The Young Lovell Page 5

  I

  So the Young Lovell sat listening to the old Elizabeth in the sun thatgrew hottish amongst the flowering bushes. He thought to himself nighall the time, and still every second thought was of that lady.

  His thoughts went like this--

  There could be no doubt that the law would not help him to retake hisCastle; but he longed for her red, crooked, smiling lips. He musttherefore get together a band and besiege that place; and at the thoughtof climbing through a breach in great towers whilst the cannon spoke andthe fascines fell into the ditches, arrows clittered on harness, greekfire rustled down, and the great banners drooped over the tumult, hisblood leapt for a moment. But her hair he remembered in its filamentsand it blotted out the blue sea that lay below his feet and was moregolden than the gold of the broom flowers and the gorse that surroundedhim. He thought that, first, he must have the sanction of the BishopPalatine and his absolution from any magic he might in innocence havewitnessed; but, in longing for her queer smile, he could scarcely keepfrom springing to his feet. He knew he must be moving over the hills,but the remembrance of her crossed breasts with her girdle kept himlanguishing there in the hot sun as if his limbs had lost their youngstrength.

  So, when the old woman had finished her story, she sat looking at himwith a queer glance. He spoke no word until she could not but say--

  "Master, where did ye bide? Was it with the bonny witch-wives?"

  He contemplated her face expressionlessly.

  "Tell me truly, old woman," he said, "where will ye say that I did bide,to save my name?" for he knew that this old woman could tell a very goodtale.

  "I will say Gib Elliott took ye up into Chevyside and held ye there inan old tower, till a scrivener of Embro' could be found to take yourbond for a thousand marks. And ye shall send fifty crowns to Gib byme--he was my mother's sister's foster son--and he shall say that so itwas."

  "Say even that," he answered, without either joy or sorrow in his tone.

  "Oh my fair son," she cried out in an unhappy and lamenting voice, "Iknew ye had been among the witch-wives; and shall your face, a youngcomely face of a golden lording...."

  "What ails my face?" he asked.

  "Sirs," she cried out, "his face is like the very still water of oldgrey rock-pools, with no dancing before the wind and sun."

  "Even let it be so," he answered.

  "Ay, ye are in a worse case than your dad," she cried. "All theRuthvens had these traffics."

  He looked at her hardly.

  "My brother Decies was a witch's son?" he said. "That was my father'ssin that sent him roaming?"

  "Of a witch that dressed as a nun and stole into a convent," she said,and rocked herself woefully where she sat beside her washing board atthe edge of the pool. "They found witch marks upon her. They shouldhave drowned the child, but he took it by force and with great oaths andsent it into foreign shires. And that made his sin the heavier."

  "Ah, well!" the Young Lovell said.

  "You Ruffyns," the old woman went on lamenting, "for, call yourselvesnever so much Lovells, Ruthvens ye will remain, and ye are never of thiscountryside but of the Red Welsh or the Black Welsh or of some heathencountryside. And always ye have had truck with witches and warlocks.The first of ye that came into these parts was your grandfather's fatherand he had a black stone, like a coal but not like a coal. That wasgiven him by a witch that loved him, as she went on the way to thefaggots, for they burnt her. And without it, how could he have made hismarvellous booties, riding thro' the land of France, from how 'twas tohow 'twas, and sacking the marvellous rich and walled cities? And I hadthought to have saved you from these hussies, seeing that you might wellbe of a better race, your mother being of a German house and theAlmains, as all the world tells, being foul and dirty in their lives,but almighty pious so that nine crucifixes in ten that we buy come fromthere. Therefore as you came first from your mother's womb I put thefat of good bacon in your mewling mouth, and your sleeves I tied withgreen ribbons, and I took you to the low shed in the tennis court androlled you down the roof--and the one thing should have saved you fromthe fiends and the other from the witches, and the third even from thefairy people. And these things are older than holy water, though youhad enough of that...."

  "May it save me yet!" the Young Lovell said. "But what I now have toconsider is how to take my mother from these people and to get back whatis mine own."

  "Aye," the old woman said, "you were ever a good child to your mother;therefore I had hopes of you. For your sisters, they were all blackRuffyns, bitter and so curst that they had no need for resort to thepowers of evil to help them."

  "Tell me truly now, old woman," her master said, "how long may my motherlive and abide the treatment that she now has and not die?"

