His fellow had rolled over in his death-struggles, and so might have been slain from my window in the house-front. Curls of smoke were coming up from under the thatch by now; and Ford, making up his mind, ran out with the others, and flung himself upon the door.
"We had left it latched; and so it gave enough of resistance in his blind attack to justify him in believing it was still held from within.
It fell inwards, at last, with a crash; and Ford sprang triumphantly across the threshold. His fellows rushed after him, trying now to beat out the fire."
Warrenton paused, and all fell again to watching the leaping flames.
"Meanwhile I guessed that your mother was safe, and had already alarmed the villagers," continued the old retainer. "So, with a shout, I rushed out upon the villains, with the lad, and pulled the broken door back to its place, shutting them in, that they might enjoy their own fell work in all security. Two of them did attempt escape just since by leaping from out of the window. But my bow was ready strung for them."
"Have you killed four men, then, Warrenton?" said Robin, his blood running cold. Then suddenly the full meaning of it flashed upon him.
"And Ford?" he cried, with a gesture of horror, "and the two others?"
"Nay," said Warrenton, grimly. "I had come round here to see whether they had preference for fire or for my arrows, having left the boy to guard the front. Then I saw you and young Stuteley, and in my chattering I had nigh come to forget them. But there is Master Ford beckoning to us from your own room."
A frenzied, dreadful figure had indeed appeared for a brief instant amongst the thick curling smoke. It waved two hopeless hands out towards the falling dusk, and then incontinently vanished.
A thin scream sounded in Robin"s ears, as a rush of flame mercifully swallowed up this apparition: like as not, "twas the sound of the fire itself. The end had come, both to the unhappy foresters and Robin"s home. With a huge torrent of noise the roof of it crushed in, half stifling the fire.
Then the flames seized full mastery; and amid a shower of sparks, the red tongues licked and devoured the last of their prey.
Robin hastened to find his mother, that he might be relieved of his anxiety and be rid for the moment of the sight of the awful catastrophe of the fire. Warrenton and Stuteley rushed in together, at his command, to try to save the two remaining foresters; but it was a very forlorn hope. Warrenton in his just revenge had pushed things to their extreme limits: Master Ford and all his band had paid the utmost penalty of their failure to overcome this relentless old man.
Mistress Fitzooth had secured refuge and was now much calmer. She embraced her son and wept over him in joy at this reunion. Robin could see, however, that she was indeed much overwrought by these troubles.
She had not yet recovered from the loss of her husband.
They stayed with these poor people, who found room for them somehow, out of sheer charity, for neither Robin nor the dame had any money. It was a bitter business, in sooth: and next day Robin, finding his mother far from well, humbled himself to beg a.s.sistance from the Squire. He despatched the letter by Warrenton, and then patiently set himself to wait a reply.
Also, he determined to seek an audience with the Prince. His home had been burned, his small patrimony gone: he had now no means of keeping himself and the dame from starvation save by living on another man"s bread.
The clerk, his one tried friend, was gone--no one knew where.
The Prince would surely yield him the right to be Ranger at Locksley in his father"s place! The house had been given to dead Hugh Fitzooth by Henry, the King.
An uneasy feeling took possession of Robin, for Warrenton had defied and overcome the Sheriff"s man when he had been properly empowered to expel mother and son from Locksley, and there were seven dead men, nay eight, to be accounted for--and they were all of them King"s Foresters.
Montfichet answered him by sending a purse of money and a curt letter saying that Mistress Fitzooth was to come to Gamewell, where for the rest of her days she would always find a home. For Robin he could do nothing: already the Sheriff had drawn up a proclamation of outlawry against him, setting the price of a hundred crowns upon him, living or dead.
CHAPTER XV
Mistress Fitzooth never saw Gamewell or her brother again. Her disorder took a sudden and fatal turn; and within a week Robin found himself doubly an orphan--without home, money, or hope. Only two good friends had he--little Stuteley and staunch Warrenton.
The Squire had refused to see the latter and had sent him the reply to Robin"s note by one of the servants. Montfichet was angered with Warrenton because he had been deceived by him.
Robin laid his mother to rest beside his father. That was as long as he might dare stay in Locksley. Every day he feared to be seized by Master Monceux"s myrmidons. Stuteley kept watch on the road through Sherwood by day and Warrenton by night.
The morning of the interment brought news of danger. One of the few faithful foresters of Locksley was at his post--the rest, having no master, had disported themselves upon their own various errands--and he heard from a shepherd that a body of soldiers were journeying to Locksley. Full two score and ten of them there were; one, the leader, carrying a warrant for Robin"s arrest. The forester hastened to save his young master.
