by Walter Scott 40 страница

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thirsty, there was drink--if hungry, there was food--if it sunk down

upon and saddened the heart, here were the means supplied of mirth, or

at least of amusement. Nor did the assistants scorn to avail themselves

of those means of consolation, although, every now and then, as if

suddenly recollecting the cause which had brought them together, the men

groaned in unison, while the females, of whom many were present, raised

up their voices and shrieked for very woe.

Such was the scene in the castle-yard at Coningsburgh when it was

entered by Richard and his followers. The seneschal or steward deigned

not to take notice of the groups of inferior guests who were perpetually

entering and withdrawing, unless so far as was necessary to preserve

order; nevertheless he was struck by the good mien of the Monarch and

Ivanhoe, more especially as he imagined the features of the latter were

familiar to him. Besides, the approach of two knights, for such their

dress bespoke them, was a rare event at a Saxon solemnity, and could not

but be regarded as a sort of honour to the deceased and his family. And

in his sable dress, and holding in his hand his white wand of office,

this important personage made way through the miscellaneous assemblage

of guests, thus conducting Richard and Ivanhoe to the entrance of the

tower. Gurth and Wamba speedily found acquaintances in the court-yard,

nor presumed to intrude themselves any farther until their presence

should be required.

CHAPTER XLII

I found them winding of Marcello's corpse.

And there was such a solemn melody,

'Twixt doleful songs, tears, and sad elegies, --

Such as old grandames, watching by the dead,

Are wont to outwear the night with.

--Old Play

The mode of entering the great tower of Coningsburgh Castle is very

peculiar, and partakes of the rude simplicity of the early times in

which it was erected. A flight of steps, so deep and narrow as to be

almost precipitous, leads up to a low portal in the south side of the

tower, by which the adventurous antiquary may still, or at least could

a few years since, gain access to a small stair within the thickness

of the main wall of the tower, which leads up to the third story of the

building, --the two lower being dungeons or vaults, which neither receive

air nor light, save by a square hole in the third story, with which

they seem to have communicated by a ladder. The access to the upper

apartments in the tower which consist in all of four stories, is given

by stairs which are carried up through the external buttresses.

By this difficult and complicated entrance, the good King Richard,

followed by his faithful Ivanhoe, was ushered into the round apartment

which occupies the whole of the third story from the ground. Wilfred,

by the difficulties of the ascent, gained time to muffle his face in his

mantle, as it had been held expedient that he should not present himself

to his father until the King should give him the signal.

There were assembled in this apartment, around a large oaken table,

about a dozen of the most distinguished representatives of the Saxon

families in the adjacent counties. They were all old, or, at least,

elderly men; for the younger race, to the great displeasure of the

seniors, had, like Ivanhoe, broken down many of the barriers which

separated for half a century the Norman victors from the vanquished

Saxons. The downcast and sorrowful looks of these venerable men, their

silence and their mournful posture, formed a strong contrast to the

levity of the revellers on the outside of the castle. Their grey locks

and long full beards, together with their antique tunics and loose black

mantles, suited well with the singular and rude apartment in which they

were seated, and gave the appearance of a band of ancient worshippers of

Woden, recalled to life to mourn over the decay of their national glory.

Cedric, seated in equal rank among his countrymen, seemed yet, by common

consent, to act as chief of the assembly. Upon the entrance of Richard

(only known to him as the valorous Knight of the Fetterlock) he arose

gravely, and gave him welcome by the ordinary salutation, " Waes hael",

raising at the same time a goblet to his head. The King, no stranger

to the customs of his English subjects, returned the greeting with the

appropriate words, " Drinc hael", and partook of a cup which was handed

to him by the sewer. The same courtesy was offered to Ivanhoe, who

pledged his father in silence, supplying the usual speech by an

inclination of his head, lest his voice should have been recognised.

When this introductory ceremony was performed, Cedric arose, and,

extending his hand to Richard, conducted him into a small and very rude

chapel, which was excavated, as it were, out of one of the external

buttresses. As there was no opening, saving a little narrow loop-hole,

the place would have been nearly quite dark but for two flambeaux or

torches, which showed, by a red and smoky light, the arched roof and

naked walls, the rude altar of stone, and the crucifix of the same

material.

