CHAPTER 25
It was the custom to conclude the ceremonies of the bestowal ofknighthood by a grand feast given in honor of the newly-created knight.But in Myles's instance the feast was dispensed with. The Earl ofMackworth had planned that Myles might be created a Knight of the Bathwith all possible pomp and ceremony; that his personality might bemost favorably impressed upon the King; that he might be so honorablyknighted as to make him the peer of any who wore spurs in all England;and, finally, that he might celebrate his new honors by jousting withsome knight of high fame and approved valor. All these desiderata chancehad fulfilled in the visit of the King to Devlen.
As the Earl had said to Myles, he would rather have waited a littlewhile longer until the lad was riper in years and experience, but theopportunity was not to be lost. Young as he was, Myles must takehis chances against the years and grim experience of the Sieur de laMontaigne. But it was also a part of the Earl's purpose that the Kingand Myles should not be brought too intimately together just at thattime. Though every particular of circumstance should be fulfilled in theceremony, it would have been ruination to the Earl's plans to have theknowledge come prematurely to the King that Myles was the son ofthe attainted Lord Falworth. The Earl knew that Myles was a shrewd,coolheaded lad; but the King had already hinted that the name wasfamiliar to his ears, and a single hasty answer or unguarded speech uponthe young knight's part might awaken him to a full knowledge. Such amishap was, of all things, to be avoided just then, for, thanks to themachinations of that enemy of his father of whom Myles had heard somuch, and was soon to hear more, the King had always retained and stillheld a bitter and rancorous enmity against the unfortunate nobleman.
It was no very difficult matter for the Earl to divert the King'sattention from the matter of the feast. His Majesty was very intentjust then upon supplying a quota of troops to the Dauphin, and the chiefobject of his visit to Devlen was to open negotiations with the Earllooking to that end. He was interested--much interested in Myles and inthe coming jousting in which the young warrior was to prove himself, buthe was interested in it by way of a relaxation from the other and moreengrossing matter. So, though he made some passing and half preoccupiedinquiry about the feast he was easily satisfied with the Earl's reasonsfor not holding it: which were that he had arranged a consultation forthat morning in regard to the troops for the Dauphin, to which meetinghe had summoned a number of his own more important dependent nobles,that the King himself needed repose and the hour or so of rest thathis barber-surgeon had ordered him to take after his mid-day meal; thatFather Thomas had laid upon Myles a petty penance--that for the firstthree days of his knighthood he should eat his meals without meat andin his own apartment--and various other reasons equally good andsufficient. So the King was satisfied, and the feast was dispensed with.
The next morning had been set for the jousting, and all that day theworkmen were busy erecting the lists in the great quadrangle upon which,as was said before, looked the main buildings of the castle. The windowsof Myles's apartment opened directly upon the bustling scene--thecarpenters hammering and sawing, the upholsterers snipping, cutting,and tacking. Myles and Gascoyne stood gazing out from the open casement,with their arms lying across one another's shoulders in the old boyhoodfashion, and Myles felt his heart shrink with a sudden tight pang asthe realization came sharply and vividly upon him that all thesepreparations were being made for him, and that the next day he should,with almost the certainty of death, meet either glory or failure underthe eyes not only of all the greater and lesser castle folk, but of theKing himself and noble strangers critically used to deeds of chivalryand prowess. Perhaps he had never fully realized the magnitude of thereality before. In that tight pang at his heart he drew a deep breath,almost a sigh. Gascoyne turned his head abruptly, and looked at hisfriend, but he did not ask the cause of the sigh. No doubt the samethoughts that were in Myles's mind were in his also.
It was towards the latter part of the afternoon that a message came fromthe Earl, bidding Myles attend him in his private closet. After Myleshad bowed and kissed his lordship's hand, the Earl motioned him totake a seat, telling him that he had some final words to say that mightoccupy a considerable time. He talked to the young man for about halfan hour in his quiet, measured voice, only now and then showing a littleagitation by rising and walking up and down the room for a turn or two.Very many things were disclosed in that talk that had caused Myleslong hours of brooding thought, for the Earl spoke freely, and withoutconcealment to him concerning his father and the fortunes of the houseof Falworth.
Myles had surmised many things, but it was not until then that he knewfor a certainty who was his father's malignant and powerful enemy--thatit was the great Earl of Alban, the rival and bitter enemy of the Earlof Mackworth. It was not until then that he knew that the present Earlof Alban was the Lord Brookhurst, who had killed Sir John Dale inthe anteroom at Falworth Castle that morning so long ago in his earlychildhood. It was not until then that he knew all the circumstances ofhis father's blindness; that he had been overthrown in the melee at thegreat tournament at York, and that that same Lord Brookhurst had riddenhis iron-shod war-horse twice over his enemy's prostrate body before hissquire could draw him from the press, and had then and there given himthe wound from which he afterwards went blind. The Earl swore to Mylesthat Lord Brookhurst had done what he did wilfully, and had afterwardsboasted of it. Then, with some hesitation, he told Myles the reasonof Lord Brookhurst's enmity, and that it had arisen on account of LadyFalworth, whom he had one time sought in marriage, and that he had swornvengeance against the man who had won her.
