Complete Works of F Marion Crawford

by F. Marion Crawford

  CHAPTER XVIII

  THE KNIGHT, WHOSE name was Gaston de Castignac, faithfully fulfilled Gilbert’s wishes, using certain ornate flourishes of language which the Englishman could certainly not have invented, and altogether expressing an absolute refusal in the most complimentary manner imaginable. The Queen bade him return the gold to her seneschal without breaking the leaden seal that pinched the ends of the knotted strings together. When she was alone, her women being together in the outer part of the tent, she hid her face in her white hands, as she sat, and bending forward, she remained in that attitude a long time, without moving.

  It was as Gilbert had thought. In the generous impulse that had prompted her to ask Beatrix’s forgiveness she had done what was hardest for her to do, in a sort of wild hope that, by insulting the man who had such strong attraction for her, she might send him away out of her sight forever. Had he accepted the money, she would assuredly have despised him, and contempt must kill all thoughts of love; but since he refused it, he must be angry with her, and he would either leave her army, and join himself to the Germans during the rest of the campaign, or, at the very least, he would avoid her.

  But now that it was done and he had sent back the money in scorn, as she clearly understood in spite of her knight’s flowery speeches, she felt the shame of having treated a poor gentleman like a poor servant, and then the certainty that he must believe her ungrateful began to torment her, so that she thought of his face, and longed to see him with all her heart. For Beatrix’s sake and her own honour she would not send for him; but she called one of her women and sent for the Lady Anne of Auch, who bore the standard of the ladies’ troop, the same who had stopped her horse without a fall. In her the Queen had great faith for her wisdom, for she had a man’s thoughts with a woman’s heart.

  She came presently, tall and grave as a stately cypress among silver birches and shimmering white poplar trees.

  “I have sent for you to ask you a question,” the Queen began, “or, perhaps, to ask your advice.”

  The Lady Anne bowed her head, and when Eleanor pointed to a folding-stool beside her, she sat down and waited, fixing her black eyes on a distant part of the tent.

  “You saw that young Englishman who stopped my horse,” the Queen began. “I wish to reward him. I have sent him five hundred pieces of gold, and he has refused to receive the gift.”

  The black eyes turned steadily to the Queen’s face, gazed at her for a moment, and then looked away again, while not a feature moved. There was silence, for Anne of Auch said nothing while Eleanor waited.

  “What shall I do now?” Eleanor asked after a long pause.

  “Madam,” answered the dark lady, smiling thoughtfully, “I think that, since you have offered him gold first, he would refuse a kingdom if you should press it upon him now, for he is a brave man.”

  “Do you know him?” asked Eleanor, almost sharply, and her eyes hardened.

  “I have seen him many times, but I have never spoken with him. We talk of him now and then, because he is unlike the other knights, mixing little with them in the camp and riding often alone on the march. They say he is very poor, and he is surely brave.”

  “What does Beatrix de Curboil say of him?” The Queen’s voice was still sharp.

  “Beatrix? She is my friend, poor girl. I never heard her speak of this gentleman.”

  “She is very silent, is she not?”

  “Oh, no! She is sometimes sad, and she has told me how her father took a second wife who was unkind to her, and she speaks of her own childhood as if she were the daughter of a great house. But that is all.”

  “And she never told you her stepmother’s name, and never mentioned this

  Englishman?”

  “Never, Madam, I am quite sure. But she is often very gay and quick of wit, and makes us laugh, even when we are tired and hot after a day’s march and are waiting for our women; and sometimes she sings strange old Norman songs of Duke William’s day, very sweetly, and little Saxon slave songs which we cannot understand.”

  “I have never heard her laugh nor sing, I think,” said Eleanor, thoughtfully.

  “She is very grave before your Grace. I have noticed it. That may be the English manner.”

  “I think it is.” The Queen thought of Gilbert, and wondered whether he were ever gay. “But the question,” she continued, “is what am I to do for the man?”

  She spoke coldly and indifferently, but her eyes were watching the Lady

  Anne’s face.

