*CHAPTER XVIII.*
_*HEARD UNDERGROUND.*_
On the twenty-second of June 1224, the king arrived at Bedford, and thesiege of the castle commenced almost immediately. Outside the town, onthe Northampton road, pavilions were pitched for himself, for Hubert deBurgh the justiciary, and other great officers, while the troops andtheir officers, Ralph de Beauchamp among them, were quartered in rudeshelters near the castle, or billeted upon the townsfolk, that theymight be ready to repel any sortie which the besieged might make with aview of burning the engines of war. Close to these latter were encampedthe men who worked them, together with the miners, carpenters, and otherartificers ready for their respective turn of duty.
Before any hostile movement was commenced, however, the king, in dueform, summoned the castle to surrender. An ecclesiastic was detailedfor the purpose; for priests in those days often performed strangefunctions.
It was but an empty form, for no one expected that the king's commandwould be obeyed. Moreover, Sir Fulke de Breaute himself was not in thecastle. With the astute craftiness which pervaded all his actions, hehad gone away some little while before, leaving his brother in command.He took himself off into Wales, where he joined the Earl of Chester,who, though siding for some time with the king, had left him, inconjunction with some other barons, under somewhat suspiciouscircumstances.
As was to be expected, William de Breaute made answer to thearchdeacon--for such was the office of the king's messenger--that he hadreceived no orders from his brother to surrender the castle, and that hecertainly should not do so without authority from him. So the siege wasbegun without delay.
The method of taking a castle in those days was much the same as thatwhich continued in vogue till, long afterwards, stone walls gave placeto earthworks. The walls were first battered by stones thrown from thepetraria, and when a breach had been made a storming-party rushed in.The only change consequent upon the introduction of gunpowder was thatcannon then took the place of the stone-throwing engines.
The machines were placed one or two on each side of the castle, and theymust have been of considerable size and strength, as one of themprojected stones right across the river. The men who worked them wereprotected against the quarrels, arrows, and other missiles directed atthem from the walls, by screens made of ox and horse hides. Two loftyerections, which towered far above the fortifications of the castle,were manned by slingers and cross-bowmen, who thence shot down upon thegarrison on the walls and in the baileys below them.
Close up against the face of the wall itself was pushed a movablescreen, called the "cat," the object of which was to protect John deStanden and his men as they carried on their work of undermining thewalls.
Ralph was ordered by his superior officer, a grim old baron who had beenone of those assembled at Runnymede when John signed the charter, butwho now supported his son, to pay special attention to the miningoperations. To Ralph and John de Standen attached himself one who couldhardly be called a soldier, though he exhibited all the courage and zealwhich are the necessary qualities of a man of war. This was the younglay-brother from St. Alban's. He was received as a sort of volunteer,and was granted permission to serve in the mining work, for hisreligious vows, he said, forbade him to carry sword or spear. Thisyoung man proved, however, a valuable assistant.
A kind of friendly rivalry went on between the two branches of warfareinto which the besiegers were divided. Those who had charge of theengines favoured the notion of pounding the walls till they batteredthem down. The sappers and miners, however, built their hopes ofreducing the fortress upon their methods of burrowing underneath it.But before these latter were able to push on far with their works, thebesiegers above ground gained two important advantages. They carried byassault the barbican or outer defence of the gate, and with but a lossof four or five men. By this means they were able to rush the gateitself, and in a second assault forced their way into the outer baileyor yard, the first one on the west side.
Here were the store-houses, and here also were kept the horses and livestock which the besieged took care to have always within the castlewalls. Forage, grain, and such like bulky articles as could not beremoved into the keep were likewise stored in the yard. All these fellinto the hands of the besiegers, who removed the arms, the horses, andthe pigs, and burned the buildings which contained the corn and hay.The besieged retreated within the inner wall, which defended the lesserbailey.
But between the upper and lower bailey there stood--a rather unusualfeature in a Norman castle--a strong building known by the name of the"old tower." It had probably something to do with fortifications whichat an earlier date protected the bridge across the Ouse, before thecastle precincts were prolonged westwards. Here the besieged gatheredin strength and made an obstinate stand.
The assistance of John de Standen and his men was now necessary. Theother defences, the barbican and the wall of the outer bailey, had beencarried by assault, the soldiers climbing the walls and forcing theirway within. But the wall which separated the two baileys, protected asit was by the old tower, proved a more formidable obstacle. The king'stroops intrenched themselves in the outer bailey, and the cat waswheeled into position ready for the operations of the miners.
These latter worked with a will. Ere long they were able to report toRalph de Beauchamp, as their superior officer, that the foundations ofthe old tower were undermined, and that the building would fall directlythe stays and struts with which they had propped it up should beremoved.
So Ralph went down into the mine with John de Standen, that he in histurn might report to his superiors that the underground work was indeedfinished, and that the soldiers might be held in readiness to storm theinner bailey.
With some professional pride the king's miner conducted the knightthrough the dark passages he had burrowed, explaining as he went themanner in which the supports should be removed directly he received thesignal to do so.
