"Pardon him!" exclaimed Cedric; "I will both pardon and reward
him.--Kneel down, Gurth."--The swineherd was in an instant at his
master's feet--"THEOW and ESNE [40] art thou no longer," said Cedric
touching him with a wand; "FOLKFREE and SACLESS [41] art thou in town
and from town, in the forest as in the field. A hide of land I give to
thee in my steads of Walbrugham, from me and mine to thee and thine aye
and for ever; and God's malison on his head who this gainsays!"

No longer a serf, but a freeman and a landholder, Gurth sprung upon his
feet, and twice bounded aloft to almost his own height from the ground.
"A smith and a file," he cried, "to do away the collar from the neck
of a freeman!--Noble master! doubled is my strength by your gift, and
doubly will I fight for you!--There is a free spirit in my breast--I am
a man changed to myself and all around.--Ha, Fangs!" he continued,--for
that faithful cur, seeing his master thus transported, began to jump
upon him, to express his sympathy,--"knowest thou thy master still?"

"Ay," said Wamba, "Fangs and I still know thee, Gurth, though we must
needs abide by the collar; it is only thou art likely to forget both us
and thyself."

"I shall forget myself indeed ere I forget thee, true comrade," said
Gurth; "and were freedom fit for thee, Wamba, the master would not let
thee want it."

"Nay," said Wamba, "never think I envy thee, brother Gurth; the serf
sits by the hall-fire when the freeman must forth to the field of
battle--And what saith Oldhelm of Malmsbury--Better a fool at a feast
than a wise man at a fray."

The tramp of horses was now heard, and the Lady Rowena appeared,
surrounded by several riders, and a much stronger party of footmen, who
joyfully shook their pikes and clashed their brown-bills for joy of her
freedom. She herself, richly attired, and mounted on a dark chestnut
palfrey, had recovered all the dignity of her manner, and only an
unwonted degree of paleness showed the sufferings she had undergone. Her
lovely brow, though sorrowful, bore on it a cast of reviving hope
for the future, as well as of grateful thankfulness for the past
deliverance--She knew that Ivanhoe was safe, and she knew that
Athelstane was dead. The former assurance filled her with the most
sincere delight; and if she did not absolutely rejoice at the latter,
she might be pardoned for feeling the full advantage of being freed
from further persecution on the only subject in which she had ever been
contradicted by her guardian Cedric.

As Rowena bent her steed towards Locksley's seat, that bold yeoman, with
all his followers, rose to receive her, as if by a general instinct of
courtesy. The blood rose to her cheeks, as, courteously waving her hand,
and bending so low that her beautiful and loose tresses were for an
instant mixed with the flowing mane of her palfrey, she expressed in
few but apt words her obligations and her gratitude to Locksley and her
other deliverers.--"God bless you, brave men," she concluded, "God and
Our Lady bless you and requite you for gallantly perilling yourselves
in the cause of the oppressed!--If any of you should hunger, remember
Rowena has food--if you should thirst, she has many a butt of wine and
brown ale--and if the Normans drive ye from these walks, Rowena has
forests of her own, where her gallant deliverers may range at full
freedom, and never ranger ask whose arrow hath struck down the deer."

"Thanks, gentle lady," said Locksley; "thanks from my company and
myself. But, to have saved you requites itself. We who walk the
greenwood do many a wild deed, and the Lady Rowena's deliverance may be
received as an atonement."

Again bowing from her palfrey, Rowena turned to depart; but pausing a
moment, while Cedric, who was to attend her, was also taking his leave,
she found herself unexpectedly close by the prisoner De Bracy. He stood
under a tree in deep meditation, his arms crossed upon his breast,
and Rowena was in hopes she might pass him unobserved. He looked up,
however, and, when aware of her presence, a deep flush of shame suffused
his handsome countenance. He stood a moment most irresolute; then,
stepping forward, took her palfrey by the rein, and bent his knee before
her.

"Will the Lady Rowena deign to cast an eye--on a captive knight--on a
dishonoured soldier?"

"Sir Knight," answered Rowena, "in enterprises such as yours, the real
dishonour lies not in failure, but in success."

"Conquest, lady, should soften the heart," answered De Bracy; "let me
but know that the Lady Rowena forgives the violence occasioned by an
ill-fated passion, and she shall soon learn that De Bracy knows how to
serve her in nobler ways."

"I forgive you, Sir Knight," said Rowena, "as a Christian."

"That means," said Wamba, "that she does not forgive him at all."

"But I can never forgive the misery and desolation your madness has
occasioned," continued Rowena.

"Unloose your hold on the lady's rein," said Cedric, coming up. "By the
bright sun above us, but it were shame, I would pin thee to the earth
with my javelin--but be well assured, thou shalt smart, Maurice de
Bracy, for thy share in this foul deed."

"He threatens safely who threatens a prisoner," said De Bracy; "but when
had a Saxon any touch of courtesy?"

Then retiring two steps backward, he permitted the lady to move on.

Cedric, ere they departed, expressed his peculiar gratitude to the Black
Champion, and earnestly entreated him to accompany him to Rotherwood.

"I know," he said, "that ye errant knights desire to carry your fortunes
on the point of your lance, and reck not of land or goods; but war is
a changeful mistress, and a home is sometimes desirable even to the
champion whose trade is wandering. Thou hast earned one in the halls
of Rotherwood, noble knight. Cedric has wealth enough to repair the
injuries of fortune, and all he has is his deliverer's--Come, therefore,
to Rotherwood, not as a guest, but as a son or brother."

"Cedric has already made me rich," said the Knight,--"he has taught me
the value of Saxon virtue. To Rotherwood will I come, brave Saxon, and
that speedily; but, as now, pressing matters of moment detain me from
your halls. Peradventure when I come hither, I will ask such a boon as
will put even thy generosity to the test."

"It is granted ere spoken out," said Cedric, striking his ready hand
into the gauntleted palm of the Black Knight,--"it is granted already,
were it to affect half my fortune."

"Gage not thy promise so lightly," said the Knight of the Fetterlock;
"yet well I hope to gain the boon I shall ask. Meanwhile, adieu."

"I have but to say," added the Saxon, "that, during the funeral rites
of the noble Athelstane, I shall be an inhabitant of the halls of his
castle of Coningsburgh--They will be open to all who choose to partake
of the funeral banqueting; and, I speak in name of the noble Edith,
mother of the fallen prince, they will never be shut against him who
laboured so bravely, though unsuccessfully, to save Athelstane from
Norman chains and Norman steel."

