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[Illustration: DEAD MAN'S PLACK.]
DEAD MAN'S PLACK
AND
AN OLD THORN
BY W. H. HUDSON
1920
LONDON & TORONTO
J. M. DENT & SONS LTD.
New York: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
CONTENTS
DEAD MAN'S PLACK:
Preamble
Chapter
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
AN OLD THORN:
Chapter
I.
II.
III.
POSTSCRIPT
ILLUSTRATIONS
DEAD MAN'S PLACK
HAWTHORN AND IVY, NEAR THE GREAT RIDGE WOOD
DEAD MAN'S PLACK
PREAMBLE
"The insect tribes of human kind" is a mode of expression we are
familiar with in the poets, moralists and other superior persons, or
beings, who viewing mankind from their own vast elevation see us all
more or less of one size and very, very small. No doubt the comparison
dates back to early, probably Pliocene, times, when some one climbed to
the summit of a very tall cliff, and looking down and seeing his fellows
so diminished in size as to resemble insects, not so gross as beetles
perhaps but rather like emmets, he laughed in the way they laughed then
at the enormous difference between his stature and theirs. Hence the
time-honoured and serviceable metaphor.
Now with me, in this particular instance, it was all the other way
about--from insect to man--seeing that it was when occupied in watching
the small comedies and tragedies of the insect world on its stage that I
stumbled by chance upon a compelling reminder of one of the greatest
tragedies in England's history--greatest, that is to say, in its
consequences. And this is how it happened.
One summer day, prowling in an extensive oak wood, in Hampshire, known
as Harewood Forest, I discovered that it counted among its inhabitants
no fewer than three species of insects of peculiar interest to me, and
from that time I haunted it, going there day after day to spend long
hours in pursuit of my small quarry. Not to kill and preserve their
diminutive corpses in a cabinet, but solely to witness the comedy of
their brilliant little lives. And as I used to take my luncheon in my
pocket I fell into the habit of going to a particular spot, some opening
in the dense wood with a big tree to lean against and give me shade,
where after refreshing myself with food and drink I could smoke my pipe
in solitude and peace. Eventually I came to prefer one spot for my
midday rest in the central part of the wood, where a stone cross,
slender, beautifully proportioned and about eighteen feet high, had been
erected some seventy or eighty years before by the lord of the manor. On
one side of the great stone block on which the cross stood there was an
inscription which told that it was placed there to mark the spot known
from of old as Dead Man's Plack; that, according to tradition, handed
from father to son, it was just here that King Edgar slew his friend and
favourite Earl Athelwold, when hunting in the forest.
I had sat there on many occasions, and had glanced from time to time at
the inscription cut on the stone, once actually reading it, without
having my attention drawn away from the insect world I was living in. It
was not the tradition of the Saxon king nor the beauty of the cross in
that green wilderness which drew me daily to the spot, but its
solitariness and the little open space where I could sit in the shade
and have my rest.
Then something happened. Some friends from town came down to me at the
hamlet I was staying at, and one of the party, the mother of most of
them, was not only older than the rest of us in years, but also in
knowledge and wisdom; and at the same time she was younger than the
youngest of us, since she had the curious mind, the undying interest in
everything on earth--the secret, in fact, of everlasting youth.
Naturally, being of this temperament, she wanted to know what I was
doing and all about what I had seen, even to the minutest detail--the
smallest insect--and in telling her of my days I spoke casually of the
cross placed at a spot called Dead Man's Plack. This at once reminded
her of something she had heard about it before, but long ago, in the
seventies of last century; then presently it all came back to her, and
it proved to me an interesting story.
It chanced that in that far back time she was in correspondence on
certain scientific and literary subjects with a gentleman who was a
native of this part of Hampshire in which we were staying, and that they
got into a discussion about Freeman, the historian, during which he told
her of an incident of his undergraduate days when Freeman was professor
at Oxford. He attended a lecture by that man on the Mythical and
Romantic Elements in Early English History, in which he stated for the
guidance of all who study the past, that they must always bear in mind
the inevitable passion for romance in men, especially the uneducated,
and that when the student comes upon a romantic incident in early
history, even when it accords with the known character of the person it
relates to, he must reject it as false. Then, to rub the lesson in, he
gave an account of the most flagrant of the romantic lies contained in
the history of the Saxon kings. This was the story of King Edgar, and
how his favourite, Earl Athelwold, deceived him as to the reputed beauty
of Elfrida, and how Edgar in revenge slew Athelwold with his own hand
when hunting. Then--to show how false it all was!--Edgar, the chronicles
state, was at Salisbury and rode in one day to Harewood Forest and there
slew Athelwold. Now, said Freeman, as Harewood Forest is in Yorkshire,
Edgar could not have ridden there from Salisbury in one day, nor in two,
nor in three, which was enough to show that the whole story was a
fabrication.
