In the Days of Chivalry: A Tale of the Times of the Black Prince Read online

  Produced by Martin Robb

  In the Days of Chivalry

  A Tale of the Times of the Black Prince

  by Evelyn Everett-Green.

  CHAPTER I. THE TWIN EAGLETS.

  Autumn was upon the world -- the warm and gorgeous autumn of the south-- autumn that turned the leaves upon the trees to every hue of russet,scarlet, and gold, that transformed the dark solemn aisles of thetrackless forests of Gascony into what might well have been palaces offairy beauty, and covered the ground with a thick and soundless carpetof almost every hue of the rainbow.

  The sun still retained much of its heat and power, and came slanting inbetween the huge trunks of the forest trees in broad shafts of quiveringlight. Overhead the soft wind from the west made a ceaseless, dreamymusic and here and there the solemn silence of the forest was broken bythe sweet note of some singing bird or the harsh croak of the raven. Atnight the savage cry of the wolf too often disturbed the rest of thescattered dwellers in that vast forest, and made a belated travellerlook well to the sharpness of his weapons and the temper of hisbowstring; but by day and in the sunlight the forest was beautiful andquiet enough -- something too quiet, perhaps, for the taste of the twohandsome lads who were pacing the dim aisles together, their armsentwined and their curly heads in close proximity as they walked and talked.

  The two lads were of exactly the same height, and bore a strong likenessone to the other. Their features were almost identical, but thecolouring was different, so that no one who saw them in a good lightwould be likely to mistake or confuse them. Both had the oval face anddelicate regular features which we English sometimes call"foreign-looking;" but then again they both possessed the broadshoulders, the noble height, the erect carriage, and frank, fearlessbearing which has in it something distinctively English, and which haddistinguished these lads from their infancy from the children of thecountry of their adoption. Then, though Raymond had the dark, liquideyes of the south, Gaston's were as blue as the summer skies; and again,whilst Gaston's cheek was of a swarthy hue, Raymond's was as fair asthat of an English maiden; and both had some golden gleams in theircurly brown hair --- hair that clustered round their heads in a thick,waving mass, and gave a leonine look to the bold, eager faces. "The lioncubs" had been one of the many nicknames given to the brothers by thepeople round, who loved them, yet felt that they would not always keepthem in their quiet forest. "The twin eaglets" was another such name;and truly there was something of the keen wildness of the eagle's eye inthe flashing blue eyes of Gaston. The eager, delicate features and theslightly aquiline noses of the pair added, perhaps, to this resemblance;and there had been many whispers of late to the effect that the eagletswould not remain long in the nest now, but would spread their wings fora wider flight.

  Born and bred though they had been at the mill in the great forest thatcovered almost the whole of the district of Sauveterre, they were notrue children of the mill. What had scions of the great house of the DeBrocas to do with a humble miller of Gascony? The boys were true sons oftheir house -- grafts of the parent stock. The Gascon peasants looked atthem with pride, and murmured that the day would come when they wouldshow the world the mettle of which they were made. Those were stirringtimes for Gascony -- when Gascony was a fief of the English Crown,sorely coveted by the French monarch, but tenaciously held on to by the"Roy Outremer," as the great Edward was called; the King who, as wasrumoured, was claiming as his own the whole realm of France. AndGascony, it must be remembered, did not in those days hold herself to bea part of France nor a part of the French monarchy. She held a much moreimportant place than she would have done had she been a mere fief of theFrench Crown. She had a certain independence of her own -- her ownlanguage, her own laws, her own customs and she saw no humiliation inowning the sovereignty of England's King, since she bad passed underEnglish rule through no act of conquest or aggression on England's part,but by the peaceful fashion of marriage, when nearly two centuries agoEleanor of Aquitaine had brought to her lord, King Henry the Second, thefair lands of which Gascony formed a part. Gascony had grown andflourished apace since then, and was rich, prosperous, and content. Herlords knew how important she might be in days to come, when theinevitable struggle between the rival Kings of France and England shouldcommence; and like an accomplished coquette, she made the most of herknowledge, and played her part well, watching her opportunity fordemanding an increase of those rights and privileges of which she hadnot a few already.

