Boy Crusaders: A Story of the Days of Louis IX., Page 2

  CHAPTER I.

  A FEUDAL CASTLE.

  IT was the age of chain armour and tournaments--of iron barons andbarons' wars--of pilgrims and armed pilgrimages--of forests and forestoutlaws--when Henry III. reigned as King of England, and the feudalsystem, though no longer rampant, was still full of life and energy;when Louis King of France, afterwards canonised as St. Louis, undertookone of the last and most celebrated of those expeditions known as theCrusades, and described as 'feudalism's great adventure, and popularglory.'

  At the time when Henry was King of England and when Louis of France wasabout to embark for the East, with the object of rescuing the HolySepulchre from the Saracens, there stood on the very verge ofNorthumberland a strong baronial edifice, known as the Castle of Wark,occupying a circular eminence, visible from a great distance, andcommanding such an extensive view to the north as seemed to ensure thegarrison against any sudden inroad on the part of the restless andrefractory Scots. On the north the foundations were washed by the watersof the Tweed, here broad and deep; and on the south were a little town,which had risen under the protection of the castle, and,--stretchingaway towards the hills of Cheviot,--an extensive park or chase,abounding with wild cattle and deer and beasts of game. At an earlierperiod this castle had been a possession of the famous house of Espec;and, when in after days it came into the hands of the Montacute Earls ofSalisbury, Edward III. was inspired within its walls with that romanticadmiration of the Countess of Salisbury which resulted in theinstitution of the Order of the Garter. During the fifth decade of thethirteenth century, however, it was the chief seat of Robert, Lord deRoos, a powerful Anglo-Norman noble, whose father had been one of thebarons of Runnymede and one of the conservators of the Great Charter.

  Like most of the fortresses built by the Norman conquerors of England,Wark consisted of a base-court, a keep, and a barbican in front of thebase-court. The sides of the walls were fortified with innumerableangles, towers, and buttresses, and surmounted with strong battlementsand hornworks. For greater security the castle was encompassed, savetowards the Tweed, with a moat or deep ditch, filled with water, andfortified with strong palisades, and sharp stakes set thick all aroundthe walls. Over the moat, at the principal gate, was the drawbridge,which was almost always raised, and the gate-house, a square building,having strong towers at each corner. Over the entrance and within thesquare of the gate-house was an arched vault, and over it was a chamberwith apertures, through which, on occasion of an assault, the garrison,unseen the whilst, could watch the operations of the foe, and pourboiling water or melted lead on the foremost assailants. On the westside were the outworks, consisting of a platform with a trench half amile in length, and breastworks, and covered ways, and mounds. The roofsof the building were bordered with parapets, guard walks, and sentryboxes.

  But the whole space was not appropriated to works intended to ensure thestronghold against the assault of foes. Near the mound was the chapeldedicated to St. Giles. Under the outer wall was a military walk, fiveyards wide, and forty-eight yards in length. Underneath the walls, onthe brink of the river, was a beautiful terrace, called the Maiden'sWalk, where the lady of the castle and her damsels, after their laboursat the loom, were wont to take air and exercise on a summer evening, erethe vesper bell rang, and the bat began to hunt the moth. Within theprecincts of the building was the tiltyard, a broad space enclosed withrails, and covered with sawdust, where young men of gentle blood, in thecapacity of pages and squires, acquired the chivalrous accomplishmentswhich the age prized so highly.

  In fact, the castle of Wark, like most feudal castles of that century,was a school of chivalry, whither the sons of nobles and knights weresent to serve their apprenticeship as warriors, taught their duty to Godand the ladies, and trained to the skill in arms which enabled them tocompel the respect of one sex and influence the hearts of the other.

  First, on foot, they were taught to attack the pel, an imaginaryadversary, which was simply the stump of a tree six feet in height;then, on horseback, they were made to charge the quintain, a woodenfigure in the form of a Saracen, armed in mail and holding a sabre inone hand and a shield in the other, and so constructed to move on apivot that, unless the youth was dexterous enough to strike the face orbreast, it revolved rapidly, and dealt him a heavy blow on the back ashe was retiring. As the lads became more expert they tilted at eachother with blunt lances, practised riding at the ring, and learned toexcel as equestrians by riding in a circle, vaulting from their steedsin the course of their career, and mounting again while they galloped.

  At the same time they were trained to acquit themselves with credit inthose encounters celebrated as combats at the barriers. At the sieges ofcities, during the middle ages, knights of the besieging army were inthe habit of going to the barriers, or grated palisades of the fortress,and defying the garrison to break a lance for the honour of theirladies. Indeed, this was so fashionable, that an army could hardlyappear before a town without the siege giving rise to a variety of suchcombats, which were generally conducted with fairness on both sides.This mode of attack was early taught to the apprentice to chivalry, andassiduously practised by all who were ambitious of knightly honour.

  Nor did the exercises of the tiltyard end at this stage. At the time ofwhich I write, the name of Richard Coeur de Lion was famous in Europeand Asia; and his feats in arms were on every tongue. One of his greatexploits at the battle of Joppa was especially the admiration of thebrave. It seems that, when the Crusaders were surrounded and almostoverwhelmed by the swarming host of Saladin, Richard, who, up to thatmoment, had neither given nor received a wound, suddenly sprang on hischarger, drew his sword, laid his lance in rest, and with his sword inone hand, and his lance in the other, spurred against the Saracens,striking sparks from their helmets and armour, and inspiring such terrorthat his foes were completely routed. Naturally such an exploit made astrong impression on the imagination of aspirants to warlike fame, andthe youth who had the dexterity and the equestrian skill to imitate itin mimic fray was regarded with admiration and envy.

  Now our concern with Wark, and its tiltyard, is simply this--that,within the castle, there were trained in the exercises of chivalry, andqualified for its honours, two striplings, who, when St. Louis took theCross, and undertook a holy war, embarked for the East, and figured,during a memorable expedition, as the Boy Crusaders.