The Red Tavern

by C. R. Macauley

  CHAPTER IV

  THE INCIDENT OF THE WOLF-HOUND

  The eye at the window was the hunchback's, who was perched upon thetop of a boulder, which he had rolled to the side of the buildingfor the purpose of enabling him to see within. His attitude was asthat of a spider awaiting its victim, and betrayed his anticipationof a pleasurable event to come. If Sir James could have witnessedhis brother's unaccountable demeanor, he would doubtless have beenconvinced of the truth of a rumor that was commonly traded among hismen to the effect that Zenas was of unsound mind, and a menace to hisambitious plans.

  The tottering of Zenas's reason was directly due to the circumstanceof his having been Sir James's intimate confederate in one of the mostbrilliant and daring conspiracies in a time when conspiracies wereamong the chief products of England's soil. The plot in questionhad been conceived in Tyrrell's brain at the time when he had beencommissioned by Richard III to make away with his two nephews in theroom in which they were then imprisoned in the Tower; and involvedthe secret transportation of the young princes to a place of safetytill such time as a sufficiently armed force could be gathered to setthe older of the two upon the throne. That one of the boy dukes wasactually murdered and only one so transported, Sir James attributed tothe egregious blunder or willful defection of one Dighton, his groom,who was bribed handsomely by Tyrrell to assist him in his giganticenterprise. Dighton had suffered a summary death as the penalty ofhis fault. Zenas, garbed in the habit of a Sister of the Faith, hadreceived into his charge in one of the by-ways of London a fair-hairedyoung girl, who was the escaped prince in disguise. Together theyhad traveled from hamlet to hamlet till they had come to the havenof refuge prepared for them in Scotland. From whence he had been soindiscreet as to return to England and hint, while in his cups, of theincubation of a vast uprising in the North, in consequence of whichhe had been seized, thrown into the torture chamber, and releasedonly after he had been blinded in one eye and reduced to a repulsivecaricature of his former self. While he had incurred Sir James's sterndispleasure because of his indiscretion, he had also won his highestregard and confidence because of his stubborn refusal to divulge asingle secret through the whole of his agonized sufferings.

  Now, as Zenas patiently maintained his post upon the top of theboulder, he kept up an almost incessant mumbling. "I'll keep guardover him," he was saying. "Aye--I'll see that no harm comes to our_honorable_ guest!" whereupon he would smile craftily and press hisface more closely to the window. "They know not--ha, ha! not one ofthem hath divined that it was I--I, Zenas, the detestable hunchback,who put the quietus to the young prince. Slow poison--that's the thing._Slow poison!_ I'll teach them to steal from me the affections of mybeloved and noble brother. Zenas, the crookback, will teach them! Slowpoison put an end to the last, and now 'twill be Demon's turn to finishthis one. At him, good Demon! _At him, sir!_" he concluded, with asibilant hiss that penetrated every corner of the interior of the room.

  It was just at this moment that Sir Richard awakened with a sudden andviolent start. During the interval of several seconds he remained ina sort of drowsy stupor, with his gaze fixed upon the curling flames.Doubtless from that instinct that gives warning of impending peril, heset his first sentient glance upon the forbidding beast lying beforehim upon the hearth. The hound's red eyeballs were glaring straightinto his own. In the dim firelight he could see that its hair wasbristling over its entire savage body, and that slowly and with deadlymenace the brute was gathering its huge paws beneath it and assuminga crouching posture. Feeling certain that the slightest perceptiblemovement upon his part would precipitate the threatened spring, theyoung knight's fingers, under cover of the table, crept warily towardhis sword-hilt. Distinctly he could hear the tap--tap--tapping of theraindrops as they splashed upon the ground from off the eaves. What,with the deathlike quiet, the red eyeballs and gleaming fangs of thehound, and the uncanniness of it all, it is a matter of wondermentthat Sir Richard maintained his faculties to the degree that he did.

  Inch by inch his hand neared the familiar point where his sword-hiltshould have been. Groping beyond, however, it encountered but an emptyscabbard. His blade was gone!

  A crooked mouth beneath the malevolent eye at the window smiledexultingly.

