THE BROTHERS-IN-ARMS.
ON the last Wednesday of the month of July, in the year 1248, the castle
of Wark reposed in the sunshine and warmth of a bright merry summer's
day; and, the exercises in the tiltyard being over for the morning, two
of the apprentices to chivalry, whose dress indicated that they had
attained the rank of squires, strolled slowly along the green border of
the Tweed. Neither of them had passed the age of seventeen, but both
were tall and strong and handsome for their years; and both had the fair
hair, blue eyes, aquiline features, and air of authority which
distinguished the descendants of the valiant Northmen who accompanied
Rollo when he left Norway, sailed up the Seine, and seized on Neustria.
But in one rather important respect there was a remarkable difference.
One had a countenance which expressed gaiety of heart; the other had a
countenance which expressed sadness of spirit. One bore the name of Guy
Muschamp; the other the still greater name of Walter Espec.
'And so, good Walter, we are actually soldiers of the Cross, and vowed
to combat the Saracens,' said Guy, as they walked along the grassy
margin of the river, which flowed tranquilly on, while the salmon leaped
in its silver tide, and the trouts glided like silver darts through the
clear stream, and the white and brindled cows cooled their hoofs in the
water; 'and yet I know not how it comes to pass, good Walter; but
beshrew me if, at times, I do not fancy that it is a dream of the
night.'
'In truth, brave Guy,' replied the other, 'I comprehend not how you can
have any doubts on the subject, when you see the sacred badge on our
shoulders, and when we have, even within the hour, learned that the
ships of the great Saxon earl, in which we are to embark for the Holy
Land, are now riding at anchor before the town of Berwick.'
'You are right, good Walter,' said Guy, quickly; 'and marry! worse than
an infidel am I to have a doubt; and yet when I think of all the marvels
we are likely to behold, I can scarce credit my good fortune. Just
imagine, Walter Espec, the picturesque scenery--the palm-trees, the
fig-trees, the gardens with flowers, and vines, and citrons, and
pomegranates; the Saracenic castles, the long caravans of camels, and
the Eastern women veiled in white, standing at fountains, and all the
wonders that palmers and pilgrims tell of! Oh! the adventure appears so
grand, that I now begin to dread lest some mischance should come to
prevent us going.'
[Illustration: "I will go straightway with you, Walter," said Guy, "to
the palace of the Caliph; and if he refuses to render you justice, I
will challenge him to mortal combat on the spot."--p. 16.]
'And I,' observed Walter, calmly, 'have no dread of the kind; and I am,
heart and soul, bent on the holy enterprise; albeit, I reck little of
caravans of camels, or veiled women. But my heart yearns for that far
land; for there it is that I am like to hear tidings of him I have lost.
Ah! credit me, brave Guy, that you, and such as you, little know what it
is to be alone in this world, without kith or kindred, or home, and how
saddening is the thought, ever crossing my mind, that one, near and
dear, does live; and--and--'
He paused, bent his brow, clenched his hand, and cast his eyes on the
ground, as tears streamed down his cheek.
'Good Walter, dear Walter,' said Guy, yielding to sympathy till he was
almost equally affected; 'droop not, but be of good cheer. Forget not
that we are brothers-in-arms, that I am your friend, your true and sworn
friend; and I will aid your search. Nay, I know what you are going to
say; but you do me wrong. I will not waste time in looking at the camels
and the veiled women, of whom palmer and pilgrim tell; but I will go
straightway with you to the palace of the caliph; and, if he refuse to
render you justice, I will challenge him to mortal combat on the spot.
So again I say, be of good cheer.'
Walter Espec smiled mournfully. His enthusiasm was not, in reality, less
than that of his companion. But he had none of the gaiety, and little of
the buoyant spirit, which enabled Guy Muschamp to make himself, at all
times and seasons, a favourite in castle hall and lady's bower. 'I fear
me, brave Guy,' said Walter, after a brief silence, 'that the caliph is
too great a potentate to be dealt with as you would wish. But, come what
may, I am sworn to laugh at danger in the performance of a duty. My
dreams, awake and asleep, are of him who is lost; and I fantasied last
night,' added he, lowering his voice, 'that my mother stood before me,
as I last saw her when living, and implored me, in the name of St.
