The White Company Page 8

  CHAPTER VIII. THE THREE FRIENDS.

  His companions had passed on whilst he was at his orisons; but his youngblood and the fresh morning air both invited him to a scamper. His staffin one hand and his scrip in the other, with springy step and floatinglocks, he raced along the forest path, as active and as graceful as ayoung deer. He had not far to go, however; for, on turning a corner,he came on a roadside cottage with a wooden fence-work around it, wherestood big John and Aylward the bowman, staring at something within. Ashe came up with them, he saw that two little lads, the one about nineyears of age and the other somewhat older, were standing on the plotin front of the cottage, each holding out a round stick in their lefthands, with their arms stiff and straight from the shoulder, assilent and still as two small statues. They were pretty, blue-eyed,yellow-haired lads, well made and sturdy, with bronzed skins, whichspoke of a woodland life.

  "Here are young chips from an old bow stave!" cried the soldier in greatdelight. "This is the proper way to raise children. By my hilt! I couldnot have trained them better had I the ordering of it myself."

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

  "Nay, they are training their left arms, that they may have a steadygrasp of the bow. So my own father trained me, and six days a week Iheld out his walking-staff till my arm was heavy as lead. Hola, mesenfants! how long will you hold out?"

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

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

  "Nay, soldiers," they cried both together.

  "By the beard of my father! but ye are whelps of the true breed. Why sokeen, then, to be soldiers?"

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

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

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

  "Aye, lads, it was that," said a deep voice from behind Alleyne'sshoulder. Looking round, the wayfarers saw a gaunt, big-boned man, withsunken cheeks and a sallow face, who had come up behind them. He heldup his two hands as he spoke, and showed that the thumbs and two firstfingers had been torn away from each of them.

  "Ma foi, camarade!" cried Aylward. "Who hath served thee in so shamefula fashion?"

  "It is easy to see, friend, that you were born far from the marches ofScotland," quoth the stranger, with a bitter smile. "North of Humberthere is no man who would not know the handiwork of Devil Douglas, theblack 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 thewapentake of Holderness," he answered. "There was a day when, from Trentto Tweed, there was no better marksman than Robin Heathcot. Yet, as yousee, he hath left me, as he hath left many another poor border archer,with no grip for bill or bow. Yet the king hath given me a living herein the southlands, and please God these two lads of mine will pay offa debt that hath been owing over long. What is the price of daddy'sthumbs, boys?"

  "Twenty Scottish lives," they answered together.

  "And for the fingers?"

  "Half a score."

  "When they can bend my war-bow, and bring down a squirrel at a hundredpaces, I send them to take service under Johnny Copeland, the Lord ofthe Marches and Governor of Carlisle. By my soul! I would give the restof 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 fromhip and thigh as much as from arm. Learn also, I pray you, to shoot witha dropping shaft; for though a bowman may at times be called upon toshoot straight and fast, yet it is more often that he has to do with atown-guard behind a wall, or an arbalestier with his mantlet raised whenyou cannot hope to do him scathe unless your shaft fall straight uponhim from the clouds. I have not drawn string for two weeks, but I maybe able to show ye how such shots should be made." He loosened hislong-bow, slung his quiver round to the front, and then glanced keenlyround for a fitting mark. There was a yellow and withered stump someway off, seen under the drooping branches of a lofty oak. The archermeasured the distance with his eye; and then, drawing three shafts, heshot them off with such speed that the first had not reached the markere 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 oneside.

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

  "By my hilt!" said Aylward, "if I am to preach on bowmanship, the wholelong day would scarce give me time for my sermon. We have marksmen inthe Company who will notch with a shaft every crevice and joint of aman-at-arm's harness, from the clasp of his bassinet to the hinge of hisgreave. But, with your favor, friend, I must gather my arrows again, forwhile a shaft costs a penny a poor man can scarce leave them stickingin wayside stumps. We must, then, on our road again, and I hope from myheart that you may train these two young goshawks here until they areready for a cast even at such a quarry as you speak of."

  Leaving the thumbless archer and his brood, the wayfarers struck throughthe scattered huts of Emery Down, and out on to the broad rolling heathcovered deep in ferns and in heather, where droves of the half-wildblack forest pigs were rooting about amongst the hillocks. The woodsabout this point fall away to the left and the right, while the roadcurves upwards and the wind sweeps keenly over the swelling uplands. Thebroad strips of bracken glowed red and yellow against the black peatysoil, and a queenly doe who grazed among them turned her white frontand her great questioning eyes towards the wayfarers. Alleyne gazedin admiration at the supple beauty of the creature; but the archer'sfingers played with his quiver, and his eyes glistened with the fellinstinct which urges a man to slaughter.

