The Serf

by Guy Thorne

  CHAPTER XI

  "Roweth on fast! who that is faint In evil water may he be dreynt!" They rowed hard and sung thereto With hevelow and rumbeloo.

  The boat glided through the reeds and hissed among the stalks as itfloated off into deep water.

  The man-at-arms who had been pushing it scrambled over the flat sterndrenched to his waist.

  Hyla and Cerdic lay bound where they had been flung at the bottom of theboat as roughly and carelessly as sacks of meal.

  They moved slowly over the deep black waters. "The priests'll wake tofind the pies flown," said Huber, emphasising his remark with a lustykick upon the prostrate Cerdic.

  "What will they think?" asked some one.

  "I neither know eke care. Perchance it will be thought the divill hastook them to his own place."

  "Whence they will shortly go."

  "Not before they have tasted of hell in Hilgay," and the speaker went onto enumerate with much spirit and vividness the several tortures towhich the captives would be subjected before Death was merciful.

  That these were no idle boasts to frighten them Cerdic and Hyla werevery well aware. They had seen with their own eyes how men were punishedfor a far less offence than theirs. Nameless atrocities were committedupon the serfs, and the mocking words of the soldier had a terriblesignificance for them. The boat moved but very slowly. It was heavy, andthe men were all tired out. Moreover, the night was oppressively hoteven out upon the water.

  Most of the rowers stripped to the waist and flung their garments downinto the bottom of the boat. Hyla and Cerdic were covered with heavy,evil-smelling garments, and almost suffocated.

  "I cannot breathe," whispered Hyla to Cerdic.

  "Hist, listen! Get thy head down lower. Yes, so. Feel you my hands andthe thong. There now; bite till I am free and can get at my dog-knife.God be praised, they did not see it!"

  With a sudden leaping of his heart, forgetting the awful heat, Hylacautiously lowered his head and began to nibble at the thong withstrong, sharp teeth.

  He could hear the muffled notes of an old Norman-French ballad tellingof the nimbleness of Taillefer, as they sang to help the oars along.

  "L'un dit a l'altre ki co veit Ke co esteit enchantement, Ke cil fesait devant la gent,"

  and so forth, the doggerel sounding very melodious as the blended voicessent it out over the water.

  The singing was an aid to their work, for it took away the attention oftheir guards. The greasy strap for a time resisted all his efforts. Histeeth slid over the slippery surface and could not pierce it. Once therewas a sharp crack, a twinge of pain, and a tooth broke in two. He wasdismayed for a moment, but soon found the accident helped him.

  The jagged edge of the broken bone soon made an incision in the leather,and with considerable pain he severed it at last.

  The relief to Cerdic was extreme. They had tied his wrists so tightlythat the thongs had cut deep into the flesh. For a moment or two hishands were quite lifeless and he could not move them. Then as the bloodcame flowing back into the stiffened fingers, pricking as though it werefull of powdered glass, his mind also began to recover from its torporand fear. He became alert, and his thoughts moved rapidly. He reacheddown cautiously for his knife and, inch by inch, withdrew it from thesheath. The jerkins which covered him were so thickly spread that morevigorous movements could hardly have been seen, but he trusted nothingto chance.

  Soon Hyla's hands were free, and the thongs binding his ankles severed.They began to whisper a plan of escape.

  Hyla was a good swimmer, and Cerdic a poor one, but death in the lake orthe deep fen pools was far better than death with all the hideousnessthat would attend it at Hilgay Castle. The plan was this: When the menrested for a morning meal, which, they calculated would be at sunrise,they would make a sudden dash for freedom. By that time the lake wouldhave been traversed, and the boat slowly threading the mazy waterwaysof the fen. It would go hard with them if they could not get away fromthe heavily clad men-at-arms, all unused as they were to the country.

  Meanwhile the rowers had got three parts of the way over the water. Thesky was quite light now, with that cold grey-green which lasts for a fewminutes before the actual sunrise.

