CHAPTER XV
Richard Wood and his men had searched the forest of Sherwood thoroughlyenough to lead them to conclude that those they sought had takenanother route. And on this, the tenth day of his chase, Richard Woodsaid decidedly: "We try the fen now to the east. They be not spirits tovanish in the air. Here in this wood they are not, nor do I think theywould bide in any town. Therefore in the fen they must be." Thereupon,leaving the forest, they rode southeast by the way of Grantham, and soon into the fen country, striking it a few miles from where Hugo andHumphrey were making their camp for the night, almost within sight ofPeterborough. The two were quite cheerful, and entirely unsuspiciousthat danger might be nearer to them than usual.
"Thinkest thou to stop at Peterborough?" asked Humphrey.
"Nay," replied Hugo; "there is no need."
"And yet," urged Humphrey, "a good lodging, were it but for one night,were a happy change from the fens. Who is the canon that is thineuncle's friend at Peterborough?"
"Canon Thurstan," replied Hugo.
"In the Canon Thurstan's house--" began Humphrey.
"But the canon hath no house," interrupted Hugo, with a smile.
"And how is that?" demanded Humphrey, with a puzzled air.
"It happeneth because this cathedral is on another foundation, and thecanons here be regular and not secular, as they be in Lincoln."
Humphrey reflected. "I understand not," he said at length.
"At Peterborough the canons live all together in one house," explainedHugo. "Were we to go there we should be taken to the hospitium, wherewe should be lodged."
"And there see the Canon Thurstan?"
"Yea."
Again Humphrey reflected. Then he said: "The ways of priests be many.Mayhap I had known more of them, but in my forty years I have had to dowith other matters, like serving my lord and lady in troublous times.The priest at the castle I did know, but not much of the ways ofpriests in priests' houses. And now cometh the evening mist rightearly. I will but make up the fire and then lead away the horses."
The fire made, although it was not dark, Humphrey departed, leavingHugo to feed it. This the boy did generously, for he felt chilled. Thesmoke did not rise high and the odor of it penetrated to some distance.
In a little while Humphrey returned laden with a new supply of fuelpartly green and partly dry. He then spread out their evening meal, andgave Fleetfoot his supper. And, all these things accomplished and thesupper eaten, he announced his intention to go again for fuel.
"Have we not here enough?" asked Hugo. "Thou knowest we journey on inthe morning."
"Mayhap," answered Humphrey. "I like not the look of this mist. Mygrandsire hath told me of a mist that lay like a winding-sheet oneverything for two days, and this seemeth to me to be of that kind. Itwere not wise to stir, mayhap, to-morrow morn."
"Lest we encounter the other spy?" laughed Hugo.
"Jest not, dear lad," replied Humphrey, soberly. "We may not know howor whence danger cometh."
"And dost thou fear, then?" asked Hugo.
"Nay, I fear not. I cannot say I fear. But this moment a feeling hathcome to me which I had not before. I will away for more fuel."
"I go with thee," said Hugo.
"Ay, lad, come," was the reply.
Two trips they made, each time returning heavily laden, and then Hugolaughingly said, "Surely we have enough, even if the mist last twodays, for we had good store before thou didst look upon the mist withsuspicion."
Humphrey smiled. "Yea, lad," he answered, "the fuel now seemethenough."
While he spoke a wind sprang up and the mist grew lighter. It blewharder, and the mist was gone. One might see the stars. Two hours thislasted, during which Richard Wood and his men, as if guided, rodestraight for the small camp, picking their way with great good fortuneand making few missteps. Then the wind died down, the mist came backenfolding everything, and the pursuers encamped where they were. But ofthat Hugo and Humphrey knew nothing.
It might have been two o'clock when the serving-man awoke with a shiverand rose to renew the fire. He found it quite extinguished. As he feltabout in the darkness for his flint and steel he glanced anxiouslytoward Hugo, though he could not see him. "I know not," he muttered, "Iknow not. But I did dream of eagles and they did scream above ourheads. Some danger draweth near, or some heavy trouble."
The fire now blazed, and the faithful serving-man saw that Hugo wasstill asleep, resting as easily on his couch of reeds as he could havedone on the canon's bed. "It is a good lad," said Humphrey. "Were he aDe Aldithely he could not be better."
