Heroines of the Crusades Part 28

The youth replied evasively, "I love my lady, and I may not engage in other service, till I bring her proud bird back to the perch."

Something in his earnest tone arrested the attention of the princess, and scanning the countenance of the youth with more curious scrutiny, she marked the rosy hue in his cheek, and the tear trembling in his blue eye, and exclaimed,

"Eva! Eva!! How is this?"

"Nay, an thou knowest me, I will e'en venture on thy knightly errand,"

said the blushing girl, falling on her knees, and repeating the oath of fealty, rapidly as possible to hide her emotions.

"Rise," said the princess, with all the sternness she could command, "and tell me whence this disguise."

"I know not, lady, more than thou, save this. Scarce a week since, I met in this wood the tall knight who hath so n.o.bly defended us, and yesternight I braved the fear of thy frown, and came to this trysting-place. He hath concerted a plan for the liberation of my royal master, and brought me this disguise, which must be sufficient, since it so long baffled thy quick discernment. Accident has betrayed me, else it had not rested with my lady, whether Eva should trust the stranger, and aid in restoring the proud bird of England to his royal perch." Eleanora paused one moment, while her mind, ever clearest and most active in emergency, poised between the possibility of danger to her favorite, and rescue to her lord.

"The knight has twice preserved our lives, he must be bold and true, and heaven hath raised him up for our deliverance, since G.o.d conceals us from our enemies, and reveals our lurking-place to him. It were treason to doubt this divine Providence, since it would imply neither trust in man, nor faith in G.o.d. Go, Eva," said the princess, her eyes filling with tears, as she pressed her to her bosom, and imprinted a warm kiss upon her cheek. "Heaven will protect and prosper thee, and my n.o.ble Edward know how to reward thy devotion." She stood gazing fondly on her in silence, while Eva's color went and came as though she essayed, what yet she feared, to utter. At length she stammered forth, "My lady will send Sir Francis with his band to guard the fords of the Exe till my return."

"Sir Francis," reiterated the queen, in a tone of surprise; "methought Sir Henry were more agreeable escort."

Eva tried to hide her crimson blushes beneath her delicate fingers, as she whispered, "If my mistress please, I would that Sir Henry should be ignorant of this unmaidenly disguise."

"Thou lovest Sir Henry, then?" said Eleanora.

"Nay, lady, I know not that," replied Eva; "but there is something in him that commands my regard despite my will, and I would not needlessly forfeit his esteem."

"I will answer for thee, sweet," replied the princess. "Sir Francis shall go according to thy wish. But must I leave thee here alone and unprotected?"

"The monarch of the forest spreads his broad arm for my protection, and thou shalt envy my repose, in my sylvan eyrie," replied Eva, lightly springing into a fantastic seat, formed by the twisted branches of a gnarled oak, and completely concealed by the foliage. Firmly ensconced in her rustic lodge, she leaned forward and whispered a gentle farewell, as the princess, bearing in her mind a vision of a bright face, peeping out from among the green leaves, turned and rapidly retraced her steps to the hamlet.

That night Sir Francis set out with his train, and as two maidens accompanied the band, one wearing the dress of Eva, her absence excited no suspicion.

Meanwhile the sprite remained in her place of concealment, till the gathering shadows of the trees stretched stealthily across the glade the appointed signal for the gathering of the outlawed bands. The tall knight soon appeared, and, lifting her gently from the tree, placed her on a beautiful Spanish jennet, and smilingly handing her an ivory whistle, terminating in a silver cross, bade her summon her satyrs. She placed it to her lips, and blew a shrill call, and forthwith from the leafy bosom of every bush and shrub there issued a huntsman, clad in forest green, and carrying only such weapons as were used in the chase. The knight gave them hasty directions for the different points of rendezvous, at which they were to watch the safety of the young squire, warned them against those places where they would be most likely to encounter the malcontents, and then mounting the n.o.ble steed that stood pawing the turf in impatience by his side, and laying his hand upon the rein, recalled Eva to herself, by saying, with emphasis, "Sir Launfal, we must away, or morning will dawn ere we cross the fords of Exe."

They rode at a brisk pace for some time in silence, the mind of each being too much occupied for words.

The knight at length spoke abruptly. "Thou hast a turn for adventure, pretty page, and I'll warrant me, ready tongue, but how dost thou think to gain speech with Prince Edward?"

"Nay, that I leave with thee," returned Eva, "since I know neither the place to which I am bound, nor the duty I am to perform."

