CHAPTER XX
OF HOW SIR RICHARD CAME TO THE SHEPHERD'S HUT, AND THE RETURN OF TYRRELL
It was not above a few swift winks of the eye till Sir Richard hadflung himself from off the back of his frothing stallion and was withinthe hut's door.
"Dick!" exclaimed its solitary occupant, rising upon a lean elbow. "I'mdamned, an it be not yourself, ... eh?" Then, sternly, as the youngknight made toward the pallet of rushes whereupon he was outstretched:"Betake you out of this accursed place," he shouted. "Do you want toget you the sweating sickness?"
"An it had been the sweating sickness," said Sir Richard, advancingto the sick warrior's side and grasping his woefully thin hand, "I'dhave found nothing here beyond a moldering corpse. This four years, deClaverlok, has the sweating sickness slept. 'Tis but some devastatingfever brought with you from out of the dungeon in Castle Yewe. You'llget you well, man, I know it."
"Meseems I know it, too, Sir Dick," agreed the grizzled warrior weakly."By the mass, 'tis the very first day I've had the courage to swear,... eh! And a good monk for auditor, too. The Christian fellow shroveme through yon open door. A murrain upon you, Dick! and how is 'tyou're here? And after cutting me some ten stone of stout rope in myeye, ... Ingrate!"
After this good-natured outburst de Claverlok threw himself back uponthe rush-mat, breathing heavily. Noting that his pallor had somewhatincreased, Sir Richard begged him to remain quiet, the while he wouldrecount his adventures since parting from him upon the runway of thetower. "God's sake! but there's a woman for you, ... a king-maker,Dick," he made a muttered comment, when the young knight gave him thestory of Lady Anna. He went on with his tale, and had just come to thatpart of it where he had stumbled so unexpectedly upon the Red Tavern,when----
"Richard!" a firm and musical voice called from outside; and thenagain, "Richard!"
"Wait. 'Tis the maid herself," said the young knight, going obedientlyto the door.
"My dearest friend on earth is in that hut, Isabel," he said, steppingto the side of her palfrey; "and sick well nigh to death. 'Twill be myduty and pleasure to remain by his side. When I have nursed him back tohealth, I shall be free. Until then, you must consent to await me inCastle Yewe. 'Tis not far, Isabel. But over the hills, there. You'll dothis thing for me?"
"And a right pretty nurse you'd make," observed Isabel breezily,slipping at once from off the round back of her palfrey. "Why, Richard,my generous boy," said she, "you have sore trouble in looking afteryour own tangled affairs. An he be your friend, right gladly will Iattend to the nursing of him myself. Happily, some experience have Ihad of such matters."
Then, in her usual masterful way, she bade the foot-boys strip the bagsoff her horse and started for the hut door. With more of admiration forthe maid than Sir Richard had felt since their meeting, he followed herbrisk steps through the door.
After that there was nothing left for him to do but run upon errands.It would be--"Richard, do you do so?" and "Richard, do you do thus?""Richard, ride you to the nearest goodwife and fetch me a gourd ofgoat's milk," or a measure of stum, or whatever other toothsome thingit chanced to be. Sir Richard was soon thinking that his friend's leanbody must have grown to be a receptacle for all of the dainties fromthe multitude of hills about them. Almost every hour of the day hemight have been seen careering over their round summits.
The clever foot-boys made over the lean-to into a quite habitabledwelling, thatching its sides and top with dried grass from off themeadow. Within its shelter Sir Richard and Harold and Thomas ate,slept, and loitered away the time.
There was a quaint old Scots herdsman who used often to visit them,bringing with him upon every such occasion his bagpipes, whereuponhe could play with an uncommon deftness. It was this same simple,good-hearted herdsman who had looked in on de Claverlok twice or threetimes every day while the warrior was alone during the interval of hissickness. Sir Richard tried in many ways to make him the richer, orrather the less poor, because of the timely succor he had brought hisfriend, but the old herdsman would have none of the young knight'snobles.
It seemed curious to Sir Richard that, among the countless gruesomelegends and wild tales that Kimbuchie had ever ready at his tongue'send, there was the same one of the Red Tavern that he had heard sooften repeated whilst riding with Belwiggar along the SauchieburnPass. Good Tammas would not have it that twice the young knight hadbeen beneath its roof, and was yet there before him to tell the tale."Awell, lad," he would say, "awell. I ken well thou'st a muckle langtongue betwixt thy teeth, ... a muckle lang tongue."