"Ay, ay," said Wamba, who had resumed his attendance on his master,
"rare feeding there will be--pity that the noble Athelstane cannot
banquet at his own funeral.--But he," continued the Jester, lifting up
his eyes gravely, "is supping in Paradise, and doubtless does honour to
the cheer."

"Peace, and move on," said Cedric, his anger at this untimely jest being
checked by the recollection of Wamba's recent services. Rowena waved a
graceful adieu to him of the Fetterlock--the Saxon bade God speed him,
and on they moved through a wide glade of the forest.

They had scarce departed, ere a sudden procession moved from under the
greenwood branches, swept slowly round the silvan amphitheatre, and
took the same direction with Rowena and her followers. The priests of
a neighbouring convent, in expectation of the ample donation, or
"soul-scat", which Cedric had propined, attended upon the car in which
the body of Athelstane was laid, and sang hymns as it was sadly
and slowly borne on the shoulders of his vassals to his castle of
Coningsburgh, to be there deposited in the grave of Hengist, from whom
the deceased derived his long descent. Many of his vassals had assembled
at the news of his death, and followed the bier with all the external
marks, at least, of dejection and sorrow. Again the outlaws arose, and
paid the same rude and spontaneous homage to death, which they had
so lately rendered to beauty--the slow chant and mournful step of the
priests brought back to their remembrance such of their comrades as had
fallen in the yesterday's array. But such recollections dwell not long
with those who lead a life of danger and enterprise, and ere the sound
of the death-hymn had died on the wind, the outlaws were again busied in
the distribution of their spoil.

"Valiant knight," said Locksley to the Black Champion, "without whose
good heart and mighty arm our enterprise must altogether have failed,
will it please you to take from that mass of spoil whatever may best
serve to pleasure you, and to remind you of this my Trysting-tree?"

"I accept the offer," said the Knight, "as frankly as it is given; and I
ask permission to dispose of Sir Maurice de Bracy at my own pleasure."

"He is thine already," said Locksley, "and well for him! else the
tyrant had graced the highest bough of this oak, with as many of his
Free-Companions as we could gather, hanging thick as acorns around
him.--But he is thy prisoner, and he is safe, though he had slain my
father."

"De Bracy," said the Knight, "thou art free--depart. He whose prisoner
thou art scorns to take mean revenge for what is past. But beware of
the future, lest a worse thing befall thee.--Maurice de Bracy, I say
BEWARE!"

De Bracy bowed low and in silence, and was about to withdraw, when the
yeomen burst at once into a shout of execration and derision. The proud
knight instantly stopped, turned back, folded his arms, drew up his form
to its full height, and exclaimed, "Peace, ye yelping curs! who open
upon a cry which ye followed not when the stag was at bay--De Bracy
scorns your censure as he would disdain your applause. To your brakes
and caves, ye outlawed thieves! and be silent when aught knightly or
noble is but spoken within a league of your fox-earths."

This ill-timed defiance might have procured for De Bracy a volley of
arrows, but for the hasty and imperative interference of the outlaw
Chief. Meanwhile the knight caught a horse by the rein, for several
which had been taken in the stables of Front-de-Boeuf stood accoutred
around, and were a valuable part of the booty. He threw himself upon the
saddle, and galloped off through the wood.

When the bustle occasioned by this incident was somewhat composed, the
chief Outlaw took from his neck the rich horn and baldric which he had
recently gained at the strife of archery near Ashby.

"Noble knight." he said to him of the Fetterlock, "if you disdain not to
grace by your acceptance a bugle which an English yeoman has once worn,
this I will pray you to keep as a memorial of your gallant bearing--and
if ye have aught to do, and, as happeneth oft to a gallant knight, ye
chance to be hard bested in any forest between Trent and Tees, wind
three mots [42] upon the horn thus, 'Wa-sa-hoa!' and it may well chance
ye shall find helpers and rescue."

He then gave breath to the bugle, and winded once and again the call
which he described, until the knight had caught the notes.

"Gramercy for the gift, bold yeoman," said the Knight; "and better help
than thine and thy rangers would I never seek, were it at my utmost
need." And then in his turn he winded the call till all the greenwood
rang.

"Well blown and clearly," said the yeoman; "beshrew me an thou knowest
not as much of woodcraft as of war!--thou hast been a striker of deer in
thy day, I warrant.--Comrades, mark these three mots--it is the call of
the Knight of the Fetterlock; and he who hears it, and hastens not to
serve him at his need, I will have him scourged out of our band with his
own bowstring."

"Long live our leader!" shouted the yeomen, "and long live the Black
Knight of the Fetterlock!--May he soon use our service, to prove how
readily it will be paid."

Locksley now proceeded to the distribution of the spoil, which he
performed with the most laudable impartiality. A tenth part of the whole
was set apart for the church, and for pious uses; a portion was next
allotted to a sort of public treasury; a part was assigned to the widows
and children of those who had fallen, or to be expended in masses for
the souls of such as had left no surviving family. The rest was divided
amongst the outlaws, according to their rank and merit, and the judgment
of the Chief, on all such doubtful questions as occurred, was delivered
with great shrewdness, and received with absolute submission. The
Black Knight was not a little surprised to find that men, in a state so
lawless, were nevertheless among themselves so regularly and equitably
governed, and all that he observed added to his opinion of the justice
and judgment of their leader.

When each had taken his own proportion of the booty, and while the
treasurer, accompanied by four tall yeomen, was transporting that
belonging to the state to some place of concealment or of security, the
portion devoted to the church still remained unappropriated.

"I would," said the leader, "we could hear tidings of our joyous
chaplain--he was never wont to be absent when meat was to be blessed, or
spoil to be parted; and it is his duty to take care of these the tithes
of our successful enterprise. It may be the office has helped to cover
some of his canonical irregularities. Also, I have a holy brother of his
a prisoner at no great distance, and I would fain have the Friar to help
me to deal with him in due sort--I greatly misdoubt the safety of the
bluff priest."

"I were right sorry for that," said the Knight of the Fetterlock, "for I
stand indebted to him for the joyous hospitality of a merry night in his
cell. Let us to the ruins of the castle; it may be we shall there learn
some tidings of him."

