CEDRIC, THE FORESTER.

by Bernard Gay Marshall.

CHAPTER I-THE SIEGE OF CASTLE MOUNTJOY

That was a blithe spring morning when the messenger from the King brought to my father the order to join the army at Lincoln for the great expedition into Scotland. Six armored knights with their squires and a hundred men-at-arms made up the Mountjoy quota; and these my father, liege lord of the domain and loyal subject of the crown, lost no time in bringing together.

Messengers, on horseback and afoot hurried out with his commands; and at the castle we were all in a pretty flurry of making ready.

The armorers were hammering and riveting in the courtyard, making a most merry din; the big ox-carts lumbered in over the drawbridge, bearing meat and grain for my father's company while on its way to the a.s.sembly ground and for us who were to remain at Mountjoy; and our men in their leathern jackets and hoods and with their cross-bows slung on their backs were coming in by ones and twos and in groups of half a score.

Now my lady mother drew near to Father's side as he watched the labor of the armorers, and I, having no will to lose any word of his, came forward also.

"My lord," she said, "I would speak with thee where the noise of these hammers will not deafen our ears."

My father laughed as one laughs at the sorriest jest when he is gay.

"Gadzooks! my lady," he said with a curtsy which my mother says he learned in Italy, and which, try as I may, I cannot copy-"a daughter of the Montmorencys should find in the din of armorers' hammers a music far sweeter than that of the lute or viol."

"'Tis well enough," said my mother, hurriedly, "and I should sorrow to live where it never was heard. But I have a grave matter upon which to consult thee. Hast thou given thought, my lord, to the castle's defense during thine absence and that of the best part of our men?"

My father's brow became furrowed. I opened my mouth to speak, but Mother frowned at me so I held my peace. Methinks she sometimes thinks of me as naught more than a child, forgetting that it was my fifteenth birthday that we marked at Candlemas.

"Some little I have thought of that," began my father, "and, indeed, Kate, I would not have thee think I would leave thee unsecured. Marvin, the old cross-bowman who attended me through all my campaigns, and whose eye for the homing place of his arrow, is, in spite of his years, like that of Robin Hood himself, shall be thy right-hand servitor, and with him six good serving men, who, like him, are of the older day and unfit for the long marches, but who can handle the cross-bow or, at need, the spear as well as in their best days. These shall be at thy command; and will be ample for these quiet times."

"Nay, my lord," she answered, quickly, "these days are none so quiet, with the Old Wolf of Carleton sharpening his fangs for us and ours."

"The Old Wolf hath his summons to the King's banner as I have mine. Our smaller quarrels must be laid aside while the war is on; and if Fortune desert me not, I shall return far higher in the favor of the King than e'er before. It is this very business, well and faithfully done, that shall put an end to Carleton's insolence. The Wolf shall snap his jaws in vain. The fat goose of Mountjoy for which he hungers shall show itself an eagle with beak and talons."

"I hope it may be as thou sayest, my lord. Still, leave with us Old Alan, the armorer. He too is past the days of hard campaigns; and thou wilt have the young smith, d.i.c.kon, for thy work in the camp. Alan shall make for us such a store of cross-bow bolts as will make Old Marvin and his men seem a score in case of need."

"As thou wilt, Kate. I had need of Old Alan's head far more than his hands; but 'tis true enough he's not the man who followed my father to the wars."

Then he turned to me and smiled as on that greeting day of his return from the Holy Wars.

"But, Kate," he cried, "here is the Champion of Mountjoy now. We had forgot the chief of our defenders. Mayhap Sir d.i.c.kon here, if any seek to do thee harm, will find better marks for his bolts than rooks and hares."

I knew that he made a jest of me; for he, too, hardly knows that I lack but half a foot of being as tall as himself and that when I am not put about by hurry or the like, my voice is as low a ba.s.s. But I answered in goodly earnest:

"That I will, Father. An if any varlet throw but an unmannerly word at my lady mother, I'll stop his mouth with a good steel bolt. Let but any one-Gray Wolf or other-threaten Mountjoy while thou'rt away, and come within bow-shot of our walls, and he shall rue it well."

"Ha! The young eagle tries his wings," laughed my father. "Spoken like a true Mountjoy, d.i.c.kon. Thou'lt do. Give thee but a few more years and thou'lt serve the King like all thy line."

