The Forest Lovers

  CHAPTER XXXIII

  SALOMON IS DRIVEN HOME

  Galors, too, knew that the hour had come; but his spirit came up tomeet it, and he made a push for it. He was over the brook; if he couldtop the ridge he would have the advantage he had a year ago, which thistime he swore to put to better use. The girl knew his thoughts as shehad known the accolade of the thundering hoofs behind them. She wouldhave thrown herself if the steel trap had loosed ever so little; as itwas, she fluttered like a rag caught in a bush; the filmy body was whatGalors held, the soul shrilled prayers to the man's confusion. He couldnot stay her lips; they moved, working against him, as he knew well."Mother of God, send him, send him, send him!" It was ill fightingagainst a girl's soul, it slacked his rein and drugged his heel. ByGod, let the boy come and be damned; let him fight! "Mother of God,send, send, send!" breathed Isoult. The horse below them shuddered,failed to come up to the rein, bowed his head to the jerked spur.Galors left off spurring, and slackened his rein. Though he would notlook behind him he heard the plash of the ford, heard also Prosper'slow, "Steady, mare, hold up!" Prosper was over; Galors halfway up thehill. It would be soon.

  The black and white gained hand over hand; the red and green felt himcome. The soul of Isoult hovered between them. Black and white drewlevel; red and green held on. Side by side, spears erect and taperinginto the moon, plumes nodding, eyes front, they paced; the soul ofIsoult took flight, the body crouched in the steel's hug. The gleam ofthe white wicket-gates caught their master's eye; they were risen injudgment against him. _Entra per me_ was to play him false. Thistrifling thing unnerved him till it seemed to speak a message of doom.But doom once read and accepted, nerve came back. By God, he would dieas he had lived, strenuously, seeking one thing at a time! But to bekilled by his chosen arm, overshrilled by his own shout--that soberedhim, little of a sentimentalist as he was. As for love-lorn Prosper, hehad still less sentiment to waste. True, he had not chosen his arms,his motto had been found for him by his ancestors--they werecut-and-dried affairs, so much clothing to which Galors at this momentserved as a temporary peg. Sweet Saviour! the Much-Desired was nearhim, close by. He could have touched her head. She never moved to lookat him; he knew so much without turning his own head. And he knewfurther that she knew him there. The soul of Isoult, you see, had takenwings. Thus they gained the ridge and halted. Backing their beasts,they were face to face, and each looked shrewdly at the other, waitingwho should begin the game.

  Then it was that Isoult suddenly sat up and looked at Prosper. He couldnot read her face, but knew by her stiff-poised head that she wasquivering. He said nothing, but made a motion, a swift jerk with hishead, to wave her out of the way. Galors responded by first tightening,finally relaxing, his hold upon her waist. She slipt down from thesaddle, and stood hesitating what to do. She had waited for this momentso long, that the natural thing had become the most unnatural of all.Prosper never glanced at her, but kept his eyes steadily on Galors. Thetimes--in his mannish view--were too great for lovers. Isoult steptback into the shadows.

  The two men at once saluted in knightly fashion, wheeled, and rodeapart. The lists were a long alley between the pines, all soft moss andlow scrub of whortleberry and heather. Galors had the hill behind him,but no disadvantage in that unless he were pushed down it; the placewas dead level. They halted at some thirty yards' interval, waiting.Then Prosper gave a shout--_"Bide the time!" "Entra per me!"_ came as asombre echo; and the two spurred horses flung forward at each other.

  Each spear went true. Prosper got his into the centre of Galors'shield, and it splintered at the guard. Galors' hit fair; but Prosperused his trick of dropping at the impact, so that the spear glanced offover his shoulder. Galors recovered it and his seat together. It wouldseem that Prosper had taught him some civility by this, for he threwhis lance away as soon as the horses were free of each other. Both drewtheir swords. Then followed a bout of wheeling and darting in, at whichProsper had clear advantage as the lighter horseman on the handierhorse. Galors' strength was in downright carving; Prosper's in hiswrist-play and lightning recovery. He, moreover, was cool, Galors hot.At this work he got home thrice to the other's once, but that once wasfor a memory, starred the shoulder-piece and bit to the bone. Left armluckily. Prosper made a feint at a light canter, spurred when he was upwith his man, and, as his horse plunged, got down a back-stroke, whichsent Galors' weapon flying from his hand. He turned sharply and reinedup. Galors dismounted slowly, picked up his sword, and went to mountagain. He blundered it twice, shook the blood out of his eyes, triedagain, but lurched heavily and dropped. He only saved himself by thesaddle. Prosper guessed him more breathed than blooded.

