THE GOOD SERVICE.
"'Tis merry, 'tis merry, in good green wood,
When mavis and merle are singing;
When the deer sweeps by, and the hounds are in cry,
And the hunter's horn is ringing."
LADY OF THE LAKE.
There is something exceedingly singular in the depth of almost
palpable silence which seems to fall upon a tract of woodland country,
on the sudden cessation of a full cry of stag-hounds; which cry has in
itself, apart from its stirring harmony of discords, something of
cheerfulness and sociality, conveyed by its sound, even to the lonely
wayfarer.
Although, during that hush of the woods, the carol of the birds, the
hum of insects, the breezy voice of the tree-tops, the cooing of the
ringdove, the murmur of falling waters, and all the undistinguished
harmonies of nature, unheard before, and drowned in that loud
brattling, sound forth and fill the listener's ear, yet they disturb
it not, nor seem to dissipate, but rather to augment, the influence of
the silence.
Kenric had not the educated sentiments which lead the most highly
civilized of men to sympathize most deeply with the beautiful sounds
and sights of nature. Yet still, as is mostly the case with dwellers
in the forest or on the wild mountain tops, he had a certain untutored
eye to take in and note effects--an unlearned ear with which to
receive pleasant sounds, and acquire a fuller pleasure from them than
he could perfectly comprehend or explain to his own senses. And now,
when the tumult of the chase had fallen asleep, he leaned against the
gnarled and mossy trunk, with his boar-spear resting listlessly
against his thigh, and a quiet, meditative expression replacing on his
grave, stern features the earnest and excited gaze, with which he had
watched the approach of the hunt.
The check, however, lasted not long; the clear, shrill challenge of a
favorite hound soon rose from the woodlands, accompanied by loud
cheers, "Taró, Taró, tantáro!" and followed by the full crash of the
reassembled pack, as they rallied to their leader, and struck again on
the hot and steaming scent.
Nearer and nearer came the cry, and ever and anon uprose, distant and
mellow, the cadenced nourishes of the clear French horns, giving new
life to the trackers of the deer, and filling the hearts of the riders
with almost mad excitement. Ere long, several cushats might be seen
wheeling above the tree-tops, disturbed from their procreant cradles
by the progress of the fierce din below them. A moment afterward,
dislodged from their feeding-grounds along the boggy margin of the
Idle, a dozen woodcock flapped up from the alder-bushes near the
brink, and came drifting along before the soft wind, on their feebly
whistling pinions, and, fluttering over the head of the watcher,
dropped into the shelter of the dingle in his rear, with its thick
shade of varnished hollies. The next instant, a superb red deer, with
high branching antlers, leaped with a mighty spring over and partly
through the crashing branches of the thicket, and swept with long,
graceful bounds across the clear savanna. A single shout, "Tayho!"
announced the appearance of the quarry in the open, and awakened a
responsive clangor of the horns, which, all at once, sounded their gay
tantivy, while the sharp, redoubled clang of the whips, and the cries
of "arriere! arriere!" which succeeded, told Kenric that the varlets
and attendants of the chase were busy stopping the slow hounds, whose
duty was accomplished so soon as the stag was forced into the field;
and which were now to be replaced by the fleet and fiery alans, used
to course and pull down the quarry by dint of downright strength and
speed.
The stretch of green savanna, of which I have spoken as running along
the northern margin of the Idle, below the wooded ridges of the lower
hills, could not have been less than four miles in length, and was
traversed by two sandy paths, unguarded by any fence or hedge-row,
which intersected each other within a few hundred yards of the belt of
underwood, whence the hunted deer had broken covert. At this point of
intersection, known as the Four-Lane-Ends, a general term in Yorkshire
for such cross-roads, stood a gigantic oak, short-boughed, but of vast
diameter, with gnarled and tortuous branches sweeping down almost to
the rank greensward which surrounded it, and concealing any person who
stood within their circumference, as completely as if he were within
an artificial pavilion.
