Cedric, the Forester Read online

  CHAPTER I--THE SIEGE OF CASTLE MOUNTJOY

  That was a blithe spring morning when the messenger from the Kingbrought to my father the order to join the army at Lincoln for the greatexpedition into Scotland. Six armored knights with their squires and ahundred 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 inbringing together.

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

  The armorers were hammering and riveting in the courtyard, making a mostmerry din; the big ox-carts lumbered in over the drawbridge, bearingmeat and grain for my father's company while on its way to the assemblyground and for us who were to remain at Mountjoy; and our men in theirleathern jackets and hoods and with their cross-bows slung on theirbacks 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 ofthe armorers, and I, having no will to lose any word of his, cameforward also.

  "My lord," she said, "I would speak with thee where the noise of thesehammers 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 helearned in Italy, and which, try as I may, I cannot copy--"a daughter ofthe Montmorencys should find in the din of armorers' hammers a music farsweeter than that of the lute or viol."

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

  My father's brow became furrowed. I opened my mouth to speak, but Motherfrowned at me so I held my peace. Methinks she sometimes thinks of me asnaught more than a child, forgetting that it was my fifteenth birthdaythat 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 whoseeye for the homing place of his arrow, is, in spite of his years, likethat of Robin Hood himself, shall be thy right-hand servitor, and withhim six good serving men, who, like him, are of the older day and unfitfor the long marches, but who can handle the cross-bow or, at need, thespear as well as in their best days. These shall be at thy command; andwill 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. Oursmaller quarrels must be laid aside while the war is on; and if Fortunedesert me not, I shall return far higher in the favor of the King thane'er before. It is this very business, well and faithfully done, thatshall put an end to Carleton's insolence. The Wolf shall snap his jawsin vain. The fat goose of Mountjoy for which he hungers shall showitself an eagle with beak and talons."

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

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

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

  "But, Kate," he cried, "here is the Champion of Mountjoy now. We hadforgot the chief of our defenders. Mayhap Sir Dickon here, if any seekto do thee harm, will find better marks for his bolts than rooks andhares."

  I knew that he made a jest of me; for he, too, hardly knows that I lackbut half a foot of being as tall as himself and that when I am not putabout by hurry or the like, my voice is as low a bass. But I answered ingoodly earnest:

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

  "Ha! The young eagle tries his wings," laughed my father. "Spoken like atrue Mountjoy, Dickon. Thou'lt do. Give thee but a few more years andthou'lt serve the King like all thy line."

  "And like a true Montmorency, my lord," put in my mother. "Forget notthat."

  "'Pon my soul, 'tis true," he laughed, "Dickon hath as good blood on thedistaff side as any his father can boast.--But to the matter of thecastle's defense in need. Will-o'-the-Wallfield shall stay behind alsoto see that stores of grain and beef are ample. He's ever a good handwith the farmers and as sound as an oak staff." And with a kiss for mymother and a pinch o' the ear for me, he hurried out again to thearmorers.

  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 seenhim in London, riding in his shining mail with those who had helpedredeem the Blessed Sepulcher, and he the bravest, finest figure of themall. Since that time he had stayed here at the castle with naught to dosave to judge the suits of the countryfolk and now and again chase downand hang some forest-lurking robber. His comrades in arms and those thatknew his temper and his deeds were at the Court, a hundred miles away;and many a dull day must have seemed a week in passing. Here in the Westwe 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 ofCarleton from his castle at Teramore, three leagues away, had sent to usan insolent demand for tribute, claiming forsooth that the Lords ofMountjoy were but a younger line of the House of Carleton and that weheld our fiefs on sufferance and at the will of them, our superiors.

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

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

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

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

  Now came the King's call to his vassals, great and small, to serve inthe Scottish war; and my father was gay with the thought of serviceunder his sovereign's banner,--service that might place the name andfame of Mountjoy high in his master's favor, and show what manner of manand 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 acourier from the King's army and bearing my father's greetings. Theywere well on their way to the north, and believed the Scots would soonhave reason to repent them of their folly. Father had been given a postin the advance guard, and was in high feather over rejoining some of hiscomrades of earlier years.

