"A monk!" returned Sir Oliver (for he it was), when he had heard the
report of the archer.  "My brother, I looked not for your coming," he
added, turning to young Shelton.  "In all civility, who are ye? and at
whose instance do ye join your supplications to ours?"

Dick, keeping his cowl about his face, signed to Sir Oliver to move a
pace or two aside from the archers; and, so soon as the priest had done
so, "I cannot hope to deceive you, sir," he said.  "My life is in your
hands."

Sir Oliver violently started; his stout cheeks grew pale, and for a space
he was silent.

"Richard," he said, "what brings you here, I know not; but I much
misdoubt it to be evil.  Nevertheless, for the kindness that was, I would
not willingly deliver you to harm.  Ye shall sit all night beside me in
the stalls: ye shall sit there till my Lord of Shoreby be married, and
the party gone safe home; and if all goeth well, and ye have planned no
evil, in the end ye shall go whither ye will.  But if your purpose be
bloody, it shall return upon your head.  Amen!"

And the priest devoutly crossed himself, and turned and louted to the
altar.

With that, he spoke a few words more to the soldiers, and taking Dick by
the hand, led him up to the choir, and placed him in the stall beside his
own, where, for mere decency, the lad had instantly to kneel and appear
to be busy with his devotions.

His mind and his eyes, however, were continually wandering.  Three of the
soldiers, he observed, instead of returning to the house, had got them
quietly into a point of vantage in the aisle; and he could not doubt that
they had done so by Sir Oliver's command.  Here, then, he was trapped.
Here he must spend the night in the ghostly glimmer and shadow of the
church, and looking on the pale face of him he slew; and here, in the
morning, he must see his sweetheart married to another man before his
eyes.

But, for all that, he obtained a command upon his mind, and built himself
up in patience to await the issue.



CHAPTER IV--IN THE ABBEY CHURCH


In Shoreby Abbey Church the prayers were kept up all night without
cessation, now with the singing of psalms, now with a note or two upon
the bell.

Rutter, the spy, was nobly waked.  There he lay, meanwhile, as they had
arranged him, his dead hands crossed upon his bosom, his dead eyes
staring on the roof; and hard by, in the stall, the lad who had slain him
waited, in sore disquietude, the coming of the morning.

Once only, in the course of the hours, Sir Oliver leaned across to his
captive.

"Richard," he whispered, "my son, if ye mean me evil, I will certify, on
my soul's welfare, ye design upon an innocent man.  Sinful in the eye of
Heaven I do declare myself; but sinful as against you I am not, neither
have been ever."

"My father," returned Dick, in the same tone of voice, "trust me, I
design nothing; but as for your innocence, I may not forget that ye
cleared yourself but lamely."

"A man may be innocently guilty," replied the priest.  "He may be set
blindfolded upon a mission, ignorant of its true scope.  So it was with
me.  I did decoy your father to his death; but as Heaven sees us in this
sacred place, I knew not what I did."

"It may be," returned Dick.  "But see what a strange web ye have woven,
that I should be, at this hour, at once your prisoner and your judge;
that ye should both threaten my days and deprecate my anger.  Methinks,
if ye had been all your life a true man and good priest, ye would neither
thus fear nor thus detest me.  And now to your prayers.  I do obey you,
since needs must; but I will not be burthened with your company."

The priest uttered a sigh so heavy that it had almost touched the lad
into some sentiment of pity, and he bowed his head upon his hands like a
man borne down below a weight of care.  He joined no longer in the
psalms; but Dick could hear the beads rattle through his fingers and the
prayers a-pattering between his teeth.

Yet a little, and the grey of the morning began to struggle through the
painted casements of the church, and to put to shame the glimmer of the
tapers.  The light slowly broadened and brightened, and presently through
the south-eastern clerestories a flush of rosy sunlight flickered on the
walls.  The storm was over; the great clouds had disburdened their snow
and fled farther on, and the new day was breaking on a merry winter
landscape sheathed in white.

A bustle of church officers followed; the bier was carried forth to the
deadhouse, and the stains of blood were cleansed from off the tiles, that
no such ill-omened spectacle should disgrace the marriage of Lord
Shoreby.  At the same time, the very ecclesiastics who had been so
dismally engaged all night began to put on morning faces, to do honour to
the merrier ceremony which was about to follow.  And further to announce
the coming of the day, the pious of the town began to assemble and fall
to prayer before their favourite shrines, or wait their turn at the
confessionals.

Favoured by this stir, it was of course easily possible for any man to
avoid the vigilance of Sir Daniel's sentries at the door; and presently
Dick, looking about him wearily, caught the eye of no less a person than
Will Lawless, still in his monk's habit.

The outlaw, at the same moment, recognised his leader, and privily signed
to him with hand and eye.

Now, Dick was far from having forgiven the old rogue his most untimely
drunkenness, but he had no desire to involve him in his own predicament;
and he signalled back to him, as plain as he was able, to begone.

Lawless, as though he had understood, disappeared at once behind a
pillar, and Dick breathed again.

What, then, was his dismay to feel himself plucked by the sleeve and to
find the old robber installed beside him, upon the next seat, and, to all
appearance, plunged in his devotions!

Instantly Sir Oliver arose from his place, and, gliding behind the
stalls, made for the soldiers in the aisle.  If the priest's suspicions
had been so lightly wakened, the harm was already done, and Lawless a
prisoner in the church.

"Move not," whispered Dick.  "We are in the plaguiest pass, thanks,
before all things, to thy swinishness of yestereven.  When ye saw me
here, so strangely seated where I have neither right nor interest, what a
murrain I could ye not smell harm and get ye gone from evil?"