"And that I scarce know myself," replied the knight. "The lady Maud Mortimer has the swiftest courser in all England, a coal-black Arabian, brought by Richard of Cornwall as a gift to her ladyship, on his return from the Holy Land. My Lord Mortimer is a partisan of Leicester, but is somewhat cooled in his devotion to the proud earl, from an affront received since the battle of Lewes. The lady, therefore, to be revenged, has volunteered her steed for the escape of Edward. There riseth, however, another difficulty. The prince is constantly surrounded with guards, so that no stranger may accost him. My merry men have beset the castle in every kind of disguise, but to no purpose. Of late, the prince rides forth of a morning, closely attended, and I have brought thee, hoping that thy woman's wit may effect more than all our dull brains have yet accomplished."

As the captive prince, sick with hope deferred, languidly mounted his horse and rode forth upon his monotonous round, he was surprised by the appearance of a saucy-looking page, who mingled carelessly among the attendants, and challenged the younger squires to test the speed of their horses.

"And who art thou, pert boy?" inquired the captain of the guard.

"Who but the squire to my Lord de Mortimer? Thou must be learned in heraldry an thou knowest not the device of the n.o.ble earl," replied the page, with an air of nonchalance that easily satisfied his interrogator, and eager of sport the whole party joined in the race. They were thus led far beyond their usual limits. But the prince, whose heart was sad, evinced little interest in the animated scene till the page, loudly entreating him to put his steed to the mettle, found opportunity at intervals to whisper, "To-morrow when the horses of the guards are blown, seek the copse by the Hazel Glen." As if disgusted with the familiarity of the page, the prince slowly turned away, but not till he had exchanged a glance of intelligence with his new friend.

The following morning the gallant Sir Launfal stood in the copse holding the reins of his own palfrey, and the steed of Lady Mortimer, till he was faint and weary. The expected hour for Edward's arrival had long pa.s.sed, and notwithstanding his effort to appear the brave squire he personated, it must be confessed he felt very like a timid girl, whose active imagination peopled the wood with a thousand unknown dangers. He turned the whistle nervously in his fingers, and almost essayed to try its magic powers in summoning around him the brave outlaws who waited his bidding, when the welcome sound of advancing hoofs rea.s.sured him, and a moment after the prince dashed into the thicket.

"Keep to the highway till we meet at the cross-roads," said the page, resigning the rein into his hand.

The shouts of the pursuers were already on the air, as the prince vaulted into the saddle and took the direction indicated. Striking into a bridle path, Sir Launfal reached the cross-roads just as the prince appeared, and together they rode gaily on towards Bristol. The pursuers soon after gained the same point, where they encountered a woodman, jogging on slowly after two loaded mules, of whom they inquired concerning the fugitive.

"He be's gone yonder," replied the boor, pointing in the direction opposite to the one which the prince had taken, where upon an eminence appeared an armed force. The baffled guards, fearing that the conspiracy might have been more extensive than they had antic.i.p.ated, made the best of their way back to Kenilworth.

"And who art thou, my pretty page?" inquired Edward, "that hast so dexterously redeemed thy prince, and whither dost thou conduct me?"

"I wear the badge of Mortimer," replied Sir Launfal. "The Lady Maude is the constant friend of thy royal mother."

"Canst tell me aught of the movements of the rebel barons, or the fate of my brave knights?"

"Nay, my giddy brain recks little of politics or war," returned the boy, "but there are can give thee tidings."

A moment after they turned an angle in the road, and the boy putting the whistle to his mouth sounded a sharp note, and a party of huntsmen, apparently in quest of game, darted across the path, while one shouted, as if to his companions, "To the right, the game lies by the Hermit's Cross."

The page immediately turned his palfrey, motioning to silence, and led off into the path through the wood, and after several hours' hard riding arrived at the appointed place of rendezvous.

At the foot of a large wooden cross, weather-stained and somewhat decayed, sat a monk, closely robed in gown and cowl, who rose at their approach, saying in a low voice, "The benison of our Lady of Walsingham rest upon you;" and with great strides conducted them deeper and deeper into the wood, till they came to a hunter's lodge, which, though much in ruins, gave signs of having been recently repaired, with some view to the rank and comfort of those who were to occupy it.

The prince made light of the trifling inconveniences to which they were subjected, remarking, "A soldier has little choice of resting-place." But poor Eva, wearied almost to death from the unaccustomed fatigues of the day, now that the stimulus of excitement was over, had leisure to think of her own situation; and scarcely able to restrain her tears, crept silently to her couch of fern, and beneath the russet covering, soon slept from very exhaustion. The prince and the monk meanwhile conferred apart in low tones, concerting measures for present and future security.