  But it was not of their country's position that the twin brothers wereso eagerly talking as they wandered together along the woodland paths.It was little indeed that they knew of what was passing in the wideworld that lay beyond their peaceful home, little that they heard of thestrife of party or the suspicious jealousy of two powerful monarchs --jealousy which must, as all long-sighted men well knew, break into openwarfare before long. It was of matters nearer to their own hearts thatthe brothers spoke as they sauntered through the woodland pathstogether; and Gaston's blue eyes flashed fire as he paused and tossedback the tangled curls from his broad brow.

  "It is our birthright -- our land, our castle. Do they not all say thatin old days it was a De Brocas, not a Navailles, that ruled there?Father Anselm hath told us a thousand times how the English King issuedmandate after mandate bidding him give up his ill-gotten gains, andrestore the lands of his rival; and yet he failed to do it. I trow had Ibeen in the place of our grandsire, I would not so tamely have sat downbeneath so great an affront. I would have fought to the last drop of myblood to enforce my rights, and win back my lost inheritance Brother,why should not thou and I do that one day? Canst thou be content forever with this tame life with honest Jean and Margot at the mill? Are wethe sons of peasants? Does their blood run in our veins? Raymond, thouart as old as I -- thou hast lived as long. Canst thou remember our deadmother? Canst thou remember her last charge to us?"

  Raymond had nodded his head at the first question; he nodded it againnow, a glance of strange eagerness stealing into his dark eyes. Althoughthe two youths wore the dress of peasant boys -- suits of undyedhomespun only very slightly finer in make than was common in those parts-- they spoke the English tongue, and spoke it with purity and ease. Itneeded no trained eye to see that it was something more than peasantblood that ran in their veins, albeit the peasant race of Gascony inthose days was perhaps the freest, the finest, the most independent inthe whole civilized world.

  "I remember well," answered Raymond quickly; "nay, what then?"

  "What then? Spoke she not of a lost heritage which it behoved us torecover? Spoke she not of rights which the sons of the De Brocas hadpower to claim -- rights which the great Roy Outremer had given to them,and which it was for them to win back when the time should come? Dostthou remember? dost thou heed? And now that we are approaching to man'sestate, shall we not think of these things? Shall we not be ready whenthe time comes?"

  Raymond gave a quick look at his brother. His own eyes were full ofeager light, but he hesitated a moment before asking:

  "And thinkest thou, Gaston, that in speaking thus our mother would fainhave had us strive to recover the castle and domain of Saut?"

  "In good sooth yea," answered Gaston quickly. "Was it not reft from ourgrandsire by force? Has it not been kept from him ever since by thathostile brood of Navailles, whom all men hate for their cruelty andoppression? Brother, have we not heard of dark and hideous deeds done inthat same castle -- deeds that shame the very manhood of those thatcommit them, and make all honest folk curse them in their hearts?Raymond, thou and I have longed this many a day to sally forth to fightfo
r the Holy Sepulchre against the Saracens; yet have we not a crusadehere at home that calls us yet more nearly? Hast thou not thought of it,too, by day, and dreamed of it by night? To plant the De Brocas ensignabove the walls of Saut -- that would indeed be a thing to live for.Methinks I see the banner already waving over the proud battlements."

  Gaston's eyes flashed and glowed, and Raymond's caught an answeringgleam, but still he hesitated awhile, and then said:

  "I fain would think that some day such a thing might be; but, Brother,he is a powerful and wily noble, and they say that he is high in favourwith the Roy Outremer. What chance have two striplings like ourselvesagainst so strong a foe? To take a castle, men must be found, and moneylikewise, and we have neither; and all men stand in deadly terror of thewrath of the Sieur de Navailles. Do they not keep even our name a secretfrom him, lest he should swoop down upon the mill with his armedretainers and carry us off thence -- so hates he the whole family thatbears the name of De Brocas? What could we do against power such as his?I trow nothing. We should be but as pygmies before a giant."

  Gaston's face had darkened. He could not gainsay his brother's reluctantwords, but he chafed beneath them as a restive horse beneath the curbrein tightly drawn.

  "Yet our mother bid us watch and be ready. She spoke often of our lostinheritance, and she knew all the peril, the danger."

  Raymond's eyes sought his brother's face. He looked like one striving torecall a dim and almost lost memory.

