HOW HEREWARD GATHERED AN ARMY.
The voyage round the Norfolk coast was rough and wild. Torfrida was ill,
the little girl was ill; the poor old mother was so ill that she could
not even say her prayers. Packed uncomfortably under the awning on the
poop, Torfrida looked on from beneath it upon the rolling water-waste,
with a heart full of gloomy forebodings, and a brain whirling with wild
fancies. The wreaths of cloud were gray witches, hurrying on with the
ship to work her woe; the low red storm-dawn was streaked with blood;
the water which gurgled all night under the lee was alive with hoarse
voices; and again and again she started from fitful slumber to clasp the
child closer to her, or look up for comfort to the sturdy figure of her
husband, as he stood, like a tower of strength, steering and commanding,
the long night through.
Yes; on him she could depend. On his courage, on his skill. And as for
his love, had she not that utterly? And what more did woman need?
But she was going, she scarce knew whither; and she scarce knew for
what. At least, on a fearful adventure, which might have a fearful end.
She looked at the fair child, and reproached herself for a moment; at
the poor old mother, whining and mumbling, her soft southern heart quite
broken by the wild chill northern sea-breeze; and reproached herself
still more. But was it not her duty? Him she loved, and his she was;
and him she must follow, over sea and land, till death; and if possible,
beyond death again forever. For his sake she would slave. For his sake
she would be strong. If ever there rose in her a homesickness, a regret
for leaving Flanders, and much more for that sunnier South where she was
born, he at least should never be saddened or weakened by one hint of
her sadness and weakness. And so it befell that, by the time they made
the coast, she had (as the old chronicler says) “altogether conquered
all womanly softness.”
And yet she shuddered at the dreary mud-creek into which they ran their
ships, at the dreary flats on which they landed shivering, swept over by
the keen northeast wind. A lonely land; and within, she knew not what of
danger, it might be of hideous death.
But she would be strong. And when they were all landed, men, arms,
baggage, and had pitched the tents which the wise Hereward had brought
with them, she rose up like a queen, and took her little one by the
hand, and went among the men, and spoke:--
“Housecarles and mariners! you are following a great captain upon a
great adventure. How great he is, you know as well as I. I have given
him myself, my wealth, and all I have, and have followed him I know not
whither, because I trust him utterly. Men, trust him as I trust him, and
follow him to the death.”
“That will we!”
“And, men, I am here among you, a weak woman, trying to be brave for his
sake--and for yours. Be true to me, too, as I have been true to you. For
your sake have I worked hard day and night, for many a year. For you I
have baked and brewed and cooked, like any poor churl’s wife. Is there
a garment on your backs which my hands have not mended? Is there a wound
on your limbs which my hands have not salved? O, if Torfrida has been
true to you, promise me this day that you will be true men to her and
hers; that if--which Heaven forbid!--aught should befall him and me, you
will protect this my poor old mother, and this my child, who has grown
up among you all,--a lamb brought up within the lions’ den. Look at her,
men, and promise me, on the faith of valiant soldiers, that you will be
lions on her behalf, if she shall ever need you. Promise me, that if you
have but one more stroke left to strike on earth, you will strike it to
defend the daughter of Hereward and Torfrida from cruelty and shame”
The men answered by a shout which rolled along the fen, and startled
the wild-fowl up from far-off pools. They crowded round their lady; they
kissed her hands; they bent down and kissed their little playmate, and
swore--one by God and his apostles, and the next by Odin and Thor--that
she should be a daughter to each and every one of them, as long as they
could grip steel in hand.
Then (says the chronicler) Hereward sent on spies, to see whether the
Frenchmen were in the land, and how folks fared at Holbeach, Spalding,
and Bourne.
The two young Siwards, as knowing the country and the folk, pushed
forward, and with them Martin Lightfoot, to bring back news.
Martin ran back all the way from Holbeach, the very first day, with
right good news. There was not a Frenchman in the town. Neither was
there, they said, in Spalding. Ivo Taillebois was still away at the
wars, and long might he stay.