The undergraduate, listening to the lecturer, thought the Professor was
wrong owing to his ignorance of the fact that the Harewood Forest in
which the deed was done was in Hampshire, within a day's ride from
Salisbury, and that local tradition points to the very spot in the
forest where Athelwold was slain. Accordingly he wrote to the Professor
and gave him these facts. His letter was not answered; and the poor
youth felt hurt, as he thought he was doing Professor Freeman a service
by telling him something he didn't know. _He_ didn't know his Professor
Freeman.
This story about Freeman tickled me, because I dislike him, but if any
one were to ask me why I dislike him I should probably have to answer
like a woman: Because I do. Or if stretched on the rack until I could
find or invent a better reason I should perhaps say it was because he
was so infernally cock-sure, so convinced that he and he alone had the
power of distinguishing between the true and false; also that he was so
arbitrary and arrogant and ready to trample on those who doubted his
infallibility.
All this, I confess, would not be much to say against him, seeing that
it is nothing but the ordinary professorial or academic mind, and I
suppose that the only difference between Freeman and the ruck of the
professors was that he was more impulsive or articulate and had a
greater facility in expressing his scorn.
Here I may mention in passing that when this lecture appeared in print
in his _Historical Essays_ he had evidently been put out a little, and
also put on his mettle by that letter from an undergraduate, and had
gone more deeply into the documents relating to the incident, seeing
that he now relied mainly on the discrepancies in half a dozen
chronicles he was able to point out to prove its falsity. His former
main argument now appeared as a "small matter of detail"--a "confusion
of geography" in the different versions of the old historians. But one
tells us, Freeman writes, that Athelwold was killed in the Forest of
Wherwell on his way to York, and then he says: "Now as Wherwell is in
Hampshire, it could not be on the road to York;" and further on he says:
"Now Harewood Forest in Yorkshire is certainly not the same as Wherwell
in Hampshire," and so on, and on, and on, but always careful not to say
that Wherwell Forest and Harewood Forest are two names for one and the
same place, although now the name of Wherwell is confined to the village
on the Test, where it is supposed Athelwold had his castle and lived
with his wife before he was killed, and where Elfrida in her declining
years, when trying to make her peace with God, came and built a Priory
and took the habit herself and there finished her darkened life.
This then was how he juggled with words and documents and chronicles
(his thimble-rigging), making a truth a lie or a lie a truth according
as it suited a froward and prejudicate mind, to quote the expression of
an older and simpler-minded historian--Sir Walter Raleigh.
Finally, to wind up the whole controversy, he says you are to take it as
a positive truth that Edgar married Elfrida, and a positive falsehood
that Edgar killed Athelwold. Why--seeing there is as good authority and
reason for believing the one statement as the other? A foolish question!
Why?--Because I, Professor or Pope Freeman, say so!
The main thing here is the effect the Freeman anecdote had on me, which
was that when I went back to continue my insect-watching and rested at
noon at Dead Man's Plack, the old legend would keep intruding itself on
my mind, until, wishing to have done with it, I said and I swore that it
was true--that the tradition preserved in the neighbourhood, that on
this very spot Athelwold was slain by the king, was better than any
document or history. It was an act which had been witnessed by many
persons, and the memory of it preserved and handed down from father to
son for thirty generations; for it must be borne in mind that the
inhabitants of this district of Andover and the villages on the Test
have never in the last thousand years been exterminated or expelled. And
ten centuries is not so long for an event of so startling a character to
persist in the memory of the people when we consider that such
traditions have come down to us even from prehistoric times and have
proved true. Our archæologists, for example, after long study of the
remains, cannot tell us how long ago--centuries or thousands of years--a
warrior with golden armour was buried under the great cairn at Mold in
Flintshire.
And now the curious part of all this matter comes in. Having taken my
side in the controversy and made my pronouncement, I found that I was
not yet free of it. It remained with me, but in a new way--not as an old
story in old books, but as an event, or series of events, now being
re-enacted before my very eyes. I actually saw and heard it all, from
the very beginning to the dreadful end; and this is what I am now going
to relate. But whether or not I shall in my relation be in close accord
with what history tells us I know not, nor does it matter in the least.
For just as the religious mystic is exempt from the study of theology
and the whole body of religious doctrine, and from all the observances
necessary to those who in fear and trembling are seeking their
salvation, even so those who have been brought to the _Gate of
Remembrance_ are independent of written documents, chronicles and
histories, and of the weary task of separating the false from the true.
They have better sources of information. For I am not so vain as to
imagine for one moment that without such external aid I am able to make
shadows breathe, revive the dead, and know what silent mouths once said.
I
When, sitting at noon in the shade of an oak tree at Dead Man's Plack, I
beheld Edgar, I almost ceased to wonder at the miracle that had happened
in this war-mad, desolated England, where Saxon and Dane, like two
infuriated bull-dogs, were everlastingly at grips, striving to tear each
other's throats out, and deluging the country with blood; how, ceasing
from their strife, they had all at once agreed to live in peace and
unity side by side under the young king; and this seemingly unnatural
state of things endured even to the end of his life, on which account he
was called Edgar the Peaceful.
