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ILLINOIS

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

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University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Library
Brittle Books Project, 2015.COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION

In Public Domain.
Published prior to 1923.

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THE UNIVERSITY
OF ILLINOIS
LIBRARY

L77w
i69a5 V	f

THE WHITE COMPANY.

BY

A. CONAN DOYLE.

NEW YORK:

HURST & COMPANY,
PuBLISHEltS.CONTENTS.

CHAPTER	PAGE

I. How the Black Sheep came forth from the Fold—.	5

II. How Alleyne Edricson came out into the World...	13

III. How Hordle John cozened the Fuller of Lymington..	18
IY. How the Bailiff of Southampton Slew the Two Mas-

terless Men......................................23

Y. How a Strange Company Gathered at the " Pied

Merlin".................. —....................................34

VI. How Samkin Aylward Wagered his Feather-bed..........45

VII. How the Three Comrades Journeyed through the

Woodlands.........................................56

VIII. The Three Friends................................................................65

IX. How Strange Things Befel in Minsted Wood........	75

X. How Hordle John Found a Man whom he Might

Follow..................................................................................91

XI. How a Young Shepherd had a Perilous Flock..............108

XII. How Allsyne Learned More than he could Teach..........121

XIII. How the White Company set forth to the Warn..........129

XIY. How Sir Nigel sought for a Wayside Venture..............136

XV. How the Yellow Cog sailed forth from Life.......... 145

XYI. How the Yellow Cog fought the Two Rover Galleys. 157

XVII. How the Yellow Cog crossed the Bar of Gironde________164

XVIII. How Sir Nigel Loring put a Patch upon his Eye..........171

XIX. How there was Stir at the Abbey of St. Andrews________181

XX. How Alleyne Won his Place in an Honorable Guild..	191

XXI. How Agostino Pisano Risked his Head..........................200

XXII. How the Bowmen held Wassail at the "Rose de

Guienne ".........................................................209

XXIII.	How England held the Lists at Bordeaux.................216

XXIV.	How a Champion came forth from the East.............226

XXV. How Sir Nigel wrote to Twynham Castle..................234

XXVI. How the Three Comrades Gained a Mighty Treasure. 240Iv	CONTENTS.

CHAPTER	PAGB

XXYlI. How Roger Club-foot was Passed into Paradise______ 252

XXVIII. How the Comra '°s came over the Marshes of France.. 260
XXIX. How the Blessea Hour of Sight Came to the Lady

Tiphaine......... ............................. 271

XXX. How the Brushwood Men came to the Chateau of

Villefranche.................................... 281

XXXI. How Five Men held the Keep of Villefranche........ 289

XXXII. How the Company took Counsel Round the Fallen

Tree...................... .................... 298

XXXIII.	How the Army made the Passage of Roncesvalles— 305

XXXIV.	How the Company Made Sport in the Vale of Pampe-

luna......................................................................................312

XXXV. How Sir Nigel Hawked at an Eagle......................32 J

XXXVI. How Sir Nigel Took the Patch from his Eye..................334

XXXVII. How the White Company came to be Disbanded............346

XXXVIII* Of the Home-coming to Hampshire354.THE WHITE COMPANY.

CHAPTER I.

mow the black sheep came forth from the fold.

The great bell of Beaulieu was ringing. Far away througk
the forest might be heard its musical clangor and swell. Peat-
cutters on Blackdown and fishers upon the Exe heard the distant
throbbing rising and falling upon the sultry summer air. It was
a common sound in those parts—as common as the chatter of
the jays and the booming of the bittern. Yet the fishers and the
peasants raised their heads and looked questions at each other,
for the angelus had already gone and vespers was still far off.
Why should the great bell of Beaulieu toll when the shadows
were neither short nor long ?

All round the Abbey the monks were trooping in. Under the
long green-paved avenues of gnarled oaks and of lichened beeches
the white-robed brothers gathered to the sound. From the vine-
yard and the vine-press, from the bouvary or ox-farm, from the
marl-pits and salterns, even from the distant iron-works of Sowley
nnd the outlying grange of St. Leonard's, they had all turned
their steps homewards. It had been no sudden call. A swift
messenger had the night before sped round to the outlying
dependencies of the Abbey, and had left the summons for every
monk to-be back in the cloisters by the third hour after noontide.
So urgent a message had not been issued within the memory of
old lay-brother Athanasius, who had cleaned the Abbey knocker
since the year after the Battle of Bannockburn.

A stranger who knew nothing either of the Abbey or of its
immense resources might have gathered from the appearance of
the brothers some conception of the varied duties which they6

THE WHITE COMPANY.

were called upon to perform, and of the busy, wide-spread* life
which centred in the old monastery. As they swept gravely in
by twos and by threes, with bended heads and muttering lips,
there were few who did not bear upon them some signs of their
daily toil. Here were two with wrists and sleeves all spotted
with the ruddy grape juice. There again was a bearded brother
with a abroad-headed axe and a bundle of faggots upon his
shoulders, while beside him walked another with the shears
under his arm and the white wool still clinging to his whiter
gown. A long, straggling troop bore spades and mattocks,
while the two rearmost of all staggered along under a huge
basket of fresh-caught carp, for the morrow was Friday, and
there were fifty platters to be filled and as many sturdy trench-
ermen behind them. Of all the throng there was scarce one
who was not labor-stained and weary, for Abbot Berghersh was
a hard man to himself and to others.

Meanwhile, in the broad and lofty chamber set 'apart for
occasions of import, the Abbot himself was pacing impatiently
backwards and forwards, with his long white nervous hands
clasped in front of him. His thin, thought-worn features and
sunken, haggard cheeks bespoke one who had indeed beaten
down that inner foe whom every man must face, but had none
the less suffered sorely in the contest. In crushing his passions
he had well-nigh crushed himself. Yet, frail as was his person,
there gleamed out ever and anon from under his drooping brows
a flash of fierce energy, which recalled to men's minds that he
came of a fighting stock, and that even now his twin-brother, Sir
Bartholomew Berghersh, was one of the most famous of those
stern warriors who had planted the Cross of St. George before
the gates of Paris. With lips compressed and clouded brow, he
strocle up and down the oaken floor, the very genius and imper-
sonation of asceticism, while the great bell still thundered and
clanged above his head. At last the uproar died away in three
last, measured throbs, and ere their echo had ceased the Abbot
struck a small gong which summoned a lay-brother to his pres-
ence.

"Have the brethern come ?" he asked, in the Anglo-French
dialect used in religious houses.

" They are here," the other answered, with his eyes cast dov/u
and his hands crossed upon his chest.

" All ? "THE WHITE COMPANY.

7

" Two and thirty of the seniors and fifteen of the novices, most
holy father. Brother Mark of the Spicarium is sore smitten with
a fever and could not come. He said that—"

"It boots not what he said. Fever or no, he should have
come at my call. His spirit must be chastened, as must that of
many more in this Abbey. You yourself, brother Francis, have
twice raised your voice, so it hath come to my ears, when the
reader in the refectory hath been dealing with the lives of God's
most blessed saints. What hast thou to say ? "

The lay-brother stood meek and silent, with his arms still
crossed in front of him.

" One thousand aves and as many credos, said standing with
arms outstretched before the shrine of the Virgin, may help thee
to remember that the Creator hath given us two ears and but
one mouth, as a token that there is twice the work for the one
as for the other. Where is the master of the novices ? "

" He is without, most holy father."

" Send him hither."

The sandalled feet clattered over the wooden floor, and the
iron-bound door creaked upon its hinges. In a few moments it
opened again to admit a short square monk with a heavy, com-
posed face and an authoritative manner.

" You have sent for me, holy father ? "

" Yes, brother Jerome, I wish that this matter be disposed of
with as little scandal as may be, and yet it is needful that the
example should be a public one." The Abbot spoke in Latin
now, as a language which was more fitted by its age and so-
lemnity to convey the thoughts of two high dignitaries of the
order.

" It would, perchance, be best that the novices be not ad-
mitted," suggested the master. "This mention of a woman
may turn their minds from their pious meditationsf to worldly
and evil thoughts."

"Woman! woman!" groaned the Abbot. "Well has the
holy Chrysostom termed them radix malorum. From Eve
downwards, what good hath come from any of them ? Who
brings the plaint ? "

" It is brother Ambrose."

" A holy and devout young man."

" A light and a pattern to every novice."

" Let the matter be brought to an issue then according to our8	' THE WHITE COMPANY.

-V	x	■

old-time monastic habit. Bid the chancellor and the sub-chan-
cellor lead in the brothers according to age, together with
brother John, the accused, and brother Ambrose, the accuser."

" And the novices ? "

"Let them bide in the north alley of the cloisters. Stay!
Bid the sub-chancellor send out to them Thomas the lector to
read unto them from the 4 Gesta beati Benedicti.' It may save
them from foolish and pernicious babbling."

The Abbot was left to himself once more, and bent his thin
gray face over his illuminated breviary. So he remained while
the senior monks filed slowly and sedately into the chamber,
seating themselves upon the long oaken benches which lined the
wall on either side. At the further end, in two high chairs as
large as that of the Abbot, though hardly as elaborately carved,
sat the master of the novices and the chancellor, the latter a
broad and portly priest, with dark mirthful eyes and a thick
outgrowth of crisp black hair all round his tonsured head.
Between them stood a lean, white-faced brother who appeared
to be ill at ease, shifting his feet from side to side and tapping
his chin nervously with the long parchment roll which he held
in his hand. The Abbot, from his point of vantage, looked down
on the two long lines of faces, placid and sun-browned for the most
part, with the large bovine eyes and unlined features which told
of their easy, unchanging existence. Then he turned his eager
fiery gaze upon the pale-faced monk who faced &im.

"This plaint is thine, as I learn, brother Ambrose," said he.
"May the holy Benedict, patron of our house, be present this
day and aid us in our findings ! How many counts are there ? "

"Three, most holy father," the brother answered in a low
and quavering voice.

" Have you set them forth according to rule ?"

" They are here set down, most holy father, upon a cantle of
sheep-skin."

" Let the sheep-skin be handed to the chancellor. Bring in
brother John, and let him hear the plaints which have been urged
against him."

At this order a lay-brother swung open the door, and two
other lay-brothers entered leading^between them a young novice
of the order. He was a man of huge stature, dark-eyed and
red-headed, with a peculiar half-humorous, half-defiant expression
upon his bold, well-marked features. His cowl was thrown backTHE WHITE COMPANY.	9

Upon his shoulders, and his gown, unfastened at the top, dis-
closed a round, sinewy neck, ruddy and corded like the bark of
the fir. Thick, muscular arms, covered with a reddish down,
protruded from the wide sleeves of his habit, while his white
shirt, looped up upon one side, gave a glimpse of a huge knotty
leg, scarred and torn with the scratches of brambles. With a
bow to the Abbot, which had in it perhaps more pleasantry
than reverence, the novice strode across to the carved prie-dieu
which had been set apart for him, and stood silent and erect
with his hand upon the gold bell which was used in the private
orisons of the Abbot's own household. His dark eyes glanced
rapidly over the assembly, and finally settled with a grim and
menacing twinkle upon the face of his accuser.

The chamberlain rose, and having slowly unrolled the parch-
ment-scroll, proceeded to read it out in a thick and pompous
voice, while a subdued rustle and movement among the brothers
bespoke the interest with which they followed the proceedings.

"Charges brought upon the second Thursday after the Feast
of the Assumption, in the year of our Lord thirteen hundred and
sixty-six, against brother John, formerly known as Hordle John,
or John of Hordle, but now a novice in the holy monastic, order
of the Cistercians. Read upon the same day at the Abbey of
Beaulieu in the presence of the most reverend Abbot Berghersh
and of the assembled order.

" The charges against the said brother John are the following,
namely, to wit:

" First, that on the above-mentioned Feast of the Assumption,
small beer having been served to the novices in the proportion
of one quart to each four, the said brother John did drain the
pot at one draught to the detriment of brother Paul, brother
Porphyry and brother Ambrose, who could scarce eat thgir
none-meat of salted stock-fish on account of their exceeding
dryness."

At this solemn indictment the novice raised his hand and
twitched his lip, while even the placid senior brothers glanced
across at each other and coughed to cover their amusement.
The Abbot alone sat gray and immutable, with a drawn face
and a brooding eye.

" Item, that having been told by the master of the novices that
he should restrict his food for two days to a single three-pound
Joaf of bran and beans, for the greater honoring and glorifyingxo

THE WHITE COMPANY.

of St. Monica, mother of the holy Augustine, he was heard by
brother Ambrose and others to say that he wished twenty thou-
sand devils would fly away with the said Monica, mother of the
holy Augustine, or any other saint who came between a man
and his meat. Item, that upon brother Ambrose reproving him
for this blasphemous wish, he did hold the said brother face
downwards over the piscatorium or fish-pond for a space during
which the said brother was able to repeat a pater and four aves
for the better fortifying of his soul against impending death."

There was a buzz and murmur among the white-frocked
brethren at this grave charge ; but the Abbot held up his long
quivering hand. " What then ? " said he.

"Item, that between nones and vespers on the feast of James
the Less the said brother John was observed upon the Brocken-
hurst road, near the spot which is known as Hatchett's Pond,
in converse with a person of the other sex, being a maiden of
the name of Mary Sowley, the daughter of the King's verderer.
Item, that after sundry japes and jokes the said brother John did
lift up the said Mary Sowley and did take, carry, and convey her
across a stream, to the infinite relish of the devil and the exceed-
ing detriment of his own soul, which scandalous and wilful fall-
ing away was witnessed by three members of our order."

A dead silence throughout the room, with a rolling of heads
and upturning of eyes, bespoke the pious horror of the commu-
nity. The Abbot drew his gray brows low over his fiercely
questioning eyes.

" Who can vouch for this thing ? " he asked.

"That can I," answered the accuser. "So too can brother
Porphyry, who was with me, and brother Mark of the Spicarium,
who hath been so much stirred and inwardly troubled by the
sight that he now lies in a fever through it."

" And the woman ? " asked the Abbot. " Did she not break
into lamentation and woe that a brother should so demean him-
self?"

"Nay, she smiled sweetly upon him and thanked him. I can
vouch it and so can brother Porphyry."

"Canst thou ? " cried the Abbot, in a high, tempestuous tone.
" Canst thou so ? Hast forgotten that the five-and-thirtieth rule
of the order is that in the presence of a woman the face should
be ever averted and the eyes cast down ? Hast forgot it, I say ?
If your eyes were upon your sandals, how came ye to see thisTHE WHITE COMPANY.

II

smile of which ye prate ? A week in your cells, false brethren,
a week of rye-bread and lentils, with double lauds and double
matins, may help ye to remembrance of the laws under which ye
live."

At this sudden outflame of wrath the two witnesses sank their
faces on to their chests, and sat as men crushed. The Abbot
turned his angry eyes away from them and bent them upon the
accused, who met his searching gaze with a firm and composed
face.

" What hast thou to say, brother John, upon these weighty
things which are urged against you ? "

" Little enough, good father, little enough," said the novice,
speaking English with a broad West Saxon drawl. The
brothers, who were English to a man, pricked up their ears at
the sound of the homely and yet unfamiliar speech ; but the
Abbot flushed red with anger, and struck his hand upon the
oaken arm of his chair.

" What talk is this ? " he cried. " Is this a tongue to be used
within the walls of an old and well-famed monastery ? But
grace and learning have ever gone hand in hand, and when one
is lost it is needless to look for the other."

"I know not about that," said brother John. " I know only
that the words come kindly to my mouth, for it was the speech
of my fathers before me. Under your favor, I shall either use
it now or hold my peace."

The Abbot patted his foot and nodded his head, as one who
passes a point but does aot forget it.

" For the matter of the ale," continued brother John, " I had
come in hot from the fields and had scarce got the taste of the
thing before mine eye lit upon the bottom of the pot. It may be,
too, that I spoke somewhat shortly concerning the bran and the
beans, the same being poor provender and unfitted for a man of
my inches. It is true also that I did lay my hands upon this
jack-fool, of a brother Ambrose, though, as you can see, I did
him little scathe. As regards the maid, too, it is true that I did
heft her over the stream, she having on her hosen and shoon,
whilst I had but my wooden sandals, which could take no hurt
from the water. I should have thought shame upon my man-
hood, as well as my monkhood, if I had held back my hand
from her." He glanced around as he spoke with the half-
amused look which he had worn during the whole proceedings.12

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" There is no need to go farther," said the Abbot. " He has
confessed to all. k only remains for me to portion out the
punishment which is due to his evil conduct."

He rose, and the two long lines of brothers followed his
example,.looking sideways with scared faces at the angry prel-
ate.

u John of Hordle," he thundered, " you have shown yourself
during the two months of your novitiate to be a recreant monk,
and one who is unworthy to wear the white garb which is the
outer symbol of the spotless spirit. That dress shall therefore
be stripped from thee, and thou shalt be cast into the outer
world without benefit of clerkship, and without lot or part in
the graces and blessings of those who dwell under the care of
the Blessed Benedict. Thou shalt come back neither to Beau-
lieu nor to any of the granges of Beaulieu, and thy name shall
be struck off the scrolls of the order."

The sentence appeared a terrible one to the older monks,
who had become so used to the safe and regular life of the
Abbey that they would have been as helpless as children in the
outer world. From their pious oasis they looked dreamily out
at the desert of life, a place full of stormings and strivings—
comfortless, restless, and overshadowed byi evil. The young
novice, however, appeared to have other thoughts, for his eyes
sparkled and his smile broadened. It needed but that to add
fresh fuel to the fiery mood of the prelate.

"So much for thy spiritual punishment," he cried. " But it is
io thy grosser feelings that we must turn in such natures as
thine, and as thou art no longer under the shield of holy church
there is the less difficulty. Ho there ! lay-brothers—Francis,
Naomi, Joseph—seize him and bind his arms ! Drag him forth,
and let the ioresters and the porters scourge him from the
precincts ! "

As these three brothers advanced towards him to carry out the
Abbot's direction, the smile faded from the novice's face, and he
glanced right and left with his fierce <brown eyes, like a bull at
a baiting. Then, with a sudden deep-chested shout, he tore
up the heavy oaken prie-dieu and poised it to strike, taking
two steps backward the while, that none might take him at a
vantage.	-

" By the black rood of Waltham ! " he roared, " if any knave
among you lays a finger-end upon the edge of my gown, I will\ ' • -
I	THE WHITE COMPANY.	13

crush his skull like a filbert! " With his thick knotted arms,
his thundering voice, and his bristle of red hair, there was some^
thing so repellent in the man that the three brothers flew back
£t the very glare of him ; and the two rows of white monks
grained away from him like poplars.in a tempest. The Abbot
only sprang forward with shining eyes ; but the chancellor and
the master hung upon either arm and wrested him back out of
danger's way.

" He is possessed of a devil!" they shouted. " Run, brother
Ambrose, brother Joachim ! Call Hugh of the Mill, and Wood-
man Wat, and Raoul with his arbalest and bolts. Tell them
that we are in fear of our lives ! Run, run ! for the love of the
Virgin !"

But the novice was a strategist as well as a man of actian.
Springing forward, he hurled his unwieldy weapon at brother
Ambrose, and, as desk and monk clattered on to the floor to-
gether, he sprang through the open door and down the winding
stair. Sleepy old brother Athanasius, at the porter's cell, had a
fleeting vision of twinkling feet and flying skirts ; but before he
had time to rub his eyes the recreant had passed the lodge, and
was speeding as fast as his sandals could patter along the Lynd-
hurst Road.

CHAPTER IL
how alleyne eduicson came out into the world.

Never had the peaceful atmosphere of the old Cistercian
Viouse been so rudely ruffled. Never had there been insurrec-
tion so Sudden, so short, and so successful. Yet the Abbot
Berghersh was a man of too firm a grain to allow one bold out-
break to imperil the settled order of his great household. In a
few hot and bitter words, he compared their false brother's exit
to the expulsion of our first parents from the garden, and more
than hinted that unless a reformation occurred some others of
the community might find themselves in the same evil and peril-
ous case. Having thus pointed the moral and reduced his flock
to a fitting state of docility, he dismissed them once more to
their labors and withdrew himself to his own private chamber,
there to seek spiritual aid in the discharge of the duties of his
high office.n

THE WHITE COMPANY.

The Abbot was still on his knees, when a gentle tapping at
the door of his cell broke in upon his orisons.

Rising in no very good humor at the interruption, he gave
the word to enter ; but his look of impatience softened down
into a pleasant and paternal smile as his eyes fell upon his
visitor.

He was a thin-faced, yellow-haired youth, rather above the
middle size, comely and well shapen, with straight, lithe figure
and eager, boyish features. His clear, pensive gray eyes, and
quick, delicate expression, spoke of a nature which had unfolded
far from the boisterous joys and sorrows of the world. Yet
there was a set of the mouth and a prominence of the chin which
relieved him of any trace of effeminacy. Impulsive he might be,
enthusiastic, sensitive, with something sympathetic and adaptive
in his disposition ; but an observer of nature's tokens would
have confidently pledged himself that there was native firm-
ness and strength underlying his gentle, monk-bred w^ys.

The youth was not clad in monastic garb, but in lay attire,
though his jerkin, cloak and hose were all of a sombre hue, as
befitted one who dwelt in sacred precincts. A broad leather
strap hanging from his shoulder supported a scrip or satchel
such as travellers were wront to carry. In one hand Le grasped
a thick staff pointed and shod., with metal, while in the other he
held his coif or bonnet, which bore in its front a broad pewter
medal stamped with the image of Our Lady of Rocamadour.

" Art ready, then, fair son ? " said the Abbot. 44This is in-
deed a day of comings and of goings. It is strange that in one
twelve hours the Abbey should have cast off its foulest weed,
and should now lose what we are fain to look upon as our choic-
est blossom."

" You speak too kindly, father," the youth answered. 44 If I
had my will I should never go forth, but should end my days
here "in Beaulieu. It hath been my home as far back as my
mind can carry me, and it is a sore thing for me to have to
leave it."

44 Life brings many a cross," said the Abbot gently. 14 Who
is without them ? Your going forth is a grief to us as well as to
yourself. But there is no help. I had given my foreword and
sacred promise to your father, Edric the Franklin, that at the
age of twenty you should be sent out into the world to see fgi1	THE WHITE COMPANY.	I j

yourself how you liked the savor of it. Seat thee upon the settle,
Klleyne, for you may need rest ere long."

The youth sat down as directed, but reluctantly and with
diffidence. The Abbot stood by the narrow window, and
his long black shadow fell slantwise across the rush-strewn
floor.

"Twenty years ago," he said, "your father, the Franklin of
Minstead, died, leaving to the Abbey three hides of rich land in
the hundred of Malwood, and leaving to us also his infant son
on condition that we should rear him until he came to man's
estate. This he did partly because your mother was dead, and
partly because your elder brother, now Socman of Minstead, had
already given sign of that fierce and rude nature which would
' make him no fit companion for you. It was his desire and re-
quest, however, that you should not remain in the cloisters, but
should at a ripe age return into the world."

" But, father," interrupted the young man "it is surely true
that I am already advanced several degrees in clerkship ? "

"Yes, fair son, but not so far as to bar you from the garb you
flow wear or the life which you must now lead* You have been
porter ? "

"Yes, father."

" Exorcist ? "

"Yes, father."

" Reader ? "

" Yes, father."

" Acolyte ? "

" Yes, father."

" But have sworn no vow of constancy or chastity ?

" No, father."

" Then you are free to follow a worldly life. But let me hear,
ere you start, what gifts you take away with you from Beaulieu ?

- Some I already know. There is the playing of the citole and
the rebeck. Our choir will be dumb without you. You carve
too?"

The youth's pale face flushed with the pride of the skilled
workman. " YeS, holy father," he answered. " Thanks to good
brother Bartholomew, I carve in wood and in ivory, and can do
something also in silver and in bronze. From brother Francis
I have learned to paint on vellum, on glass, and on metal, with
a knowledge of those pigments and essences which can preserve16

THE WHITE COMPANY.

the color against damp or a biting air. Brother Luke hath given
me some skill in damask work, and in the enamelling of-shrines,
tabernacles, diptychs and triptychs. For the rest, I know a little
of the making of covers, the cutting of precious .stones, and the
fashioning of instruments."

" A goodly list, truly," cried the superior with a smile.
"What clerk of Cambrig or of Oxenford could say as much ?
But of thy reading—hast not so much to show there, I fear ? w

"No, father, it hath been slight enough. Yet, thanks to our
good chancellor, I am not wholly unlettered. I have read
Ockham, Bradwardine, and other of the schoolmen, together
with the learned Duns Scotus and the book of the holy Aquinas."

" But of the things of this world, what have you gathered
from your reading? From this high window you may catch a
glimpse over the wooded point and the smoke of Bucklershard,
of the mouth of the Exe, and the shining sea. Now, I pray you,
Alleyne, if a man were to take a ship and spread sail across
yonder waters, where might he hope to arrive ? "

The youth pondered, and drew a plan amongst the rushes
with the point of his staff. " Holy father," said he, " he would
come upon those parts of France which are held by the King's
Majesty. But if he trended to the south he might reach Spain
and the Barbary States. To his north would be Flanders and
the country of the Eastlanders and of the Muscovites."

"True. And how if, after reaching the King's possessions,
he still journeyed on to the eastward ? "

" He would then come upon that part of France which is still
in dispute, and he might hope to reach the famous city of
Avignon, where dwells our blessed father, the prop of Chris-
tendom."

" And then ? "

"Then he would pass through the land of the Almains and
the great Roman Empire, and so to the country of the Huns and
of the Lithuanian pagans, beyond which lies the great city of Con-
stantine and the kingdom of the unclean followers of Mahmoud."

" And beyond that, fair son ? "

" Beyond that is Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and the
great river which hath its source in the Garden of Eden."

" And then ? "

"Nay, good father, I cannot tell. Methinks the end of.the
world is not far from there."THE WHITE COMPANY.	. ■ Vf

I	'	'

* Then we can still find something to teach thee, Alleyne,"
said the Abbot complaisantly. " Know that many strange
nations lie betwixt there and the end of the world. There is
the country of the Amazons, and the country of the dwarfs, and
the country of the fair but evil women who slay with beholding,
like the basilisk. Beyond that again is the kingdom of Prester
John and of the great Cham. These things I know for very
sooth, for I had them from that pious Christian and valiant
knight, Sir John de Mandeville, who stopped twice at Beaulieu
on his way to and from Southampton, and discoursed to us con-
cerning what he had seen from the reader's desk in the refectory,
until there was many a good brother who got neither bit nor
sup, so stricken were they by his strange tales."

" I would fain know, father," asked the young man, "what
there may be at the end of the world ? "

"There are some things," replied the Abbot gravely, " into
which it was never intended that we should inquire. But you
have a long road before you. Whither will you first turn ? "

"To my brother's at Minstead. If he be indeed an ungodly
and violent man, there is the more need that I should seek him
out and see whether I cannot turn him to better ways."

The Abbot shook his head. "The Socman of Minstead hath
earned an evil name over the country side," he said. " If you
must go to him, see at least that he doth not turn you from the
narrow path upon which you have learned to tread. But you
are in God's keeping, and Godward should you ever look in
danger and in trouble. Above all, shun, the snares of women,
for they are ever set for the foolish feet of the young. Kneel
down, my child, and take an old man's blessing."

Alleyne Edricson bent his head while the Abbot poured out
his heartfelt supplication that Heaven would watch over this
young soul, now going forth into the darkness and danger of
the world. It was no mere form for either of them. To them
the outside life of mankind did indeed seem to be one of vio-
lence and of sin, beset with physical and still more with spiritual
danger. Heaven, too, was very near to them in those days.
God's direct agency was to be seen in the thunder and the rain-
bow, the whirlwind and the lightning. To the believer, clouds
of angels and confessors, and martyrs, armies of the sainted and
the saved, were ever stooping over their struggling brethren
upon earth, raising, encouraging, and supporting them- It wasTHE WHITE COMPANY.

then with a lighter heart and a stouter courage that the young
man turned from the Abbot's room, while the latter, following
him to the stair-head, finally commended him to the protection
of the holy Julian, patron of travellers.

Underneath, in the porch of the Abbey, the monks had gath-
ered to give him a last God-speed. Many had brought some
parting token by which lie should remember them. There was
brother Bartholomew with a crucifix of rare carved ivory, and
brother Luke with a white-backed psalter adorned with golden
bees, and brother Franci: with the "Slaying of the Innocents"
most daintily set forth upon vellum. All these were duly packed
away deep in the traveller's scrip, and above them old pippin-
faced brother Athanasius had placed a parcel of simnel bread
and rammel cheese, with a small flask of the famous blue-sealed
Abbey wine. So, amid hand-shakings and laughings and bless-
ings, Alleyne Edricson turned his back upon Beaulieu.

At the turn of the road he stopped and gazed back. There
was the wide-spread building which he knew so well, the Abbot's
house, the long church, the cloisters with their line of arches,,
all bathed and mellowed in the evening sun. There too was
the broad sweep of the river Exe, the old stone well, the canopied
niche of the Virgin, and in the centre of all the cluster of white-
iobed figures who waved their hands to him. A sudden mist
&wam up before the young man's eyes, and he turned away
upon his journey with a heavy heart and a choking throat.

CHAPTER III.

how hordle john cozened the fuller of lymington.

It is not, however, in the nature of things that a lad of twenty,
with young life glowing in his veins and all the wide world
before him, should spend his first hours of freedom in mourning
for what he had left. Long ere Alleyne was out of sound of the
Beaulieu bells he was striding sturdily along, swinging his staff
and whistling as merrily as the birds in the thicket. It was an
evening to raise a man's heart. The sun shining slantwise
through the trees threw delicate traceries across the road, with
bars of golden light between. Away in the distance before and
behind, the green boughs, now turning in places to a copperyTHE WHITE COMPANY.

19

redness, shot their broad arches across the track. The still
iummer air was heavy with the resinous smell of the great
forest. Here and there a tawny brook prattled out from among
the underwood and lost itself again in the ferns and brambles
upon the further side. Save the dull piping of insects and the
sough of the leaves, there was silence everywhere—the sweet
restful silence.of nature.

And yet there was no want of life—the whole wide wood was
full of it. Now it was a lithe, furtive stoat which shot across
the path upon some fell errand of its own ; then it was a wild,
cat which squatted upon the outlying branch of an oak and
peeped at the traveller with a yellow and dubious eye. Once it
was a wild sow which scuttled out of the bracken, with two
young sounders at her heels, and once a lordly red staggard
walked daintily out from among the tree trunks, and looked
around him with the fearless gaze of one who lived under the
King's own high protection. Alleyne gave his staff a merry
flourish, however, and the red deer bethought him that the King
was far off, so streaked away from whence he came.

The youth had now journeyed considerably beyond the furthest
domains of the Abbey. He was the more surprised therefore
when, on coming round a turn in the path, he perceived a man
clad in the familiar garb of the order, and seated in a clump of
heather by the roadside. Alleyne had known every brother
well, but this was a face which was new to him—a face which
was very red and puffed, working this way and that, as though
the man were sore perplexed in his mind. Once he shook both
hands furiously in the air, and twice he sprang from his seat
and hurried down the road. When he rose, however, Alleyne
observed that his robe was much too long and loose for him in
every direction, trailing upon the ground and bagging about his
ankles, so that even with trussed-up skirts he could make little
progress. He ran once, but the long gown clogged him so that
he slowed down into a shambling walk, and finally plumped
into the heather once more.

" Young friend," said he, when Alleyne was abreast of him,
" I fear from thy garb that thou canst know little of the Abbey
of Beaulieu ? "

"Then you are in error, friend," the clerk answered, "fori
have spent all my days within its walls."

««Hast so indeed ?" cried he, ^ " Then perhaps canst tell me20

THE WHITE COMPANY.

the name of a great loathly lump of a brother wi' freckled face
an' a hand like a spade. His eyes were black an' his hair was
red an' his voice like the parish bull. I trow that there cannot
be two alike in the same cloisters."

" That surely can be no other than brother John," said Alleyne.
" I trust he has done you no wrong, that you should be so hot
against him."

"Wrong, quotha!" cried the other, jumping out of the
heather. " Wrong ! why he hath stolen every plack of clothing
off my back, if that be a wrong, and hath left me here in this
sorry frock of white falding, so that I have shame to go back to
my wife, lest she think that I have donned her old kirtle. Har-
row and alas that ever I should have met him !"

" But how came this ? " asked the young clerk, who could
scarce keep from laughter at the sight of the hot little man so
swathed in the great white cloak.

It came in this way," he said, sitting down once more : "I
was passing this way, hoping to reach Lymington ere nightfall,
when I came on this red-headed knave seated even where we
are sitting now. I uncovered and louted as I passed, thinking
that he might be a holy man at his orisons, but he called to me
and asked me if I had heard speak of the new indulgence in
favor of the Cistercians. ' Not J,' I answered. « Then the worse
for thy soul!' said he ; and with that he broke into a long tale
how that on account of the virtues of the Abbot Berghersh it
had been decreed by the Pope that whoever should wear the
habit of a monk of Beaulieu for as long as he might say the
seven psalms of David should be assured pf the kingdom of
Heaven. When I heard this I prayed him on my knees that he
would give me the use of his gown, which after many conten-
vions he at last agreed to do, on my paying him three marks
towards the regilding of the image of Laurence the martyr.
Having stripped his robe, I had no choice but to let him have
the wearing of my good leathern jerkin and hose, for, as he
said, it was chilling to the blood and unseemly to the eye to
stand frockless whilst I made my orisons. He had scarce got
them on, and it was a sore labor, seeing that my inches will
scarce match my girth—he had scarce got them on, I say, and
I not yet at the end of the second psalm, when he bade me do
honor to my new dress, and with that set off down the road as
fast as feel; would carry him. For myself, I could no more runTHE WHITE? COMPANY.

21

than if I had been sown in a sack ; so here I sit, and here I am
iike to sit, before I set eyes upon my clothes again."

" Nay, friend, take it not so sadly," said Alleyne, clapping the
disconsolate one upon the shoulder. " Canst change thy robe
for a jerkin once more at the Abbey, unless perchance you have
a friend near at hand."

"That have I," he answered, "and*close; but I care not to
go- nigh him in this plight, for his wife hath a gibing tongue,
and will spread the tale until I could not show my face in any
market from Fordingbridge to Southampton. But if you, fair
sir, out of your kind charity would be pleased to go a matter of
two bow-shots out of your way, you would do me such a service
as I could scarce repay."

" With all my heart," said Alleyne readily.

" Then take this pathway on the left, I pray thee, and then
the deer-track which passes on the right. You will then see
under a great beech-tree the hut of a charcoal-burner. Give
him my name, good sir, the name of Peter the fuller, of Lymirig-
ton, and ask him for a change of raiment, that I may pursue my
journey without delay. There are reasons why he would be
loth to refuse me."

Alleyne started off along the path indicated, and soon found
the log-hut where the burner dwelt. He was away faggot-cut-
ting in the forest, but his wife, a ruddy bustling dame, found
the needful garments and tied them into a bundle. While she
busied herself in finding and folding them, Alleyne Edricson
stood by the open door looking in at her with much interest and
some distrust, for he had never been so nigh to a woman before.
She had round red arms, a dress of some sober woollen stuff,
and a brass brooch the size of a cheese-cake stuck in the front
♦of it.

" Peter the fuller ! " she kept repeating. " Marry come up !
if I were Peter the fuller's wife I would teach him better than to
give his clothes to the first knave who asks for them. But he
was always a poor, fond, silly creature, was Peter, though we
are beholden to him for helping to bury our second son Wat,
who was a 'prentice to him at Lymington in the year of the Black
Death. But who are you, young sir ? "

" I am a clerk on my road from Beaulieu to Minstead."

" Aye, indeed ! Hast been brought up at the Abbey then. I
could read it from thy reddened cheek and downcast eye. Hast22

THE WHI^E COMPANY.

learned from the monks, I trow, to fear a woman as thou wouldst
a lazar-house. Out upon them ! that they should dishonor their
own mothers by such teaching. A pretty world it would be
with all the women out of it."

"Heaven forfend that such a thing should come to pass!"
said Alleyne.

" Amen and amen ! But thou art a pretty lad, and the
prettier for thy modest ways. It is easy~to see from thy cheek
that thou hast not spent thy days in the rain and the heat and
the wind, as my poor Wat hath been forced to do."

" I have indeed seen little of life, good dame."

"Wilt find nothing in it to pay for the loss of thy own fresh-
ness. Here are the clothes, and Peter can leave them when
next he comes this way. Holy Virgin ! see the dust upon thy
doublet ! It were easy to see that there is no woman to tend to
thee. So !—that is better. Now buss me, boy."

^Alleyne stooped and kissed her, for the kiss was the common
salutation of the age, and, as Erasmus long afterwards remarked,
more used in England than in any other country. Yet it sent
the blood to his temples again, and he wondered, as he turned
away, what the Abbot Berghersh would have answered to so
frank an invitation. He was still tingling from this new experi-
ence when he came out upon the high-road and saw a sight
which drove all other thoughts from his mind.

Some way down from where he had left him the unfortunate
Peter was stamping and raving tenfold worse than before.
Now, however, instead of the great white cloak, he had no
clothes on at all, save a short woollen shirt and a pair of leather
shoes. Far down the road a long-legged figure was running,
with a bundle under one arm and the other hand to his side,
like a man who laughs until he is sore.

" See him ! " yelled Peter. " Look to him ! You shall be my
witness. He shall see Winchester jail for this. See where he
goes with my cloak under his arm !"

" Who then ?" cried Alleyne.

" Who but that cursed brother John. He hath not left me
clothes enough to make a gallybagger. The double thief hath
cozened me out of my gown."

" Stay though, my friend, it was his gown," objected Alleyne.
" It boots not. He hath them all—rgown, jerkin, hosen andTHE WHITE COMPANY.

23

all. Gramercy to him that he left me the shirt and the shoon.
I doubt not that he will be back for them anon."

" But how came this ? " asked Alleyne, open -eyed with aston-
ishment.

" Are those the clothes ? For dear charity's sake give them
to me. Not the Pope himself shall have these from me, though
he sent the whole college of cardinals to ask it. How came it ?
Why, you had scarce gone ere this loathly John came running
back again, and, when I oped mouth to reproach him, he asked
me whether it was indeed likely that a man of prayer would
leave his own godly raiment in order to take a layman's jerkin.
He had, he said, but gone for a. while that I might be the freer
for my devotions. On this I plucked off the gown, and he with
much show of haste did begin to undo his points ; but when I
threw his frock down he clipped it up and ran off all untrussed,
leaving me in this sorry plight. He laughed so the while, like
a great croaking frog, that I might have caught him had my
breath not been as short as his legs were long."

The young man listened to this tale of wrong with all the
seriousness that he could maintain ; but at the sight of the pursy
red-faced man and the dignity with which he bore him, the
laughter came so thick upon him that he had to lean up against
,a tree-trunk. The fuller looked sadly and gravely at him ; but
finding that he still laughed, he bowed with much mock polite-
ness and stalked onwards in his borrowed clothes. Alleyne
watched him until he was small in the distance, and then, wip-
ing the tears from his eyes, he set off briskly once more upon
his journey.

CHAPTER IV.

how the bailiff of southampton slew the two
masterless men.

The road along which he travelled was scarce as populous as
most other roads in the kingdom, and far less so than those
which lie between the larger towns. Yet from time to time
Alleyne met other wayfarers, and more than once was overtaken
by strings of pack mules and horsemen journeying in the same
direction as himself. Once a begging friar came limping along24

THE WHITE COMPANY.

in a brown habit, imploring in a most dolorous voice to give
him a single groat to buy bread wherewith to save himself from
impending death. Alleyne passed him swiftly by, for he had
learned from the monks to have no love for the wandering friars,
and, besides, there was a great half-gnawed mutton bone stick-
ing out of his pouch to prove him a liar. Swiftly as he went,
however, he could not escape the curst; of the four blessed
evangelists which the mendicant howled behind him. So dread-
ful were his execrations that the frightened lad thrust his fingers
into his ear-holes, and ran until the fellow was but a brown
smirch upon the yellow road.

Further on, at the edge of the woodland, he came upon a
chapman and his wife, who sat upon a fallen tree. He had put
his pack down as a table, and the two of them were devouring a
great pasty, and washing it down with some drink from a stone
jar. The chapman broke a rough jest as he passed, and the
woman called shrilly to Alleyne to come and join them, on which
the man, turning suddenly from mirth to wrath, began to be-
labor her with his cudgel. Alleyne hastened on, lest he make
more mischief, and his heart was heavy as lead within him.
Look where he would, he seemed to see nothing but injustice
and violence and the hardness of man to man.	*

But even as he brooded sadly over it and pined for the sweet
peace of the Abbey, he came on an open space dotted with holly
bushes, where was the strangest sight that he had yet chanced
upon. Near to the pathway lay a long clump of greenery, and
from behind this there stuck straight up into the air four human
legs clad in parti-colored hosen, yellow and black. Strangest
of all was when a brisk tune struck suddenly up and the four
legs began to kick and twitter in time to the music. Walking
on tiptoe round the bushes, he stood in amazement to see two
men bounding about on their heads, while they played, the one
a viol and the other a pipe, as merrily and as truly as though
they were seated in a choir. Alleyne crossed himself as he
gazed at this unnatural sight, and could scarce hold his ground
with a steady face, when the two dancers, catching sight of him.
came bouncing in his direction. A spear's length from him,
they each threw a somersault into the air, and came down upon
their feet with smirking faces and their hands over their hearts.

" A guerdon—a guerdon, my knight of the staring eyes I "
cried one.THE WHITE COMPANY.

25

"A gift, my prince !." shouted the other. "Any trifle will
serve—a purse of gold, or even a jewelled goblet."

Alleyne thought of what he had read of demoniac possession
—the jumpings, the twitchings, the wild talk. It was in his
mind to repeat over the exorcism proper to such attacks ; but
the two burst out a-laughing at his scared face, ind turning o$
to their heads once more, clapped their heels in derision.

" Hast never seen tumblers before ? " asked the elder, a black-
browed, swarthy man, as brown and supple as a hazel twig.
"Why shrink from us, then, as though we were the spawn of
the Evil One ? "

" Why shrink, my honey-bird ? Why so afeard, my sweet
cinnamon?" exclaimed the other, a loose-jointed lanky youth
with a dancing, roguish eye.

"Truly, sirs, it is a new sight to me," the clerk answered.
"When I saw your four legs above the bush I could scarce
Credit my own eyes. Why is it that you do this thing ? "

" A dry question to answer," cried the younger, coming back
on to his feet. " A most husky question, my fair bird ! But
how ? A flask, a flask !—by all that is wonderful !" He shot
out his hand as he spoke, and plucking Alleyne's bottle out cf
his scrip, he deftly knocked the neck off, and poured the half of
it down his throat. The rest he handed to his comrade, who
drank the wine, and then, to the clerk's increasing amazement,
made a show of swallowing the bottle, with such skill that
Alleyne seemed to see it vanish down his throat. A moment
later, however, he flung it over his head, and caught it bottom
downwards upon the calf of his left leg.

"We thank you for the wine, kind sir," said he, "and for
the ready courtesy wherewith you offered it. Touching your
question, we may tell you that we are strollers and jugglers,
who, having performed with much applause at Winchester fair,
are now on our way to the great Michaelmas market at Ring-
wood. As our art is a very fine and delicate one, however, we
cannot let a day go by without exercising ourselves in it, to which
end we choose some quiet and sheltered spot where we may
break our journey. Here you find us ; and we cannot wonder
that you, who are new to tumbling, should be astounded, since
many great barons, earls, marshals and knights, who have
wandered as far as the Holy Land, are of one mind in saying
that they have never seen a more noble orgracious performance,26

THE WHITE COMPANY.

If you will be pleased to sit upon that stump, we will now con-
tinue our exercise."

Alleyne sat down willingly as directed with two great bundles
on either side of him which contained the strollers' dresses—
doublets of flame-colored silk and girdles of leather, spangled
with brass and tin. The jugglers were on their heads once
more, bounding about with rigid necks, playing the while in
perfect time and tune. It chanced that out of one of tne bun-
dles there stuck the end of what the clerk saw to be a cittern, so,
drawing it forth, he tuned it up and twanged a harmony to the
merry lilt which the dancers played. On that they dropped
their own instruments, and putting their hands to the ground
they hopped about faster and faster, ever shouting to him to
play more briskly, until at last for very weariness ail three hac/^
to stop.

"Well played, sweet poppet 1" cried the younger. " Hast a
rare touch on the strings."

" How knew you the tune ? " asked the other.

"I knew it not. I did but follow the notes I heard."

Both opened their eyes at this, and stared at Alleyne with as
much amazement as he had shown at them.

"You have a fine trick of ear then,' said one. "We
have long wished to meet such a man. Wilt join us
and jog on to Ringwood ? Thy duties shall be light, and
thou shalt have two-pence a day and meat for supper every
night."

"With as much beer as you can put away," said the other,
" and a flask of Gascon wine on Sabbaths."

. " Nay, it may not be. I have other work to do. I have tar-
ried with you over long," quoth Alleyne, and resolutely set forth
upon his journey once more. They ran behind him some little
way, offering him first fourpence and then sixpence a day, but
he only smiled and shook his head, until at last they fell away from
him. Looking back, he saw that the smaller had mounted on the
younger's shoulders, and that they stood so, some ten feet high,
waving their adieus to him. He waved back to them, and then
hastened on, the lighter of heart for having fallen in with these
strange men of pleasure.

Alleyne had gone no great distance for all the many small
passages that had befallen him. Yet to him, used as he was to
£ life of such quiet that the failure of a brewing or the alteringTHE WHITE COMPANY.

27

of an anthem had seemed to be of the deepest import, the quick
changing play of the lights and shadows of life was strangely-
startling and interesting. A gulf seemed to divide this brisk
uncertain existence from the old steady round of work and of
prayer which he had left behind him. The few hours that had
passed since he saw the Abbey tower stretched out in his memory
until they outgrew whole months of the stagnant life of the
cloister. As he walked and munched the soft bread from his
scrip, it seemed strange to him to feel that it was still warm from
the ovens of Beaulieu.

When he passed Penerley, where were three cottages and a
barn, he reached the edge of the tree country, and found the
great barren heath of Blackdown stretching ii! front of him, all
pink with heather and bronzed with the fading ferns. On the
left the woods were still thick, but the- road edged away from
them and wound over the open. The sun lay low in the west
upon a purple cloud, whence it threw a mild, chastening light
over the wild moorland and glittered on the fringe of forest,
turning the withered leaves into flakes of dead gold, the brighter
for the black depths behind them. To the seeing eye decay is as
fair as growth, and death as life. The thought stole into Al-
leyne's heart as he looked upon the autumnal country side and
marvelled at its beauty. He had little time to dwell upon it,
however, for there were still six good miles between him and
the nearest inn. He sat down by the roadside to partake of his
bread and cheese, and then with a lighter scrip he hastened upon
his way.

There appeared to be more wayfarers on the down than in the
forest. First he passed two Dominicans in their long black
dresses, who swept by him with downcast looks and pattering
lips, without so much as a glance at him. Then there came a
gray friar, or minorite, with a good paunch upon him, walking
slowly and looking about him with the air of a man who was at
peace with himself and with all men. He stopped Alleyne to
ask him whether it was not true that there was a hostel some-
where in those parts which was especially famous for the stew-
ing of eels. The clerk having made answer that he had heard
the eels of Sowley well spoken of, the friar sucked in his lips and
hurried forward. Close at his heels came three laborers walk-
ing abreast, with spade and mattock over their shoulders. They
sang some rude chorus right tunefully as they walked, but their28

THE WHITE COMPANY.

English was so coarse and rough that to the ears of a cloister-
bred man it sounded like a foreign and barbarous tongue. One
of them carried a young bittern which they had caught upon the
moor, and they offered it to Alleyne for a silver groat. Very
glad he was to get safely past them, for, with their bristling red
beards and their fierce blue eyes, they were uneasy men to bar-
gain with upon a lonely moor.

Yet it is not always the burliest and the wildest who are the
most to be dreaded. The workers looked hungrily at him, and
then jogged onwards upon their way in slow, lumbering Saxon
style. A worse man to deal with was a wooden-legged cripple
who came hobbling down the path, so weak and so old to all
appearance that a child need not stand in fear of him. Yet
when Alleyne had passed him, of a sudden, out of pure devil-
ment, he screamed out a curse at him, and sent a jagged flint
stone hurtling past his ear. So horrid was the causeless rage of
the crooked creature, that the clerk came over a cold thrill, and
took to his heels until he was out of shot from stone or word. It
seemed to him that in this country of England there was no pro-
tection for a man save that which lay in the strength of his own
arm and the speed of his own foot. In the cloisters he had heard
vague talk of ,ihe law—the mighty law which was higher than
prelate or baron, yet no sign could he see of it. What was the
benefit of a law written fair upon parchment, he wondered, if
there were no officers to enforce it. As it fell out, however, he
had that very evening, ere the sun had set, a chance of seeing
how stern was the grip of the English law when it did happen to
seize the offender.

A mile or so out upon the moor the road takes a very sudden
dip into a hollow, with a peat-colored stream running swiftly
down the centre of it. To the right of this stood, and stands to
this day, an ancient barrow, or burying mound, covered deeply
in a bristle of heather and bracken. Alleyne was plodding down
the slope upon one side, when he saw an old dame coming
towards him upon the other, limping with weariness and lean-
ing heavily upon a stick. When she reached the edge of the
stream she stood helpless, looking to right and to left for some
ford. Where the path ran down a great stone had been fixed in
the centre of the brook, but it was too far from the bank for her
aged and uncertain feet. Twice she thrust forward at it, and
twice she drew back, until at last, giving up in despair, she satTHE WHITE COMPANY.

29

herself down by the brink and wrung her hands wearily. There
she still sat when Alleyne reached the crossing.

"Come, mother," quoth he, "it is not so very perilous a
passage."

"Alas! good youth," she answered, "I have a humor in the
eyes, and though I can see that there is a stone there I can by
no means be sure as to where it lies."

" That is easily amended," said he cheerily, and picking her
lightly up, for she was much worn with time, he passed across
with her. He could not but observe, however, that as he placed
her down her knees seemed to fail her, and she could scarcely
prop herself up with her staff.

"You are weak, mother," said he. "Hast journeyed far, I
wot."

"From Wiltshire, friend," said she, in a quavering voice;
" three days have I been on the road. I go to my son, who is
one of the King's regarders at Brockenhurst. He has ever said
that he would care for me in mine old age."

" And rightly too, mother, since you cared for him in his
youth. But when have you broken fast ? "

"At Lyndenhurst; but alas ! my money is at an end, and I
could but get a dish of bran-porridge from the nunnery. Yet I
trust that I may be able to reach Brockenhurst to-night, where I
may have all that heart can desire ; for oh ! sir, but my son is a
fine man, with a kindly heart of his own, and it is as good as
food to me to think that he should have a doublet of Lincoln
green to his back and be the King's own paid man."

"It is a long road yet to Brockenhurst," said Alleyne ; "but
here is such bread and cheese as I have left, and here, too, is a
penny which may help you to supper. May God be with you I"

" May God be with you, young man !" she cried. " May He
make your heart as glad as you have made mine ! " She turned
away, still mumbling blessings, and Alleyne saw her short
figure and her long shadow stumbling slowly up the slope.

He was moving away himself, when his eyes lit upon a
strange sight, and one which sent a tingling through his skin.
Out of the tangled scrub on the old overgrown "barrow two
human faces were looking out at him ; the sinking sun glim-
mered full upon them, showing up every line and feature. The
one was an oldish man with a thin beard, a crooked nose, and a
broad red smudge irom a birth-mark over his temple ; the other30

THE WHITE COMPANY.

was a negro, a thing rarely met in England at that day, and
rarer still in the quiet southland parts. Alleyne had read of such
folk, but had never seen one before, and could scarce take his
eyes from the fellow's broad pouting lip and shining teeth.
Even as he gazed, however, the two came writhing out from
among the heather, and came down towards him with such a
guilty, slinking carriage, that the clerk felt that there was no
good in them, and hastened onwards upon his way.

He had not gained the crown of the slope, when he heard a
sudden scuffle behind him and a feeble voice bleating for help.
Looking round, there was the old dame down upon the road-
way, with her red whimple flying on the breeze, while the two
rogues, black and white, stooped over her, wresting away from
her the penny and such other poor trifles as were worth the
taking. At the sight of her thin limbs struggling in weak re-
sistance, such a glow of fierce anger passed over Alleyne as set
his head in a whirl. Dropping his scrip, he bounded over the
stream once more, and made for the two villains, with his staff
whirled over his shoulder and his gray eyes blazing with fury.

The robbers, however, were not disposed to leave their victim
until they had worked their wicked will upon her. The black
man, with the woman's crimson scarf tied round his swarthy
head, stood forward in the centre of the path, with a long dull-
colored knife in his hand, while the other, waving a ragged
cudgel, cursed at Alleyne and dared him to come on. His
blood was fairly aflame, however, and he needed no such chal-
lenge. Dashing at the black man, he smote at him with such
good will that the other let his knife tinkle into the roadway,
and hopped howling to a safer distance. The second rogue,
however, made of sterner stuff, rushed in upon the clerk, and
clipped him round the waist with a grip like a bear, shouting
the while to his comrade to come round and stab him in the
back. At this the negro took heart of grace, and picking up
his dagger again he came stealing with prowling step and mur-
derous eye, while the two swayed backwards and forwards,
staggering this way and that. In the very midst of the scuffle,
however, whilst Alleyne braced himself to feel the cold blade
between his shoulders, there came a sudden scurry of hoofs,
and the black man yelled with terror and ran for his life through
the heather. The man with the birth-mark, too, struggled to
break away, and Alleyne heard his teeth chatter and felt hisTHE WHITE COMPANY.

31

limbs grow limp to his hand. At this sign of coming aid the
clerk held on the tighter, and at last was able to pin his man
down and glanced behind him to see where all the noise was
coming from.

Down the slanting road there was riding a big, burly man,
clad in a tunic of purple velvet and driving a great black horse
as hard as it could gallop. He leaned well over its neck as he
rode, and made a heaving with his shoulders at every bound as
though he were lifting the steed instead of it carrying him. In
the rapid glance Alleyne saw that he had white doeskin gloves,
a curling white feather in his flat velvet cap, and a broad gold-
embroidered baldric across his bosom. Behind him rode six
others, two and two, clad in sober brown jerkins, with the long-
yellow staves of their bows thrusting out from behind their right
shoulders. Down the hill they thundered, over the brook and
up to the scene of the contest.

" Here is one ! " said the leader, springing down from his
reeking horse, and seizing the white rogue by the edge of his
jerkin. " This is one of them. I know him by that devil's
touch upon.his brow. Where are your cords, Peterkin ? So!
—bind him hand and foot. His last hour has come. And you,
young man, who may you be ? "

•« I am a clerk, sir, travelling from Beaulieu."

"A clerk!" cried the other. "Art from Oxenford or from
Cambridge ? Hast thou a letter from the chancellor of thy
college giving thee a permit to beg ? Let me see thy letter." He
had a stern, square face, with bushy side whiskers and a very
questioning eye.

" I am from Beaulieu Abbey, and I have no need to beg,"
said Alleyne, who was all of a tremble now that the ruffle was
over.

" The better for thee," the other answered. " Dost know who
I am ? "

" No, sir, I do not."

" I am the law !"—nodding his head solemnly. 111 am the
law of England and the mouthpiece of his most gracious and
royal majesty, Edward the Third."

Alleyne loutedlow to the King's representative. " Truly you
came in good time, honored sir," said he. " A moment latei
and they would have slain me."

"But there should be another one/'cried the man i$ thfl32

THE WHITE COMPANY.

purple coat. "There should be a black man. A shipman with
St. Anthony's fire, and a black man who had served him as
cook—those are the pair that we are in chase of."

" The black man fled over to that side," said Alleyne, pointing
towards the barrow.

"He could not have gone far, sir bailiff," cried one of the
archers, unslinging his bow. " He is in hiding somewhere, for
he knew well, black paynim as he is, that our horses' four legs
could outstrip his two."

" Then we shall have him," said the other. " It shall never
be said, whilst I am bailiff of Southampton, that any waster,
riever, draw-latch or murtherer came scathless away from me
and my posse. Leave that rogue lying. Now stretch out in line,
my merry ones, with arrow on string, and I shall show you such
sport as only the King can give. You on the left, Howett, and
Thomas of Redbridge upon the right. So ! Beat high and low
among the heather, and a pot of wine to the lucky marksman-."

As it chanced, however, the searchers had not far to seek.
The negro had burrowed down into his hiding-place upon the
barrow, where he might have lain snug enough, had it not been
for the red gear upon his head. As he raised himself to look
over the bracken at his enemies, the staring color caught the
eye of the bailiff, who broke into a long screeching whoop and
spurred forward sword in hand. Seeing himself discovered, the
man rushed out from his hiding-place, and bounded at the top
of his speed down the line of archers, keeping a good hundred
paces to the front of them. The two who were on either side of
Alleyne bent their bows as calmly as though they were shooting
at the popinjay at the village fair.

"Seven yards windage, Hal," said one, whose hair was streaked
with gray.

"Five," replied the other, letting loose his string. Alleyne
gave a gulp in his throat, for the yellow streak seemed to pass
through the man ; but he still ran forward.

"Seven, you jack-fool," growled the first speaker, and his
bow twanged like a harp-string. The black man sprang high
up into the air, and shot out both his arms and his legs, coming
down all a-sprawl among the heather. " Right under the blade
bone !" quoth the archer, sauntering forward for his arrow.

" The old hound is the best when all is said," quoth the bailiff
of Southampton, as they made back for the roadway. "ThatTHE WmiJE COMPANY.

33

means a quart of the best Malmsey in Southampton this very
night, Matthew Atwood. Art sure that he is dead ? "

" Dead as Pontius Pilate, worshipful sir."

" It is well. Now, as to the other knave. There are trees
and to spare over yonder, but we have scarce leisure to make
for them. Draw thy sword, Thomas of Redbridge, and hew me
his head from his shoulders."

" A boon, gracious sir, a boon ! " cried the condemned man.

" What then ? " asked the bailiff.

" I will confess to my crime. It was indeed I and the black
cook, both from the ship 4 La Rose de Gloire,' of Southampton,
who did set upon the Flanders merchant and rob him of his
spicery and his mercery, for which, as-we. well know, you hold a
warrant against us."

" There is little merit in this confession," quoth the bailiff
sternly. " Thou hast done evil within my bailiwick, and must
die."

"But, sir," urged Alleyne, who was white to the lips at these
bloody doings, " he hath not yet come to trial.".

" Young clerk," said the bailiff, " you speak of that of which
you know nothing. It is true that he hath not come to trial, but
the trial hath come to him. He hath fled the law and is beyond
its pale. Touch not that whicfi*is 110 concern of thine. But
what is this boon, rogue, which you would crave ? "

" I have in my shoe, most worshipful sir, a strip of wood which
belonged once to the bark wherein the blessed Paul was dashed
up against the island of Melita. I bought it for two rose nobles
from a shipman who came from the Levant. The boon I crave
is that you will place it in my hands and let me die still grasping
it. In this manner, not only shall my own eternal salvation be
secured, but thine also, for I sh^ll never cease to intercede fo.t
thee."

At the command of the bailiff they plucked off the fellow's
shoe, and there sure enough at the side of the instep, wrapped
in a piece of fine sendall, lay a long, dark splinter of wood.
The archers doffed caps at the sight of it, and the bailiff crossed
himself devoutly as he handed it to the robber.

" If it should chance," he said, "that through the surpassing
merits of the blessed Paul your sin-stained soul should gain a way
into paradise, I trust that you will not forget that intercession
which you have promised. Bear in mind, too, that it is Herward

334

THE WHITE COMPANY.

the bailiff for whom you pray, and not Herward the sheriff, who
is my uncle's son. Now, Thomas, I pray you dispatch, for we
have a long ride before us and sun has already set."

Alleyne gazed upon the scene—the portly velvet-clad official,
the knot of hard-faced archers with their hands to the bridles ol
their horses, the thief with his arms trussed back and his doublet
turned down upon his shoulders. By the side of the track the
old dame was standing, fastening her red whimple once more
round her head. Even as he looked one of the archers drew his
sword with a sharp whirr of steel and stept up to the lost man.
The clerk hurried away in horror ; but, ere he had gone many
paces, he heard a sudden, sullen thump, with a choking, whis-
tling sound at the end of it. A minute later the bailiff and four ot
his men rode past him on their journey back to Southampton, the
other two having been chosen as grave-diggers. As they passed,
Alleyne saw that one of the men was wiping his sword-blade
upon the mane of his horse. A deadly sickness came over him
at the sight, and sitting down by the wayside he burst out weep-
ing, with .his nerves ail in a jangle. It was a terrible world,
thought he, and it was hard to know which were the most to be
dreaded, the knaves or the men of the law.

4T

CHAPTER V.

how a strange company gathered at the " pied merlin."

The night had already fallen, and the moon was shining be-
tween the rifts of ragged, drifting clouds, before Alieyne Edric-
son, footsore and weary from the unwonted exercise, found him-
self in front of the forest inn which stood upon the outskirts of
Lyndhurst. The building was Jtrng and low, standing back a
little from the road, with two flambeaux blazing on either side
of the door as a welcome to the traveller. From one window
there thrust forth a long pole with a bunch of greenery tied to
the end of it—a sign that liquor was to be sold within. As
Alleyne walked up to it he perceived that it was rudely fashioned
out of beams of wood, with twinkling lights all over where the
glow from within shone through the chinks. The roof was poor
and thatched ; but in strange contrast to it there ran all along
under the eaves a line of wooden shields, most gorgeously
painted with chevron, bend, and saltire, and every heraldic d$-THE WHITE COMPANY.

35

vice. By the door a horse stood tethered, the ruddy glow beat-
ing strongly upon his brown head and patient eyes, while his
body stood back in the shadow.

Alleyne stood still in the roadway for a few minutes reflecting
upon what he should do. It was, he knew, only a few miles
further to Minstead, where his brother dwelt. On the other
hand, he had never seen this brother since childhood, and the
reports which had come to his ears concerning him were seldom
to his advantage. By all accounts he was a hard and a bitter
man.

It might be an evil start to come to his door so late and claim
the shelter of his roof. Better to sleep here at this inn, and
then travel on to Minstead in the morning. If his brother would
take him in, well and good.

He would bide with him for a time and do what he might to
serve him. If, on the other hand, he should have hardened his
heart against him, he could only go on his way and do the best
he might by his skill as a craftsman and a scrivener. At the
end of a year he would be free to return to the cloisters, for
such had been his father's bequest. A monkish upbringing, one
year in the world after the age of twenty, and then a free selec-
tion one way or the other—it was a strange course which had
been marked out for him. Such as it was, however, he had no
choice but to follow it, and if he were to begin by making a
friend of his brother he had best wait until morning before he
knocked at his dwelling.

The rude plank door was ajar, but as Alleyne approached it
there came from within such a gust of rough laughter and clatter
of tongues that he stood irresolute upon the threshold. Sum-
moning courage, however, and reflecting that it was a public
dwelling, in which he had as much right as any other man, he
pushed it open and stepped into the common room.

Though it was an autumn evening and somewhat warm, a
huge fire of heaped billets of wood crackled and sparkled in a
broad, open grate, some of the smoke escaping up a rude chimney,
but the greater part rolling out into the room, so that the air was
thick with it, and a man coming from without could scarce catch
his breath. On this fire a great cauldron bubbled and simmered,
giving forth a rich and promising smell. Seated round it were
a dozen or so folk, of all ages and conditions, who set up such
a shout as Alleyne entered that he stood peering at them through36

THE WHITE COMPANY,

the smoke, uncertain what this riotous greeting might por-
tend.

<fA rouse ! A rouse ! " cried one rough-looking fellow in a
tattered jerkin. " One more round of mead or ale and the score
to the last comer."

" 'Tis the law of the ' Pied Merlin,'" shouted another. " Ho,
there, Dame Eliza ! Here is fresh custom come to the house,
and not a drain for the company."

" I will take your orders, gentles ; I will assuredly take your
orders," the landlady answered, bustling in with her hands full
of leathern drinking-cups. "What is it that you drink, then?
Beer for the lads of the forest, mead for the gleeman, strong
waiters for the tinker, and wine for the rest. It is an old custom
of the house, young sir. It has been the use at the * Pied Merlin '
this many a year back that the company should drink to the
health of the last comer. Is it your pleasure to humor it ? "

" Why, good dame," said Alleyne, " I would not offend the
. customs of your house, but it is only sooth when I say that my
purse is a thin one. As far as two pence will go, however, I
shall be right glad to do my part."

" Plainly said and bravely spoken, my sucking friar," roared
a deep voice, and a heavy hand fell upon Alleyne's shoulder.
Looking up, he saw beside him his former cloister companion,
the renegade monk, Hordle John.

" By the thorn of Glastonbury ! ill days are coming upon
Beaulieu," said he. " Here they have got rid in one day of the only
two men within their walls—for I have had mine eyes upon
thee, youngster, and I know that for all thy baby-face there is
the making of a man in thee. Then there is the Abbot, too. I
am no friend of his, nor he of mine ; but he has warm blood in
his veins; He is the only man left among them. The others,
what are they ? "

" They are holy men," Alleyne answered gravely.

«' Holy men ? Holy cabbages ! Holy bean-pods ! What do
they do but live and suck in sustenance and grow fat ? If that
be holiness, I could show you hogs in this forest who are fit to
head the calendar. Think you it was for such a life that this
good arm;was fixed upon my shoulder, or that head placed upon
your neck ? There is work in the world, man, and it is not by
hiding behind stone walls that we shall do it."

" Why, then, did you join the brothers ? " asked Alleyne.THE WttliE COMPANY.

37

"A fair enough question ; but it is as fairly answered. I
joined them because Margery Alspaye, of Bolder, married
Crooked Thomas of Ringwood, and left a certain John of Hordie
in the cold, for that he was a ranting, roving blade who was
not to be trusted in wedlock. That was why, being fond and
hot-headed, I left the world ; and that is why, having had time
to take thought, I am right glad to find myself back in it once
more. Ill betide the day that ever I took off my yeoman's jerkin
to put on the white gown ! "

Whilst he was speaking the landlady came in again, bearing
a broad platter, upon which stood all the beakers and flagons
charged to the brim with the brown ale or the ruby wine. Be-
hind her came a maid with a high pile of wooden plates, and a
great sheaf of spoons, one of which she handed round to each
of the travellers.

Two of the company, who were dressed in the weather-stained
green doublet of foresters, lifted the big pot off the fire, and a
third, with a huge pewter ladle, served out a portion of steaming
collops to each guest. Alleyne bore his share and his ale-mug
away with him to a retired trestle in the corner, where he could
sup in peace and watch the strange scene, which was so different
to those silent and well-ordered meals to which he was accus-
tomed.

The room was not unlike a stable. The low ceiling, smoke-
blackened and dingy, was pierced by several square trap-doors
with rough-hewn ladders leading up to them. The walls of
bare unpainted planks were studded here and there-with great
wooden pins, placed at irregular intervals and heights, from
which hung over-tunics, wallets, whips, bridles, and saddles.
Over the fireplace were suspended six or seven shields of wood,
with coats-of-arms rudely daubed upon them, which showed by
their varying degrees of smokiness and dirt that they had been
placed there at different periods. There was no furniture, save
a single long dresser covered with coarse crockery, and a number
of wooden benches and trestles, the legs of which sank deeply
into the soft clay floor, while the only light, save that of the fire,
was furnished by three torches stuck in sockets on the wall,
which flickered and crackled, giving forth a strong resinous
odor. All this was novel and strange to the cloister-bred youth ;
but most interesting of all was the motley circle of guests who
sat eating their collops round the blaze. They were a humble38

fhe White company.

group of wayfarers, such as might have been found that night
in any inn through the length and breadth of England ; but to
him they represented that vague world against which he had
been so frequently and so earnestly warned. It did not seem to
him from what he could see of it to be such a very wicked place
after all.

Three or four of the men round the fire were evidently under-
keepers and verderers from the forest, sunburned an^l bearded,
with the quick restless eye and lithe movements of the deer
among which they lived. Close to the corner of the chimney
sat a middle-aged gleeman, clad in a faded garb of Norwich
cloth, the tunic of which was so outgrown that it did not fasten
at the neck and at the waist. His face was swollen and
coarse, and his watery protruding eyes spoke ot a life which
never wandered very far from the wine-pot. A gilt harp,
blotched with many stains and with two of its strings missing,
was tucked under one of his arms, while with the other he
scooped greedily at his platter. Next to him sat two other men
of about the same age, one with a trimming of fur to his coat,
which gave him a dignity which was evidently dearer to him
than his comfort, for he still drew it round him in spite of the
hot glare of the faggots. The other, clad in a dirty russet suit
with a long sweeping doublet, had a cunning, foxy face with
keen, twinkling eyes and a peaky beard. Next to him sat
Hordle John, and beside him three othe|; rough unkempt fellows
with tangled beards and matted hair—free laborers from the
adjoining farms, where small patches of freehold property had
been suffered to remain scattered about in the heart of the
royal demesne. The company was completed by a peasant in a
rude dress of undyed sheepskin, with the old-fashioned galligas-
kins about his legs, and a gayly dressed young man with striped
cloak jagged at the edges and parti-colored hosen, who looked
about him with high disdain upon his face, and held a blue
smelling-flask to his nose with one hand, while he brandished
a busy spoon with the other. In the corner a very fat man was
lying all a-sprawl upon a truss, snoring stertorously, and evi-
dently in the last stage of drunkenness.

"That is Wat the limner," quoth the landlady, sitting down
beside Alleyne, and pointing with the ladle to the sleeping man.
" That is he who paints the signs and the tokens. Alack and
alas that ever I should have been fool enough to trust him tTHE WHITE COMPANY.

39

Now, young man, what manner of a bird would you suppose a
pied merlin to be—that being the proper sign of my hostel ?"

14 Why," said Alleyne, " a merlin is a bird of the same form
as an eagle or a falcon. I can well remember that learned
brother Bartholomew, Who is d,eep in all the secrets'of nature,
pointed one out to me as we walked together near Vinney
Ridge."

"A falcon or an eagle, quotha ? And pied, that is of two
several colors. So any man would say except this barrel of lies.
He came to me, look you, saying that if I would furnish him
with a gallon of ale, wherewith to strengthen himself as he
worked, and also the pigments and a board, he would paint for
me a noble pied merlin which I might hang along with the
blazonry over my door. I, poor simple fool, gave him the ale
and all that he craved, leaving him alone too, because he said
that a man's mind must be left untroubled when he had great
work to do. When I came back the gallon jar was empty, and
he lay as you see him, with the board in front of him with this
sorry device." She raised up a panel which was leaning against
the wall, and showed a rude painting of a scraggy and angular
fowl, with very long legs and a spotted body.

"Was that," she asked, "like the bird which thou hast seen ? "

Alleyne shook his head, smiling.

"No, nor any other bird that ever wagged a feather. It is
most like a plucked pullet which has died of the spotted fever.
And scarlet too ! What would the gentles Sir Nicholas Boar-
hunte, or Sir Bernard Brocas, of Roche Court, say if they saw
such a thing—or, perhaps, even the King's own Majesty himself,
who often has ridden past this way, and who loves his falcons
as he loves his sons ? It would be the downfall of my house."

" The matter is not past mending/' said Alleyne. " I pray
you, good dame, to give me those three pigment-pots and the
brush, and I shall try whether I.cannot better this painting."

Dame Eliza looked doubtfully at him, as though fearing some
other stratagem, but, as he made no demand for ale, she finally
brought the paints, and watched him as he smeared on his back-
ground, talking the while about the folk round the fire.

"The four forest lads must be jogging soon," she said.
" They bide at Emery Down, a mile or more from here. Yeo-
men prickers they are, who tend to the King's hunt. The glee-
man is called Floyting Will. He comes from the north country,40	THE WHITE COMPANY

but for many years he hath gone the round cv the forest from
Southampton to Christchurch. He drinks much and pays little ;
but it would make your ribs crackle to hear him s?tig the ' Jest
of Hendy Tobias.' Mayhap he will sing it when fSe ale has
warmed him."

"Who are those next to him?" asked Alleyne, much in-
terested. " He of the fur mantle has a wise and reverent face."

" He is a seller of pills and salves, very learned in humors,
and rheums, and fluxes, and all manner of ailments. He wears,
as you perceive, the vernicle of Sainted Luke, the first physician,
upon his sleeve. May good St. Thomas of Kent grant that it
may be long before either I or mine need his help ! He is here
to-night for herbergage, as are the others except the foresters.
His neighbor is a tooth-drawer. That bag at his girdle is full
of the teeth that he drew at Winchester fair. I warrant that
there are more sound ones than sorry, for he is quick at his
work and a trifle dim in the eye. The lusty man next him with
the red head I have not seen before. The four on this side are
all workers, three of them in the service of the bailiff of Sir
Baldwin Redvers, and the other, he with the sheepskin, is, as
I hear, a villein from the midlands who hath run from his mas-
ter. His year and day are well-nigh up, when he will be a free
man."

" And the other ? " asked Alleyne in a whisper. " Ke is
surely some very great man, for he looks as though he scorned
those who were about him."

The landlady looked at him in a motherly way and shook he**
head. " You have had no great truck with the world," she saidf
" or you would have learned that it is the small men and not tlie
great who hold their noses in the air. Look at those shields upo»
my wall and under my eaves. Each of them is the device of some
noble lord or gallant knight who hath slept under my roof at
one time or another. Yet milder men or easier to please 1 nave
never seen : eating my bacon and drinking my wine with a
merry face, and paying my score with some courteous word or
jest which was dearer to me than my profit. Those are tne true
gentles. But your chapman or your bearward will swear that
there is a lime in the wine, and water in the ale, and fling
off at the last with a curse instead of a blessing. This youth is
a scholar from Cambrig, where men are wont to be blown out
tya little knowledge, and lose the use of their hands in learningTHE WHITE COMPANY.

41

the laws of the Romans. But I must away to lay down the
beds. So .may the saints keep you and prosper you in your
undertaking ! "

Thus left to himself, Alleyne drt>w his panel of wood where
the light of one of the torches would sirikefull upon it, and worked
away with all the pleasure of 4he trained craftsman, listening
the while to the talk which went on rou^d the fire. The peasant
in the sheepskins, who had sat glum and silent all evening, had
been so heated by his flagon of ale that he was talking loudly
and angrily with clenched hands and flashing eyes.

"Sir Humphrey Tennant of Ashby may till his own fields for
me," he cried. " The castle has thrown its shadow upon the
cottage over long. For three hundred years my folk have
swinked and sweated, day in and day out, to keep the wine on
the lord's table and the harness on the lord's back. Let hm
take off his plates and delve himself, if delving must be> done."

" A proper spirit, my fair son 1" said one of the free laborers.
" I would that all men were of thy way of thinking. "

' He would have sold me with his acres," th& other cried, in a
voice which was hoarse with passion. M ' The man, the woman
and their litter'—so ran the words of the dotard bailiff. Never
a bullock on the farm was sold more lightly. Ha ! he may wake
s&ome black night to find the flames licking about his ears—for
jire is a good friend to the poor man, and I have seen a smoking
heap of ashes where over night there stood just such another
castlewick as Ashby."

" This is a lad of mettle !" shouted another of the laborers.
" He dares to give tongue to what all men think. Are we not
all from Adam's loins, all with flesh and blood, and with the
same mouth that must needs have food and drink ? Where all
this difference then between the ermine cloak and the leathern
tunic, if what they cover is the same ? "

" Aye, Jenkin," said another, " our foeman is under the stole
and the vestment as much as under the helmet and plate of
proof. We have as much to fear from the tonsure as from the
hauberk. Strike at the noble and the priest shrieks, strike at
priest and the noble lays his hand upon glaive. They are twin
thieves who live upon our labor."

" It would take a clever man to live upon thy labor, Hugh,"
remarked one of the foresters, " seeing that the half of thy time
is spent in swilling mead at the 1 Pied Merlin/ "42

THE WHITE COMPANY.

"Better that than stealing the deer that thou art placed to
gyard, like some folk I know."

" If you dare open that swine's mouth against me," shouted
the woodman, "I'll crop your ears for you before the hangman
has the doing of it, thou long-jawed lackbrain."

"Nay, gentles, gentles!" cried Dame Eliza, in a singsong
heedless voice, which showed that such bickerings were nightly
things among her guests. ** No brawling or brabbling, gentles J
Take heed to the good name of the house."

" Besides, if it comes to the cropping of ears, there are other
folk who may say their say," quoth the third laborer. " We are
all freemen, and I trow that a yeoman's cudgel is as good as a
forester's knife. By St. Anselm ! it would be an evil day if we
had to bend to our master's servants as well as to our masters."

" Nq man is my master save the King," the woodman answered.
" Who is there, save a false traitor, who would refuse to serve
the English king ? "

" I know not about the English king," said the man Jenkin.
" What sort of English king is it who cannot lay his tongue to a
word of English ? You mind last year when he came down to
Malwood, with his inner marshal and his outer marshal, his
justiciar, his seneschal, and his four and twenty guardsmen,
One noontide I was by Franklin Swinton's gate, when up he
rides with a yeoman pricker at his heels. 1 Ouvre,' he cried,
* ouvre,' or some such word, making signs for me to open the
gate ; and then < Merci,' as though he were adrad of me. And
you talk of an English king ? "

" I do not marvel at it," cried the Cambrig scholar, speaking
in the high drawling voice which was common among his class.
" It is not a tongue for men of sweet birth and delicate upbring-
ing. It is a foul, snorting, snarling manner of speech. For myn
self, I swear by the learned Polycarp that I have most ease with
Hebrew, and after that perchance with Arabian."

<( I will not hear a word said against old King Ned," cried
Hordle John in a voice like a bull. " What if he is fond of a
bright eye and a saucy face. I know one of his subjects who
could match him at that. If he cannot speak like an English-
man I trow that he can fight like an Englishman, and he was
hammering at the gates of Paris while alehouse topers were
grutching and grumbling at home."

This loud speech, coming from a man of so formidable an ap-THE WHITE COMPANY.

43

pearance, somewhat daunted the disloyal party, and they fell
into a sullen silence, which enabled Alleyne to hear something
of the talk which was going on in the further corner between -
the physician, the tooth-drawer and the gleeman.

" A raw rat," the man ot drugs was saying, " that is what it
«s ever my use to order for the plague—a raw rat with its paunch
cut open."

" Might it not be broiled, most learned sir ?" asked the
tooth-drawer. " A raw rat sounds a most sorry and cheerless
dish,"

"Not to be eaten," cried the physician, in high disdain.
" Why should any man eat such a thing ? "

" Why indeed ? " asked the gleeman, taking a long drain at
his tankard.

" It is to be placed on the sore or swelling. For the rat,
mark you, being a foul-living creature, hath a natural drawing
or affinity for all foul things, so that the noxious humors pass
from the man into the unclean beast."

" Would that cure the black death, master ?" asked Jenkin.

•' Aye, truly would it, my fair son."

« Then I am right glad that there were none who knew of it.
The black death is the best friend that ever the common folk
had in England."

" How that then ? " asked Hordle John.

"Why, friend, it is easy to see that you have not worked
with your hands or you would not need to ask. When half
the folk in the country were dead it was then that the other half
could pick and choose who they would work for, and for what
wage. That is why I say that the murrain was the best friend
that the borel folk ever had."

" True, Jenkin," said another workman ; "but it is not all
good that is brought by it either. We well know that through
it corn-land has been turned into pasture, so that flocks of sheep
with perchance a single shepherd wander now where once a
hundred men had work and wage."

"There is no great harm in that," remarked the tooth-drawer,
" for the sheep give many folk their living. There is not only
the herd, but the shearer and brander, and then the dresser, the
curer, the dyer, the fuller, the webster, the merchant, and a score
of others."

" If it come to that," said one of the foresters, " the tough meat44

THE WHITE COMPANY.

of them will wear folks' teeth out, and there is a trade for the
man who can draw them."

A general laugh followed this sally at the dentist's expense,
in the midst of which the gleeman placed his battered harp
upon his knee, and began to- pick out a melody upon the frayed
strings,

" Elbow room for Floyting Will!" cried the woodmen.

* " Twang us a merry lilt."*

" Aye, aye, the 'Lasses of Lancaster,' " one suggested.

" Or 1 St. Simeon and the Devil.' "

" Of the ' Jest of Hendy Tobias.' "

To all these suggestions the jongleur made no response, but
sat with his eye fixed abstractedly \ipon the ceiling, as one
who calls words to his mind. Then, with a sudden sweep across
the strings, he broke out into a song so gross and so foul that
ere he had finished a verse the pure-minded lad sprang to his
feet with the blood tingling in his face.

" How can you sing such things ? " he cried. " You, too, an
old man who should be an example to others."

The wayfarers all gazed in the utmost astonishment at the
interruption,

" By the holy Dicon of Hampole ! our silent clerk has found
his tongue," said one of the woodmen. "What is amiss with
the song then ? How has it offended your babyship ? " ,

" A milder and better mannered song hath never been heard
within these walls," cried* another. " What sort of talk is this
for a public inn ?"

" Shall it be a litany, my good clerk ? " shouted a third ; " or
would a hymn be good enough to serve ? "

The jongleur had put down his harp in high dudgeon. " Am
I to be preached to by a child ? " he cried, staring across at
Alleyne with an inflamed and angry countenance. " Is a hair-
less infant to raise his tongue against me, when I 'have sung in
every fair from Tweed to Trent, and have twice been named
aloud by the High Court of the Minstrels at Beverley ? I shall
sing no more to-night."

" Nay, but you will so,'* said one of the laborers. " Hi, Dame
Eliza, bring a stoup of your best to Will to clear his throat. Go
forward with thy song, and if our girl-faced clerk does not love
it he can tsrke to the road and go whence he came."

" Nay, but not too fast," broke in Hordle John. " There areTHE WHITE COMPANY.

45

two words in this matter. It may be that my little comrack
has been over quick in reproof, he having gone early into the
cloisters and seen little of the rough ways and words of the.
world. Yet there is truth in what he says, for, as you know
well, the song was not of the cleanest. I shall stand by him,
therefore, and he shall neither be put out on the road, nor shall
his ears be offended indoors."

" Indeed, your high and mighty grace," sneered one of the
yeomen, " have you in sooth so ordained ? "

" By the Virgin ! " said a second, " I think that you may both
chance to find yourselves upon the road before long."

" And so belabored as to be scarce able to crawl along it,"
cried a third.

" Nay, I shall go ! I shall go !" said Alleyne hurriedly, as
Hordle John began to slowly roll up his sleeve, and bare an arm
like a leg of mutton. " I would not have you brawl about
me."

" Hush ! lad," he whispered, " I count them not a fly. They
may find they have more tow on their distaff than they know
how to spin. Stand thou clear and give me space."

Both the foresters and the laborers had risen from their bench,
and Dame Eliza and the travelling doctor had flung themselves
between the two parties with solt words and soothing gestures,
when the door of the " Pied Merlin " was flung violently open,
and the attention of the company was drawn from their own
quarrel to the new-comer who had burst so unceremoniously
upon them.

CHAPTER VI.

how samkin alyward wagered his feather-bed.

He was a middle-sized man, of most massive and robust build,
with an arching chest and extraordinary breadth of sho-ulder.
His shaven face was as brown as a hazel-nut, tanned and dried
by the weather, with harsh, well-marked features, which were
not improved by a long white scar which stretched from the
corner of his left nostril to the angle of the jaw. His eyes wTere
bright and searching, with something of menace and of authority
in their quick glitter, and his mouth was firm-set and hard, as
befitted one who was wont to set his face against danger. A46	THE WHITE COMPANY".

straight sword by his side and a painted long-bow jutting over
his shoulder proclaimed his profession, w)iile his scarred brig-
andine of chain-mail and his dinted steel cap showed that he
was no holiday soldier, but one who was even now fresh from
the wars. A white surcoat with the lion of St. George in red
upon the centre covered his broad breast, while a sprig of new-
plucked broom at the side of his head-gear gave a touch of
gayety and grace to his grim, war-worn equipment.

"Ha!" he cried, blinking like an owl in the sudden glare.
"Good even to you, comrades ! Hola ! a woman, by my soul!"
and in an instant he had clipped Dame Eliza, round the waist
and was kissing her violently. His eye happening to wander
upon the maid, however, he instantly abandoned the mistress
and danced off after the other, who scurried in cpnfusion up one
of the ladders, and dropped the heavy trap-door upon her pur-
suer. He then turned back and saluted the landlady once more
with the utmost relish and satisfaction.

"La petite is frightened," said he. "Ah, c'est l'amour, (
Tamour ! Curse this trick of French, which will stick to my
throat. I must wash it out with some good English ale. By
my hilt ! camarades, there is no drop of French blood in my
)>ody, and I am a true English bowman, Samkin Aylward by
name ; and I tell you, mes amis, that it warms my very heart-
roots to set my feet on the dear old land once more. When I
came off the galley at Hythe, this very day, I down on my bones,
and I 4dssed the good brown earth, as I kiss thee now, ma belle,
for it was eight long years since I had seen it. The very .smell
of it seemed life to me. But where are my six rascals ? Hola,
there! En avant ! "

At the order, six men, dressed as common drudges, marched
solemnly into the room, each bearing a huge bundle upon his
head. They formed in military line, while the soldier stood in
front of them with stern eyes, checking off their several pack-
ages,

"Number one—a French feather-bed with the two counter-
panes of white sandell," said he.

"Here, worthy sir," answered the first of the bearers, laying
a great package down in the corner.

" Number two—seven ells of red Turkey cloth and nine ells
of cloth of gold. Put it down by the other. Good dame, I
prythee give each of these men a bOttrine of wine or a jack ofV	THE WHITE COMPANY.	47

£Ie. Three—a full piece of white Genoan velvet with twelve
ells of purple silk. Thou rascal, there is dirt on the hem ! Thou
hast brushed it against some wall, coquin ! "

" Not I, most worthy sir," cried the carrier, shrinking away
from the fierce eyes of the bowman.

141 say yes, dog ! By the three kings ! I have seen a man
gasp out his last breath for less. Had you gone through the
pain and unease that I have done to earn these things you would
be at more care. I swear by my ten finger-bones that there is
not one of them that hath not cost its weight in French blood !
Four—an incense-boat, a ewer of silver, a gold buckle and a
cope worked in pearls. I found them, camarades, at the Church
of St. Denis in the harrying of Narbonne, and I took them away
with me lest they fall into the hands of the wicked. Five—a
cloak of fur turned up with minever, a gold goblet with stand
and cover,, and a box of rose-colored sugar. See that you lay
them together. Six—a box of monies, three pounds of Limou-
sine gold-work, a pair of boots, silver tagged, and, lastly, a store
of naping linen. So, the tally is complete ! Here is a groat
apiece, and you may go."

" Go whither, worthy sir ? " asked one of the carriers.

"Whither? To the devil if ye will. What is it to me?
Now, ma belle, to supper. A pair of cold capons, a mortress of
brawn, or what you will, with a flask or two of the right Gas-
cony. I have crowns in my pouch, my sweet, and I mean to
spend them. Bring in wine while the food is dressing. Buvons,
my brave lads ; you shall each empty a stoup with me."

Here was an offer which the company in an English inn at
that or any other date are slow to refuse. The flagons were re-
gathered and came back with the white foam dripping over
their edges. Two of the woodmen and three of the laborers
drank their portions off hurriedly and trooped off together, for
their homes were distant and the hour late. The others, how-
ever, drew closer, leaving the place of honor to the right of the
gleeman to the free-handed new-comer. He had thrown off his
steel cap and his brigandine, and had placed them with his
sword, his quiver and his painted long-bow, on the top of his
varied heap of plunder in the corner. Now, with his thick and
somewhat bowed legs stretched in front of the blaze, his green
jerkin thrown open, and a great quart pot held in his corded
fist, he looked the picture of comfort and of good-fellowship.48

THE WHITE COMPANY.

His hard-set face had softened, and the thick crop of crisp brown
•curls which had been hidden by his helmet grew low upon his
Passive neck. He might have been forty years of age, though
hard toil and harder pleasure had left their grim marks upon
his features. Alleyne had ceased painting his pied merlin, and
sat, brush in hand, staring with open eyes at a type of man so
strange and so unlike any whom he had met. Men had been
good or had been bad in his catalogue, but here was a man who
was fierce one instant and gentle the next, with a curse on his
lips and a smile in his eye. Wha* was to be made of such a
man as that?

It chanced that the soldier looked#up and saw the questioning
glance which the young clerk threw upon him. He raised his
flagon and drank to him, with a merry flash of his white teeth.

" A toi, mon gargon," he cried. " Hast surely never seen a
man-at-arms, that thou shouldst stare so ? "

" I never have," said Alleyne frankly, " though I have oft
Vieard talk of their deeds."

" By my hilt S " cried the other, " if you were to cross the nar-
row sea ^ ou would find them as thick as bees at a tee-hole.
Couldst not shoot a bolt down any street of Bordeaux, I warrant,
but you wc dd pink archer, squire, or knight. There are more
breastplates than gaberdines to be seen, I promise you."

" And where got you ail these pretty things ? " asked Hordle
fohn, pointing at the heap in the corner.

" Where there is as much more waiting for any brave* lad to
«}pick it up. Where a good man can always earn a good wage,
md where he need look upon no man as his paymaster, but
yust reach his hand out and help himself. Aye, it is a goodly
.and a proper life. And here I drink to mine old comrades, and
the .saints be with them ! Arouse all together, mes enfants,
under pain of my displeasure. To Sir Claude Latour and the
White Company ! "

" Sir Claude Latour and the White Company ! " shouted the
travellers, draining off their goblets.

