Richard Wood and his men had searched the forest of Sherwood thoroughly
enough to lead them to conclude that those they sought had taken
another route. And on this, the tenth day of his chase, Richard Wood
said decidedly: "We try the fen now to the east. They be not spirits to
vanish in the air. Here in this wood they are not, nor do I think they
would bide in any town. Therefore in the fen they must be." Thereupon,
leaving the forest, they rode southeast by the way of Grantham, and so
on into the fen country, striking it a few miles from where Hugo and
Humphrey were making their camp for the night, almost within sight of
Peterborough. The two were quite cheerful, and entirely unsuspicious
that danger might be nearer to them than usual.
"Thinkest thou to stop at Peterborough?" asked Humphrey.
"Nay," replied Hugo; "there is no need."
"And yet," urged Humphrey, "a good lodging, were it but for one night,
were a happy change from the fens. Who is the canon that is thine
uncle's friend at Peterborough?"
"Canon Thurstan," replied Hugo.
"In the Canon Thurstan's house--" began Humphrey.
"But the canon hath no house," interrupted Hugo, with a smile.
"And how is that?" demanded Humphrey, with a puzzled air.
"It happeneth because this cathedral is on another foundation, and the
canons here be regular and not secular, as they be in Lincoln."
Humphrey reflected. "I understand not," he said at length.
"At Peterborough the canons live all together in one house," explained
Hugo. "Were we to go there we should be taken to the hospitium, where
we should be lodged."
"And there see the Canon Thurstan?"
"Yea."
Again Humphrey reflected. Then he said: "The ways of priests be many.
Mayhap I had known more of them, but in my forty years I have had to do
with other matters, like serving my lord and lady in troublous times.
The priest at the castle I did know, but not much of the ways of
priests in priests' houses. And now cometh the evening mist right
early. I will but make up the fire and then lead away the horses."
The fire made, although it was not dark, Humphrey departed, leaving
Hugo to feed it. This the boy did generously, for he felt chilled. The
smoke did not rise high and the odor of it penetrated to some distance.
In a little while Humphrey returned laden with a new supply of fuel
partly green and partly dry. He then spread out their evening meal, and
gave Fleetfoot his supper. And, all these things accomplished and the
supper eaten, he announced his intention to go again for fuel.
"Have we not here enough?" asked Hugo. "Thou knowest we journey on in
the morning."
"Mayhap," answered Humphrey. "I like not the look of this mist. My
grandsire hath told me of a mist that lay like a winding-sheet on
everything for two days, and this seemeth to me to be of that kind. It
were not wise to stir, mayhap, to-morrow morn."
"Lest we encounter the other spy?" laughed Hugo.
"Jest not, dear lad," replied Humphrey, soberly. "We may not know how
or whence danger cometh."
"And dost thou fear, then?" asked Hugo.
"Nay, I fear not. I cannot say I fear. But this moment a feeling hath
come to me which I had not before. I will away for more fuel."
"I go with thee," said Hugo.
"Ay, lad, come," was the reply.
Two trips they made, each time returning heavily laden, and then Hugo
laughingly said, "Surely we have enough, even if the mist last two
days, for we had good store before thou didst look upon the mist with
suspicion."
Humphrey smiled. "Yea, lad," he answered, "the fuel now seemeth
enough."
While he spoke a wind sprang up and the mist grew lighter. It blew
harder, and the mist was gone. One might see the stars. Two hours this
lasted, during which Richard Wood and his men, as if guided, rode
straight for the small camp, picking their way with great good fortune
and making few missteps. Then the wind died down, the mist came back
enfolding everything, and the pursuers encamped where they were. But of
that Hugo and Humphrey knew nothing.
It might have been two o'clock when the serving-man awoke with a shiver
and rose to renew the fire. He found it quite extinguished. As he felt
about in the darkness for his flint and steel he glanced anxiously
toward Hugo, though he could not see him. "I know not," he muttered, "I
know not. But I did dream of eagles and they did scream above our
heads. Some danger draweth near, or some heavy trouble."
The fire now blazed, and the faithful serving-man saw that Hugo was
still asleep, resting as easily on his couch of reeds as he could have
done on the canon's bed. "It is a good lad," said Humphrey. "Were he a
De Aldithely he could not be better."
