Cedric, the Forester Part 8

"Marry! Well bethought, d.i.c.kon. It were indeed a shame to let such archery at our festival go unrewarded. 'Twill pleasure Cedric also; and, truly, he hath borne himself well this day."

Rising, he addressed the company:

"Ho! good friends all! Fair ladies and most wors.h.i.+pful knights and gentlemen: I go to the courtyard to say to our yeomanry a.s.sembled there some words that you may also wish to hear."

Then he pa.s.sed out of the hall, and all the lords and ladies rose to follow him. Cedric and I were last. As we waited for the crowd to pa.s.s through the doorway, he whispered, sharply:

"Hast thou then told Lord Mountjoy after all?"

I smiled in answer.

"Contain thyself, good Cedric, and hear what thou shalt hear."

He would have questioned further, but at that moment my father's voice was heard in the courtyard.

"Friends and Well Wishers of the House of Mountjoy: I know full well, 'twill pleasure you to hear that the prize that our good Marvin hath so truly won this day is not the sole prize of our festival. The cross-bow is a n.o.ble weapon, but the long-bow of Merry England is no less; and we have seen some archery to-day that must not go without a guerdon.

Therefore to Elbert, Forester of Pelham and father of Cedric, now of our house, I give his choice of any cow in the Mountjoy herds, saving only that which Marvin chooses. To John o' the Wallfield also I make gift of a good steel cross-bow of the sort which Marvin tells me he much desires, and with which he may better even the archery he hath bravely shown to-day.

"Now here's a health to Merry England and long life to her honest yeomanry! So long as they guide bolt and shaft as now they'll confusion bring to all of England's enemies."

So it befell that in the dusk of that fair day Elbert, the forester, did lead home to Pelham Wood a goodly, milk-white heifer. A proud man was he of this prize of his archery; but, had he known the full tale of the day's doings, he might have been, without vainglory, prouder still.

CHAPTER VI-WOLF'S HEAD GLEN

I think that that spring morning whereon Cedric and I set out on the forest road to Coventry was the fairest that ever I have seen. The sun shone gloriously in the open glades and on the moorlands, and white clouds sailed aloft like racing galleons. The bird chorus among the little new leaves overhead was as the mingled music of harps and lutes and voices in the choir at Shrewsbury, and flowerets of blue and pink and gold full gallantly bedecked the pathside and the brown forest floor. Withal 'twas not a day for idleness and dreaming, for a chill air breathed in the darker vales, and here and there in the deep woodlands and on northern slopes a graying patch of snow yet lingered.

Old William, a faithful archer of Mountjoy, rode with us as guide and counsellor-this by the insistence of my father, Lord Mountjoy, who had a sorry lack of faith in the judgment and discretion of what he called "two half-broke colts" like Cedric and me.

"I know full well," he had said when I broached the plan of riding the ten leagues to Coventry to pay due respects to our kinsfolk of Montmorency,-"that Cedric hath a wondrous skill and quickness with his cross-bow, and that thou, d.i.c.kon, in thy sword-play, art not far behind many a man that calls himself knight and soldier. You will be mounted well; and mayhap, if danger beset, can fight or fly, saving whole skins as on that day the Carletons hunted you in the woods of Teramore. But all is not done by eyes and limbs, be they never so keen and skilled.

Your veteran of three-score will step softly and dry-shod around the quagmire in which your hair-brained youth of sixteen plunges head and ears."

"Never fear, Father," I cried, "with William or without, we'll keep whole skins. These are now full quiet days, and we ride for pleasure, not for brawling."

"'Tis true," he answered slowly, "with the hanging of Strongbow, we now have the outlaw bands in wholesome fear; and the Carletons have raised no battle cry since the fall. 'Tis like they have little will for it since they were so sorely smitten at the siege and first the Old Wolf and later young Lionel received their just dues from us and ours. They have no leaders now save the widowed lady and a fifteen-years old lad that bears his father's name of Geoffrey and shall be Lord of Carleton.

Mayhap we have before us some few years to build the fortunes of our house without let or hindrance from any of that crew at Teramore. But William shall go with thee to Coventry, ne'ertheless, to see that thou miss not the road and seek no useless brawls. Listen well to what he tells thee, and thou'lt make a safe return."

Now all three of us had our cross-bows slung upon our backs; and I wore at my side the good Damascus blade which was my dearest pride. We carried in leathern pouches a store of bread and meat for the midday meal; and William had made s.h.i.+ft to shoot a moorfowl that he spied running midst the gorse by the wayside.

So, an hour past the noonday, we made camp by a fair stream, set a fire alight to roast the bird, and feasted right merrily. As we sat about the embers, filled with the comfort of hunger well sated, I lifted up my voice in a ballad of which I had many times of late made secret practice. It went right merrily and clear; and when I had once sung it through Cedric and old William both urged me on to repeat it. When I sang again Cedric surprised me much, seeing the untaught forester that he was, by joining me with a sweet, high contra-melody that wondrously enhanced the music; and old William too, after a few gruff trials, did bravely swell the chorus.

