"Her honour, her life, are alike in danger," said Bertha. "She has agreed to meet the Caesar in the field, and he will not hesitate, like a baseborn miscreant, to take every advantage in the encounter, which, I grieve to say, may in all likelihood be fatal to my mistress."
"Why dost thou think so?" answered Hereward. "This lady has won many single combats, unless she is belied, against adversaries more formidable than the Caesar."
"True," said the Saxon maiden; "but you speak of things that pa.s.sed in a far different land, where faith and honour are not empty sounds; as, alas! they seem but too surely to be here. Trust me, it is no girlish terror which sends me out in this disguise of my country dress, which, they say, finds respect at Constantinople: I go to let the chiefs of the Crusade know the peril in which the n.o.ble lady stands, and trust to their humanity, to their religion, to their love of honour, and fear of disgrace, for a.s.sistance in this hour of need; and now that I have had the blessing of meeting with thee, all besides will go well--all will go well--and I will back to my mistress and report whom I have seen."
"Tarry yet another moment, my recovered treasure!" said Hereward, "and let me balance this matter carefully. This Frankish lady holds the Saxons like the very dust that thou brushest from the hem of her garment. She treats--she regards--the Saxons as pagans and heretics.
She has dared to impose slavish tasks upon thee, born in freedom. Her father"s sword has been embrued to the hilt with Anglo-Saxon blood-- perhaps that of Waltheoff and Engelred has added death to the stain!
She has been, besides, a presumptuous fool, usurping for herself the trophies and warlike character which belong to the other s.e.x. Lastly, it will be hard to find a champion to fight in her stead, since all the crusaders have pa.s.sed over to Asia, which is the land, they say, in which they have come to war; and by orders of the Emperor, no means of return to the hither sh.o.r.e will be permitted to any of them."
"Alas! alas!" said Bertha, "how does this world change us! The son of Waltheoff I once knew brave, ready to a.s.sist distress, bold and generous. Such was what I pictured him to myself during his absence. I have met him again, and he is calculating, cold, and selfish!"
"Hush, damsel," said the Varangian, "and know him of whom thou speakest, ere thou judgest him. The Countess of Paris is such as I have said; yet let her appear boldly in the lists, and when the trumpet shall sound thrice, another shall reply, which shall announce the arrival of her own n.o.ble lord to do battle in her stead; or should he fail to appear-- I will requite her kindness to thee, Bertha, and be ready in his place."
"Wilt thou? wilt thou indeed?" said the damsel; "that was spoken like the son of Waltheoff--like the genuine stock! I will home, and comfort my mistress; for surely if the judgment of G.o.d ever directed the issue of a judicial combat, its influence will descend upon this. But you hint that the Count is here--that he is at liberty--she will enquire about that."
"She must be satisfied," replied Hereward, "to know that her husband is under the guidance of a friend, who will endeavour to protect him from his own extravagances and follies; or, at all events, of one who, if he cannot properly be called a friend, has certainly not acted, and will not act, towards him the part of an enemy.--And now, farewell, long lost--long loved!"--Before he could say more, the Saxon maiden, after two or three vain attempts to express her grat.i.tude, threw herself into her lover"s arms, and despite the coyness which she had recently shown, impressed upon his lips the thanks which she could not speak.
They parted, Bertha returning to her mistress at the lodge, which she had left both with trouble and danger, and Hereward by the portal kept by the negro-portress, who, complimenting the handsome Varangian on his success among the fair, intimated, that she had been in some sort a witness of his meeting with the Saxon damsel. A piece of gold, part of a late largesse, amply served to bribe her tongue; and the soldier, clear of the gardens of the philosopher, sped back as he might to the barrack--judging that it was full time to carry some supply to Count Robert, who had been left without food the whole day.
It is a common popular saying, that as the sensation of hunger is not connected with any pleasing or gentle emotion, so it is particularly remarkable for irritating those of anger and spleen. It is not, therefore, very surprising that Count Robert, who had been so unusually long without sustenance, should receive Hereward with a degree of impatience beyond what the occasion merited, and injurious certainly to the honest Varangian, who had repeatedly exposed his life that day for the interest of the Countess and the Count himself.
"Soh, sir!" he said, in that accent of affected restraint by which a superior modifies his displeasure against his inferior into a cold and scornful expression--"You have played a liberal host to us!--Not that it is of consequence; but methinks a Count of the most Christian kingdom dines not every day with a mercenary soldier, and might expect, if not the ostentatious, at least the needful part of hospitality."
"And methinks," replied the Varangian, "O most Christian Count, that such of your high rank as, by choice or fate, become the guests of such as I, may think themselves pleased, and blame not their host"s n.i.g.g.ardliness, but the difficulty of his circ.u.mstances, if dinner should not present itself oftener than once in four-and-twenty hours."
So saying, he clapt his hands together, and his domestic Edric entered.
His guest looked astonished at the entrance of this third party into their retirement. "I will answer for this man," said Hereward, and addressed him in the following words:--"What food hast thou, Edric, to place before the honourable Count?"
"Nothing but the cold pasty," replied the attendant, "marvellously damaged by your honour"s encounter at breakfast."