While they thus spoke, a loud shout among the yeomen announced the
arrival of him for whom they feared, as they learned from the stentorian
voice of the Friar himself, long before they saw his burly person.

"Make room, my merry-men!" he exclaimed; "room for your godly father
and his prisoner--Cry welcome once more.--I come, noble leader, like an
eagle with my prey in my clutch."--And making his way through the ring,
amidst the laughter of all around, he appeared in majestic triumph, his
huge partisan in one hand, and in the other a halter, one end of which
was fastened to the neck of the unfortunate Isaac of York, who, bent
down by sorrow and terror, was dragged on by the victorious priest, who
shouted aloud, "Where is Allan-a-Dale, to chronicle me in a ballad, or
if it were but a lay?--By Saint Hermangild, the jingling crowder is ever
out of the way where there is an apt theme for exalting valour!"

"Curtal Priest," said the Captain, "thou hast been at a wet mass this
morning, as early as it is. In the name of Saint Nicholas, whom hast
thou got here?"

"A captive to my sword and to my lance, noble Captain," replied the
Clerk of Copmanhurst; "to my bow and to my halberd, I should rather
say; and yet I have redeemed him by my divinity from a worse captivity.
Speak, Jew--have I not ransomed thee from Sathanas?--have I not taught
thee thy 'credo', thy 'pater', and thine 'Ave Maria'?--Did I not spend
the whole night in drinking to thee, and in expounding of mysteries?"

"For the love of God!" ejaculated the poor Jew, "will no one take me out
of the keeping of this mad--I mean this holy man?"

"How's this, Jew?" said the Friar, with a menacing aspect; "dost thou
recant, Jew?--Bethink thee, if thou dost relapse into thine infidelity,
though thou are not so tender as a suckling pig--I would I had one
to break my fast upon--thou art not too tough to be roasted! Be
conformable, Isaac, and repeat the words after me. 'Ave Maria'!--"

"Nay, we will have no profanation, mad Priest," said Locksley; "let us
rather hear where you found this prisoner of thine."

"By Saint Dunstan," said the Friar, "I found him where I sought for
better ware! I did step into the cellarage to see what might be rescued
there; for though a cup of burnt wine, with spice, be an evening's
drought for an emperor, it were waste, methought, to let so much good
liquor be mulled at once; and I had caught up one runlet of sack, and
was coming to call more aid among these lazy knaves, who are ever to
seek when a good deed is to be done, when I was avised of a strong
door--Aha! thought I, here is the choicest juice of all in this secret
crypt; and the knave butler, being disturbed in his vocation, hath left
the key in the door--In therefore I went, and found just nought besides
a commodity of rusted chains and this dog of a Jew, who presently
rendered himself my prisoner, rescue or no rescue. I did but refresh
myself after the fatigue of the action, with the unbeliever, with one
humming cup of sack, and was proceeding to lead forth my captive,
when, crash after crash, as with wild thunder-dint and levin-fire, down
toppled the masonry of an outer tower, (marry beshrew their hands that
built it not the firmer!) and blocked up the passage. The roar of one
falling tower followed another--I gave up thought of life; and deeming
it a dishonour to one of my profession to pass out of this world in
company with a Jew, I heaved up my halberd to beat his brains out; but
I took pity on his grey hairs, and judged it better to lay down the
partisan, and take up my spiritual weapon for his conversion. And truly,
by the blessing of Saint Dunstan, the seed has been sown in good soil;
only that, with speaking to him of mysteries through the whole night,
and being in a manner fasting, (for the few droughts of sack which I
sharpened my wits with were not worth marking,) my head is well-nigh
dizzied, I trow.--But I was clean exhausted.--Gilbert and Wibbald know
in what state they found me--quite and clean exhausted."

"We can bear witness," said Gilbert; "for when we had cleared away the
ruin, and by Saint Dunstan's help lighted upon the dungeon stair, we
found the runlet of sack half empty, the Jew half dead, and the Friar
more than half--exhausted, as he calls it."

"Ye be knaves! ye lie!" retorted the offended Friar; "it was you and
your gormandizing companions that drank up the sack, and called it your
morning draught--I am a pagan, an I kept it not for the Captain's own
throat. But what recks it? The Jew is converted, and understands all I
have told him, very nearly, if not altogether, as well as myself."

"Jew," said the Captain, "is this true? hast thou renounced thine
unbelief?"

"May I so find mercy in your eyes," said the Jew, "as I know not one
word which the reverend prelate spake to me all this fearful night.
Alas! I was so distraught with agony, and fear, and grief, that had
our holy father Abraham come to preach to me, he had found but a deaf
listener."

"Thou liest, Jew, and thou knowest thou dost." said the Friar; "I will
remind thee of but one word of our conference--thou didst promise to
give all thy substance to our holy Order."

"So help me the Promise, fair sirs," said Isaac, even more alarmed than
before, "as no such sounds ever crossed my lips! Alas! I am an aged
beggar'd man--I fear me a childless--have ruth on me, and let me go!"

"Nay," said the Friar, "if thou dost retract vows made in favour of holy
Church, thou must do penance."

Accordingly, he raised his halberd, and would have laid the staff of
it lustily on the Jew's shoulders, had not the Black Knight stopped the
blow, and thereby transferred the Holy Clerk's resentment to himself.

"By Saint Thomas of Kent," said he, "an I buckle to my gear, I will
teach thee, sir lazy lover, to mell with thine own matters, maugre thine
iron case there!"

"Nay, be not wroth with me," said the Knight; "thou knowest I am thy
sworn friend and comrade."

"I know no such thing," answered the Friar; "and defy thee for a
meddling coxcomb!"

"Nay, but," said the Knight, who seemed to take a pleasure in provoking
his quondam host, "hast thou forgotten how, that for my sake (for I say
nothing of the temptation of the flagon and the pasty) thou didst break
thy vow of fast and vigil?"

"Truly, friend," said the Friar, clenching his huge fist, "I will bestow
a buffet on thee."

"I accept of no such presents," said the Knight; "I am content to take
thy cuff [421] as a loan, but I will repay thee with usury as deep as ever thy prisoner
there exacted in his traffic."

"I will prove that presently," said the Friar.

"Hola!" cried the Captain, "what art thou after, mad Friar? brawling
beneath our Trysting-tree?"

