THE MEETING WITH JOHN HULL AT CHELMSFORD
John Commendone, Sir John Shelton, and the King of Spain walked up a
flight of broad stone steps, which led to the wide-open door of Mr.
Peter Lacel's house on the far side of Aldham Common.
It was now about ten o'clock in the morning, or a little after.
As soon as the body of the martyr had fallen into the flames, Sir John
had wheeled round upon his horse, and, attended by his men, had trotted
away, breaking through the crowd, who had rushed to the smouldering pyre
and were pressing round it. They had gone some three hundred yards on to
the Common at a quick pace.
"I don't like this at all, Sire," Sir John had muttered to the King.
"The people are very turbulent. It will be as well, I think, that we go
to the 'Crown.' It is that large house on the other side of the Common.
There we shall find entertainment and refreshment, for I am told it is a
good inn by a letter from the Sheriff, Mr. Peter Lacel--whom I had
looked to see here as was duly arranged."
Then Sir John had stopped suddenly.
"He cometh," he cried. "That is Mr. Lacel with his yeomen," and as the
knight spoke Johnnie saw a little party upon horseback galloping towards
them. Foremost of them was a bluff, bearded country gentleman, his face
agitated and concerned.
"Good Sir John," said the gentleman as he reined up his horse, "I would
not have had this happen for much money. I have mistook the hour, and
was upon some county business with two of the justices at my house. Is
it all over then? Hath Dr. Taylor suffered?"
"The runagate is stone dead," Shelton replied. "It is all over, and hath
passed off as well as may be, though I like not very much the demeanour
of the people. But how do you, Mr. Lacel?"
"I do very well, thank you," the Sheriff answered, "but I hope much, Sir
John, that this mischance of mine will not be accounted to me as being
any lack of zeal to Her Grace."
Shelton waved his hand. "No," he said, "we know you very well, Mr.
Lacel. Lack of loyalty will never be put to your charge. But now,
doubtless, you will entertain us, for we have ridden since early dawn,
and are very tired."
Mr. Lacel's face shone with relief. "Come you, Sir John," he said, "come
you with these gentlemen and your men forthwith to the Manor. You must
indeed be weary and needing refreshment. But what of yonder?"
He pointed in front of him, and Sir John turned in his saddle.
A few hundred yards away a dense crowd was swaying, and above their
heads even now was a column of yellow smoke.
"There is no need for you there, Mr. Lacel," Sir John replied. "The
Sheriff of London and his men are doing all that is needful. I am here
with mine, and we shall all be glad to taste your hospitality after this
business. This,"--he made a little gesture of the hand towards
Johnnie--"is Mr. Commendone, Sir Henry Commendone's son, of Kent,
attached to the King's person, and here to-day to report of Dr. Taylor's
burning to the Queen. This"--here he bowed towards Philip--"a Spanish
nobleman of high degree, who is of His Majesty's Gentlemen, and who hath
ridden with us."
"Bid ye welcome, gentlemen," said Mr. Lacel, "and now, an ye will follow
me, there is breakfast ready in the Manor, and you can forget this nasty
work, for I doubt none of you like it better than myself."
With that the whole party had trotted onwards towards the Sheriff's
house.
The men-at-arms were met by grooms and servants, and taken round to the
buttery. John, Shelton, and the King walked up the steps and into a
great hall, where a long table was laid for their reception.
The King, whose demeanour to his host was haughty and indifferent, spoke
no word at all, and Sir John Shelton was in considerable embarrassment.
At all costs, the King's incognito must be preserved. Mr. Lacel was a
Catholic gentleman of Suffolk, a simple, faithful, unthinking country
squire, who, at the same time, had some local influence. It would never
do, however, to let the Sheriff know that the King himself was under his
roof, and yet His Highness's demeanour was so reserved and cold, his
face so melancholy, frozen, and inscrutable, that Shelton was
considerably perplexed. It was with a sense of great relief that he
remembered the King spoke but little English, and he took Mr. Lacel
aside while serving-men were placing chairs at the table, and whispered
that the Don was a cold, unlikeable fellow, but high in the Royal
favour, and must be considered.
