by Walter Scott 17 страница

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Half shows, half shades, her neck of snow?

Twines not of them one golden thread,

But for its sake a Paynim bled. '

" Joy to the fair! --my name unknown,

Each deed, and all its praise thine own

Then, oh! unbar this churlish gate,

The night dew falls, the hour is late.

Inured to Syria's glowing breath,

I feel the north breeze chill as death;

Let grateful love quell maiden shame,

And grant him bliss who brings thee fame. "

During this performance, the hermit demeaned himself much like a

first-rate critic of the present day at a new opera. He reclined back

upon his seat, with his eyes half shut; now, folding his hands and

twisting his thumbs, he seemed absorbed in attention, and anon,

balancing his expanded palms, he gently flourished them in time to the

music. At one or two favourite cadences, he threw in a little assistance

of his own, where the knight's voice seemed unable to carry the air

so high as his worshipful taste approved. When the song was ended, the

anchorite emphatically declared it a good one, and well sung.

" And yet, " said he, " I think my Saxon countrymen had herded long enough

with the Normans, to fall into the tone of their melancholy ditties.

What took the honest knight from home? or what could he expect but to

find his mistress agreeably engaged with a rival on his return, and his

serenade, as they call it, as little regarded as the caterwauling of a

cat in the gutter? Nevertheless, Sir Knight, I drink this cup to thee,

to the success of all true lovers--I fear you are none, " he added, on

observing that the knight (whose brain began to be heated with these

repeated draughts) qualified his flagon from the water pitcher.

" Why, " said the knight, " did you not tell me that this water was from

the well of your blessed patron, St Dunstan? "

" Ay, truly, " said the hermit, " and many a hundred of pagans did he

baptize there, but I never heard that he drank any of it. Every thing

should be put to its proper use in this world. St Dunstan knew, as well

as any one, the prerogatives of a jovial friar. "

And so saying, he reached the harp, and entertained his guest with

the following characteristic song, to a sort of derry-down chorus,

appropriate to an old English ditty. [24]

THE BAREFOOTED FRIAR.

I'll give thee, good fellow, a twelvemonth or twain,

To search Europe through, from Byzantium to Spain;

But ne'er shall you find, should you search till you tire,

So happy a man as the Barefooted Friar.

Your knight for his lady pricks forth in career,

And is brought home at even-song prick'd through with a spear;

I confess him in haste--for his lady desires

No comfort on earth save the Barefooted Friar's.

Your monarch? --Pshaw! many a prince has been known

To barter his robes for our cowl and our gown,

But which of us e'er felt the idle desire

To exchange for a crown the grey hood of a Friar!

The Friar has walk'd out, and where'er he has gone,

The land and its fatness is mark'd for his own;

He can roam where he lists, he can stop when he tires,

For every man's house is the Barefooted Friar's.

He's expected at noon, and no wight till he comes

May profane the great chair, or the porridge of plums

For the best of the cheer, and the seat by the fire,

Is the undenied right of the Barefooted Friar.

He's expected at night, and the pasty's made hot,

They broach the brown ale, and they fill the black pot,

And the goodwife would wish the goodman in the mire,

Ere he lack'd a soft pillow, the Barefooted Friar.

Long flourish the sandal, the cord, and the cope,

The dread of the devil and trust of the Pope;

For to gather life's roses, unscathed by the briar,

Is granted alone to the Barefooted Friar.

" By my troth, " said the knight, " thou hast sung well and lustily, and in

high praise of thine order. And, talking of the devil, Holy Clerk,

are you not afraid that he may pay you a visit during some of your

uncanonical pastimes? "

" I uncanonical! " answered the hermit; " I scorn the charge--I scorn it

with my heels! --I serve the duty of my chapel duly and truly--Two masses

daily, morning and evening, primes, noons, and vespers, 'aves, credos,

paters'---"

" Excepting moonlight nights, when the venison is in season, " said his

guest.

" 'Exceptis excipiendis'" replied the hermit, " as our old abbot taught me

to say, when impertinent laymen should ask me if I kept every punctilio

of mine order. "

" True, holy father, " said the knight; " but the devil is apt to keep

an eye on such exceptions; he goes about, thou knowest, like a roaring

lion. "

" Let him roar here if he dares, " said the friar; " a touch of my cord

will make him roar as loud as the tongs of St Dunstan himself did. I

never feared man, and I as little fear the devil and his imps. Saint

Dunstan, Saint Dubric, Saint Winibald, Saint Winifred, Saint Swibert,

Saint Willick, not forgetting Saint Thomas a Kent, and my own poor

merits to speed, I defy every devil of them, come cut and long

tail. --But to let you into a secret, I never speak upon such subjects,

my friend, until after morning vespers. "

He changed the conversation; fast and furious grew the mirth of the

parties, and many a song was exchanged betwixt them, when their revels

were interrupted by a loud knocking at the door of the hermitage.