  "Tete Dieu!" he growled, "were this France, or even Guienne, we shouldhave a fresh haunch for our none-meat. Law or no law, I have a mind toloose a bolt at her."

  "I would break your stave across my knee first," cried John, laying hisgreat hand upon the bow. "What! man, I am forest-born, and I know whatcomes of it. In our own township of Hordle two have lost their eyes andone his skin for this very thing. On my troth, I felt no great love whenI first saw you, but since then I have conceived over much regard foryou to 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 lesshe thrust his quiver over his hip again and turned his face for thewest.

  As they advanced, the path still tended upwards, running from heath intocopses of holly and yew, and so back into heath again. It was joyful tohear the merry whistle of blackbirds as they darted from one clumpof greenery to the other. Now and again a peaty amber colored streamrippled across their way, with ferny over-grown banks, where the bluekingfisher flitted busily from side to side, or the gray and pensiveheron, swollen with trout and dignity, stood ankle-deep among thesedges. Chattering jays and loud wood-pigeons flapped thickly overhead,while ever and anon the measured tapping of Nature's carpenter, thegreat 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 tothe distant smoke of Lymington and the blue misty channel which layalongside the sky-line, while to the north the woods rolled away, grovetopping grove, to where in the furthest distance the white spire ofSalisbury stood out hard and clear against the cloudless sky. To Alleynewhose days had been spent in the low-lying coastland, the eager uplandair and the wide free country-side gave a sense of life and of the joyof living which made his young blood tingl
e in his veins. Even theheavy John was not unmoved by the beauty of their road, while the bowmanwhistled lustily or sang snatches of French love songs in a voice whichmight have scared the most stout-hearted maiden that ever hearkened toserenade.

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

  "Ah me!" sighed Alleyne. "Would it not be better if he had some love inhis heart?"

  "I would not say nay to that. By my hilt! I shall never be said to betraitor to the little king. Let a man love the sex. Pasques Dieu! theyare made to be loved, les petites, from whimple down to shoe-string! Iam right glad, mon garcon, to see that the good monks have trained theeso wisely and so well."

  "Nay, I meant not worldly love, but rather that his heart should softentowards 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 lovea Scot or a Frenchman. Ma foi! you have not seen a drove of Nithsdaleraiders on their Galloway nags, or you would not speak of loving them. Iwould as soon take Beelzebub himself to my arms. I fear, mon gar., thatthey have taught thee but badly at Beaulieu, for surely a bishop knowsmore of what is right and what is ill than an abbot can do, and I myselfwith these very eyes saw the Bishop of Lincoln hew into a Scottishhobeler with a battle-axe, which was a passing strange way of showinghim that he loved him."

  Alleyne scarce saw his way to argue in the face of so decided an opinionon the part of a high dignitary of the Church. "You have borne armsagainst the Scots, then?" he asked.

  "Why, man, I first loosed string in battle when I was but a lad, youngerby two years than you, at Neville's Cross, under the Lord Mowbray.Later, I served under the Warden of Berwick, that very John Copeland ofwhom our friend spake, the same who held the King of Scots to ransom. Mafoi! it is rough soldiering, and a good school for one who would learnto 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 archeranswered. "They can travel, too, with bag of meal and gridiron slungto their sword-belt, so that it is ill to follow them. There are scantcrops and few beeves in the borderland, where a man must reap his grainwith sickle in one fist and brown bill in the other. On the other hand,they are the sorriest archers that I have ever seen, and cannot so muchas aim with the arbalest, to say nought of the long-bow. Again, they aremostly poor folk, even the nobles among them, so that there are few whocan 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 carrythe price of five Scotch farms upon their chest and shoulders. Man forman, with equal weapons, they are as worthy and valiant men as could befound in the whole of Christendom."

  "And the French?" asked Alleyne, to whom the archer's light gossip hadall 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 inFrance, and it hath led to much bobance and camp-fire talk, but I haveever noticed that those who know the most have the least to say aboutit. I have seen Frenchmen fight both in open field, in the intaking andthe defending of towns or castlewicks, in escalados, camisades, nightforays, bushments, sallies, outfalls, and knightly spear-runnings. Theirknights and squires, lad, are every whit as good as ours, and I couldpick out a score of those who ride behind Du Guesclin who would hold thelists with sharpened lances against the best men in the army of England.On the other hand, their common folk are so crushed down with gabelle,and poll-tax, and every manner of cursed tallage, that the spirit haspassed right out of them. It is a fool's plan to teach a man to be acur in peace, and think that he will be a lion in war. Fleece them likesheep and sheep they will remain. If the nobles had not conqueredthe poor folk it is like enough that we should not have conquered thenobles."

