CHAPTER XXIV
Not far on this road he came upon a little group. Two men in sober suitsstood leaning lazily on each side of a horse, talking to one another.The rider, in a silk doublet and bright green jerkin and hose, bothof English cloth, glossy as a mole, lay flat on his stomach in theafternoon sun, and looked an enormous lizard. His velvet cloak (flamingyellow) was carefully spread over the horse's loins.
"Is aught amiss?" inquired Gerard.
"Not that I wot of," replied one of the servants.
"But your master, he lies like a corpse. Are ye not ashamed to let himgrovel on the ground?"
"Go to; the bare ground is the best cure for his disorder. If you getsober in bed, it gives you a headache; but you leap up from the hardground like a lark in spring. Eh, Ulric?"
"He speaks sooth, young man," said Ulric warmly.
"What, is the gentleman drunk?"
The servants burst into a hoarse laugh at the simplicity of Gerard'squestion. But suddenly Ulric stopped, and eyeing him all over, said verygravely, "Who are you, and where born, that know not the Count is everdrunk at this hour?" And Gerard found himself a suspected character.
"I am a stranger," said he, "but a true man, and one that lovesknowledge; therefore ask I questions, and not for love of prying."
"If you be a true man," said Ulric shrewdly, "then give us trinkgeld forthe knowledge we have given you."
Gerard looked blank, but putting a good face on it, said, "Trinkgeld youshall have, such as my lean purse can spare, an if you will tell me whyye have ta'en his cloak from the man and laid it on the beast."
Under the inspiring influence of coming trinkgeld, two solutions wereinstantly offered Gerard at once: the one was, that should the Countcome to himself (which, being a seasoned toper, he was apt to do allin a minute), and find his horse standing sweating in the cold, whilea cloak lay idle at hand, he would fall to cursing, and peradventureto laying on the other, more pretentious, was, that a horse is a poormilksop, which, drinking nothing but water, has to be cockered up andwarmed outside; but a master, being a creature ever filled with goodbeer, has a store of inward heat that warms him to the skin, and rendersa cloak a mere shred of idle vanity.
Each of the speakers fell in love with his theory, and, to tell thetruth, both had taken a hair or two of the dog that had bitten theirmaster to the brain; so their voices presently rose so high, that thegreen sot began to growl instead of snoring. In their heat they did notnotice this.
Ere long the argument took a turn that sooner or later was pretty sureto enliven a discussion in that age. Hans, holding the bridle with hisright hand, gave Ulric a sound cuff with his left; Ulric returned itwith interest, his right hand being free; and at it they went, dingdong, over the horse's mane, pommelling one another, and jagging thepoor beast, till he ran backward, and trode with iron heel upon apromontory of the green lord; he, like the toad stung by Ithuriel'sspear, started up howling, with one hand clapped to the smart and theother tugging at his hilt. The servants, amazed with terror, let thehorse go; he galloped off whinnying, the men in pursuit of him cryingout with fear, and the green noble after them, volleying curses, hisnaked sword in his hand, and his body rebounding from hedge to hedge inhis headlong but zigzag career down the narrow lane.
"In which hurtling" Gerard turned his back on them all, and went calmlysouth, glad to have saved the four tin farthings he had got ready fortrinkgeld, but far too heavy hearted even to smile at their drunkenextravagance.
The sun was nearly setting, and Gerard, who had now for some time beenhoping in vain to find an inn by the way, was very ill at ease. To makematters worse, black clouds gathered over the sky.
Gerard quickened his pace almost to a run.
It was in vain; down came the rain in torrents, drenched the bewilderedtraveller, and seemed to extinguish the very sun-for his rays, alreadyfading, could not cope with this new assailant.
Gerard trudged on, dark, and wet, and in an unknown region. "Fool! toleave Margaret," said he.
Presently the darkness thickened.
He was entering a great wood. Huge branches shot across the narrow road,and the benighted stranger groped his way in what seemed an interminableand inky cave with a rugged floor, on which he stumbled and stumbled ashe went.
On, and on, and on, with shivering limbs and empty stomach, and faintingheart, till the wolves rose from their lairs and bayed all round thewood.
His hair bristled; but he grasped his cudgel, and prepared to sell hislife dear.
There was no wind; and his excited ear heard light feet patter at timesover the newly fallen leaves, and low branches rustle with creaturesgliding swiftly past them.
Presently in the sea of ink there was a great fiery star close to theground. He hailed it as he would his patron saint. "CANDLE! a CANDLE!"he shouted, and tried to run. But the dark and rugged way soon stoppedthat. The light was more distant than he had thought. But at last, inthe very heart of the forest, he found a house, with lighted candlesand loud voices inside it. He looked up to see if there was a signboard.There was none. "Not an inn after all!" said he sadly. "No matter; whatChristian would turn a dog out into this wood to-night?" and with thishe made for the door that led to the voices. He opened it slowly, andput his head in timidly. He drew it out abruptly, as if slapped in theface, and recoiled into the rain and darkness.
He had peeped into a large but low room, the middle of which was filledby a huge round stove, or clay oven, that reached to the ceiling;round this, wet clothes were drying-some on lines, and some morecompendiously, on rustics. These latter habiliments, impregnated withthe wet of the day, but the dirt of a life, and lined with what anotherfoot traveller in these parts call "rammish clowns," evolved rankvapours and compound odours inexpressible, in steaming clouds.
In one corner was a travelling family, a large one: thence flowed intothe common stock the peculiar sickly smell of neglected brats. Garlicfilled up the interstices of the air. And all this with closed window,and intense heat of the central furnace, and the breath of at leastforty persons.
They had just supped.
Now Gerard, like most artists, had sensitive organs, and the potenteffluvia struck dismay into him. But the rain lashed him outside, andthe light and the fire tempted him in.
He could not force his way all at once through the palpable perfumes,but he returned to the light again and again, like the singed moth.At last he discovered that the various smells did not entirely mix, nofiend being there to stir them round. Odour of family predominated intwo corners; stewed rustic reigned supreme in the centre; and garlic inthe noisy group by the window. He found, too, by hasty analysis, that ofthese the garlic described the smallest aerial orbit, and the scent ofreeking rustic darted farthest--a flavour as if ancient goats, or thefathers of all foxes, had been drawn through a river, and were heredried by Nebuchadnezzar.
So Gerard crept into a corner close to the door. But though the solidityof the main fetors isolated them somewhat, the heat and reeking vapourscirculated, and made the walls drip; and the home-nurtured novice foundsomething like a cold snake wind about his legs, and his head turn to agreat lump of lead; and next, he felt like choking, sweetly slumbering,and dying, all in one.
He was within an ace of swooning, but recovered to a deep sense ofdisgust and discouragement; and settled to go back to Holland at peepof day. This resolution formed, he plucked up a little heart; and beingfaint with hunger, asked one of the men of garlic whether this was notan inn after all?
"Whence come you, who know not 'The Star of the Forest'?" was the reply.