"Not a testoon care I," Mr. Lacel answered. "I am glad to see ye, Sir
John, and these Court gallants from Spain disturb me not at all. Now,
sit ye down, sit ye down, and fall to."
They all sat down at the table.
The King took a silver cup of wine, bowed to his host, and sipped. His
face was very yellow, his eyes dwindled, and a general air of cold and
lassitude pervaded him. Suddenly he turned to Commendone, who was
sitting by his side watching his master with eager and somewhat
frightened attention.
"Senor," he said, in Spanish, "Senor Commendone, I am very far from
well. The long ride hath tired me. I would rest. Speak to Sir John
Shelton, and ask this worthy _caballero_, who is my host, if I may
retire to rest."
Johnnie spoke at once to Mr. Lacel, explaining that the Spanish nobleman
was very fatigued and wished to lie down.
The Sheriff jumped up at once, profuse in hospitality, and himself led
the way, followed by the King and Commendone, to an upper chamber.
They saw the King lie down upon the bed, and curtains pulled half-way
over the mullioned windows of the room, letting only a faint beam of
sunlight enter there.
"Thy friend will be all right now, Mr. Commendone," said the squire.
"These Spanish gentlemen are not over-strong, methinks." He laughed
roughly, and Johnnie heard again, in the voice of this country
gentleman, that dislike of Spain and of the Spanish Match, which his own
father shared.
They went out of the room together, and Johnnie shrugged his
shoulders--it was absolutely necessary that the identity of the King
should not be suspected.
"Well, well, Mr. Lacel," he said, linking his arm within his host's, and
assuming a friendly country manner--which, of course, came perfectly
natural to him, "it is not for you and I to question or to make comment
upon those gentlemen from over-seas who are in high favour in London
just now. Let us to breakfast."
In a minute more they were sitting at the table, where Sir John Shelton
was already busy with wine and food.
For a few minutes the three men ate in silence. Then Mr. Lacel must have
from them every detail of the execution. It was supplied him with great
vigour and many oaths by Sir John.
Mr. Lacel shook himself.
"I am indeed sorry," said he, "that I was not at the execution, because
it was my bounden duty to be there. Natheless, I am not sorry for
myself. To see a rogue or masterless man trussed up is very well, but
Dr. Rowland Taylor that was Rector here, and hath in times past been a
guest at this very table--well, I am glad I did not see the man die. Was
a pleasant fellow, could wind a horn or throw a falcon with any of the
gentry round, had a good lusty voice in a chorus, and learning much
beyond the general."
"Mr. Lacel, Mr. Lacel," Sir John Shelton said in a loud and rather
bullying voice, "surely you have no sympathy nor liking for heretics?"
"Not I, i' faith," said the old gentleman at the top of the table,
striking the thick oak with his fist. "I have been a good Catholic ever,
and justice must be done. 'Twas the man I liked, Master Shelton, 'twas
the man I liked. Now we have here as Rector a Mr. Lacy. He is a good
Catholic priest, and dutiful at all his services. I go to Mass three
times a week. But Father Lacy, as a man, is but a sorry scrub. He eateth
nothing, and a firkin of ale would last him six months. Still,
gentlemen, ye cannot live on both sides of a buckler. Poor Roly Taylor
was a good, honest man, a sportsman withal, and well loved over the
country-side--I am glad I saw not his burning. Certainly upon religion
he was mad and very ill-advised, and so dies he. I trust his stay in
purgation be but short."
Sir John Shelton put down his tankard with a crash.
"My friend," he said, "doth not know that His Grace of London did curse
this heretic? I myself was there and heard it."
The ruffian lifted his tankard of wine to his lips, and took a long
draught. His face was growing red, his eyes twinkled with half-drunken
cunning and suspicion.