  "But thinkest thou, Gaston, that in thus speaking our mother wasthinking of the strong fortress of Saut? I can scarce believe that shewould call that our birthright. For we are not of the eldest branch ofour house. There must be many whose title would prove far better thanour own. We might perchance win it back to the house of De Brocas by actof conquest; but even so, I misdoubt me if we should hold it in peace.We have proud kinsfolk in England, they tell us, whose claim, doubtless,would rank before ours. They care not to cross the water to win back thelands themselves, yet I trow they would put their claim before the Kingdid tidings reach them that their strong and wily foe had been oustedtherefrom. We win not back lands for others to hold, nor would wewillingly war against our own kindred. Methinks, my Brother, that ourmother had other thoughts in her mind when she spoke of our rightfulinheritance."

  "Other thoughts! nay, now, what other thoughts?" asked Gaston, withquick impatience. "I have never dreamed but of Saut. I have called it inmy thoughts our birthright ever since we could walk far enow to lookupon its frowning battlements perched upon yon wooded crag."

  And Gaston stretched out his hand in the direction in which the Castleof Saut lay, not many leagues distant.

  "We have heard naught save of Saut ever since we could run alone. Whatbut that could our mother's words have boded? Sure she looked to us torecover yon fortress as our father once meant to do?"

  "I know not altogether, and yet I can scarce believe it was so. Wouldthat our father had left some commands we might have followed. But,Brother, canst thou not recall that other name she spoke so many a timeand oft as she lay a-dying? Sure it was some such name as Basildon orBasildene -- the name of some fair spot, I trow, where she must oncehave lived. Gaston, canst thou remember the day when she called us toher, and joined our hands together, and spoke of us as 'the twinbrothers of Basildene'? I have scarce thought of it from that hour tothis, but it comes back now clearly to my mind. In sooth, it might wellhave been of Basildene she was thinking when she gave us that lastcharge. What could she have known or cared for Saut and its domain? Shehad fled hither from England, I know not why. She knew but little of theways and the thoughts of those amongst whom she had come to dwell. Itmight well have been of her own land that she was thinking so oft. Iverily believe that Basildene is our lost inheritance."

  "Basildene!" said Gaston quickly, with a start as of recollectionsuddenly stirred to life; "sure I remember the name right well now thatthy words bring it back to mind. Yet it is years since I have heard itspoke. Raymond, knowest thou where is this Basildene?"

  "In England, I well believe," was the answer of the other brother."Methinks it was the name of our mother's home. I seem to remember howshe told us of it -- the old house over the sea, where she had lived.Perchance it was once her own in very sooth, and some turbulent baron orjealous kinsman drove her forth from it, even as we of the house of DeBrocas have been ousted from the Castle of Saut. Brother, if that be so,Basildene is more our inheritance than yon gloomy fortress can be. Weare our mother's only children, and when she joined our hands togethershe called us the twins of Basildene. I trow that we have an inheritanceof our very own, Gaston, away over the blue water yonder."

  Gaston's eyes flashed with sudden ardour and purpose.

  Often of late had the twins talked together of the future that laybefore them, of the doughty deeds they would accomplish; yet so farnothing of definite purpose had entered into their minds. Gaston'sdreams had been all of the ancient fortress of Saut, now for long yearspassed into the hands of the hostile family, the terrible andredoubtable Sieur de Navailles, who was feared throughout the length andbreadth of the country round about his house. Raymond had been dimlyconscious of other thoughts and purposes, but memory was only graduallyrecalling to his mind the half-forgotten days of childhood, when thetwin eaglets had stood at their mother's knee to talk with her in herown tongue of the land across the water where was her home -- the landto which their father had lately passed, upon some mission the childrenwere too young to understand.

  Now the faint dim memories had returned clear and strong. The longsilence was broken. Eagerly the boys strove to recall the past, and bitby bit things pieced themselves together in their minds till they couldnot but marvel how they had so long forgotten. Yet it is often so inyouth. Days pass by one after the other unnoticed and unmarked. Then allin a moment some new train of thought or purpose is awakened, a newelement enters life, making it from that day something different; and bya single bound the child becomes a youth -- the youth a man.