"I am a stranger; and in my country inns have aye a sign."
"Droll country yours! What need of a sign to a public-house--a placethat every soul knows?"
Gerard was too tired and faint for the labour of argument, so he turnedthe conversation, and asked where he could find the landlord?
At this fresh display of ignorance, the native's contempt rose too highfor words. He pointed to a middle-aged woman s
eated on the other sideof the oven; and turning to his mates, let them know what an outlandishanimal was in the room. Thereat the loud voices stopped, one by one, asthe information penetrated the mass; and each eye turned, as on a pivot,following Gerard, and his every movement, silently and zoologically.
The landlady sat on a chair an inch or two higher than the rest, betweentwo bundles. From the first, a huge heap of feathers and wings, she wastaking the downy plumes, and pulling the others from the quills, and sofilling bundle two littering the floor ankle-deep, and contributing tothe general stock a stuffy little malaria, which might have played adistinguished part in a sweet room, but went for nothing here. Gerardasked her if he could have something to eat.
She opened her eyes with astonishment. "Supper is over this hour andmore.
"But I had none of it, good dame."
"Is that my fault? You were welcome to your share for me."
"But I was benighted, and a stranger; and belated sore against my will."
"What have I to do with that? All the world knows 'The Star of theForest' sups from six till eight. Come before six, ye sup well; comebefore eight, ye sup as pleases Heaven; come after eight, ye get a cleanbed, and a stirrup cup, or a horn of kine's milk, at the dawning."
Gerard looked blank. "May I go to bed, then, dame?" said he sulkily "forit is ill sitting up wet and fasting, and the byword saith, 'He sups whosleeps.'"
"The beds are not come yet," replied the landlady. "You will sleep whenthe rest do. Inns are not built for one."
It was Gerard's turn to be astonished. "The beds were not come! what, inHeaven's name, did she mean?" But he was afraid to ask for every wordhe had spoken hitherto had amazed the assembly, and zoological eyes wereupon him--he felt them. He leaned against the wall, and sighed audibly.
At this fresh zoological trait, a titter went round the watchfulcompany.
"So this is Germany," thought Gerard; "and Germany is a great country byHolland. Small nations for me."
He consoled himself by reflecting it was to be his last, as well as hisfirst, night in the land. His reverie was interrupted by an elbow driveninto his ribs. He turned sharp on his assailant, who pointed across theroom. Gerard looked, and a woman in the corner was beckoning him. Hewent towards her gingerly, being surprised and irresolute, so that to aspectator her beckoning finger seemed to be pulling him across the floorwith a gut-line. When he had got up to her, "Hold the child," saidshe, in a fine hearty voice; and in a moment she plumped the bairn intoGerard's arms.
He stood transfixed, jelly of lead in his hands, and sudden horror inhis elongated countenance.
At this ruefully expressive face, the lynx-eyed conclave laughed loudand long.
"Never heed them," said the woman cheerfully; "they know no better;how should they, bred an' born in a wood?" She was rummaging among herclothes with the two penetrating hands, one of which Gerard had setfree. Presently she fished out a small tin plate and a dried pudding;and resuming her child with one arm, held them forth to Gerard with theother, keeping a thumb on the pudding to prevent it from slipping off.
"Put it in the stove," said she; "you are too young to lie downfasting."
Gerard thanked her warmly. But on his way to the stove, his eye fell onthe landlady. "May I, dame?" said he beseechingly.
"Why not?" said she.
The question was evidently another surprise, though less startling thanits predecessors.
Coming to the stove, Gerard found the oven door obstructed by "therammish clowns." They did not budge. He hesitated a moment. The landladysaw, calmly put down her work, and coming up, pulled a hircine man ortwo hither, and pushed a hircine man or two thither, with the impassivecountenance of a housewife moving her furniture. "Turn about is fairplay," she said; "ye have been dry this ten minutes and better."
Her experienced eye was not deceived; Gorgonii had done stewing, andbegun baking. Debarred the stove, they trundled home, all but one, whostood like a table, where the landlady had moved him to, like a table.And Gerard baked his pudding; and getting to the stove, burst intosteam.
The door opened, and in flew a bundle of straw.
It was hurled by a hind with a pitchfork. Another and another cameflying after it, till the room was like a clean farmyard. These werethen dispersed round the stove in layers, like the seats in an arena,and in a moment the company was all on its back.
The beds had come.
Gerard took out his pudding, and found it delicious. While he wasrelishing it, the woman who had given it him, and who was now abed,beckoned him again. He went to her bundle side. "She is waiting foryou," whispered the woman. Gerard returned to the stove, and gobbled.the rest of his sausage, casting uneasy glances at the landlady, seatedsilent as fate amid the prostrate multitude. The food bolted, he went toher, and said, "Thank you kindly, dame, for waiting for me."
"You are welcome," said she calmly, making neither much nor little ofthe favour; and with that began to gather up the feathers. But Gerardstopped her. "Nay, that is my task;" and he went down on his knees, andcollected them with ardour. She watched him demurely.
"I wot not whence ye come," said she, with a relic of distrust; adding,more cordially, "but ye have been well brought up;--y' have had a goodmother, I'll go bail."
At the door she committed the whole company to Heaven, in a formula, anddisappeared. Gerard to his straw in the very corner-for the guests layround the sacred stove by seniority, i.e. priority of arrival.
This punishment was a boon to Gerard, for thus he lay on the shore ofodour and stifling heat, instead of in mid-ocean.
He was just dropping off, when he was awaked by a noise; and lo therewas the hind remorselessly shaking and waking guest after guest, to askhim whether it was he who had picked up the mistress's feathers.
"It was I," cried Gerard.
"Oh, it was you, was it?" said the other, and came striding rapidly overthe intermediate sleepers. "She bade me say, 'One good turn deservesanother,' and so here's your nightcap," and he thrust a great oaken mugunder Gerard's nose.
"I thank her, and bless her; here goes--ugh!" and his gratitude ended ina wry face; for the beer was muddy, and had a strange, medicinal twangnew to the Hollander.
"Trinke aus!" shouted the hind reproachfully.
"Enow is as good as a feast," said the youth Jesuitically.
The hind cast a look of pity on this stranger who left liquor in hismug. "Ich brings euch," said he, and drained it to the bottom.
And now Gerard turned his face to the wall and pulled up two handfuls ofthe nice clean straw, and bored in them with his finger, and so made ascabbard, and sheathed his nose in it. And soon they were all asleep;men, maids, wives, and children all lying higgledy-piggledy, and snoringin a dozen keys like an orchestra slowly tuning; and Gerard's body layon straw in Germany, and his spirit was away to Sevenbergen.