  As the young knight started in a maze of utter bewilderment upondiscovering his loss, the hound, straight and true as an arrow spedfrom a cross-bow, sprang full at his unprotected throat. With a lightbound Sir Richard gained the top of the bench, and the powerful jawsof the bloodthirsty brute closed upon his greaves at the precise pointwhere his unprotected throat had been but the instant before. It hadbeen a right lucky stroke for him when he had bestowed a second thoughtto the matter of unlocking his stout leg-pieces.

  Discovering that it could inflict no hurt upon its enemy at that point,and not fancying, in all likelihood, the grating of the tough steelagainst its teeth, the hound released its hold, gave back, and now,with jaws afoam, and giving tongue the while to deep, fierce growls,it crouched low upon the hearth and gathered its body for anotherspring. By this time Sir Richard was aware of the circumstance thathe was without a weapon of any description, as his dagger had beenremoved with his baldric, which had evidently been unbuckled fromoff his shoulder during his sleep. Quick as a flash the young knightswept up one of his heavy metal gauntlets from off the top of thetable. Again good fortune was with him, for it turned out to fit uponhis right hand. It was but the work of a moment to adjust it, and hemet the brute's second leap with a blow set fair between its eyes anddelivered with every ounce of weight and strength at his command. Afterthe manner of a doe pierced through by a shaft in mid-leap the houndcrashed lifeless to the floor, with a great spout of blood issuing fromits mouth and nostrils.

  The burning eye at the window withdrew its gaze. The crooked lips, solately smiling, were now muttering curse upon curse to the sighingwinds.

  "Hoa! Well, by my soul, sir knight! I am, indeed, happily come towitness a blow so true and mightily delivered."

  The voice was that of the inn-keeper, and sounded out of the darknessbeyond the semi-circle of wavering light shed by the now expiring fire.

  As Sir Richard leapt from off the bench to the floor, Tyrrell strodeinto the zone of illumination and, stooping, hung above the stillquivering body of the dying hound. For quite a space he remained thus,as though graven in stone, with the gentle raindrops tap-tappingoutside for an accompaniment.

  "Knowest thou, sir knight," he observed at length, "that thou art thevery first successfully to withstand the onslaught of this savagebrute?" Tyrrell straightened up, folded his arms, and touched the deadhound lightly with the point of his foot. "Methought," said he, "thatDemon was the nearest thing to me upon earth, and, mayhap, the dearest.Like me, sir, he was savage, cruel, and unrelenting; and, like me,expatriated by his kind."

  The deep cadence of the inn-keeper's voice, the knitting of his brows,and a slight, mournful drooping of his shoulders betrayed to the youngknight that his host was touched with a genuine sorrow. Filled everwith a generous-spirited goodwill, he felt himself entertaining a senseof regret for the deed that he had been compelled to do.

  "In very truth it grieves me," said he, "that necessity bade me to seta period to a life that you held so precious. I can, good sir, but makeoffering of reparation in the way of gold."

  Tyrrell turned toward the young knight and smiled sadly.

  "Gold?" he softly answered. "It doubts me much whether all the goldin Christian England could salve the wound made by the death of thishound. An outcast, sir knight, he came to me, an outcast. I took himin and suffered him to tarry here till he grew kindred to my everywish, and the very manner of my likes and dislikes. As I am, noblesir, he was a bitter misanthrope, and would permit none, besides me,to approach him but Zenas, my unfortunate brother." He paused in hisspeech, regarding Sir Richard intently. As was habitual with thisinimitable conspirator, he was but playing a part. If he had itin mind thereby to win his way to Sir Richard's sympathies, he wassucceeding ad
mirably.

  "Whilst thou wert sleeping," he resumed at the proper moment, "I causedthy sword and baldric to be removed, so that thy rest might forsoothgive thee a greater measure of comfort. I likewise laid command uponZenas to stand guard over thy slumbers. Much sorrow doth it give methat he should have left thee without the protection of his presencewhilst I was absent. But, marry, noble knight, the deed can now no morebe recalled than can the sped shaft be returned from mid-flight to thestring."

