Despite this avalanche of iron, the rebel ring stove off the tide of war. They were stout churls and hardy, these peasant plunderers; death admonished them; despair tightened their sinews and propped up their shields. The shimmering flood swirled on their spear points like tawny billows tossing round a rock. It lapped and eddied, rushed up in spray, seeking an inlet, yet finding none. The Lauretian feudatories had swarmed to the charge. Fulviac withstood them, and held their panoply at bay.
Richard the King watched the battle from the southern heights. He saw Morolt"s men roll down, saw the fight seethe and glitter, swirl in a wild vortex round the rebel spears. The war wolves gathered, the tempest waxed, and still the black ring held. Like steel upon a granite rock the onslaughts sparked on it, but clove no breach. Under the late noon sun the valley reeked with dust and din. The royal host was as a dragon of gold, gnashing and writhing about an iron tower.
It was then that the King smote his thigh, plucked off his signet, sent it by Bertrand his herald to Sir Simon and his knights.
"Go down at the gallop," ran the royal bidding, "cleave me this rock, and splinter it to dust. Spare neither man nor horse. Cleave in or perish."
The black banner of Imbrecour flapped forth; the trumpets clamoured.
Sir Simon"s knights might well have graced Boiardo"s page, and girded Albracca with their stalwart spears. They tightened girths, set shields for the charge, and rode down n.o.bly to avenge or fall.
As a great ship sails to break a harbour boom, so did the squadrons of the King crash down with fewtred spears on Fulviac"s host. They rode with the wind, leaping and thundering like an iron flood. No slackening was there, no wavering of this ponderous bolt. It rushed like a huge rock down a mountain"s flank, smoking and hurtling on the wall of spears.
The corn was scythed and trodden under foot. Ranks rocked and broke like earth before a storm-scourged sea. The spears of Imbrecour flashed on, smote and sucked vengeance, cleaving a breach into the core of war.
The knights slew, took scarlet for their colour, and made the moment murderous with steel. Into the breach the King"s wolves followed them; Morolt"s grim axemen stumbled in, rending and hurling the black ma.s.s to shreds. Battle became butchery. The day was won.
What boots it to chronicle the scene that travelled as a forest fire in the track of Sir Simon"s chivalry? The iron hand of the King closed upon the wrecked victims in the valley. Knight and n.o.ble trampled the peasantry; rapine and l.u.s.t were put to the sword. The Blatant Beast was slain by the spear of Romance. The boor and the demagogue were trodden as straw before the threshing-floor of vengeance. The fields were a shroud of scarlet; Tamar ran like wine; thorn and bramble were fruited red with blood. On the heights the tall pines waved over the splendid masque of death.
It was late in the day when Morolt and his hillsmen, with certain of Sir Simon"s knights, forced their way through the wreckage of the fight, to the hillock where stood the banner of the Saint. South, east, and west the rout bubbled into the twilight, a riot of slaughter seething to the distant woods. About Yeoland"s banner had gathered the last of the Forest brotherhood, grey wolves red to the throat with battle. Sullen and indomitable, they had gathered in a dusky knot of steel as the day sped into the kindling west. Even Morolt"s fierce followers stood still, like hounds that had brought the boar to bay. Simon of Imbrecour spurred out before the spears, lifted a shattered sword, and called on Fulviac by name.
"Traitor, we challenge ye."
A burly figure in harness of a reddish hue towered up beneath the fringe of the banner of the Saint. He carried an axe slanted over his shoulder, as he stood half a head above the tallest of his men. As Sir Simon challenged him, he lifted his salade, and bared his face to the war dogs who hemmed him in.
"Black Leopard of the West, we meet again."
The Lord of Imbrecour peered at him keenly from under his vizor.
"Come, sirs, and end it," quoth the man in red, "buffet for buffet, and sword to sword. I fling ye a gauge to death and the devil. Come, sirs, let us end it; I bide my time."
Morolt sprang forward with sword aloft.
