thousand crowns in the castle. At Castelnau also there is a cobbler who is in my pay, and who will throw us a rope any dark night from his house by the town wall. I promise you that you shall thrust your arms elbow-deep among good silver pieces ere the nights are moonless again; for on every hand of us are fair women, rich wine, and good plunder, as much as heart could wish.' ‘I have other plans,' answered Sir Nigel curtly; for I have come hither to lead these bowmen to the help of the prince, our master, who may have sore need of them ere he set Pedro upon the throne of Spain. It is my purpose to start this very day for Dax upon the Adour, where he hath now pitched his camp.' The face of the Gascon darkened, and his eyes flashed with resentment. 'For me,' he said, 'I care little for this war, and I find the life which I lead a very joyous and pleasant one. I will go to Dax.' not 'Nay, think again, Sir Claude,' said Sir Nigel gently; 'for you have ever had the name of a true and loyal knight. Surely you will not hold back now when your master hath need of you.' 'I will not go to Dax,' the other shouted. 'But your devoir-your oath of fealty?' 'I say that I will not go.' 'These 'Then, Sir Claude, I must lead the Company without you.' 'If they will follow,' cried the Gascon with a sneer. are not hired slaves, but free companions, who will do nothing save by their own good wills. In very sooth, my Lord Loring, they are ill men to trifle with, and it were easier to pluck a bone from a hungry bear than to lead a bowman out of a land of plenty and of pleasure.' 'Then I pray you to gather them together,' said Sir Nigel, and I will tell them what is in my mind; for if I am their leader they must to Dax, and if I am not then I know not what I am doing in Auvergne. Have my horse ready, Alleyne; for, by Saint Paul! come what may, I must be upon the homeward road ere midday.' A blast upon the bugle summoned the bowmen to counsel, and they gathered in little knots and groups around a great fallen tree which lay athwart the glade. Sir Nigel sprang lightly upon the trunk, and stood with blinking eye and firm lips looking down at the ring of upturned warlike faces. 6 "They tell me, bowmen,' said he, that ye have grown so fond of ease and plunder and high living that ye are not to be moved from this pleasant country. But, by Saint Paul! I will believe no such thing of you, for I can readily see that you are all very valiant men, who would scorn to live here in peace when your prince hath so great a venture before him. Ye have chosen me as a leader, and a leader I will be if ye come with me to Spain; and I vow to you that my pennon of the five roses shall, if God give me strength and life, be ever where there is most honour to be gained. But if it be your wish to loll and loiter in these glades, bartering glory and renown for vile gold and illgotten riches, then ye must find another leader; for I have lived in honour, and in honour I trust that I shall die. If there be forest men or Hampshire men amongst ye, I call upon them to say whether they will follow the banner of Loring.' 'Here's a Romsey man for you!' cried a young bowman with a sprig of evergreen set in his helmet. 'And a lad from Alresford!' shouted another. • And from Milton !' "And from Burley !' And from Lymington!' ‹ And a little one from Brockenhurst!' shouted a huge-limbed fellow who sprawled beneath a tree. "By my hilt! lads,' cried Aylward, jumping upon the fallen trunk, 'I think that we could not look the girls in the eyes if we let the prince cross the mountains and did not pull string to clear a path for him. It is very well in time of peace to lead such a life as we have had together; but now the war-banner is in the wind once more, and, by these ten finger-bones! if he go alone, old Samkin Aylward will walk beside it.' These words from a man so popular as Aylward decided many of the waverers, and a shout of approval burst from his audience. 'Far be it from me,' said Sir Claude Latour suavely, 'to persuade you against this worthy archer, or against Sir Nigel Loring; yet we have been together in many ventures, and perchance it may not be amiss if I say to you what I think upon the matter.' 6 Peace for the little Gascon !' cried the archers. Let every man have his word. Shoot straight for the mark, lad, and fair play for all.' 'Bethink you, then,' said Sir Claude, 'that you go under a hard rule, with neither freedom nor pleasure-and for what? For sixpence a day, at the most; while now you may walk across the country and stretch out either hand to gather in whatever you have a mind for. What do we not hear of our comrades who have gone with Sir John Hawkwood to Italy? In one night they have held to ransom six hundred of the richest noblemen of Mantua. They camp before a great city, and the base burghers come forth with the keys, and then they make great spoil; or, if it please them better, they take so many horse-loads of silver as a composition; and so they journey on from state to state, rich and free and feared by all. Now, is not that the proper life for a soldier?' 'The proper life for a robber!' roared Hordle John, in his thundering voice. 'And yet there is much in what the Gascon says,' said a swarthy fellow in a weather-stained doublet; ' and I for one would rather prosper in Italy than starve in Spain.' 