CHAPTER IV
As De Vac drew his sword from the heart of the Lady Maud, he winced,for, merciless though he was, he had shrunk from this cruel task. Toofar he had gone, however, to back down now, and, had he left the LadyMaud alive, the whole of the palace guard and all the city of Londonwould have been on his heels in ten minutes; there would have been noescape.
The little Prince was now so terrified that he could but tremble andwhimper in his fright. So fearful was he of the terrible De Vac that athreat of death easily stilled his tongue, and so the grim, old man ledhim to the boat hidden deep in the dense bushes.
De Vac did not dare remain in this retreat until dark, as he had firstintended. Instead, he drew a dingy, ragged dress from the bundle beneaththe thwart and in this disguised himself as an old woman, drawing acotton wimple low over his head and forehead to hide his short hair.Concealing the child beneath the other articles of clothing, he pushedoff from the bank, and, rowing close to the shore, hastened down theThames toward the old dock where, the previous night, he had concealedhis skiff. He reached his destination unnoticed, and, running in beneaththe dock, worked the boat far into the dark recess of the cave-likeretreat.
Here he determined to hide until darkness had fallen, for he knew thatthe search would be on for the little lost Prince at any moment, andthat none might traverse the streets of London without being subject tothe closest scrutiny.
Taking advantage of the forced wait, De Vac undressed the Prince andclothed him in other garments, which had been wrapped in the bundlehidden beneath the thwart; a little red cotton tunic with hose to match,a black doublet and a tiny leather jerkin and leather cap.
The discarded clothing of the Prince he wrapped about a huge stone tornfrom the disintegrating masonry of the river wall, and consigned thebundle to the voiceless river.
The Prince had by now regained some of his former assurance and,finding that De Vac seemed not to intend harming him, the little fellowcommenced questioning his grim companion, his childish wonder at thisstrange adventure getting the better of his former apprehension.
"What do we here, Sir Jules?" he asked. "Take me back to the King's, myfather's palace. I like not this dark hole nor the strange garments youhave placed upon me."
"Silence, boy!" commanded the old man. "Sir Jules be dead, nor are youa king's son. Remember these two things well, nor ever again let me hearyou speak the name Sir Jules, or call yourself a prince."
The boy went silent, again cowed by the fierce tone of his captor.Presently he began to whimper, for he was tired and hungry andfrightened--just a poor little baby, helpless and hopeless in the handsof this cruel enemy--all his royalty as nothing, all gone with thesilken finery which lay in the thick mud at the bottom of the Thames,and presently he dropped into a fitful sleep in the bottom of the skiff.
When darkness had settled, De Vac pushed the skiff outward to theside of the dock and, gathering the sleeping child in his arms, stoodlistening, preparatory to mounting to the alley which led to old Til'splace.
As he stood thus, a faint sound of clanking armor came to his attentiveears; louder and louder it grew until there could be no doubt but that anumber of men were approaching.
De Vac resumed his place in the skiff, and again drew it far beneaththe dock. Scarcely had he done so ere a party of armored knights andmen-at-arms clanked out upon the planks above him from the mouth of thedark alley. Here they stopped as though for consultation and plainlycould the listener below hear every word of their conversation.
"De Montfort," said one, "what thinkest thou of it? Can it be that theQueen is right and that Richard lies dead beneath these black waters?"
"No, De Clare," replied a deep voice, which De Vac recognized as that ofthe Earl of Leicester. "The hand that could steal the Prince from out ofthe very gardens of his sire without the knowledge of Lady Maud or hercompanion, which must evidently have been the case, could more easilyand safely have dispatched him within the gardens had that been theobject of this strange attack. I think, My Lord, that presently we shallhear from some bold adventurer who holds the little Prince forransom. God give that such may be the case, for of all the winsome andaffectionate little fellows I have ever seen, not even excepting mineown dear son, the little Richard was the most to be beloved. Would thatI might get my hands upon the foul devil who has done this horrid deed."
Beneath the planks, not four feet from where Leicester stood, lay theobject of his search. The clanking armor, the heavy spurred feet, andthe voices above him had awakened the little Prince and, with a startledcry, he sat upright in the bottom of the skiff. Instantly De Vac's ironband clapped over the tiny mouth, but not before a single faint wail hadreached the ears of the men above.