"Nay," returned Lawless, "I thought ye had heard from Ellis, and were
here on duty."

"Ellis!" echoed Dick.  "Is Ellis, then, returned?

"For sure," replied the outlaw.  "He came last night, and belted me sore
for being in wine--so there ye are avenged, my master.  A furious man is
Ellis Duckworth!  He hath ridden me hot-spur from Craven to prevent this
marriage; and, Master Dick, ye know the way of him--do so he will!"

"Nay, then," returned Dick, with composure, "you and I, my poor brother,
are dead men; for I sit here a prisoner upon suspicion, and my neck was
to answer for this very marriage that he purposeth to mar.  I had a fair
choice, by the rood! to lose my sweetheart or else lose my life!  Well,
the cast is thrown--it is to be my life."

"By the mass," cried Lawless, half arising, "I am gone!"

But Dick had his hand at once upon his shoulder.

"Friend Lawless, sit ye still," he said.  "An ye have eyes, look yonder
at the corner by the chancel arch; see ye not that, even upon the motion
of your rising, yon armed men are up and ready to intercept you?  Yield
ye, friend.  Ye were bold aboard ship, when ye thought to die a
sea-death; be bold again, now that y' are to die presently upon the
gallows."

"Master Dick," gasped Lawless, "the thing hath come upon me somewhat of
the suddenest.  But give me a moment till I fetch my breath again; and,
by the mass, I will be as stout-hearted as yourself."

"Here is my bold fellow!" returned Dick.  "And yet, Lawless, it goes hard
against the grain with me to die; but where whining mendeth nothing,
wherefore whine?"

"Nay, that indeed!" chimed Lawless.  "And a fig for death, at worst!  It
has to be done, my master, soon or late.  And hanging in a good quarrel
is an easy death, they say, though I could never hear of any that came
back to say so."

And so saying, the stout old rascal leaned back in his stall, folded his
arms, and began to look about him with the greatest air of insolence and
unconcern.

"And for the matter of that," Dick added, "it is yet our best chance to
keep quiet.  We wot not yet what Duckworth purposes; and when all is
said, and if the worst befall, we may yet clear our feet of it."

Now that they ceased talking, they were aware of a very distant and thin
strain of mirthful music which steadily drew nearer, louder, and merrier.
The bells in the tower began to break forth into a doubling peal, and a
greater and greater concourse of people to crowd into the church,
shuffling the snow from off their feet, and clapping and blowing in their
hands.  The western door was flung wide open, showing a glimpse of
sunlit, snowy street, and admitting in a great gust the shrewd air of the
morning; and in short, it became plain by every sign that Lord Shoreby
desired to be married very early in the day, and that the wedding-train
was drawing near.

Some of Lord Shoreby's men now cleared a passage down the middle aisle,
forcing the people back with lance-stocks; and just then, outside the
portal, the secular musicians could be descried drawing near over the
frozen snow, the fifers and trumpeters scarlet in the face with lusty
blowing, the drummers and the cymbalists beating as for a wager.

These, as they drew near the door of the sacred building, filed off on
either side, and, marking time to their own vigorous music, stood
stamping in the snow.  As they thus opened their ranks, the leaders of
this noble bridal train appeared behind and between them; and such was
the variety and gaiety of their attire, such the display of silks and
velvet, fur and satin, embroidery and lace, that the procession showed
forth upon the snow like a flower-bed in a path or a painted window in a
wall.

First came the bride, a sorry sight, as pale as winter, clinging to Sir
Daniel's arm, and attended, as brides-maid, by the short young lady who
had befriended Dick the night before.  Close behind, in the most radiant
toilet, followed the bridegroom, halting on a gouty foot; and as he
passed the threshold of the sacred building and doffed his hat, his bald
head was seen to be rosy with emotion.

And now came the hour of Ellis Duckworth.

Dick, who sat stunned among contrary emotions, grasping the desk in front
of him, beheld a movement in the crowd, people jostling backward, and
eyes and arms uplifted.  Following these signs, he beheld three or four
men with bent bows leaning from the clerestory gallery.  At the same
instant they delivered their discharge, and before the clamour and cries
of the astounded populace had time to swell fully upon the ear, they had
flitted from their perch and disappeared.

The nave was full of swaying heads and voices screaming; the
ecclesiastics thronged in terror from their places; the music ceased, and
though the bells overhead continued for some seconds to clang upon the
air, some wind of the disaster seemed to find its way at last even to the
chamber where the ringers were leaping on their ropes, and they also
desisted from their merry labours.

Right in the midst of the nave the bridegroom lay stone-dead, pierced by
two black arrows.  The bride had fainted.  Sir Daniel stood, towering
above the crowd in his surprise and anger, a clothyard shaft quivering in
his left forearm, and his face streaming blood from another which had
grazed his brow.

Long before any search could be made for them, the authors of this tragic
interruption had clattered down a turnpike stair and decamped by a
postern door.

But Dick and Lawless still remained in pawn; they had, indeed, arisen on
the first alarm, and pushed manfully to gain the door; but what with the
narrowness of the stalls and the crowding of terrified priests and
choristers, the attempt had been in vain, and they had stoically resumed
their places.

And now, pale with horror, Sir Oliver rose to his feet and called upon
Sir Daniel, pointing with one hand to Dick.

"Here," he cried, "is Richard Shelton--alas the hour!--blood guilty!
Seize him!--bid him be seized!  For all our lives' sakes, take him and
bind him surely!  He hath sworn our fall."

Sir Daniel was blinded by anger--blinded by the hot blood that still
streamed across his face.