He was beautiful in person and had infinite charm, and these gifts,
together with his kingly qualities, which have won the admiration of all
men of all ages, endeared him to his people. He was but thirteen when he
came to be king of united England, and small for his age, but even in
these terrible times he was remarkable for his courage, both physical
and moral. Withal he had a subtle mind; indeed, I think he surpassed all
our kings of the past thousand years in combining so many excellent
qualities. His was the wisdom of the serpent combined with the
gentleness--I will not say of the dove, but rather of the cat, our
little tiger on the hearthrug, the most beautiful of four-footed things,
so lithe, so soft, of so affectionate a disposition, yet capable when
suddenly roused to anger of striking with lightning rapidity and rending
the offender's flesh with its cruel, unsheathed claws.
Consider the line he took, even as a boy! He recognised among all those
who surrounded him, in his priestly adviser, the one man of so great a
mind as to be capable of assisting him effectually in ruling so divided,
war-loving and revengeful a people, and he allowed him practically
unlimited power to do as he liked. He went even further by pretending to
fall in with Dunstan's ambitions of purging the Church of the order of
priests or half-priests, or canons, who were in possession of most of
the religious houses in England, and were priests that married wives and
owned lands and had great power. Against this monstrous state of things
Edgar rose up in his simulated wrath and cried out to Archbishop Dunstan
in a speech he delivered to sweep them away and purify the Church and
country from such a scandal!
But Edgar himself had a volcanic heart, and to witness it in full
eruption it was only necessary to convey to him the tidings of some
woman of a rare loveliness; and have her he would, in spite of all laws
human and divine. Thus when inflamed with passion for a beautiful nun he
did not hesitate to smash the gates of a convent to drag her forth and
forcibly make her his mistress. And this too was a dreadful scandal, but
no great pother could be made about it, seeing that Edgar was so
powerful a friend of the Church and of pure religion.
* * * * *
Now all the foregoing is contained in the histories, but in what follows
I have for sole light and guide the vision that came to me at Dead Man's
Plack, and have only to add to this introductory note that Edgar at the
early age of twenty-two was a widower, having already had to wife
Ethelfled the Fair, who was famous for her beauty, and who died shortly
after giving birth to a child who lived to figure later in history as
one of England's many Edwards.
II
Now although King Edgar had dearly loved his wife, who was also beloved
by all his people on account of her sweet and gentle disposition as well
as of her exceeding beauty, it was not in his nature to brood long over
such a loss. He had too keen a zest for life and the many interests and
pleasures it had for him ever to become a melancholy man. It was a
delight to him to be king, and to perform all kingly duties and offices.
Also he was happy in his friends, especially in his favourite, the Earl
Athelwold, who was like him in character, a man after his own heart.
They were indeed like brothers, and some of those who surrounded the
king were not too well pleased to witness this close intimacy. Both were
handsome men, witty, of a genial disposition, yet under a light careless
manner brave and ardent, devoted to the pleasure of the chase and all
other pleasures, especially to those bestowed by golden Aphrodite, their
chosen saint, albeit her name did not figure in the Calendar.
Hence it was not strange, when certain reports of the wonderful beauty
of a woman in the West Country were brought to Edgar's ears that his
heart began to burn within him, and that by and by he opened himself to
his friend on the subject. He told Athelwold that he had discovered the
one woman in England fit to be Ethelfled's successor, and that he had
resolved to make her his queen although he had never seen her, since she
and her father had never been to court. That, however, would not deter
him; there was no other woman in the land whose claims were equal to
hers, seeing that she was the only daughter and part heiress of one of
the greatest men in the kingdom, Ongar, Earldoman of Devon and Somerset,
a man of vast possessions and great power. Yet all that was of less
account to him than her fame, her personal worth, since she was reputed
to be the most beautiful woman in the land. It was for her beauty that
he desired her, and being of an exceedingly impatient temper in any case
in which beauty in a woman was concerned, he desired his friend to
proceed at once to Earl Ongar in Devon with an offer of marriage to his
daughter, Elfrida, from the king.
Athelwold laughed at Edgar in this his most solemn and kingly mood, and
with a friend's privilege told him not to be so simple as to buy a pig
in a poke. The lady, he said, had not been to court, consequently she
had not been seen by those best able to judge of her reputed beauty. Her
fame rested wholly on the report of the people of her own country, who
were great as every one knew at blowing their own trumpets. Their red
and green county was England's paradise; their men the bravest and
handsomest and their women the most beautiful in the land. For his part
he believed there were as good men and as fair women in Mercia and East
Anglia as in the West. It would certainly be an awkward business if the
king found himself bound in honour to wed with a person he did not like.
Awkward because of her father's fierce pride and power. A better plan
would be to send some one he could trust not to make a mistake to find
out the truth of the report.
