_THE CONSTABLE'S CHILDREN._
"Fair Mistress Alys, this is sooth a wondrous city, in the which strange
sights are to be seen. Fain would I myself belong to it, and make one of
those bands of scholars whom I see passing to and fro through the
streets. Fain would I learn more of the life here, and share it for a
while. I am aweary of the clash of arms and the strife of tongues. The
life of a scholar has more charms for me."
The fair-faced Alys looked up from the frame where was stretched a great
piece of tapestry work, upon which her nimble fingers were at work.
There was a smile in her eyes as she made reply,--
"And yet, from all I hear and see, there is plenty of strife of tongues
and clash of arms even within the walls of this city, and amongst the
clerks and scholars themselves. I have not dwelt long enough here to
know what it is all about; but methinks those who have the charge of the
city have hard work sometimes to keep the peace there."
"That is very true," spoke a second voice, not at all unlike the one
which had just ceased, although it belonged to a lad of seventeen
summers, who lay full length upon a wide settle, over which a great
bearskin rug had been first laid. The face of this youth was thin and
hollow, and his hands were white and wasted. But his hazel eyes were
liquid and full of brightness, and though the broad brow was often
furrowed by pain, the smile which lit up the thin, well-cut features was
frequent and full of brightness.
"Yes; Alys speaks no more than the truth," said the youth, as Amalric de
Montfort turned to look at him. "We have not been long in this place, as
thou dost know. Until our father had been settled here some time as
Constable of the Castle, he would not summon us to be with him. We
remained with our mother's kindred in the south, and have only been a
few short months within these walls. Yet we have learned many strange
things during this time, and truly do I think that the city of Oxford
can be one of the most turbulent spots upon the face of the earth. I
have heard my father and the Chancellor of the University taking counsel
together how the peace may be kept, and in sooth it seems no easy matter
to decide."
"Ah yes, where many hot-headed youths be pent up together in narrow
bounds, there must needs be strife of a kind," answered Amalric; "but
that, after all, is a brotherly sort of strife, far removed from this
other strife of which I begin to grow strangely weary. If ye twain could
know but the half of what my noble father has endured at the hands of
the King--how he has spent his substance and his own life-blood away
there in Gascony, all to establish the King's royal authority there; and
how for all his faithful service he has received naught but hard words
and humiliations which would have turned many another into a bitter foe!
The tyranny and caprice of the weak King (uncle though he be of mine, I
will speak the truth of him) has been heartbreaking. It has aged my lady
mother, and embittered my father's life. And now, when he is forced to
stand forth as the champion of the nation, to hold the King to his
promises, there will be nothing before him but one long, strenuous
fight. Oh, I begin to weary of it all! If I could help him, I would be
ever at his side; but I can do nothing, and my heart grows sick within
me. Would that he would leave me behind in this city of learning, that I
might join the ranks of scholars, and gain, perchance, by my pen what I
scarce think I shall ever do by my sword! Methinks I was not born for
such strenuous days as these."
"Would that I might be in the very thickest of the strife!" cried the
lad, Edmund de Kynaston, his eyes dilating with a quick flash. "Methinks
were I as others are, I would ever seek out the post of greatest peril,
and stand in the foremost of the fight! Yet here am I, a useless log,
scarce able to put one foot before the other. Such is the caprice of
Dame Fortune!"
Alys rose from her frame, and crossed the room with light steps; she
bent over her brother and gently smoothed away the hair from his brow.
"But thou art happy here with me, my brother?" she questioned
pleadingly; "and when our father has time to see to the matter, we will
study together, and grow learned and wise, even if we cannot go forth
into the great world of battles without."
Edmund's smile was bright and eager as he imprisoned his sister's
fingers in his own.
"Verily, we will do great things together in one fashion or another,
sweet sister. I am always happy with thee at my side; yet I would that I
could serve and tend thee, instead of receiving all the service at thy
hands."
"I love to tend thee, brother mine," whispered Alys, as she bent over
him and kissed his brow, and then tripped lightly back to her frame; for
idleness was not permitted to the daughter of the Constable, and her
mother required a daily portion of work from those skilful fingers.
This conversation took place in a pleasant upper chamber belonging to
one of the many solid buildings enclosed within the walls of what was
known as the Castle of Oxford.
There were several buildings within these circling walls--the College
and Chapel of St. George, the Constable's quarters, and certain strong
towers that were often used as prisons for unruly clerks and scholars.
The Chancellor himself, although exercising a wide jurisdiction over the
liberties of the members of the University, had no place of durance in
which to place offenders, so that they were most often brought into the
Castle and lodged there.