"And like a true Montmorency, my lord," put in my mother. "Forget not that."

"'Pon my soul, 'tis true," he laughed, "d.i.c.kon hath as good blood on the distaff side as any his father can boast.-But to the matter of the castle's defense in need. Will-o'-the-Wallfield shall stay behind also to see that stores of grain and beef are ample. He's ever a good hand with the farmers and as sound as an oak staff." And with a kiss for my mother and a pinch o' the ear for me, he hurried out again to the armorers.

His spirits in good sooth were high that morning, as well might they be.

It was full two years since his return from the Holy Land. I had seen him in London, riding in his shining mail with those who had helped redeem the Blessed Sepulcher, and he the bravest, finest figure of them all. Since that time he had stayed here at the castle with naught to do save to judge the suits of the countryfolk and now and again chase down and hang some forest-lurking robber. His comrades in arms and those that knew his temper and his deeds were at the Court, a hundred miles away; and many a dull day must have seemed a week in pa.s.sing. Here in the West we have no tourneys and of travelers from the farther world not many.

Only lately some little stir of life did we have. The Gray Wolf of Carleton from his castle at Teramore, three leagues away, had sent to us an insolent demand for tribute, claiming forsooth that the Lords of Mountjoy were but a younger line of the House of Carleton and that we held our fiefs on sufferance and at the will of them, our superiors.

Always shall I remember the language of my father's answer. The clerkly knave who brought Lord Carleton's message shrunk and shriveled before it like a leaf too near the fire. Just so will I meet all such threats and insolence when I have but a few more years.

"Suzerain of Mountjoy, forsooth! Let the Gray Wolf look well to Teramore, lest we of Mountjoy smoke him from his lair. Mountjoy banners will dip before those of Carleton when England pays tribute to the Saracen, and Beelzebub, thy master's friend, sits on the throne."

The knave slunk back to Teramore; and for some weeks the Gray Wolf's pack had yapped and yowled. Two of Lord Carleton's bailiffs had their heads well broken by Mountjoy tenants of whom they demanded rental; and an armed party was sent out to avenge them. These men-at-arms were even more roughly used by some of our Mountjoy cross-bowmen who spied the Carleton banner from afar as it entered the village.

Real fighting would surely have come of it, and we of Mountjoy outnumbered three to one, had not the King sent messengers to Teramore and Mountjoy also, commanding all of us to cease from any violence in the quarrel till his men could report to him the rights and wrongs of it.

Now came the King's call to his va.s.sals, great and small, to serve in the Scottish war; and my father was gay with the thought of service under his sovereign's banner,-service that might place the name and fame of Mountjoy high in his master's favor, and show what manner of man and subject it was whom the Gray Wolf would rob of his lands.

A week from that morning my mother had in hand a letter brought by a courier from the King's army and bearing my father's greetings. They were well on their way to the north, and believed the Scots would soon have reason to repent them of their folly. Father had been given a post in the advance guard, and was in high feather over rejoining some of his comrades of earlier years.

On the same day, and from another source, we had news that the Gray Wolf was delayed at Teramore by an illness,-the same that had plagued him at times since his campaigns in the Holy Land, but that he had sent word to the King that he would overtake the banners ere they reached the Scottish border.

At seven of the next morning, I stood with Old Marvin by the drawbridge wheel. He had seen to its lowering, and a wain-load of wheat from the grange at the Wallfield was coming slowly into the courtyard. Suddenly I espied a body of hors.e.m.e.n approaching at a trot half a mile away, at a bend on the wooded road from Mannerley. With pointing finger, I guided the eyes of Marvin; and for half a minute we both stood watching the riders without a word. They were soon lost behind the trees, but our old archer, with his hand on the wheel, now shifted his looks to the road where it came out of the forest, a scant bowshot below us.

Now we could hear the hoofbeats and once and again the ring of steel.

This could be no friendly call from our neighboring knights and squires so early in the day. Besides, the loyal men of the whole region were with the King's banner. Had the hors.e.m.e.n come by the Teramore road, our thoughts would have flown at once to the Old Wolf and his designs, and the drawbridge had gone up in a twinkling; but these came from Mannerley; and I knew well that the good lady of Mannerley had days since sent her small quota of knights and men-at-arms to Lincoln. We had not long to wonder, for now the column came from the wood at a swinging trot, and with a tall, gray-bearded knight at its head came forward swiftly toward the open gate.