So forward they marched, and everywhere the landsfolk were tilling the
ground in peace; and when they saw that stout array, they hurried out
to meet the troops, and burdened them with food, and ale, and all they
needed.
And at Holbeach, and at Spalding, Hereward split up the war-arrow, and
sent it through Kesteven, and south into the Cambridge fens, calling on
all men to arm and come to him at Bourne, in the name of Waltheof and
Morcar the earls.
And at every farm and town he blew the war-horn, and summoned every man
who could bear arms to be ready, against the coming of the Danish host
from Norwich. And so through all the fens came true what the wild-fowl
said upon the meres, that Hereward was come again.
And when he came to Bourne, all men were tilling in peace. The terror of
Hereward had fallen on the Frenchmen, and no man had dared to enter
on his inheritance, or to set a French foot over the threshold of that
ghastly hall, over the gable whereof still grinned the fourteen heads;
on the floor whereof still spread the dark stains of blood.
Only Geri dwelt in a corner of the house, and with him Leofric the
Unlucky, once a roistering housecarle of Hereward’s youth, now a monk of
Crowland, and a deacon, whom Lady Godiva had sent thither that he might
take care of her poor. And there Geri and Leofric had kept house, and
told sagas to each other over the beech-log fire night after night; for
all Leofric’s study was, says the chronicler, “to gather together for
the edification of his hearers all the acts of giants and warriors out
of the fables of the ancients or from faithful report, and commit them
to writing, that he might keep England in mind thereof.” Which Leofric
was afterwards ordained priest, probably in Ely, by Bishop Egelwin of
Durham; and was Hereward’s chaplain for many a year.
Then Hereward, as he had promised, set fire to the three farms close
to the Bruneswold; and all his outlawed friends, lurking in the forest,
knew by that signal that Hereward was come again. So they cleansed out
the old house: though they did not take down the heads from off the
gable; and Torfrida went about it, and about it, and confessed that
England was, after all, a pleasant place enough. And they were as happy,
it may be, for a week or two, as ever they had been in their lives.
“And now,” said Torfrida, “while you see to your army, I must be doing;
for I am a lady now, and mistress of great estates. So I must be seeing
to the poor.”
“But you cannot speak their tongue.”
“Can I not? Do you think that in the face of coming to England and
fighting here, and plotting here, and being, may be, an earl’s countess,
I have not made Martin Lightfoot teach me your English tongue, till I
can speak it as well as you? I kept that hidden as a surprise for you,
that you might find out, when you most needed, how Torfrida loved you.”
“As if I had not found out already! O woman! woman! I verily believe
that God made you alone, and left the Devil to make us butchers of men.”
Meanwhile went round through all the fens, and north into the
Bruneswold, and away again to Lincoln and merry Sherwood, that Hereward
was come again. And Gilbert of Ghent, keeping Lincoln Castle for the
Conqueror, was perplexed in mind, and looked well to gates and bars and
sentinels; for Hereward sent him at once a message, that forasmuch as he
had forgotten his warning in Bruges street, and put a rascal cook into
his mother’s manors, he should ride Odin’s horse on the highest ash in
the Bruneswold.
On which Gilbert of Ghent, inquiring what Odin’s horse might be, and
finding it to signify the ash-tree whereon, as sacred to Odin, thieves
were hanged by Danes and Norse, made answer,--
That he Gilbert had not put his cook into Bourne, nor otherwise harmed
Hereward or his. That Bourne had been seized by the king himself,
together with Earl Morcar’s lands in those parts, as all men knew. That
the said cook so pleased the king with a dish of stewed eel-pout, which
he served up to him at Cambridge, and which the king had never eaten
before, that the king begged the said cook of him Gilbert and took him
away; and that after, so he heard, the said cook had begged the said
manors of Bourne of the king, without the knowledge or consent of him
Gilbert. That he therefore knew naught of the matter. That if Hereward
meant to keep the king’s peace, he might live in Bourne till Doomsday,
for aught he, Gilbert, cared. But that if he and his men meant to break
the king’s peace, and attack Lincoln city, he Gilbert would nail their
skins to the door of Lincoln Cathedral, as they used to do by the
heathen Danes in old time. And that, therefore, they now understood each
other.