When he woke in the morning he found nearly all his fellow-passengersgone. One or two were waiting for dinner, nine o'clock; it was nowsix. He paid the landlady her demand, two pfenning, or about an Englishhalfpenny, and he of the pitchfork demanded trinkgeld, and getting atrifle more than usual, and seeing Gerard eye a foaming milk-pail he hadjust brought from the cow, hoisted it up bodily to his lips. "Drink yourfill, man," said he, and on Gerard offering to pay for the deliciousdraught, told him in broad patois that a man might swallow a skinful ofmilk, or a breakfast of air, without putting hand to pouch. At the doorGerard found his benefactress of last night, and a huge-chested artisan,her husband.
Gerard thanked her, and in the spirit of the age offered her a creutzerfor her pudding.
But she repulsed his hand quietly. "For what do you take me?" said she,colouring faintly; "we are travellers and strangers the same as you, andbound to feel for those in like plight."
Then Gerard blushed in his turn and stammered excuses.
The hulking husband grinned superior to them both.
"Give the vixen a kiss for her pudding, and cry quits," said he, with anair impartial, judge-l
ike and Jove-like.
Gerard obeyed the lofty behest, and kissed the wife's cheek. "A blessinggo with you both, good people," said he.
"And God speed you, young man!" replied the honest couple; and with thatthey parted, and never met again in this world.
The sun had just risen: the rain-drops on the leaves glittered likediamonds. The air was fresh and bracing, and Gerard steered south, anddid not even remember his resolve of overnight.
Eight leagues he walked that day, and in the afternoon came upon a hugebuilding with an enormous arched gateway and a postern by its side.
"A monastery!" cried he joyfully; "I go no further lest I fare worse." Heapplied at the postern, and on stating whence he came and whither bound,was instantly admitted and directed to the guestchamber, a large andlofty room, where travellers were fed and lodged gratis by the charityof the monastic orders. Soon the bell tinkled for vespers, and Gerardentered the church of the convent, and from his place heard a servicesung so exquisitely, it seemed the choir of heaven. But one thing waswanting, Margaret was not there to hear it with him, and this madehim sigh bitterly in mid rapture. At supper, plain but wholesome andabundant food, and good beer, brewed in the convent, were set beforehim and his fellows, and at an early hour they were ushered into a largedormitory, and the number being moderate, had each a truckle bed, andfor covering, sheepskins dressed with the fleece on but previously tothis a monk, struck by his youth and beauty, questioned him, and soondrew out his projects and his heart. When he was found to be conventbred, and going alone to Rome, he became a personage, and in the morningthey showed him over the convent and made him stay and dine in therefectory. They also pricked him a route on a slip of parchment, and theprior gave him a silver guilden to help him on the road, and advised himto join the first honest company he should fall in with, "and not facealone the manifold perils of the way."
"Perils?" said Gerard to himself.
That evening he came to a small straggling town where was one inn; ithad no sign; but being now better versed in the customs of the country,he detected it at once by the coats of arms on its walls. These belongedto the distinguished visitors who had slept in it at differentepochs since its foundation, and left these customary tokens of theirpatronage. At present it looked more like a mausoleum than a hotel.Nothing moved nor sounded either in it or about it. Gerard hammered onthe great oak door: no answer. He hallooed: no reply. After a while hehallooed louder, and at last a little round window, or rather hole inthe wall, opened, a man's head protruded cautiously, like a tortoise'sfrom its shell, and eyed Gerard stolidly, but never uttered a syllable.
"Is this an inn?" asked Gerard, with a covert sneer.
The head seemed to fall into a brown study; eventually it nodded, butlazily.
"Can I have entertainment here?"
Again the head pondered and ended by nodding, but sullenly, and seemed askull overburdened with catch-penny interrogatories.
"How am I to get within, an't please you?"
At this the head popped in, as if the last question had shot it; and ahand popped out, pointed round the corner of the building, and slammedthe window.
Gerard followed the indication, and after some research discoveredthat the fortification had one vulnerable part, a small low door on itsflank. As for the main entrance, that was used to keep out thieves andcustomers, except once or twice in a year, when they entered together,i.e., when some duke or count arrived in pomp with his train of gaudyruffians.
Gerard, having penetrated the outer fort, soon found his way to thestove (as the public room was called from the principal article in it),and sat down near the oven, in which were only a few live embers thatdiffused a mild and grateful heat.
After waiting patiently a long time, he asked a grim old fellow with along white beard, who stalked solemnly in, and turned the hour-glass,and then was stalking out, when supper would be. The grisly Ganymedecounted the guests on his fingers--"When I see thrice as many here asnow." Gerard groaned.
The grisly tyrant resented the rebellious sound. "Inns are not builtfor one," said he; "if you can't wait for the rest, look out for anotherlodging."
Gerard sighed.
At this the greybeard frowned.
After a while company trickled steadily in, till full eighty persons ofvarious conditions were congregated, and to our novice the place becamea chamber of horrors; for here the mothers got together and comparedringworms, and the men scraped the mud off their shoes with theirknives, and left it on the floor, and combed their long hair out,inmates included, and made their toilet, consisting generally of a dryrub. Water, however, was brought in ewers. Gerard pounced on one ofthese, but at sight of the liquid contents lost his temper and saidto the waiter, "Wash you first your water, and then a man may wash hishands withal."
"An' it likes you not, seek another inn!"
Gerard said nothing, but went quietly and courteously besought an oldtraveller to tell him how far it was to the next inn.
"About four leagues."
Then Gerard appreciated the grim pleasantry of the unbending sire.
That worthy now returned with an armful of wood, and counting thetravellers, put on a log for every six, by which act of raw justice thehotter the room the more heat he added. Poor Gerard noticed this littleflaw in the ancient man's logic, but carefully suppressed every symptomof intelligence, lest his feet should have to carry his brains fourleagues farther that night.
When perspiration and suffocation were far advanced, they brought inthe table-cloths; but oh, so brown, so dirty, and so coarse; they seemedlike sacks that had been worn out in agriculture and come down to this,or like shreads from the mainsail of some worn-out ship. The Hollander,who had never seen such linen even in nightmare, uttered a faint cry.
"What is to do?" inquired a traveller. Gerard pointed ruefully tothe dirty sackcloth. The other looked at it with lack lustre eye, andcomprehended nought.
A Burgundian soldier with his arbalest at his back came peeping overGerard's shoulder, and seeing what was amiss, laughed so loud that theroom rang again, then slapped him on the back and cried, "Courage! lediable est mort."
Gerard stared: he doubted alike the good tidings and theirrelevancy; but the tones were so hearty and the arbalestrier's face,notwithstanding a formidable beard, was so gay and genial, that hesmiled, and after a pause said drily, "Il a bien faite avec l'eau etlinge du pays on allait le noircir a ne se reconnaitre plus."
"Tiens, tiens!" cried the soldier, "v'la qui parle le Francais peu s'enfaut," and he seated himself by Gerard, and in a moment was talkingvolubly of war, women, and pillage, interlarding his discourse withcurious oaths, at which Gerard drew away from him more or less.
Presently in came the grisly servant, and counted them all on hisfingers superciliously, like Abraham telling sheep; then went out again,and returned with a deal trencher and deal spoon to each.
