The Lady of Loyalty House Part 14

Evander reaped a reward for which he had not labored in his chivalry to a belligerent and besieged lady. For the gardens that a conqueror had preserved were now very fair indeed for a conquered man to walk in. The October sun shone as if the royal triumph, yonder at Edgehill and here at Harby, had rekindled summer on the chilling altar of the year, and the hues of the lingering flowers flamed in the celestial fires.

If Evander's thoughts were sable, he did not allow them to stain the fair day and his companion's gayety. Halfman swam now in the extravagance of admiration for so miraculous a Puritan. Halfman loved the apostles best on spoons of silver in a sea-bag swollen with loot, but of the men he had the best word for Peter, who could use a sword on occasion. And here was one of the saints on earth playing his rapier as bravely as if he had been a gentleman born or gentleman adventurer made, and had skimmed the seas and kissed and killed and pilfered.

He plied Evander, as they paced, with questions of swordsmanship and schools of arms and masters, of the Italian method and the Spanish method and the French method, and never caught his new Hector tripping over a push or a parade. They moved over danceable lawns or under the canopies of dim avenues, chattering of arms, till the soft October air tingled with the names of famous fencers, and Halfman was in fancy a lubber lad again at his first pa.s.sado.

But his wonder grew with their wanderings. They paused at the bowling-green and played a game which Evander won. They visited the stables where the horses now were rallied, that had lived hidden in farm-yard and cottage garden during the siege. Here Halfman learned that Evander liked hawks and loved horses, and knew their manage better than himself. Had Evander proclaimed himself a whisperer, it would not now have astonished Halfman.

Again, as they pa.s.sed by the orchard where Luke Gardener was busy, Halfman must needs bring Luke and Evander acquainted, whereupon the pair set straight to talking of garden talk and airing of weather wisdom in speech long since to him as unfamiliar as Hebrew. Here Evander's science wearied him, and he fairly dragged his captive away, declaring that there was yet much to see more honorable than herbs or brambles. Evander obeyed very contentedly, but they had not moved many paces when Luke came hobbling after, and, catching Halfman, drew him by the arm apart.

"Is yonder truly a d.a.m.nable Roundhead?" he questioned. Halfman nodded his head.

"Well," continued Luke, "for that he deserves to be hanged, and yet he has taught me a trick of grafting roses which he says the Dutch use that might serve to save a worser man from the gallows."

Without a word Halfman shook his arm free and rejoined Evander, who was moving slowly along a pathway leading towards an enclosure of fantastically clipped yews. Hearing the footsteps behind him, Evander halted till Halfman joined him.

"How the devil came you to fathom flower knowledge?" Halfman asked.

Evander smiled faintly.

"I would rather you unsaddled the devil from your question," he answered, rebuking in his mind a woman; "but I have always loved gardens. You have one here who is skilled in topiary," and he pointed towards the trim yew hedge they were approaching.

"Those are the green walls of my lady's pleasaunce," Halfman answered, "and the learned in such trifles call them mighty fine. But all I know of woodcraft is hatcheting me a path through virgin forest."

"Where, indeed, your topiarist would be ill at ease," Evander answered. "But I pray you let us retire, lest we intrude upon your lady."

"Never fear for that," said Halfman. "My lady is busy enough in-doors to-day, setting her house to rights, and you should not miss the comeliest nook in all the domain."

As he spoke he pa.s.sed under an archway of clipped yew, and, Evander following, the pair came upon a gra.s.sy s.p.a.ce entirely girdled with yew hedges, the sight of which instantly justified to Evander the praise of his companion. The enclosure made a circle some half an acre in size of the greenest turf imaginable, orderly bordered with seats of white marble and belted all about with the black greenness of the yew-tree hedge, which was fashioned like an Italian colonnade.

The arches afforded vistas of different and delightful prospects of the park at every quarter of the card--woodland, savanna-like lawns, flower-gardens, kitchen-gardens, and orchards in their pride.

"This is a lovely place," protested Evander. "One might sit here and dream of seeing the shy wood-nymphs flitting through these aisles--if one had no better thoughts for one's idleness," he added. Halfman laughed.

"There peeped out the Puritan," he said. "I had lost him this long while, but run him to earth in my lady's pleasaunce. Yet you are a queer kind of Puritan, too. You can fence like a Frenchman, you can play bowls as Father Jove plays with the globes of heaven, and you can ride like Diomed, the jolly Greek, who knew that horses could be stridden as well as driven."

Evander, who had seated himself and had been tracing cabalistic signs on the gra.s.s with his staff, looked up into his companion's face.

"Are not you rather a queer kind of Cavalier," he asked, "if you think that a Puritan must needs be a fool?"