'You were always a cur and a traitor, Mark Shaw,' cried Aylward. "By my hilt! if you will stand forth and draw your sword I will warrant you that you will see neither one nor the other.' 'Nay, Aylward,' said Sir Nigel, we cannot mend the matter by broiling. Sir Claude, I think that what you have said does you little honour, and if my words aggrieve you I am ever ready to go deeper into the matter with you. But you shall have such men as will follow you, and you may go where you will, so that you come not with us. Let all who love their prince and country stand fast, while those who think more of a well-lined purse step forth upon the farther side.' Thirteen bowmen, with hung heads and sheepish faces, stepped forward with Mark Shaw and ranged themselves behind Sir Claude. Amid the hootings and hissings of their comrades, they marched off together to the Gascon's hut, while the main body broke up their meeting and set cheerily to work packing their possessions, furbishing their weapons, and preparing for the march which lay before them. Over the Tarn and the Garonne, through the vast quagmires of Armagnac, past the swift-flowing Losse, and so down the long valley of the Adour, there was many a long league to be crossed ere they could join themselves to that dark war-cloud which was drifting slowly southwards to the line of snowy peaks, beyond which the banner of England had never yet been seen. (To be continued.) THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE. NOVEMBER 1891. THE NEW RECTOR. BY THE AUTHOR OF THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF.' CHAPTER XVIII. A FRIEND IN NEED. I HAVE heard that the bitterest pang a boy feels on returning to school after his first holidays is reserved for the moment when he opens his desk and recalls the happy hour, full of joyous anticipation, when he closed that desk with a bang. Oh, the pity of it! The change from that boy to this, from that morning to this evening! How meanly, how inadequately-so it seems to the urchin standing with swelling breast before the well-remembered grammar-did the lad who turned the key estimate his real happiness! How little did he enter into it or deserve it! Just such a pang shot through the young rector's heart as he passed into the rectory porch after that scene at Mrs. Hammond's. His rage had had time to die down. With reflection had come a full sense of his position. As he entered the house he remembered-remembered only too well, grinding his teeth over the recollection-how secure, how free from embarrassments, how happy had been his situation when he last issued from that door a few, a very few, hours before. Such troubles as had then annoyed him seemed trifles light as air now. Mr. Bonamy's writ, the dislike of one section in the parish-how could he have let such things as these make him miserable for a moment? How, indeed? Or, if there were anything grave in his situa- 21 tion then, what was it now? He had held his head high; henceforward he would be a byword in the parish, a man under a cloud. The position in which he had placed himself would still be his, but only because he would cling to it to the last. Under no circumstances could it any longer be a source of pride to him. He had posed, involuntarily, as the earl's friend; he must submit in the future to be laughed at by the Greggs and avoided by the Homfrays. It seemed to him indeed that his future in Claversham could be only one long series of humiliations. He was a proud man, and as he thought of this he sprang from his chair and strode up and down the room, his cheeks flaming. Had there ever been such a fall before ! Mrs. Baxter, as yet ignorant of the news, though it was by this time spreading through the town, brought him his dinner, and he ate something in the dining-room. Then he went back to the study and sat idle and listless before his writing-table. There was a number of 'Punch' lying on it, and he took this up and read it through drearily, extracting a faint pleasure from its witticisms, but never for an instant forgetting the cloud of trouble brooding over him. Years afterwards he could recall some of the jokes in that 'Punch'-with a shudder. Presently he laid it down and began to think. And then, before his thoughts became quite unbearable, they were interrupted by the sound of a voice in the hall. He rose and stood with his back to the fire, and as he waited, his eyes on the door, his face grew hot, his brow dark. He had little doubt that the visitor was Clode. He had looked to see him before, and even anticipated the relief of pouring his thoughts into a friendly ear. Nevertheless, now the thing had come, he dreaded the first moment of meeting, scarcely knowing how to bear himself in these changed circumstances. But it was not Clode who entered. It was Jack Smith. The rector started, and, uncertain whether the barrister had heard of the blow which had fallen on him or no, stepped forward awkwardly, and held out his hand in a constrained fashion. Jack, on his side, had his own reasons for being ill at ease with his friend. The moment, however, the men's hands met they closed on one another in the old hearty fashion, and the grip told the rector that the other knew all. You have heard?' he muttered, 'Mr. Bonamy told me,' the barrister answered. 'I came across without delay.' |