At which Hereward laughed, and said that they had done that for many a
year.
And now poured into Bourne from every side brave men and true,--some
great holders dispossessed of their land; some the sons of holders who
were not yet dispossessed; some Morcar’s men, some Edwin’s, who had been
turned out by the king.
To him came “Guenoch and Alutus Grogan, foremost in all valor and
fortitude, tall and large, and ready for work,” and with them their
three nephews, Godwin Gille, “so called because he was not inferior
to that Godwin Guthlacsson who is preached much in the fables of the
ancients,” “and Douti and Outi, [Footnote: Named in Domesday-book (?).]
the twins, alike in face and manners;” and Godric, the knight of Corby,
nephew of the Count of Warwick; and Tosti of Davenesse, his kinsman; and
Azer Vass, whose father had possessed Lincoln Tower; and Leofwin Moue,
[Footnote: Probably the Leofwin who had lands in Bourne.]--that is, the
scythe, so called, “because when he was mowing all alone, and twenty
country folk set on him with pitchforks and javelins, he slew and
wounded almost every one, sweeping his scythe among them as one that
moweth”; and Wluncus the Black-face, so called because he once blackened
his face with coal, and came unknown among the enemy, and slew ten of
them with one lance; and “Turbertin, a great-nephew (surely a mistake)
of Earl Edwin”; and Leofwin Prat (perhaps the ancestor of the ancient
and honorable house of Pratt of Ryston), so called from his “Praet” or
craft, “because he had oft escaped cunningly when taken by the enemy,
having more than once killed his keepers;” and the steward of Drayton;
and Thurkill the outlaw, Hereward’s cook; and Oger, Hereward’s kinsman;
and “Winter and Linach, two very famous ones;” and Ranald, the butler of
Ramsey Abbey,--“he was the standard-bearer”; and Wulfric the Black
and Wulfric the White; and Hugh the Norman, a priest; and Wulfard, his
brother; and Tosti and Godwin of Rothwell; and Alsin; and Hekill; and
Hugh the Breton, who was Hereward’s chaplain, and Whishaw, his brother,
“a magnificent” knight, which two came with him from Flanders; and so
forth;--names merely of whom naught is known, save, in a few cases,
from Domesday-book, the manors which they held. But honor to their very
names! Honor to the last heroes of the old English race!
These valiant gentlemen, with the housecarles whom, more or fewer, they
would bring with them, constituted a formidable force, as after
years proved well. But having got his men, Hereward’s first care was,
doubtless, to teach them that art of war of which they, like true
Englishmen, knew nothing.
The art of war has changed little, if at all, by the introduction of
gunpowder. The campaigns of Hannibal and Caesar succeeded by the same
tactics as those of Frederic or Wellington; and so, as far as we can
judge, did those of the master-general of his age, William of Normandy.
But of those tactics the English knew nothing. Their armies were little
more than tumultuous levies, in which men marched and fought under local
leaders, often divided by local jealousies. The commissariats of the
armies seem to have been so worthless, that they had to plunder friends
as well as foes as they went along; and with plunder came every sort
of excess: as when the northern men marching down to meet Harold
Godwinsson, and demand young Edwin as their earl, laid waste, seemingly
out of mere brute wantonness, the country round Northampton, which must
have been in Edwin’s earldom, or at least in that of his brother Morcar.
And even the local leaders were not over-well obeyed. The reckless
spirit of personal independence, especially among the Anglo-Danes,
prevented anything like discipline, or organized movement of masses, and
made every battle degenerate into a confusion of single combats.