"No brawling," said the Knight, "it is but a friendly interchange of
courtesy.--Friar, strike an thou darest--I will stand thy blow, if thou
wilt stand mine."

"Thou hast the advantage with that iron pot on thy head," said the
churchman; "but have at thee--Down thou goest, an thou wert Goliath of
Gath in his brazen helmet."

The Friar bared his brawny arm up to the elbow, and putting his full
strength to the blow, gave the Knight a buffet that might have felled an
ox. But his adversary stood firm as a rock. A loud shout was uttered by
all the yeomen around; for the Clerk's cuff was proverbial amongst them,
and there were few who, in jest or earnest, had not had the occasion to
know its vigour.

"Now, Priest," said, the Knight, pulling off his gauntlet, "if I had
vantage on my head, I will have none on my hand--stand fast as a true
man."

"'Genam meam dedi vapulatori'--I have given my cheek to the smiter,"
said the Priest; "an thou canst stir me from the spot, fellow, I will
freely bestow on thee the Jew's ransom."

So spoke the burly Priest, assuming, on his part, high defiance. But
who may resist his fate? The buffet of the Knight was given with such
strength and good-will, that the Friar rolled head over heels upon
the plain, to the great amazement of all the spectators. But he arose
neither angry nor crestfallen.

"Brother," said he to the Knight, "thou shouldst have used thy strength
with more discretion. I had mumbled but a lame mass an thou hadst
broken my jaw, for the piper plays ill that wants the nether chops.
Nevertheless, there is my hand, in friendly witness, that I will
exchange no more cuffs with thee, having been a loser by the barter. End
now all unkindness. Let us put the Jew to ransom, since the leopard will
not change his spots, and a Jew he will continue to be."

"The Priest," said Clement, "is not half so confident of the Jew's
conversion, since he received that buffet on the ear."

"Go to, knave, what pratest thou of conversions?--what, is there no
respect?--all masters and no men?--I tell thee, fellow, I was somewhat
totty when I received the good knight's blow, or I had kept my ground
under it. But an thou gibest more of it, thou shalt learn I can give as
well as take."

"Peace all!" said the Captain. "And thou, Jew, think of thy ransom;
thou needest not to be told that thy race are held to be accursed in all
Christian communities, and trust me that we cannot endure thy presence
among us. Think, therefore, of an offer, while I examine a prisoner of
another cast."

"Were many of Front-de-Boeuf's men taken?" demanded the Black Knight.

"None of note enough to be put to ransom," answered the Captain; "a
set of hilding fellows there were, whom we dismissed to find them a new
master--enough had been done for revenge and profit; the bunch of them
were not worth a cardecu. The prisoner I speak of is better booty--a
jolly monk riding to visit his leman, an I may judge by his horse-gear
and wearing apparel.--Here cometh the worthy prelate, as pert as a
pyet." And, between two yeomen, was brought before the silvan throne of
the outlaw Chief, our old friend, Prior Aymer of Jorvaulx.




CHAPTER XXXIII

     ---Flower of warriors,
     How is't with Titus Lartius?
     MARCIUS.--As with a man busied about decrees,
     Condemning some to death and some to exile,
     Ransoming him or pitying, threatening the other.
     --Coriolanus


The captive Abbot's features and manners exhibited a whimsical mixture
of offended pride, and deranged foppery and bodily terror.

"Why, how now, my masters?" said he, with a voice in which all three
emotions were blended. "What order is this among ye? Be ye Turks
or Christians, that handle a churchman?--Know ye what it is, 'manus
imponere in servos Domini'? Ye have plundered my mails--torn my cope
of curious cut lace, which might have served a cardinal!--Another in my
place would have been at his 'excommunicabo vos'; but I am placible,
and if ye order forth my palfreys, release my brethren, and restore
my mails, tell down with all speed an hundred crowns to be expended in
masses at the high altar of Jorvaulx Abbey, and make your vow to eat no
venison until next Pentecost, it may be you shall hear little more of
this mad frolic."

"Holy Father," said the chief Outlaw, "it grieves me to think that you
have met with such usage from any of my followers, as calls for your
fatherly reprehension."

"Usage!" echoed the priest, encouraged by the mild tone of the silvan
leader; "it were usage fit for no hound of good race--much less for a
Christian--far less for a priest--and least of all for the Prior of
the holy community of Jorvaulx. Here is a profane and drunken minstrel,
called Allan-a-Dale--'nebulo quidam'--who has menaced me with corporal
punishment--nay, with death itself, an I pay not down four hundred
crowns of ransom, to the boot of all the treasure he hath already robbed
me of--gold chains and gymmal rings to an unknown value; besides what
is broken and spoiled among their rude hands, such as my pouncer-box and
silver crisping-tongs."

"It is impossible that Allan-a-Dale can have thus treated a man of your
reverend bearing," replied the Captain.

"It is true as the gospel of Saint Nicodemus," said the Prior; "he
swore, with many a cruel north-country oath, that he would hang me up on
the highest tree in the greenwood."

"Did he so in very deed? Nay, then, reverend father, I think you had
better comply with his demands--for Allan-a-Dale is the very man to
abide by his word when he has so pledged it." [43]

"You do but jest with me," said the astounded Prior, with a forced
laugh; "and I love a good jest with all my heart. But, ha! ha! ha! when
the mirth has lasted the livelong night, it is time to be grave in the
morning."

"And I am as grave as a father confessor," replied the Outlaw; "you must
pay a round ransom, Sir Prior, or your convent is likely to be called to
a new election; for your place will know you no more."

"Are ye Christians," said the Prior, "and hold this language to a
churchman?"

"Christians! ay, marry are we, and have divinity among us to boot,"
answered the Outlaw. "Let our buxom chaplain stand forth, and expound to
this reverend father the texts which concern this matter."

The Friar, half-drunk, half-sober, had huddled a friar's frock over his
green cassock, and now summoning together whatever scraps of learning
he had acquired by rote in former days, "Holy father," said he, "'Deus
faciat salvam benignitatem vestram'--You are welcome to the greenwood."

"What profane mummery is this?" said the Prior. "Friend, if thou be'st
indeed of the church, it were a better deed to show me how I may escape
from these men's hands, than to stand ducking and grinning here like a
morris-dancer."

"Truly, reverend father," said the Friar, "I know but one mode in which
thou mayst escape. This is Saint Andrew's day with us, we are taking our
tithes."

