Pisano, the son of Andrea Pisano, and I say again that you have +power. Further, I say, that, if you will stay with me, I will +teach you all the secrets of the glass-stainers' mystery: the +pigments and their thickening, which will fuse into the glass and +which will not, the furnace and the glazing--every trick and +method you shall know." + +"I would be right glad to study under such a master," said +Alleyne; "but I am sworn to follow my lord whilst this war +lasts." + +"War! war!" cried the old Italian. "Ever this talk of war. And +the men that you hold to be great--what are they? Have I not +heard their names? Soldiers, butchers, destroyers! Ah, per +Bacco! we have men in Italy who are in very truth great. You +pull down, you despoil; but they build up, they restore. Ah, if +you could but see my own dear Pisa, the Duomo, the cloisters of +Campo Santo, the high Campanile, with the mellow throb of her +bells upon the warm Italian air! Those are the works of great +men. And I have seen them with my own eyes, these very eyes +which look upon you. I have seen Andrea Orcagna, Taddeo Gaddi, +Giottino, Stefano, Simone Memmi--men whose very colors I am not +worthy to mix. And I have seen the aged Giotto, and he in turn +was pupil to Cimabue, before whom there was no art in Italy, for +the Greeks were brought to paint the chapel of the Gondi at +Florence. Ah, signori, there are the real great men whose names +will be held in honor when your soldiers are shown to have been +the enemies of humankind." + +"Faith, sir," said Ford, "there is something to say for the +soldiers also, for, unless they be defended, how are all these +gentlemen whom you have mentioned to preserve the pictures which +they have painted?" + +"And all these!" said Alleyne. "Have you indeed done them +all?--and where are they to go?" + +"Yes, signor, they are all from my hand. Some are, as you see, +upon one sheet, and some are in many pieces which may fasten +together. There are some who do but paint upon the glass, and +then, by placing another sheet of glass upon the top and +fastening it, they keep the air from their painting. Yet I hold +that the true art of my craft lies as much in the furnace as in +the brush. See this rose window, which is from the model of the +Church of the Holy Trinity at Vendome, and this other of the +`Finding of the Grail,' which is for the apse of the Abbey +church. Time was when none but my countrymen could do these +things; but there is Clement of Chartres and others in France who +are very worthy workmen. But, ah! there is that ever shrieking +brazen tongue which will not let us forget for one short hour +that it is the arm of the savage, and not the hand of the master, +which rules over the world." + +A stern, clear bugle call had sounded close at hand to summon +some following together for the night. + +"It is a sign to us as well," said Ford. "I would fain stay here +forever amid all these beautiful things--" staring hard at the +blushing Tita as he spoke--"but we must be back at our lord's +hostel ere he reach it." Amid renewed thanks and with promises +to come again, the two squires bade their leave of the old +Italian glass-stainer and his daughter. The streets were clearer +now, and the rain had stopped, so they made their way quickly +from the Rue du Roi, in which their new friends dwelt, to the Rue +des Apotres, where the hostel of the "Half Moon" was situated. + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +HOW THE BOWMEN HELD WASSAIL AT THE "ROSE DE GUIENNE." + + +"Mon Dieu! Alleyne, saw you ever so lovely a face?" cried Ford +as they hurried along together. "So pure, so peaceful, and so +beautiful!" + +"In sooth, yes. And the hue of the skin the most perfect that +ever I saw. Marked you also how the hair curled round the brow? +It was wonder fine." + +"Those eyes, too!" cried Ford. "How clear and how tender--simple, +and yet so full of thought!" + +"If there was a weakness it was in the chin," said Alleyne. + +"Nay. I saw none." + +"It was well curved, it is true." + +"Most daintily so." + +"And yet----" + +"What then, Alleyne? Wouldst find flaw in the sun?" + +"Well, bethink you, Ford, would not more power and expression +have been put into the face by a long and noble beard?" + +"Holy Virgin!" cried Ford, "the man is mad. A beard on the face +of little Tita!" + +"Tita! Who spoke of Tita?" + +"Who spoke of aught else?" + +"It was the picture of St. Remi, man, of which I have been +discoursing." + +"You are indeed," cried Ford, laughing, "a Goth, Hun, and Vandal, +with all the other hard names which the old man called us. How +could you think so much of a smear of pigments, when there was +such a picture painted by the good God himself in the very room +with you? But who is this?" + +"If it please you, sirs," said an archer, running across to them, +"Aylward and others would be right glad to see you. They are +within here. He bade me say to you that the Lord Loring will not +need your service to-night, as he sleeps with the Lord Chandos." + +"By my faith!" said Ford, "we do not need a guide to lead us to +their presence." As he spoke there came a roar of singing from +the tavern upon the right, with shouts of laughter and stamping +of feet. Passing under a low door, and down a stone-flagged +passage, they found themselves in a long narrow hall lit up by a +pair of blazing torches, one at either end. Trusses of straw had +been thrown down along the walls, and reclining on them were some +twenty or thirty archers, all of the Company, their steel caps +and jacks thrown off, their tunics open and their great limbs +sprawling upon the clay floor. At every man's elbow stood his +leathern blackjack of beer, while at the further end a hogshead +with its end knocked in promised an abundant supply for the +future. Behind the hogshead, on a half circle of kegs, boxes, +and rude settles, sat Aylward, John, Black Simon and three or +four other leading men of the archers, together with Goodwin +Hawtayne, the master-shipman, who had left his yellow cog in the +river to have a last rouse with his friends of the Company. Ford +and Alleyne took their seats between Aylward and Black Simon, +without their entrance checking in any degree the hubbub which +was going on. + +"Ale, mes camarades?" cried the bowman, "or shall it be wine? +Nay, but ye must have the one or the other. Here, Jacques, thou +limb of the devil, bring a bottrine of the oldest vernage, and +see that you do not shake it. Hast heard the news?" + +"Nay," cried both the squires. + +"That we are to have a brave tourney." + +"A tourney?" + +"Aye, lads. For the Captal du Buch hath sworn that he will find +five knights from this side of the water who will ride over any +five Englishmen who ever threw leg over saddle; and Chandos hath +taken up the challenge, and the prince hath promised a golden +vase for the man who carries himself best, and all the court is +in a buzz over it." + +"Why should the knights have all the sport?" growled Hordle John. +"Could they not set up five archers for the honor of Aquitaine +and of Gascony?" + +"Or five men-at-arms," said Black Simon. + +"But who are the English knights?" asked Hawtayne. + +"There are three hundred and forty-one in the town," said +Aylward, "and I hear that three hundred and forty cartels and +defiances have already been sent in, the only one missing being +Sir John Ravensholme, who is in his bed with the sweating +sickness, and cannot set foot to ground." + +"I have heard of it from one of the archers of the guard," cried +a bowman from among the straw; "I hear that the prince wished to +break a lance, but that Chandos would not hear of it, for the +game is likely to be a rough one." + +"Then there is Chandos." + +"Nay, the prince would not permit it. He is to be marshal of the +lists, with Sir William Felton and the Duc d'Armagnac. The +English will be the Lord Audley, Sir Thomas Percy, Sir Thomas +Wake, Sir William Beauchamp, and our own very good lord and +leader." + +"Hurrah for him, and God be with him!" cried several. "It is +honor to draw string in his service." + +"So you may well say," said Aylward. "By my ten finger-bones! +if you march behind the pennon of the five roses you are like to +see all that a good bowman would wish to see. Ha! yes, mes +garcons, you laugh, but, by my hilt! you may not laugh when you +find yourselves where he will take you, for you can never tell +what strange vow he may not have sworn to. I see that he has a +patch over his eye, even as he had at Poictiers. There will come +bloodshed of that patch, or I am the more mistaken." + +"How chanced it at Poictiers, good Master Aylward?" asked one of +the young archers, leaning upon his elbows, with his eyes fixed +respectfully upon the old bowman's rugged face. + +"Aye, Aylward, tell us of it," cried Hordle John. + +"Here is to old Samkin Aylward!" shouted several at the further +end of the room, waving their blackjacks in the air. + +"Ask him!" said Aylward modestly, nodding towards Black Simon. +"He saw more than I did. And yet, by the holy nails! there was +not very much that I did not see either." + +"Ah, yes," said Simon, shaking his head, "it was a great day. I +never hope to see such another. There were some fine archers who +drew their last shaft that day. We shall never see better men, +Aylward." + +"By my hilt! no. There was little Robby Withstaff, and Andrew +Salblaster, and Wat Alspaye, who broke the neck of the German. +Mon Dieu! what men they were! Take them how you would, at long +butts or short, hoyles, rounds, or rovers, better bowmen never +twirled a shaft over their thumb-nails." + +"But the fight, Aylward, the fight!" cried several impatiently. + +"Let me fill my jack first, boys, for it is a thirsty tale. It +was at the first fall of the leaf that the prince set forth, and +he passed through Auvergne, and Berry, and Anjou, and Touraine. +In Auvergne the maids are kind, but the wines are sour. In Berry +it is the women that are sour, but the wines are rich. Anjou, +however, is a very good land for bowmen, for wine and women are +all that heart could wish. In Touraine I got nothing save a +broken pate, but at Vierzon I had a great good fortune, for I had +a golden pyx from the minster, for which I afterwards got nine +Genoan janes from the goldsmith in the Rue Mont Olive. From +thence we went to Bourges, were I had a tunic of flame-colored +silk and a very fine pair of shoes with tassels of silk and drops +of silver." + +"From a stall, Aylward?" asked one of the young archers. + +"Nay, from a man's feet, lad. I had reason to think that he +might not need them again, seeing that a thirty-inch shaft had +feathered in his back." + +"And what then, Aylward?" + +"On we went, coz, some six thousand of us, until we came to +Issodun, and there again a very great thing befell." + +"A battle, Aylward?" + +"Nay, nay; a greater thing than that. There is little to be +gained out of a battle, unless one have the fortune to win a +ransom. At Issodun I and three Welshmen came upon a house which +all others had passed, and we had the profit of it to ourselves. +For myself, I had a fine feather-bed--a thing which you will not +see in a long day's journey in England. You have seen it, +Alleyne, and you, John. You will bear me out that it is a noble +bed. We put it on a sutler's mule, and bore it after the army. +It was on my mind that I would lay it by until I came to start +house of mine own, and I have it now in a very safe place near +Lyndhurst." + +"And what then, master-bowman?" asked Hawtayne. "By St. +Christopher! it is indeed a fair and goodly life which you have +chosen, for you gather up the spoil as a Warsash man gathers +lobsters, without grace or favor from any man." + +"You are right, master-shipman," said another of the older +archers. "It is an old bowyer's rede that the second feather of +a fenny goose is better than the pinion of a tame one. Draw on +old lad, for I have come between you and the clout." + +"On we went then," said Aylward, after a long pull at his +blackjack. "There were some six thousand of us, with the prince +and his knights, and the feather-bed upon a sutler's mule in the +centre. We made great havoc in Touraine, until we came into +Romorantin, where I chanced upon a gold chain and two bracelets +of jasper, which were stolen from me the same day by a black-eyed +wench from the Ardennes. Mon Dieu! there are some folk who have +no fear of Domesday in them, and no sign of grace in their souls, +for ever clutching and clawing at another man's chattels." + +"But the battle, Aylward, the battle!" cried several, amid a +burst of laughter. + +"I come to it, my young war-pups. Well, then, the King of France +had followed us with fifty thousand men, and he made great haste +to catch us, but when he had us he scarce knew what to do with +us, for we were so drawn up among hedges and vineyards that they +could not come nigh us, save by one lane. On both sides were +archers, men-at-arms and knights behind, and in the centre the +baggage, with my feather-bed upon a sutler's mule. Three hundred +chosen knights came straight for it, and, indeed, they were very +brave men, but such a drift of arrows met them that few came +back. Then came the Germans, and they also fought very bravely, +so that one or two broke through the archers and came as far as +the feather-bed, but all to no purpose. Then out rides our own +little hothead with the patch over his eye, and my Lord Audley +with his four Cheshire squires, and a few others of like kidney, +and after them went the prince and Chandos, and then the whole +throng of us, with axe and sword, for we had shot away our +arrows. Ma foi! it was a foolish thing, for we came forth from +the hedges, and there was naught to guard the baggage had they +ridden round behind us. But all went well with us, and the king +was taken, and little Robby Withstaff and I fell in with a wain +with twelve firkins of wine for the king's own table, and, by my +hilt! if you ask me what happened after that, I cannot answer +you, nor can little Robby Withstaff either." + +"And next day?" + +"By my faith! we did not tarry long, but we hied back to +Bordeaux, where we came in safety with the King of France and +also the feather-bed. I sold my spoil, mes garcons, for as many +gold-pieces as I could hold in my hufken, and for seven days I +lit twelve wax candles upon the altar of St. Andrew; for if you +forget the blessed when things are well with you, they are very +likely to forget you when you have need of them. I have a score +of one hundred and nineteen pounds of wax against the holy +Andrew, and, as he was a very just man, I doubt not that I shall +have full weigh and measure when I have most need of it." + +"Tell me, master Aylward," cried a young fresh-faced archer at +the further end of the room, "what was this great battle about?" + +"Why, you jack-fool, what would it be about save who should wear +the crown of France?" + +"I thought that mayhap it might be as to who should have this +feather-bed of thine." + +"If I come down to you, Silas, I may lay my belt across your +shoulders," Aylward answered, amid a general shout of laughter. +"But it is time young chickens went to roost when they dare +cackle against their elders. It is late, Simon." + +"Nay, let us have another song." + +"Here is Arnold of Sowley will troll as good a stave as any man +in the Company." + +"Nay, we have one here who is second to none," said Hawtayne, +laying his hand upon big John's shoulder. "I have heard him on +the cog with a voice like the wave upon the shore. I pray you, +friend, to give us `The Bells of Milton,' or, if you will, `The +Franklin's Maid.'" + +Hordle John drew the back of his hand across his mouth, fixed his +eyes upon the corner of the ceiling, and bellowed forth, in a +voice which made the torches flicker, the southland ballad for +which he had been asked:-- + + The franklin he hath gone to roam, + The franklin's maid she bides at home, + But she is cold and coy and staid, + And who may win the franklin's maid? + + There came a knight of high renown + In bassinet and ciclatoun; + On bended knee full long he prayed, + He might not win the franklin's maid. + + There came a squire so debonair + His dress was rich, his words were fair, + He sweetly sang, he deftly played: + He could not win the franklin's maid. + + There came a mercer wonder-fine + With velvet cap and gaberdine; + For all his ships, for all his trade + He could not buy the franklin's maid. + + There came an archer bold and true, + With bracer guard and stave of yew; + His purse was light, his jerkin frayed; + Haro, alas! the franklin's maid! + + Oh, some have laughed and some have cried + And some have scoured the country-side! + But off they ride through wood and glade, + The bowman and the franklin's maid. + +A roar of delight from his audience, with stamping of feet and +beating of blackjacks against the ground, showed how thoroughly +the song was to their taste, while John modestly retired into a +quart pot, which he drained in four giant gulps. "I sang that +ditty in Hordle ale-house ere I ever thought to be an archer +myself," quoth he. + +"Fill up your stoups!" cried Black Simon, thrusting his own +goblet into the open hogshead in front of him. "Here is a last +cup to the White Company, and every brave boy who walks behind +the roses of Loring!" + +"To the wood, the flax, and the gander's wing!" said an old +gray-headed archer on the right. + +"To a gentle loose, and the King of Spain for a mark at fourteen +score!" cried another. + +"To a bloody war!" shouted a fourth. "Many to go and few to +come!" + +"With the most gold to the best steel!" added a fifth. + +"And a last cup to the maids of our heart!" cried Aylward. "A +steady hand and a true eye, boys; so let two quarts be a bowman's +portion." With shout and jest and snatch of song they streamed +from the room, and all was peaceful once more in the "Rose de +Guienne." + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +HOW ENGLAND HELD THE LISTS AT BORDEAUX. + + +So used were the good burghers of Bordeaux to martial display and +knightly sport, that an ordinary joust or tournament was an everyday +matter with them. The fame and brilliancy of the prince's court had +drawn the knights-errant and pursuivants-of-arms from every part of +Europe. In the long lists by the Garonne on the landward side of +the northern gate there had been many a strange combat, when the +Teutonic knight, fresh from the conquest of the Prussian heathen, +ran a course against the knight of Calatrava, hardened by continual +struggle against the Moors, or cavaliers from Portugal broke a +lance with Scandinavian warriors from the further shore of the great +Northern Ocean. Here fluttered many an outland pennon, bearing +symbol and blazonry from the banks of the Danube, the wilds of +Lithuania and the mountain strongholds of Hungary; for chivalry +was of no clime and of no race, nor was any land so wild that the +fame and name of the prince had not sounded through it from +border to border. + +Great, however, was the excitement through town and district when +it was learned that on the third Wednesday in Advent there would +be held a passage-at-arms in which five knights of England would +hold the lists against all comers. The great concourse of +noblemen and famous soldiers, the national character of the +contest, and the fact that this was a last trial of arms before +what promised to be an arduous and bloody war, all united to make +the event one of the most notable and brilliant that Bordeaux had +ever seen. On the eve of the contest the peasants flocked in +from the whole district of the Medoc, and the fields beyond the +walls were whitened with the tents of those who could find no +warmer lodging. From the distant camp of Dax, too, and from +Blaye, Bourge, Libourne, St. Emilion, Castillon, St. Macaire, +Cardillac, Ryons, and all the cluster of flourishing towns which +look upon Bordeaux as their mother, there thronged an unceasing +stream of horsemen and of footmen, all converging upon the great +city. By the morning of the day on which the courses were to be +run, not less than eighty people had assembled round the lists +and along the low grassy ridge which looks down upon the scene of +the encounter. + +It was, as may well be imagined, no easy matter among so many +noted cavaliers to choose out five on either side who should have +precedence over their fellows. A score of secondary combats had +nearly arisen from the rivalries and bad blood created by the +selection, and it was only the influence of the prince and the +efforts of the older barons which kept the peace among so many +eager and fiery soldiers. Not till the day before the courses +were the shields finally hung out for the inspection of the +ladies and the heralds, so that all men might know the names of +the champions and have the opportunity to prefer any charge +against them, should there be stain upon them which should +disqualify them from taking part in so noble and honorable a +ceremony. + +Sir Hugh Calverley and Sir Robert Knolles had not yet returned +from their raid into the marches of the Navarre, so that the +English party were deprived of two of their most famous lances. +Yet there remained so many good names that Chandos and Felton, to +whom the selection had been referred, had many an earnest +consultation, in which every feat of arms and failure or success +of each candidate was weighed and balanced against the rival +claims of his companions. Lord Audley of Cheshire, the hero of +Poictiers, and Loring of Hampshire, who was held to be the +second lance in the army, were easily fixed upon. Then, of the +younger men, Sir Thomas Percy of Northumberland, Sir Thomas Wake +of Yorkshire, and Sir William Beauchamp of Gloucestershire, were +finally selected to uphold the honor of England. On the other +side were the veteran Captal de Buch and the brawny Olivier de +Clisson, with the free companion Sir Perducas d'Albret, the +valiant Lord of Mucident, and Sigismond von Altenstadt, of the +Teutonic Order. The older soldiers among the English shook their +heads as they looked upon the escutcheons of these famous +warriors, for they were all men who had spent their lives upon +the saddle, and bravery and strength can avail little against +experience and wisdom of war. + +"By my faith! Sir John," said the prince as he rode through the +winding streets on his way to the list, "I should have been glad +to have splintered a lance to-day. You have seen me hold a spear +since I had strength to lift one, and should know best whether I +do not merit a place among this honorable company." + +"There is no better seat and no truer lance, sire," said Chandos; +"but, if I may say so without fear of offence, it were not +fitting that you should join in this debate." + +"And why, Sir John?" + +"Because, sire, it is not for you to take part with Gascons +against English, or with English against Gascons, seeing that you +are lord of both. We are not too well loved by the Gascons now, +and it is but the golden link of your princely coronet which +holds us together. If that be snapped I know not what would +follow." + +"Snapped, Sir John!" cried the prince, with an angry sparkle in +his dark eyes. "What manner of talk is this? You speak as +though the allegiance of our people were a thing which might be +thrown off or on like a falcon's jessel." + +"With a sorry hack one uses whip and spur, sire," said Chandos; +"but with a horse of blood and spirit a good cavalier is gentle +and soothing, coaxing rather than forcing. These folk are +strange people, and you must hold their love, even as you have it +now, for you will get from their kindness what all the pennons in +your army could not wring from them." + +"You are over-grave to-day, John," the prince answered. "We may +keep such questions for our council-chamber. But how now, my +brothers of Spain, and of Majorca, what think you of this +challenge?" + +"I look to see some handsome joisting," said Don Pedro, who rode +with the King of Majorca upon the right of the prince, while +Chandos was on the left. "By St. James of Compostella! but these +burghers would bear some taxing. See to the broadcloth and +velvet that the rogues bear upon their backs! By my troth! if +they were my subjects they would be glad enough to wear falding +and leather ere I had done with them. But mayhap it is best to +let the wool grow long ere you clip it." + +"It is our pride," the prince answered coldly, "that we rule over +freemen and not slaves." + +"Every man to his own humor," said Pedro carelessly. "Carajo! +there is a sweet face at yonder window! Don Fernando, I pray you +to mark the house, and to have the maid brought to us at the +abbey." + +"Nay, brother, nay!" cried the prince impatiently. "I have had +occasion to tell you more than once that things are not ordered +in this way in Aquitaine." + +"A thousand pardons, dear friend," the Spaniard answered quickly, +for a flush of anger had sprung to the dark cheek of the English +prince. "You make my exile so like a home that I forget at times +that I am not in very truth back in Castile. Every land hath +indeed its ways and manners; but I promise you, Edward, that when +you are my guest in Toledo or Madrid you shall not yearn in vain +for any commoner's daughter on whom you may deign to cast your +eye." + +"Your talk, sire," said the prince still more coldly, "is not +such as I love to hear from your lips. I have no taste for such +amours as you speak of, and I have sworn that my name shall be +coupled with that of no woman save my ever dear wife." + +"Ever the mirror of true chivalry!" exclaimed Pedro, while James +of Majorca, frightened at the stern countenance of their all-powerful +protector, plucked hard at the mantle of his brother +exile. + +"Have a care, cousin," he whispered; "for the sake of the Virgin +have a care, for you have angered him." + +"Pshaw! fear not," the other answered in the same low tone. "If +I miss one stoop I will strike him on the next. Mark me else. +Fair cousin," he continued, turning to the prince, "these be rare +men-at-arms and lusty bowmen. It would be hard indeed to match +them." + +"They have Journeyed far, sire, but they have never yet found +their match." + +"Nor ever will, I doubt not. I feel myself to be back upon my +throne when I look at them. But tell me, dear coz, what shall we +do next, when we have driven this bastard Henry from the kingdom +which he hath filched?" + +"We shall then compel the King of Aragon to place our good friend +and brother James of Majorca upon the throne." + +"Noble and generous prince!" cried the little monarch. + +"That done," said King Pedro, glancing out of the corners of his +eyes at the young conqueror, "we shall unite the forces of +England, of Aquitaine, of Spain and of Majorca. It would be +shame to us if we did not do some great deed with such forces +ready to our hand." + +"You say truly, brother," cried the prince, his eyes kindling at +the thought. "Methinks that we could not do anything more +pleasing to Our Lady than to drive the heathen Moors out of the +country." + +"I am with you, Edward, as true as hilt to blade. But, by St. +James! we shall not let these Moors make mock at us from over the +sea. We must take ship and thrust them from Africa." + +"By heaven, yes!" cried the prince. "And it is the dream of my +heart that our English pennons shall wave upon the Mount of +Olives, and the lions and lilies float over the holy city." + +"And why not, dear coz? Your bowmen have cleared a path to +Paris, and why not to Jerusalem? Once there, your arms might +rest." + +"Nay, there is more to be done," cried the prince, carried away +by the ambitious dream. "There is still the city of Constantine +to be taken, and war to be waged against the Soldan of Damascus. +And beyond him again there is tribute to be levied from the Cham +of Tartary and from the kingdom of Cathay. Ha! John, what say +you? Can we not go as far eastward as Richard of the Lion +Heart?" + +"Old John will bide at home, sire," said the rugged soldier. "By +my soul! as long as I am seneschal of Aquitaine I will find +enough to do in guarding the marches which you have entrusted to +me. It would be a blithe day for the King of France when he +heard that the seas lay between him and us." + +"By my soul! John," said the prince, "I have never known you turn +laggard before." + +"The babbling hound, sire, is not always the first at the mort," +the old knight answered. + +"Nay, my true-heart! I have tried you too often not to know. +But, by my soul! I have not seen so dense a throng since the day +that we brought King John down Cheapside." + +It was indeed an enormous crowd which covered the whole vast +plain from the line of vineyards to the river bank. From the +northern gate the prince and his companions looked down at a dark +sea of heads, brightened here and there by the colored hoods of +the women, or by the sparkling head-pieces of archers and +men-at-arms. In the centre of this vast assemblage the lists +seemed but a narrow strip of green marked out with banners and +streamers, while a gleam of white with a flutter of pennons at +either end showed where the marquees were pitched which served as +the dressing-rooms of the combatants. A path had been staked off +from the city gate to the stands which had been erected for the +court and the nobility. Down this, amid the shouts of the +enormous multitude, the prince cantered with his two attendant +kings, his high officers of state, and his long train of lords +and ladies, courtiers, counsellors, and soldiers, with toss of +plume and flash of jewel, sheen of silk and glint of gold--as +rich and gallant a show as heart could wish. The head of the +cavalcade had reached the lists ere the rear had come clear of +the city gate, for the fairest and the bravest had assembled from +all the broad lands which are watered by the Dordogne and the +Garonne. Here rode dark-browed cavaliers from the sunny south, +fiery soldiers from Gascony, graceful courtiers of Limousin or +Saintonge, and gallant young Englishmen from beyond the seas. +Here too were the beautiful brunettes of the Gironde, with eyes +which out-flashed their jewels, while beside them rode their +blonde sisters of England, clear cut and aquiline, swathed in +swans'-down and in ermine, for the air was biting though the sun +was bright. Slowly the long and glittering train wound into the +lists, until every horse had been tethered by the varlets in +waiting, and every lord and lady seated in the long stands which +stretched, rich in tapestry and velvet and blazoned arms, on +either side of the centre of the arena. + +The holders of the lists occupied the end which was nearest to +the city gate. There, in front of their respective pavilions, +flew the martlets of Audley, the roses of Loring, the scarlet +bars of Wake, the lion of the Percies and the silver wings of +the Beauchamps, each supported by a squire clad in hanging green +stuff to represent so many Tritons, and bearing a huge +conch-shell in their left hands. Behind the tents the great +war-horses, armed at all points, champed and reared, while their +masters sat at the doors of their pavilions, with their helmets +upon their knees, chatting as to the order of the day's doings. +The English archers and men-at-arms had mustered at that end of +the lists, but the vast majority of the spectators were in favor +of the attacking party, for the English had declined in +popularity ever since the bitter dispute as to the disposal of +the royal captive after the battle of Poictiers. Hence the +applause was by no means general when the herald-at-arms +proclaimed, after a flourish of trumpets, the names and styles of +the knights who were prepared, for the honor of their country and +for the love of their ladies, to hold the field against all who +might do them the favor to run a course with them. On the other +hand, a deafening burst of cheering greeted the rival herald, +who, advancing from the other end of the lists, rolled forth the +well-known titles of the five famous warriors who had accepted +the defiance. + +"Faith, John," said the prince, "it sounds as though you were +right. Ha! my grace D'Armagnac, it seems that our friends on +this side will not grieve if our English champions lose the day." + +"It may be so, sire," the Gascon nobleman answered. "I have +little doubt that in Smithfield or at Windsor an English crowd +would favor their own countrymen." + +"By my faith! that's easily seen," said the prince, laughing, +"for a few score English archers at yonder end are bellowing as +though they would out-shout the mighty multitude. I fear that +they will have little to shout over this tourney, for my gold +vase has small prospect of crossing the water. What are the +conditions, John?" + +"They are to tilt singly not less than three courses, sire, and +the victory to rest with that party which shall have won the +greater number of courses, each pair continuing till one or other +have the vantage. He who carries himself best of the victors +hath the prize, and he who is judged best of the other party hath +a jewelled clasp. Shall I order that the nakirs sound, sire?" + +The prince nodded, and the trumpets rang out, while the champions +rode forth one after the other, each meeting his opponent in the +centre of the lists. Sir William Beauchamp went down before the +practiced lance of the Captal de Buch. Sir Thomas Percy won the +vantage over the Lord of Mucident, and the Lord Audley struck Sir +Perducas d'Albret from the saddle. The burly De Clisson, +however, restored the hopes of the attackers by beating to the +ground Sir Thomas Wake of Yorkshire. So far, there was little to +choose betwixt challengers and challenged. + +"By Saint James of Santiago!" cried Don Pedro, with a tinge of +color upon his pale cheeks, "win who will, this has been a most +notable contest." + +"Who comes next for England, John?" asked the prince in a voice +which quivered with excitement. + +"Sir Nigel Loring of Hampshire, sire." + +"Ha! he is a man of good courage, and skilled in the use of all +weapons." + +"He is indeed, sire. But his eyes, like my own, are the worse +for wars. Yet he can tilt or play his part at hand-strokes as +merrily as ever. It was he, sire, who won the golden crown which +Queen Philippa, your royal mother, gave to be jousted for by all +the knights of England after the harrying of Calais. I have +heard that at Twynham Castle there is a buffet which groans +beneath the weight of his prizes." + +"I pray that my vase may join them," said the prince. "But here +is the cavalier of Germany, and by my soul! he looks like a man +of great valor and hardiness. Let them run their full three +courses, for the issue is over-great to hang upon one." + +As the prince spoke, amid a loud flourish of trumpets and the +shouting of the Gascon party, the last of the assailants rode +gallantly into the lists. He was a man of great size, clad in +black armor without blazonry or ornament of any kind, for all +worldly display was forbidden by the rules of the military +brotherhood to which he belonged. No plume or nobloy fluttered +from his plain tilting salade, and even his lance was devoid of +the customary banderole. A white mantle fluttered behind him, +upon the left side of which was marked the broad black cross +picked out with silver which was the well-known badge of the +Teutonic Order. Mounted upon a horse as large, as black, and as +forbidding as himself, he cantered slowly forward, with none of +those prancings and gambades with which a cavalier was accustomed +to show his command over his charger. Gravely and sternly he +inclined his head to the prince, and took his place at the +further end of the arena. + +He had scarce done so before Sir Nigel rode out from the holders' +enclosure, and galloping at full speed down the lists, drew his +charger up before the prince's stand with a jerk which threw it +back upon its haunches. With white armor, blazoned shield, and +plume of ostrich-feathers from his helmet, he carried himself in +so jaunty and joyous a fashion, with tossing pennon and curveting +charger, that a shout of applause ran the full circle of the arena. +With the air of a man who hastes to a joyous festival, he waved +his lance in salute, and reining the pawing horse round without +permitting its fore-feet to touch the ground, he hastened back to +his station. + +A great hush fell over the huge multitude as the two last +champions faced each other. A double issue seemed to rest upon +their contest, for their personal fame was at stake as well as +their party's honor. Both were famous warriors, but as their +exploits had been performed in widely sundered countries, they +had never before been able to cross lances. A course between +such men would have been enough in itself to cause the keenest +interest, apart from its being the crisis which would decide who +should be the victors of the day. For a moment they waited--the +German sombre and collected, Sir Nigel quivering in every fibre +with eagerness and fiery resolution. Then, amid a long-drawn +breath from the spectators, the glove fell from the marshal's +hand, and the two steel-clad horsemen met like a thunderclap in +front of the royal stand. The German, though he reeled for an +instant before the thrust of the Englishman, struck his opponent +so fairly upon the vizor that the laces burst, the plumed helmet +flew to pieces, and Sir Nigel galloped on down the lists with his +bald head shimmering in the sunshine. A thousand waving scarves +and tossing caps announced that the first bout had fallen to the +popular party. + +The Hampshire knight was not a man to be disheartened by a +reverse. He spurred back to the pavilion, and was out in a few +instants with another helmet. The second course was so equal +that the keenest judges could not discern any vantage. Each +struck fire from the other's shield, and each endured the jarring +shock as though welded to the horse beneath him. In the final +bout, however, Sir Nigel struck his opponent with so true an aim +that the point of the lance caught between the bars of his vizor +and tore the front of his helmet out, while the German, aiming +somewhat low, and half stunned by the shock, had the misfortune +to strike his adversary upon the thigh, a breach of the rules of +the tilting-yard, by which he not only sacrificed his chances of +success, but would also have forfeited his horse and his armor, +had the English knight chosen to claim them. A roar of applause +from the English soldiers, with an ominous silence from the vast +crowd who pressed round the barriers, announced that the balance +of victory lay with the holders. Already the ten champions had +assembled in front of the prince to receive his award, when a +harsh bugle call from the further end of the lists drew all eyes +to a new and unexpected arrival. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +HOW A CHAMPION CAME FORTH FROM THE EAST. + + +The Bordeaux lists were, as has already been explained, situated +upon the plain near the river upon those great occasions when the +tilting-ground in front of the Abbey of St. Andrew's was deemed +to be too small to contain the crowd. On the eastern side of +this plain the country-side sloped upwards, thick with vines in +summer, but now ridged with the brown bare enclosures. Over the +gently rising plain curved the white road which leads inland, +usually flecked with travellers, but now with scarce a living +form upon it, so completely had the lists drained all the +district of its inhabitants. Strange it was to see such a vast +concourse of people, and then to look upon that broad, white, +empty highway which wound away, bleak and deserted, until it +narrowed itself to a bare streak against the distant uplands. + +Shortly after the contest had begun, any one looking from the +lists along this road might have remarked, far away in the +extreme distance, two brilliant and sparkling points which +glittered and twinkled in the bright shimmer of the winter sun. +Within an hour these had become clearer and nearer, until they +might be seen to come from the reflection from the head-pieces of +two horsemen who were riding at the top of their speed in the +direction of Bordeaux. Another half-hour had brought them so +close that every point of their bearing and equipment could be +discerned. The first was a knight in full armor, mounted upon a +brown horse with a white blaze upon breast and forehead. He was +a short man of great breadth of shoulder, with vizor closed, and +no blazonry upon his simple white surcoat or plain black shield. +The other, who was evidently his squire and attendant, was +unarmed save for the helmet upon his head, but bore in his right +hand a very long and heavy oaken spear which belonged to his +master. In his left hand the squire held not only the reins of +his own horse but those of a great black war-horse, fully +harnessed, which trotted along at his side. Thus the three +horses and their two riders rode swiftly to the lists, and it was +the blare of the trumpet sounded by the squire as his lord rode +into the arena which had broken in upon the prize-giving and +drawn away the attention and interest of the spectators. + +"Ha, John!" cried the prince, craning his neck, "who is this +cavalier, and what is it that he desires?" + +"On my word, sire," replied Chandos, with the utmost surprise +upon his face, "it is my opinion that he is a Frenchman." + +"A Frenchman!" repeated Don Pedro. "And how can you tell that, +my Lord Chandos, when he has neither coat-armor, crest, or +blazonry?" + +"By his armor, sire, which is rounder at elbow and at shoulder +than any of Bordeaux or of England. Italian he might be were his +bassinet more sloped, but I will swear that those plates were +welded betwixt this and Rhine. Here comes his squire, however, +and we shall hear what strange fortune hath brought him over the +marches." + +As he spoke the attendant cantered up the grassy enclosure, and +pulling up his steed in front of the royal stand, blew a second +fanfare upon his bugle. He was a raw-boned, swarthy-cheeked man, +with black bristling beard and a swaggering bearing. + +Having sounded his call, he thrust the bugle into his belt, and, +pushing his way betwixt the groups of English and of Gascon +knights, he reined up within a spear's length of the royal party. + +"I come," he shouted in a hoarse, thick voice, with a strong +Breton accent, "as squire and herald from my master, who is a +very valiant pursuivant-of-arms, and a liegeman to the great and +powerful monarch, Charles, king of the French. My master has +heard that there is jousting here, and prospect of honorable +advancement, so he has come to ask that some English cavalier +will vouchsafe for the love of his lady to run a course with +sharpened lances with him, or to meet him with sword, mace, +battle-axe, or dagger. He bade me say, however, that he would +fight only with a true Englishman, and not with any mongrel who +is neither English nor French, but speaks with the tongue of the +one, and fights under the banner of the other." + +"Sir!" cried De Clisson, with a voice of thunder, while his +countrymen clapped their hands to their swords. The squire, +however, took no notice of their angry faces, but continued with +his master's message. + +"He is now ready, sire," he said, "albeit his destrier has +travelled many miles this day, and fast, for we were in fear lest +we come too late for the jousting." + +"Ye have indeed come too late," said the prince, "seeing that the +prize is about to be awarded; yet I doubt not that one of these +gentlemen will run a course for the sake of honor with this +cavalier of France." + +"And as to the prize, sire," quoth Sir Nigel, "I am sure that I +speak for all when I say this French knight hath our leave to +bear it away with him if he can fairly win it." + +"Bear word of this to your master," said the prince, "and ask him +which of these five Englishmen he would desire to meet. But +stay; your master bears no coat-armor, and we have not yet heard +his name." + +"My master, sire, is under vow to the Virgin neither to reveal +his name nor to open his vizor until he is back upon French +ground once more." + +"Yet what assurance have we," said the prince, "that this is not +some varlet masquerading in his master's harness, or some caitiff +knight, the very touch of whose lance might bring infamy upon an +honorable gentleman?" + +"It is not so, sire," cried the squire earnestly. "There is no +man upon earth who would demean himself by breaking a lance with +my master." + +"You speak out boldly, squire," the prince answered; "but unless +I have some further assurance of your master's noble birth and +gentle name I cannot match the choicest lances of my court +against him." + +"You refuse, sire?" + +"I do refuse." + +"Then, sire, I was bidden to ask you from my master whether you +would consent if Sir John Chandos, upon hearing my master's name, +should assure you that he was indeed a man with whom you might +yourself cross swords without indignity." + +"I ask no better," said the prince. + +"Then I must ask, Lord Chandos, that you will step forth. I have +your pledge that the name shall remain ever a secret, and that +you will neither say nor write one word which might betray it. +The name is----" He stooped down from his horse and whispered +something into the old knight's ear which made him start with +surprise, and stare with much curiosity at the distant Knight, +who was sitting his charger at the further end of the arena. + +"Is this indeed sooth?" he exclaimed. + +"It is, my lord, and I swear it by St. Ives of Brittany." + +"I might have known it," said Chandos, twisting his moustache, +and still looking thoughtfully at the cavalier. + +"What then, Sir John?" asked the prince. + +"Sire, this is a knight whom it is indeed great honor to meet, +and I would that your grace would grant me leave to send my +squire for my harness, for I would dearly love to run a course +with him. + +"Nay, nay, Sir John, you have gained as much honor as one man can +bear, and it were hard if you could not rest now. But I pray +you, squire, to tell your master that he is very welcome to our +court, and that wines and spices will be served him, if he would +refresh himself before jousting." + +"My master will not drink," said the squire. + +"Let him then name the gentleman with whom he would break a +spear." + +"He would contend with these five knights, each to choose such +weapons as suit him best." + +"I perceive," said the prince, "that your master is a man of +great heart and high of enterprise. But the sun already is low +in the west, and there will scarce be light for these courses. I +pray you, gentlemen, to take your places, that we may see whether +this stranger's deeds are as bold as his words." + +The unknown knight had sat like a statue of steel, looking +neither to the right nor to the left during these preliminaries. +He had changed from the horse upon which he had ridden, and +bestrode the black charger which his squire had led beside him. +His immense breadth, his stern composed appearance, and the mode +in which he handled his shield and his lance, were enough in +themselves to convince the thousands of critical spectators that +he was a dangerous opponent. Aylward, who stood in the front row +of the archers with Simon, big John, and others of the Company, +had been criticising the proceedings from the commencement with +the ease and freedom of a man who had spent his life under arms +and had learned in a hard school to know at a glance the points +of a horse and his rider. He stared now at the stranger with a +wrinkled brow and the air of a man who is striving to stir his +memory. + +"By my hilt! I have seen the thick body of him before to-day. +Yet I cannot call to mind where it could have been. At Nogent +belike, or was it at Auray? Mark me, lads, this man will prove to +be one of the best lances of France, and there are no better in +the world." + +"It is but child's play, this poking game," said John. "I would +fain try my hand at it, for, by the black rood! I think that it +might be amended." + +"What then would you do, John?" asked several. + +"There are many things which might be done," said the forester +thoughtfully. "Methinks that I would begin by breaking my +spear." + +"So they all strive to do." + +"Nay, but not upon another man's shield. I would break it over +my own knee." + +"And what the better for that, old beef and bones?" asked Black +Simon. + +"So I would turn what is but a lady's bodkin of a weapon into a +very handsome club." + +"And then, John?" + +"Then I would take the other's spear into my arm or my leg, or +where it pleased him best to put it, and I would dash out his +brains with my club." + +"By my ten finger-bones! old John," said Aylward, "I would give +my feather-bed to see you at a spear-running. This is a most +courtly and gentle sport which you have devised." + +"So it seems to me," said John seriously. "Or, again, one might +seize the other round the middle, pluck him off his horse and +bear him to the pavilion, there to hold him to ransom." + +"Good!" cried Simon, amid a roar of laughter from all the archers +round. "By Thomas of Kent I we shall make a camp-marshal of +thee, and thou shalt draw up rules for our jousting. But, John, +who is it that you would uphold in this knightly and pleasing +fashion?" + +"What mean you?" + +"Why, John, so strong and strange a tilter must fight for the +brightness of his lady's eyes or the curve of her eyelash, even +as Sir Nigel does for the Lady Loring." + +"I know not about that," said the big archer, scratching his head +in perplexity. "Since Mary hath played me false, I can scarce +fight for her." + +"Yet any woman will serve." + +"There is my mother then," said John. "She was at much pains at +my upbringing, and, by my soul! I will uphold the curve of her +eyelashes, for it tickleth my very heart-root to think of her. +But who is here?" + +"It is Sir William Beauchamp. He is a valiant man, but I fear +that he is scarce firm enough upon the saddle to bear the thrust +of such a tilter as this stranger promises to be." + +Aylward's words were speedily justified, for even as he spoke the +two knights met in the centre of the lists. Beauchamp struck his +opponent a shrewd blow upon the helmet, but was met with so +frightful a thrust that he whirled out of his saddle and rolled +over and over upon the ground. Sir Thomas Percy met with little +better success, for his shield was split, his vambrace torn and +he himself wounded slightly in the side. Lord Audley and the +unknown knight struck each other fairly upon the helmet; but, +while the stranger sat as firm and rigid as ever upon his +charger, the Englishman was bent back to his horse's cropper by +the weight of the blow, and had galloped half-way down the lists +ere he could recover himself. Sir Thomas Wake was beaten to the +ground with a battle-axe--that being the weapon which he had +selected--and had to be carried to his pavilion. These rapid +successes, gained one after the other over four celebrated +warriors, worked the crowd up to a pitch of wonder and +admiration. Thunders of applause from the English soldiers, as +well as from the citizens and peasants, showed how far the love +of brave and knightly deeds could rise above the rivalries of +race. + +"By my soul! John," cried the prince, with his cheek flushed and +his eyes shining, "this is a man of good courage and great +hardiness. I could not have thought that there was any single +arm upon earth which could have overthrown these four champions." + +"He is indeed, as I have said, sire, a knight from whom much +honor is to be gained. But the lower edge of the sun is wet, and +it will be beneath the sea ere long." + +"Here is Sir Nigel Loring, on foot and with his sword," said the +prince. "I have heard that he is a fine swordsman." + +"The finest in your army, sire," Chandos answered. "Yet I doubt +not that he will need all his skill this day." + +As he spoke, the two combatants advanced from either end in full +armor with their two-handed swords sloping over their shoulders. +The stranger walked heavily and with a measured stride, while the +English knight advanced as briskly as though there was no iron +shell to weigh down the freedom of his limbs. At four paces +distance they stopped, eyed each other for a moment, and then in +an instant fell to work with a clatter and clang as though two +sturdy smiths were busy upon their anvils. Up and down went the +long, shining blades, round and round they circled in curves of +glimmering light, crossing, meeting, disengaging, with flash of +sparks at every parry. Here and there bounded Sir Nigel, his +head erect, his jaunty plume fluttering in the air, while his +dark opponent sent in crashing blow upon blow, following +fiercely up with cut and with thrust, but never once getting past +the practised blade of the skilled swordsman. The crowd roared +with delight as Sir Nigel would stoop his head to avoid a blow, +or by some slight movement of his body allow some terrible thrust +to glance harmlessly past him. Suddenly, however, his time came. +The Frenchman, whirling up his sword, showed for an instant a +chink betwixt his shoulder piece and the rerebrace which guarded +his upper arm. In dashed Sir Nigel, and out again so swiftly +that the eye could not follow the quick play of his blade, but a +trickle of blood from the stranger's shoulder, and a rapidly +widening red smudge upon his white surcoat, showed where the +thrust had taken effect. The wound was, however, but a slight +one, and the Frenchman was about to renew his onset, when, at a +sign from the prince, Chandos threw down his baton, and the +marshals of the lists struck up the weapons and brought the +contest to an end. + +"It were time to check it," said the prince, smiling, "for Sir +Nigel is too good a man for me to lose, and, by the five holy +wounds! if one of those cuts came home I should have fears for +our champion. What think you, Pedro?" + +"I think, Edward, that the little man was very well able to take +care of himself. For my part, I should wish to see so well +matched a pair fight on while a drop of blood remained in their +veins." + +"We must have speech with him. Such a man must not go from my +court without rest or sup. Bring him hither, Chandos, and, +certes, if the Lord Loring hath resigned his claim upon this +goblet, it is right and proper that this cavalier should carry it +to France with him as a sign of the prowess that he has shown +this day." + +As he spoke, the knight-errant, who had remounted his warhorse, +galloped forward to the royal stand, with a silken kerchief bound +round his wounded arm. The setting sun cast a ruddy glare upon +his burnished arms, and sent his long black shadow streaming +behind him up the level clearing. Pulling up his steed, he +slightly inclined his head, and sat in the stern and composed +fashion with which he had borne himself throughout, heedless of +the applauding shouts and the flutter of kerchiefs from the long +lines of brave men and of fair women who were looking down upon +him. + +"Sir knight," said the prince, "we have all marvelled this day at +this great skill and valor with which God has been pleased to +endow you. I would fain that you should tarry at our court, for +a time at least, until your hurt is healed and your horses +rested.." + +"My hurt is nothing, sire, nor are my horses weary," returned the +stranger in a deep, stern voice. + +"Will you not at least hie back to Bordeaux with us, that you may +drain a cup of muscadine and sup at our table?" + +"I will neither drink your wine nor sit at your table," returned +the other. "I bear no love for you or for your race, and there +is nought that I wish at your hands until the day when I see the +last sail which bears you back to your island vanishing away +against the western sky." + +"These are bitter words, sir knight," said Prince Edward, with an +angry frown. + +"And they come from a bitter heart," answered the unknown knight. +"How long is it since there has been peace in my hapless country? +Where are the steadings, and orchards, and vineyards, which made +France fair? Where are the cities which made her great? From +Providence to Burgundy we are beset by every prowling hireling in +Christendom, who rend and tear the country which you have left +too weak to guard her own marches. Is it not a by-word that a +man may ride all day in that unhappy land without seeing thatch +upon roof or hearing the crow of cock? Does not one fair kingdom +content you, that you should strive so for this other one which +has no love for you? Pardieu! a true Frenchman's words may well +be bitter, for bitter is his lot and bitter his thoughts as he +rides through his thrice unhappy country." + +"Sir knight," said the prince, "you speak like a brave man, and +our cousin of France is happy in having a cavalier who is so fit +to uphold his cause either with tongue or with sword. But if you +think such evil of us, how comes it that you have trusted +yourselves to us without warranty or safe-conduct?" + +"Because I knew that you would be here, sire. Had the man who +sits upon your right been ruler of this land, I had indeed +thought twice before I looked to him for aught that was knightly +or generous." With a soldierly salute, he wheeled round his +horse, and, galloping down the lists, disappeared amid the dense +crowd of footmen and of horsemen who were streaming away from the +scene of the tournament. + +"The insolent villain!" cried Pedro, glaring furiously after him. +"I have seen a man's tongue torn from his jaws for less. Would +it not be well even now, Edward, to send horsemen to hale him +back? Bethink you that it may be one of the royal house of +France, or at least some knight whose loss would be a heavy blow +to his master. Sir William Felton, you are well mounted, gallop +after the caitiff, I pray you." + +"Do so, Sir William," said the prince, "and give him this purse +of a hundred nobles as a sign of the respect which I bear for +him; for, by St. George! he has served his master this day even +as I would wish liegeman of mine to serve me." So saying, the +prince turned his back upon the King of Spain, and springing upon +his horse, rode slowly homewards to the Abbey of Saint Andrew's. + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +HOW SIR NIGEL WROTE TO TWYNHAM CASTLE. + + +On the morning after the jousting, when Alleyne Edricson went, as +was his custom, into his master's chamber to wait upon him in his +dressing and to curl his hair, he found him already up and very +busily at work. He sat at a table by the window, a deer-hound on +one side of him and a lurcher on the other, his feet tucked away +under the trestle on which he sat, and his tongue in his cheek, +with the air of a man who is much perplexed. A sheet of vellum +lay upon the board in front of him, and he held a pen in his +hand, with which he had been scribbling in a rude schoolboy hand. +So many were the blots, however, and so numerous the scratches +and erasures, that he had at last given it up in despair, and +sat with his single uncovered eye cocked upwards at the ceiling, +as one who waits upon inspiration. + +"By Saint Paul!" he cried, as Alleyne entered, "you are the man +who will stand by me in this matter. I have been in sore need of +you, Alleyne." + +"God be with you, my fair lord!" the squire answered. "I trust +that you have taken no hurt from all that you have gone through +yesterday." + +"Nay; I feel the fresher for it, Alleyne. It has eased my +joints, which were somewhat stiff from these years of peace. I +trust, Alleyne, that thou didst very carefully note and mark the +bearing and carriage of this knight of France; for it is time, +now when you are young, that you should see all that is best, and +mould your own actions in accordance. This was a man from whom +much honor might be gained, and I have seldom met any one for +whom I have conceived so much love and esteem. Could I but learn +his name, I should send you to him with my cartel, that we might +have further occasion to watch his goodly feats of arms." + +"It is said, my fair lord, that none know his name save only the +Lord Chandos, and that he is under vow not to speak it. So ran +the gossip at the squires' table." + +"Be he who he might, he was a very hardy gentleman. But I have a +task here, Alleyne, which is harder to me than aught that was set +before me yesterday." + +"Can I help you, my lord?" + +"That indeed you can. I have been writing my greetings to my +sweet wife; for I hear that a messenger goes from the prince to +Southampton within the week, and he would gladly take a packet +for me. I pray you, Alleyne, to cast your eyes upon what I have +written, and see it they are such words as my lady will +understand. My fingers, as you can see, are more used to iron +and leather than to the drawing of strokes and turning of +letters. What then? Is there aught amiss, that you should +stare so?" + +"It is this first word, my lord. In what tongue were you pleased +to write?" + +"In English; for my lady talks it more than she doth French. + +"Yet this is no English word, my sweet lord. Here are four t's +and never a letter betwixt them." + +"By St. Paul! it seemed strange to my eye when I wrote it," said +Sir Nigel. "They bristle up together like a clump of lances. We +must break their ranks and set them farther apart. The word is +`that.' Now I will read it to you, Alleyne, and you shall write +it out fair; for we leave Bordeaux this day, and it would be +great joy to me to think that the Lady Loring had word from me." + +Alleyne sat down as ordered, with a pen in his hand and a fresh +sheet of parchment before him, while Sir Nigel slowly spelled out +his letter, running his forefinger on from word to word. + +"That my heart is with thee, my dear sweeting, is what thine own +heart will assure thee of. All is well with us here, save that +Pepin hath the mange on his back, and Pommers hath scarce yet got +clear of his stiffness from being four days on ship-board, and +the more so because the sea was very high, and we were like to +founder on account of a hole in her side, which was made by a +stone cast at us by certain sea-rovers, who may the saints have +in their keeping, for they have gone from amongst us, as has +young Terlake, and two-score mariners and archers, who would be +the more welcome here as there is like to be a very fine war, +with much honor and all hopes of advancement, for which I go to +gather my Company together, who are now at Montaubon, where they +pillage and destroy; yet I hope that, by God's help, I may be +able to show that I am their master, even as, my sweet lady, I am +thy servant." + +"How of that, Alleyne?" continued Sir Nigel, blinking at his +squire, with an expression of some pride upon his face. "Have I +not told her all that hath befallen us?" + +"You have said much, my fair lord; and yet, if I may say so, it +is somewhat crowded together, so that my Lady Loring can, mayhap, +scarce follow it. Were it in shorter periods----" + +"Nay, it boots me not how you marshal them, as long as they are +all there at the muster. Let my lady have the words, and she +will place them in such order as pleases her best. But I would +have you add what it would please her to know." + +"That will I," said Alleyne, blithely, and bent to the task. + +"My fair lady and mistress," he wrote, "God hath had us in His +keeping, and my lord is well and in good cheer. He hath won much +honor at the jousting before the prince, when he alone was able +to make it good against a very valiant man from France. Touching +the moneys, there is enough and to spare until we reach +Montaubon. Herewith, my fair lady, I send my humble regards, +entreating you that you will give the same to your daughter, the +Lady Maude. May the holy saints have you both in their keeping +is ever the prayer of thy servant, + + "ALLEYNE EDRICSON." + +"That is very fairly set forth," said Sir Nigel, nodding his bald +head as each sentence was read to him. "And for thyself, +Alleyne, if there be any dear friend to whom you would fain give +greeting, I can send it for thee within this packet." + +"There is none," said Alleyne, sadly. + +"Have you no kinsfolk, then?" + +"None, save my brother." + +"Ha! I had forgotten that there was ill blood betwixt you. But +are there none in all England who love thee?" + +"None that I dare say so." + +"And none whom you love?" + +"Nay, I will not say that," said Alleyne. + +Sir Nigel shook his head and laughed softly to himself, "I see +how it is with you," he said. "Have I not noted your frequent +sighs and vacant eye? Is she fair?" + +"She is indeed," cried Alleyne from his heart, all tingling at +this sudden turn of the talk. + +"And good?" + +"As an angel." + +"And yet she loves you not?" + +"Nay, I cannot say that she loves another." + +"Then you have hopes?" + +"I could not live else." + +"Then must you strive to be worthy of her love. Be brave and +pure, fearless to the strong and humble to the weak; and so, +whether this love prosper or no, you will have fitted yourself to +be honored by a maiden's love, which is, in sooth, the highest +guerdon which a true knight can hope for." + +"Indeed, my lord, I do so strive," said Alleyne; "but she is so +sweet, so dainty, and of so noble a spirit, that I fear me that I +shall never be worthy of her." + +"By thinking so you become worthy. Is she then of noble birth?" + +"She is, my lord," faltered Alleyne. + +"Of a knightly house?" + +"Yes." + +"Have a care, Alleyne, have a care!" said Sir Nigel, kindly. "The +higher the steed the greater the fall. Hawk not at that which +may be beyond thy flight." + +"My lord, I know little of the ways and usages of the world," +cried Alleyne, "but I would fain ask your rede upon the matter. +You have known my father and my kin: is not my family one of good +standing and repute?" + +"Beyond all question." + +"And yet you warn me that I must not place my love too high." + +"Were Minstead yours, Alleyne, then, by St. Paul! I cannot think +that any family in the land would not be proud to take you among +them, seeing that you come of so old a strain. But while the +Socman lives----Ha, by my soul! if this is not Sir Oliver's step +I am the more mistaken." + +As he spoke, a heavy footfall was heard without, and the portly +knight flung open the door and strode into the room. + +"Why, my little coz," said he, "I have come across to tell you +that I live above the barber's in the Rue de la Tour, and that +there is a venison pasty in the oven and two flasks of the right +vintage on the table. By St. James! a blind man might find the +place, for one has but to get in the wind from it, and follow the +savory smell. Put on your cloak, then, and come, for Sir Walter +Hewett and Sir Robert Briquet, with one or two others, are +awaiting us." + +"Nay, Oliver, I cannot be with you, for I must to Montaubon this +day." + +"To Montaubon? But I have heard that your Company is to come +with my forty Winchester rascals to Dax." + +"If you will take charge of them, Oliver. For I will go to +Montaubon with none save my two squires and two archers. Then, +when I have found the rest of my Company I shall lead them to +Dax. We set forth this morning." + +"Then I must back to my pasty," said Sir Oliver. "You will find +us at Dax, I doubt not, unless the prince throw me into prison, +for he is very wroth against me." + +"And why, Oliver?" + +"Pardieu! because I have sent my cartel, gauntlet, and defiance +to Sir John Chandos and to Sir William Felton." + +"To Chandos? In God's name, Oliver, why have you done this?" + +"Because he and the other have used me despitefully." + +"And how?" + +"Because they have passed me over in choosing those who should +joust for England. Yourself and Audley I could pass, coz, for +you are mature men; but who are Wake, and Percy, and Beauchamp? +By my soul! I was prodding for my food into a camp-kettle when +they were howling for their pap. Is a man of my weight and +substance to be thrown aside for the first three half-grown lads +who have learned the trick of the tilt-yard? But hark ye, coz, I +think of sending my cartel also to the prince." + +"Oliver! Oliver! You are mad!" + +"Not I, i' faith! I care not a denier whether he be prince or no. +By Saint James! I see that your squire's eyes are starting from +his head like a trussed crab. Well, friend, we are all three men +of Hampshire, and not lightly to be jeered at." + +"Has he jeered at you than?" + +"Pardieu! yes, `Old Sir Oliver's heart is still stout,' said one +of his court. `Else had it been out of keeping with the rest of +him,' quoth the prince. `And his arm is strong,' said another. +`So is the backbone of his horse,' quoth the prince. This very +day I will send him my cartel and defiance." + +"Nay, nay, my dear Oliver," said Sir Nigel, laying his hand upon +his angry friend's arm. "There is naught in this, for it was but +saying that you were a strong and robust man, who had need of a +good destrier. And as to Chandos and Felton, bethink you that if +when you yourself were young the older lances had ever been +preferred, how would you then have had the chance to earn the +good name and fame which you now bear? You do not ride as light +as you did, Oliver, and I ride lighter by the weight of my hair, +but it would be an ill thing if in the evening of our lives we +showed that our hearts were less true and loyal than of old. If +such a knight as Sir Oliver Buttesthorn may turn against his own +prince for the sake of a light word, then where are we to look +for steadfast faith and constancy?" + +"Ah! my dear little coz, it is easy to sit in the sunshine and +preach to the man in the shadow. Yet you could ever win me over +to your side with that soft voice of yours. Let us think no more +of it then. But, holy Mother! I had forgot the pasty, and it +will be as scorched as Judas Iscariot! Come, Nigel, lest the +foul fiend get the better of me again." + +"For one hour, then; for we march at mid-day. Tell Aylward, +Alleyne, that he is to come with me to Montaubon, and to choose +one archer for his comrade. The rest will to Dax when the prince +starts, which will be before the feast of the Epiphany. Have +Pommers ready at mid-day with my sycamore lance, and place my +harness on the sumpter mule." + +With these brief directions, the two old soldiers strode off +together, while Alleyne hastened to get all in order for their +journey. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +HOW THE THREE COMRADES GAINED A MIGHTY TREASURE + + +It was a bright, crisp winter's day when the little party set off +from Bordeaux on their journey to Montaubon, where the missing +half of their Company had last been heard of. Sir Nigel and Ford +had ridden on in advance, the knight upon his hackney, while his +great war-horse trotted beside his squire. Two hours later +Alleyne Edricson followed; for he had the tavern reckoning to +settle, and many other duties which fell to him as squire of the +body. With him came Aylward and Hordle John, armed as of old, +but mounted for their journey upon a pair of clumsy Landes +horses, heavy-headed and shambling, but of great endurance, and +capable of jogging along all day, even when between the knees of +the huge archer, who turned the scale at two hundred and seventy +pounds. They took with them the sumpter mules, which carried in +panniers the wardrobe and table furniture of Sir Nigel; for the +knight, though neither fop nor epicure, was very dainty in small +matters, and loved, however bare the board or hard the life, that +his napery should still be white and his spoon of silver. + +There had been frost during the night, and the white hard road +rang loud under their horses' irons as they spurred through the +east gate of the town, along the same broad highway which the +unknown French champion had traversed on the day of the jousts. +The three rode abreast, Alleyne Edricson with his eyes cast down +and his mind distrait, for his thoughts were busy with the +conversation which he had had with Sir Nigel in the morning. Had +he done well to say so much, or had he not done better to have +said more? What would the knight have said had he confessed to +his love for the Lady Maude? Would he cast him off in disgrace, +or might he chide him as having abused the shelter of his roof? +It had been ready upon his tongue to tell him all when Sir Oliver +had broken in upon them. Perchance Sir Nigel, with his love of +all the dying usages of chivalry, might have contrived some +strange ordeal or feat of arms by which his love should be put to +the test. Alleyne smiled as he wondered what fantastic and +wondrous deed would be exacted from him. Whatever it was, he was +ready for it, whether it were to hold the lists in the court of +the King of Tartary, to carry a cartel to the Sultan of Baghdad, +or to serve a term against the wild heathen of Prussia. Sir +Nigel had said that his birth was high enough for any lady, if +his fortune could but be amended. Often had Alleyne curled his +lip at the beggarly craving for land or for gold which blinded +man to the higher and more lasting issues of life. Now it +seemed as though it were only by this same land and gold that he +might hope to reach his heart's desire. But then, again, the +Socman of Minstead was no friend to the Constable of Twynham +Castle. It might happen that, should he amass riches by some +happy fortune of war, this feud might hold the two families +aloof. Even if Maude loved him, he knew her too well to think +that she would wed him without the blessing of her father. Dark +and murky was it all, but hope mounts high in youth, and it ever +fluttered over all the turmoil of his thoughts like a white plume +amid the shock of horsemen. + +If Alleyne Edricson had enough to ponder over as he rode through +the bare plains of Guienne, his two companions were more busy +with the present and less thoughtful of the future. Aylward rode +for half a mile with his chin upon his shoulder, looking back at +a white kerchief which fluttered out of the gable window of a +high house which peeped over the corner of the battlements. When +at last a dip of the road hid it from his view, he cocked his +steel cap, shrugged his broad shoulders, and rode on with +laughter in his eyes, and his weather-beaten face all ashine with +pleasant memories. John also rode in silence, but his eyes +wandered slowly from one side of the road to the other, and he +stared and pondered and nodded his head like a traveller who +makes his notes and saves them up for the re-telling. + +"By the rood!" he broke out suddenly, slapping his thigh with his +great red hand, "I knew that there was something a-missing, but I +could not bring to my mind what it was." + +"What was it then?" asked Alleyne, coming with a start out of his +reverie. + +"Why, it is the hedgerows," roared John, with a shout of +laughter. "The country is all scraped as clear as a friar's +poll. But indeed I cannot think much of the folk in these parts. +Why do they not get to work and dig up these long rows of black +and crooked stumps which I see on every hand? A franklin of +Hampshire would think shame to have such litter upon his soil." + +"Thou foolish old John!" quoth Aylward. "You should know better, +since I have heard that the monks of Beaulieu could squeeze a +good cup of wine from their own grapes. Know then that if these +rows were dug up the wealth of the country would be gone, and +mayhap there would be dry throats and gaping mouths in England, +for in three months' time these black roots will blossom and +snoot and burgeon, and from them will come many a good ship-load +of Medoc and Gascony which will cross the narrow seas. But see +the church in the hollow, and the folk who cluster in the +churchyard! By my hilt! it is a burial, and there is a passing +bell!" He pulled off his steel cap as he spoke and crossed +himself, with a muttered prayer for the repose of the dead. + +"There too," remarked Alleyne, as they rode on again, "that which +seems to the eye to be dead is still full of the sap of life, +even as the vines were. Thus God hath written Himself and His +laws very broadly on all that is around us, if our poor dull eyes +and duller souls could but read what He hath set before us." + +"Ha! mon petit," cried the bowman, "you take me back to the days +when you were new fledged, as sweet a little chick as ever pecked +his way out of a monkish egg. I had feared that in gaining our +debonair young man-at-arms we had lost our soft-spoken clerk. In +truth, I have noted much change in you since we came from Twynham +Castle." + +"Surely it would be strange else, seeing that I have lived in a +world so new to me. Yet I trust that there are many things in +which I have not changed. If I have turned to serve an earthly +master, and to carry arms for an earthly king, it would be an ill +thing if I were to lose all thought of the great high King and +Master of all, whose humble and unworthy servant I was ere ever I +left Beaulieu. You, John, are also from the cloisters, but I +trow that you do not feel that you have deserted the old service +in taking on the new." + +"I am a slow-witted man," said John, "and, in sooth, when I try +to think about such matters it casts a gloom upon me. Yet I do +not look upon myself as a worse man in an archer's jerkin than I +was in a white cowl, if that be what you mean." + +"You have but changed from one white company to the other," quoth +Aylward. "But, by these ten finger-bones! it is a passing +strange thing to me to think that it was but in the last fall of +the leaf that we walked from Lyndhurst together, he so gentle and +maidenly, and you, John, like a great red-limbed overgrown moon-calf; +and now here you are as sprack a squire and as lusty an archer as +ever passed down the highway from Bordeaux, while I am still the +same old Samkin Aylward, with never a change, save that I have +a few more sins on my soul and a few less crowns in my pouch. +But I have never yet heard, John, what the reason was why you +should come out of Beaulieu." + +"There were seven reasons," said John thoughtfully. "The first +of them was that they threw me out." + +"Ma foi! camarade, to the devil with the other six! That is +enough for me and for thee also. I can see that they are very +wise and discreet folk at Beaulieu. Ah! mon ange, what have you +in the pipkin?" + +"It is milk, worthy sir," answered the peasant-maid, who stood by +the door of a cottage with a jug in her hand. "Would it please +you, gentles, that I should bring you out three horns of it?" + +"Nay, ma petite, but here is a two-sous piece for thy kindly +tongue and for the sight of thy pretty face. Ma foi! but she has +a bonne mine. I have a mind to bide and speak with her." + +"Nay, nay, Aylward," cried Alleyne. "Sir Nigel will await us, +and he in haste." + +"True, true, camarade! Adieu, ma cherie! mon coeur est toujours a +toi. Her mother is a well-grown woman also. See where she digs by +the wayside. Ma foi! the riper fruit is ever the sweeter. Bon +jour, ma belle dame! God have you in his keeping! Said Sir Nigel +where he would await us?" + +"At Marmande or Aiguillon. He said that we could not pass him, +seeing that there is but the one road." + +"Aye, and it is a road that I know as I know the Midhurst parish +butts," quoth the bowman. "Thirty times have I journeyed it, +forward and backward, and, by the twang of string! I am wont to +come back this way more laden than I went. I have carried all +that I had into France in a wallet, and it hath taken four +sumpter-mules to carry it back again. God's benison on the man +who first turned his hand to the making of war! But there, down +in the dingle, is the church of Cardillac, and you may see the +inn where three poplars grow beyond the village. Let us on, for a +stoup of wine would hearten us upon our way." + +The highway had lain through the swelling vineyard country, which +stretched away to the north and east in gentle curves, with many +a peeping spire and feudal tower, and cluster of village houses, +all clear cut and hard in the bright wintry air. To their right +stretched the blue Garonne, running swiftly seawards, with boats +and barges dotted over its broad bosom. On the other side lay a +strip of vineyard, and beyond it the desolate and sandy region of +the Landes, all tangled with faded gorse and heath and broom, +stretching away in unbroken gloom to the blue hills which lay low +upon the furthest sky-line. Behind them might still be seen the +broad estuary of the Gironde, with the high towers of Saint Andre +and Saint Remi shooting up from the plain. In front, amid +radiating lines of poplars, lay the riverside townlet of +Cardillac--gray walls, white houses, and a feather of blue smoke. + +"This is the `Mouton d'Or,'" said Aylward, as they pulled up +their horses at a whitewashed straggling hostel. "What ho +there!" he continued, beating upon the door with the hilt of his +sword. "Tapster, ostler, varlet, hark hither, and a wannion on +your lazy limbs! Ha! Michel, as red in the nose as ever! Three +jacks of the wine of the country, Michel--for the air bites +shrewdly. I pray you, Alleyne, to take note of this door, for I +have a tale concerning it." + +"Tell me, friend," said Alleyne to the portly red-faced inn-keeper, +"has a knight and a squire passed this way within the hour?" + +"Nay, sir, it would be two hours back. Was he a small man, weak +in the eyes, with a want of hair, and speaks very quiet when he +is most to be feared?" + +"The same," the squire answered. "But I marvel how you should +know how he speaks when he is in wrath, for he is very gentle-minded +with those who are beneath him." + +"Praise to the saints! it was not I who angered him," said the +fat Michel. + +"Who, then?" + +"It was young Sieur de Crespigny of Saintonge, who chanced to be +here, and made game of the Englishman, seeing that he was but a +small man and hath a face which is full of peace. But indeed +this good knight was a very quiet and patient man, for he saw +that the Sieur de Crespigny was still young and spoke from an +empty head, so he sat his horse and quaffed his wine, even as you +are doing now, all heedless of the clacking tongue." And what +then, Michel?" + +"Well, messieurs, it chanced that the Sieur de Crespigny, having +said this and that, for the laughter of the varlets, cried out at +last about the glove that the knight wore in his coif, asking if +it was the custom in England for a man to wear a great archer's +glove in his cap. Pardieu! I have never seen a man get off his +horse as quick as did that stranger Englishman. Ere the words +were past the other's lips he was beside him, his face nigh +touching, and his breath hot upon his cheeks. `I think, young +sir,' quoth he softly, looking into the other's eyes, `that now +that I am nearer you will very clearly see that the glove is not +an archer's glove.' `Perchance not,' said the Sieur de Crespigny +with a twitching lip. `Nor is it large, but very small,' quoth +the Englishman. `Less large than I had thought,' said the other, +looking down, for the knight's gaze was heavy upon his eyelids. +`And in every way such a glove as might be worn by the fairest +and sweetest lady in England,' quoth the Englishman. `It may be +so,' said the Sieur de Crespigny, turning his face from him. `I +am myself weak in the eyes, and have often taken one thing for +another,' quoth the knight, as he sprang back into his saddle and +rode off, leaving the Sieur de Crespigny biting his nails before +the door. Ha! by the five wounds, many men of war have drunk my +wine, but never one was more to my fancy than this little +Englishman." + +"By my hilt! he is our master, Michel," quoth Aylward, "and such +men as we do not serve under a laggart. But here are four +deniers, Michel, and God be with you! En avant, camarades! for +we have a long road before us." + +At a brisk trot the three friends left Cardillac and its wine-house +behind them, riding without a halt past St. Macaire, and on +by ferry over the river Dorpt. At the further side the road +winds through La Reolle, Bazaille, and Marmande, with the sunlit +river still gleaming upon the right, and the bare poplars +bristling up upon either side. John and Alleyne rode silent on +either side, but every inn, farm-steading, or castle brought back +to Aylward some remembrance of love, foray, or plunder, with +which to beguile the way. + +"There is the smoke from Bazas, on the further side of Garonne," +quoth he. "There were three sisters yonder, the daughters of a +farrier, and, by these ten finger-bones! a man might ride for a +long June day and never set eyes upon such maidens. There was +Marie, tall and grave, and Blanche petite and gay, and the dark +Agnes, with eyes that went through you like a waxed arrow. I +lingered there as long as four days, and was betrothed to them +all; for it seemed shame to set one above her sisters, and might +make ill blood in the family. Yet, for all my care, things were +not merry in the house, and I thought it well to come away. +There, too, is the mill of Le Souris. Old Pierre Le Caron, who +owned it, was a right good comrade, and had ever a seat and a +crust for a weary archer. He was a man who wrought hard at all +that he turned his hand to; but he heated himself in grinding +bones to mix with his flour, and so through over-diligence he +brought a fever upon himself and died." + +"Tell me, Aylward," said Alleyne, "what was amiss with the door +of yonder inn that you should ask me to observe it." + +"Pardieu! yes, I had well-nigh forgot. What saw you on yonder +door?" + +"I saw a square hole, through which doubtless the host may peep +when he is not too sure of those who knock." + +"And saw you naught else?" + +"I marked that beneath this hole there was a deep cut in the +door, as though a great nail had been driven in." + +"And naught else?" + +"No." + +"Had you looked more closely you might have seen that there was a +stain upon the wood. The first time that I ever heard my comrade +Black Simon laugh was in front of that door. I heard him once +again when he slew a French squire with his teeth, he being +unarmed and the Frenchman having a dagger." + +"And why did Simon laugh in front of the inn-door!" asked John. + +"Simon is a hard and perilous man when he hath the bitter drop in +him; and, by my hilt! he was born for war, for there is little +sweetness or rest in him. This inn, the `Mouton d'Or,' was kept +in the old days by one Francois Gourval, who had a hard fist and +a harder heart. It was said that many and many an archer coming +from the wars had been served with wine with simples in it, until +he slept, and had then been stripped of all by this Gourval. +Then on the morrow, if he made complaint, this wicked Gourval +would throw him out upon the road or beat him, for he was a very +lusty man, and had many stout varlets in his service. This +chanced to come to Simon's ears when we were at Bordeaux +together, and he would have it that we should ride to Cardillac +with a good hempen cord, and give this Gourval such a scourging +as he merited. Forth we rode then, but when we came to the +Mouton d'Or,' Gourval had had word of our coming and its purpose, +so that the door was barred, nor was there any way into the +house. `Let us in, good Master Gourval!' cried Simon, and `Let +us in, good Master Gourval!' cried I, but no word could we get +through the hole in the door, save that he would draw an arrow +upon us unless we went on our way. `Well, Master Gourval,' quoth +Simon at last, `this is but a sorry welcome, seeing that we have +ridden so far just to shake you by the hand.' `Canst shake me by +the hand without coming in,' said Gourval. `And how that?' +asked Simon. `By passing in your hand through the hole,' said +he. `Nay, my hand is wounded,' quoth Simon, `and of such a size +that I cannot pass it in.' `That need not hinder,' said Gourval, +who was hot to be rid of us, `pass in your left hand.' `But I +have something for thee, Gourval,' said