HELENE HATES ME
However, when the provision came to the outer port, we three sat down
about it, and then, by my troth, there was little to marvel at in the
tardiness of our eating. For the rabbits seemed to come alive and
positively leaped down our throats, the partridges almost flew at us out
of the pot, the pigeons fairly rejoiced to be eaten. The broth and the
gravy ebbed lower and lower in the pan and left all dry. But as soon as
we had picked the bones roughly, for there was no time for fine work lest
the others should get all the best, we threw the bones out to the hungry
crew that watched us sitting round the stalls, their very jowls pendulous
with envy.
So after a while we came to the end, and then I went to the entrance of
the chamber where were bestowed the Little Playmate and the Lady
Ysolinde. For I began to be anxious how Helene would be able to comport
herself in the company of one so dainty and full of devices and
convenances as the lady of the Weiss Thor.
But, by my faith, I need not have troubled about our little lass. For if
there were any embarrassed, that one was certainly not Helene. And if any
of us lacked reposefulness of manners, that one was certainly a staring
jackanapes, who did not know which foot to stand upon, nor yet how to sit
down on the oaken settle when a seat was offered him, nor, last of all,
when nor how to take his departure when he had once sat down. And as to
the identity of that jackass, there needs no further particularity.
Nevertheless, I talked pleasantly enough with both of them, and I might
have been an acquaintance of the day for all the notice that the Little
Playmate took of me, oven when the Lady Ysolinde told her, evidently not
for the first time, of my standing sentry by the door and blowing upon
the match at my girdle.
From without we heard presently the clapping of hands and loud deray of
merrymaking, so I went to find out what it might be that was causing such
an uproar.
There I found Jorian and Boris giving a kind of exhibition of their skill
in military exercises. It might be, also, that they desired to teach a
lesson for the benefit of the wild robber border folk and the yet more
ruffianly kempers who foregathered in this strange inn of Erdberg on the
borders of the Mark.
I summoned the maids that they might look on. For I wot the scene was a
curious and pleasing one, and I could see that the eyes of the Lady
Ysolinde glittered. But our little maid, being used to all these things
from her youth, cared nothing for it, though the thing was indeed
marvellous in itself.
When I went out our two men-at-arms had each of them in hand his straight
Wendish Tolleknife, made heavy at the end of the Swedish blade, but light
as to the handle, and hafted with cork from Spain.
Ten yards apart, shoulder to shoulder they stood, and, first of all, each
of them poising the knife in the hollow of his hand with a peculiar
dancing movement, set it writhing across the room at a marked circle on a
board. The two knives sped simultaneously with a vicious whir, and stood
quivering, with their blades touching each other, in the centre of the
white. At the next trial, so exactly had they been aimed that the point
of the one hit upon the haft of the other and stripped the cork almost
to the blade. But Jorian, to whom the knife belonged, mended it with a
piece of string, telling the company philosophically that it was no bad
thing to have a string hanging loose to a Tolleknife, for when it went
into any one the string would always hang down from the wound in order to
pull it out by.
Then they got their knives again and played a more dangerous game. Jorian
stood on guard with his knife, waving the blade slowly before him in the
shape of a long-bodied letter S. Boris poised his weapon in the hollow of
his hand, and sent it whirring straight at Jorian's heart. As it came
buzzing like an angry bee, almost too quick for the eye to follow, Jorian
flicked it deftly up into the air at exactly the right moment, and,
without even taking his eye off it, he caught the knife by the handle as
it fell. Thereafter he bowed and gave it back to the thrower
ceremoniously. Then Boris guarded, and Jorian in his turn threw, with a
like result, though, perhaps, a little less featly done on Boris's part.
All the while there was a clamant and manifold astonishment in the
kitchen of the inn, together with prodigal and much-whispering wonder.
Then ensued other plays. Boris stood with his elbow crooked and his left
hand on his hip, with his back also turned to Jorian. _Buzz!_ went the
knife! It flashed like level lightning under the arch of Jorian's armpit,
and lo! it was caught in his right hand, which dropped upon it like a
hawk upon a rabbit, as it sped through his elbow port.
Then came shooting with the cross-bow, and I regretted much that I had
only learned the six-foot yew, and that there was not one in the company,
nor indeed room to display it if there had been. For I longed to do
something to show that I also was no milksop.