That way, winged by terror, bounded the beautiful hart royal; for no
less did his ten-tined antlers, with their huge cupped tops denote
him; and, though it presented no real obstacle to his passage, when he
saw the yellow road, winding like a rivulet through the deep grass, he
gathered all his feet together, made four or five quick, short
buck-leaps, and then, soaring into the air like a bird taking wing,
swept over it, and alighted ten feet on the hither side, apparently
without an effort--a miracle of mingled grace, activity, and beauty.
As he alighted, he paused a moment, turned his long, swan-like neck,
and gazed backward for a few seconds with his large, lustrous,
melancholy eyes, until, seeing no pursuers, nor hearing any longer the
crash which had aroused him from his harbor, he tossed his antlers
proudly, and sailed easily and leisurely across the gentle green.
But at this moment, Eadwulf the Red, who was stationed beneath that
very oak-tree with the first relay of grayhounds, uttered a long,
shrill whoop, and casting loose the leashes, slipped the two
snow-white alans on the quarry. The whoop was answered immediately,
and, at about half a mile's distance from the spot where the deer had
issued, two princely-looking Norman nobles, clearly distinguishable as
such by their richly-furred short hunting-coats, tight hose, and
golden spurs of knighthood, came into sight, spurring their noble
Andalusian coursers--at that period the fleetest strain in the world,
which combined high blood with the capacity to endure the weight of a
man-at-arms in his full panoply--to their fullest speed; and followed
by a long train of attendants--some mounted, some on foot, huntsmen
and verdurers, and yeomen prickers, with falconers, and running
footmen, some leading alans in the leash, and some with nets and
spears for the chase of the wild boar, which still roamed not
unfrequent in the woody swamps that intersected the lower grounds and
lined many of the river beds of Sherwood.
It was a gay and stirring scene. The meadow, late so quiet in its
uniform green garniture, was now alive with fluttering plumes, and
glittering with many-colored scarfs and cassocks, noble steeds of all
hues, blood-bay and golden chestnut, dappled and roan, and gleamy
blacks, and one, on which rode the foremost of the noble Normans,
white as December's snow; and in the middle of the picture, aroused by
the shouts in his rear, and aware of the presence of his fresh
pursuers, the superb stag, with his neck far stretched out, and his
grand antlers pressed close along his back, straining every nerve, and
literally seeming to fly over the level sward; while the snow-white
alans, with their fierce black eyes glowing like coals of fire, and
their blood-red tongues lolling from their open jaws, breathless and
mute, but stanch as vindictive fiends, hung hard upon his traces.
At first, the hunted stag laid his course upward, diagonally, aiming
for the forest land on the hillside; and although, at first, he had
scarce thirty yards of law, and was, moreover, so nearly matched in
speed by his relentless enemies, that, for many hundred yards, he
neither gained nor lost a yard's distance, still he gradually gathered
way, as yards fell into furlongs, furlongs into miles, and drew ahead
slowly, but surely, until it appeared almost certain that he must soon
gain the shelter of the tall timber, where the keen eyes of the alans,
impotent of scent, would be worthless in pursuit, and where he must
again be dislodged by slow hounds, or the chase abandoned.
Just as he was within fifty yards, however, of the desired covert's
edge, Sir Philip de Morville--for he it was who rode the
foremost--raised his bugle to his lips, and sounded it long and
shrill, in a most peculiar strain, to which a whoop responded, almost
from the point for which the stag was making, and, at the same time, a
second brace of alans--one a jet black, and the other a deep-brindled
fawn color--darted out, and flew down the gentle slope, right at the
head of the yet unwearied quarry.
Springing high into air, he instantly made a perfect demivolte, with
an angry toss of his antlers, and shot, with redoubled efforts in the
contrary direction, cutting across the very noses of his original
pursuers, which, when they had turned likewise, were brought within
fifty yards of his haunches, and away like an arrow toward the bridge
across the Idle. From this moment, the excitement of the spectacle was
redoubled; nor could any one, even the coldest of spectators, have
looked on without feeling the blood course, like molten lava, through
his veins.