"But not of the church, then, I trust, my good brother?" said the Prior.

"Of church and lay," said the Friar; "and therefore, Sir Prior 'facite
vobis amicos de Mammone iniquitatis'--make yourselves friends of the
Mammon of unrighteousness, for no other friendship is like to serve your
turn."

"I love a jolly woodsman at heart," said the Prior, softening his tone;
"come, ye must not deal too hard with me--I can well of woodcraft,
and can wind a horn clear and lustily, and hollo till every oak rings
again--Come, ye must not deal too hard with me."

"Give him a horn," said the Outlaw; "we will prove the skill he boasts
of."

The Prior Aymer winded a blast accordingly. The Captain shook his head.

"Sir Prior," he said, "thou blowest a merry note, but it may not ransom
thee--we cannot afford, as the legend on a good knight's shield hath it,
to set thee free for a blast. Moreover, I have found thee--thou art
one of those, who, with new French graces and Tra-li-ras, disturb the
ancient English bugle notes.--Prior, that last flourish on the recheat
hath added fifty crowns to thy ransom, for corrupting the true old manly
blasts of venerie."

"Well, friend," said the Abbot, peevishly, "thou art ill to please with
thy woodcraft. I pray thee be more conformable in this matter of my
ransom. At a word--since I must needs, for once, hold a candle to the
devil--what ransom am I to pay for walking on Watling-street, without
having fifty men at my back?"

"Were it not well," said the Lieutenant of the gang apart to the
Captain, "that the Prior should name the Jew's ransom, and the Jew name
the Prior's?"

"Thou art a mad knave," said the Captain, "but thy plan
transcends!--Here, Jew, step forth--Look at that holy Father Aymer,
Prior of the rich Abbey of Jorvaulx, and tell us at what ransom we
should hold him?--Thou knowest the income of his convent, I warrant
thee."

"O, assuredly," said Isaac. "I have trafficked with the good fathers,
and bought wheat and barley, and fruits of the earth, and also much
wool. O, it is a rich abbey-stede, and they do live upon the fat, and
drink the sweet wines upon the lees, these good fathers of Jorvaulx. Ah,
if an outcast like me had such a home to go to, and such incomings by
the year and by the month, I would pay much gold and silver to redeem my
captivity."

"Hound of a Jew!" exclaimed the Prior, "no one knows better than thy own
cursed self, that our holy house of God is indebted for the finishing of
our chancel--"

"And for the storing of your cellars in the last season with the due
allowance of Gascon wine," interrupted the Jew; "but that--that is small
matters."

"Hear the infidel dog!" said the churchman; "he jangles as if our holy
community did come under debts for the wines we have a license to
drink, 'propter necessitatem, et ad frigus depellendum'. The circumcised
villain blasphemeth the holy church, and Christian men listen and rebuke
him not!"

"All this helps nothing," said the leader.--"Isaac, pronounce what he
may pay, without flaying both hide and hair."

"An six hundred crowns," said Isaac, "the good Prior might well pay to
your honoured valours, and never sit less soft in his stall."

"Six hundred crowns," said the leader, gravely; "I am contented--thou
hast well spoken, Isaac--six hundred crowns.--It is a sentence, Sir
Prior."

"A sentence!--a sentence!" exclaimed the band; "Solomon had not done it
better."

"Thou hearest thy doom, Prior," said the leader.

"Ye are mad, my masters," said the Prior; "where am I to find such a
sum? If I sell the very pyx and candlesticks on the altar at Jorvaulx,
I shall scarce raise the half; and it will be necessary for that purpose
that I go to Jorvaulx myself; ye may retain as borrows [44] my two
priests."

"That will be but blind trust," said the Outlaw; "we will retain thee,
Prior, and send them to fetch thy ransom. Thou shalt not want a cup of
wine and a collop of venison the while; and if thou lovest woodcraft,
thou shalt see such as your north country never witnessed."

"Or, if so please you," said Isaac, willing to curry favour with the
outlaws, "I can send to York for the six hundred crowns, out of certain
monies in my hands, if so be that the most reverend Prior present will
grant me a quittance."

"He shall grant thee whatever thou dost list, Isaac," said the Captain;
"and thou shalt lay down the redemption money for Prior Aymer as well as
for thyself."

"For myself! ah, courageous sirs," said the Jew, "I am a broken and
impoverished man; a beggar's staff must be my portion through life,
supposing I were to pay you fifty crowns."

"The Prior shall judge of that matter," replied the Captain.--"How say
you, Father Aymer? Can the Jew afford a good ransom?"

"Can he afford a ransom?" answered the Prior "Is he not Isaac of York,
rich enough to redeem the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel, who
were led into Assyrian bondage?--I have seen but little of him myself,
but our cellarer and treasurer have dealt largely with him, and report
says that his house at York is so full of gold and silver as is a shame
in any Christian land. Marvel it is to all living Christian hearts that
such gnawing adders should be suffered to eat into the bowels of the
state, and even of the holy church herself, with foul usuries and
extortions."

"Hold, father," said the Jew, "mitigate and assuage your choler. I pray
of your reverence to remember that I force my monies upon no one. But
when churchman and layman, prince and prior, knight and priest, come
knocking to Isaac's door, they borrow not his shekels with these uncivil
terms. It is then, Friend Isaac, will you pleasure us in this matter,
and our day shall be truly kept, so God sa' me?--and Kind Isaac, if ever
you served man, show yourself a friend in this need! And when the day
comes, and I ask my own, then what hear I but Damned Jew, and The curse
of Egypt on your tribe, and all that may stir up the rude and uncivil
populace against poor strangers!"

"Prior," said the Captain, "Jew though he be, he hath in this spoken
well. Do thou, therefore, name his ransom, as he named thine, without
farther rude terms."

"None but 'latro famosus'--the interpretation whereof," said the Prior,
"will I give at some other time and tide--would place a Christian
prelate and an unbaptized Jew upon the same bench. But since ye require
me to put a price upon this caitiff, I tell you openly that ye will
wrong yourselves if you take from him a penny under a thousand crowns."

"A sentence!--a sentence!" exclaimed the chief Outlaw.

"A sentence!--a sentence!" shouted his assessors; "the Christian has
shown his good nurture, and dealt with us more generously than the Jew."

