A RECORDER
In these delicate times of crisis Isoult found an advocate, a recorder,
if you will be ruled by me. It was none too soon, for the brother and
sister of High March had reached that pretty stage of intimacy when
long silences are an embarrassment, and embarrassments compact equally
of pleasure and pain. As far as the lady was concerned the pleasure
predominated; the pain was reduced to sweet confusion, the air made
tremulous with promise. I do not say that for Prosper the relationship
did more than put him at his ease--but that is a good deal. Say the
Countess was a fire and High March an armchair. Prosper had settled
himself to stretch his legs and drowse. Poor Isoult was the wailing
wind in the chimney--a sound which could but add to his comfortable
well-being. It needs more than a whimper to tempt a man to be cold in
your company. The recorder was timely.
Prosper and his Countess were hawking in the fields beyond the forest,
and the sport had been bad. They had, in fact, their birds jessed and
hooded and were turning for home, when Prosper saw some fields away a
white bird--gull he thought--flying low. He sprang his tercel-gentle;
the same moment the Countess saw the quarry and flew hers. Both hawks
found at first cast; the white bird flew towards the falconers,
circling the field in which they stood, with its enemies glancing about
it. It gradually closed in, circling still round them and round, till
at last it was so near and so low as almost to be in reach of Prosper's
hand. He saw that it was not a gull, but a pigeon, and started on a
reminiscence. Just then one of the towering falcons stooped and
engaged. There was a wild scurry of wings; then the other bird dropt.
The Countess cheered the hawks: Prosper saw only the white bird with a
wound in her breast. Then as the quarry began to scream he remembered
everything, and to the dismay of the lady leapt off his horse, ran to
the struggling birds, and cuffed them off with all his might. He
succeeded. The wounded bird fluttered, half flying, half hopping,
across the grass, finally rose painfully into the air and soared out of
sight. Meantime Prosper, breathless and red in the face, had hooded and
bound the hawks. He brought hers back to the Countess without a word.
"My dear Prosper," said she, "you will forgive me for asking if you are
mad?"
"I must seem so," he replied. "But I suppose every one has his tender
part which some shaft will reach. Mine is reached when two hawks wound
a white bird in the crop."
He spoke shortly, and still breathed faster than his wont. The Countess
was piqued.
"It seems to me, I confess, inconvenient in a falconer that he should
be nice as to the colour of his quarry. There must be some reason for
this. I will forgive you for making a bad day's sport worse if you will
tell me your story."
Prosper was troubled. He connected his story with Isoult, though he
could hardly say why. He had merely seen a white bird before his
marriage; yet without that sequel the story could have no point. He did
not wish to speak of his marriage, if for no other reason than that it
was much too late to speak of it. The other reasons remained as valid
as ever; but he was bound to confess the superior cogency of this
present one. Meanwhile the Countess clamoured.
"The story, Prosper, the story!" she cried. "I must and will have the
story. I am very sure it is romantic; you are growing red. Oh, it is
certainly romantic; I shall never rest without the story."
Prosper in desperation remembered a hawking mishap of his boyhood, and
clutched at it.
"This is my story," he said. "When I was a boy with my brothers our
father used to take us with him hawking on Marbery Down. There is a
famous heronry in the valley below it whence you may be sure of a kill;
but on the Down itself are great flocks of sheep tended by shepherds
who come from all parts of the country round about and lie out by their
fires. One day--just such a windy morning as this--my father, my
brother Osric, and I were out with our birds, and did indifferently
well, so far as I can remember. I had new falcon with me--a haggard of
the rock which I had mewed and manned myself. It was the first time I
had tried her on the Down, and she began by giving trouble; then did
better, but finally gave more trouble than at first, as you shall hear.
Towards noon I found myself separate from our company on a great ridge
of the Down where it slopes steeply to the forest, as you know it does
in one place. The flocks were out feeding on the slopes below me, and
their herds--three or four boys and girls--were lying together by a
patch of gorse, but one of them stood up after a while and shaded her
eyes to look over the forest. Then I saw a lonely bird making way for
the heronry. I remember it plainly; in the sun it looked shining white.
