The Forest Lovers

by Maurice Hewlett

  CHAPTER XXII

  GALORS CONQUAESTOR

  Prosper's aim on leaving High March after his gests of arms had beenGoltres, for there he had believed to find Galors. But Galors was a manof affairs just now who had gone far since Isoult overheard his plans.His troop of some sixty spears had grown like the avalanche itresembled. For what the avalanche does not crush it turns to crushing.Galors harrying had won harriers. In fact, he headed within a fortnightof his coming into North Morgraunt a force which was the largest knownsince Earl Roger of Bellesme had made a quietness like death over thoseparts. By the time of Prosper's exodus, that is by mid-May, histactical situation was this--it is as well to be precise. He hadHauterive and Waisford. Goltres was in the hollow of his hand. If hecould get Wanmeeting he would be master of the whole of the northforest, west of Wan. Here would be enormous advantage. By a forcedmarch and a night surprise he might get Market Basing, on the east sideof the river; and if he did that he would cut the Countess of Hauterivepractically off the whole of Morgraunt. Going further, so far as to cuther off March, whence she drew her supplies, she would be at his mercy.He could pen her in High March like a sheep, and make such terms as asheep and a butcher were likely to arrange.

  For, strategically, North Morgraunt would be his; with that to the goodSouth Morgraunt could await his leisure. The key will show how theHauterive saltire stood with the Galors pale.

  Now the whole of this pretty scheming was based upon one simplesupposed fact, that the Countess's daughter was then actually in hermother's castle. Galors knew quite well that he could not holdMorgraunt indefinitely without the lady. Even Morgraunt was part of thekingdom; and though rumour of the King's troubles came down, with wildtalk of Aquardente from the north and Bottetort from the south-westcombining to slaughter their sovereign, the King's writ would continueto run though the king that writ it were under the earth: it wasunlikely that a shire would be let fall to a nameless outlaw when fivehundred men out of Kings-hold could keep it where it was. But a namewould come by marriage as well as by birth. All his terms with hispenned Countess would have been, amnesty and the heiress.

  At first he prospered in everything he undertook. Waisford andHauterive were under-garrisoned, and fell. Goltres, very remote, wasunimportant except as a base. The Countess at this time, if not engagedphilandering with Prosper, was troubled on the northern borders. As amatter of fact Galors had been able to secure that no messengers toHigh March should cross Wan, and that none from it, having oncecrossed, should ever re-cross. This was the state of affairs whenProsper passed the edge of the High March demesnes and took the roadfor Wanmeeting and Goltres.

  He had not gone far out of the Countess's borders before he saw whathad happened. The country had been wasted by fire and sword: cottagesburnt out, trampled gardens, green cornlands black andbruised--desolation everywhere, but no life. Death he did come upon. Inone cottage he saw two children dead and bound together in the doorway;at a four-went way a man and woman hung from an ash-tree; of afarmstead the four walls stood, with a fire yet burning in therick-yard; in the duck-pond before the house the bodies of the ownerswere floating amid the scum of green weed. That night he slept by aroadside shrine, and next morning betimes took the lonely track again.Considering all this as he rode, he reached a sign-post which told himthat here the ways of Wanmeeting and Waisford parted company."Wanmeeting is my plain road," thought he, "but plainer still it isthat of Galors--and not of Galors alone. I think the longer going islike to be my shorter. I will go to Waisford." He did so. After a patchof woodland was a sandy stretch of road fringed with heather and a fewpines. A man was sitting here, by whose side lay his dead young wifewith a handkerchief over her face. Prosper asked him what all thismisery meant; for at High March, he added, they had no conception of it.

  The man turned his gaunt eyes upon him. "We call it the hand of God,sir."

  "Do you though? I see only the hand of man or the devil," said Prosper.

  "May be you are in the right, Messire. Only we think that if God isAlmighty He might stay all this havoc if He would. And since He staysit not we say He winks at it, which is as good as a nod any day."

  "You are out, sir," said Prosper. "As I read, God hath given men wits,and suffers the devil in order that they may prove them. If they failin the test, and of two ways choose the wrong, is God to be blamed?"

  "Some of us have no such choice. It is hard that the battle of the witsshould be over our acres, and that our skulls should be cracked toprove which of them be the tougher."

  "God is mighty enough to make laws and too mighty to break them, as Iunderstand the matter," said Prosper. "But who, under God or devil,hath done this wrong?"

