WANMEETING CRIES, 'HA! SAINT JAMES!'
The story returns to Prosper le Gai and his broken head. The blow had
been sharp, but Peering Pool was sharper. It brought him to
consciousness, of a sort sufficient to give him a disrelish for
drowning. Lucky for him he was unarmed. He found himself swimming,
paddling, rolling at random; he swallowed quantities of water, and
liked drowning none the better. By the little light there was he could
make out the line of the dark hull of Goltres, by the little wit he had
he remembered that the water-gate was midway the building or
thereabouts. He turned his face to the wall and, half clinging, half
swimming, edged along it till he reached port. The last ebb of his
strength sufficed to drag him up the stair; then he floated off into
blankness again.
When he stirred he was stiff, and near blind with fever. A cold light
silvered the pool; it was not yet dawn. His plight was pitiable. He
ached and shivered and burned, he drowsed and muttered, dreamed
horribly, sweated and was cold, shuddered and was hot. One of his arms
he could not lift at all; at one of his sides, there was a great stiff
cake of cloth and blood and water. He became light-headed, sang,
shouted, raved, swore, prayed.
"To me, to me, Isoult! Ah, dogs of the devil, this to a young maid!
Yes, madam, the Lady Isoult, and my wife. Love her! O God, I love her
at last. Hounded, hounded, hounded out! Love of Christ, how I love her!
Bailiff, Galors will come--a white-faced, sullen dog. Cut him down,
bailiff, without mercy, for he hath shown no mercy. The man in the
wood--ha! dead--Salomon de Born. Green froth on his lips--fie, poison!
She has killed Galors' only son. Galors, she has poisoned him--oh,
mercy, mercy, Lord, must I die?" And then with tears, and the whining
of a child--"Isoult, Isoult, Isoult!"
In tears his delirium spent itself, and again he was still, in a broken
sleep. The sun rose, the sky warmed itself and glowed, the crispy waves
of Peering Pool glittered, the white burden it bore floated face
upwards, an object of interest and suspicion for the coots; soon a ray
of generous heat shot obliquely down upon the sleeper on the stairs.
Prosper woke again, stretched, and yawned. Most of his pains seemed now
to centre in the pit of his stomach, a familiar grief. Prosper was
hungry.
"Pest!" said the youth, "how hungry I am. I can do nothing till I have
eaten."
He tried to get up, and did succeed in raising himself on all fours.
But for the life of him he could do no more. He sat down again and
thought about eating. He remembered the bread and olives, the not
unkindly red wine of the night before. Then he remembered Spiridion,
dispenser of meat and many questions.
"That poor doubting rogue!" he laughed. But he sobered himself. "I do
ill to laugh, God knows! The man must be dead by now, and all his
doubts with him. I must go find him. But I must eat some of his bread
and olives first."
Once more he got on all fours, and this time he crawled to the stop of
the stairway. Clinging to the lintel and hoisting himself by degrees,
he at last stood fairly on his feet--but with a spinning head, and a
sickness as unto death. He tottered and flickered; but he stuck to his
door-post.
"Bread and olives!" he cried. "I am to die, it seems, but by the Lord I
will eat first."
He made a rush for it, gained so the great hall, dizzied through it
somehow, and out into the corridor. He flung himself at the stone
stairs with the desperation of his last agony, half crawled, half
swarmed up to the top (dragging his legs after him at the end, like a
hare shot in the back), and finished his course to Spiridion's chamber
on hands and knees. He had probably never in his life before worked so
hard for a breakfast. He was dripping with sweat, shaking like
gossamer; but his fever had left him. Bread and a bottle of wine did
wonders for him. He felt very drunk when he had done, and was conscious
that pot-valiancy only gave him the heart to tear off his clothes. A
flask of sweet oil from Spiridion's shelf helped him here. Next he
probed the rents. He found a deepish wound in the groin, a sword-cut in
the fleshy part of his left arm; then there was his head! He assured
himself that the skull was whole.
"I never respected my ancestors before," he cried. "Such a headpiece is
worthy of a Crusader."
He kindled a fire, heated water, washed out his hurts, oiled them and
bound them up with one of Spiridion's bed-sheets.
"Now," he reflected, "by rights I should go and hunt for my poor host.
But I am still drunk unfortunately. Let me consider. Spiridion must
pass for a man. If he is dead he will wait for me. If he is not dead he
is no worse off than I am. Good. I will sleep." And he slept round the
clock.
Next morning when he awoke he was stiff and sore, but himself. He
finished the bread, drank another bottle of wine, and looked about for
his armour. It was not there. Instead, the white wicket-gates gleamed
at him from a black shield, white plumes from a black headpiece, and
the rest of a concatenation.
"_Entra per me_," he read. "Enter I will," said Prosper, "and by you.