I flew my haggard out of the hood at her, sure of a kill. She raked off
at a great pace, as this one did just now; but in mid air she checked
suddenly, heeled over, beat up against the wind, stooped and fell
headlong at the shepherds. I could not tell what had happened; it was
as if the girl had been shot. But, by the Saviour of mankind, this is
the truth: I saw the girl who was standing throw her arms up, I heard
her scream; the others scattered. Then I saw the battling sails of my
falcon. She was on the girl. I spurred my pony and went down the hill
headlong to the music of the girl's screaming. Never before or since
have I seen a peregrine engage at such a quarry as that. She had her
with beak and claws below the left pap. She had ripped up her clothes
and drawn blood, sure enough. The poor child, who looked very starved,
was as white as death: I cannot think she had any blood to spare. As
for her screaming, I have not forgotten it yet--in fact, the bird we
struck to-day reminded me of it and made me act as I did. To cut down
my story, I pulled the hawk off and strangled it, gave the girl what
money I had, said what I could to quiet her, and left her to be patched
up by her friends. She was more frightened than hurt, I fancy. As I
told you, I was a boy at the time; but these things stay by you. It is
a fact at least that I am queasy on the subject of white birds. Before
I came to High March, indeed it was almost my first day in Morgraunt, I
saw and rescued a white bird from two hen-harriers; and now I have been
troubled by another. I seem beset by white birds!"
"It is fortunate you have other hues to choose from," said the Countess
with a smile, "or otherwise you would be no falconer. But your story is
very strange. Have you ever consulted about it?"
"I have said very little about it," Prosper replied, remembering as he
spoke the forest Mass which he had heard, and that he had discoursed
upon this adventure with Alice of the Hermitage.
"The hawk pecked at the girl's heart," said the lady.
"It did not get so far as that, Countess."
"You speak prose, my friend."
"I am no troubadour, but speak what I know."
"The heart means nothing to you, Prosper!"
"The heart? Dear lady, I assure you the girl was not hurt. She is a
young woman by now, probably wife to a clown and mother of
half-a-dozen."
"Prosper, you disappoint me. Let us ride on. I am sick of these
shivering grey fields."
The Countess was vexed, for the life of him he could not tell why. He
made peace at last, but she would not tell him the cause of her
morning's irritation.
That was not the only reminder he had that day--in fact, it was but the
first. In the evening came another.
He was in the Countess's chamber after supper. She was embroidering a
banner, and he had been singing to her as she worked. After his music
the Countess took the lute from him, saying that she would sing. And so
she did, but in a voice so low and constrained that it seemed more to
comfort herself than any other.
Prosper sat by the table idly turning over a roll of blazonry--the
coats of all the knights and gentlemen who had ever been in the service
of High March. It was a roll carefully kept by the pursuivant, very
fine work. He saw that his own was already tricked in its place, and
recognized many more familiar faces. Suddenly he gave a start, and sat
up stiff as a bar. He looked no further, but at the end of the
Countess's song said abruptly--
"Tell me, Countess, whose are these arms?"
She looked at the coat--sable, three wicket-gates argent. "There is a
story about that," she said.
"I beg you to tell it to me," said Prosper; "story for story."
"That is only fair," she laughed, having quite recovered her easy
manner with him. "Come and sit by the fire, and you shall hear it. The
arms," she began, "are those which were assumed by a young knight after
a very bold exploit in my service. He came to me as Salomon de Born,
and I think he was but eighteen--a mere boy."
Prosper, from the heights of his three-and-twenty years, nodded
benignly.
"So much so," said the Countess, "that I fear I must have wounded his
vanity by laughing away what he asked of me. This was no less than to
lead a troop of my men against Renny of Coldscaur, an enemy and
slanderer of mine, but none the less as great a lord as he was rascal.
However, he begged so persistently that I gave in, finding other things
about him--a mystery of his birth and upbringing, a steadfastness also
and gravity far beyond his years--which drew me to put him to the proof
of what he dared. He went, therefore, with a company of light horse,
some fifty men. He was away eight weeks, and then came back--with but
six men, it is true; but youth is prodigal of life, knowing so little
of it."
"Life is given us to spend," quoth Prosper here.
"He came back with six men. But he brought the tongue of Blaise Renny
in a silver cup, and three wicket-gates, which took two men apiece to
carry."
"He had saved just enough men. That was wise of him, and like the king
his namesake," Prosper said, approving of Salomon.
"It was what he said himself", pursued the Countess, "that it was a
fortunate circumstance."
"And how did he win his adventure, and what had the wicket-gates to do
with the business?"
