She comes! she comes! in all the charms of youth,
Unequall'd love, and unsuspected truth!
Hereward was not long in tracing the cry through the wooded walks, when
a female rushed into his arms; alarmed, as it appeared, by Sylvan, who
was pursuing her closely. The figure of Hereward, with his axe
uplifted, put an instant stop to his career, and with a terrified note
of his native cries, he withdrew into the thickest of the adjoining
foliage.
Relieved from his presence, Hereward had time to look at the female
whom he had succoured: She was arrayed in a dress which consisted of
several colours, that which predominated being a pale yellow; her tunic
was of this colour, and, like a modern gown, was closely fitted to the
body, which, in the present case, was that of a tall, but very
well-formed person. The mantle, or upper garment, in which the whole
figure was wrapped, was of fine cloth; and the kind of hood which was
attached to it having flown back with the rapidity of her motion, gave
to view the hair beautifully adorned and twisted into a natural
head-dress. Beneath this natural head-gear appeared a face pale as
death, from a sense of the supposed danger, but which preserved, even
amidst its terrors, an exquisite degree of beauty.
Hereward was thunderstruck at this apparition. The dress was neither
Grecian, Italian, nor of the costume of the Franks;--it was
_Saxon!_--connected by a thousand tender remembrances with Hereward's
childhood and youth. The circumstance was most extraordinary. Saxon
women, indeed, there were in Constantinople, who had united their
fortunes with those of the Varangians; and those often chose to wear
their national dress in the city, because the character and conduct of
their husbands secured them a degree of respect, which they might not
have met with either as Grecian or as stranger females of a similar
rank. But almost all these were personally known to Hereward. It was no
time, however, for reverie--he was himself in danger---the situation of
the young female might be no safe one. In every case, it was judicious
to quit the more public part of the gardens; he therefore lost not a
moment in conveying the fainting Saxon to a retreat he fortunately was
acquainted with. A covered path, obscured by vegetation, led through a
species of labyrinth to an artificial cave, at the bottom of which,
half-paved with shells, moss, and spar, lay the gigantic and
half-recumbent statue of a river deity, with its usual attributes--that
is, its front crowned with water-lilies and sedges, and its ample hand
half-resting upon an empty urn. The attitude of the whole figure
corresponded with the motto,--"I SLEEP--AWAKE ME NOT."
"Accursed relic of paganism," said Hereward, who was, in proportion to
his light, a zealous Christian--"brutish stock or stone that thou art!
I will wake thee with a vengeance." So saying, he struck the head of
the slumbering deity with his battle-axe, and deranged the play of the
fountain so much that the water began to pour into the basin.
"Thou art a good block, nevertheless," said the Varangian, "to send
succour so needful to the aid of my poor countrywoman. Thou shalt give
her also, with thy leave, a portion of thy couch." So saying he
arranged his fair burden, who was as yet insensible, upon the pedestal
where the figure of the River God reclined. In doing this, his
attention was recalled to her face, and again and again he was thrilled
with an emotion of hope, but so excessively like fear, that it could
only be compared to the flickering of a torch, uncertain whether it is
to light up or be instantly extinguished. With a sort of mechanical
attention, he continued to make such efforts as he could to recall the
intellect of the beautiful creature before him. His feelings were those
of the astronomical sage, to whom the rise of the moon slowly restores
the contemplation of that heaven, which is at once, as a Christian, his
hope of felicity, and, as a philosopher, the source of his knowledge.
The blood returned to her cheek, and reanimation, and even
recollection, took place in her earlier than in the astonished
Varangian.
"Blessed Mary!" she said, "have I indeed tasted the last bitter cup,
and is it here where thou reunitest thy votaries after death!--Speak,
Hereward! if thou art aught but an empty creature of the
imagination!--speak, and tell me, if I have but dreamed of that
monstrous ogre!"
"Collect thyself, my beloved Bertha," said the Anglo-Saxon, recalled by
the sound of her voice, "and prepare to endure what thou livest to
witness, and thy Hereward survives to tell. That hideous thing
exists--nay, do not start, and look for a hiding-place--thy own gentle
hand with a riding rod is sufficient to tame its courage. And am I not
here, Bertha? Wouldst thou wish another safeguard?"