Piece by piece the Earl of Mackworth recounted every circumstance anddetail of the revenge that the blind man's enemy had afterwardswreaked upon him. He told Myles how, when his father was attaintedof high-treason, and his estates forfeited to the crown, the King hadgranted the barony of Easterbridge to the then newly-created Earl ofAlban in spite of all the efforts of Lord Falworth's friends to thecontrary; that when he himself had come out from an audience with theKing, with others of his father's friends, the Earl of Alban had boastedin the anteroom, in a loud voice, evidently intended for them all tohear, that now that he had Falworth's fat lands, he would never resttill he had hunted the blind man out from his hiding, and brought hishead to the block.
"Ever since then," said the Earl of Mackworth "he hath been striving byevery means to discover thy father's place of concealment. Some time,haply, he may find it, and then--"
Myles had felt for a long time that he was being moulded and shaped, andthat the Earl of Mackworth's was the hand that was making him what hewas growing to be; but he had never realized how great were the thingsexpected of him should he pass the first great test, and show himselfwhat his friends hoped to see him. Now he knew that all were lookingupon him to act, sometime, as his father's champion, and when that timeshould come, to challenge the Earl of Alban to the ordeal of singlecombat, to purge his father's name of treason, to restore him to hisrank, and to set the house of Falworth where it stood before misfortunefell upon it.
But it was not alone concerning his and his father's affairs that theEarl of Mackworth talked to Myles. He told him that the Earl of Albanwas the Earl of Mackworth's enemy also; that in his younger days he hadhelped Lord Falworth, who was his kinsman, to win his wife, and thatthen, Lord Brookhurst had sworn to compass his ruin as he had swornto compass the ruin of his friend. He told Myles how, now that LordBrookhurst was grown to be Earl of Alban, and great and powerful, hewas forever plotting against him, and showed Myles how, if Lord Falworthwere discovered and arrested for treason, he also would be likely tosuffer for aiding and abetting him. Then it dawned upon Myles that theEarl looked to him to champion the house of Beaumont as well as that ofFalworth.
"Mayhap," said the Earl, "thou didst think that it was all for thepleasant sport of the matter that I have taken upon me this toil andendeavor to have thee knighted with honor that thou mightst fight theDauphiny knight. Nay, nay, Myles Falw
orth, I have not labored sohard for such a small matter as that. I have had the King, unknown tohimself, so knight thee that thou mayst be the peer of Alban himself,and now I would have thee to hold thine own with the Sieur de laMontaigne, to try whether thou be'st Alban's match, and to approvethyself worthy of the honor of thy knighthood. I am sorry, ne'theless,"he added, after a moment's pause, "that this could not have been put offfor a while longer, for my plans for bringing thee to battle with thatvile Alban are not yet ripe. But such a chance of the King coming hitherhaps not often. And then I am glad of this much--that a good occasionoffers to get thee presently away from England. I would have thee outof the King's sight so soon as may be after this jousting. He taketha liking to thee, and I fear me lest he should inquire more nearlyconcerning thee and so all be discovered and spoiled. My brother Georgegoeth upon the first of next month to France to take service with theDauphin, having under his command a company of tenscore men--knights andarchers; thou shalt go with him, and there stay till I send for thee toreturn."
With this, the protracted interview concluded, the Earl charging Mylesto say nothing further about the French expedition for the present--evento his friend--for it was as yet a matter of secrecy, known only to theKing and a few nobles closely concerned in the venture.
Then Myles arose to take his leave. He asked and obtained permission forGascoyne to accompany him to France. Then he paused for a moment or two,for it was strongly upon him to speak of a matter that had been lyingin his mind all day--a matter that he had dreamed of much with open eyesduring the long vigil of the night before.
The Earl looked up inquiringly. "What is it thou wouldst ask?" said he.
Myles's heart was beating quickly within him at the thought of his ownboldness, and as he spoke his cheeks burned like fire. "Sir," said he,mustering his courage at last, "haply thou hast forgot it, but I havenot; ne'theless, a long time since when I spoke of serving the--the LadyAlice as her true knight, thou didst wisely laugh at my words, and bademe wait first till I had earned my spurs. But now, sir, I have gottenmy spurs, and--and do now crave thy gracious leave that I may serve thatlady as her true knight."
A space of dead silence fell, in which Myles's heart beat tumultuouslywithin him.
