The other whirled around.
"De Lacy!" he exclaimed; "by St. Luke, I am overjoyed to see you, I seek the Duke--get me an audience at once."
"Come," said Aymer, and they hastened to the White Tower.
Just as they reached the upper landing the door of the great council chamber opened and Gloucester came out, followed by Buckingham.
"Ha, De Bury! what brings you in such haste?" Richard demanded. "What is amiss in the North?"
"It may be much and it may be little, so please you," said Sir John, removing his bonnet and bowing slightly.
"Follow me," said the Duke, and descending to the second floor they entered the small room next the chapel, leaving De Lacy on guard without.
Slowly the minutes pa.s.sed. Once Aymer heard Buckingham"s voice raised as though in sharp argument. Then it ceased abruptly, and he knew that Richard had silenced him. A little later Stafford laughed, and this time was joined by De Bury. At length, the door opened and Gloucester called him:
"Summon twenty of the guard," he said. "Lead them hither yourself."
At the outer door De Lacy came upon Raynor Royk.
"Twenty of the guard instantly," he ordered.
From across the courtyard De Wilton had seen Aymer, and he was already sauntering toward him. De Lacy motioned for him to make haste. "It has come," he said, as De Wilton joined him.
"Oh, has it! Well, it took you long enough to find it, surely. And may I ask, what has come?"
"The next move in the Duke"s game."
"In sooth! When--what--how?"
"Now, my dear Sir Ralph. The how is yonder with Raynor Royk. If you wish to know the what, come with me."
Up the stairway Royk led his men, following close after the two Knights. On the second landing the Protector was waiting.
"Now, attend," he said to De Lacy. "I return to the Council. You will bring the men up very quietly and post them without. The instant I strike on the table, fling open the door and arrest every man. Do you yourself stand in the pa.s.sage and stop any that would escape. Let none use weapon unless necessary . . . but if an axe were to fall by accident upon either Stanley or Ely, no punishment would follow," and he smiled significantly.
"I think I understand," said De Lacy; and Richard, carelessly brushing a bit of dust from his black doublet, turned away.
Raynor Royk chuckled when he learned the orders.
"I will attend to Stanley myself," he said. "My axe arm at times has an ugly habit of sudden weakness when the weapon is swung high."
De Lacy nodded. "Get yourself into position," he replied shortly; for, of a truth, he little liked the business. Yet there might be no delay, and he followed after the soldiers with De Wilton at his side.
Raynor ma.s.sed his men before the door and he himself was close against it with his hand upon the latch. From within came numerous voices; presently these were silent and the Protector spoke in angry tones, though what he said De Lacy could not distinguish. Then a single voice replied, and De Wilton had scarce time to whisper, "Hastings," when the signal came.
With a crash, Raynor Royk hurled back the heavy door, and the soldiers rushed in.
Around the long table in the center of the apartment were gathered the members of the Council, and at its foot stood the Duke of Gloucester, one hand upon his dagger, the other pointing at the Lord Chamberlain.
In an instant Hastings was seized by two of the soldiers, and all was wild confusion.
Lord Stanley, divining some sinister design as Raynor Royk sprang toward him with upraised weapon, sought safety in a sudden and inglorious dive under the table. Yet quick as he was, the old retainer was quicker. His heavy axe came down with a sweep, and never more would the fickle Stanley have played the dastard had not a carved chair arm stayed, for an instant, the weapon"s fall. Ere it had shorn its way through the oak, Stanley was safe from death, though the edge sc.r.a.ped his head glancingly, sending the blood flying and leaving him unconscious on the floor.
The Bishop of Ely escaped the axe aimed at him by a hurried retreat to the rear of the room out of the general melee; for he was shrewd enough instantly to comprehend that, while there might be fatal danger to him in the crowd, there was but little when he stood aloof: G.o.d"s Bishops were not wont to be murdered deliberately in public. Yet it did not save him from arrest, for Raynor glanced at the Protector, and reading the order in his face stalked back and clapping Morton on the shoulder said gruffly: "Come, Lord Bishop."
The whole affair was over almost as quickly as begun, and the Duke of Gloucester never so much as changed position during the tumult, save to lower the hand that had menaced Hastings. Then, when all the counsellors were crowded together and surrounded by the soldiers, he spoke quietly, addressing Raynor Royk:
"Commit the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Ely, and Lord Stanley to the Garden Tower. See that Stanley"s hurts be dressed. Release the others, save the traitor Hastings. Him conduct to the Chapel Green, and let his head be stricken from his fell carca.s.s without delay, save for absolution if he so desire it. . . Gentlemen, attend me."