"No--no," exclaimed she, seizing on the arm of her recovered lover. "Do
I not know you now?"
"And is it but now you know me, Bertha?" said Hereward.
"I suspected before," she said, casting down her eyes; "but I know with
certainty that mark of the boar's tusk."
Hereward suffered her imagination to clear itself from the shock it had
received so suddenly, before he ventured to enter upon present events,
in which there was so much both to doubt and to fear. He permitted her,
therefore, to recall to her memory all the circumstances of the rousing
the hideous animal, assisted by the tribes of both their fathers. She
mentioned in broken words the flight of arrows discharged against the
boar by young and old, male and female, and how her own well aimed, but
feeble shaft, wounded him sharply; she forgot not how, incensed at the
pain, the creature rushed upon her as the cause, laid her palfrey dead
upon the spot, and would soon have slain her, had not Hereward, when
every attempt failed to bring his horse up to the monster, thrown
himself from his seat, and interposed personally between the boar and
Bertha. The battle was not decided without a desperate struggle; the
boar was slain, but Hereward received the deep gash upon his brow which
she whom he had saved how recalled to her memory. "Alas!" she said,
"what have we been to each other since that period? and what are we
now, in this foreign land?"
"Answer for thyself, my Bertha," said the Varangian, "if thou
canst;--and if thou canst with truth say that thou art the same Bertha
who vowed affection to Hereward, believe me, it were sinful to suppose
that the saints have brought us together with a view of our being
afterwards separated."
"Hereward," said Bertha, "you have not preserved the bird in your bosom
safer than I have; at home or abroad, in servitude or in freedom,
amidst sorrow or joy, plenty or want, my thought was always on the
troth I had plighted to Hereward at the stone of Odin."
"Say no more of that," said Hereward; "it was an impious rite, and good
could not come of it."
"Was it then so impious?" she said, the unbidden tear rushing into her
large blue eyes.--"Alas! it was a pleasure to reflect that Hereward was
mine by that solemn engagement!"
"Listen to me, my Bertha," said Hereward, taking her hand: "We were
then almost children; and though our vow was in itself innocent, yet it
was so far wrong, as being sworn in the presence of a dumb idol,
representing one who was, while alive, a bloody and cruel magician. But
we will, the instant an opportunity offers itself, renew our vow before
a shrine of real sanctity, and promise suitable penance for our
ignorant acknowledgment of Odin, to propitiate the real Deity, who can
bear us through those storms of adversity which are like to surround
us."
Leaving them for the time to their love-discourse, of a nature pure,
simple, and interesting, we shall give, in a few words, all that the
reader needs to know of their separate history between the boar's hunt
and the time of their meeting in the gardens of Agelastes.
In that doubtful state experienced by outlaws, Waltheoff, the father of
Hereward, and Engelred, the parent of Bertha, used to assemble their
unsubdued tribes, sometimes in the fertile regions of Devonshire,
sometimes in the dark wooded solitudes of Hampshire, but as much as
possible within the call of the bugle of the famous Edric the Forester,
so long leader of the insurgent Saxons. The chiefs we have mentioned
were among the last bold men who asserted the independence of the Saxon
race of England; and like their captain Edric, they were generally
known by the name of Foresters, as men who lived by hunting, when their
power of making excursions was checked and repelled. Hence they made a
step backwards in civilization, and became more like to their remote
ancestors of German descent, than they were to their more immediate and
civilized predecessors, who before the battle of Hastings, had advanced
considerably in the arts of civilized life.
Old superstitions had begun to revive among them, and hence the
practice of youths and maidens plighting their troth at the stone
circles dedicated, as it was supposed, to Odin, in whom, however, they
had long ceased to nourish any of the sincere belief which was
entertained by their heathen ancestors.
In another respect these outlaws were fast resuming a striking
peculiarity of the ancient Germans. Their circumstances naturally
brought the youth of both sexes much together, and by early marriage,
or less permanent connexions, the population would have increased far
beyond the means which the outlaws had to maintain, or even to protect
themselves. The laws of the Foresters, therefore, strictly enjoined
that marriages should be prohibited until the bridegroom was twenty-one
years complete. Future alliances were indeed often formed by the young
people, nor was this discountenanced by their parents, provided that
the lovers waited until the period when the majority of the bridegroom
should permit them to marry. Such youths as infringed this rule,
incurred the dishonourable epithet of _niddering_, or worthless,--an
epithet of a nature so insulting, that men were known to have slain
themselves, rather than endure life under such opprobrium. But the
offenders were very few amidst a race trained in moderation and
self-denial; and hence it was that woman, worshipped for so many years
like something sacred, was received, when she became the head of a
family, into the arms and heart of a husband who had so long expected
her, was treated as something more elevated than the mere idol of the
moment; and feeling the rate at which she was valued, endeavoured by
her actions to make her life correspond with it.