  "Sun will soon rise," said Heraud; "it's colder now, I will put on myjerkin."

  "And I also," said several others, and the pile of clothes began to belifted from the serfs.

  It was a terribly anxious moment for them. If it was seen that bondswere cut, then they must risk everything, and jump into the lake, forthey knew the boat could not have won the fen as yet.

  Once in the lake their chance was small, unless it might happen thatthey were near the reeds which bordered it, and could swim to them andbe lost in the fen. The boat could go far more swiftly than they couldswim. In all probability there were cross-bows in it; they would behunted through the water like drowning puppies.

  One by one the rowers, chilled by their exertions, lifted the heavyleather garments from the two men. Cerdic continued to push his knifeunder him, and both men lay upon their stomachs, with their hands placedin the position they would have occupied had the thongs remained uncut.

  Fortune was kind to them. When they at length lay bare to view, and thecold air came gratefully to their sweating bodies, the soldiers sawnothing. Heraud was the last man to take his coat, and he smote the backof Hyla's head heavily with his clenched fist.

  The sudden pain and the foul words which accompanied the blow made theprostrate man quiver with rage. For a moment an impulse to fly at thethroat of the man-at-arms, and risk everything in one wild exultation ofcombat, shook him through and through. He quivered with hatred anddesire. But a low sibilant warning from Cerdic kept him fast, and with amighty effort he restrained his passion.

  Somewhat to the dismay of the serfs, the boat was stopped, and thesoldiers produced food and beer from a basket and began to make a meal.Although they did not dare raise their heads to see, Cerdic and Hylacould hear from the talk of the men above them that they were yet agood half mile or more from the fen. The air began to grow a littlewarmer, and the sky to be painted in long crimson and golden streakstowards the East. Above their heads the heavy beating of great wingstold them that the huge wild fowl of the fen were clanging out over themarshes for food.

  Suddenly one of the soldiers, who was in the article of raising an appleto his mouth, began to snigger with amusement. The others followed thedirection of his extended finger with their glance. He was pointing atHeraud. "Well, Joculator," snarled that worthy, "what be you a-mouthingat me for?"

  "It's your face, Heraud," spluttered Huber. "By St Simoun, but I neverthought of it till now. Should'st have washed it off!"

  "Pardieu!" said Heraud "it be the minter's paint which I had forgot. Amis-begotten wretch I must look and no lesing! I will to the water andwash me like a Christian."

  The man presented a curious and laughable appearance. Lewin haddisguised him well, so that he might spy out where Hyla lay, but theexertion of rowing had induced perspiration, and the dusky colouringand painted eyebrows trickled down his hot, tired face in streaks. Ablack stubble of newly sprouting beard and moustache added to the comiceffect.

  "Ne'er did I see such a figure of fun as thou art, comrade!" said Huberin an ecstasy of mirth.

  "Then, by Godis rood, I will make me clean," said Heraudgood-humouredly. With that he got him to the boatside, and leaning overthe gunwale began to lave himself vigorously in the fresh water.

  In an earlier part of this book occurs a passage which is at some littletrouble to explain that these men-at-arms were little more thanferocious unthinking children. The kneeling man presented a mark notonly for quips of tongue but for a rougher and more physical wit. With ameaning wink at the others, John Pikeman withdrew a tholepin, about afoot long, from its socket, and with that stick did give Heraud a mostsounding thwack upon the most exposed part of him.

  With a sudden yell the unlucky wretch, as might have been foreseen,threw up his legs, a
nd, with a loud gurgle, disappeared into the water.Now to these men, water was a thing somewhat out of experience. Not onein a hundred of them could swim; they were seldom put in the way of it,and a lake or river presented far more terrors to them than any walledtown or field of battle.

  The fact induces a reflection. Courage is purely relative. All of us canbe brave in dangers we know, few of us but are not cowed in perils whichare new. Poor Heraud was a striking example of the sententious truth. Herose choking, and his face was so white with fear, his eyes so pleading,his strong arms beat the water in such agony, that every rough heart inthat boat was filled with anguish.