  On the same day, and from another source, we had news that the Gray Wolfwas delayed at Teramore by an illness,--the same that had plagued him attimes since his campaigns in the Holy Land, but that he had sent word tothe 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 drawbridgewheel. He had seen to its lowering, and a wain-load of wheat from thegrange at the Wallfield was coming slowly into the courtyard. Suddenly Iespied a body of horsemen approaching at a trot half a mile away, at abend on the wooded road from Mannerley. With pointing finger, I guidedthe eyes of Marvin; and for half a minute we both stood watching theriders without a word. They were soon lost behind the trees, but our oldarcher, with his hand on the wheel, now shifted his looks to the roadwhere 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 squiresso early in the day. Besides, the loyal men of the whole region werewith the King's banner. Had the horsemen come by the Teramore road, ourthoughts would have flown at once to the Old Wolf and his designs, andthe drawbridge had gone up in a twinkling; but these came fromMannerley; and I knew well that the good lady of Mannerley had dayssince sent her small quota of knights and men-at-arms to Lincoln. We hadnot long to wonder, for now the column came from the wood at a swingingtrot, and with a tall, gray-bearded knight at its head came forwardswiftly toward the open gate.

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

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

  The Old Wolf (for verily he was the leader of the horsemen) shouted backto 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 aninstant. Lower the bridge, if thou would'st save thy carcass from thecrows!"

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

  "My Lord Carleton," she said, and her voice was wonderfully sweet afterthe rasping tones that had been filling our ears, "what dost thou herewith three score mounted men when the King hath summoned all loyalvassals 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 pressingbusiness of my own to forward ere I send final answer to the King. Nowdeliver to me the keys of this my castle of Mountjoy. Or mayhap thouwilt send yonder leather-coated varlet to act as thy champion 'gainstone of my kitchen knaves. Now lower thy bridge, and all shall be well. Iwill send thee and the boy there with a convoy of trusty knights to theConvent of St. Anne. If thou hast the folly to attempt to stay me, Iwill take the place by storm; thy varlets shall hang, every one; andthine own fate thou canst guess. Come now! which, shall it be? I am notaccustomed to stay long for answers."

  "Traitor and Hound of Bedlam!" cried my mother in such a voice as I knewnot she possessed, "thine own head with the gray locks thou dishonorestshall hang from my battlements ere thou gainest aught by this attack onwhat thou thinkest to be a defenseless woman. While my lord fights forhis country under the banner of the King, thou sendest back lyingmessengers, and arm thy crew for robbing him of his lands. Now back,with all thy bloody-handed band, or my cross-bowmen shall see if theycannot find with their bolts the joints of your harness. I give no moretime to parley. Back with you!"

  Already my cross-bow was leveled at the gray beard of the leader on theother side of the moat. I would make good my boast made to my father buta week since. I was trembling and my hair stood up like that of a dogthat meets his bitter enemy. Muttering a little prayer for the bolt, andclosing my eyes with a sudden, foolish dread, I pulled the trigger. Butmy mother, just then seeing my design, struck up the weapon with oneswift blow, so that the bolt sped harmlessly over the heads of thehorsemen.

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

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

  We passed some weary hours while the Carleton knights gave no sign ofmeaning to attack. The approaches to the drawbridge are steep and rocky,and the moat is commanded by the cross-bowmen from the slits in thetowers and from the battlements above. I well knew that Carleton was anold and skillful soldier, even though a cruel and bloodthirsty one; andit was easy to be seen that he had no mind to lose any of his armoredknights in vain attempts to reach us. Now and again a cross-bow boltsped from our battlements toward the besiegers; and some of these rangon 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 menow; and stood by a firing slit, sending arrow after arrow at ourenemies.