Simon. `What then?' he +asked. `There was an English archer who slept here last week of +the name of Hugh of Nutbourne.' `We have had many rogues here,' +said Gourval. `His conscience hath been heavy within him because +he owes you a debt of fourteen deniers, having drunk wine for +which he hath never paid. For the easing of his soul, he asked +me to pay the money to you as I passed.' Now this Gourval was +very greedy for money, so he thrust forth his hand for the +fourteen deniers, but Simon had his dagger ready and he pinned +his hand to the door. `I have paid the Englishman's debt, +Gourval!' quoth he, and so rode away, laughing so that he could +scarce sit his horse, leaving mine host still nailed to his door. +Such is the story of the hole which you have marked, and of the +smudge upon the wood. I have heard that from that time English +archers have been better treated in the auberge of Cardillac. +But what have we here by the wayside?" + +"It appears to be a very holy man," said Alleyne. + +"And, by the rood! he hath some strange wares," cried John. +"What are these bits of stone, and of wood, and rusted nails, +which are set out in front of him?" + +The man whom they had remarked sat with his back against a +cherry-tree, and his legs shooting out in front of him, like one +who is greatly at his ease. Across his thighs was a wooden +board, and scattered over it all manner of slips of wood and +knobs of brick and stone, each laid separate from the other, as a +huckster places his wares. He was dressed in a long gray gown, +and wore a broad hat of the same color, much weather-stained, +with three scallop-shells dangling from the brim. As they +approached, the travellers observed that he was advanced in +years, and that his eyes were upturned and yellow. + +"Dear knights and gentlemen," he cried in a high crackling voice, +"worthy Christian cavaliers, will ye ride past and leave an aged +pilgrim to die of hunger? The sight hast been burned from mine +eyes by the sands of the Holy Land, and I have had neither crust +of bread nor cup of wine these two days past." + +"By my hilt! father," said Aylward, looking keenly at him, "it is +a marvel to me that thy girdle should have so goodly a span and +clip thee so closely, if you have in sooth had so little to place +within it." + +"Kind stranger," answered the pilgrim, "you have unwittingly +spoken words which are very grievous to me to listen to. Yet I +should be loth to blame you, for I doubt not that what you said +was not meant to sadden me, nor to bring my sore affliction back +to my mind. It ill becomes me to prate too much of what I have +endured for the faith, and yet, since you have observed it, I +must tell you that this thickness and roundness of the waist is +caused by a dropsy brought on by over-haste in journeying from +the house of Pilate to the Mount of Olives." + +"There, Aylward," said Alleyne, with a reddened cheek, "let that +curb your blunt tongue. How could you bring a fresh pang to this +holy man, who hath endured so much and hath journeyed as far as +Christ's own blessed tomb?" + +"May the foul fiend strike me dumb!" cried the bowman in hot +repentance; but both the palmer and Alleyne threw up their hands +to stop him. + +"I forgive thee from my heart, dear brother," piped the blind +man. "But, oh, these wild words of thine are worse to mine ears +than aught which you could say of me." + +"Not another word shall I speak," said Aylward; "but here is a +franc for thee and I crave thy blessing." + +"And here is another," said Alleyne. + +"And another," cried Hordle John. + +But the blind palmer would have none of their alms. "Foolish, +foolish pride!" he cried, beating upon his chest with his large +brown hand. "Foolish, foolish pride! How long then will it be +ere I can scourge it forth? Am I then never to conquer it? Oh, +strong, strong are the ties of flesh, and hard it is to subdue +the spirit! I come, friends, of a noble house, and I cannot +bring myself to touch this money, even though it be to save me +from the grave." + +"Alas! father," said Alleyne, "how then can we be of help to +thee?" + +"I had sat down here to die," quoth the palmer; "but for many +years I have carried in my wallet these precious things which you +see set forth now before me. It were sin, thought I, that my +secret should perish with me. I shall therefore sell these +things to the first worthy passers-by, and from them I shall have +money enough to take me to the shrine of Our Lady at Rocamadour, +where I hope to lay these old bones." + +"What are these treasures, then, father?" asked Hordle John. "I +can but see an old rusty nail, with bits of stone and slips of +wood." + +"My friend," answered the palmer, "not all the money that is in +this country could pay a just price for these wares of mine. This +nail," he continued, pulling off his hat and turning up his +sightless orbs, "is one of those wherewith man's salvation was +secured. I had it, together with this piece of the true rood, +from the five-and-twentieth descendant of Joseph of Arimathea, +who still lives in Jerusalem alive and well, though latterly much +afflicted by boils. Aye, you may well cross yourselves, and I +beg that you will not breathe upon it or touch it with your +fingers." + +"And the wood and stone, holy father?" asked Alleyne, with bated +breath, as he stared awe-struck at his precious relics. + +"This cantle of wood is from the true cross, this other from Noah +his ark, and the third is from the door-post of the temple of the +wise King Solomon. This stone was thrown at the sainted Stephen, +and the other two are from the Tower of Babel. Here, too, is +part of Aaron's rod, and a lock of hair from Elisha the prophet." + +"But, father," quoth Alleyne, "the holy Elisha was bald, which +brought down upon him the revilements of the wicked children." + +"It is very true that he had not much hair," said the palmer +quickly, "and it is this which makes this relic so exceeding +precious. Take now your choice of these, my worthy gentlemen, +and pay such a price as your consciences will suffer you to +offer; for I am not a chapman nor a huckster, and I would never +part with them, did I not know that I am very near to my reward." + +"Aylward," said Alleyne excitedly, "This is such a chance as few +folk have twice in one life. The nail I must have, and I will +give it to the abbey of Beaulieu, so that all the folk in England +may go thither to wonder and to pray." + +"And I will have the stone from the temple," cried Hordle John. +"What would not my old mother give to have it hung over her bed?" + +"And I will have Aaron's rod," quoth Aylward. "I have but five +florins in the world, and here are four of them." + +"Here are three more," said John. + +"And here are five more," added Alleyne. "Holy father, I hand +you twelve florins, which is all that we can give, though we well +know how poor a pay it is for the wondrous things which you sell +us." + +"Down, pride, down!" cried the pilgrim, still beating upon his +chest. "Can I not bend myself then to take this sorry sum which +is offered me for that which has cost me the labors of a life. +Give me the dross! Here are the precious relics, and, oh, I pray +you that you will handle them softly and with reverence, else had +I rather left my unworthy bones here by the wayside." + +With doffed caps and eager hands, the comrades took their new and +precious possessions, and pressed onwards upon their journey, +leaving the aged palmer still seated under the cherry-tree. They +rode in silence, each with his treasure in his hand, glancing at +it from time to time, and scarce able to believe that chance had +made them sole owners of relics of such holiness and worth that +every abbey and church in Christendom would have bid eagerly for +their possession. So they journeyed, full of this good fortune, +until opposite the town of Le Mas, where John's horse cast a +shoe, and they were glad to find a wayside smith who might set +the matter to rights. To him Aylward narrated the good hap which +had befallen them; but the smith, when his eyes lit upon the +relics, leaned up against his anvil and laughed, with his hand to +his side, until the tears hopped down his sooty cheeks. + +"Why, masters," quoth he, "this man is a coquillart, or seller of +false relics, and was here in the smithy not two hours ago. This +nail that he hath sold you was taken from my nail-box, and as to +the wood and the stones, you will see a heap of both outside from +which he hath filled his scrip." + +"Nay, nay," cried Alleyne, "this was a holy man who had journeyed +to Jerusalem, and acquired a dropsy by running from the house of +Pilate to the Mount of Olives." + +"I know not about that," said the smith; "but I know that a man +with a gray palmer's hat and gown was here no very long time ago, +and that he sat on yonder stump and ate a cold pullet and drank a +flask of wine. Then he begged from me one of my nails, and +filling his scrip with stones, he went upon his way. Look at +these nails, and see if they are not the same as that which he +has sold you." + +"Now may God save us!" cried Alleyne, all aghast. "Is there no +end then to the wickedness of humankind? He so humble, so aged, +so loth to take our money--and yet a villain and a cheat. Whom +can we trust or believe in?" + +"I will after him," said Aylward, flinging himself into the +saddle. "Come, Alleyne, we may catch him ere John's horse be +shod." + +Away they galloped together, and ere long they saw the old gray +palmer walking slowly along in front of them. He turned, +however, at the sound of their hoofs, and it was clear that his +blindness was a cheat like all the rest of him, for he ran +swiftly through a field and so into a wood, where none could +follow him. They hurled their relics after him, and so rode back +to the blacksmith's the poorer both in pocket and in faith. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +HOW ROGER CLUB-FOOT WAS PASSED INTO PARADISE. + + +It was evening before the three comrades came into Aiguillon, +There they found Sir Nigel Loring and Ford safely lodged at the +sign of the "Baton Rouge," where they supped on good fare and +slept between lavender-scented sheets. It chanced, however, that +a knight of Poitou, Sir Gaston d'Estelle, was staying there on +his way back from Lithuania, where he had served a term with the +Teutonic knights under the land-master of the presbytery of +Marienberg. He and Sir Nigel sat late in high converse as to +bushments, outfalls, and the intaking of cities, with many tales +of warlike men and valiant deeds. Then their talk turned to +minstrelsy, and the stranger knight drew forth a cittern, upon +which he played the minne-lieder of the north, singing the while +in a high cracked voice of Hildebrand and Brunhild and Siegfried, +and all the strength and beauty of the land of Almain. To this +Sir Nigel answered with the romances of Sir Eglamour, and of Sir +Isumbras, and so through the long winter night they sat by the +crackling wood-fire answering each other's songs until the +crowing cocks joined in their concert. Yet, with scarce an hour +of rest, Sir Nigel was as blithe and bright as ever as they set +forth after breakfast upon their way. + +"This Sir Gaston is a very worthy man," said he to his squires as +they rode from the "Baton Rouge." "He hath a very strong desire +to advance himself, and would have entered upon some small +knightly debate with me, had he not chanced to have his arm-bone +broken by the kick of a horse. I have conceived a great love for +him, and I have promised him that when his bone is mended I will +exchange thrusts with him. But we must keep to this road upon +the left." + +"Nay, my fair lord," quoth Aylward. "The road to Montaubon is +over the river, and so through Quercy and the Agenois." + +"True, my good Aylward; but I have learned from this worthy +knight, who hath come over the French marches, that there is a +company of Englishmen who are burning and plundering in the +country round Villefranche. I have little doubt, from what he +says, that they are those whom we seek." + +"By my hilt! it is like enough," said Aylward. "By all accounts +they had been so long at Montaubon, that there would be little +there worth the taking. Then as they have already been in the +south, they would come north to the country of the Aveyron." + +"We shall follow the Lot until we come to Cahors, and then cross +the marches into Villefranche," said Sir Nigel. "By St. Paul! as +we are but a small band, it is very likely that we may have some +very honorable and pleasing adventure, for I hear that there is +little peace upon the French border." + +All morning they rode down a broad and winding road, barred with +the shadows of poplars. Sir Nigel rode in front with his +squires, while the two archers followed behind with the sumpter +mule between them. They had left Aiguillon and the Garonne far +to the south, and rode now by the tranquil Lot, which curves blue +and placid through a gently rolling country. Alleyne could not +but mark that, whereas in Guienne there had been many townlets +and few castles, there were now many castles and few houses. On +either hand gray walls and square grim keeps peeped out at every +few miles from amid the forests while the few villages which they +passed were all ringed round with rude walls, which spoke of the +constant fear and sudden foray of a wild frontier land. Twice +during the morning there came bands of horsemen swooping down +upon them from the black gateways of wayside strongholds, with +short, stern questions as to whence they came and what their +errand. Bands of armed men clanked along the highway, and the +few lines of laden mules which carried the merchandise of the +trader were guarded by armed varlets, or by archers hired for the +service. + +"The peace of Bretigny hath not made much change in these parts," +quoth Sir Nigel, "for the country is overrun with free companions +and masterless men. Yonder towers, between the wood and the +hill, mark the town of Cahors, and beyond it is the land of +France. But here is a man by the wayside, and as he hath two +horses and a squire I make little doubt that he is a knight. I +pray you, Alleyne, to give him greeting from me, and to ask him +for his titles and coat-armor. It may be that I can relieve him +of some vow, or perchance he hath a lady whom he would wish to +advance." + +"Nay, my fair lord," said Alleyne, "these are not horses and a +squire, but mules and a varlet. The man is a mercer, for he hath +a great bundle beside him." + +"Now, God's blessing on your honest English voice!" cried the +stranger, pricking up his ears at the sound of Alleyne's words. +"Never have I heard music that was so sweet to mine ear. Come, +Watkin lad, throw the bales over Laura's back! My heart was nigh +broke, for it seemed that I had left all that was English behind +me, and that I would never set eyes upon Norwich market square +again." He was a tall, lusty, middle-aged man with a ruddy face, +a brown forked beard shot with gray, and a broad Flanders hat set +at the back of his head. His servant, as tall as himself, but +gaunt and raw-boned, had swung the bales on the back of one mule, +while the merchant mounted upon the other and rode to join the +party. It was easy to see, as he approached, from the quality +of his dress and the richness of his trappings, that he was a man +of some wealth and position. + +"Sir knight," said he, "my name is David Micheldene, and I am a +burgher and alderman of the good town of Norwich, where I live +five doors from the church of Our Lady, as all men know on the +banks of Yare. I have here my bales of cloth which I carry to +Cahors--woe worth the day that ever I started on such an errand! +I crave your gracious protection upon the way for me, my servant, +and my mercery; for I have already had many perilous passages, +and have now learned that Roger Club-foot, the robber-knight of +Quercy, is out upon the road in front of me. I hereby agree to +give you one rose-noble if you bring me safe to the inn of the +`Angel' in Cahors, the same to be repaid to me or my heirs if any +harm come to me or my goods." + +"By Saint Paul!" answered Sir Nigel, "I should be a sorry knight +if I ask pay for standing by a countryman in a strange land. You +may ride with me and welcome, Master Micheldene, and your varlet +may follow with my archers." + +"God's benison upon thy bounty!" cried the stranger. "Should you +come to Norwich you may have cause to remember that you have been +of service to Alderman Micheldene. It is not very far to Cahors, +for surely I see the cathedral towers against the sky-line; but I +have heard much of this Roger Clubfoot, and the more I hear the +less do I wish to look upon his face. Oh, but I am sick and +weary of it all, and I would give half that I am worth to see my +good dame sitting in peace beside me, and to hear the bells of +Norwich town." + +"Your words are strange to me," quoth Sir Nigel, "for you have +the appearance of a stout man, and I see that you wear a sword by +your side." + +"Yet it is not my trade," answered the merchant. "I doubt not +that if I set you down in my shop at Norwich you might scarce +tell fustian from falding, and know little difference between the +velvet of Genoa and the three-piled cloth of Bruges. There you +might well turn to me for help. But here on a lone roadside, +with thick woods and robber-knights, I turn to you, for it is the +business to which you have been reared." + +"There is sooth in what you say, Master Micheldene," said Sir +Nigel, "and I trust that we may come upon this Roger Clubfoot, +for I have heard that he is a very stout and skilful soldier, and +a man from whom much honor is to be gained." + +"He is a bloody robber," said the trader, curtly, "and I wish I +saw him kicking at the end of a halter." + +"It is such men as he," Sir Nigel remarked, "who give the true +knight honorable deeds to do, whereby he may advance himself." + +"It is such men as he," retorted Micheldene, "who are like rats +in a wheat-rick or moths in a woolfels, a harm and a hindrance to +all peaceful and honest men." + +"Yet, if the dangers of the road weigh so heavily upon you, +master alderman, it is a great marvel to me that you should +venture so far from home." + +"And sometimes, sir knight, it is a marvel to myself. But I am a +man who may grutch and grumble, but when I have set my face to do +a thing I will not turn my back upon it until it be done. There +is one, Francois Villet, at Cahors, who will send me wine-casks +for my cloth-bales, so to Cahors I will go, though all the +robber-knights of Christendom were to line the roads like yonder +poplars." + +"Stoutly spoken, master alderman! But how have you fared +hitherto?" + +"As a lamb fares in a land of wolves. Five times we have had to +beg and pray ere we could pass. Twice I have paid toll to the +wardens of the road. Three times we have had to draw, and once +at La Reolle we stood seer our wool-bales, Watkin and I, and we +laid about us for as long as a man might chant a litany, slaying +one rogue and wounding two others. By God's coif! we are men of +peace, but we are free English burghers, not to be mishandled +either in our country or abroad. Neither lord, baron, knight, or +commoner shall have as much as a strike of flax of mine whilst I +have strength to wag this sword." + +"And a passing strange sword it is," quoth Sir Nigel. "What make +you, Alleyne, of these black lines which are drawn across the +sheath?" + +"I cannot tell what they are, my fair lord." + +"Nor can I," said Ford. + +The merchant chuckled to himself. "It was a thought of mine +own," said he; "for the sword was made by Thomas Wilson, the +armorer, who is betrothed to my second daughter Margery. Know +then that the sheath is one cloth-yard, in length, marked off +according to feet and inches to serve me as a measuring wand. It +is also of the exact weight of two pounds, so that I may use it +in the balance." + +"By Saint Paul!" quoth Sir Nigel, "it is very clear to me that +the sword is like thyself, good alderman, apt either for war or +for peace. But I doubt not that even in England you have had +much to suffer from the hands of robbers and outlaws." + +"It was only last Lammastide, sir knight, that I was left for +dead near Reading as I journeyed to Winchester fair. Yet I had +the rogues up at the court of pie-powder, and they will harm no +more peaceful traders." + +"You travel much then!" + +"To Winchester, Linn mart, Bristol fair, Stourbridge, and +Bartholomew's in London Town. The rest of the year you may ever +find me five doors from the church of Our Lady, where I would +from my heart that I was at this moment, for there is no air like +Norwich air, and no water like the Yare, nor can all the wines of +France compare with the beer of old Sam Yelverton who keeps the +`Dun Cow.' But, out and alack, here is an evil fruit which hangs +upon this chestnut-tree!" + +As he spoke they had ridden round a curve of the road and come +upon a great tree which shot one strong brown branch across their +path. From the centre of this branch there hung a man, with his +head at a horrid slant to his body and his toes just touching the +ground. He was naked save for a linen under shirt and pair of +woollen drawers. Beside him on a green bank there sat a small +man with a solemn face, and a great bundle of papers of all +colors thrusting forth from the scrip which lay beside him. He +was very richly dressed, with furred robes, a scarlet hood, and +wide hanging sleeves lined with flame-colored silk. A great gold +chain hung round his neck, and rings glittered from every finger +of his hands. On his lap he had a little pile of gold and of +silver, which he was dropping, coin by coin, into a plump pouch +which hung from his girdle. + +"May the saints be with you, good travellers!" he shouted, as the +party rode up. "May the four Evangelists watch over you! May +the twelve Apostles bear you up! May the blessed army of martyrs +direct your feet and lead you to eternal bliss!" + +"Gramercy for these good wishes!" said Sir Nigel. "But I +perceive, master alderman, that this man who hangs here is, by +mark of foot, the very robber-knight of whom we have spoken. But +there is a cartel pinned upon his breast, and I pray you, +Alleyne, to read it to me." + +The dead robber swung slowly to and fro in the wintry wind, a +fixed smile upon his swarthy face, and his bulging eyes still +glaring down the highway of which he had so long been the terror; +on a sheet of parchment upon his breast was printed in rude +characters; + + ROGER PIED-BOT. + + Par l'ordre du Senechal de + Castelnau, et de l'Echevin de + Cahors, servantes fideles du + tres vaillant et tres puissant + Edouard, Prince de Galles et + d'Aquitaine. + Ne touchez pas, + Ne coutez pas, + Ne depechez pas + +"He took a sorry time in dying," said the man who sat beside him. +"He could stretch one toe to the ground and bear him self up, so +that I thought he would never have done. Now at last, however, +he is safely in paradise, and so I may jog on upon my earthly +way." He mounted, as he spoke, a white mule which had been +grazing by the wayside, all gay with fustian of gold and silver +bells, and rode onward with Sir Nigel's party. + +"How know you then that he is in paradise?" asked Sir Nigel. +"All things are possible to God, but, certes, without a miracle, +I should scarce expect to find the soul of Roger Clubfoot amongst +the just." + +"I know that he is there because I have just passed him in +there," answered the stranger, rubbing his bejewelled hands +together in placid satisfaction. "It is my holy mission to be a +sompnour or pardoner. I am the unworthy servant and delegate of +him who holds the keys. A contrite heart and ten nobles to holy +mother Church may stave off perdition; but he hath a pardon of +the first degree, with a twenty-five livre benison, so that I +doubt if he will so much as feel a twinge of purgatory. I came +up even as the seneschal's archers were tying him up, and I gave +him my fore-word that I would bide with him until he had passed. +There were two leaden crowns among the silver, but I would not +for that stand in the way of his salvation." + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, "if you have indeed this power +to open and to shut the gates of hope, then indeed you stand high +above mankind. But if you do but claim to have it, and yet have +it not, then it seems to me, master clerk, that you may yourself +find the gate barred when you shall ask admittance." + +"Small of faith! Small of faith!" cried the sompnour. "Ah, Sir +Didymus yet walks upon earth! And yet no words of doubt can +bring anger to mine heart, or a bitter word to my lip, for am I +not a poor unworthy worker in the cause of gentleness and peace? +Of all these pardons which I bear every one is stamped and signed +by our holy father, the prop and centre of Christendom." + +"Which of them?" asked Sir Nigel. + +"Ha, ha!" cried the pardoner, shaking a jewelled forefinger. "Thou +wouldst be deep in the secrets of mother Church? Know then that +I have both in my scrip. Those who hold with Urban shall have +Urban's pardon, while I have Clement's for the Clementist--or he +who is in doubt may have both, so that come what may he shall be +secure. I pray you that you will buy one, for war is bloody +work, and the end is sudden with little time for thought or +shrift. Or you, sir, for you seem to me to be a man who would do +ill to trust to your own merits." This to the alderman of +Norwich, who had listened to him with a frowning brow and a +sneering lip. + +"When I sell my cloth," quoth he, "he who buys may weigh and feel +and handle. These goods which you sell are not to be seen, nor +is there any proof that you hold them. Certes, if mortal man +might control God's mercy, it would be one of a lofty and God-like +life, and not one who is decked out with rings and chains and +silks, like a pleasure-wench at a kermesse. + +"Thou wicked and shameless man!" cried the clerk. "Dost thou +dare to raise thy voice against the unworthy servant of mother +Church?" + +"Unworthy enough!" quoth David Micheldene. "I would have you to +know, clerk, that I am a free English burgher, and that I dare +say my mind to our father the Pope himself, let alone such a +lacquey's lacquey as you!" + +"Base-born and foul-mouthed knave!" cried the sompnour. "You +prate of holy things, to which your hog's mind can never rise. +Keep silence, lest I call a curse upon you!" + +"Silence yourself!" roared the other. "Foul bird! we found thee +by the gallows like a carrion-crow. A fine life thou hast of it +with thy silks and thy baubles, cozening the last few shillings +from the pouches of dying men. A fig for thy curse! Bide here, +if you will take my rede, for we will make England too hot for +such as you, when Master Wicliff has the ordering of it. Thou +vile thief! it is you, and such as you, who bring an evil name +upon the many churchmen who lead a pure and a holy life. Thou +outside the door of heaven! Art more like to be inside the door +of hell." + +At this crowning insult the sompnour, with a face ashen with +rage, raised up a quivering hand and began pouring Latin +imprecations upon the angry alderman. The latter, however, was +not a man to be quelled by words, for he caught up his ell-measure +sword-sheath and belabored the cursing clerk with it. The +latter, unable to escape from the shower of blows, set spurs to +his mule and rode for his life, with his enemy thundering behind +him. At sight of his master's sudden departure, the varlet +Watkin set off after him, with the pack-mule beside him, so that +the four clattered away down the road together, until they swept +round a curve and their babble was but a drone in the distance. +Sir Nigel and Alleyne gazed in astonishment at one another, while +Ford burst out a-laughing. + +"Pardieu!" said the knight, "this David Micheldene must be one of +those Lollards about whom Father Christopher of the priory had so +much to say. Yet he seemed to be no bad man from what I have +seen of him." + +"I have heard that Wicliff hath many followers in Norwich," +answered Alleyne. + +"By St. Paul! I have no great love for them," quoth Sir Nigel. +"I am a man who am slow to change; and, if you take away from me +the faith that I have been taught, it would be long ere I could +learn one to set in its place. It is but a chip here and a chip +there, yet it may bring the tree down in time. Yet, on the other +hand, I cannot but think it shame that a man should turn God's +mercy on and off, as a cellarman doth wine with a spigot." + +"Nor is it," said Alleyne, "part of the teachings of that mother +Church of which he had so much to say. There was sooth in what +the alderman said of it." + +"Then, by St. Paul! they may settle it betwixt them," quoth Sir +Nigel. "For me, I serve God, the king and my lady; and so long +as I can keep the path of honor I am well content. My creed +shall ever be that of Chandos: + + "Fais ce que dois--adviegne que peut, + C'est commande au chevalier." + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +HOW THE COMRADES CAME OVER THE MARCHES OF FRANCE + + +After passing Cahors, the party branched away from the main road, +and leaving the river to the north of them, followed a smaller +track which wound over a vast and desolate plain. This path led +them amid marshes and woods, until it brought them out into a +glade with a broad stream swirling swiftly down the centre of it. +Through this the horses splashed their way, and on the farther +shore Sir Nigel announced to them that they were now within the +borders of the land of France. For some miles they still +followed the same lonely track, which led them through a dense +wood, and then widening out, curved down to an open rolling +country, such as they had traversed between Aiguillon and +Cahors. + +If it were grim and desolate upon the English border, however, +what can describe the hideous barrenness of this ten times +harried tract of France? The whole face of the country was +scarred and disfigured, mottled over with the black blotches of +burned farm-steadings, and the gray, gaunt gable-ends of what had +been chateaux. Broken fences, crumbling walls, vineyards +littered with stones, the shattered arches of bridges--look where +you might, the signs of ruin and rapine met the eye. Here and +there only, on the farthest sky-line, the gnarled turrets of a +castle, or the graceful pinnacles of church or of monastery +showed where the forces of the sword or of the spirit had +preserved some small islet of security in this universal flood of +misery. Moodily and in silence the little party rode along the +narrow and irregular track, their hearts weighed down by this +far-stretching land of despair. It was indeed a stricken and a +blighted country, and a man might have ridden from Auvergne in +the north to the marches of Foix, nor ever seen a smiling village +or a thriving homestead. + +From time to time as they advanced they saw strange lean figures +scraping and scratching amid the weeds and thistles, who, on +sight of the band of horsemen, threw up their arms and dived in +among the brushwood, as shy and as swift as wild animals. More +than once, however, they came on families by the wayside, who +were too weak from hunger and disease to fly, so that they could +but sit like hares on a tussock, with panting chests and terror +in their eyes. So gaunt were these poor folk, so worn and +spent--with bent and knotted frames, and sullen, hopeless, +mutinous faces--that it made the young Englishman heart-sick to +look upon them. Indeed, it seemed as though all hope and light +had gone so far from them that it was not to be brought back; for +when Sir Nigel threw down a handful of silver among them there +came no softening of their lined faces, but they clutched +greedily at the coins, peering questioningly at him, and champing +with their animal jaws. Here and there amid the brushwood the +travellers saw the rude bundle of sticks which served them as a +home--more like a fowl's nest than the dwelling-place of man. +Yet why should they build and strive, when the first adventurer +who passed would set torch to their thatch, and when their own +feudal lord would wring from them with blows and curses the last +fruits of their toil? They sat at the lowest depth of human +misery, and hugged a bitter comfort to their souls as they +realized that they could go no lower. Yet they had still the +human gift of speech, and would take council among themselves in +their brushwood hovels, glaring with bleared eyes and pointing +with thin fingers at the great widespread chateaux which ate like +a cancer into the life of the country-side. When such men, who +are beyond hope and fear, begin in their dim minds to see the +source their woes, it may be an evil time for those who have +wronged them. The weak man becomes strong when he has nothing, +for then only can he feel the wild, mad thrill of despair. High +and strong the chateaux, lowly and weak the brushwood hut; but +God help the seigneur and his lady when the men of the brushwood +set their hands to the work of revenge! + +Through such country did the party ride for eight or it might be +nine miles, until the sun began to slope down in the west and +their shadows to stream down the road in front of them. Wary and +careful they must be, with watchful eyes to the right and the +left, for this was no man's land, and their only passports were +those which hung from their belts. Frenchmen and Englishmen, +Gascon and Provencal, Brabanter, Tardvenu, Scorcher, Flayer, and +Free Companion, wandered and struggled over the whole of this +accursed district. So bare and cheerless was the outlook, and so +few and poor the dwellings, that Sir Nigel began to have fears as +to whether he might find food and quarters for his little troop. +It was a relief to him, therefore, when their narrow track opened +out upon a larger road, and they saw some little way down it a +square white house with a great bunch of holly hung out at the +end of a stick from one of the upper windows. + +"By St. Paul!" said he, "I am right glad; for I had feared that +we might have neither provant nor herbergage. Ride on, Alleyne, +and tell this inn-keeper that an English knight with his party +will lodge with him this night." + +Alleyne set spurs to his horse and reached the inn door a long +bow-shot before his companions. Neither varlet nor ostler could +be seen, so he pushed open the door and called loudly for the +landlord. Three times he shouted, but, receiving no reply, he +opened an inner door and advanced into the chief guest-room of +the hostel. + +A very cheerful wood-fire was sputtering and cracking in an open +grate at the further end of the apartment. At one side of this +fire, in a high-backed oak chair, sat a lady, her face turned +towards the door. The firelight played over her features, and +Alleyne thought that he had never seen such queenly power, such +dignity and strength, upon a woman's face. She might have been +five-and-thirty years of age, with aquiline nose, firm yet +sensitive mouth, dark curving brows, and deep-set eyes which +shone and sparkled with a shifting brilliancy. Beautiful as she +was, it was not her beauty which impressed itself upon the +beholder; it was her strength, her power, the sense of wisdom +which hung over the broad white brow, the decision which lay in +the square jaw and delicately moulded chin. A chaplet of pearls +sparkled amid her black hair, with a gauze of silver network +flowing back from it over her shoulders; a black mantle was +swathed round her, and she leaned back in her chair as one who is +fresh from a journey. + +In the opposite corner there sat a very burly and broad-shouldered +man, clad in a black jerkin trimmed with sable, with a black +velvet cap with curling white feather cocked upon the side +of his head. A flask of red wine stood at his elbow, and he +seemed to be very much at his ease, for his feet were stuck up on +a stool, and between his thighs he held a dish full of nuts. +These he cracked between his strong white teeth and chewed in a +leisurely way, casting the shells into the blaze. As Alleyne +gazed in at him he turned his face half round and cocked an eye +at him over his shoulder. It seemed to the young Englishman that +he had never seen so hideous a face, for the eyes were of the +lightest green, the nose was broken and driven inwards, while the +whole countenance was seared and puckered with wounds. The +voice, too, when he spoke, was as deep and as fierce as the growl +of a beast of prey. + +"Young man," said he, "I know not who you may be, and I am not +much inclined to bestir myself, but if it were not that I am bent +upon taking my ease, I swear, by the sword of Joshua! that I +would lay my dog-whip across your shoulders for daring to fill +the air with these discordant bellowings." + +Taken aback at this ungentle speech, and scarce knowing how to +answer it fitly in the presence of the lady, Alleyne stood with +his hand upon the handle of the door, while Sir Nigel and his +companions dismounted. At the sound of these fresh voices, and +of the tongue in which they spoke, the stranger crashed his dish +of nuts down upon the floor, and began himself to call for the +landlord until the whole house re-echoed with his roarings. With +an ashen face the white-aproned host came running at his call, +his hands shaking and his very hair bristling with apprehension. +"For the sake of God, sirs," he whispered as he passed, "speak +him fair and do not rouse him! For the love of the Virgin, be +mild with him!" + +"Who is this, then?" asked Sir Nigel. + +Alleyne was about to explain, when a fresh roar from the stranger +interrupted him. + +"Thou villain inn-keeper," he shouted, "did I not ask you when I +brought my lady here whether your inn was clean?" + +"You did, sire." + +"Did I not very particularly ask you whether there were any +vermin in it?" + +"You did, sire." + +"And you answered me?" + +"That there were not, sire." + +"And yet ere I have been here an hour I find Englishmen crawling +about within it. Where are we to be free from this pestilent +race? Can a Frenchman upon French land not sit down in a French +auberge without having his ears pained by the clack of their +hideous talk? Send them packing, inn-keeper, or it may be the +worse for them and for you." + +"I will, sire, I will!" cried the frightened host, and bustled +from the room, while the soft, soothing voice of the woman was +heard remonstrating with her furious companion. + +"Indeed, gentlemen, you had best go," said mine host. "It is but +six miles to Villefranche, where there are very good quarters at +the sign of the `Lion Rouge.'" + +"Nay," answered Sir Nigel, "I cannot go until I have seen more of +this person, for he appears to be a man from whom much is to be +hoped. What is his name and title?" + +"It is not for my lips to name it unless by his desire. But I +beg and pray you, gentlemen, that you will go from my house, for +I know not what may come of it if his rage should gain the +mastery of him." + +"By Saint Paul!" lisped Sir Nigel, "this is certainly a man whom +it is worth journeying far to know. Go tell him that a humble +knight of England would make his further honorable acquaintance, +not from any presumption, pride, or ill-will, but for the +advancement of chivalry and the glory of our ladies. Give him +greeting from Sir Nigel Loring, and say that the glove which I +bear in my cap belongs to the most peerless and lovely of her +sex, whom I am now ready to uphold against any lady whose claim +he might be desirous of advancing." + +The landlord was hesitating whether to carry this message or no, +when the door of the inner room was flung open, and the stranger +bounded out like a panther from its den, his hair bristling and +his deformed face convulsed with anger. + +"Still here!" he snarled. "Dogs of England, must ye be lashed +hence? Tiphaine, my sword!" He turned to seize his weapon, but +as he did so his gaze fell upon the blazonry of sir Nigel's +shield, and he stood staring, while the fire in his strange green +eyes softened into a sly and humorous twinkle. + +"Mort Dieu!" cried he, "it is my little swordsman of Bordeaux. I +should remember that coat-armor, seeing that it is but three days +since I looked upon it in the lists by Garonne. Ah! Sir Nigel, +Sir Nigel! you owe me a return for this," and he touched his +right arm, which was girt round just under the shoulder with a +silken kerchief. + +But the surprise of the stranger at the sight of Sir Nigel was as +nothing compared with the astonishment and the delight which +shone upon the face of the knight of Hampshire as he looked upon +the strange face of the Frenchman. Twice he opened his mouth and +twice he peered again, as though to assure himself that his eyes +had not played him a trick. + +"Bertrand!" he gasped at last. "Bertrand du Guesclin!" + +"By Saint Ives!" shouted the French soldier, with a hoarse roar +of laughter, "it is well that I should ride with my vizor down, +for he that has once seen my face does not need to be told my +name. It is indeed I, Sir Nigel, and here is my hand! I give you +my word that there are but three Englishmen in this world whom I +would touch save with the sharp edge of the sword: the prince is +one, Chandos the second, and you the third; for I have heard much +that is good of you." + +"I am growing aged, and am somewhat spent in the wars," quoth Sir +Nigel; "but I can lay by my sword now with an easy mind, for I +can say that I have crossed swords with him who hath the bravest +heart and the strongest arm of all this great kingdom of France. +I have longed for it, I have dreamed of it, and now I can scarce +bring my mind to understand that this great honor hath indeed +been mine." + +"By the Virgin of Rennes! you have given me cause to be very +certain of it," said Du Guesclin, with a gleam of his broad white +teeth. + +"And perhaps, most honored sir, it would please you to continue +the debate. Perhaps you would condescend to go farther into the +matter. God He knows that I am unworthy of such honor, yet I can +show my four-and-sixty quarterings, and I have been present at +some bickerings and scufflings during these twenty years." + +"Your fame is very well known to me, and I shall ask my lady to +enter your name upon my tablets," said Sir Bertrand. "There are +many who wish to advance themselves, and who bide their turn, for +I refuse no man who comes on such an errand. At present it may +not be, for mine arm is stiff from this small touch, and I would +fain do you full honor when we cross swords again. Come in with +me, and let your squires come also, that my sweet spouse, the +Lady Tiphaine, may say that she hath seen so famed and gentle a +knight." + +Into the chamber they went in all peace and concord, where the +Lady Tiphaine sat like queen on throne for each in turn to be +presented to her. Sooth to say, the stout heart of Sir Nigel, +which cared little for the wrath of her lion-like spouse, was +somewhat shaken by the calm, cold face of this stately dame, for +twenty years of camp-life had left him more at ease in the lists +than in a lady's boudoir. He bethought him, too, as he looked at +her set lips and deep-set questioning eyes, that he had heard +strange tales of this same Lady Tiphaine du Guesclin. Was it not +she who was said to lay hands upon the sick and raise them from +their couches when the leeches had spent their last nostrums? +Had she not forecast the future, and were there not times when in +the loneliness of her chamber she was heard to hold converse with +some being upon whom mortal eye never rested--some dark familiar +who passed where doors were barred and windows high? Sir Nigel +sunk his eye and marked a cross on the side of his leg as he +greeted this dangerous dame, and yet ere five minutes had passed +he was hers, and not he only but his two young squires as well. +The mind had gone out of them, and they could but look at this +woman and listen