Sir Humphrey de Kynaston had not occupied the position of Constable very
long, and so far he and the Chancellor had been excellent friends. They
were both anxious to maintain the peace of the city, and were agreed to
act in concert, instead of in rivalry, as had sometimes been the case
between former Governors of Castle and University.
Sir Humphrey had only two children, a boy and a girl. Edmund had always
been famed for his daring spirit and sunny temperament, and during his
boyhood had been the pride and joy of his father's heart. Two years ago,
however, he had received what appeared at the time to be a fatal injury
during a boar-hunt in the New Forest, where he was staying with his
mother's kinsfolks. The boar had turned to bay, and when some daring
huntsman, together with Edmund's uncle, approached to try to give the
final blow, the maddened creature sprang at them with such fury that
both fell before him, and all thought their lives must pay the forfeit.
But Edmund had seized a strong spear, and had made so sudden and fierce
a rush that the beast was borne back for a moment, giving the two time
to gain their feet once again. When they turned to slay their quarry,
however, they found that he had inflicted a terrible wound upon Edmund
with his great tusks. The boy was carried home in what was thought to be
a dying state, and although his fine constitution had enabled him to
pull through the long and dangerous illness, he had remained permanently
crippled, unable to do more than trail himself painfully from room to
room, or occasionally in warm weather to take a little very gentle
exercise on the back of a quiet and well-trained horse, which would be
content to pace sedately without prancing or curvetting.
Since that day it had been the chiefest happiness of Alys's life to wait
upon her brother, soothe his hours of suffering, which were many, and
share with him every simple joy and interest in life. Brother and sister
had both been greatly pleased to join their father at the Castle here,
and were ready to take a keen interest in all that went on at this seat
of learning.
Edmund had been fired with the desire to excel now in learning as he had
once excelled in feats of skill and strength. Their father had promised
to find for them a tutor with whom they might study; and perhaps some
youthful clerk to read to them out of such books as were then
obtainable, that they might progress the faster in their studies.
But the present excitement occasioned by the Parliament assembled in the
city had for the moment driven everything else out of the minds of those
dwelling there, and Sir Humphrey had his hands and mind and house alike
full.
The Parliament was sitting in the vacated quarters of the Black Friars
in the Jewry. The largest of their buildings there had been hastily
fitted up as a Council chamber; and the King and Barons met in daily
conclave to discuss the situation, and agree upon some definite plan for
the future.
The great De Montfort, who had been accustomed to rough it under all
sorts of climates and in all sorts of conditions, would have been
content to take up his own quarters at the inn in the town, had not Sir
Humphrey insisted that he and his sons should be his guests at the
Castle, leaving only the retinue at Dagville's Inn.
Thus it came about that, whilst the Earl and his two elder sons went
daily to the meeting-place in the Jewry, the younger sons, Guy and
Amalric, were left pretty much to their own devices, and spent their
time for the most part either in wandering about the town and learning
what they could as to the life there, or with the fair Alys and her
brother in this pleasant, airy chamber.
The room was itself very attractive, for it was adorned with tapestry
hangings which Alys's skilful fingers had wrought, and upon the stone
floor lay the dressed skins of many a wild creature of the woods which
Edmund had slain ere he had been laid low. Several stuffed birds and
small beasts were to be seen set upon the brackets which Edmund carved
in his hours of ease; and a tame falcon upon a perch occupied a little
recess, and when released from his chain would fly about the room or
perch affectionately on the hand of the master he loved. A great
wolf-hound also was generally to be found lying at full length beside
his master's couch. He had been Edmund's most faithful follower almost
from boyhood, and was now growing old and a little infirm. Therefore his
master's ways were little trouble to him, and save when he paced
backwards and forwards in the courtyard with his mistress, he seldom
cared to move from beside Edmund's couch.
Both Guy and Amalric de Montfort had grown fond of this upper chamber
and its inhabitants, and came and went almost at will. Edmund had been
keenly interested in all that these lads could tell him of their
father's campaigns, and of the battle for constitutional liberty which
he was so strenuously fighting now. Edmund knew that his own father was
strongly in sympathy with the action that the Barons were now taking,
and he listened eagerly to any items of information which he could pick
up. But whilst the Parliament was sitting, little was said as to the
course the deliberations were taking. There were whispers of stormy
scenes, and of outbreaks of fierce and rather impotent anger on the part
of the King; but for the most part a discreet silence was observed as to
the probable result of the deliberations, though from the King's
increasing irritability and fits of gloom it was surmised that he was
not best pleased at the course things were taking.
The talk between the De Kynastons and Amalric de Montfort on this
particular day was interrupted by the sudden entrance of Guy, who came
in eagerly and joyously.
