They had just entered one of the clearings, when Dick suddenly clapped down upon his face among the brambles, and began to crawl slowly backward towards the shelter of the grove2. Matcham, in great bewilderment, for he could see no reason for this flight, still imitated his companion’s course; and it was not until they had gained the harbour of a thicket8 that he turned and begged him to explain.
At the far end of the clearing, a fir grew high above the neighbouring wood, and planted its black shock of foliage10 clear against the sky. For about fifty feet above the ground the trunk grew straight and solid like a column. At that level, it split into two massive boughs11; and in the fork, like a mast-headed seaman12, there stood a man in a green tabard, spying far and wide. The sun glistened13 upon his hair; with one hand he shaded his eyes to look abroad, and he kept slowly rolling his head from side to side, with the regularity14 of a machine.
The lads exchanged glances.
Ten minutes afterwards they struck into a beaten path.
“Here is a piece of forest that I know not,” Dick remarked. “Where goeth me this track?”
“Let us even try,” said Matcham.
A few yards further, the path came to the top of a ridge17 and began to go down abruptly18 into a cup-shaped hollow. At the foot, out of a thick wood of flowering hawthorn19, two or three roofless gables, blackened as if by fire, and a single tall chimney marked the ruins of a house.
“What may this be?” whispered Matcham.
With beating hearts, they descended22 through the hawthorns23. Here and there, they passed signs of recent cultivation24; fruit trees and pot herbs ran wild among the thicket; a sun-dial had fallen in the grass; it seemed they were treading what once had been a garden. Yet a little farther and they came forth25 before the ruins of the house.
It had been a pleasant mansion26 and a strong. A dry ditch was dug deep about it; but it was now choked with masonry27, and bridged by a fallen rafter. The two farther walls still stood, the sun shining through their empty windows; but the remainder of the building had collapsed28, and now lay in a great cairn of ruin, grimed with fire. Already in the interior a few plants were springing green among the chinks.
“Now I bethink me,” whispered Dick, “this must be Grimstone. It was a hold of one Simon Malmesbury; Sir Daniel was his bane! ’Twas Bennet Hatch that burned it, now five years agone. In sooth, ’twas pity, for it was a fair house.”
Down in the hollow, where no wind blew, it was both warm and still; and Matcham, laying one hand upon Dick’s arm, held up a warning finger.
“Hist!” he said.
Then came a strange sound, breaking on the quiet. It was twice repeated ere they recognised its nature. It was the sound of a big man clearing his throat; and just then a hoarse29, untuneful voice broke into singing.
‘What make ye here, my merry men, among the greenwood shaws?’
And Gamelyn made answer—he looked never adown:
‘O, they must need to walk in wood that may not walk in town!’”
The singer paused, a faint clink of iron followed, and then silence.
The two lads stood looking at each other. Whoever he might be, their invisible neighbour was just beyond the ruin. And suddenly the colour came into Matcham’s face, and next moment he had crossed the fallen rafter, and was climbing cautiously on the huge pile of lumber31 that filled the interior of the roofless house. Dick would have withheld32 him, had he been in time; as it was, he was fain to follow.
Right in the corner of the ruin, two rafters had fallen crosswise, and protected a clear space no larger than a pew in church. Into this the lads silently lowered themselves. There they were perfectly33 concealed34, and through an arrow-loophole commanded a view upon the farther side.
Peering through this, they were struck stiff with terror at their predicament. To retreat was impossible; they scarce dared to breathe. Upon the very margin35 of the ditch, not thirty feet from where they crouched36, an iron caldron bubbled and steamed above a glowing fire; and close by, in an attitude of listening, as though he had caught some sound of their clambering among the ruins, a tall, red-faced, battered-looking man stood poised37, an iron spoon in his right hand, a horn and a formidable dagger38 at his belt. Plainly this was the singer; plainly he had been stirring the caldron, when some incautious step among the lumber had fallen upon his ear. A little further off, another man lay slumbering39, rolled in a brown cloak, with a butterfly hovering40 above his face. All this was in a clearing white with daisies; and at the extreme verge41, a bow, a sheaf of arrows, and part of a deer’s carcase, hung upon a flowering hawthorn.
Presently the fellow relaxed from his attitude of attention, raised the spoon to his mouth, tasted its contents, nodded, and then fell again to stirring and singing.
“‘O, they must need to walk in wood that may not walk in town,’” he croaked42, taking up his song where he had left it.
“O, sir, we walk not here at all an evil thing to do.
Still as he sang, he took from time to time, another spoonful of the broth44, blew upon it, and tasted it, with all the airs of an experienced cook. At length, apparently45, he judged the mess was ready; for taking the horn from his girdle, he blew three modulated46 calls.