"Where?" he bellowed.  "Hale him forth!  By the cross of Holywood, but he
shall rue this hour!"

The crowd fell back, and a party of archers invaded the choir, laid rough
hands on Dick, dragged him head-foremost from the stall, and thrust him
by the shoulders down the chancel steps.  Lawless, on his part, sat as
still as a mouse.

Sir Daniel, brushing the blood out of his eyes, stared blinkingly upon
his captive.

"Ay," he said, "treacherous and insolent, I have thee fast; and by all
potent oaths, for every drop of blood that now trickles in mine eyes, I
will wring a groan out of thy carcase.  Away with him!" he added.  "Here
is no place!  Off with him to my house.  I will number every joint of thy
body with a torture."

But Dick, putting off his captors, uplifted his voice.

"Sanctuary!" he shouted.  "Sanctuary!  Ho, there, my fathers!  They would
drag me from the church!"

"From the church thou hast defiled with murder, boy," added a tall man,
magnificently dressed.

"On what probation?" cried Dick.  "They do accuse me, indeed, of some
complicity, but have not proved one tittle.  I was, in truth, a suitor
for this damsel's hand; and she, I will be bold to say it, repaid my suit
with favour.  But what then?  To love a maid is no offence, I trow--nay,
nor to gain her love.  In all else, I stand here free from guiltiness."

There was a murmur of approval among the bystanders, so boldly Dick
declared his innocence; but at the same time a throng of accusers arose
upon the other side, crying how he had been found last night in Sir
Daniel's house, how he wore a sacrilegious disguise; and in the midst of
the babel, Sir Oliver indicated Lawless, both by voice and gesture, as
accomplice to the fact.  He, in his turn, was dragged from his seat and
set beside his leader.  The feelings of the crowd rose high on either
side, and while some dragged the prisoners to and fro to favour their
escape, others cursed and struck them with their fists.  Dick's ears rang
and his brain swam dizzily, like a man struggling in the eddies of a
furious river.

But the tall man who had already answered Dick, by a prodigious exercise
of voice restored silence and order in the mob.

"Search them," he said, "for arms.  We may so judge of their intentions."

Upon Dick they found no weapon but his poniard, and this told in his
favour, until one man officiously drew it from its sheath, and found it
still uncleansed of the blood of Rutter.  At this there was a great shout
among Sir Daniel's followers, which the tall man suppressed by a gesture
and an imperious glance.  But when it came to the turn of Lawless, there
was found under his gown a sheaf of arrows identical with those that had
been shot.

"How say ye now?" asked the tall man, frowningly, of Dick.

"Sir," replied Dick, "I am here in sanctuary, is it not so?  Well, sir, I
see by your bearing that ye are high in station, and I read in your
countenance the marks of piety and justice.  To you, then, I will yield
me prisoner, and that blithely, foregoing the advantage of this holy
place.  But rather than to be yielded into the discretion of that
man--whom I do here accuse with a loud voice to be the murderer of my
natural father and the unjust retainer of my lands and revenues--rather
than that, I would beseech you, under favour, with your own gentle hand,
to despatch me on the spot.  Your own ears have heard him, how before
that I was proven guilty he did threaten me with torments.  It standeth
not with your own honour to deliver me to my sworn enemy and old
oppressor, but to try me fairly by the way of law, and, if that I be
guilty indeed, to slay me mercifully."

"My lord," cried Sir Daniel, "ye will not hearken to this wolf?  His
bloody dagger reeks him the lie into his face."

"Nay, but suffer me, good knight," returned the tall stranger; "your own
vehemence doth somewhat tell against yourself."

And here the bride, who had come to herself some minutes past and looked
wildly on upon this scene, broke loose from those that held her, and fell
upon her knees before the last speaker.

"My Lord of Risingham," she cried, "hear me, in justice.  I am here in
this man's custody by mere force, reft from mine own people.  Since that
day I had never pity, countenance, nor comfort from the face of man--but
from him only--Richard Shelton--whom they now accuse and labour to undo.
My lord, if he was yesternight in Sir Daniel's mansion, it was I that
brought him there; he came but at my prayer, and thought to do no hurt.
While yet Sir Daniel was a good lord to him, he fought with them of the
Black Arrow loyally; but when his foul guardian sought his life by
practices, and he fled by night, for his soul's sake, out of that bloody
house, whither was he to turn--he, helpless and penniless?  Or if he be
fallen among ill company, whom should ye blame--the lad that was unjustly
handled, or the guardian that did abuse his trust?"

And then the short young lady fell on her knees by Joanna's side.

"And I, my good lord and natural uncle," she added, "I can bear
testimony, on my conscience and before the face of all, that what this
maiden saith is true.  It was I, unworthy, that did lead the young man
in."

Earl Risingham had heard in silence, and when the voices ceased, he still
stood silent for a space.  Then he gave Joanna his hand to arise, though
it was to be observed that he did not offer the like courtesy to her who
had called herself his niece.

"Sir Daniel," he said, "here is a right intricate affair, the which, with
your good leave, it shall be mine to examine and adjust.  Content ye,
then; your business is in careful hands; justice shall be done you; and
in the meanwhile, get ye incontinently home, and have your hurts
attended.  The air is shrewd, and I would not ye took cold upon these
scratches."

He made a sign with his hand; it was passed down the nave by obsequious
servants, who waited there upon his smallest gesture.  Instantly, without
the church, a tucket sounded shrill, and through the open portal archers
and men-at-arms, uniformly arrayed in the colours and wearing the badge
of Lord Risingham, began to file into the church, took Dick and Lawless
from those who still detained them, and, closing their files about the
prisoners, marched forth again and disappeared.