"Aye," he cried, "I heard it--'And by the authority of God the Father
Almighty, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of St. Peter and Paul, and of
the Holy Saints, we excommunicate, we utterly curse and ban, commit and
deliver to the Devil of hell, ye that have in spite of God and of St.
Peter, whose Church this is, in spite of holy saints, and in spite of
our most Holy Father the Pope, God's Vicar here on earth, denied the
truths of Holy Church. Accursed may ye be, and give body and soul to the
Devil. We give ye over utterly to the power of the Fiend, and thy soul
when thou art dead shall lie this night in the pains of hell-fire, as
this candle is now quenched and put out.'"
As he finished, Sir John knocked over a tall glass cruet of French
vinegar, and stared with increasing drunkenness at his host.
Mr. Lacel, simple gentleman that he was, was obviously disgusted at his
guest. He said very little, however, seeing that the man was somewhat
gone in liquor, as Johnnie also realised that the stale potations of the
night before were wakened by the new drink, and rising up into Shelton's
brain.
"Well, well, Sir John," Mr. Lacel replied, "I am no theologian, but I am
a good son of the Church, and have always been, as you and those at
Court--those in high places, Sir John," he said it with a certain
emphasis and spirit--"know very well."
The quiet and emphatic voice had its effect. Shelton dropped his
bullying manner. He was aware, and realised that Mr. Lacel probably knew
also, that he was but a glorified man-at-arms, a led captain, and not at
all in the confidence of great people, nor acquainted with private
affairs of State. He had been puffed up by his recent association with
the King in his vile pleasures, but a clever ruffian enough, he saw now
that he had gone too far.
He saw also that John Commendone was looking at him with a fixed and
disdainful expression. He remembered that the young courtier was high in
the good graces of the King and Queen.
"I' faith," he cried, with an entire change of manner--"I' faith, old
friend Peter, I was but jesting; we all know thou art loyal to Church
and State, their law. Mr. Commendone, I ask you, hast seen a more----"
Johnnie's voice cut into the man's babbling.
"Sir John," he said, "if I were you I would go upstairs and see how the
Spanish gentleman doeth."
He looked very keenly, and with great meaning, at the knight.
Sir John pushed his chair from the table. "Spine of God," he cried
thickly, "and I was near forgetting His Highness. I will to him at
once."
He stumbled away from the table, pulled himself together, and, following
Mr. Lacel's butler, who had just come into the hall, ascended the broad
stairway.
Mr. Lacel looked very curiously at Johnnie.
"Sir," he said in a low voice, looking round the hall to see if any
servant were within earshot, "that drunkard hath said more than he
meant. I am not quite the country fool I seem to be, but least said is
soonest mended. I have known Sir John Shelton for some years--a good man
in the chase, a soldier, but a drunken fool withal. I know your name,
and I have met your father at the Wool Exchange in London. We are both
of Catholic houses, but I think none of us like what is going on now,
and like to go on since"--here he dropped his voice almost to a whisper,
and glanced upwards to the gallery which ran round the hall--"since Her
Grace had wedded out of the kingdom. But we must say nothing. Who that
gentleman upstairs is, I do not seek to know, but I tell you this, Mr.
Commendone, that, heretic or none, I go to-morrow morning to Father Lacy
and give him a rose-angel to say masses for the soul of a good dead
friend of mine. I shall not tell him who 'tis, and he's too big a fool
to ask, but----"
The old man's voice caught in his throat. He lifted his cup, and
instinctively Johnnie did the same.
"Here's to him," Mr. Lacel whispered, "and to his dame, a sweet and
gracious lady, and to his little lad Thomas, and the girl Mary; they
have oft sat on my knee--for I am an old widower, Mr. Commendone--when I
have told them the tale of the babes in the wood."
Tears were in the Sheriff's eyes, and in the eyes of the young man also,
as he raised his cup to his lips and drank the sad and furtive toast.
