There was a sound of horns in the woodlands as the morning of the second day drew towards noon, and Denise, who had gone down towards Goldspur to discover whether Grimbald or any of the villagers had returned, heard the distant winding1 of the horns, and stood still to listen.
The day was sunny, with a light breeze blowing, and Denise could see no live thing stirring in the whole valley where the ashes of Goldspur still threw out silver smoke. Yet those distant horns beyond the hills seemed to carry a cry of strangeness and unrest. Denise would have given much to know all that was passing yonder, but no man came that way and she dared not leave the beech3 wood, and the wounded man in the cell. The very silence and emptiness of the landscape filled her with vague dread4. No one had dared to return to the fields or the burnt village. The hawk5 was still hovering6, and the small birds kept their cover.
Aymery was asleep when Denise returned to the cell, but he woke at her coming, and looked up at her for news.
“I have seen nothing but the smoke from Goldspur,” she said calmly enough. “Grimbald and the people still keep to the woods. They may be with us any hour.”
Aymery lay quiet for a while as though sunk in thought. His consciousness reflected clearly the meaning of the past and the promise of the future.
“So they have burnt Goldspur,” he said, as though speaking the words of a prayer.
“Surely there is some law left in the land?”
“We have surfeited8 ourselves with law,” he said bitterly; “only to learn that the law bows itself to the man with the sword and the title.”
Denise leant back against the rough oak door-post.
“You will build the house again?” she asked.
He did not answer her for a moment.
“No, not yet,” he said at last. “The sword is the first tool that we Englishmen must handle. These Frenchmen laugh at us, calling us English swine, but the day is near when the tusks9 of the English boar shall be red with their blood.”
He spoke10 with the fierceness of the man of the sword, but Denise’s heart was with him, though her hands were held to be hands of mercy.
“Such men as Hubert of Kent, they are our need,” she said.
“Hubert! The land shall give us a hundred Huberts,” and his face blazed up at her. “It will be the bills of England against the spears of this hired scum from France and Flanders, these dogs in the service of dogs who have plundered11 our lands and shamed our women. They have laughed at us, robbed us, made a puppet of our king. ‘Get you to England,’ has been the cry, ‘It is a land of fools, of heavy men stupid with mead12 and swine’s flesh. Take what you will. The savages13 will only gape14 and grumble15.’ But I tell you, Denise, the heart of England has grown hot with a slow, sure wrath16. We are Normans no longer, nor Saxons, nor Danes. Men are gripping hands from sea to sea. God see to it, but the years will prove that England is England, the land of the English, and woe17 to those who shall trifle with our strength.”
Like a mocking voice came the cry of a horn, echoing tauntingly18 amid the hills. Another took up the blast, and yet another, cheerily braying19 through the young green of the woods. The two in the cell were mute for the moment, looking questioningly into each other’s eyes.
Aymery raised himself upon his elbow.
“The Savoyard’s men!”
Denise’s eyes were full of a startled brightness.
“Why not Waleran?” she asked him as she stood listening at the door.
“I know the sound of our Sussex horns.”
She stepped out into the sunlight, and went swiftly down the path towards the gate.
“Lie still,” she called to him. “I will go and see what may be learnt.”
Denise knew every alley2 in the wood, and her grey gown glided20 westwards amid the dark boles of the trees. Ever and again the horns sang lustily to one another, coming nearer and ever nearer, swelled21 by the faint but ominous22 tonguing of dogs. Denise went forward more slowly, pausing often to listen, her brown eyes growing more watchful23 as the sounds came nearer to her through the maze24 of the woods. She could feel even her own heart beating; and her face sharpened with the keenness of her vigilance.
Denise drew back abruptly25 behind the trunk of a great tree. She had heard a crackling of dry leaves, a sound of men moving, voices calling in harsh undertones, one to the other. She crouched26 down amid the gnarled tree roots, her lips apart, her eyes at gaze. The heavy breathing of tired beasts came to her, with the rustle27 of leaves, and the quick plodding28 of many feet. As she crouched there she saw figures go scurrying29 away through the mysterious shadowland of the woods. Some were mounted on forest ponies30, others fleeing on foot. One man passed within ten yards of Denise, his mouth open, his hands clawing the air beside him as he ran. None of them saw her, none of them looked back. They disappeared like so many flitting shadows, and a second silence covered their tracks as water closes behind the keel of a ship.
Denise tarried no longer, but rose and ran back towards the cell. Those flying shadows amid the beech trees had told her all that she could need to know. As for Aymery, she must hide him and take her chance. Her gown gleamed in and out through shadow and sunshine, while the tonguing of the dogs and the scream of the horns haunted her like the discords31 of a dream.
Denise had half crossed the clearing when she saw a sight that made her catch her breath. Close by the gate lay Aymery, propping32 himself upon one arm, his head drooping33 like the head of a man who has been smitten34 through with a sword.
She ran to him, her eyes a-fire.
“Lord, what have you done?”
He lifted his face to her, a face that was grey and moist in the sunlight. She saw that the linen35 swathings over his shoulder were red with vivid stains.
“I have time—yet.”
“You are mad, you are bleeding anew.”
“Give me wine, Denise; I can crawl, if I cannot walk.”
She put her arms about him and tried to lift him to his feet.
“No, no, come back to the cell. They are beating the woods. I saw men flying for their lives.”