"I have a plan!" he cried. "I was wandering down hard by the Grandpont,
when I saw a man in a right comely wherry, and he was pleased to hire it
to me for a few pence. He says that it will carry a party well, and that
if we lift it over the fall by Iffley Church, we can navigate a great
stretch of the river, or if we better like we can go up against the
current. Methought thou mightest well go with us, Edmund, for thou canst
ride down to the river-bank, and then the boat will carry thee bravely,
and we can take with us that bear's skin and make a couch for thee along
the bottom."
Alys clapped her hands in delight at the thought. Somehow it had never
occurred to them that the river might open up a new source of amusement
for the invalid.
Quickly was the matter settled. Dame Kynaston, though rather a martinet
in her household, as a managing housewife in those days had some need to
be, was a loving mother also, and was only too glad to forward any plan
whereby Edmund might benefit in health or spirits. Very soon the little
party was on its way to the wherry lying by the bridge, eagerly planning
the day's pleasuring, and finally settling that the navigation of the
Cherwell would afford the most amusement and novelty.
"What is yon tower hard by the bridge?" asked Amalric of Alys, by whose
side he was walking, a little in advance of the other pair.
"They call it Friar Bacon's study," answered Alys. "You may have heard
of Friar Bacon. They say he was a great and a good man, and he joined
himself to the Minorite Friars. But he grew too learned in what men call
the black arts--in astrology and astronomy; and he built himself yon
tower, that he might the better study the stars. So men got frightened
at him and his learning, and he was banished the city and the realm. I
have heard that he went to Paris, but I know not if that be true. They
say that if a greater or more learned man should ever pass beneath the
tower, its walls will crumble away, and it will fall to the ground. But
it has not fallen yet!"
"I have heard of Friar Bacon and his learning in very truth," answered
Amalric. "I call it shame that such a man should be banished the realm.
I believe not that any learning hurts the soul of man, so it be gotten
in the fear of God and the love of man."
Just at that moment a youth in the dress of a clerk turned a corner, and
came face to face with Alys and her companion.
"Hugh!" cried Amalric joyfully. "If I have not been looking for another
sight of thy face ever since we first entered the city, and I caught
sight of thee in the crowd! Now this is well met, for we are bent on a
days pleasuring on the water, and I am very sure that fair Mistress Alys
will give me leave to ask thee to join our company."
Alys bent her head with ready assent. She was interested in all clerks;
and the pleasant, open face of Hugh was attractive, besides the
guarantee of his being known to Amalric. Guy also gave him a friendly
greeting when the palfrey was led down to the waters edge, and before
long the whole party had embarked, and were rowing gently down the
stream to the point where the Cherwell made its junction with the Isis.
Hugh was called upon to tell his experiences as a scholar in the city,
and was nothing loth to do so. Amalric listened with all his ears, and
Edmund likewise. The youngest son of the warlike Earl of Leicester had
more of the scholar than the soldier in his composition, and was already
deeply bitten by the idea of remaining in Oxford and becoming a scholar
there. It was not likely that his father would oppose the wish if
strongly urged, and Amalric thus lost no opportunity of obtaining
information as to the life there.
Edmund lay along the bottom of the boat, delighted with the easy motion,
with the tree-crowned banks between which they were gliding, and the
beauty of all they saw in wood and meadow. The waterway was so narrow in
places that Alys could hardly believe they could force their way through
it at all; but this they always managed to do, and pushed on and on
until the sound of falling water told them that they would find an
obstruction to further progress.
"Never mind," cried Hugh; "it is but the fall. We must disembark and
carry the boat a few yards, and launch it afresh on the upper stream.
There we shall have a wider highway and more water. Ha! and here, as
happy chance wills it, are two good friends who will lend us a hand."
They had come in sight of the fall now, and also of a little canoe drawn
up near to the bank, in which a pair of lads were seated, one diligently
fishing in the pool, the other poring over a small volume which he held
in his hands; and so intent did this latter appear over his task, that
it was not until hailed in a loud voice by Hugh that he lifted his face.
When he did so, however, Alys gave a little cry, and bending over
Edmund, she said eagerly,--
"Brother, yonder is the clerk who saved me when the palfrey went nigh to
hurting me that day in the spring-tide. I am sure it is he; and it was
he I saw in the meadows the day when the Barons made their entry into
the city. Prithee may I speak to him? he seems to be known to Master
Hugh."
"I will speak him first," answered Edmund; and then with a good deal of
confusion of tongues the boat was drawn ashore, and all the party
disembarked--Alys giving her shoulder to her brother to lean upon whilst
the wherry was carried to the upper waters close above the fall.
"May I not help you, sir?" asked Leofric, coming up with a shy smile in
his eyes. The other four youths--for Jack had taken his part there--were
carrying the boat, and Leofric had been sent back to help Edmund up the
narrow path. "I am very strong, and the way is not long. Lean upon me,
and I will take you there gently."