"And here," Mr. Lacel continued, lifting his cup once more, and leaning
forward over the table close to his, "and here's to Lizzie, whom dear
Dr. Taylor adopted to be as his own daughter when she was but a little
maid of three. Here's to Elizabeth, the sweetest girl, the most blithe
companion, the daintiest, most brave little lady that ever trod the
lanes of Suffolk----"
He had hardly finished speaking, and Johnnie's hand was trembling as he
lifted the goblet to his lips, when there was a noise in the gallery
above, and Sir John Shelton, pale of face, and followed by the butler,
came noisily down the oak stairs.
The knight's manner was more than a little excited.
"Mr. Commendone," he said in a quick but conciliatory voice, "His
Highness--that is to say, the Spanish gentleman--is very fatigued, and
cannot ride to London to-day."
He turned to Mr. Lacel.
"Peter," he said, and his voice was now anxious and suave, the voice of
a man of affairs, and with something definite to say, "Peter, I must
claim your hospitality for the night for myself and for my Spanish
friend. Also, I fear, for my men."
Mr. Lacel bowed. "Sir John," he said, "my poor house is very gladly at
your disposal, and you may command me in all ways."
"I thank you," Sir John answered, "I thank you very much. You are doing
me a service, and perhaps other people a service which----" He broke off
shortly, and turned once more to Commendone. "Mr. Commendone," he said,
"it is requisite that you will at once to horse with your own servant
and one of my men, and ride to London--Excuse me, Peter, but I have a
privy word to say to the Esquire."
He drew Johnnie aside. "You must ride post-haste to the Queen," he said,
"and tell her that His Majesty is very weary or eke unwell. He will lie
the night here and come to London with me in the morning, and by the
Mass, Mr. Commendone, I don't envy you your commission!"
"I will go at once," Johnnie answered, looking at his watch.
"Very good, Mr. Commendone," Sir John answered. "I am not of the Privy
Closet, as you know. You are in communion with Her Grace, and have been.
But if all we of the guard hear is true, then I am sorry for you.
Natheless, you must do it. Tell Her Grace of the burning--oh, tell her
anything that commendeth itself to you, but let her not think that His
Highness is upon some lover's business. And of Duck Lane not a word, not
a single word, as you value your favour!"
"It is very likely, is it not, Sir John," Commendone answered, "that I
should say anything of Duck Lane?"
The sneer in his voice was so pronounced that the big bully writhed
uneasily.
"Surely," he replied, "you are a very pattern and model of discretion. I
know it well enough, Mr. Commendone."
Johnnie made his adieux to his host.
"But what about your horses, sir?" the old gentleman asked. "As I
understand it, you ride post-haste to London. Your nag will not take you
there very fast after your long ride."
"I must post, that is all," Johnnie answered. "I can get a relay at
Chelmsford."
"Nay, Mr. Commendone, it is not to be thought of," said the squire.
"Now, look you. I have a plenty horses in my stables. There is a roan
mare spoiling for work that will suit you very well. And what servants
are you taking?"
Sir John Shelton broke in.
"Hadst better take thy own servant and two of my men," he said. "You
will be riding back upon the way we came, and I doubt me the country
folk are too friendly."
"That is easy done," said Mr. Lacel. "I can horse your yeomen also. In
four days I ride myself to Westminster, where I spend a sennight with my
brother, and hope to pay my duties at the Court when it moveth to
Whitehall, as I hear it is about to do. The horses I shall lend you, Mr.
Commendone, can be sent to my brother's, Sir Frank Lacel, of Lacel
House."
"I thank you very much, sir," Johnnie answered, "you are very kind." And
with that he said farewell, and in a very few minutes was riding over
Aldham Common, on his way back to London.
Right in the centre of the Common there was still a large crowd of
people, and he saw a farm cart with two horses standing there.
He made a wide detour, however, to get into the main road for Hadley,
shrinking with a sudden horror, more poignant and more physically
sickening than anything he had known before, from the last sordid and
grisly details of the martyr's obsequies.
... No! Anything would be better than to see this dreadful cleaning
up....