As they were passing, Joanna held both her hands to Dick and cried him
her farewell; and the bridesmaid, nothing downcast by her uncle's evident
displeasure, blew him a kiss, with a "Keep your heart up, lion-driver!"
that for the first time since the accident called up a smile to the faces
of the crowd.



CHAPTER V--EARL RISINGHAM


Earl Risingham, although by far the most important person then in
Shoreby, was poorly lodged in the house of a private gentleman upon the
extreme outskirts of the town.  Nothing but the armed men at the doors,
and the mounted messengers that kept arriving and departing, announced
the temporary residence of a great lord.

Thus it was that, from lack of space, Dick and Lawless were clapped into
the same apartment.

"Well spoken, Master Richard," said the outlaw; "it was excellently well
spoken, and, for my part, I thank you cordially.  Here we are in good
hands; we shall be justly tried, and, some time this evening, decently
hanged on the same tree."

"Indeed, my poor friend, I do believe it," answered Dick.

"Yet have we a string to our bow," returned Lawless.  "Ellis Duckworth is
a man out of ten thousand; he holdeth you right near his heart, both for
your own and for your father's sake; and knowing you guiltless of this
fact, he will stir earth and heaven to bear you clear."

"It may not be," said Dick.  "What can he do?  He hath but a handful.
Alack, if it were but to-morrow--could I but keep a certain tryst an hour
before noon to-morrow--all were, I think, otherwise.  But now there is no
help."

"Well," concluded Lawless, "an ye will stand to it for my innocence, I
will stand to it for yours, and that stoutly.  It shall naught avail us;
but an I be to hang, it shall not be for lack of swearing."

And then, while Dick gave himself over to his reflections, the old rogue
curled himself down into a corner, pulled his monkish hood about his
face, and composed himself to sleep.  Soon he was loudly snoring, so
utterly had his long life of hardship and adventure blunted the sense of
apprehension.

It was long after noon, and the day was already failing, before the door
was opened and Dick taken forth and led up-stairs to where, in a warm
cabinet, Earl Risingham sat musing over the fire.

On his captive's entrance he looked up.

"Sir," he said, "I knew your father, who was a man of honour, and this
inclineth me to be the more lenient; but I may not hide from you that
heavy charges lie against your character.  Ye do consort with murderers
and robbers; upon a clear probation ye have carried war against the
king's peace; ye are suspected to have piratically seized upon a ship; ye
are found skulking with a counterfeit presentment in your enemy's house;
a man is slain that very evening--"

"An it like you, my lord," Dick interposed, "I will at once avow my
guilt, such as it is.  I slew this fellow Rutter; and to the
proof"--searching in his bosom--"here is a letter from his wallet."

Lord Risingham took the letter, and opened and read it twice.

"Ye have read this?" he inquired.

"I have read it," answered Dick.

"Are ye for York or Lancaster?" the earl demanded.

"My lord, it was but a little while back that I was asked that question,
and knew not how to answer it," said Dick; "but having answered once, I
will not vary.  My lord, I am for York."

The earl nodded approvingly.

"Honestly replied," he said.  "But wherefore, then, deliver me this
letter?"

"Nay, but against traitors, my lord, are not all sides arrayed?" cried
Dick.

"I would they were, young gentleman," returned the earl; "and I do at
least approve your saying.  There is more youth than guile in you, I do
perceive; and were not Sir Daniel a mighty man upon our side, I were
half-tempted to espouse your quarrel.  For I have inquired, and it
appears ye have been hardly dealt with, and have much excuse.  But look
ye, sir, I am, before all else, a leader in the queen's interest; and
though by nature a just man, as I believe, and leaning even to the excess
of mercy, yet must I order my goings for my party's interest, and, to
keep Sir Daniel, I would go far about."

"My lord," returned Dick, "ye will think me very bold to counsel you; but
do ye count upon Sir Daniel's faith?  Methought he had changed sides
intolerably often."

"Nay, it is the way of England.  What would ye have?" the earl demanded.
"But ye are unjust to the knight of Tunstall; and as faith goes, in this
unfaithful generation, he hath of late been honourably true to us of
Lancaster.  Even in our last reverses he stood firm."

"An it pleased you, then," said Dick, "to cast your eye upon this letter,
ye might somewhat change your thought of him;" and he handed to the earl
Sir Daniel's letter to Lord Wensleydale.

The effect upon the earl's countenance was instant; he lowered like an
angry lion, and his hand, with a sudden movement, clutched at his dagger.

"Ye have read this also?" he asked.

"Even so," said Dick.  "It is your lordship's own estate he offers to
Lord Wensleydale?"

"It is my own estate, even as ye say!" returned the earl.  "I am your
bedesman for this letter.  It hath shown me a fox's hole.  Command me,
Master Shelton; I will not be backward in gratitude, and to begin with,
York or Lancaster, true man or thief, I do now set you at freedom.  Go, a
Mary's name!  But judge it right that I retain and hang your fellow,
Lawless.  The crime hath been most open, and it were fitting that some
open punishment should follow."

"My lord, I make it my first suit to you to spare him also," pleaded
Dick.

"It is an old, condemned rogue, thief, and vagabond, Master Shelton,"
said the earl.  "He hath been gallows-ripe this score of years.  And,
whether for one thing or another, whether to-morrow or the day after,
where is the great choice?"

"Yet, my lord, it was through love to me that he came hither," answered
Dick, "and I were churlish and thankless to desert him."

"Master Shelton, ye are troublesome," replied the earl, severely.  "It is
an evil way to prosper in this world.  Howbeit, and to be quit of your
importunity, I will once more humour you.  Go, then, together; but go
warily, and get swiftly out of Shoreby town.  For this Sir Daniel (whom
may the saints confound!) thirsteth most greedily to have your blood."