This device," he went on, as he fitted the _cuisses_, "this device is
not very worthy of Dom Galors. It speaks of hurry. It speaks, even, of
precipitation, for if he must needs wear my harness, at least he might
have carried his own. Galors was flurried. If he was flurried he must
have had news. If, having news, he took my arms, it must have been news
of Isoult. He intended to deceive her by passing for me. Good; I will
deceive his allies by passing for himself. But first I must find
Spiridion."
He had too much respect for his enemy, as you will observe if I have
made anything of Galors. Galors was no refiner, not subtle; he was
direct. When he had to think he held his tongue, so that you should
believe him profound. When he got a thought he made haste to act upon
it, because it really embarrassed him. None of Prosper's imaginings
were correct. If the monk had been capable of harbouring two thoughts
at a time, there would not have been a shred of mail in the room.
That sodden thing lipped by the restless water was Spiridion. He lay on
his back, thinner and more peaked than ever in life; his yellow hair
made him an aureole. He looked like some martyred ascetic, with his
tightened smile and the gash half-way through his neck.
Prosper leaned upon his punt-pole looking sorrowfully at him.
"Alas, my brother," he said half whimsically, "do you smile? Even so I
think God should smile that He had let such a thing be made. And if, as
I believe, you know the truth at last, that is why you also smile. But
shut your eyes, my brother," he added, stooping to do the office, "shut
your eyes, for you wore them thin with searching and now can see
without them. Let them rest."
Very tenderly he pulled him out of the water, very reverently took him
to land. He buried him before his own gates, and over him set the
crucifix, which in the end he had found grace to see. He was too good a
Christian not to pray over the grave, and not sufficient of a hero to
be frank about his tears. At the end of all this business he found his
horse. Then he rode off at a canter for Hauterive.
* * * * *
It is one thing to kindle military fires in the breast of a High
Bailiff, quite another to bid them out. Prosper had overstepped his
authority. The High Bailiff of Wanmeeting held himself in check for the
better part of a week after his generalissimo's departure; at the end
of five days he could endure it no more. His harness clamoured, his
sword tarnished for blood; he had fifteen hundred men in steel. That
would mean fifteen hundred and one tarnishing blades, and the unvoiced
reproaches of fifteen hundred and one suits of mail. In a word, the
High Bailiff itched to try a fall with the redoubtable Galors de Born.
He sent, therefore, a man to ring the great bell of the parish church.
This assembled the citizens pell-mell, for the times were stirring. The
High Bailiff, being assured of his auditory, summoned the garrison, put
himself at the head of them on a black stallion, sounded trumpets, and
marched into the Market-place. The cheers clipped him like heady wine;
but it was the eloquence of the women's handkerchiefs that really gave
him heart. Standing in his stirrups, hat in hand, he made a short
speech.
"Men of Wanmeeting and brothers," he said, "to-day you shall prove
yourselves worthy of your Lady Paramount, of your late master, and of
me. Galors de Born, the arch-enemy, is skulking in his strong tower,
not daring to attack us. Men of Wanmeeting, we will go and bait him.
Hauterive is ours. Follow me, crying, Ha! Saint James!"
"Ha! Saint James!" shouted the men, with their caps pike-high.
The Bailiff glowed in his skin. He drew his sword.
"Forward!" He gave the word.
The entire ardent garrison marched out of the town, and Wanmeeting was
left with its women and elders, anybody's capture.
The consequence of these heroical attitudes was, that Prosper, riding
hard to Hauterive, came in sight of a besieging army round about it--a
tented field, a pavilion, wherefrom drooped the saltire of De Forz, a
long line of attack, in fine, a notable scheme of offence. He saw a
sortie from the gates driven back by as mettlesome a cavalry charge as
he could have wished to lead.
"The Bailiff of Wanmeeting, as I live by bread!" he cried out.
He stayed for some time watching the fray from a little rising ground.
The cavalry, having beaten in the defenders, retired in good order; the
archers advanced to cover a party of pikemen with scaling-ladders.
"Now is my time to board the Bailiff," said Prosper, and rode coolly
across the field.
The High Bailiff saw, as he thought, Galors himself riding unattended
towards him.
"Ha! negotiations," said he; "and in person! I have hit a mark it
seems. I may take a high tone. Unconditional surrender and all arms,
hey?"
Prosper rode up, saluting.
"Messire de Born," said the Bailiff.
"Prosper le Gai," said the other.
"Madam Virgin! I thought you had perished, Messire."
"Not at all, Bailiff. Was that why you took over my command?"
The Bailiff bowed. "I gladly relinquish it, Messire."
Prosper nodded pleasantly.
"That last charge of yours could hardly have been bettered, though I
think you might have got in. How many men did you drop?"
"Ten, Messire. We brought off the wounded."
"Ten is enough. You shall lose no more. Call off that scaling party."