Halfman laughed back at him, and as he laughed he showed his teeth so seeming white by contrast with his sunburned cheeks, and he seemed to Evander more than ever like some half-tamed beast of prey.

"You are no fool, Puritan," Halfman shouted, "or Heaven would not have wasted its time in gracing you with such skill at sports. So great with the rapier, so wise on the bias. No, no; you are no fool.

I am almost sad to think you quit us so soon, enemy though you be."

While Halfman had been babbling, Evander had again been busy with his staff. Halfman had paid no heed to his actions, being far too deep in his own phrases. Had he been attentive he might have noticed that at first Evander wrote on the green gra.s.s, as vainly as he might have written in water, a word, a name: Brilliana. Had he been attentive he might have noticed that Evander now wrote another word that was also a name and more than a name: Death. But he did not notice, and as he ended with his odd tribute to his enemy, Evander looked up at him with a calm face.

"I shall not quit you so soon," he said, in an even voice. "I have come to stay at Harby."

Halfman looked at him, puzzled.

"Stay at Harby," he repeated. "Nonsense, man; what are you thinking of? You will be riding hence in three days' time, when Sir Randolph is released."

Evander shook his head.

"Sir Randolph will not be released," he said. The quiet positiveness in his tone staggered Halfman. Stooping, with his hands resting on his knees, his unquiet eyes stared into Evander's quiet eyes.

"Sir Randolph will not be released! Why the devil will Sir Randolph not be released?"

Evander rose from his seat and rested his hand for a moment lightly on Halfman's arm, while he said, impressively:

"Say nothing of this to your lady, for Sir Randolph is her kinsman, and I think she holds him dear. Let ill news come late. But if Colonel Cromwell has taken a spy prisoner, that spy will very surely die."

Halfman stiffened himself. His eyes had never left Evander's, and he knew that Evander spoke what he believed. He gave a short laugh.

"And very surely if Sir Randolph be shot over yonder you will be shot down here."

"That," said Evander, still smiling, "is why I say that I have come to stay at Harby."

"You take your fate blithely," Halfman commented, scanning Evander with curiosity. He was familiar with the sight of men in peril of death; in most men he took courage for granted, but it was courage of a gaudier quality than the composure of the young Puritan, who had fenced with him and played bowls with him that very morning and talked so learnedly of roses with Luke, the gardener. Was there really something in the Puritan stuff that strengthened men's spirits? Evander answered his words and unconsciously his thoughts.

"I should not have taken up arms if I held my life too precious. It will need three days to get the answer, the inevitable answer, and in the mean time the autumn air is kind and these gardens delightful."

Halfman stared at him in an ecstasy of admiration, and then dealt him an applauding clap on the shoulder.

"Come to the kitchen-garden, philosopher," he cried. "A fellow of your phlegm should find pleasure in the contemplation of cabbages."

"It is a sage vegetable," Evander answered. "But I fear I tax your time. There must be much for you to do."

"I have done much already," Halfman replied. "But, indeed, these be busy times."

"Then," protested Evander, "when I have stared my fill at your meditative cabbage I shall entreat no more of your kindness but that you convoy me to the safe port of the library, where I shall be content enough."

"As you please," Halfman responded. "I was never a bookish man; I care for no books but play-books and these I carry here," and he beat his brown forehead. "But you may nose out some theologies in odd corners, as a pig noses truffles."

"I shall rout out something to fill my leisure I doubt not," Evander answered.

"Then hey for the kitchen-garden," cried Halfman, taking Evander's arm, and the two men, pa.s.sing through a yew arch opposite to that by which they had entered, left my lady's pleasaunce as solitary as they had found it.

XVI

A PURITAN APPRAISED

It did not remain solitary long. Unawares, the steps of Halfman and Evander had been dogged ever since they crossed the moat and set out on their pilgrimage through the gardens. Crouching behind hedges, lingering in coppices, peeping through thickets, two persistent trackers had pursued the unconscious quarry. Scarcely had the shadows of Evander and his companion vanished from the gra.s.ses of the pleasaunce than the pursuers emerged from the shelter of a yew screen and ran into the open, staring after the departing pair. Yet these pursuers were no stealthy enemies, but merely creatures spurred by an irresistible curiosity. One was stout and red faced and inclined to breathe hard after the fatigues of the chase. The other was slim and smooth, with ripe cheeks and bright eyes, lodgings for the insolence of youth. In a word, the hunters were Mistress Satch.e.l.l and pretty Tiffany, who had found their Puritan prisoner and visitor a being of considerable interest.

Mistress Satch.e.l.l turned a damp, shining face and a questioning eye upon Tiffany.