Part 40 (1/2)

Listen! They come! Take a brand from the hall hearth and let us go light the flambeaux.”

So they went and set fire to the great torches of wood and tallow that were set in their iron holders to light the steps of the tower. Ere the last of them was burning they heard their enemies ravening without.

”Listen!” said Hugh as they descended to the head of the first flight of stairs. ”They are across the moat.”

As he spoke the ma.s.sive doors crashed in beneath the blows of a baulk of timber.

”Now,” said Hugh, as they strung their bows, ”six arrows apiece here, if we can get off so many, and the odd eleven at our next stand. Ah, they come.”

The mob rushed into the hall below, waving torches and swords and hunting it as dogs hunt a covert.

”The English wizards have hid themselves away,” cried a voice. ”Let us burn the place, for so we are sure to catch them.”

”Nay, nay,” answered another voice, that of the mad friar. ”We must have them beneath the torture, that we may learn how to lift the curse from Avignon, and the names of their accomplices on earth and in h.e.l.l.

Search, search, search!”

”Little need to search,” said Grey d.i.c.k, stepping out on to the landing.

”Devil, go join your fellow-devils in that h.e.l.l you talk of,” and he sent an arrow through his heart.

For a moment there followed the silence of consternation while the mob stood staring at their fallen leader. Then with a yell of rage they charged the stair and that fray began which was told of in Avignon for generations. Hugh and d.i.c.k shot their arrows, nor could they miss, seeing what was their target; indeed some of those from the great black bow pinned foe to foe beneath them. But so crowded were the a.s.sailants on the narrow stair that they could not shoot back. They advanced helpless, thrust to their doom by the weight of those who pressed behind.

Now they were near, the dead, still on their feet, being borne forward by the living, to whom they served as s.h.i.+elds. Hugh and d.i.c.k ran to the head of the second flight and thence shot off the arrows that remained.

d.i.c.k loosed the last of them, and of this fearful shaft it was said that it slew three men, piercing through the body of one, the throat of the second and burying its barb in the skull of the third on the lowest step. Now d.i.c.k unstrung his bow, and thrust it into its case on his shoulder, for he was minded that they should go together at the last.

”Shafts have sung their song,” he said, with a fierce laugh; ”now it is the turn of the axe and sword to make another music.”

Then he gripped Sir Hugh by the hand, saying:

”Farewell, master. Oh, I hold this a merry death, such as the Saints grant to few. Ay, and so would you were you as free as I am. Well, doubtless your lady has gone before. Or at worst soon she will follow after and greet you in the Gate of Death, where Murgh sits and keeps his count of pa.s.sing souls.”

”Farewell, friend,” answered Hugh, ”be she quick or dead, thus Red Eve would wish that I should die. _A Cressi! A Cressi!_” he cried and drove his sword through the throat of a soldier who rushed at him.

They fought a very good fight, as doubtless the dead were telling each other while they pa.s.sed from that red stair to such rest as they had won. They had fought a very good fight and it was hard to say which had done the best, Hugh's white sword or d.i.c.k's grey axe. And now, unwounded still save for a bruise or two, they stood there in the moonlight upon the stark edge of the tall tower, the foe in front and black s.p.a.ce beneath. There they stood leaning on axe and sword and drawing their breath in great sobs, those two great harvestmen who that day had toiled so hard in the rich fields of death.

For a while the ever-gathering crowd of their a.s.sailants remained still staring at them. Then the leaders began to whisper to each other, for they scarcely seemed to dare to talk aloud.

”What shall we do?” asked one. ”These are not men. No men could have fought as they have fought us for seven days and at last have slain us like sparrows in a net and themselves remained unhurt.”

”No,” answered another, ”and no mortal archer could send his shaft through the bodies of three. Still it is finished now unless they find wings and fly away. So let us take them.”

”Yes, yes,” broke in Grey d.i.c.k with his hissing laugh, ”come and take us, you curs of Avignon. Having our breath again, we are ready to be taken,” and he lifted his axe and shook it.

”Seize them,” shouted the leader of the French. ”Seize them!” echoed those who poured up the stairs behind.

But there the matter ended, since none could find stomach to face that axe and sword. So at length they took another counsel.

”Bring bows and shoot them through the legs. Thus we shall bring them living to their trial,” commanded the captain of the men of Avignon. He was their fourth captain on that one day, for the other three lay upon the stairs or in the hall.