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KING PENDA’S CAPTAIN
All rights reserved
[Illustration: Feargus stepped to the side of Edwy and drew his sword,
shouting, “I am your captain: stand back, Mercians!”]
KING PENDA’S CAPTAIN
A Romance of Fighting in the Days of the Anglo-Saxons
by
MAC KENZIE MAC BRIDE
[Illustration]
With Coloured Illustrations by John Duncan
London
J. M. Dent & Company
29 Bedford Street, Strand
MCMVIII
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. OF FEARGUS AND KING PENDA 1
II. OF FEARGUS AND TORFRIDA 6
III. THE BATTLE BY TRENT WATER 18
IV. THE FLIGHT 29
V. THE PARTING OF FEARGUS AND TORFRIDA 41
VI. THE FALL OF FEARGUS 47
VII. OF THE MEETING OF FEARGUS AND OSBERT 55
VIII. THE DEAD HERO OF THE WINWIDFIELD 63
IX. OF THE FATE OF FEARGUS 74
X. OF THE WOODSMAN OF SHERWOOD 81
XI. OF OSBERT AND TORFRIDA 85
XII. THE OUTLAWS OF SHERWOOD 93
XIII. AWAKE! 99
XIV. THE MEETING IN THE FOREST 101
XV. OF THE VILLAINY OF OSBERT 107
XVI. OF THE BURNING OF THE HALL OF EDMUND 119
XVII. THE WAY TO ALBAN 127
XVIII. HOW THEY LOST THEIR WAY IN THE GREENWOOD 138
XIX. THEIR ADVENTURES AMONG THE NORTH ENGLISH 149
XX. HOW FEARGUS FELL AMONG THIEVES 157
XXI. HOW THEY FARED IN THE WILD COUNTRY 164
XXII. HOW THEY FELL AMONG FOES 174
XXIII. HOW TORFRIDA WAS STOLEN 186
XXIV. OF THE CASTLE IN THE PENTLANDS 199
XXV. OF THE FEAST IN SIEGFRIED’S HALL 206
XXVI. THE RESCUE 220
XXVII. THE FIGHT IN FENLAND 227
XXVIII. THE HISTORY COMETH TO AN END 236
ENGLAND IN PENDA’S DAY 237
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Feargus stepped to the side of Edwy and drew his sword,
shouting, “I am your captain: stand back, Mercians!” _Frontispiece_
So Feargus put his hands between the hands of Penda
and became his man _Facing page_ 4
Feargus thrust his body through the opening and held
Torfrida in his arms and kissed her and she him ” 44
“Now,” said Penda, “cometh death, and I shall die in
the best company that ever I was in” ” 72
Feargus wrenched the sword from Osbert’s hand and
struck him to the earth ” 116
The feet of Feargus sank deep in the snow at every step
and made him weary, but he fared on ” 170
Then Feargus thought that Torfrida was like to die, for
she fainted, and lay for long as one in death ” 178
Torfrida drew forth a burning faggot and then stepped
to the windows and set the hangings alight ” 190
KING PENDA’S CAPTAIN
CHAPTER I
OF FEARGUS AND KING PENDA
It chanced in the days when the preaching of Augustine and his followers
had stirred all England from the Tyne to the Thames and the English sea
that there arose in the Midlands, by the waters of Trent, a king of the
Mercians named Penda, son of Wybba, who, though he counted full fifty
years when he came to be king, had spirit like to that of a young man,
and he was a great warrior and faithful unto death to that which he held
true. When he saw the people of the lands around him casting over the
gods of their forefathers and following the new faith he was wrath, and
the more so with Northumbria, which had far outstripped the other nations
of the Angles under its noble and mighty king. For Edwin had broken the
old gods and brought under his overlordship the countrymen of Penda, and
the North Angles, the Middle Angles, East Angles, and Southumbrians or
men of Lindesey. Penda had seen all these things but had bided his time,
though the great heart in him beat hard as he beheld. And when he came
to be king he saw himself beset with foes: on the one hand his people
were hemmed in by the Welsh and West Saxons, on the other by the North
English and Middle English, East Angles and Lindiswaras or Lindeseymen,
while towering above all was impregnable Northumbria. When Penda arose
the heathen people, seeing the front of him, rallied, and he led them
forth and conquered: his sword fell first upon his near neighbours the
North Angles, Middle Angles, East Angles, and Southumbrians, and he
brought them in under him. And, the heathen people still gathering to his
banner, he tore the lands to the west from the West Saxons and overthrew
king Cadwalla of Wales. Then the Welsh king, seeing what a mighty man
was Penda, joined hands with him, and together they brought the kingdom
of Wessex to their feet. So everywhere the Mercians had the victory.
Then, at length, king Edwin lifted his war brand and gathered together
a mighty host and went to meet the Mercians, but in a great fight Penda
overthrew the Northumbrians, and Edwin himself was slain. So the power
of Northumbria waned, until its new king, Oswald, roused himself, and
went forth to help the Christian East Anglians against Penda, and with
him went a mighty host. When Penda heard of his coming, he looked to
his men and sent out ships bearing a messenger to one Nechtan of the
Hundred Battles, a great chief among the Albanich or Picts, who, though
most of the Pictish tribes had adopted the new religion, still stood by
the old gods of his race. Now battle was to Nechtan as the breath of his
nostrils, so that, though he cared less for his faith than did Penda for
Odin and Thor and Freya, yet, whenever they brought him the summons he
arose, and taking with him his son Feargus, and the most tried of his
warriors, as many as the ships would carry, he sailed south for the land
of Mercia.
Great was the joy of Penda at gaining so mighty a chief to his aid, and
they went out together to meet king Oswald. Then Penda took command of
the one half of that great host and Nechtan with his son Feargus of the
other. And Penda fought with great might, and king Nechtan likewise,
and his son Feargus. And it chanced in the midst of the fight that Penda
saw the Pictish chief stumble, and ran forward to catch him, and carried
him to his tent. Then the son of Nechtan was wrath at the wounding of
the king his father, and he led his men so cunningly, as did also the
mighty Penda, that the forces of Oswald were routed, and Oswald himself
was slain. So Penda was greatly pleased with the hardihood of Nechtan and
of his son, and before they went forth to their own land he begged the
Pictish king to leave the youth, Feargus, with him to be his man, and he
would, on his side, train him up in all manly ways. Now Nechtan was loth
to part with his best captain, for, though yet but a boy, such he deemed
his son, Feargus, but at length, for love of Penda and for that great
service he had done him on the field of battle, he agreed.
“For well I wot,” said he, “that home-keeping youths have homely wits,
and I know there is not such a warrior as Penda the world through.”
[Illustration: So Feargus put his hands between the hands of Penda, and
became his man.]
So Feargus put his hands between the hands of Penda and became his man,
and swore on his father’s sword to be faithful and obedient, and to stand
by the king in all matters soever. Then, after a short sojourn for the
healing of his wound, king Nechtan departed, leaving behind a company
of two hundred Picts, especially chosen for their size and strength and
hardihood, to serve his son.