Edgar was pleased at his friend's wise caution, and praised him for his
candour, which was that of a true friend, and as he was the only man he
could thoroughly trust in such a matter he would send him. Accordingly,
Athelwold, still much amused at Edgar's sudden wish to make an offer of
marriage to a woman he had never seen, set out on his journey in great
state with many attendants as befitted his person and his mission, which
was ostensibly to bear greetings and loving messages from the king to
some of his most important subjects in the West Country.
In this way he travelled through Wilts, Somerset and Devon, and in due
time arrived at Earl Ongar's castle on the Exe.
III
Athelwold, who thought highly of himself, had undertaken his mission
with a light heart, but now when his progress in the West had brought
him to the great earldoman's castle it was borne in on him that he had
put himself in a very responsible position. He was here to look at this
woman with cold, critical eyes, which was easy enough; and having looked
at and measured and weighed her, he would make a true report to Edgar;
that too would be easy for him, since all his power and happiness in
life depended on the king's continual favour. But Ongar stood between
him and the woman he had come to see and take stock of with that clear
unbiassed judgment which he could safely rely on. And Ongar was a proud
and stern old man, jealous of his great position, who had not hesitated
to say on Edgar's accession to the kingship, knowing well that his words
would be reported in due time, that he refused to be one of the crowd
who came flocking from all over the land to pay homage to a boy. It thus
came about that neither then nor at any subsequent period had there been
any personal relations between the king and this English subject, who
was prouder than all the Welsh kings who had rushed at Edgar's call to
make their submission.
But now when Ongar had been informed that the king's intimate friend and
confidant was on his way to him with greetings and loving messages from
Edgar, he was flattered, and resolved to receive him in a friendly and
loyal spirit and do him all the honour in his power. For Edgar was no
longer a boy: he was king over all this hitherto turbulent realm, East
and West from sea to sea and from the Land's End to the Tweed, and the
strange enduring peace of the times was a proof of his power.
It thus came to pass that Athelwold's mission was made smooth to him,
and when they met and conversed, the fierce old Earl was so well pleased
with his visitor, that all trace of the sullen hostility he had
cherished towards the court passed away like the shadow of a cloud. And
later, in the banqueting-room, Athelwold came face to face with the
woman he had come to look at with cold, critical eyes, like one who
examines a horse in the interests of a friend who desires to become its
purchaser.
Down to that fatal moment the one desire of his heart was to serve his
friend faithfully in this delicate business. Now, the first sight of
her, the first touch of her hand, wrought a change in him, and all
thought of Edgar and of the purpose of his visit vanished out of his
mind. Even he, one of the great nobles of his time, the accomplished
courtier and life of the court, stood silent like a person spell-bound
before this woman who had been to no court, but had lived always with
that sullen old man in comparative seclusion in a remote province. It
was not only the beautiful dignity and graciousness with which she
received him, with the exquisite beauty in the lines and colour of her
face, and her hair which, if unloosed, would have covered her to the
knees as with a splendid mantle. That hair of a colour comparable only
to that of the sweet gale when that sweet plant is in its golden withy
or catkin stage in the month of May, and is clothed with catkins as with
a foliage of a deep shining red gold, that seems not a colour of earth
but rather one distilled from the sun itself. Nor was it the colour of
her eyes, the deep pure blue of the lungwort, that blue loveliness seen
in no other flower on earth. Rather it was the light from her eyes which
was like lightning that pierced and startled him; for that light, that
expression, was a living spirit looking through his eyes into the depths
of his soul, knowing all its strength and weakness, and in the same
instant resolving to make it her own and have dominion over it.
It was only when he had escaped from the power and magic of her
presence, when alone in his sleeping room, that reflection came to him
and the recollection of Edgar and of his mission. And there was dismay
in the thought. For the woman was his, part and parcel of his heart and
soul and life; for that was what her lightning glance had said to him,
and she could not be given to another. No, not to the king! Had any man,
any friend, ever been placed in so terrible a position? Honour? Loyalty?
To whichever side he inclined he could not escape the crime, the base
betrayal and abandonment! But loyalty to the king would be the greater
crime. Had not Edgar himself broken every law of God and man to gratify
his passion for a woman? Not a woman like this! Never would Edgar look
on her until he, Athelwold, had obeyed her and his own heart and made
her his for ever! And what would come then! He would not consider it--he
would perish rather than yield her to another!
That was how the question came before him, and how it was settled,
during the long sleepless hours when his blood was in a fever and his
brain on fire; but when day dawned and his blood grew cold and his brain
was tired, the image of Edgar betrayed and in a deadly rage became
insistent, and he rose desponding and in dread of the meeting to come.
And no sooner did he meet her than she overcame him as on the previous
day; and so it continued during the whole period of his visit, racked
with passion, drawn now to this side, now to that, and when he was most
resolved to have her then most furiously assaulted by loyalty, by
friendship, by honour, and he was like a stag at bay fighting for his
life against the hounds. And every time he met her--and the passionate
words he dared not speak were like confined fire, burning him up
inwardly--seeing him pale and troubled she would greet him with a smile
and look which told him she knew that he was troubled in heart, that a
great conflict was raging in him, also that it was on her account and
was perhaps because he had already bound himself to some other woman,
some great lady of the land; and now this new passion had come to him.
