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diff --git a/old/msgld10.txt b/old/msgld10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ee54da --- /dev/null +++ b/old/msgld10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6949 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Masters of the Guild, by L. Lamprey + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Masters of the Guild + +Author: L. Lamprey + +Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5702] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 12, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MASTERS OF THE GUILD *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +MASTERS OF THE GUILD + +By + +L. LAMPREY +Author of "In the Days of the Guild" + +Illustrated by +Florence Choate and Elizabeth Curtis + +New York + +1920 + + + + +CONTENTS + +To Dorothy + +I + +PEIROL OF THE PIGEONS + +Bellerophon + +II + +A TOURNAMENT IN THE CLOUDS + +The Jesters + +III + +THE PUPPET PLAYERS + +The Abbot's Lesson + +IV + +PADRAIG OF THE SCRIPTORIUM + +Cap O' Rushes + +V + +THE TAPESTRY CHAMBER + +The Castle + +VI + +THE FAIRIES' WELL + +Lullaby of the Pict Mother + +VII + +THE WOLVES OF OSSORY + +St. Hugh and the Birds + +VIII + +THE ROAD OF THE WILD SWAN + +The Lances + +IX + +THE SWORD OF DAMASCUS + +Awakening + +X + +FOOL'S GOLD + +To Josian from Prison + +XI + +ARCHIATER'S DAUGHTER + +New Altars + +XII + +COLD HARBOR + +Galley Song + +XIII + +THE WISDOM OF THE GALLEYS + +Harbor Song + +XIV + +SOLOMON'S SEAL + +The Leprechaun + +XV + +BLACK MAGIC IN THE TEMPLE + +The Ebbing Tide + +XVI + +THE END OF A PILGRIMAGE + +The Crusaders + +NOTES + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +"The boy gave a low call and a soft rush of wings was heard" Frontispiece + +"'You have your choice--to remain here quietly, alive, or to +remain permanently, dead'" + +"'How now, Master Stephen! What foolery is this?'" + +"It was the first time Padraig had seen anyone write" + +"'Every inch of this linen will be covered with embroidery'" (in colors) + +"''Tis the brat of a scatter-brained woman'" + +"Directly in front sounded the unmistakable snarl of a wolf" + +"An immense boar stumbled out and charged at Eleanor's horse" + +"'Belike he got it where he's been--in the Holy Land'" (in colors) + +"'I know all about your search for treasure'" + +"'He called me his mouse and if I kept still I had cheese for my dinner'" + +"Nothing would do but that they all should go immediately to +see what had come to light" + +"Andrea was at work upon the carving of the doorway" + +"A siffle of indrawn breath was heard in the crowd as he carried it to the +fire" (in colors) + +"There was shouting and laughter in the courtyard" + + + +DEDICATION + +TO DOROTHY + + O little girl who used to be, + Come down the Old World road with me, + And watch the galleons leaping home + Deep-laden, through the rainbow foam, + And the far-glimmering lances reel + Where clashes battle-axe on steel, + When the long shouts of triumph ring + Around the banner of the King! + + To elfin harps those minstrels rime + Who live in Once-upon-a-Time! + + In that far land of Used-to-Be, + Strange folk were known to you and me,-- + Mowgh and Puck, and all their kin, + Launcelot, and Huckleberry Finn, + Wise Talleyrand, brave Ivanhoe, + Juliet, and Lear, and Prospero, + Alleyne and his White Company, + And trooping folk of Faerie! + + People of every race and clime + Are found in Once-upon-a-Time! + + And in those days that used to be + The gypsy wind that raced the sea + Came singing of enchanted lands, + Of sapphire waves on golden sands, + Of wind-borne fleets that race the swallow, + Of Squirrel-fairy in her hollow, + Of brooklets full of scattered stars, + And odorous herbs by pasture-bars + + Where to the cow-bells' tinkling chime + Come dreams of Once-upon-a-Time! + + O little girl who used to be, + The days are long in Faerie,-- + Their garnered sunshine's wealth of gold + No royal treasure-vault may hold. + And now, as if our earth possessed + Alchemy's fabled Alkahest, + Our harbors blaze with jewelled light, + Our air-ships wing their circling flight, + + And we ourselves are in the rime + That sings of Once-upon-a-Time! + + + + +I + +PEIROL OF THE PIGEONS + + +It was a great day in Count Thibaut's castle. Every one knew that, down to +the newest smallest scullery-maid. The Count had come home from England +with Lady Philippa, his daughter, and there would be feasting and song and +laughter for days and days and days. + +Ranulph the troubadour, who had arrived in their company, was glad of a +quiet hour in the garden before supper was served. He knew that he would +have to sing that evening, and he wished to go over the melodies he had in +mind, for he might on the spur of the moment compose new words to them. In +fact a song in honor of his hostess was already in his thoughts. The very +birds of the air seemed to welcome her. The warm southern winds were full +of their warbling--beccafico, loriot, merle, citronelle, woodlark, +nightingale,--every tree, copse and tuft of grass held a tiny minstrel. +When the great gate opened to a fanfare of trumpets, from the castle walls +there came the murmur of innumerable doves. A castle had its dove-cote as +it had its poultry-yard or rabbit-warren, but the birds were not always so +fearless or so many. + +The song was nearly finished when the singer became aware that some one +else was in the garden. A small boy, with serious dark eyes and a white +pigeon in his arms, stood close by. Ranulph smiled a persuasive smile +which few children could resist. + +"And who are you, my lad?" + +"Peirol, the gooseherd's boy," the youngster replied composedly. "You're +none of the family, are you?" + +"Only a jongleur. You have a great many pigeons here." + +"That's why I came in when I heard you playing. Does she--Lady Philippa-- +like pigeons?" + +"I think she does. In fact I know she does. Why?" + +"Grandfather said she would not care how many pigeons were killed to make +pies. Nobody really loves them much, but me. They're fond of me too." + +The boy gave a low call and a soft rush of wings was heard in every +direction. Pigeons flew from tree-top, tower, parapet and gable, alighting +on his head and arms until he looked like a little pigeon-tree in full +bloom. + +"Some of them are voyageurs," he said, strewing salted pease for the +strutting, cooing, softly crowding birds. "I'm training them every day. +Some day I shall know more about pigeons than any one else in the world." + +Ranulph had some ado not to smile; the speaker was so small and the tone +so assured. "Perhaps you will," he said. "Are they as tame with others as +they are with you?" "Some others," answered Peirol gravely. "People who +are patient and know how to keep still. They like you." + +A slaty-blue pigeon was already pecking at Ranulph's pointed scarlet shoe +for a grain lodged there. The troubadour bent down, held out his hand, and +the bird walked into it. He had played with birds often enough in his +vagabond early years to know their feelings. But now a wave of merry +voices broke upon the garden paths. + +"Peirol," he said, "I will see you again. I have a little plan for you and +the pigeons which will, I think, give pleasure to Lady Philippa." + +One of the entertainments arranged to take place was a feast out of doors, +in a woodland glade especially suited to it. Ranulph's inspiration had to +do with this. + +Among the guests the only stranger was Sir Gualtier (or Walter) Giffard, +younger son of a Norman family. One of his ancestors had gone to England +with Duke William a hundred years before, but the family had not been on +good terms with later kings and its fortunes had somewhat fallen. Every +one, however, spoke with respect of this knight and his elder brother, Sir +Stephen, and they had been of service to Count Thibaut during his stay in +England. This Giffard had never been so far south before, and he seemed to +feel that he had got into some sort of enchanted realm. He was more +soldier than courtier, but his eyes said a great deal. The luxurious +abundance of a Provencal castle, the smooth ease of the serving, the wit +and gaiety of the people, all were new to him. He had attended state +banquets, but they were as unlike the entertainment here provided as was +the stern simplicity of his boyhood home in Normandy, or the rough-and- +tumble camp life of recent years. + +The out-of-door dinner was not a hap-hazard picnic, but neither was it in +the least stiff or formal. The servants went by a short cut across the +meadow to prepare the tables, while knights and ladies followed the more +leisurely path along the river bank. It was a walk through fairyland. The +very waters were in a holiday mood. The current strayed from one side to +the other, leaving clear still pools and enticing little backwaters, and +singing past the elfin islets and huge overshadowing trees, like a gleeful +spirit. + +Lady Philippa had never looked more lovely. As the party was not to be +seen on a public road, veils and wimples were discarded, and her bright +brown hair, braided in two long braids, was crowned only by a circlet of +gold set with pearls and emeralds. The trailing robes worn at formal +dinners would also be out of place, and she wore a bliaut or outer robe of +her favorite rose-colored silk, a wide border of gold embroidery giving it +weight enough to make it hang in graceful lines. The sleeves were loose +and long, the ends almost touching the hem of the gown. Under this was a +violet silk robe of heavier material with bands of ermine at the neck and +on the small close sleeves. Under this again the embroidered edges of a +fine white linen robe could be seen at throat and wrists. The girdle was +of braided violet silk, the ends weighted with amethyst and emerald +ornaments. A white mantle of silk and wool, trimmed with fur of the black +squirrel, and fastened under the chin with a gold button, and an +embroidered alms-purse, completed the costume. The other ladies of the +party were attired as carefully, and the dress of the men was as rich and +brilliant as that of the women. They passed through the wavering light and +shadow of the woodlands like a covey of bright-plumaged birds. + +In the level open space where the feast was spread the servants had placed +trestles, over which long boards were fitted. Benches covered with silken +cushions served as seats. The cloth was of linen dyed scarlet in the rare +Montpellier dye, and over it was spread another of white linen, +embroidered in open-work squares. At each end of the table was a large +silver dish, one containing a meat-pie, the other a pie made of the meat +of various fowls with savory seasoning. On silver plates were slices of +cold chicken and meat. Glass trays contained salad, lettuces, radishes and +olives. The salt, pepper and spices were in silver and gold dishes of +fanciful shapes. Here and there were crystal vases of freshly gathered +roses and violets. On the corners of the table were trenchers of white +bread--wastel, cocket, manchet, of fine wheaten flour,--and brown bread of +barley, millet and rye. For dessert there were the spicy apples of +Auvergne, Spanish oranges, raisins, figs, little sweet cakes, wine white +and red, and nuts in a great carved brass dish of the finest Saracen work, +with carved wood nut-crackers. Ewers and basins of decorated brass, for +washing the hands after the meal, were ready. Eastern carpets and +cushions, placed upon a bank under the trees, would afford a place where +the company, after dining, might linger for hours, enjoying the gay give- +and-take of conversation, the songs of artists who knew their art, and the +constant musical undertone of winds, birds and waters. The surprise which +Ranulph had planned was designed for the moment when the guests began to +dally with nuts and wine, reluctant to leave the table. Some one called +upon the troubadour to sing. He had counted upon this. Rising, he bowed to +the Count and his daughter, and began: + + "In the month of Arcady + Green the summer meadows be,-- + When the dawn with fingers light + Lifts the curtains of the night, + And from tented crimson skies + Glorious doth the sun arise,-- + Who are these who give him greeting, + On swift wings approaching, fleeting,-- + Who but birds whose carols bring + Homage to their gracious King! + "Lo! the Queen of Arcady + From the land of Faery + Gladdens our adoring eyes, + Fair and gentle, sweet and wise, + Her companions here on earth + Love and Loyalty and Mirth! + Who, the joyous tidings hearing, + Fly to greet her, now appearing? + Aphrodite's pigeons fleet,-- + See, they gather at her feet." + +No one had heard a low clear call from the boughs of the tree overhead, or +seen the figure of a small boy in a fantastic tunic of goatskins, slipping +down the tree-trunk near Ranulph. As the company rose from the table the +troubadour moved away a little, still thrumming his refrain, and in that +moment there was a whir of sudden wings and the air was dark with pigeons. +As the birds alighted Lady Philippa was surrounded by the pretty +creatures, and in a graceful little speech Ranulph presented to her Peirol +as a Faun, the Master of the Pigeons, who had brought them to do homage to +their sovereign lady. + +It was just the sort of informal pageant to delight the heart of Provence. +No more dainty and captivating interlude had been seen at a festival. + +There was a great deal of wonderment about the way in which the scene had +been arranged, but it was really quite simple. According to the usual +fashion the guests were seated on only one side of the table, the other +side being left free for the servants to present the various dishes. The +company faced the river, and the trees that canopied the table were behind +them. Nothing, therefore, hindered Peirol from luring his pigeons to a +point within hearing of his voice, and concealing himself in the thick +leafage until Ranulph gave the signal for them to be brought upon the +stage. Most of the afternoon was spent in watching and discussing Peirol +and the pigeons. + +"A pigeon has certain advantages," observed Gualtier Giffard, as he and +the troubadour, sitting a little way from the others, watched the carriers +rise and circle in the air. "He need only rise high enough to see his +goal,--and fly there." "Pity but a man might do the same," said Ranulph +lightly. The eyes of the two young men met for an instant in unspoken +understanding. Under some conditions they might have felt themselves +rivals. But neither the penniless younger son of a Norman house, nor a +landless troubadour of Avignon, had much hope of meeting Count Thibaut's +views for his only daughter. + +"It would be rather absurd," Ranulph went on, stroking the feathers of the +little dun pigeon Rien-du-Tout, "for a bird to outdo a man. Perhaps some +day we shall even sail the air as now we sail the seas. Picture to +yourself a winged galleon with yourself at the helm--about to discover a +world beyond the sunset. It is all in having faith, I tell you. Unbelief +is the dragon of the ancient fables." + +The Norman smiled rather sadly. "Meanwhile," he said, "having no flying +ships and no new crusades to prove our mettle, we spend ourselves on such +errands as we have, or beat the air vainly--like the pigeons. Were it not +that a man owes loyalty to his house and to his King I would enlist under +the piebald banner of the Templars. But my brother and I have set +ourselves to win back the place that our fathers lost, and until that is +done I have no errand with dragons." + +Ranulph nodded, thoughtfully. "The King would be glad of more such +service," he said. "Good fortune be with you!" + + + + BELLEROPHON + + Hail, Poet--and farewell! Our day is past, + Yet may we hear new songs before we die, + The chanteys of the mightiest and the last,-- + The squadrons of the sky. + + We knew the rhythm of myriad marching feet, + Gray tossing seas that rocked the wind-whipped sail, + The drumming hoofs of horses, and the beat + Of stern hearts clad in mail. + + But you--earth-fettered we shall watch your wings + Topping the mountains, battling winds,--to dare + Challenge the lammergeyer where she swings + Down the long lanes of air. + + And when you take the skylark for your guide, + And soar straight up to sun-drenched shores of Time, + Immortal singers there shall, eager-eyed, + Await your new-born rhyme. + + Their songs are charm-songs, a divine caress, + Or torrents that no power of man could tame, + Or time-hushed gardens of grave loveliness, + But yours,--a leaping flame! + + Hail, Poet! Yours the Dream Interpreted, + Earth's haunting fairy-tale since life began,-- + The Dragon of Unfaith, his magic dead, + Slain by the Flying Man! + + + + +II + +A TOURNAMENT IN THE CLOUDS + + +Alazais de Montfaucon was to be married, and had chosen her dearest friend +Philippa to be maid of honor. None of her friends except Philippa had seen +the bridegroom; he was an English knight, Hugh l'Estrange. He had lands on +the Welsh marches, and the charming Alazais was to be carried off by him, +to live among savages. This, at least, was the impression of Beatriz +d'Acunha and Catalina d'Anduze, who were also to be bridesmaids. Philippa, +having lived in England, looked at the matter less dolefully. Still, when +all was said, it was an immense change for Alazais, and she herself +declared that if any one but Hugh had proposed it she would not think of +such a thing. + +"We must provide you with a flock of these voyageur pigeons," said Savaric +de Marsan. "Then, when you are shut up in your stronghold with the Welsh +on one side and Saxon outlaws on the other, you can appeal to your friends +for help." + +Alazais laughed her pretty rippling laugh. + +"The fortress is not yet built," she said with a toss of her golden head. +"We are not going to live among the heathen." + +"You men!" pouted Beatriz. "You are always thinking of battles and sieges, +wars and jousting. Perhaps you would like a tournament of pigeons!" + +"Why not?" queried Savaric undisturbed. "It would be highly amusing." + +"I lay my wager on Blanchette here," said Peire d'Acunha. "She is as +graceful as a lady. She shows her breeding." + +"Endurance, my friend, is what counts in a carrier," said Bertrand +d'Aiguerra. "Pere Azuli yonder will forget the miles behind him--as you +forget your debts." + +"You are both wrong," said Savaric. "It is spirit that wins. Little Sieur +Rien-du-Tout, the pigeon without a pedigree, will make fools of all of +you." + +The pigeon-tournament was actually planned, with much laughter and light- +hearted nonsense. It was to take place at Montfaucon during the week of +the wedding. Each knight should adorn his bird with his lady's colors, and +the little feathered messengers were to carry love-letters written in +verse. Afterward, the pigeons were all to be presented to Lady Alazais for +her dovecote in the barbarous land to which she was exiled. + +Pigeons were very much the fashion for a time. Dainty demoiselles preened +and paced on the short sweet turf, petting and feeding the birds, and +looking rather like pigeons themselves. But no one became really intimate +with the carriers except Ranulph the troubadour, Lady Philippa, and Sir +Gualtier Giffard, who loved them for her sake. + +The guests at the castle were all going to the wedding except Ranulph and +the Norman knight. Ranulph expected to accompany King Henry to England, +and Gualtier Giffard had to take a report from Count Thibaut to friends in +Normandy, touching certain matters of state. + +Then the Count was invited to a hastily arranged banquet in a town some +leagues away, where various important persons were to be guests, among +them Henry Plantagenet himself. The way to Montfaucon lying in the same +direction, it was decided that Alazais and her bridesmaids should return +to her home under escort of the Count and his friends. When the banquet +was over and the conference between Henry and his vassals in Guienne was +concluded, the wedding guests would assemble at Montfaucon. + +Gossip about the banquet and the conference flew like tennis-balls among +the guests. It was said that one of the matters discussed would be the +claim of the deposed King of Leinster, Dermot MacMurragh, who was even now +at the heels of the English King, trying to interest him in a possible +Norman invasion of Ireland. + +"I have seen this Dermot," said de Marsan, "and a choice group of cut- +throats he had collected about him. Garin de Biterres was one of them, by +the way." + +"He was always over-fond of laying wagers," yawned d'Acunha. "He is +probably betting his head on this Irish wild-goose chase." + +"I will burn a candle," said Bertrand d'Aiguerra, "to any god of luck who +will send that caitiff where he gets himself killed. If he were not one of +us he would not be such a nuisance. His mercenaries will be the ruin of +us. The people were touchy enough before, but now they begin to think we +are all birds of the same black feather." + +"He is only half Auvergnais," objected Savaric. "The other half is +Sicilian, I believe. A man cannot be half a gentleman, can he? I will +admit that Biterres desires to live like a gentleman,--according to his +own ideas of one. He has not been the same man since he was taken by the +Moors. He was never honest, but that seemed to warp his nature as well as +his body. He learned things that it does no man any good to know." + +"Let us hope that Saint Patrick will dispose of him for the good of his +Irish," remarked Enrique de Montfaucon. "They say that the Plantagenet +will do no more than give letters patent to any Norman adventurer who +takes up Dermot's cause. I think he has his hands full with his own sons." + +Ranulph listened to this conversation with interest. The ill-famed leader +of mercenaries had aspired to the hand of Lady Philippa while she was yet +a child--and had been brusquely dismissed by her father. He lived now by +hiring himself and his troops to any ruler who had a war on hand and would +pay his price. In peaceful intervals they lived as they could. + +The Count was talking to Gualtier Giffard about the Irish venture. + +"If the Normans rule Ireland," he observed, "your fortunes may improve. A +grant of land there might be worth your while." + +The young knight met the Count's searching glance fearlessly. "I would not +take it," he answered. "Dermot lost his realm by his own fault. There is +no honor in serving him." + +"Ah," said the Count with a quizzical lift of the eyebrow, "in that case +you are very right." + +Ranulph often acted as an unofficial unrecognized envoy in state matters, +and it did not surprise him when he received a message from King Henry to +the effect that he was to meet the monarch at Montfaucon after the +conference. Peirol, who knew every mile of the country, was to take the +pigeons thither for the tournament and be Ranulph's guide. It was +altogether a very pleasant prospect for perfect summer weather. + +By brisk riding the troubadour and his little companion reached Montfaucon +late in the afternoon of the day following the departure of the Count's +guests. The porter, a surly looking fellow, hesitated about admitting +them, and before opening the wicket gate consulted some one within. The +castle seemed to be in a somewhat disorderly state. Soldiers were playing +dice by the gateway, and horses were stamping and feeding in the outer +bailey. Peirol was evidently taken for the troubadour's servant, and an +unkempt lad ushered them into a small room with a barred window, in one of +the older towers. Ranulph was not wont to think of his own dignity, but +this lack of courtesy did a little surprise him. Almost at once the youth +poked his head in, without knocking, to say that the lord of the castle +would see him in the great hall. + +More mystified than before, Ranulph obeyed the summons, for it amounted to +that. In the master's chair sat a man of about thirty, dark-skinned, with +dense black hair and eyes, one leg somewhat malformed, the knee being +bowed and the foot turned slightly inward. He looked the troubadour over +with a sarcastic smile. Ranulph was still in riding-dress, and might have +been mistaken for a joglar or wandering minstrel, calling himself by the +more dignified title of troubadour or trouvere. + +"I think," began the knight in a harsh drawl, "that one can often do no +better than to tell the truth, is it not so? I am the lord of this castle- +-for the present. Of course I could not refuse you admittance, or you +might go off and spread inconvenient rumors. I must ask you therefore to +accept our hospitality unquestioning, like a courteous guest. We cannot +allow you to depart until we ourselves are gone. You have your choice--to +remain here quietly, alive, or to remain permanently, dead. + +"Naturally you will not communicate with any ladies whom you may see, but +if you can afford them some entertainment you shall be paid. They have had +but a dull time thus far, I fear, and I would not have them think us +barbarians, soldiers of fortune though we are. When I am through with this +castle I shall leave it as I found it, except for the temporary detention +of the inmates in various rooms, where I suppose they will stay until some +one finds them. If anybody is found dead it will be his own fault. Now, +which horn of the dilemma is your choice--troubadour?" + +During this extraordinary speech Ranulph had done some rapid thinking. +From the man's appearance he believed him to be Garin de Biterres. The +castle had evidently been taken by surprise after the Count's party had +escorted the maidens thither and ridden away. Perhaps the marauders had +been lurking somewhere about awaiting the opportunity. They must know that +they could not hold it after the friends of the rightful lord knew what +had been done, and their leader was too cool-headed a man to have +attempted so bold a raid without some important reason. The abduction of +four young girls, two of whom at least were heiresses, might seem such a +reason to such a man. Evidently he did not suspect Ranulph's character as +a man of some reputation and the confidential messenger of the King of +England. This was a piece of luck. The chance of his being useful to the +captives was all the better. + +With the elaborate meekness proper to his supposed low station he +answered, "You leave me no choice, my lord. To resist your will would be +suicide, and that is a mortal sin." + +The knight grinned like a sour-tempered dog. "Take care," he said, "that +you change not your very praise-worthy views. Have you any little +diversion which may enliven a tedious hour at supper-time?" + +Ranulph's quick mind had been turning over plans. He thanked a hard Fate +that his early experience in camps, markets, inn-yards and fairs had been +so thorough and so varied. In those days he had been what Biterres now +supposed him--one of those vagabond singers who sang popular songs and +often did tricks of jugglery, or danced, or gave acrobatic exhibitions, +wherever they found an audience. The panier in which the pigeons drowsed +was probably taken for a collection of costumes and properties. + +The pigeons could not get through the barred window of his room. If they +were let loose in the courtyard and recognized as carriers, a bowman could +easily bring them down. But now he saw a way to elude suspicion. + +"I have a trick," he ventured humbly, "which is most amusing, but it +requires a large shell or cofyn of pastry. When this pie is cut, live +birds fly out. But perhaps it would not be convenient to have your +lordship's cook troubled with this?" + +Biterres made an impatient gesture. "Child's play--but it will serve. The +cook shall come for your orders. Have it ready before the drinking begins +or the men will not know whether you have larks or peacocks in the pie." + +Ranulph bowed very low and left the hall. + +"Peirol," he said when he re-entered the cell-like room, "we are prisoners +to a caitiff knight who has taken this castle and undoubtedly holds your +mistress and her friends also captive. I think he intends to carry off the +ladies, and I am not sure what will happen to the rest of us. If we can +get word to Count Thibaut's castle we may spoil the fellow's game. No one +must suspect, of course, that we have carriers with us. He takes us for +strolling mountebanks and desires us to amuse the company at supper. Now, +I have a plan." + +He was already writing the letters to be sent by the winged couriers, +putting all his hard-won skill with words into the task of getting all the +information possible into a little space. If the rescuing party did not +come before Biterres took his prisoners away--and it was hardly to be +hoped that they could--at least they should have a fair start in pursuit +of him and evidence enough to punish him, if they received even one of +these missives. + +Peirol heard the scheme with wide-eyed gravity. At the end he nodded. + +"That fellow asked what we had here," he said pointing to the panier, "and +I told him when the pie was cut he would see." + +"Good!" laughed the troubadour. "That was a lucky answer, Peirol. And here +comes the cook to make the pie." + +The cook, a stout beady-eyed little man, eyed the two somewhat sulkily, +but went away grinning over Ranulph's jokes and fingering Ranulph's +generous fee. Furthermore he vouchsafed the information that the leader of +the mercenaries intended to leave the castle next day for the nearest +seaport, where he and his men would take a ship for Ireland. Lady Philippa +was destined to be the bride of Biterres himself; Alazais was to marry the +second in command, Griffon de Malemort. The other two demoiselles were to +be taken to Ireland, where the King would doubtless find them husbands. If +they would not agree to this they were to be sold to a Moslem slave-dealer +whose galley was somewhere about. The servants and defenders of the castle +had been herded into various rooms and locked up. The cook himself did not +mind a little recklessness on the part of military adventurers such as +these routiers, but he felt that this sort of thing was perilous. He +intended to give them the slip at the first opportunity, and they could +cook their own soup if they liked. + +The plot, infamous as it was, had unfortunately nothing impossible about +it. Four unprotected girls could be taken in guarded litters to the sea- +coast and shipped to Ireland or to Cadiz, Valencia, Alexandria or Morocco +with no difficulty whatever unless some one got wind of the fact. As for +the Irish King, a man who had the sort of record he had, was not likely to +quibble over the means used by Biterres in getting himself a bride. And +before the captives within the castle could reach even the nearest of +their friends and bring help, the whole troop would have left the country. + +Through the huge carved open-work screen at the end of the hall, after +supper was served, Ranulph had a view of the scene within. Biterres, with +the fantastic formality it pleased him to use, had insisted on the +attendance of his prisoners at supper, and the meal was served with all +due ceremony. Biterres and Malemort appeared to be acting with studied +politeness. The maidens were behaving with the dignity and self-possession +which became daughters of soldiers, although they were pale and woe- +begone. The troopers at the lower table were noisy and rude enough, and +Ranulph suspected that his entertainment had been ordered partly to keep +them from getting out of hand with drinking and rioting. He had contrived +a clown's costume from some of his belongings, aided by a little flour and +paint, and a bauble made of a toasting fork stuck through an apple. When +he pranced into the hall the soldiers yelled with surprise and delight. +Behind him at a discreet distance came a small boy, also attired in antic +fashion, carrying carefully in both hands a huge pie. The cook was peeping +through the screen to see what was going to happen. + +Neither Ranulph nor Peirol gave so much as a glance at the captives, who +were too much amazed to say anything at first, and quickly saw the danger +of any betraying comment. The troubadour marched up to Biterres, asked +permission to sing, and began a doggerel ballad about one Sir Orpheus and +his magic harp. The harp, as the song explained, had the power of luring +pigeons, rabbits, wild geese, lambs, sucking-pigs and even fish from the +stewponds, into its owner's dinner-pot, so that Orpheus never lacked for +good living and became very fat. The bouillabaisse of Marseilles, the +Norman ragout of eels, the roast goose of Arles, the pigs' feet of Spain, +the partridge pasty of Periguex,--all the luscious dishes of a land of +good eating were described in a way that made these old campaigners howl +with reminiscent joy. The rollicking, impudent tune, the allusions to camp +customs more notorious than honest, went straight to the heart of the +blackguard audience, and half the voices in the room promptly joined the +chorus. Eurydice, the singer went on, was an excellent cook, so renowned +that the prince of the lower regions abducted her, and Orpheus was allowed +to regain possession of her only on the solemn condition that she should +make a pie for that sovereign every twelvemonth. This pie, according to +the final verse of the song, would now be cut, so that the company could +see exactly what a Plutonian banquet was like. + +The troubadour borrowed a dagger from a man-at-arms, made one or two +slashes at the ornate crust of the pie--and out flew four live pigeons. + +Then Peirol gave his birdlike call, and eluding the hands raised to catch +them the pigeons swooped down to him. Ranulph began to dance, playing his +lute at the same time, and the boy followed, with the doves flying above +him just out of reach. In saucy improvised couplets the troubadour called +upon one and another to join the dancing, until before any one quite knew +what was happening, the company in the lower hall was drawn into a winding +lengthening line following the leaders in a sort of farandole. The hall +was not large enough for this to go on indefinitely, and Ranulph suddenly +bolted into the outer air, where the shouting, laughing crowd paused for +breath--and the pigeons went soaring into the sky. + +The party from the table on the dais came out to look on, and Garin de +Biterres, as he saw the mounting birds, grew suspicious. "Here, Jean! +Michaud!" he said sharply. "Loose the hunting hawks!" + +Ranulph's heart missed a beat, but he dared not betray himself by a +tremor. Hawks could be trained to pursue carriers, but the doves had a +fair start and might be able to get away. The two birds of prey which the +men brought were moreover not the type of hawk used especially to hunt +pigeons, but young falcons or tercels. The men bungled in handling them; +they evidently belonged to the castle, not to the troop. When they finally +rose into the air, Pere Azuli, the veteran blue pigeon, and Rien-du-Tout, +the little dun-colored stray Peirol had trained, were almost out of sight. +The luckless Blanchette was lagging, and despite her frantic attempts to +escape her enemy she was soon struggling in the falcon's grip. Clair de la +Lune, the other white pigeon, seemed about to meet the same fate when +something unexpected happened. + +Two wild hawks, beating up from the south, spied the pigeons, and pounced +one upon the tercel with the dove in his talons, the other upon Clair de +la Lune. In the scrimmage which followed Blanchette's little body fell +into the river, and the strange hawk gave chase to Pere Azuli, while her +mate began to devour Clair de la Lune at his leisure. The ruffled and +bewildered tercels were whistled back, and neither Garin de Biterres nor +his prisoners could be certain in the gathering twilight whether any of +the pigeons had escaped their pursuers. + +The pigeon-chase had taken the attention of de Biterres and his men so +completely for a few minutes that Ranulph, without seeming to do so, came +near to Lady Philippa. A tiny roll of paper encased in a withered leaf +dropped from his fingers on the furred edge of her mantle. She bent to +shake off the leaf and her hand closed quietly over the letter. When +Ranulph had gone to sing ballads of the camp among the troopers, and the +young girls had been ceremoniously escorted to their guarded room, she +unrolled and read the missive. It was not long. "Dear and Honored Lady--I +pray you pardon the fooleries of the night, since in this way only could I +hope to escape the surveillance of these miscreants and do you service. +The pigeons we are loosing bear messages telling of your doleful plight, +and I doubt not that when it becomes known, help will come to you. Sir +Gualtier Giffard is, as you know, at your father's castle awaiting +messages from him, and we have thus every reason to hope that there will +be no mishap. For the rest, sweet lady, I rejoice that I am within these +walls, because you are here, and yet would I gladly go to the ends of the +earth if so I might hasten your deliverance. + +"Ever your servant, + "RANULPH D'AVIGNON." + +The loyal and generous words were like balm upon wounds. The last speech +that Garin de Biterres had made to her that night conveyed a terrifying +possibility. + +"Lady Philippa," his cold harsh voice had fallen upon her ears like the +grating of a key in a prison door, "your father once refused me your hand. +I hope to find you more gracious, or at least more compliant. My captain, +Malemort, stands ready to wed the Lady Alazais as I would wed you, at high +noon to-morrow. The fate of the others depends upon you. As good Christian +maidens ye should all prefer Christian marriage to slavery among the +Moslems,--but gold in the purse is better than an unwilling bride." + +It was not long after sunset when old Grimaud, Count Thibaut's gooseherd, +was aroused from a light sleep by a fluttering at his window. He found +huddled on the sill a small dun pigeon under whose wing nestled a roll of +writing. According to instructions, he took it at once to Sir Gualtier +Giffard, who found therein Ranulph's statement of the tragedy impending at +Montfaucon. It was like the crater of a volcano suddenly opened in what +had seemed a bright and fertile valley. On the very borders of this +paradise of luxury and delight lay a world where a thing like this was +possible. He strode hastily into the hall, told the news to the old +knight, a cousin of Count Thibaut's, who had charge of the castle for the +time, and left him to order out the garrison. Five minutes later he was +riding at a breakneck pace on his own fleet horse, to rouse the men who +had so short a time since been guests of the Count, to the rescue of his +daughter and her companions. + +Thus it came to pass that early next morning a sentinel at Montfaucon +hurried from his watch-tower to make report to Malemort, and Malemort lost +no time in reporting to his chief. Peering from an upper window they could +see a strong force under the banner of Count Thibaut, flanked by the +devices of half Auvergne, coming at a sharp trot toward the castle. There +was neither delay nor discussion. Garin de Biterres had not found life +altogether pleasant, but he had no wish to end it with a rope around his +neck. If some peasant had carried a report of his doings to Count Thibaut +there was nothing to do but flee the vengeance now on the way, and that +instantly. Without waiting even to close the gates the whole troop of +mercenaries went galloping away. When the rescuers clattered into the +courtyard they found no one stirring save a little stout man in a cook's +apron, who was concocting something in a huge saucepan. + +"I am Martin," he said to Savaric de Marsan. "I cook. But I do not cook +for cannibals, and my faith! I think that robber captain will end by +devouring his fellow-men. I have no mind to poison the food of his +enemies, either, so when they went away I hid in the great tun. I am at +your service, master." + +Savaric was so much amused at the explanation that he then and there +decided to rescue Martin from further evil company and place him in his +own kitchen. + +"There is some consolation for not catching Biterres," he observed to +Ranulph later, "in getting a cook like that little man. He deserves +something, truly, for giving you the information he did. And then, we are +rid of Garin for good now. He will never come back to Auvergne. + +"You should have seen that Norman madman when your message came. He had us +under arms and riding for dear life before we fairly understood what had +happened. Yet from what Martin says, but for your daring and ready wit no +message could have come. You will not allow me to say what I think of +that, and therefore I suppose we must give all the credit to the victor in +our tournament of the pigeons,--little Sieur Rien-du-Tout!" + + + + THE JESTERS + + Where through the dapple of wood-shadows dreaming + Faun-footsteps pattering run, + Where the swift mountain-brooks silvery-gleaming + Carol through rain and through sun, + Thee do we follow, O Spirit of Gladness,-- + Thee to whom Laughter gave suck. + We are thy people by night or by noontide,-- + We are thy loves, O Puck! + + Lips thou hast kissed have no pleasure in sadness, + Bitterness, cant nor disdain. + Hearts to thy piping beat bravely in gladness + Through poverty, exile or pain. + Gold is denied us--thine image we fashion + Out of the slag or the muck. + We are thy people in court or by campfire,-- + We are thy slaves, O Puck! + + We are the dancers whose morris-bells ringing + Sound the death-knell of our years. + We are the harpers who turn into singing + Our hopes and our foves and our fears. + Thine is the tribute wrung hard from our anguish + After the death blows are struck. + We are thy bondmen who jest while we languish,-- + We are thy souls, O Puck! + + + + +III + +THE PUPPET PLAYERS + + +In a blinding snow-storm that blotted out the roads and obscured the +outlines of the densely forested mountains, two youths and a small donkey +struggled over a mountain trail. Twice the donkey had to be pulled bodily +out of a drift, and once for an hour or more the wayfarers were racked by +the fear that they had lost their direction altogether. But at last, in +the edge of the evening, they saw the lights of the city twinkling like a +miniature Milky Way, and urged on their tired beast in the certainty of +food and shelter at the end of the day. + +They were very unlike, these two strangers. He who seemed the leader was a +slender lad, dark and keen of face, who might from his looks have been +either French or Italian. In reality he was a Milanese, Giovanni +Bergamotto, the only survivor of one of the families driven out of Milan +when Barbarossa took the city. He had lived nearly half his life in France +and in England, and spoke several languages nearly or quite as well as his +own. + +The other was a big-shouldered, sullen-looking fellow with black eyes and +hair and a skin originally brown and now still darker from his out-of-door +life--a Pyrenean mountaineer known as Cimarron. It was doubtful if he +himself knew what his name originally had been; to all who knew him now he +was Cimarron, the mountain sheep,--strong, sure-footed, and silent, and +not half as stupid as people often thought. + +The two had been in Brittany, in Paris, in Sicily and in Castile during +the past months, and in each country they had made their way directly to +the place in which the ruler happened to be holding court. At court they +had exhibited the marionette show now packed away in the donkey's saddle- +bags, once, twice or thrice as the case might be, until Giovanni had +succeeded in gaining audience with the wife of the ruler. He carried +pedlar's goods of very choice varieties, which might well appeal to ladies +of the court in those days of slow transportation and few shops. + +Now the King of England had three daughters, each of them being married to +some prince of importance on the Continent of Europe, and he had adopted +this means of sending certain letters to be given into their hands. The +letter was carried inside a marionette, the head of the little carved +wooden figure being so made as to unscrew and reveal a deep narrow hole in +the body. The last of the three was Matilda, wife of Henry the Lion Duke +of Saxony, the most powerful vassal of Frederick Barbarossa; and +Barbarossa and his court now occupied Goslar, the walled city of Prussia +which the two comrades were approaching. Giovanni wished to have the +Emperor's permission to go on to Saxony. It might save his being detained +as a spy or interfered with in some other way. + +He wished also to discover how far the preparations for the invasion of +Italy had gone. From what he had heard he thought that Barbarossa was +about to gather his forces. He himself intended to join the army of the +Lombard League as soon as he had delivered his letter. + +There was not much difficulty in finding an inn where they could have +supper, and sleep, rolled up in their cloaks, on the floor in a corner of +the common room. The donkey was unloaded and fed, and the saddle-bags were +brought in to serve as pillows. Having eaten, they lay down to the +dreamless sleep of healthy youth. Cimarron's mountain-bred ears caught the +sound, two hours after, of clanking swords and trampling horses, and he +signaled silently to Giovanni. Troopers clattered in, laughing, cursing, +calling for this and that, and not seeing the two motionless figures in +the dark corner at all. When all was still again Cimarron whispered, + +"Who are they?" + +"They are Swabian cavalry," answered the other. "We were none too soon. +The army is mustering already." + +Next morning Giovanni cast about for means to get inside the walls of the +great castle, where the Imperial banner floated in the cold blue air. But +there seemed to be no disposition to encourage foreigners. Cimarron, who +could sometimes gain admittance as a horse-boy, was kicked out. There was +tumult and excitement in the streets. Giovanni, retreating to a narrow +alley to brush mud off his doublet, was aware that a man with keen +observant eyes was regarding him from the doorway of a wine-shop. The man +wore the cap and bells of a jester, and his fantastic costume was +gorgeously colored and ornamented. He was drinking a cup of wine, and when +that was finished he poured another for himself and began to sip it +slowly. Catching Giovanni's eye, he asked, + +"What's in those great saddle-bags, my friend?" + +Giovanni nearly jumped, for the question was in his own native dialect-- +not only Lombard but the variety peculiar to Milan itself. But remembering +that he must not betray his blood he answered meekly, in French, + +"I crave your pardon, master. I do not understand your question." + +"I asked you," said the jester, "what you had in your luggage. It was an +idle question, but you might be a showman of Milan." + +Giovanni laughed with mingled amusement and horror. "Milan, do you say? Is +it safe to say that name in Goslar? No, master, I am a poor showman from +Paris, asking only the opportunity to display my puppets before the great +folk. 