Adjusting his cloak the Protector quitted the apartment and in silence descended to the courtyard. There he drew his arm within Stafford"s, and dismissing the others proceeded slowly toward the royal lodge at the southeast angle of the fortress.
"Verily will this day live in England"s history," said De Wilton.
"Stoney Stratford was but a game of marteaux beside it."
"But when ends it?" said De Lacy solemnly.
"Yonder, on the throne in Westminster," De Wilton replied, almost in a whisper.
"Nay, I mean the final end. Methinks I hear the rattle of armor and the splintering of spears."
At that moment the file of soldiers emerged from the White Tower with Lord Hastings in their midst, walking with the same grace and ease of carriage that always distinguished him, his face calm and serene. As his eyes fell upon the two younger Knights, who were moving slowly toward the river gate, he said a word to Raynor Royk, and the column halted. Raising his voice, that had rung over so many stricken fields, leading the very flower of York"s chivalry, he called:
"Be Lacy! De Wilton! . . . Will you not," as they hurried to him, "by your oath of pity and humility, accompany me to the block? It is hard enough, G.o.d knows, that one who has both rank and blood should die without trial or legal judgment; yet that none but hirelings should be with me at the end is inhuman beyond measure. Look at yonder sycophants, who but an hour ago hung upon my slightest gesture, now hurrying from me as though I had the plague."
"Whatever we can do, my lord," said De Lacy, "pray command. I would we had power to stay your doom."
Hastings smiled sadly. "I shall not detain you long. Lead on, my man."
It was but a step to the Chapel, and seeing that neither block nor headsman was in waiting he shrugged his shoulders and laughed sarcastically:
"Not honored even by the usual partic.i.p.ants," he remarked. "Yon log of timber and a common axe must serve the purpose. A strange undoing for one who has ridden boot to boot with Edward . . . a Lord Chamberlain and Captain of Calais."
"My Lord of Hastings!" said Raynor Royk, with doffed bonnet and in a voice so changed from its usual gruffness that De Lacy and De Wilton both marked it with surprise, "it grieves me ill that I, who have followed the Sable Maunch so oft in battle, should lead you to your death. Yet I may not shirk my duty, as you, great warrior as you are, well know. But if there be aught I can do to aid you, that touches not mine honor (for, my lord, we have what we call honor as well as those who wear the yellow spurs), speak but the word."
Hastings stepped forward and placed his hand upon the old retainer"s shoulder. "My good fellow," he said gravely, "there are many with golden spurs who are far less worthy to wear them than are you. Not always does honor, nay nor chivalry either, dwell beneath the banner or pennon of the Knight. Permit me a word apart with these kind friends."
For answer, Raynor Royk gave a sharp order and the soldiers drew out of earshot.
"Need I say to you, Sir Aymer de Lacy, and you, Sir Ralph de Wilton,"
said Hastings, "how deeply I appreciate your great kindness in coming with me here. Place yourselves in my position and you will know the comfort you have given me. It would be foolish to say I am willing to die; I love life as well as any man; yet bear me witness that I meet my doom as becomes a Peer of England. I have but two requests to make of you, my friends--for though you both are of Gloucester"s Household, yet have you been friends to me this day, as Knight to Knight, for you owe me no obligation. I ask that when yonder deed be done you recall to the Lord Protector his brother Edward"s dying wish that I might lie by his side in Windsor Chapel. And lastly, I pray you bear to my sweet Countess the a.s.surance of my endless love and adoration. Give her this ring and (pressing it to his lips) say that it bears my dying kiss.
Tell her"--and his voice broke, and for the first time in this man"s life tears started to his eyes and trickled down his ruddy cheeks--"tell her that my last thought was of her . . . tell her that I wish not Heaven save it bring her dear face to me." He mastered his emotion. "Farewell, my friends," extending his hands, and they silently grasped them, "may G.o.d, in His Providence, grant you a kinder death than mine."
Then with placid face and voice he turned to Raynor Royk, who stood leaning on his axe in evident distress of mind.
"I am at your service, my good man," he said. "Dispatch the business quickly and do not, I pray you, bungle it at the stroke."
Removing his handsome cloak, he opened his doublet at the neck, and with quiet dignity walked to the piece of heavy timber that had been used in repaving the Chapel only the previous day, and which lay across the green. Raynor Royk made a motion, and a tall soldier stepped forth. Hastings knelt as the man stopped beside him and drew back his doublet, baring his neck for the blow.
"Strike true, fellow," he said, and calmly placed his head upon the timber"s end.