The military domestic, as intimated, brought forward a large pasty, but which had already that morning sustained a furious attack, insomuch, that Count Robert of Paris, who, like all n.o.ble Normans, was somewhat nice and delicate in his eating, was in some doubt whether his scrupulousness should not prevail over his hunger; but on looking more closely, sight, smell, and a fast of twenty hours, joined to convince him that the pasty was an excellent one, and that the charger on which it was presented possessed corners yet untouched. At length, having suppressed his scruples, and made bold inroad upon the remains of the dish, he paused to partake of a flask of strong red wine which stood invitingly beside him, and a l.u.s.ty draught increased the good-humour which had begun to take place towards Hereward, in exchange for the displeasure with which he had received him.
"Now, by heaven!" he said, "I myself ought to be ashamed to lack the courtesy which I recommend to others! Here have I, with the manners of a Flemish boor, been devouring the provisions of my gallant host, without even asking him to sit down at his own table, and to partake of his own good cheer!"
"I will not strain courtesies with you for that," said Hereward; and thrusting his hand into the pasty, he proceeded with great speed and dexterity to devour the miscellaneous contents, a handful of which was enclosed in his grasp. The Count now withdrew from the table, partly in disgust at the rustic proceedings of Hereward, who, however, by now calling Edric to join him in his attack upon the pasty, showed that he had, in fact, according to his manners, subjected himself previously to some observance of respect towards his guest; while the a.s.sistance of his attendant enabled him to make a clear cacaabulum of what was left.
Count Robert at length summoned up courage sufficient to put a question, which had been trembling upon his lips ever since Hereward had returned.
"Have thine enquiries, my gallant friend, learned more concerning my unfortunate wife, my faithful Brenhilda?"
"Tidings I have," said the Anglo-Saxon, "but whether pleasing or not, yourself must be the judge. This much I have learned;--she hath, as you know, come under an engagement to meet the Caesar in arms in the lists, but under conditions which you may perhaps think strange; these, however, she hath entertained without scruple."
"Let me know these terms,", said the Count of Paris; "they will, I think, appear less strange in my eyes than in thine."
But while he affected to speak with the utmost coolness, the husband"s sparkling eye and crimsoned cheek betrayed the alteration which had taken place in his feelings. "The lady and the Caesar," said Hereward, "as you partly heard yourself, are to meet in fight; if the Countess wins, of course she remains the wife of the n.o.ble Count of Paris; if she loses, she becomes the paramour of the Caesar Nicephorus Briennius."
"Saints and angels forbid!" said Count Robert; "were they to permit such treason to triumph, we might be pardoned for doubting their divinity!"
"Yet methinks," said the Anglo-Saxon, "it were no disgraceful precaution that both you and I, with other friends, if we can obtain such, should be seen under shield in the lists on the morning of the conflict. To triumph, or to be defeated, is in the hand of fate; but what we cannot fail to witness is, whether or not the lady receives that fair play which is the due of an honourable combatant, and which, as you have yourself seen, can be sometimes basely transgressed in this Grecian empire."
"On that condition," said the Count, "and protesting, that not even the extreme danger of my lady shall make me break through the rule of a fair fight, I will surely attend the lists, if thou, brave Saxon, canst find me any means of doing so.--Yet stay," he continued, after reflecting for a moment, "thou shalt promise not to let her know that her Count is on the field, far less to point him out to her eye among the press of warriors. O, thou dost not know that the sight of the beloved will sometimes steal from us our courage, even when it has most to achieve!"
"We will endeavour," said the Varangian, "to arrange matters according to thy pleasure, so that thou findest out no more fantastical difficulties; for, by my word, an affair so complicated in itself, requires not to be confused by the fine-spun whims of thy national gallantry. Meantime, much must be done this night; and while I go about it, thou, Sir Knight, hadst best remain here, with such disguise of garments, and such food, as Edric may be able to procure for thee. Fear nothing from intrusion on the part of thy neighbours. We Varangians respect each other"s secrets, of whatever nature they may chance to be."
CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIRST.
But for our trusty brother-in-law-and the Abbot, With all the rest of that consorted crew,-- Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels:-- Good uncle, help to order several powers To Oxford, or where"er these traitors are: They shall not live within this world, I swear.
RICHARD II.
As Hereward spoke the last words narrated in the foregoing chapter, he left the count in his apartment, and proceeded to the Blacquernal Palace. We traced his first entrance into the court, but since then he had frequently been summoned, not only by order of the Princess Anna Comnena, who delighted in asking him questions concerning the customs of his native country, and marking down the replies in her own inflated language; but also by the direct command of the Emperor himself, who had the humour of many princes, that of desiring to obtain direct information from persons in a very inferior station in their Court. The ring which the Princess had given to the Varangian, served as a pa.s.s- token more than once, and was now so generally known by the slaves of the palace, that Hereward had only to slip it into the hand of a princ.i.p.al person among them, and was introduced into a small chamber, not distant from the saloon already mentioned, dedicated to the Muses.
