Hereward, the Last of the English Part 31

"And how is little Alftruda? Big she must be now?" asked he at last.

"The fiend fly away with her,--or rather, would that he had flown away with her, before ever I saw the troublesome little jade. Big? She is grown into the most beautiful la.s.s that ever was seen,--which is, what a young fellow like you cares for; and more trouble to me than all my money, which is what an old fellow like me cares for. It is partly about her that I am over here now. Fool that I was, ever to let an Etheliza [Footnote: A princess of the royal blood of Cerdic, and therefore of Edward the Confessor.] into my house"; and Gilbert swore a great deal.

"How was she an Etheliza?" asked Hereward, who cared nothing about the matter. "And how came she into your house? I never could understand that, any more than how the bear came there."

"Ah! As to the bear, I have my secrets, which I tell no one. He is dead and buried, thanks to you."

"And I sleep on his skin every night."

"You do, my little Champion? Well, warm is the bed that is well earned.

But as for her;--see here, and I'll tell you. She was Gospatrick's ward and kinswoman,--how, I do not rightly know. But this I know, that she comes from Uchtred, the earl whom Canute slew, and that she is heir to great estates in Northumberland.

"Gospatrick, that fought at Dunsinane?"

"Yes, not the old Thane, his uncle, whom Tosti has murdered; but Gospatrick, King Malcolm's cousin, Dolfin's father. Well, she was his ward. He gave me her to keep, for he wanted her out of harm's way--the la.s.s having a bonny dower, lands and money--till he could marry her up to one of his sons. I took her; of course I was not going to do other men's work for naught; so I would have married her up to my poor boy, if he had but lived. But he would not live, as you know. Then I would have married her to you, and made you my heir, I tell you honestly, if you had not flown off, like a hot-headed young springald, as you were then."

"You were very kind. But how is she an Etheliza?"

"Etheliza? Twice over. Her father was of high blood among those Saxons; and if not, are not all the Gospatricks Ethelings? Their grandmother, Uchtred's wife, was Ethelred, Evil-Counsel's daughter, King Edward of London's sister; and I have heard that this girl's grandfather was their son,--but died young,--or was killed with his father. Who cares?"

"Not I," quoth Hereward.

"Well--he wants to marry her to Dolfin, his eldest son."

"Why, Dolfin had a wife when I was at Dunsinane."

"But she is dead since, and young Ulf, her son, murdered by Tosti last winter."

"I know."

"Whereon Gospatrick sends to me for the girl and her dowry. What was I to do? Give her up? Little it is, lad, that I ever gave up, after I had it once in my grip, or I should be a poorer man than I am now. Have and hold, is my rule. What should I do? What I did. I was coming hither on business of my own, so I put her on board ship, and half her dower,--where the other half is, I know; and man must draw me with wild horses, before he finds out;--and came here to my kinsman, Baldwin, to see if he had any proper young fellow to whom we might marry the la.s.s, and so go shares in her money and the family connection. Could a man do more wisely?"

"Impossible," quoth Hereward.

"But see how a wise man is lost by fortune. When I come here, whom should I find but Dolfin himself? The dog had scent of my plan, all the way from Dolfinston there, by Peebles. He hunts me out, the hungry Scotch wolf; rides for Leith, takes ship, and is here to meet me, having accused me before Baldwin as a robber and ravisher, and offers to prove his right to the jade on my body in single combat."

"The villain!" quoth Hereward. "There is no modesty left on earth, nor prudence either. To come here, where he might have stumbled on Tosti, who murdered his son, and I would surely do the like by him, himself. Lucky for him that Tosti is off to Norway on his own errand."

"Modesty and prudence? None now-a-days, young sire; nor justice either, I think; for when Baldwin hears us both--and I told my story as cannily as I could--he tells me that he is very sorry for an old va.s.sal and kinsman, and so forth,--but I must either disgorge or fight."

"Then fight," quoth Hereward.

"'Per se aut per campioneem,'--that's the old law, you know."

"Not a doubt of it."

"Look you, Hereward. I am no coward, nor a clumsy man of my hands."

"He is either fool or liar who says so."

"But see. I find it hard work to hold my own in Scotland now. Folks don't like me, or trust me; I can't say why."

"How unreasonable!" quoth Hereward.

"And if I kill this youth, and so have a blood-feud with Gospatrick, I have a hornet's nest about my ears. Not only he and his sons,--who are masters of Scotch Northumberland, [Footnote: Between Tweed and Forth.]-- but all his cousins; King Malcolm, and Donaldbain, and, for aught I know, Harold and the G.o.dwinssons, if he bid them take up the quarrel. And beside, that Dolfin is a big man. If you cross Scot and Saxon, you breed a very big man. If you cross again with a Dane or a Norseman, you breed a giant. His grandfather was a Scots prince, his grandmother an English Etheliza, his mother a Norse princess, as you know,--and how big he is, you should remember. He weighs half as much again as I, and twice as much as you."

"Butchers count by weight, and knights by courage," quoth Hereward.

"Very well for you, who are young and active; but I take him to be a better man than that ogre of Cornwall, whom they say you killed."

"What care I? Let him be twice as good, I'd try him."

"Ah! I knew you were the old Hereward still. Now hearken to me. Be my champion. You owe me a service, lad. Fight that man, challenge him in open field. Kill him, as you are sure to do. Claim the la.s.s, and win her,--and then we will part her dower. And (though it is little that I care for young la.s.ses' fancies), to tell you truth, she never favored any man but you."

Hereward started at the snare which had been laid for him; and then fell into a very great laughter.

"My most dear and generous host: you are the wiser, the older you grow. A plan worthy of Solomon! You are rid of Sieur Dolfin without any blame to yourself."

"Just so."

"While I win the la.s.s, and, living here in Flanders, am tolerably safe from any blood-feud of the Gospatricks."

"Just so."

"Perfect: but there is only one small hindrance to the plan; and that is--that I am married already."

Gilbert stopped short, and swore a great oath.

"But," he said, after a while, "does that matter so much after all?"

"Very little, indeed, as all the world knows, if one has money enough, and power enough."

"And you have both," they say.

"But, still more unhappily, my money is my wife's."

"Peste!"

"And more unhappily still, I am so foolishly fond of her, that I would sooner have her in her smock, than any other woman with half England for a dower."

"Then I suppose I must look out for another champion."

"Or save yourself the trouble, by being--just as a change--an honest man."

"I believe you are right," said Gilbert, laughing; "but it is hard to begin so late in life."

"And after one has had so little practice."