Boy Crusaders: A Story of the Days of Louis IX., Page 3

  CHAPTER II.

  THE BROTHERS-IN-ARMS.

  ON the last Wednesday of the month of July, in the year 1248, the castleof Wark reposed in the sunshine and warmth of a bright merry summer'sday; and, the exercises in the tiltyard being over for the morning, twoof the apprentices to chivalry, whose dress indicated that they hadattained the rank of squires, strolled slowly along the green border ofthe Tweed. Neither of them had passed the age of seventeen, but bothwere tall and strong and handsome for their years; and both had the fairhair, blue eyes, aquiline features, and air of authority whichdistinguished the descendants of the valiant Northmen who accompaniedRollo when he left Norway, sailed up the Seine, and seized on Neustria.But in one rather important respect there was a remarkable difference.One had a countenance which expressed gaiety of heart; the other had acountenance which expressed sadness of spirit. One bore the name of GuyMuschamp; the other the still greater name of Walter Espec.

  'And so, good Walter, we are actually soldiers of the Cross, and vowedto combat the Saracens,' said Guy, as they walked along the grassymargin of the river, which flowed tranquilly on, while the salmon leapedin its silver tide, and the trouts glided like silver darts through theclear stream, and the white and brindled cows cooled their hoofs in thewater; 'and yet I know not how it comes to pass, good Walter; butbeshrew me if, at times, I do not fancy that it is a dream of thenight.'

  'In truth, brave Guy,' replied the other, 'I comprehend not how you canhave any doubts on the subject, when you see the sacred badge on ourshoulders, and when we have, even within the hour, learned that theships of the great Saxon earl, in which we are to embark for the HolyLand, are now riding at anchor before the town of Berwick.'

  'You are right, good Walter,' said Guy, quickly; 'and marry! worse thanan infidel am I to have a doubt; and yet when I think of all the marvelswe are likely to behold, I can scarce credit my good fortune. Justimagine, Walter Espec, the picturesque scenery--the palm-trees, thefig-trees, the gardens with flowers, and vines, and citrons, andpomegranates; the Saracenic castles, the long caravans of camels, andthe Eastern women veiled in white, standing at fountains, and all thewonders that palmers and pilgrims tell of! Oh! the adventure appears sogrand, that I now begin to dread lest some mischance should come toprevent us going.'

  "I will go straightway with you, Walter," said Guy, "tothe palace of the Caliph; and if he refuses to render you justice, Iwill challenge him to mortal combat on the spot."--p. 16.]

  'And I,' observed Walter, calmly, 'have no dread of the kind; and I am,heart and soul, bent on the holy enterprise; albeit, I reck little ofcaravans of camels, or veiled women. But my heart yearns for that farland; for there it is that I am like to hear tidings of him I have lost.Ah! credit me, brave Guy, that you, and such as you, little know what itis to be alone in this world, without kith or kindred, or home, and howsaddening is the thought, ever crossing my mind, that one, near anddear, does live; and--and--'

  He paused, bent his brow, clenched his hand, and cast his eyes on theground, as tears streamed down his cheek.

  'Good Walter, dear Walter,' said Guy, yielding to sympathy till he wasalmost equally affected; 'droop not, but be of good cheer. Forget notthat we are brothers-in-arms, that I am your friend, your true and swornfriend; and I will aid your search. Nay, I know what you are going tosay; but you do me wrong. I will not waste time in looking at the camelsand the veiled women, of whom palmer and pilgrim tell; but I will gostraightway with you to the palace of the caliph; and, if he refuse torender you justice, I will challenge him to mortal combat on the spot.So again I say, be of good cheer.'

  Walter Espec smiled mournfully. His enthusiasm was not, in reality, lessthan that of his companion. But he had none of the gaiety, and little ofthe buoyant spirit, which enabled Guy Muschamp to make himself, at alltimes and seasons, a favourite in castle hall and lady's bower. 'I fearme, brave Guy,' said Walter, after a brief silence, 'that the caliph istoo great a potentate to be dealt with as you would wish. But, come whatmay, I am sworn to laugh at danger in the performance of a duty. Mydreams, awake and asleep, are of him who is lost; and I fantasied lastnight,' added he, lowering his voice, 'that my mother stood before me,as I last saw her when living, and implored me, in the name of St.Katherine, the patron saint of the Especs, to fulfil my vow of rescuingher lost son from captivity and from the enemies of Christ.'