Then there was an interval. Then he brought them a long mug apiece madeof glass, and frowned. By-and-by he stalked gloomily in with a hunch ofbread apiece, and exit with an injured air. Expectation thus raised,the guests sat for nearly an hour balancing the wooden spoons, and withtheir own knives whittling the bread. Eventually, when hope was extinct,patience worn out, and hunger exhausted, a huge vessel was broughtin with pomp, the lid was removed, a cloud of steam rolled forth, andbehold some thin broth with square pieces of bread floating. This,though not agreeable to the mind, served to distend the body. Slices ofStrasbourg ham followed, and pieces of salt fish, both so highly saltedthat Gerard could hardly swallow a mouthful. Then came a kind of gruel,and when the repast had lasted an hour and more, some hashed meat highlypeppered and the French and Dutch being now full to the brim with theabove dainties, and the draughts of beer the salt and spiced meats hadprovoked, in came roasted kids, most excellent, and carp and trout freshfrom the stream. Gerard made an effort and looked angrily at them, but"could no more," as the poets say. The Burgundian swore by the liver andpike-staff of the good centurion, the natives had
outwitted him. Thenturning to Gerard, he said, "Courage, l'ami, le diable est mort," asloudly as before, but not with the same tone of conviction. The cannynatives had kept an internal corner for contingencies, and polished thekid's very bones.
The feast ended with a dish of raw animalcula in a wicker cage. A cheesehad been surrounded with little twigs and strings; then a hole madein it and a little sour wine poured in. This speedily bred a small butnumerous vermin. When the cheese was so rotten with them that onlythe twigs and string kept it from tumbling to pieces and walking offquadrivious, it came to table. By a malicious caprice of fate, cageand menagerie were put down right under the Dutchman's organ ofself-torture. He recoiled with a loud ejaculation, and hung to the benchby the calves of his legs.
"What is the matter?" said a traveller disdainfully. "Does the goodcheese scare ye? Then put it hither, in the name of all the saints!"
"Cheese!" cried Gerard, "I see none. These nauseous reptiles have madeaway with every bit of it."
"Well," replied another, "it is not gone far. By eating of the mites weeat the cheese to boot."
"Nay, not so," said Gerard. "These reptiles are made like us, and digesttheir food and turn it to foul flesh even as we do ours to sweet; aswell might you think to chew grass by eating of grass-fed beeves, as toeat cheese by swallowing these uncleanly insects."
Gerard raised his voice in uttering this, and the company received theparadox in dead silence, and with a distrustful air, like any otherstranger, during which the Burgundian, who understood German butimperfectly, made Gerard Gallicize the discussion. He patted hisinterpreter on the back. "C'est bien, mon gars; plus fin que toi n'estpas bete," and administered his formula of encouragement; and Gerardedged away from him; for next to ugly sights and ill odours, the poorwretch disliked profaneness.
Meantime, though shaken in argument, the raw reptiles were duly eatenand relished by the company, and served to provoke thirst, a principalaim of all the solids in that part of Germany. So now the company drankgarausses all round, and their tongues were unloosed, and oh, the Babel!But above the fierce clamour rose at intervals, like some hero's war-cryin battle, the trumpet-like voice of the Burgundian soldier shoutinglustily, "Courage, camarades, le diable est mort!"
Entered grisly Ganymede holding in his hand a wooden dish with circlesand semicircles marked on it in chalk. He put it down on the tableand stood silent, sad, and sombre, as Charon by Styx waiting for hisboat-load of souls. Then pouches and purses were rummaged, and eachthrew a coin into the dish. Gerard timidly observed that he had drunknext to no beer, and inquired how much less he was to pay than theothers.
"What mean you?" said Ganymede roughly. "Whose fault is it you have notdrunken? Are all to suffer because one chooses to be a milksop? You willpay no more than the rest, and no less."
Gerard was abashed.
"Courage, petit, le diable est mort," hiccoughed the soldier and flungGanymede a coin.
"You are bad as he is," said the old man peevishly; "you are paying toomuch;" and the tyrannical old Aristides returned him some coin out ofthe trencher with a most reproachful countenance. And now the man whomGerard had confuted an hour and a half ago awoke from a brown study, inwhich he had been ever since, and came to him and said, "Yes, but thehoney is none the worse for passing through the bees' bellies."
Gerard stared. The answer had been so long on the road he hadn't an ideawhat it was an answer to. Seeing him dumfounded, the other concluded himconfuted, and withdrew calmed.
The bedrooms were upstairs, dungeons with not a scrap of furnitureexcept the bed, and a male servant settled inexorably who should sleepwith whom. Neither money nor prayers would get a man a bed to himselfhere; custom forbade it sternly. You might as well have asked tomonopolize a see-saw. They assigned to Gerard a man with a great blackbeard. He was an honest fellow enough, but not perfect; he would not goto bed, and would sit on the edge of it telling the wretched Gerard byforce, and at length, the events of the day, and alternately laughingand crying at the same circumstances, which were not in the smallestdegree pathetic or humorous, but only dead trivial. At last Gerard puthis fingers in his ears, and lying down in his clothes, for the sheetswere too dirty for him to undress, contrived to sleep. But in an hour ortwo he awoke cold, and found that his drunken companion had got all thefeather bed; so mighty is instinct. They lay between two beds; the lowerone hard and made of straw, the upper soft and filled with featherslight as down. Gerard pulled at it, but the experienced drunkard heldit fast mechanically. Gerard tried to twitch it away by surprise, butinstinct was too many for him. On this he got out of bed, and kneelingdown on his bedfellow's unguarded side, easily whipped the prize awayand rolled with it under the bed, and there lay on one edge of it, andcurled the rest round his shoulders. Before he slept he often heardsomething grumbling and growling above him, which was some littlesatisfaction. Thus instinct was outwitted, and victorious Reason laychuckling on feathers, and not quite choked with dust.
At peep of day Gerard rose, flung the feather bed upon his snoringcompanion, and went in search of milk and air.
A cheerful voice hailed him in French: "What ho! you are up with thesun, comrade."
"He rises betimes that lies in a dog's lair," answered Gerard crossly.
"Courage, l'ami! le diable est mort," was the instant reply. The soldierthen told him his name was Denys, and he was passing from Flushing inZealand to the Duke's French dominions; a change the more agreeable tohim, as he should revisit his native place, and a host of pretty girlswho had wept at his departure, and should hear French spoken again. "Andwho are you, and whither bound?"
"My name is Gerard, and I am going to Rome," said the more reservedHollander, and in a way that invited no further confidences.
"All the better; we will go together as far as Burgundy."
"That is not my road."
"All roads take to Rome."
"Ay, but the shortest road thither is my way."
"Well, then, it is I who must go out of my way a step for the sakeof good company, for thy face likes me, and thou speakest French, ornearly."