Humphrey lay down no more that night. Restlessly he moved about, now
replenishing the fire, and now listening for some hostile sound. But he
heard nothing.
It was late in the morning when Hugo awoke. "Surely this must be thy
grandsire's mist, Humphrey," he said. "It is heavy enough."
"Yea," answered Humphrey, looking up from the breakfast he was
preparing. "It were best not to stir abroad to-day."
And at that moment Richard Wood was saying: "I smell smoke within half
a mile of me. Ride we to see what that meaneth." Again, as if to aid
him, the wind sprang up so that through the lifting mist one might
easily pick his way, and Humphrey had just departed to look after the
horses when Richard Wood and his men-at-arms arrived at the camp.
"Yield thee, Josceline De Aldithely!" commanded Richard Wood. "Yield
thee in the king's name!" and, dismounting, he laid his hand on the
astonished lad's arm.
[Illustration: "Yield Thee in the King's Name"]
A little later Humphrey, returning to the camp, paused in amazement,
for he heard voices. He crept around a fringe of reeds and peered, but
could not see clearly. He advanced further, still under cover, and then
he saw.
"I did dream of eagles," he muttered, "and they did scream above our
heads."
He listened, and from what he heard he learned that Hugo had not
revealed himself as Hugo, but that he allowed the spy to think him to
be Josceline. "Well did my lady trust in him!" exulted Humphrey. "And
my lord shall know of this when we be come to France, as we shall come,
though all the eagles in the fens do scream above our heads. And now I
will away to the Canon Thurstan, and see of what avail is the fish on
the circlet of gold."
Creeping back as silently as he could, he mounted his horse and set out
for Peterborough. "May the spy and his men-at-arms be too weary to stir
till I come back," he said. "And if they be not weary, may the mist
come lower down and hold them. And now, horse, do thy best. Splash into
pools, wade, swim, do all but stick fast till we come to Peterborough
town."
The horse, thus urged, did his sagacious best, and very shortly the
serving-man was knocking at the gate of the porter's lodge. Now
Humphrey knew nothing of how he ought to proceed. He only knew that he
was in haste and that his need was urgent. He therefore determined to
employ boldness and assurance, and push his way into the canon's
presence.
"Canon Thurstan!" he cried boldly, attempting to push past the porter.
"Canon Thurstan, and at once! My lord demandeth it."
"Thou mayest not push in past me thus," said the porter, stopping him.
"Hast thou no token to show?"
"Yea, verily," answered Humphrey, hastily taking out his pouch and
producing the prior's ring. "Take this, and bid the canon see me
instantly."
The porter, calling an attendant, sent the ring by him. And presently
an order came bidding Humphrey come into the presence of the canon.
"Where is the prior's nephew?" asked the canon, with the ring in his
hand.
"In the custody of knaves who did surprise our camp."
"Knaves, sayest thou?" said the canon. "Wherefore hast thou a camp?
Wherefore lodgest thou not in towns? What doest thou wandering through
the fens?"
"We be pursued," answered Humphrey.
"Pursued? and by whom? Why, who should pursue the nephew of Roger
Aungerville?"
"It is a king's man, and he hath with him three men-at-arms," answered
Humphrey.
"A king's man, sayest thou? Nay, then, I meddle not in the king's
matters." And he made as if to hand back the ring.
"And wilt thou not, then, aid me to rescue my young master?"
"Nay," answered the canon. "I may not do such a thing except upon
compulsion. The dean is now absent, and I am in his place."
Beside himself with impatience over what seemed to him needless delay,
and with disappointment over what seemed to promise failure altogether,
Humphrey cried out roughly: "Compulsion, sayest thou? Then, since 'tis
compulsion thou lackest, compulsion thou shalt have." And he laid hands
on him.
At this two servants came running in. "Ye see," said the canon, turning
to them. "This is the ring of my friend, Roger Aungerville, prior of
St. Wilfrid's. It bindeth me to do all in reason for his nephew. This
is his nephew's servant, who hath come to me to seek my aid to rescue
his young master from the clutches of a king's man and three
men-at-arms. I tell him I may not do such a thing except upon
compulsion, and he layeth hands upon me." And he smiled upon them
whimsically.
They understood the canon and his smile, and the first said: "If thou
be compelled to aid this fellow, were it not best that I call up
Herebald and Bernulf also? They be two, as thou knowest, swift of foot,
and long of wind, and strong of arm; and they have two good staves,
moreover."