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

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

  "And what other nations have you seen in your travels, good sir?" askedAlleyne Edricson. His young mind hungered for plain facts of life, afterthe long course of speculation and of mysticism on which he had beentrained.

  "I have seen the low countryman in arms, and I have nought to sayagainst him. Heavy and slow is he by nature, and is not to be broughtinto battle for the sake of a lady's eyelash or the twang of aminstrel's string, like the hotter blood of the south. But ma foi! layhand on his wool-bales, or trifle with his velvet of Bruges, and outbuzzes every stout burgher, like bees from the tee-hole, ready to lay onas though it were his one business in life. By our lady! they have shownthe French at Courtrai and elsewhere that they are as deft in wieldingsteel as in welding it."

  "And the men of Spain?"

  "They too are very hardy soldiers, the more so as for many hundred yearsthey have had to fight hard against the cursed followers of the blackMahound, who have pressed upon them from the south, and still, as Iunderstand, hold the fairer half of the country. I had a turn with themupon the sea when they came over to Winchelsea and the good queen withher ladies sat upon the cliffs looking down at us, as if it had beenjoust 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 wentforth in little ships and came back in great galleys--for of fifty tallships of Spain, over two score flew the Cross of St. George ere the sunhad set. But now, youngster, I have answered you freely, and I trow itis time that you answered me. Let things be plat and plain between us. Iam a man who shoots straight at his mark. You saw the things I hadwith me at yonder hostel: name which you will, save only the box ofrose-colored sugar which I take to the Lady Loring, and you shall haveit if you will but come with me to France."

  "Nay," said Alleyne, "I would gladly come with ye to France or whereelse ye will, just to list to your talk, and because ye are the only twofriends 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, seeingthat father and mother are dead, and he my elder. Besides, when ye talkof taking me to France, ye do not conceive how useless I should be toyou, seeing that neither by training nor by nature am I fitted for thewars, and there seems to be nought but strife in those parts."

  "That comes from my fool's talk," cried the archer; "for being a man ofno learning myself, my tongue turns to blades and targets, even asmy hand does. Know then that for every parchment in England there aretwenty in France. For every statue, cut gem, shrine, carven screen,or what else might please the eye of a learned clerk, there are a goodhundred to our one. At the spoiling of Carcasonne I have seen chambersstored with writing, though not one man in our Company could read them.Again, in Arles and Nimes, and other towns that I could name, there arethe great arches and fortalices still standing which were built of oldby giant men who came from the south. Can I not see by your brightenedeye 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 shallnot see."

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

  "Bethink you again, mon ami," quoth Aylward, "that you might do muchgood yonder, since there are three hundred men in the Comp
any, and nonewho has ever a word of grace for them, and yet the Virgin knows thatthere was never a set of men who were in more need of it. Sickerly theone duty may balance the other. Your brother hath done without you thismany a year, and, as I gather, he hath never walked as far as Beaulieuto see you during all that time, so he cannot be in any great need ofyou."

  "Besides," said John, "the Socman of Minstead is a by-word through theforest, 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 drawme to France, and it would be a joy to me if I could go with you. Butindeed and indeed it cannot be, so here I take my leave of you, foryonder square tower amongst the trees upon the right must surely be thechurch 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 hisheart. "I am quick to love, and quick to hate and 'fore God I am loth topart."

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

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

  "Yet it may be as well that you should know whither we go," said thearcher. "We shall now journey south through the woods until we come outupon the Christchurch road, and so onwards, hoping to-night to reach thecastle of Sir William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, of which Sir NigelLoring is constable. There we shall bide, and it is like enough that fora month or more you may find us there, ere we are ready for our viageback to France."

  It was hard indeed for Alleyne to break away from these two new buthearty friends, and so strong was the combat between his conscienceand his inclinations that he dared not look round, lest his resolutionshould slip away from him. It was not until he was deep among the treetrunks that he cast a glance backwards, when he found that he couldstill see them through the branches on the road above him. The archerwas standing with folded arms, his bow jutting from over his shoulder,and the sun gleaming brightly upon his head-piece and the links ofhis chain-mail. Beside him stood his giant recruit, still clad in thehome-spun and ill-fitting garments of the fuller of Lymington, with armsand legs shooting out of his scanty garb. Even as Alleyne watched themthey turned upon their heels and plodded off together upon their way.