But the luck was with him—the luck of the adventurer and the drunkard. Dim and sullen3, Troy Castle stood less than two miles away on its great hill; the rising sun struck slantwise upon it, so that it looked like a huge turreted4 ship sailing above a sea of green.
Fulk de Lisle came on his own feet to Troy Castle. There was a sense of stir about the place although the day was still so young. A couple of dusty and sweat-streaked horses were waiting outside the gate-house; grooms5 and servants were gossiping, and on the battlements soldiers were unlashing the canvas covers of my lord’s cannon8.
Some one on the walls recognized Fulk de Lisle when he was a quarter of a mile from the dry fosse; there was some shouting and running to and fro; a man vaulted9 on to the back of one of the tired horses and went cantering down the road. He was a squire10 in Roger Bland11’s service, a youngster with red hair and an impudent12 mouth.
Fulk de Lisle took him by the leg and pitched him out of the saddle.
“Thanks. I will ride the last furlong, and help you to mend your manners.”
Red Head scrambled14 up and dusted his clothes. Fulk de Lisle was too soaring a bird for him to fly at, but his impudence15 refused to be chastened.
“I trust your news is better than your face, sir. Our dear lord has the ague this morning.”
Fulk de Lisle rode on, without troubling to turn the lad’s wit.
He clattered16 over the bridge and into the main court, and the men who saw him ride in stared at his savage18 face.
“Pride has had a fall,” said some one.
“Or been balked of a woman.”
“In his closet, sir.”
“Run and tell him that I am in the castle.”
“My lord would see you—instantly.”
“Damnation—may not a man eat?”
The Lord of Troy sat in his great padded chair with a writing-board on his knees, and quills22 and an inkhorn on the table at his side. He looked white about the gills, with that whiteness that tells of a faltering24 heart; his hand had lost its steady, clerkly niceness, and there were blots25 upon the paper. He had not been barbered, and still wore a gorgeous crimson26 bed-gown that made his thin face look all the yellower.
“What’s this—what’s this, man? Shut that door, Bennington. Not more bad news?”
He was petulant27 to the point of childishness. Fulk de Lisle’s red-brown eyes looked at him with veiled and subtle scorn.
“I could not make it worse, my lord. The Forest is up.”
“The Forest—in arms against us! Man—you are dreaming!”
“I am very wide awake, sir. We were ambushed28 last night as we lay outside Woodmere. They must have been a hundred to our thirty. We made a fight of it; that is all that can be said.”
“How many men came back with you?”
“None, my lord.”
There was a short silence. My Lord of Troy’s fingers were playing with his quill23. He looked old and querulous.
“These swine! I thought we had tamed them. There is a deeper cunning in all this. I have had secret news this very morning. Richmond is on the sea. By now he may have landed.”
Fulk de Lisle took the news as a soldier of fortune takes his pay.
“Bombast is so easy. But to say who are friends and who are enemies! Supposing I chose to have you hanged, sir?”
“A most unreasonable31 fancy, my lord.”
“And why?”
“I have risked my neck in your service. I have no quarrel with your generosity32. And my pride is concerned in this—the pride of a soldier and a captain.”
“We shall see, sir; I may let you prove it. And now—we must strike, and strike quickly. These letters shall go at once; they must not miscarry. In three days we should muster33 a hundred spears and two hundred archers34. The falconets and serpents are to come from Roychester; Sir Humphrey Heron will be master of the cannon. I have chosen my gallopers. Look to the garrison35, and see that our tenants36 are fitly armed as they come in.”
Fulk de Lisle bowed.
“My heart is in this venture, my lord,” he said; “you can trust me, because my blood is up.”
So Roger Bland’s gallopers went out from Troy Castle, carrying letters to Sir Humphrey Heron at Roychester, to Sir Paul Scrooby at Granet, and to such lords and gentlemen as favored the White Rose. The rallying place was to be Troy Castle. Naught37 was said of the Earl of Richmond being upon the seas, for such news might have aroused a dubious38 loyalty39 among the gentry40 of those parts, where fear ruled and the King.
“I charge you to come to me with all your might—and within three days—for the chastening and humbling41 of certain rebels and traitors42.”
So ran the Lord of Troy’s message. These smaller fires had to be quenched43 before the great beacon44 burst into a blaze.
My Lord of Troy had eyes in Gawdy Town to serve him, and men were watching to see the Rose come into port; but, seeing that she carried merchandise that was too precious to be fingered, her master elected to lower it overboard before making the land. The Rose came towering along about sunset, with a mild breeze behind her. The sea was a deep purplish blue, and the red west promised fair weather.
Her master had put the ship on a strange course. She hung out to sea till the land grew gray with the dusk, and then, turning her gilded45 bows shorewards, footed it solemnly toward the land. No one in Gawdy Town had seen her topsails. The gossips on the quay46 said that she would not make port before the morning.
