AT MY GRANDSIRE'S HOMESTEAD
My grandsire's homestead, as I have already intimated, stood on the
outskirts of the royal forest of Windsor. It was a humble enough
tenement, but not without its comforts, and it occupied a fair spot
of ground, shadowed by ancient trees, and surrounded by green sward
stretching away into meadows by the river side, where flowers grew and
kine grazed, and young maidens sat tending their fathers' flocks and
singing the ballads of their country.
Nobody could deny that the place was fair to look upon and pleasant to
dwell in; and my grandsire, save when in his gloomy moods, was in the
habit, not only of saying that such was the case, but of expressing
contentment with his lot. In this respect I was certainly far from
sharing his sentiments; and every day I experienced a stronger desire
to escape from an obscurity which was ill suited to my aspiring nature.
My existence was surrounded with a mystery which I in vain endeavoured
to penetrate. Of my father I had no recollection, and little knowledge.
I was given to understand that he ceased to live when I was an infant
in the cradle, and that, during the troubles which distracted England
at the opening of King Edward's reign, he perished under cruel, and
somewhat ignominious, circumstances. But I suspected much more than had
ever been told me. In fact, from vague hints and allusions, I gathered
sufficient to inspire me with the conviction that his tragic fate,
though its immediate cause was a political conspiracy, was, in reality,
the result of enmity engendered by a political family feud. That my
mother, a sad, religious, and broken-hearted woman, showed much anxiety
to keep me in ignorance of the facts was evident; and I was given to
understand that my safety--even my life--depended on my name and origin
remaining a profound secret.
I have, however, hinted that my imagination was lively; and, as it
was frequently at work on the subject, I was soon led by it to the
conclusion that I was of different flesh and blood from those among
whom my lot had been cast; that my father was, at least, a man of
knightly rank; and that I was, probably, the heir of a pedigree which
a Montacute or a Merley might have envied. My pride, stimulated by my
imagination, became daily higher; and, buoyed up with some knowledge
of grammar and letters acquired from the tuition of a neighbouring
priest, I early cherished ideas far above my station, and dreamt of
chances and possibilities that might raise my fortunes to a level with
my aspirations.
Either by accident or design, my grandsire fed my ambition by the
kind of conversation in which he indulged, on winter evenings, by the
blazing fire of wood that warmed our little hall. Plain yeoman as the
old man seemed, he had been a good deal in the world; and he knew much
of its ways. In youth he had, as a warrior, served King Edward--the
first of the name--and he delighted to tell of the battles and the
sieges to which he had ridden under the banner of that mighty monarch.
Fired by the countless stories of war and victory, I conceived an
irresistible desire to excel in arms; and, ere reaching my fourteenth
year, I began to despise the sports and athletic exercises of the
young peasants and villagers who deemed themselves my equals, and
to endeavour, as well as I could, to acquire accomplishments which
qualified youths of gentle blood for knighthood and the honours of
chivalry.
My success was greater than might have been anticipated, under the
circumstances. Excluded from the training bestowed in feudal castles
on the sons of nobles and knights, my disadvantages were obvious.
But patience and perseverance always will do much; and I set myself
deliberately to acquire skill and dexterity in the use of the sword,
and riding at the ring and the quintain; and, with instructions from
my grandsire, I soon found my patience and perseverance rewarded. At
the exercise of quintain, especially, I was so perfect a performer, in
my own opinion, that I was all eagerness for an opportunity of proving
my superiority. When, therefore, I learned that, on the day of St.
John the Baptist, the Londoners of my own age, or thereabouts, were
to compete for the peacock, in the presence of the Prince of Wales, I
insisted on my grandsire conducting me to the capital, that I might
display my proficiency in public, and that I might advance my fortune
by exhibiting, under the eye of England's heir, the skill and dexterity
which I had acquired by constant exercise among the trees that
shadowed our quiet grange.
Naturally enough, the result was flattering to my juvenile vanity;
and the events of the day on which I won the peacock made a strong
impression on my mind. It opened up to me views of life with which
I was previously quite unacquainted, and quickened my desire to
begin my career in earnest. My life of obscurity became more and
more distasteful. Even the lot of forest outlaws seemed infinitely
preferable to mine; and while I essayed to look cheerful as I drove
out the cows to the meadows, and talked to the hinds as they gathered
the harvest into the barns, I was bitterly cursing the Lord De Ov for
cutting short my interview with the prince, and, in melancholy mood,
tasking my ingenuity to discover some way of again bringing myself
under his notice.
At this season, Thomelin of Winchester happened to visit our homestead,
and was welcomed with the hospitality due to a friend and kinsman.
"And what news bringest thou, Thomelin?" asked my grandsire.
"None likely to cheer thy heart," answered the host of the Falcon.
"Thou knowest the Vipseys, in Yorkshire?"
"Ay do I," said my grandsire; "they are brooks that rise every other
year out of springs, and rush rapidly to the sea near the promontory
called Flamborough."
"And thou knowest," continued Thomelin, "that their drying up is deemed
a good sign, and that their running is held to be a sure presage of
famine or pestilence?"
"I have so heard in other days," said my grandsire contemptuously; "but
then, again, I have known them run, and better run, and neither plague
nor famine come in consequence."
"Anyhow," said Thomelin, not caring to dispute the point, "we are
almost certain to have more war."
"More war?" exclaimed my grandsire.
"By my faith," said Thomelin, "little doubt can there be as to that.
Think how matters now stand. King Edward makes a peace with Philip of
Valois, and, not just in the best humour, comes home; and no sooner is
his back turned than Philip causes twelve knights of Brittany--all our
king's friends and allies--to be arrested, without rhyme or reason, and
beheaded without trial."
"Ho, ho!" exclaimed my grandsire.
"Well," continued Thomelin, "all the kinsmen of the murdered men
have taken up arms; and Godfrey Harcourt, one of the great lords of
Normandy, has come to England, and got a promise from King Edward to
avenge them. Everybody who knows aught of King Edward knows what that
means."
"Doubtless," said my grandsire, "it means such a war as has not been
seen in thy time."
"And," added Thomelin, "when we have more war, trust me, we will have
more taxes, and already they are hard enough to bear. And yet, if King
Edward would just make up his mind, instead of being longer fooled by
foreigners, as he has been, to take an English army to the Continent,
I see not why war should not turn out both to the honour and profit of
the nation."
"I hold with you, kinsman," said I, sliding into the conversation; "and
beshrew me if aught would be more to my mind than to cross the narrow
seas, to fight the braggart Frenchmen."
"You would fain see something of war, then, Arthur?" observed Thomelin,
startled at my enthusiasm.
"Yes," replied I, in a tone of decision. "Life, at the longest, is but
short; and, to me, every day seems wasted that I pass in obscurity."
It was while my mind was wholly bent on this subject--while I was
brooding over the past, and panting to penetrate the future--that
Fortune, as if in compassion, threw in my way a great opportunity,
and enabled me, under favourable auspices, to commence the arduous
enterprise of climbing the ladder of life.