to the words which fell from her lips--words +which thrilled through their nerves and stirred their souls like +the battle-call of a bugle. + +Often in peaceful after-days was Alleyne to think of that scene +of the wayside inn of Auvergne. The shadows of evening had +fallen, and the corners of the long, low, wood-panelled room were +draped in darkness. The sputtering wood fire threw out a circle +of red flickering light which played over the little group of +wayfarers, and showed up every line and shadow upon their faces. +Sir Nigel sat with elbows upon knees, and chin upon hands, his +patch still covering one eye, but his other shining like a star, +while the ruddy light gleamed upon his smooth white head. Ford +was seated at his left, his lips parted, his eyes staring, and a +fleck of deep color on either cheek, his limbs all rigid as one +who fears to move. On the other side the famous French captain +leaned back in his chair, a litter of nut-shells upon his lap, +his huge head half buried in a cushion, while his eyes wandered +with an amused gleam from his dame to the staring, enraptured +Englishmen. Then, last of all, that pale clear-cut face, that +sweet clear voice, with its high thrilling talk of the +deathlessness of glory, of the worthlessness of life, of the pain +of ignoble joys, and of the joy which lies in all pains which +lead to a noble end. Still, as the shadows deepened, she spoke +of valor and virtue, of loyalty, honor, and fame, and still they +sat drinking in her words while the fire burned down and the red +ash turned to gray. + +"By the sainted Ives!" cried Du Guesclin at last, "it is time +that we spoke of what we are to do this night, for I cannot think +that in this wayside auberge there are fit quarters for an +honorable company." + +Sir Nigel gave a long sigh as he came back from the dreams of +chivalry and hardihood into which this strange woman's words had +wafted him. "I care not where I sleep," said he; "but these are +indeed somewhat rude lodgings for this fair lady." + +"What contents my lord contents me," quoth she. "I perceive, Sir +Nigel, that you are under vow," she added, glancing at his +covered eye. + +"It is my purpose to attempt some small deed," he answered. + +"And the glove--is it your lady's?" + +"It is indeed my sweet wife's." + +"Who is doubtless proud of you." + +"Say rather I of her," quoth he quickly. "God He knows that I am +not worthy to be her humble servant. It is easy, lady, for a man +to ride forth in the light of day, and do his devoir when all men +have eyes for him. But in a woman's heart there is a strength +and truth which asks no praise, and can but be known to him whose +treasure it is." + +The Lady Tiphaine smiled across at her husband. "You have often +told me, Bertrand, that there were very gentle knights amongst +the English," quoth she. + +"Aye, aye," said he moodily. "But to horse, Sir Nigel, you and +yours and we shall seek the chateau of Sir Tristram de Rochefort, +which is two miles on this side of Villefranche. He is Seneschal +of Auvergne, and mine old war companion." + +"Certes, he would have a welcome for you," quoth Sir Nigel; "but +indeed he might look askance at one who comes without permit over +the marches." + +"By the Virgin! when he learns that you have come to draw away +these rascals he will be very blithe to look upon your face. +Inn-keeper, here are ten gold pieces. What is over and above +your reckoning you may take off from your charges to the next +needy knight who comes this way. Come then, for it grows late +and the horses are stamping in the roadway." + +The Lady Tiphaine and her spouse sprang upon their steeds without +setting feet to stirrup, and away they jingled down the white +moonlit highway, with Sir Nigel at the lady's bridle-arm, and +Ford a spear's length behind them. Alleyne had lingered for an +instant in the passage, and as he did so there came a wild outcry +from a chamber upon the left, and out there ran Aylward and John, +laughing together like two schoolboys who are bent upon a prank. +At sight of Alleyne they slunk past him with somewhat of a +shame-faced air, and springing upon their horses galloped after +their party. The hubbub within the chamber did not cease, +however, but rather increased, with yells of: "A moi, mes amis! A +moi, camarades! A moi, l'honorable champion de l'Eveque de +Montaubon! A la recousse de l'eglise sainte!" So shrill was the +outcry that both the inn-keeper and Alleyne, with every varlet +within hearing, rushed wildly to the scene of the uproar. + +It was indeed a singular scene which met their eyes. The room +was a long and lofty one, stone floored and bare, with a fire at +the further end upon which a great pot was boiling. A deal table +ran down the centre, with a wooden wine-pitcher upon it and two +horn cups. Some way from it was a smaller table with a single +beaker and a broken wine-bottle. From the heavy wooden rafters +which formed the roof there hung rows of hooks which held up +sides of bacon, joints of smoked beef, and strings of onions for +winter use. In the very centre of all these, upon the largest +hook of all, there hung a fat little red-faced man with enormous +whiskers, kicking madly in the air and clawing at rafters, hams, +and all else that was within hand-grasp. The huge steel hook had +been passed through the collar of his leather jerkin, and there +he hung like a fish on a line, writhing, twisting, and screaming, +but utterly unable to free himself from his extraordinary +position. It was not until Alleyne and the landlord had mounted +on the table that they were able to lift him down, when he sank +gasping with rage into a seat, and rolled his eyes round in every +direction. + +"Has he gone?" quoth he. + +"Gone? Who?" + +"He, the man with the red head, the giant man." + +"Yes," said Alleyne, "he hath gone." + +"And comes not back?" + +"No." + +"The better for him!" cried the little man, with a long sigh of +relief. "Mon Dieu! What! am I not the champion of the Bishop +of Montaubon? Ah, could I have descended, could I have come down, +ere he fled! Then you would have seen. You would have beheld a +spectacle then. There would have been one rascal the less upon +earth. Ma, foi, yes!" + +"Good master Pelligny," said the landlord, "these gentlemen have +not gone very fast, and I have a horse in the stable at your +disposal, for I would rather have such bloody doings as you +threaten outside the four walls of mine auberge." + +"I hurt my leg and cannot ride," quoth the bishop's champion. "I +strained a sinew on the day that I slew the three men at +Castelnau." + +"God save you, master Pelligny!" cried the landlord. "It must be +an awesome thing to have so much blood upon one's soul. And yet +I do not wish to see so valiant a man mishandled, and so I will, +for friendship's sake, ride after this Englishman and bring him +back to you." + +"You shall not stir," cried the champion, seizing the inn-keeper +in a convulsive grasp. "I have a love for you, Gaston, and I +would not bring your house into ill repute, nor do such scath to +these walls and chattels as must befall if two such men as this +Englishman and I fall to work here." + +"Nay, think not of me!" cried the inn-keeper. "What are my +walls when set against the honor of Francois Poursuivant d'Amour +Pelligny, champion of the Bishop of Montaubon. My horse, Andre!" + +"By the saints, no! Gaston, I will not have it! You have said +truly that it is an awesome thing to have such rough work upon +one's soul. I am but a rude soldier, yet I have a mind. Mon +Dieu! I reflect, I weigh, I balance. Shall I not meet this man +again? Shall I not bear him in mind? Shall I not know him by +his great paws and his red head? Ma foi, yes!" + +"And may I ask, sir," said Alleyne, "why it is that you call +yourself champion of the Bishop of Montaubon?" + +"You may ask aught which it is becoming to me to answer. The +bishop hath need of a champion, because, if any cause be set to +test of combat, it would scarce become his office to go down into +the lists with leather and shield and cudgel to exchange blows +with any varlet. He looks around him then for some tried +fighting man, some honest smiter who can give a blow or take one. +It is not for me to say how far he hath succeeded, but it is +sooth that he who thinks that he hath but to do with the Bishop +of Montaubon, finds himself face to face with Francois Poursuivant +d'Amour Pelligny." + +At this moment there was a clatter of hoofs upon the road, and a +varlet by the door cried out that one of the Englishmen was +coming back. The champion looked wildly about for some corner of +safety, and was clambering up towards the window, when Ford's +voice sounded from without, calling upon Alleyne to hasten, or he +might scarce find his way. Bidding adieu to landlord and to +champion, therefore, he set off at a gallop, and soon overtook +the two archers. + +"A pretty thing this, John," said he. "Thou wilt have holy +Church upon you if you hang her champions upon iron hooks in an +inn kitchen." + +"It was done without thinking," he answered apologetically, while +Aylward burst into a shout of laughter. + +"By my hilt! mon petit," said he, "you would have laughed also +could you have seen it. For this man was so swollen with pride +that he would neither drink with us, nor sit at the same table +with us, nor as much as answer a question, but must needs talk to +the varlet all the time that it was well there was peace, and +that he had slain more Englishmen than there were tags to his +doublet. Our good old John could scarce lay his tongue to French +enough to answer him, so he must needs reach out his great hand +to him and place him very gently where you saw him. But we must +on, for I can scarce hear their hoofs upon the road." + +"I think that I can see them yet," said Ford, peering down the +moonlit road. + +"Pardieu! yes. Now they ride forth from the shadow. And yonder +dark clump is the Castle of Villefranche. En avant camarades! or +Sir Nigel may reach the gates before us. But hark, mes amis, +what sound is that?" + +As he spoke the hoarse blast of a horn was heard from some woods +upon the right. An answering call rung forth upon their left, +and hard upon it two others from behind them. + +"They are the horns of swine-herds," quoth Aylward. "Though why +they blow them so late I cannot tell." + +"Let us on, then," said Ford, and the whole party, setting their +spurs to their horses, soon found themselves at the Castle of +Villefranche, where the drawbridge had already been lowered and +the portcullis raised in response to the summons of Du Guesclin. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +HOW THE BLESSED HOUR OF SIGHT CAME TO THE LADY TIPHAINE. + + +Sir Tristram de Rochefort, Seneschal of Auvergne and Lord of +Villefranche, was a fierce and renowned soldier who had grown +gray in the English wars. As lord of the marches and guardian of +an exposed country-side, there was little rest for him even in +times of so-called peace, and his whole life was spent in raids +and outfalls upon the Brabanters, late-comers, flayers, free +companions, and roving archers who wandered over his province. +At times he would come back in triumph, and a dozen corpses +swinging from the summit of his keep would warn evil-doers that +there was still a law in the land. At others his ventures were +not so happy, and he and his troop would spur it over the +drawbridge with clatter of hoofs hard at their heels and whistle +of arrows about their ears. Hard he was of hand and harder of +heart, hated by his foes, and yet not loved by those whom he +protected, for twice he had been taken prisoner, and twice his +ransom had been wrung by dint of blows and tortures out of the +starving peasants and ruined farmers. Wolves or watch-dogs, it +was hard to say from which the sheep had most to fear. + +The Castle of Villefranche was harsh and stern as its master. A +broad moat, a high outer wall turreted at the corners, with a +great black keep towering above all--so it lay before them in the +moonlight. By the light of two flambeaux, protruded through the +narrow slit-shaped openings at either side of the ponderous gate, +they caught a glimpse of the glitter of fierce eyes and of the +gleam of the weapons of the guard. The sight of the two-headed +eagle of Du Guesclin, however, was a passport into any fortalice +in France, and ere they had passed the gate the old border knight +came running forwards with hands out-thrown to greet his famous +countryman. Nor was he less glad to see Sir Nigel, when the +Englishman's errand was explained to him, for these archers had +been a sore thorn in his side and had routed two expeditions +which he had sent against them. A happy day it would be for the +Seneschal of Auvergne when they should learn that the last yew +bow was over the marches. + +The material for a feast was ever at hand in days when, if there +was grim want in the cottage, there was at least rude plenty in +the castle. Within an hour the guests were seated around a board +which creaked under the great pasties and joints of meat, varied +by those more dainty dishes in which the French excelled, the +spiced ortolan and the truffled beccaficoes. The Lady Rochefort, +a bright and laughter-loving dame, sat upon the left of her +warlike spouse, with Lady Tiphaine upon the right. Beneath sat +Du Guesclin and Sir Nigel, with Sir Amory Monticourt, of the +order of the Hospitallers, and Sir Otto Harnit, a wandering +knight from the kingdom of Bohemia. These with Alleyne and Ford, +four French squires, and the castle chaplain, made the company +who sat together that night and made good cheer in the Castle of +Villefranche. The great fire crackled in the grate, the hooded +hawks slept upon their perches, the rough deer-hounds with +expectant eyes crouched upon the tiled floor; close at the elbows +of the guests stood the dapper little lilac-coated pages; the +laugh and jest circled round and all was harmony and comfort. +Little they recked of the brushwood men who crouched in their +rags along the fringe of the forest and looked with wild and +haggard eyes at the rich, warm glow which shot a golden bar of +light from the high arched windows of the castle. + +Supper over, the tables dormant were cleared away as by magic and +trestles and bancals arranged around the blazing fire, for there +was a bitter nip in the air. The Lady Tiphaine had sunk back in +her cushioned chair, and her long dark lashes drooped low over +her sparkling eyes. Alleyne, glancing at her, noted that her +breath came quick and short, and that her cheeks had blanched to +a lily white. Du Guesclin eyed her keenly from time to time, and +passed his broad brown fingers through his crisp, curly black +hair with the air of a man who is perplexed in his mind. + +"These folk here," said the knight of Bohemia, "they do not seem +too well fed." + +"Ah, canaille!" cried the Lord of Villefranche. "You would +scarce credit it, and yet it is sooth that when I was taken at +Poictiers it was all that my wife and foster-brother could do to +raise the money from them for my ransom. The sulky dogs would +rather have three twists of a rack, or the thumbikins for an +hour, than pay out a denier for their own feudal father and liege +lord. Yet there is not one of them but hath an old stocking full +of gold pieces hid away in a snug corner." + +"Why do they not buy food then?" asked Sir Nigel. "By St. Paul! +it seemed to me their bones were breaking through their skin." + +"It is their grutching and grumbling which makes them thin. We +have a saying here, Sir Nigel, that if you pummel Jacques +Bonhomme he will pat you, but if you pat him he will pummel you. +Doubtless you find it so in England." + +"Ma foi, no!" said Sir Nigel. "I have two Englishmen of this +class in my train, who are at this instant, I make little doubt, +as full of your wine as any cask in your cellar. He who +pummelled them might come by such a pat as he would be likely to +remember." + +"I cannot understand it," quoth the seneschal, "for the English +knights and nobles whom I have met were not men to brook the +insolence of the base born." + +"Perchance, my fair lord, the poor folk are sweeter and of a +better countenance in England," laughed the Lady Rochefort. +"Mon Dieu! you cannot conceive to yourself how ugly they are! +Without hair, without teeth, all twisted and bent; for me, I +cannot think how the good God ever came to make such people. I +cannot bear it, I, and so my trusty Raoul goes ever before me +with a cudgel to drive them from my path." + +"Yet they have souls, fair lady, they have souls!" murmured the +chaplain, a white-haired man with a weary, patient face. + +"So I have heard you tell them," said the lord of the castle; +"and for myself, father, though I am a true son of holy Church, +yet I think that you were better employed in saying your mass and +in teaching the children of my men-at-arms, than in going over +the country-side to put ideas in these folks' heads which would +never have been there but for you. I have heard that you have +said to them that their souls are as good as ours, and that it is +likely that in another life they may stand as high as the oldest +blood of Auvergne. For my part, I believe that there are so many +worthy knights and gallant gentlemen in heaven who know how such +things should be arranged, that there is little fear that we +shall find ourselves mixed up with base roturiers and swine-herds. +Tell your beads, father, and con your psalter, but do not +come between me and those whom the king has given to me!" + +"God help them!" cried the old priest. "A higher King than yours +has given them to me, and I tell you here in your own castle +hall, Sir Tristram de Rochefort, that you have sinned deeply in +your dealings with these poor folk, and that the hour will come, +and may even now be at hand, when God's hand will be heavy upon +you for what you have done." He rose as he spoke, and walked +slowly from the room. + +"Pest take him!" cried the French knight. "Now, what is a man to +do with a priest, Sir Bertrand?--for one can neither fight him +like a man nor coax him like a woman." + +"Ah, Sir Bertrand knows, the naughty one!" cried the Lady +Rochefort. "Have we not all heard how he went to Avignon and +squeezed fifty thousand crowns out of the Pope." + +"Ma foi!" said Sir Nigel, looking with a mixture of horror and +admiration at Du Guesclin. "Did not your heart sink within you? +Were you not smitten with fears? Have you not felt a curse hang +over you?" + +"I have not observed it," said the Frenchman carelessly. "But by +Saint Ives! Tristram, this chaplain of yours seems to me to be a +worthy man, and you should give heed to his words, for though I +care nothing for the curse of a bad pope, it would be a grief to +me to have aught but a blessing from a good priest." + +"Hark to that, my fair lord," cried the Lady Rochefort. "Take +heed, I pray thee, for I do not wish to have a blight cast over +me, nor a palsy of the limbs. I remember that once before you +angered Father Stephen, and my tire-woman said that I lost more +hair in seven days than ever before in a month." + +"If that be sign of sin, then, by Saint Paul! I have much upon +my soul," said Sir Nigel, amid a general laugh. "But in very +truth, Sir Tristram, if I may venture a word of counsel, I should +advise that you make your peace with this good man." + +"He shall have four silver candlesticks," said the seneschal +moodily. "And yet I would that he would leave the folk alone. +You cannot conceive in your mind how stubborn and brainless they +are. Mules and pigs are full of reason beside them. God He +knows that I have had great patience with them. It was but last +week that, having to raise some money, I called up to the castle +Jean Goubert, who, as all men know, has a casketful of gold +pieces hidden away in some hollow tree. I give you my word that +I did not so much as lay a stripe upon his fool's back, but after +speaking with him, and telling him how needful the money was to +me, I left him for the night to think over the matter in my +dungeon. What think you that the dog did? Why, in the morning +we found that he had made a rope from strips of his leathern +jerkin, and had hung himself to the bar of the window." + +"For me, I cannot conceive such wickedness!" cried the lady. + +"And there was Gertrude Le Boeuf, as fair a maiden as eye could +see, but as bad and bitter as the rest of them. When young Amory +de Valance was here last Lammastide he looked kindly upon the +girl, and even spoke of taking her into his service. What does +she do, with her dog of a father? Why, they tie themselves +together and leap into the Linden Pool, where the water is five +spears'-lengths deep. I give you my word that it was a great +grief to young Amory, and it was days ere he could cast it from +his mind. But how can one serve people who are so foolish and so +ungrateful?" + +Whilst the Seneschal of Villefranche had been detailing the evil +doings of his tenants, Alleyne had been unable to take his eyes +from the face of Lady Tiphaine. She had lain back in her chair, +with drooping eyelids and bloodless face, so that he had feared +at first her journey had weighed heavily upon her, and that the +strength was ebbing out of her. Of a sudden, however, there came +a change, for a dash of bright color flickered up on to either +cheek, and her lids were slowly raised again upon eyes which +sparkled with such lustre as Alleyne had never seen in human eyes +before, while their gaze was fixed intently, not on the company, +but on the dark tapestry which draped the wall. So transformed +and so ethereal was her expression, that Alleyne, in his +loftiest dream of archangel or of seraph, had never pictured so +sweet, so womanly, and yet so wise a face. Glancing at Du +Guesclin, Alleyne saw that he also was watching his wife closely, +and from the twitching of his features, and the beads upon his +brick-colored brow, it was easy to see that he was deeply +agitated by the change which he marked in her. + +"How is it with you, lady?" he asked at last, in a tremulous +voice. + +Her eyes remained fixed intently upon the wall, and there was a +long pause ere she answered him. Her voice, too, which had been +so clear and ringing, was now low and muffled as that of one who +speaks from a distance. + +"All is very well with me, Bertrand," said she. "The blessed +hour of sight has come round to me again." + +"I could see it come! I could see it come!" he exclaimed, +passing his fingers through his hair with the same perplexed +expression as before. + +"This is untoward, Sir Tristram," he said at last. "And I scarce +know in what words to make it clear to you, and to your fair +wife, and to Sir Nigel Loring, and to these other stranger +knights. My tongue is a blunt one, and fitter to shout word of +command than to clear up such a matter as this, of which I can +myself understand little. This, however, I know, that my wife is +come of a very sainted race, whom God hath in His wisdom endowed +with wondrous powers, so that Tiphaine Raquenel was known +throughout Brittany ere ever I first saw her at Dinan. Yet these +powers are ever used for good, and they are the gift of God and +not of the devil, which is the difference betwixt white magic and +black." + +"Perchance it would be as well that we should send for Father +Stephen," said Sir Tristram. + +"It would be best that he should come," cried the Hospitaller. + +"And bring with him a flask of holy water," added the knight of +Bohemia. + +"Not so, gentlemen," answered Sir Bertrand. "It is not needful +that this priest should be called, and it is in my mind that in +asking for this ye cast some slight shadow or slur upon the good +name of my wife, as though it were still doubtful whether her +power came to her from above or below. If ye have indeed such a +doubt I pray that you will say so, that we may discuss the matter +in a fitting way." + +"For myself," said Sir Nigel, "I have heard such words fall from +the lips of this lady that I am of the opinion that there is no +woman, save only one, who can be in any way compared to her in +beauty and in goodness. Should any gentleman think otherwise, I +should deem it great honor to run a small course with him, or +debate the matter in whatever way might be most pleasing to him." + +"Nay, it would ill become me to cast a slur upon a lady who is +both my guest and the wife of my comrade-in-arms," said the +Seneschal of Villefranche. "I have perceived also that on her +mantle there is marked a silver cross, which is surely sign +enough that there is nought of evil in these strange powers which +you say that she possesses." + +This argument of the seneschal's appealed so powerfully to the +Bohemian and to the Hospitaller that they at once intimated that +their objections had been entirely overcome, while even the Lady +Rochefort, who had sat shivering and crossing herself, ceased to +cast glances at the door, and allowed her fears to turn to +curiosity. + +"Among the gifts which have been vouchsafed to my wife," said Du +Guesclin, "there is the wondrous one of seeing into the future; +but it comes very seldom upon her, and goes as quickly, for none +can command it. The blessed hour of sight, as she hath named it, +has come but twice since I have known her, and I can vouch for it +that all that she hath told me was true, for on the evening of +the Battle of Auray she said that the morrow would be an ill day +for me and for Charles of Blois. Ere the sun had sunk again he +was dead, and I the prisoner of Sir John Chandos. Yet it is not +every question that she can answer, but only those----" + +"Bertrand, Bertrand!" cried the lady in the same mutterings far-away +voice, "the blessed hour passes. Use it, Bertrand, while you may." + +"I will, my sweet. Tell me, then, what fortune comes upon me?" + +"Danger, Bertrand--deadly, pressing danger--which creeps upon you +and you know it not." + +The French soldier burst into a thunderous laugh, and his green +eyes twinkled with amusement. "At what time during these twenty +years would not that have been a true word?" he cried. "Danger +is in the air that I breathe. But is this so very close, +Tiphaine?" + +"Here--now--close upon you!" The words came out in broken, +strenuous speech, while the lady's fair face was writhed and +drawn like that of one who looks upon a horror which strikes, the +words from her lips. Du Guesclin gazed round the tapestried +room, at the screens, the tables, the abace, the credence, the +buffet with its silver salver, and the half-circle of friendly, +wondering faces. There was an utter stillness, save for the +sharp breathing of the Lady Tiphaine and for the gentle soughing +of the wind outside, which wafted to their ears the distant call +upon a swine-herd's horn. + +"The danger may bide," said he, shrugging his broad shoulders. +"And now, Tiphaine, tell us what will come of this war in Spain." + +"I can see little," she answered, straining her eyes and +puckering her brow, as one who would fain clear her sight. +"There are mountains, and dry plains, and flash of arms and +shouting of battle-cries. Yet it is whispered to me that by +failure you will succeed." + +"Ha! Sir Nigel, how like you that?" quoth Bertrand, shaking his +head. "It is like mead and vinegar, half sweet, half sour. And +is there no question which you would ask my lady?" + +"Certes there is. I would fain know, fair lady, how all things +are at Twynham Castle, and above all how my sweet lady employs +herself." + +"To answer this I would fain lay hand upon one whose thoughts +turn strongly to this castle which you have named. Nay, my Lord +Loring, it is whispered to me that there is another here who hath +thought more deeply of it than you." + +"Thought more of mine own home?" cried Sir Nigel. "Lady, I fear +that in this matter at least you are mistaken." + +"Not so, Sir Nigel. Come hither, young man, young English squire +with the gray eyes! Now give me your hand, and place it here +across my brow, that I may see that which you have seen. What is +this that rises before me? Mist, mist, rolling mist with a +square black tower above it. See it shreds out, it thins, it +rises, and there lies a castle in green plain, with the sea +beneath it, and a great church within a bow-shot. There are two +rivers which run through the meadows, and between them lie the +tents of the besiegers." + +"The besiegers!" cried Alleyne, Ford, and Sir Nigel, all three in +a breath. + +"Yes, truly, and they press hard upon the castle, for they are an +exceeding multitude and full of courage. See how they storm and +rage against the gate, while some rear ladders, and others, line +after line, sweep the walls with their arrows. They are many +leaders who shout and beckon, and one, a tall man with a golden +beard, who stands before the gate stamping his foot and hallooing +them on, as a pricker doth the hounds. But those in the castle +fight bravely. There is a woman, two women, who stand upon the +walls, and give heart to the men-at-arms. They shower down +arrows, darts and great stones. Ah! they have struck down the +tall leader, and the others give back. The mist thickens and I +can see no more." + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, "I do not think that there can +be any such doings at Christchurch, and I am very easy of the +fortalice so long as my sweet wife hangs the key of the outer +bailey at the head of her bed. Yet I will not deny that you have +pictured the castle as well as I could have done myself, and I am +full of wonderment at all that I have heard and seen." + +"I would, Lady Tiphaine," cried the Lady Rochefort, "that you +would use your power to tell me what hath befallen my golden +bracelet which I wore when hawking upon the second Sunday of +Advent, and have never set eyes upon since." + +"Nay, lady," said du Guesclin, "it does not befit so great and +wondrous a power to pry and search and play the varlet even to +the beautiful chatelaine of Villefranche. Ask a worthy question, +and, with the blessing of God, you shall have a worthy answer." + +"Then I would fain ask," cried one of the French squires, "as to +which may hope to conquer in these wars betwixt the English and +ourselves." + +"Both will conquer and each will hold its own," answered the Lady +Tiphaine. + +"Then we shall still hold Gascony and Guienne?" cried Sir Nigel. + +The lady shook her head. "French land, French blood, French +speech," she answered. "They are French, and France shall have +them." + +"But not Bordeaux?" cried Sir Nigel excitedly. + +"Bordeaux also is for France." + +"But Calais?" + +"Calais too." + +"Woe worth me then, and ill hail to these evil words! If +Bordeaux and Calais be gone, then what is left for England?" + +"It seems indeed that there are evil times coming upon your +country," said Du Guesclin. "In our fondest hopes we never +thought to hold Bordeaux. By Saint Ives! this news hath warmed +the heart within me. Our dear country will then be very great in +the future, Tiphaine?" + +"Great, and rich, and beautiful," she cried. "Far down the +course of time I can see her still leading the nations, a wayward +queen among the peoples, great in war, but greater in peace, +quick in thought, deft in action, with her people's will for her +sole monarch, from the sands of Calais to the blue seas of the +south." + +"Ha!" cried Du Guesclin, with his eyes flashing in triumph, "you +hear her, Sir Nigel?--and she never yet said word which was not +sooth." + +The English knight shook his head moodily. "What of my own poor +country?" said he. "I fear, lady, that what you have said bodes +but small good for her." + +The lady sat with parted lips, and her breath came quick and +fast. "My God!" she cried, "what is this that is shown me? +Whence come they, these peoples, these lordly nations, these +mighty countries which rise up before me? I look beyond, and +others rise, and yet others, far and farther to the shores of the +uttermost waters. They crowd! They swarm! The world is given +to them, and it resounds with the clang of their hammers and the +ringing of their church bells. They call them many names, and +they rule them this way or that but they are all English, for I +can hear the voices of the people. On I go, and onwards over +seas where man hath never yet sailed, and I see a great land +under new stars and a stranger sky, and still the land is +England. Where have her children not gone? What have they not +done? Her banner is planted on ice. Her banner is scorched in +the sun. She lies athwart the lands, and her shadow is over the +seas. Bertrand, Bertrand! we are undone for the buds of her bud +are even as our choicest flower!" Her voice rose into a wild cry, +and throwing up her arms she sank back white and nerveless into +the deep oaken chair. + +"It is over," said Du Guesclin moodily, as he raised her drooping +head with his strong brown hand. "Wine for the lady, squire! +The blessed hour of sight hath passed." + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +HOW THE BRUSHWOOD MEN CAME TO THE CHATEAU OF VILLEFRANCHE. + + +It was late ere Alleyne Edricson, having carried Sir Nigel the +goblet of spiced wine which it was his custom to drink after the +curling of his hair, was able at last to seek his chamber. It +was a stone-flagged room upon the second floor, with a bed in a +recess for him, and two smaller pallets on the other side, on +which Aylward and Hordle John were already snoring. Alleyne had +knelt down to his evening orisons, when there came a tap at his +door, and Ford entered with a small lamp in his hand. His face +was deadly pale, and his hand shook until the shadows flickered +up and down the wall. + +"What is it, Ford?" cried Alleyne, springing to his feet. + +"I can scarce tell you," said he, sitting down on the side of the +couch, and resting his chin upon his hand. "I know not what to +say or what to think." + +"Has aught befallen you, then?" + +"Yes, or I have been slave to my own fancy. I tell you, lad, +that I am all undone, like a fretted bow-string. Hark hither, +Alleyne! it cannot be that you have forgotten little Tita, the +daughter of the old glass-stainer at Bordeaux?" + +"I remember her well." + +"She and I, Alleyne, broke the lucky groat together ere we +parted, and she wears my ring upon her finger. `Caro mio,' quoth +she when last we parted, `I shall be near thee in the wars, and +thy danger will be my danger.' Alleyne, as God is my help, as I +came up the stairs this night I saw her stand before me, her face +in tears, her hands out as though in warning--I saw it, Alleyne, +even as I see those two archers upon their couches. Our very +finger-tips seemed to meet, ere she thinned away like a mist in +the sunshine." + +"I would not give overmuch thought to it," answered Alleyne. "Our +minds will play us strange pranks, and bethink you that these +words of the Lady Tiphaine Du Guesclin have wrought upon us and +shaken us." + +Ford shook his head. "I saw little Tita as clearly as though I +were back at the Rue des Apotres at Bordeaux," said he. + +"But the hour is late, and I must go." + +"Where do you sleep, then?" + +"In the chamber above you. May the saints be with us all!" He +rose from the couch and left the chamber, while Alleyne could +hear his feet sounding upon the winding stair. The young squire +walked across to the window and gazed out at the moonlit +landscape, his mind absorbed by the thought of the Lady Tiphaine, +and of the strange words that she had spoken as to what was going +forward at Castle Twynham. Leaning his elbows upon the +stonework, he was deeply plunged in reverie, when in a moment his +thoughts were brought back to Villefranche and to the scene +before him. + +The window at which he stood was in the second floor of that +portion of the castle which was nearest to the keep. In front +lay the broad moat, with the moon lying upon its surface, now +clear and round, now drawn lengthwise as the breeze stirred the +waters. Beyond, the plain sloped down to a thick wood, while +further to the left a second wood shut out the view. Between the +two an open glade stretched, silvered in the moonshine, with the +river curving across the lower end of it. + +As he gazed, he saw of a sudden a man steal forth from the wood +into the open clearing. He walked with his head sunk, his +shoulders curved, and his knees bent, as one who strives hard to +remain unseen. Ten paces from the fringe of trees he glanced +around, and waving his hand he crouched down, and was lost to +sight among a belt of furze-bushes. After him there came a +second man, and after him a third, a fourth, and a fifth stealing +across the narrow open space and darting into the shelter of the +brushwood. Nine-and-seventy Alleyne counted of these dark +figures flitting across the line of the moonlight. Many bore +huge burdens upon their backs, though what it was that they +carried he could not tell at the distance. Out of the one wood +and into the other they passed, all with the same crouching, +furtive gait, until the black bristle of trees had swallowed up +the last of them. + +For a moment Alleyne stood in the window, still staring down at +the silent forest, uncertain as to what he should think of these +midnight walkers. Then he bethought him that there was one +beside him who was fitter to judge on such a matter. His fingers +had scarce rested upon Aylward's shoulder ere the bowman was on +his feet, with his hand outstretched to his sword. + +"Qui va?" he cried. "Hola! mon petit. By my hilt! I thought +there had been a camisade. What then, mon gar.?" + +"Come hither by the window, Aylward," said Alleyne. "I have seen +four-score men pass from yonder shaw across the glade, and nigh +every man of them had a great burden on his back. What think you +of it?" + +"I think nothing of it, mon camarade! There are as many +masterless folk in this country as there are rabbits on Cowdray +Down, and there are many who show their faces by night but would +dance in a hempen collar if they stirred forth in the day. On all +the French marches are droves of outcasts, reivers, spoilers, and +draw-latches, of whom I judge that these are some, though I +marvel that they should dare to come so nigh to the castle of the +seneschal. All seems very quiet now," he added, peering out of +the window. + +"They are in the further wood," said Alleyne. + +"And there they may bide. Back to rest, mon petit; for, by my +hilt! each day now will bring its own work. Yet it would be well +to shoot the bolt in yonder door when one is in strange quarters. +So!" He threw himself down upon his pallet and in an instant was +fast asleep. + +It might have been about three o'clock in the morning when +Alleyne was aroused from a troubled sleep by a low cry or +exclamation. He listened, but, as he heard no more, he set it +down as the challenge of the guard upon the walls, and dropped +off to sleep once more. A few minutes later he was disturbed by +a gentle creaking of his own door, as though some one were +pushing cautiously against it, and immediately afterwards he +heard the soft thud of cautious footsteps upon the stair which +led to the room above, followed by a confused noise and a muffled +groan. Alleyne sat up on his couch with all his nerves in a +tingle, uncertain whether these sounds might come from a simple +cause--some sick archer and visiting leech perhaps--or whether +they might have a more sinister meaning. But what danger could +threaten them here in this strong castle, under the care of +famous warriors, with high walls and a broad moat around them? +Who was there that could injure them? He had well-nigh persuaded +himself that his fears were a foolish fancy, when his eyes fell +upon that which sent the blood cold to his heart and left him +gasping, with hands clutching at the counterpane. + +Right in front of him was the broad window of the chamber, with +the moon shining brightly through it. For an instant something +had obscured the light, and now a head was bobbing up and down +outside, the face looking in at him, and swinging slowly from one +side of the window to the other. Even in that dim light there +could be no mistaking those features. Drawn, distorted and +blood-stained, they were still those of the young fellow-squire +who had sat so recently upon his own couch. With a cry of horror +Alleyne sprang from his bed and rushed to the casement, while the +two archers, aroused by the sound, seized their weapons and +stared about them in bewilderment. One glance was enough to show +Edricson that his fears were but too true. Foully murdered, +with a score of wounds upon him and a rope round his neck, his +poor friend had been cast from the upper window and swung slowly +in the night wind, his body rasping against the wall and his +disfigured face upon a level with the casement. + +"My God!" cried Alleyne, shaking in every limb. "What has come +upon us? What devil's deed is this?" + +"Here is flint and steel," said John stolidly. "The lamp, +Aylward! This moonshine softens a man's heart. Now we may use +the eyes which God hath given us." + +"By my hilt!" cried Aylward, as the yellow flame flickered up, +"it is indeed young master Ford, and I think that this seneschal +is a black villain, who dare not face us in the day but would +murther us in our sleep. By the twang of string! if I do not +soak a goose's feather with his heart's blood, it will be no +fault of Samkin Aylward of the White Company." + +"But, Aylward, think of the men whom I saw yesternight," said +Alleyne. "It may not be the seneschal. It may be that others +have come into the castle. I must to Sir Nigel ere it be too +late. Let me go, Aylward, for my place is by his side." + +"One moment, mon gar. Put that steel head-piece on the end of my +yew-stave. So! I will put it first through the door; for it is +ill to come out when you can neither see nor guard yourself. +Now, camarades, out swords and stand ready! Hola, by my hilt! it +is time that we were stirring!" + +As he spoke, a sudden shouting broke forth in the castle, with +the scream of a woman and the rush of many feet. Then came the +sharp clink of clashing steel, and a roar like that of an angry +lion--"Notre Dame Du Guesclin! St. Ives! St. Ives!" The bow-man +pulled back the bolt of the door, and thrust out the headpiece at +the end of the bow. A clash, the clatter of the steel-cap upon +the ground, and, ere the man who struck could heave up for +another blow, the archer had passed his sword through his body. +"On, camarades, on!" he cried; and, breaking fiercely past two +men who threw themselves in his way, he sped down the broad +corridor in the direction of the shouting. + +A sharp turning, and then a second one, brought them to the head +of a short stair, from which they looked straight down upon the +scene of the uproar. A square oak-floored hall lay beneath them, +from which opened the doors of the principal guest-chambers. +This hall was as light as day, for torches burned in numerous +sconces upon the walls, throwing strange shadows from the tusked +or antlered heads which ornamented them. At the very foot of the +stair, close to the open door of their chamber, lay the seneschal +and his wife: she with her head shorn from her shoulders, he +thrust through with a sharpened stake, which still protruded from +either side of his body. Three servants of the castle lay dead +beside them, all torn and draggled, as though a pack of wolves +had been upon them. In front of the central guest-chamber stood +Du Guesclin and Sir Nigel, half-clad and unarmored, with the mad +joy of battle gleaming in their eyes. Their heads were thrown +back, their lips compressed, their blood-stained swords poised +over their right shoulders, and their left feet thrown out. +Three dead men lay huddled together in front of them: while a +fourth, with the blood squirting from a severed vessel, lay back +with updrawn knees, breathing in wheezy gasps. Further back--all +panting together, like the wind in a tree--there stood a group of +fierce, wild creatures, bare-armed and