And her smile and look were like the world-irradiating sun when it
rises, and the black menacing cloud that brooded over his soul would
fade and vanish, and he knew that she had again claimed him and that he
was hers.
So it continued till the very moment of parting, and again as on their
first meeting he stood silent and troubled before her; then in faltering
words told her that the thought of her would travel and be with him;
that in a little while, perhaps in a month or two, he would be rid of a
great matter which had been weighing heavily on his mind, and once free
he could return to Devon, if she would consent to his paying her another
visit.
She replied smilingly with gracious words, with no change from that
exquisite perfect dignity which was always hers; nor tremor in her
speech, but only that understanding look from her eyes, which said: Yes,
you shall come back to me in good time, when you have smoothed the way,
to claim me for your own.
IV
On Athelwold's return the king embraced him warmly, and was quick to
observe a change in him--the thinner, paler face and appearance
generally of one lately recovered from a grievous illness or who had
been troubled in mind. Athelwold explained that it had been a painful
visit to him, due in the first place to the anxiety he experienced of
being placed in so responsible a position, and in the second place the
misery it was to him to be the guest for many days of such a person as
the earldoman, a man of a rough, harsh aspect and manner, who daily made
himself drunk at table, after which he would grow intolerably garrulous
and boastful. Then, when his host had been carried to bed by his
servants, his own wakeful, troubled hours would begin. For at first he
had been struck by the woman's fine, handsome presence, albeit she was
not the peerless beauty she had been reported; but when he had seen her
often and more closely and had conversed with her he had been
disappointed. There was something lacking; she had not the softness, the
charm, desirable in a woman; she had something of her parent's
harshness, and his final judgment was that she was not a suitable person
for the king to marry.
Edgar was a little cast down at first, but quickly recovering his genial
manner, thanked his friend for having served him so well.
For several weeks following the king and the king's favourite were
constantly together; and during that period Athelwold developed a
peculiar sweetness and affection towards Edgar, often recalling to him
their happy boyhood's days in East Anglia, when they were like brothers,
and cemented the close friendship which was to last them for the whole
of their lives. Finally, when it seemed to his watchful, crafty mind
that Edgar had cast the whole subject of his wish to marry Elfrida into
oblivion, and that the time was now ripe for carrying out his own
scheme, he reopened the subject, and said that although the lady was not
a suitable person to be the king's wife it would be good policy on his,
Athelwold's, part, to win her on account of her position as only
daughter and part heiress of Ongar, who had great power and possessions
in the West. But he would not move in the matter without Edgar's
consent.
Edgar, ever ready to do anything to please his friend, freely gave it,
and only asked him to give an assurance that the secret object of his
former visit to Devon would remain inviolate. Accordingly Athelwold took
a solemn oath that it would never be revealed, and Edgar then slapped
him on the back and wished him Godspeed in his wooing.
Very soon after thus smoothing the way, Athelwold returned to Devon, and
was once more in the presence of the woman who had so enchanted him,
with that same meaning smile on her lips and light in her eyes which had
been her good-bye and her greeting, only now it said to him: You have
returned as I knew you would, and I am ready to give myself to you.
From every point of view it was a suitable union, seeing that Athelwold
would inherit power and great possessions from his father, Earldoman of
East Anglia, and before long the marriage took place, and by and by
Athelwold took his wife to Wessex, to the castle he had built for
himself on his estate of Wherwell, on the Test. There they lived
together, and as they had married for love they were happy.
But as the king's intimate friend and the companion of many of his
frequent journeys he could not always bide with her nor be with her for
any great length of time. For Edgar had a restless spirit and was
exceedingly vigilant, and liked to keep a watchful eye on the different
lately hostile nations of Mercia, East Anglia, and Northumbria, so that
his journeys were frequent and long to these distant parts of his
kingdom. And he also had his naval forces to inspect at frequent
intervals. Thus it came about that he was often absent from her for
weeks and months at a stretch. And so the time went on, and during these
long absences a change would come over Elfrida; the lovely colour, the
enchanting smile, the light of her eyes--the outward sign of an intense
brilliant life--would fade, and with eyes cast down she would pace the
floors or the paths or sit brooding in silence by the hour.
Of all this Athelwold knew nothing, since she made no complaint, and
when he returned to her the light and life and brilliance would be hers
again, and there was no cloud or shadow on his delight. But the cloud
would come back over her when he again went away. Her only relief in her
condition was to sit before a fire or when out of doors to seat herself
on the bank of the stream and watch the current. For although it was
still summer, the month being August, she would have a fire of logs
lighted in a large chamber and sit staring at the flames by the hour,
and sometimes holding her outstretched hands before the flames until
they were hot, she would then press them to her lips. Or when the day
was warm and bright she would be out of doors and spend hours by the
river gazing at the swift crystal current below as if fascinated by the
sight of the running water. It is a marvellously clear water, so that
looking down on it you can see the rounded pebbles in all their various
colours and markings lying at the bottom, and if there should be a trout
lying there facing the current and slowly waving his tail from side to
side, you could count the red spots on his side, so clear is the water.