The Bailiff repeated the order.
"Your men know their work," said Prosper; "but why do they cry for
Saint James?"
The High Bailiff coloured.
"Well, Messire," he said, "there is undoubtedly a Saint James, an
Apostle and a great Saint."
"Of the greatest," said Prosper. "But, pardon. I thought your burgh was
devoted to Saint Crispin?"
"Messire, it is so. But there were reasons. First, your battle-cry
should be familiar----"
"As Saint Crispin to Wanmeeting?"
"As the name of James, Messire. For it is my own poor name."
"Ah," said Prosper, "I begin to see."
"Then," said the Bailiff, pursuing his reasons, "a battle-cry should be
short, of one syllable----"
"Like Saint Dennis?" Prosper asked.
"Like Saint George, Messire."
"Or Saint Andrew?" said Prosper sweetly.
"Or--"
"Or Montjoy, or Bide the Time, eh, Bailiff?"
"Messire, you have me at a disadvantage for the moment. The name is,
however, that of a Saint."
"Say no more, Bailiff, but listen. There need be no more bloodshed over
this place. Get your men together, to advance at a signal from within.
I will go alone into the town. Now, do you notice that little square
window in the citadel? When you see the Saltire hang there you will
march in and meet me at the Bishop's Gate."
"Oh, Messire, what will you do?"
"Leave that to me," Prosper said, as he rode off.
He rode close to the moat and kept by it, making a half circuit of the
walls. He had calculated on Galors' armour, and calculated well, for
nobody molested him from the defenders' side. At the Bishop's Gate he
reined up, and stood with his spear erect at the length of his arm.
"Who comes?" cried the sentry.
"_Entra per me_," growled Prosper, with a shot for Galors' sulky note.
The gate swung apart, the bridge fell, the portcullis was drawn up.
Prosper rode through the streets of Hauterive amid the silence of the
inhabitants and the cheers of the garrison--two very different sets of
persons. He went into the citadel, displayed the appointed signal, then
returned on horseback to the Bishop's Gate. He had not a word to say,
but this was quite in character. So he stood waiting.
There was presently a fine commotion at the gate; a man came running up
to him.
"Messire, they are going to attack the gate!"
"Open it," said Prosper.
"Messire?"
"Open it, hound!"
The man reeled, but carried the order. Prosper rode stately out; and
when he returned a second time it was at the head of the Countess
Isabel's troops.
"Bailiff," said he, when they were in the citadel and all the news out,
"I am no friend of your mistress, as you know; but I am not a thief.
Hauterive is hers. To-morrow morning I shall declare it so; until then
Galors, if you please, is Lord. Let me now say this," he continued. "I
admire you because you have a high heart. But you lack one requisite of
generalship, as it appears to me. You have no head. Get back at once to
Wanmeeting with one thousand of your men, and leave me five hundred of
them to work with. You may think yourself lucky if you find one stone
on another or one man's wife as she should be. By the time you are
there you will no doubt have orders from High March. You may send news
thither that this place is quiet and restored, as from to-morrow
morning, to its allegiance. Good morning, Bailiff."
The Bailiff was very much struck with Prosper's sagacity, and went at
once. Prosper and his five hundred men held the citadel.
He confided his secret to those whom he could trust; the remainder
fraternized in the wine shops and dealt liberally in surmise. The
general opinion seemed to be that Galors had married the Countess
Isabel.
* * * * *
Having thus ridded him of all his charges, Prosper could steer the ship
of his mind whither his soul had long looked--to Isoult and marriage.
Marriage was become a holy thing, a holy sepulchre of peace to be won
at all costs. No crusader was he, mind you, fighting for honour, but a
pitiful beaten wayfarer longing for ease from his aching. He did not
seek, he did not know, to account for the change in him. It had come
slowly. Slowly the girl had transfigured before him, slowly risen from
below him to the level of his eyes; and now she was above him. He
shrined her high as she had shrined him, but for different reasons as
became a man. What a woman loves in man is strength, what a man loves
in women is also strength, the strength of weak things. The strength of
the weak thing Isoult had been that, she had known how to hold him off
because of her love's sake. There is always pity (which should become
reverence) in a man's love. He had never pitied her till she fought so
hard for the holiness of her lover.
Oddly enough, Isoult loved him the more for the very attack which she
had foiled. Odd as it may be, that is where the truth lies. As for him,
gratitude for what she had endured for his sake might go for nothing.
Men do not feel gratitude--they accept tribute. But if they pity, and
their pity is quickened by knowledge of the pitiful, then they love.
Her pleading lips, her dear startled eyes stung him out of himself. And
then he found out why her eyes were startled and why her lips were
mute. She was lovely. Yes, for she loved. This beseeching child, then,
loved him. He knew himself homeless now until she took him in.