"You shall hear. It seems that Coldscaur, which is in North Marvilion
beyond the Middle Shires, stands on a fretted scarp. It is strongly
defended by art as well as nature, for there are three ravines about it
with a stepped path through each up to the Castle. These were defended
about midway of each by a wicket-gate and a couple of towers. The
gorges are so narrow that there is barely room for a man and horse to
get through; the gates of course correspond."
"Fine defences," said Prosper.
"Very. Well, Salomon de Born with my fifty men seized and occupied a
village at the foot of the scarp one night. In the morning there were
his defences thrown up man-high, and my standard on the church tower.
Renny was furious, and despatched a stronger force than he could afford
to re-take the village. Salomon, counting upon this, had left two men
in it to be killed; with the rest he scaled the scaur and waited in
hiding to see what force Renny took out. He knew to a nicety the
strength of the garrison, saw what there was to see, made his
calculations, and thought he would venture it. He got over the rock, he
and his men, by some means; came down the gorges from the top, secured
the defences, and posted a couple of men at each wicket. With the rest
he surprised the Castle. I believe, indeed, that all the men in it were
killed as well as most of mine. Yet for three or four hours Coldscaur
was in my hands."
"It should have been yours now," said Prosper, "with fifty of your men
once in it."
"My friend, I didn't need Coldscaur. I have castles enough. But it was
necessary to punish Renny."
"And that was done?"
"It was done. Salomon posted his men in the towers by the wicket-gates,
and waited for Renny to return from the village. Luckily for him it
grew dusk, but not dark, before he could be certain by which gorge
Renny himself was coming in. When he had made sure of this he took all
three wickets off their hinges, and sent six men to carry them home to
High March. With the rest he waited for Renny. Finally he saw him
riding up the stepped way, and, as his custom was, far ahead of his
troop. You must know that these people are besotted with pride; the
state they kept (and still keep, I suppose) was more than royal. No one
must ride, walk, or stand within a dozen yards of Renny of Coldscaur.
Salomon had calculated upon it. Well, it was dark before Renny reached
the wicket. Someone (Salomon, no doubt) called for the word. Renny gave
it; but it was his last. Salomon stabbed him at the same instant and
pulled him off his horse out of the way. He sent the horse clattering
up the hill. Renny's men followed it, nothing doubting. I might have
had the better part of my men but for the subsequent foppery of the
youth. He had Renny dead. He had Renny's tongue. He must needs have a
silver dish to put it in, so as to present it honourably to me. He went
to the Castle to get this. He got it; but he was discovered and
pursued, and only he escaped--he and the six bearers of the
wicket-gates. That is my story of the coat in return for yours of the
bird. The hero of it took the name of Salomon de Montguichet after this
performance, and my pursuivant devised him a blazon, with the legend,
_Entra per me_."
"He did very well," said Prosper, "though he should have fought with
Renny, and not stabbed him in the dark. But why did he bring the
wicket-gates?"
"He said that since they had for once been held by honest men, he could
not let them backslide. Moreover, they were in his way, and he knew not
what else to do with them."
"And why did he take the man's tongue?"
"He said that the head must stay tongueless at Coldscaur to warn all
traducers of me. True enough, the man has come to be remembered as
Blaise Sanslang."
"I should have done otherwise," said Prosper.
"What would you have made of it, Prosper?"
"I should have brought the man alive to your feet; I should have
advised you to give him a whipping and let him go."
"That would have been more merciless to Renny, my friend, than what
Salomon de Montguichet did. I have told you that they are the proudest
family in Christendom."
"I never thought of Renny," he answered; "I was thinking of myself in
Salomon's place."
"Montguichet thought of me, Prosper."
"I also was thinking of you, Countess."
Presently he grew keen on his own thoughts again and asked--
"What became of Salomon de Born?"
"I cannot tell you," she replied, "except this, that he took service
under the King of the Romans and went abroad. Of where he is now, or
how he fares, I know nothing."
"I think he is dead," said Prosper.
"What is your reason?"
"I have seen another carrying his arms."
"But it may have been the man himself. A thin man, hatchet-faced, with
hot, large eyes; a pale man, who looked not to have the sinew he proved
to have."
Prosper looked thoughtful, a little puzzled too. "The description is
familiar to me. I may have seen the man. But certainly it was not he
who carried the Montguichet shield."
