Men of Iron

by Howard Pyle

  CHAPTER 19

  As was said, perhaps a month passed; then Myles's visits came to anabrupt termination, and with it ended, in a certain sense, a chapter ofhis life.

  One Saturday afternoon he climbed the garden wall, and skirting behinda long row of rosebushes that screened him from the Countess's terrace,came to a little summer-house where the two young ladies had appointedto meet him that day.

  A pleasant half-hour or so was passed, and then it was time for Mylesto go. He lingered for a while before he took his final leave, leaningagainst the door-post, and laughingly telling how he and some of hisbrother squires had made a figure of straw dressed in men's clothes, andhad played a trick with it one night upon a watchman against whom theybore a grudge.

  The young ladies were listening with laughing faces, when suddenly, asMyles looked, he saw the smile vanish from Lady Alice's eyes and a wideterror take its place. She gave a half-articulate cry, and rose abruptlyfrom the bench upon which she was sitting.

  Myles turned sharply, and then his very heart seemed to stand stillwithin him; for there, standing in the broad sunlight without, andglaring in upon the party with baleful eyes, was the Earl of Mackworthhimself.

  How long was the breathless silence that followed, Myles could nevertell. He knew that the Lady Anne had also risen, and that she and hercousin were standing as still as statues. Presently the Earl pointed tothe house with his staff, and Myles noted stupidly how it trembled inhis hand.

  "Ye wenches," said he at last, in a hard, harsh voice--"ye wenches, whatmeaneth this? Would ye deceive me so, and hold parlance thus secretlywith this fellow? I will settle with him anon. Meantime get yestraightway to the house and to your rooms, and there abide until I giveye leave to come forth again. Go, I say!"

  "Father," said Lady Anne, in a breathless voice--she was as white asdeath, and moistened her lips with her tongue before she spoke--"father,thou wilt not do harm to this young man. Spare him, I do beseech thee,for truly it was I who bade him come hither. I know that he would nothave come but at our bidding."

  The Earl stamped his foot upon the gravel. "Did ye not hear me?" saidhe, still pointing towards the house with his trembling staff. "I badeye go to your rooms. I will settle with this fellow, I say, as I deemfitting."

  "Father," began Lady Anne again; but the Earl made such a savage gesturethat poor Lady Alice uttered a faint shriek, and Lady Anne stoppedabruptly, trembling. Then she turned and passed out the farther door ofthe summerhouse, poor little Lady Alice following, holding her tightby the skirts, and trembling and shuddering as though with a fit of theague.

  The Earl stood looking grimly after them from under his shaggy eyebrows,until they passed away behind the yew-trees, appeared again upon theterrace behind, entered the open doors of the women's house, and weregone. Myles heard their footsteps growing fainter and fainter, but henever raised his eyes. Upon the ground at his feet were four pebbles,and he noticed how they almost made a square, and would do so if hepushed one of them with his toe, and then it seemed strange to him thathe should think of such a little foolish thing at that dreadful time.

  He knew that the Earl was looking gloomily at him, and that his facemust be very pale. Suddenly Lord Mackworth spoke. "What hast thou tosay?" said he, harshly.

  Then Myles raised his eyes, and the Earl smiled grimly as he looked hisvictim over. "I have naught to say," said the lad, huskily.

  "Didst thou not hear what my daughter spake but now?" said the Earl."She said that thou came not of thy own free-will; what sayst thou tothat, sirrah--is it true?"

  Myles hesitated for a moment or two; his throat was tight and dry."Nay," said he at last, "she belieth herself. It was I who first cameinto the garden. I fell by chance from the tree yonder--I was seekinga ball--then I asked those two if I might not come hither again, and sohave done some several times in all. But as for her--nay; it was not ather bidding that I came, but through mine own asking."

  The Earl gave a little grunt in his throat. "And how often hast thoubeen here?" said he, presently.

  Myles thought a moment or two. "This maketh the seventh time," said he.

  Another pause of silence followed, and Myles began to pluck up someheart that maybe all would yet be well. The Earl's next speech dashedthat hope into a thousand fragments. "Well thou knowest," said he, "thatit is forbid for any to come here. Well thou knowest that twice have menbeen punished for this thing that thou hast done, and yet thou camest inspite of all. Now dost thou know what thou wilt suffer?"

