sky had some luminancy) that it came within a little of the water. As I
crouched there upon the sill I was in no little tremor and dread, for if
there should be a watchman upon the keep, as was most like, he would
scarce but hear the splash I should make. I stretched my ears for sounds
within and without, below and above, and when all was yet silent I
gathered myself together, and without poising, for which there was no
room, I lifted myself on a sudden, and extending my arms above me made
the best shift I could for the dive.
'Twas as though I hurled myself upon stone, so mighty was the shock of
my entering the water. Methought in my confusion of wits 'twas an age
before I came to the surface, gasping for my breath. In a daze I trod
water until my senses were some little restored; then, hearkening with
all my ears, but hearing nought, I swam close beneath the wall, until I
found my bundle dangling, and thereupon tugging upon the cord I snapped
it, and set the bundle upon my head. There I held it with one hand,
while with the other I struck out towards the shore; at which arriving I
scrambled up the bank, and sped away as fleetly as I might to the
shelter of a copse hard by. Here, all winded as I was with swift
running after my dive and swim, I made short work of stripping off my
wet clothes, and donning the dry raiment and the boots which I had
brought in my bundle; which done, I wrung out my sodden things, tied
them about my back with the cord, and making a cast as well as I could
for the English fort I had lately left, I turned my back upon the lake
and the castle, and issued forth from among the trees to plod over those
unknown barren hills.
*V*
The sky, as I told you, rendered a pale light, it being high summer; and
I was rather dismayed than pleasured when I saw the moon's pale sphere
stretching a bow beyond the further hills. The more light, the less
chance of shunning an enemy. Truly, I could have been thankful for a
lanthorn upon my path, for I had need to go slowly and heedfully, lest I
should find myself embogged, of which my one experience was more than
enough. I laboured over the ground, making small headway, for where
'twas not marshy 'twas rugged and bestrewn with loose stones, and where
'twas none of these, I was annoyed with pestering thorns or entangled
underwood. And the short summer darkness was already dissolving with
the dawn.
I looked back over the way I had come, and saw the lake not above two
miles off, below me, and the castle rose-tinted in the sun's ray. Even
now, I thought, the nimble kernes, whose fleetness of foot exceeds that
of a horse, might run me down, if my escape had become known. I
considered whether to seek a hiding-place, in some bosky covert or some
brier-clad hole in the hills; but bethought myself that I must then lie
quiet all day without food, and maybe lose myself when I came forth in
the night. It seemed to me best to keep right on, watching my steps,
and shrouding myself with such brushwood and overhanging cliffs as I
might encounter on my way.
Presently after I had thus resolved, I came unawares out of the
trackless ground upon a beaten path, which methought led in the
direction of my course. To follow this path stood me in some danger of
meeting my foes; yet I should make speedier progress upon it, and have
my eyes for scanning the country instead of for taking heed of bogs or
pitfalls. Therefore I cast away all scruples of timidity and struck
with assured gait into the path.
'Twas not long before I repented of my temerity. On a sudden I heard a
patter of feet before me, and ere I could slip aside for hiding there
came into my sight, round a bend in the path, a man of lofty stature,
running as for a prize. At one and the same instant we halted upon our
feet, the runner and I, being divided by no more than thirty paces. I
had but just perceived by his garb that the man was an Irishman when he
leapt from the path down a shelving grassy bank at his right hand, and
bounded like a hunted stag towards a clump of woodland no great distance
away.
Bethinking me in a flash that every Irishman hereabout was an enemy, and
that this man, were he to escape, might fetch a horde of his wild
fellows upon my track, I sprang after him, in my soul doubting whether
with my utmost endeavour I could overtake him. For some little time the
man outsped me, but coming to the skirts of the woodland he suddenly
stumbled, sought desperately to recover his footing, and then sank upon
the ground. Gathering my speed, in four leaps I was upon him, and
closed with him, expecting that he would strive with me for the mastery;
but he lay limp and lumpish in my hands, his eyes beseeching mercy. So
stout of frame he was, I was no little amazed at my easy victory, until
I saw by his laboured breathing, the quivering of his nostrils, and the
pallor of his cheeks, that he was utterly spent. This put me in a
quandary. I had a mind to leave him and go my way; but in a moment I
saw that I might perchance make some profit of him. Taking a portion of
the cord about my bundle, I bound his hands behind him, and when the
heaving of his naked breast was somewhat stilled, I bade him arise and
lead me to the English camp, fearing the while lest he should be of the
wild barbarians that knew no tongue but their own. But at my words he
looked me in the face, and told me that the English were many miles
away, marching northward.
