Forest Days: A Romance of Old Times
esteemed it!
Hugh de Monthermer, as we have shewn, rode away from the castle of
Hereford about half an hour before Prince Edward. He chose the very
road, and went on at great speed for about three miles; he then turned
his horse into a path somewhat different from that which the Prince had
chosen, but leading nearly in the same direction; and in that he
proceeded at a rate which gave his five servants some trouble in
keeping up with him. At length, however, his horse suddenly went lame,
and on dismounting to see what was the matter, he found that a nail had
run into the frog of the animal's foot; and although it was easily
extracted, yet it was impossible to proceed at the same pace as
before.
"Give me your horse, Peterkin," he said, "halting, and take mine slowly
back to Hereford."
While the servant was changing the saddle, however, a countryman
appeared on the road, driving some swine before him; and Hugh
immediately walked up to him, asking, "Is this the way, my friend, to
Monington Chapel?"
"No, no," replied the man; "you must go back. You should have taken the
first turning on your left. Lord, now! only to think of your not
knowing your way to Monington Chapel!"
"What's the hour?" asked Hugh.
"Just mid-day," answered the man. "Don't you see the sun?"
"Then there is time," said Hugh de Monthermer; and mounting the
servant's horse, he retrod his steps for some distance.
Just as he was approaching the turning, however, which the man had
directed him to take, he heard a loud whistling scream, which made him
look up to the sky, thinking that some eagle--a bird then very common
in the marches of Wales--had come close above his head. But nothing of
the kind was to be seen; and a moment after the same cry was repeated,
while one of the servants who were riding a little way behind,
exclaimed, "It is the dwarf, my lord, it is Tangel. See where he comes
at full speed, like a monkey on a race-horse!"
Hugh de Monthermer paused for a moment and turned his eyes down the
road from Hereford, up which the dwarf was coming, not mounted on his
forest pony, but perched upon the back of a tall charger with his head
just seen between the ears of the animal, his long arms stretched out
holding the bridle somewhat short, and his equally lengthy legs hanging
down, affording no bad type for the old figure of Nobody.
The boy was speedily by Hugh de Monthermer's side, shaking his head
reproachfully as he came, and saying, "Ay, you would not listen to
Tangel, man-at-arms. Nobody listens to Tangel; and why? Because he has
not got a skin like a sucking pig and a face such as boys cut out of a
turnip. Now, if any of these bottle-nosed beer drinkers had told you to
stay and listen, you would have waited by the hour."
"Not I," replied Hugh de Monthermer, "nor can I wait now, good Tangel;
so come on, and make haste with your story by the way. What is it you
want to tell me?"
"Ay, haste, haste!" cried Tangel, turning his horse and keeping by the
side of the young lord; "always hasting to destruction, and slow to
anything good. Now are you riding out here, without knowing where you
are going or who it is that has sent for you."
"And pray, if you are wiser, Tangel," said Hugh, with a smile, "let me
know where it is I am going to, and who it is that has sent for me."
"Going to a prison," cried Tangel, "and he who sent for you is a
traitor."
"Are you serious?" demanded Hugh, turning gravely towards him.
"No, never was merrier in my life," answered Tangel, grinning till he
shewed his fine white teeth running back almost to his ears. "Is it not
enough to make me merry, to see a man who calls himself wise put his
head into a noose like a woodcock?--Now I will catechise you, as the
priest of the chapel did me one day when he was drunk. Did you not
receive a letter to-day?"
"Yes, I did," replied Hugh.
"Who gave you that letter?" demanded Tangel.
"One of the servants of the noble Earl of Leicester," answered Hugh.
"Ha!" said the boy, "they are cunninger than I thought."
"And moreover," added the young nobleman, "I asked the servant from
whom he had received it, and he told me, from one of the attendants of
the Earl of Ashby."
"And who did the Earl Ashby's ton of flesh get it from?" demanded the
dwarf.--"I will tell you, for you know nothing about it yourself. He
got it from gallant, sweet, honest, pretty Richard de Ashby, before he
ran away from Hereford, last night. I heard him when he thought there
were no ears listening; for I watched him all over the place, as soon
as I found he was in Hereford, creeping after him like a shadow. He
gave me a blow once in Nottingham, and called me ape and devil; but the
ape was at his heels last night when he and his fair cousin Alured were
plotting to go over to Gloucester; and I heard him say, that he would
have you in a net before four-and-twenty hours were over."
"He might have found himself mistaken, Tangel," replied Hugh, "for I
had my misgivings. Although I have not often seen the Lady Lucy's
handwriting, I suspected that the note was not hers; and, though he
told me to come alone, I brought five stout fellows with me, as you
see, intending to leave them within call. I think we six might be quite
enough to deal with any force they would dare to bring within seven
miles of Hereford."
The dwarf laughed aloud, paused, and then laughed again; but in his
wayward fashion he would not explain the cause of his merriment, let
Hugh say what he would.
"Mighty cunning--mighty cunning!" he cried. "Now, if you have luck, you
may catch the fowler in his trap; but yet, if you be wise, you will
ride back to Hereford, and take a nuncheon at the Maypole."
