Part 27 (1/2)
”I know it well. I helped to burn it down some years ago.”
”I rede you to say nothing of that matter when you get there. You will then journey as though to London until you come to a fair town named Guildford.”
”I have heard of it. The King hath a hunt there.”
”The same. You will then ask for a house named Cosford, two leagues from the town on the side of a long hill.”
”I will bear it in mind.”
”At Cosford you will see a good knight named Sir John b.u.t.testhorn, and you will ask to have speech with his daughter, the Lady Mary.”
”I will do so; and what shall I say to the Lady Mary, who lives at Cosford on the slope of a long hill two leagues from the fair town of Guildford?”
”Say only that I sent my greeting, and that Saint Catharine has been my friend--only that and nothing more. And now leave me, I pray you, for my head is weary and I would fain have sleep.”
Thus it came about that a month later on the eve of the Feast of Saint Matthew, the Lady Mary, as she walked front Cosford gates, met with a strange horseman, richly clad, a serving-man behind him, looking shrewdly about him with quick blue eyes, which twinkled from a red and freckled face. At sight of her he doffed his hat and reined his horse.
”This house should be Cosford,” said he. ”Are you by chance the Lady Mary who dwells there?”
The lady bowed her proud dark head.
”Then,” said he, ”Squire Nigel Loring sends you greeting and tells you that Saint Catharine has been his friend.” Then turning to his servant he cried: ”Heh, Raoul, our task is done! Your master is a free man once more. Come, lad, come, the nearest port to France! Hola! Hola! Hola!”
And so without a word more the two, master and man, set spurs to their horses and galloped like madmen down the long slope of Hindhead, until as she looked after them they were but two dark dots in the distance, waist-high in the ling and the bracken.
She turned back to the house, a smile upon her face. Nigel had sent her greeting. A Frenchman had brought it. His bringing it had made him a freeman. And Saint Catherine had been Nigel's friend. It was at her shrine that he had sworn that three deeds should be done ere he should set eyes upon her again. In the privacy of her room the Lady Mary sank upon her prie-dieu and poured forth the thanks of her heart to the Virgin that one deed was accomplished; but even as she did so her joy was overcast by the thought of those two others which lay before him.
XVI. HOW THE KING'S COURT FEASTED IN CALAIS CASTLE
It was a bright suns.h.i.+ny morning when Nigel found himself at last able to leave his turret chamber and to walk upon the rampart of the castle.
There was a brisk northern wind, heavy and wet with the salt of the sea, and he felt, as he turned his face to it, fresh life and strength surging in his blood and bracing his limbs. He took his hand from Aylward's supporting arm and stood with his cap off, leaning on the rampart and breathing in the cool strong air. Far off upon the distant sky-line, half hidden by the heave of the waves, was the low white fringe of cliffs which skirted England. Between him and them lay the broad blue Channel, seamed and flecked with flas.h.i.+ng foam, for a sharp sea was running and the few s.h.i.+ps in sight were laboring heavily.
Nigel's eyes traversed the wide-spread view, rejoicing in the change from the gray wall of his cramped chamber. Finally they settled upon a strange object at his very feet.
It was a long trumpet-shaped engine of leather and iron bolted into a rude wooden stand and fitted with wheels. Beside it lay a heap of metal slugs and lumps of stone. The end of the machine was raised and pointed over the battlement. Behind it stood an iron box which Nigel opened. It was filled with a black coa.r.s.e powder, like gritty charcoal.
”By Saint Paul!” said he, pa.s.sing his hands over the engine, ”I have heard men talk of these things, but never before have I seen one. It is none other than one of those wondrous new-made bombards.”
”In sooth, it is even as you say,” Aylward answered, looking at it with contempt and dislike in his face. ”I have seen them here upon the ramparts, and have also exchanged a buffet or two with him who had charge of them. He was jack-fool enough to think that with this leather pipe he could outshoot the best archer in Christendom. I lent him a cuff on the ear that laid him across his foolish engine.”
”It is a fearsome thing,” said Nigel, who had stooped to examine it.
”We live in strange times when such things can be made. It is loosed by fire, is it not, which springs from the black dust?”
”By my hilt! fair sir, I know not. And yet I call to mind that ere we fell out this foolish bombardman did say something of the matter. The fire-dust is within and so also is the ball. Then you take more dust from this iron box and place it in the hole at the farther end--so. It is now ready. I have never seen one fired, but I wot that this one could be fired now.”
”It makes a strange sound, archer, does it not?” said Nigel wistfully.
”So I have heard, fair sir--even as the bow tw.a.n.gs, so it also has a sound when you loose it.”
”There is no one to hear, since we are alone upon the rampart, nor can it do scathe, since it points to sea. I pray you to loose it and I will listen to the sound.” He bent over the bombard with an attentive ear, while Aylward, stooping his earnest brown face over the touch-hole, sc.r.a.ped away diligently with a flint and steel. A moment later both he and Nigel were seated some distance off upon the ground while amid the roar of the discharge and the thick cloud of smoke they had a vision of the long black snakelike engine shooting back upon the recoil. For a minute or more they were struck motionless with astonishment while the reverberations died away and the smoke wreaths curled slowly up to the blue heavens.