But Hereward had learned that art of war, which enabled the Norman to
crush, piecemeal, with inferior numbers, the vast but straggling levies
of the English. His men, mostly outlaws and homeless, kept together by
the pressure from without, and free from local jealousies, resembled
rather an army of professional soldiers than a country _posse
comitatus_. And to the discipline which he instilled into them; to his
ability in marching and manoeuvring troops; to his care for their food
and for their transport, possibly, also, to his training them in that
art of fighting on horseback in which the men of Wessex, if not the
Anglo-Danes of the East, are said to have been quite unskilled,--in
short, to all that he had learned, as a mercenary, under Robert
the Frison, and among the highly civilized warriors of Flanders and
Normandy, must be attributed the fact, that he and his little army
defied, for years, the utmost efforts of the Normans, appearing and
disappearing with such strange swiftness, and conquering against such
strange odds, as enshrouded the guerilla captain in an atmosphere of
myth and wonder, only to be accounted for, in the mind of Normans as
well as English, by the supernatural counsels of his sorceress wife.
But Hereward grew anxious and more anxious, as days and weeks went on,
and yet there was no news of Osbiorn and his Danes at Norwich. Time
was precious. He had to march his little army to the Wash, and then
transport it by boats--no easy matter--to Lynn in Norfolk, as his
nearest point of attack. And as the time went on, Earl Warren and Ralph
de Guader would have gathered their forces between him and the Danes,
and a landing at Lynn might become impossible. Meanwhile there were
bruits of great doings in the north of Lincolnshire. Young Earl Waltheof
was said to be there, and Edgar the Atheling with him; but what it
portended, no man knew. Morcar was said to have raised the centre of
Mercia, and to be near Stafford; Edwin to have raised the Welsh, and to
be at Chester with Alfgiva, his sister, Harold Godwinsson’s widow. And
Hereward sent spies along the Roman Watling Street--the only road, then,
toward the northwest of England--and spies northward along the Roman
road to Lincoln. But the former met the French in force near Stafford,
and came back much faster than they went. And the latter stumbled on
Gilbert of Ghent, riding out of Lincoln to Sleaford, and had to flee
into the fens, and came back much slower than they went.
At last news came. For into Bourne stalked Wulfric the Heron, with axe
and bow, and leaping-pole on shoulder, and an evil tale he brought.
The Danes had been beaten utterly at Norwich. Ralph de Guader and his
Frenchmen had fought like lions. They had killed many Danes in the
assault on the castle. They had sallied out on them as they recoiled,
and driven them into the river, drowning many more. The Danes had gone
down the Yare again, and out to sea northward, no man knew whither. He,
the Heron, prowling about the fenlands of Norfolk to pick off straggling
Frenchmen and looking out for the Danes, had heard all the news from
the landsfolk. He had watched the Danish fleet along the shore as far as
Blakeney. But when they came to the isle, they stood out to sea, right
northwest. He, the Heron, believed that they were gone for Humber Mouth.
After a while, he had heard how Hereward was come again and sent round
the war-arrow, and thought that a landless man could be in no better
company; wherefore he had taken boat, and come across the deep fen. And
there he was, if they had need of him.
“Need of you?” said Hereward, who had heard of the deed at Wrokesham
Bridge. “Need of a hundred like you. But this is bitter news.”
And he went in to ask counsel of Torfrida, ready to weep with rage. He
had disappointed, deceived his men. He had drawn them into a snare. He
had promised that the Danes should come. How should he look them in the
face?
“Look them in the face? Do that at once--now--without losing a moment.
Call them together and tell them all. If their hearts are staunch, you
may do great things without the traitor earl. If their hearts fail them,
you would have done nothing with them worthy of yourself, had you had
Norway as well as Denmark at your back. At least, be true with them, as
your only chance of keeping them true to you.”
“Wise, wise wife,” said Hereward, and went out and called his band
together, and told them every word, and all that had passed since he
left Calais Straits.
“And now I have deceived you, and entrapped you, and I have no right
to be your captain more. He that will depart in peace, let him depart,
before the Frenchmen close in on us on every side and swallow us up at
one mouthful.”
Not a man answered.