Thus pleasantly occupied, and with our carol ringing through the vale, we heard no sound of hoofbeats, and I looked up with a start to see, pa.s.sing along the path, fifty paces from our camp fire, three armed and mounted travelers.

There were two stout men-at-arms, wearing the braced and quilted jackets that, against arrows or javelins, so well replace breastplates of steel, and armed with great two-handed broadswords and poniards. Between them, and a little to the fore, on a proudly stepping little gelding, rode a youth of somewhat less than our own years, wearing an embroidered tunic of white and rose and a sword which hung in a scabbard rich with gold and gems.

William s.n.a.t.c.hed at the cross-bow which lay on the gra.s.s beside him; but the strangers paid little heed to us, the men-at-arms but glancing surlily in our direction. In a moment they had pa.s.sed from sight, and the forest was quiet again. For a little we talked of who they might be and what their errand was in these parts; but none of us could name any of their party. We were now some eight leagues from Castle Mountjoy and mayhap three from Mannerley Lodge. It seemed not unlikely that the stranger youth might be of some party that visited the good lady of Mannerley, and that he was now riding abroad under the escort of two of her stout retainers.

The pa.s.sing of the strangers, and the sour looks of the two men had driven the carol from our minds; and we loosed our horses from the saplings to which they had been tied, and soberly remounted to resume our journey. It had been ten of the morning ere we left Mountjoy, and we had come but slowly along the narrow forest paths. Now the sun was well down in the West, and clouds were gathering darkly overhead. William urged us to make haste lest we be caught in the cold rain that he prophesied would be falling ere night. So we took the road again, and, after all our good cheer and merry chorusing, with our spirits strangely adroop.

We rode but slowly, for we had no wish to overtake the travelers. On our woodland roads, 'tis well to beware of strangers, especially when night approaches and one is not yet in sight of friendly castle walls. If they too made for Coventry, 'twas well, and we might follow them into the town without exchanging words; and if their way lay elsewhere, we could willingly spare their company.

A mile or so we rode in quietness. Then, coming to the top of a rise where the path emerged from the woods and half a mile of open moor lay before us, we beheld a sight which caused us to draw rein full suddenly and to gaze again, under sheltering hands, at the place where the road again made into the forest. There were our three strangers in desperate fight with half a dozen men. The outlaws-for such they seemed-were roughly clad in gray homespun and Lincoln green, and armed with bows and quarterstaves. They did swiftly run and dodge from behind one tree-trunk to another, evading the sword strokes of the hors.e.m.e.n and sending shaft after shaft against them. Even as we gazed, an arrow pierced the quilted jacket of one of the men-at-arms, or found a spot uncovered at the throat, and brought him heavily to the ground.

For one quick-throbbing moment I looked at Cedric, to spell, if I might, his thoughts at this juncture. Should we turn back ere the outlaws spied us, and make good our 'scape in the forest? The band might be far larger than it seemed; often a hundred or more of these robbers consorted under the banner of some famous outlaw chief. If we went forward, we might but add to the number of their victims.

Then came the voice of old William, cracked and broken with his fear for our safety, and striving hard to stay us from an emprise which seemed certain death:

"Turn, Masters! Turn ere they sight us. We are too few and too lightly armed to face such numbers. An we go forward, they'll spit us with their shafts like a roast at the fire. Come, Sir d.i.c.kon! Come, I pray thee. My Lord Mountjoy leans upon me to bring thee safe through. Back to the greenwood while yet there's time."

I uttered not a word, and firmly held my restive steed; but I saw in Cedric's face no thought of flight nor care for life or limb,-rather the look of a n.o.ble hound that spies the frothing, tusker boar at slaughter of his comrades, and beseeches but the word that looses him against the monster's flank.

And now Cedric's horse and mine sprang forward together. To this day I know naught of any settled thought of riding to the attack. Mayhap the limbs that came to me as my heritage from a line of fighting men that never endured to see foul ambush and treachery have their way did move without any guidance and set the spurs against my horse's sides. Cedric rode the great war-horse which he had won from the Carleton; and though my own mount was a fair tall stallion, half of Arab strain, the forester drew ahead on the rough pathway e'en while he drew his cross-bow cord and fitted bolt to groove. In a moment I had charged my weapon also; and then I found old William by my side, his cross-bow in his hands and all his protests forgotten.

Now the hoofs of our mounts thundered most sweetly on the sward, and for all the folly of our venture, I felt such an uplifting of the heart as I had known but once or twice before in all my life. As we neared the fray at the wood's edge, I shouted the battle cry of Mountjoy; and, my two companions joining with a will, we came down upon the varlets like a troop of armored horse.