" Well quaffed, mes braves ! It is for me to fill your cups
agkin, since you have drained them to my dear lads of the white
jerkin. Hola ! mon ange, bring wine and ale. How runs the
old stave ?—

We'll drink all together
To the gray goose feather
And the land where the gray goose flew,"THE WHITE COMPANY.

49

He roared out the catch in a harsh, unmusical voice, and ended
with a shout of laughter. " I trust that I am a better bowman
than a minstrel," said he.

" Methinks I have some remembrance of the lilt," remarked
the gleeman, running his fingers over the strings. " Hoping
that it will give thee no offence, most holy sir "—with a vicious
snap at Alleyne—" and with the kind permit of the company, I
will even venture upon it."

Many a time in the after days Alleyne Edricson seemed to see^
that scene, for all that so many which were stranger and more
stirring were soon to crowd upon him. The fat, red-faced glee-
man, the listening group, the archer with iipraissd finger beat-
ing in time to the music, and the huge sprawling figure of Hordle
John, all thrown into red light and black shadow by the flicker-
ing fire in the centre—memory was to come often lovingly back
to it. At the time he was lost in admiration at the deft way in
which the jongleur disguised the loss of his two missing strings,
and the lusty, hearty fashion in which he trolled out his little
ballad of the outland bowmen, which ran in some such fashion
as this;

What of the bow ?

The bow was made in England:

Of true wood, of yew wood,

The wood of English bows;

So men who are free
Love the old yew tree
And the land where the yew tree grows.

What of the cord ?

The cord was made in England:

A rough cord, a tough cord,

A cord that bowmen love;

So we'll drain our jacks
To the English flax
And the land where the hemp was wove.

What of the shaft ?

The shaft was cut in England:

A long shaft, a strong shaft,

Barbed and trim and true;

So we'll drink all together
To the gray goose feather
And the land where the gray goose flew.

What of the men?

The men were bred in England:

The bowman—the yeoman—

The lads of dale and fell
Here's to you—and to you!

To the hearts that are true
And the land where the true hearts dwell.So

THE WHITE COMPANY.

"Well sung, by my hilt ! " shouted the archer in high delight.

'Many a night have I heard that song, both in the old war-time
and after in the days of the White Company, when Black Simon
of Norwich would lead the stave, and four hundred of the best
bowmen that ever drew string would come roaring in upon the
chorus. I have seen old John Hawkwood, the same who has led
naif the Company into Italy, stand laughing in his beard as he
heard it, until his plates rattled again. But to get the.full smack
of it ye must yourselves be English bowmen, and be far off upon
an outland soil."

. Whilst the song had been singing Dame Eliza and the maid
had placed a«board across two trestles, and had laid upon it the
knife, the spoon,-the salt, the tranchoir of bread, and finally the
smoking dish which held the savory supper. The archer settled
himself to it like one who had known what it was to find good
food scarce ; but his tongue still went as merrily as his teeth.

"It passes me," he cried, << how all you lusty fellows can bide
scratching your backs at home when there are such doings over
the seas. Look at me—what have I to do ? It is but the eye to
the cord, the cord to the shaft, and the shaft to the mark. There
is the whole song of it. It is but what you do yourselves for
pleasure upon a Sunday evening at the parish village butts."

" And the wage ? " asked a laborer.

"You see what the wage brings," he answered. "I eat of
the best, and I drink deep. I treat my friend, and I ask no friend
to treat me. I clap a silk gown on my girl's back. Never a
knight's lady shall be better betrimmed and betrinketed. How
7of all that, mon gar$on ? And how of the heap of trifles that
you can see for yourselves in yonder corner ? They are from
the South French, every one, upon whom I have been making
war. By my hilt! camarades, I think that I may let my plunder
speak for itself."

" It seems indeed to -be a goodly service," said the tooth-
drawer.

" T3te bleu ! yes, indeed. Then there is the chance of a ran-
som. Why, look you, in the affair at Brignais some four years
back, when the companies slew James of Bourbon, and put his
army to the sword, there v/as scarce a msin of ours who had not
count, baron, or knight. Peter Karsdale, who was but a com-
mon country lout newly brought over, with the English fleas still
hopping under his doublet, laid his great hands upon the SieurTHE WHITE COMPANY.

SI

Amaury de Chatonville, who owns half Picardy, and had five
thousand crowns out of him, with his horse and harness. 'Tis
true that a French wench took it all off Peter as quick as the
Frenchman paid it; but what then ? By the twang of string !
it would be a bad thing if money was not made to be spent; and
how better than on woman—eh, ma belle ? "

"It would indeed be a bad thing if we had not our brave
archers to bring wealth and kindly customs into the country,"
quoth Dame Eliza, on whom the soldier's free and £>pen ways
had made a deep impression.

" A toi, ma chgrie !" said he, with his hand over his heart.
" Hola. ! there is la petite peeping from behind the door. A toi,
aussi, ma petite ! Mon Dieu ! but the lass has a good color ! "

"There is one thing, fair sir," said the Cambridge student in
his piping voice, " which I would fain that you would make more"
clear. As I understand it, there was peace made at the town of
Bretigny some six years back between our most gracious pionarch
and the King of the French. This being so, it seems most pass-
ing strange that you should talk so loudly of war and of com-
panies when there is no quarrel between the French and us."

" Meaning that I lie," said the archer, laying down his knife.

" May heaven forfend ! " cried the student hastily. " Magna
est Veritas sed rara, which means in the Latin tongue that
archers are all honorable men. I come to you seeking knowl-
edge, for it is my trade to learn."

" I fear that you are yet a 'prentice to that trade," quoth the
soldier ; " for there is no child over the water but could answer
what you ask. Know then that though there may be peace be-
tween our own provinces and the French,,yet within the marches
of France there is always war, for the country is much divided
against itself,,and is. furthermore harried by bands of flayers,
skinners, Brabagons, tardvenus, and the rest of them. When
every man's grip is on his neighbor's throat, and every five-sous-
piece of a baron is marching with tuck of drum to fight whom he
will, it would be a strange thing if five hundred brave English
boys could not pick up a living. Now that Sir John Hawkwood
hath gone with the East Anglian lads and the Nottingham wood-
men into the service of the Marquis of Montfefrat to fight against
the Lord of Milan, there are but ten score of us left, yet I trust
that I may be able to bring some back with me to fill the ranks
of the White Company. By the tooth of Peter ! it would be a52

THE WHITE COMPANY.

bad thing if I could not muster many a Hamptonshire man who
would be ready to strike in under the red flag of St. George, and
the more so if Sir Nigel Loring, of Christchurch, should don
hauberk once more and take the lead of us."

"Ah, you would indeed be in luck then," quoth a woodman;
«c for it is said that, setting aside the prince, and mayhap good
old Sir John Chandos, there was not in the whole army a man
of such tried courage."

" It is sooth, every word of it,"the archer answered. " I have
seen him with these two eyes in a stricken field, and never did
man carry himself better. Mon Dieu ! yes, ye would not credit
it to look at him, or to hearken to. his soft voice, but from the
s sailing from Orwell down to the foray to Paris, and that is clear
twenty years, there was not a skirmish, onfall, sally, bushment
' escalado or battle, but Sir Nigel was in the heart of it. I go
now to Christchurch with a letter to him from Sir Claude Latour
to ask him if he will take the place of Sir John Hawkwood ; and
there is the more chance that he will if I bring one or two likely
men at my heels. What say you, woodman : wilt leave th*
"bucks to loose a shaft at a nobler mark ? "

The forester shook his head. " I have wife and child av
Emery Down," quoth,he ; " I would not leave them for such a
venture."

"You, then, young sir ?" asked the archer.

"Nay, I am a man of peace," said Alleyne Edricson. "Be-
sides, I have other work to do."

" Peste ! " groWled the soldier, striking his flagon on the
board until the dishes danced again. iS What, in the name of
the devil, hath come over the folk ? Why sit ye all moping by
the fireside, like crows round a dead horse, when there is man's
"work to be done within a few short leagues of ye ? Out upon
you all, as a set of laggards and hang-backs ! By my hilt I be-
lieve that the men of England are all in France already, and
that what is left behind are in sooth the women dressed up in
their paltocks and hosen."

"Archer," quoth Hordle John, "you have lied more than
once, and more than twice ; for which, and also because I see
much in you to dislike, I am sorely tempted to lay you upon
your back."

" By my hilt! then, I have found a man at last ! " shouted the*
bowman. _•« And, 'fore God, you are a better man thau I take youTHE WHITE COMPANY. '	53

for if you can lay me on my back, mon gargon. I have won the
ram more times than there are toes to my feet, and for seven
long years I have found no man in the Company who could make
my jerkin dusty."

"We have had enough bobance and boasting," said Hordle
John, rising and throwing off his doublet. " I will show you
that there are better men left in England than ever went thiev-
ing to France."

"Pasques Dieu !" cried the archer, loosening his jerkin, and
eyeing his foeman over with the keen glance of one who is a
judge of manhood. " I have only once before seen such a body
of a man. By your leave, my red-headed friend, I should be
right sorry to exchange buffets with you ; and I will allow that
there is no man in the Company who would pull against you on
a rope ; so let that be a salve to your pride. On the other hand
I should judge that you have led a life of ease for some months
back, and that my muscle is harder than your own. I am ready
to wager upon myself against you if you are not afeard."

"Afeard, thou lurden ! " growled big John. "I never saw
the fac# yet of the man that I was afeard of. Come out, anc? we
shall see who is the better man."

" But the wager ? "

" I have nought to wager. Come out for the love and the
hist of the thing."

"Nought to wager!" cried the soldier. "Why, you ha/e
that which I covet above all things. It is that big body of thiue
that I am after. See, now, mon gargon. I have a French
feather-bed there, which I have been at pains to keep these years
back. I had it at the sacking of Issodum, and the King himself
hath not such a bed. If you throw me, i| is thine ; but, if I
throw you, then you are under a vow to take bow and bill and
hie with me to France, there to serve in the White Company as
long as we be enrolled.">

"A fair wager ! " cried all the travellers, moving back their
benches and trestles, so as to give fair field for the wrestlers.

" Then you may bid farewell to your bed, soldier," said Hor-
dle John.

"Nay ; I shall keep the bed, and I shall have you to France
in spite of your teeth, and you shall live to thank me for it.
How shall it be, then, mon enfant ? CQllar &nd slbew, or
lock, or catch how you can ?"54	% THE WHITE COMPANY.

« To the devil with your tricks," said John, opening and shut*
$ng his great red hands. "Stand fofth, and let me clip thee."

" Shalt clip me as best you can then," quoth the archer, mov-
ing out into the open space, and keeping a most wary eye upon
his opponent. He had thrown off his green jerkin, and his chest
was covered only by a pink silk jupon, or undershirt, cut low in
the neck and sleeveless. Hordle John was stripped from his
waist upwards, and his huge body, with his great muscles swell-
ing out like the gnarled roots of an oak, towered high above the
soldier. The other, however, though near a foot shorter, was a
man of great strength ; and there was a gloss upon his white
skin which was wanting in the heavier limbs of the renegade
monk. He was quick on his feet, too, and skilled at the game ;
so that it was clear* from the poise of head and shine of eye,
that he counted the chances to be in his favor. It would have
been hard that night, through the whole length of England, to
set up a finer pair in face of each other.

Big John stood waiting in the centre with a sullen, menacing
eye, and his red hair in a bristle, while the archer paced lightly
and swiftly to the right and the left with crooked kneean4 hands
advanced. Then with a sudden dash, so swift and fierce that
the eye could scarce follow it, he flew in upon his man and
locked his leg round him. It was a grip that, between men of
equal strength, would mean a fall ; but Hordle John tore him off
from him as he might a rat, and hurled him across the room, so
that his head cracked up against the wooden wall.

«' Ma foi! " cried the bowman, passing his fingers through his
curls, " you were not far from the feather-be*d then, moil gar.
A little more and this good hostel would have a new window."

Nothing daunted, he approached his man once more ; but
Vhis time with m'ore caution than before. With a quick feint he
threw the other off his guard, and then, bounding upon him,
threw his legs round his waist and his arms round his bull-neck,
in the hope of bearing him to the ground with the sudden shock.
With a bellow of rage, Hordle John squeezed him limp in his huge
arms; and then, picking him up, cast him down upon the floor
with a force which might well have splintered a bone or two,
had not the archer with the most perfect coolness clung to the
Other's forearms to break his fall. As it was, he dropped upon
his feet and kept his balance, though it sent a jar through his
whiQl} set every joint a-cyeajang. He bounded back fromTHE WHITE COMPANV.

5?

his perilous foeman ; but the other, heated by the bout, rushed
madly after him, and so gave the practised wrestler the very
vantage for which he had planned. As big John flung himself
upon him, the archer ducked under the great red hands that
clutched for him, and, catching his man round the thighs, hurled
him over his shoulder—helped as much by his own mad rush as
by the trained strength of the heave.^ To Alleyne's eye, it was
as if John had taken unto himself wings and flown. As he
hurtled through the air, with giant limbs revolving, the lad's
heart was in his mouth ; for surely no man ever yet had such a
fall and came scathless out of it. In truth, hardy as the man
was, his neck had been assuredly broken had he not pitched head
first on the very midriff of the drunken artist, who was slumber-
ing so peacefully in the corner, all unaware of these stirring
doings. The luckless limner, thus suddenly brought out from
his dreams, sat up with a piercing yell, while Hordle John
bounded back into the circle almost as rapidly as he had left it.

" One more fall, by all the saints ! " he cried, throwing out
his arms.

«?Not-I," quoth the archer, pulling on his clothes, " I have
come well out of the business. I would sooner wrestle with the
great bear of Navarre."

"It was a trick," cried John.

" Aye was it. By my ten finger-bones ! it is a trick that will
add a proper man to the ranks of the Company."

"Oh, for that," said the other, "I count it not a fly ; for I had
promised myself a good hour ago that I should go with thee,
since the life seems to be a goodly and proper one. Yet I
would fain have had the feather-bed."

" I doubt jt not, mon ami," quoth the archer, goingback to his
tankard. " Here is to thee, lad, and may we be good comrades
to each other ! But, hola ! what is it that ails our friend of the
wrathful face ? "

The unfortunate limner had been sitting up rubbing himself
ruefully and staring about with a vacant gaze, which showed that
he knew neither where he was nor what had occurred to him.
Suddenly, however, a flash of intelligence had come over his
sodden features, and he rose and staggered for the door.
" 'Ware the ale ! " he said in a hoarse whisper, shaking a warn-
ing finger at the company. " Oh, holy Virgin, 'ware the ale !"
and clapping his hands to his injury, he flitted off into the dark-56

THE WHITE COMPANY.

ness, amid a shout of iaughter, in which the vanquished joined
as merrily as the victor. The remaining forester and the two
laborers were also ready for the road, and the rest of the com-
pany turned to the blankets which Dame Eliza and the maid had
laid out for them upon the floor, Alleyne, weary with the un-
wonted excitements of the day, 'was soon in a deep slumber,
broken only by fleeting visions of twittering legs, cursing beg-
gars, black robbers, and the many strange folk whom he had
met at the " Pied Merlin."

CHAPTER VII,.

how the three comrades journeyed through the
woodlands.

At early dawn the country inn was all alive, for it was rare
indeed that an hour of daylight would be wasted at a time when
lighting was so scarce an<J dear. Indeed, early as it was when
Dame Eliza began to stir, it seemed that others could be earlier
still, for the door was ajar, and the learned student of Cam-
bridge had taken himself off, with a mind which was too intent
upon the high things of antiquity to stoop to consider the four-
pence which he owed for bed and board. It was the shrill out-
cry of the landlady when she found her loss, and the clucking of
the hens, which had streamed in through the open door, that
first broke in upon the slumbers of the tired wayfarers.

Once afoot, it was not long before the company began to dis-
perse. A sleek mule with red trappings was brought round
from some neighboring shed for the physician, and he ambled
away with much dignity upon his road to Southampton. The
tooth-drawer and the gleeman called for a cup of small ale
apiece, and started off together for Ringwood fair, the old jon-
gleur looking very yellow in the eye and swollen in the face after
his overnight potations. The archer, however, who had drunk
more than any man in the room, was as merry as a grig, and
having kissed the matron and chased the maid up the ladder
once more, he went out to the brook, and came back with the
water dripping from his face and hair.

" Hols, ! my man of peace," he cried to Alleyne, " whither are
you bent this morning ? "THE WHITE COMPANY.

57

"To Minstead," quoth he. " My brother Simon Edricson is
socman there, and I go to bide with him for a while. I prythee,
let me have my score, good dame."*

"Score, indeed !" cried she, standing with upraised hands in
front of the panel on which Alleyne had worked the night before.
" Say, rather what it is that I owe to thee, good youth. Aye,
this is indeed a pied merlin, and with a leveret under its claws,
as I am a living woman. By the rood of Waltham ! but thy
touch is deft and dainty."

" And see the red eye of it!" cried the maid.

" Aye, and the open beak."

"And the ruffled wing," added Hordle John.

"By my hilt! " cried the archer, " it is the very bird itself."

The young clerk flushed with pleasure at this chorus of praise,
rude and indiscriminate indeed, and yet so much heartier and
less grudging than any which he had ever heard from the critical
brother Jerome, or the short-spoken Abbot. There was, it
would seem, great kindness as well as great wickedness in this
world, of which he had heard so little that was good. His
hostess would hear nothing of his paying either for bed or for
board, while the archer and Hordle John placed a hand upon
either shoulder and led him off to the board, where some smok-
ing fish, a dish of spinach, and a jug of milk were laid out for
their breakfast.

" I should not be surprised to learn, mon camarade," said the,
soldier, as he heaped a slice of fish upon Alleyne's tranchoir ol.
bread, " that you could read written things, since you are so-
ready with your brushes and pigments."

" It would be shame to the good brothers of Beaulieu if I could
not," he answered, " seeing that I have been their clerk this ten
years back."

The bowman looked at him with great respect. " Think of
that ! " said he. " And you with not a hair to your face, and a
skin like a girl. I can shoot three hundred and fifty paces with
my little popper there, and four hundred and twenty with the
great war-bow ; yet I can make nothing of this, nor read my
own name if you were to set ' Sam Aylward ' up against me. In
the whole Company there was only one man who could read,
and he fell down a well at the taking ofVentadour, which proves
that the thing is not suited to a soldier, though most needful tc?
a clerk."58

THE WHITE COMPANY.

■" I can make some show at it," said big John ; " though I was
scarce long' enough among the monks to catch the whole trick
of it."	- '

,f Here, then, is something to try upon," quoth the archer,
pulling a square of parchment from the inside of his tunic. It
was tied securely with a broad band of purple silk, and firmly
sealed at either end with a large red seal. John pored long
and earnestly over the inscription upon the back, with his brows
bent as one who bears up against great mental strain.

" Not having read much of late," he said, "lam loth to say
too much about what this may be. Some might say one thing
and some another, just as one bowman loves the yew, and a
second will not shoot save with the ash. To me, by the length
and the look of it, I should judge this to be a verse from one of
the Psalms "

The bowman shook his head. " It is scarce likely," he said,
" that Sir Claude Latour should send me all the way across seas
with nought more weighty than a psalm-verse. You have clean
overshot the butts this time, mon camarade. Give it to the
little one. I will wager my feather-bed that he makes more
sense of it."

" Why, it is written in the French tongue," said Alleyne, and
in alright clerkly hand. This is how it runs: 'A le moult
puissant et moult honorable chevalier, Sir Nigel Loring de
Christchurch, de son tr£s fiddle amis Sir Claude Latour, capi-
taine de la Compagnie blanche, cliatelain de Biscar, grand sei-
gneur de Montchateau, vavaseur de le renommS Gaston, Comto
de Foix, tenant les droits de la haute justice, de la milieu, et de
la basse.' Which signifies in our speech : 'To the very power-
ful and very honorable knight, Sir Nigel Loring of Christchurch,
from his very faithful friend Sir Claude Latour, captain of the
White Company, chatelain of Biscar, grand lord of Montchateau
and vassal to the renowed Gaston, Count of Foix, who holds the
rights of the high justice, the middle and the low.'"

" Look at that now ! " cried the bowman in triumph. "That
is just what he would have said."

" I can see now that it is even so," said John, examining the
parchment again. "Though I scarce understand this high,
middle and low."

" By my hilt! you would understand it if you were Jacques
Bonhomme, The low justice means that you may fleece himtTHE WHITE COMPANY.	59

and the middle that you may torture him, and the high that you
may slay him. That is about the truth of it. But this is the
letter which I am to take ; and since the platter is clean it is
time that we trussed up and were afoot. You come with me,
mon gros Jean ; and as to you, little one, where did you say that -
you journeyed ? "

"To Minstead."

" Ah, yes. I know this forest country well, though I was born
myself in the. Hundred of Easebourne, in the Rape of Chichester,
hard by the village of Midhurst. Yet I have not a word to say
against the Hampton men, for there are no better comrades of
truer archers in the whole Company than some who learned to
loose the string in these very parts. We shall travel round with
you to Minstead, lad, seeing that it is little out of our way."

• "I am ready," said Alleyne, right pleased at the thought of
such company upon the road.

" So am not I. I must store my plunder at this inn, since the
hostess is an honest woman. Hol& ! ma ch£rie, I wish to leave
with you my gold-work, my velvet, my silk, my feather-bed, my
incense-boat, my ewer, my naping linen, and all the rest of it.
I take only the money in a linen bag, and the box of rose-colored
sugar which is a gift from my captain to the Lady Loring.
Wilt guard my treasure for me ? "

" It shall be put in the safest loft, good archer. Come when
yon snay, you shall find it ready tor you."

" Now, *:here is a true friend ! " cried the bowman, taking her
hand. "There is a bonne amie ! English land* and English
women, say I, and French wine and French plunder. I shall be
back anon, mon ange. I am a lonely man, my sweeting, and I
must settle some day when the wars are over and done. May-
hap you" and I- Ah, m£chante, mgchante ! There is la

petite peeping from behind the door. Now, John, the sun is
over the trees ; you must be brisker th&n this when the bugleman
blows ' Bows and Bills.' "

"I have been waiting this time back/' said Hordle John
gruffly.

" Then we must be off. Adieu, ma vie ! The two livres shall
settle the score and buy some ribbons against the next kermesse.
Do not forget Sam Aylward, for his heart shall ever be thine
alone—and thine, ma petite ! So, marchons, and may St. Julian
grant us as good quarters elsewhere 1"6o

THE "WHITE COMPANY,

The sun had risen over Ashurst and Denny woods, and was
shining brightly, though the eastern wind had a sharp flavor to
it, and the leaves were flickering thickly from the trees. In the
High Street of Lyndhurst the wayfarers had to pick their way,
for the little town was crowded with the guardsmen, grooms,
and yeomen prickers who were attached to the King's hunt.
The King himself was staying at Castle Malwood, but several
of his suite had been compelled to seek such quarters as they
might find in the wooden or wattle-and-daub cottages of the
village. Here and there a small escutcheon, peeping from a
glassless window, marked the night's lodging of knight or baron.
These coats-of-arms could be read, where a scroll would be
meaningless, and the bowman, like most men of his age, was
well versed in the common symbols of heraldry.

" There is the Saracen's head of Sir Bernard Brocas," quoth
he. " I saw him last at the ruffle at Poictiers some ten years
back, when he bore himself like a man. He is the master of the
King's horse, and can sing a right jovial stave, though in that he
cannot come nigh to Sir John Chandos, who is first at the board
or in the saddle. Three martlets on a field azure, that must be
one of the Luttrells. By the crescent upon it, it should be the
second son of old Sir Hugh, who had a bolt through his ankle
at the intaking of Romorantin, he having rushed into the fray
ere his squire had time to clasp his solleret to his greave. There
too is the hackle which is the old device of the De Brays. I have
served under Sir Thomas de Bray, who was as jolly as a pie,
and a lusty swordsman until he got too fat for his harness."

So the archer gossiped as the three wayfarers threaded their
way among the stamping horses, the busy grooms, and the knots
of pages and squires who disputed over the merits of their mas-
ters' horses and deerhounds. As they passed the old church,
which stood upon a mound at the left-hand side of the village
street the door was flung open, and a stream of worshippers
wound down the sloping path, coming from the morning mass, all
chattering like a cloud of jays. Alleyne bent knee and doffed hat
at the sight of the open door ; but ere he had finished an ave his
comrades were out of sight round the curve of the path, and he
had to run to overtake them."

" What! " he said, " not one word of prayer before God's o\yn
open house ? How can ye hope for His blessing upon the
day ? "THIS. WHITE COMPANY.	6l

"My friend," said Hordle John, 111 have prayed so much dur-
ing the last two months, not only during the day, but at matins,
lauds, and the like, when I could scarce keep my head upon my
shoulders for nodding, that I feel that I have somewhat over-
prayed myself."

"Ho\V can a man have too much religion ? " cried Alleyne
earnestly. " It is the one thing that availeth. A man is but a
beast as he lives from day to day, eating and drinking, breathing
and sleeping. It is only when he raises himself, and concerns
himself with the immortal spirit within him, that he becomes in
very truth a man. Bethink ye how sad a thing it would be that
the blood of the Redeemer should be spilled to no purpose."

" Bless the lad, if he doth not blush like any girl, and yet
preach like the whole College of Cardinals," cried the archer.

" In truth I blush that any one so weak and so unworthy as I
*hould try to teach another that which he finds it so passing
lard to follow himself."

" Prettily said, mon gargon. Touching that same slaying of
he Redeemer, it was a bad business. A good padre in France
read to us from a scroll the whole truth of the matter. The
soldiers came upon him in the garden. In truth, these Apostles
of His may have been holy men, but they were of no great ac-
count as men-at-arms. There was one, indeed, Sir Peter, who
smote out like a true man ; but, unless he is belied, he did but
clip a varlet's ear, which was no very knightly deed. By these
*en finger-bones ! had I been there with Black Simon of Nor-
wich, and but one score picked men of the Company, we had
held them in play. Could we do no more, we had at least filled
the false knight, Sir Judas, so full of Er^lish arrows that he
would curse the day that ever he came on such an errand."

The young clerk smiled at his companion's earnestness. " Had
He wished help," he said, " He could have summoned legions
of archangels from heaven, so what need had He of your poor
bow and arrow ? Besides, bethink you of His own wrords—
that those who live by the sword shall perish by the sword."

" And how could man die better ? " asked the archer. " If I
had my wish, it would be to fall so—not, mark you, in any mere
skirmish of the Company, but in a stricken field, with the great
lion banner waving over us and the red oriflamme in front, amid
the shouting of my fellows and the twanging of the strings. But
let it be sword, lance, or bolt that strikes me down : for I should62

THE WHITE COMPANY/

think it shame to die from an iron ball from the fire-crake or

bombard or any such unsoldierly weapon, which is only fitted to
scare babes with its foolish noise and smoke."

"I have heard much even in the quiet cloisters of these new
and dreadful engines," quoth Alleyne. "It is said, though I
can scarce bring myself to believe it, that they will send a ball
twice as far as a bowman can shoot his shaft, and with such
force as to break through armor of proof."

"True enough, my lad. But while the armorer is thrusting;
in his devil's-dust, and dropping his ball, and lighting his flam-
beau, I can very easily loose six shafts, or eight maybe, so he
hath no great vantage after all. Yet I will not deny that at the
intaking of a town it is well to have good store of bombards. I
am told that at Calais they made dints in the wall that a man
might put his head into. But surely, comrades, some one who
is grievously hurt hath passed along this road before us."

All along the woodland track there did indeed run a scattered
straggling trail of blood-marks, sometimes in single drops, and
in other places in broad, ruddy gouts, smudged over the dead
leaves or crimsoning the white flint stones.

" It must be a stricken deer," said John.

" Nay, I am woodman enough to see that no deer hath passed
this way this morning ; and yet the blood is fresh. But hark to
the sound ! "

They stood listening all three with sidelong heads. Through
the silence of the great forest there came a swishing, whistling
sound, mingled with the most dolorous groans, and the voice of
a man raised in a high quavering kind of song. The comrades
hurried onwards eagerly, and topping the brow of a small rising
they saw upon the other side the source from which these
strange noises arose.

A tall man, much stooped in the shoulders, was walking
slowly with bended head and clasped hands in the centre of the
path. He was dressed from head to foot in a long white linen
cloth, and a high white cap with a red cross printed upon it.
His gown was turned back from his shoulders, and the flesh
there was a sight to make a man wince, for it was all beaten to
a pulp, and the blood was soaking into his gown and trickling
down upon the ground. Behind him walked a smaller man,
with his hair touched with gray, who was clad in the same white
garb. He intoned a long whining rhyme in the French tongue,THE WHITE COMPANY.

63

and at the end of every line he raised a thick cord, all jagged
with pellets of lead, and smote his companion across the shoul-
ders until the blood spurted again. Even as the three wayfarers
stared, however, there was a sudden change, for the smaller
man, having finished his song, loosened his own gown and
handed tite scourge to the other, who took up the stave once
more and lashed his companion with all the strength of his bare
and sinewy arm. So, alternately beating and beaten, they made
their dolorous way through the beautiful woods and under the
amber arches of the fading beech-trees, where the calm strength
and majesty of Nature might serve to rebuke the foolish energies
and misspent strivings of mankind.

Such a spectacle was new to Hordle John or to Alleyne Ed-
ricson ; but the archer treated it lightly, as a common matter
enough.

"These are the Beating Friars, otherwise called the Flagel-
lants," quoth he. " I marvel that ye should have come upon
none of them before, for across the water they are as common
as gallybaggers. I have heard that there are no English among
them, but that they are from France, Italy and Bohemia. En
avant, camarades ! that we may have speech with them."

As they came up to them, Alleyne could hear the doleful dirge
which the beater was chanting, bringing down his heavy wRip
at the end of each line, while the groans of the sufferer formed a
sort of dismal chorus. It was in old French, and ran somewhat
in this way ;

Or avant, entre nous tous fr&res
Battons nos charognes bien fort
En remembrant la grant misfcre
De Dieu et sa piteuse morfc,

Qui fat pris en la gent am£re
Et vendus ct train k tort
Et bastu sa chair, vierge et d&re
Au nom de ce battons plus fort.

Then at the end of the verse the scourge changed hands and
the chanting began anew.

" Truly, holy fathers," said the archer in French as they came
abreast of them, " you have beaten enough for to-day. The
road is all spotted like a shambles at Martinmas Why should
ye mishandle yourselves thus ? "

"C'est pour vos pechgs—pour vos pgchgs," they droned, look-
ing at the travellers with sad lack-lustre eyes, and then berit tg64

THE WHITE COMPANY.

their bloody work once more without heed to the prayers ajid
persuasions which were addressed to them. Finding all re-
monstrance useless, the three comrades hastened on their way,
leaving these strange travellers to their dreary task. ; .

** Mort Dieu ! " cried the bowman, " there is a bu<|^etful or
more of my blood over in France, but it was all spillikin, hot
fight, and I should think twice before I drew it drop by drop
as these friars are doing. By my hilt! our young one here
is us white as a Picardy cheese. What is amiss then, mon
cher ? "

"It is nothing,'* Alleyne answered. "My life has been too
quiet, I am not used to such sights."

" Ma foi ! " the other cried, "I have never yet seen a man who
was so stout of speech andv yet so weak of heart."

" Not so, friend," quoth big John ; " it is not weakness of heart,
for I know the lad well. His heart is as good as thine or mine,
but he hath more in his pate than ever you will carry under that
tin pot of thine, and as a consequence he can see farther into
things, so that they weigh upon him more."

"Surely to any man it is a sad sight," said Alleyne, " to tfee
these holy men, who have done no sin themselves, suffering so
for the sins of others. Saints are they, if in this age any may
merit so high a name."

" I count them not a fly," cried Hordle John ; " for who is tire
better for all their whipping and yowling ? They are like othef
friars, I trow, when all is done. Let them leave their backs
alone, and beat the pride out of their hearts."

" By the three kings 1 there is sooth in what you say," re-
marked the archer. " Besides, methinks if I were le bon Pieu?
it would bring me little joy to see a poor devil cutting the flesl*
off his bones ; and I should think that he had but a small opinio*
of me, that he should hope to please me by such provost-marshal
work. No, by my hilt! I should look with a more loving ey<?
upon a jolly archer who never harmed a fallen foe and never
feared a hale one."

" Doubtless you mean no sin," said Alleyne. " If your words
are wild, it is not for me to judge them. Can you not see that
there are other foes in this world besides Frenchmen, and a9
much glory to be gained in conquering them ? Would it not
be a proud day for knight or squire if he could overthrow seven
adversaries in the lists ? Yet here are we in the lists of life, andTHE WHITE COMPANY.v	6$

tfhere come the seven black champions against us: Sir Pride,
Sir Covetousness, Sir Lust, Sir Anger, Sir'Gluttony, Sir Envy, and
.Sir Sloth. Let a man lay those seven low, and - he shall have
the prize of the day, from the hands of the fairest queen of beauty,
even from the Virgin-Mother herself. It is for this that these
men mor||^ their flesh, and to set us an example, who would
pamper ourselves overmuch. I say again that they are God's
own saints, and I bow my head to them."	*

" And so you shall, mon petit," replied the archer. " I have
not heard a man speak better since old Dom Bertrand died,
who was at one time chaplain to the White Company. He was
a very valiant man, but at the battle of Brignais he was spitted
through the body by a Hainault man-at-arms. For this we had
an excommunication read against the man, when next we saw
our holy father at Avignon ; but as we had not his name, and
knew nothing of him, save that he rode a dapple-gray roussin, I
have feared sometimes that the blight may have settled upon the
wrong man."

" Your Company has been, then, to bow knee before our holy
father, the Pope Urban, the prop and centre of Christendom ? r'
asked Alleyne, much interested. " Perchance you have yourself
set eyes upon his august face ? "

"Twice I saw him," said the archer. "He was a lean little
rat of a man, with a scab on his chin. The first time we had
five thousand crowns out of him, though he made much ado
about it. The second time we asked ten thousand, but it was
three days before we could come to terms, and I am of opinion
myself that we might have done better by plundering the palace.
His chamberlain and cardinals came forth, as I remember, to
ask whether we would take seven thousand crowns with his
blessing and a plenary absolution, or the ten thousand with his
solemn ban by bell, book and candle. We were all of one mind
that it was best to have the ten thousand with the curse ; but in
some way they prevailed upon Sir John, so that we were blest
and shriven against our will. Perchance it is as well, for the
Company were in need of it about that time."

The pious Alleyne was deeply shocked by this reminiscence.
Involuntarily he glanced up and around to see if there were any
trace of those opportune levin-flashes and thunderbolts which,
in the " Acta Sanctorum," were wont so often to cut short the
loose talk of the scoffer. The autumn sun streamed down as

s66

THE WHITE COMPANY.

brightly as ever, and the peaceful red path.still wound in front
of them through the rustling, yellow-tinted forest. Nature
seemed to be too busy with her own concerns to heed the dignity
of an outraged pontiff. Yet he felt a sense of weight and re-
proach within his breast, as though he had sinned himself in
giving ear to such words. The teachings of twenty j^ears cried
out against such license. It was not until he had thrown him-
self down before one of the many wayside crosses, and had
prayed from his heart both for the archer and for himself, that
the dark cloud rolled back again from his spirit.

CHAPTER VIII. -

THE THREE FRIENDS.

His companions had passed on whilst he was at his orisons ;
but his young blood and the fresh morning air both invited him
to a scamper. His staff in one hand and his scrip in the other,
with springy step and floating locks, he raced along the forest
path, as active and as graceful as a young deer. He had not
far to go, however; for, on turning a corner, he came on a road-
side cottage with a wooden fence-work around it, where stood
big John and Aylward the bowman, staring at something within.
As he came up with them, he saw that two little lads, the one
about nine years of age and the other somewhat older, were
standing on the plot in front of the cottage, each holding out a
round stick in their left hands, with their arms stiff and straight
from the shoulder, as silent and still as two small statues.
They were pretty, blue-eyed, yellow-haired lads, well made
and sturdy, with bronzed skins, which spoke of a woodland
life.

" Here are young chips from an old bow-stave !" cried the
soldier in great delight. "This is the proper way to raise
children. By my hilt! I could not have trained them better
had I the ordering of it myself."

"What is it then ? " asked Hordle John. "They stand very
stiff, and I trust that they have not been struck so."

"Nay, they are training their left arms, that they may have a
steady grasp of the bow. So my own father trained me, andTHE WHITE COMPANY.

67

six days a week I held out his walking-staff till my arm was
heavy as lead. Hol&, mes enfants ! how long will you hold
out ? "

" Until the sun is over the great lime-tree, good master," the
elder answered.

" What would ye be, then ? Woodmen ? Verderers ? "

" Nay, soldiers," they cried both together.

" By the beard of 1 / father! but ye are whelps of the true
breed. Why so keen, then, to be soldiers ? "

"That we may fight the Scots," they answered. "Daddy
will send us to fight the Scots."

" And why the Scots, my pretty lads ? We have seen French
and Spanish galleys no further away than Southampton, but I
doubt that it will be some time before the Scots find their way
to these parts."

"Our business is with the Scots," quoth the elder ; "for it
was the Scots who cut off daddy's string fingers and his
thumbs."

"Aye, lads, it was that," said a deep voice from behind
Alleyne's shoulder. Looking round, the wayfarers saw a gaunt,
big-boned man, with sunken cheeks and a sallow face, who had
*ome up behind them. He held up his two hands as he spoke,
and showed that the thumbs and two first fingers had been torn
away from each of them.

" Ma foi, camarade ! " cried Aylward. " Who hath served
-» thee in so shameful a fashion ? "

"It is «asy to see, friend, that you were born far from the
marches of Scotland," quoth the stranger, with a bitter smile.
" North of Humber there is no man who would not know the
handiwork of Devil Douglas, the black Lord James."

" And how fell you into his hands ? " asked John.

" I am a man of the north country, from the town of Beverley
and the wapentake of Holderness," he answered. " There was
a day when, from Trent to Tweed, there was no better marks-
man than Robin Heathcot. Yet, as you see, he hath left me, as
he hath left many another poor border archer, with no grip foj:
bill or bow. Yet the king hath given me a living here in the
southlands, and please God these two lads of mine will pay off a
debt that hath been owing over long. What is the price of
daddy's thumbs, boys ? "

" Twenty Scottish lives," they answered together.68

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" And for the fingers ?"

" Half a score."

"When they can bend fny war-bow, and bring down a
squirrel at a hundred paces, I send them to take service under
Johnny Copeland, the Lord of the Marches and Governor of
Carlisle. By my soul ! I would give the rest of my fingers to
see the Douglas within arrow-flight of them."

" May you live to see it," quoth the bowman. " And hark ye>
mes enfants, take an old soldier's rede and lay your bodies tO
the bow, drawing from hip and thigh as much as from arm.
Learn also, I pray you, to shoot with a dropping shaft; foi1
though a bowman may at times be called upon to shoot straight
and fast, yet it is more often that he has to do with a town-
guard behind a wall, or an arbalestier with his mantlet raised,
when you cannot hope to do him scatke unless your shaft fall
straight upon him from the clouds. I have not drawn string for
two weeks, but I may be able to show ye how such shots should
be made." He loosened his long-bow, slung his quiver round
to the front, and then glanced keenly round for a fitting mark,
There was a yellow and withered stump some way off, seen
under the drooping branches of a lofty oak. The archer
measured the distance with his eye ; and then, drawing three
shafts, he shot them off with such speed that the first had not
reached the mark ere the last was on the string. Each arrow
passed high over the oak ; and, of the three, two stuck fair into
the stump ; while the third, caught in some wandering puff of
wind, was driven a foot or two to one side.

41 Good ! " cried the north countryman. " Hearken to him,
lads ! He is a master bowman. Your dad says amen to every
word he says."

" By my hilt! " said Aylward, if I am to preach on bowman-
ship, the whole long day would scarce give me time for my
sermon. We have marksmen in the Company who will knotch
with a shaft every crevice and joint of a man-at-arm's harness,
from the clasp of his bassinet to the hinge of his greave. But,
with your favor, friend, I must gather my arrows again, fof
while a shaft costs a penny a poor man can scarce leave them
sticking in wayside stumps. We must, then, on our road again,
and I hope from my heart that you may train these two young
goshawks here until they are ready for a cast even at such a
quarry as you speak of."THE WHITE COMPANY.

69

Leaving 'the thumbless archer and his brood, the wayfarers
struck through the scattered huts of Emery Down, and out on
to the broad rolling heath covered deep in ferns and in heather,
where droves of the half-wild black forest pigs were rooting
about amongst the hillocks. The woods about this point fall
away to the left and the right, while the road curves upwards and
the wind sweeps keenly over the swelling uplands. The broad
strips of bracken glowed red and yellow against the black peaty
soil, and a queenly doe who grazed among them turned her
white front and her great questioning eyes towards the way-
farers. Xlleyne gazed in admiration at the supple beauty ot the
creature ; but the archer's fingers played with his quiver, and
his eyes glistened with the fell instinct which urges a man to
slaughter.

"Tgte Dieu !" he growled, " were this France, or even
Guienne, we should have a fresh haunch for our none-meat.
L,')w or no law, I have a mind to loose a bolt at her."

" I would break your stave across my knee first," cried John,
laying his great hand upon the bow. "What ! man, I am
forest-born, and I know what comes of it. In our own township
of Hordle two have lost their eyes and one his skin for this very
thing. On my troth, I felt no great love when I first saw you,
but since then I have conceived over much regard for you ta
wish to see the verderer's flayer at work upon you."

" It is my trade to risk my skin," growled the archer ; but
none the less he thrust his quiver over his hip again and turned
his face for the west.

As they advanced, the path still tended upwards, running
from heath into copses of holly and yew, and so back into heath
again. It was joyful to hear the merry whistle of blackbirds as
they darted from one clump of greenery to the other. Now and
again a peaty amber-colored stream rippled across their way,
with ferny over-grown banks, where the blue kingfisher flitted
busily from side to side, or the gray and pensive heron, swollen)
with trout and dignity, stood ankle-deep among the sedges.
Chattering jays and loud wood-pigeons flapped thickly overhead
while ever and anon the measured tapping of Nature's carpenter,,
the great green woodpecker, sounded from each wayside grove,-
On either side, as the path mounted, the long sweep of country
broadened and expanded, sloping down on the one side through
yellow forest and brown moor to the distant smoke of Lyming-;o

THE WHITE COMPANY,

ton and the blue misty channel which lay alongside the sky-line,
while to the north the woods rolled away, grove topping grove,
to where in the furthest distance the . white spire of Salisbury
stood out hard and clear against the cloudless sky. To Alieyne,
whose days had been spent in the low-lying coastland, the eager
upland air and the wide free country-side gave a sense of life
and of the joy of living which made his young blood tingle in his
veins. Even the heavy John was not unmoved by the beauty of
their road, while the bowman whistled lustily or sang snatches
of French love songs in a voice which might have scared the
most stout-hearted maiden that ever hearkened to serenade.

" I have a liking for that north countryman," he remarked
presently. " He hath good power of hatred. Couldst see by
his cheek and eye that he is as bitter as verjuice. I warm to a
man who hath some gall in his liver."

" Ah me !" sighed Alieyne. "Would it not be better if he
had some love in his heart ? "

" I would not say nay to that. By my hilt ! I shall never be
said to be traitor to the little king. Let a man love the sex.
Pasques Dieu ! they are made to be loved, les petites, from
whimple down to shoe-string ! I am right glad, mon gar^on,
to see that the good monks have trained thee so wisely and so
well."

"Nay, I meant not worldly love, but rather that his heart
should soften towards those who have wronged him."

The archer shook his head. " A man should love those of
his own breed," said he. " But it is not nature that an English-
born man should love a Scot or a Frenchman. Ma foi ! you
have not seen a drove of Nithsdale raiders on their Galloway
nags, or you would not speak of loving them. I would as soon
take Beelzebub himself to my arms. I fear, mon gar., that they
have taught thee but badly at Beaulieu, for surely a bishop
knows more of what is right and what is ill than an abbot can
do, and I myself with these very eyes saw the Bishop of Lincoln
hew into a Scottish hobeler with a battle-axe, which was a
passing strange way of showing him that he loved him."

Alieyne scarce saw his way to argue in the face of so decided
an opinion on the part of a high dignitary of the Church. " You
have borne arms against the Scots, then ? " he asked.

" Why, man, I first loosed string in battle when I was but a
lad, younger by two years than you, at Neville's Cross, underTHE WHITE COMPANY.

71

the Lord Mowbray. Later, I served under the Warden of Ber-
wick, that very John Copeland of whom our friend spake, the
same who held the King of Scots to ransom. Ma foi ! it is
rough soldiering, and a good school for one who would learn to
be hardy and war-wise."

" I have heard that the Scots are good men of war," said
Hordle John.

" For axemen and for spearmen I have not seen their match,"
the archer answered. " They can travel, too, with bag of meal
and gridiron slung to their sword-belt, so that it is ill to follow
them. There are scant crops and few beeves in the borderland,
where a man must reap his grain with sickle in one fist and
brown bill in the oth'er. On the other hand, they are the sorriest
archers that I have ever seen, and cannot so much as aim with
the arbalest, to say nought of the long-bow. Again, they are
mostly poor folk, even the nobles among them, so that there are
few who can buy as good a brigandine of chain-mail as that
which I am wearing, and it is ill for them to stand up against
our own knights, who carry the price of five Scotch farms upon
their chest and shoulders. Man for man, with equal weapons,
they are as worthy and valiant men as could be found in the
whole of Christendom."

"And the French ? " asked Alleyne, to whom the archer's
light gossip had all the relish that the words of the man of
action have for the recluse.

" The French are also very worthy men. We have had great
good fortune in France, and it hath led to much bobance and
camp-fire talk, but I have ever noticed that those who know
the most have the least to say about it. I have seen Frenchmen
fight both in open field, in the intaking and the defending of
towns or castlewicks, in escalados, camisades, night forays,
bushments, sallies, outfalls, and knightly spear-runnings. Their
knights and squires, lad, are every whit as good as ours, and
I could pick out a score of those who ride behind Du Guesclin
who would hold the lists with sharpened lances against the best
men in the army of England. Oil the other hand, their common
folk are so crushed down with gabelle, and poll-tax, and every
manner of cursed tallage, that the spirit has passed right out of
them. It is a fool's plan to teach a man to be a cur in peace,
and think that he will be a lion in war. Fleece them like sheep
and sheep they will remain. If the nobles had not conquered th§p

THE WHITE COMPANY.

/>oor folk itris like enough, that we should not have conquered
the nobles."

" But they must be sorry folk to bow down to the rich in such
jL fashion," said big John. " I am but a poor commoner of
England myself, and yet I know something of charters, liberties,
franchises, usages, privileges, customs, and the like. If these
be broken, then all men know that it is time to buy arrow-heads."

" Aye, but the men of the law are strong in France as well as
the men of war. By my hilt ! I hold that a man has more to
fear there from the ink-pot of the one than from the iron of the
other. There is ever some cursed sheepskin in their strong
boxes to prove that the rich man should be richer and the poor
man poorer. It would scarce pass iri England, but they are
quiet folk over the water."

" And what other nations have you seen in your travels, good
sir ? " asked Alleyne Edricson. His young mind hungered for
plain facts of life, after the long course of speculation and of
mysticism on which he had been trained.

" I have seen the low countryman in arms, and I have nought
to say against him. Heavy and slow is he by nature, and is not
to be brought into battle for the sake of a lady's eyelash or the
twang of a minstrel's string, like the hotter blood of the south.
But ma foi ! lay hand on his wool-bales, or trifle with his velvet
of Bruges, and out buzzes every stout burgher, like bees from
the tee-hole, ready to lay on as though it were his one business
in life. By our lady ! they have shown the French at Courtrai
and elsewhere that they are as deft in wielding steel as in weld-
ing it."

" And the men of Spain ?"

" They too are very hardy soldiers, the more so as for many
hundred years they have had to fight hard against the cursed
followers of the black Mahound, who have pressed upon them
from the south, and still, as J understand, hold the fairer half of
the country. I had a turn with them upon the sea when they
came over to Winchelsea and the good queen with her ladies
sat upon the cliffs looking down at us, as if it had been joust or
tourney. By my hilt! it was a sight that was worth the seeing,
for all that was best in England was out on the water that day.
We went forth in little ships and came back in great galleys—
for of fifty tall ships of Spain, over two score flew ,the Cross of
St *a#orge ere the sun had set. But now, youngster, I have *THE WHITE COMPANY,

answered you freely, and I trow it is time that you answered
me. Let things be plat and plain between us. I am a man
who shoots straight at his mark. You saw the things I had
with me at yonder hostel : name which you will, save only the
box of rose-colored sugar which I take to the Lady Loring, and
you shall have it if you will but come with me to France."

"Nay," said Alleyne, "I would gladly come with ye to
France or where else ye will, just to list to your talk, and be-
cause ye are the only two friends that I have in the whole wide
world outside of the cloisters ; but, indeed, it may not be, for my
duty is towards my brother, seeing that father and mother are
dead, and he my elder. Besides, when ye talk of taking me to
France, ye do not conceive how useless I should be to you,
> seeing that neither by training nor by nature am I fitted for the
wars, and there seems to be nought but strife in those parts."

" That comes from my fool's talk," cri^d the archer ; " for be-
ing a man of no learning myself, my tongue turns to blades and
targets, even as my hand does. Know then that for every parch-
ment in England there are twenty in France. For every statue,
cut gem, shrine, carv^n screen, or what else might please the
eye of a learned clerk, there are a good hundred to our one. At
the spoiling of Carcasonne I have seen chambers stored with
writing, though not one man in our Company could read them.
Again, in Arlis and Nlmes, and other towns that I could name,
there are the great arches and fortalices still standing which were
Built of old by^giant men who came from the south. Can I not
see by your brightened eye how you would love to look upon
these things ? Come then with me, and, by these ten finger-
bones ! there is not one of them which you shall n5t see."

" I should indeed love to look upon them," Alleyne answered ;
" but I have come from Beaulieu for a purpose, and I must be
true to my service, even as thou art true to thine."

"Bethink you again, mon ami," quoth Aylward, "that you
might do much good yonder, since there are three hundred men
in the Company, and none who has ever a word of grace for
them, and yet the Virgin knows that there was never a set of men
who wrere in more need of it. Sickerly the one duty may balance
the other. Your brother hath done without you this many a year,
and, as I gather, he hath never walked as far as Beaulieu to
see you during all that time, so he cannot be in any great need
of you."74

THE WHITE COMPANY.

"Besides," said John, "the Socman of Minstead is a by-word
through the forest, from Bramshaw Hill to Holmesley Walk. He is
a drunken, brawling-, perilous churl, as you may find to your cost,"

"The more reason that I should strive to mend him," quoth
Alleyne. "There is no need to urge me, friends, for my own
wishes would draw me to France, and it would be a joy to me if
I could go with you. But indeed and indeed it cannot be, so
here I take my leave of you, for yonder square tower amongst
the trees upon the right must surely be the church of Minstead,
and I may reach it by this path through the woods."

"Well, God be with thee, lad ! " cried the archer, pressing
Alleyne to his heart. " I am quick to love, and quick to hate,
and 'fore God I am loth to part."

" Would it not be well," said John, " that we should wait
here, and see what manner of greeting you have from your
brother. You may prove to be as welcome as the king's pur-
veyor to the village dame."

"Nay, nay," he answered; "ye must not bide for me, for
where I go I stay."

" Yet it may be as well that you should know whither we go,"
said the archer. " We shall now journey south through the
woods until we come out upon the Christchurch road, and so on-
wards, hoping to-night to reach the castle of Sir William Mon-
tacute, Earl of Salisbury, of which Sir Nigel Loring is constable.
There we shall bide, and it is like enough that for a month or
more you may find us there, ere we are ready for our viage
back to France."

It was hard indeed for Alleyne to break away from these two
new but hearty friends, and so strong was the combat between
his conscience and his inclinations that he dared not look round,
lest his resolution should slip away from him. It was not until
he was deep among the tree trunks that he cast a glance back-
wards, when he found that he could still see them through the
branches on the road above him. The archer was standing with
folded arms, his bow jutting from over his shoulder,, and the sun
gleaming brightly upon Ms head-piece and the links of his chain-
mail. Beside him stood his giant recruit, still clad in the home-
spun and ill- fitting garments of the fuller of Lymington, with
arms and legs shooting out of his scanty garb. Even as Alleyne
watched them they turned upon their heels an<t plodded off to-
gether upon their way.THE WHITE COMPANY.

75

CHAPTER IX.

how strange things befell in minstead wood.

The path which the young clerk had now to follow lay through
a magnificent forest of the very heaviest timber, where the giant
bowls of oak and of beech formed long aisles in every direction,
shooting up their huge branches to build the majestic arches of
Nature's own cathedral. Beneath lay a broad carpet of the
softest and greenest moss, flecked over with fallen leaves, but
yielding pleasantly to the foot of the traveller. The track which
guided him was one so seldom used that, in- places it lost itself
entirely among the grass, to reappear as a reddish rut between
the distant tree trunks. It was very still here in the heart of thq
woodlands. The gentle rustle of the branches and the distant
cooing of pigeons were the only sounds which broke in upon the
silence, save that once Alleyne heard afar off a merry call upon
a hunting bugle and the shrill yapping of the hounds.

It was not without some emotion that he looked upon the
scene around him, for, in spite of his secluded life, he knew
enough of the ancient greatness of his own family to be awarei
that the time had been when they had held undisputed and par-
amount sway over ail that tract of country. His father could
trace his pure Saxon lineage back to that Godfrey Malf who had
held the manors of Bisterne and of Minstead at the time when
the Norman first set mailed foot upon English soil. The
afforestation of the district, however, and its conversion into a
royal demesne bad clipped off a large section of his estate,
while other parts had been confiscated as a punishment for his
supposed complicity in an abortive Saxon rising. The fate of
the ancestor had been typica l of that of his descendants. During
three hundred years their domains had gradually contracted,
sometimes through royal or feudal encroachment, and some-
times through such gifts to the Church as that with which
Alleyne's father had opened the doors of Beaulieu Abbey to his
younger son. The importance of the family had thus dwindled,
but they still retained the old Saxon manor-house, with It
couple of farms and a grove large enough to afford pannage to76

THE WHITE COMPANY.

a hundred pigs—" sylva de centum porcis," as the old family-
parchments describe it. Above all, the owner of the soil could
still hold his head high as the veritable Socman of Minstead—
that is, as holding the land in free socage, with no feudal
superior, and answerable to no man lower than the king.
Knowing this, Alleyne felt some little glow of worldly pricl« #s
he looked for the first time upon the land with which so *many
generations of his ancestors had been associated. He pushed
on the quicker, twirling his staff merrily, and looking out at
every turn of the path for some sign of the old Saxon residence.
He was suddenly arrested, however, by the appearance of a
wild-looking fellow armed with a club, who sprang out from be-
hind a tree and barred his passage. He was a rough, powerful
peasant, with cap and tunic of untanned sheepskin, leather
breeches, and galligaskins round legs and feet.

"Stand ! " he shouted, raising his heavy cudgel to enforce the
order. " Who are you who walk so freely through the wood ?
Whither would you go, and what is your errand ? "

" Why should I answer your questions, my friend ? " said
Alleyne, standing on his guard.

" Because your tongue may save your pate. But where have' ,
i looked upon your face before ? "

"No longer ago than last night at the «Pied Merlin,the
derk answered, recognizing the escaped serf who had been so
outspoken as to his wrongs.

" By the Virgin ! yes. You were the little clerk who sat so
mum in the corner, and then cried fy on the gleeman. What
hast in the scrip ? "

" Naught of any price."

" How can I tell that, clerk ? Let me see."

I."	%

" Fool ! I could pull you limb from limb like a pullet. What
would you have ? Hast forgot that we are alone far from all
men ? How can your clerkship help you ? Wouldst lose scrip
and life too ? "

" I will part with neither without fight "

" A fight, quotha ? A fight betwixt spurred cock and new-
hatched chicken ! Thy fighting days may soon be over."

7%idst asked me in the name of charity I would have given
jreely," cried Alleyne. " As it stands, not one farthing shall you
/lave with my free will, and when I see my brother, the SocmanTHE WHITE .COMPANY.

77

•f Minstead, he will raise hue and cry from vill to vill, from hun-
dred to hundred, until you are taken as a common robber and a
scourge to the country."

The outlaw sank his club. "The Socman's brother ! " he
gasped. " Now, by the keys of Peter ! I had rather that hand
withered and tongue was palsied ere I had struck or miscalled
you. If you are the Socman's brother you are one of the right
side, I warrant, for all your clerkly dress."

"His brother I am," .said Alleyne. " But if I were not, is
that reason why you should molest me on the king's ground ? "

"I give not the pip of an apple for king or for noble," cried
the serf passionately. " 111 have I had from them, and ill I shall
repay them. I am a good friend to my friends, and, by the Vir-
gin ! an evil foeman to my foes."

" And therefore the worst of foemen to thyself," said Alleyne.
41 But I pray you, since you seem to know him, to point out to me
the shortest path to my brother's house."

The serf was abt>ut to reply, when the clear ringing call of a
'bugle burst from the wood close behind them, and Alleyne
caught sight for an instant of the dun side and white breast of a
lordly stag glancing swiftly betwixt the distant tree trunks. A
minute later came the shaggy deer-hounds, a dozen or fourteen
of them, running on a hot scent, with nose to earth and tail in
air. As they streamed past the silent forest around broke sud-
denly into loud life, with galloping of hoofs, crackling of brush-
Wood, and the short, sharp cries of the hunters. Close behind
the pack rode a fourrier and a yeoman-pricker, whooping on the
laggards and encouraging the leaders, in the shrill half-French
jargon which was the language of venery and woodcraft. Al-
leyne was still gazing after them, listening to the loud " Hyke-a-
Bayard ! Hyke-a-Pomers ! Hyke-a-Lebryt ! " with which they
called upon their favorite hounds, when a group of horsemen
crashed out through the underwood at the very spot where the
serf and he were standing.

The one who led was a man between fiffty and sixty years of
age, war-worn and weather-beaten, with a broad, thoughtful
forehead and eyes which shone brightly from under his fierce and
overhung brows. His beard, streaked thickly with gray, bristled
forward from his chin, and spoke of a passionate nature, while
the long, finely cut face and firm mouth marked the leader of
men. His figure was erect and soldierly, and he rode his horse7 8

THE WHITE COMPANY.

with the careless grace of a man whose life had been spent in the
saddle. In common garb, his masterful face and flashing eye
would have marked him as one who was born to rule; but now,
with his silken tunic powdered with golden fleurs-de-lis, his velvet
mantle lined with the royal minever, and the lions of England
stamped in silver upon his harness, none could fail to recognize
the noble Edward, most warlike and powerful of all the long line
of fighting monarchs who had ruled the Anglo-Norman race.
Alleyne doffed hat and bowed head at the sight of him, but the
serf folded his hands and leaned them upon his cudgel, looking
with little love at the knot of nobles and knights-in-waiting who
rode behind the king.

" Ha ! " cried Edward, reinirig up for an instant his powerful
black steed, " Le cerf est pass6 ? Non ? Ici, Brocas; tu paries
Anglais."

" The deer, clowns ? " said a hard-visaged, swarthy-faced man,
who rode at the king's elbow. " If ye have headed it back it is
as much as your ears are worth."

"It passed by the blighted beech there," said Alleyne, point-
ing, "and the hounds were hard at its heels."

"It is well," cried Edward, still speaking in French: for,
though he could understand English, he had never learned to
express himself in so barbarous and unpolished a tongue. " By
my faith, sirs," he continued, half turning in his saddle to address
his escort, "unless my woodcraft is sadly at fault, it is a stag of
six tines and the finest that we have roused this journey. A
golden St. Hubert to the man who is the first to sound the mort."
He shook his bridle as he spoke,.and thundered away, his knights
lying low upon their horses and galloping as hard as whip and
spur would drive them, in the hope of winning the king's prize.
Away they drove down the long green glade—bay horses, black
and gray, riders clad in every shade of velvet, fur, or silk, with
glint of brazen horn and flash of knife and spear. One only
lingered, the black-browed Baron Brocas, who, making a gam-
bade which brought him within arm-sweep of the serf, slashed
him across the face with,his riding-whip. "Doff, dog, doff," he
hissed, " when a monarch deigns to lower his eyes to such as
you ! "—then spurred through the underwood and was gone,
with a gleam of steel shoes and flutter of dead leaves.

The villein took the cruel blow without wince or cry, as one
to whom stripes are a birthright and an inheritance. His eyesTHE WHITE COMPANY.

79

flashed, however, and he shook his bony hand with a fierce wild
gesture after the retreating figure.

" Black hound of Gascony," he muttered, " evil the day that
you and those like you set foot in free England ! I know thy
kennel of Rochecourt. The night will come when I may do to
thee and thine what you and your class have wrought upon
mine and me. May God smite me if I fail to smite thee, thou
French robber, with thy wife and thy child and all that is under
thy castle roof! "

" Forbear ! " cried Alleyne. " Mix not God's name with these
unhallowed threats ! And yet it was a coward's blow, and one
to stir the blood and loose the tongue of the most peaceful. Let
me find some soothing simples and lay them on the weal to draw
the sting."

"Nay, there is but one thing that can draw the sting, and
that the future may bring to me. But, clerk, if you would see
your brother you must on, for there is a meeting to-day, and
his merry men will await him ere the shadows turn from west
to east. I pray you not to hold him back, for it would be an
evil thing if all the stout lads were there and the leader a-miss-
ing. I would come ^ith you, but sooth to say I am stationed
here and may not move. The path over yonder, betwixt the
oak and the thorn, should bring you out into his nether field."

Alleyne lost no, time in following the directions of the wild,
masterless man, whom he left among the trees where he had
found him. His heart was the heavier for the encounter, not
onfy because all bitterness and wrath were abhorrent to his
gentle nature, but also because it disturbed him to hear his
brother spoken of as though he were a chief of outlaws or the
leader of a party against the state. Indeed, of all the things
which he had seen yet in the world to surprise him there was
none more strange than the hate which class appeared to bear
to class. The talk of laborer, woodman and villein in the inn
had all pointed to the wide-spread mutiny, and now his brother's
name was spoken as though he were the very centre of the uni-
versal discontent. In good truth, the commons throughout the
length and breadth of the land were heart-weary of this fine game
of chivalry which had been played so long at their expense. So
long as knight and baron were a strength and a guard to the
kingdom they might be endured, but now, when all men knew
that the great battles in F^nce had been won by English yeo-8o

THE WHITE COMPANY.

men and Welsh stabhers, warlike fame, the only fame to which
his class had ever aspired, appeared to have deserted the plate-
clad horsemen. The sports of the lists had done much in days
gone by to impress the minds of the people, but the- plumed and
unwieldy champion was no longer an object either of fear or of
reverence to men whose fathers and brQthers had shot into the
press at Cr£cy or Poitiers, and seen the proudest chivalry in the
world unable to make head against the weapons of disciplined
peasants. Power had changed hands. The protector had
become the protected, and the whole fabric of the feudal system
* was tottering to a fall. Hence the fierce mutterings of the lower
classes and the constant discontent, breaking out into local
tumult and outrage, and culminating some years later in the
great rising of Tyler. What Alleyne saw and wondered at in
Hampshire would have appealed equally to the traveller in any
other English county from the Channel to the marches of Scot-
land.

He was following the track, his misgivings increasing with
every step which took him nearer to that home which he had
« never seen, when of a sudden the trees began to thin and
the sward to spread out into a broad, green lawn, where five
cows lay in the sunshine and droves of black swine wandered
unchecked. A brown forest stream swirled down the centre of
this clearing, with a rude bridge flung across it, and on the other
side was a second field sloping up to a long, low-lying wooden
house, *with thatched roof and open squares for windows. ^Al-
leyne gazed across at it with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes—
for this, he knew, mdst be the home of his fathers. A wreath
of blue smoke floated up through a hole in the thatch, and was
the only sign of life in thev place, save a great black hound which
lay sleeping chained to the door-post. In the yellow shimmer
of the autumn sunshine it lay as peacefully and as still as he
had oft pictured it to himself in his dreams.

He was roused, however, from his pleasant reverie by the
sound of voices, and two people emerged from the forest some
little way to his right and moved across the field in the direction
of the bridge. The one was a man with yellow flowing beard
and very long hair of the same tint drooping over his shoulders ;
»his dress of good Norwich cloth and his assured bearing marked
him as a man of position, while the sombre hue of his clothes
_ and the absence of all ornament contrasted with the flash andTHE WHITE. COMPANY.	8l

* •

glitter which had marked the king's retinue. By his side walked
a woman, tall and slight and dark, with lithe, graceful figure
and clear-cut, composed features. Her jet-black hair was gath-
ered back under a light pink coif, her head poised proudly upon
her jieck, and her step long and springy, like that of some wild,
tireless woodland creature. #he held her left hand in front of
her, covered with a red velvet glove, and on the wrist a little
brown falcon, very fluffy arid, bedraggled, which she smoothed
and fondled as she walked. As she came out into the sunshine,
Alleyne noticed that her light gown, slashed with pink, was all
stained with earth and with moss upon one side from shoulder
to hem. He stood in the shadow of an oak staring at her with
parted lips, for this woman seemed to him to be the most beau-
tiful and graceful creature that mind could conceive of,. Such
had he imagined the angels, and such he had tried to paint
them in the Beaulieu missals ; but here there was something
human, were it only in the battered hawk and discolorcd dress,
which sent a tingle and thrill througn his nerves such as no
dream of radiant and stainless spirit had ever yet been able to
conjure up. Good, quiet, uncomplaining mother Nature, long
slighted and miscalled, still bides her time and, draws to her
bosom the most errant of her children.

The two walked swiftly across the meadow to the narrow
bridge, he in front and she a pace or two behind. There they
paused, and stood for a few minutes face to face talking earnestly.
Alleyne had read and had heard of love and of lovers. Such
were these, doubtless—this golden-bearded man and the fair
damsel with the cold, proud-face. Why else should they wander
together in the woods, or be so lost in talk by rustic streams ?
And yet as he watched, uncertain whether to advance from the
cover or to choose some other path to the house, he soon came
to doubt the truth of this first conjecture. The man stood, tall
and square, blocking the entrance to the bridge, and throwing
out his hands as he spoke in a wild eager fashion, while the
deep tones of his stormy voice rose at times into accents of
menace and of anger. She stood fearlessly in front of him, still
stroking her bird; but twice she threw a swift questioning
glance over her shoulder, as one who is in search of aid. So
moved was the young clerk by these mute appeals, that he came
forth from the trees and crossed the meadow, uncertain what to
do, and yet loth to hold back from one who might need his aid,
682	THE WHITE COMPANY.

'	v • "V- ■

- e

So intent were they upon each .other that neither took note cA
his approach; until, when he was close upon them, the man
threw his arm roughly round the damsel's waist and drew her
towards him, she straining her lithe, supple figure away and
striking fiercely at him, while the hooded hawk screamed with
ruffled wings and pecked blindly i§ its mistress's defence. Bird
and maid, however, had but little chance against their assailant,
who, laughing loudly, caughT her wrist in one hand while he
drew her towards him with the other.

" The best rose has ever the longest thorns," said he. " Quiet,
little one, or you may do yourself a hurt. Must pay Saxon toll
on Saxon land, my proud Maude, for all your airs and graces."

"Yau boor ! " she hissed. "You base underbred clod ! Is
this yojif care and your hospitality ? I would rather wed a

branded serf from my father's fields. Leave go, I say-- Ah !

good'youth, Heaven has sent you. Make him loose me ! By
the honor of your mother, I pray you to stand by me and to
make this knave loose me."

"Stand by you I will, and that blithely," said Alleyne.
" Surely, sir, you should take shame to hold the damsel against
her will."

The man turned a face upon him which was lion-like in its
< strength and in its wrath. With his tangle of golden hair, his
fierce blue eyes, and his large, well-marked features, he wds the
most comely man whom Alleyne had ever seen ; and yet there
was something so sinister and so fell in his expression that child
or beast might well have shrunk from him. His brows were
drawn, his cheek flushed, and there was a mad sparkle in his
eyes which spoke of a wild, untamable nature.

" Young fool ! " he cried, holding the woman still to his side,
though every line of her shrinking /figure spoke her abhorrence.
" Do you keep your spoon in your own broth. I rede you to go
on your way, lest worse befall you. This little wench has come
with me and with me she shall bide."

" Liar ! " cried the woman ; and, stooping her head, she sud-
denly bit fiercely into the broad brown hand which held her.
He whipped it back with an oath, while she tore herself free
and slipped behind Alleyne, cowering up against him like the
trembling leveret who sees the falcon poising for the swoop
above him;

" Stand off my land !" the man said fiercely, heedless of theTHE *WHITE COMPANY.

83

blood which trickled freely from his fingers. " What have you
to do here ? By your dress you should be one of those cursed
clerks who overrun the land like vile rats, poking and prying
into other men's concerns, too caitiff to fight and too lazy to
work. By the rood ! if I had my will upon ye, I should nail
you upon the abbey doors, as they hang vermin before their
holes. Art neither man nor woman, young shaveling. Get
thee back to thy fellows ere I lay hands upon you : for your foot
is on my land, and I may slay you as a common draw-latch."

" Is this your land, then ? " gasped Alleyne.

" Would you dispute it, dog ? Would you wish by trick or
quibble to juggle me out of these last acres ? Know, base-born
knave, that you have dared this day to stand in the path of one
whose race have been the advisers of kings and the leaders of
hosts, ere ever this vile crew of Norman robbers came into the
land, or such half-blood hounds as you were let loose to preach
that the thief should have his booty and the honest man should
sin if he strove to win back his own."

" You are the Socman of Minstead ? "

" That am I ; and the son of Edric the Socman, of the pure
blood of Godfrey the thane, by the only daughter of the house of
Aluric, whose forefathers held the white-horse banner at the
fatal fight where our shield was broken and our sword shivered.
I tell you, clerk, that my folk held this land from Bramshaw
Wood to the Ringwood road ; and, by the soul of my father ! it
will be a strange thing if I am to be bearded upon the little that
is left of it. Begone, I say, and meddle not with my affair."

" If you leave me now," whispered the woman, " then shame
forever upon your manhood."

"Surely, sir," said Alleyne, speaking in as persuasive and
soothing a way as he could, " if your birth is gentle, there is the
more reason that your manners should be gentle too. I am well
persuaded that you did but jest with this lady, and that you will
now permit her to leave your land either alone or with me as a
guide, if she should -need one, through the wood. As to birth,
it does not become me to boast, and there is sooth in what you
say as to the unworthiness of clerks, but it is none the less true
that I am as well born as you."

" Dog ! " cried the furious Socman! <« there is ng jji&n in the
south who can say as much,"34	the white company,

t #

" Yet can i," said Alleyne smiling ; " for indeed i also am the
son of Edric ^the Socman, of the pure blood of Godfrey the thane,
by the only daughter of Aluric of Brockenhurst. Surely, dear
brother," he continued, holding out his hand, "you have a
ivarmer greeting than this for me. There are but two boughs
left upon this old, old Saxon trunk."

His elder brother dashed his hand aside with an oath, while
an expression of malignant hatred passed over his passion-drawn
, features. "You are the young cub of Beaulieu, then," said he.
" I might have known it by the sleek face and the slavish manner,
too monk-ridden and craven in spirit to answer back a rough
word. Thy father, shaveling, with all his faults, had a man's
heart; and there were few who could look him iiv the eyes on
the day of his anger. But you ! Look there, rat, on yonder
field where the cows graze, and on that other beyond, and on
the orchard hard by the church. Do you know that all these
were squeezed out of your dying father by greedy priests, to pay
for your upbringing in the cloisters ? I, the Socman, am shorn
. of my lands that you may snivel Latin and eat bread for which
you never did hand's turn. You rob me first, and now you
would come preaching and whining, in search mayhap of another
field or two for your priestly friends. Knave ! my dogs shall
be set upon you ; but, meanwhile, stand out of my path, and
stop me at your peril ! " As he spoke he rushed forward,
and, throwing the lad to one side, caught the woman's wrist.
Alleyne, however, as active as a young deer-hound, sprang to
her aid and seized her by the other arm, raising his iron-shod
staff as he did so.

" You may say what you will to me," he said between his
clenched teeth—"it may be no better than i deserve; but,
* brother or no, I swear by my hopes of salvation that I will break
your arm if you do not leave hold of the maid."

There was a ring in his voice and a flash in his eyes which
promised that the blow would follow quick at the heels of the
word. For a moment the blood of the long line of hot-headed
thanes was too strong for the soft whisperings of the doctrine of
meekness and mercy. He was conscious o\ a fierce wild thrill
through his nerves and a throb of mad gladness at his heart, as
his real human self burst for an instant the bonds of custom and
of teaching which had held it so long. The socman sprang
back, looking to left and tQ right for some stick or stone whichTHE WHITE COMPANY.

85

might serve him for weapon ; but finding none, he turned and
ran at the top of his speed for the house, blowing the while upon
a shrill whistle.

"Cornel" gasped the woman. "Fly, friend, ere he come
back."

" Nay, let him come ! " cried Alleyne. "I shall not budge a
foot for him or his dogs."

"Come, come ! " she cried, tugging at his arm. "I know the
man : he will kill you. Come, for the Virgin's sake, or for my
sake, for I cannot go and leave you here."

" Come, then," said he ; and they ran together to the cover of
the woods. As they gained the edge of the brushwood, Alleyne,
looking back, saw his brother come running out of the house
again, with the sun gleaming upon his hair and his beard. He
held something which flashed in his right hand, and he stooped
at the threshold to unloose the black hound.

" This way! " the woman whispered, in a low eager voice.
" Through the bushes to that forked ash. Do not heed me ; I
can run as fasjt as you, I trow. Now into the stream—right in,
over ankles, to throw the dog off, though I think it is but a
common cur, like its master." As she spoke, she sprang herself
into the shallow stream and ran swiftly up the centre of it, with
the brown water bubbling over her feet and her hand out-
stretched toward the clinging branches of bramble or sapling.
Alleyne followed close at her heels, with his mind in a whirl at
this 1 ack welcome and sudden shifting of all his plans and
hopes. Yet, grave as were his thoughts, they would still turn
to wonder as he looked at the twinkling feet of his guide and
saw her lithe figure bend this way and that, dipping under
boughs, springing over stones, with a lightness and ease which
made it no small task for him to keep up with her. At last,
when he was almost out of breath, she suddenly threw herself
down upon a mossy bank, between two holly-bushes, and looked
ruefully at her own dripping feet and bedraggled skirt.

■ Aoly Mary!" saici she, "what shall I do ? Mother will
keep me to my chamber for a month, and make me work at the
tapestry of the nine bold knights. She promised as much
last week, vhen I fell into Wilverly bog, and yet she knows that
I cannot abide needle-work."

Alleyne, still standing in the stream, glanced down at the
graceful pink-and-white figure, the curve of raven-black hair.86

THE WHITE COMPANY.

and the proud, sensitive face which looked up frankly and con
fidingly at his own.

14 We had best on," he said. " He may yet overtake us."

"Not so. We are well off his land now, nor can he tell in
this great wood which way we have taken. But you—you had
him at your mercy. Why did you not kill him ? "

" Kill him ! My brother ! "

" And why not ? "—with a quick gleam of her white teeth.
" He would have killed you. I know him, and I read it in his
eyes. Had I had your staff I would have tried—aye, and done
it, too." She shook her clenched white hand as she spoke, and
her lips tightened ominously.

" I am already sad in heart for what I have done," said he,
sitting down on the bank, and sinking his face into his hands.
" God help me !—all that is worst in me seemed to come upper
most. Another instant, and I had smitten him: the son of my
own mother, the man whom I have longed to take to my heart.
Alas ! that I should still be so weak."

" Weak ! " she exclaimed, raising her black eyebrows. " I
do not think that even my father himself, who is a hard judge
of manhood, would call you that. But it is, as you may think,
sir, a very pleasant thing for me to hear that you are grieved at
what you have done, and I can but rede that we should go back
together, and you should make your peace with the Socman bj
handing back your prisoner. It is a sad thing that so small
a thing as a woman should come between two who are of one
blood.3'

Simple Alleyne opened his eyes at this little spurt of feminine
bitterness. "Nay, lady," said he, "that were wrorst of all.
What man would be so caitiff and thrall as to fail you at your
need ? I have turned my brother against me, and now, alas ! I
appear to have given you offence also with my clumsy tongue.
But, indeed, lady, I am torn both ways, and can scarce grasp in
my mind what it is that has befallen."

"Nor can I marvel at that," said she, with a little tinkling
laugh. "You came in as the knight does in the jongleur's
romances, between dragon and damsel, with small time for the
asking of questions. Come," she went on, springing to her feet,
and smoothing down her rumpled frock, " let us walk through
the shaw together, and we may come upon Bertrand with the
horses. If poor Troubadour had not cast a shoe, we should notTHE WHITE COMPANY,

87

Aave had this trouble, Nay, I must have your arm : for,
though I speak lightly, now^that all is happily over I am as
frightened as my brave Roland. See how his chest heaves, and
his dear feathers all awry—the little knight who would not have
his lady mishandled." So she prattled on to her hawk, while
Alleyne walked by her side, stealing >a glance from time to time
at this queenly and wayward woman. In silence they wandered
together over the velvet turf and on through the broad Minstead
woods, where the old lichen-draped beeches threw their circles of
black shadow upon the sunlit sward.

"You have no wish, then, to hear my story ?" said she, at
last.

" If it pleases you to tell it me," he answered.

. " Oh !" she cried tossing her head, " if it is of so little interest
to you, we had best let it bide."

" Nay," said he eagerly, " I would fain hear it."

" You have a right to know it, if you have lost a brother's

favor through it. And yet-Ah well, you are, as I understand, '

a clerk, so I must think of you as one step further in orders, and
make you my father-confessor. Know then that this man has
been a suitor for my hand, less as I think for my own sweet sake
than because he hath ambition and had it on his mind that he
might improve his fortunes by dipping into my father's strong
box—though the Virgin knows that he would have found little
enough therein. My father, however, is a proud man, a gallant
knight and tried soldier of the oldest blood, to whom this man's

churlish birth and low descent---Oh, lackaday ! I had forgot

that he was of the same strain as yourself."

"Nay, trouble not for that," said Alleyne, "we are all from
good mother Eve." -

" Streams may spring from one source, and yet some be cleaf
and some be foul," quoth she quickly. " But, to be brief over
the matter, my father would have none of' his wooing, nor in
sooth would I. On that he swore a vow against us, and as he is
known to be a perilous man, with many outlaws and others at
his back, my father forbade that I should hawk or hunt in any
part of the wood to the north of the Christchurch road. As it
chanced, however, this morning my little Roland here was
loosed at a string-winged heron, and page Bertrand and I rode
on, with no thoughts but for the sport, until we found ourselves
in Minstead woods. Small harm then, but that my horse Trou-88

THE WHITE COMPANY.

badour trod with a tender foot upon a sharp stick, rearing and
throwing me to the ground. See my gown, the third that I
have befouled within the week. Wo worth me when Agatha the
tire-woman sets eyes uporMt ! "

" And what then, lady ? " asked Alleyne.	*

14 Why, then away ran Troubadour, for belike I spurred him
in falling, and Bertrand rode after him as hard as hoofs could
bear him. When I rose there was the Socman himself by my
side, with the news that I was on his land, but with so many
courteous words besides, and such gallant bearing, that he pre-
vailed upon me to come to his house for shelter, there to wait
until the page return. By the grace of the Virgin and the help
of my patron St. Magdalen, I stopped short ere I reached his
door, though, as you saw, he strove to hale me up to it. And-
then—ah-h-h-h ! "—she shivered and chattered like one in ai>
ague-fit.

" What is it ? " cried Alleyne, looking about in alarm.
< " Nothing, friend, nothing ! I was but thinking how I bit into
his hand. Sooner would I bite living toad or poisoned snake.
Oh, I shall loathe my lips forever ! But you—how brave you
were, and how quick ! How meek for yourself, and how bold for
a stranger ! If I were a man, I should wish to do what you have
done."	.	-a

" It was a small thing," he answered, with a tingle of pleasure
at these sweet words of praise. " But you—what will you do ? M
41 There is a great oak near here, and I think that Bertrand
will bring the horses there, for it is an old hunting-tryst of ours.
Then hey for home, and no more hawking to-day 1 A twelve-
mile gallop will dry feet and skirt."

" But your father ? "

" Not one word shall I tell him. You do not know him ; but
I can tell you he is not a man to disobey as I have disobeyed him.
He would avenge me, it is true, but it is not to him that I shall
look for vengeance. Some day, perchance, in joust or in tourney,
knight may wish to wear my colors, and then I shall tell him that
if he does indeed crave my favor there is wrong unredressed, and
the wronger the Socman of Minstead. So my knight- shall find
a venture such as bold knights love, and my debt shall be paid,
and my father none the wiser, and one rogue the less in the
world. Say, is not that a brave plan ? "

" Nay, lady, it is a thought which is unworthy of you. HowTHE WHITE COMPANY.

89

'C?n such as you speak of violence and of vengeance. Are ntone !
% 'to be gentle and kind, none to be piteous and forgiving ? Alas 1
it is a hard, cruel world,-and I would that I had never left my
abbey celL To hear such words from your lips is as though I heard
an angel of grace preaching the devil's own creed."

She started from him as a young colt who first feels the bit.
" Gramercy for your rede, young sir ! " she said, with a little
curtsey. " As I understand your words, you are grieved that
you ever met me, and look upon me as a preaching devil. Why,
my father is a bitter man when he is wroth, but hath never called
me such a name as that. It may be his right and duty, but
certes it is none of thine. So it would be best, since you think so
lowly of me, that you should take this path to the left while I keep
on upon this one ; for it is clear that I can be no fit companion
for you." So saying, with downcast lids and a dignity which
was somewhat marred by her bedraggled slurt, she swept off down
the ruddy track, leaving Alleyne standing staring ruefully after
her. He waited in vain for some backward glance or sign of re-
lenting, but she walked, on with a rigid neck until her dress was
only a white flutter among the leaves. Then, with a sunken
head and a heavy heart, he plodded wearily down the other path,
wroth with himself for the rude and uncouth tongue which had
given offence where so little was intended.

He had gone some way, lost in doubt and in self-reproach, his
mind all tremulous with a thousand new-found thoughts and fears
and wonderments, when of a sudden there was a light rustle of
the leaves behind him, and,-glancing round, there was this grace-
ful, swift-footed creature, treading in his very shadow, with her
proud head bowed, even as his was—the picture of humility and
repentance.

" I shall not vex you, nor even speak," she said ; " but I would
fain keep with you while we are in the wood."

" Nay, you cannot vex me," he answered, all warm again at
the very sight of her. " It was my rough words which vexed
you ; but I have been thrown among men all my life, and indeed,
with all the will, I scarce know how to temper my speech to a
lady's ear."

"Then unsay it," cried she quickly ; " say that I was right to
wish to have vengeance on the Socman."

" Nay, I cannot do that," he answered gravely.

" Then who is ungentle and unkind now ? " she cried in tri-90	THE WHITE COMPANY.

»• 1

umph. " How stern and cold you are for one so young ! Ari
surely no mere clerk, but bishop or cardinal at the least. Shouldst
have crozier for staff and mitre for cap. Well, well, for your sake
4 will forgive the Socman and take vengeance on none but on my
own wilful self who must needs run into danger's path. So will
that please you, sir ? "

"There spoke your true self," said he; " and you will find
more pleasure in such forgiveness than in any vengeance."

She shook her head, as if by no means assured of it, and tken
with a sudden little cry, which had more of surprise than of joy
in it, " Here is Bertrand with the horses ! "

Down the glade there came a little green-clad page with
laughing eyes, and long curls floating behind him. He sat
perched on a high bay horse,-and held on to the bridle of a
spirited black palfrey, jhe hides of both glistening from a long
run."

" I have sought you everywhere, dear Lady Maude," said he in
a piping voice, springing down from his horse and holding the
stirrup. " Troubadour galloped as far as Holmhill ere I could
catch him. I trust that you have had no hurt or scath ? " Hq
shot a questioning glance at Alleyne as he spoke.

" No, Bertrand," said she, " thanks to this courteous stranger,
And now, sir," she continued, springing into her saddle, " it is
not fit that I leave you without a word more. Clerk or no, you
have acted this day as becomes a true knight. King Arthur and
all his table could not have done more. It may be that, as some
small return, my father or his kin may have power to advance
your interest. He is not rich, but he is honored and hath great
friends. Tell me what is your purpose, and see if he may not
aid it."

" Alas ! lady, I have now no purpose. I have but two friends
in the world, and they have gone to Christchurch, where it is
likely I shall join them."

" And where is Christchurch ? " ' ,

" At the castle which is held by the brave knight, Sir Nigel
Loring, constable to the Earl of Salisbury."

To his surprise she burst out a-laughing, and, spurring her
palfrey, dashed off down the glade, with her page riding behind
her. Not one word did she say, but as she vanished amid the
trees she half turned in her saddle and waved a last greeting.
Long time he stood, half hoping that she might again come backTHE WHITE COMPANY.	91

to him ; but the thud of the hoofs had died away, and there was
no sound in all the woods but the gentle rustle and dropping of
the leaves. At last he turned away and made his way back to
the high-road—another person from the light-hearted boy who
had left it a short three hours before.

CHAPTER X.

how hordle john found a man whom he might follow.

If he might not return to Beaulieu within the year, and if his
brother's dogs were to be set upon him if he showed face upon
Minstead land, then indeed he was adrift upon earth. North,
south, east, and west—he might turn where he would, but all
Was equally chill and cheerless. The Abbot had rolled ten
silver crowns in'a lettuce-leaf and hid them away in the bottom
*jf his scrip, but that would be a sorry support for twelve long
months. In all the darkness there was but the one bright spot
of the sturdy comrades whom he had left that morning; if he
could find them again all would be well. The afternoon was
not very advanced, for all that had befallen him. When a man
is afoot at cock-crow much may be done in the day. If he
walked fast he might yet overtake his friends ere they reached
their destination. He pushed on therefore, now walking and
now running. As he journeyed he bit into a crust which re-
mained from his Beaulieu bread, and he washed it down by a
draught from a woodland stream.

It was no easy or light thing to journey through this great
forest, which was some twenty miles from east to west and a
* good sixteen from Bramshaw Woods in the north to Lymington
in the south. Alleyne, however, had the good fortune to fall in
with a woodman, axe upon shoulder, trudging along in the very
direction that he wished to go. With his guidance he passed
the fringe of Bolderwood Walk, famous for old ash and yew,
through Mark Ash with its giant beech-trees, and on through
the Knightwood groves, where the giant oak was already a great
tree, but only one of many comely brothers. They plodded along
together, the woodman and Alleyne, with little talk on either
side, for their thoughts were as far asunder as the poles. The92

THE WHITE COMPANY,

peasant's gossip had been of the hunt, of the brocken, of the
grayheaded kites that had nested in Wood Fidley, and of the
great catch of herring brought back by the boats of Pitt's Deep.
The clerk's mind was on his brother, on his future—above all
on this strange, fierce, melting, beautiful woman who had broken
so suddenly into his life, and as suddenly passed out of it again.
So distrait was he and so random his answers, that the wood-
man took to whistling, and soon branched off upon the track to
Burley, leaving Alleyne upon the main Christchurch road.

Down this he pushed as fast as he might, hoping at every turn
and rise to catch sight of his companions of the morning. From
Vinney Ridge to Rhinefield Walk the woods grow thick and
dense up to the very edges of the track, but beyond the country
opens up into broad dun-colored moors, flecked with clumps of
trees, and topping each other in long, low curves up to the dark
lines of forest in the furthest distance. Clouds of insects danced
and buzzed in the golden autumn light, and the air was full of
the piping of the song-birds. Long, glinting dragonflies shot
across the path, or hung tremulous with gauzy wings and gleam-
ing bodies. Once a white-necked sea eagle soared screaming
high over the traveller's head, and again a flock of brown bus-
tards popped up from among the bracken, and blundered away
in their clumsy fashion, half running, half flying, with strident
cry and whirr of wings.

There were folk, too, to be met upon the road—beggars and
couriers, chapmen and tinkers—cheery fellows for the most part,
with a rough jest and homely greeting for each other and for
Alleyne. Near Shotwood he came iipon five seamen, on their
way from Poole to Southampton—rude red-faced men, who
shouted at him in a jargon which he could scarce understand,
and held out to him a great pot from which they had been drink-
ing—nor woujd they let him pass until he had dipped pannikin
in and taken a mouthful, which set him coughing and choking,
with the tears running down his cheeks. Further on he met a
sturdy black-bearded man, mounted on a brown horse, with a
rosary in his right hand and a long two-handed sword jangling
against his stirrup-iron. By his black robe and the eight-pointed
cross upon his sleeve, Alleyne recognized him as one of the
Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, whose presbytery
was at Baddesley. He held up two fingers as he passed, with a
" Benedicc, filic mens / " whereat Alleyne doffed hat and bentTHE WHITE COMPANY.

93-

knee, looking with much reverence at one who had devoted his
life to the overthrow of the infidel. Poor simple lad ! he had not
learned yet that what men are and what men profess to be are
very wide asunder, and that the Knights of St. John, having come
into large part of the riches of the ill-fated Templars, were very
much too comfortable to think of exchanging their palace for a
tent, or the cellars of England for the thirsty deserts of Syria.
Yet ignorance may be more precious than wisdom, for Alleyne
as he walked on braced himself to a higher life by the thought of
this other's sacrifice, and strengthened himself by his example,
which he could scarce have done had he known that the Hospi-
taller's mind ran more upon malmsey than on mamalukes* and
on venison rather than victories.