bare-legged, gaunt, +unshaven, with deep-set murderous eyes and wild beast faces. +With their flashing teeth, their bristling hair, their mad +leapings and screamings, they seemed to Alleyne more like fiends +from the pit than men of flesh and blood. Even as he looked, +they broke into a hoarse yell and dashed once more upon the two +knights, hurling themselves madly upon their sword-points; +clutching, scrambling, biting, tearing, careless of wounds if +they could but drag the two soldiers to earth. Sir Nigel was +thrown down by the sheer weight of them, and Sir Bertrand with +his thunderous war-cry was swinging round his heavy sword to +clear a space for him to rise, when the whistle of two long +English arrows, and the rush of the squire and the two English +archers down the stairs, turned the tide of the combat. The +assailants gave back, the knights rushed forward, and in a very +few moments the hall was cleared, and Hordle John had hurled the +last of the wild men down the steep steps which led from the end +of it. + +"Do not follow them," cried Du Guesclin. "We are lost if we +scatter. For myself I care not a denier, though it is a poor +thing to meet one's end at the hands of such scum; but I have my +dear lady here, who must by no means be risked. We have +breathing-space now, and I would ask you, Sir Nigel, what it is +that you would counsel?" + +"By St. Paul!" answered Sir Nigel, "I can by no means understand +what hath befallen us, save that I have been woken up by your +battle-cry, and, rushing forth, found myself in the midst of this +small bickering. Harrow and alas for the lady and the seneschal! +What dogs are they who have done this bloody deed?" + +"They are the Jacks, the men of the brushwood. They have the +castle, though I know not how it hath come to pass. Look from +this window into the bailey." + +"By heaven!" cried Sir Nigel, "it is as bright as day with the +torches. The gates stand open, and there are three thousand of +them within the walls. See how they rush and scream and wave! +What is it that they thrust out through the postern door? My +God! it is a man-at-arms, and they pluck him limb from limb like +hounds on a wolf. Now another, and yet another. They hold the +whole castle, for I see their faces at the windows. See, there +are some with great bundles on their backs." + +"It is dried wood from the forest. They pile them against the +walls and set them in a blaze. Who is this who tries to check +them? By St. Ives! it is the good priest who spake for them in +the hall. He kneels, he prays, he implores! What! villains, +would ye raise hands against those who have befriended you? Ah, +the butcher has struck him! He is down! They stamp him under +their feet! They tear off his gown and wave it in the air! See +now, how the flames lick up the walls! Are there none left to +rally round us? With a hundred men we might hold our own." + +"Oh, for my Company!" cried Sir Nigel. "But where is Ford, +Alleyne?" + +"He is foully murdered, my fair lord." + +"The saints receive him! May he rest in peace! But here come +some at last who may give us counsel, for amid these passages it +is ill to stir without a guide." + +As he spoke, a French squire and the Bohemian knight came rushing +down the steps, the latter bleeding from a slash across his +forehead. + +"All is lost!" he cried. "The castle is taken and on fire, the +seneschal is slain, and there is nought left for us." + +"On the contrary," quoth Sir Nigel, "there is much left to us, +for there is a very honorable contention before us, and a fair +lady for whom to give our lives. There are many ways in which a +man might die, but none better than this." + +"You can tell us, Godfrey," said Du Guesclin to the French +squire: "how came these men into the castle, and what succors can +we count upon? By St. Ives! if we come not quickly to some +counsel we shall be burned like young rooks in a nest." + +The squire, a dark, slender stripling, spoke firmly and quickly, +as one who was trained to swift action. "There is a passage +under the earth into the castle," said he, "and through it some +of the Jacks made their way, casting open the gates for the +others. They have had help from within the walls, and the +men-at-arms were heavy with wine: they must have been slain in +their beds, for these devils crept from room to room with soft +step and ready knife. Sir Amory the Hospitaller was struck down +with an axe as he rushed before us from his sleeping-chamber. +Save only ourselves, I do not think that there are any left +alive." + +"What, then, would you counsel?" + +"That we make for the keep. It is unused, save in time of war, +and the key hangs from my poor lord and master's belt." + +"There are two keys there." + +"It is the larger. Once there, we might hold the narrow stair; +and at least, as the walls are of a greater thickness, it would +be longer ere they could burn them. Could we but carry the lady +across the bailey, all might be well with us." + +"Nay; the lady hath seen something of the work of war," said +Tiphaine coming forth, as white, as grave, and as unmoved as +ever. "I would not be a hamper to you, my dear spouse and +gallant friend. Rest assured of this, that if all else fail I +have always a safeguard here"--drawing a small silver-hilted +poniard from her bosom--"which sets me beyond the fear of these +vile and blood-stained wretches." + +"Tiphaine," cried Du Guesclin, "I have always loved you; and now, +by Our Lady of Rennes! I love you more than ever. Did I not know +that your hand will be as ready as your words I would myself turn +my last blow upon you, ere you should fall into their hands. +Lead on, Godfrey! A new golden pyx will shine in the minster of +Dinan if we come safely through with it." + +The attention of the insurgents had been drawn away from murder +to plunder, and all over the castle might be heard their cries +and whoops of delight as they dragged forth the rich tapestries, +the silver flagons, and the carved furniture. Down in the +courtyard half-clad wretches, their bare limbs all mottled with +blood-stains, strutted about with plumed helmets upon their +heads, or with the Lady Rochefort's silken gowns girt round their +loins and trailing on the ground behind them. Casks of choice +wine had been rolled out from the cellars, and starving peasants +squatted, goblet in hand, draining off vintages which De +Rochefort had set aside for noble and royal guests. Others, with +slabs of bacon and joints of dried meat upon the ends of their +pikes, held them up to the blaze or tore at them ravenously with +their teeth. Yet all order had not been lost amongst them, for +some hundreds of the better armed stood together in a silent +group, leaning upon their rude weapons and looking up at the +fire, which had spread so rapidly as to involve one whole side of +the castle. Already Alleyne could hear the crackling and roaring +of the flames, while the air was heavy with heat and full of the +pungent whiff of burning wood. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +HOW FIVE MEN HELD THE KEEP OF VILLEFRANCHE + + +Under the guidance of the French squire the party passed down two +narrow corridors. The first was empty, but at the head of the +second stood a peasant sentry, who started off at the sight of +them, yelling loudly to his comrades. "Stop him, or we are +undone!" cried Du Guesclin, and had started to run, when +Aylward's great war-bow twanged like a harp-string, and the man +fell forward upon his face, with twitching limbs and clutching +fingers. Within five paces of where he lay a narrow and +little-used door led out into the bailey. From beyond it came +such a Babel of hooting and screaming, horrible oaths and yet +more horrible laughter, that the stoutest heart might have shrunk +from casting down the frail barrier which faced them. + +"Make straight for the keep!" said Du Guesclin, in a sharp, stern +whisper. "The two archers in front, the lady in the centre, a +squire on either side, while we three knights shall bide behind +and beat back those who press upon us. So! Now open the door, +and God have us in his holy keeping!" + +For a few moments it seemed that their object would be attained +without danger, so swift and so silent had been their movements. +They were half-way across the bailey ere the frantic, howling +peasants made a movement to stop them. The few who threw +themselves in their way were overpowered or brushed aside, while +the pursuers were beaten back by the ready weapons of the three +cavaliers. Unscathed they fought their way to the door of the +keep, and faced round upon the swarming mob, while the squire +thrust the great key into the lock. + +"My God!" he cried, "it is the wrong key." + +"The wrong key!" + +"Dolt, fool that I am! This is the key of the castle gate; the +other opens the keep. I must back for it!" He turned, with some +wild intention of retracing his steps, but at the instant a great +jagged rock, hurled by a brawny peasant, struck him full upon the +ear, and he dropped senseless to the ground. + +"This is key enough for me!" quoth Hordle John, picking up the +huge stone, and hurling it against the door with all the strength +of his enormous body. The lock shivered, the wood smashed, the +stone flew into five pieces, but the iron clamps still held the +door in its position. Bending down, he thrust his great fingers +under it, and with a heave raised the whole mass of wood and iron +from its hinges. For a moment it tottered and swayed, and then, +falling outward, buried him in its ruin, while his comrades +rushed into the dark archway which led to safety. + +"Up the steps, Tiphaine!" cried Du Guesclin. "Now round, +friends, and beat them back!" The mob of peasants had surged in +upon their heels, but the two trustiest blades in Europe gleamed +upon that narrow stair, and four of their number dropped upon the +threshold. The others gave back, and gathered in a half circle +round the open door, gnashing their teeth and shaking their +clenched hands at the defenders. The body of the French squire +had been dragged out by them and hacked to pieces. Three or four +others had pulled John from under the door, when he suddenly +bounded to his feet, and clutching one in either hand dashed +them together with such force that they fell senseless across +each other upon the ground. With a kick and a blow he freed +himself from two others who clung to him, and in a moment he was +within the portal with his comrades. + +Yet their position was a desperate one. The peasants from far +and near had been assembled for this deed of vengeance, and not +less than six thousand were within or around the walls of the +Chateau of Villefranche. Ill armed and half starved, they were +still desperate men, to whom danger had lost all fears: for what +was death that they should shun it to cling to such a life as +theirs? The castle was theirs, and the roaring flames were +spurting through the windows and flickering high above the +turrets on two sides of the quadrangle. From either side they +were sweeping down from room to room and from bastion to bastion +in the direction of the keep. Faced by an army, and girt in by +fire, were six men and one woman; but some of them were men so +trained to danger and so wise in war that even now the combat was +less unequal than it seemed. Courage and resource were penned in +by desperation and numbers, while the great yellow sheets of +flame threw their lurid glare over the scene of death. + +"There is but space for two upon a step to give free play to our +sword-arms," said Du Guesclin. "Do you stand with me, Nigel, +upon the lowest. France and England will fight together this +night. Sir Otto, I pray you to stand behind us with this young +squire. The archers may go higher yet and shoot over our heads. +I would that we had our harness, Nigel." + +"Often have I heard my dear Sir John Chandos say that a knight +should never, even when a guest, be parted from it. Yet it will +be more honor to us if we come well out of it. We have a vantage, +since we see them against the light and they can scarce see us. +It seems to me that they muster for an onslaught." + +"If we can but keep them in play," said the Bohemian, "it is +likely that these flames may bring us succor if there be any true +men in the country." + +"Bethink you, my fair lord," said Alleyne to Sir Nigel, "that we +have never injured these men, nor have we cause of quarrel +against them. Would it not be well, if but for the lady's sake, +to speak them fair and see if we may not come to honorable terms +with them?" + +"Not so, by St. Paul!" cried Sir Nigel. "It does not accord with +mine honor, nor shall it ever be said that I, a knight of +England, was ready to hold parley with men who have slain a fair +lady and a holy priest." + +"As well hold parley with a pack of ravening wolves," said the +French captain. "Ha! Notre Dame Du Guesclin! Saint Ives! +Saint Ives!" + +As he thundered forth his war-cry, the Jacks who had been +gathering before the black arch of the gateway rushed in madly in +a desperate effort to carry the staircase. Their leaders were a +small man, dark in the face, with his beard done up in two +plaits, and another larger man, very bowed in the shoulders, with +a huge club studded with sharp nails in his hand. The first had +not taken three steps ere an arrow from Aylward's bow struck him +full in the chest, and he fell coughing and spluttering across +the threshold. The other rushed onwards, and breaking between Du +Guesclin and Sir Nigel he dashed out the brains of the Bohemian +with a single blow of his clumsy weapon. With three swords +through him he still struggled on, and had almost won his way +through them ere he fell dead upon the stair. Close at his heels +came a hundred furious peasants, who flung themselves again and +again against the five swords which confronted them. It was cut +and parry and stab as quick as eye could see or hand act. The +door was piled with bodies, and the stone floor was slippery with +blood. The deep shout of Du Guesclin, the hard, hissing breath +of the pressing multitude, the clatter of steel, the thud of +falling bodies, and the screams of the stricken, made up such a +medley as came often in after years to break upon Alleyne's +sleep. Slowly and sullenly at last the throng drew off, with +many a fierce backward glance, while eleven of their number lay +huddled in front of the stair which they had failed to win. + +"The dogs have had enough," said Du Guesclin. + +"By Saint Paul! there appear to be some very worthy and valiant +persons among them," observed Sir Nigel. "They are men from +whom, had they been of better birth, much honor and advancement +might be gained. Even as it is, it is a great pleasure to have +seen them. But what is this that they are bringing forward?" + +"It is as I feared," growled Du Guesclin. "They will burn us +out, since they cannot win their way past us. Shoot straight and +hard, archers; for, by St. Ives! our good swords are of little +use to us." + +As he spoke, a dozen men rushed forward, each screening himself +behind a huge fardel of brushwood. Hurling their burdens in one +vast heap within the portal, they threw burning torches upon the +top of it. The wood had been soaked in oil, for in an instant it +was ablaze, and a long, hissing, yellow flame licked over the +heads of the defenders, and drove them further up to the first +floor of the keep. They had scarce reached it, however, ere they +found that the wooden joists and planks of the flooring were +already on fire. Dry and worm-eaten, a spark upon them became a +smoulder, and a smoulder a blaze. A choking smoke filled the +air, and the five could scarce grope their way to the staircase +which led up to the very summit of the square tower. + +Strange was the scene which met their eyes from this eminence. +Beneath them on every side stretched the long sweep of peaceful +country, rolling plain, and tangled wood, all softened and +mellowed in the silver moonshine. No light, nor movement, nor +any sign of human aid could be seen, but far away the hoarse +clangor of a heavy bell rose and fell upon the wintry air. +Beneath and around them blazed the huge fire, roaring and +crackling on every side of the bailey, and even as they looked +the two corner turrets fell in with a deafening crash, and the +whole castle was but a shapeless mass, spouting flames and smoke +from every window and embrasure. The great black tower upon +which they stood rose like a last island of refuge amid this sea +of fire but the ominous crackling and roaring below showed that +it would not be long ere it was engulfed also in the common ruin. +At their very feet was the square courtyard, crowded with the +howling and dancing peasants, their fierce faces upturned, their +clenched hands waving, all drunk with bloodshed and with +vengeance. A yell of execration and a scream of hideous laughter +burst from the vast throng, as they saw the faces of the last +survivors of their enemies peering down at them from the height +of the keep. They still piled the brushwood round the base of +the tower, and gambolled hand in hand around the blaze, screaming +out the doggerel lines which had long been the watchword of the +Jacquerie: + + Cessez, cessez, gens d'armes et pietons, + De piller et manger le bonhomme + Qui de longtemps Jacques Bonhomme + Se nomme. + +Their thin, shrill voices rose high above the roar of the flames +and the crash of the masonry, like the yelping of a pack of +wolves who see their quarry before them and know that they have +well-nigh run him down. + +"By my hilt!" said Aylward to John, "it is in my mind that we +shall not see Spain this journey. It is a great joy to me that I +have placed my feather-bed and other things of price with that +worthy woman at Lyndhurst, who will now have the use of them. I +have thirteen arrows yet, and if one of them fly unfleshed, then, +by the twang of string! I shall deserve my doom. First at him +who flaunts with my lady's silken frock. Clap in the clout, by +God! though a hand's-breadth lower than I had meant. Now for the +rogue with the head upon his pike. Ha! to the inch, John. When +my eye is true, I am better at rovers than at long-butts or +hoyles. A good shoot for you also, John! The villain hath +fallen forward into the fire. But I pray you, John, to loose +gently, and not to pluck with the drawing-hand, for it is a trick +that hath marred many a fine bowman." + +Whilst the two archers were keeping up a brisk fire upon the mob +beneath them, Du Guesclin and his lady were consulting with Sir +Nigel upon their desperate situation. + +"'Tis a strange end for one who has seen so many stricken +fields," said the French chieftain. "For me one death is as +another, but it is the thought of my sweet lady which goes to my +heart." + +"Nay, Bertrand, I fear it as little as you," said she. "Had I my +dearest wish, it would be that we should go together." + +"Well answered, fair lady!" cried Sir Nigel. "And very sure I am +that my own sweet wife would have said the same. If the end be +now come, I have had great good fortune in having lived in times +when so much glory was to be won, and in knowing so many valiant +gentlemen and knights. But why do you pluck my sleeve, Alleyne?" + +"If it please you, my fair lord, there are in this corner two +great tubes of iron, with many heavy balls, which may perchance +be those bombards and shot of which I have heard." + +"By Saint Ives! it is true," cried Sir Bertrand, striding across +to the recess where the ungainly, funnel-shaped, thick-ribbed +engines were standing. "Bombards they are, and of good size. We +may shoot down upon them." + +"Shoot with them, quotha?" cried Aylward in high disdain, for +pressing danger is the great leveller of classes. "How is a man +to take aim with these fool's toys, and how can he hope to do +scath with them?" + +"I will show you," answered Sir Nigel; "for here is the great box +of powder, and if you will raise it for me, John, I will show you +how it may be used. Come hither, where the folk are thickest +round the fire. Now, Aylward, crane thy neck and see what would +have been deemed an old wife's tale when we first turned our +faces to the wars. Throw back the lid, John, and drop the box +into the fire!" + +A deafening roar, a fluff of bluish light, and the great square +tower rocked and trembled from its very foundations, swaying this +way and that like a reed in the wind. Amazed and dizzy, the +defenders, clutching at the cracking parapets for support, saw +great stones, burning beams of wood, and mangled bodies hurtling +past them through the air. When they staggered to their feet +once more, the whole keep had settled down upon one side, so that +they could scarce keep their footing upon the sloping platform. +Gazing over the edge, they looked down upon the horrible +destruction which had been caused by the explosion. For forty +yards round the portal the ground was black with writhing, +screaming figures, who struggled up and hurled themselves down +again, tossing this way and that, sightless, scorched, with fire +bursting from their tattered clothing. Beyond this circle of +death their comrades, bewildered and amazed, cowered away from +this black tower and from these invincible men, who were most to +be dreaded when hope was furthest from their hearts. + +"A sally, Du Guesclin, a sally!" cried Sir Nigel. "By Saint +Paul! they are in two minds, and a bold rush may turn them." He +drew his sword as he spoke and darted down the winding stairs, +closely followed by his four comrades. Ere he was at the first +floor, however, he threw up his arms and stopped. "Mon Dieu!" he +said, "we are lost men!" + +"What then?" cried those behind him. + +"The wail hath fallen in, the stair is blocked, and the fire +still rages below. By Saint Paul! friends, we have fought a very +honorable fight, and may say in all humbleness that we have done +our devoir, but I think that we may now go back to the Lady +Tiphaine and say our orisons, for we have played our parts in +this world, and it is time that we made ready for another." + +The narrow pass was blocked by huge stones littered in wild +confusion over each other, with the blue choking smoke reeking up +through the crevices. The explosion had blown in the wall and +cut off the only path by which they could descend. Pent in, a +hundred feet from earth, with a furnace raging under them and a +ravening multitude all round who thirsted for their blood, it +seemed indeed as though no men had ever come through such peril +with their lives. Slowly they made their way back to the summit, +but as they came out upon it the Lady Tiphaine darted forward and +caught her husband by the wrist. + +"Bertrand," said she, "hush and listen! I have heard the voices +of men all singing together in a strange tongue." + +Breathless they stood and silent, but no sound came up to them, +save the roar of the flames and the clamor of their enemies. + +"It cannot be, lady," said Du Guesclin. "This night hath over +wrought you, and your senses play you false. What men ere there +in this country who would sing in a strange tongue?" + +"Hola!" yelled Aylward, leaping suddenly into the air with waving +hands and joyous face. "I thought I heard it ere we went down, +and now I hear it again. We are saved, comrades! By these ten +finger-bones, we are saved! It is the marching song of the White +Company. Hush!" + +With upraised forefinger and slanting head, he stood listening. +Suddenly there came swelling up a deep-voiced, rollicking chorus +from somewhere out of the darkness. Never did choice or dainty +ditty of Provence or Languedoc sound more sweetly in the ears +than did the rough-tongued Saxon to the six who strained their +ears from the blazing keep: + + We'll drink all together + To the gray goose feather + And the land where the gray goose flew. + +"Ha, by my hilt!" shouted Aylward, "it is the dear old bow song +of the Company. Here come two hundred as tight lads as ever +twirled a shaft over their thumbnails. Hark to the dogs, how +lustily they sing!" + +Nearer and clearer, swelling up out of the night, came the gay +marching lilt: + + What of the bow? + The bow was made in England. + Of true wood, of yew wood, + The wood of English bows; + For men who are free + Love the old yew-tree + And the land where the yew tree grows. + + What of the men? + The men were bred in England, + The bowmen, the yeomen, + The lads of the dale and fell, + Here's to you and to you, + To the hearts that are true, + And the land where the true hearts dwell. + +"They sing very joyfully," said Du Guesclin, "as though they were +going to a festival." + +"It is their wont when there is work to be done." + +"By Saint Paul!" quoth Sir Nigel, "it is in my mind that they +come too late, for I cannot see how we are to come down from this +tower." + +"There they come, the hearts of gold!" cried Aylward. "See, they +move out from the shadow. Now they cross the meadow. They are on +the further side of the moat. Hola camarades, hola! Johnston, +Eccles, Cooke, Harward, Bligh! Would ye see a fair lady and two +gallant knights done foully to death?" + +"Who is there?" shouted a deep voice from below. "Who is this +who speaks with an English tongue?" + +"It is I, old lad. It is Sam Aylward of the Company; and here is +your captain, Sir Nigel Loring, and four others, all laid out to +be grilled like an Easterling's herrings." + +"Curse me if I did not think that it was the style of speech of +old Samkin Aylward," said the voice, amid a buzz from the ranks. +"Wherever there are knocks going there is Sammy in the heart of +it. But who are these ill-faced rogues who block the path? To +your kennels, canaille! What! you dare look us in the eyes? Out +swords, lads, and give them the flat of them! Waste not your +shafts upon such runagate knaves." + +There was little fight left in the peasants, however, still dazed +by the explosion, amazed at their own losses and disheartened by +the arrival of the disciplined archers. In a very few minutes +they were in full flight for their brushwood homes, leaving the +morning sun to rise upon a blackened and blood-stained ruin, +where it had left the night before the magnificent castle of the +Seneschal of Auvergne. Already the white lines in the east were +deepening into pink as the archers gathered round the keep and +took counsel how to rescue the survivors. + +"Had we a rope," said Alleyne, "there is one side which is not +yet on fire, down which we might slip." + +"But how to get a rope?" + +"It is an old trick," quoth Aylward. "Hola! Johnston, cast me up +a rope, even as you did at Maupertuis in the war time." + +The grizzled archer thus addressed took several lengths of rope +from his comrades, and knotting them firmly together, he +stretched them out in the long shadow which the rising sun threw +from the frowning keep. Then he fixed the yew-stave of his bow +upon end and measured the long, thin, black line which it threw +upon the turf. + +"A six-foot stave throws a twelve-foot shadow," he muttered. "The +keep throws a shadow of sixty paces. Thirty paces of rope will +be enow and to spare. Another strand, Watkin! Now pull at the +end that all may be safe. So! It is ready for them.' + +"But how are they to reach it?" asked the young archer beside +him. + +"Watch and see, young fool's-head," growled the old bowman. He +took a long string from his pouch and fastened one end to an +arrow. + +"All ready, Samkin?" + +"Ready, camarade." + +"Close to your hand then." With an easy pull he sent the shaft +flickering gently up, falling upon the stonework within a foot of +where Aylward was standing. The other end was secured to the +rope, so that in a minute a good strong cord was dangling from +the only sound side of the blazing and shattered tower. The Lady +Tiphaine was lowered with a noose drawn fast under the arms, and +the other five slid swiftly down, amid the cheers and joyous +outcry of their rescuers. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +HOW THE COMPANY TOOK COUNSEL ROUND THE FALLEN TREE. + + +"Where is Sir Claude Latour?" asked Sir Nigel, as his feet +touched ground. + +"He is in camp, near Montpezat, two hours' march from here, my +fair lord," said Johnston, the grizzled bowman who commanded the +archers. + +"Then we shall march thither, for I would fain have you all back +at Dax in time to be in the prince's vanguard." + +"My lord," cried Alleyne, joyfully, "here are our chargers in the +field, and I see your harness amid the plunder which these rogues +have left behind them." + +"By Saint Ives! you speak sooth, young squire," said Du Guesclin. +"There is my horse and my lady's jennet. The knaves led them +from the stables, but fled without them. Now, Nigel, it is great +joy to me to have seen one of whom I have often heard. Yet we +must leave you now, for I must be with the King of Spain ere your +army crosses the mountains." + +"I had thought that you were in Spain with the valiant Henry of +Trastamare." + +"I have been there, but I came to France to raise succor for him. +I shall ride back, Nigel, with four thousand of the best lances +of France at my back, so that your prince may find he hath a task +which is worthy of him. God be with you, friend, and may we meet +again in better times!" + +"I do not think," said Sir Nigel, as he stood by Alleyne's side +looking after the French knight and his lady, "that in all +Christendom you will meet with a more stout-hearted man or a +fairer and sweeter dame. But your face is pale and sad, Alleyne! +Have you perchance met with some hurt during the ruffle?" + +"Nay, my fair lord, I was but thinking of my friend Ford, and how +he sat upon my couch no later than yesternight." + +Sir Nigel shook his head sadly. "Two brave squires have I lost," +said he. "I know not why the young shoots should be plucked, and +an old weed left standing, yet certes there must be come good +reason, since God hath so planned it. Did you not note, Alleyne, +that the Lady Tiphaine did give us warning last night that danger +was coming upon us?" + +"She did, my lord." + +"By Saint Paul! my mind misgives me as to what she saw at Twynham +Castle. And yet I cannot think that any Scottish or French +rovers could land in such force as to beleaguer the fortalice. +Call the Company together, Aylward; and let us on, for it will be +shame to us if we are not at Dax upon the trysting day." + +The archers had spread themselves over the ruins, but a blast +upon a bugle brought them all back to muster, with such booty as +they could bear with them stuffed into their pouches or slung +over their shoulders. As they formed into ranks, each man +dropping silently into his place, Sir Nigel ran a questioning eye +over them, and a smile of pleasure played over his face. Tall +and sinewy, and brown, clear-eyed, hard-featured, with the stern +and prompt bearing of experienced soldiers, it would be hard +indeed for a leader to seek for a choicer following. Here and +there in the ranks were old soldiers of the French wars, grizzled +and lean, with fierce, puckered features and shaggy, bristling +brows. The most, however, were young and dandy archers, with +fresh English faces, their beards combed out, their hair curling +from under their close steel hufkens, with gold or jewelled +earrings gleaming in their ears, while their gold-spangled +baldrics, their silken belts, and the chains which many of them +wore round their thick brown necks, all spoke of the brave times +which they had had as free companions. Each had a yew or hazel +stave slung over his shoulder, plain and serviceable with the +older men, but gaudily painted and carved at either end with the +others. Steel caps, mail brigandines, white surcoats with the +red lion of St. George, and sword or battle-axe swinging from +their belts, completed this equipment, while in some cases the +murderous maule or five-foot mallet was hung across the +bowstave, being fastened to their leathern shoulder-belt by a +hook in the centre of the handle. Sir Nigel's heart beat high as +he looked upon their free bearing and fearless faces. + +For two hours they marched through forest and marshland, along +the left bank of the river Aveyron; Sir Nigel riding behind his +Company, with Alleyne at his right hand, and Johnston, the old +master bowman, walking by his left stirrup. Ere they had reached +their journey's end the knight had learned all that he would know +of his men, their doings and their intentions. Once, as they +marched, they saw upon the further bank of the river a body of +French men-at-arms, riding very swiftly in the direction of +Villefranche. + +"It is the Seneschal of Toulouse, with his following," said +Johnston, shading his eyes with his hand. "Had he been on this +side of the water he might have attempted something upon us." + +"I think that it would be well that we should cross," said Sir +Nigel. "It were pity to balk this worthy seneschal, should he +desire to try some small feat of arms." + +"Nay, there is no ford nearer than Tourville," answered the old +archer. "He is on his way to Villefranche, and short will be the +shrift of any Jacks who come into his hands, for he is a man of +short speech. It was he and the Seneschal of Beaucaire who hung +Peter Wilkins, of the Company, last Lammastide; for which, by the +black rood of Waltham! they shall hang themselves, if ever they +come into our power. But here are our comrades, Sir Nigel, and +here is our camp." + +As he spoke, the forest pathway along which they marched opened +out into a green glade, which sloped down towards the river. +High, leafless trees girt it in on three sides, with a thick +undergrowth of holly between their trunks. At the farther end of +this forest clearing there stood forty or fifty huts, built very +neatly from wood and clay, with the blue smoke curling out from +the roofs. A dozen tethered horses and mules grazed around the +encampment, while a number of archers lounged about: some +shooting at marks, while others built up great wooden fires in +the open, and hung their cooking kettles above them. At the +sight of their returning comrades there was a shout of welcome, +and a horseman, who had been exercising his charger behind the +camp, came cantering down to them. He was a dapper, brisk man, +very richly clad, with a round, clean-shaven face, and very +bright black eyes, which danced and sparkled with excitement. + +"Sir Nigel!" he cried. "Sir Nigel Loring, at last! By my soul +we have awaited you this month past. Right welcome, Sir Nigel! +You have had my letter?" + +"It was that which brought me here," said Sir Nigel. "But +indeed, Sir Claude Latour, it is a great wonder to me that you +did not yourself lead these bowmen, for surely they could have +found no better leader?" + +"None, none, by the Virgin of L'Esparre!" he cried, speaking in +the strange, thick Gascon speech which turns every _v_ into a +_b_. "But you know what these islanders of yours are, Sir Nigel. +They will not be led by any save their own blood and race. There +is no persuading them. Not even I, Claude Latour Seigneur of +Montchateau, master of the high justice, the middle and the low, +could gain their favor. They must needs hold a council and put +their two hundred thick heads together, and then there comes this +fellow Aylward and another, as their spokesmen, to say that they +will disband unless an Englishman of good name be set over them. +There are many of them, as I understand, who come from some great +forest which lies in Hampi, or Hampti--I cannot lay my tongue to +the name. Your dwelling is in those parts, and so their thoughts +turned to you as their leader. But we had hoped that you would +bring a hundred men with you." + +"They are already at Dax, where we shall join them," said Sir +Nigel. "But let the men break their fast, and we shall then take +counsel what to do." + +"Come into my hut," said Sir Claude. "It is but poor fare that I +can lay before you--milk, cheese, wine, and bacon--yet your +squire and yourself will doubtless excuse it. This is my house +where the pennon flies before the door--a small residence to +contain the Lord of Montchateau." + +Sir Nigel sat silent and distrait at his meal, while Alleyne +hearkened to the clattering tongue of the Gascon, and to his talk +of the glories of his own estate, his successes in love, and his +triumphs in war. + +"And now that you are here, Sir Nigel," he said at last, "I have +many fine ventures all ready for us. I have heard that Montpezat +is of no great strength, and that there are two hundred thousand +crowns in the castle. At Castelnau also there is a cobbler who +is in my pay, and who will throw us a rope any dark night from +his house by the town wall. I promise you that you shall thrust +your arms elbow-deep among good silver pieces ere the nights are +moonless again; for on every hand of us are fair women, rich +wine, and good plunder, as much as heart could wish." + +"I have other plans," answered Sir Nigel curtly; "for I have come +hither to lead these bowmen to the help of the prince, our +master, who may have sore need of them ere he set Pedro upon the +throne of Spain. It is my purpose to start this very day for Dax +upon the Adour, where he hath now pitched his camp." + +The face of the Gascon darkened, and his eyes flashed with +resentment, "For me," he said, "I care little for this war, and I +find the life which I lead a very joyous and pleasant one. I +will not go to Dax." + +"Nay, think again, Sir Claude," said Sir Nigel gently; "for you +have ever had the name of a true and loyal knight. Surely you +will not hold back now when your master hath need of you." + +"I will not go to Dax," the other shouted. + +"But your devoir--your oath of fealty?" + +"I say that I will not go." + +"Then, Sir Claude, I must lead the Company without you." + +"If they will follow," cried the Gascon with a sneer. "These are +not hired slaves, but free companions, who will do nothing save +by their own good wills. In very sooth, my Lord Loring, they are +ill men to trifle with, and it were easier to pluck a bone from a +hungry bear than to lead a bowman out of a land of plenty and of +pleasure." + +"Then I pray you to gather them together," said Sir Nigel, "and I +will tell them what is in my mind; for if I am their leader they +must to Dax, and if I am not then I know not what I am doing in +Auvergne. Have my horse ready, Alleyne; for, by St. Paul! come +what may, I must be upon the homeward road ere mid-day." + +A blast upon the bugle summoned the bowmen to counsel, and they +gathered in little knots and groups around a great fallen tree +which lay athwart the glade. Sir Nigel sprang lightly upon the +trunk, and stood with blinking eye and firm lips looking down at +the ring of upturned warlike faces. + +"They tell me, bowmen," said he, "that ye have grown so fond of +ease and plunder and high living that ye are not to be moved from +this pleasant country. But, by Saint Paul! I will believe no +such thing of you, for I can readily see that you are all very +valiant men, who would scorn to live here in peace when your +prince hath so great a venture before him. Ye have chosen me as +a leader, and a leader I will be if ye come with me to Spain; and +I vow to you that my pennon of the five roses shall, if God give +me strength and life, be ever where there is most honor to be +gained. But if it be your wish to loll and loiter in these +glades, bartering glory and renown for vile gold and ill-gotten +riches, then ye must find another leader; for I have lived in +honor, and in honor I trust that I shall die. If there be forest +men or Hampshire men amongst ye, I call upon them to say whether +they will follow the banner of Loring." + +"Here's a Romsey man for you!" cried a young bowman with a sprig +of evergreen set in his helmet. + +"And a lad from Alresford!" shouted another. + +"And from Milton!" + +"And from Burley!" + +"And from Lymington!" + +"And a little one from Brockenhurst!" shouted a huge-limbed +fellow who sprawled beneath a tree. + +"By my hilt! lads," cried Aylward, jumping upon the fallen trunk, +"I think that we could not look the girls in the eyes if we let +the prince cross the mountains and did not pull string to clear a +path for him. It is very well in time of peace to lead such a +life as we have had together, but now the war-banner is in the +wind once more, and, by these ten finger-bones! if he go alone, +old Samkin Aylward will walk beside it." + +These words from a man as popular as Aylward decided many of the +waverers, and a shout of approval burst from his audience. + +"Far be it from me," said Sir Claude Latour suavely, "to persuade +you against this worthy archer, or against Sir Nigel Loring; yet +we have been together in many ventures, and perchance it may not +be amiss if I say to you what I think upon the matter." + +"Peace for the little Gascon!" cried the archers. "Let every man +have his word. Shoot straight for the mark, lad, and fair play +for all." + +"Bethink you, then," said Sir Claude, "that you go under a hard +rule, with neither freedom nor pleasure--and for what? For +sixpence a day, at the most; while now you may walk across the +country and stretch out either hand to gather in whatever you +have a mind for. What do we not hear of our comrades who have +gone with Sir John Hawkwood to Italy? In one night they have +held to ransom six hundred of the richest noblemen of Mantua. +They camp before a great city, and the base burghers come forth +with the keys, and then they make great spoil; or, if it please +them better, they take so many horse-loads of silver as a +composition; and so they journey on from state to state, rich and +free and feared by all. Now, is not that the proper life for a +soldier?" + +"The proper life for a robber!" roared Hordle John, in his +thundering voice. + +"And yet there is much in what the Gascon says," said a swarthy +fellow in a weather-stained doublet; "and I for one would rather +prosper in Italy than starve in Spain." + +"You were always a cur and a traitor, Mark Shaw," cried Aylward. +"By my hilt! if you will stand forth and draw your sword I will +warrant you that you will see neither one nor the other." + +"Nay, Aylward," said Sir Nigel, "we cannot mend the matter by +broiling. Sir Claude, I think that what you have said does you +little honor, and if my words aggrieve you I am ever ready to go +deeper into the matter with you. But you shall have such men as +will follow you, and you may go where you will, so that you come +not with us. Let all who love their prince and country stand +fast, while those who think more of a well-lined purse step forth +upon the farther side." + +Thirteen bowmen, with hung heads and sheepish faces, stepped +forward with Mark Shaw and ranged themselves behind Sir Claude. +Amid the hootings and hissings of their comrades, they marched +off together to the Gascon's hut, while the main body broke up +their meeting and set cheerily to work packing their possessions, +furbishing their weapons, and preparing for the march which lay +before them. Over the Tarn and the Garonne, through the vast +quagmires of Armagnac, past the swift-flowing Losse, and so down +the long valley of the Adour, there was many a long league to be +crossed ere they could join themselves to that dark war-cloud +which was drifting slowly southwards to the line of the snowy +peaks, beyond which the banner of England had never yet been +seen. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +HOW THE ARMY MADE THE PASSAGE OF RONCESVALLES. + + +The whole vast plain of Gascony and of Languedoc is an arid and +profitless expanse in winter save where the swift-flowing Adour +and her snow-fed tributaries, the Louts, the Oloron and the Pau, +run down to the sea of Biscay. South of the Adour the jagged +line of mountains which fringe the sky-line send out long granite +claws, running down into the lowlands and dividing them into +"gaves" or stretches of valley. Hillocks grow into hills, and +hills into mountains, each range overlying its neighbor, until +they soar up in the giant chain which raises its spotless and +untrodden peaks, white and dazzling, against the pale blue wintry +sky. + +A quiet land is this--a land where the slow-moving Basque, with +his flat biretta-cap, his red sash and his hempen sandals, tills +his scanty farm or drives his lean flock to their hill-side +pastures. It is the country of the wolf and the isard, of the +brown bear and the mountain-goat, a land of bare rock and of +rushing water. Yet here it was that the will of a great prince +had now assembled a gallant army; so that from the Adour to the +passes of Navarre the barren valleys and wind-swept wastes were +populous with soldiers and loud with the shouting of orders and +the neighing of horses. For the banners of war had been flung to +the wind once more, and over those glistening peaks was the +highway along which Honor pointed in an age when men had chosen +her as their guide. + +And now all was ready for the enterprise. From Dax to St. Jean +Pied-du-Port the country was mottled with the white tents of +Gascons, Aquitanians and English, all eager for the advance. From +all sides the free companions had trooped in, until not less than +twelve thousand of these veteran troops were cantoned along the +frontiers of Navarre. From England had arrived the prince's +brother, the Duke of Lancaster, with four hundred knights in his +train and a strong company of archers. Above all, an heir to the +throne had been born in Bordeaux, and the prince might leave his +spouse with an easy mind, for all was well with mother and with +child. + +The keys of the mountain passes still lay in the hands of the +shifty and ignoble Charles of Navarre, who had chaffered and +bargained both with the English and with the Spanish, taking +money from the one side to hold them open and from the other to +keep them sealed. The mallet hand of Edward, however, had +shattered all the schemes and wiles of the plotter. Neither +entreaty nor courtly remonstrance came from the English prince; +but Sir Hugh Calverley passed silently over the border with his +company, and the blazing walls of the two cities of Miranda and +Puenta de la Reyna warned the unfaithful monarch that there were +other metals besides gold, and that he was dealing with a man to +whom it was unsafe to lie. His price was paid, his objections +silenced, and the mountain gorges lay open to the invaders. From +the Feast of the Epiphany there was mustering and massing, until, +in the first week of February--three days after the White Company +joined the army--the word was given for a general advance through +the defile of Roncesvalles. At five in the cold winter's morning +the bugles were blowing in the hamlet of St. Jean Pied-du-Port, +and by six Sir Nigel's Company, three hundred strong, were on +their way for the defile, pushing swiftly in the dim light up the +steep curving road; for it was the prince's order that they +should be the first to pass through, and that they should remain +on guard at the further end until the whole army had emerged from +the mountains. Day was already breaking in the east, and the +summits of the great peaks had turned rosy red, while the valleys +still lay in the shadow, when they found themselves with the +cliffs on either hand and the long, rugged pass stretching away +before them. + +Sir Nigel rode his great black war-horse at the head of his +archers, dressed in full armor, with Black Simon bearing his +banner behind him, while Alleyne at his bridle-arm carried his +blazoned shield and his well-steeled ashen spear. A proud and +happy man was the knight, and many a time he turned in his saddle +to look at the long column of bowmen who swung swiftly along +behind him. + +"By Saint Paul! Alleyne," said he, "this pass is a very perilous +place, and I would that the King of Navarre had held it against +us, for it would have been a very honorable venture had it fallen +to us to win a passage. I have heard the minstrels sing of one +Sir Roland who was slain by the infidels in these very parts." + +"If it please you, my fair lord," said Black Simon, "I know +something of these parts, for I have twice served a term with the +King of Navarre. There is a hospice of monks yonder, where you +may see the roof among the trees, and there it was that Sir +Roland was slain. The village upon the left is Orbaiceta, and I +know a house therein where the right wine of Jurancon is to be +bought, if it would please you to quaff a morning cup." + +"There is smoke yonder upon the right." + +"That is a village named Les Aldudes, and I know a hostel there +also where the wine is of the best. It is said that the inn-keeper +hath a buried treasure, and I doubt not, my fair lord, that if +you grant me leave I could prevail upon him to tell us where he +hath hid it." + +"Nay, nay, Simon," said Sir Nigel curtly, "I pray you to forget +these free companion tricks. Ha! Edricson, I see that you stare +about you, and in good sooth these mountains must seem wondrous +indeed to one who hath but seen Butser or the Portsdown hill." + +The broken and rugged road had wound along the crests of low +hills, with wooded ridges on either side of it over which peeped +the loftier mountains, the distant Peak of the South and the vast +Altabisca, which towered high above them and cast its black +shadow from left to right across the valley. From where they now +stood they could look forward down a long vista of beech woods +and jagged rock-strewn wilderness, all white with snow, to where +the pass opened out upon the uplands beyond. Behind them they +could still catch a glimpse of the gray plains of Gascony, and +could see her rivers gleaming like coils of silver in the +sunshine. As far as eye could see from among the rocky gorges +and the bristles of the pine woods there came the quick twinkle +and glitter of steel, while the wind brought with it sudden +distant bursts of martial music from the great host which rolled +by every road and by-path towards the narrow pass of +Roncesvalles. On the cliffs on either side might also be seen +the flash of arms and the waving of pennons where the force of +Navarre looked down upon the army of strangers who passed +through their territories. + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, blinking up at them, "I think +that we have much to hope for from these cavaliers, for they +cluster very thickly upon our flanks. Pass word to the men, +Aylward, that they unsling their bows, for I have no doubt that +there are some very worthy gentlemen yonder who may give us some +opportunity for honorable advancement." + +"I hear that the prince hath the King of Navarre as hostage," +said Alleyne, "and it is said that he hath sworn to put him to +death if there be any attack upon us." + +"It was not so that war was made when good King Edward first +turned his hand to it," said Sir Nigel sadly. "Ah! Alleyne, I +fear that you will never live to see such things, for the minds +of men are more set upon money and gain than of old. By Saint +Paul! it was a noble sight when two great armies would draw +together upon a certain day, and all who had a vow would ride +forth to discharge themselves of it. What noble spear-runnings +have I not seen, and even in an humble way had a part in, when +cavaliers would run a course for the easing of their souls and +for the love of their ladies! Never a bad word have I for the +French, for, though I have ridden twenty times up to their array, +I have never yet failed to find some very gentle and worthy +knight or squire who was willing to do what he might to enable me +to attempt some small feat of arms. Then, when all cavaliers had +been satisfied, the two armies would come to hand-strokes, and +fight right merrily until one or other had the vantage. By Saint +Paul! it was not our wont in those days to pay gold for the +opening of passes, nor would we hold a king as hostage lest his +people come to thrusts with us. In good sooth, if the war is to +be carried out in such a fashion, then it is grief to me that I +ever came away from Castle Twynham, for I would not have left my +sweet lady had I not thought that there were deeds of arms to be +done." + +"But surely, my fair lord," said Alleyne, "you have done some +great feats of arms since we left the Lady Loring." + +"I cannot call any to mind," answered Sir Nigel. + +"There was the taking of the sea-rovers, and the holding of the +keep against the Jacks." + +"Nay, nay," said the knight, "these were not feats of arms, but +mere wayside ventures and the chances of travel. By Saint Paul! +if it were not that these hills are over-steep for Pommers, I +would ride to these cavaliers of Navarre and see if there were +not some among them who would help me to take this patch from +mine eye. It is a sad sight to see this very fine pass, which my +own Company here could hold against an army, and yet to ride +through it with as little profit as though it were the lane from +my kennels to the Avon." + +All morning Sir Nigel rode in a very ill-humor, with his Company +tramping behind him. It was a toilsome march over broken ground +and through snow, which came often as high as the knee, yet ere +the sun had begun to sink they had reached the spot where the +gorge opens out on to the uplands of Navarre, and could see the +towers of Pampeluna jutting up against the southern sky-line. +Here the Company were quartered in a scattered mountain hamlet, +and Alleyne spent the day looking down upon the swarming army +which poured with gleam of spears and flaunt of standards through +the narrow pass. + +"Hola, mon gar.," said Aylward, seating himself upon a boulder by +his side. "This is indeed a fine sight upon which it is good to +look, and a man might go far ere he would see so many brave men +and fine horses. By my hilt! our little lord is wroth because we +have come peacefully through the passes, but I will warrant him +that we have fighting enow ere we turn our faces northward again. +It is said that there are four-score thousand men behind the King +of Spain, with Du Guesclin and all the best lances of France, who +have sworn to shed their heart's blood ere this Pedro come again +to the throne." + +"Yet our own army is a great one," said Alleyne. + +"Nay, there are but seven-and-twenty thousand men. Chandos hath +persuaded the prince to leave many behind, and indeed I think +that he is right, for there is little food and less water in +these parts for which we are bound. A man without his meat or a +horse without his fodder is like a wet bow-string, fit for +little. But voila, mon petit, here comes Chandos and his +company, and there is many a pensil and banderole among yonder +squadrons which show that the best blood of England is riding +under his banners." + +Whilst Aylward had been speaking, a strong column of archers had +defiled through the pass beneath them. They were followed by a +banner-bearer who held high the scarlet wedge upon a silver field +which proclaimed the presence of the famous warrior. He rode +himself within a spear's-length of his standard, clad from neck +to foot in steel, but draped in the long linen gown or parement +which was destined to be the cause of his death. His plumed +helmet was carried behind him by his body-squire, and his head +was covered by a small purple cap, from under which his snow-white +hair curled downwards to his shoulders. With his long beak-like +nose and his single gleaming eye, which shone brightly from under +a thick tuft of grizzled brow, he seemed to Alleyne to have +something of the look of some fierce old bird of prey. For a +moment he smiled, as his eye lit upon the banner of the five +roses waving from the hamlet; but his course lay for Pampeluna, +and he rode on after the archers. + +Close at his heels came sixteen squires, all chosen from the +highest families, and behind them rode twelve hundred English +knights, with gleam of steel and tossing of plumes, their harness +jingling, their long straight swords clanking against their +stirrup-irons, and the beat of their chargers' hoofs like the low +deep roar of the sea upon the shore. Behind them marched six +hundred Cheshire and Lancashire archers, bearing the badge of the +Audleys, followed by the famous Lord Audley himself, with the +four valiant squires, Dutton of Dutton, Delves of Doddington, +Fowlehurst of Crewe, and Hawkestone of Wainehill, who had all won +such glory at Poictiers. Two hundred heavily-armed cavalry rode +behind the Audley standard, while close at their heels came the +Duke of Lancaster with a glittering train, heralds tabarded with +the royal arms riding three deep upon cream-colored chargers in +front of him. On either side of the young prince rode the two +seneschals of Aquitaine, Sir Guiscard d'Angle and Sir Stephen +Cossington, the one bearing the banner of the province and the +other that of Saint George. Away behind him as far as eye could +reach rolled the far-stretching, unbroken river of steel--rank +after rank and column after column, with waving of plumes, +glitter of arms, tossing of guidons, and flash and flutter of +countless armorial devices. All day Alleyne looked down upon the +changing scene, and all day the old bowman stood by his elbow, +pointing out the crests of famous warriors and the arms of noble +houses. Here were the gold mullets of the Pakingtons, the sable +and ermine of the Mackworths, the scarlet bars of the Wakes, +the gold and blue of the Grosvenors, the cinque-foils of the +Cliftons, the annulets of the Musgraves, the silver pinions of +the Beauchamps, the crosses of the Molineaux, the bloody chevron of +the Woodhouses, the red and silver of the Worsleys, the swords of +the Clarks, the boars'-heads of the Lucies, the crescents of the +Boyntons, and the wolf and dagger of the Lipscombs. So through +the sunny winter day the chivalry of England poured down through +the dark pass of Roncesvalles to the plains of Spain. + +It was on a Monday that the Duke of Lancaster's division passed +safely through the Pyrenees. On the Tuesday there was a bitter +frost, and the ground rung like iron beneath the feet of the +horses; yet ere evening the prince himself, with the main battle +of his army, had passed the gorge and united with his vanguard at +Pampeluna. With him rode the King of Majorca, the hostage King +of Navarre, and the fierce Don Pedro of Spain, whose pale blue +eyes gleamed with a sinister light as they rested once more upon +the distant peaks of the land which had disowned him. Under the +royal banners rode many a bold Gascon baron and many a hot-blooded +islander. Here were the high stewards of Aquitaine, of Saintonge, +of La Rochelle, of Quercy, of Limousin, of Agenois, of Poitou, +and of Bigorre, with the banners and musters of their provinces. +Here also were the valiant Earl of Angus, Sir Thomas Banaster +with his garter over his greave, Sir Nele Loring, second cousin +to Sir Nigel, and a long column of Welsh footmen who marched under +the red banner of Merlin. From dawn to sundown the long train +wound through the pass, their breath reeking up upon the frosty air +like the steam from a cauldron. + +The weather was less keen upon the Wednesday, and the rear-guard +made good their passage, with the bombards and the wagon-train. +Free companions and Gascons made up this portion of the army to +the number of ten thousand men. The fierce Sir Hugh Calverley, +with his yellow mane, and the rugged Sir Robert Knolles, with +their war-hardened and veteran companies of English bowmen, +headed the long column; while behind them came the turbulent +bands of the Bastard of Breteuil, Nandon de Bagerant, one-eyed +Camus, Black Ortingo, La Nuit and others whose very names seem to +smack of hard hands and ruthless deeds. With them also were the +pick of the Gascon chivalry--the old Duc d'Armagnac, his nephew +Lord d'Albret, brooding and scowling over his wrongs, the giant +Oliver de Clisson, the Captal de Buch, pink of knighthood, the +sprightly Sir Perducas d'Albret, the red-bearded Lord d'Esparre, +and a long train of needy and grasping border nobles, with long +pedigrees and short purses, who had come down from their hill-side +strongholds, all hungering for the spoils and the ransoms of Spain. +By the Thursday morning the whole army was encamped in the Vale +of Pampeluna, and the prince had called his council to meet him +in the old palace of the ancient city of Navarre. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +HOW THE COMPANY MADE SPORT IN THE VALE OF PAMPELUNA. + + +Whilst the council was sitting in Pampeluna the White Company, +having encamped in a neighboring valley, close to the companies +of La Nuit and of Black Ortingo, were amusing themselves with +sword-play, wrestling, and shooting at the shields, which they +had placed upon the hillside to serve them as butts. The younger +archers, with their coats of mail thrown aside, their brown or +flaxen hair tossing in the wind, and their jerkins turned back to +give free play to their brawny chests and arms, stood in lines, +each loosing his shaft in turn, while Johnston, Aylward, Black +Simon, and half-a-score of the elders lounged up and down with +critical eyes, and a word of rough praise or of curt censure for +the marksmen. Behind stood knots of Gascon and Brabant +crossbowmen from the companies of Ortingo and of La Nuit, leaning +upon their unsightly weapons and watching the practice of the +Englishmen. + +"A good shot, Hewett, a good shot!" said old Johnston to a young +bowman, who stood with his bow in his left hand, gazing with +parted lips after his flying shaft. "You see, she finds the +ring, as I knew she would from the moment that your string +twanged." + +"Loose it easy, steady, and yet sharp," said Aylward. "By my +hilt! mon gar., it is very well when you do but shoot at a +shield, but when there is a man behind the shield, and he rides +at you with wave of sword and glint of eyes from behind his +vizor, you may find him a less easy mark." + +"It is a mark that I have found before now," answered the young +bowman. + +"And shall again, camarade, I doubt not. But hola! Johnston, who +is this who holds his bow like a crow-keeper?" + +"It is Silas Peterson, of Horsham. Do not wink with one eye and +look with the other, Silas, and do not hop and dance after you +shoot, with your tongue out, for that will not speed it upon its +way. Stand straight and firm, as God made you. Move not the bow +arm, and steady with the drawing hand!" + +"I' faith," said Black Simon, "I am a spearman myself, and am +more fitted for hand-strokes than for such work as this. Yet I +have spent my days among bowmen, and I have seen many a brave +shaft sped. I will not say but that we have some good marksmen +here, and that this Company would be accounted a fine body of +archers at any time or place. Yet I do not see any men who bend +so strong a bow or shoot as true a shaft as those whom I have +known." + +"You say sooth," said Johnston, turning his seamed and grizzled +face upon the man-at-arms. "See yonder," he added, pointing to a +bombard which lay within the camp: "there is what hath done scath +to good bowmanship, with its filthy soot and foolish roaring +mouth. I wonder that a true knight, like our prince, should +carry such a scurvy thing in his train. Robin, thou red-headed +lurden, how oft must I tell thee not to shoot straight with a +quarter-wind blowing across the mark?" + +"By these ten finger-bones! there were some fine bowmen at the +intaking of Calais," said Aylward. "I well remember that, on +occasion of an outfall, a Genoan raised his arm over his mantlet, +and shook it at us, a hundred paces from our line. There were +twenty who loosed shafts at him, and when the man was afterwards +slain it was found that he had taken eighteen through his +forearm." + +"And I can call to mind," remarked Johnston, "that when the great +cog `Christopher,' which the French had taken from us, was moored +two hundred paces from the shore, two archers, little Robin +Withstaff and Elias Baddlesmere, in four shots each cut every +strand of her hempen anchor-cord, so that she well-nigh came upon +the rocks." + +"Good shooting, i' faith rare shooting!" said Black Simon. "But I +have seen you, Johnston, and you, Samkin Aylward, and one or two +others who are still with us, shoot as well as the best. Was it +not you, Johnston, who took the fat ox at Finsbury butts against +the pick of London town?" + +A sunburnt and black-eyed Brabanter had stood near the old +archers, leaning upon a large crossbow and listening to their +talk, which had been carried on in that hybrid camp dialect which +both nations could understand. He was a squat, bull-necked man, +clad in the iron helmet, mail tunic, and woollen gambesson of his +class. A jacket with hanging sleeves, slashed with velvet at the +neck and wrists, showed that he was a man of some consideration, +an under-officer, or file-leader of his company. + +"I cannot think," said he, "why you English should be so fond of +your six-foot stick. If it amuse you to bend it, well and good; +but why should I strain and pull, when my little moulinet will do +all for me, and better than I can do it for myself?" + +"I have seen good shooting with the prod and with the latch," +said Aylward, "but, by my hilt! camarade, with all respect to you +and to your bow, I think that is but a woman's weapon, which a +woman can point and loose as easily as a man." + +"I know not about that," answered the Brabanter, "but this I +know, that though I have served for fourteen years, I have never +yet seen an Englishman do aught with the long-bow which I could +not do better with my arbalest. By the three kings! I would +even go further, and say that I have done things with my arbalest +which no Englishman could do with his long-bow." + +"Well said, mon gar.," cried Aylward. "A good cock has ever a +brave call. Now, I have shot little of late, but there is +Johnston here who will try a round with you for the honor of the +Company." + +"And I will lay a gallon of Jurancon wine upon the long-bow," +said Black Simon, "though I had rather, for my own drinking, that +it were a quart of Twynham ale." + +"I take both your challenge and your wager," said the man of +Brabant, throwing off his jacket and glancing keenly about him +with his black, twinkling eyes. "I cannot see any fitting mark, +for I care not to waste a bolt upon these shields, which a +drunken boor could not miss at a village kermesse." + +"This is a perilous man," whispered an English man-at-arms, +plucking at Aylward's sleeve. "He is the best marksman of all +the crossbow companies and it was he who brought down the +Constable de Bourbon at Brignais, I fear that your man will come +by little honor with him." + +"Yet I have seen Johnston shoot these twenty years, and I will +not flinch from it. How say you, old war-hound, will you not have +a flight shot or two with this springald?" + +"Tut, tut, Aylward," said the old bowman. "My day is past, and +it is for the younger ones to hold what we have gained. I take +it unkindly of thee, Samkin, that thou shouldst call all eyes +thus upon a broken bowman who could once shoot a fair shaft. Let +me feel that bow, Wilkins! It is a Scotch bow, I see, for the +upper nock is without and the lower within. By the black rood! +it is a good piece of yew, well nocked, well strung, well waxed, +and very joyful to the feel. I think even now that I might hit +any large and goodly mark with a bow like this. Turn thy quiver +to me, Aylward. I love an ash arrow pierced with cornel-wood for +a roving shaft." + +"By my hilt! and so do I," cried Aylward. "These three gander-winged +shafts are such." + +"So I see, comrade. It has been my wont to choose a saddle-backed +feather for a dead shaft, and a swine-backed for a smooth +flier. I will take the two of them. Ah! Samkin, lad, the eye +grows dim and the hand less firm as the years pass." + +"Come then, are you not ready?" said the Brabanter, who had +watched with ill-concealed impatience the slow and methodic +movements of his antagonist. + +"I will venture a rover with you, or try long-butts or hoyles," +said old Johnston. "To my mind the long-bow is a better weapon +than the arbalest, but it may be ill for me to prove it." + +"So I think," quoth the other with a sneer. He drew his moulinet +from his girdle, and fixing it to the windlass, he drew back the +powerful double cord until it had clicked into the catch. Then +from his quiver he drew a short, thick quarrel, which he placed +with the utmost care upon the groove. Word had spread of what +was going forward, and the rivals were already surrounded, not +only by the English archers of the Company, but by hundreds of +arbalestiers and men-at-arms from the bands of Ortingo and La +Nuit, to the latter of which the Brabanter belonged. + +"There is a mark yonder on the hill," said he; "mayhap you can +discern it." + +"I see something," answered Johnston, shading his eyes with his +hand; "but it is a very long shoot." + +"A fair shoot--a fair shoot! Stand aside, Arnaud, lest you find +a bolt through your gizzard. Now, comrade, I take no flight +shot, and I give you the vantage of watching my shaft." + +As he spoke he raised his arbalest to his shoulder and was about +to pull the trigger, when a large gray stork flapped heavily into +view skimming over the brow of the hill, and then soaring up into +the air to pass the valley. Its shrill and piercing cries drew +all eyes upon it, and, as it came nearer, a dark spot which +circled above it resolved itself into a peregrine falcon, which +hovered over its head, poising itself from time to time, and +watching its chance of closing with its clumsy quarry. Nearer +and nearer came the two birds, all absorbed in their own contest, +the stork wheeling upwards, the hawk still fluttering above it, +until they were not a hundred paces from the camp. The Brabanter +raised his weapon to the sky, and there came the short, deep +twang of his powerful string. His bolt struck the stork just +where its wing meets the body, and the bird whirled aloft in a +last convulsive flutter before falling wounded and flapping to +the earth. A roar of applause burst from the crossbowmen; but at +the instant that the bolt struck its mark old Johnston, who had +stood listlessly with arrow on string, bent his bow and sped a +shaft through the body of the falcon. Whipping the other from +his belt, he sent it skimming some few feet from the earth with +so true an aim that it struck and transfixed the stork for the +second time ere it could reach the ground. A deep-chested shout +of delight burst from the archers at the sight of this double +feat, and Aylward, dancing with joy, threw his arms round the old +marksman and embraced him with such vigor that their mail tunics +clanged again. + +"Ah! camarade," he cried, "you shall have a stoup with me for +this! What then, old dog, would not the hawk please thee, but +thou must have the stork as well. Oh, to my heart again!" + +"It is a pretty piece of yew, and well strung," said Johnston +with a twinkle in his deep-set gray eyes. "Even an old broken +bowman might find the clout with a bow like this." + +"You have done very well," remarked the Brabanter in a surly +voice. "But it seems to me that you have not yet shown yourself +to be a better marksman than I, for I have struck that at which I +aimed, and, by the three kings! no man can do more." + +"It would ill beseem me to claim to be a better marksman," +answered Johnston, "for I have heard great things of your skill. +I did but wish to show that the long-bow could do that which an +arbalest could not do, for you could not with your moulinet have +your string ready to speed another shaft ere the bird drop to the +earth." + +"In that you have vantage," said the crossbowman. "By Saint +James! it is now my turn to show you where my weapon has the +better of you. I pray you to draw a flight shaft with all your +strength down the valley, that we may see the length of your +shoot." + +"That is a very strong prod of yours," said Johnston, shaking his +grizzled head as he glanced at the thick arch and powerful +strings of his rival's arbalest. "I have little doubt that you +can overshoot me, and yet I have seen bowmen who could send a +cloth-yard arrow further than you could speed a quarrel." + +"So I have heard," remarked the Brabanter; "and yet it is a +strange thing that these wondrous bowmen are never where I chance +to be. Pace out the distances with a wand at every five score, +and do you, Arnaud, stand at the fifth wand to carry back my +bolts to me." + +A line was measured down the valley, and Johnston, drawing an +arrow to the very head, sent it whistling over the row of wands. + +"Bravely drawn! A rare shoot!" shouted the bystanders. + +"It is well up to the fourth mark." + +"By my hilt! it is over it," cried Aylward. "I can see where +they have stooped to gather up the shaft." + +"We shall hear anon," said Johnston quietly, and presently a +young archer came running to say that the arrow had fallen twenty +paces beyond the fourth wand. + +"Four hundred paces and a score," cried Black Simon. "I' faith, +it is a very long flight. Yet wood and steel may do more than +flesh and blood." + +The Brabanter stepped forward with a smile of conscious triumph, +and loosed the cord of his weapon. A shout burst from his +comrades as they watched the swift and lofty flight of the heavy +bolt. + +"Over the fourth!" groaned Aylward. "By my hilt! I think that it +is well up to the fifth." + +"It is over the fifth!" cried a Gascon loudly, and a comrade came +running with waving arms to say that the bolt had pitched eight +paces beyond the mark of the five hundred. + +"Which weapon hath the vantage now?" cried the Brabanter, +Strutting proudly about with shouldered arbalest, amid the +applause of his companions. + +"You can overshoot me," said Johnston gently. + +"Or any other man who ever bent a long-bow," cried his victorious +adversary. + +"Nay, not so fast," said a huge archer, whose mighty shoulders +and red head towered high above the throng of his comrades. "I +must have a word with you ere you crow so loudly. Where is my +little popper? By sainted Dick of Hampole! it will be a strange +thing if I cannot outshoot that thing of thine, which to my eyes +is more like a rat-trap than a bow. Will you try another flight, +or do you stand by your last?" + +"Five hundred and eight paces will serve my turn," answered the +Brabanter, looking askance at this new opponent. + +"Tut, John," whispered Aylward, "you never were a marksman. Why +must you thrust your spoon into this dish?" + +"Easy and slow, Aylward. There are very many things which I +cannot do, but there are also one or two which I have the trick +of. It is in my mind that I can beat this shoot, if my bow will +but hold together." + +"Go on, old babe of the woods!" "Have at it, Hampshire!" cried +the archers laughing. + +"By my soul! you may grin," cried John. "But I learned how to +make the long shoot from old Hob Miller of Milford." He took up a +great black bow, as he spoke, and sitting down upon the ground he +placed his two feet on either end of the stave. With an arrow +fitted, he then pulled the string towards him with both hands +until the head of the shaft was level with the wood. The great +bow creaked and groaned and the cord vibrated with the tension. + +"Who is this fool's-head who stands in the way of my shoot?" said +he, craning up his neck from the ground. + +"He stands on the further side of my mark," answered the +Brabanter, "so he has little to fear from you." + +"Well, the saints assoil him!" cried John. "Though I think he is +over-near to be scathed." As he spoke he raised his two feet, +with the bow-stave upon their soles, and his cord twanged with a +deep rich hum which might be heard across the valley. The +measurer in the distance fell flat upon his face, and then +jumping up again, he began to run in the opposite direction. + +"Well shot, old lad! It is indeed over his head," cried the +bowmen. + +"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed the Brabanter, "who ever saw such a shoot?" + +"It is but a trick," quoth John. "Many a time have I won a +gallon of ale by covering a mile in three flights down Wilverley +Chase." + +"It fell a hundred and thirty paces beyond the fifth mark," +shouted an archer in the distance. + +"Six hundred and thirty paces! Mon Dieu! but that is a shoot! +And yet it says nothing for your weapon, mon gros camarade, for +it was by turning yourself into a crossbow that you did it." + +"By my hilt! there is truth in that," cried Aylward. "And now, +friend, I will myself show you a vantage of the long-bow. I pray +you to speed a bolt against yonder shield with all your force. +It is an inch of elm with bull's hide over it." + +"I scarce shot as many shafts at Brignais," growled the man of +Brabant; "though I found a better mark there than a cantle of +bull's hide. But what is this, Englishman? The shield hangs not +one hundred paces from me, and a blind man could strike it." He +screwed up his string to the furthest pitch, and shot his quarrel +at the dangling shield. Aylward, who had drawn an arrow from his +quiver, carefully greased the head of it, and sped it at the same +mark. + +"Run, Wilkins," quoth he, "and fetch me the shield." + +Long were the faces of the Englishmen and broad the laugh of the +crossbowmen as the heavy mantlet was carried towards them, for +there in the centre was the thick Brabant bolt driven deeply into +the wood, while there was neither sign nor trace of the +cloth-yard shaft. + +"By the three kings!" cried the Brabanter, "this time at least +there is no gainsaying which is the better weapon, or which the +truer hand that held it. You have missed the shield, +Englishman." + +"Tarry a bit! tarry a bit, mon gar.!" quoth Aylward, and turning +round the shield he showed a round clear hole in the wood at the +back of it. "My shaft has passed through it, camarade, and I +trow the one which goes through is more to be feared than that +which bides on the way." + +The Brabanter stamped his foot with mortification, and was about +to make some angry reply, when Alleyne Edricson came riding up to +the crowds of archers. + +"Sir Nigel will be here anon," said he, "and it is his wish to +speak with the Company." + +In an instant order and method took the place of general +confusion. Bows, steel caps, and jacks were caught up from the +grass. A long cordon cleared the camp of all strangers, while +the main body fell into four lines with under-officers and +file-leaders in front and on either flank. So they stood, silent +and motionless, when their leader came riding towards them, his +face shining and his whole small figure swelling with the news +which he bore. + +"Great honor has been done to us, men," cried he: "for, of all +the army, the prince has chosen us out that we should ride +onwards into the lands of Spain to spy upon our enemies. Yet, as +there are many of us, and as the service may not be to the liking +of all, I pray that those will step forward from the ranks who +have the will to follow me." + +There was a rustle among the bowmen, but when Sir Nigel looked up +at them no man stood forward from his fellows, but the four lines +of men stretched unbroken as before. Sir Nigel blinked at them +in amazement, and a look of the deepest sorrow shadowed his face. + +"That I should live to see the day!" he cried, "What! not one----" + +"My fair lord," whispered Alleyne, "they have all stepped +forward." + +"Ah, by Saint Paul! I see how it is with them. I could not think +that they would desert me. We start at dawn to-morrow, and ye +are to have the horses of Sir Robert Cheney's company. Be ready, +I pray ye, at early cock-crow." + +A buzz of delight burst from the archers, as they broke their +ranks and ran hither and thither, whooping and cheering like boys +who have news of a holiday. Sir Nigel gazed after them with a +smiling face, when a heavy hand fell upon his shoulder. + +"What ho! my knight-errant of Twynham!" said a voice, "You are +off to Ebro, I hear; and, by the holy fish of Tobias! you must +take me under your banner." + +"What! Sir Oliver Buttesthorn!" cried Sir Nigel. "I had heard +that you were come into camp, and had hoped to see you. Glad and +proud shall I be to have you with me." + +"I have a most particular and weighty reason for wishing to go," +said the sturdy knight. + +"I can well believe it," returned Sir Nigel; "I have met no man +who is quicker to follow where honor leads." + +"Nay, it is not for honor that I go, Nigel." + +"For what then?" + +"For pullets." + +"Pullets?" + +"Yes, for the rascal vanguard have cleared every hen from the +country-side. It was this very morning that Norbury, my squire, +lamed his horse in riding round in quest of one, for we have a +bag of truffles, and nought to eat with them. Never have I seen +such locusts as this vanguard of ours. Not a pullet shall we see +until we are in front of them; so I shall leave my Winchester +runagates to the care of the provost-marshal, and I shall hie +south with you, Nigel, with my truffles at my saddle-bow." + +"Oliver, Oliver, I know you over-well," said Sir Nigel, shaking +his head, and the two old soldiers rode off together to their +pavilion. + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +HOW SIR NIGEL HAWKED AT AN EAGLE. + + +To the south of Pampeluna in the kingdom of Navarre there +stretched a high table-land, rising into bare, sterile hills, +brown or gray in color, and strewn with huge boulders of granite. +On the Gascon side of the great mountains there had been running +streams, meadows, forests, and little nestling villages. Here, on +the contrary, were nothing but naked rocks, poor pasture, and +savage, stone-strewn wastes. Gloomy defiles or barrancas +intersected this wild country with mountain torrents dashing and +foaming between their rugged sides. The clatter of waters, the +scream of the eagle, and the howling of wolves the only sounds +which broke upon the silence in that dreary and inhospitable +region. + +Through this wild country it was that Sir Nigel and his Company +pushed their way, riding at times through vast defiles where the +brown, gnarled cliffs shot up on either side of them, and the sky +was but a long winding blue slit between the clustering lines of +box which fringed the lips of the precipices; or, again leading +their horses along the narrow and rocky paths worn by the +muleteers upon the edges of the chasm, where under their very +elbows they could see the white streak which marked the _gave_ +which foamed a thousand feet below them. So for two days they +pushed their way through the wild places of Navarre, past Fuente, +over the rapid Ega, through Estella, until upon a winter's +evening the mountains fell away from in front of them, and they +saw the broad blue Ebro curving betwixt its double line or +homesteads and of villages. The fishers of Viana were aroused +that night by rough voices speaking in a strange tongue, and ere +morning Sir Nigel and his men had ferried the river and were safe +upon the land of Spain. + +All the next day they lay in a pine wood near to the town of +Logrono, resting their horses and taking counsel as to what +they should do. Sir Nigel had with him Sir William Felton, +Sir Oliver Buttesthorn, stout old Sir Simon Burley, the Scotch +knight-errant, the Earl of Angus, and Sir Richard Causton, all +accounted among the bravest knights in the army, together with +sixty veteran men-at-arms, and three hundred and twenty archers. +Spies had been sent out in the morning, and returned after +nightfall to say that the King of Spain was encamped some +fourteen miles off in the direction of Burgos, having with him +twenty thousand horse and forty-five thousand foot. + +A dry-wood fire had been lit, and round this the leaders +crouched, the glare beating upon their rugged faces, while the +hardy archers lounged and chatted amid the tethered horses, while +they munched their scanty provisions. + +"For my part," said Sir Simon Burley, "I am of opinion that we +have already done that which we have come for. For do we not now +know where the king is, and how great a following he hath, which +was the end of our journey." + +"True," answered Sir William Felton, "but I have come on this +venture because it is a long time since I have broken a spear in +war, and, certes, I shall not go back until I have run a course +with some cavalier of Spain. Let those go back who will, but I +must see more of these Spaniards ere I turn." + +"I will not leave you, Sir William," returned Sir Simon Burley; +"and yet, as an old soldier and one who hath seen much of war, I +cannot but think that it is an ill thing for four hundred men to +find themselves between an army of sixty thousand on the one side +and a broad river on the other." + +"Yet," said Sir Richard Causton, "we cannot for the honor of +England go back without a blow struck." + +"Nor for the honor of Scotland either," cried the Earl of Angus. +"By Saint Andrew! I wish that I may never set eyes upon the water +of Leith again, if I pluck my horse's bridle ere I have seen this +camp of theirs." + +"By Saint Paul! you have spoken very well," said Sir Nigel, "and +I have always heard that there were very worthy gentlemen among +the Scots, and fine skirmishing to be had upon their border. +Bethink you, Sir Simon, that we have this news from the lips of +common spies, who can scarce tell us as much of the enemy and of +his forces as the prince would wish to hear." + +"You are the leader in this venture, Sir Nigel," the other +answered, "and I do but ride under your banner." + +"Yet I would fain have your rede and counsel, Sir Simon. But, +touching what you say of the river, we can take heed that we +shall not have it at the back of us, for the prince hath now +advanced to Salvatierra, and thence to Vittoria, so that if we +come upon their camp from the further side we can make good our +retreat." + +"What then would you propose?" asked Sir Simon, shaking his +grizzled head as one who is but half convinced. + +"That we ride forward ere the news reach them that we have +crossed the river. In this way we may have sight of their army, +and perchance even find occasion for some small deed against +them." + +"So be it, then," said Sir Simon Burley; and the rest of the +council having approved, a scanty meal was hurriedly snatched, +and the advance resumed under the cover of the darkness. All +night they led their horses, stumbling and groping through wild +defiles and rugged valleys, following the guidance of a +frightened peasant who was strapped by the wrist to Black Simon's +stirrup-leather. With the early dawn they found themselves in a +black ravine, with others sloping away from it on either side, +and the bare brown crags rising in long bleak terraces all round +them. + +"If it please you, fair lord," said Black Simon, "this man hath +misled us, and since there is no tree upon which we may hang him, +it might be well to hurl him over yonder cliff." + +The peasant, reading the soldier's meaning in his fierce eyes and +harsh accents dropped upon his knees, screaming loudly for mercy. + +"How comes it, dog?" asked Sir William Felton in Spanish. "Where +is this camp to which you swore that you would lead us?" + +"By the sweet Virgin! By the blessed Mother of God!" cried the +trembling peasant, "I swear to you that in the darkness I have +myself lost the path." + +"Over the cliff with him!" shouted half a dozen voices; but ere +the archers could drag him from the rocks to which he clung Sir +Nigel had ridden up and called upon them to stop. + +"How is this, sirs?" said he. "As long as the prince doth me the +honor to entrust this venture to me, it is for me only to give +orders; and, by Saint Paul! I shall be right blithe to go very +deeply into the matter with any one to whom my words may give +offence. How say you, Sir William? Or you, my Lord of Angus? +Or you, Sir Richard?" + +"Nay, nay, Nigel!" cried Sir William. "This base peasant is too +small a matter for old comrades to quarrel over. But he hath +betrayed us, and certes he hath merited a dog's death." + +"Hark