“I say it again: He that will depart, let him depart.”
They stood thoughtful.
Ranald, the Monk of Ramsey, drove the White-Bear banner firm into the
earth, tucked up his monk’s frock, and threw his long axe over his
shoulder, as if preparing for action.
Winter spoke at last.
“If all go, there are two men here who stay, and fight by Hereward’s
side as long as there is a Frenchman left on English soil; for they have
sworn an oath to Heaven and to St. Peter, and that oath will they keep.
What say you, Gwenoch, knighted with us at Peterborough?”
Gwenoch stepped to Hereward’s side.
“None shall go!” shouted a dozen voices. “With Hereward we will live and
die. Let him lead us to Lincoln, to Stafford, where he will. We can save
England for ourselves without the help of Danes.”
“It is well for one at least of you, gentlemen, that you are in this
pleasant mind,” quoth Ranald the monk.
“Well for all of us, thou valiant purveyor of beef and beer.”
“Well for one. For the first man that had turned to go, I would have
brained him with this axe.”
“And now, gallant gentlemen,” said Hereward, “we must take new counsel,
as our old has failed. Whither shall we go? For stay here, eating up the
country, we must not do.”
“They say that Waltheof is in Lindsay, raising the landsfolk. Let us go
and join him.”
“We can, at least, find what he means to do. There can be no better
counsel. Let us march. Only we must keep clear of Lincoln as yet. I hear
that Gilbert has a strong garrison there, and we are not strong enough
yet to force it.”
So they rode north, and up the Roman road toward Lincoln, sending out
spies as they went; and soon they had news of Waltheof,--news, too, that
he was between them and Lincoln.
“Then the sooner we are with him, the better, for he will find himself
in trouble ere long, if old Gilbert gets news of him. So run your best,
footmen, for forward we must get.”
And as they came up the Roman road, they were aware of a great press of
men in front of them, and hard fighting toward.
Some of the English would have spurred forward at once. But Hereward
held them back with loud reproaches.
“Will you forget all I have told you in the first skirmish, like so many
dogs when they see a bull? Keep together for five minutes more, the pot
will not be cool before we get our sup of it. I verily believe that it
is Waltheof, and that Gilbert has caught him already.”
As he spoke, one part of the combatants broke up, and fled right and
left; and a knight in full armor galloped furiously down the road right
at them, followed by two or three more.
“Here comes some one very valiant, or very much afeared,” said Hereward,
as the horseman rode right upon him, shouting,--
“I am the King!”
“The King?” roared Hereward, and dropping his lance, spurred his horse
forward, kicking his feet clear of the stirrups. He caught the knight
round the neck, dragged him over his horse’s tail, and fell with him to
the ground.
The armor clashed; the sparks flew from the old gray Roman flints; and
Hereward, rolling over once, rose, and knelt upon his prisoner.
“William of Normandy, yield or die!”
The knight lay still and stark.
“Ride on!” roared Hereward from the ground. “Ride at them, and strike
hard! You will soon find out which is which. This booty I must pick for
myself. What are you at?” roared he, after his knights. “Spread off the
road, and keep your line, as I told you, and don’t override each other!
Curse the hot-headed fools! The Normans will scatter them like sparrows.
Run on, men-at-arms, to stop the French if we are broken. And don’t
forget Guisnes field and the horses’ legs. Now, King, are you come to
life yet?”
“You have killed him,” quoth Leofric the deacon, whom Hereward had
beckoned to stop with him.
“I hope not. Lend me a knife. He is a much slighter man than I fancied,”
said Hereward, as they got his helmet off.
And when it was off, both started and stared. For they had uncovered,
not the beetling brow, Roman nose, and firm curved lip of the Ulysses
of the middle age, but the face of a fair lad, with long straw-colored
hair, and soft blue eyes staring into vacancy.
“Who are you?” shouted Hereward, saying very bad words, “who come here
aping the name of king?”
“Mother! Christina! Margaret! Waltheof Earl!” moaned the lad, raising
his head and letting it fall again.