"Traitor and rebel, I have seen your face before."
Fulviac laughed, a brave burst of scorn. He tossed his axe to them, and spread his arms.
"Ha, Morolt, I have foined with ye of old. Saints and martyrs, have I avenged myself upon the lap-dogs of the court! Here will we fight our last battle. Bury me, sirs, as Fulk of Argentin, the King"s brother, whom men thought dead these seven years."
A sudden silence hovered above that remnant of a beaten host. The red banner drooped, hung down about its staff. Morolt, uttering a strange cry, smote his bosom with his iron hand. Old Simon crossed himself, turned back and rode thence slowly from the field.
Morolt"s voice, gruff and husky, sounded the charge. When he and his war dogs had made an end, they took Fulviac"s head and bore it wrapped in Yeoland"s banner to the King.
XLIII
Under the starry pall of night, the last cry of the clarion of tragedy sounded over wood and meadow. Gilderoy, proud city of the south, had closed her gates against the royal host, wise at the eleventh hour as to the measure of the King"s mercy. The wreckage from the battle in the valley had washed on Tamar"s bosom past the walls, corpses jostling each other in the stream of death. Vultures had hovered in the azure sky.
There was no doom for Gilderoy save the doom of the sword.
The moon rose red amid a whorl of dusky clouds, veiled as with scarlet for the last orgies of war. Gilderoy had been carried by a.s.sault.
Morolt"s barbarians were pouring through the streets; the gates yawned towards the night; bells boomed and clashed. The townsfolk were scurrying like rats for the great square where the remnant of the garrison had barricaded the entries, gathering for a death-struggle under the umbrage of the cathedral towers.
Richard the King had ridden into Gilderoy by the northern gate with Sir Simon of Imbrecour and a strong guard of knights and men-at-arms.
Fulviac"s head danced on a spear beside the Golden Banner of Lauretia.
The citadel had opened its gates to Sire Julian of Layonne. In the square before the ruined abbey of the Benedictines the King and his n.o.bles gathered to await the judgment of the hour.
A great bell boomed through the night, a deep panting sound in the warm gloom. Torrents of steel clashed through the narrow streets, gleaming under the torch flare, bubbling towards the last rampart of revolt.
From the cathedral square arose a wild, whimpering outcry, the wailing of women mingling with the hoa.r.s.e clamour of the last a.s.sault.
Word was brought to the King by one of Morolt"s esquires, that the townsfolk were holding the great square behind their barricades, and pouring a hot fire from the houses upon his troops. Morolt desired the King"s ring and his commands before taking to the resource of the sword.
Richard of the Iron Hand was in no mood for mercy. His decree went forth from before the gate of the ruined abbey.
"Consider no church as a sanctuary. Fire the houses about the square.
Gilderoy shall burn."
The city"s doom was sealed by those iron words. The torch took up the handiwork of the sword. A gradual glow began to rise above the house-tops; smoke billowed up, black and voluminous, dusted with a myriad ruddy stars. Flames rose from cas.e.m.e.nt and from gable, from chimney, spirelet, roof, and tower. The houses were faced with wood, dry as tinder, crisp for the torch as a summer-bleached prairie. The flames ran like a red flood from roof to roof, with a roar as from huge reptiles battling in a burning pit. The great square, with the glittering pinnacles of its cathedral, was girded in with fire and sword.
Men were stabbing and hewing upon the barricades where Morolt"s feudatories had stormed up from the gloom of the streets. Beneath the light of the burning houses, swords were tossed, the dead forgotten and trodden under foot. It was not long before the barriers were carried by a.s.sault and the avengers of Belle Foret poured pitiless into the great square.
The citizens of Gilderoy had packed their women and children into the sanctuary of the cathedral choir. They were penned there amid the gorgeous gildings of the place, a shivering flock swarming in the frescoed chapels, huddled beneath the painted figures of the saints.