It was no longer a stern chase, where the direct speed only of the
rival and hostile animals was brought into play; for, as the stag
turned to the left about, the black and brindled alans, which had been
started at his head, were thrown by the movement some thirty yards
wide on his right quarter; while the white dogs, who had pursued him
so savagely from the beginning, were brought to a position nearly
equidistant on his left flank.
Henceforth it was a course of fleet bounds, short turns, and windings
of wonderful agility; and at this instant a new spectator, or
spectatress rather, was added to the scene.
This was a young girl of some sixteen or seventeen years, at the
utmost, beautifully formed, and full of easy grace and symmetry, who
came careering down the road, from the direction of the castle, as
fast as the flying bounds of a beautiful red roan Arab--with mane and
tail of silver, scarcely larger or less fleet than the deer in the
plain below--could carry her.
Her face and features were not less beautiful than her form; the
latter would have been perfectly Grecian and classical but for the
slightest possible upward turn in the delicate thin nose, which
imparted an arch, half-saucy meaning to her rich, laughing face. Her
eyes were clear, bright blue, with long, dark lashes, a pure
complexion, ripe, crimson lips, and a flood of dark auburn tresses,
which had escaped from the confinement of her purple velvet bonnet,
and flowed on the light breeze in a flood of glittering ringlets,
completed her attractions.
Her garb was the rich attire peculiar to her age, rank, and the period
of which we write--the most picturesque, perhaps, and appropriate to
set off the perfections of a female figure of rare symmetry, that ever
has been invented. A closely-fitting jacket, following every curve and
sinuous line of her beauteous shape, of rich green velvet, furred
deeply at the cape and cuffs with white swansdown, and bordered at the
hips by a broad band of the same pure garniture; loose-flowing skirts,
of heavy sendal of the same hue, a crimson velvet shoulder-belt
supporting a richly-embroidered hawking-pouch, a floating plume of
white ostrich feathers, and a crimson-hooded merlin on her wrist, with
golden bells and jesses, completed her person's adornment; and
combined, with the superb housings and velvet headstall of her
exquisite palfrey, to form a charming picture.
So rapidly did she ride, that a single page--a boy of ten or twelve
years, who followed her--spurring with all his might, could scarcely
keep her in sight; and, as she careered down toward the bridge, which
she had almost reached, was lost to view in the valley immediately
behind the ridge, the southern slope of which she was descending.
The stag, by this time, which had been aiming hitherto to cross the
road on which she was galloping, had been turned several times by the
fresh relay of alans, which were untired and unimpaired of speed, and
had been thus edged gradually away from the road and bridge, toward
the white dogs, which were now running, as it is technically termed,
_cunning_, laying up straight ahead, on a parallel line, and
almost abreast with the deer. Now they drew forward, shot ahead, and
passed him. At once, seeing his peril, he wheeled on his haunches,
and, with a desperate last effort, headed once more for the road,
striving, for life! for life! to cut across the right-hand couple of
deer grayhounds; but, fleet as he was, fleeter now did they show
themselves, and once more he was forced to turn, only to find the
white dogs directly in his path.
One, the taller and swifter of the two, was a few yards in advance of
the other, and, as the stag turned full into his foaming jaws, sprang
at its throat with a wild yell. But the deer bounded too, and bounded
higher than the dog, and, as they met in mid air, its keen,
sharp-pointed hoofs struck the brave staghound in the chest, and
hurled him to the ground stunned, if not lifeless. Four strides more,
and he swept like a swallow over a narrow reach of the little river;
and then, having once more brought the three surviving hounds directly
astern, turned to the westward along the river shore, and cantering
away lightly, no longer so hard pressed, seemed likely to make his
escape toward a broad belt of forest, which lay some mile and a half
that way, free from ambuscade or hidden peril.
