The White Company Page 4

  CHAPTER IV. HOW THE BAILIFF OF SOUTHAMPTON SLEW THE TWO MASTERLESS MEN.

  The road along which he travelled was scarce as populous as most otherroads in the kingdom, and far less so than those which lie between thelarger towns. Yet from time to time Alleyne met other wayfarers, andmore than once was overtaken by strings of pack mules and horsemenjourneying in the same direction as himself. Once a begging friar camelimping along in a brown habit, imploring in a most dolorous voice togive him a single groat to buy bread wherewith to save himself fromimpending death. Alleyne passed him swiftly by, for he had learned fromthe monks to have no love for the wandering friars, and, besides, therewas a great half-gnawed mutton bone sticking out of his pouch to provehim a liar. Swiftly as he went, however, he could not escape the curseof the four blessed evangelists which the mendicant howled behind him.So dreadful are his execrations that the frightened lad thrust hisfingers into his ear-holes, and ran until the fellow was but a brownsmirch upon the yellow road.

  Further on, at the edge of the woodland, he came upon a chapman and hiswife, 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 downwith some drink from a stone jar. The chapman broke a rough jest as hepassed, and the woman called shrilly to Alleyne to come and join them,on which the man, turning suddenly from mirth to wrath, began to belaborher with his cudgel. Alleyne hastened on, lest he make more mischief,and his heart was heavy as lead within him. Look where he would, heseemed to see nothing but injustice and violence and the hardness of manto man.

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

  "A guerdon--a guerdon, my knight of the staring eyes!" cried one.

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

  Alleyne thought of what he had read of demoniac possession--thejumpings, the twitchings, the wild talk. It was in his mind to repeatover the exorcism proper to such attacks; but the two burst outa-laughing at his scared face, and turning on 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?" exclaimedthe 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 sawyour four legs above the bush I could scarce credit my own eyes. Why isit that you do this thing?"

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

  "We thank you for the wine, kind sir," said he, "and for the readycourtesy wherewith you offered it. Touching your question, we may tellyou that we are strollers and jugglers, who, having performed with muchapplause at Winchester fair, are now on our way to the great Michaelmasmarket at Ringwood. As our art is a very fine and delicate one, however,we cannot let a day go by without exercising ourselves in it, to whichend we choose some quiet and sheltered spot where we may break ourjourney. Here you find us; and we cannot wonder that you, who are new totumbling, should be astounded, since many great barons, earls, marshalsand knights, who have wandered as far as the Holy Land, are of onemind in saying that they have never seen a more noble or graciousperformance. If you will be pleased to sit upon that stump, we will nowcontinue our exercise."

  Alleyne sat down willingly as directed with two great bundles oneither side of him which contained the strollers' dresses--doublets offlame-colored silk and girdles of leather, spangled with brass and tin.The jugglers were on their heads once more, bounding about with rigidnecks, playing the while in perfect time and tune. It chanced that outof one of the bundles there stuck the end of what the clerk saw to bea cittern, so drawing it forth, he tuned it up and twanged a harmony tothe merry lilt which the dancers played. On that they dropped their owninstruments, and putting their hands to the ground they hopped aboutfaster and faster, ever shouting to him to play more briskly, until atlast for very weariness all three had to stop.

  "Well played, sweet poppet!" cried the younger. "Hast a rare touch onthe 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 muchamazement as he had shown at them.

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

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

  "Nay, it may not be. I have other work to do. I have tarried with youover long," quoth Alleyne, and resolutely set forth upon his journeyonce more. They ran behind him some little way, offering him firstfourpence and then sixpence a day, but he only smiled and shook hishead, until at last they fell away from him. Looking back, he saw thatthe smaller had mounted on the younger's shoulders, and that they stoodso, some ten feet high, waving their adieus to him. He waved back tothem, and then hastened on, the lighter of heart for having fallen inwith these strange men of pleasure.

  Alleyne had gone no great distance for all the many small passages thathad befallen him. Yet to him, used as he was to a life of such quietthat the failure of a brewing or the altering of an anthem had seemedto be of the deepest import, the quick changing play of the lights andshadows of life was strangely startling and interesting. A gulf seemedto divide this brisk uncertain existence from the old steady round ofwork and of prayer which he had left behind him. The few hours that hadpassed since he saw the Abbey tower stretched out in his memory untilthey outgrew whole months of the stagnant life of the cloister. As hewalked and munched the soft bread from his scrip, it seemed strange tohim to feel that it was still warm from the ovens of Beaulieu.

