CHAPTER I
THE TRYSTING-PLACE
On the very day when Murgh the Messenger sailed forth into thatuttermost sea, a young man and a maiden met together at the Blythburghmarshes, near to Dunwich, on the eastern coast of England. In this, themonth of February of the year 1346, hard and bitter frost held Suffolkin its grip. The muddy stream of Blyth, it is true, was frozen only inplaces, since the tide, flowing up from the Southwold harbour, whereit runs into the sea between that ancient town and the hamlet ofWalberswick, had broken up the ice. But all else was set hard and fast,and now toward sunset the cold was bitter.
Stark and naked stood the tall, dry reeds. The blackbirds and starlingsperched upon the willows seemed swollen into feathery balls, the furstarted on the backs of hares, and a four-horse wain could travel insafety over swamps where at any other time a schoolboy dared not set hisfoot.
On such an eve, with snow threatening, the great marsh was utterlydesolate, and this was why these two had chosen it for their meetingplace.
To look on they were a goodly pair--the girl, who was clothed in the redshe always wore, tall, dark, well shaped, with large black eyes and adetermined face, one who would make a very stately woman; the man broadshouldered, with grey eyes that were quick and almost fierce, longlimbed, hard, agile, and healthy, one who had never known sickness, wholooked as though the world were his own to master. He was young, butthree-and-twenty that day, and his simple dress, a tunic of thick woolfastened round him with a leathern belt, to which hung a short sword,showed that his degree was modest.
The girl, although she seemed his elder, in fact was only in hertwentieth year. Yet from her who had been reared in the hard school ofthat cruel age childhood had long departed, leaving her a ripened womanbefore her time.
This pair stood looking at each other.
"Well, Cousin Eve Clavering," said the man, in his clear voice, "why didyour message bid me meet you in this cold place?"
"Because I had a word to say to you, Cousin Hugh de Cressi," sheanswered boldly; "and the marsh being so cold and so lonesome I thoughtit suited to my purpose. Does Grey Dick watch yonder?"
"Ay, behind those willows, arrow on string, and God help him on whomDick draws! But what was that word, Eve?"
"One easy to understand," she replied, looking him in theeyes--"Farewell!"
He shivered as though with the cold, and his face changed.
"An ill birthday greeting, yet I feared it," he muttered huskily, "butwhy more now than at any other time?"
"Would you know, Hugh? Well, the story is short, so I'll let it out. Ourgreat-grandmother, the heiress of the de Cheneys, married twice, did shenot, and from the first husband came the de Cressis, and from the secondthe Claverings. But in this way or in that we Claverings got thelands, or most of them, and you de Cressis, the nobler stock, took tomerchandise. Now since those days you have grown rich with yourfishing fleets, your wool mart, and your ferry dues at Walberswick andSouthwold. We, too, are rich in manors and land, counting our acres bythe thousand, but yet poor, lacking your gold, though yonder manor"--andshe pointed to some towers which rose far away above the trees uponthe high land--"has many mouths to feed. Also the sea has robbed us atDunwich, where I was born, taking our great house and sundry streetsthat paid us rent, and your market of Southwold has starved out ours atBlythburgh."
"Well, what has all this to do with you and me, Eve?"
"Much, Hugh, as you should know who have been bred to trade," and sheglanced at his merchant's dress. "Between de Cressi and Clavering therehas been rivalry and feud for three long generations. When we werechildren it abated for a while, since your father lent money to mine,and that is why they suffered us to grow up side by side. But then theyquarrelled about the ferry that we had set in pawn, and your fatherasked his gold back again, and, not getting it, took the ferry, which Ihave always held a foolish and strife-breeding deed, since from that dayforward the war was open. Therefore, Hugh, if we meet at all it must bein these frozen reeds or behind the cover of a thicket, like a villageslut and her man."
"I know that well enough, Eve, who have spoken with you but twice innine months." And he devoured her beautiful face with hungry eyes. "Butof that word, 'Farewell'----"
"Of that ill word, this, Hugh: I have a new suitor up yonder, a fineFrench suitor, a very great lord indeed, whose wealth, I am told, nonecan number. From his mother he has the Valley of the Waveney up toBungay town--ay, and beyond--and from his father, a whole county inNormandy. Five French knights ride behind his banner, and with them tensquires and I know not how many men-at-arms. There is feasting yonder atthe manor, I can tell you. Ere his train leaves us our winter provenderwill be done, and we'll have to drink small beer till the wine shipscome from France in spring."