  "Sir," said the man, "it is the Lord of Hauterive (so styled), who hathtaken Waisford and destroyed it with the country for ten miles roundabout it, and killed all the women who could not run fast enough, andsuch of the men as did not run to him. And this he did upon theadmirable conceit that the men, having no women of their own, wouldtake pains that they should not be singular in the country, but full oflessons in butchery, would become butchers themselves. It seems thatthere was ground for the opinion. As for me, I should certainly havebeen killed had he found me, for butchering is not to my taste--or wasnot then. But I was on a journey, and came back to find my house inashes and my new wife, what you see."

  "But who," cried Prosper, "in the name of the true Lord, is your lordof Hauterive? And how dare he take upon himself the style and fee ofthe Countess of Hauterive, Bellesme, and March? I have no reason tolove that lady, but I thought all Morgraunt was hers."

  "Morgraunt is hers, and Hauterive, and all the country from March untoWanmouth," said the countryman. "But this lord is an outlaw who wasonce a monk down at Malbank in the south; and hath renounced his flockand gathered together a crew as unholy as himself. And the story goesthat he did it all for the sake of a girl who scorned him. Now then heholdeth Hauterive as his tower of strength, has harried Waisford, andthreatens Wanmeeting town, giving out that he will edge in the lady,besiege High March itself, wed the Countess, and have the girl (when hefinds her) as his concubine. So he will be lord of all, and God of noaccount so far as I can see. And the name of this almighty scamp,Messire-"

  "Is Galors de Born," put in Prosper.

  The countryman got up and faced him.

  "Are you a fellow of his?" he asked. "For, look you, though I must diefor it, I will die killing."

  "Friend," Prosper said gently, "the man is my enemy whom I had thoughtdisabled longer by a split throat which he got of me. I see I have yetto deal with him. Tell me now where he is."

  "I can tell you no more," said the fellow, "than that his tower is inHauterive. He hath guards along the river and a post at Waisford. Weshall have trouble to cross the water. He is said to be for Wanmeeting;but I know he has High March in his eye, because the girl he wants isbelieved to be there. He has been here also, as you see, God damn him."

  "God hath damned him," said Prosper, "but the work is in my hands."

  "You will need more than your hands for the business, my gentleman. Hehath five hundred spears."

  "The battle is between his and mine nevertheless."

  "Then there is the Golden Knight, as they call him, come from hellknows where; not a fighter but a schemer; and swift, my word! And cruelas the cold. Will you tackle him?"

  "I shall indeed," said Prosper. "Farewell, I am for my luck atWaisford."

  "I would come with you if I might," said the man slowly.

  "Come then. Two go better than one against five hundred."

  "Let me bury my pretty dead and I am yours, Messire."

  "Ah, I will help you there if I may," Prosper replied.

  They dug a shallow grave and laid in it the body of the young girl.Prosper never saw her face, nor did her husband dare to look again onwhat he had covered up. Prosper said the prayers; but the other lay onhis face on the grass, and got up tearless. Then they set off.

  Five miles below Waisford they swam the
river without any trouble fromGalors' outposts: a wary canter over turf brought them to the flank ofthe hill; they climbed it, and from the top could see the Wan valleyand what should be the town. It was a heap of stones, scorched andshapeless. The church tower still stood for a mockery, its conical capof shingles had fallen in, its vane stuck out at an angle. Prosper,whose eyes were good, made out a flag-staff pointing the perpendicular.It had a flag, _Party per pale argent and sable_. A dun smoke hung overthe litter.

  "We shall do little good there," said he; "we are some days too late.We will try Wanmeeting."

  Agreed. They fetched a wide detour to the north-west, climbed the longridge of rock which binds Hauterive to the place of their election, andmade way along the overside of it, taking to cover as much as theycould. By six o'clock in the evening they were as near as they dared tobe until nightfall. As they stood they could see the ridge rear itsragged head to watch over the cleft where-through the two Wans race tobe free. Upon the slope of this bluff was the town itself, a walledtown the colour of the bare rock, with towers and belfries. Thewestering sun threw the whole into warmth and mellow light.

  "The saltire still floats," cried Prosper; "we are not too late forthis time."

  They were let in at dusk by the Martin Gate, not without some parley.The only word Prosper would give had been, "Death to Galors de Born."This did not happen to be the right word. Matters were not to beadjusted either by "Life to the Countess," for Prosper did not happento wish it her.

  The High Bailiff and the Jurats argued at some length whether what hehad said did not imply the other of necessity.

  "If you talk of necessity, gentlemen," finally said the High Bailiff,"in my advice it is written that our necessity is too fine fordialectic. Our present need is to kill the common enemy. Here is agentleman who asks for no other pleasure. Let him in." And they did.

