Volume I Part 6 (1/2)
”Gramercy! An' I be to unlatch for every graceless unthrift that chooses to pummel at Giles Dauber's wicket, I shall have but sorry bedding wi'
an old husband.”
”Old, quotha!--Old! I tell thee, dame, that I'm less by a good score of winters than Dan o' the higher Wient, when he wed old Simon's daughter.--Humph!--She was a merry and a buxom la.s.s; but thou”--
How far this interesting dialogue between the tavern-keeper and his newly-wedded spouse might have extended it is impossible with any degree of accuracy to set forth, inasmuch as another loud and desperate lunge, extenuated to an inaudible mutter the testy rejoinder of ”Giles o' the Maypole;” this being the cognomen by which he was more familiarly designated.
”Anan!” shouted he, ”what the---- Save us!” he continued in a low whisper, crossing himself, ”I had nigh slipped an ugly word over my tongue; and if it should be--Dame, I say, get up, and”--
”Nay, thou hast gotten thee two as nimble legs, by thine own reckoning, as any knave i' the borough. I shall e'en keep to my bed, goodman, though these guzzle-throats hammer till c.o.c.k-crow.--They are at the right side of the door, I trow.”
Now, mine host of the Merry Maypole having taken to himself that last and worst of all possible plagues for the remnant of his days, to wit, a young and somewhat handsome-looking wife, thought it no less meet than reasonable, and no less reasonable than a duty, at all times inc.u.mbent, that the before-named helpmate should, if need were, get out of bed and unlatch the wicket whenever good customers were astir; more particularly as the first Dame Dauber, having the fear of a short but tough cudgel upon her, did, at certain times and seasons, when there was the requisite occasion, leave her liege lord to the enjoyment of his warm and luxurious couch, and spread a table for the entertainment of many a night-betrayed traveller.
It was the first exigency of the kind, since the marriage of Giles Dauber to Madge Newsome of the Deercote, in which the discussion of a point so knotty and important had occurred. Giles dreamt not of the vast difference that exists in the nature and docility of divers women. He heard with a sort of incredulous surprise the first incipient grumblings in contravention of his authority; but when these had fairly shaped themselves into open defiance, he started agape with wonder. Recovering himself, with a stern and portentous silence, he jumped out of bed and drew on his doublet and hose. While thoughts of relentless import were brooding, he groped his way down the ladder that communicated with the lower apartment, for the purpose of ascertaining the quality and condition of the stranger. The latter still manifested a noisy impatience at being suffered, in so inhospitable a manner, to linger without. The night was rainy and tempestuous--Giles s.h.i.+vered to the backbone as he trod on the wheezing rushes strewed over the floor; they were yet damp and dirty, by reason of the many visitors who had that night loitered long at the Merry Maypole.
”Holloa, friend!--thy name?” shouted Giles, placing his hand on the latch.
”Open the door, for the love of mercy!” cried a strange voice. Giles drew back; he liked not this salutation--more, by token, from the adjurement being for the love of mercy, in lieu of an appeal to the tinkling angels that generally lined a traveller's pouch.
”Some st.u.r.dy beggar or mendicant friar,” thought he, ”that knocks at my door because the chantry gates are shut. I care not to open my door to every losel that knocks,” cried he aloud. ”Hence! I know thee not.”
”Goodman, give me a night's lodging, and I will reward thee”--the door flew open at this intimation--”with a palmer's benison,” continued the stranger, advancing towards the wan embers that yet flickered on the hearth. Had Giles awaited the finis.h.i.+ng of this sentence ere the latch was loosened, some other and more hospitable roof had enjoyed the benefit of that night's adventure.
”Thanks are not over meet for a cool stomach,” growled the disappointed tapster; whilst his guest roused the decaying f.a.ggots into a faint and unsteady blaze.
Giles surveyed the new-comer with no very sanguine prepossessions in his behalf. The figure that met his scrutiny was clad in a dark cloak. The hood, partly thrown back, showed a somewhat ”frosty poll,” though the vivacity of a wild and restless eye, peering from under his dark and luxuriant brow, would scarcely have betokened an age at which the coming winter of life usually scatters these chill warnings of its approach.