Before this altar was placed a bier, and on each side of this bier

kneeled three priests, who told their beads, and muttered their prayers,

with the greatest signs of external devotion. For this service a

splendid " soul-scat" was paid to the convent of Saint Edmund's by the

mother of the deceased; and, that it might be fully deserved, the whole

brethren, saving the lame Sacristan, had transferred themselves to

Coningsburgh, where, while six of their number were constantly on guard

in the performance of divine rites by the bier of Athelstane, the others

failed not to take their share of the refreshments and amusements which

went on at the castle. In maintaining this pious watch and ward, the

good monks were particularly careful not to interrupt their hymns for

an instant, lest Zernebock, the ancient Saxon Apollyon, should lay

his clutches on the departed Athelstane. Nor were they less careful to

prevent any unhallowed layman from touching the pall, which, having been

that used at the funeral of Saint Edmund, was liable to be desecrated,

if handled by the profane. If, in truth, these attentions could be of

any use to the deceased, he had some right to expect them at the hands

of the brethren of Saint Edmund's, since, besides a hundred mancuses

of gold paid down as the soul-ransom, the mother of Athelstane had

announced her intention of endowing that foundation with the better part

of the lands of the deceased, in order to maintain perpetual prayers for

his soul, and that of her departed husband. Richard and Wilfred followed

the Saxon Cedric into the apartment of death, where, as their guide

pointed with solemn air to the untimely bier of Athelstane, they

followed his example in devoutly crossing themselves, and muttering a

brief prayer for the weal of the departed soul.

This act of pious charity performed, Cedric again motioned them to

follow him, gliding over the stone floor with a noiseless tread; and,

after ascending a few steps, opened with great caution the door of a

small oratory, which adjoined to the chapel. It was about eight feet

square, hollowed, like the chapel itself, out of the thickness of the

wall; and the loop-hole, which enlightened it, being to the west, and

widening considerably as it sloped inward, a beam of the setting sun

found its way into its dark recess, and showed a female of a dignified

mien, and whose countenance retained the marked remains of majestic

beauty. Her long mourning robes and her flowing wimple of black cypress,

enhanced the whiteness of her skin, and the beauty of her light-coloured

and flowing tresses, which time had neither thinned nor mingled with

silver. Her countenance expressed the deepest sorrow that is consistent

with resignation. On the stone table before her stood a crucifix

of ivory, beside which was laid a missal, having its pages richly

illuminated, and its boards adorned with clasps of gold, and bosses of

the same precious metal.

" Noble Edith, " said Cedric, after having stood a moment silent, as if

to give Richard and Wilfred time to look upon the lady of the mansion,

" these are worthy strangers, come to take a part in thy sorrows. And

this, in especial, is the valiant Knight who fought so bravely for the

deliverance of him for whom we this day mourn. "

" His bravery has my thanks, " returned the lady; " although it be the

will of Heaven that it should be displayed in vain. I thank, too, his

courtesy, and that of his companion, which hath brought them hither to

behold the widow of Adeling, the mother of Athelstane, in her deep hour

of sorrow and lamentation. To your care, kind kinsman, I intrust them,

satisfied that they will want no hospitality which these sad walls can

yet afford. "

The guests bowed deeply to the mourning parent, and withdrew from their

hospitable guide.

Another winding stair conducted them to an apartment of the same size

with that which they had first entered, occupying indeed the story

immediately above. From this room, ere yet the door was opened,

proceeded a low and melancholy strain of vocal music. When they entered,

they found themselves in the presence of about twenty matrons and

maidens of distinguished Saxon lineage. Four maidens, Rowena leading the

choir, raised a hymn for the soul of the deceased, of which we have only

been able to decipher two or three stanzas: --

Dust unto dust,

To this all must;

The tenant hath resign'd

The faded form

To waste and worm--

Corruption claims her kind.

Through paths unknown

Thy soul hath flown,

To seek the realms of woe,

Where fiery pain

Shall purge the stain

Of actions done below.

In that sad place,

By Mary's grace,

Brief may thy dwelling be

Till prayers and alms,

And holy psalms,

Shall set the captive free.

While this dirge was sung, in a low and melancholy tone, by the female

choristers, the others were divided into two bands, of which one was

engaged in bedecking, with such embroidery as their skill and taste

could compass, a large silken pall, destined to cover the bier of

Athelstane, while the others busied themselves in selecting, from

baskets of flowers placed before them, garlands, which they intended for

the same mournful purpose. The behaviour of the maidens was decorous, if

not marked with deep affliction; but now and then a whisper or a smile

called forth the rebuke of the severer matrons, and here and there might

be seen a damsel more interested in endeavouring to find out how her

mourning-robe became her, than in the dismal ceremony for which they

were preparing. Neither was this propensity (if we must needs confess

the truth) at all diminished by the appearance of two strange knights,

which occasioned some looking up, peeping, and whispering. Rowena alone,

too proud to be vain, paid her greeting to her deliverer with a graceful

courtesy. Her demeanour was serious, but not dejected; and it may be

doubted whether thoughts of Ivanhoe, and of the uncertainty of his

fate, did not claim as great a share in her gravity as the death of her

kinsman.