The other fellow awoke, rolled over, brushed away the butterfly, and looked about him.
“How now, brother?” he said. “Dinner?”
“Ay, sot,” replied the cook, “dinner it is, and a dry dinner, too, with neither ale nor bread. But there is little pleasure in the greenwood now; time was when a good fellow could live here like a mitred abbot, set aside the rain and the white frosts; he had his heart’s desire both of ale and wine. But now are men’s spirits dead; and this John Amend-All, save us and guard us! but a stuffed booby to scare crows withal.”
“Nay,” returned the other, “y’ are too set on meat and drinking, Lawless. Bide47 ye a bit; the good time cometh.”
“Look ye,” returned the cook, “I have even waited for this good time sith that I was so high. I have been a grey friar; I have been a king’s archer48; I have been a shipman, and sailed the salt seas; and I have been in greenwood before this, forsooth! and shot the king’s deer. What cometh of it? Naught49! I were better to have bided50 in the cloister51. John Abbot availeth more than John Amend-All. By ’r Lady! here they come.”
One after another, tall, likely fellows began to stroll into the lawn. Each as he came produced a knife and a horn cup, helped himself from the caldron, and sat down upon the grass to eat. They were very variously equipped and armed; some in rusty52 smocks, and with nothing but a knife and an old bow; others in the height of forest gallantry, all in Lincoln green, both hood53 and jerkin, with dainty peacock arrows in their belts, a horn upon a baldrick, and a sword and dagger at their sides. They came in the silence of hunger, and scarce growled54 a salutation, but fell instantly to meat.
There were, perhaps, a score of them already gathered, when a sound of suppressed cheering arose close by among the hawthorns, and immediately after five or six woodmen carrying a stretcher debauched upon the lawn. A tall, lusty fellow, somewhat grizzled, and as brown as a smoked ham, walked before them with an air of some authority, his bow at his back, a bright boar-spear in his hand.
“Lads!” he cried, “good fellows all, and my right merry friends, y’ have sung this while on a dry whistle and lived at little ease. But what said I ever? Abide55 Fortune constantly; she turneth, turneth swift. And lo! here is her little firstling—even that good creature, ale!”
“And now haste ye, boys,” the man continued. “There is work toward. A handful of archers57 are but now come to the ferry; murrey and blue is their wear; they are our butts—they shall all taste arrows—no man of them shall struggle through this wood. For, lads, we are here some fifty strong, each man of us most foully wronged; for some they have lost lands, and some friends; and some they have been outlawed—all oppressed! Who, then, hath done this evil? Sir Daniel, by the rood! Shall he then profit? shall he sit snug58 in our houses? shall he till our fields? shall he suck the bone he robbed us of? I trow not. He getteth him strength at law; he gaineth cases; nay, there is one case he shall not gain—I have a writ59 here at my belt that, please the saints, shall conquer him.”
Lawless the cook was by this time already at his second horn of ale. He raised it, as if to pledge the speaker.
“Master Ellis,” he said, “y’ are for vengeance—well it becometh you!—but your poor brother o’ the greenwood, that had never lands to lose nor friends to think upon, looketh rather, for his poor part, to the profit of the thing. He had liever a gold noble and a pottle of canary wine than all the vengeances in purgatory60.”
“Lawless,” replied the other, “to reach the Moat House, Sir Daniel must pass the forest. We shall make that passage dearer, pardy, than any battle. Then, when he hath got to earth with such ragged61 handful as escapeth us—all his great friends fallen and fled away, and none to give him aid—we shall beleaguer62 that old fox about, and great shall be the fall of him. ’Tis a fat buck63; he will make a dinner for us all.”
“Ay,” returned Lawless, “I have eaten many of these dinners beforehand; but the cooking of them is hot work, good Master Ellis. And meanwhile what do we? We make black arrows, we write rhymes, and we drink fair cold water, that discomfortable drink.”
“Y’ are untrue, Will Lawless. Ye still smell of the Grey Friars’ buttery; greed is your undoing,” answered Ellis. “We took twenty pounds from Appleyard. We took seven marks from the messenger last night. A day ago we had fifty from the merchant.”
“And to-day,” said one of the men, “I stopped a fat pardoner riding apace for Holywood. Here is his purse.”
Ellis counted the contents.
“Five score shillings!” he grumbled64. “Fool, he had more in his sandal, or stitched into his tippet. Y’ are but a child, Tom Cuckow; ye have lost the fish.”
