SNICK AND SNEE.
Murder, madam! 'Tis self-defence. Besides, in these skirmishes
there are never more than two or three killed; for, supposing they
bring the whole body of militia upon us, down with a brace of them
and away fly the rest of the covey!--THE LYING VALET.
Gray had been repeatedly warned by the friendly hosteller, Maître
Baudoin, to beware of travelling in the dusk after passing the boundary
of the marquisate of Antwerp, as hordes of disbanded Brabanters and
Walloons, the refuse of the wars between Charles of France and the
duke of Burgundy, were lurking among the thick woods that lay about
Endhoven, and in the then great swampy wilderness, known as the Peel
Morass; and these outlaws were led by a kind of leader whom they all
tacitly acknowledged, Count Ludwig of Endhoven, who had been expelled
from the Burgundian army for his barbarous and outrageous conduct,
after having his spurs hacked from his heels, and his coat of arms
publicly riven and defaced, by order of Philip the Good.
Gray thanked Maître Baudoin for his friendly warning, and rode on his
way, like a soldier and a careless fellow as he was, thinking no more
about it.
Refreshed by the halt at Antwerp, his horse carried him with great
speed next day. He passed Nonne Kloster, and towards evening, found
himself approaching Endhoven, in Brabant, after a fifty-miles' ride.
At the verge of the flat horizon, the sun was setting, but through the
evening haze, its light shed a golden lustre upon everything,--the
quaint farmhouses, the summer woods, the sluggish canals and browsing
cattle,--casting far across the fields the shadow of every village
spire and poplar tree; but now here and there rose little hills or
swelling eminences to relieve the tedium of the scenery, for tedious it
was to a Scottish eye, though the fruitful soil was cultivated like a
garden, for he was in the land of cheese, milk, and butter.
Two miles from the town of Endhoven, stood a wayside hostelry, of
quaint aspect, overshadowed by a gigantic oak-tree, on one of the lower
branches of which swung its signboard, and under which were placed a
rough table and benches for the accommodation of those who choose to
loiter there, and refresh them in the open air.
Weary and athirst, Gray alighted from his horse, and knocking with
his dagger hilt on the table, brought forth the tapster, who had been
observing his approach, from the ivy-covered porch of the hostelry,
which seemed to be literally a mass of green leaves, with quaint
gablets, and chimneys sticking up in all directions, and curious little
windows, peeping out, without order, regularity, or architectural
design.
In a jargon, half Flemish and partly French, "eked" out with a word or
two of Scottish, Gray ordered a flask of wine for himself, and a feed
of corn for his horse, which was led into the stables.
While drinking his wine, and pondering whether he should halt there
for the night, or push on to Endhoven, the evening bells of which were
ringing in the distance, the sound of voices at an open window made him
aware that several fellows of a very rough aspect were observing him
from a room, where they seemed to be drinking and playing with dice,
and, doubtless, they would have been smoking too, had that useful mode
of spending time and money been discovered.
On turning from them, his attention was next arrested by perceiving a
knife, formed somewhat like a dagger, dangling at the end of a string,
from the lower branch of the tree under which he sat, and there it
swung to and fro in the wind.
Each time he raised his eyes to this knife, he heard loud laughter, and
a clapping of hands among those who were evidently observing him; and
though resolving, if possible, to avoid all brawls, his brow flushed,
and his heart beat quicker, on finding himself, as he conceived,
insulted by a rabble of Flemish boors.
But in his ignorance of the customs of the country, he knew not that
the knife was hung thus as a challenge to snick and snee, as it was
named, a combat then common among the lower classes in Flanders, as it
was in Holland, in later years.
The bravest or most rash bully of a village or district, usually
hung up his knife thus, in some conspicuous place, as the knights of
chivalric days were wont, in a warlike fit, to obstruct the high roads,
by hanging their shields on a bridge, or by the wayside, to invite all
comers, and whoever touched or took the weapon down was compelled to
fight the proprietor, or be branded as a coward.
Before engaging, the combatants sometimes tested their strength of arm,
by driving their knives into a deal board, and then they were only
permitted to use so much of the blade as had penetrated; others broke
off the points. On closing, each used his cap or hat as a shield, to
protect his face; but such encounters seldom ended until one, sometimes
both duellists, had their cheeks, noses, and foreheads slashed and
disfigured.
The knife in question, a long, sharp, and assassin-like weapon,
continued to swing to and fro within arm's-length of Gray, who, on
perceiving something engraved on the buckhorn haft of it, took it in
his hand for examination; on this a shout of exultation, too boisterous
to pass unnoticed, came from the topers in the hostelry.
Sir Patrick had only time to perceive that a coronet and the letter E
were engraven on the handle, when he tore it down, and dashed it right
through the latticed window where it fell among those whose mirth
seemed so easily excited.
After the silence of a moment, a storm of oaths and threats, mingled
with shouts and drunken laughter, greeted this act of hostility, and
from the door of the tavern there issued six men, all tattered in
dress, bloated by drinking, ruffianly in aspect, and all variously
armed with swords, daggers, and mauls. Three of them had rusty helmets
and breastplates, which had evidently seen much service.