  From top to toe Tyrrell was habited in somber black; and, as he talked,his lank body loomed anon through the half-circle of flickeringlight, and then would be blotted out in the deep shadows beyond, ashe continued to pace slowly back and forth before the chimney. To theimaginative Sir Richard's mind it recalled a play that he had oncewitnessed with Henry and his court in London. In it there had beenan actor who had affected to play the part of the devil; and who hadappeared suddenly, and then as suddenly vanished, in a manner designedto appear miraculous.

  "Though, in very truth," decided the young knight, "he did not resemblethat grisly character one half so much as my mysterious landlord."

  The scene in which Sir Richard was playing an involuntary part broughtback to him the many evil tales that had been dinned into his earssince coming to Scotland of this same Red Tavern, together with avivid recollection of the reported fate of the unwary, who, throughany misadventure, chanced to seek the hospitality of its shelter. Adozen times it had been upon the tip of his tongue to make mention ofthese rumors, but the words persisted in halting upon the thresholdof utterance. In the light of the reality and substance of hissurroundings they appeared as nothing more than weirdly fantasticcreations, or ridiculous superstitions, and as such he did his utmostto dismiss them from his mind.

  He was just meditating some appropriate subject of conversation bywhich the prolonged and somewhat uncomfortable silence might beinterrupted, when the hunchback came into the room, bearing upon hisback a billet of wood that was vastly greater in length and girth thanhe.

  "Dost know, Zenas," said Tyrrell sternly, "that thou hast committed amost grievous fault in not remaining to stand watch over our honoredguest? Where hast thou been?"

  "I did but go without to fetch this log. The night hath grown cold, andI was but bethinking me of the sir knight's comfort," Zenas explained.

  "'Tis an ill excuse, I tell thee, Zenas. Prithee bestow the log uponthe fire. Then bring in a torch, and a mattock and spade. We will buryat once the body of yonder hound."

  Arching his brows the dwarf looked toward his brother, toward Richard,and then upon the body of the hound.

  "But he does but sleep, good brother," he said, depositing the logamidst a shower of sparks within the fireplace.

  "Aye, 'tis true he sleeps," replied Tyrrell. "And a sleep, Zenas,from which none shall again awaken him. Our good knight yonder of thewondrous thews, dealt him a buffet that would have felled the stoutestox in broad Scotland. Methinks it might e'en have staggered a PapistBull, with such a hearty goodwill was it delivered."

  Going to the side of the hound, the hunchback bent above it, fondledthe massive head and shook the fast stiffening paws. Then, with afurtive look toward his brother, who happened to be unobservant ofhis actions, he shot a black look of malignant hate in Sir Richard'sdirection.

  "And wilt thou suffer this----"

  With a finger upon his lips Tyrrell warned Zenas to instant silence.Then, leading him toward the outer door, he talked earnestly with himfor several minutes. During a pause in their animated conversation thehunchback stooped and peered at the young knight in something of an oddmanner. Then, with a shrug of his shoulders, he took his way withoutfurther ado through the door.

  In a little while he returned, carrying a gnarl of pine wood, whichhe set to blazing at the fire. Thus did Tyrrell, in a most respectfulmanner, beg Sir Richard to carry, whilst he and Zenas, he said, woulddrag out the carcass of the hound and make ready its grave.

  "'Twould be better that thy brother should bear the light," said SirRichard. "I'll lend thee a hand to the carrying of the hound, and thenwield either the mattock or the spade."

  "Tut, tut! Of the two, dost think thou art the stronger?" queried thehunchback sharply, addressing himself to Sir Richard for the firsttime. "Then," he added, "let me show thee."

  Unceremoniously thrusting the torch within the young knight's hand helifted a heavy iron bar standing against the chimney. With but littlemore effort, apparently, than one would have bestowed upon the breakingof a twig he thereupon bent it fair double across his knee. Tossingaside the twisted rod he looked into Sir Richard's eyes and smiled.Rather, it was a mirthless leer, cunning, cruel, menacing. The youngknight easily gathered that between Zenas and himself there remainedyet an unsettled score.

  "Have done with this childish vaunting of thy strength," said Tyrrell."An thou wilt but expend thy energies to the task in hand, 'twill soonbe done."