They were just beneath the old tower, and John de Standen was enlargingon the excellent arrangements which he had made for the overthrow of thebuilding, when, to their intense astonishment, a woman's voice was heardspeaking in the vault overhead.
"By my faith," cried John de Standen, "but I wot not that we had dug soclose to the lower vault of the tower. Methinks I must be out of myreckoning, Sir Knight, or mayhap your recollection of the place playsyou false."
"In good sooth we are close beneath the tower," replied Ralph. "Howthinkest thou, good John? Has the enemy countermined, or are they aboutto break in upon our works?"
Before John de Standen could vouchsafe an opinion, the voice again washeard from above.
"Ho, royal miners, are ye below?"
"We be miners sure enow," called John de Standen in reply. "But who beye above there?--They cannot be for Sir Fulke," he added in a lower toneto Ralph, "or they would not let us hear them. Methinks, too, the voiceis that of a woman or a boy."
"I am for the king and his miners," spoke the voice again. "But tellme, prithee, is your master, John de Standen, with thee?"
"I, John de Standen, myself am here, and speak; and with me is no onesave Sir Ralph de Beauchamp," replied the miner. "But speak; who artthou? Woman or boy; no man, I trow?"
"Now fie upon thee, John de Standen," said the unseen speaker, "thatthou knowest not the voice of Beatrice Mertoun."
"Beshrew me, Beatrice, if I can know thy voice, an it _be_ thou, if itcome to me through these plaguy paving-stones," cried De Standen."Moreover, why askest _thou_, hearing me speak, if I am John deStanden?"
"Marry," exclaimed Beatrice, "in the night all cats are gray. All men'svoices sound the same. But mind thee, John, how oft thou hast swornthat thou wouldest know my voice anywhere."
John de Standen felt he was getting the worst of the argument. Hechanged the subject.
"And prithee, fair Beatrice, what art doing above us?"
"Hush! not so loud," she answered. "I h
ave but a few moments. Theguard watch closely the vault ever since that machine of thine wasdragged up against the tower. I marvel much that they have not heardthe noise of thy workers, and broken in upon thee. But for many dayshave I too watched, hoping to get a word with thee, for I have a messageto send to a knight. But stay--didst not say one Sir Ralph de Beauchampwas with thee?"
"In good sooth I am here," replied Sir Ralph, both amused and puzzled bythis unexpected and remarkable meeting between the king's miner and alady who seemed an old acquaintance, if nothing nearer. "I am here, ladyfair, whosoever thou art, for methinks a fair face must e'en suit sosweet a voice."
"She is the waiting-woman of the Lady Margaret de Ripariis, and a mightycomely damsel withal," explained the bold miner.
"Now a truce to fair speeches! I have somewhat to say to Sir Ralph thatill brooks delay. The Lady Aliva, who is prisoner here--
"The Lady Aliva! I know it well!" shouted Ralph, forgetful of thecaution to speak softly. "But tell me quick, I pray thee, is she safe?is she well?"
"Safe as yet," replied Beatrice. "But there is mischief brewing againsther. Say, did I not see thee carried away wounded from before thecastle gate not many weeks since? They brought thy helmet into thecastle. I showed it to the Lady Aliva, and she knew it for thine by thecrest. And then darkness seized her mind, for not long after came Fulkede Breaute to her, and told her that thou wast slain!"
"The lying scoundrel!" cried Ralph hotly. "Could I but meet him, hewould see I am yet alive!"
"Ere he quitted the castle he came oft to her with suit of marriage forhis brother," Beatrice went on, lying down upon the stone floor aboveand speaking with her mouth to an open joint she had discovered betweentwo of the paving slabs. "Canst hear me, Sir Knight? The guardsapproach; I must tell thee in few words, for I hear the warders relievednot many posts away. William de Breaute came himself to the lady toplead his suit. But she hates him. She told him so to his face."
"She told him so on his face!" muttered Ralph.
"But the chapel hath been prepared," continued the waiting-woman, "andthat traitor priest, Bertram de Concours, was ready. They dragged thelady thither by force. Sir Fulke and William de Breaute were waiting.What might have happened I know not, but my Lady Margaret steppedforward, and shamed the shameless man into respect for a lady."
"And all this while she was faithful to me, though believing me dead!"exclaimed Ralph, half to himself.
"But Sir Fulke, ere he left for the marches of Wales, swore a great oathhe would find her wedded ere he return, or else--And William de Breaute,he apeth the fine French gentleman. He maketh sweet speeches, and vowsthat when the king's troops be driven back, and the care of the castlebe passed from him, he will return to bask once more in the sunlight ofhis lady's eyes! Faugh! the smooth-tongued villain! He has sung thesame song to me, but not to my honour. But hist! they come!"
A sound, as of the trampling of armed men, penetrated to those below.Then the eager listeners there caught some words in a rough man's voice.
"Pardie! pretty maiden, what doest here? Must pay forfeit with a kissere thou depart!"
Then there was the sound of a struggle and a scream, and John de Standenshook his fist in mute rage at the floor above him.
The Robber Baron of Bedford Castle Page 18