Suddenly he sprang up with a shout. He stood holding the table, white
and shaky. The Countess ran to him and put her arm on his shoulder:
"Prosper, Prosper, you have frightened me! What is your thought? Are
you ill? I entreat you to tell me, Prosper."
He collected himself at once to reassure her.
"The man is dead," he said, "and I buried him. I remember his face; I
remember a badge on his breast; I remember it all. But I do not
understand--I do not see clearly as yet. I must think. I beg you to let
me leave you for the present. To-morrow I will go to avenge Salomon de
Montguichet."
The youth was quite wild and out of breath.
"Prosper!" cried the Countess, clinging to him, "I conjure you to tell
me what this means. You will never leave me this night without a word.
You cannot know--"
She could not finish what she longed to say. As for Prosper, he was in
another world; it is doubtful whether he heard her.
"Countess," he said, "I can tell you nothing as yet. I know but half of
the truth. But I must find out the whole, and to-morrow I will tell you
what I mean to do. You must have me excused for this night."
She knew that she could say nothing more, although she had never yet
seen him in this mood. But he reminded her strongly of his father; she
felt that he and she had changed places and ages. So she bowed her
head, and when she lifted it he was gone.
Pacing his room Prosper tried to reason out his tangle. This was not so
easy as fighting, for he was pulled two different ways. Salomon de
Montguichet was the dead man whom the lady had in the wood--that was
clear. Galors had Salomon de Montguichet's arms--that too was clear.
The trouble was to connect the two strings. What had Galors to do with
the lady? Which of them had killed Salomon de Montguichet, or de Born,
to give him his real name? How did this threaten Isoult? For the massed
events of the long day drove him at last face to face with Isoult. He
had sworn upon all knightly honour to save her neck. He thought he had
saved it, but now he was not so sure. There was something undefinably
sinister, some foreboding about the turn matters had taken (matters so
diverse in their beginning) that day. Was he sure he had saved her? He
must certainly be sure, he thought. Had he not sworn? And after all,
she was his wife. That should count for something. He was not disposed
to rate marriage highly; he knew very little about it, but he felt that
it should count for something. The honour of the man's wife touched the
honour of the man. Again, she was a very good girl. He recalled
her--submissive, patient, recollected, pacing beside him on her donkey,
as they brushed their way through brown beechwoods and stained wet
bracken. He remembered her at her prayers--how kindly she took to the
devotion. She was different from the hour she was a good Christian, he
swore. Ah, so he had given her more than a free neck! He had given her
pride in herself; nay, he had quickened a soul languid for want of
spiritual food. And she looked very well praying. She was good-looking,
he thought. Oh, she was a good girl!
But surely she was well where she was, could hardly be better. Galors
had a split throat; he would be in Saint Thorn, crying _peccavi_ in
chapter, and gaining salvation with every sting of the scourge. The
woman in the wood he had distrusted from the first moment he saw her
watching eyes. She was bad through and through; she might be a worse
enemy than Galors, or a church-load of pursy monks. But it was
impossible that she should have anything to do with Galors, clean
impossible. And if she had--why, he was going to her to-morrow, and
would find out. Meantime, he would go to bed. Yes, he might go to bed.
Was not Gracedieu sanctuary? Ah, he had forgotten that! All was well.
He went to bed; but Tortsentier was not to see him on the morrow. All
was not well. He had a dream which drew all the apprehensions and
suspicions of the day into one head. The hidden things were made plain,
and the crooked things straight; for the first time, it seemed, he was
to see openly--when his eyes were shut. He had, in spite of himself,
centred them one by one in Isoult, and now he dreamed of her as she
was, and of them as they were. This was his dream. He and she were
together, lying under the stars in the open wood with his drawn sword
between them, set edgeways as it had always been. He lay awake, but
Isoult was asleep, and moaning in her sleep. The sound was like voiced
sighs which came quickly with her breath. He lay and watched her in the
perfectly clear light there was, and presently the moaning ceased, and
she opened her eyes to look at him. But though they were wide, they
were blank; he knew that she slept still. She moved her lips to speak,
but without sound; she strained out her arms to him, but he could not
take her. And, leaning more and more towards him, the edge of the sword
pressed her bare bosom, yet she seemed not to heed it; and presently it
broke the skin, and she pressed it in deeper, as if glad of the sharp
pain; and then the blood leapt out and flooded her night-dress. Her
arms dropt, she sighed once, she closed her eyes languidly as if
mortally tired. Then she lay very still, white to the lips, and Prosper
knew that she was dead. So in his own dream he cried out and tried to
come at her, but could not because of the red sword.
