by Walter Scott 3 страница

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nations of Europe.

This state of things I have thought it necessary to premise for the

information of the general reader, who might be apt to forget, that,

although no great historical events, such as war or insurrection, mark

the existence of the Anglo-Saxons as a separate people subsequent to the

reign of William the Second; yet the great national distinctions betwixt

them and their conquerors, the recollection of what they had formerly

been, and to what they were now reduced, continued down to the reign

of Edward the Third, to keep open the wounds which the Conquest had

inflicted, and to maintain a line of separation betwixt the descendants

of the victor Normans and the vanquished Saxons.

The sun was setting upon one of the rich grassy glades of that forest,

which we have mentioned in the beginning of the chapter. Hundreds of

broad-headed, short-stemmed, wide-branched oaks, which had witnessed

perhaps the stately march of the Roman soldiery, flung their gnarled

arms over a thick carpet of the most delicious green sward; in some

places they were intermingled with beeches, hollies, and copsewood of

various descriptions, so closely as totally to intercept the level beams

of the sinking sun; in others they receded from each other, forming

those long sweeping vistas, in the intricacy of which the eye delights

to lose itself, while imagination considers them as the paths to yet

wilder scenes of silvan solitude. Here the red rays of the sun shot a

broken and discoloured light, that partially hung upon the shattered

boughs and mossy trunks of the trees, and there they illuminated in

brilliant patches the portions of turf to which they made their way. A

considerable open space, in the midst of this glade, seemed formerly to

have been dedicated to the rites of Druidical superstition; for, on

the summit of a hillock, so regular as to seem artificial, there still

remained part of a circle of rough unhewn stones, of large dimensions.

Seven stood upright; the rest had been dislodged from their places,

probably by the zeal of some convert to Christianity, and lay, some

prostrate near their former site, and others on the side of the hill.

One large stone only had found its way to the bottom, and in stopping

the course of a small brook, which glided smoothly round the foot of

the eminence, gave, by its opposition, a feeble voice of murmur to the

placid and elsewhere silent streamlet.

The human figures which completed this landscape, were in number two,

partaking, in their dress and appearance, of that wild and rustic

character, which belonged to the woodlands of the West-Riding of

Yorkshire at that early period. The eldest of these men had a

stern, savage, and wild aspect. His garment was of the simplest form

imaginable, being a close jacket with sleeves, composed of the tanned

skin of some animal, on which the hair had been originally left, but

which had been worn off in so many places, that it would have been

difficult to distinguish from the patches that remained, to what

creature the fur had belonged. This primeval vestment reached from

the throat to the knees, and served at once all the usual purposes

of body-clothing; there was no wider opening at the collar, than

was necessary to admit the passage of the head, from which it may be

inferred, that it was put on by slipping it over the head and shoulders,

in the manner of a modern shirt, or ancient hauberk. Sandals, bound

with thongs made of boars' hide, protected the feet, and a roll of thin

leather was twined artificially round the legs, and, ascending above the

calf, left the knees bare, like those of a Scottish Highlander. To make

the jacket sit yet more close to the body, it was gathered at the middle

by a broad leathern belt, secured by a brass buckle; to one side of

which was attached a sort of scrip, and to the other a ram's horn,

accoutred with a mouthpiece, for the purpose of blowing. In the same

belt was stuck one of those long, broad, sharp-pointed, and two-edged

knives, with a buck's-horn handle, which were fabricated in the

neighbourhood, and bore even at this early period the name of a

Sheffield whittle. The man had no covering upon his head, which was

only defended by his own thick hair, matted and twisted together, and

scorched by the influence of the sun into a rusty dark-red colour,

forming a contrast with the overgrown beard upon his cheeks, which was

rather of a yellow or amber hue. One part of his dress only remains, but

it is too remarkable to be suppressed; it was a brass ring, resembling a

dog's collar, but without any opening, and soldered fast round his neck,

so loose as to form no impediment to his breathing, yet so tight as to

be incapable of being removed, excepting by the use of the file. On this

singular gorget was engraved, in Saxon characters, an inscription of the

following purport: --" Gurth, the son of Beowulph, is the born thrall of

Cedric of Rotherwood. "

