THE PARTING OF FEARGUS AND TORFRIDA
Then Duncan went swiftly to tell Feargus, and he was glad beyond measure
that his men were to accompany Torfrida.
“Now I need not tell ye, Duncan, to arm ye all with your best and take
the fleetest horses, and if Osbert hath laid any trap, seize ye him
instantly and, whoever else may escape, let not him. But if he hath with
him fifty men, like yourself, ye need fear nothing, for he knoweth well
his men who serve for money are no match for thine who serve for love.
But all of this thou wottest of thyself: I have little need to tell
thee.” So Duncan went forth on the day set for the journey and gathered
his men, and Osbert brought his friends also.
Then Torfrida rode out on a horse litter, for she was weak still, and
pale; and only two maidens rode with her. Seeing Duncan, she beckoned to
him to ride beside her; then speaking in Gaelic, which she was well able
to do, her mother having been of the Pictish race, she said, “Duncan, my
friend, leave me not to this man, nor let him ride beside or near me, for
I loathe him. To him it is we owe the overthrowing of thy chief; do not
trust him with thy safety, nor that of thy men; surely great number of
warriors he bringeth.”
And Osbert was for setting out on the moment, but Duncan stayed him while
he counted his men, then, turning to Osbert, he said—
“The number of my men is but fifty, but thou hast with thee not less than
fifty and twenty gentlemen; a halt we will call till my cousin, Alastair,
hath fetched hither twenty men of ours.”
Then said Osbert, “I come not here to parley with thee. I speak with
thanes and princes, and all such as thou have but to obey: fall in,
therefore, behind my men.”
At this Alastair glowered and laid his hand upon his sword, but Duncan,
who was of an easier temper, answered—
“Nay, we are all daoine-uasil[4] and of better blood than thine. Thou
knowest well, prince, that such parleying as this will avail us nothing.
If thou wishest seventy men, seventy let it be, since thy will is higher
than that of Penda, who said we might take each of us fifty; but an thou
takest seventy or any other number, then will I do likewise; but I must
first report me to the king, lest my chief or myself get the blame for
the breaking of his orders.”
Then Osbert bit his lip and swore to be revenged on the Pict. So they
took each fifty men, and Duncan ordered his company to arrange themselves
round the person of Torfrida, he himself riding on one side of her with
drawn sword and Alastair on the other, so they had Osbert and his men in
front; but Osbert, seeing this, was angry and asked wherefore the Picts
had arranged themselves to bring up the rear.
“Nay, prince, thou art the king’s son, methought it fit and proper that
thou shouldst ride in front, while I, who am but a captain and a chief’s
son, should ride in the rear with the prisoner, leastwise this is after
the manner of the Albanich, and king Penda hath no bond from us that we
are to live after the customs of the Mercians, but rather our own way.
Such is my wish to please thee, however, that if ye like to order my men
otherwise ye may do so—thou wilt find them wondrous meek of manner and
easy of persuasion.”
Osbert knew this for irony, and answered, “So thou sayest, but, as I
have no wish to pick a quarrel with the like of thee, I will allow this
point; but I must tell thee, that it is proper the lady should ride with
me, who am the chief of the party, and among my thanes, they being of her
rank. Otherwise king Sigmund will say we have not shown respect to his
daughter, and Penda hath said at all times that the lady Torfrida was to
be treated gently and above the common, for he regardeth her greatly.”
“As thou wishest, sir prince, but thou mayest have the ordering of this
thing, for my men look upon the maiden as the lady of our chief, Feargus,
and therefore their mistress, and the Picts, as ye call them, are ill to
give up what is their own.”
[Illustration: Feargus thrust his body through the opening, and held
Torfrida in his arms and kissed her, and she him.]
Finding all argument vain, Osbert said no more. So they set forth, and
the Albanich, with Torfrida in their midst, turned along the road which
led to the prison of Feargus, at which Osbert chafed. And Duncan, knowing
that it would fetch Feargus to the window, ordered his men to sound their
pipes, and so it happened as Duncan had foreseen, for Feargus hearing
them, came to watch them, pale and grief stricken, and beheld Torfrida
as she rode between his captains, and she him. Then Duncan, though he
knew that Penda had denied the parting, ordered his men to halt, but
Osbert was for going forward.
“On my head then be it,” said Duncan, taking Torfrida’s horse by the
bridle and leading it below his master’s window. Then Feargus fell to
greeting, and cried, “My faithful Duncan, I wot well that of thyself thou
hast done this thing.”
And Duncan made his men mount on to each others’ backs, and the topmost
placed their shields together, and he stood upright in the saddle,
Alastair doing likewise, and between them they lifted Torfrida from where
she lay sick in the litter on to the shields, till she stood as high
as the window of Feargus; then the men, and all they that stood about,
cheered, but Osbert chafed and wanted on. Then Feargus seized the great
bars that fenced the window, which only perhaps the mighty Duncan and
Alastair, of all the mighty men who stood in that throng, could have as
much as stirred, but such was the strength of him, and such his love,
that the bars shook and bent, then parted asunder from the walls that
held them, and he thrust his body through the opening and held her in
his arms and often kissed her and she him. But never a word he spake
though she wept much, and cried, “Alack, never more shall I behold thee;
never more shall we ride a hunting together in the wild wood; never will
Torfrida fare with thee to the land of thy kin.”
And fiercely she clung to his neck and wildly wept when they needs must
part them. And, as they rode on, the tongue of Feargus was loosened, and
lifting his voice he called aloud, “Torfrida! Torfrida!” and so called;
and at first his voice was faint and hoarse, but at the last so mighty
was the shout that the town rang with it. Till soon she, and they who
rode with her, became but as a speck in the far distance, though still
his eye seemed to see her through mist and dust, and still he called
aloud her name that all the townsmen gathered beneath and thought him
mad, and even the king sitting in his hall heard that wild shout and
shuddered, and as he lay in his bed through the night it uprose, till the
very winds seemed to catch the burthen and shriek “Torfrida!”