A week the army stayed in camp by the pleasant waters of the Maeander,
and daily at noon Gilbert and Beatrix met at the same place. She told
him that she had not seen her father again, and believed that he had
left the camp. The Queen knew that the lovers met, but she would not
hinder them, though it was cruel pain to think of their happiness. Many
have spoken and written evil things of Eleanor, for she was a haughty
woman and overbearing, and she feared neither God nor man, nor Satan
either; but she had a strong and generous heart, and, having promised,
she kept her word as well as she could. She would not send for Gilbert,
nor see him alone, lest she should fail of resolution when her eyes
looked on him too closely. Beatrix knew this and took heart, and the
veil of estrangement was lifted between her and Gilbert.
On the last day but one of the year he went before the King, who bade
him mount again with his men and ride before the army through the
passes of the Cadmus towards Attalia, seeking out the safest way and
giving timely warning of the enemy. Also, because it was known that the
danger must be greater now than before, the King gave him leave to
choose knights and men-at-arms to the number of a hundred, to be under
him, and made him rich presents of fine armour, and caused his shield
to be painted afresh by a skilled Greek. While he talked with Gilbert
he watched the Queen, who sat apart somewhat pale, reading in a Book of
Hours, for he was suspicious of her; but she never looked at the
Englishman until he was taking his leave. Then she beckoned him to her,
before he went out, and gave him her ungloved hand, which he kissed,
and she looked into his face a moment, very sadly, not knowing whether
she should see him again. So he went out, to bid Beatrix farewell.
She met him at the accustomed place by the river, and for a while they
were together; but they could not talk much, being both very sad. She
took a golden ring from her hand, and would have put it upon his
finger, but it was too small.
"I had hoped that you could wear it," she said, disappointed, "for it
was my mother's."
Gilbert took it in his hand. It was of very pure gold and thin, so he
cut it open with the point of his dagger and bent it back and clasped
it round his fourth finger, tightly.
"It is our troth," he said.
It was hard to let him go, for she also knew the peril, as the Queen
knew it.
"I shall pray for you," she said, clinging to him. "God is good--you
may come back to me."
They sat a long time together, saying nothing. When it was time for him
to lead his men out, as he judged by the sun, he kissed her, lifting
her up to him.
"Good-by," he said.
"Not yet!" she pleaded, between his kisses. "Oh, Gilbert, not so very
soon!"
But she knew that he must go, and he set her gently upon her feet, for
it was the last moment. When he was gone, she sat down upon the stone,
and the Norman woman came and put one arm round her, holding her, for
she seemed fainting. Still her eyes followed him as he strode along the
river, till he reached the turning. There he stopped and looked back,
and kissed the ring she had given him, and waved his hand to her; and
she pressed both her hands to her lips and threw them out to him, as if
she would have thrown him her heart and her soul with it.
When he was gone, the sky turned black before her eyes and time stood
still, and she knew what death meant. But she did not faint, and she
had no tears. Only, when she went back after some time, she walked
unsteadily and her woman helped her.
So Gilbert rode out to seek the way, taking well-mounted messengers
with him as before, and on the first day of the New Year the whole army
began the march again, crossing the river the first time at a ford. The
Queen would perforce be in the van, with her ladies, so that the speed
of their riding became the speed of the whole army, whereby the whole
host was kept together. The first messenger who came back told that Sir
Gilbert had reached the hills, and led the Queen by the way he had
followed, saying that so far he had met no enemies.
But on the morrow, as they drew near to the mountains and rode up the
rising ground, they saw afar off a man standing by one who lay stark on
the ground, and driving off a vulture and a score of ravens with a long
staff. The Queen's heart stood still when she saw this sight, and she
spurred her Arab mare forward before all the army till she stopped
beside the dead body and saw that the face was not Gilbert's. The
squire who was guarding the dead told her how, very early in the
morning, some fifty Seljuk horsemen had come down from the hills and
had shot arrows at Gilbert and his men from a distance, wheeling
quickly and galloping away out of sight before the Christians could
mount; and this one knight had been killed, and his squire had stayed
by him till the army should come up, while the rest rode on, and took
both the horses with them in case they should lose any of their own.
