That Edward is escaped from your brother
And fled, as he hears since, to Burgundy.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Years passed on, and still Henry Clifford continued to be the shepherd.
Matters were still too unsettled, and there were too many Yorkists in
the north, keeping up the deadly hatred of the family against that of
Clifford, for it to be safe for him to show himself openly. He was a
tall, well-made, strong youth, and his stepfather spoke of his going to
learn war in Burgundy; but not only was his mother afraid to venture him
there, but he could not bear to leave England while there was a hope
of working in the cause of the captive King, though the Red Rose hung
withered on the branches.
Reports of misunderstandings between King Edward and the Earl of Warwick
came from time to time, and that Queen Margaret and her son were busy
beyond seas, which kept up hope; and in the meantime Hal grew in the
knowledge of all country lore, of herd and wood, and added to it all his
own earnest love of the out-of-door world, of sun, moon, and stars,
sea and hills, beast and bird. The hermit King, who had been a
well-educated, well-read man in his earlier days, had given him the
framework of such natural science as had come down to the fifteenth
century, backed by the deepest faith in scriptural descriptions; and
these inferences and this philosophy were enough to lead a far acuter
and more able intellect, with greater opportunities of observation, much
further into the fields of the mystery of nature than ever the King had
gone.
He said nothing, for never had he met one who understood a word he said
apart from fortune telling, excepting the royal teacher after whom
he longed; but he watched, he observed, and he dreamt, and came to
conclusions that his King’s namesake cousin, Enrique of Portugal, the
discoverer, in his observatory at St. Vincent, might have profited by.
Brother Brian, a friar, for whose fidelity Simon Bunce’s outlaw could
absolutely answer, and who was no Friar Tuck, in spite of his rough
life, gave Dolly much comfort religiously, carried on some of the
education for which Hal longed, and tried to teach him astrology. Some
of the yearnings of his young soul were thus gratified, but they were
the more extended as he grew nearer manhood, and many a day he stood
with eyes stretched over the sea to the dim line of the horizon, with
arms spread for a moment as if he would join the flight of the sea-gulls
floating far, far away, then clasped over his breast in a sort of
despair at being bound to one spot, then pressed the tighter in the
strong purpose of fighting for his imprisoned King when the time should
come.
For this he diligently practised with bow and arrow when alone, or only
with Piers, and learnt all the feats of arms that Simon Runce or Giles
Spearman could teach him. Spearman was evidently an accomplished knight
or esquire; he had fought in France as well as in the home wars, and
knew all the refinements of warfare in an age when the extreme weight
of the armour rendered training and skill doubly necessary. Spearman
was evidently not his real name, and it was evident that he had some
knowledge of Hal’s real rank, though he never hazarded mention of other
name or title. The great drawback was the want of horses. The little
mountain ponies did not adequately represent the warhorses trained
to charge under an enormous load, and the buff jerkins and steel
breast-plates of the outlaws were equally far from showing how to move
under ‘mail and plates of Milan steel.’ Nor would Sir Lancelot Threlkeld
lend or give what was needful. Indeed, he was more cautious than ever,
and seemed really alarmed as well as surprised to see how tall and manly
his step-son was growing, and how like his father. He would not hear
of a visit to Threlkeld under any disguise, though Lady Clifford was
in failing health, nor would he do anything to forward the young lord’s
knightly training. In effect, he only wanted to keep as quiet and
unobserved as possible, for everything was in a most unsettled and
dangerous condition, and there was no knowing what course was the safest
for one by no means prepared to lose life or lands in any cause.
The great Earl of Warwick, on whom the fate of England had hitherto
hinged, was reported to have never forgiven King Edward for his marriage
with Dame Elizabeth Grey, and to be meditating insurrection. Encouraged
by this there was a great rising in Yorkshire of the peasants under
Robin of Redesdale, and a message was brought to Giles Spearman and his
followers to join them, but he and Brother Brian demurred, and news soon
came that the Marquess of Montagu had defeated the rising and beheaded
Redesdale.
Sir Lancelot congratulated his step-son on having been too late to take
up arms, and maintained that the only safe policy was to do nothing, a
plan which suited age much better than youth.