  When he passed Penerley, where were three cottages and a barn, hereached the edge of the tree country, and found the great barren heathof Blackdown stretching in front of him, all pink with heather andbronzed 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 laylow in the west upon a purple cloud, whence it threw a mild, chasteninglight over the wild moorland and glittered on the fringe of forestturning the withered leaves into flakes of dead gold, the brighter forthe black depths behind them. To the seeing eye decay is as fair asgrowth, and death as life. The thought stole into Alleyne's heart as helo
oked upon the autumnal country side and marvelled at its beauty. Hehad little time to dwell upon it however, for there were still six goodmiles between him and the nearest inn. He sat down by the roadsideto partake of his bread and cheese, and then with a lighter scrip hehastened 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 byhim with downcast looks and pattering lips, without so much as a glanceat him. Then there came a gray friar, or minorite, with a good paunchupon him, walking slowly and looking about him with the air of a man whowas at peace with himself and with all men. He stopped Alleyne to askhim whether it was not true that there was a hostel somewhere in thoseparts which was especially famous for the stewing of eels. The clerkhaving 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 heelscame three laborers walking abreast, with spade and mattock over theirshoulders. They sang some rude chorus right tunefully as they walked,but their English was so coarse and rough that to the ears of acloister-bred man it sounded like a foreign and barbarous tongue. Oneof them carried a young bittern which they had caught upon the moor, andthey offered it to Alleyne for a silver groat. Very glad he was to getsafely past them, for, with their bristling red beards and their fierceblue eyes, they were uneasy men to bargain with upon a lonely moor.

  Yet it is not always the burliest and the wildest who are the most tobe dreaded. The workers looked hungrily at him, and then jogged onwardsupon their way in slow, lumbering Saxon style. A worse man to deal withwas a wooden-legged cripple who came hobbling down the path, so weak andso 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 devilment, hescreamed out a curse at him, and sent a jagged flint stone hurtling pasthis ear. So horrid was the causeless rage of the crooked creature, thatthe clerk came over a cold thrill, and took to his heels until he wasout of shot from stone or word. It seemed to him that in this countryof England there was no protection for a man save that which lay in thestrength of his own arm and the speed of his own foot. In the cloistershe had heard vague talk of the law--the mighty law which was higher thanprelate or baron, yet no sign could he see of it. What was the benefitof a law written fair upon parchment, he wondered, if there were noofficers to enforce it. As it fell out, however, he had that veryevening, ere the sun had set, a chance of seeing how stern was the gripof 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 ahollow, with a peat-colored stream running swiftly down the centreof it. To the right of this stood, and stands to this day, an ancientbarrow, or burying mound, covered deeply in a bristle of heather andbracken. Alleyne was plodding down the slope upon one side, when he sawan old dame coming towards him upon the other, limping with wearinessand leaning heavily upon a stick. When she reached the edge of thestream 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 ofthe brook, but it was too far from the bank for her aged and uncertainfeet. Twice she thrust forward at it, and twice she drew back, until atlast, giving up in despair, she sat herself down by the brink andwrung her hands wearily. There she still sat when Alleyne reached thecrossing.

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

  "Alas! good youth," she answered, "I have a humor in the eyes, andthough I can see that there is a stone there I can by no means be sureas 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 couldnot but observe, however, that as he placed her down her knees seemed tofail 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 dayshave I been on the road. I go to my son, who is one of the King'sregarders at Brockenhurst. He has ever said that he would care for me inmine old age."

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

  "At Lyndenhurst; but alas! my money is at an end, and I could but get adish of bran-porridge from the nunnery. Yet I trust that I may be ableto reach Brockenhurst to-night, where I may have all that heart candesire; for oh! sir, but my son is a fine man, with a kindly heart ofhis own, and it is as good as food to me to think that he should have adoublet 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 suchbread and cheese as I have left, and here, too, is a penny which mayhelp you to supper. May God be with you!"

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

  He was moving away himself, when his eyes lit upon a strange sight, andone which sent a tingling through his skin. Out of the tangled scrub onthe old overgrown barrow two human faces were looking out at him; thesinking sun glimmered full upon them, showing up every line and feature.The one was an oldish man with a thin beard, a crooked nose, and a broadred smudge from a birth-mark over his temple; the other was a negro, athing rarely met in England at that day, and rarer still in the quietsouthland parts. Alleyne had read of such folk, but had never seen onebefore, and could scarce take his eyes from the fellow's broad poutinglip and shining teeth. Even as he gazed, however, the two came writhingout from among the heather, and came down towards him with such aguilty, slinking carriage, that the clerk felt that there was no good inthem, and hastened onwards upon his way.

  He had not gained the crown of the slope, when he heard a sudden scufflebehind him and a feeble voice bleating for help. Looking round, therewas the old dame down upon the roadway, with her red whimple flying onthe breeze, while the two rogues, black and white, stooped over her,wresting away from her the penny and such other poor trifles as wereworth the taking. At the sight of her thin limbs struggling in weakresistance, such a glow of fierce anger passed over Alleyne as set hishead in a whirl. Dropping his scrip, he bounded over the stream oncemore, and made for the two villains, with his staff whirled over hisshoulder and his gray eyes blazing with fury.