There they buried the body deep, when the Queen's chaplain had blessed
it, and they marched on till noon, and encamped. From that time the
Queen made her ladies ride in the centre of the great host, protected
on all sides; but she herself, with the Lady Anne of Auch, still kept
the van, for in this way she was nearer to Gilbert. She also sent out
parties of scouts to the right and left, to give warning of the
Seljuks; and the King guarded the rear, where there was also great
danger.
Meanwhile Gilbert went farther up into the mountains, searching out the
best way to the pass, distrusting the Greek guides, who nevertheless
feared him and told him the truth, though it was the secret wish of the
Greek Emperor that the army should all be destroyed, because he desired
no increase of the western power in Asia. But Gilbert told the guides
severally and all together that he would cut off the head of the first
one who should even seem to be false; and he kept them under his own
eye, and his long sword was always loose in the sheath.
He went very cautiously now, setting sentinels at night and sleeping
little himself, so that he might often go alone from post to post and
see that all was well. But the Seljuks never came in the darkness, for
as yet there were not many of them, and they trusted to their bows by
day, when they could see; but they feared to come to close quarters
with the picked swordsmen of the French army. Since they had first
shown themselves, the Christians all rode fully armed in mail and hood,
knights and men-at-arms and young squires alike, with the half-dozen
pack-horses and a few spare mounts in the midst; and good mail was
proof against arrows, but Gilbert wished that he had brought fifty
archers with him, such marksmen as little Alric, his groom.
There was some fighting every day, when he was able to overtake the
swift Seljuks in some narrow place. They fled when they could, but when
they were brought to bay they turned savagely and fought like panthers,
yelling their war-cry: "Hurr! Hurr!" which in the Tartar tongue
signifies: "Kill! Kill!"
But more often the Christians killed them, being stronger men and
better armed, and Gilbert was ever the first to strike; and one day, as
the fiercest of a band of Seljuks rode at him, whirling a crooked sword
and shouting the cry, Gilbert cut off his arm at one stroke and it fell
to the ground with the fist still grasping the scimitar; whereat
Gilbert laughed fiercely and mocked the unbeliever's cry.
"Hurrah! Hurrah!" he shouted, as he rode on.
Then his followers took the cry from him, jeering at their enemies, and
on that morning they let not one escape, but slew them all, saving one
man only, and took the horses that were alive. But from that time, the
Christians began to cry, "Hurrah!" And when men shout to-day, "Hurrah
for the king," they know not that they are crying, "Kill for the king."
But Gilbert saw that the place where this happened was a very dangerous
one, though the entrance to it was broad and pleasant, through a high
valley where there were certain huts in which shepherds dwelt, and
grass and water. Therefore he turned back quickly when the killing was
over, and he took the chief of the guides by the throat, holding his
head down upon the pommel of his saddle, and bade him show a better way
if he would keep his head on his shoulders.
"My lord, there is no other way," cried the man, fright-struck.
"Very well," answered Gilbert, drawing his red sword again. "If there
is no other way, I shall not need you any more, my man."
When the fellow heard the sheath sucking the wet steel, he screamed for
terror, crying out that there was another way. So they rode back to the
entrance of the valley, and the man began to lead them up a steep track
among trees; and above the trees they came to a desolate, stony ridge;
but still they could ride, though it was a very toilsome way.
When they had reached the top, after three hours, Gilbert saw that he
was at the true pass, broad and straight, opening down to grassy slopes
beyond, between crags that would not give a foothold to a goat. He rode
on a little way farther, and there was a very steep path, turning back,
round the highest peak, and presently he looked down into a small, high
valley, below which the narrow way led down to the pleasant place
through which he had first ridden, and he saw that a great army could
easily be destroyed there by a small one lying in ambush. He could see
quite plainly the dead Seljuks lying as they had fallen, and from far
and near the great vultures and the kites were sailing down from the
crags, while the ravens and crows that followed his killing day by day
were flying, and settling, and hopping along the ground, and flying
again to the places of death.