"And what is this lord's name?"
"God's truth, he has several," she answered. "Sir Edmund Acour inEngland, and in France the high and puissant Count of Noyon, and inItaly, near to the city of Venice--for there, too, he has possessionswhich came to him through his grandmother--the Seigneur of Cattrina."
"And having so much, does he want you, too, as I have heard, Eve? And ifso, why?"
"So he swears," she answered slowly; "and as for the reason, why, Isuppose you must seek it in my face, which by ill-fortune has pleasedhis lordship since first he saw it a month ago. At the least he hasasked me in marriage of my father, who jumped at him like a winter pike,and so I'm betrothed."
"And do you want him, Eve?"
"Ay, I want him as far as the sun is from the moon or the world fromeither. I want him in heaven or beneath the earth, or anywhere away fromme."
At these words a light shone in Hugh's keen grey eyes.
"I'm glad of that, Eve, for I've been told much of this finefellow--amongst other things that he is a traitor come here to spy onEngland. But should I be a match for him, man to man, Eve?" he askedafter a little pause.
She looked him up and down; then answered:
"I think so, though he is no weakling; but not for him and the fiveknights and the ten squires, and my noble father, and my brother, andthe rest. Oh, Hugh, Hugh!" she added bitterly, "cannot you understandthat you are but a merchant's lad, though your blood be as noble as anyin this realm--a merchant's lad, the last of five brothers? Why wereyou not born the first of them if you wished for Eve Clavering, for thenyour red gold might have bought me."
"Ask that of those who begot me," said Hugh. "Come now, what's inyour mind? You're not one to be sold like a heifer at a faring and gowhimpering to the altar, and I am not one to see you led there while Istand upon my feet. We are made of a clay too stiff for a French lord'sfingers, Eve, though it is true that they may drag you whither you wouldnot walk."
"No," she answered, "I think I shall take some marrying against my wish.Moreover, I am Dunwich born."
"What of that, Eve?"
"Go ask your godsire and my friend, Sir Andrew Arnold, the old priest.In the library of the Temple there he showed me an ancient roll, acopy of the charter granted by John and other kings of England to thecitizens of Dunwich."
"What said this writing, Eve?"
"It said, among other things, that no man or maid of Dunwich can beforced to marry against their will, even in the lifetime of theirparents."
"But will it hold to-day?"
"Ay, I think so. I think that is why the holy Sir Andrew showed it tome, knowing something of our case, for he is my confessor when I can getto him."
"Then, sweet, you are safe!" exclaimed Hugh, with a sigh of relief.
"Ay, so safe that to-morrow Father Nicholas, the French chaplain in histrain, has been warned to wed me to my lord Acour--that is, if I'm thereto wed."
"And if this Acour is here, I'll seek him out to-night and challengehim, Eve," and Hugh laid hand upon his sword.
"Doubtless," she replied sarcastically, "Sir Edmund Acour, Count ofNoyon, Seigneur of Cattrina, will find it honour to accept the challengeof Hugh de Cressi, the merchant's youngest son. Oh, Hugh, Hugh! are
yourwits frozen like this winter marsh? Not thus can you save me."
The young man thought a while, staring at the ground and biting hislips. Then he looked up suddenly and said:
"How much do you love me, Eve?"
With a slow smile, she opened her arms, and next moment they werekissing each other as heartily as ever man and maid have kissed sincethe world began, so heartily, indeed, that when at length she pushed himfrom her, her lovely face was as red as the cloak she wore.
"You know well that I love you, to my sorrow and undoing," she said, ina broken voice. "From childhood it has been so between us, and till thegrave takes one or both it will be so, and for my part beyond it, ifthe priests speak true. For, whatever may be your case, I am not one tochange my fancy. When I give, I give all, though it be of little worth.In truth, Hugh, if I could I would marry you to-night, though you arenaught but a merchant's son, or even----" And she paused, wiping hereyes with the back of her slim, strong hand.
"I thank you," he answered, trembling with joy. "So it is with me. Foryou and no other woman I live and die; and though I am so humble I'llbe worthy of you yet. If God keeps me in breath you shall not blush foryour man, Eve. Well, I am not great at words, so let us come to deeds.Will you away with me now? I think that Father Arnold would find youlodging for the night and an altar to be wed at, and to-morrow our shipsails for Flanders and for France."