Beside the swine-herd, for such was Gurth's occupation, was seated, upon

one of the fallen Druidical monuments, a person about ten years younger

in appearance, and whose dress, though resembling his companion's in

form, was of better materials, and of a more fantastic appearance. His

jacket had been stained of a bright purple hue, upon which there had

been some attempt to paint grotesque ornaments in different colours. To

the jacket he added a short cloak, which scarcely reached half way down

his thigh; it was of crimson cloth, though a good deal soiled, lined

with bright yellow; and as he could transfer it from one shoulder to the

other, or at his pleasure draw it all around him, its width, contrasted

with its want of longitude, formed a fantastic piece of drapery. He had

thin silver bracelets upon his arms, and on his neck a collar of the

same metal bearing the inscription, " Wamba, the son of Witless, is the

thrall of Cedric of Rotherwood. " This personage had the same sort of

sandals with his companion, but instead of the roll of leather thong,

his legs were cased in a sort of gaiters, of which one was red and the

other yellow. He was provided also with a cap, having around it more

than one bell, about the size of those attached to hawks, which jingled

as he turned his head to one side or other; and as he seldom remained a

minute in the same posture, the sound might be considered as incessant.

Around the edge of this cap was a stiff bandeau of leather, cut at the

top into open work, resembling a coronet, while a prolonged bag arose

from within it, and fell down on one shoulder like an old-fashioned

nightcap, or a jelly-bag, or the head-gear of a modern hussar. It was to

this part of the cap that the bells were attached; which circumstance,

as well as the shape of his head-dress, and his own half-crazed,

half-cunning expression of countenance, sufficiently pointed him out as

belonging to the race of domestic clowns or jesters, maintained in the

houses of the wealthy, to help away the tedium of those lingering

hours which they were obliged to spend within doors. He bore, like

his companion, a scrip, attached to his belt, but had neither horn nor

knife, being probably considered as belonging to a class whom it is

esteemed dangerous to intrust with edge-tools. In place of these, he

was equipped with a sword of lath, resembling that with which Harlequin

operates his wonders upon the modern stage.

The outward appearance of these two men formed scarce a stronger

contrast than their look and demeanour. That of the serf, or bondsman,

was sad and sullen; his aspect was bent on the ground with an appearance

of deep dejection, which might be almost construed into apathy, had

not the fire which occasionally sparkled in his red eye manifested that

there slumbered, under the appearance of sullen despondency, a sense of

oppression, and a disposition to resistance. The looks of Wamba, on

the other hand, indicated, as usual with his class, a sort of vacant

curiosity, and fidgetty impatience of any posture of repose, together

with the utmost self-satisfaction respecting his own situation, and the

appearance which he made. The dialogue which they maintained between

them, was carried on in Anglo-Saxon, which, as we said before, was

universally spoken by the inferior classes, excepting the Norman

soldiers, and the immediate personal dependants of the great feudal

nobles. But to give their conversation in the original would convey but

little information to the modern reader, for whose benefit we beg to

offer the following translation:

" The curse of St Withold upon these infernal porkers! " said the

swine-herd, after blowing his horn obstreperously, to collect together

the scattered herd of swine, which, answering his call with notes

equally melodious, made, however, no haste to remove themselves from the

luxurious banquet of beech-mast and acorns on which they had fattened,

or to forsake the marshy banks of the rivulet, where several of them,

half plunged in mud, lay stretched at their ease, altogether regardless

of the voice of their keeper. " The curse of St Withold upon them and

upon me! " said Gurth; " if the two-legged wolf snap not up some of them

ere nightfall, I am no true man. Here, Fangs! Fangs! " he ejaculated at

the top of his voice to a ragged wolfish-looking dog, a sort of lurcher,

half mastiff, half greyhound, which ran limping about as if with the

purpose of seconding his master in collecting the refractory grunters;

but which, in fact, from misapprehension of the swine-herd's signals,

ignorance of his own duty, or malice prepense, only drove them hither

and thither, and increased the evil which he seemed to design to remedy.

" A devil draw the teeth of him, " said Gurth, " and the mother of mischief

confound the Ranger of the forest, that cuts the foreclaws off our dogs,

and makes them unfit for their trade! [8] Wamba, up and help me an thou

be'st a man; take a turn round the back o' the hill to gain the wind

on them; and when thous't got the weather-gage, thou mayst drive them

before thee as gently as so many innocent lambs. "

" Truly, " said Wamba, without stirring from the spot, " I have consulted

my legs upon this matter, and they are altogether of opinion, that

to carry my gay garments through these sloughs, would be an act of

unfriendship to my sovereign person and royal wardrobe; wherefore,

Gurth, I advise thee to call off Fangs, and leave the herd to their

destiny, which, whether they meet with bands of travelling soldiers,

or of outlaws, or of wandering pilgrims, can be little else than to

be converted into Normans before morning, to thy no small ease and

comfort. "

" The swine turned Normans to my comfort! " quoth Gurth; " expound that

to me, Wamba, for my brain is too dull, and my mind too vexed, to read

riddles. "

" Why, how call you those grunting brutes running about on their four

legs? " demanded Wamba.

