The Tavern Knight Part 4

"You are forgetting the letter, Sir Crispin," he ventured, and he held out his hand to receive it.

Galliard saw the gesture, and for a moment it crossed his mind in self-reproach that the part he chose to play was that of a bully. A second he hesitated. Should he surrender the letter unread, and fight on without the aid of the information it might bring him? Then the thought of Ashburn and of his own deep wrongs that cried out for vengeance, overcame and stifled the generous impulse. His manner grew yet more frozen as he made answer:

"There has been too much ado about this letter to warrant my so lightly parting with it. First I will satisfy myself that I have been no unconscious abettor of treason. You shall have your letter tomorrow, Master Stewart."

"Treason!" echoed Kenneth. And before that cold rebuff of Crispin's his mood changed from conciliatory to resentful--resentful towards the fates that made him this man's debtor.

"I a.s.sure you, on my honour," said he, mastering his feelings, "that this is but a letter from the lady I hope to make my wife. a.s.suredly, sir, you will not now insist upon reading it."

"a.s.suredly I shall."

"But, sir--"

"Master Stewart, I am resolved, and were you to talk from now till doomsday, you would not turn me from my purpose. So good night to you."

"Sir Crispin," cried the boy, his voice quavering with pa.s.sion, "while I live you shall not read that letter!"

"Hoity-toity, sir! What words! What heroics! And yet you would have me believe this paper innocent?"

"As innocent as the hand that penned it, and if I so oppose your reading it, it is because thus much I owe her. Believe me, sir," he added, his accents returning to a beseeching key, "when again I swear that it is no more than such a letter any maid may write her lover. I thought that you had understood all this when you rescued me from those bullies at The Mitre. I thought that what you did was a n.o.ble and generous deed.

Instead--" The lad paused.

"Continue, sir," Galliard requested coldly. "Instead?"

"There can be no instead, Sir Crispin. You will not mar so good an action now. You will give me my letter, will you not?"

Callous though he was, Crispin winced. The breeding of earlier days--so sadly warped, alas!--cried out within him against the lie that he was acting by pretending to suspect treason in that woman's pothooks.

Instincts of gentility and generosity long dead took life again, resuscitated by that call of conscience. He was conquered.

"There, take your letter, boy, and plague me no more," he growled, as he held it out to Kenneth. And without waiting for reply or acknowledgment, he turned on his heel, and entered the palace. But he had yielded overlate to leave a good impression and, as Kenneth turned away, it was with a curse upon Galliard, for whom his detestation seemed to increase at every step.

CHAPTER V. AFTER WORCESTER FIELD

The morn of the third of September--that date so propitious to Cromwell, so disastrous to Charles--found Crispin the centre of a company of gentlemen in battle-harness, a.s.sembled at The Mitre Inn. For a toast he gave them "The d.a.m.nation of all crop-ears."

"Sirs," quoth he, "a fair beginning to a fair day. G.o.d send the evening find us as merry."

It was not to be his good fortune, however, to be in the earlier work of the day. Until afternoon he was kept within the walls of Worcester, chafing to be where hard knocks were being dealt--with Montgomery at Powick Bridge, or with Pittscottie on Bunn's Hill. But he was forced to hold his mood in curb, and wait until Charles and his advisers should elect to make the general attack.

It came at last, and with it came the disastrous news that Montgomery was routed, and Pittscottie in full retreat, whilst Dalzell had surrendered, and Keith was taken. Then was it that the main body of the Royal army formed up at the Sidbury Gate, and Crispin found himself in the centre, which was commanded by the King in person. In the brilliant charge that followed there was no more conspicuous figure, no voice rang louder in encouragement to the men. For the first time that day Cromwell's Ironsides gave back before the Royalists, who in that fierce, irresistible charge, swept all before them until they had reached the battery on Perry Wood, and driven the Roundheads from it h.e.l.l-to-leather.

It was a glorious moment, a moment in which the fortunes of the day hung in the balance; the turn of the tide it seemed to them at last.

Crispin was among the first to reach the guns, and with a great shout of "Hurrah for Cavaliers!" he had cut down two gunners that yet lingered.

His cry lacked not an echo, and a deafening cheer broke upon the clamorous air as the Royalists found themselves masters of the position.