  “What should you do yourself?” she asked, as the noble woman made no answer.

  “I should not have sent him gold first,” replied Anne of Auch. “But since that cannot be undone, your Grace can only offer him some high honour, which may be an honour only, and not wealth.”

  “He is not even a knight!”

  “Then give him knighthood and honour too. Your Grace has made knights, — there is Gaston de Castignac, — and the fashion of receiving knighthood from the Church only, is past.”

  “I have heard him say that he would have it from his own liege sovereign, or not at all. He will not even set a device in his shield, as many are beginning to do, to show in the field that they are of good stock.”

  “Give him one, then — a device that shall be a perpetual honour to his house and a memory of a brave deed well done for a Queen’s sake.”

  “And then? Shall that be all?”

  “And then, if he be the man he seems, single him out for some great thing, and bid him risk his life again in doing it for the Holy Cross, and for your Grace’s sake.”

  “That is good. Your counsel was always good. What thing shall I give him to attempt?”

  “Madam, the Germans have been betrayed by the Greek Emperor’s Greek guides, and we ourselves have no others, so that we in turn shall be led to slaughter if we follow them. If it please your Grace, let this Englishman choose such men as he trusts, and go ever before our march, till we reach Syria, sending tidings back to us, and receiving them, and bearing the brunt of danger for us.”

  “That would be indeed an honourable part,” said the Queen, thoughtfully, and she turned slowly pale, careless of her lady’s straight gaze. “He can never live to the end of it,” she added, in a low voice.

  “It is better to die for the Cross than to die or live for any woman’s love,” said Anne of Auch, and there was the music of faith in her soft tones.

  The Queen glanced at her, wondering how much she guessed, and suddenly conscious that she herself had changed colour.

  “And what device shall I set in this man’s shield?” she asked, going back to the beginning, in order to avoid what touched her too closely.

  “A cross,” answered Anne. “Let me see — why not your Grace’s own? The

  Cross of Aquitaine?”

  But the Queen did not hear, for she was dreaming, and she saw Gilbert, in her thoughts, riding to sure death with a handful of brave men, riding into an ambush of the terrible Seljuks, pierced by their arrows — one in his white throat as he reeled back in the saddle, his eyes breaking in death. She shuddered, and then started as if waking.

  “What did you say?” she asked. “I was thinking of something else.”

  “I said that your Grace might give him the Cross of Aquitaine for a device,” answered the Lady of Auch.

  Her quiet black eyes watched the Queen, not in suspicion, but with a sort of deep and womanly sympathy; for she herself had loved well, and on the eighth day after she had wedded her husband, he had gone out with others against the Moors in the southern mountains; and they had brought him home on his shield, wrapped in salted hides, and she had seen his face. Therefore she had taken the Cross, not as many ladies had taken it, in lightness of heart, but earnestly, seeking a fair death on the field of honour for the hope of the life to come.

  “Yes,” said the Queen, “he shall have the Cross of Aquitaine. Fetch me some gentleman or squire skilled with colours, and send for the Englishman’s shield.”
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  “Madam,” said Anne of Auch, “I myself can use a brush, and by your leave I will paint the device under your eyes.”

  It was no uncommon thing in that day for a lady of France to understand such arts better than men, and Eleanor was glad, and ordered that the shield should be brought quickly, by two of the elder pages who were soon to be squires.

  But Alric, the groom, who lay in the shade outside Gilbert’s tent, chewing blades of grass and wishing himself in England, would not let the messengers take the shield from the lance without authority, and he called Dunstan, who went and asked Gilbert what he should do. So Gilbert came and stood in the door of his tent, and spoke to the young men.

  “We know nothing, sir, save that we are bidden to bring your shield to the Queen.”

  “Take it. And you shall tell her Grace from me that I crave excuse if the shield be of an old fashion, with rounded shoulders, for it was my father’s; and you shall say also that she has power to take it, but that I will not sell it, nor take anything in return for it.”