  Some such change as this was passing over the twin brothers at thistime. A deep-seated dissatisfaction with their present surroundings hadlong been growing up in their hearts. They were happy in a fashion inthe humble home at the mill, with good Jean the miller, and Margot hiswife who had been their nurse and a second mother to them all theirlives; but they knew that a great gulf divided them from the Gasconpeasants amongst whom they lived -- a gulf recognized by all those withwhom they came in contact, and in nowise bridged by the fact that thebrothers shared in a measure the simple peasant life, and had known noother.

  Their very name of De Brocas spoke of the race of nobles who had longheld almost sovereign rights over a large tract of country watered bythe Adour and its many tributary streams; and although at this time, theyear of grace 1342, the name of De Brocas was no more heard, but that ofthe proud Sieur de Navailles who now reigned there instead, the old namewas loved and revered amongst the people, and the boys were bred up inall the traditions of their race, till the eagle nature at last asserteditself, and they felt that life could no longer go on in its oldaccustomed groove. Had they not been taught from infancy that a greatfuture lay before them? and what could that future be but the winningback of their old ancestral lands and rights?

  Perhaps they would have spoken more of this deeply-seated hope had itnot been so very chimerical -- so apparently impossible of presentfulfilment. To wrest from the proud and haughty Sieur de Navailles thevast territory and strong castle that had been held by him in opendefiance of many mandates from a powerful King, was a task that even thesanguine and ambitious boys knew to be a hundred times too hard forthem. If they had dreamed of it in their hearts, they had scarce namedthe hope even to each other. But today the brooding silence had beenbroken. The twins had taken counsel one with the other; and now burningthoughts of this other fair inheritance were in the minds of both. Whatgolden possibilities did not open out before them? How small a matter itseemed to cross the ocean and claim as their own that unknown B
asildene!Both were certain that their mother had held it in her own right. Sure,if there were right or justice in the kingdom of the Roy Outremer, theywould but have to show who and what they were, to become in very factwhat their mother had loved to call them -- the twin brothers of Basildene.

  How their young hearts swelled with delighted expectation at the thoughtof leaving behind the narrow life of the mill, and going forth into thewide world to seek fame and fortune there! And England was no suchforeign land to them, albeit they had never been above ten leagues fromthe mill where they had been born and brought up. Was not their motheran Englishwoman? Had she not taught them the language of her country,and begged them never to forget it? And could they not speak it now aswell as they spoke the language of Gascony -- better than they spoke theFrench of the great realm to which Gascony in a fashion belonged?

  The thought of travel always brings with it a certain exhilaration,especially to the young and ardent, and thoughts of such a journey onsuch a quest could not but be tinged with all the rainbow hues of hope.

  "We will go; we will go right soon!" cried Gaston. "Would that we couldgo tomorrow! Why have we lingered here so long, when we might have beenup and doing years ago?"

  "Nay, Brother, we were but children years ago. We are not yet sixteen.Yet methinks our manhood comes the faster to us for that noble bloodruns in our veins. But we will speak to Father Anselm. He has alwaysbeen our kindest friend. He will best counsel us whether to go forth, orwhether to tarry yet longer at home --"

  "I will tarry no longer; I pant to burst my bonds," cried the impetuousGaston; and Raymond was in no whit less eager, albeit he had somethingmore of his mother's prudence and self-restraint.

  "Methinks the holy Father will bid us go forth," he said thoughtfully."He has oft spoken to us of England and the Roy Outremer, and has everbidden us speak our mother's tongue, and not forget it here in theseparts where no man else speaks it. I trow he has foreseen the day whenwe should go thither to claim our birthright. Our mother told him manythings that we were too young to hear. Perchance he could tell us moreof Basildene than she ever did, if we go to him and question him thereupon."

  Gaston nodded his head several times.

  "Thou speakest sooth, Brother," said he. "We will go to him forthwith.We will take counsel with him, albeit --"

  Gaston did not finish his sentence, for two reasons. One was that hisbrother knew so well what words were on his lips that speech waswell-nigh needless; the other, that he was at that moment rudelyinterrupted. And although the brothers had no such thought at the time,it is probable that this interruption and its consequences had a verydistinct bearing upon their after lives, and certainly it produced amarked effect upon the counsel they subsequently received from theirspiritual father, who, but for that episode, might strongly havedissuaded the youths from going forth so young into the world.

