They were now, however, no more alone, for round them circled and echoed the crying of many packs of wolves. In the forest of Machecoul the guardian demons of its lord had been let loose, and throughout all its borders poor peasant folk shivered in their beds, or crouched behind the weak defences of their twice barred doors. For they knew that the full pack never hunted in the Pays de Retz without bringing death to some wanderer found defenceless within the borders of that region of dread.
"Let us stop here," said Sholto; "if these howling demons attack us, we are at least in somewhat better case to meet them and fight it out till the morning than in the dense darkness of the woods."
In the centre of the open glade in which they found themselves, they stumbled against the trunk of a huge pine which had been blasted by lightning. It still stood erect with its withered branches stretching bare and angular away from the sea. About this the three Scots posted themselves, their backs to the corrugations of the rotting stump, and their swords ready in their hands to deal out death to whatever should attack them.
Well might Malise declare the powers of evil were abroad that night.
At times the three men seemed wholly ringed with devilish cries. Yells and howls as of triumphant fiends were borne to their ears upon the western wind. The noises approached nearer, and presently out of the dark of the woods shadowy forms glided, and again Sholto heard the soft pad-pad of many feet. Gleaming eyes glared upon them as the wolves trotted out and sat down in a wide circle to wait for the full muster of the pack before rushing their prey.
Sholto knew well how those in the service of Satan were able to change themselves into the semblance of wolves, and he never doubted for a moment that he and his friends were face to face with the direct manifestations of the nether pit. Nevertheless Sholto MacKim was by nature of a stout heart, and he resolved that if he had to die, it would be as well to die as became a captain of the Douglas guard.
The blue leme of summer lightning momentarily lit up the western sky.
The men could see the great gaunt pack wolves sitting upon their haunches or moving restlessly to and fro across each other, while from the denser woods behind rose the howling of fresh levies, hastening to the a.s.sistance of the first. Sholto noted in especial one gigantic she-wolf, which appeared at every point of the circle and seemed to muster and encourage the pack to the attack.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ALL THE WILD BEASTS APPEARED TO BE OBEYING THE SUMMONS OF THE WITCH WOMAN.]
The wild-fire flickered behind the jet black silhouettes of the dense trees so that their tops stood out against the pale sky as if carved in ebony. Then the night shut down darker than before. As the soundless lightning wavered and brightened, the shadows of the wolves appeared simultaneously to start forward and then retreat, while the noise of their howling carried with it some diabolic suggestion of discordant human voices.
"_La Meffraye! La Meffraye! Meffraye!_"
So to the excited minds of the three Scots the wolf legions seemed to be crying with one voice as they came nearer. All the wild beasts of the wood appeared to be obeying the summons of the witch woman.
The strain of the situation first told upon the Lord James Douglas.
"Great Saints!" he cried, "let us attack them and die sword in hand. I cannot endure much more of this."
"Stand still where you are. It is our only chance," commanded Sholto, as abruptly as if James Douglas had been a doubtful soldier of his company.
"It were better to find a tree that we could climb," growled Malise with a practical suggestiveness, which, however, came too late. For they dared not move out of the open s.p.a.ce, and the great trunk of the blasted pine rose behind them bare of branches almost to the top.
"Your daggers in your left hands, they are upon us!" cried Sholto, who, standing with his face to the west, had a lower horizon and more light than the others. The three men had cast their palmers" cloaks from their shoulders and now stood leaning a little forward, breathing hard as they waited the a.s.sault of foes whom they believed to be frankly diabolic and instinct with all the powers of h.e.l.l. This required greater courage than storming many fortifications.
Almost as he spoke Sholto became aware that a fierce rush of s.h.a.ggy beasts was crossing the scanty gra.s.s towards him. He saw a vision of red mouths, gleaming teeth, and hairy b.r.e.a.s.t.s, into the leaping chaos of which he plunged and replunged his sword till his arm ached. Mostly the stricken died snapping and tearing at each other; but ever and anon one stronger than the rest would overleap the barrier of dead and dying wolves that grew up in front of the three men, and Sholto would feel the teeth click clean and hard upon the mail of his arm or thigh before he could stoop to despatch the brute with the dirk which he grasped in his left hand.
The rush upon Sholto"s side fortunately did not last long, but while it continued the battle was strange and silent and grim--this notable fight of man and beast. As the youth at last cleared his front of a hairy monster that had sprung at his throat, he found himself sufficiently free to look round the trunk of the blasted pine that he might see how it fared with his companions.
At first he could see nothing clearly, for the same strange and weird conditions continued to permeate the earth and air.
For a moment all would be dark and then flash on continuous flash would follow, the wild-fire running about the tree-tops and glinting up through the recesses of the woods as if the heavens themselves were instinct with diabolic light.