"My lord, I do now offer you in words my gratitude, trusting at some
brief date to pay you some of it in service," replied Dick, as he turned
from the apartment.



CHAPTER VI--ARBLASTER AGAIN


When Dick and Lawless were suffered to steal, by a back way, out of the
house where Lord Risingham held his garrison, the evening had already
come.

They paused in shelter of the garden wall to consult on their best
course.  The danger was extreme.  If one of Sir Daniel's men caught sight
of them and raised the view-hallo, they would be run down and butchered
instantly.  And not only was the town of Shoreby a mere net of peril for
their lives, but to make for the open country was to run the risk of the
patrols.

A little way off, upon some open ground, they spied a windmill standing;
and hard by that, a very large granary with open doors.

"How if we lay there until the night fall?" Dick proposed.

And Lawless having no better suggestion to offer, they made a straight
push for the granary at a run, and concealed themselves behind the door
among some straw.  The daylight rapidly departed; and presently the moon
was silvering the frozen snow.  Now or never was their opportunity to
gain the Goat and Bagpipes unobserved and change their tell-tale
garments.  Yet even then it was advisable to go round by the outskirts,
and not run the gauntlet of the market-place, where, in the concourse of
people, they stood the more imminent peril to be recognised and slain.

This course was a long one.  It took them not far from the house by the
beach, now lying dark and silent, and brought them forth at last by the
margin of the harbour.  Many of the ships, as they could see by the clear
moonshine, had weighed anchor, and, profiting by the calm sky, proceeded
for more distant parts; answerably to this, the rude alehouses along the
beach (although in defiance of the curfew law, they still shone with fire
and candle) were no longer thronged with customers, and no longer echoed
to the chorus of sea-songs.

Hastily, half-running, with their monkish raiment kilted to the knee,
they plunged through the deep snow and threaded the labyrinth of marine
lumber; and they were already more than half way round the harbour when,
as they were passing close before an alehouse, the door suddenly opened
and let out a gush of light upon their fleeting figures.

Instantly they stopped, and made believe to be engaged in earnest
conversation.

Three men, one after another, came out of the ale-house, and the last
closed the door behind him.  All three were unsteady upon their feet, as
if they had passed the day in deep potations, and they now stood wavering
in the moonlight, like men who knew not what they would be after.  The
tallest of the three was talking in a loud, lamentable voice.

"Seven pieces of as good Gascony as ever a tapster broached," he was
saying, "the best ship out o' the port o' Dartmouth, a Virgin Mary
parcel-gilt, thirteen pounds of good gold money--"

"I have bad losses, too," interrupted one of the others.  "I have had
losses of mine own, gossip Arblaster.  I was robbed at Martinmas of five
shillings and a leather wallet well worth ninepence farthing."

Dick's heart smote him at what he heard.  Until that moment he had not
perhaps thought twice of the poor skipper who had been ruined by the loss
of the Good Hope; so careless, in those days, were men who wore arms of
the goods and interests of their inferiors.  But this sudden encounter
reminded him sharply of the high-handed manner and ill-ending of his
enterprise; and both he and Lawless turned their heads the other way, to
avoid the chance of recognition.

The ship's dog had, however, made his escape from the wreck and found his
way back again to Shoreby.  He was now at Arblaster's heels, and suddenly
sniffing and pricking his ears, he darted forward and began to bark
furiously at the two sham friars.

His master unsteadily followed him.

"Hey, shipmates!" he cried.  "Have ye ever a penny pie for a poor old
shipman, clean destroyed by pirates?  I am a man that would have paid for
you both o' Thursday morning; and now here I be, o' Saturday night,
begging for a flagon of ale!  Ask my man Tom, if ye misdoubt me.  Seven
pieces of good Gascon wine, a ship that was mine own, and was my father's
before me, a Blessed Mary of plane-tree wood and parcel-gilt, and
thirteen pounds in gold and silver.  Hey! what say ye?  A man that fought
the French, too; for I have fought the French; I have cut more French
throats upon the high seas than ever a man that sails out of Dartmouth.
Come, a penny piece."

Neither Dick nor Lawless durst answer him a word, lest he should
recognise their voices; and they stood there as helpless as a ship
ashore, not knowing where to turn nor what to hope.

"Are ye dumb, boy?" inquired the skipper.  "Mates," he added, with a
hiccup, "they be dumb.  I like not this manner of discourtesy; for an a
man be dumb, so be as he's courteous, he will still speak when he was
spoken to, methinks."

By this time the sailor, Tom, who was a man of great personal strength,
seemed to have conceived some suspicion of these two speechless figures;
and being soberer than his captain, stepped suddenly before him, took
Lawless roughly by the shoulder, and asked him, with an oath, what ailed
him that he held his tongue.  To this the outlaw, thinking all was over,
made answer by a wrestling feint that stretched the sailor on the sand,
and, calling upon Dick to follow him, took to his heels among the lumber.

The affair passed in a second.  Before Dick could run at all, Arblaster
had him in his arms; Tom, crawling on his face, had caught him by one
foot, and the third man had a drawn cutlass brandishing above his head.

It was not so much the danger, it was not so much the annoyance, that now
bowed down the spirits of young Shelton; it was the profound humiliation
to have escaped Sir Daniel, convinced Lord Risingham, and now fall
helpless in the hands of this old, drunken sailor; and not merely
helpless, but, as his conscience loudly told him when it was too late,
actually guilty--actually the bankrupt debtor of the man whose ship he
had stolen and lost.