Following the first two or three days of their arrival, there remainedbut little for Sir Richard to do within the sick knight's quarters.Isabel had both a keen eye and a right willing hand. By stretching thetent cloth across one side of the room she secured to herself a fairsized retiring room of her own. She appeared to take a positive delightin the task of transforming the rude and not over clean interior ofthe hut into a place that was neat, cozy, and altogether inviting.
Sir Richard began to wonder why, in such a pleasing environment, deClaverlok was not making a more rapid progress toward health. Theyhad been there now nearly a fortnight, and he appeared to have gainedbut little, if anything, in the way of weight or strength. Indeed,after the first day or two the sick knight had fallen into an unusualand melancholy silence. Often Sir Richard would steal a glance at himthrough the window, and always he would see him idly plucking at hiscoverings, the while his big, hollow eyes would be bent upon everymovement of his fair nurse.
"Richard!" Isabel called to him one morning while he was havingbreakfast in the lean-to. It was just past dawn, with the sun paintinga rose-glory above the eastern hills. When the young knight went to hershe was standing just outside the closed door of the hut. He remarkedto himself how pale seemed her face in despite of the sun's warmreflection upon it.
"What is it, Isabel?" he inquired, feeling a vague apprehension as tothe welfare of his friend.
"'Tis this, Richard," said Isabel gravely, "one of the foot-boys mustyou post me on to Bannockburn. Counsel him to bring instantly a leech,... the best in the town. I would e'en send you, but you may be neededhere."
"I pray you, Isabel, tell me not that he is worse."
"I fear me.... Ah! Much I fear me that you are soon to lose yourfriend," Isabel answered drearily.
In all haste Sir Richard filled Harold's wallet with coins and sent himclipping above the hills toward Bannockburn, whereupon he sat down upona boulder, yielding himself to the gloomiest of reflections. He wasstaring, with chin buried deep in his hands, along the winding roadway.Upon a sudden, looming gaunt against the sky, he saw the familiarfigure of the knight in black riding slowly over the hills. Hurrying tothe opposite side of the hut, Sir Richard stood outside the window andsigned Isabel to come out.
"Make haste; what is it? Your friend has but this moment begged tospeak with you in private," said she, when she had joined the youngknight outside.
"Tyrrell is approaching in this direction," said Sir Richard. "I sawhim but now riding over the northern hill."
"Give thanks to God!" exclaimed Isabel with an earnest and deep fervor,clasping tightly together her white hands.
"Why, because that you shall now be discovered?"
"Nay; what care I for that, ... now! But because yonder tyrant," shehurriedly went on, leading Sir Richard to the side of the cabin whenceTyrrell could be seen, "is a cunning chymist, a famous physician, ... astudent of Linacre. Go, join your friend, ... but have a care, excitehim not. I'll await my uncle here."
For days Sir Richard had noted a change in Isabel's manner. Bit by bitshe seemed to have grown more grave and thoughtful, and less breezilyabrupt in her way of speaking. He had remarked the humility with whichshe obeyed de Claverlok's slightest wish. Upon this morning she haddisplayed a depth of feeling of which he had considered her quiteincapable. In seeking out the reason as he was making his way into thehut, the answer dawned suddenly upon him. He understood.
"Well, my go
od friend de Claverlok," said he, with an attempt to becheerful, as he came beside the sick man's bed. "Methought that by nowyou would be on horse and a-tilting."
"Hark thee, Dick," de Claverlok whispered. "I'll be a-tilting with thedevil by to-morrow, ... eh!" whereupon he smiled, a wan, brave smile.Then, looking soberly up into the young knight's eyes--"Dick, ...friend, ... I have a confession to make ere I lay down my last lance,"he said. "God's sake! To think that I should play the fool at my age,... two score and four, come the seventeenth day of next month--" hepaused for a space, drooping his dimmed eyes. "But to my confession:I meant no harm, ... God wot, my boy, and I intended not to do it,Dick; ... but I loved the maid with whom your troth is plighted fromthe moment her dainty foot stepped across yon sill.... I ask yourforgiveness----"
"De Claverlok, ... dear old friend, ... are you serious?"
"Serious, ... eh?"
"God of my fathers! Do you mean it?" Sir Richard fervently exclaimed."An this be imperiling your precious life, take her, man, and lethealth return upon you."
Thereupon the grizzled knight discovered a strength wherewith to frown.
"'Tis most unseemly this, ... most unseemly, ... eh! And you, Dick,with your troth but fresh----"
"De Claverlok," interrupted Sir Richard firmly, "no promises havepassed. She thinks me but a silly youth--which is true.... I am. Isabelcares not a fig for me, nor, by my faith, do I for her! We shall neverwed. Get you back inside your coat of mail and make her happy, for sheloves you, my friend. I read it in her sad eyes but this moment gone."
