The Camp of Refuge: A Tale of the Conquest of the Isle of Ely

by Charles MacFarlane

  CHAPTER XI.

  THE LINDEN-GROVE AND LADIE ALFTRUDE.

  The restored Lord of Brunn, having done so much in a few days, madefull report thereof unto the good Lord Abbat and the great prelates andSaxon thanes that had made the isle of Ely and the Camp of Refuge theirhomes. Right joyous was the news; and prudent and unanimous were thecounsels which followed it. The Abbat of Crowland and the Prior ofSpalding, and such of their monks as had gone with them or followedthem to Ely to escape from the oppression of Ivo Taille-Bois, now,without loss of time, returned to the banks of the Welland.

  The abbat and the prior were soon comfortably re-established in theirseveral houses; the rest of the expelled monks came flocking back totheir cells, and the good Saxon fen-men began to renew theirpilgrimages to the shrines. Many pilgrims too came from the countriesbordering on the fens; and while some of these men remained to fightunder the Lord of Brunn, others going back to their homes carried withthem the glad intelligence that the Camp of Refuge was moreunassailable than it had ever been, and that a most powerful Saxonleague was forming for the total expulsion of the Normans from England.

  Besides his own dependence and the chiefs of his own kindred, manySaxon hinds, and not a few chiefs of name, began now to repair toHereward's standard. There came his old brother in arms Winter ofWisbech, who had never touched the mailed hand of the conqueror in signof peace and submission; there came his distant relative Gherik, whobore on his brow the broad scar of an almost deadly wound he had gottenat Hastings; there came Alfric[141] and Rudgang, and Sexwold and SiwardBeorn, that true Saxon soldier who had formerly been a companion toEdgar Etheling in his flight, and who had come back from Scotlandbecause he could not bear to live in ease and plenty while his countrywas oppressed. Not one of these Saxon warriors but would stand againstthree Normans on foot! Hereward afterward gave proof, and more timesthan once, that he could keep his ground against seven! As for thehungry outlandish men the Conqueror was bringing from all the countriesin southern Europe, to help him to do that which he boasted he had donein the one battle of Hastings, they were not men to face any of ourlusty Saxons of the old race; but they fell before them in battle likereeds of the fen when trampled upon. But the skill and craft of thesealien men were great: many of them were drawn from Italie, though notfrom the same part of that country which gave birth to Girolamo; andtherefore were the services of the Salernitan the more valuable; andtherefore was it that the young Lord of Brunn had need of all his ownstrategy, and of all the inborn and acquired qualities which made himthe foremost captain of that age.

