With Ring of Shield Part 2

"Do thou go, Hazel dear, and when thou hast found her, tell her that I wish to speak to her."

Hazel courtesied, I bowed, and we pa.s.sed on, searching for Mary and Harleston.

"The Queen is the best mistress that any servant could wish for," said Hazel, when we had gone a few paces. "She is never angry, and so kind; she treats both Mary and me as though we were her own daughters."

I did not wonder that the Queen did use them both go well; for who could help loving either of those dear, dainty maidens?

We had not gone far ere we met Mary and Harleston returning.

"They seem to be getting on famously," observed Hazel; "for they are so preoccupied that they do not see us coming."

When they came near, Mary, who had evidently been listening with great attention to something that Harleston was telling to her, burst forth into her rippling, childlike laugh. Then, as she caught sight of us, she stopped suddenly and said:--

"Oh, here they come now!" Then, as we met them:--"We thought that ye must have turned back; so we were just coming to search for you."

"And what has Sir Frederick been telling thee that was so amusing?" I asked.

"Oh!" replied Harleston, "the Lady Mary hath been completing mine education, which thou, Sir Walter, didst start last night, and then I, in order to, in some small way, repay part of the debt, was telling her some of the stories that I had heard in France, where indeed they are most expert in story-telling, though not so accomplished with regard to the truth."

Here Hazel delivered the Queen's message, and we all started back to the Palace, laughing and chattering, like nothing more than school children. Upon reaching the castle I found some orders from Duke Richard, the fulfillment of which did keep me busy for the remainder of the day.

The next few days, Harleston and I spent in making ready for the march; so we did not see much of the ladies. However, the morning before we left Windsor, we met them in the park, whither we had gone in search of them. When they beheld us, they came forward to meet us, and methought that Hazel did not look as happy as was her wont; but it may have been that I was hoping to see her look sorrowful, and therefore, I did imagine it.

"We have come to receive the benediction," said Sir Frederick.

"And also a charm that will give unto us both charmed lives," I laughingly put in.

"Indeed thou needst not to laugh, Walter," said Mary, solemnly, and with reproof in her tone and manner. "I know that thou dost not believe in such things, and therefore they are worthless to thee; for in order to be protected by these mysterious benefactors, one must have unquestioned faith in their ability to protect. Now, Sir Frederick,"

she continued, with a slight hesitation, "if thou art not so skeptical as Walter there, and if thou wilt promise to keep it safe, and not to lose it, I will lend thee a charm that will indeed protect thee from all harm. I always have it with me, and nothing hath ever harmed me."

"'Twould truly be a fiendish fate which could send harm unto one so fair," said he. Then, as she did hand unto him, the charm (which was a scarf of scarlet silk, and had been given to her by her father, who had obtained it from a Turk,) he thanked her, and placing his hand over his heart, he swore to protect it as he would his life, and never to permit a thought of doubt, as to its ability to protect, to cross his mind.

"Wilt thou not give unto me a charm that I may take with me, Lady Hazel?" I asked, coaxingly, when we had gone some little way.

"Thou dost not believe in them, and therefore, as Mary doth say, it would do thee no good," she replied, with a toss of her pretty head, as much as to say, "Now, thou wouldst be skeptical."

"Do but give it me, and I do hereby swear to trust in it, and no doubt as to its virtues shall ever cross my mind; yes, this do I swear by all the saints of paradise." Now this did I consider an exceeding fine speech, and therefore I was not prepared for the reception that it did receive, which was a burst of laughter, and clapping of the hands from Hazel.

"Excellent! excellent!" laughed she; "Oh, Sir Walter, thou hast missed thy calling; thou wouldst have made such a splendid priest; thou saidst those words with such a religious tone, and looked so saintly." Then, as I showed my disappointment and annoyance, "Come, come," she added, "do not sulk; here is my glove, which I do now command to protect thee through all the dangers of this war. Now, am I not kind to thee?"

I nearly went wild with delight. I kissed that glove so fondly that Hazel had to warn me not to eat it, as it would not protect me if I did. And then I said a lot of things which all my male readers either have said or are only awaiting an opportunity to say. Presently I was interrupted in my avowals by coming suddenly upon Harleston and Mary, who were sitting on a bench beside the path.

"Is Sir Frederick telling thee some more stories, Mary?" asked Hazel, when we saw them.

"Not the kind I heard Walter telling thee, just now," replied Mary, as she looked at me, with a wicked little smile playing over her fair features. Then, as I reddened to the ears, both Harleston and Mary burst out a-laughing, and I, after stammering out some explanation about some messages I was leaving with Hazel, to deliver to the Queen,--which set them laughing louder than ever, thought it best to keep quiet.

However, as we were bidding good-by to the girls, Hazel said something that made me to forget mine embarra.s.sment. It was just as we were leaving them that she called me back and said, as she kept her eyes staring fixedly at the ground:--"Remember, Walter, I think a great deal of that same glove, and do not want any harm to come to it; therefore try and keep it out of danger."

