The Last of the Vikings Part 26

CHAPTER XXIX.

EDGAR ATHELING.

"Oh how wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favours!"

Shakespeare.

Sigurd, after the rebuff he had received at the hands of Oswald, sped him on his way to Scotland, aflame with a wrath which was about equally divided between Oswald and the Normans. He was accompanied by some half-dozen of his followers. And there, at the court of Malcolm of Scotland, he laid before the Prince Atheling his scheme for the recovery of the kingdom.

Now, Prince Edgar was a weak, voluptuous prince, who spent his days in dissipation, and surrounded by foreign parasites; but he was universally acknowledged to be the legitimate heir to the throne of England. Every one who knew him intimately had little hope of his ever winning it by force of arms, or of his worthily filling it, if it should ever be wrested from the grasp of the astute William. The Conqueror well knew the weakness of this princeling, and with consummate policy he kept him well supplied with money, knowing that if he had the means to gratify his vicious and effeminate disposition, he would not be easily moved to undertake any dangerous or arduous enterprise.

But the Atheling, like all weak and vacillating natures, could be false or fickle to his master William at very short notice. He was capable also, in a vain and feeble sort of way, of grasping at the English sceptre, for no better or n.o.bler motive than the desire to gratify his childish vanity, and to further indulge his voluptuous and sensual habits.

There was nothing in common between the fierce and fiery descendant of the Vikings, Sigurd, and this weatherc.o.c.k of princely descent. Sigurd was as valorous and uncompromising as the Atheling was ease-loving and cowardly. Still, it was quite easy for this enthusiast to infuse into the Prince's mind most exaggerated ideas of the rally of the Saxons under Oswald, and to lead him to believe that the prospect of regaining the throne of England was easy of achievement. He also managed to fan into a flame the petty jealousies of which the prince was capable, by representing to him that Oswald was intent on a.s.serting his own claims to the kingdom.

It was a matter of profound surprise to us, and not a little consternation also, when scarcely a month had elapsed from the date of Sigurd's expulsion from the camp, to find that Saxon runners everywhere throughout the kingdom were conveying the Prince's summons to all Saxon leaders, outlaws, and ecclesiastics, together with a certain number of freemen, and churls, who, according to Saxon laws, had the right to attend these parliaments, or witans, of the nation. The witan was summoned to meet in Lakesland, one of the wildest and most inaccessible parts of Northumbria. Oswald and I were summoned, and a number of those who owned Oswald's chieftainship.

We weighed carefully this matter, and we could not rid ourselves of the apprehension that Sigurd somehow was at the bottom of it, seeing that the _bodes_ who bare these summonses were followers of the Jarl.

Personally, I was much averse to the project, being unable to see what good could come of it, in our present feeble and distracted state. But Oswald considered it desirable that we should obey this summons as loyal Saxons. Accordingly, a company of us, under the leadership of Oswald, started for this rendezvous amid the Lakes. We were compelled to use the utmost secrecy in our movements, and travel by night, as the Normans were still thickly posted throughout the north. It would certainly have been most dangerous to travel by day, even with so small a company as ours. We were practically but two days march from the place of rendezvous. So we started after nightfall on the first day, and, by steadily pressing on, we covered one-half the distance, arriving ere it was daylight at a place of refuge evidently well known to our leader, but which came as a revelation to me, for we came upon a band of Saxons near to an inlet of the sea, which ran into a thickly wooded headland.

Here were a company of hardy men, partly fisherman, and partly traders and freebooters, who owned a vessel capable of carrying a considerable cargo; which bare sometimes Saxon refugees to foreign lands, at other times engaged in peaceful trading with distant ports, and had frequently been employed by armed bands of Saxons for the purpose of making swift descents upon their foes in various parts of the kingdom. From this source I found that wines and breadstuffs, as well as munitions of war, had systematically been supplied to the Saxon outlaws. I was told voyages were frequently made, not only to Ireland and Scotland, but even to ports on the Mediterranean sea.

Here we rested for the day, and at nightfall we went aboard this vessel; and, the wind being favourable, in a couple of hours they ran us across the bay of Morcam, landing us in sight of the Westmoreland hills, and certainly saving us more than a twenty miles' trudge. We were now within some eight miles of our destination, and still had the most of the night before us. Our sailor friends were able to tell us, also, that there was no encampment of Normans within many miles of our route; so we continued our march for an hour or two at a steady pace, without the slightest alarm or molestation. At last, our path lay through a narrow pa.s.s or defile in the mountains, and we were rapidly drawing near to the rendezvous. We now found it necessary to move with the utmost caution, for the path was rugged and narrow, and there was an eeriness about the place which was suggestive of anything uncanny. Huge boulders frequently confronted us, looming up out of the darkness so suddenly as quite to take my breath away. Oswald and I were a trifle ahead of the others, and were discussing to ourselves as to what could be the purpose of the Prince, in summoning at so unpropitious a time the Saxon witan.

"Does the Prince intend to take up arms, think you, my lord?" said I to Oswald.

"I expect little from the Atheling, Father, of that sort of thing. He is fickle, cowardly, and dissolute into the bargain. He dallied at the court of Malcolm at our last effort at York, until the cause was lost; and he sped him back again, and never stayed to strike a single blow. I am afraid some hare-brained purpose moves him, or some petty ambition which is unworthy of a prince, and which he will not back with any force of character, or any persistence. He will simply provoke a revolt which cannot be successful, whilst at the very first repulse he will vanish, and leave his unhappy followers to the relentless extermination policy of William."

"You have no faith in revolt, I think?"

"None whatever. It is absolutely hopeless. If we had but had a leader at York, brave and skilful as our last King Harold, and one who could have united us, the thing was half a.s.sured. But now Saxon graves hold prisoner for ever the flower of our people; and to attempt to offer an organised opposition to the Norman forces--why, it were sheer madness.

The only two points in the kingdom where any show of resistance is made, is our own little colony, and in Lincolnshire, where Hereward still precariously holds out."

"But does not the Prince know this, think you? Or is he incapable of grasping the situation?"

"The Prince, I have already intimated, is not a factor worth considering for a moment. I very strongly suspect that Sigurd is at the bottom of this. He, I believe, has stirred the Prince up either to ambition or to jealousy, and I should not wonder if I were arraigned as traitor as a preliminary to some madcap exploit of Sigurd's. Do not be in the least surprised if this gathering ends in dire mischief and disunion."

"What is that?" we both exclaimed in a breath, as we saw the figure of a man dart from behind a huge boulder, and swiftly run along the pa.s.s ahead of us.

"I like not that," said Oswald. "He has no friendly motive, I warrant;"

and he at once drew his sword, and called Wulfhere. "Your Grace had better take second rank," said he to me. Then, halting a moment till the company drew near, he addressed them.

"Men, have all your weapons ready."

Immediately every swordsman's blade gleamed in the darkness, and every archer's bow was unslung, and an arrow affixed.

"Rear guard!" said he, in an undertone.

"Aye, aye!" responded two gruff voices, which I knew to be Badger's and Bretwul's.

"Beware! and be ready; and keep close up. Now, men, let us move steadily forward."

So we pressed slowly and steadily forward, Oswald and Wulfhere pa.s.sing no boulder or obstruction without first carefully peering behind it to see if any foe ambushed there. Suddenly there was a halt, the sword of Oswald was uplifted, and I could descry a m.u.f.fled human figure standing in the centre of the path.

"Who art thou?" said Oswald. "Speak, or I will cleave thee from head to foot."

"Listen!" said the figure. "I am the shadow of a vanishing race. When Saxon hates Saxon and is greedier than greedy hawk for Saxon's blood; and when Saxon loves Norman habits, and makes friends of the hated oppressor; what hope is there of a restoration of the old race! If the Fates have decreed it, well--'tis enough. I only ask for a grave in some lonely spot, where the groans of my people will not disturb my long repose. But beware, Saxons! there are fierce enemies abroad--Saxon, too.