It was by the whole population of these tribes, as well as their
parents, that after the adventure of the boar hunt, Hereward and Bertha
were considered as lovers whose alliance was pointed out by Heaven, and
they were encouraged to approximate as much as their mutual
inclinations prompted them. The youths of the tribe avoided asking
Martha's hand at the dance, and the maidens used no maidenly entreaty
or artifice to detain Hereward beside them, if Bertha was present at
the feast. They clasped each other's hands through the perforated
stone, which they called the altar of Odin, though later ages have
ascribed it to the Druids, and they implored that if they broke their
faith to each other, their fault might be avenged by the twelve swords
which were now drawn around them during the ceremony by as many youths,
and that their misfortunes might be so many as twelve maidens, who
stood around with their hair loosened, should be unable to recount,
either in prose or verse.
The torch of the Saxon Cupid shone for some years as brilliant as when
it was first lighted. The time, however, came when they were to be
tried by adversity, though undeserved by the perfidy of either. Years
had gone past, and Hereward had to count with anxiety how many months
and weeks were to separate him from the bride, who was beginning
already by degrees to shrink less shyly from the expressions and
caresses of one who was soon to term her all his own. William Rufus,
however, had formed a plan of totally extirpating the Foresters, whose
implacable hatred, and restless love of freedom, had so often disturbed
the quiet of his kingdom, and despised his forest laws. He assembled
his Norman forces, and united to them a body of Saxons who had
submitted to his rule. He thus brought an overpowering force upon the
bands of Waltheoff and Engelred, who found no resource but to throw the
females of their tribe, and such as could, not bear arms, into a
convent dedicated to St. Augustin, of which Kenelm their relation was
prior, and then turning to the battle, vindicated their ancient valour
by fighting it to the last. Both the unfortunate chiefs remained dead
on the field, and Hereward and his brother had wellnigh shared their
fate; but some Saxon inhabitants of the neighbourhood, who adventured
on the field of battle, which the victors had left bare of every thing
save the booty of the kites and the ravens, found the bodies of the
youths still retaining life. As they were generally well known and much
beloved by these people, Hereward and his brother were taken care of
till their wounds began to close, and their strength returned. Hereward
then heard the doleful news of the death of his father and Engelred.
His next enquiry was concerning his betrothed bride and her mother. The
poor inhabitants could give him little information. Some of the females
who had taken refuge in the convent, the Norman knights and nobles had
seized upon as their slaves, and the rest, with the monks who had
harboured them, were turned adrift, and their place of retreat was
completely sacked and burnt to the ground.
Half-dead himself at hearing these tidings, Hereward sallied out, and
at every risk of death, for the Saxon Foresters were treated as
outlaws, commenced enquiries after those so dear to him. He asked
concerning the particular fate of Bertha and her mother, among the
miserable creatures who yet hovered about the neighbourhood of the
convent, like a few half-scorched bees about their smothered hive. But,
in the magnitude of their own terrors, none had retained eyes for their
neighbours, and all that they could say was, that the wife and daughter
of Engelred were certainly lost; and their imaginations suggested so
many heart-rending details to this conclusion, that Hereward gave up
all thoughts of further researches, likely to terminate so uselessly
and so horribly.
The young Saxon had been all his life bred up in a patriotic hatred to
the Normans, who did not, it was likely, become dearer to his thoughts
in consequence of this victory. He dreamed at first of crossing the
strait, to make war against the hated enemy in their own country; but
an idea so extravagant did not long retain possession of his mind. His
fate was decided by his encountering an aged palmer, who knew or
pretended to have known, his father, and to be a native of England.