As he pressed on the plain turned to woods once more in the
region of Wilverley Walk, and a cloud swept up from the south, x
with the sun shining through the chinks of it. A few great
drops came pattering loudly down, and then in a moment the
steady swish of a brisk shower, with the dripping and dropping
of the leaves. Alleyne, glancing round for shelter, saw a thick
and lofty holly-bush, so hollowed t out beneath that no house
could have been drier. Under this canopy of green two men
were already squatted, who waved their hands to Alleyne that
he should join them. *As he approached he saw that they had
five dried herrings laid out in front of them, with a great hunch
of wheaten bread and a leathern flask full of milk, but instead
of setting to at their food they appeared to have forgot all about
it, and were disputing together with flushed faces and angry
gestures. It was easy to see by their dress and manner that
they were two of those wandering students who formed about
this time so enormous a multitude in every country in Europe.
The one was long and thin, with melancholy features, while the
other was fat and sleek, with a loud voice and the air of a man
who is not to be gainsaid.

" Come hither, good youth," he cried, " come hither ! Vultus
ingenuipuer. Heed not the face of my good coz here. Foe-
num habet in cornu, as Dan Horace has it; but I warrant him
harmless for all that."

"Stint your bull's bellowing!" exclaimed the other. "If
it come to Horace, I have a line in my mind : Loqitaces si sa~

piat- How doth it run ? The English o't being that a man

of sense should ever avoid a great talker. That being so, if all94	THE WHITE COMPANY,

were men of sense then thou wouldst be a lonesome man,
coz."

" Alas ! Dicon, I fear that your logic is as bad as your phi-
losophy or your divinity—and God wot it would be hard to say a
worse word than that for it. For, hark ye : granting, propter
argumentum, 4hat I am a talker, then the true reasoning runs
that since all men of sense should avoid me, and thou hast not
avoided me, but art at the present moment eating herrings with
me under a holly-bush, ergo you are no man of sense, which is
exactly what I have been dinning into your long ears ever since
I first clapped eyes on your sunken chops."

"Tut, tut!" cried the other. "Your tongue goes like the
clapper of a mill-wheel. Sit down here, friend, and partake of
this herring. Understand first, however, that there are certain
conditions attached to it.'*

."I had hoped," said Alleyne, falling into the humor of the
twain, " that a tranchoir of bread and a draught of milk might
be attached to it."

" Hark to him, hark to him ! " cried the little fat man. " It
is even thus, Dicon ! Wit, lad, is a catching thing, like the itch
or the sweating sickness. I exude it round me ; it is an aura.
I tell you, coz, that no man can come within seventeen feet
of me without catching a spark. Looktat your own case. A
duller man never stepped, and yet within the week you have
said three things which might pass, and one thing the day we
left Fordingbridge which I should not have been ashamed of
myself."

" Enough, rattle-pate, enough !" said the other. " The milk
you shall have and the bread also, friend, together with the
herring, but you must hold the scales between us."

"If he hold the herring he holds the scales, my sapient
brother," cried the fat man. " But I pray you, good youth, to
tell us whether you are a learned clerk, and, if so, whether you
have studied at Oxenford or at Paris."

"I have some small stock of learning," Alleyne answered,
picking at his herring, " but I have been at neither of these
places. I was bred amongst the Cistercian monks at Beaulieu
Abbey."

" Pooh, pooh I " they cried both together. " What sort of an
upbringing is that ? "

•< Non cuivis contingit adire Corinthum" quoth Alleyne.THE WHITE COMPANY.

. ■' jr-

95

"Come, brother Stephen, he hath some tincture of letters,'*,
said the melancholy man more hopefully. " He may be thev
better judge, since he hath no call to side with either of us."
Now, attention, friend, and let your ears work as well as your
nether jaw. "Judex damnatur—you know the old saw. Here
am I upholding the good fame of the learned Duns Scotus
against the foolish quibblings and poor silly reasonings of Willie
Ockham."

" While I," quoth the other loudly, " do maintain the good
sense and extraordinary wisdom of that most learned William
against the crack-brained fantasies of the muddy Scotchman,
who hath hid such little wit as he has under so vast a pile of
words, that it is like one drop of Gascony in a firkin of ditch-
water. Solomon his wisdom would not suffice to say what the
rogue means."

" Certes, Stephen Hapgood, his wisdom doth *not suffice,"
cried the other. " It is as though a mole cried out against the
morning star, because he could not see it. But our dispute,
friend, is concerning the nature of that subtle essence which we
call thought. For I hold with the learned Scotus that thought
is in very truth a thing, even as vapor or fumes, or many other
substances which our gross bodily eyes are blind to. For, look
you, that which produces a thing must be itself a thing, and if a
man's thought may produce a written book, then must thought
itself be a material thing, even as the book is. Have I expressed
it ? Do I make it plain ? "

" Whereas I hold," shouted the other, "with my revered pre- *
ceptor, doctor ftreclarus et excellentissimus, that all things are
but thought ; for when thought is gone I prythee where are the
things then ? Here are trees about us, and I see them because
I think I see them, but if I have swooned, or sleep, or am in
wine, then, my thought having gone forth from me, lo the trees
go forth also. How now, coz, have I touched thee on the
raw ? "

Alleyne sat between them munching his bread, while the
twain disputed across his knees, leaning forward with flushed
faces and darting hands, in all the heat of argument. Never
had he heard such jargon of scholastic philosophy, such fine-
drawn distinctions, such cross-fire of major and minor, proposi-
tion, syllogism, attack and refutation. Question clattered upon
•^wer like a sword on a buckler. The ancients, the fathers ofTHE WHITE COMPANY,

the Church, the moderns, the Scriptures, the Arabians, were
each sent hurtling against the other, while the rain still dripped
and the dark holly-leaves glistened with the moisture. At last
the fat man seemed 'to weary of it, for he set to work quietly
upon his meal, while his opponent, as proud as the rooster who
is left unchallenged upon the midden, crowed away in a last
long burst of quotation and deduction. Suddenly, however, his
eyes dropped upon his food, and he gave a howl of dismay.

" You double thief! " he cried, " you have eaten my herrings,
and I without bite or sup since morning."

" That," quoth the other complacently, " was my final argu-
ment, my crowning effort, or peroratio, as the orators have it.
For, coz, since all thoughts are things, you have but to think a
pair of herrings, and then conjure up a pottle of milk wherewith
to wash them down."

" A brave piece of reasoning," cried the other, " and I know
of but one reply to it." On which, leaning forward, he caught
his comrade a rousing smack across his rosy cheek. " Nay,
take it not amiss," he said, " since all things are but thoughts,
then that also is but a thought and may be disregarded."

This last argument, however, by no means commended itself
to the pupil of Ockham, who plucked a great stick from the
ground and signified his dissent by smiting the realist over the
pate with it. By good fortune, the wood was so light and rotten
that it went to a thousand splinters, but Alleyne thought it best
to leave the twain to settle the matter at their leisure, the more
so as the sun was shining brightly once more. Looking back
down the pool-strewn road, he saw the two excited philosophers
waving their hands and shouting at each other, but their babble
soon became a mere drone in the distance, and a turn in the
road hid them from his sight.

And now after passing Holmesley Walk and the Wooton
Heath, the forest began to shred out into scattered belts of trees,
with gleam of corn-field and stretch of pasture-land between.
Here and there by the wayside stood little knots of wattle-and-
daub huts with shock-haired laborers lounging by the doors and
red-cheeked children sprawling in the roadway. Back among
the groves he could see the high gable ends and thatched roofs
of the franklin's houses, on whose fields these men found em-
ployment, or more often a thick dark column of smoke marked
their position and hinted at the coarse plenty within. By theseTHE WHITE COMPANY.

97

Signs Alleyne knew that he was on the very Fringe of the forest, —
and therefore no great way from Christchurch. The sun was
lying low in the west and shooting its level rays across the long
sweep of rich green country, glinting on the white-fleeced sheep,
and throwing long shadows from the red kine who waded knee-
deep in the juicy clover. Right glad was the traveller to see
the high tower of Christchurch Priory gleaming in the mellow
evening light, and gladder still when, on rounding a corner, he
came upon his comrades of the morning seated astraddle upon
a fallen tree. They had a flat space before them, on which they
alternately threw little square pieces of bone, and were so in-
tent upon their occupation that they never raised eye as he
approached them. He observed with astonishment, as he drew
near, that the archer's bow was on John's back, the archer's
sword by John's side, and the steel cap laid upon the tree-trunk
between them.

" Mort de ma vie ! " Aylward shouted, looking down at the
dice. " Never had I such cursed luck. A murrain on the
bones ! I have not thrown a good main since I left Navarre.
A one and a three ! En avant, camarjade !"

"'Four and three," cried Hordle John, counting on his great
fingers, " that makes seven. Ho, archer, I have thy cap ! Now
have at thee for thy jerkin ! "

" Mon Dieu ! " he growled, " I am like to reach Christchurch
in my shirt." Then suddenly glancing up, " Hol&, by the splen-
dor of heaven, here is our cher petit ! Now, by my ten finger
bones ! this is a rare sight to mine eyes." He sprang up and
threw his arms round Alleyne's neck, while John, no less pleased,
but more backward and Saxon in his habits, stood grinning and
bobbing by the wayside, with his newly won steel cap stuck
wrong sid« foremost upon his tangle of red hair.

" Hast come to stop ? " cried the bowman, patting Alleyne all
over in his delight. " Shall not get away from us again 1"

" I wish no better," said he, with a pringling in the eyes at
this hearty greeting.

"Well said, lad !" cried big John. "We three shall to the
wars together, and the devil may fly away with the Abbot of
Beaulieu ! But your feet and hosen are all besmudged. Hast
been in the water, or I am the more mistaken."

" I have in good sooth," Alleyne answered, and then as they
journeyed on their way he told them the many things that ha4

7THE WHITE COMPANY.

befallen him, his meeting with the villein, his sight of the king,
his coming upon his brother, with all the tale of the black wel- %
come and of the fair damsel. They strode on either side, each
with an ear slanting towards him, but ere he had come to the
end of his story the bowman had spun round upon his heel, and "
was hastening back the way they had come, breathing loudly
through his nose.

« What then ? " asked Alleyne, trotting after him and gripping
at his jerkin.

" I am back for Minstead, lad."

" And why, in the name of sense ? "

" To thrust a handful of steel into the Socman. What! hale a
demoiselle against her will, and then loose dogs at his own
brother ! Let me go ! "

"Nenny, nenny !" cried Alleyne, laughing. "There was no
scath done. Come back, friend "—and so, by mingled pushing
* and entreaties, they got his head round for Christchurch once
more. Yet he walked with his chin upon his shoulder, until,
catching sight of a maiden by a wayside well, the smiles came
back to his face and peace to his heart.

" But you," said Alleyne, " there have been changes with you
also. Why should not the workman carry his tools ? Where
* are bow and sword and cap—and Why so warlike, John ? "

" It is a game Which friend Aylward hath been a-teaching of
me."

" And I found him an over-apt pupil," grumbled the bowman.
" He hath stripped me as though I had fallen into the hands of
the tardvenus. But, by my hilt ! you must render them back to
me, camarade, lest you bring discredit upon my mission, and I
will pay you for them at armorers' prices."

" Take them back, man, and never heed the pay," said John.
" I did but wish to learn the feel of them, since I am like to have
such trinkets hung to my own girdle for some years to come."

" Ma foi, he was born for a fr companion ! " cried Aylward.
«« He hath the very trick of speech and turn of thought. I take
them back then, and indeed it gives me unease not to feel my
yew-stave tapping against my leg bone. But see, mes gar^ons,
on this side of the church rises the square and darkling tower
of Earl Salisbury's castle, and even from here I seem to see on
yonder banner the red roebuck of the Montacutes."

M Red upon white," said Alleyn*ef shading his eyes ; " bv&THE WHITE COMPANY.

99

whether roebuck or no is more than I could vouch. How black
is the great tower, and how bright the gleam of arms upon the
wall! See below the flag, how it twinkles like a star ! "

" Aye, it is the steel head-piece of tEe watchman," remarked
the archer. " But we must on, if we are to be there before the
drawbridge rises at the vespers bugle ; for it is likely that Sir
Nigel, being so renowned a soldier, may keep hard discipline
within the walls, and let no man enter after sundown." So say-
ing, he quickened his pace, and the three comrades were soon
close to the straggling and broad-spread town which centered
round the qpble church and the frowning castle.

It chanced on that very evening that Sir Nigel Loring, having
supped before sunset, as was his custom, and having himself
seen that Pommers and Cadsand, his two war-horses, with the
thirteen hacks, the five jennets, my lady's three palfreys, and the
great dapple-gray roussin, had all their needs supplied, had taken
his 4ogs for an evening breather. Sixty or seventy of them,
large and small, smooth and shaggy—deer-hound, boar-hound,
blood-nound, wt»xf-hound, mastiff, alaun, talbot, lurcher, terrier,
spaniel—snapping1, yelling and whining, with score of lolling
tongues and waving tails, came surging down the narrow lane
which I&&ds from the Twynham kennels to the bank of Avon.
Two russet-clad varlets, with loud halloo and cracking whips,
walked thigh-deep amid the swarm, guiding, controlling, and
urging. Behind came Sir Nigel himself, with Lady Loring upon
his arm, the pair walking slowly and sedately, as befitted both
their age and their condition, while they watched with a smile
in their eyes the scrambling crowd in front of them. They
paused, however, at the bridge, and, leaning their elbows upon
the stonework, they stood looking down at their own faces in the
glassy stream, and at the swift flash of speckled trout against
the tawny gravel.

Sir Nigel was a slight man of poor stature, with soft lisping
voice and gentle ways. So short was he that his wife, who was
no very tall woman, had the better of him by the breadth of
three fingers. His sight having been injured in his early wars
by a basketful of lime which had been emptied over him when
he led the Eari of Derby's stormers up the breach at Bergerac,
he had contracted something of a stoop, with a blinking, peering
expression of iace. His age was six and forty, but the constant
practice of arms, together with a cleanly life, had preserved histoo

THE WHITE COMPANY.

activity and endurance unimpaired, so that from a distance he
seemed to have the slight limbs and swift grace of a boy. His
face, however, was tanned of a dull yellow tint, with a leathery,
poreless look, which spoke of rough outdoor,doings, and the little
pointed beard which he wore, in deference to the prevailing
fashion, was streaked and shot with gray. His features were
small, delicate, and regular, with clear-cut, curving nose, and
eyes which jutted forward from the lids. His dress was simple
and yet spruce. A Flandrish hat of beevor, bearing in the band
the token of Our Lady of Embrun, was drawn low upon the left
side to hide that ear which had been partly shorn f«om his head
by a Flemish man-at-arms in a camp broil before Tournay.
His cote-hardie, or tunic, and trunk-hosen were of a purple plum
color, with long weepers which hung from either sleeve to below
his knees. His shoes were of red leather, daintily pointed at
the toes, but not yet prolonged to the extravagant lengths which
the succeeding reign was to bring into fashion. A gold-embroi-
dered belt of knighthood encircled his loins, with his arms, five
roses gules on a field argent, cunningly worked upon the clasp.
So stood Sir Nigel Loring upon the bridge of Avon, and talked
lightly with his lady.

And, certes, had the two visages alone been seen, and the
stranger been asked which were the more likely to belong to the
bold warrior whose name was loved by the roughest soldiery of
Europe, he had assuredly selected the lady's. Her face was large
and square and red, with fierce, thick brows, and the eyes of one
who was accustomed to rule. Taller and broader than her hus-
band, her flowing gown of sendall, and fur-lined tippet, could
not conceal the gaunt and ungraceful outlines of her figure. It
was the age of martial women. The deeds of black Agnes of
Dunbar, of Lady Salisbury and of the Countess of Montfort, were
still fresh in the public minds. With such examples before them
the wives of the English captains had become as warlike as their
m,ates, and ordered their castles in their absence with the pru-
dence and discipline of veteran seneschals. Right easy were the
Montacutes of their Castle of Twynham, and little had they to
dread from roving galley or French squadron, while Lady Mary
Loring had the ordering of it. Yet even in that age it was
thought that,, though a lady might have a soldier's heart, it was
scarce as well that she should have a soldier's face. There were
men who said that of all the stern passages and daring deeds byTHE WHITE COMPANY.

101

which Sir Nigel Loryig had proved the true temper of his cour-
age, not the least was his wooing and winning of so forbidding
a dame.

"I tell you, my fair lord," she was saying, " that it no fit
training for a demoiselle : hawks and hounds, rotes and citoles,
singing a French rondel, or reading 5 the Gestes de Doon de
Mayence, as I found her yesternight, pretending sleep, the artful,
with the corner of the scroll thrusting forth from under her
pillow. Lent her by Father Christopher of the priory, forsooth
—that is ever her answer. How shall all this help her when she
has castle of her own to keep, with a hundred mouths all agape
for beef and beer ? "

" True, my sweet bird, true," answered the knight, picking a
comfit from his gold drageoir. M The maid is like the young
filly, which kicks heels and plunges for very lust of life. Give
Her time, dame, give her time."

"Well, I know that my father would have given me, not time,
but a good hazel-stick across my shoulders. Ma foi ! I know
not what the world is coming to, when young maids may flout
their elders. I wonder that you do not correct her, my fair
lord."

"Nay, my heart's comfort, I never raised hand to woman yet,
and it would be a passing strange thing if I began on my own
flesh and blood. It was a woman's hand which cast this lime
into mine eyes, and though I saw her stoop, and might well have
stopped her ere she threw, I deemed it unworthy of my knight-
hood to hinder or balk one of her sex."

" The hussy ! " cried Lady Loring clenching her broad right
hand. " I wouldjl had been at the side of her! "

And so would I, since you would have been the nearer me,
my own. But I doubt not that you are right, and that Maude's
wings need clipping, which I may leave in your hands when I
am gone, for, in sooth, this peaceful life is not for me, and were
it not for your gracious kindness and loving care I could not
abide it a week. I hear that there is talk of warlike muster at
Bordeaux once more, and by St, Paul ! it would be a new thing
if the lions of England and the red pile of Chandos were to be
seen in the field, and the roses of Loring were not waving by
their side."

" Now wo worth me but I feared it ! " cried she, with the color
all struck from her face. " I Kave noted your absent mind, your102

THE WHITE COMPANY.

'kindting eye, your trying and rivetting ofoM harness. Consider,
my sweet lord, that you have already won much honor, that we
have seen but little of each other, that you bear upon your body
the scar of over twenty wounds received in I know not how many
bloody encounters. Have you not done enough for honor and
the public cause ? "

"My lady, when our liege lord, the king, at three-score years,
and my Lord Chandos at three-score and ten, are blithe and
ready to lay lance in rest for England's cause, it would ill be<-
seem me to ptate of service done. It is sooth that I have re-
ceived seven and twenty wounds. There is the more reason
that I should be thankful that I am still long of breath and sound
in limb. I have also seen some bickering and scuffling. Six
great land battles I count, with four upon sea, and seven and
fifty onfalls, skirmishes and bushments. I have held two and
twenty towns, and I have been at the intaking of thirty-one.
Surely then it would be bitter shame to me, and also to you,
since my fame is yours, that I should now hold back if a man's
work is to be done. Besides, bethink you how low is our purse,
with bailiff and reeve ever croaking of empty farms and wast-
ing lands. Were it not for this constableship which the Earl of
Salisbury hath bestowed upon us we could scarce uphold the
state which is fitting to our degree. Therefore, my sweeting,
there is the more need that I should turn to where there is good
pay to be earned and brave ransoms to be won."

" Ah, my dear lord," quoth she, with sad, weary eyes. " I
thought that at last I had you to mine own self, even though
your youth had been spent afar from my side. Yet my voice,
as I know well, should speed you on to glory and renown, not
hold you back when fame is to be won. Yet what can I say,
lor all men know that your valor needs the curb and not the
spur. It goes to my heart that you should ride forth now a mere
knight bachelor, when there is no noble in the land who hath so
good a claim to the square pennon, save only that you have not
the money to uphold it."

And "whose fault that, my sweet bird ?" said he.

"No fault, my fair lord, but a virtue : for how many rich
ransoms have you won, and yet have scattered the crowns
among page and archer and varlet, until in a week you had not
as much as would buy food and forage. It is a most knightly
largesse, and yet withouten money hpw can man rise ? "THE WHITE COMPANY.

103

"Dirt and dross ! " cried he.

"What matter rise or fall, so that duty be done and honor
gained. Banneret or bachelor, square pennon or forked, I would
not give a denier for the difference, and the less since Sir John
Chandos, chosen flower of English chivalry, is himself but a
humble knight. But meanwhile fret not thyself, my heart's dove,
for it is like that there may be no war waged, and we must await
the news. But here are three strangers, and one, as I take it, a
soldier fresh from service. It is likely that he may give us word
of what is stirring over the water."

Lady Loring, glancing up, saw in the fading light three com-
panions walking abreast down the road, all gray with dust, and
stained with travel, yet chattering merrily between themselves.
He in the midst was young and comely, with boyish open face
and bright gray eyes, which glanced from right to left as though
he found the world around him both new and pleasing. To his
right walked a huge red-headed man, with broad smile and
merry twinkle, whose clothes seemed to be bursting and split-
ting at every seam, as though he were some lusty chick who
was breaking bravely from his shell. On the other side, with
his knotted hand upon the young man's shoulder, came a stout
and burly archer, brown and fierce eyed, with sword at belt and
long yellow yew-stave peeping over his shoulder. Hard face,
battered head-piece, dinted brigandine, with faded red lion of
St. George ramping on a discolored ground, all proclaimed as
plainly as words that he wras indeed from the land of war. He"
looked keenly at Sir Nigel as he approached, and then, plunging
his hand under his breastplate, he stepped up to him with a
rough, uncouth bow to the lady.

" Your pardon, fair sir," said he, " but I know you the moment
I clap eyes on you, though in sooth I have seen you oftener in
steel than in velvet. I have drawn string besides you at La
Roche-d'Errien, Romorantin, Maupertuis, Nogent, Auray, and
other places."

"Then, good archer, I am right glad to welcome you to
Twynham Castle, and in the steward's room you will find pro-
vant for yourself and comrades. To me also your face is known,
though mine eyes play such tricks with me that I can scarce be
sure of my own squire. Rest awhile, and you shall come to the
hall anon and tell us what is passing in France, for I have heard104	THE WHITE COMPANY.

that it is likely that our pennons may flutter to the south, of the
great Spanish mountains ere another year be passed."

"There was talk of it in Bordeaux," answered the archer,
" and I saw myself that the armorers and smiths were as busy
as rats in a wheat-rick. But I bring you this letter from the
valiant Gascon knight, Sir Claude Latour. And to you, Lady,"
he added after a pause, " I bring from him this box of red
sugar of Narbonne, with every courteous and knightly greet-
ing which a gallant cavalier may make to a fair and noble
dame."

This little speech had cost the blunt bowman much pains
and planning^; but he might have spared his breath, for the
lady was quite as much absorbed as her lord in the letter, which
they held between them, a hand on either corner, spelling it
-out very slowly, with drawn brows and muttering lips. As they
read it, Alleyne, who stood with Hordle John a few paces back
from their comrade, saw the lady catch her breath, while the
knight laughed softly to himself.

H You see, dear heart," said he, "that they will not leave the
old dog in his kennel when the game is afoot. And what of
this White Company, archer ? "

Ah, sir, you speak of dogs," cried Aylward ; " but there are
a pack of lusty hounds who are ready for any quarry, if they
have but a good huntsman to halloo them on. Sir, we have
been in the wars together, and I have seen many a brave follow-
ing but never such a set of woodland boys as this. They do
but want you at their head, and who will bar the way to
them !"

" Pardieu ! " said Sir Nigel, " if they are all like their messen-
ger, they are indeed men of whom a leader may be proud.
Your name, good archer ? "

" Sam Aylward, sir, of the Hundred of Easebourne and the
Rape of Chichester."

" And this giant behind you ? "

" He is big John, of Hordle, a forest man, who hath now taken
service in the Company."

'• A proper figure of a man-at-arms," said the little knight.
"Why, man, you are no chicken, yet I warrant him the stronger
man. See to that great stone from the coping which hath fallen
upon the bridge. Four of my lazy varlets strove this day to carry
it hence. I would that you two could put them to shame byTHE WHITE COMPANY.

10$

budging it, though I fear that I overtask you, for it is of a griev-
ous weight."

He pointed as he spoke to a huge rough-hewn block which
lay by the roadside, deep sunken from its own weight in the reddish
earth. The archer approached it, rolling back the sleeves of his
jerkin, but with no very hopeful countenance, for indeed it was
a mighty rock. John, however, put him aside with his left hand,
and, stooping dver the stone, he plucked it single-handed from
its soft bed and swung it far into the stream. There it fell
with mighty splash, one jagged end peaking out above the sur-
face, while the waters bubbled and foamed with far-circling
eddy.

" Good lack ! " cried Sir Nigel, and "Good lack ! " cried his
lady, while John stood laughing and wiping the caked dirt from
# his fingers.

"I have felt his arms round my ribs," said the bowman,
" and they crackle yet at the thought of it. This other comrade
of mine is a right learned clerk, for all that he is so young, hight
Alleyne, the son of Edric, brother to the Socman of Minstead."

" Young man," quoth Sir Nigel, sternly, " if you are of the
same way of thought as your brother, you may not pass under
portcullis of mine."

" Nay, fair sir," cried Aylward hastily, " I will be pledge for it
that they have no thought in common ; for this very day his
brother hath set his dogs upon him, and driven him from his
lands."

" And are you, too, of the White Company ? " asked Sir Nigel.
" Hast had small experience of war, if I may judge by your
looks and bearing."

" I would fain to France with my friends here," Alleyne
answered ; " but I am a man of peace—a reader, exorcist, acolyte,
and clerk."

" That need not hinder," quoth Sir Nigel.

"No, fair sir," cried the bowman joyously. "Why, I myself
have served two terms with Arnold de Cervolles, he whom they
called the archpriest. By my hilt ! I have seen him ere now,
with monk's gown trussed to his knees, over his sandals in
blood in the fore-front of the battle. Yet, ere the last string
had twanged, he, would be down on his four bones among the
stricken, and have them all houseled and,shriven, as quick as
shelling peas. Ma foi! there were those who wished that helo6

THE WHITE COMPANY.

would have less care for their souls and a little more for then*
bodies ! "

" It is well to have a learned clerk in every troop/* said Sir
Nigel. " By St. Paul, there are men so caitiff that they think
more of a scrivener's pen than of their lady's smile, and do their
devoir in hopes that they may fill a line in a chronicle or make
a tag to a jongleur's romance. I remember well that, at the
siege of Retters, there was a little, sleek, fat clerk of the name
of Chaucer, who was so apt at rondel, sirvente, or tonson, that
no man dare give back a loot from the walls, lest he find it all
set down in his rhymes and sung by every underling and varlet
in the camp. But, my soul's bird, you hear me prate as though
all were decided, when I have not yet taken counsel either with
you or with my lady mother. Let us to the chamber, while
these strangers find such fare as pantry and cellar may furnish."

"The night air strikes chill," said the lady, and turned down
the road with her hand upon her lord's arm. The three com-
rades dropped behind and followed : Aylward much the lighter
for having accomplished his mission, Alleyne full of wonderment
at the humble bearing of so renowned a captain, and John loud
with snorts and sneers, which spoke hk disappointment and
contempt.

" What ails the man ?" asked Aylward if* surprise.

" I have been cozened and bejaped," quoth he gruffly.

" By whom, Sir Samson the strong ? "

" By thee, Sir Balaam the false prophet."

"By my hilt !" cried the archer, "though I be not Balaam,
yet I hold converse with the very creature that spake to him.
What is amiss, then, and how have I played you false ? "

" Why, marry, did you not say, and Alleyne here will be my
witness, that, if I would hie to the wars with you, you would
place me under a leader who was second to none in all England
for valor? Yet here you bring me to a shred of a man, peaky
and ill-nourished, with eyes like a moulting owl, who must needs,
forsooth, take counsel with his mother ere he buckle sword to
girdle."

" Is that where the shoe galls ? " cried the bowman, and
laughed aloud. " I will ask you what you think of him three
months hence, if we be all alive ; for sure I am that-"

Aylward's words were interrupted by an extraordinary hubbub
which broke out that instant some little way down the street inTHE WHITE COMPANY.

the direction oi the Priory. There was deep-mouthed shouting
of men, frightened shrieks of women, howling and barking of
curs, and over all a sullen, thunderous rumble, indescribably-
menacing and terrible. Round the corner of the narrow street
tfhere came rushing a brace of whining dogs with tails tucked
under their legs, and after them a 'white-faced burgher, with
outstretched hands and wide-spread fingers, his hair all abristle
and his eyes glinting back from one shoulder to the other, as
though some great terror .were at his very heels. " Fly, my
lady, fly ! " he screeched, and whizzed past them like bolt from
bow ; while close behind came lumbering a huge black bear,
with red tongue lolling from his mouth, and a broken chain
jangling behind him. To right and left the folk flew for arch
and doorway. Hordle John caught up the Lady Loring as
though she had been a feather, and sprang with her into an
open porch ; while Aylward, with a whirl of French oaths,
plucked at his quiver and tried to unsling his bow. Alleyne,
all unnerved at so strange and unwonted a sight, shrunk up
against the wall with his eyes fixed upon the frenzied creature,
which came bounding along with ungainly speed, looking the
larger in the uncertain light, its huge jaws agape, with blood
and slaver trickling to the ground. Sir Nigel alone, unconscious
to all appearance of the universal panic, walked with unfaltering
step up the centre of the road, a silken handkerchief in one
hand and his gold comfit-bAx in the other. It sent the blood
cold through Alleyne's veins to see that as they came together—
the man and the beast—the creature reared up, with eyes ablaze
with fear and hate, and whirled its great paws above the knight
to smite him to the earth. He, however, blinking with puckered
eyes, reached up his kerchief, and flicked the beast twice across
the snout with it. " Ah, saucy ! saucy," quoth he, with gentle
chiding ; on which the bear, uncertain and puzzled, dropped its
four legs to earth again, and, waddling back, was soon swathed
in ropes by the bear-ward and a crowd of peasants who had
been in close pursuit.

A scared man was the keeper; for, having chained the
brute to a stake while he drank a stoup ot ale at the inn, it had
been baited by stray curs, until, in wrath and madness, it had
plucked loose the chain, and smitten or bitten all who came in
its path. Most scared of all was he to find that the creature had
come nigh to harm the Lord and Lady of the castle, who hadio8

THE WHITE COMPANY.

i	m

power to place him'in the stretch-neck or to have the skin scourged
from his shoulders. Yet, when he came with bowed head and
humble entreaty for forgiveness, he was met with a handful of
small silver from Sir Nigel, whose dame, however, was less
charitably disposed, being much ruffled in her dignity by the
manner in which she had been hustled from her lord's side.

As they passed through the castle gate, John plucked at
Aylward's sleeve, and the two fell behind.

" I must crave your pardon, comrade," said he, bluntly. " I
was a fool not to know that a little rooster may be the gamest.
I believe that this man is indeed a leader whom we may follow."

CHAPTER XI.

how a young shepherd had a perilous flock.

Black was the mouth of Twynham Castle, though a pair of
torches burning at the further end of the gateway cast a red
glare over the outer bailey, and sent a dim, ruddy flicker through
the rough-hewn arch, rising and falling with fitful brightness.
Over the door the travellers could discern the escutcheon of the
Montacutes, a roebuck gules on a field argent, flanked on either
side by smaller shields which bore the red roses of the veteran
constable. As they passed over the drawbridge, Alleyne marked
the gleam of arms in the embrasures to right and left, and they
had scarce set foot upon the causeway ere a hoarse blare burst
from a bugle, and, with screech of hinge and clank of chain, the
ponderous bridge swung up into the air, drawn by unseen
hands. At the same instant the huge portcullis came rattling
down from above, and shut off the last fading light of day.
Sir Nigel and his lady walked on in deep talk, while a fat under-
steward took charge of the three comrades, and led them to the
buttery, where beef, bread, and beer were kept ever in readiness
for the wayfarer. After a hearty meal and a dip in the trough
to wash the dust from them, they strolled forth into the bailey,
where the bowman peered about through the darkness at wall
and at keep, with the carping eyes of one who has seen some-
thing of sieges, and is not likely to be satisfied. To Alleyne
and to John, however, it appeared to be as great and as itout a
fortress as could be built by the hands of man.THE WHITE COMPANY.

IO9

Erected by Sir Balwin de Redvers in the old fighting days of
the twelfth century, when men thought much of war and little
of comfort, Castle Twynham had been designed as a stronghold
pure and simple, unlike those later and more magnificent
structures where warlike strength had been combined with the
magnificence of a palace. From the time of the Edwards such
buildings as Conway or Caernarvon castles, to say nothing of
Royal Windsor, had shown that it was possible to secure luxury
in peace as well as security in times of trouble. Sir Nigel's
trust, however, still frowned above the smooth-flowing waters of
the Avon, very much as the stern race of early Anglo-Nor-
mans had designed it. There were the broad outer and inner
bailies, not. paved, but sown with grass to nourish the sheep
and cattle, which might be driven in on sign of danger.
All round were high and turreted walls, with at the corner a
bare square-faced keep, gaunt^nd windowless, rearing up from
a lofty mound, which made it almost inaccessible to an assailant.
Against the bailey-walls were rows of frail wooden houses and
leaning sheds, which gave shelter to the archers and men-at-
arms who formed the garrison. The doors of these humble
dwellings were mostly open, and against the yellow glare from
within Alleyne could see the bearded fellows cleaning their har-
ness, while their wives would come out for a gossip, with their
needlework in their hands, and their long black shadows stream-
ing across the yard. The air was full of the clack of their
voices and the merry prattling of children, in strange contrast
to the flash of arms and constant warlike challenge from the walls
above.

" Methinks a company of school lads could hold this place
against an army," quoth John.

" And so say I," said Alleyne.

"Nay, there you are wide of the clout," the bowman said
gravely. " By my hilt ! I have seen a stronger fortalice car-
ried in a summer evening. I remember such a one in Picardy,
with a name as long as a Gascon's pedigree. It was when I
served under Sir Robert Knolles, before the days of the Com-
pany ; and we came by good plunder at the sacking of it. I
had myself a great silver bowl, with two goblets, and a plastron
of Spanish steel. Pasques Dieu ! there are some fine women
over yonder ! Mort de ma vie ! see to that one in the doorway 1
I will go speak to her. But whom have we here ? "no

THE WHITE COMPANY.

"Is there an archer here hight Sam Aylward ? " asked a
gaunt man-at-arms, clanking up to them across the courtyard.

" My name, friend," quoth the bowman.

" Then sure I have no need to tell thee mine," said the
other.

" By the rood ! if it is not Black Simon of Norwich ! " cried
Aylward. " A mon coeur, camarade, k mon cceur ! Ah, but I
am blithe to see thee !" The two fell upon each other and
hugged like bears.

" And where from, old blood and bones ? " asked the bow-
man.

" I am in service here. Tell me, comrade, is it sooth that we
shall have another fling at these Frenchmen ? It is. so rumored
in the guard-room, and that Sir Nigel will take the field once
more."

" It is like enough, mon gar., as things go."

"Now may the Lord be praised !" cried the other. "This
very night will I set apart a golden ouche to be offered on the
shrine of my name-saint. I have pined for this, Aylward, as a
young maid pines for her lover."

" Art so set on plunder then ? Is the purse so light that there
is not enough for a rouse ? I have a bag at my belt, camarade,
and you have but to put your fist into it for what you want. It
was ever share and share between us."

" Nay, friend, it is not the Frenchman's gold, but the French-
man's blood that I would have. I should not rest quiet in the
grave, coz, if I had not another turn at them. For with us in
France it has ever been fair and honest war—a shut fist for the
man, but a bended knee for the woman. But how was it at
Winchelsea when their galleys came down upon it some few
years back ? I had an old mother there, lad, who had come
down thither from the Midlands to be the nearer her son. They
found her afterwards by her own hearthstone, thrust through
by a Frenchman's bill. My second sister, my brother's wife,
and her two children, they were but ash-heaps in the smoking
ruins of their house. I will not say that we have not wrought
great scath upon France, but women and children have been
safe from us. And so, old friend, my heart is hot within me,
and I long to hear the old battle-cry again, and, by God's truth !
if Sir Nigel unfurls his pennon, here is one who will be right
glad to feel the saddle-flaps under his knees,"THE WHITE COMPANY.

Ill

"We have seen good work together, old war-dog," quoth
Aylward ; " and, by my hilt ! we may hope to see more ere we
die. But we are more like to hawk at the Spanish woodcock
than at the French heron, though certes it is rumored that Du
Guesclin with all the best lances of Franee have taken service
under the lions and towers of Castile. But, comrade, it is in
my mind that there is some small matter of dispute still open
between us."

" Tore God, it is sooth ! " cried the other ; " I had forgot it.
The provost-marshal and his men tore us apart when last we
met."

" On which, friend, we vowed that we should settle the point
when next we came together. Hast thy sword, I see, and the
moon throws glimmer enough for such old night-birds as we.
On guard, mon gar. ! I have not heard clink of steel this month
or more."

"Out from the shadow then," said the other, drawing his
sword. " A vow is a vow, and not lightly to be broken."

" A vow to the saints," cried Alleyne, " is indeed not to be
set aside ; but this is a devil's vow, and, simple clerk as I am, I
am yet the mouthpiece of the- true church when I say that it
were mortal sin to fight on such a quarrel. What! shall two
grown men carry malice for years, and fly like snarling curs at
each other's throats ? "

" No malice, my young clerk, no malice," quoth Black Simon.
" I have not a bitter drop in my heart for mine old comrade ;
but the quarrel, as he hath told you, is still open and unsettled.
Fall on, Aylward !"

" Not whilst I can stand between you," cried Alleyne, spring-
ing before the bowman. " It is shame and sin to see two Chris-
tian Englishmen turn swords against each other like the frenzied
bloodthirsty paynim."

" And, what is more," said Hordle John, suddenly appearing
out of the buttery with the huge board upon which the pastry
was rolled, " if either raise sword I shall flatten him like a
Shrovetide pancake. By the black rood ! I shall drive him
into the earth, like a nail into a door, rather than see you do
scath to each other."

"'Fore God, this is a strange way of preaching peace," cried
Black Simon. "You may find the scath yourself, my lusty
friend, if you raise your great cudgel to me. I had as lief have
the castle drawbridge drop upon my pate."112

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" Tell nu Aylward," said Alleyne earnestly, with his hands
outstretched to keep the pair asunder, " what is the cause of
qtiarrel, that we may see whether honorable settlement may not
be arrived at ? "

The bowman looked down at his feet and then up at the moon.
" Parbleu ! " he cried, " the cause of quarrel ? Why, mon petit,
it was years ago in Limousin, and how can I bear in mind what
was the cause of it ? Simon there hath it at the end of his
tongue."

"Not I, in troth," replied the other; "I have had other things
to think of. There was some sort of .bickering over dice, or
wine, or was it a woman, coz ? "

"Pasques Dieu ! but you have nicked it," cried Aylward. ^'It
was indeed about a woman ; and the quarrel must go forward,
for I am still of the same mind as before."

" What of the woman, then ? " asked Simon. " May the mur-
rain strike me if I can call to mind aught about her."

"It was La Blanche Rose, maid at the sign of the 1 Trois
Corbeaux ' at Limoges. Bless her pretty heart! Why, mon
gar., I loved her."

" So did a many," quoth Simon. " I call her to mind now.
On the very day that we fought over the little hussy, she went
off with Evan ap Price, a long-legged Welsh dagsman. They
have a hostel of their own now, somewhere on the banks of the
Garonne, where the landlord drinks so much of the liquor that
there is little left for the customers."

" So ends our quarrel, then," said Aylward, sheathing his
sword. " A Welsh dagsman, i' faith ! C'^tait mauvais go6t,
camarade, and the more so when she had a jolly archer and a
lusty man-at-arms to choose from."

" True, old lad. And it is as well that we can compose our
differences honorably, for Sir Nigel had been out at the first
clash of steel ; and he hath sworn that if there be quarrelling in
the garrison he would smite the right hand from the broilers.
You know him of old, and that he is like to be as good as his
word."

" Mort-Dieu ! yes. But there are ale, mead, and wine in the
buttery, and the steward a merry rogue, who will not haggle
over a quart or two. Buvons, mon gar., for it is not every day
that two old friends come together."

The old soldiers and Hordle John strode off together in allTHE WHITE COMPANY.

ii3

good fellowship. Alleyne had turned to follow them, when he
felt a touch upon his shoulder, and found a young page by his
side.

"The Lord Loring commands," said the boy, "that you will
follow me to the great chamber, and await him there."

" But my comrades ? "

" His commands were for you alone."

Alleyne followed the messenger to the east end of the court-
yard, where a broad flight of steps led up to the doorway of the
main hall, the outer wall of which is washed by the waters of
the Avon. As designed at first, no dwelling had been allotted
to the lord of the castle and his family but the dark and dismal
basement storey of the keep. A more civilized or more effem-
inate generation, however, had refused to be pent up in such a
cellar, and the hall with its neighboring chambers had been
added for their accommodation. Up the broad steps Alleyn
went, still -following his boyish guide, until at the folding oak
doors the latter paused, and ushered him into the main hall of
the castle.

- On entering the room the clerk looked round ; but, seeing no
one, he continued to stand, his cap in his hand, examining with
the greatest interest a chamber which was so different to any to
which he was accustomed. The days had gone by when a
nobleman's hall was but a barn-like, rush-strewn enclosure, the
common lounge and eating-room of every inmate of the castle.
The Crusaders had brought back with them experiences of
domestic luxuries, of Damascus carpets and rugs of Aleppo,
which made them impatient of the hideous bareness and want
of privacy which they found in their ancestral strongholds. Still
stronger, however, had been the influence of the great French
war ; for, however well matched the nations might be in martial
exercises, there could be no question but that our neighbors
were infinitely superior to us in the arts of peace. A stream of
returning knights, of wounded soldiers, and of unransomed
French noblemen, had been for a quarter of a century continu-
ally pouring into England, every one of whom exerted an influ-
ence in the direction of greater domestic refinement, while
shiploads of French furniture from Calais, Rouen, and ot^er
plundered towns, had supplied our own artizans with models on
which to shape their work. Hence, in most English castles,
and in Castle Twynham among the rest, chambers were to be
8114

THE WHITE COMPANY.

found which would seem to be not wanting either in beauty ot
in comfort.

In the great stone fireplace a log fire was spurting and crack-
ling, throwing out a ruddy glare which, with the four bracket-
lamps which stood at each corner of the room, gave a bright
and lightsome air to the whole apartment. Above was a wreath-
work of blazonry, extending up to the carved and corniced oaken
roof; while on either side stood the high canopied chairs placed
for the master of the house and for his most honored guest. The
walls were hung all round with most elaborate and brightly col-
ored tapestry, representing the achievements of Sir Bevis of Hamp-
ton, and behind this convenient screen were stored the tables
dormant and benches which wpuld be needed for banquet or
high festivity. The floor was of polished tiles, with a square of
red and black diapered Flemish carpet in the centre ; and many
settees, cushions, folding chairs, and carved bancals littered all
over it. At the further end was a long black buffet or dresser,
thickly covered with gold cups, silver salvers, and other such
valuables. All this Alleyne examined with curious eyes; but
most interesting of all to him was a small ebony table at his very
side, on which, by the side of a chess-board and the scattered
chessmen, there lay an open manuscript written in a right clerkly
hand, and set forth with brave flourishes and devices along the
margins. In vain Alleyne bethought him of where he was, and
of those laws of good breeding and decorum which should restrain
him : those colored capitals and black even lines drew his hand
down to them, as the loadstone draws the needle, until, almost
before he knew it, he was standing with the romance of Garin
de Montglane before his eyes, so absorbed in its contents as to
be completely oblivious both of where he was and why he had
come there.

He was brought back to himself, however, by a sudden little
ripple of quick feminine laughter. Aghast, he dropped the
manuscript among the chessmen and stared in bewilder-
ment round the room. It was as empty and as still as
ever. Again he stretched his hand out to the romance, and
again came that roguish burst of merriment. He looked up at
th# ceiling, back at the closed door, and round at the stiff folds
of motionless tapestry. Of a sudden, however, he caught a quick
shimmer from the corner of a high-backed bancal in front of
him, and, shifting a pace or two to the side, saw a white slenderTHE WHITE COMPANY.

US

hand, which held a mirror of polished silver in such a way that
the concealed observer could see without being seen. He stood
irresolute, uncertain whether to advance or to take no notice ;
but, even as he hesitated, the mirror was whipped in, and a tall
and stately young lady swept out from behind the- oaken screen,
with a dancing light of mischief in her eyes. Alleyne started
with astonishment as he recognized the very maiden who had
suffered from his brother's violence in the forest. She no longer
wore her gay riding-dress, however, but was attired in a long
sweeping robe of black velvet of Bruges, with delicate tracery of
white lace at neck and at wrist, scarce to be seen against her ivory
skin. Beautiful as she had seemed to him before, the lithe
charm of her figure and the proud, free grace of her bearing
were enhanced now by the rich simplicity of her attire.

,rAh, you start," said she, with the same sidelong look of mis-
chief, " and I cannot marvel at it. Didst not look to see the
distressed damosel again. Oh that I were a minstrel, that I
might put it into rhyme, with the whole romance—the luckless
maid, the wicked socman, and the virtuous clerk ! So might
our fame have gone down together for all time, and you be num-
bered with Sir Percival or Sir Galahad, or all the other rescuers
of oppressed ladies."

"What I did," said Alleyne, "was too small a thing for
thanks ; and yet, if 1 may say it without offence, it was too
grave and near a matter for mirth and raillery. I had counted
on my brother's love, but God has willed that it should be
otherwise. It is a joy to me to see you again, lady, and to
know that you have reached home in safety, if this be indeed
your home."

"Yes, in sooth, Castle Twynham is my home, and Sir Nigel
Coring my father. I should have told you so this morning, but
you said that you were coming thither, so I bethought me that I
might hold it back as a surprise to you. Oh dear, but it was
brave to see you ! " she cried, bursting out a-laiighing once
more, and standing with her hand pressed to her side, and her
half-closed eyes twinkling with amusement. "You drew back
and came forward with your eyes upon my book there, like the
mouse who sniffs the cheese and yet dreads the trap."

" I take shame," said Alleyne, " that I should have touched
it."

" Nay, it warmed my very heart to see it. So glad was I,ii 6

THE WHITE COMPANY.

that" I laughed for very pleasure. My fine preacher can himself
be tempted then, thought I ; he is not made of another clay to
the rest of us."

" God help me ! I am the weakest of the weak," groaned
Alleyne. " I pray that I may have more strength."

" And-to what end ? " she asked sharply. " If you are, as I
understand, to shut yourself forever in your cell within the four
walls of an abbey, then of what use would it be were your prayer
to be answered ? "

" The use of my own salvation."

She turned from him with a pretty shrug and wave. " Is
that all ?" she said. "Then you are no better than Father
Christopher and the rest of them. Your own, your own, ever
your own ! My father is the king's man, and when he rides
into the press of fight he is not thinking ever of the saving of his
own poor body ; he recks little enough if he leave it on the field.
Why then should you, who are soldiers of the Spirit, be ever
moping or hiding in cell or ip. cave, with minds full of your own
concerns, while the world, which you should be mending, is
going on its way, and neither sees nor hears you ? Were ye
all as thoughtless of your own souls as the soldier is of his body,
ye would be of more avail to the souls of others."

"There is sooth in what you say, lady," Alleyne answered ;
" and yet I scarce can see what you would have the clergy and
the church to do."

" I would have them live as others and do men's work in the
world, preaching by their lives rather than their words. I would
have them come forth from their lonely places, mix with the
borel folks, feel the pains and the pleasures, the cares and the
rewards, the temptings and the stirrings of the common people.
Let them toil and swinken, and labor, and plough the land, and
take wives to themselves--"

"Alas! alas !" cried Alleyne aghast, " you have surely
sucked this poison from the man Wicliffe, of whom I have heard
such evil things."

" Nay, I know him not. I have learned it by looking from my
own chamber window and marking these poor monks of the
priory, their weary life, their profitless round. I have asked
myself if the best which can be done with virtue is to shut it
within high walls as though it were some savage creature. IfTHE WHITE COMPANY.

II/

the good will lock themselves up, and if the wicked will still
wander free, then alas for the world ! "

Alleyne looked at her in astonishment, for her cheek was
flushed, her eyes gleaming, and her whole pose full of eloquence
and conviction. Yet in an instant she had changed again to
her old expression of merriment leavened with mischief.

" Wilt do what I ask ? " said she.

" What is it, lady ? "

" Oh, most ungallant clerk ! A true knight would never have
asked, but would have vowed upon the instant. 'Tis but to
bear me out in what I say to my father."

44 In whati "

" In saying, if he ask, that it was south of the Christchurch
road that I met you. I shall be shut up with the tire-women
else, and have a week of spindle and bodkin, when I would fain
be galloping Troubadour up Wilverly Walk, or loosing little
Roland at the Vinney Ridge herons."

" I shall not answer him if he ask."

" Not answer ! But he will have an answer. Nay, but you
must not fail me, or it will go ill with me."

" But, lady," cried poor Alleyne in great distress, " how can I
say that it was to the scaith of the road when I know well that it
was four miles to the north."

" You will not say it ? "

" Surely you will not, too, when you know that it is not
so ? "

" Oh, I weary of your preaching ! " she cried, and swept away
with a toss of her beautiful head, leaving Alleyne as cast down *
and ashamed as though he had himself proposed some infamous
thing. She was back again in an instant, however, in another
of her varying moods.

" Look at that, my friend ! " said she. " If you had been
shut up in abbey or in cell this day you could not have taught a
wayward maiden to abide by the truth. Is it not so ? What
avail is the shepherd if he leaves his sheep."

" A sorry shepherd !" said Alleyne humbly. " But here is
your noble father."

" And you shall see haw worthy a pupil I am. Father, I am
much beholden to this young clerk, who was of service to me
and helped me this very morning in Minstead Woods, four miles
<0 the north of the Christchurch road, where I had no call to be.ii8

the white company.

you having ordered it otherwise." All this she reeled off in a
loud voice, and then glanced with sidelong, questioning eyes at
Alleyne for his approval.

Sir Nigel, who had entered the room with a silvery-haired old
lady upon his arm, stared aghast at this sudden outburst of
candor.	-

" Maude, Maude ! " said he, shaking his head, " it is more
hard for me to gain obedience from you than from the ten score
drunken archers who followed me to Guienne. Yet, hush ! little
one, for your fair lady-mother will be here anon, and there is no
need that she should know it. We will keep you from the pro-
vost-marshal this journey. Away to your chamber, sweeting,
and keep a blithe face, for she who confesses is shriven. And
now,,fair mother," he continued, when his daughter had gone,
" sit you here by the fire, for your blood runs colder than it did.
Alleyne Edricson, I would have a wdrd with you, for i would
fain that you should take service under me. And here in good
time comes my lady, without whose counsel it is not my wont to
decide aught of import; but, indeed, it was her own thought
that you should come."

" For I have formed a good opinion of you, and can see that
you are one who maybe trusted," said t^ie Lady Loring. " And
in good sooth my dear lord hath need of such a one by his side,
for he recks so little of himself that there should be one there to
look to his needs and meet his wants. You have seen the clois-
ters ; it were well that you should see the world too, ere you
make choice for life between them."

" It was for that very reason that my father willed that i
should come forth into the world at my twentieth year," said
Alleyne.

" Then your father was a man of good counsel," said she,
" and you cannot carry out his will better than by going on this
path, where all that is noble and gallant in England will be
your companions."

" You can ride ? " asked Sir Nigel, looking at the youth with
puckered eyes.

" Yes, I have ridden much at the abbey."

" Yet there is a difference betwixt a friar's hack &i*d & war-
rior's destrier. You can sing and play ? "

" On citole, flute and rebeck." '

"Good ! Y9¥ 9^ read! blazonry ? "THE WHITE COMPANY

119

"Indifferent well."

" Then read this," quoth Sir Nigel, pointing upwards to one
of the many quarterings which adorned the wall over the fire-
place.

" Argent," Alleyne answered, " a fess azure charged with
fhree lozenges dividing three mullets sable. Over all, on an
escutcheon of the first, a jambe gules."

"A jambe gules erased," said Sir Nigel, shaking his head
solemnly. "Yet it is not amiss for a monk-bred man. I trust
that you are lowly and serviceable ? "

" I have served all my life, my lord."

" Canst carve too ? "

" I have carved two days a week for the brethren."

" A model truly ! Wilt make a squire of squires. But tell
me, I pray, canst curl hair ? "

"No, my lord, but I could learn."

" It is of import," said he, "for I love to keep my hair well
ordered, seeing that the weight of my helmet for thirty years
hath in some degree frayed it upon the top." He pulled off his
velvet cap of maintenance as he spoke, and displayed a pate
which was as bald as an egg, and shone bravely in the fire-
light. " You see," said he, whisking round, and showing one
little strip where a line of scattered hairs, like the last survivors
in some fatal field, still barely held their own against the fate
which had fallen upon their comrades ; "these locks need some
little oiling and curling, for I doubt not that if you look slant-
wise at my head, when the light is good, you will yourself per-
ceive that there are places where the hair is sparse."

" It is for you also to bear the purse," said the lady ; " for my
sweet lord is of so free and gracious a temper that he would
give it gayly to the first who asked alms of him. All these
things, with some knowledge of venerie, and of the management
of horse, hawk and hound, with the grace and hardihood and
courtesy which are proper to your age, will make you a fit
squire for Sir Nigel Loring."

" Alas ! lady," Alleyne answered, " I know well the great
honor that you have done me in deeming me worthy to wait
upon so renowned a knight, yet I am so conscious of my qwn
weakness that I scarce dare incur duties which I might be so
ill-fitted to fulfil."

" Modesty and a humble mind," said she, " are the very first120

THE WHITE COMPANY.

and rarest gifts in page or squire. Your words prove that you
have these, and all the rest is but the work of use and time. But
there is no call for haste. Rest upon it for the night, and let
your orisons ask for guidance in the matter. We knew your
father well, and would fain help his son, though we have small
cause to love your brother the Socman, who is forever stirring
up strife in tjie county."

"We can scare hope," said Nigel, " to have all ready for our
start before the feast of St. Luke, for there is much to be done in
the time. You will have leisure, therefore, if it please you to
take service under me, in which to learn your devoir. Bertrand,
my daughter's page, is hot to go ; but in sooth he is over young
for such rough work as may be before us."

" And I have one favor to crave from you," added the lady of
the castle, as Alleyne turned to leave their presence. "You
have, as I understand, much learning which you have acquired
at Beaulieu."

" Little enough, lady, compared with those who were my
teachers."

" Yet enough for my purpose, I doubt not. For I would have
you give an hour or two a day whilst you are with us in discours-
ing with my daughter, the Lady Maude ; for she is somewhat
backward, I fear, and hath no love for letters, save for these poor
fond romances, which do but fill her empty head with dreams of
enchanted maidens and of errant cavaliers. Father Christopher
comes over after nones from the priory, but he is stricken with
years and slow of speech, so that she gets small profit from
his teaching. I would have you do what you can with her, and
with Agatha my young tire-woman, and with Dorothy Pierpont."

And so Alleyne found himself not only chosen as Squire to a
knight but also as squire to three damosels, which was even
further from the part which he had thought to play in the world.
Yet he could but agree to do what he might, and so went forth
from the castle hall with his face flushed and his head in a whirl
at the thought of the strange and perilous paths which his feet
were destined to tread.THE WHITE COMPANY.

121

CHAPTER XII.

HOW ALLEYNE LEARNED MORE THAN HE COULD TEACH.

And now there came a time of stir and bustle, of furbishing of
arms and clang of hammer from all the southland counties. Fast
spread the tidings from thorpe to thorpe and from castle to
castle, that the old game was afoot once more, and the lions and
lilies to be in the field with the early spring. Great news this for
that fierce old country, whose trade for a generation had been
war, her exports archers and her imports prisoners. For six
years her sons had chafed under an unwonted peace. Now they
flew to their arms as to their birthright. The old soldiers o{
Cr6cy, of Nogent, and of Poictiers were glad to think that they
might hear the war-trumpet once more, and gladder still were
the hot youth who had chafed for years under the martial tales
of their sires. To pierce the great mountains of the south, to
fight the tamers of the fiery Moors, to follow the greatest captain
of the age, to find sunny cornfields and vineyards, when the
marches of Picardy and Normandy were as rare and bleak as
the Jedburgh forests—here was a golden prospect for a race of
warriors. Fron>sea to sea there was stringing of bows in the
cottage* and clang of steel in the castle.

Nor did it take long for ever)'- stronghold to pour forth its
cavalry, and every hamlet its footmen. Through the late autumn
and the early winter every road and country lane resounded with
nakir and trumpet, with the neigh of the war-horse and the clat-
ter of marching men. From the Wrekin in the Welsh marches
to the Cotswolds in the west or Butser in the south, there was
no hill-top from which the peasant might not have seen the bright
shimmer of arms, the toss and flutter of plume and of pensil.
From bye-path, from woodland clearing, or from winding moor-
side track these little rivulets of steel united in the larger roads
to form a broader stream, growing ever fuller and larger as it
approached the nearest or most commodious seaport. And there
all day, and day after day, there was bustle and crowding and
labor, while the great ships loaded up, and one after the other
spread their white pinions and darted off tp the open sea, amid122

THE WHITE COMPANY.

the clash of cymbals and rolling of drums and lusty shouts of
those who went and of those who waited. From Orwell to the
Dart there was no port which did not send forth its little fleet,
gay with streamer and bunting, as for a joyous festival. Thus
in the season of the waning days the might of England put forth
on to the waters.

In the ancient and populous county of Hampshire there was -
no lack of leaders or of soldiers for a service which promised
either honor or profit. In the north the Saracen's head of the
Brocas and the scarlet fish of the De Roches were waving over
a strong body of archers from Holt, Woolmer, and Hare wood
forests. De Borhunte was up in the east, and Sir John de Mon-
tague in the west. Sir Luke de Ponynges, Sir Thomas West,
Sir Maurice de Bruin, Sir Arthur Lipscombe, Sir Walter Ram-
sey, and stout Sir Oliver Buttesthorn were all marching south
with levies from Andover, Arlesford, Odiham and Winchester,
while from Sussex came Sir John Clinton, Sir Thomas Cheyne,
and Sir John Fallislee, with a troop of picked men-at-arms, making
for their port at Southampton. Greatest of all the musters, how-
ever, was that of Twynham Castle, for the name and the fame
of Sir Nigel Loring drew towards him the keenest and boldest
spirits, all eager to serve under so valiant a leader. Archers
from the New Forest and the Forest of Sere, billmen from the
pleasant country which is watered by the Stour, the Avon, and
the Itchen, young cavaliers from the ancient Hampshire houses,
all were pushing for Christchurch to take service under the banner
of the five scarlet roses.

And now, could Sir Nigel have shown the bachelles of land
which the laws of rank required, he might well have cut his
forked pennon into a square banner, and taken such a following
into the field as would have supported the dignity of a banneret.
But poverty was heavy upon him, his land was scant, his coffers
empty, and the very castle which covered him the holding of
another. Sore was his heart when he saw rare bowmen and
war-hardened spearmen turned away from his gates, for the
lack of the money which might equip and pay them. Yet the
letter which Aylward had brought him gave him powers which
he was not slow to use. In it Sir Claude Latour, the Gascon
lieutenant of the White Company, assured him that there re-
mained in his keeping enough to fit out a hundred archers and
twenty men-at-arms, which, joined to the three hundred veteran.THE WHITE COMPANY.

123

companions already in France, would make a force which any
leader might be proud to command. Carefully and sagaciously the
veteran knight chose out his men from the swarm of volunteers.
Many an anxious consultation he held with Black Simon, Sam Ayl-
ward, and other of his more experienced followers, as to who
should come and who should stay. By All Saints'day, however,
ere the last leaves had fluttered to earth in the Wilverley and
Holmesley glades, he had filled up his full numbers, and mus-
tered under his banner as stout a following of Hampshire for-
esters as ever twanged their war-bows. Twenty men-at-arms,
too, well mounted and equipped, formed the cavalry of the party,
while young Peter Terlake of Fareham, and Walter Ford of
Botley, the martial sons of martial sires, came at their own cost
to wait upon Sir Nigel and to share with Alleyne Edricson the
duties of his squireship.

Yet, even after the enrolment, there was much to be done ere
the party could proceed upon its way. For armor, swords, and
lances, there was no need to take much forethought, for they
were tc-be had both better and cheaper in Bordeaux than in
England. With the long-bow, however, it was different. Yew
staves indeed might be got in Spain, but it was well to take
enough and to spare with them. Then three spare cords should
be carried for each bow, with a great store of arrow-heads, be-
sides the brigandines of chain mail, the wadded steel caps, and
the brassarts or arm-guards, which were the proper equipment
of the archer. Above all, the women for miles round were hard
at work cutting the white surcoats which were the badge of the
Company, and adorning them with the red lion of St. George
upon the centre of the breast. When all was completed and
the muster called in the castle yard the oldest soldier of the
French wars was fain to confess that he had never looked upon
a better equipped or more warlike body of men, from the old
knight with his silk jupon, sitting his great black war-horse in
the front of them, to Hordle John, the giant recruit, who leaned
carelessly upon a huge black bow-stave in the rear. Of the six
score, fully half had seen service before, while a fair sprinkling
were men who had followed the wars all their live% and had a
hand in those battles which had made the whole world ring with
the fame and the wonder of the island infantry.

Six long weeks were taken in these preparations, and it was
close on Martinmas ere all was ready for a start. Nigh two124

THE WHITE COMPANY.

months had Alleyne Edricson been in Castle Twynham—
months which were fated to turn the whole current of his life,
to divert it from that dark and lonely bourne towards which it
tended, and to guide it into freer and more sunlit channels.
Already he had learned to bless his father for that wise provis-
ion which had made him seek to know the world ere he had
ventured to renounce it.

For it was a different place from that which he had pictured
—very different from that which he had heard described when
the master of the novices held forth to his charges upon the
ravening wolves who lurked for them beyond the peaceful folds
of Beaulieu. There was cruelty in it, doubtless, and lust and sin
and sorrow ; but were there not virtues to atone, robust positive
virtues which did not shrink from temptation, which held their
own in all the rough blasts of the work-a-day world ? How
colorless by contrast appeared the sinlessness which came from
inability to sin, the conquest which was attained by flying from
the enemy! Monk-bred as he was, Alleyne had n tive shrewd-
ness and a mind which was young enough to form new conclu-
sions and to outgrow old ones. He could not fail to see that the
men with whom he was thrown in contact, rough-tongued, fierce
and quarrelsome as they were, were yet of deeper nature and of
more service in the world than the ox-eyed brethren who rose
and ate and slept from year's end to year's end in their own nar-
row, stagnant circle of existence. Abbot Berghersh was a good
man, but how was he better than this kindly knight, who lived
as simple a life, held as lofty and inflexible an ideal of duty,
and did with all his fearless heart whatever came to his hand to
do ? In turning from the service of the one to that of the other,
Alleyne could not feel that he was lowering his aims in life.
True that his gentle and thoughtful nature recoiled from the
grim work of war, yet in those days of martial orders and mili-
tant brotherhoods there was no gulf fixed betwixt the priest
and the soldier. The man of God and the man of the sword
might without scandal be united in the same individual. Why
then should he, a mere clerk, have scruples when so fair a
chance lay in his way of carrying out the spirit as well as the
letter of his father's provision. Much struggle it cost him,
anxious spirit-questionings and midnight prayings, with many a
doubt and a misgiving; but the issue was that ere he had been
three days in Castle Twynham he had taken service under SirTHE WHITE COMPANY.

125

Nigel, and had accepted horse and harness, the same to be paid
for out of his, share of the profits of the expedition. Henceforth
for seven hours a day he strove in the tilt-yard to qualify himself
to be a worthy squire to so worthy a knight. Young, supple and
active, with all the pent energies from years of pure and healthy
living, it was not long before he could manage his horse and his
weapon well enough to earn an approving nod from critical
men-at-arms, or to hold his own against Terlake and Ford, his
fellow-servitors.

But were there no other considerations which swayed him from
the cloisters towards the world ? So complex is the human spirit
that it can itself scarce discern the deep springs which impel it
to action. Yet to Alleyne had been opened now a side of life of
which he had been as innocent as a child, but one which was of
such deep import that it could not fail to influence him in choos-
ing his path. A woman, in monkish precepts, had been the
embodiment and concentration of what was dangerous and evil—
a focus whence spread all that was to be dreaded and avoided.
So defiling was their presence that a true Cistercian might not
raise his eyes to their face or touch their finger-tips under ban of
church and fear of deadly sin. Yet here, day after day for an
hour after nones, and for an hour before vespers, he found himself
in close communion with three maidens, all young, all fair, and
all therefore doubly dangerous from the monkish standpoint.
Yet he found that in their presence he was conscious of a quick
sympathy, a pleasant ease, a ready response to all that was most
gentle and best in himself, which filled his soul with a vague
and new-found joy.

And yet the Lady Maude Loring was no easy pupil to handle.
An older and more world-wise man might have been puzzled by
her varying moods, her sudden prejudices, her quick resent-
ment at all constraint and authority. Did a subject interest her,
was there space in it for either romance or imagination, she
would fly through it with her subtle, active mind, leaving her
two fellow-students and even her teacher toiling behind her.
On the other hand, were there dull patience needed with steady
toil and strain of memory, no single fact could by any driving
be fixed in her mind. Alleyne might talk to her of the stories
of old gods and heroes, of gallant deeds and lofty aims, or he
might hold forth upon moon and stars, and let his fancy wan-
der over the hidden secrets of the universe, and he would have126

THE WHITE COMPANY.

a wrapt listener with flushed cheeks and eloqwit eyes, who
could repeat after him the very words which had fallen from his
lips. But when it came to almagest and astrolabe, the count-
ing of figures and reckoning of epicycles, away would go her
thoughts to horse and hound, and a vacant eye and listless face
would warn the teacher that he had lost his hold upon his
scholar. Then he had but to bring out the old romance book
from the priory, with befingered cover of sheepskin and gold
letters upon a purple ground, to entice her wayward mind back
to the paths of learning.

At times, too, when the wild fit was upon her, she would
break into pertness and rebel openly against Alleyne's gentle
firmness. Yet he would jog quietly on with his teachings, tak-
ing no heed to her mutiny, until suddenly she would be con-
quered by his patience, and break into self-revilings a hundred
times stronger than her fault demanded. It chanced however
that, on one of these mornings when the evil mood was upon
her, Agatha the young tire-woman, thinking to please her mis-
tress, began also to toss her head and make tart rejoinder to
the teacher's questions. In an instant the Lady Maude had
turned upon her two blazing eyes and a face which was blanched
with anger.

"You would dare !" said she. "You would dare!" The
frightened tire-woman tried to excuse herself. " But my fair
lady," she stammered, " what have I done ? I have said no
more than I heard." ,

"You would dare!" repeated the lady in a choking voice.
" You, a graceless baggage, a foolish lack-brain, with no thought
above the hemming of shifts. And he so kindly and hendy and
long-suffering ! You would—ha, you may well flee the room ! "
She had spoken with a rising voice, and a clasping and open-
ing of her long white fingers, so that it was no marvel that ere
the speech was over the skirts of Agatha were whisking round
the door and the click of her sobs to be heard dying swiftly away
down the corridor.

Alleyne stared open-eyed at this tigress who had sprung so
suddenly to his rescue. " There is no need for such anger," he
said mildly. "The maid's words have done me no scath. It is
you yourself who have erred."

"I know it," she cried, " I am a most wicked woman. But itTHE WHITE COMPANY.

127

is bad enough that one should misuse you. Ma foi ! I will
see that there is not a second one."

Nay, nay, no one has misused me," he answered. " But the
fault lies in your hot and bitter words. You have called her a
baggage and a lack-brain, and I know not what."

" And you are he who taught me to speak the truth," she
cried. "Now I have spoken it, and yet I cannot please you.
Lack-brain she is, and lack-brain I shall call her."

Such was a sample of the sudden janglings which marred the
peace of that little class. As the weeks passed, however, they
became fewer and less violent, as Alleyne's firm and constant
nature gained sway and influence over the Lady Maude. And
yet, sooth to say, there were times when he had to ask himself
whether it was not the Lady Maude who was gaining sway and
influence over him. If she were changing, so was he. In
drawing her up from the world, he was day by day being him-
self dragged down towards it. In vain he strove and reasoned
with himself as to the madness of letting his mind rest upon Sir
Nigel's daughter. What was he—a younger son, a penniless
clerk, a squire unable to pay for his own harness—that he
should dare to raise his eyes to the fairest maid in Hampshire ?
So spake reason ; but, in spite of all, her voice was ever in his
ears and her image in his heart. Stronger than reason, stronger
than cloister teachings, stronger than all that might hold him
back, was that old, old tyrant who will brook no rival in the
kingdom of youth.

And yet it was a surprise and a shock to himself to find how
deeply she had entered into his life ; how completely those vague
ambitions and yearnings which had filled his spiritual nature
centred themselves now upon this thing of earth. He had scarce
dared to face the change which had come upon him, when a few
sudden chance words showed it all up hard and clear, like a
lightning flash in the darkness.

He had ridden over to Poole, one November day, with his
fellow-squire, Peter Terlake, in quest of certain yew-staves from
Wat Swathling, the Dorsetshire armorer. The day for their
'departure had almost come, and the two youths spurred it over
the lonely downs at the top of their speed on their homeward
course, for evening had fallen and there was much to be done.
Peter was a hard, wiry, brown-faced, country-bred lad, who
looked on the coming war as the schoolboy looks on his holidays.128

THE WHITE COMPANY.

This day, however, he had been sombre and mute, with scarce

a word a mile to bestow upon his comrade.

"Tell me Alleyne Edricson," he broke out, suddenly, as they
clattered along the winding track which leads over the Bourne-
mouth hills,-"has it not seemed to you that of late the"Lady
Maude is paler and more silent than is her wont ? "

" It may be so," the other answered shortly.

" And would rather sit distrait by her oriel than ride gayly to
the chase as of old. Methinks, Alleyne, it is this learning which
you have taught her that has taken all the life and sap from her.
It is more than she can master, like a heavy spear to a light
rider."

"Her lady-mother has so ordered it," said Alleyne.

" By our Lady ! and withouten disrespect," quoth Terlake, " it
is in my mind that her lady-mother is more fitted to lead a com-
pany to 2i storming than to have the upbringing of this tender
and milk-white maid. Hark ye, lad Alleyne, to what I never
told man or woman yet. I love the fair Lady Maude, and would
give the last drop of my heart's blood to serve her. He. spoke
with a gasping voice, and his face flushed crimson in the moon-
light.

Alleyne said nothing, but his heart seemed to turn to a lump
of ice in his bosom.

" My father has broad acres," the other continued, " from
Fareham Creek to the slope of the Portsdown Hill. There is
filling of granges, hewing of wood, malting of grain, and herd-
ing of sheep as much as heart could wish, and I the only son.
Sure am I that Sir Nigel would be blithe at such a match."

" But how of the lady ? " asked Alleyne, with dry lips.

" Ah, lad, there lies my trouble. It is a toss of the head and
a droop of the eyes if I say one word of what is in my mind.
'Twere as easy to woo the snow-dame that we shaped last winter
in our castle yard. I did but ask her yesternight for her green
veil, that I might bear it as a token or lambrequin upon my helm ;
but she flashed out at me that she kept it for a better man, and
then all in a breath , asked pardon for that she had spoke so rudely.
Yet she would not take back the words either, nor would she
grant the veil. Has it seemed to thee, Alleyne, that she loves
any one ? "

" Nay, I cannot say," said Alleyne, with a wild throb of sudden
hope in his heart.THE WHITE COMPANY.

I29

" I have thought so, and yet I cannot name the man. Indeed,
save myself, and Walter Ford, and you, who are half a clerk, and
Father Christopher of the Priory, and Bertrand the page, who is
there whom she sees ? "

"I cannot tell," quoth Alleyne shortly; and the two squires
rode on again, each intent upon "his own thoughts.

Next day at morning lessen the teacher observed that his?
pupil was indeed looking pale and jaded, with listless eyes and a
weary manner. He was heavy-hearted to note the grievous
change in her.

" Your mistress, I fear, is ill, Agatha," he said to the tire^
woman, when the Lady Maude had sought her chamber.

The maid looked aslant at him with laughing eyes. "It is
not an illness that kills," quoth she.	V

" Pray God not! " he cried. " But tell me, Agatha, what it is
that ails her ? "

" Methinks that I could lay my hand upon another who. is
smitten with the same trouble," said she, with the same sidelong
look. . "Canst not give a name to it, and thou so skilled ia ?
ieech-craft ? "

" Nay, save that she seems aweary."

" Well, bethink you that it is but three days ere you will all be
gone, and Castle Twynham be as dull as the Priory. Is there
not enough there to cloud a lady's brow ? "

"In sooth, yes," he answered ; «I had forgot that she is about
to lose her father."

" Her father! " cried the tire-woman, with a little trill of
laughter. "Oh simple, simple !" And she was off down the
passage like arrow from bow, while Alleyne stood gazing after
her, betwixt hope and doubt, scarce daring to put faith in the

meaning which seemed to underlie her words.

'■*

CHAPTER XIII.

how the white company set forth to the wars.

St. Luke's day had come and had gone, and it was in the
season ofMar-tinmas, when the oxen are drivenin to the slaughter,
that the White Company was ready for its journey. Loud
shrieked the brazen bugles from keep and from gateway, and

9THE WHITE COMPANY.

merry was the rattle of the war-drum, as the men gathered in
the outer bailey, with torches to light them, for the morn had
not yet broken. Alleyne, from the window of the armory, looked
down upon the strange scene—-the circles of yellow flickering
light, the lines of stern and bearded faces, the quick shimmer of
arms, and the lean heads of the horses. In front stood the bow-
men, ten deep, with a fringe of under-officers, who paced hither
and thither marshalling the ranks with curt precept or short re-
buke. Behind were the little clump of steel-clad horsemen, their
lances raised, with long pensils drooping down the oaken shafts.
So silent and still were they, that they might have been metal-
sheathed statues, were it not for the occasional quick, impatienf
stamp of their chargers, or the rattle of chamfron against neck-
plates as they tossed and strained. A spear's length in front of
them sat the spare and long-limbed figure of Black Simon, the
Korwich fighting man, his fierce, deep-lined face framed in steel,
and the silk guidon marked with the five scarlet roses slanting
over his right shoulder. All round, in the edge of the circle of
the light, stood the castle servants, the soldiers who were to
form the garrison, and little knots of women, who sobbed in
their aprons and called shrilly to their name-saints to watch
Jover the Wat, or Will, or Peterkin who had turned his hand to
the work of war.

The young squire was leaning forward, gazing at the stirring
and martial scene, when he heard a short, quick gasp at his
shoulder, and there was the Lady Maude, with her hand to her
heart, leaning up against the wall, slender and fair, like a half-
plucked lily. Her face was turned away from him, but he could
see, by the sharp intake of her breath, that she was weeping
bitterly.

- " Alas ! alas ! " he cried, all unnerved at the sight, " why is it
that you are so sad, lady ? "

"It is the sight of these brave men," she^answered ; " and to
think how many of them go and how few are like to find their
way back. I have seen it before, when I was a little maid, in
the year of the Prince's great battle. I remember then how the)
mustered in the bailey, even as they do now, and my lady-mothei
holding me in her arms at this very window that I might see the
show."

« Please God, you will see *hem all back ere another year be*
out," said he,THE WHITE COMPANY.

She shook her head, looking round at him with flushed cheeks
and eyes that sparkled in the lamp-light. " Oh, but I hate my-
self for being a woman ! " she cried, with a stamp of her little
foot. "What can I do that is good? Here I must bide, and
talk and sew and spin, and spin and sew and talk. Ever the
same dull round, with nothing at the end of it. And now you
are going too, who could carry my thoughts out of these gray
walls, and raise my mind above tapestry and distaffs. What can
I do ? I am of no more use or value than that broken bowstave."

" You are of such value to me," he cried, in a whirl of hot,
passionate words, "that all else has become nought. You are
my heart, my life, my one and only thought. Oh, Maude, I can-
not live without you, I cannot leave you without a word of love.
All is changed to me since I have known you. I am poor and
lowly and all unworthy of you ; but if great love may weigl^
down such defects, then mine may do it. Give me but one word
of hope to take to the wars with me—but one. Ah, you7shrink,
you shudder ! My wild words have frightened you."

Twice she opened her lips, and twice no sound came from
them. At last she spoke in a hard and measured voice, as one
Who dare not trust herself to speak too freely.	^

" "jfhis is over sudden," she said ; " it is not so long since the
world was nothing to you. You have changed once ; perchancet
you. may change again."

" Cruel ! " he cried, " who hath changed me ? "

And then your brother," she continued with a little laugh,
disregarding his question. " Methinks this hath become a
family custom amongst the Edricsons. Nay, I am sorry; I did
not mean a jibe. But, indeed, Alleyne, this hath come suddenly
upon me, and I scarce know what to say."

" Say some word of hope, however distant—some kind word
that I may cherish in my heart."

"Nay, Alleyne, it were a cruel kindness, ancj you have been
too good and true a friend to me that I should use you despite-
fully. There cannot be a closer link between us. It is mad-
ness to think of it. Were there no other reasons, it is enough
that my father and your brother would both cry out against it."

" My brother, what has he to do with it ? And your
father-"

"Come, Alleyne, was it not you who would have me act fairly
to all men, and, certes, to my father amongst them ? "132

THE WHITE COMPANY.

"You say truly," he cried, " you say truly. But you do not
reject me, Maude ? You give me some ray of hope ? I do not
ask pledge or promise. Say only that I am not hateful to you—
that on some happier day I may hear kinder words from you."

Her eyes softened upon him, and a kind answer was on her
lips, when a hoarse shout, with the clatter of arms and stamping
of steeds, rose up from the bailey below. At the sound her face
set. her eyes sparkled, and she stood with flushed cheek and
head thrown back—a woman's body, with a soul of fire.

" My father hath gone down," she cried. " Your place is by
his side. Nay, look not at me, Alleyne. It is no time for dally-
ing. Win my father's love, and all may follow. It is when the
brave soldier hath done his devoir that he hopes for his reward.
Farewell, and may God be with you ! " She held out her white,
slim hand to him, but as he bent his lips over it she whisked
away and was gone, leaving in his outstretched hand the very
green veil for which poor Peter Terlake had craved in vain.
Again the hoarse cheering burst out from below, and he heard
the clang of the rising portcullis. Pressing the veil to his lips,,
he thrust it into the bosom of his tunic, and rushed as fast as
feet could bear him to arm himself and join the muster.

The raw morning had broken ere the hot spiced ale had *been
served round and the last farewell spoken. A cold wind blew
up from the sea and ragged clouds drifted swiftly across the sky.
The Christchurch townsfolk stood huddled about the Bridge of
Avon, the women pulling tight their shawls and the men swath-
ing themselves in their gaberdines, while down the winding path
from the castle came the van of the little army, their feet clang-
ing on the hard, frozen road. First came Black Simon with his
banner, bestriding a lean and powerful dapple-gray charger, as
hard and wiry and warwise as himself. After him, riding three
abreast, were nine men-at-arms, all picked soldiers, who had
followed the French wars before, and knew the marches of
Picardy as they" knew the downs of their native Hampshire.
They were armed to the. teeth with lance, sword, and mace, with
square shields notched at the upper right-hand corner to serve
as a spear-rest. For defence each man wore a coat of inter-
laced leathern thongs, strengthened at the shoulder, elbow, and
jipper arm with slips of steel. Greaves and knee-pieces were
also of leather backed by steel, and their gauntlets and shoes
were of iron plates, craftily jointed. So, with jingle of arms andTHE WHITE COMPANY.	13 3

clatter of hoofs, they rode across the Bridge of Avon, while the
burghers shouted lustily for the flag of the five roses and its
gallant guard.

Close at the heels of the horses came two-score archers,
bearded and burly, their round targets on their backs and their
long yellow bows, the most deadly weapon that the wit of man
had yet devised, thrusting forth from behind their shoulders.
From each man's girdle hung sword or axe, according to his
humor, and over the right hip there jutted out the leathern quiver
with its bristle of goose, pigeon, and peacock feathers. Behind
the bowmen strode two trumpeters blowing upon nakirs, and
,two drummers in parti-colored clothes. After them came
twenty-seven sumpter horses carrying tent-poles, cloth, spare
arms, spurs, wedges, cooking kettles, horse-shoes, bags of nails,
and the hundred other things which experience had shown to be
needful in a harried and hostile country. A white mule with
red trappings, led by a varlet, carried Sir Nigel's own napery
arid table comforts. Then came two-score more archers, ten
.more men-at-arms, and finally a rear guard of twenty bowmen,
with tig John towering in the front rank and the veteran Ayl-
ward marching by the side, his battered harness and faded sur-
. coat" in strange contrast with the snow-white jupons and shining
brigandines of his companions. A quick cross-fire of greetings
and questions and rough West Saxon jests flevi, from rank to
rank, or were bandied about betwixt the marching archers and
the gazing crowd. v-

- " Hoik, daffer Higginson !" cried Aylward, as he spied the
portly figure of the village innkeeper. "No more of thy nut-
brown, mon gar. We leave it behind us."

" By St. Paul, no ! " cried the other. " You take it with you.
Devil a drop have you left in the great kilderkin. It was time
for you to go."

" If your cask is leer, I warrant your purse is full, gaffer,"
shouted Hordle John. " See that you lay in good store of the
best for our home-coming."

" See that you keep your throat whole for the drinking of
. archer," cried a voice, and the crowd laughed at the rough
pleasantry.

" If you will warrant the beer, I will warrant the throat," said
John composedly.

" Close up the ranks!" cried Aylward. " En avant, mes134

THE WHITE COMPANY

enfants ! Ah, by my finger bones, there is my sweet Mary front
the Priory Mill ! Ma foi, but she is beautiful ! Adieu, Mary
ma chgrie ! Mon coeur est toujours & toi. Brace your belt, „
Watkins, man, and swing your shoulders as a free companion
should. By my hilt! your jerkins will be as dirty as mine ere
you clap eyes on Hengistbury Head again."

The company had marched to the turn of the road ere Sir
Nigel Loring rode out from the gateway, mounted on Pommers, .
his great black war-horse, whose ponderous footfall on the
wooden drawbridge echoed loudly from the gloomy arch which
spanned it. Sir Nigel was still in his velvet dress of peace,
with flat velvet cap of maintenance, and curling ostrich feather
clasped in a golden brooch. To his three squires riding behind ^
him it looked as though he bore the bird's egg as well as its ;
feather, for the back of his bald pate shone like a globe of ivory.
He bore no arms save the long and heavy sword which hung at^
his saddle-bow ; but Terlake carried in front of him the high
wivern-crested bassinet, Ford the heavy ash spear with swallow-^
tail pennon, while Alleyne was entrusted with the emblazoned
shield. The Lady Loring rode her palfrey at her lord's bridle- ^
arm, for she would see him as far as the edge of the forest, and #
ever and anon she turned her hard-lined face up wistfully to?**,
him and ran a questioning eye over his apparel and appoint-
ments.	-	;

"I trust that there is nothing forgot," she said, beckoning to
Alleyne to ride on her further side. " I trust him to you, Edric-
son. Hosen, shirts, cyclas, and under-jupons are in the brown
basket oil the left side of the mule. His^vine he takes hot when
the nights are cold, malvoisie or vernage, with as much spice as
would cover the thumb-nail. See that he hath a change
he come back hot from the tilting. There is goose-grease in a^
box, if the old scars ache at the turn of the weather. ^Let his
blankets be dry and-"

" Nay, my heart's life," the little knight interrupted, "trouble
not now about such matters. Why so pale and, wan, Edricson ?
Is it not enow to make a man's heart dance to see this noble
Company, such valiant men-at-arms, such lusty archers? By-
St. Paul ! I would be ill to please if I were not blithe to see the .
red roses flying at the head of so noble a following ! "

"The purse I have already given you, Edricson," continued
the lady. " There are in it twenty-three marks, one noble, threeTHE WHITE COMPANY.	135

shillings and fourpence, which is a great treasure for one man
to carry. And I pray you to bear in mind, Edricson, that he
hath two pair of shoes, those of red leather for common use, and
the others with golden toe-chains, which he may wear should
he chance to drink wine with the Prince or with Chandos."

" My sweet bird," said Sir Nigel, " I am right loth to part
from you, but we are now at the fringe of the forest, and it is
not right that I should take the chatelaine too far from her
trust."

" But oh, my dear lord," she cried with a trembling lip, " let
me bide with you for one furlong further—or one and a half
perhaps. You may spare me this out of the weary miles that
you will journey along."

"Come, then, my heart's comfort," he answered. "But I
ihust crave a gage from thee. It is my custom, dearling, and
•|iath been since I have first known thee, to proclaim by herald
in such camps, townships, or fortalices as*I may chance to visit,
that my lady-love, being beyond compare the fairest and
Sweetest in Christendom, I should deem it great honor and
kindly condescension if any cavalier would run three courses
against me with sharpened lances, should he chance to have a
lady whose claim he was willing to advance. I pray you then,
my fair dove, that you will vouchsafe to me one of those doeskin
gloves, that I may wear it as the badge of her whose servant T
shall ever be."

'"Alack and alas for the fairest and sweetest!" she cried.
"Fair and sweet I wojuld fain be for your dear sake, my lord,
but old I am and ugly, and the knights would laugh should you
lay lance in rest in such a cause."

" Edricson," quoth Sir Nigel, " you have young eyes, and
mine are somewhat bedimmed. Should you chance to see a
knight laugh, or smile, or even, look you, arch his brows, or
purse his mouth, or in any way show surprise that I should up-
hold the Lady Mary, you will take particular note of his name,
tiis coat-armor, and his lodging. Your glove, my life>
desire ! "	*

The Lady Mary Loring slipped her hand from her yellow
leather gauntlet, and he, lifting it with dainty reverence, bound
it to the front of his velvet cap.

" It is with mine other guardian angels," quoth he, pointing at
the saints' medals which hung beside it. " And now, my dear136	TtiE WHITE COMPANY.

est, you have come far enow. May the Virgin guard and
prosper thee ! One kiss !" He bent down from his saddle, and
then, striking spurs into his horse's sides, he galloped at top
speed after his men, with his three squires-at his heels. Haifa
mile further, where the road topped a hill, they looked bade,
and the Lady Mary on her white palfrey was still where they
had left her. A moment later they were on the downward slope,
and she had vanished from their view.

CHAPTER XIV.	\

. .

how sir nigel sought for a wayside venture.

For a time Sir Nigel was very moody and downcast, with bentv
brows and eyes upon the pommel of his saddle. Edricson and^
Terlake rode behind him in little better case, While Ford, a care-
less and light-hearted youth, grinned at- the melancholy of hije*
companions, and flourished his lord's heavy spear, making a point :
to right and a point to left, as though he were a paladin con-.
tending against a host of assailants. Sir Nigel happened, how-
ever, to turn himself in his saddle—Ford instantly became aif
stiff and as rigid as though he had been struck with a palsy.
The four rode alone, for the archers had passed a curve in the.
road, though Alleyne could still hear the heavy clump, clump of
their marching, or catch a glimpse of the sparkle of steel through
the tangle of leafless branches.

" Ride by my side, friends, I entreat of you,"said the knight,
reining in his steed that they might come abreast of him.
" For, since it hath pleased you to follow me to the wars, it were'
well that you should know how you may best serve me. I doubj^
not, Terlake, that you will show yourself a worthy son of a
valiant father; and you, Ford, of yours; and you, Edricson,
that you are mindful of the old-time house from which all men*
know that you are^ sprung. And first I would have you bear
very steadfastly in mind that our setting forth is by no means
for the purpose of gaining spoil or exacting ransom, though it
may well happen that such may come to us also. We go to
Franee, and from thence I trust to Spain, in humble search of a
field in which we may win advancement and perchance some
small share of glory. For this purpose I would have you knowTHE WHITE COMPANY.

137

tfrat it is not my wont to let any occasion pass where it is in any
way^possible that honor may be gained. I would have you bear
this in mind, and give great heed to it that you may bring me
.word of all cartels, challenges, wrongs, tyrannies, infamies, and
wronging of damsels. Nor is any occasion too small to taka
note of, for I have known such trifles as the dropping of a gaunt-
let, or the flicking of a breadcrumb, when well and properly fol-
lowed up, lead to a most noble spear-running. But, Edricson, do
I not see a cavalier who rides down yonder road amongst the
nether shaw ? It would be well, perchance, that you should give
him greeting from me. And, should he be of gentle blood,
M maybe that he wc/uld care to exchange thrusts with me."

v Why, my lord," quoth Ford, standing in his stirrups and
shading his eyes, "it is old Hob Davidson, the fat miller of
Milton ! "

" Ah, so it is, indeed," said Sir Nigel, puckering his cheeks ;
-but wayside ventures are not to be scorned, for I have seen no
finer passages than are to be had from such chance meetings,
when cavaliers are willing to advance themselves. I can well
remember that two leagues from the town of Rheims* ! met a very
valiant and courteous cavalier of France, with whom I had
gentle and most honorable contention for upwards of an hour.
It hath ever grieved me that I had not his name, for he smote upon
me with a mace and went uporl his way ere I was in condition to
have much speech with him ; but his arms were an allurion in
chief above a fess azure. I was also Bn such an occasion thrust
through the shoulder by Lyon de Montcourt, whom I met on
the high road betwixt Libourne and Bordeaux. I met him but
the once, but I have never seen a man for whom I bear a greater
love and esteem. And so also with the squire Le Bourg Capil-
let, who would have been a very valiant captain had he lived."

