THE HORSEMEN ARRIVE.
"'Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the certain of
it!"--_Henry V._
There was a rapid, heavy tread in the passage without. Marryott hastily
rose from his kneeling posture, turned, and took a step toward the door.
Kit Bottle entered.
"All's ready for going, sir," said the captain.
"We shall not go," said Marryott, quietly, with as much composure as he
could command. "We shall stay here the rest of the night; I know not how
much longer."
"Stay here?" muttered Kit, staring at Marryott, with amazed eyes.
"Ay. Let Anthony take the horses back to stable. And--" Marryott felt
that so unaccountable a change of plan required some further orders, as
if there were a politic reason behind it; moreover. Kit's astonished
look seemed to call for them. So, begotten of Hal's embarrassment in the
gaze of his lieutenant, came a thought, and in its train a hope. "And
then we'll make this house ready for a siege," he added. "Go below;
send hither the boy Francis, and Tom Cobble, and let all the others
await my commands in the hall."
Kit disappeared. He saw Marryott's plan as soon as it had taken shape.
The word "siege" was key sufficient for the captain. Ten days were to be
gained for Sir Valentine. Four were past. Four more would be required
for a return to Fleetwood house in this weather and over snowbound
roads. Two days thus remained to be consumed. If Foxby Hall could be
held for two days against probable attempts of Roger Barnet to enter it,
and without his discovering Hal's trick, the mission would be
accomplished.
But after that, what of the lives of Master Marryott and his men? It was
not yet time to face that question. The immediate problem was, to gain
the two days.
Mistress Hazlehurst, who believed Marryott to be the real Fleetwood, and
knew nothing of the matter of the ten days, saw in this prospective
siege the certainty of the supposed knight's eventual capture; saw, that
is to say, the accomplishment of the vengeful purpose for which she had
beset his flight. She lay motionless on her improvised couch, her
feelings locked within her.
"And now, mistress," said Marryott, turning to her, and speaking in a
low voice, "what may be done for thy comfort? I have no skill to deal
with ailments. It may be that one of the men below--"
"Nay," she answered, drowsily; "there is naught can do me any good but
rest. My ailment is, that my body is wearied to the edge of death. The
one cure is sleep."
"Shall I support thee to thy bed?"
"An thou wilt."
When he had borne her into her chamber, and laid her on the bed, she
appeared to sink at once into that repose whence she might renew her
waned vitality. He gazed for a moment upon her face, daring not to
disturb her tranquillity with another caress. Hearing steps approaching
in the passage beyond the outer room, he went softly from the chamber
and met Francis and Tom.
"Your mistress sleeps," said he to the page. "Leave her door ajar, that
you may hear if she be ailing or in want of aught. Go not for an instant
out of hearing of her; and if there be need, let Tom bring word to me in
the hall."
He then hurried down to where the men were assembled with Kit Bottle.
The fire had been replenished, and some torches lighted. Marryott,
seeing that Anthony and Bunch were still absent with the horses, awaited
their return before addressing his company. In this interim, he strode
up and down before the fire, forming in his mind the speech he would
make. When the two came in, and had barred the door after them, Marryott
said:
"My stout fellows, four miles yonder, or maybe less now, are a score of
horsemen. Most like, they are either Master Rumney and a reinforced
gang, or a pursuivant's troop from London with a warrant to arrest me.
An it be Rumney, hounding us for revenge and other purposes, we can best
offset his odds by fighting him from this house; and he must in the end
give up and depart, lest the tumult bring sheriff's men upon him when
the weather betters. But if it be the pursuivant, he will persist till
he take me or starve me out, an I do not some way contrive to give him
the slip. Now if he take you aiding me, 'tis like to bring ropes about
your necks forthwith! So I give you, this moment, opportunity of leaving
me; knowing well there is not one so vile among you to use this liberty
in bearing information of me to shire officers,--which indeed they would
find pretext for ignoring, in such weather for staying indoors. Stand
forth, therefore, ye that wish to go hence; for once we fortify the
house, none may leave it without my order, on pain of pistol-shot."
