Sir Ludar Part 29

"A plague on every man of you," growled the old woman. "You're only matched by the women, who be worse. Did I not tell you, Humphrey Dexter, my Lady Cantire would be no friend to my sweet mistress? 'Twas in vain the silly child tried to wheedle her over. Wheedle the Tether Stake! My lady bade her be civil to the Captain, if she would please her step-dame. And when the maiden put down her little foot at that, she was clapped within walls like a rogue, and fed on bread and water.

Little harm that would have done, had not the captain himself served her as jailer, and every day thrust his evil presence into our company. I tell thee, Humphrey, that maiden hath fought as well as you or any of them; and shame on your s.e.x, say I, that this devil should be one of you! Ill? No wonder if she was ill; with not a soul to pity her save a poor old body like me. Where's her father, to leave her thus? Eh, you mug-faced champion, you?"

"Indeed, Judy," said I, taken aback, "'tis a terrible case; but you cannot blame me."

"Not blame you! when instead of playing soldier you might have ridden to Toome and brought Turlogh to help us? Take shame on yourself; and, when you see the maiden weak and white, thank G.o.d her death be not on your head. For dead she would have been, like the brave maid she is, before ever she would have looked at this fellow-countryman of yours. He thought he had her safe, forsooth, when he whipped her off here and took the key with him. Fiend! Little wonder if she hates the name of you English!"

I grew angry at this, and told her she was a churlish old woman and had best leave me in peace till her temper was better. So we parted ill friends; I to guard the door, she to carry her waspish tongue where she list.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

HOW SORLEY BOY MCDONNELL CAME HOME TO HIS OWN.

I was not left for long to a solitary watch at the maiden's tower. For, just as dawn began to break, and my head, after the labours of the night, began to nod, I was roused with a thwack betwixt my jaw and my ear which sent me backwards to the ground. When I picked myself up, I found it was the English fellow whom Ludar had put snugly to roost on the parapet an hour or two since. He had come to in no very merry frame of mind; and, finding the castle in the hands of the besiegers, and his own life not worth an hour's purchase, was minded to hit out a bit for his Queen before giving up the ghost.

More than that, I suspect, he was a little jealous to find me on guard at the maiden's tower, where, till now, he had stood sentinel. Anyhow he caught me a crack which I have scarce forgotten yet, and which might have left me lying on my back to this day, but for the blow which Ludar had dealt him first.

He was unarmed, so that I could not make an end of him as shortly as I was minded. Nor had I sword to offer him to cross with mine; so I had him by the leg and the collar and walked him to the cliff's edge.

"You will do less harm down there," said I, "than here. So say your prayers."

"As you please, comrade," said he. "I should have sooner have had breakfast first. As for the blow I gave you, I thought you saw me come at you, else I would have woke you up first, and knocked you down next."

I set him down at that.

"If that be so," said I, "you are not the cur I took you for; for I had no business to be nodding. Stay here, and I will fetch you a sword, and you shall die like an Englishman."

"I ask nothing better," said he, "even if it be at the hands of an Englishman turned traitor."

That took the spirit clean out of me. Was it not true? Was not this fellow a truer servant of her Majesty than I, who for months had done naught but break her laws, a.s.sault her mayors, fire on her flag, and slay her soldiers? Yet, how could I help it?

The fellow's gibe made me so miserable that instead of fetching him a sword, I gave him mine, and bade him do to me as I deserved.

He laughed.

"By my soul, no!" said he. "If you be a servant of her Majesty, 'tis not for me to touch you. If you be not, the sword belongs to you, and I call it no shame to die by it. Yet, if you are minded to fetch me a weapon, I warrant you I shall not run away till you come again."

So I went and fetched him a sword. And we fought there a half-hour by the clock, till our breath failed us, and never a blow could we get home on one another. I had no stomach for the business; and yet, when I found him so stubborn a swordsman, my blood got up, and I think I should have run him through if I could. But he had no mind to let me, and put me to it hard to keep my own skin whole.

So we halted to fetch breath, and before we could go to it again, the maiden came out of her lodging and stood betwixt us.

"Put by your swords," said she, "I command you both. What is your quarrel? and have you no work for your captain, that you thus bring civil war into his castle?"

"By your leave, fair maiden," said the Englishman, "no man here is my captain. This brave lad is an enemy to my Queen; therefore it is my duty to slay him."

"If so," said the maiden, "I too must be slain, for I love not your Queen."

"But you be no traitor like this--"

Here I whipped out my sword, and we were at it again, ere the maiden, with flashing eyes, could step once more between us.

"Humphrey Dexter!" cried she in a voice I hope I may not hear from her lips again, "give me your sword, sir."

I obeyed meekly. 'Twould have been impossible to do aught else.

"And you, sir," said she, turning to the Englishman, "give me yours."