  "Galors," said he, "we have done well enough for the turn. Rest, andlet me rest."

  "As you will," said Galors thickly.

  The two men sat facing each other on either side of the way. Galorsunlaced his helm and leaned on his elbows, taking long breaths. Prosperunlaced his; and then followed a lesson to Isoult in warfare, as heunderstood it. The girl had run down the hill-side to the brook, sosoon as she saw they must give over. She now came back, bearing betweenher hands a broad leaf filled with water. This she brought to her lord.Prosper smiled to her.

  "Take it to Galors, Isoult, whom we must consider as our guest," hewhispered.

  She turned at once and went dutifully, with recollected feet and bosomgirt in meekness, to give him the cold water cupped in her palms.Galors drank greedily, and grunted his thanks. As for Prosper, hepraised men and angels for a fair vision.

  She came back after another journey to feed her lover, and afterwardsstood as near to him as she dared. Galors, the alien, looked ever atthe ground.

  "Galors," said Prosper presently, "how do you find my harness?"

  "It has served me its turn," he answered.

  "That also I can say of yours," replied Prosper, with a little laugh;"for it has taken me into places where, without it, I should have founda strait gate in. For that I can thank you more than for the head-acheand cold bath at Goltres."

  "Ha!" said the other, "that was a sheer knock. I thought it hadfinished you, to be plain. But do not lay it to my door. I fight truerthan that."

  "Truly enough you have fought me this night," Prosper allowed heartily,"and I ask no better. But will you now tell me one thing about which Ihave been curious ever since our encounter in this place a year ago?"

  "What is it?"

  "Your arms--the blazon--do you bear them as of right?"

  "I bear them by the right a fighter has. They have carried me far, anddone my work."

  "They are not of your family?"

  "My family? Messire, you should know that a monk carries no arms. Myfamily, moreover, was not knightly, till I made it knightly."

  "The arms you assumed with your new profession?"

  "I did."

  "May I know whence you took them?"

  "No, I cannot tell you that. They are the arms of a man now dead,Salomon de Montguichet."

  "They are the arms," said Prosper slowly, "of a man now dead. I saw himdead, and helped to bury him. I knew not then how he died, though Ihave thought to be sure since. But you are wrong in one thing. Thebearer of those arms was not Salomon de Montguichet."

  "It is you who are wrong, Messire. It is beyond doubt; and the proof isthat on the shield are the _guichets_, taken from the name."

  "Galors, the name was taken from the _guichets_, and the _guichets_from Coldscaur in the north. The man's name was Salomon de Born."

  Galors gave a dry sob, and another, and another. He threw up his arms,twisting with the gesture of a man on the rope. Prosper and Isoult rosealso, Prosper pale and hard, the girl wide-eyed. Galors seemed to tearat himself, as if at war with a fiend inside him. Prosper steppedforward; you would not have known his voice.

  "Man," he said, "our account is not yet done. But I know what I know.If you have accounts to settle, settle them now. I will bear youcompany and wait for you where you will."

  The words steadied Galors, s
obered and quieted him. He began to mutterto himself. "God hath spoken to me. Out of my own deeds cometh Hisjudgment, and out of my own sowing the harvest I shall reap. _Entra perme_, saith God." He turned to Prosper. "Sir, I accept of yourallowance. I will not take you far. One more thing I will ask at yourhands, that you give me back my own sword--Salomon's sword. After alittle you shall have it again."

  "I will do it," said Prosper, knowing his thought.

  They changed swords. Prosper set Isoult on his horse and himself walkedat her stirrup. The three of them moved forward without another wordgiven or exchanged. Galors led the way.

  Instead of following the line of the chase, which had been north, theynow struck east through the heavy woodland. So they went for some threehours. It must have been near midnight, with a moon clear of all trees,when they halted at a cross-ride which ran north and south. Beforethem, over the ride, rose a thick wall of pine-stems, so serried thatthere was no room for a horse to pass in between them. Isoult started,looked keenly up and down the ride, then collected herself and satquite still. Prosper took no notice of anything.