The occasion of this interruption we can only explain by resuming the

adventures of another set of our characters; for, like old Ariosto, we

do not pique ourselves upon continuing uniformly to keep company with

any one personage of our drama.

CHAPTER XVIII

Away! our journey lies through dell and dingle,

Where the blithe fawn trips by its timid mother,

Where the broad oak, with intercepting boughs,

Chequers the sunbeam in the green-sward alley--

Up and away! --for lovely paths are these

To tread, when the glad Sun is on his throne

Less pleasant, and less safe, when Cynthia's lamp

With doubtful glimmer lights the dreary forest.

--Ettrick Forest

When Cedric the Saxon saw his son drop down senseless in the lists at

Ashby, his first impulse was to order him into the custody and care of

his own attendants, but the words choked in his throat. He could not

bring himself to acknowledge, in presence of such an assembly, the son

whom he had renounced and disinherited. He ordered, however, Oswald to

keep an eye upon him; and directed that officer, with two of his serfs,

to convey Ivanhoe to Ashby as soon as the crowd had dispersed. Oswald,

however, was anticipated in this good office. The crowd dispersed,

indeed, but the knight was nowhere to be seen.

It was in vain that Cedric's cupbearer looked around for his young

master--he saw the bloody spot on which he had lately sunk down, but

himself he saw no longer; it seemed as if the fairies had conveyed him

from the spot. Perhaps Oswald (for the Saxons were very superstitious)

might have adopted some such hypothesis, to account for Ivanhoe's

disappearance, had he not suddenly cast his eye upon a person attired

like a squire, in whom he recognised the features of his fellow-servant

Gurth. Anxious concerning his master's fate, and in despair at his

sudden disappearance, the translated swineherd was searching for him

everywhere, and had neglected, in doing so, the concealment on which

his own safety depended. Oswald deemed it his duty to secure Gurth, as a

fugitive of whose fate his master was to judge.

Renewing his enquiries concerning the fate of Ivanhoe, the only

information which the cupbearer could collect from the bystanders

was, that the knight had been raised with care by certain well-attired

grooms, and placed in a litter belonging to a lady among the spectators,

which had immediately transported him out of the press. Oswald, on

receiving this intelligence, resolved to return to his master for

farther instructions, carrying along with him Gurth, whom he considered

in some sort as a deserter from the service of Cedric.

The Saxon had been under very intense and agonizing apprehensions

concerning his son; for Nature had asserted her rights, in spite of the

patriotic stoicism which laboured to disown her. But no sooner was he

informed that Ivanhoe was in careful, and probably in friendly hands,

than the paternal anxiety which had been excited by the dubiety of his

fate, gave way anew to the feeling of injured pride and resentment, at

what he termed Wilfred's filial disobedience.

" Let him wander his way, " said he--" let those leech his wounds for whose

sake he encountered them. He is fitter to do the juggling tricks of

the Norman chivalry than to maintain the fame and honour of his English

ancestry with the glaive and brown-bill, the good old weapons of his

country. "

" If to maintain the honour of ancestry, " said Rowena, who was present,

" it is sufficient to be wise in council and brave in execution--to be

boldest among the bold, and gentlest among the gentle, I know no voice,

save his father's---"

" Be silent, Lady Rowena! --on this subject only I hear you not. Prepare

yourself for the Prince's festival: we have been summoned thither with

unwonted circumstance of honour and of courtesy, such as the haughty

Normans have rarely used to our race since the fatal day of Hastings.