"Oh, fear not; I now do know that I shall return again." And ere she could prevent me I seized her hand and kissed it.

I went back to my rooms with my toes scarce touching the ground.

Our time was now but short; and soon we did mount our horses and set out in the train of the Duke of Gloucester, on our march to Scotland, and had soon left the castle behind.

However, so long as we could see the left wing, we watched two scarfs waving, to which we waved our lances in return.

And so we rode off to the wars.

CHAPTER III

A FIRST BRUSH WITH THE ENEMY

Now I will not weary ye, my children, with a description of our march unto Scotland, as it was a wearisome one, without any adventures which might have relieved the tediousness of so long a journey. Indeed there was nought for us to do, but march all day, and when night did come, thank Heaven that we could forget our weariness in well earned rest and sleep.

At almost every town along the line of march we were joined by reinforcements; so, by the time we neared the border, we had an army strong enough to take a considerable fortress. However, as we did approach nigh unto Berwick, which place was the object of our attack, we learned that it should require all of our forces to subdue so formidable a stronghold. When within a few miles of this place, that hath been so many times the scene of struggle between our nation and our ever irritating neighbours of the North, and which, some score of years before, had been turned over unto our enemies, by that gentle and weak-minded King Henry VI, Duke Richard of Gloucester, on this, his second expedition unto this place--his first having miscarried--sent unto the garrison a messenger, under a flag of truce, to demand the surrender of Berwick, unto the army of its rightful owner. Whilst he was gone, the army went into camp; for although it was still early in the day, our leader had decided, in case the Scots did refuse to surrender--which, in all probability, would be their reply--that we were not to begin the attack until the morrow, in order that his army might have an opportunity to rest after their long, hard, march.

Oh, such a delightful evening did follow that long and weary day of labour. We were among that magnificent border scenery, where nature doth seem so busy with her work of carving herself into most fantastic, and yet admirable, ruggedness. How, in the evening, doth she cast her beauteous, drooping, eye aslant across her work; and her gentle breath dies out in hushed and satisfied, yet modest, admiration. The setting sun did seem to paint a hill, then step a vale and touch another with its golden brush.

Here may be seen many a place where nature's liquid emery hath ground the rocks asunder, and still some sparkling remnant goes trickling down the groove.

On this evening Harleston and I did take our usual walk through the camp and, as the night was glorious, it did tempt us to stray further from headquarters than might be considered safe. In fact, past the outposts did we go, and sat us down upon a hill that had seemed bolder than its comrades, so that we might the better see the surrounding country.

As we sat there, our backs were turned towards the camp, and our faces were tinted with the fading colors of the western sky. To right and left were hills and hollows of varying height and depth, but all having in common, shrubs and trees in unfailing irregularity, growing side by side, above and beneath each other, in the same disorder as had their seeds been flung there by the hand of the hurrying angel which did sow the whole of the earth's broad face. At our feet, and betwixt us and the sister to the hill on which we now were seated, was a smooth and undeceiving mirror, set, with bashful caution, between these obscuring hills, that nature's pardonable vanity might not with ease be gazed upon by the ignorant eye of man.

"I wonder when we shall be back at Windsor," said Sir Frederick, in a gentle tone, after we had sat in silence for some time, gazing at the soul-inspiring sight.

"Surely thou art not beginning to be homesick?" I asked; for this was the first time that I had heard my companion speak of the castle, since we had left it.

"Oh, no," he replied, "yet I wish that I might be there," and with this methought he did sigh.

Now, Heaven knows, no man could have wished to be in Windsor more than did I at that moment: yet, I had not liked to say so, for fear Harleston might think that I did relish the lazy life at court, more than I did that of the camp. But now that he had broken the ice it was the one subject on which I wished to talk.

"Well, Sir Frederick, and what dost thou think of her, now that thou hast had time to well consider?" I asked, coming out boldly.

"She is indeed perfection," he replied. And then, as though to himself:--"Eyes like the sky's deep and unfathomable blue, and hair like nothing more earthy than a sun-reflecting piece of well polished gold."

"Nay, not so; her hair is dark, and her eyes are hazel as her name,"

said I, in surprise;--and then, after staring at each other for a moment, we both did see our mistakes, and burst out a-laughing.

So Harleston and I sat talking on a subject that was very dear to us, until we did hear the bugles calling, which warned us that it was time to return and retire. We arose and started down the hill, and back to camp, both feeling in musing, more than talking, mood. We had not gone far, however, when my companion called my attention to something behind a clump of bushes, glistening in the moonlight.

"If I am not mistaken, there is danger yonder; for if ever I did see the glisten of a headpiece, I see it now. We had better put that hill between us and the enemy, if such they be, for, without our armour, a doublet doth afford but faint resistance to the steel head of an arrow."

We at once started to cross the low hill that Harleston did refer to.

We had just reached the top, when two or three arrows struck the rocks at our feet.