This man was a disguised Varangian, selected for the purpose, possessed
of art and dexterity, and well provided with money. He had little
difficulty in persuading Hereward, in the hopeless desolation of his
condition, to join the Varangian Guard, at this moment at war with the
Normans, under which name it suited Hereward's prepossessions to
represent the Emperor's wars with Robert Guiscard, his son Bohemond,
and other adventurers, in Italy, Greece, or Sicily. A journey to the
East also inferred a pilgrimage, and gave the unfortunate Hereward the
chance of purchasing pardon for his sins by visiting the Holy Land. In
gaining Hereward, the recruiter also secured the services of his elder
brother, who had vowed not to separate from him.
The high character of both brothers for courage, induced this wily
agent to consider them as a great prize, and it was from the memoranda
respecting the history and character of those whom he recruited, in
which the elder had been unreservedly communicative, that Agelastes
picked up the information respecting Hereward's family and
circumstances, which, at their first secret interview, he made use of
to impress upon the Varangian the idea of his supernatural knowledge.
Several of his companions in arms were thus gained over; for it will
easily be guessed, that these memorials were intrusted to the keeping
of Achilles Tatius, and he, to further their joint purposes, imparted
them to Agelastes, who thus obtained a general credit for supernatural
knowledge among these ignorant men. But Hereward's blunt faith and
honesty enabled him to shun the snare.
Such being the fortunes of Hereward, those of Bertha formed the subject
of a broken and passionate communication between the lovers, broken
like an April day, and mingled with many a tender caress, such as
modesty permits to lovers when they meet again unexpectedly after a
separation, which threatened to be eternal. But the story may be
comprehended in few words. Amid the general sack of the monastery, an
old Norman knight seized upon Bertha as his prize. Struck with her
beauty, he designed her as an attendant upon his daughter, just then
come out of the years of childhood, and the very apple of her father's
eye, being the only child of his beloved Countess, and sent late in
life to bless their marriage-bed. It was in the order of things that
the lady of Aspramonte, who was considerably younger than the knight,
should govern her husband, and that Brenhilda, their daughter, should
govern both her parents.
The Knight of Aspramonte, however, it may be observed, entertained some
desire to direct his young offspring to more feminine amusements than
those which began already to put her life frequently in danger.
Contradiction was not to be thought of, as the good old knight knew by
experience. The influence and example of a companion a little older
than herself might be of some avail, and it was with this view that, in
the confusion of the sack, Aspramonte seized upon the youthful Bertha.
Terrified to the utmost degree, she clung to her mother, and the Knight
of Aspramonte, who had a softer heart than was then usually found under
a steel cuirass, moved by the affliction of the mother and daughter,
and recollecting that the former might also be a useful attendant upon
his lady, extended his protection to both, and conveying them out of
the press, paid the soldiers who ventured to dispute the spoil with
him, partly in some small pieces of money, and partly in dry blows with
the reverse of his lance.
The well-natured knight soon after returned to his own castle, and
being a man of an orderly life and virtuous habits, the charming
beauties of the Saxon virgin, and the more ripened charms of her
mother, did not prevent their travelling in all honour as well as
safety to his family fortress, the castle of Aspramonte. Here such
masters as could be procured were got together to teach the young
Bertha every sort of female accomplishment, In the hope that her
mistress, Brenhilda, might be inspired with a desire to partake in her
education; but although this so far succeeded, that the Saxon captive
became highly skilled in such music, needle-work, and other female
accomplishments as were known to the time, yet her young mistress,
Brenhilda, retained the taste for those martial amusements which had so
sensibly grieved her father, but to which her mother, who herself had
nourished such fancies in her youth, readily gave sanction.
The captives, however, were kindly treated. Brenhilda became infinitely
attached to the young Anglo-Saxon, whom she loved less for her
ingenuity in arts, than for her activity in field sports, to which her
early state of independence had trained her.
The Lady of Aspramonte was also kind to both the captives; but, in one
particular, she exercised a piece of petty tyranny over them. She had
imbibed an idea, strengthened by an old doting father-confessor, that
the Saxons were heathens at that time, or at least heretics, and made a
positive point with her husband that the bondswoman and girl who were
to attend on her person and that of her daughter, should be qualified
for the office by being anew admitted into the Christian Church by
baptism.
Though feeling the falsehood and injustice of the accusation, the
mother had sense enough to submit to necessity, and received the name
of Martha in all form at the altar, to which she answered during the
rest of her life.