The big rawbone mare which he was riding was fresh and playful. Johnnie
was a consummate horseman, and he was glad of the distraction of keeping
the beast under control. She had a hard mouth, and needed all his skill.
For four or five miles, followed by his attendants at a distance of two
or three hundred yards, he rode at a fast canter, now and then letting
the mare stretch her legs upon the turf which bordered the rough country
road. After this, when the horse began to settle down to steady work, he
went on at a fast trot, but more mechanically, and thought began to be
born within him again.
Until now he had seemed to be walking and moving in a dream. Even the
horrors he had seen had been hardly real. Inexperienced as he was in
many aspects of life, he yet knew well that the man with an imagination
and sensitive nerves suffers far more in the memory of a dreadful thing
than he does at the actual witnessing of it. The very violence of what
he had seen done that day had deadened all the nerves, forbidding full
sensation--as a man wounded in battle, or with a limb lopped off by
sword or shot, is often seen looking with an amazed incredulity at
himself, feeling no pain whatever for the moment.
It was now that John Commendone began to suffer. Every detail of Dr.
Taylor's death etched themselves in upon his brain in a succession of
pictures which burnt like fire.
As this or that detail--in colour, movement, and sound--came back to him
so vividly, his heart began to drum, his eyes to fill with tears, or
grow dry with horror, the palms of his hands to become wet. He lived the
whole thing over again. And once more his present surroundings became
dream-like, as he cantered through the lanes, and what was past became
hideously, dreadfully real.
Yet, as the gallant mare bore him swiftly onwards, he realised that the
horror and disgust he felt were in reality subservient to something else
within him. His whole being seemed quickened, infinitely more alert,
ready for action, than it had ever been before. He was like a man who
had all his life been looking out upon the world through smoked or
tinted glasses--very pleased and delighted with all he saw, unable to
realise that there could be anything more true, more vivid.
Then, suddenly, the glass is removed. The neutral greyness which he has
taken for the natural, commendable view of things, changes and falls
away. The whole world is seen in an infinity of light and colour
undreamed of, unexpected, wonderfully, passionately new.
It was thus with Johnnie, and the fact for some time was stunning and
paralysing.
Then, as the brain adjusted itself slowly to fresh and marvellous
conditions, he began to question himself.
What did it mean? What did it mean to him? What lay before?
Quite suddenly the explanation came, and he knew.
It was the face of a tall girl, who stood by St. Botolph's tower in the
ghostly dawn that had done this thing. It was her voice that had rent
aside the veil; it was her eyes of agony which lit up the world so
differently.
With that knowledge, with the quick hammering of love at a virgin heart,
there came also an enormous expectation. Till now life had been pleasant
and happy. All the excitements of the past seemed but incidents in a
long tranquillity.
The orchestra had finished the prelude to the play. Now the traverse was
drawn aside, and action began.
As the young man realised this, and the white splendour of the full
summer sun was answered by the inexpressible glow within, he realised,
physically, that he was galloping madly along the road, pressing his
spurs to his horse's flanks, riding with loose rein, the stirrups behind
him, crouching forward upon the peaked saddle. He pulled his horse up
within two or three hundred yards, though with considerable difficulty,
the animal seeming, in some subtle way, to share and be part of that
which was rioting within his brain.
He pulled her up, however, and she stood trembling and breathing hard,
with great clots of white foam covering the rings of the bit. He
soothed her, patting the strong veined neck with his hand, bringing it
away from the darkening hide covered with sweat. Then, when she was a
little more at ease, he slipped from the saddle and led her a few paces
along the road to where in the hedge a stile was set, upon which he sat
himself.
He held hold of the rein for a minute until he saw the mare begin to
crop the roadside grass quietly enough, when he released her.
For a mile or more the road by which he had come stretched white and
empty in the sun. There was no trace of his men. He waited there till
they could come up to him.