'Tis a goodly show, I assure you, master--the play of the Ten +Virgins. Having but six lady-figures I am forced to make them serve for +the wise and the foolish virgins and the bride, but there are also a King, +who in this play is the bridegroom, the Merchant, the Monk, the Jester-- +who is most amusing and can dance upon his head or his heels as you will. +The figures were carved by the most skilful wood-carvers of Paris, and the +play was written by a pious monk of the Benedictines." (Padraig the scribe +would have hooted at this.) "It is a most wise and diverting +entertainment, master, I do assure you." The jester seemed not to be +listening very attentively. He twirled the stem of the wine-cup in his +hand, crooning, + + "'Fantoccini, fantoccino,-- + Chi s'arrischia baldacchino, + Ognuno per se, + Diavolo per tutti.'" + +Only long practice in self-control could have kept Giovanni from starting. +The rhyme was a common street-song which every lad in Milan, the city of +puppet-shows, would recognize, and not only did it refer to the puppets as +"fantoccini" instead of marionettes, but the significance of the last two +lines, "Each for himself and the fiend for all," was rather too pointed to +be pleasant. But he only bowed uncomprehendingly and awaited the further +comment of the singer with more interest than comfort. + +"I have a mind to speak a word for your puppet-show," said the jester, +cradling his bauble in his arms. "The Emperor gives little thought to such +toys; nevertheless he may be graciously pleased to spend a few minutes in +that way to-night after supper. Follow me." + +He strutted away, a small pompous figure in scarlet and orange, and +Giovanni noted the mingled deference and contempt with which he was +regarded by the crowd. No more trouble was experienced in getting the +donkey along the crowded streets. The fool's discordantly-clashing bells +opened a way everywhere. The porter at the castle gate grinned and flung a +jest at him, but admitted him and those who followed in his train, without +question. + +A few steps farther on they were halted by a tall, thin, sour-looking man +in the elaborate headgear and robes of a dignitary of the household. + +"How now, Master Stephen!" he said sternly. "What foolery is this?" + +"Only a showman, Conrad," grinned the jester. "He has a puppet-show in +those fat bags of his. Did you think I was trying to smuggle meat-puddings +out of the kitchens for my own solitary meals?" + +The steward was not satisfied. "Show me the puppets," he ordered. Giovanni +obeyed. + +The steward scrutinized the bride and her maidens, pulled the strings +which moved the humpbacked jester, fingered the costumes, and then with a +curt nod bade them go on. "But mind you, Master Stephen," he said, shaking +a long finger at the fool, "you are to be responsible for these fellows +and keep them in sight from now until the time of the feast. If aught goes +amiss you shall be whipt." + +The jester giggled, shook his bells, and began to climb a long flight of +stairs in a tower opening on the courtyard, beckoning the two youths to +follow him. Up and up they climbed, until at last the fool turned and +motioned them to halt. + +"Come within," he said to Giovanni. "Let your servant await you with your +baggage on the landing here. He will tell us if any one approaches." + +The room in which Giovanni found himself was a small wainscoted apartment +in the top of the tower, furnished in a grotesque fashion well suited to +the humped and twisted figure of its master. The jester flung off his tall +curved cap and seated himself on the corner of a table. From a flask he +poured out a cup of wine and offered it to his guest. "It is not drugged," +he said with a laugh, "you need not fear. No? Ah, well, perhaps you are +right. I will drink it myself, though I should keep it for the night--the +nights are very long sometimes." + +He set down the cup and leaned forward, peering intently into Giovanni's +face. "You gave me a start just now," he said. "I took you for a ghost-- +the ghost of a man I once knew--Giovanni Bergamotto." + +This was more than exciting; Giovanni's father had been one of the +murdered hostages of Crema, and if his name came to the ears of the +Emperor he would never leave the castle. + +Searching his impassive face the jester nodded approvingly. "I knew it," +he said. "No one else would have behaved as you did--and it is for Milan. +Milan!" He slipped from the table and stood up, the bells jangling a weird +undertone to his every movement. "It is better you should know--I am--I +was when I was alive--Stefano Baldi." + +Giovanni's eyes blazed, "And you dare ask a Milanese to drink with you?" + +"Hear me," begged the jester. "I sinned a great sin--yes; but I have lived +twelve years in torment of body and soul for that sin. I sinned for love +of a woman, and when I had betrayed my people she denied me, and her +brothers delivered me over to the executioners. They spared my life +because they thought it not worth the taking, and left me the wrecked and +crooked thing you see. Yet I have served Milan since her fall--I, the +traitor,--served her by a thousand petty treacheries and inventions. It +was I who sent Henry Plantagenet the news of Barbarossa's plans. I have +the favor of the Emperor, and hidden things are freely discussed before +me. They know I am Milanese and despise me, but they believe me bought +with gold and with the wine which is my besetting sin." + +Giovanni was silent for very amazement. The fool mistook his attitude. + +"See," he pleaded, tearing open his tunic, "here on my heart are the arms +of Milan. I kept the badge hidden here under the floor for years, for fear +that when I was whipt they would find it. But since I have the Emperor's +favor none dare touch me. + +"Do you need money? Are you a spy? But nay--tell me not your errand. I +might--I might babble in the wine-shop, and then they would torture me to +find out the truth, and I might betray you as I betrayed your father. But +if you need money--look!" + +He knelt above a corner of the hearth and raised a stone, thrusting his +hand into the deep hollow under it. He threw out handful after handful of +rich gold pieces that winked and gleamed in the pale sunlight. "They are +yours--all yours--for Milan." + +Giovanni found his tongue. "When I was but a child," he said slowly, +weighing his words, "my mother taught me to hate and fear Stefano Baldi. +Yet in truth I neither hate nor fear you, Stefano, and I will trust you in +this matter. I have an errand at the court of Henry the Lion in Saxony, +and it was my hope that the Emperor, should he be pleased with our +marionettes, might give me safe-conduct that my journey be the sooner +ended. Then I shall go southward to fight for Milan." + +Stefano pushed the gold back into the hole and replaced the stone. "I +see," he said. "The Emperor is as easily diverted by shows as the Brocken +by its clouds. Yet I think I can find a way to make him serve you. Be +ready to-night with your puppets and put your own soul into the jesting +and the mummery. That is the only thing for you to do. If that fails we +will try the gold." + +Giovanni spent the hours before the banquet in setting his mimic theater +in order, trying every cord, pulley and weight to make sure that it worked +perfectly, brushing and reshaping the costumes, going over the songs and +speeches of the play in his head. Cimarron also was busy tuning his rebeck +and trying over the melodies of the songs which Ranulph the troubadour had +written for this little drama. It was based on the story of the ten +virgins, and contained much by-play and shrewd comment on the follies and +fashions of the day. Besides the written text Giovanni was wont to add +some patter of his own, improvised according to the mood of his audience +and the scene of the performance, but he ventured on very little of this +impromptu comedy on such an occasion as this. Too much was at stake. + +After what seemed endless waiting the time came. The huge hall was filled +with gayly dressed knights, ladies, serving people, soldiers, and half the +petty princes of the Empire. The feasting had given place to wine- +drinking, songs and jesting. The Emperor, cold and impassive, sat in his +chair of state, his mind apparently a thousand miles away. Then there was +a great roar of laughter from the doorway, and a lane opened among the +audience to let Stefano come prancing through in all his grotesque +bravery, his bells chiming a goblin march. After him came Giovanni, and +Cimarron bearing the puppet theater. Giovanni made his obeisance and his +opening speech, and the play began. + +There seemed to Giovanni to be two of him that night. One self was utterly +absorbed in the performance, intent on making every speech tell, every +song win its meed of applause and laughter, every little figure act with +the spirit and gayety of life. The other self hovered somewhere in the air +among the rafters of the hall, critically watching the whole scene. He +remembered a sensation something like it when he and Cimarron had crossed +a mountain torrent in Spain on a log a hundred and fifty feet above the +jagged rocks and tearing waters. And as on that occasion, Cimarron did his +part as calmly and indifferently as if he were mending a strap in the +donkey's harness. + +Certainly the play was a success. Giovanni had never met with greater +applause or received more substantial rewards. The ladies gathered to +inspect his wooden figures after the play, like children at a fair. He was +just leaving the hall when a page came to him and directed him to wait in +an ante-room until the Emperor should be at leisure. + +It was cold and bleak, and Giovanni's tense nerves shivered as he waited. +The noise of departing guests and the tramp of hoofs died away. It grew +colder and stiller in the small grim room. At last the Emperor came in, +and seated himself in a great chair. A servant brought in a brazier full +of coals and went away. The ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, a small man +with red hair and beard, and cold eyes, looked Giovanni over from head to +foot. + +"You go," he said, "to the court of Henry Duke of Saxony?" + +"Aye, Sire," said the youth. + +"It is not a very safe journey. There are robbers in the forest." + +"Surely," said Giovanni humbly, "a poor showman might hope to escape +them?" + +"I fear not," said the Emperor with the ghost of a smile. "In their +disappointment they might break up your puppets and leave you fastened to +a tree for the wolves to devour. Such things have been done. I will give +you safe conduct and send you on with a company of merchants and soldiers, +if you will carry a message for me. Henry the Lion is delaying too long +with his answer. Tell him that the time has passed for trifling." + +"Who," said Giovanni, wonderingly, "could dream of trifling with your +expressed wish?" + +"Henry dreams, but he will awake," said the Emperor curtly. "Hark you--you +seem to be a clever mountebank, and I know what power fellows of your sort +have over the mob--add to your play lines to be spoken by your puppet +King. They should convey this meaning--that although he is a King he is +but a puppet incapable of independent action. Puppets that go wrong are +broken up and burned in the fire. My will is the law for my realm. Saxony +shall be taught that law as Milan was taught, if Henry dares disobey." + +Writing a brief sentence or two on his tablets, the Emperor affixed his +signet and gave the missive to Giovanni. "That shall be your proof that +you come from me. Stefano tells me that you go on into Lombardy. Forget +not the meaning of your puppet-show when you reach those rebellious +states. They have been chastised once or twice before." + +Giovanni was left alone. On the morrow he took his departure for Saxony +and did his errand. The Duke of Saxony remained at home, and Barbarossa +went on without his aid to meet defeat at Legnano. Giovanni met Stefano by +chance in Venice when the Emperor went there to sign the peace treaty. + +"His armies were doomed from the first," the jester said in his hoarse +guttural sing-song. "They were weighted with the souls of the martyred +hostages of Crema. I have lived to see that siege avenged,--and now I must +go on livin--and never see Milan again." + +Marveling much at the heights and depths in the soul of a traitor Giovanni +went on his way to England. There he discussed with Tomaso the Paduan +physician, Ranulph the troubadour and Brother Basil of the Irish +Benedictines the astonishing destruction of the Emperor's army. But he +said no word of Stefano. + +"It is all in the formula on which his power was based," said the +alchemist thoughtfully. "No man--be he duke, prince or kaiser--can pose as +the master of humanity. Men are not puppets; they are free souls in a free +world. You cannot make even a puppet-player move contrary to its nature." + +"That is true," said Giovanni. "And I have never had two that behaved +exactly alike. Fantoccini have their own ways of acting--and when you pull +the strings yourself, you know." + + + +THE ABBOT'S LESSON + + There were twelve good monks and an Abbot who came + To found the Abbey and give the name + In the early days when the stones were laid, + And each of them knew a craft or a trade. + Sebastian the shepherd and Peter the smith, + + James who made leather, and sandals therewith, + Hilarius the cook, of great skill in his art, + Anselm whose herbal lay close to his heart, + Gildas the fisherman, Paul of the plough, + Arnold who looked to the bins and the mow, + Matthew the vintner and Mark the librarian, + Clement the joiner and John apiarian, + Each wise in his calling as craftsmen are made,-- + And each deep in love with his own special trade. + But the Abbot was canny, and never would raise + One above other by blame or by praise. + + Now the angel who guarded the Eden gate + Had pity in thinking on Adam's fate, + And sent him three servants, for earth, air and sea, + The sheep, and the fish, and the wise little bee. + And thus it has happened that some people know + More than the rest of us here below. + + There was jealousy, bitterness, wrath and fear + Among these reverend brethren here, + With their leather and parchment and metal and stone, + And the seeds of dissension were freely sown-- + Only Sebastian, Gildas and John + In their work appointed went placidly on. + + The Abbot considered his turbulent flock, + And he saw the wicked beginning to mock, + And he gathered the craftsmen about him, to see + Why there was peace with the other three. + + They found Brother John by his bee-skeps brown + Watching his bees in their elfin town. + "Little folk, little folk all a-wing, + More honey is yours when ye do not sting, + And that is a very sensible thing," + Said Brother John to the bees. + + They found Brother Gildas a-fishing for trout, + Oblivious that any one was about. + "Finny folk, finny folk, deep in the fen, + There's a bait for each fish if we only know when,-- + And that is the way to fish for men," + Said Brother Gildas to the fishes. + + They found on the moorland bleak and cold + Brother Sebastian, far from the fold. + "Sheep of my sheepfold, by night and by day + I seek ye untiring wherever ye stray,-- + For thus ye have taught me the Master's own way," + Said Brother Sebastian the shepherd. + + And the brethren were silent. Each prayed in his heart + That in all of his doings in craft or in art + He might give God the glory. Since Adam's fall + The workman is nothing, the work is all. + There was peace in the cloisters. The Abbot that night + Gave thanks that his children had found the light. + + + + +IV + +PADRAIG OF THE SCRIPTORIUM + + +Padraig sat on the side of the hill where the Good People were said to +dance rings in the turf, his chin on his folded arms, his, arms resting on +his drawnup knees--thinking. He might have been taken for a sheogue +himself had any one been there to see. His hair was like a red flame, and +his eyes were blue as the sky; his arms and legs were as brown as his +young, sharp face, and he wore but one garment, a goatskin tunic. He could +run like a hare and climb like a squirrel and swim like a salmon, for he +had lived like a savage all his life, among the Irish hills. + +Before he could remember, he had lost his father, a clever tinker who +could make silver brooches and mend brass kettles and had married an Irish +colleen in a seashore village. Then pirates raided the coast, and the +Irish girl with her baby escaped only by hiding in a cellar under a ruined +house. When the boy was seven years old his mother died, and since then he +had gone from one village to another as the fancy took him. For a week or +more he might be herding goats or sheep, fishing, or cutting peat for +fires; he stayed nowhere longer than he chose and owned nothing in the +world except what he wore. Under the tunic there hung a small leather bag +with the few relics his mother had left him. He could make a fish-hook of +a bit of bone, a boat of reeds, or a snare of almost any material he could +find where he happened to be. + +From this place where he sat he could see a valley of wet meadow-land, in +the midst of which gray stone buildings were massed inside a wall which +enclosed also the garden and the cloisters. He knew that this was an +abbey. + +Years before a company of twelve monks and a Prior had come there to found +a religious house. They brought from England an arklike chest containing +some manuscript books, and relics, chalices, candlesticks and other +treasures, and little else except their long black robes, girdles and +sandals. These monks, working in orderly and diligent fashion under their +superior's direction, had built a chapel, a dormitory, a dining-hall, +store-houses, barns,--and the community grew. The building was done first +of rough stone and wattle-work after the manner of the country, but later +of good cut stone. Half the countryside had been employed there when the +chapel was building. They had drained the marsh for their meadow-land, +their young trees were growing finely, their vineyard was thriving in a +sunny selected nook, their sheep flecked the hills all about them. A deep +fish-pond had been made where now two monks sat fishing. Padraig wondered +if they had caught anything as good as the lithe trout he had taken from a +mountain stream. + +He was hungry, for he had been afoot since daylight, and he was wondering +whether to make a fire and cook his trout or offer them to the monks in +exchange for a supper. The wind that blew from the eight-side cone-roofed +kitchen brought to his nostrils a smell so delicious that he was drawn +like a fish on a line to the gates of the abbey. + +He had met wandering monks and friars, but this was the first abbey he had +entered. When he knocked at the gate and the porter asked him what he +wanted, he was a little excited and rather scared. + +But the porter, although rheumatic and grumpy, knew good fish when he saw +them, and considered them just the thing for the Abbot's supper. He let +Padraig in by the wicket gate, the door with a grating in it set in the +big door and only about a third as large. Soon the boy was sitting by the +kitchen fire eating a bowl of the most delicious broth he had ever tasted. +Round-faced Brother Hilarius, who had charge of the kitchens, was in so +good a humor over the trout that he suggested to Padraig that he might +herd sheep for the Abbey. The monks did a great deal of the work about +their farms and in their workshops themselves, but there was still much to +do, and they were usually willing to give work to anybody who did not ask +for more than food and lodging. + +Padraig liked the Abbey, but he would probably have gone on before very +long had he not found something which interested him more than anything +else ever had. Brother Sebastian, the head shepherd, sent him one day to a +part of the buildings he had not before seen. The long stone-walled, +stone-floored room had little stalls down one side, each with its wooden +bench and reading-desk. On one of these desks lay open the first book +Padraig had ever seen. + +It was not printed, but written, each letter carefully drawn with a quill +pen. The initials of the chapters, and the border around each page, had +been painted in an ornamental design like a tangle of leaves and vines, in +bright red, green, yellow, brown, black, blue. Twisted vines bore fruits, +flowers, tiny animals and birds, here and there a saint, angel or cherub. +The monk who was doing this illuminating was too much absorbed in his work +to know that any one had come in, at first. When he looked up and saw +Padraig standing there he smiled very kindly. + +He was a gaunt man with eyes as blue as Padraig's own, black eyebrows and +lashes, and a queer dreamy look except when he smiled. His name was +Brother Basil. When he saw the bundle of especially fine sheepskins that +Padraig had brought his face lit up so that it seemed as if the sun had +come into the cloister. "Good!" he said. "I will give you a note to carry +back." + +He took a bit of parchment which had once been written upon and had been +scraped clean enough to use again, and made some queer marks upon it with +his pen dipped in black fluid. That was the first time Padraig had ever +seen any one write. + +It did not take long for Brother Basil to find out how fascinated the +herd-boy was with the work of the scriptorium. Before any one knew it +Padraig was learning to read and write. He learned so quickly that the +Abbot and Brother Mark, the librarian, thought he might make a scribe. But +when he was asked if he would like to be a monk, he shook his head like a +colt eager to be off. Writing was great fun; he practiced with a stick in +the sand or charcoal on a stone. But it did not suit his idea of life to +sit all day long filling books with page after page of writing. + +He liked the making of colors even better than writing. In the twelfth +century painters could not buy paints wherever they might chance to be. +They had to make them. Brother Basil had studied in Constantinople, or +Byzantium as he called it, the treasure-house of books and of learning, +with its great libraries and its marvelous old parchments illuminated in +colors too precious to be used except for the Gospels or some rare volume +of the Church. As time went on Padraig learned all that Brother Basil +could teach him. + +When a man is working on an important and difficult task, it means much to +have a helper tending the fires or grinding the paints, who regards the +work as the most important thing in the world and gives his whole mind to +his occupation. Such a helper may ask as many questions as he likes, and +his master will be glad to give him all the instruction he can possibly +want. + +Most of the people of the Abbey, in fact, liked Padraig. He knew so little +that the monks and lay brothers and even the novices knew, and learned so +quickly, and was so ready to put his own knowledge at their disposal, that +it gave them the very comfortable feeling of being superior persons, +whenever he was about. But there was one person who did not like him. This +was Simon, a clerk attached to the house of the Irish prince who had given +the land for the Abbey. Simon was of the opinion that vagabond urchins +from no one knew where were not proper pupils for monastic schools even in +Ireland, which was on the extreme western edge of Christendom. But Brother +Basil paid no attention to Simon's opinion. In fact, it is doubtful +whether he ever knew that Simon had one. + +The most serious trouble Brother Basil had in his work was that many of +the materials he needed could not be had in Ireland, nor could the Abbey +afford to send for them except in very small quantities. The monks were +rich compared with most other folk about them. They had food and drink and +warm clothing and well-built houses, and productive land. But as yet they +could not sell much of their produce at a profit which would make them +rich in money. Brother Basil therefore manufactured all the colors he +could, from the resources at hand. To make blue, he pounded up a piece of +an old stone he had brought from Canterbury. Gilding was done by making +gold-leaf out of real gold. The Tyrian purple was made from a gastropod of +the seas near Byzantium, and a little snail-like mollusk of Ireland would +serve to make a crimson like it. Thinning it, the painter could make pink. +There was no vermilion to be had, and red lead must be used for that color +and made by roasting white lead. The white lead was prepared by putting +sheets of lead in vats of grape skins when the wine had been crushed out +of them. Copper soaked in fermenting grape skins would make green, saffron +made it a yellower green,--and saffron was grown on the Abbey land--cedar +balsam would make it more transparent. Brother Basil was always trying +experiments. He was always glad to see a new plant or mineral which might +possibly give him a new color. + +In all this Padraig was extremely useful. He made friends with a smith who +had a forge and furnace miles away, and wheedled him into lending them the +furnace for the roasting of metals. He ranged the woods and cliffs all +around the Abbey in search of plants, shrubs, trees and minerals. His +knowledge of the country saved Brother Basil many a weary tramp, and he +always took Padraig with him when he went looking for any especial thing +that was needed. + +It was some time, however, before Padraig learned what Brother Basil +needed most of all. Now that the work of the scriptorium was coming to be +known, orders were received for splendidly illuminated missals and other +volumes, for which gilding was necessary. The brilliant colors would lose +half their beauty without the decorative touches of gilding to set them +off. And gold was costly. + +"Where do men get gold?" Padraig asked one day. + +"Out of the earth," answered Brother Basil absently. + +"I mean," said Padraig hesitating, "what is it like when it is in the +earth? Is it a different color--like copper?" Copper, he knew, was often +green when it was found. + +"Gold is always gold," said Brother Basil, coming out of his fit of dreamy +abstraction. "I have seen it washed out of rivers. Gold is heavier than +gravel, and when the river carries the gold with the earth down from the +mountains, the gold sinks to the bottom." + +Padraig said no more, but a day or two later he was missing. The Abbot was +not pleased, for now he would have to take a man from other work to do +what the boy had been doing. Brother Basil was surprised and hurt. He had +never had such a pupil, and had begun to hope that they might always work +together for the love of the work and the glory of their Church. + +"I suppose he was tired of us," Brother Basil said with a sigh. "He is +only a boy." + +But Padraig was only a few miles away, high up among the hills where a +stream flowed through a ravine,--digging. He remembered seeing something +there long ago, before ever he came to the Abbey. He worked for two or +three days without finding anything at all. Then, just at sunset, he saw a +gleam of something like sunshine in a shadow where no sun shone. He +grubbed like a mole for a few minutes, and half a dozen tiny grains of +gold lay in his palm. + +There was not much gold in the stream, but there was some. He dug and +pried and washed the scanty soil until he was sure that no more was there, +and then toward evening of the next day started home to the Abbey. When he +reached the gate it was dark, and the porter was astonished to see him. + +By the light of a rush candle Brother Basil and the Abbot looked at the +precious grains of river-washed gold, twinkling like fairy stars. Brother +Basil's heart was content, not only because of the gold, but because his +most promising pupil, the wild herd-boy from the mountains, had not really +been weary of the work, but had proved his love for it and for his master. + +The most excited person who heard of the discovery Padraig had made was +Simon the clerk. He had never lived in any country where gold could be +picked up in the streams, and he did not know, as Brother Basil did, that +these little dots of gold-dust had probably been washed down from some +rocky height miles away. He badgered Padraig in the hope of making him +tell where he had found them, but Padraig would not. It was one of his +best fishing-places, and he had no mind to have it ruined by a gold-hungry +clerk, seeking what had been put there for Brother Basil. + +At last he grew tired of Simon's questioning, and took him aside and told +him a secret. + +"I wonder," said Brother Basil, as he and his pupil went along a hillside +one day at the long, swinging trot they kept for long excursions, "what +Simon the clerk is doing there by the marsh. He seems to be looking for +something." + +"He is," said Padraig with an impish grin. "He thinks the Cluricaune comes +there mornings to catch frogs, and if he can catch the Cluricaune he can +make him tell where all his gold is." + +Brother Basil bit his lips to keep back a smile. "Now I wonder," he said +gravely, "who could have told him such a tale?" + +"I did," said Padraig. "That is, I said old Granny Dooley told it to me +when I was small. I've hid in the bushes to watch for the Cluricaune +myself." + + +CAP O'RUSHES + + Where the downward-swaying branches + Shiver, quiver in the sun, + And with low persistent murmur + The hidden waters run, + Far from bell and book and candle + With their grisly ban, + In the tangle of the rushes + Sits the great god Pan. + + Oh, the unworn joy of living + Is not far to find,-- + Leave the bell and book and candle + Of the world behind, + In your coracle slow drifting, + Without haste or plan, + You shall catch the wordless music + Of the great god Pan. + + You shall wear the cap of rushes, + And shall hear that day + All the wild duck and the heron + And the curlew say. + You shall taste the wild bees' honey + That since life began + They have hidden for their master-- + For the great god Pan. + + You who follow in the pathway + Of the waters fleet, + You shall tread the gold of springtime + 'Neath your careless feet, + Gold the hasting rivers gathered + Without thought of man,-- + Flung aside as hushed they listened + To the pipes of Pan! + + + + +V + +THE TAPESTRY CHAMBER + + +Lady Philippa sat with her little daughter Eleanor in the tapestry +chamber. This was the only corner of the gray old Norman castle which +seemed really their own. All the rest of it was under the rule of Sir +Stephen Giffard, the eldest son of the house, and still more under the +rule of his mother, Lady Ebba, who seemed more like a man than a woman and +managed everything, in-doors and out, including her sons. Eleanor, +watching her grandmother with shy observant eyes, was not quite sure +whether her father came under that rule or not. He never disputed anything +his mother said or opposed her will, but somehow, when he saw that his +sweet Provencal wife wanted anything, he contrived that she should have +it. + +Eleanor could not help seeing, however, that her mother was careful not to +appear discontented or melancholy, and to do all that a daughter could do +for her husband's stern old mother. Both Sir Stephen Giffard and Sir +Walter, Eleanor's father, were away most of the time, and if Lady Philippa +had been disposed to make herself unhappy she might have been exceedingly +miserable. The old chatelaine did not approve of luxury, even such small +luxuries as were almost necessities in that vast pile of stone which was +the inheritance of the Norman Giffards. The castle hall was as grim and +bare as a guard-room except on state occasions, and the food was hardly +better on the master's table than below the salt, where the common folk +ate. To be sure, there was plenty to eat, such as it was. The old lord, +who had been dead for many years now, had married the daughter of a Saxon +earl when he was a young knight in England, and Lady Ebba had been used to +plentiful provision in the house of her father. In the autumn, when the +other castles in the neighborhood sent forth gay hunting parties, and the +deep forest, whose trees had never known the ax since Caesar built his +bridges in Gaul, rang to the hunting horns, there was no such merrymaking +on the Giffard lands. Instead, the folk were salting down beef and fish +and pork--particularly pork, from the herds of swine that roamed the woods +feeding on the acorns and beech mast. Toward the end of the winter there +seemed to be more pork than anything else on the table. + +Lady Philippa had ruled her father's house when she was a girl of +fourteen, and she could have taught the people a different way of living. +She knew how to raise and care for the great variety of poultry, water- +fowl, pigeons, hares, fish, and delicate small birds of many kinds, such +as some of their neighbors had and the southern provinces of France +enjoyed in even greater abundance. But Lady Ebba would have none of it. +Fowls had to be carefully tended, protected from foxes, hawks and other +enemies; the fierce half-wild hogs could take care of themselves. All that +they needed was a peasant herdsman with a dog to keep them together and +see that thieving neighbors did not help themselves. There was more food +in one hog than in a whole covey of game birds, to say nothing of the +trouble of catching and cooking the birds. + +Neither did the old dame approve of tapestried walls, cups and bowls of +silver, gold and enamel, flower-gardens or delicately-made dishes. +Fortunately her daughter-in-law's herb-garden was not wholly under the +ban. It contained herbs useful in medicine, and God has ordained that many +useful plants are also beautiful in their season. Sage, balm, caraway, +monk's hood, thyme, thrift, mint, and other plants therefore dwelt +contentedly in a sunny nook of the castle. The Provence roses, lilies and +violets needed little care, and having once taken root were not ousted. +One reason may have been that on special occasions perfumed water was +offered to some guest of importance, for the washing of the hands after +eating. By her manner though not in words Lady Ebba conveyed the idea that +it was as well to have some one in the house who had time and taste for +such things. The embroidering of tapestries and rich robes, and the +repairing of such vestments as had come to mending, might also be done by +the person who had time for it. + +The pleasantest hours in Eleanor's day were those that she spent with her +mother in the tapestry chamber. Whenever the weather would allow it they +sat there during the sunny hours of the day, and if Sir Walter was at +home, or it was very cold and some important piece of work must be done, +they could have a brazier of charcoal to keep them warm. There was no +fireplace in the room. + +It was not a very large room, and it was stone-floored and stone-walled. +It was Lady Philippa's bedchamber. The bed was oak, built into the wall +like a cupboard, and almost black with age. There were carved doors of oak +that could be shut, making it look like an armoire, but these were usually +open, displaying pillow-slips of fine linen and a linen coverlet, spun, +woven, and embroidered with black silk, by the lady herself. On the floor +were strewn rushes and fragrant herbs. There were two straight carved +chairs of old oak, an ivory footstool and a small table which held a few +books and an ebony work-box inlaid with ivory, and writing materials. Two +carved chests set one on the other served as wardrobe. As for washing +conveniences, these were brought in as they were needed, by the knight's +body-servant or the lady's own maid. The real luxury in the room was the +window, which was more than twice the size of the narrow slits that +lighted the great hall, and opened to the south. On pleasant days the sun +looked in early and lingered late, as if he loved the room and its gentle +mistress. + +The room had been much the same for more than a hundred years, the castle +having been built during the tenth century. The thing that made it Lady +Philippa's own particular room, which could have belonged to no one else, +was the set of soft yet brilliant tapestries which covered the walls. They +had been worked by her in her girlhood, and she sometimes felt that more +than half her life was wrought into the quaint figures and innumerable +flowers and leaves and emblems of those narrow panels of embroidery. They +had adorned the room which had been hers in her father's castle, and +single panels had curtained or covered wall-spaces in many other castles +during her life as Queen Eleanor's maid of honor. Little Eleanor had heard +the story of the pictures as soon as she was old enough to hear stories at +all, and there was some story connected with the making of each part of +the set. It presented in a series of scenes the history of Sainte +Genevieve of Paris. In the first picture she was shown as a little girl +tending her sheep; then there were pictures of her at the various exciting +times in her life--her saving the people from the Huns, her staying of the +plague, her audience with King Clovis and finally her peaceful old age +among the people who loved her. + +Eleanor was kneeling on the window-seat where she sometimes slept, her +bright braids falling over her white linen underdress and gown of soft +blue wool. "Mother," she said earnestly, "I wish I could make some +tapestry." + +Lady Philippa was deftly drawing together the edges of a rent in an old +and magnificent gold-embroidered bed-curtain. "Have you finished your +spinning, daughter?" she asked. + +"N-o, but it is almost done. Mother, I will spin twice as much every day +if you will teach me to do tapestry. Were you older than I am