There had been a panic at Goldspur that morning, when a lad had run in with the news that he had seen armed men riding through the mist, and that they were marching towards Goldspur. And Grimbald, stalking down into the village, had met some of the younger men skulking6 off as though there were no women and children to be remembered. Grimbald had twisted a stake out of the hedge, dusted some decent shame into these cowards, and driven them back into Goldspur much as a drover drives his cattle.
Grimbald had found the village in an uproar7, for Aymery was away with Waleran, and the folk had tumbled over each other for the lack of a leader. Men and boys had herded8 in sheep and cattle, and the beasts were bolting all ways, and taking every road but the right one. Women, weeping, scolding, chattering9, were carrying out their chattels10 from the cottages. One had a baby at the breast; another clutched a young pig; a third sat at her door, and screamed like a silly girl. Men were arguing, shouting, quarrelling, eager to do the same thing, but obstinate11 in trying to do it each in his several way.
Then Grimbald had come and shepherded the people, knocked together the heads of the men who quarrelled, and turned disorder12 into order. The sheep, cattle, and pigs were driven off towards the woods. Men, women, and children followed, carrying all that they could put upon their backs. In a quarter of an hour from Grimbald’s coming Goldspur village was a row of empty hovels, with nothing alive there but a few chickens, and the sparrows, who trusted in God, and continued to build in the thatch13.
Grimbald had set himself at the lower end of the village, and stood there like the giant figure of some protecting saint. He was about to follow his flock when he saw a man on horseback round a spur of woodland in the valley. He came on at a canter for the village, and Grimbald knew him for Aymery by the colours of his surcoat and his horse.
Aymery reined14 in, hot with galloping15, his eyes keen and full of flashes of light. He had been with Waleran, and had ridden to warn his people of what they might expect that day.
Aymery turned his horse, and shaded his eyes with his hand.
“They left the priest’s house under Bright Ling—at dawn. Waleran tried a trick there, but the dogs smelt18 the smoke. I saw their spears coming down the hill as I crossed the valley.”
Aymery looked towards the beech19 wood on the hill, his eyes flashing back the morning sunlight. The muscles of his jaw20 were hard and tense.
“We must bide21 our time, and watch them,” he said; “they are coming to make a bonfire here. They can burn every stick of the place so long as they have not meddled22 with Denise.”
Grimbald shifted his axe from one shoulder to the other. If ever a man had cause to be jealous of a woman, that man was Grimbald. But his heart was too warm and too well tilled to harbour such a weed. He thanked God for the good he found in the world, and did not quarrel with it because it was not part of his own halo.
“She cannot be left yonder,” he said.
Aymery still looked at the beech wood, head thrown back, grey eyes a-glitter.
“We must take cover and watch. They will be here soon, and we shall see. To-night, I will take her away.”
A gleam of spears showed in the valley, and Aymery rode off to the nearest wood with Grimbald holding to his stirrups. They saw Gaillard and his men come over the fields to Goldspur village, and Denise was not with them. Aymery’s eyes made sure of that. The Gascon found nothing but the empty hovels, the untroubled sparrows, and a black cock crowing and scratching on a dunghill. One of Gaillard’s men fitted an arrow to the string, shot the black cock through the body, and laughed at the way the bird tumbled and flapped in the death agony.
“Brother Barnabo may find use for him,” said someone, and there was a laugh.
Goldspur village did not go up in smoke that morning, for Gaillard, cunning as a fox, did not always run straight for the game in view.
“We will take our dinner elsewhere, sirs,” he said. “When we are over the hill, the fools may think that they will see us no more. When does a cat catch mice? We shall do better in the dark.”
And Aymery and Grimbald saw him and his men ride on towards the west as though an empty village were too miserable24 a thing even to be burnt. Nor did they turn aside to where the gable end of the manor25 house showed amid the oak trees. It seemed that Gaillard had another quest in view. Goldspur was left to the sparrows and the dead cock on the dunghill.
Aymery and Grimbald watched the raiders till they had disappeared.
“We are free of them for one day, brother. What about our people?”
“We had better look to the fools,” said Grimbald. “They are as frightened as rabbits.”
And they went off together into the woods.
Aymery and the priest found the Goldspur folk penning their cattle in a wild part of the forest. The men had cut boughs26 and furze bushes, and the women were building rude huts for shelter at night. Aymery sent some of the boys to scout27 through the forest, and bring back any news of Gaillard that they could gather. About noon one of Waleran’s men came in, with a word to Aymery that Waleran and the woodlanders were gathering28 to ambush29 the Savoyard’s men. Grimbald and Aymery went off to join in the tussle30, but saw nothing of Waleran though they sought him most of the day. A woodman who was felling oak trees to bark for the tanner, told them that young St. Leger had ridden by, and that Gaillard and his company had marched back beyond Bright Ling. Aymery and the priest turned homewards towards Goldspur. The long shadows of evening were purple upon the grass, and Aymery’s heart remembered Denise.
They came to Goldspur manor as the dusk was falling, and the song of the birds went up towards the sunset, and everything was very still. The bridge was down over the narrow moat, and the gate open; no man had been there all that day, for Aymery’s servants had fled with the village folk, and two men who could handle their bows had been sent two days ago with Waleran into the woods.