  "Ah," the old woman lamented, "how altered is now her estate from whatit was, who had the finest bower that was to see in the North Country!Not a Percy lady nor any Neville nor any mistress of a Canon of Durhamhad such a one. Remember the great red curtains there were to the bed,and the painted windows that showed the story of the man without a coat.And the great chest carved with curliecues from Flanders, and the otherchest with the figures of holy kings, and the third that was from Almainand stood as high as my head upon twisted pillars and had angels holdingcandles at each corner. And for what was in the chest--the stores ofgowns, the furs of zibelline and of marten, the golden chains joiningdiamond to diamond and pearl to pearl! ... And now she lieth upon alittle pallet, and here, upon these bushes, is drying all the linen thatshe hath. The one gown of scarlet is all that there is for her back,except for the great slit coat that they have given her for fear thatshe die of the cold. And her little dog Butterfly is all that she hathfor comfort, that sits in her sleeve.... But yet I think she will notdie, and it is certain that none of them wish her death that shouldbring against them the mighty house of Dacre to have her heritage. Butday after day they come in, now one, now two, now three and cry out uponher with great and curious words seeking to gar her give them her landsand render up her yearly dower. And so she sits still; and sometimesshe gives them back hard words, but most often she says no more thanthat they shall give her her due and let her go. And so they rave allthe more. But I do not think that she will die..."

  "And has she never sent word to her own mother?" the Young Lovell asked,"I think that ancient dame could do more than another to save her."

  "I think she is too proud," the old woman said. "Of the Duke of Croy shehas spoken often enough, but of her mother never one word, so that, Godforgive me, I had forgotten that she had that mother though it was inher house I saw the first of God His good light three score and twelveyears was. For you know that these ladies have never spoken togethernor written broad letters since your grandfather Dacre died, and yourfather, on the day the funeral was, was sacking the castles and housesthat were your mother's inheritance. And the old lady thought theyshould have been hers; so that to this day she is wealthy enough in goldbut hath little or no land and dwells in but a moderate house in theBailey at Durham, though when her son, the Dacre, is in London she ismostly there herself."

  The Young Lovell stood up upon his legs.

  "Then if there is no great haste to save my mother's life," he said, "itis the better. I would else very well have hastened to get togethertwenty or thirty lusty bachelors and so we might have burst into thisCastle of mine. But if my mother may stay out a fortnight or a month itis the better. For I will get together money and a host and cannon andso we may make sure."

  "Ay," the old woman said, "but hasten all ye may for the sake of RichardBek and Robert Bulmer."

  "Now tell me truly what is this?" her master asked.

  The old woman burst out into many ejaculations how that with the hasteand her master's strange looks she did not know what she had told himand what she had missed out.

  Certain it was that Richard Bek, Robert Bulmer, and Bertram Bullock heldthe White Tower for him,
the Young Lovell. The others could not come tothem for the White Tower stood on a rock twenty yards from the Castleand joined to it by such a narrow stone bridge that it was, as it were,a citadel. It could stand fast though all the rest of the Castle shouldbe taken, having been devised for that purpose. Richard Bek and RobertBulmer, poor squires, or almost of the degree of yeomen, had always beencaptains of the White Tower and in it the dead Lord Lovell had kept hismarvellous store of gold--as much as four score thousand French crowns,more or less--and all these were theirs still, with such strong cannonas might well batter down the Castle; only Richard Bek would not dothis. And to him there had resorted from time to time certain strongfellows that were still faithful to their master, creeping in the nightalong the narrow bridge into the tower ... such as Richard Raket, theYoung Lovell's groom that had lost his teeth at the fight of Kenchie'sBurn. There might be a matter of twenty-five of them that held it andvictualled it by boats from the sea at night.

  "Old woman," the Young Lovell said, "ye keep the best wine for the last,but ye have our Lord's warrant for that."

  So he got slowly up and put the bit in the mouth of Hamewarts, that hadbeen grazing, and when he was on that horse's back he looked down onElizabeth Campstones and said--

  "Old woman, tell me truly, shall I take thee with me upon this greathorse; for I think my kin will very surely hang thee for having talkedand walked with me?"

  She looked up at him with a surly, sideways gaze.

  "Ah, gentle lording," she said, "if I may not with my tongue save myneck from thy sisters and their men I may as well go hang, for myoccupation will be gone." He left her straining a twisted and wet cloutover the dark pool.

  When he came to the high uplands where there was some heather, he saw aman with a grey coat with a hood, and as soon as that man was aware ofhim, he went away with great bounds like a hare, but casting his arms onhigh as he sprang. The Young Lovell was well accustomed to that stretchof land. It was full of soft, boggy places and he knew therefore thatthat man had some money in his poke and desired to betake himself whereno horse could follow. But because the Young Lovell knew that land sowell, he threaded Hamewarts between bog and soft places, calling thenotes of the chase to hasten him. Thus the great horse breathed deepand made large bounds. And the Young Lovell thought that times were notall that they should be when every footman must run from every gentleupon a horse and upon Lovell ground. For either that man was a felon,which was not unlike, or he feared that the gentleman should rob him,which was more likely still. The Young Lovell was resolved that thesethings should be brought to better order on his lands, for he wouldfine, hang, or cut the ears off every felon of simple origin that wasthere. To the gentle robbers too, he would not be very easy, thoughthis was not so light an enterprise, since most of them would prove tobe his cousins or not much further off. Still, they could go harry thefalse Scots.