But Bertha showed a character upon this occasion inconsistent with the
general docility and gentleness of her temper. She boldly refused to be
admitted anew into the pale of the Church, of which her conscience told
her she was already a member, or to exchange for another the name
originally given her at the font. It was in vain that the old knight
commanded, that the lady threatened, and that her mother advised and
entreated. More closely pressed in private by her mother, she let her
motive be known, which had not before been suspected. "I know," she
said, with a flood of tears, "that my father would have died ere I was
subjected to this insult; and then--who shall assure me that vows which
were made to the Saxon Bertha, will be binding if a French Agatha be
substituted in her stead? They may banish me," she said, "or kill me if
they will, but if the son of Waltheoff should again meet with the
daughter of Engelred, he shall meet that Bertha whom he knew in the
forests of Hampton."
All argument was in vain; the Saxon maiden remained obstinate, and to
try to break her resolution, the Lady of Aspramonte at length spoke of
dismissing her from the service of her young mistress, and banishing
her from the castle. To this also she had made up her mind, and she
answered firmly though respectfully, that she would sorrow bitterly at
parting with her young lady; but as to the rest, she would rather beg
under her own name, than be recreant to the faith of her fathers and
condemn it as heresy, by assigning one of Frank origin. The Lady
Brenhilda, in the meantime, entered the chamber, where her mother was
just about to pass the threatened doom of banishment.--"Do not stop for
my entrance, madam," said the dauntless young lady; "I am as much
concerned in the doom which you are about to pass as is Bertha; If she
crosses the drawbridge of Aspramonte as an exile, so will I, when she
has dried her tears, of which even my petulance could never wring one
from her eyes. She shall be my squire and body attendant, and
Launcelot, the bard, shall follow with my spear and shield."
"And you will return, mistress," said her mother, "from so foolish an
expedition, before the sun sets?"
"So heaven further me in my purpose, lady," answered the young heiress,
"the sun shall neither rise nor set that sees us return, till this name
of Bertha, and of her mistress, Brenhilda, are wafted as far as the
trumpet of fame can sound them.--Cheer up, my sweetest Bertha!" she
said, taking her attendant by the hand, "If heaven hath torn thee from
thy country and thy plighted troth, it hath given thee a sister and a
friend, with whom thy fame shall be forever blended."
The Lady of Aspramonte was confounded: She knew that her daughter was
perfectly capable of the wild course which she had announced, and that
she herself, even with her husband's assistance, would be unable to
prevent her following it. She passively listened, therefore, while the
Saxon matron, formerly Urica, but now Martha, addressed her daughter.
"My child," she said, "as you value honour, virtue, safety, and
gratitude, soften your heart towards your master and mistress, and
follow the advice of a parent, who has more years and more judgment
than you. And you, my dearest young lady, let not your lady-mother
think that an attachment to the exercises you excel in, has destroyed
in your bosom filial affection, and a regard to the delicacy of your
sex!--As they seem both obstinate, madam," continued the matron, after
watching the influence of this advice upon the young woman, "perhaps,
if it may be permitted me. I could state an alternative, which might,
in the meanwhile, satisfy your ladyship's wishes, accommodate itself to
the wilfulness of my obstinate daughter, and answer the kind purpose of
her generous mistress." The Lady of Aspramonte signed to the Saxon
matron to proceed. She went on accordingly: "The Saxons, dearest lady,
of the present day, are neither pagans nor heretics; they are, in the
time of keeping Easter, as well as in all other disputable doctrine,
humbly obedient to the Pope of Rome; and this our good Bishop well
knows, since he upbraided some of the domestics for calling me an old
heathen. Yet our names are uncouth in the ears of the Franks, and bear,
perhaps, a heathenish sound. If it be not exacted that my daughter
submit to a new rite of baptism, she will lay aside her Saxon name of
Bertha upon all occasions while in your honourable household. This will
cut short a debate which, with forgiveness, I think is scarce of
importance enough to break the peace of this castle. I will engage
that, in gratitude for this indulgence of a trifling scruple, my
daughter, if possible, shall double the zeal and assiduity of her
service to her young lady."