Grimbald drew the bridge, while Aymery went to the stable to feed and water his horse. They had no fear of Peter of Savoy’s riders that night, and took their augury31 from the fact that Gaillard had left the place untouched that morning. Grimbald carried tinder and steel in his wallet, and he lit a torch in the hall, and went to the pantry and kitchen to get bread, beer, and meat for supper. He and Aymery sat down in the empty hall, and ate for a while in silence, like men who were weary, or were sunk in thought.
They were nearly through with their hunger, and were talking of Denise and the hermitage, when Grimbald, who was about to finish his mead32, paused with the horn between the table and his mouth. The men’s eyes met across the board. They were both listening, motionless as images carved in stone.
The night seemed dark and silent without, the woodlands asleep, the night empty of all unrest. Yet there had come to Grimbald a sense of something moving in the darkness. And as they listened there was a faint splash from the moat, and a sound like the creaking of wet leather.
“Listen!”
“A rat in the moat?”
Grimbald put his horn down on the table, rose up swiftly and silently, and taking his axe, went out into the courtyard. Aymery’s sword and shield hung from a peg34 in the wall. He took them down, and had gained the door of the hall when he heard a sudden scuffling of feet, an oath in the darkness, the harsh breathing of men at grips, the splash of something into the water of the moat.
A scattering35 of arrows whirred and pecked at the walls, one slanting36 in and smiting37 the flagstones close to Aymery’s feet. He heard the dull jingle38 of armed men on the move. Grimbald towered back suddenly out of the night, a red splash of blood on his forehead, his eyes shining in the torchlight.
“Brother, we are trapped! I took the first of them and pitched him into the moat.”
“There is the garden bridge,” he said. “We can make a dash for it.”
Aymery pushed in front of Grimbald as they hurried down a narrow passage-way that led from the hall and the kitchen quarters into the garden.
“I go first, brother,” he said. “I have my steel coat; a stab in the dark might find your heart.”
Grimbald passed a huge arm about Aymery as they went.
“Lad, what is that to me!”
They came out into the garden, and stood for a moment listening. They could hear Gaillard’s men beating in the door of the hall, but towards the garden everything seemed quiet.
Aymery laid a hand on Grimbald’s arm.
“If one of us is taken, brother, let not the other tarry. Remember Denise.”
Grimbald understood him.
“Come,” he said in an undertone, and they crossed the garden side by side.
Now there was a trestle-bridge from the garden over the moat, a footbridge made of a single plank42 that could be thrust across and withdrawn43 at pleasure. A wicket in the palisade led to the bridge. Aymery unbarred the gate, and ran the plank forward on to the trestles.
“We shall trick them,” he said grimly, “quick, they have broken in.”
He ran across the bridge, Grimbald following, the plank creaking and sagging44 under the priest’s weight. Aymery had stooped to drag the plank away again, when he heard Grimbald give a short, deep cry, and saw him spring forward and smite45 at something with his axe.
“Guard, brother, guard.”
Steel crashed upon steel, a glitter of sparks flying from axe and helmet. An arrow stopped quivering in Aymery’s shield as he sprang forward to Grimbald’s aid. Men rose at him out of the darkness. Dimly in the midst of the waving swords, he had a glimpse of two men clinging to Grimbald. He saw the priest shake them off, and beat them down before him as a boy snaps thistles with a stick. There was a rush of armed men in the darkness, the dash of steel against steel as they blundered one against another. The red splutter of a torch came tossing out of the night, with the hoarse46 shouting of men trying to tell friend from foe47. Grimbald and Aymery lost each other, and fought each for his own hand.
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1
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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frayed
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| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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atlas
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| n.地图册，图表集 | |
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6
skulking
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| v.潜伏，偷偷摸摸地走动，鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的现在分词 ) | |
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7
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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8
herded
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| 群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动 | |
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9
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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10
chattels
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| n.动产，奴隶( chattel的名词复数 ) | |
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11
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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12
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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13
thatch
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| vt.用茅草覆盖…的顶部；n.茅草(屋) | |
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14
reined
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| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
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15
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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16
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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18
smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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19
beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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21
bide
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| v.忍耐；等候；住 | |
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22
meddled
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| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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24
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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25
manor
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| n.庄园，领地 | |
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26
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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27
scout
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| n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索 | |
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28
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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29
ambush
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| n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击 | |
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30
tussle
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| n.&v.扭打，搏斗，争辩 | |
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31
augury
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| n.预言，征兆，占卦 | |
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32
mead
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| n.蜂蜜酒 | |
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33
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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34
peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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35
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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36
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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37
smiting
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的现在分词 ) | |
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38
jingle
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| n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵 | |
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39
staples
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| n.（某国的）主要产品( staple的名词复数 )；钉书钉；U 形钉；主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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40
buckling
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| 扣住 | |
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41
wading
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 ) | |
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42
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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43
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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44
sagging
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| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
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45
smite
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| v.重击；彻底击败；n.打；尝试；一点儿 | |
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46
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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47
foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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