"Bring me him back into the alehouse, till I see his face," said
Arblaster.

"Nay, nay," returned Tom; "but let us first unload his wallet, lest the
other lads cry share."

But though he was searched from head to foot, not a penny was found upon
him; nothing but Lord Foxham's signet, which they plucked savagely from
his finger.

"Turn me him to the moon," said the skipper; and taking Dick by the chin,
he cruelly jerked his head into the air.  "Blessed Virgin!" he cried, "it
is the pirate!"

"Hey!" cried Tom.

"By the Virgin of Bordeaux, it is the man himself!" repeated Arblaster.
"What, sea-thief, do I hold you?" he cried.  "Where is my ship?  Where is
my wine?  Hey! have I you in my hands?  Tom, give me one end of a cord
here; I will so truss me this sea-thief, hand and foot together, like a
basting turkey--marry, I will so bind him up--and thereafter I will so
beat--so beat him!"

And so he ran on, winding the cord meanwhile about Dick's limbs with the
dexterity peculiar to seamen, and at every turn and cross securing it
with a knot, and tightening the whole fabric with a savage pull.

When he had done, the lad was a mere package in his hands--as helpless as
the dead.  The skipper held him at arm's length, and laughed aloud.  Then
he fetched him a stunning buffet on the ear; and then turned him about,
and furiously kicked and kicked him.  Anger rose up in Dick's bosom like
a storm; anger strangled him, and he thought to have died; but when the
sailor, tired of this cruel play, dropped him all his length upon the
sand and turned to consult with his companions, he instantly regained
command of his temper.  Here was a momentary respite; ere they began
again to torture him, he might have found some method to escape from this
degrading and fatal misadventure.

Presently, sure enough, and while his captors were still discussing what
to do with him, he took heart of grace, and, with a pretty steady voice,
addressed them.

"My masters," he began, "are ye gone clean foolish?  Here hath Heaven put
into your hands as pretty an occasion to grow rich as ever shipman
had--such as ye might make thirty over-sea adventures and not find
again--and, by the mass I what do ye?  Beat me?--nay; so would an angry
child!  But for long-headed tarry-Johns, that fear not fire nor water,
and that love gold as they love beef, methinks ye are not wise."

"Ay," said Tom, "now y' are trussed ye would cozen us."

"Cozen you!" repeated Dick.  "Nay, if ye be fools, it would be easy.  But
if ye be shrewd fellows, as I trow ye are, ye can see plainly where your
interest lies.  When I took your ship from you, we were many, we were
well clad and armed; but now, bethink you a little, who mustered that
array?  One incontestably that hath much gold.  And if he, being already
rich, continueth to hunt after more even in the face of storms--bethink
you once more--shall there not be a treasure somewhere hidden?"

"What meaneth he?" asked one of the men.

"Why, if ye have lost an old skiff and a few jugs of vinegary wine,"
continued Dick, "forget them, for the trash they are; and do ye rather
buckle to an adventure worth the name, that shall, in twelve hours, make
or mar you for ever.  But take me up from where I lie, and let us go
somewhere near at hand and talk across a flagon, for I am sore and
frozen, and my mouth is half among the snow."

"He seeks but to cozen us," said Tom, contemptuously.

"Cozen! cozen!" cried the third man.  "I would I could see the man that
could cozen me!  He were a cozener indeed!  Nay, I was not born
yesterday.  I can see a church when it hath a steeple on it; and for my
part, gossip Arblaster, methinks there is some sense in this young man.
Shall we go hear him, indeed?  Say, shall we go hear him?"

"I would look gladly on a pottle of strong ale, good Master Pirret,"
returned Arblaster.  "How say ye, Tom?  But then the wallet is empty."

"I will pay," said the other--"I will pay.  I would fain see this matter
out; I do believe, upon my conscience, there is gold in it."

"Nay, if ye get again to drinking, all is lost!" cried Tom.

"Gossip Arblaster, ye suffer your fellow to have too much liberty,"
returned Master Pirret.  "Would ye be led by a hired man?  Fy, fy!"

"Peace, fellow!" said Arblaster, addressing Tom.  "Will ye put your oar
in?  Truly a fine pass, when the crew is to correct the skipper!"

"Well, then, go your way," said Tom; "I wash my hands of you."

"Set him, then, upon his feet," said Master Pirret.  "I know a privy
place where we may drink and discourse."

"If I am to walk, my friends, ye must set my feet at liberty," said Dick,
when he had been once more planted upright like a post.

"He saith true," laughed Pirret.  "Truly, he could not walk accoutred as
he is.  Give it a slit--out with your knife and slit it, gossip."

Even Arblaster paused at this proposal; but as his companion continued to
insist, and Dick had the sense to keep the merest wooden indifference of
expression, and only shrugged his shoulders over the delay, the skipper
consented at last, and cut the cords which tied his prisoner's feet and
legs.  Not only did this enable Dick to walk; but the whole network of
his bonds being proportionately loosened, he felt the arm behind his back
begin to move more freely, and could hope, with time and trouble, to
entirely disengage it.  So much he owed already to the owlish silliness
and greed of Master Pirret.

That worthy now assumed the lead, and conducted them to the very same
rude alehouse where Lawless had taken Arblaster on the day of the gale.
It was now quite deserted; the fire was a pile of red embers, radiating
the most ardent heat; and when they had chosen their places, and the
landlord had set before them a measure of mulled ale, both Pirret and
Arblaster stretched forth their legs and squared their elbows like men
bent upon a pleasant hour.

The table at which they sat, like all the others in the alehouse,
consisted of a heavy, square board, set on a pair of barrels; and each of
the four curiously-assorted cronies sat at one side of the square, Pirret
facing Arblaster, and Dick opposite to the common sailor.