" Swine, fool, swine, " said the herd, " every fool knows that. "

" And swine is good Saxon, " said the Jester; " but how call you the sow

when she is flayed, and drawn, and quartered, and hung up by the heels,

like a traitor? "

" Pork, " answered the swine-herd.

" I am very glad every fool knows that too, " said Wamba, " and pork, I

think, is good Norman-French; and so when the brute lives, and is in

the charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes a

Norman, and is called pork, when she is carried to the Castle-hall to

feast among the nobles; what dost thou think of this, friend Gurth, ha? "

" It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, however it got into thy

fool's pate. "

" Nay, I can tell you more, " said Wamba, in the same tone; " there is old

Alderman Ox continues to hold his Saxon epithet, while he is under the

charge of serfs and bondsmen such as thou, but becomes Beef, a fiery

French gallant, when he arrives before the worshipful jaws that are

destined to consume him. Mynheer Calf, too, becomes Monsieur de Veau

in the like manner; he is Saxon when he requires tendance, and takes a

Norman name when he becomes matter of enjoyment. "

" By St Dunstan, " answered Gurth, " thou speakest but sad truths; little

is left to us but the air we breathe, and that appears to have been

reserved with much hesitation, solely for the purpose of enabling us to

endure the tasks they lay upon our shoulders. The finest and the fattest

is for their board; the loveliest is for their couch; the best and

bravest supply their foreign masters with soldiers, and whiten distant

lands with their bones, leaving few here who have either will or the

power to protect the unfortunate Saxon. God's blessing on our master

Cedric, he hath done the work of a man in standing in the gap; but

Reginald Front-de-Boeuf is coming down to this country in person, and we

shall soon see how little Cedric's trouble will avail him. --Here, here, "

he exclaimed again, raising his voice, " So ho! so ho! well done, Fangs!

thou hast them all before thee now, and bring'st them on bravely, lad. "

" Gurth, " said the Jester, " I know thou thinkest me a fool, or thou

wouldst not be so rash in putting thy head into my mouth. One word to

Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, or Philip de Malvoisin, that thou hast

spoken treason against the Norman, --and thou art but a cast-away

swineherd, --thou wouldst waver on one of these trees as a terror to all

evil speakers against dignities. "

" Dog, thou wouldst not betray me, " said Gurth, " after having led me on

to speak so much at disadvantage? "

" Betray thee! " answered the Jester; " no, that were the trick of a wise

man; a fool cannot half so well help himself--but soft, whom have we

here? " he said, listening to the trampling of several horses which

became then audible.

" Never mind whom, " answered Gurth, who had now got his herd before him,

and, with the aid of Fangs, was driving them down one of the long dim

vistas which we have endeavoured to describe.

" Nay, but I must see the riders, " answered Wamba; " perhaps they are come

from Fairy-land with a message from King Oberon. "

" A murrain take thee, " rejoined the swine-herd; " wilt thou talk of such

things, while a terrible storm of thunder and lightning is raging within

a few miles of us? Hark, how the thunder rumbles! and for summer rain,

I never saw such broad downright flat drops fall out of the clouds; the

oaks, too, notwithstanding the calm weather, sob and creak with their

great boughs as if announcing a tempest. Thou canst play the rational if

thou wilt; credit me for once, and let us home ere the storm begins to

rage, for the night will be fearful. "

Wamba seemed to feel the force of this appeal, and accompanied his

companion, who began his journey after catching up a long quarter-staff

which lay upon the grass beside him. This second Eumaeus strode hastily

down the forest glade, driving before him, with the assistance of Fangs,

the whole herd of his inharmonious charge.

CHAPTER II

A Monk there was, a fayre for the maistrie,

An outrider that loved venerie;

A manly man, to be an Abbot able,

Full many a daintie horse had he in stable:

And whan he rode, men might his bridle hear

Gingeling in a whistling wind as clear,

And eke as loud, as doth the chapell bell,

There as this lord was keeper of the cell.

--Chaucer.

Notwithstanding the occasional exhortation and chiding of his companion,

the noise of the horsemen's feet continuing to approach, Wamba could

not be prevented from lingering occasionally on the road, upon every

pretence which occurred; now catching from the hazel a cluster of

half-ripe nuts, and now turning his head to leer after a cottage maiden

who crossed their path. The horsemen, therefore, soon overtook them on

the road.

Their numbers amounted to ten men, of whom the two who rode foremost

seemed to be persons of considerable importance, and the others

their attendants. It was not difficult to ascertain the condition and

character of one of these personages. He was obviously an ecclesiastic

of high rank; his dress was that of a Cistercian Monk, but composed of

materials much finer than those which the rule of that order admitted.

His mantle and hood were of the best Flanders cloth, and fell in ample,

and not ungraceful folds, around a handsome, though somewhat corpulent

person. His countenance bore as little the marks of self-denial, as his

habit indicated contempt of worldly splendour. His features might have

been called good, had there not lurked under the pent-house of his eye,

that sly epicurean twinkle which indicates the cautious voluptuary.

In other respects, his profession and situation had taught him a ready

command over his countenance, which he could contract at pleasure into

solemnity, although its natural expression was that of good-humoured

social indulgence. In defiance of conventual rules, and the edicts of

popes and councils, the sleeves of this dignitary were lined and turned

up with rich furs, his mantle secured at the throat with a golden

clasp, and the whole dress proper to his order as much refined upon and

ornamented, as that of a quaker beauty of the present day, who, while

she retains the garb and costume of her sect continues to give to its

simplicity, by the choice of materials and the mode of disposing them,

a certain air of coquettish attraction, savouring but too much of the

vanities of the world.

This worthy churchman rode upon a well-fed ambling mule, whose furniture

was highly decorated, and whose bridle, according to the fashion of the

day, was ornamented with silver bells. In his seat he had nothing of the

awkwardness of the convent, but displayed the easy and habitual grace of

a well-trained horseman. Indeed, it seemed that so humble a conveyance

as a mule, in however good case, and however well broken to a pleasant

and accommodating amble, was only used by the gallant monk for

travelling on the road. A lay brother, one of those who followed in the

train, had, for his use on other occasions, one of the most handsome

Spanish jennets ever bred at Andalusia, which merchants used at that

time to import, with great trouble and risk, for the use of persons of

wealth and distinction. The saddle and housings of this superb palfrey

were covered by a long foot-cloth, which reached nearly to the ground,

and on which were richly embroidered, mitres, crosses, and other

ecclesiastical emblems. Another lay brother led a sumpter mule, loaded

probably with his superior's baggage; and two monks of his own order,

of inferior station, rode together in the rear, laughing and conversing

with each other, without taking much notice of the other members of the

cavalcade.

The companion of the church dignitary was a man past forty, thin,

strong, tall, and muscular; an athletic figure, which long fatigue and

constant exercise seemed to have left none of the softer part of the

human form, having reduced the whole to brawn, bones, and sinews, which

had sustained a thousand toils, and were ready to dare a thousand more.

His head was covered with a scarlet cap, faced with fur--of that kind

which the French call " mortier", from its resemblance to the shape of an

inverted mortar. His countenance was therefore fully displayed, and its

expression was calculated to impress a degree of awe, if not of

fear, upon strangers. High features, naturally strong and powerfully

expressive, had been burnt almost into Negro blackness by constant

exposure to the tropical sun, and might, in their ordinary state, be

said to slumber after the storm of passion had passed away; but the

projection of the veins of the forehead, the readiness with which the

upper lip and its thick black moustaches quivered upon the slightest

emotion, plainly intimated that the tempest might be again and easily

awakened. His keen, piercing, dark eyes, told in every glance a history

of difficulties subdued, and dangers dared, and seemed to challenge

opposition to his wishes, for the pleasure of sweeping it from his road

by a determined exertion of courage and of will; a deep scar on his brow

gave additional sternness to his countenance, and a sinister expression

to one of his eyes, which had been slightly injured on the same

occasion, and of which the vision, though perfect, was in a slight and

partial degree distorted.