[Illustration: GATHERING MY SPEED, IN FOUR LEAPS I WAS UPON HIM]
I asked him how he knew, whereupon he said that he had himself been
among them. Questioning him further, by degrees I learnt that he was
one of the band that had followed Kedagh O'Hagan into the field. Two
days before a battle had been fought betwixt the rebels and the army of
my general, and this man had been taken, but having escaped by night, he
had fled for refuge to the cabin of his sister, whose husband was a
henchman to Rory Mac Shane. The husband being absent, the man had
learnt in talk with his sister that Mac Shane had gathered his men, with
the intent to fall upon the lake-castle of O'Hagan while he was footing
it with the rebels, and to carry away the maiden whom he had sworn to
wed. At this news the man, in loyal service to his chief, brake from
his sister, and ran all night over the hills to warn his mistress of the
peril threatening her. Being not yet recovered of the fatigue of
marching and the stress of battle; having, moreover, followed an
indirect and winding course to avoid the raiders of Rory Mac Shane, who
were already on foot; the man had overtaxed his strength in running, and
so fallen helpless into my hands.
In my course through the world I had gained some skill in reading men,
and was not easily deceived when those I had to do with were artless and
simple, not versed in the tricks of courtiers, nor trained to mask their
thoughts like the ambassadors of kings. The man's bearing was honest;
his story fitted both with his present sorry case and with what I had
heard before; briefly, I did not doubt him. And when I inquired of him
where these raiders might be, and he told me that they were not above
three miles from the place where we then stood, and full in my path, I
could not but look upon this encounter as a fortunate accident for me.
And now I had perforce to choose what I must do. I could not proceed in
safety until Mac Shane and his raiders were no longer between me and my
goal, and I considered whether I should hide myself a while, and let the
man continue his journey, and so warn his mistress of what was to come;
or, making assurance doubly sure, I might hold him in hiding with me
until the danger of interception was past, then leave him well tied up,
and go my way: in which case the lady must remain unwarned. And as I
thought thereon, and my mind's eye dwelt upon that piece of loveliness,
forlorn in her ruinous castle, with few to help her, and remembered what
I had been told of this Rory Mac Shane, a violent and besotted savage,
on a sudden I felt the blood rush to my temples, and without more ado,
scarce knowing what secret motive impelled me, I caught up my prisoner,
unloosed his bonds, bade him pluck up heart, and, supporting his
half-fainting form with my arm, set forth with hasty step towards the
quarter whence I had come.
For all that I was cumbered with the poor wretch, I made better speed
back than forth, because he knew the way, and avoided rough and quaggy
places. The morning was yet young, wanting something of four o' the
clock when we came to the lake-side, and I felt a passion of wrath
spring within me at what had formerly served me well--namely, the
culpable neglect of watch and ward upon the castle. There was no
lookout man posted upon the keep; not a soul stirring on battlements or
in courtyard: a heinous lack of precaution which could not but set on
edge the nerves of any man with the least experience of war.
God-a-mercy, thought I, is this the Irish manner of guarding fair
ladies? No eye had spied us as we descended the hillside; and when, at
the water's brink, we set up a loud halloo, we might have been wolves
howling in a wilderness for all the stir we made.
Ofttimes as we came the Irishman had glanced back timorously along the
path, and now he clutched me by the arm and stretching forth his hand,
pointed to a regiment of dusky shapes moving against the sky behind us;
which seeing, and being in no manner of doubt what they were, I made a
trumpet of my hands and let forth a shout like to split my lungs. And
then, above the broken parapet of the tower, a woman's form appeared,
and stood there a brief space at gaze, then vanished from my sight.