"Why," said the canon, whimsically, "it were doubtless wholly evil that
I should undergo compulsion in mine own domain by a strange
serving-man, and be compelled to render aid even against the king's
men. Still, since I be compelled to render aid, it were good to render
the best possible, and so take with ye Herebald and Bernulf; and spare
not for blows, so that ye bring off the young man safe."
Then he handed the prior's ring to Humphrey, who returned it to its
pouch with great satisfaction. "I will ne'er say aught against a fish,"
he thought, "when it surmounteth a circlet of gold and doth belong to a
prior. Methinks this canon liketh not the king nor his men, or he would
not be so easily compelled to go against them, and so all shall yet be
well with us."
The two servants now withdrew from the canon's presence, taking
Humphrey with them, and, calling up Herebald and Bernulf, all four made
speed to depart with the impatient serving-man.
"If the mist hold, we have them," said the first servant, as he rode
beside Humphrey. "And it be heavier now than it was two hours agone."
"Ay, if we lose not our way," was the response.
"That we cannot do with Herebald and Bernulf," was the confident
answer. "They were born and bred in these fens. And because they do
hate the king and all his men they will be swift on the track this
morn. If the king's man come not off with a broken pate, it will be a
wonder. And the same is like to be the fate of the three men-at-arms."
The mist held, and, gleaming through it, as they neared the camp, they
saw the red fire. Cautiously they approached. Richard Wood and his
hungry men-at-arms had been making free with the packs so liberally
provided by Humphrey at Lincoln, and were now resting on the rushes,
with Hugo in their midst. They were in no mood to journey farther in
the dimness of the mist, and Richard Wood was putting question after
question to Hugo in the hope of eliciting some information which might
be valuable to him, while the men-at-arms listened. They were Le
Falconer's men, and they cared nothing for the fate of De Aldithely's
son.
"Where hideth away thy mother?" asked Richard Wood.
"Even in the tomb," answered Hugo, truthfully, for his mother was dead.
For a moment Richard Wood was taken aback. "I had not heard of it," he
said at length. "I knew not that thy mother was dead. The king had
hoped to capture her also. But it seemeth death hath been beforehand
with him."
And then the four servants of the canon, who had surrounded the little
group unseen, lifted their staves and struck as one man. Over rolled
Richard Wood and his three men-at-arms, stunned and unconscious.
Humphrey at once brought up Hugo's horse and Fleetfoot, and the
rescuers departed, leaving the four unconscious men to come to
themselves at their leisure.
"Thou art to return to the hospitium," said the first servant to
Humphrey. "It is the canon's order. He will see this nephew of the
prior's and inquire more narrowly concerning his journey. And say thou
naught of this rescue to any man. We four do the canon's bidding at all
times, but our tongues wag not of the matter."
"When the canon is compelled, thou doest his bidding?" asked Humphrey.
"Ay, when he is compelled. He hath those of his kin who have suffered
wrong at the king's hands. Therefore is he often compelled, as thou
sayest, but he sayeth naught, and so the king knoweth naught. May he be
long ignorant."
The first servant now withdrew himself from Humphrey's side, and in due
time, still under cover of the friendly mist which spread its curtain
over the streets of the town, the little party regained the hospitium
unseen. As soon as their arrival was known Hugo was summoned to the
presence of the canon; and the handsome, fearless youth, as he entered
the room where the canon awaited him, seemed to strike his host with
surprise.
"Thou the nephew of Roger Aungerville!" he exclaimed, when they were
alone. "Thou shouldst be a De Aldithely."
"I am Hugo Aungerville," answered the boy. And then, drawing nearer, he
half whispered something further to the canon, who seemed to find the
explanation satisfactory.
"Why dost thou skulk and hide in this manner through the fens?" asked
the canon. "And why art thou pursued?"
"I personate Josceline, son of Lord De Aldithely, and so draw pursuit
from him. When I am come to Lord De Aldithely in France, then I shall
make myself known, if need be."
"There will be no need," said the canon, decidedly. "And now, though I
am glad to have succored the nephew of my friend, the prior, I am twice
glad to do a service to Lord De Aldithely. Thou hast my blessing. Go
now to thy rest, even though it be day. To-morrow morn I will send thee
forth, if it seem best."