when you +learned?" + +"Not very much older. Perhaps you might begin now. Finish your task while +I make this curtain whole, and we will see." + +When her mother said she would "see," Eleanor knew that a favor was as +good as granted. She spun away to a happy little song that Collet, her +mother's maid, had taught her, and very soon the good linen thread was all +wound smoothly and the little spinster sat demurely watching the +preparations for her new undertaking. + +First her mother opened the wardrobe chest and took out a strip of linen +about twenty inches wide and of a brownish cream-color. Next she selected +some skeins of dyed linen thread from a heap of all the colors of the +rainbow, mementoes of the work her busy fingers had done during many +years. In a little enameled box, very carefully wrapped in soft wool to +keep them from rusting, were a few needles. Out of a wrapping of cotton +paper came a thin stick of charcoal rather like a crayon--charred hard +wood that could be used for drawing. + +"Now," said the lady smiling at the eager little face, "what shall we +choose for the subject of your tapestry, and what is to be its use? Will +you have it for a cushion, or a panel of a screen, or something else?" + +"I think--a set of panels," said Eleanor slowly. "It will take a long +time, but I should like to do exactly like you." + +Lady Philippa gave a little, amused, affectionate laugh that ended in a +sigh. "But, my dear child, you don't think of copying these?" + +"N-o. But when I grow up I want my room to look like yours. I want the +tapestry to have a story. Mother, do you think I could work the story of +Saint George and the dragon? I like that best of all." + +Eleanor drank in all the tales told her so delightedly that her mother had +never known she liked one much more than another. "But," she said smiling, +"Saint George was an English saint. He was born in Coventry." + +"That's why he is my favorite," Eleanor explained. "You know father is +English. And Saint George had so many adventures. I think he would be very +interesting to do." + +"It is your tapestry, dear child," her mother said, laughing her sweet, +joyous laugh. "I am sure I think Saint George and the dragon would make a +very handsome set. And we need not draw all the designs now. Perhaps by- +and-by we shall know some one who will draw a dragon for us. Meanwhile you +may begin on the first panel." + +Eleanor flung her arms around her mother. "Oh, mother dearest, it's so +good of you. I'm so excited to begin. Please commence at the very first +part of the story, for that will be easy." + +"Not so easy as you think, perhaps, sweetheart. However, we can but try. +You mean the setting forth of the knight?" + +"No, the time when he was a little boy, and the weird woman of the woods +took him away and taught him everything. I like that part almost best of +all." + +"Very well. That will be a wise beginning, for in embroidering the trees +and flowers of the forest you will learn all the different stitches. You +will have to embroider quite well before beginning on the figures." + +Eleanor leaned breathless over the table while her mother drew the +outlines of the picture upon the linen--the witch-woman in her forest +home, the straight, sturdy figure of small George standing before her. On +two sides and the bottom of the panel were drawn gnarled and twisted tree- +trunks and roots, ferns and flowers. Across the top a narrow conventional +border was outlined, the cross of Saint George alternating with a five- +petaled rose, the wild rose of England. + +"You may begin the border now," said Lady Philippa, threading a needle +with brown thread. "This is outline stitch, and the design must all be +outlined with this, using different colors according to the part of it you +are working. Then each space is to be filled in with another stitch--you +see it here in the tapestry. For the background we will use still another +stitch, and when you are covering large spaces the work is to be done in +tent-stitch. Every inch of this linen will be covered with embroidery when +it is finished, you know." + +Eleanor looked very grave and responsible. She saw long years of work +before her, occupied with the triumphant career of the soldier-saint. But +the new work proved so fascinating that an hour had gone by before she +knew it. It was hard to tear herself away and go down to the chilly stone +hall. She was not expected to come very near the fire of blazing logs, and +felt her grandmother's eye constantly upon her lest she should not sit +erect or behave as a well-born maiden should. She felt also that if Lady +Ebba knew how much time would be consumed by the adventures of Saint +George, she would begin a calculation of the number of skeins of linen +thread that might be spun in that time, to the enrichment of the family. +Eleanor privately thought that there was bed-linen in the castle to last +for at least twenty years--which was true. + +Letters had been received at the castle that day. Sir Walter was on his +way home, and with him an English knight who had been his friend for many +years--ever since they were squires together in Normandy. Lady Philippa +looked rather sad and wistful when she spoke of Sir Hugh l'Estrange. He +had married her dearest childhood friend, Alazais de Montfaucon, and +Alazais was dead. She had gone a bride into that foreign land, lived seven +happy years, and died. Eleanor could not help wondering whether she should +ever have any friends who were dear to her as these early friends were to +her father and mother. She had never played with any other children at +all. + +The news of her father's coming had traveled more slowly than he himself +did. The next day, while Eleanor and her mother were busy transplanting +some asphodel, the horn blew at the gate, and in a few minutes the knight +came striding across the turf and caught his wife in one arm and his +daughter in the other. Behind him was a great tall man with laughing eyes +and a rather sad mouth, and standing very straight and soldierly beside +the stranger was a boy some two years older than Eleanor, whom Sir Hugh +introduced as "my son, Roger." + +The following days were so full of excitement that little time was left +for the tapestry chamber. The two knights were on their way southward to +meet King Henry and aid him to pacify some of his turbulent subjects. +Roger was to be left at the castle. It was usual for a knight to send his +sons to some friend for training during the years when a boy must learn +the duties of page and esquire. In this case there was more than usual +reason for it, for Sir Hugh's castle was in a remote part of England and +it would not be safe to leave his only son there during his absence. + +Roger himself, while he frankly admitted that he did not much like leaving +England, was keenly interested in all that he saw and heard. Soon it +seemed as if he had always been at home in the old Norman castle. He +called Lady Ebba "grandame," as Eleanor had never dared to do, and though +she was as strict with him as she was with every one else, she never +seemed exactly displeased with him. Roger himself saw it. + +"Why do you like boys better than girls?" he asked her point blank, one +day. + +"Men can fight," Lady Ebba answered, curtly. + +"Of course," Roger reflected. "But women can make men fight. Father told +me that once when the Danes tried to take your father's castle you held +them off until he came back." + +Lady Ebba did not say anything. She rose and stalked away, but although +her back was to Roger, Eleanor could see that she was actually smiling. + +Eleanor knew that story. It gave her a feeling of enormous admiration and +awe when she thought of it, but love--for a grandmother who had commanded +a garrison, on scanty rations, besieged by fierce and bloodthirsty +pirates--seemed a little out of place. + +It was certainly far pleasanter, having Roger for a playmate. Eleanor +thought it was better than having a sister. He taught her to run, to fish, +to play bowls, nine-men-morris, and draughts. The dismal stone hall was +not half so grim with Roger in her corner. + +These diversions did not, however, interrupt the daily lessons, the task +in spinning, or the newly-begun tapestry. To her great satisfaction +Eleanor found that Roger liked the tapestry chamber nearly or quite as +well as she did. When he saw Eleanor's tapestry he persuaded Sir Hugh +l'Estrange to spend a rainy morning in making sketches for it. + +"Father has been to Egypt and the other places," he explained, "and knows +just how they look. You never saw a dragon, though, father?" he added +doubtfully. + +"Not exactly, but I have seen a beast rather like one," laughed the +knight, and he drew a very fair picture of a crocodile, adding wings and a +fiery breath and fearsome talons by way of establishing its dragonship. "I +have seen the place where they say the monster was killed. And did you +know that Saint George is said to have helped the Allies under Godfrey in +the First Crusade, at the battle for Jerusalem?" While the children looked +on in fascinated wonder, he sketched in a battle-scene--rather cramped for +space because of the narrow linen web--showing Godfrey de Bouillon +cheering on his knights, the saint on his great white horse leading the +charge, and the banner of the Cross rising above the host. From the +tapestried walls Sainte Genevieve and her people looked on with kindly +interest at the little group. + +When the two fathers had gone away life settled into a quiet but pleasant +order. Roger shared some of Eleanor's lessons, and when she was at her +spinning or needlework he was often by, with a bow to shape, a spear to +polish or some other in-door work to do, while they listened to Lady +Philippa's stories. To him nearly all of them were new. + +As the spring advanced the three spent much time in the garden. A drain +was needed in one place, and Roger retrieved a spade from the gardener's +quarters and went at it. He had heard Lady Philippa say that she should +like to have a "mount" there--an artificial hill made of packed earth and +stones--and as he dug he threw the dirt inward and tramped it down. He +explained that this was the way a castle mount was made if the hill +selected was not high enough. The one at Lewes that William de Warenne had +made was a hundred and fifty feet high. + +Eleanor caught the enthusiasm, brought stones and helped tread them down +with her stout little leather shoes, and old Jehan's grandson with his +sabots helped also. + +"Wouldn't it be beautiful if we could build a castle on the top?" Eleanor +suggested as they stood looking at it. + +"Perhaps we can--if your mother is willing. Ask her if we may have all the +stones we pick out of the garden--if we don't harm the plants--will you, +Eleanor?" + +Eleanor climbed the winding stairs to the tapestry chamber, and came +flying back with the glad permission. Then the small building force went +to work in deep earnest. + +"I know exactly how to build it, for I saw the building of our castle from +the very first," Roger explained. + +"We lived in a tent all summer until it was done--part of it--so that we +could have a room. First they dig a ditch, just like this one, around the +mount, and they make a palisade of forest trees--whole trunks set close +together--to keep off enemies. When they have time to build a stone wall, +of course the wooden wall is taken down. + +"Now here, on the most solid side of the mount, is the place for the keep. +We use the biggest stones for that. The bottom storey of father's keep is +partly cut right out of the rock, and the walls are twenty-five or thirty +feet thick. Nobody can knock down that wall with a battering-ram! Here +we'll make a great arched door, so that the knights can ride right in +without dismounting when they're hard pressed by the enemy. Here's the +drawbridge--" Roger hastily whittled off a piece of bark--"and this line +I've scratched inside the outer wall is for the wall round the inner +bailey. We'll have a watch-tower here--and here--and here. Father says +that a good builder places his towers so that each one protects one or two +others, and in the end every one is protected. + +"In the storey above will be the great hall. These walls don't need to be +so thick--not more than eighteen feet. Here on this side we'll cut a +little room out of the thickness of the wall, for the private chamber of +my lord and lady--" + +"The tapestry chamber!" cried Eleanor. + +"Yes," Roger went on, "and here on the other side we have the well- +chamber. There's a stone bason with a shaft that goes away down to the +well in the lowest part of the castle, and the defenders can always get +water by lowering a bucket when they're besieged. Up above is another +storey for a guard-room, and a flat roof with battlements around it, where +the sentinels can see for miles and miles across the country." + +The two children gazed at their castle mount and almost believed the +walls, eighteen, twenty, thirty feet thick--rising before their eyes. + +"But that isn't all of the castle," said Eleanor at last. + +"No; we'll build more towers after awhile, and have a banquet hall to +entertain the King. And the soldiers and people will live in tents and +wattled huts until the stonework is done. But the keep is the first thing +to build, because, you see, you have to defend yourself from enemies no +matter when they come." + +Lady Philippa's garden was cleared of stones in a much shorter time than +she had expected. But to build a stone wall simply by laying one stone +upon another is less easy than it seems. Roger had done something of the +sort before, but he had had fragments of stone from the masons' work +instead of water-washed pebbles. And when the keep was actually built as +high as the first floor above the foundation, a heavy rain came, streams +tore out one side of the mount, and the stone-work tumbled into a hopeless +ruin. + +In the crystal brilliance of the morning after the storm Roger surveyed it +ruefully. "Father says," he recalled, "that everything depends on the +foundations. We'll do it over again and make the mount more solid." + +"And when it is done," said Eleanor, never losing faith, "I'll beg some +linen of mother and make tapestry for the walls of the little room and the +great hall." + +But the stones would not stay in place. Roger tried plastering them with +mud, then with clay. Neither would hold when dry. Then he saw a workman +repairing part of the garden wall, and in an evil moment borrowed some of +the mortar while the man was gone to his dinner. He had just set it down +near the mount when Collet came to call the children to their own dinner. +The bucket remained there, and Lady Ebba's old gray cat, chasing a hound +she had discovered near the hole where her kittens were secreted, bounced +off a wall and fell into the mortar--fortunately hind feet foremost. The +indignant Jehan came searching for his bucket and kicked the pile of +stones in all directions, Lady Ebba made stern inquiry into the misfortune +which had come to her cat, and wall-building was abandoned. + +For a week or more, Roger gardened, fished and practiced archery in a +somewhat subdued fashion. Lady Philippa, watching Eleanor's brown head and +the boy's tousled tow-colored mop, as they consulted over a boat Roger was +making, smiled and sighed. She wished that Alazais were there to see them +play together. + +Not long after the disastrous building incident Sir Walter appeared one +day with surprising news indeed. Sir Stephen Giffard, the elder brother, +was about to marry and come to live in the old Norman chateau. The new +chatelaine was a rich widow of Louvain. Sir Stephen and Lady Adelicia +would be the lord and lady of the castle, and would have the tapestry +chamber. + +"Oh, moth-er!" cried Eleanor piteously. No other room in the castle would +ever be so pleasant. She could not understand her mother's untroubled +acceptance of the change. + +"But my dear child," Lady Philippa went on, "we shall not be here; we are +going away. King Henry has given your father a great estate in a wild +country in the west of England, and he is building a castle for our home. +You will be an English maiden, sweetheart, and have your tapestry of Saint +George for your very own room." + +Eleanor's eyes were starlike. Then her mouth began to droop a little. "Is +Roger to stay here?" + +"Roger will be with us. His father's castle is only a few leagues from +ours, and he is going to leave Roger at our home for a year or more while +he is away." + +This made it quite perfect. Roger rejoiced openly at the prospect of going +back to England. In stray moments Eleanor wondered a little how Lady Ebba +liked it. She rather doubted whether Lady Adelicia would be as content +there as her mother. + +When they rode away from the old Norman gateway for the last time Eleanor +laughed gleefully: "I don't care where we go, mother," she whispered, +"we've the roots and seeds from your garden, and we shall have a tapestry +chamber!" + + +THE CASTLE + + O the Castle of Heart's Delight! + The winds of the sunrise know it, + And the music adrift in its airy halls, + To the end of the world they blow it-- + Music of glad hearts keeping time + To bells that ring in a crystal chime + With the cadence light of an ancient rime-- + Such music lives on the winds of night + That blow from the Castle of Heart's Delight! + + O the Castle of Heart's Delight + Where you and I go faring-- + Heritage dear of love and toil, + Guerdon of faith and daring. + For all may win to the ancient gate, + Though some are early and some are late, + And each hath borne with his hidden Fate,-- + For never a man but hath his right + To enter his Castle of Heart's Delight! + + + + +VI + +THE FAIRIES' WELL + + +What a beautiful place this is," Lady Philippa said softly. She was +standing with her husband near the great stone keep, looking out across a +half-built wall at the hills and valleys of his wilderness domain. It was +one of those mornings of early summer when the air is cool yet bright with +sunshine, and the unfolding beauty of the world has something of heaven in +it. Birds were singing everywhere, and the green of new leaves clothed the +land in elvish loveliness. "Your England is very fair, Gualtier." + +"It is good that you find it so, love," answered the knight. He had had +misgivings a-plenty in bringing his gently-bred Provencal wife to this +rough country. Often he had to be absent from dawn to moonrise, riding on +some perilous expedition. He and his little force of men-at-arms and +yeomen were doing police work on the Welsh border, and no one ever knew +just when the turbulent chiefs of those mountains would attempt a raid. + +Lady Philippa never complained. She ruled her household as he ruled his +lands, wisely and well. She called her husband Gualtier instead of Walter, +because he liked it, and sang to her lute the canzons and retronsas of her +country, but she seemed to love his England as he did. She talked to the +woodcutters' wives and the village women and farm people as if she had +played in childhood about their doors. In fact the knight had a shrewd +notion that if he had been a bachelor the taming of his half-British, +half-Saxon peasantry would have been far less easy. + +He had not wished to dominate and overawe the people, but to win them to +true loyalty. He had known exactly what he wanted when he selected the +place for his castle, and a man who knows his own mind can usually find +men to do his work. + +A castle in that place and time was a little town in itself, and it must +be able to exist by itself when necessary, without markets or factories or +outside help of any kind. Like most Normans the knight was a born builder, +and had taken care to make his castle as proof against attack, and as +scientifically built, as castle could be. Each landowner had to be his own +architect. Certain general rules were followed, of course. The keep, the +fosse, the inner and outer bailey, the general construction, were much the +same in all fortresses of Normandy or Norman Britain. But no two sites +were alike, and the work had to be planned not only according to the shape +of the hill but with reference to the material to be had, the amount and +quality of labor at hand, and the climate. This castle was on a hill not +high originally, but made some fifty feet higher by heaping up earth and +stone to bring the whole top somewhere near the level of the huge rock on +which the keep was built. On that side the river flowed almost under the +precipitous western face of the mount, so that a stone could be dropped +from the battlements into the water. The young page, Roger, thought he +could fish from his window if he could get a line long enough. The keep +was still the living-place of the family, but the double line of stone +wall encircling the mount was finished, and at exposed points small watch- +towers were placed, known as the mill-tower, the armorer's tower, the +smith's tower or the salt-tower, according to their use. If the castle +should be attacked each one of these outworks would be the post of a small +garrison and stubbornly defended, while the keep could be held almost +indefinitely. The deep cellars would hold grain and salt meat enough for +months, and there was a spring within the walls. Even the narrow windows +were so shaped that an arrow aimed at one of them would almost certainly +strike the cunningly-sloped side and rebound, instead of entering the +building. The gate was of massive timbers held together by heavy iron +hinges and studded with nails, and above it was a projecting stone gallery +connecting the two gateway towers. This gallery was machicolated, or built +with a series of openings in the floor, through which the defenders could +shoot arrows upon the besiegers, or pour boiling pitch down upon them. +This was a Saracen contrivance, and had been suggested and supervised by +Sir Hugh l'Estrange, who had seen the like in Spain. + +There was one place where all plans had gone wrong, and that was a part of +the wall near the keep, almost under the windows of the well-chamber. It +had been built three times, and always, before it was done, the stones +would begin to slip and sink. Yesterday a section of wall had gone clean +over into the river and carried a mason with it. Fortunately he could +swim, and though nobody thought he would come out alive, he had scrambled +up the bank very cold, somewhat bruised, and sputtering like a wet cat. + +That brought the matter to a crisis. There were uneasy whispers of a curse +on the mount, a tradition that no castle built there would ever be +finished, an old custom of sacrificing some human being to be buried under +the foundation of a castle for the pacifying of the ancient gods. And all +of this uncanny terror was somehow connected with a hill some distance +away toward the forest-clad mountains, where a low brown-tiled cottage +crouched like a toad, under a poplar whose leaves were ever twinkling in +the sun. + +"Gualtier," queried Lady Philippa, her eye following his, "what is it +about old Mother Izan? The maids have been telling all sorts of foolish +tales about her enchantments. What has she been doing?" + +The knight laughed, but not very mirthfully. "Nothing whatever, in my +opinion. But I may as well tell you--they say that she has overlooked the +mount so that we shall never be able to finish this corner of the wall. It +is vexatious, because I meant that nook for your garden. It is the only +place that is sheltered from the wind and at the same time has sunshine +and a good outlook. But the wall has thrice been all but finished, and +each time the stones have begun to sink and topple. This time Howel the +mason was nearly killed. Of course, a feeble bent old woman who can hardly +hobble ten rods cannot have undermined a wall at this distance. That is +absurd. But the panic the men have got into is not. That wall will have to +be finished--somehow." + +Lady Philippa looked at the tumbled masses of stone. "It would be a +charming place for roses," she mused, and looked again at the cottage, +where beside the door a gleam of water caught the light. "That is the +spring they call the Fairies' Well." + +"Yes; it is one of the oldest wells in this part of England. The water is +pure as the sunlight, and never fails. Hugh thinks it may be one of the +places the heathen priests held sacred. It is not so very long since the +people worshiped pagan gods." + +The lady traced a pattern in the dust with the point of her slender shoe. +"I think," she said, "that I will take the children and ride over to see +Mother Izan." + +The knight made no objection, for the country was quiet, and he could see +the party from the castle mount as they set forth, Lady Philippa on her +black Arabian jennet, Eleanor and Roger on their forest ponies. + +The children had had their own discussion about that wall the day before, +and returned to it as they rode along the trail that led to Mother Izan's +cottage. It was a longer way than it seemed from the height, for a marsh +full of tall reeds almost encircled the hill on which the Fairies' Well +was, and the trail kept to the high moorland above. + +"I do wonder what is the matter with the wall," mused Eleanor. "Do you +suppose it can be bewitched, Roger?" + +"Maybe," Roger admitted. "But if Mother Izan can't keep her cow out of the +bog I don't see how she could pull down a stone wall. It's like the story +of Dinas Emrys father told me," he added with relish. "King Vortigern was +building a castle on Snowdon, and every night whatever they had built in +the daytime fell down. After awhile they sent for old Merlin to see what +the matter was. And it was two great serpents in a pool away down under +the foundation. One was white and one was red, and they fought all the +time. First the white one had the best of it, but the red one beat him at +last, and chased him out of the pool. Merlin told them that the red +serpent meant the British and the white serpent the Saxons, and the +British would drive the Saxons out. But they haven't done it yet." + +This was deliciously horrible. "You don't suppose there are snakes under +our castle, do you, Roger?" + +"Of course not," said Roger, pulling in his lively pony. "That was nothing +but a tale. I wish I could bore a hole into the cliff, and see." + +"Collet says Mother Izan is a witch," said Eleanor, abandoning the subject +of snakes. "She hated it, when mother used some of her herb drinks last +year." + +"I like Mother Izan," said Roger sturdily. "She cured my leg once, when a +stone fell on it--long before you came, when I was a little fellow." Roger +was not quite ten. "She knows more about plants and animals than anybody. +Ruric let her doctor his dog, the big one he calls Cuchullin." + +"Collet doesn't like Ruric either," said Eleanor. + +"She doesn't like anybody here really, except mother and me. I never mind +very much about what she says. There's Mother Izan in the doorway,--and +oh, what has she got hanging up in the big tree?" + +The old woman was a queer bent creature with greenish eyes like a cat's, +and white unruly hair that would not stay under her coif. In fact she +looked not unlike a gaunt, grim old puss who had all her life fought what +crossed her path, from snakes to staghounds. She was so old that the +village people could not remember when she had been young, and her +grandsons were elderly men. + +A wicker basket hung from the lowest branch of the poplar tree. In it, +cradled in close fine-woven osiers with a lining of rabbitskin, lay a +solemn black-eyed baby, looking almost as old as the old woman herself. + +"It's like a changeling," thought Eleanor, looking with fascinated eyes at +the weird little being. Lady Philippa smiled, and laid her hand softly on +the furry black head. "This is an unusual sight in your cottage," she +said. "Whence came it, Goody?" + +"Tis none of mine," old Izan grumbled, "'tis the brat of a scatter-brained +woman--Kate, wife to Howel the mason. She came screeching at me saying the +babe was a changeling I had left in place of her child of two years, and I +should care for it. I have no mind for the tending of babes at my time of +life, but I could not let the creature starve. Natheless 'tis but ill fed, +for my cow was lost in the marsh, and none will let me have milk for it. +Kate she's dead of a fever, and Howel will have naught of the young one, +so I have made shift as I could, with bread soaked in herb drink." + +Lady Philippa was twisting a vine-garland into a leafy canopy to keep the +sun from the baby's eyes. "'Tis a pretty baby," she said, "though so +small. The cow that was lost in the marsh--how did that happen?" + +The old woman's eyes blazed with hatred. "My lady, the lads of the village +drove her there, and the poor hunted beast floundered into a quagmire. I +cursed them well for it, but that does not bring back the good cow. And +Howel will do nothing for me because the child is so weazened and so +small." + +The lady frowned. "It is all wrong," she said, "the lads' cruelty and the +cursing of them and the blame of the woman who thought you had witched her +child. Sir Walter shall send you a goat that you can tether within sight +of the cottage. In my country the folk often feed their babes on goat's +milk, and I would like well to taste goat's milk cheese again. Is Howel at +work now?" + +"He was, my lady, but since he fell into the water he swears that he will +work no more on the wall." + +Lady Philippa spoke but with winsome frankness,--"The men say, good +mother, that the wall is witch-ridden because it has fallen thrice. They +are afraid, that is why they do not reason. Surely in God's world we +should be safe from such evil, if we serve Him. Perhaps if the baby grows +fat and merry, Howel will be kinder. Has it been christened yet?" + +"Nay--what have we to do with such gear? But my lady--heard ye never the +old rhyme-- + + "'Overlook the Fairies' Well-- + None did that since Adam fell; + Overlook the Fairies' Hill-- + Then Old Nick shall have his fill.'" + +"That has naught to do with our castle," said the lady wonderingly. "Look- +-the keep is no higher than your roof-tree. My lord chose not the site for +its loftiness but for the sure foundation." + +"Aye," chuckled the old woman, "you say well, 'tis a good foundation. All +but that corner. Tell your lord to raise no towers on that corner." + +"I am sorry the wall has given so much trouble," Lady Philippa said +regretfully, "for that is the only place for my garden--my roses and +violets and herbs. My lord will try once more to finish it. If I might +have but that piece of garden it would be like a bit of my old home, and +that is a dear treasure, Mother Izan, in a foreign land." + +Her voice trembled as she spoke, and Eleanor pressed close to her mother's +side and held her hand. She had never heard a word before about her +mother's longing for Provence. + +As the three rode away old Izan stood for a long time, shading her eyes +and gazing after them. Next morning a village boy in charge of Roger came +up the path to her door, leading two bleating bewildered goats, which were +securely fastened to a stake to graze at will. + +"I came myself," said Roger loftily, "because I meant to make sure that it +was all right. I haven't forgotten the time you cured my leg, Mother Izan, +and neither has father. Have those blue-tit eggs hatched yet?" + +The old woman's brown withered face crinkled in a smile. "Trust you, +Master Roger!" she muttered. "Come still." + +She hobbled around to the rear of the cottage and paused to draw aside a +branch. Roger cautiously peered through the leaves, and a hiss like that +of an angry snake sounded within. + +"If I didn't know it was a bird I should think there was a snake or a +cross cat in there," said Roger, after he had had a look at the small but +spirited bird-mother. "What ever makes her do that, Mother Izan?" + +Old Izan put out a gnarled hand to feed the titmouse a few live insects. +"Same as an old woman don't mind folk saying she's a witch so they let her +alone, mayhap," she said. "You'd not reach your hand in there if 'twas an +adder's nest, I reckon." + +"I'm teaching Eleanor all the birds' names," went on Roger, quite at his +ease, munching a bit of flag-root. "They don't have the same names here +that they do in Normandy, you know. Old Jehan--the gardener that used to +know Eleanor's grandfather--taught me all their names when I was there. +The nuthatch is Pic Macon, and the mum-ruffin is Pendolin, and the robin +is Marie-Godrie. I'm going to show Eleanor the nest next time we come, if +you don't mind." + +To the surprise of everybody old Izan rode up the castle mount one day on +a borrowed donkey. "Howel he loaned it to me," she explained dryly. "Seems +like he has less fear of witches since little Gwillym began to fat up. I +have secret things to speak of to my lord, Master Roger. Will 'ee take him +word?" + +In private, with only Sir Walter and Lady Philippa to hear, the old woman +told her secret. + +"'Tis the Fairies' Well that drags down your wall," said she. "My +grandfather told me the tale, and he had it from his father. The outlet is +a hidden stream that runs underground to the river, and not the stream in +the marsh as folk think. The underground channel goes under a corner of +your mount. When the snows melt and the waters are strong in mountain and +in valley, then rises the water in this channel, deep under the mount, and +heaves at the rocks above it and throws down your wall. That is all the +witchcraft of it. So long as 'twas your stones and battlements that fell I +cared no whit, but when my lady told me that she would have her garden +there I could not bear to think of the peril for her and the younkets. I +am no witch, my lord, unless it be Satan that gives us to know more than +others. But I have hated the Normans who came here to steal our land, and +have helped my people to harass them in years gone by. All but you and Sir +Hugh l'Estrange, they have despoiled and plagued the folk. But build no +wall above the stream, for 'twill fall--'twill fall--'twill fall. The +waters will pull it down." + +The knight sat thinking, his hands on the arms of his tall carved chair. +"I am not so sure," he said. "Maybe we can lift the curse on the mount and +make the wall secure. You shall dwell in peace by your well so long as you +may live, and your children after you, if you will show me where this +channel goes and keep the secret. Tis in my mind that it is best to keep +it secret still." + +The old woman looked up with bright inquiring eyes. + +"See you," the knight went on, "if we dig a channel to let the waters run +to the river by a shorter swifter way there will be no more trouble. I +think that we will make an excuse of draining the marsh. Then if we can, +when the underground way is no more the channel of the stream, we will +wall it in to make a secret passage from the castle in time of need. You +have kept the secret so long that I may trust it with you--and there will +be no more talk of the powers of evil taking toll of my people." + +Sir Walter rose and went his way, and in due time consulted with his head +mason about the canal to the river. But Lady Philippa came and took both +old Izan's work-hard hands in hers, and thanked her, with tears in her +eyes. Thereafter no more masonry fell above the hidden waters, and the +cottage by the Fairies' Well was left in peace. + + + +LULLABY OF THE PICT MOTHER + + Hush thee, my baby O! never thee cry, + Cradled in wicker, safe nested so high. + Never gray wolf nor green dragon come near,-- + Tree-folk in summer have nothing to fear. + + Hee-o, wee-o, hear the wild bees hummin', + See the blackcock by the burnie drummin',-- + Wattle-weaving sit we snug and couthie,-- + Hee-o, wee-o, birdling in our boothie! + + Hush thee, my baby O! dark is the night-- + Cuddle by kiln-ring where fire burns bright. + Trampling our turf-roof wild cattle we hear-- + Cave-folk in winter have nothing to fear. + + Kling-klang, ding-dong, hear the hammers clinking-- + Stone pots, iron kettles, copper cups for drinkin'! + Elf-shots for bowmen plough a mighty furrow-- + Hee-o, wee-o, foxling in our burrow! + + Hush thee, my baby! The Beltane's aglow, + Making the deasil the wiseacres go. + Brewing our heather-wine, dancing in round-- + Earth-folk are we, by her spells are we bound. + + Hee-o, wee-o, hear the pipes a-croonin', + Like the dragon's beetle-wings a-droonin', + Dyeea guard us from the Sword-man's quellin',-- + Hee-o, wee-o, bairnie in our dwellin'! + + Hush thee, my baby O! hear the dogs bark, + Herdin' the lammies home out o' the dark. + Cradled and christened frae goblin's despite, + House-folk we hear the kirk bells through the night. + + Hee-o, wee-o! hear the cricket chirrin', + Hear auld Bawthrens by the ingle purrin',-- + Christ us keep while daddie's gone a-huntin'! + Hee-o, wee-o, bonnie Babie Buntin'! + + The winds and the waters our Father shall praise, + The birds, beasts and fishes shall tell o' His ways. + By seashore and mountain, by forest and ling, + O come all ye people, and praise ye our King! + + + + +VII + +THE WOLVES OF OSSORY + + +Philosophers generally incline to the opinion that the werewolf has no +tail. Therefore, this being the sign--" + +"Nennius positively states that in certain Irish families, the power to +change at will into a wolf--" + +"And who knows how numerous may be these abominable wizards?" + +Padraig, the scribe, sat listening intently while the company around the +guest-house fire discoursed in monk-Latin of werewolves in Ireland. "In +saecula saeculorum"--"ab incunabilis horrendum"--"quocunque nomine +notandum"--"coram diabolo"--the sonorous many-syllabled phrases clattered +like the noise of rooks in treetops. It was January, the "wolf-month" of +old English shepherds. Meadows ran floods of icy half-melted snow; +mountain winds were screaming about the cloisters, and for two days +travelers had been weather-bound at the Abbey. + +Some time before, there had been rumors of wolves infesting the hills and +displaying in their forays an all but human boldness and cunning. Then +other tales began to be whispered. The peasantry huddled early about their +turf-fires, and the shepherds of the Abbey sought counsel from their +superior. They got small comfort from the Abbot, who curtly ordered them +to attend to their duty and avoid vain babblings. + +All the same, among the manuscript volumes in the nest-egg of a library +the monks possessed, there were chronicles that mentioned the werewolf. +Marie de France in her "Lays" included the Breton romance of Bisclaveret, +the loup-garou. The nerves of the weaker ones began to play them tricks. +It was less and less easy to keep unbroken the orderly round of monastic +life. + +This little religious community, toiling earnestly and faithfully under +wise direction, might in time bring some comfort and prosperity into a +desolate land. Ireland had once been known as the Isle of Saints. Now, +despoiled by warring kings, pagan Danes and finally the Norman adventurers +under Strongbow, the people were in some districts hardly more than +heathen. This Abbey, set by Henry Plantagenet in a remote valley, was like +a fort on the frontier of Christendom. The people were sullen, suspicious, +ignorant, and piteously poor. To deal with them demanded all that a man +had of courage, faith and wisdom. And now came these rumors of men-wolves. + +When the floods had gone down and the guests departed, Brother Basil in +the scriptorium found Padraig diligently at work on a new design for the +border of the manuscript he was illuminating. The central figure was that +of a wolf crouching under a thorn-bush to slip out of the shaggy skin +which disguised his human form. Under his feet lay a child unconscious. At +a distance could be seen the distracted mother, and other wolves pursued +terrified people flying to shelter. Once, before he came to the Abbey, +Padraig had been chased by wolves, and had spent the night in a tree. He +drew his wolf with a lifelike accuracy, inspired by the memory of those +long, cold hours under a winter moon. + +Instead of pausing with a word of criticism or suggestion, as usual, +Brother Basil took up the drawing and put it in his scrip. All that he +said was, "Find another design, Padraig, my son." + +To others Padraig might seem an unruly spirit, neither to command nor to +coax, but the word of Brother Basil was his law and his gospel. He began +to draw new figures on fresh parchment, but he could not quite put out of +his mind the unlooked-for fate of his wolf. Current gossip often gave +hints for the work of the illuminators, and he knew the work had been +good. + +It was plain enough that Brother Basil was in one of his absent-minded +fits. There was no beguiling him into talk at such times. If any of those +under his direction presumed upon his mood to do careless or ill-judged +work, they found his eye as keen and his word as ready as usual. But his +mind--his real self--was not there. Padraig wondered whether this could +have any connection with the unlucky picture. + +Next day there was deeper concern in the scriptorium. Brother Basil was +not present at all. The work went on under Brother Mark, the librarian, +but the heart of it was not the same. The untiring patience, brilliant +imagination and high ideals of the man who was not only their master but +their friend, had made him the soul of the little group of artists. He +could not be away for a morning without every one feeling the difference. +At times he had gone afield for a day or even longer, searching for +balsams, pigments, minerals and other things needed for the work, but he +had nearly always taken Padraig with him. This time he had gone alone. + +Padraig was as curious as a squirrel and as determined as a mink, and he +wished very much to know what this meant. He did not exactly believe the +werewolf story, although it had so impressed him that he could not help +making the picture; but he did not like to think of it in connection with +the mysterious absence of Brother Basil. A priest of the Church might be +able to defy a loup-garou, but if the wolves were real ones they might not +know him from any ordinary man. + +There is no land so full of fairy-lore and half-forgotten legends as +Ireland. Princes in their painted halls and slaves in their mud cabins +listened to the shanachies or wandering story-tellers, with