" He is dead then ? " asked Alleyne Edricson.

" Alas, ! it was my ill fate to slay him in a bickering which
broke out in a field near the township of Tarbes. I cannot call
to mind how the thing came about, for it was in the year of the
Prince's ride through Langued'oc, when there was much fine
skirmishing to be had at barriers. By St. Paul ! I do not think
that any honorable cavalier could ask for better chance, of ad-
vancement than might be had by spurring forth before the
army and riding to the gateways of Narbonne, or Bergerac,
pr Mont Giscar, where some courteous gentleman would ever ba138	THE WHITE COMPANY.

ut wait to do what he might to meet your wish or ease you\b*
your vow. Such a one at Ventadour ran three courses with me
betwixt daybreak and sunrise, to the great exaltation of his
lady."

" And did you slay him also, my lord?" asked Ford with
reverence.

" I could never learn, for he was carried within the barrier,
and as I had chanced to break the bone of my leg it was a great
unease for me to ride or even to stand. Yet, by the goodness of
heaven and the pious intercession of the valiant St. George, I was
able to sit my charger in the ruffle of Poictiers, which was no
very long time afterwards. But what have we here ? A very
fair and courtly maiden, or I mistake."	' ^

It was indeed a tall and buxom country lass, with a basket of
spinach-leaves upon her head, anefe^a,great slab of bacon tucked
under one arm. She bobbed a frightened curtsey as Sir Nig
swept his velvet hat from his head and reined up his great
charger.

"God be with thee, fair maiden ! " said he.	— -

" God guard thee, my lord ! " she answered, speaking in the
broadest West Saxon speech, and balancing herself first on one
foot and then on the other in her bashfulness.

"Fear not, my fair damsel," said Sir Nigel, " but tell me if
perchance a poor and most unworthy knight can in any wise be
of service to you. Should it chance that you have been used
despitefully, it may be that I may obtain justice for you."

"Lawk no, kind sir," she answered, clutching her bacon the;
lighter, as though some design upon it might be hid under this
knightly offer. " I be the milking wench o' fairmer Arnold, and
he be as kind a maister as heart could wish."

"It is well," said he, and with a shake of the bridle rode on
down the woodland path. " I would have you bear in mind," he
continued to his squires, "that gentle courtesy is not, as is the
base use of so many false knights, to be shown only to maidens
of high degree, for there is no woman so humble that a true
knight may not listen to her tale of wrong. But here comes a
cavalier who is indeed in haste. Perchance it would J}e well
that we should ask him whither he rides, for it may*be that he is
Dne who desires to advance himself in chivalry."	, ^

The bleak, hard, wind-swept road dipped down in front of
them into a little valley, and then, writhing up the heathy slopeTHE WHITE COMPANY.

139

upon the other side, lost itself among the gaunt pine-trees. Far
away between the black lines of trunks the quick glitter of steel
marked where the Company pursued its way. To the north
stretched the tree country, but to the south, between two swell-
ing downs, a glimpse might be caught of the cold gray shimmer
of the sea, with the white fleck of a galley sail upon the distant
sky-line. Just in front of the travellers a horseman was urging
his steed up the slope, driving it on with wThip and spur as one'
who rides for a set purpose. As he clattered up, Alleyne could
see that the roan horse was gray with dust and flecked with
foam, as though it had left many a mile behind it. The rider
was a stern-faced man, hard of mouth and dry of eye, with a
heavy sword clanking at his side, and a stiff white bundle
swathed in linen balanced across the pommel of his saddle.

"The king's messenger," he bawled as he came up to them.
«' The messenger of the king. Clear the causeway for the king's
own man."

" Not so loudly, friend," quoth the little knight, reining his
horse half round to bar the path. " I have myself been the
king's man for thirty years or more, but I have not been wont to
halloo about ii.gn a peaceful highway."

"I ride in his service," cried the other, "and I carry that
which belongs to him. You bar my path at your peril."

"Yet I have known the king's enemies claim to ride in his
name," said Sir Nigel. "The foul fiend may lurk beneath a
garment of light. We must have some sign or warrant of your
mission."

"Then must I hew a passage," cried the stranger, with his
shoulder braced round and his hand upon his hilt. " I am not
to be stopped on the king's service by every gadabout."

"Should you be a gentleman of quarterings and coat-armor,"
lisped Sir Nigel, " I shall be very blithe to go further into the
matter with you. If not, I have three very worthy squires, any
one o<* whom would take the thing upon himself, and debate it
with you in a very honorable way."

The man scowled from one to the'other, and his hand stole
away from his sword.

" You ask me for a sign," he said. " Here is a sign for you,
since you must have one." As he spoke he whirled the covering
from the object in front of him and showed to their horror that
it was a newly-severed human leg. " By God's tooth 1" he con-140	THE WHITE COMPANY.	>

tinued, with a brutal laugh, " you ask me if I am a man of quar«
terings, and it is even so, for I am officer to the verderer's court"
at Lyndhurst. This thievish leg is to hang at Milton, and the
other is already at Brockenhurst, as a sign to all men of what
comes of being over-fond of venison pasty."

" Faugh ! " cried Sir Nigel. " Pass on the other side of the
road, fellow, and let us have the wind of you. We shall trot
our horses, my friends, across this pleasant valley, for, by Our
Lady ! a breath of God's fresh air is right welcome after such %
sight."

" We hoped to snare a falcon," said he presently, " but we
netted a carrion-crow. Ma foi! but there are men whose hearts
are tougher than a boar's hide. For me, I have played the old
game of war since ever I had hair on my chin, and I have seen
ten thousand brave men in one day with their faces to the sky,
but I swear by Him who made me that I cannot abide the work
of the butcher."

"And yet, my fair lord," said Edricson, "there, has, from
what I hear, been much of such devil's work in France."

" Too much, too much," he answered. " But I have ever ob-
served that the foremost in the field are they wko would scorn to
mishandle a prisoner. By St. Paul ! it is not they who carry the
breach who are wont to sack the town, but the laggard knaves
who come crowding in when a way has be^en cleared for them.
But what is this among the trees ? "

"It is a shrine of Our Lady," said Terlake, "and a blind
beggar who lives by the alms of those who worship there."

" A shrine ! " cried the knight, " Then let us put up an ori-
son." Pulling off his cap, and clasping his hands, he chanted in
a shrill voice : " Benedictus dominus Deus meus, qui docet
manus meas ad proelium, et digitos meos ad bellum." A strange
figure he seemed to his three squires, perched on his huge horse,
with his eyes upturned and the wintry sun shimmering upon his
bald head. " It is a noble prayer," he remarked, putting on his
hat again, " and it was taught to me by the noble Chandos him-
self. But how fares it with you, father ? Methinks that I should
have ruth upon you, seeing that I am myself like one who looks
through a horn window while his neighbors have the clear crys-
tal. Yet, by St. Paul! there is a long stride between the man
who hath a horn casement and him who is walled in on every
hand."THE WHITE COMPANY.

141

« Alas ! fair sir," cried the blind old man, " I have not seen
the blessed blue of heaven this two-score years, since a levin
flash burned the sight out of my head."

" You have been blind to much that is goodly and fair," quoth
Sir Nigel, " but you have also been spared much that is sorry and
foul. This very hour our eyes have been shocked with that which
would have left you unmoved. But, by St. Paul ! we must on,
or our Company will think that they have lost their captain some-
what early in the venture. Throw the man my purse, Edricson,
and let us go."

Alleyne, lingering behind, bethought him of the Lady Loring's
counsel, and reduced the noble gift which the knight had so
freely bestowed to a single penny, which the beggar with many
mumbled blessings thrust away into his wallet. Then, spurring
his steed, the young squire rode at the top of his speed after his
companions, and overtook them just at the spot where the trees
fringe off into the moor and the straggling hamlet of Hordle lies
scattered on either side of the winding and deeply-rutted track.
The Company was already well-nigh through the village ; but,
as the knight and his squires closed up upon them, they heard
the clamor of a strident voice, followed by a roar of deep-chested
laughter trom the ranks of the archers. Another minute brought
them up with the rear-guard, where every man marched with his
beard on his shoulder and a face which was a-grin with merri-
ment. By the side of the column walked a huge red-headed
bowman, with his hands thrown out in argument and expostula-
tion, while close at his heels followed a little wrinkled woman,
who poured forth a shrill volley of abuse, varied by an occasional
thwack from her stick, given with all the force of her body, though
she might have been beating one of the forest trees for all the
effect that she seemed likely to produce.

" I trust, Aylward," said Sir Nigel gravely, as he rode up,
" that this doth not mean that any violence hath been offered
to women. If such a thing happened, I tell you that the man
shall hang, though he were the best archer that ever wore
brassart."

" Nay, my fair lord," Aylward answered with a grin, " it is
violence which is offered to a man. He comes from Hordle, and
this is his mother who hath come forth to welcome him."

" You rammucky lurden," she was howling, with a blow be-
tween each catch of her breath, 41 you shammocking, yaping,142

THE WHITE COMPANY.

over-long good-for-nought. I will teach thee ! I will baste
thee ! Aye, by my faith ! "

" Whist, mother," said John, looking back at her from the
tail of his eye, " I go to France as an archer to give blows and
to take them."

"To France, quotha?" cried the old dame. "Bide here
with me, and I shall warrant you more blows than you are like
to get in France. If blows be what you seek, you need not go
further than Hordle."

"By my hilt ! the good dame speaks truth/' said Aylward.
" It seems to be the very home of them."

" What have you to say, you clean-shaved galley-beggar ? "
cried the fiery dame, turning upon the archer. " Can I not
speak with my own son but you must let your tongue clack ?
A soldier, quotha, and never a hair on his face. I have seen a
better soldier with pap for food and swaddling clothes for har-
ness."

"Stand to it, Aylward," cried the archers, amid a fresh burst
of laughter.

" Do not thwart her, comrade," said big John. "She hath a
proper spirit for her years and cannot abide to be thwarted. It
is kindly and homely to me to hear her voice and to feel that she
is behind me. But I must leave you now, mother, for the way
is over-rough for your feet; but I will bring you back a silken
gown, if there be one in France or Spain, and I will bring Jinny
a silver penny; so good-bye to you, and God have you in His
keeping ! " Whipping up the little woman, he lifted her lightly
to his lips, and then, taking his place in the ranks again, marched
on with the laughing Company.

"That was ever his way," she cried, appealing to Sir Nigel,
who reined up his horse and listened with the greatest courtesy.
" He would jog on his own road for all that I could do to change
him. First he must be a monk forsooth, and all because a
wench was wise enough to turn her back on him. Then he
joins a rascally crew and must needs trapse off to the wars, and
me with no one to bait the fire if I be out, or tend the cow if I be
home. Yet I have been a good mother to him. Three hazel
switches a day have I broke across his shoulders, and he takes no
more notice than you have seen him to-day."

" Doubt not that he will come back to you both safe and pros-
perous, my fair dame," quoth Sir Nigel. " Meanwhile it grievesTHE WHITE COMPANY.

H3

me that as I have already given my purse to a beggar up the
road I-"

" Nay, my lord," said Alleyne, " I still have some moneys
remaining."

" Then I pray you to give them to this very worthy woman."
He cantered on as he spoke, while Alleyne, having dispensed
two more pence, left the old dame standing by the furthest cot-
tage of Hordle, with her shrill voice raised in blessings instead
of revilings.

There were two cross-roads before they reached the Lyming-
ton Ford, and at each of then Sir Nigel pulled up his horse, and
waited with many a curvet and gambade, craning his neck this
way and that to see if fortune would send him a venture. Cross-
roads had, as he explained, been rare places for knightly spear-
runnings, and in his youth it was no uncommon thing for a
cavalier to abide for weeks at such a point, holding gentle de-
bate with all comers, to his own advancement and the great
honor of his lady. The times were changed, however, and the
forest tracks wound away from them deserted and silent, with
no trample of war-horse or clang of armor which might herald
the approach of an adversary—so that Sir Nigel rode on his way
disconsolate. At the Lymington River they splashed through
the ford, and lay in the meadows on the further side to eat the
bread and salt meat which they carried upon the sumpter horses.
Then, ere the sun was on the slope of the heavens, they had
deftly trussed up again, and were swinging merrily upon their
way, two hundred feet moving like two.

There is a third cross-road where the track from Boldre runs
down to the old fishing village of Pitt's Deep. Down this, as
they came abreast of it, there walked two men, the one a pace
or two behind the other. The cavaliers could not but pull up
their horses to look at them, for a stranger pair were never seen
journeying together. The first was a misshapen, squalid man
with cruel, cunning eyes and a shock of tangled red hair, bearing
in his hands a small unpainted cross, which he held high so
that all men might see it. He seemed to be in the last extremity
of fright, with a face the color of clay and his limbs all ashake
as one who hath an ague. Behind him, with his toe ever rasping
upon the other's heels, there walked a very stern, black-bearded
man with a hard eye and a set mouth. He bore over his shoulder
a great knotted stick with three jagged nails stuck in the head144

THE WHITE COMPANY.

of it, and from time to time he whirled it up in the air with a
quivering arm, as though he could scarce hold back from dash*
ing his companion's brains out. So in silence they walked under
the spread of the branches on the grass-grown path from Bold re.

"By St. Paul'." quoth the knight, "but this is a passing
strange sight, and perchance some very perilous and honorable
venture may arise from it. I pray you, Edricson, to ride up to
them and to ask them the cause of it."

There was no need, however, for him to move, for the twain
came swiftly towards them until they were within a spear's
length, when the man with the cross sat himself down sullenly
upon a tussock of grass by the wayside, while the other stood
beside him with his great cudgel still hanging over his head.
So intent was he that he raised his eyes neither to knight nor
squires, but kept them ever fixed with a savage glare upon his
comrade.

" I pray you, friend," said Sir Nigel, " to tell us truthfully
who you are, and why you follow this man with such bitter
enmity ?

" So long as I am within the pale of the king's law," the
stranger answered, " I cannot see why I should render account to
every passing wayfarer."

" You are no very shrewd reasoner, fellow," quoth the knight ;
" for if it be within the law for you to threaten him with your
club, then it is also lawful for me to threaten you with my
sword."

The man with the cross w^is down in an instant on his knees
upon the ground, with hands clasped above him and his face
shining with hope. "For dear Christ's sake, my fair lord," he
cried in a crackling voice, " I have at my belt a bag with a hun-
dred rose nobles, and I will give it to you freely if you will but
pass your sword through this man's body."

" How, you foul knave ? " exclaimed Sir Nigel hotly. " Do
you think that a cavalier's arm is to be bought like a packman's
ware. By St. Paul ! I have little doubt that this fellow hath
some very good cause to hold you in hatred."

" Indeed, my fair sir, you speak sooth," quoth he with the club,
while the other seated himself once more by the wayside. " For
this man is Peter Peterson, a very noted rieve, draw-latch, and
murtherer, who has wrought much evil for many years in the
parts about Winchester. It was but the other day, upon thetHE WHITE COMPANY.

145

feasts of the blessed Simon and Jude, that he slew my younger
brother William in Bere Forest—for which, by the black thorn
of Glastonbury! T shall have his heart's blood, though I walk
behind him to the further end of earth."

"But if this be indeed so," asked Sir Nigel, " why is it that
you h^ve come with him so far through the forest ?"

" Because I am an honest Englishman, and will take no more
than the law,allows. For when the deed was done this foul
and base wretch fled to sanctuary at St. Cross, and I, as you
may think, after him with all the posse. The prior, however,,
hath so ordered that while he holds this cross no man may lay
hand upon him without the ban of church, which heaven forfend
from me or mine. Yet, if for an instant he lay the cross aside,
or if he fail to journey to Pitt's Deep, where it is ordered that he
shall take ship to outland parts, or if he take not the first ship,
or if until the ship be ready he walk not every day into the sea
as far as his loins, then he becomes outlaw, and I shall forth-
with dash out his brains."

. At this the man on the ground snarled up at him like a rat,
while the other clenched his teeth, and shook his club, and
looked down at him with murder in his eyes. Knight and squire
gazed from rogue to avenger, but as it was a matter which none
could mend they tarried no longer/but rode upon their way.
Alleyne, looking back, saw that the murderer had drawn bread
and cheese from his scrip, and was silently munching it, with
the protecting cross still hugged to his breast, while the other,
black and grim, stood in the sunlit road and threw his dark
shadow athwart him.

CHAPTER XV.

how the yellow cog sailed forth from lepe.

That night the Company slept at St. Leonard's, in the great
monastic barns and spicarium—ground well known both to
Alleyne and to John, for they were almost within sight of the
Ab^ey of Beaulieu. A strange thrill it gave to the young squire
to see the well-remembered white dress once more, and to hear
the measured tolling of the deep vespers bell. At early dawn
they passed across the broad, sluggish, reed-girt stream—men,
10146

THE WHITE COMPANY!

horses, and baggage in the flat ferry barges—and so journeyed
on through the fresh morning air past Exbury to Lepe. Top-
ping the heathy down, they came of a sudden full in sight of the
old sea-port—a cluster of houses, a trail of blue smoke, and a
bristle of masts. To right and left the long blue curve of the
Solent lapped in a fringe of foam upon the yellow beach. Some
way out from the town a line of pessoners, creyers, and other
small craft were rolling lazily on the gentle swell. Further out
still lay a great merchant-ship, high ended, deep waisted,
painted of a canary yellow, and towering above the fishing-boats
like a swan among ducklings.	1

" By St. Paul!" said the knight, " our good merchant of
Southampton hath not played us false, for methinks I can see
our ship down yonder. He said that she would be of great size
and of a yellow shade."

" By my hilt, yes ! " muttered Aylward ; " she is yellow as a
kite's claw, and would carry as many men as there are pips in a
pomegranate."

" It is as well," remarked /Terlake ; " for methinks, my fair
lord, that we are not the only ones who are waiting a passage
to Gascony. Mine eye catches at times a flash and sparkle
among yonder houses which assuredly never came from ship-
man's jacket oi: the gaberdine of a burgher."

" I can also see it," said Alleyne, shading his eyes with his
hand. " And I can see men-at-arms in yonder boats which ply
betwixt the vessel and the shore. But methinks that we are
very welcome here, for already tljey come forth to meet us."

A tumultuous crowd of fishermen, citizens, and women had
indeed swarmed out from the northern gate, and approached
them up the side of the moor, waving their hands and dancing
with joy, as though a great fear had been rolled back from their
minds. At their.head rode a very large and solemn man with
a long chin and a drooping lip. He wore a fur tippet round his
neck and a heavy gold chain over it, with a medallion which
dangled in front of him.

" Welcome, most puissant and noble lord," he cried, doffing
his bonnet to Black Simon. " I have heard of your lordship's
valiant deeds, and in sooth they might be expected from your
lordship's face and bearing. Is there any small matter in whfch ;
I may oblige you ? "

"Since you ask me," said the man-at-arms, "I would take itTHE WHITE COMPANY.

147

kindly Sf you could spare a link or two of the chain which hangs
round your neck."

" What, the corporation chain !" cried the other in horror.
««The ancient chain of the township of Lepe ! This is but a
sorry jest, Sir Nigel."

" What the plague did you ask me for then ? " said Simon.
«• But if it is Sir Nigel Loring with whom you would speak, that
is he upon the black horse."

The Mayor of Lepe gazed with amazement on the mild face
and slender frame of the famous warrior.

" Your pardon, my gracious lord," he cried. "You see in
me the mayor and chief magistrate of the ancient and powerful
town of Lepe. I bid you very heartily welcome, and the more
so as you are come at a moment when we are sore put to it for
means of.defence."

" Ha! " cried Sir Nigel, pricking up his ears.

" Yes, my lord, for the town being very ancient and the walls
as old as the town, it follows that they are very ancient too.
But there is a certain villainous and bloodthirsty Norman pirate
hight Tgte-noire, who, with a Genoan called Tito Caracci, com-
monly known as Spade-beard, hath been a mighty scourge upon
these coasts. Indeed, my lord, they are very cruel and black-
hearted men, graceless and ruthless, and if they should come to
the ancient and powerful town of Lepe then—"

"Then good-bye to the ancient and powerful town of Lepe,"
quoth Ford, whose lightness of tongue could at times rise above
his awe of Sir Nigel.

The knight, however, was too much intent upon the matter in
hand to give heed to the flippancy of his squire. "Have you
then cause," he asked, " to think that these men are about to
venture an attempt upon you ? "

"They have come in two great galleys," answered the mayor,
" with two bank of oars on either side, and great store of engines
of war and of men-at-arms. At Weymouth and at Portland
they have murdered and ravished. Yesterday morning they
were at Cowes, and we saw the smoke from the burning crofts.
To-day they lie at their ease near Freshwater, and we fear much
lest they come upon us and do us a mischief."

" We cannot tarry," said Sir Nigel, riding towards the town,
with the mayor upon his left side; " the Prince awaits us at
Bordeaux, and we may not be behind general muster* Y&i148	THE WHITE COMPANY.	1

I will promise you ihat on our way we shall find time to pass
Freshwater and to prevail upon these rovers to leave you in
peace."

" We are much beholden to you ! " cried the mayor. " But I
cannot see, my lord, how, without a war-ship, you may venture
against these men. With your archers, however, you might
well hold the town and do them great scath if they attempt to
land."

" There is a very proper cog out yonder," said Sir Nigel; " it
would be a very strange thing if any ship were not a war-ship
when it had such men as these upon her decks. Certes, we
shall do as I say, and that no later than this very day."

" My lord," said a rough-haired, dark-faced man, who walked
by the knight's other stirrup, with his head sloped to catch all
that he was saying. «« By your leave, I have no doubt that you
are skilled in land fighting and the marshalling of lances, but,
"by my soul! you will find it another thing upon the sea. I am
the master-shipman of this yellow cog, and my name is Goodwin
Hawtayne. I have sailed since I was as high as this staff, and
I have fought against these Normans and against the Genoese,
as well as the Scotch, the Bretons, the Spanish, and the Moors.
I tell you, sir, that my ship is over light and over frail for such
work, and it will but end in our having our throats cut, or being
sold as slaves to the Barbary heathen."

" I also have experienced one or two gentle and honorable
ventures upon the sea," quoth Sir Nigel, " and I am right blithe
to have so fair a task before us. I think, good master-shipman,
that you and I may win great honor in this matter, and I can
see very readily that you are a brave and stout man."

" I like it not," said the other sturdily. "In God's name, I
like it not. And yet Goodwin Hawtayne is not the man to stand
back when his fellows are for pressing forward. By my soul 1
be it sink or swim, I shall turn her beak into Freshwater Bay,
and if good Master Witherton, of Southampton, like not my
handling of his ship then he may find another master-shipman."

They were close by the old north gate of the little town, and
Alleyne, half turning in his saddle, looked back at the motley
crowd who followed. The bowmen and men-at-arms had broken
their ranks and were intermingled with the fishermen and
citizens, whose laughing faces and hearty gestures bespoke the
weight Qf care from whieh this welcome arrival had relievedTHE WHITE COMPANY.

149

them. Here and there among the moving throng of dark jer-
kins and of white surcoals were scattered dashes of scarlet and
blue, Jhe whimples or shawls of the women. Aylward, with a
fishing lass on either arm, was vowing constancy alternately to
her on the right and her on the left, while big lohn towered in
the rear with a little chubby maiden enthroned upon his great
shoulder, her soft white arm curled roun$ his shining headpiece.
So the throng moved on, until at the very gate it was brought to
a stand by a wondrously fat man, who came darting forth from
the town with rage in every feature of his rubicund face.

"How now, Sir Mayor?" he roared, in a voice like a feull.
" How now, Sir Mayor ? How of the clams and the scallops ? "
''By Our Lady ! my sweet Sir Oliver,'" cried the mayor. " I
have had so much to think of, with these wicked villains so close
upon us, that it had quite gone out of my head."

" Words, words ! " shouted the other furiously. " Am 1 to be
put off with words ? I say to you again, how of the clams and
scallops ?"	-

"My fair sir, you flatter me," cried the mayor. "I am a
peaceful trader, and I am not wont to be so shouted at upon
so small a matter."

" Small ! " shrieked the other. " Small ! Clams and scallops 1
Ask me to your table to partake of the dainty of the town, and
when I come a barren welcome and a bare board 1 Where is
my spear-bearer ? "

"Nay, Sir Oliver, Sir Oliver!" cried Sir Nigel, laughing.
" Let your anger be appeased, since instead of this dish you
come upon an old friend and comrade." ^

"By St. Martin of Tours !" shouted the fat knight, his wrath
all changed in an in§tant to joy, " if it is not my dear little game
rooster of the Garonne. Ah, my sweet coz, I am right glad to
see you. What days we have seen together !"

" Aye, by my faith," cried Sir I^igel, with sparkling eyes, " We
have seen some valiant men, and we have shown our pennons
in some noble skirmishes. By St. Paul ! we have had great joys
in France."

" And sorrows also," quoth the other. " I have some sad
memories of the land. Can you recall that which befell us at
Libourne ? " *

" Nay, I cannot call to mind that we ever so much as drew
sword at the place."THE WHITE COMPANY.

^ " Man, man," cried Sir Oliver, " your mind still runs on
nought but blades and bassinets. Ha^t no space in thy frame
' for the softer joys. Ah, even now I can scarce speak of it
unmoved. So noble a pie, such tender pigeons, and sugar in
the gravy instead of salt ! You were by my side that day, as
were Sir Claud^ Latour and the Lord of Pommers."

" I remember it," s^id Sir Nigel, laughing, "and how you
harried the cook down the street, and spoke of setting fire to the
inn. By St. Paul ! most worthy mayor, my old friend is a per-
ilous man, and I rede you that you compose your difference with
him*on such terms as you may."

" The clams and scallops shall be ready within the hour," the
mayor answered. "I had asked Sir Oliver Buttesthorn to do
my humble board the honor to partake at it of the dainty upon
which we take some little pride, but in sooth this alarm of
pirates hath cast .such a shadow on my wits that I am like one
distrait. But I trust, Sir Nigel, that you will also partake of
none-meat with me ? "

" I have overmuch to do," Sir Nigel answered, " for we must
be aboard, horse and man, as early as we may. How many do
you muster, Sir Oliver ? "

" Three and forty. The forty are drunk, and the three are
but indifferent sober. I have them all safe upon the ship."

" They had best find their wits again, for I shall have work
for every man of them ere the sun set. It is my intention, if it
seems good to you, to try a venture against these Norman and
Genoese rovers."

" They carry caviare and certain very noble spices from the
Levant aboard of ships from Genoa," quoth Sir Oliver. " We
may come to great profit through the busjness. I pray you,
master-shipman, that when you go on board you pour a helmet-
ful of sea-water over any of my rogues whom you may see there."

^Leaving the lusty knight and the Mayor of Lepe, Sir Nigel led
the Company straight down to the water's edge, where long
lines of flat lighters swiftly bore them to their vessel. Horse
after horse was slung by main force up from the barges, and
after kicking and plunging in empty air was dropped into the
deep waist of the yellow cog, where rows of stalls stood ready
for their safe keeping. Englishmen in those days were skilled
and prompt in such matters, for it was so not long before that
Edward had embarked as many as fifty thousai>d men in theTHE WHITE COMPANY.

port of Orwell, with their horses and their baggage, all in the
space of four-and-twenty hours. So urgent was Sir Nigel on
the shore, and so prompt was Goodwin Hawtayne on the cog,
that Sir Oliver Buttesthorn had scarce swallowed his last scallop
ere the peal of the trumpet and clang of nakir announced that
all was ready and the anchor drawn. In the last boat which
left the shore the two commanders sat together in the sheets, a
strange contrast to one another, while under the feet of the
rowers was a litter of huge stones which Sir Nigel had ordered
to be carried to the cog. These once aboard, the ship set her
broad mainsail, purple in color, and with a golden St. Chris-
topher bearing Christ upon his shoulder in the centre of it.
The breeze blew, the sail bellied, over heeled the portly vessel,
and away she plunged through the smooth blue rollers, amid the
clang of the minstrels on her poop and the shouting of the black
crowd who fringed the yellow beach. To the left lay the green
Island of Wight, with its long, low, curving hills peeping over
each others shoulders to the sky-line ; to the right the wooded
Hampshire coast as far as eye could reach ; above a steel-blue
heaven, with a wintry sun shimmering down upon them, and
enough of frost to set the breath a-smoking.

" By St. Paul! " said Sir Nigel gayly, as he stood upon the
poop and looked on either side of him, " it is a land which is
very well worth fighting for, and it were pity to go to France for
what may be had at home. Did you not spy a crooked man
upon the beach ? "

"Nay, I spied nothing," grumbled Sir Oliver, "for I was
hurried down with a clam stuck in my gizzard and an untasted
goblet of Cyprus on the board behind me."

"I saw him, my fair lord," said Terlake, "an old man with
one shoulder higher than the other."

•• 'Tis a sign of good fortune," quoth Sir Nigel. " Our path
was also crossed by a woman and by a priest, so all should be
well with us. What say you, Edricson ? "

" I cannot tell, my fair lord. The Romans of old were a very
wise people, yet, certes, they placed their faith in such matters.
So, too, did the Greeks, and divers other ancient peoples who
were famed for their learning. Yet of the moderns there are
many who scoff at all omens."

" There can be no manner of doubt about it," said Sir Oliver
Buttesthorn. "I can well remember that in Navarre one day it152

THE WHITE COMPANY.

thundered on the left out of a cloudless sky. We knew that ill
would come of it, nor had we long to wait. Only thirteen days
after, a haunch of prime venison was carried from my very tent
door by the wolves, and on the same day two flasks of old ver-
nage turned sour and muddy."

" You may bring my harness from below," said Sir Nigel to
his squires, "and also, I pray you, bring up Sir Oliver's and we
shall don it here. Ye may then see to your own gear ; for this
day you will, I hope, make a very honorable entrance into the
field of chivalry, and prove yourselves to be very worthy and
valiant squires. And now, Sir Oliver, as to our dispositions:
would it please you that I should order them or will you ? "

" You, my cockerel, you. By Our Lady ! I am no chicken,
but I cannot claim to know as much of war as the squire of Sir
^Walter Manny. Settle the matter to your own liking."

" You shall fly your pennon upon the fore part, then, and I
upon the poop. For foreguard I shall give you your own forty
men, with two-score archers. Two-score men, witji my own men-
at-arms and squires, will serve as a poop-guard. Ten archers,
with thirty shipmen, under the master, may hold the waist while
ten lie aloft with stones and arbalests. How like you that ? "

"Good, by my faith, good ! But here comes my harness, and
I must to work, for I cannot slip into it as I was wont when first
I set my face to the wars."

Meanwhile there had been bustle and preparation in all parts
of the great vessel. The archers stood in groups about the
decks, new-stringing their bows, and testing that they were firm
at the nocks. Among them moved Aylward and other of the
older soldiers, with a few whispered words of precept here and
of warning there.

" Stand to it, my hearts of gold," said the old bowman as he
passed from knot to knot. "By my hilt! we are in luck this
journey. Bear in mind the old saying of the Company."

" What is that, Aylward ? " cried several, leaning on their
bows and laughing at him,

" 'Tis the master-bowyer's rede: < Every bow well bent.
Every shaft well sent. Every stave well nocked. Every string
well locked.' There, with that jingle in his head, a bracer on
his left hand, a shooting glove on his right, and a farthing's-
worth of wax in his girdle, what more doth a bowman need ? "THE WHITE COMPANY.

153

" It would not be amiss/' said Hordle John, " if under his
girdle he had four farthings'-worth of wine."

" Work first, wine afterwards, mon camarade. But it is time
that we took our order, for methinks that between the Needle
rocks and the Alum cliffs yonder I can catch a glimpse of the
topmasts of the galleys. Hewett, Cook, Johnson, Cunningham,
your men are of the poop-guard. Thornbury, Walters, Hackett,
Baddlesmere, you are with Sir Oliver on the forecastle. Simon,
you bide with your lord's banner; but ten men must go for-
ward."

Quietly and promptly the men took their places, lying flat upon
their faces on the deck, for such was Sir Nigel's order. Near
the prow was planted Sir Oliver's spear, with his arms—a boar's
head gules upon a field of gold. Close by the stern stood Black
Siifion with the pennon of the house of Loring. Ia the waist
gathered the Southampton mariners, hairy and burly men, with
their jerkins thrown off, their waists braced tight, swords, mal-
lets, and pole-axes in their hands. Their leader, Goodwin
Hawtayne, stood upon the poop and talked with Sir Nigel, cast-
ing his eye up sometimes at the swelling sail, and then glanc-
ing back at the two seamen who held the tiller.

" Pass the word," said Sir Nigel, •« that no man shall stand to
arms or draw his bow-string until my trumpeter shall sound. It
would be well that we should seem to be a merchant-ship from
Southampton and appear to flee from them."

" We shall see them anon," said the master-shipman. " Ha,
said I not so ? There they lie, the water-snakes, in Freshwater
Bay; and mark the reek of smoke from yonder point, where
they have been at their devil's work. See how their shallops
pull from the land ! They have seen us and called their men
aboard. Now they draw upon the anchor. See them like ants
upon the forecastle ! They stoop and heave like handy ship-
men. But, my fair lord, these are no niefs. I doubt but we
have taken in hand more than we can do. Each of these ships
is a galeasse, and of the largest and swiftest make."

"I would I had your eyes," said Sir Nigel, blinking at the
pirate galleys. •« They seem very gallant ships, and I trust that
we shall have much pleasance from our meeting with them. It
would be well to pass the word that we should neither give nor
take quarter this day. Have you perchance a priest or friar
aboard this ship, Master Hawtayne ? "154

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" No, my fair lord."

" Well, well, it is no great matter for my Company, for they
were all houseled and shriven ere we left Twynham Castle;
and Father Christopher of the Priory gave me his word that
they were as fit to march to heaven as to Gascony. But my
mind misdoubts me as to these Winchester men who have come
with Sir Oliver, for they appear to be a very ungodly crew.
Pass the word that the men kneel, and that the under-officers
repeat to them the pater, the ave, and the credo."

With a clank of arms, the rough archers and seamen took to
their knees, with bent heads and crossed hands, listening to the
hoarse mutter from the file-leaders. It was strange to mark
the hush ; so that the lapping of the water, the straining of the
sail, and the creaking of the timbers grew louder of a sudden
upon the ear. Many of the bowmen had drawn amulets and
relics from their bosoms, while he who possessed some more
than usually sanctified treasure passed it down the line of his
comrades, that all might kiss and reap the virtue.

The yellow cog had now shot out from the narrow waters of
the Solent, and was plunging and rolling on the long heave of
the open channel. The wind blew freshly from the east, with a
very keen edge to it; and the great sail bellied roundly out,
laying the vessel over until.the water hissed beneath her lee
bulwarks. Broad and ungainly, she floundered from wave to
wave, dipping her round bows deeply into the blue rollers, and
sending the white flakes of foam in a spatter over her decks,
On her larboard quarter lay the two dark galleys, which had
already hoisted sail, and were shooting out from Freshwater
Bay in swift pursuit, their double line of oars giving them a
vantage which could not fail to bring them up with any vessel
which trusted to sails alone. High and bluff the English cog ;
long, black and swift the pirate galleys, like two fierce lean
wolves which have seen a lordly and unsuspecting stag walk
past their forest lair.

" Shall we turn, my fair lord, or shall we carry on ? " asked
the master-shipman, looking behind him with anxious eyes.

" Nay, we must carry on and play, the part of the helpless
merchant."

" But your pennons ? They will see that we have two knights
with us."

" Yet it would not be to a knight's honor or good name toTHE WHITE COMPANY.

155

lower his pennon. Let them be, and they will think that we are
a wine-ship for Gascony, or that we bear the wool-bales of some
mercer of the Staple. Ma foi, but they are very swift*! They
swoop upon us like two goshawks on a heron. Is there hot
some symbol or device upon their sails ? "

"That on the right," said Edricson, "appears to have the
head of an Ethiop upon it."

" 'Tis the badge of T£te-noire, the Norman," cried a seaman-
mariner. " I have seen it before, when he harried us at Winehel-
sea. He is a wondrous large and strong man, with no ruth for
man, woman, or beast. They say that he hath the strength of
six; and, certes, he hath the crimes of six upon his soul. See,
now, to the poor souls who swing at either end of his yard-
arm !"

At each end of the yard there did indeed hang the dark figure
of a man, jolting and lurching with hideous jerkings of its limbs
it every plunge and swoop of the galley.

" By St. Paul! " said Sir Nigel, " and by the help of St. George
and Our Lady, it will be a very strange thing if our black-headed
friend does not himself swing thence ere he be many hours older.
But what is that upon the other galley ? "

" It is the red cross of Genoa. This Spade-beard is % vefy
loted captain, and it is his boast that there are no seamen an#
no archers in the world who can compare with those who serve
*he Doge Boccanegra."

"That we shall prove," said Goodwin Hawtayne ; "but it
would be well, ere they close with us, to raise up the mantlets
and pavises as a screen against their bolts." He shouted a
hoarse order, and his seamen worked swiftly and silently, height-
ening the bulwarks and strengthening ihem. The three ship's
anchors were at Sir Nigel's command carried into the waist/,
and tied to the mast, with twenty feet of cable between, ea?eh
under the care of four seamen. Eight others were stationed
with leather water-bags to quench any fire-arrows which might
come aboard, while others were sent up the mast, to lie along
the yard and drop stones or shoot arrows as the occasion
served.

" Let them be supplied with all that is heavy and weighty in
the ship," said Sir Nigel.

" Then we must send them up Sir Oliver Buttesthorn," quoth
Ford.156

THE WHITE COMPANY,

The knight looked at him with a face which struck the smile
from his lips. " No squire of mine," he said> " shall ever make
jest of a belted knight. And yet," he added, his eyes softening,
"I kno^v that it is but a boy's mirth, with no sting in it. Yet I
should ill do my part towards your father if I did not teach
you to curb your tongue-play."

" They will lay us aboard on either quarter, my lord," cried
the master. "See how they stretch out from each other!
The Norman hath a mangonel or a trabuch upon the fore-
castle. See, they bend to the levers ! They are about to loose
it."

"AylwarcJ," cried the knight, "pick your three trustiest
archers, and see if you cannot do something to hinder their
aim. Methinks they are within long arrow flight."

"Seventeen score paces," said the archer, running his eye
backwards and forwards. By my ten linger-bones ! it would
be a strange thing if we could not notch a mark at that dis-
tance. Here, Watkin of Sowley, Arnold, Long Williams, let
us show the rogues that they have English bowmen to deal
with."

The three archers named stood at the further end of the
f>oop#balancing themselves with feet widely spread and bows
4lraw*i, until the heads of*the cloth-yard arrows were level with
the centre of the stave*. "You are the surer, Watkin," said
Aylward, standing by them with shaft upon string. " Do you
take the rogue with the red coif. You two bring down the man
with the head-piece, and I will hold myself ready if you miss.
Ma foi ! they are about to loose Her. Shoot, mes gar£ons, or
you will be too late."

The throng of pirates had cleared away from the great wooden
catapult, leaving two of their number to discharge it. One in a
scarlet^cap bent over it, steadying the jagged rock which was
balanced on the spoon-shaped end of the long wooden lever.
3fhe other held the loop of the rope which would release the
catch and send the unwieldy missile hurtling through the air.
So for an instant they stood, showing hard and clear against
the white sail behind them. The next, redcap had fallen
across the stone with an arrow between his ribs ; and the other,
^struck in the leg and in the throat, was writhing and spluttering
upon the ground. As he toppled backwards he had loosed the
spring, and the huge beam of wood, swinging round with tre-THE WHITE COMPANY.

IS 7

mendotfs force, cast the corpse of his comrade so close to the
English ship that its mangled and distorted limbs grazed their
very stern. As to the stone, it glanced off obliquely and fell
midway between the vessels. A roar of cheering and of laughter
broke from the rough archers and seamen at the sight, answered
by a yell of rage from their pursuers.

" Lie low, mes enfants," cried Aylward, motioning with his left
hand. " They will learn wisdom. They are bringing forward
shield and mantlet. We shall have some pebbles about our ears
ere long."	•

CHAPTER XVI.

how the yellow cog fought the two rover galleys.

The three vessels had been sweeping swiftly westwards, the
cog still well to the front, although the galleys were slowly

-	drawing in upon either quarter. To the left was a hard sky-
line unbroken by a sail. The island already lay like a cloud
behind them, while right in front was St. Alban's Head, with
Portland looming mistily in the farthest distance. Alleyne
stood by the tiller, looking backwards, the fresh wind full in his
teeth, the crisp winter air tingling on his face and blowing his

. yellow curls from under his bassinet. His cheeks were flushed
and his eyes shining, for the blood of a hundred fighting Saxon
ancestors was beginning to stir in his veins.	*

" What was that ?" he a^ked, as a hissing, sharp-drawn
voice seemed to whisper in his ear. The steersman smiled,
and pointed with his foot to where a short "heavy cross-bow
quarrel stuck quivering in the boards. At the same instant the
man stumbled forward upon his knees, and lay lifeless upon the
deck, a blood-stained feather jutting out from his back. As
^Alleyne stooped to raise him, the air seemed to be alive with

-	• the sharp zip-zip of the bolts, and he could hear them pattering

on the.fdeck like apples at a tree-shaking.

" Raise two more mantlets by the poop lanthorn," said Sir
Nigel quietly.

" And another man to the tiller," cried the master-shipman.

"Keep them in play, Aylward, with ten of your men," the
knight continued. "And let ten of Sir Oliver's bowmen do as158

THE WHITE COMPANY.

much for the Genoese. I have no mind as yet to show them how
much they have to fear from us."

Ten picked shots under Aylward stood in line across the
broad deck, and it was a lesson to the young squires who had
seen nothing of war to note how orderly and how cool were
these old soldiers, how quick the command, and how prompt
the carrying out, ten moving like one. Their comrades crouched
beneath the bulwarks, with many a rough jest and many a scrap
of criticism or advice. " Higher, Wat, higher ! " "Put thy body
into it, Will ! " "Forget not the wind, Hal!" So ran the
muttered chorus, while high above it rose the sharp twang-
ing of the strings, the hiss of the shafts, and the short " Draw
your arrow! Nick your arrow! Shoot wholly together!"
from the master-bowman.

And now both mangonels were at work from the galleys, but
bo covered and protected that, save at the moment of discharge,
no glimpse could be caught of them. A huge brow.n rock from
the Genoese sang over their heads, and plunged sullenly into
the slope of a wave. Another from the Norman whizzed into the
waist, broke the back of a horse, and crashed its way through
the side of the vessel. Two others, flying together, tore a great
gap in the St. Christopher upon the sail, and brushed three of
Sir Oliver's men-at-arms from the forecastle. The master-ship-
man looked at the knight with a troubled face.

" They keep their distance from us," said he. "Our archery
is over-good, and they will not close. What defence can we
make against the stones ? "

" I think I may trick them," the knight answered cheerfully,
and passed his • order to the archers. Instantly five of them
threw up their hands and fell prostrate upon the deck. One
had already been slain by a bolt, so that there were but four
upon their feet.

" That should give them heart," said Sir Nigel, eyeing the
galleys, which crept along on either side, with a slow, measured
swing of their great oars, the water swirling and'foaming under
their sharp stems.

" They still hold aloof," cried Hawtayne.

" Then down with two more," shouted their leader. " That
will do. Ma foi! but they come to our lure like chicks to the
fowler. To your arms, men ! The pennon behind me, and the«
squires round the pennon, j Stand fast with the anchors in theTHE WHITE COMPANY.

waist, and be ready for a cast. Now blow out the trumpets,
and may God's benison be with the honest men !"

As he spoke a roar of voices and a roll of drums came from
either galley, and the water was lashed into spray by the hurried
beat of a hundred oars. Down they swooped, one on the right, one
on the left, the sides and shrouds black with men and bristling
with weapons. In heavy clusters they hung upon the forecastle
all ready for a spring—faces white, faces brown, faces yellow,
and faces black, fair Norsemen, swarthy Italians, fierce rovers
from the Levant, and fiery Moors from the Barbary States, of all
hues and countries, and marked solely by the common stamp of
a wild-beast ferocity. Rasping up on either side, with oars
trailing to save them from snapping, they poured in a living
torrent with horrid yell and shrill whoop upon the defenceless
merchantman.

But wilder yet was the cry, and shriller still the scream, when
there rose up from the shadow of those silent bulwarks the long
lines of the English bowmen, and the arrows whizzed in a deadly
sleet among the unprepared masses upon the pirate decks.
From the higher sides of the cog the bowmen could shoot straight
down, at a range which was so short as to enable a cloth-yard
shaft to pierce through mail-coats or to transfix a shield, though
it were an inch' thick of toughened wood. One moment Alleyne
saw the galley's poop crowded with rushing figures, waving
arms, exultant faces ; the next it was a blood-smeared shambles,
with bodies piled three deep upon each other, the living cower-
ing behind the dead to shelter themselves from that sudden
storm-blast of death. On either side the seamen whom Sir
Nigel had chosen for the purpose had cast their anchors over
the side of the galleys, so that the three vessels, locked in an
iron grip, lurched heavily forward upon the swell.

And now set in a fell and fierce fight, one of a thousand of
which no chronicler has spoken and no poet sung. Through all
the centuries and over all those southern waters nameless men
have fought in nameless places, their sole monuments a pro-
tected cdast and an unravaged country-side.

Fore and aft the archers had cleared the galleys' decks, bufc
from either side the rovers had poured down into the waist,,
where the seamen and bowmen were pushed back and sC
mingled writh their foes that it was impossible for their com-
rades above to draw string to help them. It was a wild chaosl6o	THE WHITE COMPANY.

where^axe and sword rose and fell, while Englishman, Norman,

and Italian staggered and reeled on a deck which was cumbered
with bodies and slippery with blood. The clang of blows, the
cries of the stricken, the short, deep shout of the islanders, and
the fierce whoops of the rovers, rose together in a deafening
tumult, while the breath of the panting men went up in the
wintry air like the smoke from a furnace. The giant Tgte-noire,
towering above his fellows and clad from head to foot in plate
of proof, led on his boarders, waving a huge mace in the air,
with which he struck to the deck every man who approached
him. On the other side, Spade-beard, a dwarf in height, but
of great breadth of shoulder and length of arm, had cut a road
almost to the mast, with three-score Genoese men-at-arms close
at his heels. Between these two formidable assailants the sea-
men were being slowly wedged more closely together, until they
stood back to back under the mast with the rovers raging upon
every side of them.

But help was close at hand. Sir Oliver Buttesthorn with his
men-at-arms had swarmed down from the forecastle, while Sir
Nigel, with his three squires, Black Simon, Aylward, Hordle
John, and a score more, threw themselves from the poop and
hurled themselves into the thickest of the fight. Alleyne, as in
duty bound, kept his eyes fixed ever on his lord and pressed for-
ward close at his heels. Often had he heard of Sir Nigel's
prowess and skill with all knightly weapons, but all the tales
that had reached his ears fell far short of the real quickness and
coolness of the man. It was as if the devil was in him, for he
sprang here and sprang there, now thrusting and now cutting,
catching blows on his shield, turning them with his blade, stoop-
ing under the swing of an axe, springing over, the sweep of a
sword, so swift and so erratic that the man who braced himself
for a blow at him might find him six paces off ere he could bring
it down. Three pirates had fallen before him, and he had
wounded Spade-beard in the neck, when the Norman giant
sprang at him from the side with a slashing blow from his
deadly mace. Sir Nigel stooped to avoid it, and at the same
instant turned a thrust from the Genoese swordsman, but, his
foot slipping in a pool of blood, he fell heavily to the ground.
Alleyne sprang in front of the Norman, but his sword was shat-
tered and he himself beaten to the ground by a second blow
from the ponderous weapon. Ere the pirate chief could repeatTHE WHITE COMPANY.

i6i

it, however, John's iron grip fell upon his wrist, and he found
that for once he was in the hands of a stronger man than him-
self. Fiercely he strove to disengage his weapon, but Hordle
John'bent his arm slowly back until, with a sharp crack, like a
breaking stave, it turned limp in his grasp, and the mace dropped
from the nerveless fingers. In vain he tried to pluck it up with
the other hand. Back and back still his foeman bent him, until,
with a roar of pain and of fury, the giant clanged his full length
upon the boards, while the glimmer of a knife before the bars of
his helmet warned him that short would be his shrift if he moved.

Cowed and disheartened by the loss of their leader, the Nor-
mans had given back and were now streaming over the bulwarks
on to their own galley, dropping a dozen at a time on to her deck.
But the anchor still held them in its crooked claw, and Sir Oliver
with fifty men was hard upon their heels. Now, too, the archers
had room to draw their bows once more, and great stones from
the yard of the cog came thundering and crashing among the
flying rovers. Here and there they rushed with wild screams
and curses, diving under the sail, crouching behind booms, hud-
dling into corners like rabbits when the ferrets are upon them,
as helpless and as hopeless. They were stern days, and if the
honest soldier, too poor for a ransom, had no prospect of mercy
upon the battle-field, what ruth was there for sea robbers, tha
enemies of humankind, taken in the very deed, with proofs of
their crimes still swinging upon their yard-arm.

But the "fight had taken a new and a strange turn upon the
other side. Spade-beard and his men had given slowly back,
hard pressed by Sir Nigel, Aylward, Black Simon, and the poop-*
guard. Foot by foot the Italian had retreated, his armor run-
ning blood at every joint, his shield split, his crest shorn, his
voice fallen away to a mere gasping and croaking. Yet he faced
his foemen with dauntless courage, dashing in, springing back,
sure-footed, steady-handed, with a point which seemed to menace
three at once. Beaten back on to the deck of his own vessel, and
closely followed by a dozen Englishmen, he disengaged himself
from them, ran swiftly down the deck, sprang back into the cog
once more, cut the rope which held the anchor, and was back in
an instant among his crossbow-men. At the same time the
Genoese sailors thrust with their oars against, the side of the
cog, and a rapidly widening rift appeared betweea the two
vessels.

lll6 2

THE WHITE COMPANY.

"By St. George!" cried Ford, "we are cut off from Sir

^igel."

" He is lost," gasped Terlake. " Come, let us spring for it,"
The two youths jumped with all their strength to reach the de-
parting galley. Ford's feet reached the edge of the bulwarks,
,and his hand clutching a rope he swung himself on board. Terlake
fell short, crashed in among the oars, and bounded off into the
sea. Alleyne, staggering to the side, was about to hurl him-
self after him, but Hordle John dragged him back by the girdle.

"You can scarce stand, lad, far less jump," said he. "See
how the blood rips from your bassinet."

" My place is by the-flag," cried Alleyne, vainly struggling to
break from the other's hold.

" Bide here, man. You would need wings ere you could
reach Sir Nigel's side."

The vessels were indeed so far apart now that the Genoese
could use the full sweep of their oars, and draw away rapidly
from the cog.

" My God, but it is a noble fight! " shouted big John, clapping
his hands. " They have cleared the poop, and they spring into
the waist. Well struck, my lord ! Well struck, Aylward ! See
to Black Simon, how he storms among the shipmen ! But this
Spade-beard is a gallant warrior. He rallies his men upon the
forecastle. He hath slain an archer. Ha ! my lord is upon
him. Look to it, Alleyne ! See to the whirl and glitter of it! "

" By heaven, Sir Nigel is down !" cried the squire.

" Up !" roared John. " It was but a feint. He bears him
back. He drives him to the side. Ah, by Our Lady, his sword
is through him ! They cry for mercy. Down goes the red
cross, and up springs Simon with the scarlet roses!"

The death of the Genoese leader did indeed bring the resist-
ance to an end. Amid a thunder of cheering from cog and
from galleys the forked pennon fluttered upon the forecastle,
and the galley, sweeping round, came slowly back, as the slaves
who rowed it learned the wishes of their new masters.

The two knights had come aboard the cog, and the grapplings
having been thrown off, the three vessels now moved abreast.
Through all the storm and rush of the fight Alleyne had been
aware of the voice of Goodwin Hawtayne, the master-shipman,
with his constant " Hale the bowline ! Veer the sheet! " and
strange it was to him to see how swiftly the blood-stained sailorsTHE WHITE COMPANY.

turned from the strife to the ropes and back. Now the cog's
head was turned Francewards, and the shipman walked the deck,
a peaceful master-mariner once more.

" There is sad scath done to the cog, Sir Nigel," said he.
" Here is a hole in the side two ells across, the sail split through
the centre, and the wood as bare as a friar's poll. In good sooth,
I know not what I shall say to Master Witherton when I see the
Itchen once more.".

" By St. Paul ! it would be a very sorry thing if we suffered
you to be the worse of this day's work," said Sir Nigel. " You
shall take these galleys back with you, and Master Witherton
may sell them. Then fi „m the moneys he shall take as much as
may make good the damage, and the rest he shall keep until our
home-coming, when every man shall have his share. An image
of silver fifteen inches high I have vowed to the Virgin, to be
placed in her chapel within the Priory, for that she was pleased
to allow me to come upon this Spade-beard, who seemed to ma
from what I have seen of him to be a very sprightly and valiant
gentleman. But how fares it with you, Edricson ? "

"It is nothing, my fair lord," said Alleyne, who had now
loosened his bassinet, which was cracked across by the Nor-
man's olow. Even as he spoke, however, his head swirled
round, and he fell to the deck with the blood gushing from his
nose and mouth.

" He will come to anon," said the knight, stooping over him
and passing his fingers through his hair. " I haveflost one very
valiant and gentle squire this day. I can ill afford to lose
another. . How many men have fallen ? "

" I have pricked off the tally," said Aylward, who had come
aboard with his lord. "There are seven of the Winchester
men, eleven seamen, your squire, young Master Terlake, and
nine archers."

"And of the others ? "

" They are all dead—save only the Norman knight who stands
behind you. What would you that we should do with him ? "

"He must hang on his own yard," said Sir Nigel. " It wa*
my vow and must be done."

The pirate leader had stood by the bulwarks, a cord round his
arms, and two stout archers on either side. At Sir Nigel's words
he started violently, and his swarthy features blanched to a livM
gray.164	the' white company.

" How, Sir Knight ? " he cried in broken English. " Que dites-
rous ? To hang, le mort du ehien ! To hang 4 "

" It is my vow," said Sir Nigel shortly. " From what I hear,
you thought littlevenough of hanging others."

"Peasants, base roturiers," cried the other. "It is their fit-
ting death. Mais Le Seigneur d'Andelys, avec le sang des rois
dans ses veins'! C'est incroyable ! "

" Sir Nigel turned upon his heei, while two seamen cast a noose
over the pirate's neck. At the touch of the cord he snapped the
bonds which bound him, dashed one of the archers to the deck,
and seizing the other round the waist sprang with him into the
sea.

" By my hilt, he is gone ! " cried Aylward, rushing to the side.
" They have sunk together like a stone."

" I am right glad of it," answered Sir Nigel; " for though it was
against my vow to loose him, I deem that he has carried himself
like a very gentle and d^bonnaire cavalier."

CHAPTER xvii.

how the "yellow cog crossed the bar of gironde.

For two days the yellow cog ran swiftly before a northeasterly
wind, and-on the dawn of the third the high land of Ushant la)|
like a mist upon the shimmering sky-line. There came a plump
j>f rain towards mid-day and the breeze died down, but it fresh-
ened again before nightfall, and Goodwin Hawtayne veered his
sheet and held head for the south. Next morning they had
passed Belle Isle, a^nd ran through the midst of a fleet of tran-
sports returning from Guienne. Sir Nigel Loring and Sir Oliver
Buttesthorn at once hung their shields over the side, and dis-
played their pennons as was the custom, noting with the keen-
est interest the answering symbols which told the namqs of the
cavaliers who had been constrained by ill health or wounds to
leave the prince at so critical a time.

That evening a great dun-colored cloud banked up in the
west, and an anxious man was Goodwin Hawtayne, for a third
part of his crew had been slain, and half the remainder were
aboard the galleys, so that, with an injured ship, he waa little fitTHE WHITE COMMNY,	165

to meet such a storm as sweeps over those waters. All night it
blew in short fitful puffs, heeling the great cog over until the
water curled over her lee bulwarks. As the wind still fresh-
ened the yard was lowered half way down the mast in the morn-
ing. Alleyne, wretchedly ill and weak, with his head still ring-
ing from the blow which he had received, crawled up upon deck.
Water-swept and aslant, it was preferable to the noisome, rat-
haunted dungeons which served as cabins. There, clinging to
the stout halliards of the sheet, he gazed with amazement at the
long lines of black waves, each with its curling ridge of foam,
racing in endless succession from out the inexhaustible west. * A
huge sombre cloud, flecked with livid blotches, stretched over
the whole seaward sky-iine, with long ragged streamers whirled
out in front of it. Far behind them the two galleys labored
heavily, now sinking between the rollers until their yards were
level with the waves, and again shooting up with a reeling,
scooping motion until every spar and rope stood out hard against
the sky. On the left the low-lying land stretched in a dim haze,
rising here and there into a darker blur which marked the
higher capes and headlands. The land of France ! Alleyne's
eyes shone as he gazed upon it. The land of France !—the very
words sounded as the call of a bugle in the ears of the youth of
England. The land where their fathers had bled, the home of
.chivalry and of knightly deeds, the country of gallant men, of
courtly women, of princely buildings, of the wise, the polished
and the sainted. There it lay, so still and gray beneath the
drifting wrack—the home of things noble and of things shame-
ful—the theatre where a new name might be made or an old
one marred. From his bosom to his lips came the. crumpled
veil, and he breathed a vow that if valor and goodwill could
raise him to his lady's side, then death alone should hold him
back from her. His thoughts were still in the woods of Min-
stead and the old armory ofTwynham Castle, when the hoarse
voice of the master-shipman brought them back once more to
the Bay of Biscay.

" By my troth, young sir," he said, " you are as long in the
face as the'devil at a christening, and I cannot marvel at it, for
I have sailed these waters since I was as high as this whinyard,
and yet I never saw more sure promise of an evil night."

" Nay, I had other things upon my mind," the squire an*
swered.THE WHITE COMPANY.

" And so has every man," cried Hawtayne in an injured voice.
"Let the shipman see to it. It is the master-shipman's^ affair.
Put it all upon good Master Hawtayne ! Never had I so much
care since first I blew trumpet and showed cartel at the west
gate of Southampton."

"What is amiss then ? " asked Alleyne, for the man's words
were as gusty as the weather.

" Amiss, quotha ? Here am I with but half my mariners, and
a hole in the ship where that* twenty-devil stone struck us big
enough to fit the fai widow of Northam through. It is wel!\
enough on this tack, but I would have you tell me what I am to
do on the other. We are like to have salt water upon us unti*
we be found pickled like the herrings in an Easterling's barrels."

" What says Sir Nigel to it ? "

"He is below pricking out the coat-armor of his mother's
uncle. 4 Pester me not with such small matters !' was all that I
could get from him. Then there is Sir Oliver. 1 Fry them in
oil* with a dressing of Gascony,' quoth he, and then swore at me
because I had not been the cook. * Walawa/ thought I, 1 mad
master, sober man—so away forward to the archers. Harrow
and alas ! but they were worse than the others."

" Would they not help you then ? "

"Nay, they sat tway and tway at a.board, him that they call
Aylward and the great red-headed man who snapped the Nor-
man's arm-bone, and the black man from Norwich, and a score
of others, rattling their dice in an archer's gauntlet for want of
a box. ' The ship can scarce last much longer, my masters/
quoth I. / That is your business, old swine's-head,' cried the
black galliard. 'Le diable t'emporte,'says Aylward. ' A five,
a four and the main/ shouted the big man, with a voice like the
flap of a sail. Hark to them now, young sir, and say if I speak
not sooth."

As he spoke, there sounded high above the shriek of the gale
and the straining of the timbers a gust of oaths with a roar a*
deep-chested mirth from the gamblers in the forecastle.

" Can I be of avail ? " asked Alleyne. " Say the word and
the thing is done, if two hands may do it."

" Nay, nay* your head I can see is still totty, and i' faith littl#
head would you have, had your bassinet no* stood your friend.
All that may be done is already carried but, for we have stuffed
the gape with sails and corded it without and within. Ye*THE WHITE COMPANY.

I67

when we hale our bowline and veer the sheet our lives will hang
upon the breach remaining blocked. See how yonder headland
' looms upon us through the mist! We must tack within three
. arrow flights, or we may find a rock through our timbers. Now,
St. Christopher be praised ! here is Sir Nigel, with whom I may
confer."

"I prythee that you will pardon me," said the knight, clutch-
ing his way along the bulwark. " I would not show lack of
courtesy toward a worthy man, but I was deep in a matter of
some weight, concerning which, Alleyne, I should be glad of
your rede. It touches the question of dimidiation or impalement
in the coat of mine uncle, Sir John Leighton of Shropshire, who
took unto wife the widow of Sir Henry Oglander of Nun well.
The case has been much debated by pursuivants and kings-of-
arms. But how is it with you, master-shipman ? "

n III enough, my fair lord. The cog must go about anon, and
I know not how we may keep the water out of her."

" Go call Sir Oliver ! " said Sir Nigel, and presently the
portly knight made his way all astraddle down the slippery deck.

" By my soul, master-shipman, this passes all patience I " he
cried wrathfully. " If this ship of yours must needs dance and
skip like a clown at a kermesse, then I pray you that you will
put me into one of these galeasses. I had but sat down to a
flask of malvesie and a mortress of brawn, as is my use about
thjs hour, when there comes a cherking, and I find my wine
over my legs and the flask in my lap, and then as I stoop to clip
it there comes another cursed cherk, and there is a mortress of
brawn stuck fast to the nape of my neck. At this moment I
have two pages coursing after it from side to side, like hounds
behind a leveret. Never did living pig gambol more lightly.
But you have sent for me, Sir Nigel ? "

" I would fain have your rede, Sir Oliver, for Master Hawtayne
hath fears that when we veer there may come danger from the
hole in our side."

" Then do not veer," quoth Sir OMver hastily. " And now,
fair sir, I must hasten back to see how my rogues have fared
with the brawn."

" Nay, but this will scarce suffice," cried the shipman. "If
we do not veer we will be upon the rocks within the hotir."

" Then veer," said Sir Oliver. " There is my rede ; and now,
Sir Nigel, I must crave-.l68

THE WHITE COMPANY.

At this instant, however, a startled shout rang out from two
seamen upon the forecastle. " Rocks ! " they yelled, stabbing
into the air with their forefingers. " Rocks beneath our very
bows ! " Through the belly of a great black wave, not one hun-
dred paces to the front of them, there thrust forth a huge jagged
mass of brown stone, which spouted spray as though it were
some crouching monster, while a dull menacing boom and roar
filled the air.

" Yare ! yare ! " screamed Goodwin Hawtayne, flinging him-
self upon the long pole which served as a tiller. " Cut the hal-
liard ! Haul her over ! Lay her two courses to the wind !"

Over swung the great boom, and the cog trembled and
quivered within five spear-lengths of the breakers.

"She can scarce draw clear," cried Hawtayne, with his eyes
from the sail to the seething line of foam. " May the holy Julian
stand by us and the thrice-sainted Christopher !"

" If there be such peril, Sir Oliver,"quoth Sir Nigel, " it would
be very knightly and fitting that we should show our pennons.
I pray you, Edricson, that you will command my guidon-bearer
to put forward my banner."

"And sound the trumpets!" cried Sir Oliver. "Inmanus
tuas, Domine ! I am in the keeping of James , of Compostella,
to whose shrine I shall make pilgrimage, and in whose honor I
vow that I will eat a carp each year upon his feast-day. Mon
Dieu, but the waves roar ! How is it with us now, master-ship-
man ? "

" We draw ! We draw ! " cried Hawtayne, with his eyes still
fixed upon the foam which hissed under the very bulge of the
side. " Ah, Holy Mother, be with us now ! "

As he spoke the cog rasped along the edge of the reef, and a
long white curling sheet of wood was planed off from her side
from waist to poop by a jutting horn of the rock. At the same
instant she lay suddenly over, the sail drew full, and she plunged
seawards amichthe shoutings of the seamen and the archers.

"The Virgin be praised!" cried the shipman, wiping his
brow. " For this shall bell swing and candle burn when I sen
Southampton Water once more. Cheerily, my hearts ! Pul
yarely on the bowline ! "

" By my soul ! I would rather have a dry death," quoth Sh*
Oliver. " Though, Mort Dieu ! I have eaten so many fish that
it were* but justice that the fish should eat me. Now I mus*3THE WHITE COMPANY.

169

b^ck to the cabin, for I have matters ther& which crave my
attention."

" Nay, Sir Oliver, you had best bide with us, and still show
your ensign," Sir Nigel answered; "for, if I understand the
matter aright, we have but turned from*one danger to the
other."	4

"Good Master Hawtayne," cried the boatswain, rushing aft,
" the water comes in upon us apace. The waves have driven
in the sail wherewith we strove to stop the hole." As he spoke
the seamen came swarming on to the poop and the forecastle tov
avoid the torrent whicft poured through the huge leak into the
waist. High above the roar of the wind and the clash of the
sea rose the shrill half-human cries of the horses, as they found
the water rising rapidly around them.

" Stop it from without! " cried Hawtayne, seizing the end of
the wet sail with which the gap had been plugged. " Speedily,
my hearts, or we are gone ! " Swiftly they rove ropes to the
corners, and then, rushing forward to the bows, they-lowered
them jinder the keel, and drew them tight in such a way that
the sail should cover the outer face of the gap. The force of the
rush of water was checked by this obstacle, but it still squirted
plentifully from every side of it. At the sides the horses were
above the belly, and in the centre a man from the poop could
scarce touch the deck with a seven-foot spear. The cog lay
lower in the water and the waves splashed freely over the
weather bulwark.	^	%	^

" I fear that we can scarce bide upon this tack," cried Haw*
tayne ; " and yet the other will drive us on the rocks."

" Might we not haul down sail and wait for better times
suggested Sir Nigel.

" Nay, we should drift upon the rocks. Thirty years have I
been on the sea, and never yet in greater straits. Yet we are in
the hands of the Saints."

"Of whom," cried Sir Oliver, " I look more particularly to St.
James of Compostella, who hath already befriended us this day,
and on whose feast I hereby vow that I shall eat a second carp,
if he will but interpose a second time."

The wrack had thickened to seaward, and the coast was but
a blurred liner Two vague shadows in the pffing showed where
the galeasses rolled and tossed upon the great Atlantic rollers.
Hawtayne looked wistfully in their direction.170	THE WHITE COMPANY. ~

" If they would but lie closer we might find safety, even should
the cog founder. You will bear me out with good Master
Witherton of Southampton that I have done all that a shipman
might. It would be well that you should doff camail and
greaves, Sir Nigel, for, by the black rood ! it is like enough that
we shall have to swim for it." -

" Nay," said the little knight, " it would be sckrce fitting that
a cavalier should throw off his harness for the fear of every puff
of wind ar^d puddle of water. I would rather that my Company
< should gather round me here on the poop* where we might abide
together whatever God may be pleased to send. But, certes,
Master/Hawtayne, for all that my sight is none of the best, it is
not the fjrst time that I have seen that headland upon the left."

The seaman shaded his eyes with his hand, and gazed earnestly
through the haze and spray. Suddenly he threw up his arms,
and shouted aloud in his joy.	-

"'Tis the point of La Tremblade !" he cried. " I had not
thought that we were as far as Oleron. The Gironde lies be-
fore us, and once over the bar, and under shelter of the Tour de
Cordouan, all will be well with us. Veer again, my hearts, and
bring her to try with the main course ! "

The sail swung round once more, and the cog, battered and
torn and well-nigh water-logged, staggered in for this haven of
refuge. A bluff cape to the north and a long spit to the south
marked the mouth of the noble river, with a low-lying island of
silted sand in the centrfe, all shrouded and curtained by the
' spume of the breakers. A line of broken water traced the dan-«
gerous bar, which in clear day and balmy weather has cracked
. the back of many a tall ship.

" There is a channel," said Hawtayne, "which was shown to
me by the Prince's own pilot. Mark yonder tree upon the bank,
and see the tower which rises behind it. If these two be held in
a line, even as we hold them now, it may be done, though our
ship draws two good ells more than when she put forth."

"God speed you, Master Hawtayne!" cried Sir Oliver.
" Twice have we come scathless out of peril, and now for the
third time I commend me to the blessed James of Compostella,
to whom I vow--"	^

v " Nay, nay, old friend," whispered Sir Nigel. "You are like
to bring" a judgment upon us with these vows, which no living
man could accomplish. Have I not already heard you vo„w toTHE* WHITE COMPANY.	171

eat two carp in one day; and now you would venture upon a
third ? "

"I pray you that you will order the Company to lie down,"
cried Hawtayne, who had taken the tiller and was gazing ahead
with a fixed eye. " In three minutes we shall either be lost or
in safety."

Archers and seamen lay flat upon the deck, waiting in stolid
silence for whatever fate might come. Hawtayne bent his
weight upon the tiller, and crouched to see under the bellying
sail. Sir Oliver and Sir Nigel stood erect with hands crossed in
front of the poop. Down swooped the great cog into the narrow
channel which was the portal to safety. On either bow roared
the shallow bar. Right ahead one small lane of black swirling
water marked the pilot's course. But true was the eye and firm
the hand which guided. A dull scraping came from beneath,
the vessel quivered and shook, at the waist, at the quarter, and
behind sounded that grim roaring of the waters, and with a
plunge the yellow cog was over the bar and speeding swiftly up
the broad and tranquil estuary of the Gironde,

CHAPTER XVIII.

how sir nigel loring put a patch upon his eye.

It was on the morning of Friday, the eight-and-twentieth day
^f November, two days before the feast of St. Andrew, that the
^og and her two prisoners, after a weary tacking up the Girondo
und the Garonne, dropped anchor at last in front of the noble
city of Bordeaux. With wonder and admiration, Alleyne, lean-
ing over the bulwarks, gazed at the forest of masts, the swarm of
boats darting higher and thither on the bosom of the broad curv-
ing stream, and the gray crescent-shaped £ity which stretched
with many a tower and minaret along the western shore. Never
had he in his quiet life seen so great a town, nor was there in
the whole of England, save London alone, one which might
match it in size or in wealth. Here came the merchandise of
all the fair countries which are watered by the Garonne and
the Dordogne—the cloths of the south, the skins of Guienne,
the wines of the M^doc—to be borne away to Hull, Exeter,ij2

THE WHITE COMPANY.

Dartmouth, Bristol or Chester, in exchange for the wools and
woolfels of England. Here too dwelt those famous smelters and
welders who had made the Bordeaux steel the most trusty upon
earth, and could give a temper to lance or to sword which might
mean dear life to its owner. Alleyne could see the smoke of
their forges reeking up in the clear morning air. The storm
had died down now to a gentle breeze, which wafted to his ears
the long-drawn stirring bugle-calls which sounded from the
ancient ramparts.

" Hol&. mon petit!" said Aylward, coming up to where he
stood. "Thou art a squire now, and like enough to win the
golden spurs, while Lam still the master-bowman, and master-
bowman I shall bide. I dare scarce wag my tongue so freely
with you as when we tramped together past Wilverley Chase,
else I might be your guide now, for indeed I know every house in
Bordeaux as a friar knows the beads on his rosary."

"Nay, Aylward," said Alleyne, laying his hand upon the
sleeve of his companion's frayed jerkin, " you cannot think me
so thrall as to throw aside an old friend because I have had some
small share of good fortune. 1 take it unkind that you should
have thought such evil of me."

" Nay, mon gar. 'Twas but a flight shot to see if the wind
blew steady, though I were a rogue to doubt it."

« Why, had I not met you, Aylward, at the Lynhurst inn,
who can say where I had now been ! Certes, I had not gone to

Twynham Castle, nor become squire to Sir Nigel, nor met-—"

He paused abruptly and flushed to his hair, but the bowman
was too busy with his own thoughts to notice his young com-
panion's embarrassment.

."It was a? good hostel, that of the * Pied Merlin,' " he re-
marked. " By my ten finger bones ! when I hang bow on nail
and change my brigandine for a tunic, I mighty do worse than
take over the dame and her business."

" I thought," said Alleyne, " that you were betrothed to some
one at Christchurch."

"To three," Aylward answered moodily, "to three. I fear I
may not go back to Christchurch. I might chance to see
hotter service in Hampshire than I have ever done in Gascony.
But mark you now yonder lofty turret in the centre, which stands
back from the river and hath a broad banner upon the summit.
See the rising sun flashes full upon it and sparkles on the goldenTHE WHITE COMPANY. ;	173

lions. 'Tis the royal banner of England, crossed by the prince's
label. There he dwells in the Abbey of St. Andrew, where he
hath kept his court these years back. Beside it is the minster
of the same saint, who hath the town under his very special
care."

" And how of yon gray turret on the left ? "

" 'Tis the fane of St. Michael, as that upon the right is of St.
Remi. There, too, above the poop of yonder nief, you see the
towers of Saint Croix and of Pey Berland. Mark also the mighty
ramparts which are pierced by the three water-gates, and six-
teen others to the landward side."

" And how is it, good Aylward, that there comes so much
music from the town ? I seem to hear a hundred trumpets, all
calling in chorus."

" It would be strange else, seeing that all the great lords of
England and of Gascony are within the walls, and each would
have his trumpeter blow as loud as his neighbor, lest it might
be thought that his dignity had been abated. Ma foi! they
make as much louster as a Scotch army, where every man fills
himself with girdle-cakes, an<J sits up all night to bldKv upon the
toodle-pipe. See all along the banks how the pages water the
horses, and there beyond the town how they gallop them over
the plain ! i"or every horse you see a belted knight hath her-
bergage in the town, for, as I learn, the men-at-arms and archers
have already gone forward to Dax."

"I trust, Aylward," said Sir Nigel, coming upon deck, "that •
the men are ready for the land. Go tell them that the boats
will be for them within the hour."

The archer raised his hand in salute, and hastened forward.
In the meantime Sir Oliver had followed his brother knight, and
the two paced the poop together, Sir Nigel in his plum-colored vel-
vet suit with flat cap of the same, adorned in front with the
Lady Loring's glove and girt round with a curling ostrich feather.
The lusty knight, on the other hand, was clad in the very latest
mode, with cote-hardie, doublet, pourpoint, courtpie, and paltock
of olive-green, picked out with pink and jagged at the edges. A
red chaperon or cap, with long hanging cornette, sat daintily on
the back of his black-curled head, while his gold-hued shoes
were twisted up d la fioulaine, as though the toes were
shooting forth a tendril which might hope in time to entwine
itself around his massive leg.m

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" Once more, Sir Oliver," said Sir Nigel, looking shorewards
with sparkling eyes, " do we find ourselves at the gate of honor,
^the door which hath so often led us to all that is knightly and
worthy. There flies the prince^ banner, and it would be well
that we haste ashore and pay our obeisance to him. The boats
already swarm from the bank."

" There is a goodly hostel near the west gate, which is famed
for the stewing of spiced pallets," remarked Sir Oliver. "We
might take the edge of our hunger off ere we seek the prince,
for though his tables are gay with damask and silver he is no
trencherman himself, and hath no sympathy for those who are
his betters."

" His betters ! "

"His betters before the tranchoir, lad. Sniff not treason
where none is meant. I have seen him smile in his quiet way
because I had looked for the fourth time towards the carving
squire. And indeed to watch him dallying with a little gobbet
of bread, or sipping his cup of thrice-watered wine, is enough to
make a man feel shame at his own hunger. Yet war and glory,
my good friend, though well enough in their way, will not serve
to tighten such a belt as clasps my waist."

"'How read you that coat which hangs over yonder galley,
Alleyne ?" asked Sir Nigel.

"Argent, a bend vert between cotises dancettd gules."

" It is a northern coat. I have seen it in the train of the
Percies. From the shields, there is not one of these vessels
which hath not knight or baron aboard. I would mine eyes
were better. How read you this upon the left ? "

" Argent and azure, a barry wavy of six."

" Ha, it is the sign of the Wiltshire Stourtons ! And there
t>eyond I see the red and silver of the Worsleys of Apulder-
combe, who like myself are of Hampshire lineage. Close behind
us is the moline cross of the gallant William Molyneux, and
beside it the bloody chevrons of the Norfork Woodliouses, with
-the amulets of the Musgraves of Westmoreland. By St. Paul!
it would be a very strange thing if so noble a company were to
gather without some notable deed of arms arising from it. And
here is our boat, Sir Oliver, so it seems best to me that we
should go to the abbey with our squires, leaving Master Haw-
tayne to have his own way in the unloading."

The horses both of knights and squires were speedily loweredfttfi WHITE COMPANY.

into Abroad lighter, and reached the shore almost as soon as
their masters. Sir Nigel bent his knee devoutly as he put foot
on land, and taking a small black patch from his bosom he
bound it tightly over his left eye.

" May the blessed George and the memory of my swee-t lady-
love raise high my heart! " quoth he. " And as a token I vow
that I will not take this patch from my eye until I have seen
something of this country of Spain* and done such a small deed
as it lies in me to do. And this I swear upon the cross of my
sword and upon the glove of my lady."

"in truth, you take me back twenty years, Nigel," quoth Sir
Oliver, as they mounted and rode slowly through the water-gate.
"After Cadsand, I deem that the French thought that we were
an army of the blind, for there was scarce a man who had not
closed an eye for the greater love an4 honor of his lady. Yet it:
goes hard with you that you should darken one side, when with
both open you can scarce tell a horse from a mule. In truth,
friend, I think that you step over the line of reason in this
matter."

"Sir Oliver Buttesthorn," said the little knight shortly, "7
would have you to understand that, blind as I am, I can yet see
the path of honor very clearly, and that that is the road uporx
which I do not crave another man's guidance."	!

" By my soul;" said Sir Oliver, " you are as tart as verjuice
this morning ! If you are bent upon a quarrel with me I must
leave you to your humor and drop into the *T£te d'Or'here,
for I marked a varlct pass the door who bare a smoking dish,
which had, methought, a most excellent smell."

" Nenny, nenny," cried his comrade, laying his hand upon his
knee ; " we have known each other over long to fall out, Oliver,
like two raw pages at their first £preuves. You must come
with me first to the prince, and then b£fck to the hostel ; though
sure I am that it would grieve his heart that any gentle cavalier
should turn from his board to a common tavern. But is not that
my Lord Delewar who waves to us ? Ha ! my fair lord, God
and Our Lady be with you ! And there is Sir Robert Cheney.
Good-morrow, Robert ! I am right glad to see you."

The two knights walked their horses abreast, while Alleyne
and Ford, with John Northbury, who was squire to Sir Oliver,
kept some paces behind them, a spear's-length in front of Black
Simon and of the Winchester guidon-bearer. Northbury, a lean,176	- fHE WHITE COMPANY.

sdent man, had been to those parts before, and sat his horse
with a rigid neck ; but the two young squires gazed eagerly to
.light or left, and plucked each other's sleeves to call attention
to the many strange things on every side of them.

" See to the brave stalls ! " cried Alleyne. " See to the noble
armor set forth, and the costly taffeta—and oh, Ford, see to
where the scrivener sits with the pigments and the ink-horns,
and the rolls of sheepskin as white as the Beaulieu napery !
Saw man ever the like before ? "

" Nay, man, there are finer stalls in Cheapside," answered
Ford, whose father had taken him to London on occasion of one
of the Smithfield joustings. " I have seen a silversmith's booth
there which would serve to buy either side of this street. But
mark these houses, Alleyne, how they thrust forth upon "the top.
And see to the coats-of-arms at every window, and banner or
pensel on the roof."

" And the churches ! " cried Alleyne. " The Priory at Christ-
church was a noble pile, but it was cold and bare, methinks, by
one of these, with their frettings, and their carvings, and their
traceries, as though some great ivy-plant of stone had curled
and wantoned over the walls."

"And hark to the speech of the folk !" said Ford. "Was
ever such a hissing and clacking ? I wonder that they have not
wit to learn English now that they have come under the English
crown. By Richard of Hampole ! 'there are fair faces amongst
them. See the wench with the brown whimple ! Out on you,
Alleyne, that you would rather gaze upon dead stone than on
living flesh ! "

It was little wonder that the richness and ornament, not only
of church and of stall, but of every private house as well, should
have impressed itself upon the young squires. The town was
now at the height of,its fortunes. Besides its trade and its
armorers, other causes had combined to pour wealth into it.
War, which had wrought evil upon so many fair cities around,
had brought nought but good to this one. As her French sisters
decayed she increased, for here, from north, and from east, and
from south, came the plunder to be sold and the ransom money
10 be spent. Through all her sixteen landward gates there had
set.for many years a double tide of empty-handed soldiers hurry-
ing Franeewards, and of enriched and laden bands who brought
their spoils home. The prince's court, too, with its swarm ofV "	THE WHITE COMPANY.	177 *

j

noble barons and wealthy knights, many of whom, in imitation
of their master, had brought their ladies and their children from
England, all helped to swell the coffers of the burghers. Now,
with this fresh influx of noblemen and cavaliers, food and lodg-
ings were scarce to be had, and the prince was hurrying forward
his forces to Dax in Gascony to relieve the overcrowding of his
capital.

In front of the minster and*abbey of St. Andrews was a large
square crowded with priests, soldiers, women, friars, and burgh-
ers, who made it their common centre for sight-seeing and gos-
sip. Amid the knot of noisy and gesticulating 'townsfolk, many
small parties of mounted knights and squires threaded their way
towards the prince's quarters, where the huge iron-clamped doors
were thrown back to show that he held audience within. Two-
score archers stood about the gateway, and beat back from time
to time with their bow-staves the inquisitive and chattering crowd
who swarmed round the portal. Two knights in full armor, with
lances raised and closed visors, sat their horses on either side,
while in the centre, with two pages to tend upon him', there stood
it noble-faced man in flowing purple gown, who pricked off upon
a sheet of parchment the style and title of each applicant, mar-
shalling them in their due order, and giving to each the place
and facility which his rank demanded. His long white beard
and searching eyes imparted to him an air of masterful dignity,
which was increased by his tabard-like vesture and the heraldic
barret cap with triple plume which bespoke his office.

" It is Sir William de Pakington, the prince's own herald and
scrivener," whispered Sir Nigel, as they pulled up amid the line
of knights who waited admission. " 111 fares it with the man
who would venture to deceive him. He hath by rote the name
of every knight of France or of England, and all the tree of his
family, with his kinships, coat-armor, marriages, augmentations,
abatements, and I know not what beside. We may leave our
horses here with thet varlets, and push forward with our squires."

Following Sir Nigel's counsel, they pressed on upon foot until
they were close to the prince's secretary, who was in high debate
with a young and foppish knight, who was bent upon making his
way past him.

" Mackworth ! " said the king-at-arms. "It is in my mind,
young sir, that you have not been presented before."

" Nay, it is but a day since I set foot in Bordeaux, but I feared
12THE WHITE COMPANY.

lest the prince should think it strange that I had not waited upon
him."

"The prince hath other things to think upon," quoth Sir Wil-
liam de Pakington ; " but if you be a Mackworth you must be a
Mackworth of Normanton, and indeed I see now that your coat
is sable and ermine."

411 am a Mackworth of Normanton," the other answered, with
- some uneasiness of manner.

" Then you must be Sir Stephen Mackworth, for I learn that
when old Sir Guy died he came in for the arms and the name,
the war-cry and the profit."

" Sir Stephen is my elder brother, and I am Arthur, the second
son," said the youth.

" In sooth and in sooth ! " cried the king-at-arms with scornfu^
eyes. "And pray, sir second son, where is the cadency marl
which should mark your rank. Dare you to wear your brother'^
coat without the crescent which should stamp you as his cadet,
Away to your lodgings, and come not nigh the prince until the
armorer hath placed the true charge upon your shield." As the
youth withdrew in confusion, Sir William's keen eye singled oij*
the five red roses from amid the overlapping shields and cloud o<
pennons which faced him.

"Ha! "he cried, "there are charges here which are above
counterfeit. The roses of Loring and the boar's head of Buttes-
thorn may stand back in peace, but by my faith ! they are not
to be held back in war. "Welcome, Sir Oliver, Sir Nigel !
Chandos will be glad to his very heart-roots when he sees you.
This way, my fair sirs. Your squires are doubtless worthy the
fame of their masters. Down this passage, Sir Oliver ! Edricson !
Ha ! one of the old strain of Hampshire Edricsons, I doubt not.
'And Ford, they are of a south Saxon stock, and of good repute.
There are Norburys in Cheshire and in Wiltshire, and also, as
I have heard, upon the borders. So, my fair sirs, and I shall see
that you are shortly admitted."

He had finished his professional commentary by flinging
open a folding door, and ushering the party into a broad hall,
which was filled with a great number of people who wTere wait-
ing, like themselves, for an audience. The room Was very
spacious, lighted on one side by three arched and mullioned
windows, while opposite was a huge fireplace in which a pile of
faggots was blazing merrily. Many of the company had crowdedTHE WHITE COMPANY.

179

round the flames, for the weather was bitterly cold ; but the two

knights seated themselves upon a bancal, with their squires
standing behind them. Looking down the room, Alieyne marked
that both floor and ceiling were of the richest oak, the latter
spanned by twelve arching beams, Which were adorned at either
end by the lilies and the lions of the royal arms. On the further
side was a small door, on each side of which stood men-at-armSo
From time to time an elderly man in black with rounded
shoulders and a long white wand in his hand came softly forth
from this inner room, and beckoned to one or other of the com-
pany, who doffed cap and followed him.

The two knights were deep in talk, when Alieyne became
aware of a remarkable individual who was walking round the
room in their direction. As he passed each knot of cavaliers
-every head turned to look after him, and it was evident, from
the bows and respectful salutations on all sides, that the interest
which he excited was not due merely to his strange personal
ippearance. He was tall and straight as a lance, though of a
great age, for hi: hair, which curled from under his velvet cap
of maintenance, was as white as the new-fallen snow. Yet,
from the swing of his stride and the spring of his step, it was
clear that he had not yet lost the fire and activity of his youth.
His tierce hawk-likevface was clean shaven like that of a priest,
save for a long thin wisp of white moustache which drooped
down half way to his shoulder. That he had been handsome
might be easily judged from his high aquiline nose and clear-
cut chin ; but his features had been so distorted by the seams
and scars of old wounds, and by the loss of one eye which had
?>een torn from the socket, that there was little left to remind
one of the dashing young knight who had been fifty years ago
the fairest as well as the boldest of the English chivalry. Yet
what knight was there in that hall of St. Andrews who would
not have gladly laid down youth, beauty, and all that he pos-
sessed to win the fame of this man ? For who could be named
with Chandos, the stainless knight, the wise councillor, the
valiant warrior, the hero of Cr£cy, of Winchelsea, of Poictiers, of
Auray, and of as many other battles as there were years to his
life ?

" Ha, my little heart of gold ! " he cried, darting forward
suddenly and throwing his arms round Sir Nigel. "I heard
that you were here and have been seeking you."i8o

THE WHITE COMPANY,

"My fair and dear lord," said the knight, returning thi
warrior's embrace, " I have indeed come back to you^for wher,#
else shall I go that I may learn to be a gentle and a hardy
knight ? "

" By my troth ! " said Chandos with a smile, " it is very fitting
that we should be companions, Nigel, for since you have tied up
one of your eyes, and I have had the mischance to tfcse one of
mine, we have but a pair between us. Ah, Sir Oliver ! you
were on the blind side of me and I saw you not. A wise woman
hath made prophecy that this blind side will one . day be the
death of me. We shall go in to the prince anon ; but in truth
he hath much upon his hands, for what with Pedro, ai^d the
King of Majorca, and the King of Navarre, who is no twb days
of the same mind, and the Gascon barons who are all chaffering
for terms like so many hucksters, he hath an uneasy part to
play. But how left you the Lady Loring ? "

" She was well, my fair lord, and sent her service and greet-
ings to you."

" I am ever her knight and slave. And your journey, I trust
that it was pleasant ? "

" As heart could wish. We had sight of two rover galleys,
and even came to have some slight bickering with them."

"Ever in luck's way, Nigel'."quoth Sir John. "We must
hear the tale anon. But I deem it best that ye should leave youi
squires and come with me, for, howsoe'er pressed the prince may
be, I am very sure that he would be loth to keep two old com-
rades-in-arms upon the further side of the door. Follow close
behind me, and I will forestall old Sir William, though I can
scarce promise to roll forth your style and rank as is his wont."
So saying, he led the way to the inner chamber, the two com-
panions treading close at his heels, and nodding to right and
left as they caught sight of familiar faces among the crowd.THE WHITE COMPANY.	l8l

CHAPTER XIX.

how there was stir at the abbey of st. andrews.

The prince's reception-room, although of no great size, was
fitted up with all the state and luxury which the fame and power
of its owner demanded. A high dais at the further end was
roofed in by a broad canopy of scarlet velvet spangled with ,
silver fleurs-de-lis, and supported at either'corner by silver rods.
This was approached by four steps carpeted with the same
material, while all round were scattered rich cushions, oriental
mats and costly rugs of fur. The choicest tapestries which the
looms of Arras could furnish draped the walls, whereon the
battles of Judas Maccabseus were set forth, with the Jewish
warriors in plate of proof, with crest and lance and banderole,
as the nai've artists of the day were wont to depict them. A few
rich settles and bancals, choicely carved and decorated with
glazed leather hangings of the sort termed or basane, completed
the furniture of the apartment, save that at one side of the dais
there stood a lofty perch, upon which a cast of three solemn
Prussian gerfalcons sat, hooded and jesseled, as silent and
motionless as the royal fowler who stood beside them.