  The robbers, however, were not disposed to leave their victim until theyhad worked their wicked will upon her. The black man, with the woman'scrimson scarf tied round his swarthy head, stood forward in the centreof the path, with a long dull-colored knife in his hand, while theother, waving a ragged cudgel, cursed at Alleyne and dared him tocome on. His blood was fairly aflame, however, and he needed no suchchallenge. Dashing at the black man, he smote at him with such good willthat the other let his knife tinkle into the roadway, and hopped howlingto a safer distance. The second rogue, however, made of sterner stuff,rushed in upon the clerk, and clipped him round the waist with a griplike a bear, shouting the while to his comrade to come round and stabhim in the back. At this the negro took heart of grace, and picking uphis dagger again he came stealing with prowling step and murderous eye,while the two swayed backwards and forwards, staggering this way andthat. In the very midst of the scuffle, however, whilst Alleyne bracedhimself to feel the cold blade between his shoulders, there came asudden scurry of hoofs, and the black man yelled with terror and ranfor his life through the heather. The man with the birth-mark, too,struggled to break away, and Alleyne heard his teeth chatter and felthis limbs grow limp to his hand. At this sign of coming aid the clerkheld on the tighter, and at last was able to pin his man down andglanced behind him to see where all the noise was coming from.

  Down the slanting road there was riding a big, burly man, clad in atunic of purple velvet and driving a great black horse as hard asit could gallop. He leaned well over its neck as he rode, and made aheaving with his shoulders at every b
ound as though he were lifting thesteed instead of it carrying him. In the rapid glance Alleyne saw thathe had white doeskin gloves, a curling white feather in his flat velvetcap, and a broad gold, embroidered baldric across his bosom. Behind himrode six others, two and two, clad in sober brown jerkins, with thelong yellow staves of their bows thrusting out from behind their rightshoulders. Down the hill they thundered, over the brook and up to thescene 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 ofthem. I know him by that devil's touch upon his brow. Where are yourcords, Peterkin? So! Bind him hand and foot. His last hour has come. Andyou, 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? Hastthou a letter from the chancellor of thy college giving thee a permitto beg? Let me see thy letter." He had a stern, square face, with bushyside whiskers and a very questioning eye.

  "I am from Beaulieu Abbey, and I have no need to beg," said Alleyne, whowas 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. "I am the law of Englandand the mouthpiece of his most gracious and royal majesty, Edward theThird."

  Alleyne louted low to the King's representative. "Truly you came in goodtime, honored sir," said he. "A moment later and they would have slainme."

  "But there should be another one," cried the man in the purple coat."There should be a black man. A shipman with St. Anthony's fire, and ablack man who had served him as cook--those are the pair that we are inchase of."

  "The black man fled over to that side," said Alleyne, pointing towardsthe 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, blackpaynim 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-latchor murtherer came scathless away from me and my posse. Leave that roguelying. Now stretch out in line, my merry ones, with arrow on string, andI 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 lowamong the heather, and a pot of wine to the lucky marksman."

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

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

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

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

  "The old hound is the best when all is said," quoth the bailiff ofSouthampton, as they made back for the roadway. "That means a quart ofthe best malmsey in Southampton this very night, Matthew Atwood. Artsure that he is dead?"

  "Dead as Pontius Pilate, worshipful sir."

  "It is well. Now, as to the other knave. There are trees and to spareover yonder, but we have scarce leisure to make for them. Draw thysword, 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, bothfrom the ship 'La Rose de Gloire,' of Southampton, who did set upon theFlanders 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 bloodydoings, "he hath not yet come to trial."

  "Young clerk," said the bailiff, "you speak of that of which you knownothing. It is true that he hath not come to trial, but the trial hathcome to him. He hath fled the law and is beyond its pale. Touch not thatwhich is no concern of thine. But what is this boon, rogue, which youwould crave?"

  "I have in my shoe, most worshipful sir, a strip of wood which belongedonce to the bark wherein the blessed Paul was dashed up against theisland of Melita. I bought it for two rose nobles from a shipman whocame from the Levant. The boon I crave is that you will place it in myhands and let me die still grasping it. In this manner, not only shallmy own eternal salvation be secured, but thine also, for I shall nevercease to intercede for thee."

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

  "If it should chance," he said, "that through the surpassing merits ofthe blessed Paul your sin-stained soul should gain a way into paradise,I trust that you will not forget that intercession which you havepromised. Bear in mind too, that it is Herward the bailiff for whom youpray, and not Herward the sheriff, who is my uncle's son. Now, Thomas, Ipray you dispatch, for we have a long ride before us and sun has alreadyset."

  Alleyne gazed upon the scene--the portly velvet-clad official, the knotof hard-faced archers with their hands to the bridles of their horses,the thief with his arms trussed back and his doublet turned down uponhis shoulders. By the side of the track the old dame was standing,fastening her red whimple once more round her head. Even as he lookedone of the archers drew his sword with a sharp whirr of steel and steptup to the lost man. The clerk hurried away in horror; but, ere hehad gone many paces, he heard a sudden, sullen thump, with a choking,whistling sound at the end of it. A minute later the bailiff and fourof his men rode past him on their journey back to Southampton, the othertwo having been chosen as grave-diggers. As they passed Alleyne saw thatone 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 thewayside he burst out weeping, with his nerves all in a jangle. It was aterrible world thought he, and it was hard to know which were the mostto be dreaded, the knaves or the men of the law.