Marvin stayed his hand no longer. I seized the crank with him; and we swiftly turned it. We drew the bridge to a slant, half way to the upright and barely in time to halt those riders on the yonder side of the moat.

"I know thee, my Lord Carleton," shouted Marvin, "what would'st thou at Mountjoy? Dost think we keep no watch and ward?"

The Old Wolf (for verily he was the leader of the hors.e.m.e.n) shouted back to us in tones that made my ear drums ache:

"Lower the bridge, varlet. Know'st thou not I am liege lord of Mountjoy, and will hang thee higher than Haman if thou stay'st me by so much as an instant. Lower the bridge, if thou would'st save thy carca.s.s from the crows!"

Before Marvin could say aught in reply he was thrust aside, and my mother, the Lady of Mountjoy, stood by the sally port. In a moment I stood close behind her with cross-bow drawn and bolt in groove.

"My Lord Carleton," she said, and her voice was wonderfully sweet after the rasping tones that had been filling our ears, "what dost thou here with three score mounted men when the King hath summoned all loyal va.s.sals to his banner?"

So evil a face as he made at this greeting I hope never to see again.

"Ah! 'tis thou, then, Kate of Montmorency. I have somewhat pressing business of my own to forward ere I send final answer to the King. Now deliver to me the keys of this my castle of Mountjoy. Or mayhap thou wilt send yonder leather-coated varlet to act as thy champion 'gainst one of my kitchen knaves. Now lower thy bridge, and all shall be well. I will send thee and the boy there with a convoy of trusty knights to the Convent of St. Anne. If thou hast the folly to attempt to stay me, I will take the place by storm; thy varlets shall hang, every one; and thine own fate thou canst guess. Come now! which, shall it be? I am not accustomed to stay long for answers."

"Traitor and Hound of Bedlam!" cried my mother in such a voice as I knew not she possessed, "thine own head with the gray locks thou dishonorest shall hang from my battlements ere thou gainest aught by this attack on what thou thinkest to be a defenseless woman. While my lord fights for his country under the banner of the King, thou sendest back lying messengers, and arm thy crew for robbing him of his lands. Now back, with all thy b.l.o.o.d.y-handed band, or my cross-bowmen shall see if they cannot find with their bolts the joints of your harness. I give no more time to parley. Back with you!"

Already my cross-bow was leveled at the gray beard of the leader on the other side of the moat. I would make good my boast made to my father but a week since. I was trembling and my hair stood up like that of a dog that meets his bitter enemy. Muttering a little prayer for the bolt, and closing my eyes with a sudden, foolish dread, I pulled the trigger. But my mother, just then seeing my design, struck up the weapon with one swift blow, so that the bolt sped harmlessly over the heads of the hors.e.m.e.n.

"Hold thy arrows, boy," she commanded, "we cannot shoot men down at parley, be they never so villainous. And we shall have fighting enough ere long."

Lord Carleton made a move of defiance; but he wheeled his steed and led his men down the road by which they came. In the shadow of the woods they halted; and the Gray Wolf called about him three or four knights to whom he gave hurried orders. Very soon his troop broke into three parties. One rode to the right and another to the left, while the third, under the old lord's command, remained opposite the main gate and drawbridge. Then our watchers on the battlements saw the other parties posted at points of vantage around the castle and a young squire riding at full gallop along the road to Teramore. The siege of Castle Mountjoy had begun.

We pa.s.sed some weary hours while the Carleton knights gave no sign of meaning to attack. The approaches to the drawbridge are steep and rocky, and the moat is commanded by the cross-bowmen from the slits in the towers and from the battlements above. I well knew that Carleton was an old and skillful soldier, even though a cruel and bloodthirsty one; and it was easy to be seen that he had no mind to lose any of his armored knights in vain attempts to reach us. Now and again a cross-bow bolt sped from our battlements toward the besiegers; and some of these rang on their helmets or breastplates; but the hounds had good Toledo armor, and no bolt found its way to joint or visor. I found none to stay me now; and stood by a firing slit, sending arrow after arrow at our enemies.