wonder, terror +and delight. Cluricaunes, banshees, giants, witches, monsters, pookas and +the little red-capped people of the fairy rings, were known to the +dwellers in many a wattled hut where Padraig had slept. Old people who +spoke no language but their own luminous Irish winged his young +imagination with tales far more marvelous than those of Nennius, the monk +of Bangor. + +Still, Padraig had never himself seen any of these extraordinary beings. +He also suspected that Brother Basil would not vouch for the truth of +everything in the Latin books he taught his pupils how to read. + +Days passed, and Brother Basil had not returned. The uneasiness among the +monks was growing. It was said that the Abbot himself was as much in the +dark as they were. Padraig had just made up his mind that he could endure +it no longer, when the Abbot sent for him. + +It had been decided, Padraig learned, that he, as Brother Basil's wonted +companion on such excursions, would have the best chance of finding him +now. All that any one knew was that he had gone out of the great gate one +morning early, and no one had seen him since. + +"Nobody would," said Padraig, "if he went straight north into the hills. +No one lives near the old road through the forest." + +It was in that direction that all the wolf-tracks had led from the sheep- +fold, and the country was a wilderness of marsh and mountain. The Abbot +looked at the boy keenly, kindly. + +"Are you willing to go alone?" he asked. + +"It is the best way," Padraig replied quickly. "One can get on faster,-- +and there are not many here who can climb like him. I think he must have +met with an accident far from any dwelling." + +"He is well beloved by the people. If any one had found him we should have +heard. And you have no fear?" + +Padraig hesitated. "There are many frightful things in the world," he said +slowly. "Long ago I knew that if I let myself fear, fear would be my +master all the days of my life. But I am not like the others. I am his +dog. I will find him if I live." + +"Go, my son, and God be with you," said the Abbot solemnly. And Padraig +went. + +He took three days' provision in a leathern bag, and a pike such as the +countrymen used, and headed straight toward the hills. He knew that copper +was to be found in some parts of the range, but why Brother Basil should +go there alone, particularly just at this time, Padraig could not see. + +He trotted over the slopes of tilled land near the Abbey, forded the +river, circled a pond, and crossed a bog by froglike leaps from hassock to +hassock. In time he came to the base of a steep rocky height, almost a +precipice. On the left was a black mud-hole; to the right were craggy +masses of rock. A long slanting break in the cliff led upward to the left. +He thrust his staff in this and began to climb. + +Thus far there was no choice, for this was the only direction Brother +Basil could have taken without some one having seen him on the way. From +the height it might be possible to make observations. + +Only a gossoon of the hills could have gone up the face of the rock as +Padraig did, and he presently found himself on a ledge about twenty feet +up, above the quagmire. It was less than a foot wide at first, but widened +toward the left, and seedling trees had formed a growth which appeared to +merge into the densely wooded hill beyond. He pushed his way along this +insecure foothold until the trees began to thin as if there were an open +space beyond. Then directly in front of him sounded the unmistakable snarl +of a wolf. + +There was no time to think. He braced himself against the cliff, and +grasping his pike, awaited the assault of the beast. Either he or the +wolf, or both together, would be tumbled into the slough. But there +followed only a guttural word of command in Irish. Then a voice that he +knew called, "Padraig, my son, is that you?" + +Nothing in heaven or earth could have stopped Padraig then. He broke +through the thicket into the clearing, and halted, breathless and amazed. + +Brother Basil, unharmed and serene, sat upon a rude wooden bench at the +entrance of a cave, and around him were gathered wolves and wolf-like +human beings clad in wolf-pelts. One, who seemed the leader, stood erect, +broad-shouldered and muscular, in a mantle made of the hide of a giant +wolf, the head shaped into a helmet to be drawn mask-like down over the +face. A fire smoldered in the cave's black throat, and meat--mutton-bones- +-roasted on a sharpened stake thrust into a crevice of the rock. An old +woman, wasted and wrinkled, wrapped in a yellow-gray wolfskin lined with +lamb's wool, lay on a pile of leaves near the fire, and savage heads +emerging from the undergrowth might have been those of wolves, or of men +in the guise of wolves. + +In the craziest legends of the chronicles there was no such scene as this. +For one whirling moment Padraig believed everything he had heard or read +of werewolf or of loup-garou. In the name of Saint Kevin, what could this +be but the very lair of the beast? Yet Brother Basil showed neither fear +nor aversion. Padraig knelt to kiss the outheld hand. + +"Father," he faltered, "they sent me to find you." + +"It is well that you have come," the monk answered with his untroubled +smile, "you and no one else. I stumbled upon this place,--really stumbled, +for a stone rolled under my foot,--and here I had to stay until this +troublesome lame knee would permit me to walk." + +"That is not the whole of it," growled the leader of the wolf-people. "Our +dogs winded him, and had he been like any other monk who ever told beads +he would have been pulled down. But he spoke to them in our own tongue, +and my mother, hearing his voice, would have him come to her, for she had +seen no priest for many years. When he heard our story he said that he +would be our friend. And so he would, I believe, had we been what the +foolish have thought us." + +"Then," stammered Padraig, "it is not true that--that--" + +"That the loup-garou is abroad in the land?" finished Brother Basil with +delicate scorn. "No. Wolves are wolves, and men are men,--and some men are +thieves." + +"He means," snapped the wolf-man, "that one of your own stewards opened +the gates to us, using our tracks to hide his own." + +Padraig grinned knowingly. "Simon," he said. "Simon." + +"Even so," said Brother Basil. + +"He was very zealous about those wolves," said Padraig, reflectively, +"especially about using spiritual weapons and not slings and spears +against them. But how--" + +"It was the thieving of young lambs of the choicest breed that set the +shepherds to thinking there must be more than wolves abroad," the wolf- +leader went on. "But for your Simon, with his long tongue, they might have +driven us away, for Abbot Cuthbert is no coward, nor has he patience with +cowards. But Simon came upon us one night, when we had broken into the +sheep-fold and were making off, and he was not too frightened to choose +for himself out of what was left. Then when we came again he gave us the +meat we came for, taking certain fine fleeces and lambskins for himself. +We stole as the wild creatures do, for food; we have no use for parchments +or carded wool. We killed as they kill, to fend off our enemies. The +Danish sea-wolves and the armored wild beasts of Strongbow and de Lacy +hunted us as if we were wolves indeed. What could we do but hunt as the +wolves hunt, snatch our meat where we could, hide like foxes in the holes +of the mountain, make ourselves dreaded that we might live, and not die? +The Normans brought to Dermot MacMurragh two hundred heads of the men of +Ossory for his delight. All my mother's children were killed by them save +only myself. Well for you that you are no Norman, young clerk with the red +head, or not the word of a hundred priests had saved you." + +"And sooner or later the Norman cross-bows would find you, even as they +search out hart or heron," interposed Brother Basil sternly. "I have +warned you, Ruric, that this harrying and plundering must cease. Turn from +your wickedness and bear yourselves hereafter as Christian men, and your +souls shall live. And because ye were sorely tried, with God's help a way +may he opened for you to escape your enemies. + +"Padraig, you see here a remnant of the men of Ossory, whom the Normans +drove into the inhospitable haunts of the forest. The quarry of that evil +hunting ran wild like the dogs who followed their masters. As the country +grew more settled, these half-bred wolf-hounds found out the sheepfolds, +and led their masters to the spoil." + +"Even a Norman gives the road to the werewolf," said the Ossorian with a +harsh laugh. "The mercy they deny to man or wolf, they granted us when +they thought us neither man nor wolf. Aye, we chased them roaring to the +very gates of their castles. Had our own people known the truth some of +them might have betrayed us, being very poor. Therefore, we made it +easiest for them to keep within doors after nightfall, and in this the +priests and monks were of great help. Until you, Father, came to seek us +out, believing that God had thought even for a man who had lost his human +birthright, none hunted or hindered us. We were the masters, being without +hope and without fear of God or man." + +"Peace, my son," said Brother Basil gently. "Padraig, you will go to the +Abbot and tell him what you have seen, and ask him of his charity to +reveal nothing until I return. I would send him a letter, had I not lost +my scrip with my tablets in my encounter with the dogs. Things being as +they were, it would not have been safe to send any of Ruric's folk with a +message." + +"No,--not with Simon watching the gate," agreed Padraig, cheerfully. "I +wonder does he know how many lies he has told in this matter?" + +"He will have enough to do in accounting to the Abbot for those that are +known," said Brother Basil with a certain edge to his voice that Padraig +knew well. "I think, however, that he really believes he has had dealings +with the werewolf. There are men who would run, shaking with terror, to +pledge their souls to the foul fiend if they saw their profit in it. If he +knew the truth he could sell his knowledge easily, and I am not disposed +to undeceive him now. Since Ruric gave me his promise to end this evil I +have thought much of the matter, and I believe that the Abbot will approve +my plan. Let him send men with a hurdle to the foot of the cliff to- +morrow. No one need be told more than that I am lame through an accident." + +"Some of them will look foolish when they hear that," Padraig observed +with satisfaction. "I grieve for your lameness, Father, and yet I could +leap and sing all the way home for joy that it is not as we feared." + +"There would be naught to laugh at if any other man had found us out, I +warrant you," Ruric said gruffly. "The Father won my promise from me by +his gentle and comforting words to my old mother in her distress, for she +feared to die, knowing how we had lived. I had not thought there could be +such fearless faith and kindness in any man. Say to your Abbot moreover +that if he, or you, or any of your folk play us false they will find that +a werewolf can hunt down anything that runs." + +"If I deceived ye," Padraig answered gravely, "I would throw myself +straightway into the river to cheat your vengeance." As he tightened the +straps of his sandals he looked once more at the strange and savage +assembly. There were some thirty men and women and several half-grown +youngsters, garbed in wolfskins so shaped as to leave them free to run or +climb. Shoes were skilfully fashioned like a great wolf-paw; skins were +joined so cunningly that when the wearer loped along a hillside in the +chill pale gold of the winter sunset, or skulked among the shadows of +summer woods, any one would swear that what he saw was a lurking wolf. The +wolf-mask with its long muzzle and furry ears concealed the face, the +unshorn beards and hair mingled with the shaggy shoulder-fur of the +tunics. A shepherd looking for missing lambs would find only wolf-tracks +to guide him. Traps had been sprung or smashed, storehouses rifled, +watchdogs killed. Even the hard-headed and harder-hearted Norman huntsmen +turned back one day, when they discovered their hounds baying at the foot +of a tree. + +Padraig knew all about the slaughter done by Dermot MacMurragh and his +Norman allies, up and down Ossory. Fierce in their despair, vengeful in +their cunning, these refugees had run wild like their dogs. The huge +untamed brutes were stronger than collies and wiser than wolves, and +nothing could have kept them from raiding any sheepfold that they scented. + +The Abbot heard Padraig's story through without comment, his eyes blazing +under their shaggy brows. If any one but Brother Basil had asked him to +stay his hand, he would not have given two thoughts to it, but it was +Brother Basil, and the matter must be considered. + +"These men," he said grimly, "are outlaws, red-handed robbers. They have +broken the law of God and man. They deserve justice, not mercy." + +"If they can be caught," ventured Padraig. + +"You think they cannot be taken?" + +Padraig shook his head. "I stood as near them as I am to you, and I did +not see them until they wished to be seen. They run like foxes and climb +like cats. They will be killed or kill themselves, every man and woman of +them, rather than be taken. Were it not better they should live like +christened souls than be hunted like beasts?" + +The Abbot rose and began to pace the floor. "Go, my son," he said not +unkindly, "and send Simon, the steward, to me." + +But Simon was not to be found. Brother Mark, the librarian, being of a +distrustful disposition, had been asking many questions of late regarding +the parchments prepared for the scriptorium. Simon had perhaps taken +fright. He had not returned, in any case, from the nearest market-town, +whither he had gone that morning. When it was found that everything upon +which he could lay his hands had gone with him, some of the brethren were +inclined to think the whole werewolf panic an invention of the steward's +to hide his thieving. Padraig went to the foot of the cliff, accompanied +by two men with a hurdle, and found Brother Basil safe and in good +spirits, but neither wolf, wolfling nor wolf-man was to be seen. Not so +much as the sound of a wolf's howling was heard about the sheep-folds, and +shepherds and sheep-dogs tended the lambs that spring undisturbed. There +were those who said that the werewolves had been driven away by the +prayers of Brother Basil when he visited the forest. After awhile a legend +grew up and was told to the Welsh clerk Giraldus, about a werewolf who met +a priest in the forest and begged him to give Christian aid and comfort to +his dying mate. The story goes that the priest remained all night +conversing with the unfortunate man, who behaved rather as a man than as a +wolf. + +When spring stirred the travel on the Irish roads a party of forest folk +appeared one day at the Abbey and asked for baptism. Their children had, +it appeared, grown up in the wilderness without knowledge of religion. +Such things were not unheard of in those days, and after baptism the party +went down to the seaport and took ship for England, where they lived for +some years in the service of a Norman knight, Hugh l'Estrange. When +finally a sort of peace was patched up in Ireland between the Normans and +the Irish chiefs, Ruric and his folk returned. But no more was heard of +the wolves of Ossory. + + + ST. HUGH AND THE BIRDS + + When good Saint Hugh of Lincoln + Was a boy in Avalon, + He knew the birds and their houses + And loved them every one, + Merle and mavis and grosbeak, + Gay goshawk, and even the wren,-- + When he took Saint Benedict's service + It wasn't the least different then! + "They taught me to sing to my Lord," quo' he, + "And to dig for my food i' the mould + And whithersoever my wits might flee, + To come in out o' the cold." + + When wise Saint Hugh of Lincoln + Was a bishop wi' crosier tall, + A wild swan flew from the marshes + Over the cloister wall, + Crooked its neck to be fondled-- + Giles, that was vain of his wit, + Said, "Here is a half-made Bishop!" + --But the Saint never smiled a bit! + "My swan will fight for his lord," quo' he, + "And remember what he has heard. + He flies to my gatepost and waits for me-- + My friends, make a friend of the bird!" + + + + +VIII + +THE ROAD OF THE WILD SWAN + + + "Four larders God gave man, four shall there ever be-- + The mountain, the valley, the marsh, and the sea." + +Roger hummed the old rhyme absent-mindedly and then took to whistling the +air, while his small strong fingers pulled and knotted at the hawk's lure +he was making. Just now the training of young falcons was absorbing all of +his leisure time. The falconer, Marcel, had showed him how to make the +lure, which was shaped something like a pair of wings made of quilted +leather and thickly fledged with the wing-feathers of game-birds. When the +falconer, who carried it fastened to his wrist by a long cord, gave it a +peculiar toss in the air, it looked very like a flying bird. He did this, +giving at the same time a certain call, when he wished to bring back the +hawk or falcon after flight. + +This particular lure was intended for the education of a young merlin of +great beauty and promise, destined for Eleanor's use. The merlin was a +type of falcon well adapted to a lady's purpose, and hawking parties were +common among the Norman-English families of the neighborhood--often +including dames and demoiselles who flew their own falcons. Roger was +rather proud of the fact that Eleanor could ride as well almost as he +could, and was quite as fearless. The bright-eyed sleek-plumaged Mabonde +had been her pet for weeks, and would already answer her call and eat from +her hand. The little round bells of silver, the jesses and hood of Spanish +leather, for the falcon's hunting-gear (Sir Walter's gift) were laid away +in Eleanor's own coffret. She looked forward happily to riding forth some +day with the falcon perched on her small gloved fist, alert for flight. + +"Roger," she said, frowning a little in her puzzle, "that song is true +enough, about the mountains and the valleys and the sea--the river, that +is,--but what do we get out of the marsh? You can't even go in there with +a boat." + +Roger sloped whistling and gave the matter thought. "We get something out +of it when we go hawking," he decided. "Herons and swans and ducks and +wild geese,--widgeon,--all sorts of water-birds nest there. Maybe there +used to be other game--when they made the song." + +Most of Sir Walter's domain was fertile valley, dense forest or barren +moorland, but there was an area of marsh whose usefulness was not yet +clear. A swampy shallow strip was thick with osiers from the blown catkins +of the pollard willows; reeds grew thick as wheat and higher than a man's +head--if any man could have walked on the black oozy quagmire; and as +Roger had said, the water-fowl, secure from dogs or bowmen, were nested in +that wet paradise by scores. There was a heronry among the trees on the +edge of it, but otherwise the marsh was not used save as a storehouse for +the basket-makers. They made paniers, hampers, mews or wicker cages in +which the hunting birds were kept when moulting, and even small boats from +the osiers and reeds. But the greater part of the swamp was impassable to +a boat and too insecure for foot-travel. In very rainy weather any one +looking down upon it from a height could see that there was a sort of +islet in the middle, but no one could have reached it with a boat unless +in flood-time; and in very dry weather, when some of the ridges lay +uncovered, the water-channels became thick black mud. + +Nothing in all this, however, gave serious cause for uneasiness. A natural +preserve for game-birds was a good thing to have. Forty or fifty varieties +of water-fowl were found on Norman tables at one time or another. The +objection to that marsh was that it was too convenient a refuge for +runaways. + +The serfs upon the land were not slaves, in the sense of being bought and +sold like cattle. They belonged with the land. A nobleman who became owner +of an estate took over with it the right to the obedience and service of +its people. When he had a proper sense of his own obligations there was +very little trouble, as a rule. If the shock-haired peasants toiled and +sweated over the building of a castle, their own thatched cottages were so +much the safer from invading enemies. If they paid rent in grain, cattle +and fowls they shared in the feasting and gayety on any great occasion. +The castle, with its large household and numerous guests, was a market for +the neighborhood. It gave the people a chance of winning a better living +than the stubborn soil alone would yield. Children growing up knew that if +a boy could ride or fight or do any sort of work especially well, his lord +would have use for him; if a girl could spin, weave, sew or had a knack +with poultry, her lady would have a place for her. The country folk +hereabouts had grown proud of belonging to the Giffard lands. + +There were exceptions. One was Tammuz at the Ford. He and his black-a- +vised kinfolk had little to do with the villagers, and the village had +even less to do with them. It was said that they occasionally helped +themselves to a sucking-pig, a fowl, or other produce, and if punishment +was attempted, were none too good to burn ricks and maim cattle. It was +said also that they had a hiding place in the swamp. + +If the marsh became a den of runaway serfs it would not be well for the +peace of the neighborhood. Sir Walter Giffard's patience was growing +short. He thought of draining the marsh if possible, when the reeds could +be burned and the land reclaimed. + +In this way many a fenny district of England had been made into fat +meadow-land by patient and efficient monks. The knight was glad to +encounter one day in a neighboring castle a Carthusian prior whom he had +once known in Normandy,--Hugh of Avalon. He invited this churchman to +visit him and discuss this and more important matters. It so happened that +soon after his arrival Marcel the falconer, Eleanor and Roger, and the +squires, Ralph Courtenay and John Lake, were going to try the young +falcons on the border of the marsh. There was nothing strange in Sir +Walter Giffard suggesting that he and Prior Hugh ride along with the +party, for hawking was a sport considered very suitable for churchmen. But +on the way to the marsh the knight and the Prior paid little attention to +the diversion of falconry. They were deep in consideration of the best way +to drain the swamp and deal with it generally. + +Eleanor's heart beat fast as they neared the heronry. It was not a heron, +however, which claimed the maiden flight of Mabonde. It was a woodcock +flushed in the edge of a copse. Instantly Roger unhooded the cherished +hunting-bird, Eleanor gave her a toss into the air, and both sat their +horses, eagerly watching her flight. Aloft she soared, the little bells +singing like fairy chimes--then dropped like a plummet. There was a ripple +in the undergrowth where she pounced, she was recalled to her perch, and +presently Marcel, smiling broadly, came up with the woodcock, its gray- +brown feathers hardly even ruffled, though it was quite dead. + +Then Eleanor remembered something. "Oh!" she said pitifully. "O-h!" + +She was recalling a summer day when she and Roger had startled a mother +and her chicks from their nest of dead leaves among the grass, the +cleverness with which the tiny balls of fluff had matched themselves with +the foliage and the utter audacity of the mother bird as she carried them +off one by one to safety, under the very eyes of her giant foes. And now +she was setting Mabonde to kill those dainty chicks for her own pleasure! + +Roger had gone off with the squires after a tercel of which great things +were expected, but Sir Walter Giffard, coming up just then, caught sight +of his daughter's woe-begone face. "What is the matter, my little maid?" +he asked. + +"Nothing," Eleanor answered, swallowing with some difficulty and winking +very fast, "but--I--don't think I care to hunt any more to-day, father. +Will you please take Mabonde?" + +The knight's eyebrows lifted rather quizzically, but he did not question +this sudden decision. "Ride with me instead, daughter," he said kindly, +and Eleanor, very subdued and thoughtful, paced along by her father's +side. + +On the edge of the fen a cottager came out to beg audience of the knight, +and the Prior began talking with Eleanor about the birds of that region. +She found that he knew them both by their French and English names, and +seemed to love them well. He told her that in the Carthusian monastery he +lived, as did the other monks, in a little cell opening on a narrow +garden-plot. In this garden he toiled during certain hours each day, +tending the pulse, kale, and herbs which made a great part of his food. +One evening a little bird came to share his simple supper, and returned +each day. He fed her, and she earned her food by keeping his garden clear +of grubs, worms and insects. Then for a long time she did not appear. He +feared she had been killed, but at last she came proudly back with three +nestlings just able to fly. This monk had always from his boyhood had +bird-companions. The latest was a wild swan that came out of the marshes +to follow him about. When he went away the swan would disappear in the +marsh, but watched for his return and was always there to welcome him. + +"Sometimes I think," he added, half to Eleanor and half to her father, +"that there are people like that in this ancient stubbed land--men like +the bittern and the eagle, who will not be tamed. They come to you +sometimes, but they will not be driven." + +"I see," said the knight thoughtfully. "But what of a man who will take a +gift with one hand and thieve with the other?" + +"Some men," said Hugh of Avalon, "are your friends because you have done +them service, but now and then one is bound to you by service he has done +you--and that is the stronger tie. My swan would not love me as he does if +he came only to be fed." + +The cottager had been complaining that Tammuz and his tribe had been +destroying his crops, and wished them punished. The knight had ridden over +to see, and came back doubtful. He said to the cottager that it did not +seem to him like the work of a spiteful neighbor. Was it not possible that +some four-footed creature had ravaged the crops? The cottager did not +believe that it was. He was sure it was Tammuz. Neither knew that a lean +black-haired peasant, lying along close to the limb of a great beech tree, +had heard every word of the conversation and also witnessed the little +scene with the falcon. + +The marsh was very dry, and Sir Walter had a mind to ride into it a little +way and see how far one could really go. If wild hogs were rooting about +the place it would be well to know it. Bidding Eleanor wait for him in the +tiny clearing, he and the Prior pushed their horses in among the reeds +where a ridge offered a fair foothold. Marcel, the squires and Roger were +not far off, having great sport. + +Roger was rather disappointed in Eleanor. If she objected to killing +things, why had she been so happy to come, and so fond of her falcon? The +truth was that Eleanor had never thought of Mabonde as a cruel bird. It +was the nature of a falcon to kill its own food. The spice of danger in +the keen talons and fierce beak made her pet even a little more +fascinating. But it seemed different, somehow, when she herself sent the +merlin forth to kill. As she sat waiting for her father, she felt that +never again would she wish to fly falcon at quarry. + +There was a grunting and squealing, a rustle and crash in the tangled +undergrowth of the bog, and an immense black boar stumbled out into the +open and charged straight at Eleanor's horse. The startled animal reared +and sprang, Marcel and the squires spurred in toward the clearing and +checked the great brute on that side, and Eleanor had all she could do to +avoid being thrown directly into the path of the furious beast. It seemed +incredible that anything so heavy on such short legs and small hoofs could +move so quickly. The wild boar's tusks, several inches long and sharp as +razors through constant tearing and whetting, slashed viciously at the +terrified horse, and in that cramped space his rage was as deadly as a +lion's. Then a roughly-clad, wild-looking peasant dropped from a limb on +the very back of the creature and sunk his knife to the hilt in its thick +bristling neck. With a snort it bolted into the marsh, just as Sir Walter +and the Prior came out a little distance away and the falconer and the +squires came up on the other side. The peasant, who had swung himself up +into another tree, slid to earth and stood staring sulkily, as if half +minded to follow his late adversary to cover. + +The knight and the Prior were pale as ghosts, Marcel was shaking from head +to foot, and the lads gazed at Eleanor as if she had come back from the +dead. She almost had. It was an exceedingly narrow escape. Any one but a +very good rider must have been thrown. The wicked tusks of the wild boar +will easily kill a strong hunting-dog, and the tough, hard hide was almost +like armor. Rarely did a boar-hunt end without the killing of at least one +dog and the wounding of a hunter. If there had been the slightest reason +to think that such danger lurked in the swamp, the knight would never have +left Eleanor where he did. But the herd of wild hogs had evidently been +living on the high ground in the middle, and not come out until this +drought gave them foothold. + +Sir Walter beckoned to Tammuz, and the man came like a half-tamed dog, +eyeing his lord warily. "You have given me more than mine own life this +day, Tammuz of the Ford," he said a trifle unsteadily. "Kneel." And then +and there Tammuz received his freedom and a hide of land for his own and +his children's after him. + +In the following months many hidden things came to light. Tammuz and his +people had enjoyed many a good meal of the flesh of the wild hog, which is +better than that of common swine. They had not encouraged strangers to +come about, partly from a natural dislike to company and partly because +they did not wish to be held responsible for anything that might happen. A +boar-hunt, even with the big powerful mastiffs and the best of steel +spears, was dangerous enough to be called the sport of kings, and it was +only through long practice and unusual strength and agility that the +marshmen had been able to kill any of the herd at all. + +The first time that Tammuz ever entered the castle was on the night of the +grand boar-hunt after the marsh was drained, when Sir John Courtenay, Sir +Guilhem de Grantmesnil, Sir Yves de Vescey, and King Henry himself with +several of his courtiers, went forth to slay the monster of the marsh, and +the head of the three-hundred-pound brute was borne in triumph into the +hall. The second time was on a dark night a little later, when he slipped +in at the gate, no one knew how, and asked to see Sir Walter Giffard. + +It was a serious tale he had to tell. The Welsh were on their way to +invade England, knowing that the King was between Shrewsbury and Chester +and had no very great force with him. Tammuz was among the disaffected +peasants who had been relied upon to aid the enemy. But for a long time +now he had had growing doubts about lending his aid to such work. He was +neither blind nor foolish, and he could not help seeing that the people of +the farms and hamlets dwelt in greater security and comfort than they ever +had before that he could remember. He was well aware also that if the +Welsh crossed the border the lords of the frontier castles would suffer, +whoever else did or did not. When Tammuz thought of the brave and spirited +little maiden who had had pity on the woodcock her falcon killed, and her +gracious mother who had nursed sick children and heard the troubles of the +poor, ever since she came to that rude land, he did not like to think of +the torch and the pike of the half-barbaric Welsh let loose upon the +valley. Therefore he had finally made up his mind to come and warn his +lord of the peril in good season. + +The knight wasted no time. He sent swift messengers to rouse the +neighboring castles, armed guards turned out to patrol the marches, +another messenger rode eastward to call the King and his troops to the +threatened border. Moreover, the Norman lords did not wait for invasion; +they made the first move themselves. They had no mind to risk their people +and their homes if the thing could be avoided. Thanks to Tammuz, they knew +in what direction the enemy might be expected, and some of the Welsh +chiefs, seeing what was afoot, refused to join in the war at all. + +The actual trial of strength took place on bare moorland some ten miles +from the castle of the Giffards. From the battlements it was possible to +see in a very distant way what went on. Lady Philippa, Eleanor and Roger +stood together at a high window, and saw morions glitter in the sun, +lances ranged like an orderly mass of reeds, and at last the King's banner +dipping and lifting over the uneven ground as his reenforcements rode up. +Then far through the fine cold air came trumpet-calls, and the enemy +emerged from their cover in the woods. In comparison with the disciplined +and controlled forces of the English, they seemed a motley rabble. +Moreover, the Norman crossbowmen and the English archers with their long +bows had the pike-bearing Welsh at a terrible disadvantage. This Roger +explained, hopping with excitement, for he was full of information +gathered from Ralph the bowyer, his firm friend. + +The battle was a brief one. Before sunset Sir Walter Giffard and his men +came riding home to tell of a speedy and easy victory. + +"'Tis all the better," said the knight, as Lady Philippa helped him remove +his armor. "There is no use in chasing these half-wild chiefs through +their forests. Some day perhaps they will come to us of their own accord. +They know now that it is hopeless to attempt to beat us back from our own +frontier, and I think they will not readily try it again. There is wisdom +in Hugh of Avalon. As he says,--the truest service ever comes by the road +of the wild swan." + + + +THE LANCES + + Straight stood we with our brethren in the wood-- + High-crested, strong, and proud, + Fearing no fury of the threatening storm-- + Our chanting voices loud + Rose to the mighty bourdon of the gale, + The yelling tempest or the raging sea, + Chanting and prophesying of great days + In centuries yet to be. + + The falcon flying down the windy sky, + The swallow poised and darting in the sun, + The guillemot beating seaward through the mist-- + We knew them every one, + And heard from them of trumpets wakening war, + Of steadfast beams that roofed our people warm, + Of ships that blindfold through uncharted seas + Triumphant rode the storm. + + Now come we to the battle of our dreams,-- + The trumpets neigh, the ranks are closing fast + In that stern silence that men keep who know + This hour may be their last-- + That they, like us, may riven and useless lie + Ere once again the bright steel greets the sun. + This only pray we--that we may not die + Until our work be done. + + + + +IX + +THE SWORD OF DAMASCUS + + +Dickon the smith stood under the great oak tree that sheltered the forge, +weary and sick at heart. There was no better man of his inches in all +Sussex, but the world is not always good to see, even at nineteen. +Dickon's world had been empty ever since the departure of Audrey of the +Borstall Farm, cousin to Edwitha, the wife of his friend Wilfrid the +Potter. + +Audrey had made one brief visit to her old home since she had gone to be a +maid to Lady Adelicia Giffard, and in that time not only Dickon but other +youths of the neighborhood had found her comely. Tall and straight and +lissome, with the blue eyes and yellow hair of her people, white as milk +and fair as a wild rose, she was a girl to be remembered--Audrey. But she +cared for none of them and went back to Winchester with her lady. Since +that time Sussex had been no home for Dickon. + +He had learned all that any smith of those parts could teach him and all +that he could teach himself, or he might have set his mind to his work. To +Dickon work was more than bread and meat; it was the heart of life. Now +his unquiet mind returned to an old ambition of his, to be a master +armorer. This desire dated from a day in his early teens, when in his +father's absence a Templar stopped to have his horse shod. Dickon could +shoe horses as well as anybody. But when the knight wished a bit of +repairing done on his helmet it was beyond the lad's knowledge, and the +work had to wait until old Adam Smith came back from Lewes. + +Meanwhile Dickon had eyed with a great fascination the Templar's sword, a +magnificent piece of steel-work, blade and scabbard ornamented with +curious inlay-work of gold. He dared not ask about it even if he could +have made his question understood. The knight spoke only Norman and a +little mixed French and English, and Dickon knew scarcely a word of any +language but Saxon. When his father had come home and the knight had gone +on his way, Dickon asked eager questions. + +"'Tis a sword of Damascus," the old smith said shortly. "Belike he got it +where he's been--in the Holy Land." + +"Is't holy work then?" The boy knew as much of Palestine as he did of the +planet Mars, the folk of his acquaintance being little given to +pilgrimage. + +Adam Smith snorted. "Nay, 'tis paynim work. Damascus is a heathen city. I +mind somebody telling me that the only man that could forge that steel had +been carried off to another country, so that no more of it could be made. +They have a won'erful knowledge of metal-work, those infidels." + +"Belike Satan taught 'em," grunted Wat of the Weald. "I don't hold wi' +such trickery myself." + +Adam straightened his back and shook his white head. "Satan never did work +as good as yon sword," he chuckled. "'Tis a joy to the touch. Nay, lad, +Satan teaches men to be idle--that's his cunning." + +Dickon grinned, for Wat was never known to work save when driven, and like +many others of his temper, looked at all devices for the increase of +output with disfavor. Evidently there was no light on the subject of +Damascus blades to be gained here, but the boy never forgot the look of +that sword. + +As he grew up he saw and heard other things which fitted in with the +memory--Toledo blades that were said to be Moorish work, damascened and +jeweled daggers, now and then a piece of splendid armor worn in +tournaments where royalty itself looked on--Milanese and Spanish work rich +with gold. But always the keenest edge and finest steel came of that +mysterious heathen forging. Now, thinking of Audrey out in the great +world, he determined to see that world for himself and find out whether +he, a common smith's son, had any chance of learning the secrets of the +Armorer's Guild. + +Winchester was a greater city than he had any idea it would be, but he +found his way to the house of Lady Adelicia only to learn that she had +gone to Normandy, taking with her some of her household. Audrey, her own +waiting-woman, had gone with her. Dickon went down to Southampton and took +passage to Calais. He had not much money, but a smith as good as he was +could get a living almost anywhere. There were plenty of English in +Normandy, for both that province and Aquitaine were fiefs held by the King +of England as a vassal of the King of France. It was often said that the +vassal in this case held more land than his lord. + +Without much trouble Dickon found the Norman castle he sought, but to his +dismay, the lady was just about to set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. +Sir Stephen Giffard, her husband, had been fighting against the Moors in +Spain, and she feared that he was dead. She had decided upon this +pilgrimage in the hope that her prayers and offerings at the shrine of Our +Lady might avail to bring her husband back to her. + +The Sussex youth used all his powers of language, which were limited, and +all his strength of will, which was great, in trying to induce Audrey to +leave service and go home to her people. Audrey was quiet, but she was as +set as Blackcap Down. + +"'Tis not my own fancy, Dickon," she pleaded at last, her blue eyes dim +with tears. "I ha' no love for strange lands,--nor strange folk neither. +But my lady has been ever kind to me, and she is in great trouble. If she +fall ill on the journey there is none but me that knows her ways. I should +ha' no peace if I left her in strange hands. 