ye, fellow," said Sir Nigel. "We give you one more chance +to find the path. We are about to gain much honor, Sir William, +in this enterprise, and it would be a sorry thing if the first +blood shed were that of an unworthy boor. Let us say our morning +orisons, and it may chance that ere we finish he may strike upon +the track." + +With bowed heads and steel caps in hand, the archers stood at +their horse's heads, while Sir Simon Burley repeated the Pater, +the Ave, and the Credo. Long did Alleyne bear the scene in +mind--the knot of knights in their dull leaden-hued armor, the +ruddy visage of Sir Oliver, the craggy features of the Scottish +earl, the shining scalp of Sir Nigel, with the dense ring of +hard, bearded faces and the long brown heads of the horses, all +topped and circled by the beetling cliffs. Scarce had the last +deep "amen" broken from the Company, when, in an instant, there +rose the scream of a hundred bugles, with the deep rolling of +drums and the clashing of cymbals, all sounding together in one +deafening uproar. Knights and archers sprang to arms, convinced +that some great host was upon them; but the guide dropped upon +his knees and thanked Heaven for its mercies. + +"We have found them, caballeros!" he cried. "This is their +morning call. If ye will but deign to follow me, I will set them +before you ere a man might tell his beads." + +As he spoke he scrambled down one of the narrow ravines, and, +climbing over a low ridge at the further end, he led them into a +short valley with a stream purling down the centre of it and a +very thick growth of elder and of box upon either side. Pushing +their way through the dense brushwood, they looked out upon a +scene which made their hearts beat harder and their breath come +faster. + +In front of them there lay a broad plain, watered by two winding +streams and covered with grass, stretching away to where, in the +furthest distance, the towers of Burgos bristled up against the +light blue morning sky. Over all this vast meadow there lay a +great city of tents--thousands upon thousands of them, laid out +in streets and in squares like a well-ordered town. High silken +pavilions or colored marquees, shooting up from among the crowd +of meaner dwellings, marked where the great lords and barons of +Leon and Castile displayed their standards, while over the white +roofs, as far as eye could reach, the waving of ancients, pavons, +pensils, and banderoles, with flash of gold and glow of colors, +proclaimed that all the chivalry of Iberia were mustered in the +plain beneath them. Far off, in the centre of the camp, a huge +palace of red and white silk, with the royal arms of Castile +waiving from the summit, announced that the gallant Henry lay +there in the midst of his warriors. + +As the English adventurers, peeping out from behind their +brushwood screen, looked down upon this wondrous sight they could +see that the vast army in front of them was already afoot. The +first pink light of the rising sun glittered upon the steel caps +and breastplates of dense masses of slingers and of crossbowmen, +who drilled and marched in the spaces which had been left for +their exercise. A thousand columns of smoke reeked up into the +pure morning air where the faggots were piled and the camp-kettles + already simmering. In the open plain clouds of light horse +galloped and swooped with swaying bodies and waving javelins, +after the fashion which the Spanish had adopted from their +Moorish enemies. All along by the sedgy banks of the rivers +long lines of pages led their masters' chargers down to water, +while the knights themselves lounged in gayly-dressed groups +about the doors of their pavilions, or rode out, with their +falcons upon their wrists and their greyhounds behind them, +in quest of quail or of leveret. + +"By my hilt! mon gar.!" whispered Aylward to Alleyne, as the +young squire stood with parted lips and wondering eyes, gazing +down at the novel scene before him, "we have been seeking them +all night, but now that we have found them I know not what we are +to do with them." + +"You say sooth, Samkin," quoth old Johnston. "I would that we +were upon the far side of Ebro again, for there is neither honor +nor profit to be gained here. What say you, Simon?" + +"By the rood!" cried the fierce man-at-arms, "I will see the +color of their blood ere I turn my mare's head for the mountains. +Am I a child, that I should ride for three days and nought but +words at the end of it?" + +"Well said, my sweet honeysuckle!" cried Hordle John. "I am with +you, like hilt to blade. Could I but lay hands upon one of those +gay prancers yonder, I doubt not that I should have ransom enough +from him to buy my mother a new cow." + +"A cow!" said Aylward. "Say rather ten acres and a homestead on +the banks of Avon." + +"Say you so? Then, by our Lady! here is for yonder one in the red +jerkin!" + +He was about to push recklessly forward into the open, when Sir +Nigel himself darted in front of him, with his hand upon his +breast. + +"Back!" said he. "Our time is not yet come, and we must lie here +until evening. Throw off your jacks and headpieces, least their +eyes catch the shine, and tether the horses among the rocks." + +The order was swiftly obeyed, and in ten minutes the archers were +stretched along by the side of the brook, munching the bread and +the bacon which they had brought in their bags, and craning their +necks to watch the ever-changing scene beneath them. Very quiet +and still they lay, save for a muttered jest or whispered order, +for twice during the long morning they heard bugle-calls from +amid the hills on either side of them, which showed that they had +thrust themselves in between the outposts of the enemy. The +leaders sat amongst the box-wood, and took counsel together as to +what they should do; while from below there surged up the buzz of +voices, the shouting, the neighing of horses, and all the uproar +of a great camp. + +"What boots it to wait?" said Sir William Felton. "Let us ride +down upon their camp ere they discover us." + +"And so say I," cried the Scottish earl; "for they do not know +that there is any enemy within thirty long leagues of them." + +"For my part," said Sir Simon Burley, "I think that it is +madness, for you cannot hope to rout this great army; and where +are you to go and what are you to do when they have turned upon +you? How say you, Sir Oliver Buttesthorn?" + +"By the apple of Eve!" cried the fat knight, "it appears to me +that this wind brings a very savory smell of garlic and of onions +from their cooking-kettles. I am in favor of riding down upon +them at once, if my old friend and comrade here is of the same +mind." + +"Nay," said Sir Nigel, "I have a plan by which we may attempt +some small deed upon them, and yet, by the help of God, may be +able to draw off again; which, as Sir Simon Burley hath said, +would be scarce possible in any other way." + +"How then, Sir Nigel?" asked several voices. + +"We shall lie here all day; for amid this brushwood it is ill for +them to see us. Then when evening comes we shall sally out upon +them and see if we may not gain some honorable advancement from +them." + +"But why then rather than now?" + +"Because we shall have nightfall to cover us when we draw off, so +that we may make our way back through the mountains. I would +station a score of archers here in the pass, with all our pennons +jutting forth from the rocks, and as many nakirs and drums and +bugles as we have with us, so that those who follow us in the +fading light may think that the whole army of the prince is upon +them, and fear to go further. What think you of my plan, Sir +Simon?" + +"By my troth! I think very well of it," cried the prudent old +commander. "If four hundred men must needs run a tilt against +sixty thousand, I cannot see how they can do it better or more +safely." + +"And so say I," cried Felton, heartily. "But I wish the day were +over, for it will be an ill thing for us if they chance to light +upon us." + +The words were scarce out of his mouth when there came a clatter +of loose stones, the sharp clink of trotting hoofs, and a +dark-faced cavalier, mounted upon a white horse, burst through +the bushes and rode swiftly down the valley from the end which +was farthest from the Spanish camp. Lightly armed, with his +vizor open and a hawk perched upon his left wrist, he looked +about him with the careless air of a man who is bent wholly upon +pleasure, and unconscious of the possibility of danger. +Suddenly, however, his eyes lit upon the fierce faces which +glared out at him from the brushwood. With a cry of terror, he +thrust his spurs into his horse's sides and dashed for the narrow +opening of the gorge. For a moment it seemed as though he would +have reached it, for he had trampled over or dashed aside the +archers who threw themselves in his way; but Hordle John seized +him by the foot in his grasp of iron and dragged him from the +saddle, while two others caught the frightened horse. + +"Ho, ho!" roared the great archer. "How many cows wilt buy my +mother, if I set thee free?" + +"Hush that bull's bellowing!" cried Sir Nigel impatiently. "Bring +the man here. By St. Paul! it is not the first time that we have +met; for, if I mistake not, it is Don Diego Alvarez, who was once +at the prince's court." + +"It is indeed I," said the Spanish knight, speaking in the French +tongue, "and I pray you to pass your sword through my heart, for +how can I live--I, a caballero of Castile--after being dragged +from my horse by the base hands of a common archer?" + +"Fret not for that," answered Sir Nigel. "For, in sooth, had he +not pulled you down, a dozen cloth-yard shafts had crossed each +other in your body." + +"By St. James! it were better so than to be polluted by his +touch," answered the Spaniard, with his black eyes sparkling with +rage and hatred. "I trust that I am now the prisoner of some +honorable knight or gentleman." + +"You are the prisoner of the man who took you, Sir Diego," +answered Sir Nigel. "And I may tell you that better men than +either you or I have found themselves before now prisoners in the +hands of archers of England." + +"What ransom, then, does he demand?" asked the Spaniard. + +Big John scratched his red head and grinned in high delight when +the question was propounded to him. "Tell him," said he, "that I +shall have ten cows and a bull too, if it be but a little one. +Also a dress of blue sendall for mother and a red one for Joan; +with five acres of pasture-land, two scythes, and a fine new +grindstone. Likewise a small house, with stalls for the cows, +and thirty-six gallons of beer for the thirsty weather." + +"Tut, tut!" cried Sir Nigel, laughing. "All these things may be +had for money; and I think, Don Diego, that five thousand crowns +is not too much for so renowned a knight." + +"It shall be duly paid him." + +"For some days we must keep you with us; and I must crave leave +also to use your shield, your armor, and your horse." + +"My harness is yours by the law of arms," said the Spaniard, +gloomily. + +"I do but ask the loan of it. I have need of it this day, but it +shall be duly returned to you. Set guards, Aylward, with arrow +on string, at either end of the pass; for it may happen that some +other cavaliers may visit us ere the time be come." All day the +little band of Englishmen lay in the sheltered gorge, looking +down upon the vast host of their unconscious enemies. Shortly +after mid-day, a great uproar of shouting and cheering broke out +in the camp, with mustering of men and calling of bugles. +Clambering up among the rocks, the companions saw a long rolling +cloud of dust along the whole eastern sky-line, with the glint +of spears and the flutter of pennons, which announced the +approach of a large body of cavalry. For a moment a wild hope +came upon them that perhaps the prince had moved more swiftly +than had been planned, that he had crossed the Ebro, and that +this was his vanguard sweeping to the attack. + +"Surely I see the red pile of Chandos at the head of yonder +squadron!" cried Sir Richard Causton, shading his eyes with his +hand. + +"Not so," answered Sir Simon Burley, who had watched the +approaching host with a darkening face. "It is even as I feared. +That is the double eagle of Du Guesclin." + +"You say very truly," cried the Earl of Angus. "These are the +levies of France, for I can see the ensigns of the Marshal +d'Andreghen, with that of the Lord of Antoing and of Briseuil, +and of many another from Brittany and Anjou." + +"By St. Paul! I am very glad of it," said Sir Nigel. "Of these +Spaniards I know nothing; but the French are very worthy +gentlemen, and will do what they can for our advancement." + +"There are at the least four thousand of them, and all men-at-arms," +cried Sir William Felton. "See, there is Bertrand himself, beside +his banner, and there is King Henry, who rides to welcome him. +Now they all turn and come into the camp together." + +As he spoke, the vast throng of Spaniards and of Frenchmen +trooped across the plain, with brandished arms and tossing +banners. All day long the sound of revelry and of rejoicing from +the crowded camp swelled up to the ears of the Englishmen, and +they could see the soldiers of the two nations throwing +themselves into each other's arms and dancing hand-in-hand round +the blazing fires. The sun had sunk behind a cloud-bank in the +west before Sir Nigel at last gave word that the men should +resume their arms and have their horses ready. He had himself +thrown off his armor, and had dressed himself from head to foot +in the harness of the captured Spaniard. + +"Sir William," said he, "it is my intention to attempt a small +deed, and I ask you therefore that you will lead this outfall +upon the camp. For me, I will ride into their camp with my +squire and two archers. I pray you to watch me, and to ride +forth when I am come among the tents. You will leave twenty men +behind here, as we planned this morning, and you will ride back +here after you have ventured as far as seems good to you." + +"I will do as you order, Nigel; but what is it that you propose +to do?" + +"You will see anon, and indeed it is but a trifling matter. +Alleyne, you will come with me, and lead a spare horse by the +bridle. I will have the two archers who rode with us through +France, for they are trusty men and of stout heart. Let them +ride behind us, and let them leave their bows here among the +bushes for it is not my wish that they should know that we are +Englishmen. Say no word to any whom we may meet, and, if any +speak to you, pass on as though you heard them not. Are you +ready?" + +"I am ready, my fair lord," said Alleyne. + +"And I," "And I," cried Aylward and John. + +"Then the rest I leave to your wisdom, Sir William; and if God +sends us fortune we shall meet you again in this gorge ere it be +dark." + +So saying, Sir Nigel mounted the white horse of the Spanish +cavalier, and rode quietly forth from his concealment with his +three companions behind him, Alleyne leading his master's own +steed by the bridle. So many small parties of French and Spanish +horse were sweeping hither and thither that the small band +attracted little notice, and making its way at a gentle trot +across the plain, they came as far as the camp without challenge +or hindrance. On and on they pushed past the endless lines of +tents, amid the dense swarms of horsemen and of footmen, until +the huge royal pavilion stretched in front of them. They were +close upon it when of a sudden there broke out a wild hubbub from +a distant portion of the camp, with screams and war-cries and all +the wild tumult of battle. At the sound soldiers came rushing +from their tents, knights shouted loudly for their squires, and +there was mad turmoil on every hand of bewildered men and +plunging horses. At the royal tent a crowd of gorgeously dressed +servants ran hither and thither in helpless panic for the guard +of soldiers who were stationed there had already ridden off in +the direction of the alarm. A man-at-arms on either side of the +doorway were the sole protectors of the royal dwelling. + +"I have come for the king," whispered Sir Nigel; "and, by Saint +Paul! he must back with us or I must bide here." + +Alleyne and Aylward sprang from their horses, and flew at the two +sentries, who were disarmed and beaten down in an instant by so +furious and unexpected an attack. Sir Nigel dashed into the +royal tent, and was followed by Hordle John as soon as the horses +had been secured. From within came wild screamings and the clash +of steel, and then the two emerged once more, their swords and +forearms reddened with blood, while John bore over his shoulder +the senseless body of a man whose gay surcoat, adorned with the +lions and towers of Castile, proclaimed him to belong to the +royal house. A crowd of white-faced sewers and pages swarmed at +their heels, those behind pushing forwards, while the foremost +shrank back from the fierce faces and reeking weapons of the +adventurers. The senseless body was thrown across the spare +horse, the four sprang to their saddles, and away they thundered +with loose reins and busy spurs through the swarming camp. + +But confusion and disorder still reigned among the Spaniards for +Sir William Felton and his men had swept through half their camp, +leaving a long litter of the dead and the dying to mark their +course. Uncertain who were their attackers, and unable to tell +their English enemies from their newly-arrived Breton allies, the +Spanish knights rode wildly hither and thither in aimless fury. +The mad turmoil, the mixture of races, and the fading light, were +all in favor of the four who alone knew their own purpose among +the vast uncertain multitude. Twice ere they reached open ground +they had to break their way through small bodies of horses, and +once there came a whistle of arrows and singing of stones about +their ears; but, still dashing onwards, they shot out from among +the tents and found their own comrades retreating for the +mountains at no very great distance from them. Another five +minutes of wild galloping over the plain, and they were all back +in their gorge, while their pursuers fell back before the rolling +of drums and blare of trumpets, which seemed to proclaim that the +whole army of the prince was about to emerge from the mountain +passes. + +"By my soul! Nigel," cried Sir Oliver, waving a great boiled ham +over his head, "I have come by something which I may eat with my +truffles! I had a hard fight for it, for there were three of +them with their mouths open and the knives in their hands, all +sitting agape round the table, when I rushed in upon them. How +say you, Sir William, will you not try the smack of the famed +Spanish swine, though we have but the brook water to wash it +down?" + +"Later, Sir Oliver," answered the old soldier, wiping his grimed +face. "We must further into the mountains ere we be in safety. +But what have we here, Nigel?" + +"It is a prisoner whom I have taken, and in sooth, as he came +from the royal tent and wears the royal arms upon his jupon, I +trust that he is the King of Spain." + +"The King of Spain!" cried the companions, crowding round in +amazement. + +"Nay, Sir Nigel," said Felton, peering at the prisoner through +the uncertain light, "I have twice seen Henry of Transtamare, and +certes this man in no way resembles him." + +"Then, by the light of heaven! I will ride back for him," cried +Sir Nigel. + +"Nay, nay, the camp is in arms, and it would be rank madness. +Who are you, fellow?" he added in Spanish, "and how is it that +you dare to wear the arms of Castile?" + +The prisoner was bent recovering the consciousness which had been +squeezed from him by the grip of Hordle John. "If it please +you," he answered, "I and nine others are the body-squires of the +king, and must ever wear his arms, so as to shield him from even +such perils as have threatened him this night. The king is at the +tent of the brave Du Guesclin, where he will sup to night. But I +am a caballero of Aragon, Don Sancho Penelosa, and, though I be +no king, I am yet ready to pay a fitting price for my ransom." + +"By Saint Paul! I will not touch your gold," cried Sir Nigel. "Go +back to your master and give him greeting from Sir Nigel Loring +of Twynham Castle, telling him that I had hoped to make his +better acquaintance this night, and that, if I have disordered +his tent, it was but in my eagerness to know so famed and +courteous a knight. Spur on, comrades! for we must cover many a +league ere we can venture to light fire or to loosen girth. I had +hoped to ride without this patch to-night, but it seems that I +must carry it yet a little longer." + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +HOW SIR NIGEL TOOK THE PATCH FROM HIS EYE. + + +It was a cold, bleak morning in the beginning of March, and the +mist was drifting in dense rolling clouds through the passes of +the Cantabrian mountains. The Company, who had passed the night +in a sheltered gully, were already astir, some crowding round the +blazing fires and others romping or leaping over each other's +backs for their limbs were chilled and the air biting. Here and +there, through the dense haze which surrounded them, there loomed +out huge pinnacles and jutting boulders of rock: while high above +the sea of vapor there towered up one gigantic peak, with the +pink glow of the early sunshine upon its snow-capped head. The +ground was wet, the rocks dripping, the grass and ever-greens +sparkling with beads of moisture; yet the camp was loud with +laughter and merriment, for a messenger had ridden in from the +prince with words of heart-stirring praise for what they had +done, and with orders that they should still abide in the +forefront of the army. + +Round one of the fires were clustered four or five of the leading +men of the archers, cleaning the rust from their weapons, and +glancing impatiently from time to time at a great pot which +smoked over the blaze. There was Aylward squatting cross-legged +in his shirt, while he scrubbed away at his chain-mail +brigandine, whistling loudly the while. On one side of him sat +old Johnston, who was busy in trimming the feathers of some +arrows to his liking; and on the other Hordle John, who lay with +his great limbs all asprawl, and his headpiece balanced upon his +uplifted foot. Black Simon of Norwich crouched amid the rocks, +crooning an Eastland ballad to himself, while he whetted his +sword upon a flat stone which lay across his knees; while beside +him sat Alleyne Edricson, and Norbury, the silent squire of Sir +Oliver, holding out their chilled hands towards the crackling +faggots. + +"Cast on another culpon, John, and stir the broth with thy +sword-sheath," growled Johnston, looking anxiously for the +twentieth time at the reeking pot. + +"By my hilt!" cried Aylward, "now that John hath come by this +great ransom, he will scarce abide the fare of poor archer lads. +How say you, camarade? When you see Hordle once more, there will +be no penny ale and fat bacon, but Gascon wines and baked meats +every day of the seven." + +"I know not about that," said John, kicking his helmet up into +the air and catching it in his hand. "I do but know that whether +the broth be ready or no, I am about to dip this into it." + +"It simmers and it boils," cried Johnston, pushing his hard-lined +face through the smoke. In an instant the pot had been plucked +from the blaze, and its contents had been scooped up in half a +dozen steel head-pieces, which were balanced betwixt their +owners' knees, while, with spoon and gobbet of bread, they +devoured their morning meal. + +"It is ill weather for bows," remarked John at last, when, with a +long sigh, he drained the last drop from his helmet. "My strings +are as limp as a cow's tail this morning." + +"You should rub them with water glue," quoth Johnston. "You +remember, Samkin, that it was wetter than this on the morning of +Crecy, and yet I cannot call to mind that there was aught amiss +with our strings." + +"It is in my thoughts," said Black Simon, still pensively +grinding his sword, "that we may have need of your strings ere +sundown. I dreamed of the red cow last night." + +"And what is this red cow, Simon?" asked Alleyne. + +"I know not, young sir; but I can only say that on the eve of +Cadsand, and on the eve of Crecy, and on the eve of Nogent, I +dreamed of a red cow; and now the dream has come upon me again, +so I am now setting a very keen edge to my blade." + +"Well said, old war-dog!" cried Aylward. "By my hilt! I pray +that your dream may come true, for the prince hath not set us out +here to drink broth or to gather whortle-berries. One more fight, +and I am ready to hang up my bow, marry a wife, and take to the +fire corner. But how now, Robin? Whom is it that you seek?" + +"The Lord Loring craves your attendance in his tent," said a +young archer to Alleyne. + +The squire rose and proceeded to the pavilion, where he found the +knight seated upon a cushion, with his legs crossed in front of +him and a broad ribbon of parchment laid across his knees, over +which he was poring with frowning brows and pursed lips. + +"It came this morning by the prince's messenger," said he, "and +was brought from England by Sir John Fallislee, who is new come +from Sussex. What make you of this upon the outer side?" + +"It is fairly and clearly written," Alleyne answered, "and it +signifies To Sir Nigel Loring, Knight Constable of Twynham +Castle, by the hand of Christopher, the servant of God at the +Priory of Christchurch." + +"So I read it," said Sir Nigel. "Now I pray you to read what is +set forth within." + +Alleyne turned to the letter, and, as his eyes rested upon it, +his face turned pale and a cry of surprise and grief burst from +his lips. + +"What then?" asked the knight, peering up at him anxiously. +"There is nought amiss with the Lady Mary or with the Lady +Maude?" + +"It is my brother--my poor unhappy brother!" cried Alleyne, with +his hand to his brow. "He is dead." + +"By Saint Paul! I have never heard that he had shown so much +love for you that you should mourn him so." + +"Yet he was my brother--the only kith or kin that I had upon +earth. Mayhap he had cause to be bitter against me, for his land +was given to the abbey for my upbringing. Alas! alas! and I +raised my staff against him when last we met! He has been +slain--and slain, I fear, amidst crime and violence." + +"Ha!" said Sir Nigel. "Read on, I pray you." + +"`God be with thee, my honored lord, and have thee in his holy +keeping. The Lady Loring hath asked me to set down in writing +what hath befallen at Twynham, and all that concerns the death of +thy ill neighbor the Socman of Minstead. For when ye had left +us, this evil man gathered around him all outlaws, villeins, and +masterless men, until they were come to such a force that they +slew and scattered the king's men who went against them. Then, +coming forth from the woods, they laid siege to thy castle, and +for two days they girt us in and shot hard against us, with such +numbers as were a marvel to see. Yet the Lady Loring held the +place stoutly, and on the second day the Socman was slain--by his +own men, as some think--so that we were delivered from their +hands; for which praise be to all the saints, and more especially +to the holy Anselm, upon whose feast it came to pass. The Lady +Loring, and the Lady Maude, thy fair daughter, are in good +health; and so also am I, save for an imposthume of the toe-joint, +which hath been sent me for my sins. May all the saints +preserve thee!'" + +"It was the vision of the Lady Tiphaine," said Sir Nigel, after a +pause. "Marked you not how she said that the leader was one with +a yellow beard, and how he fell before the gate. But how came +it, Alleyne, that this woman, to whom all things are as crystal, +and who hath not said one word which has not come to pass, was +yet so led astray as to say that your thoughts turned to Twynham +Castle even more than my own?" + +"My fair lord," said Alleyne, with a flush on his weather-stained +cheeks, "the Lady Tiphaine may have spoken sooth when she said +it; for Twynham Castle is in my heart by day and in my dreams by +night." + +"Ha!" cried Sir Nigel, with a sidelong glance. + +"Yes, my fair lord; for indeed I love your daughter, the Lady +Maude; and, unworthy as I am, I would give my heart's blood to +serve her." + +"By St. Paul! Edricson," said the knight coldly, arching his +eyebrows, "you aim high in this matter. Our blood is very old." + +"And mine also is very old," answered the squire. + +"And the Lady Maude is our single child. All our name and lands +centre upon her." + +"Alas! that I should say it, but I also am now the only +Edricson." + +"And why have I not heard this from you before, Alleyne? In +sooth, I think that you have used me ill." + +"Nay, my fair lord, say not so; for I know not whether your +daughter loves me, and there is no pledge between us." + +Sir Nigel pondered for a few moments, and then burst out a-laughing. +"By St. Paul!" said he, "I know not why I should mix in the matter; + for I have ever found that the Lady Maude was very well able to +look to her own affairs. Since first she could stamp her little +foot, she hath ever been able to get that for which she craved; +and if she set her heart on thee, Alleyne, and thou on her, I do +not think that this Spanish king, with his three-score thousand +men, could hold you apart. Yet this I will say, that I would see +you a full knight ere you go to my daughter with words of love. +I have ever said that a brave lance should wed her; and, by my +soul! Edricson, if God spare you, I think that you will acquit +yourself well. But enough of such trifles, for we have our work +before us, and it will be time to speak of this matter when we +see the white cliffs of England once more. Go to Sir William +Felton, I pray you, and ask him to come hither, for it is time +that we were marching. There is no pass at the further end of the +valley, and it is a perilous place should an enemy come upon us." + +Alleyne delivered his message, and then wandered forth from the +camp, for his mind was all in a whirl with this unexpected news, +and with his talk with Sir Nigel. Sitting upon a rock, with his +burning brow resting upon his hands, he thought of his brother, +of their quarrel, of the Lady Maude in her bedraggled riding-dress, +of the gray old castle, of the proud pale face in the armory, +and of the last fiery words with which she had sped him on his way. +Then he was but a penniless, monk-bred lad, unknown and unfriended. +Now he was himself Socman of Minstead, the head of an old stock, +and the lord of an estate which, if reduced from its former size, +was still ample to preserve the dignity of his family. Further, +he had become a man of experience, was counted brave among brave +men, had won the esteem and confidence of her father, and, above +all, had been listened to by him when he told him the secret of +his love. As to the gaining of knighthood, in such stirring times +it was no great matter for a brave squire of gentle birth to aspire +to that honor. He would leave his bones among these Spanish +ravines, or he would do some deed which would call the eyes of +men upon him. + +Alleyne was still seated on the rock, his griefs and his joys +drifting swiftly over his mind like the shadow of clouds upon a +sunlit meadow, when of a sudden he became conscious of a low, +deep sound which came booming up to him through the fog. Close +behind him he could hear the murmur of the bowmen, the occasional +bursts of hoarse laughter, and the champing and stamping of their +horses. Behind it all, however, came that low-pitched, deep-toned +hum, which seemed to come from every quarter and to fill the whole +air. In the old monastic days he remembered to have heard such a +sound when he had walked out one windy night at Bucklershard, and +had listened to the long waves breaking upon the shingly shore. +Here, however, was neither wind nor sea, and yet the dull murmur +rose ever louder and stronger out of the heart of the rolling sea +of vapor. He turned and ran to the camp, shouting an alarm at the +top of his voice. + +It was but a hundred paces, and yet ere he had crossed it every +bowman was ready at his horse's head, and the group of knights +were out and listening intently to the ominous sound. + +"It is a great body of horse," said Sir William Felton, "and they +are riding very swiftly hitherwards." + +"Yet they must be from the prince's army," remarked Sir Richard +Causton, "for they come from the north." + +"Nay," said the Earl of Angus, "it is not so certain; for the +peasant with whom we spoke last night said that it was rumored +that Don Tello, the Spanish king's brother, had ridden with six +thousand chosen men to beat up the prince's camp. It may be that +on their backward road they have come this way." + +"By St. Paul!" cried Sir Nigel, "I think that it is even as you +say, for that same peasant had a sour face and a shifting eye, as +one who bore us little good will. I doubt not that he has +brought these cavaliers upon us." + +"But the mist covers us," said Sir Simon Burley. "We have yet +time to ride through the further end of the pass." + +"Were we a troop of mountain goats we might do so," answered Sir +William Felton, "but it is not to be passed by a company of +horsemen. If these be indeed Don Tello and his men, then we must +bide where we are, and do what we can to make them rue the day +that they found us in their path." + +"Well spoken, William!" cried Sir Nigel, in high delight. "If +there be so many as has been said, then there will be much honor +to be gained from them and every hope of advancement. But the +sound has ceased, and I fear that they have gone some other way." + +"Or mayhap they have come to the mouth of the gorge, and are +marshalling their ranks. Hush and hearken! for they are no great +way from us." + +The Company stood peering into the dense fog-wreath, amidst a +silence so profound that the dripping of the water from the rocks +and the breathing of the horses grew loud upon the ear. Suddenly +from out the sea of mist came the shrill sound of a neigh, +followed by a long blast upon a bugle. + +"It is a Spanish call, my fair lord," said Black Simon. "It is +used by their prickers and huntsmen when the beast hath not fled, +but is still in its lair." + +"By my faith!" said Sir Nigel, smiling, "if they are in a humor +for venerie we may promise them some sport ere they sound the +mort over us. But there is a hill in the centre of the gorge on +which we might take our stand." + +"I marked it yester-night," said Felton, "and no better spot +could be found for our purpose, for it is very steep at the back. +It is but a bow-shot to the left, and, indeed, I can see the +shadow of it." + +The whole Company, leading their horses, passed across to the +small hill which loomed in front of them out of the mist. It was +indeed admirably designed for defence, for it sloped down in +front, all jagged and boulder-strewn, while it fell away in a +sheer cliff of a hundred feet or more. On the summit was a small +uneven plateau, with a stretch across of a hundred paces, and a +depth of half as much again. + +"Unloose the horses!" said Sir Nigel. "We have no space for +them, and if we hold our own we shall have horses and to spare +when this day's work is done. Nay, keep yours, my fair sirs, for +we may have work for them. Aylward, Johnston, let your men form +a harrow on either side of the ridge. Sir Oliver and you, my +Lord Angus, I give you the right wing, and the left to you, Sir +Simon, and to you, Sir Richard Causton. I and Sir William Felton +will hold the centre with our men-at-arms. Now order the ranks, +and fling wide the banners, for our souls are God's and our +bodies the king's, and our swords for Saint George and for +England!" + +Sir Nigel had scarcely spoken when the mist seemed to thin in the +valley, and to shred away into long ragged clouds which trailed +from the edges of the cliffs. The gorge in which they had camped +was a mere wedge-shaped cleft among the hills, three-quarters of +a mile deep, with the small rugged rising upon which they stood +at the further end, and the brown crags walling it in on three +sides. As the mist parted, and the sun broke through, it gleamed +and shimmered with dazzling brightness upon the armor and +headpieces of a vast body of horsemen who stretched across the +barranca from one cliff to the other, and extended backwards +until their rear guard were far out upon the plain beyond. Line +after line, and rank after rank, they choked the neck of the +valley with a long vista of tossing pennons, twinkling lances, +waving plumes and streaming banderoles, while the curvets and +gambades of the chargers lent a constant motion and shimmer to +the glittering, many-colored mass. A yell of exultation, and a +forest of waving steel through the length and breadth of their +column, announced that they could at last see their entrapped +enemies, while the swelling notes of a hundred bugles and drums, +mixed with the clash of Moorish cymbals, broke forth into a proud +peal of martial triumph. Strange it was to these gallant and +sparkling cavaliers of Spain to look upon this handful of men +upon the hill, the thin lines of bowmen, the knots of knights and +men-at-arms with armor rusted and discolored from long service, +and to learn that these were indeed the soldiers whose fame and +prowess had been the camp-fire talk of every army in Christendom. +Very still and silent they stood, leaning upon their bows, while +their leaders took counsel together in front of them. No clang +of bugle rose from their stern ranks, but in the centre waved the +leopards of England, on the right the ensign of their Company +with the roses of Loring, and on the left, over three score of +Welsh bowmen, there floated the red banner of Merlin with the +boars'-heads of the Buttesthorns. Gravely and sedately they +stood beneath the morning sun waiting for the onslaught of their +foemen. + +"By Saint Paul!" said Sir Nigel, gazing with puckered eye down +the valley, "there appear to be some very worthy people among +them. What is this golden banner which waves upon the left?" + +"It is the ensign of the Knights of Calatrava," answered Felton. + +"And the other upon the right?" + +"It marks the Knights of Santiago, and I see by his flag that +their grand-master rides at their head. There too is the banner +of Castile amid yonder sparkling squadron which heads the main +battle. There are six thousand men-at-arms with ten squadrons of +slingers as far as I may judge their numbers." + +"There are Frenchmen among them, my fair lord," remarked Black +Simon. "I can see the pennons of De Couvette, De Brieux, Saint +Pol, and many others who struck in against us for Charles of +Blois." + +"You are right," said Sir William, "for I can also see them. +There is much Spanish blazonry also, if I could but read it. Don +Diego, you know the arms of your own land. Who are they who have +done us this honor?" + +The Spanish prisoner looked with exultant eyes upon the deep and +serried ranks of his countrymen. + +"By Saint James!" said he, "if ye fall this day ye fall by no +mean hands, for the flower of the knighthood of Castile ride +under the banner of Don Tello, with the chivalry of Asturias, +Toledo, Leon, Cordova, Galicia, and Seville. I see the guidons +of Albornez, Cacorla, Rodriguez, Tavora, with the two great +orders, and the knights of France and of Aragon. If you will +take my rede you will come to a composition with them, for they +will give you such terms as you have given me." + +"Nay, by Saint Paul! it were pity if so many brave men were drawn +together, and no little deed of arms to come of it. Ha! William, +they advance upon us; and, by my soul! it is a sight that is +worth coming over the seas to see." + +As he spoke, the two wings of the Spanish host, consisting of the +Knights of Calatrava on the one side and of Santiago upon the +other, came swooping swiftly down the valley, while the main body +followed more slowly behind. Five hundred paces from the English +the two great bodies of horse crossed each other, and, sweeping +round in a curve, retired in feigned confusion towards their +centre. Often in bygone wars had the Moors tempted the hot-blooded +Spaniards from their places of strength by such pretended flights, +but there were men upon the hill to whom every ruse an trick of +war were as their daily trade and practice. Again and even nearer +came the rallying Spaniards, and again with cry of fear and +stooping bodies they swerved off to right and left, but the +English still stood stolid and observant among their rocks. +The vanguard halted a long bow shot from the hill, and with +waving spears and vaunting shouts challenged their enemies to +come forth, while two cavaliers, pricking forward from the +glittering ranks, walked their horses slowly between the two +arrays with targets braced and lances in rest like the +challengers in a tourney. + +"By Saint Paul!" cried Sir Nigel, with his one eye glowing like +an ember, "these appear to be two very worthy and debonair +gentlemen. I do not call to mind when I have seen any people who +seemed of so great a heart and so high of enterprise. We have our +horses, Sir William: shall we not relieve them of any vow which +they may have upon their souls?" + +Felton's reply was to bound upon his charger, and to urge it down +the slope, while Sir Nigel followed not three spears'-lengths +behind him. It was a rugged course, rocky and uneven, yet the +two knights, choosing their men, dashed onwards at the top of +their speed, while the gallant Spaniards flew as swiftly to meet +them. The one to whom Felton found himself opposed was a tall +stripling with a stag's head upon his shield, while Sir Nigel's +man was broad and squat with plain steel harness, and a pink and +white torse bound round his helmet. The first struck Felton on +the target with such force as to split it from side to side, but +Sir William's lance crashed through the camail which shielded +the Spaniard's throat, and he fell, screaming hoarsely, to the +ground. Carried away by the heat and madness of fight, the +English knight never drew rein, but charged straight on into the +array of the knights of Calatrava. Long time the silent ranks +upon the hill could see a swirl and eddy deep down in the heart +of the Spanish column, with a circle of rearing chargers and +flashing blades. Here and there tossed the white plume of the +English helmet, rising and falling like the foam upon a wave, +with the fierce gleam and sparkle ever circling round it until at +last it had sunk from view, and another brave man had turned from +war to peace. + +Sir Nigel, meanwhile, had found a foeman worthy of his steel for +his opponent was none other than Sebastian Gomez, the picked +lance of the monkish Knights of Santiago, who had won fame in a +hundred bloody combats with the Moors of Andalusia. So fierce was +their meeting that their spears shivered up to the very grasp, +and the horses reared backwards until it seemed that they must +crash down upon their riders. Yet with consummate horsemanship +they both swung round in a long curvet, and then plucking out +their swords they lashed at each other like two lusty smiths +hammering upon an anvil. The chargers spun round each other, +biting and striking, while the two blades wheeled and whizzed and +circled in gleams of dazzling light. Cut, parry, and thrust +followed so swiftly upon each other that the eye could not follow +them, until at last coming thigh to thigh, they cast their arms +around each other and rolled off their saddles to the ground. +The heavier Spaniard threw himself upon his enemy, and pinning +him down beneath him raised his sword to slay him, while a shout +of triumph rose from the ranks of his countrymen. But the fatal +blow never fell, for even as his arm quivered before descending, +the Spaniard gave a shudder, and