In the centre of the dais were two very high chairs with dor-
serets, which arched forwards over the heads of the occupants,
the whole covered with light-blue silk thickly powdered with
golden stars. On that to the right sat a very tall and well-
formed man with red hair, a livid face, and a cold blue eye,
which had in it something peculiarly sinister and menacing.
He lounged back in a careless position, and yawned repeatedly
as though heartily weary of the proceedings, stooping from
time to time to fondle a shaggy Spanish greyhound which lay
stretched at his feet. On the other throne there was perched
bolt upright, with prim demeanor, as though he felt himself
to be upon his good behavior, a little, round, pippin-faced'
person, who smiled and bobbed to every one whose eye he
chanced to meet. Between and a littiQ \Xk front P( them Q& aC82

THE WHITE COMPANY,

Ihumble charette or stool, sat a slim, .dark young man, whose
quiet attire and modest manner would scarce proclaim him
lo be the most noted prince in Europe. A jupon of dark blue
<;loth, tagged with buckles and pendants of gold, seemed but
» sombre and plain attire amidst the wealth of silk and ermine
and gilt tissue of fustian with which he was surrounded. He
sat with his two hands clasped round his knee, his head slightly
bent, and an expression of impatience and of trouble upon his
clear, well-chiselled features. Behind the thrones there stood
two men in purple gowns, with ascetic, clean-shaven faces, and
half a dozen other high dignitaries and office-holders of Aqui-
taine. Below on either side of the steps were forty or fifty
barons, knights, and courtiers, ranged in a triple row to the
right and the left, with a clear passage in the centre.

" There sits the prince," whispered Sir John Chandos, as they
Entered. " He on the right is Pedro, whom we are about to put
upon the spanish throne. The other is Don James, whom we
purpose with the aid of God to help to his throne in Majorca.
Now follow me, and take it not to heart if he be a little short in
his speech, for indeed his mind is full of many very weighty con-
cerns."

The prince, however, had already observed their entrance,
and, springing to his feet, he had advanced with a winning smile
and the light of welcome in his eyes.

" We do not need your good offices as herald here, Sir John,"
said he in a low but clear voice ; " these valiant knights are very
well known to me. Welcome to Aquitaine, Sir Nigel Loring
and Sir Oliver Buttesthorn. Nay, keep your knee for my sweet
father at Windsor. I would have your hands, my friends. We
are like to give you some work to do ere you see the downs of
Hampshire once more. Know you aught of Spain, Sir Oliver ? "

" Nought, my sire, save that I have heard men say that there
is a dish named an olla which is prepared there, though I have
never been clear in my mind as to whether it was but a ragout
such as is to be found in the south, or whether there is some
seasoning such as fennel or garlic which is peculiar to Spain."

"Your doubts, Sir Oliver, shall soon be resolved," answered
the prince, laughing heartily, as did many of the barons who
surrounded them. " His majesty here will doubtless order that
you have this dish hotly seaspned when we are all safely ia
Castile."THE WHITE COMPANY.	183

" I will have a hotly-seasoned dish for some folk I know of,"
answered Don Pedro with a cold smile.

"But my friend Sir Oliver can fight right hardily without
either bite or sup," remarked the prince. "Did I not see him at
Poictiers, when for two days we had not more than a crust of
brea$ and a cup of foul water, yet carrying himself most vali-
antly. With my own eyes I saw him in the" rout sweep the head
from a knight of Picardy with one blow of his sword.",

"The rogue got between me and the nearest French victual
wain," muttered Sir Oliver, amid a fresh titter from those who
were near enough to catch his words.

" How many have you in your train ? " asked the prince, as-
suming a graver mien.

" I have forty men-at-arms, sire," said Sir Oliver.

" And I have one hundred archers and a score of lancers, but
there are two hundred men who wait for me on this side of the
water upon the borders of Navarre."

" And who are they, Sir ISTigel ? "

" They are a free company, sire, and they are called the
White Company."

To the astonishment of the knight, his words provoked a
burst of merriment from the barons round, in which the two
kings and the prince were fain to join. Sir Nigel blinked mildly
from one to the other, until at last perceiving a stout black-
bearded knight at his elbow, whose laugh rang somewhat louder
than the others, he touched him lightly upon the sleeve.

"Perchance, my fair sir," he whispered, "there is some small
vow of which I may relieve you. Might we not have some
honorable debate upon the matter. Your gentle courtesy may
perhaps grant me an exchange %f thrusts."

"Nay, nay, Sir Nigel," cried the prince, "fasten not the of-
fence upon Sir Robert Briquet, for we are one and all bogged in
the same mire. Truth to say, Our ears have just been vexed by
the doings of the same company, and I have even now made
vow to hang the man who held the rank of captain over it. 1
little^thought to find him among the bravest of my own chosen
chieftains. But the vow is now nought, for, as you have never
seeht your company, it would be a fool's act to blame yQU for
their doings."

" My liege," said Sir Nigel, " it is a very small matter thafI
should be hanged, albeit the manner of death is somewhat more184	THE WHITE COMPANY.

fgnoble than I had hoped for. On the other hand, it would be
a very grievous thing that you, the Prince of England and the
flower of knighthood, should make a vow, whether in ignorance
or no, and fail to bring it to fulfilment."

" Vex not your mind on that," the prince answered, smiling.

We have had a citizen from Montauban here this very day,
who told us such a tale of sack and murder and pillage that it
moved our blood ; but our wrath was turned upon the man who
was in authority over them/'

" My dear and honored master," cried Nigel, in great anxiety,
,f I fear me much that in your gentleness of heart you are strain-
ing this vow which you have taken. If there be so much as a
shadow of a doubt as to the form of it, it were a thousand times
best-"

" Peace ! peace ! " cried the prince impatiently. " I am very
well able to look to my own vows and their performance. We
hope to see you both in the banquet-hall anon. Meanwhile you
Will attend upon us with our train.". He bowed, and Chandos,
plucking Sir Oliver by the sleeve, led them both away to the
back of the press of courtiers.

" Why, little coz," he whispered, ''you are very eager to have
your neck in a noose. By my soul! had you asked as much
from our new ally Don Pedro, he had not baulked you. Be-
tween friends, there is overmuch of the hangman in Jiim, and too
little of the prince. But indeed this White Company is a rough
band, and may take some handling ere you find yourself safe in
your captaincy."

" I doubt not, with the help of St. Paul, that I shall bring them
to some order," Sir Nigel answered. " But there are many
faces here which are new to m^ though others have been before
me since firstl waited upon my dear master, Sir Walter. I pray
you to tell me, Sir John, who are these priests upon the
dais ? "

" The one is the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Nigel, and the
other the Bishop of Agen."

" And the dark knight with gray-streaked beard ? By my
troth, he seems to be a man of much wisdom and valor." 5

" He is Sir William Fenton, who, with my unworthy self, is
the "chief counsellor of the prince, he being high steward and I
«the seneschal of Aquitaine."

" And the knights upon the right, beside Don Pedro ? "THE WHITE COMPANY.

" They are cavaliers of Spain who have followed him in his
exile. The one at his elbow is Fernando de Castro, who is as
brave and true a man as heart could wish. In front to the right
are the Gascon lords. You may well tell them by their clouded
brows, for there hath been some ill-will of late betwixt the prince
and them. The tall and burly man is the Captal de Buch, whom
I doubt not that you know, for a braver knight never laid lance
in rest. That heavy-faced cavalier who plucks his skirts and
whispers in his ear is Lord Oliver de Clisson, known also as the
butcher. He it is who stirs up strife, and forever blows the
dying embers into flame. The man with the mole upon his
cheek is the Lord Pommers, and his two brothers stand behincf
him, with the Lord Lesparre, Lord de Roseln, Lord de Mucident^
Sir Perducas d'Albret, the Souldich de la Trane, and others.
Further back are knights from Quercy, Limousin, Saintonge,
Poitou, and Aquitaine, with the valiant Sir Guiscard d'Angle.
That is he in the rose-colored doublet with the ermine."

** And the knights upon this side ? "

" They are all Englishmen, some of the household and othe/a
who, like yourself, are captains of companies. There is Lord
Neville, Sir Stephen Cossington, and Sir Matthew Gourney, with
Sir Walter Huet, Sir Thomas Banaster, and Sir Thomas Felton,
who is the brother of the high steward. Mark well the man
with the high nose and flaxen beard who hath placed his hand
upon the shoulder of the dark hard-faced cavalier in the rust-
stained jupon."

" Aye, by St. Paul ! " observed Sir Nigel, " they both bear the
print of their armor upon their cdtes-hardies. Methinks they
are men who breathe freer in a camp than a court."

"There are many of us who do that, Nigel," said Chandos,
"and the head of the court is, I dare warrant, among them.
But of these two men the one is Sir Hugh Calverley, and the
other is Sir Robert Knolles."

Sir Nigel and Sir Oliver craned their necks to have the clearer
view of these famous warriors, the one a chosen leader of free
companies, the other a man who by his fierce valor and energy
had raised himself from the lowest ranks until he was second
only to Chandos himself in the esteem of the army.

" He hath no light hand in war, hath Sir Robert," said
Chandos. " If he passes through a country you may tell it for
some years to come. I have heard that in the north it is stiM186

THE WHITE COMPANY.

the use to call a house which hath but the two gable-ends left,
without walls or roof, a Knolles' mitre."

"I have often heard of him," said Nigel, " and I have hoped
to be so far honored as to run a course with him. But hark,
Sir John, what is amiss with the prince ? "

Whilst Chandos had been conversing with the two knights a
continuous stream of suitors had been ushered in, adventurers
seeking to sell their swords and merchants clamoring over some
grievance, a ship detained for the carriage of troops, or a tun
of sweet wine which had the bottom knocked out by a troop
of thirsty archers. A few words from the prince disposed of
each case, and, if the applicant liked not the judgment, a quick
glance from the prince's dark eyes sent him to the door with the
grievance all gone out of him. The younger ruler had sat list-
lessly upon his stool with the two puppet monarchs enthroned
behind him, but of a sudden a dark shadow passed over his face,
and he sprang to his feet in one of those gusts of passion which
were the single blot upon his noble and generous char-
acter.

''How now, Don Martin de la Carra ? " he cried. "How
now, sirrah ? What message do you bring to us from our
brother of Navarre ? "

The new-comer to whom this abrupt query had been ad-
dressed was a tall and exceedingly handsome cavalier who had
just been ushered into the apartment. His swarthy cheek and
raven black hair spoke of the fiery south, and he wore his long
black cloak swathed across his chest and over his shoulders
in a graceful sweeping fashion, which was neither English nor
French. With stately steps and many profound bows, he
advanced to the foot of the dais before replying to the prince's
question.

"My powerful and illustrious master," he began, "Charles,
King of Navarre, Earl of Evreux, Count of Champagne, who
also writeth himself Overlord of Beam, hereby sends his love
and greetings to his dear cousin Edward, the Prince of Wales,
Governor of Aquitaine, Grand Commander of——"

"Tush! tush ! Don Martin !" interrupted the prince, who
had been beating the ground with his foot impatiently during
this stately preamble. "We already know our cousin's titles and
style, and, certes, we know our own. To the point, man, and
£t once. Are the passes open to us, or does your master go"The white company.

back from his word pledged to me at Libourne no later than

hist Michaelmas ? "

" It \yould ill become my gracious master, sire, to go back
from promise given. He does but ask some delay and certain

conditions and hostages-" v

"Conditions! Hostages! Is he speaking to the Prince of
England, or is it to the bourgeois provost of some half-captured
town! Conditions, quotha ? He may find much to mend in
his own condition ere long. The passes are, then, closed t»
us ? "

" Nay, sire-"

" They are open, then ? "

"Nay, sire, if you would Hit-"

"Enough, enough, Don Martin," cried the prince. "It is a
sorry sight to see so true a knight pleading in so false a cause.
We know the doings of our cousin Charles. We know that
while with the right hand he takes our fifty thousand crowns for
the holding of the passes open, he hath his left outstretched to
Henry of Trastamare, or to tr»e King of France, all ready to
take as many more for the keeping them closed. I know our
good Charles-, and, by my blessed name-saint the Confessor, he
shall learn that I know him. Hp sets his kingdom up to the
best bidder, like some scullion farrier selling a glandered horse.
He is--"

"My lord," cried Don Martin, "I cannot stand there to hear
such words of my master. Did they come from other lips, i
should know better how to answer them."

Don Pedro frowned and curled his lip, but the prince smiled
and nodded his approbation.

"Your bearing and your words, Don Martin, are such I
should have looked for in you," he remarked. "You will tell
the king, your master, that he hath been paid his price,, and
that if he holds to his promise he hath my w^rd for it that no
scath shall come to his people, nor to their houses or gear. If,
however, we have not his leave, I shall come cl^se at the heels*
of this message without his leave, and bearing a key with me
which shall open all that he may close." He stooped and whis-
pered to Sir Robert Knolles and Sir Huge Calverley- who smile#
as men well pleased, and hastened from the room.

" Our cousin Charles has had experience of our friendsWjV the
prince continued, " and now, by the Saints ! he shall foul. \ >£uchi88

THE WHITE COMPANY.

of our displeasure. I send now a message to our cousin Charles
which his whole kingdom may read. Let him take heed lest
worse befall him» Where is my Lord Chandos ? Ha, Sir John,
I commend this worthy knight to your care. You will see that
he hath refection, and such a purse of gold as may defray his
charges, for indeed it is great honor to any court to have within
it so noble and gentle a cavalier. How say you, sire ?" he
asked, turning to the Spanish refugee, while the herald of
Navarre was conducted from the chamber by the old warrior.

" It is not our custom in Spain to reward pertness in a mes-
senger," Don Pedro answered, patting the head of his grey-
hound. "Yet we have all heard the lengths to which your
royal generosity runs."

" In sooth, yes," cried the King of Majorca.

" Who should know it better than we ? " said Don Pedro bit-
terly, " since we have had to fly to you in our trouble as to the
natural protector of all who are weak."

" Nay, nay, as brothers to a brother," cried the prince, with
sparkling eyes. " We doubt not, with the help of God, to see
you very soon restored to those thrones from which you have
been so traitorously thrust."

" When that happy day comes," said Pedro, " then Spain shall
be to you as Aquitaine, and, be your project what it may, you
may ever count on every troop and every ship over which flies
the banner of Castile."

" And," added the other, " upon every aid which the wealth
And power of Majorca can bestow."

" Touching the hundred thousand crowns in which I stand
your debtor," continued Pedro carelessly, " it can no doubt——'"

" Not a word, sire, not a word ! ' cried the prince. " It is
not now wJhen you are in grief that I would vex your mind
with such base and sordid matters. I have said once and
forever that I am yours with every bow-string of my army
and every florin in my coffers."

"Ah! here is^ indeed a mirror of chivalry," said Don Pedro.
"I think, Sir Fernando, since the prince's bounty is stretched
so far, that we may make further use of his gracious good-
ness to the extent of fifty thousand crowns. Good Sir William
Felton, here, will doubtless settle the matter with you."

The stout old English counsellor looked somewhat blank at
this prompt acceptance of his master's bounty.THE' WHITE COMPANY.

"If it please you, sire," he said, " the public funds are at their
lowest, seeing that I have paid twelve thousand men of the com-
panies, and the new taxes—the hearth-tax and the wine-tax—not
yet come in. If you could wait until the promised help from
England comes——"

"Nay, nay, my sweet cousin," cried Don Pedro. "Had we
known that your own coffers were so low, or that this sorry
sum could have weighed one way or the other, we had been loth
indeed-"

"Enough, sire, enough ! " said the prince, flushing with vexa-
tion. " If the public funds be, indeed, so backward, Sir William,
there is still, I trust, my own private credit, which hath never
been drawn upon for my own uses, but is now ready in the
cause of a friend in adversity. Go, raise this money upon our
own jewels, if nought else may serve, and see that it be paid
^ver to Don Fernando."

" In security I offer-" cried Don Pedro.

"Tush ! tush ! " said the prince. " I am not a Lombard, sire.
Your kingly pledge is my security, without bond or seal. But I
have tidings for you, my lords and lieges, that our brother of
Lancaster is on his* way for our capital with four hundred lances
ind as many archers to aid us in our venture. When he hath
'come, and when our fair consort is recovered in her health,
which I trust by the grace of God may be ere many weeks be
past, we shall then join the army at Dax, and set our banners
to the breeze once more."

A buzz of joy at the prospect of immediate action rose up
vrom the group of warriors. The prince smiled at the martial
ardor which shone upon every face around him.

" It will hearten you to know," he continued, " that I have
sure advices that this Henry is a very valiant leader, and that,
he has it in his power to make such a stand against us as
promises to give us much honor and pleasure. Of his own
people he hath brought together, as I learn, some fifty thousand,
with twelve thousand of the French free companies, who are, as
you know, very valiant and expert men-at-arms. It is certain,
also, that the brave and worthy Bertrand de Guesclin Jiath ridden
into France to the Duke of Anjou, and purposes to take back
with him great levies from Picardy and Brittany. We hold
Bertrand in high esteem, for he has oft before been at great
pains to furnish us with an honorable encounter. What thiakTHE WHITE COMPANY.

you of it, my worthy Captal ? He took you at Cocherel,
and, by my soul ! you will have the chance no\y to pay that
score."

The Gascon warrior winced a little at the allusion, nor were
his countrymen around him better pleased, for on the only occa-
sion when they had encountered the arms of France without
English aid they had met with a heavy defeat.

" There are some who say, sire," said the burly De Clisson,
" that the score is already overpaid, for that without Gascon
help Bertrand had not been taken at Auray, nor had King John
been overborne at Poictiers."

" By heaven ! but this is too much,*' cried an English noble"
man. " Methinks that Gascony is too small a cock to crow so
lustily."

" The smaller cock, my Lord Audley, may have the longer
spur," remarked the Captal de Buch.

" May have its comb clipped if it make over-much noise,"
broke in an Englishman.

" By our Lady of Rocamadour ! " cried the Lord of Mucident,
" this is more than I can abide. Sir John Charnell, you shall
answer to me for those words !"

" Freely, my lord, and when you will," returned the English-
man carelessly.

" My Lord de Clisson," cried Lord Audley, "you look some-
what fixedly in my direction. By God's soul ! I should be right
glad to go further into the matter with you."

" And you, my Lord of Pommers," said Sir Nigel, pushing
his way to the front, " it is in my mind that we might break a
lance in gentle and honorable debate over the question."

For a moment a dozen challenges flashed backwards and for-
wards at this sudden bursting of the cloud which had lowered
so long between the knights of the two nations. Furious and
gesticulating the Gascons, white and cold and sneering the Eng-
lish, while the prince with a half smile glanced from one party
to the other, like a man who loved to dwell upon a fiery scen^e,
and yet dreaded least the mischief go so far that he might find
it beyond his control.

" Friends, friends ! " he cried at last, "this quarrel must go
no further. The man shall answer to me, be he Gascon or
English, who carries it beyond this room. I have overmuch
need for your swords that you should turn them upon each other.THE WHITE COMPANY.

191

Sir John Charnell, Lord Audley, you do not doubt the courage
of our friends of Gascony ? "

"Not I, sire," Lord Audley answered. "I have seen them
fight too often not to know that they are very hardy and valiant
gentlemen."

"And so say I," quoth the other Englishman ; " but, certps,
there is no fear of our forgetting it while they have a tongue in
their heads."

"Nay, Sir John," said the prince reprovingly, " all peoples
have their own use and customs. There are some who might
call us cold and dull and silent. But you hear, my lords of Gas-
cony, that these gentlemen had no thought to throw a slur upon
your honor or your valor, so let ail anger fade from your mind.
Clisson, Captal, De Pommers, I have your word ? "

" We are your subjects, sire," said the Gascon barons, though
with no very good grace. " Your words are our law."

" Then shall we bury all cause -of unkindness in a flagon of
Malvoisie," said the prince, cheerily. " Ho, there ! the doors of
the banquet-hall! I have been over long from my sweet spouse,
but I shall be back with you anon. Let the sewers serve and
the minstrels play, while we drain a cup to the brave days that
are before us in the south ! " He turned away, accompanied by
the two monarchs, while the rest of the company, with many a
compressed lip and menacing eye, filed slowly through the side-
door to the great chamber in which the royal tables were set
forth.	v	,

CHAPTER XX.

how alleyne won his place in an honorable guild.

Whilst the prince's council was sitting, Alleyne and Ford
had remained in the outer hall, where they were soon surrounded
by a noisy group of young Englishmen of their own rank, all
eager to hear the latest news from England.

" How is it with the old man at Windsor ? " asked one

" And how with the good Queen Philippa ? "

"And how with Dame Alice Perrers ? " cried a third.

"The devil take your tongue, Wat!" shouted a tall young192

THE WHITE < 6MPANY.

man, seizing the last speakex by the collar and giving him an
admonitory shake. " The prince would take your head off for
those words.'*

" By God's coif ! Wat would miss it but little," said another.
" It is as empty as a beggar's wallet."

" As empty as an English squire* coz," cried the first speaker.
•'What a devil has become of the mattre-destables and his
sewers ? They have not put forth the trestles yet."

" Mon Dieu ! if a man could eat himself into knighthood,
Humphrey, you had been a banneret at the least," observed an-
other, amid a burst of laughter.

" And if you could drink yourself in, old leather-head, youhad
been first baron of the realm," cried the aggrieved Humphrey.
" But how of England, my lads of Loring ? "

" I take it," said Ford, " that it is much as it was when you
were there last, save that perchance there is a little less noise
there."

" And why less noise, young Solomon ? "

"Ah, that is for your wit to discover."

" Pardieu ! here is a paladin come over/ with the Hampshire
mud still sticking to his shoes. He means that the noise is lesf
for our being out of the country."

" They are very quick in these parts," said Ford, turning tq
Alleyne.

" How are we to take this, sir ? " asked the ruffling squire.

" You may take it as it comes," said Ford carelessly.

" Here is pertness ! " crfed the other.

"Sir, I honor your truthfulness," said Ford.

"Stint it, Humphrey," said the tall squire, with a burst of
laughter. " You wTill have little credit from this gentleman, I
perceive. Tongues are sharp in Hampshire, sir."

" And swords ? "

" Hum ! we" may prove that. In two days' time is the vdpres
du tournoi, when we may see if your lance is as quick as your
wit."

" All very well, Roger Harcomb," cried a burly, bullnecked
young man, whose square shoulders and massive limbs told oK
exceptional personal strength. " You pass too lightly over the
matter. We are not to be so easily overcrowed. The Lord
Loring hath given his proofs ; but we know nothing of his
squires, save thajt one pf them h-ath a railing tongue. A»d hovTHE WHITE COMPANY.

T93

of you, young sir ? " bringing his heavy hand down on Alleyne's
shoulder.

" And what of me, young sir ? "

" Ma foi! this is my lady's page come over. Your cheek will
be browner and your hand harder ere you see your mother
again."

" If my hand is not hard, it is ready."

"Ready? Ready for what? For the hem of my lady's
train ? "

"Ready to chastise insolence, sir," cried Alleyne with flashing
eyes.

"Sweet little coz !" answered the burly Squire. "Such a
dainty color ! Such a mellow voice ! Eyes of a bashful maid,
and hair like a three years' babe! Voila!" He passed his
thick fingers roughly through the youth's crisp golden curls.

" You seek to force a quarrel, sir," said the young mar^, white
with anger.

" And what then ? "

" Why, you do it like a country boor, and not like a gentle
squire. Hast been ill bred and as ill taught. I serve a master
who could show you how such things should he done."

" And how would he do it, O pink of squires ? "

" He would neither be loud nor would he be unmannerly, but
rather more gentle than is his wont. He would say, ' Sir, I
should take it as an honor to do some small deed of arms against
you, not for mine own glory or advancement, but rather for the
fame of my lady and for the upholding of chivalry.' Then he
would draw his glove, thus, and throw it on the ground , or, if
he had cause to think that he had to deal with a churl, he might
throw it in his face—as I do now ! "

A buzz of excitement went up from the knot of squires as
Alleyne, his gentle nature turned by this causeless attack into
fiery resolution, dashed his glove with all his strength into the
sneering face of his antagonist. From all parts of the hall
squires and pages came running, until a dense, swaying crowd
surrounded the disputants.

" Your life for this ! " said the bully, with a face which was
distorted with rage.

"If you can take it," returned Alleyne.

/"Good lad!" whispered Ford. "Stick to it close a§
wax.'

*9194

THE WHITE COMi ANY.

" I shall see justice," cried Newbury, Sir Oliver's silent attend-
ant.

"You brought it upon yourself, John Tranter," said the tall
squire, who had been addressed as Roger Harcomb. " You
must ever plague the new-comers. But it were shame if this
went further. The lad hath shown a proper spirit."

" But a blow! a blow ! " cried several of the older squires.
" There must be a finish to this."

" Nay ; Tranter fir^t laid hand upon his head," said Harcomb.
" How say you, Tranter ? The matter may rest where it stands ? "

"My name is known in these parts," said Tranter, proudly.
"I can let pass what might leave a stain upon another. Let
him pick up his glove and say that he has done amiss."

" I would see him in the claws of the devil first," whispered
Ford.

" You hear, young sir ? " said the peacemaker. "Our friend
will overlook the matter if you do but say that you have acted
in heat and haste."

" I cannot say that." answered Alleyne.

"It is our custom, young sir, when new squires come amongst
us from England, to test them in some such way. Bethink you
that if a man have a destrier or a new lance he will ever try it
in time of peace, lest in days of need it may fail him. How
much more then is it proper to test those who are our comrades
in arms."

" I would draw out if it may honorably be done,'' murmured
Norbury in Alleyne's ear. " The man is a noted swordsman
and far above your strength/'

Edricson came, however, of that sturdy Saxon blood which is
very slowly heated, but once up not easily to be cooled. The
hint of danger which Norbury threw out was the one thing
needed to harden his resolution.

" I came here at the back of my master," he said, " and I
looked on every man here as an Englishman and a friend. This
gentleman hath shown me a rough welcome, and if I have an-
swered him in the same spirit he has but himself to thank. I will
pick the glove up ; but, certes, I shall abide what I have done
unless he first crave my pardon for what he hath said and done."

Tranter shrugged his shoulders. "You have done what you
could to save him, Harcomb," said he. "We had best settle at
once."THE WHITE COMPANY. ~ —-195

" So say I,'" cried Alleyne.

"The council will not break up until the banquet," * remarked
a gray-haired squire. " You have a clear two hours."

" And the place ? "

"The tilting-yard is empty at this hour."

" Nay ; it must not be within the grounds of the court, or it
may go hard with all concerned if it come to the ears of the
prince."

" But there is a quiet spot near the river," said one youth.
"We have but to pass through the abbey grounds, along the
armory wall, past the church of St. Remi, and so down the Rue
des Apotres."

"En avant, then!" cried Tranter shortly, and the whole
assembly flocked out into the open Sir, save only those whom
the special orders of their masters held to their posts. These
unfortunates crowded to the small casements, and craned their
necks after the throng as far as they could catch a glimpse of
them.

Close to the banks of the Garonne there lay a little tract of
green sward, with the high wall of a prior's garden upon one
side and an orchard with a thick bristle of leafless apple-trees
upon the other. The river ran deep and swift up to the steep bank ;
but there were few boats upon it, and the ships were moored far
out in the centre of the stream. Here the two combatants drew
their swords and threw off their doublets, for neither had any
defensive armor. The duello with its stately etiquette had not
yet come into vogue, but rough and Sudden encounters were as
common as they must ever be when hot-headed youth goes
abroad with a weapon strapped to its waist. In such combats,
as well as in the more formal sports of the tilting-yard, Tranter
had won a name for strength and dexterity which had caused
Norbury to utter his well-meant warning. On the other hand,
Alleyne had used his weapons in constant exercise and practice
for every day for many months, and being by nature quick of eye
and prompt of hand, he might pass now as no mean swordsman.
A strangely opposed pair they appeared as they approached each
other: Tranter dark and stout and stiff, with hairy chest and
corded arms, Alleyne a model of comeliness and grace, with his
golden hair and his skin as fair as a woman's. An unequal
fight it seemed to most; but there were a few, and they the most196

THE WHITE COMPANY.

experienced, who saw something in the youth's steady gray eye

and wary step which left the issue open to doubt.

"Hold, sirs, hold !" cried Norbury, ere a blow had been
struck. " This gentleman hath a two-handed sword, a good foot
longer than that of our friend."

"Take mine, Alleyne," said Ford.

"Nay, friends," he answered, "I understand the weight and
balance of mine own. To work, sir, for our lord may need us at
the abbey !"

Tranter's great sword was indeed a mighty vantage in his
favor. He stood with his feet close together, his knees bent
outw'ards, ready for a dash inwards or a spring out. The
weapon he held straight up in front of him with blade erect, so
that he might either bring it down with a swinging blow, or by
a turn of the heavy blade he might guard his own head and
body. A further protection lay in the broad and powerful guard
which crossed the hilt, and which was furnished with a deep and
narrow notch, in which an expert swordsman might catch his
foeman's blade, and by a quick turn of his wrist might snap it
across.- Alleyne, on the other hand, must trust for his defence
to his quick eye and active foot—for his sword, though keen as a
whetstone could make it, was of a light and graceful build with
a narrow, sloping pommel and a tapering steel.

Tranter well knew his advantage and lost no time in putting
it to use. As his opponent walked towards him he suddenly
bounded forward and sent in a whistling cut which would have
severed the other in twain had he not sprung lightly "back from
it. So close was it that the point ripped a gash in the jutting
edge of his linen cyclas. Quick as a panther, Alleyne sprang in
with a thrust, but Tranter, who wras as active as he was strong,
had already recovered himself and turned it aside with a move-
ment of kis heavy blade. Again he whizzed in a blow which
made the spectators hold their breath, and again Alleyne very
quickly and swiftly slipped from under it, and sent back two
lightning thrusts which the other could scarce parry. So close
were they to each other that Alleyne had no time to spring back
from the next cut, which beat down his sword and grazed his
forehead, sending the blood streaming into his eyes and down
his cheeks. He sprang out beyond sword sweep, and the pair
stood breathing heavily, while the crowd of young squires buzzed
their applause.THE WHITE COMPANY.

_I9 7

"Bravely struck on both sides!" cried Roger Harcomb.
"You have both won honor from this meeting, and it would
be sin and shame to let it go further."

"You have done enough, Edricson," said Norbury.

" You have carried yourself well," cried several of the older
squires.

"For my part, I have no wish to slay this young man," said
Tranter, wiping his heated brow.

" Does this gentleman crave my pardon for having used me
despitefully ? " asked Alleyne.

" Nay, not I."

" Then stand on your guard, sir ! " With a clatter and dash
the two blades met once more, Alleyne pressing in so as to keep
within the full sweep of the heavy blade, while Tranter as con-
tinually sprang back to have space for one of his fatal cuts. A
three-parts-parried blow drew blood from Alleyne's left shoulder,
but at the same moment he wounded Tranter slightly upon the
thigh. Next instant, however, his blade had slipped into the fatal
notch, there was a sharp cracking sound with a tinkling upon the
ground, and he found a splintered piece of steel fifteen inches
long was all that remained to him of his weapon.

" Your life is in my hands ! " cried Tranter, with a bitter^
smile.

" Nay, nay, he makes submission ! " broke in several squires.

" Another sword ! " cried Ford.

" Nay, sir," said Harcomb, "that is not the custom."

" Throw down your hilt, Edricson," cried Norbury.

" Never ! " said Alleyne. " Do you crave my pardon, sir ? "

" You are mad to ask it."

" Then on guard again ! " cried the young squire, and sprang
in with a fire and a fury which more than made up for the
shortness of his weapon. It had not escaped him that his oppo-
nent was breathing in short, hoarse gasps, like a man who is
dizzy with fatigue. Now was the time for the purer living and
the more agile limb to show their value. Back and back gave
Tranter, ever seeking time for a last cut. On and on came
Alleyne, his jagged point now at his foeman's face, now at his
throat, now at his chest, still stabbing and thrusting to pass the
line of steel which covered him. Yet his experienced foeman
knew well that such -efforts could not be long sustained. Let
him relax for one instant, and his death-blow had come. RelaxTHE WHITE CpMPANY.

he must f Flesh and blood could not stand the strain. Already
the thrusts were less fierce, the foot less ready, although there
• was no abatement of the spirit in the steady gray eyes. Tranter, *
cunning and wary from years of fighting, knew that his chance
had come. He brushed aside the frail -weapon which was op-
posed to him, whirled up his great blade, sprang back to get the
fairer sweep—and vanished into the waters of the Garonne.

So intent had the squires, both combatants and spectators,
been on the matter in hand, that all thought of the steep bank
and swift still stream had gone from their minds. It was not
until Tranter, giving back before the other's fiery rush, was
upon the very brink, that a general cry warned him of his
danger. That last spring, which he hoped would have brought
the fight to a bloody end, carried him clear of the edge, and he
found himself in an instant eight feet deep in the ice-cold stream.
Once and twice his gasping face and clutching fingers broke up
through the still green water, sweeping outwards in the swirl of
the current. In vain were sword-sheaths, apple-branches and
belts linked together thrown out to him by his companions.
Alleyne had dropped his shattered sword and was standing,
trembling in every limb, with his rage all changed in an instant
to pity. For the third time the drowning man came to the sur^
face, his hands full of green slimy water-plants, his eyes turned
in despair to the shore. Their glance fell upon Alleyne, and he
could not withstand the mute appeal which he read in them.
In an instant he, too, was in the Garonne, striking out with
powerful strokes for his late foeman.

Yet the current was swift and strong, and, good swimmer as
he was, it was no easy task which Alleyne had set himself. To
clutch at Tranter and to seize him by the hair was the work of a
few seconds, but to hold his head above water and to make their
way out of the current was another matter. For a hundred
strokes he did not seem to ^gain an inch. Then at last, amid a
shout of joy and praise from the bank, they slowly drew clear
into more stagnant water, at the instant that a rope, made of a
dozen sword-belts linked together by the buckles, was thrown by
Ford into their very hands. Three pulls from eager arms, and
the two combatants, dripping and pale, were dragged up the
bank, and lay panting upon the grass.

John Tranter was the first to come to himself, for although he
had been longer in the water, he had done nothing during thatTHE WHITE COMPANY.

I99

fierce battle with the current. He staggered to his feet and looked
down upon his rescuer, who had raised himself upon his elbow,
and was smiling faintly at the buzz of congratulation and of
praise which broke from the squires around him.

" I am much beholden to you, sir," said Tranter, though in no
very friendly voice. " Certes, I should have been in the river
now but for you, for I was born in Warwickshire, which is- but
a dry county, and there are few who swim in those parts."

"I ask no thanks," Alleyne answered shortly. "Give me
your hand to rise, Ford."

"The river has been my enemy," said Tranter, "but it hath
been a good friend to you, for it has saved your life this day."

" That is as it may be," returned Alleyne.

" But all is now well over," quoth Harcomb, " and no scath
come of it, which is more than I had at one time hoped for. Our
young friend here hath very fairly and honestly earned his right
to be craftsman of the Honorable Guild of the Squires of Bor-
deaux. Here is your doublet, Tranter."

"Alas for my poor sword which lies at the bottom of the
Garonne ! " said the squire.

" Here is your pourpoint, Edricson," cried Norbury. " Throw
it over your shoulders, that you may have at least one dry gar-
ment."

" And now away back to the abbey !" said several.

" One moment, sirs," cried Alleyne, who was leaning on
Ford's shoulder, with the broken sword, which he had picked
up, still clutched in his right hand. " My ears may be some-
what dulled by the water, and perchance what has been said
has escaped me, but I have not yet heard this gentleman crave
pardon for the insults which he put upon me in the hall."

" What ! do you still pursue the quarrel ? " asked Trenter.

" And why not, sir ? I am slow to take up such things, but
once afoot I shall follow it while I have life or breath."

"Ma foil you have not too much of either, for you are as
white as marble," said Harcomb bluntly. "Take my rede, sir,
and let it drop, for you have come very well out from it."

"Nay," said Alleyne, " this quarrel is none of my making
but, now that I am here, I swear to you that I shall never leavt
this spot until I have that which I have come for : so ask my
pardon, sir, or choose another glaive and to it again."

The young squire was deadly white from his exertions, bo$fi200

THE WHITE COMPANY.

on the land and in the water. Soaking and stained, with a
smear of blood on his white shoulder and another on his brow,
there was still in his whole pose and set of face the trace of an
inflexible resolution. His opponent's duller and more material
mind quailed before the fire and intensity of a higher spiritual
nature.

"J had not thought that you had taken it so amiss," said
he awkwardly. " It was but such a jest as we play upon each
other, and, if you must have it so, I am sorry for it."

" Then I am sorry too," quoth Alleyne warmly, " and here
is my hand upon it."

" And the none-meat horn has blown three times," quoth
Harcomb, as they ail streamed in chattering groups from the
ground. " I know not what the prince's mattre-de-cuisine will
say or think. By my troth ! master Ford, your friend here is
in need of a cup of wine, for he hath drunk deeply of Garonne
water. I had not thought from his fair face that he had stood to
this matter so shrewdly."

"Faith," said Ford, "this air of Bordeaux hath turned our
turtle-dove into a game-cock. A milder or more courteous
youth never came out of Hampshire."

"His master also, as I understand, is a very mild and court-
eous gentleman," remarked Harcomb ; "yet I do not think that
they are either of them i*ien with whom it is very safe to trifle."

CHAPTER XXI.

how agostino pisano risked his head.

Even the squires' table at the Abbey of St. Andrew's at Bor-
deaux was on a very sumptuous scale while the prince held his
court there. Here first, after the meagre fare of Beaulieu and
the stinted board of the Lady Loring, Alleyne learned the
lengths to which luxury and refinement might be pushed.
Roasted peacocks, with the feathers all carefully replaced, so
that the bird lay upon the dish even as it had strutted in life,
boars' heads with the tusks gilded and the mouth lined with
silver foil, jellies in the shape of the Twelve Apostles, and a
_great pasty which formed an exact model of the king's new
castle at Windsor—these were a f^v of the strange dishes which
faced him. An archer had brought him a change of clothesTHE WHITE COMPANY^ ~	~ -20I -

from the cog, and he had already, with the elasticity of youth,
shaken off the troubles and fatigues of the morning. A page
from the inner banqueting-hall had come with word that their
master intended to drink wine at the lodgings of the Lord
Chandos that night, and that he desired his squires to sleep at
the hotel of the " Half Moon " on the Rue des Apotres. Thither
then they both set out in the twilight after the long course ot
juggling tricks and glee-singing with which the principal meal
was concluded.

A thin rain was falling as the two youths, with their cloaks
over their heads, made their way on foot through the streets of
the old town, leaving their horses in the royal stables. An
occasional oil lamp at the corner of a street, or in the portico of
some wealthy burgher, threw a faint glimmer over the shining
cobblestones, and the varied motley crowd who, in spite of the
weather, ebbed and flowed along every highway. In those
scattered circles of dim radiance might be seen the whole busy
panorama of life in a wealthy and martial city. Here passed
the round-faced burgher, swollen with prosperity, his sweeping
dark-clothed gaberdine, flat velvet cap, broad leather belt and
dangling pouch all speaking of comfort and of wealth. Behind
him his serving wench, her blue whimple over her head, and
one hand thrust forth to bear the lanthorn which threw a golden
bar of light along her master's path. Behind them a-group of
swaggering, half-drunken Yorkshire dalesmen, speaking a dia-
lect which their own southland countrymen could scarce com-
prehend, their jerkins marked with the pelican, which showed
that they had come over in the train of the north-country Staple-
tons. The burgher glanced back at their fierce faces and
quickened his step, while the girl pulled her whimple closer
round her, for there was a meaning in their wild eyes, as they
stared at the purse and the maiden, which men of all tongues
could understand. Then came archers of the guard, shrill-voiced
women of the camp, English pages with their fair skins and blue
wondering eyes, dark-robed friars, lounging men-at-arms,
swarthy loud-tongued Gascon serving-men, seamen from the
river, rude peasants oftheMedoc, and becloaked and befeathered
squires of the court, all jostling and pushing in an ever-changing,
many-colored stream, while English, French, Welsh, Basque,
and the varied dialects of Gascony and Guienne filled the air
with their babel. From time to time the throng would be burst202 ----- THE WHITE COMPANY.

• -	^ " V	■ V = .' 1	~	,

asunder and a lady's horse-litter wotild trot past towards the
abbey, or there would come a knot of torch-bearing archers
walking in front of Gascon baron or English knight, as he sought
his lodgings after the palace revels. Clatter of hoofs, clinking
of weapons, shouts from the drunken brawlers, and high laughter
of women, they all rose up, like the mist from a marsh, out of
the crowded streets of the dim-lit city.

One couple out of the moving throng especially engaged the
attention of the two young squires, the more so as they were
going in their own direction and immediately in front of them.
They consisted of a man and a girl, the former very tall with
rounded shoulders, a limp of one foot, and a large flat object
covered with dark cloth under hjs arm. His companion was
young and straight, with a quick, elastic step and graceful bear-
ing, though so swathed in a black mantle that little could be
seen of her face save a flash of dark eyes and a curve of raven
hair. The tall man leaned heavily upon her to take the weight
off his tender foot, while he held his burden betwixt himself and
the wall, cuddling it jealously to his side, and thrusting forward
his young companion to act as a buttress whenever the pressure
of the crowd threatened to bear him away. The evident anxiety
of the man, the appearance of his attendant, and the joint care
with which they defended their concealed possession, excited
the interest of the two young Englishmen who walked within
hand-touch of them.

" Courage, child ! " they heard the tall man exclaim in strange
hybrid French. " If we can win another sixty paces we are
safe."

"Hold it safe, father," the other answered, in the same soft,
mincing dialect. " We have no cause for fear."

i{ Verily, they are heathens and barbarians," cried the man ;
" mad, howling, drunken barbarians ! Forty more paces, Tita
mia, and I swear to the holy Eloi, patron of all learned crafts-
men, that I will never set. foot over my door again until the
whole swarm are safely hived in their camp of Dax, or wherever
else they curse with their presence. Twenty more paces, my
treasure ! Ah, my God ! how they push and brawl! Get in
their way, Tita mia ! Put your little elbow bravely out ! Set
your shoulders squarely against them, girl! Why should you
give way to these mad islanders ? Ah, cospetto I we are ruined
and destroyed !"THE WHITE COMPANY.

20$

The crowd had thickened in front, so that the lame man and
the girl had come to a stand. Several half-drunken English
archers, attracted, as the squires had been, by their singular ap-
pearance, were facing towards them, and peering at them through
the dim light.

" By the three kings ! " cried one, " here is an old dotard*
shrew to have so goodly a crutch ! Use the leg that God hath
given you, man, and do not bear so heavily upon the wench.*'

" Twenty devils fly away with him ! " shouted another. " What,
how, man ! are brave archers to go maidless while an old man
uses one as a walking-staff ? "

"Come with me, my honey-bird ! " cried a third, plucking at
the girl's mantle.

"Nay, with me, my heart's desire !" said the firsjt. " By St.
George ! our life is short, and v/e should be merry while we may..
May I never see Chester Bridge again, if she is not a right win-
some lass!"	,

" What hath the old toad under his arm ?" cried one o\
the others, "He hugs it to him as the devil hugged the par,
doner."

" Let us see, old bag of bones ; let us see what it is that yoq
have under your arm ! " They crowded in upon him, while he,
ignorant of their language, could but clutch the girl with one
hand and the parcel with the other, looking wildly about in
search of help.

"Nay, lads, nay!" cried Ford, pushing back the nearest
archer. " This is but scurvy conduct. Keep your hands off, or
it will be the worse for you."

" Keep your tongue still, or it will be the worse for you,"
shouted the most drunken of the archers. " Who are you to
spoil sport ? "	.

" A raw squire, new landed," said another. " By St. Thomas
of Kent ! we are at the beck of our master, but we are not to
be ordered by every babe whose mother hath sent him as far as
Aquitaine."

"Oh, gentlemen," cried the girl in broken French, "for dear
Christ's sake stand by us, and do not let these terrible men do
us an injury."

"Have no fears, lady," Alleyne answered. "We shall see
that all is well with you. Take your hand from the girl's wrist,
you north-country rogue ! "	-204

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" Hold to her, Wat!" said a great black-bearded man-at-
arms, whose steel breast-plate glimmered in the dusk. " Keep
your hands from your bodkins, you two, for that was my trade
before you were born, and, by God's soul ! I will drive a hand-
ful of steel through you if you move a finger."

"Thank God!" said Alleyne suddenly, as he spied in the
lamplight a shock of blazing red hair which fringed a steel cap
high above the heads of the crowd. " Here is John, and Ayl-
ward, too ! Help us, comrades, for there is wrong being done
to this maid and to the old man."

"Hola, mon petit," said the old bowman, pushing his way
through the crowd, with the huge forester at his heels. " What
is all this, then ? By the twang of string ! I think that you
will have some work upon your hands if you are to right all the
wrongs that you may see upon this side of the water. It is not
''to be thought that a troop of bowmen, with the wine buzzing in
their ears, will be as soft-spoken as so many young clerks in an
orchard. When you have been a year with the Company you
will think less of such matters. But what is amiss here ? The
provost-marshal with his archers is coming this way, and some
of you may find yourselves in the stretch-neck, if you take not
heed."

"Why, it is old Sam Aylward of the White Company!"
shouted the man-at-arms. " Why, Samkin, what hath come
upon thee ? I can call to mind the day when you were as roar-
ing a blade as ever called himself a free companion. By my
soul ! from Limoges to Navarre, who was there who would kiss
a wench or cut a throat as readily as bowman Aylward of
Hawkwood's company ? "

" Like enough, Peter," said Aylward, " and, by my hilt! I may
not have changed so much. But it was ever a fair loose and a
clear mark with me. The wench must be willing, or the man
must be standing up against me, else, by these ten finger bones !
either were safe enough for me."

A glance at Aylward's resolute face, and at the huge shoul-
ders of Hordle John, had convinced the archers that there was
little to be got by violence. The girl and the old man began to
shuffle on in the crowd without their tormentors venturing to
stop them. Ford and Alleyne followed slowly behind them, but
Aylward caught the latter by the shoulder.

«« By my hilt! camarade," said he, " I hear that you have doneTHE WHITE COMPANY.

SO?

great things at the Abbey to-day, but I pray you to have a care,
for it was I who brought you into the Company, and it would be
a black day for me if aught were to befall you."

"Nay, Aylward, I will have a care."

" Thrust not forward into danger too much, mon petit. In a
little time your wrist will be stronger and your cut more shrewd.
There will be some of us at the 1 Rose de Guienne' to-night,
which is two doors from the hotel of the « Half Moon/ so if you
Would drain a cup with a few simple archers you will be right
welcome."

Alleyne promised to be there if his duties would allow, and
then, slipping through the crowd, he rejoined Ford, who was
standing in talk with the two strangers, who had now reached
their own doorstep.

" Brave young signor," cried the tall man, throwing his arms
round Alleyne, " how can we thank you enough for taking our
parts against those horrible drunken barbarians. What should
we have done without you ? My Tita would have been dragged
away, and my head would have been shivered into a thousand
fragments."

" Nay, I scarce think that they would have mishandled you
so," said Alleyne in surprise.

" Ho, ho ! " cried he with a high crowing laugh, " it is not the
head upon my shoulders that I think of. Cospetto ! no. It is
the head under my arm which you have preserved."

" Perhaps#the signori would deign to come under our roof,
father," said the maiden. " If we bide here, who knows that
some fresh tumult may not break out."

" Well said, Tita ! Well said, my girl! I pray you, sirs, to
honor my unworthy roof so far. A light, Giacomo ! There
are five steps up. Now two more. So ! Here we are at last
in safety. Corpo di Baccho ! I would not have given ten mara-
vedi for my head when those children of the devil were pushing
us against the wall. Tita mia, you have been a brave girl, and
it was better that you should be pulled and pushed than that
my head should be broken."

" Yes indeed, father," said she earnestly.

"But those English ! Ach ! Take a Goth, a Hun, and a
Vandal; mix them together and add a Barbary rover ; then take
this creature and make him drunk—and you have an English-
man. My God ! were ever such people upon earth! What2q6

THE WHITE COMPANY.

place is free, from them ? I hear that they swarm in Italy even
as they swarm here. Everywhere you will find them, except in
heaven."

" Dear father," cried Tita, still supporting the angry old man,
as he limped up the curved oaken stair. "You must not forget
that these good signori who have preserved us are also English."

" Ah, yes. My pardon, sirs ! Come into my rooms here.
There are some who might find some pleasure in these paint-
ings, but I learn the art of war is the only art which is held in
honor in your island."

Thg low-roofed, oak-panelled room intd which he conducted
them was brilliantly lit by four scented oil lamps. Against the
walls, upon the table, on the floor, and in every part of the
chamber were great sheets of glass painted in the most brilliant
colors. Ford and Edricson gazed around them in amazement,
for never had they seen such magnificent works of art.

"You like them then," the lame artist cried, in answer to the
look of pleasure and of surprise in their faces. "There are then
some of you who have a taste for such trifling."

"I could not have believed it," exclaimed Alleyne. "What
color I What outlines ! See to this martyrdom of the holy Ste-
phen, Ford. Could you not yourself pick up one of these stones
which lie to the hand of the wicked murtherers ? "

" And see this stag, Alleyne, with the cross betwixt its horns.
By my faith ! I have never seen a better one at the Forest of
Bere."

" And the green of this grass—how bright and clear ! Why,
all the painting that I have seen is but child's play beside this.
This worthy gentleman must be one of those great painters of
whom I have oft heard brother Bartholomew speak in the old
days at Beaulieu."

The dark mobile face of the artist shone with pleasure at the
unaffected delight of the two young Englishmen. His daughter
had thrown off her mantle and disclosed a face of the finest and
most delicate Italian beauty, which soon drew Ford's eyes from
the pictures in front of him. Alleyne, however, continued with
little cries of admiration and of wonderment to turn from the
walls to the table and yet again to the walls.

" What think you of this, young sir ? " asked the painter, tear-
ing off the cloth which concealed the flat object which he had
borne beneath his arm. It was a teaf-shaped sheet of glassTHE WHITE COMPANY.

20f

Rearing upon it a face with a halo round it, so delicately outlined,
and of so perfect a tint, that it might have been indeed a
human faee which gazed with sad and thoughtful eyes upon
the young squire. He clapped his hands, with that thrill of joy
which true art will ever give to a true artist.

"It is great! " he cried. " It is wonderful ! But I marvel,
sir, that you should have risked a work of such beauty and value
by bearing it at night through so unruly a crowd."

«I have indeed been rash," said the artist. " Some wine,
Tita, from the Florence flask ! Had it not been for you, I
tremble to*think of what might have come of it. See to the skin
tint: it is not to be replaced, for paint as you will, it is not once
in a hundred times that it is not either burned too brown in the
furnace or else the color will not hold, and you get but a sickly
white. There you can see the very veins and the throb of the
blood. Yes, diavolo ! if it had broken, my heart would have
broken too. It is for the choir window in the church of St.
Remi, and we had gone, my little helper and I, to see if it was6
indeed of the size for the stonework. Night had fallen ere we
finished, and what could we do save carry it home as best we
might ? But you, young sir, you sj5eak as if you too knew some-
thing of the art."

" So little that I scarce dare speak of it in your presence/*
Alleyne answered. " I have been cloister-bred, and it was no
very great matter to handle the brush better than my brother
novices."

♦< There are pigments, brush, and paper," said the old artist.
"I do not give you glass, for that is another matter, and
takes much skill in the mixing of colors. Now I pray you to
show me a touch of your art. I thank you, Tita ! The
Venetian glasses, cara mia, and fill them to the brim. A seat
signor ! "

While Ford, in his English-French, was conversing with Tita
in her Italian-French, the old man was carefully examining his
precious head to see that no scratch had been left upon its sur-
face. When he glanced up again, Alleyne had, with a few
bold strokes of the brush, tinted in a woman's face and neck
upon the white sheet in front of him.

" Diavolo ! " exclaimed the old artist, standing with his head
on one side, " you have power; yes, cospetto i you have power.
It is the face of an angel! "208

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" It is the face of the Lady Maude Loring ! " cried Ford, even
more astonished.

" Why, on my faith, it is not unlike her !" said Aileyne, in
some confusion.

" Ah ! a portrait! So much the better. Young man, I am
Agostino Pisano, the son of Andrea Pisano, and I say again
that you have power. Further, I say, that, if you will stay with
me, I will teach you all the secrets of the glass-stainers' mystery •
the pigments and their thickening, which will fuse into the glass
and which will not, the furnace and the glazing-—every trick
and method you shall know."

" I would be right glad to study under such a master," said
Aileyne ; "but I am sworn to follow my lord whilst this war
lasts."

11 War ! war! " cried the old Italian. " Ever this talk of war.
And the men that you hold to be great—what are they ? Have
I not heard their names ? Soldiers, butchers, destroyers ! Ah,
per Bacco ! we have men in Italy who are in very fruth great.
You pull down, you despoil; but they build up, they restore.
Ah, if you could but see my own dear Pisa, the Duomo,
the cloisters of Campo Santo, the high Campanile, with the
mellow throb,of her bells upon the warm Italian air ! Those
are the works of great men. And I have seen them with my
own eyes, these very eyes which look upon you. I have seen
Andrea Orcagna, Taddeo Gaddi, Giottino, Stefano, Simone
Memmi—men whose very colors I am not worthy to mix. And
I have seen the aged Giotto, and he in turn was pupil to Cimabue,
before whom there was no art in Italy, for the Greeks were
brought to paint the chapel of the Gondi at Florence. Ah,
signori, there are the real great men whose names will be held
in honor when your soldiers are showu to have been the enemies
of humankind."

"Faith, sir," said Ford, "there is something to say for the
soldiers also, for, unless they be defended, how are all these
gentlemen whom you have mentioned to preserve the pictures
which they have painted ?,"

"And all these !" said Aileyne. "Have you indeed done
them all ?—and where are they to go ? "

"Yes, signor, they are all from my hand. Some are, as you
see, upon one sheet, and some are in many pieces which may
fasten together. There are some who do but paint upon theTliE WHITE COMPANY.

209

glass, and then, by placing another sheet of glass upon the top
and fastening it, they keep the air from their painting. Yet I
hold that the true art of my craft lies as much in the furnace as
in the brush. See this rose window, which is from the model
of the Church of the Holy Trinity at Venddme, and this other of
the ' Finding of the Grail,' which is for the apse of the Abbey
church. Time was when none but my countrymen could do
these things ; but there is Clement of Chartres and others in
France who are very worthy workmen. But, ah ! there is that
ever shrieking brazen tongue which will not let us forget for one
short hour that it is the arm of the savage, and not the hand of
the master, which rules over the world."

A stern, clear bugle call had sounded close at hand to sum-
mon some following together for the night.

" It is a sign to us as well," said Ford. " I would fain stay
here forever amid all these beautiful things—" staring hard at
the blushing Tita as he spoke—" but we must be back at our
lord's hostel ere he reach it." Amid renewed thanks and with
promises to come again, the two squires bade their leave of the
old Italian glass-stainer and his daughter. The streets were
Clearer now, and the rain had stopped, so they made their way
quickly from the Rue du Roi, in which their new friends dwelt,
to the Rue des Apotres, where the hostel of the " Half Moon "
was situated.

CHAPTER XXII.

how the bowmen held wassail at the " rose f)e guienne."

" Mon Dieu ! Alleyne, saw you ever so lovely a face ? " cried
Ford as they hurried along together. "So pure, so peaceful,
and so beautiful ! "

41 In sooth, yes. And the hue of the skin the most perfect that
ever I saw. Marked you also how the hair curled round the
brow ? It was wonder fine."

" Those eyes, too ! " cried Ford. " How clear and how tender
—simple, and yet so lull of thought! "

" If there was a weakness it was in the chin," said Alleyne.

" Nay, I saw none."

" It was well curved, it is true."

" Most daintily so."

14.210	THE WHITE COMPANY.

" And yet-"

" What then, Alleyne ? Wouldst find flaw in the sun ?M

" Well, bethink you, Ford, would not more power and ex-
pression have been put into the face by a long and noble
beard?"

" Holy Virgin ! " cried Ford, " the man is mad. A beard on
the face of little Tita ! "

" Tita ! Who spoke of Tita ? "

** Who spoke of aught else ? "

« It was the picture of St. Remy, man, of which I have been
discoursing."

" You are indeed," cried Ford, laughing, •« a Goth, Hun, and
Vandal, with all the other hard names which the old man called
us. How could you think so much of a smear of pigments, when
there was such a picture painted by the good God himself in the
very room with you ? But who is this ? "

" If it please you, sirs," said an archer, running across to
them, " Aylward and others would be right glad to see you;
^they are within here. He bade me say to you that the Lord
coring will not need your service to-night, as he sleeps with the
Lord Chandos."

" By my faith ! " said Ford, "we do not need a guide to lead
us to their presence." As he spoke there came a roar of singing
from the tavern upon the right, with shouts of laughter and
stamping of feet. Passing under a low door, and down a
stone-flagged passage, they found themselves in a long, narrow
hall lit up by a pair of blazing torches, one at either end.
Trusses of straw had been thrown down along the walls, and
reclining on them were some twenty or thirty archers, all of the
Company, their steel caps and jacks thrown off, their tunics open,
and their great limbs sprawling upon the clay floor. At every
man's elbow stood his leathern black-jack of beer, while at the
further end a hogshead with its end knocked in promised an
abundant supply for the future. Behind the hogshead, on a half
circle of kegs, boxes, and rude settles, sat Aylward, John, Black
Simon and three or four other leading men of the archers, to-
gether with Goodwin Hawtayne, the master-shipman, who had
left his yellow cog in the river to have a last rouse with his
friends of the Company. Ford and Alleyne took their seats be-
tween Aylward and Black Simon, without their entrance checking
in any degree the hubbub which was going on.THE WHITE COMPANY.

211

" Ale, mes camarades ? " cried the bowman, " or shall it bci
wine ? Nay, but ye must have the one or the other. Here,
Jacques, thou limb of the devil, bring a bottrine of. the oldest
vernage, and see that you do not shake it. Hast heard the
news ? "

" Nay," cried both the squires.

" That we are to have a brave tourney."

" A tourney ? "

" Aye, lads. For the Captal du Buch hath sworn that he
will find five knights from this side of the water who will ride
over any five Englishmen who ever threw leg over saddle ; and
Chandos hath taken up the challenge, and the prince h^i prom-
ised a golden vase for the man who carries himself best, and all
the Court is in a buzz over it."

" Why should the knights have all the sport ? " growled Hor-
dle John. " Could they not set up five archers for the honor of
Aquitaine and of Gascony ? "

" Or five men-at-arms," said Black Simon.

" But who are the English knights ? " asked Hawtayne.

" There are three hundred and forty-one in the. town," said
Aylward, ««and I hear that three hundred and forty cartels and
defiances have already been sent in, the only one missing being
Sir John Ravensholme, who is in his bed with the sweating sick-
ness, and cannot set foot to ground."

" I have heard of it from one of the archers of the guard,"
cried a bowman from among the straw ; " I hear that the prince
wished to break a lance, but that Chandos would not hear of it,
for the game is likely to be a rough one."

" Then there is Chandos."

" Nay, the prince would not permit it. He is to be marshal of
the lists, with Sir William Felton and the Due d'Armagnac. The
English will be the Lord Audley, £'r Thomas Percy, Sir Thomas
Wake, Sir William Beauchamp, and our own very good lord and
leader."

" Hurrah for him, and God be with him ! " cried several. " It
is honor to draw string in his service."

" So you may well say," said Aylward. " By my ten finger-
bones ! if you march behind the pennon of the five roses you
are like to see all that a good bowman would wish to see. Ha i
yes, mes gargons, yon laugh, but, by my hilt! you may not
laugh when you find yourselves where he will take you, for you212

THE WHITE cbMPANY.

can never* tell what strange vow he may not have sworn to. I
see that he has a patch over his eye, even as he had at Poictiers.
There will come bloodshed of that patch, or I am the more mis-
taken."

" How chanced it at Poictiers, good Master Aylward ? " asked
one of the young archers, leaning upon his elbows, with his eyes
fixed respectfully upon the old bowman's rugged face.

" Aye, Aylward, tell us of it," cried Hordle John,

" Here is to old Samkin Aylward ! shouted several at the
further end of the room, waving their black-jacks in the air.

" Ask him ! " said Aylwrard modestly, nodding towards Black
Simon. " He saw more than I did. And yet, by the holy nails !
there was not very much that I did not see either."

" Ah, yes," said Simon, shaking his head, " it was a great
day. I nev£r hope to see such another. There were some fine
archers who drew their last shaft that day. We shall never see
better men, Aylward."

" By my hilt! no. There was little Robby Withstaff, and
Andrew Salblaster, and Wat Alspaye, who broke the neck of
the German. Mon Dieu ! what men they were ! Take them
how you would, at long butts or short, hoyles, rounds, or rovers,
better bowmen never twirled a shaft over their thumb-nails."

" But the fight, Aylward, the fight! " cried several impatiently.

" Let me fill my jack first, boys, for it is a thirsty tale. It was
at the first fall of the leaf that the prince set forth, and he passed
through Auvergne, and Berry, and Anjou, and Touraine. In
Auvergne the maids are kind, but the wines are sour. In Berry
it is the women that are sour, but the wines are rich. Anjou,
however, is a very good land for bowmen, for wine and women
are all that heart could wish. In Touraine I got nothing save a
broken pate, but at Vierzon I had a great good fortune, for I had
a golden pyx from the minster, for which I afterwards got uine
Genoan janes from the goldsmith in the Rue Mont Olive, f^om
thence we went to Bourges, were I had a tunic of flam*-colored
silk and a very fine pair of shoes with tassels of silk and drops
of silver."

"From a stall, Aylward?" asked one of the young archers.

"Nay, from a man's feet, lad. I had reason to think that he
might not need them again, seeing that a thirty-iliQh shaft had
feathered in his back."

" And what th^n, Aylward ? "THE WHITE COMPANY.

213

" On we went, coz, some six thousand of us, until we came to
l;<sodun, and there again a very great thing befell."

" A battle, Aylward ? "	"

" Nay, r\ay ; a greater thing than that. There is little to be
gained out of a battle, unless one have the fortune to win a ran-
som. At Issodun I and three Welshmen came upon a house
which all others had passed, and we had the profit of it to our-
selves* For myself, I had a fine feather-bed—a thing which you
will not see in a long day's journey in England. You have seen
it, AlJeyne, and you, John. You will bear me out that it is a
noble bed. We put it on a sutler's mule, and bore it after the
army. It was on my mind that I would lay it by until I came to
start house of mine own, and I have it now in a very safe place
near Lyndhurst."

" And what then, master-bowman ? " asked Hawtayne. " By
St. Christopher! it is indeed a fair and goodly life which you
have chosen, for you gather up the spoil as a Warsash man
gathers lobsters, without grace or favor from any man."

" You are right, master-shipman," said another of the older
archers. " It is an old bowyer's rede that the second feather of
a fenny goose is better than the pinion of a tame one. Draw
^n, old lad, for I have come between you and the clout."

"On we went then," said Aylward, after a long pull at his
black-jack. " There were some six thousand of us, with the
prince and his knights, and the feather-bed upon a sutler's mule
in the centre. We made great havoc in Touraine, until we came
into Romorantin, where I chanced upon a gold chain and two
bracelets of jasper, which were stolen from me the same day by
a black-eyed wench from the Ardennes. Mon Dieu ! there are
some folk who have no fear of Domesday in them, and no sign
of grace in their souls, for ever clutching and clawing at an-
other's chattels."

" But the battle, Aylward, the battle !" cried several, amid a
burst of laughter.

" I come to it, my young war-pups. Well, then, the King of
France had followed us withx fifty thousand men, and he made
great haste to catch us, but when he had us he scarce knew
what to do with us, for we were so drawn up among hedges and
vineyards that they could not come nigh us, save by one lane,
On both sides were archers, men-at-arms and knights behind,
and in the centre the baggage, with my feather-bed upon a sut-214

THE WHITE COMPANY.

ler's mule. Three hundred chosen knights came straight for
it, and, indeed, they were very brave men, but such a drift of
arrows met them that few came back. Then came the Ger-
mans, and they also fought very bravely, so that one or two
broke through the archers and came as far as the feather-bed,
but all to no purpose. Then out rides our own little hothead
with the patch over his eye, and my Lord Audley with his. four
Cheshire squires, and a few others of like kidney, and after them
went the prince and Chandos, and then the whole throng of us,
with axe and sword, for we had shot away our arrows. Ma foi!
it was a foolish thing, for we came forth from the hedges, and
there was naught to guard the baggage had they ridden round
behind us. But all went well with us, and the king was taken,
and little Robby WithstafF and I fell in with a wain with twelve
firkins of wine for the king's own table, and, by my hilt! if you
ask me what happened after that, I cannot answer you, nor can
little Robby Withstaff either."

" And next day ? "

" By my faith ! we did not tarry long, but we hied back to
Bordeaux, where we came in safety with the King of France
and also the feather-bed. I sold my spoil, mes gargons, for at
many gold-pieces as I could hold in my hufken, and for seven
days I lit twelve wax candles upon the altar of St. Andrew ; for
if you forget the blessed when things are well with you, they are
very likely to forget you when you have need of them. I have a
score of one hundred and nineteen pounds of wax against the
holy Andrew, and, as he was a very just man, I doubt not that

I	shall have full weight and measure when I have most need
of it."

"Tell me, master Aylward," cried a young fresh-faced archer
at the further end of the room, " what was this great battle
about?"

" Why, you jack-fool, what would it be about save who should
wear the crown of prance?

"I thought that mayhap it might be as to who should have
this feather-bed of thine."

" If I come down to you, Silas, I may lay my belt across your
shoulders," Aylward answered, amid a general shout of laughter.

II	But it is time young chickens went to roost when they dare
cackle against their elders. It is late, Simon,"

" Nay, let us have another song."THE WHITE COMPANY. __ _JU£-

" Here is Arnold of Sowley will troll as good a stave as^ any
man in-the Company."

" Nay, we have one here who is second to none," said Haw-
tayne, laying his hand upon big John's shoulder. " I have
heard him on the cog with a voice like the wave upon the shore.
1 pray you, friend, to give us 'The Bells of Milton,' or, if you
will, < The Franklin's Maid.' "

Hordle John drew the back of his hand across his mouth,
fixed his eyes upon the corner of the ceiling, and bellowed forth,
in a voice which made the torches flicker, the southland ballad
for which he had been asked :—

The franklin he hath gone to roam,

The franklin's maid she bides at home.

But she is cold and coy and staid,

And who may win the franklin's maid?

There came a knight of high renown
In bassinet and ciclatoun;

On bended knee full long he prayed,

He might not win the franklin's mai&»

There came a squire so debonair,

His dress was rich, his words were fair*

He sweetly sang, he deftly played:

He could not win the franklin's maid.

There came a mercer wonder-fine
With velvet cap and gaberdine;

For all his ships, for all his trade,

He could not buy the franklin's maid.

There came an archer bold and true,

With bracer guard and stave of yew";

His purse was light, his jerkin frayed;

Haro, alas! the franklin's maid!

Oh, some have laughed and some have cried
And some have scoured the country-side I
But off they ride through wood and glade,

The bowman and the franklin's maid.

A roar of delight from his audience, with stamping of feet and
beating of black-jacks against the ground, showed how thor-
oughly the song was to their taste, while John modestly retired
into a quart pot, which he drained in four giant gulps. " I sang
that ditty in Hordle ale-house ere I ever thought to be an archer
myself," quoth he.

« Fill up your stoups ! " cried Black Simon, thrusting his own
goblet into the open hogshead in front of him. " Here is a last2l6

THE WHITE COMPANY.

cup to the White Company, and every brave boy who walks
behind the roses of Loring ! "

"To the wood, the flax, and the gander's wing ! " said an old
gray-headed archer on the right.

"To a gentle loose, and the king of Spain for a mark at four-
teen score ! " cried another.

" To a bloody war ! " shouted a fourth. " Many to go* and
few to come !"

" With the most gold to the best steel ! " added a fifth.

** And a last cup to the maids of our heart! " cried Aylward.
" A steady hand and a true eye, boys ; so let two quarts be a
bowman's portion." With shout and jest and snatch of song
they streamed from the room, and all was peaceful once more in
the 41 Rose de Guienne."

CHAPTER XXIII.-

HOW ENGLAND HELD THE LISTS AT BORDEAUX.

So used were the good burghers of Bordeaux to martial display
and knightly sport, that an ordinary joust or tournament was an
everyday matter with them. The fame and brilliancy of the
prince's court had drawn the knights-errant and pursuivants-of-
arms from every part of Europe. In the long lists by the Ga-
ronne on the landward side of the northern gate there had been
many a strange combat, when the Teutonic knight, fresh from
the conquest of the Prussian heathen, ran a course against the
knight of Calatrava, hardened by continual struggle against the
Moors, or cavaliers from Portugal broke a lance with Scandina-
vian warriors from the further shore of the great Northern Ocean.
Here fluttered many an outland pennon, bearing symbol and
blazonry from the banks of the Danube, the wilds of Lithuania,
and the mountain strongholds of Hungary ; for chivalry was of
no clime and of no race, nor was any land so wild that the fame
and name of the prince had not sounded through it from border
to border.

Great, however, was the excitement through town and district
when it .was learned that on the third Wednesday in Advent
there would be held a passage-at-arms in which five knights of
England would hold the lists against all comers. The greatTHE WHITE COMPANY.

217

concourse of noblemen and famous soldiers, the national
character of the contest, and the fact that this was a last trial of
arms before what promised to be an arduous and bloody war,
all united to make the event one of the most notable and brilliant
that Bordeaux had ever seen. On the eve of the contest the
peasants flocked in from the whole district of the M^doc, and the
fields beyond the walls were whitened with the tents of those
who could find no warmer lodging. From the distant camp of
Dax, too, and from Blaye, Bourge, Libourne, St Emilion, Cas-
tillon, St. Macaire, Cardillac, Ryons, and all the cluster of flour-
ishing towns which look upon Bordeaux as their mother, there
thronged an unceasing stream of horsemen and of footmen, all
converging upon the great city. By the morning of the day on
which the courses were to be run, not less than eighty people
had assembled round the lists and along the low grassy ridge
which looks down upon the scene of the encounter.

It was, as may well" be imagined, no easy matter among so
many noted cavaliers to choose out five on either side-who
should have precedence over their fellows. A score of secondary
combats had ^nearly arisen from the rivalries and bad blood
created by the selection, and it was only the influence of the
prince and the efforts of the older barons which kept the peace
among so many eager and fiery soldiers. Not till the day be-
fore the courses were the shields finally hung out for the inspec-
tion of the ladies and the heralds, so that all men might know
the names of the champions and have the opportunity to prefer
any charge against them, should there be stain upon them which
should disqualify them from taking part in so noble and honor-
able a ceremony.

Sir Hugh Calverley and Sir Robert Knolles had not yet re-
turned from their raid into the marches of the Navarre, so that
the English party were deprived of two of their most famous
lances. Yet there remained so many good names that Chandos
and Felton, to whom the selection had been referred, had many
an earnest consultation, in which every feat of arms and failure
or success of each candidate was weighed and balanced against
the rival claims of his companions. Lord Audley of Cheshire,
the hero, of Poictiers, and Loring of Hampshire, who was held
to be the second lance in the army, were easily fixed upon.
Then, of the younger men, Sir Thomas Percy of Northumber-
land, Sir Thomas Wake of Yorkshire, and Sir William Beau-218

THE WHITE COMPANY,

champ of Gloucestershire, were finally selected to uphold the
honor of England. On the other side were the veteran Captal de
Buch and the brawny Olivier de Clisson, with the free compan-
ion Sir Perducas d'Albert, the valiant Lord of Mucident, and
Sigismond von Altenstadt, of the Teutonic Order. The older
soldiers among the English shook their heads as they looked
upon the escutcheons of these famous warriors, for they were
all men who had spent their lives upon the saddle, and bravery
and strength can avail little against experience and wisdom of
war.

" By my faith ! Sir John," said the prince as he rode through
the winding streets on his way to the list, " I should have been
glad to have splintered a lance to-day. You have seen me hold
a spear since I had strength to lift one, and should know best
whether I do not merit a place among this honorable com-
pany."	..	''

" There is no better seat and no truer lance, sire," said Chan-
dos ; '^but, if I may say so without fear of offence, it were not
fitting that you should join in this debate."

" And why, Sir John ? "

" Because, sire, it is not for you to take part with Gascons
against English, or with English against Gascons, seeing that you
are lord of both. We are not too well loved by the Gascons
now, and it is but the golden link of your princely coronet which
holds us together. If that be snapped I know not what would
follow."

" Snapped, Sir John ! " cried the prince, with an angry sparkle
in his dark eyes. "What manner of talk is this ? You speak
as though the allegiance of our people were a thing which might
be thrown off or on like a falcon's jessel."

41 With a sorry hack one uses whip and spur, sire," said Chan-
dos; "but with a horse of blood and spirit a good cavalier is
gentle and soothing, coaxing rather than forcing. These folk
are strange people, and you must, hold their love, even as you
have it now, for you will get from their kindness what all the
pennons in your army could not wring from them/'

"You are over-grave to-day, John," the prince answered.
"We may keep such questions for our council-chamber. But
how now, my brothers of Spain, and of Majorca, what think you
of this challenge ? "

** I lggk to s^e some handsome joisting," said Don Pedro* wfepTHE WHITE COMPANY.

rode with the King of Majorca upon the right of the prince,
while Chandos was on the left. " By St. James of Compostella S
but these burghers would bear some taxing. See to the broad-
cloth and velvet that the rogues bear upon their backs ! By my
troth ! if they were my subjects they would be glad enough to
wear falding and leather ere I had done with them. But may-
hap it is best to let the wool grow long ere you clip it."

"It is our pride," the prince answered coldly, "that we rule
over freemen and not slaves."

" Every man to his own humor," said Pedro carelessly.
"Carajo ! there is a sweet face at yonder window! Don Fer-
nando, I pray you to mark the house, and to have the maid
brought to us at the abbey."

"Nay, brother, nay ! " cried the prince impatiently. "I have
had occasion to tell you more than once that things are not
ordered in this way in Aquitaine."

" A thousand pardons, dear friend," the Spaniard answered
quickly, for a flush of anger had sprung to the dark cheek of tne
English prince. '• You make my exile so like a home that I for-
get at times that*! am not in very truth back in Castile. Every
land hath indeed its ways and manners ; but I promise you, Ed-
ward, that when you are my guest in Toledo or Madrid you shall
not yearn in vain for any commoner's daughter on whom you
may deign to cast your eye."

"Your talk, sire," said the prince still more coldly, "is not
such as I love to hear from your lips. I have no taste for such
amours as you speak of, and I have sworn that my name shall
be coupled with that of no woman save my ever dear wife."

" Ever the mirror of true chivalry ! " exclaimed Pedro, while
James of Majorca, frightened at the stern countenance of their
all-powerful protector, plucked hard at the mantle of his brother
exile.

" Have a care, cousin," he whispered ; " for the sake of the
Virgin have a care, for you have angered him."

" Pshaw ! fear not," the other answered in the same low tone.
" If I miss one stoop I will strike him on the next. Mark me
else. Fair cousin," he continued, turning to the prince, "these
be rare nien-at-arms and lusty bowmen. It . would be hard in-
deed to match them."

««They have journeyed far, sire, but they have never yet found
ttieir match."220

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" Nor ever will, I doubt not. I feel myself to be back upon
my throne when I look at them. But tell me, dear coz, what
shall we do next, when we have driven this bastard Henry from
the kingdom which he hath filched ? "

" We shall then compel the King of Aragon to place our good *
friend and brother James of Majorca upon the throne."

" Noble and generous prince !cried the little monarch.

" That done," said King Pedro, glancing out of the corners of
his eyes at the young conqueror, " we shall unite the forces of
England, of Aquitaine, of Spain and of Majorca. It would be
shame to us if we did not do some great deed with such forces
ready to our hand."

"You say truly, brother," cried the prince, his eyes kindling
at the thought. '• Methinks that we could not do anything more
pleasing to Our Lady than to drive the heathen Moors out of the
country."

" I am with you, Edward, as true as hilt to blade. But, by
St. James! we shall not let these Moors make mock at us from
over the sea. We must take ship and thrust them from
Africa."

" By heaven, yes ! " cried the prince. " And it is the dream
of my heart that our English pennons shall wave upon the
Mount of Olives, and the lions and lilies float over the holy
city."

" And why not, dear coz ? Your bowmen have cleared a path
to Paris, and why not to Jerusalem? Once there, your arms
might rest."

"Nay, there is more to be done," cried the prince, carried
away by the ambitious dream. " There is still the city of Con-
stantine to be taken, and war to be waged against the Soldan of
Damascus. And beyond him again there is tribute to be levied
from the Cham of Tartary and from the kingdom of Cathay.
Ha ! John, what say you ? Can we not go as far eastward as
Richard of the Lion Heart ? "

"Old John will bide at home, sire," said the rugged soldier.
" By my soul! as long as I am seneschal of Aquitaine I will find
enough to do in guarding the marches which you have entrusted
to me. It would be a blithe day for the King of France when
he heard that the seas lay between him and us."

" By my soul! John," said the prince, " I have never known
you turn laggard before."THE WHITE COMPANY.

221

"The babbling hound, sire, is not always the first at the
mort," the old knight answered.

" Nay, my true-heart! I have tried you too often not to know.
But, by my soul! I have not seen so dense a throng since the
day that we brought King John down Cheapside."

It was indeed an enormous crowd which covered the whole
vast plain from the line of vineyards to the river bank. From
the noKthern gate the prince and his companions looked down
at a dark sea of heads, brightened here ana there by the colored
hoods of the women, or by the sparkling head-pieces of archers
and men-at-arms. In the centre of this vast assemblage the lists
seemed but a narrow strip of green marked out with banners
and streamers, while a gleam of white with a flutter of pennons
at either end showed where the marquees were pitched which
served as the dressing-rooms of the combatants. A path had
been staked off from the city gate to the stands which had been
erected for the court and the nobility. Down this, amid the
shouts of the enormous multitude, the prince cantered with his
two attendant kings, his high officers of state, an3 his long train
of lords and ladies, courtiers, counsellors, and soldiers, with toss 4
of plume and flash of jewel, sheen of silk and glint of gold—as
rich and gallant a show as heart could wish. The head of the
cavalcade had reached the lists ere the rear had come clear of
the city gate, for the fairest and the bravest had assembled from
all the broad lands which are watered by the Dordogne and the
Garonne. Here rode dark-browed cavaliers from the sunny
south, fiery soldiers from Gascony, graceful courtiers of Limousin
or Saintonge, and gallant young Englishmen from beyond the
seas. Here too were the beautiful brunettes of the Gironde,
with eyes which out-flashed their jewels, while beside them rode
their blonde sisters of England, clear cut an4 aquiline, swathed
in swans'-down and in ermine, for the air was biting though the
sun was bright. Slowly the long and glittering train wound
into the lists, until every horse had been tethered by the varlets
in waiting, and every lord and lady seated in the long stands
^which stretched, rich in tapestry and velvet and blazoned arms,
on either side of the centre of the arena.

The holders of the lists occupied the end which was nearest to
the city gate." There, in front of their respective pavilions, flew
the martlets of Audley, the roses of Loring, the scarlet bars of
Wake, the lien ®f the Percies and the silver wings of the Beau-222

THE WHITE COMPANY.

champs, each supported by a squire clad in hanging green stuff
to represent so many Tritons, and bearing a huge conch-shell in
their left hands. Behind the tents the great war-horses, armed
at all points, champed and reared, while their masters sat at the
doors of their pavilions, with their helmets upon their knees,
chatting as to the order of the day's doings. The English arch-
ers and men-at-arms had mustered at that end of the lists, but
the vast majority of the spectators were in favor of the attacking
party, for the English had declined in popularity ever since the
- bitter dispute as to the disposal of the royal captive after the
* battle of Poictiers. Hence the applause was by no means gen-
eral when the herald-at-arms proclaimed, after a flourish of
trumpets, the names and styles of the knights who were prepared,
for the honor of their country and for the love of their ladies, to
hold the field against all who might do them the favor to run
u course with them. On the other hand, a deafening burst of
fcheering greeted the rival herald, who, advancing from the other
fcnd of the lists, rolled forth the well-known titles of the five
famous warriors who had accepted the defiance.

" Faith, John/' said the prince, " it sounds as though you were
right. " Ha ! my grace D'Armagnac, it seems that our friends
on this side will not grieve if our English champions lose the
day."

"It may be so, sire/'the Gascon nobleman answered. "I
have little doubt that in Smithfield or at Windsor an English
crowd would favor their own countrymen."

"By my faith ! that's easily seen," said the prince, laughing,
" for a few score English archers at yonder end are bellowing as
though they would out-shout the mighty multitude. I fear that
they will have little to shout over this journey, for my gold vase
has small prospect of crossing the water. What are the condi-
tions, John ?"

" They are to tilt singly not less than three courses, sire, and
the victory to rest with that party which shall have won the
greater number of courses, each pair continuing till one or other
have the vantage. He who carries himself best of the victors
hath the prize, and he who is judged best of the other party hath
a jewelled clasp. Shall I order that the nakirs sound, sire ? "

The prince nodded, and the trumpets rang out, while the
champions rode forth one after the other, each meeting his oppo-
nent in the centre of the lists. Sir William Beauchamp wentTHE WHITEv COMPANY.

223

down before the practiced lance of the Captal de Buch. Sir
Thomas Percy won the vantage over the Lord of Mucident, and
the Lord Audley struck Sir Perducas d'Albert from the saddle.
The burly De Clisson, however, restored the hopes of the
attackers by beating to the ground Sir Thomas Wake of York-
shire. So far, there was little to choose betwixt challengers and
challenged.

" By Saint James of Santiago ! " cried Don Pedro, with a tinge
of color upon his pale cheeks, " win who will, this has been a
most notable contest."

"Who comes next for England, John ? " asked the prince in a
voice which quivered with excitement.

"Sir Nigel Loring of Hampshire, sire."

" Ha ! he is a man of good courage, and skilled in the use of
all weapons."

" He is indeed, sire. But his eyes, like my own, are the wors<
for wars. Yet he can tilt or play his part at hand-strokes a*
merrily as ever. It was he, sire, who won the golden crowi
which Queen Philippa, your royal mother, gave to be jousted foi
by all the knights of England after the harrying of Calais. }
have heard that at Twynham Castle there is a buffet whicl
groans beneath the weight of his prizes."

" I pray that my vase may join them," said the prince. " Buf
here is the cavalier of Germany, and by my soul ! he looks like a
man of great valor and hardiness. Let them run theie
full three courses, for the issue is over-great to hang upori
one."

As the prince spoke, amid a loud flourish of trumpets and th<»
shouting of the Gascon party, the last of the assailants rode gal-
lantly into the lists. He was a man of great size, clad in black
armor without blazonry or ornament of any kind, for all worldly
display was forbidden by the rules of the military brotherhood
to which he belonged. No plume or nobloy fluttered from his
plain tilting salade, and even his lance was devoid of the custom-
ary banderole. A white mantle fluttered behind him, upon the
left side of which was marked the broad black cross picked out
with silver which was the well-known badge of the Teutonic
Order. Mounted upon a horse as large, as black, and as forbid-
ding as himself, he cantered slowly forward, with none of those
prancings and gambades with which a cavalier was accustomed
to show his command over his charger. Gravely and sternly he224

THE WHITE COMPANY.

inclined his head to the~prince, and took his place at the further

end of the arena.

He had scarce done so before Sir Nigel rode out from the
holders' enclosure, and galloping at full speed down the lists,
drew his charger up before the prince's*stand with a jerk which
threw it back upon its haunches. With white armor, blazoned
shield, and plume of ostrich-feathers from his helmet, he carried
himself in so jaunty and joyous a fashion, with tossing pennon
and curvetting charger, that a shcut of applause ran the full
circle of the arena. With the air of a man who hastes to a joy-
ous festival, he waved his lance in salute, and reining the pawing-
horse round without permitting its fore-feet to touch the ground,
he hastened back to his station.

A great hush fell over the huge multitude as the two last
champions faced each other. A double issue seemed to rest
upon their contest, for their personal fame was at stake as weJ
as their party's honor. Both were famous warriors, but as their
exploits had been performed in widely sundered countries, they
had never before been able to cross lances. A course between
such men would have been enough in itself to cause the keenest
interest, apart from its being the crisis which would decide who
should be the victors of the day. For a moment they waited—
the German sombre and collected, Sir Nigel quivering in every
fibre with eagerness and fiery resolution. Then, amid a long-
drawn breath from the spectators, the glove fell from the mar-
shal's hand, and the two steel-clad horsemen met like a thunder-
clap in front of the royal stand. The German, though he reeled
for an instant before the thrust of the Englishman, struck his
opponent so fairly upon the vizor that the laces burst, the plumed
helmet flew to pieces, and Sir Nigel galloped on down the lists
with his bald head shimmering in the sunshine. A thousand
waving scarves and tossing caps announced that the first bQUt
had fallen to the popular party.

The Hampshire knight was riDt a man to be disheartened
by a reverse. He spurred back to the pavilion, and was out
m a few instants with another helmet. The second course was
so equal that the keenest judges could not discern any vantage.
Each struck fire from the other's shield, and each endured the
jarring shock as though welded to the horse beneath him. In
the final bout, however, Sir Nigel struck his opponent with so
true an aim that the point of the lance caught between the bar§THE WHITE COMPANY.

225

of his vizor and tore the front of his helmet out, while the Ger-
man, aiming somewhat low, and half stunned by the shock, had
the misfortune to strike his adversary upon the thigh, a breach
of the rules of the tilting-yard, by which he not only sacrificed
J < chances of success, but would also have forfeited his norse
and his armor, had the English knight chosen to claim them.
A roar of applause from the English soldiers, with an ominous
silence from the vast crowd who pressed round the barriers, an-
nounced that the balance of victory lay with the holders. Al-
ready the ten champions had assembled in front of the prince to
receive t his award, when a harsh bugle call from the further \
end of the lists drew all eyes to a new and unexpected arrival.

CHAPTER XXIV.

how a champion came forth from the east.

The Bordeaux lists were, as has already been explained, sit-
uated upon the plain near the river upon those great occasions
when the tilting-ground in front of the Abbey of St. Andrew's
was deemed to be too small to contain the crowd. On the
eastern side of this plain the country-side sloped upwards,
thick with vines in summer, but now ridged with the brown
bare enclosures. Over the gently rising plain curved the white
road which leads inland, usually flecked with travellers, but
now with scarce a living form upon it, so completely had the
lists drained all the district of its inhabitants. Strange it was
to see such a vast concourse of people, and then to look upon
A that broad, white, empty highway which wound away, bleak
and deserted, until it narrowed itself to a bare streak against
the distant uplands.

Shortly after the contest had begun, any one looking from the
lists along this road might have remarked, far away in the ex-
treme distance, two brilliant and sparkling points which glittered
and twinkled in the bright shimmer of the winter sun. Within
: an hour these had become clearer and nearer, until they might
be seen to come from the reflection from the head-pieces of two
horsemen who were riding at the top of their speed in the di-
rection of Bordeaux. Another half-hour had brought them so
ciose that every point of their bearing and equipment could b§

, l5226

THE WHITE COMPANY.

discerned. The first was a knight in full armor, mounted upon

a brown horse with a white blaze upon breast and forehead.
He was a sho,rt man of great breadth of shoulder, with vizor
closed, and no blazonry upon his simple white surcoat or plain
black shield. The other, who was evidently his squire and at-
tendant, was unarmed save for the helmet upon his head, but
bore in his right hand a very long and heavy oaken spear which
belonged to his master. In his left hand the squire held not only
the reins of his own horse but those of a great black war-horse,
fully harnessed, which trotted along at his side. Thus the three
horses and their two riders rode swiftly to the lists, and it was
the blare of the trumpet sounded by the squire as his lord rode
into the arena which had broken in upon the prize-giving and
drawn away the attention and interest of the spectators.

Ha, John !" cried the prince, craning his neck, "who is
this cavalier, and what is it that he desires ? "	N

" On my word, sire," replied Chandos, with the utmost sur-
prise upon his face, " it is my opinion that he is a Frenchman."

" A Frenchman ! " repeated Don Pedro. " And how can you
tell that, my Lord Chandos, when he has neither coat-armor,
crest, or blazonry ? "

" By his armor, sire, which is rounder at elbow and at shoulder
than any of Bordeaux or of England. Italian he might be were
his bassinet more sloped, but I will swear that those plates were
welded betwixt this and Rhine. Here comes his squire, how-
ever, and we shall hear what strange fortune hath brought him
over the marches."

As he spoke the attendant cantered up the grassy enclosure,
and pulling up his steed in front of the royal stand, blew a sec-
ond fanfare upon his bugle. He was a raw-boned, swarthy-
cheeked man, with black bristling beard and a swaggering bear-
ing. Having sounded his call, he thrust the bugle into his belt,
and, pushing his way betwixt the groups of English and of Gas-
con knights, he reined up within a spear's length of the royal
party.

"I come," he shouted in a hoarse, thick voice, with a strong
Breton accent, " as squire and herald from my master, who is a
very valiant pursuivant-of-arms, and a liegeman to the great and
powerful monarch, Charles, king of the French. My master has
heard that there is jousting here, and prospect of honorable ad-
vancementf so he h^s coiiie to ask that some English cavalierTHE WHITE COMPANY.

227

will vouchsafe for the love of his lady to run a course with sharp-
ened lances with him, or to meet him with sword, mace, battle-
axe, or dagger. He bade me say, however, that he would fight
only with a true Englishman, and not with any mongrel who is
neither English nor French, but speaks with the tongue of the
one, and fights under the banner of the other."

" Sir ! " cried De Clisson, with a voice of thunder, while his
countrymen clapped their hands to their swords. The squire,
however, took no notice of their angry faces, but continued with
his master's message.

v"He is now ready, sire," he said, "albeit his destrier has
travelled many miles this day, and fast, for we were in fear lest
we come too late for the jousting."