He rode back to his men, driving the guide before him; and the man
feared for his life continually, and reeled in the saddle as if he were
drunk. But Gilbert knew that a man well frightened was a man gained for
what he wanted, so when he had threatened to cut off his hands and put
out his eyes and leave him to die among the rocks if he tried to
misguide the army again, he let him live. Then he sent ten men back to
lead the host on the following day, and he remained in the pass to keep
it until the vanguard should be in sight. He bade his messengers tell
the King that for his life he must not go into the broad valley, though
it looked so fair and open.
Now the Seljuks whom he had met were all dead but one young man; but
there were many of them, some five thousand, encamped in a great
hiding-place surrounded by rocks, on the other side of the pass. And
the one who had escaped went to them, and told them what had happened,
and that the whole French army would surely come up that way on the
next day or the day after that. Therefore the Seljuks mounted, and came
and lay in ambush, and two hundred of them rode down into the valley
and hid themselves among the trees where the steep way began which was
the right way. For they knew the mountains, and feared lest at the last
moment the White Fiend, as they called Gilbert, might find out his
mistake and choose that path to the pass, and save all; whereas on the
steep ridge, under cover of trees, two hundred chosen bowmen, each with
a great sheaf of arrows, might turn back a host. So the night passed,
and Gilbert was undisturbed; but great evil was prepared for the army,
though his messengers reached the camp and repeated his words to the
King before nightfall.
It lacked two hours of noon when Sir Gaston de Castignac and a dozen
other knights, and Gilbert's ten men, turned the spur of the mountain
where the broad green valley opened, having on their right the wooded
ridge where the two hundred Seljuks were hidden. A moment later the
Queen herself came up, with Anne of Auch and a hundred knights, and she
supposed that they should have ridden through the valley; but Castignac
stopped her and told her what the men said, and that they must all
begin the ascent from that point. The valley was inviting, with its
pleasant water and its broad meadow, and some of the knights murmured;
but when Eleanor heard that Gilbert had chosen the steeper way, she had
no doubt, and bade them all be silent; yet as there was much space on
the grass, and as the men said that the ascent was long, it seemed
better to halt awhile before beginning to climb. Meanwhile the whole
van of the army came up, many thousands of men-at-arms and knights, and
footmen, and after them the gorgeous train of ladies, careless and gay,
feeling themselves safe among so many armed men, and desiring a sight
of the enemy rather than fearing it. There was little order in the
march, and hitherto there had been little danger; for the Seljuks meant
to destroy them in the mountains, and would never have tried battle in
the open with such a great host.
Still the troop came on, filling the valley from side to side, and
pressing up by sheer numbers toward the pass; and the King came at
last, and with him certain Greek guides to whom he listened, and who
began to make a great outcry, saying that Sir Gilbert was a madman and
that no horses could climb the ridge. Thereat Gilbert's men swore that
they had climbed it on the preceding day, and that even a woman could
ride up it. And one of the Greeks began to laugh at them, saying that
they lied; so Sir Gaston de Castignac smote him on the mouth with his
mailed hand, breaking all his teeth, and there was a turmoil, and the
people began to take opposite sides, for many of the King's men had
come up, and he himself was for the easy way up the valley.
Then Eleanor was very angry, and she mounted again, calling Gilbert's
men to her side, and her own knights who rode in the van, and she told
the King to his face that the Guide of Aquitaine had ever led them
safely, but that whenever the army had followed the King's guides, evil
had befallen. But the King would not be browbeaten before the great
lords and barons, and he swore a great oath that he would go by the
valley, come what might. Thereupon Eleanor turned her back on him,
wheeling her horse short round; and she bade her knights ride up the
hill to the trees with her, and gave orders that her army should follow
her, and leave the King to take his men by any way he chose. On this
the confusion became greater than ever, for in the host there were
thousands of men, half pilgrims, half soldiers, who had come of their
own accord, as free men, bound neither to the King nor the Queen; there
were also the Poles and Bohemians, who were independent. All these
began to discuss and quarrel among themselves.
Meanwhile the Queen and Anne of Auch rode slowly up the hill, straight
toward the trees, with Castignac and Gilbert's men before them, and the
knights of Guienne following closely after; but none of them expected
evil, for the place looked peaceful in the high sunshine. Eleanor and
the Lady Anne rode fearlessly in their skirts and mantles, but the men
were fully armed in their mail and steel caps.