“It is the Atheling!” cried Leofric.
Hereward rose, and stood over the boy.
“Ah! what was I doing to handle him so tenderly? I took him for the
Mamzer, and thought of a king’s ransom.”
“Do you call that tenderly? You have nigh pulled the boy’s head off.”
“Would that I had! Ah,” went on Hereward, apostrophizing the unconscious
Atheling,--“ah, that I had broken that white neck once and for all! To
have sent thee feet foremost to Winchester, to lie by thy grandfathers
and great-grandfathers, and then to tell Norman William that he must
fight it out henceforth, not with a straw malkin like thee, which
the very crows are not afraid to perch on, but with a cock of a very
different hackle,--Sweyn Ulfsson, King of Denmark.”
And Hereward drew Brain-biter.
“For mercy’s sake! you will not harm the lad?”
“If I were a wise man now, and hard-hearted as wise men should be, I
should--I should--” and he played the point of the sword backwards and
forwards, nearer and nearer to the lad’s throat.
“Master! master!” cried Leofric, clinging to his knees; “by all the
saints! What would the Blessed Virgin say to such a deed!”
“Well, I suppose you are right. And I fear what my lady at home might
say; and we must not do anything to vex her, you know. Well, let us do
it handsomely, if we must do it. Get water somewhere, in his helmet. No,
you need not linger. I will not cut his throat before you come back.”
Leofric went off in search of water, and Hereward knelt with the
Atheling’s head on his knee, and on his lip a sneer at all things
in heaven and earth. To have that lad stand between him and all his
projects, and to be forced, for honor’s sake, to let him stand!
But soon his men returned, seemingly in high glee, and other knights
with them.
“Hey, lads!” said he, “I aimed at the falcon and shot the goose. Here is
Edgar Atheling prisoner. Shall we put him to ransom?”
“He has no money, and Malcolm of Scotland is much too wise to lend him
any,” said some one. And some more rough jokes passed.
“Do you know, sirs, that he who lies there is your king?” asked a very
tall and noble-looking knight.
“That do we not,” said Hereward, sharply. “There is no king in England
this day, as far as I know. And there will be none north of the Watling
Street, till he be chosen in full husting, and anointed at York, as well
as Winchester or London. We have had one king made for us in the last
forty years, and we intend to make the next ourselves.”
“And who art thou, who talkest so bold, of king-making?”
“And who art thou, who askest so bold who I am?”
“I am Waltheof Siwardsson, the Earl, and yon is my army behind me.”
“And I am Hereward Leofricsson, the outlaw, and yon is my army behind
me.”
If the two champions had flown at each other’s throats, and their armies
had followed their example, simply as dogs fly at each other, they know
not why, no one would have been astonished in those unhappy times.
But it fell not out upon that wise; for Waltheof, leaping from his
horse, pulled off his helmet, and seizing Hereward by both hands,
cried,--
“Blessed is the day which sees again in England Hereward, who has upheld
throughout all lands and seas the honor of English chivalry!”
“And blessed is the day in which Hereward meets the head of the house
of Siward where he should be, at the head of his own men, in his own
earldom. When I saw my friend, thy brother Osbiorn, brought into the
camp at Dunsinane with all his wounds in front, I wept a young man’s
tears, and said, ‘There ends the glory of the White-Bear’s house!’
But this day I say, the White-Bear’s blood is risen from the grave
in Waltheof Siwardsson, who with his single axe kept the gate of York
against all the army of the French; and who shall keep against them all
England, if he will be as wise as he is brave.”
Was Hereward honest in his words? Hardly so. He wished to be honest. As
he looked upon that magnificent young man, he hoped and trusted that his
words were true. But he gave a second look at the face, and whispered
to himself: “Weak, weak. He will be led by priests; perhaps by William
himself. I must be courteous; but confide I must not.”