  The two young men looked at him strangely, as if doubting whether he were in his right mind. But as they went away together, the one who bore the shield said to the other that they should not give the message, for it was discourteous and might do harm to themselves. But the other was for telling the truth, since they could call Gilbert’s men to witness of the words.

  “And if we are caught in a lie,” he said, “we shall be well beaten.”

  For they were young and were pages, not yet squires, and still under education.

  “Also we shall be beaten if we say things un-courtly to the Queen,” retorted the first.

  “This air smells of sticks,” said the other, as he sniffed, and laughed at his jest, but somewhat nervously.

  “You shall speak for us,” concluded his companion, “for you are the truth-teller.”

  So they came to the Queen, and laid the blank shield at her feet, and neither would say anything.

  “Saw you the gentleman to whom it belongs?” she asked.

  “Yes, Madam!” they answered in one breath.

  “And said he anything? Have you no message?”

  “He said, Madam—” said one, and stopped short.

  “Yes, Madam, he said that we should tell your Grace—”

  But the page’s courage failed him, and he stopped.

  “What said he?” asked Eleanor, bending her brows. “Speak out!”

  “May it please your Grace, the gentleman said that it was his father’s shield.”

  “And that he craved excuse if it were of an old fashion,” added the other.

  “And that he would not sell it,” concluded the one who was the bolder of the two.

  Then he shrank back, and his companion too, and they seemed trying to get behind each other; for the Queen’s eyes flashed wrath, and her beautiful lips parted a little over her gleaming teeth, that were tightly closed. But in an instant she was calm again, and she took money from her wallet and gave each page a piece of gold, and spoke quietly.

  “You are brave boys to give me such a message,” she said. “But if I chance to find out that you have changed it on the way, you shall each have as many blows as there are French deniers in a Greek bezant — and I doubt whether any one knows how many there may be.”

  “We speak truth, Madam,” said the two, in a breath, “and we humbly thank your Grace.”

  She sent them away, and sat looking at the shield at her feet, while

  Anne of Auch waited in silence.

  Eleanor’s eyes burned in her head, and her hands were cold, and would have shaken a little if she had not held them tightly clasped together.

  “It was unknightly of him to say that,” she cried at last, as if it hurt her.

  But her lady was still silent, and the Queen turned her hot eyes to her.

  “You say nothing. Was it not unknightly of him?”

  “Madam,” answered Anne of Auch, “since you wished to pay him for your life, it is little wonder if he thinks you may offer to buy his arms.”

  They said no more for a long time, and from the outer tent the sweet subdued voices of many women, talking and laughing softly together, floated into the silence like the song of birds at dawn. At last the Queen spoke, but it was to herself.

  “He had the right,” she said bitterly, and bent her head a little, and sighed. “Paint me the shield, Lady Anne,” she added, a moment later, looking up calmly once more. “On a field azure, for the faith he keeps, gild him the cross flory of Aquitaine — for me!”

  She rose and began to walk slowly up and down the tent, glancing at Anne from time to time. The lady had sent for her colours, ground on a piece of white marble, and a small chafing-dish with burning coals, in which a little copper pot of melted wax mixed with resin stood on an iron tripod. She warmed her brush in the wax, and took up the costly blue on it, and spread it very dexterously over all the long shield. When it was cool, the resin made it very hard, and with rule and dividers she measured out the cross with its equal arms, all flowered, and drew it skilfully, while the Queen watched her deft fingers. And last of all she moistened the cross with Arabian gum, a little at a time, and laid strong gold-leaf upon it with a sharp steel instrument, blowing hard upon each leaf as soon as it was laid, to press it down, and smoothing it with a hare’s-foot. When it was all covered and dry, she took a piece of soft leather wrapped about her forefinger, and carefully went round the outline, taking off the superfluous leaf that spread beyond the gummed part. She had learned these things from an Italian who had come to Auch to adorn the chapel of her father’s house.

  The Queen had sat down long before it was finished, but her eyes followed the Lady Anne’s brush and her fingers, while neither of the women spoke.