Up the hill on either side pressed the Duke of Hamilton and the Earl of Derby to support the King. It but remained for Lesley's Scottish horse to follow and complete the rout of the Parliamentarian forces. Had they moved at that supreme moment who shall say what had been the issue of Worcester field? But they never stirred, and the Royalists waiting on Perry Wood cursed Lesley for a foul traitor who had sold his King.

With bitterness did they then realize that their great effort was to be barren, their gallant charge in vain. Unsupported, their position grew fast untenable.

And presently, when Cromwell had gathered his scattered Ironsides, that gallant host was driven fighting, down the hill and back to the shelter of Worcester. With the Roundheads pressing hotly upon them they gained at last the Sidbury Gate, but only to find that an overset ammunition wagon blocked the entrance. In this plight, and without attempting to move it, they faced about to make a last stand against the Puritan onslaught.

Charles had flung himself from his charger and climbed the obstruction, and in this he was presently followed by others, amongst whom was Crispin.

In the High Street Galliard came upon the King, mounted on a fresh horse, addressing a Scottish regiment of foot. The soldiers had thrown down their arms and stood sullenly before him, refusing to obey his command to take them up again and help him attempt, even at that late hour, to retrieve the fortunes of the day. Crispin looked on in scorn and loathing. His pa.s.sions awakened at the sight of Lesley's inaction needed but this last breath to fan it into a very blaze of wrath. And what he said to them touching themselves, their country, and the Kirk Committee that had made sheep of them, was so bitter and contemptuous that none but men in the most parlous and pitiable of conditions could have suffered it.

He was still hurling vituperations at them when Colonel Pride with a troop of Parliamentarian horse--having completely overcome the resistance at the Sidbury Gate--rode into the town. At the news of this, Crispin made a last appeal to the infantry.

"Afoot, you Scottish curs!" he thundered. "Would you rather be cut to pieces as you stand? Up, you dogs, and since you know not how to live, die at least without shame!"

But in vain did he rail. In sullen quiet they remained, their weapons on the ground before them. And then, as Crispin was turning away to see to his own safety, the King rode up again, and again he sought to revive the courage that was dead in those Scottish hearts. If they would not stand by him, he cried at last, let them slay him there, sooner than that he should be taken captive to perish on the scaffold.

While he was still urging them, Crispin unceremoniously seized his bridle.

"Will you stand here until you are taken, sire?" he cried. "Leave them, and look to your safety."

Charles turned a wondering eye upon the resolute, battle-grimed face of the man that thus addressed him. A faint, sad smile parted his lips.

"You are right, sir," he made answer. "Attend me." And turning about he rode down a side street with Galliard following closely in his wake.

With the intention of doffing his armour and changing his apparel, he made for the house in New Street where he had been residing. As they drew up before the door, Crispin, chancing to look over his shoulder, rapped out an oath.

"Hasten, sire," he exclaimed, "here is a portion of Colonel's Pride's troop."

The King looked round, and at sight of the Parliamentarians, "It is ended," he muttered despairingly. But already Crispin had sprung from his horse.

"Dismount, sire," he roared, and he a.s.sisted him so vigorously as to appear to drag him out of the saddle.

"Which way?" demanded Charles, looking helplessly from left to right.

"Which way?"

But Crispin's quick mind had already shaped a plan. Seizing the royal arm--for who in such straits would deal ceremoniously?--he thrust the King across the threshold, and, following, closed the door and shot its only bolt. But the shout set up by the Puritans announced to them that their movement had been detected.

The King turned upon Sir Crispin, and in the half-light of the pa.s.sage wherein they stood Galliard made out the frown that bent the royal brows.

"And now?" demanded Charles, a note almost of reproach in his voice.

"And now begone, sire," returned the knight. "Begone ere they come."

"Begone?" echoed Charles, in amazement. "But whither, sir? Whither and how?"

His last words were almost drowned in the din without, as the Roundheads pulled up before the house.

"By the back, sire," was the impatient answer. "Through door or window--as best you can. The back must overlook the Corn-Market; that is your way. But hasten--in G.o.d's name hasten!--ere they bethink them of it and cut off your retreat."

As he spoke a violent blow shook the door.