"Yes, but would your father give us passage in it, Hugh?"
"Why not? It could not deepen the feud between our Houses, which alreadyhas no bottom, and if he refused, we would take one, for the captain ismy friend. And I have some little store set by; it came to me from mymother."
"You ask much," she said; "all a woman has, my life, perchance, as well.Yet there it is; I'll go because I'm a fool, Hugh; and, as it chances,you are more to me than aught, and I hate this fine French lord. I tellyou I sicken at his glance and shiver when he touches me. Why, if hecame too near I should murder him and be hanged. I'll go, though Godalone knows the end of it."
"Our purpose being honest, the end will be good, Eve, though perhapsbefore all is done we may often think it evil. And now let's away,though I wish that you were dressed in another colour."
"Red Eve they name me, and red is my badge, because it suits my darkface best. Cavil not at my robe, Hugh, for it is the only dowry you willget with Eve Clavering. How shall we go? By the Walberswick ferry? Youhave no horses."
"Nay, but I have a skiff hidden in the reeds five miles furlongs off. Wemust keep to the heath above Walberswick, for there they might know yourred cloak even after dark, and I would not have you seen till we aresafe with Sir Arnold in the Preceptory. Mother of Heaven! what is that?"
"A peewit, no more," she answered indifferently.
"Nay, it is my man Dick, calling like a peewit. That is his sign whentrouble is afoot. Ah, here he comes."
As he spoke a tall, gaunt man appeared, advancing towards them. Hisgait was a shambling trot that seemed slow, although, in truth, he wascovering the ground with extraordinary swiftness. Moreover, he moved sosilently that even on the frost-held soil his step could not be heard,and so carefully that not a reed stirred as he threaded in and out amongtheir clumps like an otter, his head crouched down and his long bowpointed before him as though it were a spear. Half a minute more, and hewas before them--a very strange man to see. His years were not so many,thirty perhaps, and yet his face looked quite old because of its lackof colouring, its thinness, and the hard lines that marked wherethe muscles ran down to the tight, straight mouth and up to the bigforehead, over which hung hair so light that at a little distance heseemed ashen-grey. Only in this cold, rocky face, set very far apart,were two pale-blue eyes, which just now, when he chose to lift theirlids that generally kept near together, as though he were half asleep,were full of fire and quick cunning.
Reaching the pair, this strange fellow dropped to his knee and raisedhis cap to Eve, the great lady of the Claverings--Red Eve, as theycalled her through that country-side. Then he spoke, in a low, huskyvoice:
"They're coming, master! You and your mistress must to earth unless youmean to face them in the open," and the pale eyes glittered as he tappedhis great black bow.
"Who are coming, Dick? Be plain, man!"
"Sir John Clavering, my lady's father; young John, my lady's brother;the fine French lord who wears a white swan for a crest; three of thenights, his companions; and six--no seven--men-at-arms. Also from theother side of the grieve, Thomas of Kessland, and with him his marsh menand verderers."
"And what are they coming for?" he asked again. "Have they hounds, andhawk on wrist?"
"Nay, but they have swords and knife on thigh," and he let his pale eyesfall on Eve.
"Oh, have done!" she broke in. "They come to take me, and I'll not betaken! They come to kill you, and I'll not see you slain and live. I hadwords with my father this morning about the Frenchman and, I fear, letout the truth. He told me then that ere the Dunwich roses bloomed againshe who loved you would have naught but bones to kiss. Dick, you knowthe fen; where can we hide till nightfall?"
"Follow me," said the man, "and keep low!"
Plunging into the dense brake of reeds, through which he glided like apolecat, Dick led them over ground whereon, save in times of hard frost,no man could tread, heading toward the river bank. For two hundred pacesor more they went thus, till, quite near to the lip of the stream, theycame to a patch of reeds higher and thicker than the rest, in the centreof which was a little mound hid in a tangle of scrub and rushes. Once,perhaps a hundred or a thousand years before, some old marsh dwellerhad lived upon this mound, or been buried in it. At any rate, on itssouthern side, hidden by reeds and a withered willow, was a cavity ofwhich the mouth could not be seen that might have been a chamber for theliving or the dead.
Thrusting aside the growths that masked it, Dick bade them enter and liestill.
"None will find us here," he said as he lifted up the reeds behind them,"unless they chance to have hounds, which I did not see. Hist! be still;they come!"