The time was short. Robin had scarcely pause to perform the last sad offices above his mother"s grave ere he must be flying for his life.
His only chance was to take to the woods and hide in them.
Warrenton urged him to seek shelter in the thicker forest about Barnesdale, at the north-western end of Sherwood. Whispers gave a story that the higher parts were honeycombed with strange caves; and all the countryside knew that away in Barnesdale were the headquarters and camps of Will o" th" Green. It was the place of all others for shelter; and Stuteley became joyful in the thought of the adventures that must chance to them therein.
Warrenton was sober, however, over it. He had a presentiment that the days would be hard and the food scanty and plain. Still "twas a man"s life, after all.
They nearly plunged themselves into the hands of the enemy by mistaking their road.
So it chanced that Robin spied his old enemy Simeon Carfax and narrowly missed being seen also by him. The three fugitives hid themselves high up in the branches of a tree; and watched with beating hearts their enemies hurrying onward to Locksley. With the band of soldiers, pikemen, and foresters were two whom Robin observed narrowly. Sounds of their talk reached his ears; and, since these two fellows rode somewhat apart from the rest, Robin was able to distinguish their chattering.
He had unfailing ear for a voice. These were those traitors in Will"s band, the two outlaws whom he had encountered on the day of the joustings at Nottingham Fair. "Roger and Micah," murmured Robin to himself, after listening a while. "Yes, those were the names they used _then_. So, friends, I am forearmed against you, for I will step with heavy foot in your concerns by-and-by--when I do find Master Will o" th"
Green! Roger--and Micah--I"ll not forget."
Soon as they had pa.s.sed, the three slid quietly to the ground and thereafter betook themselves very cautiously through the wood. Robin determined to find Will soon as he might and lay his case before him.
The outlaw would give him refuge, no doubt.
The noise of the soldiers pa.s.sed away in a murmuring discordance, and the three fugitives walked now more boldly towards Barnesdale. Ere sundown they were very heartily tired. They lay themselves down in the long gra.s.ses and while two slumbered the third watched.
Such foods as dry bread and berries were all that they could command; but there was water in plenty. The evening came, and after it night--and so to break of the next day.
Robin would have recommenced the flight soon as they had bathed themselves in a little shallow stream. Ere an hour of daylight was theirs, sounds of hurried approach warned them to be alert. Someone was crashing recklessly through the wood, following their trail clearly.
Robin bade Warrenton and little Stuteley hide on either hand whilst he put himself directly in the path of this pursuer.
It proved to be none other than that one faithful forester of Locksley who had warned him of the soldiery. Robin welcomed him all the more gladly when he heard that this good fellow meant to throw in his own fortunes with those of his unjustly treated young master.
He had news for them, too. It transpired that Master Carfax had several duties in hand--as was his wont. First, he had to seize Robin and bring him, alive or dead, to the Sheriff. Next he was to declare all the Fitzooth property to be confiscated; and, having put seal upon any of it that might be left from the fire, he had to instal as temporary Ranger one of the Sherwood men whom he might think fit and trustworthy. Then a messenger was to be despatched with another parchment to the Abbot of York: writ this time in true Norman tongue.
After these things were executed Master Simeon was to turn his men about, and march them determinedly upon the outlaws" stronghold, which was now known to be at Barnesdale, and exterminate the band.
A task none so easy, after all!
For the satisfactory doing of these small commissions Carfax was to receive one hundred and fifty pieces of gold; and also would be accepted by the Sheriff as a fitting husband for the pale, hard-eyed demoiselle, Marie of Monceux. "Twas this reward that made Master Simeon desperate and dangerous.
The forester, John Berry by name, told Robin further that Carfax had clothed his body in chain-mail, and was carrying a dreadful axe in his belt--with which to avenge the insult put upon him in the matter of the stag"s horns.
"Let us seek Barnesdale forthwith," said Robin. "I am all agog to warn Will o" th" Green--for he has been a stout friend to me."
"Hurry then, master," cried Berry, the forester. "You are not far from the Barnesdale road. In sooth, as I followed your tracks, I wondered how you had come so far within a very short s.p.a.ce. You are now within touch of Gamewell."
It was true. In the mazy forest they had nearly described a circle, and were now perilously nigh to Gamewell and the squire.
An idea came to Robin. He turned to Warrenton.
"Could we but find that underground path whereby cousin Geoffrey came and went from the pleasance, old friend," said he, "why--we might play the Yellow Lady to purpose!"