"The book! the book!" cried the guests. "They dare not rend the holy book!"
So for the third time Rosamund advanced, bearing the missal.
"Knights," she said, "you have torn my kerchief and drunk my wine.
Now I offer this hallowed writing--to him who can read it best."
"Give it to G.o.dwin," said Wulf. "I am a swordsman, not a clerk."
"Well said! well said!" roared the company. "The sword for us--not the pen!" But Rosamund turned on them and answered:
"He who wields sword is brave, and he who wields pen is wise, but better is he who can handle both sword and pen--like my cousin G.o.dwin, the brave and learned."
"Hear her! hear her!" cried the revellers, knocking their horns upon the board, while in the silence that followed a woman"s voice said, "Sir G.o.dwin"s luck is great, but give me Sir Wulf"s strong arms."
Then the drinking began again, and Rosamund and the ladies slipped away, as well they might--for the times were rough and coa.r.s.e.
On the morrow, after most of the guests were gone, many of them with aching heads, G.o.dwin and Wulf sought their uncle, Sir Andrew, in the solar where he sat alone, for they knew Rosamund had walked to the church hard by with two of the serving women to make it ready for the Friday"s ma.s.s, after the feast of the peasants that had been held in the nave. Coming to his oaken chair by the open hearth which had a chimney to it--no common thing in those days--they knelt before him.
"What is it now, my nephews?" asked the old man, smiling. "Do you wish that I should knight you afresh?"
"No, sir," answered G.o.dwin; "we seek a greater boon."
"Then you seek in vain, for there is none."
"Another sort of boon," broke in Wulf.
Sir Andrew pulled his beard, and looked at them. Perhaps the Prior John had spoken a word to him, and he guessed what was coming.
"Speak," he said to G.o.dwin. "The gift is great that I would not give to either of you if it be within my power."
"Sir," said G.o.dwin, "we seek the leave to ask your daughter"s hand in marriage."
"What! the two of you?"
"Yes, sir; the two of us."
Then Sir Andrew, who seldom laughed, laughed outright.
"Truly," he said, "of all the strange things I have known, this is the strangest--that two knights should ask one wife between them."
"It seems strange, sir; but when you have heard our tale you will understand."
So he listened while they told him all that had pa.s.sed between them and of the solemn oath which they had sworn.
"n.o.ble in this as in other things," commented Sir Andrew when they had done; "but I fear that one of you may find that vow hard to keep. By all the saints, nephews, you were right when you said that you asked a great boon. Do you know, although I have told you nothing of it, that, not to speak of the knave Lozelle, already two of the greatest men in this land have sought my daughter Rosamund in marriage?"
"It may well be so," said Wulf.
"It is so, and now I will tell you why one or other of the pair is not her husband, which in some ways I would he were. A simple reason. I asked her, and she had no mind to either, and as her mother married where her heart was, so I have sworn that the daughter should do, or not at all--for better a nunnery than a loveless bridal.
"Now let us see what you have to give. You are of good blood--that of Uluin by your mother, and mine, also on one side her own. As squires to your sponsors of yesterday, the knights Sir Anthony de Mandeville and Sir Roger de Merci, you bore yourselves bravely in the Scottish War; indeed, your liege king Henry remembered it, and that is why he granted my prayer so readily. Since then, although you loved the life little, because I asked it of you, you have rested here at home with me, and done no feats of arms, save that great one of two months gone which made you knights, and, in truth, gives you some claim on Rosamund.
"For the rest, your father being the younger son, your lands are small, and you have no other gear. Outside the borders of this shire you are unknown men, with all your deeds to do--for I will not count those Scottish battles when you were but boys. And she whom you ask is one of the fairest and n.o.blest and most learned ladies in this land, for I, who have some skill in such things, have taught her myself from childhood. Moreover, as I have no other heir, she will be wealthy. Well, what more have you to offer for all this?"
"Ourselves," answered Wulf boldly. "We are true knights of whom you know the best and worst, and we love her. We learned it for once and for all on Death Creek quay, for till then she was our sister and no more."