  Twice old Marvin had dinted with well-aimed bolts the hauberk on whichrested the long gray beard of the leader of the pack. A younger knight,whom I took to be Ronald of Egleston, seemed to beg him to take to theshelter of the trees; but the Old Wolf just shook his head withimpatience, and rode on from one to another of the sentry posts.

  At noon we could see in the edge of the wood, beneath the oak branchesnot yet clothed with leaves, leathern wallets opened and bread and meatpassed around, this being followed by horns of ale and skins of winefrom the load of a pack-mule tethered near by.

  Then my mother, aided by old Dame Franklin, her nurse as a child andever her faithful servitor, and by me as the Heir of Mountjoy and therepresentative of my father here, carried to the sentinels on theramparts and at the arrow slits bounteous refreshments of bread andcheese and ale, encouraging them the while by friendly, confident wordsand by her dauntless demeanor in readiness for the attack which we allwell knew was to come.

  "Marvin," she said, as we came near my old friend and worthy teacher ofthe arts of war, "shall we give them as good or better than they cansend?"

  "Aye, that we will, Lady," quoth Marvin with an obeisance, losing thewhile no glance of what might be happening in the edge of the woodopposite, "if the wind will but ease a thought, and the Gray Wolf takenot to some shelter, I will land an arrow yet at the roots of that beardwhich flaunts there in the breeze like a banner for those robberhounds."

  "God speed thy bolt, good Marvin. An thou dost that, 'twill be as loyala service as e'er them did'st the House of Mountjoy. His band would notlinger long to annoy us, I think. And that cottage and half dozen acresby the mill shall be thine in fee simple."

  "Lady Mountjoy," he said, with another bow, "I have served my Lord ofMountjoy and his father before him for fifty years. Your bounty is everwelcome, but, with it or without, I serve while I live. But hold!there's the Gray Wolf again, looking our way with hungry eyes,--"

  He took long and careful aim, while I who had often seen him bring downa running hare at a greater distance, watched him with halted breath.But Fortune smiled not on him. A gust of wind came just as he drewtrigger, and turned his bolt enough in the hundred and fifty yards ofits flight to make it pass harmlessly to one side of our enemy. OldMarvin made a bitter groan at this bad hap, and stood looking at theknight with grinding teeth.

  "Better luck and a quieter air next time, good Marvin," quoth mother,"thou'lt wing him yet, be sure." And she passed to another embrasure togreet old Alan, the armorer, who was busy with carrying fresh suppliesof bolts to the a
rchers.

  At two o' the clock a cry came down from our lookouts thatreenforcements were coming for our enemies. My mother and I hurried tothe battlements and from there descried a motley array of a hundred ormore men-at-arms, archers and peasants with axes and spades, trampingalong the road from Teramore.

  For a moment we were frightened at what we saw. Here was proof indeedthat the Old Wolf meant no hurried foray but an attack in such force asmight be expected to gain the castle and the lands of Mountjoy.

  Most of its proper defenders were far away, marching with other loyalmen under the banner of the King; and now it was clear that Carleton hadlet no man go forward from all his lands, reserving all for thistreacherous blow. Armored knights could not swim the moat or climb upits steep sides; but the Carleton force was now twenty times greaterthan ours, and the Gray Wolf was well skilled in all the arts of attack.

  We had not long to wait in suspense. The men-at-arms and the peasantsturned into the wood before coming within range of our archers. Soonafter we heard the sound of many axes. Before a half hour had passedthere came from the forest a body which seemed like a part of the wooditself. A hundred men ran out, clad in leathern jackets or the peasants'homespun, and carrying no weapons save axes or poniards stuck in theirbelts, each bearing before him a great, withe-bound armful of branches.Following these came a score with planks and beams from a little lodgein the wood which they had torn down; then eight huge fellows, runningwith a tree, trimmed of its branches and carried butt foremost as abattering ram. This was the thing that made me quake for the safety ofthe castle, for it was clear to all of us that if those robber beastscould fill the moat with their fascines and lumber, they could swarmacross, force down the drawbridge and with that accursed log break downthe inner gate. Once inside the courtyard, they would hold all in thecastle at their mercy.