Beware! The would-be avenger has a sharp sword, and will not stay his hand. So beware! the swoop of the eagle is swift and strong, and his talons are sharp."

With that, the strange figure turned and fled along the pa.s.s with the speed of a mountain roe.

"That is a strange visitant," I said. "The voice might be the voice of a woman. I almost fancied I had heard it before."

"In any case, it is the voice of a friend. The warning is unmistakable; the enemy to be dreaded is Saxon also," said Oswald.

I began to wish most devoutly that the night were past. My nerves were quite unstrung, and the yelp of a fox, or wolf, in the vicinity, the flap-flap, of the night-owl's wing, or the scurrying footsteps of the rabbits, set me in a violent tremble. Oswald headed the party forward, though I would most gladly have called a halt, and waited for the clay.

We quickly found that our troubles were not yet past, for not a quarter of a mile had been traversed since our last visitant, when suddenly, and without warning, we were beset behind and before by armed men, who hurled themselves upon us with the fury of wild beasts. Oswald had only time to raise his shield to save himself from the furious stroke of some powerful enemy. Before I had time to realise it, friend and foe were laying about them with the fury of madmen. No sooner did I grasp the situation than immediately I rushed to the front, though it was at the imminent peril of my life. Lifting up the sacred emblem of my office, I cried,--

"Peace! In G.o.d's name, I charge peace!"

At the sight of the blessed cross the a.s.sailants recoiled a pace or two.

"Who are you?" I cried. "Saxon or Norman?"

"They are Saxon," said Oswald. "I know well who aimed the blows at my life. 'Tis Sigurd, one professing to be of our nation."

"I am not of thy nation, dastardly renegade, dancing attendance upon Norman wenches, and warring in silken hose."

"If I warred with as little sense and as little skill as thyself, I should soon be as impotent as thou art, and have never a Saxon left me to lead to battle."

"Sigurd," said I, in as authoritative tone as I could command, and still holding up the emblem of peace and goodwill to men, "I charge you, in G.o.d's name, that you call off your men, and cease this fratricidal strife."

"What care I, monk," said he fiercely, "for thy G.o.d? He is the G.o.d of cowards, and not of warriors."

But having breathed out this defiance, he gathered up a wounded comrade who had felt the keenness of Wulfhere's sword, and, without uttering another word, he headed his men for the hills.

"Now, my lord," said I, "what is to be done? This, I fear, is only a precursor of trouble and discord at our witan. I would you were willing even now to beat a retreat, nor take further risks to yourself and men, in so bootless an errand.

"The Prince professedly has summoned me, and I would not draw back until fully a.s.sured that mutual council is profitless," said Oswald.

"Let me go forward, my lord, and meet the Prince. I think my sacred office will protect me. If I think good will come of this gathering, I will communicate with you."

"No, Father; no man shall ever say I failed to respond to the call of my Prince, despisable though I believe him to be. Nor will my duty to my race and to my country permit me to stand aloof from this witan, for G.o.d knows we have need both of council and of all the wisdom left to us.

But, nevertheless, I have no faith in this gathering. The Prince, I doubt me, is an indolent sensualist, and, like all weak-minded men, most easily provoked into jealousy. The ominous figure we have just met is deeply involved in this scheme, I am now sure. A st.u.r.dy, valorous man, and a foeman of direst sort, but utterly incapable of moderation. He cherishes a mortal hatred of me, and I now know that I shall take my life in my hand when I enter the council; but that is a risk which gives me no uneasiness. So let us advance, for the light, I see, is breaking over the tops of the mountains, and very soon we shall have the day."

So, nerving ourselves for any contingency, we continued our march. This had now become much pleasanter, and infinitely easier, in consequence of the approach of day.