Thither will I go, were it only to show these proud Normans how little

the fate of a son, who could defeat their bravest, can affect a Saxon. "

" Thither, " said Rowena, " do I NOT go; and I pray you to beware, lest

what you mean for courage and constancy, shall be accounted hardness of

heart. "

" Remain at home, then, ungrateful lady, " answered Cedric; " thine is the

hard heart, which can sacrifice the weal of an oppressed people to an

idle and unauthorized attachment. I seek the noble Athelstane, and with

him attend the banquet of John of Anjou. "

He went accordingly to the banquet, of which we have already mentioned

the principal events. Immediately upon retiring from the castle, the

Saxon thanes, with their attendants, took horse; and it was during the

bustle which attended their doing so, that Cedric, for the first time,

cast his eyes upon the deserter Gurth. The noble Saxon had returned from

the banquet, as we have seen, in no very placid humour, and wanted but a

pretext for wreaking his anger upon some one.

" The gyves! " he said, " the gyves! --Oswald--Hundibert! --Dogs and

villains! --why leave ye the knave unfettered? "

Without daring to remonstrate, the companions of Gurth bound him with

a halter, as the readiest cord which occurred. He submitted to the

operation without remonstrance, except that, darting a reproachful

look at his master, he said, " This comes of loving your flesh and blood

better than mine own. "

" To horse, and forward! " said Cedric.

" It is indeed full time, " said the noble Athelstane; " for, if we

ride not the faster, the worthy Abbot Waltheoff's preparations for a

rere-supper [25] will be altogether spoiled. "

The travellers, however, used such speed as to reach the convent of St

Withold's before the apprehended evil took place. The Abbot, himself of

ancient Saxon descent, received the noble Saxons with the profuse and

exuberant hospitality of their nation, wherein they indulged to a late,

or rather an early hour; nor did they take leave of their reverend host

the next morning until they had shared with him a sumptuous refection.

As the cavalcade left the court of the monastery, an incident happened

somewhat alarming to the Saxons, who, of all people of Europe, were most

addicted to a superstitious observance of omens, and to whose opinions

can be traced most of those notions upon such subjects, still to be

found among our popular antiquities. For the Normans being a mixed race,

and better informed according to the information of the times, had lost

most of the superstitious prejudices which their ancestors had brought

from Scandinavia, and piqued themselves upon thinking freely on such

topics.

In the present instance, the apprehension of impending evil was inspired

by no less respectable a prophet than a large lean black dog, which,

sitting upright, howled most piteously as the foremost riders left the

gate, and presently afterwards, barking wildly, and jumping to and fro,

seemed bent upon attaching itself to the party.

" I like not that music, father Cedric, " said Athelstane; for by this

title of respect he was accustomed to address him.

" Nor I either, uncle, " said Wamba; " I greatly fear we shall have to pay

the piper. "

" In my mind, " said Athelstane, upon whose memory the Abbot's good

ale (for Burton was already famous for that genial liquor) had made a

favourable impression, --" in my mind we had better turn back, and abide

with the Abbot until the afternoon. It is unlucky to travel where your

path is crossed by a monk, a hare, or a howling dog, until you have

eaten your next meal. "

" Away! " said Cedric, impatiently; " the day is already too short for

our journey. For the dog, I know it to be the cur of the runaway slave

Gurth, a useless fugitive like its master. "

So saying, and rising at the same time in his stirrups, impatient at the

interruption of his journey, he launched his javelin at poor Fangs--for

Fangs it was, who, having traced his master thus far upon his stolen

expedition, had here lost him, and was now, in his uncouth way,

rejoicing at his reappearance. The javelin inflicted a wound upon the

animal's shoulder, and narrowly missed pinning him to the earth; and

Fangs fled howling from the presence of the enraged thane. Gurth's heart

swelled within him; for he felt this meditated slaughter of his faithful

adherent in a degree much deeper than the harsh treatment he had himself

received. Having in vain attempted to raise his hand to his eyes,

he said to Wamba, who, seeing his master's ill humour had prudently

retreated to the rear, " I pray thee, do me the kindness to wipe my eyes

with the skirt of thy mantle; the dust offends me, and these bonds will

not let me help myself one way or another. "

Wamba did him the service he required, and they rode side by side for

some time, during which Gurth maintained a moody silence. At length he

could repress his feelings no longer.