  Ivo Taille-Bois, whom some did call the devil of the fens, was not inthe manor-house of the Ladie Lucia, near unto Spalding, when Herewardfirst came to claim his own, and to turn out his false monks. Beingweary with living among bogs and marshes, and having occasion toconsult with the Norman vicomte who held command at Stamford, Ivo hadgone to that town, some few days before the feast of the Nativity, andhad carried with him his Saxon wife and her infant child, leaving nonein the moated and battlemented house save a few servants, and some tenor twelve armed Normans. The house was strong and difficult of access;but if it had not been for the respect due to the Lady Lucia, thekinswoman of his own Ladie Alftrude, Hereward, on his gainingpossession of Spalding, would have made a rough attempt upon it: andsuch was the temper of the Saxons within the house, that doubtlesslythey would have played into his hands. For several days the Normansremained wholly ignorant of the great things which had been done in thesuccursal cell, at Brunn and at Crowland, for they could not ventureoutside the walls of the manor-house, and even if there had been nodanger in their so doing, the inundated state of the country, and thecold wintry weather, offered few temptations to rambling. At length thepassing of many skerries across the fens, and the frequent passage oflarger boats, crowded with people, on the broad and not distantWelland, and the triumphant shouts that were occasionally heard fromthe banks of the river, caused the men-at-arms to suspect that someinsurrection was a-foot. They thanked their stars that the moat was sobroad, the house so strong, and the store-house so well stored, andthey went on sleeping like dormice, or like squirrels, in the topmosthollow of an oak, whose root is deep under the wintry waters. Theycould not trust any Saxon messenger to Stamford; and therefore it wasnot from his garrison in the manor-house, but directly from Alain ofBeauvais and others of that unholy crew, that the fierce Ivo learnedall that had happened upon or round about his wife's domains. Some ofthe herd were seized with fever and delirium--the effects of fear andfatigue and wet clothes--and they did not recover their senses for manya week; but Alain and such of them as could talk and reason, relatedall the horrible circumstances of their expulsion and flight, of theonset of the devils of Crowland, and of the close and self-evidentleague existing between Beelzebub and the Saxons. All this was horribleto hear; but Alain of Beauvais pronounced a name which was morehorrible or odious to Ivo Taille-Bois than that of Luciferhimself:--this was the name of Hereward the Saxon--of Hereward the Lordof Brunn, which the men of Crowland town had shouted in their ears asthe Norman monks were flying along the causeway. Partly through thetattle of some serving-women, and more through the confidence of hiswife, who did not hate her Norman lord quite so much as she ought tohave done, Ivo had learned something of the love passages betweenHereward and the Ladie Alftrude, and something also of the high famewhich Hereward had obtained as a warrior: and he gnashed his teeth ashe said to himself in Stamford town, "If this foul game last, mybrother may go back to Normandie a beggar, and I may follow him asanother beggar, for this Saxon churl will carry off Lanfranc's richward, and besiege and take my house by Spalding, and the devil and theSaxon people being all with him, he will disseise me of all my lands!But I will to the Vicomte of Stamford, and ask for fifty lances to jointo my own followers, and albeit I may not charge home to Spalding, Ican ride to Ey and carry off the Saxon girl before this Hereward takesher. Great Lanfranc must needs excuse the deed, for if I take her not,and give her to my brother, the Saxon rebel and traitor will take her.I was a dolt and wife-governed fool ever to have let her depart frommine house after that christening feast. But haply now my brother ishere! The instant we get her he shall wed her. We will carry a ringwith us to Ey for that purpose!"

  While Ivo Taille-Bois was thus making up his wicked mind in Stamfordtown, the good Lord Hereward was advancing with one hundred braveSaxons from his fair house at Brunn to the fairer and statelier houseof the Ladie Alftrude at Ey, having dispatched Elfric the ex-novicebefore him to make his way straight, and to appoint a place of meetingwith his ladie-love, and a place of meeting between his friends andretainers, and her retainers and the friends of her house. Now fromBrunn[142] to Ey is a much longer distance than from Stamford to Ey;but while the Normans were obliged to keep to the roundabout roads andto make many preparations beforehand (for fear of the fenners), theEnglishmen, aided by skerries, and whatever the country people couldlend them, struck directly across the fens. And in this wise it befelthat Lord Hereward got a good footing within the Ladie Alftrude'sdomain many hours before Ivo Taille-Bois and his brother could getwithin sight of the manor-house of Ey. On the bank of a river whichflowed towards the Welland, and which formed the natural boundary ofher far-extending lands, the hundred chosen warriors of the Lord ofBrunn were met and welcomed by fifty armed men of the Ladie of Ey, andby fifty or sixty more brave men from the neighbouring fens, furnishedwith long fen-poles, bill-hooks, and bows. While these united warriorsmarched together towards the manor-house in goodly array, and shouting"Hereward for England!" the young Lord of Brunn, attended by none butElfric, who had met him by the river, quitted the array and strodeacross some fields towards the little church of the township whichstood on a bright green hillock, with a linden grove close behind it.It was within that ivied church that the heir of Brunn and the heiressof Ey had first met as children; and it was in that linden-grove thatthe bold young man Hereward had first told Alftrude how much he lovedher. And was
it not within that grove, then all gay and leafy, and nowleafless and bare, that Hereward had taken his farewell when going tofollow King Harold to the wars, and that the Ladie Alftrude hadreconfirmed to him her troth-plight? And was it not for these goodreasons that the Saxon maiden, who loved not public greetings in thehall, amidst shouts and acclamations, had appointed the linden-grove,behind the old church, to be the place where she should welcome backHereward to his home and country. The church and the linden-grove werescarce an arrow-flight from the manor-house. The noble maiden wasattended by none but her handmaiden Mildred. When the young Lord ofBrunn came up and took the Ladie Alftrude by the hand, that noble pairwalked into the grove by a path which led towards the little church.For some time their hearts were too full to allow of speech: and whenthey could speak no ear could hear them, and no mortal eye see them.With Elfric and the maid Mildred it was not so. They stopped at theedge of the grove, and both talked and laughed enow--though they toowere silent for a short space, and stood gazing at each other. It issaid that it was the maiden who spoke first, and that she marvelledmuch at Elfric's changed attire.