The glow of the burning city beat in through the jewelled gla.s.s, building the huge aisles in a glittering cavern windowed with living gems. Darkness and dawn struggled and fought under the thundering vaults. From without came the wild babel, the hoa.r.s.e death-moan of a people.
In the great square the fight went on, a ruthless melee, strong and terrible. Gilderoy had slaughtered her n.o.blesse. She made expiation for the deed that night with the heart"s blood of her children. Vengeance and despair grappled and swayed in that great pit of death. The blazing streets walled in a red inferno, where pa.s.sions ran like Satanic wine.
Gilderoy, proud city of the south, quivered and expired beneath the iron gauntlet of the King.
Modred of Gambrevault moved through the press with Morolt of the North fighting at his side. They had a common quest that night, a common watchword, chastening the vengeance of their men.
"Seek the Saint. Save Yeoland of Gambrevault."
It was as a hoa.r.s.e shout, feeble and futile amid the bl.u.s.ter of a storm.
What hope was there for this pale-faced Madonna amid the burning wreck of Gilderoy? She was as a lily in a flaming forest. Modred sought for her with voice and sword, thinking of Flavian and the vow upon the cliff. Though the city lightened, black Modred"s heart was steeped in gloom. Death and despair seemed armed against his hope.
On the eastern quarter a little court stood back from the great square.
A fountain played in the centre, the water-jet, thrown from a mermaid"s bosom, sparkling like a plume of gems. The walls of the court were streaked with flame, its cas.e.m.e.nts tawny with yellow light. The breath of the place was as the breath of a furnace; a quaking crowd filled it, driven to bay by the swords shining in the square.
Modred was a tall man, a pine standing amid hollies. Staring into the murk of the court wreathed round with a garland of fire, he saw, above the heads of the crowd, a woman standing on the steps of the fountain, leaning against the brim of the basin. Her hair blew loose from under her open ba.s.sinet; her white face like a flower was turned mutely to the night. A cuira.s.s glimmered under her cloud of hair. Modred, when he saw her, sent up a shout like that of a wrecked mariner sighting a sail over tumbling waves. He tossed his sword, charged forward into the court, began to buffet his way towards the figure by the fountain.
A knot of soldiery, taking his shout as a rallying cry, stormed after him into the court. There was a great crush in the entry, men tumbling in, and using their swords as poniards. The townsfolk were scattered like blown leaves towards the burning houses. In the hot turmoil of the moment the girl was swept from the fountain steps, and carried by a struggling bunch of figures towards a corner of the court. Modred lost sight of her for the moment, as he ploughed forward through the press.
Flames were rushing from cas.e.m.e.nt and from roof; the breath of the place was as the breath of a burning desert. The Gilderoy rebels pent in the court were being put to the sword. Through the swirl of the struggle Yeoland"s ba.s.sinet shone out again. Modred saw her standing alone, shading her face with her hands like some wild, desperate thing, knowing not whither to escape. He pushed on, calling her by name. Before he could reach her the gabled front of a house undermined by the fire lurched forward, tottered, and came down with a roar.
A blazing brand struck Modred on the helmet. He staggered, beheld a shower of sparks, felt a scorching wind upon his face. The stones were littered with crackling woodwork, glowing timber, reeking tiles. He was stunned for a moment as by the blow of a mace. Flames were leaping heavenwards from the houses, wiping out the mild faces of the stars with their ruthless hands.
With a great cry Modred had started forward like a charging bull. He dragged aside the smouldering wreckage of gable and roof, tore the rafters aside, nor heeded the heat, for his harness helped him. His great body quivered as he drew the girl out and lifted her from the stones. Her green kirtle was alight, and with the strong instinct of the moment he ran with her to the fountain and plunged her bodily in the broad basin.
Panting, he bore her across the great square in his arms. Yeoland was making a little moaning whimper, but for all else lay quiet as a half-dead bird. Modred dared not look into her face; the scent of her scorched hair beat up into his nostrils. He ground his teeth and cursed Fate as he ran. Was it for this that they had bulwarked Gambrevault?