To Cedric, however, who, as we have observed, was not remarkably

clear-sighted on such occasions, the sorrow of his ward seemed so

much deeper than any of the other maidens, that he deemed it proper

to whisper the explanation--" She was the affianced bride of the noble

Athelstane. " --It may be doubted whether this communication went a far

way to increase Wilfred's disposition to sympathize with the mourners of

Coningsburgh.

Having thus formally introduced the guests to the different chambers in

which the obsequies of Athelstane were celebrated under different forms,

Cedric conducted them into a small room, destined, as he informed them,

for the exclusive accomodation of honourable guests, whose more slight

connexion with the deceased might render them unwilling to join those

who were immediately effected by the unhappy event. He assured them of

every accommodation, and was about to withdraw when the Black Knight

took his hand.

" I crave to remind you, noble Thane, " he said, " that when we last

parted, you promised, for the service I had the fortune to render you,

to grant me a boon. "

" It is granted ere named, noble Knight, " said Cedric; " yet, at this sad

moment---"

" Of that also, " said the King, " I have bethought me--but my time is

brief--neither does it seem to me unfit, that, when closing the grave on

the noble Athelstane, we should deposit therein certain prejudices and

hasty opinions. "

" Sir Knight of the Fetterlock, " said Cedric, colouring, and interrupting

the King in his turn, " I trust your boon regards yourself and no other;

for in that which concerns the honour of my house, it is scarce fitting

that a stranger should mingle. "

" Nor do I wish to mingle, " said the King, mildly, " unless in so far as

you will admit me to have an interest. As yet you have known me but as

the Black Knight of the Fetterlock--Know me now as Richard Plantagenet. "

" Richard of Anjou! " exclaimed Cedric, stepping backward with the utmost

astonishment.

" No, noble Cedric--Richard of England! --whose deepest interest--whose

deepest wish, is to see her sons united with each other. --And, how now,

worthy Thane! hast thou no knee for thy prince? "

" To Norman blood, " said Cedric, " it hath never bended. "

" Reserve thine homage then, " said the Monarch, " until I shall prove my

right to it by my equal protection of Normans and English. "

" Prince, " answered Cedric, " I have ever done justice to thy bravery

and thy worth--Nor am I ignorant of thy claim to the crown through thy

descent from Matilda, niece to Edgar Atheling, and daughter to Malcolm

of Scotland. But Matilda, though of the royal Saxon blood, was not the

heir to the monarchy. "

" I will not dispute my title with thee, noble Thane, " said Richard,

calmly; " but I will bid thee look around thee, and see where thou wilt

find another to be put into the scale against it. "

" And hast thou wandered hither, Prince, to tell me so? " said Cedric--" To

upbraid me with the ruin of my race, ere the grave has closed o'er

the last scion of Saxon royalty? " --His countenance darkened as he

spoke. --" It was boldly--it was rashly done! "

" Not so, by the holy rood! " replied the King; " it was done in the frank

confidence which one brave man may repose in another, without a shadow

of danger. "

" Thou sayest well, Sir King--for King I own thou art, and wilt be,

despite of my feeble opposition. --I dare not take the only mode to

prevent it, though thou hast placed the strong temptation within my

reach! "

" And now to my boon, " said the King, " which I ask not with one jot

the less confidence, that thou hast refused to acknowledge my lawful

sovereignty. I require of thee, as a man of thy word, on pain of being

held faithless, man-sworn, and 'nidering', [581] to forgive and receive

to thy paternal affection the good knight, Wilfred of Ivanhoe. In this

reconciliation thou wilt own I have an interest--the happiness of my

friend, and the quelling of dissension among my faithful people. "

" And this is Wilfred! " said Cedric, pointing to his son.