Whether from attachment to Marryott, or fear of falling into Rumney's
hands, or a sense of present comfort and security in this stout mansion,
every man stood motionless.
"Brave hearts, I thank you!" cried Marryott, after sufficient pause.
"And mayhap I can save you, though I be taken myself. But now for swift
work! Captain Bottle, an there be any loose timber about, let Oliver
show it you, and let the men bear it into the house. If there be none
such, take what fire-logs there be, and cut timbers from the outhouses
with what tools ye may come upon. With these, and with chests and such,
ye will brace and bar the doors and all windows within reach of men upon
the ground. As soon as Oliver has shown where timber may be found, let
him point out all such openings to Captain Bottle. And meanwhile, till
timber is here collected, I and the captain will begin the barricading
with furniture. As the timbers are brought in, we shall use them, and
when enough be fetched, every man shall join us in the fortifying."
"There be posts and beams, piled 'neath a pentice-roof by the stables;
and fire-wood a-plenty," said Oliver Bunch.
"Good! And which door is best to carry it in through?"
"There is an old door from the kitchen wing to the stables; 'tis kept
ever bolted and barred."
"Unbolt and unbar it, then! And make fast, instead, the outer stable
doors, when ye have brought in the timber. Thus we may secure the
horses,--which may now rest unsaddled; for here we must abide two days,
at least. To it now, my staunch knaves! And leave all your weapons on
these settles, and your powder and ball, that I may see how we are
provided for this siege. I thank God for this storm, Kit; it must limit
our besiegers to the enemies we wot of. No lazy rustics will poke nose
into the business while such weather endures."
Leaving the wounded to rely solely upon repose, the men set about doing
as they were ordered. Marryott and Kit took account of the weapons and
ammunition. There were, besides the swords and daggers, a number of
pistols, two arquebuses, a musket, and a petronel. Of these firearms,
the pistols alone had wheel-locks, which indeed were still so costly
that as yet they were to be found mainly in weapons for use on
horseback, the longer arms, for service afoot, being fitted with the
awkward and slow-working match-locks. There was good store of
ammunition.[29]
Marryott and the captain thereupon threw off their doublets, and began
barricading, starting at the main door, and using first the chests,
trestles, and like material found in the adjacent rooms. When the long
and thin pieces of timber began to come in upon the shoulders of the
men, Hal caused them to be pointed at one end, that they might be used
as braces, the blunt ends placed against doors and shutters, the sharp
ends sunk into notches made in the floor. Pieces of various size and
shape were utilized to bar, brace, or block up doors and windows in
diverse ways. Narrow openings were left at some windows, through which,
upon making corresponding openings in the glass, men might fire out at
any one attempting to force entrance.
When the defences in the house were well begun. Hal sent Kit to
superintend those of the stable, which, as has been shown, communicated
directly with a wing of the mansion.
These occupations kept Marryott and his men busy for several hours. When
they were completed, and Foxby Hall seemed closed tight against the
ingress of a regiment, Hal, previously drained of strength by his long
terms of sleeplessness, was ready to drop. But he dragged himself
up-stairs to see how his prisoner fared.
Francis and Tom were asleep in the outer room. At Anne's half open door
Marryott could hear from within the chamber the regular breathing of
peaceful slumber. He went down to the hall again, and found the men,
with the exception of Anthony, stretched upon the stale rushes. The
Puritan was sitting by the fire.
"I shall sleep awhile, Anthony," said Hal. "I see no use in setting a
watch, now that we need keep no more between us and these men than the
walls of this house. If they come hither, their noise will wake us ere
they can break in."
"Come hither they will, 'tis sure," said Kit Bottle, from his place on
the floor, "if they be indeed Rumney's men or Barnet's. They will have
heard tell of this empty house ere they come to it, and they will stop
to examine. Or, if they pass first without stopping, and find no note of
our going further north, they will come back with keen noses. When they
hear horses snorting and pawing in the stables,--horses stabled at an
empty house, look you!--they'll make quick work of smelling us out!"