In this small apartment, the Emperor, his spouse Irene, and their accomplished daughter Anna Comnena, were seated together, clad in very ordinary apparel, as indeed the furniture of the room itself was of the kind used by respectable citizens, saving that mattra.s.ses, composed of eiderdown, hung before each door to prevent the risk of eavesdropping.
"Our trusty Varangian," said the Empress.
"My guide and tutor respecting the manners of those steel-clad men,"
said the Princess Anna Comnena, "of whom it is so necessary that I should form an accurate idea."
"Your Imperial Majesty," said the Empress, "will not, I trust, think your consort and your muse-inspired daughter, are too many to share with you the intelligence brought by this brave and loyal man?"
"Dearest wife and daughter," returned the Emperor, "I have hitherto spared you the burden of a painful secret, which I have locked in my own bosom, at whatever expense of solitary sorrow and unimparted anxiety. n.o.ble daughter, you in particular will feel this calamity, learning, as you must learn, to think odiously of one, of whom it has. .h.i.therto been your duty to hold a very different opinion."
"Holy Mary!" exclaimed the Princess.
"Rally yourself," said the Emperor; "remember you are a child of the purple chamber, born, not to weep for your father"s wrongs, but to avenge them,--not to regard even him who has lain by your side as half so important as the sacred Imperial grandeur, of which you are yourself a partaker."
"What can such words preface?" said Anna Comnena, in great agitation.
"They say," answered the Emperor, "that the Caesar is an ungrateful man to all my bounties, and even to that which annexed him to my own. house, and made him by adoption my own son. He hath consorted himself with a knot of traitors, whose very names are enough to raise the foul fiend, as if to s.n.a.t.c.h his a.s.sured prey!"
"Could Nicephorus do this?" said the astonished and forlorn Princess; "Nicephorus, who has so often called my eyes the lights by which he steered his path? Could he do this to my father, to whose exploits he has listened hour after hour, protesting that he knew not whether it was the beauty of the language, or the heroism of the action, which most enchanted him? Thinking with the same thought, seeing with the same eye, loving with the same heart,--O, my father! it is impossible that he could be so false. Think of the neighbouring Temple of the Muses!"
"And if I did," murmured Alexius in his heart, "I should think of the only apology which could be proposed for the traitor. A little is well enough, but the full soul loatheth the honey-comb." Then speaking aloud, "My daughter," he said, "be comforted; we ourselves were unwilling to believe the shameful truth; but our guards have been debauched; their commander, that ungrateful Achilles Tatius, with the equal traitor, Agelastes, have been seduced to favour our imprisonment or murder; and, alas for Greece in the very moment when she required the fostering care of a parent, she was to be deprived of him by a sudden and merciless blow!"
Here the Emperor wept, whether for the loss to be sustained by his subjects, or of his own life, it is hard to say.
"Methinks," said Irene, "your Imperial Highness is slow in taking measures against the danger."
"Under your gracious permission, mother," answered the Princess, "I would rather say he was hasty in giving belief to it. Methinks the evidence of a Varangian, granting him to be ever so stout a man-at-arms, is but a frail guarantee against the honour of your son-in-law--the approved bravery and fidelity of the captain of your guards--the deep sense, virtue, and profound wisdom, of the greatest of your philosophers"--
"And the conceit of an over-educated daughter," said the Emperor, "who will not allow her parent to judge in what most concerns him. I will tell thee, Anna, I know every one of them, and the trust which may be reposed in them; the honour of your Nicephorus--the bravery and fidelity of the Acolyte--and the virtue and wisdom of Agelastes--have I not had them all in my purse? And had my purse continued well filled, and my arm strong as it was of late, there they would have still remained. But the b.u.t.terflies went off as the weather became cold, and I must meet the tempest without their a.s.sistance. You talk of want of proof? I have proof sufficient when I see danger; this honest soldier brought me indications which corresponded with my own private remarks, made on purpose. Varangian he shall be of Varangians; Acolyte he shall be named, in place of the present traitor; and who knows what may come thereafter?"
"May it please your Highness," said the Varangian, who had been hitherto silent, "many men in this empire rise to dignity by the fall of their original patrons, but it is a road to greatness to which I cannot reconcile my conscience; moreover, having recovered a friend, from whom I was long ago separated, I shall require, in short s.p.a.ce, your Imperial license for going hence, where I shall leave thousands of enemies behind me, and spending my life, like many of my countrymen, under the banner of King William of Scotland"--
"Part with _thee_, most inimitable man!" cried the Emperor, with emphasis; "where shall I get a soldier--a champion--a friend--so faithful?"
"n.o.ble sir," replied the Anglo-Saxon, "I am every way sensible to your goodness and munificence; but let me entreat you to call me by my own name, and to promise me nothing but your forgiveness, for my having been the agent of such confusion among your Imperial servants. Not only is the threatened fate of Achilles Tatius, my benefactor; of the Caesar, whom I think my well-wisher; and even of Agelastes himself, painful, so far as it is of my bringing round; but also I have known it somehow happen, that those on whom your Imperial Majesty has lavished the most valuable expressions of your favour one day, were the next day food to fatten the chough and crow. And this, I acknowledge, is a purpose, for which I would not willingly have it said I had brought my English limbs to these Grecian sh.o.r.es."