"Marry! 'tis yours already," said he, handing it up. "Mine was shivered by a blow from the young McDonnell, and I am his prisoner. But, by your leave," added he, looking hard at me, "did you call this honest lad Humphrey Dexter? Why, may I perish if it is not the same swashbuckling ruffler I once knew in London town! I thought I had seen his gallows face before! Why, Humphrey, my lad, dost thou remember how I cracked thy skull at quarter-staff a year since in Finsbury Fields, and how thy Jack 'prentices groaned to see thee bite the dust? I liked thee none the less for it, though I beat thee. For 'twas a fair fight! Come, since 'tis thou, give us thy hand, and tell me how thou comest here amongst the enemies--"

"Ay, ay, I'll tell you," said I, not wanting to hear the end of the sentence.

Sure enough, this was a brawling soldier lad I had once met in the fields--Jack Gedge, by name--with whom I had had a bout at the quarter- staff. But he lied vilely when he said he beat me thereat; for, although he felled me once, I had him down three times, and the last time so that he had to be carried from the place by his legs and arms.

Howbeit, 'twas strange enough to see him here; and when, after the maiden had left us (having restored us our swords under promise of peace), I told him my story, he took my hand, and said, had he been in my shoes, he had been a traitor too. Yet he thanked his G.o.d he stood in his own.

And now, it may have been ten o'clock, there came a great shouting and noise of guns from the outer walls, and presently Ludar came into the hold, sword in hand, and told us that Captain Merriman and his soldiers had arrived from Castleroe, and were preparing to a.s.sault the place.

"Humphrey," said he, "whate'er betide, I commit the maiden to your care, till this fighting be over. This prisoner of mine," added he, pointing to the soldier, "will also stand by you, unless I mistake him."

"Marry! so will I," said the man; "for a maiden in distress is no alien to a true servant of the maiden Queen. Count on me for so much, Captain."

"I do. Humphrey, I must go out and meet my enemy. He is in force, and must be scattered before he can blockade our ill-provisioned hold.

Capture it he cannot; but he may starve it."

"Go then," said I. "Yet, will you not see the maiden first? She would be sorry not to bid you G.o.d-speed."

He seemed for a moment as though he would refuse. Then a look of great longing came into his face as he glanced up at the turret window.

While he debated, a messenger arrived with news that Alexander McDonnell and his men were at hand, and that the English--seeing their constable hang from the walls on one side (for we had found his body, and displayed it thus as a signal of our triumph), and hearing the shouts of the McDonnells on the other--were falling back, and making ready to turn tail.

It was even so. While he spoke, we could see on the cliffs eastward the McDonnell standard, and hear the shouts of Alexander's company as they bore down upon the English, who for a moment ceased their a.s.sault on the castle, and turned doubtfully to face them.

Ludar laughed.

"If Alexander be there," said he, "our minds may be easy. Call in our men, and keep them within the walls. For he who yielded me the glory of taking Dunluce, shall not be robbed by me of the glory of sending these knaves packing. It needs not two McDonnells to do that. Humphrey see to this, keep a watch how the battle goes, and come again presently.

You know where to find me."

And he went, with a light heart, into the maiden's tower.

I know not why, I grudged to see him go in. 'Twas not jealousy--I was beyond that now. Nor was it that his help was needed without. For Alexander, I guessed, would have easy work with the foe; and 'twas like Ludar's n.o.bleness to leave this new glory to his brother. 'Twas not that he did not deserve the rest and comfort, for he had worked like a lion that night, and denied himself till now the greeting the maiden owed to her preserver. Yet, for all that, I know not why, I had sooner he had remained, sword in hand, on the walls with us.

I scorned myself for my silly qualms, and hastened to call in our men, and bid them give fair field to Alexander and his company. They obeyed with difficulty; yet, when they heard that it was Ludar's order that no man should baulk his brother, they came in, and lined the walls to view the combat.

The McDonnells on the cliff, when they saw the constable hang over the castle walls, and perceived the great bunch of heather on our topmost tower, stopped a moment to cheer and wave their bonnets. Then Alexander shouted to them in a voice we could hear half-a-mile away, and they broke into a run.

Meanwhile, Captain Merriman's party was, as I said, taken aback by this new danger, and threatened to draw off. But when they saw our party retire into the castle, and understood that the battle was between them and Alexander only, they stood their ground again, and wheeled round to meet him. They were some five hundred men against the McDonnells' three hundred, and contained not a few of O'Neill's men in their number.

From where we stood we could see but little of the fight, except that within a few yards of the enemy Alexander halted his men, and then, stepping forward sword in hand, boldly dared the English leader, whoever he might be, to single combat. I marvelled to see if Captain Merriman would accept the challenge. For a while, amid the shouting and threatening on either side, I could not discern what followed, but presently, as Alexander, brandishing his sword, stepped up and repeated his challenge, there sprang out upon him, without warning, a huge gallowgla.s.s of the O'Neill's men, who with a club smote the young chief to the earth. The blow was so sudden and unexpected (for Alexander was not even looking that way), that the McDonnell was reeling back in the arms of his men before friend or foe knew what had happened. Then, with a terrible yell, the Scots seized their weapons and closed on the enemy.