Even more did the floating water-grass hold her gaze--that bright green
grass that, rooted in the bed of the stream, sends its thin blades to
the surface where they float and wave like green floating hair.
Stooping, she would dip a hand in the stream and watch the bright clear
water running through the fingers of her white hand, then press the hand
to her lips.
Then again when day declined she would quit the stream to sit before the
blazing logs, staring at the flames. What am I doing here? she would
murmur. And what is this my life? When I was at home in Devon I had a
dream of Winchester, of Salisbury, or other great towns further away,
where the men and women who are great in the land meet together, and
where my eyes would perchance sometimes have the happiness to behold the
king himself--my husband's close friend and companion. My waking has
brought a different scene before me; this castle in the wilderness, a
solitude where from an upper window I look upon leagues of forest, a
haunt of wild animals. I see great birds soaring in the sky and listen
to the shrill screams of kite and buzzard; and sometimes when lying
awake on a still night the distant long howl of a wolf. Also, it is
said, there are great stags, and roe-deer, and wild boars, and it is
Athelwold's joy to hunt them and slay them with his spear. A joy too
when he returns from the hunt or from a long absence to play with his
beautiful wife--his caged bird of pretty feathers and a sweet song to
soothe him when he is tired. But of his life at court he tells me
little, and of even that little I doubt the truth. Then he leaves me and
I am alone with his retainers--the crowd of serving men and women and
the armed men to safeguard me. I am alone with my two friends which I
have found, one out of doors, the other in--the river which runs at the
bottom of the ground where I take my walks, and the fire I sit before.
The two friends, companions, and lovers to whom all the secrets of my
soul are confided. I love them, having no other in the world to love,
and here I hold my hands before the flames until it is hot and then kiss
the heat, and by the stream I kiss my wetted hands. And if I were to
remain here until this life became unendurable I should consider as to
which one of these two lovers I should give myself. This one I think is
too ardent in his love--it would be terrible to be wrapped round in his
fiery arms and feel his fiery mouth on mine. I should rather go to the
other one to lie down on his pebbly bed, and give myself to him to hold
me in his cool, shining arms and mix his green hair with my loosened
hair. But my wish is to live and not die. Let me then wait a little
longer; let me watch and listen, and perhaps some day, by and by, from
his own lips, I shall capture the secret of this my caged solitary life.
And the very next day Athelwold, having just returned with the king to
Salisbury, was once more with her; and the brooding cloud had vanished
from her life and countenance; she was once more his passionate bride,
lavishing caresses on him, listening with childish delight to every word
that fell from his lips, and desiring no other life and no greater
happiness than this.
V
It was early September, and the king with some of the nobles who were
with him, after hunting the deer over against Cranbourne, returned at
evening to Salisbury, and after meat with some of his intimates they sat
late drinking wine and fell into a merry, boisterous mood. They spoke of
Athelwold, who was not with them, and indulged in some mocking remarks
about his frequent and prolonged absences from the king's company. Edgar
took it in good part and smilingly replied that it had been reported to
him that the earl was now wedded to a woman with a will. Also he knew
that her father, the great Earldoman of Devon, had been famed for his
tremendous physical strength. It was related of him that he had once
been charged by a furious bull, that he had calmly waited the onset and
had dealt the animal a staggering blow with his fist on its head and had
then taken it up in his arms and hurled it into the river Exe. If, he
concluded, the daughter had inherited something of this power it was not
to be wondered at that she was able to detain her husband at home.
Loud laughter followed this pleasantry of the king's, then one of the
company remarked that not a woman's will, though it might be like steel
of the finest temper, nor her muscular power, would serve to change
Athelwold's nature or keep him from his friend, but only a woman's
exceeding beauty.
Then Edgar, seeing that he had been put upon the defence of his absent
friend, and that all of them were eager to hear his next word, replied
that there was no possession a man was prouder of than that of a
beautiful wife; that it was more to him than his own best qualities, his
greatest actions, or than titles and lands and gold. If Athelwold had
indeed been so happy as to secure the most beautiful woman he would have
been glad to bring her to court to exhibit her to all--friends and foes
alike--for his own satisfaction and glory.
Again they greeted his speech with laughter, and one cried out: Do you
believe it?
Then another, bolder still, exclaimed: It's God's truth that she is the
fairest woman in the land--perhaps no fairer has been in any land since
Helen of Troy. This I can swear to, he added, smiting the board with his
hand, because I have it from one who saw her at her home in Devon before
her marriage. One who is a better judge in such matters than I am or
than any one at this table, not excepting the king, seeing that he is
not only gifted with the serpent's wisdom but with that creature's cold
blood as well.