"Gloucester is with us," said the priest, "and Sir Roger de Mortimer has a party of picked men on the road to Evesham. My band have charge of every ford and pa.s.s between this and Hereford. The scouts report that Leicester's men are much wasted by their long residence on the Welsh frontier, and my jolly fellows are this night engaged in breaking down the bridges across the Severn. For we churchmen have a fancy, that baptism is necessary to wash away the sins of rebels."

"I fear not all the rites of the Church can absolve the black-hearted traitor," returned Edward, with great asperity. "But proceed with thy news."

"The country is beset with Leicester's spies," continued the monk, "else had I been less guarded in my communications with thee. Bands of men are daily mustering in every direction, making the high-roads unsafe for honest travellers like myself."

"Thou wilt join our forces with the brethren of thy chapter," suggested the prince.

"Our chapter are somewhat too much tinctured with heresy to hail the ascendency of the odious De Montforts," replied the monk; "thou mayst, therefore, depend upon their most earnest intercessions in thy behalf.

But for me, I must restore pretty one," nodding his head significantly towards the spot where Eva lay asleep, "to his mistress. It is a matter, not of selfish interest alone, that the loyal page be restored unharmed."

"Thou art right," returned Edward. "I would not that the charming boy should lose one raven curl for me, though he hath risked his freedom and, perhaps, his life to save me."

CHAPTER V.

THE DETERMINATION.

After the battle of Evesham, in which Edward entirely overthrew the party of the rebel barons, and re-established Henry's throne, Eleanora resided alternately in the palace of Savoy and at Windsor castle. The care of her three beautiful children occupied much of her attention, and in their nurture the streams of her affection deepened and widened, until they embraced all who came within the sphere of her influence. The now charming, but still volatile, Eva occasioned her infinite anxiety.

Since the day when Sir Francis had received her from the tall knight, at the ford of the Exe, he had held her by the two-fold cord of obligation and the possession of a secret; and from the first moment he discovered that she was sensitive upon the subject, he had not ceased to use his power to his own advantage. She was thus obliged to treat him with a favor which he ill deserved; yet such was the natural transparency of her character, that her real sentiments so often betrayed themselves, as to keep him in a constant state of irritation.

Sir Henry de Courtenay, whose sincere and ardent nature gave him little taste for mysteries, could not brook the inconsistencies that constantly presented themselves in her manner, and determining that his hand should never be bestowed where there was not the basis of confidence, withdrew himself from the sphere of her attractions. Eva grieved at his departure, but it was in vain that the princess represented, that the readiest escape from her difficulties was a courageous and candid confession of the truth.

Eva "did not care if he could be piqued by such trifles, as her smiling upon Sir Francis, when she heartily wished him among the Turks, he might e'en seek his fortune elsewhere. And for the matter of that, who could tell that it was desirable for the heiress of Strongbow to marry a simple knight." But these heroics usually ended in violent fits of weeping, and profound regrets that she had ever forfeited the confidence of De Courtenay.

Meanwhile, Edward began to feel the languor of inglorious ease, and as his dreams of ambition returned upon him, his thoughts reverted again and again to the unsolved problem that had exercised the political mathematicians of Europe for nearly two centuries. Could a permanent christian kingdom be founded in Palestine? All the blood which the French had shed, and all the wise counsel that Louis lavished in the Seventh Crusade, had failed to erect the necessary defence, or compose the disorders that oppressed the Syrian Christians. Nor were the Mussulman lords of Syria in much better condition. The n.o.ble dynasty of Saphadin had fallen a prey to the ruthless Mamelukes, and a blood-stained revolution in Egypt had placed the fierce Almalek Bibers on the throne. An excuse was not wanting for the invasion of Palestine, and the holy places were again bathed in the blood of their gallant defenders. The military orders were nearly annihilated, and the country was ravaged with fire and sword, almost to the very walls of Acre.

About this time an event, no ways connected with the East, turned Edward's attention to the adoption of the cross. He had challenged Sir Francis to a game of chess. In the midst of the play, from an impulse unaccountable to himself, he rose and sauntered towards the embroidery frame, to relate to Eva his adventure with the page whose ingenuity had once saved his life.

Sir Francis, curious to enjoy her artful evasions, followed him; and a moment after, the centre stone of the groined ceiling fell with a terrible crash on the very spot where they had been sitting.

This almost miraculous preservation induced the prince to believe that he was destined to perform some great service for G.o.d. It recalled to his mind the benizon of our Lady at Walsingham, and, accompanied by Eleanora and a goodly train, he set off the following day to offer on her shrine at Norfolk an altar-cloth of gold brocade, and to crave her protection upon the expedition that he now seriously meditated.