The foremost were half a dozen spears' lengths from the brushwood when
the sharp twang of a bowstring broke the stillness, and an arrow that
was meant for the Queen's face flew just between her and the Lady Anne.
The fair woman flushed suddenly at the danger; on the dark one's
forehead a vein stood out, straight from the parting of the hair,
downward between the eyes. The men spurred their horses instantly, and
dashed into the wood before the Queen could stop them, Castignac first
by a length, with his sword out. The flight of arrows that followed the
first shot struck horses and men together, and three or four horses
went down with their riders; but the mail was proof, and the men were
on their feet in an instant and running among the trees, whence came
the sound of great blows, and the sharp twanging of many bowstrings,
and the yell of the Seljuks. Now and again an arrow flew from among the
trees at random, and while Eleanor sat on her horse, looking down the
hill and crying to her knights to come on quickly and join in the
fight, she did not know that Anne of Auch covered her with her body
from the danger of a stray shaft, facing the danger with a light heart,
in the hope of the blessed death for which she looked.
Of those who went in under the trees, none came back, while the din of
the fight rose louder and wilder, by which Eleanor guessed that the
enemy were very few and were being driven up the hill, overpowered by
numbers; and lest her own men should hamper each other, she stopped
them and would not allow any more to go up.
Meanwhile the King looked on from below, saying prayers; for he was in
mortal dread of wishing that the Queen might be killed, since that
would have been as great a sin as if he had slain her with his own
hand; so that whereas when there was no present danger he constantly
prayed that by some means he might be delivered from the woman of
Belial, he now prayed as fervently that she might be preserved. As soon
as he saw her forbidding a further advance, he took it for granted that
she intended to come back and go up the valley, and he gave the signal
to his own knights and men to advance in that direction, away from the
place where the Seljuks were fighting. Indeed, there were always many
who were ready to turn their backs on danger, especially of the poorer
sort, who were ill-armed; and immediately, with great confusion and
much shouting and pressing, the main body began to move on quickly,
spreading out as they went, and completely filling up the valley; but
then they were crowded again, as they went higher, where the valley
narrowed to the pass, and at last they were so squeezed and jammed
together that the horses could hardly move at all.
The Queen's ladies, with their great throng of attendants and servants,
had drawn aside at the beginning of the valley, protected by two or
three thousand men-at-arms, to wait the end of the fighting, but she
herself was still on the spur of the hill before the woods. Before long
came Sir Gaston de Castignac, on foot and covered with blood, his mail
hacked in many places by the crooked Seljuk swords, and his
three-cornered shield dinted and battered. He came to the Queen's side
and made a grand bow, waving his right hand towards the trees, and he
spoke in a loud voice.
"The Duchess's highway is clear," he said. "The way is open and the
road is swept. But the broom--"
He turned livid and reeled.
"The broom is broken!" he cried, as he fell at full length almost under
the Arab mare's feet.
He had been shot through the middle with an arrow, but had lived to
tell of victory. In an instant the Queen knelt beside him, trying to
raise his head; and he smiled when he knew her, and died. But there
were gentle tears in her eyes as she rose to her feet and bade them
bury the Gascon deep, while she herself laid his shield upon his knees,
and crossed his hands upon his breast.
Many others died there, and were buried quickly; but the bodies of the
Seljuks were dragged aside, out of the line of the march; and it was
high noon, for all that had happened had taken place in about two
hours. Yet as the way was long to the summit of the pass, those of
Gilbert's men who had not been killed urged the Queen to march on at
once, in order that the camp might be pitched by daylight where Gilbert
was waiting. So Eleanor commanded that all her people should follow her
in the best order they could keep, and she began to ride up the steep
way. But in the valley the King's army was pressing on and up toward
the place where Gilbert had fought yesterday, where the bones of the
slain Seljuks were already white, and the gorged vultures perched
sleeping in the noonday sun.