  "Master novice," she said, "where are thy gown and thy cowl? When lastI saw thee thou wast habited as a wandering glee-man; and now I seethee armed and attired even like a man-at-arms. What meaneth this? Isthy war-dress to serve only for an occasion, like thy menestrel cloak?Tell me, art thou monk, menestrel, or soldier? I thought thy noviciatewas all but out, and that thou wast about to take thy vows."

  "No vows for me," said Elfric, "but vows to serve my country,and vows to love thee, oh Mildred! I was not meant to be acloister-monk--albeit, if the Normans had not come into the fencountry, and I had never been sent on the business of the Spalding cellto the house of thy mistress, and had never seen thee, fair Mildred, Imight in all possibility have submitted quietly to the manner of lifewhich had been chosen for me. But these accidents which have happenedhave made me feel that I love fighting better than praying, and lovingmuch better than fasting. My superiors have all come to the sameconclusion, and have liberated me, and have given me to the brave andbountiful Lord Hereward to be his page and sword-bearer, and whatsoeverhe may please to make me." Maid Mildred tried to check her tongue,and to look composed or indifferent; but not being well practised inthe art of concealing her feelings, she set up a cry of joy, and thenfalling on her knees she inwardly and silently thanked heaven thatElfric was not to be a monk, or one that could not be loved by herwithout sin. Perhaps the ex-novice understood what was passing in hermind; and perhaps he did not: for when he raised her up by her hand,and kept her hand closed within his own, and looked in her bright blueeyes, he said, "Mildred, art thou glad, indeed, at this my change ofcondition? Art thou, indeed, happy that I should be a soldier, fightingfor the good English cause, and a sword-bearer constantly in attendanceon the brave and bountiful Lord of Brunn, to go wherever he goeth, andto dwell with him in mansion and hall, when the battle is over and thecamp struck; or wouldst thou have me back in the house at Spalding, anda monk for all my days?"

  "It seemeth to me that when devout and learned men have opined thatthou art fitter for a soldier than for a monk, it is not for a weakunlettered maid like me to gainsay it. In sooth thou lookestmarvellously well in that soldier jerkin and baldric; and that plumedcap becomes thy merry face better than the hood. Thou carriest thatsword too by thy side with a better grace than ever thou didst carrymissal or breviary. But--but--alack and woe the while!--soldiers getkilled and monks do not! Elfric, thou wert safer in thy cell."

  "No, Mildred, these are times when war rages in the convent as in thetented field. No house is safe from intrusion; and where I was, Normanshould never intrude without finding at the least one bold heart todefy him and oppose him. A young man of my temper would encounter moredanger in the cloisters than on the field of battle, and would perishunnoticed by the world, and without any service to his country. But asa soldier and follower of Hereward our great captain, I may aid theliberties of the Saxon people, and if I fall I shall fall, the sword inmy hand, fighting like a man, with the broad green earth under me, andthe open blue sky above me! I shall not die pent in cloister like a ratin his hole! and men will remember me when I am gone as the slayer ofmany Normans.... But turn not so pale, be not discomfited, my merryMildred, at this thought of death! Of the thousands that go forth intobattle the greater part always return, and return unscathed, whetherthey have been victorious or vanquished; but if victorious, the less istheir loss. Death turns aside from those who fear him not, or are toobusy and too earnest in a just cause to think about him. The brave livewhen the cowards perish: the dread carnage falls upon those who runaway, or who are deaf to the voice of their leader. Our cause is just,and will be protected and blessed by heaven. We fight only for ourown--for our own country, our own king, our own ancient laws andusages, our own church. The Lord Hereward is as politic as he is brave;he is famed even beyond seas as one of the greatest of commanders; andwith such a cause and such a leader, upheld and followed as they mustbe by all honest and stout-hearted Englishmen, we cannot fail ofvictory. And when these Norman robbers shall be driven forth of theland, and good King Harold restored, there will be no more war, and nomore danger."