"And now, young man," said Pirret, "to your tale.  It doth appear,
indeed, that ye have somewhat abused our gossip Arblaster; but what then?
Make it up to him--show him but this chance to become wealthy--and I will
go pledge he will forgive you."

So far Dick had spoken pretty much at random; but it was now necessary,
under the supervision of six eyes, to invent and tell some marvellous
story, and, if it were possible, get back into his hands the
all-important signet.  To squander time was the first necessity.  The
longer his stay lasted, the more would his captors drink, and the surer
should he be when he attempted his escape.

Well, Dick was not much of an inventor, and what he told was pretty much
the tale of Ali Baba, with Shoreby and Tunstall Forest substituted for
the East, and the treasures of the cavern rather exaggerated than
diminished.  As the reader is aware, it is an excellent story, and has
but one drawback--that it is not true; and so, as these three simple
shipmen now heard it for the first time, their eyes stood out of their
faces, and their mouths gaped like codfish at a fishmonger's.

Pretty soon a second measure of mulled ale was called for; and while Dick
was still artfully spinning out the incidents a third followed the
second.

Here was the position of the parties towards the end: Arblaster,
three-parts drunk and one-half asleep, hung helpless on his stool.  Even
Tom had been much delighted with the tale, and his vigilance had abated
in proportion.  Meanwhile, Dick had gradually wormed his right arm clear
of its bonds, and was ready to risk all.

"And so," said Pirret, "y' are one of these?"

"I was made so," replied Dick, "against my will; but an I could but get a
sack or two of gold coin to my share, I should be a fool indeed to
continue dwelling in a filthy cave, and standing shot and buffet like a
soldier.  Here be we four; good!  Let us, then, go forth into the forest
to-morrow ere the sun be up.  Could we come honestly by a donkey, it were
better; but an we cannot, we have our four strong backs, and I warrant me
we shall come home staggering."

Pirret licked his lips.

"And this magic," he said--"this password, whereby the cave is
opened--how call ye it, friend?"

"Nay, none know the word but the three chiefs," returned Dick; "but here
is your great good fortune, that, on this very evening, I should be the
bearer of a spell to open it.  It is a thing not trusted twice a year
beyond the captain's wallet."

"A spell!" said Arblaster, half awakening, and squinting upon Dick with
one eye.  "Aroint thee! no spells!  I be a good Christian.  Ask my man
Tom, else."

"Nay, but this is white magic," said Dick.  "It doth naught with the
devil; only the powers of numbers, herbs, and planets."

"Ay, ay," said Pirret; "'tis but white magic, gossip.  There is no sin
therein, I do assure you.  But proceed, good youth.  This spell--in what
should it consist?"

"Nay, that I will incontinently show you," answered Dick.  "Have ye there
the ring ye took from my finger?  Good!  Now hold it forth before you by
the extreme finger-ends, at the arm's-length, and over against the
shining of these embers.  'Tis so exactly.  Thus, then, is the spell."

With a haggard glance, Dick saw the coast was clear between him and the
door.  He put up an internal prayer.  Then whipping forth his arm, he
made but one snatch of the ring, and at the same instant, levering up the
table, he sent it bodily over upon the seaman Tom.  He, poor soul, went
down bawling under the ruins; and before Arblaster understood that
anything was wrong, or Pirret could collect his dazzled wits, Dick had
run to the door and escaped into the moonlit night.

The moon, which now rode in the mid-heavens, and the extreme whiteness of
the snow, made the open ground about the harbour bright as day; and young
Shelton leaping, with kilted robe, among the lumber, was a conspicuous
figure from afar.

Tom and Pirret followed him with shouts; from every drinking-shop they
were joined by others whom their cries aroused; and presently a whole
fleet of sailors was in full pursuit.  But Jack ashore was a bad runner,
even in the fifteenth century, and Dick, besides, had a start, which he
rapidly improved, until, as he drew near the entrance of a narrow lane,
he even paused and looked laughingly behind him.

Upon the white floor of snow, all the shipmen of Shoreby came clustering
in an inky mass, and tailing out rearward in isolated clumps.  Every man
was shouting or screaming; every man was gesticulating with both arms in
air; some one was continually falling; and to complete the picture, when
one fell, a dozen would fall upon the top of him.

The confused mass of sound which they rolled up as high as to the moon
was partly comical and partly terrifying to the fugitive whom they were
hunting.  In itself, it was impotent, for he made sure no seaman in the
port could run him down.  But the mere volume of noise, in so far as it
must awake all the sleepers in Shoreby and bring all the skulking
sentries to the street, did really threaten him with danger in the front.
So, spying a dark doorway at a corner, he whipped briskly into it, and
let the uncouth hunt go by him, still shouting and gesticulating, and all
red with hurry and white with tumbles in the snow.

It was a long while, indeed, before this great invasion of the town by
the harbour came to an end, and it was long before silence was restored.
For long, lost sailors were still to be heard pounding and shouting
through the streets in all directions and in every quarter of the town.
Quarrels followed, sometimes among themselves, sometimes with the men of
the patrols; knives were drawn, blows given and received, and more than
one dead body remained behind upon the snow.

When, a full hour later, the last seaman returned grumblingly to the
harbour side and his particular tavern, it may fairly be questioned if he
had ever known what manner of man he was pursuing, but it was absolutely
sure that he had now forgotten.  By next morning there were many strange
stories flying; and a little while after, the legend of the devil's
nocturnal visit was an article of faith with all the lads of Shoreby.