"There go two words to that bargain," said Gerard coldly. "I steer byproverbs, too. They do put old heads on young men's shoulders. 'Bon loupmauvais compagnon, dit le brebis;' and a soldier, they say, is near akinto a wolf."
"They lie," said Denys; "besides, if he is, 'les loups ne se mangent pasentre eux.'"
"Aye but, sir soldier, I am not a wolf; and thou knowest, a bien petiteoccasion se saisit le loup du mouton.'"
"Let us drop wolves and sheep, being men; my meaning is, that a goodsoldier never pillages-a comrade. Come, young man, too much suspicionbecomes not your years. They who travel should learn to read faces;methinks you might see lealty in mine sith I have seen it in yourn. Isit yon fat purse at your girdle you fear for?" (Gerard turned pale.)"Look hither!" and he undid his belt, and poured out of it a doublehandful of gold pieces, then returned them to their hiding-place."There is a hostage for you," said he; "carry you that, and let us becomrades," and handed him his belt, gold and all.
Gerard stared. "If I am over prudent, you have not enow." But he flushedand looked pleased at the other's trust in him.
"Bah! I can read faces; and so must you, or you'll never take your fourbones safe to Rome."
"Soldier, you would find me a dull companion, for my heart is veryheavy," said Gerard, yielding.
"I'll cheer you, mon gars."
"I think you would," said Gerard sweetly; "and sore need have I of akindly voice in mine ear this day."
"Oh! no soul is sad alongside me. I lift up their poor little heartswith my consigne: 'Courage, tout le monde, le diable est mort.' Ha! ha!"
"So be it, then," said Gerard. "But take back your belt, for I couldnever trust by halves. We will go together as far as Rhine, and God gowith us both!"
"Amen!" said Denys, and lifted his cap. "En avant!"
The pair trudged manfully on, and Denys enlivened the weary way. Hechattered about battles and siege
s, and things which were new to Gerard;and he was one of those who make little incidents wherever they go. Hepassed nobody without addressing them. "They don't understand it, butit wakes them up," said he. But whenever they fell in with a monkor priest. He pulled a long face, and sought the reverend father'sblessing, and fearlessly poured out on him floods of German words insuch order as not to produce a single German sentence--He doffed hiscap to every woman, high or low, he caught sight of, and with eagle eyediscerned her best feature, and complimented her on it in his nativetongue, well adapted to such matters; and at each carrion crow ormagpie, down came his crossbow, and he would go a furlong off the roadto circumvent it; and indeed he did shoot one old crow with laudableneatness and despatch, and carried it to the nearest hen-roost, andthere slipped in and set it upon a nest. "The good-wife will say,'Alack, here is Beelzebub ahatching of my eggs.'"
"No, you forget he is dead," objected Gerard.
"So he is, so he is. But she doesn't know that, not having the luckto be acquainted with me, who carry the good news from city to city,uplifting men's hearts."
Such was Denys in time of peace.
Our travellers towards nightfall reached a village; it was a very smallone, but contained a place of entertainment. They searched for it,and found a small house with barn and stables. In the former was theeverlasting stove, and the clothes drying round it on lines, and atraveller or two sitting morose. Gerard asked for supper.
"Supper? We have no time to cook for travellers; we only providelodging, good lodging for man and beast. You can have some beer."
"Madman, who, born in Holland, sought other lands!" snorted Gerard inDutch. The landlady started.
"What gibberish is that?" asked she, and crossed herself with looks ofsuperstitious alarm. "You can buy what you like in the village, and cookit in our oven; but, prithee, mutter no charms nor sorceries here, goodman; don't ye now, it do make my flesh creep so."
They scoured the village for food, and ended by supping on roasted eggsand brown bread.
At a very early hour their chambermaid came for them. It was arosy-cheeked old fellow with a lanthorn.
They followed him. He led them across a dirty farmyard, where they hadmuch ado to pick their steps, and brought them into a cow-house. There,on each side of every cow, was laid a little clean straw, and a tiedbundle of ditto for a pillow. The old man looked down on this his workwith paternal pride. Not so Gerard. "What, do you set Christian men tolie among cattle?"
"Well, it is hard upon the poor beasts. They have scarce room to turn."
"Oh! what, it is not hard on us, then?"
"Where is the hardship? I have lain among them all my life. Look at me!I am fourscore, and never had a headache in all my born days--all alongof lying among the kye. Bless your silly head, kine's breath is tentimes sweeter to drink nor Christians'. You try it!" and he slammed thebedroom door.
"Denys, where are you?" whined Gerard.
"Here, on her other side."
"What are you doing?"
"I know not; but as near as I can guess, I think I must be going tosleep. What are you at?
"I am saying my prayers."
"Forget me not in them!"
"Is it likely? Denys, I shall soon have done: do not go to sleep, I wantto talk.
"Despatch then! for I feel--augh like floating-in the sky on a warmcloud."
"Denys!"
"Augh! eh! hallo! is it time to get up?"
"Alack, no. There, I hurried my orisons to talk; and look at you, goingto sleep! We shall be starved before morning, having no coverlets."
"Well, you know what to do."
"Not I, in sooth."
"Cuddle the cow."
"Thank you."
"Burrow in the straw, then. You must be very new to the world, togrumble at this. How would you bear to lie on the field of battle on afrosty night, as I did t'other day, stark naked, with nothing to keep mewarm but the carcass of a fellow I had been and helped kill?"
"Horrible! horrible! Tell me all about it! Oh, but this is sweet."
"Well, we had a little battle in Brabant, and won a little victory, butit cost us dear; several arbalestriers turned their toes up, and I amongthem."
"Killed, Denys? come now!"
"Dead as mutton. Stuck full of pike-holes till the blood ran out ofme, like the good wine of Macon from the trodden grapes. It is rightbounteous in me to pour the tale in minstrel phrase, for--augh--I amsleepy. Augh--now where was I?"
"Left dead on the field of battle, bleeding like a pig; that is to say,like grapes, or something; go on, prithee go on, 'tis a sin to sleep inthe midst of a good story."
"Granted. Well, some of those vagabonds, that strip the dead soldier onthe field of glory, came and took every rag off me; they wrought me nofurther ill, because there was no need."
"No; you were dead."
"C'est convenu. This must have been at sundown; and with the night camea shrewd frost that barkened the blood on my wounds, and stopped all therivulets that were running from my heart, and about midnight I awoke asfrom a trance.'
"And thought you were in heaven?" asked Gerard eagerly, being a youthinoculated with monkish tales.
"Too frost-bitten for that, mon gars; besides, I heard the woundedgroaning on all sides, so I knew I was in the old place. I saw I couldnot live the night through without cover. I groped about shivering andshivering; at last one did suddenly leave groaning. 'You are sped,' saidI, so made up to him, and true enough he was dead, but warm, you know.I took my lord in my arms, but was too weak to carry him, so rolled withhim into a ditch hard by; and there my comrades found me in the morningproperly stung with nettles, and hugging a dead Fleming for the barelife."