Edgar heard him frowningly, then ended the discussion by rising, and
silence fell on the company, for all saw that he was offended. But he
was not offended with them, since they knew nothing of his and
Athelwold's secret, and what they thought and felt about his friend was
nothing to him. But these fatal words about Elfrida's beauty had pierced
him with a sudden suspicion of his friend's treachery. And Athelwold was
the man he greatly loved--the companion of all his years since their
boyhood together. Had he betrayed him in this monstrous way--wounding
him in his tenderest part? The very thought that such a thing might be
was like a madness in him. Then he reflected--then he remembered, and
said to himself: Yes, let me follow his teaching in this matter too, as
in the other, and exercise caution and look before I leap. I shall look
and look well and see and judge for myself.
The result was that when his boon companions next met him there was no
shadow of displeasure in him; he was in a peculiarly genial mood, and so
continued. And when his friend returned he embraced him and gently
upbraided him for having kept away for so long a time. He begged him to
remember that he was his one friend and confidant who was more than a
brother to him, and that if wholly deprived of his company he would
regard himself as the loneliest man in the kingdom. Then in a short time
he spoke once more in the same strain, and said he had not yet
sufficiently honoured his friend before the world, and that he proposed
visiting him at his own castle to make the acquaintance of his wife and
spend a day with him hunting the boar in Harewood Forest.
Athelwold, secretly alarmed, made a suitable reply, expressing his
delight at the prospect of receiving the king, and begging him to give
him a couple of days' notice before making his visit, so as to give him
time to make all preparation for his entertainment.
This the king promised, and also said that this would be an informal
visit to a friend, that he would go alone with some of his servants and
huntsmen and ride there one day, hunt the next day and return to
Salisbury on the third day. And a little later, when the day of his
visit was fixed on, Athelwold returned in haste with an anxious mind to
his castle.
Now his hard task and the most painful moment of his life had come.
Alone with Elfrida in her chamber he cast himself down before her, and
with his bowed head resting on her knees, made a clean breast of the
whole damning story of the deceit he had practised towards the king in
order to win her for himself. In anguish and shedding tears he implored
her forgiveness, begging her to think of that irresistible power of love
she had inspired in him, which would have made it worse than death to
see her the wife of another--even of Edgar himself--his friend, the
brother of his soul. Then he went on to speak of Edgar, who was of a
sweet and lovable nature, yet capable of a deadly fury against those who
offended him; and this was an offence he would take more to heart than
any other; he would be implacable if he once thought that he had been
wilfully deceived, and she only could now save them from certain
destruction. For now it seemed to him that Edgar had conceived a
suspicion that the account he had of her was not wholly true, which was
that she was a handsome woman but not surpassingly beautiful as had been
reputed, not graceful, not charming in manner and conversation. She
could save them by justifying his description of her--by using a woman's
art to lessen instead of enhancing her natural beauty, by putting away
her natural charm and power to fascinate all who approached her.
Thus he pleaded, praying for mercy, even as a captive prays to his
conqueror for life, and never once daring to lift his bowed head to look
at her face; while she sat motionless and silent, not a word, not a
sigh, escaping her; and she was like a woman carved in stone, with knees
of stone on which his head rested.
Then, at length, exhausted with his passionate pleading and frightened
at her silence and deadly stillness, he raised his head and looked up at
her face to behold it radiant and smiling. Then, looking down lovingly
into his eyes, she raised her hands to her head, and loosening the great
mass of coiled tresses let them fall over him, covering his head and
shoulders and back as with a splendid mantle of shining red gold. And
he, the awful fear now gone, continued silently gazing up at her,
absorbed in her wonderful loveliness.
Bending down she put her arms round his neck and spoke: Do you not know,
O Athelwold, that I love you alone and could love no other, noble or
king; that without you life would not be life to me? All you have told
me endears you more to me, and all you wish me to do shall be done,
though it may cause your king and friend to think meanly of you for
having given your hand to one so little worthy of you.
She having thus spoken, he was ready to pour forth his gratitude in
burning words, but she would not have it. No more words, she said,
putting her hand on his mouth. Your anxious day is over--your burden
dropped. Rest here on the couch by my side, and let me think on all
there is to plan and do against to-morrow evening.
And so they were silent, and he, reclining on the cushions, watched her
face and saw her smile and wondered what was passing in her mind to
cause that smile. Doubtless it was something to do with the question of
her disguising arts.