  In five minutes he was come up to that man in grey, and that man casthimself at first on his knees in the heather and then on his face, forhis sides were nearly burst with running and leaping. The Young Lovellsat still and looked down upon the hind, for he was never a lord of muchhaste. And afterwards, the man, with his face still among the heather,for he was afraid to look at death that might be ready for him--this manfumbled for the grey woollen poke that lay under him. He pushed it outand bleated--

  "I have but three shillings;" and when the Young Lovell asked him how hecame by his three shillings, he said that he was bound for Belfordneat's fair to buy him a calf.

  "Then I wager two cow's tails," the Young Lovell said, "Hugh Raket, youowe me those shillings; for such a knave as you, for docking me of mydues, I have never known. You should pay me twelve pence and five hensand three days' labour a year--yet when did you pay my sire even thehalf of the hens in one year?"

  This Hugh Raket turned himself right over upon his back and setting hisarm above his head to shield his eyes from the sun he gazed upwards atthe rider's head. His jaw fell though he lay down.

  "If I am no Scot," he said, "ye are the Young Lovell."

  "I am Lord Lovell," he got his answer, "get up and kiss my foot, forthat is your duty."

  He looked down at the man whilst he did his homage and said with anaspect of grimness:

  "Ay, Hugh Raket, if you were not my horse-boy's brother you would be apoorer man and I a richer!"

  The man looked up at his lord with an impudent shade on his face thathad a thin beard. It was true that he had not many times done eithersuit or service since the field of Kenchie's Burn, for so surely did aCourt Baron come round so surely would Hugh Raket be away on the hillsafter a strayed sow or goose, and Richard, his brother, would beg himoff from the Young Lovell. Nevertheless, from time to time, the YoungLovell would take a couple or two of hens from him by force, for thiswas a very impudent family, and if they had the land scot-free andlot-free for a few years they were such fellows as would swear it wastheir free-holding--gay fellows they were, both brothers, but they hadalways a wet mouth for the main chance:

  "Friend Raket," his lord said now, "that you are a very capable cozenerI have known very well ever since your brother aided me upon the field.But, if you are upon Belfordtrod, catch you hold of my stirrup leatherand you may have its aid as far as that town is. And, if hiddenhereabouts--for you hold this land of me--you have any sword or crossbowor pike or such arms as naughty knaves like you are forbidden to have,you may go dig it up and bring it to me and I will look the other way.For, since I came out of my prison I have no arms at all, and it is notmeet or seemly that I should ride unarmed."

  The husbandman looked keenly at his lord; for, since Bosworth Field, theKing had ordered that none of the simple people, unless they bought alicence at the cost of one pound English, should carry more arms than ashort knife.

  "Friend Raket," his lord said, "I think I can find thy arms as well asthou canst, for well I know this terrain, and they lie in a stone chestover beside that holed rock. But, if you will fetch them for me, givingme the sword and carrying for me the crossbow and for thyself the pike,I will call thee my man-at-arms, and so you shall have licence to keepall the arms you will in your own steading, which shall much comfort youwhen you think of the false Scots in the night-time." And at that,calling out, "O joy!" and ducking his head between his hands, the fellowran over the ling to a great stone with a round hole in it that maidenswere accustomed to pass their hands through up to the elbow to showtheir lovers or bridegrooms that they were pure. He knelt down besidethis stone.

  The Young Lovell sat on his horse in the summer weather. He gave onegreat sigh and gazed upon the blue sea behind and below him and thegreen plain before and on a level. The husbandman came back to him.Upon his head he had a cap of steel; over his back a small target wasslung; in his left hand he held a pike with a steel head three foot longand armed with a hook such as the common sort use in battles to pullknights from off their horses. Bundled together in his arms were aGenoese cross-bow, a great sword and a little dagger, whilst slungacross his back was a leather bag filled with such heavy steel quarrelsand bolts as should fit the cross-bow. These arms Hugh Raket and hisfellows used when they went raiding into the Scots or the Middle or theWestern Marches; for they cared little whom they journeyed upon; even,when they heard that the Scots marched with a strong body upon Carlisleor the Debateable Lands they would take a hand with the Scots and bringback what they could.

  And without any manner of doubt these arms--the knight's great sword anddagger which were a pair, and the Genoese bow--had been taken in a foraywhen the Lord Dacre was Warden of the Middle Marches and had someGenoese and many gentlemen to help him, though he had not made much ofit. The little target had certainly been taken from the Scots, for itwas such a one as the Murrays and the Macleods use, being not muchlarger than a cheese-top with many bosses and bubbles. But the pike andthe steel cap this fellow might have made himself, for they were rudeenough.

  He stood looking up at his lord with a face of anxious rogue
ry, but theYoung Lovell never heeded him till the husbandman spoke; he was gazingto northward as if his eyes would start from his head.