He began to talk to himself in slow, measured terms, his own voice
sounding strange in his ears, coming to them with a certain comfort. It
was as though once more he had regained full command and captaincy of
his own soul. There were great things to be done, he was commander of
his own legions, and, like a general before a battle, he was issuing
measured orders to his staff.
"So that it must be; it must be just that; I must find Elizabeth"--his
subconscious brain heard with a certain surprise and wonder how the slow
voice trembled at the word--"I must find Elizabeth. And then, when I
have found her, I must tell her that she, and she alone, is to be my
wife, and my lady ever more. I must sue and woo her, and then she must
be my wife. It is that which I have to do. The Court is nothing; my
service is nothing; it is Elizabeth!"
The mare raised her head, her mouth full of long sweet grass, and she
looked at him with mild, brown eyes.
He rose from the stile, put his hand within his doublet, and pulled out
a little crucifix of ebony, with a Christ of gold nailed to it.
He kissed it, and then, singularly heartened and resolute in mind, he
mounted again, seeing, as he did so, that his men were coming up behind.
He waited till they were near and then trotted off, and in an hour came
to the outskirts of Chelmsford town.
It was now more than two hours after noon, and he halted with his men at
the "Tun," the principal inn of the place, and adjacent to a brewery of
red brick, where the famous Chelmsford ale--no less celebrated then than
now--was brewed.
He rode into the courtyard of the inn, and the ostlers came hurrying up
and took his horse away, while he went into the ordinary and sat down
before a great round of beef.
The landlord, seeing a gentleman of quality, bustled in and carved for
him--a pottle-bellied, voluble man, with something eminently kindly and
human in his eye.
"From the Court, sir, I do not doubt?" he said.
Johnnie nodded.
"If I mistake not, you are one of the gentlemen who rode with the
Sheriff and Dr. Rowland Taylor this morning?"
"That was I," Johnnie answered, looking keenly at the man.
"I would have wagered it was, sir. We saw the party go by early. Is the
Doctor dead, sir?"
Johnnie nodded once more.
"And a very right and proper thing it is," the landlord continued, "that
such should die the death."
"And why think you that, landlord?" Johnnie asked.
The landlord scratched his head, looking doubtfully at his guest.
"It is not for me to say, sir," he replied, after a moment's hesitation.
"I am but a tradesman, and have no concern with affairs of State. I am a
child in these things, but doubtless what was done was done very well."
Johnnie pushed away the pewter plate in front of him. "My man," he said,
"you can speak freely to me. What think you in truth?"
The landlord stared at him for a moment, and then suddenly sat down at
the table.
"I don't know, sir," he said, "who or what you may be. As thou art from
the Court, thou art a good Catholic doubtless, or wouldst not be there,
but you have an honest face, and I will tell you what I think. Under
King Hal I gat me to church, and profited well thereby in that reign,
for the abbey being broke up, and the friars dispersed, there was no
more free beer for any rogue or masterless man to get from the buttery,
aye, and others of this town with property, and well-liked men, who
would drink the monks' brew free rather than pay for mine own. So, God
bless King Henry, I say, who brought much custom to mine inn, being a
wise prince. And now, look you, I go to Mass, and custom diminisheth not
at all. I have had this inn for thirty years, my father before me for
fifty; and in this inn, sir, I mean to die. It is nothing to me whether
bread and wine are but bread and wine, or whether they be That which all
must now believe. I am but a simple man, and let wiser than I decide,
keeping always with those who must certainly know better than I.
Meanwhile I shall sell my beer and bring up my family as an honest man
should do--God's death! What is that?"
He started from his chair as Johnnie did likewise, for even as the man
spoke a most horrid and untoward noise filled all the air.
Both men rushed to the bulging window of leaded glass, which looked out
into the High Street.
There was a huge shouting, a frightful stamp and clatter as of feet and
horses' hooves upon the stones, but above all there came a shrill,
snarling, neighing noise, ululating with a ferocity that was not human,
a vibration of rage, which was like nothing Commendone had ever heard
before.