But the return of the last seaman did not, even yet, set free young
Shelton from his cold imprisonment in the doorway.

For some time after, there was a great activity of patrols; and special
parties came forth to make the round of the place and report to one or
other of the great lords, whose slumbers had been thus unusually broken.

The night was already well spent before Dick ventured from his
hiding-place and came, safe and sound, but aching with cold and bruises,
to the door of the Goat and Bagpipes.  As the law required, there was
neither fire nor candle in the house; but he groped his way into a corner
of the icy guest-room, found an end of a blanket, which he hitched around
his shoulders, and creeping close to the nearest sleeper, was soon lost
in slumber.




BOOK V--CROOKBACK


CHAPTER I--THE SHRILL TRUMPET


Very early the next morning, before the first peep of the day, Dick
arose, changed his garments, armed himself once more like a gentleman,
and set forth for Lawless's den in the forest.  There, it will be
remembered, he had left Lord Foxham's papers; and to get these and be
back in time for the tryst with the young Duke of Gloucester could only
be managed by an early start and the most vigorous walking.

The frost was more rigorous than ever; the air windless and dry, and
stinging to the nostril.  The moon had gone down, but the stars were
still bright and numerous, and the reflection from the snow was clear and
cheerful.  There was no need for a lamp to walk by; nor, in that still
but ringing air, the least temptation to delay.

Dick had crossed the greater part of the open ground between Shoreby and
the forest, and had reached the bottom of the little hill, some hundred
yards below the Cross of St. Bride, when, through the stillness of the
black morn, there rang forth the note of a trumpet, so shrill, clear, and
piercing, that he thought he had never heard the match of it for
audibility.  It was blown once, and then hurriedly a second time; and
then the clash of steel succeeded.

At this young Shelton pricked his ears, and drawing his sword, ran
forward up the hill.

Presently he came in sight of the cross, and was aware of a most fierce
encounter raging on the road before it.  There were seven or eight
assailants, and but one to keep head against them; but so active and
dexterous was this one, so desperately did he charge and scatter his
opponents, so deftly keep his footing on the ice, that already, before
Dick could intervene, he had slain one, wounded another, and kept the
whole in check.

Still, it was by a miracle that he continued his defence, and at any
moment, any accident, the least slip of foot or error of hand, his life
would be a forfeit.

"Hold ye well, sir!  Here is help!" cried Richard; and forgetting that he
was alone, and that the cry was somewhat irregular, "To the Arrow! to the
Arrow!" he shouted, as he fell upon the rear of the assailants.

These were stout fellows also, for they gave not an inch at this
surprise, but faced about, and fell with astonishing fury upon Dick.
Four against one, the steel flashed about him in the starlight; the
sparks flew fiercely; one of the men opposed to him fell--in the stir of
the fight he hardly knew why; then he himself was struck across the head,
and though the steel cap below his hood protected him, the blow beat him
down upon one knee, with a brain whirling like a windmill sail.

Meanwhile the man whom he had come to rescue, instead of joining in the
conflict, had, on the first sign of intervention, leaped aback and blown
again, and yet more urgently and loudly, on that same shrill-voiced
trumpet that began the alarm.  Next moment, indeed, his foes were on him,
and he was once more charging and fleeing, leaping, stabbing, dropping to
his knee, and using indifferently sword and dagger, foot and hand, with
the same unshaken courage and feverish energy and speed.

But that ear-piercing summons had been heard at last.  There was a
muffled rushing in the snow; and in a good hour for Dick, who saw the
sword-points glitter already at his throat, there poured forth out of the
wood upon both sides a disorderly torrent of mounted men-at-arms, each
cased in iron, and with visor lowered, each bearing his lance in rest, or
his sword bared and raised, and each carrying, so to speak, a passenger,
in the shape of an archer or page, who leaped one after another from
their perches, and had presently doubled the array.

The original assailants; seeing themselves outnumbered and surrounded,
threw down their arms without a word.

"Seize me these fellows!" said the hero of the trumpet; and when his
order had been obeyed, he drew near to Dick and looked him in the face.

Dick, returning this scrutiny, was surprised to find in one who had
displayed such strength, skill and energy, a lad no older than
himself--slightly deformed, with one shoulder higher than the other, and
of a pale, painful, and distorted countenance. {2}  The eyes, however,
were very clear and bold.

"Sir," said this lad, "ye came in good time for me, and none too early."

"My lord," returned Dick, with a faint sense that he was in the presence
of a great personage, "ye are yourself so marvellous a good swordsman
that I believe ye had managed them single-handed.  Howbeit, it was
certainly well for me that your men delayed no longer than they did."

"How knew ye who I was?" demanded the stranger.

"Even now, my lord," Dick answered, "I am ignorant of whom I speak with."

"Is it so?" asked the other.  "And yet ye threw yourself head first into
this unequal battle."

"I saw one man valiantly contending against many," replied Dick, "and I
had thought myself dishonoured not to bear him aid."

A singular sneer played about the young nobleman's mouth as he made
answer:

"These are very brave words.  But to the more essential--are ye Lancaster
or York?"

"My lord, I make no secret; I am clear for York," Dick answered.

"By the mass!" replied the other, "it is well for you."

And so saying, he turned towards one of his followers.

"Let me see," he continued, in the same sneering and cruel tones--"let me
see a clean end of these brave gentlemen.  Truss me them up."

There were but five survivors of the attacking party.  Archers seized
them by the arms; they were hurried to the borders of the wood, and each
placed below a tree of suitable dimension; the rope was adjusted; an
archer, carrying the end of it, hastily clambered overhead; and before a
minute was over, and without a word passing upon either hand, the five
men were swinging by the neck.