HOW THEY FARED IN THE WILD COUNTRY
After that time, by reason of his great strength and the cleanness of his
blood, the wound was well-nigh healed. So Feargus took his bow and went
forth and brought food in great plenty, and they mounted their beasts,
which were eager to be away, and rode down across the moor until they
won the burn by which the robbers dwelt. Feargus knew it not again, for
he had been too weak to mark the way, but as they reached the glen he
noticed his beast to tremble and he told Torfrida and hurried her over
the stream, bidding her ride forward a good space, and then lie down
among the heather, for danger was near. “And much I wish I had my byrny
and my great sword,” said he. Then for fear aught should befall the beast
he rode, he dismounted and made the creature lie down, and took his bow
and went back towards the ford. There he crouched down and waited; for
he thought that if the robbers were on their track it would be better
to meet them as they reached the ford than allow them to cross, but he
sighed again for his great sword and his byrny of rare workmanship.
Then as he lay he became aware of a man clad in russet hiding among the
stones, and he knew they had been seen. He watched the man till he arose
and ran down towards the foot of the glen, and presently returned with
five men, leading horses. Among them was he who had dressed his wound
whom he took to be the Pict. When he saw them his wrath was great for
all the ill they had done him, and belike many more, and for so little
pity they had shown or soldiership. Then said he, “Little me liketh
bloodshed, but these shall die ere they win the north side of the burn;
for further hurt will they else do to many.” Then, moreover, he bethought
him of his armour and knew not how he could win through all that lay
before him without it; so he looked again at his enemies and there were
five of them, less the Pict, who would not be willing to fight against
him. “I have before now set as many on their backs by help of wit and
these arrows, and, moreover, the burn is between us and they will have no
shelter.”
Now they had almost won the ford and Feargus put an arrow to his bow, and
as the first man entered the water to cross he raised to his knee and
sent the arrow forth. In the act he felt his wound and it angered him;
the man fell back into the water with the arrow sticking in him a foot
deep, and neither shout nor groan gave he, for Feargus was a merciful
death-dealer. The captain, seeing his man swept away in the flood, cried
“On.” Then Feargus, that he might know who was before him, stood upright;
but the captain knew well, forsooth, and halted them before they touched
the water, to shoot their arrows. Feargus lay down in the heather to
avoid them, but they having the water before them were without shelter,
so again he drew his bow, and another leapt forward and fell headlong
into the stream, to be quickly followed by a third. There only remained
the Pict and the captain, who turned to flee. Then Feargus shouted out,
“Now, sir captain, an ye turn, ye shall die, ere ye have fled fifty
paces, an ye stand ye shall fight hand to hand with me, for where odds
are equal I will take no vantage of bow or arrow, though I be without
byrny. I have left thee till the last for thou didst in cowardly wise
strike me when wounded, and I would that thou shouldst see the ruin of
thy men and thyself.” Then Feargus moved forward, and the captain turned
to the Pict, saying, “Why standest thou and slay him not?”
“Nay, sir captain, I have wrought much evil since thou didst take me and
force me to join thy band, but never did I yet take hand with a stranger
like thee against mine own kin. A king’s son at least is this, and though
I will take no part against thee neither will I help thee; ye are man
to man and thine enemy is without byrny, so ye may fight it out.” Then
he held out his sword to Feargus, who straightway gave it back again,
saying, “Nay, keep it, kinsman.”
Then the captain, seeing there was nothing left but to fight, drew, and
Feargus drew also his sword, but it was not his own blade; fiercely they
fell to and the robber wrought with great might till Feargus drew back a
pace and dealt a great blow, and the blade shore the robber’s helm clean
through the side, leaving the head unharmed, but breaking itself nigh
to the hilt, and the robber staggered from left to right as one drunk.
Then Feargus was without arms, but, keeping still the broken hilt of the
sword in his hand, he dashed at his antagonist, striking him full in the
face; then wresting the sword from his hand, flung it across the burn
and, lifting the robber, gripped him so hard that he cried out; then,
running a few paces, hurled him into the flood nigh to where it took a
mighty leap of many feet amid jagged rocks: and so no creature save the
raven saw him thereafter. Feargus turned back to where the Pict stood
awe-stricken at so fierce a fight, and he took his bow and bade him lead
to the cave. Lightly he obeyed, and they entered, and there Feargus found
his byrny and his great sword of wondrous temper and all that he had
lost. Then the Pict told him they must get away lest the rest of the band
should return from the neighbouring dales and find their captain slain.