  With one accord they rushed to the side of the boat, and immediately theinevitable happened.

  The gunwale sank lower and lower, the cruel lip of black water rosehungrily to meet it, there was a sound like a man swallowing oil, aswirl, a rush of black water creamed into foam at its edge, and with aloud shout of dismay and terror the whole crew were struggling furiouslyin the water.

  In a second the overturned boat had drifted yards away, and only theslimy green bottom projected above the flood.

  Hyla and Cerdic, not being at the side of the boat, were not flung somedistance out by the force of its turning, but sank together directlybeneath it.

  They rose almost at once, and both received smart knocks on the headfrom the timber. With little difficulty they dived and came up by theboat side. Each put a hand upon the slippery curved timbers, onlyobtaining a rest for the tips of the fingers, and, treading water,looked towards the drowning crowd a few yards away. The water was lashedinto foam, as if some huge fish were disporting itself upon the surface.Heads kept bobbing up like corks, and sinking with a gurgling noise. Nowand then a hand rose clutching the air in a death convulsion.

  Amid all the confusion and tumult the wicker basket, which had heldfood, floated serenely, and the oars clustered round about it.

  Every second, with a long groan, some sturdy fellow would catch at anoar end, the water pouring from his mouth and dripping from his cap. Thethin pole would tip up with a jerk, and he would sink gurgling andcoughing to his death. Meanwhile the sun came up the sky with one redstride, and illumined all the waters. The day broke cool and glorious,while these were dying. The day broke as it had done a thousand yearsbefore, and will a thousand years after you and I have sunk from onelife and risen in another. Calm, glorious, unheeding, the sun rose overthe waters, smiling inscrutably on those who were to know its secret sovery soon.

  In a few moments it was nearly over. Three heads remained above thewater, as the serfs watched in fear. Huber swam round and round theother two, shouting directions and advice. One was Heraud, the otherJame, a cut-throat dog of no value. Both had but a few strokes, andtheir strength was failing fast.

  The two heads sank lower and lower, the chins were submerged, the redline of the lips for a moment rested in line with the water, and then,with no sign or cry, they sank gently out of sight. Bubbles came up tothe surface from a ten-yard circle, burst, and disappeared, the lastsign that ten good fighting men were sinking asleep, deep down in themud below.

  As he saw his last two comrades go to their death, Huber gave a louddespairing cry, wrung from his very heart. Then he started slowly andlaboriously, for his strength was fast failing, to swim to the boat.

  By this time Hyla and Cerdic were in a safer position. The long-armedlittle man had made a great leap out of the water from Cerdic'sshoulders. He pushed his friend far down beneath the surface with theforce of his spring, but the slight resistance of Cerdic's body hadgiven him the necessary impetus, and his strong arms clutched the keel.He was very soon astride it, and when Cerdic came spluttering up againhe too was easily assisted into comparative safety.

  Suddenly Huber saw the two seated there, and his white face became drawnand furrowed with despair as he saw his last hope gone.

  "Hyla! Cerdic!" he called quaveringly, "ye two have beaten twelve bravemen, and me among 'em. Ye have Godis grace with you, curse you! and I amdone and over. Give you good-day."

  "You fool, Huber!" said Hyla in concern, "think you we are foes in thispass? Wait, man, keep heart a little while!" He lifted his leg from theother side of the keel and dived into the water, sending the boatrocking away for yards as he did so. He made the exhausted archer placetwo hands upon his shoulders, and in ten exhausting minutes the threewere perched upon the boat keel, the sole survivors of that ill-fatedcrew. The sun began to be hot, and they saw they were near land by now.

  "I will just make a prayer," said Cerdic, with some apology. "It will dono harm, and perhaps please Our Lady, who, I wist, has done this forHyla and me and Huber."

  With that he fell fervently to uncouth thanksgivings, while the sun camerushing up and dried them all.

  Hyla and Huber glanced at each other in mute admiration of hiseloquence.