"The God of my fathers help me!" said the Jew; "will ye bear to the
ground an impoverished creature?--I am this day childless, and will ye
deprive me of the means of livelihood?"

"Thou wilt have the less to provide for, Jew, if thou art childless,"
said Aymer.

"Alas! my lord," said Isaac, "your law permits you not to know how the
child of our bosom is entwined with the strings of our heart--O Rebecca!
laughter of my beloved Rachel! were each leaf on that tree a zecchin,
and each zecchin mine own, all that mass of wealth would I give to know
whether thou art alive, and escaped the hands of the Nazarene!"

"Was not thy daughter dark-haired?" said one of the outlaws; "and wore
she not a veil of twisted sendal, broidered with silver?"

"She did!--she did!" said the old man, trembling with eagerness, as
formerly with fear. "The blessing of Jacob be upon thee! canst thou tell
me aught of her safety?"

"It was she, then," said the yeoman, "who was carried off by the proud
Templar, when he broke through our ranks on yester-even. I had drawn my
bow to send a shaft after him, but spared him even for the sake of the
damsel, who I feared might take harm from the arrow."

"Oh!" answered the Jew, "I would to God thou hadst shot, though the
arrow had pierced her bosom!--Better the tomb of her fathers than the
dishonourable couch of the licentious and savage Templar. Ichabod!
Ichabod! the glory hath departed from my house!"

"Friends," said the Chief, looking round, "the old man is but a Jew,
natheless his grief touches me.--Deal uprightly with us, Isaac--will
paying this ransom of a thousand crowns leave thee altogether
penniless?"

Isaac, recalled to think of his worldly goods, the love of which, by
dint of inveterate habit, contended even with his parental affection,
grew pale, stammered, and could not deny there might be some small
surplus.

"Well--go to--what though there be," said the Outlaw, "we will not
reckon with thee too closely. Without treasure thou mayst as well hope
to redeem thy child from the clutches of Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, as
to shoot a stag-royal with a headless shaft.--We will take thee at the
same ransom with Prior Aymer, or rather at one hundred crowns lower,
which hundred crowns shall be mine own peculiar loss, and not light upon
this worshipful community; and so we shall avoid the heinous offence of
rating a Jew merchant as high as a Christian prelate, and thou wilt
have six hundred crowns remaining to treat for thy daughter's ransom.
Templars love the glitter of silver shekels as well as the sparkle
of black eyes.--Hasten to make thy crowns chink in the ear of De
Bois-Guilbert, ere worse comes of it. Thou wilt find him, as our scouts
have brought notice, at the next Preceptory house of his Order.--Said I
well, my merry mates?"

The yeomen expressed their wonted acquiescence in their leader's
opinion; and Isaac, relieved of one half of his apprehensions, by
learning that his daughter lived, and might possibly be ransomed, threw
himself at the feet of the generous Outlaw, and, rubbing his beard
against his buskins, sought to kiss the hem of his green cassock. The
Captain drew himself back, and extricated himself from the Jew's grasp,
not without some marks of contempt.

"Nay, beshrew thee, man, up with thee! I am English born, and love no
such Eastern prostrations--Kneel to God, and not to a poor sinner, like
me."

"Ay, Jew," said Prior Aymer; "kneel to God, as represented in the
servant of his altar, and who knows, with thy sincere repentance and due
gifts to the shrine of Saint Robert, what grace thou mayst acquire for
thyself and thy daughter Rebecca? I grieve for the maiden, for she is of
fair and comely countenance,--I beheld her in the lists of Ashby. Also
Brian de Bois-Guilbert is one with whom I may do much--bethink thee how
thou mayst deserve my good word with him."

"Alas! alas!" said the Jew, "on every hand the spoilers arise against
me--I am given as a prey unto the Assyrian, and a prey unto him of
Egypt."

"And what else should be the lot of thy accursed race?" answered
the Prior; "for what saith holy writ, 'verbum Domini projecerunt, et
sapientia est nulla in eis'--they have cast forth the word of the
Lord, and there is no wisdom in them; 'propterea dabo mulieres eorum
exteris'--I will give their women to strangers, that is to the Templar,
as in the present matter; 'et thesauros eorum haeredibus alienis',
and their treasures to others--as in the present case to these honest
gentlemen."

Isaac groaned deeply, and began to wring his hands, and to relapse into
his state of desolation and despair. But the leader of the yeomen led
him aside.

"Advise thee well, Isaac," said Locksley, "what thou wilt do in this
matter; my counsel to thee is to make a friend of this churchman. He is
vain, Isaac, and he is covetous; at least he needs money to supply his
profusion. Thou canst easily gratify his greed; for think not that I am
blinded by thy pretexts of poverty. I am intimately acquainted, Isaac,
with the very iron chest in which thou dost keep thy money-bags--What!
know I not the great stone beneath the apple-tree, that leads into
the vaulted chamber under thy garden at York?" The Jew grew as pale as
death--"But fear nothing from me," continued the yeoman, "for we are
of old acquainted. Dost thou not remember the sick yeoman whom thy fair
daughter Rebecca redeemed from the gyves at York, and kept him in
thy house till his health was restored, when thou didst dismiss him
recovered, and with a piece of money?--Usurer as thou art, thou didst
never place coin at better interest than that poor silver mark, for it
has this day saved thee five hundred crowns."

"And thou art he whom we called Diccon Bend-the-Bow?" said Isaac; "I
thought ever I knew the accent of thy voice."

"I am Bend-the-Bow," said the Captain, "and Locksley, and have a good
name besides all these."

"But thou art mistaken, good Bend-the-Bow, concerning that same
vaulted apartment. So help me Heaven, as there is nought in it but some
merchandises which I will gladly part with to you--one hundred yards
of Lincoln green to make doublets to thy men, and a hundred staves of
Spanish yew to make bows, and a hundred silken bowstrings, tough, round,
and sound--these will I send thee for thy good-will, honest Diccon, an
thou wilt keep silence about the vault, my good Diccon."

"Silent as a dormouse," said the Outlaw; "and never trust me but I am
grieved for thy daughter. But I may not help it--The Templars lances are
too strong for my archery in the open field--they would scatter us like
dust. Had I but known it was Rebecca when she was borne off, something
might have been done; but now thou must needs proceed by policy. Come,
shall I treat for thee with the Prior?"

