A Gentleman-at-Arms: Being Passages in the Life of Sir Christopher Rudd, Knight

  *VIII*

  "How now, my bully rook!" sang a well-remembered bluff voice in my earsome while after, for my ill-bound wound had bled afresh, and I had lainas one dead. "What! hast cheated man's last enemy yet once again?"

  "HOW NOW, MY BULLY ROOK!"]

  And lifting my eyes I beheld the round ruby countenance of my comradeToby Caulfeild, that commanded a troop of horse in the army of the LordDeputy.

  "All's well?" I asked him feebly.

  "All's well that ends well," said he, "though I misdoubt the end's notyet."

  "My Lady Sheila?" I said.

  "Ah yes, I have heard the name," said he drily. "For a good hour youhave done nothing but prattle of Sheilas and Hebes, and Hercules androarers, mingling Christian and heathen in such sort that my very earsblushed to hear you."

  "What is done?" said I.

  "Sundry things that cannot be undone," said he, "namely, many ruffianssent to their account, many more so slashed and carved that all thesurgeons in Christendom could not make of them aught but patchwork. Wecame in time to finish your work, my Chris, but only just in time."

  "I heard the lark singing," said I, wandering somewhat in my wits.

  "And shall again," said he; "but indeed I know a song worthy two ofthat, and that was carolled by the rosy lips of a most enchantingdamsel. Hark! I hear it even now."

  And I too heard the low, sweet music of my lady's voice, trolling aditty in a chamber not far away. And there broke into it the loud,rough utterance of a man, speaking words in the Irish tongue, and thesong ceased.

  "What rude unmannerly lubber----" I was beginning, but Toby checked me.

  "Tush! a father stands on no ceremony with his child," he said.

  "Her father!" said I.

  "Ay, her father, Kedagh O'Hagan, the arrantest rebel and the jolliestold swasher that ever 'scaped hanging. Hark while I tell you. We werein full cry after the O'Neill when a tatterdemalion kerne came hot-footafter us, bearing a letter very fairly writ but somewhat indictable inthe article of spelling, addressed to our general; the which perusing,he read a very painful threat to hang you up if O'Hagan should suffer somuch as the clipping of a hair. He twitched his brows--you know hisway--and said that having fallen into the hands of some apparenttermagant or vixenish shrew you must e'en abide his leisure, swearingroundly that Christopher Rudd's head was nought in comparison with therascal O'Neill.

  "Well, it chanced some days after that we snared this Kedagh O'Hagan inour toils, and our general, who loves you heartily, gave him into myhands and bade him bring me to his lair, charging me to hang him in hisown courtyard if you had been diminished by the paring of a nail. Lastnight, as we rode over yond hills, we saw a great way off two red firesdescend as from the sky, and kindle their image in a space of waterbeneath. The sight put O'Hagan into a fret and fume, he declaring thelights portended some menace to his castle. We made all the speed wecould, but what with the rough pathless hills and the villainous reechyfens, we had to go so far about that 'twas morning ere we came to theplace. And as we issued forth of the wood yonder we saw the roof filledwith women, of whom one at sight of us waved a handkercher as if to say'Haste! haste!' Coming to the water's edge, and finding no craft toferry us across, we swam our horses, and some of us mounted the wall byladders we saw hooked there for our conveniency, and so fell upon thepack of howling Irishmen in the courtyard and about the door. And whenwe had done our work, and the old man rushed panting up the stairs,raging for his daughter, he found her here with your head in her lap,dropping salt tears of happiness."

  I pressed his hand and thanked him for the service he had done me.

  "Well, lad, well, 'tis nought," said he. "Come now, your tale. I musthear about this pickle you fell into, and all the process of youradventures."

  I told him how I had been embogged, and brought hither to the castle,and how I had borne my part in defending it against the desperadoes; butI said no whit of my escape by diving, nor of my return. When I came tothe end of my brief relation, Toby regarded me very whimsically.

  "So, so, my Chris," he said, "you deem your old friend Toby to beunworthy of your confidence. Why, man, I knew all that, and a great dealmore; for I took the pains, when the damsel had related all to herfather in a torrent of Irishry--the which methinks hath its melodies--Itook the pains, I say, to persuade her to rehearse the same in English,which she did with a pretty smack of her tongue that pleased memightily. She showed me the window whence you made your monstrous dive,waxed eloquent upon your chivalry in coming back to defend her, calledyou her noble captain, and, in short, so worked upon my inflammableheart that it pricked and stung with jealousy, and I wished I had beenin your room."

  Hereupon our converse was broken off by the entrance of the maidenherself, leading by the hand a tall old man of a majestical and warlikepresence. She brought him to my bedside, and spoke softly for his earalone; and he thanked me with a noble grace and courtesy, and offered methe hospitality of his castle until my wound should be thoroughlyhealed.

  When they had departed, Toby Caulfeild heaved a windy sigh.