The Lady of Aspramonte was glad to embrace the means which this offer
presented, of extricating herself from the dispute with as little
compromise of dignity as could well be. "If the good Lord Bishop
approved of such a compromise," she said, "she would for herself
withdraw her opposition." The prelate approved accordingly, the more
readily that he was informed that the young heiress desired earnestly
such an agreement. The peace of the castle was restored, and Bertha
recognized her new name of Agatha as a name of service, but not a name
of baptism.
One effect the dispute certainly produced, and that was, increasing in
an enthusiastic degree the love of Bertha for her young mistress. With
that amiable failing of attached domestics and humble friends, she
endeavoured to serve her as she knew she loved to be served; and
therefore indulged, her mistress in those chivalrous fancies which
distinguished her even in her own age, and in ours would have rendered
her a female Quixote. Bertha, indeed, never caught the frenzy of her
mistress; but, strong, willing, and able-bodied, she readily qualified
herself to act upon occasion as a squire of the body to a Lady
Adventuress; and, accustomed from her childhood to see blows dealt,
blood flowing, and men dying, she could look with an undazzled eye upon
the dangers which her mistress encountered, and seldom teased her with
remonstrances, unless when those were unusually great. This compliance
on most occasions, gave Bertha a right of advice upon some, which,
always given with the best intentions and at fitting times,
strengthened her influence with her mistress, which a course of conduct
savouring of diametrical opposition would certainly have destroyed.
A few more words serve to announce the death of the Knight of
Aspramonte--the romantic marriage of the young lady with the Count of
Paris--their engagement in the crusade--and the detail of events with
which the reader is acquainted.
Hereward did not exactly comprehend some of the later incidents of the
story, owing to a slight strife which arose between Bertha and him
during the course of her narrative. When she avowed the girlish
simplicity with which she obstinately refused to change her name,
because, in her apprehension, the troth-plight betwixt her and her
lover might be thereby prejudiced, it was impossible for Hereward not
to acknowledge her tenderness, by snatching her to his bosom, and
impressing his grateful thanks upon her lips. She extricated herself
immediately from his grasp, however, with cheeks more crimsoned in
modesty than in anger, and gravely addressed her lover thus: "Enough,
enough, Hereward! this may be pardoned to so unexpected a meeting; but
we must in future remember, that we are probably the last of our race;
and let it not be said, that the manners of their ancestors were
forgotten by Hereward and by Bertha; think, that though we are alone,
the shades of our fathers are not far off, and watch to see what use we
make of the meeting, which, perhaps, their intercession has procured
us."
"You wrong me, Bertha," said Hereward, "if you think me capable of
forgetting my own duty and yours, at a moment when our thanks are due
to Heaven, to be testified very differently than by infringing on its
behests, or the commands of our parents. The question is now, How we
shall rejoin each other when we separate? since separate, I fear, we
must."
"O! do not say so!" exclaimed the unfortunate Bertha.
"It must be so," said Hereward, "for a time; but I swear to thee by the
hilt of my sword, and the handle of my battle-axe, that blade was never
so true to shaft as I will be to thee!"
"But wherefore, then, leave me, Hereward?" said the maiden; "and oh!
wherefore not assist me in the release of my mistress?"
"Of thy mistress!" said Hereward. "Shame! that thou canst give that
name to mortal woman!"
"But she _is_ my mistress," answered Bertha, "and by a thousand kind
ties which cannot be separated so long as gratitude is the reward of
kindness."
"And what is her danger," said Hereward; "what is it she wants, this
accomplished lady whom thou callest mistress?"
"Her honour, her life, are alike in danger," said Bertha. "She has
agreed to meet the Caesar in the field, and he will not hesitate, like
a baseborn miscreant, to take every advantage in the encounter, which,
I grieve to say, may in all likelihood be fatal to my mistress."
"Why dost thou think so?" answered Hereward. "This lady has won many
single combats, unless she is belied, against adversaries more
formidable than the Caesar."
"True," said the Saxon maiden; "but you speak of things that passed in
a far different land, where faith and honour are not empty sounds; as,
alas! they seem but too surely to be here. Trust me, it is no girlish
terror which sends me out in this disguise of my country dress, which,
they say, finds respect at Constantinople: I go to let the chiefs of
the Crusade know the peril in which the noble lady stands, and trust to
their humanity, to their religion, to their love of honour, and fear of
disgrace, for assistance in this hour of need; and now that I have had
the blessing of meeting with thee, all besides will go well--all will
go well--and I will back to my mistress and report whom I have seen."