  Myles picked with nervous fingers at a crack in the oaken post againstwhich he leaned. "Mayhap thou wilt kill me," said he at last, in a dull,choking voice.

  Again the Earl smiled a grim smile. "Nay," said he, "I would not slaythee, for thou hast gentle blood. But what sayest thou should I shearthine ears from thine head, or perchance have thee scourged in the greatcourt?"

  The sting of the words sent the blood flying back to Myles's face again,and he looked quickly up. "Nay," said he, with a boldness that surprisedhimself; "thou shalt do no such unlordly thing upon me as that. I be thypeer, sir, in blood; and though thou mayst kill me, thou hast no rightto shame me."

  Lord Mackworth bowed with a mocking courtesy. "Marry!" said he."Methought it was one of mine own saucy popinjay squires that I caughtsneaking here and talking to those two foolish young lasses, and lo! itis a young Lord--or mayhap thou art a young Prince--and commandethme that I shall not do this and I shall not do that. I crave yourLordship's honorable pardon, if I have said aught that may have galledyou."

  The fear Myles had felt was now beginning to dissolve in rising wrath."Nay," said he, stoutly, "I be no Lord and I be no Prince, but I be asgood as thou. For am I not the son of thy onetime very true comrade andthy kinsman--to wit, the Lord Falworth, whom, as thou knowest, is poorand broken, and blind, and helpless, and outlawed, and banned? Yet,"cried he, grinding his teeth, as the thought of it all rushed in uponhim, "I would rather be in his place than in yours; for though he beruined, you--"

  He had just sense enough to stop there.

  The Earl, gripping his staff behind his back, and with his head a littlebent, was looking keenly at the lad from under his shaggy gray brows."Well," said he, as Myles stopped, "thou hast gone too far now to drawback. Say thy say to the end. Why wouldst thou rather be in thy father'sstead than in mine?"

  Myles did not answer.

  "Thou shalt finish thy speech, or else show thyself a coward. Though thyfather is ruined, thou didst say I am--what?"

  Myles keyed himself up to the effort, and then blurted out, "Thou artattainted with shame."

  A long breathless silence followed.

  "Myles Falworth," said the Earl at last (and even in the whirling of hiswits Myles wondered that he had the name so pat)--"Myles Falworth, ofall the bold, mad, hare-brained fools, thou art the most foolish. Howdost thou dare say such words to me? Dost thou not know that thou makestthy coming punishment ten times more bitter by such a speech?"

  "Aye!" cried Myles, desperately; "but what else could I do? An I did notsay the words, thou callest me coward, and coward I am not."

  "By 'r Lady!" said the Earl, "I do believe thee. Thou art a bold,impudent varlet as ever lived--to beard me so, forsooth! Hark'ee; thousayst I think naught of mine old comrade. I will show thee that thoudost belie me. I will suffer what thou hast said to me for his sake, andfor his sake will forgive thee thy coming hither--which I would not doin another case to any other man. Now get thee gone straightway, andcome hither no more. Yonder is the postern-gate; mayhap thou knowest theway. But stay! How camest thou hither?"

  Myles told him of the spikes he had driven in the wall, and the Earllistened, stroking his beard. When the lad had ended, he fixed a sharplook upon him. "But thou drove not those spikes alone," said he; "whohelped thee do it?"

  "That I may not tell," said Myles, firmly.

  "So be it," said the Earl. "I will not ask thee to tell his name. Nowget thee gone! And as for those spikes, thou mayst e'en knock them outof
the wall, sin thou drave them in. Play no more pranks an thou wouldstkeep thy skin whole. And now go, I say!"

  Myles needed no further bidding, but turned and left the Earl withoutanother word. As he went out the postern-gate he looked over hisshoulder, and saw the tall figure, in its long fur-trimmed gown, stillstanding in the middle of the path, looking after him from under theshaggy eyebrows.

  As he ran across the quadrangle, his heart still fluttering in hisbreast, he muttered to himself, "The old grizzle-beard; an I had notfaced him a bold front, mayhap he would have put such shame upon meas he said. I wonder why he stood so staring after me as I left thegarden."

  Then for the time the matter slipped from his mind, saving only thatpart that smacked of adventure.