'Tis my duty, Dickon. There's +no two ways of duty for any christened soul." + +Dickon grew bolder at the sight of those tears. "Audrey," he said, "when +you come back, and your lady is among her own folk again--then will you +break the silver penny with me?" + +"Oh," said Audrey shyly and quickly, her eyes downcast, "I'll do that now, +if ye like,--Dickon, lad." + +So they broke the coin and each kept half, and said farewell, she for the +sake of her duty and he for the sake of his own honor, which was bound up +with hers. But after she had gone away he was troubled by many doubts +whether he should not have held on, and made her come with him in spite of +herself. + +Meanwhile he had no mind to return to England, and found work where he +was. The little shop of Gaston of Abbeville would have interested any lad +in love with the armorer's trade, and it had more attraction for Dickon +than anything else he had found in that place. Wedged in, like a nutshell +in the jaws of a nutcracker, between a round tower built by Rollo's men +and the far older wall of a Roman basilica, it was partly built of Norman +stone-work and partly of oak. Set close to the old Roman road through +Gaul, it was in view of any knight or squire or man-at-arms who went by, +and it was so arranged that all the contents could be seen at a glance. + +The heavy and bulky forge and tools of an English smithy were not to be +seen. Since horses were not shod there, little room was needed, and the +armorer could lay his hand on any tool he needed without taking more than +a step or two. Hammer, tongs, bellows and other belongings not at the +moment in use were hung tidily on the walls. Some of these were most +skillfully shaped to their use, and also ornamented with carving on the +handles. The carving was not only decorative but was so designed as to +give a firmer hold to the hand. + +Along the upper part of the rear wall and the end wall on the right, +supported on corbels of stone, was a narrow gallery, built of oak, the +front carved in a series of open interlacing arches. Inside this were +suits of costly armor, and weapons of especial value, which the armorer +kept for sale. A flight of steps closed in by a paneled oaken partition +descended from this gallery to the ground, and on each step was the +straight demure figure of a carved saint in a pointed arch like a shrine. +At the foot the stairway was closed by a door of seasoned oak reenforced +by wrought iron hinges extending almost across its width. When this door +was fastened the treasures in the gallery were safe from thieves. A little +wall-shrine of carved, painted and gilded wood, on the opposite wall, held +a statuette of Saint Eloi, the patron of metal-workers. In short, the +shop, though small, had been made beautiful with the care of one who loved +and reverenced his work. + +When Dickon halted there at the close of a dusty summer day Gaston was +engaged in some work for a knight of Saint John, which must be done that +night and needed four hands in place of two. The armorer was doing it all +himself, with the skill of a master-workman, but using much picturesque +French language to relieve his mind. + +It did not take a minute after Dickon got a hammer in his hand, for +Gaston's frown to change to a broad and satisfied smile. Here was a helper +after his own ideas--strong, deft, and no talker. Like many men who love +talk for its own sake the master was not fond of chatterboxes. The job was +finished in good and workmanlike fashion, and Gaston, who knew some +English, went on talking while he attended to other odd matters and waited +for his customer. + +"If you want to see the world--this is your place. . . . There's not much +that goes along this road that doesn't come to Gaston of Abbeville some +day. . . . Damaskeening? You'll see as much damaskeened work here as you +could in Damascus. . . . Look here, my lad, if you're in want of work, +stay with me till snowfall and see the pilgrims, and the knights, and the +bowmen, and the free companions with their plunder, go by to the sea. Then +ye may go on to Damascus if you're still set on the place, with some hope +of not losing your way." + +This seemed to Dickon a rather good idea. In his brief sojourn in +Abbeville he had come to see the difficulty of travel in a land where no +one understands your questions. + +It was as Gaston said. People of all races, kinds and conditions traveled +the highway that ran past the armorers' shop. Once Guy Bouverel, whom +Dickon had met once or twice at Wilfrid's house, gave him surprised and +pleased greeting. A little later came Padraig, the Irish clerk, on his way +to Rouen. Padraig somehow learned about Audrey in the few hours he spent +there. + +"I thought 'twas more than hammer and tongs that took you out of Sussex," +he said. "I wish ye luck, but there's no knowing, Dickon, what they will +do when they are seized with this pilgrimage fever." + +"'Tis not the lass, 'tis her lady," Dickon muttered, his head in his +hands. "And the worst o't is that I can do nothing but think of her away +there among the paynim. A fine lady's train has no call for such as me." + +Padraig's brows lifted in humorous but sympathetic understanding. "I see," +he said. "I'll tell the maid, if I see her, that she'll find none so well +worth her while among Saracens--or pilgrims either." + +There was a great jousting at Crecy a little later, and Gaston went there +to deal with certain knights and princes among the tilters, and left the +shop in Dickon's charge. Restless with the magic of a summer night after +he had barred the little place, he wandered away over the white ancient +road. He lay down on a grassy bank, where boughs laden with drifting +blossoms hung over an orchard wall, and looked up at the stars, thinking. + +"'Tes like what they tell of the Saracens' magic," he said half aloud, +"this that makes a man do what's clean against his own will." + +"Hammer not cold iron, friend," said a deep voice near by. "Saracen magic +is naught save the wisdom of necessity, and that we all learn in our +time." + +Dickon looked up at a tall man in a traveler's cloak, who had come through +the gate in the wall just then. The upper part of the face was hidden by +the hood, but the mouth wore a quiet smile. The voice was that of a +knight, and Dickon got to his feet and bowed. "I know not what you were +thinking of when you spoke of Saracen magic," the stranger went on, "but I +would I could find an armorer for a bit of work on my dagger. 'Tis a +Damascus blade, but there's no gramarye in it, I promise you." + +This was something to do at any rate. "An't please you, my lord," Dickon +said quickly, "I am journeyman to Gaston of Abbeville, who is counted the +best armorer in these parts. I may be able for the work if 'tis not too +skillful." + +"I could do it myself," the knight said carelessly, "if I had but the fire +and tools. I came but an hour ago, and I must go on to-morrow." + +The two went back to the shop, and the fire was kindled, a torch was set +in a wrought-iron wall-cresset, and the work begun. Dickon saw with +surprise that the knight himself had no small knowledge of the craft of +the armorer. + +The dagger was of the finest Saracen steel work, the haft inlaid with +gold. Inside it the knight wished to conceal some jewels of no very great +value, in a hollow made for the purpose and opened by twisting a round +boss on the hilt. This was often done by travelers, since a man's dagger +was his companion day and night, and in case of disaster he might thus +have at hand the means to pay his way. + +"That blade," the knight observed, trying its edge, "was the gift of a +Saracen emir I made friends with beyond Damascus. Nay, look not so amazed, +lad. They are no more wizards than you or I." + +He must have divined the questions trembling on Dickon's lips, for when +the work was done he still sat in the doorway and seemed in no haste to +go. The white moon flooded the place and with the glow of the brazier made +curious blended lights and shadows. The knight had thrown aside his cloak, +and showed himself bronzed, keen-faced and active, like one who had done +his part both in council-hall and camp. "It is like this," he went on, +clasping his knee with brown strong hands. "This Christendom of ours is +all ringed round with heathenesse--Moors, Danes, Bulgars, Arabs, Turks-- +peoples white, brown, black, but caring naught for those things which are +dear and precious to Christian men and women. I have been where the +beacons flashed from hill to hill along the shore of Britain to warn the +villages of Danish pirates. I have seen the Moors from Barbary come +swarming over the borders of Granada and Andalusia until the Christians +were all but driven back into the mountains. Our faith is not their faith, +our oaths are not their oaths, nor our ways their ways. + +"Now the paynim of the desert live not in towns and cities as we do, but +in tents. The wealth of a chief is in his flocks and herds,--sheep and +goats, camels, the swift desert horses. The wealth of a sultan is in the +lances he can call to his banner in time of war, under their own leaders. +There is only one war-cry that makes one host of them all, and that is +'Allah-hu!' Saladin might promise ten times over, and thousands of his +subjects would never know it or be bound by it. And what can you do when a +promise is of no value? + +"It is the same with the heathen who come raiding over the North Sea. They +plunder and pillage as they list, whether it be palace, abbey or nunnery +that lies in their way. Honor has no meaning to those who prey on the +helpless." + +"My lord," said Dickon hesitatingly, "you mean that--that--honor is for +all men--though they take no vows?" + +The stranger's voice rang like steel on steel. "Honor is for all true men- +-and women--king or knight, merchant or peasant, bond or free. A slave may +be loyal to his master--the master must keep faith with the slave. Christ +died for all--for their souls, not their houses of stone or brick or +timber. Do you think, if He were on earth now, He would choose to be +served only by those of gentle blood?" + +This was a new thought to Dickon, though he had always known the stories +of the healing of the blind and the leprous, and the birth at Bethlehem. +The knight went on, rising and taking up his cloak, "As for the magic you +have heard of, it is nothing but the practice of centuries. The desert +chiefs, from whom the Moslems are mostly descended, are ever wandering +from place to place, where their beasts can find grazing. Hence all their +wealth must be carried on pack saddles. They can make with their many- +colored shawls and rugs a palace out of a tent pitched for the night. They +work leather, iron, brass, because this can be done without long stay in +any one place. And when a people can have but few luxuries they grow very +skillful in the making of those few. They carry their wisdom in such +matters, as they do their wealth, wherever they go, and hand it down from +father to son. That is all the sorcery they use. + +"I have told you these things because a man should have neither overmuch +fear nor any contempt for his enemy, and these paynim are, or may be at +any time, our enemies. Our faith must be as this dagger, ready for service +by day or night, but for defense, not for assassination. Since Saladin has +come to the throne there is a stirring among the tribes that worship the +false prophet, and they may be once more dreaming that they may conquer +the world for Islam. They can never do it, but they may force us to +another Crusade in time. I am on my way to England now to make report to +the King of what I have seen. I hope that some day we may meet there. If +ever you want work, Sir Gualtier Giffard on the Welsh border will bid you +welcome if you say that you were sent by Hugh l'Estrange." + +Moved by sudden impulse Dickon told in a few words the story of Audrey's +service and their promise. The knight held out his hand in open +kindliness. "You did well," he said. "Every man who keeps faith with his +neighbor, every good soldier, every wise and gentle monk, and more than +all, every true woman, is a link in a great chain that makes for the +safety of Christendom. A token is a small thing,--yes--but what is our +Cross itself but a token? I would wish my own lad Roger to have acted as +you did." + + + +AWAKENING + + + + Before the snows are melted that cradle the mountain streams, + Before the bear and the dormouse rouse from their winter dreams, + Before the earliest linnet flutes forth his roundel clear, + There comes an authentic moment that marks the turn of the year. + + A brightness in the sunshine, a hint of life in the air, + A soft mist veiling the hilltops that were so brown and bare, + Nothing to note or ponder, nothing to see or hear,-- + But there is a mystic difference that marks the turn of the year! + + Light as the wings of a sea-mew in the rush of startled flight, + Cool as the touch of clover, shy as the dews of night, + Strong as the love of freedom, sudden as panic fear, + The restless gypsy longing wakes at the turn of the year. + + Why do we toil and swelter over the task we hate? + What is to keep us fettered to the benches of sullen Fate? + There is nothing half so fleeting,--there is nothing half so dear + As the unfulfilled desire that comes with the turn of the year! + + + + +X + +FOOLS' GOLD + + +"Yes," acknowledged old Tomaso thoughtfully, "I knew Archiater of +Byzantium very well at one time,--and yet no one ever really knew much +about him. He was more than a clever alchemist,--he was a discoverer of +secrets, and a good man. But for all that, he was condemned and executed +as a wizard." + +Alan of York said nothing for a minute, but his fist clenched where it lay +on the table. "How could such a thing happen?" he said at last in a low +voice. + +"Naturally enough, when wisdom must ever contend against the whelming +force of folly. But there is something worse--the will of a ruler seeking +to enslave knowledge to his own purpose. A madman with ideals is bad +enough, but Barbarossa's son is a diabolically sane person without any. A +man is not called 'the Cruel' without reason." + +"But what object--" Alan began, and paused. + +"Archiater the physician, as I knew him, would have been rather worse than +useless to that prince as I have heard of him," answered the Paduan +deliberately. "Such a patron demands creatures who do as they are told,-- +which is not the duty of a philosopher. The easiest way to dispose of a +man who knows too much is to dub him a wizard. But, of course, all this is +merely guessing in the dark. + +"The little that I do know is this. When we had been acquainted for about +three years he told me that he had been offered the use of a house in +Goslar in which he might carry on his experiments privately. The chief +inducement, for him, lay in the nature of the country, which is very rich +in minerals, and he decided to leave Padua in the hope of making important +discoveries in this new field. He went first to Hildesheim and developed a +formula for making bronze which is said to be extraordinary, and then +began exploring the Harz mountains. He sent me some of the ores he found; +it appears that there is nearly everything in those ranges. I heard no +more until the news came, in a roundabout way, that he was dead and his +ashes cast to the four winds. His writings were supposed to have been +burned at the same time, but not all of them were, for three manuscripts +at least must have gone to make up the fragments we found among our +bezants. I wish for your sake, Alan, my son, that I could tell you more, +for I know of no man who would gain more by Archiater's work than you. If +he had been your master I think you might have rivaled the Venetians." + +Alan was not vain, and he never dreamed that Tomaso thought so highly of +his ability. In the Middle Ages the secrets of such arts as glass-making, +enameling, leather work, gold and silver work, and the making of +dyestuffs, were most jealously guarded. Alan had had two fortunate +accidents in his life; he had been taught in the beginning by a master- +artist, and later had come upon writings by a still greater genius, the +Byzantine philosopher of whom Tomaso had been speaking. + +From the first glimpse he had had of the crabbed, clear handwriting, the +terse phrases, the daring and independent thought of Archiater, he had +been fascinated. Now he had set out to cross the narrow seas and find out +what, if anything, remained of the master's life-work. + +"May there not have been some friend or pupil," he asked wistfully, "who +would have rescued his manuscripts?" + +"In that case," Tomaso replied with gentle finality, "I think some of us +must have heard of it." + +"And yet," Alan persisted, "some one had those parchments--some one who +may have received them from Archiater himself." + +"Take care," the old man said with a rather melancholy smile. "That a +thing is possible and desirable, is no proof that it is true. To search +for that man seems to me like hunting the forest for last year's leaves. +But here come friends of yours." + +Guy Bouverel came springing up the stair, Giovanni and Padraig close +behind him. When greetings had been exchanged, and Alan had told the +others that he was in London only for a brief stay on his way to France, +Tomaso addressed the young goldsmith. + +"Guy," he said, "did you ever ferret out anything more about those +parchment scraps we found among the King's coin? You said that you should +make some inquiries." "Bezants are bezants and tell no tales," said Guy +with a shrug. "And if they did, they might lie, like so many of those who +love them. Why, you recall that I repacked that gold in my own chest +because I thought one of the clerks was growing too fond of it. I took it +as it lay and never looked at the parchments. I met the clerk one day in +Chepe and questioned him. He said that the gold was a part of that the +King recovered from the London Templars--you know, when he had to come +with an armed guard to get his moneys that were stored in their house. +Gregory of Hildesheim had something to do with it, for he was very wroth +when he found that I had got this particular chest. But he could not have +known what these scripts were or he would have kept them in a sealed +packet under his own hand." + +"He could not have read most of them," said Tomaso. "Archiater usually +wrote his diaries in cipher. Who is this clerk?" + +"Simon Gastard his name is. He was very anxious to leave England when last +I saw him. He was at me to join in a scheme for digging gold out of the +Harz mountains--Padraig, what are you grinning at?" + +"Only to see how keen is your nose for a thief," Padraig chuckled. "If +Simon is after digging gold out of the ground with his hands 'tis the +honestest plan he has had this long time. Simon thinks gold is what heaven +is made of. He would look at the sunset and calculate what the gold would +be worth in zecchins--he would. But why all this talk of the parchments?" + +"Because I have a mind to see whether any more of Archiater's work is to +be found," said Alan quietly. "It may be a fool's errand, but I could not +rest till I had made a beginning." + +Three faces looked astonished, sympathetic and interested. Alan had the +hearty liking of his friends. They could depend upon him as on the market +cross. But they would almost as soon have expected to see that cross set +forth on pilgrimage as to find the quiet North Country glassmaker +beginning any such weird journey as this. + +Tomaso broke the little silence, leaning forward in his oaken chair, his +finger-tips meeting. "We may as well sift what evidence we have," he said. +"If the manuscripts had been in the hands of any one who knew the cipher +he must have done work so far beyond anything else in his craft that it +would be heard of. Archiater never made use of half his discoveries--and +he was always finding out secrets concerning the crafts. He knew things +about glassmaking, enamel-work, dyestuffs, and medicine, that no one else +did. He was occupied almost wholly with experiment and research. There are +not two such men in a century. + +"Giovanni, you are the only one of us who has been beyond the Rhine. Do +you know any one there who might possibly aid in this search?" + +The Lombard seldom talked unless he was directly addressed. "One man," he +said, "might know the truth." + +"Would he reply to a letter?" + +Giovanni shook his head. "He does not write letters. If I could see him I +would ask him, but the air of Goslar is not wholesome for me." He looked +at Alan curiously. "Do you think of going there?" + +"Why not?" Alan returned. + +"There are rather more than half a score of reasons why not," said +Giovanni, with a little mocking smile. "Do you speak many foreign +languages?" + +"Only French." + +"And the moment you opened your mouth they would know you for an +Englishman. A foreign glassworker searching for the books of a reputed +wizard who made the Hildesheim bronze they are so proud of. That would +interest the Imperial spies." + +"Vanni," said Alan, getting up, "I know well what a hare-brained +undertaking this must seem to you. But if you see fit to give me any +advice, I shall value it." + +The young men took their leave of Tomaso and followed the curving shore of +the Thames eastward to the city. "Look you," said Guy presently, "I have a +plan--not a very shrewd one perhaps, but you shall judge of that. This +clerk, Simon Gastard, knows the country and the language. If his story is +true it may be worth looking into. I would not trust him alone with the +value of a Scotch penny. But if you were to go with him as my proxy, you +would have a chance of talking with this man Giovanni has in mind." + +Padraig sniffed. "And Simon would sell ye to the devil if he got his +price. 'Tis pure rainbow-chasing, Alan--but I love ye for it." + +"Fools are safer than philosophers, in some parts of the world," observed +Giovanni dryly. "And they are commoner everywhere. I hear that the +Templars are trying to find a tame wizard who can be kept in a tower to +make gold." + +"Vanni," said Guy demurely, "did you ever, in your travels, hear of any +one making gold?" + +"No," said the Milanese, "but I have known of a score finding fool's gold, +and that's the kind you come on at the end of the rainbow. Alan, if you +are resolved on this thing, I will give you a token and a password to a +man you can trust." + +At London Stone they separated, Giovanni turning toward London Bridge, +Padraig wending his way to Saint Paul's, Guy and Alan making their way +through clamorous narrow streets to the Sign of the Gold Finch. + +"By Saint Loy," said the goldsmith suddenly, "here comes the clerk +himself. Gastard," he beckoned to a little threadbare man edging along by +the wall, "I have a question to ask about the matter you wot of." + +If Alan had heard nothing beforehand he would have taken the man for a +fussy, inoffensive little scrivener who would never do more than he was +bid--or less. But when they were seated in the private room above the +shop, in which Guy kept some of the finest of his gold and silver work, +Simon's restless eyes began to glitter, and he reminded Alan of a rat in +the dairy. + +Guy came at once to the point. Would Simon repeat his story for Alan's +enlightenment? Simon would. He related how, when returning from +pilgrimage, he had lost his way in the Harz valley and come upon a +hermitage where a very old monk lay near death. In gratitude (Simon said) +for services to him in his extremity, the hermit had revealed the secret +of a rich mine of gold in the mountains. Simon had gone to the mine, +secured nuggets of the precious metal, but most unfortunately had shown +them to Gregory of Hildesheim, a Templar said to be wise in the arts of +alchemy and metal-working. Gregory had seemed interested at first, but +afterward had told him that the ore was not gold at all, but a cunning +counterfeit devised by Satan. He had not even returned the specimens, but +had railed upon Simon for trying to pass them off as gold. That night a +heavy snowfall, the first of many, made it impossible to visit the mine +again. Now that Gregory was in England Simon wished to go again and secure +more of the gold secretly. It was scarcely possible to find the place +without direction, but one man, Simon solemnly declared, could, with pick +and shovel and leathern bag, bring away a fortune. + +"It would be necessary," said Guy, "to purify the gold so far as to make +it into rude ingots, if it is, as you say, in the rocks and not in free +lumps and particles washed down a stream. You need a companion who +understands such work. Now, I cannot take up the matter myself, but my +friend here knows enough of metals, though he is no goldsmith, to do that +part of the work. Some sort of makeshift laboratory might be arranged for +that. Then, if it is really a rich mine, we will see what can be done +next. But you will understand that I cannot be expected to undertake any +work involving great expense unless I have some other proof than you can +give me now. If you will take my friend to this mine, so that he may +secure ore enough to make his experiments, and I see the gold for myself, +I will pay the cost of the expedition. More than this, it seems to me, you +cannot expect." + +With this Simon effusively agreed. Alan had been watching Guy's face with +interest during the interview. The Londoner's usual debonair manner had +become the cool decision of a man with whom it is unsafe to deal slyly. + +When Simon's back had vanished in the crowd of Chepe, Guy began rolling up +papers and closing books. "That may save you some time and trouble," he +said, "if you can stomach his company. I do not believe, you know, that +there is any gold in the ledges. Simon knows no more of the nature of +metals than Saint Anthony's Pig." + +"What is the truth of the matter, do you think?" asked Alan. + +"I thought at first that he had invented the whole story. But in that case +he would hardly have agreed to my plan so eagerly. It is just possible, of +course, that gold is there--it has been found in the Harz. He says that +the stuff is not brittle, and can be hammered and cut, which does not +sound like an iron ore. And his description of the rocks is too good to be +his own fancy. Again, the ore may be 'fool's gold',--a mixture of copper +and sulphur. In that case you will know it right enough when you come to +the roasting of it. In any case I am interested enough in the tale to take +a little trouble, and you and your private treasure-hunt happen to alloy +very happily with my curiosity." + +"Guy," said Alan, "you may laugh, but your aid means more to me than you +know. If the clerk's tale is false you shall be repaid for your outlay." + +"Pshaw!" laughed Guy, "a copper mine is good enough to repay me. And then, +I take a certain interest in the manuscripts you are after. After all, if +you should find them it would be no stranger than those parchments coming +to us as they did, through the very hands of both Gregory and Simon. That +was a golden jest--but we must keep it hid for awhile. And now, what I +know of metals and their ways is at your service." + +Behold Alan then, after no more than the usual adventures of a journey, +busied with a small furnace in a small stone-floored room over an archway +in the walled city of Goslar. It was a late spring and bitterly cold, and +the heat of the fire was grateful. Simon had thus far put off taking his +companion to see the mine, and Alan had been occupied with fitting up a +place in which the ore should be tested when the time came. + +Hearing the blare of trumpets, he craned his head out of window, and +caught a glimpse of the imperial banner flaunting and snapping in the +chill wind. He caught up cap and cloak and ran down the winding stone +stairs, coming out upon the market-square just as the guards entered it. +So close that Alan could have touched him, there went by a humped and +twisted figure with a jester's bells and bauble--a man with a maliciously +smiling mouth and wicked, observant, tired eyes. The white pointed beard +and worn, lined face belonged to an older man than Alan had expected to +see. The eyes met his for a second, he flung his cloak over the left +shoulder with the gesture Giovanni had taught him, and a few minutes later +an impudent small page pulled his sleeve and whispered that Master Stefano +desired to see him. + +The boy led him through ancient streets to the entrance of a tall house +near the wall, and went off whistling. An old woman opened the door and +showed him into a little ante-room where, the jester sat, perched upon the +corner of a table. Alan bowed, and waited in silence. + +"Very well," said the jester with a laugh. "And now, since we are quite +alone, why do you, an honest man, pretend to be the fellow of that +rascally clerk?" + +Alan always met an emergency coolly. "I did not know the country or the +language," he said, "and I took this way of reaching Goslar in the hope of +learning the truth about one Archiater of Byzantium." + +The jester's high cackling laughter broke in. "Truth from a fool!" he +shrilled. "Oh, the wisdom of those who are not fools is past +understanding! Why do you rake those ashes?" + +"I have read some of his writings," Alan went on undisturbed, "and if +there should be more--anywhere--I would risk much for the sake of them." + +Stefano shook his head mockingly, and the bells mocked with him. "You +English are mad after gold. They say here that Archiater sold his soul for +his knowledge." + +"That is child's prattle," said the young man a little impatiently. "Gold +is all very well, but a man's life is in his work, not his wages. If you +can tell me nothing of what I seek, I will not trouble you." + +The fool clasped one knee in his long crooked white fingers. "You have no +wife, I take it." + +"I have not thought about it. But that has nothing to do with secrets of +the laboratory." + +"Heh-heh! Little you know of women. They have everything to do with a +secret. But suppose the manuscrips are worthless?" + +"That is not possible," Alan returned. "The lightest memorandum of such a +man has value. It is like a finger-post pointing to treasure. There are +writings, then?" + +"I said nothing of the sort," retorted Stefano. "I know all about your +search for treasure. Your clerk is digging the hills up this very day for +fool's gold. It has the look of gold--yes--but it is copper and brimstone +mixed in Satan's crucible--fool's gold and no more. Neither you nor he +will get any true gold out of that mine." + +"I tell you," said Alan in sharp earnest, "that I came here with him for +convenience, not for treasure. A friend to whom I owe much desired to know +whether the clerk's story were true or false. For myself I seek only to +know what remains of the work of Archiater, because he was a master whose +work should not be lost. There must be those--somewhere--who could go on +with it,--if we but knew." + +"Aye," chuckled the jester, "if we but knew!" Then leaning forward he +caught Alan by the shoulder. "Listen, you young chaser of dreams--what +would you give to see what Archiater left? Eh? Would you guard the secret +with your life? Eh? They burned the books in the public square--yes--but +if there was something that was not a book, what would you do for a sight +of that?" + +Alan's heart was pounding with excitement, but his face was unmoved. "I am +not good at fencing, Master Stefano. I have been frank with you because I +am assured that you are to be trusted, and I think that you trust me or +you would not thus play with me. When you are ready to ask a pledge,--ask +it." + +"Well and straightly spoken," nodded the jester. "If I reveal to you what +I know of this philosopher and his work, you shall pledge yourself to +betray nothing, to say nothing--not so much as a hint that I knew him-- +whether I am alive or dead." + +Now and then in his life Alan had acted from pure blind instinct. This was +the blindest, blackest place it had ever led him to. He did not hesitate. +"I promise," he said. + +"Very good," said the jester, and drummed thoughtfully upon the table. "We +will begin with matters which are not bound up in your promise--for they +concern your friend who desires to sift out the clerk's tale about his +mine. This is the true story. Archiater found many metals and minerals in +these hills, and made some of his experiments in the ruins of an old pagan +temple close to the spot where he discovered a vein of copper. He was half +a winter trying out what he found, from arsenic to zircon. Simon watched +him by stealth, tracked him like a beagle, and finally went to one high in +authority with the report that he was making secret poisons. This would +have been no crime had the poisons been available for practical use. As it +was, they felt it safest to have Archiater seized when he came back to the +city, and tried as a wizard. + +"They ransacked his house and got his books, of course, but Simon had +stolen some stray manuscripts he found in the old ruin and sold them. +Nothing, however, was gained by the person who paid the money, because the +writings were partly in cipher, and the key to the cipher had been burned +in the public square." + +"Then the Templars may still have the manuscripts," mused Alan +disconsolately. + +"Maybe," the fool said with a little laugh, "but I said there might be +something that was not a manuscript. Come you with me." + +Taking a rushlight from a shelf the jester toiled slowly up two flights of +winding stairs, and then a short, straight flight of wooden steps,--opened +a door, and stood aside to let Alan pass. The young man paused on the +threshold in silent wonder. + +The room within was not large, but it glowed from floor to ceiling like +some rare work in mosaic or Limoges enamel. The walls were hung with such +tapestries as Alan had seen on rare holidays in a cathedral, or in the +palace of duke or bishop. They were covered with needlework of silk in all +the colors of the rainbow, wrought into graceful interwoven garlands and +figures. The cushions of chair and settle, the panels of a screen, the +curtains of the latticed windows, displayed still more of this marvelous +embroidery, subtly contrasted and harmonized with the coloring of a rich +Persian rug upon the floor. The heart of all this glowing, exquisite +beauty was a young girl in straight-hanging robes of fine silk and wool, +her gleaming bronze hair falling free over her shoulders from a gold +fillet, her deep eyes meeting the stranger's with the sweet frankness of a +sheltered, beloved child. + +The jester bowed low, his gay fantastic cap in hand, all his fleering, +mocking manner changed to a gentle deference. + +"Josian, my dear," he said, "this is the young man of whom I sent you +word. He has traveled many weary miles to see and speak with Archiater's +daughter." + + + +TO JOSIAN FROM PRISON + + I + + Sweetheart my daughter: + These three days and nights + (Stephen has told me) thou dost grieve for me + Silently, hour by hour. Yet do not so, + My little one, but think what happiness + We shared together, and attend thy tasks + Diligently as thou 'rt ever wont to do. + When thou dost add thy mite of joyous life + To the great world, thou art a giver too, + Like to the birds who make us glad in spring. + Be happy therefore, little bird, and stay + Warm in thy nest upon the housetop high, + Where may God keep thee safe. And so, good-night. + + II + + Dearest my little one: + It hath been ruled + That I shall go away to that far land + Which I have told thee of. Men call it Death. + Thou knowest that our souls cannot be free + Dwelling within these houses of the flesh, + Yet for love's sake we do endure this bondage, + As would I gladly if God willed it so. + Stephen will care for thee as for a daughter,-- + Be to him then a daughter; he has none + Save thee to love him. For the rest, remember + That in the quiet mind the soul sees truth, + And I shall speak to thee in our loved books, + As in the sunshine and the sound of music, + The beauty and the sweetness of the world. + + Three kisses give I thee,--brow, eyes, and lips. + Think wisely, and see clearly, and speak gently. + Thy little bed at night shall hold thee safe + As mine own arms,--thine elfin needle make + Thy little room a bright and lovely bower. + Thy household fairies Rainbow, Lodestone, Flint, + Shall do thy will. Thy stars have said to me + That thou wilt see far lands and many cities. + Await thy Prince from that enchanted shore + Beyond the rainbow's end, and read with him + Thy magic runes. This charge I lay on him + That he shall love thee--more than I--farewell! + Thy father, + ARCHIATER + +To Josian my daughter and +sole heiress. + + + + +XI + +ARCHIATER'S DAUGHTER + + +Alan was gathering his French for some sort of greeting, when the young +girl spoke in a sweet clear voice and in English. + +"I am glad that you have come," she said. "Father Stephen says that you +desire to hear of my father." + +"I came from England in the hope that I might," Alan answered simply. + +"I cannot tell you very much of his work," the girl went on, motioning him +to a seat, with a quaint grace of gesture. "I was so very tiny, you see, +when he went away. He used to tell me stories and sing little songs to me, +and teach me to know the flowers and the birds. My mother would have done +so, he said, and he wished so far as he could to be both father and mother +to me. It seemed to me that he was so, and I loved him--not as dearly as +he loved me, because I was so small, but as much as I possibly could. Oh, +much more than my nurse, although Maddalena is very dear to me. + +"We lived almost always in the city, so that we had not any garden, but we +had pots of flowers in the windows, and I used to tend them. Sometimes, +when my father went into the woods and the fields, he would take me, and +then I was happy; no bird could have been happier. I would weave garlands +of flowers, singing my rhymes about colors, and he taught me how to +arrange them to make every blossom beautiful in its place. + +"When he sat writing at his table he called me his mouse, and if I kept +still I had cheese for my dinner with the bread and fruit. But when I +forgot and made a noise he would say that the mouse must be caught in a +trap, and he would take me in his arms and call Maddalena to carry me +away. And sometimes he went out alone, or shut himself in his own room for +days and days. Once he came out in the twilight and found me asleep with +my head on his threshold. After that he said that I must have work to do +while he did his work, and he would have Maddalena teach me the use of the +needle. He dyed the silks for me himself in beautiful colors, and when I +had done my task he would teach me to read in the big books and the small, +and to draw pictures of what I read. Here is one of the very books I used +to read with him." + +Alan would have thought what he saw was impossible if anything had seemed +unbelievable in this elfin girl. She laid open upon the table a finely +illuminated copy, in Greek, of Aesop's Fables, written on vellum in a +precise beautiful hand. + +"He himself wrote books for me--not many, for he said there were books +enough in the world. One was on the nature of herbs, and another was about +the stars and their houses in the heavens. But they were lost, those +books. Father Stephen brought me others, but they are not the same; my +father wrote those only for me." "Had your father no friends?" Alan asked, +with a great compassion for the lonely man bending his genius to make a +world for his motherless baby. + +"Not many, and none here except Father Stephen, who knew my mother when +she was a child, in Ravenna. People came sometimes, but they were not +friends; their eyes were cold and their voices hard. Since my father went +away two old friends of his have been here with Father Stephen, but they +came only once. They were not of this people; they came from Byzantium." + +"And you have lived here always?" + +The maiden laughed, a merry laughter like the lilt of a woodlark. "Oh, no- +-o! Father Stephen has taken me to many places--to Venice once, and to +Rome, and when I was little we lived in Cordova. That is how I learned to +speak in different languages. I learned a new one every year for four +years. But for three years I have stayed in Goslar, and Father Stephen +says that no one must know I am here. That is queer, is it not, to live in +a city where not even the people in the next house know that you are +alive? Perhaps some day I shall go away, and live as others do. I wonder +very much what it will be like." + +The jester's face was shadowed by a sad tenderness. "May you never wish +yourself back in your cage, my child," he said. "But it grows late, and I +think that you have told this guest all that you can of your father's +work." + +"All that I know," the young girl said, regretfully. "I really know so +little of it--and the books were lost." + +In a maze Alan followed the jester down the darkening stairway. At the +foot Stefano turned and faced him. "You see what she is," he said. "She is +Archiater's only child--she has his signet ring and his letters written +her from prison--only two, but I risked my own life to get them for her. +When they took him away they did not know that such a little creature +existed. She was but seven years old, and her nurse, Maddalena, hid with +her in a chest in the garret, telling her that it was a game. That night I +took them to a place of safety." + +"And you have taken care of her ever since?" the young man asked. The +jester nodded his big head. Then, as a group of courtiers came around the +corner, with a mocking gesture, Stefano limped away. Alan heard their +shout of laughter at his words of greeting, and went home in a dream. + +During the following days Stefano treated him with every appearance of +confidence. By the jester's invitation he spent many hours at the tall +ancient house, in that enchanted room with its latticed windows looking +out over street and wall to the mountains. Stefano spent the time lounging +on the divan or in the great chair, or watching the street far below. He +said very little and often seemed scarcely to hear the talk of the youth +and the maiden. + +Their talk ranged over many subjects. The girl could read not only in +Latin, the common language of all scholars, but in Greek and Arabian. Many +of her books were heavy leatherbound tomes by Avicenna, Averroes, +Damascene, Pliny, and other writers whose very names were unfamiliar to +Alan's ears. She poised above them like a bee over a garden, gathering +what pleased her bright fancy. Sometimes while they talked she would be +working upon her tapestry, some rich, delicate or curious design in her +many-hued silks. + +Alan found that her father had begun teaching her the laws of design and +color before she could read. He had told her that colors were like notes +in music, and had their loves and hates as people do. + +"Is it not so in your work, Al-an?" she asked. "Do not the good colors and +the bad contend always until you bring them into agreement?" + +Alan had told her of his work, and it seemed to interest her immensely. +She was greatly delighted when she learned that he had found memoranda in +her father's own handwriting, which had led to the making of wonderful +deep blue glass. + +"If I had the little books he wrote for me," she said one day, "you might +find something beautiful in them also." + +He watched and wondered at the sure instinct guiding her deft, small +fingers in the placing of colors--the purple fruit, the gold-green vine or +the scarlet pomegranate flower in her maze-like embroidery. "But how can +you make pictures in the windows," she would say, with her lilting +laughter, "if you do not know about color?" + +To Alan's secret amusement he perceived that she thought her life very +ordinary and natural, while his own adventures on the moorland farm of his +boyhood were to her like