Part 6 (1/2)
With this speech, he made a low bow to the King and another to the a.s.sembled knights, and, loosening his sword-belt, handed it with his scabbard and his outer cloak to a squire.
Then I found voice for a thought that had been boiling within me.
”'Twere well, my lord,” I said to the King, ”to have this champion searched for hidden armor. I have grievous knowledge that the Carletons scruple not to gain that vantage.”
Some of the friends of Mountjoy raised a shout:
”Ay! Well spoken! Let him be searched.”
The King quelled the tumult with a royal gesture.
”Sir Hugh of Leicester,” he said to an aged knight of his train, ”make search of both these champions, and tell us whether they wear other arms or armor than the terms permit.”
In the meantime my father had thrown aside his cloak and belt; and his sword being far heavier than De Latiere's, had received the loan of a lighter weapon from one of the King's attendants. Sir Hugh approached and lightly struck the shoulders and breast and waist of both the combatants, and announced to the King that neither carried other weapons of offense or defense than the swords in their hands.
Thereupon a s.p.a.ce some twelve paces across was cleared in the center of the hall, and Sir Philip and Lord Mountjoy stood facing one another, awaiting the word.
On a signal from the King, the herald shouted, and instantly the blades struck fire, and the champions whirled about one another in mortal combat. The Frenchman danced and dodged with a quickness that minded me, even then, of the beast he so resembled. My father had much ado to continue facing him; and soon 'twas plain to see that the Carleton champion was such a master of fence as would find few to equal him in all England. His blade so flashed in thrust and parry that the eye could not follow its motions; and my father, of whom always I had thought as the finest of swordsmen, soon had all he could do, and more, in defending his breast from the a.s.sault, and had no instant's leisure to threaten his enemy.
Half a minute had not pa.s.sed ere the Frenchman's slas.h.i.+ng blade drew blood from the Mountjoy's arm, then from his shoulder; and for one black instant methought the blow was mortal. But for minute after minute, my father fought on, with lips tight closed and eyes that ever followed the hand of his enemy. Then I wondered if De Latiere, with all his leaps and runs, would not tire himself at the last, and slowing in his thrusts, give my father's slower spent strength its chance for victory. But again I saw how fast the Mountjoy bled from the two wounds he already had; and this hope flitted.
Then truly, in bitterness of spirit, did I perceive how false and cruel is our vaunted trial by wager of battle. Here was my father, a good man and true, fighting to defend the life of an innocent youth; and this dancing Frenchman, to whom the sword was as the wand of a juggler, would soon kill him before our eyes. That Cedric, the forester, was guiltless of the treacherous deed with which he stood charged altered not a whit the devilish skill of the champion who fought to see him hang. And if De Latiere overcame my father at the last, and left him dead at the feet of the King, the tale that I had told would be no whit less true for such an outcome. Verily at that moment my eyes were opened, and thoughts came to me that shall remain while yet I live.
Now the end fast approached. Blood streamed from my father's wounds, and he breathed fast and thickly. He scarce moved from his tracks save ever to turn and face his ape-like enemy, whose blade flashed as swiftly as ever, and in whose eyes gleamed a look of deadly purpose.
My eyes could never follow the stroke which brought to a close this desperate, unequal combat. What I saw was that the Frenchman's blade had pierced my father's breast. Then-all the Saints be thanked!-one last fierce blow from the Champion of Mountjoy.
This instant was the first since the duel began when De Latiere's matchless guarding had not fenced his body from my father's thrust. As quick as the light's rebound when it strikes the surface of still water was the Mountjoy's return of the stroke he had received. The next moment both the champions lay on the floor; and King and knights and lords rushed forward to their succor.
De Latiere was thrust clean through the body; and he never moved nor spoke. But my father's wound, though grievous, it now appeared was far from mortal, his enemy's blade not having deeply pierced him. Now he raised himself on his arm and claimed the victory for Mountjoy and the right.
Ten days thereafter, we bore home the Champion of Mountjoy in a sumptuous litter, which had been the gift of the King himself. Near the gentle palfrey which bore its van, I rode on my faithful little mare, for now we had no fear of lurking enemies. By the open side of the litter, and oft in gay and heartening speech with him who lay on the silken pillows within, rode Cedric of Pelham Wood, on the captured war-horse of Carleton and wearing, full well and bravely, a new-made suit of the Mountjoy purple and gold.
CHAPTER V-THE FESTIVAL OF THE ARCHERS
Young Cedric, the forester, who was now my constant companion, was walking with me on the path that led by the Millfield. There, since the raising of the siege of Castle Mountjoy, Old Marvin, the archer, and his gray-haired dame had had their cottage and half dozen acres of mowing and tillage. 'Twas on a fair December morning, when yet no snow had come. The h.o.a.r frost still covered all the western slopes, and the wood-smoke that came down from a clearing in the forest above did sweeten the air more to my liking than all the scents and powders that the traders bring from Araby.
We had had an hour at the foils, wherein I was master, and another with the cross-bow. And at this good sport Cedric did show such skill that once more I spoke my wonder at the magic of it. He had no more than my own sixteen years; and when 'mongst men and soldiers, he but seldom lifted his voice; but his handling of this weapon would honor any man of middle life who had spent more years with the bow in his hands than Cedric could count, all told.
”Cedric,” I cried, ”methinks Old Marvin himself could not best thee; and for thirty years he of all the Mountjoy archers hath borne the palm.”
Cedric smiled, but shook his head.
”Mayhap Old Marvin knoweth a many things anent the placing of his bolt that have not yet come to me. My father, Elbert of Pelham Wood, who taught me what I know, hath often told me that with the long-bow one man and one only in all of England could best him,-and that one no other than Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest; but with the cross-bow, Marvin of Mountjoy could ever lesson him. And did not thou tell me that 'twas Old Marvin who laid low the Gray Wolf of Carleton, at the siege? 'Tis one thing to strike a fair bull's-eye on target, in broad daylight and quiet air, and another far to strike the throat of one's enemy in battle and by torchlight.”
”Aye, and 'twas thou, Cedric, who struck down young Lionel of Carleton and two of his robber hounds of men-at-arms, in our fray in the woods but six weeks gone. Thy bolts did not then fly by guess or by luck, I trow.”
Cedric smiled again, but had no words for this; and I went quickly on: