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term for abject worthlessness, ) " who should in his own hall, and while

his own wine-cup passed, have treated, or suffered to be treated, an

unoffending guest as your highness has this day beheld me used; and

whatever was the misfortune of our fathers on the field of Hastings,

those may at least be silent, " here he looked at Front-de-Boeuf and the

Templar, " who have within these few hours once and again lost saddle and

stirrup before the lance of a Saxon. "

" By my faith, a biting jest! " said Prince John. " How like you it,

sirs? --Our Saxon subjects rise in spirit and courage; become shrewd

in wit, and bold in bearing, in these unsettled times--What say ye,

my lords? --By this good light, I hold it best to take our galleys, and

return to Normandy in time. "

" For fear of the Saxons? " said De Bracy, laughing; " we should need no

weapon but our hunting spears to bring these boars to bay. "

" A truce with your raillery, Sir Knights, " said Fitzurse; --" and it

were well, " he added, addressing the Prince, " that your highness should

assure the worthy Cedric there is no insult intended him by jests, which

must sound but harshly in the ear of a stranger. "

" Insult? " answered Prince John, resuming his courtesy of demeanour; " I

trust it will not be thought that I could mean, or permit any, to be

offered in my presence. Here! I fill my cup to Cedric himself, since he

refuses to pledge his son's health. "

The cup went round amid the well-dissembled applause of the courtiers,

which, however, failed to make the impression on the mind of the Saxon

that had been designed. He was not naturally acute of perception,

but those too much undervalued his understanding who deemed that this

flattering compliment would obliterate the sense of the prior insult. He

was silent, however, when the royal pledge again passed round, " To Sir

Athelstane of Coningsburgh. "

The knight made his obeisance, and showed his sense of the honour by

draining a huge goblet in answer to it.

" And now, sirs, " said Prince John, who began to be warmed with the wine

which he had drank, " having done justice to our Saxon guests, we

will pray of them some requital to our courtesy. --Worthy Thane, " he

continued, addressing Cedric, " may we pray you to name to us some Norman

whose mention may least sully your mouth, and to wash down with a goblet

of wine all bitterness which the sound may leave behind it? "

Fitzurse arose while Prince John spoke, and gliding behind the seat of

the Saxon, whispered to him not to omit the opportunity of putting an

end to unkindness betwixt the two races, by naming Prince John. The

Saxon replied not to this politic insinuation, but, rising up, and

filling his cup to the brim, he addressed Prince John in these words:

" Your highness has required that I should name a Norman deserving to

be remembered at our banquet. This, perchance, is a hard task, since

it calls on the slave to sing the praises of the master--upon the

vanquished, while pressed by all the evils of conquest, to sing the

praises of the conqueror. Yet I will name a Norman--the first in arms

and in place--the best and the noblest of his race. And the lips that

shall refuse to pledge me to his well-earned fame, I term false and

dishonoured, and will so maintain them with my life. --I quaff this

goblet to the health of Richard the Lion-hearted! "

Prince John, who had expected that his own name would have closed

the Saxon's speech, started when that of his injured brother was so

unexpectedly introduced. He raised mechanically the wine-cup to his

lips, then instantly set it down, to view the demeanour of the company

at this unexpected proposal, which many of them felt it as unsafe

to oppose as to comply with. Some of them, ancient and experienced

courtiers, closely imitated the example of the Prince himself, raising

the goblet to their lips, and again replacing it before them. There

were many who, with a more generous feeling, exclaimed, " Long live King

Richard! and may he be speedily restored to us! " And some few, among

whom were Front-de-Boeuf and the Templar, in sullen disdain suffered

their goblets to stand untasted before them. But no man ventured

directly to gainsay a pledge filled to the health of the reigning

monarch.

Having enjoyed his triumph for about a minute, Cedric said to his

companion, " Up, noble Athelstane! we have remained here long enough,

since we have requited the hospitable courtesy of Prince John's banquet.

Those who wish to know further of our rude Saxon manners must henceforth

seek us in the homes of our fathers, since we have seen enough of royal

banquets, and enough of Norman courtesy. "

So saying, he arose and left the banqueting room, followed by

Athelstane, and by several other guests, who, partaking of the Saxon

lineage, held themselves insulted by the sarcasms of Prince John and his

courtiers.

" By the bones of St Thomas, " said Prince John, as they retreated, " the

Saxon churls have borne off the best of the day, and have retreated with

triumph! "

" 'Conclamatum est, poculatum est', " said Prior Aymer; " we have drunk and

we have shouted, --it were time we left our wine flagons. "

" The monk hath some fair penitent to shrive to-night, that he is in such

a hurry to depart, " said De Bracy.

" Not so, Sir Knight, " replied the Abbot; " but I must move several miles

forward this evening upon my homeward journey. "

" They are breaking up, " said the Prince in a whisper to Fitzurse; " their

fears anticipate the event, and this coward Prior is the first to shrink

from me. "

" Fear not, my lord, " said Waldemar; " I will show him such reasons as

shall induce him to join us when we hold our meeting at York. --Sir

Prior, " he said, " I must speak with you in private, before you mount

your palfrey. "

The other guests were now fast dispersing, with the exception of those

immediately attached to Prince John's faction, and his retinue.

" This, then, is the result of your advice, " said the Prince, turning

an angry countenance upon Fitzurse; " that I should be bearded at my

own board by a drunken Saxon churl, and that, on the mere sound of my

brother's name, men should fall off from me as if I had the leprosy? "

" Have patience, sir, " replied his counsellor; " I might retort your

accusation, and blame the inconsiderate levity which foiled my

design, and misled your own better judgment. But this is no time for

recrimination. De Bracy and I will instantly go among these shuffling

cowards, and convince them they have gone too far to recede. "

" It will be in vain, " said Prince John, pacing the apartment with

disordered steps, and expressing himself with an agitation to which the

wine he had drank partly contributed--" It will be in vain--they have

seen the handwriting on the wall--they have marked the paw of the

lion in the sand--they have heard his approaching roar shake the

wood--nothing will reanimate their courage. "

" Would to God, " said Fitzurse to De Bracy, " that aught could reanimate

his own! His brother's very name is an ague to him. Unhappy are the

counsellors of a Prince, who wants fortitude and perseverance alike in

good and in evil! "

CHAPTER XV

And yet he thinks, --ha, ha, ha, ha, --he thinks

I am the tool and servant of his will.

Well, let it be; through all the maze of trouble

His plots and base oppression must create,

I'll shape myself a way to higher things,

And who will say 'tis wrong?

--Basil, a Tragedy

No spider ever took more pains to repair the shattered meshes of his

web, than did Waldemar Fitzurse to reunite and combine the scattered

members of Prince John's cabal. Few of these were attached to him from

inclination, and none from personal regard. It was therefore necessary,

that Fitzurse should open to them new prospects of advantage, and remind

them of those which they at present enjoyed. To the young and wild

nobles, he held out the prospect of unpunished license and uncontrolled

revelry; to the ambitious, that of power, and to the covetous, that of

increased wealth and extended domains. The leaders of the mercenaries

received a donation in gold; an argument the most persuasive to their

minds, and without which all others would have proved in vain. Promises

were still more liberally distributed than money by this active agent;

and, in fine, nothing was left undone that could determine the wavering,

or animate the disheartened. The return of King Richard he spoke of

as an event altogether beyond the reach of probability; yet, when

he observed, from the doubtful looks and uncertain answers which he

received, that this was the apprehension by which the minds of his

accomplices were most haunted, he boldly treated that event, should

it really take place, as one which ought not to alter their political

calculations.

" If Richard returns, " said Fitzurse, " he returns to enrich his needy and

impoverished crusaders at the expense of those who did not follow him

to the Holy Land. He returns to call to a fearful reckoning, those who,

during his absence, have done aught that can be construed offence or

encroachment upon either the laws of the land or the privileges of

the crown. He returns to avenge upon the Orders of the Temple and the

Hospital, the preference which they showed to Philip of France during

the wars in the Holy Land. He returns, in fine, to punish as a rebel

every adherent of his brother Prince John. Are ye afraid of his power? "

continued the artful confident of that Prince, " we acknowledge him a

strong and valiant knight; but these are not the days of King Arthur,

when a champion could encounter an army. If Richard indeed comes back,

it must be alone, --unfollowed--unfriended. The bones of his gallant army

have whitened the sands of Palestine. The few of his followers who have

returned have straggled hither like this Wilfred of Ivanhoe, beggared

and broken men. --And what talk ye of Richard's right of birth? " he

proceeded, in answer to those who objected scruples on that head. " Is

Richard's title of primogeniture more decidedly certain than that of

Duke Robert of Normandy, the Conqueror's eldest son? And yet William

the Red, and Henry, his second and third brothers, were successively

preferred to him by the voice of the nation, Robert had every merit

which can be pleaded for Richard; he was a bold knight, a good leader,

generous to his friends and to the church, and, to crown the whole, a

crusader and a conqueror of the Holy Sepulchre; and yet he died a blind

and miserable prisoner in the Castle of Cardiff, because he opposed

himself to the will of the people, who chose that he should not rule

over them. It is our right, " he said, " to choose from the blood royal

the prince who is best qualified to hold the supreme power--that is, "

said he, correcting himself, " him whose election will best promote the

interests of the nobility. In personal qualifications, " he added, " it

was possible that Prince John might be inferior to his brother Richard;

but when it was considered that the latter returned with the sword of

vengeance in his hand, while the former held out rewards, immunities,

privileges, wealth, and honours, it could not be doubted which was the

king whom in wisdom the nobility were called on to support. "

These, and many more arguments, some adapted to the peculiar

circumstances of those whom he addressed, had the expected weight with

the nobles of Prince John's faction. Most of them consented to attend

the proposed meeting at York, for the purpose of making general

arrangements for placing the crown upon the head of Prince John.

It was late at night, when, worn out and exhausted with his various

exertions, however gratified with the result, Fitzurse, returning to

the Castle of Ashby, met with De Bracy, who had exchanged his banqueting

garments for a short green kirtle, with hose of the same cloth and

colour, a leathern cap or head-piece, a short sword, a horn slung over

his shoulder, a long bow in his hand, and a bundle of arrows stuck in

his belt. Had Fitzurse met this figure in an outer apartment, he would

have passed him without notice, as one of the yeomen of the guard; but

finding him in the inner hall, he looked at him with more attention, and

recognised the Norman knight in the dress of an English yeoman.

" What mummery is this, De Bracy? " said Fitzurse, somewhat angrily; " is

this a time for Christmas gambols and quaint maskings, when the fate of

our master, Prince John, is on the very verge of decision? Why hast thou

not been, like me, among these heartless cravens, whom the very name

of King Richard terrifies, as it is said to do the children of the

Saracens? "

" I have been attending to mine own business, " answered De Bracy calmly,

" as you, Fitzurse, have been minding yours. "

" I minding mine own business! " echoed Waldemar; " I have been engaged in

that of Prince John, our joint patron. "

" As if thou hadst any other reason for that, Waldemar, " said De Bracy,

" than the promotion of thine own individual interest? Come, Fitzurse,

we know each other--ambition is thy pursuit, pleasure is mine, and they

become our different ages. Of Prince John thou thinkest as I do; that

he is too weak to be a determined monarch, too tyrannical to be an easy

monarch, too insolent and presumptuous to be a popular monarch, and too

fickle and timid to be long a monarch of any kind. But he is a monarch

by whom Fitzurse and De Bracy hope to rise and thrive; and therefore you

aid him with your policy, and I with the lances of my Free Companions. "

" A hopeful auxiliary, " said Fitzurse impatiently; " playing the fool in

the very moment of utter necessity. --What on earth dost thou purpose by

this absurd disguise at a moment so urgent? "

" To get me a wife, " answered De Bracy coolly, " after the manner of the

tribe of Benjamin. "

" The tribe of Benjamin? " said Fitzurse; " I comprehend thee not. "

" Wert thou not in presence yester-even, " said De Bracy, " when we heard

the Prior Aymer tell us a tale in reply to the romance which was sung by

the Minstrel? --He told how, long since in Palestine, a deadly feud arose

between the tribe of Benjamin and the rest of the Israelitish nation;

and how they cut to pieces well-nigh all the chivalry of that tribe; and

how they swore by our blessed Lady, that they would not permit those

who remained to marry in their lineage; and how they became grieved for

their vow, and sent to consult his holiness the Pope how they might be

absolved from it; and how, by the advice of the Holy Father, the youth

of the tribe of Benjamin carried off from a superb tournament all the

ladies who were there present, and thus won them wives without the

consent either of their brides or their brides' families. "

" I have heard the story, " said Fitzurse, " though either the Prior or

thou has made some singular alterations in date and circumstances. "

" I tell thee, " said De Bracy, " that I mean to purvey me a wife after the

fashion of the tribe of Benjamin; which is as much as to say, that in

this same equipment I will fall upon that herd of Saxon bullocks, who

have this night left the castle, and carry off from them the lovely

Rowena. "

" Art thou mad, De Bracy? " said Fitzurse. " Bethink thee that, though the

men be Saxons, they are rich and powerful, and regarded with the more

respect by their countrymen, that wealth and honour are but the lot of

few of Saxon descent. "

" And should belong to none, " said De Bracy; " the work of the Conquest

should be completed. "

" This is no time for it at least, " said Fitzurse " the approaching crisis

renders the favour of the multitude indispensable, and Prince John

cannot refuse justice to any one who injures their favourites. "

" Let him grant it, if he dare, " said De Bracy; " he will soon see the

difference betwixt the support of such a lusty lot of spears as mine,

and that of a heartless mob of Saxon churls. Yet I mean no immediate

discovery of myself. Seem I not in this garb as bold a forester as ever

blew horn? The blame of the violence shall rest with the outlaws of the

Yorkshire forests. I have sure spies on the Saxon's motions--To-night

they sleep in the convent of Saint Wittol, or Withold, or whatever they

call that churl of a Saxon Saint at Burton-on-Trent. Next day's march

brings them within our reach, and, falcon-ways, we swoop on them

at once. Presently after I will appear in mine own shape, play the

courteous knight, rescue the unfortunate and afflicted fair one from the

hands of the rude ravishers, conduct her to Front-de-Boeuf's Castle, or

to Normandy, if it should be necessary, and produce her not again to her

kindred until she be the bride and dame of Maurice de Bracy. "

" A marvellously sage plan, " said Fitzurse, " and, as I think, not

entirely of thine own device. --Come, be frank, De Bracy, who aided

thee in the invention? and who is to assist in the execution? for, as I

think, thine own band lies as far off as York. "

" Marry, if thou must needs know, " said De Bracy, " it was the Templar

Brian de Bois-Guilbert that shaped out the enterprise, which the

adventure of the men of Benjamin suggested to me. He is to aid me in

the onslaught, and he and his followers will personate the outlaws, from

whom my valorous arm is, after changing my garb, to rescue the lady. "

" By my halidome, " said Fitzurse, " the plan was worthy of your united

wisdom! and thy prudence, De Bracy, is most especially manifested in the

project of leaving the lady in the hands of thy worthy confederate. Thou

mayst, I think, succeed in taking her from her Saxon friends, but how

thou wilt rescue her afterwards from the clutches of Bois-Guilbert seems

considerably more doubtful--He is a falcon well accustomed to pounce on

a partridge, and to hold his prey fast. "

" He is a Templar, " said De Bracy, " and cannot therefore rival me in

my plan of wedding this heiress; --and to attempt aught dishonourable

against the intended bride of De Bracy--By Heaven! were he a whole

Chapter of his Order in his single person, he dared not do me such an

injury! "

" Then since nought that I can say, " said Fitzurse, " will put this

folly from thy imagination, (for well I know the obstinacy of thy

disposition, ) at least waste as little time as possible--let not thy

folly be lasting as well as untimely. "

" I tell thee, " answered De Bracy, " that it will be the work of a few

hours, and I shall be at York--at the head of my daring and valorous

fellows, as ready to support any bold design as thy policy can be to

form one. --But I hear my comrades assembling, and the steeds stamping

and neighing in the outer court. --Farewell. --I go, like a true knight,

to win the smiles of beauty. "

" Like a true knight? " repeated Fitzurse, looking after him; " like a

fool, I should say, or like a child, who will leave the most serious and

needful occupation, to chase the down of the thistle that drives

past him. --But it is with such tools that I must work; --and for whose

advantage? --For that of a Prince as unwise as he is profligate, and as

likely to be an ungrateful master as he has already proved a rebellious

son and an unnatural brother. --But he--he, too, is but one of the tools

with which I labour; and, proud as he is, should he presume to separate

his interest from mine, this is a secret which he shall soon learn. "

The meditations of the statesman were here interrupted by the voice

of the Prince from an interior apartment, calling out, " Noble Waldemar

Fitzurse! " and, with bonnet doffed, the future Chancellor (for to such

high preferment did the wily Norman aspire) hastened to receive the

orders of the future sovereign.

CHAPTER XVI

Far in a wild, unknown to public view,

From youth to age a reverend hermit grew;

The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,

His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well

Remote from man, with God he pass'd his days,

Prayer all his business--all his pleasure praise.