At this turn of the chase, fiercer was the excitement, and wilder
waxed the shouting and the bugle blasts of the discomfited followers
of the chase, none of whom were nearer to the bridge than a full half
mile. But so animated was the beautiful young lady, whose face had
flushed crimson, and then turned ashy pale, with the sudden excitement
of that bold exploit of dog and deer, that she clapped her hands
joyously together, unhooding and casting loose her merlin, though
without intention, in the act, and crying, gayly, "Well run, brave
Hercules! well leaped, brave Hart o' Grease;" and, as she saw the
hunters scattered over the wide field, none so near to the sport as
she, she flung her arm aloft, and with her pretty girlish voice set up
a musical whoop of defiance.
Now, at the very moment when the deer's escape seemed almost more than
certain--as often is the case in human affairs, no less than
cervine--"a new foe in the field" changed the whole aspect of the
case. The great brindled gray deerhound, which had lain thus far
peaceful by Kenric's side, seeing what had passed, sprang out of the
fern, unbidden, swam across the Idle in a dozen strokes, and once more
headed the hunted deer.
The young girl was now within six horses' length of the bridge, when
the deer, closely pursued by its original assailants, and finding
itself now intercepted by Kenric's dog "Kilbuck" in front, turned once
again in the only direction now left it, and wheeled across the bridge
at full speed, black with sweat, flecked with white foam-flakes, its
tongue hanging from its swollen jaws, its bloodshot eyeballs almost
starting from its head, mad with terror and despair. All at once, the
Arab horse and the gorgeous trappings of the rider glanced across its
line of vision; fire seemed, to the affrighted girl, to flash from its
glaring eyes, as it lowered its mighty antlers, and charged with a
fierce, angry bray.
Pale as death, the gallant girl yet retained her courage and her
faculties; she pulled so sharply on her left rein, striking the
palfrey on the shoulder with her riding-rod, that he wheeled short on
his haunches, and presented his right flank to the infuriated deer,
protecting his fair rider by the interposition of his body.
No help was nigh, though the Norman nobles saw her peril, and spurred
madly to the rescue; though Kenric started from his lair with a
portentous whoop, and, poising his boar spear, rushed down, in the
hope to turn the onset to himself. But it was too late; and, strong as
was his hand, and his eyes steady, he dared not to hurl such a weapon
as that he held, in such proximity to her he would defend.
With an appalling sound, a soft, dead, crushing thrust, the terrible
brow antlers were plunged into the defenseless flanks of the poor
palfrey; which hung, for a second on the cruel prongs, and then, with
a long, shivering scream, rolled over on its side, with collapsed
limbs, and, after a few convulsive struggles, lay dead, with the
lovely form of its mistress rolled under it, pale, motionless, with
the long golden hair disordered in the dust, and the blue eyes closed,
stunned, cold, and spiritless, at least, if not lifeless.
Attracted by the gay shoulder-belt of the poor girl, again the savage
beast stooped to gore; but a strong hand was on his antler, and a keen
knife-point buried in his breast. Sore stricken he was, yet, not
slain; and, rearing erect on his hind legs, he dealt such a storm of
blows from his sharp hoofs, each cutting almost like a knife, about
the head and shoulders of his dauntless antagonist, as soon hurled
him, in no better condition than she, beside the lady he had risked so
much to rescue.
Then the dogs closed and seized him, and savage and appalling was the
strife of the fierce brutes, with long-drawn, choking sighs, and
throttling yells, as they raved, and tore, and stamped, and battled,
over the prostrate group.
It was a fearful sight that met the eyes of the first comer. He was
the Norman who had ridden second in the chase, but now, having
outstripped his friendly rival in the neck-or-nothing skurry that
succeeded, thundered the first into the road, where the dogs were now
mangling the slaughtered stag, and besmearing the pale face of the
senseless girl with blood and bestial foam.
To spring from his saddle and drop on his knees beside her, was but a
moment's work.
"My child! my child! they have slaughtered thee. Woe! woe!"