" My father! --my father! " said Ivanhoe, prostrating himself at Cedric's

feet, " grant me thy forgiveness! "

" Thou hast it, my son, " said Cedric, raising him up. " The son of

Hereward knows how to keep his word, even when it has been passed to

a Norman. But let me see thee use the dress and costume of thy English

ancestry--no short cloaks, no gay bonnets, no fantastic plumage in my

decent household. He that would be the son of Cedric, must show himself

of English ancestry. --Thou art about to speak, " he added, sternly, " and

I guess the topic. The Lady Rowena must complete two years' mourning, as

for a betrothed husband--all our Saxon ancestors would disown us were

we to treat of a new union for her ere the grave of him she should

have wedded--him, so much the most worthy of her hand by birth and

ancestry--is yet closed. The ghost of Athelstane himself would burst

his bloody cerements and stand before us to forbid such dishonour to his

memory. "

It seemed as if Cedric's words had raised a spectre; for, scarce had

he uttered them ere the door flew open, and Athelstane, arrayed in

the garments of the grave, stood before them, pale, haggard, and like

something arisen from the dead! [59]

The effect of this apparition on the persons present was utterly

appalling. Cedric started back as far as the wall of the apartment would

permit, and, leaning against it as one unable to support himself, gazed

on the figure of his friend with eyes that seemed fixed, and a mouth

which he appeared incapable of shutting. Ivanhoe crossed himself,

repeating prayers in Saxon, Latin, or Norman-French, as they occurred

to his memory, while Richard alternately said, " Benedicite", and swore,

" Mort de ma vie! "

In the meantime, a horrible noise was heard below stairs, some crying,

" Secure the treacherous monks! " --others, " Down with them into the

dungeon! " --others, " Pitch them from the highest battlements! "

" In the name of God! " said Cedric, addressing what seemed the spectre of

his departed friend, " if thou art mortal, speak! --if a departed spirit,

say for what cause thou dost revisit us, or if I can do aught that can

set thy spirit at repose. --Living or dead, noble Athelstane, speak to

Cedric! "

" I will, " said the spectre, very composedly, " when I have collected

breath, and when you give me time--Alive, saidst thou? --I am as much

alive as he can be who has fed on bread and water for three days, which

seem three ages--Yes, bread and water, Father Cedric! By Heaven, and all

saints in it, better food hath not passed my weasand for three livelong

days, and by God's providence it is that I am now here to tell it. "

" Why, noble Athelstane, " said the Black Knight, " I myself saw you struck

down by the fierce Templar towards the end of the storm at Torquilstone,

and as I thought, and Wamba reported, your skull was cloven through the

teeth. "

" You thought amiss, Sir Knight, " said Athelstane, " and Wamba lied. My

teeth are in good order, and that my supper shall presently find--No

thanks to the Templar though, whose sword turned in his hand, so that

the blade struck me flatlings, being averted by the handle of the good

mace with which I warded the blow; had my steel-cap been on, I had not

valued it a rush, and had dealt him such a counter-buff as would have

spoilt his retreat. But as it was, down I went, stunned, indeed, but

unwounded. Others, of both sides, were beaten down and slaughtered

above me, so that I never recovered my senses until I found myself in

a coffin--(an open one, by good luck)--placed before the altar of the

church of Saint Edmund's. I sneezed repeatedly--groaned--awakened and

would have arisen, when the Sacristan and Abbot, full of terror, came

running at the noise, surprised, doubtless, and no way pleased to find

the man alive, whose heirs they had proposed themselves to be. I asked

for wine--they gave me some, but it must have been highly medicated, for

I slept yet more deeply than before, and wakened not for many hours. I

found my arms swathed down--my feet tied so fast that mine ankles ache

at the very remembrance--the place was utterly dark--the oubliette, as

I suppose, of their accursed convent, and from the close, stifled,

damp smell, I conceive it is also used for a place of sepulture. I had

strange thoughts of what had befallen me, when the door of my dungeon

creaked, and two villain monks entered. They would have persuaded me I

was in purgatory, but I knew too well the pursy short-breathed voice of

the Father Abbot. --Saint Jeremy! how different from that tone with which

he used to ask me for another slice of the haunch! --the dog has feasted

with me from Christmas to Twelfth-night. "

" Have patience, noble Athelstane, " said the King, " take breath--tell

your story at leisure--beshrew me but such a tale is as well worth

listening to as a romance. "

" Ay but, by the rood of Bromeholm, there was no romance in the matter! "

said Athelstane. --" A barley loaf and a pitcher of water--that THEY gave

me, the niggardly traitors, whom my father, and I myself, had enriched,

when their best resources were the flitches of bacon and measures of

corn, out of which they wheedled poor serfs and bondsmen, in exchange

for their prayers--the nest of foul ungrateful vipers--barley bread and

ditch water to such a patron as I had been! I will smoke them out of

their nest, though I be excommunicated! "