"Jesus! But what is this?" Johnnie cried, flinging open the casement,
his face suddenly white with fear--so utterly outside all experience was
the dreadful screeching, which now seemed a thousand times louder.
He peered out into the street and saw people rushing to the doors and
windows of all the houses opposite, with faces as white and startled as
his own. He looked to the right, for it was from there the pealing
horror of sound was coming, but he could see nothing, because less than
twenty yards away the High Street made a sudden turn at right angles
towards the Market Place.
"It is some devil, certes," the landlord panted. "Apollyon must have
just such a voice. What----"
The words died away upon his lips, and in a moment the two men and all
the other watchers in the street knew what had happened.
With a furious stamping of hooves, round the corner of an old timbered
house, leaping from the ground in ungovernable fury, and in that leaping
advancing but very slowly, came a huge stallion, black as a coal, its
eyes red with malice, its ears laid back over its head, the huge
bull-like neck erect, and smeared with foam and blood.
Commendone had never seen such a monster; indeed, there were but few of
them in England at that time--the product of Lanarkshire mares crossed
with the fierce Flanders stallions, only just then introduced into
England by that Earl of Arran who had been a suitor for the hand of the
Princess Elizabeth.
The thing seemed hardly horse, but malignant demon rather, and with a
cold chill at their hearts the landlord and his guest saw that the
stallion gripped a man by one arm and shoulder, a man that was no more a
man, but a limp bundle of clothes, and shook him as a terrier shakes a
rat.
The bloody and evil eyes glared round on every side as the great
creature heaved itself into the air, the long "feather" of silky hair
about its fetlocks waving like the pennons of lances. There was a
dreadful sense of _display_. The stallion was consciously and wickedly
performing, showing what it could do in its strength of hatred--evil,
sentient, malign.
It tossed the wretched man up into the air, and flung him lifeless and
broken at its fore feet. And then, horror upon horror, it began to pound
him, smashing, breaking, and treading out what little life remained,
with an action the more dreadful and alarming in that it was one
absolutely alien to the usual habits of the horse.
It stopped at last, stiffened all over, its long, wicked head stretched
out like that of a pointing dog, while its eyes roved round as if in
search of a new victim.
There was a dead silence in the street.
Then Johnnie saw a short, thick-set man, with a big head and a brown
face, come out from the archway opposite, where he had been standing in
amazement, into the full street, facing the silent, waiting beast.
Something stabbed the young man's heart strangely. It was not fear for
the man; it was quite distinct from the breathless excitement and
sickening wonder of the moment.
Johnnie had seen this man before.
With slow, very slow, but resolute and determined steps, the man drew
nearer to the stallion.
He was within four yards of it, when it threw up its head and opened its
mouth wide, showing the great glistening yellow teeth, the purple lips
curling away from them, in a rictus of malignity. From the open mouth,
covered with blood and foam, once more came the frightful cry, the mad
challenge.
Even as that happened, the man, who carried a stout stick of ash such as
drovers used, leapt at the beast and struck it full and fair upon the
muzzle, a blow so swift, and so hefty withal, that the ash-plant snapped
in twain and flew up into the air.
The next thing happened very swiftly. The man, who had a short cloak
upon his arm, threw it over the stallion's head with a sudden movement.
There was a white flash in the sunshine, as his short knife left his
belt, and with one fierce blow plunged deep into the lower portion of
the stallion's neck just above the great roll of fat and muscle which
arched down towards the chest.
Then, with both hands at the handle of the knife, the man pulled it
upwards, leaning back as he did so, and putting all his strength into
what he did, cutting through the living veins and trachea as a butcher
cuts meat.
There was a dreadful scream, which changed upon an instant to a cough, a
fountain of dark blood, and the monster staggered and fell over upon its
side with a crash.
A minute afterwards Commendone was out in the High Street mingling with
the excited crowd of townspeople.
He touched the sturdy brown-faced man upon the shoulder.
"Come into the inn," he said. "I have somewhat to say to you, John
Hull."