Katherine, the patron saint of the Especs, to fulfil my vow of rescuing
her lost son from captivity and from the enemies of Christ.'
'Oh, fear not, doubt not, good Walter,' cried Guy, with enthusiasm; 'it
must, it shall, be done; and then we can go and conquer a principality,
like Tancred, or Bohemund of Tarentum, or Count Raymond of St. Giles,
and other old heroes.'
'Even the crown of Jerusalem may not be beyond our grasp, if fortune
favour us,' said Walter, with a calm smile.
'Oh, fortune ever favours the brave,' exclaimed Guy; 'and I hold that
nothing is impossible to men who are brave and ambitious; and no squire
of your years is braver or more ambitious than you, Walter, or more
expert in arms; albeit you never utter a boast as to your own feats,
while no one is more ready to praise the actions of others.'
'Even if I had anything to boast of,' replied Walter, 'I should refrain
from so doing; and therein I should only be acting according to the
maxims of chivalry; for you know we are admonished to be dumb as to our
own deeds, and eloquent in praise of others; and, moreover, that if the
squire is vainglorious, he is not worthy to become a knight, and that he
who is silent as to the valour of others is a thief and a robber.'
And thus conversing, the brothers-in-arms returned to the castle, and
entered the great hall, which was so spacious and so high in the roof
that a man on horseback might have turned a spear in it with all the
ease imaginable. It was, indeed, a stately apartment; the ceiling
consisting of a smooth vault of ashlar-work, the stones being curiously
joined and fitted together; and the walls and roof decorated by some of
those great painters who flourished in England under the patronage of
King Henry and his fair and accomplished queen, Eleanor of Provence.
Here was represented the battle of Hastings; there the siege of
Jerusalem by the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon and Robert
Curthose; here the battle of the Standard; there the signing of the
Great Charter by King John, under the oak of Runnymede. Around the hall
might be traced the armorial bearings of the lord of the castle and the
chief families with whom the lord of the castle was allied by blood--the
three water-budgets of De Roos; the three Katherine-wheels of Espec; the
engrailed cross of De Vesci; the seven blackbirds of Merley; the lion
argent of Dunbar in its field of gules; and the ruddy lion of Scotland,
ramping in gold; while on the roof was depicted the castle itself, with
gates, and battlements, and pinnacles, and towers; and there also, very
conspicuous, was the form of a rose, and around it was inscribed in
Gothic letters the legend--
He who doth secrets reveal,
Beneath my roof shall never live.
It was ten o'clock--in that age the hour of dinner--when Walter Espec
and Guy Muschamp entered the great hall of the castle, and, the
household having assembled for that important meal, a huge oaken table,
which in shape resembled the letter T, groaned under massive sirloins.
Attended by his jesters, the lord of the castle took his seat on the
dais, which was reserved for his family and his guests of high rank;
while the knights, squires, pages, and retainers ranged themselves above
and below the salt, according to their claims to precedence; and hawks
stood around on perches, and hounds lay stretched on the rushy floor,
waiting their turn to be fed.
Much ceremony was of course observed. The sirloins were succeeded by
fish and fowl, and dishes curiously compounded; and, as was the fashion
of that feudal age, the dinner lasted three hours. But, notwithstanding
the pride and pomp exhibited, the meal was by no means dull. The jesters
and minstrels did their work. During the intervals the jesters exercised
all their wit to divert the lord and his friends; and the minstrels, in
the gallery set apart for their accommodation, discoursed flourishes of
music, borrowed from the Saracens and brought from the East, for the
gratification of the company, or roused the aspirations of the youthful
warriors by some such spirit-stirring strain as the battle-hymn of
Rollo.
'I marvel much, good Walter,' said Guy Muschamp to his brother-in-arms,
'I marvel much where we are destined to dine this day next year.'
'Beshrew me if I can even form a guess,' replied Walter Espec,
thoughtfully; 'methinks no seer less potent than the Knight of
Ercildoune, whom the vulgar call "True Thomas," could on such a point do
aught to satisfy your curiosity.'
'Mayhap at Acre or Jerusalem,' suggested Guy, after a pause.
'By Holy Katherine,' exclaimed Walter, 'ere you named Acre and
Jerusalem, my imagination had carried me to the palace of the caliph at
Bagdad.'