fairy-tales. She was shyly but intensely curious +about his mother. She had never known anything of the ways of mothers +except from books and tales. + +One bright morning she took from a coffer a prism of rock-crystal. "This +is one of the playthings my father gave me," she said. "Look how it makes +the colors dance upon the wall." + +Like a quick silent fairy the little rainbow flitted here and there. "He +told me," she went on, "that seven invisible colors live together in a +sunbeam, but when they pass this magic door they must go in single file, +and then we may see them. Not all are good colors. Some are bad and +quarrelsome, and some are good when they are alone, but not when they are +with colors they do not like. But when they live together in peace they +make the beautiful clear daylight, and we see the world exactly as it is." + +"As it is--saints protect her," muttered old Maddalena, and the jester +smiled his twisted smile. + +That evening Stefano said suddenly, "What are you going to do with your +clerk?" + +"To-morrow," said Alan, "I shall go to his mine." + +"You have not been there?" + +"No; he has made some silly excuse each time it has been suggested." + +"He will never take you there," said the jester. "You will see." + +"Simon," said Alan pleasantly that night, "I am going into the mountains +with you to-morrow." + +Suspicion, fear, jealous greed, chased one another over the clerk's mean +face. "You are in great haste," he muttered. "It is not good weather, but +we will go of course, if you wish." + +In the morning Simon lay groaning with rheumatism, unable to move. Alan +made a fire, covered him warmly, left food within his reach, and went out +to think the matter over. Unconsciously his steps tended toward the house +of the jester. Stefano, coming out, caught sight of him. + +"Hey!" said the fool, "why are you not in the mountains?" + +Alan explained. The other gave a dry little laugh. "That need not hinder +you," said he. "I will send some one to show you the place. Come to the +market-square an hour hence and look for a youth with two horses. I think +you would pass for a wood-cutter if you had an ax." + +Acting on this hint, Alan provided himself with ax and maul, and found in +the place appointed a serving boy riding one horse and leading another. He +had reason to be glad of the rough life of his boyhood, for he had ridden +all over the moors, bareback, on just such wiry half-broken animals, and +the road they now took was not an easy one. + +At last they left the horses in a dell at the foot of the ledges and +scrambled up to a small stone building near the top of the mountain, half +hidden among evergreens. Its door was gone and its roof half fallen in, +but in it could be seen a stone altar and various tools and utensils, wood +cut and ready for burning. Evidently some one had been using the place--in +fact, some one was here now. As Alan stood in the doorway a figure rose +from a pile of leaves in the corner. + +"Vanni!" said Alan under his breath. + +"Oh, he can be trusted," said Giovanni, with a glance at the guide. "I +have been here two days. This was Archiater's private workshop. The +mountain people think it is haunted, so that it is a good place to hide. I +was not pleased when I found that your clerk had taken it for his own. I +lay upon the roof for two hours yesterday watching him. Having an errand +at Rheims I thought I would come along and see what had happened to you." + +Alan had as yet no right to tell the most important thing that had +happened. "I have not been here before," he said. "Simon has put me off, +and he does not know I am here now." + +"Has he shown you his findings? He took a bag away with him--a heavy one." + +"Only some minerals which are worth more than he thinks. I have been +working with them more or less. He is mightily curious about the action of +the furnace. I make a guess he is going to try to test the ore himself." + +"There is a donkey-load of it here," said Giovanni, tilting with his foot +a stone in the floor. Under it gleamed a mass of irregular shining +fragments and yellow lumps of stone. Alan picked up one and scraped it, +struck it with a hammer, rubbed it across a chip of wood, "Guy was right," +he said, "it is not gold. I can prove that to the fellow if he gives me a +chance." + +"What shall you do?" + +"I am not sure. Are you safe here?" + +"So long as they do not know I am here. Master Gay and his son are at +Rheims, and I am to join them. If you will come to-morrow or the day after +we can go together. I will show you a short way over the mountains that +Cimarron found when we were here. Stefano knows of my coming, and I shall +see him to-night." + +Alan had been thinking. "Vanni, I will do this. I will go with you to- +morrow if I can, but if I do not meet you here before noon you will know +that I must stay on. Will that answer?" + +"I suppose it must. I dislike leaving you here with a twice-proved rascal +like this Simon. You do not know what he may do." + +"I should like to thrash him," said Alan. "He is planning to get the whole +of this gold, as he thinks it, for himself." + +"Of course he is. But what good would it do to beat him? You cannot thrash +the inside of him, can you?" + +Alan laughed, and strode off to the place where the horses were tethered. +Before returning to his lodgings he went to see Stefano. + +"Well," said the jester when he had heard all, "what shall you do?" + +Alan hesitated. "So far as my errand is concerned," he answered, "I might +join Giovanni to-morrow. We had all along suspected that the ore was only +fool's gold. But--" + +"I know," nodded the jester. "And for that other reason, I am going to +tell you something. I have known for some time that Josian is not safe in +my care. It has never been over-safe, this arrangement, but while she was +a child the risk was not so great. Also, having the Emperor's favor, I +could do more for her than any one else could--then. + +"I have thought for some days that the house was watched, and I do not +like that. Some one may have got wind of her being here, or may be tempted +by the reports of my hoard of gold. It is not hidden here, but they may +think it is. There is danger in the air. I can smell it. + +"I have trusted no man as I am trusting you now. I have been looking for +some means of sending her away to Tomaso, her father's old friend, but the +thing has been most difficult to arrange. I dare not wait longer. Will you +take her away, with her nurse Maddalena, and protect her as if she were +your sister? You will have the aid of Giovanni, though he has never known +this secret." + +Alan's eyes met those of the old man eagerly and frankly. "Master +Stefano," he answered, "I will guard her with my life. But can she be +ready to go at once?" + +Stefano nodded. "The preparations that remain to be made will take no more +than an hour or two. She is a good traveler. My servant will secure horses +for you and meet you just before sunrise, near the gate. Maddalena will +come there with her, and you must not ride so fast as to arouse curiosity. +I have to play the buffoon at a banquet to-night, and there is but little +time, therefore--addio!" + +Alan walked home slowly, pondering on all he had seen and heard that day. +Coming within sight of his lodgings, he found the street full of people +gazing at the windows, out of which a thick smoke was pouring. + +"What has happened here?" he asked of a little inn-keeper from Boulogne, +with whom he had some acquaintance. + +"They say it is the devil," the other replied with a shrug. "Mortally +anxious to see him they seem to be." + +Alan shouldered his way through the crowd and ran up the stairs. Half way +up he met Simon reeling down, and caught him by the arm. "What have you +been about?" he asked sternly. + +"The gold is bew-witched!" bubbled Simon, arms waving and eyes rolling in +terrified despair. "It is changed in the crucible! It is the work of +Satan!" + +"Nonsense!" said Alan roughly. "You have been roasting the wrong ore. I +could have told you it was not true gold. Be quiet, or we shall be driven +out of Goslar." + +Simon was too distracted to heed, and Alan went hastily up to the rooms, +where he found some copper pyrites in process of oxidation, giving forth +volumes of strangling sulphur smoke. After quenching the fire and doing +what he could to purify the air he gathered his belongings together and +left the house, extremely annoyed. He could see suspicion and even +threatening in the look of the crowd. + +He went into the alley where Martin Bouvin's little inn was and asked +shelter for the night. + +"I go away to-morrow," he said, "and there is no returning to that place +for hours to come." + +"H'm!" said the inn-keeper. "What really happened?" + +Alan explained. "My faith," commented Bouvin, decanting some wine into his +guest's cup, "you are well rid of that fellow. Do you know that he has +been spying on you for a week? He dared not follow you, but he tried to +hire some one else to do it--that I know." + +It was already late. Alan dozed off, despite his uneasiness, for he had +had a tiring day. Suddenly he awoke and sat bolt upright. There was a +commotion in the street. The innkeeper was peeping out through a hole in +the solid shutters. "It is the clerk again," he said. "He is haranguing +the people." + +Alan slipped out and came up on the outskirts of the crowd. He caught the +words "fool's gold" in Simon's shrill voice, and then the crowd began to +mutter, "Die Hexe! Die Hexe!" + +Alan waited to hear no more. He knew that this meant that sinister thing, +a witch-hunt. If Simon had connected Stefano's house and his reputed hoard +of gold with his disastrous experiment, and possibly suspected Josian's +existence there, it was a time for quick thought and bold action. He raced +down the street leading to the rear of the house, vaulted the wall and +found old Maddalena unlocking the small side door. + +"Get her away," he said in a low voice, "at once--there is danger!" + +The old woman pointed up the stairs, and Alan went leaping over them to +find the girl hooded and cloaked for the journey in the small room, now +bare and cold as the moonlight. Her soft light steps kept pace with his to +the garden gate; he hurried her and Maddalena out, bidding them walk away +quietly. Then he turned back, heaped a pile of straw and rubbish under the +stairs, and flung the contents of a lighted charcoal brazier on it. As the +fire blazed up he heard the snarl of the mob coming down the street which +passed the front entrance. He could hear words in the incoherent shouting- +-"Die Hexe! Die Hexe! Brennen--brennen!" + +As he shut the gate and slipped away he found Martin Bouvin keeping pace +with him, "Do you know what has happened?" the little man asked. "The +guests at the Prince's banquet came late into the street and found Simon +raving about his gold. They questioned him, and he told them of a +mysterious house where an old witch dwelt and changed into a young girl at +sunset. The Prince knew the house. He asked Master Stefano what it meant. +When he got no answer but a jest he struck Stefano down and rode over him. +He is dead. Then the people caught up the cry and began to talk of burning +the witch. They are all out there now, and the Prince is trying to make +his guard go in after the gold. That was a good thought of yours, setting +fire to the house: they will stay to watch it. I will go with you if I +may, Master. If Stefano is gone Goslar is no good place for me!" + +Alan remembered now that the jester had spoken in terms of friendship of +Martin Bouvin. In any case they were now nearing the gate where the man +stood waiting with the horses. Josian and Maddalena were already mounted. +As the servant held Alan's stirrup the Englishman looked down and saw +under the hood the black piercing eyes and thin face of Giovanni. + +"It is all right," whispered the Milanese with a glance at Bouvin. "He can +ride the pack-horse. His only reason for staying here was Stefano's +business." + +The sleepy guard let them out without a look, and they rode on at a good +pace toward the mountains. Josian had not said one word. + +"Are you afraid, Princess?" Alan asked presently. + +She shook her head. When she heard the story of the jester's death she was +less shaken than Alan had feared. "He told me last night that he could not +live long," she said sadly. "I knew that I should never see him again in +this world." + +At last they halted for an hour beside a little spring. Josian looked back +at the gray pointed roofs and towers of Goslar. "Al-an," she said, "what +was that light in the sky?" + +"It was your tower," Alan answered. "No one will ever live there again, +since you cannot." + +Alan marveled at Josian's self-possession during the rough journey. She +obeyed orders like a child, showed no fear in the most perilous passes, +and fared as roughly as the others did, with quiet endurance. Soon, +however, they had crossed the frontier and met the party of travelers in +whose company were the London merchant and his wife and son. + +Then began days and weeks of travel, the like of which Alan had not known. +He had gone from one place to another in such company as offered, many a +time, but here were folk who knew every road and every inn, beguiled the +hours with songs and jests and stories, and made the time pass like a +holiday. He found that his knowledge of the out-of-door world interested +Josian more than the ballads and tales of the others. He often rode at her +side for an hour or more, pointing out to her the secret quick life of +woodland and meadow, and finding perhaps that she already knew the bird, +squirrel, marmot or hare, by another name. "London is well enough," he +said one day, "but 'tis not for me. I could never live grubbing in the +dark there like a mouldiwarp." + +Josian's delicate brows drew together. "Mouldi--what strange beast is +that, Al-an?" and Alan laughed and explained that it was a mole. + +It was at noon of one of the long fragrant days of early summer, while the +travelers rested in the forest, that Josian spoke of the jester once more. +In the green stillness of the deep woods, birds singing and shy delicate +blossoms gemming the moss, the fierce and savage past was like a dream. + +"Father Stephen gave me a packet that last night," she said. "He gave +Giovanni gold for the journey, but this parcel he said I must carry myself +and show to you when I thought fit. I wonder what it can be?" + +Alan took the packet and turned it over. It was sealed with a device of +Greek letters. + +"That is my father's signet," the girl added. "Here is his ring," and she +drew from under her bodice a man's ring, hung on a slender gold chain, the +stone a great emerald carved with the Greek "AEI"--"Always." Alan cut the +cord of the packet and handed it to her. "It is not for me to open it," he +said. + +She unfolded, tenderly and reverently, the wrappings of parchment and +oiled silk, and disclosed a compact manuscript closely written on the +thinnest leaves, in a firm clear hand. Lifting two or three of the pages +she read eagerly and then looked up, her eyes alight with wondering joy. + +"Here are all the most precious of his writings, Al-an!" she cried, "the +secrets that were in all the books that were lost--written clearly so that +I myself can read them! Oh, it is like having him come back to speak to +us--and Father Stephen, too--here by ourselves in the forest! And now you +will know all the secrets of his work, for they are written here." + +Alan's face had gone whiter than the parchment. Here indeed was the +treasure he had come to seek. And it was Josian's free gift. + +But that was not all. "Josian," he said, not putting out his hand even to +touch the precious parcel, "you must not give away these manuscripts so +lightly. They are worth much gold, child--they are a rich dowry for you. +You must wait until you see Tomaso the physician, and he will tell you +what is best to do with them." + +She shook her head. "Oh, n-o," she said. "Father Stephen said that you +would make good use of them, and had earned them--but I think he knew +quite well what you would say. Perhaps some day you will feel +differently." + +Dame Cicely of the Abbey Farm welcomed Josian in due time as a daughter. +When she and Alan had been married about three months Josian was surveying +a panel of just-completed embroidery in which all the colors in exquisite +proportion blended in a gold-green jeweled arabesque. Alan came up behind +her and caught the sunlight through it. He asked to borrow it, and +reproduced the design in painted glass. That was the first window which he +made for York Minster. + +Among the formulae in the scripts which were Josian's dowry were several +for stained glass and the making of colors to be used therein. By means of +one of these it became possible to make glass of wonderful rich hues, +through which the light came white, as if no glass were there. This is one +of the secrets known to the workers of the Middle Ages and now lost; but +in old windows there still remain fragments of the glass. + +If to-day certain precious bits of glass, ruby-red, emerald-green, +sapphire-blue, topaz-yellow, set in the windows of old cathedrals, could +speak, they would say proudly that they are the work of Alan of York and +Josian, the daughter of Archiater, the philosopher. + + + +NEW ALTARS + + I Publius Curtius, these many years dwelling + Among these barbarians, a foe and a prefect, + To Those whom they worship unreasoning, + Gods of the Land, I raise this new altar. + + To Thee whom the wild hares in silence foregathering + Worship with ears erect in the moonlight, + (And vanish at sound of a footstep approaching) + God of the Downs, I pour this libation. + + To Thee whom the trout in the rainbow foam drifting + Behold in the sunlight through wet leafage sifting + (And vanish like shadows of clouds in the water) + God of the Streams, I pay this my tribute. + + To Thee whom the skylark, in rapture ascending + Adores in his dithyramb perfect, unending, + (And vanishes in the high heaven still singing) + God of the Mist, I utter this prayer. + + To Ye whom my children, born here in my mansion, + Reverence beyond the gods of their fathers, + And love as they love their own mother, + Gods of the Land, I build ye this temple! + + + + +XII + +COLD HARBOR + + +Wilfrid, the potter, stood with his wife and children, looking at what was +left of a little old cottage. Fire had left it a heap of ashes and half- +burned timbers and rubbish. The red roof-tiles glowed like embers of dead +centuries. + +"I'd never ha' turned the old man out," he said pensively, "but now he's +gone and the cot's gone too, we'll see what's under this end of Cold +Harbor." + +Edwitha, his wife, looked up, her eyes sparkling through quick tears. + +"I was hoping you'd say that, Wilfrid," she said with eager wistfulness. +"I've longed so to know--but he'd lived there since our fathers and +mothers were children. 'Twould ha' been like taking the soul out of his +body to drive him away." + +She was a slender, pretty creature, almost as childlike in her way of +speaking as if she had been no older than Dorothea or Alfred. The children +listened with pleased excitement commingled with a certain awe. Gaffer +Bartram had seemed as much a part of their lives as the sun or the wind or +the old pollard willow. When he was strong enough he taught Alfred to +snare rabbits and catch moles; when rheumatism crippled him he sat by the +door making baskets and telling Dorothy rhymes and tales of seventy years +ago. Then first his old gray cat Susan had disappeared, after that the old +man himself, and last the cottage caught fire and burned. And father was +actually giving orders to the men to dig up the garden and see what lay +under it. + +There is a mysterious immovable setness about the Sussex Downs. What is +there seems to have been there always. The oldest man cannot say when the +great white hollows were first scooped out of the chalk, or the dewponds +made on the heights. Ever since there were people in Sussex--whether it is +five thousand years ago or fifteen thousand--the short wind-swept turf has +been grazed by woolly flocks. Before ever a Norman castle held a vantage- +height the tansy grew dark and rank in cottage gardens and the children +went gathering woodruff and speedwell and the elfin gold of "little socks +and shoes." Any change, good or bad, is a loss to some one--the land is so +full of the life of the past. + +Wilfrid and Edwitha well understood this, though they would never have put +it into fine phrases. They could not have said it except to each other, +and for that there was no need of speech. Because of it they had left the +old man at peace in his cottage, and even after he was dead they put off +the uncovering of what might lie under the soil of his garden and his +orchard. + +Wilfrid's pottery had grown up in the last ten years near a claybank, not +far from the boundary between his father's land and Edwitha's old home. An +irregular terrace broke the slope above it, and here the tilled land had +come to an end at one point because the plows came hard against a buried +Roman wall. Not being able to break up the solid masonry of Roman builders +done a thousand years before, Wilfrid's father had cleared away the soil, +roofed over the ruin which he found, and used it to store grain. This was +Cold Harbor. + +As Wilfrid's pottery prospered he found another use for the building. +There was no tavern thereabouts, and when the Saxon abbey five or six +miles away could house no more guests, or his workmen could not all find +lodging in the neighborhood, it was possible to shelter there. The roof +was weather-tight, a wood fire could be built on the stone hearth, and +with fresh straw from Borstall Farm for beds, provisions from the same +source, and their own cloaks for covering, travelers found themselves +fairly comfortable. + +Like others of its kind the building came to be known as "Cold Harbor," a +"herbergage" or lodging, without food or heat being provided. Sometimes an +enterprising innkeeper would take possession of such a place after a time +and furnish it as an inn. + +At this very time, unknown to Wilfrid, some of his friends were discussing +such a possibility as they rode up from Dover. Gilbert Gay the merchant, +his wife Thomasyn and his son Nicholas were returning from France, and in +their company were Alan of York and Josian his wife, Guy Bouverel the +goldsmith, and others. West of Canterbury they came up with a stout +bright-eyed little man who looked as if he had fed well all his life, and +was called Martin Bouvin. + +"What luck, Martin?" asked Master Gay. The little man spread his hands in +a gesture of comic despair. All the tavern-sites seemed to be held by some +religious house that owned the land, or some nobleman who allowed the +innkeeper to use his device as a sign. + +"There ought to be an inn there in Sussex where Wilfrid's pottery is," +observed the goldsmith. "When I halt there to see Wilfrid I find nine +times out of ten that I must e'en quarter myself on him. D'ye remember +that old place he calls Cold Harbor? That would be a proper house for a +tavern." + +"It is not large enough," objected the merchant. "Any tavern worth the +name would need more room than that within a twelvemonth. Still, other +buildings could be added. If you and the potter can come to an agreement, +Bouvin, I will aid you in fitting up the building and you may repay me in +dinners. There's not a cook this side Rouen who can match your chestnut +soup." + +"Made with the yolk of an egg and a little wine of Xeres?" asked Guy with +interest. "Giovanni made it so for us once." + +The merchant waved a protesting hand. "No, no, no, no--lemon, man, lemon, +with white stock, pepper, salt, a little parsley. Sherry is an excellent +drink, but not in chestnut soup, I pray you." + +"What matters it," asked Alan innocently, "so the food is wholesome and +pleasant? + +"That is what might be expected of you, you Northern barbarian," laughed +Guy. "Where did you get your cunning, Martin?" + +The little man's beady black eyes twinkled knowingly. "A true cook, Master +Bouverel, takes all good things where he finds them. I make bouillabaisse +for those who like it, but--between you and me--Norman matelote of fish is +just as good. I cook pigeon broth as they do in Boulogne, I make black +bean soup as they do in Spain. I was born in Boulogne, but I have cooked +in many other places--in Avignon, where they say the angels taught them +how to cook--Messina, Paris, Genoa, all over Aquitaine with the routiers. +Perigueux is a very agreeable place--you know the truffles there? I cook +sometimes cutlets of lamb and veal in a casserole with truffles, +mushrooms, bacon in strips, a lemon sliced, shallots, some chicken stock, +and herbs--yes, that is very good. Oh, I can cook for French, Norman, +Gascon, Spanish, Lombard--any people. Only in Goslar. That was one +horreeble place, Goslar! The people eat pork and cabbage, pork and +cabbage, and black bread--chut!" He made a grimace at the memory. + +"I fear you will find some of that sort among our English travelers," said +Gilbert Gay amusedly. "Not all of them will appreciate--what was that you +gave us in Paris? epigrammes of lamb, the cutlets dipped in chicken stock +and fried. Swine are still among our chief domestic animals." + +"Oh, as to that," said the chef quickly, "I am not too proud to cook for +people who like simple things--meat broiled and roasted with plain bread. +And do you know that one must be a very fine cook to do such work well? +When I am alone, which is not often, I prepare for myself fresh +vegetables, broil a fish that has not forgotten the water,--and with a +roll and a little fruit, that is my dinner. The soteltes at kings' tables, +all colored sugar and pastry and isinglass--they are only good for people +who can eat peacock, and those are very few. Do you know, Master Gay, what +is the great secret of my art? To know what is good, and not spoil it." + +"I foresee," laughed the merchant, "that we shall all be making excuses to +come down from London if you stay in Sussex with your saucepans. But hey! +there are the towers of the abbey already, and it is not yet mid- +afternoon. Let us ride on to see Wilfrid and find out whether he approves +of our fine plan." + +While this discussion of the noble art of cookery was going on miles away, +Wilfrid and Edwitha, with no thought of inns, were watching the laborers +digging where Wilfrid thought the rest of the building ought to be. In his +travels he had seen other Roman houses better preserved than this, and by +inquiring of learned men had gained some idea of Roman civilization. He +had been told that Roman officials in England often built villas in places +rather like this terrace, and since the building already unearthed was the +end of the walls in one direction, the rest of the villa might be found +under the cottage of old Bartram and his orchard, garden and cow-byre. + +No other house in the neighborhood was as old as that cottage. It was +built of beams put together without nails and filled in with a rude +wattle-work plastered thickly with coat after coat of mud. Instead of +being thatched like most houses of its kind the roof had been covered with +fine red tiles,--possibly Roman work. It seemed that the soil must have +washed in over the ruins of the Roman building so very long ago that there +had been time for trees to grow above it. + +Thus Wilfrid reasoned. As his laborers dug and moiled and sweated under +the hot clear sun, he watched with lively interest for whatever they might +turn up. It is to be feared that Edwitha's maids were less carefully +looked after than usual after the work began, and the children spent every +minute they could in following their mother or their father about to see +what was going to happen. + +There was another reason besides curiosity for keeping watch of the work. +If any pottery should be discovered, Wilfrid did not wish to have it +broken by a careless mattock. + +Then Dorothy came running from the house to find her mother and father +bending over a newly-unearthed Roman wall. "Father!" she cried, "a man is +come to see you!" + +"Oh!" said Wilfrid, not very eagerly. He brushed some of the earth from +his clothes with a handful of weeds and went toward the gate, where a +horseman sat awaiting him. As he came nearer the man dismounted and came +toward him with outstretched hand. + +"Alan!" cried the potter joyfully. "I heard you were abroad. Come in, and +I'll send for Edwitha." + +"Not so fast," said his guest. "I am but a harbinger. Guy Bouverel and +Master Gay the merchant with his wife and son, and some others, are coming +along. We'll stay at the Abbey, but we rode on to see you first. I've my +wife with me, Wilfrid." + +"That's news indeed," said the potter cordially. "And who may she be? Some +foreign damsel you met in your pilgrimage?" + +"That's one way of saying it," answered Alan smiling. "You shall see her +and judge for yourself. How's all here?" + +Wilfrid smiled rather sheepishly. "You and your wife must come and stay +with us," he insisted. "We'll make you welcome, spite of being a bit +upset. Edwitha has been taking holiday. We're digging up the farm to see +what's at the other end of Cold Harbor, lad." + +"Make no ado about us," Alan protested. "It's partly about Cold Harbor +that we came--but here they all are, upon my life!" + +A merry company of travelers rode up the lane, and as they dismounted +Edwitha came over the little footpath across the field, with the children +clinging to her hands--a little embarrassed to find so many folk arriving +and she not there. The boy scampered up to his father piping loudly, +"Father, come you quick--we've found a picture in the ground!" + +"What's all this?" asked Master Gay. And after Wilfrid's explanation +nothing would do but that they all should go immediately to see what had +come to light. When they beheld it the younger men could not keep from +taking a hand themselves. With brooms of twigs, and potsherds, and water +from the well in Cold Harbor, they industriously swept and scraped and +washed the pavement which the men had now partly uncovered. + +It was a mosaic floor of tiny blocks of red, black, yellow, white, brown, +cream and slate-blue, set in cement so strong that not an inch of the fine +even surface had warped. It was not a large pavement, and might have been +the floor of a small dining or sitting-room so placed as to command a view +of the valley. A part of one wall remained. It had been plastered and then +covered with a finer plaster which was frescoed with a row of painted +pillars against the deep marvelous red of Pompeii. The design of the floor +was not at first clear. The edge was decorated with a conventional pattern +in gray and white. The corners were cut off by diagonal lines making an +eight-sided central space. This was outlined by a guilloche, or border of +intertwining bands of brilliant colors. Inside this again was a circle +divided into alternate square and triangular spaces with still brighter +borders, containing each some bird or animal. In the central space was a +seated figure playing on a harp, while around him were packed in a close +group a lion, a ram, a bull, a goat, a crab, fishes, and other figures. +Nobody at first saw what it could be. + +"If I mistake not," said the little stout man, Martin Bouvin, at last, "it +is Sir Orpheus playing to the beasts." + +"To be sure!" cried Guy Bouverel. "Do you know books as well as cooking- +pots, O man of the oldest profession?" + +Martin grinned. "I heard a song about that once," he answered, "and I have +never forgotten it. It was a lucky song--for some folk." + +It was fortunate that at that time of year the sun does not set until +after eight o'clock, for no one could have borne to leave that pavement +without seeing the whole of it. The children, quite forgotten for once in +their lives, grubbed in the piles of earth and found bewitching bronze +lion-heads and ornamental knobs and handles, and pictured tiles. At last +they all went in to a very late supper. All the guests could be sheltered +at Wilfrid's home if the young men were satisfied to lodge in Cold Harbor. + +"It is like finding out the people who lived here when the land was +young," said Wilfrid, his eyes very bright. + +"And there were also the men who made the dewponds," mused Master Gay. + +"And there were those Druids of whom my father told me," said Josian +wonderingly. "This is like a fairy tale, Al-an. Is York the same?" + +"Brother Basil said once that our England is a land of lost kingdoms," +Alan answered her. "I see what he meant." + +Excavation went on during the following days until all the pavements of +the old Roman house had been cleared. The two others were larger but not +so fine as the first they had uncovered. One was of stone blocks laid in a +sort of checkerboard pattern, and the other of mosaic in a conventional +pattern of black and gray and brown and red. They found that under these +floors there was an open space about two feet high. The tiled floor which +was covered with the mosaic was supported by a multitude of dwarf pillars +of stone and brick. This space, although they did not know it, was the +hypocaust or heating chamber of the colonial Roman house, and had been +kept filled with hot air from a furnace. Beams of wood and heaps of tiles +indicated that there had been an upper storey of wood. This in fact was +the case, the Romans having a strong objection to sleeping on the ground +floor. + +Now there was no more doubt that Cold Harbor might be made into a well- +appointed tavern. With a little masonry to reenforce them the walls would +form a base for a half-timbered house roofed with tiles from Wilfrid's +pottery. The largest room would be the general guest-room in which the +tables would be set for all comers, and those who could not afford better +accommodation might sleep there on benches or on the floor. For guests of +higher station, especially those who had ladies in their party, private +chambers and dining-rooms would be provided. Master Gay intended to +furnish a suite for himself and any of his friends who came that way. + +"And by the way," said Guy suddenly, "Cold Harbor will never do for a +name. What shall you call the inn, Martin?" + +Bouvin snapped his fingers. "I have thought and thought until my head goes +to split. I would call it Boulogne Harbor, but there is no picture you +could make of that." + +"'Mouth' is the English for harbor," suggested Wilfrid. "But all the +country people would call it 'Bull-and-Mouth." + +Padraig began sketching with a bit of charcoal on the broken wall. "Make +it that and I'll paint the sign for ye. 'Bull-and-Mouth'--every hungry man +will see the meaning o' that." + +With a dozen strokes he sketched a huge mouth about to swallow a bull. +This, done with a fine show of color, became the sign of the tavern. +Martin never tired of explaining the pun to those who asked. Even before +the guest-rooms were finished, travelers began arriving, drawn by the fame +of Martin's savory and succulent dishes. Pilgrims, merchants, knights, +squires, showmen, soldiers, minstrels, scholars, sea-captains--they came +and came again. Almost every subject in church or state, from Peter's +pence to the Third Crusade, from the Constitutions of Clarendon to clipped +money, was discussed at Martin's tables, with point and freedom. Cold +Harbor entered upon a new life and became part of the foundation of a new +empire. + + + +GALLEY SONG + + + Amber, copper, jet and tin, + Anklet, bracelet, necklace, pin,-- + That is the way the trades begin + Over the pony's back. + + Mother-o'-pearl or malachite, + Ebony black or ivory white + Lade the dromond's rushing flight + Over Astarte's track. + + Crucifix or mangonel, + Steel for sword or bronze for bell,-- + That is the way we trafficking sell, + Out of the tempest's wrack. + + Marble, porcelain, tile or brick, + Hemlock, vitriol, arsenic-- + Souls or bodies barter quick-- + Masters, what d'ye lack? + + + + +XIII + +THE WISDOM OF THE GALLEYS + + +It was Nicholas Gay's last night at home. At dawn his father's best ship, +the Sainte Spirite, would weigh anchor for the longest eastward voyage she +had ever undertaken. His father's brother, Gervase Gaillard of Bordeaux, +was going out in charge of the venture. Gilbert Gay, the London merchant, +who had altered his name though not his long-sighted French mind in his +twenty years of England, thought this an excellent time for his eighteen- +year-old son to see the world. + +Since Nicholas could remember, he had known the wharves of the Thames and +the changeful drama of London Pool. He had been twice to Normandy, but to +a lad French by birth, that was hardly a foreign land. Now he was to see +countries neither English nor French--some of them not even Christian. +Half Spain and all the north coast of Africa were Moslem. Sicily and +Sardinia had Saracen traditions. This would be his first sight of the +great sea-road from Gibraltar to Byzantium. + +During the past three years Gilbert Gay had been often absent, and the boy +had taken responsibility of the sort that makes a man. With the keen +aquiline French profile he had a skin almost as fair as a girl's, and +yellow-brown waving hair. The steady gray eyes and firm lips, however, had +nothing girlish about them. + +As luck had it these last hours were crowded with visitors. Robert Edrupt, +the wool-merchant, and David Saumond, the mason, were taking passage in +the Sainte Spirite. Guy Bouverel had a share in her cargo, and came for a +word about that and to bid Nicholas good-by. Brother Ambrosius, a solemn- +faced portly monk, had letters to send to Rome. Lady Adelicia Giffard came +to ask that inquiry be made for her husband, who had gone on pilgrimage +more than a year before, and had not been heard of for many months. The +poor soul was as nearly distraught as a woman could be. She begged Gervase +Gaillard to ask all the pilgrims and merchants he met whether in their +travels they had seen or heard of Sir Stephen Giffard, and should any +trace of him be found, to send a messenger to her without delay. She was +wealthy, and promised liberal reward to any one who could help her in the +search. It was her great fear that the knight had been taken prisoner by +the Moslems. + +"I think that you must have heard of it in that case," said Gilbert Gay +gently, "since these marauders ever demand ransom. I pray you remember, my +lady, that there are a thousand chances whereby in these unsettled times a +man may be delayed, or his letters fail to reach you. 'Tis not well to +brood over vain rumors." + +"I know," whimpered the poor lady, "but I cannot--I cannot bear that he +should be a captive and suffering, and I with hoarded gold that I have no +heart to look upon. 'Tis cruel." + +"Holy Church," observed Brother Ambrosius, "hath always need of our hearts +and of our gold, lady. Peace comes to the spirit that hath learned the +sweet uses of submission. To dote on the things of the flesh is unpleasing +to God." + +"When I was in Spain," said Edrupt, "I heard a monk preaching a new +religion. He urged his hearers to aid in rescuing the captives held in +Moslem slavery. 'Tis said he has saved many." + +"Were it not well," pursued Brother Ambrosius as if he had not heard, "to +think upon the glorious opportunity of a captive to bear witness to his +faith? We read how angels delivered the apostles from prison, and how +Saint Paul in his bonds exhorted and rebuked his people, to the +edification of many." + +"True," commented Gilbert Gay rather dryly, "but we are not all Saint +Pauls. And I have never known of God sending angels to do work that He +might properly expect of men and women." + +This was a new idea to Brother Ambrosius. Not finding a place in his mind +for one just then, he looked meek and said nothing, and presently took his +leave. + +"Saint Paul was a tentmaker, was he not?" queried Guy Bouverel when the +door had closed upon the churchman. "Had he rowed in the galleys I doubt +whether we should have had those Epistles." + +Nicholas recalled this conversation the next day, as the sturdy little +ship of English oak filled her great sails and went blithely out upon the +widening estuary of the Thames. The last of the dear London landmarks +faded into the gray soft sky. Soon the sailors would begin to look for +Sheerness and the Forelands, Dungeness, Beachy Head. Nicholas leaned on +the rail above the dancing morning waters and remembered it all. + +There was his mother's sweet pale face under the white coif, her busy +fingers completing a last bit of stitchery for him. There was his father's +fine, keen, kindly face bent over his account-books and coffers. There was +pretty Genevieve, his sister, with her husband, Crispin Eyre. And there +were the comrades of his boyhood, and the prating monk, and the unhappy +lady with her white face framed in rich velvets and furs, and her piteous +beseeching hands that were never still. Those faces, in the glow of the +fire and the shine of tall candles in their silver sconces, were to be +with him often in the months to come. + +Edrupt came up just as a long Venetian galley went plowing out to sea, the +great oars flashing in the sunlight, one rank above another. "They do not +have to pray for a fair wind, those Venetians," Nicholas commented idly. + +"That galley's past praying for anything," Edrupt said grimly. "You may be +glad that your men fear neither wind nor seas--nor you. 