But, for all that, Ellis pocketed the purse with nonchalance65. He stood leaning on his boar-spear, and looked round upon the rest. They, in various attitudes, took greedily of the venison pottage, and liberally washed it down with ale. This was a good day; they were in luck; but business pressed, and they were speedy in their eating. The first-comers had by this time even despatched their dinner. Some lay down upon the grass and fell instantly asleep, like boa-constrictors; others talked together, or overhauled66 their weapons: and one, whose humour was particularly gay, holding forth an ale-horn, began to sing:
“Here is no law in good green shaw,
Here is no lack of meat;
’Tis merry and quiet, with deer for our diet,
In summer, when all is sweet.
Come winter again, with wind and rain—
And sit by the fire and eat.”
All this while the two lads had listened and lain close; only Richard had unslung his cross-bow, and held ready in one hand the windac, or grappling-iron that he used to bend it. Otherwise they had not dared to stir; and this scene of forest life had gone on before their eyes like a scene upon a theatre. But now there came a strange interruption. The tall chimney which over-topped the remainder of the ruins rose right above their hiding-place. There came a whistle in the air, and then a sounding smack69, and the fragments of a broken arrow fell about their ears. Some one from the upper quarters of the wood, perhaps the very sentinel they saw posted in the fir, had shot an arrow at the chimney-top.
Matcham could not restrain a little cry, which he instantly stifled70, and even Dick started with surprise, and dropped the windac from his fingers. But to the fellows on the lawn, this shaft was an expected signal. They were all afoot together, tightening71 their belts, testing their bow-strings, loosening sword and dagger in the sheath. Ellis held up his hand; his face had suddenly assumed a look of savage72 energy; the white of his eyes shone in his sun-brown face.
“Lads,” he said, “ye know your places. Let not one man’s soul escape you. Appleyard was a whet73 before a meal; but now we go to table. I have three men whom I will bitterly avenge—Harry Shelton, Simon Malmesbury, and”—striking his broad bosom—“and Ellis Duckworth, by the mass!”
Another man came, red with hurry, through the thorns.
“’Tis not Sir Daniel!” he panted. “They are but seven. Is the arrow gone?”
“It struck but now,” replied Ellis.
“A murrain!” cried the messenger. “Methought I heard it whistle. And I go dinnerless!”
In the space of a minute, some running, some walking sharply, according as their stations were nearer or farther away, the men of the Black Arrow had all disappeared from the neighbourhood of the ruined house; and the caldron, and the fire, which was now burning low, and the dead deer’s carcase on the hawthorn, remained alone to testify they had been there.
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1
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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yews
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| n.紫杉( yew的名词复数 ) | |
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uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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6
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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7
gusts
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| 一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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10
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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11
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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12
seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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13
glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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foully
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| ad.卑鄙地 | |
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16
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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17
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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19
hawthorn
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| 山楂 | |
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20
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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warily
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| adv.留心地 | |
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22
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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23
hawthorns
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| n.山楂树( hawthorn的名词复数 ) | |
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24
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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25
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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28
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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29
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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30
outlaws
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| 歹徒，亡命之徒( outlaw的名词复数 )； 逃犯 | |
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31
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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32
withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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33
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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34
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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36
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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dagger
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| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
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39
slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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40
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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41
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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42
croaked
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| v.呱呱地叫( croak的过去式和过去分词 )；用粗的声音说 | |
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43
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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44
broth
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| n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等) | |
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45
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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46
modulated
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| 已调整[制]的，被调的 | |
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47
bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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48
archer
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| n.射手，弓箭手 | |
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49
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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50
bided
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| v.等待，停留( bide的过去式 )；居住；等待；面临 | |
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51
cloister
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| n.修道院；v.隐退，使与世隔绝 | |
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52
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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53
hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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54
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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55
abide
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| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
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56
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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57
archers
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| n.弓箭手，射箭运动员( archer的名词复数 ) | |
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58
snug
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| adj.温暖舒适的，合身的，安全的；v.使整洁干净，舒适地依靠，紧贴；n.（英）酒吧里的私房 | |
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59
writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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60
purgatory
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| n.炼狱；苦难；adj.净化的，清洗的 | |
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61
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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62
beleaguer
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| v.使困扰，使烦恼，围攻 | |
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63
buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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64
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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65
nonchalance
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| n.冷淡，漠不关心 | |
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66
overhauled
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| v.彻底检查( overhaul的过去式和过去分词 )；大修；赶上；超越 | |
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67
sleet
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| n.雨雪；v.下雨雪，下冰雹 | |
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68
hoods
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| n.兜帽( hood的名词复数 )；头巾；（汽车、童车等的）折合式车篷；汽车发动机罩v.兜帽( hood的第三人称单数 )；头巾；（汽车、童车等的）折合式车篷；汽车发动机罩 | |
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69
smack
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| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
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70
stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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71
tightening
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| 上紧，固定，紧密 | |
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72
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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73
whet
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| v.磨快，刺激 | |
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