  Surrounding the churls who acted as ram-bearers, and running as bestthey might in their heavy armor, was a group of knights and squires, ledby the savage old graybeard of Carleton. Last of all came a dozencross-bowmen with bows drawn and bolts in groove.

  A half dozen of our bolts hummed through the air at their on-comingline. I was at one of the arrow slits, glad indeed of a fair chance atthe Carleton curs, and using as best I might the good steel bow which myfather had brought back from the Crusade. Some of our first volley ofbolts found their marks, but most flew over their heads or buriedthemselves in the bundles of branches which served them well as shields.With might and main we loaded and fired again, this time with moreeffect. One of my bolts felled the leader of the ram-bearers and threwhis fellows into confusion. But now the line was at the moat, thefascines were hurled into it, the planks and beams followed helterskelter, and a few of the boldest of their men-at-arms dashed out on thefooting thus made.

  Now indeed our bolts began doing their work. The fascines gone, theleathern jackets were but the sorriest protection, and at twenty toforty paces hardly a bolt failed to bring down its man. We were firingas fast as we could lay the bolts in groove. All their burdens were inthe ditch, but it was not filled enough to allow a crossing. Some ofthose who had ventured on the planks and branches became foot-caught,slipped through to the water below and perished miserably like thievingrats caught and drowned in a trap of meal strewn on the water of a tub.

  The Carleton cross-bowmen could do little against our stone wallspierced with narrow firing slits. Some of their arrows came through, butnone of us were injured. Two huge stones, hurled by Alan, the armorer,from the battlements above, came down on the heads of the lucklesschurls in the moat and helped to scatter the scanty footing. Thrice morehad old Marvin dinted with his bolts the armor of the Gray Wolf, who wasrunning up and down behind his men, shouting threats and orders; butstill the arrows failed in drawing blood. Two other knights were not sofortunate, for bolts struck them full in the faces, and they were bornefrom the field by their comrades.

  In time, mid curses and threats, old Carleton shouted an order forretreat. It was none too soon, for already half the homespun varlets andmen-at-arms, seeing no hope of reaching us, and expecting any moment thefate which was falling on their comrades, were on their way to theshelter of the woods. The Carleton crew recrossed the open ground morequickly than it had come. Twenty or more of their number remainedbehind, in the ditch or on its bank, and the battering ram lay where itsbearers had dropped it when their comrades broke and ran.

  _TWO HUGE STONES, HURLED BY ALAN THE ARMORER, CAME DOWNON THE HEADS OF THE LUCKLESS CHURLS IN THE MOAT_]

  Hardly had the last of them disappeared under the oaks when Marvin andAlan appeared in the moat, armed with long-handled pikes. Quicklyhauling together some of the planks and beams to make a raft, they beganpulling and pushing apart the rest of the matter which had been meant toform a crossing. There had not been enough of the brush and lumber forthe Carleton purpose but could they place as much more in the same spot,it might make them a footway. We who guarded them from above and stoodready to give warning of any new attack were able to tell them over andagain that none of our enemies were showing their heads. So holpen, theold soldiers made a thorough piece of work, and in half an hour hadhauled out all the planks and beams and so scattered the brush bundlesthat they would be of little use to the attackers should they findstomachs for another assault.

  That night was a weary one for all of us. The camp fires of the Carletonrobbers made a kind of circle about our place and gave us warning of howclose they made the siege. My mother gave orders that half her menshould lie down to sleep, though with their arms beside them, while sheand Marvin often made the rounds to be sure of the watchfulness of theothers. She would have had me go to my bed like a very child; but Ibegged it as a boon to share the watch, to which prayer she mostunwillingly gave ear. That night I could not have slept in the downiestof couches, e'en with the softest music of well-played lutes. There wasmen's work afoot; and ours were all too few. At midnight the sleeperswere awakened and the watch changed; but always we three remained onguard.