--Parnell

The reader cannot have forgotten that the event of the tournament was

decided by the exertions of an unknown knight, whom, on account of the

passive and indifferent conduct which he had manifested on the former

part of the day, the spectators had entitled, " Le Noir Faineant". This

knight had left the field abruptly when the victory was achieved; and

when he was called upon to receive the reward of his valour, he was

nowhere to be found. In the meantime, while summoned by heralds and

by trumpets, the knight was holding his course northward, avoiding all

frequented paths, and taking the shortest road through the woodlands.

He paused for the night at a small hostelry lying out of the ordinary

route, where, however, he obtained from a wandering minstrel news of the

event of the tourney.

On the next morning the knight departed early, with the intention

of making a long journey; the condition of his horse, which he had

carefully spared during the preceding morning, being such as enabled him

to travel far without the necessity of much repose. Yet his purpose was

baffled by the devious paths through which he rode, so that when evening

closed upon him, he only found himself on the frontiers of the

West Riding of Yorkshire. By this time both horse and man required

refreshment, and it became necessary, moreover, to look out for

some place in which they might spend the night, which was now fast

approaching.

The place where the traveller found himself seemed unpropitious for

obtaining either shelter or refreshment, and he was likely to be reduced

to the usual expedient of knights-errant, who, on such occasions, turned

their horses to graze, and laid themselves down to meditate on their

lady-mistress, with an oak-tree for a canopy. But the Black Knight

either had no mistress to meditate upon, or, being as indifferent

in love as he seemed to be in war, was not sufficiently occupied by

passionate reflections upon her beauty and cruelty, to be able to

parry the effects of fatigue and hunger, and suffer love to act as

a substitute for the solid comforts of a bed and supper. He felt

dissatisfied, therefore, when, looking around, he found himself deeply

involved in woods, through which indeed there were many open glades,

and some paths, but such as seemed only formed by the numerous herds of

cattle which grazed in the forest, or by the animals of chase, and the

hunters who made prey of them.

The sun, by which the knight had chiefly directed his course, had now

sunk behind the Derbyshire hills on his left, and every effort which he

might make to pursue his journey was as likely to lead him out of his

road as to advance him on his route. After having in vain endeavoured

to select the most beaten path, in hopes it might lead to the cottage of

some herdsman, or the silvan lodge of a forester, and having repeatedly

found himself totally unable to determine on a choice, the knight

resolved to trust to the sagacity of his horse; experience having,

on former occasions, made him acquainted with the wonderful talent

possessed by these animals for extricating themselves and their riders

on such emergencies.

The good steed, grievously fatigued with so long a day's journey under

a rider cased in mail, had no sooner found, by the slackened reins,

that he was abandoned to his own guidance, than he seemed to assume new

strength and spirit; and whereas, formerly he had scarce replied to the

spur, otherwise than by a groan, he now, as if proud of the confidence

reposed in him, pricked up his ears, and assumed, of his own accord, a

more lively motion. The path which the animal adopted rather turned off

from the course pursued by the knight during the day; but as the horse

seemed confident in his choice, the rider abandoned himself to his

discretion.

He was justified by the event; for the footpath soon after appeared

a little wider and more worn, and the tinkle of a small bell gave the

knight to understand that he was in the vicinity of some chapel or

hermitage.

Accordingly, he soon reached an open plat of turf, on the opposite side

of which, a rock, rising abruptly from a gently sloping plain, offered

its grey and weatherbeaten front to the traveller. Ivy mantled its sides

in some places, and in others oaks and holly bushes, whose roots found

nourishment in the cliffs of the crag, waved over the precipices below,

like the plumage of the warrior over his steel helmet, giving grace to

that whose chief expression was terror. At the bottom of the rock,

and leaning, as it were, against it, was constructed a rude hut, built

chiefly of the trunks of trees felled in the neighbouring forest, and

secured against the weather by having its crevices stuffed with moss

mingled with clay. The stem of a young fir-tree lopped of its branches,

with a piece of wood tied across near the top, was planted upright by

the door, as a rude emblem of the holy cross. At a little distance on

the right hand, a fountain of the purest water trickled out of the

rock, and was received in a hollow stone, which labour had formed into a

rustic basin. Escaping from thence, the stream murmured down the descent

by a channel which its course had long worn, and so wandered through the

little plain to lose itself in the neighbouring wood.

Beside this fountain were the ruins of a very small chapel, of which

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