His features were finely moulded. A weather-beaten cheek, mingling with a complexion evidently sallow, gave a rich autumnal hue to his visage: a slight furrow, extending from the outer angle of the nostril around each corner of a narrow and retreating mouth, gave a careless expression of scorn to the countenance when at rest; but, as he smiled, this sinister aspect disappeared, and the soft gleam of benevolence which succeeded looked the brighter from the portentous scowl that had just pa.s.sed. His beard was grey, and of a most reverent equipment, well calculated to excite veneration and respect. He was above the middle size: his humble garb but ill concealed a majesty of deportment indicating a disposition rather to command than to solicit favours. He seated himself on a low stool, and honest Giles, whose courage did not feel sufficiently invigorated, in the presence of this proud palmer, to dare an open warfare, began hostilities covertly, in manner as follows:--
”What ails ye, to disturb honest folks i' their beds at these hours? You might ha' tarried in your last baiting-place--at any rate till the kye were astir. I wonder the guard let you pa.s.s at the gate. But since these evil days have o'ershadowed the land, every braggart has licence to do as he list; and the monks and the friars, with their whole crew of dubs and deputies, are the worst of all. Old Cliderhow here, the parson, thought to have waged war with his betters; but he was a slight matter mistaken: we whipt him up by the heels for his treason.”
”Is Cliderhow alive?” inquired the stranger.
”Save us, pilgrim! where had you knowledge of the traitor?”
”Our good king Edward,” continued the guest, apparently not attending to Giles's question in reply, ”is still sorely beset with his enemies. Had a score of knaves such as Master Cliderhow been hanged long ago, his reign had been less burdensome both to prince and people.”
”It's twelve years--ay, twelve,” said Giles, reckoning the lapse on his fingers; ”I know it by the great wind that beat down Master Markland's barn wall at the Meadows, since Cliderhow's sermon, inciting the whole parish to rebellion.”
”I know it,” replied the palmer: ”he was in prison when I last knew of the matter.”
”Ay, ay,” returned Giles knowingly; ”but threescore marks, disbursed discreetly to our good and loyal burgesses, made the doors as easy to open as my wicket--that is, at timely hours, ye understand.”
”Is he at large?” inquired the other.
”They say he bides at Haigh,” answered Boniface, ”roistering it with that Welsh knight there, Sir Osmund Neville. I warrant Sir William's substance runs gaily down the old parson's throat.”
Here the palmer threw the hood over his brows. Suddenly he arose: striding across the chamber with considerable speed, he twice repeated the name of Sir Osmund Neville in a subdued tone, but with a bitterness of spirit that ill accorded with the outward habit of meekness which he had a.s.sumed.
”Giles Dauber! what keeps ye so long there a-gossiping?” shouted a shrill voice from above. It was the vocal subst.i.tute of Mistress Dauber, who, resolutely determined not to budge at her husband's bidding, had, as she lay, listened, but to little purpose. Finding it was no everyday guest, she crept to the ladder-head and gave ear for a while; but soon discovering it to be an unthrifty sort of intercourse that was going on, not likely to bring either gain or good-will to the house, and fearing that Giles might fall into some snare from his ready-mouthed opinions regarding the unsettled temper and aspect of the time, she thought fit to break abruptly on the discourse ere it should lead to some dangerous or forbidden subject. He had, however, hit upon a favourite topic, in addition to which, he was now evidently loth to leave his guest ere he had learnt the nature of his errand to these parts. An ”o'er-sea pilgrim,” as they were generally styled, was too choice an arrival for a petty hostel--especially in those times, when newspapers and posts were not circulating daily and hourly through the land--to let slip an opportunity of inquiring about the king of Scotland, as Robert Bruce was then called, or about his majesty, the Sultan Solyman--two personages who were very frequently confounded with each other in mine host's political hemisphere, and whose realms formed the great pandemonium whence issued all that was dire and disastrous to plague and perplex unhappy England.
”To bed! to bed!--Thou art ready enough to rise when thou art not bidden. To bed, I say!” angrily shouted the disturbed Benedict.