'Tis an ill thing +to sail the seas with those who serve only through fear." + +Nicholas had not thought of it in that way. He knew, of course, that the +slaves who rowed the racing galleys were the offscouring of mankind, +desperate men, drawn from all nations. It was as much as two men could do +to handle one oar, and all must pull in unison as a huge machine. The +Venetian dromond was to other merchant-ships as the dromedary to other +camels. To make the speed required the rowers must put forth their whole +strength, hour after hour, day after day. + +Any work which makes men into parts of a machine is not likely to improve +them as men. When they have no love for their work and no hope of reward, +and do not even speak the same language, the one motive which can be +depended upon to keep them going is fear. The whip of the overseer bred +festering, burning hatred, but it kept the sweeps from breaking their +monotonous unceasing motion. If the voyage were quick, the profits were +the greater, and no one cared for anything else. + +Thinking of the hard sea-bitten faces of the galley-slaves Nicholas +rejoiced that rather than live so the crew of the Sainte Spirite would +every man of them choose a clean death at sea. + +Some days later it seemed as if they were fated to die so. A Biscay +tempest caught them, and from dark to daylight they were buffeted by the +giant battledores of wind and sea. Nicholas spent the sleepless hours in +lending a hand and cheering the men as he could. + +At last they sighted the great Rock of Gibraltar, fifteen hundred feet of +it clear against the sky, like the gateway pillar of another world. +Between Europe and Africa they passed into the blue Mediterranean,--blue +with the salty sparkle beloved of all sea-lovers since Ulysses. Light warm +winds, the scent of orange-groves and rose-gardens, a sky only less deep +in its azure splendor than the sea itself--it seemed indeed another world. + +But the Sainte Spirite had not come whole out of her struggle with the +powers of the abyss. Timbers were sadly strained, a mast was gone, every +man on board was weary and muscle-sore. And then a Levantine gale drove +the crippled merchantman down on the Barbary coast. + +The blackness of that storm ended, for Nicholas Gay, in a plunge into the +black waters and a glimpse of the high lantern of his father's ship +dancing above the tossing foam like a witch-fire, for an instant before +she went down. When he came to himself he was lying on hot sand in the +sunshine, and Edrupt and David Saumond were bending anxiously over him. + +Half the seamen were gone; so was the captain; so was all of the cargo. +Gervase Gaillard had been injured by a falling mast and was helpless. The +coast was strange to them all, but the old merchant and Edrupt made a +guess that it was a part of Morocco somewhere near the town of Fez. Food +they had none; water they might find; and the merchants had not lost quite +all they had in the wreck. Some gold and jewels they had saved, secured +about their persons. These would pay the passage of the company to London- +-if they had luck. + +They were considering what to do next when a body of some twoscore +horsemen swept down upon them. The leader might have been either Turk or +Frank. He was as dark as a Saracen and wore the chain-mail, scimitar and +light helmet of the heathen, but he spoke Levantine rather too well for a +Moor, and with a different intonation. + +"Who are you?" he asked curtly. Nicholas Gay stood up, not yet quite +steady on his feet. + +"We are London merchant folk," he said, "from the wrecked ship Sainte +Spirite, whereof my father, Gilbert Gay, was owner. My uncle here is our +chief man, but as you see, he is injured and cannot move. If we may get +food and lodging until we are able to return to England, we will requite +it freely." + +"London," repeated the soldier. "A parcel of London traders, eh?" He spoke +a few words to the Moor who rode next him, in another language. "This is +the domain of Yusuf of the Almohades," he went on, "and we make no terms +with the enemies of God. Yet we condemn no man to starve. Ye shall have +food and lodging so long as ye remain with us. Doubtless ye are honest and +will pay, but in this barbarous land there are many thieves. Therefore we +will take charge of such wealth as ye have. As for that old man, he cannot +live to reach his home. Abu Hassan!" + +A trooper spurred toward the old merchant and thrust him through with his +lance. He half rose, groaned and fell back, dead. Others, dismounting, +seized upon the astonished and indignant castaways, and took from them +with the deftness of practiced hands whatever they had of value. This was +too much for the Breton and English sailors. They would have fought it out +then and there. But Nicholas spoke quickly so that only those nearest him +heard. + +"There is no gain in being killed here one by one. Wait and be silent. +Pass the word to the rest." + +When the prisoners had been herded into a compact company in the center of +the mounted troop, the leader chirruped to his horse. "It grows late," he +said. "Y'Allah!" And at the point of the lance the captives were driven +forward. + +They were taken through the crowded narrow streets of a squalid town and +left in a walled enclosure where two negroes brought them an earthen jar +of water and some sort of cooked grain in a large bowl. The sun blazed +down upon their shelterless heads and flies hummed about the filth in the +unclean place. Nicholas, when their hunger had been partly satisfied and +there was no more to eat or drink, addressed himself to the others in a +cool and quiet voice. + +"Friends, it is like we are to be sold into slavery among the infidels. If +each man is left to shift for himself they may break us. If we stand by +one another and keep our faith we may yet win home to England. They may +not separate us at first, and I have been thinking that if they find out +the value of a company of men freely choosing to work together in harmony, +they will hardly separate us at all. But we must obey their will, we must +keep order among ourselves, and above all, we must seem to have given up +all hope of escape. What say you?" + +Edrupt spoke first. "I'm with you, lad. 'Tis our one chance of seeing home +again, I do think." + +David Saumond's shrewd eyes were scanning the faces of the sailors. "I'll +no be the last to join ye," he said. "But all must agree. One man out +would make a hole i' the dyke." + +A big Breton sailor stepped forward. "Kadoc of Saint Malo sticks to his +ship," he growled, and drew with his forefinger a line in the dust. "Who's +next?" + +One after another, but with little hesitation, the men crossed the line. +All had some idea of what awaited them in the Moorish provinces. It was no +new thing for captives of European blood to be sold as slaves. Gangs of +them toiled on canals, walls, fortresses, in grain-fields, on board +galleys. Those leaders of Islam who urged a holy war sowed fortifications +wherever they went. The need for slave labor for such work was greater +than the supply. Much of the slave population was unfit for anything but +the simplest and rudest tasks, and could be kept at work only by the +constant use of the whip. + +All the tales Nicholas had heard of slavery crowded into his mind in the +first moments of captivity. Once a black-browed Sicilian had told of a +night of blood and flame, when the slaves of a galley, mad with toil, +privation and hatred, killed their masters and attempted to seize the +ship,--and almost succeeded. "Slaves cannot unite," the Sicilian ended +contemptuously. "There is always a Judas." But Gilbert Gay had chosen his +men for this voyage with especial care. Every man of them, Nicholas +believed, could be trusted. + +They had never dreamed of anything like the next few days--the filth, the +degradation, the cruelty. Nicholas was glad, when half-naked Moslem boys +called them names from a safe distance, that the others could not +understand. The insults of an Oriental are primitive and plain--and very +old. Nicholas had a trick of absorbing languages, and already knew half a +score of outlandish tongues and dialects. + +Not only the townspeople but their Moslem fellow-slaves held the Kafirs in +contempt. Their rations were sometimes food condemned by the Moslem faith. +Edrupt's cool common sense and David's dry humor were of valiant service +in those days. The Scot averred that better men than Mahomet had been bred +on barley bannocks, and that the flat coarse cakes of the Berbers were as +near them as a heathen could be expected to come. He also warned them that +Moses knew what he was about when he forbade pork to his people, and that +the pigs that ran in the streets of an African town were very different +eating from the beech-fed hogs of Kent. From a Jewish physician for whom +he had once built a secret treasure-vault he had picked up a rough-and- +ready knowledge of medicine which was of very considerable value. + +One morning they were all marched off, in charge of a greasy indifferent- +looking Turk, to work on a canal embankment. The garden of an emir's +favorite was to have a new bath-pavilion. Here the great strength of +Kadoc, the hard clean muscle and ready resourcefulness of Edrupt, and the +Scotch mason's experience in the ways of stones and waters, set the pace +for the rest. The seamen studied how to use their strength to the best +advantage as they had once studied the sky and the sea. They moved +together to the tune of their own chanteys, and the Turk discovered that +this one gang was worth any two others on the ground. When questioned, +Nicholas replied briefly that it was the way of his people. + +The foreign-looking officer smiled incredulously when this explanation was +given, and watched them for some time with obvious suspicion. But the men +seemed not to be plotting together, and to be thinking only of their work. +If the English were fools enough to do more than they were made to do it +was certainly no loss to their masters. + +"I should like to know the name of that vinegar-faced captain," said +Edrupt one day. "I mistrust he wasn't born here." + +"No," said Nicholas. "They call him the Khawadji, and they never use that +name for one of themselves." + +"He's too free with his whip. Yon tall man that tends his horses could +tell something of that, I make my guess." + +One night they came on the Khawadji's stable-man caring for a lame horse +with such skill that Nicholas spoke of it. By some instinct he spoke in +Norman-French. The other answered in the same tongue. + +"Every knight should know his horse." + +"You are of gentle birth, my lord?" + +"Call me not lord," the Norman said wearily. "I have seen too much to be +any man's lord hereafter. Since my fever I am fit only for this, and none +will know the grave of Stephen Giffard." + +Nicholas' heart leaped. "Sir," he said quickly, "ere we left London the +Lady Adelicia, your wife, came to my father's house to beseech him to aid +her in searching for you. If any of us ever see home again I will take +care that she is told of this." + +The knight looked ten years younger. "I thank you," he answered gravely. +"And if I should not live to see her again, I would have her know that my +thoughts have been constantly of her." + +"Is not this Khawadji a caitiff knight of France? He does not seem like a +Moor." + +The Norman nodded. "He is Garin de Biterres, a miscreant of Guienne. My +brother balked him in some villainy years ago. He took me for Walter when +he saw me, and let it out. Aquitaine being too hot to hold him, and the +Normans in Ireland refusing to enlist him, he came through the Breach of +Roland and took service under the Crescent. He was once a slave among the +Moors of Andalusia, and owes his deformity to that. He cozened an old +beggar into treating his leg with some ointment which would wither it up +so that he could not work, and it never wholly recovered." + +"How comes it that he has not allowed you to send word to your people? +Most of these folk are greedy for ransom." + +"I think he keeps me here for his pleasure. At first he took the letters I +wrote and pretended to have sent them, and gibed in his bitter fashion +when no reply came. That is how I know that the letters were not sent at +all. Had my lady heard so much as a word of my captivity she would have +searched me out." + +The approach of some troopers broke off the conversation, and Nicholas +went his way, marveling at the strange chances of life. + +Some months passed, during which the English worked at varying tasks-- +brickmaking, the hauling of brick and cut stone, the building of walls. +Then a merchant called Mustafa came seeking slaves for his galley. After +much crafty bargaining he secured Nicholas and his companions for about +two-thirds the original price asked. But the Khawadji refused to part with +Stephen Giffard. + +The galley was a rackety, noisome trading-ship that plied along the coast. +On board were already some rowers of various races, accustomed to the +work, but the bulk of the labor was to be done by the new men. It was +killing toil. Fed on black beans and coarse bread and unclean water, they +worked the ship from one filthy white-walled port to another, never seeing +more than the dock where the galley anchored or some mean street where +their barracks might be. There were times when Nicholas seemed to himself +hardly more human than the rats that gnawed and scrabbled in the dark at +night. He began to see how a galley-slave is made--molded and tainted +through and through by that of which he is a part. + +The clean comradeship of the little group of Northern exiles did not count +for so much in this work. The pace of the ship was the average pace of the +whole crew. They became too weary to think or feel, too ravenous to +disdain the most unwholesome rations. Nicholas found himself mysteriously +aware of the moods of those about him, as men are when herded together in +silent multitudes. In the free world one feels this only now and then--in +an army, a mob, a church. Among slaves the dog-like instinct is common. +They know more of their masters than their masters can ever know of them. + +Nicholas had been carefully trained by wise parents to the habit of self- +control, but he found that he was moved nevertheless by the mad +unreasoning impulses of the half-barbarous people about him, ridden +fiercely by their black thoughts of hate and fear. That it was the same +with his comrades he knew from little things they said--and even more from +what they did not say. They grew dulled to beauty and suffering alike. +There were glorious dawns, that flushed the white walls of a seaport rose- +red, above waters of mingled ink and blood that changed as by magic to +blue like lapis-lazuli. Then the sky turned saffron and the minarets were +of a fleeting gold above the deep blue shadows of the streets. There were +velvet nights when the stars blazed like a king's ransom, and white-robed +desert men moved in the moist chill air like phantoms. But all this was as +little to them as to the lizards that crept along the walls or the sweeps +they handled with their hardening hands. Years after, Nicholas recalled +those nights and those mornings and knew that something that sat within +his deadened brain had been alive and had stored the memories for him. But +he did not know it then. + +Mustafa bragged among his friends, from Jebel el Tarik to Iskanderia, of +his fine ship and his unparalleled crew. The listeners would smile and +stroke their beards and exclaim at intervals, "Ma sh'Allah!"--believing +perhaps one tenth of what they heard. Oftenest he boasted of the Feringhi +rowers whom he had purchased from the sheikh's own steward in the slave- +market of Lundra--a city of mist and wealth and pigs and fair maidens. +Thus it came about that Ahmed ibn Said, the host, and Abu Selim, the +letter-writer of the bazaar, devised a jest for a supper at the khan. They +would send for one of these Frankish slaves and see what he would say. The +flattered Mustafa agreed, and the messenger returned with Nicholas Gay, +whose gray eyes and yellow hair caused a mild sensation. + +The guests began to ask questions, first in Levantine, then in Arabic. +Were there bazaars in Lundra? Did the people drink coffee? Had they +camels? Did the muezzin call them to prayer? Did the women sleep upon the +housetops? Was the city most like Aleppo the White, or Istamboul, or +Damasc-ush-Shah? How many Muslimun were there? How many of the idolaters? + +To these inquiries Nicholas replied, at first with faint amusement at the +mingled shrewdness and ignorance of these men, then with a fierce pride in +his city which made his words, as the letter-writer expressed it, shine +like rubies and sing like a fountain. The merchants listened, and munched +their sticky baclawi, ripe olives and dates and figs, and drank many tiny +cups of coffee, more entertained than they had ever been by Mustafa. +Finally the host sent for a basket of fruit--great pale Egyptian melons, +pomegranates, oranges, figs--and graciously bestowed it upon the gifted +galley-slave. He meant to come next day, he said, and with Mustafa's +permission behold the prowess of the English in swimming. + +To every one's surprise, Ahmed really came. Those who could swim were had +out of their stifling quarters and allowed to do so. Nicholas could swim +like an eel, and all were amazed when, after swimming farther out than any +of the others, he flung up his arms, uttered a loud cry, and vanished. +They watched and searched, but nothing more was seen of him, and there was +mourning among the English. + +But there was a Genoese galley in the harbor, and Nicholas had seen it. He +had dived, swum under water as far as he could inshore, and come up with +his head inside the scooped-out rind of a large melon. During the search +the seeming melon quietly bobbed away toward a reedy shallow, and the +swimmer hid among the reeds until dark, and then swam across to the +Genoese ship. The captain knew Gilbert Gay and listened with interest to +the youth's story. + +The Genoese captain did not care to interfere with' Mustafa in a town full +of his Moslem countrymen. He waited until the crazy trading-galley was +well out to sea and rammed her with the beak of his own ship. Crossbowmen +lined the rail, grappling irons were thrown out, and the captain, with +Nicholas and some soldiers, went and unearthed Mustafa among bales of +striped cotton. When he understood that they merely wanted all of his +Feringhi slaves, he thankfully surrendered them. + +"Shall we put this fellow to death?" inquired the captain. Mustafa +understood the tone and gesture though not the words, and turned a dirty +yellow-gray. "No," said Nicholas Gay. "He was a good master--for an Arab." + +Mustafa took heart. He would never reach port, he complained, being so +short-handed. + +"You can work your ship under sail for that distance," said the Genoese, +twisting his mustachios, "if you dare loose your other slaves." At that +Mustafa had an ague. When they saw the last of him he was making slow and +crooked progress. + +"And after all," said Edrupt one day, as they sighted the cliffs of Dover, +"you bore witness among the heathen, as the fat old monk directed." + +"Stupid pig!" David grumbled. "I'd like fine to have him bearing witness +in a Barbary brick-yard, sweating and whaizling over his tale o' brick. +He'd throw his six hundred a day or I'd have his hide." + +"All the same," said Edrupt thoughtfully, "a Londoner beats a Turk even +for a galley-slave--eh, Nicholas?" + +"We were never slaves," said Nicholas. "We were free men doing the work of +slaves for a time. We had memory and hope left us. There is nothing to be +learned at such work. Stick together and give them the slip if you can-- +that's all the wisdom of the galleys." + + +HARBOUR SONG + + Sails in the mist-gray morning, wide wings alert for flight, + Outward you fare with the sea-wind, seeking your ancient right + To range with your foster-brethren, the sleepless waves of the sea, + And come at the end of your wandering home again to me. + By the bright Antares, the Shield of Sobieski, + By the Southern Cross ablaze above the hot black sea, + You shall seek the Pole-Star below the far horizon,-- + Steer by Arthur's Wain, lads, and home again to me! + + Caravel, sloop and galleon follow the salt sea gale + That whispers ever of treasure, the ancient maddening tale,-- + Round the world he leads ye, the sorcerer of the sea, + Battered and patched and bleeding ye come again to me. + By the spice and sendal, beads and trumpery trinkets, + By the weight of ingots that cost a thousand dead, + You shall seek your fortune under hawthorn hedges,-- + Come to know your birthright in the land you fled. + + Sails of my sons and my lovers, I watch for ye through the night, + My lamps are trimmed and burning, my hearth is clear and bright. + With every sough of the trade-wind that blows across the sea + I wake and wait and listen for the call of your hearts to me. + By Saint Malo's lanterns, by Medusa-fires + Rolling round your plunging prows in midnight tropic sea, + You shall sight the beacon on my headlands lifting-- + All sail set, lads, and home again to me! + + + + +XIV + +SOLOMON'S SEAL + + +Where the moor met the woodland beyond the Fairies' Hill, old Izan went +painfully searching for the herbs she had been wont to find there. The +woodcutters had opened clearings that gave an unaccustomed look to the +place. Fumiter, mercury, gilt-cups, four-leaved grass and the delicate +blossoms of herb-robert came out to meet the sun with a half-scared look, +and wished they had stayed underground. The old wife was in a bad humor, +and she was not the better pleased when her donkey, moved by some +eccentric donkeyish idea, gave a loud bray and went trotting gleefully off +down the hill. + +"Saints save us!" muttered the old woman, shaking a vain crutch after him. +"I can never walk all that distance." + +But the donkey was not to get his holiday so easily. There came a shout +from the forest, and a boy on a brown moor pony went racing off after the +truant beast, while a lady and a young girl looked on laughing. It was a +very pretty chase, but at last Roger came back in triumph and tethered the +donkey, repentant and lop-eared, to a wind-warped oak. + +"O Mother Izan!" cried Eleanor, "we've found a great parcel of herbs. I +never saw this before, but mother thinks it's what they called polygonec +in France and used for bruises and wounds." + +The old woman seized eagerly on the plant. It was a long curved stalk with +a knotted root and oval leaves almost concealing the narrow greenish bells +that hung from the joints of the stem. "Aye," she said, "that's Solomon's +Seal, and 'tis master good for ointment. The women," she added dryly, +"mostly comes for it after their men ha' made holiday." + +Eleanor was already off her pony, and Roger followed her. "We'll get you +all you want, Mother Izan," she called back; "there's ever so much of it +up here among the rocks." + +"I should like to know," queried Roger as they pulled and pried at the +queer twisted roots, "why they call this Solomon's Seal. I don't believe +Solomon ever came here." + +"Maybe it was because he was so wise," said Eleanor sagely. "Mother said +it was good to seal wounds. We'll ask David." + +In those days a knowledge of herbs and medicines was part of a lady's +education. Physicians were few, and in remote places the ladies of the +castle were called upon not only to nurse but to prescribe for cases of +accident, fever, wounds or pestilence. Rarely did a week go by without +Lady Philippa being consulted about some illness among her husband's +people. She had begun to teach Eleanor the use of herbs, especially the +nature of those to be found in the neighborhood, and here Mother Izan was +of great service. In her younger days she had ranged the country for miles +in every direction, in search of healing plants, and she knew what grew in +every swamp, glen, meadow and thicket. + +"Mother Izan must have been uncommonly anxious to get that Solomon's +Seal," said Roger as they rode home in the purple dusk. "I believe Howel +has been beating Gwillym again." + +Almost as well-informed as Mother Izan was David Saumond, the stone-mason, +who was rebuilding the village church. He had come to the castle one day +with news of Sir Stephen Giffard, Eleanor's uncle, who had been a prisoner +among the infidels but had now been ransomed and was on his way home. +Finding that David understood his business, the lord and lady of the +castle had decided to give into his hands the work to be done on the +church. Masons were scarce in England at that time, and most of those who +had skill were at work on half-built cathedrals. David was a wise and +thorough builder, but he had the reputation of being rather crotchety. Sir +Walter Giffard suspected that this was due to his absolute honesty. He +would rather pick up a job here and there which he could do as it should +be done, than to have steady employment where scamped building was winked +at. This suited the knight very well. He wanted a man whom he need not +watch. + +"An unfaithful mason's like a broken tooth or a foot out of joint," +observed the Scot when he saw some haphazard masonry he was to replace +with proper stonework. "That wall's a bit o' baith." + +David would take all the pains in the world with a well-meaning but slow +workman, but he disposed of shirkers and double-dealers without needless +words. Neither did he encourage discussion and idle talk about the work. + +"A true mason's no sae glib-gabbet," he observed one day. "There's no need +o' speechmaking to make an adder bite or a gude man work." + +David confirmed Mother Izan's opinion of the virtues of Solomon's Seal. +The Turks, he said, used to eat the young shoots, cooked. The children +already knew that Solomon was the Grand Worshipful Master of all the +masons of the world. About his majestic and mystical figure centered +legends and traditions innumerable. Solomon's Knot was a curious intricate +combination of curving lines. Solomon's signet was a stone of magical +virtues. The temple of Solomon was the most wonderful building ever seen, +and the secrets of its masonry were still treasured by master masons +everywhere. No sound of building was heard within its walls; the stones +were so perfectly cut and fitted that they slid into their places without +noise. And Solomon himself was the wisest man who ever lived. He could +understand the talk of the martins under the eaves, the mice in the meal- +tub and the beasts of burden in the stables, when they conversed among +themselves. + +"Aiblins that's what gar'd him grow sae unco wise," David ended. "You bear +in mind, Master Roger, that every leevin' thing ye see, frae baukie-bird +tae blackfish, kens some bit cantrip he doesna tell, and ye'll be a +Solomon--if ye live." + +David was eating his bread and cheese on the lee side of the wall when +Eleanor came by with a gray lump of clay in her hands. + +"See what Gwillym has made," she said. + +David stopped with the cheese half way to his mouth. "Who's Gwillym?" he +asked. + +"He's a boy we've known ever since he was very little--he's only eight +now--and he does make the most alive looking things out of clay. He heard +you telling about Solomon talking with the birds and beasts, and he made +this." + +The clay group was really an unusual piece of modelling for an untrained +hand. That a child should have made it was more than remarkable. The thin +bent figure of the wise King was seated on a throne formed of gnarled +tree-roots. On his wrist a raven perched; on his shoulder crouched a +squirrel, with tail alert for flight; two rabbits sat upright at his feet; +a lamb huddled against his knee on one side and a goat on the other. The +figures all had a curiously lifelike appearance. As Eleanor said, one felt +that if they heard a noise they would go away. Moreover she saw with +wonder that the head of King Solomon and his lifted hand made him a fair +portrait of David. + +David took the clay group in his hand, turned it about, whistled softly. +"Wha owns this bairn?" he inquired. + +"Howel's his father," said Roger. "He's quite good to him--unless he's +drunk. Then he pounds him. He hates to have Gwillym make images; he thinks +it's witch-craft. Gwillym made an image of him once and the leg broke off, +and that very same day Howel's donkey kicked him and made him lame for a +week." + +"There's ower mony gowks in the land for a' the mills to grind," said +David, and that was all they could get out of him. They knew he was +interested or he would not have been so Scotch. David could speak very +good English, and did as a rule, but with Eleanor and Roger he often +returned to the speech of his boyhood because they liked it so much. + +They liked David exceedingly. He had seen more interesting things than any +one else they knew. He showed Roger how to make a fish-pond, and he told +Eleanor how the Saracen city in her tapestry ought to look. He had himself +been a slave among the infidels, and the children heard his adventures +with awe and delight. Eleanor loved the story of the bath-pavilion like a +tiny palace, built by the emir for the lady Halima, and the turning of the +course of a river to fill her baths and her fountains, and water her +gardens. Roger's hero was the young English merchant who had escaped by +swimming, under his master's very nose. If one could have such exciting +experiences it seemed almost worth while to be a captive of the Moslems. +But when Roger said so, David smiled a dry smile and said nothing. + +But it was of King Solomon that he spoke most, and he seemed to have the +sayings of the wise king all by heart. A Hebrew physician whom he had once +known used, he said, to write one of Solomon's proverbs on the lid of +every box of salve he sent out. + +"You follow his wisdom, Master Roger," David said one day, "and you'll see +how to build ye a house or a kingdom. 'Envy thou not the oppressor and +choose none of his ways,' he says. 'Withhold not good from them to whom it +is due, when it is in the power of man to do it,' he says. 'God shall +bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good +or whether it be evil.' + +"I tell ye," David added, glancing from the trim gray wall of the lychgate +up to the castle on the hill, "every day's judgment day wi' a builder--or +the head of a house." + +Thus the stonemason was touched more deeply perhaps than he would have +owned, by the likening of his face to that of Solomon in the clay figures +of little Gwillym ap Howel. + +As the work on the church progressed three friends of David's journeyed +from Salisbury to see him. They had come from Lombardy a long time ago, +when they were Piero, Andrea and Gianbattista. At Avignon they were known +as Pierre, Jean-Baptiste and Andre, and in Spain they were rechristened +Pedro, Juan and Andres. Now they were called Peter, Andrew and John,--and +sometimes the Apostles. Peter understood vaulting; Andrew could carve a +stone image of anything he saw, and John had great skill in the laying of +pavements. They talked of cathedrals and palaces with a familiarity that +took one's breath away. + +The building of a cathedral seemed to be full of a kind of fairy lore. The +plan was that of a crucifix, the chancel being the head, the transept the +arms and the nave representing body and legs. The two western towers stood +for Adam and Eve. There was a magic in numbers; three, seven and nine were +better than six, eleven or thirteen. Certain flowers were marked for use +in sacred sculpture as they were for other purposes. Euphrasy or eyebright +with its little bright eye was a medicine for sore eyes. The four-petaled +flowers,--the cross-bearers,--were never poisonous, and many of them, as +mustard and cabbage, were valuable for food or medicine. But when Roger +took this lore to Mother Izan for her opinion she remarked that if that +was doctors' learning it was no wonder they killed more folk than they +cured. + +In fact the three Lombard builders, while each man was a master of his own +especial art, had done most of their work in cities, and when it came to +matters of the fields and woods they were not to be trusted. But when +David found Roger a little inclined to vaunt his superior woodcraft he set +him a riddle to answer: + + "The baldmouse and the chauve-souri, + The baukie-bird and bat, + The barbastel and flittermouse,-- + How many birds be that?" + +And the masons were all grinning at him before Roger found out that these +were half a dozen names for the bat, from as many different places. + +The vaulting of the roof of the church was now under consideration. For so +small a building the "barrel vault," a row of round arches, was often +used; but David's voice was for the pointed arch throughout. "The soarin' +curve lifts the eye," he said, "like the mountains yonder." He drew with a +bit of charcoal a line so beautiful that it was like music. It was not +merely the meeting of two arcs of a circle, but the meeting of two +mysteriously curved perfect lines. Sir Walter Giffard saw at a glance that +here was the arch he had dreamed of. + +He saw more than that. David was that rare builder, a man who can work +with his hands and see all the time inside his soul the completed work. He +could no more endure slipshod work or graceless lines in his building than +the knight himself could do a cowardly or dishonest thing. David would +have done his task faithfully in any case, but it rejoiced his soul to +find that the knight and his lady would know not only that their village +church was beautiful, but why it was so. + +Andrew was at work upon the decorative carving of the arches of the +doorway. The outer was done in broad severe lines heavily undercut; the +next inner arch in a simple pattern of alternating bosses and short lines- +-Andrew called it the egg and dart pattern--and the inner arch in a +delicate vine rather like the ivy that grew over the keep. Andrew said it +was a vine found in the ruins of the Coliseum at Rome. + +When it came to the carving of the animals and birds and figures for the +inside of the church, Andrew's designs did not quite suit Lady Philippa. +They were either too classical or too grotesque; they were better fitted +to the elaborate richness of a great cathedral than to a little stone +church in the mountains. She would have liked figures which would seem +familiar to the people, of the birds and beasts they knew, but Andrew did +not know anything about this countryside. + +"Mother," said Eleanor one night after this had been talked over, "what if +Roger and I were to ask Andrew to go with us to Mother Izan's and see her +tame birds and animals, and Gwillym's squirrel? And we could explain what +he wants of them." + +Like many children in such remote places, Eleanor and Roger had picked up +dialects as they did rhymes or games, and often interpreted for a peasant +who knew neither Norman nor Saxon and wished to make himself understood at +the castle. + +The idea met with approval, and the next day Lady Philippa, Eleanor, Roger +and Andrew went to the cottage by the Fairies' Well. They found that David +had been there before them. + +"He's a knowledgeable man, that," the old woman said with a shrewd smile. +"He's even talked Howel into letting the clay images alone, he has. +Gwillym's down by the claybank now, a-making Saint Blaise and little +Merlin." + +The cottage evidently was a new sort of place to Andrew, and his dark eyes +were full of kindly interest as he looked about. The old dame sat humped +in her doorway among her chirping, fluttering, barking and squeaking pets. +An ancient raven cocked his eye wisely at the visitors, a tame hare hopped +about the floor, a cat with three kittens, all as black as soot, occupied +a basket, and there were also a fox cub rescued from a trap, a cosset lamb +and a tiny hedgehog. Birds nested in the thatch; a squirrel barked from +the lintel, and all the four-footed things of the neighborhood seemed at +home there, + +The stone-carver readily made friends with Gwillym, who seemed to +understand by some instinct his broken talk and lively gestures. When +Andrew wished to know what some bird or animal was like, the boy would +mold it in clay, or perhaps take him to some haunt of the woodlands where +they could lie motionless for a half-hour watching the live creature +itself. + +But there was one among Gwillym's clay figures which they never saw in the +forest, and to which the boy never would give a name. It was a shaggy +half-human imp with stubby horns, goat-legs and little hoofed feet. He +modeled it, bent under a huge bundle, perched on a point of rock, dancing, +playing on an oaten pipe. Andrew was so taken with the seated figure that +he copied it in stone to hold up the font. + +"What's that for?" asked David when he saw it. "Are ye askin' Auld Hornie +ben the kirk, man?" + +Andrew laughed and dusted his pointed brown fingers. "One of Pan's people, +David. They will not stay away from us. If you sprinkle the threshold with +holy water they come through the window." + +That figure puzzled David, but Gwillym would say nothing. At last the +church was finished, and the village girls went gathering fresh rushes, +fragrant herbs and flowers to strew the floor. David went fishing with +Roger in Roger's own particular trout-stream. Coming back in the twilight +they beheld Gwillym dancing upon the moss, to the piping of a strange +little hairy man sitting on a rock. An instant later the stranger +vanished, and the boy came toward them searching their faces with his +solemn black eyes. + +"That was my playfellow," he said. "I have not seen him for a long time. +He and his people lived here once, but they ran away when there came to be +so many houses. I used to hide in the woods when father came seeking me at +Mother Izan's, and my playfellow gave me nuts and berries and wild honey. +He said that if father beat me I was to go and live with his people. I +think I should if you had not come." + +Howel, the mason, was a bewildered man that night. He agreed, before he +fairly knew what he was about, to David's adopting Gwillym as his own son, +to go with him to the house of a good woman in London and be taught all +that a lad should learn. In time he might be able to carve stone saints +and angels, kings and queens, gargoyles and griffins, for great +cathedrals. And all this had come of the forbidden clay toys. + +"I beat him week after week," he muttered, "for melling wi' mud images and +running away to the forest to play wi' devils. 'Twas no good to him, being +reared by an old witch." + +David's mouth set in a grim line and he rubbed the little black head with +his crooked, skillful, weatherworn hand. + +"Even a child is known by his doings, whether his heart be pure, and +whether it be right," he said half aloud as he led Gwillym away toward his +own lodgings. "But the fool hates knowledge. The hearing ear and the +seeing eye are the gifts of the Lord--and if a man was meant to be a bat +or a donkey he'd ha' been made so. When Solomon said that a wise son +maketh a glad father he didna reckon on a father being a fule. Ye'll say +yer farewells to Auld Hornie, laddie, and then we'll gang awa' to London +and leave Solomon's Seal i' the wilderness." + +And that was how the little wild cave-man of the forest came to be inside +a village church, under the font for the christening. + + + +THE LEPRECHAUN + +Terence he was a harper tall, and served the King o' Kildare, +And lords and lodies free-handed all gave largesse to him there, +And once when he followed the crescent moon to the rose of a summer dawn, +Wandering down the mountain-side, he met the Leprechaun. + +And a wondrous power of heart and voice came over Terence then, +For a secret in his harp-strings lay, to call to the hearts of men, +That he could make magic of common songs, and none might understand +The words he said nor the dreams they bred--for he had them of Fairyland. + +Eily she was a colleen fair, the light of the harper's eyes, +And he won by the aid of the Leprechaun his long-desired prize. +The wedding-feast was but just begun,--when 'twixt the dark and the day, +Quick as the water that runs to earth the Leprechaun slipped away! + +So the daylight came, and the dreams were past, and the wild harp + sang no more, +And Terence looked at the cold black hearth and the silent open door, +And he cried, "I have sold my life this night, ye have my heart in + pawn,-- +Take wife and gold, but come ye back, ye little Leprechaun!" + + + + +XV + +BLACK MAGIC IN THE TEMPLE + + +No one could say just how it came to be whispered that the Templars of +Temple Assheton dealt in black magic. Travelers told strange tales of +France, where the Order was stronger than it was in England--tales of +unhallowed processionals and midnight incantations learned from the +infidels of Syria. A Preceptor, Gregory of Hildesheim, was said to possess +writings of a wizard who had suffered death some years before, and to have +used them for the profit of the Order. + +Swart the drover, who had sold many good horses to the Templars and +expected to sell more, laughed at these uncanny rumors. Wealthy the Order +was, to be sure, but that was no miracle. Its vaults, being protected not +only by the consecration of the building but by its trained body of +military monks, often held the treasure of princes. Moreover, this +powerful military Order attracted many men of high birth. Their estates +became part of the common fund, since no individual Templar could own +anything. + +Unfortunately, Swart's facts were so much less romantic than the tales of +enchantment that they made very little impression. The grasping arrogance +of the Templars caused them to be hated and feared, and if they were +really wizards it was just as well not to investigate them too closely. +And if they had in truth learned the art of making gold, it was only +another proof of that old and well-tried rule, "He who has, gets." + +Gregory had not, however, discovered that secret as yet. He had had great +hopes of certain formulae bought at a large price of a clerk named Simon, +who stole them from the reputed wizard; but when he tried them, there was +always some little thing which would not work. At last he bethought him of +one Tomaso of Padua, who had been a friend of the dead man and might +possibly have some some valuable knowledge. The physician was at the time +in a market-town about twelve miles off, resting for a few days before +proceeding to London. He was an old man and journeys were fatiguing to +him. Gregory sent a company of men-at-arms to invite him to come to Temple +Assheton. The request was made on a lonely path in a forest, along which +Tomaso was riding to visit a sick child on a remote farm. It would have +been impossible for him to refuse it. + +Rain was dripping from the drenched bare boughs of half-fledged trees, +clouds hung purple-gray over the bleak moors; the river had overflowed the +meadows, and the horses floundered flank-deep over the paved ford. Few +travelers were abroad. Those who saw the black and white livery of the +Temple, and the old man in the long dark cloak who rode beside the leader, +looked at one another, and wondered. + +When the cavalcade rode in at the great gate, where the round Temple +crouched half-hidden among its grim and stately halls, the physician was +taken at once to Gregory's private chamber. The Preceptor greeted him +urbanely. "Master Tomaso," he said, "men say that you have learned to make +gold." + +"They say many things impossible to prove, as you are doubtless aware," +Tomaso answered. + +"Do you then deny that it is possible?" persisted Gregory. + +"He is foolish," Tomaso returned, "who denies that a thing may happen, +because he finds it extraordinary." + +"Under certain conditions, you would say, it can be done?" + +"When the donkey climbs the ladder he may find carrots on the tiles," was +the Paduan's reply. The weasel-like face of the Templar contorted in a wry +grin. + +"You bandy words like an Aristotelian, sir alchemist," he said sharply, +"therefore we will be plain with you. You shall be lodged here with +suitable means for your experiments until such time as your pretensions +are justified--if they are. Should you prove yourself a wizard, a dabbler +in the black art and a deceiver of the people, you shall be so punished +that all men may know we share not in your guilt. Reflection hereupon may +perchance quicken your understanding. Until you have news of importance +for our hearing, farewell." + +With what he could summon of dignity, the Preceptor turned from the calm +gaze of the physician and left the guards to conduct him to his lodging. +There was really nothing else to do. It was a risk, of course. Tomaso was +well known. He had the confidence of the King himself. But the situation +was difficult. Prince John, who was usually in straits despite his +father's generosity, had hinted to Gregory lately that he meant to inquire +in person about the reported making of gold in the Temple. Could he have +guessed somehow that two chests of ingots from a Cadiz galley had come to +Temple Assheton instead of to the King's treasury? Or did he believe the +story of the making of gold? + +Gregory was but too certain that if John found any treasure of doubtful +title he would seize it, and he was acutely unhappy. However, if Tomaso +possessed the secret--or some other secret of value--there was yet a +chance to save the Cadiz ingots. If this plan failed the scapegoat would +not be a Templar. + +Tomaso knew what was passing in his enemy's mind, not through any +supernatural means, but by his knowledge of human nature. He was aware, as +he lay on his narrow straw bed, that his life was in imminent danger. No +one knew where he was; no message could reach his friends. A discredited +wizard could count on no popular sympathy. The record of his studies for +many years would vanish like the wind-blown candle-flame. Yet after some +hours of wakefulness he slept, as tranquilly as a child. + +A red-headed youth in the dress of a clerk, who was to have met Tomaso on +the morrow, waited for him in vain. On the second day he started in search +of his old friend, and weary and mud-bespattered, came at last to Temple +Assheton. On the road he fell in with Swart the drover, who told him of +the reported alchemy. "Gold would be common as fodder if any man could +make it," Swart growled, "and when a man's wise beyond others in the art +of healing, 'tis wicked folly to burn him alive for't." + +Padraig's face lost every trace of color. "W-who says that?" + +"The crows and herons, I suppose," said the drover coolly. "Anyhow none of +the folk in the village know where the story started, and nobody but a +bird on the wing could see over those walls. 'Tis said that ten days +hence, if the old doctor don't make gold for them, they'll burn him for a +wizard. Now that's no sense, for if he could make gold he'd be a wizard no +bounds, and they'd not burn him then, I reckon." + +Padraig looked down the valley at the tender gold-green grass and the +snowdrift apple-boughs of spring, It seemed impossible that those grim +gray walls held within them this cruel and implacable spirit. "Can I get a +trustworthy messenger?" he asked. "I would send a letter to the Master's +friends." + +With the ready understanding of men who see and judge strange faces +constantly, Swart and Padraig had taken each other's measure and been +satisfied. "My nephew Hod will go," Swart answered. Hod was the son of the +farmer whose house Tomaso had visited. + +Padraig was busy with tablets and inkhorn. He folded and sealed his note, +written in the clear stubbed hand of the monasteries. "I am Padraig," he +said, "a scribe of the Irish Benedictines. If the Master comes to harm +there will be a heavy reckoning, but that will come too late. I will +rescue him or die with him--are you with me?" + +Swart pulled at his huge beard. "The Swarts of Aschenrugge," he said, +"have dwelt too long in these parts to bow neck to a Templar. Hod shall +ride with the letter, and if it be thy choice to risk thine own life for +thy master's I've no call to betray thee." + +A dark-browed yokel came to the door with the bridle of Swart's best horse +over his arm. "Take this," Padraig directed, "to Robert Edrupt, the wool +merchant at Long Lea near Stratton. If he be from home give it to his wife +Barbara and tell her to open and read it. She is wise and will do what is +right. Here is money--all I have--but you shall be paid well when the +errand is done; I have asked Edrupt to see to that." + +Hod stuck his thumbs in his belt. "Put up thy money," he muttered. "The +old doctor he cured our Cicely, he did." + +The messenger gone, Padraig went straight to the Temple and asked to see +the Preceptor. Gregory listened at first with suspicion, then with wonder, +to what the stranger told. It seemed that, hearing that a famous alchemist +was at work in the Temple, he had come to crave the privilege of acting as +his servant. It was, he said, absolutely necessary that such a master +should have a disciple at hand for the actual work, and be left +undisturbed in meditation meanwhile." + +"Is this necessary to the making of gold?" asked Gregory. + +"Surely," Padraig assured him. "The pupil cannot do the work of the +master, the master must not be compelled to labor as the pupil. It is +written in our books--Feliciter is sapit, qui periculo alieno sapit--Those +are fortunate who learn at the risk of another,--and again, He is wise who +profits by others' folly." + +Gregory eyed the stranger warily, but in Padraig's blue eyes he saw only +childlike innocence and fanatical zeal. If a madman, he was a useful one. +By his help the experiments could be carried on without imperiling any +Templar. He directed a page to show Padraig the way to Tomaso's chamber. + +"My son!" said the physician as he lifted his eyes from his writing and +saw who was in the doorway, "how came you here?" + +"I came to be with you, Master," Padraig answered with a glance behind him +to make sure the page was gone, "to rescue you if I can. What else could I +have done?" + +Then he related his conversation with Gregory. "Through a drover of this +place who is our friend," he ended, "I have sent word to Robert Edrupt +asking him to get word of this to the King or to the Bishop. But if help +does not come in time--" + +"Che sara sara (What will be, will be)," said Tomaso coolly. "I have made +a fair copy of these writings in the hope that I might send them to +Brother Basil." + +Padraig knelt at the physician's feet, his beseeching eyes raised to the +kindly, serene old face. "Master Tomaso," he stammered, "they shall not do +this thing--I cannot b-bear it! We have--we have the formula for the +Apples of Sodom, and--and other things. They would give more than gold for +that knowledge." + +Tomaso laid a gentle hand upon the young shoulder. "My dear son," he said, +"when we learned the secrets of Archiater--those secrets which mean death- +-we promised one another, all of us, never to use them save to the glory +of God and the honor of our land. Which of these, think you, would be +served by lending them to the evil plots of a traitor?" + +Padraig caught the hand of his master in both his own. "It is beyond +endurance!" he cried piteously. + +"I have knowledge," Tomaso went on, "that this Gregory is partly pledged +to the faction of Prince John. The Templars have no country, but they +think, with some reason, that they can bend John to their purposes. What +would they do, with the power these fires of Tophet would give them? +Padraig, there is no safety in the breaking of a pledge." + +A thought came into the boy's mind, and a wild hope with it. "Master +Tomaso," he cried, "if I can find a way to use our knowledge without +breaking the pledge, will you give me my way?" + +The Paduan looked long into the uplifted eager face. "It is good to be so +loved," he said. "I will trust you. Yet grieve not, whatever comes,--the +stars are my fortress, God is my lamp. The bridge to eternal life is very +short." + +Padraig's cell was the one just below, and the window looked out across +the moors. Chin on his crossed arms, he pondered long under the stars. The +next day he informed the Preceptor that the alchemist was ready to begin +the making of Spanish gold, and must on no account be disturbed. + +He showed Gregory the formula. It was not very easy to understand, but it +was impressive. Cockatrice eggs were to be placed carefully in a nest in a +stone walled underground chamber, which must be sealed from the outer air +when all was ready. Snakes and toads brooding thereon would in time hatch +out baby monsters--creatures with cocks' heads and the tails and wings of +dragons. Their look was sure death, but they could be poisoned by a +draught compounded of agrimony, dill and vervain. This must be prepared +beforehand and left in a bason where the cockatrice when hatched would +find and drink of it. When all were dead they were to be brayed in a +mortar with other necessary ingredients. When the stars indicated that the +fortunate hour was at hand, the compound was to be heated in a crucible +over a large brazier, covered with a layer of chaff to absorb the +poisonous gases that arose. That which remained in the crucible would be +pure gold. + +"'Tis a fearsome business," said Padraig naively, "for men hate wizards." + +"Let them hate, if they fear us as well," muttered Gregory poring over the +mysterious phrases. Visions arose in his mind of a Grand Master whose +power should have no limit, whom Kings must serve and Sultans fear. Nay, +not only should the Holy Temple be recovered, but it should be built anew, +overlaid with gold as in Solomon's day. He called a steward and ordered +him to fit up a cellar, formerly a passage into the vaults of the oldest +part of the building, with all needful utensils. Braziers, crucibles, +retorts and all the usual materials in the way of metals and powders were +there, but of course, no cockatrice eggs. + +"He brought these from Andalusia," said Padraig, showing seven small eggs +mottled with crimson and black in a medicine box. Gregory touched one very +gingerly. They were in fact waxen shells filled with volatile liquids, and +Padraig had spent most of the night preparing them. He explained that they +were no larger than frogs' eggs when he first had them,--which was +perfectly true, the wax having been carried in the form of balls. + +Sulphurous odors came from the cellar where the eggs were supposed to be +hatching in their nest. An unwary hound sniffing about the door got a +throatful of the stinging smoke and fled yowling. Hydrochloric acid, +vitriol and nitre-glycerine are kittle things to meddle with, and the +place was religiously avoided. + +From the too free tongue of a cellarer one night Padraig learned that this +chamber adjoined the treasure-vaults of the Temple, but the communicating +door had been walled up. When the gold should be ready it could be +conveyed into the treasury direct, by reopening this doorway. + +One evening Prince John rode up to the gate with a company of Norman men- +at-arms and a few courtiers. It was understood that he had come to +investigate the reputed sorceries. On the same day three strangers came +into the village and tarried at Swart's house on Aschenrugge. He often +lodged travelers for a night, being near the highway. Padraig, spying a +white signal on the giant ash which gave the ridge its name, told the +impatient Preceptor that the hour was at hand. + +Among the villagers it was said that the physician and his disciple were +guarded closely night and day, and that the Paduan certainly would be +burned at the stake if he did not succeed in making gold. Country folk had +seen the stake set up and the faggots piled. In case the wizard proved a +false prophet Gregory meant to make the execution as public as possible. + +Padraig explained that the final trial must take place inter canis et +lupus--between dog and wolf--in that hour which is neither daylight nor +dark. As dusk fell the knights and esquires of the Temple ranged +themselves in orderly ranks along the walls, at some distance from the +door of the underground chamber. The low archway was now open; the glow of +a brazier showed red against the rear wall. Torches lighted the stone- +paved yard, and beyond the open gate the white faces of peasants crowded, +awe-stricken and expectant. When the physician was brought out by the +guards to a seat near the stake, the sobs of a woman were heard in the +outer darkness. Padraig, following, cast a swift glance through the gate +and saw the dim shapes of horsemen outlined against the sky. + +Last of all appeared the Preceptor and Prince John with their immediate +followers, and took their seats midway in the ranks of onlookers, directly +opposite the door, where they could see every stage of the proceedings. +Gregory, furtively scanning the face of the physician, saw therein not a +sign of fear. Padraig advanced into the open space before the cellar, and +bowed to Prince John and the Preceptor. Then from a niche within the door +of the chamber he lifted a large crucible, and a siffle of indrawn breath +was heard in the crowd as he carried it toward the fire. Gathering pitchy +twigs and chaff from a heap of fuel he packed them deftly into the open +top, and set the jar on the brazier, returning then to the side of Tomaso. + +The minutes passed but slowly. The nerves of all the spectators were +strung to the snapping-point. Gregory finally began to explain to Prince +John, who looked half curious and half skeptical,-- + +"This crucible, your Grace, is now throwing off the vapors generated by +fervent heat. When these have been absorbed by the chaff above, the gold +will be found beneath. The possibilities of this priceless formula are not +as yet altogether known. We do not know what may come to light. You may be +astounded--" + +The chaff in the crucible caught fire from a wisp that thrust up into it +from the brazier, flared up of a sudden and lighted every corner of the +old cellar. It revealed the craning neck and slack jaw of Gregory, the +covetous glittering eyes and incredulous smile of Prince John, the scared +faces of the huddling peasants. Then there was a crash that shook the +earth. Battlements rocked, pavements cracked, blocks of stone leaped into +the air like a fountain of masonry. When fire encounters high explosives +in a tunnel the results are remarkable. Torches dropped or were blown out, +and stumbling, cursing men ran right and left--anywhere to escape the +pelting stones. Padraig, holding to his master's arm, guided him out of +the gate and toward the sound of trampling hoofs upon a little hillock. +There they found Edrupt, Guy and Alan struggling with their frantic +horses. Swart came up with two more horses, and soon the party was beyond +all danger of pursuit. + +When the stunned and bewildered Templars recovered their breath, they saw +nothing of the alchemist or of his disciple. It was felt to be just and +right if they had been carried off bodily by the foul fiend. No one else +was missing, though broken heads and bruises were everywhere. Only when +dawn paled the heavens did the boldest of John's mercenaries venture back +to the place of terror. + +There was a great hole in the rear wall of the cellar, and among the ruins +lay shining heaps of gold--not bezants or zecchins, but wedges and bars of +a strange reddish hue. They touched it warily; it was not red-hot. They +filled their pouches, and others came and did likewise. The hard-riding +veterans had had no opportunity to plunder for more than a year, and John +had little money for himself and none for them. When Gregory came on the +scene, white and shaking with rage, and somewhat damaged about the face +from flying stones, it was too late to hide his ingots. Gold of Spain or +of Beelzebub, it was all one to John Sansterre. What little the troopers +had left went into the gaping leather bags of their master, while Gregory +looked on, grinding his teeth. + +It was not in the nature of Prince John to believe much in miracles, but +it suited him to accept this one, whole. With a jesting compliment upon +the success of the formula and an intimation that he would like more such +entertainment, John departed next day well pleased with his perquisition. + +All this came duly to the ears of Swart the drover, and was told by him +when he came by Edrupt's house a few days later. + +"How did it happen so suitably, Padraig of my heart?" asked Tomaso, his +deep eyes twinkling. + +Padraig chuckled in pure delight. "I guessed that if our Apples of Sodom +were properly ripe they'd blow a hole in the treasury wall. Those Norman +thieves are not the men to balk at a little brimstone, and I figured that +Master Gregory would be too busy to think of us for awhile. He took that +formula for himself. Much good may he get of it. In place o' the copper +and sulphur and nitre and the like I set down our cipher--snakes and toads +and scorpions, Maltese cocks, unicorn's blood and so on. The cellarer said +there was a lot o' foreign gold locked up in there, and that must ha' been +what was heaved out. I warrant there'll be no more Black Magic in Temple +Assheton." + + +THE EBBING TIDE + + The sun has gone from the heights of heaven, + The knights a-tilting no longer ride, + The sails are vanished, the beaches empty-- + There is nothing left but the ebbing tide. + + At dawn we sounded our heady challenge, + At noon our blood beat high i' the sun, + At eve we rode where the wolf-pack follow-- + The night is falling, our course is run. + + But the tide runs out through the gates of sunset, + And the living fires of Atlantis glow + Between the clouds and the long sea-level, + Beyond the waters we used to know. + + Hy-Brasail gleams with its towers of beryl, + Tourmaline, hyacinth, topaz and pearl, + Free to the King if he have but the pass-word, + Free to the veriest low-born churl. + + For Earth levels all who have known her and loved her, + And the soul fares forth where the great stars guide + On the viewless path of the calling waters-- + Out to Hy-Brasail upon the tide! + + + + +XVI + +THE END OF A PILGRIMAGE + + +Eleanor and Roger sat together in their own especial loop-hole window. +When that window was new and they were little, the great stone hall with +its massive arches was unfamiliar and lonely to them, and they liked to +sit apart in this nook that seemed made for them. Four steps led up to it, +a stone seat was within it, and it was at a comfortable distance from the +warmth of the fire. Sitting there, they could look out upon the changeful +beautiful landscape, or down upon the doings in the hall. + +Now all the land was blanketed with heavy snow. The tree-trunks were +charcoal-black under the stars; lights twinkled in the huts at the foot of +the hill; the frozen river made no sound beneath the castle wall. Cattle +and sheep were snug and safe in the byres, guarded by the wise watch-dogs. +Very far away in the woods an owl hooted. + +It was the beginning of Yule, in that breathing-time before the holiday +begins, when one gets the fine aroma of its pleasure. The festivities this +year would be greater than ever before, for a new banquet-hall was to be +opened with the Christmas feast. This hall was the realized dream of +years. Thus far the only place for entertainments had been the hall of the +keep, which was also the living-room of the household. The new hall was a +separate one-story building, not unlike a barn in shape, spacious enough +for thirty or forty guests with their retainers and servants. Its red +tiled roof, raised upon seasoned beams two or three feet thick, made an +imposing show. The doorway took in almost half of one end and was lofty +enough for a standard-bearer to come in without dipping his banner. There +was a fireplace near the middle of one side, with a hooded stone arch to +draw the smoke upward and outward. Opposite was a musicians' gallery of +paneled oak, supported by corbels of stone placed about eight feet above +the floor. A dais was built at the other end of the building from the +entrance, for the master's table, and from this a smaller door opened into +a stone passageway leading to the castle, while near it another door, +leading to the kitchens, was placed. The stone walls were wainscoted about +halfway up, and plastered above, the plaster being first painted a golden +brown and then decorated with a pattern of stiff small flowers and leaves +in green, red, bright blue and a little gilding. The floor was of stone +blocks laid in a pattern of black and gray, and two steps led from the +dais to the lower part of the hall. At intervals along the upper part of +the walls were cressets of wrought iron in which to set torches, and above +the dais were silver sconces for large wax candles. At intervals also were +hooks of ornamental iron-work, from which to hang tapestries by their +metal rings. + +Eleanor had spent the greater part of the afternoon helping her mother get +out the sets of tapestries reserved for holiday occasions, among them some +which had been kept for this very hall. Not all were the work of the lady +herself. Some were woven and embroidered by her maids under her direction, +others were gifts from friends, and the superb piece which hung above the +dais and represented the marriage of Ulysses and Penelope had been woven +in Saumur and was the gift of the King. The chairs of state with their +ebony or ivory footstools were placed, the candles in the sconces, the +rushes and sweet herbs had been strewn upon the floor. Even the holiday +meats and pastries were cooked or made ready for cooking. Until after +Twelfth Night the only work done would be the necessary duties of each +day. + +There was shouting and laughter in the courtyard. In came most of the boys +and young men of the place, bearing the great Yule log into the hall. +Collet the maid, who had just come in with her mistress, bearing the Yule +candle, was sent to get the charred remnant of last year's log. Both log +and candle would burn through the twelve holidays without being quite +consumed, and the bit that was left would be saved to light next year's +fires. These familiar homely ceremonies were not for the stately untouched +newness of the banquet-room. + +Supper was but just over, and the roasted crab-apples were spluttering in +the bowls of brown ale, when the mummers came, capering in their very best +fashion and habited in antic robes whose pattern--if not the costume +itself--had come down from past generations. These actors were village +clowns who had seen such pageants in their boyhood, and they played their +rude drama as they had seen it then, with perhaps a new song or two and a +few speeches to tickle the ears of the new audience. All the household and +many of the villagers crowded in after them to look and laugh and make +remarks more or less humorous about the performance. The lord of the +castle and his family disposed themselves to give their countenance to the +merrymaking, and Sir Walter ordered the steward to see that the players +had a good supper. He himself would distribute some money among them when +the time came. Then they would go on to give the play wherever else they +could hope for an audience. + +The drama was supposed to be founded on the life of Saint George, but no +one could say with truth that it was very much like the legend. First came +a herald tooting on a cow-horn, to proclaim the entrance of the champion, +who was Clement the carpenter mounted on a hobby-horse and armed with +wooden sword and painted buckler. There was much giggling and whispering +among the maids, directed at the demure black-eyed Madelon, of the still- +room. This may have been a reason why Saint George stumbled so desperately +over his rather long speech. His challenge was at last finished, and then +was heard a discordant clashing of tambourines and horse-bells, supposed +to indicate Saracen music. In cantered a turbaned Turk on another hobby,-- +black this time--and in another long speech very smoothly delivered defied +the saint to mortal combat. There was more tittering, for Tom the +blacksmith was also an admirer of that minx Madelon. The fight was a very +lively one, and Saint George had some trouble in holding his own. + +When the Saracen lay gasping for breath (very naturally, the victor having +placed his foot upon his breast) the saint somewhat awkwardly expressed +sorrow for his deed and sighed for a doctor. There was a burst of laughter +and applause as Ralph the bowyer, the comedian of the company, came +limping in, got up in the character of an old quack who had physicked half +the spectators. He bled and bandaged and salved and dosed the fallen +warrior, keeping up a running fire of remarks the while, until the wounded +man arose and went prancing off as good as new. There was no dragon, but +Giles the miller appeared as Beelzebub to avenge the defeat of the paynim, +and was routed in fine style. At the end a company of waits sang carols +while the performers got their breath and repaired damages. The cream of +the comedy, to the friends of the wicked Madelon, lay in the fact that she +had the day before given her promise to Ralph, binding him to say naught +to his rivals until the mumming was safely over. + +While the players were drinking the health of their lord in his own good +brew, the horn sounded at the gate, and the old porter, who had been +watching the mummery, elbowed his way out with some grumbling to see who +could be there. In a few minutes a tall man entered the hall, wearing the +garb of a Palmer or pilgrim from the Holy Land--a long cloak with a cape +and a hood that shadowed the face, a staff, a scrip and sandals. At sight +of him a surprised hush fell upon the company. The common folk drew apart +to let him pass, not quite sure but this was a new figure in the play. But +Sir Walter Giffard rose to his feet after one swift glance at the +newcomer, and as the latter threw back his cowl, the host quickly advanced +to embrace him, crying, "Stephen! We feared that you were dead!" + +Lady Philippa came forward also, with shining eyes and parted lips, +beckoning to the children to join in the welcome of the stranger. Eleanor +scarcely remembered this uncle of hers, whom she had not seen since +leaving Normandy. His eyes were so sad that she felt very sorry for him, +but his smile was so kind that no one could help loving him. He reminded +her of Saint Christopher, who had always been a favorite of hers because +he kept away bad dreams. + +Stephen Giffard had been ransomed by John de Matha, the Provencal monk who +had given himself to the work of rescuing and befriending prisoners. +Hearing from his rescuers that Lady Adelicia, his wife, had gone with rich +gifts to the Holy Land in the hope that her prayers might bring him home, +he took ship to Jaffa and there learned that she had died in Jerusalem. +Now he had settled his affairs and come in the guise of a pilgrim to spend +the Christmas season with his kinfolk in England. + +The two brothers sat and talked by the smoldering fire until late that +night, speaking of divers things. It was no wish of Sir Stephen's that his +unexpected coming should interrupt or change the holiday plans. Indeed, +many of the guests were his friends as well as his brother's. Eleanor +wondered a little next day, why this recovered kinsman made in one way so +little difference in the life of the household, and yet made so deep an +impression. He was not himself merry, and still he seemed to enter into +the joy of others and make it more satisfying. She tried to express this +thought to her mother. The lady smiled, and sighed. + +"He is a very good man," she said. "He was always good, and although he +has had great troubles they have not made him hard or bitter--which is not +a common thing. We must do all that we can for him while he is here, for +that will not be long. He is going back among the paynim." + +"But why, mother?" asked Eleanor, bewildered. + +Lady Philippa shook her head. "I think because he is almost--or quite--a +saint. Perhaps he will tell you by-and-by." + +It seemed passing strange that Sir Stephen should wish to return to the +Moslems after suffering as he had suffered among them, but there was no +time for further discussion then. + +Later in the day, when Sir Walter was talking with his steward and Lady +Philippa was giving final directions to maids and cooks and dapifers, +Eleanor and Roger found Sir Stephen seated alone by the flickering, +purring Yule-log. Before they quite knew it they were telling him of all +their favorite occupations and plays. He seemed as much interested as if +they had been his own children. + +"This Yule," he said musingly after a little, "might be in another world +from the last. And once I spent the day in Bethlehem of Judea." + +It sounded almost as if he had said he had been to heaven. They had never +seen any one who had actually been in Bethlehem. + +"There was a company of us," he went on, "some twenty in all, who landed +after a rough voyage, very sea-weary and thankful to the saints. Glad were +we to find the Knights Templars ready to guard us through the desert. +Since our people have built churches and shrines in the Holy Land, and +pilgrims who visit these places bring with them gold and gems for the +decking thereof, there be many bands of robbers who infest the desert in +the hope of plunder. Often finding no spoil, they maltreat or murder their +victims. For this cause were the Templars and the Hospitallers +established. The Templars may have grown proud and arrogant as some say, +but I must give them this credit, that their black and white banner is +mightily respected by the heathen. + +"Having come safely through the wilderness, we entered Bethlehem as it +chanced upon Christmas Eve, and the town was full of pilgrims and +travelers, so that we had to find shelter where we could. The inns there +are builded in a very old fashion. I think they have not changed since the +time of our Lord. A large open space is walled in with mud or brick or +stone, and hath a well in the middle. Around the inside of the walls are +shelters for horses and pack animals, and sometimes--not always--there is +a house where rooms are let to those who can pay. The one at our inn was +already crowded, so that we had to make shift with fresh straw in the +stalls with our beasts. They gave us flat unleavened cakes of bread, dried +dates, and something like frumenty, with kebobs of mutton roasted, and +water to drink. When we had supped we sat about on our baggage and watched +the people still coming in, + +"You have never seen a camel? No? They be marvelous beasts. They stand +taller than the tallest charger, and travel like the wind on four feet. I +saw three humps like mountains against the sky, coming in at the gate, and +the beasts kneeled down at the word of command and were unloaded. Their +masters came from the East, somewhere beyond Arabia, and were wise in the +lore of the stars. How know I that? Wait and I will tell. + +"Shepherds came also with their sheep, softly bleating and huddling in +their cramped quarters. Last of all came a poor man and his wife with a +very small babe, and they and their donkey took the last bit of space in +our corner. + +"I tell you it is surprising what men will do for a tiny child and its +tender mother. There was a grumpy old Flanders merchant in our company, +who thought only of his own comfort, but now he sent his servant to take a +mantle to the mother because she looked like his daughter at home, who had +named her boy for him. And there was a peevish clerk who had paid for the +last bowl of pottage they had, who gave it to the little family and supped +on bread. + +"Weary as we were, and much as our bones ached, we found solace in looking +at the child as it slept and thinking of the children we had known at +home. I think," the knight added with a half smile, "that if it had +wakened and cried out, the spell might have broken. But it was a sweet +small thing, and it slumbered as if it had been cradled in down. + +"Through the still air we heard the bells calling the monks to prayer. And +then the baby woke, and looked about with wondering innocent eyes, and +stretched out its little hands and laughed. I would you could have seen +that grave company then. Every man of them sought a share in that sweet +sudden laughter. The merchant dangled his gold chain, the clerk made +clownish gestures, the merchant put a golden zecchin into the tiny fingers +for a toy. And when it slept again we slept also, or watched the stars and +thought of that star which long ago stood over Bethlehem. + +"There was a learned doctor in our company who understood Eastern +languages and could converse in Arabic with the wise men from the East. +They told him that in their country there is a tradition that their +astrologers, reading the heavens as is their wont, saw Saturn, Jupiter and +Mercury foregather in the House of the Fishes that rules Judea, and knew +by this that at such a time and in such a place a prophet should be born. +Therefore came they to visit the child with rich gifts, and gained from +the parents a promise that when he was of an age to learn, he should be +brought to their country to learn of their wisdom, even as Moses was +skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. I know not whether there can +be any truth in the legend, but that is their belief. And yet they are not +Christians, but heathen." + +Sir Stephen smiled at the two puzzled young faces. + +"Nay, more," he went on, "even the followers of Mahound revere Christ as a +prophet. Their name for Him is Ruh' Allah. I have seen a Moslem beat his +Christian slave for using an oath that dishonored the name of Christ. In +truth, I have come to think that there are very few unbelievers in the +world. Much wickedness there is--but not unbelief." + +"Mother says," Eleanor ventured shyly, "that you are going away to live +among the paynim." + +"Aye." The knight smiled his fleeting, tender smile. "It is a grief to +her, sweet lady, that I cannot dwell in comfort among you and think no +more of voyages. But there is a work laid upon me, which I must do." + +"A Crusade?" The word was just inside Roger's lips, and it slipped out +before he thought. Sir Stephen smiled again. + +"Nay. My fighting days are over. But I believe that even a broken man may +serve if he be honestly so minded. I must tell you that for many years I +had been troubled, and found no peace, because even among churchmen there +was sloth and selfish greed, and the desire to rule, and the pilgrims whom +I met seemed often moved rather by vanity and love of change than from any +true fear of God. But as you know, I had but begun my homeward journey +when our ship was taken by pirates and the few who were left alive were +sold as slaves. + +"It is not needful to tell all that befell me as a bondman among the Moors +of Barbary. My master was a renegade knight who had forsworn the Cross and +risen to some preferment among the Almohades. His hate was upon me day and +night, and I knew that my lady and my kindred must believe me dead. And in +that black horror of loneliness and despair I found my faith. + +"God speaks to us not always in books, nor in words, nor in one place more +than another. His ways are as the wind that blows where it will. It is not +what men do to us that kills--it is what they make of us. They cannot make +a soul cruel or foul or treacherous, that hath not lost God. What is the +power of a multitude? Christ died. And His life is the light of men. + +"Knighthood is a fair and noble thing, but its vows have no magic--no more +than the oaths of the guilds, or the monastic orders, or the allegiance of +the vassal to his lord. It is the living spirit that keeps the vows--and +when that is gone their power is less than nothing. Once I could not see +how it was possible for a man to renounce his knighthood and his Lord. I +have lived with such a man, and I know that it came of his losing faith. +He lost the power to believe in good. I think that he hated me because I +reminded him of his own land and all that he no longer wished to remember. + +"Now having known the scourge and the fetters, I may speak to the bondman +as a brother. I am alone, with none to need me. Therefore I go hence to +join the brethren who are giving their lives to this ministry." + +The Palmer rose to his feet as if in haste to be gone. "I weary you +perchance with talk too serious for holiday-time," he said with that quick +smile of his, "but when you come to your own work you will know how close +to the heart that lies. Now be glad and make others glad--it was never +God's will, I am right sure, that this world should be a doleful place for +the young." + +The piercing silvery notes of the trumpets in the chill air, the trampling +of horses in the bailey, gave notice of the arrival of guests. There was +no more leisure that day. + +In the glitter and glow and splendor of the banquet hall, with its music +and gayety, the tall gray figure of the Palmer moved like a spirit. As the +guests came one after another to speak with him of his experiences and his +plans, their kindling faces proved his rare power of making them see what +he saw. To Stephen Giffard the presence of God was as real as the sunrise. +In the light of his utter self-sacrifice the loyalty, sweetness and +courage of other lives seemed to shine out more brightly. It was all one +with the immortal world of Christendom--ruled by the living spirit of the +child cradled in Bethlehem centuries ago. + + +THE CRUSADERS + + Daily we waited word or sign-- + They were our children, these + Who held the unsleeping battle-line + Beyond the haunted seas, + Who gave their golden unlived years + And that clear pathway trod + Lifting through sunset gates of fire + To the far tents of God. + + Through trackless realms of unknown space + They wander, unafraid, + For nothing do they fear to face + In worlds that God has made. + Freed from the shattered bonds of earth + They meet their comrades free, + To share the service of the Lord + In truth and loyalty. + + Elizabeth's wise admirals guard + Their dear-loved England's coast. + From Somme and Meuse no cannon barred + The Maid's undaunted host. + And still the Foreign Legion hears + In every desperate chance + Her children's crashing battle-cry-- + "For France! For France! For France!" + + The captains of the hosts of God + Know every man by name, + When from the torn and bleeding sod + Their spirits pass like flame. + The maid must wait her lover still, + The mother wait her son,-- + For very love they may not leave + The task they have begun. + + If secret plot of greed or fear + Shall bid the trumpets cease, + And bind the lands they held so dear + To base dishonored peace, + How shall their white battalions rest + Or sheathe the sword of light,-- + The unbroken armies of our dead, + Who have not ceased to fight! + + + + +NOTES + + +PEIROL OF THE PIGEONS + +The troubadour, minstrel and jongleur or joglar, were not the same in +dignity. A troubadour or trouvere was a poet who sang his own compositions +to his own music. A jongleur was a singer who was not a poet, though he +might make songs. He corresponded more nearly to the modern vaudeville +performer. The minstrel was something between the two. + +THE TAPESTRY CHAMBER + +Saint George was not formally adopted as the patron saint of England until +some time after this. + +LULLABY OF THE PICT MOTHER + +This song may be sung to a very old Scotch air called "O can ye sew +cushions." + +THE WOLVES OF OSSORY + +The werewolf superstition is very persistent, and has been held in many +countries until quite recent times. + +ST. HUGH AND THE BIRDS + +The reference is to St. Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, who is represented with +his pet swan in most of his portraits. He founded a Carthusian monastery +by the invitation of Henry II., at Witham in Somerset, and built the choir +and a considerable part of Lincoln Cathedral. The stories of his love for +birds are found in old chronicles. + +THE SWORD OF DAMASCUS + +An armorer's shop very like the one described has been brought from +Abbeville and set up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in one of the rooms +devoted to armor. + +THE WISDOM OF THE GALLEYS + +"Y'Allah!" (O God!) is a common exclamation, often used as meaning "Make +Haste!" Abu Hassan is "the father of Hassan," In Moslem countries a father +often uses his son's name in this way, allowing his own to be almost +forgotten. + +Khawaja, Khawadji or Howadji is a title of respect given exclusively to +unbelievers. + +The Breach of Roland--Roncesvalles. + +Jebel el Tarik--Gibraltar. + +Iskanderia--Alexandria. + +"Ma sh' Allah!" (What does God mean!) the commonest exclamation of +surprise. + +Feringhi--Frankish, French. + +Kafir--Infidel, heathen, a term of extreme contempt. + +Ahmed ibn Said--Ahmed the son of Said. + +THE EBBING TIDE + +Hy-Brasail is the Celtic name for the Fortunate Islands, the Isles of +Avilion, said to be situated somewhere west of Europe. The dead were said +to go westward to these islands, which were a paradise. + +THE END OF A PILGRIMAGE + +John de Matha founded the Order of the Holy Trinity, sometimes known as +the Redemptorist Fathers, sometimes as the Mathurins. He was afterward +made a saint. He was the first to make any serious effort to alleviate the +condition of prisoners, especially slaves among the Moslems. + +The legend of the Star of Bethlehem referred to is one which is still +current in India. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Masters of the Guild, by L. 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