"Ye have indeed come too late,"said the prince, "seeingthat
the prize is about to be awarded ; yet I doubt not that one of
these gentlemen will run a course for the sake of honor with this
cavalier of France."

"And as to the prize, sire," quoth Sir Nigel, " I am sure that
I speak for all when I say this French knight hath our leave to
bear it away with him if he can fairly win it."

" Bear word of this to your master," said the prince, " and
ask him which of these five Englishmen he would desire to meet.
But stay ; your master bears no coat-armor, and we have not
yet heard his name."

"My master, sire, is under vow to the Virgin neither to reveal
his name nor to open his vizor until he is back upon French
ground once more."

"Yet what assurance have we," said the prince, " that this is
not some varlet masquerading in his master's harness, or some
caitiff knight, the very touch of whose lance might bring infamy
upon an honorable gentleman ? "

"It is not so, sire," cried the squire earnestly. " There is no
man upon earth who would demean himself by breaking a lance
with my master."

"You speak out boldly, squire," the prince answered ; "but
unless I have some further assurance of your master's noble
birth and gentle name I cannot match the choicest lances of my
court against him."

"You refuse, sire?"

" I do refuse."

" Then, sire, I was bidden to ask you from my master whether22 8

THE WHITE COMPANY.

you would consent if Sir John Chandos, upon hearing my mas-
ter's name, should assure you that he was indeed a man with
whom you might yourself cross swords without indignity,"

" I ask no better," said the prince.

"Then I must ask, Lord Chandos, that you will step forth. I
have your pledge that the name shall remain ever a secret, and
that you will neither say nor write one word which might betray

it. The name is-" He stooped down from his horse and

whispered something into the old knight's ear which made him
start with surprise, and stare with much curiosity at the distant
knight, who was sitting his charger at the further end of the
arena.

" Is this indeed sooth ? " he exclaimed.

" It is, my lord, and I swear it by St. Ives of Brittany."

" I might have known it," said Chandos, twisting his mous-
tache, and still looking thoughtfully at the cavalier.

" What then, Sir John ? " asked the prince.

" Sire, this is a knight whom it is indeed great honor to meet,
and I would that your grace would grant me leave to send my
squire for my harness, for I would dearly love to run a course
with him.

" Nay, nay, Sir John, you have gained as much honor as one
man can bear, and it were hard if you could not rest now. But
I pray you, squire, to tell your master that he is very welcome
to our court, and that wines and spices will be served him, if he
would refresh himself before jousting."

" My master will not drink," said the squire.

" Let him then name the gentleman with whom he would
break a spear."	,

"He would contend with these five knights, each to choose
such weapons as suit him best."

"I perceive," said the prince, "that your master is a man of
great heart and high of enterprise. But the sun already is low
in the west, and there will scarce be light for these courses. I
pray you, gentlemen, to take your places, that we may see
whether this stranger's deeds are as bold as his words."

The unknown knight hkd sat like a statue of steel, looking
nbither to the right nor to the left during these preliminaries.
He had changed from the horse upon which he had ridden, and
bestrode the black charger which his squire had led beside him.
His immense breadth, his stern composed appearance, and theTHE WHITE COMPANY.

229

mode in which he handled his shield and his lance, were enough
in themselves to convince the thousands of critical spectators
that he was a dangerous opponent. Aylward, who stood in the
front row of the archers with Simon, big John, and others of the
Company, had been criticising the proceedings from the com-
mencement with the ease and freedom of a man who had spent
his life under arms and had learned in a hard school to know
at a glance the points of a horse and his rider. He stared now
at the stranger with a wrinkled brow and the air of a man who
is striving to stir his memory.

" By my hilt ! I have seen the thick body of him before to-day.
Yet I cannot call to mind where it could have been. At Nogent
belike, or was it at Auray ? Mark me, lads, this man will
prove to be one of the best lances of France, and there are no
better in the world."

"It is but child's play, this poking game," said John. " I -
would fain try my hand at it, for, by the black rood ! I think
that it might be amended."

" What then would you do, John ? " asked several.

" There are many things which might be done," said the
forester thoughtfully. " Methinks that I would begin by break-
ing my spear."

" So they all strive to do."

" Nay, but not upon another man's shield. I would break it
over my own knee."

" And what the better for that, old beef and bones ? " asked
Black Simon.

" So I would turn what is but a lady's bodkin of a weapon
into a very handsome club."

"And then, John ? "

" Then I would take the other's spear into my arm or my leg,
or where it pleased him best to put it, and I would dash out his
brains with my club."

" By my ten finger-bones ! old John," said Aylward, "I would
give my feather-bed to see you at a spear-running. This is a
most courtly and gentle sport which you have devised."

"So it seems to me," said John seriously. "Or, again, one
might seize the other round the middle, pluck him off his horse
and bear him to the pavilion, there to hold him to ransom,"

" Good ! " cried Simon, amid a roar of laughter from all the
archers round. " By Thomas of Kent! we shall make a camp-THE WHITE COMPANY.

marshal of thee, and thou shalt draw up rules for our jousting.
But, John, who is it that you would uphold in this knightly and
pleasing fashion ?"

" What mean you ?"

"Why, John, so strong and strange a tilter must fight for the
brightness of his lady's eyes or the curve of her eyelash, even as
Sir Nigel does for the Lady Loring."

" I know not about that," said the big archer, scratching his
head in perplexity. "Since Mary hath played me false, I can
scarce fight for her."

"Yet any woman will serve."

" There is my mother then," said John. " She was at much
pains at my upbringing, and, by my soul ! I will uphold the
curve of her eyelashes, for it tickleth my very heart-root to think
of her. But who is here ? "

" It is Sir William Beauchamp. He is a valiant man, but I
fear that he is scarce firm enough upon the saddle to bear the
thrust of such a tilter as this stranger promises to be."

Aylward's words were speedily justified, for even as he spoke
the two knights met in the centre of the lists. Beauchamp struck
his opponent a shrewd blow upon the helmet, but was met with
so frightful a thrust that he whirled out of his saddle and rolled
over and over upon the ground. Sir Thomas Percy met with
little better success, for his shield was split, his vambrace torn,
and he himself wounded slightly in the side. Lord Audley and
the unknown knight struck each other fairly upon the helmet;
but, while the stranger sat as firm and rigid as ever upon his
charger, the Englishman was bent back to his horse's crupper by
the weight of the blow, and had galloped half-way down the
lists ere he could recover himself. Sir Thomas Wake was
beaten to the ground with a battle-axe—that being the weapon
which he had selected—and had to be carried to his pavilion.
These rapid successes, gained one after the other over four cele-
brated warriors, worked the crowd up to a pitch of wonder and
admiration. Thunders of applause from the English soldiers, as
well as from the citizens and peasants, showed how far the love of
brave and knightly deeds could rise above the rivalries of
race.

" By my soul ! John," cried the prince, with his cheek flushed
and his eyes shining, " this is a man of good courage and great
hardiness. I could not have thought that there was any singleTHE WHITE COMPANY.

231

arm upon earth which could have overthrown these four cham-
pions."

" He is indeed, as I have said, sire, a knight from whom much
honor is to be gained. . But the lower edge of the sun is wet,
and it will be beneath the sea ere long."

" Here is Sir Nigel Loring, on foot and with his sword," said
the prince. " I have heard that he is a fine swordsman."

" The finest in your army, sire," Chandos answered. " Yet I
doubt not that he will need all his skill this day."

As he spoke, the two combatants advanced from either end
in full armor with their two-handed swords sloping over their
shoulders. The' stranger walked heavily and with a measured
stride, while the English knight advanced as briskly as though
there was no iron shell to weigh down the freedom of his limbs.
At four paces distance they stopped, eyed each other for a mo-
ment, and then in an instant fell to work with a clatter and
clang as though two sturdy smiths were busy upcn their anvils.
Up and down went the long, shining blades, round and round
they circled in curves of glimmering light, crossing, meeting,
disengaging, with flash of sparks at every parry. Here and
there bounded Sir Nigel, his head erect, his jaunty plume flutter-
ing in the air, while his dark opponent sent in crashing blow
upon blow, following fiercely up with cut and with thrust, but
never once getting past the practised blade of the skilled swords-
man. The crowd roared with delight as Sir Nigel would stoop
his head to avoid a blow, or by some slight movement of his
body allow some terrible thrust to glance harmlessly past him.
Suddenly, however, his time came. The Frenchman, whirling
up his sword, showed for an instant a chink betwixt his shoulder-
piece and the rerebrace which guarded his upper arm. In
dashed Sir Nigel, and out again so swiftly that the eye c®uld not
follow the quick play of his blade, but a trickle of blood from
the stranger's shoulder, and a rapidly widening red smudge-
upon his white surcoat, showed where the thrust had taken
effect. The wound was, however, but a slight one, and the
Frenchman was about to renew his onset, when, at a sign from
the prince, Chandos threw down his baton, and the marshals of
the lists struck up the weapons and brought the contest to an
end.

"It were time to check it," said the prince, smiling, " for Sir
Nigel is too good a man for me to lose, and, by the five holyTHE WHITE COMPANY.

. wound? ! if one of those cuts came home I should have fears for
our champion. What think you, Pedro ? "

" I think, Edward, that the little man was very well able to
take care of himself. For my part, I should wish to see so well
matched a pair fight on while a drop of blood remained in their
veins."	,

"We must have speech with him. Such a man must not go
from my court without rest or sup. Bring him hither, Chandos, —
and, certes, if the Lord Loring hath resigned his claim upon this
goblet, it is right and proper that this cavalier should carry it to
France with him as a sign of the prowess that he has shown
this day."

As he spoke, the knight-errant, who had remounted his war-
horse, galloped forward to the royal stand, with a silken kerchief
bound round his wounded arm. The setting sun cast a ruddy
glare upon his burnished arms, and sent his long black shadow
streaming behind him up the level clearing. Pulling up his
steed, he slightly inclined his head, and sat in the stern and
composed fashion with which he had borne himself throughout,
heedless of the applauding shouts and the flutter of kerchiefs
from the long lines of brave men and of fair women who wTere
looking down upon him.

"Sir knight," said the prince, "we have all marvelled this
day at this great skill and valor with which God has been
pleased to endow you. I would fain that you should tarry at
our court, for a time at least, until your hurt is healed and your
\ horses rested."

"My hurt is nothing, sire, nor are my horses weary," returned
the stranger in a deep, stern voice.

" Will you not at least hie back to Bordeaux with us, that you
may drain a cup of muscadine and sup at our table ? "

" I will neither drinkyour wine nor sit at your table," returned
the other. "I bear no love for you or for your race, and there
is nought that I wish at your hands until the day when I see
the last sail which bears you back to your island vanishing
away against the western sky."

" These are bitter words, sir knight," said Prince Edward,
with an angry frown.

"And they come from a bitter heart," answered the unknown
knight. "How long is it since there has been peace in my
hapless country ? Where are the steadings, and orchards, andTHE WHITE COMPANY.

vineyards, which made France fair ? Where are the cities which
made her great? From Providence to Burgundy we are beset
by every prowling hireling in Christendom, who rend and tear
the country which you have left too weak to guard her own
marches. Is it not a by-word that a man may ride all day
in that unhappy land without seeing thatch upon roof or
hearing the crow of cock ? Does not one fair kingdom con-
tent you, that you should strive so for this other one which
has no love for you ? Pardieu ! a true Frenchman's words
may well be bitter, for bitter is his lot and bitter his thoughts
as he rides through his thrice unhappy country."

" Sir knight," said the prince, " you speak like a brave man,
and our cousin of France is happy in having a cavalier who is
so fit to uphold his cause either with tongue or. with sword.
But if you think such evil of us, how comes it that you have
trusted yourselves to* us without warranty or safe-conduct ? "

" Because I knew that you would be here, sire. Had the man
who sits upon your right been ruler of this land, I had indeed
thought twice before I looked to him for aught that was knightly
or generous." With a soldierly salute, he wheeled round his
horse, and, galloping down the lists, disappeared amid the dense
crowd of footmen and of horsemen who were streaming away
from the scene of the tournament.

" The insolent villain ! " cried Pedro, glaring furiously after
him. " I have seen a man's tongue torn from his jaws for less.
Would it not be well even now, Edward, to send horsemen to
hale him back ? Bethink you that it may be one of the royal
house of France, or at least some knight whose loss would be a
heavy blow to his master. Sir William Felton, you are well
mounted, gallop after the caitiff, I pray you."

" Do so, Sir William," said the prince," and give him this
purse of a hundred nobles as a sign of the respect which I bear
for him ; for, by St. George ! he has served his master this day
even as I would wish liegeman of mine to serve me." So saying,
the prince turned his back upon the King of Spain, and spring-
ing upon his horse, rode slowly homewards to the Abbey of
Saint Andrew's.234

THE WHITE COMPANY.

CHAPTER XXV.

how sir nigel wrote to twynham castle.

On the morning after- the jousting, when Alleyne Edricson
went, as was his custom, into his master's chamber to wait upon
him in his dressing and to curl his hair, he found him already up
and very busily at work. He sat at a table by the window, a
deerhound on one side of him and a lurcher on the other, his
feet tucked away under the trestle on which he sat, and his
tongue in his cheek, with the air of a man who is much per-
plexed. A sheet of vellum lay upon the board in front of him,
and he held a pen in his hand, with which he had been scrib-
bling in a rude schoolboy hand. So many were the blots, however,
and so numerous the scratches and erasures, that he had at last
given it up in despair, and sat with his single uncovered eye
cocked upwards at the ceiling, as one who waits upon inspira-
tion.

"By Saint Paul!" he cried, as Alleyne entered, "you are the
man who will stand by me in this matter. I have been in sore
need of you, Alleyne."

" God be with you, my fair lord ! " the squire answered. " I
trust that you have taken no hurt from all that you have gone
through yesterday."

" Nay ; I feel the fresher for it, Alleyne. It has eased my
joints, which were somewhat stiff from these years of peace. I
trust, Alleyne, that thou didst very carefully note and mark the
bearing and carriage of this knight of France; for it is time,
now when you are young, that you should see all that is best,
and mould your own actions in accordance. This was a man
from whom much honor might be gained, and I have seldom met
any one ior whom I have conceived so much love and esteem.
Could I but learn his name, I should send you to him with my
cartel, that we might have further occasion to watch his goodly
feats of arms."

" It is said, my fair lord, that none know his name save only\	THE WHITE COMPANY.	235

the Lord Chandos, and that he is under vow not to speak it. So
ran the gossip at the squires' table."

« Be he who he might, he was a very hardy gentleman. But
I have a task here, Alleyne, which is harder to me than aught
that was set before me yesterday."

" Can I help you, my lord ? "

11 That indeed you can. I have been writing my greetings to
my sweet wife ; for I hear that a messenger goes from the prince
to Southampton within the week, and he wpuld gladly take a
packet for me. I pray you, Alleyne, to cast your eyes upon
what I have written, and see if they are such words as my lady
will understand. My fingers, as you can see, are more used to
tiftii and leather than to the drawing of strokes and turning ot
letters. What then ? Is there aught amiss, that you should
stare so ? "

"It is this first word, my lord. In what tongue were you
pleased to write ? "

"In English; for my lady talks it more than she doth
French.

" Yet this is no English word, my sweet lord. Here are four
t's and never a letter betwixt them."

" By St. Paul ! it seemed strange to my eye when I wrote it,"
said Sir Nigel. " They bristle up together like a clump of lances.
We must break their ranks and set them farther apart. The
word is 'that.' Now I will read it to you, Alleyne, and you
shall write it out fair ; for we leave Bordeaux this day, and it
would be great joy to me to think that the Lady Loring had
word from me."

Alleyne sat down as ordered, with a pen in his hand and a
fresh sheet of parchment before him, while Sir Nigel slowly
spelled out his letter, running his forefinger on from word to
word.

" That my heart is with thee, my dear sweeting, is what thine
own heart will assure thee of. All is well with us here, save
that Pepin hath the mange on his back, and Pommers hath
scarce yet got clear of his stiffness from being four days on ship-
board ; and the more so because the sea was very high, and we
were like to founder on account of a hole in her side, which was
made by a stone cast at us by certain sea-rovers, who may the
saints have in their keeping, for they have gone from amongst
us, as has young Terlake, and two-score mariners and archers,236

THE WHITE COMPANY.

who would be the more welcome here, as there is like to be a
very fine war, with much honor and all hopes of advancement,
for which I go to gather my Company together, who are now at
Montaubon, where they pillage and destroy ; yet I hope that, by
God's help, I may be able to show that I am their master, even
as, my sweet lady, I am thy servant/'

" How of that, Alleyne ? " continued Sir Nigel, blinking at
squire, with an expression of some pride upon his face. "'Have
I not told her all that hath befallen us ? "

"You have said much, my fair lord ; and yet, if I may say so,
it is somewhat crowded together, so that my Lady Loring can,
mayhap, scarce follow it. Were it in shorter periods-"

" Nay, it boots me not how you marshal them,*as long as they
are all there at the muster. Let my lady have the words, and
she will place them in such order as pleases her best. But I
would have you add what it would please her to know."

" That will I," said Alleyne, blithely, and bent to the task.

"My fair lady and mistress," he wrote, " God hath had us in
His keeping, and my lord is well and in good cheer. He hath
won much honor at the jousting before the prince, when he alone
was able to make it good against a very valiant man from
France. Touching the moneys, there is enough and to spare
until we reach Montaubon. Herewith, my fair lady, I send my
humble regards, entreating you that you will give the same to
your daughter, the Lady Maude. May the holy saints have you
both in their keeping is ever the prayer of thy servant,

" Alleyne Edricson."

" That is very fairly set forth," said Sir Nigel, nodding his bald
head as each sentence was read to him. " And for thyself, Al-
leyne, if there be any dear friend to whom you would fain give
greeting, I can send it for thee within this packet."

"There is none," said Alleyne, sadly.

" Have you no kinsfolk, then ? "

"None, save my brother."

" Ha! I had forgotten that there was ill blood betwixt you.
But are there none in all England who love thee ? "

"None that I dare say so."

" And none whom you love ? "

" Nay, I will not say that," said Alleyne.

Sir Nigel shook his head and laughed softly to himself, "ITHE WHITE COMPANY.

237

see ho^ it is with you," he said. " Have I not noted your fre-
quent sighs and vacant eye ? Is she fair ? "

" She i^ indeed," cried Alleyne from his heart, all tingling at
this suddeiv turn of the talk.

" And good ? "

"As an angel."

" And yet she loves you not ? "

"Nay, I cannot say that she loves another."

" Then you have hopes ? "

" I could not live else."

" Then must you strive to be worthy of her love. Be brave
and pure, fearless to the strong and humble to the weak ; and
so, whether this love prosper or no, you will have fitted yourself
to be honored by a maiden's love, which is, in sooth, the highest
guerdon which a true knight can hope for."

"Indeed, my lord, I do so strive," said Alleyne ; " but she is
so sweet, so dainty, and of so noble a spirit, that I fear me that
I shall never be worthy of her."

" By thinking so you become worthy. Is she then of noble
birth ? "

" She is, my lord," faltered Alleyiie.

" Of a knightly house ? "

"Yes."

" Have a care, Alleyne, have a care ! " said Sir Nigel, kindly.
" The higher the steed the greater the fall. Hawk not at that
which may be beyond thy flight."

" My lord, I know little of the ways and usages of the world,"
cried Alleyne, " but I would fain ask your rede upon the .matter.
You have known my father and my kin : is not my family one of
good standing and repute ? "

" Beyond all question."

"And yet you warn me that I must not place my love too
high."

"Were Minstead yours, Alleyne, then, by St. Paul ! I cannot
think that any family in the land would not be proud to take you
among them, seeing that you come of so old a strain. But while

the Socman lives- Ha, by my soul ! " if this is not Sir

Oliver's step I am the more mistaken."

As he spoke, a heavy footfall was heard without, and the
portly knight flung open the door and strode into the room.

" Why, my little coz," said he, "I have come across to tell you238

THE WHITE COMPANY.

^ that I live above the barber's in the Rue de la Tour, and that
there is a venison pasty in the oven and two flasks of the right
vintage on the table. By St. James ! a blind man might find
the place, for one has but to get in the wind from it, and follow
the savory smell. Put on your cloak, then, and come, for Sir
Walter Hewett and Sir Robert Briquet, with one or two others,
are awaiting us."

" Nay, Oliver, I cannot be with you, for I must to Montaubon
this day."

" To Montaubon ? But I have heard that your Company is to
come with my forty Winchester rascals to Dax."

"If you will take charge of them, Oliver. For I will go to
Montaubon with none save my two squires and two archers.
Then, when I have found the rest of my Company I shall lead
them to Dax. We set forth this morning."

"Then I must back to my pasty," said Sir Oliver. "You will
find us at Dax, I doubt not, unless the prince throw me into
prison, for he is very wroth against me."

" And why, Oliver ? "

" Pardieu ! because I have sent my cartel, gauntlet, and de-
fiance to Sir John Chandos and to Sir William Felton."

" To Chandos ? In God's name, Oliver, why have you done
this?"

"■ Because he and the other have used me despitefully."

" And how ? "

" Because they have passed me over in choosing those who
should joust for England. Yourself and Audley I could pass,
coz, for you are mature men ; but who are Wake, and Percy, and
Beauchamp ? By my soul ! I was prodding for my food into a
camp-kettle when they were howling for their pap. Is a man of
my weight and substance to be thrown aside for the first three
half-grown lads who have learned the trick of the tilt-yard ?
But hark ye, coz, I think of sending my cartel also to the
prince."

" Oliver ! Oliver ! You are mad ! "

"Not I, i' faith! I care not a denier whether he be prince
or no. By Saint James ! I see that your squire's eyes are
starting from his head like a trussed crab. Well, friend, we
are all three men of Hampshire, and not lightly to be jeered
at."

" Has he jeered at you then ? "THE WHITE COMPANY.

239

" Pardieu ! yes. r01d Sir Oliver's'heart is still stout,'said
one of nis court. < Else had it been out of keeping with the rest
of him,' (moth the prince. ' And his arm is strong,' said another.
* So is the: backbone of his horse/ quot.hr the prince. This very -
day I will Send him my cartel and defiance."	,

"Nay, naty, my dear Oliver," said Sir Nigel, laying his hand
upon his angty friend's arm. " There is naught in this, for it
was but saying that you were a strong and robust man, who
had need of a £ood destrier. And as to Chandos and Felton,
bethink you that if when you yourself were young the oldei*
lances had ever been preferred, how would you then have had
the chance to earn the good name and fame which you now bear ?
You do not ride as light as you did, Oliver, and I ride lighter by
the weight of my hair, but it would be an ill thing if in the
evening of our lives we showed that our hearts were- less true
and loyal than of old. If such a knight as Sir Oliver Buttes-
thorn may turn against his own prince for the sake of a light
word, then where are we to look for steadfast faith and con-
stancy ? "

** Ah ! my dear little coz, it is easy to sit in the sunshine and
preach to the man in the shadow. Yet you could ever win me
over to your side with that soft voice of yours. Let us think no
more of it then. But, holy Mother ! I had forgot the pasty,
and it will be as scorched as Judas Iscariot ! Come, Nigel,
lest the foul fiend get the better of me again."

" For one hour, then ; for we march at mid-day. Tell Ayl-
ward, Alleyne, that he is to come with me to Montaubon, and
to choose one archer for his comrade. The rest will to Dax
when the prince starts, which will be before the feast of the
Epiphany. Have Pommers ready at mid-day with my sycamore
lance, and place my harness on the sumpter mule."

With these brief directions, the two old soldiers strode off
together, while Alleyne hastened to get all in order for their
journey.240

THE WHITE COMPANY.

CHAPTER XXVI.

how the three comrades gained a mighty treasure.

It was a bright, crisp winter's day when the little party set
off from Bordeaux on their journey to Montaubon, where the
missing half of their Company had last been heard of. Sir Nigel
and Ford had ridden on in advance, the knight upon his hackney,
while his great war-horse trotted beside his squire. Two hours
later Alleyne Edricson followed ; for he had the tavern reckon-
ing to settle, and many other duties which fell to him as squire
of the body. With him came Aylward and Hordle John, armed
as of old, but mounted for their journey upon a pair of clumsy
Landes horses, heavy-headed and shambling, but of great endur-
ance, and capable of jogging along all day, even when between
the knees of the huge archer, who turned the scale at two hun-
dred and seventy pounds. They took with them the sumpter
mules, which carried in panniers the wardrobe and table furni-
ture of Sir Nigel; for the knight, though neither fop nor epicure, f
was very dainty in small matters, and loved, however bare the
board or hard the life, that his napery should still be white and
his spoon of silver.

There had been frost during the night, and the white hard road
rang loud under their horses' y-ons as they spurred through the east
gate of the town, along the same broad highway which the
unknown French champion had traversed on the day of the
jousts. The three rode abreast, Alleyne Edricson with his eyes
cas*t down and his mind distrait, for his thoughts were busy with ^
the conversation which he had had with Sir Nigel in the morn-
ing. Had he done well to say so much, or had he not done
better to have said more ? What would the knight have said
had he confessed to his l#ve for the Lady Maude ? Would he
cast him off in disgrace, or might he chide him as having abused
the shelter of his roof ? It had been ready upon his tongue to
tell him all when Sir Oliver had broken in upon them. Per-
chance Sir Nigel, with his love of all the dying usages of chivalry,\	THE WHITE COMPANY.	24!

migh^have contrived some strange ordeal or feat of arms by
which his love should be put to the test. Alleyne smiled as he
wondered what fantastic and wondrous deed would be exacted
from him. Whatever it was, he was ready for it, whether it
were to hold the lists in the court of the King of Tartary, to
carry a cartel to the Sultan of Baghdad, or to serve a term
against the wild heathen of Prussia. Sir Nigel had said that his
birth was high enough for any lady, if his fortune ^could but be
amended. Often had Alleyne curled his lip at the beggarly
craving for land or for gold which blinded man to the higher
and more lasting issues of life. Now it seemed as though it
were only by this same land and gold that he might hope to
reach his heart's desire. But then, again, the Socman of Min-
stead was no friend to the Constable of Twynham Castle. It
might happen that, should he amass riches by some happy fort-
une of war, this feud might hold the two families aloof. Even
if Maude loved him, he knew her too well to think that she would
wed him without the blessing of her father. Dark and murky
was it all, but hope mounts high in youth, and it ever*fluttered
over all the turmoil of his thoughts like a white plume amid the
shock of horsemen.

If Alleyne Edricson had enough to ponder over as he rode
through the bare plains of Guienne, his two companions were
more busy with the present and less thoughtful of the future.
Aylward rode for half a mile with his chin upon his shoulder,
looking back at a white kerchief which fluttered out of the gable
^window of a high house which peeped over the corner of the
battlements. When at last a dip of the road hid it from his
view, he cocked his steel cap, shrugged his broad shoulders,
and rode on with laughter in his eyes, and his weatherbeaten
face all ashine with pleasant memories, John also rode in
silence, but his eyes wandered slowly from one side of the road
to the other, and he stared and pondered and nodded his head
like a traveller who makes his notes and saves them up for the
re-telling.

" By the rood!" he broke out suddenly, slapping his thigh
with his great red hand, " I knew that there was something
a-missing, but I could not bring to my mind what it was."

" What was it then ? " asked Alleyne, coming with a start out
of his reverie.

••Why, it is the hedgerows," roared John, with a shout of
16242

THE WHITE COMPANY.

laughter. " The country is all scraped as clear as a friar's poll.
But indeed I cannot think much of the folk in these parts. Why
do they not get to work and dig up these long rows of black and
crooked stumps which I see on every hand ? A franklin of
Hampshire would think shame to have such litter upon his soil."

" Thou foolish old John ! " quoth Aylward. " You should
know better, since I have heard that the monks of Beaulieu
could squeeze a good cup of wine from their own grapes. Know
then that if these rows were dug up the wealth of the country
would be gone, and mayhap there would be dry throats and
gaping mouths in England, for in three months' time these black
roots will blossom and shoot and burgeon, and from them will
come many a good ship-load of M£doc and Gascony which will
cross the narrow seas. But see the church in the hollow, and
the folk who cluster in the churchyard ! By my hilt I it is a
burial, and there is a passing bell ! " He pulled off his steel
cap as he spoke and crossed himself, with a muttered prayer for
the repose of the dead.

44 There too," remarked Alleyne, as they rode on again, " that
which seems to the eye to be dead is still full of the sap of life,
even as the vines were. Thus God hath written Himself and
His laws very broadly on all that is around us, if our poor dull
eyes and duller souls could but read what He hath set before
us.''

"Ha ! mon petit," cried the bowman, "you take* me back to
the days when you were new fledged, as sweet a little chick as
ever pecked his way out of a monkish egg. I had feared that in
gaining our debonair young man-at-arms we had lost our soft-
spoken clerk. In truth, I have noted much change in you since
we came from Twynham Castle."

" Surely it would be strange else, seeing that I have lived in a
world so new to me. Yet I trust that there are many things in
which I have not changed. If I have turned to serve an earthly
master, and to carry arms for an earthly king, it would be an
ill thing if I were to lose all thought of the great high King and
Master of all, whose humble and unworthy servant I was ere
ever I left Beaulieu. You, John, are also from the cloisters, but
I trow that you do not feel that you have deserted the old service
in taking .on the new."

" I am a slow-witted man," said John, " and, in sooth, when I
try to think about such matters it casts a gloom upon me. Yet I\

THE WHITE COMPANY.

243

do not look upon myself as a worse man in an archer's jerkin
than I was in a white cowl, if that be what you mean."

" You have but changed from one white company to the other,"
quoth Aylward. " But, by these ten finger-bones ! it is a pass-
ing strange thing to me to think that it was but in the last fall of
the leaf that we walked from Lyndhurst together, he so gentle
and maidenly, and you, John, like a great red-limbed overgrown
moon-calf; and now here you are as sprack a squire and as
lusty an archer as ever passed down the highway from Bordeaux,
while I am still the same old Samkin Aylward, with never a
change, save that I have a few more sins on my soul and a fe-w
less crowns in my pouch. But I have never yet heard, John,
what the reason was why you should come out of Beaulieu."
% " There were seven reasons," said John thoughtfully, " The
first"of them was that they threw me out."

" Ma foi! camarade, to the devil with the other six ! That is
enough for me and for thee also. I can see that they are very
wise and discreet folk at Beaulieu. Ah ! mon ange, what have
you in the pipkin ? " •

" It is milk, worthy sir," answered the peasant-maid, who
stood by the door of a cottage with a jug in her hand. " Would
it please you, gentles, that I should bring you out three horns
of it ? " .

"Nay, ma petite, but here is a two-sous piece-for thy kindly
tongue and for the sight of thy pretty face. Ma foi ! but she has
a bonne mine. I have a mind to bide and speak with her."

"Nay, nay, Aylward," cried Alleyne. "Sir Nigel will await
us, and he in haste."

"True, true, camarade! Adieu, ma chdrie ! mon cceur est
toujour^ k toi. Her mother is a well-grown woman also. See
where she digs by the wayside. Ma foi! the riper fruit is ever
the sweeter. Bon jour, ma belle dame ! God have you in his
keeping ! Said Sir Nigel where he would await us ? "

" At Marmande or Aiguillon. He said that we could not
pass him, seeing that there is but the one road."

" Aye, and it is a road that I know as I know the Midhurst
parish butts," quoth the bowman. " Thirty times have I jour-
neyed it, forward and backward, and, by the twang of string!
I am wont to come back this way more laden than I went. I
have carried all that I had into Franee in a wallet^ and it hath
taken four sumpter-mules to carry it back again. God's benison244

THE WHITE COMPANY.

on the man who first turned his hand to the making of war!
But there, down in the dingle, is the church of Cardillac, and
you may see the inn where three poplars grow beyond the vil-
lage. Let us on, for a stoup of wine would hearten us upon
our way."

The highway had lain through the swelling vineyard Country,
which stretched away to the north and east in gentle curves,
with many a peeping spire and feudal tower, and cluster of
village houses, all clear cut and hard in the bright wintry air.
To their right stretched the blue Garonne, running swiftly sea-
wards, with boats and barges dotted over its broad bosom. On
the other side lay a strip of vineyard, and beyond it the desolate
and sandy region of the Landes, all tangled with faded gorse and
heath and broom, stretching away in unbroken gloom to the
blue hills which lay low upon the furthest sky-line. Behind
them might still be seen the broad estuary of the Gironde, with
the high towers ofSaint Andre and Saint Remi shooting up from
the plain. In front, amid radiating lines of poplars, lay the
riverside townlet of Cardillac—gray walls, white houses, and a
feather of blue smoke.

" This is the ' Mouton d'Or,'" said Aylward, as they pulled
up their horses at a whitewashed straggling hostel. " What ho
there! " he continued, beating upon the door with the hilt of his
sword. "Tapster, ostler, varlet, hark hither, and a wannion on
your lazy limbs ! Ha ! Michel, as red in the nose as ever !
Three jacks of the wine of the country, Michel—for the air bites
shrewdly. I pray you, Alleyne, to take note of this door, for I
have a tale concerning it."

" Tell me, friend," said Alleyne to the portly red-faced inn-
keeper, " has a knight and a squire passed this way within the
hour ? "	*

"Nay, sir, it would be two hours back. Was he a small
man, weak in the eyes, with a want of hair, and speaks very
quiet when he is most to be feared ? "

" The same," the squire answered. "But I marvel how you
should know how he speaks when he is in wrath, for he is very
gentle-minded with those who are beneath him."

" Praise to the saints ! it was not I who angered him," said
the fat Michel,

"Who, then?"

" It was young Sieur de Crespigny of Saintonge, who chancedTHE WHITE CO MP AN Yi

245

to be here, and made game of the Englishman, seeing that he
was but a small man and hath a face which is full of peace.
But indeed this good knight was a very quiet and patient man,
for he saw that the Sieur de Crespigny was still young and spoke
from an empty head, so he sat his horse and quaffed his wine,
even as you are doing now, all heedless of the clacking tongue."

" And what then, Michel ? "

"Well, messieurs, it chanced that the Sieur de Crespigny,
having said this and that, for the laught«r of the varlets, cried
out at last about the glove that the knight wore in his coif, ask-
ing if it was the custom in England for a man to wear a great
archer's glove in his cap. Pardieu ! I have never seen a man
get off his horse as quick as did that stranger Englishman. Ere
the words were past the other's lips he was beside him, his face
nigh touching, and his breath hot upon his cheeks. ' I think,
young sir,' quoth he softly, looking into the other's eyes, 'that
now that I am nearer you will very clearly see that the glove is
not an archer's glove.' 'Perchance not,' said the Sieur de Cres-
pigny with a twitching lip. ' Nor is it large, but very small,'
quoth the Englishman. 'Less large than I had thought,' said
the^Dther, looking down, for the knight's gaze was heavy upon
his eyelids. ' And in every way such a glove as might be worn
by the fairest and sweetest lady in England,' quoth the English-
man. * It may be so,' said the Sieur de Crespigny, turning his
face from him. ' I am myself weak in the eyes, and have often
taken one thing for another,' quoth the knight, as he sprang
back into his saddle and rode off, leaving the Sieur de Crespigny
biting his nails before the door. Ha ! by the five wounds, many
men of war have drunk my wine, but never one was more to my
fancy than this little Englishman."

"By my hilt! he is our master, Michel," quoth Aylward,
" and such men as we do not serve under a laggart. But here
are four deniers, Michel, and God be with you ! En avant,
camarades ! for we have a long road before us."

At a brisk trot the three friends left Cardillac and its wine-
house behind them, riding without a halt past St. Macaire, and
on by ferry over the river Dorpt. At the further side the road
winds througS La Reolle, Bazaille, and Marmande, with the
sunlit river still gleaming upon the right, and the bare poplars
bristling up upon either side. John and Alleyne rode silent on
either side, but every inn, farm-steading, or castle Drought back246

THE WHITE COMPANY.

to Aylward some remembrance of love, foray, or plunder, with

which to beguile the way.

" There is the smoke from Bazas, on the further side of Ga-
ronne," quoth he. "There were three sisters yonder, the
daughters of a farrier, and, by these ten finger^bones ! a man
might ride for a long June day and never set eyes upon such
maidens. There was Marie, tall and grave, and Blanche petite
and gay, and the dark Agnes, with eyes that went through you
like a waxed arrow. I lingered there as long as four days, and
was betrothed to them all ; for it seemed shame to set one above
her. sisters, and might make ill blood in the family. Yet, for all
my care, things were not merry in the house, and I thought it
well to come away. There, too, is the mill of Le Souris. Old
Pierre Le Caron, who owned it, was a right good comrade, and
>ad ever a seat and a crust for a weary archer. He was a man
who wrought hard at all that he turned his hand to ; but he
heated himself in grinding bones to mix with his flour, and so
through over-diligence he brought a fever upon himself and
died."

"Tell me, Aylward/' said Alleyne, "what was amiss with
the door of yonder inn that you should ask me to observe it."

" Pardieu ! yes, I had well-nigh forgot. What saw you on
yonder door ? "

"I saw a square hole, through which doubtless the host may
peep when he is not too sure of those who knock."

" And saw you naught else ? "

" I marked that beneath this hole there was a deep cut in the
door, as though a great nail had been driven in."

" And naught else ? "

"No."

"Had you looked more closely you might have seen that there
was a stain upon the wood. The first time that I ever heard
my comrade Black Simon laugh was in front of that door. I
heard him once again when he slew a French squire with his
teeth, he being unarmed and the Frenchman having a dagger."

" And why did Simon laugh in front of the inn-door ! " asked

J°hn-. .	«

" Simon is a hard and perilous man when he nath the bitter
drop in him ; and, by my hilt ! he was born for war, for there
is little sweetness or rest in him. This inn, the < Mouton
d'Qr/ kept in the old days by on§ Fr&H^ois Gourval,THE WHITE COMPANY*

247

who had a hard fist and a harder heart. It was said that
many and many an archer coming from the wars had been
served with wine with simples in it, until he slept, and had
then been stripped of all by this Gourval. Then on the
morrow, if he made complaint, this wicked Gourval would throw
him out upon the road or beat him, for he was a very lusty man,
and had many stout varlets in his service. This chanced to
come to Simon's ears when we were at Bordeaux tog-ether, and
he would have it that we should ride to Cardillac with a good
hempen cord, and give this Gourval such a scourging as he
merited. Forth we rode then, but when we came to the
Mouton d'Or,' Gourval had had word of our coming and its pur-
pose, so that the door was barred, nor was there any way into
the house. 1 Let us in, good Master Gourval !' cried Simon,
and * Let us in, good Master Gourval !' .cried I, but no word
could we get through the hole in the door, save that he would
draw an arrow upon us unless we went on our way. 'Well,
Master Gourval,' quoth Simon at last, ' this is but a sorry wel-
come, seeing that we have ridden so far just to shake you by
the hand.' 'Canst shake me by the hand without coming in/
said Gourval. ' And how that ?' asked Simon. 'By passing
in your hand through the hole,'said he. 'Nay, my hand is
wounded/ quoth Simon, ' and of such a size that I cannot pass
it in/ • That need not hinder,' said Gourval, who was hot to be
rid of us, ' pass in your left hand.' ' But I have something for
thee, Gourval,'said Simon. 'What then?' he asked. 'There
was an English archer who slept here last week of the name of
Hugh of Nutbourne.' 'We have had many rogues here/ said
Gourval. «His conscience hath been heavy within him because
he owes you a debt of fourteen deniers, having drunk wine for
which he hath never paid. For the easing of his soul, he asked
me to pay the money to you as I passed/ Now this Gourval
was very greedy for money, so he thrust forth his hand for the
fourteen deniers, but Simon had his dagger ready and he pinned
his hand to the door. «I have paid the Englishman's debt,
Gourval!' quoth he, and so rode away, laughing so that he
could scarce sit his horse, leaving mine host still nailed to his
door. Such is the story of the hole which you have marked,
and of the smudge upon the wood. I have heard that from that
time English archersTiave been better treated in the auberge of
Cardillac, But what have we here by the wayside ? "THE WHITE COMPANY.

" It appears to be a very holy man/' said Alleyne.

" And, by the rood ! he hath some strange wares," cried
John. "What are these bits of stone, and of wood, and rusted
nails, which are set out in front of him ? "

The man whom they had remarked sat with his back against
a cherry-tree, and his legs shooting out in front of him, like one
who is greatly at his ease. Across his thighs was a wooden
board, and scattered over it all manner of slips of wood and
knobs of brick and stone, each laid separate from the other, as
a huckster places his wares. He was dressed in a long gray
gown, and wore a broad hat of the same color, much weather-
stained, with three scallop-shells dangling from the brim. As
they approached, the travellers observed that he was advanced
in years, and that his eyes were upturned and yellow.

" Dear knights and gentlemen/' he cried in a high crackling
voice, " worthy Christian cavaliers, will ye ride past and leave
an aged pilgrim to die of hunger ? The sight hast been burned
from mine eyes by the sands of the Holy Land, and I have
had neither crust of bread nor cup of wine these two days
past."

" By my hilt! father," said Aylward, looking keenly at him,
" it is a marvel to me that thy girdle should have so goodly a
span and clip thee so closely, if you have in sooth had so little to
place within it."

"Kind stranger," answered the pilgrim, "you have unwit-
tingly spoken words which are very grievous to me to listen to.
Yet I should be loth to blame you, for I doubt not that what you
said was not meant to sadden me, nor to bring my sore affliction
back to my mind. It ill becomes me to prate too much of what
I have endured for the faith, and yet, since you have observed it,
I must tell you that this thickness and roundness of the waist is
caused by a dropsy brought on by over-haste in journeying from
the house of Pilate to the Mount of Olives."

"There, Aylward," said Alleyne, with a reddened cheek, "let
that curb your blunt tongue. How could you bring a fresh
pang to this holy man, who hath endured so much and hath
journeyed as far as Christ's own blessed tomb ? "

" May the foul fiend strike me dumb ! " cried the bowman in
hot repentance ; but both the palmer and Alleyne threw up
their hands to stop him.

" I forgive thee from my heart, dear brother/' piped the blindTHE WHITE COMPANY.

249

man. "But, oh, these wild words of thine are worse to mine
ears than aught which you could say of me."

"Not another word shall I speak," said Aylward ; "but here
is a franc for thee and I crave thy blessing."

"And here is another," said Alleyne.

" And another," cried Hordle John.

But the blind palmer would have none of their alms. " Foolish,
foolish pride !" he cried, beating upon his chest with his large
brown hand. "Foolish, foolish pride ! How long then will it
be ere I can scourge it forth ? Am I then never to conquer it ?
Oh, strong, strong are the ties of flesh, and hard it is to subdue
the spirit ! I come, friends, of a noble house, and I cannot
bring myself to touch this money, even though it be to save me
from the grave."

"Alas ! father," said Alleyne, " how then can we be of help
to thee ? "

" I had sat down here to die," quoth the palmer; "but for
many years I have carried in my wallet these precious things
which you see set forth now before me. It were sin, thought I,
that my secret should perish with me. I shall therefore sell
these things to the first worthy passers-by, and from them I
shall have money enough to take me to the shrine of Our Lady
at Rocamadour, where I hope to lay these old bones."

" What are these treasures, then, father ? " asked Hordle John.
" I can but see an old rusty nail, with bits of stone and slips of
wood."

"My friend," answered the palmer, " not all the money that
is in this country could pay a just price for these wares of mine.
This nail," he continued, pulling off his hat and turning up his
sightless orbs, " is one of those wherewith man's salvation was
secured. I had it, together with this piece of the true rood,
from the five-and-twentieth descendant of Joseph of Arimathea,
who still lives in Jerusalem alive and well, though latterly much
afflicted by boils. Aye, you may well cross yourselves, and I
beg that you will not breathe upon it or touch it with your
fingers."

" And the wood and stone, holy father ? " asked Alleyne, with
bated breath, as he stared awe-struck at his precious relics.

" This cantle of wood is from the true cross, this other from
Noah his ark, and the third is from the door-post of the temple
of the wise King Solomon, This stone was thrown at the sainted250

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Stephen, and the other two are from the Tower of Babel. Here,
too, is part of Aaron's rod, and a lock of hair from Elisha the
prophet."

"But, father," quoth Alleyne, "the, holy Elisha was bald,
which brought down upon him the revilements of the wicked
children."

" It is very true that he had not much hair," said the palmer
quickly, " and it is this which makes this relic so exceed-
ing precious. Take now your choice of these, my worthy gentle-
men, and pay such a price as your consciences will suffer you to
offer; for I am not a chapman nor a huckster, and I would never
part with them, did I n<£>t know that I am very near to my
reward."

" Aylward," said Alleyne excitedly, " This is such a chance as
few folk have twice in one life. The nail I must have, and I
will give it to the abbey of Beaulieu, so that all the folk in Eng-
land may go thither to wonder and to pray.'

" And I will have the stone from the temple," cried Hordle
John. "What would not my old mother give to have it hung
over her bed ?"

" And I will have Aaron's rod," quoth Aylward. " I have but
five florins in the world, and here are four of them."

" Here are three more," said John.

" And here are five more," added Alleyne. " Holy father, I
hand you twelve florins, which is all that we can give, though
we well know how poor a pay it is for the wondrous things
which you sell us."

" Down, pride, down ! " cried the pilgrim, still beating upon
his chest. " Can I not bend myself then to take this sorry sum
which is offered me for that which has cost me the labors of a
life. Give me the dross ! Here are the precious relics, and,
oh, I pray you that you will handle them softly and with rev-
erence, else had I rather left my unworthy bones here by the
wayside."

With doffed caps and eager hands, the comrades took their
new and precious possessions, and pressed onwards upon their
journey, leaving the aged palmer still seated under the cherry-
tree. They rode in silence, each with his treasure in his hand,
glancing at it from time to time, and scarce able to believe that
chance had made them sole owners of relics of such holiness
a$d worth that every abbey and church in Christendom wouldTHE WHITE COMPANY.

251

have bid eagerly for their possession. So they journeyed, full
of |his good fortune, until opposite the town of Le Mas, where
John's horse cast a shoe, and they were glad to find a wayside
smith who might set the matter to rights. To him Aylward
narrated the good hap which had befallen them ; but the smith,
when his eyes lit upon the relics, leaned up against his anvil
and laughed, with his hand to his side, until the tears hopped
down his sooty cheeks.

" Why, masters," quoth he, " this man is a coquillart, or seller
of false relics, and was here in the smithy not two hours ago.
This nail that he hath sold you was taken from my nail-box, and
as to the wood and the stones, you will see a heap of both outside
from which he hath filled his scrip."

"Nay, nay," cried Alleyne, "this was a holy man who had
journeyed to Jerusalem, and acquired a dropsy by running from
the house of Pilate to the Mount of Olives,"	^

" I know not about that," said the smith ; " but I know that a
man with a gray palmer's hat and gown was here no very long
time ago, and that he sat on yonder stump and ate a cold pullet
and drank a flask of wine. Then he begged from me one of
my nails, and filling his scrip with stones, he went upon his way.
Look at these nails, and see if they are not the same as that
which he has sold you."

" Now may God save us ! " cried Alleyne, all aghast. " Is
there no end then to the wickedness of humankind ? * He so
humble, so aged, so loth to take our money—and yet a villain
and a cheat. Whom can we trust or believe in ? "

" I will after him," said Aylward, flinging himself into the
saddle. " Come, Alleyne, we may catch him ere John's horse
be shod."

Away they galloped together, and ere long they saw the old
gray palmer walking slowly along in front of them. He turned,
^however, at the sound of their hoofs, and it was clear that his
blindness was a cheat like all the rest of him, for he ran swiftly
through a field and so into a wood, where none could follow
him. They hurled their relics after him, and so rode back to
the blacksmith's the poorer both in pocket and in faith.2$2

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CHAPTER XXVII.

how rodger club-foot was passed into paradise.

It was evening before the three comrades came into Aiguillon.
There they found Sir Nigel Loring and Ford safely lodged at
the sign of the " Baton Rouge," where they supped on good fare
and slept between lavender-scented sheets. It chanced, how-
ever, that a knight of Poitou, Sir Gaston d'Estelle, was staying
there on his way back from Lithuania, where he had served a
term with the Teutonic knights under the land-master of the
presbytery of Marienberg. He and Sir Nigel sat late in high
converse as to bushments, outfalls, arid the intaking of cities,
with many tales of warlike men and valiant deeds. Then their
talk turned to minstrelsy, and the stranger knight drew forth a
cittern, upon which he played the minne-lieder of the north,
singing the while in a high cracked voice of Hildebrand and
Brunhild and Siegfried, and all the strength and beauty of the
land of Almain. To this Sir Nigel answered with the romances
ot Sir Eglamour, and of Sir Isumbras, and so through the long
winter night they sat by the crackling wood-fire answering each
other's songs until the crowing cocks joined in their concert.
Yet, with scarce an hour of rest, Sir Nigel was as blithe and
bright as ever as they set forth after breakfast upon their way.

"This Sir Gaston is a very worthy man," said he to his squires
as they rode from the " Baton Rouge." " He hath a very strong
desire to advance himself, and would have entered upon some
small knightly debate with me, had he not chanced to have his
arm-bone broken by the kick of a horse. I have conceived a
great love for him, and I have promised him that when his bone
is mended I will exchange thrusts with him. But we must keep
to this road upon the left."

" Nay, my fair lord," quoth Aylward. " The road to Montau-
bon is over the river, and so through Quercy and the Agenois."

."True, my good Aylward; but I have learned from thisTHE WHITE COMPANY.

2S3

worthy knight, who hath come over the French marches, that
there is a company of Englishmen who are burning and plunder-
ing in the country round Villefranche. I have little doubt, from
what he says, that they are those whom we seek."

(<By my hilt! it is like enough," said Aylward. " By all
accounts they had been so long at Montaubon, that there would
be little there worth the taking. Then as they have already
been in the south, they would come north to the country of the
Aveyron."

"We shall follow the Lot until we come to Cahors, and then
cross the marches into Villefranche," said Sir Nigel. "By St.
Paul! as we are but a small band, it is very likely that we may
have some very honorable and pleasing adventure, for I hear
that there is little peace upon the French border."

All morning they rode down a broad and winding road,
barred with the shadows of poplars. Sir Nigel rode in front
with his squires, while the two archers followed behind with the
sumpter mule between them. They had left Aiguillon and the
Garonne far to the south, and rode now by the tranquil Lot,
which curves blue and placid through a gently rolling country.
Alleyne could not but mark that, whereas in Guienne there had
been many townlets and few castles, there were now many
castles and few houses. On either hand gray walls and square,
grim keeps peeped out at every few miles from amid the forests,
while the few villages which they passed were all ringed round
with rude walls, which spoke of the constant fear and sudden
foray of a wild,frontier land. Twice during the morning there
came bands of horsemen swooping down upon them from the
black gateways of wayside strongholds, with short, stern ques-
tions as to whence they came and what their errand. Bands of
armed men clanked along the highway, and the few lines of
laden mules which carried the merchandise of the trader were
guarded by armed varlets, or by archers hired for the service.

" The peace of Bretigny hath not made much change in these
parts," quoth Sir Nigel, " for the country is overrun with free
companions and masterless men. Yonder towers, between the
wood and the hill, mark the town of Cahors, and beyond it is the
land of Franee. But here is a man by the wayside, and as he
hath two horses and a squire I make little doubt that he is a
knight. I pray you, Alleyne, to give him greeting from me, and
to ask him for his titles and coat-armor, It may be that I can254

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relieve him of some vow, or perchance he hath a lady whom he
would wish to advance."

"Nay, my fair lord," said Alleyne, " these are not horses and
a squire, but mules and a varlet.' The man is a mercer, for he
hath a great bundle beside him."

" Now, God's blessing on your honest English voice !" cried
the stranger, pricking up his ears at the sound of Alleyne's words.
" Never have I heard music that was so sweet to mine ear.
Come, Watkin lad, throw the bales over Laura's back ! My heart
was nigh broke, for it seemed that I had left all that was English
behind me, and that I would never set eyes upon Norwich market
square again." He was a tall, lusty, middle-aged man with a
ruddy face, a brown forked beard shot with gray, and a broad
Flanders hat set at the back of his head. His servant, as tall as
himself, but gaunt and raw-boned, had swung the bales on the
back of one mule, while the merchant mounted upon the other
and rode to join the party. It was easy to see, as he approached,
from the quality of his dress and the richness of his trappings,
that he was a man of some wealth and position.

"Sir knight," said he, " my name is David Micheldene, and I
am a burgher and alderman of the good town of Norwich, where
I live five doors from the church of Our Lady, as all men know
on the banks of Yare. I have here my bales of cloth which I
carry to Cahors—woe worth the day that ever I started on such
an errand ! I crave your gracious protection upon the way for
me, my servant, and my mercery ; for I have already had many
perilous passages, and have now learned that Roger Club-foot,
the robber-knight of Quercy, is out upon the road in front of me.
I hereby agree to give yo-u one rose-noble if you bring me safe to
the inn of the ' Angel' in Cahors, the same to be repaid to me
or my heirs if any harm come to me or my goods."

" By Saint Paul! " answered Sir Nigel, "I should be a sorry
knight if I ask pay for standing by a countryman in a strange
land. You may ride with me and welcome, Master Micheldene,
and your varlet may follow with my archers."

" God's benison upon thy bounty!" cried the stranger.
" Should you come to Norwich you may have cause to remem-
ber that you have been of service to Alderman Micheldene. It
is not very far to Cahors, for surely I see the cathedral towers
against the sky-line ; but I have heard much of this Roger Club-
foot, and the more I hear the less do I wish to look upon hisTHE WHITE COMPANY.

255

face. Oh. but I am sick and weary of it all, and I would give
half that I am worth to see my good dame sitting in peace be-
side me, and to hear the bells of Norwich town."

" Your words are strange to me," quoth Sir Nigel, "for you
have the appearance of a stout man, and 1 see that you wear a
sword by your side."

" Yet it is not my trade," answered the merchant. " I doubt
not that if I set you down in my shop at Norwich you might
scarce tell fustian from falding, and know little difference be-
tween the velvet of Genoa and the three-piled cloth of Bruges.
There you might well turn to me for help. But here on a lone
roadside, with thick woods and robber-knights, I turn to you,
for it is the business to which you have been reared."

" There is sooth in what you say, Master Micheldene," said
Sir Nigel, "and I trust that we may come upon this Roger Club-
foot, for I have heard that he is a very stout and skilful soldier,
and a man from whom much honor is to be gained."

" He is a bloody robber," said the trader, curtly, "and I wish
I saw him kicking at the end of a halter."

"It is such men as he," Sir Nigel remarked, "who give the
true knight honorable deeds to do, whereby he may advance
himself."

" It is such men as he," retorted Micheldene, "who are like
rats in a wheat-rick or moths in a woolfels, a harm and a hin-
drance to all peaceful and honest men."

"Yet, if the dangers of the road weigh so heavily upon you,
master alderman, it is a great marvel to me that you should
venture so far from home."

"And sometimes, sir knight, it is a marvel to myself. But I
am a man who may grutch and grumble, but when I have set
my face to do a thing I will not turn my back upon it until it be
done. There is one, Francois Villet, at Cahors, who will send
me wine-casks for my cloth-bales, so to Cahors I will go, though
all the robber-knights of Christendom were to line the roads like
yonder poplars."

" Stoutly spoken, master alderman ! But how have you fared
hitherto ? "

" As a lamb fares in a land of wolves. Five times we have
had to beg and pray ere we could pass. Twice I have paid toll
to the wardens of the road. Three times we have had to draw,
at La Reolle we st9p4 over pur wool-bales? Vy^tjq^256

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and I, and we laid about us for as long as a man might chant a
litany, slaying one rogue and wounding two others. By God's
coif! we are men of peace, but we are free English burghers,
not to be mishandled either in our country or abroad. Neither
lord, baron, knight, or commoner shall have as much as a
strike of flax of mine whilst I have strength to wag this
sword."

" And a passing strange sword it is," quoth Sir Nigel. " What
make you, Alleyne, of these black lines which are drawn across
the sheath ? "

" I cannot tell what they are, my fair lord."

" Nor can I," said Ford.

The merchant chuckled to himself. " It was a thought of
mine own," said he ; " for the sword was made by Thomas Wil-
son, the armorer, who is betrothed to my second daughter
Margery. Know then that the sheath is one cloth-yard, in length,
marked off according to feet and inches to serve me as a measur-
ing wand. It is also of the exact weight of two pounds, so that
I may use it in the balance."

" By Saint Paul 1 " quoth Sir Nigel, " it is very clear to me
that the sword is like thyself, good alderman, apt either for
war or for peace. But I doubt not that even in England you
have had much to suffer from the hands of robbers and out-
laws."

" It was only last Lammastide, sir knight, that I was left for
dead near Reading as I journeyed to Winchester fair. Yet I had
the rogues up at the court of pie-powder, and they will harm no
more peaceful traders."

"You travel much then 1 "

41 To Winchester, Linn mart, Bristol fair, Stourbridge, and
Bartholomew's in London Town. The rest of the year you may
ever find me five doors from the church of Our Lady, where I
would from my heart that I was at this moment, for there is no
air like Norwich air, and no water like the Yare, nor can all
the wines of France compare with the beer of old Sam Yelverton
who keeps the « Dun Cow.' But, out and alack, here is an evil
fruit which hangs upon this chestnut-tree ! "

As he spoke they had ridden round a curve of the road and
come upon a great tree which shot one strong brown branch
across their path. From the centre of this branch there hung a
man, with his head at a horrid §la,nt to his body and his to^sTHE WHITE COMPANY.

257

just touching the ground. He was naked save for a linen under-
shirt and pair of woollen drawers. Beside him on a green hank
there sat a small man with a solemn face, and a great bundle of
papers of all colors thrusting forth from the scrip which lay
beside him. He was very richly dressed, with furred robes, a
scarlet hood, and wide hanging sleeves lined with flame-colored
silk. A great gold chain hung round his neck, and rings glittered
from every finger of his hands. On his lap he had a little pile
of gold and of silver, which he was dropping, coin by coin,
into a plump pouch which hung from his girdle.

" May the saints be with you, good travellers ! " he shouted,
as the party rode up. " May the four Evangelists watch over
you ! May the twelve Apostles bear you up ! May the blessed
army of martyrs direct your feet and lead you to eternal
bliss !"

" Gramercy for these good wishes ! " said Sir Nigel. " But I
perceive, master alderman, that this man who hangs here is, by
mark of foot, the very robber-knight of whom we have spoken.
But there is a cartel pinned upon his breast, and I pray you,
Alleyne, to read it to me."

The dead robber swung slowly to and fro in the wintry wind,
a fixed smile upon his swarthy face, and his bulging eyes still
glaring down the highway of which he had so long been the
terror ; x>n a sheet of parchment upon his breast was printed in
rude characters;

ROGER PIED-BOT.

Par Pordre du Sen^chal de
Castelnau, et de l'Echevin de
Cahors, servantes fideles du
trhs vaillant et tres puissant
Edouard, Prince da Galles et
d'Aquitaine.

Ne touchez pas,

Ne coutez pas,

Ne d^pechez pas.

" He took a sorry time in dying," said the man who sat beside
him. " He could stretch one toe to the ground and bear him-
self up, so that I thought he would never have done. Now at
at last, however, he is safely in paradise, and so I may jog on
upon my earthly way." He mounted, as he spoke , s white mule
which had been grazing by the wayside, all gay with fustian of
gold and silver bells, and rode onward with Si* Nigel's party.

17258

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"How know you then that he is in paradise?" asked Sir
Nigel. " All things are possible to God, but, certes, without a
miracle, I should scarce expect to find the soul of Roger Club-
foot amongst the just."

" I know that he is there because I have just "passed him in
there," answered the stranger, rubbing his bejewelled hands to-
gether in placid satisfaction. " It is my holy mission to be a
sompnour or pardoner. I am the unworthy servant and delegate
of him who holds the keys. A contrite heart and ten nobles to
holy mother Church may stave off perdition ; but he hath a par-
don of the first degree, with a twenty-five livre benison, so that I
doubt if he will so much as feel a twinge of purgatory. I came
up even as the seneschals archers were tying him up, and I gave
him my fore-word that I would bide with him until he had
passed. There were two leaden crowns among the silver, but I
would not for that stand in the way of his salvation."

- " By Saint Paul ! " said Sir Nigel, " if you have indeed this
power to open and to shut the gates of hope, then indeed you
stand high above mankind. But if you do but claim to have it,
and yet have it not, then it seems to me, master clerk, that you
may yourself find the gate barred when you shall ask admit-
tance."

" Small of faith ! Small of faith ! " cried the sompnour. " Ah,
Sir Didymus yet walks upon earth ! And yet no words of doubt
can bring anger to mine heart, or a bitter word to my lip, for
am I not a poor unworthy worker in the cause of gentleness and
peace ? Of all these pardons which I bear every one is stamped
and signed by our holy father, the prop and centre of Christen-
dom."

" Which of them ? " asked Sir Nigel.

" Ha, ha ! " cried the pardoner, shaking a jewelled forefinger,
" Thou wouldst be deep in the secrets of mother Church ? Know
then that I have both in my scrip. Those who hold with Urban
shall have Urban's pardon, while I have Clement's for the Cle-
mentist—or he who is in doubt may have both, so that come
what may he shall be secure, I pray you that you will buy one,
for war is bloody work, and the end is sudden with little time
for thought or shrift. Or you, sir, for you seem to me to be a
man who would do ill to trust to your own merits." This to
the alderman of Norwich, who had listened to him with a frown-
ing brow and a sneering lip.THE WHITE COMPANY.

259

"When I sell my cloth," quoth he, " he who buys may weigh
and feel and handle. These goods which you sell are not to be
seen, nor is there any proof that you hold them. Certes, if
mortal man might control God's mercy, it would be one of a
lofty and God-like life, and not one who is decked out with rings
and chains and silks, like a pleasure-wench at a kermesse.

" Thou wicked and shameless man !" cried the clerk. " Dost
thou dare to raise thy voice against the unworthy servant of
mother Church ? "

" Unworthy enough ! " quoth David Micheldene. " I would
have you to know, clerk, that I am a free English burgher,
and that I dare say my mind to our father the Pope himself, let
alone such a lacquey's lacquey as you ! "

" Base-born and foul-mouthed knave !" cried the sompnour.
" You prate of holy things, to which your hog's mind can never
rise. Keep silence, lest I call a curse upon you ! "

"Silence yourself!" roared the other. "Foul bird 1" we
found thee by the gallows like a carrion-crow. A fine life thou
hast of it with thy silks and thy baubles, cozening the last few
shillings from the pouches of dying men. A fig for thy curse !
Bide here, if you will take my rede, for we will make England
too hot for such as you, when Master Wicliff has the ordering of
it. Thou vile thief!" it is you, and such as you, who bring an
evil name upon the many churchmen who lead a pure and a
holy life. Thou outside the door of heaven ! Art more like to
'be inside the door of hell."

At this crowning insult the sompnour, with a face ashen with
rage, raised up a quivering hand and began pouring Latin
imprecations upon the angry alderman. The latter, however,
was not a man to be quelled by words, for he caught up his ell-
measure sword-sheath and belabored the cursing clerk with it.
The latter, unable to escape from the shower of blows, set spurs
to his mule and rode for his life, with his enemy thundering be-
hind him. At sight of his master's sudden departure, the varlet
Watkin set off after him, with the pack-mule beside him, so that
the four clattered away down the road together, until they swept
round a curve and their babble was but a drone in the distance.
Sir Nigel and Alleyne gazed in astonishment at one another,
while Ford burst out a-laughing.

" Pardieu !" said the knight, " this David Micheldene must be
one of those Lollards about whom Father Christopher of the260

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priory had so much to say. Yet he seemed to be no bad matt
from what I have seen of him."

" I have heard that Wicliff hath many followers in Norwich,"
answered Alleyne.

" By St. Paul! I have no great love for them," quoth Sir
Nigel. " I am a man who am slow to change ; and, if you take
away from me the faith that I have been taught, it would be long
ere I could learn one to set in its place. It is but a chip here
and a chip there, yet it may bring the tree down in time. Yet,
on the other hand, I cannot but think it shame that a man should
turn God's mercy on and off, as a cellarman doth wine with a
spigot."

"Nor is it," said Alleyne, "part of the teachings of that
mother Church of which he had so much to say. There was
sooth in what the alderman said of it."

" Then, by St. Paul ! they may settle it betwixt them," quoth
Sir Nigel. " For me, I serve God, the king and my lady ; and
60 long as I can keep the path of honor I am well content. My
creed shall ever be that of Chandos :

"' Fais ce que dois—adviegne que peut,

C'est commande au chevalier.'"

CHAPTER XXVIII.

HOW THE COMRADES CAME OVER THE MARCHES OF FRANCE.

After passing Cahors, the party branched away from the
main road, and leaving the river to the north of them, followed
a smaller track which wound over a vast and desolate plain.
This path led them amid marshes and woods, until it brought
them out into a glade with a broad stream swirling swiftly down
the centre of it. Through this the horses splashed their way,
and on the farther shore Sir Nigel announced to them that they
were now within the borders of the land of France. For some
miles they still followed the same lonely track, which led them
through a dense wood, and then widening out, curved down to
an open rolling country, such as they had traversed betweea
Aiguillon and Cahors.THE WHITE COMPANY.

If it were grim and desolate upon the English* border, how-
ever, what can describe the hideous barrenness of this ten times
harried tract of France ? The whole face of the country was
scarred and disfigured, mottled over with the black blotches of
burned farm-steadings, and the gray, gaunt gable-ends of what
had been chateaux. Broken fences, crumbling walls, vineyards
littered with stones, the shattered arches of bridges—look where
you might, the signs of ruin and rapine met the eye. Here and
there only, on the farthest sky-line, the gnarled turrets of a castle,
or the graceful pinnacles of church or of monastery showed
where the forces of the sword or of the spirit had preserved
some small islet of security in this universal flood of misery.
Moodily and in silence the little party rode along the narrow and
irregular track, their hearts weighed down by this far-stretch-
ing land of despair. It was indeed a stricken and a blighted
country, and a man might have ridden from Auvergne in the
north to the marches of Foix, nor ever seen a smiling village or
a thriving homestead.

prom time to time as they advanced they saw strange lean
figures scraping and scratching amid the weeds and thistles,
who, on sight of the band of horsemen, threw up their arms
and dived in among the brushwood, as shy and as swift as
wild animals. More than once, however, they came on families
by the wayside, who were too weak from hunger and disease to
fly, so that they could but sit like hares on a tussock, with pant-
ing chests and terror in their eyes. So gaunt were these poor
folk, so worn and spent—with bent and knotted frames, and
sullen, hopeless, mutinous faces—that it made the young English-
man heart-sick to look upon them. Indeed, it seemed as though
all hope and light had gone so far from them that it was not to
be brought back ; for when Sir Nigel threw down a handful of
silver among them there came no softening of their lined faces,
but they^clutched greedily at the coins, peering questioningly
at him, and champing with their animal jaws. Here and there
amid the brushwood the travellers saw the rude bundle of sticks
which served them as a home—more like a fowl's nest than the
dwelling-place of man. Yet why should they build and strive,
when the first adventurer who passed would set torch to their
thatch, and when their own feudal lord would wring from them
with blows and curses the last fruits of their toil ? They sat at
the lowest depth of human misery, and hugged a bitter comfort262

THE WHITE COMPANY.

to their souls, as they realized that they could go no lower. Yet
they had still the human gilt of speech, and would take council
among themselves in their brushwood hovels, glaring with
bleared eyes and pointing with thin fingers at the great wide-
spread chateaux which ate like a cancer into the life of the
country-side. When such men, who are beyond hope and fear,
begin in their dim minds to see the source their woes, it may
be an evil time for those who have wronged them. The weak
man becomes strong when he has nothing, for then only can he
feel the wild, mad thrill of despair. High and strong the
chateaux, lowly and weak the brushwood hut; but God help the
seigneur and his lady when the men of the brushwood set their
hands to the work of revenge !

Through such country did the party ride for eight or it might
be nine miles, until the sun began to slope down in the west and
their shadows to stream down the road in front of them,
Wary and careful they must be, with watchful eyes to the right
and the left, for this was no man's land, and their only passports
were those which hung from their belts. Frenchmen and English-
men, Gascon and Provencal, Brabanter, Tardvenu, Scorcher,
Flayer, and Free Companion, wandered and struggled over the
whole of this accursed district. So bare and cheerless was the
outlook, and so few and poor the dwellings, that Sir Nigel began
to have fears as to whether he might find food and quarters for
his little troop. It was a relief to him, therefore, when their
narrow track opened out upon a larger road, and they saw some
little way down it a square white house with a great bunch of
holly hung out at the end of a stick from one of the upper win-
dows.

" By St. Paul !" said he, "I am right glad ; for I had feared
that we might have neither provant nor herbergage. Ride on,
Alleyne, and tell this inn-keeper that an English knight with his
party will lodge with him this night."

Alleyne set spurs to his horse and reached the inn door a long
bow-shot before his companions. Neither varlet nor ostler could
be seen, so he pushed open the door and called loudly for the
landlord. Three times he shouted, but, receiving no reply, he
opened an inner door and advanced into the chief guest-room of.
the hostel.

A very cheerful wood-fire was sputtering and cracking in an
open grate at the further end of the apartment. At one side ofTHE WHITE COMPANY.

263

this fire, in a high-backed oak chair, sat a lady, her face turned
towards the door. The firelight played over her features, and
Aileyne thought that he had never seen such queenly power, such
dignity and strength, upon a woman's face. She might have
been five-and-thirty years of age, with aquiline nose, firm yet
sensitive mouth, dark curving brows, and deep-set eyes which
shone and sparkled with a shifting brilliancy. Beautiful as she
was, it was not her beauty which impressed itself upon the
beholder ; it was her strength, her power, the ^ense of wisdom
which hung over the broad white brow, the decision which lay
in the square jaw and delicately moulded chin. A chaplet cf
pearls sparkled amid her black hair, with a gauze of silver net-
work flowing back from it over her shoulders ; a black mantle
was swathed round her, and she leaned back in her chair as one
who is fresh from a journey.

In the opposite corner there sat a very burly and broad-
shouldered man, clad in a black jerkin trimmed with sable, with
a black velvet cap with curling white feather cocked upon the
side of his head. A flask of red wine stood at his elbow, and
he seemed to be very much at his ease, for his feet were stuck
up on a stool, and between his thighs he held a dish full of nuts.
These he cracked between his strong white teeth and chewed in
a leisurely way, casting the shells into the blaze. As Aileyne
gazed in at him he turned-his face half round and cocked an eye
at him over his shoulder. It seemed to the young Englishman
that he had never seen so hideous a face, for the eyes were of
the lightest green, the nose was broken and driven inwards,
while the whole countenance was seared and puckered with
wounds. The voice, too, when he spoke, was as deep and as
fierce as the growl of a beast of prey.

" Young man," said he, "I know not who you may be, and I
am not much inclined to bestir myself, but if it were not that I
am bent upon taking my ease, I swear, by the sword of Joshua !
that I would lay my dog-whip across your shoulders for daring
to fill the air with these discordant bello wings."

Taken aback at this ungentle speech, and scarce knowing how
to answer it fitly in the presence of the lady, Aileyne stood with
his hand upon the handle of the door, while Sir Nigel and his
companions dismounted. At the sound of these fresh voices,
and of the tongue in which they spoke, the stranger crashed his
<Jish of nuts down upon the floor, and began himself to call for264

THE WHITE COMPANY.

the landlord until the vttiole house re-echoed with his roarings.
With an ashen face the white-aproned host came running at his
call, his hands shaking and his very hair bristling with appre-
hension. " For the sake of God, sirs," he whispered as he
passed, " speak him fair and do not rouse him ! For the love ot
the Virgin, be mild with him ! "

"Who is this, then ? " asked Sir Nigel.

Alleyne was about to explain, when a fresh roar from th^
stranger interrupted him*.

" Thou villain inn-keeper," he shouted, « did I not ask you
when I brought my lady here whether your inn was clean ? "
" You did, sire."

" Did I not very particularly ask you whether there were any
vermin in it ? "

" You did, sire."

" And you answered me ? "

" That there were not, sire."

« And yet ere I have been here an hour I find Englishmen
crawling about within it. Where are we to be free from this
pestilent race? Can a Frenchman upon French land not sit
down in a French auberge without having his ears pained by
the clack of their hideous talk ? Send them packing, inn-keeper,
or it may be the worse for them and for you."

" I will, sire, I will ! " cried the frightened host, and bustled
from the room, while the soft, soothing voice of the woman was
heard remonstrating with her furious companion.

"Indeed, gentlemen, you had best go," said mine host. "It
is but six miles to Villefranche, where there are very good
quarters at the sign of the « Lion Rouge.

"Nay," answered Sir Nigel, "I cannot go until I have seen
more of this person, for he appears to be a man from whom much
is to be hoped. What is his name and title ? "

" It is not for my lips to name it unless by his desire. But I
beg and pray you, gentlemen, that you will go from my house,
for I know not what may come of it if his rage should gain the
mastery of him."

" By Saint Paul! " lisped Sir Nigel, " this is certainly a man
whom it is worth journeying far to know. Go tell him that a
humble knight of England would make his further honorable ac-
quaintance, not from any presumption, pride, or ill-will, but for
the advancement of chivalry and the glory of our ladies. Giv§THE WHITE COMPANY.

265

him greeting from Sir Nigel Loring, and say that the glove
which I bear in my cap belongs to the most peerless and lovely
of her sex, whom I am now ready to uphold against any lady
whose claim he might be desirous of advancing."

The landlord was hesitating whether to carry this message .or
no, when the door of the inner room was flung open, and the
stranger bounded out like a panther from its den, his hair bris-
tling and his deformed face convulsed with anger.

" Still here ! " he snarled. " Dogs of England, must ye be
lashed hence ? Tiphaine, my sword ! " He turned to seize his
weapon, but as he did so his gaze fell upon the blazonry of Sir
Nigel's shield, and he stood staring, while the fire in his strange
green eyes softened into a sly and humorous twinkle.

- " Mort Dieu ! " cried he, " it is my little swordsman ol Bor-
deaux. I should remember that coat-armor, seeing that it is
but three days since I looked upon it in the lists by Garonne.
Ah ! Sir Nigel, Sir Nigel ! you owe me a return for this," and
he touched his right arm, which was girt round just under the
shoulder with a silken kerchief.

But the surprise of the stranger at the sight of Sir Nigel was
as nothing compared with the astonishment and the delight
which shone upon the face of the knight of Hampshire as he
looked upon the strange face of the Frenchman. Twice he
opened his mouth and twice he peered again, as though to
assure himself tfiat his eyes had not played him a trick.

,f Bertrand ! " he gasped at last. " Bertrand du Guesclin ! "

" By Saint Ives ! " shouted the French soldier, with a hoarse
roar of laughter, " it is well that I should ride with my vizor
down, for he that has once seen my face does not need to be
told my name. It is indeed I, Sir Nigel, and here is my hand 1
I give you my word that there are but three Englishmen in
this world whom I would touch save with the sharp edge of the
sword : the prince is one, Chandos the second, and you the
third ; for I have heard much that is good of you."

" I am growing aged, and am somewhat spent in the wars,"
quoth Sir Nigel; " but I can lay by my sword now with an easy
mind, for I can say that I have crossed swords with him who
hath the bravest heart and the strongest arm of all this great
kingdom of France. I have longed for it, I have dreamed of it,
and now I can scarce bring my mind to understand that this
great honor hath indeed been mine."266

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" By the Virgin of Rennes ! you have given me cause to be
very certain of it," said Du Guesclin, with a gleam of his broad
white teeth.

" And perhaps, most honored sir, it would please you to con-
tinue the debate. Perhaps you would condescend to go farther
into the matter. God He knows that I am unworthy ot such
honor, yet I can show my four-and-sixty quarterings, and I have
been present at some bickerings and scufflings during these
twenty years."

"Your fame is very well known to me, and I shall ask my
lady to enter your name upon my tablets," said Sir Bertrand.
" There are many who wish to advance themselves, and who
bide their turn, for I refuse no man who comes on such an
errand. At present it may not be, for mine arm is stiff from this
small touch, and I would fain do you full honor when we cross
swords again. Come in with me, and let your squires come also,
that my sweet spouse, the Lady Tiphaine, may say that she hath
seen so famed and gentle a knight."	- -

Into the chamber they went in all peace and concord, where
the Lady Tiphaine sat like queen on throne for each in turn to
be presented to her. Sooth to say, the stout heart of Sir Nigel,
which cared little for the wrath of her lion-like spouse, was
somewhat shaken by the calm, cold face of this stately dame,
for twenty years of camp-life had left him more at ease in the
lists than in a lady's boudoir. He bethought^him, too, as he
looked at her set lips and deep-set questioning eyes, that he had
heard strange tales of this same Lady Tiphaine du Guesclin.
Was it not she who was said to lay hands upon the sick and
raise them from their couches when the leeches had spent their
last nostrums ? Had she not forecast the future, and were there
not times when in the loneliness of her chamber she was heard
to hold converse with some being upon whom mortal eye never
- rested—some dark familiar who passed where doors were barred
and windows high ? Sir Nigel sunk his eye and marked a cross
on the side of his leg as he greeted this dangerous dame, and
yet ere five minutes had passed he was hers, and not he only
but his two young squires as well. The mind had gone out of
them, and they could but look at this woman and listen to the
words which fell from her lips—words which thrilled through
their nerves and stirred their souls like the battle-call of a bugle.

Often in peaceful after-days was Allcyne to think of that sceneTHE WHITE COMPANY.

267

of the wayside inn of Auvergne. The shadows of evening had
fallen, and the corners of the long, low, wood-panelled room
were draped in darkness. The sputtering wood fire threw* out
a circle of red flickering light which played over the little group
of wayfarers, and showed up every line and shadow upon their
faces. Sir Nigel sat with elbows upon knees, and chin upon
hands, his patch still covering one eye, but his other shining like
a star, while the ruddy light gleamed upon his smooth white
head. Ford was seated at his left, his lips parted, his eyes star-
ing, and a fleck of deep color on either cheek, his limbs all rigid
as one who fears to move. On the other side the famous French
captain leaned back in his chair, a litter of nut-shells upon his
lap, his huge head half buried in a cushion, while his eyes wan-*>
dered with an amused gleam from his dame to the staring, en-
raptured Englishmen. Then, last of all, that pale clear-cut face,
that sweet clear voice, with its high thrilling talk of the death-
lessness of glory, of the worthlessness of life, of the pain of
ignoble joys, and of the joy which lies in all pains which lead to
a noble end. Still, as the shadows deepened, she spoke of valor
and virtue, of loyalty, honor, and fame, and still they sat drink-
ing in her words while the fire burned down and the red ash
turned to gray.

" By the sainted Ives ! " cried Du Guesclin at last, " it is time
that we spoke of what we are to do this night, for I cannot think
that in this wayside auberge there are fit quarters for an honor-
able company."

Sir Nigel gave a long sigh as he came back from the dreams
of chivalry and hardihood into which this strange woman's words
had wafted him. " I care not where I sleep," said he ; " but
these are indeed somewhat rude lodgings for this fair lady."

" What contents my lord contents me," quoth she. " I per-
ceive, Sir Nigel, that you are under vow," she added, glancing
at his covered eye.

"It is my purpose to attempt some small deed," he answered.

" And the glove—is it your lady's ? "

" It is indeed my sweet wife's."

" Who is doubtless proud of you."

"Say rather I of her," quoth he quickly. "God He knows
that I am not worthy to be her humble servant. It is easy, lady,
for a man to ride forth in the light of day, and do his devoir
when all men have eyes for him, But in a woman's heart there268

THE WHITE COMPANY.

is a strength and truth which asks no praise, and can Tbut be
known to him whose treasure it is."

The Lady Tiphaine smiled across at her husband. " You
h^ve often told me, Bertrand, that there were very gentle knights
amongst the English," quoth she.

"Aye, aye," said he moodily. " But to horse, Sir Nigel, you
and yours and we shall seek the chateau of Sir Tristram de
Rochefort, which is two miles on this side of Villefranche. He
is Seneschal of Auvergne, and mine old war companion."

"Certes, he would have a welcome for you," quoth Sir Nigel ;
"but indeed he might look askance at one who comes without
permit over the marches."

" By the Virgin ! when he learns that you have come to draw
away these rascals he will be very blithe to look upon your face.
Inn-keeper, here are ten gold pieces. What is over and above
your reckoning you may take off from your charges to the next
needy knight who comes this way. Come then, for it grows late
and the horses are stamping in the roadway."

The Lady Tiphaine and her spouse sprang upon their steeds
without setting feet to stirrup, and away they jingled down the
white moonlit highway, with Sir Nigel at the lady's bridle-arm,
and Ford a spear's length behind them. Alleyne had lingered
for an instant in the passage, and as he did so there came a wild
outcry from a chamber upon the left, and out there ran Aylward
and John, laughing together like two schoolboys who are bent
upon a prank. At sight of Alleyne they slunk past him with
somewhat of a shame-faced air, and springing upon their horses
galloped after their party. The hubbub within the chamber
did not cease, however, but rather increased, with yells of: "A
moi, mes amis ! A moi, camarades ! A moi, l'honorable cham-
pion de r£v£que de Montaubon ! A la recouse de l'^glise
sainte ! " So shrill was the outcry that both the inn-keeper and
Alleyne, with every varlet within hearing, rushed wildly to the
scene of the uproar.

It was indeed a singular scene which met their eyes. The
room was a long and lofty one, stone floored and bare, with a
fire at the further end upon which a great pot was boiling. A
deal table ran down the centre, with a wooden wine-pitcher
upon it and two horn cups. Some way from it was a smaller
table with a single beaker and a broken wine-bottle. From the
beavy wooden rafters which formed the roof there hung rows ofTHE WHITE COMPANY.	269

hooks which held up sides of bacon, joints of smoked. beef, and
strings of onions for winter use. In the very centre of all these,
upon the largest hook of all, there hung a fat little red-faced
man with enormous whiskers, kicking madly in the air and
clawing at rafters, hams, and all else that was within hand-
grasp. The huge steel hook had been passed through the collar
of his leather jerkin, and there he hung like a fish oh a line,
writhing, twisting, and screaming, but utterly unable to free
himself from his extraordinary position. It was not until Alleyne
and the landlord had mounted on the table that they were able
to lift him down, when he sank gasping with rage into a seat,
and rolled his eyes round in every direction.	4

" Has he gone ? " quoth he. -

" Gone ? Who ? "

" He, the man with the red head, the giant man."

" Yes," said Alleyne, " he hath^gone."

" And comes not back ? "

" No-"

"The better for him ! " cried the little man, with a long sigh
of relief. " Mon Dieu ! What! am I not the champion of the
Bishop of Montaubon ? Ah, could I have descended, could-I
have come down, ere he fled ! Then you would have seen. You
would have beheld a spectacle then. There would have been
one rascal the less upon earth. Ma, foi, yes !"

" Good master Pelligny," said the landlord, " these gentlemen
have not gone very fast, and I have a horse in the stable at your
disposal, for I would rather have such bloody doings as you
threaten outside the four walls of mine auberge."

" I hurt my leg and cannot ride," quoth the bishop's cham-
pion. " I strained a sinew on the day that I slew the three men
at Castelnau."

41 God save you, master Pelligny ! " cried the landlord. " It
must be an awesome thing to have so much blood upon one's
soul. And yet I do not wish to see so valiant a man mis-
handled, and so I will, for friendship's sake, ride after this
Englishman and bring him back to you."

"You shall not stir," cried the champion, seizing the inn-
keeper in a convulsive grasp. " I have a love for you, Gaston,
and I would not bring your house into ill repute, nor do such
scath to these walls and chattels as must befall if two such men
as this Englishman and I fall to work here."270

THE WHITE COMPANY.

"Nay, think not of me!" cried the inn-keeper. " What are

my walls when set against the honor of Francois Poursuivant
d'Amour Pelligny, champion of the Bishop of Montaubon. My
horse, Andre !"

"By the saints, no ! Gaston, I will not have it! You have
said truly that it is an awesome thing to have such rough work
upon one's soul. I am but a rude soldier, yet I have a mind.
Mon Dieu! I reflect, I weigh, 1 balance. Shall I not meet
this man again ? Shall I not bear him in mind ? Shall I
not know him by his great paws and his red head ? Ma foi,
yes ! "

41 And may I ask, sir," said Allevne,. " why it is that you call
yourself champion of the Bishop of Montaubon ? "

"You may ask aught which it is becoming to me to an-
swer. The bishop hath need of a champion, because, if any
cause be set to test of combat, it would scarce become his office <
to go down into the lists with leather and shield and cudgel
to exchange blows with any varlet. He looks aroujid him
then for some tried fighting man, some honest smiter who can
give a blow or take one. It is not for me to say how far he hath
succeeded, but it is sooth that he who thinks that he hath but to
do with the Bishop of Montaubon, finds himself face to face with
Frangois Poursuivant d'Amour Pelligny."

At this moment there was a clatter of hoofs upon the road, and
a varlet by the door cried out that one of the Englishmen was
coming back. The champion looked wildly about for some
corner of safety, and was clambering up towards the window,
when Ford's voice sounded from without, calling upon Alleyne
,-to hasten, or he might scarce find his way. Bidding adieu to
landlord and to champion, therefore, he set off at a gallop, and
soon overtook the two archers.

"A pretty thing this, John," said he. "Thou wilt have holy
Church upon you if you hang her champions upon iron hooks in
an inn kitchen."

" It was done without thinking," he answered apologetically,
while Aylward burst into a shout of laughter.

" By my hilt! mon petit," said he, " you would have laughed
also could you have seen it. For this man was so swollen with
pride that he would neither drink with us, nor sit at the same
table with us, nor as much as answer a question, but must needs
talk to the varlet all the time that it \vas well there was peace.THE WHITE COMPANY.	271

^and that he had slain more Englishmen than there were tags to
nis doublet. Our good old John could scarce lay his tongue to
French enough to answer him, so he must needs reach out his
great hand to him and place him very gently where you saw
him.\ But we must on, for I can scarce hear their hoofs upon

the rdad."

"I think that I can see them yet," said Ford, peering down
the moonlit road.

" Pardieu ! yes. Now they ride forth from the shadow. And
yonder dark clump is the Castle of Villefranche. En avant,
camarades! or Sir Nigel may reach the gates before us. But
hark, mes amis, what sound is that ? "

As he spoke the hoarse blast of a horn was heard from some
woods upon the right. An answering call rung forth upon their
left, and hard upon it two others from behind them.

"They are the horns of swine-herds," quoth Aylward.
" Though why they blow them so late I cannot tell."

" Let us on, then, Vsaid Ford, and the whole party, setting
their spurs to their horses, soon found themselves at the Castle
of Villefranche, where the drawbridge had already been lowered
and the portcullis raised in response to the summons of Du
Guesclin.

CHAPTER XXIX.

how the blessed hour of sight came to the lady
tiphaine.

Sir Tristram de Rochefort, Seneschal of Auvergne and
Lord of Villefranche, was a fierce and renowned soldier who had
grown gray in the English wars. As lord of the marches and
guardian of an exposed country-side, there was little rest for
him even in times of so-called peace, and his whole life was spent
in raids and outfalls upon the Brabanters, late-comers, flayers,
free companions, and roving archers who wandered over his
province. At times he would come back in triumph, and a
dozen corpses- swinging from the summit of his keep would
warn evil-doers that there was still a law in the land. At others
his ventures were not so happy, and he and his troop would spur
it over the drawbridge with clatter of hoofs hard at their heelsTHE WHITE COMPANY.

and whistle of arrows about their ears. Hard he was of hand
and harder of heart, hated by his foes, and yet not loved by those
whom he protected, for twice he had been taken prisoner, and
twice his ransom had been wrung by dint of blows and tortures
out of the starving peasants and ruined farmers. Wolves or
watch-dogs, it was hard to say from which the sheep had most
to fear.

The Castle of Villefranche was harsh and stern as its master.
A broad moat, a high outer wall turreted at the corners, with a
great black keep towering above all—so it lay before them in
the moonlight. By the light of two flambeaux, protruded
through the narrow slit-shaped openings' at either side of the
ponderous gate, they caught a glimpse of the glitter of fierce
eyes and of the gleam of the weapons of the guard. The sight
of the two-headed eagle of Du Guesclin, however, was a pass-
port into any fortalice in France, and ere they had passed the
gate the old border knight came running forwards with hands
out-thrown to greet his famous countryman. Nor was he less
glad to see Sir Nigel, when the Englishman's errand was ex-
plained to him, for these archers had been a sore thorn in his
side and had routed two expeditions which he had sent against
them. *A happy day it would be for the Seneschal of Auvergne
when they should learn that the last yew bow was over the
marches.