  The man continued watching his lord and thinking his thoughts as towhere that lord had been until he spoke and asked the Young Lovellwhether he should indeed have leave to bear all these weapons and be aman-at-arms. The Young Lovell came out of his reverie and said:

  "Yes, yes; ye shall be my man-at-arms." And then he said: "Give me thegreat sword and the dagger. I will make them serve as arms enough tillwe come to Belford."

  The bondsman was intent upon his own bargaining.

  "Then if I be a man-at-arms," he said, "I shall no longer be abondsman."

  "If you will give me back your lands, that is so," said his lord. Hewas buckling on his sword and he hung the dagger from the belt. He drewthe sword from the scabbard to see that it was not rusted in, and itcame out very easily, for it had been lately greased.

  "It is not very long since you used this sword in gentle feats of arms,"the Young Lovell said.

  "For using it," the man said, "I will not say that; cudgels and stonesproved enough."

  "Well, you shall tell me," Young Lovell said. "But now take my stirrupleather and let us go to Belford, for the sun is high."

  The man took the stirrup, and whilst he ran lightly beside the greathorse over the ling and the mosshags he called, a little coyly, hisstory up to his lord. It was a long tale, or he made it so, for therewas a great deal to tell as to how a Milburn called Barty of the Comband Corbit Jock had called the bondsmen of the Castle Lovell together,and of how they had said that in the absence of the Young Lovell theywould pay no heriots, nor yet hens, nor yet bolls of wheat. So, whenthe bailiff of the Castle had come among their steadings and had soughtto take heriots for the death of the Lord Lovell and tythes in hens andpence, they had greeted him at first civilly and had asked to see thecharters and papers of their lands, saying that that was the custom uponthe death of the lord.

  That had occasioned some delay, since the charters and papers had allbeen taken to Cullerford, to the tower of Sir Walter Limousin that hadmarried the Young Lovell's sister, the Lady Isopel. So a strong guardwas sent to Cullerford and brought the charters back for the time. Atbeat of drum the charters, customs, the number of the rent-hens and suchthings had been read out by the bailiff and the lawyer called Stone,standing upon a little mound at the head of the village. From herethese things had been read from time immemorial, even to the oldest ageswhen it had been called the Wise Men's Talking-place. The lawyer Stonehad told them that the heritage of the old Lovell had fallen to thosethree, the Decies, called now Young Lovell and the husbands of theladies Isopel and Douce. They had, the lawyer read, fyled a suitagainst the late Young Lovell for sorcery, at a Warden's Court held inthe Debateable Land on St. Mark's Day last gone. Since the Young Lovellhad not appeared, that bill had been fouled and those three had takenhis lands and all he had. And the lawyer Slone, standing upon thatmound had bidden them go back to their byres and, peaceably, to do suitand service and pay their heriots and rent-hens and bolls of corn andthe rest.

  Then Barty of the Comb and Corbit Jock, his friend, and Robert Raket,had answered for the other bondsmen that they would think upon it. Thenthe three of them had ridden to Lucker, where there was a lawyer calledShurstanes, and had taken counsel with him. So when, upon the morrow,the bailiff of that Castle came again, those three cunning ones had methim courteously, and said that, for a suit of sorcery, a Warden's Courtcould not foul or find a bill. It must go before a court of the BishopPalatine. They had great respect for the Lord Warden, but so it was andhis court was only for raidings in the Marches. And for thedispossession of a barony that could only be tried (after the Bishop'sCourt in Durham had found a true bill of sorcery) in an assize of theKing's justices travelling, Alnwick or wheresoever it might be. And anysuch finding of the assize court must be ratified by the most dreadfulKing of England in council before ever the Young Lovell could bedispossessed of his lands.

  And those three cunning men had further answered the bailiff that theywere very willing to pay rent-hens and tythes and heriots and pence andwhatever was rightfully to be had of them. But first they must beassured of what the King said in his council. Else the Young Lovell,coming again, might have it all of them a second time, and that, beingpoor men, they could not well abide.

  Then the bailiff went back to the Castle--he was not the old bailiff ofthe Lord Lovell who had been cast out of his dwelling in the King'sTower and had gone to live at Beal--but it was a new bailiff that SirWalter Vesey had brought from Haltwhistle, where he had been asurveyor's clerk.

  But, in three days, the bailiff had issued again from the Castle and hadgone to the byres of the poor widow of Martin Taylor, having about himten pikemen for his protection.

  Then Barty of the Comb and Corbit Jock and Richard Raket considered thatif this thing were done, even upon the poorest of them, it might wellserve as a precedent. They had called together all the bondsmen andtheir sons, and the number of sixty-seven men and all the women hadcome, being ninety in number, and the more noisy because it was a womanand a widow that the bailiff sought to oppress. So they had thrownstones at the pikemen who were bearing off the widow's donkey, and hadbroken out the bailiff's teeth, and driven them all back to the Castle.

