A Gentleman Player; His Adventures on a Secret Mission for Queen Elizabeth

by Robert Neilson Stephens

  CHAPTER XVII.

  A WOMAN'S VICTORY

  "My heart hath melted at a lady's tears."--_King John._

  A shrill whistle roused Marryott from his sleep. He sprang to his feet.The fire was quite low now; some hours must have passed. The whistle wasrepeated; it came from outside the house, beneath the window. Marryottthrew open the casement, letting in a dash of wind and snow, and leanedout. Below him, in the snowy darkness, was Anthony, on horseback.

  "How now, Anthony?"

  "A score of men have rid into Harmby, from the south. I saw them fromthis side of the town. I had gone so far back to keep warmth in myhorse. 'Tis bitter cold. They stopped at the inn there, these men;whether to pass the night, or to get fresh horses, I wot not."

  "Are they Barnet's men, think you?"

  "There is no knowing. The darkness and snow make all men look alike at adistance. They might be the pursuivant's men, or they might be CaptainBottle's friends."

  By "Captain Bottle's friends" the Puritan meant Rumney and his robbers.

  "Harmby is but four miles away," said Marryott. "An they came onto-night, they would stop here to inquire of our passing. Or if theyasked further on, and found we had not passed, they would soon hound usout. 'Tis well you brought the news forthwith. Anthony!"

  "Why, as for that, 'twas eleven by Harmby clock when I turned my backon't. So it must be near starting-time now."

  "Then go you to the hall and call the men, and bring the horses to thedoor. We shall ride by the road, if we can, to leave the trace there.But if these fellows by chance come up too soon, we shall use the waythrough the park."

  "What of the wounded men, sir?"

  "Those that cannot go with us may lie close in some outhouse loft here,with John Hatch to care for them. I'll give him money for their needs.Look to it all, Anthony. I'll meet you at the hall door."

  The Puritan rode off, to round the corner of the wing. Marryott, notwaiting to close the casement, awoke Tom Cobble and Francis, and sentthem to join the men in the hall, the apprentice still in charge of thepage. When these two had gone, Marryott knocked at Mistress Hazlehurst'sdoor.

  He waited. Nothing was heard but the wind, and the beating of flakesupon the window. He knocked again.

  By roundabout ways came faint and indistinct scraps of the noiseattendant upon Anthony's awakening the men.

  "Mistress Hazlehurst!" called Marryott, softly. "It is time for us togo."

  In the ensuing silence, a vague fear grew within him,--fear for hismission, fear for her. Could aught have befallen her?

  "Madam!" he said, a little louder and faster. "I must bid you rise. Wemust set forth."

  Marryott's heart was beating wildly. His was not a time of, nor this themoment for, false delicacy. He flung open the door, and strode into herchamber.

  There was yet a little firelight left in the room. It shone upon thebed, of which the curtains were apart. Mistress Hazlehurst lay there,wrapped loosely in her cloak, the hood not up. Her eyes were wide open.Their depths reflected the red glow of the embers.

  She sprang up, and stood beside the bed, her gaze meeting Marryott's. Aninstant later, she moved as if to step toward him, but seemed to loseher powers, and staggered.

  He reached out to catch her, lest she should fall. But she avoided him,and hastened with swift but uncertain steps toward the door. Havingneared it, she leaned against the post for support, and raised her handto her forehead, uttering at the same time a low moan of pain.

  "What is the matter?" asked Marryott, going quickly after her.

  She moved, as by a desperate summoning of what small strength remainedto her, into the outer room. She went as far as to the table near thefireplace. On this table she placed her hands, as if to prevent hersinking to the floor.

  "What is the matter?" repeated Marryott, reaching her side in threesteps, and putting his arms around her just in time to uphold her fromfalling.

  "I know not," she whispered, as with a last remnant of departing breath."I am dying, I think!"

  And she let her head rest on his shoulder, as if for inability to holdit erect.

  "Dying!" echoed Marryott, gazing with affrighted eyes into hers; whoselids thereupon fell, like those of a tired child.

  She shivered in his arms, and murmured, feebly. "How cold it is!"

  "Madam!" cried Marryott. "This is but a moment's faintness! It willpass! Call up your energies, I pray! I dare not delay. Already the menare waiting for us in the court below. We must to horse!"

  "To my grave, 'twould be!" she answered, drowsily. Then a spasm of paindistorted her face. She became more heavy in Marryott's grasp.

  "God's light! What am I to do?" he muttered. "Mistress, shake off thislethargy! Come to the window; the air will revive you!"

  He moved to the open casement, bearing her in his arms. He feared toplace her on the window-seat, lest the little animation she retainedmight pass from her.

  She shuddered in the blast of wind.

  "The cold kills me!" she said, huskily. "The snow hath a sting likeneedle-points!"

  "Yet your face is warm!" He had placed his cheek against her forehead toascertain this.

  "It burns while my body freezes!" she replied.

  "But your hands are not cold!" A tight clasp had made the discovery.