What had caused her to smile was a happy memory of the days with
Athelwold before their marriage, when one day he came in to her with a
leather bag in his hand and said: Do you, who are so beautiful yourself,
love all beautiful things? And do you love the beauty of gems? And when
she replied that she loved gems above all beautiful things, he poured
out the contents of his bag in her lap--brilliants, sapphires, rubies,
emeralds, opals, pearls in gold setting, in bracelets, necklets,
pendants, rings and brooches. And when she gloated over this splendid
gift, taking up gem after gem, exclaiming delightedly at its size and
colour and lustre, he told her that he once knew a man who maintained
that it was a mistake for a beautiful woman to wear gems. Why? she
asked, would he have then wholly unadorned? No, he replied, he liked to
see them wearing gold, saying that gold makes the most perfect setting
for a woman's beauty, just as it does for a precious stone, and its
effect is to enhance the beauty it surrounds. But the woman's beauty has
its meeting and central point in the eyes, and the light and soul in
them illumines the whole face. And in the stone nature simulates the
eye, and although without a soul its brilliant light and colour make it
the equal of the eye, and therefore when worn as an ornament it competes
with the eye, and in effect lessens the beauty it is supposed to
enhance. He said that gems should be worn only by women who are not
beautiful, who must rely on something extraneous to attract attention,
since it would be better to a homely woman that men should look at her
to admire a diamond or sapphire than not to look at her at all. She had
laughed and asked him who the man was who had such strange ideas, and he
had replied that he had forgotten his name.
Now, recalling this incident after so long a time, it all at once
flashed into her mind that Edgar was the man he had spoken of; she knew
now because, always secretly watchful, she had noted that he never spoke
of Edgar or heard Edgar spoken of without a slight subtle change in the
expression of his face, also, if he spoke, in the tone of his voice. It
was the change that comes into the face, and into the tone, when one
remembers or speaks of the person most loved in all the world. And she
remembered now that he had that changed expression and tone of voice,
when he had spoken of the man whose name he pretended to have forgotten.
And while she sat thinking of this it grew dark in the room, the light
of the fire having died down. Then presently, in the profound stillness
of the room, she heard the sound of his deep, regular breathing and knew
that he slept, and that it was a sweet sleep after his anxious day.
Going softly to the hearth she moved the yet still glowing logs, until
they sent up a sudden flame and the light fell upon the sleeper's still
face. Turning, she gazed steadily at it--the face of the man who had won
her; but her own face in the firelight was white and still and wore a
strange expression. Now she moved noiselessly to his side and bent down
as if to whisper in his ear, but suddenly drew back again and moved
towards the door, then turning gazed once more at his face and murmured:
No, no, even a word faintly whispered would bring him a dream, and it is
better his sleep should be dreamless. For now he has had his day and it
is finished, and to-morrow is mine.
VI
On the following day Athelwold was occupied with preparations for the
king's reception and for the next day's boar-hunt in the forest. At the
same time he was still somewhat anxious as to his wife's more difficult
part, and from time to time he came to see and consult with her. He then
observed a singular change in her, both in her appearance and conduct.
No longer the radiant, loving Elfrida, her beauty now had been dimmed
and she was unsmiling and her manner towards him repellant. She had
nothing to say to him except that she wished him to leave her alone.
Accordingly he withdrew, feeling a little hurt, and at the same time
admiring her extraordinary skill in disguising her natural loveliness
and charm, but almost fearing that she was making too great a change in
her appearance.
Thus passed the day, and in the late afternoon Edgar duly arrived, and
when he had rested a little, was conducted to the banqueting-room, where
the meeting with Elfrida would take place.
Then Elfrida came, and Athelwold hastened to the entrance to take her
hand and conduct her to the king; then, seeing her, he stood still and
stared in silent astonishment and dismay at the change he saw in her,
for never before had he beheld her so beautiful, so queenly and
magnificent. What did it mean--did she wish to destroy him? Seeing the
state he was in she placed her hand in his, and murmured softly: I know
best. And so, holding her hand, he conducted her to the king, who stood
waiting to receive her. For all she had done that day to please and to
deceive him had now been undone, and everything that had been possible
had been done to enhance her loveliness. She had arrayed herself in a
violet-coloured silk gown with a network of gold thread over the body
and wide sleeves to the elbows, and rope of gold round her waist with
its long ends falling to her knee. The great mass of her coiled hair was
surmounted with a golden comb, and golden pendants dropped from her ears
to her shoulders. Also she wore gold armlets coiled serpent-wise round
her white arms from elbow to wrist. Not a gem--nothing but pale yellow
gold.
Edgar himself was amazed at her loveliness, for never had he seen
anything comparable to it; and when he gazed into her eyes she did not
lower hers, but returned gaze for gaze, and there was that in her eyes
and their strange eloquence which kindled a sudden flame of passion in
his heart, and for a moment it appeared in his countenance. Then,
quickly recovering himself, he greeted her graciously but with his usual
kingly dignity of manner, and for the rest of the time he conversed with
her and Athelwold in such a pleasant and friendly way that his host
began to recover somewhat from his apprehensions. But in his heart Edgar
was saying: And this is the woman that Athelwold, the close friend of
all my days, from boyhood until now, the one man in the world I loved
and trusted, has robbed me of!
And Athelwold at the same time was revolving in his mind the mystery of
Elfrida's action. What did she mean when she whispered to him that she
knew best? And why, when she wished to appear in that magnificent way
before the king, had she worn nothing but gold ornaments--not one of the
splendid gems of which she possessed such a store?
She had remembered something which he had forgotten.