Now it chanced that there was in one corner a yearling calf that had
been killed that day, and hung up with a bar between its thighs. I saw an
axe leaning in the corner--an axe with a broad, cutting edge--and I
bethought me that perhaps, after all, I knew something which even Jorian
and Boris were ignorant of. So, mindful of my father's teaching, I took
the axe, and, before any one was aware of my intent, I swept the
long-handled axe round my head, and, getting the poise and distance for
the slow drawing cut which does not stop for bone nor muscle, I divided
the neck through at one blow so that the head dropped on the ground.
Then there was much applause and wonder. Men ran to lift the calf's head,
and the owner of the axe came up to examine the edge of his weapon. I
looked about. The eyes of the Lady Ysolinde were aflame with pleasure,
but, on the other hand, the Little Playmate was crimson with shame. Tears
stood in her beautiful eyes.
She marched straight up to meet me, and, clinching her hands, she said;
"Oh, I hate you !"
And so went within to her chamber, and I saw her no more that night. Now
I take all to witness what strange things are the mind and temper of even
the best of women. And why Helene thus spoke to me I know not--nay, even
to this day I can hazard no right guess. But as I have often said, God
never made anything straight that He made beautiful, except only the line
where the sea meets the sky.
And of all the pretty, crooked, tangled things that He has made, women
are the prettiest, the crookedest--and the most distractingly tangled.
Which is perhaps why they are so everlastingly interesting, and why we
blundering, ram-stam, homely favored men love them so.
But the best entertainment must at long and last come to an end. And the
one in the inn of Erdberg lasted not so long as the telling of it--for
the matter, being more comfortable than that which came after, I have,
perhaps, not hurried so much as I might.
When at last both supper and entertainment were finished, and the
earthenware platters huddled away into the hall without, there arose a
mighty clamor, so that Jorian went to the door and cried out to the
landlord to know what was the matter. The old brick-dusty knave came
hulking forward, and, with greatly increased respect, he addressed the
men-at-arms.
"What is your will, noble sirs?"
"I asked," said Jorian, "what was the reason of this so ill-favored
noise. If your guests cannot be quiet, I will come among them with
something that will settle the quarrels of certain of them in
perpetuity."
So with sulky recurrent murmurs the fray finally settled itself, and for
that time at least there was no more trouble. I went to the door of the
Lady Ysolinde and the Little Playmate and cried in to them a courteous
good-night. For I had been sorry to have Helene's "I hate you!" for her
last word. And the Lady Ysolinde came to the door in a light robe of silk
and gave me her hand to kiss. But though I said: "A sweet sleep and a
pleasant, Helene!" no voice replied. Which I took very ill, seeing that I
had done naught amiss that I knew of.
Then Jorian, Boris, and I made us comfortable for the night, and, being
instructed by Boris, I set my straw, with the foot of my bundle to the
door, which opened inward upon us. Then, putting my sword by my side and
my other weapons convenient to my hand, I laid me down and braced my feet
firmly against the door, thus locking it safely.
Jorian and Boris did the same at the other entrances, and before the
former went to sleep he arranged a tall candle that had been placed
unlighted before a little shrine of the Virgin (for, in name at least,
the folk were not wholly pagan) and lighted it, so that it shed a faint
illumination down the long passage in which we were bestowed, and on the
inner door of the ladies' apartment.
And though I was far from being in love, yet the thought of the wandering
damsels, both so fair and so far from home, moved me deeply. And I was in
act to waft a kiss towards the door when Jorian caught me.
"What now?" he said; "art at thy prayers, lad ?"
"Aye, that am I," said I, "towards the shrine of the Saints' Rest."
Now this was irreverent, and mayhap afterwards we were all soundly
punished for it. But at least it was on the level of their soldiers'
wit--though I own, at the most, no great matter to cackle of.
"Ho! ho! Good!" chuckled Boris, under his breath. "One of them is
doubtless a saint. But as to the other--well, let us ask the Prince. 'He
hath a Princess, and she is oft upon her travels?' Ho! ho! ho!"
And the lout shook among his straw to such an extent that I bade him for
God's dear sake to bide still, otherwise we might as lief lie in a barn
among questing rattons.
"And the saints of your Saints' Rest defend us from lying among any
worse!" said he, and betook him to sleep.