  "Good lack, I envy thee, Chris!" he said. "Never a maiden looked on mewith such adorable eyes."

  "I did not mark her eyes," said I.

  "No, you had eyes for the old man alone," said he. "I warrant she willlook on me otherwise when I go hence, for the general charged me, if allwas well with you, to convey the prisoner straightly back to camp. Whatam I to tell him of you, Chris?"

  "It needs not that you tell him anything," I answered. "I shall comewith you."

  "Tush, man, 'twill be a month ere you can sit a horse in any comfort,"said he. "I know that, though I am no leech. And something whispers methat your fighting days are over. Never again shall we outface themurderous cannon together, never again mount side by side into thedeadly breach. Alack, old lad, and wellaway!"

  "You talk a deal of nonsensical nothing, Toby," said I. "My organs aresound enough; shall I cease to bear arms for a paltry poke i' the leg?"

  "Ah, lad, I doubt your organs be not so sound as you suppose;" andsaying this he sighed again, and smiled whimsically when I asked him ifI had unawares been wounded in another part. "Time will show," said he."Now I must get me to horse, though I dread the lady's anger when I tellher I must take her father hence."

  But after some time he came back in great cheerfulness of spirit.

  "She received me sweetly," he said, "avowed 'twas hard for a daughter topart from her father, but I must do my duty; said she had confidence inthe courtesy of English gentlemen and knew we should treat her fatherwell; assured me that you should have all good care and tendance, andthanked Heaven that Master Rudd had so true a friend. Then she smiledbewitchingly upon me, gave me her hand, and looked as though thegreatest pleasure in life I could do her was to turn my back and hie meaway. What will the Queen say, Chris?"

  He laughed heartily at my bewilderment upon this question, then sighedagain, shook my hand mournfully, and so departed.

  It needs not to tell of those few weeks I spent in sickness on my couch,yet weeks of bliss and unimaginable contentment. My lady spent thegreater part of every day with me, bringing me confections made by herown fair hands, smoothing my pillow, tending me with kind ministrations,reading to me prettily out of her books, and hanging upon my lips when Irelated, as she bade me, somewhat of my adventures. One day, whenreading out of Master Spenser's book, she faltered at those lines--

  "Where they do feed on Nectar heavenly-wise, With Hercules and Hebe and the rest,"

  and with a pretty blush she listened as I told her those enchantingfables of the antique world.

  "And I was jealous of Hebe!" she said.

  "'That canker-worm, that monster, Jealousy!'" I quoted from the samepoem. "But why jealous of Hebe, mistress?" I asked.

  "Because I was a witless, silly child," she said. "Jealous of agoddess, indeed! But I knew not then she was a goddess."

  "You
thought she was a maiden like yourself?" I said.

  "Not like myself," she said, "but fairer."

  "Was there ever fairer?" said I, under my breath.

  "Tell me, are there many pretty ladies at your Queen's Court?" she said.

  I feigned to consider deeply, and rehearsed the names of some known tome, praising this one and that, and marking how her breath came andwent.

  "But no one durst say a good word of any in the hearing of the Queen,"said I. "She must ever be the fairest, the wittiest, the bestproportioned, the most nobly endowed both in body and mind. Do youknow, mistress, the Queen hath banished and even cast into prison many aman that has dared to wed one of her ladies?"

  "Is she so unkind?" she said.

  "And when Toby Caulfeild was leaving me he said, 'What will the Queensay, Chris?' and my doltish pate did not understand him."

  "Why, that is simple," she said. "He meant that the Queen would be soregrieved at hearing of your hurt. With her own hand she wrote, 'Thyloving sovereign.'"

  "She will love me no more when she knows that I love thee," said I,laying my hand upon hers.

  She let it rest so for a little, and her cheeks went from red to pale,and from pale to red again. Then her hand stole from mine, and claspedthe other upon her lap.

  "Ay, none but thee," I said, seeking her eyes beneath the covert oftheir lids. I breathed her name. I reached out my hand and gentlyunclasped her twining fingers, and with a lift of the eyes she gave memy answer.

  "Let the Queen say what she will!" I cried in my joy. "There is alittle place in our south country, Sheila, within sound of the sea, in afair forest, near soft-running brooks. I would not exchange it for aking's palace. Good-bye the Camp, good-bye the pomp and glitter of theCourt. There will we nest ourselves, my sweet, away from the noise andracket of the world."

  Toby Caulfeild was approved a true prophet. My fighting days were done.We took up our abode, Sheila and I, on my little manor, out of thecurrent of war and intrigue, untouched by the discords that rent Englandasunder when the great Queen had gone to her rest. I never saw theQueen again after that Christmas when she goaded me to fight; what shewould have said on hearing that I had wed an Irish maiden without herroyal consent could only be guessed. When I returned with my bride fromIreland, the Queen was deep sunk in a lethargy, and the joys and sorrowsof mortality were beyond her ken.

  tailpiece to Fifth Part]