  She did not move away her head, of which the white brow and dark hairwere still pressed by his cheek, nor did she withdraw her hand. Neitherdid her body shrink from his embrace, though it trembled within it.

  "I am ill unto death," was her answer. "I cannot move a step."

  "But you are revived already. Your voice is not so faint now. Madam, ina few moments you will have strength to ride."

  "I should fall from the horse. My God, sir, can you be a gentleman, andsubject a half dying woman to more of that fatigue which hath broughther to this pass--and on a night of such weather? If my voice hasstrength, 'tis the strength of desperation, which impels me to beg pityat your hands in mine hour of bitter illness!"

  Thereupon, as if grown weaker, she sought additional support to that ofhis embrace, by clinging to him with her arms.

  "But, madam, do you not perceive all is at stake upon my instant flight?A score of horsemen have entered Harmby; 'tis but four miles distant.They may be here any moment. Perchance they are the pursuivant and hismen; perchance, Captain Rumney, with his band augmented! We must begone!God knows how it wounds my soul to put you to discomfort! But necessitycries 'on,' and ride forth we must!"

  "Then ride forth without me. Let me die here alone."

  "But I dare not leave you here. If Roger Barnet came and found you--" Hedid not complete the sentence. His thought was, that her account of himto Barnet might send men flying back for the real Sir Valentine. But,indeed, Marryott's continued flight, and her illness, would minimizethe chances of Barnet's stopping where she was; or, if he did stop, ofhis waiting for much talk with her.

  "An you take me with you," said she, "you may take but a cold corpse!"

  The idea struck Marryott to the soul. To think of that beauty lying coldand lifeless, which now breathed warm and quivering in his arms!

  "Mistress, you mistake! Your fears exceed your case! You will findyourself able to ride. I will wrap you well; I will let you ride infront of me, and I will support you. I must compel you, even as my causecompels me!"

  "You would compel me to my death, to save your own life!"

  "'Tis not my poor life I think of! There is that in my flight you wotnot of."

  "Then betake yourself to your flight, and leave me!" And, for the firsttime, she made some faint movement to push from his embrace.

  "No, no!" he cried, tightening his grasp so that she ceased her opposingefforts. "For your own sake I dare not leave you. These riders may beRumney and his men. If you should fall into their hands!"

  "Leave me to their hands!" she cried, again exerting herself feebly tobe free. "'Tis a wise course for you. If it be Rumney that hathfollowed, 'tis easy guessing what hath brought him. An he find
me, hewill cease troubling you."

  "Madam, madam, would you be left to the will of that villain? Knowyou--can you suppose--?"

  "Yes, I know; and can imagine how such villains woo! But what choicehave I? I cannot go with you. Would you drag me forth to meet my death?But that you cannot do, an you would. Here will I remain, and if you goyou must leave me behind."

  And, with an effort for which he was quite unprepared, she thrust himfrom her, and slipped from his somewhat relaxed embrace. The nextinstant she traversed, with wavering motions, the distance to the chest.Upon this she let herself fall, and straightened her body to a supineposition.

  When Marryott ran to her side, and tried to lift her, he found her sorigid that nothing short of violently applied force could place her uponhorseback, or keep her there afterward.

  A moment later a spasmodic shiver stirred her body, and she uttered sopitiful a groan that Marryott could no longer hold out against theconviction--which he had thus far resisted, as one hopes againsthope--that she was indeed beyond all possibility of taking horse thatnight. Having, perforce, admitted to himself her condition, he ran andclosed the casement, then returned to her.

  "Madam, what am I to do?" he asked. "'Tis plain that a brief delay wouldfind you no more able to go than you now are. For such illness as hathlaid hold of you, after so long exposure, I well know one recovers notin an hour. If I tarried at all for you, it would needs be a longtarrying."

  "Then tarry not," she moaned. "Go, and leave me."

  "If I left men to protect you?"

  "Ay, my page Francis! The boy would avail much against Rumney and thescore of men you say are at Harmby!"

  "If I left, also, the men who joined us from Rumney's band?"

  "Why, those that are wounded would sure stay by me, for want of power torun away! And the other four might stay till they caught sight of theirold leader. Then they would have choice of turning tail, or of crawlingto him for pardon, or of dying, either in my defence or for hisrevenge."

  "If I left Captain Bottle and Anthony Underhill with them?"

  "Certes, if this score of men be the pursuivant's, 'tis better for youthat your two faithful dogs die as your accomplices, and you go safealone!"

  "Madam, I deserve not this irony! I say to you again, 'tis not for mineown life that I would leave others to die on my account without me. 'Tisfor Sir--for the qu--for the cause to which I have bound myself, and ofwhich you know not. My God, I would this were to-morrow's night! Thenyou would see how fearful I am for my life! But for another day, my lifeis not mine own!"

  The woman to whom he spoke paid no heed to words whose significance shedid not understand.

  "Then why do you stay here?" she said. "Is it of my asking? Do I requestaught of you? Go, and take your men with you. You may have need ofthem."