Gerard shuddered. "And this is war; this is the chosen theme of poetsand troubadours, and Reden Ryckers. Truly was it said by the men of old,dulce bellum inexpertis."
"Tu dis?"
"I say-oh, what stout hearts some men have!"
"N'est-ce pas, p'tit? So after that sort--thing--this sort thing isheaven. Soft--warm--good company, comradancow--cou'age--diable--m-ornk!"
And the glib tongue was still for some hours.
In the morning Gerard was wakened by a liquid hitting his eye, and itwas Denys employing the cow's udder as a squirt.
"Oh, fie!" cried Gerard, "to waste the good milk;" and he took a hornout of his wallet. "Fill this! but indeed I see not what right we haveto meddle with her milk at all."
"Make your mind easy! Last night la camarade was not nice; but whatthen, true friendship dispenses with ceremony. To-day we make as freewith her."
"Why, what did she do, poor thing?"
"Ate my pillow."
"Ha! ha!"
"On waking I had to hunt for my head, and found it down in the stablegutter. She ate our pillow from us, we drink our pillow from her. Avotre sante, madame; et sans rancune;" and the dog drank her milk to herown health.
"The ancient was right though," said Gerard. "Never have I risen sorefreshed since I left my native land. Henceforth let us shun greattowns, and still lie in a convent or a cow-house; for I'd liever sleepon fresh straw, than on linen well washed six months agone; and thebreath of kine it is sweeter than that of Christians, let alone thegarlic, which men and women folk affect, but cowen abhor from, and so doI, St. Bavon be my witness!"
The soldier eyed him from head to foot: "Now but for that little tuft onyour chin I should take you for a girl; and by the finger-nails of St.Luke, no ill-favoured one neither."
These three towns proved types and repeated themselves with slightvariations for many a weary league; but even when he could get neither aconvent nor a cow-house, Gerard learned in time to steel himself tothe inevitable, and to emulate his comrade, whom he looked on as almostsuperhuman for hardihood of body and spirit.
There was, however, a balance to all this veneration.
Denys, like his predecessor Achilles, had his weak part, his very weakpart, thought Gerard.
His foible was "woman."
; Whatever he was saying or doing, he stopped short at sight of afarthingale, and his whole soul became occupied with that garment andits inmate till they had disappeared; and sometimes for a good whileafter.
He often put Gerard to the blush by talking his amazing German to suchfemales as he caught standing or sitting indoors or out, at which theystared; and when he met a peasant girl on the road, he took off his capto her and saluted her as if she was a queen; the invariable effect ofwhich was, that she suddenly drew herself up quite stiff like a soldieron parade, and wore a forbidding countenance.
"They drive me to despair," said Denys. "Is that a just return to acivil bonnetade? They are large, they are fair, but stupid as swans."
"What breeding can you expect from women that wear no hose?" inquiredGerard; "and some of them no shoon? They seem to me reserved and modest,as becomes their sex, and sober, whereas the men are little better thanbeer-barrels. Would you have them brazen as well as hoseless?"
"A little affability adorns even beauty," sighed Denys.
"Then let these alone, sith they are not to your taste," retortedGerard. "What, is there no sweet face in Burgundy that would pale to seeyou so wrapped up in strange women?"
"Half-a-dozen that would cry their eyes out."
"Well then!"
"But it is a long way to Burgundy."
"Ay, to the foot, but not to the heart. I am there, sleeping and waking,and almost every minute of the day."
"In Burgundy? Why, I thought you had never--"
"In Burgundy?" cried Gerard contemptuously. "No, in sweet Sevenbergen.Ah! well-a-day! well-a-day!"
Many such dialogues as this passed between the pair on the long andweary road, and neither could change the other.
One day about noon they reached a town of some pretensions, and Gerardwas glad, for he wanted to buy a pair of shoes; his own were quite wornout. They soon found a shop that displayed a goodly array, and made upto it, and would have entered it, but the shopkeeper sat on the doorsteptaking a nap, and was so fat as to block up the narrow doorway; the verylight could hardly struggle past his "too, too solid flesh," much less acarnal customer.
My fair readers, accustomed, when they go shopping, to be met half waywith nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles, and waved into a seat, whilealmost at the same instant an eager shopman flings himself halfacross the counter in a semi-circle to learn their commands, can bestappreciate this mediaeval Teuton, who kept a shop as a dog keeps akennel, and sat at the exclusion of custom snoring like a pig.
Denys and Gerard stood and contemplated this curiosity; emblem, permitme to remark, of the lets and hindrances to commerce that characterizedhis epoch.
"Jump over him!"
"The door is too low."
"March through him!"
"The man is too thick."
"What is the coil?" inquired a mumbling voice from the interior;apprentice with his mouth full.
"We want to get into your shop?"
"What for, in Heaven's name??!!!"
"Shoon, lazy bones!"
The ire of the apprentice began to rise at such an explanation. "Andcould ye find no hour out of all the twelve to come pestering us forshoon, but the one little, little hour my master takes his nap, and Isit down to my dinner, when all the rest of the world is full long ago?"
Denys heard, but could not follow the sense. "Waste no more time talkingtheir German gibberish," said he; "take out thy knife and tickle his fatribs."
"That I will not," said Gerard.
"Then here goes; I'll prong him with this."
Gerard seized the mad fellow's arm in dismay, for he had been longenough in the country to guess that the whole town would take part inany brawl with the native against a stranger. But Denys twisted awayfrom him, and the cross-bow bolt in his hand was actually on the road tothe sleeper's ribs; but at that very moment two females crossed the roadtowards him; he saw the blissful vision, and instantly forgot what hewas about, and awaited their approach with unreasonable joy.
Though companions, they were not equals, except in attractiveness to aBurgundian crossbow man; for one was very tall, the other short, andby one of those anomalies which society, however primitive, speedilyestablishes, the long one held up the little one's tail. The tall onewore a plain linen coif on her head, a little grogram cloak over hershoulders, a grey kirtle, and a short farthingale or petticoat of brightred cloth, and feet and legs quite bare, though her arms were veiled intight linen sleeves.
The other a kirtle broadly trimmed with fur, her arms in double sleeves,whereof the inner of yellow satin clung to the skin; the outer, allbefurred, were open at the inside of the elbow, and so the arm passedthrough and left them dangling. Velvet head-dress, huge purse at girdle,gorgeous train, bare legs. And thus they came on, the citizen's wifestrutting, and the maid gliding after, holding her mistress's traindevoutly in both hands, and bending and winding her lithe body prettilyenough to do it. Imagine (if not pressed for time) a bantam, with aguineahen stepping obsequious at its stately heel.
This pageant made straight for the shoemaker's shop. Denys louted low;the worshipful lady nodded graciously, but rapidly, having businesson hand, or rather on foot; for in a moment she poked the point of herlittle shoe into the sleeper, and worked it round in him like a gimlet,till with a long snarl he woke. The incarnate shutter rising andgrumbling vaguely, the lady swept in and deigned him no further notice.He retreated to his neighbour's shop, the tailor's, and sitting on thestep, protected it from the impertinence of morning calls. Neighboursshould be neighbourly.