Still bellowing my loudest, I saw men moving in the courtyard, and
presently from the water-gate the wherry shot forth under the strokes of
two oarsmen. The Irishman by my side called to them in their own
tongue, and they made great haste, and we waded into the lake to meet
them, and leapt into the vessel, which swung about and conveyed us with
all speed over the water and through the gate. I perceived the
countenances of these oarsmen how they were blank with stark amazement,
their eyes resting upon me as upon one risen from the dead; and the
women in the courtyard crossed themselves and fell back from me as I
passed among them, and 'twas told me afterward they held me for a
wizard.
[Illustration: HE CLUTCHED ME BY THE ARM AND POINTED TO A REGIMENT OF
DUSKY SHAPES]
And there at the postern leading into the keep stood my lady, very
straight and still, a high colour in her cheeks and a fire in her eyes.
I bent myself, saluting her, and said--
"I fear me, madam, I seem thankless in quitting the castle without
paying my respects to its fair mistress, but you were, I trust, lapped
in quiet slumber when your caged night-bird took wing. Yet am I soon
come back to roost, for it chanced that in my flight I crossed a
servitor of yours, and he----"
"And he snared the simple fowl, and brought him to be plucked," she
said, with a curling lip.
"Simple fool, in good sooth, I may be, madam," said I, "yet 'twas not he
carried me back, but rather that which he carried."
She looked in puzzlement from me to the Irishman, and from him again to
me, and I would very willingly have engaged further in tossing the ball
but for the grave news I bore. Breaking off suddenly, I told her with
seriousness than within the fourth part of an hour Rory Mac Shane with
his posse of rascals would be at her gates.
"It behoves your folk to show," I said, "that they can fight better than
they watch; and with your leave, while your man here tells his tale in
gross, I will make bold to set things in order for defence."
I did not wait for an answer, but turned abruptly from her (noting how
her wrath was kindled against me), and sought my servant and the
Irishmen my comrades in captivity. Them I informed of what was toward,
and gave commands for the Irishmen to convey to their fellow countrymen.
My assured mien and peremptory speech carried it with them, and with
Mistress Sheila too, who was so much taken aback by my masterfulness, as
well as engrossed with the tale poured out in the Irish tongue by her
man, as that she was in a manner fixed and immovable like a monument.
But this posture endured but a little. Being informed of all that had
happened, she came flying to me in the midst of the courtyard, and a
wondrous light shone upon her face, and she thrust out her hands towards
me, and cried--
"Oh, sir, I crave your pardon, and I thank you."
I took her hand and kissed it in the manner of a courtier, yet mayhap
with something less formality.
"But haste, sir!" she cried again. "The wherry is yours. Get you, you
and your men, to the other side, and escape while yet there is time."
"Madam," I said, "I and my men have no other wish than to serve you."
"I beseech you, endanger not your life in a quarrel that is not your
own," she said.
"I trow I make it my own," said I, with a forthright quick look. An
instant our glances clung; then she veiled her enkindling eyes, and
turning aside hastily, clasped hands with the sour-faced dame who had
now come forth, a fearsome dragon, from the postern door.
*VI*
My heart sang as I went about the business of my assumed captaincy. She
left all to me, and ever and anon as I was in the midst of my activities
I saw her eyes fasten upon me and smile encouragement and sweet trust.
I was in my element now that war's alarm was sounding. Never in my life
before had I addressed myself to fight so gaily as now. I had fought
for treasure, for dear friends, for a noble king, for honour and truth
and liberty; but never, as it chanced, had it fallen to my lot to battle
for a lady. And when I thought of Rory Mac Shane--faugh! what a
mouthful of ugliness his name!--I laughed within myself, and _Io
triumphe_ rang a joyous peal in my head.
But I must come back to my tale.