As he looked, Sholto saw his father, a gigantic figure standing black and militant against the brightest of it. His hand grasped a huge wolf by the heels, and he swung the beast about his head as easily as he was wont to handle the forehammer at home. With his living weapon Malise had swept a s.p.a.ce about him clear, and the beasts seemed to have fallen back in terror before such a strange enemy.
But what of the Lord James? Overleaping the pile of dead and dying wolves which his sword and dagger had made, and from which savage heads still bit and snarled up at him as he went, Sholto ran round to seek the young Lord of Avondale. At the first flash after leaving the tree trunk he was nowhere to be seen, but a second revealed him lying on the ground, with four s.h.a.ggy beasts bending over him and tearing fiercely at his gorget and breast-armour. With a loud shout Sholto was among them. He pa.s.sed his sword through and through the largest, and in its fall the wounded monster turned and bit savagely at the fore leg of a companion. The bone cracked as a rotten branch snaps underfoot, and in another moment the two animals were rolling over and over, locked together in the death grapple.
Once, twice, and thrice Sholto struck right and left. The rest of the beasts, seemingly astonished by the sudden flank attack, turned and fled. Then, pushing off a huge wounded brute which lay gasping out its life in red jets upon the breast of the fallen man, he dragged James Douglas back to the tree which had been their fortress and propped him up against the trunk.
At the same moment a long wailing cry from the forest called the wolves off. They retreated suddenly, disappearing apparently by magic into the depths of the forest, leaving their dead in quivering heaps all about the little bare glade where the unequal fight had been fought.
Malise the Brawny flung down the wolf whose head had served him with such deadly effect as a weapon against his brethren. The beast had long been dead, with a skull smashed in and a neck dislocated by the sweeping blows it had dealt its kin.
"Sholto! My Lord James!" cried Malise, coming up to them hastily. "How fares it with you?"
"We are both here," answered his son. "Come and help me with the Lord James. He has fallen faint with the stress of his armour."
After the disappearance of the wolves the unearthly brilliance of the wild-fire gradually diminished, and now it flickered paler and less frequently.
But another hail from Sholto revealed to Malise the whereabouts of his companions, and presently he also was on his knees beside the young Lord of Avondale.
Sholto gave him into the strong arms of Malise and stood erect to listen for any renewal of the attack. The wise smith, whose skill as a leech was proverbial, carefully felt James Douglas all over in the darkness, and took advantage of every flicker of summer lightning to examine him as well as his armour would permit.
"Help me to loosen his gorget and ease him of his body mail," said Malise, at last. "He has gotten a bite or two, but nothing that appears serious. I think he has but fainted from pressure."
Sholto bent down and with his dagger cut string by string the stout leathern twists which secured the knight"s mail. And as he did so his father widened it out with his powerful fingers to ease the weight upon the young man"s chest.
Presently, with a long sigh, James Douglas opened his eyes.
"Where are the wolves?" he said, with a grimace of disgust. Sholto told him how all that were left alive had, for the present at least, disappeared.
"Ugh, the filthy brutes!" said Lord James. "I fought till the stench of their hot breaths seemed to stifle me. I felt my head run round like a dog in a fit, and down I went. What happened after that?"
"This," said Malise, sententiously, pointing to the heaps of dead wolves which were becoming more apparent as the night ebbed and the blue flame rose and fell like a fluttering pulse along the horizon.
"Then to one or the other of you I owe my life," said Lord James Douglas, reaching a hand to both.
"Sholto dragged you from under half a dozen of the devils," said Malise.
"My father it was who brought you to," said Sholto.
"I thank you both with all my heart--for this as for all the rest. I know not, indeed, where to begin," said James Douglas, gratefully.
"Give me your hands. I can stand upright now."
So saying, and being a.s.sisted by Malise, he rose to his feet.
"Will they come again?" he asked, as with an intense disgust he surveyed the battle-field in the intermittent light from over the marshes.
"Listen," said Malise.
The low howling of the wolves had retreated farther, but seemed to retain more and more of its strange human character.
"_La Meffraye! La Meff--raye!_" they seemed to wail, with a curious swelling upon the last syllable.
"I hear only the yelling of the infernal brutes," said the Lord James; "they seem to be calling on their patron saint--the woman whom we saw in the house of the poor cripple. I am sure I saw her going to and fro among the devils and encouraging them to the a.s.sault."
""Tis black work at the best," answered Malise; "these are no common wolves who would dare to attack armed men--demons of the nethermost pit rather, driven on by their h.e.l.lish hunt-mistress. There will be many dead warlocks to-morrow throughout the lands of France."
"Stand to your arms," cried Sholto, from the other side of the tree.
And indeed the howling seemed suddenly to grow nearer and louder. The noise circled about them, and they could again perceive dusky forms which glided to and fro in the faint light among the arches of the forest.
In the midst of the turmoil Malise took off his bonnet and stood reverently at prayer.