"Hark! What was that, My Lord?" cried one of the men-at-arms.
In tense silence they listened for a repetition of the sound and then DeMontfort cried out:
"What ho, below there! Who is it beneath the dock? Answer, in the nameof the King!"
Richard, recognizing the voice of his favorite uncle, struggled to freehimself, but De Vac's ruthless hand crushed out the weak efforts of thebabe, and all was quiet as the tomb, while those above stood listeningfor a repetition of the sound.
"Dock rats," said De Clare, and then as though the devil guided them toprotect his own, two huge rats scurried upward from between the looseboards, and ran squealing up the dark alley.
"Right you are," said De Montfort, "but I could have sworn 'twas achild's feeble wail had I not seen the two filthy rodents with mine owneyes. Come, let us to the next vile alley. We have met with no successhere, though that old hag who called herself Til seemed overanxious tobargain for the future information she seemed hopeful of being able togive us."
As they moved off, their voices grew fainter in the ears of thelisteners beneath the dock and soon were lost in the distance.
"A close shave," thought De Vac, as he again took up the child andprepared to gain the dock. No further noises occurring to frighten him,he soon reached the door to Til's house and, inserting the key, creptnoiselessly to the garret room which he had rented from his ill-favoredhostess.
There were no stairs from the upper floor to the garret above, thisascent being made by means of a wooden ladder which De Vac pulled upafter him, closing and securing the aperture, through which he climbedwith his burden, by means of a heavy trapdoor equipped with thick bars.
The apartment which they now entered extended across the entire east endof the building, and had windows upon three sides. These were heavilycurtained. The apartment was lighted by a small cresset hanging from arafter near the center of the room.
The walls were unplastered and the rafters unceiled; the whole bearing amost barnlike and unhospitable appearance.
In one corner was a huge bed, and across the room a smaller cot; acupboard, a table, and two benches completed the furnishings. Thesearticles De Vac had purchased for the room against the time when heshould occupy it with his little prisoner.
On the table were a loaf of black bread, an earthenware jar containinghoney, a pitcher of milk and two drinking horns. To these, De Vacimmediately gave his attention, commanding the child to partake of whathe wished.
Hunger for the moment overcame the little Prince's fears, and he setto with avidity upon the strange, rough fare, made doubly coarse bythe rude utensils and the bare surroundings, so unlike the royalmagnificence of his palace apartments.
While the child ate, De Vac hastened to the lower floor of the buildingin search of Til, whom he now thoroughly mistrusted and feared. Thewords of De Montfort, which he had overheard at the dock, convinced himthat here was one more obstacle to the fulfillment of his revenge whichmust be removed as had the Lady Maud; but in this instance there wasneither youth nor beauty to plead the cause of the intended victim, orto cause the grim executioner a pang of remorse.
When he found the old hag, she was already dressed to go upon thestreet, in fact he intercepted her at the very door of the building.Still clad as he wa
s in the mantle and wimple of an old woman, Tildid not, at first, recognize him, and when he spoke, she burst intoa nervous, cackling laugh, as one caught in the perpetration of somequestionable act, nor did her manner escape the shrewd notice of thewily master of fence.
"Whither, old hag?" he asked.
"To visit Mag Tunk at the alley's end, by the river, My Lord," shereplied, with more respect than she had been wont to accord him.
"Then, I will accompany you part way, my friend, and, perchance, you cangive me a hand with some packages I left behind me in the skiff I havemoored there."
And so the two walked together through the dark alley to the end of therickety, dismantled dock; the one thinking of the vast reward the Kingwould lavish upon her for the information she felt sure she alone couldgive; the other feeling beneath his mantle for the hilt of a long daggerwhich nestled there.
As they reached the water's edge, De Vac was walking with his rightshoulder behind his companion's left, in his hand was gripped the keenblade and, as the woman halted on the dock, the point that hovered justbelow her left shoulder-blade plunged, soundless, into her heart at thesame instant that De Vac's left hand swung up and grasped her throat ina grip of steel.
There was no sound, barely a struggle of the convulsively stiffening oldmuscles, and then, with a push from De Vac, the body lunged forward intothe Thames, where a dull splash marked the end of the last hope thatPrince Richard might be rescued from the clutches of his Nemesis.
The Outlaw of Torn Page 4