  "That is true," thought Marryott, appreciating how much easier it wasfor the pursuivant to follow a trace left by three men than that left byone.

  "Your two henchmen are stout fellows, I ween," she went on, speaking aswith difficulty, "but scarce like to use much zeal in my behalf. I'llwarrant that Puritan would not stir for me, were you not here to commandhim."

  "'Tis true!" muttered Marryott, in a tumult of perplexity. "Against ascore of desperate rascals, what six men under heaven would long risktheir lives for a lady's sake, unless they were gentlemen, or by agentleman led? And what gentleman leading them, and fighting with them,could hope to win unless he were armed, as I should be, by love for thatlady? Well I know that gentlemen do not protect ladies by deputy, nortrust to underlings the safety of those they love!"

  There was a moment's silence. She moved not; gave no start, or frown, orlook of surprise, or other sign that she had noted this, his firstspoken confession of love. Yet that very absence of all sign ought tohave told him that she had heeded it,--that she had even been preparedfor it.

  "Bitter is my fortune," she replied, using a tone a trifle lower andmore guarded than hitherto. "Of all who are at hand, only you, being agentleman and moved by the spirit of chivalry, would protect a lady tothe last, against odds. Only you, with the valor and strength that achivalrous heart bestows, might hope to prevail against such odds. Onlyyou, with the power of leadership over those men below, could give themeither will or courage for the contest. Only your remaining, therefore,might save me from this villain. Your cause forbids your remaining. Go,then; save yourself, save your cause, and leave me to my fate!"

  Her voice had fallen to a whisper. She now lay perfectly still, as iftoo exhausted even to deplore what might be in store for her.

  "Oh, madam!" said Marryott, his voice betraying the distress he nolonger tried to conceal. "What a choice is mine! Lest these menapproaching be Rumney's. I dare not go from you; lest they be thepursuivant's, I dare not stay with you! Must I, then, leave you here,in this deserted house, in this wild night, to what terrible chances Idare not think of? Can you not ride forth? Is it not possible? Can younot find strength, somewhere deep-stored within you?"

  Her only answer was a faint smile as at his incredulity to her state, orat his futile return to impossible hopes.

  He had already forgotten, for the time, what strength she had found tomake her body rigid.

  "Fare thee well, then!" he cried, abruptly, and hastened, with stepsalmost as wild as hers had been, to the door leading to the passage.

  A low sob arrested him at the threshold. He turned and looked at her;his heart, which seemed to have stopped as he was crossing the room toleave her, now began to beat madly.

  She was not looking after him. She had not changed position. But, by thefirelight, to which his sight was now accustomed, a welling up ofmoisture was visible in her eyes.

  While he stood gazing at her, she gave another sob,--a convulsive noteof despair, in which Marryott read a sense of her forlorn situation andpossible fate; of being abandoned in dire illness, in an emptycountry-house, on this wildest of nights, to become, perchance, the preyof a vile, unscrupulous rascal.

  By the time that Marryott, moving in long strides, had reached her side,her cheeks were wet with tears.

  "Lady," he said, in a voice unsteady with emotion, as he flung himselfon his knees beside her couch, and caught both her hands in his, "be notafraid! Though I forfeit my life, and fail in my cause, I will not gofrom you! May God above forgive me; and may those for whom I have thesefour days striven; and may my fathers, who never, for fear of man orlove of woman, fell short of their given word! But I love thee! Ay,madam, 'tis a right I earn, that of holding thee thus in mine arms; thouknow'st not what I pay for it! I love thee!"

  He had resigned her hands, only that he might enfold her body; and shewas so far from resisting his clasp that she had thrown her own arms,soft and warm, around his neck. She no longer wept, yet the tears stillstood in her eyes; through them, however, as she met his impassionedgaze, glowed a light at once soft and powerful. Her nostrils heaved inquick but regular respirations. As his face neared hers, her lips seemedunconsciously to await the contact of his own. Nor did they fail ofhumid warmth when he pressed upon them a score of kisses.

  "Oh, thou beautiful one!" he whispered, raising his face that he mightfind again in the depths of her eyes the rapture which, by theresponsive intentness of her look, it was evident she found in his owneyes. "Never did I think I should prove so weak, or know such joy!Though I hazard my mission and my life, yet methinks for this moment Iwould barter my soul! For at this moment thou lov'st me, dost thou not?Else all kisses are false, all eyes are liars! Tell me, mistress! Forthine own rest's sake, tell me; or be slain with mine importunings!"

  "Wouldst thou have my lips," she whispered, and paused an instant forstrength to finish, "confess by speech--what they have too wellbetrayed--otherwise?"

  "I did not slay thy brother," he answered, still looking into her eyes."That thou must believe! Yet thou wouldst love me, this one moment, eventhough the red gulf were indeed between us? Is't not so?"

  She would not answer. When he again opened his lips to urge
, she, by amovement of the arm, caused them to close against her own.

  Then, as by a sudden change of impulse, she closed her eyes and thrusthim from her with all the force of which her arms were capable.