"Tarry yet another moment, my recovered treasure!" said Hereward, "and
let me balance this matter carefully. This Frankish lady holds the
Saxons like the very dust that thou brushest from the hem of her
garment. She treats--she regards--the Saxons as pagans and heretics.
She has dared to impose slavish tasks upon thee, born in freedom. Her
father's sword has been embrued to the hilt with Anglo-Saxon
blood--perhaps that of Waltheoff and Engelred has added death to the
stain! She has been, besides, a presumptuous fool, usurping for herself
the trophies and warlike character which belong to the other sex.
Lastly, it will be hard to find a champion to fight in her stead, since
all the crusaders have passed over to Asia, which is the land, they
say, in which they have come to war; and by orders of the Emperor, no
means of return to the hither shore will be permitted to any of them."
"Alas! alas!" said Bertha, "how does this world change us! The son of
Waltheoff I once knew brave, ready to assist distress, bold and
generous. Such was what I pictured him to myself during his absence. I
have met him again, and he is calculating, cold, and selfish!"
"Hush, damsel," said the Varangian, "and know him of whom thou
speakest, ere thou judgest him. The Countess of Paris is such as I have
said; yet let her appear boldly in the lists, and when the trumpet
shall sound thrice, another shall reply, which shall announce the
arrival of her own noble lord to do battle in her stead; or should he
fail to appear--I will requite her kindness to thee, Bertha, and be
ready in his place."
"Wilt thou? wilt thou indeed?" said the damsel; "that was spoken like
the son of Waltheoff--like the genuine stock! I will home, and comfort
my mistress; for surely if the judgment of God ever directed the issue
of a judicial combat, its influence will descend upon this. But you
hint that the Count is here--that he is at liberty--she will enquire
about that."
"She must be satisfied," replied Hereward, "to know that her husband is
under the guidance of a friend, who will endeavour to protect him from
his own extravagances and follies; or, at all events, of one who, if he
cannot properly be called a friend, has certainly not acted, and will
not act, towards him the part of an enemy.--And now, farewell, long
lost--long loved!"--Before he could say more, the Saxon maiden, after
two or three vain attempts to express her gratitude, threw herself into
her lover's arms, and despite the coyness which she had recently shown,
impressed upon his lips the thanks which she could not speak.
They parted, Bertha returning to her mistress at the lodge, which she
had left both with trouble and danger, and Hereward by the portal kept
by the negro-portress, who, complimenting the handsome Varangian on his
success among the fair, intimated, that she had been in some sort a
witness of his meeting with the Saxon damsel. A piece of gold, part of
a late largesse, amply served to bribe her tongue; and the soldier,
clear of the gardens of the philosopher, sped back as he might to the
barrack--judging that it was full time to carry some supply to Count
Robert, who had been left without food the whole day.
It is a common popular saying, that as the sensation of hunger is not
connected with any pleasing or gentle emotion, so it is particularly
remarkable for irritating those of anger and spleen. It is not,
therefore, very surprising that Count Robert, who had been so unusually
long without sustenance, should receive Hereward with a degree of
impatience beyond what the occasion merited, and injurious certainly to
the honest Varangian, who had repeatedly exposed his life that day for
the interest of the Countess and the Count himself.
"Soh, sir!" he said, in that accent of affected restraint by which a
superior modifies his displeasure against his inferior into a cold and
scornful expression--"You have played a liberal host to us!--Not that
it is of consequence; but methinks a Count of the most Christian
kingdom dines not every day with a mercenary soldier, and might expect,
if not the ostentatious, at least the needful part of hospitality."
"And methinks," replied the Varangian, "O most Christian Count, that
such of your high rank as, by choice or fate, become the guests of such
as I, may think themselves pleased, and blame not their host's
niggardliness, but the difficulty of his circumstances, if dinner
should not present itself oftener than once in four-and-twenty hours."
So saying, he clapt his hands together, and his domestic Edric entered.
His guest looked astonished at the entrance of this third party into
their retirement. "I will answer for this man," said Hereward, and
addressed him in the following words:--"What food hast thou, Edric, to
place before the honourable Count?"