" Friend Wamba, " said he, " of all those who are fools enough to serve

Cedric, thou alone hast dexterity enough to make thy folly acceptable to

him. Go to him, therefore, and tell him that neither for love nor fear

will Gurth serve him longer. He may strike the head from me--he may

scourge me--he may load me with irons--but henceforth he shall never

compel me either to love or to obey him. Go to him, then, and tell him

that Gurth the son of Beowulph renounces his service. "

" Assuredly, " said Wamba, " fool as I am, I shall not do your fool's

errand. Cedric hath another javelin stuck into his girdle, and thou

knowest he does not always miss his mark. "

" I care not, " replied Gurth, " how soon he makes a mark of me. Yesterday

he left Wilfred, my young master, in his blood. To-day he has striven to

kill before my face the only other living creature that ever showed me

kindness. By St Edmund, St Dunstan, St Withold, St Edward the Confessor,

and every other Saxon saint in the calendar, " (for Cedric never swore

by any that was not of Saxon lineage, and all his household had the same

limited devotion, ) " I will never forgive him! "

" To my thinking now, " said the Jester, who was frequently wont to act

as peace-maker in the family, " our master did not propose to hurt Fangs,

but only to affright him. For, if you observed, he rose in his stirrups,

as thereby meaning to overcast the mark; and so he would have done,

but Fangs happening to bound up at the very moment, received a scratch,

which I will be bound to heal with a penny's breadth of tar. "

" If I thought so, " said Gurth--" if I could but think so--but no--I saw

the javelin was well aimed--I heard it whizz through the air with all

the wrathful malevolence of him who cast it, and it quivered after it

had pitched in the ground, as if with regret for having missed its mark.

By the hog dear to St Anthony, I renounce him! "

And the indignant swineherd resumed his sullen silence, which no efforts

of the Jester could again induce him to break.

Meanwhile Cedric and Athelstane, the leaders of the troop, conversed

together on the state of the land, on the dissensions of the royal

family, on the feuds and quarrels among the Norman nobles, and on the

chance which there was that the oppressed Saxons might be able to

free themselves from the yoke of the Normans, or at least to elevate

themselves into national consequence and independence, during the civil

convulsions which were likely to ensue. On this subject Cedric was all

animation. The restoration of the independence of his race was the idol

of his heart, to which he had willingly sacrificed domestic happiness

and the interests of his own son. But, in order to achieve this great

revolution in favour of the native English, it was necessary that they

should be united among themselves, and act under an acknowledged head.

The necessity of choosing their chief from the Saxon blood-royal was not

only evident in itself, but had been made a solemn condition by those

whom Cedric had intrusted with his secret plans and hopes. Athelstane

had this quality at least; and though he had few mental accomplishments

or talents to recommend him as a leader, he had still a goodly person,

was no coward, had been accustomed to martial exercises, and seemed

willing to defer to the advice of counsellors more wise than himself.

Above all, he was known to be liberal and hospitable, and believed to be

good-natured. But whatever pretensions Athelstane had to be considered

as head of the Saxon confederacy, many of that nation were disposed

to prefer to the title of the Lady Rowena, who drew her descent from

Alfred, and whose father having been a chief renowned for wisdom,

courage, and generosity, his memory was highly honoured by his oppressed

countrymen.

It would have been no difficult thing for Cedric, had he been so

disposed, to have placed himself at the head of a third party, as

formidable at least as any of the others. To counterbalance their royal

descent, he had courage, activity, energy, and, above all, that devoted

attachment to the cause which had procured him the epithet of The Saxon,

and his birth was inferior to none, excepting only that of Athelstane

and his ward. These qualities, however, were unalloyed by the slightest

shade of selfishness; and, instead of dividing yet farther his weakened

nation by forming a faction of his own, it was a leading part of

Cedric's plan to extinguish that which already existed, by promoting a

marriage betwixt Rowena and Athelstane. An obstacle occurred to this his

favourite project, in the mutual attachment of his ward and his son and

hence the original cause of the banishment of Wilfred from the house of

his father.

This stern measure Cedric had adopted, in hopes that, during Wilfred's

absence, Rowena might relinquish her preference, but in this hope he was

disappointed; a disappointment which might be attributed in part to the

mode in which his ward had been educated. Cedric, to whom the name of

Alfred was as that of a deity, had treated the sole remaining scion of

that great monarch with a degree of observance, such as, perhaps, was

in those days scarce paid to an acknowledged princess. Rowena's will had

been in almost all cases a law to his household; and Cedric himself, as

if determined that her sovereignty should be fully acknowledged within

that little circle at least, seemed to take a pride in acting as the

first of her subjects. Thus trained in the exercise not only of free

will, but despotic authority, Rowena was, by her previous education,

disposed both to resist and to resent any attempt to control her

affections, or dispose of her hand contrary to her inclinations, and to

assert her independence in a case in which even those females who have

been trained up to obedience and subjection, are not infrequently apt to

dispute the authority of guardians and parents. The opinions which she

felt strongly, she avowed boldly; and Cedric, who could not free himself

from his habitual deference to her opinions, felt totally at a loss how

to enforce his authority of guardian.