“And I will take what will serve me and fly, for they will not believe
my story, and I will away into Galloway privily and find my kin and then
will I come north to serve thee all my days, for the greatest of warriors
art thou. Thou wilt find difficulty enough in fending for thyself and
thy young friend else would I join thee.”
So the Pict went one way and Feargus went another, and stripping off the
skins with which he was clad he sprang into the stream and swam about,
for his wound’s sake. Then being refreshed, he gained the land and
dressed him and donned his byrny, over it casting the skins to hide the
brightness of it and called his horse, which arose quickly and followed
him. When Torfrida saw that he had his sword again and his byrny she
was rejoiced greatly. So they rode on across the moor and they could
see nothing save heather and whin and bracken, with clumps of trees far
apart, and patches of bog covered with long grass, and the wild myrtle
that sent forth a sweet smell, and in the distance hills and glens
innumerable. So they journeyed for many days. But ever the nights drew
out and the days drew in, and Feargus had much ado to find food or a
dry spot to cast their tent in, and the cold strengthened and much rain
fell and sometimes hail and snow. And they were often forced to spend
whole days in resting and waiting for the storms to abate. And sometimes
they lost their road among the fells. They stayed now on the bare hill
side where nothing but the cry of the paitrick or the plover was to be
heard the year through; now in wild glens; by crag and loch and burn
ever northward wending. Soon they found the winter sore upon them, and
the snow lay thick and covered all the land, and the horses had nothing
wherewith to satisfy their hunger. In the darkness came wild beasts,
and they had to build a great fire each night around them to scare the
creatures. And whiles they drew right up to it scenting the horses and
then drew back, and at length so bold they grew that one night two giant
wolves leapt across the flames nigh to where Feargus sat, sword in hand,
but hardly had they reached the earth ere he plunged his sword down the
open jaws of one and kicked the other backwards into the fire with his
foot. And the snow became so deep that Feargus built a snow house each
night for Torfrida, and himself stood by the watch-fire outside. And so
they sped, the hazel nut and red deer their food, or whatever his bow
could bring down; and from all dangers he shielded her, or labour or
weariness or cold, so far as he might in so terrible a clime. But often
his heart failed him and he felt that death lay before them. At length
the horses waxed weak for lack of food, and he cut the meat from the
beasts he slew for them, but he saw that an he could not soon win a
clachan or farmstead they must die.
[Illustration: The feet of Feargus sank deep in the snow at every step,
and made him weary, but he fared on.]
Their way still lay among the mountains and little food could they there
find, so one evening Feargus started out in quest thereof and his feet
sank deep in the snow at every step and made him weary, but he fared on.
At last he turned, thinking to travel back by his footprints, but of a
sudden the sky had grown overcast, and a gust of wind soughed up the glen
and in a moment it was as though a mist had fallen upon him, for he could
see neither behind nor before, nor sky nor land, so small and close fell
the snow. On he stumbled trying now to guess the way back and crying out
at intervals, “Torfrida! Torfrida!” Then he stooped down to seek the
footprints, but found that all were filled with the driving snow; still
he went on hour after hour and like to drop for weariness, and ever and
anon crying “Torfrida!”
And Torfrida lay awaiting him in her house builded of snow on the top of
a steep hill; for they feared to stay in the glens at that time lest the
snow-drifts should bury them. As the darkness closed in she set a light
to her fire. Then, of a sudden, the storm burst upon them and had it not
been that their place of halting was cunningly chosen in a spot sheltered
from the winds common in that quarter, her fire would have been quenched
altogether. The darkness thickened and fear fell upon her for her lover,
and she stood in the doorway watching over the plain below. It might be
about midnight when far away across the fells in front of her she thought
she heard the cry “Torfrida!” She fancied it foreboded his death, and
wished herself dead, for their troubles seemed like to overwhelm them.
All night the tempest raged, and all the day following, and still she
fed the fire, till her heap of faggots grew low, for she knew that it
would be his only guide, if guide he longer needed. On the night of the
second day she again thought she heard that weird cry “Torfrida!” and
arose and shrieked “Feargus! Feargus!” Then she fancied she saw a great
white form staggering about far down on the moor beneath, till at length
it fell or seemed to, then slowly and with little life arose once more;
then she tried to go out to it, but was too weak and full of horror, for
a creature of another world this might be and she swooned, and as she
awoke suddenly a giant form rose up before her deep covered with snow
frozen to it from beard to foot, and with one wild cry, “Torfrida!” it
staggered forward and fell headlong at her feet, and she knew that he had
come.