  And, in expectation that the bailiff should come again with a greaterforce, they had fetched from their hiding-places all their arms, and hadthem ready. But the people from the Castle never came again; withoutdoubt they thought they were not strong enough; the bondsmen of CastleLovell were all very notable reivers and fighting men.

  Thus, if Sir Walter and Limousin and the Decies came out with suchforces as they had, it was very likely--nay it was certain--that the menwho were in the White Tower and still faithful to the Young Lovell wouldissue behind them into the Castle with their cannons, and so, if theymight not take the Castle they might at least set free the LadyRohtraut, and have her away by sea; for they of the Castle had no boats,and no fisherman would help them.

  The Young Lovell listened as attentively as he might to what Hugh Rakethad to say, and, at the end of the story, they were come to the hill topwhere the heather and marshy ground ceased. They saw before them greatplains of green grass with people going about everywhere, and theregetting their hay. And a little way away there were going, along atrodden road, some ten armed men and another amongst them, all onhorseback.

  So the Lord Lovell kept himself apart, but sent Hugh Raket to look whothese men were that went abroad upon his lands. Before him, but alittle to the right was the town of Belford, but the monastery, with itsgreat church and its great tower just in building, was a little to theSouth, near the wood called Newlands. Further to the South was thelittle hamlet of Lucker. He cast his eyes behind him and he frowned.For, apart from the sea and the sky, the two Castles and the islands setin foam, he had seen mostly the square tower of Glororum. A littlecompany, in the clear weather, were riding out of this tower, and therethe Lady Margaret dwelt. It seemed a weary thought to him since heremembered the lady with the crooked smile.

  Hugh Raket came back to him and said that those ten men rode with aprisoner that had been convicted of theft in the Courts of the Nevilles.He had appealed to the Bishop's Courts in Durham, and so they weretaking him there. Hugh Raket thought that it was a folly to make suchmatter of a felon. Let them hang him to the first tree and ride back.For this appeal, before they had the thief strung up, should cost theNeville lord, for guards and victual and horsemeat and harbouring,nothing less than ten pounds which was a great sum of money, and a follytoo.

  He was of opinion that, if such great lords as the Nevilles and theDarceys and the Young Lovell suffered none to appeal from their courts,but hung every man that came before them, it would be much better; forthen there would be none of this monstrous outlay that was for everoccurring, and the great lords could excuse their poor bondsmen theirrent-hens and their suit and service.

  T
he Lord Lovell made Hugh Raket tell all over again his story of howthey had contended with the bailiff. For, the first time, he had notbeen very attentive. But now he bent his brows firmly on the face ofthis cunning bondsman and gave him all his mind. And then it speedilyappeared to him that it was this fellow that had really moved in theresistance to the bailiff, and that Barty of the Comb and Corbit Jockhad had little to do with it, for they were simple, slow fellows. Sothe Young Lovell frowned upon Hugh Raket and called him a naughty knave,for the Young Lovell prized good order in his dominions aboveeverything.

  The bondsman began to cry out then, that if they had paid theirtributes, heriots and what not to the bailiff of the false pretenders,they would have none wherewith to pay the Young Lovell's bailiff when hecame in turn as come he would.

  "Now are you a very naughty fellow," the Young Lovell cut into hisoutcry, "for well ye knew ye thought I should never come again, but wasaway amongst the false Scots and dead, or amongst the false witches andworse. So ye were minded to escape all your suits and services forever. And, for the bailiff of a great lord, proclaimed with drums uponhis hill, he is no person for such scum and vermin as ye are to protestagainst, or against whom to cry out to lawyers. It is for you to doyour services to those whom God for the time sees fit to set over you,and to our Lord the King and the Prince Bishop and the Lord Warden andothers. For, if such fellows as you are to question whom ye shall payand whom ye shall not pay, what peace or order should we have in thesemy lands? Nay, we shall see ye rise up against mine own bailiffs, sothat, by God His sorrow, I must speedily come against ye with fire andbrands...."

  The Lord Lovell set his teeth and the bondsman shrank back.Nevertheless, he mumbled that they were very poor folk and could neverpay two sets of masters, the one against the law and the other theirrightful lord.

  "Sir, you lie," the Lord Lovell said. "For very well ye know that sucha parcel of rich scoundrels are not between Tweed and Tyne. For myCastle is a very strong Castle, and I have been and shall be to you avery powerful lord at whose name all the false Scots do tremble. Sothat, from the shadow of that my Castle, ye go burning and reiving intoScotland and the Marches, whereas none dare ever come against ye to takewhat ye have by right or what ye have falsely stolen. I have hadcomplaints against ye, in my father's time, that, in one winter season,you and Barty of the Comb and the other Milburns and Jock Corbit and hisfellows and others that are upon my lands, with fellows fromHaltwhistle, and God only knows where or under whose leadership (thoughI think it was a Wharton that led ye), you cast down or burnedninety-two towns, towers, stedes, barnekyns, and parish churches; yeslew one hundred and seven Scots, and prisoners taken were two hundredand nine, who were ransomed with whitemail and black; 2,700 hornedcattle ye took, and 3,039 sheep, along with nags, geldings, goats, swineand eight hundred bolls of corn...."