The upper dress of this personage resembled that of his companion in

shape, being a long monastic mantle; but the colour, being scarlet,

showed that he did not belong to any of the four regular orders of

monks. On the right shoulder of the mantle there was cut, in white

cloth, a cross of a peculiar form. This upper robe concealed what at

first view seemed rather inconsistent with its form, a shirt, namely, of

linked mail, with sleeves and gloves of the same, curiously plaited and

interwoven, as flexible to the body as those which are now wrought in

the stocking-loom, out of less obdurate materials. The fore-part of his

thighs, where the folds of his mantle permitted them to be seen, were

also covered with linked mail; the knees and feet were defended by

splints, or thin plates of steel, ingeniously jointed upon each

other; and mail hose, reaching from the ankle to the knee, effectually

protected the legs, and completed the rider's defensive armour. In

his girdle he wore a long and double-edged dagger, which was the only

offensive weapon about his person.

He rode, not a mule, like his companion, but a strong hackney for the

road, to save his gallant war-horse, which a squire led behind, fully

accoutred for battle, with a chamfron or plaited head-piece upon his

head, having a short spike projecting from the front. On one side of the

saddle hung a short battle-axe, richly inlaid with Damascene carving;

on the other the rider's plumed head-piece and hood of mail, with a long

two-handed sword, used by the chivalry of the period. A second squire

held aloft his master's lance, from the extremity of which fluttered a

small banderole, or streamer, bearing a cross of the same form with that

embroidered upon his cloak. He also carried his small triangular

shield, broad enough at the top to protect the breast, and from thence

diminishing to a point. It was covered with a scarlet cloth, which

prevented the device from being seen.

These two squires were followed by two attendants, whose dark visages,

white turbans, and the Oriental form of their garments, showed them to

be natives of some distant Eastern country. [9]

The whole appearance of this warrior and his retinue was wild and

outlandish; the dress of his squires was gorgeous, and his Eastern

attendants wore silver collars round their throats, and bracelets of the

same metal upon their swarthy arms and legs, of which the former were

naked from the elbow, and the latter from mid-leg to ankle. Silk and

embroidery distinguished their dresses, and marked the wealth and

importance of their master; forming, at the same time, a striking

contrast with the martial simplicity of his own attire. They were armed

with crooked sabres, having the hilt and baldric inlaid with gold, and

matched with Turkish daggers of yet more costly workmanship. Each of

them bore at his saddle-bow a bundle of darts or javelins, about four

feet in length, having sharp steel heads, a weapon much in use among

the Saracens, and of which the memory is yet preserved in the martial

exercise called " El Jerrid", still practised in the Eastern countries.

The steeds of these attendants were in appearance as foreign as their

riders. They were of Saracen origin, and consequently of Arabian

descent; and their fine slender limbs, small fetlocks, thin manes, and

easy springy motion, formed a marked contrast with the large-jointed,

heavy horses, of which the race was cultivated in Flanders and in

Normandy, for mounting the men-at-arms of the period in all the panoply

of plate and mail; and which, placed by the side of those Eastern

coursers, might have passed for a personification of substance and of

shadow.

The singular appearance of this cavalcade not only attracted the

curiosity of Wamba, but excited even that of his less volatile

companion. The monk he instantly knew to be the Prior of Jorvaulx

Abbey, well known for many miles around as a lover of the chase, of

the banquet, and, if fame did him not wrong, of other worldly pleasures

still more inconsistent with his monastic vows.

Yet so loose were the ideas of the times respecting the conduct of the

clergy, whether secular or regular, that the Prior Aymer maintained a

fair character in the neighbourhood of his abbey. His free and jovial

temper, and the readiness with which he granted absolution from all

ordinary delinquencies, rendered him a favourite among the nobility and

principal gentry, to several of whom he was allied by birth, being of

a distinguished Norman family. The ladies, in particular, were not

disposed to scan too nicely the morals of a man who was a professed

admirer of their sex, and who possessed many means of dispelling the

ennui which was too apt to intrude upon the halls and bowers of an

ancient feudal castle. The Prior mingled in the sports of the field with

more than due eagerness, and was allowed to possess the best-trained

hawks, and the fleetest greyhounds in the North Riding; circumstances

which strongly recommended him to the youthful gentry. With the old,

he had another part to play, which, when needful, he could sustain

with great decorum. His knowledge of books, however superficial, was

sufficient to impress upon their ignorance respect for his supposed

learning; and the gravity of his deportment and language, with the high

tone which he exerted in setting forth the authority of the church

and of the priesthood, impressed them no less with an opinion of his

sanctity. Even the common people, the severest critics of the conduct of

their betters, had commiseration with the follies of Prior Aymer. He

was generous; and charity, as it is well known, covereth a multitude

of sins, in another sense than that in which it is said to do so in

Scripture. The revenues of the monastery, of which a large part was at

his disposal, while they gave him the means of supplying his own very

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