"Well, 'faith, we are ready for them," said Hal, and sank to a reclining
attitude near the fire.
"Ay, in good sooth," said Kit; "fortified, armed, and vict--No, by the
devil's horns, victualled we are not!"
And the worthy soldier sprang to his feet, the picture of dismay.
"Go to!" cried Hal, rising almost as quickly. "Where are the provisions
Anthony brought yestreen?"
"In those bellies and mine, and a murrain on such appetites!" was Kit's
self-reproachful answer. "God's death, we're like to make up for a deal
of Lent-breaking, these next two days!"
Hal became at once hungry, at the very prospect of a two days' complete
fast. He wondered how his men would endure it; and he thought of the
lady up-stairs. Already languishing from sheer fatigue, must she now
famish also?
"We must get a supply of food!" said Marryott, decidedly.
"Where?" queried the captain.
"Where we got yesterday's. Some one must go, at once!"
"I will go," said Anthony. "I know the way."
"Rouse the innkeeper, at any cost," replied Hal, handing out a gold
piece from the pocket of his hose.
"'Tis near dawn," returned the Puritan. "He will be up when I arrive
there."
"Keep an eye open for our enemies."
"If I find them surrounding you, when I return," replied the Puritan,
calmly, "I will make a dash for one of the doors. By watching from an
upper window, you may know when to open it for me."
"And when you are within, it can be barred again," said Hal. "Best make
for the same door by which you now go forth; 'twill save undoing more
than one of our barricades."
"Let it be the lesser stable door, then," suggested Captain Bottle, "as
he will go by horse. Moreover, if the enemy should force a way into the
stables, there's yet the door betwixt the stables and the house, that we
could close against them."
The world was paling into a snowy dawn, as Anthony rode forth from the
stable a few minutes later. Meanwhile, having aroused the useful Bunch,
Hal had caused vessels to be filled with water from a well, and placed
in a room off the hall. Kit then barred the stable door, but did not
replace the braces and obstructions that had been removed to allow
egress. He then volunteered to watch, in an up-stairs chamber of the
kitchen wing, for Anthony's return. Assenting to this offer, Marryott
returned to the hall, and lay down near Oliver, who was already asleep.
An hour later Hal was awakened by a call from Captain Bottle, who stood
at the head of the stairs.
"Is Anthony coming back?" Marryott asked, scrambling to his feet.
"He is not in sight yet," was the reply. "And you'd best send Oliver to
watch in my place. I can be of better use otherwise, now."
"What mean'st thou?"
"The horsemen are without. From yon room I saw them riding around the
house and staring up at the windows."
"Which party is it?" said Hal, quickly, repressing his excitement.
"Rumney's."
Hal's brow darkened a little. He would rather it had been Barnet's, for
then he should have been free of all doubt whether the pursuivant had
indeed clung to the false chase.
At that instant a loud thud was heard on the front door, as if a piece
of timber were being used as a battering-ram.
"You are right; I will send Oliver to watch," said Marryott.
He did so, with full instructions; and then roused all the able-bodied
men. He distributed the firearms and ammunition; assigned each man to
the guardianship of some particular door and its neighboring windows;
gave orders for an alarm, and a concentration of force, at any point
where the enemy might win entrance; left Kit in charge of the hall, at
whose door there was present threat of attack, and hastened up-stairs to
a gallery where an oriel window projected over that door. He looked down
into the quadrangle. It was now broad daylight; snow was still falling.
Whether from a desire to avail himself of the bad weather for an attempt
to plunder this deserted house, or from a suspicion that Oliver Bunch
might have been both able and willing to open the mansion to the
travellers, or from other reasons for thinking that they might be here,
Captain Rumney had indeed led his troop into the grounds, made a
preliminary circuit of the mansion, heard the horses in the stables,
found all doors fast, detected signs of barricades in the windows,
dismounted his company in the court, and caused a number of his men to
assault the door with the fallen bough of a tree.