Humphrey lay down no more that night. Restlessly he moved about, nowreplenishing the fire, and now listening for some hostile sound. But heheard nothing.
It was late in the morning when Hugo awoke. "Surely this must be thygrandsire's mist, Humphrey," he said. "It is heavy enough."
"Yea," answered Humphrey, looking up from the breakfast he waspreparing. "It were best not to stir abroad to-day."
And at that moment Richard Wood was saying: "I smell smoke within halfa mile of me. Ride we to see what that meaneth." Again, as if to aidhim, the wind sprang up so that through the lifting mist one mighteasily pick his way, and Humphrey had just departed to look after thehorses when Richard Wood and his men-at-arms arrived at the camp.
"Yield thee, Josceline De Aldithely!" commanded Richard Wood. "Yieldthee in the king's name!" and, dismounting, he laid his hand on theastonished lad's arm.
"Yield Thee in the King's Name"]
A little later Humphrey, returning to the camp, paused in amazement,for he heard voices. He crept around a fringe of reeds and peered, butcould not see clearly. He advanced further, still under cover, and thenhe saw.
"I did dream of eagles," he muttered, "and they did scream above ourheads."
He listened, and from what he heard he learned that Hugo had notrevealed himself as Hugo, but that he allowed the spy to think him tobe Josceline. "Well did my lady trust in him!" exulted Humphrey. "Andmy lord shall know of this when we be come to France, as we shall come,though all the eagles in the fens do scream above our heads. And now Iwill away to the Canon Thurstan, and see of what avail is the fish onthe circlet of gold."
Creeping back as silently as he could, he mounted his horse and set outfor Peterborough. "May the spy and his men-at-arms be too weary to stirtill I come back," he said. "And if they be not weary, may the mistcome lower down and hold them. And now, horse, do thy best. Splash intopools, wade, swim, do all but stick fast till we come to Peterboroughtown."
The horse, thus urged, did his sagacious best, and very shortly theserving-man was knocking at the gate of the porter's lodge. NowHumphrey knew nothing of how he ought to proceed. He only knew that hewas in haste and that his need was urgent. He therefore determined toemploy boldness and assurance, and push his way into the canon'spresence.
"Canon Thurstan!" he cried boldly, attempting to push past the porter."Canon Thurstan, and at once! My lord demandeth it."
"Thou mayest not push in past me thus," said the porter, stopping him."Hast thou no token to show?"
"Yea, verily," answered Humphrey, hastily taking out his pouch andproducing the prior's ring. "Take this, and bid the canon see meinstantly."
The porter, calling an attendant, sent the ring by him. And presentlyan order came bidding Humphrey come into the presence of the canon.
"Where is the prior's nephew?" asked the canon, with the ring in hishand.
"In the custody of knaves who did surprise our camp."
"Knaves, sayest thou?" said the canon. "Wherefore hast thou a camp?Wherefore lodgest thou not in towns? What doest thou wandering throughthe fens?"
"We be pursued," answered Humphrey.
"Pursued? and by whom? Why, who should pursue the nephew of RogerAungerville?"
"It is a king's man, and he hath with him three men-at-arms," answeredHumphrey.
"A king's man, sayest thou? Nay, then, I meddle not in the king'smatters." And he made as if to ha
nd back the ring.
"And wilt thou not, then, aid me to rescue my young master?"
"Nay," answered the canon. "I may not do such a thing except uponcompulsion. The dean is now absent, and I am in his place."
Beside himself with impatience over what seemed to him needless delay,and with disappointment over what seemed to promise failure altogether,Humphrey cried out roughly: "Compulsion, sayest thou? Then, since 'tiscompulsion thou lackest, compulsion thou shalt have." And he laid handson him.
At this two servants came running in. "Ye see," said the canon, turningto them. "This is the ring of my friend, Roger Aungerville, prior ofSt. Wilfrid's. It bindeth me to do all in reason for his nephew. Thisis his nephew's servant, who hath come to me to seek my aid to rescuehis young master from the clutches of a king's man and threemen-at-arms. I tell him I may not do such a thing except uponcompulsion, and he layeth hands upon me." And he smiled upon themwhimsically.
They understood the canon and his smile, and the first said: "If thoube compelled to aid this fellow, were it not best that I call upHerebald and Bernulf also? They be two, as thou knowest, swift of foot,and long of wind, and strong of arm; and they have two good staves,moreover."