Denys and Gerard followed the dignity into the shop, where sat theapprentice at dinner; the maid stood outside with her insteps crossed,leaning against the wall, and tapping it with her nails.
"Those, yonder," said the dignity briefly, pointing with an imperiouslittle white hand to some yellow shoes gilded at the toe. While theapprentice stood stock still neutralized by his dinner and his duty,Denys sprang at the shoes, and brought them to her; she smiled, andcalmly seating herself, protruded her foot, shod, but hoseless, andscented. Down went Denys on his knees, and drew off her shoe, and triedthe new ones on the white skin devoutly. Finding she had a willingvictim, she abused the opportunity, tried first one pair, then another,then the first again, and so on, balancing and hesitating for about halfan hour, to Gerard's disgust, and Denys's weak delight. At last she wasfitted, and handed two pair of yellow and one pair of red shoes out toher servant. Then was heard a sigh. It burst from the owner of the shop:he had risen from slumber, and was now hovering about, like a partridgenear her brood in danger.
"There go all my coloured shoes," said he, as they disappeared in thegirl's apron.
The lady departed: Gerard fitted himself with a stout pair, asked theprice, paid it without a word, and gave his old ones to a beggar in thestreet, who blessed him in the marketplace, and threw them furiouslydown a well in the suburbs. The comrades left the shop, and in it twomelancholy men, that looked, and even talked, as if they had been robbedwholesale.
"My shoon are sore worn," said Denys, grinding his teeth; "but I'll gobarefoot till I reach France, ere I'll leave my money with such churlsas these."
The Dutchman replied calmly, "They seem indifferent well sewn."
As they drew near the Rhine, they passed through forest after forest,and now for the first time ugly words sounded in travellers' mouths,seated around stoves. "Thieves!" "black gangs!" "cut-throats!" etc.
The very rustics were said to have a custom hereabouts of murdering theunwary traveller in these gloomy woods, whose dark and devious windingenabled those who were familiar with them to do deeds of rapine andblood undetected, or if detected, easily to baffle pursuit.
Certain it was, that every clown they met carried, whether for offenceor defence, a most formidable weapon a light axe, with a short pike atthe head, and a long slender handle of ash or yew, well seasoned. Thesethe natives could all throw with singular precision, so as to makethe point strike an object at several yard's distance, or could
slaya bullock at hand with a stroke of the blade. Gerard bought one andpractised with it. Denys quietly filed and ground his bolt sharp,whistling the whilst; and when they entered a gloomy wood, he wouldunsling his crossbow and carry it ready for action but not so much likea traveller fearing an attack, as a sportsman watchful not to miss asnap shot.
One day, being in a forest a few leagues from Dusseldorf, as Gerard waswalking like one in a dream, thinking of Margaret, and scarce seeing theroad he trode, his companion laid a hand on his shoulder, and strunghis crossbow with glittering eye. "Hush!" said he, in a low whisper thatstartled Gerard more than thunder. Gerard grasped his axe tight, andshook a little: he heard a rustling in the wood hard by, and at thesame moment Denys sprang into the wood, and his crossbow went to hisshoulder, even as he jumped. Twang! went the metal string; and after aninstant's suspense he roared, "Run forward, guard the road, he is hit!he is hit!"
Gerard darted forward, and as he ran a young bear burst out of the woodright upon him; finding itself intercepted, it went upon its hind legswith a snarl, and though not half grown, opened formidable jaws and longclaws. Gerard, in a fury of excitement and agitation, flung himself onit, and delivered a tremendous blow on its nose with his axe, and thecreature staggered; another, and it lay grovelling, with Gerard hackingit.
"Hallo! stop! you are mad to spoil the meat."
"I took it for a robber," said Gerard, panting. "I mean, I had madeready for a robber, so I could not hold my hand."
"Ay, these chattering travellers have stuffed your head full of thievesand assassins; they have not got a real live robber in their wholenation. Nay, I'll carry the beast; bear thou my crossbow."
"We will carry it by turns, then," said Gerard, "for 'tis a heavy load:poor thing, how its blood drips. Why did we slay it?"
"For supper and the reward the baillie of the next town shall give us."
"And for that it must die, when it had but just begun to live; andperchance it hath a mother that will miss it sore this night, and lovesit as ours love us; more than mine does me."
"What, know you not that his mother was caught in a pitfall last month,and her skin is now at the tanner's? and his father was stuck full ofcloth-yard shafts t'other day, and died like Julius Caesar, with hishands folded on his bosom, and a dead dog in each of them?"
But Gerard would not view it jestingly. "Why, then," said he, "we havekilled one of God's creatures that was all alone in the world-as I amthis day, in this strange land."
"You young milksop," roared Denys, "these things must not be lookedat so, or not another bow would be drawn nor quarrel fly in forest norbattlefield. Why, one of your kidney consorting with a troop of pikemenshould turn them to a row of milk-pails; it is ended, to Rome thou goestnot alone, for never wouldst thou reach the Alps in a whole skin. I takethee to Remiremont, my native place, and there I marry thee to my youngsister, she is blooming as a peach. Thou shakest thy head? ah! I forgot;thou lovest elsewhere, and art a one woman man, a creature to me scarceconceivable. Well then I shall find thee, not a wife, nor a leman, buta friend; some honest Burgundian who shall go with thee as far as Lyons;and much I doubt that honest fellow will be myself, into whose liquorthou has dropped sundry powders to make me love thee; for erst I endurednot doves in doublet and hose. From Lyons, I say, I can trust theeby ship to Italy, which being by all accounts the very stronghold ofmilksops, thou wilt there be safe: they will hear thy words, and makethee their duke in a twinkling."
Gerard sighed. "In sooth I love not to think of this Dusseldorf, wherewe are to part company, good friend."
They walked silently, each thinking of the separation at hand; thethought checked trifling conversation, and at these moments it is arelief to do something, however insignificant. Gerard asked Denys tolend him a bolt. "I have often shot with a long bow, but never with oneof these!"
"Draw thy knife and cut this one out of the cub," said Denys slily.
"Nay, Day, I want a clean one."
Denys gave him three out of his quiver.
Gerard strung the bow, and levelled it at a bough that had fallen intothe road at some distance. The power of the instrument surprised him;the short but thick steel bow jarred him to the very heel as it wentoff, and the swift steel shaft was invisible in its passage; only thedead leaves, with which November had carpeted the narrow road, flewabout on the other side of the bough.
"Ye aimed a thought too high," said Denys.
"What a deadly thing! no wonder it is driving out the longbow--toMartin's much discontent."
"Ay, lad," said Denys triumphantly, "it gains ground every day, in spiteof their laws and their proclamations to keep up the yewen bow, becauseforsooth their grandsires shot with it, knowing no better. You see,Gerard, war is not pastime. Men will shoot at their enemies with thehittingest arm and the killingest, not with the longest and missingest."