  Mildred felt comforted, and they spoke no more of war. Elfric relatedall his wondrous adventures, and described all that he had seen inforeign lands when he was in quest of the Lord of Brunn, the maidenlistening to him with wide-open, wondering eyes. Next he told her howingeniously he had played the devil at Crowland, and driven away theNorman shavelings; and at this Mildred laughed out right merrily,saying that she would like to have seen it, and yet would not like tohave seen it, and asking him what sort of vizard he had worn, and whathad been his complexion as a devil. Elfric told her that he wouldappear to her, and frighten her as a devil some night soon, if she didnot give him one kiss now; and so Mildred laughed a little, and blusheda little, and said nay a little, and then let the bold youth take whathe asked for. It is weened and wotted by some that there had beenkisses under the hood before now; but now the cucullus had given way tothe cap, and there was no harm in it. All this talk and dalliance bythe edge of the linden-grove occupied much time, yet the Ladie Alftrudeand the Lord Hereward did not reappear; and much as Elfric loved hismaster, and Mildred her mistress, they did not think the time long, norwish for their reappearing. Both, however, spoke much of the bold lordand the fair lady, and in settling their matters for them (ashandmaidens and pages will aye be settling the loves and marriages oftheir masters and mistresses), they in a manner settled their own lots.The Lord of Brunn and the Ladie Alftrude, so long torn asunder, mustsoon be united for ever by holy church--that was quite certain; Elfricwould never quit his lord--that was quite certain; Mildred could neverleave her lady--that was equally certain; and from this they derivedthe consequent certainty that he, Elfric, and she, Mildred, musthenceforward have a great deal of each other's company. Further thanthis they did not go; for just as Elfric was about to propound anotherproposition, Lord Hereward and the Ladie Alftrude came forth from thegrove, and took the direct path towards the manor-house, smiling eachupon the youth and upon the maiden as they passed them. The ladie'scountenance was happy and serene, although her eyes showed that she hadbeen weeping; the Lord Hereward had a clear, open, joyous face at allseasons, but now he seemed radiant with joy all over him: and as thusthey went their way to the near house, followed by the young soldierand the young handmaiden, there were four of the happiest faces thatever the sun shone upon.

  When they came to the good old Saxon house, where lowered drawbridgeand open gate betokened the Saxon hospitality and the absence of allfear about Norman intruders, there was a universal throwing of capsinto the air, with another loud and universal shouting of welcome tothe Lord of Brunn; and every man, woman, and child there, whether arelative or retainer of the one house or of the other, whether a vassalto the young lord or to the young lady, coupled the names of the twainas if they were to be indissolubly joined, and still cried, "Long lifeto Lord H
ereward and the Ladie Alftrude! Long life to the LadieAlftrude and to Lord Hereward! God bless the bravest and fairest of theSaxons!" The impatience of these good people had been great, for greatwas their curiosity and great their appetite: they had all been longingto see, side by side, the long-separated and re-united pair, and thefeast had been ready in the hall for the space of one hour or more.

  It proved a much merrier feast than that given by Ivo Taille-Bois atthe christening of his son; and if Elfric had sung well there, he sangmuch better here. Sundry kinsmen and kinswomen of the Ladie Alftrude,who had long journeys to make, and who had not been able to arrivebefore, arrived during the festivity; and, during the same season ofjoy, sundry scouts and messengers came in, and spoke either with theLord of Brunn or with his sword-bearer; for Hereward in the act ofbeing very merry could be very wise, and he could think of fighting atthe same time that he was thinking of love: he had sent scouts intomany parts, and other good Saxons that were living near Cam-Bridge, orHuntingdon, or Stamford, or other Norman stations, were now beginningto send messengers to him with all the information that could beprocured, and with all the good suggestions they had skill to offer,for all good men fixed their hopes upon him. After communing for ashort time with one of these trustworthy messengers, Hereward gave amerry peal of laughter, and said aloud, "So this Ivo Taille-Bois iscoming hither to seek my bride! He shall be welcome! Let him come."