  Hugh Raket mumbled that he had had very little of all this.

  "Filthy knave," his lord said, "I know not what you had but you had yourshare, you and Barty of the Comb and Jock Corbit. And well I know thatI was--God help and save me--surety for you and my other men at theWarden's Court where complaint was made against ye. And well I knowthat when ye should have assoiled yourselves by arms, it was my armourerthat had made the arms ye wore, and so war-like did ye appear that nonecame into the field against ye, the complainers being mostly Scotswidows that ye had made. God keep and save me! now I wish I had neverdone those things for you, for you came away with no bills fouledagainst ye and ye had the Scots horned cattle, and black and white mail,and their nags and geldings and goats, and so ye have waxed fat, andwould rise up against your betters."

  The bondsman was silent, deeming that the better course before thevisible anger of his lord, and the Young Lovell continued:

  "If ye would not pay your just dues to me where then should ye be? Ifit were not for the fear of my name how should you be safe in thenights? And how may I make my name feared but by keeping a great storeof knights and men-at-arms and bondsmen and my Castle very strong?Where should ye be if I had no lead upon my roofs, and the rain andfrost destroyed my towers? Ye would be men undone, for the false Scotswould come burning and slaying, and the Lords Percy should take all yehad, and the Bishops Palatine would sell ye into slavery. So I rede yewell, pay me what ye owe me, or I will be in your steads and barnekyns avery burning torch, and upon your nags and geldings a death rider suchas ye never saw."

  The bondsman fell upon his knees before his lord's horse.

  "Ah gentle lording," he cried out, "God forbid that we should not pay yeall that we owe. Then indeed were we all undone, for no men ever hadlord so gentle and so kind."

  "Foul knave," his lord said, "I know that if by my murder ye might wellprofit, murder me ye would, you and your fellows; but ye dare not forfear of the Scots."

  The bondsman wept and groaned with his hands held up, and his hoodfallen from his face.

  "Now, by God's dreadful grace, that is not so," he cried. "For if Iwould have murdered ye--and I tremble at that word--might I not havedone so even now, when I had the arms and weapons that I surrendered toyou so that ye might have killed me? Ye are my very dread lord, and wellI know it. For I have sate under the mass priest and heard his sermons,and well I know how that the lion is the symbol and token of Antichrist,the dragon of Satan, the basilisk of death, and the aspic of the sinnerthat shut his ears to the teachings of life. And have I not seen allthese trampled beneath the feet of the Saviour in stone set upon thechurch door? And shall I be like unto the aspic and pass from life tohell ... the aspic that shutteth his ears? Alas, no! I do know thatthere are set over me, God and the Saints and the most dreadful KingHenry, Seventh of that name, and the Bishop Palatine and the BorderWarden and the monks of St. Radigund. But before all these men and nextonly to God, comes my most dread Lord Lovell of the Castle, and that ifI do not serve him with all rights and dues, fire and sword will be myportion in this life or else the barren hillside and hell-flame in aftertime...."

  The Lord Lovell said:

  "Well, ye have learnt your lesson, the mass priest has taught you well."

  Then the crafty bondsman, seeing that his lord's face was softened, andhoping, by means of his brother, still to escape his due payments,sighed and said:

  "I would indeed, and before the saints, that I must give greaterpayments to my lord if there were none to other people. For there is noend to this payment of taxes and tithes. No sooner is my lord's bailiffgone than there come my Lord Warden's men seeking to take my horse forthe King's wars in France--God curse that Lord Warden! And he gone,comes the Bishop Palatine's bailiff seeking payment for the milling ofmy corn at his mills on the Wear though the grists were all my own.Then comes the prior of St. Radigund's for a half tithe; then Sir John,the mass priest, for a whole. Then there are the market dues ofBelford--for God His piteous sake, ah gentle lording, set us up here inCastle Lovell a market where we may sell toll free--we of the Castle.Now if I will sell some bolls of wheat and ship them to the Percies atKing's Lynn, I must pay river dues at Sunderland according to the brassplate that is set in the Castle wall at Dunstanburgh. And if I pay thatdue it is claimed of me again a second time by the Admiral of theYorkshire coast, saying that I should not have paid it the first, thoughGod He knows what maketh the Admiral of Yorkshire in our rivers andseas. So with wood haulage to Glororem, and maltings to the King'sCastle guard at Bamburgh, and a day's work of service here and two daysin harvest there, God knows there is no end to a poor man's payments.But this I know..." and the peasant scowled deeply, "that my Lord ofNorthumberland may rue the day when he taxed us for the French wars. Itis not that Lord Percy that shall live long."