Half a mile from the land the Rose backed her sails and lay to. The sky was all blue-green above, the sea black as pitch, and the land, with its Forest ridge17, looked like a great cloud-bank. The Rose lowered two boats, each manned by half a dozen seamen47. Baggage was tumbled into them from the waist, and about a score of voyagers left the ship.
The master stood on the poop and lifted his hat to them as the boats pulled away.
“A good market to you, gentlemen,” he shouted.
A deep voice answered him,
“God save the King.”
The boats went shorewards at a good speed, looking like two gray beetles48 on the water crawling with white legs, the foam49 from the oars50. They melted into the dusk, and the Rose veered51 and beat up against the breeze, to play mother till her boats returned.
The baggage and the twenty adventurers were landed in a horseshoe-shaped cove7 under the cliffs. Some one had been watching for them above, for a couple of men came scampering52 down the steep path, one of them waving a piece of red cloth.
“All’s well.”
The seamen pushed off and rowed back toward the Rose, but the men stood in a group on the shingle53 and talked.
“The King is at sea.”
“Sure enough.”
“And the Forest is up.”
“So soon!”
“A woman as usual! They stabbed young Dale in Gawdy Town, and would have taken his sister. So Falconer raised the Forest. Bland’s men came to beleaguer54 Woodmere; we ambushed thirty of them last night, so the fat is in the fire.”
The man with the deep voice, who seemed to be the leader, betrayed a savage impatience55. He had the hard, flat, high-cheeked face of a Mongol, with a brutal56 mouth, and cold blue eyes.
“The devil fly away with all women! Young Dale was a fool to take the wench with him, and Falconer was a fool to trouble his head about her.”
“That is not the whole story, Sir Gregory.”
“Damn your story! They have rushed matters too rashly. We may have to fight before we are ready. Now for the baggage. Have you any horses above?”
“Six.”
“Bustle up, then. The sooner we are knee-deep in the Forest the better.”
The baggage was carried up the cliff and lashed57 on the backs of the pack-horses. The men who had landed were well armed under their cloaks. Sir Gregory took the lead, one of the foresters walking beside him.
“Now, man, this story of yours; let us hear it.”
The forester told all that he knew concerning Mellis and her championing by Martin Valliant.
The round-headed man was not pleased.
“Beelzebub—what a beginning! A blackguard monk58 is a pretty stormcock to open the hurly-burly for us. Fools are superstitious59, and I am one of the fools.”
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1
inflamed
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| adj.发炎的，红肿的v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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balked
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| v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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turreted
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| a.(像炮塔般)旋转式的 | |
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grooms
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| n.新郎( groom的名词复数 )；马夫v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的第三人称单数 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
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groom
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| vt.给（马、狗等）梳毛，照料，使...整洁 | |
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cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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impudent
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| adj.鲁莽的，卑鄙的，厚颜无耻的 | |
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13
humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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14
scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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impudence
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| n.厚颜无耻；冒失；无礼 | |
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16
clattered
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| 发出咔哒声（clatter的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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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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19
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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brat
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| n.孩子；顽童 | |
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21
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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22
quills
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| n.（刺猬或豪猪的）刺( quill的名词复数 )；羽毛管；翮；纡管 | |
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23
quill
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| n.羽毛管；v.给（织物或衣服）作皱褶 | |
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24
faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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25
blots
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| 污渍( blot的名词复数 )； 墨水渍； 错事； 污点 | |
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26
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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27
petulant
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| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
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28
ambushed
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| v.埋伏( ambush的过去式和过去分词 )；埋伏着 | |
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29
twitched
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| vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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30
grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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31
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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32
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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33
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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34
archers
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| n.弓箭手，射箭运动员( archer的名词复数 ) | |
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35
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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36
tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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37
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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38
dubious
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| adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的 | |
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39
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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40
gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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41
humbling
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| adj.令人羞辱的v.使谦恭( humble的现在分词 )；轻松打败（尤指强大的对手）；低声下气 | |
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42
traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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43
quenched
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| 解（渴）( quench的过去式和过去分词 )； 终止（某事物）； （用水）扑灭（火焰等）； 将（热物体）放入水中急速冷却 | |
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44
beacon
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| n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔 | |
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45
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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46
quay
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| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
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47
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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48
beetles
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| n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 ) | |
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49
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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50
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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51
veered
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| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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52
scampering
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| v.蹦蹦跳跳地跑，惊惶奔跑( scamper的现在分词 ) | |
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53
shingle
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| n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短 | |
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54
beleaguer
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| v.使困扰，使烦恼，围攻 | |
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55
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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56
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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57
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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58
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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59
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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