The material for a fi^ast was ever at hand in days when, if
there was grim want in the cottage, there was at least rude
# plenty in the castle. Within an hour the guests were seated
around arboard which creaked under the great pasties and joints
of meat, varied by those more dainty dishes in which the French
excelled, the spiced ortolan and the truffled beccaficoes. The
Lady Rochefort, a bright and laughter-loving dame, sat upon
the left of her warlike spouse, with Lady Tiphaine upon the
right. Beneath sat Du Guesclin and Sir Nigel, with Sir Amory,
Monticourt, of the order of the Hospitallers, and Sir Otto Har-
nit, a wandering knight from the kingdom of Bohemia. These
with Alleyne and Ford, four French squires, and the castle
chaplain, made the qompany who sat together that night and
made good cheer in the Castle of Villefranche. The great fire
crackled in the grate, the hooded hawks slept upon their perches,
the rough deer-hounds with expectant eyes crouched upon the
r tiled floor ; close at the elbows of the guests stood the dapperTHE WHITE COMPANY.	_ 273

______ lilac-coated pages ; the laugh and jest circled round and

alKwas harmony ancl comfort. Little they recked of the brush-
wood men who crouched in their rags along the fringe of the
forest and looked with wild and haggard eyes at the rich, warm
glow which shot a golden bar of light from the high arched win-
dows of the castle.	„

Supper over, the tables dormant were .cleared *away as by
magic and trestles and bancals arranged around the blazing fire,
for there was a bitter nip in the air. The Lady Tiphaine had
sunk back in her cushioned chair, and her long dark lashes
drooped low over her sparkling eyes. Alleyne, glancing at her,
noted that her breath came quick and short, and that her cheeks
had blanched to a lily white. Du Guesclin eyed her keenly from
time to time, and passed his broad brown fingers through his
crisp, curly black hair with the air of a man who is perplexed in
his mind.	■	_

"These folk here," said the knight of Bohemia, " they do not *
seem too well fed."

"Ah, canaille ! " cried the Lord of Villefranche. "You would
scarce credit it, and yet it is sooth that when I was taken at
Poictiers it was'all that my wife and foster-brother could do to
raise the money from them for my ransom. The sulky dogs
would rather have three twists of a rack, or the thumbikins for
an hour, than pay out a denier for their own feudal father and
liege lord. Yet there is not one of them but hath an old stock-
ing full of gold pieces hid away in a snug corner."

" Why do they not buy food then ? " asked Sir Nigel. " By
St. Paul! it seemed to me their bones were breaking through
their skin."

"It is their grutching and grumbling which makes them thin.
We have a saying here, Sir Nigel, that if you pummel Jacques
Bonhomme he will pat you, but if you pat him he will pummel
you. Doubtless you find it so in England."

"Ma foi, no ! " said Sir Nigel. " I have two Englishmen of
this class in my train, who are at this instant, I make little
doubt, as full of your wine as any cask in your cellar. He who
pummelled them might come by such a pat as he would be
likely to remember."

"I cannot understand it," quoth the seneschal, "for the
English knights and nobles whom I have met were not men to
brook the insolence of the base born."
18	' •274

THE WHITE COMPANY.

"Perchance, my fair lord, the poor folk are sweeter and of a
better countenance in England," laughed the Lady Rochefort.
" Mon Dieu ! you cannot conceive to yourself how ugly they
are ! Without hair, without teeth, all twisted and bent; for me,
I cannot think how the good God ever came to make such peo-
ple. I cannot bear it, I, and so my trusty Raoul goes ever before
me with a cudgel to drive them from my path."

" Yet they have souls, fair lady, they have souls ! " murmured
the chaplain, a white-haired man with a weary, patient face.

"■So I have heard you tell them," said the lord of the castle ;
" and for myself, father, though I am a true son of holy Church,
yet I think that you were better employed in saying your mass
and in teaching the children of my men-at-arms, than- in going
over the country-side to put ideas in these folks' heads which
would never have been there but for you. I have heard that
you have said to them that their sotils are as good as ours, >and
that it is likely that in another life they may stand as high as the
oldest blood of Auvergne. For my part, I believe that there
are so many worthy knights and gallant gentlemen in heaven
Who know how such things should be arranged, that there is
little fear that we shall find ourselves mixed up with base
roturiers and swine-herds. Tell your beads, father, and con your
psalter, but do not come between me and those whom the king
has given to me ! "

" God help them !" cried the old priest. " A higher King
than yours has given them to me, and I tell you here in your
own castle hall, Sir Tristram de Rochefort, that you have sinned
deeply in your dealings with these poor folk, and that the hour
will come, and may even now be at hand, when God's hand will
be heavy upon you for what you have done." He rose as he
spoke, and walked slowly from the room.

" Pest take him ! " cried the French knight. " Now, what is
a man to do with a priest, Sir Bertrand ?—for one can neither
fight him like a man nor coax him like a woman."

" Ah, Sir Bertrand knows, the naughty one ! " cried the Lady
Rochefort. " Have we not all heard how he went to Avignon
and squeezed fifty thousand crowns out of the Pope."

"Ma foi! " said Sir Nigel, looking with a mixture of horror
and admiration at Du Guesclin. " Did not your heart sink within
you ? Were you not smitten with fears ? Have you not felt a
curse hang over you ? "THE WHITE COMPANY.

275

"I have not observed it," said the Freachman carelessly.
" But, by Saint Ives ! Tristram, this chaplain of yours seems to
me to be a worthy man, and you should give heed to his words,
for though I care nothing for the curse of a bad pope, it would
be a grief to me to have aught but a blessing from a good
priest."

" Hark to that, my fair lord," cried the Lady Rochefort.
" Take heed, I pray thee, for I do not wish to have a blight cast
over me, nor a palsy of the limbs, I remember that once before
you angered Father Stephen, and my tire-woman said that I lost
more hair in seven days than ever before in a month."

" If that be sign of sin, then, by Saint Paul! I have much upon
my soul," said Sir Nigel, amid a general laugh. "But in very
truth, Sir Tristram, if I may venture a word of counsel, I should
advise that you make your peace with this good man."

" He shall have four silver candlesticks," said the seneschal
moodily. " And yet I would that he would leave the folk alone.
You cannot conceive in your mind how stubborn and brainless
they are. Mules and pigs are full of reason beside them. God
He knows that I have had great patience with them. It was but
last week that, having to raise some money, I called up to the
castle Jean Goubert, who, as all men know, has a casketful of
gold pieces hidden away in some hollow tree. I give you my
word that I did not so much as lay a stripe upon his fool's back,
but after speaking with hip, and telling him how needful the
money was to me, I left him for the night to think over the matter
in my dungeon. What think you that the dog did? Why, in
the morning we found that he had made a rope from strips of
his leathern jerkin, and had hung himself to the bar of the
window."

" For me, I cannot conceive such wickedness ! " cried the lady.

" And there was Gertrude Le Boeuf, as fair a maiden as eye
could see, but as bad and bitter as the rest of them. When
young Amory de Valance was here last Lammastide he looked
kindly upon the girl, and even spoke of taking her into his serv-
ice. What does she do, with her dog of a father ? Why, they
tie themselves together and leap into the Linden Pool, where the
water is five spears'-lengths deep. I give you my word that it
was a great grief to young Amory, and it was days -ere he could
cast it from his mind. But hq^	§§rve people wtlQ

so foolish and so ungrateful ?276

THE WHITE COMPANY.

Whilst the Seneschal of Villefranche had been detailing the
evil doings of his tenants, Alleyne had been unable to take *his
eyes from the face of Lady Tiphaine. She had lain back in her
chair, with drooping eyelids and bloodless face, so that he had
feared at first her journey had weighed heavily upon her, and
that the strength was ebbing out of her. Of a sudden, however,
there came a change, for a dash of bright color flickered up on
to either cheek, and her lids were slowly raised again upon eyes
* which sparkled with such lustre as Alleyne had never seen in
human eyes before, while their gaze was fixed intently, not on
the company, but on the dark tapestry which draped the wall.
So transformed and so ethereal was her expression, that Alleyne,
in his loftiest dream of archangel or of seraph, had never
pictured so sweet, so womanly, and yet so wise a face. Glancing
at Du Guesclin, Alleyne saw that he also was watching his wife
closely, and from the twitching of his features, and the beads
upon his brick-colored brow, it was easy to see that he was
deeply agitated by the change which he marked in her.

" How is it with you, lady ? " he asked at last, in a tremulous
voice.

Her eyes remained fixed intently upon the wall, and there was
a long pause ere she answered him. Her voice, too, which had
been so clear and ringing, was now low and muffled as that of
one who speaks from a distance.

" All is very well with me, Bertrand," said she. " The blessed
hour of sight has come round to me again."'

" I could see it come ! I could see it come !" he exclaimed,
passing his fingers through his hair with the same perplexed
expression as before.

"This is untoward, Sir Tristram," he said at last. " And I
scarce know in what words to make it clear to you, and td your
fair wife, and to Sir Nigel Loring, and to these other stranger
knights. My tongue is a blunt one, and fitter to shout word of
command than to clear up such a matter as this, of which I can
myself understand little. This, however, I know, that my wife
is come of a very sainted race, whom God hath in His wisdom
endowed with wondrous powers, so that Tiphaine Raquenel was
known throughout Brittany ere ever I first saw her at Dinan.
Yet these powers are ever used for good, and they are the gift
of God and not of the 4evil, which is the difference betwixt \vhitQ
magic and black,"THE WHITE COMPANY.

277

" Perchance it would be as well that we should send for
Father Stephen/' said Sir Tristram.

" It would be best that he should come," cried the Hospitaller.

" And bring with him a flask of holy water," added the knight
of Bohemia.

" Not so, gentlemen," answered Sir Bertrand. " It is not
needful that this priest should be called, and it is in my mind
that in asking for this ye cast some slight shadow or slur upon
the good name of my wife, as though it were still doubtful
whether her power came to her from above or below. If ye
have indeed such a doubt I pray that you will say so, that we
may discuss the matter in a fitting way."

" For myself," said Sir Nigel, " I have heard such words fall
from the lips of this lady that I am of the opinion that there is
110 woman, save only one, who can be in any way compared to
her in beauty and in goodness. Should any gentleman think
otherwise, I should deem it great honor to run a small course
with him, or debate the matter in whatever way might be most
pleasing to him."

" Nay, it would ill become me to cast a slur upon a lady who
is both my guest and the wife of my comrade-in-arms," said the
Seneschal of Villefranche. " I have perceived also that on her
mantle there is marked a silver cross, which is surely sign
enough that there is nought of evil in these strange powers
which you say that she possesses."

This argument of the seneschal's appealed so powerfully to
the Bohemian and to the Hospitaller that they at once intimated
that their objections had been entirely overcome, while even the
Lady Rochefort, who had sat shivering and crossing herself,
ceased to cast glances at the door, and allowed her fears to turn
to curiosity.

" Among the gifts which have been vouchsafed to my wife,"
said Du Guesclin, " there is the wondrous one of seeing into the
future ; but it comes very seldom upon her, and goes as quickly,
for none can command it. The blessed hour of sight, as she
hath named it, has come but twice since I have known her, and
I can vouch for it that all that she hath tolds me was true, for
on the evening of the Battle of Auray she said that the morrow
would be an ill day for me and for Charles of Blois. Ere the
sun had sunk again he was dead, and I the prisoner pf Sir John27B

THE WHITE COMPANY.

Chandos. Yet it is not every question that she can answer,
but only those-"

" Bertrand, Bertrand ! " cried the lady in the same muttering
far-away voice, " the blessed hour passes. Use it, Bertrand,
while you may."

" I will, my sweet. Tell me, then, what fortune comes upon
me?"

" Danger, Bertrand—deadly, pressing danger—which creeps
upon you and you know it not."

The French soldier burst into a thunderous laugh, and his
green eyes twinkled .with amusement. "At what time during
these twenty years would not that have been a true word ? " he
cried. " Danger is in the air that I breathe. But is this so
very close, Tiphaine ? "

"Here—now—close upon you!" The words came out in
broken, strenuous speech, while the lady's fair face was writhed
and drawn like that of one who looks upon a horror which strikes,
the words from her lips. Du Guesclin gazed round the tapestried
room, at the screens, the tables, the abace, the credence, the
buffet with its silver salver, and the half-circle of friendly,
wondering faces. There was an utter stillness, save for the
sharp breathing of the Lady Tiphaine and for the gentle sough-
ing of the wind outside, which wafted to their ears the distant
call upon a swine-herd's horn.

" The danger may bide," said he, shrugging his broad
shoulders. " And now, Tiphaine, tell us what will come of
this war in Spain."

" I can see little," she answered, straining her eyes and puck-
ering her brow, as one who would fain clear her sight. " There
are mountains, and dry plains, and flash of arms and shouting
of battle-cries. Yet it is whispered to me that by failure you
will succeed."

" Ha ! Sir Nigel, how like you that ? " quoth Bertrand, shak-
ing his head. " It is like mead and vinegar, half sweet, half
sour. And is there no question which you would ask my
lady ? "

"Certes there is. I would fain know, fair lady, how all things
are at Twynham Castle, and above all how my sweet lady em,
ploys herself."

"To answer this I would fain lay hand upon one whose
thoughts turn strongly to this castle which you have named.THE WHITE COMPANY.

m

Nay, my Lord Loring, it is whispered to me that there is another
here who hath thought more deeply of it than you."

"Thought more of mine own home?" oried Sir Nigel.
" Lady, I fear that in this matter at least you are mistaken."

" Not so, Sir Nigel. Come hither, young man, young English
squire with the gray eyes ! Now give me your hand, and place U
it here across my brow, that I may see that which you have seen.
What is this that rises before me ? Mist, mist, rolling mist with
a square black tower above it. See it shreds out, it thins, it
£ises, and there lies a castle in green plaia, with the sea beneath
it, and a great church within a bow-shot. There are two rivers
which run through the meadows, and between them lie the tents
of the besiegers."

"The besiegers!" cried Alleyne, Ford, and Sir Nigel, all
three in a breath.

" Yes, truly, and they press hard upon the castle, for they are
an exceeding multitude and full of courage. See how they storm
and rage against the gate, while some rear ladders, and others,

line after line, sweep the walls with their arrows. They are
many leaders who shout and beckon, and one, a tail man with a
golden beard, who stands before the gate stamping his foot and
hallooing them on, as a pricker doth the hounds. But those in
the castle fight bravely. There is a woman, two women, who
stand upon the walls, and give heart to the men-at-arms. They
shower down arrows, darts and great stones. Ah ! they have
struck down the tall leader, and the others give back. The mist
thickens and I can see no more."

" By Saint Paul ! " said Sir Nigel, " I do not think that there
can be any such doings at Christchurch, and I am very easy of
the fortalice so long as my sweet wife hangs the key of the outer
bailey at the head of her bed. Yet I will not deny that you
have pictured the castle as well as I could have done myself,
and I am full of wonderment at all that I have heard and seen."

" I would, Lady Tiphaine," cried the Lady Rochefort, " that
you would use your power to tell me what hath befallen my
golden bracelet which I \yore when hawking upon the second
Sunday of Advent, and have never set eyes upon since."

"Nay, lady," said du Guesclin, " it does not befit so great and
WOndrous a power to pry and search and play the varlet even to
the beautiful chatelaine of Villefranche. Ask a worthy question,
and, with the blessing of God, you shall have a worthy answer,"28o

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" Then I would fain ask," cried one of the French squires,
"as to which may hope to conquer in these wars betwixt the
English and ourselves."

" Both will conquer and each will hold its own," answered
the Lady Tiphaine.

" Then we shall still hold Gascony and Guienn-e ? " cried Sir
Nigel.

The lady shook her head. "French land, French blood,
French speech," she answered. " They are French, and France
shall have them." %	e

" But not Bordeaux ? " cried Sir Nigel excitedly.

"Bordeaux also is for France."

" But Calais ? "

"Calais too."

" Woe worth me then, and ill hail to these evil words ! If
Bordeaux and Calais be gone, then what is left for England ? "

" It seems indeed that there are evil times coming upon your
country," said Du Guesclin. " In our fondest hopes we never
thought to hold Bordeaux. By Saint Ives ! this news hath
warmed the heart within me. Our dear country will then be
very great in the future, Tiphaine ? "

" Great, and rich, and beautiful," she cried. " Far down the
course of tim6 I can see her still leading the nations, a wayward
queen among the peoples, great in war, but greater in peace,
quick in thought, deft in action, with her people's will for her
sole monarch, from the sands of Calais to the blue seas of the
south."

" Ha ! " cried Du Guesclin, with his eyes flashing in triumph,
" you hear her, §ir Nigel ?—and she never yet said word which
was not sooth."

The English knight shook his head moodily. " What of my
own poor country ? " said he. " I fear, lady, that what you have
said bodes but small good" for her."

The lady sat with parted lips, and her breath came quick and
fast. " My God ! " she cried, " what is this that is shown me ?
Whence come they, these peoples, these lordly nations, these
mighty countries which rise up before me ? I look beyond, and
others rise, and yet others, far and farther to the shores of the
uttermost waters. They crowd ! They swarm ! The world
is given to them, and it resounds with the clang of their ham-
mers and the ringing of their church bells. They call themTHE WHITE COMPANY.

281

many names, and they rule them this way or that, but they are
all English, for I can hear the voices of the people. On I go,
and onwards over seas where man hath never yet sailed, and I
see a great land under new stars and a stranger sky, and still
the land is England. Where have her children not gone ? What
have they not done ? Her banner is planted on ice. Her ban-
ner is scorched in the sun. She lies athwart the lands, and her
shadow is over the seas. Bertrand, Bertrand ! we are undone,
for the buds of her bud are even as our choicest flower ! " Her
voice rose into a wild cry, and throwing up her arms she sank
back white and nerveless into the deep oaken chair.

" It is over," said Du Guesclin moodily, as he raised her
drooping head with his strong brown hand. " Wine for the
lady, squire ! The blessed hour of sight hath passed."

CHAPTER XXX.

how the brushwood men came to the chateau of
villefranche.

It was late ere Alleyne Edricson, having carried Sir Nigel
the goblet of spiced wine which it was his custom to drink after
the curling of his hair, was able at last to seek his chamber. It
was a stone-flagged room upon the second floor, with a bed in
a recess for him, and two smaller pallets on the other side, on
which Aylward and Hordle John were already snoring. Alleyne
had knelt down to his evening orisons, when there came a tap
at his door, and Ford entered with a small lamp in his hand.
His face was deadly pale, and his hand shook until the shadows
flickered up and down the wall.

"What is it, Ford ? " cried Alleyne, springing to his feet.

" I can scarce tell you, said he, sitting down on the side of
the couch, and resting his chin upon his hand. " I know not
what to say or what to think."

" Has aught befallen you, then ? "

" Yes, or I have been slave to my own fancy. I tell you, lad,
that I am all undone, like a fretted bow-string. Hark hither,
Alleyne ! it cannot be that you have forgotten little Tita, the
daughter of the old glass-stainer at Bordeaux ? "

" I remember her well,'*282

THE WHITE COMPANY.

"She and I, Alleyne, broke the lucky groat together ere we
parted, and she wears my ring upon her finger. «Caro mio,'
quoth she when last we parted, ' I shall be near thee in the wars,
and thy danger will be my danger.' Alleyne, as God is my
help, as I came up the stairs this night I saw her stand before
me, her face in tears, her hands out as though in warning—I
saw it, Alleyne, even as 1 see those two archers upon their
couches. Our very finger-tips seemed to meet, ere she thinned
away like a mist in the sunshine."	*

" I would not give overmuch thought to it," answered Alleyne.
" Our minds will play us strange pranks, and bethink you that
these words of the Lady Tiphaine Du Guesclin have wrought
upon us and shaken us."

Ford shook his head. " 1 saw little Tita as clearly as though
I were back at the Rue des Apotres at Bordeaux," said he.
" But the hour is late, and I must go."

" Where do you sleep, then ? "

" In the chamber above you. May the saints be with us all !"
He rose from the couch and left the chamber, while Alleyne
could hear his feet sounding upon the winding stair. The young
squire walked across to the window and gazed out at the moon-
lit landscape, his mind absorbed by the thought of the Lady
Tiphaine, and of the strange words that she had spoken as to
what was going forward at Castle Twynham, Leaning his
elbows upon the stonework, he was deeply plunged in reverie,
when in a moment his thoughts were brought back to Ville-
franche and to the scene before him.

The window at which he stood was in the second floor of that
portion of the castle which was nearest to the keep. In front
lay the broad moat, with the moon lying upon its surface, now
clear and round, now drawn lengthwise as the breeze stirred
the waters. Beyond, the plain sloped down to a thick wood,
while further to the left a second wood shut out the view. Be-
tween the two an open glade stretched, silvered in the moon-
shine, with the river curving across the lower end of it.

As he gazed, he saw of a sudden a man steal forth from the
wood into the open clearing. He walked with his head sunk,
his shoulders curved, and his knees bent, as one who strives
hard to remain unseen. Ten paces from the fringe of trees he
glanced around, and waving his hand he crouched down, and
was lost to sight among a belt of furze-bushes. After him thereTHE WHITE COMPANY.

283

came a second man, and after him a third, a fourth, and a fifth,
stealing across the narrow open space and . darting into the
shelter of the brushwood. Nine-and-seventy Alleyne counted of
these dark figures flitting across the line of the moonlight. Many-
bore huge burdens upon their backs, though what it was that
they carried he could not tell at the distance. Out of the one
wood and into the other they passed, all with the same crouch-
ing, furtive gait, until the black bristle of trees had swallowed
up the last of them.

For a moment Alleyne stood in the window, still staring down
at the silent forest, uncertain as to what he should think of these
midnight walkers. Then he bethought him that there was one
beside him who was fitter to judge on such a matter. His
fingers had scarce rested upon Aylward's shoulder ere the bow-
man was on his feet, with his hand outstretched to his sword.

" Qui va ? " he cried. " Hoik ! mon petite By my hilt! I
thought there had been a camisade. What then, mon gar. ? "

" Come hither by the window, Aylward," said Alleyne. " I
have seen four-score men pass from yonder shaw across the
glade, and nigh every man of them had a great burden on his
back. What think you of it ? "

" I think nothing of it, mon camarade ! There are as many
masterless folk in this country as there are rabbits on Cowdray
Down, and there are many who show their faces by night but
would dance in a hempen collar if they stirred forth in the day.
On all the French marches are droves of outcasts, reivers, spoil-
ers, and draw-latches, of whom I judge that these are some,
though I marvel that they should dare to come so nigh to the
castle of the seneschal. All seems very quiet now," he added,
peering out of the window.

"They are in the further wood," said Alleyne.

" And there they may bide. Back to rest, mon petit; for, by
my hilt ! each day now will bring its own work. Yet it would
be well to shoot the bolt in yonder door when one is in strange
quarters. So ! " He threw himself down upon his pallet and in
an instant was fast asleep.

It might have been about three o'clock in the morning when
Alleyne was aroused from a troubled sleep by a low cry or ex-
clamation. He listened, but, as he heard no more, he set it
down as the challenge of the guard upon the walls, and dropped
off to sleep once more. A few minutes later he was disturbed284

THE WHITE COMPANY.

by a gentle creaking of his own door, as though some one were
pushing cautiously against it, and immediately afterwards he
heard the soft thud of cautious footsteps upon the stair which led
to the room above, followed by a confused noise and a muffled
groan. Alleyne sat up on his couch with all his nerves in a
tingle, uncertain whether these sounds might come from a
simple cause—some sick archer and visiting leech perhaps—or
whether they might have a more sinister meaning. But what
danger could threaten them here in this strong castle, under the
care of famous-warriors, with high walls and a broad moat
around them ? Who was there that could injure them ? He
had well-nigh persuaded himself that his fears were a foolish
fancy, when his eyes fell upon that which sent the blood cold to
his heart and left him gasping, with hands clutching at the
counterpane.

Right in front of him was the broad window of the chamber,
with the moon shining brightly through it. For an instant some-
thing had obscured the light, and now a head was bobbing up
and down outside, the face looking in at him, and swinging
slowly from one side of the window to the other. Even in that
dim light there could be no mistaking those features. Drawn,
distorted and blood-stained, they were still those of the young
fellow-squire who had sat so recently upon his own couch. With
a cry of horror Alleyne sprang from his bed and rushed to the
casement, while the two archers, aroused by the sound, seized
their weapons and stared about them in bewilderment. One
glance was enough to show Edricson that his fears were but too
true. Foully murdered, with a score of wounds upon him and a
rope round his neck, his poor friend had been cast from the
upper window and swung slowly in the night wind, his body
rasping against the wall and his disfigured face upon a level with
the casement.

" My God ! " cried Alleyne, shaking in every limb. " What
has come upon us ? What devil's deed is this ? "

" Here is flint and steel/' said John stolidly. " The lamp,^
Aylward ! This moonshine softens a man's heart. Now we
may use the eyes which God hath given us."

" By my hilt! " cried Aylward, as the yellow flame flickered
up, •" it-is indeed young master Ford, and I think that this senes-
chal is a black villain, who dare not face us in the day but
would murther us in our sleep. By the twang of string ! if I dpTHE WHITE COMPANV.

285

not soak a goose's feather with his heart's blood, it will be no
fault of Satnkin Aylward of the White Company."

" But, Aylward, think of the men whom I saw yesternight,"
said Alleyne. " It may not be the seneschal. It may be that,
others have come into the castle. I must to Sir Nigel ere it be
too late. Let me go, Aylward, for my place is by his side."

" One moment, mon gar. Put that steel head-piece on the end
of my yew-stave. So ! I will put it first througtuthe door ; for
it is ill to come out when you can neither see nor guard yourself.
Now, camarades, out swords and stand ready I Hold., by my
hilt ! it is time that we were stirring !"

As he spoke, a sudden shouting broke forth in the castle, with
the scream of a woman and the rush of many feet. Then came
the sharp clink of clashing steel, and a roar like that of an angry
lion—" Notre Dame Du Guesclin ! St. Ives ! St. Ives ! " The
bow-man pulled back the bolt of the door, and thrust out the head-
piece at the end of the bow. A clash, the clatter of the steel-cap
upon the ground, and, ere the man who struck could heave up for
another blow, the archer had passed his sword through his body.
" On, camarades, on ! " he cried ; and, breaking fiercely past
two men who threw themselves in his way, he sped down the
broad corridor in the direction of the shouting.

A sharp turning, and then a second one, brought them to the
head of a short stair, from which they looked straight down upon
the scene of the uproar. A square oak-floored hall lay beneath
them, from which opened the doors of the principal guest-
chambers. This hall was as light as day, for torches burned in
numerous sconces upon the walls, throwing strange shadows
from the tusked or antlered heads which ornamented them. At
the very foot of the stair, close to the open door of their chamber,
lay the seneschal and his wife,: she with her head shorn from
her shoulders, he thrust through with a sharpened stake, which
still protruded from either side of his body: Three servants of
the castle lay dead beside them, all torn and draggled, as
though a pack of wolves had been upon them. In front of the
central guest-chamber stood Du Guesclin and Sir Nigel, half-clad
and unarmored, with the mad joy of battle gleaming in their
eyes. Their heads were thrown back, their lips compressed,
their blood-stained swords poised over their right shoulders, and
their left feet thrown out. Three dead men lay huddled together
in front of them ; while a fourth, with the blood squirting from286

THE WHITE COMPANY.

a severed vessel, lay back with updrawn knees, breathing in
wheezy gasps. Further back—all panting together, like the
wind in a tree—there stood a group of fierce, wild creatures,
bare-armed and bare-legged, gaunt, unshaven, with deep-set
murderous eyes and wild beast faces. With their flashing teeth,
their bristling hair* their mad leapings and screamings, they
seemed to.Alleyne more like fiends from the pit than men of flesh
and blood. Even as he looked, they broke into a hoarse yell
and dashed once more upon the two knights, hurling themselves
madly upon their sword-points ; clutching, scrambling, biting,
tearing, careless of wounds if they could but drag the two soldiers
to earth. Sir Nigel was thrown down by the sheer weight of
them, and Sir Bertrand with his thunderous war-cry was swing-
ing round his heavy sword to clear a space for him to rise, when
the whistle of two long English arrows, and the rush of the
squire and the two English archers down, the stairs, turned the
tide of the combat. The assailants gave back, the knights
rushed forward, and in a very few moments the hall was cleared,
and Hordle John had hurled the last of the wild men down the
steep steps which led from the end of it.

" Do not follow them," cried Du Guesclin. " We are lost if
we scatter. For myself I care not a denier, though it is a poor
thing to meet one's end at the hands of such scum ; but I have
my dear lady here, who must by no means be risked. We have
breathing-space now, and I would ask you, Sir Nigel, what it is
that you would counsel ? "

"By St. Paul!" answered Sir Nigel, "I can by no means
understand what hath befallen us, save that I have been woken
up by your battle-cry, and, rushing forth, found myself in the
midst of this small bickering. Harrow and alas for the lady
and the seneschal! What dogs are they who have done this
bloody deed ? "

" They are the Jacks, the men of the brushwood. They have
the castle, though I know not how it hath come to pass. Look
from this window into the bailey."

" By heaven ! " cried Sir Nigel, « it is as bright as day with the
torches. The gates stand open, and there are three thousand of
them within the walls. See how they rush and scream and
wave ! What is it that they thrust out through the postern
door ? My God ! it is a man-at-arms, and they pluck him limb
from limb, like hounds on a wolf. Now another, and yetTHE WHITE COMPANY.

287

another/ They hold the whole castle, fori see their faces at the
windows. See, there are some with great bundles on their backs."

" It is dried wood from the forest. They pile them against
th^ walls and set them in a blaze. Who is this who tries to
check them ? By St. Ives ! it is the good priest who spake for
them in the hall. He kneels, he prays, he implores ! What!
villains, would ye raise hands against those who have be-
friended you ? Ah, the butcher has struck him ! He is down !
They stamp him under their feet ! They tear off his gown and
wave it in the air ! See now, how the flames lick up the walls 1
Are there none left to rally round us ? With a hundred men
we might hold our own."

" Oh, for my Company! " cried Sir Nigel. " But where is
Ford, Alleyne ? "

" He is foully murdered, my fair lord."

•« The saints receive him ! May he rest in peace ! But hqre
come some at last who may give us counsel, for amid these pas-
sages it is ill to stir without a guide."

As he spoke, a French squire and the Bohemian knight came
rushing down the steps, the latter bleeding from a slash across
his forehead.

" All is lost! " he cried. " The castle is taken and on fire,
the seneschal is slain, and there is nought left for us."

"On the contrary," quoth Sir Nigel, " there is much left to us,
for there is a very honorable contention before us, and a fair
lady for whom to give our lives. There are many ways in
which a man might die, but none better than this."

"You can tell us, Godfrey," said Du Guesclin to the French
squire : " how came these men into the castle, and what succors
can we count upon ? By St. Ives ! if we come not quickly to
some counsel we shall be burned like young rooks in a nest."

The squire, a dark, slender stripling, spoke firmly and quickly,
as one who was trained to swift action. " There is a passage
under the earth into the castle," said he, " and through it some
of the Jacks made their way, casting open the gates for the others.
They have had help from within the walls, and the men-at-arms
were heavy with wine : they must have been slain in their beds,
for these devils crept from room to room with soft step and
ready knife. Sir Amory the Hospitaller was struck down with
an axe as he rushed before us from his sleeping-chamber.
Save only ourselves, I do not think tl'at there are any left alive,"288

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" What, then, would you counsel ? "

/< That we make for the keep. It is unused, save in time of
war, and the key hangs from my poor lord and master's belt."

"There are two keys there."	_ ■

" It is the larger. Once there, we might hold the narrow
stair ; and at least, as the walls are of a greater thickness, it
would be longer ere they could burn them. Could we but carry
the lady across the bailey, all might be well with us."

" Nay ; the lady hath seen something of the work of war,"
said Tiphaine, coming forth, as white, as grave, and as unmoved
^as ever. " I would not be a hamper to you, my dear spouse and
gallant friend. Rest assured of this, that if all else fail I have
always a safeguard here "—drawing a small silver-hilted poniard
from her bosom—" which sets me beyond the fear of these vile
and blood-stained wretches."

"Tiphaine," cried Du Guesclin, "I have always loved you;
and now, by Our Lady of Rennes ! I love you more than ever.
Di$ I not know that your hand will be as ready as your words,
I would myself turn my last blow upon you, ere you should fall
into their hands. Lead on, Godfrey ! A new golden pyx will
shine in the minster of Dinan if we come safely through with it."

The attention of the insurgents had .been drawn away from
® murder to plunder, and all over the castle might be heard their
cries and whoops of delight as they dragged forth the rich tap-
estries, the silver flagons, and the carved furniture. Down in
the courtyard half-clad wretches, their bare limbs all mottled
with blood-stains, strutted about with plumed helmets upon
their heads, or with the Lady Rochefort's silken gowns girt
round their loins and trailing on the ground behind them.
Casks of choice wine had been rolled out from the cellars, and
starving peasants squatted, goblet in hand, draining off vintages
which De Rochefort had set aside for noble and royal guests.
Others, with slabs of bacon and joints of dried meat upon tfce
ends of their pikes, held them up to the blaze or tore at them
ravenously with their teeth. Yet all order had not been lost
amongst them, for some hundreds of the better armed stood to-
gether in a silent group, leaning upon their rude weapons and
looking up at the fire, which had spread so rapidly as to involve
one whole side of the castle. Already Alleyne could hear the
crackling and roaring of the flames, while the air was heavy
with heat and full of the pungent whiff of burning wood,THE WHITE COMPANY,

289

CHAPTER XXXI.

HOW FIVE MEN HELD THE KEEP of VILLEFRANCHE.

Under the guidance of the French squire the party passed
down two narrow corridors. The first was empty, but at the
head of the second stood a peasant sentry, who started off
at the sight of them, yelling loudly to his comrades. " Stop
him, or we are undone ! " cried Du Guesclin, and had started to
run, when Aylward's great war-bow twanged like a harp-string,
and the man fell forward upon his face, with twitching limbs
and clutching fingers. Within five paces of where he lay a
narrow and little-used door led out into the bailey. From be-
yond it came such a Babel of hooting and screaming, horrible
oaths and yet more horrible laughter, that the stoutest heart
might have shrunk from casting down the frail barrier which
faced them.

" Make straight for the keep !" said Du Guesclin, in a sharp,
stern whisper. "The two archers in front, the lady in the
centre, a squire on either side, while we three knights shall bide
behind and beat back those who press upon us. So ! Now
open the door, and God have us in his holy keeping ! "

For.a few moments it seemed that their object would be at-
tained without danger, so swift and So silent had been their
movements. They were half-way across the bailey ere the
frantic, howling peasants made a movement to stop them. The
few who threw themselves in their way were overpowered or
brushed aside, while the pursuers were beaten back by the ready
weapons of the three cavaliers. Unscathed they fought their
way to the door of the keep, and faced round upon the swarm-
ing mob, while the squire thrust the great key into the lock

" My God ! " he cried, " it is the wrong key."

*' The wrong key ! "

" Dolt, fool that I am ! This is the key t>f the castle gate ;
the other opens the keep. I must back for it! " He turned,
with some wild intention of retracing his steps, but at the instant
a great jagged rock, hurled by a brawny peasant, struck him
full upon the ear, and he dropped senseless to the ground.

I2QO

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" This is key enough for me i " quoth Hordle John, picking- up
the huge, stone, and hurling it against the door with all the
strength of his enormous body. The lock shivered, the wood
smashed, the stone flew into five pieces, but the iron clamps still
held the door in its position. Bending down, he thrust his great
fingers under it, and with a heave raised the whole mass of
wood and iron from its hinges. For a moment it tottered and
swayed, and then, falling outward, buried him in its ruin, while
his comrades rushed into the dark archway which led to safety.

"Up the steps, Tiphaine !" cried Du Gueselin. "Now
round, friends, and beat them back ! " The mob of peasants
had surged in upon their heels, but the two trustiest blades in
Europe gleamed upon that narrow stair, and four of their
number dropped upon the threshold. The others gave back, and
gathered in a half circle round the open door, gnashing their
teeth and shaking their clenched hands at the defenders. The
body of the French squire had been dragged out by them and
hacked to pieces. Three or four others had pulled John from
under the door, when he suddenly bounded to his feet, and
clutching one in either hand dashed them together with such
force that they fell senseless across each.other upon the ground.
With a kick and a blow he freed himself from two others who
clung to him, and in a moment he was within the portal with
his comrades.

Yet their position was a desperate one. The peasants from
far and near had been assembled for this deed of vengeance,
and not less than six thousand were within or around the walls
of the Chateau of Villefranche. Ill armed and half starved, they
were still desperate men, to whom danger had lost all fears :
for what was death that they should shun it to cling to such a
life as theirs ? The castle was theirs, and the roaring flames
were spurting through the windows and flickering high above the
turrets on two sides of the quadrangle. From either side they
were sweeping down from room to room and from bastion to bas-
tion in the direction of the keep. Faced by an army, and girt in
by fire, were six men and one woman ; but some of them were men
so trained to danger and so wise in war that even now the com-
bat was less unequal than it seemed. Courage and resource
were penned in by desperation and numbers, while the great
yellow sheets of flame threw their lurid glare gv$r th$ sgene gfTHE WHITE COMPANY,

« There is but space for two upon a step to give free play to
our sword-arms," said Du Guesclin. " Do you stand with me,
Nigel, upon the lowest. France and England will fight together
this night. Sir Otto, I pray you to stand behind us with this
young squire. The archers may go higher yet and shoot over
our heads. I would that we had our harness, Nigel."

" Often have I heard my dear Sir John Chandos say that
a knight should never, even when a guest, be parted frpm it.
Yet- it will be more honor to us if we come well out of it.
We have a vantage, since we see them against the light and
they can scarce see us. It seems to me that they muster for an
onslaught."

" If we can but keep them in play," said the Bohemian, " it is
likely that these flames may bring us succor if there be any true
men in the country."

" Bethink you, my fair lord,1' said Alleyne to Sir NigeU " that
we have never injured these men, nor have we cause of quarrel
against them. Would it not be well, if but for the lady's sake,
to speak them fair and see if we may not come to honorable
terms with them ? "

" Not so, by St. Paul! " cri§cf Sir Nigel. " It does not accord
with mine honor, nor shall it ever be said that I, a knight of
England, was ready to hold parley with men who have slain a
fair lady and a holy priest."

" As well hold parley with a pack of ravening wolves," said
the French captain. "Ha! Notre Dame Du Guesclin! Saint
Ives ! Saint Ives ! "

As he thundered forth his war-cry, the Jacks who had been
gathering before the black arch of the gateway rushed in madly
in a desperate effort to carry the staircase. * Their leaders were
a small man, dark in the face, with his beard done up in two
plaits, and another larger man, very bowed in the shoulders,
with a huge club studded with sharp nails in his hand. The
first had not taken three steps ere. an arrow from Aylward's
bow struck him full in the chest, and he fell coughing and splut-
tering across the threshold. The other rushed onwards, and
breaking between Du Guesclin and Sir Nigel he dashed out the
brains of the Bohemian with a single blow of his clumsy weapon.
With three swords through him he still struggled on, and had
almost won his way through them ere he fell dead upon the
stair. Close at his heels came a hundred furious peasants, who2g2

THE WHITE COMPANY.

r

flung themselves again and again against the five swords which
confronted them. It was cut and parry and stab as quick as
eye could see or hand act. The door was piled with bodies,
and the stone floor was slippery with blood. The deep shout of
Ehi Guesclin, the hard, hissing breath of the pressing multitude,
the clatter of steel, the thud of falling bodies, and the screams
of the stricken, made up such a medley as came often in after
years to break upon Alleyne's sleep. Slowly and sullenly at
last the throng drew off. with many a fierce backward glance,
while eleven of their number lay huddled in front of the stair
which they had failed to win.

"The dogs have had enough," said Du Guesclin.

" By Saint Paul ! there appear to be some very worthy and
valiant persons among them," observed Sir Nigel. " They are
men from whom, had they been of better birth, much honor and
advancement might be gained. Even as it is, it is a great
pleasure to have seen them. But what is this that they are
bringing forward ? "

"It is as I feared," growled Du Guesclin. "They will burn
us out, since they cannot win their way past us. Shoot straight
and hard, archers ; for, by St. Ives ! our good swords are of
little use to us."

As he spoke, a dozen men rushed forward, each screening
himself behind a huge fardel of brushwood. Hurling their bur-
dens in one vast heap within the portal, they threw burning
torches upon the top of it. The wood had been soaked in oil,
for in an instant it was ablaze, and a long, hissing, yellow flame
licked over the heads of the defenders, and drove them further
up to the first floor of the keep. They had scarce reached it,
however, ere they found that the wooden joists and planks of the
flooring were already on fire. Dry and worm-eaten, a spark
upon them became a smoulder, and a smoulder a blaze. A chok-
ing smoke filled the. air, and the five could scarce grope their
way to the staircase which led up to the very summit of the
square tower.

Strange was the scene which met their eyes from this eminence.
Beneath them on every side stretched the long sweep of peaceful
country, rolling plain, and tangled wood, all softened and mel-
lowed in the silver moonshine. No light, nor movement, nor
any sign of human aid could be seen, but far away the hoarse
clangor of a heavy bell rose and fell upon the wintry air. Be-THE WHITE COMPANY.

m

death and around them blazed the huge fire, roaring and crack-
ling on every side of the bailey, and even as they looked the two
corner turrets fell in with a deafening crash, and the whole castle
was but a shapeless mass, spouting flames and smoke from every
window and embrasure. The great black tower upon which
they stood rose like a last island of refuge amid this sea of fire ;
but the ominous crackling and roaring below showed that it
would not be long ere it was engulfed also in the common ruin.
At their very feet was the square courtyard, crowded with the
howling and dancing peasants, their fierce faces upturned, their
clenched hands waving, all drunk with bloodshed and with
vengeance. A yell of execration and a scream of hideous laugh-
ter burst from the vast throng, as they saw the faces of the last
survivors of their enemies peering down at them from the height
of the keep. They still piled the brushwood round the base of
the tower, and gambolled hand in hand around the blaze, scream-
ing out the doggerel lines which had long been the watchword
of the Jacquerie :

Cessez, cessez, gens d'armes et pietons,

De piller et manger le bonkomme,

Qui de longtemps Jacques Bonhomme
Se nomme.

Their thin, shrill voices rose high above the roar of the flames
and the crash of the masonry, like the yelping of a pack of
wolves who see their quarry before them and know that they
have well-nigh run him down.	,f

" By my hilt! " said Aylward to John, " it is in my mind that
we shall not see Spain this journey. It is a great joy to me that
I have placed my feather-bed and other things of price with that
worthy woman at Lyndhurst, who will now have the use of them.
I have thirteen arrows yet, and if one 6f them fly unfleshed,
then, by the twang of string! I shall deserve my doom. First
at him who flaunts with my lady's silken frock. Clap in the
clout, by God ! though a hand's-breadth lower than I had meant.
Now for the rogue with the head upon his pike. Ha ! to the
inch, John. When my eye is true, I am better at rovers than at
long-butts or hoyles. A good shoot for you also, John ! The
villain hath fallen forward into the fire. But I pray you, John,
to loose gently, and not to pluck with the drawing-hand, for it is
a trick that hath marred many a fine bowman."

Whilst the two archers were keeping up a brisk fire upon the294

THE.WHITE COMPANY.

mob beneath them, Du Guesclin and his lady were consulting
with Sir Nigel upon their desperate situation.

" 'Tis a strange end for one who has seen so many stricken
fields," said the French chieftain.- " For me one death is as an-
other, but it is the-thought of my sweet lady which goes to my
heart,"

" Nay, Bertrand, I fear it as little as you," said she. " Had I
my dearest wish, it would be that we should go together."

" Well answered, fair lady ! " cried Sir Nigel. " And very sure
I am that my own sweet wife would have said the same. If the
end be now come, I have had great good fortune in having lived
in times when so much glory was to be won, and in knowing so
many valiant gentlemen and knights. But why do you pluck
my sleeve, Alleyne ? "

" If it please you, my fair lord, there are in this corner two
great tubes of iron, with many heavy balls, which may per-
chance be those bombards and shot of which I have heard."

" By Saint Ives ! it is true," cried Sir Bertrand, striding across
to the recess where the ungainly, funnel-shaped, thick-ribbed
engines Were standing. " Bombards they are, and of good size.
We may shoot down upon them."

"Shoot with them, quotha ? " cried Aylward in high disdain,
for pressing danger is the great leveller of classes. " How is a
man to take aim with these tool's toys, and how can he hope to
do scath with them ? "

" I will show you," answered Sir Nigel ; "for here is the great
box of powder, and if you will raise it for me, John, I will show
you how it may be used. Come hither, where the folk are thick-
est round the fire. Now, Aylward, crane thy neck and see what
would have been deemed an old wife's tale when we first
turned our faces to tbfe wars. Throw back the lid, John, and
drop the box into the fire ! "

A deafening roar, a fluff of bluish light, and the great square
tower rocked and trembled from its very foundations, swaying
this way and that like a reed in the wind. Amazed and dizzy,
the defenders, clutching at the cracking parapets for support,
saw great stones, burning beams of wood, and mangled bodies
hurtling past them through the air. When they staggered to
their feet once more, the whole keep had settled down upon one
side, so that they could scarce keep their footing upon the
sloping platform. Gazing over the edge, they looked down uponTHE WHITE COMPANY.

29S

the horrible destruction which had been caused by the explosion.
For forty yards round the portal the ground was black with
writhing, screaming figures, who struggled up and hurled them-
selves down again, tossing this way and that, sightless, scorched,
with fire bursting from their tattered clothing. Beyond this
circle of death their comrades, bewildered and amazed, cowered
away from this black tower and from these invincible men, who
were most to be dreaded when hope was furthest from their
hearts.

" A sally, Du Guesclin, a sally ! " cried Sir Nigel. " By Saint
Paul! they are m two minds, and a bold rush may turn them.'
He drew his sword as he spoke and darted down the winding
stairs, closely followed by his four comrades. Ere he was at the
first floor, however, he threw up his arms and stopped. " Mon
Dieu ! " he said, " we are lost men ! "

" What then ? " cried those.behind him.

" The wall hath fallen in, the stair is blocked, ajid the fire
still rages below. By Saint Paul! friends, we have fought a
very honorable fight, and may say in all humbleness that we
have done our devoir, but I think that we may now go back to
the Lady Tiphaine and say our orisons, for we have played our
parts in this world, and it is time, that we made ready for
another."

The narrow pass was blocked by huge stones littered in wild
confusion over each other, with the blue choking smoke reeking
up through the crevices. The explosion had blown in the wail
and cut off the only path by which they could descend. Pent in,
a hundred feet from earth, with a furnace raging under them and
a ravening multitude all round who thirsted for their blood, it
seemed indeed as though no men had ever come through such
peril with their lives. Slowly they made their way back to the
summit, but as they came out upon it the Lady Tiphaine darted
forward and caught her husband by the wrist.

"Bertrand," said she, "hush and listen ! I have heard the
voices of men all singing together in a strange tongue."

Breathless they stood and silent, but no sound came up to
them, save the roar of the flames and the clamor of their
enemies.

««It cannot be, lady," said Du Guesclin. " This night hath
over wrought you, and your senses play you false. What men
^re there in this country who would sing in a strange tongue ?*296

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" Hol& ! " yelled Aylward, leaping suddenly into the air with
waving hands and joyous face. "I thought I heard'it ere we
went down, and now I hear it again. We are saved, comrades !
By these ten finger-bones, we are saved ! It is the marching
song of the 'White Company. Hush ! "

With upraised forefinger and slanting head, he stood listening.
Suddenly there came swelling up a deep-voiced, rollicking chorus
from somewhere out of the darkness. Never did choice or
dainty ditty of Provence or Languedoc sound more sweetly in
the ears than did the rough-tongued Saxon to the six who strained
their ears from the blazing keep :	■ ,

We'll drink all together
To the gray goose feather
And the land where the gray goose flew.

" Ha, by my hilt ! " shouted Aylward, " it is the dear old bow
song ot the Company. Here come two hundred as tight lads as
ever twirled a shaft over their thumbnails. Hark to the dogs,
how lustily they sing ! "

Nearer and clearer, swelling up out of the night, came the
gay marching lilt:

What of the bow ?

The bow was made in England.

Of true wood, of yew wood,

The wood of English bows;

For men who are free
Love the old yew-tree
And the land where the yew tree grows.

What of the men ?

The men were bred in England,

The bowmen, the yeomen,

The lads of the dale and fell,

^	Here's to you and to you,

To the hearts that are true,

And the land where the true hearts dwell.

"They sing very joyfully," said Du Guesclin, " as though they
were going to a festival."

" It is their wont when there is work to be done."

" By Saint Paul ! " quoth Sir Nigel, " it is in my mind that
they come too late, for I cannot see how we are to come down
from this tower."

"There they come, the hearts of gold!" cried Aylward.
"See, they move out from the shadow. Now they cross the*

THE WHITE COMPANY.

397

meadow. They are on the further side of the moat. Hol&,
camarades, hola.! Johnston, Eccles, Cooke, Harward, Bligh!
Would ye see a fair lady and two gallant knights done foully to
death ? "

" Who is there ? " shouted a deep voice from below. " Who
is this, who speaks with an English tongue ? "	^

" It is I, old lad. It is Sam Aylward of the Company ; and
here is your captain, Sir Nigel Loring, and four others, all laid
out to be grilled like an Easterling's herrings."

" Curse me if I did not think that it was the style of speech of
old Samkin Aylward," said the voice, amid a buzz from the
ranks. " Wherever there are knocks going there is Sammy in
the Heart of it. But who are these ill-faced rogues who block
the path ? To your kennels, canaille ! What! you dare look
us in the eyes ? Out swords, lads, and give them the flat of
them ! Waste not your shafts upon such runagate knaves."

There was little fight left in the peasants, however, still dazed
by the explosion, amazed at their own losses and disheartened by
the arrival of the disciplined archers. In a very few minutes
they were in full flight for their brushwood homes, leaving the
morning sun to rise upon a blackened ahd blood-stained ruin,
where it had left the night before the magnificent castle of
the Seneschal of Auvergne. Already the white lines in the
east were deepening into pink as the archers gathered round the
keep and took counsel how to rescue the survivors.

" Had we a rope," said Alleyne, "there is one side which is
not yet on fire, down which we might slip."

" But how to get a rope ? "

" It is an old trick,^ quoth Aylward. " Hola. ! Johnston, cast
me up a rope, even as you did at Maupertius in the war time."

The grizzled archer thus addressed took several lengths of
rope from his comrades, and knotting them firmly together, he
stretched them out in the long shadow which the rising sun
threw from the frowning keep. Then he fixed the yew-stave of
his bow upon end and measured the long, thin, black line which
it threw upon the turf.

" A six-foot stave throws a twelve-foot shadow," he muttered.
"The keep throws a shadow of sixty paces. Thirty paces of
rope will be enow and to spare. Another strand, Watkin !
Now pull at the end that all may be safe. So ! It is ready for
them."298

THE WHITE COMPANY.

"But haw are they to reach it?" asked the young archer
beside him.

" Watch and see, young fool's-head," growled the old bowman.
He took a long string from his pouch and fastened one end to
an arrow.

" All ready, Samkin ? "	*

" Ready, camarade."

" Close to your hand then." With an easy pull he sent the
shaft flickering gently up, falling upon the stonework within a r
foot of where Aylward*was standing. The other end was secured'
to the rope, so that in a minute a good strong cord was dangling
from the only sound side of the blazing and shattered tower.
The Lady Tiphaine was lowered with a noose drawn fast under
the arms, and the other five slid swiftly down, amid the cheers
and joyous outcry of their rescuers.

CHAPTER XXXII.

how the company took counsel round the fallen tree.

"Where is Sir Claude Latour? " asked Sir Nigel;'as his feet
touched ground.

" He is in camp, near Montpezat, two hours' march from here,
my fair lord," said Johnston, the grizzled bowman who com-
manded the archers.

" Then we shall march thither, for I would fain have you all
back at Dax in time to be in the prince's vanguard."

" My lord," cried Alleyne, joyfully, "here are our chargers
in the field, and I see your harness amid the plunder which these
rogues have left behind them."

" By Saint Ives ! you speak sooth, young squire," said Du
Guesclin. " There is my horse and my lady's jennet. The
knaves led them from the stables, but fled without them. Now,
Nigel, it is great joy to me to have seen one of whom I have
often heard. Yet we must leave you now, for I must be with
the King of Spain ere your army crosses the mountains."

" I had thought that you were in Spain with the valiant Heriry
of Trastamare."

" I have been there, but I came to Franee to raise succor forTHE WHITE COMPANY;

m

him. I shall ride back, Nigel, with four thousand of the best
lances of France at my back, so that your prince may find he
hath a task which is worthy of him. God be with you, friend,
and may we meet again in better times ! " •

"I do not think," said Sir Nigel, as he stood by Alleyne'sside
looking after the French knight and his lady, "that in all Chris-
tendom you will meet with a more stout-hearted man or a fairer
and sweeter dame. But your face is pale and sad, Alleyne !
Have you perchance met with some hurt duriitg the ruffle ? "

"Nay, my fair lord, I was but thinking of my friend Ford, and
how he sat upon my couch no later than yesternight."

Sir Nigei shook his head sadly. " Two brave squires have I
lost," said he. "I know not why the youngs shoots should be
plucked, and an old weed left standing, yet certes there must be
some good reason, since God hath so planned it. Did you not
note, Alleyne, that the Lady Tiphaine did give us warning last
night that danger was coming upon us ? "

" She did, my lord."

« By Saint Paul! my mind misgives me as to what she saw
at Twyham Castle. And yet I cannot think that any Scottish or
French rovers could land in such force as to beleaguer the forta-
lice. Call the Company together, Aylward ; and let us on, for
it will be shame to us if we are not at Dax upon the trysting
day."

The archers had spread themselves over the ruins, but a blast
upon a bugle brought them all back to muster, with such booty
as they could bear with them stuffed into their pouches or slung
over their shoulders. As they formed into ranks, each man
dropping silently into his place, Sir Nigel ran a questioning eye
over them, and a smile of pleasure played over his face. Tall
and sinewy, and brown, clear-eyed, hard-featured, with the stern
and prompt bearing of experienced soldiers, it would be hard
indeed for a leader to seek for a choicer following. Here and
there in the ranks were old soldiers of the French wars, grizzled
and lean, with fierce, puckered features and shaggy, bristling
brows. The most, however, were young and dandy archers,
with fresh English faces, their beards combed out, their hair
curling from under their close steel hufkens, with gold or jewelled
earrings gleaming in their ears, while their gold-spangled bald-
rics, their silken belts, and the chains which many of them wore
round their thick brown necks, all spoke of the brave times300

THE WHITE COMPANY.

which they had had as free companions. Each had a yew or
hazel stave slung over his shoulder, plain and serviceable with
the older men, but gaudily painted and carved at either end
with the others. Steel caps, mail brigandines, white surcoats
with the red lion of St. George, and sword or battle-axe swing-
ing from their belts, completed this equipment, while in some
cases the murderous maule or five-foot mallet was hung across
the bowstave, being fastened to their leathern shoulder-belt by a
hook in the centre of the handle. Sir Nigel's heart beat high as
he looked upon their free bearing and fearless faces.

For two hours they marched through forest and marshland,
along the left bank of the river Aveyron ; Sir Nigel riding behind
his Company, with Alleyne at his right hand, and Johnston, the
old master bowman, walking by his left stirrup. Ere they had
reached their journey's end the knight had learned all that he
would know of his men, their doings and their intentions. Once,
as they marched, they saw upon the further bank of the river a
bqcly of French men-at-arms, riding very swiftly in the direction
of Villefranche.

" It is the Seneschal of Toulouse, with his following," said John-
ston, shading his eyes with his hand. " Had he been on this
side of the water he might have attempted something.upon us."

" I think that it would be well that we should cross," said Sir
Kigel. " It were pity to balk this worthy seneschal, should he
idesire to try some small feat of arms."

"Nay, there is no ford nearer than Tourville," answered the
old archer. " He is on his wayjto Villefranche, and short will
be the shrift of any Jacks who come into his hands, for he is a
man of short speech. It was he and the Seneschal of Beaucair
who hung Peter Wilkins, of the Company, last Lammastide ; for
which, by the black rood of Waltham ! they shall hang them-
selves, if ever they come into our power. • But here are our com-
rades, Sir Nigel, and here is our camp."

As he spoke, the forest pathway along which they marched
opened out into a green glade, which sloped down towards the
river. High, leafless trees girt it in on three sides, with a thick
undergrowth of holly between their trunks. At the farther end
of this forest clearing there stood forty or fifty huts, built very
neatly trom wood and clay, with the blue smoke curling out
from the roofs. A dozen tethered horses and mules grazed
around the encampment, while a number of archers loungedTHE WHITE COMPANY.

301

about: some shooting at marks, while others built up great
wooden fires in the open, and hung their cooking kettles above
them. At the sight of their returning comrades there was a
shout of welcome, and a horseman, who had been exercising his
charger behind the camp, came cantering down to them. He
was a dapper, brisk man, very richly clad, with a round, clean-
shaven face, and very bright black eyes, which danced and
sparkled with excitement.

" Sir Nigel ! " he cried. " Sir Nigel Loring, at last! By my
soul ! we have awaited you this month past. Right welcome,
Sir Nigel ! You have had my letter ? "

" It was that which brought me here," said Sir Nigel. " But
indeed, Sir Claude Latour, it is a great wonder to me that you
did not yourself lead these bowmen, for surely they could have
found no better leader ? "

"None, none, by the Virgin of L'Esparre ! " he cried, speak-
ing in the strange, thick Gascon speech which turns every v into
a b. "But you know what these islanders of yours are, Sir
Nigel. They will not be led by any save their own blood and
race. There is no persuading them. Not even I, Claude Latour,
Seigneur of MontcMteau, master of the high justice, the middle
and the low, could gain their favor. They must needs hold a
council and put their two hundred thick heads together, and
then there comes this fellow Aylward and another, as their
spokesmen, to say that they will disband unless an Englishman
of good name be set over them. There are many of them, as I
understand, who come from some great forest which lies in
Hampi, or Hampti—I cannot lay my tongue to the name. Your
dwelling is in those parts, and so their thoughts turned to you
as their leader. But we had hoped that you would bring a
hundred men with you."

" They are already at Dax, where we shall join them," said
Sir Nigel. " But let the men break their fast, and we shall then
take counsel what to do,"

" Come into my hut," said Sir Claude. " It is but poor fare
that I can lay before you—milk, cheese, wine, and bacon—yet
your squire and yourself will doubtless excuse it. This is iny
house where the pennon flies before the door—a small residence
to contain the Lord of MontcMteau."

Sir Nigel sat silent and distrait at his meal, while Alleyne
hearkened to the clattering tongue of the Gascon, and to his302

THE WHITE*COMPANY.

talk of the glories of his own estate, his successes in love, and
his triumphs in war.

" And now that you are here, Sir Nigel," he said at last, " I
have many fine ventures all ready for us. I have heard that
Montpezat is of no great strength, and that there are two hundred
thousand crowns in the castle. At Castelnau also there is a
cobbler who is in my pay, and who will throw us a rope any
dark night from his house by the town wall. I promise you that
you shall thrust your arms elbow-deep among good silver pieces
/ere the nights are moonless again ; for on every hand of us are
fair women, rich wine, and good plunder, as much as heart
could wish."

" I have other plans," answered Sir Nigel curtly ; " for I have
come hither to lead these bowmen to the help of the prince, our
master, who may have sore need of them ere he set PedK) upon
the throne of Spain. It is my purpose to start this very day for
Dax upon the Adour, where he hath now pitched his camp."

The face of the Gascon darkened, and his eyes flashed with
resentment. " For me," he said, " I care little for this war, and
I find the life which I lead a very joyous and pleasant one. I
will not go to Dax."

" Nay, think again, Sir Claude," said Sir Nigel gently ; " for
you have ever had the name of a true and loyal knight. Surely
you will not hold back now when your master hath need of you."

" I will not go to Dax," the other shouted.

" But your devoir—your oath of fealty ? "

" I say that I will not go."

"Then, Sir Claude, I must lead the Company without you."

" If they will follow," cried the Gascon with a sneer. " These
are not hired slaves, but free companions, who will do nothing
save by their own good wills. In very sooth, my Lord Loring,
they are ill men to trifle with, and it were easier to pluck a bone
from a hungry bear than to lead a bowman out of a land of
plenty and of pleasure."

41 Then I pray you to gather them together," said Sir Nigel,
" and I will tell them what is in my mind ; for if I am their leader
they must to Dax, and if I am not then I know not what I am
doing in Auvergne. Have my horse ready, Alleyne ; for, by
St. Paul ! come what may, I must be upon the homeward road
ere mid-day."

A blast upon the bugle summoned the bowmen to counsel,THE WHITE COMPANY.

303

and they gathered in little knots and groups around a great
fallen tree which lay athwart the glade. Sir Nigel sprang lightly
upon the trunk, and stood with blinking eye and firm lips look-
w ing down at the ring of upturned warlike faces.

"They tell me, bowmen," said he, "that ye have grown so
fond of ease and plunder and high living that ye are not to be
moved from this pleasant country. But, by Saint Paul i I will
believe no such thing of you, for I can readily see that you are
all very valiant men, who would scorn to live here in peace
when your prince hath so great a venture before him. Ye have
chosen me as a leader, and a leader I will be if ye come with
me to Spain ; and I vow to you that my pennon of the five roses
shall, if God give-me strength and life, be ever where there is
most honor to be gained. But if it be your wish to loll and
loiter in these gla_des, bartering glory and renown for vile gold
and ill-gotten riches, then ye must find another leader; for I
have lived in honor, and in honor I trust that I shall die. If
there be forest men or Hampshire men amongst ye, I call upon
them to say whether they will follow the banner of Loring."

" Here's a Romsey inan for you ! " cried a young bowman
with a sprig of evergreen set in his helmet.

" And a lad from Alresford ! " shouted another.

" And from Milton ! "

" And from Burley ! "

11 And from Lymington ! "

" And a little one from Brockenhurst! " shouted a huge-
limbed fellow who sprawled beneath a tree.

" By my hilt! lads," cried Aylward, jumping upon the fallen
trunk, " I think that we could not look the girls in the eyes if
we let the prince cross the mountains and did not pull string to
clear a path for him. It is very well in time of peace to lead
such a life as we have had together, but now the war-banner
is in the wind once more, and, by these ten finger-bones ! if he
go alone, old Samkin Aylward will walk beside it."

These words from a man as popular as Aylward decided
many of the waverers, and a shout of approval bu*st from his
audience.

"Far be it from me," said Sir Claude Latour suavely, "to
persuade you against this worthy archer, or against Sir Nigel
Loring ; yet we have been together in many ventures, and per-304

THE WHITE COMPANY.

chahce it may not be amiss if I say to you what I think upon the
matter."

" Peace for the little Gascon ! " cried the archers. " Let every
man have his word. Shoot straight for the mark, lad, and fair
play for all."

" Bethink you, then," said Sir Claude, "that you go under a
hard rule, with neither freedom nor pleasure—and for what ?
For sixpence a day, at the most; while now you may walk across
the country and stretch out either hand to gather in whatever
you have a mind for. What do we not hear of our comrades
who have gone with Sir John Hawkwood to Italy ? In one night
they have held to ransom six hundred of the richest noblemen
of Mantua. They camp before a great city, and the base burghers
come forth with the keys, and then they make great spoil ; or,
if it please them better, they take so many horse-loads of silver
as a composition ; and so they journey on from state to state,
rich and free and feared by all. Now, is not that the proper
life for a soldier ? "

" The proper life for a robber ! " roared Hordle John, in his
thundering voice.

" And yet there is much in what the Gascon says," said a
swarthy fellow in a weather-stained doublet ; " and I for one
would rather prosper in Italy than starve in Spain."

"You were always a cur and a traitor, Mark Shaw," cried
Aylward. " By my hilt! if you will stand forth and draw your
sword I will warrant you that you will see neither one nor the
other."

"Nay, Aylward," said Sir Nigel, "we cannot mend the matter
by broiling. Sir Claude, I think that what you have said
does you little honor, and if my words aggrieve you I am ever
ready to go deeper into the matter with yoju. But you shall
have such men as will follow you, and you may go where you
will, so that you come not with us. Let all who love their prince
and country stand fast, while those who think more of a well-
lined purse step forth upon the farther side."

Thirteen bowmen, with hung heads and sheepish faces,
stepped forward with Mark Shaw and ranged themselves behind
Sir Claude. Amid the hootings and hissings of their comrades,
they marched off together to the Gascon's hut, while the main
body broke up their meeting and set cheerily to work packing
their possessions, furbishing their weapons, and preparing forTHE WHITE COMPANY.

305

the march Which lay before them. Over the Tarn and the Ga-
ronne, through the vast quagmires of Armagnac, past the swift-
flowing Losse, and so down the long valley of the Adour, there
was many a long league to be crossed ere they could join them-
selves to that dark war-cloud which was drifting slowly southwards
to the line of the snowy peaks, beyond which the banner ofEng-*
land had never yet been seen.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

HOW THE ARMY MADE THE PASSAGE OF RONCESVALLES.

Ti?E whole vast plain of Gascony and of Languedoc is an arid
and profitless expanse in winter save where the swift-flowing
Adour and her snow-fed tributaries, the Louts, the Oloron and
the Pau, run down to the sea of Biscay. South of the Adour
the jagged line of mountains which fringe the sky-line send out
long granite claws, running down into the lowlands and divid-
ing them into " gaves " or stretches of valley. Hillocks grow
into- hills, and hills into mountains, each range overlying its
neighbor, until they soar up in the giant chain which raises its
spotless and untrodden peaks, white and dazzling, against the
pale blue wintry sky.

A quiet land is this—a land where the slow-moving Basque,
with his flat biretta-cap, his red sash and his hempen sandals,
tills his scanty farm or drives his lean flock to their hill-side
pastures. It is the country of the wolf and the isard, of the
brown bear and the mountain-goat, a land of bare rock and of
rushing water. Yet here it was that the will of a great prince
had now assembled a gallant army ;• so that from the Adour to
the passes of Navarre the barren valleys and wind-swept wastes
were populous with soldiers and loud with the shouting of orders
and the neighing of horses. For the banners of war had .been
flung to the wind once more, and over those glistening peaks
was the highway along which Honor pointed in an age wrhen
men had chosen her as their guide.

And now all was ready for the enterprise. From Dax to St.
Jean Pied-du-Port the country was mottled with the white tents
of Gascons, Aquitanians and English, all eager for the advance.

29THE WHITE COMPANY.

From all sides the free companions had trooped in, until not less
than twelve thousand of these veteran troops were cantoned
along the frontiers of Navarre. From England had arrived the
prince's brother, the Duke of Lancaster, with four hundred
knights in his train and a strong company of archers. Above
all, an heir to the throne had been born in Bordeaux, and the
prince might leave his spouse with an easy mind, for all was
well with mother and with child.

The keys of the mountain passes still lay in the hands of the
shifty and ignoble Charles of Navarre, who had chaffered and
bargained both with the English and with the Spanish, taking
money from the one side to hold them open and from the other
to keep them sealed. The mallet hand of Edward, however,
had shattered all the schemes and wiles of the plotter. Neither
entreaty nor courtly remonstrance came from the English prince ;
but Sir Hugh Calverley passed silently over the border with his
company, and the blazing walls of the two cities of Miranda and
Puenta della Reyna warned the unfaithful monarch that there
were other metals besides gold, and that he was dealing with a
man to whom it was unsafe to lie. His price was paid, his
objections silenced, and the mountain gorges lay open to the
invaders. From the Feast of the Epiphany there was mustering
and massing, until, in the first week of February—three days
after the White Company joined the army—the word was given
for a general advance through the defile of Roncesvalles. At
five in the cold winter's morning the bugles were blowing in the
hamlet of St. Jean Pied-du-Port, and by six Sir Nigel's Company,
v three hundred strong, were on their way for the defile, pushing
swiftly in the dim light up the steep curving road ; for it was
the prince's order that they should be the first to pass through;
and that they should remain on guard at the further end untrl
the whole army had emerged from the mountains. Day was
already breaking in the east, and the summits of the great peaks
had turned rosy red, while the valleys still lay in the shadow,
when they found themselves with the cliffs on either hand and
the long, rugged pass stretching away before them.

Sir Nigel rode his great black war-horse at .the head of his
archers, dressed in full armor, with Black Simon bearing his
banner behind him, while Alleyne at his bridle-arm carried his
blazoned shield and his well-steeled ashen spear. A proud an4
happy man was the knight, and many a time he turned in hisTHE WHITE COMPANY.

SO/.

saddle to look at the long column of bowmen who swung swiftly
along behind him.

"By Saint Paul! Alleyne," said he, "this pass is a very
perilous place, and I would that the King of Navarre had held
it against us, for it would have been a v^ry honorable venture
had it fallen to us to win a passage. 1 have heard the minstrels
sing of one Sir Rolanu ,who was slain by the infidels in these
very parts."

" If it please you, my fair lord," said Black Simon, "I know
something of these parts, for I have twice served a term with
the King of Navarre. There is a hospice of monks yonder,
where you may see the roof among the trees, and there it was
that Sir Roland was slain. The village upon the left is Orbai-
ceta, and I know a house therein where the right wine of Juran-
$on is to be bought, if it would please you to quaff a morning
cup."

" There is smoke yonder upon the right."

" That is a village named Les Aldudes, and I know a hostel
there also where the wine is of the best. It is said that the inn-
keeper hath a buried treasure, and I doubt not, my fair lord,
that if you grant me leave I could prevail upon him to tell us
where he hath hid it."

" Nay, nay, Simon," said Sir Nigel curtly, " I pray you to for-
get these free companion tricks. Ha ! Edricson, I see that you
stare about you, and in good sooth these mountains must seem
wondrous indeed to one who hath but seen Butser or the Ports-
down hill."

The broken and rugged road had wound along the crests of
low hills, with wooded ridges on either side, of it over which
peeped the loftier mountains, the distant Peak of the South and
the vast Altabisca, which towered high above them and cast its
black shadow from left to right across the valley. From where
they now stood they could look forward down a long vista of
beech woods and jagged rock-strewn wilderness, all white with
snow, to where the pass opened out upon the uplands beyond.
Behind them they could still catch a glimpse of the gray plains
of Gascony, and could see her rivers gleaming like coils of silver
in the sunshine. As far as eye could see from among the rocky
gorges and the bristles of the pine woods there came the quick
twinkle and glitter of steel, while the wind brought with it sud-
den distant bursts of martial music from the great host which3°8

THE WHITE COMPANY.

rolled by every road and by-path towards the narrow pass of
Roncesvalles. On the cliffs on either side might also be seen
the,flash of arms and the waving of pennons where the force of
Navarre looked down upon the army of strangers who passed
through their territories.

"By Saint Paul !" said Sir Nigel, blinking up at them, "I
think that we have much to hope for from these cavaliers, for
they cluster very thickly upon our flanks. Pass word to the
men, Aylward, that they unsling their bows, for I have no doubt
that there are some very worthy gentlemen yonder who may
give us some opportunity for honorable advancement."

"I kear that the prince hath the King of Navarre as hostage,"
said Alleyne, " and it is said that he hath sworn to put him to
death if there be any attack upon us."

"It was not so that war was made when good King Edward
first turned his hand to it," said Sir Nigel sadly. " Ah ! Alleyne,
I fear that you will never live to see such things, for the minds
of men are more set upon money and gain than of old. By
Saint Paul ! it was a noble sight when two great armies would
draw together upon a certain day, and all who had a vow would
ride forth to discharge themselves of it. What noble spear-
runnings have I not seen, and even in an humble way had a
part in, when cavaliers would run a course for the easing of
their souls and for the love of their ladies ! Never a bad word
have I for the French, for, though I have ridden twenty times
up to their array, I have never yet failed to find some very gentle ,
and worthy knight or squire who was willing to do what he
might to enable me to attempt some small feat of arms. Then,
when all cavaliers had been satisfied, the two armies would
come to hand-strokes, and fight right merrily until one or other
had the vantage. By Saint Paul! it was not our wont in those
days to pay gold for the opening of passes, nor would we hold
a king as hostage lest his people come to thrusts with us. In
good sooth, if the war is to be carried out in such a fashion,
then it is grief to me that I ever came away trom Castle Twyn-
ham, for I would not have left my sweet lady had I not thought
that there were deeds of arms to be done."

"But surely, my fair lord," said Alleyne, "you have done
some great feats of arms since we left the Lady Loring."

" I cannot call any to mind," answered Sir Nigel.THE WHITE COMPANY.	309

" There was the taking of the sea-rovers, and the holding ol
the keep against the Jacks."

" Nay, nay," said the knight, " these were not feats of arms,
but mere wayside ventures and the chances of travel. By Saint
Paul ! if it were not that these hills are over-steep for Pommers,
I would ride to these cavaliers of Navarre and see if there were
not some among them who would help me to take this patch
from mine eye. It is a sad sight to see this very fine pass, which
my own Company here could hold against an army, and yet to
ride through it with as little profit as though it were the lane
from my kennels to the Avon."

All morning Sir Nigel rode in a very ill-humor, with his
Company tramping behind him. It was a toilsome march over
broken ground and through snow, which came often as high as
the knee, yet ere the sun had begun to sink they had reached
the spot where the gorge opens out on to the uplands of
Navarre, and could see the towers of Pampeluna jutting up
against the southern sky-line. Here„ the Company were quar-
tered in a scattered mountain hamlet, and Alleyne spent the day
looking down upon the swarming army which poured wkh
gleam of spears and flaunt of standards through the narrow pass.

" HolS., mon gar.," said Aylward, seating himself upon a
boulder by his side. " This is indeed a fine sight upon which it
is good to look, and a man might go far ere he would see so
many brave men and fine horses. By my hilt! our little lord is
wroth because we have come peacefully through the passes, but
I will warrant him that we have fighting enow ere we turn our
faces northward again. It is said that there are four-score
thousand men behind the King of Spain, with Du Guesclin and
all the best lances of France, who have sworn to shed their
heart's blood ere this Pedro come again to the throne."

"Yet our own army is a great one," said Alleyne.

" Nay, there are but seven-and-twenty thousand men. Chan-
dos hath persuaded the prince to leave many behind, and in-
deed I think that he is right, for there is little food and less
water in these parts for which we are bound. A man without
his meat or a horse without his fodder is like a wet bow-string,
fit for little. But voila, mon petit, here comes Chandos and his
company, and there is many a pensil and banderole among
yonder squadrons which show that the be§t; blood of England is
riding under his banners."THE WHITE COMPANY.

Whilst Aylward had been speaking, a strong column of arch-
ers had defiled through the pass beneath them. They yvere fol-
lowed by a banner-bearer who held high the scarlet wedge upon
a silver field which proclaimed the presence of the famous
warrior. He rode himself within a spear's-length of his stand-
ard, clad from neck to foot in steel, but draped in the long linen
gown or parement which was destined to be the cause of his
death. His plumed helmet was carried behind him by his%ody-
squire, and his head was covered by a small purple cap, from
tinder which his snow-white hair curled downwards to his
shoulders. With his long beak-like nose and his single gleam-
ing eye, which shone brightly from under a thick tuft of grizzled
"brow, he seemed to Alleyne to have something of the look of
some fierce old bird of prey. For a moment he smiled, as his
eye lit upon the banner of the five roses waving from the hamlet ;
but his course lay for Pampelana, and he rode on after the
archers.

Close at his heels came sixteen squires, all chosen from the
highest families, and behind them rode twelve hundred English
knights, with gleam of steel and tossing of plumes, their harness
jingling, their long straight swords clanking against their stirrup-
irons, and the beat of their chargers' hoofs like the low deep
roar of the sea upon the shore. Behind them marched six
hundred Cheshire and Lancashire archers, bearing the badge of
the Audleys, followed by the famous Lord Audley himself, with
the four valiant squires, Dutton of Button, Delves of Dodding-
ton, Fowlehurstof Crewe, and Hawkstone ofWainehill, who had
all won such glory at Poictiers. Two hundred heavily-armed
cavalry rode behind the Audley standard, while close at their
heels came the Duke of Lancaster with a glittering train, heralds
tabarded with the royal arms riding three fleep upon cream-
colored chargers in front of him. "On either side of the young
prince rode the two seneschals of Aquitaine, Sir Guiscard
d'Angle and Sir Stephen Cossington, the one bearing the banner
of the province and the other that of Saint George. Away
behind him as far as eye could reach rolled the far-stretching,
unbroken river of steel—rank after rank and column after
column, with waving of plumes, glitter of arms, tossing of
guidons, and flash and flutter of countless armorial devices. All
day Alleyne looked down upon the changing scene, and all day
th§ bowman stood by his elbow, pointing out the crest§ ofTHE WHITE COMPANY

311

famous warriors and the arms of noble houses. Here stfere the
gold mullets of the Pakingtons, the sable and ermine of the
Mackworths, the scarlet bars of the Wakes, the gold and blue of
the Grosvenors, the cinque-foils of the Cliftons, the annulets of
the Musgraves, the silver pinions of the Beauchamps, the crosses
of the Molineux the bloody chevron of the Woodhouses, the^red
and silver of the Worsleys, the swords of the Clarks, the boars'- ~
heads of the Lucies, the crescents of the Boyntons, and the wolf
and dagger of the Lipscombs. So through the sunny winter day
the chivalry of England poured down through the dark pass of
Roncesvalles to the plains of Spain.

It was on a Monday that the Duke of Lancaster's division
passed safely through the Pyrenees. On the Tuesday there
was a bitter frost, and the ground rung like iron beneath the
feet of the horses ; yet ere evening the prince himself, with the
main battle of his army, had passed the gorge and united with
his vanguard at Pampeluna. With him rode the King of
Majorca, the hostage King of Navarre, and the fierce Don Pedro
of Spain, whose pale blue eyes gleamed with a sinister light as
they rested once more upon the distant peaks of the land which'
had disowned him. Under the royal banners rode many a bold
Gascon baron and many a hot-blooded islander. Here were the
high stewards of Aquitaine, of Saintonge, of La Rochelle, of
Quercy, of Limousin, of Agenois, of Poitou, and of Bigorre, with
the banners and musters of their provinces. Here also were
the valiant Earl of Angus, Sir Thomas Banaster with his garter
over his greave, Sir Nele Loring, second cousin to Sir Nigel, and
along column of Welsh footmen who marched under the red
banner of Merlin. From dawn to sundown the long train wound
through the pass, their breath reeking up upon the frosty air like
the steam from a cauldron.

The weather was less keen upon the Wednesday, and the rear-
guard made good their passage, with the bombards and the
wagon-train. Free companions and Gascons made up this
portion of the army to the number of ten thousand men. The
fierce Sir Hugh Calverley, with his yellow mane, and the rugged
Sir Robert Knolles, with their war-hardened and veteran com-
panies of English bowmen, headed the long column ; while
behind them came the turbulent bands of the Bastard ofBreteuil,
Nandon de Bagerant, one-eyed Gamus, Black Ortingo, La Nuit,
and others whose \ery names seem to smack of hard hands and312

THE WHITE COMPANY*

ruthless deeds. With them also were the pick of the Gascon
chivalry—the old Due d'Armagnac> his nephew Lord d'Albret,
brooding and scowling over his wrongs, the giant Oliver de
Clisson, the Captal de Buch, pink of knighthood, the sprightly
Sir Perducas d'Albert, the red-bearded Lord d'Esparre, and a
long train of needy and grasping border nobles, with long pedi-
grees and short purses, who had come down from therr hill-side
strongholds, all hungering for the spoils and the ransoms of
Spain. By the Thursday morning the whole army was encamped
in the Vale of Pampeluna, and the prince had called his council
to meet him in the old palace of the ancient city of Navarre.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

how the company^ made sport in the vale of pampe-
•	luna.

Whilst the council was sitting in Pampeluna the White
Company, having encamped in a neighboring valley, close to
the companies of La Nuit and of Black Ortingo, were amusing
themselves with sword-play, wrestling, and shooting at the
shields, which they had placed upon the hillside to serte them
as butts. The younger archers, with their coats of mail thrown
aside, their brown or flaxen hair tossing in the wind, and their
jerkins turned back to give free play to their brawrny chests and
arms, stood in lines, each loosing his shaft in turn, while Johns-
ston, Aylward, Black Simon, and half-a-score of the elders
lounged up and down with critical eyes, and a word of rough
praise or of curt censure for the marksmen. Behind stood knots
of Gascon and Brabant crossbowmen from the companies of
Ortingo and of La Nuit, leaning upon their unsightly weapons
and watching the practice of the Englishmen.

" A good shot, Hewett, a good shot 1" said old Johnston to a
young bowman, who stood with his bow in his left hand, gazing
with parted lips after his flying shaft. "You see, she finds the
ring, as I knew she would from the moment that your string
twanged."

"Loose it easy, steady, and yet sharp," said Aylward. "By
my hilt ! mon gar., it is very well when you do but shoot at a
shield, but when there is a man behind the shield, and he ridesTHE WHITE COMPANY,	313

at you with wave of sword and glint of eyes from behind his
vizor, you may find him a less easy mark."

" It is a mark that I have found before now," answered the
young bowman.

" And shall again, camarade, I doubt not. But hola! John-
ston, who is this who holds his bow like a crow-keeper ? "

"It is Silas Peterson, of Horsham. Do not wink with one
eye and look with the other, Silas, and do not hop and dance
after you shoot, with your tongue out, for that will not speed it
upon its way. Stand straight and firm, as God made you.
Move not the bow arm, and steady with the drawing hand ! "

" I' faith," said Black Simon, " I am a spearman myself, and
am more fitted for hand-strokes than for such work as this. Yet
I have spent my days among bowmen, and I have seen many a
brave shaft sped. I will not say but that we have some good
marksmen here, and that this Company would be accounted a
fine body of archers at any time or place. Yet I do not see any
men who bend so strong a bow or shoot as true a shaft as those
whom I have known."

"You say sooth," said Johnston, turning his seamed and
grizzled face upon the man-at-arms. " See yonder," he added,
pointing to a bombard which lay within the camp : " there is
what hath done scath to good bowmanship, with its filthy soot
and foolish roaring mouth. I wonder that a true knight, like
our prince, should carry such a scurvy thing in his train. Robin,
thou red-headed lurden, how oft must I tell thee not to shoot
straight with a quarter-wind blowing-across the mark ? "

" By these ten finger-bones ! there were some fine bowmen at
the intaking of Calais," said Aylward. " I well remember that,
on occasion of an outfall, a Genogji raised his arm over his
mantlet, and shook it at us, a hundred paces from our line.
There were twenty who loosed shafts at him, and when the man
was afterwards slain it was found that he had taken eighteen
through his forearm."

" And I can call to mind," remarked Johnston, " that when
the great cog 'Christopher,' which the French had taken from
us, was moored two hundred paces from the shore, two archers,
little Robin Withstaff and Elias Baddlesmere, in four shots each
cut every strand of her hempen anchor-cord, so that she well-
nigh came upon the rocks."

< Good shooting, i' faith rare shooting ! " said Black Simon.3*4

THE WHITE COMPANY.

** But I have seen you, Johnston, and you, Samkin Aylward,
and one or two others who are still with us, shoot as well as the
best. Was it not you, Johnston, who took the fat ox at Fins-
bury butts against the pick of London town ? "

A sunburnt and black-eyed Brabanter had stood near the old
archers, leaning upon a large crossbow and listening to their
talk, which had been carried on in that hybrid camp dialect
which both nations could understand. He was a squat, bull-
necked man, clad in the iron helmet, mail tunic, and woollen
gambesson of his class. A jacket with hanging sleeves, slashed
with velvet at the neck and wrists, showed that he was a man
of some consideration, an under-officer, or file-leader of his
company.

"I cannot think," said he, " why you English should be so
fond of your six-foot stick. If it amuse you to bend it, well and
good ; but why should I strain and pull, when my little moulinet
will do all for me, and better than I can do it for myself? "

411 have seen good shooting with the prod and with the latch,"
said Aylward, " but, by my hilt I camarade, with all respect to
you and to your bow, I think that is but a woman's weapon,
which a woman can point and loose as easily as a man."

"I know not about that," answered the Brabanter, " but this
I know, that though I have served for fourteen years, I have never
yet seen an Englishman do aught with the long-bow which I
could not do better with my arbalest. By the three kings ! I
would even go further, and say that I have done things with my
arbalest which no Englishman could do with his long-bow."

"Well said, mon gar.," cried Aylward. "A good cock has
ever a brave call. Now, I have shot little of late, but there is
Johnston here who will try a round with you for the honor of the
Company."

" And I will lay a gallon of Jurancon wine upon the long-bow,"
said Black Simon, " though I had rather, for my own drinking,
that it were a quart of Twynham ale."

" I take both your challange and your wager," said the man
of Brabant, throwing off his jacket and glancing keenly about
him with his black, twinkling eyes. " I cannot see any fitting
mark, for I care not to wa3te a bolt upon these shields, which a
drunken boor could not miss at a village kermesse."

" This is a perilous man," whispered an English man-at-arms,
plucking at Aylward's sleeve. " He is the best mark§rnap of aljTHE WHITE COMMNY.	315

the crossbow companies and it was he who brought down the
Constable de Bourbon at Brignais. I fear that your man will
come by little honor with him."

" Yet I have seen Johnston shoot these twenty years, and I
will not flinch from it. How say you, old warhound, will you
not have a flight shot or two with this springald ? "

"Tut, tut, Aylward," said the old bowman. "My day is past,
and it is for the younger ones to hold what we have gained. I
take it unkindly of thee, Samkin, that thou shouldst call all eyes
thus upon a broken bowman who could once shoot a fair shaft.
Let me feel that bow, Wilkins ! It is a Scotch bow, I see, for the
upper nock is without and the lower within. By the black rood !
it is a good piece of yew, well nocked, well strung, well waxed,
and very joyful to the feel. I think even now that I might hit
any large and goodly mark with a bow like this. Turn thy
quiver to me, Aylward. I love an ash arrow pierced with cornel-
wood for a roving shaft."

"By my hilt ! and so do I," cried Aylward. "These three
gander-winged shafts are such."

" So I see, comrade. It has been my wont to choose a saddle-
backed feather for a dead shaft, and a swine-backed for a smooth
flier. I will take the two of them. Ah ! Samkin, lad, the eye
grows dim and the hand less firm as the years pass."

" Come then, are you not ready ? " said the Brabanter, who
had watched with ill-concealed impatience the slow and methodic
movements of his antagonist.

" I will venture a rover with you, or try long-butts or hoyles,"
said old Johnston. "To my mind the long-bow is a better
weapon than the arbalest, but it may be ill for me to prove it."

"So I think," quoth the other with a sneer. He drew his
moulinet from his girdle, and fixing it to the windlass, he drew
back the powerful double cord until it had clicked into the
catch. Then from his quiver he drew a short, thick quarrel,
which he placed with the utmost care upon the groove. Word
had spread of what was going forward, and the rivals were
already surrounded, not only by the English archers of the Com-
pany, but by hundreds of arbalestiers and men-at-arms from the
bands of Ortingo and La Nuit, to the latter of whieh the Bra-
banter belonged.

" There is a mark yonder on the hill," said he; " mayhap you
can discern it."3i 6

THE WHITE COMPANY.

a I see something," answered Johnston, shading his eyes with
his hand ; " but it is a very long shoot."

"A fair shoot—a fair shoot ! Stand aside, Arnaud, lest you
find a bolt through your gizzard. Now, comrade, I take no
flight shot, and I give you the vantage of watching my
shaft."

As he spoke he raised his arbalest to his shoulder and was
about to pull the trigger, when a large gray stork flapped heavily
into view skimming over the brow of the hill, and then soaring
up into the air to pass the valley. Its shrill and piercing cries
drew all eyes upon it, and, as it came nearer, a dark spot which
circled above it resolved itself into a peregrine falcon, which
hovered over its head, poising itself from time to time, and watch-
ing its chance of closing with its clumsy quarry. Nearer and
nearer came the two birds, all absorbed in their own contest,
the stork wheeling upwards, the hawk still fluttering above it,
until they were not a hundred paces from the camp. The Bra-
banter raised his weapon to the sky, and there came the short,
deep twang of his powerful string. His bolt struck the stork
just where its wing meets the body, and the bird whirled aloft
in a last convulsive flutter before falling wounded and flapping
to the earth. A roar of applause burst from the crossbowmen ;
but at the instant that the bolt struck its mark old Johnston, who
had stood listlessly with arrow on string, bent his bow and sped
a shaft through the body of the falcon. Whipping the other
from his belt, he sent it skimming some few feet from the earth
with so true an aim that it struck and transfixed the stork for
the second time ere it could reach the ground. A deep-chested
shout of delight burst from the archers at the sight of this double
feat, and Aylward, dancing with joy, threw his arms round the
old marksman and embraced him with such vigor that their
mail tunics clanged again.

"Ah! camarade," he cried, "you shall have a stoup with
me for this ! What then, old dog, would not the hawk please
thee, but thou must have the stork as well. Oh, to my heart
again !"

" It is a pretty piece of yew, and well strung," said Johnston
with a twinkle in his deep-set gray eyes. " Even an old broken
bowman might find the clout with a bow like this."

"You have done very well," remarked the Brabanter in a
surly voice. " But it seems to me that you have not yet shownTHE WHITE COMPANY,

317

yourself to be a better marksman than I, for I have struck that
at which I aimed, and, by the three kings ! no man can do
more."

" It would ill beseem me to claim to be a better marksman,"
answered Johnston, " for I have heard great things of your skill.
I did but wish to show that the long-bow could do that which an
arbalest could not do, for you could not with your moulinet
have your string ready to speed another shaft ere the bird drop
to the earth."

"In that you have vantage," said the crossbowman. "By
Saint James ! it is now my turn to show you where my weapon
has the better of you.\ I pray you to draw a flight shaft with all
your strength down the valley, that we may see the length of
your shoot."

"That is a very strong prod of yours," said Johnston, shaking
his grizzled head as he glanced at the thick arch and powerful
strings of his rival's arbalest. " I have little doubt that you can
overshoot me, and yet I have seen bowmen who could send a
cloth-yard arrow further than you could speed a quarrel."

"So I have heard," remarked the Brabanter ; " and yet it is a
strange thing that these wondrous ^bowmen are never where I
chance to be. Pace out the distances with a wand at every five
score, and do you, Arnaud, stand at the fifth wand to carry back
my bolts to me."	-

A line was measured down the valley, and Johnston, drawing
an arrow to the very head, sent it whistling over the row of
wands.

" Bravely drawn S A jare shoot ! " shouted the bystanders.
" It is well up to the fourth mark."