  The night was quiet, even so; and so was the whole of the day thatfollowed. Beyond bowshot on the open ground, we could see the groups ofour enemies and watch the sentries pacing their beats. Nearer at hand onthe wooded side, we could hear from time to time the calls of men andthe strokes of axes.

  In the afternoon my mother found a few hours for sleep, leaving Marvin,who seemed to have no need for rest, in charge. Our old soldier andworthy lieutenant had told her that the siege might last for weeks, andthat it would be folly for her to wear out her strength in its verybeginning. To this good advice I made bold to add my urging. DameFranklin had followed her mistress everywhere, bringing her food anddrink when of herself she would have forgotten, and trying always toplace herself between Lady Mountjoy and her enemies.

  The first night had been starlit, but that which now came on was cloudyand so dark that one could scarce discern an enemy at a dozen paces, andnot then unless his figure were seen against the sky. None of our menwere allowed to sleep, for it was felt that the Carletons might come atus again at any moment and with much better chances for success thanbefore. No one in the castle forgot that our enemies outnumbered us byalmost a score to one or had any doubts as to what would come to us ifby force or by treachery, the Gray Wolf and his pack made their way intoour courtyard.

  Soon after midnight we heard a loud tramp and roar of footsteps in thedirection of the wood. Arrows we sent hap-hazard toward the attack, butin the darkness these did little more than tell our enemies that theMountjoy men were at their posts. In a moment the other side of the moatwas thronged with half-seen figures. Cries of command rang out and thewaters of the ditch splashed high with the strokes of fascines, logs andsacks of earth. Now again our archers found victims, but in the murk andmid the wild cries and running to and fro these were but few. Most ofour bolts struck harmlessly into the ground or the water or rang againstthe stones of the moat wall.

  The frontmost of the churls who bore the brush and sacks, when they hadcast their loads into
the ditch, turned and ran back to the edge of thewood whence they presently returned with fresh supplies. Had it not beenfor the good labors of old Marvin and Alan in moving the matter castdown in the first attack a way would soon have been laid to the foot ofthe drawbridge. As it was, our ditch was fast filling. There seemed tobe thousands of the burden bearers, running like Imps of Darkness withplanks and great bundles; and in the pitchy dark of that black night thefire of our garrison had no effect.

  I was firing as fast as might be from one of the arrow-slits; but, likethe others, could not tell whether any of my bolts were finding victims.Each moment the numbers of our enemies increased. The pile of planks andbrush now reached nearly to the inner wall of the moat. My mother ranback and forth behind the archers, carrying new supplies of missiles,and shouting heartening words. Old Marvin was hurling bolts as fast ashe could load, and roundly cursing the hounds of Carleton and theblackness of the night that sheltered them. A moment more and I couldhear axes ringing against iron. The bloody crew were hacking at thefastenings of the chains of the drawbridge.

  Suddenly a thought crossed my mind like a shooting star; and I sprangaway from my firing port.

  "Mother," I cried, "we must have light to shoot by or we're undone.Quick! the torches!"

  Throwing down my cross-bow, I ran into the great hall and caught up atorch from the mantel. Thrusting it deeply into the fireplace embers, Iquickly kindled it; then sped up the stairs toward the battlements.

  Not for nothing is my lady mother a Montmorency of the old fightingline. In a trice she had understood my plan and was following me with alighted torch. Close behind her came old Dame Franklin, bearing another.The three of us ran with all our might up the crooked stair and theladders, and came out on the battlements, under the black sky.

  As if the castle were all aflame, the moat and the farther bank werelighted by the glare. In an instant the cross-bowmen found their targetsamong the fascine bearers and the men-at-arms who were already swarmingacross. At once we heard their cries of rage and pain, and could seecorpses rolling down the bank into the muddy waters. Alan heaved greatstones from his supply on the battlements on to the heads of themen-at-arms in the ditch who but now had been raising a shout ofvictory. Old Marvin took most careful aim at a gray beard which caughtthe flare of light, and sent forth a mighty yell of joy as the knightspun around on his heel and fell to the ground.