  The bondsman allowed himself these words against the Percy partly out ofhis great hatred, and partly because he knew his lord did not love thisEarl of Northumberland for his treachery to King Richard upon BosworthField.

  They were still halted at the edge of that plain that the lord might thebetter hear his bondsman. But the You
ng Lovell heard only parts of whatthe peasant said, for he was nearly lost in thought whilst the greatwhite horse cropped the grass. At last the Young Lovell spoke.

  "For what you say," he exclaimed, "as to the multiplicity of burdensthere is some sense in it. And it might well be that I could buy some ofthese rights from the King, or the Prince Bishop, or others, as itchances. And, for a market, I am well minded to buy the right to holdone from the King. And so was my father minded before me. But you knowvery well that your gossip, Corbit Jock--like the tough rogues that yeall are--this Corbit Jock stood in the way of it. For the only piece ofland I have that is fitting for a market lies under the wall of that myCastle on the way running through that my township of Castle Lovell.And amid most of that, as ye know, Corbit Jock has a mound of hisholding. How his father got it I know not. But there, running into myCastle wall, is his mound, and on it a filthy barn leaning against myCastle wall, and before the barnekyn a heap of dung and a shed thatmight harbour five goats. The whole is not worth to him ninepence bythe year, and it is far from his house and of no use to him. Yet,though I would well and willingly buy this of him, and my father wouldhave bought it of his father that there we might have a market holden,ye know very well that this Corbit Jock will not sell and I have nopower to take it from him. For, though I might get a broad letter fromthe King in his Council to take this mound by force, and to pay him fullvalue, yet such a letter must cost me much gold, and it is doubtful ifthe King's writ, in such matters, runneth in these North parts. In thecountry of France, as I heard when I was there of the Sieur Berthin deSilly, such things are done every day by the King's letters. Nay, hewas about then engaged in such a matter with a peasant, whom hedispossessed, but paid well and so has a fair market below his Castle ofLa Roche Gayon. And so it may well be in the South of this realm foraught I know. But here it is different, and I am not minded to have ahornet's nest of lawyers about my ears in order to give a marketplace--that should cost me dear enough when I bought the rights of mylord the King--to such rogues and cozeners as you and Barty of the Comband Corbit Jock and the widow of Martin Taylor. But, if ye will talk ofthe matter with Corbit Jock that he may sell his mound to me, I willpromise you this, that you shall have your market. For I am your verygood lord. And so no more of talk for this time."

  He set his horse towards Belford, going decently by roundabout ways andpaths from landmark to landmark that he might not trample down the longgrass of which his bondsmen were making their hay all about him. Oflate years, since his father had been too heavy to ride, the YoungLovell had considered much the matters of his lands, and he had donecertain things, such as selling by the year to third parties of therights to collect his dues, whether on malt, hens, salt, housing and ofother things. And these new methods, of which mostly he had heard inthe realms of France, Gascony and Provence, had worked well enough, forhis incomings had been settled and the buyers of his rights had neitherthe power to steal his moneys nor so much to oppress the bondsmen as hisown bailiffs had. So that, in one way and another, he could talk ofthese things to his bondsman whilst he thought of other matters. Andone of these matters came into his head from that talk of the shed ofCorbit Jock that leant against the very rock below his Castle wall.

  From below the flags of the men-at-arms' kitchen, in the solid stone ofthe rocks, there ran a passage going finally through the earth not tenfeet from the mound of Corbit Jock. The only persons that might know ofthis passage had been the dead lord and Young Lovell himself. TheDecies might know of it, for the dead lord had prated of all things tohis bastard. But it was odds that it would never come into the Decies'head, for he was a very drunken fellow and remembered most things toolate.

  Now if, under cover of night, the Young Lovell could introduce a dozenor twenty lusty fellows with picks and other instruments into CorbitJock's barnekyn, in five hours or less they could dig a way into thattunnel where it went under the ground. Then it was but pushing up theflagstones of the kitchen and they would be terrifyingly andsurprisingly within the Castle whilst all the men-at-arms could be drawnoff from those parts with a feigned attack on the outer walls. Or, ifby chance there were men in that passage and guarding it, they could putinto it a great cask of gunpowder and so kill them all. It was a taskmuch easier than my lord of Derby and Sir Walter Manny had, whotunnelled under the Castle of la Reole for eleven weeks when Agout deBaux held it and yet could not take that place which is in Languedoc,though he had with him three Earls, five hundred knights and twothousand archers. The young Lovell thought he would have his Castlemore easily.

  And as he rode through the fields, the thoughts of war driving out thoseof the lady with the crooked smile, the siege of that Castle grew clearto him and like a picture, red and blue and pink, at the edge, or thehead of a missal. At first, hearing that the White Tower was held forhim with its gold and cannons, he had thought that, going by sea intothat place, which was like a citadel over against a walled city, such ashe had seen at Boulogne and Carcassowne and other places, he would setthe cannon to batter down the walls and so enter in with what many hecould get together.