Aymery clung to her, and gained his feet.
“Denise, I must take my chance, help me into the woods.”
But his eyes went dim and blind in the sunlight, and Denise, as she looked at him, uttered a sharp, passionate37 cry.
Denise was strong beyond her strength as she put an arm about him, and half led, half carried him into the cell. She let Aymery sink upon the bed, and covered him with the coverlet that he had thrown aside.
“For God’s love, lie still,” she said. “Should they come this way I will put them off with lies.”
Denise went out from him and closed the door. For a moment a great faintness seized her, for she had taxed her very soul in carrying Aymery within. The sunlight flashed and flickered39 before her eyes, so that she put her hands up before her face, and leant, trembling, against the door. But the sound of the horns and the dogs grew louder in the beech wood, and Denise’s strength came back to her with that fine courage that women show when life and death hang in the balance.
With one quick glance at the woods she went down on her knees on the stone-paved path, and began to pull up the few weeds that she could find in the borders. Her hair had become loosened in her flight through the wood, and hung in waves about her neck and shoulders. Denise kept her eyes on the ground before her, though her ears were straining to catch the slightest sound. She prayed as she knelt there, as she had never prayed for a boon40 before, that these men might pass by without seeing the dark thatch41 of her cell.
The trampling42 of many horses swelled the shrill43 whimpering and tonguing of the dogs. A horn blared close by. The wood seemed full of voices, of swift movement, of hurrying sounds. Denise heard the laughter of a woman peal44 out suddenly, strange and unfamiliar45 in the midst of such a chorus. A man’s voice shouted a fierce command. The whole wood about the place seemed to become alive with colour, and the gleam and clangour of steel.
Denise bent her head over the brown soil and gave no sign. Her fingers plucked at a tuft of grass, but could not close on it because of their great trembling. Her heart told her that these people would not pass by. Swiftly, half fearfully, she raised her head, and looked up over the wattle fence.
Before her the shadowy wood seemed to swim with the faces and figures of armed men. Horses crowded in with tossing manes, shields flickered, surcoats with many colours. Brown-faced archers46 walked between the horses, their steel caps shining, bows ready with arrows on the strings47. Rangers48 and servants held the dogs in leash49, sweating, panting men who cursed the beasts that strained, and yelped50, and rose upon their haunches.
In the forefront of the whole rout51, like a great gem52 set in the centre of a crown, Denise saw a woman seated on a milk-white horse. Her green gown was diapered over with golden lilies, and in her hand she carried a bow. The woman’s face was flushed with riding, and her hair disordered in its golden caul. On her right hand rode a lord in a surcoat of purple, and the trappings of his horse were of white and blue. On her left, with a drawn sword over his shoulder, Denise saw the man who had surprised her at the spring.
Since there was no help for it, Denise sat back upon her heels, her face flushed with stooping over the soil. All those hundred eyes seemed fastened upon her. Yet there was a sudden silence save for the whimpering and the chafing53 of the dogs.
Over the wattle fence, and across the narrow stretch of grass, the eyes of the woman on the white horse met the eyes of Denise. And some instant instinct of enmity seemed to flash between the two, as though—being women—they could read each other’s hearts.
Denise saw her turn to Gaillard, and point with her bow in the direction of the cell. The Gascon laughed, and pretended to pray to the cross of his sword. Then he flapped the bridle54 upon the neck of his horse, and rode forward to speak with Denise.
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1
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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2
alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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5
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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6
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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7
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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8
surfeited
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| v.吃得过多( surfeit的过去式和过去分词 )；由于过量而厌腻 | |
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9
tusks
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| n.（象等动物的）长牙( tusk的名词复数 )；獠牙；尖形物；尖头 | |
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10
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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11
plundered
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
mead
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| n.蜂蜜酒 | |
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13
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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14
gape
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| v.张口，打呵欠，目瞪口呆地凝视 | |
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15
grumble
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| vi.抱怨；咕哝；n.抱怨，牢骚；咕哝，隆隆声 | |
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16
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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17
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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18
tauntingly
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| 嘲笑地，辱骂地； 嘲骂地 | |
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19
braying
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| v.发出驴叫似的声音( bray的现在分词 )；发嘟嘟声；粗声粗气地讲话（或大笑）；猛击 | |
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20
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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21
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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22
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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25
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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26
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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28
plodding
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| a.proceeding in a slow or dull way | |
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29
scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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30
ponies
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| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
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31
discords
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| 不和（discord的复数形式） | |
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32
propping
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| 支撑 | |
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33
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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34
smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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35
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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36
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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37
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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38
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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39
flickered
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| （通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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41
thatch
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| vt.用茅草覆盖…的顶部；n.茅草(屋) | |
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42
trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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43
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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44
peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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45
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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46
archers
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| n.弓箭手，射箭运动员( archer的名词复数 ) | |
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47
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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48
rangers
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| 护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员 | |
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49
leash
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| n.牵狗的皮带，束缚；v.用皮带系住 | |
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50
yelped
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| v.发出短而尖的叫声( yelp的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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52
gem
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| n.宝石，珠宝；受爱戴的人 [同]jewel | |
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53
chafing
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| n.皮肤发炎v.擦热（尤指皮肤）( chafe的现在分词 )；擦痛；发怒；惹怒 | |
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54
bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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