GALORS ABJURES
Dom Galors knew a woman in East Morgraunt whose name was Maulfry. She
lived in Tortsentier, a lonely tower hidden deep in the woods, and had
an unwholesome reputation. She was held to be a courtesan. Many
gentlemen adventurous in the forest, it was said, had found
dishonourable ease and shameful death at her hands. She would make them
great cheer at first with hunting parties, dancing in the grass-rides,
and love everywhere: so much had been seen, the rest was surmise. It
was supposed that, being tired, or changing for caprice, she had them
drugged, rifled them at leisure, slew them one way or another, and set
her nets for the next newcomer. This, I say, was surmise, and so it
remained. Tortsentier was hard to come at, Morgraunt wide, death as
easy as lying. Men in it had other uses for their eyes than to spy at
their neighbours, and found their weapons too often needed in their own
quarrels to spare them for others. To see a man once did not set you
looking for him to come again. You might wander for a month in
Morgraunt before you got out. True, the odds were against your doing
either; but whose business was that?
Galors probably knew the truth of it, for he was very often at
Tortsentier. He knew, for instance, of Maulfry's taste for armour. The
place was full of it, and had a frieze of shields, which Maulfry
herself polished every day, as brave with blazonry as on the day they
first went out before their masters. Maulfry was very fond of heraldry.
It was a great delight of hers to go through her collection with such a
man as Galors, who thoroughly understood the science, conning over the
quarterings, the legends, the badges and differences, and capping each
with its appropriate story, its little touch of romance, its personal
reference to each owner in turn. There was no harm in all this, and for
Galors' part he would be able to testify that there was no luxurious
company there when he came, and no dark hints of violence, treachery,
or mischief for the most suspicious eye to catch at. Tortsentier was
not so far from the Abbey liberties that one might not fetch at it in a
six hours' ride, provided one knew the road. Galors was a great rider
and knew the road by heart. He was a frequent visitor of Maulfry's,
therefore, and would have seen what there was to see. If the cavillers
had known that it would have quieted many a whisper over the fire. They
might have been told, further, that Maulfry and he were very old
friends, and from a time long before his entry into religion at Holy
Thorn. If there had been love between them, it had left no scar. Love
with Galors was a pastime: he might make a woman his mistress, but he
could never allow her to be his master. And whatever there had been in
this sort, any love now left in Maulfry for the monk was largely
tempered with respect. They were excellent friends.
It was to Tortsentier and to Maulfry that Dom Galors rode through the
rain when he had finished biting his nails in the quarry. Very late
that night he knocked at her door. Maulfry, who slept by day, opened at
once, and when she saw who it was made him very welcome. She sent her
page up with dry clothes, heaped logs on the fire, and set a table
against his return, with venison, and white bread, and sweet wine.
Galors, who was ravenous by now, needed no pressing: he sat down and
ate without speaking, nor did she urge him for a message or for news,
but kept her place by the fire, smiling into it until he had done. She
was a tall, dark woman, very handsome and finely shaped, having the
neck, arms, and bosom of Juno, or of that lady whom Nicholas the Pisan
sculptor fashioned on her model to be Queen of Heaven and Earth. And
Maulfry suffered no one to be in doubt as to the abundance and glory of
her treasure.
When Galors was well fed she beckoned him with a nod to his place on
the settle. He came and sat by the side of her, blinking into the fire
for some minutes without a word.
"Well, friend," said Maulfry at last, "and what do you want with your
servant at such an hour? For though I am not unused to have guests, it
is seldom that you are of the party in these days."
Galors, who never made prefaces, told her everything, except the real
rank and condition of Isoult. As to that, he said that the lady in
question was undoubtedly an heiress, as she was undeniably a beauty,
but he was careful to make it plain that her inheritance, and not her
person, tempted him. This I believe to have been the truth by now. He
then related what had passed in the quarry, and what he intended to do
next. He added--
"Whether I succeed or not--and as to that much depends upon you--I am
resolved to abjure my frock and my vows, and to aim henceforward for a
temporal crown."
"I think the frock is all that need concern you," said Maulfry.
"You are right, pretty lady," he replied "and that shall concern me no
more. You shall furnish me with a suit of mail out of your store, with
a shield, a good spear and a sword. I have already a horse, which I owe
to the vicarious bounty of the Lord Abbot, exercised through me, his
right-hand man. This then will be all I shall ask of you on my account,
so far as I can see at present. With what I know to back them they may
win me an earldom and a pretty partner. At least they will enable me to
pay Master Red-Feather my little score."
The pupils of Maulfry's eyes narrowed to a pair of pin points.
"What is this?" she said quickly. "Red feathers? A surcoat white and
green? A gold baldrick? Did he bear a _fesse dancettée_ upon his
shield, a hooded falcon for his crest?" Her questions chimed with her
panting.
"By baldrick and shield I know him for a Gai of Starning," said Galors.
"So much is certain, but which of them in particular I cannot tell
certainly. There were half-a-dozen at one time. Not Malise, I think. He
is too thin-lipped for such work as that. He can do sums in his head,
is a ready reckoner. This lad was quick enough to act, but not quick
enough to refrain from acting. Malise would not have acted. He can see
too far ahead. Nor is it Osric. He would have made speeches and let
vapours. This lad was quiet."
"Quiet as God," said Maulfry with a stare.
"But," Galors went on, "you need not think for him, who or what he was.
I shall meet him to-morrow, and if things go as they should you shall
see me again very soon. You shall come to a wedding. A wedding in
Tortsentier will not be amiss, dame. Moreover, it will be new. If I
fail--well, then also you shall see me, and serve me other ways. Will
you do this?"
Maulfry frowned a little as she thought. Then she laughed.
"You know very well I will do more for you than this. And how much will
you do for me, Galors?"
"Ask and see," said Galors.
"I too may have accounts to settle."
"You will find me a good bailiff, Maulfry. Punctual at the audit."
Maulfry laughed again as she looked up at her armour. Galors' look
followed hers.
"Choose, Galors," she said; "choose, my champion. Choose, Sir Galors de
Born!"
Galors took a long and deliberate survey.
"I will go in black," said he, "and for the rest, since I am no man of
race, the coat is indifferent to me." So he began to read and comment
upon his texts. "_Je tiendray_--why, so I shall, but it savours of
forecast, brags a little."
"None the worse for my knight," said Maulfry.
"No, no," he laughed, "but let me get something of which to brag first.
Hum. _Dieu m'en garde_--we will leave God out of the reckoning, I
think. _Designando_--I will do more than point out, by the Rood!
_Jesus, Amor, Ma Dame_--I know none of these. _Entra per me_--Oh brave,
brave! 'Tis your latest, dame?"
Maulfry's eyes grew hard and bright. "Choose it, choose, my Galors!"
she cried. "And if with that you beat down the red feather, and blind
the hooded hawk, you will serve me more than you dream. Oh, choose,
choose!"
"_Entra per me_ pleases me, I confess. But what are the arms? Wickets?"
"Three white wicket-gates on a sable field. It was the coat of Salomon
de Montguichet."
"Salomon?" said Galors all in a whisper. "Never Salomon? Do you not
remember?"
Maulfry laughed. "I should remember, I think. But there is no monopoly.
What we choose others can choose. The name is free to the world, and a
great name."
Galors, visibly uneasy; thought hard about it. Then he swore. "And I go
for great deeds, by Heaven! Give it me, Dame. I will have it. _Entra
per me_! And shut the wickets when I am in!"
He kissed Maulfry then and there, and they went to bed.