The White Gauntlet Part 17

"Oh! that's it," muttered the cornet, turning and riding back to communicate the intelligence to his superior officer.

"Let's go up, and make their acquaintance," said the latter, as Stubbs delivered his report. "We shall reconnoitre these rustic beauties of Bucks, giving them the advantage of their holiday habiliments. What say you, Stubbs?"

"Agreeable," was the laconic reply of the cornet.

"_Allons_! as they say in France. We may find something up yonder worth climbing the hill for. As they also say in France, _nous verrons_!"

Ordering the troopers to dismount, and stand by their horses--their own being given to a brace of grooms--the two officers, in full armour as they were, commenced ascending the slope that led to the Saxon encampment.

Volume One, Chapter XVIII.

"So, good, people!" said Scarthe, as soon as he and his companion had entered within the enclosure, "holding holiday are you? An admirable idea in such fine weather--with the azure sky over your heads, and the green trees before your faces. Pray don't let us interrupt your Arcadian enjoyment. Go on with the sports! I hope you have no objection to our becoming spectators?"

"No! no!" cried several voices in response, "you are welcome, sirs! you are welcome!"

Having thus spoken their permission, the people once more dispersed themselves over the ground; while the two officers, arm in arm, commenced strolling through the encampment--followed by a crowd of the lower cla.s.s of peasants, who continued to gratify their curiosity by gazing upon the steel-clad strangers.

Sir Marmaduke and his friends had returned to their former stand--upon the elevated crest of the moat, and at some distance from the causeway, where the officers had entered. The latter saunteringly proceeded in that direction; freely flinging their jests among the crowd who accompanied them; and now and then exchanging phrases of no very gentle meaning, with such of the peasant girls as chanced to stray across their path.

The host of the fete had resolved not to offer the intruders a single word of welcome. The rude demand made by the comet, coupled with the coa.r.s.e dialogue between the two officers--part of which he had overheard--had determined Sir Marmaduke to take no notice of them, until they should of themselves declare their errand.

He had ordered the morris dance to be resumed. In front of where he stood the dancers had reformed their figures; and, with streaming ribbons and ringing bells, were again tripping it over the turf.

"By the toes of Terpsich.o.r.e, a morris dance!" exclaimed the captain of cuira.s.siers, as he came near enough to recognise the costume and measure. "An age since I have seen one!"

"Never saw one in my life," rejoined Stubbs; "except on the stage. Is it the same?"

No doubt Stubbs spoke the truth. He had been born in the ward of Cheap, and brought up within the sound of Bow-bells.

"Not quite the same," drawled the captain, "though something like--if I remember aright. Let's forward, and have a squint at it."

Hastening their steps a little, the two officers soon arrived on the edge of the circle; and without taking any notice of the "people of quality," who were stationed upon the platform above, they commenced flinging free jibes among the dancers.

Some of these made answer with spirit--especially Little John and the Jolly Friar, who chanced to be fellows of a witty turn; and who in their own rude fashion gave back to the two intruders full value for what they received.

Bold Robin--who appeared rather a surly representative of Sherwood's hero--bore their sallies with an indifferent grace--more especially on perceiving that the eyes of the cuira.s.sier captain became lit up with a peculiar fire, while following Maid Marian through the mazes of the dance.

But the heart of the pseudo-outlaw was destined to be further wrung. A climax was at hand. As Marian came to the close of one of her grandest _pas_, the movement had inadvertently brought her close to the spot where the cuira.s.sier captain was standing.

"Bravo! beautiful Marian!" cried the latter, bending towards her, and clasping her rudely around the waist. "Allow a thirsty soldier to drink nectar from those juicy lips of thine."

And without finishing the speech, or waiting for her consent--which he knew would be refused--he protruded his lips through the visor of his helmet, till they came in contact with those of the girl.

A blow from a clenched feminine fist, received right in his face, neither disconcerted nor angered the daring libertine; who answered it by a loud reckless laugh, in which he was joined by his cornet, and chorussed by some of the less sentimental of the spectators.

There were others who did not seem inclined to treat the affair in this jocular fashion.

Cries of "Shame!" "Pitch into him!" "Gie it him, Robin!" were heard among the crowd; and angry faces could be seen mingled with the merry ones.