It was in vain that he attempted to dazzle her with the prospect of a

visionary throne. Rowena, who possessed strong sense, neither considered

his plan as practicable, nor as desirable, so far as she was concerned,

could it have been achieved. Without attempting to conceal her avowed

preference of Wilfred of Ivanhoe, she declared that, were that favoured

knight out of question, she would rather take refuge in a convent, than

share a throne with Athelstane, whom, having always despised, she now

began, on account of the trouble she received on his account, thoroughly

to detest.

Nevertheless, Cedric, whose opinions of women's constancy was far from

strong, persisted in using every means in his power to bring about the

proposed match, in which he conceived he was rendering an important

service to the Saxon cause. The sudden and romantic appearance of his

son in the lists at Ashby, he had justly regarded as almost a death's

blow to his hopes. His paternal affection, it is true, had for an

instant gained the victory over pride and patriotism; but both had

returned in full force, and under their joint operation, he was now bent

upon making a determined effort for the union of Athelstane and Rowena,

together with expediting those other measures which seemed necessary to

forward the restoration of Saxon independence.

On this last subject, he was now labouring with Athelstane, not without

having reason, every now and then, to lament, like Hotspur, that he

should have moved such a dish of skimmed milk to so honourable an

action. Athelstane, it is true, was vain enough, and loved to have

his ears tickled with tales of his high descent, and of his right

by inheritance to homage and sovereignty. But his petty vanity was

sufficiently gratified by receiving this homage at the hands of his

immediate attendants, and of the Saxons who approached him. If he had

the courage to encounter danger, he at least hated the trouble of going

to seek it; and while he agreed in the general principles laid down by

Cedric concerning the claim of the Saxons to independence, and was still

more easily convinced of his own title to reign over them when that

independence should be attained, yet when the means of asserting these

rights came to be discussed, he was still " Athelstane the Unready, "

slow, irresolute, procrastinating, and unenterprising. The warm and

impassioned exhortations of Cedric had as little effect upon his

impassive temper, as red-hot balls alighting in the water, which produce

a little sound and smoke, and are instantly extinguished.

If, leaving this task, which might be compared to spurring a tired jade,

or to hammering upon cold iron, Cedric fell back to his ward Rowena, he

received little more satisfaction from conferring with her. For, as his

presence interrupted the discourse between the lady and her favourite

attendant upon the gallantry and fate of Wilfred, Elgitha failed not to

revenge both her mistress and herself, by recurring to the overthrow of

Athelstane in the lists, the most disagreeable subject which could greet

the ears of Cedric. To this sturdy Saxon, therefore, the day's journey

was fraught with all manner of displeasure and discomfort; so that

he more than once internally cursed the tournament, and him who had

proclaimed it, together with his own folly in ever thinking of going

thither.

At noon, upon the motion of Athelstane, the travellers paused in a

woodland shade by a fountain, to repose their horses and partake of some

provisions, with which the hospitable Abbot had loaded a sumpter mule.

Their repast was a pretty long one; and these several interruptions

rendered it impossible for them to hope to reach Rotherwood without

travelling all night, a conviction which induced them to proceed on

their way at a more hasty pace than they had hitherto used.

CHAPTER XIX

A train of armed men, some noble dame

Escorting, (so their scatter'd words discover'd,

As unperceived I hung upon their rear, )

Are close at hand, and mean to pass the night

Within the castle.

--Orra, a Tragedy

The travellers had now reached the verge of the wooded country, and were

about to plunge into its recesses, held dangerous at that time from the

number of outlaws whom oppression and poverty had driven to despair,

and who occupied the forests in such large bands as could easily bid

defiance to the feeble police of the period. From these rovers, however,

notwithstanding the lateness of the hour Cedric and Athelstane accounted

themselves secure, as they had in attendance ten servants, besides Wamba

and Gurth, whose aid could not be counted upon, the one being a jester

and the other a captive. It may be added, that in travelling thus late

through the forest, Cedric and Athelstane relied on their descent and

character, as well as their courage. The outlaws, whom the severity of

the forest laws had reduced to this roving and desperate mode of life,

were chiefly peasants and yeomen of Saxon descent, and were generally

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