He still lived with Hob and Piers, and slept at the hut, but he went
further and further afield among the hills and mosses, often with no
companion save Watch, so that he might without interruption watch the
clear streams and wonder what filled their fountains, and why the sea
was never full, or stand on the sea-shore studying the tides, and
trying to construct a theory about them. King Henry was satisfied with
‘Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther,’ but He who gave that decree
must have placed some cause or rule in nature thus to affect them. Could
it be the moon? The waves assuredly obeyed the changes of the moon, and
Hal was striving to keep a record in strokes marked by a stick on soft
earth or rows of pebbles, so as to establish a rule. ‘Aye, aye,’ quoth
Hob. ‘Poor fellow, he is not much wiser than the hermit. See how he
plays with pebbles and stones. You’ll make nought of him, fine grown lad
as he is. Why, he’ll sit dazed and moonstruck half a day, and all the
night, staring up at the stars as if he would count them!’
So spoke the stout shepherd to Simon Bunce, pointing to the young man,
who lay at his length upon the grass calculating the proportions of the
stones that marked the relations of hours of the flood tide and those
of the height of the moon. Above and beyond was a sundial cut out in the
turf, from his own observations after the hints that the hermit and the
friar had given him.
‘Ha now, my lord, I have rare news for you.’
The unwonted title did not strike Hal’s unaccustomed ears, and he
continued moving his lips, ‘High noon, spring tide.’
‘There, d’ye see?’ said Hob, ‘he heeds nothing. ‘That I and my goodwife
should have bred up a mooncalf! Here, Hal, don’t you know Simon? Hear
his tidings!’
‘Tidings enow! King Henry is freed, King Edward is fled. My Lord
of Warwick has turned against him for good and all. King Henry is
proclaimed in all the market-places! I heard it with my own ears at
Penrith!’ And throwing up his cap into the air, while the example
was followed by Hob, with ‘God save King Henry, and you my Lord of
Clifford.’
The sound was echoed by a burst of voices, and out of the brake suddenly
stood the whole band of outlaws, headed by Giles Spearman, but Hal still
stood like one dazed. ‘King Harry, the hermit, free and on his throne,’
he murmured, as one in a dream.
‘Ay, all things be upset and reversed,’ said Spearman, with a hand on
his shoulder. ‘No herd boy now, but my Lord of Clifford.’
‘Come to his kingdom,’ repeated Hal. ‘My own King Harry the hermit! I
would fain go and see him.’
‘So you shall, my brave youth, and carry him your homage and mine,’
said Spearman. ‘He will know me for poor Giles Musgrave, who upheld
his standard in many a bloody field. We will off to Sir Lancelot at
Threlkeld now! Spite of his policy of holes and corners, he will not now
refuse to own you for what you are, aye, and fit you out as becomes a
knight.’
‘God grant he may!’ muttered Bunce, ‘without his hum and ha, and swaying
this way and that, till he never moves at all! Betwixt his caution,
and this lad’s moonstruck ways, you have a fair course before you, Sir
Giles! See, what’s the lad doing now?’
The lad was putting into his pouch the larger white pebbles that had
represented tens in his calculation, and murmuring the numbers they
stood for. ‘He will understand,’ he said almost to himself, but he
showed himself ready to go with the party to Threlkeld, merely pausing
at Hob’s cottage to pick up a few needful equipments. In the skin of a
rabbit, carefully prepared, and next wrapped in a silken kerchief,
and kept under his chaff pillow, was the hermit’s portuary, which was
carefully and silently transferred by Hal to his own bosom. Sir Giles
Musgrave objected to Watch, in city or camp, and Hal was obliged to
leave him to Goodwife Dolly and to Piers.
With each it was a piteous parting, for Dolly had been as a mother to
him for almost all his boyhood, and had supplied the tenderness that
his mother’s fears and Sir Lancelot’s precautions had prevented his
receiving at Threlkeld. He was truly as a son to her, and she sobbed
over him, declaring that she never would see him again, even if he came
to his own, which she did not believe was possible, and who would see to
his clean shirts?
‘Never fear, goodwife,’ said Giles Musgrave; ‘he shall be looked to as
mine own son.’
‘And what’s that to a gentle lad that has always been tended as becomes
him?’
‘Heed not, mother! Be comforted! I must have gone to the wars, anyway.
If so be I thrive, I’ll send for thee to mine own castle, to reign there
as I remember of old. Here now! Comfort Piers as thou only canst do.’
Piers, poor fellow, wept bitterly, only able to understand that
something had befallen his comrade of seven years, which would take him
away from field and moor. He clung to Hal, and both lads shed tears,
till Hob roughly snatched Piers away and threw him to his aunt, with
threats that drew indignant, though useless, interference from Hal,
though Simon Bunce was muttering, ‘As lief take one lad as the other!’
while Dolly’s angry defence of her nursling’s wisdom broke the sadness
of the parting.