"In God's name, Diccon, an thou canst, aid me to recover the child of my
bosom!"

"Do not thou interrupt me with thine ill-timed avarice," said the
Outlaw, "and I will deal with him in thy behalf."

He then turned from the Jew, who followed him, however, as closely as
his shadow.

"Prior Aymer," said the Captain, "come apart with me under this tree.
Men say thou dost love wine, and a lady's smile, better than beseems thy
Order, Sir Priest; but with that I have nought to do. I have heard, too,
thou dost love a brace of good dogs and a fleet horse, and it may well
be that, loving things which are costly to come by, thou hatest not a
purse of gold. But I have never heard that thou didst love oppression or
cruelty.--Now, here is Isaac willing to give thee the means of pleasure
and pastime in a bag containing one hundred marks of silver, if thy
intercession with thine ally the Templar shall avail to procure the
freedom of his daughter."

"In safety and honour, as when taken from me," said the Jew, "otherwise
it is no bargain."

"Peace, Isaac," said the Outlaw, "or I give up thine interest.--What say
you to this my purpose, Prior Aymer?"

"The matter," quoth the Prior, "is of a mixed condition; for, if I do a
good deal on the one hand, yet, on the other, it goeth to the vantage
of a Jew, and in so much is against my conscience. Yet, if the Israelite
will advantage the Church by giving me somewhat over to the building
of our dortour, [45] I will take it on my conscience to aid him in the
matter of his daughter."

"For a score of marks to the dortour," said the Outlaw,--"Be still, I
say, Isaac!--or for a brace of silver candlesticks to the altar, we will
not stand with you."

"Nay, but, good Diccon Bend-the-Bow"--said Isaac, endeavouring to
interpose.

"Good Jew--good beast--good earthworm!" said the yeoman, losing
patience; "an thou dost go on to put thy filthy lucre in the balance
with thy daughter's life and honour, by Heaven, I will strip thee of
every maravedi thou hast in the world, before three days are out!"

Isaac shrunk together, and was silent.

"And what pledge am I to have for all this?" said the Prior.

"When Isaac returns successful through your mediation," said the Outlaw,
"I swear by Saint Hubert, I will see that he pays thee the money in good
silver, or I will reckon with him for it in such sort, he had better
have paid twenty such sums."

"Well then, Jew," said Aymer, "since I must needs meddle in this matter,
let me have the use of thy writing-tablets--though, hold--rather than
use thy pen, I would fast for twenty-four hours, and where shall I find
one?"

"If your holy scruples can dispense with using the Jew's tablets, for
the pen I can find a remedy," said the yeoman; and, bending his bow, he
aimed his shaft at a wild-goose which was soaring over their heads, the
advanced-guard of a phalanx of his tribe, which were winging their way
to the distant and solitary fens of Holderness. The bird came fluttering
down, transfixed with the arrow.

"There, Prior," said the Captain, "are quills enow to supply all the
monks of Jorvaulx for the next hundred years, an they take not to
writing chronicles."

The Prior sat down, and at great leisure indited an epistle to Brian
de Bois-Guilbert, and having carefully sealed up the tablets, delivered
them to the Jew, saying, "This will be thy safe-conduct to the
Preceptory of Templestowe, and, as I think, is most likely to accomplish
the delivery of thy daughter, if it be well backed with proffers of
advantage and commodity at thine own hand; for, trust me well, the
good Knight Bois-Guilbert is of their confraternity that do nought for
nought."

"Well, Prior," said the Outlaw, "I will detain thee no longer here than
to give the Jew a quittance for the six hundred crowns at which thy
ransom is fixed--I accept of him for my pay-master; and if I hear that
ye boggle at allowing him in his accompts the sum so paid by him, Saint
Mary refuse me, an I burn not the abbey over thine head, though I hang
ten years the sooner!"

With a much worse grace than that wherewith he had penned the letter to
Bois-Guilbert, the Prior wrote an acquittance, discharging Isaac of York
of six hundred crowns, advanced to him in his need for acquittal of his
ransom, and faithfully promising to hold true compt with him for that
sum.

"And now," said Prior Aymer, "I will pray you of restitution of my mules
and palfreys, and the freedom of the reverend brethren attending upon
me, and also of the gymmal rings, jewels, and fair vestures, of which
I have been despoiled, having now satisfied you for my ransom as a true
prisoner."

"Touching your brethren, Sir Prior," said Locksley, "they shall have
present freedom, it were unjust to detain them; touching your horses
and mules, they shall also be restored, with such spending-money as may
enable you to reach York, for it were cruel to deprive you of the means
of journeying.--But as concerning rings, jewels, chains, and what else,
you must understand that we are men of tender consciences, and will
not yield to a venerable man like yourself, who should be dead to the
vanities of this life, the strong temptation to break the rule of his
foundation, by wearing rings, chains, or other vain gauds."

"Think what you do, my masters," said the Prior, "ere you put your hand
on the Church's patrimony--These things are 'inter res sacras', and
I wot not what judgment might ensue were they to be handled by laical
hands."

"I will take care of that, reverend Prior," said the Hermit of
Copmanhurst; "for I will wear them myself."

"Friend, or brother," said the Prior, in answer to this solution of his
doubts, "if thou hast really taken religious orders, I pray thee to look
how thou wilt answer to thine official for the share thou hast taken in
this day's work."

"Friend Prior," returned the Hermit, "you are to know that I belong to
a little diocese, where I am my own diocesan, and care as little for the
Bishop of York as I do for the Abbot of Jorvaulx, the Prior, and all the
convent."

"Thou art utterly irregular," said the Prior; "one of those disorderly
men, who, taking on them the sacred character without due cause, profane
the holy rites, and endanger the souls of those who take counsel at
their hands; 'lapides pro pane condonantes iis', giving them stones
instead of bread as the Vulgate hath it."

"Nay," said the Friar, "an my brain-pan could have been broken by Latin,
it had not held so long together.--I say, that easing a world of such
misproud priests as thou art of their jewels and their gimcracks, is a
lawful spoiling of the Egyptians."

"Thou be'st a hedge-priest," [46] said the Prior, in great wrath,
"'excommunicabo vos'."

"Thou be'st thyself more like a thief and a heretic," said the
Friar, equally indignant; "I will pouch up no such affront before my
parishioners, as thou thinkest it not shame to put upon me, although I
be a reverend brother to thee. 'Ossa ejus perfringam', I will break your
bones, as the Vulgate hath it."