stiffening himself rolled +heavily over upon his side, with the blood gushing from his +armpit and from the slit of his vizor. Sir Nigel sprang to his +feet with his bloody dagger in his left hand and gazed down upon +his adversary, but that fatal and sudden stab in the vital spot, +which the Spaniard had exposed by raising his arm, had proved +instantly mortal. The Englishman leaped upon his horse and made +for the hill, at the very instant that a yell of rage from a +thousand voices and the clang of a score of bugles announced the +Spanish onset. + +But the islanders were ready and eager for the encounter. With +feet firmly planted, their sleeves rolled back to give free play +to their muscles, their long yellow bow-staves in their left +hands, and their quivers slung to the front, they had waited in +the four-deep harrow formation which gave strength to their +array, and yet permitted every man to draw his arrow freely +without harm to those in front. Aylward and Johnston had been +engaged in throwing light tufts of grass into the air to gauge +the wind force, and a hoarse whisper passed down the ranks from +the file-leaders to the men, with scraps of advice and +admonition. + +"Do not shoot outside the fifteen-score paces," cried Johnston. +"We may need all our shafts ere we have done with them." + +"Better to overshoot than to undershoot," added Aylward. "Better +to strike the rear guard than to feather a shaft in the earth." + +"Loose quick and sharp when they come," added another. "Let it be +the eye to the string, the string to the shaft, and the shaft to +the mark. By Our Lady! their banners advance, and we must hold +our ground now if ever we are to see Southampton Water again." + +Alleyne, standing with his sword drawn amidst the archers, saw a +long toss and heave of the glittering squadrons. Then the front +ranks began to surge slowly forward, to trot, to canter, to +gallop, and in an instant the whole vast array was hurtling +onward, line after line, the air full of the thunder of their +cries, the ground shaking with the beat of their hoots, the +valley choked with the rushing torrent of steel, topped by the +waving plumes, the slanting spears and the fluttering banderoles. +On they swept over the level and up to the slope, ere they met +the blinding storm of the English arrows. Down went the whole +ranks in a whirl of mad confusion, horses plunging and kicking, +bewildered men falling, rising, staggering on or back, while ever +new lines of horsemen came spurring through the gaps and urged +their chargers up the fatal slope. All around him Alleyne could +hear the stern, short orders of the master-bowmen, while the air +was filled with the keen twanging of the strings and the swish +and patter of the shafts. Right across the foot of the hill +there had sprung up a long wall of struggling horses and stricken +men, which ever grew and heightened as fresh squadrons poured on +the attack. One young knight on a gray jennet leaped over his +fallen comrades and galloped swiftly up the hill, shrieking +loudly upon Saint James, ere he fell within a spear-length of the +English line, with the feathers of arrows thrusting out from +every crevice and joint of his armor. So for five long minutes +the gallant horsemen of Spain and of France strove ever and again +to force a passage, until the wailing note of a bugle called them +back, and they rode slowly out of bow-shot, leaving their best +and their bravest in the ghastly, blood-mottled heap behind them. + +But there was little rest for the victors. Whilst the knights +had charged them in front the slingers had crept round upon +either flank and had gained a footing upon the cliffs and behind +the outlying rocks. A storm of stones broke suddenly upon the +defenders, who, drawn up in lines upon the exposed summit, +offered a fair mark to their hidden foes. Johnston, the old +archer, was struck upon the temple and fell dead without a groan, +while fifteen of his bowmen and six of the men-at-arms were +struck down at the same moment. The others lay on their faces to +avoid the deadly hail, while at each side of the plateau a fringe +of bowmen exchanged shots with the slingers and crossbowmen +among the rocks, aiming mainly at those who had swarmed up the +cliffs, and bursting into laughter and cheers when a well-aimed +shaft brought one of their opponents toppling down from his lofty +perch. + +"I think, Nigel," said Sir Oliver, striding across to the little +knight, "that we should all acquit ourselves better had we our +none-meat, for the sun is high in the heaven." + +"By Saint Paul!" quoth Sir Nigel, plucking the patch from his +eye, "I think that I am now clear of my vow, for this Spanish +knight was a person from whom much honor might be won. Indeed, he +was a very worthy gentleman, of good courage, and great +hardiness, and it grieves me that he should have come by such a +hurt. As to what you say of food, Oliver, it is not to be +thought of, for we have nothing with us upon the hill." + +"Nigel!" cried Sir Simon Burley, hurrying up with consternation +upon his face, "Aylward tells me that there are not ten-score +arrows left in all their sheaves. See! they are springing from +their horses, and cutting their sollerets that they may rush upon +us. Might we not even now make a retreat?" + +"My soul will retreat from my body first!" cried the little +knight. "Here I am, and here I bide, while God gives me strength +to lift a sword." + +"And so say I!" shouted Sir Oliver, throwing his mace high into +the air and catching it again by the handle. + +"To your arms, men!" roared Sir Nigel. "Shoot while you may, and +then out sword, and let us live or die together!" + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +HOW THE WHITE COMPANY CAME TO BE DISBANDED. + + +Then up rose from the hill in the rugged Cantabrian valley a sound +such as had not been heard in those parts before, nor was again, +until the streams which rippled amid the rocks had been frozen by +over four hundred winters and thawed by as many returning +springs. Deep and full and strong it thundered down the ravine, +the fierce battle-call of a warrior race, the last stern welcome +to whoso should join with them in that world-old game where the +stake is death. Thrice it swelled forth and thrice it sank away, +echoing and reverberating amidst the crags. Then, with set +faces, the Company rose up among the storm of stones, and looked +down upon the thousands who sped swiftly up the slope against +them. Horse and spear had been set aside, but on foot, with +sword and battle-axe, their broad shields slung in front of them, +the chivalry of Spain rushed to the attack. + +And now arose a struggle so fell, so long, so evenly sustained, +that even now the memory of it is handed down amongst the +Cantabrian mountaineers and the ill-omened knoll is still pointed +out by fathers to their children as the "Altura de los Inglesos," +where the men from across the sea fought the great fight with the +knights of the south. The last arrow was quickly shot, nor could +the slingers hurl their stones, so close were friend and foe. +From side to side stretched the thin line of the English, lightly +armed and quick-footed, while against it stormed and raged the +pressing throng of fiery Spaniards and of gallant Bretons. The +clink of crossing sword-blades, the dull thudding of heavy blows, +the panting and gasping of weary and wounded men, all rose +together in a wild, long-drawn note, which swelled upwards to the +ears of the wondering peasants who looked down from the edges of +the cliffs upon the swaying turmoil of the battle beneath them. +Back and forward reeled the leopard banner, now borne up the +slope by the rush and weight of the onslaught, now pushing +downwards again as Sir Nigel, Burley, and Black Simon with their +veteran men-at arms, flung themselves madly into the fray. +Alleyne, at his lord's right hand, found himself swept hither and +thither in the desperate struggle, exchanging savage thrusts one +instant with a Spanish cavalier, and the next torn away by the +whirl of men and dashed up against some new antagonist. To the +right Sir Oliver, Aylward, Hordle John, and the bowmen of the +Company fought furiously against the monkish Knights of Santiago, +who were led up the hill by their prior--a great, deep-chested +man, who wore a brown monastic habit over his suit of mail. +Three archers he slew in three giant strokes, but Sir Oliver +flung his arms round him, and the two, staggering and straining, +reeled backwards and fell, locked in each other's grasp, over the +edge of the steep cliff which flanked the hill. In vain his +knights stormed and raved against the thin line which barred +their path: the sword of Aylward and the great axe of John +gleamed in the forefront of the battle and huge jagged pieces of +rock, hurled by the strong arms of the bowmen, crashed and +hurtled amid their ranks. Slowly they gave back down the hill, +the archers still hanging upon their skirts, with a long litter +of writhing and twisted figures to mark the course which they +had taken. At the same instant the Welshmen upon the left, led +on by the Scotch earl, had charged out from among the rocks which +sheltered them, and by the fury of their outfall had driven the +Spaniards in front of them in headlong flight down the hill. In +the centre only things seemed to be going ill with the defenders. +Black Simon was down--dying, as he would wish to have died, like +a grim old wolf in its lair with a ring of his slain around him. +Twice Sir Nigel had been overborne, and twice Alleyne had fought +over him until he had staggered to his feet once more. Burley +lay senseless, stunned by a blow from a mace, and half of the +men-at-arms lay littered upon the ground around him. Sir Nigel's +shield was broken, his crest shorn, his armor cut and smashed, +and the vizor torn from his helmet; yet he sprang hither and +thither with light foot and ready hand, engaging two Bretons and +a Spaniard at the same instant--thrusting, stooping, dashing in, +springing out--while Alleyne still fought by his side, stemming +with a handful of men the fierce tide which surged up against +them. Yet it would have fared ill with them had not the archers +from either side closed in upon the flanks of the attackers, and +pressed them very slowly and foot by foot down the long slope, +until they were on the plain once more, where their fellows were +already rallying for a fresh assault. + +But terrible indeed was the cost at which the last had been +repelled. Of the three hundred and seventy men who had held the +crest, one hundred and seventy-two were left standing, many of +whom were sorely wounded and weak from loss of blood. Sir Oliver +Buttesthorn, Sir Richard Causton, Sir Simon Burley, Black Simon, +Johnston, a hundred and fifty archers, and forty-seven +men-at-arms had fallen, while the pitiless hail of stones +was already whizzing and piping once more about their ears, +threatening every instant to further reduce their numbers. + +Sir Nigel looked about him at his shattered ranks, and his face +flushed with a soldier's pride. + +"By St. Paul!" he cried, "I have fought in many a little +bickering, but never one that I would be more loth to have missed +than this. But you are wounded, Alleyne?" + +"It is nought," answered his squire, stanching the blood which +dripped from a sword-cut across his forehead. + +"These gentlemen of Spain seem to be most courteous and worthy +people. I see that they are already forming to continue this +debate with us. Form up the bowmen two deep instead of four. By +my faith! some very brave men have gone from among us. Aylward, +you are a trusty soldier, for all that your shoulder has never +felt accolade, nor your heels worn the gold spurs. Do you take +charge of the right; I will hold the centre, and you, my Lord of +Angus, the left." + +"Ho! for Sir Samkin Aylward!" cried a rough voice among the +archers, and a roar of laughter greeted their new leader. + +"By my hilt!" said the old bowman, "I never thought to lead a +wing in a stricken field. Stand close, camarades, for, by these +finger-bones! we must play the man this day." + +"Come hither, Alleyne," said Sir Nigel, walking back to the edge +of the cliff which formed the rear of their position. "And you, +Norbury," he continued, beckoning to the squire of Sir Oliver, +"do you also come here." + +The two squires hurried across to him, and the three stood +looking down into the rocky ravine which lay a hundred and fifty +feet beneath them. + +"The prince must hear of how things are with us," said the +knight. "Another onfall we may withstand, but they are many and +we are few, so that the time must come when we can no longer form +line across the hill. Yet if help were brought us we might hold +the crest until it comes. See yonder horses which stray among +the rocks beneath us?" + +"I see them, my fair lord." + +"And see yonder path which winds along the hill upon the further +end of the valley?" + +"I see it." + +"Were you on those horses, and riding up yonder track, steep and +rough as it is, I think that ye might gain the valley beyond. +Then on to the prince, and tell him how we fare." + +"But, my fair lord, how can we hope to reach the horses?" asked +Norbury. + +"Ye cannot go round to them, for they would be upon ye ere ye +could come to them. Think ye that ye have heart enough to +clamber down this cliff?" + +"Had we but a rope." + +"There is one here. It is but one hundred feet long, and for the +rest ye must trust to God and to your fingers. Can you try it, +Alleyne?" + +"With all my heart, my dear lord, but how can I leave you in such +a strait?" + +"Nay, it is to serve me that ye go. And you, Norbury?" + +The silent squire said nothing, but he took up the rope, and, +having examined it, he tied one end firmly round a projecting +rock. Then he cast off his breast-plate, thigh pieces, and +greaves, while Alleyne followed his example. + +"Tell Chandos, or Calverley, or Knolles, should the prince have +gone forward," cried Sir Nigel. "Now may God speed ye, for ye +are brave and worthy men." + +It was, indeed, a task which might make the heart of the bravest +sink within him. The thin cord dangling down the face of the +brown cliff seemed from above to reach little more than half-way +down it. Beyond stretched the rugged rock, wet and shining, with +a green tuft here and there thrusting out from it, but little +sign of ridge or foothold. Far below the jagged points of the +boulders bristled up, dark and menacing. Norbury tugged thrice +with all his strength upon the cord, and then lowered himself +over the edge, while a hundred anxious faces peered over at him +as he slowly clambered downwards to the end of the rope. Twice +he stretched out his foot, and twice he failed to reach the point +at which he aimed, but even as he swung himself for a third +effort a stone from a sling buzzed like a wasp from amid the +rocks and struck him full upon the side of his head. His grasp +relaxed, his feet slipped, and in an instant he was a crushed and +mangled corpse upon the sharp ridges beneath him. + +"If I have no better fortune," said Alleyne, leading Sir Nigel +aside. "I pray you, my dear lord, that you will give my humble +service to the Lady Maude, and say to her that I was ever her +true servant and most unworthy cavalier." + +The old knight said no word, but he put a hand on either +shoulder, and kissed his squire, with the tears shining in his +eyes. Alleyne sprang to the rope, and sliding swiftly down, soon +found himself at its extremity. From above it seemed as though +rope and cliff were well-nigh touching, but now, when swinging a +hundred feet down, the squire found that he could scarce reach +the face of the rock with his foot, and that it was as smooth as +glass, with no resting-place where a mouse could stand. Some +three feet lower, however, his eye lit upon a long jagged crack +which slanted downwards, and this he must reach if he would save +not only his own poor life, but that of the eight-score men +above him. Yet it were madness to spring for that narrow slit +with nought but the wet, smooth rock to cling to. He swung for a +moment, full of thought, and even as he hung there another of the +hellish stones sang through his curls, and struck a chip from the +face of the cliff. Up he clambered a few feet, drew up the loose +end after him, unslung his belt, held on with knee and with elbow +while he spliced the long, tough leathern belt to the end of the +cord: then lowering himself as far as he could go, he swung +backwards and forwards until his hand reached the crack, when he +left the rope and clung to the face of the cliff. Another stone +struck him on the side, and he heard a sound like a breaking +stick, with a keen stabbing pain which shot through his chest. +Yet it was no time now to think of pain or ache. There was his +lord and his eight-score comrades, and they must be plucked from +the jaws of death. On he clambered, with his hand shuffling down +the long sloping crack, sometimes bearing all his weight upon his +arms, at others finding some small shelf or tuft on which to rest +his foot. Would he never pass over that fifty feet? He dared not +look down and could but grope slowly onwards, his face to the +cliff, his fingers clutching, his feet scraping and feeling for a +support. Every vein and crack and mottling of that face of rock +remained forever stamped upon his memory. At last, however, his +foot came upon a broad resting-place and he ventured to cast a +glance downwards. Thank God! he had reached the highest of those +fatal pinnacles upon which his comrade had fallen. Quickly now he +sprang from rock to rock until his feet were on the ground, and +he had his hand stretched out for the horse's rein, when a +sling-stone struck him on the head, and he dropped senseless upon +the ground. + +An evil blow it was for Alleyne, but a worse one still for him +who struck it. The Spanish slinger, seeing the youth lie slain, +and judging from his dress that he was no common man, rushed +forward to plunder him, knowing well that the bowmen above him +had expended their last shaft. He was still three paces, +however, from his victim's side when John upon the cliff above +plucked up a huge boulder, and, poising it for an instant, +dropped it with fatal aim upon the slinger beneath him. It +struck upon his shoulder, and hurled him, crushed and screaming, +to the ground, while Alleyne, recalled to his senses by these +shrill cries in his very ear, staggered on to his feet, and gazed +wildly about him. His eyes fell upon the horses, grazing upon +the scanty pasture, and in an instant all had come back to +him--his mission, his comrades, the need for haste. He was +dizzy, sick, faint, but he must not die, and he must not tarry, +for his life meant many lives that day. In an instant he was in +his saddle and spurring down the valley. Loud rang the swift +charger's hoofs over rock and reef, while the fire flew from the +stroke of iron, and the loose stones showered up behind him. But +his head was whirling round, the blood was gushing from his brow, +his temple, his mouth. Ever keener and sharper was the deadly +pain which shot like a red-hot arrow through his side. He felt +that his eye was glazing, his senses slipping from him, his grasp +upon the reins relaxing. Then with one mighty effort, he called +up all his strength for a single minute. Stooping down, he +loosened the stirrup-straps, bound his knees tightly to his +saddle-flaps, twisted his hands in the bridle, and then, putting +the gallant horse's head for the mountain path, he dashed the +spurs in and fell forward fainting with his face buried in the +coarse, black mane. + +Little could he ever remember of that wild ride. Half conscious, +but ever with the one thought beating in his mind, he goaded the +horse onwards, rushing swiftly down steep ravines over huge +boulders, along the edges of black abysses. Dim memories he had +of beetling cliffs, of a group of huts with wondering faces at +the doors, of foaming, clattering water, and of a bristle of +mountain beeches. Once, ere he had ridden far, he heard behind +him three deep, sullen shouts, which told him that his comrades +had set their faces to the foe once more. Then all was blank, +until he woke to find kindly blue English eyes peering down upon +him and to hear the blessed sound of his country's speech. +They were but a foraging party--a hundred archers and as many +men-at-arms--but their leader was Sir Hugh Calverley, and he was +not a man to bide idle when good blows were to be had not three +leagues from him. A scout was sent flying with a message to the +camp, and Sir Hugh, with his two hundred men, thundered off to the +rescue. With them went Alleyne, still bound to his saddle, still +dripping with blood, and swooning and recovering, and swooning +once again. On they rode, and on, until, at last, topping a +ridge, they looked down upon the fateful valley. Alas! and alas! +for the sight that met their eyes. + +There, beneath them, was the blood-bathed hill, and from the +highest pinnacle there flaunted the yellow and white banner with +the lions and the towers of the royal house of Castile. Up the +long slope rushed ranks and ranks of men exultant, shouting, with +waving pennons and brandished arms. Over the whole summit were +dense throngs of knights, with no enemy that could be seen to +face them, save only that at one corner of the plateau an eddy +and swirl amid the crowded mass seemed to show that all +resistance was not yet at an end. At the sight a deep groan of +rage and of despair went up from the baffled rescuers, and, +spurring on their horses, they clattered down the long and +winding path which led to the valley beneath. + +But they were too late to avenge, as they had been too late to +save. Long ere they could gain the level ground, the Spaniards, +seeing them riding swiftly amid the rocks, and being ignorant of +their numbers, drew off from the captured hill, and, having +secured their few prisoners, rode slowly in a long column, with +drum-beating and cymbal-clashing, out of the valley. Their rear +ranks were already passing out of sight ere the new-comers were +urging their panting, foaming horses up the slope which had been +the scene of that long drawn and bloody fight. + +And a fearsome sight it was that met their eyes! Across the +lower end lay the dense heap of men and horses where the first +arrow-storm had burst. Above, the bodies of the dead and the +dying--French, Spanish, and Aragonese--lay thick and thicker, +until they covered the whole ground two and three deep in one +dreadful tangle of slaughter. Above them lay the Englishmen in +their lines, even as they had stood, and higher yet upon the +plateau a wild medley of the dead of all nations, where the last +deadly grapple had left them. In the further corner, under the +shadow of a great rock, there crouched seven bowmen, with great +John in the centre of them--all wounded, weary, and in sorry +case, but still unconquered, with their blood-stained weapons +waving and their voices ringing a welcome to their countrymen. +Alleyne rode across to John, while Sir Hugh Calverley followed +close behind him. + +"By Saint George!" cried Sir Hugh, "I have never seen signs of so +stern a fight, and I am right glad that we have been in time to +save you." + +"You have saved more than us," said John, pointing to the banner +which leaned against the rock behind him. + +"You have done nobly," cried the old free companion, gazing with +a soldier's admiration at the huge frame and bold face of the +archer. "But why is it, my good fellow, that you sit upon this +man." + +"By the rood! I had forgot him," John answered, rising and +dragging from under him no less a person than the Spanish +caballero, Don Diego Alvarez. "This man, my fair lord, means to +me a new house, ten cows, one bull--if it be but a little one--a +grindstone, and I know not what besides; so that I thought it +well to sit upon him, lest he should take a fancy to leave me." + +"Tell me, John," cried Alleyne faintly: "where is my dear lord, +Sir Nigel Loring?" + +"He is dead, I fear. I saw them throw his body across a horse +and ride away with it, but I fear the life had gone from him." + +"Now woe worth me! And where is Aylward?" + +"He sprang upon a riderless horse and rode after Sir Nigel to +save him. I saw them throng around him, and he is either taken +or slain." + +"Blow the bugles!" cried Sir Hugh, with a scowling brow. "We must +back to camp, and ere three days I trust that we may see these +Spaniards again. I would fain have ye all in my company." + +"We are of the White Company, my fair lord," said John. + +"Nay, the White Company is here disbanded," answered Sir Hugh +solemnly, looking round him at the lines of silent figures, "Look +to the brave squire, for I fear that he will never see the sun +rise again." + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +OF THE HOME-COMING TO HAMPSHIRE. + + +It was a bright July morning four months after that fatal fight +in the Spanish barranca. A blue heaven stretched above, a green +rolling plain undulated below, intersected with hedge-rows and +flecked with grazing sheep. The sun was yet low in the heaven, +and the red cows stood in the long shadow of the elms, chewing +the cud and gazing with great vacant eyes at two horsemen who +were spurring it down the long white road which dipped and curved +away back to where the towers and pinnacles beneath the flat-topped +hill marked the old town of Winchester. + +Of the riders one was young, graceful, and fair, clad in plain +doublet and hosen of blue Brussels cloth, which served to show +his active and well-knit figure. A flat velvet cap was drawn +forward to keep the glare from his eyes, and he rode with lips +compressed and anxious face, as one who has much care upon his +mind. Young as he was, and peaceful as was his dress, the dainty +golden spurs which twinkled upon his heels proclaimed his +knighthood, while a long seam upon his brow and a scar upon his +temple gave a manly grace to his refined and delicate +countenance. His comrade was a large, red-headed man upon a +great black horse, with a huge canvas bag slung from his +saddle-bow, which jingled and clinked with every movement of his +steed. His broad, brown face was lighted up by a continual +smile, and he looked slowly from side to side with eyes which +twinkled and shone with delight. Well might John rejoice, for +was he not back in his native Hampshire, had he not Don Diego's +five thousand crowns rasping against his knee, and above all was +he not himself squire now to Sir Alleyne Edricson, the young +Socman of Minstead lately knighted by the sword of the Black +Prince himself, and esteemed by the whole army as one of the most +rising of the soldiers of England. + +For the last stand of the Company had been told throughout +Christendom wherever a brave deed of arms was loved, and honors +had flowed in upon the few who had survived it. For two months +Alleyne had wavered betwixt death and life, with a broken rib and +a shattered head; yet youth and strength and a cleanly life were +all upon his side, and he awoke from his long delirium to find +that the war was over, that the Spaniards and their allies had +been crushed at Navaretta, and that the prince had himself heard +the tale of his ride for succor and had come in person to his +bedside to touch his shoulder with his sword and to insure that +so brave and true a man should die, if he could not live, within +the order of chivalry. The instant that he could set foot to +ground Alleyne had started in search of his lord, but no word +could he hear of him, dead or alive, and he had come home now +sad-hearted, in the hope of raising money upon his estates and so +starting upon his quest once more. Landing at London, he had +hurried on with a mind full of care, for he had heard no word +from Hampshire since the short note which had announced his +brother's death. + +"By the rood!" cried John, looking around him exultantly, "where +have we seen since we left such noble cows, such fleecy sheep, +grass so green, or a man so drunk as yonder rogue who lies in the +gap of the hedge?" + +"Ah, John," Alleyne answered wearily, "it is well for you, but I +never thought that my home-coming would be so sad a one. My +heart is heavy for my dear lord and for Aylward, and I know not +how I may break the news to the Lady Mary and to the Lady Maude, +if they have not yet had tidings of it." + +John gave a groan which made the horses shy. "It is indeed a +black business," said he. "But be not sad, for I shall give half +these crowns to my old mother, and half will I add to the money +which you may have, and so we shall buy that yellow cog wherein +we sailed to Bordeaux, and in it we shall go forth and seek Sir +Nigel." + +Alleyne smiled, but shook his head. "Were he alive we should +have had word of him ere now," said he. "But what is this town +before us?" + +"Why, it is Romsey!" cried John. "See the tower of the old gray +church, and the long stretch of the nunnery. But here sits a +very holy man, and I shall give him a crown for his prayers." + +Three large stones formed a rough cot by the roadside, and beside +it, basking in the sun, sat the hermit, with clay-colored face, +dull eyes, and long withered hands. With crossed ankles and +sunken head, he sat as though all his life had passed out of +him, with the beads slipping slowly through his thin, yellow +fingers. Behind him lay the narrow cell, clay-floored and damp, +comfortless, profitless and sordid. Beyond it there lay amid +the trees the wattle-and-daub hut of a laborer, the door open, +and the single room exposed to the view. The man ruddy and +yellow-haired, stood leaning upon the spade wherewith he had +been at work upon the garden patch. From behind him came the +ripple of a happy woman's laughter, and two young urchins darted +forth from the hut, bare-legged and towsy, while the mother, +stepping out, laid her hand upon her husband's arm and watched +the gambols of the children. The hermit frowned at the untoward +noise which broke upon his prayers, but his brow relaxed as he +looked upon the broad silver piece which John held out to him. + +"There lies the image of our past and of our future," cried +Alleyne, as they rode on upon their way. "Now, which is better, +to till God's earth, to have happy faces round one's knee, and to +love and be loved, or to sit forever moaning over one's own soul, +like a mother over a sick babe?" + +"I know not about that," said John, "for it casts a great cloud +over me when I think of such matters. But I know that my crown +was well spent, for the man had the look of a very holy person. +As to the other, there was nought holy about him that I could +see, and it would be cheaper for me to pray for myself than to +give a crown to one who spent his days in digging for lettuces." + +Ere Alleyne could answer there swung round the curve of the road +a lady's carriage drawn by three horses abreast with a postilion +upon the outer one. Very fine and rich it was, with beams +painted and gilt, wheels and spokes carved in strange figures, +and over all an arched cover of red and white tapestry. +Beneath its shade there sat a stout and elderly lady in a pink +cote-hardie, leaning back among a pile of cushions, and plucking +out her eyebrows with a small pair of silver tweezers. None +could seem more safe and secure and at her ease than this lady, +yet here also was a symbol of human life, for in an instant, even +as Alleyne reined aside to let the carriage pass, a wheel flew +out from among its fellows, and over it all toppled--carving, +tapestry and gilt--in one wild heap, with the horses plunging, +the postilion shouting, and the lady screaming from within. In +an instant Alleyne and John were on foot, and had lifted her +forth all in a shake with fear, but little the worse for her +mischance. + +"Now woe worth me!" she cried, "and ill fall on Michael Easover +of Romsey! for I told him that the pin was loose, and yet he must +needs gainsay me, like the foolish daffe that he is." + +"I trust that you have taken no hurt, my fair lady," said +Alleyne, conducting her to the bank, upon which John had already +placed a cushion. + +"Nay, I have had no scath, though I have lost my silver tweezers. +Now, lack-a-day! did God ever put breath into such a fool as +Michael Easover of Romsey? But I am much beholden to you, gentle +sirs. Soldiers ye are, as one may readily see. I am myself a +soldier's daughter," she added, casting a somewhat languishing +glance at John, "and my heart ever goes out to a brave man." + +"We are indeed fresh from Spain," quoth Alleyne. + +"From Spain, say you? Ah! it was an ill and sorry thing that so +many should throw away the lives that Heaven gave them. In +sooth, it is bad for those who fall, but worse for those who bide +behind. I have but now bid farewell to one who hath lost all in +this cruel war." + +"And how that, lady?" + +"She is a young damsel of these parts, and she goes now into a +nunnery. Alack! it is not a year since she was the fairest maid +from Avon to Itchen, and now it was more than I could abide to +wait at Romsey Nunnery to see her put the white veil upon her +face, for she was made for a wife and not for the cloister. Did +you ever, gentle sir, hear of a body of men called `The White +Company' over yonder?" + +"Surely so," cried both the comrades. + +"Her father was the leader of it, and her lover served under him +as squire. News hath come that not one of the Company was left +alive, and so, poor lamb, she hath----" + +"Lady!" cried Alleyne, with catching breath, "is it the Lady +Maude Loring of whom you speak?" + +"It is, in sooth." + +"Maude! And in a nunnery! Did, then, the thought of her +father's death so move her?" + +"Her father!" cried the lady, smiling. "Nay; Maude is a good +daughter, but I think it was this young golden-haired squire of +whom I have heard who has made her turn her back upon the world." + +"And I stand talking here!" cried Alleyne wildly. "Come, John, +come!" + +Rushing to his horse, he swung himself into the saddle, and was +off down the road in a rolling cloud of dust as fast as his good +steed could bear him. + +Great had been the rejoicing amid the Romsey nuns when the Lady +Maude Loring had craved admission into their order--for was she +not sole child and heiress of the old knight, with farms and +fiefs which she could bring to the great nunnery? Long and +earnest had been the talks of the gaunt lady abbess, in which she +had conjured the young novice to turn forever from the world, and +to rest her bruised heart under the broad and peaceful shelter of +the church. And now, when all was settled, and when abbess and +lady superior had had their will, it was but fitting that some +pomp and show should mark the glad occasion. Hence was it that +the good burghers of Romsey were all in the streets, that gay +flags and flowers brightened the path from the nunnery to the +church, and that a long procession wound up to the old arched +door leading up the bride to these spiritual nuptials. There was +lay-sister Agatha with the high gold crucifix, and the three +incense-bearers, and the two-and-twenty garbed in white, who cast +flowers upon either side of them and sang sweetly the while. +Then, with four attendants, came the novice, her drooping head +wreathed with white blossoms, and, behind, the abbess and her +council of older nuns, who were already counting in their minds +whether their own bailiff could manage the farms of Twynham, or +whether a reeve would be needed beneath him, to draw the utmost +from these new possessions which this young novice was about to +bring them. + +But alas! for plots and plans when love and youth and nature, +and above all, fortune are arrayed against them. Who is this +travel-stained youth who dares to ride so madly through the lines +of staring burghers? Why does he fling himself from his horse +and stare so strangely about him? See how he has rushed through +the incense-bearers, thrust aside lay-sister Agatha, scattered the +two-and-twenty damosels who sang so sweetly--and he stands before +the novice with his hands out-stretched, and his face shining, +and the light of love in his gray eyes. Her foot is on the very +lintel of the church, and yet he bars the way--and she, she +thinks no more of the wise words and holy rede of the lady +abbess, but she hath given a sobbing cry and hath fallen forward +with his arms around her drooping body and her wet cheek upon his +breast. A sorry sight this for the gaunt abbess, an ill lesson +too for the stainless two-and-twenty who have ever been taught +that the way of nature is the way of sin. But Maude and Alleyne +care little for this. A dank, cold air comes out from the black +arch before them. Without, the sun shines bright and the birds +are singing amid the ivy on the drooping beeches. Their choice +is made, and they turn away hand-in-hand, with their backs to the +darkness and their faces to the light. + +Very quiet was the wedding in the old priory church at +Christchurch, where Father Christopher read the service, and +there were few to see save the Lady Loring and John, and a dozen +bowmen from the castle. The Lady of Twynham had drooped and +pined for weary months, so that her face was harsher and less +comely than before, yet she still hoped on, for her lord had come +through so many dangers that she could scarce believe that he +might be stricken down at last. It had been her wish to start +for Spain and to search for him, but Alleyne had persuaded her +to let him go in her place. There was much to look after, now +that the lands of Minstead were joined to those of Twynham, and +Alleyne had promised her that if she would but bide with his wife +he would never come back to Hampshire again until he had gained +some news, good or ill, of her lord and lover. + +The yellow cog had been engaged, with Goodwin Hawtayne in +command, and a month after the wedding Alleyne rode down to +Bucklershard to see if she had come round yet from Southampton. +On the way he passed the fishing village of Pitt's Deep, and +marked that a little creyer or brig was tacking off the land, as +though about to anchor there. On his way back, as he rode +towards the village, he saw that she had indeed anchored, and +that many boats were round her, bearing cargo to the shore. + +A bow-shot from Pitt's Deep there was an inn a little back from +the road, very large and wide-spread, with a great green bush +hung upon a pole from one of the upper windows. At this window +he marked, as he rode up, that a man was seated who appeared to +be craning his neck in his direction. Alleyne was still looking +up at him, when a woman came rushing from the open door of the +inn, and made as though she would climb a tree, looking back the +while with a laughing face. Wondering what these doings might +mean, Alleyne tied his horse to a tree, and was walking amid the +trunks towards the inn, when there shot from the entrance a +second woman who made also for the trees. Close at her heels +came a burly, brown-faced man, who leaned against the door-post +and laughed loudly with his hand to his side, "Ah, mes belles!" +he cried, "and is it thus you treat me? Ah, mes petites! I +swear by these finger-bones that I would not hurt a hair of your +pretty heads; but I have been among the black paynim, and, by my +hilt! it does me good to look at your English cheeks. Come, +drink a stoup of muscadine with me, mes anges, for my heart is +warm to be among ye again." + +At the sight of the man Alleyne had stood staring, but at the +sound of his voice such a thrill of joy bubbled up in his heart +that he had to bite his lip to keep himself from shouting +outright. But a deeper pleasure yet was in store. Even as he +looked, the window above was pushed outwards, and the voice of +the man whom he had seen there came out from it. "Aylward," +cried the voice, "I have seen just now a very worthy person come +down the road, though my eyes could scarce discern whether he +carried coat-armor. I pray you to wait upon him and tell him +that a very humble knight of England abides here, so that if he +be in need of advancement, or have any small vow upon his soul, +or desire to exalt his lady, I may help him to accomplish it." + +Aylward at this order came shuffling forward amid the trees, and +in an instant the two men were clinging in each other's arms, +laughing and shouting and patting each other in their delight; +while old Sir Nigel came running with his sword, under the +impression that some small bickering had broken out, only to +embrace and be embraced himself, until all three were hoarse with +their questions and outcries and congratulations. + +On their journey home through the woods Alleyne learnt their +wondrous story: how, when Sir Nigel came to his senses, he with +his fellow-captive had been hurried to the coast, and conveyed by +sea to their captor's castle; how upon the way they had been +taken by a Barbary rover, and how they exchanged their light +captivity for a seat on a galley bench and hard labor at the +pirate's oars; how, in the port at Barbary, Sir Nigel had slain +the Moorish captain, and had swum with Aylward to a small coaster +which they had taken, and so made their way to England with a +rich cargo to reward them for their toils. All this Alleyne +listened to, until the dark keep of Twynham towered above them +in the gloaming, and they saw the red sun lying athwart the +rippling Avon. No need to speak of the glad hearts at Twynham +Castle that night, nor of the rich offerings from out that +Moorish cargo which found their way to the chapel of Father +Christopher. + +Sir Nigel Loring lived for many years, full of honor and laden +with every blessing. He rode no more to the wars, but he found +his way to every jousting within thirty miles; and the Hampshire +youth treasured it as the highest honor when a word of praise +fell from him as to their management of their horses, or their +breaking of their lances. So he lived and so he died, the most +revered and the happiest man in all his native shire. + +For Sir Alleyne Edricson and for his beautiful bride the future +had also naught but what was good. Twice he fought in France, +and came back each time laden with honors. A high place at court +was given to him, and he spent many years at Windsor under the +second Richard and the fourth Henry--where he received the honor +of the Garter, and won the name of being a brave soldier, a +true-hearted gentleman, and a great lover and patron of every +art and science which refines or ennobles life. + +As to John, he took unto himself a village maid, and settled in +Lyndhurst, where his five thousand crowns made him the richest +franklin for many miles around. For many years he drank his ale +every night at the "Pied Merlin," which was now kept by his +friend Aylward, who had wedded the good widow to whom he had +committed his plunder. The strong men and the bowmen of the +country round used to drop in there of an evening to wrestle a +fall with John or to shoot a round with Aylward; but, though a +silver shilling was to be the prize of the victory, it has never +been reported that any man earned much money in that fashion. So +they lived, these men, in their own lusty, cheery fashion--rude +and rough, but honest, kindly and true. Let us thank God if we +have outgrown their vices. Let us pray to God that we may ever +hold their virtues. The sky may darken, and the clouds may +gather, and again the day may come when Britain may have sore +need of her children, on whatever shore of the sea they be found. +Shall they not muster at her call? + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE WHITE COMPANY *** + +This file should be named whtco12.txt or whtco12.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, whtco13.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, whtco12a.txt + +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. 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