  Oh, the crowding and shouting and trampling under foot in the ranks ofour enemies! The threats and the fear and the curses! Our arrows keptpouring from the firing slits. A younger knight caught his chief by theshoulders while another seized his legs, and they bore him quickly away.There was no need for any order to retreat. The whole body was inheadlong flight in the winking of an eye, pursued by the whizzing boltsand the jeering yells of our fellows in the towers. On the battlementsabove stood my lady mother, old Dame Franklin and I, holding aloft ourflaming torches.

  Suddenly the old nurse screamed that I was hurt. And indeed, I now felta most sharp pain through my shoulder where, it seems, had struck a boltdischarged by some Carleton archer. My doublet was covered with blood;and I felt a most unmanly giddiness. It was over in a flash; but mymother, pale as a ghost under the torchlight, had seized me by one armwhile Dame Franklin grasped the other, fearing forsooth lest I fall fromthe battlements to the moat below. Between them, I made my way down tothe hall where they led me to a couch, they all the while mumbling andweeping and forgetting our glorious victory which had all my thoughts.

  Soon old Marvin had drawn the arrow and dressed the hurt with thesimples he had at hand. 'Twas my first wound, and, truth to tell, asMarvin plucked the bolt away my stomach was none too well at ease, andthe room and all its folk swung slowly round and round. Yet when I heardhim declare to my lady mother that the young master was now a man in hisown right and a worthy son of the Mountjoys, I closed my eyes to thedizzying hall with its dancing armor suits and its nodding pictures ofmy long dead forbears, and soon slumbered, well content.

  For two hours and more I slept as one drugged. When my eyes opened, thehall had ceased its swinging, and my mother sat by my couch and did holdmy hand in both of hers as she was wont to do long, long ago when I wasbut a child. Dame Franklin, in a chair near by did slumber deeply andwith most comical groans and snores. Just then returned old Marvin,fresh from new labors in the moat. He and Alan had again cleared awayall the contrivings of our enemies; and he was in high feather at ourvictory.

  "Lady Mountjoy," he said, making due obeisance, "we have beaten thewolf-pack full soundly. The Old Wolf himself is sore stricken, if notdead; and the others will gladly crawl to their holes. Sir Dickon willhave a merry tale and true to tell my lord when he comes from theScottish war."

  "Say'st thou so, good Marvin?" quoth my mother in reply. "Dost think wehave smitten them so they will give over all their evil design?"

  "My word upon it, Lady. We have beaten off all their strokes, killed ascore and more of their men, and gi'en to the Old Wolf himself somemeasure of his just deserts. The morning will show their camp fires coldand the woods and fields of Mountjoy deserted by the whole wolf-pack.Ere three days have passed thou shalt walk abroad with thy women andwithout fear of any Carleton, lord or churl."

  These goodly words were to me better than physic; and the smile which mylady mother gave to me was a fair guerdon for any service. Soon I sleptagain and dreamed of riding my white mare on the banks of Tarleton Wateron a day most fair to see. But I wakened to a gray and frosty dawn andto things far other than my dreams. My mother had just returned from theramparts. The besiegers were still at their posts, and their camp firesburned brightly. She had made out messengers speeding along the road toTeramore, but of a breaking of the siege could see no signs around thecamps of our enemies.

  When she brought this news to me, I spurned the quilted robes and thesilken coverlet which she had laid over me, sat up on the couch andasked for boots and cross-bow. She was deeply frightened at this,fearing my giddiness had returned and that I knew not what I said. ButMarvin, coming into the hall just then, did say that my wound was tooslight a thing to keep a fighting man in his bed; and thus aided I hadmy way, and soon was on the ramparts again.