As we approached 'twas clear that the outlaws had all the better of the fight. One of the men-at-arms lay dead on the ground, and the other though still fighting blindly had twice been pierced by arrows in neck and face. The robbers had a chieftain who carried no bow, but a sword only, and who had been ordering and cheering on his men while striking no blow himself. Now the youth in the white tunic, who had received no hurt as yet, dashed toward him and struck full bravely with his golden-hilted sword, but wildly and in a way unskilled. The robber met the blow with a twisting parry that struck the hilt from the boy's hand and sent the blade whirling away into the underbrush; then leaping forward he seized the youth's shoulder and pulled him from his horse.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _HE GAVE NO INCH OF GROUND SAVE TO LEAP FROM SIDE TO SIDE IN AVOIDING MY DOWNWARD STROKES_]

Drawing rein at fifty yards, we all three let fly our bolts, Cedric and old William each bringing down his man. My own bolt flew wide of the robber captain because of my fear of striking the youth who was now his prisoner. Then, dropping the bow, I betook me to a weapon more natural to my temper, and, sword in hand, was instantly in combat with the chief. He pushed the boy behind him and gave me blow for blow; and, truth to tell, he handled his blade-the weapon of a knight and gentleman-with a skill far beyond that of any yeoman I had known. Our blades flashed merrily in the sunlight that now streamed through a rent in the western clouds; and I lost all knowledge of the fray around us.

I fought on horseback, and he on foot; but he gave no inch of ground save to leap from side to side in avoiding my downward strokes. All his thrusts I managed to parry; but, somewhat with swordsmans.h.i.+p and more with wondrous quickness of foot, he likewise foiled mine. Twice had I essayed the best of all my tricks of fence only to fail in reaching my tall and nimble enemy.

I was gathering my wits for another stratagem, the which might take him off his guard, when suddenly, and to my great amaze, he leaped aside from my attack and sprang behind a tree trunk. From there he leaped to another, farther in the forest; and so by running and hiding, quickly disappeared in the greenwood.

I looked about me, dizzied with the quickness of that which had befallen; and beheld a sight for tears and groaning. Both the stranger men-at-arms lay dead on the oak leaves amidst the bodies of five of the outlaws who had been slain by their swords and our cross-bow bolts; and, lying with his shoulders half supported by Cedric's arms, was our faithful old William, his breast pierced by a cloth-yard shaft and his eyes just closing in death.

Cedric sadly laid down the body of our old retainer; and I thought it fitting to make a hasty prayer for his soul's peace. Then, as I rose, the stranger youth came forward haltingly. Methought he had a most winsome face, with honest eyes of blue and with brown and curling hair.

I was about to offer some friendly greeting when our ears were affrayed by a loud blast of a hunting horn which came from a furlong's distance in the wood.

Cedric's face changed instantly; and he grasped at my elbow.

"Quick, Sir d.i.c.kon!" he cried. "Let us mount and away. Yon notes are the call of the robber chief to all his band. They'll be here anon and slay us every one if we make not haste."

"Come then," I answered, and, seizing the youth's hand in lieu of other greeting, I drew him swiftly toward his horse, and mounting my own, wheeled back into the pathway. Cedric, with one bound, was on his horse's back; but the stranger was slower in his movements, seeming mazed and like one in a dream with the suddenness of these turns of fortune. I caught the bridle rein of his horse which had somewhat strayed; and then indeed he came quickly forward and climbed to the saddle. But a precious moment had been lost; and now, just as we emerged on the moor, there came a deadly flight of arrows from the wood. The archers were yet a hundred paces off; and low-hanging boughs did much deflect their shafts; but my horse was sorely stricken and reared and flung me to the earth. Another arrow struck mortally the stranger boy's bay gelding, and a third pierced my doublet sleeve and drew a spurt of blood.

"Quick!" shouted Cedric. "Mount with me, both of ye. Quick for your lives!"

Reaching down, he fairly lifted the stranger to a place in front of him, while I seized his belt and madly scrambled up behind. Then the forester set spurs to his horse's sides, and that splendid steed, despite his triple burden, was off with a bound.

But now, alas! the outlaws were at the wood's edge. Another flight of arrows whistled about our ears; and the stranger, with a groan, clapped his right hand to his side and tried manfully to pluck away a shaft which was quivering there. His violent clutch served but to break the wood, and left the barb embedded in the flesh. Cedric threw one arm about him, lest he fall, and shouting to me to cling tightly to his waist, spurred madly on, blind to all but the path before him.

The robbers came streaming from the wood, and seeing that our one remaining horse was now burdened with the weight of three riders, dashed after us on foot with the hope, not ill-founded, of overtaking and slaying us. Some of these men of the greenwood can leap and run very like the deer they chase; and, had not our horse been the best and strongest that ever I bestrode, they might have gained upon us on the open heath enough to have made sure work of their archery.

But momently we drew away from them; and none of their whizzing shafts did further harm. Indeed, had not Cedric been fain to check our speed lest our burdened mount stumble in the rough and treacherous pathway, we might have shortly distanced them. As it was, we came again to the forest which we had left a quarter hour before, and the smoother road beneath the oak trees, with the shouting robber band a furlong behind us.