  'Oh, fear not, doubt not, good Walter,' cried Guy, with enthusiasm; 'itmust, it shall, be done; and then we can go and conquer a principality,like Tancred, or Bohemund of Tarentum, or Count Raymond of St. Giles,and other old heroes.'

  'Even the crown of Jerusalem may not be beyond our grasp, if fortunefavour us,' said Walter, with a calm smile.

  'Oh, fortune ever favours the brave,' exclaimed Guy; 'and I hold thatnothing is impossible to men who are brave and ambitious; and no squireof your years is braver or more ambitious than you, Walter, or moreexpert in arms; albeit you never utter a boast as to your own feats,while no one is more ready to praise the actions of others.'

  'Even if I had anything to boast of,' replied Walter, 'I should refrainfrom so doing; and therein I should only be acting according to themaxims of chivalry; for you know we are admonished to be dumb as to ourown deeds, and eloquent in praise of others; and, moreover, that if thesquire is vainglorious, he is not worthy to become a knight, and that hewho is silent as to the valour of others is a thief and a robber.'

  And thus conversing, the brothers-in-arms returned to the castle, andentered the great hall, which was so spacious and so high in the roofthat a man on horseback might have turned a spear in it with all theease imaginable. It was, indeed, a stately apartment; the ceilingconsisting of a smooth vault of ashlar-work, the stones being curiouslyjoined and fitted together; and the walls and roof decorated by some ofthose great painters who flourished in England under the patronage ofKing Henry and his fair and accomplished queen, Eleanor of Provence.Here was represented the battle of Hastings; there the siege ofJerusalem by the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon and RobertCurthose; here the battle of the Standard; there the signing of theGreat Charter by King John, under the oak of Runnymede. Around the hallmight be traced the armorial bearings of the lord of the castle and thechief families with whom the lord of the castle was allied by blood--thethree water-budgets of De Roos; the three Katherine-wheels of Espec; theengrailed cross of De Vesci; the seven blackbirds of Merley; the lionargent of Dunbar in its field of gules; and the ruddy lion of Scotland,ramping in gold; while on the roof was depicted the castle itself, withgates, and battlements, and pinnacles, and towers; and there also, veryconspicuous, was the form of a rose, and around it was inscribed inGothic letters the legend--

  He who doth secrets reveal, Beneath my roof shall never live.

  It was ten o'clock--in that age the hour of dinner--when Walter Especand Guy Muschamp entered the great hall of the castle, and, thehousehold having assembled for that important meal, a huge oaken table,which in shape resembled the letter T, groaned under massive sirloins.Attended by his jesters, the lord of the castle took his seat on thedais, which was reserved for his family and his guests of high rank;while the knights, squires, pages, and retainers ranged themselves aboveand below the salt, according to their claims to precedence; and hawksstood around on perches, and hounds lay stretched on the rushy floor,waiting their turn to be fed.

  Much ceremony was of course observed. The sirloins were succeeded byfish and fowl, and dishes curiously compounded; and, as was the fashionof that feudal age, the dinner lasted three hours. But, notwithstandingthe pride and pomp exhibited, the meal was by no means dull. The jestersand minstrels did their work. During the intervals the jesters exercisedall their wit to divert the lord and his friends; and the minstrels, inthe gallery set apart for their accommodation, discoursed flourishes ofmusic, borrowed from the Saracens and brought from the East, for thegratification of the company, or roused the aspirations of the youthfulwarriors by some such spirit-stirring strain as the battle-hymn ofRo
llo.

  'I marvel much, good Walter,' said Guy Muschamp to his brother-in-arms,'I marvel much where we are destined to dine this day next year.'

  'Beshrew me if I can even form a guess,' replied Walter Espec,thoughtfully; 'methinks no seer less potent than the Knight ofErcildoune, whom the vulgar call "True Thomas," could on such a point doaught to satisfy your curiosity.'

  'Mayhap at Acre or Jerusalem,' suggested Guy, after a pause.

  'By Holy Katherine,' exclaimed Walter, 'ere you named Acre andJerusalem, my imagination had carried me to the palace of the caliph atBagdad.'