  Prosper was in love at last; but he did not lose his head on thataccount. It was not his way. The girl he had first pitied, nextdesired, then respected, then learned, finally adored, was gone. Well,he would find her no doubt. She had but two enemies, Galors andMaulfry; who hunted in couple just now. She might be anywhere in theworld, but it was most likely that where she was they were also. If hefound them he should find her. That was why, without having any desireto befriend the Countess, who had in his judgment made a fool ofherself first and an enemy of him afterwards, he undertook the defencesof Wanmeeting.

  For it came to that. He found a thin garrison, a pompous bailiff, wordyand precise, headboroughs without heads, and a panic-stricken horde ofshopkeepers with things to lose, who spent the day in crying "Danger,"and the night in drinking beer. Outside, somewhere, was an enemy whomight be a rascal, but was certainly a man. Professional honour wastouched on a raw. Since he was in, in God's name let him do something.After a day spent in observing the manners and customs of Wanmeeting ina state of semi-siege, he got very precise ideas of what they werelikely to be in a whole one. He called on the High Bailiff and spokehis mind.

  "Bailiff," he said very quietly, "your defences are not good, but theyare too good to defend nothing. I am sorry I cannot put your citizensat a higher figure. There does not seem to me to be a man among them.They chatter like pies, they drink like fishes, they herd like sheep,they scream like gulls. They love their wives and children, but so dorabbits; they are snug at home, but so are pigs in a stye; they saymany prayers, they give alms to the poor. But no prayers will ever stayGalors, and the alms your people want I spell with an 'r.' I knowMaster Galors, and he me. If he comes here the town will be carried,the men hanged, the women ravished, and I shall be killed like a rat ina drain. Now I set little store by my life, but I and the man I havebrought with me intend to die in the open. Do what you choose, butunderstand that unless things alter to my liking, I take myself, mysword, and my head for affairs into the country."

  "And who are you, Messire, and what do I know of your head foraffairs?" cried the High Bailiff, on his dignity.

  "My name is Prosper le Gai, at your service," the youth replied; "andas for my head, it becomes me not to speak."

  "If you will not speak of it, why are you here?" asked the HighBailiff, at the mercy of his logic.

  "I am here, sir, for the purpose of killing Dom Galors de Born."

  "You speak very confidently, young gentleman."

  "There is no boasting where there is no doubt."

  "Is there no doubt, pray, whether he might kill you?"

  "I intend to remove that doubt," said Prosper.

  "Pray how, sir?"

  "By killing him first."

  The end of it all was that the High Bailiff, in the presence of theJurats and citizens, solemnly girt on Prosper the sword of the borough,and declared Messire Prosper le Gai of Starning to be generalissimo ofits forces. Prosper at once paraded the garrison.

  He rated the men roundly, flogged two of them with his own hand forsome small insubordination, and made fast friends in all ranks. Havingestablished a pleasant relationship by these simple means, he spoke tothem as follows.

  "Gentlemen," he said, "have the goodness to remark that I have taughtyou how to parade. In time I doubt not you will follow me with as gooda will as you have hitherto followed your own devices. These, I takeleave to tell you, were very foolish. If you follow me I shall lead youin the thick of the fighting, should there be any. If you leave me, orif I have the honour to be killed, you will all have your throats cut.I do not mean to be killed, gentlemen, and rely upon you in thealternative which remains."

  He took a guard and went the round of the defences. Wherever he went hebrought heart with him. As for the burgesses and the burgesses' wives,they thought him a god. The result was, that in six weeks he had halfthe place under arms, a fighting force of one thousand pikes and fivehundred archers, an outer wall of defence ten feet by six, andprovision to stand a two months' siege. This brought the time to July.

  On July 14 one of his scouts brought home the news that Galors hadconcentrated on Hauterive, while keeping close watch along Wan. Hehimself was no one knew where, scouring the country for traces of thegirl Isoult la Desirous, who had escaped from High March. Meantime adetached force under the Golden Knight had surprised Goltres, and putthe inhabitants to the sword. They held that stronghold, and were saidstill to be there.

  Prosper sent for his horse, and rode down to the council house to seethe High Bailiff.

  "Bailiff," he said, "Galors will not be here yet awhile. If he comesyou will know what to do. But I do not think he will come just yet."

  "Ah, Messire, will you desert us?" cried the good soul.

  "If you put it so, yes."

  "You are tired of warfare, Messire?"

  "Warfare, pardieu! I am tired of no warfare. I am going to make somefor default of it."

  "And leave us all here?"

  "And leave you all here."

  "Would you have us assume the offensive, sir?"

  "By no means, Bailiff. I would have you mind your walls. But forgiveme, I must be off."

  "Where are you going, Messire?"

  "I am going to find Galors, or at least those who will save me thetrouble. Adieu, Bailiff."

  Prosper galloped away as if the devil were in him. The High Bailiffassumed command.