Two hours passed, and because the guides knew the way well, it being
now the third time of their passing there, and because the Queen and
her vanguard were on sure-footed horses, they reached the top in that
time, and saw Gilbert and the eighty men he still had with him sitting
on the rocks in their armour, waiting, and their horses tethered near
by, but saddled and bridled. Then Gilbert stood out before the rest and
waited for the Queen, who cantered forward and halted beside him. She
began to speak somewhat hurriedly, and she constantly looked about her,
rather than into his face, telling him how they had fought in the wood,
and how the King and many of the host had gone round by the valley.
Thereat Gilbert became very anxious.
"The ladies are following me," said Eleanor, gently, for she knew why
he was pale.
As she spoke, a cry came on the air, wild, distinct as the scream of
the hungry falcon, but it was the cry of thousands.
"Hurr! Hurr! Hurr!"
"The Seljuks are upon them," said Gilbert, "for that cry is from the
pass above the valley. God have mercy on the souls of Christian men!"
Dunstan, who knew him well, brought his horse at the first alarm.
"By your Grace's leave," said Gilbert, taking the bridle to mount, "I
will take my men and do what I can to help them. I have explored the
way round this mountain, and every man who follows me may kill ten
Seljuks at an advantage, from above, just as the Seljuks are now
slaying the King's men, below them."
"Hurr! Hurr! Kill! Kill!"
Ear-piercing, wild, the cry of slaughter came up from the valley again
and again, and worse sounds came now on the clear air, the howls of men
pressed together and powerless, slain in hundreds with arrows and
stones, and the unearthly shrieks of horses wounded to death.
"They are in thousands," said Gilbert, listening. "I must have more
men."
"I give you my army," said Eleanor. "Command all, and do your best."
For one moment Gilbert looked hard at her, scarcely believing that she
meant the words. But she raised herself in her saddle, and called out
in a loud voice to the hundreds of nobles and knights who had already
come up.
"Sir Gilbert Warde commands the army!" she cried. "Follow the Guide of
Aquitaine!"
There was light in his face as he silently bowed his head and mounted.
"Sirs," he said, when he was in the saddle, "the way by which I shall
lead you to rescue the King is narrow; therefore follow me in good
order, two and two, all those who have sure-footed horses. But beyond
the defile as many as a thousand may fight without hindering each
other. The rest encamp here and protect the Queen and her ladies.
Forward!"
He saluted Eleanor and rode away, leaving her there. She hesitated and
looked longingly after him, but Anne of Auch laid a hand upon her
bridle.
"Madam," she said, "your place is here, where there is no one to
command. And here also there may be danger before long."
All the time, the dreadful din of fight came up from below, louder and
louder. The Seljuks had waited until not less than five thousand men,
with the King himself, had passed through the narrow channel from the
lower valley and choked the upper gorge, pushed on by those behind; and
then, from their hiding-places among the rocks and trees, they had
sprung up in their thousands to kill those taken in the trap like mice.
First came the thick flight of their arrows, straight and deadly, going
down with flashes into the sea of men; and then great stones rolled
from the heights, boulders that crushed the life out of horse and man
and rolled straight through the mass of human bodies, leaving a track
of blood behind; and then more arrows, darting hither and thither in
the sunlight like rock-swallows; and again stones and boulders, till
the confusion and the panic were at their height, and the wild Seljuks
sprang down the sides of the gorge, yelling for death, swinging their
scimitars, to kill more surely by hand, lest they should waste arrows
on dead men.
The blood was ankle-deep in the pass, through which more and more of
the Christians were driven up to the slaughter by those who followed
them. The King was forcing his way through his own men, and with them,
toward the side where there were most enemies. His sluggish blood was
roused at last, and his sword was out. Nor was it long before he was
able to fight hand to hand; but many of those around him were slain,
because their arms were hampered in the close press. The Seljuks made
room by killing, and climbed upon the slain towards the living. In the
vast and screaming din, no one could have heard a voice of command, and
the air was darkening with the steam and reek of battle.
A full hour the Seljuks slew and slew, almost unharmed, and the
Christians were dead in thousands under their feet. The King, with a
hundred followers, was at bay by the roots of a huge oak tree, fighting
as best he might, and killing a man now and then, though wounded in the
face and shoulder, and sorely spent. But he saw that it was a desperate
case and that all was lost, and no more of his army were coming up to
the rescue, because the narrow pass was choked with dead. So he began
to sing the penitential psalms in time with the swinging of his sword.