Leaving my good fellow Stubbs, who had catched fire from me, to muster
all the serviceable varlets in the courtyard, I made haste to mount to
the top of the keep, to judge how long a time for preparation I had
before the enemy should come. They were, as I guessed, a good mile
away. I descended, and as swiftly as might be I ranged through all the
castle, now wholly open to me, and observed in my hasty survey those
points where it was most vulnerable. Meantime I had commanded that all
weapons of every sort should be carried into the courtyard, and coming
there again, I parted them among the garrison, a pitiful poor rabble as
was ever mustered to defend a fortress. There were not so many as I had
seen when first I came to the place, and I began to suspect that some
faint-hearted rascals had hidden themselves away in tenderness for their
skins. But when I turned to the lady to ask of this matter--she stood
queenly on the step of the postern--she told me that the night before
she had dispatched sundry stout fellows with munition and victuals to
her father, who had sent word that he was in dire straits, cooped up in
a wild place by the English forces. By this I knew the meaning of that
coming and going which had delayed my flight, yet for which I was now
beyond measure thankful, seeing that otherwise I should have got clean
away (so I flattered myself), and my lady had been lost.
Yet this diminishment of my forces was a grievous matter, as I saw very
well when, going again to the battlemented roof, I descried the enemy
pouring down the hillside, a rout of nigh two hundred men, but not
marching in the ordered ranks of disciplined soldiers. They were all
afoot, a rabble of half-naked kernes, equipped some with darts, some
with bows and arrows, a mere few with matchlocks. I saw with great
thankfulness that they had no artillery, so that we need fear no
battering and breaching of the walls. And then, wondering how they
purposed to come across the lake, I perceived that many of them bore
massy bundles, the nature whereof I could not determine. And as I stood
peering over the parapet, I was aware that Mistress Sheila was at my
side, and turned to her, asking without preface what those bundles might
be. She told me that they were boats, made of the hides of beasts
strained over a framework of osiers.
"An armada, sooth!" I cried, feigning a cheerfulness I did not own.
"King Rory apes King Philip, and comes a-wooing with a fleet."
She flashed me a look, and her lips quivered.
"You are not afraid, mistress?" said I.
"Was your Queen afraid with her captains about her?" she said; and in a
murmur, soft as a mavis' evening note, she added: "I trust my captain
too."
And she laid in my hand my own sword, which had been taken from me when
I was lugged from the slough.
"List to me, mistress," I said, stilling my leaping pulse, for our peril
was near. "Do you bring all the women and children to this place, and
when I have descended, bolt the door upon me. You and they will be safe
here, while we beat off the enemy below."
She nodded her head, and fled away, coming back a while after with the
beldam and the rest of the women, young and old, all huddling like silly
sheep, moaning and crying, spite of the rebukes of their high-hearted
mistress. I bade her good-bye and sped down the stairs, hearing the
grating of the bolt behind me, and came to the courtyard, where the men
were assembled expecting me.
I had already resolved upon my plan of defence. Our chiefest danger, as
I saw, was that the enemy, when they had crossed the lake, would by some
means mount the ruinous wall of the courtyard, that rose but three men's
height above the water, and so swarm upon us. This wall was upwards of
two hundred ells in circuit, not of a perfect roundure, but irregular,
according to the shape of the rock whereon the castle was built. With
my few men it would go hard with us to hold so long a line, and I
foresaw that if the enemy pushed us with any vigour, we must needs give
way before them. But I had determined upon resisting them at the wall so
long time as we might, and when we could no longer withstand them, we
should withdraw ourselves into the keep, where even with a handful I
deemed it possible to fend them off and endure if need be a long siege.
When I had posted my men at divers points along the wall, suddenly I
bethought me of the water-gate, which gave entrance directly into the
courtyard. I remembered that the portcullis was raised, and had the
look of being immovable; but 'twas madness to leave the gate utterly
without defence, and so I called Stubbs to my side, and bade him find
tools wherewith we might endeavour to remedy this discommodity. While he
was gone about this quest, I looked around, and beheld with no little
indignation the Lady Sheila standing at the postern of the keep,
watching me.
"Get you up to the roof, mistress," I said peremptorily, hasting to her.
"This is no place for you."
"How now!" she cried. "Am I a maid-servant to be commanded hither and
thither? Mistress of this castle I stay, sir, and go where I will."
"Must I e'en carry you?" I said, very foolishly, not knowing thoroughly
the quality of the maid.
"Sirrah, you were best not try," she said, and when I, still in my folly
(and yet 'twas for her good), stretched out my hands to do as I had
said, she fetched me a buffet that sent me reeling.
"Virago!" I cried, my ear stinging with the blow.