" By my hilt! it is over it," cried Aylward. " I can see where
they have stooped to gather up the shaft."

" We shall hear anon," said Johnston quietly, and presently a
young archer came running to say that the arrow had fallen
twenty paces beyond the fourth wand.,

" Four hundred paces and a score," cried Black Simon. " T
faith, it is a very long flight. Yet wood and steel may do more
than flesh and blood."

The Brabanter stepped forward with a smile of conscious
triumph, and loosed the cord of his weapon. A shout burst
from his comrades as they watched the swift and lofty flight of
the heavy bolt.THE WHITE COMPANY.

" Over the fourth I" groaned Aylward. " By my hilt! I
think that it is well up to the.fifth."

"It is over the fifth ! " cried a Gascon loudly, and a comrade
came running with waving arms to say that the bolt had pitched
eight paces beyond the mark of the five hundred.

" Which weapon hath the vantage now ? "cried the Brabanter,
strutting proudly about with shouldered arbalest, amid the
applause of his companions.

" You can overshoot me," said Johnston gently.

MOr any other man who ever bent a long-bow," cried his
victorious adversary.

" Nay, not so fast,"lsaid a huge archer, whose mighty shoulders
and red 4head towered high above the throng of his comrades.
" I must have a word with you ere you crow so loudly. Where
is my little popper ? By sainted Dick of Hampole ! it will be a
strange thing if I cannot outshoot that thing of thine, which to
my eyes is more like a rat-trap than a bow. Will you try
another flight, or do you stand by your last ? "

" Five hundred and eight paces will serve my turn," answered
the Brabanter, looking askance at this new opponent.

" Tut, John," whispered Aylward, " you never were a marks-
man. Why must you thrust your spoon into this dish ? "

" Easy and slow, Aylward. There are very many things
which I cannot do, but there are also one or two which I have
the trick of. It is in my mind that I can beat this shoot, if my
bow will but hold together."

"Go on, old babe of the woods !" " Have at it, Hampshire !"
cried the archers laughing.	/

" By my soul! you may grin," cried John. " But I learned
how to make the long shoot from old Hob Miller of Milford."
He took up a great black bow, as he spoke, and sitting down
upon the ground he placed his two feet on either end of the
stave. With an arrow fitted, he then pulled the string towards
him with both hands until the head of the shaft was- level with
the wood. The great bow creaked and groaned and the cord
vibrated with the tension.

" Who is this fool's-head who stands in the way of my shoot ? '*
said he, craning up his neck from the ground.

" He stands on the further side of my mark," answered the
Brabanter, "so he has little to fear from you."

"Well, the saints assoil him ! " cried John. "Though I thinkTHE WHITB COMPANY.

3*9

he is over-near to be^scathed." As he'spoke he raised his two
feet, with the bow-stave upon their soles, and his cord twanged
with a deep rich hum which might be heard across the vallev
The measurer in the distance fell flat upon his face, and then,
jumping up again, he began to run in the opposite direction.

"Well shot, old lad ! It is indeed over his head," cried the
bowmen.

" Mon Dieu ! " exclaimed the Brabanter, " who ever saw such

a shoot ? "

" It is but a trick," quoth John. " Many a time have I won a
gallon of ale by covering a mile in three flights down Wilverley
Chase."

" It fell a hundred and thirty paces beyond the fifth mark,"
shouted an archer in the distance.

" Six hundred and thirty paces ! Mon Dieu! but that is a
shoot! And yet it says nothing for your weapon, mon gros
camarade, for it was by turning yourself into a crossbow that
you did it."

"By my hilt! there is truth in that," cried Aylward. " And
now, friend, I will myself show you a vantage of the long-bow.
I pray you to speed a bolt against yonder shield with all your
force. It is an inch of elm with bull's hide over it."

"I scarce shot as many shafts at Brignais," growled the man
of Brabant; " though I found a better mark there than a cantle
of bull's hide. But what' is this, Englishman ? The shield
hangs not one hundred paces from me, and a blind man could
strike it." He screwed up his string to the furthest pitch, and
shot his quarrel at the dangling shield. Aylward, who had
drawn an arrow from his quiver, carefully greased the head of
it, and sped it at the same mark.

" Run, Wilkins," quoth he, " and fetch me the shield."

Long were the faces of the Englishmen and broad the laugh
Of the crossbowmen as the heavy mantlet was carried towards
them, for there in the centre was the thick Brabant bolt driven
deeply into the wood, while there was neither sign nor trace of
the cloth-yard shaft.

" By the «three kings !" cried the Brabanter, " this time at
least there is no gainsaying which is the better weapon, or
which the truer hand that held it. You have missed the shield,
Englishman."

" Tarrjr a bit ! tarry a bit, mon gar. !" cjuoth Aylward| and320

THE WHITE COMPANY.

turning' round the shield he showed a round clear hole in the
wood at the back of it. " My shaft has passed through it,
camarade, and I trow the one which goes through is more to be
feared than that which bides on the way."

The Brabanter stamped his foot with mortification, and was
about to make some angry reply, when Alleyne Edricson came
riding up to the crowds of archers.

" Sir Nigel will be here anon," said he, " and it is his wish to
speak with the Company."

In an instant order and method took the place of general con-
fusion. Bows, steel caps, and jacks were caught up from the
grass. A long cordon cleared the camp of all strangers, while
the main body fell into four lines with under-officers and file-
leaders in front and on either flank. So they stood, silent and
motionless, when their leader came riding towards them, his face ,
shining and^his whole small figure swelling with the news which
he bore.

" Great honor has been done to us, men," cried he : " for, of
all the army, the prince has chosen us out that we should ride
onwards into the lands of Spain to spy upon our enemies. Yet,
as there are many of us, and as the service may not be to the
liking of all, I pray that those will step forward from the ranks
who have the will to follow me."

There was a rustle among the bowmen, but when Sir Nigel
looked up at them no man stood forward from his fellows, but
the four lines of men stretched unbroken as before. Sir Nigel
blinked at them in amazement, and a look of the deepest sorrow
shadowed his face.

" That I should live to see the day !" he cried. " What! not
one-"

" My fair lord," whispered Alleyne, " they have all stepped
forward."	*

" Ah, by Saint Paul! I see how it is vifith them. I could not
think that they would desert me. We start at dawn to-morrow,
and ye are to have the horses of Sir Robert Cheney's company.
Be ready, I pray ye, at early cock-crow."

A buzz of delight burst from the archers, as they broke their
ranks and ran hither and thither, whooping and cheering like
boys who have news of a holiday. Sir Nigel gazed after them
with a smiling face, when a heavy hand fell upon his shoulder.
"What hoi my knight-errant of Twynham 1" said a voicedTHE WHITE COMPANY,	321

"You are off to Ebro, I hear ; and, by the holy fish of Tobias !
you must take me under your banner."

«« What ! Sir Oliver Buttesthorn ! " cried Sir Nigel. " I had
heard that you were come into camp, and had hoped to see you.
Glad and proud shall I be to'have you with me."

" I have a most particular and weighty reason for wishing to
go," said the sturdy knight.

" I can well believe it," returned Sir Nigel; " I have met no
man who is quicker to follow where honor leads."

" Nay, it is not for honor that I go, Nigel."

" For what then ? "

" For pullets."

"Pullets?"

" Yes, for the rascal vanguard have cleared every hen from
the country-side. It was this very morning that Norbury, my
squire, lamed his horse in riding round in quest of one, for we
have a bag of truffles, and nought to eat with them. Never
have I seen such locusts as this vanguard of ours. Not a pullet
shall we see until we are in front of them ; so I shall leave my
Winchester runagates to the care of the provost-marshal, and I
shall hie south with you, Nigel, with my truffles at my saddle-
bow."

"Oliver, Oliver, I know you over-well," said Sir Nigel, shak-
ing his head, and the two old soldiers rode off together to their
pavilion.

CHAPTER, XXXV.

HOW SIR NIGEL HAWKED AT AN EAGLE.

To the south of Pampeluna in the kingdom of Navarre there
stretched a high table-land, rising into bare, sterile hills, brown
or gray in color, and strewn with huge boulders of granite.
On the Gascon side of the great mountains there had been run-
ning streams, meadows, forests, and little nestling villages.
Here, on the contrary, were nothing but naked rocks, poor
pasture, and savage, stone-strewn wastes. Gloomy defiles or
barrancas intersected this wild country with mountain torrents
dashing and foaming between their rugged sides. The clatter
of waters, the scream of the eagle, and the howling of wolves
ai322

THE WHITE COMPANY.

the only sounds which broke upon the silence in that dreary and
Inhospitable region.

Through this wild country it was that Sir Nigel and his Com- *
pany pushed their way, riding at times through vast defiles
where the brown, gnarled cliffs shot up on either side of them, v
and the sky was but a long winding blue slit between the clus-
tering lines of box which fringed the lips of the precipices; or
again leading their horses along the narrow and rocky paths
worn by the muleteers upon the edges of the chasm, where
under their very elbows they could see the white streak which
marked the gave which foamed a thousand feet below them.
So for two days they pushed their way through the wild places
of Navarre, past Fuente, over the rapid Ega," through Estella,
until upon a winter's evening the mountains fell away from in
front of them, and they saw the broad blue Ebro curving be-
twixt its double line or homesteads and of villages, ( The fishers
of Viana were aroused that night by rough voices speaking in
a strange tongue, and ere morning Sir Nigel and his men had
ferried the river and were safe upon the land of Spain.

All the next day they lay in a pine wood near to the town of
Logrono, resting their horses and taking counsel as to what they
should do. Sir Nigel had with him Sir William Felton, Sir
Oliver Buttesthorn, stout old Sir Simon Burley, the Scotch knight-
errant, the Earl of Angus, and Sir Richard Causton, all ac-
counted among the bravest knights in the army, together with
sixty veteran men-at-arms, and three hundred and twenty archers.
Spies had been sent out in the morning, and returned after night-
fall to say that the King of Spain was encamped some fourteen
miles off in the direction of Burgos, having with him twenty
thousand horse and forty-five thousand foot. A dry-wood fire
had been lit, and round this the leaders crouched, the glare
beating upon their rugged faces, while the hardy archers lounged
and chatted amid the tethered horses, while they munched their
scanty provisions.

"For my part," said Sir Simon Burley, " I am.of opinion that
we have already done that which we have come for. For do
we not now know where the king is, and how great a following
he hath, which was the end of our journey."

"True," answered Sir William Felton, "but I have come on
this venture because it is a long time since I have broken a spear
in war, and, certes, I shall not go back until I have run a courseTHE WHITE COMPANY.

3*3

with some cavalier of Spain. Let those go back who will, but I
must see more of these Spaniards ere I turn."

" I will not leave you, Sir William," returned Sir Simon Bur-
ley ; " and yet, as an old soldier and one who hath seen much of
war, I cannot but think that it is an ill thing for four hundred
men to find themselves between an army of sixty thousand on
the one side and^a broad river on the other."

"Yet," said Sir Richard Caiftton, " we cannot for the honor of
England go back without a blow struck."

"Nor for the honor of Scotland either," cried the Earl of
Angus. " By Saint Andrew ! I wish that I may never set eyes
upon the water„of Leith again, if I pluck my horse's bridle ere I
have seen this camp of theirs."

" By Saint Paul ! you have spoken very well," said Sir Nigel,
" and I have always heard that there were very worthy gentle-
men among the Scots, and fine skirmishing to be had upon their
border. Bethink you, Sir Simon, that we have this news from
the lips of common spies, who can scarce tell us as~.--much of the
enemy and of his forces as the prince would wish to hear."

"You are the leader in this venture, Sir Nigel," the other an-
swered, "and I do but ride under your banner."

"Yet I would fain have your rede and counsel, Sir Simon.
But, touching what you say of the river, we can take heed that
we shall not have it at the back of us, for the prince hath now
advanced to Salvatierra, and thence to Vittoria, so that if we
come upon their camp from the further side we can make good
our retreat."

" What then would you propose ? " asked Sir Simon, shaking
his grizzled head as one who is but half convinced.

"That we ride forward ere the news reach them that we have
crossed the river. In this way we may have sight of their army,
and perchance even find occasion for some small deed against
them."

" So be it, then," said Sir Simon Burley; and the rest of the
council having approved, a scanty meal was hurriedly snatched,
and the advance resumed under the cover of the darkness. All
night they led their horses, stumbling and groping through wild
defiles and rugged valleys, following the guidance of a frightened
peasant who was strapped by the wrist to Black Simon's stirrup-
leather. With the early dawn they found themselves in a
black ravine, with others sloping away from it on either side,THE WHITE COMPANY.

and the bare brown crags rising in long bleak terraces all round
them.

" If it please you, fair lord," said Black Simon, " this man hath
misled us, and since there is no tree upon which we may hang
him, it might be well to hurl him over yonder cliff."

The peasant, reading the soldier's meaning in his fierce eyes
and harsh accents dropped upon his knees, screaming loudly for
mercy.

" How comes it, dog ? " asked Sir William Felton in Spanish.
" Where is this camp to which you swore that you would lead
us ? "

" By the sweet Virgin ! By the blessed Mother of God !"
cried the trembling peasant, " I swear to you that in the dark-
ness I have myself lost the path."

" Over the cliff with him ! " shouted half a dozen voices ; but
ere the archers could drag him from the rocks to which he clung
Sir Nigel had ridden up and called upon them to stop.

" How is this, sirs ? " said he. " As long as the prince doth
me the honor to entrust this venture to ,me, it is for me only to
give orders ; and, by Saint Paul! I shall be rjght blithe to go
very deeply into the matter with anyone to whom my words
may give offence. How say you, Sir William ? Or you, my
Lord of Angus ? Or you, Sir Richard ? "

"Nay, nay, Nigel !" cried Sir William. "This base peasant
is too small a matter for old comrades to quarrel over. But he
hath betrayed us, and certes he hath merited a dog's death."

" Hark ye, fellow," said Sir Nigel. "We give you one more
chance to find the path. We are about to gain much honor, Sir
William, in this enterprise, and it would be a sorry thing if the
first blood shed were that of an unworthy boor. Let us say our
morning orisons, and it may chance that ere we finish he may
strike upon the track."

With bowed heads and steel caps in hand, the archers stood
-at their horse's heads, while Sir Simon Burley repeated the Pater,
the Ave, and the Credo. Long did Alleyne bear the scene in
mind—the knot of knights in their dull leaden-hued armor, the
ruddy visage of Sir Oliver, the craggy features of the Scottish
earl, the shining scalp of Sir Nigel, with the dense ring of hard,
bearded faces and the long brown heads of the horses, all topped
and circled by the beetling cliffs. Scarce had the last deep
*' amen " broken from the Company, when, in an instant, thereTHE WHITE COMPANY.

32*

rose the scream of a hundred bugles, with the deep rolling of
drums and the clashing of cymbals, all sounding together in one
deafening uproar. Knights and archers sprang to arms, con-
vinced that some.great host was upon them; but the guide dropped
upon his knees and thanked Heaven for its mercies.

"We have found them, caballeros ! " he cried. "This is
their morning call. If ye will but deign to follow me, I will set
them before you ere a man might tell his beads."

As he spoke he scrambled down one of the narrow ravines,
and, climbing over a low ridge at the further end, he led them
into a short valley with a stream purling down the centre of it
and a very thick growth of elder and of box upon either side.
Pushing their way through the dense brushwood, they looked
out upon a scene which made their hearts beat harder and their
breath come faster.

In front of them there lay a broad plain, watered by two wind-
ing streams and covered with grass, stretching away to where,
in the furthest distance, the towers of Burgos bristled up against
the light blue morning sky. Over all this vast meadow there
lay a great city of tents—thousands upon thousands of them,
laid out in streets and in squares like a well-ordered town;
High silken pavilions or colored marquees, shooting up from
among the crowd of meaner dwellings, marked where the great
lords and barons of Leon and Castile displayed their standards,
while over the white roofs, as far as eye could reach, the waving
of ancients, pavons, pensils, and banderoles, with flash of gold
and glow of colors, proclaimed that all the chivalry of Iberia
were mustered in the plain beneath them. Far off, in the ^entre
of the camp, a huge palace of red and white silk, with the royal
arms of Castile waiving from the summit, announced that the
gallant Henry lay there in the midst of his warriors.

As the English adventurers, peeping out from behind their
brushwood screen, looked down upon this wondrous sight they
could see that the vast army in front of them was already afoot.
The first pink light of the rising sun glittered upon the steel caps
and breastplates of dense masses of slingers and of crossbowmen,
who drilled and marched in the spaces which had been left for
their exercise. A thousand columns of smoke reeked up into the
pure morning air where the faggots were piled and the camp-
kettles already simmering. In the open plain clouds of light
horse galloped and swooped with swaying bodies and waving,326

THE WHITE COMPANY.

javelins, after the fashion which the Spanish had adopted from
their Moorish enemies. All along by the sedgy banks of the
rivers long lines of pages led their masters' chargers down
to water, while the knights themselves lounged in gayly-dressed
groups about the doors of their pavilions, or rode out, with their
falcons upon their wrists and their greyhounds behind them, in
quest of quail or of leveret.

"By my hilt! mon gar.," whispered Aylward to Alleyne, as
the young squire stood with parted lips and wondering eyes,
gazing down at the novel scene before him, "we have been
seekirjg them all night, but now that we have found them I
know not what we are to do with them."

"You say sooth, Samkin," quoth old Johnston. "I would
that we were , upon the far side of Ebro again, for there is
neither honor nor profit to be gained here. What say you,
Simon ? s'

"By the rood ! " cried the fierce man-at-arms, " I will see the
color of their blood ere I turn my mare's head for the mountains.
Am I a child, that I should ride for three days and nought but
words at the end of it ? "

"Well said, my sweet honeysuckle !" cried Hordle John.
" I am with you, like hilt to blade. Could I but lay hands upon
one of those gay prancers yonder, I doubt not that I should have
ransom enough from him to buy my mother a new cow."

"A cow ! " said Aylward. " Say rather ten acres and a home-
stead on the banks of Avon."

" Say you so ? Then, by our Lady ! here is for yonder one in
the red jerkin !"

He was about to push recklessly forward into the open, when
Sir Nigel himself darted in front of him, with his hand upon
his breast.

" Back ! " said he. " Our time is not yet come, and we must
lie here until evening. Throw off your jacks and headpieces,
least their eyes catch the shine, and tether the horses among the
rocks."

The order was swiftly obeyed, and in ten minutes the archers
were stretched along by the side of the brook, munching the
bread and the bacon which they had brought in their bags, and
'craning their necks to watch the ever-changing scene beneath
them. Very quiet and still they lay, save for a muttered jest or
whispered order, for twice during the long morning they heardTHE WHITE COMPANY.

327

bugle-calls from amid the hills on either side of them, which
showed that they had thrust themselves in between the outposts
of the enemy. The leaders sat amongst the box-wood, and took
counsel together as to what they should do ; while from below
there surged up the buzz of voices, the shouting, the neighing of
horses, and all the uproar of a great camp.

" What boots it to wait ? " said Sir William Felton. "Let us
ride down upon their camp ere they discover us."

" And so say I," cried the Scottish earl ; " for they do not know
that there is any enemy within thirty long leagues of them."

" For my part," said Sir Simon Burley, "I think that it is
madness, for you cannot hope to rout this great army ; and
where are you to go and what are you to do when they have,
turned upon you ? How say you, Sir Oliver Buttesthorn ? "

" By the apple of Eve ! " cried the fat knight, « it appears to
me that this wind brings a very savory smell of garlic and of
onions from their cooking-kettles. I am in favor of riding down
upon them at once, if my old friend and comrade here is of the
same mind."

" Nay," said Sir Nigel, " I have a plan by which we may at-
tempt some small deed upon them, and yet, by the help of God,
may be able to draw off again ; which, as Sir Simon Burley
hath said, would be scarce possible in any other way."

" How then, Sir Nigel ? " asked several voices.

" We shall lie here all day ; for amid this brushwood it is ill
for them to see us. Then when evening comes we shall sally
out upon them and see if we may not gain some honorable
advancement from them."

" But why then rather than now ? "

" Because we shall have nightfall to cover us when' we draw
off, so that we may make our way back through the mountains.
I would station a score of archers here in the pass, with all our
penaons jutting forth from the rocks, and as many nakirs and
drums and bugles as we have with us, so that those who follow
us in the fading light may think that the whole army of the
prince is upon them, and fear to go further. What think you
of my plan, Sir Simon ? "

" By my troth ! I think very well of it," cried the prudent old
commander. " If four hundred men must needs run a tilt
against sixty thousand, I cannot see how they can do it better or
more safely."328	THE WHITE COMPANY.

"And so say I," cried Felton, heartily. "But I wish the day
were over, for it will be an ill thing for us if they chance to light
upon us."

The words were scarce out of his mouth when there came a
clatter of loose stones, the sharp clink of trotting hoofs, and a
dark-faced cavalier, mounted upon a white horse, burst
through the bushes and rode swiftly down the valley from the
end which was farthest from the Spanish camp. Lightly armed,
with his vizor open and a hawk perched upon his left wrist, he
looked about him with the careless air of a man who is bent
wholly upon pleasure, and unconscious of the possibility of
danger. Suddenly, however, his eyes lit upon the fierce faces
which glared out at him from the brushwood. With a cry of
terror, he thrust his spurs into his horse's sides and dashed for
the narrow opening of the gorge. For a moment it seemed as
though he would have reached it, for he had trampled over or
dashed aside the archers who threw themselves in his way ; but
Hordle John seized him by the foot in his grasp of iron and
dragged him from the saddle, while two others caught the
frightened horse.

" Ho, ho ! " roared the great archer. " How many cows wilt
buy my mother, if I set thee free ? "

" Hush that bull's bellowing !" cried Sir Nigel impatiently.
" Bring the man here. By St. Paul ! it is not the first time that
we have met; for, if I mistake not, it is Don Diego Alvarez,
who was once at the prince's court."

" It is indeed I," said the Spanish knight, speaking in the
French tongue, " and I pray you to pass your swerd through
my heart ; for how Can I live—I, a caballero of Castile—after
being dragged from my horse by the base hands of a common
archer ? "

"Fret not for that," answered Sir Nigel. "For, in sooth,
had he not pulled you down, a dozen cloth-yard shafts had
crossed each other in your body."

"By St. James ! it were better so than to be polluted by his
touch," answered the Spaniard, with his black eyes sparkling
with rage and hatred. " I trust that I am now the prisoner of
some honorable knight or gentleman."

" You are the prisoner of the man who took you, Sir Diego,"
answered Sir Nigel. " And I may tell you that better men thai*THE WHITE COMPANY.



either you or I have found themselves before now prisoners in
the hands of archers of England."

".What ransom, then, does he demand ? " asked the Spaniard.

Big John scratched his red head and grinned in high delight
when the question was propounded to him. "Tell him," said
he, "that I shall have ten cows and a bull too, if it be but a little
one. Also a dress of blue sendall for mother and a red one for
Joan ; with five acres of pasture-land, two scythes, and a fine
new grindstone. Likewise a small house, with stalls for the
cows, and thirty-six gallons of beer for the thirsty weather."

" Tut, tut! " cried Sir Nigel, laughing. " All these -things
may be had for money ; and I think, Don Diego, that five
thousand crovms is not too much for so renowned a knight."

" It shall be duly paid him."

" For some days we must keep you with us ; and I must crave
leave also to use your shield, your armor, and your horse."

" My harness is yours by the law of arms," said the Spaniard,
gloomily. *

" I do but ask the loan of it. I have need of it this day, but
it shall be duly returned to you. Set guards, Aylward, with
arrow on string, at either end of the pass ; for it may happen
that some other cavaliers may visit us ere the time be come."
All day the little band of Englishmen lay in the sheltered gorge,
looking down upon the vast host of their unconscious enemies.
Shortly after mid-day, a great uproar of shouting and cheering1
broke put in the camp, with mustering of- men and calling of
bugles. Clambering up among the rocks, the companions saw
a long rolling cloud of dust along the whole eastern sky-line,
with the glint of spears and the flutter of pennons, which an-
nounced the approach of a large body of cavalry. For a moment
a wild hope came upon them that perhaps the prince had moved
more swiftly than had been planned, that he had crossed the
Ebro, and that this was his vanguard sweeping to the attack.

" Surely I see the red pile of Chandos at the head of yonder
squadron !" cried Sir Richard Causton, shading his eyes with
his hand.

"Not so," answered Sir Simon Burley, who had watched the
approaching host with a darkening face. " It is even as I feared.
That is the double eagle of Du Guesclin."

" You say very truly," cried the Earl of Angus. " These are
the levies of France, for I can see the ensigns of the Marshal330

THE WHITE COMPANY.

d'Andreghen, with that of the Lord of Antoing and of Brisetiil,
and of many another from Brittany and Anjou."

"By St. Paul! I am very glad of it," said Sir Nigel. "Of
these Spaniards I know nothing; but the French are very,
worthy gentlemen, and will do what they can for our advance-
ment."

" There are at the least four thousand of them, and all men-
at-arms," cried Sir William Felton. "See, there is Bertrand
himself, beside his banner, and there is King Henry, who rides
to welcome him. Now they all turn and come into the camp
.together."

As he spoke, the vast throng of Spaniards and of Frenchmen
trooped across the plain, with brandished arms and tossing
banners. All daylong the sound of revelry and of rejoicing
from the crowded camp swelled up to the ears of tke English-
men, and they could see the soldiers of the two nations throwing
themselves into each other's arms and dancing hand-in-hand
round the blazing fires. The sun had sunk behind a cloud-bank
in the west before Sir Nigel at last gave word that the men
should resume their arms and have their horses ready. He had
himself thrown off his armor, and had dressed himself from head
to foot in the harness of the captured Spaniard.

"Sir William," said he, " it is my intention to attempt a small
deed, and I ask you therefore that you will lead this outfall
upon the camp. For me, I will ride into their camp with my
squire and two archers. I pray you to watch me, and to ride
forth when I am come among the tents. You wPi leave twenty
men behind here, as we planned this morning, ar.d you will ride
back here after you have have ventured as far as seems good to
.you."

"I will do as you order, Nigel ; but what is it that you pro-
pose to do ? "

"You will see anon, and indeed it is but a trifling matter.
Alleyne, you will come with me, and lead a spare horse by the
bridle. I will have the two archers who rode with us through
Franee, for they are trusty men and of stout heart. Let them
ride behind us, and let them leave their bows here among the
bushes for it is not my wish that they should know that we are
Englishmen. Say no word to any whom we may meet, and,, if
any speak to you, pass on as though you heard them not. Are
you ready ? "THE WHITE COMPANY.

"33*

"I am ready, my fair lord," said Alleyne.

" And I," " And I," cried Aylward and John.

" Then the rest I leave to your wisdom, Sir William ; and if
God sends us fortune we shall meet you again in this gorge ere
it be dark/

So saying, Sir Nigel mounted the white horse of the Spanish
cavalier, and rode, quietly forth from his concealment with his
three companions behind him, Alleyne leading his master's own
steed by the bridle. So many small parties of French and Span-
ish horse were sweeping hither ( and thither that the small band
attracted little notice, and making its way at a gentle trot across
the plain, they came as far as the camp without challenge or
hindrance. On and on they pushed past the endless lines of
tents, amid the dense swarms of horsemen and of footmen, until
the huge royal pavilion stretched in front of them. They were
close upon it when of a sudden there broke out a wild hub-
bub from a distant portion of the camp, with screams and wTar-
cries and all the wild tumult of battle. At the sound soldiers
came rushing from their tents, knights shouted loudly for their
squires, and there was mad turmoil on every hand of bewildered
men and plunging horses. At the royal tent a crowd of gor-
geously dressed servants ran hither and thither in helpless panic
for the guard of soldiers who were stationed there had already
ridden off in the direction of the alarm. A man-at-arms on
either side of the doorway were the sole protectors of the royal
dwelling.

" I have come for the king," whispered Sir Nigel; " and, by
Saint Paul 1 he must back with us or I must, bide here."

Alleyne and Aylward sprang from their horses, and flew at
the two sentries, who were disarmed and beaten down in an in-
stant by so furious and unexpected an attack. Sir Nigel dashed
into the royal tent, and was followed by Hordle John as soon as
the horses had been secured. From within came wild scream-
ings and the clash of steel, and then the two emerged once
more, their swords and forearms reddened with blood, while
John bore over his shoulder the senseless body of a man whose
gay surcoat, adorned with the lions and towers of Castile, pro-
claimed him to belong to the royal house. A crowd of white-
faced sewers and pages swarmed at their heels, those behind
pushing forwards, while the foremost shrank back from the fierce
faces and reeking weapons of the adventurers. The senseless332

THE WHITE COMPANY.

body was thrown across the spare horse, the four sprang to their
saddles, and away the^r thundered with loose reins and busy
spurs through the swarming camp.

But confusion and disorder still reigned among the Spaniards,
for Sir William Felton and his men had swept through half their
camp, leaving a long litter of the dead and the dying to mark
their course. Uncertain who were their attackers, and unable
to tell their English enemies from their newly-arrived Breton
allies, the Spanish knights rode wildly hither and thither in aim-
less fury. The mad turmoil, the mixture of races, and the
fading light, were all in favor of the four who alone knew
their own purpose among the vast uncertain multitude. Twice
ere they reached open ground they had to break their way
through small bodies of horses, and once there came a whistle of
arrows and singing of stones about their ears ; but, still dashing
onwards, they shot out from among the tents and found their
own comrades retreating for the mountains at no very great dis-
tance from them. Another five minutes of wild galloping over
the plain, and they were all back in their gorgt, while their pur-
suers fell back before the rolling of drums and blare of trumpets,
which seemed to proclaim that the vvhole army of the prince was
about to emerge from the mountain passes.

"By my soul! Nigel," cried Sir Oliver, waving a great boiled
ham over his head, " I have come by something which I may eat
with my truffles ! I had a hard fight for it, for there were three
of them with their mouths open and the knives in their hands,
all sitting agape round the table, when I rushed in upon them.
How say you, Sir William, will you not try the smack of
the famed Spanish swine, though we have but the brook water
to wash it down ? "

"Later, Sir Oliver," answered the old soldier, wiping his
grimed face. "We must further into the mountains ere we be
in safety. But what have we here, Nigel ? "

" It is a prisoner whom I have taken, and in sooth, as he came
from the royal tent and wears the royal arms upon his jupon, I
trust that he is the King of Spain."

" The King of Spain ! " cried the companions, crowding round
in amazement.

" Nay, Sir Nigel," said Felton, peering at the prisoner through
the uncertain light, " I have twice seen Henry of Transtamare,
and certes this man in no way resembles him."THE WHITE COMPANY.

333

"Then, by the light of heaven ! I will ride back for him,"
cried Sir Nigel.

"Nay, nay, the camp is in arms, and it would be rank mad-
\ ness. Who are you, fellow ? " he added in Spanish, " and how
is it that you dare to wear the arms of Castile ?"

■ The prisoner was bent recovering the consciousness which
had been squeezed from him by the grip of Hordle John. " If
it please you," he answered, "I and nine others are the body-
squires of the king, and must ever wear his arms, so as to shield
him from even such perils as have threatened him this night.
The king is at the tent of the brave Du Guesclin, where he will
sup to night. But I am a caballero of-Aragon, Don Sancho
Penelosa, and, though I be no king, I am yet ready to pay a
fitting price for my ransom."

" By Saint Paul! I will not touch your gold," cried Sir Nigel.
" Go back to your master and give him greeting from Sir Nigel
Loring of Twynham Castle, telling him that I had hoped to
make his better acquaintance this night, and that, if I have dis-
ordered his tent, it was but in my eagerness to know so famed
and courteous a knip-ht. Spur on, comrades ! for we must cover
many a league ere we can venture to light fire or to loosen girth.
I had hoped to ride without this patch to-night, but it seems
that I must carry it vet a little longer.'1

CHAPTER XXXVI.

how sir nigel took the patch from his eye.

It was a cold, bleak morning in the beginning of March, and
the mist was drifting in dense rolling clouds through the passes
of the Cantabrian mountains. The Company, who had passed
the night in a sheltered * gully, were already astir, some crowd-
ing round the blazing fires and others romping or leaping over
each other's backs for their limbs were chilled and the air
biting. Here and there, through the dense haze which sur-
rounded them, there loomed out huge pinnacles and jutting
boulders of rock : while high above the sea of vapor there
towered up one gigantic peak, with the pink glow of the early
sunshine upon its snow-capped head. The ground was wet,
the rocks dripping, the grass and ever-greens sparkling with334

THE WHITE COMPANY,

beads of moisture ; yet the camp was loud with laughter and mer-
riment, for a messenger had ridden in from the prince with
words of heart-stirring praise for what they had done, and with
orders that they should still abide in the forefront of the army.

Round one of the fires were clustered four or five of the lead-
ing men of the archers, cleaning the rust from their weapons,
and glancing impatiently from time to time at a great pot which
smoked over the blaze. There was Aylward squatting cross-
legged in his shirt, while he scrubbed away at his chain-mail
brigandine, whistling loudly the while. On one side of him
sat old Johnston, who was busy in trimming the Jeathers of
some arrows to his liking ; and on the other Hordle John, who
lay with his great limbs all asprawl, and his headpiece balanced
upon his uplifted foot. Black Simon of Norwich crouched
amid the rocks, crooning an Eastland ballad to himself, while
he whetted his sword upon a flat stone which lay across his
knees; while beside him sat Alleyne Edricson, and Norbury,
the silent squire of Sir Oliver, holding out their chilled hands
towards the crackling faggots.

" Cast on another culpon, John, and stir the broth with
thy sword-sheath," growled Johnston, looking anxiously for the
twentieth time at the reeking pot.

" By my hilt! " cried Aylward, "now that John hath come by
this great ransom, he will scarce abide the fare of poor archer
lads. How say you, camarade ? When you see Hordle once
more, there will be no penny ale and fat bacon, but Gascon
wines and baked meats every day of the seven."

" I know not about that," said John, kicking his helmet up
into the air and catching it in his hand. " I do but know that
whether the broth be ready or no, I am about to dip this into
it."

" It simmers and it boils," cried Johnston, pushing his hard-
lined face through the smoke. In an instant the pot had been
plucked from the blaze, and its contents had been scooped up
in half a dozen steel head-pieces, which were balanced betwixt
their owners' knees, while, with spoon and gobbet of bread, they
devoured their morning meal.

"It is ill weather for bows," remarked John at last, when,
with a long sigh, he drained the last drop from his helmet
" My strings are as limp as a cow's tail this morning/'THE WHITE COMPANY.	335

k " You should rub them with water glue," quoth Johnston.
V You remember, Samkin, that it was wetter than this on the
rooming of CrSc^, and yet I cannot call to mind that there was
a^ght amiss with our strings."

V It is in my thoughts," said Black Simon, still pensively
grinding his sword, " that we may *have need of your strings ere
sundown. I dreamed of the red cow last night."

" &nd what is this red cow, Simon ? " asked Alleyne.

" I know not, young sir; but Ir can only say that on the eve
of Cadsand, and on the eve of Cr£cy, and on the eve of Nogent,
I dreamed of a red cow ; and now the dream has come upon
me again, so I am-now setting a^very keen edge to my blade."

"Well said, old war-dog ! " cried Aylward. "By my hilt ! I
pray that your dream may come true, for the prince hath not set
us out here to drink broth or to gather whortleberries. One'
more fight, and I am ready to hang up my bow, marry a wife,
and take to the fire corner. But how now, Robin ? Whom is
it that you seek ? "

" The Lord Loring craves your attendance in his tent," said>
young archer to Alleyne. -	^

The squire rose and proceeded to the pavilion, where he found
the knight seated upon a cushion, with his legs crossed in front
of him and a broad ribbon of parchment laid across his kneesr
over which he was poring with frowning brows and pursed
lips.

" It came this morning by the prince's messenger," said he,
"and was brought from England by Sir John Fallislee, who is
new come from Sussex. What make you of this upon the outer
side ?"

" It is fairly and clearly written," Alleyne answered, " and it
signifies To Sir Nigel Loring, Knight Constable of Twynham
Castle, by the hand of Christopher, the servant of God at the
Priory ofChristchurch."*

" So I read it," said Sir Nigel. " Now I pray you to read what
is set forth within."

Alleyne turned to the letter, and, as his eyes rested upon it,
his face turned pale and a cry of surprise and grief burst from
his lips.

"What then ? " asked the knight, peering up at him anxiously;
" There is nought amiss with the Lady Mary or with the Lady
Maude?"	~30

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" It is my brother—my pobr unhappy brother ! " cried Alleyne,
with his hand to his brow. " He is dead."

41 By Saint Paul ! I have never heard that h® had shown so
much love for you that you should mourn him so."

" Yet he was my brother—the only kith or kin that I had upon
earth. Mayhap he had cause to be bitter against me, for his
land was given to the abbey for my upbringing. Alas ! alas !
and I raised my staff against him when last we met ! He has
been slain—and slain, I fear, amidst crime and violence."
" Ha !" said Sir Nigel. " Read on, I pray you,"

" * God be with thee, my honored lord, and have thee in his
holy keeping. The Lady Loring.hath asked me to set down in
writing what hath befallen at Twynham, and all that concerns
the death of thy ill neighbor the Socman of Minstead. For when
ye had left us, this evil man gathered around him all outlaws,
villeins, and masterless men, until they were come to such a
force that they slew and scattered the king's men who went
against them. Then, coming forth from the woods, they laid
siege to thy castle, and for two days they girt us in and shot
hard against us, with such numbers as were a marvel to see.
Yet the Lady Loring held the place stoutly, and on the second
day the Socman was slain—by his own men, as some think—so ,
that we were delivered from their hands ; for which praise be
to all the saints, and more especially to" the holy Anselm, upon
whose feast it came to pass. The Lady Loring, and the Lady
Maude, thy fair daughter, are in good health ; and so also am
I, save for an imposthume of the toe-joint, which hath been sent
me for my sins. May all the saints preserve thee ! '"

» It was the vision of the Lady Tiphiaine/' said Sir Nigel, after
a pause. " Marked you not how she said that th$ leader was
one with a yellow beard, and how he fell before the gate. But
how came it, Alleyne, that this woman, to whom all things ar^
as crystal, and who hath not said one wortf which has not come
to pass, was yet so led astray as to Say that your thoughts
turned to Twynham Castle even morq than my own ? "

««My fair lord," said Alleyne, with a flush on his weather-
stained cheeks, " the Lady Tiphaine may have spoken sooth
when she said it; for Twynham Castle is in my heart by day
and in my dreams by night."	'

" Ha !" cried Sir Nigel, with a sidelong glance.

" Yes, my fair lord ; for indeed I love your daughter, the LadyTHE WHITE COMPANY.

33?

Maude ; and, unworthy as I am, I would give my heart's blood
to serve her."

4<By St. Paul ! Edricson," said the knight coldly, arching his
eyebrows, "you aim high in this matter. Our blood is very
old."

"And mine also is very old," answered the squire.

" And the Lady Maude is our single child. All our name and
lands centre upon her."

" Alas! that I should say it, but I also am now the only
Edricson."

"And why have I not heard this from you before, Alleyne ?
In sooth, I think that you have used me ill."

" Nay, my fair lord, say not so ; for I know not whether your
daughter loves me, and there is no pledge between us."

Sir Nigel pondered for a few moments, and then burst out
a-laughing. " By St. Paul ! " said he, " I know not wh^ I should
mix in the matter; for I have ever found that the Lady Maude
was very well able to look to her own affairs. Since first she
could stamp her little foot, she hath ever been able to get that
for which she craved ; and if she set her heart on thee, Alleyne,
and thou on her, I do not think that this Spanish king, with his
three-score thousand men, could hold you apart. Yet this I
will say, that I would see you a full knight ere you go to my
daughter with words of love. I have ever said that a brave
lance should wed her ; and, by my soul! Edricson, if God spare
you, I think that you wi.1V acquit yourself well. But enough of
such trifles, for we have our work before us, and it will be time ^
to speak of this matter when we see the white cliffs of England
once more. Go to Sir William Felton, I pray you, and ask him
to come hither, for it is time that we were marching. The^ is
no pass at the further end of the valley, and it is a perilous place
should an enemy come upon us."

Alleyne delivered his message, and then wandered forth
from the camp, for his mind was all in a whirl with this
unexpected news, and with his talk with Sir Nigel. Sitting
upon a rock, with his burning brow resting upon his hands, he
thought of his brother, of their quarrel, of the Lady Maude
in her bedraggled riding-dress, of the gray old castle, of the
proud pale face in the armory, and of the last fiery words with
which she had sped him on his way. Then he was but a penni-
less, monk-bred lad, unknown and unfriended. Now he was338

THE WHITE COMPANY.

himself Socman of Minstead, the head of an old stock, and the
lord of an estate which, if reduced from its former size, was still
ample to preserve the dignity of his family. Further, he had
become a man of experience, was counted brave among brave
men, had won the esteem and confidence of her father, and,
above all, had been listened to by him when he told him the
secret of his love. As to the gaining of knighthood, in such
stirring times it was no great matter for a brave squire of gentle
birth to aspire to that honor. He would leave his bones among
these Spanish ravines, or he Would do some deed which would
call the eyes of men upon him.

Alleyne was still seated on the rock, his griefs and his joys
drifting swiftly over his mind like the shadow of clouds upon a
sunlit meadow, when of a sudden he became conscious of a low,
deep sound which came bofoming up to him through the fog.
Close behind him he could hear the murmur of the bowmen, the
occasional bursts of hoarse laughter, and the champing and
stamping of their horses. Behind it all, however, came that low-
pitched, deep-toned hum, which seemed to come from every
quarter and to fill the whole air. In the old monastic days he
remembered to have heard such a sound when he had walked
out one windy night at Bucklershard, and had listened to the
long waves breaking upon the shingly shore. Here, however,
was neither wind nor sea, and yet the dull murmur rose ever
louder and stronger out of the heart of the rolling sea of vapor.
^He turned and ran to the camp, shouting an alarm at the top of
his voice.

It was but a hundred paces, and yet ere he had crossed it
every bowman was ready at his horse's head, and the group of
knights were out and listening intently to the ominous sound.

" It is a great body of horse," said Sir William Felton, " and
they are riding very swiftly hitherwards."

uYet they must be from the prince's army," remarked Sir
Richard Causton, " for they come from the north."

" Nay," said tjie Earl of Angus, " it is not so certain ; for the
peasant with whom we spoke last night said that it was ru-
mored that Don Tello, the Spanish king's brother, had ridden
with six thousand chosen men to beat up the prince's camp. It
may be that on their backward road they have come this way."

"By St. Paul! " cried Sir Nigel, " I think that il is even as
you say, for that same peasant had a sour face and a shiftingTHE WHITE COMPANY.

339

eye, as one who bore us little good will. I doubt not that he
has brought these cavaliers upon us."

"But the mist covers us," said Sir Simon Burley. "We have
yet time to ride through the further end of the pass. "

" Were we a troop of mountain goats we might do so," an-
swered Sir William Felton, " but it is not to be passed by a com-
pany of horsemen. If these be indeed Don Tello and his men,
then we must bide where we are, and do what we can to make
them rue the day that they found us in their path."

" Well spoken, William ! " cried Sir Nigel, in high delight.
" If there be so many as has been said, then there will be much
honor to be gained from them and every hope of advancement.
But the sound has ceased, and I fear that they have gone some
other way."

" Or mayhap they have come to the mouth of the gorge, and
are marshalling their ranks. Hush and hearken ! for they are
no great way from us."

The Company stood peering into the dense fog-wreath, amidst
a silence so profound that the dripping of the water from the
rocks and the breathing of the horses grew loud upon the ear.
Suddenly from out the sea of mist came the shrill sound- of a
neigh, followed by a long blast upon a bugle.

" It is a Spanish call, my fair lord," said Black Simon. " It is
used by their prickers and huntsmen when the beast hath not
fled, but is still in its lair."

"By my faith!" said Sir Nigel, smiling, "if they are in a
humor for venerie we may promise them some sport ere they
sound the mort over us. But there is a hill in the centre of
the gorge on which we might take our stand."

"I marked it yester-night," said Felton, "and no better spot
could be found for our purpose, for it is very steep at the back.
It it but a bow-shot to the left, and, indeed, I can see the shadow
of it."

The whole Company, leading their horses, passed across to
the small hill which loomed in front of them out of the mist. It
was indeed admirably designed for defence, for it sloped down
in front, all jagged and boulder-strewn, while it fell away behind
in a sheer cliff of a hundred feet or more. On the summit was
a small uneven plateau, with a stretch across of a hundred paces,
and a depth of half as much again.

"Unloose the horses! " said Sir Nigel, «« We have no space34°

THE WHITE COMPANY.

for fchem, and if we hold our own we shall have horses and to

spare when this day's work is done. Nay, keep yours, my fair
sirs, for we may have work for them. Aylward, Johnston, let
your men form a harrow on either side of the ridge. Sir Oliver
and you, my Lord Angus, I give you the right wing, and the left
to you, Sir Simon, and to you, Sir Richard Causton. I and Sir
William Felton will hold the centre with our men-at-arms. Now
order the ranks, and fling wide the banners, for our souls are
God's and our bodies the king's, and our swords for Saint George
and for England ! "

Sir Nigel had scarcely spoken when the mist seemed to thin
in the valley, and to shred away into long ragged clouds which
trailed from the edges of the cliffs. The gorge in which they
had camped was a mere wedge-shaped cleft among the hills,
three-quarters of a mile deep, with the small rugged rising upon
which they stood at the further end, and the brown erags walling
it in on three sides. As the mist parted, and the sun broke
through, it gleamed and shimmered with dazzling brightness
upon the armor and headpieces of a vast body of horsemen who
stretched across the barranca from one cliff to the other, and
extended backwards until their rear-guard were far out upon
the plain beyond. Line after line, and rank after rank, they
choked the neck of the valley with along vista of tossing pen-
nons, twinkling lances, waving plumes and streaming banderoles,
while the curvets and gambades of the chargers lent a constant
motion and shimmer to the glittering, many-colored mass. A
yell of exultation, and a forest of waving steel through the length
and breadth of their column, announced that they could at last
see their entrapped enemies, while the swelling notes of a hun-
dred bugles and drums, mixed with the clash of Moorish cymbals,
broke forth into a proud peal of martial triumph. Strange it
was to these gallant and sparkling cavaliers of Spain to look upon
this handful of men upon the hill, the thin lines of bowmen, the^
knots of knights and men-at-arms with armor rusted and dis-
colored from long service, and to learn that thesa were indeed
the soldiers whose fame and prowess had been the camp-fire
talk of every army in Christendom. Very still and silent they
stood, leaning upon their bows, while their leaders took counsel
together in front of them. No clang of bugle rose from their
stern ranks, but in the centre waved the leopards of England,
on the right the ensign of their Company with the roses ofLoring,THE WHITE COMPANY.	34t

and on the left, over three score of Welsh bowmen, there floated
the red banner of Merlin with the boars'-heads of the Buttes-
thorns. Gravely %and sedately they stood beneath the morning
sun waiting for the onslaught of their foemen.

" By Saint Paul! " said Sir Nigel, gazing with puckered eye
down the valley, " there appear to be some very worthy people
among them. What is this golden banner which waves upon
the left ? "	s

"It is the ensign of the Knights of Calatrava," answered Fel-
ton.

" And the other upon the right ? "

"It marks the Knights of Santiago, and I see by his flag that
their grand-master rides at their head. There too is the banner
of Castile amid yonder sparkling squadron which heads the
the main battle. There are six thousand men-at-arms with ten
squadrons of slingers as far as I may judge their numbers."

" There are Frenchmen among them, my fair lord," remarked
Black Simon. "I can see the pennons of De Couvette, De
Brieux, Saint Pol, and many others who struck in against us for
Charles of Blois,"

" You are right," said Sir William, " for I can also see them.
There is much Spanish blazonry also, if I could but read it.
Don Diego, you know the arms of your own land. Who are
they who have done us this honor ? "

The Spanish prisoner looked with exultant eyes upon the deep
and serried ranks of his countrymen.

" By Saint James ! " said he, " if ye fall this day ye fall by no
mean hands, for the flower of the knighthood of Castile ride
under the banner of Don Tello, with the chivalry of Asturias,
Toledo, Leon, Cordova, Galicia, and Seville. I see the guidons
of Albornez, Ca£orla, Rodriguez, Tavora, with the two great
orders, and the knights of France and of Aragon. If you will
take my rede you will come to a composition with them, for
they will give you such terms as you have given me."

"Nay, by Saint Paul! it were pity if so many brave men
were drawn together, and no little deed of arms to come of it.
Ha ! William, they advance upon us ; and, by my soul! it is a
sight that is worth coming over the seas to see."

As he spoke, the two wings of the Spanish host, consisting of
the Knights of Calatrava on the one side and of Santiago upon
the other, came swooping swiftly down the valley, while the342

thef white company.

main body followed more slowly behind. Five hundred paces
from the English the two great bodies of horse crossed each
other, and, sweeping round in a curve, retirecUin feigned confu-
sion towards their centre. Often in bygone wars had the Moors
tempted the hot-blooded Spaniards from their places of strength
by such pretended flights, but there were men upon the hilf to
whom every ruse and trick of war were as their daily trade and
practice. Again and even nearer came the rallying Spaniards,
and again with cry of fear and stooping bodies they swerved off
to right and left, but the English still stood stolid and observant
among their rocks. The vanguard halted a long bow-shot from
the hill, and with waving spears and vaunting shouts challenged
their enemies to come forth, while two cavaliers, pricking for-
ward from the glittering ranks, walked their horses slowly be-
tween the two arrays with targets braced and lances in rest like
the challengers in a tourney.

" By Saint Paul!" cried Sir Nigel, with his one eye glowing
like an ember, " these appear to be two very worthy and debo-
nair gentlemen. I do not call to mind when I have seen any
people who seemed of so great a heart and so high of enterprise.
We have our horses, Sir William : shall we not relieve them of
any vow which they may have upon their souls ? "

Felton's reply was to bound upon his charger, and to urge it
down the slope, while Sir Nigel followed not three spears'-lengths
behind him. - It was a rugged course, rocky and uneven, yet the
two knights, choosing their men, dashed onwards at the top
of their speed, while the gallant Spaniards flew as swiftly to
meet them. The one to whom F elton found himself opposed was
a tall stripling with a stag's head upon his shield, while Sir
Nigel's man was broad and squat, with plain steel harness, and
a pink and white torse bound round his helmet. The first struck
Felton on the target with such force as to split it from side to
side, but Sir William's lance crashed through the camail which
shielded the Spaniard's throat, and he fell, screaming hoarsely,
to the ground. Carried away by the heat and madness of fight,
the English knight never drew rein, but charged straight on
into the array of the knights of Calatrava. Long time the silent
ranks upon the hill could see a swirl and eddy deep down in the
heart of the Spanish column, with a circle of rearing chargers
and flashing blades. Here and there tossed the white plume
of the English helmet, rising and falling like the foam upon aTHE WHITE COMPANY.

343

vyave, with the fierce gleam and sparkle ever circling round it,
until at last it had sunk from view, and another brave man had
turned from war to peace.

Sir Nigel, meanwhile, had found a foeman worthy of his steel,
for his opponent was none other than Sebastian Gomez, the
picked lance of the monkish Knights of Santiago, who had won
fame in a hundred bloody cqmbats with the Moors of Andalusia.
So fierce was their meeting that their spears shivered up to the
very grasp, and the horses reared backwards until it seemed
that they must crash down upon their riders. Yet with consum-
mate horsemanship they both swung round in a long curvet, and
then plucking out their swords they lashed at each other like
two lusty smiths hammering upon an anvil. The chargers spun
round each other, biting and striking, while the two blades
.wheeled and whizzed and circled in gleams of dazzling light.
Cut, parry, and thrust followed so swiftly upon each other that
the eye could not follow them, *until at last coming thigh to
thigh, they cast their arms around each other and rolled off their
saddles to the ground. The heavier Spaniard threw himself
upon his enemy, and pinning him down beneath him raised his
sword to slay him, while a shout of triumph rose from the ranks
of his countrymen. But the fatal blow never fell, for even as his
arm quivered before descending, the Spaniard gave a shudder,1
and stiffening himself rolled heavily over upon his side, with the
blood gushing from his armpit and from the slit of his vizor.
Sir Nigel sprang to his feet with his bloody dagger in his left
hand and gazed down upon his adversary, but that fatal and
sudden stab in the vital spot, which the Spaniard had exposed
by raising his arm, had proved instantly mortal. The English-
man leaped upon his horse and made for the hill, at the very
instant that a yell of rage from a thousand voices and the clang
of a score of bugles announced the Spanish onset.

But-the islanders were ready and eager for the encounter.
With feet firmly planted, their sleeves rolled back to give free
play to their muscles, their long yellow bow-staves in their left
hands, and their quivers slung to the front, they had waited, in
the four-deep harrow formation which gave strength to their ar-
ray, and yet permitted every man to draw his arrow freely with-
out harm to those in front. Aylward and Johnston had been
engaged in throwing light tufts of grass into the air to gauge
the wind force, and a hoarse whisper passed down the ranksm

the white eeifpairr.

from the file-leaders to the men, with scraps of advice aiid
admonition.

" Do not shoot outside the fifteen-score paces," cried John-
ston. " We may need all our shafts ere we have done with
them."

" Better to overshoot than to undershoot," added Aylward.
"Better to strike the rear guard than to feather a shaft in the
earth."

" Loose quick and sharp when they come,"* added another.
" Let it be the eye to the string., the string to the shaft, and the
shaft to the mark. By Our Lady ! their banners advance, and
we must hold our ground now if ever we are to see Southamp-
ton Water again."

Alleyne, standing with his sword drawn amidst the archers,
saw a long toss and .heave of the glittering squadrons. Then
the front ranks began to surge slowly forward, to trot, to canter,
to gallop, and in an instant the whole vast array was hurtling
onward, line after line, the air full of the thunder of their cries,
the ground shaking with the beat of their hoofs, the valley
choked with the rushing torrent of steel, topped by the waving
plumes, the slanting spears and the fluttering banderoles. On
they swept over the level and up to the slope, ere they met the
blinding storm of the English arrows. Down went the whole
ranks in a whirl of mad confusion, horses plunging and kicking,
bewildered men falling, rising, staggering on or back, while
ever new lines of horsemen came spurring through the gaps and
urged their chargers up the fatal slope. All around him Al-
leyne could hear the stern, short orders of the master-bowmen,
while the air was filled with the keen twanging of the strings
and the swish and patter of the shafts. Right across the foot of
the hill there had sprung up a long wall of struggling horses
and stricken men, which ever grew and heightened as fresh
squadrons poured on the attack. One young knight on a gray
jennet leaped over his fallen comrades and galloped swiftly up
the hill, shrieking loudly upon Saint James, ere he fell within a
spear-length of the English line, with the feathers of arrows
thrusting out from every crevice and joint of his armor. So for
five long minutes the gallant horsemen of Spain and of France
strove ever and again to force a passage, until the wailing note
of a bugle called them back, asid they rode slowly out of bow>THE WHITE COMPANY.	345

shot, leaving their best and their bravest in the ghastly, blood-
mottled heap behind them.	t

But there was little rest for the victors. Whilst the knights
had charged them in front the slingers had crept round upon
either flank and had gained a footing upon the cliffs and behind
the outlying rocks. A storm of stones broke suddenly upon the
defenders, who, drawn up in lines upon the exposed summit, of-
fered a fair mark to their hidden foes. Johnston, the old archer,,
was struck upon the temple and fell dead without a groan, while
fifteen of his bowmen and six of the men-at-arms were struck
down at the same moment. The others lay on their faces to
avoid-the deadly hail, while at each side of the plateau a fringe
of bowmen exchanged shots with the slingers and crossbowmen
among the rocks, aiming mainly at those who" had swarmed up
the cliffs, and bursting into laughter and cheers when a well-
aimed shaft brought one of their opponents toppling down from
his lofty perch.

MI think, Nigel," said Sir Oliver, striding across to the little
knight, " that we should all acquit ourselves better had we our
none-meat, for the sun is high in the heaven."

" By Saint Paul ! " quoth Sir Nigel, plucking the patch from
his eye, " I think that I am now clear of my vow, for this Spanish
knight was a person from whom much honor might be won.
Indeed, he was a very worthy gentleman, of good courage, and
great hardiness, and it grieves me that he should have come by
such a hurt. As to what you say of food, Oliver, it is not to be
thought of, for we have nothing with us upon the hill."

"Nigel !" cried Sir Simon Burley, hurrying up with conster-
nation upon his face, " Aylward tells me that there are not ten-
score arrows left in all their sheaves. See ! they are springing
from their horses, and cutting their sollerets that they may rush
upon us. Might we not even now make a retreat ? "

" My soul will retreat from my body first! " cried the little
knight. "Here. I am, and here I bide, while God gives me
strength to lift a sword."

" And so say I !" shouted Sir Oliver, throwing his mace high
into the air and catching it again by the handle.

" To your arms, men ! " roared Sir Nigel. " Shoot while you
may, and then out sword, and let us live or die together ! "34^

s' -	'

THE WHITE COMPANY.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

HOW THE WHITE COMPANY CAME TO BE DISBANDED.

THEtf uprose from the hill in the rugged Calabrian valley a
sound such as had not been heard in those parts before, nor was
again, until the streams which rippled amid the rocks had been
frozen by over four hundred winters and thawed by as many re-
turning springs. Deep and full and strong it thundered down
the ravine, the fierce battle-call of a warrior race, the last stern
welcome to whoso Should join with them in that world-old game
where the stake is death. Thrice it swelled forth and thrice it
sank away, echoing and reverberating amidst the crags. Then,
with set faces, the Company rose up among the storm of stones,
and looked down upon the thousands who sped swiftly up the
slope against them. Horse and spear had been set aside, but on
foot, with sword and battle-axe, their broad shields slung in front
of them, the chivalry of Spain rushed to the attack.

And now arose a struggle so fell, so long, so evenly sustained,
that even now the memory of it is handed down amongst the Cala-
brian mountaineers, and the ill-omened knoll is still pointed out by
fathers to their children as the " Altura de los Inglesos," where
the men from across the sea fought the great fight with the knights
of the south. The last arrow was quickly shot, nor could the
slingers hurl their stones, so close were friend and foe. From
side to side stretched the thin line of the English, lightly armed
and quick-footed, while against it stormed and raged the pressing
throng of fiery Spaniards and of gallant Bretons. The clink of
crossing sword-blades, the dull thudding of heavy blows, the
panting and gasping of weary and wounded men, all rose to-
gether in a wild, long-drawn note, which swelled upwards to
the ears of the wondering peasants who looked down from the
edges of the cliffs upon the swaying turmoil of the battle beneath
them. Back and forward reeled the leopard banner, now borne
up the slope by the rush and weight of the onslaught, now push-
ing downwards again as Sir Nigel, Burley, and Black Simon*THE WHITE COMPANY.

With thjeir veteran men-at arms, flung themselves madly into the
fray. Alleyne, at his lord's right hand, found himself swept
hither and thither in the desperate struggle, exchanging savage
thrusts one instant with a Spanish cavalier, and the next torn
away by the whirl of men and. dashed up against some new
antagonist. To the right Sir Oliver, Aylward, Hordle John, and
the bowmen of the Company fought furiously against the monkish
Knights of Santiago, who were led up the hill by their prior—a
great, deep-chested man, who wore a brown monastic habit
over his suit of mail. Three archers he slew in three giant
strokes, but Sir Oliver flung his arms round him, and the two,
staggering and straining, reeled backwards and fell, locked in
each other's grasp, over the edge of the steep cliff which flanked
the hill. In vain his knights stormed and raved against the thin
line which barred their path : the sword of Aylward and the
great axe of John gleamed in the forefront of the battle and huge
jagged pieces of rock, hurled by the strong arms of the bowmen,
crashed and hurtled amid their ranks. Slowly they gave back
down the hill, the archers still hanging upon their skirts, with a
long litter of writhing and twisted figures to mark the course
which they had taken. At the same instant the Welshmen upon
the left, led on by the Scotch earl, had charged out from among
the rocks which sheltered them, and by the fury of their outfall
had driven the Spaniards in front of them in headlong flight
down the hill. In the centre only things seemed to be going ill
with the defenders. Black Simon was down—dying, as he
would wish to have died, like a grim old wolf in its lair with a
ring of his slain around him. Twice Sir Nigel had been over-
borne, and twice Alleyne had fought over him until he had
staggered to his feet once more. Burley lay senseless, stunned
by a blow from a mace, and half of the men-at-arms lay littered
upon the ground around him. Sir Nigel's shield was broken, his
crest shorn, his armor cut and smashed, and the vizor torn from
his helmet ; yet he sprang hither and thither with light foot and
ready hand, engaging two Bretons and a Spaniard at the same'
instant—thrusting, stooping, dashing in, springing out—while
Alleyne still fought by his side, stemming with a handful of
men the fierce tide which surged up against them. Yet it would
-have fared ill with them had not the archers from either side
closed in upon the flanks of the attackers, and pressed them very
slowly and foot by foot down the long slope, until they were on348

THE WHITE COMPANY.

the plain once more, where their fellows were already rallying
for a fresh assault.

But terrible indeed was the cost at which the last had been
repelled. Of the three hundred and seventy men who had held
the crest, one hundred and seventy-two were left standing",
many of whom were sorely wounded and weak from loss of
blood. Sir Oliver Buttesthorn, Sir Richard Causton, Sir Simon
Burley, Black Simon, Johnston, a hundred and fifty archers, and
forty-seven men-at-arms had fallen, while the pitiless hail of
stones was already whizzing and piping once more about their
ears, threatening every instant to further reduce their numbers.

Sir Nigel looked about him at his shattered ranks, and his
face flushed with a soldier's pride.

" By St. Paul !" he cried, " I have fought in many a little
bickering, but never one that I would be more loth to have
missed than this. But you are wounded, Alleyrie ? "

" It is nought," answered his squire, stanching the blood
wffich dripped from a sword-cut across his forehead.

" These gentlemen of Spain seem to be most courteous and
worthy people. I see that they are already forming to continue
this debate with us. Form up the bowmen two deep instead of
four. By my faith ! some very brave men have gone from
among us. Aylward, you are a trusty soldier, for all that your
shoulder has never felt accolade, nor your heels worn the gold
spurs. Do you take charge of the right; I will hold the centre,
and you, my Lord of Angus, the left."

" Ho ! for Sir Samkin Aylward 1 " cried a rough voice among
the archers, and a roar of laughter greeted their new leader.

" By my hilt!" said the old bowman, " I never thought to
lead a wing in a stricken field. Stand close, camarades, for, by
these finger-bones ! we must play the man this day."

"Come hither, Alleyne," said Sir Nigel, walking back to the
edge of the cliff which formed the rear of their position. "And
you, Norbury," he continued, beckoning to the squire of Sir
Oliver, " do you also come here."

The two squires hurried across to him, and the three stood
looking down into the rocky ravine which lay a hundred and
fifty feet beneath them.

"The prince must hear of how things are with us," said the
knight. " Another onfall we may withstand, but they are many
and we are few, so that the time must come when we can noTHE WHITE COMPANY.

349

toriger form line across the hill. Yet if help were brought us
we might hold the crest until it comes. See yonder horses which
ttray among the rocks beneath us ? "

" I see them, my fair lord."

" And see yonder path which winds along the hill upon the
further end of the valley ? "

"I see it."

" Were you on those horses, and riding up yonder track, steep
and rough as it is, I think that ye might gain the valley beyond.
Then on to the prince, and tell him how we fare."

"But, my fair lord, how can we hope to reach the horses ?"
asked Norbury.

" Ye cannot go round to them, for they would be upon ye ere
ye could come to them. Think ye that ye have heart enough to
clamber down this cliff ? '*

" Had we but a rope."

" There is one here. It is but one hundred feet long, and for
the rest ye must trust to God and to your fingers. Can you try
it, Alleyne ? "

" With all my heart, my dear lord, but how can I leave you in
such a strait ? "

" Nay, it is to serve me that ye go. And you, Norbury ? "

The silent squire said nothing, but he took up the rope, and,
having examined it, he tied one end firmly round a projecting
rock. Then he cast off his breast-plate, thigh pieces, and
greaves, while Alleyne followed his example.

"Tell Chandos, or Calverley, or Knolles, should the prince
have gone forward," cried Sir Nigel. " Now may God speed ye,
tor ye are brave and worthy men."

It was, indeed, a task which might make the heart of the
©ravest sink within him. The thin cord dangling down the face
of the brown cliff seemed from above to reach little more than
half-way down it. Beyond stretched the rugged rock, wet and
shining, with a green tuft here and there thrusting out from it,
but little sign of ridge or foothold. Far below the jagged points
of the boulders bristled up, dark and menacing. Norbury
tugged thrice with all his strength upon the cord, and then
lowered himself over the edge, while a hundred anxious faces
peered over at him as he slowly clambered downwards to the
end of the rope. Twice he stretched out his foot, and twice he
(ailed to reach the point at which he aimed, but even as heTHE WHITE COMMNY.

swung himself for a third effort a stone from a sling buzzed like
a wasp from amid the rocks and struck him full upon the side of
his head. His grasp relaxed, his feet slipped, and in an instant
he was a crushed and mangled corpse upon the sharp ridges
beneath him.

" If I have no better fortune," said Alleyne, leading Sir Nigel
aside. " I pray you, my dear lord, that you will give my
humbve service to tha Lady Maude, and say to her that I was
ever her true servant and most unworthy cavalier."

The old knight said no word, but he put a hand on either
shoulder, and kissed his squire, with the tears shining in his
eyes. _ Alleyne sprang to the rope, and sliding swiftly down,
soon found himself at its extremity. From above it seemed as
though rope and cliff were wefr-nigh touching, but now, when
swinging a hundred feet down, the squire found that he could
scarce reach the face of the rock with his foot, and that it was
as smooth as glass, with no resting-place where a mouse could
stand. Some three feet lower, however, his eye lit upon a long
jagged crack which slanted downwards, and this he must reach
if he would save not only his own poor life, but that of the eight-
score men above him. Yet it were madness to spring for that
narrow slit with nought but the wet, smooth rock to cling to.
He swung for a moment, fulf of thought, and even as he hung
there another of the hellish stones sang through his curls, and
struck a chip from the face of the cliff. Up he clambered a few
feet, drew up the loose end after him, unslung his belt, held on
with knee and with elbow while he spliced the long, tough
leathern belt to the end of the cord : then lowering himself as
far as he could go, he swung backwards and forwards until his
hand reached the crack, when he left the rope and clung to the
face of the cliff. Another stone struck him on the side, and he
heard a sound like .a breaking stick, with a keen stabbing pain
which shot through his chest. Yet it was no time now to think
of pain or ache. There was his lord and his eight-score com-
rades, and they must be plucked from the jaws of death. On he
clambered, with his hand shuffling down the long sloping crack,
sometimes bearing all his weight upon his arms, at others find-
ing some small shelf or tuft on which to rest his foot. Would
he never pass over that fifty feet ? He dared not look down,
and could but grope slowly onwards, his face to the cliff, his
fingers clutching, his feet scraping and feeling for a support.THE WHITE COMPANY.

35*

Every vein and crack and mottling of that face of rock remained
forever stamped upon his memory. At last, however, his foot
came upon a broad resting-place and he ventured to cast a
glance downwards. Thank God ! he had reached the highest
of those fatal pinnacles upon which his comrade had fallen.
•Quickly now he sprang from rock to rock until his feet were on
the ground, and he had his hand stretched out for the horse's
rein, when a sling-stone struck him on the head, and he dropped
senseless upon the ground.

An evil blow it was for Alleyne, but a worse one still for him
who struck it. The Spanish slinger, seeing the youth lie slain,
and judging from his dress that he was no common man, rushed
forward to plunder him, knowing well that the bowmen above
him had expended their last shaft. He was still three paces,
however, from his victim's side when John upon the cliff above
plucked up a huge boulder, and, poising it for an* instant,
dropped it with fatal aim upon the slinger beneath him. It
struck upon his shoulder, and hurled him, crushed and scream-
ing, to the ground, while Alleyne, recalled to his senses by these
shrill cries in his very ear, staggered on to his'feet, and gazed
wildly about him. His eyes fell upon the horses, grazing upon
the scanty pasture, and in an instant all had come back to him—-
his mission, his comrades, the need for haste. He was dizzy,
sick, faint, but he must not die, and he must not tarry, for his
life meant many lives that day. In an instant he was in his
saddle and spurring down the valley. Loud rang the swift
charger's hoofs over rock ind reef, while the fire flew from the
stroke of iron, and the loose stones showered up behind him.
But his head was whirling round, the blood was gushing from
his brow, his temple, his mouth. Ever keener and sharper was
the deadly pain which shot like a red-hot arrow through his side.
He felt that his eye was glazing, his senses' slipping from him>
his grasp upon the reins relaxing. Then with one mighty effort,
he called up all his strength for a single minute. Stooping down,
he loosened the stirrup-straps, bound his knees tightly to his
saddle-flaps, twisted his hands in the bridle, and then, putting
the gallant horse's head for the mountain path, he dashed the
spurs in and fell forward fainting with his face buried in the
coarse, black mane.

Little could he ever remember of that wild ride. Half con-
but ever with the one thought beating in his mind, he352	THE WHITE COMPANY.

goaded the horse onwards, rushing swiftly down steep ravines,
over huge boulders, along the edges of black abysses. Dim
memories he had of beetling ciiffs, of a group of huts with won-
dering faces at the doors, of foaming, clattering water, and of a
bristle of mountain beeches. Once, ere he had ridden far, he
heard behind him three deep, sullen shouts, which told him that
his comrades had set their faces to the foe once more. Then all
was blank, until he woke to find kindly blue English eyes peer-
ing down upon him and to hear the blessed sound of his
ccuntry's speeeh. They were but a foraging party—a hundred
archers and as many men at-arms—but their leader was Sir
Hugh Calverley, and he was not a man to bide idle when good
blowe were to be had not three leagues from him. A scout was
sent flying with a message to the camp, and Sir Hugh, with his
two hundred men, thundered off to the rescue. With them went
Alleyne, still bound to his saddle, still dripping with blood,-and
swooning and recovering, and swooning once again. On they
rode, and on, until, at last, topping a ridge, they looked down
upon the fateful valiey. Alas ! and alas ! for the sight that met
their eyes.

There, beneath them, was the blood-bathed hill, and from the
highest pinnacle there flaunted the yellow and white banner with
the lions and the towers of the royal house of Castile. Up the
long slope rushed ranks and ranks of men—exultant, shouting,
with waving pennons and brandished arms. Over the whole
summit were dense throngs of knights, with no enemy that could
be seen to face them, save only that at one corner of the plateau
an eddy and swirl amid the crowded mass seemed to show that
all resistance was not yet at an end. At the sight a deep groan
of rage and of despair went up from the baffled rescuers, and,
spurring on their horses, they clattered down the long and wind-
ing path which led to the valley beneath.

But they were too late to avenge, as they had been too late to
save. Long ere they could gain the level ground, the Spaniards,-
seeing them riding swiftly amid the rocks, and being ignorant of
their numbers, drew off from the captured hill, and, having
secured their few prisoners, rode slowly in a long column, with
drum-beating and cymbal-clashing, out of the valley. Their
rear ranks were already passing out of sight ere the new-comers
were urging their panting, foaming horses up the slope which
bad been the scene of that long-drawn and bloody fight.THE WHITE COMPANY.

353

And a fearsome sight it was that met their eyes ! Across the
lower end lay the dense heap of men and horses where the first
arrow-storm had burst. Abj^e, the bodies of the dead and the
dying—French, Spanish, and Aragonese—lay thick and thicker,
until they covered the whole ground two and three deep in one
dreadful tangle of slaughter. Above them lay the Englishmen
in their lines, even as they had stood, and higher yet upon the
plateau a wild medley of the dead of all nations, where the last
deadly grapple had left them. In the further corner, under the
shadow of a great rock, there crouched seven bowmen, with
great John in the centre of them—all wounded, weary, and in
sorry case, but still unconquered, with their blood-stained
weapons waving and their voices ringing a welcome to their
countrymen. Alleyne rode across to John, while Sir Hugh
Calverley followed close behind him.

" By Saint George !" cried Sir Hugh, " I have never seen
signs of so stern a fight, and I am right glad that we have been
in time to save you."

" You have saved more than us," said John, pointing to the
banner which leaned against the rock behind him.

"You have done nobly," cried the old free companion, gazing
with a soldier's admiration at the huge frame and bold face of
the archer. " But why is it, my good fellow, that you sit upon
this man."

" By the rood ! I had forgot him," John answered, rising and
dragging from under him no less a person than the Spanish
caballero, Don Diego Alvarez. " This man, my fair lord, means
to me a new house, ten cows, one bull—if it be but'a little one—
a grindstone, and I know not what besides ; so that I thought it
well to sit upon him, lest he should take a fancy to leave me."

"Tell me, John," cried Alleyne faintly, "where is my dear
lord, Sir Nigel Loring ? "

"He is dead, I fear. I saw them throw his body across a
horse and ride away with it, but I fear the life had gone from
him."

"Now woe worth me ! And where is Aylward ? "

"He sprang upon a riderless horse and rode after Sir Nigel to
save him. . I saw them throng around him, and he is either
taken or slain."

" BloSv the bugles ! " cried Sir Hugh, with a scowling brow®
** We must back to camp, and ere three days I trust that we may

*3354	THE WHITE COMPANY.

see these Spaniards again. I would fain have ye all in my
company."

"We are of the White Company, my fair lord," said John.

" Nay, the White Company is iiSre disbanded," answered Sir
Hugh solemnly, looking round him at the lines of silent figures.
" Look to the brave squire, for I fear that he will never see the
sun rise again."

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

of the home-coming to hampshire.

It was a bright July morning four months after that fatal
fight in the Spanish barranca. A blue heaven stretched above,
a green rolling plain undulated below, intersected with hedge-
rows and flecked with grazing sheep. The sun was yet low in
the heaven, and the red cows stood in the long shadow of the
elms, chewing the cud and gazing with great vacant eyes at two
horsemen who were spurring it down the long white road which
dipped and curved away back to where the towers and pinnacles
beneath the flat-topped hill marked the old town of Winchester.

Of the riders one was young, graceful, and fair, clad in plain
doublet and hosen of blue Brussels cloth, which served to show
his active and well-knit figure. A flat velvet cap was drawn
forward to keep the glare from his eyes, and he rode with lips
compressed and anxious face, as one who has much care upon
his mind. Young as he was, and peaceful as was his dress, the
dainty golden spurs which twinkled upon his heels proclaimed
his knighthood, while a long seam upon his brow and a scar
upon his temple gave a manly grace to his refined and delicate
countenance. His comrade was a large, red-headed man upon
a great black horse, with a huge canvas bag slung from his
saddle-bow, which jingled and clinked with every movement of
his steed. His broad, brown face was lighted up by a continual
smile, and he looked slowly*from side to side with eyes which
twinkled and shone with delight. Well might John rejoice, for
was he not back in his native Hampshire, had he not Don Diego's
five thousand crowns rasping against his knee, and above all
was he not himself squire now to Sir Alleyne Edricson, the
young Socman of Minstead, lately knighted by the sword of theTHE WHITE COMPANY.

355

Black Prince himself, and esteemed by the whole army as one
of the most rising of the soldiers of England.

For the last stand of the Company had been" told throughout
Christendom wherever a brave deed of arms was loved, and
honors had flowed in tipon the few who had survived it. For
two months Alleyne had wavered betwixt death and life, with a
broken rib and a shattered head ; yet youth and strength and a
cleanly life were all upon his- side, and he awoke from his long
delirium to find that the war was over, that the Spaniards and
their allies had been crushed at Navaretta, and that the prince
had himself heard the tale of his ride for succor and had come
in person to his bedside to touch his shoulder with his sword
and to insure that so brave and true a man should die, if he
could not live, within the order of chivalry. The instant that
he could set foot to ground Alleyne had started in search of his
lord, but no word could he hear of him, dead or alive, and he
had come home now sad-hearted, in the hope of raising money
upon his estates and so starting upon his quest once more.
Landing at London, he had hurried on with a mind full of care,
for he had heard no word from Hampshire since the short note
which had announced his brother's death.

««By the rood 1 " cried John, looking around him exultantly,
" where have we seen since we left such noble cows, such fleecy
sheep, grass so green, or a man so drunk as yonder rogue who
lies in the gap of the hedge ? "

"Ah, John," Alleyne answered wearily, "it is well for you,
but I never thought that my home-coming would be so sad a
one. My heart is heavy for my dear lord and for Aylward, and
I know not how I may break the news to the Lady Mary and to
the Lady Maude, if they have not yet had tidings of it."

John gave a groan which made the horses shy. " It is in-
deed a black business," said he. " But be not sad, for I shall
give half these crowns to my old mother, and half will I add to
the money which you may have, and so we shall buy that yellow
cog wherein we sailed to Bordeaux, and in it we shall go forth
and seek Sir Nigel."

Alleyne smiled, but shook his head. "Were he alive we
should have had word of him ere now," said he. " But what is
this town before us ? "

" Why, it is Romsey ! " cried John. 11 See the tower of the
old gray church, and the long stretch of the nunnery. But here356	THE WHITE COMPANY1.

sits a very holy man, and I shall give him a crown for his
prayers."

Three large stones formed a rough cot by the roadside, and
beside it, basking in the sun, sat the hermit, with clay-colored
face, dull eyes, and long withered hands. With crossed ankles
and sunken head, he sat as though all his life had passed out oi
him, with the beads slipping slowly through his thin, yellow fingers.
Behind him lay the narrow cell, clay-floored and damp, comfort-
less, profitless and sordid. Beyond it there lay amid the trees
the wattle-and-daub hut of a laborer, the door open, and the
single room exposed to the view. The man ruddy and yellow-
haired, stood leaning upon the spade wherewith he had been at
work upon the garden patch. From behind him came the rip-
ple of a happy woman's laughter, and two young urchins darted
forth from the hut, bare-legged and towsy, while the mother,
stepping out, laid her hand upon her husband's arm and watched
the gambols of the children. The hermit frowned at the un-
toward noise which broke upon his prayers, but his brow relaxed
as he looked upon the broad silver piece which John held out to
him.

"There lies the image of our past and of our future," cried
Alleyne, as they rode on upon their way. " Now, which is
better, to till God's earth, to have happy faces round one's knee,
and to love and be loved, or to sit forever moaning over one's
own soul, like a mother over a sick babe ? "

"I know not about that," said John, "for it casts a great
cloud over me when I think of such matters. But I know that
my crown was well spent, for the man had the look of a very
holy person. As to the other, there was nought holy about him
that I could see, and it would be cheaper for me to pray for my-
self than to give a crown to one who spent his days in digging
for lettuces."

Ere Alleyne could answer there swung round the curve of the
road a lady's carriage drawn by three horses abreast with a pos-
tilion upon the outer one. Very fine and rich it was, with beams
painted and gilt, wheels and spokes carved in strange figures,
and over all an arched cover of red and white tapestry. Be-
neath its shade there sat a stout and elderly lady in a pink cdte-
hardie, leaning back among a pile of cushions, and plucking out
her eyebrows with a small pair of silver tweezers. None could
seem more safe and secure and at her ease than this lady, yetTHE WHITE COMPANY;

here also was a symbol of human life, for in an instant, even as
Alleyne reined aside to let the carriage pass, a wheel flew out
from among its fellows, and over it all toppled—carving, tapes-
try and gilt—in one wild- heap, with the horses plunging, the
postilion shouting, and the lady screaming from within. In aix
instant Alleyne and John were oh foot, and had lifted her forth
all in a shake with fear, but little the worse for her mischance.- .

" Now woe worth me ! " she cried, " and ill fall on Michael
Easover of Romsey ! for I told him that the pin was loose, and
yet he must needs gainsay me, like the foolish daffe that he is."

"I trust that you' have taken no hurt, my fair lady," said
Alleyne, conducting her to the bank, upon which John had al-
ready placed a cushion.

"Nay, I have had no scath, though I have lost my silvei
tweezers. Now, lack-a-day ! did God ever put breath into such
a fool as Michael Easover of Romsey? But I am much be-
holden to you, gentle sirs. Soldiers ye are, as one may readily
see. I am myself a soldier's daughter," she added, casting a
somewhat languishing glance at John, " and my heart ever goes
out to a brave man."

" We are indeed fresh from Spain, " quoth Alleyne.

" From Spain, say you ? Ah ! it was an ill and sorry thinyi
that so many should throw away the lives that Heaven gave
them. In sooth, it is bad for those who fall, but Worse for those
who bide behind. I have but now bid farewell to one who hath
lost all in this cruel war."

" And how that, lady ? "

" She is a young damsel of these parts, and she goes now into
a nunnery. Alack! it is not a year since she was the fairest
maid from Avon to Itchen, and now it was more than I could
abide to wait at Rumsey Nunnery to see her put the white veil
upon her face, for she was made for a wife and not for the clois-
ter. Did you ever, gentle sir, hear of a body of men called
* The White Company ' over yonder ? "

"Surely so," cried both the comrades.

"Her father was the leader of it, and her lover served under
him as squire. News hath come that not one of the Company
was left alive, and so, poor lamb, she hath-"

" Lady ! " cried Alleyne, with catching breath, " is it the Lady
Maude Loring of whom you speak ? "

" It is, in sooth."358

THE WHITE COMPANY.

" Maude ! And in a nunnery ! Did, then, the thought of her
father's death so move her ? "

"Her father ! " cried the lady, smiling. " Nay ; Maude is a
-good daughter, but I think it was this young golden-haired squire
of whom I have heard who has made her turn her back upon
the world/'

" And I stand talking here ! " cried Alleyne wildly. " Come*
John, come ! "

Rushing to his horse, he swung himself into the saddle, and
was off down the road in a rolling cloud of dust as fast as his
good steed could bear him.

Great had been the rejoicing amid the Romsey nuns when the
Lady Maude Loring had craved admission into their order—for
was she not sole child and heiress of the old knight, with farms
and fiefs which she could bring to the great nunnery ? Long
and earnest had been the talks of the gaunt lady abbess, in
which she had conjured the young novice to turn forever from
the world, and to rest her bruised heart under the broad and
peaceful shelter of the £*iurch. And now, when all was settled,
ind when abbess and. Way superior had.had their will, it was
but fitting that some pomp and show should mark the glad
occasion. Hence was it that the good burghers of Romsey were
all in the streets, that gay flags and flowers brightened the path
from the nunnery to the church, and that a long procession
wound up to the old arched door leading up the bride to these
spiritual nuptials. There was lay-sister AgathaL with the high
gold crucifix, and the three incense-bearers, and the two-and-
twenty garbed in white, who cast flowers upon either side of
them and sang sweetly the while. Then, with four attendants,
came the novice, her drooping head wreathed with white
blossoms, and, behind, the abbess and her council of older nuns,
who were already counting in their minds whether their own
bailiff could manage the farms of Twynham, or whether a reve
would be needed beneath him, to draw the utmost from these
new possessions which this young novice was about to bring
them.

But alas ! for plots and plans when love and youth and
nature, and above all, fortune are arrayed against them. Who
is this travel-stained youth who dares to ride so madly through
the lines of staring burghers ? Why does he fling himself from
his horse and stare so strangely about him ? See how he hasTHE WHITE COMBANY.

359

rushed through the incense-bearers, thrust aside lay-sister:
Agatha, scattered the two-and-twenty damosels who sang sen
sweetly—and he stands before the novice with his hands out-
stretched, and his face shining, and the light of love in his gray
eyes. Her foot is on the very lintel of the church, and yet he"
bars the way—and she, she thinks no more of the wise words
and holy rede of the lady abbess, but she hath given a sobbing^
cry and hath fallen forward with his arms around her drooping
body and her wet cheek upon his breast. A sorry sight this for™
the gaunt abbess, an ill lesson too for the stainless two-and-™
twenty who have ever been taught that the way of nature is the
way of sin. But Maude and Alleyne care little for this. A
dank, cold air comes out from the black arch before them.
Without, the sun shines bright and the birds are singing amid
the ivy on the drooping beeches. Their choice is made, and
they turn away hand-in-hand, with their backs to the darkness
and their faces to the light.

Very quiet was the wedding in the old priory church at
Christchurch, wjiere Father Christopher read the service, and
there were few to see save the Lady Loring and John, and a
dozen bowmen from the castle. The Lady of Twynham had
drooped and pined for weary months, $o that her face was
harsher and less comely than before, yet she still hoped on, for
her lord had come through so many dangers that she could
scarce believe that he might be stricken down at last. It had
been her wish to start for Spain and to search for him, but Al-
leyne had persuaded her to let him go in her place. There was
much to look after, now that the lands of Minstead were joined
to those of Twynham, and Alleyne had promised her that if she
would but bide with his wife he would never come back to
Hampshire again until he had gained some news, good or ill,
of her lord and lover.

The yellow cog had been engaged, with Goodwin Hawtayne
in command, and a/month after the wedding Alleyne rode down
to Bucklershard to see if she had come round yet from South-
ampton. On the way he passed the fishing village of Pitt's
Deep, and marked that a little creyer or brig was tacking off
the land, as though about to anchor there. On his way back,
as he rode towards the village, he saw that she had indeed
anchored, and that many boats were round her, bearing car^o
to the shore.THE WHITE COMPANY.

y'tZ' A bow-shot from Pitt's Deep there was an inn a little back
"from the road, very large and wide-spread, with a great green
bush hung upon a pole from one of the upper windows. At this
:window he marked, as he rode up, that a man was seated who
appeared to be craning his neck in his direction. Alleyne was
stiH looking up at him, when a woman came rushing from the
open door of the inn, and made as though she would climb a
. tree, looking back the while with a laughing face. Wondering
*~what these doings might mean, Alleyne tied his horse to a tree,
and was walking amid the trunks towards the inn, when there
shot from the entrance a second woman who made also for the
trees. Close at her heels came a burly, brown-faced man,
who leaned against the door-post and laughed loudly with his
hand to his side, " Ah, mes belles ! " he cried,.-" and is it thus
you treat me ? Ah, mes petites ! I swear by these finger-bones
that I would not hurt a hair of your pretty heads ; but I have
been among the black paynim, and, by my hilt ! it does me
good to look at your English cheeks. Come, drink a stoup of
muscadine with me, mes anges, for my heart is warm to be
among ye again."

At the sight of thte man Alleyne had stood staring, but at the
sound of his voice such a thrill of joy bubbled up in his heart
that he had to bite his lip to keep himself from shouting outright.
But a deeper pleasure yet was in store. Even as he looked, the
window above was pushed outwards, and the voice of the man
whom he had seen there came out from it. " Aylward," cried
the voice, "I have seen just now a very worthy person come
down the road, though my eyes could scarce discern whether he
carried coat-armor. I pray you to wait upon him and tell him
? that a very humble knight of England abides here, so that if he
be in need of advancement, or have any small vow upon his
soul, or desire to exalt his lady, I may help him to accomplish
it."

Aylward at this order came shuffling forward amid the trees,
and in an instant the two men were clinging in each other's
arms, laughing and shouting and patting each other in their de-
light ; while old Sir Nigel ca.me running with his sword, under
the impression that some small bickering had broken out, only
to embrace and be embraced himself, until all three were hoarse
with their questions and outcries and congratulations.

On their journey home through the woods Alleyne learnt theirTHE WHITE COMPANY. :	J/6t

wondrous story: how, when Sir Nigel came to his senses^ Kcl
with his fellow-captive had been hurried to the coast, and CO*tS^
veyed by sea to their captor's castle; how upon the way thejr
had been taken by a Barbary rover, and how they exchanged
their light captivity for a seat on a galley bench and hard lsiboiw
at the pirate's oars ; how, in the port at Barbary, Sir Nigel iad
slain the Moorish captain, and had swum with Aylward to,
small coaster which they had taken, and so made their way t<£^
England with a rich cargo to reward them for their toils.

this Alleyne listened to, until the dark keep of Twynham towered
above them in the gloaming, and they saw the red sun lying
athwart the rippling Avon. No need to speak of the glad hearts
at Twynham Castle that night, nor of the rich offerings from
out that Moorish cargo which found their way to the chapel of
Father Christopher.

Sir Nigel Loring lived for many years, full of honor and laden
with every blessing. He rode no more to the wars, but he
found his way to every jousting within thirty miles; and the
Hampshire youth treasured it as the highest honor when a
word of praise fell from him as to their management of their
horses, or their breaking of their lances. So he lived and so
he died, the most revered and the happiest man in all his native
shire.

For Sir Alleyne Edricson and for his beautiful bride the
future had also naught but what was good. Twice he fought in
France, and came back each time laden with honors. A high
place at court was given to him, and he spent many years at
Windsor under the second Richard and the fourth Henry—
where he received the honor of the Garter, and won the name of
being a brave soldier, a true-hearted gentleman, and a great
lover and patron of every art and science which refines or en-
nobles lite.	~

As to John, he took unto himself a village maid, and settled in
Lyndhurst, where his five thousand crowns made him the richest
franklin for many miles around. For many years he drank his
ale every night at the "Pied Merlin," which was now kept by
his friend Aylward, who had wedded the good widow to whom
he had committed his plunder. The strong men and the bow-
men of the country round used to drop in there of an evening
to wrestle a fall with John or to shoot a round with Aylward ;
but, though a silver shilling was to be the prize of the victory,- 1 • • THE WHITE COMPANY.

Hit has never been reported that any man earned much money
in that fashion. So they lived, these men, in their own lusty,
^cheery fashion—rude and rough, but honest, kindly and true.
Let us thank God if we have outgrown their vices. Let us pray
to God that we may ever hold their virtues. The sky may
darken, and the clouds may gather, and again the day may
come when Britain may have sore need of her children, on
whatever shore of the sea they be found. Shall they not muster
at her call?

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