"Ay," added G.o.dwin, "when she swore herself to us and blessed us, then light broke on both."
"Stand up," said Sir Andrew, "and let me look at you."
So they stood side by side in the full light of the blazing fire, for little other came through those narrow windows.
"Proper men; proper men," said the old knight; "and as like to one another as two grains of wheat from the same sample. Six feet high, each of you, and broad chested, though Wulf is larger made and the stronger of the two. Brown and waving-haired both, save for that line of white where the sword hit yours, G.o.dwin--G.o.dwin with grey eyes that dream and Wulf with the blue eyes that shine like swords. Ah! your grandsire had eyes like that, Wulf; and I have been told that when he leapt from the tower to the wall at the taking of Jerusalem, the Saracens did not love the light which shone in them--nor, in faith, did I, his son, when he was angry. Proper men, the pair of you; but Sir Wulf most warriorlike, and Sir G.o.dwin most courtly."
"Now which do you think would please a woman most?"
"That, sir, depends upon the woman," answered G.o.dwin, and straightway his eyes began to dream.
"That, sir, we seek to learn before the day is out, if you give us leave," added Wulf; "though, if you would know, I think my chance a poor one."
"Ah, well; it is a very pretty riddle. But I do not envy her who has its answering, for it might well trouble a maid"s mind, neither is it certain when all is done that she will guess best for her own peace. Would it not be wiser, then, that I should forbid them to ask this riddle?" he added as though to himself and fell to thinking while they trembled, seeing that he was minded to refuse their suit.
At length he looked up again and said: "Nay, let it go as G.o.d wills Who holds the future in His hand. Nephews, because you are good knights and true, either of whom would ward her well--and she may need warding--because you are my only brother"s sons, whom I have promised him to care for; and most of all because I love you both with an equal love, have your wish, and go try your fortunes at the hands of my daughter Rosamund in the fashion you have agreed. G.o.dwin, the elder, first, as is his right; then Wulf. Nay, no thanks; but go swiftly, for I whose hours are short wish to learn the answer to this riddle."
So they bowed and went, walking side by side. At the door of the hall, Wulf stopped and said:
"Rosamund is in the church. Seek her there, and--oh! I would that I could wish you good fortune; but, G.o.dwin, I cannot. I fear me that this may be the edge of that shadow of woman"s love whereof you spoke, falling cold upon my heart."
"There is no shadow; there is light, now and always, as we have sworn that it should be," answered G.o.dwin.
Chapter Four: The Letter of Saladin
Twas past three in the afternoon, and snow clouds were fast covering up the last grey gleam of the December day, as G.o.dwin, wishing that his road was longer, walked to Steeple church across the meadow. At the door of it he met the two serving women coming out with brooms in their hands, and bearing between them a great basket filled with broken meats and foul rushes. Of them he asked if the Lady Rosamund were still in the church, to which they answered, curtseying:
"Yes, Sir G.o.dwin; and she bade us desire of you that you would come to lead her to the Hall when she had finished making her prayers before the altar."
"I wonder," mused G.o.dwin, "whether I shall ever lead her from the altar to the Hall, or whether--I shall bide alone by the altar?"
Still he thought it a good omen that she had bidden him thus, though some might have read it otherwise.
G.o.dwin entered the church, walking softly on the rushes with which its nave was strewn, and by the light of the lamp that burnt there always, saw Rosamund kneeling before a little shrine, her gracious head bowed upon her hands, praying earnestly. Of what, he wondered--of what?
Still, she did not hear him; so, coming into the chancel, he stood behind her and waited patiently. At length, with a deep sigh, Rosamund rose from her knees and turned, and he noted by the light of the lamp that there were tear-stains upon her face.
Perhaps she, too, had spoken with the Prior John, who was her confessor also. Who knows? At the least, when her eyes fell upon G.o.dwin standing like a statue before her, she started, and there broke from her lips the words:
"Oh, how swift an answer!" Then, recovering herself, added, "To my message, I mean, cousin."