  The interruption came in the form of an angry hail from a loud and gruffvoice, full of impatience and resentment.

  "Out of my path, ye base-born peasants!" shouted a horseman who had justrounded the sharp angle taken by the narrow bridle path, and was broughtalmost to a standstill by the tall figures of the two stalwart youths,which took up the whole of the open way between the trees and theirthick undergrowth. "Stand aside, ye idle loons! Know ye not how to makeway for your betters? Then, in sooth, I will teach you a lesson;" and athick hide lash came whirling through the air and almost lighted uponthe shoulders of Gaston, who chanced to be the nearer.

  But such an insult as that was not to be borne. Even a Gascon peasantmight well have sprung upon a solitary adversary of noble blood had heventured to assault him thus, without support from his train offollowers. As for Gaston, he hesitated not an instant, but with flashingeyes he sprang at the right arm of his powerful adversary, and hadwrested the whip from him and tossed it far away before the words werewell out of the angry lord's mouth.

  With a great oath the man drew his sword; but the youth laughed him toscorn as he stepped back out of reach of the formidable weapon. He wellknew his advantage. Light of foot, though all unarmed, he could defy anyhorseman in this wooded spot. No horse could penetrate to the right orleft of the narrow track. Even if the knight dismounted, the twinbrothers, who knew every turn and winding of these dim forest paths,could lead him a fine dance, and then break away and let him find hisway out as best he could. Fearless and impetuous as Gaston ever was, atthis moment his fierce spirit was stirred more deeply within him than ithad ever been before, for in this powerful warrior who had dared toinsult both him and his brother, ay, and their mother's fair fame too --he recognized the lineaments of the hated Sieur de Navailles.

  The more cautious Raymond had done the same, and now he spoke in lowthough urgent accents.

  "Have a care, Brother! Knowest thou who it be?"

  "Know? ay, that I do. It is he who now holds by force and tyranny thosefair lands which should be ours -- lands which our forefathers held fromgeneration to generation, which should be theirs now, were right andjustice to be had, as one day it may be, when the Roy Outremer comes inperson, as men say he will one day come, and all men may have access tohis royal presence. And he, the tyrant, the usurper, dares to call usbase born, to call us peasants, we who own a nobler name than he!

  "The day will come, proud man, when thou shalt rue the hour when thouspakest thus to me -- to me who am thy equal, ay, and more than thyequal, in birth, and who will some day come and prove it to thee at thesword's point!"

  Many expressions had flitted over the rider's face as these bold wordshad been spoken -- anger, astonishment, then an unspeakable fury, whichmade Gaston look well to the hand which held the shining sword; last ofall an immense astonishment of a new kind, a perplexity not unmixed withdismay, and tinged with a lively curiosity. As the youth ceased speakingthe knight sheathed his sword, and when he replied his voice was pitchedin a very different key.

  "I pray you pardon, young sirs," he said, glancing quickly from onehandsome noble face to the other. "I knew not that I spoke to those ofgentle birth. The dress deceived me. Tell me now, good youths, who andwhence are ye? You have spoken in parables so far; tell me more plainly,what is your name and kindred?"

  Raymond, who had heard somewhat of the enmity of the Sieur de Navailles,and knew that their identity as sons of the house of De Brocas hadalways been kept from his knowledge, here pressed his brother's arm asthough to suggest the necessity for caution; but Gaston's hot blood wasup. The talk they had been holding together had strung his nerves to theutmost pitch of tension. He was weary of obscurity, weary of the peasantlife. He cared not how soon he threw off the mask. Asked a downrightquestion, even by a foe, it was natural to him to make a straightforwardanswer, and he spoke without fear and without hesitation.

  "We are the sons of Arnald de Brocas. De Brocas is our name; we canprove it whenever such proof becomes needful. Our fathers held thesefair lands long ere you or yours did. The day may come when a De Brocasmay reign here once more, and the cursed brood of Navailles be rootedout for ever."

  And without waiting to see the effect produced by such words upon thehaughty horseman, the two brothers dashed off into the wood, and werespeedily lost to sight.