  “It is a fair shield,” said Eleanor, when it was done. “Lady Anne, shall I send it to him, or shall he come here? Were you in my place, which should you do?”

  “Madam, I would send for the Englishman. From your Grace’s hands he cannot refuse honour.”

  Eleanor did not answer, but after a moment she rose and turned away.

  “Nor death,” she said in a low voice, as to herself, and stood still, and pressed her hand to her forehead. “Send for him, and leave me alone till he comes, but stay when he is here,” she added, in clear tones; and still not looking at the Lady Anne, she bent her head and went out.

  The tall, old-fashioned shield stood on its point, leaning against the table. Eleanor looked at it, and her features were moved, now that she was alone, and her eyes were veiled. She lifted it in both her hands, wondering at its weight, and she pushed aside an inner curtain and set the shield upon an altar that was there, hidden from the rest of the tent for a little oratory, as in many royal chambers. Then she knelt down at the kneeling-stool and folded her hands.

  She was not ungenerous, she was not at heart unjust; she deserved some gentleness of judgment, for she was doing her best to fight her love, for her royal honour’s sake and for the sick girl who seemed so poor a rival, but who loved Gilbert Warde as well as she and less selfishly. As she knelt there, she believed that she was in the great struggle of her life, and that at once and forever she could make the sacrifice, though it had grown to be a great one.

  She meant to send him before the army, and the wager for his death was as a hundred to one. Let him die — that was the consecration of the sacrifice. Dead in glory, dead for Christ’s sake, dead in the spotless purity of his young knighthood, she could love him fearlessly thereafter, and speak very gentle words upon his grave. It was not cruel to send him to die thus, if his days were numbered, and he himself would gratefully thank her for preferring him before others to lead the van of peril; for the way of the Cross leads heavenwards. But if he should come alive through the storm of swords, he must win great honour for all his life.

  Thereupon she prayed for him alone, and she dedicated his great shield on her own altar, in her own words, with all her passionate heart, wherein beat the blood of
her grandsire, dead in a hermit’s cell after much love and war, and the blood of the son she was to bear long after, whom men were to call the Lion-Hearted.

  And she prayed thus, with a pale face: —

  “Almighty God, most just, who art the truth, and who orderest good against evil, with pain, that men may be saved by overcoming, help me to give up what is most dear in my life. Hear me, O God, a sinful woman, and have mercy upon me! Hear me, O God, and though I perish, let this man’s soul be saved!

  “Lord Jesus Christ, most pitiful and kind, to Thee I bring my sin, and I steadfastly purpose to be faithful, and to renounce and abhor my evil desires and thoughts. Hear me, O Christ, a sinful woman! To Thy service and to the honour of Thy most sacred Cross, I dedicate this true man. Bless Thou this shield of his, that it may be between him and his enemies, and his arms, also, that he may go before our host, and save many, and lead us to Thy holy place in Jerusalem! Endue him with grace, fill him with strength, enlighten his heart. Hear me and help me, O Christ, a sinful, loving woman!

  “Holy Spirit of God, Most High, Creator, Comforter, let Thy pure gifts descend upon this clean-hearted man, that his courage fail not in life, nor in the hour of death. Hear me, a sinful woman, Thou who, with the Father and the Son, livest and reignest in glory forever!”

  When she had prayed, she knelt a little while longer, with bowed head pressing against her clasped hands on the praying-stool till they hurt her. And that was the hardest, for it had been her meaning to make a solemn promise, and she saw between her and her love the barrier of her faith to be kept to God, and of her respect of her own plighted honour.

  Rising at last, she took the shield again, and kissed it once between the arms of the cross; and her lips made a small mark on the fresh gold-leaf.

  “He will never know what it is,” she said to herself, as she looked at the place, “but I think that no arrow shall strike through it there, nor any lance.”

  Suddenly she longed to kiss the shield again, and many times, to thousands, as if her lips could give it tenfold virtue to defend. But she thought of her prayer and would not, and she brought the shield back into the tent, out of the oratory, and set it upright against the table.