The men stood round, and looked with admiration on the two most splendid
Englishmen then alive. Hereward had taken off his helmet likewise, and
the contrast between the two was as striking as the completeness of
each of them in his own style of beauty. It was the contrast between
the slow-hound and the deer-hound; each alike high bred; but the former,
short, sturdy, cheerful, and sagacious; the latter tall, stately,
melancholy, and not over-wise withal.
Waltheof was a full head and shoulders taller than Hereward,--one of the
tallest men of his generation, and of a strength which would have been
gigantic, but for the too great length of neck and limb, which made him
loose and slow in body, as he was somewhat loose and slow in mind. An
old man’s child, although that old man was as one of the old giants,
there was a vein of weakness in him, which showed in the arched eyebrow,
the sleepy pale blue eye, the small soft mouth, the lazy voice, the
narrow and lofty brain over a shallow brow. His face was not that of
a warrior, but of a saint in a painted window; and to his own place he
went, and became a saint, in his due time. But that he could outgeneral
William, that he could even manage Gospatrick and his intrigues Hereward
expected as little as that his own nephews Edwin and Morcar could do it.
“I have to thank you, noble sir,” said Waltheof, languidly, “for sending
your knights to our rescue when we were really hard bested,--I fear
much by our own fault. Had they told me whose men they were, I should
not have spoken to you so roughly as I fear I did.”
“There is no offence. Let Englishmen speak their minds, as long as
English land is above sea. But how did you get into trouble, and with
whom?”
Waltheof told him how he was going round the country, raising forces in
the name of the Atheling, when, as they were straggling along the Roman
road, Gilbert of Ghent had dashed out on them from a wood, cut their
line in two, driven Waltheof one way, and the Atheling another, and that
the Atheling had only escaped by riding, as they saw, for his life.
“Well done, old Gilbert!” laughed Hereward. “You must beware, my Lord
Earl, how you venture within reach of that old bear’s paw!”
“Bear? By the by, Sir Hereward,” asked Waltheof, whose thoughts ran
loosely right and left, “why is it that you carry the white bear on your
banner?”
“Do you not know? Your house ought to have a blood-feud against me. I
slew your great-uncle, or cousin, or some other kinsman, at Gilbert’s
house in Scotland long ago; and since then I sleep on his skin every
night, and carry his picture in my banner all day.”
“Blood-feuds are solemn things,” said Waltheof, frowning. “Karl killed
my grandfather Aldred at the battle of Settrington, and his four sons
are with the army at York now--”
“For the love of all saints and of England, do not think of avenging
that! Every man must now put away old grudges, and remember that he has
but one foe,--William and his Frenchmen.”
“Very nobly spoken. But those sons of Karl--and I think you said you had
killed a kinsman of mine?”
“It was a bear, Lord Earl, a great white bear. Cannot you understand a
jest? Or are you going to take up the quarrels of all white bears that
are slain between here and Iceland? You will end by burning Crowland
minster then, for there are twelve of your kinsmen’s skins there, which
Canute gave forty years ago.”
“Burn Crowland minster? St. Guthlac and all saints forbid!” said
Waltheof, crossing himself devoutly.
“Are you a monk-monger into the bargain, as well as a dolt? A bad
prospect for us, if you are,” said Hereward to himself.
“Ah, my dear Lord King!” said Waltheof, “and you are recovering?”
“Somewhat,” said the lad, sitting up, “under the care of this kind
knight.”
“He is a monk, Sir Atheling, and not a knight,” said Hereward. “Our
fenmen can wear a mail-shirt as easily as a frock, and handle a twybill
as neatly as a breviary.”
Waltheof shook his head. “It is contrary to the canons of Holy Church.”
“So are many things that are done in England just now. Need has no
master. Now, Sir Earl and Sir Atheling, what are you going to do?”
Neither of them, it seemed, very well knew. They would go to York if
they could get there, and join Gospatrick and Marlesweyn. And certainly
it was the most reasonable thing to be done.