  "Prosper," said Galors quietly, "you will wait here for me. You knowthat I shall return. It will be within half-an-hour from now."

  "Good. I shall be here."

  Galors dismounted and plunged into the wall of pines; they seemed tomove and fold him in their mazes, and nothing spoke of him thereafterbut the sound of his heavy tread on dry twigs. When this was lost animmense stillness sat brooding.

  Neither Prosper nor Isoult could speak. Her presence was to him a warmconsolation, to be apprehended by flashes in the course of a longbattle with black and heavy thoughts; her also the pause (more fatefulthan the battle it had interrupted) affected strangely, the morestrangely because she did not know the whole truth. I may say here thatProsper never told her of it; nor did she ask it of him. It was the oneevent of their lives, joint and disjoint, upon which they were alwaysas dumb as now when they thought apart. Thoughtful apart though theywere, they felt together. Prosper's hand stole upwards from his side;Isoult's drew to it as metal to magnet; the rest of that heavy hourthey passed hand-in-hand. So children comfort each other in the dark.

  Very faint and far off a solitary cry broke the vast dearth of thenight. It rose like an owl's hooting, held, shuddered, and then dieddown. Prosper's clasp on the girl's hand suddenly straightened; it heldconvulsively while the call held, relaxed when it relaxed. Then theformer hush swam again over the wood, and so endured until, afterintolerable suspense, they heard the heavy tread of Galors de Born.

  His bulk, his white impassive mask, were before them.

  "I have settled my account, Prosper," he said. "Now settle yours."

  Prosper shivered.

  "I am quite ready," said he.

  They changed, then crossed swords, and began their second rally onfoot. You would have said that they were sluggish at the work, as iftheir blood had cooled with the long wait or sense of still moredreadful business in the background, and needed a sting to one or otherto set it boiling again. They fenced almost idly at first; it was cutand parry--formalism. Galors was very steady; Prosper, breathingtightly through his nose, very wary. Gradually, however, they warmed toit. Galors got a cut in the upper arm, and began making ugly rushes,blundering, uncalculated bustles, which could only end one way. Prosperhad little difficulty in evading most of these; Galors lost his breathand with it his temper. The sight of his own shield and sword, ever atpoint against him, made him mad. He could never reach his adroit enemy,it seemed. For a supreme effort he feigned, drew back, then made arush. Prosper parried, recovered, and let in with a staggering head-cutwhich for the time dizzied his opponent. Galors lowered his head underhis shield, made another desperate blind rush, and got to closequarters. The two men struggled together, fighting as much with shieldsas swords, and more with legs and arms than anything else. They wereindistinguishable, a twisting and flashing tangle; they locked,writhed, swayed, tottered--then rent asunder. Galors fell heavily. Hegot on his feet again, however, for another rush. As he came on Prosperstepped aside, knocked out his guard and slashed at the shoulder--adreadful thirsty blow. Galors staggered, his shield dropped; but hecame on once more. Another side-cut beat his weapon down, and then aback-handed blow crashed into his gorget. He threw up his arms andstaggered backwards; a last cut finished him. Galors with a cough thatended in a wet groan fell like lead. He never spoke nor moved again.

  Prosper sank on his knees, beaten out. Isoult started from the wood tohold him, but he waved her back. All was not done. He put his sword inhis mouth and crept on all fours to his enemy, lifted his visor, lookedin his face. Then he got up and stood over him. He swung back the baresword of Salomon de Born with both hands. It came down, did its lastwork and broke.

  Prosper threw the pommel from him and lifted up the head of Galors. Thetimes were grim times. He tied it to his saddle-bow. Then he turned toIsoult.

  "Come," he said, "the fight is done."

  They did not stay. He took his own shield and sword from the dead, girton the first and slung the latter to the spare saddle. He took his wifein his arms, not daring to kiss her in such a place, and put her onGalors' horse; and so they went their way into the misty woods.

  Dark Tortsentier took up the watch amid the sighing of its pine-treehost. Its array of shields, its swords and mail kept their counsel. Thefigures in the singular tapestry of Troilus went through their apingunadmired, and the grey dawn found them at it. Then you might see howidle Cresseide, peering askance at Maulfry with her sly eyes, watchedthe black pool drown her hair.