  "But, can our honored guest be of a mind to exchange me a buffet, goodmy brother, I should be remiss in the matter of common courtesy did Inot stand ready to favor him," returned Zenas.

  "Come, come!" impatiently exclaimed Tyrrell, allowing Sir Richard noopportunity of answering the implied challenge. "Let us have done atonce with the burial of poor Demon."

  He and his brother then led the way outside, carrying between them thebody of the hound. Sir Richard followed them to where they laid it downat the foot of the jagged rock that, in the daylight, could be seen ata great distance along the roadway. By this hour the night had turnedkeen, as nights are wont to do along the Highlands, and as he stoodidly by watching the inn-keeper and the hunchback busily plying spadeand mattock, he grew uncomfortably sensible of the increasing cold,which seemed to set its chill touch upon his very bones.

  At rare intervals the pale disc of the moon could be vaguelydistinguished when one of the thinner clouds scudded across its face.But when the heavier clouds rolled beneath it, the land was blotted outin deepest darkness, which the splotch of light shed by the waveringtorch served well to accentuate.

  Fantastic shadows wove themselves about the grave-diggers' feet.These, as they rippled away, grew to tremendous proportions as theymerged with the circle of gloom that hemmed them in after the mannerof an ebon wall. It was during this dismal half-hour, more than everafter, that Sir Richard missed the jovial companionship of poorBelwiggar. The thought came to him that he was a being apart, who hadbeen set down there alone in a mystic environment, and, willy-nilly,his mind again became tenanted with calamitous forebodings. He fairached again to stretch his legs before the fire, and hailed withunmingled delight the moment when the inn-keeper and his brotherclambered from out the grave and lowered the hound within.

  It was as they were heaving back the loosened earth that he hearda faint, clear sound steal out upon the silence of the night. Itseemed to him as the sound of a maiden's voice released in song. Hewas straining eagerly to catch the next sweet, quivering note whenTyrrell's deep voice broke suddenly into an English war song, and witha tuneful lilt that came far from appealing unpleasantly to the ear.Moreover, with such a hearty goodwill did he sing it that the echoesof the resonant notes were flung reverberating far across the plain.

  So unexpected was this occurrence, and so foreign did it seem tothe inn-keeper's melancholy character, that Sir Richard was no lessstartled than surprised. When the young knight turned toward his hosthe discovered that grim individual engaged in shoveling great clods ofearth into the grave, and unconcernedly timing each movement of hisbody in a rhythmical beat with his song.

  Not until the last bit of clay had been firmly tamped above the hound,and they had started for the tavern door, did he for a moment relax hisstentorian singing.

  "Didst thou not hear that sound as of a woman's voice?" Sir Richardmade bold to inquire as they were passing indoors.

  "Not I," Tyrrell brusquely replied. "For long, sir knight, my ears hathgrown accustomed to the plaint of bird and beast, and the shrieking ofthe wraiths of shipwrecked mariner
s along the coast. An I had heard asound, I should, belike, have attributed it to one of these. Zenas,"he pursued, thus dismissing the subject of the young knight's inquiry,"look well to our guest's steed for the night. After thou hast done,return and conduct the good knight to his bed."

  Turning toward Sir Richard as the hunchback took himself from the room,Tyrrell, linking within the young knight's arm his own, led him towardthe comfortable warmth of the fire.

  "Thou hast marked, I know, the shattered form of my brother," he saidsadly, as they seated themselves together beside the table. "'Tiswhat remains of the cursed rack and wheel. 'Tis near beyond beliefthat Zenas was once as supple and straight as either thou or I. Andthis good body, too, Sir Richard" (the young knight started at theutterance of his name), "they would have drawn, twisted and maimedlike unto his had I not defeated their evil purposes by fleeing theborders of my beloved country. God's direst curse rest upon them--deadand living--one and all!" He paused for some moments, looking gloomilyinto the fire. "Most humbly do I crave thy pardon for this unseemlydisplay of emotion, sir knight," he added, "and permit me to requitethy forgiveness by setting before thee another stoup of wine. 'Twillcertes not come amiss after thy prolonged stay in the crisp air."