"No," replied Hugh; pausing for an instant, and beckoning to his
followers to come up; "no, I will not. I know Richard de Ashby's force
right well, and we five are worth any ten he can bring against us. I
would give a capful of gold pieces to take that traitor back with me,
and nail his ears to the castle gates; but we must lay our plan
securely. The place appointed is Monington Chapel, and there surely
must be some place near it where I can conceal the men."
"Why, my lord," said one of his followers, "just on this side of it is
Little Bilberry wood. I know it well; and then beyond, is the great
wood of Monington. We can find cover in either, for a thousand spears
if it were necessary."
"I forget the place, though I have seen it often," replied Hugh; and,
musing over what the dwarf had told him, he rode on till the highway
entered a little copse intersected by numerous paths.
The width of the whole wood might be about a hundred and fifty yards,
though the length, to the right and left of the road which they
followed was not less than a couple of miles; and as the young nobleman
and his train issued forth again on the other side, they perceived at a
short distance before them a small chapel, to which the name of a
shrine would have been more appropriate, for the largest congregation
that it could contain was certainly thirty persons at the utmost.
Hugh de Monthermer's arrangements were soon made. Drawing back as soon
as possible, lest any one should observe his movements, he stationed
his men under cover of the wood, and then advanced alone to the chapel,
the door of which was open, as usual with all places of worship at that
time. Before he entered, however, he paused to gaze over the scene on
the other side of the little building, which presented, first an open
green expanse covered with short grass dotted with tufts of fern, and
then, with the interval of about a third of a mile, a deep, sombre
wood, extending to a considerable distance on both sides. The ground
all round was perfectly clear, and the copse, where he had left his
men, so near at hand that it was impossible for him to be taken at a
disadvantage by a larger force than his own, without having due warning
of its approach.
Hugh looked up towards the sun, saying to himself, "I am half an hour
before the time, I should imagine--We shall have a storm ere long:"
and, fastening his horse to a hook fixed in the stone work, apparently
for that purpose, he entered the chapel, which was quite vacant.
Above the altar appeared the figure of the Virgin, and kneeling for a
moment, as usual with all persons of his faith, Hugh repeated a short
prayer, and then rising, gazed out of a window which turned towards the
larger wood at the back. The sky was becoming rapidly clouded, and
though the sun shone high in heaven, it only served to render the
thick, thronged mass of vapours, that were rolling up from the
south-west, more dark and lowering in appearance than would have been
the case had they not been contrasted with the warm glow of the zenith.
Soon, however, swelling up like the waves of an ocean of molten lead,
the white edges of the thunder-cloud covered the disk of the sun,
bringing with them an oppressive heat very different from the mild but
fresh air which had prevailed during the morning.
Still Hugh de Monthermer kept his eye fixed upon the wood; and after
watching for several minutes, he thought he could distinguish, through
the bolls of the trees, a human form, moving slowly along at the very
verge. It disappeared again, and for a few moments nothing more was
perceived, so that Hugh, at length, begun to think he had been in
error. He soon found that such was not the case, for after a short
pause, a man on foot issued forth a step or two, and was seen to look
carefully round him. He then gazed down the road towards Hereford, and
put his hand over his eyes, as if to shade them from the light.
Apparently satisfied, he retired into the wood again, after having
continued his investigations for about three or four minutes.
It was evident he was watching for some one, and Hugh naturally
concluded it was himself. The young nobleman paused, meditating how he
should act--at one moment, thinking of shewing himself, in order to
bring the affair to a speedy issue, but the next, judging it would be
better to remain in the chapel till the hour appointed had arrived.
While he was still hesitating, a vivid flash of lightning, that almost
blinded him, burst forth from the cloud, and appeared to sweep close
past the chapel. Some large drops of rain fell at the same time, and
after another and another flash--succeeding each other with
extraordinary rapidity--the flood-gates of the heavens seemed to open,
and the torrent poured down, mingling hail with the rain, and forming
foaming yellow pools at every indentation of the road. Incessantly
through the twilight of the storm the broad blue glare of the lightning
was seen, with a thin, bright, fiery line crossing the tissue of the
flame, and marking its fierce and destructive character; while the
rolling peal of the thunder seemed to shake the very earth, echoing and
re-echoing from the woods around.
"Those poor fellows will be half drowned," thought Hugh de Monthermer;
"I have a great mind to call them into the chapel, though it might lose
me my opportunity. Yet, if I were sure of catching that villain, and
carrying him into Hereford,--ay, or of meeting him with double my
numbers, I would myself swim the Wye a dozen times.--Hark! surely that
was the tramp of a horse's feet!"
Another clap of thunder, however, drowned all other sounds; but when it
had passed away, the noise of a horse's hoofs beating the ground at a
quick pace distinctly reached the young nobleman's ear. Hugh de
Monthermer listened. "There is but one," he said; "I will take no odds
against him;" and he loosened his sword in the scabbard, keeping behind
the angle of the building, so as not to show himself too soon at the
half-opened door.
The next instant the horse stopped opposite the Chapel, the rider was