"Then these new engines I hear of will put both bows down; for thesewith a pinch of black dust, and a leaden ball, and a child's finger,shall slay you Mars and Goliath, and the Seven Champions."
"Pooh! pooh!" said Denys warmly; "petrone nor harquebuss shall ever putdown Sir Arbalest. Why, we can shoot ten times while they are puttingtheir charcoal and their lead into their leathern smoke belchers, andthen kindling their matches. All that is too fumbling for the field ofbattle; there a soldier's weapon needs be aye ready, like his heart."
Gerard did not answer, for his ear was attracted by a sound behindthem. It was a peculiar sound, too, like something heavy, but not hard,rushing softly over the dead leaves. He turned round with some littlecuriosity. A colossal creature was coming down the road at about sixtypaces' distance.
He looked at it in a sort of calm stupor at first, but the next moment,he turned ashy pale.
"Denys!" he cried. "Oh, God! Denys!"
Denys whirled round.
It was a bear as big as a cart-horse.
It was tearing along with its huge head down, running on a hot scent.
The very moment he saw it Denys said in a sickening whisper--
"THE CUB!"
Oh! the concentrated horror of that one word, whispered hoarsely, withdilating eyes! For in that syllable it all flashed upon them both likea sudden stroke of lightning in the dark--the bloody trail, the murderedcub, the mother upon them, and it. DEATH.
All this in a moment of time. The next, she saw them. Huge as she was,she seemed to double herself (it was her long hair bristling with rage):she raised her head big as a hull's, her swine-shaped jaws opened wideat them, her eyes turned to blood and flame, and she rushed upon them,scattering the leaves about her like a whirlwind as she came.
"Shoot!" screamed Denys, but Gerard stood shaking from head to foot,useless.
"Shoot, man! ten thousand devils, shoot! too late! Tree! tree!" and hedropped the cub, pushed Gerard across the road, and flew to the firsttree and climbed it, Gerard the same on his side; and as they fled, bothmen uttered inhuman howls like savage creatures grazed by death.
With all their speed one or other would have been torn to fragments atthe foot of his tree; but the bear stopped a moment at the cub.
Without taking her bloodshot eyes off those she was hunting, she smeltit all round, and found, how, her Creator only knows, that it was dead,quite dead. She gave a yell such as neither of the hunted ones had everheard, nor dreamed to be in nature, and flew after Denys. She reared andstruck at him as he climbed. He was just out of reach.
Instantly she seized the tree, and with her huge teeth tore a greatpiece out of it with a crash. Then she reared again, dug her claws deepinto the bark, and began to mount it slowly, but as surely as a monkey.
Denys's evil star had led him to a dead tree, a mere shaft, and of novery great height. He climbed faster than his pursuer, and was soon atthe top. He looked this way and that for some bough of another tree tospring to. There was none; and if he jumped down, he knew the bear wouldbe upon him ere he could recover the fall, and make short work of him.Moreover, Denys was little used to turning h
is back on danger, and hisblood was rising at being hunted. He turned to bay.
"My hour is come," thought he. "Let me meet death like a man." Hekneeled down and grasped a small shoot to steady himself, drew his longknife, and clenching his teeth, prepared to jab the huge brute as soonas it should mount within reach.
Of this combat the result was not doubtful.
The monster's head and neck were scarce vulnerable for bone and massesof hair. The man was going to sting the bear, and the bear to crack theman like a nut.
Gerard's heart was better than his nerves. He saw his friend's mortaldanger, and passed at once from fear to blindish rage. He slipped downhis tree in a moment, caught up the crossbow, which he had dropped inthe road, and running furiously up, sent a bolt into the bear's bodywith a loud shout. The bear gave a snarl of rage and pain, and turnedits head irresolutely.
"Keep aloof!" cried Denys, "or you are a dead man."
"I care not;" and in a moment he had another bolt ready and shot itfiercely into the bear, screaming, "Take that! take that!"
Denys poured a volley of oaths down at him. "Get away, idiot!"
He was right: the bear finding so formidable and noisy a foe behindher, slipped growling down the tree, rending deep furrows in it as sheslipped. Gerard ran back to his tree and climbed it swiftly. But whilehis legs were dangling some eight feet from the ground, the bear camerearing and struck with her fore paw, and out flew a piece of bloodycloth from Gerard's hose. He climbed, and climbed; and presently heheard as it were in the air a voice say, "Go out on the bough!" Helooked, and there was a long massive branch before him shooting upwardsat a slight angle: he threw his body across it, and by a series ofconvulsive efforts worked up it to the end.
Then he looked round panting.
The bear was mounting the tree on the other side. He heard her clawsscrape, and saw her bulge on both sides of the massive tree. Her eye notbeing very quick, she reached the fork and passed it, mounting the mainstem. Gerard drew breath more freely. The bear either heard him, orfound by scent she was wrong: she paused; presently she caught sight ofhim. She eyed him steadily, then quietly descended to the fork.
Slowly and cautiously she stretched out a paw and tried the bough. Itwas a stiff oak branch, sound as iron. Instinct taught the creaturethis: it crawled carefully out on the bough, growling savagely as itcame.
Gerard looked wildly down. He was forty feet from the ground. Deathbelow. Death moving slow but sure on him in a still more horribleform. His hair bristled. The sweat poured from him. He sat helpless,fascinated, tongue-tied.
As the fearful monster crawled growling towards him, incongruousthoughts coursed through his mind. Margaret: the Vulgate, where itspeaks of the rage of a she-bear robbed of her whelps--Rome--Eternity.
The bear crawled on. And now the stupor of death fell on the doomed man;he saw the open jaws and bloodshot eyes coming, but in a mist.
As in a mist he heard a twang; he glanced down; Denys, white and silentas death, was shooting up at the bear. The bear snarled at the twang.but crawled on. Again the crossbow twanged, and the bear snarled, andcame nearer. Again the cross bow twanged; and the next moment the bearwas close upon Gerard, where he sat, with hair standing stiff on end andeyes starting from their sockets, palsied. The bear opened her jaws likea grave, and hot blood spouted from them upon Gerard as from a pump. Thebough rocked. The wounded monster was reeling; it clung, it stuck itssickles of claws deep into the wood; it toppled, its claws held firm,but its body rolled off, and the sudden shock to the branch shook Gerardforward on his stomach with his face upon one of the bear's strainingpaws. At this, by a convulsive effort, she raised her head up, up, tillhe felt her hot fetid breath. Then huge teeth snapped together loudlyclose below him in the air, with a last effort of baffled hate. Theponderous carcass rent the claws out of the bough, then pounded theearth with a tremendous thump. There was a shout of triumph below,and the very next instant a cry of dismay, for Gerard had swooned, andwithout an attempt to save himself, rolled headlong from the perilousheight.
The Cloister and the Hearth Page 24