  He arose from the table accordingly, opened a cupboard upon the fartherside of the chimney and took from a shelf the wine, which he set beforehis guest. As he was making fast the door, Sir Richard noted withinthe cupboard's shadowy depths the bright points of reflection againstpieces of steel harness--swords, battle-axes, and shields.

  "No doubt thou art deliberating now within thy mind," Tyrrell resumed,again seating himself, "as to the manner, Sir Richard, in which I cameupon thy name?"

  Abruptly pausing, he gazed reflectively for quite a space upon theyoung knight's puzzled countenance.

  "Know then," said he, "that as thou wert sleeping, thy helmet restedthere upon the table. The light of yon blaze shone full upon thy nameand thy armorial bearings, which thou seest fit to carry within thatsafe receptacle."

  Sir Richard flushed to his temples. He tried his best, despite hisembarrassment, to answer in an indifferent manner.

  "Gramercy for thy caution, good my landlord," he returned, with acareless smile; "and hereafter I shall keep that receptacle upon myfoolish noddle, where, i' faith, 'twill be safe from prying eyes."

  "From me, sir knight, thou hast no cause to fear," Tyrrell hastened toassure his guest. "It may even transpire that the momentary relaxationof thy caution hath earned for thee a friend. Mayhap, a friend inneed--who knows?"

  "In need of nothing at present above a restful pillow, a roof, and abite to eat before I fare away in the morning," replied Sir Richard.

  "Ah--yea, yea! Art thou so fortunate, sir knight, as to be makingthy lonely pilgrimage upon matters of state? or art merely seekinglightsome pleasures, as is the manner of many a young court buck?"

  "As for making my pilgrimage alone, sir, 'tis the fault of an evilaccident that befell but this very day. Till he was foully murderednot many leagues from here, I had, for attendant, a squire as faithfuland brave as any in England, mauger the fact that he was a trifle weakat sword-play. Give him in hand a battle-axe, though, and he wouldhave cleaved through the stoutest wrought bonnet in all Scotland. PoorBelwiggar! God rest his bones, say I. Concerning thy inquiry as to mymission, sir, I am not free to answer," concluded Sir Richard.

  "Then, an it be not a further dire impertinence, good sir knight,"persisted Tyrrell, "lesson me from whom thou hast thy cognizance?Marry, I, who bethought me acquainted with every scroll in England,know thine not at all."

  "From whom else but my good sovereign," Sir Richard replied. "By hisroyal command did the College of Heralds issue it. Thus much do Iplease to tell thee. Of my parentage I can lesson thee naught. Myprogenitors I have never seen, never known. That I am alive, well, andthe free subject of a generous and noble king is sufficient for me,sir; and, by my good sword, must be sufficient for all to whom I amknown."

  "'Tis well and bravely said," the inn-keeper replied. "But more uponthis subject at a later time, my dear Sir Richard. The night doth growapace, and here cometh Zenas, who is now ready to conduct thee to thycouch." Upon which he arose and bade the young knight a kindly andrespectful good-night.

  Bearing a rush-light, the hunchback led Sir Richard up a narrowstairway to a room immediately above the one he had just quitted.Bidding his sour visaged guide to set the basin, in which burned therush-light, in the center of the floor, he bespoke for him a peacefulrest and dismissed him from his chamber. Zenas, answering never a word,backed toward the door. Then, from its threshold, he dropped a curtseythat would have made a fitting obeisance to a monarch, after which hesilently took himself off.

  The room in which the young knight now found himself was of an amplesize, but exceedingly raw and cold, as no fire burned within thedeep-throated chimney. The four walls were roughly coated with mortar.The rafters overhead were bare. In the gloom of the space between thesteep gabled roof and the skeleton beams he could hear the occasionalwhirring of a bat's wings, as it darted hither and thither across theroom. He lost precious little time in speculating upon his surroundingsand, quickly removing his steel gear, sought the comforts of the bed,which he discovered, with much inward gratification, to be of a goodand easeful kind.

  A few vagrant thoughts, some of them being of the wild tales he hadheard of the tavern wherein he was now tarrying, flitted vaguely acrosshis mind. Then, very soon after laying his head against the pillow, hesank into the blissful unconsciousness of sleep.