  But then it had seemed to him that that was his own Castle and, if hebeat down its walls, he must build it up again at his own pains andgreat cost--for the building of castles is no light work to a lord,however rich. Moreover, his sisters would certainly set his mother inwhatsoever part of the Castle he began to batter--so that he must eitherkill his mother or leave off; for that was the nature of his goodsisters.

  And then he began to think of stratagems and devices by which he might,more readily and at less cost, come to his desires. And so he castabout for a cunning device by the means of which he might get possessionof the great gate of that Castle. But at that time he thought of none.

  So he rode an hour through the fields, diverting himself with thatpicture in his mind and with his bondsman stepping beside him. Thenthey came to a brook which was a bowshot from the frowning and hightower of Belford monastery. This was so new that the stones were stillwhite and the scaffold poles and planks all about its crenellations. TheYoung Lovell stayed his horse by the streamside and spoke to hisbondsman.

  "Now this I will do," he said, "and you may set it privately about thecountryside. For I know well, Hugh Raket, that it is you that are themasterful rogue in these affairs. Although in your story you havesought to make it appear that Barty of the Comb and others had a greatshare in devising a mutiny against that bailiff, yet it was you alonethat stirred up the people. So let it be known to my men a fortnighthence, at nine at night they shall meet me at a certain place of which Iwill warn you later. And each man shall be armed as he is when he goesagainst the Scots. Then they shall come into my service for four orfive days each, as if it were harvest time and they doing their servicesdue to me. Then they shall sack a tower and have their sackings. Andof the prisoners that they take in another place they shall have theransoming, unless I prefer to hang those prisoners. In that case I willpay them what the ransoming would have been. And, for the men out ofthe sea, they shall be excused all rent-hens and services and heriotsthat they owe me. You--that is to say--have called them heriots, butrather they should be called deodanda. For a heriot is paid, the tenantbeing dead, by the tenant's heirs. But in this case it is the lord thatis dead and what is paid is paid by the bondsmen as a fine or a forfeit,because they did not save the life of their lord."

  The bondsman looked upon the face of his lord and marvelled what mannerof man this was that, in the very conception of a martial scheme, couldso hang upon the niceties of words. But the Young Lovell was a verysober, hardy and cunning lord. In all that he said he had his purpose.So that, before the peasant could speak and ask him for more particularsof that bargain, the young lord drew up Hamewarts' mouth from the waterwhere he had drunk sufficiently and went on, lifting his hand in thesunlight.

  "So that it is in the nature of deodand rather than of heriot. And howit works is in this wise--that, every tenant having to pay and suffer
upon the death of his lord, so he works very carefully to keep his lordalive. So mark you well that, Hugh Raket. For, if I succeed in thisenterprise, two out of three of you shall be excused all rent-hens anddeodands due at the death of my father. But if I fail and die--and,full surely I will not live if I fail--ye must all of you pay double,rent-hens, deodands and all. For then shall my sisters be my lawfulheiresses and you must pay to them firstly all that you owe upon myfather's death and then all that you owe upon mine who am your rightfullord. So you will be in a very pitiful case if I die, and it will wellrepay you to fight well for me. Mark that very carefully and report itwhere you will. But, if you think rather to make favour with mysisters, you know very well it is not they that will go to the sweat andcost of getting leave of our lord the King to hold markets. No, butthey will get them to Cullerford and Haltwhistle and strengthen theseplaces, and the Castle will be thrown down, and the Scots will come inupon you and you will be in a very lamentable case."

  He paused and looked earnestly upon his bondsman. And then he continued:

  "So I have spoken what was in my mind very soberly and I think well.For this business of being a great lord is not merely the riding aboutin summer time and the sacking of castles. But I have to think what isgood for me to do for my people. For your good is mine and I study howto bring it about. And that I learned of the Lord Berthin de Silly whenI was in France. Now think well upon what I have said and give me youranswer, yea or nay. For I know well that the others will be guided byyou."

  The bondsman looked upon the stream and upon the monastery whose wall,like a castle's, lay new and square in the sunlight.

  "I take thought," he said, "not that I doubt the upshot, but that I mayfind words. For these matters are above my head that you have deignedto speak of. But of this, gentle lording, you may make sure that, ateight of the clock a fortnight hence, I will meet you at any place ofwhich you shall send me the name. And there shall be with mesixty-eight or seventy stout men and well armed after our fashion."

  He went on to try to say that this lording was a soldier so cunning andso great a knight that all the countryside said they would very gladlygo a-riding or a-foot with bows, into Scotland or Heathenesse or theSouth, whatever his enterprise. But, since he was a better hand atgrumbling at taxes than in praising his lord, he got little of it out.Nevertheless he made it plain that fighting men would be there on theappointed day, and so they parted--the lord riding across the stream tothe monastery and the hind along it to Belford town.