"Upstart!" she made answer, and then with a swift change she said
meekly: "I pray you, good Master Rudd, let me stay."
Before I could answer, Stubbs came to me with the tools, and since time
was precious I went at once with him to the gate, and by dint of hewing
and hacking we contrived to drop the portcullis, and so shut up the
entrance that might otherwise have been our undoing. Which was no
sooner done than a loud cry summoned me to the wall, and mounting
thereon I saw the rabblement gathered on the further shore, and in the
forefront a man of vast stature with a head like a bull-calf, and fat
red cheeks bulging out from a shaggy mane the colour of hay. He wore no
cap, but his form was clad in a loose tunic of saffron hue, leather
trews to his ankles, and great shoes of undressed hide. Flourishing a
two-handed sword, he bellowed something in the execrable tongue of these
savages, and my Irishman at my side said that he called upon the Lady
Sheila to yield up the castle and make her humble submission.
"Methinks his name should be Roarer Mac Shane," said I, and I went to
inform the damsel of his demand. "What is your answer, mistress, to
this windy swain? He is young and over-grown, which may excuse the
tempestuous manner of his wooing."
"Tell him I deny him and defy him," she cried ringingly. "I am daughter
of Kedagh O'Hagan!"
When this was repeated by my Irishman, Mac Shane vented another blast of
foul breath, and at his command a company of his ruffians hied them to
the woods towards the north side of the lake, and fell to cutting
timber, which they proceeded to fashion into rafts, binding the logs
together with ropes they had brought with them: manifestly Mac Shane had
not expected the lady to spring into his arms. While this was doing,
others of the ragged crew built light ladders, setting at the top iron
hooks wherewith to catch the wall. These preparations were little to my
liking, and I saw that there was rough work before us.
And now becoming aware of my emptiness, for I had neither eaten nor
drunk since my supper overnight, I considered there was time to make a
meal, without overhaste, for 'twould certainly be an hour or two ere the
rafts and ladders were finished. My fair lady served me with her own
hands, and paid me little heed when I said she must be sparing of
victuals, but heaped upon my platter plenty of broiled flesh garnished
with shamrock, a herb of the country, with fair white bread, butter
(somewhat rancid), and a great horn of mead.
"Great warriors must needs be great eaters," she said, sitting
composedly over against the window near to the ancient gossip her
companion, whom she had fetched from above, and who had never yet said a
word in my hearing.
"But not great eaters great warriors," said I, in her vein.
"No, or swine would be the most warlike of beasts," she said. Then,
resting her chin upon her hand: "Tell me, Master Captain Rudd, the
manner of your escape. My women say you are a necromancer."
"Why, mistress, then by my black art conjured myself into the shape of a
simple fowl, and spread my wings, and hey!"
"Tush! Tell me true," she said. "Such fables are for children."
"Well then," said I, "since I may not be a bird, what say you to a
fish?"
"I cannot abide 'em, save broiled, and with sauce," she said.
"Then may the broiling I shall suffer this day, and the sauce of good
hard knocks, bring me to the top of your good favour," said I. "But,
indeed, I swim like a fish, and dive like a duck----"
"Or a goose?" she caught me up.
"But with no quackery," said I, "I heaved myself up to my window-sill--
"Then you should have been trussed," she said.
"Nay, madam, the trust is yours," said I; "and from the sill I leapt
into your lake, and so got myself, somewhat damp and muddied, to the
further shore."
"And without a wound?" she said, catching at her breath.
"Save in my heart," I said in a low voice.
"What! hath any Englishman a heart?" she said; and then as I glanced at
the frowning dame beside her, she cried right merrily--
"Oh, she knows no English!" and then with some confusion and haste she
asked me of the Queen and the Court, and led me insensibly to relate to
her some particulars of my past life, whereby the time sped away so
fast, and I had so far forgotten the posture of our affairs, that I
suffered a shock when Stubbs came running to me and said that the
Irishmen were setting across. I called myself an ass, snatched my
sword, and made to the door.
"God bless thee with perseverance!" said the maid softly, using the
Queen's words in that brief epistle, which I had shown to her in our
discourse; and with those sweet tones making melody in my heart I went
forth to try a bout with Rory Mac Shane.
*VII*