The idol of England's peasantry needed not such stimulus to stir him to action. Stung by jealousy, and the insult offered to his sweetheart, he sprang forward; and, raising his crossbow--the only weapon he carried-- high overhead, he brought it down with a "thwack" upon the helmet of the cuira.s.sier captain, which caused the officer to stagger some paces backward ere he could recover himself.

"Take that, dang thee!" shouted Robin, as he delivered the blow. "Take that; an' keep thy scurvy kisses to thyself."

"Low-born peasant!" cried the cuira.s.sier, his face turning purple as he spoke, "if thou wert worthy a sword, I'd spit thee like a red-herring.

Keep off, churl, or I may be tempted to take thy life!"

As he uttered this conditional threat, he drew his sword; and stood with the blade pointing towards the breast of bold Robin.

There was an interval of profound silence. It was terminated by a voice among the crowd crying out:--"Yonder comes the man that'll punish him!"

All eyes were turned towards the elevated platform, on which stood the "people of quality." There was a commotion among the cavaliers. One, who had separated from the rest, was seen hurrying down the sloping side of the moat, and making direct for the scene of the contention.

He had only a dozen steps to go; and, before either the pseudo-outlaw of Sherwood-forest, and his mailed adversary, could change their relative positions, he had glided in between them.

The first intimation the cuira.s.sier had of a true antagonist, was, when a bright sword-blade rasped against his own, striking sparks of fire from the steel; and he beheld standing in front of him, no longer a "low-born peasant," clad in Kendal Green, but a cavalier in laced doublet, elegantly attired as himself, and equally as determined.

This new climax silenced the spectators, as suddenly, as if the wand of an enchanter had turned them into stone; and it was not till after some seconds had elapsed that murmurs of applause rose round the ring, coupled with that popular cry, "_Huzza for the black horseman_!"

For a moment the captain of cuira.s.siers seemed awed into silence. Only for a moment, and only by the suddenness of the encounter. Swaggerer as he may have been, Scarthe was no coward; and under the circ.u.mstances even a coward must have shown courage. Though still under the influence of a partial intoxication, he knew that bright eyes were upon him; he knew that high-born dames were standing within ten paces of the spot; and, though hitherto, for reasons of his own, pretending to ignore their presence, he knew they had been spectators of all that had pa.s.sed. He had no intention, therefore, of showing the white feather.

Perhaps it was the individual, who had thus presented himself, as much as his sudden appearance, that held him for the moment speechless: for in the antagonist before him, Scarthe recognised the cavalier, who in front of the roadside inn had daringly drunk--

"To the People!"

The souvenir of this insult, added to this new defiance, furnished a double stimulus to his resentment--which at length found expression in words.

"You it is, disloyal knave? You!"

"Disloyal or not," calmly returned the cavalier, "I demand reparation for the slight you have offered to this respectable a.s.semblage. Your free fashions may do for Flanders--where I presume you've been practising them--but I must teach you to salute the fair maidens of England in a different style."

"And who are you, who propose to give the lesson?"

"No _low-born peasant_, Captain Richard Scarthe! Don't fancy you can screen yourself behind that coward's cloak. You must fight, or apologise?"

"Apologise!" shouted the soldier, in a furious voice, "Captain Scarthe apologise! Ha! ha! ha! Hear that Cornet Stubbs? Did you ever know _me_ to apologise?"

"Never, by Ged!" muttered Stubbs in reply.

"As you will then," said the cavalier, placing himself in an att.i.tude to commence the combat.

"No, no!" cried Maid Marian, throwing herself in front of Holtspur, as if to screen his body with her own. "You must not, sir. It is not fair. He is in armour, and you, sir--"

"No--it arn't fair!" proclaimed several voices; while at the same moment, a large fierce-looking man, with bushy black beard, was seen pushing his way through the crowd towards the spot occupied by the adversaries.

"Twoant do, Master Henry," cried the bearded man as he came up. "You mustn't risk it that way. I know ye're game for any man on the groun', or in England eyther; but it arn't fair. The sodger captain must peel off them steel plates o' his; and let the fight be a fair 'un. What say ye, meeats?"

This appeal to the bystanders was answered by cries of "Fair play! fair play! The officer must take off his armour!"

"Certainly," said Walter Wade, at this moment coming up. "If these gentlemen are to fight, the conditions must be equal. Of course, Captain Scarthe, you will not object to that?"