" But, in the name of Our Lady, noble Athelstane, " said Cedric, grasping

the hand of his friend, " how didst thou escape this imminent danger--did

their hearts relent? "

" Did their hearts relent! " echoed Athelstane. --" Do rocks melt with the

sun? I should have been there still, had not some stir in the Convent,

which I find was their procession hitherward to eat my funeral feast,

when they well knew how and where I had been buried alive, summoned the

swarm out of their hive. I heard them droning out their death-psalms,

little judging they were sung in respect for my soul by those who

were thus famishing my body. They went, however, and I waited long for

food--no wonder--the gouty Sacristan was even too busy with his own

provender to mind mine. At length down he came, with an unstable step

and a strong flavour of wine and spices about his person. Good cheer had

opened his heart, for he left me a nook of pasty and a flask of wine,

instead of my former fare. I ate, drank, and was invigorated; when, to

add to my good luck, the Sacristan, too totty to discharge his duty of

turnkey fitly, locked the door beside the staple, so that it fell ajar.

The light, the food, the wine, set my invention to work. The staple to

which my chains were fixed, was more rusted than I or the villain Abbot

had supposed. Even iron could not remain without consuming in the damps

of that infernal dungeon. "

" Take breath, noble Athelstane, " said Richard, " and partake of some

refreshment, ere you proceed with a tale so dreadful. "

" Partake! " quoth Athelstane; " I have been partaking five times

to-day--and yet a morsel of that savoury ham were not altogether foreign

to the matter; and I pray you, fair sir, to do me reason in a cup of

wine. "

The guests, though still agape with astonishment, pledged their

resuscitated landlord, who thus proceeded in his story: --He had indeed

now many more auditors than those to whom it was commenced, for Edith,

having given certain necessary orders for arranging matters within

the Castle, had followed the dead-alive up to the stranger's apartment

attended by as many of the guests, male and female, as could squeeze

into the small room, while others, crowding the staircase, caught up

an erroneous edition of the story, and transmitted it still more

inaccurately to those beneath, who again sent it forth to the vulgar

without, in a fashion totally irreconcilable to the real fact.

Athelstane, however, went on as follows, with the history of his

escape: --

" Finding myself freed from the staple, I dragged myself up stairs as

well as a man loaded with shackles, and emaciated with fasting, might;

and after much groping about, I was at length directed, by the sound of

a jolly roundelay, to the apartment where the worthy Sacristan, an it

so please ye, was holding a devil's mass with a huge beetle-browed,

broad-shouldered brother of the grey-frock and cowl, who looked much

more like a thief than a clergyman. I burst in upon them, and the

fashion of my grave-clothes, as well as the clanking of my chains, made

me more resemble an inhabitant of the other world than of this. Both

stood aghast; but when I knocked down the Sacristan with my fist,

the other fellow, his pot-companion, fetched a blow at me with a huge

quarter-staff. "

" This must be our Friar Tuck, for a count's ransom, " said Richard,

looking at Ivanhoe.

" He may be the devil, an he will, " said Athelstane. " Fortunately he

missed the aim; and on my approaching to grapple with him, took to his

heels and ran for it. I failed not to set my own heels at liberty by

means of the fetter-key, which hung amongst others at the sexton's belt;

and I had thoughts of beating out the knave's brains with the bunch of

keys, but gratitude for the nook of pasty and the flask of wine which

the rascal had imparted to my captivity, came over my heart; so, with a

brace of hearty kicks, I left him on the floor, pouched some baked meat,

and a leathern bottle of wine, with which the two venerable brethren had

been regaling, went to the stable, and found in a private stall mine own

best palfrey, which, doubtless, had been set apart for the holy Father

Abbot's particular use. Hither I came with all the speed the beast could

compass--man and mother's son flying before me wherever I came,

taking me for a spectre, the more especially as, to prevent my being

recognised, I drew the corpse-hood over my face. I had not gained

admittance into my own castle, had I not been supposed to be the

attendant of a juggler who is making the people in the castle-yard

very merry, considering they are assembled to celebrate their lord's

funeral--I say the sewer thought I was dressed to bear a part in the

tregetour's mummery, and so I got admission, and did but disclose myself

to my mother, and eat a hasty morsel, ere I came in quest of you, my

noble friend. "

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