Sir Ludar Part 25

Sure enough, in the east, the grey crept up the sky; and at the same time the banks on either side of us rose steeply, while the roar of a cataract ahead warned us that our journey's end was come.

We waited yet another hour, moored under the bank till the sun lifted his forehead above the hill. Then the note of a bugle close at hand startled us, and Ludar bade us disembark.

Castleroe was a house perched strongly on the western bank of the river, with a moat round, and a drawbridge separating the outer courtyard from the house itself.

As we approached we were loudly challenged by a sentry who called to us in broad English.

"Who goes there? Halt! or by my life you shall have a taste of my musket if you advance further."

My heart leapt to my mouth. 'Twas not at hearing the English speech once more, but because the fellow's voice itself was familiar to me.

And when a moment later its owner came in view, I saw the man I had met once on the road to Oxford, the same Tom Price who had gone near hanging me for a Jesuit, and afterwards had tempted me to take service in the troop of his master, Captain Merriman, for these Irish wars.

Was it much wonder I gasped aloud, as I saw him?

"Tell Turlogh Luinech O'Neill," said Ludar, advancing, "that his daughter is come from England, with her ancient nurse. And take us to him, that we may deliver our charge safely into his hands."

"Ludar," cried I, taking him by the arm. "Halt, for Heaven's sake!

This is one of Captain Merriman's men!"

The soldier looked round as I spoke, and recognised me in a trice.

"Hillo!" cried he; "what have we here? My little Jesuit, Lord Mayor of London, as I'm a sinner! And in what brave company! Sure, they told me my lady expected visitors; and here he is with his sweetheart, and old mother, and private chaplain. Woe's me, the flag is not aloft! So, lad, thou'rt come to join our wars after all, and tell the captain about that duck-weed? And thou shalt, my little Humphrey--you see I even remember your name."

"One word, Tom Price," said I, breathlessly, "as you are an honest man.

Is the captain here?"

"Here! He is my lady's honoured guest this three weeks, since he arrived here in a temper enough to sour the countryside. Why, hadst thou run away with his own sweetheart, thou couldst not--"

"Is my father, is Turlogh Luinech O'Neill here, then?" asked the maiden, coming up.

"Thy father!" said the soldier gasping. "Why I took thee for-- And art thou, then," said he, pulling off his cap, "art thou--"

"Yes, yes," said she, "I am Rose O'Neill. Pray say, is my father here?"

"Madam," said he, "he left us a week ago for his Castle at Toome.

Howbeit my lady--"

"Ludar," said the maiden, "back to the boat, quick! I will not go in here."

"Nay, fair angel," said a voice at our side, "now we have found our truant bird, we must cage her."

It was Captain Merriman himself, smirking, hat in hand.

Before he could well speak the words, Ludar had sprung at his throat, and hurled him to the ground.

Then ensued a pitiful uproar. The guard, in a moment, turned out upon us. It was useless for two men to stand against twenty; our McDonnells at the boat were beyond call. We fought as long as we could; nor was it till Ludar received a gun shot in his arm, and I a slash that laid bare my cheek-bone, that we knew the game was up. The maiden had been carried off into the house; the old nurse lay in a swoon; three men, besides the captain, were disabled. As for us, we could but stagger to the gateway more dead than alive. Once outside, the gate was closed.

The guard from within sent a few flying shots after us, one of which lightened me of my little finger, and another missed Ludar's knee.

Then, seeing us gone and hearing the shouts of our McDonnells, who, at the noise of the shots, had come up to help us, they forbore to follow further and let us get clear.

And it was in this manner we brought Rose O'Neill safely to her father's house at Castleroe.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

HOW LUDAR FIRED THE BEACON ON KNOCKLAY.

I think, had it not been that Ludar immediately fell into a swoon with the wound in his arm, we should never have got him back to the boat.

For such was his wrath and despair that he would have turned and invaded the castle single-handed, preferring to meet his death thus to leaving the maiden in so dire an extremity. As for me, 'twas well I had this new care thrust upon me, or I too might have fallen into a despair scarce less than his.

I guessed, so soon as the panic was over and Captain Merriman brought round, that order would be given to follow and capture us at all hazard.

Therefore, so soon as our McDonnells arrived, we bore Ludar among us to the boat, and cast loose without delay. In this we were none too soon, for we had not been long rowing ere a noise of bugles and shouting at the castle gave us to know that the pursuit was begun. Lucky for us, the woods on either bank were too dense to allow them to get within shot of us. Nor, after we had got safely past the town of Coleraine, was there much fear that they (being unprovided with boats), could get at close quarters with us.

Once clear, we looked to my comrade's wounds. The bullet which had gashed his arm had happily not lodged there; but it had lost him so much blood that, although we bound it up and stanched the flow, it was yet a long while before he recovered life enough to open his eyes. Then he said:

"Whither are we going?"

"Seaward," said I.

"Leaving her amid wolves," said he, bitterly.

"'Twould do her no good if we returned," said I, "to be slain before her eyes. So long as she knows we are safe, there will be hope for her; and she is brave enough to defend herself till we come again."

Ludar smiled bitterly. He knew, as I did, there was nothing in the words.

"My men," said he presently to the Scots, "wherever Sorley Boy, my father, is, take me."

"Sorley Boy is a fox that leaves no tracks," said one of the men, "but we last heard of him at Bonandonnye."

"Sail thither," said Ludar, and fell into silence.

'Twas a strange return voyage that, down that broad river, on the ebb of the self-same tide which had carried us up. Neither of us spoke a word, but as we watched the banks and one another, we wondered if this could be the same world and the same men as a few hours ago. It was a relief presently to meet the salt sea air on our faces, and to hear ahead once more the angry roar of the waves at the river's mouth.

Just as we reached the place where the channel, narrowing suddenly, tears its way through the sand into the ocean, a posse of hors.e.m.e.n dashed down on the western sh.o.r.e and shouted to us. So near were they, that I could see Tom Price among them, and beside him, that rascally Captain Laker, whom I had seen, or heard, last in Sir William Carleton's garden at Richmond.

One of the rowers pulled me down to the bottom of the boat just as a volley of shot whizzed over our heads.

"Up now, and row like fiends," cried our men when it had pa.s.sed.

"Give me my pistol," said Ludar, "I have at least one arm."

So we tore through the water, letting fly at them as best we could while they stood reloading.

Ludar's aim missed, for he had only his left hand. Mine was more lucky, since it knocked over the villain Laker just as he raised his gun for a second shot.

This saved us; for it gave us time to pull further beyond reach. So that when the next volley came, it pattered harmlessly in the waves around us.

This time we could not duck our heads, for our boat was already in the hurly-burly of the surf, and needed all our skill and all our strength to get her over that angry bar. More than once we were glad to fall back right side uppermost, and more than once we looked to see every timber we had fly asunder. But at last, between two lesser waves, we slipped over, taking in half a boat of water as we did so, but winning clear of the peril; and leaving our pursuers, who had waited to see us perish, to turn back sullenly to report their ill success to their master.