It was towards evening, for the days were short, and the westering sun
suddenly poured its light straight into the gorge and upon the rising
ground above. Some of the Christians looked up out of the carnage, and
the King turned his eyes that way when he could spare a glance, and
suddenly the sun flashed back from the height, as from golden and
silver mirrors quickly moving, and foremost was an azure shield with a
golden cross flory, and the Christians knew it well. Then a feeble
shout went up from the few who lived.
"The Guide of Aquitaine!" they cried.
But they were not heard, for suddenly there was a louder cry from the
Seljuks, and it was not their war-yell, but something like a howl of
fear.
"The Wrath of God! The White Fiend!"
For they were caught in their own trap, and death rose in their eyes.
On the low heights above the gorge a thousand Christians had formed in
ranks quickly, with lance lowered and sword loose in sheath. A moment
later, and a steel cap went whirling through the air, glancing and
gleaming in the sun, till it fell among the enemy below, and then came
the sharp command, the leader's single word:
"Charge!"
The Seljuks heard the terrible, quick clanking of armour as the great
troop began to move, and the Guide of Aquitaine swept down in a storm
of steel, bareheaded, his fair hair streaming on the wind, his eyes on
fire in the setting sun, his great sword high in air, the smile of
destruction on his even lips.
"The White Fiend! The Wrath of God!" screamed the Seljuks.
They tried to fly, but there was no way out, for the pass was choked
with dead below, and they must win or die, every living soul of their
host. So they turned at bay, joining their strength, and standing as
they could on heaps of dead bodies.
There, where they had slain, Gilbert slew them, and a thousand blades
flashed red in the red sunlight, in time with his; and there was a low,
sure sound of killing as steel went through flesh and bone and was
wrenched back to strike again. The Seljuks fought like madmen and like
wild beasts while they could; but in Gilbert's eyes there was the awful
light of victory, and his arm tired not, while rank upon rank the enemy
went down, and the Christians who still lived began to smite them from
behind. Then the pass was filled fuller than before, and a small red
river leaped down from stone to stone, following the channel to the
broad valley beyond, where nearly fifty thousand powerless men watched
it flowing among them. But they listened, too, and the Seljuk yell grew
fainter, because few were left, and there were few to cry out.
The shout of triumphant Christian men came ringing down the evening air
instead, and fear gave way to rejoicing and gladness; for though there
were many dead in the upper valley, and many strong knights and
men-at-arms, young and old, great and small, lay under the dead Seljuks
who had killed them, yet the great body of the army was alive, the
strength of the enemy was broken, and Gilbert had saved the King. In
truth, he had found him in an evil case, with his back against the oak
tree, and his knights dead around him; three of the last Seljuks who
lived were still hacking at him with their crooked swords, while he
sang his "De profundis," for his soul's good, and used his best fence
for his body's safety, hewing away like a strong man and brave, as he
was, notwithstanding his faults; and he was sore spent.
"Sir," he said, taking Gilbert's hand, "ask what you will of me, and if
it be no sin, you shall have it, for you have saved the army of the
Cross."
But the Englishman smiled and would ask nothing, for he had honour
enough that day. Yet he knew not that on the cliff whence he had
descended to the valley, there sat two women who dearly loved him,
watching him from first to last,--the Queen and Beatrix.
There they sat, unconsciously clasping hand in hand, and their eyes
were wide with fear for him, and yet bright with pride of him as they
saw the splendour of his deeds, how his fair streaming hair went ever
forward through the Seljuk ranks, and how his track was deep and red
for others to follow, till it seemed not possible that one man could
slay so many and be unhurt, and a sort of awe came over them, as if he
were a being beyond nature.
Neither spoke, nor did either hand loosen on the other; but when it was
done, and they saw him dismount, and stand a little apart from other
men, resting on his sword, with the glory of the sunset in his face as
he looked down the valley, then Beatrix turned to the Queen, and the
tears of joy sprang to her eyes as she buried her girl's face in
Eleanor's bosom, and she was glad of the kind arms that held her,
seeming to understand all her joy. But the Queen's eyes were dry, her
face was white, and her beautiful coral lips were parched as in a fever.