"Thanks, good lad," answered Edmund, availing himself of the strong arm
extended to him. "I was wanting a word with thee, for my sister here
tells me that thou didst do her a good turn one day some while back,
when her horse took fright, and might have thrown her from its back."
Leofric blushed and disclaimed, declaring that Jack had done more than
himself; but Alys was of another opinion, and both brother and sister
fell into conversation with their new acquaintance, whose face, as
usual, won him favour at once.
"Thou wert reading when we came up," said Edmund; "art thou a scholar of
this place?"
Leofric told of himself, who and what he was, and admitted that he was
able to read Latin fairly well and understand it too, and that Brother
Angelus had given him several books to study, to help him to a greater
proficiency.
"These are the 'Sentences' they think so much of in the schools," said
Leofric, drawing the little volume from his pouch; "but Brother Angelus
prefers to go straight to the Scriptures themselves for learning, and
loves not the Sentences very greatly. But it is well for a clerk to be
versed in them. I have begun to study the philosophy of Aristotle too,
for all men talk much of him now, though some say that his learning is
dangerous to the soul. How-beit all men are eager to learn it."
"And where dost thou dwell?" asked Edmund eagerly; "and if thou be poor,
as thou sayest, how dost thou live?"
"Our wants are but few, and we live in a little turret on the walls,
where we have made a chamber for ourselves, no man forbidding us. My
comrade, Jack Dugdale, fishes, and snares rabbits in the woods; and I
gain small sums of money by painting on vellum, which I learned from the
good monks of St. Michael. We have enough for our needs, and can pay our
fees to the masters we seek after. Your father, sir, gave us money that
day of which you spoke. It was very welcome to us then, for we had but
come into the city, and scarce knew then how we should live."
By this time the boat was launched again, and the whole party assisted
Edmund to regain his former position along the bottom. Guy de Montfort
had taken an immense fancy to the canoe he had seen, and nothing would
serve him but that Jack should bring it up and give him a lesson in the
management of the craft. When he heard how the two lads had travelled
in it from a region not so very far from his own home of Kenilworth, he
was very much astonished; and getting Leofric to take his place in the
boat, he and Jack set off together up the stream, and were soon lost to
sight of the others.
This left Amalric, Hugh, and Leofric to navigate the larger boat, and to
talk together of those matters which interested them and Edmund so much.
It was natural that Amalric and Hugh should consort together, having
been friends and comrades in old days. This left Leofric free to answer
the many eager questions put to him by Edmund, whilst Alys sat by with
eager face and shining eyes, not losing a word of the conversation, and
sometimes taking a share in it herself.
"I can get books," said Edmund, "but they be nearly all in Latin. I can
neither read them easily nor understand what I read. I want to find
somebody who will come and read with me; for soon my eyes grow weary,
and my back aches if I try to hold up the volume myself, and I am
wellnigh ashamed to ask my father for a tutor, when perchance I might so
soon get aweary of his teachings. What I want rather, to begin with, is
a tutor for perhaps a few hours in the week, and for the rest a youth
like myself, himself a clerk, but with more learning than I, who would
come and read to me and with me till I could get the mastery myself over
the Latin tongue."
Leofric's eyes were bright with interest. He was too modest to speak the
words that trembled on his tongue; but the thought of having access to
books was strangely tempting, and there was something about Edmund and
Alys which attracted him greatly. The gentle refinement of their manners
and speech was in such pleasing contrast to the _brusquerie_ of the bulk
of his associates. When Alys said timidly,--
"Would Leofric Wyvill come to us if our father approved?" his face
burned with gratification and joy at being thus singled out; and Edmund
looked at him, saying,--
"I had scarce liked to ask, in case thou mightest have other work more
important; but I trow my father would approve, and would pay thee for
thy time and labour."
"O sir, to have books to read would be payment enough!" cried Leofric
eagerly. "I have longed to see more, but there be all too few in the
city for the needs of scholars and clerks; and but for the kindness of
Brother Angelus, I should never have aught to study save what I can
write down of the things we hear. I am but a learner myself; but if I
can help you, it will make me glad and proud to do so. I could at least
strive to remember all I hear, and repeat it to you. That is what I have
to do for Jack, who is not used to learning. He forgets all too soon,
and then we go over each lecture together, and I write upon the walls
such things as we most desire to remember, and there they are to remind
us if we want information another day."
Before the boat and its occupants made their way back to the town,
Amalric de Montfort had made up his mind to ask of his father grace to
remain behind and enter himself as a clerk in some Hall at Oxford;
whilst Edmund had fully resolved to beg his parents to engage Leofric
Wyvill to come to him several times in the week, to read with him, and
instruct him in brother-like fashion in those things which he was
learning for himself.