"Nothing but the cold pasty," replied the attendant, "marvellously
damaged by your honour's encounter at breakfast."
The military domestic, as intimated, brought forward a large pasty, but
which had already that morning sustained a furious attack, insomuch,
that Count Robert of Paris, who, like all noble Normans, was somewhat
nice and delicate in his eating, was in some doubt whether his
scrupulousness should not prevail over his hunger; but on looking more
closely, sight, smell, and a fast of twenty hours, joined to convince
him that the pasty was an excellent one, and that the charger on which
it was presented possessed corners yet untouched. At length, having
suppressed his scruples, and made bold inroad upon the remains of the
dish, he paused to partake of a flask of strong red wine which stood
invitingly beside him, and a lusty draught increased the good-humour
which had begun to take place towards Hereward, in exchange for the
displeasure with which he had received him.
"Now, by heaven!" he said, "I myself ought to be ashamed to lack the
courtesy which I recommend to others! Here have I, with the manners of
a Flemish boor, been devouring the provisions of my gallant host,
without even asking him to sit down at his own table, and to partake of
his own good cheer!"
"I will not strain courtesies with you for that," said Hereward; and
thrusting his hand into the pasty, he proceeded with great speed and
dexterity to devour the miscellaneous contents, a handful of which was
enclosed in his grasp. The Count now withdrew from the table, partly in
disgust at the rustic proceedings of Hereward, who, however, by now
calling Edric to join him in his attack upon the pasty, showed that he
had, in fact, according to his manners, subjected himself previously to
some observance of respect towards his guest; while the assistance of
his attendant enabled him to make a clear cacaabulum of what was left.
Count Robert at length summoned up courage sufficient to put a
question, which had been trembling upon his lips ever since Hereward
had returned.
"Have thine enquiries, my gallant friend, learned more concerning my
unfortunate wife, my faithful Brenhilda?"
"Tidings I have," said the Anglo-Saxon, "but whether pleasing or not,
yourself must be the judge. This much I have learned;--she hath, as you
know, come under an engagement to meet the Caesar in arms in the lists,
but under conditions which you may perhaps think strange; these,
however, she hath entertained without scruple."
"Let me know these terms,", said the Count of Paris; "they will, I
think, appear less strange in my eyes than in thine."
But while he affected to speak with the utmost coolness, the husband's
sparkling eye and crimsoned cheek betrayed the alteration which had
taken place in his feelings. "The lady and the Caesar," said Hereward,
"as you partly heard yourself, are to meet in fight; if the Countess
wins, of course she remains the wife of the noble Count of Paris; if
she loses, she becomes the paramour of the Caesar Nicephorus Briennius."
"Saints and angels forbid!" said Count Robert; "were they to permit
such treason to triumph, we might be pardoned for doubting their
divinity!"
"Yet methinks," said the Anglo-Saxon, "it were no disgraceful
precaution that both you and I, with other friends, if we can obtain
such, should be seen under shield in the lists on the morning of the
conflict. To triumph, or to be defeated, is in the hand of fate; but
what we cannot fail to witness is, whether or not the lady receives
that fair play which is the due of an honourable combatant, and which,
as you have yourself seen, can be sometimes basely transgressed in this
Grecian empire."
"On that condition," said the Count, "and protesting, that not even the
extreme danger of my lady shall make me break through the rule of a
fair fight, I will surely attend the lists, if thou, brave Saxon, canst
find me any means of doing so.--Yet stay," he continued, after
reflecting for a moment, "thou shalt promise not to let her know that
her Count is on the field, far less to point him out to her eye among
the press of warriors. O, thou dost not know that the sight of the
beloved will sometimes steal from us our courage, even when it has most
to achieve!"
"We will endeavour," said the Varangian, "to arrange matters according
to thy pleasure, so that thou findest out no more fantastical
difficulties; for, by my word, an affair so complicated in itself,
requires not to be confused by the fine-spun whims of thy national
gallantry. Meantime, much must be done this night; and while I go about
it, thou, Sir Knight, hadst best remain here, with such disguise of
garments, and such food, as Edric may be able to procure for thee. Fear
nothing from intrusion on the part of thy neighbours. We Varangians
respect each other's secrets, of whatever nature they may chance to be."