THE CHARM OF THE OLD WORLD ROMANCES – Premium 10 Book Collection. Robert BarrЧитать онлайн книгу.
would find, in the face of hurling granite, to force a breach in the stonework. All in all, Arnold had a hard nut to crack in Castle Thuron, defended as it was by a man of resource and resolute determination.
On the opposite shore of the river Rodolph saw collected many ox-carts, while the three boats which the day before had been drawn up on the bank at Alken, were busy ferrying over the produce brought by the carts. Sturdy villagers with bags on their backs were slowly plodding up the hill to the castle, ignoring the zig-zag road, and coming steeply and straight up the lanes between the rows of vines.
As Rodolph leaned against the stone parapet watching the villagers crawling like laden ants up the slopes, he was accosted by the cheery voice of the English archer.
"I hope you have slept well, my Lord," he said.
"Excellently. And you?"
"Never better. With the blue sky above me and my mind at peace with all the world; a bed of moss and a sloping hillside, that the water may speedily run away should a shower come on, no man can ask for better resting-place."
"Good Heaven! The Count did not turn you thus inhospitably adrift on the landscape surely? He has roof enough and room enough to give you some choice of a sleeping chamber."
"Oh, the Count's intentions were doubtless fair enough; I make no complaint of his Blackness. That he is uncivilised and knows nothing of the courtesy that pertains to a guest, is the fault of his upbringing and should not be justly charged against him. I was taken to a dark vault and barred in, the which I never can put up with, unless I am a legal prisoner, and even then only if it fall in with my convenience. I had some thought of slaying my jailor and taking his head with me to the Count, to demand an unbarred door, but the rascal was too quick for me, and before I fathomed his inhospitable intent, had thrust bolt in socket, himself safely on the outside, scorning my protestations. A fastened door gives me a sense of suffocation that I find ill to abide. I tested the door by various expedients which lie at the hand of an experienced soldier, but found it proof against them all. Window there was none, but the open chimney gave me a speedy way, working with hands and knees, to the roof. The moon, just past the full, was shining brightly, and at some risk to my bones I got from roof to lower roof, and so at last to the battlements, where by trusting my body somewhat precipitously to the top of a tree, I won my road to the ground outside the castle. There I made myself a bed and was awakened as a man should be, by the singing of the birds, after a most refreshing night of it. I wandered about in the forest testing the different trees to find timber for the making of arrows, or a bow if need be, although I found little suitable for the latter. With these branches of timber I presented myself at the entrance gate to the no small amazement of the guards, and found all in a bustle, with the buying and selling of grain. Henry Schwart espied me as soon as I entered, notwithstanding the throng, and he roared out how the devil I came there, and who had unbarred the door, whereat I laughed at him, and said they kept such loose watch at Thuron that an industrious man might have cut all their throats while they slept, had he been so minded, and this brought greater blackness into Heinrich's face than I had hitherto seen there."
"If a suggestion does you any good," said Rodolph, with some severity, "I would not make his Lordship the subject of mirth."
"Indeed, my Lord, your words are full of wisdom, which I marvel at considering your youth; but with me it is usually the word first and the thought after, which may be likened to putting the cart before the cow, as they would say in these parts. No; I saw that Heinrich did not enjoy my merriment, but what was I to do when the laugh had already echoed from the stone walls, and was thus beyond recall. He sent one messenger to my room, and another to yours, with instructions to leave your door open and unbarred, which seemed to show that the Black Count may still be judiciously taught by good example. The messenger to your room reported you to be sleeping soundly, while the one to mine said the door was still bolted, which was undoubtedly true, for I had not meddled with it. But I much fear, as you have already hinted, that I have forfeited the love Heinrich bore me yesterday, when I pointed an arrow at his heart, for when I asked permission to go to Treves (granted that I received your leave) he opened his eyes till they were round as targets, and cried that he would see me in the region of the condemned with pleasure, but not to Treves, which I took as an ill-natured remark, given coarsely as he put it."
"To Treves? Why to Treves of all places in the world? How could you expect Count Heinrich to permit you to go to Treves from this castle when he is in momentary anticipation of being besieged by Treves?"
"I told him I should return unless I was decapitated by the Archbishop or Count Bertrich, in which case he could hardly look to me to keep my tryst with him. I have a friend whom I left near Treves, from whence, if I succeeded in getting employment, I was to send him word, so that he too might have a place beside me. In case of not hearing from me he was to betake himself to Treves and there make inquiry regarding me; that, I fear, he has done, or is about to do, and I wish to engage him on my side in this quarrel. It has been our fate this many a year to be in opposing camps, and thus not only are we deprived of each other's company, but our lives are placed in jeopardy, each through the marksmanship of the other; and while I should as fain take my departure from this world on one of Roger's shafts as otherwise, yet it would grieve him ever after, for he is a tender hearted man as ever let fly unerring arrow. It would greatly advantage Black Heinrich, had he but sense to see it, to let me go to Treves and bring back Roger Kent with me."
"Is he then an archer also? There surely cannot be two such."
"No, there is none like him. He regards me as his most promising pupil, but that is merely because of his fondness for me, who will patiently listen to the poetry he makes."
"Is he a poet as well? Such a man, if he betters you in shooting, must write most stirringly of war."
"He is the greatest of poets, for so he himself admitted to me. He writes poetry that no man on earth can understand, and if that be sign of greatness, it must be as he says. He has slight conceit of himself as an archer, in which craft I know him to be unequalled, but I am no judge of his verses, although they read most soothingly and put a man to sleep when aught else fails. He writes not of war, my Lord, but of love. He indites verses to many foreign virgins of ancient times, whose very names I am never able to remember, and he has marvellous pages on the birds and the woods and mosses, and all flowers that grow, which, he says, speak to him in a language of their own, and that I can well believe, for I have no understanding of it. And he has penned many touching lines on the blessings of peace, though how he could earn his threepence a day if peace abounded, is something which even he, poet as he is, cannot explain."
"I think such a soldier would be an acquisition to our garrison, and I shall see whether Count Heinrich can be persuaded to allow you a visit in Treves, although I can well understand his reluctance, fearing the losing of so valuable an archer as yourself. I also have a message to send to Treves, so perhaps we shall prevail on the Count to think better of his decision. You gave me the name of your friend, but I have never yet learned your own."
"I am called John Surrey, my Lord. I am Saxon, as you may see, but Roger is a Norman, tall and thin and nearly as black as Heinrich himself. We should be enemies and not friends, for the Normans conquered the Saxons, but as that conquest is now some time past, and I saw not how to better the matter by my interference so long as the Normans had such archers as Roger; and as he could get none of his own countrymen to listen to his poetry, we had need of each other, and our only grievance is that we fight usually on opposite sides, the which I should in this instance amend if the Count but let me to Treves before the Archbishop has Roger enlisted. If there is a tumult in Treves and men are called for, he will be one of the first to offer himself, thinking to find me in the ranks, for he knows that it was to take service with Arnold that I journeyed forth."
"I have, as I said, a message to send to Treves, so I shall speak to the Count on behalf of your mission, but I doubt if he will risk the loss of one archer like you on the remote chance of gaining two such later."
"Am I then in the Count's service and not in yours? Have you transferred me to him, my Lord?"
"Not so. You are at present my archer regiment, which I hope to increase in number as opportunity serves, but we must now do our best to aid the Count,