"Say you truly, Dick? God's sake, boy, you--you, ... but when I get meinside my harness I'll have a lance at you, Dick, for saying somewhatagainst her."
Sir Richard pressed then the fevered hand that the sick man tried tolift within his. Whereupon de Claverlok smiled, and, sighing happily,seemed to fall into a deep and peaceful sleep.
When the young knight stepped lightly through the door he saw Tyrrellseated upon his horse, with Isabel pleading at his stirrup for him todismount and wait upon the sick man.
"Attend upon my words, Sir Richard Rohan," Tyrrell said as the youngknight drew beside them. "This ungrateful maid, having withdrawnherself by stealth from beneath the shelter of my roof, now desires meto succor a knight of whom she is enamored. Let her first take solemnoath, in thy presence, that she will not journey inside of Castle Yewe.Nor shall she, an she be carried there by force, make known my plans toDouglas. As to her inheritance: I have it safe invested, and will yieldher warrant to have it delivered into her hands either in Glasgow or inLondon. Art thou witness to this?"
"Yea, Sir James, I am."
"Isabel Savoy," resumed Tyrrell, "do thou lift up thy right hand toHeaven and swear?"
She looked at the two men with big eyes, proudly, her lips firmly set.It was as though the victory was hers. She took the oath.
"And now, a word with thee, Sir Richard," grim Tyrrell said, turningtoward the young knight. "The man stricken within is thy dearestfriend, I have been told. Mayhap I can save him to thee; mayhap not.Everything of skill that I possess shall be used in his behalf, an thouwilt agree upon thy knightly word to return with me anon to the RedTavern and listen there to some things that I have to say. Thy honestword, ... 'twill be sufficient?"
"I give it willingly," Sir Richard said.
"Then assist me to dismount.... I'm sorry, sore, and lame. FriendDouglas, suspecting something of my conniving at thy escape, SirRichard, gave me a bit taste of the torture. Whereupon, learningnothing from my sealed lips, apologized, and set me free. He would havedone for me for all, an he dared. Beshrew me, though, an I can see howthou art still abroad, with all of the Douglas forces searching sodiligently for thee. Thy proximity to his citadel it must have beenthat hath saved thee."
Sir Richard remarked that he was looking exceedingly pale, seeming oldand decrepit when compared with his sturdy appearance upon the day thathe had shattered lances with him in the lists. The young knight helpedhim to dismount and led him, cursing at every step, to the door of thehut.
"I should have known," Tyrrell said to Sir Richard, upon joining him inthe thatched lean-to about an hour later, "that faithful de Claverlokwould be somewhere in thy vicinity. Prithee, and how is 't? Tell me,Sir Richard?"
"Suffer me first to hear news of my friend," said the young knight."Thinkest thou that he will make a return to his old good health?"
"Methinks he is sore in love with the maiden, Isabel," Tyrrellanswered, nodding his head and smiling grimly. "Well--'tis a mostpowerful stimulating nostrum. An I miss not my guess, he'll get himwell."
Thereupon, with a right good heart, Sir Richard recounted to Tyrrellthe story of his travels with de Claverlok.
"And dost tell me that he has been all of these days in thy companywithout divulging word of our plans, or of thy part therein?"
"Not one word--his knightly vow withheld his honest tongue. But I amcertes ready to hear them now," declared Sir Richard.
"God wot, but there's a man to maintain his knightly vow! Though'twould have been better had he broken faith and told thee of somethings. So thou art ready to listen now, Sir Richard? Well, there's agood reason for thy desire to become acquainted with these mysterioushaps. But, have patience yet a little time. Everything shalt thou knowwhen we return to the tavern; ... everything, Sir Richard."
After that he sat for a long space, smiling, rubbing his handstogether, and muttering to himself. Upon returning to himself, hecommanded the foot-boy, Thomas, to bring him his saddle-bags. Takingfrom them many packages, herbs and powders, he called Isabel to him andinstructed her as to the manner in which they should be administered.When he was done, she signed Sir Richard with her eyes to follow heroutside.
"He will soon be well, Richard," she said, taking the young knight'shand. "And now, boy, you are free--and happy, too, I make no doubt.Ah! What hosts of enemies have my sharp tongue made for me! But I'llcurb it now, Richard--I've found its master," she added, laughinglightly, and thereupon went tripping through the cabin door.
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