"Why," said the canon, whimsically, "it were doubtless wholly evil thatI should undergo compulsion in mine own domain by a strangeserving-man, and be compelled to render aid even against the king'smen. Still, since I be compelled to render aid, it were good to renderthe best possible, and so take with ye Herebald and Bernulf; and sparenot for blows, so that ye bring off the young man safe."
Then he handed the prior's ring to Humphrey, who returned it to itspouch with great satisfaction. "I will ne'er say aught against a fish,"he thought, "when it surmounteth a circlet of gold and doth belong to aprior. Methinks this canon liketh not the king nor his men, or he wouldnot be so easily compelled to go against them, and so all shall yet bewell with us."
The two servants now withdrew from the canon's presence, takingHumphrey with them, and, calling up Herebald and Bernulf, all four madespeed to depart with the impatient serving-man.
"If the mist hold, we have them," said the first servant, as he rodebeside Humphrey. "And it be heavier now than it was two hours agone."
"Ay, if we lose not our way," was the response.
"That we cannot do with Herebald and Bernulf," was the confidentanswer. "They were born and bred in these fens. And because they dohate the king and all his men they will be swift on the track thismorn. If the king's man come not off with a broken pate, it will be awonder. And the same is like to be the fate of the three men-at-arms."
The mist held, and, gleaming through it, as they neared the camp, theysaw the red fire. Cautiously they approached. Richard Wood and hishungry men-at-arms had been making free with the packs so liberallyprovided by Humphrey at Lincoln, and were now resting on the rushes,with Hugo in their midst. They were in no mood to journey farther inthe dimness of the mist, and Richard Wood was putting question afterquestion to Hugo in the hope of eliciting some information which mightbe valuable to him, while the men-at-arms listened. They were LeFalconer's men, and they cared nothing for the fate of De Aldithely'sson.
"Where hideth away thy mother?" asked Richard Wood.
"Even in the tomb," answered Hugo, truthfully, for his mother was dead.
For a moment Richard Wood was taken aback. "I had not heard of it," hesaid at length. "I knew not that thy mother was dead. The king hadhoped to capture her also. But it seemeth death hath been beforehandwith him."
And then the four servants of the canon, who had surrounded the littlegroup unseen, lifted their staves and struck as one man. Over rolledRichard Wood and his three men-at-arms, stunned and unconscious.Humphrey at once brought up Hugo's horse and Fleetfoot, and therescuers departed, leaving the four unconscious men to come tothemselves at their leisure.
"Thou art to return to the hospitium," said the first servant toHumphrey. "It is the canon's order. He will see this nephew of theprior's and inquire more narrowly concerning his journey. And say thounaught of this rescue to any man. We four do the canon's bidding at alltimes, but our tongues wag not of the matter."
"When the canon is compelled, thou doest his bidding?" asked Humphrey.
"Ay, when he is compelled. He hath those of his kin who have sufferedwrong at the king's hands. Therefore is he often compelled, as thousayest, but he sayeth naught, and so the king knoweth naught. May he belong ignorant."
The first servant now withdrew himself from Humphrey's side, and in duetime, still under cover of the friendly mist which spread its curtainover the streets of the town, the little party regained the hospitiumunseen. As soon as their arrival was known Hugo was summoned to thepresence of the canon; and the handsome, fearless youth, as he enteredthe room where the canon awaited him, seemed to strike his host withsurprise.
"Thou the nephew of Roger Aungerville!" he exclaimed, when they werealone. "Thou shouldst be a De Aldithely."
"I am Hugo Aungerville," answered the boy. And then, drawing nearer, hehalf whispered something further to the canon, who seemed to find theexplanation satisfactory.
"Why dost thou skulk and hide in this manner through the fens?" askedthe canon. "And why art thou pursued?"
"I personate Josceline, son of Lord De Aldithely, and so draw pursuitfrom him. When I am come to Lord De Aldithely in France, then I shallmake myself known, if need be."
"There will be no need," said the canon, decidedly. "And now, though Iam glad to have succored the nephew of my friend, the prior, I am twiceglad to do a service to Lord De Aldithely. Thou hast my blessing. Gonow to thy rest, even though it be day. To-morrow morn I will send theeforth, if it seem best."
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