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+***The Project Gutenberg Etext of The White Company by Doyle***
+#12 in our series by Arthur Conan Doyle
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+The White Company
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+by Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+May, 1997  [Etext #903]
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+
+
+
+
+
+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
+