“But if you mean to get to York, you must march after another fashion
than this,” said Hereward. “See, Sir Earl, why you were broken by
Gilbert; and why you will be broken again, if this order holds. If you
march your men along one of these old Roman streets--By St. Mary! these
Romans had more wits than we; for we have spoilt the roads they left us,
and never made a new one of our own--”
“They were heathens and enchanters,”--and Waltheof crossed himself.
“And conquered the world. Well,--if you march along one of these
streets, you must ride as I rode, when I came up to you. You must not
let your knights go first, and your men-at-arms straggle after in a tail
a mile long, like a scratch pack of hounds, all sizes but except each
others’. You must keep your footmen on the high street, and make your
knights ride in two bodies, right and left, upon the wold, to protect
their flanks and baggage.”
“But the knights won’t. As gentlemen, they have a right to the best
ground.”
“Then they may go to--whither they will go, if the French come upon
them. If they are on the flanks, and you are attacked then they can
charge in right and left on the enemy’s flank, while the footmen make a
stand to cover the wagons.”
“Yes,--that is very good; I believe that is your French fashion?”
“It is the fashion of common-sense, like all things which succeed.”
“But, you see, the knights would not submit to ride in the mire.”
“Then you must make them. What else have they horses for, while honester
men than they trudge on foot?”
“Make them?” said Waltheof, with a shrug and a smile. “They are all free
gentlemen, like ourselves.”
“And, like ourselves, will come to utter ruin, because every one of them
must needs go his own way.”
“I am glad,” said Waltheof, as they rode along, “that you called this my
earldom. I hold it to be mine of course, in right of my father; but the
landsfolks, you know, gave it to your nephew Morcar.”
“I care not to whom it is given. I care for the man who is on it, to
raise these landsfolk and make them fight. You are here: therefore you
are earl.”
“Yes, the powers that be are ordained by God.”
“You must not strain that text too far, Lord Earl; for the only power
that is, whom I see in England--worse luck for it!--is William the
Mamzer.”
“So I have often thought.”
“You have? As I feared!” (To himself:) “The pike will have you next,
gudgeon!”
“He has with him the Holy Father at Rome, and therefore the blessed
Apostle St. Peter of course. And is a man right, in the sight of Heaven,
who resists them? I only say it. But where a man looks to the salvation
of his own soul, he must needs think thereof seriously, at least.”
“O, are you at that?” thought Hereward. “_Tout est perdu_. The question
is, Earl,” said he aloud, “simply this: How many men can you raise off
this shire?”
“I have raised--not so many as I could wish. Harold and Edith’s men have
joined me fairly well; but your nephew, Morcar’s--”
“I can command them. I have half of them here already.”
“Then,--then we may raise the rest?”
“That depends, my Lord Earl, for whom we fight!”
“For whom?--I do not understand.”
“Whether we fight for that lad, Child Edgar, or for Sweyn of Denmark,
the rightful king of England.”
“Sweyn of Denmark! Who should be the rightful king but the heir of the
blessed St. Edward?”
“Blessed old fool! He has done harm to us enough on earth, without
leaving his second-cousins’ aunts’ malkins to harm us after he is in
Heaven.”
“Sir Hereward, Sir Hereward, I fear thou art not as good a Christian as
so good a knight should be.”
“Christian or not, I am as good a one as my neighbors. I am Leofric’s
son. Leofric put Harthacanute on the throne, and your father, who was a
man, helped him. You know what has befallen England since we Danes left
the Danish stock at Godwin’s bidding, and put our necks under the yoke
of Wessex monks and monk-mongers. You may follow your father’s track
or not, as you like. I shall follow my father’s, and fight for Sweyn
Ulfsson, and no man else.”
“And I,” said Waltheof, “shall follow the anointed of the Lord.”
“The anointed of Gospatrick and two or three boys!” said Hereward.
“Knights! Turn your horses’ heads. Right about face, all! We are going
back to the Bruneswold, to live and die free Danes.”
And to Waltheof’s astonishment, who had never before seen discipline,
the knights wheeled round; the men-at-arms followed them; and Waltheof
and the Atheling were left to themselves on Lincoln Heath.