"I know not what thou meanest," said the Earl at last, in a somewhatconstrained voice. "How wouldst thou serve her? What wouldst thou have?"
"I would have only a little matter just now," answered Myles. "I wouldbut crave of her a favor for to wear in the morrow's battle, so that shemay know that I hold her for my own true lady, and that I may have thecourage to fight more boldly, having that favor to defend."
The Earl sat looking at him for a while in brooding silence, strokinghis beard the while. Suddenly his brow cleared. "So be it," said he."I grant thee my leave to ask the Lady Alice for a favor, and if sheis pleased to give it to thee, I shall not say thee nay. But I set thisupon thee as a provision: that thou shalt not see her without the LadyAnne be present. Thus it was, as I remember, thou saw her first, andwith it thou must now be satisfied. Go thou to the Long Gallery, andthither they will come anon if naught hinder them."
Myles waited in the Long Gallery perhaps some fifteen or twenty minutes.No one was there but himself. It was a part of the castle connecting theEarl's and the Countess's apartments, and was used but little. Duringthat time he stood looking absently out of the open casement into thestony court-yard beyond, trying to put into words that which he hadto say; wondering, with anxiety, how soon the young ladies would come;wondering whether they would come at all. At last the door at thefarther end of the gallery opened, and turning sharply at the sound, hesaw the two young ladies enter, Lady Alice leaning upon Lady Anne's arm.It was the first time that he had seen them since the ceremony of themorning, and as he advanced to meet them, the Lady Anne came franklyforward, and gave him her hand, which Myles raised to his lips.
"I give thee joy of thy knighthood, Sir Myles," said she, "and dobelieve, in good sooth, that if any one deserveth such an honor, thouart he."
At first little Lady Alice hung back behind her cousin, saying nothinguntil the Lady Anne, turning suddenly, said: "Come, coz, has thou naughtto say to our new-made knight? Canst thou not also wish him joy of hisknighthood?"
Lady Alice hesitated a minute, then gave Myles a timid hand, which he,with a strange mixture of joy and confusion, took as timidly as it wasoffered. He raised the hand, and set it lightly and for an instantto his lips, as he had done with the Lady Anne's hand, but with verydifferent emotions.
"I give you joy of your knighthood, sir," said Lady Alice, in a voice solow that Myles could hardly hear it.
Both flushed red, and as he raised his head again, Myles saw that theLady Anne had withdrawn to one side. Then he knew that it was to givehim the opportunity to proffer his request.
A little space of silence followed, the while he strove to key hiscourage to the saying of that which lay at his mind. "Lady," said he atlast, and then again--"Lady, I--have a favor for to ask thee."
"What is it thou wouldst have, Sir Myles?" she murmured, in reply.
"Lady," said he, "ever sin I first saw thee I have thought that if Imight choose of all the world, thou only wouldst I choose for--formy true lady, to serve as a right knight should." Here he stopped,frightened at his own boldness. Lady Alice stood quite still, with herface turned away. "Thou--thou art not angered at what I say?" he said.
She shook her head.
"I have longed and longed for the time," said he, "to ask a boon of thee,and now hath that time come. Lady, to-morrow I go to meet a right goodknight, and one skilled in arms and in jousting, as thou dost know. Yea,he is famous in arms, and I be nobody. Ne'theless, I fight for the honorof England and Mackworth--and--and for thy sake. I--Thou art not angeredat what I say?"
Again the Lady Alice shook her head.
"I would that thou--I would that thou would give me some favor for towear--thy veil or thy necklace."
He waited anxiously for a little while, but Lady Alice did not answerimmediately.
"I fear me," said Myles, presently, "that I have in sooth offended theein asking this thing. I know that it is a parlous bold matter for one soraw in chivalry and in courtliness as I am, and one so poor in rank, toask thee for thy favor. An I ha' offended, I prithee let it be as thoughI had not asked it."
Perhaps it was the young man's timidity that brought a sudden courage toLady Alice; perhaps it was the graciousness of her gentle breeding thaturged her to relieve Myles's somewhat awkward humility, perhaps it wassomething more than either that lent her bravery to speak, even knowingthat the Lady Anne heard all. She turned quickly to him: "Nay, SirMyles," she said, "I am foolish, and do wrong thee by my foolishnessand silence, for, truly, I am proud to have thee wear my favor." Sheunclasped, as she spoke, the thin gold chain from about her neck. "Igive thee this chain," said she, "and it will bring me joy to have ithonored by thy true knightliness, and, giving it, I do wish thee allsuccess." Then she bowed her head, and, turning, left him holding thenecklace in his hand.
Her cousin left the window to meet her, bowing her head with a smileto Myles as she took her cousin's arm again and led her away. He stoodlooking after them as they left the room, and when they were gone, heraised the necklace to his lips with a heart beating tumultuously with atriumphant joy it had never felt before.