"Hola!" cried the Captain, "come the reverend brethren to such
terms?--Keep thine assurance of peace, Friar.--Prior, an thou hast not
made thy peace perfect with God, provoke the Friar no further.--Hermit,
let the reverend father depart in peace, as a ransomed man."

The yeomen separated the incensed priests, who continued to raise their
voices, vituperating each other in bad Latin, which the Prior delivered
the more fluently, and the Hermit with the greater vehemence. The Prior
at length recollected himself sufficiently to be aware that he was
compromising his dignity, by squabbling with such a hedge-priest as the
Outlaw's chaplain, and being joined by his attendants, rode off with
considerably less pomp, and in a much more apostolical condition, so
far as worldly matters were concerned, than he had exhibited before this
rencounter.

It remained that the Jew should produce some security for the ransom
which he was to pay on the Prior's account, as well as upon his own. He
gave, accordingly, an order sealed with his signet, to a brother of his
tribe at York, requiring him to pay to the bearer the sum of a thousand
crowns, and to deliver certain merchandises specified in the note.

"My brother Sheva," he said, groaning deeply, "hath the key of my
warehouses."

"And of the vaulted chamber," whispered Locksley.

"No, no--may Heaven forefend!" said Isaac; "evil is the hour that let
any one whomsoever into that secret!"

"It is safe with me," said the Outlaw, "so be that this thy scroll
produce the sum therein nominated and set down.--But what now, Isaac?
art dead? art stupefied? hath the payment of a thousand crowns put thy
daughter's peril out of thy mind?"

The Jew started to his feet--"No, Diccon, no--I will presently set
forth.--Farewell, thou whom I may not call good, and dare not and will
not call evil."

Yet ere Isaac departed, the Outlaw Chief bestowed on him this parting
advice:--"Be liberal of thine offers, Isaac, and spare not thy purse for
thy daughter's safety. Credit me, that the gold thou shalt spare in
her cause, will hereafter give thee as much agony as if it were poured
molten down thy throat."

Isaac acquiesced with a deep groan, and set forth on his journey,
accompanied by two tall foresters, who were to be his guides, and at the
same time his guards, through the wood.

The Black Knight, who had seen with no small interest these various
proceedings, now took his leave of the Outlaw in turn; nor could he
avoid expressing his surprise at having witnessed so much of civil
policy amongst persons cast out from all the ordinary protection and
influence of the laws.

"Good fruit, Sir Knight," said the yeoman, "will sometimes grow on a
sorry tree; and evil times are not always productive of evil alone and
unmixed. Amongst those who are drawn into this lawless state, there
are, doubtless, numbers who wish to exercise its license with some
moderation, and some who regret, it may be, that they are obliged to
follow such a trade at all."

"And to one of those," said the Knight, "I am now, I presume, speaking?"

"Sir Knight," said the Outlaw, "we have each our secret. You are welcome
to form your judgment of me, and I may use my conjectures touching you,
though neither of our shafts may hit the mark they are shot at. But as
I do not pray to be admitted into your mystery, be not offended that I
preserve my own."

"I crave pardon, brave Outlaw," said the Knight, "your reproof is just.
But it may be we shall meet hereafter with less of concealment on either
side.--Meanwhile we part friends, do we not?"

"There is my hand upon it," said Locksley; "and I will call it the hand
of a true Englishman, though an outlaw for the present."

"And there is mine in return," said the Knight, "and I hold it honoured
by being clasped with yours. For he that does good, having the unlimited
power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he
performs, but for the evil which he forbears. Fare thee well, gallant
Outlaw!" Thus parted that fair fellowship; and He of the Fetterlock,
mounting upon his strong war-horse, rode off through the forest.




CHAPTER XXXIV


     KING JOHN.--I'll tell thee what, my friend,
     He is a very serpent in my way;
     And wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread,
     He lies before me.--Dost thou understand me?
     --King John

There was brave feasting in the Castle of York, to which Prince John
had invited those nobles, prelates, and leaders, by whose assistance he
hoped to carry through his ambitious projects upon his brother's throne.
Waldemar Fitzurse, his able and politic agent, was at secret work among
them, tempering all to that pitch of courage which was necessary in
making an open declaration of their purpose. But their enterprise was
delayed by the absence of more than one main limb of the confederacy.
The stubborn and daring, though brutal courage of Front-de-Boeuf; the
buoyant spirits and bold bearing of De Bracy; the sagacity, martial
experience, and renowned valour of Brian de Bois-Guilbert, were
important to the success of their conspiracy; and, while cursing in
secret their unnecessary and unmeaning absence, neither John nor his
adviser dared to proceed without them. Isaac the Jew also seemed to have
vanished, and with him the hope of certain sums of money, making up the
subsidy for which Prince John had contracted with that Israelite and his
brethren. This deficiency was likely to prove perilous in an emergency
so critical.

It was on the morning after the fall of Torquilstone, that a confused
report began to spread abroad in the city of York, that De Bracy and
Bois-Guilbert, with their confederate Front-de-Boeuf, had been taken or
slain. Waldemar brought the rumour to Prince John, announcing, that he
feared its truth the more that they had set out with a small attendance,
for the purpose of committing an assault on the Saxon Cedric and his
attendants. At another time the Prince would have treated this deed of
violence as a good jest; but now, that it interfered with and impeded
his own plans, he exclaimed against the perpetrators, and spoke of
the broken laws, and the infringement of public order and of private
property, in a tone which might have become King Alfred.

"The unprincipled marauders," he said--"were I ever to become monarch of
England, I would hang such transgressors over the drawbridges of their
own castles."

"But to become monarch of England," said his Ahithophel coolly, "it is
necessary not only that your Grace should endure the transgressions
of these unprincipled marauders, but that you should afford them your
protection, notwithstanding your laudable zeal for the laws they are in
the habit of infringing. We shall be finely helped, if the churl
Saxons should have realized your Grace's vision, of converting feudal
drawbridges into gibbets; and yonder bold-spirited Cedric seemeth one to
whom such an imagination might occur. Your Grace is well aware, it will
be dangerous to stir without Front-de-Boeuf, De Bracy, and the Templar;
and yet we have gone too far to recede with safety."

Prince John struck his forehead with impatience, and then began to
stride up and down the apartment.