On the approach of this unexpected rabble, Gray quietly drained the
last of his wine, threw down the price thereof, and then starting up,
laid his hand on his sword, as one who seemed to be the leader, came
boldly and brusquely up to him.
Tall, strongly made, and athletic in form, this personage presented a
curious combination of character in his features, which were naturally
noble and handsome, but disguised by the masses of his uncombed hair,
distorted by ferocity, and bloated by drunkenness. He wore a pair of
enormous moustaches, which were twisted up almost to his ears; his
attire, which had once been richly laced, was full of rents and holes.
He wore a cuirass and back-plate, on each of which a coat of arms was
engraved; his neck being destitute of gorget, revealed by its bareness
that he was not proprietor of a shirt; a battered helmet, from which
the barred vizor had been struck in some battle or brawl, covered his
head; his gauntlets and boots were of different fashions; he carried
a short battle-axe in his right hand, and in his left the knife which
Gray had just tossed through the window.
"Sangdieu!" he exclaimed, in French; "do you know the penalty incurred
by what you have done, messire?"
"I neither know nor care," replied Gray, coolly; and then turning to
the hosteller--a fat old Flemish boor, who had also come forth, and
was trembling at the prospect of a fray upon his premises--he added,
"Maître, please you to bring my horse--and do so instantly, as I have
no desire to cross my sword with this fellow and his _coquinaille_."
At this epithet, which signifies "a pack of rascals," they uttered a
simultaneous shout, and raised their weapons, but Gray confronted them
resolutely with his drawn sword.
"My horse, I tell you, fellow, lest I cut you in two!" he reiterated to
the loitering hosteller. On this, his roan, the same horse ridden by
him when Earl William entered Edinburgh, was brought at once towards
the tree, but the armed rabble placed themselves between it and the
proprietor.
"Does messire mean to fight me, whom he has insulted and challenged by
touching _this_ knife," demanded the leader; "or der Teufel, does he
mean to----"
"What!" said Gray, "be wary of your words, sir."
"To fly like a coward?" said the other, with a German oath.
"I do not fight with every ignoble ruffian I may meet; there are some
whom I would disdain to chastise, and thou, fellow, art one! Yet, if
the hosteller would but bring me a good heavy whip, I would make you
dance to a tune of your own."
"Sangdieu! do you know to whom you are speaking?" cried the other,
whose rage completely sobered him.
"Some robbers or outlaws, I suppose."
"A robber--yes, for misfortune has made me so; an outlaw--yes, for
tyrants made me so; but I am _your_ equal, and perhaps superior, for
all that!"
"Indeed! Then who the devil are you, that thus molest peaceful people
on the open highway?"
"I am Ludwig, count of Endhoven!"
Gray started on hearing the name of the very personage against whom
Maître Baudoin had so solemnly warned him; but, inspired with an
emotion of pity for nobility fallen so low, he took his purse from his
girdle, and said, "Rumour says you have been a soldier: I am one, and
will share what I have with you; but first you must stand aside from
between me and my horse, as I can brook no intimidation."
The other laughed scornfully, and said, "In the first place, messire,
it was from being a soldier that Philip of Burgundy made me a thief,
and changed my cote d'armes into a beggar's gabardine. In the second,
I do not ask for that which I can take by force; in the third, I obey
no man's orders--yours least of all, when horse and purse, and all you
possess, are my lawful spoil."
As he spoke, he made a sudden rush forward, with the intention of
tearing away the purse from Sir Patrick, who, quick as thought, sprang
back, and received him right upon the point of his sword, with a force
which made the iron corslet ring, and stretched its wearer on the earth.
With a shout of rage, he sprang to his feet, swinging his axe in both
hands, and, with his five companions, surrounded Gray. Sharp was the
conflict that ensued, and most likely it would have terminated fatally
for him; for although he dealt many a severe wound, it was long since
he had thus used his sword; and since that fatal day, after "the Black
Dinner," his wrists had been weak and stiff: but now the distant tramp
of horses was heard, and the hosteller, to scare the combatants from
his premises, exclaimed, "Gott in Himmel! Herr Count, here comes the
burg graf of Gueldres, with his banner and escort!"
On hearing this, Count Ludwig, whose face was streaming with blood from
a slash Gray had given him, accompanied by his five companions, sprang
over a hedge close by, and, taking to flight, sought refuge where
horsemen dared not follow them, among the recesses of a swampy forest.
They had scarcely been gone three minutes, and Sir Patrick had just
recovered his breath and equanimity, when a grey-bearded cavalier, all
armed save the head (for his helmet hung at his saddle-bow), rode up,
attended by three knights, who each wore the jewel and mantle of the
Golden Fleece of Burgundy, and by twenty men-at-arms on horseback, one
of whom, an esquire, carried a long lance with a square banner, charged
with the lion of Gueldres.