He woke in a cold sweat and lay trembling, blenched with fear. The
dream had been so vivid that involuntarily he turned in his bed to look
again at what haunted him, the dying eyes, the white body, and the
blood. Terror, when once he had accepted the fact that she was dead,
gave place to pity--a pity more intense than he had ever conceived. He
had pitied her on the night of their marriage, but never to such a
degree that he felt heart-broken at the mere knowledge of such things.
And now, as the principal actor in a play, she grew in importance. He
began to see that she was more than an incident; she was of the stuff
of his life.
What was more odd was, that in the dream he had wanted her, as she him;
and that he could look back upon it now and understand the desire. With
all the shock that still crowded about him till the shadowy room seemed
full of it, there was this one beam of remembrance, like sunlight in a
dusty place. He too had held out his arms: he had wanted to take her,
to hold her, white and unearthly though she might be--dying as she
certainly was. Waking, this seemed very strange to him, for he had
never wanted her before; and though (as I say) the remembrance brought
a glow along with it, he did not want her in that way now. Supposing
that she were alive and lying here, he knew that he should not want
her. But the red sword! He shuddered and closed his eyes; there she
was, pitifully dead of a wound in the breast. I suppose he was not more
superstitious than most people of his day, but he knew that he must go
to Gracedieu.
He got up at once to arm himself; he had made all his preparations
before sunrise. Then he left word for the Countess that he would return
in a day or two, and set out.
The journey could not be done under three days; that gave him two
nights in the forest, each of which brought the same dream. He arrived
at the convent late in the evening, and asked to see the Abbess at
once. The tranquil monotony of the place, its bells and recurrent
chimes, the subdued voices of the nuns chanting an office in choir,
brought him like a beaten ship into haven. He was reassured before he
saw the Abbess.
"Yes, indeed," said that lady in answer to his outburst of questions,
"the child is well. Not so bright as during the winter season, it may
be; but the spring is no easy time for young people. I may tell you,
Sir Prosper, that we have grown very fond of her. Indeed, I am often
saying that I wonder how to do without her. She is so diligent and of
so toward a disposition. You will find her well cared for, sleek, and
quite good-looking. We have great hopes for her future if she makes a
happy choice. But you will wish to see her and prove my words. I will
send for her this moment."
The Abbess had her hand-bell in her hand. If she had rung it she would
have given Prosper justification of his hurry. But the complacent youth
forestalled her.
"I beg you, mother, to do nothing of the kind," he said. "She is well,
you tell me, she is happy: that is all I cared to know. I have no wish
to unsettle her, but leave her cheerfully and confidently with you,
being well assured that you will not fail to send me word at High March
should need be."
"I understand you, sir, and agree with you. You may be quite easy about
her. We are regular livers, as you may guess, and small events are
great ones to us. So you return to High March? I will beg you to carry
with you my humble duty to her ladyship the Countess. She is well?"
"She is very well," said Prosper, and took his leave.
A frantic Gracedieu messenger started half a night behind him, but was
stopped on Two Manors Waste by a party of outlaws, robbed of his
letters, and hanged. Prosper's dream visited him for two nights of his
journey back, and four nights at High March; but as no word or other
warning came from Gracedieu to give it point, he grew to have some
strange liking for it, since he knew that it meant nothing. It gave him
new thoughts of Isoult; it convinced him, for instance, that since the
girl was so good she must be affectionate when you came to know her.
His own share in the nightly performance he could now set in humorous
comparison with his waking state. He found it difficult to believe in
the self of his dream, and was almost curious to see Isoult that he
might pursue his juxtapositions. At this rate she filled his waking
thoughts as well as his nights. The Countess was not slow to perceive
that Prosper was changed, and she affected. His songs came less
willingly from him, his sallies were either languid or too polite to be
from the heart of the youth, who could make hers beat so fast. Thinking
that he wanted work, she devised an expedition for him which might
involve some danger and the lives of a dozen men. But she counted that
lightly. He went on the fourth day after his return from Gracedieu, and
the expedition proved effectual in more ways than one.
The dream stopped, and he forgot it.